The Mishmee Hills

If our earth has today become a most comfortable abode of homosapiens with amenities and facilities never dreamt of before, it is because we had always in our midst men and women of extraordinary courage and endurance who braved all perils and succeeded in their goals. Among such people have been travelers and adventure-seekers who bitten with wander lust, have traversed unknown regions and enriched our knowledge of the world. One such intrepid soul is the author of this most interesting book who remained absent from his native land of England for fourteen years, the last three of which had been devoted to travels through strange and often unhealthy and inhospitable countries, inhabited by ferocious tribes. This book gives an absorbing account undertook in the early sixties of 19th century to penetrate Tibet from China with the object of opening new routes for commerce. For six months he passed safely through China from East to West traversing impassable snowy ranges of Eastern Tibet and through wild frontier region, infested by mangol bandits. He reached the town of Bathang, some two hundred miles from Sudiya, the frontier post of Northern Assam. His attempt to cross Bathang in Tibet to Sudiya to open a commercial route was foiled by the combined action of Chinese jealousy and the intolerance of the Lamas of Tibet. For centuries in the past, China supplied some six to eight million pounds of brick tea annually to Tibet. The retail monopoly was granted to Lama priests who by this means held the lay population of Tibet at their mercy. This English pioneer of commerce was arrested by two hundred Lama soldiers. He was obliged to change his route to Tibet through Assam and he came to Shanghai. He came to Cakutta accompanied by a Chinese Christian as his interpreter, a Tibetan boy-servant, a Chinese lad and a Mohammedan assistant interpreter who had served in China. This return journey was married by a devastating fine which broke out in their ship. On return to Cakutta, He was warmly received and entertained by Lord Mayo, the then Viceroy of India who evinced keen interest in his journey. For nearly an hour he sharply catechized his on all the countries he had visited and was about to visit. The river journey from Cakutta to Gauhati and from there to Dibrugarh and Tezpur and finally to Sudiya and to the land of hill tribes of Degeroo Mishmees, Miris and Abors who inhabited the hills in Assam, bordering Tibet have been widely described. In the author’s own word. “They are a savage and warlike people divided into innumerable clan-each clan having its Head Chief who represents it in the great councils held for the purpose of settling affairs of importance concerning the general welfare”. The land, the People, the topography, the wild beasts, the flora and fauna, the mountains and rivers, specially the myriad moods and shapes of great Brahmaputra, the breath taking scenic beauty of Assam have all been profusely described in a captivating language which only the author is capable of describing. To do full justice to this unique book and its author, the readers are advised to go thoroughly through it and see for themselves what wealth of information it contains about the marvelous land of Assam and its picturesque tribes.