and only partially repaired, in which is an honorary tablet given by the Emperor to a former Governor of Kwang-su and Ngan-hwui. The shops, especially those in the two chief streets, are richly and well furnished; the city is walled, of course, and comprises an area of twelve to fourteen square miles. The wall is in very good repair, and in parts very strong, being built against the face of two hills which are scarped.

"Han-yang is between the Han and the Yang-tsze rivers. It is a very small city, and, even including the suburbs, never could have been a place of any size. Some hills, with long but very narrow ridges, are the refuge for the inhabitants when the floods are high. The site offers no great attractions, and it is very partially rebuilt.

"Hankow, the great depôt of which so much has been said, extends for about a mile from the junction of the two rivers, down the left bank of the Yang-tsze and up that of the Han, or Seyang, river, as it is also called. Few junks anchor in the former; but the latter, which is considered the safer anchorage, is crowded with craft of all kinds. The banks in March are eighteen to twenty feet high, and many houses are built out on piles driven into the steep sides of the Han. The banks of the rivers are raised above the country at the back, and from July to September or October the whole of the neighbouring country is under water, and within about a mile of the town the waters remain so long that the soil is not under regular cultivation. Not every year, but about every fourth year, the water is so high that many of the inhabitants have to take refuge in the upper stories of their houses, and the poor in lower houses find such shelter as best they may upon the few narrow hills in the neighbourhood. In 1848, remembered in Shanghai as a year of flood, the whole town was under water and great damage was done. The inhabitants, however, and people from all parts of China, do not give the

place a bad character, but say it is healthy. This town is not walled; there is a small fort and ditch at the eastern extremity, which will do quite as well for the braves to run away from as a stronger and more costly fortification."

As regards the trade of Hankow, he continues :-" British cotton manufactures of all kinds are well known here; at present they draw their chief supplies from Canton, but last year (1860) they appear to have got up a good deal from Shanghai. In woollen cloths there is no doubt we have strong competitors in the two great companies which monopolise the Russian trade. The route for this traffic is up the Han (or Seyang) river for some 250 to 300 miles to Seyang, which is the great port for transshipment for Tien-tsin and Peking. Pack-horses are said to be largely used for the land portion of the journey to and from the North. It is by no means clear, however, that British woollen cloths are to be driven off the field, nor does the competition affect all descriptions of woollen manufactures. Coal of various kinds is to be had; whether any may be found at all equal to English remains to be seen, but it is certainly of serviceable quality.

"The country trade is enormous, including that for opium with districts in the west of Hoo-peh and Sz'chuan, where the drug is grown in considerable quantities, and apparently at a cost much cheaper than that supplied by India. The population of these places must have been greatly exaggerated by the Abbé Huc, who gives it at eight millions. It might possibly have reached a third of that number, and now cannot be estimated at over a million; probably it is much under that, for Hankow derives its importance from its trade, and there is no idle population; many of the merchants, indeed, have their families at Woo-chang-foo."

Mr. Rowland Hamilton was one of a party which, during the absence of the Admiral on the trip to the Tung-ting Lake, made an excursion up the river Han; and he speaks thus of the country on its banks: "Two of our party

made an expedition for five days up the Han, intending to run up some of the nearer tributaries towards the hills to the north, as time would not admit of their attempting to reach Seyang. The Fates and the Chinese boatmen, however, were adverse: whether the smaller streams were really deficient in water, or whether the boatmen could not realize the idea of men going up a small river when a larger one was before them, must remain a mystery. The trip, however, was not without interest, through a vast level plain from which the water has to be kept out by embankments. These were generally under repair, and a great deal of patient industry was being bestowed on them; much damage had been done by excess of water last year (1860), the crops being reduced to eight-tenths of an average, and much loss incurred by houses falling in. Probably a survey and works on a comprehensive plan would secure the whole of this magnificently fertile alluvial plain from the one evil which checks its prosperity. As an old Chinaman said-If they got no flood for ten years they got very rich, but when the waters rose they suffered much loss and misery. Wheat is largely grown. Millet-stalks also, ten or twelve feet long, were to be seen. The wheel for spinning cotton is in every cottage. The people, both in the country and towns, were quite civil and friendly; provisions were cheap and good. The villages are mostly built on the banks of the rivers or lakes, of which there are many on the raised Bunds. The fields are lower and perfectly level, looking as smooth as a billiard-table."

But what need I say more of this great emporium of commerce? When we visited it, not an European-excepting a disguised priest or two of the Romish Church--was within hundreds of miles of it; now, merchants and missionaries follow their avocations without secrecy, and a vessel of war lies off the town to remind the Celestials of the promise they made at Tien-tsin, of Yuen-ming-yuen, and of the barbarian force that has been within the walls of Peking.

CHAPTER V.

ADMIRAL HOPE'S EXPLORATION.

WE arrived at Hankow just one month after our departure from Shanghai. Hankow is 588 geographical or 676 statute miles from Shanghai.

On the following day, at a visit of ceremony which Sir James Hope paid to the Viceroy of Hoo-peh, our expedition was duly represented; and when Mr. Parkes intimated to His Excellency that our little party had the intention of penetrating into the interior, and that it might be as well for us, as the first Europeans travelling under the new treaty-rights, to be accompanied by some one having authority, the Viceroy at once nominated a military mandarin to accompany us to the limits of his jurisdiction. He, moreover, countersigned our passports, which we had obtained from H. M. Consul at Shanghai, and promised to inform the Viceroy of the next province- Sz'chuan - concerning us, by letter to be sent overland.

*

The Admiral now decided on continuing his voyage with only one gun-boat, besides his own vessel the Coromandel,' but offered to take us in tow. We therefore hired a passageboat capable of accommodating our party comfortably, making an agreement for forty-five dollars to I-chang.

It was some time before those who negociated the hire of the junk could bring the skipper to realize the fact that she must be alongside the steamer the same day, in order that we might shift our baggage into her; such a rapid proceeding was altogether beyond his Celestial comprehension.

See Appendix.

last, however, he agreed to do as was required, and during the afternoon, while most of the officers were with the Admiral on his visit, we made our transfer. The summary mode in which we proceeded to do it, however, did not suit our skipper; he protested that the junk was not ready, and became most irate, stamping and foaming like a madman, varying the performance occasionally by a good blubber. We were luckily without interpreters, and so took a practical method of settling the difficulty by lowering a heavy box on to the head of the old fellow, who had placed himself right in the gangway. This proved at once efficacious; so, getting the Chinese boatmen to work, and being assisted by some of the sailors and our Seikhs, we very soon got everything on board; and then finding out the old skipper, who had retired sulkily into his cabin, we gave him a good stiff glass of grog, which set matters all right in that quarter, and we saw no more of him for the day.

In the evening we were entertained on board the Couper' at a farewell dinner, where the wishes that success might attend us on our proposed journey were universal; in the midst of the jollity there was a sudden cry of "Man overboard!" The officers hastily left the table, boats were lowered, and immediate search made for the missing man; but the night being quite dark and the current strong, notwithstanding that some of the boats went a long way down the river, no trace was found of the poor fellow. He was one of the crew of Commander Ward's gig, and had been selected from among a number to fill that situation. Having shared in much hard service in China, he was now taken away while on almost a pleasure excursion. Such are the workings of the Almighty by which He shows His power, to convince us of our own littleness, and the frailty of all things mortal. This sad accident threw a gloom over the party. We separated earlier than we should otherwise have done; and having