SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
and contradictory. The Deb promised to send some Zinkaffs in the following spring to settle disputes. But the Zinkaffs never came, and the officers sent to receive the Assam compensation money were not even of the usual rank. The Governor-General therefore felt that the conduct of the Bhutanese Government in sending an evasive answer and in not sending the promised messengers warranted him in sending a Mission without further parley by the most convenient route. Eden was ordered to hold himself in readiness to proceed to Bhutan as the envoy of the Government, and received his instructions in Colonel Durand’s letter. No. 493, dated August 11, 1863. On September 30 letters were sent to Bhutan announcing the despatch of a Mission, and on December 4 Eden, accompanied by Dr. Simpson, started from Darjeeling. The demands made on the Bhutan Government were mild in the extreme, considering the treatment we had experienced at their hands. They embraced the retention of the Ambari Falakata estate for the present, but held out hopes of its release to the Bhutan Government; arrangements for the extradition of criminals; and an explanation to the Deb Raja of the terms we stood on with reference to the Sikhim and Cooch Behar States, and that aggression, on these States must be considered as an unfriendly act. Eden was also to endeavour to arrange for the appointment of an agent at the Bhutan Court at some future time, and to secure free commerce between the subjects of the two Governments. The progress of the Mission has already been noticed. The objects were defeated, principally by the Tongsa Penlop, who held a preponderating influence in the council. Our envoy was grossly insulted and his signature obtained by compulsion to a most audacious and impossible treaty, and Eden, with the members of his Mission, had practically to make their escape from Bhutan to avoid imprisonment and perhaps death.
Even after this treatment of its envoy the Government of India decided to give the Bhutan Government room
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