Dr. Inouye, from whom I had heard such advice very often, but who found me unpersuadable, now said to Mr. Otani: “What is the opinion of Your Highness about the matter of Kawaguchi?”
His Highness, who was listening to our discussion with interest, spoke now: “I can but praise your courage, Mr. Kawaguchi; with such courage only you could enter and return from the closed country. But think of your personal position; you must not expose yourself to useless danger.”
I was again obliged to expound my motive and intention to go to Nepāl, and said:
“All that has been said is very true. But if I follow the advice of you all, where is ‘the Japanese righteousness?’ I am a servant of Buḍḍha, and my duty is to save any one from misery, though he should have no personal relations with me. But here are a great many men, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, by whose help I accomplished my escape. They are suffering in jail; while I am enjoying myself in a warm and comfortable room, what pains are they suffering? I can see them shivering with cold in the unlighted prison of Lhasa. In the day-time they are flogged, and the only food given them is a small quantity of parched barley once a day. Knowing them to be in such a condition, how should I abandon them, and start for home, even though my life is very precious to me?”
[CHAPTER XCIV.]
The Two Kings of Nepal.
Having made up my mind as to what I was going to do, I took a train back to Calcutta a few nights after. Money has its power in India, as elsewhere, and soon afterwards I was once more on my way to Nepāl.
By some means I was introduced to a Professor Keḍarnāṭh Chatterji, an old Bengalī gentleman who had once been the Principal of the Municipal School of Kātmāndu, Nepāl, and was then living in Calcutta and known to be in the good graces of the King of Nepāl. He readily, even cheerfully, complied with my request and gave me a letter of introduction to the King of Nepāl. I may observe that the natives of Tibet, Bhūṭan and Sikkim are allowed to travel in Nepāl, so long as they are in possession of a passport issued by the Commander-in-Chief of Beelganji; but no other foreigners are admitted into that country unless armed with the King’s own pass. Hence my negotiations with Professor Chatterji, to whom I presented myself as one anxious to make a pilgrimage to all the holy Buḍḍhist stations in Nepāl.
On January 10th, 1902, I left Calcutta by train and reached Raxaul, a station on the Nepālese border, at dusk of the following day. It was about six o’clock then and, hiring a coolie to carry my luggage, I crossed the Siman River which separated India from Nepāl. Landed on the other side, I was refused further progress by the officers of a police station there, on the ground that the King of Nepāl was soon coming home, and that, consequently, no one from beyond the borders could be allowed entrance into the country, until they had been subjected to thorough examination and found harmless. I noticed that the natives begged, begged, and were finally allowed to pass on. I thought that here too bribery had its logic. But, no, I was a foreigner and could under no circumstance be granted an immediate passage. I finally produced Chatterji’s letter of introduction to the King of Nepāl. The policeman on attendance, who until then had refused even to let me interview the chief of the station, now took me to that functionary. The upshot was that the station chief caused my letter of introduction, together with a very carefully prepared description of my person, to be forwarded to Beelganji and ordered me to wait for the result. At Beelganji was the Commander-in-Chief, who was then acting there as Regent in the absence of the King, and it was to this authority that the documents were sent.
The distance between the Siman police station and Beelganji is only about a mile. I had waited in vain till eleven o’clock at night for the expected instruction, and I had just set about making a hot cup of tea in order to keep myself warm, when a policeman belonging to the Royal Palace Force put in an appearance and ordered me to accompany him at once to Beelganji. At Beelganji I was taken to a cottage in front of the Local Hospital to lodge for the night. The next morning I presented myself at the Regent’s court and there had to wait till five in the afternoon before I could have an interview with His Excellency, who informed me that the King was coming home on the 14th and that he would then endeavor to secure for me an audience with his royal master.