NAGA HILLS. 145 INTO interest, as containing the watershed which separates the valley of Assam from the mountain glens of Upper Burma. But despite all precautions, the Nágás have illustrated their traditional character as successful jungle fighters in more than one determined attack upon our survey parties. In 1873, a party under Captain Samuells and Lieutenant Holcombe explored the eastern hills, which extend beyond the Dáyang river towards the Patkái range. The Nágás were found to be somewhat suspicious and sulky, but it was hoped that after more intimate intercourse they would become convinced of our pacific intentions. No show of actual hostility was manifested; but in the following cold season, including the beginning of 1875, the scene changed. The Nágás turned out in force, the party was surrounded, and Lieutenant Holcombe and his followers, to the number of eighty, were treacherously massacred. In the Western hills, bordering on Manipur, similar symptoms of ill-will were manifested. The survey party under Captain Butler, who had done more than any other single man to open out this country, was attacked on the night of the 4th January 1875 by the people of Wokhá, under which village his camp had been formed. The attack was made in great force, but was promptly met by a counter attack, and the village was fired and occupied. The ascertained loss of the Nágás was 18 killed, and all their property was captured; on our side 4 men were slightly wounded. Again, on the roth January, Captain Butler was attacked in open day by from 400 to 500 Nágás, who were easily driven off with heavy loss. Later in the same year, however, Captain Butler was cut off and killed. In 1877, the Angámí Nágás of Mezuma raided upon a friendly Nágá village in North Cachar, killing 6 and wounding 2 persons, the cause of the attack being a feud of thirty years' standing. As the tribe refused to give up the raiders, an expedition was sent against it, and the offending village was burned. These events led to a review of the position which the British occupied in the hills; and in 1878 it was cletermined by Colonel Keatinge, then Commissioner of Assam, with the approval of the Government of India, to abandon Sámaguting, a low and unhealthy site on the extreme edge of the Angámí country, and to fix the future head-quarters of the Political Officer at Kohima, in the middle of the group of powerful Angámí villages which it was specially necessary to control. This change was carried out in the cold weather of 1878-79, but indications of further trouble soon presented themselves. In October 1879, Mr. Damant, the Deputy Commissioner, accompanied by an escort of 21 sepoys and 50 armed police, proceeded to the powerful and strongly fortified village of Khonoma. On reaching the gate of the village, Mr. Damant was at once shot dead, and a volley was poured VOL. X. к
