PROJECTS FOR PUBLICATION. [Intr.
great a liberty, I should request to be favoured with your opinion upon the propriety of this intention." [1]
In 1777, Mr. Stewart, F.E.S., returned from India, and in a letter to Sir John Pringle, dated March 20, 1777, he gave an interesting account of Bogle's mission to Tibet, saying that he had reason to believe that the Envoy would himself give a relation of his journey to the world, but that in the meanwhile he presented a few particulars such as his recollection of Mr. Bogle's letters and papers enabled him to draw up. Mr. Stewart's letter was read at a meeting of the Royal Society, on the 17th of April, 1777.[2] This is the first and, until now, the only account of Bogle's mission that has seen the light.
The untimely death of George Bogle, the weighty affairs which fully occupied the time of the Governor-General during the next four years, and the long persecution to which he was subjected after his return home, prevented the project of publishing the narrative of the Tibet mission from being carried into effect. But copies of the documents relating to it remained in the possession of Warren Hastings until his death.[3] Mr. William Markham, the eldest son of the Arch- bishop of York, arrived in India in 1778, and was Private Secretary to Warren Hastings during the time that the measures connected with an intended second mission to Tibet were under consideration, in 1779. He took great pains to
collect information on the subject, and preserved copies of por-
- ↑ Gleig's 'Memoirs of Warren Hastings,' ii. p. 19. Dr. Johnson died in 1784, before the return of Warren Hastings to England.
- ↑ Printed in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1777, vol. lxvii. part ii. pp. 465-488, with the title, "An Account of the Kingdom of Thibet, in a Letter from John Stewart, Esq., F.K.S., to Sir John Pringle, Bart., F.K.S." The letter is followed by a translation of the Teshu Lama's letter, at p. 1.
The letter of Mr. Stewart was translated into French, and published with three other short narratives of travels, by "Bryltophend," in a small volume. (Pekin, 1789, et se trouve a Paris.) - ↑ Mr. Gleig published an extract from the Letter of Instructions to Mr. Bogle (p. 7 of this volume), and the Memorandum of Private Commissions (p. 8). But it would appear that Mr. Gleig had had a copy of the whole journal in his possession, for he speaks of not being justified in giving a detailed account of the mission, as if he could have done so had he seen fit. ('Memoirs of Warren Hastings,' i. p. 40.)
