264 TO DAKJILING: FIKST HIMALAYAN JOUENEY 



the most advantageous point for research. The field is 

 quite untrodden, and I hope to have 2000 species before I 

 leave this year. 



Were this impossible, his alternative was to take the journey 

 to Assam and the Khasia Hills, which he actually carried out 

 in 1850, visiting the tea plantations and looking out for a 

 station adapted to the cultivation of guttapercha in Assam, and 

 pushing northwards to solve the geographical riddle as to 

 whether the Bramaputra was the same stream as the Tsanpo 

 of Tibet. 



As a last resort he managed to obtain a route to take him 

 in five and a half days 7 journey to a village on the flanks of 

 Kinchinjunga, and at first resolved 



to attempt it with or without permission, in the latter case 

 with very small hopes of success, but every inch is botanising 

 ground, and one direction is as good as another. ... I 

 have no hopes of penetrating into Thibet whatever, but no 

 European has ever visited the snow E. of Kumaon and to 

 do so here will be a feather in my cap. 



Again and again he reiterates his intention, afterwards 

 modified, of trying to reach the snows, even without per- 

 mission, though this would sadly hamper his travelling, for 

 his Lepchas would be kidnapped or fined or sold as slaves, 

 for showing the way. ' My only requirements,' he reflects, ' are 

 mountaineer servants, who have no property in Sikkim to lose.' 



Should all these efforts fail, there was still a chance of 

 reaching the snows in Upper Assam the following year, if he 

 could time himself to be there in October. 



The general political situation has already been sketched 

 out in the letter of June 10, 1848. The present difficulty 

 was in putting the right amount of pressure on the dependent 

 Eajah who played at independence. Thus (July 19) : 



Campbell and the Govt. are both anxious to forward me 

 on ; the Govt. won't order Campbell to send me without the 

 Kajah's consent for fear of a war with China ; Campbell 

 won't run the risk of committing himself without an order ! 



