Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-02-13
ENGLISH IN AFRICA.
How the Tribes are Forced to
Submit.
MUST ACCEPT THE PEACE ORDER.
A Tribe with Forty Thousand Warriors.
The British Government Determined
to Have Full Power.

The Waziri country forms block OF
about 5000 square miles, backed by
the Suleiman ranges on the west, ana
running down our frontier from the
Kurram Valley on the north to Balu-
chistan on the south. OF the dozen
tribes which occupy its Businesses the
Waziris alone are sufficiently powerful
to require attention. The Waziris
themselves are divided into two clans,
the Darwesh and the Mahsud, between
whom RACES a chronic feud. United
they could muster perhaps 4O,ooo
fighting men, of whom about half
have matchlocks. But the Mahsuds,
although fewer in numbers, are
Drawer, hungrier, and more untamed,
and they are driving the more civilized
Darwhesh down from their ancestral
glens and pastures to the shelter OF our
Bannu district. On the four or five
occasions on which it has been neces-
sary to send British punitive forces into
the Waziri hills. the Darwesh have
shown no combined front, and as they
possess scarcely any property it has
been difficult to infiict any loss upon
them. The Indian papers by last mail
report that, on the threatened outbreak
Of hostilities, this less warlike section OF
the Waziris were making peaceful
exodus into safe quarters within our
frontier. The Mahsuds have always
played, and are now playing, very
different game.
Down to thirty -four years ago they
harried our border villages almost with
IMMUNITY. But in 1860 their audacious
attack ON the frontier town OF
Tank, with an invading host Of 5000
Mahsud warriors, forced us to try to
teach them lesson, within month Of
the Tank outrage, in the most favorable
month for such warfare. when the
spring crops lay ready for destruction
or as forage for our transport animals,
we sent force of 5000 troops into
their mountains. 1t was the Mahsuds,
however, who taught us a lesson. One
night Just before dawn 5000 OF them
surprised our camp. the bravest OF
their warriors rushing through our
tents and cutting down men and
animals till they themselves fell COW
cred with wounds, but sword in hand.
It was surprise, conducted almost
exactly ON the plan Of the night attack
ON our. camp few weeks ago, and with
even more success. In 1851 we lost no
fewer than 229 men, besides numbers
Of the transport animals. while the
Mahsuds left only 1870 corpses behind.
1.-THE whole campaign" says MIR.
Thorburn, ''cost us nearly 400 men.
and admittedly failed in its object Of
effeoting the submission Of the tribe.
As the Mahsuds would not submit and
the expense of maintaining small
army in their midst was heavy, the
troops were withdrawn"
During the next twenty years we
kept up a clumsy and intermittent
blockade against the Mahsud clan.
But the steadily growing list of their
outrages compelled US in 1881 to take
them effectively in hand. A force Of
1000 British troops, now armed with
breech leaders, penetrated into every
part of their hills. Resistance, which
had been possible by the sword and
matchbox against the old muzzle-
loader, was hopeless against our new
weapon. The tribe gave up their
leaders to our General and submitted
to his terms.
We have already referred to the more
recent history Of the Waziris. The
time has come when they must either
accept the peace and order which the
Afghan Amir and the British govern
ment are jointly determined to impose
ON the border land, or they must be
compelled to do so. Temporizing
offers and half hearted submission can
avail them nothing. Once they really
make up their minds to come into the
new state of things, there are several
influences at work ON the frontier to
prevent them from regretting their de-
oision. Formerly their chief source of
wealth was the custody Of the Gomal
Pass and the fees or blackmail which
they levied from all who went through
it, whether British subjects or Afghans.
In place of this and other less lcgiti.
mate forms of plumber. the British
government opens up employment in
its border police and frontier irregular
force. Trade soon springs up when a
hill race makes the change from pillage
to settled industry. We have taught
tribes even more untamable than the
Waziris that plumber as means Of
livelihood does not pay upon the Brit
ish border. and there is no permanent
reason why we should not teach them.