In May 1897 the Orakzais appear, in conjunction with the Afridis, to have again solicited the intervention of the Amir, and it was felt that the situation on the frontier generally, and particularly on this section of it, was becoming serious. The actual causes which may be said to have led to the outbreak along four hundred miles of border have been given at more length in Chapter XIII., and it is not proposed here to recapitulate them; it is sufficient to state that the first definite news of unrest amongst the Afridis and Orakzais was contained in a telegram from the Deputy-Commissioner of Kohat, stating that the Mullah Saiyid Akbar, Aka Khel, had succeeded in persuading the Orakzais to unite against the British Government, and was in Tirah trying to persuade the Afridis to do the same. This information appears, however, to have been discredited by the Commissioner of Peshawar (Sir Richard Udny), even when followed by another telegram from Kohat announcing the actual assembly of hostile tribesmen; and all that was done—so far as precautionary measures against the Orakzais were concerned—was the reinforcement of Kohat on 20th August by a force of the three arms—the 9th Field Battery, 18th Bengal Lancers, and 15th Sikhs. [Sidenote: Beginning of Trouble] Information was now received that the tribal jirgahs had decided that, of the Orakzais, the Massuzais, assisted by the Chamkannis, should move against the Kurram, the Daulatzais against Kohat, and the remainder of the tribe against the forts on the Samana; whereupon the following measures were taken for the security of the district generally by Major-General Yeatman-Biggs, who had now, on the 21st August, assumed command of the troops on the Kohat-Kurram border.