234 GREAT RUNGEET VALLEY. Chap. XXVI. 



waited on us with a present, which, with all others 

 that had been brought, Campbell received officially, and 

 transferred to the authorities at Dorjiling. 



The Dewan was thoroughly alarmed at the news here 

 brought in, that the Rajah's present of yaks, ponies, &c, 

 which had been sent forward, had been refused at Dorjiling; 

 and equally so at the clamorous messages which reached 

 him from all quarters, demanding our liberation ; and at 

 the desertion of some of his followers, on hearing that large 

 bodies of troops were assembling at Dorjiling. Repudiated 

 by his Rajah and countrymen, and paralysed between his 

 dignity and his ponies, which he now perceived would not 

 be welcomed at the station, and which were daily losing 

 flesh, looks, and value in these hot valleys, where there is no 

 grass pasture, he knew not what olive-branch to hold out 

 to our government, except ourselves, whom he therefore 

 clung to as hostages. 



On the 22nd of December he marched us eight miles 

 further, to Cheadam, on a bold spur 4,653 feet high, 

 overlooking the Great Rungeet, and facing Dorjiling, from 

 which it was only twenty miles distant. The white 

 bungalows of our friends gladdened our eyes, while the 

 new barracks erecting for the daily arriving troops struck 

 terror into the Dewan's heart. The six Sepoys* who had 

 marched valiantly beside us for twenty days, carrying the 

 muskets given to the Rajah the year before by the 

 Governor- General, now lowered their arms, and vowed 

 that if a red coat crossed the Great Rungeet, they would 

 throw down their guns and run away. News arrived 



* These Sepoys, besides the loose red jacket and striped Lepcha kirtle, wore a 

 very curious national black hat of felt, with broad flaps turned up all round : this 

 is represented in the right-hand figure. A somewhat similar hat is worn by some 

 classes of Nepal soldiery. 



