We waited on for a while after Li Taotai eft us, to see if any further communication might be made to us, and as none came we sent our writer to the yamen to ask definitely what they intended us to do. He brought back word that Li Taotai and his colleague, afterpartaking of sumptuous
trate, had both gone to bed. The latter meal supplied by the Huangkang magi gentleman, however, authorised him to tell us that if we would go to Sungpu by water, instead of by land they would allow us to proceed. This, however was out of the {question as no one would say how long such a journey would take. Only a short time before they had insisted that five days were necessary for only a portion of it, and that down stream
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.