National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

forteresse où réside le Roi, se fait entre des montagnes, qui sont une vraie image de la tris-
tesse . . . Le haut & le bas des montagnes sont également impraticables; on est obligé de
marcher à mi-côte, & le chemin y est d'ordinaire si étroit, qu'à peine y trouve-t-on assez d'espace
pour passer le pied.

He gives a very vivid description of this horrible journey and the dangerous
roads, which make him tremble when he thinks of them. Then he speaks of the
very hard climate and of his suffering eyes.

Nous fîmes à pied le voyage de Kaschemire à Ladak, qui dura quarante jours, & nous
n'y arrivâmes que le 25 Juin. Ce Royaume du second Thibet, commence, comme je l'ai déja
remarqué, au mont Kantel, & s'étend du septentrion vers le levant. Il a un seul Ghiampo ou
Roi absolu; celui qui règne aujourd'hui se nomme Nima Nangial. ¹

Then he talks of the religion of Tibet, a matter that of course would interest
him specially. He arrived in Leh, June 26th, and had just begun to learn the lan-
guage and hoped to see some fruits agreeable to the Divine Majesty ›cropping up
between the rocks of Tibet‹, when he was told there existed also a third Tibet.

Après plusieurs délibérations, il fut conclu, contre mon inclination, que nous irions en
faire la découverte. Ce voyage est d'environ 6 à 7 mois, par des lieux déserts & dépeuplés.
Ce troisième Thibet est plus exposé aux incursions des Tartares qui sont limitrophes, que les
deux autres Thibets. — Nous partîmes donc de Ladak le 17 Août de l'année 1715, & nous
arrivâmes à Lassa, d'où j'ai l'honneur de vous écrire, le 18 Mars 1716. Je vous laisse à con-
jecturer ce que j'ai eu à souffrir durant ce voyage au milieu des neiges, des glaces, & du froid
excessif qui règne dans les montagnes.

And here his geography came to an end, excepting that he gives four months'
journey for caravans from Lhasa to Peking. The letter was written only 22 days
after his arrival in Lhasa, so that his impressions of the journey were still quite
fresh. And still he has nothing to say about the long journey in Tibet. He has
something to tell of the first part of the journey, which was much more difficult
and demanded much more attention on account of the accentuated landscape, than
the level and open valleys of the upper Indus and Tsangpo. The journey from Leh
to Lhasa took him exactly seven months, which is slow travelling. ²

Ritter, using this same letter, says it is a pity we possess so little informa-
tion about this memorable journey. He says Desideri's route was the same con-
cerning which BERNIER had got some information and that Leh was rediscovered by
MOORCROFT in 1820. But Desideri was the first European who visited Leh,
which, before his time, was completely unknown in Europe. ³