Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 236 (Color Image)

0236	Among the Celestials : vol.1

196 AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. VIII.

the Karakoram Pass, saying he had just heard

of my being in Chinese Turkestan, and telling

me, instead of following him along the well-

known and extremely barren and uninteresting

route by Leh to India, to try the unexplored

but direct road by the Mustagh Pass on

Baltistan and Kashmir. This was a sugges-

tion which delighted me. It was something

quite new, and promised to be difficult enough

to be really worth doing. I therefore set to

with my preparations for it with a will.

The first thing, of course, was to get guides.

Fortunately, there are a large number of Baltis

—about two thousand settled in the Yarkand

district, and the Kashmir Aksakal said he

would easily be able to obtain men for me..

Then ponies had to be collected. Here, too,

there was no difficulty, for Yarkand abounds in

ponies, and I used to examine thirty or forty a

day. Sheepskin coats for the men, supplies for

the road, shoes for the ponies, etc., could also

be easily procured. So, having set one or two

of the merchants to work at these preparations,

I took a look round Yarkand.

Hitherto, since leaving Peking, I had pur-

posely kept from visiting the Chinese officials,

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