After we had struck off from the subsidiary Yatung Valley into the main Chumbi Valley, through which runs the Amo-chu (river), the valley opened to a width of two or three hundred yards, the road was good, there was a considerable amount of cultivation, and grass was plentiful; the houses were better built, and the villages had a more prosperous look than is generally seen in Himalayan valleys; and with a road right down the Amo-chu to the plains of Bengal, which would save crossing the Jelap-la, this seemed the obvious route by which to approach Tibet.
General Macdonald had to halt for some days, completing his arrangements for supplies and transport, and while we were halted we were joined by Mr. Wilton, Captain Ryder, R.E., the Survey Officer, and Mr. Hayden, the geologist, who had all come in from Khamba Jong. They had had a very cold and very trying time after I left, and their retirement was an extremely delicate operation. The Tibetan troops hovered about, and with a 17,000 feet pass to cross in December, Captain Bethune had about as difficult a manœuvre to perform as often falls to the lot of a soldier. The Tibetans occupied our camp in triumph, but never actually attacked, and the retirement was safely effected.
Both Captain Ryder and Mr. Hayden had done excellent work. The former had surveyed all the neighbourhood, fixing many new peaks far into Tibet; and Mr. Hayden, roaming over the hills, had made interesting discoveries of fossil-bearing beds, which enabled him to determine the age of the strata in those parts.
General Macdonald, with a flying column of 795 fighting men, started on the 18th for Phari, through a piece of country which had never before been traversed by a European. It was reported that there was a Tibetan force there ready to oppose us. The first march beyond the permanent camp at the meeting of the Amo-chu and the Rilo-chu was easy; but the second march was over a very bad road, ascending steeply through a narrow wooded gorge, where a few determined men could have greatly delayed the advance of the column. The hardships of the march were increased by the almost total absence of fuel at Kamparab camping-ground, which was two miles beyond the wood limit. A certain amount of fuel had been taken on spare mules, and this, with yak-dung in small quantities, had to suffice. On the 20th General Macdonald reached Phari, marching over open country, where the only obstacle to rapid marching was the great altitude and numerous frozen streams. The Jong (fort) he found unoccupied. It was a strong, lofty, masonry-castellated structure, at the junction of the road to the Tang-la (pass), with a road to Bhutan, up which Bogle, Turner, and Manning had proceeded to Tibet so many years before.
In this Jong General Macdonald stationed two companies of the 8th Gurkhas and one 7-pounder gun, while the remainder of the column camped on the plain outside. To the Tibetan and Chinese officials General Macdonald explained that he was only safeguarding the road for the advance of the Mission, and guarding against the regrettable display of force with which the Tibetans had endeavoured to intimidate the Mission at Khamba Jong. He stayed there a couple of nights, during which the cold was intense, the thermometer registering about 40° of frost at night. The ground was frozen so hard that a working party of twelve men only succeeded, after two hours’ hard work, in excavating some 33 cubic feet of earth, and as neither turf nor stones were available, it was impossible to construct any entrenchments.
Leaving Major Row in command of the two companies in the Jong, General Macdonald returned with the remainder of the force to Chumbi, which he reached on the 23rd. And on Christmas Day we received a mostly kindly and encouraging telegram from Lord Curzon. The inhabitants of the Chumbi Valley were now selling us grass, buck-wheat, turnips and potatoes, and Major Bretherton had arranged for 400 mules to ply on a contract system between here and the Teesta Valley. This, though very helpful, did not amount to very much, and we were dependent for most of our supplies and transport from the rear. In addition to this, the loss of the yaks was now severely felt. So our progress was necessarily slow. But I was very anxious, as soon as we could, to be over the main range, in Tibet proper, in some position equivalent to Khamba Jong. Just over the Tang-la (pass) we knew there was a small place called Tuna, and there I wished the Mission established with a good escort and plenty of ammunition and supplies, while all arrangements were being completed for the further advance to Gyantse. There was a certain amount of risk in this; but to be among the Tibetans proper, and to compensate for the withdrawal from Khamba Jong, I thought it was necessary to run it. Our prestige at this time on the Sikkim frontier was quite astonishingly low. I had never seen it so low elsewhere. In other places there was always that indefinable something behind which gave one something to work with, but on this frontier the people stood in much greater awe of the Lhasa Lamas than they did of us, and we had to do everything we could, short of fighting, to establish some prestige.
On January 4 the Mission and a flying column, under General Macdonald’s personal command, left Chumbi, and on the 6th reached Phari. The cold was now terrible. Piercing winds swept down the valley, and discomfort was extreme. Near our camp was a big waterfall frozen solid.
At Phari we found that representatives of the three great monasteries at Lhasa and a General from Lhasa had arrived, and Major Row reported many cases in which the inhabitants had expressed their willingness to deal with us, but feared to do so on account of the threats of these Lhasa functionaries. Captain O’Connor saw these monks, whom he found to be exceedingly surly, saying they would discuss nothing whatever until we went back to Yatung.
A Major Li, who had been deputed by the Resident to take Colonel Chao’s place, visited me, and told me it was impossible to get the Tibetans to do anything. He said they were a most obstinate people, and at present would pay no respect to the Chinese, as they were so fully relying on Russian support.
Captain O’Connor reported that the whole demeanour of these Lhasa monks, who were the men who really guided the destinies of Tibet, was impracticable in the extreme. They made no advance in civility, though I instructed Captain O’Connor to be studiously polite in his behaviour, and they adopted the high tone of demanding our withdrawal. All I asked them was an assurance that they would not prevent willing people from selling supplies to us, and even this little they refused both the Chinese and myself.