betan officers,
and thus our interview and negotiations were brought to an abrupt end.

[Illustration: MANSING SHOWING CUTS UNDER HIS FEET]

In further conversation I now learnt how my release had been brought
about. Dr. Wilson and the Political Peshkar, having received the news
that my servants and myself had been beheaded, proceeded across the
frontier to make inquiries and try to recover my property. They heard
then from the man Suna, whom I had sent from Mansarowar with my message,
that I was still a prisoner, covered with wounds, in rags and starving.
They had not men enough to force their way further into the country to
come and meet me; besides, the Tibetans watched them carefully; but they,
together with Pundit Gobaria, made strong representations to the Jong Pen
of Taklakot, and, by threatening him that an army would be sent up if I
were not set at liberty, they at last obtained from the reluctant Master
of the fort[39] a permission that I should be brought into Taklakot. The
permission was afterwards withdrawn, but was at last allowed to be
carried into execution, and it is entirely due to the good offices and
energy of these three gentlemen that I am to-day alive and safe--though
not yet sound.

Pundit Gobaria, who will be remembered as having been mentioned in my
early chapters, is the most influential Shoka trader in Bhot, and on very
friendly terms with the Tibetans. He was the intermediary through whom
negotiations were carried on for my immediate release, and it was largely
owing to his advice to the Jong Pen that they resulted satisfactorily.

[Illustration: A GLANCE AT THE FORBIDDEN LAND FROM THE LIPPU PASS]

After a brief rest to recover sufficient strength, I recommenced the
journey towards India, and, having crossed the Lippu Pass (16,780 feet),
found myself at last again on British soil. We descended by slow stages
to Gungi, where, in Dr. Wilson's dispensary, I had to halt for a few days
on account of my weak condition.

[Illustration: THE AUTHOR--FEBRUARY 1897 THE AUTHOR--OCTOBER 1897]

Wilson had here a quantity of my baggage, instruments, cameras, plates,
&c., which I had discarded at the beginning of my journey, and I
immediately had photographs taken of my two servants and myself, showing
our wounds and our shocking general condition. Photographs of my feet,
taken more than a month after I had been untied from the rack, showed a
considerable swelling, as well as the scars, round the ankl