WANDERINGS IN THE EAST

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 467, 27 March 1909, Page 10

WANDERINGS IN THE EAST

LETTER FROM REV. J. R. FLYNNANDJERSON. Thcro arc many people in Wellington who will remember tho military chaplain, the R-ov. J. R. Flynn-Andcrson, who spent a few months in New Zealand in 1900, delivering lectures. Sinco leaving hero tho reverend gentleman has travelled extensively in tho East, and in a letter to a friend hero, dated January 10, and written at Tosari, Java, ho says:— "You will be interested to know what I liavo been doing with myself since leaving New Zealand early in 1906. I returned, you may remember, to Natal, to take part in tho Zulu rebellion, and was out on active service until September. I did not remain, but went up to Portuguese East Africa, and crossed over to Islo do Maurice (Mauritius), where- I wandered among waterfalls for two months before taking steamer to Bombay. Tho fcoat that took mo to India was the famous treasure-ship Zenia, that had been diamond-hunting on the coast of West Africa. In Bombay I received an invitation to Government House to meet His Highness the Ameer of Afghanistan. After two months' wandering round Agra, Jbansi, Adjmer, Jaipur (all interesting Indian cities), I took a long journey to tho cxtrcmo north-west frontier at Quetta, and after visiting General Sir Sniith-Dorrion, stayed some days in the fort of Chauiau, within fifty miles of tho closed city of Khandahar, journeying thither by tho famous Bolan Pass, whoro Lord Roberts mado his historical march. ' From thero I dropped down to Karachi, and obtained ' a trip on tho Government cable steamer Up tho Persian Gulf to a placo on the Persian coast called Jask, and then struck inland through the desert with a camel caravan. Returning to tho coast I cruised about the Persian Gulf with two of His Majesty's gunboats, Lapwing and Sphinx, which were hunting After a stay in Muscat (Arabia), where I lived with the British Resident, and several times met tho Sultan, who invited mo twico to his palace, I took steamer back to Karachi. From Karachi I crossed tho Sind desert by train to Lahore, and went on to Rawalpindi and Peshawar; from this latter military town I drove out with Colonel Sir Roos Keppell to stay with him in the famous fort Landi Kotal, at the head of the Khyber Pass, tho sanio fort being besieged by Afghans shortly after my visit. (Zakka Khel and Mohmand wars.) From tho frontier I returned to the foothills, and then marched up the long, winding, Jhelum Valley to Cashmere, ono of tho loveliest countries.. I have ever set eyes on—a paradise on earth. I left - Cashmcro very reluctantly, - and returned to India, visiting Delhi, Simla (where I met' Lord Kitchener), Lucknow, Cawnpore etc. Theso latter places, it is pascing strange, I should happen to visit in 1907, the fiftieth anniversary of the great Indian Mutiny. From Benares, Allahabad, Gya, etc., I finally reached Calcutta, and spent my New Year thero (January 1, 1908), afterwards going up to the beautiful hill station of Darjeeling—7ooo feet—and getting a view of Mount Everest. Leaving Darjeeling, I turned cast to a placo called Dhubri, where I reached tho banks of tho great Brahmaputra, which flows through Assam from : some unknown source in Tibet. Up this river I journeyed to tho highest navigable point at Dibrugarth, and then further north to Sadiya,.where I visited our last outpost in the hill lands that border tho closed country of Thibet.

Assam is divided from Burma by range after range of steep mountains, and over theso I crossed with a caravan of coolies, doing a journey only two white men bavo douo in tho last three years. It was an exceedingly difficult and tiresome march of 350 odd miles of constant up-and-down hillclimbing. I roached Burma by tho upper waters of the pretty Chindwin River, down which I floated till it joined tho wonderful Irrawaddi River, on which there is a splendid flotilla of flat-bottomed' steamers. I i >•' ■"

mado Mandalay my headquarters, whence. I struck out to tho Chincso frontier at Lasliio along tlio 'Golden Road,' over which Marco Polo marched in ancient times. Tlien I worked my way northwards to Bhamo, our last post by Tibet and Cliina. I reached the Chinese, frontier by tho Yunnan province, intending to march to Talifu and tho head waters of tho Yangtze-yang, but owing to tho break of the rainy season and tho Hooding of rivers and roads, I had to abandon the attempt, so I returned down the Irrawaddi, .a river journey of 1000 miles, to Rangoon. From this latter placo I dropped to Maulmaui, and attempted to cross over to Siam, but hero again tho rains checkmated me. So instead I returned to Rangoon and crossed over to Port Blair, in tho Andaman Islands, for a two-months' stay. These islands (save for tho Government station and convict settlement at Port Blair) are inhabited by savages about 4 feet high, and black like negroes—a wild, untamablo race. From tho Andaman's I came on to Java, and hero I remain until Hay. So yon see I have wandered a bit sinco I left you."