Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 258 (Color Image)

0258	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

188 PEKING TO LHASA

marvellous way in which Providence protected

me from even worse. I think a second such

journey would kill me."

Gyantse was reached on November 5. Here

he met the first Europeans, except Madame Nèel,

since leaving Tangar in May. They were Dr.

McGovern and Captain Ellam of a so-called Bud-

dhist Mission. There were, too, Mr. Macdonald,

the British Trade Agent, and about seventy

Indian soldiers. These last were very smart.

" It was a treat ", he writes, " to see again a

man who could present arms, and also to see the

Union Jack once more flying in the afternoon

breeze. Good old England ! "

And he saw here Indian papers up to October 28,

and containing the news of his arrival in Lhasa

also the results of the Leger, Cesarewitch and

Cambridgeshire, " all won by rank outsiders I

had never heard of ".

On November 7 he resumed his journey, but

now onwards there were dak bungalows with

glass windows and real fire-places, doors, a bed,

tables, chairs such luxuries as he had not seen

for months. There were even books, and he re-

read The Velvet Glove. On November 13 he

crossed the Himalaya by the Tang La, 15,200 feet,

and reached Phari. Everybody had dwelt on the

cold of this stage, so he had dreaded it badly, but

found it not so cold as the Karo La. Next day

he marched down the Chumbi valley, thickly

wooded and with delightful smell of pine. On

November 16 he crossed his last pass, the Nathu

La, 14,700 feet. At last he was out of Tibet and

could say he had been right across it.

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