1 THE SOODHUN REVOLT. 205
2 THE SOODHUN REVOLT.
3 About the year 1832, several independent hill-tribes inhabi-
4 ting the north western regions of the Punjaub were reduced into
5 subjection to the Lahore state. These were the Doondh, Soo-
6 dhun, Suthee, and Murdiall tribes. The Doondh tribe lived
7 chiefly on the banks of the Jhelum, especially on the western
8 bank, from the point where the river leaves the Kukka Bumba
9 hills for about twenty-five or thirty miles down the stream.
10 This tribe was in number about fifty or sixty thousand. The
11 Soodhun tribe inhabited a large tract on the eastern bank of
12 the same river opposite the country of the Doondhs, and num-
13 bered about forty thousand souls. The Suthee tribe dwelt
14 chiefly in the lower hills to the south of the tribes above men-
15 tioned, and was estimated at about twenty thousand. Lastly
16 the Murdiall tribe lay to the east of the Sudhun, and was
17 reckoned at about eighteen thousand people.
18 About the period above mentioned the Dogra brothers of
19 Jummoo endeavoured to bring these wild clans into subjection,
20 nominally to the Lahore state, but really to themselves. Find-
21 ing, however, the conquest less easy than they had anticipated,
22 they prevailed upon their master, Runjeet Sing, to march with
23 his whole army towards Rawul Pindee, and thus to aid them
24 by making a demonstration against the tribes whom the}'- in vain
25 sought to subdue. Runjeet accordingly marched with some
26 sixty thousand men in the direction indicated, and encamped
27 with this force at Kooree, in the plains, but just at the entrance
28 of the hilly region inhabited by the doomed clans. Seeing
29 so overwhelming a force, under the famous Runjeet Sing,
30 apparently coming against them, and startled by the thunder
31 of a hundred and fifty pieces of ordnance echoing among
32 their mountains day and night, the people readily submitted