into the escort, who turned and fled, followed by the Nágás. Of the escort, 35 were killed and 19 wounded. The Nágás then proceeded to besiege the garrison in the Kohima stockade, who were reduced to great straits for want of food and water. After a blockade of twelve days, the siege was raised by the opportune arrival of a force of Manipuri troops, with a small body of sepoys under Colonel Johnstone, Political Agent of Manipur.
A regular military campaign against the Nágás ensued, which lasted till March 1880. Khonoma was taken on the 22nd November 1879, but the defenders retreated to a very strong position above the village on a spur of Jápvo, where they maintained themselves till the end of the campaign. Jotsoma was captured on the 27th November, and every one of the 13 villages which had entered into the coalition against us was either occupied or destroyed. The most notable event of the war, however, was the daring raid made in January 1880, by a party of Khonona men from the fort above the village, at the time beleaguered by our troops, upon the tea-garden of Báladhan in Cachar, more than 80 miles distant, where they killed the Manager, Mr. Blyth, and 16 coolies, plundered what they could, and burned everything in the place.
On the 27th March, the fort above Khonoma submitted, and the expedition was at an end. Fines in grain, cash, and labour were imposed upon those villages which took part against us; the Nágás had to surrender the firearms they were known to possess, and in some instances the removal of a village from a fortified and inaccessible crest to a site below was directed. Khonomna was razed to the ground, and its site occupied by an outpost. From all villages, an agreement was taken to pay revenue in the shape of 1 maund of rice and 1 rupee per house, to provide a certain amount of labour annually for State purposes, and to appoint a head-man who should be responsible for good order and for carrying out the wishes of Government.
After the close of this, the twelfth and last, expedition, the whole policy to be adopted in dealing with the Nágás was submitted by the Chief Commissioner to the Government of India, who in February 1881 finally decided that our position at Kohima should be retained, a regiment permanently stationed in the hills, and the District administered as British territory. Since that date, the history of the Nágá Hills has been one of the progressive establishment of peace and good order, and the quiet submission of the Nágás to our rule.
The Sub-division of Wokhá was first opened in 1875. The station is situated in the country of the Lhotá Nágás, who are separated from the Angámís by the Rengmás and Semás. The village of Wokhá had on several occasions attacked survey parties sent into the hills, and it was determined to occupy the site to secure our position there. The
