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an effective control across the watershed from the direction of the Salween, as the first step in which they authorised the Tengkeng Sawbwa to advance into the country and take vigorous measures to exact obedience, at the same time laying plans for a After some definite administrative effort before the close of the winter season. opposition the Sawbwa, with from 400 to 500 men, succeeded in reaching the group of Lashi villages lying nearest the frontier, Upper Pienma (Hpimaw) was burned, the submission of the four other villages was ensured, and representatives were left to enforce the payment of all outstanding tolls. In order to ascertain the facts of this raid and the actual conditions prevailing in this inaccessible territory I was instructed by His Majesty's Minister to proceed to Tengkeng on a tour of enquiry, and with this object I left my post at Tengyuch on the 7th April, 1910, accompanied by au escort of ten soldiers from the regular Chinese army which was considered necessary for my safety by the Taotai, as the route ran through the ill-reputed country of the Lisu tribesmen. It may be presumed that the Taotai had reported to the Viceroy at Yünnan-fu the representations which had been made through me regarding the raid, and his refusal to consider the request of the Government of Burmah for the punishment of Tengkeng and the payment of compensation to the villages; in notifying my departure he ventured the suggestion that, although my journey might have been planned merely for purposes of mahseer fishing, he had shrewd suspicions of ulterior motives, as the Salween Valley could scarcely be regarded as a pleasure resort at this season of the year.
Journey through Mingkuang.-On leaving Tengyueh a series of long and narrow valleys, divided by steep and well-defined ranges, and watered by branches of the Taping and Shweli Rivers, run in a due northerly direction till they are blocked at their ends by the range, which strikes east from Manung Pum till it joins the main Irrawady-Salween Divide, and which itself forms the watershed between the N'Maikha and Shwell systems. After reaching Kutung Kai I advanced along the route through the Mingkuang Valley, which rises in a chain of cultivated and well-watered "patzu" or plains of gradually increasing altitude till it meets the cross range at its northern extremity. The consulate writer, who accompanied Mr. Litton in 1905, did not cease to exclaim at the progress made by the Chinese settlers since his previous journey; flourishing markets have sprung up along the route, every available acre is under cultivation, and there remain but a few miles to the extreme north where the original Lisu population retain possession of the land, and where grazing grounds are still available for the wandering herds of cattle, sheep, and ponies. The remaining four valleys to the north of Tengyueh are thickly populated and cultivated to the limit of the frontier line, but, although Mingkuang is advancing more slowly in agricultural development, it is undoubtedly the richest of the five belts, and the recent journeys of Mr. Coggin Brown of the Geological Survey of India prove that it is an intensely mineralised area, rich deposits of gold, silver, iron, and copper lying in close proximity to the frontier range, and in many places these are now being worked with Chinese labour and native methods. At the head of this valley one passes from the zone of bare, treeless hills and intense cultivation to a country in which the masses of limestone cliff rise from the pines and evergreens of forest-clad slopes, the foaming torrent of the Mingkuang stream winds a white course through the bracken, the calls of pheasant, sambur, and barking deer break the silence of the morning, and rhododendrons of rich red and white, briar roses, and pyrus japonnica, gleam out with a wonderful brilliancy of colour from the grey mists that herald the coming rains, whilst in the forest clearings the ground is carpeted with a purple glow of dainty primulas and ground orchids, raising their heads above the tawny masses of last year's bracken. Even the Chinese were moved to wonder at the beauty of the land, and they twined garlands of flowers in the bridles and packs of the mules, or round the muzzies of their Mauser rifles, which have fallen sadly from their high estate since they were issued new and bright in the year of our Lord 1871.
Ta Chu Pa. The fifth day's march brought us to the end of the valley at Ta Chu Pa, where a scattered population of eighty Lisu families eke out a scanty subsistence, and five strongly stockaded Chinese houses form the head-quarters of a thriving trade in coffin planks, which are brought from the forests beyond the
range. Here we halted for a day in the hope of getting some information regarding the recent raid, and IIsü Linhsiang, one of the Chinese timber merchants, informed me that he was in part responsible for the petition for assistance, reported in my despatch of the 24th February, but that he could add nothing to his original information as the Tengkeng Sawbwa had threatened to behead him, and that he was therefore banished from his home in the N'Maikha Valley. On the following day the son of the Pieuma
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headman arrived at Ta Chu Pa, and sent a message that spies of Tongkeng and the Pao-shan magistrate were in the village, and had threatened his life if he had any dealings with me; during the night the Chinaman Hst was kidnapped by these men, and hurried away to Yungehung-fu, and I realised that, as the Chinese had taken such precautions to block my enquiries in Ta Chu Pa, it would be of little use to proceed to Tengkeng. I decided therefore that my only hope of ascertaining the true facts of the case would be to make a forced march across the passes to Pienma, and see for myself what had actually happened. It appeared unwise to proceed into the unadministered territory with a Chinese escort, and in view of the fact that the expedition of 1905 had lost thirty mules on the first day's march, the road was proved impossible for a heavily equipped party. The escort was therefore dispatched in charge of all heavy baggage by the road running through Chinese territory to Tengkeng, and I managed to engage a number of Lisu porters to carry sufficient kit for a week for myself and my personal servants; there was little enthusiasm for the journey, and it was difficult to decide who felt the more aggrieved, the escort who were "being deserted," and left to face the terrors of the road alone, or the men who were to penetrate the "inner land," relying on the protection of a shot-gun, and an assortment of various medicines, the latter of which I have found an unfailing passport to the affections of the frontier tribesmen, the application of salts and embrocations ensuring perennial mental gratification even if their virtues were somewhat misapplied for purposes of physical relief.
Journey to Pienma.-On the seventh day we commenced the ascent of the range, the track lying through miles of tangled bamboo brake and dense forest jungle, through which an advance guard of Lashi Kachins hewed a way with their dhas, whilst the ponies struggled and slipped on the steep mountain paths, scrambling over the trunks of great fallen trees, and wading through the rocky torrents. This track is regularly used for a few months of the year by Lisu and Lashi porters, carrying coffin planks From Kangfang down to Mingkuang, but their path was scarcely discernible in the jungle, and the heavy rains which had fallen for several weeks had made of the low-lying portions a hopeless morass. After a long climb we reached the Pass of Ten Shui-ling, and here I was somewhat surprised to find that the tribesmen had a very clear and definite idea of the principle of the frontier. Pointing to the two streams which trickled in opposite directions down the mountain sides they explained that the parting formed the border line between Great Britain and China, and gave me such an insight into the practical meaning of a Divide, as would have proved a liberal education to those distinguished officers of the Chinese Government who in 1904 committed themselves to the statement that in this district the watershed lay at the foot of the mountains. Then with a certain courtesy that went to the heart of the situation, the Lisus handed me over to the Lashis as their guest, and we continued our journey down into the valley of the Ngawchang Kha (known by the Chinese as the Hsiao Chiang). On arrival at the first camp the weather broke, and for five days and nights the rain poured down in ceaseless torrents. The little single- fly tents could not resist the storm, clothes and bedding were sodden, the weight of the porters' loads was greatly increased, and the poor fellows spent their nights in the open, with no protection from the wet ground, or from the beating rain, save a layer of palm fibre. After seeing the hard lives that these tribesmen lead, and the triumph of the elements in their mountain homes, one wonders little at the animism forming the basis of all their faith, or at the fact that the rain and thunder, the lightning, the wind, the forest, and the mountains are all held by demons of malice, whose wrath can only be appeased by offerings and sacrifice. On one day we were obliged to march from dawn till dark without a halt for rest or food, as we found no clearing in the jungle, and the country was reported by the natives to be full of poisonous herbs which the ponies would eat if they halted, with fatal results, and it was therefore with intense relief that we at last saw the Pienma villages on a distant hillside, and felt that the worst of the journey was past. For one brief moment a glimpse of a magnificent snowy range to the north-west marked the division of the Lashi country from that of the Wild Marus, and shortly afterwards we were met by a number of headmen and villagers from Pienma (Ipimaw), who had come out in spite of the storm to offer a welcome.
The headmen had heard of my approach and evidently believed that Litton had come back, for they said they had waited five years for my return, and there was evident disappointment when they found that there was no army of occupation at my back. They poured forth their grievances at once, however, stating that there were twenty Chinese soldiers in Pienma, that two deputies of the Yungchang prefect were
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