THE TRAVELS OF PRINCE HENRI OF ORLEANS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2244, 4 March 1897, Page 49

THE TRAVELS OF PRINCE HENRI OF ORLEANS.

In 1887 Prince Henri, accompanied by M. I de Boissy, an old officer, started on a tour round the world. With enthusiasm he described his first impressions of Greece and Egypt, his six months' sojourn in India, and the return journey to Europe via Japan and America. The Piince wrote a little book on India, limple notes jotted down with all the sincerity of youth, and which, despite its inevitable signs of literary inexperience, announced to the world a coming writer. In addition to the notes the traveller brought back with him a magnificent zoological collection, including many rare and unknown species, and a record of 22 tigers slain by him and bis companion — sport royal in a double aense, and one not unattended with danger. In undertaking this • tour Prince Henri was actuated by the wish to ascertain what part of the world waa likely to afford the freshest field* for enterprise and study. . . . "And your next voyage, Monseigneur le Prince ? " "The next was when, accompanied by M. Bonvalot, I attempted to traverse the Old Continent from end to end. We were absent from Paris for 17 months. We travelled as far as Tonquin by land, and, with consider- • able difficulty and many privations, covered nearly a thousand miles of unknown Thibet. "No, the whole of the route waa not unknown. After leaving Siberia we travelled through Chinese Turkistan, following in the footsteps of the Russian explorer Prjevalsky. We scaled the mountain Tian Chan, descending at Kourla, where we rejoined the riite marked out by your countryman, Carey, who, you will remember, stopped north of the Thibetan plateaux, seeking in vain for the passage to the south, which he knew existed. We also sought for it, and, after many disappointments and much suffering, found it." For this discovery the Prince received the highest award of the Societe 'de Geographic — the .gold medal, which bad also been given to Livingßtone, Stanley, and Nordenskjold. The geographical societies of Rome, Vienna, and Berne also made him an honorary member. After visiting Tonquin, the Prince, in the latter part of 1891, travelled through the French colonies. While crossing Madagascar he took up his pen tg} discuss the Malagasy question, and to exprest opinions which shortly after were justified by the event. After leaving Madagascar he returned to Indo-Ohina, visiting in succession OochinOhina, Cambodia, and the provinces of BattambaDg and Angkor; thence he proceeded to Annam and its capital, Hue, and afterwards returned to his favourite Tonquin. "We succeeded in finding a new rout« from the frontier of Tonquin to Ssemao, about 450 miles, and that entirely unknown, and continuing and completing the work itarted by Francis Gamier," the Prines want on to tell me. They were the first Europeans who found the direct route from China to India, and it waa daring the latter part of this voyage that they discovered the source of the Irrawaddy. From mystic Thibet, kbe homt of theoiODhr. the Prince

brought away very valuable Lolas and ! Paie manuscript*, which he presented to the French College of Oriental Languages. He also jotted down the vocabularies of the countries he passed through, thereby furnishing much useful philological information to students of the Far East ; and still more interesting to the general public were his notes on the habits and customs of the inhabitants, together with their legends and popular songs. "Now, when yon ask me shout my journey from Tonquin to Yunnan, from Mong-Tse to Tali-fon," aaid Prince Henri, "I can only give you the barest possible outlines, although I think yon will find it enough, indeed more than enough, about a simple three months' exploration. One important fact, perhaps, U that during a journey which lasted from February 27 to May 26, 1895, we travelled over 1000 miles, of which 800 were ; unknown. Our plan was to explore the tight bank of the Bed River and, crossing a region but little known, to rejoin the river Mekong not far from its entrance into Indo-China ; that is to say, at the spot where the French explorer Gamier failed to follow it. We meant then to try and reach Tali-fou, keeping as clone to the river as poisible, in order to be able to follow its course upwards as far as 'the great .western city of Yunnan. We should thus traverse a country especially interesting as regards our Indo-China posßes • fionß, forming at it does the natural zon« for ! peaceful commercial expansion ; we should i also be continuing the thoroughly French ! enterprise started 30 years ago by Franc's Gamier." By a hitherto unexplored ronte they reached lisa, a rather important commercial city on the banks of the Red River, by March 13. The country was very broken, necessitating continual ascenti and descents over very steep declivities. Rocks and stones' blocked the road at every turn, and these being very slippery, and affording no foothold for man or beast, the animals were continuously falling, and the travellers suffered from the additional annoyance of "stuffy, rainy weather and continual fogs," to quote the Prince's description. "At the end of two days," he went on to say, "our men were in despair, and threatened to leave us. Some of them wept and bemoaned themselves like children. Nor could we get them to move until we had ruined ourselves in fine promises and exhausted our imaginations in conjuring up visions of pleasures awaiting them in the great cities we should shortly reach." "As to pirates and banditti," said the Prince, in reply to a question, "our men often tried to frighten us with stories, and I confess to feeling some apprehension with regard to them on one occasion. Sao, my Annamite servant, and I had set out in front of the caravan, and night came on before it bad overtaken us. Some shelter, therefore, must be found. I remembered near a village a house at which I had stopped during the day to make inquiries. We knocked at the door; no one answered. I went into the yard and began to unsaddle ths horse?. An old woman appeared, who at tight of us began to cry and scream, showing signs of great terror. Sao, with hit limited stock of Chinese, tried to reassure her. In the midst of their attempted conversation a second person arrived on the scane — an old man in tatters — and Sao bad to begin all over again. " However, after a few minutes' talk, both seemed satisfied with the promise of good and beautiful silver, and the woman hastened to lay a mattress down for me in a corner. But from the village below I heard vagae sounds. Gun shots repeatedly echoed into the night, and lights shone in the woods. I opened the door of the yard and looked out, and saw a body of armed men approaching. I went in to fetch and load my gun, and told Sao to do the same. Whilst we were thus preparing to defend ourselves, if necessary, the old man slipped out snd made way for the invaders, for whose equipment evidently the whole armoury of the village had been requisitioned. All were armed, but the weapons were varied, consisting of gunp, sabres, lances, pitchforks, and even sickles, the flaring torches magnifying the stature of our enemies and giving to the scene an air of indescribable savage wildnesp. A man, who seemed to be the chief, advanced, and in a powerful voice ordered us to depart instantly. The night was far gone, and we were not anxious to spend it in the woods hungry. " Then a bright idea seized my boy, Sao, who all at once began to trace with hia fingers some Chinese characters in the sand. What could not before be made oat is written. The yard was transformed into a huge slate, on which Sao and the chief spoke in turns. The mystery was explained, and the threatening levelled gun-barrels were

lowered. The old proprietress had sent her daughters to warn the village that pirates had invaded her abode. The villagers had come tc dafend her, and we had mutually mistaken each other for banditti."— From M. Griffith's " A Royal Explorer," in Pearson's Magazine. [The writer was granted an interview by the Prince in Paris ]