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4   GRUEBER AND DORVILLE.

their way to and from Lhasa. Dealing with them in this chapter I will have to touch upon some parts of their itineraries which do not belong to Transhimalaya, but which I thought practical not to exclude from their narratives. This is specially the case with Beligatti's report, which is of very great interest and value and little

known.

On their famous journey in 1661 to 1662 the two Jesuit Fathers JOHANNES GRUEBER and ALBERT DORVILLE I crossed the Transhimalaya. They left Peking on the 13th of April 1661 and arrived at Agra in March 1662, having passed through Si-ngan, Lan-tchu, Si-ning, along the northern shore of Koko-nor, through Tsaïdam, over Tang-la to Reting and Lhasa, from where they continued viâ Shigatse to Katmandu, Patna and Agra. Thus they must have crossed Transhimalaya

between Nak-chu and Reting-gompa.2

TRONNIER regards Grueber as one of the most successful travellers of the whole of the 17th century, although not he but ODORICO DE PORDENONE, some 33o years earlier, was the first European to cross Eastern Tibet. Odorico, however, has left only a short description of Tibet: Du royaume de Riboth,3 which is on the confines of India. If now, as CORDIER shows, Odorico has travelled from Sze-chuan to Tibet, say for instance viâ Chiamdo, he may have reached Lhasa without crossing the Transhimalaya, for we do not know as yet in what relation this system stands to the mountain ranges between Salwen and Yangtse-chiang.

Odorico's notes are very short and Tronnier is correct in saying that Grueber is at any rate, the first who has brought us a better and more correct knowledge of the country and its inhabitants. All that we know of Grueber's journey is to be found in letters to his friends and some annotations, published by THÉVENOT. According to RICHTHOFEN, KIRCHER compiled his description of Grueber's journey from there.4 To this Tronnier remarks that Kircher's account is the most authentic in existence, which is clearly proved both by Kircher and Grueber.

In the following I cannot help giving some quotations concerning Grueber from Kircher's remarkable work together with his own geographical deductions. 5 To his second map we will return later. The first is exactly like the one of China, in Thévenot. In the second part of his work Kircher quotes the following passage from MARCO POLO: »Now, if we go on with our journey towards the east-northeast, we travel a good forty days, continually passing over mountains and hills, or

i Richthofen writes d'Orville, Markham Dorville and Tronnier de Dorville.

2 The best authority on this journey is Richard Tronnier: »Die Durchquerung Tibets seitens der Jesuiten Johannes Grueber und Albert de Dorville im Jahr 1661.» Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft f. Erdkunde z. Berlin i904, p. 328 et seq. Further in Richthofen: China, I. 671 and Markham: Narratives of the Mission etc. p. LVI and 295 et seq. In Tronnier's article all the literature is quoted.

3 Les voyages en Asie au XIV

Saint-François, par Henri Cordier, Paris MDCCCXCI, p. 449 et seq.

e Siècle du bienheureux frère Odoric de Pordenone Religieux de

4 Richthofen, op. cit. p. 672, Note 3).

5 La Chine d'Athanase Kirchere de la Compagnie de Jesus, Illustrée de plusieurs Monuments

•     Amsterdam 167o, II: p. 66, 89, 104, 319.