Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/60

our departure, and prophesied all sorts of misfortunes if we went. The same ruse was tried last year with the view of discovering who we really were, and they threatened, if we persisted in our refusal to enlighten them, to find out through the Gigens; but all these artifices signally failed, owing to our determination not to submit to anything of the sort. We were then told that the Tangutans would travel very rapidly — thirty miles a day, or even more, and that we could not endure the fatigue of such long marches, especially as we should have to travel a good deal by night. To this we begged Sordji to mind his own business, and not trouble himself about our comforts on the road, of which we were the best judges. Finding that our resolution was still unshaken, he drew an alarming picture of the difficulties of the road, of the lofty mountains which we must cross on the way to Chobsen, and which were almost if not quite impassable for camels. 'We had better wait a month,' he added, 'and then the Amban (governor) would give us guides to Koko-nor.' But having been assured a few days before by the same individual that no guides for Koko-nor could be procured at any price in the whole of Ala-shan, and that not even the threat of capital punishment in case of refusal would induce them to go, so afraid were they of the Dungans, we put no faith in his promises. To make this bait more tempting, a Mongol officer called on us, of course at the bidding of Sordji, and related as a profound secret how the prince had that day given orders in the yamen (i.e. public office) for