As day dawned we could see that we had gained a footing in the town which was the immediate object of General Macdonald’s attack previous to the assault on the jong itself. What had happened was this: The Tibetans had opened an unexpectedly heavy fire before the assaulting columns could get close up under the walls of the outlying parts of the town, and our three columns were reorganized into two—that on the right under Colonel Campbell, of the 40th Pathans, a tried and experienced frontier officer, and that on the left under Major Murray, 8th Gurkhas. With Colonel Campbell was Captain Sheppard, R.E., who, with that dash and effectiveness which always characterized him, succeeded in laying and firing a charge under the walls of the most strongly held house, and blowing in it a breach, which, with the damage done by the fire of the 7-pounder gun, gave an opening for the assaulting column. On the left Lieutenants Gurdon and Burney also succeeded in blowing breaches in the walls of the houses; but, to the grief of all, Gurdon was killed—it is believed by the falling debris of the very wall which he had blown up. He had been with the Mission escort from the very first, and in many of these very dangerous assaults on villages had displayed most daring courage. He was a brother of the Captain (now Lieutenant-Colonel) Gurdon who had so distinguished himself in the Siege of Chitral, and who was one of my closest friends. When the news came in to me from the front, I felt how sad indeed it was that one so young and so full of promise, with a great and useful career most certainly before him, should have been thus in an instant cut off. But he did not fall in vain, for what he had done at the cost of his life enabled the assaulting columns to enter the town, which by 7 a.m. was in our possession.
The troops began to make good their position in the area thus won, but the real business had yet to be accomplished. The jong, with 5,000 or 6,000 Tibetans inside it, still had to be assaulted. During the morning there was a general lull in the proceedings while the troops rested. But about two o’clock Colonel Campbell, who was in command of all the advanced troops in the town, sent back word to General Macdonald, who was in the Palla village, recommending that an assault should be made on the extreme east of the jong. To him in his advanced position, immediately under the walls of the jong, it appeared that if our guns could make a breach in the wall itself an assault could be made, though the storming party would have a stiff, hazardous climb over the steepest part of the rock. General Macdonald adopted the proposal, and as the Tibetans now appeared somewhat exhausted, ordered the assault to be made at once.
At three o’clock General Macdonald ordered forward four companies of the reserve, and directed the 10-pounder guns to concentrate their fire on the portion of the wall to be breached for the assault. As the reinforcements crossed the open to the town the Tibetans redoubled their fire, but our fire from all parts of the field also increased. The 10-pounder battery under Major Fuller did magnificent work. Stationed only 1,000 yards from the point to be breached, it placed one shell after another in exactly the same spot. Bit by bit the wall came tumbling down. A larger and larger gap appeared, and by four a breach sufficiently large for an assault had been made.
Then the heliograph flashed from post to post that the jong was now to be assaulted. Major Fuller immediately gave the order for “Rapid firing” on the upper buildings. Maxims from three different directions began rattling away with peremptory emphasis. Every man poured in his rifle fire with increasing energy. Then a little cluster of black figures, ever augmenting in numbers, was seen, like a swarm of ants, slowly making its way up the nearly precipitous rock towards the breach. A cheer was raised, which was taken up from post to post all round our encircling force and back to the reserves in the rear. The Tibetans could still be seen firing away in the breach and hurling down stones, but we only redoubled our fire upon them.
Very, very gradually—or so it seemed to us in our suspense below—the Gurkhas, under Lieutenant Grant, made their upward way. First a few arrived just under the breach, then more and more. Then came the crisis, and Grant was seen leading his men straight for the opening. Instantly our bugles all over the field rang out the “Cease fire,” so as not to endanger our storming party. The Tibetans, too, now stopped firing; and where a moment before there had been a deafening din there was now an aching silence. We held our breath, and in tense excitement awaited the result of the assault. We saw the little Gurkhas and the Royal Fusiliers, who formed the storming party, stream through the breach. Then we watched them working up from building to building. Tier after tier of the fortifications was crowned, and at last our men were seen placing the Union Jack on the highest pinnacle of the jong. The Tibetans had fled precipitately, and Gyantse was ours.
The Tongsa Penlop next morning came over to congratulate General Macdonald and myself; and we went over the jong together. Till I had got up there and looked down through the Tibetan loopholes on our insignificant Mission post below, I had not realized how certain the Tibetans must have felt that they could overwhelm us, and how impossible it must have seemed that we could ever turn the tables upon them. If one stood in the Round Tower of Windsor Castle and looked down from there upon a house and garden in the fields about Eton, held by some strangers who said they had come to make a treaty, one would get the best idea of what must have been in the Tibetans’ minds. They were in a lofty and seemingly impregnable fortress in the heart of their own country. We were a little dot in the plain below. The idea of making a treaty with us, if they did not want to, must have appeared ridiculous. And as I stood there in their position and looked down upon what had till just then been my own, I soon understood how it was that the Ta Lama and other delegates had been so casual in their behaviour.
Yet, in spite of our success, and to a certain extent by reason of it, I was still ready to negotiate with Tibetan delegates. I had disliked, with an intensity which only those can know who have been in a similar position, the idea of making any mention of negotiation during all that critical time in May, while they were firing proudly at us from the jong, and were surrounding me in my little post below. Now that, through General Macdonald’s skilful dispositions and the bravery of his troops, I was in the top place, I readily tried to negotiate. And I thought that His Majesty’s Government were anxious that further efforts to negotiate here should be made; for on June 25 they had telegraphed that if there was reasonable expectation of the early arrival of the Resident, accompanied by competent Tibetan negotiators, the advance to Lhasa might be postponed. They thought that the advance should not be undertaken unless there was adequate ground for doubting the competency of the Tibetan delegates or the earnestness of the Tibetan Government. Moreover, some few days’ delay was necessary for General Macdonald to complete his arrangements for the advance, to collect sufficient supplies, and to establish Gyantse as his secondary base.
I therefore, immediately the jong was captured, asked the Tongsa Penlop to send messengers to tell the Ta Lama and the Councillor at Nagartse that I was still ready to negotiate, as previously announced, but that they must come in at once, as otherwise we would proceed to Lhasa. But the messenger found the monastery in which they had been staying deserted and the delegates fled.
On July 9 the Government of India telegraphed to me that they considered the advance to Lhasa inevitable, but that if the delegates could be induced to come in and negotiate en route I might invite them to accompany me, explaining the terms of His Majesty’s Government, and warning them that any further resistance would involve a settlement less favourable to Tibet.
By July 13 General Macdonald’s preparations were all complete. He had reconnoitred the country both up and down the valley, and found the Tibetans had fled in every direction. He had amassed plentiful supplies. He had set about repairing the jong, in which he was, to my infinite regret, to leave Colonel Hogge, and the 23rd Pioneers, and he was ready to leave for Lhasa the next day. It was sad that the old Pioneers, who had borne the burden and the cold of the day at Tuna all through that dreary and anxious winter should be left behind, while other regiments who had but just arrived from India should have the glory of going to Lhasa, and I would willingly have had it otherwise.