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A Journey to Katmandu - (the Capital of Napaul), with The Camp of Jung Bahadoor; - including A Sketch of the Nepaulese Ambassador at Home by Laurence Oliphant
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place. It was a five hours' march, and we crossed the river thirty-two
times before we came in sight of the picturesque Durumsolah, or native
rest-house, which is situated at the head of the valley. Hills clothed
to their summits with variegated jungle rose above us to an immense but
not uniform height, and the scenery looked bolder as we became more
enclosed among the mountains.

Bhimphede is a Newar village, the inhabitants being the aborigines of the
country. It is said to derive its name from a Hindoo divinity named
Bheem having on some occasion happened to stop there. It is distant from
Hetowra about 18 miles, and the road might be much improved by a little
engineering.

The present policy of the Nepaul government is to keep the roads by which
their country is approached in as impassable a state as possible, vainly
imagining that, in case of a war, the badness of the roads would offer an
insuperable obstacle to our progress, and compel us to relinquish any
attempt to penetrate to Katmandu. This delusion ought to have been
dispelled by the occupation of Muckwanpore by Sir David Ochterlony; not
that it is a contingency they need take much trouble to provide against,
since it would never be worth our while to do more than take possession
of the Terai.

The present state of the roads renders it impossible for goods to be
conveyed into Nepaul, except upon men's backs; and as the traffic would
be considerable in various articles of commerce, the prosperity and
wealth of the country would be incalculably increased by an improvement
in the means of transit.

Jung Bahadoor is quite alive to the real state of the case, and sees at
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