1848.] Narrative of a Journey to Cho Lagan, fyc. 131 



A Kashmiri colony and shawl factory in some part of Kumaon or 

 Garhwal, is still a feasible and promising project ; but it would require 

 encouragement and good management at the outset ; such I believe, 

 were bestowed by the local authorities at Ludhiana when the immigra- 

 tion of the Kashmiris naturally passed that way. 



Maximum Thermometer in the sun this afternoon, 62° ; evening 

 cloudy, Thermometer at 9 p. m. 42°. 



28th September. — Thermometer at sunrise 34° ; morning fine. After 

 some defey, on the part of myself as well as the Bhotias, with packing 

 and loading baggage, &c, we start soon after noon ; the party consist- 

 ing of myself, Bhauna, Anand, a young relation whom Bhauna has 

 thought proper to bring with him, to assist in cooking dinner, etc : 

 though as this is Anand' s first visit to Hundes, or southern Bhote even, 

 he is likely to be of small use in manual service : Rechu (Pudhan of 

 Kunti) and five other Bhotias, two of whom are supernumeraries 

 intended to return to Kunti when the rest of the party get well over 

 the pass. I begin to have misgivings about Rechu, who J fear is no 

 better than a demi- savage, and I rather regret that I have not taken 

 Hirkun, the Thokdar, in his stead, as in fact Bhauna from the first ad- 

 vised, but in such a sneaking suspicious way that I rejected his sugges- 

 tion in disgust. The other Bhotias are, if any thing more uncivilized 

 than Rechu. When first asked who were to accompany me, I said that 

 I left Rechu to bring whom he chose from his own village, (as I 

 thought the most simple and convenient plan) but the men of Kunti 

 raised objections, and after much discussion, it was settled coram 

 Patwari and Thokdar, that the service should be equally distributed 

 (like the supply of baggage cattle, provisions, &c.) each village furnish- 

 ing one man, and then the separate villagers began to assert their inde- 

 pendence of one another, and of Rechu, who was mere Pudhan of 

 Kunti they said, and of no authority out of his own village. They will 

 cool down a bit I hope, when I get them well into the snow. Not- 

 withstanding these betises and their general rudeness I have had reason 

 as yet to be well satisfied with the readiness which the Byansis have 

 shown in meeting all my requisitions, whatever part of that alacrity 

 may have arisen from their inability to distinguish between the Go- 

 vernment official and the mere private adventurer. 



Our baggage goes upon six Zhobus, four of which are however 



