BOOK II. reinforced, leaves his camp.-General G. Wood appointed to the command.-Defeat of a Gorkha detachment. Gorkhas abandon the Tirai.- Division broken up,-troops cantoned on the frontier. -Success of Major Latter's detachment.-Alliance with the Raja of Sikim.-Invasion of Kamaon.Colonel Gardner's success.-Captain Hearsay defeated and taken.-Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolls sent to Kamaon. Gorkhas under Hasti-dal defeated. Stockaded hill of Sitauli carried. Almora surrendered.-Kamaon and Gerwhal ceded.-Fort of Jytak blockaded. - Operations against Malaun.— Positions of Ryla and Deothal carried,—the latter strengthened,-attacked by Amar Sing.-Valour of the Gorkhas, their repulse.-Bhakti Sing Thapa killed. Garrison evacuate Malaun. — Amar Sing capitulates.-The country west of the Jumna ceded to the British.-Negotiations for peace,-conditions imposed.-Delays of the Gorkha Envoys.— Insincerity of the Court.-Hostilities renewed.General Ochterlony commands.-Operations.-Churia-ghati pass ascended.-Action of Makwanpur.— Nepal Envoys arrive.-Peace concluded,-conditions.-Objections to the War,-to the mode of carrying it on,-considered.-Votes of thanks.-Results of the War. THE third division of the British forces, commanded by Major-General J. S. Wood, was assem1815. bled at Gorakhpur early in November, but was not ready to take the field before the middle of December. The destination of the division was the district of Palpa, lying beyond Bhotwal, and acces REPULSE AT JITPUR. 45 CHAP. II. 1815. sible by a difficult mountain pass. Being informed BOOK II. that the pass was strongly stockaded, but that it might be turned by a different route, General Wood marched on the 3d of January to reconnoitre the stockade of Jitpur, which was situated at the foot of the Majkote hills, one mile west of Bhotwal, which it would be necessary to carry. Detaching Major Comyn with seven companies to turn the left flank of the position, the General himself proceeded with twenty-one companies to attack it in front and on the right. The latter detachment had expected, on clearing a wood through which lay their march, to come out upon an open plain at some distance from the stockade; but the information was either erroneous or deceptive, as the General, with his staff and part of the advance, found themselves, upon emerging from the thicket, unexpectedly within fifty paces of the defences. A heavy and galling fire was at once opened upon them, which was followed by a sortie of the garrison. The arrival of the head of the column preserved them from destruction, and the Gorkhas were driven back. The main body then attacked the works in front, while one company of H. M.'s 17th, under Captain Croker, carried a hill to the right which commanded the enemy's stockade. Major Comyn meanwhile effected a passage between the stockade and Bhotwal, and approached the eminence on which the latter was situated. There appeared to be every reasonable probability of success, when General Wood, apprehensive that it would be impossible to drive the Gorkhas from the thickets at the back of the stockade, the possession of which rendered the CHAP. II. BOOK II. post untenable, determined to prevent what he considered a fruitless waste of lives, by commanding 1815. a retreat. Nor did his distrust of his chances of success here terminate. Conceiving his force to be inadequate to offensive operations, he confined his measures to arrangements for the defence of the frontier, concentrating his force at Lautan, covering the road to Gorakhpur. The border line was, however, too extensive and too vulnerable to be thus protected; and the Gorkhas penetrated repeatedly at various points, inflicting serious injury, and spreading alarm throughout the whole tract. As the division moved to repress incursions in one direction, they took place in another. The town of Nichoul was burnt to ashes, and at one time Gorakhpur was scarcely considered to be safe. Reinforcements were supplied, but no better plan could be devised for counteracting the irruptions of the enemy than the retributive destruction of the crops in the low-lands belonging to them, and the removal of the population of the British territory to a greater distance from the hills. After harassing his troops by unavailing marches against an enemy whose activity eluded pursuit, and retaliating upon the Gorkhas by wasting their fields and burning their villages, General Wood was compelled by the injunctions of the Commander-in-chief to undertake a forward movement, and attempt the occupation of the town of Bhotwal. Having advanced to that place in the middle of April, he made some ineffectual demonstrations against it, and then returned to the plains. As exposure to the In this affair several officers were wounded, of whom Lieutenant Morrison, of the Engineers, died of his wounds. OPERATIONS OF THE FOURTH DIVISION. 47 CHAP. II. insalubrity of the climate had begun to affect the BOOK II. health of the troops, they were withdrawn in the beginning of May into cantonments at Gorakhpur. The chief reliance of Lord Moira for the success of the entire plan of the campaign rested upon the division which was to be directed against the Gorkha capital. The troops were assembled at Dinapore, and commenced their march towards Bettia on the 23d of November. A local corps, the Ramgerh battalion, had been previously detached under Major Roughsedge, to join Major Bradshaw, commanding on the frontier of Saran. Thus reinforced, Major Bradshaw proceeded to clear the frontier forests of the Gorkha posts. He moved on the night of the 24th of November, with three companies of the 15th N.I., two companies of the Champaran light infantry, and a troop of Gardner's irregular horse, to Barharwa, a plain on the west bank of the Bhagmati river, where Parsuram Thapa, the governor of the district, was encamped with four hundred men. The surprise was complete; and, although the Nepalese behaved with their usual intrepidity, they were entirely routed. Their commander was killed, with fifty of his men, and many were drowned in the Bhagmati. One officer, Lieutenant Boileau, commanding the Commissioners' escort, was wounded in a personal encounter with a Gorkha chief, who fell by his hand. Detachments under Captain Hay and Lieutenant Smith took possession of the posts of Baragerhi and Parsa, in advance of Barharwa, without opposition, and the tract known as the Tirai was occupied, and annexed by proclamation to the British territories.1 1 Nepal Papers, 307. 1815. BOOK II. CHAP. II. 1815. The main army arrived at Pachraota on the frontier on the 12th of December, and the remainder of the month was spent in preliminary arrangements for ascending the hills, and in waiting for the junction of the battering-train; a delay which was contrary to the tenor of General Marley's instructions, as it was intended that he should leave the guns in the rear until he had established a solid footing in advance. This suspension of operations allowed the Gorkhas time to recover from the alarm which had been spread among them by the defeat and death of Parsuram Thapa; and they were emboldened to undertake an enterprise, the successful execution of which had a material influence in paralysing the movements of the division, and frustrating the purposes of its equipment. With a view to preserve the occupation of the Tirai until the arrival of the main body, Major Bradshaw had stationed Captain Hay, with the head-quarters of the Champaran light infantry, at Baragerhi; Captain Blackney, with the left wing of the second battalion of the 22nd light infantry, at Samanpur, about twenty miles on his right; and Captain Sibley, with about five hundred men, at Parsa, about as many miles on Captain Hay's left. General Marley encamped near Lautan, two miles west of Baragerhi. The outposts at Samanpur and Parsa were unsupported, and no precautions were taken to secure either position by temporary defences, although they were situated in the immediate proximity of the enemy, who, as the month advanced, began to exhibit signs of increasing activity. This negligence, originating in an undue contempt |