took it down literally. The slightest unusual noise on shore, or bustle on board caused by the other denizens of the boat coming off, made him stop short and listen breathlessly, with fixed looks. I myself had to guard against robbers, against disorderly soldiers, and against emissaries whom it was quite possible the mandarins might despatch to stop my mission clandestinely, if they heard of it. But once fairly in open contact with the established authorities, I knew very well how to protect myself. I was indeed certain to be prevented from proceeding, but that was the worst that could then happen to me; as even the newest and most anti-foreign mandarin from the interior would hardly have dared to subject me to personal ill-usage. But if Chang had been discovered in my boat, it was extremely doubtful that even a fierce fight on my part and a peremptory use of the British lion would have kept his head on his shoulders. He had therefore much cause to listen in alarm at unusual noises. Suddenly a strange pattering noise on the top of the boat struck his ear and transformed him again into a listening statue. "It's only rain," I explained; " it must be raining heavily outside, and that is the noise of the drops on the roof." Chang immediately spread both hands with a sort of unction on my table, and looking to the roof with a face expressive of immense relief exclaimed, " Haou ah! Haou ah! Haou ah! Good! Good! Very good!" This meant: My countrymen, the police and military will most certainly not come out of their quarters at night in a heavy rain to search boats for rebel agents or any other persons.

I now quote from my journal again :—

"Friday, 15th April. We passed the night quietly enough in front of the Official Post Establishment. The watchman belonging to it, believing the tale of my people that we had come from the Shanghae Intendant to get intelligence, took care of us, advised us to move up to some other boats for mutual protection, &c. &c. We made him a present of twenty cash" [less than a penny at the ordinary

rate of exchange, but in food value equivalent to threepence or fourpence in England]. "At daylight this morning we started in a heavy rain, and it has been raining ever since till now, about 3 P.M., when we are entering Chang chow. Fang is here going ashore to copy the proclamation about the steamers.

"We left Chang chow at 5 P.M., and proceeded with a light, puffy but favorable breeze.

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Saturday, 16th April. Anchored in the Canal last night about a couple of hours after dark. Heard village guards beating gongs all night and also the firing at regular intervals of guns. To-day met great numbers of boats conveying troops. We passed Woo seih at about 10 A.M., and are now 5 P.M. near to the Seu sze Custom-house, on this [the north] side of which I propose remaining to-night.

"Sunday, 17th April. Passed the night on the northern side of the Seu sze Custom-house. At daybreak we started again and proceeded as far as the barrier, which was not then opened. Fang went ashore to report, as was intended when we passed before. It seems that orders were given by the Customs' officers (now returned) to the sub-examiners to see that there was no cargo, and then to open the barrier and let us pass. I was sitting was sitting as usual in the cabin when one of the fore deck mats was pulled back. I ordered it to be replaced. The boatman then said a man had come to examine the hold. I told them to let him in by the little front door, which they did. He crept in, a young mandarin follower; and one of my Shantung boatman then opened the fore hold compartments and showed him them, commencing with the foremost. The foreign boots do not appear to have attracted his attentionat least he said nothing about them-the bottles of water did." [I carried a stock of filtered drinking-water from Shanghae, it being difficult to procure wholesome clean water in these alluvial flats.] "The grain junkman, in answer to his inquiries, told him that there was opium [the traffic in which is severely punishable] inside of them; a

piece of jocularity which the youthful examiner received in dignified silence. Chang had, on the man's coming in, passed to my front window-door and, while standing in the inside, stuck his head and body out, thereby preventing the examiner from seeing me; but as I was pretty sure he would require to see the back part, I now, as he approached the door, pulled Chang back, put my head out till it was about eighteen inches from his face, and said, ' What do you want?' [He had never seen a barbarian before, had probably heard nothing but terrible tales about them, while his mind was doubtless filled with dread of long-haired people generally, after the doings of the strange long-haired men at Nanking; while, besides my whiskers, my face was rendered more hairy than any Chinaman's by stub beard and moustachios of eight days' growth. A turnpike-keeper going to a carriage-window for his pence, and there having a tiger's face thrust with a fierce growl into his, may give the reader some notion of the young man's state.] "He was so startled by the apparition, that he merely stared with widely-opened eyes and answered mechanically, 'To examine the hold.' 'Well,' I answered, 'you have seen the fore hold, and here' (with a wave of my hand inside) 'don't you see, there are no goods. What more examining do you want to do?' He crept backward to the door saying, with his eyes still fixed intently on my face, 'Well, I won't examine.' At the door however he began, but apparently quite mechanically, to speak of the main object of his visit, a present of money, This was to Fang, who was kneeling at the front. is that?' I asked, 'don't you' (to the examiner)' understand that a man of my looks has not come here without important business to do? Get out and open the barriers, and don't be troublesome.' Fang at once fell into my tone. Go, and report to your masters,' he said, but be quick and open the barrier.' In a short time the frightened man had told all his fellows, and a crowd of them collected to see; but all was now closed. Three morning guns were then fired, the bar

What

riers opened and we passed with, to my disgust, a loud gotup, derisive burst of laughter from my boatmen and people, which I checked immediately." [Proclamations were out in the country to reassure the people by the information that among other measures taken to stop the rebels, the barbarians were sending steamers to fight with them, and the Custom-house officers might very naturally suppose that I had been by the "inner waters" to see the Governor-General about that business.] "At about noon we reached Soo chow, going this time into the city, and lying in a canal not far from the principal yamuns. Sent Chang on shore for his baggage, which he had left behind at Soo chow, and also to see if there were any return letters for me at the Shanghae letter-carrier's. Fang has gone on shore for information."

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Chang returned bringing no return letters for me; but the letter-carrier, learning he was then en route for Shanghae, and having some previous acquaintance with him, thought it a good opportunity to send on his mail, and accordingly entrusted him with three packets; one addressed to Yaou, the district magistrate of Shanghae, another to some private person there, and a third which, to Chang's astonishment, I took possession of and began to open. I saw that it was the letter, posted at Chang chow, containing my No. 3 to Sir George Bonham, which had only got as far as Soo chow and has now fallen into my own hands again. Fang told me that a placard on yellow paper [i. e. an address to the public from some private people few or many] had been posted, exhorting the inhabitants, instead of flying from their homes, to enroll themselves as volunteers and keep the rebels out of their city, as the people of Canton had kept the barbarians out of theirs when they insisted on entering some time back." [The ultra Peace party in England are not aware that they were the cause of an address being issued to the two millions of Chinese at Soo chow in which the British were disparaged as people who had been beaten. It

was the rampancy of their party at home that prevented us in 1849 from supporting our treaty claim to enter the city of Canton by force; and the Chinese Government informed the whole nation that we had been deterred by force.] "He also told me that two officers had left Soo chow the day before for Shanghae, the one despatched by the Generalissimo Heang yung, the other by the Governor-General Yung wan ting. These have doubtless gone to see about steamers." [I had myself to tell them at Shanghae, a few days later, that we could give no aid.] "The yellow placard was torn down by order of the authorities lest the British barbarians should hear of it and be angry at the allusion made to them. I afterwards put on a Chinese dress, stepped into a small chair, and went through the greater portion of Soo chow, resting always for some time in front of each of the great Yamuns. Fang accompanied me on foot, together with a servant and one of my boatmen. During one of the stoppages the people went to get liquor at an adjoining spirit-shop, and the after bearer nearly took too much. At subsequent stoppages he bawled out, 'Let's go and have a glass (cup),' and staggered a good deal as he carried me. The front bearer got very anxious, hurried on our return as much as he could, and was evidently much relieved when I had stepped into the boat again without being detected as a foreigner.

"Monday, 18th April. Started at daylight. I immediately began looking out, and as soon as we had passed out at the water gate, near the south-western angle of the city wall, and there entered the Grand Canal, which forms the moat of the southern face of the city, I came out in the front altogether, and had the matting removed from the fore deck;" [i.e. again began to travel openly as a foreigner,] "to my no little relief. Great numbers of the grain junks are lying along the sides of the canal here, and also for some distance up the western face of the city. About half way up the moat of the eastern face we turned off at right angles into the canal leading to Kwan shan, in which direction we are now progressing by tracking."