88 Through the Lutzu Country to Men-kong 
prevailing, and the former, I believe, are never anything 
else but friendly. Personally I think we owe more to these 
bold priests for their additions to our geographical and 
scientific knowledge of the country than to their efforts at 
proselytizing the natives. 
I had now, as already stated, decided to push on up the 
Salween valley as far as Men-kong, the obscure capital of 
the province of Tsa-riing, but first it was necessary to get 
rid of my escort, for I did not feel comfortable at the 
prospect of travelling either amongst the Lutzu or the 
Tibetans with Chinese soldiers, who are apt to be over- 
bearing. I had found my escorts, even on the main roads 
of Yunnan, rather a nuisance, dislocating the traffic and 
overawing the people. There, however, it did not much 
matter, and an official escort always looked well, for it 
showed the peasants plainly that my presence in their 
country was acknowledged by the officials, and if there is 
one thing the Chinese peasant reveres after his ancestors, 
it is a mandarin or anyone under his protection, and escorts 
are the hall-mark of the yamen. But in Tibet it is 
different, for the Chinese ‘brave’ is not, except on the 
main road, the familiar object there that he is elsewhere ; 
and being intolerant of ‘wild men,’ as he calls them, he is 
apt to get into trouble with these bold independent spirits. 
For myself I had no fear, as I was travelling with the people 
of the country, and was not likely to do anything foolish. 
Consequently I told the two soldiers who had escorted 
me from T‘sam-p‘u-t‘ong that I was staying here a week_to 
collect plants, and that they had better return. I then 
gave them a small present as is customary, and they 
started gaily back the same evening, no doubt to be 
soundly rated for letting me out of their sight. In the 
night | changed my mind and decided to go straight on 
next day. 
K‘un-a-t‘ong boasts a population of fifteen or twenty 
families, with more scattered at intervals up the valley. It 
is the highest point on the Salween where rice is cultivated, 
and when next we saw that river a marvellous change had 
taken place in the character of the country. 
Unfortunately it was now necessary to make a two 
days detour back into the mountains, on account of the 
