had been allowed by the Indian Government. I have always believed that the India Office never was so favourable to the Mission as Lord Randolph Churchill himself was; or else it had begun to question the policy of sending the Mission. At all events I found that Macaulay was by no means so keen about starting early as he had previously been; and at least two months were wasted in elaborate preparations for an Embassy on a much larger scale than seemed wise to me, or to others who were better ac¬ quainted with the facts and difficulties, both political and physical, which had to be overcome.
However, I left England in March, 1886, and arrived in April at Calcutta, where I found the late Mr. Paul, who had been for many years Deputy Commissioner of Darjeeling, and who, because he knew the people and the country of Sikkim more intimately than anyone, had been appointed second in command of the Mission. He informed me that nothing was ready and that, until Macaulay returned from England, he had no authority to give orders. In the meantime I had better go up to Darjeeling, and find out on the spot how matters were progressing. He told me that the following officers were to be the members of the Mission: Colonel Tanner, R.E., as Surveyor; Captain Gwatkin, of the Bengal Cavalry, as commander of the escort and transport; Dr. Leahy as medical officer; Mr. Cunningham; Mr, Oldham as geologist. Mr. Warry, a member of the Chinese Consular Service, who spoke Chinese, was also to accompany us as commercial adviser and Chinese interpreter. An escort of fifty Punjabi sappers and twenty-five mounted men of the Guides were to join us before starting, and no fewer than 500 mules which had lately been employed in the transport of the Indian contingent on the Red Sea coast were to come up from Poona to carry our baggage. Now it seemed to me, as it did to Mr. Paul, that such a large and cumbersome expedition might appear to the Tibetans, when magnified by Oriental exaggeration, rather in the light of an invading army than of a peaceful embassy, and when I got to Darjeeling I found that the Tibetans had already assumed a hostile attitude. The Commissioner told me that the letter he had sent to Chumbi to inform the Tibetan frontier officer of the prospective arrival of the Mission had been returned unopened, and it was generally reported that the Tibetans meant to resist our entry to the country and were already collecting armed men with that intention. I at once offered to go up to Chumbi with the letter and find out how matters really stood. But the Commissioner thought that it would be better to wait until Macaulay arrived.
Whatever the Chinese may have said to Macaulay in Pekin, there now seemed to be little doubt that they did not want the embassy at all and had probably told the Tibetans privately to keep us out if possible. I think it is quite probable that if Macaulay had returned from Pekin and started at once with a small and lightly equipped party, he might have been able to get into Tibet, if not to Lhasa itself, before the apprehensions of the Tibetan Government had been roused. But now that the favourable moment had passed and the rainy season, which would add immensely to the difficulties of getting through Sikkim, was rapidly approaching, it seemed uncertain whether we should be able to cross the frontier peaceably.
