"4 missionary writes me that he has seen a girl seventeen years old who was offered for sale by her father at a price of $4 and to what people she was offered! Horrible individuals buy such women with the intention of making them social outcasts. Besides all this misery cholera has made terrible ravages in certain regions, more especially in Shuntefu. Many died in a few hours already weakened by misery, often leaving their families without any support. What will be-tome of such families if no one come to their assistance?
"T would like to stop talking about these harrowing thirtgs but I must tell you the full truth and I will do so to the bitter end although my heart bleeds by doing "To all these horrors must be added that of the brigands who are a scourge everywhere and in every' possible manner. There are brigands who are deserted soldiers_, who -terrorize the peaceful inhabitants of the countryside until they have received what they demand. There are other brigands who are simply professionals and who practise extortion on the well-ited without permission.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.