letters or papers by Huc, and this finishes the series. The Souvenirs were published in 1851.
Gabet had then apparently already been sent to the Brazils, where he died;[1] and I have no doubt the Souvenirs were, as they purport to be, the work of Huc himself, based on the papers by both, of which extracts had been published in the Annales. I doubt whether even any extraneous aid of Parisian littérateurs was called in; Huc himself was an adept in that vein, as his letters show.
Colonel Prejevalsky several times finds fault with Huc's inaccuracy in details, a subject which will be briefly noticed presently. And in one of the letters which was sent to Russia during his journey, he even seems to imply a doubt of the genuine character of the narrative.[2] Of this he has probably thought better, as the expression of suspicion is not repeated in the present work. Indeed, Colonel Prejevalsky's own plain tale is the best refutation of such suspicions. For it is wonderful, to the extent of the coincidence
- ↑ Huc's manner of mentioning the fact is vague, and names no date. It is in the Preface to his second work, The Chinese Empire, which is itself dated in May 1854.
- ↑ 'In Koko-nor and Tsaidam the great caravan which Huc professes to have accompanied to Lhassa is perfectly well remembered, and it is somewhat astonishing that nobody has any recollection of the presence of foreigners among its members. Huc further asserts that he passed eight months at Gumbum [Kounboum of Huc; properly sKu-bum, v. p. xxxiv. infra]; but I saw many lamas who had resided in that temple for thirty or forty years, and all solemnly assured me that there had never been a foreigner amongst them. On the other hand, in the Ala-shan country, the presence of two Frenchmen at Ninghia twenty-five years ago was distinctly remembered.' (In Pr. R. G. S., xviii. 83.) It is to be recollected that Huc and Gabet were disguised as lamas, and probably their real character was known to few. And on the other hand, Prejevalsky himself (i. p. 135) mentions having seen, at one of the R. C. missions in Mongolia, Samdadchiemba, the servant of Huc and Gabet, whom their readers remember as well as we remember Sancho or Sam Weller. 'He is of mixed Mongol and Tangutan race. He is fifty-five years of age, and enjoys excellent health; he related some of his adventures to us, and described the different places on the road.' Here there is no insinuation that Samdadchiemba's stories were inconsistent with Huc's. Mr. Ney Elias was also acquainted with Samdadchiemba.
