Himalayan Journals, vol 2, J. D. Hooker [small books to read txt] 📗

>R. Campbelliae; 9. R. Edgeworthii; 10. _R.

niveum_; 11. R. Thomsoni; 12. R. cinnabarinum; 13. R. glaucum.

Above 10,500 feet:--14. R. lanatum; 15. R. virgatum; 16. _R.

campylocarpum_; 17. R. ciliatum; 18. R. Hodgsoni; 19. _R.

campanulatum. Above 12,000 feet:--20. _R. lepidotum; 21. _R.

fulgens_; 22. R. Wightianum; 23. R. anthopogon; 24. _R.

setosum._] on this and the following day.

A very remarkable plant, which I had seen in flower in the Lachen

valley, called "Loodoo-ma" by the Bhoteeas, and "Nomorchi" by

Lepchas, grew on the ridge at 7000 feet; it bears a yellow fruit like short cucumbers, full of a soft, sweet, milky pulp, and large black seeds; it belongs to a new genus,* [This genus, for which Dr. Thomson and I, in our "Flora Indies," have proposed the name Decaisnea (in honour of my friend Professor J. Decaisne, the eminent French

botanist), has several straight, stick-like, erect branches from the root, which bear spreading pinnated leaves, two feet long, standing out horizontally. The flowers are uni-sexual, green, and in racemes, and the fruits, of which two or three grow together, are about four inches long, and one in diameter. All the other plants of the natural order to which it belongs, are climbers.] allied to Stauntonia, of which two Himalayan kinds produce similar, but less agreeable edible fruits ("Kole-pot," Lepcha). At Laghep, iris was abundant, and a

small bushy berberry (B. concinna) with oval eatable berries. The north wall of the house (which was in a very exposed spot) was quite bare, while the south was completely clothed with moss and weeds.

The rocks above Laghep were gneiss; below it, mica-schist, striking north-west, and dipping north-east, at a high angle. A beautiful

yellow poppy-like plant grew in clefts at 10,000 feet; it has

flowered in England, from seeds which I sent home, and bears the name of Cathcartia.* [See "Botanical Magazine," for 1852. The name was given in honour of the memory of my friend, the late J. F. Cathcart, Esq., of the Bengal Civil Service. This gentleman was devoted to the pursuit of botany, and caused a magnificent series of drawings of

Dorjiling plants to be made by native artists during his residence

there. This collection is now deposited at Kew, through the

liberality of his family, and it is proposed to publish a selection from the plates, as a tribute to his memory. Mr. Cathcart, after the expiration of his Indian service, returned to Europe, and died at

Lausanne on his way to England.]

We continued, on the following morning, in an easterly direction, up the same narrow steep ridge, to a lofty eminence called Phieung-goong (alt. 12,422 feet), from being covered with the Phieung, or small

bamboo. Abies Webbiana begins here, and continues onwards, but, as on Tonglo, Mainom, and the other outer wetter Sikkim ranges, there is neither larch, Pinus excelsa, Abies Smithiana, or A. Brunoniana.

Hence we followed an oblique descent of 1,500 feet, to the bed of the Rutto river, through thick woods of pines and _Rhododendron

Hodgsoni,_ which latter, on our again ascending, was succeeded by the various alpine kinds. We halted at Barfonchen (alt. 11,233 feet), a stone-but in the silver-fir forest. Some yaks were grazing in the

vicinity, and from their herdsman we learnt that the Dewan was at

Choombi, on the road to Yakla; he had kept wholly out of the way

during the summer, directing every unfriendly action to be pursued

towards myself and the government by the Amlah, consisting of his

brothers and relatives, whom he left at Tumloong.

The night was brilliant and starlight: the minimum thermometer fell to 27 degrees, a strong north-east wind blew down the valley, and

there was a thick hoar-frost, with which the black yaks were drolly powdered. The broad leaves of R. Hodgsoni were curled, from the

expansion of the frozen fluid in the layer of cells on the upper

surface of the leaf, which is exposed to the greatest cold of

radiation. The sun restores them a little, but as winter advances,

they become irrecoverably cured, and droop at the ends of the

branches.

We left Barfonchen on the 7th November, and ascended the river, near which we put up a woodcock. Emerging from the woods at Chumanako

(alt. 12,590 feet), where there is another stone hut, the mountains become bleak, bare, and stony, and the rocks are all moutonneed by

ancient glaciers. At 13,000 feet the ground was covered with ice, and all the streams were frozen. Crossing several rocky ledges, behind

which were small lakes, a gradual ascent led to the summit of the

Chola pass, a broad low depression, 14,925 feet above the sea, wholly bare of snow.

Campbell had preceded me, and I found him conversing with some

Tibetans, who told him that there was no road hence to Yakla, and

that we should not be permitted to go to Choombi. As the Chinese

guard was posted in the neighbourhood, he accompanied one of the

Tibetans to see the commandant, whilst I remained taking

observations. The temperature was 33 degrees, with a violent, biting, dry east wind. The rocks were gneiss, striking north-east, and

horizontal, or dipping north-west. The scanty vegetation consisted

chiefly of grass and Sibbaldia.

In about an hour Meepo and some of my people came up and asked for

Campbell, for whom the Tchebu Lama was waiting below: the Lama had

remained at Rungpo, endeavouring to put matters on a better footing with the Amlah. Wishing to see the Tibet guard myself, I accompanied the two remaining Tibetans down a steep valley with cliffs on either hand, for several hundred feet, when I was overtaken by some Sikkim sepoys in red jackets, who wanted to turn me back forcibly: I was at a loss to understand their conduct, and appealed to the Tibetan

sepoys, who caused them to desist. About 1000 feet down I found

Campbell, with a body of about ninety Tibetans, a few of whom were

armed with matchlocks, and the rest with bows and arrows. They were commanded by a Dingpun, a short swarthy man, with a flat-crowned cap with floss-silk hanging all round, and a green glass button in front; he wore a loose scarlet jacket, broadly edged with black velvet, and having great brass buttons of the Indian naval uniform; his subaltern was similarly dressed, but his buttons were those of the 44th Bengal Infantry. The commandant having heard of our wish to go round by

Choombi, told Campbell that he had come purposely to inform him that there was no road that way to Yakla; he was very polite, ordering his party to rise and salute me when I arrived, and doing the same when we both left.

On our return we were accompanied by the Dingpun of the Tibetans and a few of his people, and were soon met by more Sikkim sepoys, who

said they were sent from the Durbar, to bring Campbell back to

transact business; they behaved very rudely, and when still half a

mile from the Sikkim frontier, jostled him and feigned to draw their knives, and one of them pointed a spear-headed bow to his breast.

Campbell defended himself with a stick, and remonstrated with them on their rudeness; and I, who had nothing but a barometer in my hand,

called up the Tibetans. The Dingpun came instantly, and driving the Sikkim people forward, escorted us to the frontier, where he took an inscribed board from the chait, and showing us the great vermilion

seal of the Emperor of China (or more probably of the Lhassan

authorities) on one side, and two small brown ones of the Sikkim

Rajah on the other; and giving us to understand that here his

jurisdiction ceased, he again saluted and left us.

On descending, I was surprised to meet the Singtam Soubah, whom I had not seen since leaving Tungu; he was seated on a rock, and I remarked that he looked ashy pale and haggard, and that he salaamed to me

only, and not to Campbell; and that Tchebu Lama, who was with him,

seemed very uncomfortable. The Soubah wanted Campbell to stop for a conference, which at such a time, and in such a wind, was impossible, so he followed us to Chumanako, where we proposed to pass the night.

A great party of Sikkim Bhoteeas had assembled here, all strangers to me: I certainly thought the concourse unusually large, and the

previous conduct to Campbell, strange, rude, and quite

unintelligible, especially before the Tibetans. But the Bhoteeas were always a queer, and often insolent people,* [Captain Pemberton during his mission to Bhotan was repeatedly treated with the utmost

insolence by the officials in that country (see Griffith's Journal).

My Sirdar, Nimbo, himself a native of Bhotan, saw a good deal of the embassy when there, and told me many particulars as to the treatment to which it had been subjected, and the consequent low estimation in which both the ambassadors themselves and the Government whom they

represented were held in Bhotan.] whom I was long ago tired of trying to understand, and they might have wanted to show off before their

neighbours; and such was the confidence with which my long travels

amongst them had inspired me, that the possibility of danger or

violence never entered my head.

We went into the hut, and were resting ourselves on a log at one end of it, when, the evening being very cold, the people crowded in; on which Campbell went out, saying, that we had better leave the hut to them, and that he would see the tents pitched. He had scarcely left, when I heard him calling loudly to me, "Hooker! Hooker! the savages are murdering me!" I rushed to the door, and caught sight of him

striking out with his fists, and struggling violently; being tall and powerful, he had already prostrated a few, but, a host of men bore

him down, and appeared to be trampling on him; at the same moment I was myself seized by eight men, who forced me back into the hut, and down on the log, where they held me in a sitting posture, pressing me against the wall; here I spent a few moments of agony, as I heard my friend's stifled cries grow fainter and fainter. I struggled but

little, and that only at first, for at least five-and-twenty men

crowded round and laid their hands upon me, rendering any effort to move useless; they were, however, neither angry nor violent, and

signed to me to keep quiet. I retained my presence of mind, and felt comfort in remembering that I saw no knives used by the party who

fell on Campbell, and that if their intentions had been murderous, an arrow would have been the more sure and less troublesome weapon.

It was evident that the whole animus was directed against Campbell, and though at first alarmed on my own account, all the inferences

which, with the rapidity of lightning my mind involuntarily drew,

were favourable.

After a few minutes, three persons came into the hut, and seated

themselves opposite to me: I only recognised two of them; namely, the Singtam Soubah, pale, trembling like a leaf, and with great drops of sweat trickling from his greasy brow; and the Tchebu Lama, stolid,

but evidently under restraint, and frightened. The former ordered the men to leave hold of me, and to stand guard on either side, and, in a violently agitated manner, he endeavoured to explain that Campbell

was a prisoner by the orders of the Rajah, who was dissatisfied with his conduct as a government officer, during the past twelve years;

and that he was to be taken to the Durbar and confined till the

supreme government at Calcutta should confirm such articles as he

should be compelled to