Among the population of
Chao-t'ong-fu, or more particularly among the people around the city,
especially the tribespeople, this additional tax was supposed to have
been caused by the Europeans, and other wild rumors concerning the
Tonkin-Yuen-nan Railway (to be opened in the following April), which
gained currency with remarkable rapidity, added to the unrest. It
required only that brilliant phenomenon of the heavens, with its
wonderful tail--none other than Halley's Comet--to bring the whole to a
climax. This was altogether too much for the superstitious Chinese, and
he looked upon the comet as some evil omen organized and controlled by
the foreigner especially for the working of his own selfish ends in the
Celestial Empire; and a number believed it to be a heavenly sign for the
Chinese to strike.
That the riot was being started was plain, but the first definite news
the foreigners received was on February 5th, when an I-pien (one of the
tribes), whose little girl attended the mission school, was captured
and compelled to join the rebelling forces between T'o-ch-i (on the
River of Golden Sand[O]) and Sa'i-ho, in a westerly direction from the
town. A march would take place on the fifteenth of that month, the
Europeans would be assassinated, their houses would be burned and
looted--so ran the rumor.
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