Whilst traveling I lived on Chinese food, and in the Miao country, where
rice could not be got, subsisted for many days on maize only.
My sole object in going to China was a personal desire to see China from
the inside. My trip was undertaken for no other purpose. I carried no
instruments (with the exception of an aneroid), and did not even make a
single survey of the untrodden country through which I occasionally
passed. So far as I know, I am the only traveler, apart from members of
the missionary community, who has ever resided far away in the interior
of the Celestial Empire for so long a time.
Most of the manuscript for this book was written as I went along>--a
good deal of it actually by the roadside in rural China. When my journey
was completed, the following news paragraph in the North China Daily
News (of Shanghai) was brought to my notice:--
"All the Legations (at Peking) have received anonymous letters from
alleged revolutionaries in Shanghai, containing the warning that an
extensive anti-dynastic uprising is imminent. If they do not assist
the Manchus, foreigners will not be harmed; otherwise, they will be
destroyed in a general massacre.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25