In 1783 Warren Hastings sent a second embassy to Tibet and to the isolated Buddhist state which survives today as the Kingdom of Bhutan. Samuel Davis, a young lieutenant in the Bengal Army, accompanied the mission as draftsman and surveyor. Although he was denied access to Tibet, Davis spent several months in Bhutan and 59 of his original drawings of that country have been traced by Michael Aris to collections in India, the United States and England. The finest of these hitherto unpublished views form the main content of this book. The plates are arranged according to the progress of the 1783 mission, leading from the Himalayan foothills above the plains of Bengal through tortuous ravines up to the old winter capital at Punakha. Several engravings by the artist's close friend, the comparable William Daniell, are included, and all the plates are accompanied by descriptive passages selected from the literature of the period. Part of Davis's fascinating Bhutan journal has been edited to complement his paintings.
