1856.] Boute of two Nepalese Embassies to Pekin, 4<75 



really pragmatical Chinaman, who answers all objections with ' Orders 

 of the emperor,' ' Food of the country,' ' You nicer than us, forsooth,' 

 1 Fed or unfed you start at such an hour.' It is singular to observe 

 the celestial empire treating Asiatics with like impertinence as Euro- 

 peans, and it is satisfactory to think that the recent treaty of Nepal 

 with Tibet, has put an end to these and other impertinences. 



I proceed now to a few remarks on the form and substance of 

 the papers. The form is such as might be expected from men, of 

 a nation of soldiers and statesmen, scant of words and having an 

 eye to business in the survey of a country. Blucher regarded 

 London merely as a huge store-house of valuables, fit, and haply 

 destined, to make spoil for a conquering army. And a Nepalese 

 regards Tibet and China, not from a picturesque or scientific point 

 of view, but with reference to the obstacles their natural features 

 oppose to a daring invader having an eye to business in Blucher's 

 line. The chief item therefore of both itineraries and the only one 

 of the shorter, is an enumeration of the mountain ridges or ranges 

 intersecting the way (a most valuable piece of information, as we 

 shall soon see) ; and to this the longer paper adds a similar enumer- 

 ation of the intervening rivers, with the means of passing them, or 

 the ferries and bridges ; the forts occurring all along the route, and, 

 lastly, the lakes and tanks where drinking-water can be had — a 

 commodity most scarce in those regions where half the lakes are 

 brackish. These several items, together with the stages, and the 

 distances (computed by marching-time as well as by reference to 

 the Nepalese kos of 2^ miles each) comprise the whole information 

 conveyed. But it will nevertheless be allowed that so authentic an 

 enumeration of so many important particulars relating to so vast an 

 extent of country so little known, is of no small value ; and, though 

 here packed into the smallest compass, that information might in 

 the hands of a skilful book-maker suffice to furnish forth a goodly 

 volume. But book-making is in no repute with the gentry of Nepal. 

 It belongs solely to pandits, whilst on the class of official scribes is 

 devolved the task of recording all useful information, which they are 

 strictly required to embody in the fewest possible words and smallest 

 space. I will only add on this head of the form of the papers. 



1st. That the records of the two embassies having been made 



3q2 



