The secretary of the China Inland Mission has passed on to us for publication the following letter, dated from Chenchowfu, October 1, relative to the ladies recently captured by bandits in Honan:
"On Saturday my two men returned after following on the track of brigands for five days-They reached Putai 70 li S. E. and found the band had gone off towards the Anhui border. They found it very difficult to proceed owing to the bad state of the country, so came back to report about things.
"Last night our Magistrate valled for me after midnight, and informed me of a further change in the situation, the brigands having been turned back' down cast, had come back northwest as far as Fengtai 40 li. from here, where they were. evidently getting hemmed in by the. military. A further happy development was that the Sihwa Magistrate's two deputies kad succeeded in getting in to the brigand Chief Fan and brought a letter addressed to our Magistrate and myself stating that they wanted to come to terms, and were anxious to have the soldiers called off. They assured us the captive ladies were being well treated, and took the above deputies in to see them. The deputy said he could not converse with the ladies but declared they were all right.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.