Apart from the above enterprises, a flood of Blue-books, compiled by the authorised political and military officials, will doubtless also shortly appear, even though that appearance may in some cases be but a swift transference from the printing-press to the pigeonhole.

Surely, then, for one who is not ordered by authority to compile a Blue-book, who has no gospel of Tibetan scientific discoveries to proclaim to the world, and who has no harvest—in the shape of letters previously sent to the press and capable of republication—ready at hand for reaping, to sit down and write a book on Tibet, merely because he happens to have been to Lhassa and back, is a work of supererogation which needs a word of apology.

My apology is that this book will be avowedly a book by a 'man in the street'—a man, that is, who occupied an inconspicuous single-fly tent in a back street of the brigade camp. As such it will throw no searching light upon the subject, but may afford a simple but distinctive view of it, and one uncaught by the searchlights of the official minute, the scientist's lore, and the war correspondent's art.

But, my prospective reader, as you finger this slight volume at the bookstall, I trust that this preface may at once catch your eye, so that, if what you want to read about Tibet is an elaborate appreciation or a collection of solid information, you may drop the book like the proverbial hot potato before that jealous-eyed man behind the stall makes you buy it as a punishment for fingering it, and may seize instead upon one of those weightier tomes that are now racing it through the press.

POWELL MILLINGTON.
November 1904.

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
Preface[v]
I.The Writing on the Wall[1]
II.Preliminaries[6]
III.The Base[13]
IV.To Gnatong[18]
V.Mountain Sickness: Gnatong: Wayside Witticisms[25]
VI.Over the Jalap-Là: Chumbi: Beards[32]
VII.To Phari[42]
VIII.To Kangma[51]
IX.Naini: Tibetan Warfare[59]
X.At Gyantse: Fighting: Foraging: Tibetan Religious Art[67]
XI.The Start for Lhassa: a Digression on Supply and Transport[77]
XII.To Ralung: More Supply Matters: A Visit to a Monastery[92]
XIII.The Karo-Là[99]
XIV.Nagartse: Envoys: Demolitions: Baths: Boiling Water[105]
XV.Lake Palti: Drawing Blank: Pete-jong[112]
XVI.Over the Kamba-Là: The Land of Promise[122]
XVII.The Crossing of the Tsangpo: A Sad Accident[126]
XVIII.The End of the Crossing: The 'Chit' in Tibet[134]
XIX.Monasteries: Foraging in Monasteries: A Dream[140]
XX.Reaching Lhassa: Supplies: Messing: The Lhassa Bazaar[149]
XXI.Enough of Lhassa: A Trip down Country: Life in a Post: True Hospitality: A Bhutya Pony[165]
XXII.The Signing of the Treaty[181]
XXIII.Back to India[189]