THE GHOORKAS. 
35 
receive any ruler who should have the boldness to 
scale their mountain fastnesses and dictate laws to 
a community ready to obey any new master who 
should unite them under a less resolute but more 
prosperous domination. 
The Ghoorka state., lying to the westward of Ne- 
paul, was many years ago governed by an enterprising 
chieftain., who, determining upon the conquest of the 
hill country, directed all his faculties and means to 
this one object. He first subdued the fertile valley of 
Nepaul, which was the key to his further conquests. 
This valley contained a large extent of rich but un- 
appropriated land, and promised, in the various pro- 
ductions of its soil, an abundant harvest to the con- 
queror. Upon the death of this chieftain, which hap- 
pened not long after he had secured this important 
conquest, he was succeeded by his son, a stern yet 
enterprising warrior, who, pursuing his father’s inten- 
tion with that vigour so natural to his character and 
having now acquired a vast succession of means, 
turned his arms against the petty sovereigns of the 
hills, whom, after a short but spirited resistance, he 
completely subdued. He was finally assassinated and 
succeeded by an alien from his kindred, Ummur Sing 
Thappa, who usurped the sovereignty both of the 
Ghoorka state and of the mountainous districts on 
that side. It was under the rigid yoke of this tyrant 
that the hill-men suffered such a severe deprivation of 
liberty and independence. 
The Ghoorka soldiers, severely but ably disciplined 
under experienced and sagacious leaders, are inferior 
to none and superior to most of the Indian troops 
