CHAPTER XIX - JOURNEY OF THE TESHU LAMA TO PEKING, AND HIS DEATH. PROJECT OF MR. BOGLE FOR MEETING THE LAMA AT PEKING

Summary

The amount of the debts of the Chinese merchants to English individuals is from a million and a half to two millions sterling. Among the creditors are Mr. Bouchier, Sir Robert Harland, Sir John Lindsay, and most of the gentlemen who have gone from Madras, as well as Mr. Boddam and others at Bombay. They can get no redress: have no channel of applying for it. They have sent a Mr. Gordon to England with a representation to endeavour to interest the Government, and perhaps through them the Court of Eussia; but have little prospect of success, or at best distant. Besides this, the Company's business is often harassed and oppressed, and its conductors are entirely without any channel of communication or representation to the Court of Peking.

The Emperor of China is now seventy years of age. He is of the Tatar religion, of which the Lamas are the head. The Changay Lama, who is older than him, and resides at Peking, is said to have much influence over him. He has expressed a great desire to see Teshu Lama before his death, and has at length, after repeated applications, prevailed on him to go and meet him. The Emperor has fixed on a place about a month's journey on this side of Peking, and Teshu Lama sets out about two months hence to travel through Tatary.