302 IN TIBET AND CHINESE TURKESTAN.
Then Niaz Akun's men became troublesome ; they feared the dangers of the journey, declared they would not travel over an unknown country where they were certain to perish among the mountains, and flatly refused to leave Yarkand. Much patience had to be exercised, and a good deal of pressure brought to bear on them before they would listen to reason and consent to start.
Having been desirous of purchasing four camels, I had only obtained two, but when I was ready to start, it was announced that some fine camels were expected in Yarkand in a day or two for sale. After waiting two days in the hope of making a purchase, I asked Raju why they had not arrived, and he told me that they had not even been sent for. This happened two days before a festival, and it was now declared that it would be unlucky to start until this festival had been celebrated, so that I had still three days to wait. Then to my regret I heard that Utam Singh, who, in October, had set out for Kashmir, had died :,at Gilgit, and I received news of an attack which had been made on the Swedish missionaries in Kashgar. The Chow-Kuan of the old town, acting under instructions from the Taotai, it appeared, issued orders to the Begs to send him a petition against the missionaries. No one had any complaint against these inoffensive men, and the Begs were perplexed how to manufacture a grievance. After conferring together they enjoined the missionaries' landlord to get up a disturbance which might throw discredit on his tenants, or show that they were odious to the inhabitants. The landlord collected a crowd of loafers, the scum of the bazaar, who proceeded to demolish the outer wall about the mission premises, and were in the act of destroying the outer door when one of the missionaries, Mr. L. E. Högberg, coming on the scene, was set upon and beaten. News of the disturbance reached the British Agency and the Russian Consulate. Macariney
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