SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
the Duars. This was no idle threat, and not long afterwards, on September 6, 1841, on the recept of a further report from the Agent, Colonel Jenkins, depicting the miserable state of the Assam Duars, their state of increasing disorganisation, and the almost entire depopulation of the tract under the Bhutan Government, the remaining Assam Duars were permanently attached, and a sum of Rs. 10,000 paid per annum to the Bhutan Government as compensation for the loss they sustained by this resumption. No written agreement was made regarding this arrangement.
In 1842, at the request of the Bhutan Government, we took charge of the Falakata mahal, as they found themselves unable to manage the estate by their own officers, and held ourselves responsible for due payment to the Bhutanese of the net proceeds of the property. This arrangement continued till 1859, when the mahal was attached.
After this annexation of the Assam Duars comparative tranquillity reigned in this part of the frontier. Outrages, however, continued in the Bengal Duars, and Eden writes regarding them: “The aggressions committed from the Bengal Duars on our territory and on Cooch Behar, and patiently borne by us, have been unparalleled in the history of nations. For thirty years scarcely a year has passed without the occurrence of several outrages, any one of which would have fully justified the adoption of a policy of reprisal or retaliation.” Dr. Campbell says on the same topic: “The whole history of our connection with Bhutan is a continuous record of injuries to our subjects all along the frontier of 250 miles, of denials of justice, and of acts of insult to our Government.”
Between 1837 and 1864 thirty cases of plundering British subjects were reported, and no fewer than eighteen elephants were carried off from the immediate neighbourhood of the Jalpaiguri cantonment. As many as twenty-five British subjects were reported by the police to have been carried off into slavery. During the same period
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