M. and Mme. Paul Comby, who have just arrived at Shanghai, as the terminus of a long circular trip which began at Hanoi last May, and embraced Yunnan and Szechuan, have not. only accumulated a wonderful collection of curios, fossils, biods, beetles, works of art, and photographs innumerable, but have also had some unusual and interesting experiences, M. Comby is an advocate at the Court of Appeal in Paris, but he came''out to the East on an official mission with credentials which ensured for himself every attention and assistance on the part of the Chinese authorities in the distant parts of the Empire. His wife, an English lady, an enthusiastic and energetic traveller and student of human has accompanied him on his j ney, shared all his hardships and pleasures, and accumulated her own ideas on Chinese customs and methods, more especially in their assimilation of Western ways.
Roughly speaking, the route traversed was similar, though commenced at the other and, to that covered by Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Little, eighteen months ago, and described' in our columns at tle time, There were, however, deviations from this route in the Far West and whereas Mr. and Mrs. Little passed from Yinnanfu by the valley of the Nam-ti to Laokai, Mr. and Mrs Comby travelled up the Red River to Muuhao and from Méngtze to Yunnan by. the mandarin road" past Lunganfa and the lake district. The first stage, frou Hanoi. to tha railway head at Laokui, presented nothing specially noteworthy, but concerning the difficult more especially in the matter of obtaining labour for constructing the line, M. Comby was able to give some interesting impros-sions. The unhealthiness of the climate, causing the coolies to die off in scores hag been remarked upon before, and has not been exaggerated. This, how-over, is only one of the trouble The country is absolutely unprodue! and the rice for the coolies hus therefore to be brought a long distance up and stored. The stupidity of the natives is such that, soeing the stores daily di rushing, and unable to put credit in thi arrival of fresh supplies, they desert in large number, panic-stricken at the idea of probable famine. The foreigners gaged on the railway, moreover, are not altogether blameless. They are a most miscellaneous collection of mon, bolonging to many nationalities, far away from consular of other control, and their treatment of the natives has not been by any means free from reproach. Thi is a circumstance, that is not, una pily, singular to the Yinuan railway, it has had much. to do with the present determination of the Chinese to retain control of railways in their empire.in their own hands.
regard to the railway question generally, M. Comby found everywhere on the part of the Chinese an enthusiasm for progress far in excess of the practical means of carrying out the plans desired. Officials and gentry alike have reached the point of believing railways to be inevitable and necessary. Schemes are on foot for building them in all directions put the work, the money, and the control suade the besters to gone further. Mme. are to be entirely Chinese. Very much of this objection to foreign assistance M. Comby traces directly to the Japanese, whom he discovered advising and in-fluoricing the Chinese all along the line of his travels. The result of the war has immensely stimulated an intercourse already very great between the two nations, whose bonds of a common written character, of similarly Asiatic modes of thought, of religious and philosophical sentiment, ara exceedingly strong. M. Comby rioted what: appeared to him " dangerous result of this intercourse, The comparative nearness of Japan, axl the exteaurdinary craving of the Chinese for knowledge which, they hope, will enable them to follow Japan's example, and resume their place among the Powers, hes caused an immense number of students to go over to the island empire. Unfortunately the course token, including three or four months spent in travel, has usually been of only a year's duration. The young scholars have returned to their native provinces with something Jess than a smattering of Imowledge, but on the strength of what they are supposed to have learned they are placed in all sorts of impossible positions. And they have, curiously enough, come back with strong anti-foreign tendencies. To their crude ideas Japan has succeeded by getting rid of foreign interference, and they fancy that China has only to dismiss her foreign advisers and she also will succeed. It is to be regretted that thi mistaking of the and for the means being furthered by the circulation of chievous pamphlets, of two of which M. Comby; secured copies and brought them back for translation. They set forth the very plausible argument that railway concessions have been used for securing a footing and have been backed up first by railway guards, then by troops, and eventually by annexation of territories. So antagonistic is the Viceroy of Szochuan, oxcollont and intelligent official as ho is in many respects, that he has threatened to deprive of his button any mandarin who ventures to submit a ion for a foreign conces si the enthusiasm for ra in a very brief time in his province for' the building of a railway to avoid the dangerous Yangtze rapids. So far the money is being devoted to the foundation of a school in which the engineers for the railway are to be trained, and by the time they are ready to take charge of the line construction, most of the money which has been obtained expressly for that purpose will have evaporated.
Along the uncertain border line of Yunnan and Szechuan provinces, M. and Mme. Comby discovered for themselves the clever way the neighbouring authorities have of bandying responsibility for lawless districts from one to the other. At a small place called Puertu, where they had stopped for tiffin " specially.unpleasaat incidetit occurred. During the meal the usual crowd of inquisitive natives collected to watch the foreigners, and among them was a truculent fellow, who, not content with looking on, harangued. the crowd and used the most abusive language. The chair bearers and soldiers accompanying the travellers had gone on to the next inn to get their refreshment, and seeing the excited state of the villagers, M. and Mme. Comby finished their meal hastily and went on to the second inn for their cheirs. Here they found the agitator endeavouring to per-
Comby, however, entered her chair and was carried ahead; the soldiers also accompanied her. M: Comby's boaters, however, absolutely refused to budge and as soon as the Indy and the soldiers, who had gone on unsuspectingly, were out of aight the mob surged round M. Comby and. threatened to handle him rough! He judged the best course was to abandon his chair and was then allowed to pass through the crowd, and catch up the party ahead. The soldiers returned and secnred two of the recalcitrant chair-bearers two, however, had disappeared and the agitator likewise. With difficulty another two bearers were obtained. The matter was eventually brought to the knowledge of the authorities at Suifa and, though the actual agitator who caused the trouble was still uncaught, one unfortunate bester who had struck was last soon in a cage at that city.
M. and Mme. Comby were in the upper reaches of the Yangtze during the recent risings of the river and the groat floods.
ey had a narrow escape from drowning in the gorges, the rudder of their boat being carried away in the rapids, They look back, however, on most interesting ' six months, and while Mme. Comby assures us that she would not.care to go through the hardships of the journey again, she fools a just pride in being the second of her sox (Mrs, Little being the fest) to make this Tong circular tour.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.