The two powers coveted control of the same lands, and Captain Kinloch responded with typical colonial bravado, assuring his commanders that “from Sidley to Nepaul, the road is reckoned extremely good . . . there is no Rivers to be crossed, nor any hills to be passed.” His plan was approved, and with some 2,400 men, he set off from India to defeat his Gorkha rivals to the north. And while he did not immediately meet any uncrossable torrents or unscalable mountains, he did come face-to-face with the hard realities of the terai.
