JUNG BAHADUR AND FUTURE TRAVEL 329 
* especially if 3'OU project a Flora Indica, at which Tom pricks 
up his ears with a will.' 
To Hooker it was a great relief that the Borneo project had 
fallen through, after the death of Lord Auckland, who had 
arranged it. Apart from escaping that very unhealthy climate, 
there was a great advantage in having opportunity to complete 
a knowledge of Indian botany, albeit with emptier pockets. 
Thomson, however, to join in the expedition, had to sacrifice 
a year of his long-looked-for furlough ; certain departmental 
friction was too strong to be overcome, and neither his recent 
illness, nor his scientific work, past or prospective, availed to 
let him count this period as Indian service. 
The trouble in Sikkim at the first blush seemed fatal to the 
prospect of future travel so near as Nepaul. But good feeling 
was undisturbed. ' The Nepalese are so fond of Campbell 
and me that they even offered to come and rescue us from the 
Sikkimites ' (January 2), and Lord Dalhousie continued to 
think the expedition feasible and did his utmost to bring it 
about. Jung Bahadur was passing through Calcutta on his 
way to pay an official visit to England. A meeting was arranged, 
and in the middle of March Hooker joined him and the Governor- 
General in hopes of receiving permission to start as soon as 
the weather served, in April. But though very friendly, Jung 
Bahadur w^as unwilling that Europeans should travel in 
Nepaul whilst he was absent and unable to protect them. 
Next year, certainly, on his return, but not this. Hooker, 
however, was unwilling for various reasons to stay out another 
year, though 
Lord Dalhousie entreated me, the last thing before we 
separated, 7iot to give up the project . . . even offered me 
a companion, but I refused, saying that I would not choose 
to go with any one of whom I knew less than of Thomson. 
Accordingly the alternative was adopted, of a journey to 
Assam and the Khasia Hills. As to Bhotan, ' I would not go 
there for the world, without 500 men in front of me and as many 
in the rear.' ... As between Nepaul and the Khasia Hills, 
the botany of the former could not be very different from that 
