the plains of Yusafzai, the Sikh rule was but feebly maintained amidst a
warlike race of an antagonistic faith. In the matter of the collection
of revenue, therefore, the ordinary machinery of government was not
sufficiently strong to effect regular and punctual payment; and
consequently, when any village or district was much in arrears, it
became customary to send a body of troops to collect the revenue. If the
case was merely one of dilatoriness, unaccompanied by hostile intent,
the case was sufficiently met by the payment of the arrears due, and by
bearing the cost of feeding the troops while the money was being
collected. But more often, dealing as they were with a weak and
discredited government, the hardy warriors of the frontier, sending
their wives and cattle to some safe glen in the distant hills, openly
defied both the tax-collector and the troops that followed him. It then
became a case either of coercion or of leaving it alone. An effete
administration, like that of the Sikhs, if thus roughly faced, as often
as not let the matter rest. But with the infusion of British blood a
new era commenced; and the principle was insisted on that, where revenue
was due, the villagers must pay or fight. And further, if they chose the
latter alternative, a heavy extra penalty would fall on them, such as
the confiscation of their cattle, the destruction of their strongholds,
and the losses inevitable when the appeal is made to warlike
arbitration.

It was on such an expedition that one of the Guides had a curious and
fatal adventure. Colonel George Lawrence, who was the British
Representative in Peshawur, was out in Yusafzai with a brigade of Sikh
troops, collecting revenue and generally asserting the rights of
government. Co-operating with him was Lumsden with the Guides. Among the
recalcitrants was the village of Babuzai, situated in a strong position
in the Lundkwar Valley, and Lawrence determined promptly to coerce it.