Untitled

PEOGBESS OF DISCOVERY. 59
while Buddhist missionaries, Arab dealers, the great Venetian, Marco Polo, fol-
lowed by other European travellers in mediaeval times, had all to tarry in the oases
of Chinese Turkestan on their long journeys across the continent. But so for-
gotten were the old accounts, that the depression watered by the Tarim was supposed,
eighty years ago, to form part of the vast " plateau of Tatary," which was
thought to occupy all the interior of the continent. The general form of this
great cavity remained unknown till again revealed to Europe by the study of the
Chinese documents relating to the Tian-shan Nan-lu.
Adolph Schlagintweit was the first European
that reached the Tarim basin
from India in the present century. In 1857 he crossed the Karakorum, thence
descending to the plains and pushing on to Kashgar, only to be assassinated by
- - H'wen Tsinjr.
MwrcoPolo.
_.._.._ Schbmrintweit.
1 - .. Valikhanov.
._ Johnson.
Fig. 21. ITINERARIES OF THE TIAN-SHAN NAX-LU.
6,800 to 18,000 Feet.
Scale 1 : 16,350,000.
10,000 and upwartls.
Oaten Sackcn.
Fonryth.
Venynkov.
Gordon.
Regel.
BOO Miles.
_,
Knropatkin.
Severtzov.
Prjevalaky.
Kaulbare.
Portal Route.
order of the ruling prince, Vali Khan. Thus were lost to science all his labours,
notes, and collections. Eight years
afterwards Johnson visited Khotan and the
surrounding deserts, and this was the first of the English expeditions inspired by
the commercial and political rivalries of England and Russia. In 1868 Shaw
undertook the exploration of the trade routes down to the plains, while Hayward
received from the London Geographical Society the mission to survey the plateau
regions. Hayward shared the fate of Schlagintweit, but Shaw succeeded in col-
lecting much information on the trade of the country, and soon after accompanied
the famous embassy to Yakub, sovereign of Kashgaria. Forsyth, the head of the
mission, got no farther than Yarkand, but he returned three years afterwards with
a more numerous staff of explorers, am6ugst whom were Gordon, IJiddulph, Trotter,