国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

town (Leh), so much the more as those missionaries followed the river up for a
long distance.

Rennell acknowledged that it was believed, on the faith of the Hindus, that
the source of the Ganges was situated at the foot of the Himalaya, until Kang Hi
sent his expedition, the report of which changed the opinion in Europe. Therefore
Colebrooke concludes, that the conjectural basis of a geographical fable may, to
a certain extent, be used as a guide to inquiry and research. And he continues: ¹
›Upon this principle, it might not be unreasonable to institute researches, with the
view of ascertaining whether any lake exists within the snowy mountains, an im-
perfect knowledge of which may have been the foundation of the fables concerning
the Mánasa and Vindusaróvara lakes of the Hindu poets, and the Mapama and
Luncadeh of the Lamas: and, if any such lake exist, whether a river issues from it,
as generally affirmed; and whether that river be the Alacanandá, as hinted not only
in Puránas but in the astronomical work of Bha'scara, or the Sarayu, as intimated in
other Puránas, and as affirmed both by Pra'npu'ri² and by Tieffenthaler's emissary.‹

As a result of the whole discussion it was found that Hindu pilgrims had
followed the Ganges from India up to the snowy mountains, and from the north the
Lama surveyors had reached Mount Kentaisse. We have, however, seen before that
the Lamas would never have been able to lay down on their map the lakes and
rivers in such an excellent way as they did, unless they really had been there. But
in Colebrooke's time nothing was known about the country beyond the mountains
and it is easy to understand why he could not find out the single and simple cause
of the mistake: the Ganges instead of the Satlej. Therefore he regarded the inter-
vening region between the Kentaisse and the southern foot of the Himalayas as un-
known, although at least a part of it was comparatively well known from the survey
of the Lamas. Colebrooke, however, still finds room for the supposition of a lake
interposed, out of which a branch of the Ganges, perhaps the Alaknanda, might
really issue, conformably with the whole current of popular belief. And therefore,
he thinks, a journey to the remotest accessible source of the Ganges was an under-
taking worthy of British enterprise. ›Perhaps the national credit was concerned, not
to leave in uncertainty and doubt a question which the English only have the best
opportunity of solving: and one at the same time so interesting, as that of exploring
the springs of one of the greatest rivers of the old continent, and whose waters
fertilize and enrich the British territories, which it traverses in its whole navigable
extent.‹

The journey to the source of the Ganges was to be undertaken by Lieutenant
Webb with Captain Raper and Captain Hearsay, and was carried out in 1808. ³