Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 263 (Color Image)

0263	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

RETURN TO CHINA 191

on. Pereira was escorted by Chinese soldiers.

But the brigands themselves were soldiers who

had deserted because they were never paid. But

sometimes when one faction drives out the other

the soldiers of the first become brigands and the

erstwhile brigands become soldiers. The line of

distinction between a brigand and a soldier is, in

fact, rather difficult to define. With these brigands

Pereira had an encounter on February 27 near

Lu-feng-Hsien, four days' march from Yunnan.

They fired at him as his party was descending a

ridge. But fortunately their fire was ineffective,

and no harm was done.

Pereira would have wished from Yunnan to

travel in Lolo Land, but the country was too

disturbed. Père Walta, who had been there, told

him they were tall, but not a race of giants.

Some were 2 metres in height, but the average

height was about 1.85 metres. The Chinese used

formerly to have a small garrison and a walled

city at Chao-chu in the centre of Lolo Land, but

two years previously the Lolos had attacked and

massacred the Chinese soldiers, and the country

was now too disturbed for any one to visit it,

and Père Walta had heard nothing of his converts.

The Lolos say of themselves that they came from

the direction of Burma. They consider a man

who captures another man to be a man : a man

who allows himself to be captured they regard as

a sheep—as only half a man.

Leaving Yunnan-fu, 6400 feet, 200,000 in-

habitants, on March 16, he made northward in

the direction of the Yangtze, first following the

main road to Kwei - yang across undulating

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