YOUTH AND EARLY TRAVELS 65 



district was then regarded as inaccessible ; it was a fairyland, 

 where imagination and credulity amused themselves in placing 

 the most absurd and terrifying phenomena it was the site of the 

 " Montagnes Maudites." Senebier goes on : ' De Saussure 

 formed the project of visiting Les Montagnes Maudites. I 

 know not which is most admirable, the courage of the youth 

 who braves opinion and carries out his wish despite it, or the 

 good sense of his parents who contemned popular nervousness 

 and had sufficient confidence in the prudence of their son to 

 authorise his journey.' 



Adequate explanation of the comments on our countrymen's 

 alleged timidity is not far to seek. They preferred tents to 

 the wretched wine -shops which at that date were the only shelter 

 at Chamonix ; they carried arms, and Pococke, who had travelled 

 in the Levant, seems to have put on an Arab dressing-gown, 

 and, abetted by his companions, mystified the simple inhabitants 

 of Sallanches by pretending to be an Oriental potentate. This 

 harmless jest was quite enough to afford to the Chamoniards 

 * nation gaie et railleuse,' as de Saussure called them material 

 for a tale which would be welcomed by their Genevese visitors, 

 gossips by nature, and slightly annoyed that it should have been 

 left to foreigners to reveal to the world wonders that had lain for 

 centuries almost at their own gates within, even at that date, a 

 long day's journey. It was natural enough that they should take 



however, gave them a great fright. At the time I was making a collection of 

 Alpine birds. I carried a gun, my two servants who were with me had guns ; 

 the hunters who served me as guides were also armed. It was a Thursday ; the 

 Chartreux were enjoying the moment of recreation they term a spaciment they 

 were taking the air in a wood near the Convent. By chance we approached 

 through the same wood, and the peaceable hosts of this solitude, seeing themselves 

 suddenly surrounded by armed strangers, thought that their last day had come, 

 or at least that we were about to pillage their Convent. In vain I tried to explain 

 to them my objects in travel ; curiosity seemed to them too feeble a motive 

 to make anyone come to see mountains from their point of view gloomy and un- 

 attractive ; and that all our armament was in order to kill little birds they looked 

 on as a ridiculous and almost preposterous pretext. Notwithstanding, they 

 invited us to enter the Convent and to refresh ourselves, being persuaded that in 

 any case we should enter by force. It was only after having examined my 

 scientific instruments and inspected us scrupulously that they persuaded them- 

 selves that we had no evil designs.' [Voyages, 284.] 



The case, it may be noted, has points of resemblance with that of the English 

 party, and indicates the general sense of insecurity in Savoy at this time. Even 

 the unwarlike Bourrit took pistols with him when he went round Mont Blanc. 

 It is true they were unloaded. 



