On arrival there, I discovered that the band was much more numerous than I at first supposed, They only searched through some of my baggage and appearced to be a most ignorant lot, as they understood neither English nor rupee %ank notes, of which there were a number in my attache case. They took my revolver and binoculars, but did not understand any of my instruments or even my camera, and they did not happen to open the bag containing my. gun and rifle.
That night, I lay on some boards closely guarded by dirty opium-smoking bandoliered—bri-gonds, whose rifles were practically touching me all night, the place reeking the while with the rank smell of cooking and heavy with opium smoke. I had had a long day, however, and Slept well. Next morning, they sent messengers with their terms to Talifu and, a3 they did not know how to get their letter delivered, I volunteered that they let me enclose it to the mission at Talifu. This they did, and I took the opportunity to enclose, at the same time, chits to the Mission, and to the Consul-General at Yunnanfu. This, the capital of the province of Yunnan, is 13 stages from Talifu and about 18 days from where we were, but, as there is a telegraph line from Talifu to Yunnanfu, it was not very long before the news of my capture was known.
On the afternoon of July 16, the day following my capture, we set out on a trail leading due west, in the direction of the Mekong River, and soon got into very rough and mountainous country, inhabited chiefly by "Hsu" (tribes people) living in hamlets. Sometimes we stayed in these hovels from which although the human occupants had invariably fied before our arrival other unwelcome creatures remained in abundance; on other nights with the sky as a roof, The brigands almost invariably burnt—the wretched people's homes, farm buildings, and stacked corn, etc, before leaving, and often went out of their way to do so on the march, though it wae difficult to understand their reason for this wanton destruction.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.