Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-02-20

duck lifting and the noise OF splashing
water. 1 crawled in that direction ana
found large pool Of clear. fresh water
1 thanked God first, and then felt my
pulse l wanted to see the effect that
drinking would have on It. lt was at ~
Then / drank and drank and drank III
was a most lovely feeling. l felt my blood
llquefying it began TO run In my veins;
my pores opened; my pulse went up az
once to 50; felt quite fresh and living.
LIVED ON TADPOLEs.
ct took a bath, and then made for the
south down the river bed. walked on for
three days. and did not see living soul
all the time, and lived on leaves and grass
and tadpoles, when 1 could catch them.
On the fourth day / fell in with some
shepherds with great focks. stopped
some days with them, and heard from
two merchants who arrived that at TIVE
days from there they had seen a man and
a white camel lying in the river bed. They
had spoken to him, but he had cried only
'Wateri water' They had given him drink
and food / recognized that this was
Islam-Bai. sent a shepherd 10 fetch him,
and in a few days Islam arrived, with
Kasim and the camel He had saved all
my money, some instruments, and my
maps and notes. felt quite rich. could
not continue my journey without the
hypsometrical instruments, which had
been lost, so had to 90 back TO Kashgar
to get new outfit.
when my new outfit arrived I went on
10 Khotan. l wanted to see If there
were any old towns. This time l march-
ed from south to north. After a
seven days march came upon the ruins
Of very old town. In the valleys be-
tween the sand dunes there rose wooden
posts or stakes Of poplar wood, hard as
stone. These had been part OF the frame
work Of the houses-the skeletons OF the
houses-and innumerable they were
everywhere I'm the valley OF the
dunes. 1t must have been very big
town. / camped there, but was not able
to stay more than two days, lest my
water supply should be exhausted too
soon. But during these two days, we dug
in the sand, and found fragments of the
plaster walls Of the houses, which were
covered with beautiful paintings. Then
/, myself made a great discovery. IT
was a fragment OF an old manuscript, or
something which looks like paper, but is
not paper; some of the characters resem-
BILE Sanscrit, but they are not Sanscrit.
Afterwards, 1 sent the agents back to
search for other manuscripts, and they
found some more. We found nothing
else, for we could not stay long, and we
could not dig deep, for the sands kept
falling in. But I do not think there can
be much to find there beyond the mural
paintings; for no doubt these towns were
gradually abandoned by their inhabitants
as the sand kept coming up, just as in
a few hundred years the towns on the
southern fringe Of the desert will be
abandoned; the siege Of them-Guma.
Cherchen, and Nia-having already be-
gun.
BUDDHIST CIVILIZATION
From the first town proceeded east
wards, and in about a weeks march /
discovered the second of the towns, but
here l found nothing. 1 shall return
there, of course, for I consider this one
of the most interesting discoveries ever
made. 1t was certainly the most curious
thing that ever occurred 10 me during
my four years journey. No traveller
ever expected to find anything here, and
il was given to me TO discover the traces
OF Buddhist civilization in a Mohamme-
dan land, towns where, TO judge from the
very high point Of development OF the
mural paintings. the state OF civilization
must have been very far advanced.
Buddhists the inhabitants certainly
were. for some of Ornamentations are
pure Buddha, and on one OF the frag-
ments in my possession is a painting Of
sitting on lotus.
In the city Of K0rla / prepared for |
my tourney TO discover the old Lop-Nor |
| did discover It. My course was south by |
southeast. l found the old Lop-Nor in |
April. 1896. Then / marched on south 10 |
the new Lop-Nor-the one discovered by |
At the end Of April re- |
turned TO Khotan by Marco Polo's south |
srly route and made many scientific OBJ |
,ervations on the way. In khotan, L |
prepared for my journey through Thlbet. |
This was a very difficult journey; j had |
10 climb the Kwen Lun range and cross |
On to the high Thibetan plateau by the |
ofty passes. For two months We march
I'd along these plateaux at an altitude Of i
8. 900 feet. II was a horrible country
bare desert, sand, and stones. here and /
here a salt lake. We reached Pekin on /
March I'd OF last year. / was very well
received. Ii Hung Chang invited me 10
Inner 1t was not good din
Ter. There were two large photo
graphs in his room-one OF ii and
bismarck, and one Of Ii and Gladstone
from Pekin l travelled through Mongo-
la to Klachta, and thence by the Trans
siberian railway home. / reached Stock
lolm after an absence OF three years and
even months. l was summoned TO the
'alace on the following day and King
oscar embraced me, and said; We'll
one. You have brought honor to
sweden"