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0140 Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1
Tibet and Turkestan : vol.1 / Page 140 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000231
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CHAPTER VI

A PLUNGE TO WHITHER-AWAY—THE AKSAI CHIN
OR WHITE DESERT

THIS dissertation on survey methods seems not
to belong to the narrative which brought us
up short at the end of a scoriac valley. It is prob-
ably here as a reflex from memories of the halting
and embarrassment experienced while getting out
of that valley. Caliban's desertion led to the dis-
covery of a curious mental phenomenon. He had
already deceived us in the important matter of the
fort. He seemed brutally ignorant, and we feared
he would make a bad use of such small intelligence
as God had granted him. Yet we were sorry to lose
him. There were seven of us left, but we felt lonely
on that great desert without Caliban. It is the
power of a word,—and of faith,—irrational faith, I
suppose. We had engaged him as a guide, and,
indeed, he had taken us to the lakes, which were on
the map. We very much needed a guide. After
the lake, Caliban had only pretended to know, or
had actually deceived us. Yet he was our guide.
The word is a noble one, full of sentiment. Trust
on the one side, helpful knowledge, all the way up
to omniscience, on the other. That is what the
word implies. And though all these elements of
sentiment were lacking in our case, yet, for a few
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