building a church and house for themselves; ten months later, on our return, we actually found that a good-sized two-storied dwelling had been completed in our absence, and was inhabited by all three priests. There are four stations in South-eastern Mongolia, besides Siyinza, occupied by Roman Catholic Jesuit missionaries; one at the village of Sivanzi,[1] about thirty miles north-east of Kalgan, another at Jehol, a third to the north of Newchwang, and a fourth at the sources of the Shara-muren, near the 'Black Waters,'[2] whence Huc and Gabet started in 1844 on their journey to Tibet.
At El-shi-siang-fu we saw Samdadchiemba, the former companion of Huc. His real name is Seng-teng-chimta, and he is of mixed Mongol and Tangutan race. He is fifty-five years of age, and enjoys excellent health; he related some of his adventures to us, and described the different places on the road, but he declined our invitation to accompany us to Tibet, excusing himself on the score of old age.
By the advice of the missionaries we hired at Siyinza, at five lans (27s. 6d.) a month, a Mongol Christian convert to attend to our camels and to help our Cossacks with their work; we also anticipated benefit from his services as interpreter of Chinese, with which language he was well acquainted. Our expectations regarding him, however, soon proved illusory, for after the first day's march
