the coup d'état which brought Jang Bahádur into prominence, and ultimately into power. But as yet there was no stir visible. The movements of the Resident at Khátmándu were — and still are — restricted almost within the grounds of the Residency. After having found himself in the centre of affairs when last in India, it was painful to Mr. Colvin to be relegated to the extreme verge of public life. The monotony of residence in Nepál was in sharp contrast too with the activity on the Sutlej, where the first Punjab War had begun. Either on his journey to Nepál, through forest and swampland, or while resident there, Mr. Colvin had contracted malaria. He fell seriously ill. His solitude aggravated his malady, which in turn reacted on his spirits. In June he was ordered away for change of air, returned to Calcutta, and in the close of the year, his wife having meanwhile rejoined him, he received orders to proceed to Maulmain, and to take charge as Commissioner of the Tenasserim Provinces on the Bay of Bengal. There he was to relieve Captain (later Sir Henry) Durand, of the Engineers.
Maulmain, when Mr. Colvin reached it on December 29, 1846, had recently lashed itself into a cyclone of fury. The story has been told in the life of Sir Henry Durand, by his son. The matter which had brought Captain Durand into collision with the Maulmain timber merchants, who formed the bulk of the local residents, was the recent course of forest administration. Tenasserim, with its valuable teak forests
