CHAPTEK XV 



CAPTIVITY AND RELEASE 



During the last weeks at Momay, as has been said, Hooker 

 had again been happily relieved of the presence of the Singtam 

 Soubah. Finding the situation unendurable, the wretched 

 fellow withdrew to lower altitudes, uttering the gloomiest warn- 

 ings against cold and famine and Tibetan interference. But 

 on September 28 he returned to ask formal leave to go home, 

 and brought the welcome news that Campbell, accompanied 

 by the friendly Tchebu Lama, was on his way north through 

 Sikkim, having been sent by the Government to seek a per- 

 sonal interview with the Eajah. His object was to cultivate 

 better relations with the Sikkim officials, and to enquire into 

 the breach of good faith displayed in the discourtesy and 

 hindrances offered to Hooker. His authority to enter Sikkim, 

 moreover, gave him the opportunity of learning something 

 about the country which the treaty bound us to protect, yet 

 from which we were so jealously excluded. 



Leaving Momay, therefore, on the Jast day of September, 

 Hooker hurried down to Choongtam at the junction of the 

 rivers, and was joined by Campbell on the morning of October 4. 

 Then, starting together on the 6th, they repeated and enlarged 

 Hooker's previous trips, first up the Lachen to the Kongra 

 Lama pass, then actually bluffing an entrance into Tibet, 

 and following the upper Lachen round its eastern bend to its 

 source in the Cholamo lake. This brought them to the Tibetan 

 face of the Donkiah pass, which they crossed (October 19), 

 and so completed the round by descending the Lachoong to 

 their starting point at Choongtam, October 27. 



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