General Gatacre Part 7

"He wishes the 2nd Battalion Middles.e.x Regiment many happy New Years, and success wherever they go."

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CHAPTER V

1885-1889

BLACK MOUNTAIN EXPEDITION

Sir Frederick Roberts succeeded Sir Donald Stewart as Commander-in-Chief in India in 1885. After short leave home the new Chief returned just in time to preside over a great concentration of troops near Delhi in December of that year. It was the biggest thing of the sort that had yet been attempted; the manoeuvres occupied about three weeks, and concluded on January 8, 1886, with a Grand Review in which about 35,000 men took part. It would have been a splendid sight, had it not been spoilt by a deluge of rain. The Viceroy, Lord Dufferin, was on parade, and it was afterwards suggested that it was the firing of his salute that had brought down the rain. Anyhow, just as his flag was run up, the storm burst and the rain pitilessly poured down on the columns of men as they carried out the unaltered programme of the day. The march-past occupied six hours. According to an eye-witness, the "trot-past of cavalry and artillery in spite of everything was magnificent, and could have been performed {64} by no other troops.... The Viceroy sat on his horse through the rain with exemplary patience, and we only hope that he will be none the worse."

General Chapman[1] had just taken up the post of Quarter-Master-General, and first saw his Deputy at this camp. Gatacre seems from the outset to have made a good impression on his Chief, who describes him in a letter from Delhi as "a man of active intelligence, quick and ready to do anything, a good rider, and a popular man."

[1] Now General Sir Edward Chapman, K.C.B.

[Sidenote: At Headquarters]

It is the province of the Deputy to take charge of the office in which he is working--that is, to acquaint himself with all that is going on in the department and to know all the staff and the clerks personally.

On his arrival at Headquarters Gatacre rapidly gathered up all the threads of his new work, and made himself more and more valuable to his Chief; while from his own point of view he used to say that it was at this time that he learnt how to put a finish to his work in the office, and to appreciate the scope and importance to the army at large of the individual work done at Headquarters. As is often the case after a campaign, there was much important reorganisation worked out during the next few years; new schemes of training, housing and surveying, were initiated and carried out. From the inside of the Quarter-Master-General's office Gatacre could in a short time get a comprehension of many points of {65} army administration such as a lifetime in the field would fail to give.

[Sidenote: 1886]

During the winter months the Commander-in-Chief goes on tour, accompanied by a few staff officers: sometimes the Quarter-Master-General would go himself and leave Gatacre in charge, sometimes it was the other way round. One year when the Q.M.G. was making an extended tour, Mrs. Chapman was much pleased at getting a visit from Colonel Gatacre every morning as he went down to office. In response to her appreciation of these attentions he averred that he looked upon her as part of the office, and must see that all was well.

The two men were a.s.sociated in this department for more than three years, and by the time that General Chapman had to resign (owing to bad health) a fast friendship had sprung up between them, one from which "the all-a.s.suming months and years" have taken no part. On hearing of his friend's death in 1906 General Chapman wrote:

"A more loyally devoted a.s.sistant I could not have found, active, untiring, and self-sacrificing; the public service and the interests of others were always before him. His gallantry and forwardness on service were acknowledged by all, but it was late in life that he so distinguished himself. I recall chiefly the straight-forwardness and honesty of his help and advice, and remember his never-failing and cheery support whenever we had a difficulty to face."

Owing to the illness of the Quarter-Master-General, {66} Gatacre accompanied the Commander-in-Chief on two long tours in the spring of 1886. On the first he saw many places of great historical interest, such as Cawnpore, Futtehghur, Lucknow; and in the second he was taken to Peshawur and Lundi Kotal, where many interesting problems of frontier defence were discussed on the ground. For two months in 1886 he officiated as Quarter-Master-General, pending the arrival of Sir William Lockhart, who was to act for General Chapman while away on long leave.

[Sidenote: 1887]

Christmas was spent at Calcutta, and early in 1887 Gatacre was again on the move. During this year he was twice entrusted with an independent mission; in March he accompanied the Chief on his official visit to Peshawur, Kohat, Rawulpindi, and Quetta, and was afterwards sent to survey and report upon the proposed line for a military road from Loralai in Beluchistan to Dera Ghazi Khan on the Indus. His abstract of daily work shows that he was out all day exploring and surveying.

His report shows that he thoroughly investigated all questions relating to the water supply and the area of the camping-grounds on the road, and deals with many questions as to the safety and comfort of the working parties and their guards. Although the country to be explored covered 183 miles, he worked with such celerity that the work was completed in thirteen days.

[Sidenote: On tour]

Writing from Bannu a week or two later he finds time to send a comprehensive account of his doings:

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"I think I wrote you last from Loralai, beyond Quetta to the east: well, from there I explored a new road which is to run through Mekhtar, Kingri, Rukni, to Dera Ghazi Khan on the Indus. It has been approved, and is to be carried out at once; as in the event of troops moving up towards Kandahar, it would be the route along which all our regiments and stores from the Punjab would move. The country is a wild one at present, savage, with no cultivation or inhabitants, except a few robbers: but the lie of the road is good, and the gradients are easy.

Of course a made road will draw the large Kafilas of camels with merchandise from one end to the other, and as the roads will be under our protection the native merchants will gladly use it, and this will gradually people the various halting-places, and so settle the country by degrees. There was much game along the route; markhor, a large goat with splendid horns; gud, a large sheep with very large curly horns, wolves and small game, hares, partridges, wood-pigeons, etc. I had very little time for shooting, but shot one markhor and much small game here and there as I came across it; but as I had a lot of surveying to do all day, I had no time to make excursions after game alone, though I should much have liked to have had a turn with Stephen in some of the hills through which I pa.s.sed. You would have been delighted with the country in some places, something like Scotland with fewer trees and more sun, but comparatively cool for India. The only disagreeable thing about it is the general want of water and the number of poisonous snakes. Water is found only in certain streams and in single springs, and is very valuable. Of course, any good road which is {68} required has to follow the line of water, but the rivers commence to flow at any point in the river-bed, and after becoming a rushing torrent, disappear as suddenly as they arose, into the ground and are seen no more; where they go to no one knows, but you may seek in vain further down the bed of the river and not find water. In some cases the water reappears in the stream ten miles lower down, and disappears again as before. The snakes are everywhere, and it was a few days before I left Khur that a young engineer named Hackman was bitten. I saw his death in yesterday's paper. I killed several cobras while marching, I am glad to say."

In November of the same year he was sent on a similar mission to Sikkim. It was discovered that a private treaty had been signed by which the Rajah had declared that Sikkim was subject only to China and Tibet, thus repudiating the British suzerainty. By way of preparation for an expedition to settle this question Gatacre was sent up to report upon the road over the Jelap-La along which troops would move on to Lingtu, the capital of Sikkim. Though it was at that time held by a hostile force of Tibetans, he approached near enough to sketch the fort at Lingtu. His report and his sketches were afterwards incorporated with other matter in a blue-book dealing with the affairs of Sikkim.

Sir Thomas Graham a.s.serts that the information set down was of great value to him when in the following spring he led a force into Lingtu and brought the incident to a satisfactory conclusion.

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[Sidenote: At Simla]

In a letter to his father from Simla of September 1887 Gatacre relates the following story:

"Did I tell you I was nearly polished off by a madman with a revolver?

He shot two men he came across, then got on to a rock and defied the crowd, but I got a stick and went for him, to prevent his doing more mischief. He warned me not to come near him, but I spoke to him in his own language, and never took my eyes off him, and when he was going to have a shot at me he suddenly changed his mind and blew a hole in his breast about three or four inches in diameter. The fact was he was not quite sure whether he had a spare round for himself, and these fanatical fellows always destroy themselves after doing as much mischief as they are able; when he shot himself I was just within reach of him, but too late to knock the pistol out of his hands."

This incident attracted a good deal of attention at the time, as the murderer was the personal servant of a resident member of the United Service Club. He had begun by shooting at another servant, and inflicted a mortal wound; the next shot struck the chowkidar, or caretaker, in the arm. Gatacre then appeared on the scene and played the part he describes.

There is another story told of him that belongs to this same year.

On September 27 Lady Dufferin gave a ball at Government House; all the world was there and Gatacre among them. As was his invariable habit, he stayed to the end, and early in the {70} morning told a friend that he was just starting for a ride to Umballa, but would be back in office the next day. To accomplish this design he had arranged for ponies to be in readiness at the various stages along the Old Road from Simla to Umballa, which is a distance of ninety-seven miles, descending about 6,000 ft. from the mountains to the plains. As far as Kalka they were hired ponies, from there to Umballa he had borrowed mounts from a friend, using nine ponies each way. Leaving Simla at 5.15 a.m., he reached Umballa at 2.30 that afternoon. At 4 o'clock he started back and dismounted at Simla again at 3.5 a.m. That is to say, after dancing till daybreak, he covered little short of two hundred miles in twenty-two hours, and turned up again at 10 o'clock ready and fit for his office work as usual.

It is unnecessary to seek for any pretext for such exertion; the fun of the rapid ride, the desire to excel, were quite sufficient stimulus for him. He told the newspapers at the time that he wanted to show what office men could do.

But before very long he was to have an opportunity of putting these powers to more practical uses. In September 1888 Gatacre and two of his colleagues on the Headquarter Staff were given posts on the Hazara Field Force, then concentrating near Abbottabad.

[Sidenote: Hazara border]

After the Mutiny the Hazara and Peshawur borders became "a rallying-point for mutinous Sepoys and traitors in arms who had to flee from British justice." There was in particular {71} a sect known as the Sittana Fanatics, who continued to stir up coalitions against our power, as they had previously done against our Sikh predecessors in the Punjab. An expedition under Sir Sydney Cotton in 1858 advanced into the mountains, drove the Hindustani fanatics from Sittana, destroyed their forts, razed their dwellings to the ground, and extorted an undertaking from the neighbouring tribes that the rebels should not be allowed a pa.s.sage through their territory.

[Sidenote: 1888]

Although the centre of disturbance was thus forced back at the point of the sword to Malka, it was not long before numerous raids on unarmed traders, and other outrages, brought the peace of the frontier again into question. Our allies were either unable or unwilling to carry out their pledges, and in 1863 Sir Neville Chamberlain led a force through the Ambeyla Defile. This expedition differed from the others in that all the contiguous tribes were in a state of disaffection, and on this account there was more fighting than in the previous punitive expeditions. The story of the repeated capture and loss of the Eagle's Nest and Crag Picquet still makes brave reading, and afforded moreover most satisfactory proof of the loyalty of our reorganised Native Army.

It was noted with satisfaction in 1888 that very few of the Hindustani fanatics were to be found in the ranks of the enemy, showing that the lesson of 1863 was more lasting in its effect than the others had been.

The policy of the Government {72} had never altered; in every case the tribe was informed--

"That the British Government did not covet their possessions, nor those of other neighbouring tribes, with whom it desired to be at peace; but that it expected tribes would restrain individual members from committing unprovoked outrages on British subjects, and afford redress when they are committed; that when a whole tribe, instead of affording redress, seeks to screen the individual offenders, the British Government has no alternative but to hold the whole tribe responsible."[2]

[2] _A Record of the Expeditions against the North-West Frontier Tribes_, by Paget and Mason (1884), p. 41.

The enforcing of this principle has led to the numerous little wars that have afforded the opportunities for distinction to all ranks of which the personnel of an army is so quick to avail itself. Each expedition has usually been of a few weeks' duration only; sometimes there was very little actual fighting; sometimes there was very little political gain; but always there has been a story of hardship and valour.

The Hazara Field Force of 1888 was mobilised for the punishment of certain tribes inhabiting the slopes of the Black Mountain, a region lying on the left bank of the Indus, north of Abbottabad. It was some years since we had had a reckoning with Ha.s.sanzais and Akazais in particular, and they had been showing increased insolence in their att.i.tude and daring in their raids.

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