vi INTRODUCTION. 



The following year witnessed a still more striking assertion of 

 our supremacy. Tte sudden death of the Sikhim Raja gave the signal 

 for the revival of an old intrigue to substitute a half-brother for the 

 Raja's brother and heir, who was disfigured by a hare-lip. At this 

 juncture the Deputy Commissioner of Darjeeling, acting in antici- 

 pation of the orders of the Government of India, caused the brother, 

 the present Raja, to be proclaimed, and thus finally made an end of 

 the intrigue. Not a whisper was heard on the frontier of remonstrance 

 against this vigourous piece of king-making, and Tibet acquiesced 

 silently in an act which struck at the root of any claim on her part to 

 exercise a paramount influence in the affairs of the Sikhim State. 

 The march of subsequent events was altogether in 

 Proclamation of ixme with our proclamation. In all our dealings 

 ' ■ with the Raja there never was a question raised as 



to the claim of Tibet to control him, while his absolute dependence 

 on our Government was throughout acknowledged by him and his 

 people. Sir Richard Temple, while Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, 

 made several excursions in Sikhim, and during his tenure of office a 

 road was constructed through a portion of that country to the Tibetan 

 frontier at the Jelap pass. In this work we received the active assis- 

 tance of the Sikhim State, and met with no objections on the part 

 of Tibet, though it was well known that the Government and people 

 of that country looked on our proceedings with a certain amount 

 of suspicion and uneasiness. "We may even go so far as to credit 

 with some political foresight an old Tibetan, who said to the Deputy 

 Commissioner while some blasting operations were in progress 

 on the road — "Sahib, the sound of tliat powder is heard at 

 Lhassa !" 



Seven years later, the question of promoting commercial inter- 

 course with Tibet, which had dropped out of notice during the 

 troubles in Afghanistan, was again pressed on the Government 

 of Bengal in the general interests of British trade in the East. 

 Mr. Colman Macaulay, Financial Secretary to that Government, was 

 deputed to visit Sikhim and the Tibetan frontier in order to inquire 

 into certain rumours of the stoppage of trade through Darjeeling by 

 Tibetan officials; to ascertain whether a direct road could be opened 

 through the Lachen valley between Darjeeling and the province of 

 Tsang, celebrated for the quality of its wool ; and 

 Mr. ^ ^Macaulaj's [f possible to communicate, through the Tibetan 

 proposeu i» ission. ofilcials at the head of the Lachen valk\', a 



friendly message from the Government of India to the Minister at 

 Tashe-lhunpo, the capital of Tsang. At Giagong in the north of 

 Sikhim, Mr. Macaulay met the Jongpen or civil officer of the Tibetan 

 district of Kamba, and collected much interesting information 



