AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES for SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH C.B. K.CS.I. FRGS DS 479.1 74 A3 HT LIGH VIDE BENTLEY CKSEAVEYSSUIRAN BAUCHAN TALEPOK BASTIA INSTAU JENI Tangles Forsythe ENGRAVED BY G.J.STODART PROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN BY JAMES EWING IN 1884 London; Richard Bentley & Son 1887. AUTOBIOGRAPHY Forsyth, Sir Thomas Douglas AND REMINISCENCES OF SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH, C.B., K.C.S.I., F.R.G.S. EDITED BY HIS DAUGHTER. ID LONDON : RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen. 1887. (All rights reserved.) DS 479.1 F74 019 093 106 A3 0960819-198 PREFACE. THE following autobiography was dictated to me by my Father during a short summer tour on the Continent in the autumn of 1885, in compliance with an oft-expressed wish of ours to have the events of his life narrated by himself. Unfortunately, a sudden indisposition pre- vented his continuing the narrative at that time beyond the fourth chapter, and no opportunity occurred for completing so interesting a work before his sad and unexpected death in 1886. In order to preserve the autobiographical character of the entire book, I have supplemented the narrative of the Yarkund mission in 1873 from the official report to Government, written by my Father himself, and the map is drawn from one published with this report. iv PREFACE. In publishing the autobiography, I have had two objects in view. My Father's name was so well-known in the diplomatic and geographical world, that I felt it a duty to publish a record of his successes, and give the public the benefit of his interesting experiences, for he was only too modest about himself, and it was at all times difficult to get him to relate any exploit or achievement of his own. On one occasion he was persuaded into giving a lecture at Eton, in which he delighted his hearers by a narrative of his adventures during his expedition to Yarkund ; but it was most rare to hear him do such a thing, although it gave him genuine pleasure to interest others whenever he could. He was a born ex- plorer, for he possessed all the necessary patience, pluck, and self-reliance, combined with a rare sweetness of temper and an adaptability to cir- cumstances, however unusual or trying. To look back upon his arduous journeys, and recall the various incidents, was to him a never-ending delight, and he would sit for hours in silence on a sea-shore or by a hill-side, musing over his experiences, and wishing, like Alexander, that he PREFACE. might have more worlds to conquer.' But not only for the sake of sharing our knowledge of the stirring incidents of my Father's life with a world to whom he was but a distinguished Indian official have I undertaken my present task, but in order that others of present and future genera- tions might be stimulated to follow the example of one who was rightly described in the obituary notice that appeared in the Times, as 'the ideal of an English gentleman, who at times united all the qualities of a hero.' ETHEL FORSYTH. August, 1887, t CONTENTS. II. CHAPTER I. EARLY REMINISCENCES INCIDENTS OF THE INDIAN MUTINY PAGE I : 16 III. THE KOOKA OUTBREAK IN 1872 ... 34 IV. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA-A FORE- SHADOWING OF THE EXPEDITIONS TO YARKUND 43 V. FIRST EXPEDITION TO YARKUND IN 1870 54 VI. MISSION TO KASHGAR IN 1873 90 VII. "" "" (continued) 127 VIII. "" (continued) 167 IX. RETURN OF MISSION FROM KASHGAR ... 185 X. VISIT TO BURIED CITIES XI. NARRATIVE OF A MISSION TO MANDALAY IN 216 1875 ... XII. CLOSING Years 252 276 bilak R.Chu 75 Uroch dala kainar sh-kalur Jar su Tarte Terekte kerf It Kigu (SariKurgan R.Karagati Chaldibay Kar su Merke Karabala Katda Bish fash Pishpek F Raith R Sukuluk RECHENSK Rgaitak terek Changildinski Ilitsk Kutentaiski Baskelen Verhoe Kaskelenski Uzun agachski Kastel Karabula Sari 19 Tokmak Alexandrovski M Kara Kol R Uch kok sai R Tiuliuk R. Aktheganak Din kurgans Akkala & Jadigyr Yany Furn Ara-sat Sabrun Babai K Cherak Thichke Uch Kaik JesynKurgan Ruins of Otrar Sazan Tugai (Tunkat) Is kille Suat T Baildir Tugai Chulak Tarian P Turkestan Azret Chilik Min bulaks R.Aris drstandi The Mali R.Bugu Kok tau Aris R. Boroldat Karaspa 70 Chabakt R.Tala LArik balik Alekul Kok tam Tald Biulu-kut Taska chu Makent Chemkent Beklir Bel Sharan kana Badam R R.Keles Ter Aks Kara murt atram R.Vigum R Anlie ata Jar-su labuda R.Talas R. Chatkal Chatka M. Korabura R rlimaral Kumsan Nanai M.Zunata Alejar Chardarin TASHKEND RBossu Rchirchale Niabe Zengailuk Kuink Suzale Brich mulla Nevish Tertiube Lani Kuduky Jizak Angren eliau Ablyk Shidan Shagd Akjan Makram KOKAN KL.Tumanik Uchma Sasan Tugal Filanuta Chim Kurgan Yeni Kurgan Kish Kupri Ak Tau Ashamakur 40 Mitans Kara-su Chile XAK Kure an Samarkand Aksai Kita Mk Su China Kurtka Murza rabat Releucht Kosh Buroan Itiker Ferghana Val Shaberzi Bisharik Almaty Lamin Lora Troue Panjakent Farab rmitan Kurkat Nan arsaminar Macha Khojend Uratube Lialiala Auchi Hagnay R Tavushin Zerafshan Ketmen tiube Kasan Yantlargan Namang Chil Narin R. PU kurggh لبا E Susamir Karakol R Pass Suck Pas Jumgal Jumgal Toauz torau M Hogart Alabuga R Molda asu Terek R Rashkar Kizar Kurtka Taman P Nari Ra S Alataus Karachekinski Kora turul Karakuiski sile Muisla Kebin R Kungi ala tau Issik Kul Kutemaldi Alsa Karagadur Ra Jubangrik Son kul hejjert Kirgizin Warinsko At-basha Kosh timbe Tash Robat P Chatir Kul Turgat Pass Arpa R MYassi Uzgent -tam At Narin R Narin Turgen M Ast R Brod Toguz torau 80 RIH Chunchi Kara kistik Troch Sogut Aktogo Jenishke B Kapal bulak an M Charin Sardach P Zaula P Karkar Tergalan Janart B R.Peter M Tian Shan M ReMiduriun Ale-suor JR Kizil-kunget Ush Turfan SR.Kumarik Balakchi Andijan R Milan Assake Ush Terekti P. Fyzabad ich airgan Rashidan Arab han Arawan Gultcha Sun Burgan Terek Passketchtam Chakmak Tukai Vashi Gulji Bashi Taltantas Kixil-su The Ujai tub Sugun Alai Plateau M.Kau Arachu KASHGAR rt Kara-ker Karate gin Musku Kara Kul R.Yaman E A KopriRobot Yanghabad Yanghissar R Toblok aldy Nakara Chaldi Teshektash Arush rkesan Okshalu Kana Kard Kanarik Yupchan S Kosun Sarapal Magian Fan dan Obur Paldora Mazar N Glacier BOKH A Shehri-Sebz Archi R Iskander Ghorm Kafirnchan Saghri Dasht Shirabad Skagam Darw Z R. Zurhab Dehinu Khawating Wantch-ab Kudara Kila-khamb Saidabad Vigur Kabadian Tupalik Kafirnihan Wagesh Hissar Ro Murgh Kila Wamar Sk gn Kolab 12550 ictoria L Sir kai L Kila Bar Panja Saind Hazrat Imam Kila Chap Thiab B ada k Rista Fyzabad h Ruby Kila Panja Ratch Issa a Mines Barogil Jerm kdura A Regen New Kulja Sogol Kos-agach Ashinachu Tzun karatan Chalkodi-su Tekes R Sumbe Teke Muzard Kulj KUntu Atin-su nusu Chagan Gak charkas Shan Mort Stvn togais Kantengri Aksu Ai Kul Ton argi Musur Grap N saliam H Ba Charchik Yar Sairam Kara Kulgun Chjim Bor Tairintai iR Sairam Kash Kunger The dringolan Narat daba www R.Yuldu Kucha Shah Yar R Yel arik Jeilgan Bugus Kangorgo Chilan Karashar Shah Yar R.Tarim Baston tograke Chikchi otrok or Taban Ergu 40 Bish aral SHAN N A N Otri-buksem T UR KES TA N The Buried Cities Kash-buksem Manat Is Kul or Ye shil L. Marjan oldi Great Sandy Desert Feizabat Keen Val Kizil Kokrubat Karawal Chungtung R. Kulung Tiznat Kizil Su or Kashgar T Charwagh Maralbashi Alsak Maral AN Shimal Borum Padshahf N Canal Ajikku YARKAND Otunghi Posgam Kargalik Besharik Luk Langar Ditograk Kilian Zilgia Guma Yarka Pialma Makuyer Arpalak R.. Kashtak Sparte KAgu Zawa Harakash Khotan Ehriyar Khotan (chi)& Urangkash Chira Wantch 18500% Kub shan Kizil Yary Tagarma D Ak-su Tash-kurgun Alitchin R Yoshil-kul Rang-kul Оро Р Chichik Pass Shukrab Tashl Akul Chira Keria Karakar Sorghals Kiziltagh R Charting R Aurtang Borah Balb Ochokwas Langu Termez Salbarna BALKH Karaguj Khulm Akserai Takhtapal Muzar Syad Tash Kurgan Khulm Heibak Khorrum Dehas Karchu Khushk Rui Doab Kamurd AFGHAN Sighan 35 Akrabad Bamian Syndan Chalap P Kalu Kohi B. Koh Umbertabund Kila kahanimal Zebak Khanabad Akserai KUNDUZ Purkhan or induz Re Ghor Jibldogh Bagalin Ghori Narin Khingan ArdshakP Baba S h Purwan Inderab Baruks Punchir R Istalif Talakun udito Sina Gaokhana Lapis Lazuli Mine Lapword H walsPass kashm Ku Se Susan P Reshung Tuluku Kochuz Shali Dora P Chitral Girat Kashka Kafiristan Tigi Sha N Faugh Abad Chigursera Chihengb KABUL Kabul R Un Pugnan M Mydan Babus Logar Shutargarda Wugai Shekhabad Guzuristan Shashgag Ghuzni Route of 1870 1873 Jiadilis Tezin thurari Birkey Jandarai Panikora Shal Mig Kitai Bajur Bariko Asmur Mingora Kunar Aladand Kabularga Busole Jelalabad Numla Lalpuri Phakka Sutid Koh Khyber P Pas; The Pewar Hotal Kuram Fort Shamil Khost Kuram Lundi Abba R. P Bala Kot Umbeita Durbend Mozuferabad Abbotabad Baramula Torbela Tungi Murdan Prang Nowshera Hazro Hurripur Hassan Abdal Burkote Murree Rawal Pind PESHAWURAttok Indus Bara R Garu Mullakheit Thull Kohat Teera Punch Sumbulpur Shupien Steppe & Shigar R Shingo R Srinagar Polgant Behu Kotli ir Panjallarit Darkot P Guz Kul Pamir L Sakshlaman Moshibia Mastuch Teray Garmi R Tuna Rung Instagh M Hunza Missin Ku En a Sirza Rakup Gilgit Nagar Shinde Lungar Kugior Kilian Baransat Maiklike Maza Tupa Diwan Gill Tam Onqur Tur Agil ulik hul R. Legrasi R Bung Haranios RB Kar Chilas Para Wanda Parbut Rondo Hasora bết Karakoram Kuris Gyong Kapalu Chumlung Charbat Maval Killah Sharok Gures Haramak Dra Kurgil Snurla Kurdung Kurtse a Suru Nun Kun Bansko Islamabad angla ska Gya Kishtewar Padam Rukchin Shugar Jungali Sald Bartaliggo Mustagh pa Kirg Janja Shadula Kurelong Gusherbrum arwasherbrum Lite Tibet Skardo Deosal Telfie He Yapkand Suget Kulunuld Ku Balake arik Akkun Chibra Maliksha Wahabjilga Patsalang Kiziljuga ubra Indus R Burst Surahi Дорвала Saser P Taghar Chimire Chan Stan Digur Durqu Buia Mazar Badshah Mulgun Karangotak Ms Kushlashlangar Yangidawan P Brungsd Shorgilga Karakash Katadawan Thaldat Husaka Salt L Loksan Chang thang Sundo Sothang Burchathang Nischu in Gegra Change Lumking Tankst Pumsul mo Aksai Chin Chang Ling-ha Pass Linka Var Masunk Pass Luteling Bangmik Pang kong L shul Chagga Pangkur L. 19,000 ft Desert CHINESE TIBET 0 Longitude East 70 of Greenwich Scale of English Miles. 50 100 150 75 London: R. Bentley & Son. 35 Roduk Sajum 80 Stanford's Geog? Estab London 4 - ." AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. CHAPTER I. EARLY REMINISCENCES. 'I was born at Birkenhead on October 7, 1827, and was the tenth child of Thomas Forsyth, a Liverpool merchant. Originally our family came from Scotland. My grandfather was in business in Aberdeen, and towards the end of the last century he migrated to Nova Scotia, where he made a considerable fortune and returned to Scotland. My father was born in Nova Scotia, and was sent over to Edinburgh to be educated at the High School. He married, at the age of twenty-one, Jane Campbell, daughter of John Hamilton, and came to settle in Liverpool, where he joined Mr. William Smith as merchant. My I 2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF father purchased land in Birkenhead, and had a grand scheme for the development of that town into the city which it has since become; but in- stead of reaping the fruit of all his plans, he had the mortification of seeing others benefit to his exclusion and loss. ( My mother died when I was five years old, and I have scarcely any recollection of her. One after another of my seven sisters faded away, and, in fact, from my earliest youth until the time when I went to India, I did not know what it was not to have one sister on a lingering death- bed. This fact, added to the intensely strict discipline and strong Puritanical views held by my family, cast a gloom over my early life. Everything that was pleasant seemed to be wrong, and music, dancing, and all the natural enjoyments of youth I was taught to look upon as the wiles of the devil. Looking back upon the past, I consider that in those days I must have been an abominable prig, and, from not being allowed to mix with more worldly people, I was shy and had a great deal of mauvaise honte which life at a public school mitigated to a certain degree. At the age of ten I was sent to school at Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, where the strict discipline of my home did not prevent my SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 3 falling into the usual boyish scrapes; but it cer- tainly gave me a high standard of truthfulness, which stood me in good stead on more than one occasion. 'From Sherborne I went to Rugby in 1840, and I stayed there till 1843. I was placed in the Upper Middle Fifth at first starting, and so just escaped fagging. My stupidity and a decided disinclination to study kept me from rising beyond the Fifth Form; but I made many friends, some of whom lasted for life, and all throughout my career I have had reason to be thankful that I was educated at a public school. 'I was a good runner and jumper; I won steeple-chases and distinguished myself at foot- ball, and, of course, got into scrapes, the most noted of which, and what caused me to leave sooner than was intended, was the little arrange- ment got up by a few of us for having races in the evening, after lock-up, with our master's ponies, which we used to take secretly out of the stables into the adjoining fields and there have our fun. The next morning the masters never could make out why their ponies had got so over- heated and dirty during the night. My com- panions in this little game have distinguished themselves since in the race of life. One is now 4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Minister for Foreign Affairs in France, M. Wad- dington; another was Mayor of Liverpool; and a third was Canon in a Cathedral. But our escapade was found out, and I, as usual, had the bad luck to be made the scapegoat. 'Dr. Arnold was head master when I first went to Rugby, and when I left Dr. Tait had succeeded him. From Rugby I went to a tutor's, the Rev. Edward Rowsell, at Elstree, and from thence to Haileybury. Up to that time I had shown no signs of any great ability; in fact, one day my sister Christina came to me with tears in her eyes, imploring me to do something, as she had overheard my father describe me to my brother as the dunce of the family. This seemed to supply the necessary stimulus, and, thanks also to the good advice I received from my brother Hamilton, with whom I spent nine months at Madeira-where I was sent from Haileybury through my showing signs of what was feared might be the inherited family delicacy-I passed what was considered a successful career at Hailey- bury College, and came away with five gold medals and about ten or fifteen prizes. Thus I made my entry into the Indian Civil Service. I here give an extract from the Hertfordshire Mercury of that date, as follows:- SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 5 "Hertford Mercury, Saturday, Dec. 18, 1847. "EAST INDIA COLLEGE, HAILEYBURY. ""Close of the Term. "Tuesday being the day appointed for closing the second term of 1847, the directors of the East India Company visited the College at Haileybury, for the purpose of receiving the report of the Principal upon the progress and discipline of the term, and of distributing the medals and prizes awarded to the successful competitors in the various branches of Oriental, classical, and Euro- pean literature. The directors were on this occasion honoured by the presence of H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge, K.G. A special train left the Shoreditch station of the Eastern Coun- ties Railway about half-past eleven o'clock, and on the arrival of the directors and visitors at Haileybury the distinguished party proceeded to the Lodge to pay their respects to the Principal, the Rev. H. Melvill. The directors then re- paired to the Council-room, where they received the Principal's report. The deputation after- wards proceeded to the Examination Hall, where the professors and the students were already assembled. The chair was filled by Henry St. George Tucker, Esq., Chairman of the Court of 6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Directors. He having taken his seat, Mr. Hooper read a report of the medals, prizes, and honour- able distinctions obtained by the students. (The list was headed by the name of ‘Forsyth' highly distinguished, with medal in classics, medal in law, medal in Sanscrit, medal in Persian, medal in Hindustani, and prize in Hindi.) ( • "Mr. Forsyth, on coming forward to read his Oriental translations, was received with repeated rounds of applause. He read a translation of the character of Aurungzebe, from Dow's History of Hindustan,' into Hindustani by himself; also a translation by himself into Persian of the de- scription of the Turcoman tribes of Khorassan, from 'Baillie's Travels.' Mr. Forsyth next read a translation, also by himself, into Sanscrit verse, of the description of Satan, from the first book of Milton's Paradise Lost.' The graceful, manly, and modest bearing of Mr. Forsyth, and his dis- tinct and excellent reading of the translations, excited the enthusiastic admiration of the company generally; and it was easy to perceive from the close attention paid by H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge to the readings, and his significant gestures of approval, that he was a delighted witness of the brilliant success of the distinguished student. It was also pleasing to observe the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 7 generous enthusiasm manifested by the students generally, who seemed to rejoice as heartily in Mr. Forsyth's achievements as his own immediate friends and relatives could have done. "The Chairman then delivered the various medals and prizes to the successful competitors, who were greeted with applause by their fellow- students. In handing to Mr. Forsyth his five. medals, with the prize in Hindi, the Chairman said, I congratulate you, Mr. Forsyth, on your splendid success.' The classification of the rank of the students about to depart for India was then read. (Mr. Forsyth stood alone in the first class for Bengal). The Chairman then addressed the assembled students, after which the Duke of Cambridge rose and said, Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, . . . Permit me to express my great satisfaction with the proceedings I have witnessed, and to say how much I am obliged to the Chair- man for allowing me to assist in the interesting ceremony in which we have been engaged this day. As one who has inspected many public establishments, I can say, and without fulsome compliment to the Rev. the Principal and the Professors, that I have never, upon any occasion, been the witness of a scene so satisfactory as that which has been presented to us to-day, and have 8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF never seen young men acquit themselves more creditably than have the students of this College upon the present occasion. When I allude to the success of one of these gentlemen, Mr. Forsyth, I can only characterize it as extraordinary. I hope and believe his future career will be marked with equal success; that his life and health will be preserved in the land to which he is going; and that long after I and others who hear me have quitted this world, he may return and take his seat in this chair' (pointing to that occupied by the Chairman). . "" 'I started for India on January 20, 1848, and reached Calcutta on March 7, where I was most kindly received by William Macpherson, and sub- sequently was taken by Sir Lawrence Peel into his house, where I remained during nearly the whole of my stay in Calcutta. 'I passed out of college within a week after my arrival, for I recollect with great pride that, whereas it was customary for young civilians to go first to the college to present themselves to the examiner, but of course not to undergo examina- tion, a remark I made, led the examiner to put me through the usual tests, and to the astonishment of every one, myself included, pronounced me to have passed out of college at once. Each suc- SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 9 ceeding month I went up for examination (for I remained in Calcutta to take honours in three languages), and passed in Persian, Hindustani, and Hindi, thus gaining one gold medal and three prizes of Rs. 800 each. 'Lord Dalhousie landed in India about two days before I arrived, and when I was first intro- duced to him he told me that the Duke of Cam- bridge (father of the present Duke) had been good enough to write and commend me to the Governor-General's notice, for, as has been shown from the newspaper extract already quoted, the Duke had happened to be at Haileybury on the day of the prize-giving when I had been so successful. 'I went up-country in September, 1848, and was stationed at Saharunpore where I learnt my work under Edward Thornton, who was magis- trate and collector. Shortly after my arrival in Calcutta, the news came of the murder of Vans Agnew and Anderson at Mooltan, by Sikhs, which was followed by the seige of Mooltan, the second Sikh war and the annexation of the Punjab in March, 1849, when a host of officers was sent up to Lahore to undertake the administration of the country. I was amongst the youngsters se- lected, and made my appearance at the Residency 10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF at Lahore. The scene of confusion was inde- scribable. Beds were laid as in a hospital in the Anarkullee Tomb, which was afterwards used as the English church, and there being no hotels in those days at Lahore, we were all of us guests at Sir Henry Lawrence's table. He had been Resi- dent, and was head of the Board of Administration, of which John Lawrence and Mr. Mansell were members. As fast as officers arrived they were told off to their different posts, and had to find their way there as best they could. 'On the second or third day after my arrival, Sir Henry Lawrence told me I was to go to Pak- Puttan; but where the place was, beyond the fact of its being somewhere down south, and how I was to get there nobody could tell me, so on making my re-appearance at lunch, Sir Henry exclaimed, "What! haven't you gone to Pak- Puttan yet?" and on my saying that I did not know where it was, he ordered a camel to be brought for me, and started me off to Ferozepore, a place thirty-two miles away, whence I was to go down the river until I arrived at my destination. 'Colonel Marsden, who had arrived that morn- ing at Lahore, was appointed Deputy Commis- sioner over me. He joined me at Ferozepore, and we travelled down together. At that time SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. II the whole country was a barren desert-villages were deserted, all the male inhabitants had been off to the war-there were scarcely any crops, and all the grain of former years had been buried in the ground. The heat was intense, perpetual dust storms all through the day until late at night, and as we marched on day after day amongst ruined villages, the prospect of collecting revenue or of finding a place to set up our head-quarters appeared hopeless. At last one day we came to a place called Hujara, where we found a well- cultivated garden in the centre of which was a bara durree or pavilion, where we congratulated ourselves on finding a comfortable resting-place. But, in an evil moment, Colonel Marsden wrote to the Board disclosing our locality, whereupon an order came immediately telling us we were out of the bounds of the district assigned to us, and that we must go many miles further south and look for quarters near Dipalpur. We had, there- fore, to undertake long and weary marches in search of fresh quarters. The heat in tents was insufferable; we were obliged to dig a hole in the ground under our beds and lie in it during the day to escape the rays of the sun, from which we used to emerge about five p.m. and do work till eleven, when we had our dinner, then go to 12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF bed for an hour or two and resume our march before dawn. The food was execrable; this and the heat and fatigue brought on a bad attack of congestion of the liver with me, and I was obliged to leave for the hills. 'I arrived at Simla in July, 1849, and this was my first introduction to the Himalayas. Lord Dalhousie was exceedingly kind to me and recom- mended me to go to England to recruit my health; but subsequently he appointed me to be Assistant Commissioner at Simla, and afterwards sent me as assistant to Kangra, where I remained till 1854, when I got a bad attack of brain fever which compelled me to go home, and on my return was sent as Deputy Commissioner to Gur- daspur and thence transferred to Rawul Pindee, from whence, in 1855, I was removed to Umballa. 'An incident connected with my appointment to Simla may be recorded here. Before leaving England in 1848 I had engaged myself to Miss Alice Plumer, and I was naturally anxious for her to follow me out as soon as possible. My illness and my threatened return to England up- set my plans, and on hearing the facts, Lord Dal- housie, who had personally been most kind to me, offered to give me a hill appointment. Just then the Assistant Commissionership of Simla fell SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 13 pay vacant, the of which was Rs. 500 per month. This appointment Lord Dalhousie offered to me, at the same time informing me that as Mr. Carnac, another civilian, was ready to take it at Rs. 400 per month, he could not offer me more than that salary. Now, by the rules of the Service I was entitled to draw Rs. 500 if I went home on sick leave, and, considering my projected marriage and all things, I thought it would be better to decline, whereupon I received the following letter from Lord Dalhousie's secretary— SIR, "The Governor-General has received your letter in which he learns that you prefer to being idle on Rs. 500 per month to doing your work on Rs. 400. This expression of your views is discreditable to you, and the Governor-General feels inclined to order you to your duty on the lower salary, but under the circumstances you will be appointed Assistant Commissioner at Simla on Rs. 500 per month for one year, after which you will be remanded to the North-West Provinces, as the Governor-General does not wish to have you any longer under his immediate orders. 6 This, of course, fell like a shell upon me; however, I got leave to go down to Calcutta in 14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF February, 1850, where I was married to my wife, who had come out to me, and we returned to Simla. During the whole of that year I was the object of Lord Dalhousie's special displeasure, and on the Lieut.-Governor of the North-West Provinces happening to mention to Lord Dal- housie that he was going to appoint me to a hill station in the North-West, he promptly forbade the appointment. Matters then looked rather serious, so I determined to take the bull by the horns, and wrote direct to Lord Dalhousie, ex- plaining that with my approaching marriage in view, the loss of £100 a year was a serious matter-and that I had had no intention or wish to shirk my work as he supposed. This letter had the desired effect of mollifying his lordship's displeasure, and an answer came back almost by return, offering me the post of Assistant Commis- sioner to Kangra, which was the appointment of all others I most coveted. Life in the Kangra valley in those early days of administration was the nearest approach to perfection in official life. Situated in a lovely valley, surrounded by snow- clad mountains, and having to deal with a simple mountaineer race, the English officer exercised a sort of patriarchal sway very much unfettered, for it was too early in the era of administration for SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 15 codes and regulations to be enforced on an out- lying mountain district. Justice was as often as not administered in the open air under a tree, and the word of the 'Hakim' was accepted as law. A strong bond between the ruler and the people existed, and thus the most pleasant relations were established. Before a road could be made or a bridge built, the district officer's opinion always had to be taken-nothing, in fact, could be done without his intervention. Here I remained, as already stated, until 1854. 16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF CHAPTER II. INCIDENTS OF THE INDIAN MUTINY. 'As the events of 1857 have been so frequently written about, it is not necessary for me to go into the causes of the outbreak, but I may give a short account of my own personal experiences. 'At the beginning of 1857 I was Deputy Com- missioner of Umballa, where there was a large native force cantoned. Mr. G. C. Barnes was Commissioner, who had just returned from fur- lough to resume charge from George Campbell. Sir Henry Barnard was the General commanding the division, also just returned from England. Colonel Halifax of the 75th was brigadier. Colonel Hope Grant commanded the 9th Lancers, and there were a number of artillery officers, all of them afterwards well known to history. The Commander-in-Chief, the Hon. G. Anson, came with all his staff to Umballa and remained there some time before going up to Simla. A camp of SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 17 instruction was formed there to which detachments of men from all the native regiments were sent to learn the use of the Enfield rifle. Similar camps. of instruction were held at Meerut and other parts all over Northern India, and it was in these camps that the story of the greased cartridges was most industriously circulated by emissaries sent about the country. We used to notice fakirs in green swaggering about in a very insolent manner, and I perfectly well recollect seeing Bala Rao, the brother or nephew of the Nana Sahib, passing on up to the Punjab. Of course, being the district officer and bound to have my eyes and ears open to everything that was going on, I soon heard from my official subordinates that there was a storm brewing, and I mentioned to the Com- mander-in-Chief what I had heard, which seemed to tally with information he had received from other sources, but of which he made light. Amongst other means of getting information, I got hold of a young Sikh who had lately joined one of the native regiments then in cantonments, and who used to be brought to my house at night to report to me the conversations which he had heard at secret meetings of native officers. These reports became increasingly alarming, and early in May I was told definitely that it was arranged 2 18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF there would be a rising of the native army either at Meerut, Delhi, or Umballa in the following week. Tolerably full details of the plan of opera- tions were told me, and these I at once reported to General Barnard, and I also wrote to my Com- missioner, Mr. Barnes, who had gone up to the hills, and likewise to John Lawrence, who was Chief Commissioner of the Punjab at that time. The answer I received from each of these was curiously different. General Barnard summoned a conclave of all his officers, who one and all stoutly denied the imputations cast upon their men, whereupon he wrote requesting that I would call upon my informant to come forward and pro- duce his proofs, or take the consequences of calumniating a loyal army. Barnes pooh-poohed the whole thing and told me to mind my own business. Lawrence, on the other hand, treated the matter with the consideration it deserved, told me to go on getting information and to make arrangements for protecting my young Sikh in- formant if the outbreak really did take place. My prognostications were very rapidly verified, for on the night of the 9th May, Colonel Clayton, com- manding a native cavalry regiment, heard that his men had all saddled their horses without any orders, and one infantry regiment also got under arms in the same way without any orders. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 19 'There was a good deal of excitement in the camp, but the night passed off without further disturbance. On the morning of the 11th the regiment again turned out, and shots were fired at some of the officers. General Barnard rode down to the parade ground and managed to quiet the men, and actually promised them that the matter should never be brought up against them. Seeing how little the crisis was understood, I wrote a letter to George Campbell, my former Commissioner, who was then at Simla, begging him to explain the situation to the Commander-in-Chief. This letter was very prophetic of future events, so much so that, some time after, George Campbell handed it back to me thinking I should like to keep it. 'On Monday, the 12th, as I was sitting in my office deciding a case, a telegram was put into my hand. It was a message to the nearest civil officer sent by the clerk of the telegraph office at Delhi, saying that the mutineers had come over from Meerut and were slaughtering the Europeans at Delhi, and the chief telegraph superintendent had just been killed; the telegram ended with "Good-bye, I'm off." This was followed by another telegram later on from the same telegraph boy, telling of the murder of Europeans in canton- ments and of the mutiny of all the native troops. 20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF I forwarded this telegram at once to the Chief Commissioner and immediately sent off the Vak- heel of the Maharajah of Puttiala to beg his master to come as soon as possible with every available man to the confines of his territory to a village distant about five miles from Umballa. I had heard that there had been an attempt to tamper with the loyalty of this Chief; in fact, emissaries from the King of Delhi had already been to him, and as the situation appeared to be so very critical, and the Maharajah was a personal friend of mine (for Lord Dalhousie had deputed me to have charge of him when he had proposed to go to England in 1855), I thought I might possibly influence him to remain steady. 'Within a short time, about six p.m., the Vak- heel returned and told me that the Maharajah had come with all his force to the village named, and I rode out and there found him surrounded by all his army. I confess that as I rode into his camp I had considerable qualms, for it seemed so extraordinary that he should so quickly obey my summons, and bring his whole army, and I feared it might betoken mischief. 'I began the conversation by explaining to him as much as I knew of the state of affairs, but he cut me short by saying that he knew all about SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 21 it. I then said to him, “ I am told that emissaries from the King of Delhi have come to you; is this true?" ( In reply he pointed to some men seated at a little distance from us, and said, "There they are. 'I asked then for a word in private, and with a signal of his hand he sent every one away beyond earshot. I then said to him, "Well, answer me one question, Maharajah Sahib, are you for us, or are you against us?" 'His reply was very hearty, "As long as I live I am yours; but you know, of course, that I have enemies in my own country; some of my relations, my brother for one, are against me, and after my death I cannot answer for what will happen. What do you want done? "} 'I then told him, without mincing matters, of the state of things in cantonments and of the difficulty I had in getting the authorities to believe the real state of the case. Meanwhile I feared that the mutineers from Meerut and Delhi would be coming up to Umballa, and, therefore, I thought it was best to send some of his troops to Kurnaul, where the Grand Trunk Road passed through some of his territory, to intercept the mutineers. He said he would do this on one condition, viz. that I would send Europeans down within a 22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF certain time to support him. I told him I had no power to move troops, and that it was absurd of him to make such a stipulation. 'His answer was decided. "This is not a time to stand on formalities; if you will not undertake to support me, I will not move a man. My answer to him was this, " Maharajah, you know me well, and my position. You know I cannot make you the promise you require; but I will give you my word, that I will do everything in my power to get you support." 'He took my hand and said, "That is quite enough;" and he gave orders for the bugle for the march to be sounded, and I returned to Umballa. 'I believe the Maharajah's first act was to put his brother into jail to prevent his doing mischief. 'Of course, I reported everything fully to John Lawrence by letter, and then rode up to canton- ments to inform the General what had been done, and he called a council of war, when it was proposed to get all the available troops down from Sabathu and the other hill-stations, and to send a letter to General Hewitt, the officer com- manding at Meerut, telling him that a body of troops would be sent towards Delhi to render him assistance. The discussion lasted all night; it SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 23 was not till gun-fire next morning that General Barnard could be persuaded to sign the necessary letters which I sent off by different horsemen. 'On the next day I sent my assistant, Mr. W. C. Plowden, to Simla to tell Mr. Barnes what we had done, and all the day was spent in weary expectation of what would happen. Early on the following morning Barnes came into cantonments, and the first thing he did was to cancel all my orders, because he said I had exceeded all my authority and acted in a state of needless alarm. 'General Barnard took his cue accordingly, and excused himself by saying that he had only just come into the country and knew nothing of the relative positions of parties, and supposed that I, as chief civil officer, knew what I was about, and that he had acted on my responsibility. However, he was anxious to recall the orders which I had sent off to remove the troops from the hills, and he requested me to send mounted horsemen with the counter-orders. I confess when I heard this I felt in a thorough fix. I could not help believing I was perfectly right; at the same time, if this were a mere flash in the pan, I should get into a tremendous mess; so I deter- mined to await the development of events and not despatch the counter-orders. 24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF 'My state of anxiety all that day was intense, and towards the evening a telegram came from John Lawrence to the following effect: "You have done perfectly right. man down from the hills; to be at his post. وو Order every Order every available tell your Commissioner My relief at this can be more easily imagined than described. I jumped into my buggy and drove off as hard as I could to put the telegram into General Barnard's hands. 'His excitement, of course, was great; he wanted to recall his counter-orders and begged me to get the last letters back. I produced them out of my pocket and said, "Here they are, General." He tore them up into bits, and so we got the troops down to Delhi, and my promise to the Maharajah was redeemed. I have said that I sent Plowden up to the hills. He went to Simla and saw the Commander- in-Chief, and really gave him the first authentic information of the state of things at Umballa. Being thus awakened to the sense of the dan- gerous storm that had burst, he started off forth- with to the plains with all his staff. 'Everything was in a state of immense con- fusion, and nobody seemed ready to do anything. It has been said that General Anson was vacillat- SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 25 For ing and not equal to the crisis, but the impression I received from my interviews with him was, that he was a brave man, ready to do what was re- quired of him, but that he found himself hampered by not having the proper material at hand. instance, the head of the commissariat wrote an official letter saying, that his department was quite unable to arrange for the transport of troops to Delhi. This I know was subsequently denied, but all the same it was a fact, and the military looked to the civil department to help them in this emergency; whereupon George Ricketts, the Deputy Commissioner of Loodiana, and I, were authorized by Mr. Montgomery (now Sir Robert Montgomery), then Judicial Commissioner, to organize a bullock-train by impressing the carts of the country, and for the next four months our time was fully occupied in sending forward stores, baggage, and siege guns for the camp at Delhi. At that time my guard over the treasury and civil lines consisted of a company of a native regiment and a squadron of irregular cavalry. Sepoys were withdrawn at once to go down to Delhi, where they joined with the rest of their comrades in firing a volley at their officers, and deserting en masse into the city. 'At that time we looked upon the mutiny 26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF as a rising of the Hindoos, and placed our faith in Mahommedans; and I considered myself considerably aggrieved when the Commander- in-Chief, in spite of my earnest remonstrances, withdrew my guard of these Mahommedan horsemen. But I was led to change my opinion when I heard shortly after that they, too, had murdered one of their officers that had gone down to Delhi. Being left to make the best arrangements I could for my own safety, I gladly accepted the offer of some Mahommedan Jagheerdars to form a personal guard, and these men protected me most carefully till Delhi fell, when my confidence in them received a rude shock by the receipt of a letter from Major Hodson, forwarding from one of these very men a petition to the King of Delhi, which he had found on ransacking the archives of the regal palace, congratulating the King on the turn of events, and saying that they had got the Deputy Commissioner of Umballa (i.e. myself) safe, and would have great pleasure in forwarding his head, whenever they received the order. 'Of course, during that eventful time there were many stirring incidents; for instance, just before the Commander-in-Chief and his party left for the front, there were frequent alarms of the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 27 supposed rising of the troops. The ladies in the cantonment were all huddled together into the barracks, the officers congregated in the mess- room, when suddenly one evening an officer rode down in hot haste from Simla, where he declared a general massacre of Europeans was going on. It is impossible to describe the state of horror into which every one was thrown, many of the officers present having their wives and belongings up at Simla; and in answer to their anxious inquiries the only reply received was that the informant had left the place in flames and that he did not believe anybody could have escaped. I at once took a special mail-cart-my family being up at Simla —and drove off to Kalka, at the foot of the hills. Curiously enough, when I got about half way I met an officer, afterwards highly distinguished in the war, who to a great extent confirmed this horrible story; but when I got to Kalka I could learn nothing to corroborate it, and in point of fact the whole thing turned out to be a monstrous exaggeration of an overheated brain. The fact was, that the Goorkha regiment stationed at Jutogh, near Simla, had given signs of insubordi- nation, which caused the utmost alarm to the peaceful inhabitants of Simla, who fled in their terror and hid themselves in ravines, and some even 28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF went into the interior. One story is told of a gallant officer who was accompanying his fiancée, when, turning a corner, they suddenly came upon a Goorkha soldier, whereupon the Englishman took to his heels and left the lady to take care of herself. It is needless to add that afterwards she was happily married-but not to this brave (?) officer. 'I will relate one more incident, chiefly to show my admiration of what I consider a real missionary. The Rev. Mr. Carleton, an American Presbyterian, who had endeared himself to the people by his exemplary life, used to go about the villages and live amongst the people as one of them, and won their hearts by the practice of his daily life rather than by his preaching. When matters became serious, and I advised all Europeans and white men to leave the civil lines, the American missionary came to me and in a simple straightforward way said, “I think I had better give up preaching, but I will not desert you, as I think I might be of some service, for I was raised in Kentucky and am skilled in the use of the rifle." < So he and his companion, Mr. Orbison, re- mained at their posts. A short time afterwards I had occasion to use their services, for a report SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 29 was brought in that the regiment at Jullundur had mutinied and was marching down upon Umballa, which was at that time denuded of all troops except a few men who had been left behind to guard the barracks. The civil lines where I was are six miles distant from Umballa, and I had a jail full of prisoners which I expected the mutineers would attack first. Carleton, Orbison, and myself, therefore, took up our abode over the gateway, and during the thirty-six hours which we spent there Mr. Carleton regaled me with the most entertaining stories of his early life in America. Fortunately for us, when the muti- neers came to within a few miles of the city they turned off the road to the south, evidently thinking that discretion was the better part of valour. 'Amongst other duties that fell to my lot was to provide for the sinews of war in the shape of a forced loan from the natives, as we were short of money, and of the difficulties of doing which I may give an instance. The plan adopted was to assess each large town or district at a sum which at rough computation we thought they would be able to subscribe, and then to argue with and coax the people to pay up. The town of Jugadree was a thriving place, and we thought was capable of subscribing about one lakh of 30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF rupees. But in spite of all our arguments the head men refused to give more than Rs. 15,000. I sent for these men and tried what my influence would do, but they stubbornly refused. The utmost I could get them to say was, that if they sold all their wives' ornaments and divested them- selves of everything, they could possibly raise about Rs. 20,000. This was equal to the cost of providing for the police in that neighbourhood; so I told them that as times were bad and it was necessary to curtail expenditure in every way, if Rs. 20,000 worth of goods was all that I had to protect, if they paid that sum there would be no harm done to them if I withdrew the police. I knew that dacoities were of daily occurrence in those parts, and so I thought I would work upon their feelings, and was con- siderably surprised and disappointed that they quietly acquiesced in my decision. I therefore wrote out the order, and placed it in the hands of a mounted orderly, and sent him off with it; but when he had got out of sight the head man of the party came up to me and said, “That will do, Sahib; we are ready to pay; how much do you want?" And so I got the sum I required. It is a curious fact that the first man not a soldier in the Punjab-and I dare say in all upper SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 31 India-who was hanged for sedition was a Sikh. The way it came about was this. When the news of the mutiny at Delhi reached Rupar,-a town on the Sutlej, in the Umballa district, which in the first Punjab war had rendered itself notorious for its antipathy to the English rule-there was a great disturbance, and one Sikh notable went through the streets telling the people not to make any payments of revenue till they should see who was the master. On this news being reported to me, I had him seized and brought in to Umballa, and there and then authority was obtained from the Chief Commissioner, and a court was consti- tuted before which he was tried, and having been found guilty of sedition and inciting to rebellion he was sentenced to be hanged. 'I consider that this prompt act of justice was absolutely necessary, and nipped in the bud what might have proved a most serious danger to our rule; and the recollection of this had an important bearing on my subsequent action in the Kooka outbreak of 1872, and when others ignorant of history judged me so harshly, they had not the experience to help them to form a judgment which guided me in the time of a crisis. 'After the capture of Delhi I was appointed one of the special Commissioners to hunt up 32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF rebels, and my chief task was to overhaul the papers of the Nana at Cawnpore. It was curious to see how the men who had been credited with being faithful servants of the Government hastened to ply the Nana with fulsome adulation as soon as they saw how events turned out at Cawnpore. One man, writing from Futtehpore, reported the approach of an English steamer up the Ganges and asked for orders, on which the Nana told him to seize the steamer and send all the Europeans prisoners to him. The same man wrote another petition a day or two afterwards, saying that they were too much for him and he had, therefore, taken the precaution of running away. Another man, who signed himself as Khuda Buksh, guard of the Government bullock-train, reported that "there were four Europeans asleep in the bullock-van under his charge when he heard of the Nana's victory at Cawnpore, whereupon he killed three of them, but the fourth scoundrel woke up and gave him a severe wound on the back from which he was then suffering." Across this petition the Nana had written with his own hand, "Give the man a present of Rs. 5 and entertain him as a soldier." 'It struck me that very possibly this man might have gone back to his old post on the Government service, and on inquiring at the Post-office, I SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 33 learned that there was a man of that name, but he was a coachman and had gone towards Delhi. I telegraphed along the line and found that he had just started from Alighur, driving a carriage with an English officer inside. I then telegraphed to Alighur to have him stopped and examined, when the scars of the wound, just as he had de- scribed it, were found on his back. He was at once tried, convicted, and hanged. 'I made the strictest inquiries to find any trace of alleged outrages committed on European ladies and women, and satisfied myself that beyond the brutal murders of many of them, none took place. I visited the house in which the poor women were massacred at Cawnpore before they were thrown into the well, and saw the marks of bloody hands on the wall and near the windows where they had evidently tried to escape. 'After that I went over to Lucknow, and arrived in time to witness the evacuation of that city by the natives. I had the honour of serving for a few days under Sir James Outram as his secretary, and afterwards, in the same capacity, under Mr. Mont- gomery and Sir Charles Wingfield, till I was re- moved to the Punjab in 1860 as Commissioner.* * For the above detailed services during the Mutiny Sir Douglas received the order of the Companion of the Bath.-ED. 3 34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF CHAPTER III. THE KOOKA OUTBREAK IN 1872. IN 1863, at Sir Robert Montgomery's request, I took the office of Secretary to Government during the absence to England of Mr. Davies for six months, and during that time the first signs of the rising of the Kooka sect were observed; and I became alive to the extreme danger from the preaching of the head of the sect, Ram Singh, who was originally a carpenter and in himself a thoroughly religious character, but his followers gave a political turn to his tenets, and it was Sir Robert Mont- necessary to repress them. gomery issued stringent orders restraining the teachers from going about, propagating their dangerous doctrines, and so long as these rules were adhered to the danger anticipated was averted. 'In 1868, Sir Donald Macleod, who succeeded Sir Robert Montgomery, relaxed the prohibitions SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 35 placed on the sect, and immediately there was an enormous gathering of Kookas at the great Fair of Anundpore, near Khowal, in the Jullundur division, of which I was the Commissioner, and a disturbance very nearly broke out and would have done so had it not been for the exertions of the police. From that time forward the mischief began to spread, and murders in Umritzur, Fero- zepore, and Loodiana were reported and traced to the influence of this sect. 'In January, 1872, I was in the camp of exercis e at Delhi, by order of the Lieutenant-Governor, when the news came of an outbreak at Malair Kotla, and matters looked serious. Lord Napier of Magdala, Commander-in-Chief, was in the camp, and having been told that the disaffection, spread by Ram Singh's doctrines, had entered into the ranks of the native army, unless this insurrection was immediately stamped out, he feared the worst results. He, therefore, determined to send a small force of cavalry, infantry, and artillery to Loodiana, and I was ordered by the Lieutenant- Governor to proceed at once to the spot and prepare to suppress the insurrection. I asked for specific orders to apprehend the leader, Ram Singh, but I could get nothing definite out of the Lieutenant-Governor and was obliged 36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF to leave without. I distinctly remember my last words to him, which were these: "Then I shall act on my own judgment, and you must support me." I lay special stress on this, and repeat it most emphatically now, because some time after, when the conduct of every one connected with the business was seriously criticized, the responsibility of the Lieutenant-Governor was denied in the matter. 'When I got to Loodiana I found that Cowan, Deputy Commissioner of that place, had ener- getically followed up the fanatics and had caught a large number of them at Malair Kotla. As Commissioner and superintendent of the native states, I had the power of life and death which he had not. I wrote to him from Loodiana, ordering him to try the rebels but not to put any sentence into execution until I joined him. But Cowan took the law into his own hands, and put my letter into his pocket, refusing to act on it, and had the men put to death. As soon as I heard of this I was placed in this awkward pre- dicament. I knew that the crisis was most im- portant. If I repudiated his action and showed that there was a division amongst rulers, the natives would have taken advantage of it, and as reports were hourly coming in of further dis- SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 37 turbances threatening in Jullundur and Amritsir, promptitude and action united was absolutely necessary. I recollected how, at the outbreak of the Mutiny, the prompt execution of a Sikh at Umballa had checked a threatened rising of the nation. I therefore decided to take upon myself the responsibility of Cowan's act. I wrote a letter approving of what he had done under the circum- stances. An incorrect version of my letter was put forward representing my having given a more hearty approbation than was the case, and this operated most injuriously on the public mind. It was not till months after, when I had been re- moved from my post and subjected to all the heaviest displeasure of the Government (unjustly as I shall show), that I was able to publish the correct version of my letter to Mr. Cowan. 'To continue, however, my narrative of events, I rode out to Malair Kotla and found a number of men who had been caught red-handed in the murder of the inoffensive inhabitants. These I put on their trial before assessors consisting of the Vakheels of the native states, and having found them legally guilty, I sentenced them to death. In all this I acted perfectly within my powers, and even my worst enemies could take no exception to my proceedings, though many, 38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF wise after the event, pronounced the sentences too severe. My next step was to apprehend Ram Singh; this had to be done very carefully to avoid any chance of rescue. I sent for him to come to my office at night, and ordered a special train to be in readiness. I had a guard concealed outside, to whom I handed him over as soon as he arrived, and put him into the train and sent him down to Delhi. I telegraphed to the Lieutenant-Governor, telling him what I had done. He approved of my act and obtained Lord Mayo's orders to send Ram Singh on to Calcutta, and subsequently to Rangoon where he died. 'It is a very remarkable fact that up to the time of the publication of a most severe and unjust sentence on me, I was never told that there was any inquiry going on regarding my share in the transaction, and I was not called upon to make any defence. I had no sort of suspicion of the storm which suddenly burst on my head, the first intimation of which was a curt telegram from the Lieutenant-Governor removing me from my ap- pointment. 'Just at this time, fortunately for me, Lord Northbrook came out as Governor-General. I had applied to the Lieutenant-Governor for a copy SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 39 of the proceedings which led to my sentence of removal, but it was refused. I then appealed to Lord Northbrook, whose sense of justice operated in my favour, for I found that every letter or report which told in my favour had been carefully eliminated from the correspondence sent home for publication, and for the subsequent production of these I was indebted to Lord Northbrook's justice. 'It is a singular fact that whereas I believe the action of the Government was, as I was told, in a great measure prompted by a fear of the Exeter Hall party at home, I found to my great surprise and gratification the strongest support from that party, and I believe the missionaries to a man were on my side. The independent rajahs, native chiefs, and gentry generally, spontaneously advo- cated my cause,* and were promptly snubbed for doing so. * From H. H. the MAHARAJAH of Puttiala, to the SECRE- TARY, Government, Punjab. 'February 15, 1872. 'MY DEAR FRIEND,-In reply to a telegram from you, I promised in my letter of the 20th ultimo, to make inquiries, as requested by his Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, and communicate to you the real cause of the Kooka outbreak ; I therefore write for his Honour's information that, from many proofs, it is quite certain that Ram Singh's real motive and ambition was bent, upon religious pretext, to reign and acquire dominion, and he deceitfully implanted this capricious notion 40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF 'I had been removed from my appointment as Commissioner of Umballa and declared to be in- in the minds of his ignorant and superstitious followers that their creed was to predominate, that everywhere the Govern- ment of the country would be very soon in their hands, and as they had the fullest belief of this absurdity, he never failed to excite their minds and keep them in agitation and earnest expectation to attain their object. 2. And as the number of his followers-full of blind bigotry and zeal—had now increased to enormity and vastness, he therefore had a sanguine hope of success, and excited them to view, with the utmost horror and hatred, the act of cow- killing. 3. In exciting this prejudice his motive was,-as under the religious pretext the cartridge prejudice subverted and put in commotion the whole of India in 1857,—that by means of this ignitible match he may rouse up and excite the feelings of the whole Hindoo community, including the chieftains, gentry, and the troops, to stand up and sympathize in support of a common cause of hatred against the rulers of the country, anticipating, with some reason, a result from the confusion which would follow, that in every class and grade of the community he would be held in respect and awe, and thus establish a powerful sway over them, of which he was long in earnest. 'Had not this appalling punishment been inflicted so promptly and so well as was the case, and had not Ram Singh and his Soobahs been deported from the province, there was no hope of the disturbance being quelled soon, and, without doubt, there would have been an endless waste of money and life before tranquillity and confidence would have been restored. Had they had the most meagre success, the whole sect would have sprung up like fiends, who were all anxiously watching the result of this pantomimic attack. 'The above is a brief result of my inquiries, which have been recorded after the most careful observation. There is one thing more, which I think it right to bring to your notice. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 41 I capable of serving in any political capacity. went up to Simla and there pleaded for a fair trial, and in the end, although it was manifestly impos- sible to obtain the actual reversal of the solemn decision of the Government of India, the practical result was that within a year of the order, pro- nouncing me unworthy of political power, I was sent as Envoy to Kashgar, and invested with the powers of a Plenipotentiary. 'Looking back on the past, after a long lapse of years, I fully adhere to the decision which I hastily arrived at, at the time of the Kooka out- break, to support my subordinate. I have learnt from newspapers, etc., that the Government of India has expressed its disapprobation at the manner of the punishments awarded by the local authorities. I believe the object of Government will be misunderstood by the native public, and particularly by the benighted sect, who will, no doubt, attribute it to the supernatural power of their "Sutgooroo." ‘This will tend in a great measure to frustrate and invalidate the excellent action and efficient measures adopted in the coercion and eradication, by the district authorities and native chieftains, of an evil which had been so promptly and adequately nipped in the bud before bringing forth blossoms of further evil, and would make them look light and unim- portant. 'I am of opinion that misconstruction of intention of a Government by the public is always fraught with unpleasant consequences, and I deem it right to inform you of the views I take on the subject. 'I am, my dear friend, yours very sincerely, (Signed) MOHENDRA SINGH, Maharajah of Puttiala.' 42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF 'That he acted improperly is a matter beyond question, and the Government were doubtless bound to visit him with displeasure, but the manner of their doing so was altogether improper. 'Some of them employed the press at home to support them, and to crush the unfortunate officials whom they had done their best to ruin. 'I am justified in saying this, because articles appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette simultaneously with the orders in the Government Gazette in India which could not have been inspired by any who were not either in the Council or intimately ac- quainted with their mind. Cowan, like a drowning man catching at a straw, and misinterpreting the support which I gave him, caused me additional trouble by giving an incorrect version of my letter already referred to. But I assumed it was unintentional, and sub- sequently I did my utmost to help him when he was turned out of the service by procuring a very good appointment for him in India. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 43 CHAPTER IV. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA-A FORE- SHADOWING OF THE EXPEDITIONS TO YARKUND. 'In order to give a proper account of my mission to Yarkund it will be necessary to give a descrip- tion of my duties as Commissioner of the Jul- lundur Division, where my jurisdiction extended over the outlying provinces of Kulu, Lahore, and Spiti, bordering on the vast kingdom of Thibet and Ladakh. For centuries a straggling kind of trade had been carried on through these provinces and over the Himalayas between the Chinese cities of Kashgar, Yarkund, and Khoten and the plains of the Punjab. Opium used to be smuggled into the countries north of the Himalayas by traders who brought back in return quantities of the very finest shawl wool carpets, charras (juice of the hemp, similar to hashish). Numerous tales were told of the hardships which the traders had to undergo of imprisonment, even death, at the 44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF It hands of the Chinese, and these were supple- mented in a minor degree by the outrageous extortions of Cashmere officials in Ladakh. was my duty as Commissioner to inquire into these complaints, and in order to do so I visited Leh, the capital of Ladakh, in 1867, and there found that there was every prospect of a fair trade reviving between eastern Turkestan and India- if the obstacles caused by oppression were re- moved. The opportunity appeared favourable, as the Mahommedan inhabitants of eastern Turkestan had thrown off the Chinese yoke. Yakub Beg, the new ruler of Kashgar, showed every disposition to foster trade between the two countries, and allowed his newly acquired subjects to cross the Himalayas freely. The first step to take was to get rid of the exactions of the Cash- mere officials, and I went to Simla to lay before Lord Lawrence, then Governor-General, all the circumstances with which I made myself ac- quainted. He was altogether sceptical as to the prospect of any considerable trade springing up; but he did not hesitate to demand from the Maha- rajah of Cashmere that the oppression and exac- tion of his officials should be put a stop to. My next step was to inaugurate a fair in the Kangra valley at Palumpore-the head-quarters of the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 45 tea-planters. I sent proclamations across the mountains into Yarkund, inviting the traders to come down with their goods and to take back in exchange tea and other commodities. The experiment was decidedly successful, and for some years an annual fair was held at which good busi- ness was done. All this led me to study carefully Central Asian politics, and I felt convinced that if we could only enter into amicable relations with the countries beyond our north-west border we should be able to build up a much stronger bul- wark against the rapidly increasing aggressions of Russia than we could do by invading their territory and stirring up animosities, or even by annexation. About the same time the Amir of Bokhara sent an Envoy to Calcutta to implore the aid of British authorities against the Rus- sians. I met this Envoy as he passed through Jullundur, and had much conversation with him, which convinced me of the correctness of the view which I had taken, and on a later occasion I was able to turn this interview to good account when I was in St. Petersburg in 1869. 'The journey of the Vakheel to Calcutta pró- duced no fruit, for the murder of Stoddart and Connolly was still too fresh in the memory of Lord Lawrence, and he would give no heed to 46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF my the representations of the Amir. Of Lord Law- rence's policy towards Shere Ali, Amir of Cabul, I do not now wish to write further than to express firm belief that had he held out the hand of friendship in a more decided manner from the outset, we should have been spared much of the trouble and expense that the British Government has since had to incur. With Lord Lawrence's departure from India and Lord Mayo's arrival as Governor-General, the prospect of a more generous policy seemed to dawn. The views which I had put forward regarding the expansion of friendly relations with countries beyond our border met with his heartiest approval, and an opportunity at a very early stage presented itself of giving them practical effect in the visit of the Amir, Shere Ali, to the Governor-General at Umballa. I was Commissioner of Jullundur at this time, and I escorted Shere Ali through my division and accompanied him to Umballa; most friendly relations between us were struck up, and he expressed himself highly pleased with the manner in which he and his followers were treated as they passed through my division. 'On leaving India for Cabul, Shere Ali wrote me a letter of thanks, expressing a wish to see me in Cabul at some future period. The idea of SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 47 establishing amicable relations with the Central Asiatics and with the Russians having been so fully approved of by Lord Mayo, he authorized me to go to England, and thence, if possible, to St. Petersburg, to endeavour to effect some prac- tical arrangement. 'Unfortunately, his own party were not at that time in power. The Duke of Argyll was Secre- tary of State for India, and threw cold water on the proceedings of Lord Mayo. He would not allow any substantial promise of assistance to be given to Shere Ali, and altogether destroyed what might have been the good effect of the Umballa Durbar. When I reached England I found the Duke turned a deaf ear to all the proposals I put before him. Curiously enough, when all hope of success seemed denied me I found a very useful friend in Sir Roderick Murchison, then President of the Geographical Society. He listened care- fully and attentively to all I had to say, and at once introduced me to Baron Brunow, the Russian Ambassador, who caught the idea which was put forward and spoke to Lord Clarendon on the subject, and he suggested that I should go to Baden-Baden to see Prince Gortschakoff. I met with the utmost courtesy and consideration from Lord Clarendon, who thoroughly approved of 48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Lord Mayo's views. Armed with letters of intro- duction from Lord Clarendon and Baron Brunow, I went to Baden-Baden and spent a week in very pleasant interviews with Prince Gortschakoff, at the end of which time he informed me that he had received a telegram from the Emperor, in- viting me to pay him a visit. 'I returned to London highly pleased with my success, so far only to find my hopes once more damped by the lukewarmness of the Duke of Argyll, who could not see any advantage from my proposed acceptance of the emperor's invitation, and refused to accredit me, and as my leave was about to expire there seemed no help for it but was for me to return to India. But Lord Clarendon my good angel in this matter. He, in the mean- time, had gone abroad and met Prince Gortscha- koff, with whom he had conversations which have since become historically famous, one result of which was to advise me to apply for extra leave on private affairs; and then, taking me into his own department, properly accredited me to visit Russia. He first of all sent me to Constantinople to see our Ambassador there, and General Igna- tieff, the Russian Minister, after which I travelled by Odessa, Kief, and Moscow to St. Petersburg, and with the aid of Sir Andrew Buchanan's SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 49 counsel I had long interviews with Prince Gortschakoff, General Milutin, Minister of War, M. de Reuter, Minister of Finance, M. de Stre- mouokoff, head of the Asiatic Department. One great object which Lord Mayo had in view was to define with some approach to exactitude the territories of the Amir, Shere Ali's possessions, for the Russians had distinctly declared that they had nothing whatever to say to Shere Ali's dominions, but what those dominions were they professed to be in some doubt. At that time there was no sort of question of the Russians ever laying claim to any land in the region of Herat which they acknowledged, to be separated from their dominions by vast deserts which they did not think of crossing, and the question was confined entirely to the country bordering on the Oxus, from a place called Khojeh-Saleh up to the sources of that river on the Pamir, including the kingdoms of Badakshan and Wakhan. 'I was able to produce documents to show that these two countries belonged to Shere Ali; but M. Stremouokoff hesitated to accept these proofs, and a lucky chance helped me to clench the matter. At that time the son and Prime Minister of the King of Bokhara were in St. Petersburg, and I proposed to pay them a visit. Stremouo- 4 50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF koff said he would accompany me, and on our way he asked me if I could speak Persian, and on my replying in the affirmative, he drew a very long face and said he thought we had better not ask the Ambassador many questions about Badak- shan, as they might tell lies. However, I watched my opportunity, and got from them a distinct declaration that from the time that Dost Mahomed had taken Herat, the Amir of Bokhara had nothing to do with Badakshan or the countries across the Oxus. I at once reported this to Sir Andrew Buchanan, who went with me to Prince Gortschakoff. M. Stremouokoff was then sent for, and the conversation having been repeated, it was reduced to writing by Sir Andrew Buchanan, and at once forwarded to Lord Clarendon. 'Thus this most important point was settled. 'At a subsequent meeting with General Milu- tin, the subject was again brought up, and at an interview which I had with the Emperor a day or two afterwards, his Majesty said that all that had hitherto passed between his Ministers and myself had been reported to him and he was perfectly satisfied and hoped that I was too. 'I may here remark that in 1872 or 1873, when the subject was again brought forward, the Em- peror referred to that conversation and said that SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 51 he believed the matter to have been really settled then in concert with me. This will be found in the Blue Book. 'It was Sir A. Buchanan's idea that we had got enough ground to work upon to enable us at once to settle all future disputes by marking off the boundary of Afghanistan, and when I returned to London and had an interview with Lord Clar- endon he was of the same opinion and told me I ought to arrange to see Shere Ali and have the boundary defined. But, unfortunately, when I went to the India Office I found an icy barrier raised. The Duke of Argyll, who was Secretary of State, would not take the slightest interest in the matter, and no orders were passed. I went back to Lord Clarendon and expressed my disap- pointment, which he shared, and he wrote to the India Office a letter expressing his entire satis- faction with all my proceedings, but there the matter ended. 'On my return to Calcutta I reported every- thing to Lord Mayo, who showed the utmost readiness to push the matter and actually autho- rized me to make arrangements for going to Peshawur and communicate with Shere Ali. But, by a strange fatality, a suggestion was made that it would be better for us to refer again to St. 52 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Petersburg through London, to know what orders had been sent to the Governor-General of Turke- stan. This gave the Russians an opportunity of re-considering their position. M. Stremouokoff pretended to have doubts as to the accuracy of the Bokhara Ambassador's statements, and the golden opportunity of settling the Central Asian boundary question was thus lost. The magnitude of this mistake was fully appreciated by Sir An- drew Buchanan, who expressed, in a private note to me, his astonishment at the way in which the matter had been mismanaged. 'As a further instance of this, I may mention that General Kauffmann, supposing the matter to have been settled, sent a letter to the Amir, Shere Ali, translated into three languages, acknowledg- ing that he had nothing more to do with Afghan- istan, and expressing his hope that there would always be friendship between himself and the Amir. 'In the letter he pointedly referred to my pro- ceedings at St. Petersburg, with which he naturally supposed Shere Ali had been acquainted. This letter Shere Ali forwarded to the Governor- General and asked to what it referred, and what reply he was to send? It was, in fact, the first intimation he had received that the affairs of his SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 53 kingdom had been discussed between England and Russia. And I have reason to believe, from what was told me afterwards by his Wazeer, that he was considerably disgusted at not having heard of it first through our Government.' * * Here Sir Douglas's own narrative ends. The following chapter have been compiled in the manner referred to in the preface.-ED. 54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF CHAPTER V. FIRST EXPEDITION TO YARKUND IN 1870. How far Sir Douglas succeeded in effecting the objects set forth in the mission to Russia recorded in the foregoing chapter will appear from the following letter from the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under Secretary of State, India Office. 'November 30th, 1869. 'SIR,—I am directed by the Earl of Clarendon to inform you that, understanding that Mr. Forsyth is about to return to India, his lordship considers it an act of justice to that gentleman to place on record the high sense he entertains of the ability and judgment displayed by him in the mission which, at the suggestion of the Earl of Clarendon and with the sanction of the Duke of Argyll, Mr. Forsyth undertook the visit to St. Petersburg. The communications held by Mr. Forsyth with SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 55 the Russian Ministers will be found in the de- spatches from Sir A. Buchanan already transmitted to the India Office; and his Excellency, on November 5th, reported "that Mr. Forsyth had the honour yesterday of an audience of the Emperor, at which the language held to him by his Majesty may be fairly considered a ratification of the confidential assurances and explanations offered to him by his Majesty's Ministers." ( The political and commercial knowledge, as well as the local experience, that Mr. Forsyth brought to bear on the question of Central Asia under discussion between the Russian and British Governments appear to have made considerable impression upon the Ministers of the Emperor, and may have important results; and, in the opinion of the Earl of Clarendon, Mr. Forsyth's proceedings merit the entire approval of the Indian Government. '(Signed) A. OTWAY.' Sir Douglas returned to India at the close of 1869, very deeply impressed with the importance and advisability of opening up trade with Central Asia; and in this view he was cordially supported by Lord Mayo, who, in April, 1870, received a visit from one Mirza Mohamad Shadee, Envoy 56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF from a chieftain known as the Atalik Ghazee and ruling over Kashgar, or Eastern Turkestan, re- questing the Viceroy's permission for a British officer to return with him to his country on a friendly visit to the court and capital of his master. The Viceroy consented, and directed Sir Douglas Forsyth (then Mr. Forsyth) to proceed to Yarkund with Mirza Shadee, not in any political character, but merely for the purpose of gathering information upon the history and condition of Turkestan, and upon the prospects of trade between India and that country. A sum of £1750 was allowed for the expenses of the ex- pedition, the general conduct of the journey being left to Sir Douglas's discretion. To quote the words of an article which appeared in The Times of August 31, 1871 :- C Thanks to perfect organization and to the tact and courage of the leader and his comrades, the double journey of two thousand miles between Lahore and Yarkund and back was successfully accomplished in only six months, over the highest tract of country in the world, and as Mr. Forsyth adds with pardonable pride, without the loss of a single follower or a load of baggage.' As the same Times article gives so admirable SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 57 an account of the numerous difficulties which beset Sir Douglas on this journey, we quote it as follows:- 'Before starting with Mr. Forsyth, we may as well relate shortly the history of the Atalik Ghazee, and of the kingdom which he has estab- lished. From the fourteenth to the middle of last century Eastern Turkestan, or Kashgaria, was ruled by a Mohammedan dynasty called the Khojas. The weaker party in some civil dis- sensions having applied to China for aid, the result was that in 1765 the whole country passed under the celestial yoke and became a part of Chinese Tartary. The representatives of the Khoja dynasty then fled to Khokund, whence from time to time they made attempts to recover their kingdom, but their opportuity was delayed for one hundred years, till 1864, when the Khoja chief of the day took advantage of the general disorder of the Chinese Empire to send Yakoob Beg from Khokund to conquer the Kashgar coun- try under the Khoja standard. But Yakoob Beg preferred fighting for his own right hand, and made such a good conquest of it that he was soon able to assume the government, and to exile Bur- zurg Khan, the Khoja chief, whose vices and in- capability had rendered him thoroughly unpopular. 58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Yakoob Beg, having expelled or massacred all the Chinese, and compelled the few who remained to cut off their pigtails and become Mussulmans, made himself king of the country under the title of Atalik Ghazee, enforced the strict observance of the Mohammedan religion, which had sat rather loosely upon the Uzbegs during the Chinese rule, and set himself to work to consolidate his power and develop the resources of his kingdom. All taxes, except the one-fortieth sanctioned by the Koran, were remitted (though unbelievers are made to pay double), Hindoo and other merchants. were encouraged, and the result has been that, with the exception of the distant tribes which the Atalik was warring against at the time of Mr. Forsyth's visit, the people are prosperous and contented with the severe, but in the main wise and just, rule of their new master. Thus a com- pact power has suddenly grown up in a country which lies in a position which may cause it one day to play no inconsiderable part in the Central Asian rivalry of two mighty Empires. It cer- tainly behoves our Indian Government to culti- vate political and commercial relations with the Atalik Ghazee and his people; for, if they do not, we may be sure the Russian Government will. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 59 6 At Although the journey to Yarkund by Mr. Forsyth's route is one thousand miles long, that city lies scarcely five hundred miles due north of Lahore. But three hundred and fifty of these miles are across mountains where the shortest cut is a long way round, and where the wonder is that any way can be found at all. Starting from Lahore, Mr. Forsyth travelled, in the first in- stance, through Cashmere to Leh in Ladakh. Leh, for some years past, a British officer has resided during the summer to watch and protect the trade between India and Turkestan, which has, under these good auspices, risen from £55,000 in 1857 to £129,000 in 1869. As far as Leh the road from India through Cashmere is well known, and has been frequently described, so that this may be considered the real starting-point of the expedition. Here the party collected and pre- pared for their journey across the highest country in the world, while the Wuzeer of Ladakh, an official under the Maharajah of Cashmere (who had undertaken, at a price, to supply the expedi- tion with luggage, animals, and provisions), was directed to lay out supplies of grass, grain, and other supplies along the road beyond the Chang- Chenmo Valley, towards the desolate plateau which is the bugbear of this route. Let us survey 60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF the cavalcade of these Asian pilgrims as it defiles through the gate of Leh. More numerous and heterogeneous than Chaucer's, it comprises, first of all, three Europeans-Mr. Forsyth, the leader, Mr. R. B. Shaw, "the first Englishman who ever went to Yarkund, and the pioneer of Central Asian trade with India,” and Dr. Henderson, medical and scientific officer to the expedition. In the native suite are a bird collector and a plant collector, a native doctor and native secretary, a native Pun- jab merchant and his two brothers, in charge of the treasure chest, and attached to the expedition on account of their knowledge of the country and people, a native writer, several Indian policemen, and a pundit belonging to the Trigonometrical Survey. In addition to these there is the first, or rather the second, cause of the expedition, the Atalik Ghazee's Envoy before mentioned; also the Atalik Ghazee's nephew, Mohammed Yakoob, returning from a mission to Constantinople, where he had been to lay the state of affairs in his native country before the Head of the Faithful. This Mohammed Yakoob had visited Mecca, and was not only a holy man but an author; for, as one day he sat on a carpet under a great plane tree with Mr. Forsyth, waiting till a shower of rain should pass, he ordered his servants to produce SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 61 two well-bound and neatly written volumes, which, he said, he had composed while halting at Sri- nuggur. In his train is a priest from the sacred cities of Arabia. The Atalik Ghazee is known to be a staunch Mussulman, and liberal to the Faithful, for he has established a caravanserai at Mecca, and priest Khuleel is now on his way to Yarkund with a pony-load of some wonderful specimens of Arab books and Korans, in the hopes of obtaining a good sum of money for him- self, and perhaps the endowment of a school at Mecca. But alas! there is a ricketty bridge over a certain river near Ladakh, and down into the torrent pony and Korans and all Khuleel's hopes are doomed to fall, leaving their wretched owner standing on the bank "a perfect picture of despair," as Mr. Forsyth says. Mr. Forsyth's own party, including camp followers, numbered about sixty souls and one hundred and thirty baggage ponies. The Envoy, his ladies, his retinue, and his four hundred muskets, packed in boxes containing four or five each, each box carried by two porters, numbered at least twice as many more. There was also the Maharajah of Cashmere's agent with his troops of ponies and yaks laden with grass and grain, additional quantities of which had been laid out along the Chang-Chenmo route, which 62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF for twenty-seven marches passes through a com- pletely barren and uninhabited country. ( This small multitude of men, women, and animals, started from Leh on July 7, 1870. Two marches along the right bank of the Indus brought them to the village and Buddhist monastery of Chimri, where they turned up a valley, wooded with willow and poplar, which brought them in twelve miles to the foot of the Chang La or North Pass. The summit of this pass, seventeen thou- sand six hundred feet, or two thousand feet higher than Mont Blanc, was reached by a gradual ascent over a good road, easy to the baggage animals. The descent was equally gradual, and on his return Mr. Forsyth met laden camels crossing the pass with perfect ease. A few miles and Tanksé, the last village on the road between Ladakh and Yarkund, was reached; for one or two marches more stones put together to form walls of roofless huts were noticed at the halting-places, and then, for the next three weeks, all was desert. At the Pangong Lake, which was photographed for the first time in its existence by Dr. Henderson, the road turned to the north towards the famous Chang-Chenmo Valley, and a stretch of country covered with grass, wild lavender, and tamarisk led to the foot of the Marsemik Pass, marked by SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 63 Mr. Hayward as eighteen thousand four hundred and fifty-seven feet above the sea. This pro- digious ascent was so easy that it was accom- plished on horseback without fatigue, though within two thousand feet of the summit a difficulty of breathing began to be felt, and continued for ten or twelve days, during which the road lay over country above sixteen thousand feet high. Nothing can surpass the desolation of this Chang- Chenmo or Great Northern Valley. Perfectly bare and gravelly, with no sign of vegetable life beyond a few tamarisk bushes at the banks of the rivers, the desert hills rise tier on tier, in huge plateaux, to the height of nineteen thousand feet. The gorge of the Pangong Lake is bounded by a splendid wall of snow-clad mountains, with glaciers in every ravine. But these are in the distance. On the road, though sixteen thousand feet above the sea, there was not a particle of snow. Rain seldom or never falls in this region, and the hills are not cut up into deep ravines; there are no bold peaks, but a dreary sameness of masses of round, disintegrated rock. Mr. Forsyth imagines that the vast plateaux of these mountains were at one time enormous ice fields which gradually melted away. 'At the head of the Chang-Chenmo Valley the 64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF expedition halted to prepare for crossing the plain known as the Bam-i-dunya, or Roof of the World, which separates Central Asia from Hindostan. Here was the furthest point to which the Mahara- jah of Cashmere had extended any sign of his authority, in the shape of small storehouses for grain, erected at the different marches as far as the head of the valley. Those curious traces of the Buddhist religion, Marnis, or heaps of small stones carved by the Lamas with the mystica. words 'Om mani padmi hun,' had ceased on the south side of the Marsemik Pass. Before pushing across The Roof of the World' the baggage animals were mustered, the grain estimated, and all camp-followers and Cashmere guards dispensed. with. The Wuzeer of Ladakh, who had the charge of the victualling on the part of the Ma harajah, and had travelled thus far with the expe- dition, declared that every supply was ready, bu that he himself would stay in the Chang-Chenmc Valley till he should hear of the safe arrival of the party at the Karakash river, so that he might be ready to send help if required. Mr. Forsyth pushed on. First a marvellous pass was crossed: the Chang-Leng-ha, nineteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, the ascent so gradual as to be scarcely noticed, and then the great barren SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 65 plateau, ranging in altitude from sixteen thou- When at last a sand to nineteen thousand feet. halting-place which boasted some scanty roots for fuel was reached, man and beast were fairly ex- hausted, and, to crown all, it was found that the Wuzeer, who already had nearly cost the success of the expedition by peculating in the baggage- ponies, had at the last moment kept back the better part of the grain. Messengers were sent, but he made no reply, and Mr. Forsyth had no choice but to push on to a grazing ground three days ahead. It is satisfactory to read that this Wuzeer was afterwards disgraced by the Ma- harajah. 'At this point of the journey the landscapes were of unearthly dreariness and magnificence. Far to the west the jagged peaks of the great Karakoram range shot up into the sky; to the north the Kuen Lun mountains walled the horizon; while eastwards stretched a barren desert, bounded by hills the ridges of which were fantastically shaped into domes, towers, and minarets. By the time the Lok Zang Valley and a little coarse grass were reached the expedition was in a critical state. Many of the baggage animals had died, the remainder were dying, the party were far from all help, and "perched, as it were, on the top ་ 5 66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF of the world." Under these circumstances, Mr. Forsyth determined to push forward with the stoutest ponies and porters, leaving the rest of the camp, well supplied with provisions, to wait till fresh carriage could be procured from Ladakh, or till the exhausted animals were recruited suffi- ciently to follow, which, as it turned out, they were able to do in a few days. Mirza Shadee and Mahomed Yakoob, the envoy and nephew of the Atalik Ghazee, left most of their camp and all their ladies behind, and hurried on by double marches to Shahidulla, on the outskirts of the Ata- lik's kingdom, whence they promised to send help of all kinds. Past ice-beds and rolling downs strewed with topazes which glittered afar off like diamonds in the sun, over a large plain covered a foot thick with Glauber's salt, in which the ponies' feet sank with a crackling sound as though they were going over ice, the travellers journeyed, to the Karakash river. The soda-plain they were fortunate to cross before noon, for later in the day the wind rises and stirs up a cloud of soda dust which is fatal to animal life. The remains were noticed of some former caravan which must have been overtaken and suffocated by such a storm. The glare of this soda resembles that of snow; the fine particles which fly up from it even in calm SIR DOUGLAs forsyth. 67 weather fill the eyes, nostrils, and mouth, causing a most unpleasant taste, and, as it was, several of the Ladakh ponies perished. Near the Karakash river a herd of wild horses were startled; the Yarkund ladies amused themselves by galloping after them, but the Europeans could only sit still and look on, for the wretched animals supplied by the Wuzeer had not a gallop left in them. A few days' march down the Karakash river brought the party to some jade quarries (formerly worked by the Chinese, but closed since their expulsion from Turkestan), and soon after a convoy of sixty yaks laden with good things from Mirza Shadee hove in sight, and the troubles and dangers of the travellers, from hunger at least, were over. At length the country began to be inhabited. The camp was visited by nomad Kirghiz, with flat Mongolian faces, and by Wakhis, whose high- bridged noses and sharp features betokened an Aryan race. The Mongolians, if not the hand- somer, were the more honest, delighting to con- verse with and entertain the guests of their master, the Atalik Ghazee. Mr. Shaw, whom they knew already, was especially greeted with much tea- drinking and stroking of beards. At the fort of Shahidulla Mirza Shadee and Kazee Yakoob wel- comed the party to Yarkund soil, and communi- : : 68 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF cated the news that the Atalik Ghazee had been absent for seven months from his capital on an expedition, but was on his way back to Kashgar with one thousand prisoners and much treasure. 'The travellers now journeyed towards Yar- kund as the guests of the Atalik Ghazee. One more pass, higher than the highest Alp, was crossed. By a summer village of Kirghiz Yoorts, or tents of lattice work roofed with felt, and over rainless hills, covered with dust which the traveller's foot stirs into suffocating clouds, the road wound on. Countless coveys of partridge and the snow pheasant, and flocks of ibex, abounded in the valleys, down which Mr. Forsyth pursued his way to within a hundred and twenty miles of Yarkund, where he halted for a few days on the bank of the Arpalak river, in a place of good grass and bushes covered with the yellow China rose. Here he was introduced to the Asiatic custom of the dastar-khwán, or tablecloth, which he described as follows:- "Kasim Akhoond Begi, of Zungia, arrived in camp with fruits, etc., and presented himself before us. Having received him at the door of my tent, we seated ourselves on the ground more Usbeco, and then a coloured tablecloth was spread before us, on which melons, pears, grapes, apricots, necta- 1 SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 69 rines, sugared almonds, and biscuits, were dis- played. The custom is for the guest to break a piece of bread or biscuit, and then invite his host and companions to join in the feast. He also offers them cups of green tea, of which, unmixed with milk or sugar, a true Yarkundee, or Andi- jani, will drink a considerable number. Conversa- tion on the part of the host at the first meal is not considered polite. After a while the fruit is removed, any crumbs of bread which may have fallen are carefully placed on the tablecloth, which is taken away, beards are stroked, every one says 'Allah Akbar,' and then the host suddenly gets up and runs out of the tent-the reason of this being, I am told, that he is supposed to be anxious to get away without putting his guest to the trouble of getting up to bid him good-bye." 'Some diplomatic difficulties being smoothed over, the expedition continued its march across the plains of Yarkund. The Dadkhwáh or Governor of Yarkund sent a letter, regretting the absence of the Atalik at the seat of war, and an escort of honour, commanded by one Tash Khoje, who rode a handsome black horse, and was followed by soldiers, well mounted, and carrying match- locks, fitted with pronged supports, on which to rest the gun while taking aim. After so many 70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF days of desert travelling, it was pleasant to pass through a country of fields of wheat, wild oats, hemp, and Indian corn; of wide meadows, through which canals of water flowed; of gardens, full of apples, peaches, pears, and walnuts. Mirza Shadee fed his guests in princely style, on savoury pillaus, delicately seasoned soups, and delicious joints. The Yarkund cooks are perfect artists: they wear neat aprons, keep their kitchens and vessels scrupulously clean, and cook by steam and with good butter. According to the custom of the country, Mr. Forsyth bestowed khillats, or dresses of honour, on his hosts, which, also according to custom, were vehemently refused for some time before they were accepted. The summer costume of the Yarkundees consists of a cap neatly worked or trimmed with sheepskin, felt stockings, and top boots of brown, untanned leather, and a choga or long white robe, which gives the whole population the appearance of going about in their night- clothes. The well-to-do classes wear chogas of coloured silk or cloth, or of mushroo,-a fabric of silk and cotton dyed in a mixture of bright colours, something after the pattern of a marble-stained wall paper. The women dress in a kind of white nightgown and a high round cap, plaiting their hair or letting it fall down the back. Neither SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 71 earrings nor any ornament are to be seen on man or woman, and the only weapon carried is a knife hanging from the girdle. The cattle of the country resemble the English type; the sheep are of a good size, and have broad, fat tails, and the bullocks are not only used as beasts of burden, but are broken to the saddle and taught the "yulga," or ambling pace. As for diseases, goitre is almost universal, small-pox is prevalent, but the people declared to Mr. Forsyth that fevers, dysentery, and cholera were unknown. 'The travellers rode through Karghalik, a country town. The main street was about fifteen feet wide, and in many places covered over. There were bakers' and butchers' shops, tobacconists' and greengrocers' stalls, a college, a school, and, at the end of the street, a gallows fitted up with pulleys to accommodate two criminals at once. On the roofs of the houses were small flower gardens of China asters and balsams. Karghalik is thirty-five miles from Yarkund, and the road lies through a rich and well-watered plain, scat- tered with farmsteads. Streams and copses, flocks of sheep with thick white fleeces, and well- fattened poultry, made the scene English. Signs of a progressive, vigorous government government were everywhere visible,-in the well-kept roads and 72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF bridges and the many new canals in course of construction. The crops were cotton, flax, wheat -Yarkund is famous for its beautiful white bread, -maize, millet, and vegetables; the watercourses and lanes were shaded by rows of poplars and willows; the landscape was coloured in the various tints between freshly springing green and ripening yellow; and the roads were thronged with market folk, donkey-loads of melons, leather, and other goods, and droves of sheep, or ponies. The women, looking back, we may be sure, turned aside according to custom, while the farmers dis- mounted quickly and bent in respectful salutation till the cavalcade had passed by. The last halt before entering Yarkund was made at a place called Yungi Bazaar, which a few years back was a desolate swamp. This was drained by the Government, who bestowed it in liberal grants upon agriculturists, and built a large bazaar in which weekly markets are now held. "Thus," adds Mr. Forsyth, "does peaceful industry thrive in Yarkund." 'On August 23 the entry into Yarkund was made, and the same day the travellers were over- taken by English letters and newspapers. A few more miles and a point in the road was rounded, and they came in sight of the object of their weary SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 73 journey-the walls of the city of Yarkund, "a long white line, here and there partially hidden by tall trees." Passing through melon gardens, which extended to the very foot of the wall, they rode in at the gate, guarded by a dozen or two villagers, armed with sticks, pikes, and old axes, doing duty in the absence of the regular army, which had gone forth to fight under the Atalik Ghazee. Through a great crowd, made up of Yarkundees, Cashmerees, Chinese, Kalmaks, Tajeks, and Hin- dostanees, they threaded their way along streets bordered by a low, level line of single-storied houses; past the great bazaar, like all other bazaars; past sundry colleges or large schools, to the gate of the Yungi Shahr, or new city, built by the Chinese to overawe the larger city close by. The ruins of houses of ill-fame, destroyed with their inmates by order of the Government, and a human head fixed on the top of a long pole, be- spoke the austerity of the Atalik's rule. One part of the fortifications of the new city had been the scene a few years before of a bloody struggle between the Khokand troops, under the Atalik, and the Chinese garrison, in which the Chinese Commander, finding all hopes of further defence in vain, had fired a mine and blown himself and his followers into the air. The new city is now 74 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF the cantonment of the dominant Khokund army, and, though the Atalik was away at war, he had here left a few troops of a more military appear- ance than the ragamuffin militia who guarded the outer gate. 'Mr. Forsyth remained no more than a fort- night at Yarkund. He soon found that the cam- paign on which the Atalik Ghazee was engaged was likely to continue for an indefinite time, and, though in the absence of the Atalik, the Dadkhwáh or Governor of Yarkund scarcely dared to let him go, he kept to his instructions with great determi- nation, and started on his homeward journey on September 5. While at Yarkund he and his party were lodged and entertained in a house built for the purpose by order of the Atalik, and fitted with every Yarkundian luxury, and even with curious imitations of European furniture. A good deal of time was taken up in ceremonious interviews with the Dadkhwáh, and in negociations for the departure, but Mr. Forsyth was able to see something of the city and its suburbs, and to collect a good deal of information. Passing the gardens beneath the walls, he and his companions rode by broad roads and pleasant shaded lanes, through a country sprinkled with suburban villages and detached houses surrounded SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 75 by their orchards and gardens. Along the great north road couriers were every day spurring with despatches to or from the Atalik's camp at Turfan, three hundred miles off. These men rode right through the journey, changing horses every fifteen or twenty miles, and travelling at a steady yulga, or amble, of six miles an hour. Everywhere in the rural districts there was peaceful, active in- dustry, and the peasants would look up from their work with pleased, inquisitive eyes as the Euro- peans rode by. The gardens outside the walls are the fashionable resort of the ladies of the upper class; the lower class are well skilled in embroidery, and though women are not allowed to be unveiled in public, they seem to enjoy con- siderable freedom, and the travellers often noticed their ruddy faces and well-blackened eyebrows. Many were the presents the Dadkhwáh and Mr. Forsyth gave to each other. Gunpowder, clocks, velvets, and brocade were repaid by robes of honour, fur cloaks, and "forty pairs of top-boots." Mr. Forsyth preserved from first to last his dignity and freedom, though it is easy to see that had his firmness and tact been less than they were the Dadkhwáh, out of mere anxiety to detain him at Yarkund till the Atalik's return, would not have scrupled to make a prisoner of his guest. 76 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF The return journey was accomplished without mishap. Every day, so long as the party were in Yarkund territory, they were overtaken by some present or friendly letter from the Dadkwáh; marked respect was shown by all villagers and travellers, riders dismounted from their horses as the Englishmen passed, and, as a rule, the spec- tators bowed, crossed their arms, and gave the salutation "Salaam Aleikum." 'Mr. Forsyth, owing to the strict tenure of his instructions, unavoidably failed in one object of his expedition-that of expressing to the Atalik Ghazee in person the friendly sentiments of the British Government. But he met with an honour- able reception from the Atalik's officers, and the fact of such a journey having been made, and with such success, will do much to bring this new kingdom, which may yet have an important part to play in Central Asian politics, into closer political and commercial relations with our Indian Empire. The classified list of articles of com- merce and their relative value in Yarkund and India which Mr. Forsyth appends to his report will be of use to the native trader; it shows that most Indian goods may be carried to Yarkund and sold at a great profit, and this information will of itself be enough to largely increase the present SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 77 trade. The route by which Mr. Forsyth travelled was but imperfectly known; though not without its difficulties, it is now proved to be perfectly practicable for ponies or camels, and we may hope soon to see it thronged in the summer season with caravans bearing the brocades and teas of India and bringing back the silver of Turkestan. All this is more than worth the 1750 which Mr. Forsyth's expedition cost the Indian Govern- ment. 'We must not forget to add, in connection with the account of this mission, that the curiosities collected by Mr. Forsyth, as well as a number brought home by Drs. Cayley and Campbell, now form a "Yarkund Court at the Crystal Palace."" Although the account just given is complete in detail and interesting in style it may add con- siderable interest to give the following narrative of the expedition as Sir Douglas himself wrote it in the form of a letter to his brother, Mr. Forsyth, Q.C., dated from the 'British Legation, Yarkund.' To you belongs the honour, or at all events the interest, of having the first letter ever written by an Englishman in Yarkund to a fellow country- man-not to say brother-in England. We ar- rived here yesterday, and are now settled for a 78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF short time in most comfortable quarters in the heart of the old Chinese Fort, which a year or two ago was the scene of a bloody assault by the victorious Atalik Ghazee, followed by the heroic self-sacrifice of the Chinese garrison, the commander of which, rather than have his throat cut by the conquerors, blew himself and his fol- lowers into the air. 'We have had a long and very arduous march. I left Jullundur on April 25, and after a halt of a fortnight at Srunuggur, the capital of Cashmere, I have been perpetually on the march. I have only halted five times since I parted from my family, now two and a half months ago, and my journey has been for the last six weeks across mountain passes nineteen thousand four hundred feet high, over lofty deserts seventeen thousand and eighteen thousand feet high, and extending for eleven days, then down river beds, crossing the streams of which frequently cost much labour and no little danger to life and property. Then when we got on to the Yarkund plains we found our road for four days lay across a span of the great desert of Gobi, and whereas on the high deserts we had been exposed to a temperature of seven degrees above zero, here we found our- selves burned up by the scorching sand, which SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 79 filled the sky and obscured the air. A more trying, troublesome journey one can scarcely con- ceive, yet it is comfort and pleasure compared to the return march, which we shall soon have to undertake, when late autumn will cover the passes with snow and bring the temperature down to twenty degrees below zero. However, we must make up our minds to it and see what Central Asian furs can effect as a barrier to the cold. Political difficulties we have had of a troublesome nature. When crossing the high desert we very nearly all came to an untimely end, owing to the misconduct of the Cashmere officials. I was, of course, dependent on them for being convoyed through their territory, and so long as I was in Cashmere and Ladakh, had every reason to speak favourably of the attentions shown me. In cross- ing the high desert, which is debatable ground between Cashmere and Yarkund, it was necessary to take good animals and abundant supplies for at least three weeks, both for man and beast, and I very carefully calculated the amount necessary, and was assured by the Wuzeer that he had sent double what I wanted. But when we got into the desert we found that instead of fifty-one loads of grain he had only sent five, and I never got more than fifteen. The consequence was that a very 80 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF large proportion of our pack horses, or ponies, died from starvation and fatigue, and we had the utmost difficulty in taking only half our camp across the desert and down the Karakash valley to Shahidulla, the first outpost of the Yarkund ter- ritory. Here we were wholly dependent on the authorities for carriage animals and food. And here fresh and novel difficulties arose. I had received strict orders from Lord Mayo not to proceed to Yarkund unless I were assured that perfect peace prevailed throughout the whole kingdom. Communication with this country ex- cept at certain seasons is quite closed, and when I reached Leh, the only information I could get was brought by two official messengers who had just arrived from Yarkund. They reported "all well, and the Atalik at Kashgar." To make matters certain I addressed a letter to the Envoy in my camp, requesting him to certify this if true. He did so in writing to the Secretary to Govern- ment. I also sent two of my men on ahead to Shahidulla to ascertain the facts from the Kirghiz and others. They returned to my camp in the desert with the same report. Again, the Envoy having preceded me to Shahidulla, wrote word that the King was at Kashgar anxiously awaiting our arrival, and had sent officers on to assist our SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. Sr approach. With this amount of evidence your legal mind will perhaps support the decision at which I arrived, nothing doubting that the King was where he was said to be, and when we saw animals laden with provisions arrive to our suc- cour, we might be excused for praising the King as "a jolly good fellow." As, however, we passed Shahidulla, and were crossing the last pass into Yarkund, we met traders crossing from that place, who whispered that the King had been absent from Kashgar for some seven months, and was engaged in a very troublesome and protracted campaign, and some of the traders glibly con- fessed that they had been ordered by the Envoy to conceal all this from us. I at once called a halt and told the Envoy what my instructions were, and said I must go back. But I was com- pletely in his hands, as without his help I could get neither food nor animals, and he knowing his power, politely starved us into compliance. I had to submit so far as to agree to move lower down the mountains till I could draw supplies from the first village, Sanjú. But I wrote a letter to the Dadkhwáh of Yarkund, the man next to the King in authority, stating the case, and asking for pre- cise information as regards the King's movements, Then I determined, come what might, not etc. 6 82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF The to move a step further till I got his answer. Envoy implored, entreated, threatened, and swore in Turkee, but in vain. At last, he thought to frighten me by leaving us alone in the jungle. But still I remained firm. At last, after six days' suspense, we got an answer from the Dadkhwáh, in which he most positively assured me that the war was entirely at an end, and perfect peace prevailed everywhere, and the King was on his way back, and would probably see me in less than three weeks. I can't say that I believed this, but I felt myself without option, to act as if I believed it. Unless I should do so, until I proved him wrong, there would be just cause of offence given, and if the word of the second greatest man in the kingdom could not be trusted there must be an end to all intercourse between our Government; and, moreover, situated as I was, unless I conciliated them and got their help, I could not return. So I determined to move on to Yarkund, but stipulated that if the King did not appear within three weeks I was to be provided with carriage and provisions and be allowed to depart in peace. We then moved down to Sanjú, the first village we had seen for six weeks. The rivers which flow from the Kuen Lurn range spread their fertilizing waters fertilizing waters over numerous SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 83 valleys which thus form pleasing oases in the desert, and afforded resting-places for us as we marched from Sanjú to Yarkund. For the last thirty miles or more we passed through a very richly cultivated and well wooded country re- sembling England in its appearance and climate. Farmsteads scattered all over the land bespoke peaceful industry and perfect security. Fruit of all descriptions and excellent in quality grows in profusion, and the very finest wheat in the world is grown here. I never tasted nicer bread than the Yarkundees make, and there is a saying that when once you have tasted Yarkund bread you never wish to leave the place. If everybody had to cross and recross the deserts as we have done I could quite believe this saying, and as it is I can cordially join in praising the wheat. Cereals of all kinds are grown, and fine carrots, turnips (rather poor) and French beans we have seen and eaten. The people of the villages and towns are simple and quiet, very friendly and hospitable. Life and property are safer from violence here than in any part of the British dominions, and there is no necessity for us to go about armed. Yesterday we had to cross the Yarkund river, which at this season of the year has a broad, deep, and rapid stream; so we had to use the ferry 84 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF boats, elongated punts, not very skilfully navi- gated by the boatmen. We had to sit on the bank for some time till our horses and baggage had been transported. We beguiled our time by reading a letter from you and the Mail and Saturday Review, which had just arrived. These were only two months old, and what better proof could I give of the security of the country and of the roads, or of the improvement effected within the last year or two in opening out com- munications with Central Asia? In 1868, a writer in the Quarterly Review, penning his article under the dictation of Lord Lawrence, denounced me as an enemy to my country for "prating of em- bassies" to Yarkund, as he called it, and now within two years, by no more potent weapon than the interchange of civilities, three Englishmen find themselves comfortably seated on the banks of the Yarkund river, fêted and well treated by the people of the country, and reading the latest news, which is only two months old, from London. 'The rather uncivil, and decidedly deceitful conduct of the Envoy is not to be taken either as a specimen of Yarkund manners, or as indica- tive of anything like ill-feeling. Having been to St. Petersburg, and to Calcutta as Envoy, he has acquired some knowledge of Europeans and SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 85 their manners, and imagines that he is displaying his knowledge by showing a freedom from polite- ness very foreign to Asiatics as a rule, and his deceit was only the result of his great desire some- how or other to add to his master's honour by securing the arrival in Yarkund of the expected Embassy. We have found all other Yarkundee officials uniformly polite and pleasant. The city of Yarkund is a large town containing, perhaps, one hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants. It is surrounded by a low mud wall, with parapets loopholed for musketry. The artillery is not worthy of mention, and there is none to defend the town. Inside, the bazaars and streets are much like streets and bazaars all over Asia. From the excessive dryness of the climate, there is no occasion to use burnt brick, and consequently the town has a poor appearance, and is remarkable for the absence of anything like a minaret, tower, or dome. The highest object in the whole town is the execution scaffold, now pulled down, either in compliment to us, or because no one is left to be executed; and I verily believe the highest object now in Yarkund is a human head on the top of a pole, which we passed, and which, Shaw says, was there when he came to the place two years ago. The quarters prepared for our reception, 86 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF and which we have christened "The British Lega- tion," have been entirely constructed and fitted up for the occasion. Entering a narrow passage from one of the main streets we passed a large courtyard on each side, one set apart for our servants, the other fitted up for stables in a style which would satisfy a man of the most fastidious taste. Passing these we came to a garden on two sides of which were houses built for the different members of the expedition. Mine is enclosed in a small courtyard, the floor of which is neatly paved. I have a suite of rooms, the centre one being open to the yard, and is filled with gorgeously covered chairs of primitive fashion, being the Yarkundees first essay at adopting European civilization. Three or four tables jumbled together filled up the space in the room. On one side is my bedroom, and perfectly plain, empty except for the carpets of rich gaily coloured - woollen pile. On the other side is my sitting- room, also well carpeted, and all around neatly carved benches well covered with cushions are ranged. Fireplaces of a pattern peculiar to Yarkund are put in the room. Then there is for each one—more Uzbeco-a comfortable room for bathing, and in other respects they show that though Tartars are supposed to be wild and rude. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 87 i in their habits, we have found them entitled to rank with the most civilized nations in the world. In one respect too, I can give them unqualified praise. Their cuisine is first-rate, and I do not despair some day of seeing a dîner à la Yarkundee placed before my approving guests in London. But their custom is peculiar and requires to be well understood. You commence with a profusion of fruit, grapes, melons, white figs, peaches, nec- tarines, and pears. Then comes in a dish of minced-mutton pies, delicately seasoned and rolled up in crusts of flour, which are cooked in steam. These are called "muntoo." Then comes a short interval during which a few grapes may be taken, or bread dipped in a conserve of apples, or pumpkin, or in a basin of sweetened cream. Then comes the ash, the piece de resistance. It is, in fact, a remarkably well-cooked pillau of mutton or beef. The whole to conclude with a large basin of "toopa," or soup, made of mutton broth and rice or barley, flavoured with a slight acid, which gives it a most piquante taste. Then green tea is brought to wash it all down, and the table- cloth, a coloured article, is removed, and you stroke your beard and say "Alkund u-l-lilla. "" 'We have experienced a series of feasts of the above character all along the road, the head men 88 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF < of villages coming out to meet us and insisting on our partaking of their hospitality, even at the early hour of seven a.m. if we happened to pass at that time. The Dadkhwáh sent a messenger to meet us on the road, with a present of gorgeous silk dresses, which he begged us to wear in his honour. The choga, or cloak, however, was all that I could bring myself to throw over my Eng- lish clothes; but if ever you wish to make an effective appearance in a fancy ball, I can turn you out a completely equipped Yarkundee Turk. September 3. Since I began this letter I have had reason to wish that I had never heard of Yarkund, and that I had never trusted to the word of a Turkee. "All's well that ends well," and we are now preparing for our start on the return journey, but with a tale of oriental duplicity and treachery, which it seems will never be allowed to grow old. I do not like to give full details, till the Government have possession of the facts, but I may tell you that it has only been by the exercise of the utmost firmness in refusing to consent to the breach of agreements once made, and in persisting in obeying the orders of the Governor-General at all costs, that I have gained the day. I have had an exceedingly difficult and trying time of it, as you will allow when you hear SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 89 it all, and am truly thankful to have secured a triumph over all this deceit without committing myself. I was strongly pressed to yield, and am thankful that I did not consent, and I have the satisfaction of feeling that though all hopes of opening out free relations with this country are at an end, the honour of our nation has suffered no loss at my hands. 'I hope to leave this in two days, and when once off shall push hard for the Punjab, where I ought to arrive—a man of ice, perhaps,-in November, and then farewell to Central Asian affairs for me.' 90 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF CHAPTER VI. MISSION TO KASHGAR IN 1873. ALTHOUGH the expedition to Yarkund already narrated did not accomplish as much as Sir Douglas hoped and expected it might, he was so satisfied of the friendly intention of the ruler of Kashgar towards the British Government and of the possibilities of trade between the two countries of India and Central Asia that when Lord Northbrook, as Viceroy of India, asked Sir Douglas to undertake a second expedition over the formidable passes of the Himalayas, this time not as a mere traveller, but as Envoy and Pleni- potentiary from her Majesty to the Court of the Atalik Ghazee at Yarkund, he accepted the responsibility with great readiness, and the ac- count given of this important mission is taken chiefly from his own narrative as published in his report to Government and partly also from news- paper correspondents with the Embassy. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. Sir Douglas's narrative is as follows:- 91 'When his Excellency the Viceroy and Go- vernor-General in Council was pleased to appoint me to conduct a mission to Yarkund for the pur- pose of concluding a commercial treaty with his Highness the Amir of Yarkund and Kashgar, I was instructed to endeavour to obtain the fullest and most precise information on every subject, connected with the condition, resources, history, geography, and trade of Yarkund and the neigh- bouring countries. 'I wish prominently to record my acknowledg- ment to Colonel Yule, C.B., who, with generous kindness, supplied me with all the information he possessed regarding the countries we were about to visit, and who, from time to time, sent me most valuable suggestions as to the inquiries we should make. 'As the success of an expedition such as this, depended greatly on the preliminary arrangements, and the provision made for all contingencies, it may not be uninteresting to go into the subject in some detail. 'The staff of officers and subordinates placed at my disposal consisted of- 'Lieutenant-Colonel T. E. Gordon, C.S.I., B.S.C., second in command. 92 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF 'Dr. Bellew, C.S.I., Surgeon-Major. Captain Chapman, R.A., Secretary to the Yarkund Mission. Captain Trotter, R.E. 'Captain Biddulph, 19th Hussars, A.D.C. to his Excellency the Viceroy. 'Dr. Stoliczka, Ph. Dr. Ressaldar Mahomed Afzul Khan, 11th Bengal Lancers. ' Ibrahim Khan, Inspector, Punjab Police. 'Tara Sing, Treasurer, and in charge of mule train. 'Faiz Buksh, Moonshee. 'Asmat Ali, Native Doctor and Assistant to Dr. Bellew. 'Corporal Rhind, her Majesty's 92nd Gordon Highlanders, Camp Sergeant and Clerk. Jemadar Siffat Khan, in charge of escort fur- nished by the Corps of Guides which consisted of ten Sowars, one Naick, and ten Sepoys. 'Experience having shown the necessity for rendering the expedition independent in the matter of carriage, one hundred mules of a very fair stamp were purchased, through the agency of Tara Sing, at a moderate price. These were equipped with saddles nearly resembling those of the Otago pattern used in Abyssinia, which SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 93 were made in the Government workshops at Cawnpore. 'As some delay occurred in the return of Syed Yakoob Khan, the Yarkund Envoy, from Con- stantinople, it was thought advisable to send an advance party to examine carefully the routes between Leh and Shahidulla. Accordingly on July 15, 1873, Captains Biddulph and Trotter and Dr. Stoliczka left Murree and journeyed to Shahidulla. The head-quarters' party left on July 19, but halted for some time at Srinuggur till I joined them, when we all proceeded to Leh, which we reached on September 20. Here, in addition to what is usually known as warm clothing, each follower received fur socks, leggings, boots, and a choga lined with sheep-skin, a warm cap cover- ing the ears, and thick gloves, besides a good felt and blankets. Meat and tea formed part of the daily ration, and the whole were comfortably sheltered in tents.' As it may be interesting to give a detailed account of a journey to Shahidulla from Leh over the highest passes in the world, we therefore quote from a newspaper correspondent writing from the Yarkund Embassy camp, under date of October 15, 1873. 'Camp Suget, October 15, 1873. Mr. For- 04 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES T syth, C. B., with the head-quarters of the Yarkund Embassy, left Leh on September 29, the date originally fixed for departure thence. The first march was to the foot of the ascent to the Kar- dong Pass. The distance is seven and a half miles and the rise about three thousand three hundred and fifty feet from Leh. The road goes straight up the valley to the north of the town, and for the first three miles skirts a succession of corn fields built up in small terraced plots against the slope of the ground. They have a very neat appearance, and have secured a place in our memory, as the last scenes of life and industry we have met since we set out from Leh. The crops. had been recently cut, and the barley sheaves were being piled by the Ladakh peasantry as we passed. Women were the principal labourers, and could be distinguished at a distance by those broad fillets of turquoise and small shells, which they wear hanging down the back from the top of the head. ( Beyond this cultivation, the road rises across very rough ground full of the evidences of glacier action, and crossing a great moraine, follows the windings of a deep gulley up to some small flats about a mile below a glacier that occupies its upper part. Here, at the foot of the ascent to SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 95 the pass, our camp was pitched on some little streams, that only trickled from the ice above to be frozen by the cold wind playing up the gulley. Here, too, we experienced our first change of climate in a sudden fall of the temperature from 34° Fahr. to 15° Fahr. 'Next morning we made the ascent of the Khardong Pass, sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven feet high. The path is very steep, and zigzags up the hill side amongst a complete jumble of sharp rocks and fragments of syenite, very difficult to traverse, equally for man or beast. A number of yaks had been provided for the transport of our party across this pass, and right well they did their duty. ( The patient creatures wriggled and grunted their way slowly and cautiously, stepping over loose stones or slippery bits of frozen earth, and at length brought us to the summit of the pass, showing by their laboured breathing and greedy nibbling at the snow, that they did not suffer less than the other cattle with lighter loads, nor less than some of the human burdens they carried. The effects of the rarified air at this elevation, aided by a numbing south-east wind from off the snowy mountains of Zangskar, were very remark- able and various in different individuals. Some 96 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF ; became giddy and tumbled senseless off their mules; others only suffered an uneasy sensation about the heart, with quick breathing and squeam- ishness, as if about to vomit; others suffered in- tense headache and a feeling of carelessness came over them, so that they threw themselves down on the snow, regardless as to whether they were carried on or left to perish there. 'The descent is very steep and difficult down the slope of a small glacier at the foot of which is a lake or pool now frozen over. The road goes along the edge of this pool and then down a long valley. The passage of the glacier was effected without loss or injury, though there was many a fall and many a roll down the hill side to provoke the merriment of the more fortunate. In the evening the whole party reached our camp at Khardong, fifteen miles, in good time to find shelter from the snow that set in with nightfall. 'Next morning, October 1, the camp marched away in falling snow down the valley toward the Shayok, thankful to have escaped it on the pass. At about three miles we got below the snow limit, and further on, fording the river girth-deep with- out accident or delay, camped at Sathi, seven miles. From this we made three stages up the Nubra valley to Panamik, where we halted a day. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 97 There are some natural hot springs here of a temperature of 174° Fahr. They are said to pos- sess curative properties for a variety of diseases, and are resorted to by the people of the country. There is a bath-house built over the main spring. On October 6, we marched eleven miles to Chum- lang, at the head of the Nubra valley, or rather the inhabited part of it. There are hot springs Panamik, and used for here, similar to those at like purposes. From this place we left the Nubra valley by a stiff climb over a bare hill to the north, and proceeding up a deep and narrow gully, at eleven miles camped at the foot of a glacier filling its upper part. The place is called Tutyátác, and the only signs of life it presents are those of life departed, apparently under circumstances of severe suffering. It is a camping ground of the traders with Yarkund, and the whole surface is strewed with the skeletons and dessicated carcases of the cattle that have perished by the hardships of the route to the north. The corpse of an unfortunate, friend- less Yarkundee was amongst the recent additions to the wreck of life found here. 'On leaving Chumlang we parted from habita- tions, and entered on the wide and elevated region of desert that separates Thibet from Yarkund territory. The name of the place is said to mean 7 98 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF "the great pasturage." It must have been so considered by the worn and weary travellers from the north, to whom, by comparison, its scanty jungle and withered patches of tufty grass would appear a perfect paradise of plenty. 'From Tutyátác we marched across the Sasser pass, eighteen miles, to the Brungtsa camping ground in the valley of the upper Shayok. The road is a most difficult one-through a region of glaciers the whole way. The first eleven miles is through a narrow valley, deep in snow and flanked by glaciers filling the gullies on each side. At about the eighth mile, the path runs along the edge of a vast glacier for a couple of miles or so. It then comes to a gap, which is caused by the watershed having divided the glacier, one portion of which slopes down to Tutyátác and the other to Brungtsa. Beyond the gap the valley, or its watershed, is completely blocked by glaciers, and the path rises on to a vast bed of solid ice, now covered with recent snow and extremely dangerous to traverse, owing to the fissures and crevasses being concealed by the fresh coating of soft snow. A track was found across this dangerous part by driving a number of yâks across it. These animals seem to discover the hidden hollows by instinct, and proceed very cautiously in single file. The SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 99 leader, when tired, stops and grunts, and then his fellow next behind steps forward and takes up the lead, and so on till the passage is effected. We followed the track of the yâks, and got over the pass, seventeen thousand two hundred and seventy- seven feet at the watershed, without loss or injury, though, of course, there were many mishaps and tumbles. The baggage did not all come into camp till nine p.m., owing to the long descent and the exhaustion of the cattle. Our passage of the Sasser is one long to be remembered, and that it was effected so successfully is entirely due to the excellent arrangements made by Mr. Johnson, Joint Commissioner of Leh, on the part of H.H. the Maharajah of Cashmere. It is reckoned the most difficult pass on this route, and with reason, for it is hard to imagine a more difficult or danger- ous one. This pass is not used in summer, owing to the dangers from avalanches and the number of torrents rushing down from all sides. We crossed it under most favourable circumstances, for the recent snow had smoothed the asperities of the road, whilst the cold had frozen most of the cross streams. Yet the passage was a most arduous and trying one. The wild scenery, the rugged glaciers hanging over the road and threat- ening instant annihilation by a plunge down from 100 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF their frost-bound holds, the intense cold, and the painful glare of the snow, together with the know- ledge of the absence of succour in case of accident, all combine to render this pass the dread of the traveller. From Brungtsa, Sasser, our heavy bag- gage, with the camp, marched by the Murgi route over the Dipsang plain to Daulat-beguldi, whilst Mr. Forsyth and the members of the Embassy with him proceeded to the same camping ground by the Kumdahán and upper waters of the Shayok. 'From Brungtsa, Sasser, we marched ten miles to Kumdahán, and camped in a hollow between two great glaciers, one of which extends away to the westward for some thirty miles, and looks like a great river of snow, flowing down from a lofty snow peak through a narrow valley, flanked by high hills; the other corner straight down, about six miles, at right angles to the Shayok bed, which it has almost blocked up, the only passage being through the stream, that has worked its way through the glacier, where it struck the oppo- site cliffs of the valley. The two glaciers, some fifteen years ago, suddenly descended into the valley and blocked up the passage of the Shayok, and produced that flood of the Indus and reflux of the Cabul river, which destroyed the canton- ment of Nowshera. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. ΙΟΙ 'From Kumdahán we marched ten miles to Gyapshang, near which, to the north-west, is a vast glacier region, in which the Shayok on this side takes its rise, and, as is supposed, the Yar- kund river on the other. The cold here, with the thermometer below zero and a keen wind blowing, proved very trying, and the number of skeletons and carcases lying about the ground bore testi- mony to the destructiveness of these natural agents. 'Our next march was fifteen miles across a bleak, bare, and elevated table-land of undulating surface, to the Daulat-beguldi camping ground, where we were rejoined by the camp with the heavy baggage. The elevation of this plateau is fifteen thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine feet, and the prospect dreary in the extreme. Not a blade of vegetation is anywhere to be seen. The horizon around shows the tops of mountains struggling to rise up above the level of the wide waste between them, and the cold winds sweeping down from their snow-laden sides penetrate to the very bones, and remind one that Daulet-beg did right to die here and give the place its name-it means "here died Daulet Beg"-as a warning to travellers and a bequest to geographers. Here we lost the first of our cattle from the effects of climate and elevation, from the ill effects of which 102 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF nearly all in camp suffered more or less. The prominent symptoms were were intense headache, nausea, and giddiness. 'Next morning, October 12, with the thermo- meter three degrees below zero and a piercing wind blowing against us, we marched for the Karakoram Pass, seventeen thousand seven hun- dred and thirty-nine feet. The ascent is by a gradual rise of several miles, and the descent equally easy; but the hundreds of skeletons and shrivelled carcases of horses that mark the road- way all through, prove that the height and rigour of the climate must be at all seasons very destruc- tive. We lost six baggage ponies in the passage of this mountain, and did not reach camp at Brungtsa, Karakoram, twenty-one miles, till sun- down. With the good fortune that has attended us hitherto, we crossed the pass in fine weather, but were hardly settled in camp before the gather- ing clouds closed upon us and by morning laid some ten inches of snow on the ground. Our march next day, of twenty-five miles, to Actágh was as trying as any we have had. Most of the distance was over snow in the face of a sharp wind, with the thermometer nine degrees below zero. On approaching the camp, we had the pleasure of meeting Captain Trotter and Dr. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 103 Stoliczka of the advanced party under command of Captain Biddulph, who had proceeded down the Karakash valley in quest of sport. Our friends were in good health, though considerably weather- worn, and we soon learned, on comparing notes of our experiences, that they had gone through much severer cold on the Chang-Chenmo route than we had on that by the Karakoram, the ther- mometer with them having sunk to twenty-six degrees below zero. We halted a day at Actágh, sending the camp and heavy baggage on to Chibra and Suget by the regular stages, and doubling up the marches rejoined them here yesterday. The Suget Pass, sixteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven feet, was crossed without loss or accident, though the descent over the snow is very steep and difficult. 'On arrival at Suget, Mr. Forsyth was wel- comed by the officials sent forward by the Dad- khwáh from Yarkund, and by the Governor of Sanjú. The profuse dastar-khwán presented by them in the name of the Atalik Ghazee, and their own good will and hearty shakes of the hand at once secured our confidence, and filled the measure of our gratulation in having accomplished the passage of the Himalaya with an amount of suc- cess we had not dared to hope for. 104 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF It is worthy of record, that the camp of the Yarkund Embassy under Mr. Forsyth, comprising three hundred and fifty souls and five hundred and fifty baggage animals, has accomplished the passage of the journey from Leh to this place, over four of the most elevated and difficult passes in the world, without the loss of a single man, and at the sacrifice of only eight baggage ponies. For this successful result, we are mainly indebted to the anxious solicitude for our welfare evinced by his Highness the Maharajah of Cashmere, and to the untiring exertions of his agent at Leh, Mr. Johnson, who has accompanied us and personally superintended the supply of provisions and carriage. To the experience gained by Mr. Forsyth on his previous journey to Yarkund, and the judicious orders issued by him for the equipment of our camp servants and cattle, we owe it that suffering from the rigours of an almost arctic climate have been reduced to a minimum, much sickness, and most probably loss of life averted, and a cheer- fulness and good-will secured which have proved of the utmost value in overcoming the difficulties and obstacles of this route. 'To-morrow our camp marches to Shahidullah, only four miles distant, and there awaits the arrival of the Envoy, who is hastening on from SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 105 Leh to join us. Our intelligence, meanwhile, from Yarkund is of a most satisfactory nature, and we are told of grand preparations for our reception there. Of our further experiences I hope to send you an account at a later date. 'Camp Shahidullah, October 21, 1873. We marched on to this frontier post from our camp on the Suget river on Friday last, the 17th inst. The distance is only four or five miles, and the last half of it along the course of the conjoined streams of the Suget and Karakash valleys. They here form a small river which we forded twice, girth deep, a short way above the fort, near which our camp is pitched. 'On arrival, Mr. Forsyth, C. B., and the members of the Embassy with him, received a warm wel- come from the Yarkund officials appointed to meet him here. They were headed by Mirza Yakoob Khan Umra, one of the principal nobles of the Atalik Ghazee's court. He had been sent forward by his master to meet and welcome her Majesty's Envoy and plenipotentiary, and he has certainly spared no pains to discharge the duty entrusted to him in a manner as satisfactory as the nature of the circumstances and the poverty of the country admit of. A yâk was sacrificed as the Envoy alighted at his tent, and presently ? 106 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF followed a profuse dastar-khwán, comprising a variety of cooked dishes and all sorts of fruits, fresh and preserved. The former are brought in daily from Sanjú. The apples, pears, and peaches are not so well-flavoured as those we have eaten elsewhere, but two melons are worthy of commendation. Our host here, the above- named Umra, is a fair complexioned Andijani, a native of Khokand, of middle age and height, with pleasing Tartar features and easy deport- He is assisted by Yazbashi Bahawddin, and both make everything agreeable for us. The hearty shakes of the hand all round on meeting and parting daily, and the friendly converse, held without reserve, have dispelled from our minds any doubts there may have been as to the friendly disposition of the people towards us, whilst the dastar-khwán daily spread for our refection, together with the abundant supplies and carriage collected here for us, proves that the welcome is not an empty one of words only. ment. 'On marching from Suget river, Mr. Forsyth detached Captain Trotter, R.E., to explore a pass across the eastern portion of the Suget range into the upper valley of the Karakash river. longer route than that followed by the Embassy by the Suget pass, but has the advantage of It is a SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 107 abundance of water, grass and fuel all through the valley. Dr. Stoliczka and Dr. Bellew accom- panied Captain Trotter as far as Balikchi, for the purpose of examining the jade mines of the Kuenlun. They rejoined the camp here the following evening, accompanied by Captain Bid- dulph, whom they met marching down the Kara- kash on his way to the appointed rendezvous at Shahidullah. Dr. Stoliczka brought in a number of specimens of the mineral, picked up from amongst the rubbish at the diggings, but they all appear to be of inferior quality. The mines have been abandoned since the expulsion of the Chinese from Eastern Turkestan, and from the absence of anything worth having about them, it would appear that the workmen had full leisure to take away all that was worth the carriage. 'The rest here has been remarkably grateful, notwithstanding the outlandish barbarism of the place. It is a deep hollow at the junction of three narrow gorges, and has an insignificant little fort planted on the only bit of flat ground it boasts; all around are lofty mountain masses of bare rock, and up above is the broad expanse of heaven, generally a clear sheet of blue, but now and again traversed by masses of cloud, drifting across, to deposit their load of snow on 108 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF the Suget and other passes we have happily left behind us; the only other feature on the scene worthy of mention is the shrine whence the place finds a name the tomb of Shahidullah Khojah, of whom nobody here can tell us anything except that some such gentleman is reputed to have been slain here in a fight against the Chinese, long, long ago. The tomb, or its site, is marked by a small forest of poles, fixed upright on the summit of a projecting rock, and they are rendered more conspicuous by tufts of wool, or whole yâk tails, affixed to the tallest of them. The shrine is of little repute amongst the Kirghiz of the country, but passing travellers of the faith are expected to pay their devoirs to the martyr's memory, and con- sequently the Afghans and others of that ilk in our camp troop up to do their Ziyarat. 'The rest here, as I said before, will afford our cattle time to recover from the fatigues of the march and the numbing effects of the cold weather they have experienced during the last three weeks. It will also afford us leisure to study the new people amongst whom we find ourselves, and to compare notes between them and those we here part from. By the latter, I mean the Tartars of Ladakh, commonly called Bhôt, who have accompanied our camp from Leh. They are the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 109 hardiest, most docile and cheerful labourers any- where to be found. Their wants are of the smallest and most simple description. A bag of parched barley meal, a little tobacco, tea, and salt, are, with his blanket and sheepskin cape, all that the Bhôt requires for the journey. With these luxuries wrapped in his blanket and folded round the loins, he will march with his load all day, only resting once or twice for a mouthful of meal made into paste with water procured from the running brook. At night he sits round a fire, with half a dozen companions, quietly smoking and sipping tea savoured with salt instead of sugar, till morn- ing is near. They then all huddle together round the embers and in a few hours rise ready for the day's work. They have given no trouble in all our march, and on being paid up and discharged here, were as merry and good-natured as upon the first day we met them. Most of them were provided with goggles as a protection against the glare from the snow. They are made from the tail hairs of the yâk, much after the fashion of our own wire gauze goggles, the main difference being the absence of the glass piece, its place being occupied by a small round hole immediately opposite the pupil. Some of these goggles are very neatly plaited and shapely, the stiffness of 110 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF the hair being sufficient to keep the form intact. Some, who were not provided with these eye protectors, pulled out wisps of hair from the yâks' tails and loosely fastened them across the eyes whenever they came to the passage of snow. 'These willing, hardy, and good-natured fellows have returned homewards. In their place we have now to deal with the Kirghiz, a very different set of people, as our first impressions persuade us. In the first place, they are a more presentable people; they are better clad, and more comfortably off. In the next, they show an inward conscious- ness of their superiority by an easy independence of manner, which is the natural growth of the free roving life they lead. It is by no means offensive, though not at all so welcome to our servants as the willing servitude and ready submission of the Bhot. The Kirghiz, contrary to the Bhôt, never does any work he can shirk or that he can get done by any one else, and where he has to work he always makes his yâk-here called kutas—or his horse partner in his toil. If he has to fetch wood or grass to camp, he goes off on his pony and rides back with the faggot or bundle, as the case may be, across his lap resting on the withers of the horse. As I write I see half a dozen of these gentry leisurely riding into camp, each with SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. III a sheep across his lap. Almost every one of them has a horse or a kutas, and they seem to live on their backs. Towards us they seem very well disposed, and soon after our arrival set up one of their felt houses for our accommodation in our own camp. The Kirghiz tent or house is called akoe,* and is of circular shape with a low domed roof, in the centre of which is a smoke hole. The door is on one side and furnished with a chick of reeds. The framework is of two kinds: the up- right circular walls are of willow wands, so inter- laced as to fold up in a small space; the roof is of long ribs of the same wood passing from the walls to a perforated hoop, through which is the exit for smoke. The sections of the circular walls and the ribs of the roof are fixed together at numerous points by thongs of leather or braids of wool, and the whole framework is covered over with thick white felts, and hence the name of the edifice, "the white house." The interior is very spacious, and spread with felts and carpets all round the circumference, whilst a hole dug in the centre holds the fire that warms the dwelling. They afford a most comfort- * One of these tents was brought back to India by Sir Douglas as a curiosity, and was afterwards presented by him to the Duke of Sutherland. } 112 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF It was able shelter, are very portable, and are easily and expeditiously set up. The one we have here can accommodate twelve persons with ease. brought in on two yâks and set up in about ten minutes. They have many points of superiority over our tents, and might be introduced into India with advantage. 'Camp Sanjú, October 31, 1873. In continua- tion of my last letter from Shahidullah, I proceed to give you an account of the progress of the Em- bassy up to date. The Atalik Ghazee's envoy, his Excellency Syed Yakoob Khan, arrived safely at the frontier fort of Shahidullah, on the evening of the 23rd instant. He was not expected till the next afternoon, but the biting frosts and cutting winds of the elevated table-lands of the Karakoram mountains were sufficient motors, and he hurried on with a few followers, ahead of his baggage, to escape their persecution. On arrival he received a warm welcome to the Embassy camp from Mr. Forsyth, C. B., and was provided with tent accom- modation for himself and suite. ( In the evening he dined with Mr. Forsyth at the Embassy mess, and took the opportunity to recount his varied travels by land and water, by rail and road, ever interrupting his tale with ex- clamations of wonderment at the rapidity of his SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 113 [ transport from the civilization of Europe to the wilds of Central Asia, and with expressions of grateful acknowledgment for the kindness and assistance he had everywhere received from the British authorities, and from the Maharajah's officials in Cashmere. 'The next morning the Embassy, accompanied by the Envoy, marched away en route for Yar- kund. Our first march was down the valley of the Karakash, by a villanous path along a rough, stony hill skirt, sloping steeply to the river. At about thirteen miles we came to a small, grassy flat in a reach of the river, and camped on it, near a small store of fodder and fuel laid down for our use. It is a dreary spot, with not a feature to relieve the utter bareness of the enclosing hills, not a single obstacle to intercept the clean sweep of the cold winds that fluctuate up and down the valley with the regular succession of day and night. Our next march took us out of the Kara- kash valley up the narrow, winding, and rocky channel of a small tributary from the north. 'The road was worse than that of the preced- ing day, and altogether difficult and rough, and neglected as the country through which it con- ducts. The frequent stumbles of our horses very forcibly reminded us that it had not, as was the 8 114 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF case in Cashmere limits, been cleared of stones, and widened, nor smoothed of its asperities, nor in any way prepared for our special benefit and that of travellers generally who should follow after us. 'During the first part of the march, the river has to be crossed twice at a sharp bend, round the precipitous face of a projecting bluff. Both fords proved very difficult, owing to the large boulders and rocks forming the bed of the stream, and the quantities of sheet-ice carried by its current. Several of our mules fell here under their loads, and many a luckless driver got a sousing in the icy stream. 'Beyond this the path turns off to the left up the deep and gloomy defile, down which comes the tributary above referred to. As you enter it, a feeling of oppression weighs upon you, and it increases as you climb its steep and find the mountains on either side growing higher and wilder and frowning down upon the gorge with a sombre and still solemnity, threatening all sorts or any sort of calamity. It is a wonderful passage this, and is not to be anywhere equalled for down- right hardness. The stream that leaped from rock to rock and eddied in little pools down the rugged channel, was now frozen into thick sheets of clear green ice, or hung in snow-white sheets SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 115 of congealed cascade. The vegetation, if there ever is any here, was all withered and blown away, and nothing remained but hard frost and harder rock. The slipperiness of the ice added a fresh obstacle to the difficulties of the route, and no small one, for the path repeatedly led across it from side to side. And this, with a landslip-if the bodily subsidence of half a mountain side into the gorge may be so designated-that completely blocked the channel with a huge pile of angular rocks and sharp stones, well-nigh rendered the passage impracticable. 'After a hard day's toil we advanced ten miles and camped on a narrow strip of turfy slope, be- tween perpendicular walls of solid rock some three hundred feet high. It is a gloomy, sullen spot at any time, and can enjoy but little of the sun's genial rays, and is not a place one would care to remember. Its peculiarities, however, are im- pressed on our memories by the hardships endured and the dangers escaped during our night's halt in its inhospitable shelter. 'Our cattle and servants with the baggage did not arrive till late in the evening, and were much exhausted by the labour and accidents of the road. First there was the delay and difficulty in the passage of the river; then came the climb and 116 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF scramble over rocks and the sliding and shuffling across sheets of ice, smooth as glass; and at the end a cold and hungry halt in a narrow gorge swept by a cold piercing wind, and showered upon by falling rocks. This site was determined upon for our camp because our supplies were stored here. But on arrival we found they had been almost entirely consumed by the advance party of the Embassy, which had preceded us by three days from Shahidullah, and had not since been replenished by our free and easy friends the Kir- ghiz. The day was too far spent to admit of our going further, and so we made the best of our case, little thinking of the danger that threatened us in our crowded little camp; for it was not till the hard frosts and freshening wind of the dawn- ing day widened the fissures and splinters of the rocks, that they detached themselves from the main mass and fell away by their own weight, crashing down in great masses on our narrow little resting ground, much to the terror of our jaded cattle, and to our own no small disquietude, since one of our men was lamed by a fragment striking him on the hips. With the first light of day our mules, one hundred and ten in number, were sent ahead to be crossed over the Sanjú Dawan, sixteen thou- SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 117 sand feet high, or the "Grim Pass," for such is the name by which we heard of it in Cashmere,— whence its origin I know not, but to its propriety can bear ample testimony, whilst their loads were left to be carried by yâks so soon as their Kirghiz owners should come in with them. 'I must here inform you that the yâk alone is used in the transport of merchandise and baggage across this pass, as the road is so difficult and steep, that no other animal can do it and live. To the Kirghiz on both sides of the pass, this employment of their cattle proves a profitable trade. But on this occasion we found that our first impressions as to the independent character of these people were not very far wrong, for they soon afforded us evidence thereof by coming to our aid with their cattle much at their own leisure and pleasure. In truth, they are but little under the control of the Yarkund authorities, and when their personal interests are influenced, as they were on this memorable occasion by the bids of merchants on the other side of the pass anxious to get their loads over, they act just as they please. Some delay consequently occurred before a suffi- cient number could be collected to carry our tents and necessary luggage, and we had to leave the rest of the baggage to be brought on next day. 118 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF 'It was nine o'clock before we got fairly off. A stiff climb over another landslip, blocking the gorge as with a barricade, and repeated scrambles over successive masses of smooth ice presently brought us to a small open space where the defile or gully branches. Here we found a Kafila of thirty horses, belonging to Bajamari traders, who had come over the pass yesterday, huddled to- gether under the shelter of an overhanging rock. Here, too, we halted for breakfast, whilst the yâks for our ascent of the pass were being got ready. They soon made their appearance, and we were again on the move, borne away by these hardy brutes. They proved as restive and wayward as their owners—now plunging wildly forward to the imminent risk of our necks, and now coolly sitting themselves on the snow and chewing the cud of stubbornness, heedless of kicks behind and tugs at their nose-ropes before, till it suited their own minds to rise and progress-now turning sharp round and bolting down hill with a bound that shoots the rider anywhere, and again dashing off across the snow, till stopped short by a deep drift between rocks; and thus we made our start for the ascent, changing from yâk to yâk till we found a sober steady goer, willing to subordinate his movements to the guidance of his master. A SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 119 sharp turn to the left took us through a narrow gap or chasm in the rocks, very steep and slippery, and only wide enough for one yâk to pass at a time, and difficult enough to check even his pace. Beyond it a new scene opened to our view. A wide sweep of dazzling snow rose straight up before us steep as a wall, and nearly three thou- sand feet high-the ascertained rise from our camp to the crest of the pass, a distance of about five miles, being four thousand two hundred and sixty feet. Its sharp peaks cut a clear blue sky, and above them circled a number of eagles, whose white under- plumage shone with conspicuous brightness even against the snow, and its slope presented a thin, long, black zigzag line perfectly motionless. It was a few moments before we could realize the fact, but it soon became clear to us that all our mules and cattle sent on in the early morning were here stranded, just as the leader of the file had reached to within a short distance of the summit. Plodding onwards we presently came to a flat space below the tail of the string of mules, and here found a number of bales of merchandise blocking the path, and at once learned the cause of the block above. It was the counter current of yâks coming over from the opposite side with the loads of a Kafila, whose 120 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF The first owners and horses were following. portion had been disposed of on the snow here, and the rest on the other side of the crest. 'From the little flat mentioned, the ascent is almost perpendicular for some fifteen hundred feet up to the crest. A path had been trodden zigzag over the snow, but was so hard frozen and slippery as to be most difficult of ascent. Our climb up past the line of stranded cattle was slow, and most toilsome, and it was past one o'clock when we reached the crest. Here we found a formidable obstacle to the further progress of our cattle in a steep bank of smooth ice running up over the rocks for some eighty or a hundred paces. The Envoy and Mr. Forsyth here took up a position on an overlooking ledge of ice, and personally conducted the passage of the cattle. The strip of ice was scored with a pickaxe, and its surface spread with felts and blankets. Yet with these improvements so steep was the rise, that the animals were got over it with the greatest diffi- culty, and passed on over the crest through a narrow gap only six feet wide. A withering north wind was blowing at the time, and the task proved most difficult and laborious, and was not accom- plished without much suffering, many accidents and some loss. Our independent friends, the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 121 Kirghiz, here came out manfully, and worked with an energy and will we did not give them credit for. 'It is beyond my powers to describe the scene at the top of the pass, though it is one that will long live in my memory. The frantic efforts of the cattle to save themselves, as the insecure felts shifting now and again deprived them of their temporary footing on the ice, require to be seen to be appreciated. The desperate plunges and strained efforts of the cattle thus thrown from their legs were painful to witness, and in several instances only hastened the doom that threatened all. Some cleverly picked their way over the strait, others pluckily took it with a rush and sprawled over on the opposite side. Some, again, obstinately refused to face the rise, and were either dragged over by main force, or, strong in their stubbornness, broke away from their leaders' hands and went headlong down the hill. 'One of these unfortunate creatures, falling from the path, rolled head over heels round and round, without a check for fully four hundred yards down the steep; now and again shooting into mid-air from concussion against some snow- hid rock with a violence enough to break every bone in its body, only to continue its downward 122 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF career with increased velocity and greater bounds. We watched its fearful descent with pitying curio- sity to its final arrest, on a small field of drift snow, concluding, of course, that life was already extinct. But to our surprise the mule rose to its legs and shook itself, and was presently back again in the string of its fellows. 'By four o'clock all the mules, except five that had died outright on the pass, had been crossed over through the gap, including the hero of the fall. And now the gathering clouds began to close in upon us, and by way of warning discharged a shower of fine snow, which, owing to the wind, drove against us like particles of frozen sand. The Envoy became alarmed for our safety, and urged us to hurry down the opposite side as fast as possible, and he leading the way, we forthwith followed. But as soon as we passed through the gap, we found the descent anything but an easy matter. The slope on this side was longer and if anything steeper than on the other. The zigzag down it was hard frozen, and blocked by mules and ponies afraid to move from the footing they had chanced to secure on its treacherous slippery surface, whilst the sheets of snow between the zigs were dotted by the bodies of dead animals, or those that lay helplessly sunk in its depth just SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 123 as they fell. It was a rare sight, and an indeed hard time for both man and beast. 'I need not dwell on the descent. We slipped and slided and shuffled ourselves down by all sorts of devices, dodging between the standing cattle as best we could, and finally, just as even- ing was closing in, reached the bottom of the snow. Here we mounted ponies and following the Envoy's lead rode into Gachga, seven miles, where we arrived at eight p.m. The Envoy congratulated us on our escape from a night in the snow, gave us some dinner, and had a Kirghiz hut or akoe erected for our shelter. In this we spent the night as we stood, without bed or bed- ding, feeding a small fire with what wood was at hand, and weighing our misgivings, as to the fate of our servants and cattle benighted on the pass. We halted here the next day to allow of their coming on, and as by sunset most of them had joined, we marched on to Tham the following morning. There we were overtaken by the rem- nant of stragglers, and ascertained our actual losses, which after all, very much to our satisfac- tion, proved considerably less than we had ex- pected. Eight mules were lost, including the one whose wonderful fall I have related. The poor creature was so cut and bruised about the head 124 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF and shoulders, that it died from exhaustion, soon after reaching our camp at Gachga. Besides the mules, three riding ponies died on the passage of the Sanjú Darwan, making our total loss in cattle only eleven. Of the ponies, the last to join us at Tham appeared with their tails and clothing nib- bled and gnawed away. A sad proof of the sufferings they must have endured from hunger. The Envoy did not fare better than we did. He lost two of his own riding horses and six belong- ing to his camp. Our servants suffered much from their supperless night on the snow, and five of them have been more or less frost-bitten, but all are now in the best of spirits and rapidly recovering the use of fingers and toes. 'On the whole we have got over this last and at all times most difficult of the passes on this route from India to Yarkund much better than we could have expected under the circumstances. The frozen state of the path and the steep bank of ice at its summit are alone sufficient to convert the pass into a very formidable obstacle without taking account of the other difficulties we had to contend against. But the kindness and attention of our Yarkund friends, very quickly smoothed away all difficulties, and in the abundance of their hospi- tality we soon forgot the trials of the "Grim Pass." SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 125 'At Tham we came to the first cultivation and habitation since we left the Nubra Valley. It is a wretched hamlet of only eight huts ranged in two rows. 'Our next march was to Kewaz, a flourishing collection of farmsteads scattered over an alluvial basin near the outlet of its river from the hills. And our next was to this place where we arrived yesterday, and joined the advanced party under Colonel Gordon, who had, as before mentioned, preceded us from Shahidullah and all mightily glad to have left behind us the hard frosts, the keen winds, and rarified atmosphere of the moun- tains, and once more to enter a region of trees and fields and houses, albeit their streams be still frozen and their breezes be yet keen and icy. ( Its con- To the traveller coming down from the desert wilds of Karakoram, Sanjú presents a most pleasing picture of comfort and repose. tinuous succession of farmsteads and fruit gardens stretch along both banks of the river for several miles, and look, as in truth they are, the home of peace, industry, and prosperity. Its people are orderly, quiet and well-to-do agriculturists, ab- sorbed in the care of their flocks, fields, and orchards. They are little disturbed by our arrival, show no rude curiosity to investigate the stranger, 126 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF give liberally from their abundant stores, and everywhere receive us with the best good-will. 6 Their features and dress are Tartar, and their civilization I presume the same, yet some of their domestic contrivances wear a decidedly English resemblance, to wit, their hurdled sheep- pens, barred gates between fields, or barred stiles, and railings round graves, and not least though last, their custom of shaking hands and entering houses with their shoes on. The Embassy is to halt here a couple or three Envoy's heavy baggage and days to allow the guns to come up, news of their having passed Shahidullah being received. The rest will prove very acceptable to our cattle and followers.' SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 127 CHAPTER VII. MISSION TO KASHGAR (CONTINUED). WE still quote from the newspaper correspondent's letter dated Yarkund, November 12.' 'My last letter to you was from Sanjú, on the eve of our departure thence. I now proceed to give you an account of our onward progress to this place, which has for so long been the goal of our desires and aspirations, and to reach which we have crossed mountains, the loftiest in the world, and valleys, nowhere to be equalled for their ruggedness, solitude, and gloom. We have struggled through snow-fields, and climbed over ice-beds, in comparison with which the snowy Alps and Swiss glacier are as trifles, and we have fought against withering winds and biting frosts, the very recollection of which starts a shiver and makes one hug his fur coat the closer. But now that this dread barrier is past and left behind us, it is no easy matter to take in at one 128 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF view all our varied experiences and trials, since leaving India in July last, not to fully appreciate our good fortune in passing safely across the in- hospitable zone that separates the plains of the Punjab from those of Kashgaria. 'Our brief stay at Sanjú was a most welcome and agreeable period of repose, and one would have gladly seized any excuse for tarrying a while amongst its peaceful homesteads, beautiful fields and orchards, and industrious peasantry. But the Envoy's heavy baggage and guns were reported as having been passed on from Shahidullah into Yarkund territory, and as no other cause for delay presented itself, "forward" was the word. Our 'We left Sanjú on the 2nd instant. path for a mile or so wound among farmsteads and orchards down to the river. The peasantry were already busy in their fields or gathered in small groups on the roadside to see us pass. Everywhere they showed looks of good-will, every- where rose on our approach, and generally saluted with a salam-á-laikum, as they would to one of their own chiefs. After fording the river, the edges of which were fringed with ice, we rose up over some high banks of coarse gravel on to an undulating desert waste that stretches away to the horizon, which we found obscured by a dense SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 129 haze, and presenting nothing to the view but low mounds and hillocks of drift sand. Its surface is covered with the stumps of a withered and scanty herbage, and impressed in all directions by the tracks of deer. 'At about twelve miles, we came to a wide ravine, where is a cluster of some half dozen huts, shaded by poplar and willow and oleagenous trees, and surrounded by small patches of cultivation. The place is called Langaar and is a perfect oasis in the desert. We alighted here for a dastar- khwán, which had been spread for us on the banks of a hard frozen tank, overshadowed by some very fine poplars much resembling the chinar or plane tree in appearance. From this another twelve miles over a continuation of the desert, brought us to a wide drainage channel cutting the desert from west to east. Its hollow where the road crosses is full of the gardens, fields, and homesteads of Khush-to-ghdác, or, "The place of agreeable rest," and in general appearance the place is the counterpart of Sanjú. Our camp was pitched on one of the streams flowing amidst the cultivation, and after release from our duties to- wards the dastar-khwán, we amused ourselves hunting the gerboas, of which numbers had their burrows in the sandy soil about our tents. The 9 130 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF activity of these pretty little creatures is surpris- ing, and saved all but two or three luckless ones from the remorseless clutches of the naturalists of our party. 'Our next two marches were over a continuation of the desert, broken by strips of rich cultivation and crowded population in drainage hollows similar to those of Sanjú and Khush-to-ghdác or Koshtác, to Oc-toghrác and Borya. At the latter place, on November 4, we observed the total eclipse of the moon in a beautifully clear starlight sky, whilst gathered round a glorious camp fire, at half a dozen paces from which the thermometer indicated eight degrees of frost. The phenomenon created little or no curiosity amongst the natives, and the obscuration and clearance went through their steady courses with barely a score of gazers from amongst the good people of Borya, who are evidently followers of the sound old precept, Early to bed and early to rise,” etc. Conse- CC quently the linguists of our party, and we all aspire to that distinction, lost the opportunity of displaying their acquirements, and explaining the phenomenon to the bucolic minds of this eclipsed region, in the expressive phraseology of Arabia. Happy mortals, blissful in ignorance of the foun- tains of wisdom that flow in other regions, and і SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 131 thrice happy in the comprehensiveness of their own language, where a monosyllable and an un- mistakable shake of the head suffice as reply to a multitude of words. . . . We are all learning Turki, and flatter ourselves, with some progress too, notwithstanding that abominable monosyllabic negative yok, with its accompanying movement of the head, which now and then is all that many words draw as responses from ingrate hearts and obtuse minds. Happily for us such characters are becoming ashamed of themselves, and doubt- less the hateful word will soon be as conspicuous by its absence as it lately has been by its frequent repetition. 'On November 5 we marched from Borya twenty-two miles, to Kargalik. The first sixteen across a continuation of the desert, and then we came to Besharik—the five canals-which is just such a place as Sanjú. Here we found some tents pitched for us under the shade of some large umbrageous poplars and again the inevitable dastar-khwán. This institution has followed us all the way from Shahidullah, and met us at every resting-place on the road; and the further we advance, the larger is the spread and the finer are the fruits, and more varied are the dishes. The weaker stomachs amongst us already have their 132 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF misgivings, and various enquiries are made of the doctor as to his supply of "Cockle's Pills." 'From Besharik our road led through a suc- cession of fields and farmsteads, and at a mile or so from Kargalik, joined the caravan route from Khoten to Yarkund, where a tall "mile post" informed us, in very clear Persian, that we were thirty-two sang or "stones stones" (a measure of five miles) from the former. 'On arrival at Kargalik, we were conducted through its busy bazaar to the quarters built expressly for our accommodation, and of which we heard so much at Shahidullah. Much to our gratification we found them far superior to any- thing we expected to find in this country, and our surprise at the neatness of the carpentry and clean regularity of the walls was surpassed by the comfort of the apartments and their furniture. Thick felts and handsome carpets from Khoten covered the floors, and high-backed chairs were ranged against the walls. Fireplaces, like our own, warmed the chambers without filling them with smoke, and roof ventilators completed our requirements. The quarters for ourselves were enclosed within walls and ranged on two opposite sides. A third side was covered in by a raised verandah, connecting those shading the two ranges SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 133 of quarter, and in it were two doors leading to lesser courts occupied by the kitchen and out offices. The fourth side was occupied by the gateway, and a large guardroom on one side. Across the road and opposite this quadrangle was another with an open court and covered stables with mangers for one hundred horses. Altogether the arrangements were very good and reflect credit on the designers and builders, whoever they may be. ( We were no sooner settled in our comfortable quarters (the only decent ones we have been in since the camp left Pindee), when a long file of men bearing trays announced another dastar- khwán, and in a few minutes we were face to face with thirty-seven trays and dishes of fruits and sweets and cooked meats. How we did justice to it need not be recorded. Suffice it to say, that the wavering ones were recalled to a sense of their duty towards our host by the consoling assurance of a halt on the morrow. But the halt brought no respite from the oppressive kindness of the Atalik, and as noon came round, so did his officials with their formidable array, cordial greetings, and pleasant conversation, and we succumbed to the force of their hospitality. 'Kargalik is the largest place we have yet seen, 134 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF An and we were struck by the signs cprosperity and civilization exhibited to us at every turn. eating-house, with its clean table and forms, and piles of china plates and bowls, at once took us back across the sea to the recollection of many a country restaurant in France. 'During our halt here the Embassy guard mounted sentry at the gates of our quarters, and we walked in and out about the town and suburbs with perfect freedom.' The following is Sir Douglas's own report of the proceedings of the Embassy :- 'We halted one day at Kargalik, and on November 7 marched to Posgam, twenty-five miles, most of the way across a highly cultivated and populous plain through which flows the river Tisnaf. This we crossed at about the fourteenth mile, and a little further on came to Yakshamba Bazaar, a considerable village, where, as the name implies, a market is held every Sunday, mostly for the barter of farm produce. Here we alighted for a dastar-khwán at a newly built rest-house, on the same general plan as that at Kargalik, but smaller. Here, too, the Turkish officers, who had come from Constantinople in the suite of the Atalik's Envoy, made their appearance in military uniform and somewhat puzzled the curious villagers SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 135 ་ as to their identity, for their Turkish is almost as difficult of comprehension to the people here as is their own vernacular in the form we not unfre- quently offered it to them. 'From this place to Posgam, and from that on to Yarkund, the road lies over a thickly populated country, highly cultivated and freely irrigated by numberless small canals drawn off from the Zara- fashan or Yarkund river. We crossed this river at a few miles from Posgam. It was even then a large stream, and in summer is only passable by boat. 'Beyond this river, at about ten miles from Posgam, we alighted at Zilchak, where some tents and a dastar-khwán had been prepared for us. Whilst here the Yussawal Bashi, or Chamberlain, with a party of the Governor's body-guard,* arrived with messages of welcome from the Dadkhwáh. The dastar-khwán disposed of, we brushed the dust off our uniforms and set out towards Yarkund, five miles distant, in two parties closely following each other-the returning Envoy * The guard consisted of thirty men, and their mode of salutation was somewhat singular. They came forward in batches of five, and knelt on one knee. This appears to be the true Eastern Turkee fashion, for M. Remusat, in his 'His- toire de Khotan,' says: "Quand ils se rencontrent ils s'age- nouillent, c'est a dire qu'ils mettent un genou à terre.' 136 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF with his Turkish suite, and the British Envoy with his staff of officers. As we approached the city, we were met by successive troops of citizens and merchants, who saluted us in a very friendly way, and, joining our cavalcade, soon swelled it to upwards of three hundred horsemen. And so we went on to the city, observing here and there that the road had been levelled, holes filled in, pools and puddles covered with earth, and “eyewash generally put on pretty thick. 'The crowds lining the road near the city gate were generally very well and warmly clad, and behaved with remarkable quietness. The variety of race types was a very marked feature in the general appearance of the multitude, and next to this the almost universal prevalence of goitre. We passed into the city through its main bazaars, and out again, then across an open space of about a couple of furlongs to a detached fort, the Yan- gishahr, or New Town. Here we were saluted at the gate by the guard, and presently found ourselves in the quarters prepared for us. They were the same as those occupied by me on the occasion of my former visit, but the accommodation had been increased by the erection of five or six new quarters within the same area. 'All the rooms were nicely furnished, and SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 137 everything was done to make us comfortable, not to forget the dastar-khwán, which here grew to ninety-two dishes and trays. The day following we paid a visit to the Dadkhwáh, the Governor of this city and district. His palace adjoined our own quarters, and was approached through three courtyards, each with its own guard of matchlockmen, great burly figures, all boots and bundle, for such was the appearance of their forms gathered in about the middle as their flowing robes of stark bright patterns were by the loose folds of a waistband. 'The Dadkhwáh, Mahammad Yunus Jan, on our approaching his audience chamber, a spacious hall with a gaudily painted roof, the decorations bearing the impress of Khokandee art, came out into the verandah to meet us, and after the usual introduction conducted us up the length of the hall to the cushions ranged at its upper end. After the interchange of the customary compli- ments and ceremonies, the presents were brought in, admired and examined. The court officials then brought in fruits and sweets, and tea was served round. A brief conversation then closed the interview, and we returned to our quarters. 'From my former experience of our relations with the people of Yarkund, I was curious and 138 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF rather anxious to see how we should be treated. Hitherto it had not been the custom to allow foreigners to move about with unrestricted freedom. Messrs. Shaw and Hayward had been kept close prisoners to their quarters during the whole period of their sojourn in the country, and when the former expedition of 1870 entered the city of Yarkund an attempt was made to prevent the English officers from going out. The most dis- quieting rumours and sinister prophecies had been promulgated regarding the reception which awaited this mission, and though we had been able to trace them to their source, still it was just possible that there was some foundation of truth. It was with no small anxiety, then, that I watched the slightest action of our hosts, and I found it advisable to issue the strictest orders to prevent any sort of offence being given by our followers. 'We had come provided with every kind of scientific apparatus, but it was more than probable that theodolites, photographic cameras, etc., might be looked on as only instruments of the black art. I therefore enjoined on one and all the utmost caution, and decided that until we reached the royal presence, and had an opportunity of explain- ing the harmless nature of our scientific instru- ments, they should not be used. I also gave SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 139 orders, which were strictly enforced during our whole stay in the country, for a roll-call of all followers to be held twice a day, and none were allowed to be out of camp after half-past seven p.m., nor were any permitted to go into the bazaars without permission from Ressaldar Afzul Khan, whose duty it was to see that the men were decently dressed and behaved themselves properly. To these precautions and to the sense of being kept under tight discipline, I attribute in a great measure the remarkable freedom from trouble which we enjoyed. The total number of followers was one hundred and twenty, and I am happy to be able to record that, during a period of seven months we were in Kashgar territory, not more than twenty-two punishments were inflicted. 'Our first appearance in the streets of Yarkund excited the lively curiosity of the inhabitants, and the scene was particularly interesting. Entering the city by the Altun or golden gate, we turned to the right and passed down the butcher's street, where, suspended in front of the shops, such as may be seen in a butcher's stall at home, we saw good beef, mutton, yâk's and horse flesh, the head or tail of the animal being left attached to the carcase to indicate the kind of meat. Thence passing on through streets of shops, 110 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF we came to an open chouk or square, where a crowd of people was collected round two der- vishes, who sang, with not too melodious voice, some song which afforded much amusement. From the earliest times all travellers who have visited these countries have been impressed with the gay, merry character of the people, and, though the present ruler has enjoined a more severe demeanour, there is still much of the old love of gaiety left. We then proceeded through a covered bazaar, where all kinds of wares were displayed—here and there China cups and articles of jade, English and Russian chintzes, broadcloth from India, etc. Taking another turn to the right we found ourselves in what is called the Sham or evening bazaar, where, as its name indi- cates, crowds of men and women collect every evening round booths and stalls, at which boots, caps, dresses, and other articles of daily use, are exposed in large quantities for sale. Everywhere the people treated us quite as of themselves, though, of course, they collected round us in good- humoured curiosity to examine closely the first Europeans they had ever seen. 'On no single occasion throughout our whole stay in the country did we ever meet with the slightest rudeness or incivility; no scowling looks SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. I ! I nor angry taunts were levelled at us. On the contrary, wherever we went we always found people pleased to meet and converse with us. 'The cloth merchants live in the chief bazaar, which is larger and altogether of a superior description, being covered over as in Cairo or Stambul, and the shops presenting a very similar appearance to shops in those cities. 'Immediately beyond this is the bakers' street, where every shop is for bread or food of some kind. There was a restaurant which particularly attracted our notice, from its extreme cleanliness and neatness of all its arrangements. In front was the cooking range, with a fire below, over which a large cauldron was placed; the steam from this passed through a series of sieves, in each one of which was meat or vegetables or other food, which was thus cooked to a nicety by steam. By the side were the vegetables, cut into shreds, ready for cooking, whilst a man was busy preparing flour for pastry. Inside we saw forms and tables, at which the customers sat. I have been in similar restaurants in Stambul, but have seen nothing so clean and tempting as is to be found in Yarkund or Kashgar. In the streets we saw wheelbarrows with trays, on which patés, rolls of bread, fruit, and cooked vegetables, were و 142 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF hawked about, exactly as apples and pies are sold from carts in the streets of London. The bread rolls are made of the finest white flour, and are pleasant to the taste as to the eye. There was an air of comfort even among the lower classes, and a something decidedly more in common with our ideas than is encountered elsewhere in the East. To see the poorer people going to a shop and buying loaves of bread and meat pies, was pleasanter than seeing each indi- vidual seated separately on the ground, cooking an indigestible-looking chupattee in selfish solitude, as in India. 'One curious sight, witnessed by some of our party, deserves mention here. At intervals the Kazi of the city goes round the shops inspecting the weights or measures. On this occasion he detected a butcher using short weight. The culprit was at once seized, his neck and legs bound together, and repeated blows were laid on his back with a thick broad leather strap. On another occasion a man, detected in using false measures, had the measure tied round his neck, and he was flogged through the chief bazaars and streets. There is no penal code in Yarkund, but, if it be allowable to offer a suggestion on such matters, I think Indian society would rejoice if SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 143 the Yarkund method of summarily punishing such rascals could find an appropriate section in the Indian penal code. 'I have here given my first impressions of a ride through the city, but there is much more of interest which will be detailed hereafter in another part of this report. 'Various rumours were spread abroad about the ultimate destination of the mission. One day we heard we should have to go to Aksu; again it was said that the ruler of the country was coming to see us at Yarkund, on his way to Khoten; then it was that we were to be hurried off to Kashgar. Finally the truth came out that his Highness the Atalik Ghazee, having determined to receive us with all due honour, had caused an entirely new suite of buildings to be erected for our accommodation; and, as they could not be ready for some days, the fact of it being the month of fast, the Ramazan afforded a reasonable excuse for asking us to delay our onward progress. We therefore spent a very pleasant three weeks in visiting Yarkund and the vicinity. Just outside the city, on the east, are extensive marshes, where ducks, geese, and snipe abound, and afford ample occupation to the sports- man and the naturalist. Some of our party went 144 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF out for a two days' excursion to shoot pheasants, and returned with the veritable burgoot, golden eagle, or bear coot, as called by Atkinson, whose stories about the bird, nay its very existence, have been seemingly called in question. This bird is said by Atkinson to kill bears. 'We were told it would kill deer, wolves, and even large game; and, being impatient to try its powers, we took several burgoots with us to the Yarkund jheels to fly them at the large geese and herons which abound there. To our sur- prise and disappointment the eagles would tamely alight from the falconer's arm on to the ground and take no notice of the game. Subsequent experience taught us that the story of these birds attacking large four-footed game was perfectly true, and I shall hereafter record how I saw a large wild boar brought to bay entirely by the attack of a burgoot. 'On the 22nd of November we were awoke early at dawn by hearing six guns fired in honour of the Eed, and music and dancing were kept up for some hours. Syed Yakoob Khan then came to take leave of us, having been summoned by the Atalik to Kashgar. We were to follow on the 28th, and it was arranged that we should send on our heavy baggage at once by carts, we our- SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 145 selves following with a light camp. Carts were supplied for this purpose. purpose. These are good substantial vehicles, on two wheels six feet in diameter, and drawn by four or six horses; one horse only is in the shafts, the leaders being harnessed abreast and driven with reins by a man sitting on the front of the cart. We were much struck by the business-like way in which the carts were loaded, every box being weighed, and the number written down, and only a certain load, ten hundredweight, allowed to be put on the cart. The animals used were the ordinary Yarkund ponies, very strong and willing, who would pull through the heaviest ground in a steady determined way, performing stages of twenty and twenty-five miles without apparent fatigue. When one thinks of one's experience with Indian hackeries and even dâk gharries, the inevitable feeling comes over one's mind that even Indian civilization has something to learn from the wrongly called barbarous Yarkund. We after- wards found that these carts are used as omnibuses for the transport of passengers from time to time, and from our Embassy quarters at Yangi Shahr we used to see such an omnibus go to and from the city of Kashgar several times a day. There are also travelling carts running regularly between ΙΟ 146 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Yarkund and Kashgar, making five stages in which seats are obtained at a fixed rate. 'During our stay at Yarkund our relations with the Dadkhwáh were of the happiest kind. By degrees he became accustomed to the idea of photography, and allowed Captains Chapman and Trotter to take likenesses of his soldiers, and even admitted the camera into the court-yard of his palace, taking good care, however, to preserve even the skirt of his garment from falling within the range of the photographer's lens. Captain Trotter put up a sun-dial in his court-yard, and Dr. Bellew gained the hearts of the Dadkhwáh and his people by his skilful operations on blind and sick patients. The day before our departure the Dadkhwáh invited us to an early dinner, when the number of the respective dishes sorely tasked the appetites of the hungriest or most polite. 'Sergeant Rhind won no small applause by his performance on the Highland bagpipes, but I observed that the worthy Governor of Yarkund did not bestow as much attention on the High- land costume as I expected he would do. On asking the reason, I was told that he did not like to take notice of his appearance, as evidently in his hurry to attend the Sergeant had forgotten to put on his trousers. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 147 'Winter had quite set in when, on the morning of the 28th of November, the British Mission left Yarkund for Kashgar. At the first "sang," or five-mile post, we crossed a wooden bridge, and rode for an hour through a well-inhabited and wooded country till we came to the edge of the Karakum, literally black sandy desert. Here we were invited to alight and warm ourselves by a comfortable fire in a peasant's house, and after the usual hospitality we took leave of the Dadkhwah's high officials and rode across a desolate tract of sandy hillocks and marshy plain till we reached the flourishing village of Kok Robat (Blue Post-house). Here we put up in the royal oorda, or rest-house. Next morning we pursued our way, prepared as we thought to face the cold; but we had not gone above a mile into the desert plain before a keenly cutting wind proved that the ordinary winter costume of Eng- lishmen was not suited to a Yarkund climate. 'A few days before, when wandering about the Yarkund bazaar, we were offered for sale fur leggings, socks, and caps, which were not suffi- ciently tempting to induce us to purchase, where- upon the disappointed tradesman said, in a warning voice, "You will want these and more before very long." Now we had to repent the little 148 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF heed we gave to his words. For three hours we had to endure the most cutting cold. As we approached Ak Robat (White Post-house), which is a hostelrie in the desert much similar to one of the rest-houses in the Egyptian desert, we were met by Khal Mohammed, the Military Governor of Yangi Hissar, with twenty horsemen who had ridden out two days' journey to escort us in with honour. Khal Mohammed is a re- markably smart-looking and, as we afterwards found, a very intelligent and distinguished officer, and the neat martial appearance of his men and the precision with which they wheeled round and trotted ahead of us excited the approval of my military companions. The uniform of these men consisted of green velvet caps with fur inside, yellow leather coats lined with fur and trousers of the same, neatly embroidered. The officer had a curious patch of the fur on his back in the form of a heart. This is supposed to be a distinguish- ing mark to his followers when he leads in battle. On alighting at Ak Robat we found, as usual, a well-carpeted room with a good fire to welcome us; and soon afterwards, Khal Mohammed and his followers, having doffed their uniform, came in, bearing smoking dishes for breakfast, and waited on us. We were now in a land of surprises; but SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 149 nothing, perhaps, was more striking than the versatility of the soldiers of the Amir's army. When not employed on actual military duty, they turn their hand to cooking, carpentry, or any work that may require to be done, and when they march they are encumbered by no heavy baggage train. Each man carries his blanket, or choga, tied behind his saddle; or, when boxes or saddle- bags are necessary, or cooking utensils have to be carried, they are slung across the saddle, on the top of which the soldier mounts and makes a march of thirty or forty miles a day. ( From Ak Robat we rode on over the desert track, here and there meeting signs of habitation, till we came to the village of Kizil, where we put up for the night in the royal caravanserai. As we entered the village we saw the furnaces for smelting iron which Mr. Shaw describes in his book. Dr. Stoliczka visited them; he found the ore much impregnated with lime, which acts as a flux and renders possible the peculiarly simple process described by Mr. Shaw. Our next day's march was through cultivation past the village of Toplok, and over the River Shahnoz, which we crossed by a good wooden bridge built by the Atalik. Mills were worked by this stream, and here and elsewhere we saw water-power used for 150 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF husking rice and other purposes. After crossing a low sandstone and conglomerate ridge, we entered the town of Yangi Hissar. The gardens and private houses here are surrounded by mud walls with crenellated tops, giving the appearance of fortifications. Passing through the main street of the bazaar, which resembles those in Yarkund, we came by the Fort, which is a plain about three hundred yards from the town, and is built in the form of a rectangle, and presents a somewhat imposing appearance. 'Leaving this fort to the right we were taken to a large walled garden, in which a comfortable set of quarters had been prepared for us, while Kirghiz tents were pitched inside the enclosure. The walls of the largest rooms had been neatly painted, good carpets and silk musnuds were on the floor, and tables and stools, covered with red baize and supposed to suit our English tastes, had been specially made for us. 'We halted two days at Yangi Hissar, the Atalik having sent a special messenger to say that he feared we must be tired with our long march, and he therefore wished us to take rest. This was a polite form of letting us know that the arrangements for our proper reception at the capital had not been quite completed. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 151 'At Yangi Hissar we found ourselves close to the lofty range of mountains in which the Tagh- arma, Chish Tagh, and other towering peaks looked conspicuously grand and made us long for the time to come when the Pamir should be ex- plored. It is dangerous to advance ideas regard- ing geographical problems without going fully into all the details of proof, which I must reserve for some other occasion; but I think I can give reasons for supposing that the Tagharma Peak and its surrounding country is alluded to in a passage in Ezekiel, chapter xxvii. 14.* "They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules;" also chapter xxxviii. 6, “The house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands.” 'We left Yangi Hissar on December 3, and halted for the midday dastar-khwán at a very picturesque kind of shooting lodge in the village of Soghlak, on the banks of a stream which was at that season dry. We passed the night at the village of Yepchan in the oorda, or royal resting- place. 'Next morning was to see the British Mission enter the capital of Eastern Turkestan. It was a cold brisk day, and all the streams were frozen * Togarmah was grandson of Japhet. 152 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF with a thin coating. The atmosphere, so often clouded by a thick impalpable dusty mist, was fortunately beautifully clear and we had a magni- ficent view of the giant peaks on the Alai to our left, whilst before us extended the long and com- paratively speaking low range of the Tian Shan, which separates Khokand and Russia from the Atalik's dominions. 'At Karasu, about five miles from our destina- tion, we halted to have breakfast and to put on our uniforms, after which we remounted and, crossing a small bridge, were met by Mirza Ahmed Kúsh-begí, one of the highest officials in the Atalik's court, who had come out with an escort of cavalry to bring us in. Mirza Ahmed is a man of some note in Central Asian history, and took part in the wars with Russia which ended so disastrously for the Khokand army. 'He was mounted on a fine bay horse of Andijani breed, with a saddle and bridle of re- markably neat and somewhat European pattern. As we rode along over the undulating slopes, the fort of Yangi Shahr, the residence of the Atalik, came in view, and further on in the far distance we could discern the long low walls of the city of Kashgar, a place till then unvisited and, in fact, I believe, unseen by any Englishman. As we SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 153 approached Yangi Shahr, we passed several sepa- rate enclosures which were the residences of some of the Atalik's officers, answering in a way to our barracks. At the entrance to one we saw two nine-pounder guns drawn up, in front of which a soldier with an Enfield rifle stood sentry. 'Passing by the north-east corner of the fort we came in sight of the royal gateway, on the right of which and distant about eighty yards is the new Elchi Khana, or Embassy quarters, re- cently erected for our reception. Crowds of spec- tators here thronged the road and scanned with eager looks this novel apparition. 'It is a mark of politeness in these countries to dismount in the street and not to ride inside a gateway; so, following the example of Mirza Ahmed, we left our horses outside and entered a spacious gateway, inside which on three sides. were raised platforms with a fireplace to accom- modate the guard. Through this we passed into a spacious quadrangle round all sides of which a broad verandah ran. On two sides doors opened into two good-sized rooms; a passage at the opposite side led into the inner quadrangle, on three sides of which sets of rooms for the accom- modation of the members of the Embassy had been neatly fitted up. The floors were well 154 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF carpeted with rugs from Khoten. English velvet or broadcloth lined the walls up to the wainscot, above which were neatly built recesses for shelves. The ceiling was papered with English or Russian paper, and the outer windows, for they were double, had neat frames with paper doing duty for glass, an article as yet but little known to the present race, though as I afterwards found in my exploration of a buried city, glass was known and used by the inhabitants of the land a thousand years ago. The fire-places were large and well built with gypsum plaster, and had the inestimable merit of giving out a good heat without emitting smoke at the same time. 'The kitchen arrangements and accommoda- tion for servants, the stables for fifty horses, and the enclosure for our baggage animals, were all in keeping and excellent, and I fear the comparison we drew between the method and ingenuity of these so-called barbarian people and of their more civilized neighbours across the Himalayas was not in favour of India. 'Whilst we were settling ourselves in our new quarters, Ihrar Khan Tora, the same person who came to India as Envoy from the Atalik in 1871- 1872, called to enquire after our health and to request that we would at once present ourselves SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 155 before his master. Fortunately our baggage animals, which being always lightly loaded were accustomed to keep pretty well up with us, soon arrived, and we were speedily ready to obey the summons. Mounting on horses, we rode across the moat and inside the large gateway, and after passing a small quadrangle found ourselves in an open space, on one side of which was a large mosque and other buildings, and in the left fror. the Atalik's palace. According to etiquette we dismounted at about forty paces from the gateway and walked slowly along with Ihrar Khan, the Yasawal-bashi, or head chamberlain, with white wand in hand going ahead. In the outer gateway soldiers were seated on a dais, with their fire-arms laid on the ground before them, their arms folded and their eyes cast on the ground. We then crossed obliquely an empty court-yard and, passing through a second gateway filled with soldiers, crossed another court on all sides of which soldiers in gay costumes were ranged seated. From this court we passed into the penetralia, a small court, in which not a soul was visible and everywhere a deathlike stillness prevailed. At the further end of this court was a long hall with several window doors. Ihrar Khan then led us in single file, with measured tread, to some steps at the side of # 156 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF the hall, and, entering almost on tiptoe, looked in and returning, beckoned with his hand to me to advance alone. As I approached the door he made a sign for me to enter, and immediately withdrew. I found myself standing at the threshold of a very common looking room, per- fectly bare of all ornament, and with not a very good carpet on the floor; looking about, I saw nter at a doorway on the opposite side, a tall ștout man, plainly dressed. He beckoned with his hand, and I advanced, thinking that it must be a chamberlain who was to conduct me to "the presence." Instinctively, however, I made a bow as I advanced, and soon found myself taken by both hands and saluted with the usual form of politeness, and I knew that I was standing before the far-famed ruler of Eastern Turkestan. After a few words of welcome, the Atalik led me across the room and seated me near him by the side of a window. At this moment a salute of fifteen guns was fired. His Highness asked in an eager tone after the health of her Majesty and the Viceroy, and soon afterwards called in a low voice to Ihrar Khan to bring in the other officers. They came in one by one, and each was shaken by the hand and made to sit down by my side. Then there was a long and somewhat trying SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 157 pause, during which the Atalik eyed each one of us with intent scrutiny; I had been told that etiquette forbade the guest to speak much on the first interview, and that it was a point of good manners to sit perfectly still, with downcast eyes. 'When it is remembered that the oriental pos- ture requires the visitor to sit upon his heels, with feet well flattened under him, the excruciating agony of having to keep perfectly unmoved in this position for perhaps half an hour will be appreciated. 'After this silent ordeal had been undergone for some time, at a sign from the Atalik sixteen soldiers came in with the dastar-khwán, and the Atalik breaking a loaf of bread shared it with us. After the cloth was removed, we, remembering our lesson in manners, rose up, and stroking our beards, said "Allah o Akbar," soon after which the Atalik said "Khush-amadeed," Khush-amadeed," "you are welcome." This was the signal for us to be released from our agonizing position, and we shook hands and departed. During the interview Ihrar Khan stood by the door at the further end of the room, it not being etiquette for any one to be near enough to hear anything that passes between the ruler and his guest. 158 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF ! According to the etiquette of the country, after thus having paid our respects to the ruler, it was considered proper for us to remain quiet in our own quarters for a few days. Some of our followers, however, went to the city of Kashgar to make purchases, and found themselves the object of eager curiosity, while crowds thronged round calling them "English." The fact is, that so very little intercourse has taken place between India and the people of Kashgar, that they knew scarcely anything of us. 'On the day following our first interview, his Highness went out to pay his devotions at the shrine of a celebrated Saint, Huzrat Afák, and, a day or two later, returned with the new dignity of Amir and title of Khan which had been brought to him by Syed Yakoob Khan from Constantinople. Henceforth, then, the Atalik Ghazee, Yakoob Beg, was to be known as the Amir Mohamad Yakoob Khan of Kashgar; coins were struck and prayers recited in the name of Sultan Abdul Aziz Khan, and on the name of the coin the words Zurb-i- Mahrusa-i-Kashgar, "Mint of the protected country of Kashgar," were struck.' We give here a quotation from the corre- spondent's letter again on account of its containing fuller details of the interesting ceremony of the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 159 presentation of the Viceroy's letter and her Majesty's presents :— 'On the return of the Amir to his palace, the IIth instant was fixed as the date for the formal reception of the British Envoy. Accordingly, yesterday, his Excellency Mr. Forsyth, C. B., attended by the officers of the Embassy, visited the Amir, and delivered to him with all due form and ceremony the letters and presents from her Majesty and the Viceroy. At about two p.m. Ihrar Khan (the Amir's Envoy last year to Cal- cutta), came over from the palace with a hundred men to carry the presents, and himself to conduct us to the presence. Our party, in full dress uniform, formed up into procession in the main courtyard of the Residency, and thence set out in the following order, the guard of Guide Infantry attached to the Embassy presenting arms at the gateway. First of all came two sowars of our Guide Cavalry escort, then Sergeant Rhind bearing the Queen's letter in a magnificent casket of pale yellow quartz, clamped with gilt bands and handles, and bossed with onyx stones. The dimensions of the casket are about twelve inches by eight wide and six deep, and it was borne set upon a cushion of rich blue velvet. On each side of the sergeant walked an orderly in scarlet livery and 160 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF poising his silver stick of office. Behind the Queen's letter came Havildar Gul Ahmed, bearing the Viceroy's letter in a splendid casket very richly and handsomely decorated with blue, red, and gold enamel. 'Next came his Excellency the Envoy, and Ihrar Khan riding on his right; and then, two and two, the officers of the Embassy, and behind them the guard of Guide Cavalry. From the Residency to the Fort Gate is only a short way, but a well-preserved road was kept by the Amir's officials, and the dense crowds on either side (to whom the sight of our blue and scarlet uniforms, with cocked hats and plumes, and abundance of gold lace, etc., must have been a novelty), behaved with wonderful composure, and so we passed into the Fort to the open space in front of the palace. Here we dismounted; and leaving the escort of Guide Cavalry with our horses, proceeded on foot, the presents follow- ing behind, borne by the Court officials. As we passed through the several courts up to the Audience Hall, a profound silence was observed, and the guards seated at the gateway rose and stood till the Queen's letter had been borne past them. At the entrance to the Audience Hall, Ihrar Khan conducted the Envoy up to its SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 161 door; and as his Excellency entered the hall on one side, the Amir entered from the other. They shook hands, exchanged the usual compli- ments, and then took their seats on the divan, spread up one side of the hall, and across its top. The officers of the Embassy were then, in turn, ushered in, as on the previous occa- sion of our visiting his Highness, walked up the hall to where the Amir was seated, bowed, shook hands, said, "Salaam Amir Sahib," and took their seats in a line to the left of the Envoy. When all were seated, Mr. Forsyth, addressing the Amir, said he had brought letters from the Queen and the Viceroy, and with his permission would now present them. The Amir bowed a smile of acquiescence; and then Colonel Gordon, rising, went down the hall to the door, and there receiving the casket from the serjeant returned with it up the hall. The officers all rose and stood in their own places, whilst the Envoy, advancing half way down the hall, re- ceived the casket from Colonel Gordon and placed it, with one knee on the ground, before the Amir, the officers closing up in two ranks behind him. After depositing the casket, Mr. Forsyth took out the Queen's letter and, presenting it to the Amir, rose and in a clear sonorous voice addressed I I 162 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF him as follows, in Persian: "I have the honour to present to your Highness this letter from her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of Hindustan. Since the Government of her Majesty is on terms of friendship and amity with all the govern- ments of the world, it is hoped the same relations may be established between the British Govern- ment and that of your Highness." 'The Amir looked very pleased, and brighten- ing up said, "God be praised. You have con- ferred a favour on me. I am honoured in the receipt of this letter from the Queen. I am highly gratified. God be praised!' And then bowing, with the letter in his hands, unre- strainedly enquired, "Is this box, too, for me?" And an affirmative reply being given, replaced the letter within it. 'The Envoy and his officers now sat down, and the presents were brought forward, pre- sented at the window, opposite which his High- ness was seated, and passed on into his private sitting-room in charge of his own officials. Then Mr. Forsyth, addressing the Amir, said he had a letter to present from the Viceroy. And his Highness bowing graciously, Captain Biddulph rose, and, going to the door, there received the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 163 1 letter from the havildar. And as he returned, all rose; and the Envoy, advancing a few paces, received the casket from his hands and set it beside the other, and then with a clear, full voice, addressed the Amir as follows, in Persian, as he handed him the letter: "I have the honour to present to your Highness this letter from his Excellency Lord Northbrook, the Viceroy and Governor-General of India. When Syed Yakoob Khan was in India, and had the honour of meeting the Viceroy at Calcutta, he made known your Highness' virtues and high qualities; on hearing which, his Excellency was extremely gratified and pleased. And when he returned from the capital of Turkey, and the success of his mission was known, it became the source of still greater pleasure to his Excellency. On the part, then, of her Majesty, and the Viceroy, and all the people of England, I beg to congratulate your Highness. Happy be your dignity of Amir and title of Khan! Prosperity attend you! And may the sun of your State always shine with effulgence." To this the Amir replied, as he took the letter in both hands, and with marked animation and signs of gratification, "God be praised! God be praised! I am highly honoured. This is a great pleasure to me." A few moments' 164 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF i silence followed, whilst the presents were borne past. And then the Amir, turning towards Mr. Forsyth, in warm terms expressed his gratifica- tion and thankfulness. He now gave a sign, and the dastar-khwán was spread; and then a conversation ensued between the Amir and the Envoy, of a more or less complimentary nature. So far as I can remember it was much to this effect: "The Queen was a great Sovereign. Her Government was a powerful and beneficent one. Her friendship was to be desired, as it always proved a source of advantage to those who possessed it. For himself the friendship of the British Government was more especially desirable. The Queen was as the sun, in whose genial rays such poor people as himself flourished. He looked to England for favour and good-will. The road to London was now close and clear." The Envoy here remarked that it was the desire of the British Government to improve and strengthen the friendly relations now existing between the two Governments. And the Amir replied, “Please God, it will be so. Your people have always shown kindness to us. I have long heard of the Palumpur Fair, and with it always the name of Forsyth Sahib. The seed then sown (here his Highness, with his SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 165 hands on the carpet, imitated the process of digging and burying seed) is now sprouting, and will bear good fruit. Yes, please God." Mr. Forsyth then alluded to the good services rendered by the Envoy to Calcutta; but the Amir broke in with some warmth, "He, poor helpless, friendless fellow, what could he do without your good offices? It was your kind- ness and the good-will of your Government I am indebted to. Please God, we shall improve our friendship. The friendship of the British Govern- ment is very desirable. Their rule is just. Their people are free, and strangers can travel everywhere in their countries, even from here to London, and nobody stops them or teases them." There were some other words in the same strain, the import of which I did not exactly catch. Altogether the visit was most satisfactory, and on the removal of the dastar-khwan we rose, bowed and retired, the Amir as usual remaining seated. I must observe here that the explana- tion of the Envoy being conducted to the pre- sence alone is this, namely, that the Amir receives him standing as a mark of respect to the Govern- ment his Excellency represents. But he is not prepared to allow others to share in this honour, and hence the reason of the officers of the 166 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Embassy and others only being admitted to the presence on these occasions after the Amir and Envoy have taken their seats. The Residency prepared for this Embassy has been built ex- pressly for us, and is very well arranged with all the provisions for quarters, offices, stabling, etc., we are accustomed to in our own territory, and, in fact, every care has been taken to forestall our wants and keep us satisfied. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 167 CHAPTER VIII. MISSION TO KASHGAR (CONTINUED). 'ON December 13 we paid our first visit to the city of Kashgar. The distance is about five miles through a cultivated and populous tract all the way. At first the road passes amongst a number of detached and semi-fortified enclosures used as barracks for the Amir's troops and their families. They are neat quadrangular structures, with crenellated walls and defensible gateways, and are capable of accommodating from fifty to sixty families each. Between them are corn-fields and parade grounds intersected by irrigation canals and dotted in all directions by butts for musketry practice. 'Beyond these the road drops in the wide bed of the Kizil Sú, or "Red River," and is here carried across a long stretch of water-logged land by a wide causeway built of faggots laid with 168 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF earth and planted with willow trees. It conducts to the bridge across the river, a rough wooden structure supported on two piers between the banks and protected by railings on each side. Beyond the bridge the road lies over higher ground to the city, about a mile distant, and leaves some ancient ruins a little way off to the right. They attract attention from the height and massive structure of the fortifications of the old citadel, the outlines of which are still very fairly represented in the existing remains. 'Aski Shahr, or "Ancient City" (the ruins, amidst which are gardens and orchards and huts) -in contradistinction to Kuhna Shahr, or "Old City" (the present town of Kashgar), and Yangi Shahr, or "New City" (the residence of the Amir and his Court)-was a flourishing seat of trade with China in the time of Wang Khan, the pre- decessor in these parts of Ghengiz Khan. It was noted for the strength of its fortifications, and for many centuries successfully resisted the attacks of successive conquerors. ramparts are about thirty feet high, and twelve paces wide at top; the bastions, which were built up of successive layers of mud cement, project some forty paces from the rampart walls and still show the marks of connection with them by At this time the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 169 % means of covered passages or galleries one above the other. At least, such was our solution of the meaning of the regular lines of rafter sockets (decayed wood was found in situ in one of them) that at intervals of six or seven feet run horizon- tally round these bastions. 'To Iskandar Mirza, a grandson of the Amir Timur, is assigned the credit of having reduced this famous stronghold by diverting the Kizil Sú against its walls. A main branch of the river certainly does flow where the east face of the city walls ought to stand, and so far accounts for their disappearance, and gives support to a tradition connected therewith. It is to the effect that the defenders, on seeing the means resorted to by the enemy for their reduction, gave up all for lost, and at once sought means of escape from the vengeance their obstinate resistance had provoked. By a counter stratagem on the part of their chiefs, they were enabled under cover of darkness to escape to the cities in the direction of the Maral- bashi and Taklamakan, unobserved by the enemy, who too late discovered that the sounds of activity proceeding from within the walls were produced by the only living creatures left there a number of camels with rattle-drums fixed on their necks, scampering wildly through the deserted streets— 170 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF the unwitting agents of their own protracted terror, the people's hurried escape, and the enemy's destructive rage. And so the celebrated Kash- gar of the time of Wang Khan was reduced to ruins. 'From the bridge we passed through a thin suburb to the city, which is considerably smaller than that of Yarkund. It is enclosed within high walls strengthened by buttress bastions at short. intervals, and surrounded by a deep ditch. The entrance on the south side is through three gate- ways, one within the other and at different angles, into the main bazaar. The centre gate has fold- ing doors plated with iron, and is kept by a guard of fifty soldiers, whom we found seated on each side of the roadway with prong-rest rifles set before them. Our progress through the bazaar was slow, owing to the dense crowd of market people thronging the thoroughfare, and the cir- cumstance afforded us a good opportunity for judging of the condition of the general community and observing the different types of nationality. Compared with similar scenes in Yarkund, one is struck by the remarkably robust and healthy look of the people, and the almost entire absence of goitre which is there nearly universal; and next, by the large proportion of pure Chinese faces SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 171 amongst the general crowd of Uzbaks, Tajiks, and Tunganis; whilst here, too, as there, the generally excellent clothing, the good-will, the order, and the activity characterizing the crowd did not fail to attract our notice. 'Arrived at the Dadkhwáh's residence, we passed through a succession of courts similar to those of the Governor's residence at Yarkund and the Amir's palace here, each with its guard of soldiers clad in the national choga and loose silk robe splashed boldly, broadly, and bluntly with all the colours of the brightest rainbow, and seated along the walls with downcast heads and solemn looks, amidst silence perfect. 'The Dadkhwáh met us in the verandah of his audience-hall, and after salutation conducted us to the seats prepared expressly for us at the upper part of the room. These were high-backed armchairs, cushioned and covered with scarlet cloth or purple plush. All were ranged round two sides of a large square table covered with the rainbow pattern silks before alluded to. Our host took his seat on a divan near us, welcomed us warmly to Kashgar, and begged we would pardon any omissions on his part, as he had never had the pleasure of meeting any of our people before and was consequently ignorant of our cus- 172 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF toms, and assured us it was his desire to please and do us honour. ( Alish Beg is an active little man, of very pleasing manners, and bright intelligent features of a strongly Tartar cast. His hospitality was so profuse that our united efforts made small impres- sion on the array of five score and five dishes and trays and bowls of stews, pilaos, pastry, sweets and fruits, etc., set before us. The fact did not escape the notice of our host, and drew from him the remark that we would probably address our- selves more freely to the feast before us if relieved of the ceremonial restraints of his presence, and he consequently withdrew on the plea of some pressing business to transact, begging us the while to consider his house and grounds as our own. 'With this liberty we passed an agreeable afternoon in the garden attached to the Residency, though its trees were leafless, its tanks frozen, and kiosks deserted. In the full foliage of sum- mer it must be a delightful retreat. In this garden we found a heap of copper ore recently brought in from some hills to the north of the city. A sample of it was subsequently submitted for Dr. Stoliczka's opinion, and was found by him on analysis to be a copper pyrites capable of yielding twenty-five per cent. of the pure metal. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 173 'Towards sunset we took leave of our host, highly gratified at the cordial reception and hos- pitable entertainment he had provided for us, and galloped back to our quarters, passing on the road an active tide of traffic to and fro between the old and new cities. Most were on horseback, or mounted on donkeys, and very few on foot, whilst no small number found accommodation in the "omnibus" carts that ply daily on this road. These are covered waggons, drawn by four horses, one between the shafts and three abreast in front; they carry from twelve to sixteen passengers huddled together any fashion; they make three or four journeys a day, and the charge is thirteen pul, or about twopence English, each way. 'On the 18th instant, we attended a review of the Khatai or Chinese troops in the service of the Amir. There are, we were told, some three thousand odd of these representatives of the recently ruling race now in the Amir's army. They are, of course, all forcible converts to Islam, have been deprived of their "pigtails," amongst several other privileges, and are kept separate from the other troops in a fortified barrack of their Their arms, organization, and discipline, too, are quite distinct and maintained in their own Chinese fashion under a Chief called Kho-dalai. own. 174 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF 'At the review we found twenty-eight com- panies, of fifty men each, on the ground. They were disposed in two divisions opposite to each other, and at the head of each company were car- ried two standards of triangular shape and bright colour, one at the head of each file of twenty- five men. Their only weapon is a large, heavy smooth bore, set in a wooden socket, and very much like an ordinary duck-gun. It is called tyfu, is carried on the shoulders of two men, the foremost acting as a rest or support, and is served by three others, viz. one to carry ammunition and load, a second who carries a long ramrod tipped with a bunch of horse hair to clean the gun and complete loading, and the third as supernumerary and stop-gap in case of casualty. There are ten of these tyfu guns with each company. 'In front of each division, as they stood facing each other drawn up in contiguous columns of companies, were posted a half company each of spearmen, with their heads bound with handker- chiefs, the ends fluttering in the wind, of archers helmeted after the fashion of the stage, and of "tigers," men clad throughout in yellow, streaked with broad bars of black, and topped above with a pair of neat ears. These last carried large circular shields gaudily painted with dragons and SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 175 other hideous monsters on one side, and concealing on the other a gun-barrel set in a socket of wood, and serving also as a handle whereby to carry the shield. All these three classes wore short side- swords. 6 Midway between the two divisions stood the band, composed of a big drum carried in a frame- work sedan by two porters, and attended on each side by lesser drums, with players of flageolet, bugle, and cymbals. With the band stood the commandant, the Kho-dalai, attended by a num- ber of fuglemen, one of whom carried a large flag and the rest small ones. 'Such was the appearance and disposition of the Khatai force as we found it on reaching the parade ground. At a signal from the Kho-dalai, the head fugleman waved his flag and all the little flags ran out to their proper places and waved likewise. And presently, without any sound being uttered, the kaleidoscope began to work. Companies, following their standards, crossed, recrossed, and interlaced and finally re- solved themselves into a long straight line. Another wave of the flags, and the javelin-men, archers, and "tigers" bounded to the front, gesti- culating, capering, and cutting antics in an ab- surdly grotesque manner, ending with the line of 176 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF " "tigers" dispersing the enemy's cavalry by crouch- ing under cover of their shields, and suddenly starting up with a yell and flourish of their dragons. The enemy's horse is supposed to have reformed and again come to the charge, and the "tigers' run together in small groups of five or six within a circle of their shields; suddenly the shields part asunder with a volley, arms and legs and darting dragons flash before one's sight, and the whole line of skirmishers disappears behind the main line, from which the tyfu men now come into action. A rapid and well-maintained fire runs up and down the line for a few minutes, and then the "tigers," etc., again appear in front playing their swords upon stragglers and wounded of the repulsed enemy, and stopping now and again to scare away some rallying horseman with a crouch and a bound, or with a roll and a shout. In this state a variety of manoeuvres were performed, such as forming line, changing front, volley and independent firing, skirmishing, etc., whilst a retreat was covered by rockets and fuse torpedoes. The expenditure of powder was un- stinted, and the tout ensemble of the spectacle highly dramatic. On the conclusion of the review, we were entertained by the Kho-dalai at a very recherché Chinese déjeuner in a marquee on the ground. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 177 'Whilst thus engaged the athletes and mounte- banks of the regiment went through some of their performances for our amusement. The exercises with the sword, battle-axe, and javelin were very cleverly performed and with extreme rapidity, though their merit was not apparent, since they seemed dangerous only to the per- former. The single stick, cudgelling, kicking, and tumbling were laughable, as much by reason of the dumpy forms and squab features of the actors, as by their activity and merry gestures. The performances ended with a burlesque acted by the "tigers." A champion engages one of them. He is put to flight and takes refuge be- hind the barricades of his comrades' shields. The victor pursues and boldly rushes up the sloping bank of shields. A puff of smoke, a rolling body, and a corpse, theatrically stiff, borne away by head and heels, ushers in the finale. The band plays, the standards come to the front, the companies range themselves in their places and there we left them. Groups of them afterwards attended at our Residency, to be photographed and sketched. At our Christmas games we had an opportunity of seeing their target practice with the tyfu. Their shooting at two hundred and fifty yards' range was remarkably good, considering the 12 178 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF nature of the weapon and its mode of use, and is no doubt attributable to the daily practice that goes on at the numerous butts in the vicinity. 'We also witnessed the artillery practice of a battery under the command of a Punjabee, who has for many years been a naturalized subject of Khokand, and latterly of Kashgar. Amongst his men are many Cashmerees, Punjabees, and Afghans, and, oddly enough, the words of command are given in English. 'The small escort of guides, cavalry and infantry, attached to the Embassy, were present on the ground, and everywhere conspicuous in the crowd of troops by their smart set-up and soldierly bearing. They drew to themselves no small share of attention, and by the deference paid to them were evidently looked upon as friends. The Snider practice of the infantry was only appreciated by the few who knew the weapon, but the nezi-bazi and sword-cutting of the cavalry excited a lively interest, and many were the murmurs of applause that greeted the successful passes, as trooper after trooper carried away the peg, or sliced the turnips set up in a row. Fortu- nately for our credit, the men entered keenly the lists and acquitted themselves very creditably. The Khokandee horsemen are strangers to SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 179 this mode of using the spear and sword, and on this occasion unreservedly expressed their admi- ration. We had in the early part of the day seen their practice at a cap stuck on a short stick. It consists in loading and firing at full gallop at the mark indicated, but the movements were SO clumsy and slow, and the aim so very much at random, that it barely deserves mention. The Khokand soldier, though nearly always seen on horseback, does not fight except on foot, and even for this his native arms and dress are but ill- adapted, and consequently they are not skilful in feats of arms. A game more to their taste, how- ever, is ulak, a scramble on horseback for the possession of a sheep on its passage from the starting-point to the goal. It is carried in the lap, and is snatched from one to another with more roughness and energy than with skilful horsemanship. 'At the conclusion of the games, we were entertained at luncheon by the commandant of artillery before mentioned, Nabbi Bakhsh, Jema- dar, who received us in his own house, and seemed as well pleased with the day's proceedings as we were, all the result of a well-timed compliment on the excellence of his mortar practice. The after- noon was well advanced when we took our leave 180 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF and sought the shelter of our own quarters, for the keen frosty air we had been exposed to since the morning had become painfully numbing. 'On December 20 the Treaty of Commerce was presented for the Amir's acceptance, on which occasion his Highness expressed very warmly his desire to avail himself of European science for the improvement of his country, and his determination to render every facility to traders. 'Up to the time of our arrival at Kashgar, the daily wants of our camp had been supplied by our hosts with the most profuse liberality. But now that we had taken up our quarters for the winter, I considered it proper, in accordance with the instructions received from the Viceroy, to endeavour to relieve the Amir from the heavy burdens of such unbounded hospitality. This caused a lively negotiation, it being a point of honour with our kindly hosts to allow us to incur no expense of any kind; they were even anxious to supply gratis all the articles of curiosity, etc., which we purchased in the bazaar. Let me not be understood, however, to imply that in such a case the tradespeople would have been the sufferers, for it is a fact well worthy of prominent notice, that on all occasions, wherever we went and drew supplies from the Amir's officials, the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 181 : people were always properly paid, the Yuzbashi or other officer in charge of our party having been provided with cash for the purpose. I shall have occasion to mention hereafter, an instance which came under our immediate observation, of the people being paid fully for work done for the State, thus justifying the opinion we had formed that there is less oppression practised on the peasants in the kingdom of Kashgar than probably in any other country in Asia. Besides this liberal allowance of food, suits of furs and other warm clothing were supplied to every member of the Embassy, and once or twice a week a profusion of every kind of fruit, game (deer, pheasants, partridges, ducks), and fish, etc., was sent to the mission. 'As the Amir had given permission for us to go where we liked, and suggested the idea of our going to some of his outlying forts on shooting excursions, accompanying this offer with permis- sion to make free use of our scientific instruments, Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon left Kashgar on December 31, accompanied by Captain Trotter and Dr. Stoliczka, on a visit to Chadyr Kul in the Tian Shan range, whilst Captain Biddulph went off in another direction to visit the forest of Maralbashi. 182 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF If space permitted me, it would be interesting to the general public to give a lengthened descrip- tion of our ordinary life during a most pleasant sojourn of nearly four months at the capital of the Amir. But I can only here give a passing notice of our friendly intercourse with the chief officers of his court, who entertained us at their houses, and accepted our hospitality in return. The intensity of the winter, with a thermometer which for many weeks descended some degrees below zero, and frequently did not mount above freezing point in the sun, prevented us from moving about very freely, but it afforded us a good opportunity of showing to the astonished inhabitants the skill of some and the clumsiness of others of our party in the science of skating. ( Our relations with our good friends the Kashgarians were of the pleasantest nature, un- moved by a single contretemps, and it is with pleasure and pride I record the fact that no single instance of altercation occurred between any of our followers and the people of the country. The system which I had enforced from the outset, of having the roll called twice a day, and of not allowing any of our followers to leave the precincts of the Embassy quarters without permission, had an admirable effect in checking misconduct, and SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 183 inspired confidence in the Amir's officials that no abuse of their kind hospitality would be allowed. 'A remarkable proof of their confidence was afforded in the popularity of the dispensary which Dr. Bellew established in one of the courts of our Embassy. As we travelled along from Sanjú to Yarkund, Syed Yakoob Khan shrewdly observed that the skill of an English physician would do as much as anything else to cause the people to look favourably to our mission; and as we rode past the villages on our route, he would enquire what sick there were, and brought them out for Dr. Bellew's inspection. This was somewhat a trial for medical skill, for in the majority of cases the patients suffered from dis- eases inseparable from old age, and the gift of renovating youth is denied to human skill. But in the treatment of eye diseases, and in per- forming sundry surgical operations in Yarkund, Dr. Bellew was happily successful, so that his fame preceded him to Kashgar. And when we had erected two spacious Kirghiz tents in the Embassy quarters, patients of both sexes flocked daily for treatment. Dr. Bellew's account of his work in this department will be read with great interest. 'Syed Yakoob Khan, whose enlightenment and 184 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF freedom from all prejudice facilitated greatly all our proceedings and augurs well for the advance- ment of this interesting country, was particularly desirous to avail himself of the scientific know- ledge of our lamented friend, Dr. Stoliczka, though I regret to say that untoward circum- stances prevented our geologist from having full scope for the prosecution of his pursuits. And I lament that his hand no longer remains to record the result of such enquiries as he was able to make. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 185 CHAPTER IX. RETURN OF MISSION FROM KASHGAR. 'ON February 2, his Highness the Amir put his seal to the Treaty of Commerce, which had been prepared for his acceptance, and thus the object of our mission was happily accomplished. 6 But as the winter season was still in all its severity, it was necessary to delay our departure for India for some time. Meanwhile, I deter- mined to take advantage of the Amir's offer to shew us somewhat of his country. And on February 14 Dr. Bellew, Captains Chapman and Trotter, and Dr. Stoliczka, started with me on an excursion to the Artysh district, north of Kashgar. Snow had fallen a day or two before, and the cold was intense; but the bright, clear atmosphere enabled us to have a magnificent panoramic view, and was useful to Captain Trotter in disclosing sundry peaks and ranges of hills. 186 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF 'As far as Awat, about six miles, we rode through thick cultivation. Awat itself is a large village. Here we came upon saline soil, and passed over barren ground, till we reached the shrine of Mahram Khoja, daughter of Sultan Satuk Boghra Khan, who was buried here about eight hundred years ago, and regarding whom mention will be found in the history of Kashgar. The present Amir has erected a very neat tomb over her grave, and built a set of houses or rooms for pilgrims. This he has done in the case of all saints and martyrs of note all over his country, thus acquiring a character for sanctity. Fine tall poplars grow in the shrine enclosure. After a short halt here, we resumed our ride over undulating ground, leaving the village of Besh- kirim to our left, and crossing two streams, till we came to the foot of a low gravel and sand- stone ridge, which we crossed, and then descended into the Artysh valley. This valley is studded with small hamlets; and in the centre is the bazaar of Altun, or Golden Artysh, where is the tomb of Satuk Boghra Khan, the first chief of the country who embraced Islamism in the tenth century, and imposed the new religion on the inhabitants. His mausoleum, a rather imposing structure of sun-dried bricks, faced with green SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 187 tiles, was built in its present form about forty-four years ago. Several masonry buildings have been erected by the present Amir for the priests and pilgrims who frequent the shrine; and there is a large school attached to it. 'The Governor of the Artysh district, Moha- mad Khan Khoja, a descendant of Satuk Boghra Khan, received us very politely, and conducted us to comfortable quarters in the royal oorda. On the following day, the usual weekly bazaar was held at Artysh, and we witnessed a lively scene. As we passed through the streets on the day of our arrival, the place looked deserted with its closed shops, empty verandahs, and not a soul stirring. To-day everything was changed. 'About two thousand people thronged every street and lane, and all intent on business-black- smiths shoeing horses, mending spades and vessels ; women selling cotton, raw and in thread; sheep and oxen being sold, and meat in large quantities hung up for sale. The restau- rants opened for the day, drove a thriving trade. The most lively scene was in the cloth markets, where merchants from Kashgar were to be seen purchasing cotton cloths for export to Almaty (Fort Vernoye, in Russia). These cloths are of rather coarse texture, but very strong and useful. 188 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Hundreds of men were offering these for sale; and the trade, though most brisk, was conducted in a much less noisy manner, and with less haggling than one is accustomed to find in an Indian bazaar. Traders in Russian chintzes and Khokand cutlery occupied the verandahs in one street, and did business in a more leisurely manner. All transactions were for cash, and tungas were the circulating medium. The whole business of the market was over, and everybody had left the place, by early evening. 'These weekly markets are a remarkable feature in Central Asia. Colonel Yule, in his "Book of Marco Polo," remarks that "market days are not usual in Upper India or Cabul, but are universal in Badakshan and the Oxus Pro- vinces. The bazaars are only open on those days, and the people from the surrounding country then assemble to exchange goods, generally by barter." Marco Polo, in his 53rd chapter, mentions a great market held at a large place on the road to the kingdom of Mien, when the people of the country round come on fixed days three times a week and hold a market. In the Shan towns visited by Major Sladen, he found markets held every fifth day. This custom, he is borrowed from China, says, and is general SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 189 throughout Western Yunan. Burnes, in his travels to Bokhara, mentions arriving at Karran, a village sixteen miles distant from Kurshee on a market day, "for in the towns of Turkistan, they hold their bazaars on stated days as in Europe. We met many people proceeding to the thing, but not a single individual on foot-all were equestrians. A stranger is amused at seeing a horse literally converted into a family conveyance, and a man jogging along with his wife behind him. The ladies are of course veiled, like most females in this country; they prefer blue cloths to white as in Cabul, and are sombre looking figures." This corresponds very much with the Kashgar custom, except that the ladies, who have the reputation of being independent and disposed to have the upper hand, are not con- tent to ride meekly behind their husbands, but generally have their own pony, on which, perhaps, may be seen paniers full of melons, on top of which the woman rides astride with a child behind, while the husband follows more humbly mounted on a donkey. 'Having expressed a desire to see something of Kirghiz life in the interior, we found every arrangement made for a ten-days' trip, by our friend Mohamad Khan Khoja, who sent his 190 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF t younger son, Moosa Khan, to take care of us. Moosa Khan is a fine, manly, intelligent youth of two and twenty, a keen sportsman, and, as we found, a most pleasant companion. 'Leaving the valley of Artysh, we passed through a gorge into an immense valley which comes down from the Terek pass, and then entered the Tungi Tar, or narrow defile as its name implies. Here we found a good line of fortifications erected on a well-selected point, where a few resolute men could keep a large body of invaders in check. 'Passing through this defile, along the frozen river bed, over which the wintry blast came with cutting force, we emerged upon a very broad valley almost wide enough to be called a plain, on the other side of which rose the snow-clad peaks of the Aksai range, and we saw the Tian Shan mountains before us in all their glory. It was impossible not to feel a strong thrill when behold- ing this magnificent scene. On the lofty plateau, and on the northern slopes, lies Atbashi, the great grazing ground of the Kirghiz tribes, and there was the trysting-place of the nomad chiefs, who every spring, as we are told by the author of the Rozaat-i-sufa, assembled to hold their kurultai, or open-air parliament, to settle their affairs, and SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 191 to arrange plans for the summer's campaign. The plain on which we found ourselves was said to be well grassed in summer, but at the time of our visit was covered with snow. Here and there a few scattered domes of mud or sun-dried bricks told the last resting-place of Kirghiz chiefs. In the sheltered corner of a valley, a cluster of round felt tents might be seen, and as we rode through the encampment the elders and the women would come forward with friendly curiosity to watch the novel invasion and to offer milk. 'With ready hospitality they pitched felt tents for our reception, and kindled large fires, and then began the usual drinking of innumerable cups of tea. At night the cold was intense, the thermometer falling to twenty degrees below zero, and was considerably aggravated by a cutting wind which found its way through the well-worn felt walls of the tents. In this way we journeyed for several days, whiling away the time on the march with hawking hares (one hawk killed seven hares in one morn- ing), till we came to Ayak Sughun, where we joined the direct road from Kashgar to Ush Turfan. Here Captain Trotter and Dr. Stoliczka left us to explore the country in the direction of Ush, and an account of their travels will be found 192 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF elsewhere. We descended the valley leading to the plain of Artysh and came to the village of Kulti Yailak, and thence returned by Altun Artysh to Kashgar. At Kulti Yailak, while wandering through the dense grass jungle in search of pheasants, we suddenly came upon a splendid wild boar, in size far surpassing any that could be seen in India, and then it was that we had ocular proof of the powers of the burgoot. Flying at his prey he struck the boar on the hind quarters with his talons, and so completely bothered and perplexed the animal that he was brought to bay, when our Kashgar companions, with young Moosa Khan at their head, eagerly belaboured him with sticks, till he received his coup de grace from a rifle. Hunting with the spear is not known to these people, and those which some of our party brought with them in the hope of sport were broken on the road. ( But pleasant though our sojourn had been at Kashgar, we looked anxiously forward to the time when we could resume our ordinary travels. At one time we had hopes of making an extended exploration of the country in the north-east as far even as Lake Lop. But various reasons com- bined to prevent the prosecution of these plans, and as all our business had been satisfactorily SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 193 concluded, and we were a heavy expense to our generous host, I took occasion, soon after our return from Artysh to Kashgar, to press for permission to depart. 'During our absence from Kashgar, the heir- apparent, Beg-Kuli-Beg, had returned from the north-east frontier, where he had successfully commanded his father's troops in engagements at Manass and other places. On my offering to pay my respects to him, an invitation was sent for all the officers to a déjeuner at his house in the fort, at which Syed Yakoob Khan also was present and acted as Turkee interpreter for me, though I may mention that Colonel Gordon and Dr. Bellew, and notably the latter, had acquired a fair know- ledge of that language during our stay. Beg- Kuli-Beg is a fine young man of about twenty- seven years, somewhat like his father in build and height. He seemed rather shy at first, but dis- played intelligence in his remarks, and was evidently interested to learn all about the first Feringees whom he had seen. 'On March 16 we had an interview with the Amir to take formal leave, on which occasion he reiterated his expressions of friendship and his earnest desire to cement the alliance thus favour- ably begun. 13 194 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF 'On the following day we took our departure from Kashgar, under the usual salute, and were accompanied part of the first stage by Syed Yakoob Khan and Ihrar Khan. On the 18th we reached Yangi Hissar, whence I despatched Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon, Captains Biddulph and Trotter, and Dr. Stoliczka to proceed to Wakhan; Ressaldar Afzul Khan went ahead to announce their approach. I had sent Ibrahim Khan on January 1 to Cabul with letters to Amir Shere Ali, in the hope that it might have been arranged that the mission should return to India, via Badakshan and Cabul, but was in ignorance of the threatened troubles arising out of the dis- agreement between the Amir and his son Yakoob Khan. Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon was instructed by me to proceed no further than Wakhan till joined by me, and in the event of an unfavourable reply being received from Afghanistan, to retrace his steps to India by Yarkund and Ladakh. 'Owing to the judicious care taken of our baggage-mules and ponies, and the strict super- vision exercised, we were able to bring our animals over the severe passes to Ladakh, not only with- out serious loss, but even in fair condition, thus proving that this journey, though unquestion- ably one of the most difficult undertakings, can SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 195 be accomplished without any of the disasters which render the Karakoram route so generally abhorred. 'On May 3, news having come that the proposed plan of a return through Cabul could not be carried out, and that Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon's party were returning to Yarkund, Dr. Bellew, Captain Chapman, and I commenced our homeward journey. We reached Yarkund on the 6th, and halted there till May 18, in order to receive the letters for her Majesty and for the Viceroy which the Amir sent by the hand of our good friend Syed Yakoob Khan. He also brought with him an European traveller, M. Berc- zenczey, who had given himself out on arrival at Kashgar as an old friend of mine, but on reaching Yarkund he changed his story, and said he had come to search for the cradle of the Hungarian race. He represented himself as having been ill- treated at Kashgar by the Amir's officials, and as being prevented from pursuing his intention of proceeding via Aksu and Kara-Shahr to Kokonor. I ascertained that the extent of his ill-treatment was his being placed under surveillance whilst in Kashgar, as he acknowledged that he did not belong to Russia, England, or Turkey, the only three European nations with whom the Amir had 196 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF any dealings. But he acknowledged that he was well fed and clothed, and he certainly was not subjected to more restraint than was experienced by Messrs. Shaw and Hayward. 'However, I advised Syed Yakoob Khan to accord to this gentleman perfect liberty. The Syed took occasion, when we were his guests one day in a charming garden just outside the city, to ask M. Berczenczey whether he had any ground of complaint, and I particularly remarked to him that now was the proper time for him to speak out if he had received any sort of ill-treatment. He expressed himself as perfectly satisfied, and signed a written paper to this effect. Syed Yakoob Khan then accorded in writing free permission to the traveller to go where he pleased, and I assumed that he would pursue his journey to Kokonor. But M. Berczenczey now abandoned the professed object of his visit to Kashgar, and begged to be allowed to accompany my camp to India. As this arrangement could not be complied with, he made his way by the Sanjú route to Ladakh, and I deputed one of my escort to accompany and take care of him, and provided him with a tent, ponies, and supplies. 'Before leaving Kashgar I had obtained the Amir's consent to my taking the Kogiar route on SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 197 our return to India. This route had the reputa- tion of being very much shorter and easier than that by Sanjú and the Karakash. But it had been closed for many years to travellers, partly owing to the attacks of the Kunjút robber tribe, and there was some difficulty at first about sup- plies. This was, however, overcome by the energy and ability of Tara Sing, who, by pur- chasing and hiring baggage animals laid out pro- visions as far as Burtsi, fourteen marches from Kogiar, and to within four days of the fertile Nubra valley in Ladakh. 'Leaving the old Sanjú track at Kargalik we made a march up the Kogiar valley, and crossing the Topa Dewan, a short and low pass, we came into the valley of the Tisnaf stream. Our road thence for four days was up the bed of this river, at that time swollen by the melting snows to such an extent as to make the frequent passage of the stream a constant difficulty and not infrequent danger. 'We found the Yangi Dewan a very easy pass to ascend, but on descending the valley on the south, leading to the broad bed of the Yarkund river, we experienced considerable difficulty in passing our animals over the crevasses of the ice- beds which filled the valley. For three days our 198 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF journey was along the broad Yarkund river, which had to be crossed frequently, but at no point was troublesome. At Actágh, on June 4, we rejoined the old road between Ladakh and Shahi- dulla on the Karakash, and thence retraced our last year's steps over the Karakoram. 'Between the Karakoram and the Sasser passes, the summer route crosses the high Dipsang plain, and then follows the rocky bed of a stream till the Shyok is reached. Here we were met by Mr. Johnson, the Wuzeer of Ladakh, who made most complete and comfortable arrangements for crossing the Sasser and Digur Passes, and on June 17 the head-quarters of the mission entered Leh. 'Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon's party followed in our wake, and found supplies and all necessaries at each stage. He arrived at Leh on June 29, but I grieve to have to record the melancholy fact, that when all the difficulties and dangers of a year's travel were just at an end, our friend and companion, Dr. F. Stoliczka, fell a sacrifice to his zeal in the cause of science. On the road to Yarkund last year this intrepid and indefatigable savant endangered his life by over-exertion when pursuing his geological researches at an elevation of nearly nineteen thousand feet, and in spite of SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 199 intense cold. The journey across the Pamir was a severe trial to his enfeebled constitution, and on reaching the lofty Karakoram Dr. Stoliczka ex- hibited signs of great distress. Undaunted, how- ever, by all suffering, and too little heeding the warnings thus given, he overstrained his lungs and heart by toiling on foot up a mountain-side to make some scientific observation, and then, when he consented to be treated as an invalid, the injury was past all human skill to remedy, and he rapidly passed away.' The Government having remained at Calcutta during the hot weather season of 1874, Sir Douglas was ordered to proceed thence imme- diately on his return to India, and was there informed by Lord Northbrook of her Majesty's gracious signification that he should receive the order of a Knight Commander of the Star of India, as a mark of her approval and of his success. The following articles appeared in the Friend of India, and are given as a valuable summary of the Treaty and of the objects of the mission generally: 'The treaty which was signed at Kashgar on February 2, by the Amir Yakoob Khan and Mr. Forsyth, C.B., Ambassador from the Viceroy of India, may be considered the most important 200 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF event in the chequered history of British relations with Asia north of the Himalayas since we vir- tually seated Dost Mahomed Khan on the throne of Afghanistan. However purely commercial in its provisions, the document to which Lord North- brook is about to attach his signature forms a part of the continuous policy which has sought to maintain the status quo alike in the West and the East, on the Bosphorus and beyond the Oxus, wherever the existing Powers were less hostile to our civilization than that which seeks to supersede them. What our policy in Constantinople has been, until the Christian feudatories of Turkey along the Danube, or even Austria, can assert their rights, our policy in Afghanistan and Kash- garia is, as guardians of the peace and promoters of the progress of Southern Asia. 'Success in every form, political, commercial, and scientific, has attended Mr. Forsyth's Embassy, which, if the natural fruit of the best part of Lord Mayo's policy, reflects credit on his successor, who has thus far proved loyal to that policy. We congratulate the Envoy on this completion of his labours continued, amid much misrepresentation, throughout the past seven years. What Lord Lawrence with his hard practical ability was in- clined to ridicule, what even Lord Mayo could SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 201 not carry out boldly with a hostile party in power, what Lord Granville and the Duke of Argyll did their best to mutilate, the present Governor- General and his Foreign Office deserve the credit of having enabled Mr. Forsyth to accomplish in a style worthy of the greatest Power in Asia. Mr. Forsyth, too, has been fortunate in his assis- tants. All have acted with a loyalty to their leader and a harmony among themselves, without which the more distant and dangerous capitals of Yar- kund and Kashgar might have witnessed scenes quite as discreditable as those which competing envoys exhibited to Persia in the early part of the century. The time has not yet come to esti- mate the varied results of the mission or the degree in which each member of it, under Mr. Forsyth, has contributed to these results. But we may express the conviction that no abler secretary to the mission than Captain Chapman could have been found, that Colonel Gordon and Captain Biddulph have shown great capacity when in command of separate parties, and that savants like Captain Trotter, Dr. Bellew, and Dr. Stoliczka, will add to the reputation which caused them to be selected for the most interesting duties. which any body of British officers have had to discharge for many a year. 2C2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF 'An early Gazette of India will doubtless enable the public to satisfy themselves as to the Treaty. Meanwhile we may say that our corre- spondent is right in this general description— "the disabilities under which Hindoo traders laboured in a Mohammedan country are entirely swept away, and no sort of restriction will be placed upon caravans coming or going." This freedom is, we believe, subject only to the small duty of two and a half per cent. on the value which will be paid on Indian goods imported into the Amir's territory. On the other hand, the Government of India welcome all the Amir's exports into India by freeing them from duty, in this presenting a striking contrast to the evil policy of Russia which, wherever it goes, kills free trade and directs its special hostility against Indian goods, shutting our merchants out of such markets as already exist. To secure this free- dom, to guarantee protection to the traders of either country, and to settle their disputes, consuls will be stationed in Kashgaria and in India. Mr. Shaw will reside in Yarkund or Kashgar, and the Amir will send a representative to Calcutta or Lahore. Making due allowance for the physical difficulties, we may anticipate grow- ing trade advantages from this Treaty. Kash- SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 203 garia is practically shut off from its old master, China, and it is much nearer the Indian than the European markets of Russia. Our purely Indian productions, and the English goods imported by the Canal through India, must, under the encouragement of practical freedom of trade, and the supervision of an agent like Mr. Shaw in Yarkund, and an English officer in Leh, gradually command a profitable sale. In addition to the Karakoram and Chang-Chenmo routes from La- dakh to Kashgaria, the Amir will open out the Kogzar passage farther to the west. The inte- resting letters of our correspondent, published since the mission first entered Yarkund, show what keen traders and eager purchasers the Amir's subjects are. The perfect security which the new ruler has established, and the even- handed justice which he enforces, are the best guarantees for the development of a commerce and of natural resources which are in themselves full of promise. 'We cannot now attempt to anticipate the scientific results. These, however, Dr. Hender- son's book leads us to expect will be considerable, from the freedom with which so many special observers have been allowed to roam about. But we may say that the geographical discoveries 204 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF are likely to be full of new and popular interest. To these Mr. Forsyth, as well as Captain Trotter, is giving his eager attention, while Colonel Gor- don and Captain Biddulph have been separately exploring the passes of the Tian Shan range which lead to Khokand and the Russian annexa- tions. Mr. Forsyth is both too honourable and too cautious to sink the ambassador in the eager explorer, and so to run the risk of sacrificing future scientific and other gains to present achievements. The very liberty granted so un- reservedly by the Amir imposes the duty of exercising it, as well as all the new treaty rights, with moderation and discretion. The ever- increasing circle of travellers, moreover, must not jump to the conclusion that the Amir of Kashgaria is ready to receive any number of European visitors. And the lavish hospitality which the Amir insists on showing to so large a party as our mission, makes it advisable that the burden should be restricted and be removed as soon as possible. When Mr. Shaw is per- manently settled in Kashgar, he will have ample time and opportunities for exploring and report- ing. Meanwhile, we may expect Mr. Forsyth and his associates to throw some light on the southern slopes of the Tian Shan, which the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 205 lamented Fedchenko explored from Khokand, and on that portion of the old trade route from Europe to China. It was somewhere between Khokand and Kashgar that, in 1780, Czernichev, a Russian slave, saw the stone tower known as the forty columns, which the merchants used as a rendez- vous, and which some scholars would identify with the Temple of the Sun mentioned by Ctesias in his "Indica." Czernichev was taken by his master, an Uzbeg trader, by Kashgar and Yar- kund to Cashmere, whence some Armenians conducted him to Sir Eyre Coote, who enabled him to return to his own land, but not before Wilford had extracted much information from him. We know that Mr. Forsyth intended to report on as much of this old highway of commerce as he and his associates could observe. But even more important will be the information obtained on the return of the Embassy by the terra incognita of the Pamir and by Badukshan and Cabul. Everything on the Kashgar side is favourable, and we on this side know that Ibrahim Khan, Mr. Forsyth's messenger, and an attaché of the Amir, succeeded in bringing despatches to the Viceroy by this route in two months, from Kashgar, without difficulty. The mystery of the Pamir plateau should thus be revealed when 206 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF India welcomes back the Viceroy's Embassy about November next. 'There is no reason to maintain silence re- garding the political aspect of the mission. The treaty is purely commercial, but Russia ought to understand that we have the same desire and determination to maintain the status quo in Kash- garia as in Afghanistan. Were our Were our Persian relations directly under the Government of India, as unfortunately for the peace of Asia they are not, Russia would have seen the same policy there some years ago. But that is still in the future, unless Lord Derby can be induced by his intelli- gent Under-Secretary thus to stop that source of future danger. In Kashgar, our mission have, we believe, seen no Russians, although caravans of their goods are arriving constantly and have command of the market. If Russia views the matter rightly, as she professes to do, she must acknowledge that Mr. Forsyth's presence in the Amir's capital, and the permanent residence of a British agent there, will be beneficial to her interests. All the influence of the Viceroy, through his representative, is thrown into the scale of peace. Our ambassador's counsel to the Amir is to keep faith with Russia. This is no small matter, when we hear that the Russians SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 207 have been ejected from Khiva, and the Toorko- mans and Kazaks are calling on all their co- religionists to join in a Jehad against the infidel Russ. Had we been ill-disposed towards Russia, Mr. Forsyth had only to hold his tongue and let events take their course. But he has lost no opportunity of impressing on the Amir the absolute necessity for keeping faith with Russia, or his Highness would be trusted by no European Power. As to Russia, no less than the Amirs of Kashgar and Afghanistan, the Government of India seeks only the status quo-" thus far and no farther.” }) } A part of the public which does not usually concern itself with Asiatic affairs has taken an interest in the adventurous expeditions which have been of late directed to Yarkund. The progress of the Russian arms, which within ten years has made the Czar master of some of the most important positions in Turkestan and the virtual ruler of that vast country, excites a legiti- mate rivalry among Englishmen; and when our zealous countrymen in India undertook to bring the Mohammedan ruler of Kashgar and Yarkund within the range of British policy and commerce general good-will attached to the enterprise. Tashkend and Samarcand, Khiva and Bokhara, 208 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF have fallen, or are doomed to fall, under the dominion of the Muscovite. Why should not the Englishman press forward and, by more friendly but not less effective methods, extend his country's influence over the secluded region which lies to the north of India? Mr. Forsyth received full powers from the Governor-General, and from time to time intelligence of his journey has been given in our columns. Those who have followed his progress with interest will be glad to learn the political result. It is embodied in a treaty which, as the plenipotentiary of the Governor-General, Mr. Forsyth concluded with the Amir. That ruler has probably not been unwilling to assure his independence of the Chinese by negotiating on terms of equality and friendship with the formidable power which pre- ponderates in Southern and Eastern Asia. He received the British Envoy with cordiality, and assented readily to the establishment of relations which should increase the intercourse between his country and India. This was the more easy, as there never was a treaty between a great European Power and a small half-civilized State in which the latter was more respectfully treated. The diplomatic and consular agents of each of the contracting parties will possess equal rank SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 209 The and authority. The commercial stipulations are eminently favourable to the traders of the Amir's dominions, and those which regulate the status of British subjects resident in Yarkund are the mildest of all possible capitulations. The first articles stipulate, in the usual manner, that the subjects of each of the high contracting parties shall enter, reside in, trade with and pass with their merchandise and property into and through all parts of the dominions of the other, with all the privileges and advantages which belong to the subjects of the respective Governments. free transit from the one territory to the other of merchants of whatever nationality is provided for; this liberty is not to be infringed by either party except for urgent political reasons to be previously communicated to the other, and such restriction is to be withdrawn as soon as the necessity for it is over. But as certain rights, and particularly a partial freedom from the Amir's jurisdiction, are guaranteed to our coun- trymen, it is stipulated that British European subjects entering the Amir's dominions for pur- poses of trade or otherwise must be provided with passports certifying their nationality. Unless provided with such passports, they are not to be deemed entitled to the benefit of this treaty. 14 210 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF We can hardly imagine any Englishman at once so perverse and so enterprising as to go all the way to Yarkund for the purpose of making mis- chief, but this clause in the treaty relieves the Indian Government from responsibility for any objectionable adventurer who might desire to enter the country. By refusing a passport, it will declare that he goes at his own peril, and must not count on the support of the British represen- tative in any differences he may have with the Government or people of the country. Such a provision is also expedient to prevent the fraudulent assumption of British nationality, and the power of regulating in some degree the inter- course between the two countries is, perhaps, an essential part of a scheme like this. 'The British Government is to be at liberty to appoint a representative at the Amir's court, as also commercial agents subordinate to him in other towns or places in the territory. The Amir, on the other hand, does not communicate directly with her Majesty. He is to be at liberty "to appoint a representative with the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, and to station com- mercial agents at any places in British India con- sidered suitable." Opinion in this country fully concurs with the policy of dealing with the Asiatic SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 211 States by means of the Indian Government, and teaching them all, from the Persian Gulf to the China Sea, to look to the Governor-General as an exalted and supreme authority. If this policy is justifiable in the case of an old and still dignified monarchy like Persia, it cannot be questioned with respect to the obscure Principality with which Mr. Forsyth has been commissioned to deal. The Eighth Article of the Treaty relates to the decision of civil suits and criminal cases in which British subjects shall be concerned within the territory of the Amir. It evinces sufficient confidence in Mahommedan justice, and may be profitably com- pared with the stipulations to which European nations have induced the Porte at various epochs to consent. Civil suits in which both plaintiff and defendant are British subjects, and criminal cases in which both prosecutor and accused are British subjects, or in which the accused is a "European British subject mentioned in the Third Article of this Treaty"—that is, an Englishman with a pass- port—are to be tried by the British representative or one of his agents in the presence of an agent appointed by the Amir. But civil suits in which one party is a subject of the Amir and the other a British subject, and criminal cases in which either prosecutor or accused is a subject of the 212 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Amir, are, except as above otherwise provided, to be tried by the Amir's Courts in the presence of the British representative, or one of his agents, or of a person appointed in that behalf by such representative or agent. In any case disposed of by the Courts of the Amir in which a British subject is concerned, it will be competent to the British representative, if he considers that justice has not been done, to represent the matter to the Amir, who may cause the case to be tried in some other Court, in the presence of the British representative or one of his agents. The rights and privileges enjoyed by British subjects are also to extend to the subjects of all Princes and States in India in alliance with her Majesty the Queen, and if in respect to any such Prince or State any other provision should be considered desirable, they are to be negotiated through the British Government. With respect to the trade which these arrangements and this official machinery are expected to favour, the stipulations are few. On goods imported into British India from the Amir's territory over the Himalayan passes the British Government engages to levy no import duties. On goods imported from India into the Amir's territories no import duty ex- ceeding two and a half per cent. ad valorem is to SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 213 be levied. Merchandise imported from India is not to be opened until it arrives at the place of consignment. If any dispute arises as to the value of the goods, the Amir's officer may pay himself in kind by taking a fortieth part of the goods. 'The merchant and manufacturer will be anxious to know what kinds of merchandise may be sent with a hope of profit to this distant region, and what are the means of communication. On these subjects Mr. Forsyth has written an inte- resting despatch, which accompanies the Treaty, and which we publish elsewhere.* The envoy endeavours to take a middle course between those who disparage and those who unduly exalt the advantages of commercial intercourse with the territory he has visited. We are not aware that many have expected great immediate results, but any who have not been sobered by the accounts already given of the route would do well to read the document in question. There is an opening for trade, and British goods, especially textile fabrics well selected and of good quality, would find a sale. The people are comfortable, and have attained to a high degree of civilization, consider- ing that they have been shut off from all contact * This despatch being a recapitulation is not published.-ED. 214 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF with European nations. But, as must be the case with a country so situated, commerce is in its infancy. A great drawback is the want of a proper currency, in consequence of which all com- mercial transactions have to be carried on more or less by barter. It is the intention of the Amir to introduce a silver coinage, but until this has been done merchants must content themselves with taking gold dust, felts, shawls, wool, carpets, etc., in exchange for their European goods. This condition of things is necessarily produced by the seclusion of the country. The region in which Kashgar and Yarkund are situated has a very definite and remarkable geographical character. It is a tongue of land shut in by mountain chains on the north, west, and south, and open only to the Great Desert on the east. But the most gigantic of these barriers is that which Nature has reared between the Amir's territory and India. The passes which must be traversed between Leh and Yarkund are the most stupendous in the world, rivalling in height the loftiest peaks of Europe. They have been made familiar to the public of late by numerous descriptions. The goods, which must be carried on the backs of mules and ponies over the mighty Karakoram range, can never be sufficient in quantity or value SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 215 to form an appreciable element in the trade of England. But if the result of the late mission be to further good government and civilization in Central Asia, the labour will not have been in vain.' 216 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF CHAPTER X. VISIT TO BURIED CITIES. THE following is the substance of a paper read by Sir Douglas before the Royal Geographical Society in the year 1877, giving a most in- teresting account of the Buried Cities of Yarkund, which were visited by him and some of his party during the period of their stay in the Atalik Ghazee's dominions in 1873- Among the many objects of interest which attracted our attention during the mission to Kashgar, not the least interesting was an inquiry regarding the shifting sands of the Great Desert of Gobi, and the reported existence of ancient cities which had been buried in the sands ages ago, and which are now gradually coming to light. 'When Mr. Johnson returned in 1865 to India from his venturesome journey to Khoten, he brought an account of his visit to an ancient city not far from Kiria, and five marches distant from Khoten, which had been buried in the sands for SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 217 centuries, and from which gold and silver orna- ments, and even bricks of tea were dug out. 'On the occasion of the first mission to Yarkund in A.D. 1870, we were unable to gather much information, and I observe that in Mr. Shaw's book, "Travels in High Tartary," no allusion to the subject is made. Tara Chund, the energetic Sikh merchant whom Mr. Shaw mentions, and who accompanied me on both my expeditions, told me that this exhumed tea was to be found in the Yarkund Bazaar; but as our stay in that city in 1870 was of very short dura- tion, and we had no opportunity of moving about and making enquiries for ourselves, we returned to India with very vague ideas on the subject. On my second visit in 1873, I determined to make more searching enquiries, and for this purpose I endeavoured to collate all the informa- tion obtainable from published works, as well as from oriental books, such as Mirza Haidar's "Tarikhi Rashidi," a valuable copy of which I picked up in Kashgar. I also consulted many natives of the country, and other authorities, and the first of all authorities unquestionably is Colonel Yule. Not only has this distinguished geographer, by his laborious researches and trans- lations, thrown a flood of light on the history and 218 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF ! F I geography of Central Asia, and given to the world an invaluable commentary on the travels of Marco Polo, and other medieval explorers, but I gladly take this opportunity of recording the deep obligations under which he placed myself and all the members of the mission to Kashgar, by the valuable hints and information he supplied to us from time to time. To him I was indebted for the loan of a copy of Rémusat's "Histoire de la Ville de Khotan," a most useful work. Colonel Yule very justly remarks, regarding the great Venetian traveller of the Middle Ages, that all the explorers of more modern times have been, it may be said, with hardly a jot of hyperbole, only travelling in his footsteps; most certainly illus- trating his geographical notices. 'It is only proper then to place Marco Polo at the head of the list of authorities to whom I shall refer. The thirty-sixth and three following chapters refer to the country in which we are at present interested. His chapter on Khoten is provokingly meagre, for there is very great interest attaching to this place. It is supposed by some that this city was the limit of Darius's conquest. I have several Greek and Byzantine coins which were found in the ruins of the city near Kiria. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 219 'We know that in early ages it was inhabited by political exiles from India, that the Hindoo religion flourished there; and I have some gold ornaments found there, which are exactly the same as those worn by the Hindoo women of the present day. In Rémusat's history we read how the King of Khoten took an army across the Snowy Mountains and attacked the King of Cashmere, and how peace was made between the two countries, and the result was that certain Rahaus, or ascetics, brought the Buddhist religion into the country; and in the “Tarikhi Rashidi ” we read how a Christian queen, wife of Koshluk, ruled in the land and made proselytes to her religion. 'I will not enlarge now on the frequent inter- course in former ages between Khoten and India, but I may, however, here correct an erroneous impression which was conveyed to the members of the Royal Geographical Society at its last session. A good deal was said regarding the impenetrable barrier raised by the Himalayas, and Colonel Montgomerie said that the only army which ever crossed went from the Indian side and never returned. But, not to refer to invasions. of ancient times mentioned by Rémusat, Mirza Haidar, in his "Tarikhi Rashidi," gives graphic 220 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF descriptions of an expedition under Sultan Said and his minister, Mirza Haidar, from the Yarkund side, which was very successful, and on the road between the Sasser Pass and the Karakoram we passed the wall which had been erected by the Rajah of Nubra to help to resist the invasions of the armies of Khoten and Yarkund. 'The 37th chapter of Marco Polo relates to Pein, and it is evident that at that time the city called by that name was in existence. From the geographical description given by Colonel Yule in his valuable notes on this chapter, I should say that Pein or Pima must be identical with Kiria. Colonel Yule's remark regarding the looseness of morals in the towns of Central Asia is doubtless correct, but I record the fact that the present ruler of Kashgar professes to enforce a very strict code of morality. It is peculiar of its kind, but it is supposed to be framed on the Koran, and ac- cording to the practice of orthodox Mahommedans, and he would be horrified if he knew that the accommodating rules of the Shias were supposed to prevail in his country. One of his followers once, speaking to me in no measured terms against the Shias, said he would have as much pleasure in slaying a Shia as an infidel, and his language would remind one of the animosity displayed by SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 221 Catholics and Protestants to each other in days. not very long gone by. 'As regards Charchan, or Charchand, we got some information from persons who had been there. It is a place of some importance; and was used as a penal settlement by the Chinese, and is now held by a governor under the Amir of Kashgar. It contains about five hundred houses, situated on the banks of two rivers, which unite on the plain and flow to Lake Lop. The town is situated at the foot of a mountain to the south, and the river which flows by it is said to come from Thibet. 'Captain Trotter has remarked that the exact geographical position of Charchand is not fixed with any degree of certainty; but it is probably about equidistant from Kiria and Kurla, and he gives the marches from Khoten to Churchand, via Kiria:- Khoten to Kiria Kiria to Charchand ... 4 marches = 104 miles. 14 marches = 280 or 300 miles. Total 384 or 400 miles. 'Marco Polo describes the whole province as sandy, with bad and bitter water; but here and there the water is sweet. This agrees with the information we obtained, which was that, between Charchand and Lop, there are oases where 222 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF wandering tribes of Sokpos, or Kalmaks, roam about with their flocks and herds. I was informed that the present Governor of Khoten rode across from Kurla direct in fifteen days, a distance of about seven hundred miles. (( 'The stories told by Marco Polo, in his 39th chapter, about shifting sands and strange noises and demons, have been repeated by other travel- lers down to the present time. Colonel Preje- valsky, in pages 193 and 194 of his interesting Travels," gives his testimony to the supersti- tions of the Desert; and I find, on reference to my diary, that the same stories were recounted to me in Kashgar, and I shall be able to show that there is some truth in the report of treasures being exposed to view. I give the following from Colonel Prejevalsky's work:- "The sands of Kugupchi are a succession of hillocks, forty, fifty, rarely one hundred feet high, lying side by side, and composed of yellow sand. The upper stratum of this sand, when disturbed by the wind blowing on either side of the hills, forms loose drifts, which have the appearance of snow- drifts. "The effect of these bare yellow hillocks is most dreary and depressing when you are among them, and can see nothing but the sky and the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 223 sand; not a plant, not an animal is visible, with the single exception of the yellowish-grey lizards (Phrynocephalus sp.), which trail their bodies over the loose soil, and mark it with the patterns of their tracks. A dull heaviness oppresses the senses in this inanimate sea of sand. No sounds are heard, not even the chirping of the grass- hopper: the silence of the tomb surrounds you. No wonder that the local Monguls relate some marvellous stories about these frightful deserts. They tell you that this was the scene of the prin- cipal exploits of two heroes, Gissar Khan and Ghinghiz Khan. Here these warriors fought against the Chinese, and slew countless numbers, whose bodies God caused the wind to cover with sand from the desert. To this day the Monguls relate with superstitious awe how cries and groans may be heard in the sands of Kugupchi, which proceed from the spirits of the departed; and that every now and then the winds, which stir up the sand, expose to view different treasures, such as silver dishes, which, although conspicuous above the surface, may not be taken away, because death would immediately overtake the bold man who ventured to touch them." 'When I was at Peking last spring, I had the good fortune to meet Dr. Bretschneider, physician 1 224 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF to the Russian Legation, an accomplished Chinese scholar, whose notes on Chinese medieval travel- lers to the west contain valuable information. One of these travellers, Kin Ch'ang-chun, thus writes of his journey across the Great Desert in A.D. 1221 :-"Whoever crosses that place in the daytime, and in clear weather (i.e. exposed to the sun), will die from fatigue, and his horses also. Only when starting in the evening, and travelling the whole night, is it possible to reach water and grass on the next day by noon. rest, we started in the afternoon. After a short On our road we saw more than a hundred sandhills, which seemed to swim like big ships in the midst of the waves. The next day, between eight and ten o'clock in the morning, we reached a town. We did not get tired travelling at night-time, only were afraid of being charmed by goblins in the dark. To prevent the charms, we rubbed the heads of our horses with blood. When the master saw this operation, he smiled, and said goblins flee away when they meet a good man, as it is written in the books. It does not suit a Taoist to enter- tain such thoughts." 'One thing strikes me as remarkable, that though, as I suppose, Marco Polo visited Khoten, and passed along the road to Lop, he nowhere SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 225 mentions the report of buried cities being in exist- ence. Mirza Haidar, writing two centuries after- wards, alludes to them; and we learn from Chinese authorities that they were known to have been buried many centuries before Marco Polo's time. 'Before passing to other authorities, I may make a remark on one of Colonel Yule's notes on this chapter. He speaks of the cities of Lop and Kank. But this Kank is, I think, probably the Katak mentioned by Mirza Haidar. The word in Persian is written, and it depends on the diacritical points in the middle letter whether it is (Katak), or (Kank). In the copy of the 'Tarikhi Rashidi' I have it is Katak, and this is the version adopted by Dr. Bellew. 'Mirza Haidar gives an account of the destruc- tion of this city of Katak. According to him, the fate of the city had long been foreseen in the gradual advance of the sand; and the priest of the city repeatedly warned his audience, in the Friday sermons, of the impending calamity; and finally, seeing the danger imminent, he informed his congregation of a Divine order to quit the city, and flee from the coming wrath of God. He then formally bade them farewell from the pulpit, and forthwith took his departure from the doomed abode. He left the city, it would seem, in a 15 226 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF violent sandstorm, and hurried away with his family, and such effects as he could carry with them. After he had gone some way, one of his companions (the muezzin, or crier to prayer of the mosque) returned to fetch something left behind, and took the opportunity to mount the minaret, and, for the last time, chaunt the evening call to prayer from its tower. In descending, he found the sand had accumulated so high up the doorway that it was impossible to open it. He conse- quently had to reascend the tower, and throw himself from it on the sand, and then effect his escape. He rejoined the Sheikh at midnight; and his report was so alarming, that they all arose and renewed their flight, saying, “Distance is safety from the wrath of God." 'Such is the story told by a pious Mahomme- dan regarding the evil consequences of rejecting Islam. But a similar tale is told by the Chinese of another town, at or near Pima, which was destroyed in a somewhat similar manner in the sixth century A.D., in consequence of the neglect of the worship of Buddha. On that occasion, it is said, there was a violent hurricane for six days, and on the seventh a shower of sand fell and buried at once the whole city. ( From the enquiries made by Dr. Bellew, and SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 227 others of our mission, it appears that the large town of Lop, mentioned by Marco Polo, exists no longer; but there are numbers of encampments and settlements on the banks of the marshy lakes and their connecting channels, perhaps there are as many as a thousand houses or camps. These are inhabited by families who emigrated there about one hundred and sixty years ago. They are looked upon with contempt by true believers as only half Mussulmans. The aborigines are described as very wild people-black, men with long matted hair, who shun the society of mankind and wear clothes made of the bark of a tree. The stuff is called "luff," and is the fibre of a plant called “toka chigha," which grows plentifully all over the sandy wastes bordering on the marshes of Lop. Regarding the present condition of the ancient cities of Lop and Katak, I will here give the statement of a Kirghiz of Kakshal, who had travelled over Ilah and Kansuh during nearly thirty years, and was in Peking at the time that city was taken by the allied French and English armies in 1860. He had resided as a shepherd for three years at Lop itself. He says, page 46, There are, besides, two other countries of the Kalmak also called Kok Nor. One is five days' (( 228 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF journey north of Orumchi, and the other is beyond Lop, five days south of Kúcha. This last is continuous with Cháchan on the east of Khoten, and in it are the ruins of several ancient cities, of which nobody knows anything. The principal of these is called Kok Nor. Kok Nor' means 'blue lake' and these several countries are so called because they have such sheets of water in different parts of their surface. But these ruins of Kok Nor I myself have seen. They are on the desert to the east of the Katak ruins, and three days' journey from Lop in a south-west direction, along the course of the Khoten River. The walls are seen rising above the reeds in which the city is concealed. I have not been inside the city, but I have seen its walls distinctly from the sandy ridges in the vicinity. I was afraid to go amongst the ruins because of the bogs around and the venomous insects and snakes in the reeds. I was camped about them for several days with a party of Lop shepherds, who were here, pasturing their cattle. Besides, it is a notorious fact that people who do go among the ruins almost always die, because they cannot resist the temptation to steal the gold and precious things stored there. You may doubt it, but everybody here knows what I say is true; and SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 229 there are hundreds of Kalmaks who have gone to the temple in the midst of these ruins to wor- ship the god there. There is a temple in the centre of the ruins, a man. It is of the natural size; the features are those of a Kalmak, and the whole figure is of a bright yellow colour. Ranged on shelves all round the figure are precious stones and pearls of great size and brilliancy, and innumerable yámbs, or ingots of gold and silver. Nobody has power to take away anything from here. This is all well known to the people of Lop. And they tell of a Kalmak who once went to worship the god; and after finishing his salutation and adora- tions, secreted two yámbs of gold in his fob and went away. He had not gone very far when he was overpowered by a deep sleep, and lay down on the roadside to have it out. On awaking he discovered that his stolen treasure was gone, though the fob of his debil, or frock, was as he had closed it. So he went back to the temple to get others, but, to his astonishment, found the very two he had taken returned to the exact spot from which he had removed them. He was so frightened that he prostrated himself before the god, and, confessing his fault, begged forgive- ness. The figure looked benignly on him and in it is the figure of 230 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF : and smiled; and he heard a voice warn him against such sacrilege in future. He returned to Lop and kept his story a secret for a long time, till a Lamma discovered and exposed him, and he was so ashamed that he left the country." 'Now, to come to the manner in which the shifting sands of the desert have overwhelmed cities and fertile country, I may give my own experience. When I was in Yarkund in Novem- ber, 1873, I saw black bricks of tea, old and musty, exposed for sale in the bazaar, and was told that they had come from Khoten. This stimulated my curiosity, and I made inquiry of our friend the Dadkhwáh and of our escort, who professed ignorance, alleging that they were almost as strange to the country as the English were to India in the early days of the East India Company. Still, the subject was not lost sight of; and one day, as we were riding over the desert country between Yarkund and Yungi Hissar, I was told that, at a distance of two days' journey, there was a very ancient city buried in the great desert. On arrival at Kashgar I endeavoured, but without success (of which more hereafter), to visit Khoten. I re- ceived permission, however, to visit the Kum Shahidan, or Oordum Padshah, shrine of the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 231 martyrs; and when spending a rather dreary month of expectation at Yungi Hissar, whilst the party I had despatched to Wakhan were occupied in their most interesting exploration, Dr. Bellew and I determined to make a little voyage of discovery on our own account. 'Riding for three hours in a north-east direc- tion from the fort of Yungi Hissar, through a well-cultivated country, to the village of Saigoon, we suddenly were plunged into an arm of the Great Desert. Our route then lay over hilly ground and wide plains. Here and there we saw small wells, covered over with huts to protect them from sand-storms. The water in all was very brackish. At one well there was a tank, and kind of hospice, where the man in charge, following the usual custom, came out with a large loaf of black bread on a trencher and offered us tea. At 5 p.m., after a ride of thirty-five miles, we came to the shrine of Huzrat Begum, the wife of Hussan Boghra Khan, who was killed and buried here just after the defeat of her husband's army, in the middle of the eleventh century. Here we found a regular hospice, with an inner courtyard and four or five rooms for the better class of pilgrims. Outside were numerous rooms, in a spacious courtyard, for common folk, and 232 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF ! a separate cluster of houses for the servants of the shrine. The Sheikh, or head of the estab- lishment, is Shah Muksood, an old man of eighty- seven, very hale and jovial-looking. He said he had never been beyond the nearest village in his life, and therefore could never have tasted a drop of sweet water. We learned that there was a buried city, or more probably only a fort, not far off, which belonged to Tokta Rashid, an Uighur chief, and had been destroyed by Arslan Khan more than eight hundred years ago. Starting next morning with spades and pickaxes, we deter- mined to see what remains of former civilization could be dug up; and, after a weary search, found broken pieces of pottery, bits of copper, broken glass and china, and two coins, one of which is partly decipherable, and appears to belong to an early period. The discovery of the glass is remarkable, as scarcely any is used nowadays there; and the art of making it seems to be unknown in Kashgar. 'We then rode in a northerly direction to Oordum Padshah. At first the road slopes down to a wide hollow, which drains to the south-east, and there rises up the ridge which we had crossed the day before higher up to the north-west. On the way to this, we passed a number of shallow SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 233 wells and superficial cisterns on the sides of the road. In all the water was so brackish that most of our Indian cattle refused to drink it. "From the top of the ridge of clay and gravel, which here forms a high and broad bank "-I am quoting the description given by my compagnon de voyage, Dr. Bellew" we got a good view of the desert away to the east, for the ridge soon breaks up and subsides in that direction to the level of the plain. The plain in that direction presents a vast undulating surface, drained by shallow and very wide water-runs, in which is a thin growth of reeds and rough bushes, but no sign of running water. But to the north it presents a perfect sea of loose sand, advancing in regular wave lines from north-west to south-east. The sand-dunes are mostly from ten to twenty feet high, but some are seen like little hills, full one hundred feet high, and in some spots higher. They cover the plain, of which the hard clay is seen between their rows, with numberless chains of two or three, or more, together in a line, and follow in successive rows one behind the other, just like the marks left by wave-ripples on a sandy beach, only on a large scale. Towards the south-east, these sand-dunes all present a steep bank in the shape of a crescent, the horns of which slope 234 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF forwards and downwards in points to the ground. The horns start from the high central part of the body of the crescent, which, in the opposite direc- tion, tails off in a long slant down to the plain. These dunes cover the whole country towards the north and north-west, as far as the eye can reach ; but towards the east they cease at four or five miles to the right of our road, and beyond that distance is seen the undulating surface of the desert. "From the ridge up to the shrine itself, and next day for some miles further, our path wound amongst and over these sand dunes. At about four miles from the ridge we passed a deserted post-stage, half submerged under the advancing sands. One of the priests of Mazar Hazrat Begum, who was with us as a guide, told us it was called Langar Bulghar Akhund, and said that it was built eighty years ago on an, at that time, open space in the sands, but had been abandoned since thirty years, owing to the encroaching sands having swallowed up its court and risen over its roof. We got down to examine the place, and found the woodwork, the fireplaces, and shelves in two rooms, and also a part of the roof in a perfectly fresh and well-preserved state, as if but just vacated. About half the building was buried SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 235 under a dune, the sand of which stood above the rest of it to a height of six or eight feet; and on each side. in rear were much larger dunes, whose regular crescentic form was perfect, and uninjured by any obstruction. At one side of the two rooms still uncovered, and which faced to the south-east, was another room filled to the door with sand, which seemed to have crushed in the roof. ""At Oordum Padshah, where we halted a day, we found some tenements actually occupied whilst in course of submergence, showing that the pro- cess is usually a very gradual one, until the symmetry of the dune is so broken by the obstructing object that its loose materials subside by a sudden dissolution of its component particles, and thus overwhelm the obstruction. In this particular instance, a chain of three crescentic dunes side by side had advanced in a line across the plain, till one of the outer crescents had struck the walls of the court of the tenement, and, growing up, had in time over-topped, and then overflowed and filled its area by its downfall, whilst the other two crescents at its side, con- tinuing their unobstructed course, maintained their proper form uninjured. The same cause which propelled them gradually forward, also operated to drive the remainder of the broken dune forward, 236 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF and it would in course of time not only bury the whole tenement, but would ultimately pass beyond it, and resume its original form on the open space farther on, in line with the other two crescents of the chain, thus leaving the tenement more or less uncovered, till it was again submerged by the next following row of similar sand-dunes. These sand-dunes are formed by the action of the periodical north and north-west winds, which here blow over the plain persistently during the spring months. And the reason of their pro- gress is this, that once formed, the wind drives forward the loose particles on its surface, so that those on the sides, where there is least resistance, project forwards in the form of long horns, whilst those in the centre ride over each other till they produce the high curved bank between them, and on being propelled still farther, they topple over the bank out of the influence of the wind, but subject still to that of their gravity, which carries them down the steep slope till they reach the ground. And this action, continued for a length of time, is the cause of the gradual and symmetrical advance of the dunes. The rate of their progress it is impossible to determine, as it depends entirely on the varying force of the pro- pelling power, the slope of the land, and the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 237 obstructions on its surface. But the phenomenon, as we saw it actually in course of operation, explains the manner in which the cities of Lop, and Katak, and others of this territory, have become overwhelmed in a flood of sand. And it confirms the veracity of the statements made by the shepherds who roam the deserts, to the effect that in these old ruined sites the houses now and then appear for awhile from under the sand, and again for awhile disappear under it. The idea that the process of burial is very gradual, is sug- gested by the remarks made by Mirza Haidar, and of the probability of this we had a remarkable illustration in the tenement mentioned above, as still occupied at Oordum Padshah, though the court up to its verandah was already full of sand from the dune which had broken over its walls. Had the court in this case been on the opposite side, and the house been the first to pass under the advancing sand, as we saw at the Langar Bulghar Akhund, it is easy to perceive how, on toppling over the front walls (if it did not suddenly by its weight crush in the roof), it would shut up the inmates in a living tomb. "That this actually did occur at Katak in many instances is evinced by the skeletons and desic- cated bodies which are still occasionally seen in 238 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF unearthed houses, with their apparel and furniture intact and uninjured, as is told with such apparent truth by the shepherds who roam that spot at the present day. The shrine of Oordum Padshah is itself buried in the sand, and poles tufted with yâks' tails mark the spot of the grave. But the monastery, and some alms-houses around, are built on small clear spaces on the plain, which appear here and there amongst the heaps of sand, and form as it were lanes, running in the direction of the march of the sand-dunes. Some of the larger dunes, at the distance of three or four hundred yards off, lie obliquely upon the monas- tery; but as they seem to advance here at a very slow rate, twelve years having passed since the dune broke into the court of the tenement men- tioned without having yet completely filled its area, which is only ten or twelve paces wide, the confident faith of the venerable Sheikh who pre- sides over it may prove justified. The blessed shrine has survived the vicissitudes of eight cen- turies,' he said, in reply to our forebodings of the danger threatening its existence; 'and, please God, it will survive to the end of the world.' } }) 'I was very anxious after this to visit Khoten and examine the ruins which have been exposed to view, but was unable to carry out my project. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 239 i I, however, sent one of the Pundits, of whom so much has been heard, to travel in that direction, and I employed other trustworthy men to visit the locality. The verbal reports they brought back, each independent of the other, confirmed all I had heard before. 'The inquiries of the Pundit referred chiefly to the routes through Khoten to India, and, un- fortunately, he did not direct his attention particu- larly to these cities. But he brought me two figures which were found in the buried city near Kiria, the one being an image of Buddha, and the other a clay figure of Hunooman, the monkey- god. These had only just been found, and it was fortunate that they soon fell into his hands, for the pious zeal of a Mahommedan iconoclast would have consigned them to speedy destruction. Another man, Ram Chund, whom I had deputed to visit Khoten, brought me some gold finger- rings and nose-rings, such as are worn in the present day by Hindoo women; also some coins, of which the most remarkable are an iron one, * * Probably the iron coin of Hermæus may prove to be the oldest, but it has not yet been completely deciphered. The Antimachus is about 140 B.C., and the Menander 126 B.C. The little figure of Buddha is pronounced by competent autho- rities to be about the 10th century, so that the submergence of this city in the sand may be dated about eight hundred years ago. 240 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF A apparently of Hermæus, the last Greek king of Bactria, in the first century B.C., and several gold coins of the reign of Constans II. and Pogonatus, Justinus, Antimachus, and Theodosius. Accord- ing to Ram Chund, the buried cities proper are at a distance many marches east of Khoten; a dis- covery of buried ruins has, however, lately been made quite close to Ilchi, the chief city of Khoten, at a distance of four miles to the north-west. cultivator, working in the fields, was watering his crop, and found the water disappear in a hole which absorbed it entirely. On digging to examine the hole, he found a gold ornament representing the figure of a cow. News of this reached the ears of the Governor of Khoten, who ordered excavations to be made, and gold ornaments and coins were found. In the month of April, 1874, about the time when Ram Chund was there, a gold ornament weighing about sixteen pounds was found. It was in the shape of a small vase, and had a chain attached to it. Rumour declared it to be a neck-ornament of the great Afrasiab, and the finder was declared to have hit upon the spot where Afrasiab's treasure was buried. This, of course, is all pure conjecture, and Afrasiab, who was father-in-law to Cambyses II., occupies in all Central Asian legends the place taken by SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 241 Alexander the Great in Asiatic legendary history, or King Arthur in English tales. I hope the time is not far distant when a complete explora- tion of these interesting ruins will bring to light many more treasures; and it is not only in the neighbourhood of Khoten that these inquiries have to be made. 'According to information we picked up from travellers, and confirmed by Syed Yakoob Khan, there is a ruined city called Tukht-i-Turan, close to the city of Kuchar, on a hill of bare rock. The ruins are of earth of a deep yellow colour, quite unlike anything on the hill; there are besides a large number of caves, excavated for residence. The city is said to have existed previous to the first Chinese occupation, and to have been con- sumed by fire, owing to the refusal of its ruler to adopt the Mahommedan faith. About six- teen tash, or sixty miles to the north of Ku- char a large idol is said to exist, which is cut out of the rock. It is forty to fifty feet high, has ten heads and seventy hands, and is carved with the tongue outside the mouth. The moun- tain behind the idol is exceedingly difficult of ascent; game abounds, but, owing to the protec- tion of the idol, cannot be killed. Some very remarkable ruins are said to exist not far from 16 242 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Maralbashi. Syed Yakoob Khan gave us a description of them, but unfortunately, not till after Captain Biddulph had visited the vicinity without being aware of the prize almost in his grasp. 'Not far from the present city of Kashgar is the Kohna Shahr, an old city, which was destroyed many centuries ago; yet the walls, though only built of sun-dried bricks, are standing, with the holes in which the rafters were inserted as clearly defined as if they had been only just used. They reminded me of the holes to be seen in the rocks on the Danube just before approaching the Iron Gates. As all, or nearly so, of the edifices in Central Asia are built of sun-dried bricks, it may seem remarkable that such structures should sur- vive through so many ages, but the extreme dry- ness of the climate accounts for this. When I was staying at Yungi Hissar, I visited the tomb of Hussan Boghra Khan. It is recounted on his tomb how he had earned the crown of martyrdom by falling in battle against the infidel, King of Khoten, whose fort, which stood close by, he had destroyed. I went to see the fort, and found not only part of the woodwork in good order, but even the matting which is put under the earthwork of the eaves of the roof was still visible. According SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 243 to the date on the tomb, this fort must have been destroyed upwards of eight hundred years ago. 'An interesting question may now be asked: "Where do these sands come from? It is a remarkable fact, well supported by the evidence of our senses as well as by the reports of the inhabi- tants of the country, that all these sand-hills move in one direction, i.e. from north-west to south- east. If I were speaking of a tract of country east of the Great Desert of Gobi, the answer of course would be plain; but I am speaking of the extreme west corner of the desert, and, moreover, I will endeavour to describe a still more remark- able circumstance. As we left Kum Shahidan on our return journey we took a westerly direction, and after crossing a sea of sand-hills for some miles. came to cultivated ground, which we again ex- changed for sand. Judging from what we saw, our theory was that these sands are all gradually moving on, and the parts we saw cultivated will in time be overwhelmed, and other parts now covered will be laid bare. But following this course for some miles, we should have come to the Tian Shan Range. Does all this sand come from that range? One idea started was that the sand comes from the great deserts in Russian Siberia, over the Tian Shan Mountains. Another idea is that 244 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF it is raised in the Desert of Gobi, and is carried by a current of air round the basin of Kash- garia. 'The idea of the sand coming from the range which immediately bounds the desert cannot be maintained, I think. For the sand is blown always in one direction, and the particles are very much heavier than the very fine impalpable dust which fills the atmosphere with a haze as dense as a London fog, and which is doubtless raised by the various gusts of wind from the mountains on all sides. The dusty haze falls all over the land, but is not sufficiently thick to bury buildings. 'The theory that the sand is brought from the desert in Russia is also, I think, untenable. It would have to pass over Issyk Kul and other lakes and cultivated land, which we know are not thus covered with sand. It would, in fact, have to mount high in the heavens, like a flock of geese, till it crossed the lofty Alai or Tian Shan Mountains, and then alight on the Desert of Gobi, sand being thus attracted to sand. 'The third theory, of a circular current of air, seems more probable. I have seen, on a small scale, something of the same appearance on the elevated plateau, crossing from the Chang-Chenmo Valley to the head of the Karakash River, on the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 245 large soda or alkali plain, which is, in fact, the dried-up bed of an old lake, and is surrounded by low hills. When I was encamped in a ravine, about five miles from this plain, I observed about two p.m. that a dense cloud of white mist rose from the plain. A local dust-storm of a very disagreeable character seemed to be going on. But it did not spread, and next morning when we crossed the soda plain all was quiet. Towards afternoon, however, a storm similar to what we had witnessed the day previously came on, and I believe such storms are of daily occurrence, except, perhaps, in winter. Some of my party, in crossing the plain, came across the remains of the animals and some camp articles, too, partially buried, which, it was said, had been lost or left by Adolphe Schlagintweit in 1857. Now, what I saw there on a small scale may be going on, on a much grander scale, in the large basin of the Desert of Gobi. I may mention here, that, in crossing from San Francisco to New York, I observed that the plateau between the Nevada Range and Rocky Mountains is very similar in its features to parts of Central Asia, and especially to the high regions. between the Karakoram and Yarkund. I have said that an attempt made by me to pay a visit to Khoten was unsuccessful, and this 246 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF leads me to notice the remarks of a writer in the July number of the Quarterly Review, who gives his opinion that had the surveillance and restraint to which, under the guise of attentions, the mission was subjected, been resisted successfully at the beginning, and had not time been unac- countably lost, a much more extensive exploration of this interesting country might have been made. This able reviewer had probably not travelled in Asiatic countries, or he may have forgotten his knowledge of Asiatic character, and has not weighed sufficiently carefully the responsibilities which fetter those who have the conduct of such an expedition as I had the honour to command. But as the opinions he has thus expressed have been shared by others, who, with an imperfect knowledge of the whole circumstances of our position, have chafed at the loss of apparently easy opportunities for adding to our stock of knowledge, I may here say a few words which will, perhaps, throw some light on the matter, and explain what the reviewer considers to be unac- countable negligence on my part. However friendly an Asiatic may be, he is proverbially suspicious of the actions of all foreigners. Mr. Shaw, to whom, as the Quarterly Review justly remarks, is due the honour of the first successful SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 247 advance into that long-closed country, as is duly related in his "High Tartary, Yarkund, and Kashgar," an interesting record of his adventures and of difficulties overcome by a happy mixture of boldness and diplomacy with patience and good humour, gives instances of the disappointments to which he was subjected; and he has often recounted to me the manner in which he was tantalized with expectation of immediate liberty of action, but always to be disappointed at the moment of fruition. During his first visit to Yarkund and Kashgar he was kept a prisoner inside the four walls of his house or in his tent, and never entered the city at all. This was, however, a circumstance in no way to be won- dered at; but when he revisited the country as the Political Agent deputed by the Indian Government, and after the return of our mission, when he might be sure of enjoying the fruit of newly-established relations with the Amir, I fully expected that he would travel about the country and accomplish what we had left undone. But it is a fact that Mr. Shaw did not even enter the city of Kashgar, although he resided for several months within a few miles of the city. He has never been inside it or beyond Yungi Shahr, the old Chinese quarter, now occupied by 248 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF the Amir, and five miles distant from the city. The reason he gave me for this was that though he doubtless might have insisted on going there, he abstained from doing so out of deference to the known or supposed feelings of the Amir; and if in such a small matter he considered it polite to abstain from exercising an Englishman's propensity to satisfy his curiosity, I feel that I have a strong authority on my side. To any one unacquainted with the character of these Asiatics, their conduct is often inexplicable, and most trying to one's patience. Mr. Shaw re- counts how the Yarkund officials would come to him in his confinement and propose a visit to the city, or to some gardens in the neighbour- hood; and having excited his expectation to the highest pitch, and having gone so far as to fix the time for going and all preliminaries, they would raise some hidden and insuperable objec- tion. I found exactly the same process adopted with reference to myself. On the occasion of my first visit to Yarkund in 1870, the Dadkhwáh made the usual offer of perfect liberty of action, but was mightily offended because I took him at his word. On the second visit, I arranged through my friend Syed Yakoob Khan for com- plete liberty to be accorded to the members of SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 249 the mission to roam about anywhere within a day's journey of our quarters, leaving more extended excursions to be matter of separate arrangement. We had not been lodged in Kashgar a week before we obtained the permis- sion of the Amir to visit the frontier fort of Chakmak. Captain Biddulph was allowed to go on an excursion to Maralbashi; and as soon as the weather permitted, we took a journey up towards Ush Turfan. During the winter months very extended journeys could not be undertaken; but I was constantly consulted as to my wishes for sending a party to Aksu and to Lake Lop, as well as to Khoten. The Amir volunteered to make use of Dr. Stoliczka's valuable scientific knowledge; and after having received his report, or specimens of coal, copper, and other ores, proposed that he should be sent to examine the mines. But as in Mr. Shaw's case, so it was in ours; just at the last moment some excuse was raised, and the expedition had to be postponed sine die. I find that another great traveller, M. Prejevalsky, details experience similar to ours, and complains of being detained just at the moment of departure, for reasons which he could not discover either then or afterwards. Schuyler, in his most interesting work on "Tur- 250 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF kestan," records similar experiences, and I am inclined to think that all European travellers in Central Asia are likely to suffer in the same way, until they can discover the secret which the reviewer apparently possesses for overcoming these obstacles. The important journey to the Pamir by Colonel Gordon's party required con- siderable negotiation on my part; and after it had started, the Amir sent word to recall it, and I had some difficulty in reconciling the Amir to Colonel Gordon prosecuting his journey. My application to visit Khoten, after having been sanctioned and every arrangement having been made, was finally flatly refused; and had I in- sisted on having my own way, it is most probable that I should have found insuperable difficulties put in my path, and it is certain that I should have caused a breach in the friendship it was my object and duty to cement. 'Possibly it may be said that all this only shows the hollowness of the Amir's performance of friendship; and, in fact, I have frequently seen this urged as a proof of the worthlessness of any treaty of amity with the rulers of countries across our border. But I take leave to differ entirely from such opinions. We cannot judge Asiatics as we would Europeans. They do not under- SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 251 stand expeditions conducted for purely scientific purposes; and they may be excused for disliking to show all their resources even to their most valued European friends. I cannot do better than conclude my paper by a quotation from the remarks made by the distinguished President of the Royal Geographical Society: "We must complain that our reputation in the East takes its complexion from our conquests and progress in India, the history of which, in broad outline, at least, is perfectly well known in China, if not all over Asia. How we began by asking for a privi- lege to trade, and ended by annexing provinces, after disastrous wars, is no secret. Whatever explanations or defence we may have to offer as to the causes of this inevitable advance from trading factories to empire, we can scarcely expect any Eastern sovereign or people to attach much credit to them. We must be content to trade and to negotiate, weighted with the heavy burden of distrust and suspicion."' 252 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF CHAPTER XI. NARRATIVE OF A MISSION TO MANDALAY IN 1875. "THE question of the relations between the Karennee States and the British and Burmese Governments having been under discussion for a considerable period without arriving at any satis- factory understanding, his Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India in Council decided to despatch a mission to the Court of Mandalay with the view of closing, if possible, the dispute which had arisen. His Majesty the King of Burma had deputed three Burmese officials to Calcutta in March, 1874, to represent to the Government of India the views of his Majesty regarding Karennee, and, as no common agree- ment could then be come to, a return mission was organized. 'The mission consisted of Sir T. Douglas Forsyth, C.B. and K.C.S.I., as Envoy; Lieu- tenant-Colonel H. T. Duncan, Madras Staff SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 253 Corps, and Officiating Secretary to the Chief Commissioner, British Burma, as member of the mission; and Captain T. H. Forsyth, H.M.'s 62nd Foot, as Secretary. The escort consisted of Captain Law, Lieutenants Croker and Gordon, 21st Fusiliers; Lieutenant Hewit, R.A., and Dr. Tobin, A.M.D., with seventy-four of all ranks of the 21st Regiment, and twelve of the Royal Artillery. Captain Lindsay Brine, R.N., commanding H.M.'s steam vessel the Briton (then lying in the port of Rangoon), was of the party, in a non-official capacity, and with him a boat's crew of six sailors. The members of the mission were conveyed up the river by the Government steam vessel the Nemesis, while the escort were on board the steamer Talifoo, of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company. 'The mission left Rangoon on the afternoon of May 27, 1875, and, making three short stop- pages at Henzada, Myanoung, and Prome, arrived at the frontier station of Thayetmyo on June 2. Intimation had been received there from the Governor of the neighbouring Burmese district that at Menhla, a town about thirty-five miles. from Thayetmyo, a deputation of Burmese officials from Mandalay were waiting to receive the Envoy. On the morning of June 3 the British party left 254 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Thayetmyo, and at 3 p.m. reached Menhla. Shortly before arriving at this small town, which is the head-quarters of the Melloon District, the steamers were met by three war-boats, and escorted about three miles to the station. 'Immediately on the mission arriving at Menhla, the Burmese deputation came on board to pay their respects to the Envoy. ( The party consisted of a Woondouk, or court officer of the second class; the Kulla Woon, or officer charged to receive foreigners; and two Saray-dawgyees, or secretaries. The Woondouk was the same officer who had been to Calcutta a few months previously on a mission to the Viceroy, and who had been the secretary to the mission from Ava to Europe in 1873. He was well acquainted, therefore, with European usages, and had experience of the duties he had to per- form. The Kulla Woon was Mr. Camaratta, a Portuguese gentleman in the service of the King of Burma. 'The deputation was received by the Envoy with the usual formalities, a portion of the escort being on deck as a guard of honour. The con- versation opened with the exchange of the ordinary enquiries regarding the health of his Majesty the King, and the Viceroy. The Envoy SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 255 was informed of the arrangements made for his progress up the river, and these were so ordered that, with various stoppages to see the objects of interest on the way, the mission should arrive at Mandalay on June 10. The Woondouk assured the Envoy of his desire to meet his wishes in all respects during the journey, and, after a short talk on casual subjects, the Burmese deputation re- turned to the bank, having invited the Envoy to land in the evening to see a pooay, or Burmese play, which had been prepared for the entertain- ment of the mission. 'Shortly after this, the Governor of Melloon and the Governor of Tsalen, a neighbouring dis- trict, also visited the steamer and brought presents of fruit for the Envoy and his party. The Melloon Woon has been long in charge of the frontier district, and has, in accordance with the desire of his Majesty the King, maintained a close communication with the British officer in charge of our frontier district. The Tsalen Woon, whose district lies some distance off the river Irrawaddy, to the westward, had a few months previously shown great civility to Mr. Porter, Assistant Superintendent of Police, who had crossed over from the province of Arakan by a disused route over the hills, with a view of 256 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF re-opening a trade which is believed to have formerly existed in that locality. The governor was thanked for the attention he had shown to Mr. Porter. The hills traversed by the police officer are occupied by Khyens, a class of people who are an off-shoot from the great family of people known in divers localities as Kookies, Nagas, Looshaies, and Khakyens. Regarding them, the governor said they were a wild lot; that when a large party of travellers entered their territory, they hid themselves in the jungle; and when a small party went into their hills, the Khyens attacked them. During the evening heavy rain came on and prevented the pooay being performed. The Envoy, therefore, did not land; but some of the party landed, and were entertained with Burmese dancing of various kinds in lieu of the more complete performance by the theatrical troupe. 'Leaving Menhla about day-light on June 4, the town of Yay-nan-khyoung was reached at 3 p.m. In the evening the earth-oil wells were visited, and after dinner the Envoy and party were present at an entertainment of dancers in a temporary building erected on the beach for the occasion. On leaving Yay-nan-khyoung on June 5, the steamer Nemesis grounded on a sand- • SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 257 bank and broke her rudder; she was, therefore, taken in tow by the steamer Talifoo until a new rudder could be constructed, and the town of Sillay was reached at 4 p.m. Here, as at the previous stations, the local officers came off to pay their respects, and brought quantities of fruit and vegetables. In the evening, the usual enter- tainment was given on the bank, and on this occasion consisted of a marionette play, a species of performance in which the Burmese excel. These 'On June 6 progress was made to the town of Pagan, celebrated for the remains of magnificent temples of the period 1000 to 1200 A.D. were visited in the evening, and again on the morning of June 7, before leaving for the town of Koon-ywa, which was reached a little before 5 p.m. 'From Kooh-ywa, the day's journey on the 8th was to Samekyun; and on June 9 the mission, at four p.m., reached Sagine, situated on the right bank of the river, about six miles below Mandalay, and opposite the old city of Ava. Here, one of the principal officers of State, the Kin Woon Mengyee, with other officials from Mandalay, awaited the arrival of the Envoy, and came on board shortly after the Nemesis anchored. They were received by the Envoy with a guard of 17 258 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF honour, and, after a short conversation, they returned to their own vessel. 6 On June 10, the mission arrived off the city of Mandalay about 9 a.m. The Kin Woon Mengyee and the Governor of the city, with other officials, came on board at once to arrange regard- ing the landing and procession to the Residency. It was agreed on that the Envoy should land about four p.m., and at that hour the mission left the steamer. The escort of European infantry was drawn up on the bank and saluted the Envoy, and the whole party walked about two hundred yards to the spot where the elephants were col- lected and officials grouped to accompany the march. This short walk enabled the mission to cross a creek on a temporary bridge, and so con- siderably shorten the route, which otherwise would have led through a considerable plain. The pro- cession was formed in the following order :- A Woondouk led, followed by the Envoy on an elephant, and the officers of the mission similarly conveyed, and then by the European escort, followed by several Burmese officials. The route extended to a length of about two miles, and the procession was accompanied by Burmese foot soldiers, estimated to number two thousand, and cavalry to the number of about one thousand. SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 259 A slight shower fell, and the afternoon was cool. The Residency was reached at five p.m., and there the Envoy was received by the Khampat Mengyee, the Myotha Woondouk, and other Burmese officials. Some friendly conversation ensued, and the Burmese officials expressed the satisfaction they felt at the safe arrival of the mission; they then withdrew. 'The next day, June 11, being the eighth day of the waxing moon, and thus the Burman Sabbath, no public business was transacted. The usual presents of fruit were sent to the Residency for the use of the mission, and sundry minor Burman officials, appointed to see to the due arrangements for the comfort of the party, visited the Residency. 'From June 11 to 14 no public business was transacted, but it was arranged that the mission should visit the Palace on the 15th. On the 14th, the Yay-nan-khyoung Mengyee (one of the prin- cipal officers of state) visited the Envoy, and during each day a troupe of acrobats or theatrical performers were sent for the entertainment of the visitors. 'On the morning of the 15th, at 7.15 a.m., the mission proceeded in procession to the city to make the formal visit to his Majesty. All were conveyed on elephants. The procession was 260 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF headed by the European escort, followed by the presents from the Viceroy to the king, and by a royal herald in a gilt howdah and in state robes, bearing the letter from the Viceroy to his Majesty; then came the Envoy, Sir Douglas Forsyth, suc- ceeded by Colonel Duncan, Captain Forsyth, and the officers of the escort, accompanied by the Woondouk and Kulla Woon (the officials who met the mission on crossing the frontier), and sundry other Burmese officials. The route led through the suburbs, and then entered the city by one of the western gates, and then by a circuitous road round three-fourths of the city, entering the Palace at the eastern gate. The party there dis- mounted from the elephants and walked in proces- sion to the Hlut-daw, or council chamber, which is within the Palace walls. There the Envoy did not enter the building, but a few Burmese officials joined the procession, and at this point the Envoy personally took over the Viceroy's letter, hitherto carried by the Royal Herald. Arrived at the gate of the third, or inner enclosure, it was thrown open, as the mission bore a letter from the Viceroy, and some fifty yards brought the proces- sion to the steps of the Palace, where, according to precedent, shoes were taken off. In one par- ticular, however, a great improvement was made SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 261 in the arrangements usual on such occasions. Hitherto, it has not been customary to have any carpet, or cloth, or matting laid on the steps or on the portion of the Palace which it is necessary to traverse before reaching the audience-chamber; but on this occasion, a good, clean, drugget carpet was laid on the steps, down to the point where the party unshod, and the whole of the body of the Palace to be passed over by the Mission was handsomely carpeted. This point had been under discussion, and the Envoy reminded the ministers that such of them as had been on embassy to Europe were aware that on the reception of visitors on public occasions a carpet was always laid down to the carriage door where they alighted. Among the ministers there were dissentients, but on refe- rence to his Majesty he at once directed the wishes of the Envoy to be complied with, and in the actual carrying out of the orders there was no stint or compromise; and, inasmuch as the party stepped at once on clean carpets, one saving element was introduced in the proceedings of un- shoeing-a proceeding objectionable enough in itself, and heretofore rendered more so from the absence of any protection from the bricks and boards on which the shoeless processions have had to make their way to the royal presence. 262 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF 'The mission was received in the Mye-nan, or royal audience-chamber, wherein is situated the throne, and which is only used on exceptional occasions, when a full ceremonial reception is to be accorded. The building is one of great size, with great gilt wooden pillars dividing it into transept and aisles. The whole was handsomely carpeted, and the royal princes, five in number; the Woongyees, or principal officers of state; the Woondouks, or officers of second order; and numerous officials of subsidiary rank were present in the State robes, and in the various portions of the hall assigned to them. The Envoy and party took their places at half-past eight, and a royal salute of three guns was fired, and, after an interval of seven minutes, his Majesty entered and took his seat on the throne. The mission thereon took off their hats, and the ceremony of reception commenced. A party of Brahmins chanted in Sanskrit a benediction on the king, and this was repeated in Burmese by one of their number. A herald also recited in Burmese an address descriptive of the power and goodness of his Majesty. Another herald announced that sundry religious offerings which the king proposed to present to certain pagodas were ready, and they were ordered to be distributed. The same herald SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 263 then read aloud the Burmese translation of the Viceroy's letter to the king, which announced the deputation of Sir D. Forsyth as his Envoy, and further requested his Majesty to accept all that the Envoy might communicate to his Majesty as being the words of the Viceroy himself. The presents to his Majesty were then read out, and, immediately afterwards, the usual formal questions were asked by an Atwen Woon, or Minister of the Interior, who knelt at the base of the throne :- 'ATWEN WOON: "How long has the Envoy been on his journey?" "ENVOY: "We have been fifteen days on the journey." 'ATWEN WOON: "Are her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Family well?" 'ENVOY: "Her Gracious Majesty and the Royal Family are well." 'ATWEN WOON: "Are the rain and air pro- pitious, so that the people live in happiness? · ENVOY: "The seasons are favourable, and the people live in happiness." The presents for the Envoy and party were then brought in. To Sir Douglas To Sir Douglas Forsyth were presented the badge of the Order of the Tsalway of twelve strings, a gold cup, two rings, a gold- mounted sword, and two silk cloths; and to the 264 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF others, a gold cup and some pieces of silk; while Colonel Duncan and Captain Forsyth each re- ceived a ring in addition to the cup and silk. 'As soon as the presents had been delivered, his Majesty rose and left the throne. Some refreshments were then offered to the party, and, after a short conversation with the Ministers, the Envoy left, and returned to the Residency, the whole ceremony having lasted about three hours. A strong Burman guard of infantry and cavalry accompanied the procession to and from the palace, and within the city the entire route was lined on either side by foot soldiers. Inside the palace also, there were numerous bodies of armed men, and within the audience-hall itself there were two or three hundred men armed with muskets. whole ceremony passed over quietly and smoothly, and without any kind of mishap. There were considerable crowds of the townspeople viewing the procession at various points, and all was orderly and well arranged. The On the 16th, the Envoy paid an official visit to the four Woongyees. He breakfasted with the Kin Woon Mengyee, a Burman official who has twice visited Europe, and is therefore well ac- quainted with the western manners and habits. He is the Foreign Minister of his Majesty. The SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 265 Envoy then paid short visits to the Yay-nan- khyoung Mengyee, the Khampat Mengyee, and the Loungshay Mengyee, and returned to the Residency about eleven a.m. 'On the morning of the 17th, the mail steamer left for Rangoon, and as the Envoy had telegrams for despatch to the Governor of India, the steamer Talifoo, which had been chartered for the use of the mission, and had been lying in the river, off Mandalay, was sent to Thayetmyo, thence to return on receipt of replies to the telegrams. Certain preliminary explanations having been called for and disposed of, the negotiations regard- ing Western Karennee were about to commence, when the King voluntarily proposed an agreement, which was executed by the Kin Woon Mengyee, on the part of his Majesty the King of Burma, and Sir Douglas Forsyth, on the part of the Government of India, that the State of Western Karennee should be considered a separate and independent State, and no sovereignty or authority claimed over it. By this document the object of the mission was fulfilled. During the discussions which had taken place, anterior to the arrival of the mission in Mandalay, the Burmese Govern- ment had maintained, with singular persistence, that Western Karennee was a portion of the Bur- 266 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF mese dominions, and they demurred to being called on to yield any of the rights of sovereignty which they claimed over the State. Whatever may have been the cause of the uncompromising spirit which they showed at first in dealing with the question, it is probable that they thought the British Government would be thus induced to acquiesce in their pretensions. The Viceroy, however, remained firm to the policy announced twenty-three years ago, and reiterated and acted on during the whole period of our administration in Pegu, since that date. That the Government of India looked on the position eventually arrived at as grave and critical, was evinced by the special mission of which Sir Douglas Forsyth was the head; but it was only when the relations between the two countries became thus strained, that the Burmese Government found it politic to withdraw from the pretensions which they had ill-advisedly advanced, and which were certainly not in accord- ance with the understanding on the question of the position of Karennee, which had been recog- nized and acted on by both Governments for nearly a quarter of a century. ( The agreement having been offered to, and approved by, the Envoy, there remained, on the 21st instant, only the formality of affixing the seals SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 267 and signatures of the executing officers. Sir Douglas Forsyth, accompanied by Colonel Dun- can, Captain Forsyth, and Captain Strover, the British Resident at Mandalay, visited the Kin Woon Mengyee (the Foreign Minister), in the city, during the early morning, and there, in the presence of the above officers, and of Woondouk Zayathoo, and Mr. Camaratta, the Kulla Woon to his Majesty, the agreement (see Appendix A) was signed, the Envoy and the Foreign Minister retaining an English and Burmese copy of the agreement. 'The amicable settlement of the question, and the renewing of the long established friendship between the Governments, formed the subject of mutual congratulations. The Envoy informed the Minister that, to prevent misunderstanding in future, the boundary of Western Karennee would be demarcated; and when the season for doing this should arrive, a communication would be sent, and the king would be invited to send an officer to join with the British officer in laying down the boundary. The Minister agreed, and said that when the promised communication was made, he would take the order of his Majesty for deputing an officer. The other subjects of conversation were of a general character, and after partaking 268 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF of breakfast, the Envoy and party returned to the Residency. 'On June 23, the Prime Minister visited the Envoy at the Residency, when Sir Douglas For- syth communicated to him the satisfaction with which the Viceroy had received (by telegram) the intelligence of the amicable settlement of the Karennee question. that the friendly relations between the two coun- tries would not be disturbed so long as the Bur- mese Government adhered to their agreements. He added, that the British Government would not advance unreasonable demands, and therefore, when requests were made, it was expected they would be complied with. The Minister assured the Envoy that the Burmese Government would be always ready to meet the wishes of the British Government, and referred to the present negotia- tions as an evidence of that desire. The Envoy then brought to the notice of the Foreign Minister, that it was desirable a change should be made in the Burmese terms, used in communications be- tween the Minister and the British Resident, and that these should be so framed as to place the officials writing and receiving the documents, on an equality, as is customary in all countries in addressing the representatives of other Govern- The Envoy pointed out SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 269 ments. To this the Minister assented. The Envoy also called the attention of the Minister to the advisablity of appointing another officer, than the present Burmese official, to sit in the Mixed Court with the British Resident. He observed that the present official had other important duties to perform; hence delays occurred in the disposal of cases, and inconvenience was caused to suitors. The Minister acknowledged the advantage of a fresh appointment, and said that in this matter the Burmese Government would meet the wishes. of Captain Strover in selecting an officer. 'On the evening of the 23rd, one of the king's steamers was placed at the disposal of the mission, to convey the Envoy and party up the river to the ruins of the Mengoon pagoda, and some Burmese officials escorted the party. 'On the morning of the 24th, the officers of the mission visited the Palace for the purpose of being presented to his Majesty previous to leaving Mandalay. To avoid the exposure of the European soldiers to the sun, the escort was not employed, but the Envoy and party drove in carriages to the city, leaving the Residency at eight o'clock; the officers of the mission, and of the escort, formed the party, and they were accom- panied by Mr. Camaratta, and the Zayathoo 270 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF Woondouk. In the city and palace there were only the usual guards, and no armed troops lined the roads. The Prime Minister met the Envoy at the gate of the Palace enclosure, and the other Ministers awaited the party at the Hlut-daw, or royal council chamber. The Envoy did not enter the building, but exchanged a few words at the foot of the steps. The reception by his Majesty took place in the South garden, in a building ordinarily used when according inter- views of a less formal nature than those which take place in the main building of the Palace. The garden house looks out on one side on a neat circular-roofed building, likewise those used for pooays, or theatrical performances. The king sat on a sofa on a raised alcove, and the mission were seated, in company with several Burmese officials, on a comfortably carpeted space, to the right of his Majesty. That portion of the build- ing which had to be traversed by the mission was entirely carpeted, so that, as on the occasion of the first reception, it was at no time necessary, after unshoeing, that the officers should tread on anything but carpets. His Majesty entered im- mediately after the arrival of the Envoy, and after a short pause the following conversation ensued:- SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 271 "KING: "Ask the Envoy whether he has had attention paid to his comforts, and those of his party, since he has entered Upper Burma ?" ( ENVOY: "I have to assure his Majesty that, from the time the mission has entered the king's dominions, it has met with every kindness and attention from the Burmese officials, and I am much obliged for the reception which has been accorded to us during our stay. "KING: "When you return to India, I trust you will inform the Viceroy that you have been received in a friendly way." "ENVOY: "I shall have much pleasure in doing so, and I am sure it will afford the Viceroy much satisfaction; it will be received as an in- dication of the friendship between the two countries." ( KING: "As matters have been amicably settled now, I trust you will induce the Viceroy to dispel from his mind any idea of ill-feeling existing between the two countries. The stories of evil-minded people should not be attended to, and I look to you to put matters on a proper footing with the Government of India; and Colonel Duncan, I hope, will do this in Rangoon." 'ENVOY: "I shall do so without fail; and as for the stories of the evil-minded, the real feelings 272 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF of your Majesty will be apparent from deeds, and are independent of words or rumours." "KING: "I have an Agent in Calcutta, to whom I hope the Envoy will give advice when necessary. I will write to him to direct him to consult with the Envoy on any matters when it may be necessary." ENVOY: "I shall be glad to meet the king's wishes in this respect." 'KING: "Setting aside all other matters, I am most anxious to repair some pagodas and religious edifices at Gya, and I hope to obtain the assistance of the Viceroy." ( ENVOY: "I am sure the Viceroy will do all in his power to enable your Majesty to carry out instructions in this respect. your "" 'KING: "I attach great importance to this matter, and shall be grateful for assistance." 'ENVOY: "The Viceroy has heard that it is your Majesty's intention to construct a railway in continuation of the one now being made in British Burma. I am directed to say that the Viceroy is much satisfied with this desire to improve the communication between the two countries, and he will be glad to aid your Majesty, should any assistance be necessary. " 'KING: “I am obliged to the Viceroy for the SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 273 • offer of assistance." Hereupon his Majesty re- marked that the English officers might wish to see the performances of the singers who were in attendance; and rising from the sofa, left the alcove. 'The Envoy informed the Prime Minister that the Viceroy had heard with satisfaction that the Burmese official, who had shown incivility to Dr. Anderson, while returning from Bhamo, had incurred his Majesty's displeasure. This was conveyed to his Majesty, who remarked that the official in question was still in jail. On the withdrawal of the King, the Makara Prince came into the alcove, attended by a few followers, and then a band of the ladies-in-waiting of the Palace executed a slow and graceful dance, varying the figures slightly, and accompanying the movements with an intoned song. The Envoy and party stayed for some little time to see the performance, and then left. A few dishes of fruits and sweetmeats were served, and the reception was over. On leaving the garden, the Envoy, escorted by the Kin Woon Mengyee, and other officials, went to see the so-called white elephant; and then, having bid good-bye to the Yay-nan-khyoung, and Khampat Mengyee, with other officials, at the stairs of the council chamber, 18 274 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF the whole party left the Palace and returned to the Residency. 'Nothing of importance occurred that evening; and next day, the 25th, the mission and escort left the Residency, in boats, for the Nemesis and Talifoo steamers, which were lying in the river. The whole party having embarked, the steamers left Mandalay about six o'clock in the evening, accompanied by one of the king's steamers, carrying Woondouk Zayathoo and Mr. Camar- ratta, who were to proceed in company with the mission as far as Rangoon. The passage down the river was made rapidly, and without any occurrence of note. The mission reached Rangoon on June 30.' APPENDIX A. In accordance with the request of his Excel- lency the Viceroy of India, that Western Kerennee should be allowed to remain separate and inde- pendent, his Majesty the King of Burma, taking into consideration the great friendship existing between the two great countries, and the desire that that friendship may be lasting and perma- nent, agrees that no sovereignty or governing authority of any description shall be exercised SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 275 or claimed in Western Kerennee, and his Excel- lency the Kin Woon Mengyee, Minister for Foreign Affairs, on the part of his Majesty the King of Burma, and the Honourable Sir Douglas Forsyth, C.B., K.C.S.I., Envoy on the part of his Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, execute the following agreement :- AGREEMENT. It is hereby agreed between the British and Burmese Governments, that the State of Western Kerennee shall remain separate and independent, and that no sovereignty or governing authority, of any description, shall be claimed or exercised over that State. Whereunto we have on this day, the 21st of June, 1875, corresponding with the 3rd day of the waning moon of Nayong, 1237, B.E., affixed seals and signature. (Signed) T. D. FORSYTH. KIN WOON MENGYEE. Envoy. Seal. Seal. i 276 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF CHAPTER XII. CLOSING YEARS. IN 1876, Sir Douglas left India on furlough, re- turning to England via Japan and America, and in 1877 he resigned the Civil Service and devoted the rest of his life to the direction of Indian rail- way companies and other like interests, winning the respect and confidence to no small degree of all his colleagues by the entire single-mindedness of his conduct and the frank kindliness of his manner. In 1879 he was entrusted with the raising of a company to undertake the construc- tion of a harbour at Marmagao, in Portuguese India, and a railway from that port to connect it with the Southern Mahratta and Deccan countries—a vast undertaking, and one which in- volved great personal energy and determination. On three occasions Sir Douglas visited Lisbon with a view to concluding the requisite treaty with the Portuguese Government and obtaining SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 277 the specified guarantee, and in 1883 he had the satisfaction of being deputed by his Board of Directors-of which he was Chairman-to visit the railways, by that time in course of construc- tion, mainly through his efforts. The West of India Portuguese Railway was to be connected with the Southern Mahratta Railway on the eastern side by the line of Ghats that ran north and south between the Portuguese territory of Goa and British India, and a port was being con- structed at Marmagao on the southern side of a large harbour not far from Panjim, the modern capital of Goa, to be the terminus of the rail- way and place for the shipping of merchandise. The Southern Mahratta Railway is in the Deccan, and consists of three lines-one to the east, a second to the south, and a third on the west side of that portion of British territory. The first of these had been completed and traffic had begun to flow upon it. The second had been pushed on to a point not far from the eastern side of the Ghats, and the third had not yet been commenced. The system was intended to bring to the Deccan supplies of food from the interior in order to mitigate the severity of famine arising from a failure of crops there owing to drought which had more than once been the 18—3 1 278 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF scourge of that part of India, and also to develop the resources of the country and increase the exports and imports of India, which would find their outlets and inlets at the port of Marmagao. Sir Douglas was accompanied on his trip to India by his brother, Mr. Forsyth, Q.C., and one of his daughters. On reaching Bombay he and his brother proceeded by steamer to Marmagao, where they arrived on December 27, and were received by the officers of the railway with warm demonstrations of welcome. There was a great display of flags and emblems, the words 'Long live the Chairman' being inscribed in large letters on a shed. After a short stay at Marmagao Sir Douglas and Mr. Sawyer, the Chief Engineer of the Portuguese Railway, set off on horseback for the Eastern Ghats, in order to explore the works that were going on. Thence to Bangalore and Bellary and then to Hudgi, a station in the eastern section of the Southern Mahratta Rail- way, where are the workshops of the company. Here Sir Douglas met with a great reception, and a triumphal arch was erected bearing the inscrip- tion, 'Welcome: no more famine.' Next day they went down the line to Bijapoor, one of the famous cities of Aurungzebe, but now deserted, and containing only the ruins of mosques and SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 279 tombs of exquisite architecture. From Bijapoor they proceeded to Allahabad and Calcutta, where Sir Douglas was the guest of Sir Theodore Hope, and, as Director of the East India Railway, was employed during the whole of his stay in inspect- ing the works of the company and making himself acquainted with all the details connected with Indian railways generally. From Calcutta he and his two compagnons de voyage, and a cousin who had joined them in Cal- cutta, went to Agra, where they were the guests of Sir Alfred Lyall for a few days, and thence to Umballa, which Sir Douglas was anxious to revisit in order to show to his brother the scene of his Mutiny experiences. The young Maha- rajah of Puttiala expressed a great desire to see Sir Douglas, having been taught by his grand- father to revere the name of 'Forsyth Sahib' in consequence of the incident of 1856, already narrated in a former chapter by Sir Douglas himself. Accordingly they drove from Umballa in the Maharajah's own carriages and met with what might be almost called a royal reception. As a great mark of distinction the roads were watered the whole way out, and the young Maha- rajah himself came out to meet Sir Douglas with a guard of honour, and a salute of guns was fired 280 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF as they entered the gate of the town. No less gratifying was the reception Sir Douglas met with wherever he stopped in the Punjab, and during his stay of ten days at Lahore his tent was be- sieged all day with deputations from native Rajahs, and in some instances the Rajahs them- selves. At all the railway stations in the districts where Sir Douglas had officiated as Commissioner, native gentlemen flocked to see him as he passed through, thus giving evidence, if any were needed, of the respect and affection he had won from all who had experienced the effects of his rule. The Maharajah of Cashmere expressed a great desire to see Sir Douglas, and telegraphed in these words, 'Will not my old friend come and see me?' So not liking to disappoint a dying man (for the old Maharajah had not then long to live, and died in 1884), Sir Douglas paid a flying visit to Jummoo, returning through the Kangra valley to pay a farewell visit to the place on earth he loved the best and the scene of all his early labours, where his eldest child was born and the spot where he often said he wished he could end his days. The tea- planters of Palampore welcomed him as warmly as every one else had done, and when Sir Douglas left India again in March, finishing his tour by SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 281 an inspection of the Scinde, Punjab, and Delhi line of railway at Kurrachee, he turned to his daughter on board the steamer as they sailed out of the harbour and said, 'At any rate, my labours for so many years have now been amply rewarded by the welcome I have received after an absence of thirteen years' (for the year 1871 was the last date of office held in the Punjab by Sir Douglas). The remaining three years of his life were spent quietly and uneventfully-but never idly- partly in London and partly at Slough, where he rented for three years the pictur sque old residence of Upton Court, interesting himself in all the local institutions and charities, especially in the establishment of a Cottage Convalescent Home for children close to his own house, which he constantly visited, and ever delighted in. On December 10, 1886, he left London on a visit to his eldest daughter at Eastbourne, where he was attacked by sudden illness, and on December 17, to the unspeakable grief and deso- lation of his family, in whose hearts he was a king, he passed away, quietly and peacefully, to the rest he had earned and had long craved for. He was buried at Eastbourne by his own wish, and a tablet to his memory has been placed in 282 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES OF 1 the little church of Palampore, in the Kangra valley, with the following inscription :--- 'In Loving Memory of SIR THOMAS DOUGLAS FORSYTH, C.B., K.C.S.I., who as Commissioner of Jullundur was chiefly instrumental in the erection of this Church, and created the station of Palampur, in the welfare of which he always took the warmest interest. He held various high appointments in the Indian Civil Service, and distinguished himself by the energy, ability, and devotion with which he discharged his duties. By his uniform courtesy, kindness, and zeal for their interests he won in an extraordinary degree the attachment of the natives, who hold his memory in grateful affection ; and in every relation of life he made himself respected and beloved. This Tablet is placed here by his sorrowing Widow and Children, to record his great affection for this spot.' The following extract from a diary of Sir Douglas', written when he was only twenty-seven years of age, gives the key to a life which was the centre of so much devotion, respect, and admiration 'July 11, 1855. I propose to myself the three SIR DOUGLAS FORSYTH. 283 following resolutions: I. Not to be distressed if I do no good myself, provided it is done at all. 'II. Not to allow pride to interfere and pre- vent my asking questions, so as to improve my- self. Enquire rather than endeavour to conceal my ignorance. III. To take a higher view of my profession, not allowing petty jealousy or hasty temper to get the better of me, always maintaining charity, con- sideration, and unselfishness.' THE END. PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES, S. & H. 1 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 3 9015 01909 3106 DO NOT REMOVE OR MUTILATE CARD