In the Forbidden Land · A. Henry Savage Landor
to be beheaded. He had also fired a shot at Mr. Landor, and had moreover been ordered by the Lamas to cut off Mr. Landor's toe and finger nails, as well as a lock of his hair. The Taklakot Lamas and the Tokchim Tarjum professed to be sorry at the Galshio Lamas having behaved in such a cruel manner.
At Taklakot we made a list of Mr. Landor's property that was still missing, and we gave a copy to the Jong Pen and one to the Tokchim Tarjum, that they may try to recover what they can.
(Signed) HARUKA WILSON,
Methodist Episcopal Mission.
Gungi Byas Bhot, Darma. Sept. 21, 1897.
Dr. H. Wilson's Certificate of A. Henry Savage Landor's injuries
and wounds
Taklakot, Tibet, Sept. 8, 1897.
I herewith certify that I have examined the wounds that Mr. A. Henry Savage Landor received during his imprisonment at Galshio in Tibet.
There are five large sores along the spinal column and the spine itself has sustained severe injuries. At the time they were inflicted these wounds must have caused profuse bleeding.
The feet bear the marks of cruel treatment. On the right foot are still well visible to-day (nineteen days after wounds were inflicted) six wounds, viz.—
On the heel one wound one inch long;
Outside ankle " half-inch long;
Front of ankle " one inch long;
Top of foot, three inches above the toes, one wound one and a-half inch long.
Two small wounds on the upper part of foot.
On the left foot the four wounds are of a very severe character, and were produced by ropes cutting into the flesh.
One nasty wound above heel, two and a-half inches long.
One wound below the ankle, one and one-fourth of an inch long.
One wound three inches above the toes, two inches long.
One wound on the heel, half an inch long.
These wounds have caused the feet to be much swollen, the left foot especially having been considerably injured. Its strained tendons give still intense pain when touched and the foot is very heavy, inflamed and swollen.
On the left hand there are five wounds.
On middle finger a wound one inch long and deep to the bone.
On root of middle finger, a wound half an inch long.
On small finger, a wound one-fourth of an inch long.
On third " " " "
On first " " half an inch long.
The four fingers are still very swollen.
On the right hand there are only two wounds.
The first, one half-inch long, on the upper side of the hand.
The second, a quarter of an inch long on the second finger.
Both hands are aching and much swollen, and the wounds upon them were evidently produced by the heavy iron chain of the handcuffs.
On arrival at Taklakot (nineteen days after having been tortured) Mr. Landor is still suffering from strong fever caused by his wounds, and no doubt when they were fresh these must have given Mr. Landor intense pain. His health and strong constitution seem altogether shattered by the sufferings he has undergone.
His face, hands and feet are very swollen, and he appears extremely weak; he himself attributed his great exhaustion to having been unable to sleep for nineteen consecutive nights on account of the bad sores on the spine and legs and because of the heavy iron chains with which he was laden.
H. WILSON,
Hospital Assistant, Methodist Episcopal Mission.
Gungi Byas Bhot, Darma. Sept. 21, 1897.
N.B.—The numerous smaller wounds, burns, &c., on the face and body are not taken into account.
A copy of this report was despatched from Dr. Wilson direct to the Deputy Commissioner, and was forwarded to the Government of India.
Dr. H. Wilson's Certificate of Chanden Sing's injuries.
Taklakot, Sept. 8, 1897.
I herewith certify that I have examined Chanden Sing, Mr. A. Henry Savage Landor's servant who accompanied him to Tibet, where they were arrested and tortured. Chanden Sing has visible to this day on both his legs, and twenty-one days after they were inflicted, innumerable black marks produced by flogging. So severely appears the punishment to have been administered, that large patches of skin and flesh have been torn off by the lashing. Chanden Sing is now in very poor health, and it is evident by his appearance that he suffers greatly from the tortures and ill-treatment received at the hands of the Tibetans.
H. WILSON,
Hospital Assistant, Methodist Episcopal Mission.
Gungi Byas Bhot, Darma. Sept. 21, 1897.
A copy of this was sent by Dr. Wilson to the Deputy Commissioner at Almora, and was forwarded to the Government of India.
Certificate by Miss M. A. Sheldon, M.D., of the Methodist Episcopal
Mission.
M. E. Mission,
Khela P. O. Dist. Almora.
East Kumaon, Bhot.
"All at it and always at it."—Wesley.
Sept. 28, 1897.
This is to certify that I have seen the wounds inflicted upon Mr. Landor by the Tibetans. It is now about forty days since he was bound and tortured. The wounds are healing well. The scars upon his hands caused by being bound with chains behind his back are plainly visible.
The feet show even more clearly the results of inhuman binding and torture. The wounds have not yet entirely healed, and there is much discoloration. One foot is still swollen.
I have not seen the wounds upon his spine inflicted by a torturing saddle, but he complains of much pain and soreness in that region.
(Signed) MARTHA A. SHELDON, M.D.
Certificate from Doctor Turchini, a Director of the Royal Hospital
of S.M. Nuova, Florence, Italy.
D. D. Stamp
Stamp
R. Arcispedale di S.M. Nuova,
Gabinetto
Elettro-Terapico
Direzione,
Firenze.
Firenze, 12 Febbraio, 1898.
Il sottoscritto Medico Primario Direttore del Turno e Gabinetto elettro-terapico del R° Arcispedale di S. Maria Nuova dichiara quanto appresso: nel mese di Dicembre appena giunto in questa Città visitò il Sigre Henry Savage Landor e lo trovô affetto=
Da retinite all' occhio sinistro con suffusione dei mezzi trasparenti, e da grave iperemia retinica all' occhio destro. La vista era abolita a sinistra, diminuita a destra=
La colonna vertebrale era dolente, se leggermente compressa con un dito, o se appena percossa col martello da percussione il dolore si faceva intenso, acuto specialmente nelle regioni lombare e dorsale. La deambulazione non era libera ma incerta, la funzionalità degli sfinteri molto difettosa per cui difficolta della mizione e delle evacuazioni.
Presentava poi delle chiazze ecchimobili sopra-malleolari e sopra-carpiche. L'aspetto suo generale era di persona sofferente e molto anemica. Fatte le cure che il caso del Sigre Landor reclamava, oggi 12 Febbraio notiamo; all' occhio destro risoluta la iperemia retinica, aumentato il campo visivo, occhio che serve discretamente alla sua funzione; all' occhio sinistro è molto turbata la circolazione endoculare e quivi la funzione visiva non è ristabilita; non vede gli oggetti e tutto gli fa confusione. La colonna vertebrale presenta sempre dei punti dolenti in specie al rigonfiamento sacro lombare. La deambulazione è più corretta, ma gli sarebbe impossibile fare una passeggiata lunga. La mizione e megliorata, non cosi la defacazione che è sempre difettosa per impotenza dello sfintere.
Le condizioni generali sono megliorate, ma occorre pero al Sigre Landor seguire la cura intrapresa, e specialmente la cura elettrica ed idroterapica.
(Signed) DOTT. TURCHINI.
Comune di Firenze.
Officio d'Igiene.
Visto per la legalizzazione della
firma del Sig. Dott. Turchini.
Dal Municipio Firenze
Lira Stamp.
Li 12 Febbraio 1898.
Il Sindaco.
P. I.
A. Artimini.
Letter from the Political Peshkar, Kharak Sing.
Private.
Garbyang, Bhot,
November 13, 1897.
My dear Mr. Landor,
I hope that you have received my letter of some time ago and that you may be quite well now. Are you still at Almora? I have not yet got back your things from the Jong Pen, but I hear it is quite true that all your property reached Tokchim a long time ago. I have sent another letter to the Jong Pen, but cannot get an answer as the Lippu Pass is now closed owing to a heavy fall of snow yesterday. It is rumoured that a Tibetan officer is coming from Lhassa to Taklakot to inquire after your case, and probably he may have reached Taklakot yesterday, and after examining your things he will send them down to me. Now I have nearly finished my work at this place. I have collected the dues and paid them to the agents of the Jong Pen. I will go back to Chaudas the day after to-morrow—i.e., on the 15th of this month.
With kind regards and hoping to hear from you soon.
I remain,
Yours sincerely,
KHARAK SING PAL.
Letter from the Political Peshkar, Kharak Sing Pal.
Haldwani, January 11, 1898.
My dear Mr. Landor,
I hope that by this time you have reached safely home. I have been very anxious as I have not heard from you or of your safe arrival there. The dreadful day of the 8th of September is still vivid in my mind, when I first saw you at Taklakot (in Tibet) after you had been tortured by the Tibetans, and where I had come in search of you.
I cannot forget your fearful appearance, with long hair and beard, and your face, body and limbs covered with wounds and bruises. When you arrived at Taklakot, in a few miserable rags stained with blood, dirty and swarming with lice, and surrounded by the guard of Tibetans, I could hardly believe it possible that it was you who stood before me, so much you had changed since I had last seen you.
I am still deeply pained when I think of the pitiable condition you were in, when you showed me 22 (twenty-two) fresh wounds on your hands, feet and spine, without counting the injuries to your face. And indescribable pain gave us too seeing your confiscated baggage under seal of the Tibetan authorities, and to find it, when we opened it, to be full of broken or damaged instruments and other articles of your property.
I think that you may remember my inquiry and consequent anger when the Tibetan officers and soldiers admitted their guilt of tying you by your limbs to the stretching log and of placing you on a spiked saddle; of removing forcibly your toe-nails and pulling you by the hair of your head. You know quite well that I had no power to do more than to report the matter to higher authorities, but I can assure you that it was to me quite unbearable to hear from the Tibetans that they had brought you to execution, and that they boasted of having swung the naked executioner's sword right and left of your neck, and that they had brought a red-hot iron close to your eyes to blind you.
Your servants' condition, especially that of Chanden Sing, whom like yourself the Tibetans kept prisoner for twenty-four days, and who was given two hundred lashes, was pitiable beyond words.
I am anxious to see the photographs taken by Dr. Wilson of you as you were when you arrived at Taklakot. I trust that by now you may feel better and that the pain in your spine may have altogether disappeared. I believe your rifles, revolver, ring, &c., which I succeeded in recovering from the Tibetans, must have reached you by now through the Deputy Commissioner at Almora. The cash and other articles have not been recovered, nor is there any probability of getting them back. Hoping to receive news of you soon and with best salaams,
I am, yours most obediently,
K. KHARAK SING PAL,
Political Peshkar,
Garbyang Dharchula, Bhot.
Letter from Colonel Grigg, Commissioner of Kumaon.
Commissionership of Kumaon.
Dated December 7, 1897.
My dear Landor,
Karak Sing reports that 2 guns (1 damaged), 1 revolver, 1 signet-ring, cash 68/12/-, cartridges (gun) 110, ditto revolver 37, cleaning-rods 2, gun-case 1, leather straps, 1 butterfly-catcher, &c., have been handed to him by the Jong Pen of Taklakot, and he has requested Deputy Commissioner's orders.
I am glad to hear your things are coming on. I hope you are getting stronger.
With our kindest regards,
Yours very sincerely,
E. E. Grigg.
[Note by the Author.—This letter, as will be seen from the date,
reached me after the bulk of the book had gone to press.]
A PRIVATE LETTER FROM J. LARKIN, ESQ., WHO, DEPUTED BY THE GOVERNMENT, PROCEEDED TO THE FRONTIER TO MAKE AN INQUIRY INTO MY CASE.
Almora, August 10, 1898.
My dear Landor,
Yours of the 21st ult. I am glad to hear that your book on your experiences in Tibet is nearly finished. I wish you may have every success with it, as it is only what you deserve after your trials and hardships in that difficult land of the ultra-conservative Lamas. I am not aware that the Indian papers are attacking you. However, they apparently do not get reliable information if they dispute the fact of your having entered Tibet. We who were in some way connected with your rescue and return have not been "interviewed," or we would give the authentic account of the affair.
I was on a few days' leave at Naini Tal when I heard of your capture, tortures and expulsion from Tibet. I was deputed by the Government to proceed at once to the borders and make an inquiry into the affair. I set off at once, and I met you at Askot, where you were being looked after by the Rajbar. What a change in your appearance! When I saw you standing among some of the Askot natives I could with difficulty identify you. You were bronzed and
weather-beaten to such an extent that you were not distinguishable from the natives. I do not think you can blame me for not recognising you readily. Your forehead, nose and the part of your face below your eyes were scarred, and helped to alter your appearance very greatly. You did surprise me when you told me that you would retrace your steps back to the borders on learning from me that I was hastening on to inquire into your case. I had then seen the twenty odd wounds you had on your face, wrists, feet and back. I strongly protested against your undertaking the fatiguing journey back across the perilous and arduous road, as I knew you needed rest and good nourishment, and thought it would be wisest for you to get back to Almora, and be under a good doctor.
You, however, with your characteristic doggedness, meant to accompany me, and I must perforce let you. I was glad in the long run, for you enabled me to make a fuller inquiry than I would otherwise have been able.
As you know, and as I reported to Government, I found after an inquiry on the borders that you had with great difficulty and manœuvring succeeded in entering Tibet, evading the Jong Pen of Taklakot, and the Barca Tarjum at Gyanema, and crossing the Mariam La (Maium Pass) and getting as far as Tuksem (Toxem). You had been deserted by all the mountaineers who had started with you and who had promised to accompany you wherever you went. When you were left with the two Kumaonis, you were surrounded and captured by the Governor of that part of Tibet and his men. There, as a sequel to your innumerable fatigues, hardships, desertions, and privations, you and your two followers were ill-treated and tortured by the Governor. Have you not got a copy of my official report? I remember you told me you were applying for it. If you possess the copy, surely that will be sufficient to confound your traducers. I saw from the public papers that my report was to be laid on the table of the House of Commons by the Secretary of State for India.
How did the photographs which we took up at the Lippu Pass turn out? I should particularly like to have the one of the group on the pass, and also the one where I am on horseback. I would also like to have the one I took of you having your matutinal bath when the water froze in your hair and on your body as it was thrown on you by Chanden Sing; and no wonder it did, as there were ten to twelve feet of snow lying about, and a hardy Bhotia (Shoka) mountaineer had only a few days prior to our arrival been lost in the snow on crossing the pass.
Doubtless it will afford you some pleasure to learn that you have earned quite a reputation among the natives, both Tibetan and Bhotias (Shokas), on account of your universal cordiality, generosity and pluck. They are constantly inquiring about you, and relating your many good traits. Should you ever think of returning here you have made many friends, and you would get a very warm welcome from the natives.
Dr. H. Wilson tells me that, when he took you over from your captors, the officials of Tibet, you were in a dying state, and that he only just got you in the nick of time. How are your eyes and spine? I trust they are quite well again. I look back with pleasure to my tour up to the border with you, and our return journey after your journey into Tibet proper, where you were subjected to tortures by the Governor of the district thereof.
With every good wish,
Yours very sincerely,
(Signed) J. Larkin.
FOOTNOTES:
[41] Maium Pass.
[42] Galshio = Gyatsho.
[43] Bhutias = Shokas.
[44] Raja = King.
[45] N.B.—Reproductions of some of the photographs mentioned are given in this book.
· · ·
End of part 110 of 111
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