ESCORT OF BRIGANDS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 October 1930, Page 7

ESCORT OF BRIGANDS

TRAVEL IN CHINA: To the average man who goes to ami from work, in a radius of perhaps live or six miles, there is something romantic in the every day life of Mr R. Cunnigham, who is a missionary far back, in the uplands of China and in his jour- ' neyings to the outer-world. To get to Shanghai the first stage in the holiday. voyage he made to Auckland recently};' j he had to,, travel miles through i|he| /V wildest, grandest country, through ribbonlike, dangerous mountain passes, and down rivers white with rapids and for part of the way the escort, which alone made ,for his safety, and that of his wife, was .composed of Chinese brigands. ’ , . , .

“I will start at the opposite end, the Shanghai enu, or the journey,” said Mr Cunningham, when speaking of what lie called “an uneventful trip.” “For the first 1500 miles we went by river steamer, just an ordinary plain variety of river steamer, up the River Yangtsekiang.” After that, from his description, the trip seemed to be not so uneventful. For eight days they travelled up a narrowing river, against a swifter current, in native boats, maned by a native crew, who worked the craft with the skill of rivermen all the world over. TRAVEL BY BAMBOO RAFT. “The next stage.” Mr. Cunningham continued, “was one by raft, a huge thing with accommodation for 40 to 50, people, and tons of cargo. They are made of bamboo a.bcmt a foot thick, and pliable—the last for a very good reason. All the time the river liad been getting narrower and swifter, -and the way., became interspersed with rapids. These rafts make nothing,of the shoals. They bump and groan their way over all obstacles, and they seem to wiggle over the shoals.

“The great, unwiedly. pieces of woven bamboo are towed along by a team of native boys on the bank, and as they run the coolies chant a queer monotonous song which seems to be only of . two notes—a sea chantey transposed to \ other conditions and different singers. And betweehrtthe tivo, 'the rather shaky., grumbling bn the pal’f of the' raft, and j the chanteys of the runners, and the rush of the water, the mere 15 miles we made a day were not uneventrul.” When they took to the raft they were entering the Tibetan mountain bonntry, said Mr Cunningham, and' he and his wife were going “home.” 1 HONOUR AMONG THIEVES. For the next 10 days the journey 1 was made by sedan chair, borne by four / native bearers, a mode of travel hot at dvi all uncomfortable said Mr Cunningham. ; ; “It was at this juncture that we made nn agreement with a bandit chief,” added Mr Cunningham, “It seems to be ' Jdie usual thing to do when travelling Miowadays in China. It is the only way to get through the territory, which is literally infested with brigands. Once 1 a price is fixed the band will see a traveller thro ugh, the danger zone. They

do not go back on their word. I liifihit China is the ‘land of compromise,’ and the chief first of all is to offer tiie chief about half what lie .fijeiirands. Then the wrangle .starts ' ' afrd eventually a price will be Tixfed. The agreement is for a certain .■’section of the journey, and not only did we get through safely ourselves hut all our baggage as well. Some four rifles went with us, and another boat with our goods; and away up there in those high, lonely mountain liipm-sses, we slept at night secure in a bodyguard of brigands. Well, as I say Jrtliat was the final stage, and we were

in oth- home mountains. The secenery is • nothing short of marvellous. It is wild beyond compare, and the passes through ’•which we wound were great knife-edge cleft through mountains some ef which have never been sealed. As we came nearer the city of Tatsrcsia, where 1 have lived for 20 years, we began to he surrounded by eternal snows. The people who live at those heights are distinct 'from those in the lowlands. They are hill folk, and all the world over there seems,to he a ‘something’ which marks them off from those of the plains. Progress creeps with difficulty through those rugged mountain passes.” r- “CUT OFF FROM THE WORLD.” Mr Cunningham described liis borne town, which is right in the heart of the mountains in a valley. The people there live their daily life at an nltitude nearly equal to that of Mount Cook, and the town has over 20,000 inhabitants. “We are cut off from the world,” Mr Cunnigham said, “and tve exist almost in a universe of our own creation. Little comes in, and practically nothing goes out. A war might be in progress for all that we would know

“It is a typical Chinese town. The little haphazard houses are queerly ■thatched, with the inevitable upturned eaves. They are of stone, the walls roughly hewn. The houses are just built anywhere, and sometimes one of the walls is •jammed against the .side of the steeply-sloping side of the mountains which tower sheer away up thousands of feet. The alley-ways between the houses seem just accidental and or road s there are none." The town turns and twists with the shape of the valley; hut beyond and above and below are the ■nevef-ending ranges of peaks, eternally -capped with snow. Through the centre of the town runs a river, white-necked with speed.” UNKNOWN TIBET. Though the town was exactly on the Chinese-r Tibetan border, said Mr Cunningham, he knew nothing about the adjoining land. Only vague rumours had reached him from the nomadm tribes who sometimes came near the border They told him of the fate which was meted out to intruders by the priestrulers of the closed land. A favourite method' of ’disposal' of inconvenient visitors was to put the captive at the edgo of one of the mighty precipices with which the country abounded, and then to allow a stone to roll on him They did not shed his blood; the stone cVd. Tibet was a broken mountain plateau eMiy Cunningham said, 2000 miles long

and half that in breadth. Seldom did it go below 13,000 feet. Through the unknown highlands of the land which modern civilisation did not know, nomadic tribes led their herds, and the tracks were of their own making. There were no roads, few cities—and they were merely vast monasteries. An ancient civilisation had flourished there, had died, and the land had not known another.