26 START FOR CHINESE TURKISTAN. 



Our first stage in the Sind valley was Kan- 

 gan : it is a pretty road, and all went well. On 

 our next day's march to Revel, however, we had 

 a terrible mishap. The road here and there 

 follows the banks of the Sind river, which at 

 this season is a mighty torrent. At Gond we 

 sat down and waited for our traps to come up, 

 that we might breakfast. After a short time one 

 of our servants arrived looking utterly flabber- 

 gasted. He told us that the ponies had got 

 jammed in turning a corner where the roadway 

 was cut out on the banks of the river, and one of 

 them was hustled over the edge into the stream : 

 having a heavy load, he disappeared at once, and 

 was never seen again. 



The man was in such a state of mind that we 

 had some difficulty in discovering what the load 

 was ; but when everything had turned up, we 

 found that, besides other important articles, it 

 consisted of Johnstone Douglas's battery, a 

 double express, and one of Holland's paradox 

 guns, which he set great store by. I never was 

 so grieved for any one in my life. Here he was 

 without a weapon of any sort, going a long journey 

 through a shooting country. He took it wonder- 

 fully well, saying it was the fortune of war. I 



