252 TO DAEJILING : FIEST HIMALAYAN JOURNEY 



kept the warlike Ghurkas * from over-running Bhotan ; 

 unluckily we did not demand even a nominal tribute from 

 the Eajah, who at once fell under the influence of China, 

 whose policy it is to rule the Councils and hearts, but not the 

 people, of these three Border powers ; and by teaching them 

 a wholesome dread of the Enghsh, they exclude the latter 

 from these several States and prevent our interfering with 

 the Chinese Trade from the East into Thibet. Darjeeling 

 is a narrow slip of land, running north into the heart of 

 Sikkim, about halfway to the snow. It was bought from the 

 Eajah to be a Sanatorium for sick Europeans (as Simla, 

 Mussoorie, Nainee-Tal, Almorah, &c. &c.). We paid 3000 

 rupees for the freehold, stipulating also that merchants 

 should have a right to trade to Sikkim, but made no agree- 

 ment of the sort for travellers, surveyors, or any other class 

 of people, whom the saucy Eajah excludes from his kingdom. 

 Had we acted with any vigour in our policy, we might still 

 have retained our power over the Eajah ; but I look upon 

 the conduct of the local Government of Calcutta and the 

 Political Eesident here as weak to a degree and prejudicial 

 to the interest of the country. The Eajah, who has not a 

 soldier to his name, refused to allow^ the Surveyor- General 

 (a man whose Indian power and appointments would astonish 

 an Englishman) to visit a mountain twenty miles from 

 hence, and not only the Surveyor- General but the Govern- 

 ment who applied for him, only granting it when Col. Waughj^ 

 disgusted with both the Eajah and Government, went (as 

 I did a few days ago) without the permission of either. 

 I have explained all this to Lord Dalhousie and asked 

 him to send me to the snow, whether the Eajah likes it or 

 not ; offering to be the means of making any overtures to 

 that Prince, w^hich may render my mission less unaccepi>able 

 than the appearance of any Feringhi must be. Dr. Campbell, 

 the Political Eesident, recommended that the Eajah should 

 be asked, knowing as well as I and Lord D. do that, though 

 the Eajah dares not refuse, he does dare to withhold an 



1 Sir Andrew Scott Waugh (1810-78), knighted 1861, reached India in 1829 

 as a lieutenant in the Bengal Engineers, and in 1832 joined the great trigono- 

 metrical survey, in which he distinguished himself so much that the surveyor- 

 general, Everest, when he retired in 1843, obtained his nomination as successor 

 to that important office, though stiU only a subaltern. Waugh gave the name 

 of his old chief to the Himalayan peak Devidanga, which proved to be the 

 highest in the world. . 



