INTRODUCTION. Vll 



regarding the possibilities of trade between Tibet and India. In the 

 following year, under instructions from the English Foreign OfHce, he 

 visited Pekin, and obtained from the Chinese Government passports 

 for a mixed political and scientific Mission to proceed to Lhassa for 

 three or four months to confer with the Chinese Resident and the 

 Lhassa Government on the free admission of native Indian traders to 

 Tibet, and the removal of obstructions on the trade through Sikhim 

 and Darjeeling, it being understood that no proposal for the general 

 admission of Europeans would be brought forward. 



Early in 1886 the Mission was organised, and assembled at Dar- 

 jeeling with a small escort of native troops for the protection of the 

 treasure and presents which it carried. While it was waiting to start, 

 negotiations commenced with China concerning the north-eastern 

 frontier of Upper Burma, then recently annexed, and in deference to 

 Chinese susceptibilities the Government of India consented to forego 

 their intention of desj^atching a Mission to Lhassa. This forbearance, 

 though highly appreciated by China, seems to have been misunder- 

 stood by the monastic party in Tibet, whose desire to promote a 

 policy of exclusion, and to maintain their own monopoly of trade with 

 India, was connived at by the Chinese Resident. Arguing in true 

 Asiatic fashion, the monks concluded that we broke 



Tibetans occupy ^p q^^ Mission because we were afraid of them. 



^°^ ' ' They assumed a highly aggressive attitude, and 



sent a small body of 'ribetan militia to occupy Lingtu, a point about 

 twelve miles to the Sikhim side of the frontier, on the top of a high 

 peak crossed by our road to the Jelap, one of the passes of the Chola 

 range. Here the invaders constructed, at an elevation of 12,617 feet 

 above the sea, a stone fort blocking and commanding the road ; they 

 warned oS one of our native engineers, and announced their inten- 

 tion of stopping all trade by that route between Tibet and India. 

 This open violation of territory under our protection was at first looked 

 upon by us as a temporary outburst of Tibetan Chauvinism, which we 

 could well afford to disregard. It was confidently expected that the 

 mob of archers, slingers, and matchlockmen collected on a barren, 

 windswept ridge at a height which even Tibetans find trying, would 

 speedily fall away under stress of cold and starvation; and tlia,t the 

 Chinese Government, moved partly by our diplomatic remonstrances, 

 and partly by fear lest we should treat the Lingtu demonstration as 

 a pretext for entering Tibet in force, would compel the Lhassa autho- 

 rities to adjust their relations with Sikhim on a basis involving the 

 recognition of our predominance in that State, 



Our expectations were signally disajipointed. Not only did the 

 Tibetans hold their ground at Lingtu with characteristic Slongolian 



