ABSTRACT
Having by my aforesaid diligence discovered the site of the enemy’s camp, the quality of their arms and their artifices, and provided myself with arms and ammunition, towards the end of November I resolved to challenge them and begin war. In the name and by the aid of God, I commenced to confute the errors of that Sect and to declare the truth of our Holy Faith. But how true is the well-known proverb that “Man proposes, but God disposes”. The terrible events and catastrophes which I shall describe further on, the cruel murder of the King on the thirteenth of December, his family and faithful ministers dispersed, only to be killed later, the kingdom invaded, the throne seized, and the city of Lhasá sacked and made desolate, altered everything. During this terrible time I remained hidden in the Monastery and university of Será. Seeing that all was changed and horror and cruelty reigned, fearing that the friendship shown me by the dead King and by the Viceroy who had just been seized and horribly maltreated might get me into trouble, I determined at the end of December to go to the Province of Takpó-Khier, belonging to this same Thibet, but eight days’ journey from Lhasá. 33 There I remained, with the exception of a few months passed later at Lhasá, until April, 1721, all of which I shall describe later.
