ON THE YANG-TSZE; WITH A NARRATIVE OF THE EXPLORATION OF AND NOTICES OF THE PRESENT REBELLIONS IN CHINA. BY THOMAS W. BLAKISTON, LATE CAPTAIN ROYAL ARTILLERY. ILLUSTRATED FROM SKETCHES BY ALFRED BARTON, M.R.C.S., F. R. G.S. WITH MAPS BY ARROWSMITH. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1862. The right of Translation is reserved. Bayerische LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS. PREFACE. THE following pages were prepared for the press some months since; but the publication of the work has been delayed till the autumn season, at the request of Mr. Murray. Late events in China, and the policy adopted by the present Government, have changed our attitude towards the Taiping rebels; but as that of the Imperial power remains the same, both with respect to the Taipings and to other insurrectionists in the interior, any remarks on the state of the rebellion are as applicable now as when they were written. In offering to the reading public a narrative of the "Upper Yang-tsze Expedition," I must in justice remark that the undertaking was a private enterprise of Lieut.-Colonel H. A. Sarel, 17th Lancers, Dr. Alfred Barton, and myself; while the fourth member of the expedition, the Rev. S. Schereschewsky, of the "American Episcopal Board of Foreign Missions," afforded his assistance gratuitously. To each of these gentlemen I am indebted in one way or another for information and assistance, which I have acknowledged more particularly in the body of the work. Dr. Barton, however, having undertaken the illustration of the book, is entitled any credit which may be due on that score; while at the to |