"They are born fighters, and there is no doubt that the fact that most of them have got rifles has puffed them up with the idea that, while they could before hold their passes against all intruders, it would be now quite impossible for us to force our way in, when they could pick us off at twelve hundred paces.
"I wish we could get hold of some of the rascally traders who supply them with rifles of this kind.

I would hang them without mercy.

Of course, a few of the rifles have been stolen; but that would not account in any way for the numbers they have in their hands.

A law ought to be passed, making it punishable by death for any trader to sell a musket to a native; not only on the frontier, but throughout India.

The custom-house officers should be forced to search for them in every ship that arrives; the arms and ammunition should be confiscated; and the people to whom they are consigned should be fined ten pounds on every rifle, unless it could be proved that the consignment was made to some of the native princes, who had desired them for the troops raised as subsidiary forces to our own." The colonel then related Lisle's story in the campaign, which created unbounded surprise among the guests.
"It was a marvellous undertaking for a young fellow to plan and carry out," one of them said.