A reference to chapter vI, where I have discussed the racial origin of the Khotan population, will show how illuminating these investigations are to the historical student.
For the publication of my report, the liberal arrangements sanctioned by the Secretary of State have proved of great help, and for them I may be allowed to record my special gratitude. At my request the preparation of the collotype plates illustrating antiques was entrusted to Mr. W. GRIGGS, whose name has been made familiar by the labours of a lifetime to every student of Indian art. I appreciate all the more gratefully the personal care and attention which Mr. Griggs has bestowed on the work as I know that much of this, as in the case of other scholarly publications to which he has lent his skill, must have been a labour of love. The drawing of the map of Khotan and the adjoining regions was entrusted to Mr. J. W. ADDISON, map draughtsman of the Royal Geographical Society, and effected in a fashion which has been commended by competent judges.
I had every reason to feel gratified when the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, with a grant from the India Office, agreed to undertake the printing and publication of the work, together with the preparation of the remaining plates. My hope that the resources of that great officina would facilitate the early issue of the work, and in a fitting form, has been justified by experience. For the typographical care bestowed on these volumes and for much kind attention besides, I wish to express here my thanks to Mr. C. CANNAN, Secretary to the Delegates, and Mr. H. HART, the University Printer.
Owing to the great distance separating me from the Press, it was impossible for me to see more than one proof, and even for this the available time was very scanty. I could not have hoped to assure the requisite degree of correctness, had not the self-sacrificing kindness of friends come to my help. Mr. J. S. COTTON, editor of the Imperial Gazetteer of India, kindly revised my manuscript before it went to the press, with regard to those literary requirements of which he is so experienced a judge. Mr. VINCENT SMITH, the distinguished Indologist, was good enough to read a proof and favoured me with a number of useful corrections. Mr. T. W. ARNOLD, Professor of Arabic at University College, London, charged himself with seeing the final revises, a task for which I could not have found a friend of wider Oriental attainments nor one more willing to help. To Mr. Arnold also is due the elaborate Index, which I was unable to compile myself, but which I should not have liked to entrust to any other hands. But to none are my obligations greater than to my friend Mr. P. S. ALLEN, of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who from a scholarly task of absorbing magnitude, in a field wholly Western, spared time to correct my proofs with most painstaking thoroughness. He also took entire ` charge ' of the book when I had passed beyond the reach of regular postal communications. I look upon these proofs of friendly devotion as the best compensation for the difficulties I had to overcome while preparing my work.
During that happy year of travel through the mountains and the deserts which once saw the passage of Hsüan-tsang, the great pilgrim, of Marco Polo, and of him ` who sought lost Cathay and found Heaven,' the thought of the great scholar who had first with true critical intuition traced their tracks and those of many another early traveller through Central Asia, was ever with me. From his immortal volumes, which have accompanied me everywhere, I never failed to derive guidance and encouragement, whether I turned to them in camp after long hours of rough travel or in my improvised study after desk labour yet more tiring. In dedicating this work to the memory of Sir HENRY YULE I claim no small privilege. But if the interest of researches on ground that was cherished by the Master, and the endeavour to
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