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This was then the Government road connecting Yün-nan and Kuei-chou with the east of the Empire. The place has now the air of a Welsh country town with great display of mountain boots, and such rustic articles, though its suburb, several li in length, attests its former prosperity. Here goods are transferred from the river* to the backs of pack-animals. Dues and prices are given in Appendix I.
After the suburbs of Yung-ning and Hsü-yung are passed, and the valley of the river left behind, the country quite changes its character. The ascent to the plateau of Yün-nan begins, and the sandstones and argillaceous shales, characteristic of Southern Ssu-ch'uan, are replaced by stratified limestones and calcareous shales weathered into the queerest shapes, having a honeycombed or wavy appearance according to the nature of the rock. After a walk of about 16 miles, the latter part of the way between hedges that looked quite English with wild roses and blackberries, we reached Shuang-ching, 3,640 feet above the sea.
Here we heard the very unpleasant news that we were to meet a disbanded army that was on its way back to Ssu-ch'uan from the Tonquin border. When Peking resolved to make war in earnest on the French in Tonquin, a Ssu-ch'uan General, Pao Ch'ao by name, was directed to recruit an army in Eastern Ssu-ch'uan and march to the Tonquin border through Yün-nan. On the way up the Yang-tzu in December 1884, I walked through General Pao's camp at K'uei Fu, when he had collected about 20,000 men. The General showed no great eagerness to fight; but in the beginning of 1885 he received peremptory orders to move at once. He passed along this road with 20,000 to 25,000 men, and reached Mêng-tzu Hsien, three days from Lao-kai, in March, some little time before the armistice was concluded. After spending four months on the Tonquin border, General Pao marched his troops down the various hills they had so recently ascended, and was now two or three days in front of us on his way back to Ssü-ch'uan. Some idea may be formed of the number of Chinese put out of the world by the war from the fact that of this force, of which the French probably never heard, and which was never within 100 miles of the enemy, not more than half returned. Mêng-tzu, K'ai-hua, and Kuang-nan in thousands; of this I am sure, for I saw their graves. They died in thousands.
It was of course an unfortunate rencontre for us, because the Chinese in these parts do not distinguish the various races of Occidentals. However, the men were broken up into small parties and extended over ten stages or more, so that by keeping together we were generally the stronger company. The road presented the most extraordinary spectacle. There would be in front, perhaps, a man carrying a halbert or trident or 12-foot lance with red flag; next, chanting in a plaintive strain, eight bearers carrying a "ling-chiao" (spirit's sedan), i.e., a coffin containing the remains of some fever-stricken officer, covered with red serge and surmounted by the inevitable white cock, on the way to the family grave-yard in Ssu-ch'uan; then a man carrying a tin-looking French revolver or ancient pistol, the like of which is only to be found in the United Service Museum; next, a sick man only just able to sit upright on his pony; those that had money had invested in Yün-nan opium, parrots, copper, tin, or hams, which they carried themselves slung on to a lance or foreign musket. The pay of these men had been 4 taels (£1. 4s.) per month in all, out of which they fed and clothed themselves. But the amateur opium and ham merchants had won at cards, which, with opium-smoking and fever, had killed time on the Tonquin border. Some scowled and handled their weapons as I walked past them, but the greater number were content with some such remark as "Why, here's one of those foreigners! What's he doing here?" Excepting the body-guard of the General officers, these troops were disbanded and under no immediate control. What I dreaded was a quarrel between some of them and my followers, when time would have been given for stragglers to come up, and we should probably have been looted. All our party were warned to beware of this, and in ten days we had passed the whole force without any mishap.
After Shuang-ching the road climbs successive layers of limestone strata, dipping to the north at an angle of 30 to 45 degrees, the peaks being the tops of the strata that have escaped denudation. Between this and the ascent to the Hsueh Shan there must be an anticlinal ridge, for there the strata, which is of similar rock, dips to the south at about the same angle. After Hei-ni-shao the road runs through a district of bare limestone hills, uncultivated for the most part, and without trees. Here we passed a terminal of Armita Buddha with quite negro features, decked with an immense number of votive offerings, including many pairs of paper eye-glasses, one pair on, producing such a burlesque effect that it was hard not to be profane. After a mile or so Simultaneous observations give the "Yung-ning River a fall of about 3 feet a mile hence to the Yang-tzŭ; and the Yang-tzŭ a fall of 10 inches a mile between Lu-chou and Ch'ung-ch'ing.
372
31
this was then the Government road connecting. Yün-nan and Knei-chou with the east of the Empire. The place has now the air of a Welsh country town with great display of mountain boots, and such rustic articles, though its suburb, several li in length, arrests its former prosperity. Here goods are transferred from the river* to the backs of pack- animals. Dues and prices are given in Appendix I.
After the suburbs of Yung-ning and Hsü-yung are passed, and the valley of the river left behind, the country quite changes its character. The ascent to the plateau of Yün-nan begins, and the sandstones and argillaceous shales, characteristic of Southern Ssu-ch'uan, are replaced by stratified limestones and calcareous shales weathered into the queerest shapes, having a honeycombed or wavy appearance according to the nature of the rock. After a walk of about 16 miles, the latter part of the way between hedges that looked quite English with wild roses and blackberries, we reached Shuang- ching, 3,640 feet above the sea.
Here we heard the very unpleasant news that we were to meet a disbanded army that was
on its way back to Ssu-ch'uan from the Tonquin border. When Peking resolved to make war in earnest on the French in Tonquin, a Ssu-ch'uan General, Pao Ch'ao by name, was directed to recruit an army in Eastern Ssu-ch'uan and march to the Tonquin border through Yün-nan. On the way up the Yang-tzu in December 1884, I walked through General Pao's camp at K'uei Fu, when he had collected about 20,000 men. The General showed no great eagerness to fight; but in the beginning of 1885 he received peremptory orders to move at once. He passed along this road with 20,000 to 25,000 men, and reached Mêng-tzu Elsien, three days from Lao-kai, in March, some little time before the armistice was concluded. After spending four months on the Tonquin border, General Pao marched his troops down the various hills they had so recently ascended, and was now two or three days in front of us on his way back to Ssü-ch'uan. Some idea may be formed of the number of Chinese put out of the world by the war from the fact that of this force, of which the French probably never heard, and which was never within 100 miles of the enemy, not more than half returned. Mông-tzu, K'ai-hua, and Kuang-nan in thousands; of this I am sure, for
They died in
graves.
saw their
It was of course an unfortunate rencontre, for us, because the Chinese in these parts do not distinguish the various races of Occidentals. However, the men were broken up into small parties and extended over ten stages or more, so that by keeping together we were generally the stronger company. The road presented the most extraordinary spectacle. There would be in front, perhaps, a man carrying a halbert or trident or 12-foot lance with red flag; next, chanting in a plaintive strain, eight bearers carrying a "ling-chiao" (spirit's sedan), i.e., a coffin containing the remains of some fever-stricken officer, covered with red serge and surmounted by the inevitable white cock, on the way to the family grave-yard in Ssu-ch'nan; then a man carrying a tin-looking French revolver or ancient pistol, the like of which is only to be found in the United Service Museum; next, a sick man only just able to sit upright on his pony; those that had money had invested in Yün-nan opium, parrots, copper, tin, or hams, which they carried themselves slung on to a lance or foreign musket. The pay of these men had been 4 taels (14.) per month in all, out of which they fed and clothed themselves. But the amateur opium and ham merchants had won at cards, which, with opium-smoking and fever, had killed time on the Tonquin border. Some scowled and handled their weapons as I walked past them, but the greater number were content with some such remark as "Why, here's one of those foreigners! What's he doing here "Excepting the body- guard of the General officers, these troops were disbanded and under no immediate control. What I dreaded was a quarrel between some of them and my followers, when time would have been given for stragglers to come up, and we should probably have been looted. All our party were warned to beware of this, and in ten days we had passed the whole force without any mishap.
After Shuang-ching the road climbs successive layers of limestone strata, dipping to the north at an angle of 30 to 45 degrees, the peaks being the tops of the strata that have escaped denudation. Between this and the ascent to the Hsueh Shan there must be an anticlinal ridge, for there the strata, which is of similar rock, dips to the south at about the same angle. After Hei-ni-shao the road runs through a district of bare limestone hills, uncultivated for the most part, and without trees. Here we passed a terminal of Armita Buddha with quite negro features, decked with an immense number of votive offerings, including many pairs of paper eye-glasses, one pair on, producing such a burlesque effect that it was hard not to be profane. After a mile or so Simultaneous observations give the "Yung-ning River a fall of about 3 feet a mile hence to the Yang-taŭ ; and the Yang-tzŭ a fall of 10 inches a mile between Lu-chou and Ch'ung-ch'ing.
372
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