/ 
LADAK, 55 
a right to expect to be equally well served. The 
terms on which traders engage horses are these: 
Each horse is to carry 2401bs., and the owner of the 
horse arranges for the supply of food and undertakes 
all risks to his animals. The distance to Shahidulla 
from Le is about twenty days march, and the rate 
paid is 3/. ^s. for each load. The ponies can be 
purchased for about 4/. or 5/., consequently large 
profits are made by the owners of the horses, and 
they can afford to take a number of spare animals to 
provide against a breakdown. We not only agreed 
to pay the same rates as the traders, but, to make our 
progress more rapid and certain, diminished each load 
by one third, and the Wazir undertook to see that 
we had a sufficient supply of grain ; he further agreed 
to accompany us as far as Pamtzil, the last place where 
grass was found, and to wait there until he heard 
of our safe arrival at the Karakash valley. 
From Le, our road lay at first for twenty miles to 
the east, and along the right bank of the Indus, 
which here flows nearly due west. We then left the 
river near a village called Eambirpur, which is 
inhabited exclusively by slaves and the officers in 
charge of them, and turned to the north up a well- 
cultivated valley, encamping at Chimre, near the 
foot of the Chang-la Pass. Here one of Major 
Montgomerie's pundits joined our camp ; he was 
provided with all the instruments necessary for 
surveying the country, but unfortunately he came 
to us openly in the character of a surveyor, and his 
arrival excited so much suspicion in the minds of the 
Yarkandis, who, like all Orientals, consider a survey 
only a preparatory step to annexation of territory. 
