Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/197

Rh again, in 1905, a serious rising in the Bathang and Litang districts had taken place against the Chinese. It had occurred to an ambitious and energetic Chinese official, seemingly, that much credit, and perhaps some more tangible gain, would accrue to himself were he to set about reforming the frontier tribes. The reforms inaugurated took the shape of reducing the numbers of, and curtailing the privileges and authority of, the lamas. Such a thing was not to be tolerated, and the Tibetans rose. The offending mandarin suffered the extreme penalty for his temerity; but, unfortunately, Europeans became involved in the upheaval, and more than one French missionary was brutally murdered, while an English botanist, Mr George Forrest, who happened to be collecting plants in the neighbourhood, narrowly escaped with his life, after suffering the most terrible hardships and privations. A punitive expedition was organised, with that deliberation which forms so conspicuous a feature of Chinese administration, and now in the winter of 1906 the troops, said