Honan, May 1878, My Dear Mz. Momuzap,—I hope to rive you in the following lines a few notes the way.
rd May.—From Sin-yang-coo to Ming-kiang is 90 li. For the first half of the way, the wheat is high and in the ear, for the latter half it is stunted. Upon the whole there are prospects of a good harvest. We met some men going North to buy women. Bread can be ough at short distances by the roadside for 36 cash a pound.
'4th.—Ming-kiang to Chob-shan-hsien is 90 1i—On this section of road the wheat looks well. We paised one dead man in a field. The people of the city appear to have enough, but it is the refugees here, as in other places, who suffer. There are a few hundreds in the temples, who This has been received relief from the Mandarins. Bread, 38 cash a pound; the usual price is from 18 to 22 casha 5th.—Choh-shan-hsien to Svi-ping-hsien is 90 li.—The wheat prospect on this section is not good, it is on the whole short, thin] sown, and suffering from want of rain. We two dead" men, one in a ditch and the other close to' the cart-road, so that the people had to walk round' the body. The leader of an outbreak in this vicinity, named Kia-heh-n, has been captured and killed, and the people have returned home.
Gth.—Svi-ping-hsien to. Si-ping-hsien is 60 li.—The wheat along this road is very poor, a great deal has perished, large tracts are trebly ploughed and harrowed, and the farther North we go the harvest pros-acts sre wore. We were lodged in the amen, At the first gate lay a man who had lately died, a mere skeleton. Near the Northgate of Sr-ping-len, isa large number of new graves of those who have died from starvation. We saw some dogs exhuming one corpse and devouring it, the crows were leisurely waiting their turn, We relieve 28 we see opportunity by the road, and would gladly help some in the cities, but as the officials are giving relief, and as there is greater distress in the North, we are pressing on with all haste in our catts, the jolting of which is calculated to bring' every muscle of the back and sides into operation. Bread, 40cashapound. We have heard that the Government relict Si-ping-hsi ion is i.—We had a light shower of rain last night, which continued till about noon. This section is an immense plain, on the whole sparsely populated. 'The wheat is the worst that we have seen, the rain will Goubtless greatly help the crops. We have a number of sad sights by the way. (1) Some dogs eating a corpse in a ditch, and some bones on the road. (2) A poot fellow lying in' hole by the road, nearly dead.) beneath a gateway leading toa busy village, one man dead, another dying, and a few nearly exhausted in the same lace, and some sleeping in doorways.
number of human bones: scattered about a field and some dogs eating a nowly buried body. (5) Two old women in a doorway near the East Gate, one lay on the ground dying; we called the other and she came, a poor careworn face and nearly sightless eyes gazed upon us. We gave her some cash, and her eyes were filled with tears of gratitude, and she could not be restrained from knocking her head on the ground out of gratitude, and she returned to share the money' with her perishing companion. (6) By the side of one of the principal streets in the city we saw a dog gnawing the trunk of a body. Bread, 42 cash a pound.
8th.—¥in-chen-hsien to Lin-ing-hsien is 60 1i.—We passed three cart-loads of women going South to be sold, also a gnawed trunk of a man on the cart road and a woman lying dead in a village. The wheat along this section of road has lately been sown, it is thin and only a few inches high on the whole. Rice, 180 cash a pint of 3lb. Gaz, 9th.—Lin-ing-hsien to Sv-coo is 60 li. There is very little wheat on this road, it is in patches and very short. We have not passed any refugees to-day, Bread is 48 cash a pound.
0th.—Sv-coo to Wei-cen"hsien is 90 1i.—During the night we had very heavy rain, and intermittent showers with wind through the day. During the evening the wind blew furiously.
Lith.—Wie-cen-hsien to Wie-si-hsien, 60%i.—This section on the whole is very barren, and the soil is sandy.
12th.—Wie-si-hsien to Cv-sion-chen, 451i.—Thissection is principally asandplain, with scarcely any vegetation except a few frees. This has been the hardest day's travelling in my life. A hurtioane sprang up about 10 a.m, and continued till about 5 p.zn., which raised the dust so that we were unable to see very far. It nearly suffocated us. I can only compare it to a person meeting avery strong blast, coming froma mill grinding brick-dust.
18th.—Cv-sion-chen to K'ai-fung-fo, 451i.—This road is through a sandy plain. We had a strong wind, but the sand was not quite so bad as yesterday. In one part in the course of a few yards, we passed the gnawedtrunks, bleached bones, and queuesof fifteen persons. Who can tell the suf of these poor creatures ere they died'? This sand plain doubtless prevents many famished ones from going South. Close to the city we saw large numbers of starving men and boys, some carrying their daily portion of food, others were lying about the street and by the road-side, very weak, thin, and black with dirt—their poor thin faces seemed to have despair written upon them. We hope soon to do something for them, Our official letter was sent on before us, and when we arrived, we found a miserable little room about bit. x 8 ft. had been provided by the officials. "A. rickety table and one chair had tobe placed against the wall before a person could sit down, We shall really need a better place, which Wo hope the officials will provide, or we shall have to arrange for ourselves, 1dth.—We made enquiries at a large bank about the forwarding of money, but the manager could not undertake to transact business for us. The fin dust has been like london fog all day. No one has come from the yamen to see us, Bread 56 cash a pound.
16th.—This morning we visited two camps of refugees outside the East and South gates, containing about 8,000 persons. Each person receives daily two large ladles of boiled millet, which looks very good. One of the superintendents told us through the constant uso of this diet many fall sick and die. The dist people of the neighbourhood receive relief in cash every five days, adults 60 and children 30 cash. A "Friendly Society" buries the dead; in one cemetery each grave had a nice head stone, In the afternoon we went to a camp outside the West Gate. The gate-keeper let us in, but we had not'gns fir before we were called back, and the overseer got into a great rage and ordered us to-leave at once, which we did; 'There' are many distressing' sights, but the impression we received was that things are not so bad as we had heard, and that the official and: private efforts were able to cope with the present distress in the city. There is a. great deal of unoccupied land inclosed by the walls, and the dust is several inches thick on the streets.
16th.—We had a sand storm during the night. About 8 a.m. it began to rain and continued nearly all day.
17th.—No one has come from the Yamen, and it' was hinted that we should pay a visit, Mr. Taylor had an_ interview with the Hsien and the Fu. They were very cordial, and eulogised the kindness of those desirous of helping the poor, but said they were doing all in their power and were able to supply the need. Mr. Morrison arrived from Shanghai this afternoon.
18th.—Tho Fu and the Hsien together paid usa They said that a consultation had taken place with the new Futai, and that they appreciated our intended kindness, but as rain had fallen the distress was less and they were doing all in their power, so that foreign help was not really needed; in fact, we could not do anything. We advise you, they said, to return, and Jet your friends know this. They' dis couraged us in the idea of going North of the Yellow: River and_visit several cities; the -bearing of the interview. was that we could do nothing here, atid were
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.