BLACK

See also:

• MOUNTAIN (0. Fr. montaigne; popular Lat. montanea, an adjectival form from the classical mons, montis, whence Eng. " mount," a form usually used along with the name of an individual mountain, e.g. Mt Everest)
• MOUNTAIN, THE (La Montagne)

MOUNTAIN  , a mountain range and district on the Hazara border of the North-West Frontier Province of India . It is inhabited by Yusafzai Pathans . The Black Mountain itself has a total length of 25 to 50 m., and an average height of 8000ft. above the sea . It rises from the Indus basin near the village of Kiara, up to its watershed by Bruddur; thence it runs north-west by north to the point on the crest known as Chittabut . From Chittabut the range runs due north, finally descending by two large spurs to the Indus again . The tribes which inhabit the western face of the Black Mountain are the Hassanzais (2300 fighting men), the Akazais ( 1165 fighting men) and the Chagarzais (4890 fighting men), all sub-sections of the Yusafzai Pathans . It was in this district that the Hindostani Fanatics had theirstronghold, and they were responsible for much of the unrest on this part of the border . The Black Mountain is chiefly notable for four British expeditions: r . Under Lieut.-Colonel F . Mackeson, in 1852-53, against the Hassanzais . The occasion was the murder of two British customs officers . A force of 3800 British. troops traversed their country, destroying their villages and grain, &c .

2 . Under

Major-General A . T . Wilde, in 1868 . The occasion was an attack on a British police post at Oghi in the Agror Valley by all three tribes . A force of 12,500 British'troops entered the country and the tribes made submission . 3 . The First Hazara Expedition in 1888 . The cause was the constant raids made by the tribes on villages in British territory, culminating in an attack on a small British detachment, in which two English officers were killed . A force of 12,500 British troops traversed the country of the tribes, and severely punished them . Punishment was also inflicted on the Hindostani Fanatics of Palosi . 4 .

The Second Hazara Expedition of 1891 . The Black Mountain tribes fired on a force within British limits . A force of 9300 British troops traversed the country . The tribesmen made their submission and entered into an agreement with

government to preserve the peace of the border . The Black Mountain tribes took no part in the general frontier rising of 1897, and after the disappearance of the Hindostani Fanatics they sank into comparative unimportance .