IV INTRODUCTION. 



Darjeeling, and Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker, while travelling in 

 Sikhim with the permission of the British Government and the Raja, 

 were seized and imprisoned by the influential monopolist, Namguay, 

 pojjularly known as the Pagla Diivdn, or "mad Prime Minister" of 

 Siklum. This treachery was punished by the an- 

 Annesahon of nexation of the entire Terai, and a large area of 

 the middle hills bounded on the north by the Great 

 Eungeet river. But Namguay, though ostensibly dismissed from 

 dtfice, continued to exercise great influence through his wife, an 

 illegitimate daughter of the Haja. Criminals were harboured in 

 Sikhim, and British subjects were kidnapped from our own territory 

 for the purposes of the slave-trade between Sikhim and Bhutan. 

 Having exliausted all ordinary forms of protest, the Government of 

 India found it necessary in 1860-61 to order the occupation of Sikhim 

 by force under Colonel Gawler, accompanied by the Honourable 

 Ashley Eden as Envoy and Special Commissioner. Our troops ad- 

 vanced to the Tista, the Raja accepted the terms offered, and in March 

 1861 a treaty was concluded at Tumlong, the capital of Sikhim, which 

 regulates our relations with the State up to the present day. Its chief 

 provisions are the following: "Criminals, defaulters, 

 I86i'^™ mediatised, ^j^. Q^her delinquents" are to be seized and given 

 up on demand, and may be followed by our police. 

 The ex-Diwan Namguay and all his blood relations are for ever 

 banished from Sikhim, and excluded from the Raja's council at 

 Chumbi. Trade monopolies, restrictions on the movements of travel- 

 lers, and duties on goods passing between Sikhim and British territory, 

 are abolished. Power is given to the British Government to make a 

 road through Sikhim, and the Sikhim Government covenants to pro- 

 tect the working parties, to maintain the road in repair, and to erect 

 and maintain suitable rest-houses for travellers. The slave-trade is 

 prohibited. Our suzerainty in questions of foreign policy is recog- 

 nised, and Sikhim undertakes not to cede or lease any portion of its 

 territory, or to permit the passage of troops, without our consent. 

 Finally, the Raja " agrees to remove the seat of his Government from 

 Tibet to Sikhim, and reside there for nine months in the year." No 

 more complete recognition of our supreaiacy in matters of external 

 policy, and of our right to prescribe certain essential conditions of 

 internal administration, could well be demanded. 



Up to this time, and indeed for some years afterwards, Tibet 

 appears to have taken no active interest in the internal politics of Sik- 

 him. The leading Tibetans, whether lamas or laymen, were unwilling 

 to be mixed up in any way with Sikhim aff'airs, and looked with 

 suspicion and dislike on the residence of the Raja at Chumbi, as likely 

 to lead to dangerous political complications. Sikhim, again, though 



