1848.] Narrative of a Journey to Cho Lagan, fyc. 129 



system of government established in Kham under their own officers, as 

 they have in the province of Gnari. 



I must now introduce my assistant, Bhauna Hatwal Khasiah, Brah- 

 man, Kumaoni, of Jhirkuni, a village near Lohu-ghat. I believe he is 

 the only native of British Kumaon or Garhwal not a Bhotia, that has 

 any personal intercourse with Hiindes. For many years past he has 

 been engaged in a small trade chiefly with Pruang, either on his own 

 account or as agent for some of the Almora merchants. The com- 

 mencement of his intercourse with Gnari was characteristic : making 

 his first appearance at Daba (via Jwar) he was forthwith arrested as a 

 " Nia Admi," and brought before the Zungpun for examination ; he 

 pleaded that " in the days of Chand" some of his ancestors had been 

 in the habit of visiting the Jang-Tang* for purposes of trade, and he 

 hoped for a renewal of the privilege to himself, on which the Deba 

 directed the Clerks to make search in the archives of Daba, where 

 sure enough, they found mention of one Bbauna Hatwal, an authorised 

 trader from Kumaon some 100 years ago, and the present Bhauna was 

 then admitted to free intercourse with all parts of Gnari. For the first 

 year or two he went through Jwar to Diingpu, Daba, and the Gartokh 

 Fair, but the avaricious interference of certain influential Jwari Bho- 

 tias, jealous of the competition with their own trade, threw such impe- 

 diments and annoyances in his way that he abondoned that route and 

 took to a more limited traffic with Pruang, through Byans ; he met no 

 opposition from the Bhotias of this district, who if less civilized than 

 their brethren of Jwar, are less sophisticated, and as their own trade is 

 chiefly confined to the barter of grain for salt and Borax, Bhauna' s 

 dealings in Europe cloths, Pearls and Corals gave them no offence. 

 In quest of Pearls and Coral and other merchandise for Hiindes, Bhauna 

 has been often to Jaipur and sometimes as far as Calcutta and Bombay, 

 and he is probably the only man now living who has visited those 

 places and Gartokh. He is proficient, colloquially, in the Gnari dialect 

 of Tibetan and his ideas generally have been somewhat expanded by 

 travel. He was introduced to me, unexpectedly only the day before I 

 left Almora (31st October, ultimo) : but having heard previously of his 

 qualifications, I engaged him to accompany me on this expedition; never 

 having been to the lakes by the out-of-the-way route I am now taking, 

 he is nothing of a guide, but promises to be useful as informant general- 

 * it e. Uplands of Tibet. 



