14 To MANN 6 FEBRUARY 1780 This petty event has ascertained the existence of a certain being, who till now has not been much more than a matter of faith, the Grand .28 There are some affairs of trade2^ between the sover­ eigns of Oud and his Holiness the Lama—do not imagine the have leisure to trouble their heads about religion. Their commanding officer^0 corresponded with the Tartar Pope,;*1 who it seems is a very sensible man.32 The Attorney-General asked this officer,33 who is come over, how the Lama wrote? 'Oh,' said he, the East India Company the sovereignty negotiations' (G. R. Gleig, Memoirs of . . . of Benares, Ghazipur, and other districts , 1841, ii. 17-20). dependent on the Rajah Chait Singh, a 31. "Anyone that would give himself the tributary of the nawab-vazir of Oudh (n. trouble, might draw a parallel between 21 above; Aitchison, op. cit. ii. 42, 79). the and the ancient Roman pon­ 28. The 8th Dalai Lama, 'Jam-dpal- tiffs. . . . Their pretensions to infallibil­ rgya-mts'o (1759-1804), was then a minor, ity, the veneration in which they are held and and were administered by the people, the wide extent of their during his minority (ending ca 1776) by spiritual dominion, reaching over all the 6th Teshu Lama, dPal-ldan ye-ses Ta[r]tary and a great part of China, are (1737-80). For the Dalai Lama's minority, perfectly similar' (Bogle's Narrative p. see the Teshu Lama to Hastings 4 March 196). 1774, published by John Stewart (n. 35 32. 'He is of a cheerful and affable below); Gunther Schulemann, Geschichte temper, of great curiosity, and very in­ der Dalai-Lamas, Leipzig, 1958, pp. 326, telligent. He is entirely master of his 482, 505, 511, and illustration facing p. own affairs. . . . He is averse to war and 336; M. W. Fisher and L. E. Rose, Eng­ bloodshed, and in all quarrels endeavours land, India, Nepal, Tibet, China 1765- by his mediation to bring about a recon­ 1958, Berkeley, Cal., 1959, pp. 1-2. ciliation' (ibid. 132). 29. George Bogle (1746-81) was ap­ 33. Not Warren Hastings, who did not pointed 13 May 1774 by Hastings as en­ return to England until 1785 (Gleig, op. voy to the 'Teshu Lama of Tibet,' 'to cit. iii. 235-6). Of the two commanders- open a mutual and equal communication in-chief in who had returned to of trade between the inhabitants of Bhu­ England and might have been questioned, tan and Bengal' and to negotiate a 'gen­ only Col. Alexander Champion (d. 1793), eral treaty of amity and commerce be­ commander-in-chief 18 Jan.-28 Dec 1774, tween the two states' (minute by Hastings might have seen the Teshu Lama's letters. 4 May 1774 and instructions to Bogle of Champion left India in March 1775; his 13 May 1774, in Bogle's Narrative, ed. predecessor, Sir Robert Barker, had left Markham, 1879, pp. 3-7). before 12 Feb. 1774 (Calendar of Persian 30. Warren Hastings (1732-1818). His Correspondence iv. 146), that is, before correspondence (1774-9). as governor-gen­ the Teshu Lama's first letter had reached eral of India, with the 6th Teshu Lama Calcutta (n. 28 above.). Champion had (four letters from and six letters to Hast­ served in Oudh during the Rohilla War, ings) is calendared in Calendar of Persian and was a bitter foe of both Shuja-ud- Correspondence iv. 166-7, 181; v. 11-12, daulah and Hastings, and had already 31, 75-6, 111, 209, 350-1. Hastings, writing testified against Hastings 28 Dec. 1774 be­ 7 Aug. 1775 to Dr Samuel Johnson, en­ fore a Secret Select Committee at Fort closed two letters from the Teshu Lama, William in Bengal, and subsequently (3 'one of which [4 March, received 29 May 1786) before the House of Commons March 1774] furnished me with the first (CM 1793, lxiii pt i. 283; Selections from hint of deputing Mr Bogle to his pres­ the Letters, Dispatches, and other State ence, and the other ... the issue of his Papers . . . in the Foreign Department of