266 TO DAEJILING : FIRST HIMALAYAN JOURNEY 



companions on such ticklish ground — ^Hodgson and Miiller, 

 Barnes and Campbell. Moreover, had the latter been un- 

 injured, Lord Dalhousie forbade his going, lest, being an official, 

 he should give a political aspect to the expedition. Dr. Hooker, 

 he said, should act on his own responsibiUty alone. 



To his Mother 



October 13, 1848. 



Everybody is solicitous to go with me ; but I have refused 

 all others, because I do not know them well enough to trust 

 them ; and having to bear all the onus myself, I should 

 think it imprudent to risk taking any companion who might 

 not be good-humoured and kind to the Natives, or wilhng 

 to put up with insolence from the Rajah's people, should we 

 chance to meet with them. Lord Dalhousie places great 

 confidence in me, and the Rajah of Nepaul no less by granting 

 me the first permission that any Englishman has ever received. 

 Under all these circumstances, I shall do nothing in the 

 peremptory way ; for if anything disagreeable arose, I should 

 be involving Lord Dalhousie in the necessity of vindicating 

 me and avenging my wrongs, with fifty other troubles from 

 which I should reap no advantage. I shall not therefore 

 enter Sikkim, unless the Rajah consents. He has already 

 committed himself ; and my interference would do no good 

 but harm. 



To his Father 



Darjeeling : October 20, 1848. 



I wish you could have been with me this morning and seen 

 the motley group of natives arranging with Campbell and 

 myself the prehminaries towards my trip to the Snows, of 

 various tribes, colors, and calHngs, such as one rarely sees any 

 of, and still more rarely all together. I must, however, begin 

 at the beginning and tell you that Campbell has at last 

 wrenched a reluctant assent from the Rajah of Sikkim to my 

 visiting his snowy mountains. In my last I informed you 

 of his having returned a rude, and flat refusal to Lord D.'s 

 request in my behalf, as also of his having stationed 80 men 

 at one pass and 25 at two others to intercept my exit from 

 our territories into his, where his instructions were to capture 

 my servants but lay no hands on myself ; these Campbell 



