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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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The heart of a continent : vol.1 |
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is ordinarily only given at funerals, but which served the purpose
of making a noise and consequently of pleasing these people.
As there is nothing but small dirty houses at Gulmit, I lived
in a tent there, and on the day following my arrival paid another
visit to the chief. The first question he asked me was, why
I had entered his country from the north, when no other
European had ever done so. I told him that I could not claim
the honour of being the first European to enter his country
across the passes on the north, for it so happened that I had
just met a Russian officer who had himself informed me that
he had crossed into Hunza from the north. I then explained
to him that I had been sent by the Government of India to
inquire into the cause of the raids on the Yarkand trade route,
and was now returning to India through his country.
On the following morning, during a long visit Safder Ali
paid me in my tent, I entered upon this question rather more
fully. I reminded him that the raids were committed by his
subjects upon the subjects of the British Government, and if he
wished to retain the friendship of the British Government, as
he professed to do, he should restrain his subjects from carrying
on such practices. Safder Ali replied, in the most unabashed
manner, that he considered he had a perfect right to make raids ;
that the profits he obtained from them formed his principal
revenue, and that if the Government of India wished them
stopped, they must make up by a subsidy for the loss of revenue.
There was no diplomatic mincing of matters with Safder Ali,
and this outspokenness did not come from any innate strength
of character, but simply because he was entirely ignorant of his
real position in the universe. He was under the impression
that the Empress of India, the Czar of Russia, and the Emperor
of China were chiefs of neighbouring tribes ; but he had been
accustomed to levy blackmail upon all the peoples round him,
and he looked upon the various British officers who had visited
his country, Captain Grombtchevsky, and the Chinese official
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