We Have Thus Got Ch'eng-Tu Fu As One Fixed Point, And Yun-Nan-Fu As
Another, And We Have To Track The Traveller's Itinerary Between The Two,
Through What Ritter Called With Reason A Terra Incognita.
What
little was known till recently of this region came from the Catholic
missionaries.
Of late the veil has begun to be lifted; the daring
excursion of Francis Garnier and his party in 1868 intersected the tract
towards the south; Mr. T.T. Cooper crossed it further north, by Ta-t'sien
lu, Lithang and Bathang; Baron v. Richthofen in 1872 had penetrated
several marches towards the heart of the mystery, when an unfortunate
mishap compelled his return, but he brought back with him much precious
information.
[Illustration: Garden-House on the Lake at Yun-nan-fu, Yachi of Polo.
(From Garnier).
"Je boz di q'il ont un lac qe gire environ bien cent miles."]
Five days forward from Ch'eng-tu fu brought us on Tibetan ground. Five
days backward from Yun-nan fu should bring us to the river Brius, with its
gold-dust and the frontier of Caindu. Wanting a local scale for a distance
of five days, I find that our next point in advance, Marco's city of
Carajan undisputably Tali-fu, is said by him to be ten days from Yachi.
The direct distance between the cities of Yun-nan and Ta-li I find by
measurement on Keith Johnston's map to be 133 Italian miles. [The distance
by road is 215 English miles. (See Baber, p. 191.) - H.C.] Taking half
this as radius, the compasses swept from Yun-nan-fu as centre, intersect
near its most southerly elbow the great upper branch of the Kiang, the
Kin-sha Kiang of the Chinese, or "River of the Golden Sands," the MURUS
USSU and BRICHU of the Mongols and Tibetans, and manifestly the auriferous
BRIUS of our traveller.[1] Hence also the country north of this elbow is
CAINDU.
I leave the preceding paragraph as it stood in the first edition, because
it shows how near the true position of Caindu these unaided deductions
from our author's data had carried me. That paragraph was followed by an
erroneous hypothesis as to the intermediate part of that journey, but,
thanks to the new light shed by Baron Richthofen, we are enabled now to
lay down the whole itinerary from Ch'eng-tu fu to Yun-nan fu with
confidence in its accuracy.
The Kin-sha Kiang or Upper course of the Great Yang-tzu, descending from
Tibet to Yun-nan, forms the great bight or elbow to which allusion has
just been made, and which has been a feature known to geographers ever
since the publication of D'Anville's atlas. The tract enclosed in this
elbow is cut in two by another great Tibetan River, the Yarlung, or
Yalung-Kiang, which joins the Kin-sha not far from the middle of the great
bight; and this Yalung, just before the confluence, receives on the left a
stream of inferior calibre, the Ngan-ning Ho, which also flows in a valley
parallel to the meridian, like all that singular fascis of great rivers
between Assam and Sze-ch'wan.
This River Ngan-ning waters a valley called Kien-ch'ang, containing near
its northern end a city known by the same name, but in our modern maps
marked as Ning-yuan fu; this last being the name of a department of which
it is the capital, and which embraces much more than the valley of
Kien-ch'ang. The town appears, however, as Kien-ch'ang in the Atlas
Sinensis of Martini, and as Kienchang-ouei in D'Anville. This remarkable
valley, imbedded as it were in a wilderness of rugged highlands and wild
races, accessible only by two or three long and difficult routes, rejoices
in a warm climate, a most productive soil, scenery that seems to excite
enthusiasm even in Chinamen, and a population noted for amiable temper.
Towns and villages are numerous. The people are said to be descended from
Chinese immigrants, but their features have little of the Chinese type, and
they have probably a large infusion of aboriginal blood. [Kien-ch'ang,
"otherwise the Prefecture of Ning-yuan, is perhaps the least known of the
Eighteen Provinces," writes Mr. Baber. (Travels, p. 58.) "Two or three
sentences in the book of Ser Marco, to the effect that after crossing high
mountains, he reached a fertile country containing many towns and villages,
and inhabited by a very immoral population, constitute to this day the only
description we possess of Cain-du, as he calls the district." Baber adds
(p. 82): "Although the main valley of Kien-ch'ang is now principally
inhabited by Chinese, yet the Sifan or Menia people are frequently met
with, and most of the villages possess two names, one Chinese, and the
other indigenous. Probably in Marco Polo's time a Menia population
predominated, and the valley was regarded as part of Menia. If Marco had
heard that name, he would certainly have recorded it; but it is not one
which is likely to reach the ears of a stranger. The Chinese people and
officials never employ it, but use in its stead an alternative name,
Chan-tu or Chan-tui, of precisely the same application, which I make
bold to offer as the original of Marco's Caindu, or preferably Ciandu."
- H.C.]
This valley is bounded on the east by the mountain country of the Lolos,
which extends north nearly to Yachau (supra, pp. 45, 48, 60), and which,
owing to the fierce intractable character of the race, forms throughout
its whole length an impenetrable barrier between East and West. [The Rev.
Gray Owen, of Ch'eng-tu, wrote (Jour. China B.R.A.S. xxviii.
1893-1894, p. 59): "The only great trade route infested by brigands is that
from Ya-chau to Ning-yuan fu, where Lo-lo brigands are numerous, especially
in the autumn. Last year I heard of a convoy of 18 mules with Shen-si goods
on the above-mentioned road captured by these brigands, muleteers and all
taken inside the Lo-lo country.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 38 of 360
Words from 37645 to 38669
of 370046