Emperor,
nor the courtiers, nor the Mandarins, had anything to do with the affair.
We took good care not to undeceive him: as to us, who had no great faith
in the probity of the government of Peking, we were convinced that the
Emperor had regularly swindled the Tartar kings. We were confirmed in
this opinion by the fact that the period of this adventure coincided with
the British war; when, as we knew, the Emperor was in the last extremity,
and knew not where to get the money necessary to keep from starving the
handful of soldiers who were charged with the preservation of the
integrity of the Chinese territory.

The visit of the three Mandarins of the Alechan was not only pleasant on
account of the narrative they gave us of the relations of the Tartar
kings with the Emperor, but it was of essential utility to us. When they
understood that we were directing our steps towards the West, they asked
us whether we intended passing through the district of the Alechan. On
our answering in the affirmative, they dissuaded us from the project;
they told us that our animals would perish there, for not a single
pasturage was to be met with. We already knew that the Alechan is a
tract still more barren than the Ortous. It consists, in fact, of chains
of lofty mountains of sand, where you may travel sometimes for whole days
together, without seeing a single blade of vegetation. Some narrow
valleys, here and there, alone offer to the flocks a few thorny and
wretched plants. On this account the Alechan is very thinly inhabited,
even in comparison with the other parts of Mongolia.

The Mandarins told us that this year the drought which had been general
throughout Tartary had rendered the district of the Alechan almost
uninhabitable. They assured us that at least one-third of the flocks had
perished of hunger and thirst, and that the remainder were in a wretched
state. For their journey to Peking, they had, they said, chosen the best
they could find in the country; and we might have observed that the
animals of the caravan were very different indeed from those we had seen
in Tchakar. The drought, the want of water and pastures, the destruction
of the flocks--all this had given birth to an utter state of misery,
whence, again, numerous bands of robbers who were ravaging the country,
and robbing travellers. They assured us that, being so few in number, it
would not be wise for us to enter upon the Alechan mountains,
particularly