CHAPTER IV
EARLY REMINISCENCES
First visit to Sikhim, 1887. The brothers Khangsa Dewan and Phodong Lama, the Shoe Dewan and Kazis. Return to Gangtak with the Entchi Column, I888. First meeting with Their Highnesses the Maharaja and Maharani of Sikhim.
In the month of November, 1887, I paid my first visit to Sikhim. I accompanied Mr. Paul, who had been sent from Darjeeling to try and induce the Maharaja to return from Chumbi, whither he had retreated some time before, and to spend more time in his own country. Our first destination was Rhenok, a small village only a couple of miles beyond British territory, but in the hope that we might get into direct communication with His Highness we pushed on another twenty miles to the capital, Gangtak, the place I later spent so many years in. At Rhenok we left the road, and a bad one too, that had brought us so far, and for the remainder of the distance had to follow a track unfit to ride over even on a mule, and had to walk most of the way. Our first halt was at Pakhyong, which, in the expedition the following year, became the headquarters of the Entchi Column, where the 13th Rajputs were encamped for several months. It is a pretty little spot lying just under the saddle where the road commences the last descent before the final climb to Gangtak, and the hillside was covered with woods of chestnut and orchids in profusion.
In this camp I first saw the Kartok Lama, a son of the Khangsa Dewan, and head of the Kartok Monastery,
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