I asked the Abbot to give this advice to His Holiness—that if he wished us to withdraw from Khamba Jong, he should use his influence with the Lhasa authorities to induce them to send proper delegates, and instruct such delegates to discuss matters with us in a reasonable and friendly spirit. Then matters would be very soon settled, and we would return to India.
I then made some personal observations to the Abbot, and he told me that from a boy he had been brought up in a monastery in a religious way, and was not accustomed to deal with political matters. I told him I envied him his life of devotion. It was my business to wrangle about these small political matters, but I always admired those who spent their lives in the worship of God. He asked me if he might come and see me again, and I said he might come and see me every day and all day long; and Captain O’Connor, who could speak Tibetan, would often pay him visits.
On August 24 the Abbot again came to see me, and said that after his previous visit he had gone to the Lhasa delegates and urged them to negotiate at Khamba Jong, instead of at Giagong. But they had replied that, just as my orders were to negotiate at the former place, so their orders were to negotiate at the latter, and they could not agree to anything different. The Abbot, therefore, now came to say that there were several hundred Tibetan troops near by, but he would get those withdrawn if I would send away my escort. He thought that then the Lhasa Government would probably consent to negotiations at Khamba Jong. I told him that I had not the slightest objection to the presence of the Tibetan troops, but it surprised me that, when they had so many hundreds near, they should have any objection to the small number which I myself had.
The innocent-minded Abbot then asked if I would send away half, and he would himself remain with us as a hostage. He explained that the Tibetans thought we had come with no friendly intent, as we had forced our way into the country, and a reduction of our escort would appease them. I told the Abbot I could not acknowledge that we had forced our way into Tibet, as I had up to now ignored the presence of Tibetan soldiers inside the treaty frontier, who had no business to be where they were; and I repeated my old arguments in regard to the strength of my escort.