A Century of Irritations 201
about to be enforced, there came a letter from the Teshoo lama, co-partner with the Dalai Lama in saintliness, and, like him, an Incarnation. At that time he seemed also to have had a certain jurisdiction or suzerainty over the Bhutan country. The letter is addressed to Hastings, grants that the mischief was probably chargeable against the Bhutanese, recites the punishment already inflicted, then, setting forth his mission as one of intercession for all mankind, and his special concern for the poor mountain people, he, as an intermediary whose office, religious and temporal, warrants interference, presents his plea for mercy. The tone of the letter and the representations made by the legate who delivered it were so marked by fairness and dignity that a just cause was quickly won.
Mr. Bogle was first sent into Tibet representing Hastings. He became very fond of the Teshoo lama and has left a pleasing report of his relations with the people, who had not then learned to fear his kind. The presents sent to Hastings, following universal custom in the East, made as much impression on the Englishman as did the pleadings for the weak. " Perhaps there are trade opportunities in a country whose chief is so enlightened and so (apparently) rich," thought he who ruled for a trading company.
Other correspondence followed, and finally a second mission to Tibet, consisting of Captain Turner and a medical officer with a small escort, bearing gifts and assurances of friendship. Turner has left one of the most interesting records that have come down to us from the early travellers, who were so
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