CHAPTER XIX. THE MEKONG AND SALWEEN RIVERS--HOW TO TRAVEL IN CHINA 233-243
CHAPTER XX. THE CITY OF TENGYUEH--THE CELEBRATED WUNTHO SAWBWA--SHAN SOLDIERS 244-259
CHAPTER XXI. THE SHAN TOWN OF SANTA, AND MANYUEN, THE SCENE OF CONSUL MARGARY'S MURDER 260-269
CHAPTER XXII. CHINA AS A FIGHTING POWER--THE KACHINS--AND THE LAST STAGE INTO BHAMO 270-281
CHAPTER XXIII. BHAMO, MANDALAY, RANGOON, AND CALCUTTA 282-291
_Mostly from Photographs by_ MR. C. JENSEN _of the Imperial Chinese Telegraphs._
THE AUTHOR IN WESTERN CHINA _Frontispiece._
MEMORIAL ARCHWAY AT THE FORT OF FU-TO-KUAN 34
CHUNGKING, FROM THE OPPOSITE BANK OF THE YANGTSE 38
THE PAGODA OF YUNNAN CITY, 250 FEET HIGH 174
THE "EAGLE NEST BARRIER," ON THE ROAD TO TALIFU 192
THE RIVER SHWELI AND ITS SUSPENSION BRIDGE 242
THE SUBURB BEYOND THE SOUTH GATE OF TENGYUEH 250
ROUGH SKETCH-MAP OF CHINA AND BURMA _at end._
INTRODUCTORY--MAINLY ABOUT MISSIONARIES AND THE CITY OF HANKOW.
In the first week of February, 1894, I returned to Shanghai from Japan. It was my intention to go up the Yangtse River as far as Chungking, and then, dressed as a Chinese, to cross quietly over Western China, the Chinese Shan States, and Kachin Hills to the frontier of Burma. The ensuing narrative will tell how easily and pleasantly this journey, which a few years ago would have been regarded as a formidable undertaking, can now be done.
The journey was, of course, in no sense one of exploration; it consisted simply of a voyage of 1500 miles up the Yangtse River, followed by a quiet, though extended, excursion of another 1500 miles along the great overland highway into Burma, taken by one who spoke no Chinese, who had no interpreter or companion, who was unarmed, but who trusted implicitly in the good faith of the Chinese. Anyone in the world can cross over to Burma in the way I did, provided he be willing to exercise for a certain number of weeks or months some endurance--for he will have to travel many miles on foot over a mountainous country--and much forbearance.
I went to China possessed with the strong racial antipathy to the Chinese common to my countrymen, but that feeling has long since given way to one of lively sympathy and gratitude, and I shall always look back with pleasure to this journey, during which I experienced, while traversing provinces as wide as European kingdoms, uniform kindness and hospitality, and the most charming courtesy. In my case, at least, the Chinese did not forget their precept, "deal gently with strangers from afar."