Seven years have elapsed since the date of the expedition which furnishes the subject of the larger portion of this work. Its results have been recorded, but can hardly be said to have been published, in the official reports of the several members, printed in India, and not accessible to the general reader.
The public interest in the subject of the overland route from Burma to China, called forth by the repulse of the recent mission and the tragedy which attended it, has suggested the present publication. It is hoped that a compendious and popular account of the expedition of 1868 will be acceptable, if only as an introduction to the simple narrative of the mission of this year, commanded by Colonel Horace Browne. The statement of the difficulties which beset our advance in 1868 will prepare the reader to estimate the opposition which, under a changed political condition of the country, compelled the mission under Colonel Browne to return without accomplishing its object.
The narrative of our experiences of the border country between Bhamô and Yunnan, and its motley population, has been supplemented from materials collected by Colonel Sladen, including a catalogue of Kakhyen deities obtained by him, and which will be found in the Appendix, along with a Panthay account of the origin of the Chinese Mahommedans. To him, as well as to my fellow travellers, Captain Bowers and Mr. Gordon, I gladly record my obligations for the information that has been derived from them.
For many details illustrating the condition of Yunnan and the Mahommedan revolt in that province, I am indebted to the volumes, issued by the French government, which contain the results of the French expedition from Saigon to Yunnan, under Lagrée, Garnier, and Carné, whose premature loss their country has to deplore, and to the travels of that enterprising pioneer of commerce, Mr. T. T. Cooper.
No one can treat of the border lands of Cathay without deriving assistance from the stores of knowledge collected and arranged by the erudite editor of ‘Marco Polo,’ Colonel Yule, to whom I tender my tribute of admiration and indebtedness.
My observations on the Kakhyens are confirmed by the learned Monsig. Bigandet, the annotator of the ‘Life of Gaudama,’ who was the first European to visit those hill tribes, and who communicated his experiences to the columns of the leading Rangoon journal. The reader will find among the appendices a valuable note by the same author, on Burmese bells, especially those of Rangoon and Mengoon.
The list of Chinese deities given in the Appendix has been translated from the original by the well-known Chinese scholar, Professor Douglas, of the British Museum, who has kindly added an explanatory note. The appended vocabularies may prove interesting to philologists.
The illustrations of the country and people as far as Ponsee have been executed from photographs taken by Major Williams and myself, while the views of the country to the east are reproductions of sketches which fairly claim the merit of accurate delineation of its features.
The map illustrating the topography of the district travelled has been based upon surveys made during the expedition by Mr. Gordon and a Burmese surveyor, and a second has been added to show the general relations of our Indian empire to Western China, with the various routes which have been explored or projected, including those followed by the French expedition, and by Margary from the terminus of the boat journey to Bhamô.
The journal of our ill-fated companion, recently published in China, and received in this country when this work was completed, unfortunately does not carry him on to Tali-fu, but his impressions of the country beyond this point have been briefly summarised in these pages.
The scientific reader will perhaps be inclined to complain that the following pages do not contain more of the results of the proper work of a naturalist. Of these, a full and illustrated report, unavoidably delayed by absence from this country, is in active preparation. This will be published by the aid of the Indian government, given at the instance of the Chief Commissioner of British Burma, the Hon. Ashley Eden, by whom the opening up of the overland route to China, as a measure beneficial to the province administered by him, has ever been strongly advocated.
J. A.
6 ROYAL TERRACE, EDINBURGH,
DECEMBER 31, 1875.