Meanwhile Lieutenant Nugent, who was in command at Möng Mit, hearing that there were some dacoits a few miles off, went with sixteen men of the Hampshires to attack them. The dacoits were strongly posted. Lieutenant Nugent and one private were killed and six men wounded. The remaining nine men, encumbered with the wounded, had to retire. This disaster happened on the 14th of January. Lieutenant Nugent was a young officer without experience of the country, and he ought not to have been left without some one capable of advising him. It was promptly retrieved. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Archibald Colquhoun, getting together troops and police, renewed the attack on the enemy's position and drove them out with much loss. On the 20th of January the village or town of Twingé, on the Irrawaddy, was taken and burnt by one of Hkam Leng's adherents. No attempt was made on Möng Mit after that date, and no formidable bands were encountered, although the Ruby Mines districts and the adjacent parts of Möng Mit were harassed by small gangs of robbers. A feeling of anxiety, however, prevailed and begat alarming rumours. The imagination of Shans, Burmans, and perhaps of other nervous persons, is fertile in the matter of numbers, and loves to deal in large figures. At the end of January hostile gatherings at different points, amounting to nearly two thousand men--a quite impossible number--were reported from Mogok, the headquarters of the Ruby Mines district. With a view to allaying these apprehensions the garrisons there and at Möng Mit were strengthened. The Chief Commissioner thought it best, under the circumstances, to place the control in the hands of one man, and at his request Sir George White appointed Colonel Cockran, of the Hampshires, to command all the troops and military police in the disturbed area, with orders to take the measures necessary for the peace of the country and for the destruction of such gangs as might be found. Up to the end of March, however, no important action was taken, as no large body of the enemy had been located.