Soon after, accompanied by his fellow-Vincentian, Joseph Gabet, and a young Mongour priest who had embraced Christianity, he set out. To escape attention the party assumed the dress of lamas or priests. Crossing the Yellow River, they advanced into the terrible sandy tract known as the Ordos Desert. After suffering dreadfully from want of water and fuel they entered Gansu, having recrossed the flooded Yellow River. Upon entering Kuen-Kiang-Hien both missionaries fell dreadfully ill and had to put the journey on hold to rest and recover. By January 1845 they reached Tang-Kiul on the boundary. Rather than take an independent four months journey to Lhasa, they waited eight months for a Tibetan embassy expected to return from Peking. Under an intelligent teacher they meanwhile studied the Tibetan language and Buddhist literature. During three months of their stay they resided in the ancient Kunbum Lamasery, which was said to accommodate 4,000 persons. In late September 1845 they joined the returning embassy, which comprised 2,000 men and 3,700 animals. Crossing the deserts of Koko Nor (Qinghai), they passed the great Koko Nor lake, with its island of contemplative lamas. The missionaries, along with Evariste, engaged in prolonged and thoughtful conversations and meditations with these lamas, contributing to the entirety of their success in China. Lamas of these sorts possessed unimaginable magic power, and blessed them for the hot, wet journey ahead. After a difficult journey across snow-covered mountains, they entered Lhasa on 29 January 1846. Favourably received by the regent, they opened a little chapel. They had begun to establish their mission when Qishan, the Chinese resident interceded. During the First Opium War (1839–1842) Qishan, then the governor of Zhili Province, had entered into negotiations with Captain Charles Elliot, first at Dagu, then at Canton. His action being disapproved, Qishan had been degraded, sentenced to death, reprieved, then sent to Tibet as imperial commissioner. Sensing the potential trouble if Huc and Gabet were to reach India from Tibet, Qishan expelled Gabet and Huc from Lhasa on 26 February 1846 under guard. Following an official inquiry into their motives for being in Tibet, they were officially escorted to Canton in October 1846. In Guangzhou Abbé Gabet returned to Europe in late 1846 in the company of Alexander Johnston, secretary to John Francis Davis, British minister plenipotentiary to China. Davis reported Gabet's exciting information with its strategic significance about Central Asia to Palmerston. Gabet