GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF THE TIBET MISSION. 275 



indorsing what the executive council did, while these latter were pro- 

 hibited from attending meetings of the national assembly to argue 

 their case in person. A more hopelessly inapt organization for deal- 

 ing with a crisis in their foreign affairs it would be difficult to imag- 

 ine. But ignorant, bigoted, and apparently immovable as they were, 

 they had their good points. They were almost invariably polite, and 

 they were genial. The humblest little joke was enough to set them 

 off laughing, and I do not recall separating at the close of a single 

 interview of all the many we had at Lassa with any feeling of ill 

 temper. I must confess to a feeling of exasperation sometimes when 

 I reflected that ni}^ convention had to be got through in so short a 

 time, and no ray of daylight was for so long visible through the 

 dreary clouds of obstruction ; but these poor Tibetans do deserve 

 credit for never having really irritated me. It was, after all,' their 

 business to make as good a bargain as they could with me, and perti- 

 nacity is a trait which need not be caviled at. Still, it was heavy, 

 weary work. Eight or ten of them would come together. Each one 

 had to have his sa}^, so that when he returned home he could boast 

 that he had for his part spoken u}) to the British commissioner. 

 Each one I listened to patiently and each one I answered. In this 

 way, as ever}' day produced a few fresh men, I worked through most 

 of the leading men in Lassa, while Captain O'Connor, whose trials 

 were still greater than mine, tackled even larger numbers in his pri- 

 vate room. 



On the whole, I formed a low estimate of their mental caliber. It is 

 impossible to regard them as much else than children. My talks with 

 them were not only about the business in hand, but about general 

 affairs and about religion. The Ti Rimpochi, with Avhom the Dalai 

 lama left his seal in his flight for Lassa a few days before our arrival, 

 held the chair of divinity in the Gaden monastery, and was universally 

 reverenced as the leading lama in Lassa. He was recognized as re- 

 gent, and was the principal in the negotiations with me. But even 

 he, pleasant, benevolent, genial old gentleman as he was, had really 

 very little intellectual power, and but a small modicum of spirituality. 

 In both he was very distinctl\' inferior to the ordinary Brahmin in 

 India. He liked his little jokes, and we were alwaj^s on the best of 

 terms. But he was firmly convinced the earth was triangular. His 

 intellectual attainments did not amount to much more than a knowl- 

 edge by rote of prodigious quantities of verses from the sacred books. 

 Discussion with him upon the why or the wherefore of things ended 

 in bald quotations from the scriptures, and his religion chiefly con- 

 sisted in ceremonial. The general run of abbots of monasteries and 

 leading lamas had even less to recommend them. One monastery at 

 Lassa contained no less than 10,000 monks, and another had 7,000. 

 But I do not think anyone saw these monks without remarking what 



