Thereafter, like the man in the sycamore tree, we made haste to come down. Sixteen days later the column left Lhassa. A few functions intervened, such as the formal release of our prisoners and the bestowal of money in charity on the poor of Lhassa. I missed these functions, having been sent on ahead to the Tsangpo, where preparations for the return crossing were now afoot. The column at length arrived at the river. We crossed this time at Parte, where a certain single channel of moderate breadth, but very deep and therefore not very swift, served our purposes far better than the double channel at Chaksam. The Sappers and Miners and coolis had made all things ready, towing the two heavy ferry boats up many miles of swift current, and rigging up the mysterious engineering paraphernalia which were needed to swing us across, our crossing hanging truly and literally by a thread—a thread of thin wire. Wire, at once the lightest and strongest commodity of its kind, had since our last crossing been sent up to us, in great quantities, and was largely used to replace the now rotten rope that had previously been chiefly employed. A great ferry boat, bearing twenty mules, to which was attached a string of skin boats laden with stores, to which again were attached a brace or so of mules swimming in the water, would be swung across that still swift current, suspended from but one or two thin wires.

The speed of the crossing exceeded all hopes. It was accomplished in about forty-eight hours. From South Parte we marched, over a pass that was new to us, straight into Pete-jong. At the top of that pass facing southwards we found a wall, which had obviously been built by the Tibetans in the belief that on our march upwards we would cross the ridge by this route. It was a well-conceived fortification, and might have given us considerable trouble.

From Parte Ferry to Gyantse we marched in two columns. Thinking the crossing of the ferry might occupy several days, and in order to be prepared for all emergencies such as any possible ebullitions of hostility that might delay our march, we had laid in at the ferry and the posts on the way to Gyantse a stock of supplies which now proved larger than our needs, while our spare transport was only sufficient to carry on a portion of the surplus.

I accompanied the second column and had the pleasant duty of making away with this surplus. To one whose purse has always been slender, and whose nature is correspondingly extravagant, there can be nothing more agreeable than to dispose in a free-handed way of large amounts of Government property. One enjoys all the delights of extravagance with none of its bitter aftertaste. Of course, even from the strictly economical view, it was far the best policy to make away with these surpluses where they stood. The total value of the stores so made away with, though amounting to a large sum, was far less than, for instance, would have been the cost of retaining the force in the country until they had consumed them.

The British troops were all with this column, but there were several native units as well. One arrived at a post and found it full of many good things that could not be carried on. Restrained only by fear of filling the troops to a tension beyond what the medical officers thought desirable, one accosted commanding officers, and asked with one's best shop-walker's manner what they would like to-day. A few hundredweight of jam and pickles would be doled out for the asking, or, in the case of native troops, similar quantities of tea and ghi and goor. The coolis were my best customers. The amount of tea and goor they took away and consumed with benefit to themselves was surprising. They worked all the better for it and marched into Gyantse carrying record loads.

The stores still left over at each place were solemnly presented to the local peasants who came up, and, regarding the affair as a huge joke, went away laden with bundles selected at random from, as it were, a huge bran-pie. Rum was withheld from them, but I should have liked to see the effect of their consumption of some of the things they got, as, for instance, of an unsuspecting draught of neat lime-juice, or a mouthful of chillies.

So on we marched over that stiff pass into Pete-jong, along Lake Palti shining in this clear-set wintry weather with its true turquoise colours, past Nagartse and up through the barren gorge that leads to the summit of the Karo-LÀ, down the Karo-LÀ regretfully, doubting whether we should ever reach such heights again, into the Ralung plain, and down the long glen to Gyantse.

Our appearance in those days was not spick and span. We were very much out at elbows, the breeches of both soldiers and followers were frequently patched with odd bits of Tibetan woollen cloth, or even in some cases with bits of the gunny of gunny bags. I have known the red cloth of the typical lama's robe adapted to these purposes. With wear it turns into a cherry colour. My own orderly, who was fitted out with a complete pair of continuations of this cloth, looked in the distance like a trooper of the 11th Hussars (the overalls of that regiment being famous for that colour).

More curious still were the additions to the wardrobe in the shape of blankets and sentries' cloaks, which we brought from Lhassa, the woollen goods of that town being warm and serviceable, but rather outlandish. The sentries' cloaks were merely oblong pieces of cloth with a hole in the centre, through which the sentry put his head, and of all sorts of colours—quite enough in themselves to frighten the nocturnal miscreant.

But most curious sight of all, if one could have looked on from the outside, would have been the collection of dogs which we brought with us. The dog that Tommy had left at home was of course the familiar type of square-jowled sturdy monster, who, by a process of natural selection and survival of the fittest, has been evolved out of many types, and now rules supreme in cantonment barracks. His master at Lhassa had consoled himself with another sort, and it was a touching sight to see great bearded men sometimes leading, but as often as not carrying, on the march dainty little lap-dogs, of kinds that resembled the Pomeranian, the Skye terrier, or the King Charles' spaniel. One or two Tibetan mastiffs—more like huge Welsh collies than mastiffs—also accompanied us.

At Gyantse we were halted for a few days, upon one of which the G.O.C. held his farewell parade, making us a sympathetic speech which will be remembered by all of us. Then we marched past. My lot was to command a squad of veterans whose duties for years had been confined to the supply of the army. We got along somehow, more by innate intelligence than knowledge of drill, going through various giddy evolutions in no particular formation and by the shortest cut, and arriving at the saluting base aided only by the bump of locality. There of course we braced ourselves and marched past, and turned our eyes sharply to the right as though we had never left the barrack square.

From Gyantse onwards I was in the first column, and thus missed certain hardships. It was nice bracing weather. We had cool fine days, at night twenty degrees of frost and often biting cold winds that took the skin off the nose and chapped the lips and the lobes of the ear, but were on the whole salubrious. The same weather was with us all the way, up through Kangma and the Red Idol gorge to Kalatso, past Dochen and into the Tuna plain, over the Tang-LÀ, into Phari and down through the Gautsa glens, where the pine-forests smelt of Indian hill stations, and into Chumbi. As we reached Chumbi the clouds were gathering.

That night, with the outer fly of my tent taken out of store and erected over me, I went to bed secure in its extra protection, thinking casually that it might perhaps rain in the night. In the early morning I was woken with a crash, and felt a great weight squeezing my whole body, but leaving my head clear. Striking a light I found the upright tent pole near my feet broken in two. Looking through a corner of the tent I saw the ground all covered with snow, and realised that the weight on my body was the snow that had accumulated on the tent, broken the tent pole, and fallen upon me. It was six o'clock. My orderly and syce came to my rescue. They lifted the snow off me and took away my tent pole to a carpenter to get it mended, while in what space was still left within the tent I found I could still breathe, and so slept peacefully till in an hour my tent pole was brought back mended and the tent reconstructed, and I could get up in comfort.

I had had a very mild experience. Grief of a worse kind had been widespread through the night, many officers and men losing their only shelter irretrievably at two or three in the morning. The second column came in that afternoon rather worn and battered, and the third column—for from Gyantse we had become three—was snowed up for two nights at Phari after a terrible march over the Tang-LÀ from Tuna. Their eventual march into Chumbi was also a severe ordeal. At Chumbi it remained to await one's day of release. The snow delayed the passage of the troops hardly at all. Leaving Chumbi in small detachments and using both the Jalap-LÀ and Natu-LÀ routes, they gradually disappeared. At length my own turn came. Leaving Chumbi one fine morning, and finding myself again a passenger, I hastened by double marches to India across the Natu-LÀ down to Gangtok, through Sikkim, and into Siliguri. Strange it was to think, as, after that last hot double march from Riang, one sat under the punkah in Siliguri refreshment room, drinking tumbler after tumbler of iced ginger-beer, that three days before one had pulled icicles from one's beard on the top of the Natu-LÀ.

Pleasant to get into the Darjiling mail that night and speed to Calcutta; pleasant to feel oneself wrapped in the civilisation of the Indian metropolis; pleasanter still to take train at Howrah, and be carried up country to the crisp cool autumn of the Panjab and to one's own fireside.

So the show was over—all over but for its memories, which for my own part were mainly agreeable. As he lays those memories aside, the selfish soldier's wish can hardly be other than that on some convenient date in spring time not too many years distant, ere the person is too stout and the legs too stiff to relish those high passes, some truculent grand lama may necessitate and a kind Government organise another summer trip to Lhassa.

PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. LTD., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON

Broad Arrow.—'We earnestly advise every officer of infantry or cavalry to carefully study this extremely valuable book.'

Large crown 8vo. 6s.

THE INFANTRY WEAPON AND ITS USE IN WAR.

By Lieut.-Col. C. B. MAYNE, R.E.

AUTHOR OF 'INFANTRY FIRE TACTICS.'

Army and Navy Gazette.—'Of such supreme value that it should receive immediate official sanction, and be constituted a text-book published by authority.'

United Service Magazine.—'Throughout the entire volume there is unmistakable evidence of profound theoretical knowledge most happily combined with a full measure of practical common-sense.'

Revue du Cercle Militaire.—'ConÇu avec mÉthode, Écrit clairement et avec sincÉritÉ.'

Royal Engineers Journal.—'If the War Office could afford to keep up a small professional library in every regiment for the instruction of the officers, it is one of the first books that should be provided.'

Daily Chronicle.—'An admirable book.... It deals in a thoroughly practical spirit with the problems that the infantry leader has to face on the battle-field.'

London: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W.

With Maps. Small demy 8vo. 6s. net.

PROBLEMS IN MANŒUVRE TACTICS, WITH SOLUTIONS, FOR OFFICERS OF ALL ARMS.

By Major HOPPENSTEDT,

INSTRUCTOR AT THE WAR SCHOOL, POTSDAM.

Translated and adapted by Major J. H. V. Crowe, R.A., p.s.c., Instructor at the Royal Military Academy.

? Officers of all branches of the Service, whether of Regulars, Militia, Volunteers, or Yeomanry, will find this work of interest. The Problems are designed to guide Officers in the study of Manoeuvre Tactics, and in drawing up schemes for Field Days or the War Game, and they include some Problems set at Staff College Examinations.

London: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W.

With a Map. 8vo. 3s. 6d.

INDIAN FRONTIER POLICY:

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH.

By the late General Sir JOHN ADYE, G.C.B., R.A.

Morning Post.—'A valuable contribution to a question which is much exercising the public mind.'

Colonies and India.—'General Adye sets forth, in a clear and concise form, an historical summary of the various wars and expeditions in which we have been engaged on the north-west frontier of India, and of the causes that led to them.'

Army and Navy Gazette.—'An historical sketch of recent history and an indictment of that policy. The author's long experience entitles his opinions to attentive consideration.'

London: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W.

SMITH, ELDER, & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.

THE LIFE OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE CONSORT. By Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B. With Portrait and Views. 5 vols. Demy 8vo. 18s. each.

? Also a 'People's Edition,' in 1 vol., bound in cloth, 4s. 6d.; or in six parts, 6d. each. Cloth Cases for binding, 1s. each.

MORE LEAVES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A LIFE IN THE HIGHLANDS, from 1862 to 1882. Fifth Edition. With Portraits and Woodcut Illustrations. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

? Also the Popular Edition, with Portrait and Woodcut Illustrations, fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

THE LIFE OF LORD LAWRENCE. By R. Bosworth Smith, M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford; Author of 'Mohammed and Mohammedanism,' 'Carthage and the Carthaginians,' &c. Seventh Edition. 2 vols. large crown 8vo. with 2 Portraits and 2 Maps, 21s.

LIFE OF SIR HENRY LAWRENCE. By Major-General Sir Herbert Benjamin Edwardes, K.C.B., K.C.S.I., and Herman Merivale, C.B. With Two Portraits. 8vo. 12s.

LIFE OF LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR JAMES OUTRAM. By Major-General Sir Frederic J. Goldsmid, C.B., K.C.S.I. Second Edition. 2 vols. demy 8vo. 32s.

RECOLLECTIONS OF A MILITARY LIFE. By General Sir John Adye, G.C.B., R.A., late Governor of Gibraltar. With Illustrations by the Author. Demy 8vo. 14s. net.

THE LIFE OF MAHOMET. From Original Sources. By Sir Wm. Muir, K.C.S.I. Third Edition, with a New Map and several Illustrations. 8vo. 16s.

By the same Author.

THE MAMELUKE OR SLAVE DYNASTY OF EGYPT, 1260-1517 A.D. With 12 Full-page Illustrations and a Map. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

THE CALIPHATE: ITS RISE, DECLINE, AND FALL. With Maps. Third Edition. Demy 8vo. 16s.

THE MERV OASIS: Travels and Adventures East of the Caspian during the Years 1879-80-81, including Five Months' Residence among the Tekkes of Merv. By Edmond O'Donovan, Special Correspondent of the Daily News. In 2 vols. demy 8vo. with Portrait, Maps, and Facsimiles of State Documents, 36s.

MERV: a Story of Adventures and Captivity. Epitomised from 'The Merv Oasis.' By Edmond O'Donovan. With a Portrait. Crown 8vo. 6s.

ESSAYS ON THE EXTERNAL POLICY OF INDIA. By the late J. W. S. Wyllie, C.S.I., India Civil Service, sometime Acting Foreign Secretary to the Government of India. Edited, with a brief Life, by Sir W. W. Hunter, B.A., LL.D. With a Portrait of the Author. 8vo. 14s.

THE INDIA DIRECTORY. For the Guidance of Commanders of Steamers and Sailing Vessels. Compiled from latest British Official Publications. Part I. Illustrated by Charts of Winds, Currents, Tides, Passages, and Compass Variation. Revised Edition, with Supplementary Chapters. Super royal 8vo. 28s. Part II. Illustrated by Charts of Currents in opposite Monsoons. Super royal 8vo. 28s. By Commander Alfred Dundas Taylor, F.R.G.S., Indian Navy, late Superintendent of Marine Surveys to the Government of India.

THE ANNALS OF RURAL BENGAL. From Official Records and the Archives of Ancient Families. By Sir W. W. Hunter, LL.D. Vol. I. The Ethnical Frontier. Fifth Edition. Demy 8vo. 18s. Also the new, revised, and cheaper edition (the Seventh). Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.

By the same Author.

ORISSA; or, The Vicissitudes of an Indian Province under Native and British Rule. Being the Second and Third Volumes of 'Annals of Rural Bengal.' With Illustrations. 2 vols. demy 8vo. 32s.

A LIFE OF THE EARL OF MAYO, Fourth Viceroy of India. 2 vols. Second Edition. Demy 8vo. 24s.

THE INDIAN EMPIRE: its Peoples, History, and Products. Third and Standard Edition. With Map. Demy 8vo. 28s.

London: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W.

WORKS BY W. H. FITCHETT, B.A., LL.D.

The Commander of the 'Hirondelle.' With 16 Full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6s.

ATHENÆUM.—'An admirable sea story.... It is good literature, too, and written with historical and technical knowledge.'

Nelson and his Captains; Sketches of Famous Seamen. With 11 Portraits and a Facsimile Letter. Second Impression. Crown 8vo. 6s.

PUNCH.—'My Baronite having read all Dr. Fitchett's tales of battles on land, thinks his best piece is his sea piece.... Saxon and Celt reading the glowing narrative will feel proud to know it's all true.'

The Tale of the Great Mutiny. THIRD IMPRESSION. With 8 Portraits and 4 Plans. Crown 8vo. 6s.

GUARDIAN.—'It is almost impossible to lay the book down. The story of those summer months of 1857 must ever appeal to English readers.'

BOOKMAN.—'Written with all the swing and dash, with all the careful accuracy and brilliant descriptive power which have made Dr. Fitchett's books so deservedly popular.'

How England Saved Europe: the Story of the Great War (1793-1815). SECOND IMPRESSION. In 4 vols. crown 8vo. with Portraits, Facsimiles, and Plans, 6s. each.

TIMES.—'It is not without significance that this excellent "Story of the Great War," at once popular in the best sense, well informed, full of instruction, and very attractively written, should be the work of a Colonial writer.'

GUARDIAN.—'Mr. Fitchett has achieved a real success, and the boy who cannot read these volumes with pleasure (and profit) is hopeless. They are, if boyhood would but see it, more enthralling than half the novels published.'

Fights for the Flag. SECOND EDITION. With 16 Portraits, 13 Plans, and a Facsimile Letter of the Duke of Marlborough. Crown 8vo. 6s.

SPECTATOR.—'"Fights for the Flag" is as good as "Deeds that Won the Empire." To say more than this in praise of the book before us is unnecessary, for "Deeds that Won the Empire" was one of the best collection of popular battle studies ever given to the public.'

REVIEW OF REVIEWS.—'As a gift-book, or as a book to take up and read at odd moments, or to devour at a prolonged sitting, this book has few equals, and will probably equal or eclipse the popularity of its predecessors.'

Deeds that Won the Empire. SEVENTEENTH EDITION. With 16 Portraits and 11 Plans. Crown 8vo. 6s.

SPECTATOR.—'Not since Macaulay ceased to write has English literature produced a writer capable of infusing such life and vigour into historical scenes. The wholesome and manly tone of Mr. Fitchett's book is specially satisfactory.... The book cannot but take the reader by storm wherever it finds him.'

TIMES.—'"Deeds that Won the Empire" is admirably conceived and written. Wolfe's striking feat of arms at Quebec, Hawke's splendid victory in Quiberon Bay, Busaco, Albuera, the Nile, the action of the Shannon and Chesapeake, with other memorable fights by sea and land, are vividly described. Mr. Fitchett has not sacrificed historical accuracy to dramatic effect, and his words ring true.'

Wellington's Men: some Soldier-Autobiographies. ['Kincaid's Adventures in the Rifle Brigade'; 'Rifleman Harris'; Anton's 'Military Life'; Mercer's 'Waterloo.'] Edited by W. H. Fitchett, B.A., LL.D. Crown 8vo. 6s.

SPECTATOR.—'Mr. Fitchett has ere this sounded the clarion and filled the fife to good purpose, but he has never done better work than in rescuing from oblivion the narratives which appear in this volume.... We feel very grateful to Mr. Fitchett for his skilful editing of four stories which ought not to be allowed to die.'

London: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W.

'Unquestionably the most striking book the War has produced. A masterly piece of work, a real contribution to historical writing.'—Sketch.

THOROUGHLY REVISED, ENLARGED, AND COMPLETED EDITION.

NINETEENTH IMPRESSION, COMPLETING OVER 67,000 COPIES PRINTED.

THE GREAT BOER WAR.

BY A. CONAN DOYLE.

With Maps. Large post 8vo. 10s. 6d.

Spectator.—'The conditions under which Dr. Conan Doyle's animated and valuable record was written relieve it from the dangers of red-hot impressionism.... When to these opportunities are added that manly temper and command of forcible and picturesque language which have won him distinction in the field of fiction, it is not to be wondered at that the result should prove as engrossing as any of his novels.'

Queen.—'Whatever histories of the war in South Africa are written, Dr. Conan Doyle's "Great Boer War" must remain the history.... The book is marvellously exciting, admirably lucid, and scrupulously just.'

Westminster Gazette.—'Mr. Conan Doyle may be congratulated very heartily on having written, in the "Great Boer War," a book which will delight and interest a wide circle of readers. Nowhere will the reader obtain a truer or more graphic picture of the warfare of the kopje and the veldt, nor of the difficulties which our generals had to overcome. The book is also a marvel of conciseness.'

London: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W.

A VOLUNTEER'S EXPERIENCES IN THE BOER WAR.

THIRD IMPRESSION. With a Frontispiece. Crown 8vo. 6s.

IN THE RANKS OF THE C.I.V.:

A Narrative and Diary of Personal Experiences with the C.I.V. Battery (Hon. Artillery Company) in South Africa. By 'Driver' Erskine Childers, Clerk in the House of Commons.

Pall Mall Gazette.—'If we began to quote from this unpretentiously vivid, brightly written, and in every way admirable record we should never stop. As a description of life on campaign it could scarcely be bettered.'

Daily Telegraph.—'A most interesting and at times a most picturesque diary.'

Sketch.—'Mr. Childers writes with vigour and enthusiasm, and, what is better, appears to thoroughly understand what he is writing about.'

Punch.—'A series of unpremeditated pictures of campaign life invaluable for their graphic touch.'

London: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W.

With Portraits of Piet De Wet and of a Group of Convalescents.

YEOMAN SERVICE:

Being the Diary of the Wife of an Imperial Yeomanry Officer during the Boer War.

By the Lady Maud Rolleston. Large crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.

Spectator.—'A very fascinating book.... We say to our readers without the slightest fear of misleading them—"get the book and read it."'

World.—'None of the multitudinous war books surpass this one in attraction—few approach it. The services rendered by the writer are well known; her experiences, recorded here in a simple and lucid form, are full of human interest, general and particular.'

AthenÆum.—'Lady Maud Rolleston has written the best woman's book about the war. She does not show partiality ... indeed, appears to be gifted with unusual fairness.... On the whole we have nothing but praise for the book.'

London: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 Waterloo Place, S.W.