THE COUNTRIES YET UNCLAIMED FOR CHRIST. OVER the whole breadth of Central Asia, there extends a mighty girdle of immense table-lands, lifted, in some parts, above the mean height even of the mountains of Europe; it stretches for 6,000 miles in length from the Mediterranean to the Pacificis nearly 2,000 miles broad at its Chinese extremity, about 1,000 miles at its centre, and from 600 to 700 as it approaches the European Continent, in the high lands of Asia Minor.

The northern boundaries of this grand plateau are the Altai mountain chains, whose summits-7,000 feet above the level of the sea-terminate in what appear to be only dark granite rocks of inconsiderable height, bordering the extreme edge of the Desert of the Great Gobi-that wide "Sea of Sand" and salt, often blown into ridges by fierce winds, 300,000 square miles in extent, and stretching away along the table-land to the Great Wall of China eastward-while the Altai ranges descend, in successive terraces, to the low-lying lands of Siberia, and frequently end in promontories on the icy plains.

The table-land of Tibet, to the south of the "Sea of Sand," VOL. XI.-No. 1.

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is crossed by transverse chains of very high mountains. At its western extremity is the small plateau of Pamer, 15,600 feet high, called by the natives the "Roof of the World.”

On the south of the plateau of Tibet, the Himalayas rear their snowy crests far above its level, some of them 12,000 feet above it, into the deep, azure sky; while below, they cast down their giant spurs towards the glowing plains of Hindostan. Tibet, which may be said to be borne upon the shoulders of those vast Himalayas, resembles in its proportions a cornucopia, the narrow end of which is placed on the "Roof of the World;" and through its wide opening, 1,500 miles to the east of Pamer, the noblest rivers of Eastern Asia flow, to carry fertility to Burmah, Siam, and China.

We have thus named the northern and southern boundaries of this plateau, and pictured it as the cradle of mighty rivers, to fix attention upon it in another way. If we could, by ascending to Pamer's highest point, look down on the moral and religious state of the surrounding countries, we should find that. the god of this world had fixed among those icy pinnacles his darksome throne, and maintained it for thousands of years! Over all Ladak and Tibet, over Burmah, Siam, and China, eastward-over Japan, Ceylon, and the valleys of Nepaul and Affghanistan, southward and westward-over the deserts of Mongolia and Tartary, northward-we should find hundreds of millions of people professing in general a religion called Buddhism, and ignorant of Jehovah and His revelation from heaven.*

Long before the rise of Papal Rome-long indeed ere Europe had risen into importance, this table-land of Asia was the highway of the world's commerce, and along its elevated plains lay the customary course of caravans. Its northern portions, Mongolia and Tartary, were, as they are now, the nurseries of nomadic and wandering nations-the men of tents, not of cities-the possessors of innumerable flocks and herds; the invaders from time to time of the more sheltered and fertile districts of the earth.

* Mohammedans and Jews are scattered among them, but Buddhism in its different shades is the prevalent belief.

The countries of the East, with their rich produce, brought luxuries to Assyria and Babylon, while Europe lay unproductive and bare-dense forests overspreading it, and its wealth all hidden in its bosom. Greece and Italy first emerged from barbarism, while Britain, Germany, and Gaul had but few wants and little to offer in exchange; yet even then commerce learned to cross the intersecting deserts of Asia, and to cope with their lawless hordes. Men travelled in bodies in those regions, and they do so still. Where the merchant and his beast of burden took shelter under the palm-tree's shade, and refreshed themselves at the ever-running spring, arose in the course of time the most celebrated cities of antiquity. Palmyra, Damascus, Alexandria, and Tyre, took their place in history from their position with regard to ancient commerce.

Commerce by sea, on a grand scale, began only after the discovery of America in 1492; meanwhile the riches of India ascended to the heights of Tibet, through the passes of the Himalaya mountains, and were then distributed east and west by a route we would now induce the reader to realize; because in these old tracks of earthly merchandize there may yet be borne to the kingdoms of inner Asia the "true riches" of the imperishable word; and we believe that God is preparing those who have so long sat in darkness shortly to say, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that bring good tidings-that publish peace."

The first efforts to carry the light of Gospel truth into the central and eastern parts of Asia were made in the fifth and sixth centuries (A.D.) by the Nestorians, who, being independent of the systems of Rome and Constantinople, had a patriarch of their own at Seleucia, and had especially protested against the worship of the Virgin Mary as the "Mother of God," which was then becoming a cherished tenet of their oppressors. The Nestorians abounded in Armenia, Persia, and Assyria; and there exist traces of their travels from Constantinople to Cathay, the ancient name of China. Their missionaries wandered on foot, their staves in their hands, over mountains, along the banks of rivers, through forests and deserts, amid privations and sufferings of every kind, to carry the tidings of salvation

to the distant heathen; and the proof that these missionaries were Nestorians, and not Romanists, is, that amidst all the absurdities and monstrosities with which Buddhism has since overlaid their early teaching, retaining, meanwhile, a few of its doctrines, there is no worship of the Virgin Mary! For interesting particulars in relation to this subject, we must refer our readers to Mr. Layard's visit in 1849 to the district of Jelu,* to the oldest church in the Nestorian mountains, where "China bowls, black with the dust of ages," verify the records of church history with regard to the Nestorian Missions, and bear witness to the marble tablet of Segnanfoo, with its Syrian inscription, for which see our vol. of the "MISSING LINK" for 1872, pp. 250-254.

It has been said of M. de Lesseps, the constructor of the Suez Canal, that ever since he won his victory over those barren sands, and became a great benefactor of commerce, he has, like another Alexander, sought new worlds to conquer.

Russia, it appears, desires to push a railway up to the frontiers of India, and M. de Lesseps considers that a railway which should link Calcutta and St. Petersburg would be enough to satisfy even his ambition, therefore he next aspires to overcome the world's highest mountain chain, and bind the Himalayas with the fetters wherewith he has vanquished the grim desert on Egypt's borders. He has just informed the Geographical Society that from his local inquiries he can furnish a choice of three lines of railway.

I., to run from Peshawur by Cabul and Samarcand through Tashkend, to Orenburg.

II., from Peshawur up the Chitral Valley, traversing the Pamer Steppe, descending to Yarkand, thence crossing Khokand to Tashkend and Orenburg.

III., from Lahore to Srimgyee, the capital of Cashmere, through the mighty Himalaya Valleys, to the Karakorum ridge, which, climbing, it also would descend upon Yarkand, and reach Orenburg as do the other routes.

M. Lesseps appears to recommend the third line as the most

Layard's Second Expedition to Nineveh and Babylon, p. 433. See also, The Book and its Story, p. 385.

possible, because for the other two the fanaticism and civil wars of Afghanistan, &c., would render the task of a survey so difficult; yet England, it has been remarked, may well ask questions in reply to this proposal. Why should she build a railway over the Himalayas? Her interests in India seem best protected by leaving the barrier as it stands, neither has she any requirements of commerce that demand a sky pathway of such cost and difficulty. The privations of such a journey are known from the adventures of private travellers, and England is not likely to see her way to encounter them merely to provide a line which will enable Russian trains to run from Orenburg to Lahore.

So say the public prints in 1874. Meantime, they may direct the attention of Christians to what still remains the dreary, icy, capital of HEATHENDOM-hinted in our frontispiece-of the "Bain y dunya," or "Roof of the world."

Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, told of the great elevation of the table-land of Pamer six centuries ago. Captain Strachey now tells us there is its counterpart in the small tableland of Kanor. On both, says Mrs. Somerville, in her Physical Geography, there is a lake 15,000 feet above the level of the sea, imbedded in mountains 19,000 feet high. In these regions are found flocks of the domestic yak and wild sheep.

The wool of the shawl-goat of Tibet comes down over these mountain passes to be woven in Kashmir, carried on sheep's backs-the tall black-faced huniyà sheep, which can support a burden of 24lbs. They carry salt, sulphur, borax, tea, golddust, sugar-candy, and dried apricots, which grow abundantly on the table-land, where both meat and fruits are cured by mere exposure to the air, owing to the dryness of the atmosphere.

The merchants of Kunawur meet those of Tibet with sugar, tobacco, indigo, opium, cotton cloths, and muslins; copper, tin, iron, swords, paper, rice, rhubarb, and spices; brocades, coloured leathers, and shawls,--a branch of the old caravan trade, in an Asiatic track of the highest antiquity. The fairs at Rampur are regularly visited twice a year; and in the bazaar hundreds then listen to the preaching of Christian missionaries,