JUNG BAHADUR AND FUTURE TRAVEL 829 



* especially if you project a Flora Indica, at which Tom pricks 

 up his ears with a will.' 



To Hooker it was a great relief that the Borneo project had 

 fallen through, after the death of Lord Auckland, who had 

 arranged it. Apart from escaping that very unhealthy climate, 

 there was a great advantage in having opportunity to complete 

 a knowledge of Indian botany, albeit with emptier pockets. 

 Thomson, however, to join in the expedition, had to sacrifice 

 a year of his long-looked-for furlough ; certain departmental 

 friction was too strong to be overcome, and neither his recent 

 illness, nor his scientific work, past or prospective, availed to 

 let him count this period as Indian service. 



The trouble in Sikkim at the first blush seemed fatal to the 

 prospect of future travel so near as Nepaul. But good feeling 

 was undisturbed. * The Nepalese are so fond of Campbell 

 and me that they even offered to come and rescue us from the 

 Sikkimites ' (January 2), and Lord Dalhousie continued to 

 think the expedition feasible and did his utmost to bring it 

 about. Jung Bahadur was passing through Calcutta on his 

 way to pay an official visit to England. A meeting was arranged, 

 and in the middle of March Hooker joined him and the Governor- 

 General in hopes of receiving permission to start as soon as 

 the weather served, in April. But though very friendly, Jung 

 Bahadur was unwilling that Europeans should travel in 

 Nepaul whilst he was absent and unable to protect them. 

 Next year, certainly, on his return, but not this. Hooker, 

 however, was unwilling for various reasons to stay out another 

 year, though 



Lord Dalhousie entreated me, the last thing before we 

 separated, not to give up the project . . . even offered me 

 a companion, but I refused, saying that I would not choose 

 to go with any one of whom I knew less than of Thomson. 



Accordingly the alternative was adopted, of a journey to 

 Assam and the Khasia Hills. As to Bhotan, ' I would not go 

 there for the world, without 500 men in front of me and as many 

 in the rear.' ... As between Nepaul and the Khasia Hills, 

 the botany of the former could not be very different from that 



