The Dream of Lhasa: The Life of Nikolay Przhevalsky (1839?1888), Explorer of Central Asia by Rayfield Donald

Author:Rayfield, Donald [Rayfield, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780571300440
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 2013-02-21T05:00:00+00:00

6

The Great Tibetan Expedition

He paweth in the valley and rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth on to meet the armed men.

JOB 39.21

In 1879 Russia and China were confronting each other. The chargé d’affaires in Peking, Koyander, warned Przhevalsky that the Chinese ‘were less to be relied on than ever’. But he was turning forty and risks excited him: ‘Perhaps the main chance of success is to be found in the risk itself.’ He also knew that he was in a race, not just with the British, but with Count Széchenyi, who was heading for Lhasa from the capital of Kansu, Hsi-ning. His final preparations were thorough. He bought a flock of sheep to be the rearguard and a guarantee of fresh meat. (Other travellers to Tibet, the pandits, had used sheep to carry small packs as well.) The twenty-three camels were loaded with two-and-a-half hundredweight of sugar, forty pounds of dried fruit, a crate of brandy and a crate of sherry, brick tea and dzamba. Przhevalsky had personally boiled up wild strawberry jam for the Dalai Lama. The staple diet was to be mutton stew and game; five Cossacks were to do the cooking by rote. Two Mongolian sailcloth tents were to house the expedition. (In Tsaidam Przhevalsky bought a ger for himself, Eklon and Roborovsky.) The party was to wear sailcloth and cotton in summer, sheepskin in winter. Felt groundsheets, leather pillows, flannel blankets and plenty of sheepskins were their bedding.

Przhevalsky’s scientific equipment was still meagre. He refused to take cameras; Roborovsky was to be the expedition’s artist. He had chronometers, surveying compasses, maximum-minimum thermometers and simple instruments for measuring humidity and altitude. Five gallons of spirit and 1,500 sheets of blotting paper were to cope with the specimens of fauna and flora. Przhevalsky had spent 1,400 roubles on ‘beads for the natives’: guns, watches, mirrors, magnets, a battery and a telephone (which were not appreciated), and tinted pictures of Russian actresses (which were popular).

They were more heavily armed than before. Each man was issued with a Berdan carbine and two Smith and Wesson revolvers, and carried a bayonet and forty rounds of ammunition on his person. The camels carried seven more rifles, a hundredweight of powder, 9,000 rounds of ammunition, and the loads were balanced by distributing four hundredweight of lead shot in the packs. Przhevalsky was determined not to be stranded defenceless; he also took twelve extra camels, eight for riding, four in reserve; the gentry and Abdul rode on five horses.

Before setting off, the expedition spent three weeks on firearms drill. ‘This,’ said Przhevalsky, ‘was our guarantee of safety in the depths of the Asiatic deserts, the best of all Chinese passports … and if our little group had not been like a bristling hedgehog which can prick the paws of the biggest wild beast, the Chinese could have found a thousand opportunities to annihilate us …’ In April 1879, as the snow melted, Mirzash once more led the way through Dzungaria on a route skirting populated areas to the oases of Barköl and Hami.

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