I 



LORD DALHOUSIE ACTS 265 



He had already burned his fingers with the Government. 

 But after a personal appeal from Hooker, Lord Dalhousie sent 

 him ' an explicit statement from the Colonial Office of what 

 it is conceived our relations with Sikkim ought to be.' In Dr. 

 Campbell's hands this was a useful guide for negotiations — 

 finally Lord Dalhousie in September addressed a letter to the 

 Rajah with peremptory orders 



to give me full leave to travel to the Snowy Passes and to 

 grant me every assistance. No one expected that his Lord- 

 ship would do this ; and considering how ambiguous are our 

 relations with that crusty imbecile, and how much caution 

 the carrying out of the object requires, it is the very strongest 

 proof Lord Dalhousie could give of his true interest in my 

 behalf. 



To make the Government bestir themselves ' has cost me 

 a world of pen, ink, and paper and the backing of very powerful 

 friends.' Prudence, however, bids him add : 



Pray say Httle of these projects of mine ; there are so 

 many shps 'twixt cup and lip, and the objects to be attained 

 do so fully jump with even my most sanguine expectations 

 that I cannot venture to hope for perfect success. 



Further he reassures his mother : 



No danger whatever will attend the excursion ; a httle 

 plague and difficulty must be anticipated from the Rajah's 

 innumerable petty headmen, and I am quite prepared to 

 receive a great deal of insolence, — to put up with every- 

 thing short of direct opposition. 



No answer had come from the Rajah by October 1, but 

 all was ready for a start by the end of the week, to Jongri at 

 least (the village on the spurs of Kinchin already mentioned) 

 if direct opposition were offered to the route east of the moun- 

 tain and the Sikkimese passes into Tibet, on the manifestly 

 untrue ground that Kinchin was a holy mountain, never visited 

 by anyone, and that the Lhassa authorities must be consulted. 

 It seemed certain that he must go alone, for illness or accident 

 had laid up the only friends whom he could trust as travelling 



