Until it was finished, communication was maintained with the other bank by means of a skin raft, handled by two active boatmen.
"We had only one more fight, and that was a slight one.

Then the news reached us that the position of Chitral was serious, and General Gatacre was hurried forward with our force." "You had some tough fighting," the colonel said, "but the number of your casualties would seem to show that ours was the stiffer task.
At the same time we must admit that, if you hadn't been detained for six or seven days at that river, you would have beaten us in the race." "Yes, we were all mad, as you may well imagine, at being detained so long there.

Our only hope was that your small force would not be able to fight its way through, until our advance took the spirit out of the natives.

Certainly they fought very pluckily, in their attacks upon the force that had crossed; and that action came very close to being a serious disaster.
"The flood that washed away our bridge upset all our calculations.
I almost wonder that the natives, when they found that we could not cross the river, did not hurry up to the assistance of the force that was opposing you.

If they had done so, it would have been very awkward." "It would have gone very hard with us, for they are splendid skirmishers and, if we had not had guns with us to effectually prevent them from concentrating anywhere, and had had to depend upon rifle fire alone, I have some doubts whether our little force would have been able to make its way through the defiles." "Well, it has been a good undertaking, altogether; and I hope that the punishment that has been inflicted will keep the tribes quiet for some years." "They will probably be quiet," the officer said, "till trouble breaks out in some other quarter, and then they will be swarming out like bees." "It is their nature to be troublesome," the colonel said.