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0295 Serindia : vol.3
セリンディア : vol.3
Serindia : vol.3 / 295 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000183
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Sec. iii]   OVER THE KARA-KORAM TO ENGLAND   1327

Ladâk, had provided, I could never have got myself carried over the difficult ground ahead and across the troublesome Sasser glacier.

It was a great relief when after nine trying days of travel I was met at the highest Ladâk village on the Nubra River by the Rev. S. Schmitt, in charge of the Moravian Mission Hospital at

Leh. Suffering himself from the after-effects of a severe illness, he had with kindest self-sacrifice

hurried up across the high Khardong Pass to bring help. Owing to my exhausted condition, due largely to the exertions and hardships which had preceded the accident and, no doubt, predisposed

me for it, he was obliged to postpone the operation needed by my right foot until after we reached

Leh on October 12. There all its toes had to be amputated. His kindness and that of his fellow missionaries provided me with much-needed comforts. But nearly three weeks passed before I was

considered strong enough to face the fatigues of the fortnight's continuous travel down to Kashmir.

The wounds left after the amputation were very painful, and healed only with extreme slowness. So another long halt was imposed at Srinagar by the advice of my old friend, Dr. A. Neve, the distin-

guished surgeon and mountaineer ; but this was made quite refreshing by the hospitality and attention I enjoyed on the part of the Assistant Residents, Captains D. G. Oliver and A. D. Macpherson. Help received in the ever-cherished surroundings of Kashmir facilitated my multifarious labours.

At last I could begin my first attempts at walking with crutches, and by December i start on my way down to India. My wounds were still giving trouble. So the 'rest and care enjoyed

at Lahore under the hospitable roof of my old Punjab friend Sir Edward Maclagan was a great

boon, easing much work that final settlement of official accounts and the like still called for. On my way to Calcutta, where the need of various official interviews and a kind invitation from

another old friend, Colonel Sir James Dunlop Smith, Private Secretary to H. E. the Viceroy, called

me, I paid a flying visit to Dehra Dun. There the friendly help of Colonel (now Sir Sidney) Burrard, then Superintendent of the Trigonometrical Survey of India, enabled me to make adequate arrange-

ments for the publication of our topographical surveys. During my few days' stay at Calcutta

Lord Minto gave fresh proof of the encouraging personal interest with which he had followed my travels, and of his benevolent thought for my Indian assistants. It was due to Lord Minto's

personal interposition that poor Naik Râtn Singh's claims' were promptly met by the award of

the special pension already referred to. Rai Lâl Singh, who under exceptional hardships had displayed devoted zeal and energy such as I had never seen equalled by any Indian, received richly

earned official recognition by the award of the title of Rai Bahâdur in the Honours List of the New

Year, 1909, as well as departmental promotion. • To Surveyor Rai Râm Singh the Royal Geographical Society had before awarded a valuable prize in acknowledgement of his services

on successive expeditions. Through the kind attention of the Hon. Sir Harcourt Butler, then at the head of the Indian Foreign Office, Chiang Ssû-yeh, my excellent Chinese Secretary, was presented with a valuable gold watch as a special mark of the Indian Government's gratitude.

On the day after Christmas, 1908, I was at last able to take ship at Bombay for Europe. Under the influence of the much-needed rest 'assured by the voyage the last of the wounds

healed, and when I set foot for a brief halt in the city of Marco Polo, a short walk had just become possible without pain. On January 20, 1909, I reached London, and there had the great satisfaction of learning that all my cases with antiques had a few days before safely arrived at the British Museum.

I knew well that the return from a long journey like mine could not mean rest, but only the prelude to labours in some respects more arduous and important than the work in the field. But fortunately encouragement from different sides enabled me to face them with good hope. On

Arrival and operation at Leh.

To Lahore, Dehra Dun, Calcutta.

Return to Europe.

Fresh labours and their conclusion.