Captain Webb's Journey in Thibet, 67 



my favour ; and it is to be hoped that, as he is the only evi- 

 dence to be examined by the Viceroy, he will pursue a similar 

 conduct at Lassa. I had purposely talked of my investment, 

 and the profit I had expected to derive from its sale, to every one 

 who visited me, and my surveying concern was quite hidden 

 under the ostensible garb of a trader: in the written communi- 

 cations which passed, I was invariably styled " Feringhi B(o- 

 V6r r or, the Christian Merchant. No objections were made to 

 my proceeding as far as the boundary, and though I several 

 times proposed that a horseman should be left with me to see 

 that I did not overstep that limit, I was as often told that it was 

 not necessary, that I had given a promise, and that no appre- 

 hension of its due performance was entertained. I was given to 

 understand that my visitors were desirous to inspect the goods 

 1 had brought; but I was also told, that no barter or purchase 

 could take place till permission to that effect should be received 

 from Gurtop, to whose authority the Daba folks are subservient 

 The bales were accordingly opened, and every thing examined, 

 admired, and admitted to be prodigiously cheap. An old gen- 

 tleman, to whom I gave a pair of spectacles to assist him in his 

 task, made a most minute schedule of the whole, and of the 

 prices affixed to each article. It was then proposed to me to 

 return, after I should have visited the pass, to Niti, where an 

 answer was promised on the fifteenth day, and, if it were fa- 

 vourable, the goods required taken off my hands. They were 

 so sanguine in their expectations, that they actually gave com- 

 missions for the greater part of the articles to some of the 

 Bh6t(asy,ho reside at Niti. The troops set off homewards 

 next morning, leaving me at leisure and alone, to visit the 

 pass, and regale myself,/or the first hW,>ith a view of the Pla- 

 teau. Of that I shall speak in^conclusion, but must now finish 

 the story of my first mercantile adventure. On the fifteenth 

 day, as settled, two Tartar horsemen brought me the reply 

 from Gurtop, which stated the impossibility of compliance 

 without authority from the Viceroy at Lassa, whose decision is 

 promised when the market opens next year. The despatches 

 wore, I know, forwarded out of hand, and the people at Gi.r- 

 F2 



