314 CAPTIVITY AND EELEASE 
Soubah's followers slunk away, and the Soubah himself left 
Campbell, who was then taken, much bruised, to his tent. ' It 
is Tartar fashion to catch and coerce a great man when they 
can,' and the Dewan had arranged for Campbell's seizure from 
the day he crossed into the country, three months before. But 
his tools were too timid. Hooker's popularity too great for 
arrest in the capital itself, where they were to be quietly de- 
tained unknown to the Kajah, till the Dewan returned from 
Chumbi. Here he had failed in his attempt to involve the 
Tibetan guard in his aggression, an attempt which drew down 
upon himself the anger of the Tibetan authorities when they 
investigated the affair next summer ; while at the Chola pass 
the personal animus of his henchmen, delighted to outrun the 
letter of their instructions, created an impasse for which they 
were speedily disgraced by their master. 
The plan faihng, they were utterly dismayed, having 
committed a gross outrage on Campbell's and my persons 
from which no imaginable good could come. The only 
course remaining was of course to trump up a new story 
and to detain us as hostages for no ill befalling them 
pending the Government's taking active steps for our 
release. 
Unfortunately they were so simple as to let out all their 
secrets to me, when trying to gain information from vie by 
all manner of means, and over and over again gave me the 
Rajah's assurance that no fault whatever had been or could 
be laid at my door and that Campbell's offences were wholly 
political. Now, C. having Govt, sanction and approval 
for all his supposed offences, they do not know what to do, 
and urge our trespass on the Thibet frontier in the hopes 
that Govt, will commit itself and take up that grievance 
against us. 
This Dewan [writes Hooker, December 28, 1849] is an 
alien and universally detested ; powerless except through 
his gang of Bhotean ruffians, w^ho are runaways from their 
own land, and whom he protects, and who protect him. 
He is a man of some energy, and finds it easy to ride rough- 
shod over the simple and indolent Lepchas. He rules the 
old chiefs with an ii'on rod, monopolises trade, and is the 
