INTRODUCTION. 



influential lamas, who allege that they waste the forests, allow their 

 cattle to trespass, and make themselves unpleasant neighbours in 

 other ways. In truth, however, the unwarlike Sikhimese have a 

 wholesome dread of the fighting races of Nepal, and fear lest the 

 industrious Newars who have settled along their southern border 

 should be merely the forerunners of an invading army of Goorkhas. 

 So long as these three parties maintained what may be called their 

 natural relations, there was no fear of our influence declining, and the 

 internal affairs of the country could be trusted to adjust themselves 

 with the minimum of interference on our part. But when we came to 

 inquire how things actually stood, and to look below the surface of the 

 Lingtu demonstration, we were forced in spite of ourselves to admit 

 that within the last three or four years some remarkable changes 

 had taken place in the political situation. Tibet, as has already been 

 pointed out, liad assumed an attitude of unmistakable, though probably 

 cautious, aggression ; while the leaders of the Sikhim people, and 

 Nepalese settlers with influence and property in that country, had 

 begun to ask themselves seriously whether it might not be necessary 

 for their ultimate safety to cast in their lot with the Tibetan party. 

 These men, although as anxious as ever to keep up their former 

 relations, and fully as hostile to Tibetan encroachment, had begun to 

 doubt our desire or our ability to assist them, and openly expressed 

 their fear of being "drowned," as they worded it, if they ^^ersisted in 

 trying to swim against the current now running in favour of Tibet, 

 The head of the Nepalese party, himself a resident of Dai'jeeling, 

 explained in the clearest language that he would do anything we told 

 him to do if assured of our support and ultimate jDrotection ; but that 

 failing this guarantee, he must make his peace with the Tibetan party 

 as the only hope of saving his property in Sikhim from confiscation, 

 and his relatives there from imprisonment or death. The fact that 

 this line was taken by a representative of the Nepalese settlers in 

 Sikhim was of itself the clearest indication of the extent to which 

 our influence had been undermined. Things must have gone very far 

 before these settlers — people almost bigoted in their Hinduism, with 

 just enough Mongolian blood in their veins to make them hate the 

 Mongols — could bring tliemselves to contemplate the possibility of 

 coming to terms with tlieir ancient enemies. Things clearly had gone 

 so far that unless we bestirred ourselves in a speedy and effective 

 fashion, Sikhim would either become once for all a province of Tibet, 

 or, if we were not prepared to acquiesce in that solution of the 

 difficulty, would have to be regularly conquered by us with the 

 people of the country either actively hostile, or, which is perhaps 

 worse, sulkily and treacherously neutral. Some months before, repre- 

 sentations had been made to China in the belief that her influence 



