A Journey to Katmandu (the Capital of Napaul), with the Camp of Jung Bahadoor: Including a Sketch of the Nepaulese Ambassador at HomeOliphant, Laurence
History
A Journey to Katmandu (the Capital of Napaul), with the Camp of Jung Bahadoor: Including a Sketch of the Nepaulese Ambassador at Home
Oliphant, Laurence
Nepal -- Description and travel
Thus, in
spite of his earnest desire to promote its welfare, he is likely to be
thwarted, and his ardent and somewhat impatient temperament will not, it
is to be feared, improve matters, however good his intentions may he.
That he is already careful lest he offend any prejudices, I had a
convincing and most annoying proof.
On the journey through India, while in high spirits, out shooting, he had
promised to allow us to travel over any part of Nepaul we might wish to
visit--a permission never yet granted to any European. To the fulfilment
of this promise we naturally looked with no small pleasure; but, after a
residence of a week in Nepaul, the anti-Anglican feeling was so strongly
manifested, that the mere fact of four or five European visitors having
been in Katmandu (for Lord G--- and his party were among his guests)
brought upon him a certain degree of odium.
To allow strangers to visit Nepaul, and reside at Katmandu, was unusual,
but bearable; the idea of a common beef-eater infringing the limits of a
circle beyond which no British resident, much less traveller, had ever
penetrated, was so monstrous a heresy on the part of the prime
minister--so serious an infraction of a well-established rule--that even
Jung felt it to be too unpopular an act by which to celebrate his return
to his country. It was with much regret that we were obliged to
relinquish so interesting an enterprise. I must not, however, forget his
offer to adhere to his promise if we wished it, saying at the same time
that his doing so would seriously compromise him. But, as _compromise_
and _decapitate_ may be looked upon as synonymous terms in Nepaul, we
felt that it was hardly fair to our kind host to place him in such an
awkward position; and as, moreover, the effect of his being so
compromised in Katmandu would have probably entailed upon us a precisely
similar fate, we considered it hardly fair to the guests either. But
while thus hanging back from his promise on the score of compromising
himself, I am fully persuaded that personal considerations had but little
to do in the matter. He is looking out for means of usefulness, and it
was more the fear of retarding his schemes of improvement by thus
increasing the popular discontent that induced him to change his mind,
than any hope of retaining his head upon his shoulders. The difficulty
of doing this can be but very slightly increased; and it must be admitted
that he esteems life as lightly in his own case as he formerly did when
others were concerned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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