. To understand the matter it will be necessary to
give a brief recapitulation of some events that went before.

The vast importance of establishing an overland trade route between
India and China will be seen by a glance at the map. It has been the
unrealized dream of generations of India and China merchants. "The trade
route of the future" it has been called; and when we consider the vast
marts of commerce that such a highway would bring in direct contact, it
is impossible to think the name thus enthusiastically given an
exaggeration. An overland passage between China and Burmah has long been
known and made use of by the native merchants of these countries. From
time immemorial it has served as a highway for invading armies or
peaceful caravans. How highly the two governments appreciated its
importance to the commercial prosperity of their respective subjects is
shown by the clause in a treaty concluded by them in 1769, which
stipulated that the "gold and silver road" between the two countries
should always be kept open. European travellers in Eastern lands, from
the ubiquitous Marco Polo down, have also done their best to call
attention to it. It may therefore seem somewhat strange that England,
the commercial interest of whose Indian empire would be most directly
promoted by the opening up of this new channel of trade, should have
gone so long without paying much official attention to the matter.
Recent events, however, have proved, what was probably foreseen by those
whose business it was to study up the subject, that there were grave
practical difficulties to be overcome before the plan could be
successfully carried out.

In the first place it was necessary to secure the consent of both the
Burmese and Chinese governments--a task of almost insurmountable
difficulty because of the natural dislike of these two powers to share
with another the trade monopoly they had heretofore exclusively
enjoyed. Then again there lies between the civilizations of India and
China a broad tract of wild and mountainous country, inhabited by a
mongrel race of savages, known as Shans and Kakhyens, who, while
nominally owing allegiance to one or the other of their more civilized
neighbors, practically find their chief support in levying blackmail on
all people passing through their territory.

To fit out an exploring expedition strong enough to defy the attacks of
the savages, and yet small enough not to convey the idea of an invasion,