Some have asked what we think would have been the consequences if we had really made a start for Sungpu? Our firm conviction is that we would have been sent to join our dear friends Wikholm and Johansson; and two more bodies would be crying out for you to bury them. Not that there was any danger to be apprehended from which the native authorities could not have been easily able to guard us, if so disposed. But were they so disposed? We think not. News has come in from Sungpu to-day to the effect that Li Kia-chung has again beaten his gong and gathered his men in preparation for other foreigners who are expected to turn up, and that although the Macheng magistrate is in Sungpu he does not forbid him. If we consider that fact, in connection with the other one that the first thing the Captain of our own Hankow escort did, when we reached Huangchow, was to deny that he had been sent to protect us at all, there is hardly room for doubt what the result would have been. Only the good hand of our God with us saved us from a fate which makes one shudder to think of, and if we had met it our mandarins would have washed their hands in innocence, and pointing to their telegram have said: Seo there, we did our best to hinder them, but they would go." 'They would conveniently overlook the fact that it was entirely through having put faith in their own lying promises that we came to be in their hands, just as they seem to have forgotten all' the promises of protection made to our friends at Sungpu, and only remember that they often told them to go away, and therefore are innocent of their blood.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.