Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/400

SAVARA discovered and hard pressed, they do not hesitate to discharge their arrows, which they do with unerring aim, and always with fatal result. Three or four murders have been perpetrated by these people in this way since the country has been under our management. I arranged with the Superintendent of Police to station a party of the Armed Reserve in the ghaut leading to Soura country. One or two cases of seizure and conviction will suffice to put a check to the crime."

It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district, that "in 1864 trouble occurred with the Savaras. One of their headmen having been improperly arrested by the police of Pottasingi, they effected a rescue, killed the Inspector and four constables, and burnt down the station-house. The Rāja of Jeypore was requested to use his influence to procure the arrest of the offenders, and eventually twenty-four were captured, of whom nine were transported for life, and five were sentenced to death, and hanged at Jaltēru, at the foot of the ghat to Pottasingi. Government presented the Rāja with a rifle and other gifts in acknowledgment of his assistance. The country did not immediately calm down, however, and, in 1865, a body of police, who were sent to establish a post in the hills, were attacked, and forced to beat a retreat down the ghāt. A large force was then assembled, and, after a brief but harassing campaign, the post was firmly occupied in January, 1866. Three of the ringleaders of this rising were transported for life. The hill Savaras remained timid and suspicious for some years afterwards, and, as late as 1874, the reports mention it as a notable fact that they were beginning to frequent markets on the plains, and that the low-country people no longer feared to trust themselves above the ghāts."