90 DR. HOOKER'S MISSION TO INDIA. 
be, but are not, aggressors or oppressors, is no easy task; while by 
refusing all personal intercourse, or indeed any other communication 
than through his own messengers, we were constantly exposed to 
receive garbled reports of his intentions, and he, invidious ones of our 
motives and actions; the go-betweens being frequently people more 
anxious than the Rajah himself to prevent free intercourse. By our 
adopting a very firm, but conciliating policy, listening to his real 
grounds of complaint, exposing fully to his own comprehension the 
absurdity of attempting to bias us by the weak subterfuges he adopted, 
and proving to him that we would have as much of our way as we 
could without doing him injustice, the Rajah was brought to his 
bearings, if not to his senses; and though still dissatisfied, grasping, 
insolent, and overbearing, he is fain to acknowledge himself benefited 
by our proximity, and has granted much that he had withheld, at first, 
in the unequal contest for total independence of us, his allies and 
protectors. 
Darjeeling has thus become the only “ free port ” between Nepal and 
Upper Assam : to it natives of all countries may resort, and thither the 
mountaineers especially flock ; whilst an annual fair, which is held at 
the foot of the hills, and established by the Superintendent of Darjee- 
ling, offers a still better opportunity to the hill-people to dispose of 
their goods, and to receive in return the produce of the plains. At this 
(the Titalya fair) prizes are given for the best grain and stock, and 
various other inducements held out (with eminent success) for the 
improvement of agriculture and trade. 
I have before told you how much I like the Lepchas, and dwelt on 
the confidence which this naturally timorous people place in the 
. English, at Darjeeling. It affords one of the best proofs how much 
may be done by kindness and firmness, amongst the very tribes to 
whom our name was once a terror, and to whom their chief, the Rajah, 
perhaps wishes it might still be so. A few years ago, there were scarce 
half-a-dozen of these people in the then Rajah’s property, now com- 
prehended in Darjeeling; at present there are many hundreds, and as 
many of various other hill-tribes, all well-ordered, peaceably conducted, 
happy, and useful, and if not very industrious and enterprising, yet 
far more so than their brethren in any other part of Sikkim. 
It is highly interesting to trace the rise and progress of a little 
settlement, whether it be planted in the wilds of Australia, amongst 
