173 BEPOKT— 1871. 



It is a remarkable circumstance that in our own older Indian territory there is 

 no province where Mahomedanism is so extensivelj^ professed among the peasantry 

 as the remote and secluded district of Silhet, in the east of Bengal. And China 

 affords a curious parallel ; for there is no one of the eighteen provinces of China 

 Proper iu which Mahomedanism is so prevalent as in the secluded inland province 

 of Yunnan. And this has been the case from a very early period. Ah-eady, in the 

 13th century, a celebrated Persian historian of the Mongols states, though no 

 doubt with great hyperbole, that in Yunnan all the people were Mahomedans. 

 Since about 1855 this Mussulman population has been in a state of revolt against 

 the Imperial Government ; and, after wars which have devastated the greater part 

 of the province and which indeed still continue to do so, a part of the Mahomedans 

 have succeeded in establishing their independence in Western Yunnan, under a 

 sultan of their own election, who bears the name of Suleiman, and reigns at Talifu. 

 The anarchy of civil war and the interruption of communication between the Im- 

 perial and the Mahomedan parts of the province; as may easily be imagined, have 

 brought the trade practically to a standstill. 



Several expeditions of exploration and survey to the eastward and north-eastward 

 of om- province of Pegu resulted from the stimulus of agitation ; but the most im- 

 portant of these undertakings was that despatched imder Major Sladen, political 

 agent at the Court of the King of Burma, to visit the Mahomedan authorities in 

 Western Y^unnan, and to endeavour to bring about a reopening of the trade. 

 Notwithstanding every promise of support on the part of the King of Bm-ma, and 

 of ostensible orders issued in that sense, the expedition was grievously harassed and 

 retarded by most vexatious proceedings on the part of the Burmese provincial 

 officers — a course ascribed by Major Sladen to bad faitli and ill--n'ill on the pai't of 

 the Court itself, but by Sir Arthur Phayre rather to the jealousy of the Chinese 

 merchants, who feared that the trade might revive only to pass out of their 

 hands. 



Major Sladen did eventually make his way to Momien, the first city of China 

 met with on passing that frontier ; and to him belongs the credit of being the first 

 European to pass that frontier from the side of the Irawadi. lie was most cordially 

 received by the Mahomedan Governor ; and his visit ascertained that there was per- 

 fect good will on the part of the Mahomedan authorities towards the reestablish- 

 ment of trade. But the causes which had brought it to a stop still existed, and 

 the goodwill of the rulers could do nothing material to restore trade until order 

 and peaceful communication with the interior of China should be reestablished. 



A year and a half before the commencement of Major Sladen's journey, another one 

 of a very remarkable character had been undertaken under the orders of the French 

 Imperial Government. This was an expedition for the exploration of the Mekong, or 

 Great Camboja River, starting from the recently acquired French territory in the 

 delta of that river. Before I was called so unexpectedly to occupj' this chair, I had 

 commenced the compilation, from the imperfect materials accessible, of an account of 

 this expedition, which I look on as the most important geographical enterprise that 

 has been accomplished in Asia, at least since Burues's journey to Bokhara. The 

 work of preparation for the duties of the Section prevented me from making any 

 progress with the paper, though I hope on one day of our sitting to give a sketch 

 of the journey. I will only say now that the mission party, consisting mainly of 

 naval officers, ascended the river, first by boat and afterwards by land, to Kiang- 

 Hung, the point reached thirty years before by Macleod. Here they were compelled 

 to abandon the line of the Mekong ; but starting to the north-east they entered the 

 Chinese frontier at Ssemao (the Esraok of Macleod), and travelled across Southern 

 Y''imnan to the capital city of the province, almost everj' where tolerably well received 

 by the Chinese authorities. A detachment of the party under Lieutenant Garnier 

 succeeded in reaching Talifu ; but they had to leave it'immediately, at the peril of 

 their lives ; and on their return to Toug-chuau, where they had "left their chief. 

 Captain De la Gree, seriously ill, they found that his death had occurred a few days 

 before. Taking his remains with them, they proceeded to the Great Kiang at 

 Siuchau, and thence descended to Shanghai, in reaching which they completed a 

 jom-ney of several thousand miles, which had occupied two years. 



About the same time Mr. Cooper made his two gallant attempts — first, to reach 



