NOTES 61 frontier.4 The king was also compelled to pay a share of the compensation distributed to the victims of the 1860 raid: the share was fixed at Rs 6850.8 Following the raid a superintendent of hill tract was appointed in July 1860. His main task was to gather as much information as possible 10 facilitate the advance of a British military expedition to punish the offending tribes. In January 1861 a sizeable military contingent under Captain Rabon was sent against Rutton Polya's village. On its approach, the Kukis themselves set fire to the place and vanished into the jungles. Their losses were heavy: the English force destroyed about 15 hundred maunds of paddy. At the very time that this expedition was mounted a large body of Kukis accompanied by Reangs made a fierce attack on Udaipur, the old capital of Tripura. The few soldiers of the king stationed at Udaipur took to their heels as the Kukis advanced. Locals who tried to confront the raiders lost their lives. Casualties numbered 150 dead and 200 captives with widespread destruction of property.6 The raiders after plundering three populous villages and markets moved eastward and on their return journey set fire to several villages of the Chakmas belonging to Kalindi Rani. RajaVs Apathy At the request of the British Indian government, the king of Tripura sent 150 men to Udaipur. Gordon, officiating magistrate of Tripura district, also advanced there with 60 sepoys. A group of Udaipur raiders were intercepted by Captain Fagan commanding the Seventh Police Battalion.7 The raiders who attacked Kurkurea, a British police post, were beaten off. They also suffered considerable losses from a bold assault made by a military police squad commanded by a Bengali officer.8 Captain Raban stated that he had received little substantive assistance from the king during the Kuki expedition. On the contrary the king is said to have expressed his surprise that Gordon had entered his territory during the Udaipur disturbances without prior intimation. The commissioner of Chittagong explained that Gordon's intrusion was considered necessary partly to assist the king^s own defences and partly to keep British subjects free from panic and attack.9 Some hillmen, the inhabitants of the Tripura kingdom who were supposed to have acted as spies of the Kukis in the Udaipur raid, were arrested at Commilla by the British police. R L Mangles, the magistrate of the Tripura district, wanted to tryjhis case at Commilla and sent a roobacaree to the king requesting him to send in the eyewitnesses who resided in his territory for the identification of the defendants. But the king replied that he was unwilling to send the witnesses as he was trying the case himself, the crime, as he alleged, having been committed in his territory.10 The Government of Bengal instructed the district magistrate of Tripura through the officiating commissioner of Chittagong that if they committed it in the Rajah's territory, if should be explained