They were in reality not of great account. But the first attempts to deal with them were unfortunate, and after a time they began to be regarded with a seriousness quite unmerited. Two military expeditions went from Bhamo in 1886, the objective being Karwan, the village of the most important chief of the tribe. The first expedition failed to reach the village and returned without doing anything. The second in the same year was well managed from a military point of view, and had forced its way against some opposition to a point close to Karwan, when the civil officer with the column, under some misunderstanding of the orders he had received from the Chief Commissioner, Sir Charles Bernard, stopped the advance, and the column retired without effecting the object for which it had been sent. The result was that the Karwan chieftain and his tribe were persuaded that the British were afraid to meet them. The chief would neither submit nor deign to visit the Deputy Commissioner, and his hill became a rendezvous for the restless and evil spirits around. Gatherings of Burmese and Chinese were reported, and it was apprehended at one time that they would join the rising in Upper Sinkan. They confined their action, however, to some small raids on insignificant villages below the hills. In the beginning of March, 1889, they again descended to the plains and stockaded themselves at a place named Kyawgaung, killed the headman and carried off his family. Some troops, sent out to cover a fatigue party building a post for the police at Mansi, about fifteen miles from Bhamo, were fired at from the jungle, and the village of Mansi, consisting of a few houses, was burnt by the Kachins, and two of the military police killed. [Illustration: MARCHING INTO THE KLANG KLANG COUNTRY. Chin-Lushai Campaign.] The necessity of punishing the Hpon Kan Kachins for all their misdeeds had long been admitted. The country round Bhamo was kept by them in constant alarm, and the failure to deal with them led to excitement and want of confidence in the Bhamo bazaar, peculiarly ready to believe absurd rumours and subject to panic. More urgent matters had hitherto delayed action, and the garrison of Bhamo had been so weakened by the despatch of troops to Mogaung, that it could not afford men for other work. The Chief Commissioner, therefore, was compelled to wait. Towards the end of March the return of troops from the north made it easier to find a force for the Hpon Kan business; and the opportunity was at once taken of destroying this nest of hornets, or, to describe them more accurately, mosquitoes. Sir George White arranged a plan of operations at the Chief Commissioner's request, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army, being at the time in Upper Burma, gave his approval at once.