Gurkha

"The next morning the mountaineer coolies arrived, and a strange ill-favoured race they are. In their high cheeks, long narrow eyes, broad fronts, and narrow chins, they bear an evident affinity to the Tartar. Their stature is very short, but they are wide-chested and strongly limbed, and show prodigious strength in carrying burdens up the steep mountain tracks. The Gourkahs, in our wars with them, proved the enemies best worthy of the British arms in India. It is said that these hardy little warriors speak with the greatest contempt of their gigantic long bearded neighbours the Seikhs. They make first-rate tirailleurs, and at the siege of Bhurtpore one of the Company’s Gourkah regiments much distinguished itself. They appeared on that occasion, somewhat pigmy by the side of our British grenadiers, their average height being barely 5 feet."

"…Colonel Young, who is the chief man here, commands a most interesting native regiment, the Gourkas. I should say they will fight less well now we have brought them down to our English drilling and nonsense, but there was a time, when four or five hundred of them in their hills beat our troops considerably and kept beating them for a whole year. They are the most dwarfish race that I ever saw and look like a little set of children in their dark uniforms. Last year a party of them fell in with a tiger on the road we travelled yesterday. They were on foot and had no guns, but they made a circle round him, and when he charged one side they cut at him on the other with their swords, and so killed him."

"The Khas, Magars, Gurungs, and Thakurs are the military tribes of the kingdom, from which the fighting element of the Nepalese army is drawn. They are the descendants of the aboriginal tribes who intermarried with Rajputs and other Hindus who took refuge from Muhammadan conquest in the hills of Nepal in the twelfth century.Since the Gurkha conquest, they have spread throughout the whole country, though their real habitat is to the west of the Valley of Nepal. It is to these tribes that the often misapplied term ‘ Gurkha or ‘ Gurkhali ' should be confined."

"They are ' said to have come originally from Rajputana, whence they fled early in the fourteenth century, after the capture of Chitor by Ala-ud-dm Khiljl. After passing through the Kumaun hills, they first settled near Palpa, and thence gradually extended their dominions. Prithwi Narayan gladly availed himself of the opportunity thus given of establishing a secure footing in Nepal. Ranjit Mai, however, soon found out his mistake, and was obliged to come to terms with the neighbouring kings in order to resist the encroachments of the Gurkhas. Nevertheless Prithwi Narayan succeeded in taking Kirttipur, a town belonging to the Patan Raja, and then proceeded to attack Patan itself. At this junctui’e the Nepalese applied for assistance to the British Government. Aid yas granted, and Captain Kinloch was dispatched with a small force in the middle of the rainy season. But his force was quite inadequate for the purpose it had in view, and being still further weakened by sickness, was repulsed before he had penetrated into the Valley. The Gurkhas then returned and attacked Katmandu. Prithwi Narayan, having obtained possession of this city by treachery, directed his attention again to Patan and later on to Bhatgaon. Both were taken, and in 1769 the conquest of Nepal by the Gurkhas was complete."