Arrived in Maidan, expeditions were now made into the settlements of the different tribesmen in arms against us. As a preliminary, Bagh was visited on the 1st November. This was about three miles to the west of the Maidan camp, is the political centre of Tirah, and the meeting place of the Afridi jirgahs. On the 9th, a reconnaissance was made of Saran Sar, a pass into the Bara Valley, a number of defensive villages of the Zakha Khel were destroyed, and grain and forage supplies were removed; we sustained a considerable number of casualties in the retirement, the Northampton Regiment especially losing heavily. On the 13th, a force under General Kempster visited the Waran Valley to overawe and punish the Aka Khels, and the house of the notorious mullah, Saiyid Akbar, was destroyed. In the retirement our rearguard was again heavily handled, over 70 casualties being sustained at the hands of the Aka Khel, Zakha Khel, Kamar Khel and Sipah Afridis who took part in the action. [Sidenote: In Afridi Tirah] On the 18th November, the main force moved from Maidan to Bagh, which was considered a better political and strategical centre; and on the 22nd, Sir William Lockhart accompanied thence a force which, under General Westmacott, started on a three days’ reconnaissance to Dwa Toi to explore the approaches to the Bara Valley and to punish the Kuki Khels. In all these expeditions our losses were not light, the rearguard being invariably followed up and harassed; the clans in general, and the Zakha Khel in particular, appeared irreconcilably hostile; and skirmishes and attacks on convoys were of almost daily occurrence. Foraging parties from Mastura camp were also attacked by the Orakzais, but it was evident that the back of the resistance of this tribe had been broken at Dargai, and, indeed, by the 20th November they had accepted our terms and paid their fines in full, both in rifles and in money. The greater part of Afridi Tirah had now been traversed and surveyed; the Chamkannis and westerly Orakzais were visited and punished as mentioned in Chapter XVI., and Sir William Lockhart now resolved to evacuate Tirah and attack the Afridis in their winter settlements near Peshawar. Heavy baggage was now sent back from Bagh and Mastura to Shinawari, the base was changed from Khushalgarh to Peshawar, and on the 7th December the Maidan and Mastura Valleys were evacuated, the 2nd Brigade of the First Division rejoining its division detailed to march down the Mastura Valley. The Second Division withdrew by the Bara Valley, and experienced some of the heaviest rearguard fighting ever encountered in an Indian frontier campaign.