After my return to Nankin from the Chung-wang's army, I spent some very pleasant months in that city. The warm summer weather of central China produced a sort of lassitude both of mind and body, and for a time, while leading a happy and listless life, mixing with the kind and enthusiastic Ti-pings, or wandering through the beautiful gardens of the Chung-wang's palace with Marie, the outer world became forgotten. Aroused each day with the rising sun, my friend, Philip, and I would meet the Chung-wang's household at the morning prayers in the "Heavenly Hall." Here, from about six o'clock till seven, I regularly joined in the prayers of people whose devotion I have never seen excelled elsewhere. The men and women were separated by occupying different sides of the Hall, and the worship was generally conducted by the Chung-wang's chaplain. After a long form of supplication, the anthem was chanted, followed by a doxology and hymn; the officiating minister then closed the service by reading a written prayer, which when finished was always set on fire and consumed.

Oftentimes while kneeling in the midst of an apparently devout congregation, and gazing on the upturned countenances lightened by the early morning sun, which poured its golden rays through the quaintly carved windows, have I wondered why no British missionary occupied my place, and why Europeans generally preferred slaughtering the Ti-pings to accepting them as brothers in Christ; and while scanning the assembled Christian Chinese, praying from the Bible we Europeans trust in and declare to be our guide, I have felt a sympathy and enthusiasm for their cause that never can be weakened or subdued.

About an hour after prayers the great drums at the palace entrance would sound for the morning meal. When the family were assembled, the following form of grace was given by the master of the house, or, in the absence of the Chung-wang, by his brother:—

After breakfast the household would disperse upon their various daily occupations,—the ladies to their private apartments, there to employ themselves with embroidering the exquisitely ornamented shoes and silken garments in vogue among the Ti-pings, to perform more domestic duties, or amuse themselves with music and singing.

The Chung-wang's cousin, Yu-wang (the Admired Prince), being Vice-President of the Board of War, and member of the Tien-wang's Privy Council, seemed generally overwhelmed with business. First he would gallop off with a numerous escort to the offices of the "Board of War." Having returned from thence, after the mid-day meal he would don his state robes and attend the royal court. This chief possessed a high reputation for wisdom in council, sanctity in living, and bravery in the field.

Besides his civil appointments, he was a general of the "Loyal troops of the palace of the Tien-wang" (the veteran Élite of the Ti-ping forces). He was married to but one wife, though many of his associates were polygamists, and, although a young man, was of a remarkably grave and religious character, so much so, that even his little running pages seemed affected by it and forgot their wild mischievous propensities.

Each day the major-domo mustered his people to prayers, to feed, and to work. The captain of a detachment of the Chung-wang's body-guard regularly drilled them in the large courtyard of the palace. The Commander-in-Chief's adjutant-general, Lee-wang, daily conducted the business connected with his office, employing an immense number of scribes, officials, and soldiers, who waited and carried away huge sheets of yellow proclamations almost larger than themselves. In another part of the Chung-wang's palace his private secretaries seemed for ever writing, or rather painting, interminable Chinese characters on large-sized paper and small-sized paper, which they continually added to the vast heaps of manuscript piled up around them, while I have often wondered what it could all be about.

These various duties were executed with a wonderful exactitude and regularity, almost mechanical; indeed, throughout Nankin and every part of Ti-pingdom I have always found a similar state of methodical organization.

I frequently visited the Minister of the Interior, the Chang-wang (Accomplished Prince), and other chiefs, with my two companions, and we were always received with such kindness and hospitality that every house in Nankin became our home. We usually employed a part of each day instructing the Ti-ping soldiers in gunnery or drilling them upon a plan combining the line and column formation of European tactics with their own more undisciplined manoeuvres. The Chinese are well known for their imitative ingenuity; but we found these free Chinamen still more easily taught, their quick acquirement of English words and extraordinary aptitude for every kind of instruction being really marvellous.

When I look back upon the unchangeable and universal kindness I have always met with from the Ti-pings, even while their dearest relatives were being slaughtered by my countrymen, or captured by the Manchoos to be tortured to death and their wives and daughters when not killed infamously outraged and passed from hand to hand by the rabble Imperialist soldiery, it almost seems to be a dream, so difficult is it to comprehend their magnanimous forbearance, when, according to the lex talionis in vogue among civilized nations, they should have executed every Englishman they met with similar barbarities to those practised upon the unfortunate Ti-ping prisoners given up by British officers (during the years 1862-3-4) to the Manchoo authorities.

During all my intercourse with the Ti-pings I can recollect nothing more unpleasant than being made "bogie" to frighten unruly children; and even this was of rare occurrence, so great a feeling of respect for Englishmen did their parents entertain. Sometimes, while strolling through a city, I have been pointed out as a white man bogie to little yellow-skinned Ti-pings by their black-haired pretty mother, qualified, however, in most cases by a polite invitation to enter and partake of a cup of tea; and so the only offence that could be taken at becoming "bogie" would be from the unflattering opinion one's appearance caused in the juvenile imagination. How different are the scowling looks and the epithet "Yang-quitzo" applied to us with the aspiration of hate by our Manchoo allies!

The kind and friendly feeling of the Ti-pings I often found so excessive as to be absolutely annoying. For hours together I have been quite wearied out by their attentions. Some impulsive Ti-pingite would seize a hand of his "foreign brother" and retaining it between his own for several hours, all the time maintain an energetic conversation, perfectly regardless as to whether I understood him or not; probably when tired he would leave me in the hands of a particular friend, who in turn, after exhausting his own conversational powers and my patience, would give me up to another. To those who have experienced the ordinary dislike and contumely of the Chinese, the surprising friendliness of the Ti-pings is no less remarkable than pleasant. The ingenuous earnestness with which they always welcomed Europeans as "Wa-choong-te" (brethren from across the seas), and the apparent sincerity with which they would claim the relationship as fellow-worshippers of "Yesu," seems to have impressed all who have really been among them with similar feelings of unmingled pleasure.

When I remember in what manner these people have been treated by my country, I almost feel the blush of shame at being an Englishman. None who love their country can behold its foreign policy with satisfaction, or hope for its future. It requires but a glance at the history of the greatest nations of ancient and modern history to perceive our danger, and the parallel between our present position and the meridian of their greatness. The yearning for self-aggrandizement has caused the overthrow of many nations, and day by day we see the rich colonies forming part of some overgrown aggressively created empire, seceding from and breaking the power of their former oppressor. Well for us or our descendants will it be if by changing our policy and pursuing one of righteousness and non-aggression, England is preserved from destruction amid the regular and successive crash of falling nations.

Can we look upon our acquisition of India, of our old American colonies, of New Zealand and the Cape of Good Hope annexations, &c., or our wars with China, Burmah, Japan, and last though not least, our war upon the Ti-ping Christian revolution, without remembering the fate of the mighty empire of Imperial Rome? Can we ponder with satisfaction over the former greatness of Spain, Portugal, and Holland, the decline of their power, and its causes? In connection with this subject I cannot forbear quoting the following extract from a letter written by the Bishop of Victoria to the Archbishop of Canterbury, dated Hong-kong, May 23rd, 1853, and in which, referring to the Ti-ping revolution, he states:—

At Nankin each day the signal for prayer was given from the Tien-wang's palace, when the great gongs within the first courtyard were sounded. The signal was then repeated from house to house, till at last the brazen reverberation having died away in the most remote corners of the city, and having been echoed along the massive ramparts by the solitary watchmen to the distant suburbs, the knee of every man within, or in the adjoining villages without the walls, became bent in prayer. Often have I stood upon the old time-worn mural defence of Nankin, with the last lingering light of sunset throwing strange fantastic shadows around me, and listened to the humming noise rising up from the praying people below. At other times I have gazed from that same ancient wall at midnight, as the last hollow tap from the sentinel's bamboo drum was sounded, have seen the whole populace assemble to welcome the Sabbath day; then turning towards the distant hills, crowned with the fortifications and numerous tents of the idolatrous Imperialists, I have felt that God would never forsake those who so fervently believed and studied his word.

Dark days have come upon the Ti-ping cause; but although many have perished who hopefully assured me "the Heavenly Father would protect them," and although others are now wanderers from what they had settled as a Christian territory, so long as even one righteous believer shall remain, I have faith in God's word for their eventual success.

The idol-worshippers and the worshippers of mammon have together made merry over persecuted Christians, but if right is ever vindicated upon earth, and if the Bible shall not for the first time in its history cause the entire extermination of those who suffer for professing it, a day will come when their unholy rejoicing shall be turned into trouble and lamentation. That day of retribution may be far distant, yet recent events would seem to prove it near; and whenever it does come, how terrible it will be.

Time flew onward at Nankin with seemingly treble rapidity, so happily passed the days with myself and European comrades. At last a shadow came athwart the general happiness. My friend, since our return to the city, had taken every advantage of his honourable scars to forward his dumb suit of her ladyship Cum-ho, the Chung-wang's daughter, and as he thought with great success. Nearly every day Miss Cum-ho and Marie would join us in the palace gardens, and from simple "Chin-chining," pressing one hand on the region of his heart, &c., my friend somehow managed to pick up a little Chinese in a very short time, by which his courtship no doubt was considerably benefited. For awhile things went on thus; but one unpropitious morning the pretty princess was entrusted with a little brother for a ramble in the gardens. As usual, at the commencement of a large shrubbery my friend and her ladyship took the wrong path, and so became separated from Marie and myself.

We could not have strolled far, when suddenly a most tremendous screaming arose in the direction of the palace. Leaving Marie to follow me, I ran in the direction of the noise as fast as possible. When close up to the termination of the shrubbery, I heard voices proceeding from a little by-path, and, following it up, soon ascertained the cause. It appeared that the princess having become absorbed with my friend's endeavours to study the Chinese language, forgot her young brother, and left him to his own devices, when, with the usual perversity of small people, he straightway got into mischief. Not content with making mud pies on the open walks of the shrubbery, or otherwise innocently amusing himself, this wretched child saw fit, in an evil moment, to investigate the dark and tortuous windings of the path in which I found him.

Late rains had made the out-of-the-way part this infant mind determined to explore, a perfect quagmire, through which he had successfully wriggled along, until, reaching one of those large earthen jars peculiar to China, sunk into the ground, and filled with agricultural compost, the Chung-wang's youngest "olive-branch" tumbled in. After the first suffocating dip, he had managed to stick his head out and give tongue in his loudest key. The scene of disaster being only a few hundred yards from where the servants lived in rear of the palace, the noise had attracted the attention of several, who at once hastened to the spot; and they had just succeeded extracting their young lord from his unenviable position when I arrived among them.

His little Excellency was led off by the faithful serving-men, while I returned for Marie, and after seeing her to the palace, ran down the shrubbery to its end, and there, calmly oblivious to all besides themselves, found my friend and his companion side by side on one of the garden seats. Miss Cum-ho was terribly frightened at my tale, not only for the sake of her brother, but because the affair would make known her meetings with my friend. We had no time to make any arrangement by which this might be avoided, for I had scarcely told them of the mischance when up came a couple of young pages in search of the lady.

Upon reaching the palace, the Mrs. Chung-wang appeared, superintending the washing of her son and ready to receive her delinquent daughter. Two old duennas, of particularly vinegar aspect, advanced upon the girl, who for a moment clung to my friend's arm. That moment, however, must have sufficed to show the Chung-wang's better-half the state of her daughter's affections, whom she now sharply upbraided while being dragged into the palace. Poor Cum-ho disappeared in tears, doubtless severely pinched by her two guards, while the injured "parent," after seeing her purified boy carried in before her, retired with a Parthian exclamation of "Yang-quitzo," thrown at my friend.

It was the first time I had ever heard an European called "foreign devil" in Ti-pingdom, and Mrs. Chung-wang must have been hugely offended to have uttered such a thing. Turning to L——, I exclaimed, "Well, old fellow, what do you think of it?"

"Think," he answered; "why it's the last I shall see of Cum-ho."

"Yes, I suppose it will be; but that won't trouble you much?"

After a moment's thought, my friend seriously said to me:—"My dear fellow, I really believe I love that girl; Chinese or not, she is a good, warm-hearted creature, and—I think she loves me; besides, she is very pretty. What do you think of her hair? is it not long and beautiful? I do not believe any English girl has such tresses. She has a straight nose too, and her eyes are very fine; don't you think so?"

"Yes, there's no question about it; she is a very good-looking girl, but, unfortunately, you must remember she is the Chung-wang's daughter."

"I don't care if she's the Lord Duke of Macaciac's daughter; if she loves me I will see her again."

"Have you spoken to her about love?" I asked.

"I cannot exactly say I have, for I do not know the Chinese version of the verb, but I believe she understood what I meant when I tried to. How do you express "I love you" in Chinese?"

"Gno gnae ne," I told him as well as I knew.

"Noo nay nee; well, I think I shall remember that; noo nay nee; yes, that's simple enough; but how shall I meet Cum-ho again to tell her so? that's the question."

"Trust to the Chinese Cupid, if there is one; besides, if she loves you, depend upon it you will hear from her somehow before long; but I must say I still retain a vivid remembrance of some of your Hong-kong attachments; there was A-far, the pretty daughter of Canton Jack, our boatman; do you forget how desperately in love you fancied yourself with that sun-burnt, black-eyed, rough-headed 'Sanpan girl?'"

"Oh, nonsense," replied my friend, pettishly, "there's a vast difference between the two; at that time I was fresh from England and could not be much smitten by a Chinese boat-girl, with the thoughts of the dear girls at home filling my mind. But now I have been so long in China I have almost forgotten what an English woman is like; you cannot deny that Cum-ho is handsome; see what a beautiful little mouth she has, what teeth, what ——."

"There, that will do, my friend; it is needless to recapitulate the fair celestial's charms, you are evidently a victim of the little Chinese god; but I will just ask one thing; apart from the danger of becoming obnoxious to so powerful a chief as the Chung-wang, who would certainly never look with pleasure upon an alliance between his daughter and yourself, leang-sze-ma (lieutenant) in his guards though he has made you,—how would you feel disposed to carry home to England a Chinese wife?"

"Home!" said he, bitterly; "most likely I shall never see home again, at all events I love the girl, and I am determined not to give her up so easily; if I escape the gingall-balls and rusty spears of those rascally Imps, the Chung-wang may yet be willing to give me his daughter; it appears to me the marriage ceremony of the Ti-pings is much like ours, and if nothing else will succeed, why, an elopement À la Ti-ping Gretna Green may."

"You shall never do anything so rash," I responded, as we entered the palace and proceeded to our quarters, "we shall be leaving Nankin for some days very shortly, and when we return, if you are still of the same mind, we will resume the subject and see what can be done."

After this event Cum-ho was never permitted to meet us, although she managed now and then to send a message by Marie to the "Yang-quitzo." The misfortune of that confounded child would have proved a source of much merriment, but for the interruption of our pleasant promenades it effected. Besides making a prisoner of Cum-ho, it very considerably annoyed Marie and myself; for the vigilance of the elder ladies of the household having become aroused, they carefully watched over my betrothed wherever she went. I cannot but admit that, one and all, the women of Ti-pingdom were paragons of modesty and propriety, and although in this case their espionage proved rather vexatious, I did not admire them less for it.

Previous to this, I had determined to take a trip to Shanghae in order to ascertain, if possible, the purport of the will left by Marie's father, and also to make various arrangements with regard to obtaining supplies of grain, European arms, &c., for Nankin; all of which the Manchoos were able to obtain ad libitum from Europeans at the treaty ports, although furnishing the same articles to the Ti-pings was strictly prohibited by the British authorities, in spite of their pledged neutrality. Before setting out upon my journey, I had an interview with the Minister of the Interior, Chang-wang, who gave me a number of passes, requesting me to bestow them upon respectable Europeans and inform them Nankin was open to trade. A few foreign vessels were occupied trading to the city, and among them my friend Mellen, with two of his own lorchas. I had met him several times when in port, and shortly before I set out for Shanghae he had sailed with the vessel he was on board, intending to return with a cargo of rice, &c.

When all was ready for a start, I had no small difficulty in getting my friend away with me; Philip I left behind to continue drilling and otherwise instructing the soldiery, and also as my agent for other affairs. Besides the bother with my friend, I experienced a more serious one before getting the crew of my vessel to obey orders. These men during my stay had become thoroughly Ti-pingized, and having allowed their hair to grow, did not seem at all inclined to shave and adopt the Manchoo badge of slavery again. So attached to the Ti-ping re-establishment of Chinese customs had they become, that I was compelled to call in the Sz-wang to make them shave and leave Nankin. It may be that, as a rule, the Chinese are pretty well contented with and accustomed to the monkey tail, but let their national spirit once be aroused upon the subject, they feel the degradation bitterly. With scarcely an exception, the whole crew violently protested against resuming the guise of the Tartar, and one fine young fellow felt so acutely while under the hands of the barber that he actually cried like a child.

At last, however, the tresses were all shorn off, and having parted with Marie with the full intention of making her my wife when I returned, and having given her a letter for Cum-ho, concocted by my friend from a Morison's Chinese and English Dictionary, the anchor was rudely dragged forth from its snug hiding-place in the muddy bottom of the Nankin creek; then clapping my shiny-headed men on to the halyards fore and aft, all sail was made, and Nankin bidden adieu for a time.

The Yang-tze river, at its mildest mood and lowest period in the middle of winter, is still a mighty and a swift-running stream; but in summer, when swollen with the vast torrents from the melted snow of the region of great mountains, amid which it rises far away beyond the western limits of Thibet, its waters rush fierce and foaming far into the country upon either side of its proper channel. Such was the case upon my departure from Nankin.

Sailing was out of the question, because what little wind there came was, as the sailors say, dead on end. But although our canvas could not help us on our way, the boiling tide did, and that at the rate of nearly five knots an hour. I have many a time floated along the bosom of that grand Yang-tze, and with nature all beautiful around me, crew and servants obedient to the slightest wish, and, above all, a sympathizing friend, fancied more complete happiness impossible.

At such moments I have often reflected upon the great Ti-ping movement, and wondered whether my partisanship could have blinded me to any of its defects, and so led me to disagree with the manifold tales of horror and detraction narrated by persons who opposed the rebellion. I have even tried to persuade myself that I was a fool, that I had been imposed upon and deceived by the Ti-pings as to their real character, and that the hostile reports were true. But then I could not help feeling myself sincerely a well-wisher of the rebels; I knew that I became a partisan from my conviction of the righteousness and favourable characteristics of their cause, and from no mere worldly interest or attraction; and, moreover, against the hearsay adverse testimony I could certainly plead, "seeing is believing," and prefer my own eyesight and personal experience to the tales of others, the greater proportion of whom had never even seen a Ti-ping under any circumstances, much less when at their home and uninfluenced by the horrors of Asiatic warfare. Besides this, nearly all my friends and acquaintances were entirely of the same opinion as myself, including the Revs. W. Lobschied, Griffith John, and other missionaries, who had really seen Ti-ping life and manners.

These driftings on the Yang-tze were productive of much meditation. Far from the trammels, disturbance, and troubles of the great cities of men, with the warm pure air blowing freshly upon us, we could think only of the justice and reason of things, completely unbiassed by the stereotyped customs and formal conventionalities of society; but the living voice of Nature all around us, manifested in the murmur of the moving waters, the humming noise of manifold insects, the myriad lamps of the fire-fly at night, and the brilliant-coloured feathery songsters in full chorus among the reed-beds' luxuriant foliage by day, whispered a better and more comprehensive theory of existence. So far as society was concerned, it might have been extinct, for we were at such times perfectly isolated, myself and friend were alone with regard to companionship, will, and authority. Of course this sort of life requires change; it is all very well for a few months; but then one seems to wish for something more than the voice of nature, and the novelties of strange people, new faces, and busy life, become excessively attractive.

To descend unto the mere creature comforts of such living:—at four in the morning we arose; As-sam, with meek devotion, or rather serpent-like Asiatic stealthiness, would bring coffee, containing just a dash of strong waters, with a little breakfast of rice-cake or toast, by way of fortifying oneself in a cholera country. This sailors' inseparable morning stimulant despatched,[40] habited in thin white silk, we were douched with many buckets of water, drawn overnight and separated from the thick muddy particles of the Yang-tze by settling and cooling till morn, when the clear part was poured off for use; then a couple of brawny Chinese mariners would rub us down like young horses, and our day began.

If the locale was favourable and the breeze light, a stroll along the river's bank, gun in hand, keeping time with the progress of our vessel with the tide, almost surely supplied us with many fat pheasants, wild pigeons, and some of the numerous Chinese summer water-fowl, or snipe and curlew of singular variety. A stroll to the trees and bushes further inland would possibly reward us with a few woodcock, rice-birds or ortolan, and other delicious game peculiar to China.

Whenever the game-bag became full, or the sun too high to be pleasant, we returned to our floating home, probably with some fish purchased from a solitary dip-net fisherman, working at a little clear spot among the tall bulrushes overhanging some tideless deep pool, the favourite resort of his legitimate prey.

About 11 a.m. our breakfast was served, that breakfast a feast for an epicure: choice and fragrantly-scented tea the principal beverage, and fish, newly plundered from the rich stores of the river, the standing dish. How shall I sing your praises, ye finny tribes of the Yang-tze? Large and small, long and short, thick and thin, flat and deep, every conceivable shape and colour, with every possible flavour appertaining to fishes of any part of the world, or the most approved delicacy, I safely pronounce ye unequalled by your brethren of foreign seas, lakes, or running streams. Above all ranks the delicious Ke-yu (chicken-fish), combining the qualities of British salmon, turbot, and whiting, equally the favourite of natives and Europeans, and in some of the distant cities eagerly purchased at fabulous prices by the wealthy gourmands.

The remnants of fish being carried away, the hot and greasy face of As-sam would be thrust into our cabin, followed by that individual's other parts, carefully bearing to his yet strong-appetited masters a brown and juicy pheasant or wild duck, done as he knew how to do them, with Chinese ingenuity and cunning spices. A plentiful supply of fruit—oranges, pears, pumelos, peaches, li-chees, and Chinese preserves—finished a cheap, though almost Sybarite repast; and last, but not least in a hot climate, one glass of ice-cold water was forthcoming.

If the day was not oppressively hot, we would while away the time with books, or my friend would bring out his soft-toned flute, and join in melody with the birds, huge dragon-flies, and other flying, creeping, and crawling things, which had all woke up to be happy in the bright sunshine.

Should we, perchance, fall in with some fellow wanderer, we met as brothers and equals; but this did not often happen. Swiftly roll the yellow waters, yellower still in the fierce sunlight, spreading away over islands, villages, and cultivated fields, far into the interior. Sometimes, when in flood, even 500 miles from its mouth, this mighty river is bounded here and there by the glittering horizon of its own waters. At one spot the roof of a tall house just shows above the stream; at another the tops of some great trees may be noticed bending along with the rushing tide.[41]

Purple, dim, and vast, rise the mountains, lazily flaps the white canvas, while through the tall bulrushes beautiful little summer ducks skim about, great "Bramley" kites wheel high above, uttering their piercing cries, and in and out of the feathery-topped bamboo strange and brilliantly-plumaged birds incessantly play. Still we glide with the flowing waters, which, from unknown mysterious regions flow onward, flow ever, towards the great outside ocean, whither for hundreds of centuries it has flowed, untired and unceasing, and whither it will flow to all eternity.

"Ho-li" is echoed along the decks, and reverentially our long-tailed cook brings burning charcoal between iron pincers. The day is too hot now for work, for talking, almost for thinking, and whilst the tide sweeps along, we slowly puff our cheroots and recline under the grateful shade of the awning in a state of semi-coma.

Lying on the flat of our Saxon backs, and lazily wreathing reflective-producing columns of smoke from our Manilas, we build castles in the air, loftier far and not so grim as those which ever and anon frown back at the mountains on either side. We dream with revolver in belt and gun at hand, ready to knock over stray unwary ducks, or savage, plundering, military Manchoos, should it become necessary. Little kings are we in our own right; obsequiously bends As-sam, pattern of boys and servants, to our lordly nod; meekly answers A-foo, lowder, captain, and pirate that he is; for the white men are strong, the Chinese think, and we must be civil to them while awake, even if we murder them when asleep.

We have no bad smells here, no wear and tear and flurry of cities; our habits are primitive, and for the most part, we own the open heavens only as our roof, and breathe the pure and uncontaminated atmosphere of the temperate zone.

A mid-day siesta, for at night we must be watchful of straggling piratical Manchoo gunboats, followed by another gunning excursion in the cool of the evening, or possibly a few minutes passed in some secluded village; then dinner at dusk, almost the same as breakfast, excepting the addition of curry (real curry, not as is often the case, a yellow-looking mess of that name only), some of the many descriptions of Chinese vegetables, and pastry made by that clever As-sam; followed by a game of chess, a duet with my concertina and friend's flute, and a fragrant Manila to accompany the constitutional after-dinner quarter-deck promenade, terminate the pleasures of the day.

While daylight lasted we were generally safe; but whenever night spread her sable mantle over river, shore, and man alike, the utmost vigilance was required. By generally keeping underweigh all night, and choosing the centre of the stream, with one or two exceptions I avoided any serious danger from the Imperialist braves and gunboats, as one well-directed shot would mostly satisfy them; some of my friends, however, were not so fortunate, and on this occasion of my river life I came upon a scene of horror I never shall forget.

After successfully running past the fortifications and flotillas situated at the commencement of the Imperialist jurisdiction, early one morning, when within a few miles of Chin-kiang, we came in sight of a lorcha close in to the river's bank. As the wind was too scant to be useful for vessels bound up the river, at first I paid but little attention to the otherwise singular position of the strange craft, but when nearly abreast, to my astonishment I discovered her to be the Fox, my friend Mellen's lorcha. The daylight was now pretty well developed, and almost at the same time I was enabled to discern some one on deck waving a large white signal. Upon this I steered directly for the lorcha, and when sufficiently near, saw the figure was that of a woman, apparently alone; that the vessel was evidently derelict, from the confusion and dismantled state of her rigging, and that she was run ashore high and dry, her bow actually projecting a considerable way over the land.

Running as close alongside as we could without grounding, we anchored in the stream right abeam of her, and arming ourselves and a couple of good men, my friend and I proceeded to board the lorcha. Upon doing so we were met at the gangway by the old nurse of Mellen's children, who was wringing her hands and loudly vociferating the peculiar lament in vogue among the Chinese women when in grief.

A deserted ship has at all times a disheartening, melancholy sort of effect, upon a sailor at all events; but although I had seen such a thing before, even far away upon the vast ocean hundreds of miles from the nearest land, I never experienced so sudden and so fearful a chill as the moment my feet touched that lorcha's deck. It was not the grievous aspect of old As-su, neither was it the deserted appearance of the vessel itself, but the atmosphere seemed heavy with some undefinable horror, that unearthly smell, or rather perception, of human blood which those who have discovered deeds of slaughter will easily appreciate, but which I cannot further explain.

Of course my first endeavour was to gather something from the old nurse, meanwhile my friend proceeded aft towards the lorcha's cabin. Before I could distinguish anything tangible from the sobbing "hi-yo hi-yo's" of As-su, I was startled by his horrified exclamation.

"Great God! come here, A——," called he in the sharp accents of powerful excitement. In a moment I was by his side and gazing down through the torn-off cabin skylight.

I have passed among the bodies of thousands killed in the sanguinary Chinese battles; I have moved slowly along creeks, ay, even the broad Yang-tze itself, literally choked with poor remnants of humanity; quite lately I have wandered through once happy Ti-ping villages, at this time tenanted alone with the starved, dead, and the miserable living cannibals, yet existing upon their former companions. I have passed through all these fearful scenes, yet never did I feel the overpowering horror I experienced while gazing into that lonely cabin; lonely, indeed, for only the bodies of the ruthlessly murdered composed its ghastly tenancy.

Blood stained the sides, the ceiling, and the furniture, while the deck of that gory cabin seemed one coagulated mass. Doubled up at the foot of his berth my poor friend Mellen, one of the bravest among the brave, lay mangled and hideous; above him, in the very attitude of protecting her husband, stood the corpse of his noble-hearted wife, frightfully disfigured and covered with wounds; while the innocent little child lay gashed and lifeless by its father's side. I will not further horrify my readers with a description of the fearful nature of the wounds inflicted upon these unfortunates; suffice it to say that although Mellen himself was cut up with many, his brave wife was literally hacked to pieces.

I afterwards ascertained, through inquiries made in the vicinity by my interpreter A-ling, and from the testimony of the nurse As-su, who escaped the fate of her mistress by secreting herself, that my friends had been thus brutally murdered by a number of Imperialist soldiery in combination with some of the crew.

Poor Mellen had on board a large amount of money, some £6,000 sterling. At E-ching his crew had informed the Mandarins of this, and they, taking the opportunity to pocket a large sum by simply gratifying their hatred of a solitary "foreign devil," had authorized a party of soldiers to murder him. These soldiers assembled on board a large Ti-mung close to where I found the Fox; but as the latter happened to pass them during the day, and moreover, in company with another vessel, their designs were frustrated for a little while. With true Chinese cunning, however, these wretches managed to get Mellen into their murderous clutches. At the village of Kwa-chow, within sight of the treaty port Chin-kiang, the Chinese lowder (captain), by making some plausible excuse, induced his master to anchor there and allow him to go on shore. Returning on board with a couple of soldiers disguised as merchants, this wretch (who was actually the father of Mellen's wife, and whose life his master had once saved at the peril of his own) pretended the pseudo traders were anxious to have a large cargo taken to Nankin, to be embarked some distance up the river, and for which they agreed to pay a very high freight. Mellen was very unwell, and trusting to the statements and integrity of his Chinese father-in-law, unfortunately agreed to return up the river and take in the fictitious cargo for the Ti-pings. That same night his vessel was anchored but a short distance from the Ti-mung and her bloodthirsty crew. About midnight the assassins took to a couple of small boats and pulled for their prey. At this time the confederates among the lorcha's crew made a noise on deck, probably to get Mellen out in the dark, when their work would be safer than in a light cabin with a deadly revolver to oppose them. Mrs. Mellen, leaving her sick husband below, ran on deck with a revolver, and seeing the two boats close alongside, instantly fired several shots at them. As the yelling savages swarmed on board, she ran down to her husband closely followed by them, and then the butchery commenced. Poor Mellen was killed rising from the berth, and ere he could draw the sword I found half unsheathed just underneath him. His wretched wife, after suffering every torture and atrocity the cruel Chinese particularly excel in, died over her husband's body, faithful to the last, with one arm round his severed neck, the other upraised as though to ward the blow her eyes had seen coming ere they closed for ever. Poor girl! I can never forget the horribly mutilated state in which I found her: it would hardly have been possible to touch an unwounded spot on her body. She had killed one and hit another of the murderers; they stated ashore that she was as bad as a "Yang-quitzo" (all this my interpreter ascertained); and they wreaked a most ferocious vengeance upon the defenceless woman. When the victims were killed, the treasure was carried off, and the whole vessel pillaged fore and aft; and when everything of the slightest value had been taken, the crew and soldiers, after running her ashore upon the bank, took their departure. The old nurse, after some time, had ventured from her hiding-place, and for four days had been living on the deck of the charnel ship when we boarded her.

Having sent news of the tragedy to Chin-kiang, a steamer came to the spot and towed the Fox down to Silver Island, where the mangled bodies were removed and given Christian burial. And so terminated my friendship with poor Mellen and his courageous wife; since then all my friends, I may say, in that distant and fatal land have perished by the sword, by sudden death, or by the deadly diseases of the country.

The facts of the foregoing barbarous murders I forwarded to H.M.'s consul at Chin-kiang, who, with the officers of the gunboat on the station, beheld the bodies and saw them buried, yet no redress was ever sought from the allies of the British Government. This is but one of many and many a similar specimen of the Manchoo feeling towards Englishmen, and this is the style of people who are to be firmly established throughout China by the overthrow of the Ti-ping rebellion by the aid of British arms.

Leaving my vessel at Chin-kiang (I had at this time entirely purchased her from the previous owner), in charge of A-ling, I took a passage to Shanghae with my friend on board one of the river steamers. When all business was arranged, I set out upon my return to Nankin, leaving L—— in charge of a fine lorcha we had jointly purchased as a blockade-runner to the Ti-ping capital, to follow me as fast as wind and tide would allow. I found out Marie's relatives, and they told me that Manouel Ramon had inherited all her father's property, that he had raised a foreign contingent of Manila-men and Portuguese, with which he had joined the Imperialists, and that he was determined to be revenged upon myself and betrothed.

While at Shanghae I sought out many Europeans who owned lorchas, Ningpo boats, and other river craft, and stating the advantages to be derived from trade with Nankin, induced a goodly number to undertake the risk, to whom I bestowed the passes given me by the Chung-wang. When I had settled various transactions with regard to obtaining arms, agents, and a correspondence with that portion of the Shanghae press known to be impartial, I returned by steamer to Chin-kiang, accompanied by Captain P——, whom I had formerly seen in command of the schooner whose crew had mutinied at the Lang-shan crossing. I had met him in Shanghae, and he willingly took a share of my vessel at Chin-kiang, agreeing to run her himself in the Nankin trade.

Upon reaching Chin-kiang and taking up my quarters on board the old craft, I determined to proceed with her to a town some thirty miles up a branch of the Grand Canal, purchase a cargo of rice, and take it with me to Nankin. This idea was soon put into force, and after the lowder had collected his men from the gambling dens in the village immediately opposite the city of Chin-kiang, on the other side of the river, we got underweigh. With a light breeze and beautiful weather we proceeded merrily on our trip, with that exhilarating feeling the prospect of a visit to a strange and interesting country always produces.

After being swept down stream for more than an hour, just below Silver Island, we came to the entrance of the creek up which lay our further course. Steering into its mouth, we left the swift and turbid waters of the great Yang-tze, and landing our crew with their collars and rope, slowly tracked along the quieter stream. Our destination was the town of Sin-ya-meu, the great emporium of that part of China. From the river inland the whole country is richly cultivated, and the style of agriculture and farm-house seems more nearly approaching that of England than I have observed elsewhere. Barley, wheat, rye, and oats greet the eye in place of the interminable paddy-fields of most parts of China. Haystacks are seen about the farms, and the dwellings are all of a large and spacious build. The country is slightly wooded and full of wild pigeons, and of these my friend and self obtained many, thanks to our double-barrels. These pigeons are quite unlike any I have seen in other countries; their colour very closely resembles that of the dove, but the breast and wings are like the golden plover; and a beautiful circlet round the neck, similar to the ringdove, with a large black tail, completes their exquisite plumage. The delicacy of this bird excels that of any other I have ever tasted, yet the Chinese pay no attention to their presence, and neither attempt to catch, eat, tame, or do anything else with them.

This country would be perfect were it not for the imperfections of the people who inhabit it, or rather, the evil qualities of its rulers, for I believe the Chinese themselves are capable of almost any improvement. During my trip to Sin-ya-meu I particularly noticed the abominable extortion of the Manchoo Government. Although the distance from the mouth of the creek to the town is considerably less than thirty miles, I passed no fewer than fifteen custom-houses established along its banks. The creek is a very broad one, and forms the principal route for the wood rafts bound from Han-kow (up the Yang-tze) to the town. I passed many on my journey, and conversed with the merchants to whom they belonged, who all bitterly complained of the gross extortion of the Customs officials, and assured me that by law no more than two duty-stations were authorized, yet at each of the fifteen they were squeezed of the same amount of duty that ought only to have been paid twice.

Sin-ya-meu I found to be a very extensive unwalled town, the centre of an immense trade. What little business is transacted at the treaty port Chin-kiang, is entirely dependent upon Sin-ya-meu; and unless the native merchants can be induced to establish themselves at the former city, it will never become a place of much commercial importance.

While the invaluable A-ling was negotiating for the rice, I took a trip as far as the walled city of Yang-chow-foo with my friend P——. This town and the district has long been famous for its women, who, the natives say, are the handsomest in China. Although our experience was limited to a couple of days, from what we saw in the country and town during daylight, and in the sing-songs at night, we were able to form the same opinion. The women, though darker than those of the Honan province, are quite as straight-featured and much more rosy and robust. They also appeared taller than is usual in south and central China, and their eyes seemed larger and not quite so oblique.

When within a few li of Yang-chow, a turn of the creek placed our boat close to a pair of damsels on the bank, but they no sooner espied the strange faces of myself and P——, than they rushed towards a neighbouring farm-house, screaming "Yang-quitzo-li" (foreign devils are coming) at the top of their shrill voices. We had just that moment been talking of the reputed loveliness of the Yang-chow ladies, and P——, with his head full of the subject, jumped ashore and ran after the two fugitives in order to have a nearer opportunity to satisfy himself as to their superior charms. With my boy As-sam I followed my friend on shore. The girls, terrified by the pursuit of the "foreign devil," were headed by that individual just before they managed to hobble up to the house. Their crippled feet sadly interfered with what would otherwise have been their very graceful figures. Their faces were certainly very pretty, and the excitement added not a little to their interesting appearance. At first, when P—— appeared between themselves and their home, they clung to each other and continued to yell, while several Chinamen came running towards them armed with hoes and spades, and the dogs of the farm joined chorus with a tremendous barking. But when the ladies found my friend did not attempt to carry them off, but continued in front of them bowing and scraping like a French dancing master (although this, of course, they did not know), and when the advancing Chinamen observed my fowling-piece and one of the snapping curs had been saluted with a large stone between its eyes, which changed the baying into howling, the commotion gradually subsided, although paterfamilias, and materfamilias, who now put in her appearance, seemed by no means satisfied.

When the farmer's men, carrying hoes and other agricultural instruments, for the nonce converted into warlike weapons, arrived upon the scene, P—— suddenly thrust a hand into an inside breast pocket of his coat, and winding up a small musical-box he carried there, changed the combative feeling of the natives into the greatest surprise and curiosity. Taking advantage of the pause, while the astounded people seemed to look upon my friend, with "the British Grenadiers" issuing from the region of his heart, as a "Joss" man, I told As-sam to inform the head of the family that we had landed to inquire the way to Yang-chow. This seemed to brighten the old fellow's dingy countenance without the aid of water, although he still seemed dubious as to whether we were "Joss" men, robbers, or honest travellers. One of his sons at this moment displayed a remarkable genius by guessing the cause of my friend's music, and it afterwards transpired that the clever youth had an old musical-box in a forgotten corner of the paternal dwelling, which had been obtained from the foreign-frequented city of Chin-kiang a year or two ago, but had been broken by over-winding just when it began to play.

The two pretty daughters having been conveyed to the inner apartments by their watchful mother, who, I believe, penetrated the real cause of our visit, and did not seem very much inclined to dazzle the vision of the strangers from afar with their celestial charms, we were invited to tea by their father, and the musical-box was produced for the general delight of the company.

After tea and rice-cakes had been despatched, the musical-box nearly worn out, and the girls peeping through the bamboo screen fairly propitiated by our gentle manner and extraordinary tales, the old farmer discovered that he had in former days been acquainted with As-sam's father in Canton; at once we were pressed to remain and partake of dinner, and the already genial humour of the old man became redoubled.

The day passed over very comfortably, except that at dinner the Chinese yeoman would persist in being polite, and as this involved the fishing-up of pieces of meat from the dinner bowls with his own chop-sticks and the careful depositing of the same morsels in his visitors' basins, it was not exactly pleasant.

Towards evening we were gratified by the presence of the young women to perform various duties in the principal room, in which we were established. Whether the small cups of rice-spirit at dinner had made their father unusually relaxed in domestic rÉgime I do not pretend to say, but he certainly called his daughters up to him, and actually permitted them to be gazed upon by strangers and to gaze in return, and to listen to their marvellous tales of other lands, these latter singularly improved upon by As-sam whenever my knowledge of the Chinese language was at fault.

To my unqualified surprise, when upon the point of taking our departure, As-sam asked me to let him have fifty dollars and stop it from his wages, as he wished to buy our host's youngest daughter! It appeared that the old gentleman, warmed with the recollection of his friendship for our servant's father, or impressed with As-sam's importance and wealth through the eloquence of that cunning individual himself, and seeing him in connection with Europeans, whom the Chinese always look upon as overburdened with dollars, had offered him his daughter in marriage for the sum of fifty dollars. I refused to be a party to the transaction, so As-sam had to leave without a bride, although he promised to return and claim her whenever he had saved her value. I bade the farmer and his household farewell, wishing more than ever for the success of my Ti-ping friends, who had abolished this buying and slavery of women among themselves, and intended, God willing, to do so throughout the land.

Upon reaching Sin-ya-meu I found the faithful A-ling had obtained the cargo of rice and loaded our craft with it. We therefore at once set out upon our return to Nankin, choosing the route by the Grand Canal, which would bring us into the Yang-tze river at Kwa-chow, some few miles above Chin-kiang.

Placing the crew on to the yu-lo's (which, working in a figure of eight motion, urge a vessel along upon the same principle as the screw propeller), by these large oars our vessel was soon impelled beyond Sin-ya-meu and into the Grand Canal. This magnificent work of olden time is artificial for an extent of some 550 miles. Originally throughout nearly the whole of this length, its sides were built of marble, with an uniform breadth of more than 150 feet, and a depth of not less than 25. Since the conquest of China by the Manchoos, however, this great work has been sadly neglected, and at many parts the marble sides are no longer visible. At frequent intervals between Hang-chow (the capital of the Che-kiang province, where the canal terminates in the waters of Hang-chow bay) and the city of Lin-tsing (where it joins a branch of the Pei-ho river and continues on for about 180 miles up to Pekin, the capital of China), the canal is no longer navigable, while the sluices, having become neglected, have broken down the raised embankment and flooded the surrounding country. This vast work was executed about 600 years ago by Koblai Khan, the first Emperor of the Yuen or Mongol dynasty, as a means of supplying the sterile province of Chi-le (in which the capital is situated) from the rich and fertile provinces of Keang-su, Shang-tung, and Che-kiang, through which the canal is constructed.

Not only the Grand Canal, but every other work of art, antiquity, and manufacture, has been injured and allowed to fall into decay by the Manchoo dynasty. Although the latter claim descent from the refugee Mongol Princes, who were expelled from China by the first of the native dynasty of Ming, A.D. 1366, they have done far less towards any advancement of the physical or moral prosperity of China. During the Mongol era many great works of public benefit and improvement were preserved and others created, but since the epoch of the Manchoo China has seriously deteriorated in every phase of her antique civilization. The Manchoo conquerors are self-evidently preying upon the nation at the present day, even although they have been in possession two hundred years, and exhibit not the slightest wish to improve or benefit the people, whom they only plunder. They seem to be actuated by the knowledge that their reign is but for a time, and consequently rule against freedom or improvement in order to make that time as long as possible. They have proved themselves to be unequalled destroyers, and have produced absolutely nothing. All Chinese of mind and education declare that the Manchoo dynasty cannot last; even the highest officials of the very Government itself have made the same observation to members of the last British Embassy to China. Had the Ti-pings not possessed Christianity, China would have risen to their standard as one man; had the revolution not seemed likely to interfere with British "indemnities" and opium trading, it would have succeeded; and had not England interfered, the wretchedness of China would have been relieved by the change of dynasty, the necessity for which becomes more apparent daily.

The only advancement China has undergone during the Manchoo rule has been her rapid increase of population within the last century. For more than one hundred years after the conquest the depopulating effect continued in full force. Thousands of the Chinese emigrated to Formosa, Hae-nan, Thibet, Cochin-China, Ava, Siam, the territories of the Miau-tze, and other independent tribes; while many thousands fell by the sword, and a greater number perished by famine, the inevitable and most deadly companion of war in that densely populated and closely cultivated country. But since the Chinese have become used to the Tartar yoke, about the middle of the eighteenth century, the population has continued increasing at the Malthusian ratio of doubling every twenty-five years. Still this enormous increase is estimated to have simply restored to the land the number of people it maintained before the Manchoo invasion. This conclusion is formed from the most moderate data, but, as Malthus himself observes, "The more difficult as well as the more interesting part of the inquiry is to trace the immediate causes which stop its further progress." The loss of life by the Ti-ping revolution may be one cause, for it is a moot question whether war be not one of the ordained methods to arrest the pro-creative power. This, however, is a consideration for those who have made such theories their study. At all events it is certain that the great increase of the population of China has ceased, and it is palpable that, with already more than three hundred inhabitants on a square mile, the soil is unable to support any further multiplication of its children.

The increase of the population of China seems another likely enemy of the continuance of the Manchoo dynasty. The ranks of the people having become full again, all the old hatred of the Tartar, his tail-wearing badge of servitude, extortion, monopoly of office, oppression, &c., naturally assume a more formidable aspect. The means of livelihood are also more precarious, and the famine riots have become more frequent and threatening, the impoverished people of course turning against the Government whose extortion not a little helps to create their misery. The number of malcontents become continually increased, while the impotence and corruption of the Government, or rather the Manchoo subjugators, is daily more apparent to them.

It is a singular fact that the Tartars have never amalgamated with the Chinese, and that at the present day, by their organization of the eight tribes of "Bannermen," they are as distinct as during the reign of their first Emperor. Manchoo troops of the "eight banners" garrison every important city in China, Manchoo officers hold every military command, but I never found a Chinaman who would admit relationship to one, or that did not feel himself insulted by the supposition.

Whether the cause may be patriotism, famine, increase of population, or the extortion and oppression of the Government, certain it is that at this period[42] the Chinese are unusually disaffected towards their rulers, and that, besides the Ti-ping movement, there are distinct rebellions progressing in each of the eighteen provinces.

The Manchoo Government is generally admitted to be hopelessly oppressive, cruel, and totally corrupt; it is also believed that they have, and by their system are compelled, to oppose Christianity and modern civilization. In the face of all these facts he must indeed be a very wise or a very foolish man who will either venture to believe that the Manchoo-Tartar dynasty can endure, or will wilfully criminate himself by upholding their cause. Most probably the British Government thought only of their own interests during their late interference, and it is at least doubtful whether a sincere mercenary motive or a sincere desire to perpetuate the Manchoo dynasty would have been the most wicked.