difficulty and delays in the remittance of food, caused
by the land-slips having destroyed the road, had
reduced our provisions to a very low ebb; and it
became not only impossible to proceed, hut necessary
to replenish my stores on the spot. At first provisions
enough were brought to myself, for the Rajah had
issued orders for my being cared for, and having some
practice among the villagers in treating rheumatism
and goitres, I had the power of supplying my own
larder; but I found it impossible to buy food for my
people. At last, the real state of the case came o u t;
that the Rajah having gone to Choombi, his usual
summer-quarters in Tibet, the Dewan had issued
orders that no food should be sold or given to my
people, and that no roads were to be repaired during
my stay in the country; thus cutting off my supplies
from Doijiling, and, in short, attempting to starve
me out. At this juncture, Meepo received a letter
from the Durbar, purporting to be from the Rajah,
commanding my immediate return, on the grounds
that I had been long enough in the country for my
objects: it was not addressed to me, and I refused
to receive it as an official communication; following up
my refusal by telling Meepo that if he thought his
orders required it, he had better leave me and return
to the Rajah, as I should not stir without directions
from Dr. Campbell, except forwards. He remained,
however, and said he had written to the Rajah, urging
him to issue stringent orders for my party being
provisioned.
We were reduced to a very short allowance before
the long-expected supplies came, by which time our
necessities had almost conquered my resolution not to
take by force of the abundance I might see around,
however well I might afterwards pay. I t is but fair
to state that the improvident villagers throughout
Sikkim are extremely poor in vegetable food at this
season, when the winter store is consumed, and the
crops are still green. They are consequently obliged
to purchase rice from the lower valleys, which, owing
to the difficulties of transport, is very dear; and
to obtain it they barter wool, blankets, musk, and
Tibetan produce of all kinds. Still they had cattle,
which they would willingly have sold to me, but for the
Dewan’s orders.
I have seldom had occasion to allude to snakes,
which are rare and shy in most parts of the Himalaya'
I, however, found an extremely venomous one at
Choongtam; a small black viper, a variety of the
cobra di capello, which it replaces in the drier grassy
parts of the interior of Sikkim, the large cobra not
inhabiting the mountain regions. Altogether I only
collected about twelve species in Sikkim, seven of
which are venomous, and all are dreaded by the
Lepchas. An enormous hornet nearly two inches
long, was here brought to me alive in a cleffc-stick,
lolling out its great thorn-like sting, from which drops
of a milky poison distilled: its sting is said to produce
fatal fevers in men and cattle, which may very well be
the case, judging from that of a smaller kind, which
left great pain in my hand for two days, while a feeling
of numbness remained in the arm for several weeks!