where the warlike Goorkha tribe had, in a comparatively short period, established a very formidable power. It is unnecessary to follow this quarrel from its origin through all the complicated forms it assumed under different statesmen and diplomatists; it will be sufficient to say that several territorial encroachments had been made from time to time on the Company's frontier by the Nepaulese, and that, when remonstrated with and civilly requested to keep within their own limits, they mistook the forbearance of the Bengal Government for fear, and acted not only with insolence, but atrocity, killing and wounding a number of the Company's police-officers, and doggedly maintaining their possession of the usurped territory.
War being at length inevitable, Lord Moira took immediate measures for commencing it with activity and vigour along the whole of that extensive region which slopes downward from the summit of the Himalaya to the plain of Hindostan, with a rugged, jungly, and mountainous frontier, about six hundred miles in length. This formidable country, the Switzerland of the East, was broken into a number of narrow valleys, separated by steep and lofty ridges, and peopled by the Goorkhas – a rude but brave race of men, who, under a warlike commander, had conquered the valleys that intersect this magnificent range, until their territory extended above 800 miles in length, and comprehended nearly the whole Alpine region of Northern India; while the British, by the numerous victories gained in the late war, had extended their boundaries along nearly the whole line of this mountain domain.
A plan was laid down for invading the Nepaulese territory at four different points; for which purpose four separate divisions of troops were assembled. Major-General Marley, with a force consisting of eight thousand men and twenty-six guns, was to march upon Catmandoo, the capital; Major-General Wood, with five thousand troops, a body of irregulars amounting to nine hundred,
