314 CAPTIVITY AND RELEASE 



Soubah's followers slunk away, and the Soubah himself left 

 Campbell, who was then taken, much bruised, to his tent. ' It 

 is Tartar fashion to catch and coerce a great man when they 

 can,' and the Dewan had arranged for Campbell's seizure from 

 the day he crossed into the country, three months before. But 

 his tools were too timid, Hooker's popularity too great for 

 arrest in the capital itself, where they were to be quietly de- 

 tained unknown to the Kajah, till the Dewan returned from 

 Chumbi. Here he had failed in his attempt to involve the 

 Tibetan guard in his aggression, an attempt which drew down 

 upon himself the anger of the Tibetan authorities when they 

 investigated the affair next summer ; while at the Chola pass 

 the personal animus of his henchmen, delighted to outrun the 

 letter of their instructions, created an impasse for which they 

 were speedily disgraced by their master. 



The plan failing, they were utterly dismayed, having 

 committed a gross outrage on Campbell's and my persons 

 from which no imaginable good could come. The only 

 course remaining was of course to trump up a new story 

 and to detain us as hostages for no ill befalling them 

 pending the Government's taking active steps for our 

 release. 



Unfortunately they were so simple as to let out all their 

 secrets to me, when trying to gain information from me by 

 all manner of means, and over and over again gave me the 

 Rajah's assurance that no fault whatever had been or could 

 be laid at my door and that Campbell's offences were wholly 

 political. Now, C. having Govt. sanction and approval 

 for all his supposed offences, they do not know what to do, 

 and urge our trespass on the Thibet frontier in the hopes 

 that Govt. will commit itself and take up that grievance 

 against us. 



This Dewan [writes Hooker, December 28, 1849] is an 

 alien and universally detested ; powerless except through 

 his gang of Bhotean ruffians, who are runaways from their 

 own land, and whom he protects, and who protect him. 

 He is a man of some energy, and finds it easy to ride rough- 

 shod over the simple and indolent Lepchas. He rules the 

 old chiefs with an iron rod, monopolises trade, and is the 



