i_ was perhaps an ancient corruption of the name _Yichau_, which the
territory bore (according to Martini and Biot) under the Han; but more
probably _Yichau_ was a Chinese transformation of the real name _Yachi_.
The Shans still call the city Muang _Chi_, which is perhaps another
modification of the same name.

We have thus got Ch'eng-tu fu as one fixed point, and Yun-nan-fu as
another, and we have to track the traveller's itinerary between the two,
through what Ritter called with reason a _terra incognita_. What
little was known till recently of this region came from the Catholic
missionaries. Of late the veil has begun to be lifted; the daring
excursion of Francis Garnier and his party in 1868 intersected the tract
towards the south; Mr. T.T. Cooper crossed it further north, by Ta-t'sien
lu, Lithang and Bathang; Baron v. Richthofen in 1872 had penetrated
several marches towards the heart of the mystery, when an unfortunate
mishap compelled his return, but he brought back with him much precious
information.

[Illustration: Garden-House on the Lake at Yun-nan-fu, Yachi of Polo.
(From Garnier).

"Je boz di q'il ont un lac qe gire environ bien cent miles."]

Five days forward from Ch'eng-tu fu brought us on Tibetan ground. Five
days backward from Yun-nan fu should bring us to the river Brius, with its
gold-dust and the frontier of Caindu. Wanting a local scale for a distance
of five days, I find that our next point in advance, Marco's city of
Carajan undisputably _Tali-fu_, is said by him to be ten days from Yachi.
The direct distance between the cities of Yun-nan and Ta-li I find by
measurement on Keith Johnston's map to be 133 Italian miles. [The distance
by road is 215 English miles. (See _Baber_, p. 191.)--H.C.] Taking half
this as radius, the compasses swept from Yun-nan-fu as centre, intersect
near its most southerly elbow the great upper branch of the Kiang, the
_Kin-sha Kiang_ of the Chinese, or "River of the Golden Sands," the MURUS
USSU and BRICHU of the Mongols and Tibetans, and manifestly the auriferous
BRIUS of our traveller.[1] Hence also the country north of this elbow is
CAINDU.

I leave the preceding paragraph as it stood in the first edition, because
it shows how _near_ the true position of Caindu these unaided deductions
from our author's data had carried me. That paragraph was followed by an
erroneous hypothesis as to the intermediate part of that journey, but,
thanks to the new light shed by Baro