A History of Assam c21.47

c21.47

As soon as the Brahmaputra valley had passed under British rule, the shrewd mind of David Scott had been impressed by the expediency of opening direct communication between it and the valley of the Surma; and in 1827 he had an interview at Nungklow with Tirat Singh, the Siem of that place, and other Khāsi chiefs, at which they unanimously gave their consent to the construction of a road from Rāni, *viâ* Nungklow, to the Surma valley. The project was at once put in hand; a track was cleared, and bungalows were erected at Nungklow. The officers employed on the work mixed freely with the tribesmen, and for eighteen months the greatest apparent cordiality prevailed. But, in April 1829, the Khāsis, alarmed by the foolish boast of a Bengali peon, who, in a quarrel, taunted them with the prospect of subjugation and taxation as soon as the road should be completed, made a sudden attack on the small party. Lieutenant Bedingfield, one of the two officers at Nungklow, was enticed to a conference and massacred; the other, Lieutenant Burlton, defended himself all day against greatly superior numbers, and at night fled some way towards Gauhāti. He was overtaken and put to death with most of his followers, of whom only a small remnant escaped to British territory. David Scott himself had a very narrow escape, having left Nungklow for Cherrapunji only a short time before the rising.