Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume II.djvu/214

 200 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, KTC. and under favour of the darkiR.-s, left the encampment. One ni^dit wlien this phin hud been pursued, I'atlier Goes fell from his horse, and as lie was a little separated from his party, no one perceived it. The shock was so violent that he lost his senses, and lay motionless, while the caravan proceeded on its way; and it was not till some time afterwards that the Armenian Isaac noticed that the horse had no rider. Full of anxiety, he retniced his steps, though without knowin^^ where to look, since in these vast solitudes there is no road, and it is easy to miss the ri«;ht track. At last, however, he heard a voice calling on the name of the Saviour, and eagerly following the direction of the sound, he found the |)Oor missionary, who was feebly dragging himself along, and who had ahvady given up the ho[)C of regairjing his com- panions. Isaac took him on the crupper of his horse, and after much wandering about, they succeeded at break of day in recovering the traces of the caravan, and gaining the encampment. Before long the caravan entered the deserts of (iobi, — innnense sandy plains, where not a blade of grass nor a drop of water is to be met with. We have ourselves crossed this moving sea of sand, which when taken in the hand runs throu^xh the fniirers like water. The dreary monotony of the desert is only interrupted by the traces of certain small insects, who describe thou- sands of arabesques upon the white surface of the sand, which is so line that every turn and winding, even of an ant, upon it can be followed. After having suffered horribly of thirst for several days, Father Goes arrived at last at Kia-Yu-Kouan, a frontier town of the Chinese empire, and the northern extremity of the province of Kan- Sou, at the termina-