which was only partly sunny. A letter received from the Commander - in - Chief said that a nice house in a park was being prepared for him.
Still marching down the Song-pu Chu valley, here from 2 to 5 miles wide, Pereira reached Zong-do, 164 miles, on October 15. The river is 40 to 50 yards wide and 2 or 3 feet deep. The country is treeless except round the villages. Eight villages were passed. Zong-do, 11,530 feet, has sixteen families. A good many pilgrims returning on foot to Kanze and Dergé were passed, and several caravans for Chamdo and Yunnan.
De-then, 13 miles, was reached on October 16, the road still following down the broad valley of the Song-pu Chu. There was a fair amount of cultivation in the valley, but much of it was stony waste. At 12 mile the Gaden monastery, one of the biggest in Tibet, was just visible on a hill 800 feet high. De-chen has thirty-two families and some good stone houses. On the east side is a rock 200 feet high, with what looked like a ruined fort. There was now daily a chilly wind.
Pereira records of himself : " The old man gets very weary each day and is so stiff that he has to be lifted off his horse on arrival. However, the goal is at last in sight. Only one more stage of 141- miles to Lhasa. I shall be the only white man living who has been from Peking to Lhasa direct."
Lhasa was reached at last on October 17. The road still lay down the valley of the Song-pu Chu, officially known as the Kyi Chu. There were farms and villages with an occasional monastery dotted about. At 10 miles off the famous Potala came in sight, standing on a small hill, and as
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