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0061 Southern Tibet : vol.7
Southern Tibet : vol.7 / Page 61 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000263
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Vol. I, this mistake is very easy to explain. From the Indian side only the Imaus
Mons was known. From the Central Asiatic side the mountains visible to the south
and simply called Mus Tag or Ice Mountains by the natives, were supposed to be
the northern side of the Imaus. For the country between the two was unknown,
and the narratives of Andrade and other missionaries also remained — either un-
known to the cartographers, or misunderstood, or regarded as unreliable.

As an illustration to this general discussion, a few words may now be said
of the two great pioneers, BENEDICT GOËS and ANTONIO DE ANDRADE, who have
been dealt with before. ¹

Between them a third pioneer, DIEGO D'ALMEIDA, will be introduced.²

After my first volume was already printed, the new edition of Sir HENRY
YULE'S Cathay and the Way thither was published, in 1916, »revised throughout
in the light of recent discoveries» by HENRI CORDIER, and it contains much important
material regarding Benedict Goës that should not be missing in this historical account.³
In Vol. I we had to deal with him from a more general point of view. Here we
have to consider only the part of his journey during which he approached the
vicinity of the Kara-korum Mountains. In the same way we will have to return to
nearly all the travellers and geographers who have already been considered in the
first three volumes of this work.

To begin with, Yule states that the part of Goës' journey which lies between
Kabul and Yarkand is the least known. Several names mentioned by him cannot
be identified, and we cannot tell with certainty where he has crossed the Hindu-
kush. »This is also the case in the second portion of this section of the journey,
embracing the ascent through Badakhshan to the Plateau of Pamir, and the descent
to Yarkand, where, moreover, we are in a country still most imperfectly known; for
since Marco Polo, Goës is the only European traveller across it of whose journey
any narrative has seen the light.»⁴

Yule believes that Goës crossed by the Pass of Parwan, as Parwan and Charekar
are mentioned in his narrative. The pass of Parwan was unsuccessfully attempted
by Wood in 1837.

As to the road from Talikhan to Pamir, we find only the descriptive name of
Tangi-i-Badakhshan, and Yule believes the road is the same as the one taken by
Wood on his journey to the source of the Oxus.