Hooker and a sizable party of local assistants departed for eastern Nepal on 27 October 1848. They travelled north west along Nepal's passes into Tibet. In April 1849 he started on a longer expedition into Sikkim, but he was imprisoned by the Dewan of Sikkim when they were travelling towards Tibet. A British team was sent to negotiate: they were released without bloodshed. Hooker returned to Darjeeling where he spent January and February 1850 writing his journals, replacing specimens lost during his detention and planning a journey for his last year in India.