ABSTRACT
We arrived at Kattmandù on the twenty-seventh of December, where the Very Reverend Capuchin Fathers received me with much charity, and kept me in their hospice with great kindness for nearly a month. The Kingdom of Nepal owes no allegiance to any foreign power, but is divided among three Kinglets who reside in the three principal cities; the first at Kattmandù; the second at Badgao [Bhatgaon], the third at Patan. The Kinglet of Kattmandù is not a native of the country, he must be a Rageput [Rajput], a Pagan nation of Mogol between Surat and Agra. His chief wife must be of the same nation in order that their son may inherit. Although his Kingdom is small, he has great riches and lives in great state. The petty King who was on the throne when I was in Thibet and passed through Nepal, gained much territory and riches because he inherited Patan from the Kinglet who died without an heir. The Kinglet of Badgao also is obliged to pay him a small tribute. The present ruler of Kattmandù was a child when he came to the throne, and his mother, together with the ministers and courtiers, plundered the public treasury. As soon as he came of age and discovered what had happened he imprisoned the Queen and punished her accomplices. When in due time his chief wife had a male child, on discovering that the Neuârs [Newars] (as the natives of Nepal were called), knowing the succession was now assured, were plotting to murder him, he ordered the little boy to be killed and had no more intercourse with his chief wife for fear she should have another son. He also dismissed his Neuâri attendants and took men from Hindustan, chiefly Muhammedans, into his service. Furious at seeing their plan thus frustrated, the Neuârs rose, invaded the palace, tried to force the Kinglet to take his chief wife again into favour, and to dismiss all foreigners from his service. Now by Nepalese law persons living in the royal palace, even any who touched the walls with their hands, enjoyed the right of sanctuary and absolute immunity from any danger; nevertheless the Neuârs killed, almost in the presence of the Prince, several foreigners and Muhammedans.
