CHAPTER XVI
A CENTURY OF IRRITATIONS-THE FUMES OF THE
OPIUM WAR CLOUD THE POLITICAL SKY-
FATHERS HUC AND GABET
SO vigorous was this Chinese campaign that a treaty of peace had been signed ere the appeal of the Goorkhas to British power at Calcutta could be answered. The East India Company was ready to respond, but Colonel Kirkpatrick, sent by Lord Cornwallis, arrived too late to enter into a bloody contention, which, if thus complicated, might have
altered Tibetan history. His visit accomplished
little, except to sow in the minds of the Chinese that distrust of the British which they have had so many occasions to justify, and which properly extends to all European military nations.
It is pleasant to turn from the contemplation of a possible unprovoked British attack (which was postponed for more than a century) and read of the friendly relations which existed between Tibet and the Company, under Hastings, the great predecessor of Cornwallis, as Governor-General. Bhutan, east of Nepal, its people and institutions much resembling those of Tibet, had given offence by way of some violence against territory claimed to be under British protection. The Bhutanese were duly punished, and when measures of special rigour were
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