国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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India and Tibet : vol.1 | |
インドとチベット : vol.1 |
BRANDER'S FIGHT AT KARO-LA 189
it was at night, when our long-range rifles lost their
special advantage, that the Tibetans would have their
best chance. We only had 170 men, and the vastly
superior numbers which the Tibetans were now collect-
ing ought to have had a fair chance of overwhelming us
if they had pressed home a well-planned night attack.
TI1hey fired a good deal during this and the following
nights, but we kept a good watch, and we heard after-
wards that the Lamas tried to organize a second attack
on us, but the men refused to turn out.
al It was an intense relief to me to hear on the 7th that
Colonel Brander had been successful in clearing the gather-
ing at the Karo-la, which consisted of 2,500 men, armed
with numerous Lhasa-made and foreign rifles, and headed
by many influential Lamas and officials from Lhasa. In
a short note to me he told me of the anxious moments he
had passed when, on the early morning before he made his
attack, he received a letter from me saying that the
Mission had been attacked at Gyantse. The Tibetans
e were in a very strong position behind a loopholed wall of
great solidity, and 800 yards long, which they had built
right across the pass ; and to attack such a position at a
height of over 16,000 feet above sea-level, surrounded with
glaciers, with only a sixth of the numbers opposed to him,
and with his communications not over safe behind, Colonel
Brander had in truth to set his teeth and steel his
nerves. His frontal attack failed. Poor Bethune, a
typically steady, reliable and lion-hearted officer was killed.
The guns proved absolutely ineffective. Ammunition was
none too plentiful. And Colonel Brander said in his letter
to me that he was on the point of despairing when, just
at the critical moment, the turning movement of the
Gurkhas, under Major Row, who had slowly scrambled
up to a height of 18,000 feet, proved successful. Panic
took the Tibetans. They first began dribbling away from
the wall, then poured away in torrents. Colonel Brander
hurled his mounted infantry at them, and Captain Ottley
pursued them halfway to Lhasa.
It was a plucky and daring little action, and unique of
its kind in the annals of any nation ; for never before had
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