Some of us went out shooting antelopes and _Ovis ammon_; while others went botanizing or geologizing; and when, later on, our scientific staff was complete, I could accompany Mr. Hayden to hunt for fossils, Captain Walton to collect birds, and Colonel Prain, now Director of the Botanical Gardens at Kew, to collect plants, and thus hear from each of these specialists in turn all the interests of their sciences, so I did not care a pin how long these obstinate Tibetans kept us up there.
But while the Lhasa delegates would have no more to say to us, a deputation came to see me on behalf of the Tashi Lama, who is of equal spiritual importance with the Dalai Lama, though of less political authority. They said that they had been sent to represent to us that the Tashi Lama was put to great trouble with the Lhasa authorities by our presence at Khamba Jong; that the Lhasa authorities held him responsible for permitting us to cross the frontier, and he begged me to be so kind as to save him from the trouble by withdrawing across the frontier or to Yatung, which was the place fixed for meetings of this kind. I repeated to them all the arguments I had used with the Lhasa delegates. They were much more courteous, and talked over the matter in a perfectly friendly, and even cheery, way. They said, though, that they knew nothing about the treaty, as it was concluded by the Amban, and not by themselves, and they could not _be_ responsible for observing it. I said that that was precisely the reason why we had now come to Tibet. We wished now to make a new treaty there, where Tibetans could take part in the negotiations, so that they would not in future be able to say they knew nothing about it. They laughed, and said this was a very reasonable argument, but that it was the Lhasa people, and not themselves, who had broken the treaty, and we ought to go to Yatung and make the new treaty there.
I told them that, in the first place, they also had broken the treaty by crossing the boundary fixed in it and occupying Giagong; and, in the second place, we must regard Tibetans as all one people, and hold all responsible for the actions of each.
The impression left upon me by this interview, I reported at the time, was that the Tibetans, though excessively childish, were very pleasant, cheery people, and, individually, probably quite well disposed towards us.