and expense bestowed on the forest is so distant, as must necessarily be the case in regard to the plantation of young teak trees, a perpetual tenure would have little, if any, advantage over a ninety-nine years' lease, in inducing the grantees voluntarily to incur that labour and expense, where there exists no express condition to that effect. We consider that a far more effectual plan for securing a renewal of the forests on the tracts occupied by the present holders would have been to make it a condition of the lease that three seedlings should be planted whenever a tree had been cut down, and that any default in this respect (which might be ascertained by periodical inspections) should render the grant liable to resumption. Such a condition, if faithfully performed, could secure for the future a constant supply of teak timber, and it might be held out as an inducement to the lessees to exert themselves for the improvement of the forests, that if they were successful in that object, they might look forward to a renewal of the lease at the expiration of the present term."

The Court of Directors further were adverse to any proprietary rights being granted to individuals whether European or Native, to either the growing timber or the land in the Thoung-yeen Forests. In connection with Colvin's remarks and recommendations with reference to the Thoung-yeen Forests the Court observed that "in the proceedings of the local officers there appears to be a tendency to blend the right of property in timber with the fair reward for labour." The Court considered that the Karen inhabitants might "reasonably expect a fair remuneration for their labour in felling and preparing the trees, but they must not be allowed to have any right of property in the timber itself or in the land on which it grows."

These orders of the Court of Directors were communicated to the Commissioner of the Tenasserim Provinces on the 14th January, 1850, and bring the period here dealt with to an end.

Colvin had, in dealing with the question of the nurseries of young teak which had been established, especially the one in the Thengan-nyee-Nyoung Forest, applied for the services of an official from the Calcutta Botanical Gardens. As a result of this application Dr. Falconer, the Superintendent of the Gardens, was deputed on a tour of inspection of the Tenasserim Forests. This tour he carried out between January and April, 1849. His report will be dealt with in the next period.

An interesting paper was written, dated April, 1849, by Mr. O'Reilly, the author of the Memorandum on the Regulations of the timber trade at Moulmein already alluded to. In this second paper entitled "Observations in connection with the route across to the head of the Houndrow River," Mr. O'Reilly gives some valuable data on the extent and conditions of the teak forests as observed by him in the cold weather of 1848-49. Falconer's Report, however, covers most of this ground.

The following were the exports of teak from Moulmein for the years 1840 to 1848 inclusive:

to which may be added 3,415 tons appropriated to ship and house building and other purposes, giving a value, at the rate of 40 rupees per ton, of Company's rupees 869,800 as an annual amount derivable from this commercial staple of Moulmein."

When it is remembered that fellings somewhat on this scale had been going on for a score of years it is not surprising that the Tenasserim teak forests were ruined!

CHAPTER X

FOREST OPERATIONS IN UPPER INDIA-NORTH-WEST PROVINCES AND OUDH, CENTRAL INDIA, PUNJAB, BENGAL AND ASSAM, 1796-1850

THE FIRST MEETING OF THE BRITISH AND THE GURKHAS

E

ARLY in the beginning of the nineteenth century the British experienced considerable trouble with the Gurkhas. The latter had come into notice about the middle of the eighteenth century, at the time Clive fought and won the battle of Arcot, and had gradually assumed a dominant influence over the whole of the extensive valley and hills of Nepal. During the second administration of Lord Cornwallis (1786-93), who was the first GovernorGeneral to be appointed also Commander-in-Chief, the Gurkhas had acquired territory which had a land frontier on the English side of 700 miles. Disputes arose between them and British feudatories on our side of the frontier. The Gurkhas besieged Bhootwal (a border district of the ancient viceroyalty of Oudh), and in succeeding years carried out a series of invasions into British territory. In 1813 the GovernorGeneral, Lord Minto, demanded a return of all the usurped territories. Lord Hastings, who had succeeded Lord Minto as Governor-General, received what amounted to a refusal to this demand. The British were reluctant to engage in hostilities with the Gurkhas for many reasons and endeavoured to settle the matter amicably. The negotiations were broken off abruptly by the latter, and a British detachment was sent from Gorakhpur to occupy the disputed territories. This was done, native officials were placed in charge, and the British troops withdrew. But the arrangement showed how little the character of these northern mountaineers, who had ousted the petty Hindu chieftains and assumed sway over the tract of country at the foot of the Himalaya running from the Sutlej in the west to the Tista River in the east, was understood by

the British authorities. These Hindu rajahs had previously been tributary to the Mogul and received in return protection from the aggression of the lawless hill-chiefs, most of whom maintained their independence; though some were content to own a sort of vassalage to the empire in return for the possession of a portion of the magnificent sâl forests of this region and of the rich plain called the Terai lying between them and Hindustan proper. The hill-chiefs had warred upon the plains people from time immemorial and had held their own till the decline of the Mogul Empire. It was the news of the early victories of the English in Bengal which incited Prithi Narayan Sah, Rajah of the small state of Gurkha, to arm and discipline a body of troops after the European fashion, and with these he gradually subdued and absorbed all the neighbouring petty states, exterminating the family of each chief as soon as subdued, to avoid trouble from subsequent claimants. The Gurkhas had now decided to measure their strength against the British, considering that their fastnesses in the hills would enable them to wage the war on their own lines. They reoccupied Bhootwal and the other disputed territory, killing the pollce stationed there and murdering the British official in a barbarous fashion. The Governor-General demanded from the Court at Katmandu, the Gurkha capital, an explanation, but received in return a menacing reply, and war was declared in 1814. Four divisions were ordered to march upon different points of the frontier. The campaign opened with the siege of the petty fortress of Kalunga situated on an isolated hill a few miles to the north-east of Dehra Dun, the monument to the fallen on which spot is so well known to generations of later Dehra residents. The fort was only garrisoned by six hundred men, but we lost more than that number in taking it, including the gallant General Gillespie who led the first unsuccessful assault. General Ochterlony was the only one of the Generals in command who grasped the position and recognised that the disciplined Gurkhas were a very different class of troops to the Indian native troops of the plains, great armies of whom had so often been previously defeated by a mere handful of British soldiers and native auxiliaries. He met the Gurkhas with their own methods, and for the first time in Anglo-Indian warfare erected stockaded posts. Whilst Ochterlony was engaged in capturing Gurkha forts and the fortified posts erected on a lofty and difficult ridge projecting into the Sutlej, the Governor-General was

employed in operations on the side of Rohilkand. He had learned that the inhabitants of Kumaon were held in subjection by the Gurkhas, and he accordingly raised levies from the war like Rohilkandis. One of these regiments marched into the heart of Kumaun and took up a position within sight of Almora, the capital. After severe fighting the whole province was surrendered to the British, the Gurkhas retiring to the east of the Kali River. This victory practically resulted in the end of the war, the Gurkha general, Ulmur Sing, capitulating and resigning all the territory from Kumaun westward to the Sutlej; the whole hilly tract from Gogra to the Sutlej, a country up to then deemed impenetrable to Europeans, thus being ceded to the British. As a result many of the Gurkhas entered the British service (for they had displayed during the campaign "an unexpected amount of chivalry and exhibited their confidence in the good faith of the British ") and were formed into what were termed Nuseeree battalions. Kumaun now became a British Province, and the Dun was retained and ultimately annexed to the Saharanpur district. The remaining hill country was restored to the several hillchiefs from whom it had been wrested by the Gurkhas; and the whole territory was declared under British protection. The Katmandu Government were at first unwilling to accept the terms of settlement offered by Lord Hastings. They did not wish to have a British resident and military establishment stationed at their capital. Another object of contention was the fertile although very feverish Terai and the fine sâl forests of which, according to a Gurkha saying, "every tree is a mine of gold "a significant recognition of the value in which these forests were held even at this time. The proposed treaty was therefore rejected, and in 1816 Ochterlony again took the field and won a decisive victory, after which the treaty was signed. As a politic concession, a part of the Terai was given back to the Gurkhas.

This campaign and its result has been glanced at in some detail since as a first result it gave the British thereafter a firm Ally in the Nepal State and some of the finest soldiers in their Native Army; and as a second, a great tract of very valuable forest which though neglected and abused at first was in the end to form the first notable instance of the great possibilities attending the introduction of a highly scientific forest conservancy into India.

Oudh was still a semi-independent State. At the beginning