CHAPTER XX
BRITISH MISSIONS TO BHUTAN
Bogle, 1774. Hamilton, 1775 and 1777. Turner, 1783. Pemberton, 1838. Eden, 1864. White, 1905. White, 1907.
An account of the first Mission to Bhutan is to he found in the “Narrative of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, and of Thomas Manning to Lhasa,” edited by Markham, in 1875.
Prior to this narrative, no full account of Bogle’s Mission had been published. An attempt to find adequate materials in the records at Calcutta or at the India Office had failed, but fortunately Bogle’s journals, memoranda, official and private correspondence were carefully preserved by his family in Scotland, and it is on these materials that Markham has based his narrative. It was the lack of these materials in the public offices that led Eden, in his account of the political missions to Bhutan, to say that Bogle does not appear to have been charged with any political functions with regard to Bhutan. Markham’s investigations have proved, on the contrary, that Bogle had a mission to Bhutan, and an important one. The Mission originated in a friendly letter from the Penchen Rimpochi of Tibet, interceding with the East India Company on behalf of Bhutan after the Bhutanese invasion of Cooch Behar, and the primary cause of Bogle’s Mission was Warren Hastings’ desire to take advantage of this opening given him by the Penchen Rimpochi to establish friendly
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