XVI 
INTRODUCTION. 
and Bengal, by receiving any letters which might be written to him 
by the Governor General, through the channel of the Lama. Unfor¬ 
tunately, however, the death of the Lama, and that of Mr. Bogle, 
which happened at nearly the same time, clouded this fair prospect, 
and completely frustrated every expectation which had been formed,, 
I am sorry to add too, that events, of a much more recent date, have 
concurred to throw almost insuperable difficulties in the way of re¬ 
establishing our intercourse with Tibet, at least for some considerable 
time to come. It is well known, that, within a few days after his 
arrival at Pekin, the Lama was seized with a disorder, supposed to be 
the small pox, of which he died a ; and his body was soon after car¬ 
ried back, with great pomp, and interred at the place of his former 
residence. Upon this occasion, the Emperor of China wrote a letter 
to Dalai Lama, at Lassa, then the chief of all the Lama hierarchy 
in Tibet, a copy of which will be found in the Appendix, No. L 
The original of this letter was some time in the hands of P. Amiot, a 
missionary at Pekin, by whom, it appears, a transcript of it w r as then 
made, which, in 1783, found a place in Memoires concernant le Chi- 
nois , Tom. IX. Paris. A translation of this is inserted in that valuable 
compilation, Mr. Dalrymple’s Oriental Repertory, Vol. II. p. 2 , 75. 
\ . » 
a The detailed particulars of the Lama’s journey to Pekin, and of his death, were 
related by Poorungheer Gosein, already mentioned, who was one of his chosen retinue* 
and are recorded by Mr. Dalryinple, in his Oriental Repertory, Vol. II. p. 145. But 
as a curious and interesting performance, it is inserted in the Appendix, No. IV. 
