FROM KASHGAR TO IGHIZ-YAR 253 
slightest hint. And in this friendly spirit I continued 
to be treated by the amban during the whole of the 
forty-eight hours I remained in his town. 
In return for his obliging kindness, I presented him 
with a revolver and a knife. Thereupon he sent me a 
complete Chinese dinner, consisting of a number of re- 
markable, but delicious, dainties, arranged on dishes and 
in tiny cups, grouped round a whole roasted pig, which 
was placed on a big tray with a leg to it. At the same 
time he expressed his regret that, being indisposed, he 
could not give himself the honour of helping me to 
consume the good things he had sent. This message 
furnished me with the welcome opportunity to reply, that, 
as I was quite unable to do justice to such a bounteous 
spread all by myself, I felt called upon to send it back 
to him. For I strongly suspected, that all these unusual 
attentions were merely an artifice to put me under such 
strong obligations of gratitude towards the astute amban, 
as almost to compel me to conform to his wishes. His real 
object was to turn me aside from the route I had chosen 
for getting up to the high plateau, namely the glens of 
Keng-kol and Tar-bashi. That route lay through his 
district ; and it ran counter to the wishes of his worship 
the amban that I should travel through the country over 
which he exercised rule. He feared, and with justice, 
that I should map it out, and so open it up to European 
travellers, from whose presence it had hitherto been 
tolerably free. Indeed, he directly advised me to follow 
the route via Yarkand, alleging that the mountain-torrents 
were now so greatly swollen, that I should run very- 
serious risk, and if my baggage were to suffer injury or 
get lost, he would be held responsible for it by the Dao 
Tai. 
Meantime I had learned from other quarters, that 
donkey-caravans had actually crossed the torrents. More- 
over, the time of year was the reverse of favourable for 
going all the way round by Yarkand, where pestilence 
always rages in the summer. When the amban learnt, 
that it was still my intention to pursue my original plans. 
