144 STRACHEY'S DESPATCH RESPECTING THE [Feb. 28, 1859. 



Apart from his ability as a water-colour artist Mr. Atkinson is an excellent 

 word-painter ; for he so delineates the physical features of a country, that you 

 seem actually to travel through a region which very few of us can ever hope 

 to visit. 



The second Paper read was — 



2. Despatch from Captain Henry Strachey, Gold Medallist r.g.s., re- 

 specting the fate of Adolphe Schlagintweit. 



Communicated by the Eight Hon. Lord Stanley, m.p., f.r.g.s., Secretary of State 



for India. 



Adolphe Schlagintweit crossed the Para-Lassa Pass from India to 

 Thibet on the 31st May, 1857. The last documentary evidence 

 consists of his letter to Harkishu from Chang-Chenmo of Ladak, 

 dated the 14th June, with a postscript, stating that it was not sent 

 till the 24th of June, and one or two notes, for sundry payments, of 

 the latter date. These documents were brought from Ladak by the 

 Chuprassies who joined Harkishu at Khardong of Garzha on the 

 20th of July, from whose statements it appears that before they left 

 the moonshee, Mohamed Hasan, had deserted, taking the ponies, 

 some money, and other articles belonging to M. Schlagintweit, but 

 was overtaken, and the property recovered. Harkishu gathered 

 from Captain Montgomerie, f.r.g.s., of the Trigonometrical Survey, 

 and his native doctor, that they were in Ladak during the summer 

 when he had left. From the locality of his last despatch, Chang- 

 Chenmo, it is inferred that he crossed the Turkish waterparting to 

 the east of the Kara-Korum Pass, perhaps to Sugat on the head of 

 the Kara-Kash, and thence followed the route taken by his brothers 

 the previous year towards Kiliam and Khoten. It seems that he 

 had laid in a stock of merchandise to facilitate his journey by trading. 

 From another source, the Bholiyas of Jwar, the information serves 

 to show that he had reached the margin of an inhabited countiy at 

 the foot of the mountains ; left his camp to reconnoitre, and, in his 

 absence, the guide absconded with most of the baggage and cattle 

 towards Yarkand. Being thus left helpless, M. Schlagintweit sent 

 to the Yanadar of Le for assistance in men, cattle, provisions, &c., 

 whether for the purpose of penetrating into Turkistan, or returning 

 to Ladak, remains undetermined. The next accounts are derived 

 from merchant travellers from Ladak, from whom it appears that he 

 had passed the winter of 1857-58 on the border of Khoten, and that 

 on his arrival the provinces of Kashgar and Yarkand were in a 

 disturbed state from one of the periodical invasions of the Turks. 

 It is unlikely that he would remain more than one winter here, or 

 that if still in the locality he would not have opened communication 



