Excerpt from An Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama, in Tibet: Containing a Narrative of a Journey Through Bootan, and Part of Tibet Ir-is not known that any direct communication existed between Bengal and Tibet3 before the year 177 4. A physical reason might be assigned for this, in the enormous height, and vast extent, of the mountains which are interposed between the two countries, did not 'an almost equal degree of strangeness, prevailing between Bengal and Bootan, Which lie. Adjacent to each other, necessarily imply a diffe rent, or at least some concurrent cause. The most prohable one, which the' history of little more than a century can afford us, is to be found in that spirit of conquest which forms the common cha racter of all Mahometan states, and in that hostility which their religion enjoins against all who are not its professors. The Booteeas, who, though a strong and hardy race of people, are little versed in the arts of war, and thinly scattered over a mountainous region, derive from their local situation the only means of defence against invaders; an advantage which they would inevitably lose, if they were to allow a free passage through their territories. It is certain, however, that. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.