Across the China-Tibet Frontier 27 
Moreover this Chia-rung tribesman seems to have been 
of a highly original turn of mind, for after dashing through 
to Men-kong, exclaiming wildly all the way that he had 
been ordered to annex the country for Great Britain, he so 
scared the officials in Y ‘a-k‘a-lo with his strange tales that 
they began to suspect he had murdered Captain Bailey ; 
and no sooner did he get back to Batang than he was 
clapped into prison, where I believe he lingered for a 
month. 
Batang is situated at an altitude of 9400 feet, and the 
little plain being closely invested by mountains grows very 
hot in summer, though it is not cold in winter. A gentle 
breeze frequently sweeps down from the high ranges to 
the north-east and fans the parched earth, but on occasions 
the valley is swept by fierce gusts blowing up the Yang-tze. 
The population now comprises between 400 and 500 families, 
and since the rebellion of 1905 from being almost exclu- 
sively Tibetan, with all the power in the hands of the 
lamas, it has become very largely Chinese, and the power 
of the lamas is temporarily broken. On the other hand 
the majority of the Chinese, merchants and soldiers, have 
married Tibetan wives and adopted at least some of the 
manners and customs of the country if not the dress. 
Crops of maize, wheat, and barley are grown, besides 
buckwheat in the autumn, but the area under cultivation 
is very small. Many of the houses are built of stone, and 
there is an air of prosperity about the place, with its streets 
of shops and hawkers, in spite of the gaunt skeleton walls 
of the once huge monastery, now utterly destroyed. Since 
the rebellion, the majority of the lamas have been killed 
or scattered, and the ragged-looking mendicants who now 
hang about the streets or loaf round the tiny lamasery 
which the remnant were allowed to rebuild, are no credit 
to the profession. 
I have already referred to Chao Er-feng, Warden of 
the Marches, and subsequently Viceroy of Ssii-chuan, who 
was entrusted with the stamping out of the Tibetan revolt 
of 1905; and however much one may denounce his methods, 
he met with considerable success. Peace and security now 
reign in Batang (or did before the present Revolution) 
instead of lawlessness, robbery, and murder. Unfortunately 
