I should like it to be known here, however, that I do not in any way
whatsoever put myself forward as an authority on the question. I had
not, at the time this was written, laid myself out to make any study of
the subject. But the fact that I have lived in North-East Yuen-nan for a
year and a half, and have traveled from one end of the province to the
other, in addition to having come across tribes of people in Szech'wan,
may justify me in the eyes of the reader for placing on record my own
impressions as a general contribution to this most exciting discussion.
I also lived at Shih-men-K'an (mentioned in the last chapter), among the
Hua Miao for several months, traveled fairly considerably in the
unsurveyed hill country where they live, and am the only man, apart from
two missionaries, who has ever been over that wonderful country lying to
the extreme north-east of Yuen-nan. One trip I made, extending over three
weeks, will ever remain with me as a memorable time, but I regret that I
have no space in this volume for even the merest reference to my
journey.
Some of my friends in China might say sarcastically that mankind is
destined to arrive at years of discretion, and that I should have known
better than to include in my book anything, however well founded, of a
nature tending to continue the wordy strife touching this vexed question
of Mission Work, and that no matter how strikingly set forth, this is an
old and obsolete story, fit only to be finally done with.
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