Dr. Sven (or, as our historians used to write it,
Sweyn) Hedin, the great Swedish explorer, gave a most interesting address on Monday to the Royal Geographical Society. After mention- ing some Chinese manuscripts of the fourth century which he had discovered, and which are still quite intelligible to Chinese scholars, he proceeded to describe his travels in Thibet. He made two determined efforts to reach Lhassa, but was stopped on each occasion by armed men sent by the Lamas, who, though they treated him kindly under instruc- tions from the Dalai Lama, made it quite clear to him that if he pressed on he would be put to death. "It is entirely un- necessary," proclaims the Chief Lama, "that Europeans should enter Thibet to spy out the land." Dr. Sven Hedin gives a frightful account of the climate, which killed some of his fol- lowers, the cold in that lofty region being almost unendurable. He himself would have perished but that he took the precaution to sit perfectly still on his horse through an entire night. It is, however, to be noted that the native Mongolians do not appear to suffer in this way, and it is possible that Dr. Sven Hedin and his followers were more out of condition than he imagined. It is probable that the kindness of the Dalai Lama was dictated by standing orders from Pekin, where the policy of the Government is to keep Europeans out of Thibet, but to avoid, if possible, giving an excuse for an armed expedition from India to avenge innocent travellers. Dr. Sven Hedin's account of his travels will, we fancy, be the most widely read book of the kind ever published.
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