Volume 1

Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 / translated by William Hazlitt; now edited with an introduction by Professor Paul Pelliot.

  • Évariste Régis Huc
Date:
[1928]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels in Tartary, Thibet and China, 1844-1846 / translated by William Hazlitt; now edited with an introduction by Professor Paul Pelliot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    for the completion of onr preparations. The days passed away in futile expeftation ; the coolness of the autumn was becoming somewhat biting, and we feared that we should have to begin our journey across the deserts of Tartary during the frofts of winter. We determined, therefore, to dispatch some one in queft of our camels and our Lama. A friendly catechist, a good walker, and a man of expedition, proceeded on this mission. On the day fixed for that purpose, he returned ; his researches had been wholly without result. All he had ascertained at the place which he had visited was. that our Lama had Parted several days before with our camels. The surprise of our courier was extreme when he found that the Lama had not reached us before himself. “ What ! ” exclaimed he, “ are my legs quicker than a camel’s ! They left Naiman before me, and here I am arrived before them ! My spiritual fathers, have patience for another day. I’ll answer that both Lama and camels will be here in that time.” Several days, however, passed away, and we were still in the same position. We once more dispatched the courier in search of the Lama, enjoining him to proceed to the very place where the camels had been put to pasture, to examine things with his own eyes, and not to truft to any statement that other people might make. During this interval of painful suspense, we con¬ tinued to inhabit the Contiguous Defiles, a Tartar di ft rift dependent on the kingdom of Ouniot [Ougniut].1 These regions appear to have been affefted by great revolutions. The present inhabitants ftate that, in the olden time, the country was occupied by Corean tribes, who, expelled thence in the course of various wars, took refuge in the peninsula which they ftill 1 Notwithstanding the slight importance of the Tartar tribes, we shall give them the name of kingdoms, because the chiefs of these tribes are called IVang (King).