es stood in the way of an entry to the capital. Jesuits
and Capuchins reached Lhasa, made long stays there, and were even
encouraged by the Tibetan Government. The first[1] Europeans to visit
the city and leave an authentic record of their journey were the Fathers
Grueber and d'Orville, who penetrated Tibet from China in 1661 by the
Sining route, and stayed in Lhasa two months. In 1715 the Jesuits
Desideri and Freyre reached Lhasa; Desideri stayed there thirteen years.
In 1719 arrived Horace de la Penna and the Capuchin Mission, who built
a chapel and a hospice, made several converts, and were not finally
expelled till 1740.[2] The Dutchman Van der Putte, first layman to
penetrate to the capital, arrived in 1720, and stayed there some years.
After this we have no record of a European reaching Lhasa until the
adventurous journey in 1811 of Thomas Manning, the first and only
Englishman to reach the city before this year. Manning arrived in the
retinue of a Chinese General whom he had met at Phari Jong, and whose
gratitude he had won for medical services. He remained in the capital
four months, and during his stay he made the acquaintance of several
Chinese and Tibetan officials, and was even presented to the Dalai Lama
himself. The influence of his patron, however, was not strong enough to
insure his safety in the city. He was warned that his life was
endangered, and returned to India by the same way he came. In 1846 the
Lazarist missionaries Huc and Gabet reached Lhasa in the disguise of
Lamas after eighteen months' wanderings through China and Mongolia,
during which they must have suffered as much from privations and
hardships as any travellers who have survived to tell the tale. They
were received kindly by the Amban and Regent, but permission to stay
was firmly refused them on the grounds that they were there to subvert
the religion of the State. Despite the attempts of several determined
travellers, none of whom got within a hundred miles of Lhasa, the
Lazarist fathers were the last Europeans to set foot in the city until
Colonel Younghusband rode through the Pargo Kaling gate on August 4,
1904.

[1] Friar Oderic of Portenone is supposed to have visited Lhasa in
1325, but the authenticity of this record is open to doubt.

[2] When in Lhasa I sought in vain for any trace of these buildings.
The most enlightened Tibetans are ignorant, or pretend to be so,
that Christian missionaries have resided