DANGEKS BELITTLED 323 



Dangers and troubles once over were characteristically 

 treated as of small account, and in December 28 he writes to 

 his mother : 



You see, by the above date, that I have, as usual, lighted 

 on my legs and am safely escaped from the Kajah's clutches. 

 Not that I think my own personal danger was ever very 

 imminent ; but the man who could commit one such rash 

 and mad act (as the seizing and maltreating us), might be 

 capable of doing what is really far more unlikely. 



The whole affair has been naturally exaggerated at 

 Darjeeling, and so, into the Indian newspapers. My kind 

 friend, Mr. Hodgson, especially, was possessed with the 

 most dreadful alarm due, I am well aware, to his intense 

 solicitude on my behalf. He imagined all sorts of horrors, 

 and attributed our capture to the Chinese authorities, whom 

 he supposed to resent our having crossed into Thibet. He 

 verily believed we should be carried into' Lhassa perhaps 

 to Pekin, in a wooden cage in short, he conjured up all 

 sorts of chimerse which, happily, did not enter our heads. - 



He concludes with a very light touch : 



I am dreadfully busy, as I need hardly tell you ; and T. 

 Thomson is an invaluable help. Hodgson says I am fat, 

 and that my looks are a disgrace to the Eajah's prison house ! 

 Campbell is robust and rosy. The new baby is to be named 

 Josephine. 1 It is very small and much the colour of blotting- 

 paper, like all the little babies I ever saw ; but some mothers' 

 eyes have a property of neutralising that tint, as yours must 

 have done, for you say I was a fair and white infant ! 



Similarly, to his uncle T. Brightwen, whom he thanks for 

 a timely gift of new razors, ' now first used upon our truly 



complete success of the expedition, which elicited the warm thanks and highest 

 expressions of approval of the Governor- General in Council and of Lord Strath- 

 nairn, who was then Commander-in-Chief, were owing in a very large degree 

 to the perfect information regarding the people and country afforded by Dr. 

 Hooker's work, and which was not obtainable from any official source. 



f I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



See also ii. p. 183. ' G.' 



1 He writes to his mother, April 27, 1850 : ' Josephine was christened the 

 other day, I answering all the responses I could in conscience, which does not 

 include all the Church of England formulae.' 



