_A dilemma at Bisoleah--Ignominious exit from the Nepaul dominions--The
resources and capabilities of Nepaul--Articles of import from Thibet and
Chinese Tartary--A vision of the future_.
At Bhimphede we remounted our elephant, following, as before, the valley
of the Rapti to Hetowra, thence through the great saul forest to
Bisoleah, where we expected to find our palanquins. In this we were not
disappointed; but unfortunately our bearers, tired of waiting for us at
so uninteresting a spot, had thought themselves justified in absconding;
which proceeding, while it was a considerable saving to us in a pecuniary
point of view, was particularly annoying under existing circumstances,
the day being far advanced and Segowly still thirty miles distant.
However, by dint of a great deal of threatening, and coaxing, and
bribing, and a very frequent use of the magic name of the Minister Sahib,
who, we assured them, would take into his especial favour every coolie
that volunteered for our service, and would visit with his heavy
displeasure all those who refused, we induced a sufficient number of men
to agree to bear our empty palanquins. Unloading two ponies, which were
carrying cotton, we put our luggage on one, riding the other by turns,
and so, one of us sitting on a rough sack without bridle or stirrups, the
other walking by his side, we marched out of the village and across the
open plain of the Terai. We were soon after left in darkness, and,
becoming separated from our palanquins, as was to be expected, we lost
our way, and wandered for some time disconsolately over the grassy plain,
until at length, stumbling upon a village, we procured a guide and
overtook the bearers a little beyond the Nepaul frontier. Ere we reached
it, however, we were obliged to traverse numerous streams, which we
crossed riding double on our pony. Altogether we made our exit from
Nepaul in very different style from that in which we had entered it, and
were not a little glad to arrive at Segowly shortly before dawn.
The journey from Katmandu to Segowly can scarcely be accomplished in less
than three days and three nights, not on account of the distance, but of
the frightfully bad roads, which quite preclude the possibility of
travelling faster than at the rate of two miles an hour.
There is scarcely a country in the world in which the state of the roads
is so much to be lamented, since, apart from the benefit which would
accrue to Nepaul itself, we too should be gainers, by having not only the
valuable productions of Nepaul brought to our markets, but also those of
the more distant Thibet, which are always precious from their intrinsic
value, and the cost of which is at present greatly increased by reason of
the expensive journey across the Nepaulese hills in addition to the
transit of the Himalayas.
The Terai is at present the only part of the Nepaul dominions which is
profitable from the revenue yielded by its productions. Valuable timber
and turpentine, ivory and hides, are shipped down the Boori Gundak, on
which river Segowly is situated, to Calcutta; still the cost of a
government licence for cutting timber is so heavy as in a great measure
to deter speculators from engaging in an undertaking in which so
considerable an outlay is demanded, exclusive of the expenses attendant
on the felling and transport of the timber. Besides the saul the Terai
contains ebony, mimosa, and other useful trees.
The trade in hides is not, as I have already remarked, carried out to the
extent it is capable of. But in spite of all these drawbacks, the Terai
alone, of all the Nepaul dominions, can be looked upon by the British as
offering a profitable field for trade and commercial speculations.
Nevertheless, the interior of Nepaul contains productions far more
valuable than those of the Terai. Its mineral resources are such as
would in all probability, if properly developed, render their
mountainous, and in some parts barren country, one of the richest in the
world. Iron, lead, copper, and zinc mines abound, and are in fact
worked, but, from all I could learn, so very badly, that, even did their
roads allow of the export of the metals, it is to be questioned whether,
without the application of a better system, enough metal could be
obtained to do more than supply the home demand.
However that may be, there is no doubt of the existence of these mines,
and, if ever there were tolerable roads, the necessary skill for working
them would doubtless follow. So backward are the Nepaulese in their
treatment of minerals, that they cannot smelt lead: the fact of their
_beating_ cannon-balls into shape proves their incapacity to cast iron,
unless it results from a peculiarity of the ore, so frequent in India,
which, instead of yielding cast-iron at once when reduced in the usual
way, gives wootz--a condition of iron closely allied to steel, ductile
but not fusible. Of this I had no opportunity of judging.
Nepaul also possesses mines of sulphur, and, it is said, of antimony;
whether this latter is found in the country does not seem certain; it is,
however, an article of import from Thibet. Amongst other minerals are
corundum, figure-stone, and talc; and amongst the present exports from
the interior of Nepaul may be noticed turmeric, wax, honey, resin,
pepper, cardamums: all these, however, are exported in but small
quantities, owing partly to the difficulty of transport, and partly to
the want of enterprise and capital in a nation thoroughly ignorant of all
mercantile transactions.
It is much to be regretted that no European is now allowed to settle in
Nepaul; for its many latent resources must remain undiscovered, or at
least undeveloped, until the present blind policy of its government is
changed, when British enterprise and British capital introduces a new era
in its commercial existence, which will doubtless prove no less
profitable to the country itself than to the capitalist.
Of the immense expanse of country lying in a north-westerly direction
towards Cashmere we know nothing, save by report, and that is not always
to be trusted. The Minister told me that, in a province three days'
journey from the capital in that direction, sufficient horses were bred
to supply the wants of the whole country. That seemed perfectly
possible, considering how limited is the demand in this respect; but, on
our homeward journey, we passed a drove of upwards of two hundred long-
backed, spindle-legged colts, going up to Katmandu, and that did not seem
exactly corroborative of the Minister's assertion.
But, whatever may be its capabilities as regards horses, it doubtless
possesses many resources; but it is not on the productions of Nepaul
alone that the European speculator would calculate, but on the rare and
precious merchandise of Thibet and the northern provinces of China--such
as the miledo, or exquisitely soft material fabricated from the wool of
the celebrated shawl-goat, itself a rare and valuable animal; and the
chowries or tails of a peculiar species of bullock inhabiting the snowy
regions, at present an article of export from the hill states in the
north-west provinces of India, and extensively used throughout the
continent as fly-flappers.
Musk, procured from the musk-deer, is a most valuable article of
commerce, and the present trade is exceedingly lucrative; of very
inconsiderable bulk, and of great intrinsic worth, it is one of the few
things that can be imported into India with a profit. It there fetches
enormous prices; a small musk necklace, which I saw in the possession of
the Minister, and which certainly was not a foot long, was valued at 25
pounds. It is very seldom, however, that musk can be procured
unadulterated. It is not, however, so much as an ornament, as a
medicine, that we should use this now costly substance.
But the most valuable productions at present imported from Thibet are
mineral. Immense quantities of salt are brought over the Himalayas on
sheep's backs; gold-dust, borax, sulphur, antimony, arsenic, orpiment,
and medicinal drugs are also imported into Nepaul.
The animals which abound in these cold regions, and which might be worth
importing, are musk-deer, sheep, shawl-goats, chowrie bullocks, falcons,
pheasants--in fact, it would be hopeless to attempt to enumerate all
those productions, animal, vegetable, and mineral, which are now scarcely
known except by name, but which will doubtless some day be objects of
traffic and commercial enterprise. For instance, there are various
medicinal drugs and dyes (among which may be mentioned madder and
spikenard) which are said to exist, but are now almost totally unknown.
Among the present articles of import are embroideries, taffetas, chintz,
silk, cotton, cloth, carpets, cutlery, sandalwood, tobacco, conch-shells,
soap, etc. Surely it is no very extravagant flight of imagination to
suppose that the day may yet come when the unattainable and almost
unknown productions of the trans-Himalayan regions will be transported
across that mighty range, in well-appointed carriages, over macadamised
mountain-passes; and the noble work of the scientific engineer will thus
supersede the flocks of heavily-laden sheep, driven by uncivilized and
ill-clothed Bootyas, who, "impelled by the force of circumstances over
which they have no control," will don their smockfrocks and turn draymen;
when the traveller, going to the coach-office, Durbar-square, Katmandu,
may book himself in the royal mail through to H'Lassa, where, after a
short residence at the Grand Lama Hotel, strongly recommended in Murray's
'Handbook for the Himalayas,' he may wrap himself in his fur bukkoo, and,
taking his seat in a first-class carriage on the Asiatic Central Railway,
whisk away to Pekin, having previously telegraphed home, _via_ St.
Petersburg, that he proposes returning through North America, and will,
therefore, probably be detained a few hours longer than he had
anticipated.
Such a state of things _we_ may not live to see, but it is by no means
unlikely that ere long a railway may run from Calcutta to the northern
frontier of British India; so that, when Nepaul is thrown open to
European enterprise, its costly productions will be easily and cheaply
transported to the nearest port, while the now almost uncivilized
Nepaulese would obtain European luxuries unknown to any of them except
Jung Bahadoor and his travelled suite.
Nor will the idea of a direct communication between Nepaul and Pekin seem
either so improbable or impossible when we consider that an embassy now
makes the journey once every five years. It occupies no less than two
years, including a residence of less than two months in the capital of
the Celestial Empire. I met two or three Nepaulese who had accomplished
the enterprise, and who spoke in glowing terms of Pekin, and of the
magnificence displayed throughout those portions of the Chinese Empire
which they traversed, as well as of the great city of Lassa, and the
terrible mountains to be crossed and the incredible dangers to be
overcome.
The mission is composed of twenty-seven persons, and would not be
admitted across the frontier of China if it consisted of one more or less
than the stated number. It must arrive on the frontier on a certain day,
and is subject to various rules and regulations: at the same time every
provision is made by the Chinese for the comfort of the members of the
embassy while on their journey. The journey from Pekin to Lassa has
lately been made by Messrs. Huc and Gabet, two French missionaries, and
has been graphically described by them.
The Nepaulese look with the greatest awe upon their wealthy and highly-
civilized neighbours; but the Minister, having now lived amongst people
more warlike and accomplished than even the Chinese, regards them with
great contempt; and I should not be surprised if, before long, accounts
reach us of the invasion, by the Nepaulese, of the northern provinces of
China, when the Minister would bring to bear his recently acquired
knowledge, and would doubtless prove more than a match for the rudely-
equipped forces of his Celestial Majesty.
The Tartar race, however, who would oppose the progress of a Nepaul army,
are a very different set from their tea-drinking countrymen on the
southern coast.
But to return from Chinese Tartars to the country we had just quitted.
The kingdom of Nepaul extends for upwards of three hundred miles along
the southern slopes of the Himalayas, and is said to contain a population
of about five millions. Of these four hundred thousand inhabit the
valley of Nepaul proper. The lands are divided into four classes of
tenures--first, crown lands; secondly, Kroos or Soona Birtha, belonging
to Brahmins or Newars; thirdly, Kohriya or Bari, barren lands granted for
cultivation; and, lastly (and this is the most extensive class of the
four), Kaith, in which the proprietor is at all charges of tillage,
dividing the produce with the cultivator.
The silver coinage of Nepaul is somewhat similar to that in use
throughout British India; in all the northern provinces of which,
adjoining Nepaul, it passes current: the copper coinage is most
extensive, and consists of shapeless lumps of copper, eighteen or twenty
of which go to a halfpenny; they are used by the natives of India in
preference to their own pice.
But it is time to take leave of this interesting country, with its snowy
mountains and sunny valleys--its ignorant people and enlightened
Minister--its bloodstained past and hopeful future. I had already
mentally whispered my adieu, as, riding behind my companion on the
rawboned pony, I crossed the boundary stream; and pleased and interested
as we had been with our short stay in Nepaul, still we could not help
regretting that it had not fallen to our lot to discover new wonders--to
encamp on the shores of the great lake situated in the distant province
of Malebum, the existence of which was vaguely hinted at by my friend
Colonel Dhere Shum Shere--to explore unvisited mountains, and to
luxuriate in the magnificent scenery which they must contain; the
enjoyment heightened by the feeling that we were the first Europeans who
had penetrated their inhospitable recesses.