INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. xi 



The first memorable incursion into the territoiy in 

 question was the journey of Hue and Gabet in 1845-46. 



The later writings of Hue, pieces of pretentious and un- 

 trustworthy book-making, have thrown some shadow upon 

 the original narrative ; some of his own countrymen have 

 been disposed to look on his work as half a fiction ; and 

 stories have even reached me from Russian sources which 

 professed to recount confessions made by Hue of his having 

 invented his own share in the narrative, and of his having 

 received from Gabet on his deathbed, ' on board a boat in 

 the Canton river,' or taken from his luggage after his death, 

 the true journals on which the popular story of the Journey 

 to Lhassa was founded. These stories are imaginative fabri- 

 cations, as will be seen from the facts we are about to recapi- 

 tulate. I confess, however, that, judging from the rubbish 

 of Hue's later writings, my own impression long was that 

 Gabet had been the chief author of the Souvenirs, and this 

 was confirmed to me by a conversation with which the 

 lamented M. Jules Mohl honoured me during his last visit 

 to England.^ But his recollection, I now feel satisfied, had 

 deceived him. 



In the end of 1846, as Sir John Davis tells us, Mr. A. 

 Johnston, his own secretary as Plenipotentiary in China, in 

 proceeding from Hong Kong to Ceylon, found Pere Joseph 

 Gabet, then on his way to France, a fellow-passenger with 

 him, and heard from him many particulars of the journey. 

 Mr. Johnston found these so curious and interesting that 

 he noted down the principal circumstances, and on rejoin- 

 ing his chief presented him with the MS., and Sir John 

 sent it on to Lord Palmerston. ' Nothing more,' adds Sir 

 John Davies, * was heard of the matter till the appearance 

 of Hue's two volumes' (i.e. in 185 1). This is, however, a 

 mistake, as I find by an examination, as careful as my time 



^ M. Mohl told me an c4necdote of his visiting, about the time of 

 Hue's publication, one of the vicars apostolic from the Eastern Mis- 

 sions, — I think Monseigneur Pallegoix from Siam. The new book was 

 lying on the table, and the bishop apologised, saying he ought to have 

 left it in his bedroom ; ' a bishop ought not to be caught reading 

 romances.' 



