Colonel Brander now came to me and asked for leave to go out and attack the Tibetans before these gatherings could come to a head. He had much frontier experience, and I also had some, and we both of us knew that when such gatherings take place it is a pretty sound general principle to take the initiative, and hit hard at them before they have time to accumulate overwhelming strength. It was a bold move, he contemplated, for the Karo-la (pass) was forty-five miles distant, and was over 16,000 feet high; and while he was away with two-thirds of the escort, the Mission, with only one-third of its full escort, might be itself attacked. I said that if he, on his side, did not mind taking this risk, I, on my side, did not mind it, and, as far as my military opinion was worth anything, was quite in favour of the operation.
But it was on political grounds that I had to give the decision, and on those grounds I had no objection. I had come to negotiate, but there was no symptom of negotiators appearing. On the other hand, the Tibetans were still further massing their troops; their position at the Karo-la and between there and Kangma was threatening our line of communication; and they had fired on our reconnoitring party. For these reasons I informed Government by telegram on May 2 that I had raised no objection on political grounds to Colonel Brander’s proposal to go out and attack the Tibetans on the pass before they could attack our line of communication. I had stated, verbally and in writing, to the Chinese and to the Tibetans that we came to Gyantse to negotiate. Since our arrival we had evacuated the jong, and General Macdonald, with the greater part of the force, had returned to Chumbi. There could be no question, then, that we meant to negotiate and not to fight. Yet they still neither sent a negotiator, nor said they had any intention to negotiate; instead they massed troops to attack us; and I felt at perfect liberty to let the commander of the Mission escort take whatever means he liked to secure its safety.
On the same day, in view of the rumours of the hostile attitude of the Tibetans towards Shigatse and of their reinforcement by local levies, I placed the Gyantse Jongpen in custody in the British camp.
Colonel Brander set out on May 3, with three companies of the 32nd Pioneers, one company 8th Gurkhas, two 7-pounder guns and two Maxims, accompanied by Mr. Wilton and Captain O’Connor, to assist him in case Chinese or Tibetan officials were met with.
On May 4 Captain Walton’s patients warned him that some kind of attack on us at Gyantse was likely, and Major Murray, 8th Gurkhas, who was in command during Colonel Brander’s absence, sent out a mounted patrol some miles down the Shigatse road; but they returned, reporting everything quiet.
At dawn the next morning the storm burst. I was suddenly awaked by shots and loud booing close by my tent. I dashed out, and there were Tibetans firing through our own loopholes only a few yards off. From the Shigatse direction a force of 800 men had marched all night, and many, under cover of the darkness, had crept up under the walls of our post. Then at dawn these suddenly jumped up, and, supported by the remainder, made an attempt to rush our post, a substantial house with a garden at one side, the wall of which we had loopholed. In the first critical moment they almost succeeded. They as nearly as possible forced an entrance, but were stoutly held at bay by two gallant little Gurkha sentries till our men turned out. Then, as at Guru, once the single favourable moment had flashed by, nothing but disaster lay before them. The attack began at about 4.30, and did not cease till nearly 6.30, but in that time they had left about 250 dead and wounded round our post.
Personally, I did not deserve to get through the attack unscathed, for directly I was out of my tent I made straight for the Mission rendezvous. I was in my pyjamas, and only half awake, and the first thought that struck me was to go to the rendezvous, agreed upon beforehand, in what we called the citadel. But I ought, as I did on other occasions—and as I think always should be done in cases of any sudden attack—to have made straight for the wall with whatever weapon came to hand, and joined in repelling the attack during the few crucial moments.
Major Murray, as soon as he had repelled the attack, pursued the enemy for about two miles down the Shigatse road. But it now became evident that this attacking party was not the only force of Tibetans in the neighbourhood, and that another of similar strength had occupied the jong, for these latter began firing into our post, and we gradually came to realize that we were now besieged.
It turned out from information received from prisoners that these troops had been collected by a General recently appointed by the Lhasa Government, and that it was accompanied by a representative of the great Gaden monastery at Lhasa, by two clerks of the Dalai Lama, and by other Lhasa officials. It was, therefore, no mere local rising, but an attack deliberately planned by the Central Tibetan Government.
For a few days, till Colonel Brander returned, we were in a critical position, and we were also anxious about Colonel Brander himself. The worst that, in making our calculations at Darjiling in November, we had deemed likely to happen had happened, and we were now at the straining-point. Major Murray, assisted especially by Captain Ryder with his engineering experience, strengthened the post as far as possible during the day, and at night we looked out watchfully for a further attack. For it was at night, when our long-range rifles lost their special advantage, that the Tibetans would have their best chance. We only had 170 men, and the vastly superior numbers which the Tibetans were now collecting ought to have had a fair chance of overwhelming us if they had pressed home a well-planned night attack. They fired a good deal during this and the following nights, but we kept a good watch, and we heard afterwards that the Lamas tried to organize a second attack on us, but the men refused to turn out.