INTRODUCTION. 
IX 
Lama, but who had not yet much interposed in the interior govern¬ 
ment of either division of the province. 
The Lama, moved by the prayers of the Raja, and interested for the 
safety of Bootan, which was a dependency of Tibet, sent a deputation 
to Calcutta, with a letter addressed to the Governor, which I am glad to 
r 
insert, as an authentic and curious specimen of his good sense, humi¬ 
lity, simplicity of heart, and, above all, of that delicacy of sentiment 
and expression, which could convey a threat in the terms of meekness 
and supplication. 
Translation of a Letter from Teshoo Lama to Warren Lias tings, Esq. 
President and Governor of Fort William in Bengal. Received the 
29th of March, 1 7 74. 
“ The affairs of this quarter in every respect flourish: I am night 
and day employed in prayers for the increase of your happiness and 
prosperity. Having been informed, by travellers from your country, 
of your exalted fame and reputation, my heart, like the blossoms of 
double b in Tibet, I retain the established mode of spelling Lassa. It is rare, indeed, that 
our own mode of spelling the names of persons, or places, corresponds with their local 
pronunciation. I have endeavoured to express the sound of such names as will be found 
in the following pages, just as they caught my ear, in all cases where custom has not 
already appeared to sanction some particular mode of spelling. We need not travel 
beyond our own nation to discover how often, in this respect, custom and propriety are 
at variance. 
I 
