our party, in order to shoot some specimens of birds. And when we reached Yarkand, Mirza Shadee considered himself altogether absolved from his promise, and an attempt, which was successfully but with great difficulty resisted, was made to subject us to the same confinement as Messrs. Shaw and Hayward had undergone.
When the second mission was sent in 1873 all doubt on this point was cleared up at the outset, and within certain limits no restraint whatever was put upon our movements. At first spies in the shape of escorts were always attached to us. But even this precaution was in time dropped, and we were allowed to come and go just as we liked. But all this was within certain limits. Distant expeditions to Aksu, Korla, and Lake Lob, though often promised, were finally forbidden; a visit to Khoten, which was at first suggested to me, and subsequently talked of as a matter of course, was at last peremptorily prohibited, and it was only after some diplomatic fencing that I was able to despatch a party across the Pamir. All this conduct was very disappointing, quite as much so to us as it was to Colonel Prejevalsky; but on looking back on the whole circumstances, I cannot altogether blame the Ameer for acting according to his light. In addition to the ancient custom pleaded by Mirza Shader, there was another very potent reason for shyness on the part of our Asiatic
