ses. The place is used mainly as a halting-stage by the Tibetans. The country around is sterile

. The dirt and grime of the squalid little houses became so depressing that they pitched their tents in an open courtyard, preferring the numbing cold to the filth of the Tibetan

ons, repeated that he was only empowered to treat on condition that we withdrew to Yatung. Messages were sent from the Tibetan camp to Tuna almost daily asking us to retire, and negociations again came to a deadlock. After a month the tone of the Tibetans became minatory. They threatened to invest ou

ar attack anywhere in the Chumbi Valley as far south as Rinchengong. The Bhutanese are men of splendid physique, brave, warlike, and given to pillage. Their hostility would have involved the despatch of a second force, as large as that sent to Tibet, and might have landed us, if unprepared, in a serious reverse. The complete success of Colonel Younghusband's diplomacy was a great relief to the Indian Government, who were waiting with some anxiety to see what attitude the Bhutanese would adopt. Having secured fro

come to waiting troops than that which

h in single file. There was no possibility of an attack this side of Phari. The ground covered was familiar and monotonous. One felt cooped in, and was thoroughly bored an

ing, and two companies of the 32nd Pioneers would be left at Guru. The Tibetan camp at the Hot Springs lay right across our line of march, and the hill that flanked it was lined with their sangars. They must either fight o

onference with Col

ing, and snow was lying on the ground. I put on my thick sheeps

ned parrots. It was evident to us, not understanding the language, that they were entreating us to go back, and the constant reference to Yatung told us that they were repeating the message that had been sent into the Tuna camp

a and a small escort armed with modern rifles. The rifles were naturally inspected with great interest. They were of different patterns-Martini-Henri, Lee-M

who conferred sitting down. Captain O'Connor, the secretary of the mission, interpreted. The Lhasa Depon repeated the entreaty o

ths to meet responsible representatives from Lhasa, and that the mission is now going on to Gyantse. Tell him that we have no wish to fight, and th

stop his men firing upon us. But before he left he again tried to induce Colonel Younghusband

ibuted our evacuation of Khamba Jong and our long delay in Chumbi to weakness and vacillation. An

on, General Macdonald deployed the 8th Gurkhas to the crest of the ridge; at the same time the Pioneers, the Maxim d

ing themselves outflanked by the Gurkhas, ran down to the cover of the

unless they were fired upon, and they walked right up to the walls of the sangars until the muzzles and prongs of the Tibetan matchlocks were almost touch

their arms they would be allowed to go off unmolested. But they did not wish to give up their arms. It was a ridiculous position, Sikh and Mongol swaying backwards and forwards as they wrestled for the possession of swords and matchlocks. Perhaps the humour of it made one careless of the underlying danger. Accounts differ as to how this wrestling match developed into war, how,

t one individual by an act of rashness might make himself responsible for the lives of hundreds. Hemmed in as the Tibetans were, no one gave them credit for the spirit they showed, or imagined that they would have the folly to resist. But we h

treating fr

out of the Sangar

ing to rise, I was struck on the temple by a second swordsman, and the blade glanced off my skull. I received the rest of my wounds, save one or two, on my hands-as I lay on my face I used them to protect my head. After a time the blows ceased; my assailants were all shot down or had fled. I lay absolutely still for a while until I thought it safe to rais

ll built across the path, which they had to scale in their attempted assault on General Macdonald and his escort. Only one man got over. Inside there was

the Tibetans allowed themselves to be herded together as a ruse to get us at close quarters. To begin with, the demand that they should give up their arms, and t

with his army disarmed and disbanded, and without a shot having been fired, must have meant ruin to him, and probably death. When w

th Colonel Younghusband, but I cannot dissociate from him a personal courage and a pride that m

humiliation? And what Englishman with the same prospect to face, caught in this dark eddy of circumstance,

ms. Why should they? They knew nothing of the awful odds against them. They were being hustled by white men who did not draw knives or fire guns

It was folly and suicide, no doubt; but it was human nature. They were not going to give in without having

isats and Munis, did they not run? There was cover behind a bend in the hill a few hundred yards distant, and they were exposed

explain the phenomenon as due to obstinacy or ignorance, or Spartan contempt for lif

failed them. I believe they were obsessed with that one thought. They w

View of Hot S

ere situated under the hills at the further side of the plain. This movement was carried out in conjunction with the mounted infantry. The advance was covered by the 7-pounder guns of the Gurkhas under Captain Luke, R.A. The attacking force advanced in extended order by a series of small rushes. Cover was scanty, but the Tibetans, though firing vigorously, fired high, and there w

e on mules and ponies, but the greater number of these were fo

y the officers, who did their duty so thoroughly, had no heart in the business at all. After the first futile

nutes to lay down their arms. In the interval the situation might have been made clear to everyone. If after the time-limit they still hesitated, two shots might have brought them to reason. Then, if they were mad enough to decide on resistance, their suicide would be on their own heads. But to send t

abble and the resources of the British Raj. In the light of after-events it is clear that we could have made no progress without inflicting terrible punishment. The slaughter at Guru only forestalled the inevitable. We

appreciate a joke. One man, who lost both legs, said: 'In my next battle I must be a hero, as I cannot run away.' Some of the wounded were terribly mutilated by shell. Two men who were shot through the brain, and two who were shot through the lungs, survived. For two days Lieutenant Davys, Indian Medical Service, was operating nearly all day. I think the Tibetans were really impressed with our humanity,

usly dwarfish. By the stream the bodies lay in heaps with parched skin, like mummies, rusty brown. A knot of coarse black hair, detached from a skull, was circling round in an eddy of wind. Everything had been stripped from the corpses save here and there a wisp of cloth, looking more grim than the

horse in the Bamtso Lake. The beast swung round trembli