SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
repeatedly withheld from the Durbar complaints addressed to it by Government on the subject of frontier aggressions. Accordingly, after the Bhutanese aggressions of 1836 had been repelled the Dharma and Deb Rajas were informed that it was the intention of Government to despatch an envoy to their capital. The replies to this communication, which was dated April 6, 1837, evinced a desire on the part of the Deb to postpone the Mission, and he had to be informed that Government was determined on the Mission and intended to send their envoy after the rainy season was over.
The conduct of the Mission was entrusted to Pemberton, with Ensign Blake as assistant and in command of the escort and Dr. Griffiths as botanist and in medical charge. The escort was to consist of fifty men from the Assam Seebundy Corps, but owing to the difficulty in supplying rations for this number only twenty-five men were taken.
Pemberton, being anxious to obtain information concerning Eastern Bhutan, determined to enter Bhutan by the Banksa Duar instead of following Bogle’s and Turner’s route by Buxa. This determination produced a good deal of obstruction on the part of the Bhutanese. Pemberton was detained for some time at Dum Duma, on the frontier, waiting for letters from the Dewangiri Raja, and again at Dewangiri after he had reached it, and every attempt was made to induce him to return to the frontier and proceed by Buxa Duar to Poonakha. This, however, he managed to avoid doing, and was eventually conducted through the Tongsa Penlop’s country to the confines of Bhutan and Tibet, and thence by a westerly route to Poonakha. He had intended to return to Goalpara by the Cheerung route, but permission to do this was refused, and he was compelled to take the Buxa route back to India. The number of days occupied in travelling from Dewangiri to Poonakha was twenty-six, but owing to the unsettled state of the country and the difficulty of obtaining porters the actual number of days
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