INTRODUCTION

Summary

The first Governor-General of India conceived the plan of opening friendly commercial intercourse between the people over whom he ruled and the natives of the lofty table-land behind the snowy peaks to the north. On this grand object Warren Hastings bestowed much thought, and he gradually developed a policy which was continuous while his influence lasted. He took a broad and enlightened view of the requirements of the case, and he appears to have seen from the first that the end could only be gained by persistent efforts extending over a long period.

It is owing to the absence of a continuous policy that this and many other great measures which were once full of promise have produced no permanent results. Warren Hastings opened a correspondence with the rulers of Tibet and Bhutan; he succeeded in establishing most friendly relations by the despatch of an embassy; his liberal encouragement of trade brought down crowds of mountaineers to his fair at Rangpúr; he followed up his first mission by a second and third to Bhutan, with the object of cementing the recently formed friendship; and finally, he sent a fourth embassy to Bhutan, which extended its operations into Tibet. Yet, when the master-mind was removed, the work so admirably commenced was abandoned. No English official has since held personal intercourse with the rulers of Tibet, and when, a quarter of a century after the retirement of Warren Hastings, a solitary Englishman did once force his way to Lhasa, no use was made of his brave and successful enterprise, and he was left to perish or to return, as chance would have it.