Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/71

 CHAPTER IV

The Story of a Treaty. The Gúrkha War, 1814-16

It has already been said that affairs in Nepál claimed Lord Hastings' first attention, and the preliminary proceedings connected therewith have just been related. In December, 1813, on receipt of an unsatisfactory answer to the representations made to the Gúrkha government in the previous June, the Governor-General replied by peremptorily demanding the evacuation of the districts where encroachments had been made, and, according to precedent, ordered the local magistrate to occupy them if they were not given up in twenty-five days. After the prescribed delay this order was carried out, and the Gúrkhas retired without making the least resistance: it was then supposed that the incident was at an end, and police posts were established, the troops being withdrawn. But it was far otherwise; the Nepalese had determined upon war, though some of the wisest chiefs were opposed to it, and in May they surprised the occupied districts and drove out the police. Lord Hastings now resolved to settle once for all these border disputes,