LAHOKE TO YAKKAND 
PAET I.— NAERATIVE. 
I. INTRODUCTORY. 
Whilst stationed at Lahore on civil duty, in the end 
of April, 1870, I very unexpectedly received a note 
from Mr. Forsyth, Commissioner of the Jaland- 
har Division of the Panjdb, informing me that he 
was about to start at once for Yarkand, on a friendly 
visit to the Atalik Ghazi, and that he had applied to 
Lord Mayo for my services as medical oflScer to the 
expedition. 
"When I afterwards learned that our numbers were to 
be limited to three Europeans — namely, Mr. Forsyth, 
our leader, Mr. Shaw — who had made his hazardous 
journey to Yarkand two years before, and who was 
then in England — and last and least, myself, and 
that I should be expected to collect information of 
every imaginable sort, my first impulse was to decline 
the post, the more especially as I was only to be 
allowed a fortnight to complete my preparations. 
However, the chance of visiting a new and little 
explored country, under such favourable auspices, was 
much too tempting to be easily declined ; and, with 
the alternative before me of a hot season in the plains 
B 
