FROM TALI TO TSEKOU 



Lamas, the northern limit of our wanderings. We hailed the 

 sight with joy ; for behind those few black rags and that smoke 

 lay a meaning that sufficed to put heart into the whole caravan. 



On the iith (August), after passing several streams, where, by 

 means of wooden planks with shutters, gold washings were being 

 carried on, we arrived at the village of Into, connected by two 

 cable bridges with the small town of Hsiao-Ouisi opposite. At 

 both these places there are Christians, and in the latter we found 

 a French missionary. Father Tintet, whom I knew at Lioutin-kiao 

 in 1890. The meeting with a fellow-countryman in so remote a 

 spot was a great event for us, and for the moment as we chatted 

 this iarthest recess of China became France. 



The news of the station was not good. Father Goutelle, the 



doyen of the Thibet Mission, had died ten days previously at Ouisi, 



without having realised the dream for which he had laboured forty 



years — the recognition of the Roman Catholic religion at Lhaca and 



other cities of Thibet. The poor missionaries were in evil case. 



Notwithstanding the promise that M. Gdrard had extorted from 



the Tsungli-Yamen of the reconstruction of their destroyed stations 



at Batang and Atents^, nothing had been done. The viceroy 



of Setchuen, having been recalled to Pekin, gave orders before his 



departure to demolish the mission houses ; and, just when his spite 



had been wreaked, was poisoned. The mandarin of Ouisi followed 



suit by committing suicide. The latter had sent in a report avowing 



that the stations had received no injury either at Tsekou or Atentse. 



It was forwarded through Yiinnan-Sen ; and simultaneously with its 



consideration at Pekin a second document, setting out the loss 



sustained by the missionaries, arrived from Ta-tsien-lou. The result 



of the conflicting evidence was a reprimand, addressed to the 



viceroy of Yunnan, who lost no time in passing it on to his 



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