ENGLAND'S LITTLE WAR.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 166, 10 May 1872, Page 6

ENGLAND'S LITTLE WAR.

An exchange says : —"England's last little -war, the Lushai campaign recently undertaken in the north-east of India to punish some of the marauding hill tribes of Assam, has been brought to a successful end. There was one. curious difficulty, indeed, that attended the operations of the expeditionary columns from the first, and that was that they were unable to find an enemy. They reached the mountain tribes, but instead of finding them guarding the passes and obstructing their march, they came as eager friends, welcoming the troops and; bringing supplies of all kinds to sell to the soldiers. This altered very much the expected character of the expedition ; but it still remained one of great difficulty, owing to the almost impenetrable nature of the country. Here is a curious picture, sketched by a member of the expedition : —' After two miles of stiff climbing we came upon the village of Moor-Shlang. The scenery was something superb. The village was perched on the brink of a tremendous precipice, with a sheer fall of 2000 feet into the valley below,*andhigh overhead towered, the mighty mass of the Moor-Shlang itself,' one of the jgrim guardians of Lalboorah's country,' which lay stretched out beyond in a series, of smiling terrace-like plateaux, fading away into a golden haze in the distant east* Our path lay over the mountain, which we crossed at an elevation of 6750 feet, passing through open forest glades strewn with acorns, and bright with rhododendrons in full bloom. . All. ranks felt the charm o* the scene, and plucking the gaudy flowers, officers and men decorated their turbans with them, till our progress looked more like that of a marriage procession than of ' an army bent on the cruel work of war even tne prosaic little steel £uns being | decked out with wreaths of the crimson blossoms.' In another place, we are told —'For hours together the force marches on without once emerging into the sunlight, the path winding along the hillside through an arch of green bamboos, relieved here and there by huge forest trees covered with ferns and orchids, or through grovesof wild plantains and fanshaped palms. The stillness is quite oppressive, and is only broken by the occasional distant bark of the jackal, or the plaintive cries of the black hairy ape, who frequents the densest parts of the forest, and who, though often heard, is rarely seen.' Ultimately the force reached Chumpai, the stronghold of the chief Lalboorah, which was found entirely deserted, and here the work of the expedition terminated. The commander,

General. Bourchier, thanked the troops for their exertions, .' and for "the"steady spirit of discipline which, from the commencement of the expedition, had animated all ranks in the' face of severe exposure and privations ; and pointing to [ the Union jack, which was proudly floating over-ter-ritory where never white man had set foot before, he called'upon us to join with him in three h.-ariy cheers for her Gracious ! Majesty. The cheers were given with a will, and the flag being hauled down, the troops withdrew, a body of the 44th being left behind to fire the village.' In a few minutes an immense body of flame and smoke ascended into the sky, and Lalboorah's stronghold had disappeared from .the face of the earth.'"