The Raid Of The Goorkhas

During the past two and a half centuries the great empire of China has

been under foreign rule, its emperors, its state officials, its generals

and trusted battalions, being of Tartar blood, and the whole nation

being forced to wear, in the shaved head and pigtail of every man from

the highest to the lowest, a badge of servitude. The firm position

gained by the Manchu dynasty was largely due to the ability of two

emper rs, Kanghi and Keen Lung, who stamped out the spirit of rebellion

in China, added Thibet to the empire, and conquered Mongolia, subduing

those restless tribes which for so many centuries had been a sword in

the side of the great empire of the East. Their able administration was

aided by their long reigns, Kanghi being on the throne for sixty-one

years, while Keen Lung abdicated after a reign of sixty years, that he

might not take from his esteemed grandfather the honor of the longest

reign. Keen Lung died three years afterwards, in 1799, thus bringing up

the history of China almost to the opening year of the nineteenth

century. His eventful life was largely devoted to the consolidation of

the Tartar authority, and was marked by brilliant military exploits and

zeal in promoting the interests of China in all directions. It is our

purpose here to tell the story of one of the famous military exploits of

his reign.



The conquest of Thibet had brought the Chinese into contact with the

bold and restless hill-tribes which occupy the region between China and

India. South of the Himalaya range there existed several small mountain

states, independent alike of Mogul and of British rule, and defiant in

their mountain fastnesses of all the great surrounding powers. Of these

small states the most important was Nepal, originally a single kingdom,

but afterwards divided into three, which were in frequent hostility with

one another. West of Nepal was a small clan, the Goorkhas, whose people

were noted for their warlike daring. It is with these that we are here

concerned.



In 1760 the king of Bhatgaon, one of the divisions of Nepal, being

threatened by his rival kings, begged aid from the Goorkha chief. It was

readily given, and with such effect as to win the allies a signal

triumph. The ease of his victory roused the ambition of Narayan, the

leader of the Goorkhas, and by 1769 the three kings of Nepal were either

slain or fugitives in India and their country had fallen under the

dominion of its recently insignificant and little-considered neighbor.



The Goorkhas differed essentially from the Nepalese in character. They

despised commerce and disliked strangers. War was their trade, and their

aggressions soon disturbed conditions along the whole Himalaya range.

The flourishing trade which had once existed between India and Thibet by

way of Nepal was brought to an end, while the raids of the dominant

clan on neighboring powers excited general apprehension. Twenty years

after their conquest of Nepal the incursions of the Goorkhas into Thibet

became so serious as to demand the attention of the Chinese emperor,

though no decided action was taken for their suppression. But in 1790 an

event occurred that put a sudden end to this supine indifference.



The temples and lamasaries of Thibet were widely believed to contain a

great store of wealth, the reports of which proved highly alluring to

the needy and daring warriors of the Goorkha clan. The Chinese had shown

no disposition to defend Thibet, and this rich spoil seemed to lie at

the mercy of any adventurous band strong enough to overcome local

opposition. In consequence, the Goorkhas prepared for an invasion in

force of the northern state, and, with an army of about eighteen

thousand men, crossed the Himalayas by the lofty passes of Kirong and

Kuti and rapidly advanced into the country beyond.



The suddenness of this movement found the Thibetans quite unprepared.

Everything gave way before the bold invaders, and in a short time

Degarchi, the second town of the state, fell into their hands. This was

the residence of the Teshu Lama, ranking next to the Dalai in authority,

and possessed the vast lamasary of Teshu Lumbo, rich in accumulated

wealth, which fell into the hands of the invaders. A farther advance

would undoubtedly have given them the chief city of Lhassa, since the

unwarlike population fled in terror before their advance, but their

success at Degarchi had been so great as to check their march, many

weeks being spent in counting their spoil and subduing the surrounding

country.



Meanwhile urgent petitions were sent to Peking, and the old emperor,

aroused to the necessity for prompt and decisive action, gave orders

that all available troops should at once be despatched to Lhassa and

vigorous preparations made for war. Within a few months a Chinese army

of seventy thousand men, armed with several pieces of light artillery,

had reached Thibet, where the Goorkhas, alarmed by the numbers of their

opponents, made hasty preparations for a retreat. But their spoil was so

abundant and bulky as to delay their march, and the Chinese, who were

well commanded, succeeded in coming up with them before they had crossed

the mountain passes. The movements of the Chinese commander were so

skilfully made that the retreat of the Goorkhas without a battle for the

safety of their treasures became impossible.



Sund Fo, the Chinese general, according to the usual practice of his

people, began by the offer of terms to the enemy, these being the

surrender of all their spoil and of a renegade lama whose tale of the

wealth of Thibet had led to the invasion. Probably also pledges for

better conduct in future were demanded, but the proud chief of the

Goorkhas haughtily refused to accept any of these conditions and defied

his foes to do their worst. Of the battle that followed nothing is known

except its result, which was the defeat and hasty retreat of the

invaders, much of whose baggage was left behind.



The Chinese do not seem to have suffered greatly, to judge from the

promptness of their pursuit, which was made with such rapidity that the

Goorkhas were overtaken and again defeated before they had reached the

Kirong pass, they being now obliged to abandon most of their baggage and

spoil. The pursuit continued with an energy remarkable for a Chinese

army, the Goorkhas, bold as they were by nature, growing demoralized

under this unlooked-for persistence. Every encounter resulted in a

defeat, the forts which commanded the mountain passes and defiles were

taken in succession by Sund Fo's army, and he still pressed relentlessly

on. At a strong point called Rassoa the Goorkhas defended for three days

a passage over a chasm, but they had grown faint-hearted through their

successive defeats, and this post too fell into the hands of their

enemy.



The triumphs of the Chinese had not been won without severe loss, both

in their frequent assaults upon mountain strongholds and a desperate

foe, and from the passage of the snow-clad mountains, but they finally

succeeded in reaching the southern slopes of the Himalayas with an

effective force of forty thousand men. Khatmandu, the Goorkha capital,

lay not far away, and with a last effort of courage and despair the

retreating army made a stand for the defence of the seat of their

government.



Their position was a strong one, their courage that of desperation, and

their valor and resolution so great that for a time they checked the

much stronger battalions of their foes. The Chinese troops,

disheartened by the courage with which the few but brave mountaineers

held their works, were filled with dismay, and might have been repulsed

but for the ruthless energy of their leader, who was determined at any

cost to win. Turning the fire of his artillery upon his own troops, he

drove them relentlessly upon the foe, forcing them to a charge that

swept them like a torrent over the Goorkha works. The fire of the guns

was kept up upon the mingled mass of combatants until the Goorkhas were

driven over a precipice into the stream of the Tadi that ran below. By

this decisive act of the Chinese commander many of his own men were

slain, but the enemy was practically annihilated and the war brought to

an end.



The Goorkhas now humbly solicited peace, which Sund Fo was quite ready

to grant, for his own losses had been heavy and it was important to

recross the mountains before winter set in. He therefore granted them

peace on humiliating terms, though these were as favorable as they could

expect under the circumstances. Any further attempt at resistance

against the overwhelming army of their foes might have ended in the

complete destruction of their state. They took an oath to keep the peace

with Thibet, to acknowledge themselves vassals of China, to send an

embassy with tribute to Peking every five years, and to restore all the

plunder taken from Teshu Lumbo.



Of the later history of the Goorkhas some words may be said. Their raids

into India led to a British invasion of their country in 1814, and in

1816 they were forced to make peace. The celebrated Jung Bahadur became

their ruler in 1846 through the summary process of killing all his

enemies, and in 1857, during the Indian mutiny, he came with a strong

force to the aid of the British, whose friend he had always remained. In

more recent wars the Goorkhas have proved themselves among the bravest

soldiers in the Indian army, and in the late war with the hill-tribes

showed an intrepidity which no part of the army surpassed. The

independence of their state is still maintained.