ABSTRACT
As already mentioned, on the fourth of January, 1716, we reached the first inhabited place, called Serchia (or Ser-kia), where the Princess fell seriously ill. Thus the whole caravan was stopped. She sent to beg us not to proceed as she wished to have the glory of conducing us safely to the end of our long journey. On the twenty-eighth she was much better and we started again. We passed many small villages, but only two towns, Secchia and Giegazzè [Sakya and Shigatse], 27 of which I shall speak later when I describe this Third Thibet. In both places we stayed a few days. Finally, two years and four months after I left Goa, and one year and a half since our departure from. Delly, and ten whole months since leaving Kascimir, we arrived, by the grace of God, on the eighteenth day of March, 1716, at the city of Lhasá, capital of this Thibet, which once before had been selected as a seat of our Missions. My companion had always lived in hot climates and feared the intense cold and the thin air, so after staying a few days at Lhasà to recuperate, he left (on April sixteenth) by the more frequented road through Nepal and returned to Hindustan. Thus I remained for some time alone, the only Missionary, indeed the only European in this immense country of the three Thibets.
