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2 populous European station of Darjeeling, the summer capital of the Bengal Government. Its western limit is in close proximity to the hill-station of Naini Tal, the seat of the United Provinces Government in the hot months of the year. Between these two centres of European influence with their offices and clubs, theatres and secretariats, rinks and regattas, and everything that is associated with English life, stretch the 60,000 square miles of Nepalese territory, in the greater part of which the foot of white man has never trod. This unexplored condition is mainly due to two causes. The first is that a considerable portion of the country is composed of inaccessible mountains, but the second and principal reason is that Nepal is the most independent of Independent States.

Here it may be necessary to define an "Independent" or, as it is sometimes called, a "Native" State of India. Briefly it is a foreign territory in the midst of the King's dominions. In the administration of its internal affairs the British Government, as a rule, is bound not to interfere. No British