Lanterna Rally

Author: Albert Shelton

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-08-10

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 9781516829507

Albert Leroy Shelton (1875-1922) was a medical doctor and a Protestant missionary in China and Tibet from 1903 to 1922. Published in 1921, "Pioneering In Tibet" recalls Shelton's mission travels through Tibet. Far from a mundane read, Shelton's journey through Tibet to provide medical and religious outreach to the country's inhabitants culminated in his abduction by bandits. Book Excerpt: Now began about forty days of most strenuous travelling, the most strenuous that I ever had. I had been travelling for forty-seven days before I was captured, and had been travelling for a month since I was captured, and the strain was beginning to tell. Up to this time the tumor in my neck had given me not a great deal of trouble, but it now began to grow at an increased rate and began paining to some extent. The men and Yangtienfu did not mistreat me, in fact they treated me as a guest and as well as was possible in the circumstances, living as they were like wild animals, being chased over the mountain by dogs, sleeping at night many times under the trees and behind rocks. At one time they discussed what would be the effect of killing me, whether or not it would be advisable. They came to the conclusion that it would not be advisable because Yang himself hoped someday to be Governor of Yunnan, and they considered that, should they kill me, he might be looked upon with disfavor by the representatives of the foreign powers, so it was definitely decided that I was not to be killed in any case. "We were travelling in a very irregular course, but within two days we had crossed to the north of the main road and started toward the bend in the Yangtze River some days to the north. It was now nearing Chinese New Year, which date is an important one with every Chinese. It is the time of year that he wants to go home and be with his family. It is the greatest time in the whole year. One day we had stopped for noon at a small place and on getting ready to start on I noticed four of the men in the road kneeling and crying. The whole bunch was around them and talking in quite loud voices. I rode up and asked Yang what the trouble was. He said, "These fellows want to go home." "Well," I said, "aren't you going to let them?" He had some days previously, on taking them into the band (they were of the company of soldiers who joined the band), promised them that they should be allowed to go home at any time they wished to go, but that they would not be allowed to take their guns, but must dispose of them for a reasonable price to the band; the guns and ammunition were never to be disposed of, and on these terms the men had joined. Several of them now wanted to go but permission was refused. To see the men thus forced to continue in this life when I knew that there were a great many who were genuinely desirous of quitting, made me very angry. I said to him in quite a loud tone of voice so that all those around could hear, "Why don't you take those four men and me, for I want to go back, too, and stand us up against the wall and shoot us? We're all in the same mood and you're going to get before very long what they gave their officials some days ago when they mutinied. You can't continue to deceive men and misrepresent things to them and keep it up. They'll turn some day and you will be shot."