"Yon are the first Europeans that have ever attempted to cross from Burms, and-you -will attempt in the very worst part of the year—the rainy season." Thisis what we were told -at Bhamo. Some Job's comforters tried. to dissuade us by promising sp-edy deaths from foyer. Others said that, there were long stretches of land under water where wy would have to im.. Still others hinted wa would receive our quite us. from the spo-rs of, wild Kachin ires on the hills, Our answer was: © We haven't come over eleven thousand miles to- be turned back now by rain... The only thing (th-t.wi'lturn- us. will be. the. Chine-e The,:-Deputy. Commissioner. sat his Chinese clerk..t" write imposing letters of introduction ow' thin red -tissue-paper to Jard high mandarin. The Government officials placed elephants at our disposi to carry us and.our b'eyoles "ver ths aiwamps, acd the military polis;.at the same tim fered pack-malis and po We our-Ives wer: fa-oura @ to employing coo lies, ant a whole morni was: ardel +04 "hauling with: half-asdezen mo t fright: ful-featured. Chine, Ultinntely, ged a head-man at two rupees a day, jamd t e-oth-r employed at one rupee a div eveh 'E-es would be ternal wages for a+ English workingman, dut was really wice the regulation j coolie hire in the dry weath +r.
We decid-that we personally would tray-l aver ud to" Myothit on elephants, and at M ponies xent in xdvanes wontd -by waiting to-take us to the frontier. There we would be dependent.on our ¢ obes, "for-ign devils" travelling in Eh pas: po ts iden*i-al to thos teu renty ports must, on the application the British authorities, be issued to Brit subject desiring to" enter China from ea by the Chinese authorities at the ier, Now it s+ happens—su-h are aments. made in diplom tie conventions—that the Chinese have no authori ti 4 on the Bura. Chinese frontier, only crowd of wild, repellent. warr ors, ready to cut down sny' British subject who v on the wrong side of the creek that divides the empires. The wexrest Celestial d gnitary was at Tenyyu-h, ezht or ten days journey beyond the frontier: Therefore, the Brit sh autho-ities at Bhamo mie out a deuiand in the form of a request that, under the P kong Convention, we be. granted the neressiry pusspo te and protec: tion, Further, we bad our passports issued by the Foreizn Ottice at home, un by Lord Salisbury, translated on sheets of paper the siz" of " tablecloth i Chinese, signed by the Devuty-Cowmissioner on behalf of the Government, and stamped with the official seal, "We couldn't read a single word of Chinese, except our own norns, and ax we w te travelling (nceording ty the lotters of intro notion) "for the increase of knowledge," we put private lead-pencil si: ns on the documents, that the majesty of "staid mand sun would not he offended by auc: presenting any of the epistles wrong Ups Every arrangement was at In t complete, and the two Government elephants were making a breakfast of all the cabbages in adjoining back-garden, when the mon who lind taken out tha military polies, ponies oime back with thy intelligence that four miles out "f Bh mo the land wen flooded 'o a depth of four tea foot. And thereupon our cmlies, like other persons ott a more memorable decision, began with tone consent ty make excuses One had recently taken to himself a wife, another was about t+ do xo, another hind poor Blind parents, whom it tore his heart to lowe, another hnd a funeral to go to, and the remaining couple hones tly funk: the journey.
We sent the elephants away, ned sak down to devise tress plasa. - Another Ditch of six. coolies was wayagel, and we decid d to ¢" to Myothit by motive bow, though -the journey was to. tak pon three days. Tewas a wobbling craft that we engaged; wi len basket hood la the centre. We arowed away our hi-yeles and bazage, and then, craving ander the boody quslied for saints by. anding ing a, hundred martyrdoms, - lying - fearfully cramped:.and uncomfortable.on hard - boards, quite arable to ait up, and only se-ewing_ round. with diiculty and groans... What with our three selves and belongings, the six coolies: and the, three boatmen, the veswl.was. deeply laden. We turned out of the
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