Through the Yang-tse Gorges ... Third and revised edition, etc

Front matter

THROUGH THE YANG-TSE GORGES Travelling House-boat on Upper Yang-tse, the Author in Chinese Dress standing on accompanying " Red, or Life-saving Boat, [Frontispiece THROUGH The Yang=tse Gorges OR TRADE AND TRAVEL IN WESTERN CHINA BY ARCHIBALD JOHN LITTLE, F.R.G.S. " Let me journey down On the great river, that from town to town, Through meadow miles ; 'twixt gorges of the hills, Sweeps through the land's whole length, and ever fills Its widening channel deeper." — Yu-Pe-Ya's Lute. " Good government obtains, when those who are near are made happy, and those who arc far off are attracted."— Confucius, " Lun yu," xlii. 16, 2. THIRD AND REVISED EDITION, WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY LIMITED St. -Bunstan's J^nuse Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. Low's Popular Library of Travel and Adventure, Uniform crown Svo. volumes, fully Illustrated, bound in cloth, Half-a-Crown each.

Ten Years' Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp, 1882-1892. From the Original Manuscripts of Father Joseph Ohrwalder. By Colonel F. R. Wingate, R.A. ALo Limited Edition at 6d., just published. How I Found Livingstone. Including Four Months' Residence with Dr. Livingstone. By Henry M. Stanley. The Cruise of the 'Falcon.' A Voyage to South America in a Thirty-ton Yacht. By E. F. Knight. The Great Lone Land. A Record of Travel and Adventure in North and West America, iiy Gen. SirW. F. Butler, K.C.B. Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa. By Lord Randolph Churchill. The River Congo. From the Mouth to B6*lo*b6*. By H. H. Johnston, C.M.G. Clear Round ! Seeds of Story from other Countries ; a Chronicle of Links and Rivets in this World's Girdle. By E. A. Gordon. The Cruise of H.M.S. 'Challenger.' Scenes in Many Lands, Voyages over Many Seas.

By W. J. J. Spry, R.N., F.R.G.S. Through Masai Land. A Journey of Exploration among the Snow-clad Volcanic Mountains and Strange Tribes of i astern Equatorial Africa. By Joseph Thomson. The Wild North Land. By Gen. Sir Wm. F. Butler, K.C.B. Coomassie. The Story of the Campaign in Africa, 18771-74. By H. M. Stanley, M.P. j '* Magdala. The Story of the Abyssinian Campaign of 1866-67. By H. M. Stanley, M.P. ' Hausaland. By Rev. C. H. Roeinson, M.A. Two Kings of Uganda. By Rev. R. P. Ashe, M.A. Two Roving Englishmen in Greece. By Isabel J. Armstrong. How I Shot My Eears ; or, Two Years' Camp Life in Kullu and Lahoul. By Mrs. R. H. Tyacke. On the Indian Hills : Coffee Planting in Southern India. By Edwin Letter Arnold. On Horseback through Asia Minor. By Col. Fred Burnaby. London : SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY, Limited, St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, E.C. XLO MY WIFE, THE UNTIRING COMPANION OF MY TRAVELS, TO WHOSE SKILL WITH THE CAMERA I OWE THE VIEWS OF THE SCENERY, OFTEN TAKEN AMIDST GREAT DIFFICULTIES, 3 H)et>fcate tbts TOorfe.

Preface

TO THE THIRD EDITION Notwithstanding that ten years have elapsed since the last edition of this book was published, the description of the grand Gorges of the Yang-tse remains as true and as fresh as on the day it was written, and little apology is needed for again bringing the scene before the public eye. The out side trade of Szechuan, estimated roughly at about five millions sterling, is still carried on by a fleet of eight to ten thousand junks, whose crews animate the rocks and precipices of the wild scenery, their shouts re-echoing from cliff to cliff as they toil over the broken ground. But during these ten years much has happened in China. The great unwieldy empire has been rudely shaken by the French war in 1885, and by the Japanese war in 1895, which brought about, the latter especially, a cruel exposure of China's weakness.

This weakness was well known to residents on the spot, and should have been better appreciated and prepared for by our leading poli ticians at home. In the following pages of my Diary, Preface to the Third Edition XII written in 1883, it will be seen that I predicted the collapse that was then imminent, and demonstrated the folly of continuing our attempts to conciliate the corrupt camarilla ruling in Peking, and the worth lessness of China as an ally. It was this yielding to the worst features of Chinese conservatism that frustrated my original attempt to open the Upper Yang-tse to steam. Now, at last, thanks to the determination of the Japanese, and to our own Government's fortunate change of front, since the appointment to Peking of our present energetic Minister, Sir Claude Macdonald, a pioneer steamer has ascended to Chung-king, and the account of the voyage is set forth in the last chapter of the book. Oriental Club, London, October yth, 1898. CONTENTS

Chapter I. Introductory

PAGE The Government of the Chinese — Revolutions — Trade — Taxes — Our interests in Szechuan — Imports and exports — Comparative trade of all the provinces ..... I

Chapter II. Shanghai To Ichang

Shanghai to Ichang — Hankow — A Yang-tse boat — Shasze — The plains of Hupeh — A Szechuan river-boat — Flooded districts — Approach to the hills — Ichang 15

Chapter III. Ichang And Its Environs

The foreign community — Fishing with otters — " Feng Shui " — The conglomerate country — Cave of the Dragon King — Underground Lake — The "Dome" — Startling coup-d'œil — Cloud-mist Mountain — Chinese country house — Unexpected hospitality — Master and servant — Auspicious site — Woodcutters — Steep climb — Chinese "Pahs" — Taoist temple — Magnificent prospect — Ascent of the Golden Peak — Chinese candles — A model hotel bill — Plank bridge — Return to Ichang ■ • Contents XIV PAGE 5° 8*7 138

Chapter IV. Above Ichang

Start for the gorges— Grand coup-d'œil— Tourist's inscriptions— A factory of boulders— Advantages of a light boat— A temple school — A"FengShui" problem

Chapter V. In Szechuan

The Customs at Kwei-chow— Transit passes — Their effect on the provincial officials— The drought— Anthracite at Kwei-chow —Visit to a mandarin— A concert— Management of the junks

Chapter VI. On To Chung-king

Iron workers— Census taking — Site of old Chung-chow — A rainbringing opera — Deforesting of the country — Feng-tu — The temple ofthe Chinese Pluto — Fu-chow — Chang-chow — First sight of Chung-king . . . . . . . .107

Chapter VII Chung-king

Tlie weather — Morning calls — Visit to a Chinese country house — A fine road — A tedious meal — Personal uncleanliness — The Tung family — -"Feng Shui " again — A tough yarn — An inscription

Chapter VIII. Chung-king

Return to town — Catholic and other missions — Visitors — The China Inland Mission — Native post — A Taoist temple — The priests hard-up — Chinese banks— An ephemeral town — Across the river — The Catholic cathedral — Charming surroundings of the city — Filth within— Dull evenings — Chess — Malt liquor — A public garden — The walls — Slow progress of the missionaries . . . . . . . 1 Contents XV 213

Chapter IX. Chung-king

Ponies — Silk weaving — Prehistoric caves — A sine country-house — A Catholic chapel — A Buddhist oracle— The coal-workings — Cost of getting and transporting coal — An eviction scrim mage — Ventilation — A huge coalfield — A farmhouse— Opium-smoking — Agile ponies — Return by boat — Fine scenery — Legends — The river rising— Trade guilds — Another country-house — Civility of the Chung-kingese — The women's feet — The Manchus — A pseudo-European dinner 176

Chapter X. The Downward Voyage

Adieux — A crowded boat — Change to a salt-junk— A strange manoeuvre — A day on the rocks — Sham tea — Equipage of the junk — The gorges once more — Mooring for the night — Delays — Change to a wupan — Pirates — Feng Tu

Appendix

. Address of Welcome from the "Foreign" Residents in Chung-king. . . 301 Index LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO FACE PAGE Travelling House-boat on Upper Yang-tse, the Author in Chinese Dress standing on accompanying " Red," or Life-saving Boat (Frontispiece) Buddhist Temple on Summit of Conglomerate Pinnacle 1200 Feet high -. on Yang-tse River near Ichang (p. 34) 36 Junks in Ichang, with Masts erected preparatory to starting up Stream (p. 38) 36 View of " The Pyramid," on Opposite Bank, taken from the Promenade on Top of Ichang City Wall. This Natural Pyramid of Sandstone, rising 500 Feet above the River, is almost identical in Size and Shape with the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt (p. 40) . . 46 Ferry opposite Ichang City at Mouth of Small River : Sandstone Cliff (p. 50) 46 House-boat in Ichang Gorge; Dangerous Rock, "the Sleeping Pig" (covered in Summer), in Middle Distance . 52 "Pillar of Heaven" in Ichang Gorge; Limestone Pinnacle rising 1800 Feet above River 54 One of our Crew on Tow-path near Niu-kan Gorge . . 58 Junks waiting their Turn to ascend New Rapid.

In Summer Freshets, River rises to Foot of Houses on Right. Shin t'an List of Illustrations XVIII TO FACE PAGE Home of Retired "Armateur" at Shin t'an, Mouth of Pingshu Gorge 64 Seven-storied Pagoda below Patung. Note Fluted Rock, about 50 Feet High, on Right Hand, being Ancient " Pot-holes " in the Limestone worn through by the Current 70 Our House-boat, with Cliff, in Wushan Gorge ... 72 Travelling House-boat, with Tender, moored in Wushan Gorge : Nude Figure in Foreground, Man who swims out to disengage the Tow-lines : Tender is steered by Long Stern-sweep : House-boat with Long Bow-sweep 78 Entrance to Bellows Gorge ; Cliffs 3000 and 4000 Feet. In the cliff on the right are cut the Square Holes of Meng-liang's Ladder 82 Kwei-chow Fu, Five Miles from Upper Entrance to Gorges ; Entrance shown in Split Hill on Left, Height 3000 to 4000 Feet 88 Trackers hauling on Bamboo Tow-lines at Entrance to Ping-shu Gorge . . 94 Chang-fei's Temple, opposite Yiinyang, Winter Level.

In Summer, Foreground covered to a Depth of 50 Feet. 98 " Full Moon " Pavilion in Garden of Temple dedicated to Changfei, Hero of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (a.d. 200), opposite City of Yiinyang : Wall and Pillars Stone, Roofs Thatch (p. 100) 120 Five-storied Pagoda at Feng-tu (p. 120) . . . .120 Szechuan Poppy-field in Bloom, in Month of April . .118 Free School in Szechuan : Characters " I Shuo " (Free Teaching) over Door i,0 Cargo-boat rowing down Stream (p. 135) . . . .138 List of Illustrations XIX TO FACE PAGE Entrance Gate of Temple outside Walls of Chung-king City ; the Chinese Characters are, " Cave of Genii and Spirits " (p. 139) 138 Green and Yellow Tiled Roof of Pavilion (p. 106) . . 158 Graves on Range of Hills opposite Chung-king : the two " Characters " cut in the Limestone indicate that this Mountain is a Reproduction of the Sacred " Mount T'u" in Shantung Province (p. 158) . . . .158 Roof Corner, Guildhall, Chung-king (p. 164) . . . 164 Dinner-party in Chung-king : Guests facing Theatrical Performance ; Intervening Courtyard, or " Pit " filled with freely admitted Audience from the Street (p. 200) 164 Hoangko Shu, and Ficus infectoria with Shrine as usual round Roots, and my Stallion from Province Kweichow, with whom I travelled 1 500 Miles . . .176 Stage Court in Hukwang Guildhall, Chung-king . . 202 Garden in Country-seat of the Yuen Family, outside Chung-king 206 Salt Junk, about 70 Tons, with' Screw-oars or" Yuloes " alongside, moored near Entrance to Ichang Gorge : bound down River, Mast lashed alongside . . . 222 Trackers hauling Junk up the Shin t'an, or New Rapid . 238 City of Chung-king, built on Rocky Peninsula at Junction of Kia-ling River, from the North and Yang-tse ; View taken from South Bank of Yang-tse .... 252 Pavilion in Garden of "White Emperor's City," on Cliff at Mouth of Bellows Gorge 282 " We were the First," etc THE BRITISH SPHERE OF INFLUENCE The British sphere of influence or interest, as it has been indifferently described by our Ministers in Parliament, is defined in the despatch of Sir Claude Macdonald to the Tsung-li-Yamen ofthe 19th February of this year (1898), as "the Yang-tse region" and the "provinces adjoining the Yang-tse."

A more exact definition, and one that we have attempted to embody in the map attached to this work, is the " Yang-tse Basin " : the boundaries of this region are naturally and indisputably defined by the crests of the water partings that surround the catchment area; or, in plain English, the area of our so-called sphere comprises the valley of the Yang-tse and the valleys of its tributaries. It is to China what the valley of the Mississippi is to North America, Shanghai's situation at the mouth of the Yang-tse being analogous to that of New Orleans on the Mississippi ; and what the valley of the Amazon is to the South American continent, the total area of which is a little greater than that of the Chinese Empire. In each case it is the heart of a continent as represented by the valley of its greatest river.

In the case of China, this heart comprises an area of 600,000 square miles, inhabited by about 180,000,000 of the most industrious and peaceable people on the world's surface. It opens out a magnificent prospect for British enterprise, while leaving vast regions in the wide Chinese Empire open to other Powers, should the unfortunate alternative of partition of spheres take the place of equal opportunities for all everywhere, in which case we must accept the Yang-tse basin as a pis-aller and lose no more time in securing the region allotted as our sphere by effective occupation. c The British Sphere of Influence The watershed or catchment area of the Yang-tse basin comprises, outside the Tibetan plateau, the six large pro vinces of Szechuan, Hupeh, Hunan, Kiangsi, Nganhui and Kiangsu, part of Chekiang, the greater part of Honan, besides the northern drainage area of the provinces of Yunnan and Kweichow ; a large order certainly, but in no way incommensurate with our present share in the foreign trade of the Empire.

Of this trade British imports and exports amount to fully two-thirds of the whole, while the area in question barely covers two-fifths of China proper, entirely excluding the vast and potentially rich regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, Turkestan and Tibet, all which are still in name subject to the " Son of Heaven." This region, forming the British sphere, extends t roughly between the twenty-eighth and thirty-second parallels of north latitude, and between the ninety-eighth and one hundred and eighteenth meridians of east longitude. South of this wide sphere we find the five rich provinces of Fuhkien, Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Kweichow and Yunnan ; the last three generally acknowledged as the French sphere, together with the former Chinese dependencies of Annam and Tongking, now definitely annexed to France.

Co terminous with our sphere on the north, the boundary line being the crests of the mountain ranges that divide the two basins, lies the great valley-plain (Tiefebene) of the Yellow River, the ancient home of the Chinese race and southern boundary of China until about the beginning of the Christian era. This Yellow River basin comprises the provinces of Kansu, Shensi, Shansi, Shantung, and the Metropolitan province of Chihli — all provinces with a rich soil and prosperous population, said to be immeasurably rich in minerals. Their climate is temperate, and hence *wheat and millet take the place of the rice-fields, the sugar, The British Sphere of Influence XXIII opium, and cotton of the South. The climate of North China is generally considered one of the finest in the world, and hence, if a partition is to be made, I would gladly take it in exchange for the somewhat more productive but undoubtedly malarious valley of the Yang-tse.

To the north of these, again, we have the vast territories of Manchuria and Mongolia — both regions originally pastoral, now invaded by the agricultural settlements of immigrants from China proper. Manchuria is rich in gold, and has a hardy popu lation of some twenty millions ; this province, the cradle of the reigning dynasty, has now been overrun by Russia, and the latest telegrams announce the forcible seizure of Newchwang, its one Treaty Port, by the Russians. In an article in the last September number of the Contemporary Review I figured out the present inter-port trade on the Yang-tse River at and added my opinion that, given a stable and progressive Government, affording encouragement to capitalists, with security for their investments— resulting in improved means of communication and a corresponding development of its natural resources — the Yang-tse valley will increase its trade by leaps and bounds, and the of to-day will be to-morrow.

I added the grounds upon which I based my expectation of this rapid increase, and wound up by asking, What is our Government going to do in regard to our so-called sphere ? To this question it appears to me that capitalists in this country, and British merchants in China, have a right to demand a definite answer. We were told that the " open door" policy would be upheld even at the cost of war. These were brave words, as spoken by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach in his celebrated Bristol speech, and met a hearty response from Britons on the spot. They have unfortunately not been upheld : if they had been there would The British Sphere of Influence have been no war. As things now are, Russia has cancelled a British lien on the railway connecting the Treaty Port of Newchwang with the existing Tientsin line ; Germany has warned us off Shantung; France puts a transit duty of ten per cent, on British goods from Hong Kong for the 200 miles distance by the Red River of Tongking to Laokai, on the Yunnan border ; at the same time she has compelled the wretched Chinese Government to admit goods over her border for two-thirds of the five per cent, duty collected by the Maritime Customs at the other Chinese ports.

This is one instance of many how the object of France and Russia is to steal a revenue from our trade with China rather than the promotion of trade itself. Our ports and the Chinese Treaty Ports are free to all. Our rivals will not grant this reciprocity. Hence, if our Government does not wake up and take hold of the subject seriously, and make the occupation of our sphere effective while there is yet time to do so, we shall learn some fine morning that our rivals have arranged Chinese affairs to suit their own interests exclusively. Then with preferential transit and other tariffs directed against us, we shall have handed over the solid work of three generations of Britons in China to our unscrupulous rivals ; or else at last the British people will be aroused, and the Government, nolens volens, driven to fight for our tradal existence in the Far East ; and this is the course to which we seem helplessly drifting.

Two years ago by a firm stand we might have prevented the partition of the venerable Empire whose weakness we have done so much to expose. It is a sad alternative, but to-day there is no other left us but to take our share in the partition now going on, and this no more in our own interest than in that of the people of China. Oriental Club, London, October, 1898.

Chapter I

introductory. The government of the Chinese — Revolutions — Trade — Taxes — Our interests in Szechuan— Imports and exports — Comparative trade of all the provinces. The history of our intercourse with China, from the days of the East India Company until now, is nothing but the record of a continuous struggle to open up and develop trade, with a people who, from the days of Pliny, " ipsis feris persimiles, cœtus reliquorum mortalium fugiunt" There is some thing pathetic in the honest persistency with which the people and their officials have vainly struggled to keep themselves uncontaminated from the outer world, and it is impossible for any disinterested onlooker not to sympathize heartily with them. An enormous population has here solved, imperfectly, of course, but to a comparatively suc cessful degree, the problem of the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

The venality of the officials notwithstanding, the people are, if not well governed, certainly not misgoverned ; riches are fairly distributed, and the contrast of grinding poverty with arrogant wealth, the rule in Europe, is the exception here. Taxation is nominal, and such is the innate and universal love of order, that the reserve of force behind the decrees of the magistrate is limited to a few hundred men in a province as large as an European kingdom. Competent investigators compute the total cost of the central and local governments at not more than a year, say two shillings per head for the whole population. Education is universal and voluntary. No wonder that such results, due to the universal acceptance of the Confucian Ethics, should make the people look askance at innovations coming from the West, where, as the Chinese say, notwithstanding their marked superiority in applied mechanics, nations live in a permanent condition of armed peace, the monotonous pressure of which is only relieved by the still worse calamity of frequent wars, with their attendant burdens of debt and pauperism.

Revolutions occur at long intervals in China, but the normal state of the Empire is peace. Thus since the last change of dynasty (a.d. 1644), the Chinese have enjoyed the blessings of peace and prosperity uninterruptedly, with the exception of the petty wars of this century with ourselves and the French. Even the terrible Taiping rebellion (1848 to 1864) must be attributed to the unwanted presence of the "foreigner" in the inner land. It was the aggressive zeal of American missionaries in Canton fifty years ago which resulted in the conversion of the fanatical leader, Hung-hsiu-chuen, often cited as the most genuine although misguided convert to Christianity, which the Empire has pro duced, and who modelled his action on that of the Jewish leaders, his war-cry being " Sha yao I " " Slay the idolaters !

" And slay he did ; it is calculated that over twenty millions of people perished by the swords of the Taipings and the attendant famines. It was the Thirty Years' War over again, re-enacted on another stage. Had it succeeded, China would undoubtedly have been Christian, though possibly differing from us in form. The cruelties practised by Our Policy in China 3 the Taipings in their progress alienated public opinion from their cause, and hence we joined our quondam enemies, the Manchus, in suppressing the rebellion, lent Gordon to the Imperialists to train and lead the " Ever-victorious Army" of six thousand disciplined men, and restored Confucianism and countenanced a conservative reaction which, after thirty years' undisputed sway, has now brought the mighty Empire once more to a crisis of dissolution.

We have allowed the Chinese mandarins to persist in their outre conservatism which will have none of the evil thing called Progress. Instead of actively promoting reforms and innovations, in the way that Sir Harry Parkes, in Tokio, backed up young Japan, even at the cost of civil war, our Government has in China yielded to the corrupt Court at Peking, and, until quite recently, discouraged British enterprise with the pitiful result we see to-day — China ruined by her defeat at the hands of the Japanese, and the resulting exorbitant indemnity ; and our trade generally stationary, and in part unfairly excluded from those outlying districts of the Empire already seized by our European rivals. For, viewing the enormous population, now again estimated at over 400,000,000, the richness of the soil, the genial climate, the inexhaustible mineral wealth, and, above all, the untiring industry of the people, the trade at present carried on is not a tithe of that which we should naturally look for.

In the number of Great Britain's foreign customers China proper takes seventeenth rank, being just on a par with Scandinavia. Our exports to the Celestial Empire are not one-fourth of those to the United States, with a population of 60,000,000; just one-sixth of our exports to British India, and not one-tenth of that to our Australian and other Colonies, all, except India, countries fenced in with hostile tariffs ranging from thirty to sixty per cent., while with China, according to treaty, our imports have only to withstand a nominal burden of five per cent. If we include Hong-kong, which is a depot for many of the surrounding countries as well, we bring up the total figures of British imports to China to ,£9,000,000, or about one-half of our total exports to the thinly-populated South-American Continent.

The great drawbacks, which prevent our trade with China attaining to dimensions on a par with the wealth, civilization, and numbers of its people, are the rudimentary condition of its roads, the discouragement of mining, and the vexatious multiplicity of the inland tax-stations. These obstacles present themselves in the order named, the first of all being the difficulty of inter-communication. By the compulsory opening to steamers of the Great River as far as Hankow, 600 miles only, the trade of Shanghai was quickly quadrupled. Later on 400 miles additional, up to Ichang, situated at the foot of the first rapid, were re luctantly conceded as part of the indemnity for the murder of Margary in Yunnan, and another great bound took place. But in Ichang we have only a poor mountain town, which derives its importance from being the transhipping point for the rich province of Szechuan, lying in the far west above and beyond the rapids.

To reach this, the native merchants have to run the gauntlet of the rapids in frail native craft ; the still worse gauntlet of a string of Custom-houses has been partially removed by the opening of Chung-king as a treaty port, but goods are still delayed two or three days for examination at Kwei-kwan. The opening of Chung king, the commercial metropolis of Szechuan, as a treaty port, should in time, in the words of a late Consular Resident there, create another Shanghai in Western China ; such are the ascertained riches of the Great West, of which Chung-king is the key. But Chung-king is nothing without Steam Communication 5 steam communication ; now at last, after over twenty years, wrangling with Chinese officialdom, this is about to be estab lished. The difficulty lay with the provincial authorities, whose interests were menaced by the change ; but a vigorous minister had only to press the matter home sufficiently upon the Central Government at Pekin, for them to give way, and in their turn plead force majeure to the provincials, who then, as in so many other previous instances, promptly, though sulkily acquiesced.

The mandarins pleaded for delay, on the ground of the junkmen who would be thrown out of work; but this argument, though good in itself, is dispelled by the experience of other ports opened to steam, where the trade on the subsidiary channels of communication has been so stimulated that more natives are employed in the carrying trade than ever before. Another argument gravely adduced in an official despatch to Sir John Walsham was, that the monkeys in the Gorges would throw down rocks on the passing steamers, and that then the poor Chinese Government would be held responsible ! But in bringing about a radical change like that of steam communication, and at the same time to promote the prosperity of all classes, including those whose vested in terests are threatened, what is wanted is permission to the people to avail themselves freely of their almost untouched mineral wealth.

It is the studious discouragement of mining enterprise on the part of the authorities that forms the second of the three obstacles to increased trade, which I have just enumerated. It is nothing less than a scandal, that at Ichang, iooo miles inland, steamers should be driven to burn imported Japanese coal, when Ichang, as Richthofen points out, is situated on the borders of one of the richest coal-fields in the world. The vast carboniferous deposits that underlie the Red Basin of Szechuan, and the outcroppings of which in the gorges of the Yang-tse and its affluents, arrest the attention of all travellers in that region remain a sealed book. When these mines are allowed to be worked by Western appliances, and the coal, the iron, the precious metals, and the petroleum-springs are properly developed, not only will there be such a trade, that junks and steamers together will hardly be able to carry it all ; even if the junks be displaced in toto, the few thousand trackers thrown out of employment will not suffice to supply one-tenth of the labour required ; and in lieu of the miserable pittance they now receive for their arduous and dangerous labours, they will then earn sufficient wages to enable them to live in comparative comfort.

The Chinese Government has a traditional mistrust of all enterprises carried out upon private initiative. There is one steamer company in China, the " China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company," and one coal-mining company, that of Kaiping, to the north of Tientsin, whose operations are large and successful, but they are both worked under Government auspices, the managers being high mandarins, although both employ a large number of European assist ants. The capital of both companies is largely recruited from the trading classes, and these non-official shareholders have no voice in the management. So great is the mistrust engendered by the official management of mercantile enter prises, that the trading class, so far, have utterly failed to respond to the recent Government appeals for capital for the proposed railway loans, and it is now clear that the authorities will fail in their endeavour to construct railroads, indepen dently of the foreign aid which has been so lavishly tendered to them by the agents of competing European syndicates.