the West River at the eastern end of Tsun- chow-fu." The river up which Mr. Moss And later on the now well known explorer Mr. A. B. COLQUHOUN travelled, is officially known to the Chinese as Wat-kong, the subdued or melancholy river (the bras in- férieure of M. RoCHER] while the main stream from this point up to its junction with one of its main affluents, the Pa-pun-kong, is known as the Hang-shui-kong, or rod water river [M. ROCHER's bras supérieure du fleuve de Canton]. The Pa-pan-kong is a stream of considerable size, flowing down through the province of Kwei-chow and join- ing the main stream near the borders of Yunnan. Above this junction the main stream, which is in different parts of its course known by many different names, is termed by Chinese the Nam-pun-kong, or southern basin river, and is said by native traders, the accuracy of whose information we have but little reason to doubt, to take its rise, as the name implies, in the great lake system of central Yunnan in the im. mediate proximity of Yunnan-fu, the capital city of the province of Yunnan. Issuing from this source in considerable volume the stream at once becomes navigable for large native craft, and for some hundred miles it skirts the borders of Kwei-chow and Kwang-si pro- vinces, where it is joined by the Pa-pun- kong, already mentioned, and some other streams of lesser importance, which have their sources in the wealthy and important province of Kwai-chow. The great river, now : swollen to a noble stream exceeding half a mile in width, remains navigable to its embouchure into the sea by its various mouths from the broadway westwards to the Ngai-mus, forming a delta of some bundreds of square miles in extent. The river thus described has been ascended and surveyed by British mea-of-war to the town of Tak-hing, distant but some forty miles from the wealthy and populous trading town of Wu-chau, in the province of Kwangsi,' near the line of its junction with the Kwang- tung province. The influential city of Wu- chau, by far the most important on the river, will probably be the terminus of traffic for foreign owned river steamers, provided the proposed opening of the West River to |navigation becomes an accomplished fact. | In view of the very meagre extent of accurate information on the subject of Yunuan and the West River, we think it highly probable i that should it be practicable for him to do so Mr. COLQUHOUN will, in the expedition now about to be undertaken by him, make bis return route follow the main branch of the West river from Yuunan to Wu- chau instead of the less important stream up which to the town of Nam-ning-fa both Mr. Moss and himself have travelled 'on previons occasions. We are strongly of opinion that the most feasible and direct-~~- in fact the natural-trade route to the pro- vince of Yunnan is this comparatively speak- ing unexplored great West River, and that hence Hongkong, via the great inland town of Wu-chau and the broadway, will be, whes the river is opened up to navigation, the terminus and principal entrepôt of its trade. M. ROCHER recommends the construction of
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a railway from Man-hao, the bead of navi- gation on the Songkoi, to Yunuan-fu, the route for which he saya is feasible. He also įsays it would be easy to construct a line from Yunnan-fu to Peh-Shik, the head of navigation on the lower arm of the West River. Further exploration will probably show that casier of construction than either of those lines would be one connecting the capital of the province wish some town on the upper arm of the West River. With reference to Mr. COLQUHOUк's proposed route by way of Zimmé, it will be plainly perceived that however valuable from a geo- graphical or even Imperial point of view the opening up of Yunnan by a railway from the westward may appear to be, this route does not in any way specially concern ÜB here in Hongkong. The reverse of this, however, is the case with the old trud- ing route to central and mid-eastern Yannso by way of the West River on ita upper branch, the Hung-shui-kong or Bras Supérieur of M. RoCHEE; in a thorough exploration of this route we are immediately interested. The territory through which a considerable portion of the river takes its course, is, however, said by Chinese traders from Yunnan, whom we have lately interviewed on the subject, to have been since the disastrous Taiping rebellion to a considerable extent occupied by Shang- fan, wild aborigines, meaning the Miau.tsz, who are not entirely subject to Chinese law and customs, and that the route even apart from the squeezes and exactions of the Chi- nese officials, which, no doubt, bave done much to cause its disuse, is now a most dan- gerous one: If the accounts which have come to hand of Chinese methods of dealing with these unfortunate natives be in any way correct, they have been treated by the Chinese soldiery with the most remorseless barbarily, and that they should at times at- tempt to make reprisals is no more than under the circumstances might be expected. With reference to the Kwei-chau, sometimes called the cassia river, the North River, the importance of which has been up to the pre- sent time much underrated, the Wat-Kong, the Yan-ping river, and sundry other af fluents of the West River, aud the trade to be expected by development of their resources, as also the creeks and passages of the West and Canton river deltas, and the somewhat better known East river, we propose to wake a few remarks in a future issne.
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