--Ignominious exit from the Nepaul dominions--The
resources and capabilities of Nepaul--Articles of import from Thibet and
Chinese Tartary--A vision of the future_.

At Bhimphede we remounted our elephant, following, as before, the valley
of the Rapti to Hetowra, thence through the great saul forest to
Bisoleah, where we expected to find our palanquins. In this we were not
disappointed; but unfortunately our bearers, tired of waiting for us at
so uninteresting a spot, had thought themselves justified in absconding;
which proceeding, while it was a considerable saving to us in a pecuniary
point of view, was particularly annoying under existing circumstances,
the day being far advanced and Segowly still thirty miles distant.
However, by dint of a great deal of threatening, and coaxing, and
bribing, and a very frequent use of the magic name of the Minister Sahib,
who, we assured them, would take into his especial favour every coolie
that volunteered for our service, and would visit with his heavy
displeasure all those who refused, we induced a sufficient number of men
to agree to bear our empty palanquins. Unloading two ponies, which were
carrying cotton, we put our luggage on one, riding the other by turns,
and so, one of us sitting on a rough sack without bridle or stirrups, the
other walking by his side, we marched out of the village and across the
open plain of the Terai. We were soon after left in darkness, and,
becoming separated from our palanquins, as was to be expected, we lost
our way, and wandered for some time disconsolately over the grassy plain,
until at length, stumbling upon a village, we procured a guide and
overtook the bearers a little beyond the Nepaul frontier. Ere we reached
it, however, we were obliged to traverse numerous streams, which we
crossed riding double on our pony. Altogether we made our exit from
Nepaul in very different style from that in which we had entered it, and
were not a little glad to arrive at Segowly shortly before dawn.

The journey from Katmandu to Segowly can scarcely be accomplished in less
than three days and three nights, not on account of the distance, but of
the frightfully bad roads, which quite preclude the possibility of
travelling faster than at the rate of two miles an hour.

There is scarcely a country in the world in which the state of the roads
is so much to be lamented, since, apart from the benefit which would
accrue to Nepaul itself, we too should be gai