COMMERCE OF INDIA. 



197 



still occupied by uncultivated savages and the recent murder 

 of Mr. Margary proves that the internal state of the country 

 is still not favorable to peaceful commercial enterprise. 

 Though China is only separated from Assam by a mountain 

 range, and can also be reached by a detour to Bhamo on 

 the Irawady, we have no authority to state, that this road 

 was ever used in ancient times. Chinese Emperors tried 

 afterwards, now and then, to open communications between 

 India and Southern China, but these efforts proved only 

 temporarily successful. The frontier on the north is the 

 highest mountain range on the surface of the earth and the 

 country immediately lying beyond it, Tibet, is neither very 

 fertile nor varied in its productions. The Himalaya moun- 

 tains do not absolutely prevent all intercourse with India, 

 but their passes have been rather more frequented by pious 

 pilgrims, than by enterprising merchants. In Kabulistan on 

 the contrary meet together the roads from the most distant 

 West with those of the remote East. 



Three roads led from China to India, the first went from 

 the mountain pass of Yumen on the north-western frontier 

 of China between the Nanshan and Sining ranges in the 

 valley of the Hoangho, via Tibet to Pataliputra. The second 

 called Nanlu or South road lay in the south of the Tianshan 

 mountains, it also started from Yumen, went along the 

 Kokonor, through the desert of Grobi, by the Lop Nor, crossed 

 the Tarim river, and remaining on its north side, touched the 

 towns of Kutche, Yarkand and Kashgar, surmounted the 

 Belurtag, and following the Yaxartes (Syr), then bent towards 

 the south towards Bactria (Balkh). The third road com- 

 mences also at Yumen, inclined then towards the north, there- 

 fore called the Pelu or Northern Eoad, reaches Hami or 

 Khamil, after crossing the Great Desert, goes through Kara- 

 char and Turfan, passed the Tianshan, and remaining on its 

 northern side, touches Umritsir, (Bishbalik) and arrives at 

 Gruldja or Hi. The way over Yarkand and Kashgar was well 



