BRITISH MISSIONS TO BHUTAN
“Besides the valuable information he collected, Bogle's Mission was very successful in other respects. It laid the foundation of a policy which, had it been steadily, cautiously, though continuously, carried out, would long ere this have secured permanent results. Bogle formed a close friendship with the Teshu Lama (Penchen Rimpochi) and all his kindred. He secured their hearty co-operation and support in the encouragement of trade, and even succeeded, after tedious negotiations, in inducing the Bhutan Government to allow the passage of merchandise through their territory to and from Tibet and Bengal.”
I have enlarged at some length on the nature of this part of Bogle’s Mission to Tibet, as both Pemberton and Eden were in ignorance of the real facts, and therefore failed to recognise the importance of his visit to the Deb Raja. The same misapprehension occurs in Aitcheson’s “Treaties,” where it is stated: “From that time, with the exception of two unsuccessful commercial missions in 1774 and 1783,” &c.
The Mission of 1774 noticed must, of course, have been Bogle’s, and it is not fair to say that it was unsuccessful. The results of his Mission were, in fact, most encouraging at the time, and laid the foundations of what would, but for the subsequent conduct of the Bhutanese and the course events took with Tibet, have developed into a thriving trade between their country and Bengal, while the friendly attitude of Warren Hastings towards the Bhutan Government serves to show up the subsequent misconduct of the Bhutanese in their relations with us in an even more unfavourable light than it has yet appeared.
Bogle left Calcutta with Mr. Hamilton, the surgeon appointed to attend him, in May 1774, and entered Bhutan from Cooch Behar through the Buxa Duar. His route to the capital, Tashi-cho-jong, lay up the Tchin-chhu, or Raidak river, and was made in ten stages, with a computed distance of 152 miles. The route seems to have been a fairly easy one, and though the roads were too steep and
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