ly despatched. What
promises and cajoleries and threats the holy men used no one will ever
know. But whatever the alternative, their simple followers preferred
death.

The second phase of the operations, in which we had to act on the
defensive in Gyantse, and the beginning of the third phase, which saw
the arrival of reinforcements and the collapse of the Tibetan
opposition, are described by an eye-witness in the next two chapters.
During the whole of these operations I was invalided in Darjeeling,
owing to a second operation which had to be performed on my amputation
wound.

CHAPTER IX

GYANTSE

[BY HENRY NEWMAN]

Gyantse Plain lies at the intersection of four great valleys running
almost at right angles to one another. In the north-eastern corner there
emerge two gigantic ridges of sandstone. On one is built the jong, and
on the other the monastery. The town fringes the base of the jong, and
creeps into the hollow between the two ridges. The plain, about six
miles by ten, is cultivated almost to the last inch, if we except a few
stony patches here and there. There are, I believe, thirty-three
villages in the plain. These are built in the midst of groves of poplar
and willow. At one time, no doubt, the waters from the four valleys
united to form a lake. Now they have found an outlet, and flow
peacefully down Shigatze way. High up on the cold mountains one sees the
cold bleached walls of the Seven Monasteries, some of them perched on
almost inaccessible cliffs, whence they look sternly down on the warmth
and prosperity below.

For centuries the Gyantse folk had lived self-contained and happy,
practising their simple arts of agriculture, and but dimly aware of any
world outside their own. Then one day there marched into their midst a
column of British troops--white-faced Englishmen, dark, lithe Gurkhas,
great, solemn, bearded Sikhs--and it was borne in upon the wondering
Gyantse men that beyond their frontiers there existed great nations--so
great, indeed, that they ventured to dispute on equal terms with the
awful personage who ruled from Lhasa. It is true that from time to time
there must have passed through Gyantse rumours of war on the distant
frontier. The armies that we defeated at Guru and in the Red Idol Gorge
had camped at Gyantse on their way to and fro. Gyantse saw and wondered
at the haste of Lhasa despatch-riders. But I question whether any
Gyantse man realized that events, great and shatter