over, and, bound like a criminal, I looked round to see what
had become of my men. When I realized that it took the Tibetans five
hundred men,[11] all counted, to arrest a starved Englishman and his two
half-dying servants, and that, even then, they dared not do it openly,
but had to resort to abject treachery; when I found that these soldiers
were picked troops from Lhassa and Sigatz (_Shigatze_), dispatched on
purpose to arrest our progress and capture us, I could not repress a
smile of contempt for those into whose hands we had at last fallen.

My blood boiled when, upon the order of the Lama, who the previous night
had professed to be our friend, several men advanced and searched our
pockets. They rifled us of everything we possessed. Then they began
overhauling our baggage. The watches and chronometer were looked upon
with suspicion, their ticking causing curiosity and even anxiety. They
were passed round, and mercilessly thrown about from one person to the
other until they stopped ticking. They were then pronounced "dead." The
compasses and aneroids, which they could not distinguish from watches,
were soon thrown aside, as "they had no life in them." Great caution was
displayed in touching our rifles, which were lying on our bedding when
the tent had been torn down.

[Illustration: I WAS A PRISONER]

Fears were entertained lest the rifles should go off unexpectedly. It
was only on my assurance (which made our captors ten times more
cautious) that they were not loaded, that at last they took them and
registered them in the catalogue of our confiscated property. I had upon
me a gold ring that my mother had given me when I was a child. I asked
permission to retain it. With their superstitious nature they
immediately thought that it had occult powers, like the wands one reads
of in fairy tales.

A man called Nerba, who later on played an important part in our
sufferings, was intrusted with the ring, and was warned never to let me
see it again. It was heartbreaking, as we three prisoners sat bound and
held down by guards, to see the Lamas and officers handle all our things
so roughly that they spoiled nearly all they touched. Particularly
disgusting was their avidity when, in searching the pockets of the coat
I wore daily, and which I had not put on that morning, they found a
quantity of silver coins, some eight hundred rupees in all. Officers,
Lamas, and soldiers made a grab for the money, and when order was
re-e