Second Audience.
At the appointed hour on the following day, I repaired to the
Government building, and the guards refused me admittance until about
five o’clock. When finally I was admitted to the royal presence, it was
only to be told that his Highness was extremely busy that day, and that
he would see and give me the necessary papers the following day at the
Lambān preserve.
When I came back to my lodging that evening my servant expressed
himself as quite sure that I was being duped and that I would never
be allowed to reach Lambān on the morrow. That was bad. So I walked a
distance of about two and a half miles and back, in order to see and
be assured by the King’s Lord Chamberlain that I was only uselessly
worrying myself.
On the 17th I hired an _ekka_ (a single seat carriage) and with my
servant drove to the foot of a mountain called Binbiti, going over a
distance of about four days’ journey on foot. On the way I went to the
royal preserve of Lambān, which is situated at the southern end of the
Dalai Jungle. The place presented a grand sight on this occasion, for
a hunt was being held in honor of the Coronation of the Emperor of
India. There must have been fully five or six hundred tents pitched,
covering an immense tract of land and forming an entrance to the famous
Dalai Jungle. The royal tents sheltering the Kings and their multiple
consorts, the Princes and Princesses, were conspicuously beautiful
to look at, while the sight of those of the Ministers of State and
others, variegated in colors of red, white, blue and yellow, dotting
the woodland, was both grand and picturesque. There were about two
thousand soldiers present, all of the Royal Bodyguard. Their uniform
was after the British pattern, and they all looked men of splendid
physique.
Being refused admittance, I hung about the royal precincts for about
four hours, all the time looking for an opportunity to obtain an
audience. Ultimately I got a glimpse of the King, who was going out
on a hunt seated on a huge elephant. He recognised me, but had just
time enough to express his regret and tell me to come to him in the
morning; and he was gone! Then my servant again tried to make light of
my credulity; but I scolded him into silence.
[Illustration: STRUGGLE WITH A NEPALESE SOLDIER.]
At six o’clock on the morning of the 18th, I smuggled myself into the
royal enclosure, having chosen an unguarded spot for the purpose.
There was such a great number of tents that I in vain tried to locate
that intended for royalty. While wandering about I was challenged by
an officer. I explained the purpose of my presence there, only to be
told that the time for audience had not yet arrived. Eventually the
officer ordered a private to see me out of the enclosure. I thought
that, once out of the enclosure, I might never have an opportunity of
seeing the King, and feigning not to hear the remonstrances of the
private, I doggedly held my ground. Finally a guard came and ordered
me out. I said that I was there by the order of the King. But my words
were only wasted on the sturdy soldier, who forthwith collared me
and with a push on my back, as I staggered up, hurled me out of the
enclosure, handling me altogether as if I were a little child. Outside
the fence I became an object of the laughter of the soldiers and of
jeering remarks from the general spectators. Professor of resignation
and self-denial though I am, this treatment could not but displease
me. But on second thoughts I awoke to the fact of my still lacking
the spirit of patience and perseverance. Dead to my surroundings for
the time being, I sat in silence on the grass for hours, and in the
meanwhile I could not hold back my tears as I thought, if it was hard
for me to bear these insults, how great must be the suffering of my
Tibetan friends and benefactors, who because of me were even then, as
I imagined, undergoing dreadful tortures, having no one to vindicate
their innocence for them, and I composed an _uta_ for my consolation:
My suffering surely I with ease must bear
Compared with all the tortures which my friends
Now undergo, for my sake prisoners made,
In distant regions far above the clouds.
At about eleven o’clock I noticed the Lord Chamberlain passing by me,
and I hastened to acquaint him with the plight I was in. His Lordship
greatly commiserated me and at once gave orders that I should that
minute be taken to the tent of royal reception. After waiting another
two hours in the tent, the King was announced--the Prime-Minister-King
I should have said.
The King wanted to know what I wished to have from him. The passport, I
said. Then he said that that I should certainly have, but that what he
had meant was if I was well provided with travelling funds. I replied
that I had then with me three hundred rupees. His Highness thought that
the amount was not enough for my purpose, and ordered his attendants to
give me two hundred rupees. I refused to accept his generosity, saying
that I had not come to his country to make money. What was it then that
I wanted in reality? I was on the point of making a direct reference
to my petition; but that spirit of caution and forbearance which I
have already mentioned counselled me once more to bide my time on that
score; and I disclosed a part of my desire, that I wished to secure a
complete collection of the Samskṛṭ text of the Buḍḍhist Scriptures in
existence in Nepāl, offering in return to forward the Japanese edition
of the same on my return home. That I should have, he said, and ordered
me to present a list of the texts I wanted to the Regent at Kātmāndu,
where His Highness was to return in twenty-five days. Henceforward I
became a sort of special traveller under royal protection, for a police
official was detailed to escort me to Kātmāndu.