A Desert Journal letters from Central Asia

French, Evangeline; Cable, Mildred; French, Francesca

Published by Constable & Co London, hardcover, illustrated, one folded map

FOREWORD
THESE Desert Journals are personal letters sent home during a period of years spent on missionary journeys in Central Asia.
They were written in unusual places and in diverse circumstances. Sometimes in the shade of a Tibetan lamasery, sometimes in the Palace of a Mongol Khan, occasionally from the sand hips of the Edzin Gol and often in a mud shelter of the great Desert of Gobi.
The strange hieroglyphics traced by the pencil were always an object of interest to curious onlookers : " What ability ! " " What speed ! " " They write in the scholar's flowing style ! " " Much learning has destroyed their eyesight ; look, they all wear glasses ! " were the murmured comments to which they were penned.
The dispatch of almost each letter was a problem, for only occasionally was normal postal service available, and sometimes a travelling merchant has carried a packet to post in some distant town. When brigands controlled the area and censored all letters, the journals were cut into strange patterns to be brought together again by the friend who received and circulated them.
The writers are three members of the China Inland Mission who, between them, have Biven ninetyeight years to missionary work in the Far East.