CHAPTER I - JOURNEY FROM CANTALBARY TO PARI-JONG

Summary

I arrived at Cantalbary on Friday, the 7th of September, 1811, and at Tazigong on Tuesday following; and left Tazigong on Friday morning, on what I call the 14th.

Mr. Roy left me halfway to Cantalbary: Balangham soon after. The magistrate sent out horses and music, and I had a strange entry into Cantalbary, where I spent a good deal of money. All left me but one Chaprasi. Eight miles next day. The Bhutanese lord it over their Hindu subjects; and even my slave was imperious, but it might be because I travelled by authority. One of my Bhutan friends, according to promise, came and met me, not on the frontier, but at Bhitu Bari, on the 10th, and took me with him to a village on a hill about six miles from the mountains, pleasantly situated among orange and lime trees. Thence, next day, I rode to a torrent. The horses, they said, were not to go any farther; an unexpected trouble. The Soubah of the village came to meet me, and salam me on the other side. I walked with him through water and over cruel stones above a mile, which brought me to a wretched pigsty of a place, and they said I was to stay there that night. It was still morning, or about noon.