including the two British
officers, four native officers, and forty-six rank and file.
Fortunately the natives; believing, no doubt, that reinforcements
would arrive, scattered to their homes without further action.

"Here was a case in which the native troops were ordered to perform
what verged on the impossible. The houses in these native villages
are almost always fortified; and to take a hundred and fifty men,
to attack a place held by five thousand, was asking more than the
best British soldiers could be expected to achieve.

"At any rate, the stories I have told you will give you some idea
of the work we have before us. We may quite assume that such a
force as is now being collected can be trusted to defeat the
Afridis, if they venture to meet us in open fight; but if they
resort solely to harassing tactics, we shall have our work cut out
for us. It must be remembered, too, that the Afridis are far better
fighters, more warlike, and of far better physique than the men
engaged in the fights that I have been speaking of. They are
splendid shots, and are almost all armed with breech-loading
rifles, Sniders and Martinis. Their country is tremendously hilly
and, although it is wholly unknown to us, we do know that there are
ravines to be passed where a handful of men could keep an army at
bay."

"I was with the Sikhim expedition, in '88," one of the captains
said. "At that time I was in the Derbyshires. In this case it was
the wildness of the country, rather than the stoutness of the
defence of the Thibetans, that caused our difficulty. The force
consisted of a mountain battery of four guns, two hundred men of
our regiment, four hundred of the Bengal Infantry, and seven
hundred men of the 32nd Pioneers. The men were all picked and of
good physique, as it was known that the campaign would be a most
arduous one. In addition to the usual entrenching tools, a hundred
and twenty short swords were issued to each regiment, and fifty per
cent of the followers were also supplied. These swords were to be
used for clearing away jungle. The country was very rugged, and the
work had to be done at the altitude of twelve thousand feet, where
the mountains are mostly covered with forest trees and undergrowth.

"The base from which we started was thirty miles northeast of
Darjeeling, and the first objective of the expedition was the fort
of Lingtu, forty miles distant. The advance was made in two
columns; the first consisting of