Over the Last Pass

Besides the ten or twelve coolies needed to carry the loads I wanted with me, and the same number to carry the remaining loads in charge of Tashi by the Lohit route, I required a dozen coolies for carrying rations. I expected that it would take several days to engage so large a number of coolies for the journey to Assam, and actually it took six. Whether I returned to Rima and thence down the Lohit valley the way we had come, or whether I went over to the Dri La into the Delei valley, I had to carry supplies for at least ten days: the country is empty. This increased the number of coolies, thereby making it more difficult. As guide and interpreter I secured Wunju, headman of Giwang, who acted for the Mishmis when they came over into Tibet. Wunju told me he frequently went to Sadiya. As a matter of fact, he had not been there for some years, and was actually ‘wanted’ there by the police for certain offences. He omitted to tell me this, and on arrival in Sadiya he was recognized and arrested for opium smuggling. He agreed to start on the 7th; by the 12th not only should we be over the pass, but we ought to have reached the first Mishmi village on the other side, called Tajabum. I had visited Tajabum with Hugh Clutterbuck when we ascended the Delei valley s273 in 1928. Meanwhile I fretted at Dri. I felt that the fine weather we were enjoying could not go on for ever; the sooner we got over the pass the better. But the Tibetans were in no hurry; and although the headmen of Rima and of Dri were both actively engaged in recruiting coolies from six villages, it took them several days to engage a sufficient number. Instructions to recruit coolies anxious to go to Sadiya were issued in writing. As the time for leaving approached I got more and more excited and my impatience increased. It was the last leg of the long journey: over the last pass. In a week I should be in Assam, in a fortnight in Sadiya; perhaps I might even arrive in time for Christmas. The eight months’ silence would be broken by news and letters from home. Added to all this was the thrill of exploring a new route and of crossing the pass which had baffled Clutterbuck and myself in 1928. And finally there was the crowning chance of what had been quite a successful season's plant hunting with some dazzling discoveries.