HIMALAYAS STATE OF SIKHIM. 
555 
Europeans) from crossing the frontier of Tibet, and warning him that, 
if he continued to make roads for the sahibs through Sikhim, “ it would 
not be well for him.” The following year there was a dispute as to 
the succession, when the British Government placed its nominee, the 
nearest heir, on the throne. 
All went well until in 1886 Mr. Colman Macaulay was deputed to 
lead a mixed political, commercial, and scientific mission to Lhassa. 
Under pressure from China, with whom we were then delimitating the 
frontier of Burma, this mission was withdrawn. This forbearance was 
misunderstood by the monastic party in Tibet, who immediately 
assumed an aggressive attitude ; and a body of Tibetan militia fortified 
themselves at Lingtu, twelve miles within the Sikkimese frontier. The 
Baja of Sikhim when called upon to visit Darjeeling to confer with 
the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal replied, after many evasions, that 
he and his people, in 1886, had signed a treaty declaring that Sikhim 
was subject onlj to China and Tibet . 
From the commencement of our relations with Sikhim there have 
been two parties in that State — one which may be called the Lepcha 
or national party, consistently friendly to our Government, and a 
foreign or Tibetan party, steadily hostile. The family of the Bajas 
has generally sided with the latter, partly in consequence of their 
habit of marrying Tibetan women, and partly through their residence 
at Chumbi. Of late years a further complication has been introduced 
by the settlement of colonies of Nepalese in parts of Sikhim — a 
measure favoured by the Lepchas generally. These settlers look to ns 
for protection in case ot danger, and are naturally friendly to our 
Government ; but their presence is regarded with disfavour by many 
influential lamas, on account of difference in creeds and fear of them 
as a more warlike race. 
The pressure from Tibet became more and more apparent, and at 
last the leaders of the Nepalese settlers declared plainly that the 
British authorities must either protect them or they must make terms 
with the Tibetan party. The Indian Government had to decide 
whether it should abandon Sikhim to possible anarchy, or interfere to 
prevent Tibetan encroachments. In the flrst case there would probably 
be a massacre of Nepalese settlers, followed by war between Nepal 
and Sikhim, the latter aided by Tibet; in the second case there was 
the fear of offending China, nor could it be overlooked that east and 
west of Sikhim lie the only really independent States of India, Bhutan 
and Nepal. 
It has already been mentioned that the Tibetans had fortified and 
garrisoned a post at Lingtu, twelve miles south of the Sikhim-Tibetan 
frontier, and so had blocked the new trade road recently constructed 
to the important Jelap Pass. In March, 1888, General Graham entered 
Sikhim at the head of a small field force consisting of British, Sikh, 
and Goorkha regiments. A stockade below Lingtu was stormed, and 
the garrison at Lingtu fled before they were attacked. The British 
force entrenched at Gnatong, eight miles south of the Jelap Pass, and 
on the 22nd May they were attacked by the Tibetans in force, whom 
they repulsed with great slaughter. Forgetting the axiom in Asiatic 
warfare, that the first defeat of ail enemy should be thorough and com* 
plete, our men were not encouraged to follow the flying enemy, and 
this mercy was mistaken for fear. A Tibetan force of 11,000 men 
