It is interesting to compare this account with that derived by Mr. Cooper from information furnished him in the north of the province as to the rebellious attitude assumed by the imperial viceroy, himself a Mahommedan proselyte, who had actually concluded a treaty of partition with the sultan of Tali, and corrupted the imperial troops sent to quell the revolt with funds furnished by the sultan. We do not, however, possess such information as will enable us to reconcile the two accounts which present so many points of agreement and difference. By a curious coincidence, that most enterprising traveller, having been turned back by the impossibility of penetrating to Tali, was detained at Weisee-fu, one hundred and twenty miles distant, at the very time of our stay at Momien. The utter want of communication kept us in perfect ignorance of his being comparatively so near at hand, and he was equally unaware of our presence in Western Yunnan. Our information as to the passage of the French mission was, if anything, worse, as an obstructive falsehood is perhaps more aggravating than complete ignorance. During the first week of July the governor communicated the information that some six or eight months previously the French expedition had come into collision with hostile tribes in the vicinity of Kiang-hung, and had suffered severe losses; some of their number had perished, and the remainder had arrived in a state of exhaustion and want at a place called Thela, where they had been kindly received. This information he declared to be authentic, and furnished by a relative of his own, resident at Thela, who had purchased some of the arms and other property taken from the French. As at that time the last news received some time before our departure from Burma had stated the party to be at Kiang-tong or Xiang-tong, a Laotian state tributary to Burma, we could not help fearing that some disaster must have befallen them. The statement may have been a distorted account of the detention experienced by the French before reaching Kiang-hung, and the fact that they were obliged to reduce their baggage, some of the articles referred to as proof positive by the Panthays having perhaps come from the superfluous stores, given or bartered away to the Laotians. It does, as M. Gamier remarks, appear improbable that the governor, who was a trusted officer of the sultan, should have received no information as to the visit to Tali-fu of the party in the month of March preceding.[37] On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine any reason for his suppression of his knowledge of it, unless he feared that we should be thereby inclined to mistrust the letters from the sultan. As regards Garnier’s theory that the apparent welcome given to us was intended to do away with any unfavourable impression which might have been produced in the minds of foreigners by the sultan’s refusal to see the French party, and ordering their instant departure,