Front matter
Reading edition
FROM PEKIN TO CALAIS BY LAND.
LONDON
PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED,
ST. JOHN’S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL ROAD.
OUR CARAVAN (GOBI DESERT).——DAWN.
FROM PEKIN TO CALAIS BY LAND
BY
H. DE WINDT.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP.
“Plus Je vis l’étranger, plus J’aimai ma patrie.”——De Belloy.
LONDON—CHAPMAN and HALL,
LIMITED.
1889.
[All rights reserved.]
TO
THE RAJA OF SARAWAK, G.C.M.G.,
IN REMEMBRANCE OF MANY
PLEASANT HOURS OF TRAVEL SPENT IN HIS
DOMINIONS IN THE ISLAND OF BORNEO.
PREFACE.
There are two Englishmen at present living in Shanghai who have travelled overland from Europe to China. I was told, when there, that these gentlemen are continually receiving letters from England asking for information relative to the journey from Petersburg to Pekin and vice versâ, and in the Gobi Desert and Siberia.
It is mainly owing to this circumstance that I publish these pages, for I fear the general reader will find little to interest him in this record of our monotonous pilgrimage through Europe and Asia. I feel that an apology is needed for its publication, and need hardly say that it does not aspire to the title of a book of travel, being merely a record of my impressions in the less civilized parts of China, and in that weird and melancholy country, more perhaps from associations than aspect, Siberia.
The voyage is, though somewhat original, sadly devoid of interest. Urga and Irkoutsk are, no doubt, well worth seeing, but a passing glimpse of these unique cities far from repays the discomfort, not to say hardship, which must be undergone on the caravan route.
I can only trust this book may deter others from following my example, and shall then have some satisfaction in knowing that its pages have not been written in vain.
M. Victor Meignan concludes his amusing work “De Paris à Pekin par terre,” thus:——
“N’allez pas là! C’est la morale de ce livre!”
Let the reader benefit by our experience.
H. de W.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Gravesend to Pekin 1
CHAPTER II.
Pekin 60
CHAPTER III.
Pekin to Kalgan 115
CHAPTER IV.
Kalgan, or Chang-Chia-Kow 147
CHAPTER V.
The Desert of Gobi 187
CHAPTER VI.
Ourga to Kiakhta 268
CHAPTER VII.
Kiakhta to Irkoutsk 322
CHAPTER VIII.
Irkoutsk 385
CHAPTER IX.
Irkoutsk (continued) 422
CHAPTER X.
Irkoutsk to Tomsk 471
CHAPTER XI.
Tomsk 573
CHAPTER XII.
Perm to Calais 626
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
A Caravan Frontispiece
A Street in Tartar City——Pekin 110
A Mule Litter 140
Da-Hun-Go 184
Ourouni 214
My Camel Cart 222
An awkward Moment 252
A Street Prayer-wheel at Ourga 288
Our Tarantass with “Troika” 352
A Village Ostrog——Convicts on the March 409
A Siberian Criminal Convict 448
A Night in a Post-house 478
The Post-house at Rasgonnaia 493
A Siberian Village Street 496
A Prison Barge on the Obi River 614
Map.
FROM PEKIN TO CALAIS BY LAND.