1882.] Befurn of explorers from Tibet. 101 



Frontier, but did not succeed in so doing ; and being told that they would 

 probably be murdered if they trusted themselves to such savages as the 

 Mishmis, they turned northwards and took the circuitous route through 

 southern Tibet towards Lassa, via Alanto and Giamda, as far as the latter 

 place, from which they turned down south-westwards to Chetang on the 

 Sanpo river, avoiding Lassa. Thence they proceeded via Giangze Jong and 

 Phari to Darjeeling, returning safety to British territory after an absence 

 of more than four years. 



The explorer states that Sama, the village on the Mishmi border at 

 which they turned away from the direct route to Assam, is situated on a 

 river flowing into Assam, and is the place at which two Padre Sahibs were 

 murdered some thirty years ago. Thus it is identified with the Sami of 

 the Rev. T. D. Mazure, Vicar Apostolic of Tibet, in his memorandum on 

 the countries betweeen Thibet, Yunan and Burma — in volume XXX of the 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society — in which he speaks of it as the place where 

 the two priests, Messrs. Krick and Boury, were murdered. The Vicar was, 

 however, under the impression that his Sami was situated in the valley of a 

 river flowing into the Irawadi ; but Colonel Yule, in his notes to the Vicar's 

 paper, points out that we know from the reports of the British officers in 

 Upper Assam that the two priests were murdered (about the month of 

 August, 1854) at a village, called Sime in Wilcox's map, which is situated 

 on the banks of the Braraakund river, the Eastern Brahmaputra, and he 

 goes on to say that " this murder of two missionaries becomes thus in fact 

 the basis of a geographical connection between British India and Thibet." 

 This remark is even more apposite at the present time than it was origin- 

 ally ; for the murder of the missionaries enables us to identify with cer- 

 tainty the nearest point to the British frontier which was reached by the 

 explorer on his attempt to return to India -y/a Assam. Wilcox reconnoitred 

 the Brahmakund river up as far as the village of Samleh, and he obtained 

 the positions of several of the villages higher up from native information ; 

 thus it appears that his Sime was about 18 miles beyond Samleh ; for this 

 portion of the river we as yet have no route survey ; but the distance is so 

 short that we may accept the position assigned to Sime in Wilcox's map 

 without hesitation. 



This being the case, the fact that the explorer was unable to proceed 

 to India directly through the Mishmi country, but was compelled to make 

 a considerable detour to the north, has been the means of our acquiring 

 much additional geographical information, and more particularly of laying 

 at rest the frequently mooted question whether the great Sanpo river of 

 Tibet flows into the Irawadi river or into the Brahmaputra. If the former, 

 the explorer must have crossed it three times, first between Batang and 

 Sama, secondly between Sama and Alanto, and finally at Chetang. He 



