238 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



These feelings were destined to be mine. 



The lips of the Viceroy had spoken the words 

 " Good sport to you, and a pleasant journey ; " Lieu- 

 tenant- Governors and Chief Commissioners had told 

 their friends that an Englishman had started for the 

 wilds of Chinese Turkestan to startle the world by 

 " coming out" in some unexpected place. To cross 

 the prescribed limits of travel in the direction, for 

 example, of the great plateau of the Pamir, or, in 

 other words, to pass beyond the territories of the 

 Maharajah of Kashmir, requires the special permission 

 of the English Government and the passport of the 

 Chinese authorities at Pekin. The acting Foreign 

 Secretary at Calcutta had replied to me personally 

 and by letter, that it was undesirable under the 

 present relations between the Chinese and British 

 Governments to request such a favour for any one 

 excepting under very special conditions ; while the 

 Kashmir Besident had written, very considerately, in 

 a postscript, " It is hardly necessary to tell you that 

 you will not be allowed to pass the delimitated fron- 

 tier ; " the Tibetans too were not likely to accord a 

 friendly welcome at this time to an armed Englishman, 

 while at another point on their frontier the military 

 expedition through Sikkim might appear to be threat- 

 ening to violate the sanctity of that mysterious city 

 called Llassa (with its Sanpu, Irrawaddy, and Brahma- 

 pootra rivers riddle, which is still continuing to be a 

 matter of conjecture to geographers), and even to annex 

 Thibet itself. But a wise Government is never averse 



