On the 27th, Mr, Wikholn sent a letter to his friends at Wuchang, in which he gives an account of this official visit, I will give you an extract from the letter, as it throws an important light on the situation at the time of writing. ' Yesterday," writes Mr. Wikholm, "we had a visit from the military mandarin of Macheng. As_ his
cards, we received him in our best, ant visit was announced beforehand by visiting tried' to behave ourselves in accordance with Chinese etiquette as far as possible. First of all we were told he had come to pay us a formal call, of which honour we expressed ourselves to be unworthy. After having spoken for atime of some unimportant matters, the conversation turned upon the question of our safety in residing in this place, and the mandarin suggested that we should. return to Hankow, lest trouble should arise during the festival. But to this we replied that the people were perfectly friendly, and that if the four men who had threatened to make a disturbance were looked after, there would be no danger; and, moreover, as the Macheng Magistrate' had promised to issue a proclamation and protect us, we said, we would not leave. Another of the company thereupon suggested that we should retire to Macheng, where he promised to prepare a house, and help us in every way we wished. For this we thanked him most heartily but stated that we did not seo this to be our duty. Seeing that we were determined to remain here, they promised to give all the help they could; and as measures are to be taken to secure our safety,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.