Southern Tibet : vol.7 / 43 ページ（カラー画像）

0043	Southern Tibet : vol.7
南チベット : vol.7

Niuibus, a descensu Imai, in agrum Indicum, arcentur toto anno, praeterquam mensibus,
Junio, Quintili, Sextili, atque Septembri, quibus niues, propter solis uehementes, in ea
regione, ardores, soluuntur . . . . Ferunt uero, a Nagaris arce, uersus Septemtrionem, ad
Caspirios usque. Imai iuga, hanc gentem obtinere: atque idiomate proprio uti.¹

Thus the natives are hindered by the snow sin descending from the Himalayas
to the Indian land during the whole year, except the summer months, during which
the snows in these regions are melted by the glowing heat of the sun. He has
been told that the Tibetans occupy the Himalayan ranges the whole way from
Nagarkot northwards to the Caspirians and that they have their own language.

The MS. of Monserrate is so full of observations and statements of the most
absorbing interest that it is difficult to give an idea of it. One feels tempted to
quote everything. I have picked out only a few geographical problems which are
directly connected with the object of my own work. Therefore, the following passage,
which is only a part of what he has to say of the Indus, has to be quoted:²

Jam uero Indus, omnium est maximus, totius Indiae fluuiorum. Nam in ipso sui ortu,
et capite, maximam aquarum uim, ex niuibus praecipue Imai, seu Caspi montis, liquatis,
defluentem accipit. Deinde quinque maximos fluuios, supra commemoratos, suo alueo
excipit, et in mare deducit. In eius littore, prope fontes, auri optimi, et nitidissimi magnam
copiam, qui uicini sunt populi, expiscantur. Ex angustijs montium, et conuallium Imai,
supra Caspiriam, et Casiriam, atque adeo Bothorum, uel Bothantum regionem ad septem-
triones, uarijs flexionibus, ab ortu uersus occasum flectens . . . .

The Indus, in other words, is the largest river of India, for already at its
source and origin it receives a tremendous volume of water flowing down from the
melting snows of the Imaus, or Caspus mountain especially. Herewith he shows
that he places the source of the river at a great distance from the region where
it is really situated.

He, however, after having enumerated the five tributaries, mentions the great
quantities of the best and most splendid gold that is dug out by the peoples living
in the neighbourhood of the banks of the river near its sources. By these words
he proves that he has information of a very large portion of the upper course of
the Indus, and as a matter of fact, the latter is entered on his map so far up into
the mountains as to a point situated at no great distance west of Lake Manasarovar.
It is indeed surprising to find such a deep perspicacity at so early a date! In the
history of Asiatic exploration we have to proceed some 250 years to find anything
that could be compared with Monserrate. Between him and the other Jesuit Father,
Tieffenthaler, there intervene two centuries of ignorance regarding the Manasarovar,
disregarding Desideri, whose MS. was found only a few years ago.

He also quite correctly states that the river, coming from the narrow passages
of the mountains and valleys of the Himalayas, above Caspiria and Casiria, and

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