SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
was even more difficult on account of the snow. Evening came on while the party were still on the pass, and to have halted there for the night would have meant the death of every man in the camp, as there was no going to the right or the left. There was nothing for it but to drive the coolies on, and by eleven o’clock, after progressing at the rate of a quarter of a mile an hour, the Mission was fortunate enough to reach a forest where the coolies could bivouac. Eden, however, with some of the coolies, pushed on, and reached the nearest village at one o’clock in the morning, after having marched through deep snow continuously for fifteen hours without food. Luckily the weather had been clear, with a bright moon. The next morning the Mission was met by the Zinkaffs who had been sent to turn it back. They delivered a most impertinent message, saying that they had been sent to go back with Eden to the frontier “to rearrange with him the frontier boundaries and to receive charge again of the resumed Assam Duars”; after this had been done our further demands were to be inquired into, and if these Zinkaffs “considered it necessary” the Mission was to be allowed to go on to Poonakha. Eden said he would do nothing of the kind, but would either proceed to Poonakha or return to Darjeeling and report to his Government that the Bhutan Durbar declined to receive him. Then the Zinkaffs begged him to proceed. The letter they delivered from the Deb Raja was of the usual evasive character, declaring that the Deb never declined to receive the Mission, but that it would be better to investigate complaints on the frontier. As the letter contained no definite refusal to receive the Mission, Eden determined to push on, and reached Paro on February 22. Here again the Mission was detained, and its reception was at first unfriendly. The ex-Penlop, an old man, informed Eden that he was far from acknowledging the power of the present Deb, and that he had only suspended hostilities on the side of the ex-Deb on account of the approach of the Mission. The real power, he said, just then rested
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