Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAP. I PARENTAGE AND INHERITANCE
- CHAP. II FIRST TRAVELS AND PUBLICATIONS
- CHAP. III EDINBURGH AND WORK
- CHAP. IV IN JOURNEYINGS OFT
- CHAP. V THE WIDE EAST
- CHAP. VI “AN TAON BHEANNICHT” (“THE BLESSED ONE”)
- CHAP. VII MARRIAGE
- CHAP. VIII LOSS
- CHAP. IX “THROUGH MANY LANDS”
- CHAP. X NATIONS THAT SIT IN DARKNESS
- CHAP. XI PUBLIC WORK
- CHAP. XII THE FAR EAST
- CHAP. XIII THE CHANGING EAST
- CHAP. XIV LAST JOURNEYS
- CHAP. XV “I AM GOING HOME”
- APPENDIX
- INDEX
- PART OF NORTH AMERICA
- Plate section
CHAP. X - NATIONS THAT SIT IN DARKNESS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2011
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAP. I PARENTAGE AND INHERITANCE
- CHAP. II FIRST TRAVELS AND PUBLICATIONS
- CHAP. III EDINBURGH AND WORK
- CHAP. IV IN JOURNEYINGS OFT
- CHAP. V THE WIDE EAST
- CHAP. VI “AN TAON BHEANNICHT” (“THE BLESSED ONE”)
- CHAP. VII MARRIAGE
- CHAP. VIII LOSS
- CHAP. IX “THROUGH MANY LANDS”
- CHAP. X NATIONS THAT SIT IN DARKNESS
- CHAP. XI PUBLIC WORK
- CHAP. XII THE FAR EAST
- CHAP. XIII THE CHANGING EAST
- CHAP. XIV LAST JOURNEYS
- CHAP. XV “I AM GOING HOME”
- APPENDIX
- INDEX
- PART OF NORTH AMERICA
- Plate section
Summary
A private letter from Leh gives news of Mrs. Bishop's health there. It is addressed to Lady Middleton, and is dated August 11, 1889:
I have now been nearly two months in Western Tibet; it is most interesting, and in some respects wonderful, but living at an altitude varying from 11,000 to 17,000 ft. has not improved my health. I feel very weak. All my journey has to be done on horse or yak back, and I often feel nearly dead. I wish I could send my Badakshan horse (Gyalpo) to Lord Middleton's stud, to be the sire of a race of horses. He goes anywhere and does anything—even came over the Kharzong glacier last week, and swam the rapids of the Shayok; not an old woman's horse, but I contrive to get on with him. I like the Tibetans very much.
Mrs. Bishop slowly descended to the Panjab, Mando and Hassan Khan still with her, and some coolies from Leh, who took care of her tents and baggage. Gyalpo was groomed by Mando, and, on occasion, when Mando was powerless from cold, by herself. The marches were now over desolate, gravelly passes, across broad valleys of sand, regions without vegetation and without water, where for two nights the baggage-ponies could get no food. When the snowpeaks reddened in the dawn the camping-grounds were often white with hoar-frost. They reached flowing water at Lahul, or British Tibet, and there to her sorrow she was met by—
A creature in a nondescript dress, speaking Hindustani volubly. […]
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Life of Isabella Bird , pp. 217 - 243Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011First published in: 1906