26
All these missionaries are Frenchmen, and more French than missionary, having, to a man, the views of Bishop Penginier, of Tonquin. There are somewhere about 150,000 Chinese converts.
Now that the Chinese are awake to the danger that threatened them from the intrigues of the French priests, there is no reason, I believe, to apprehend any harm to British interests from their efforts, especially while there is such a bad understanding between the French officials and the priests. The converts are a scattered body, who would be promptly massacred, as they were the other day in Annam, if they tried to assist the French. On the contrary, by breaking up the population and introducing, to some extent, foreign knowledge and ideas, they prepare the ground for the pioneers of British commerce.
With regard to the military aspect of the Tonquin question, the reverses suffered by the French have done grave damage to French influence in South-west China, and, in a lesser degree, to the prestige of the other Occidental Powers. The recent disturbances at Ch'ung-king and in Kuei-chou were, without doubt, due in part to this cause; the leaders in these riots were military students, up from the country for examination, stuffed with a hundred lying tales of Chinese successes against the French-tales which would not, however, have gone down had there not been real successes to base them on. From what I saw and heard on the Tonquin border, I believe that the talk about a Chinese military revival is a darkening of counsel-words without knowledge. Chinese are no more able to stand up before European troops, properly led, than they were in 1842 or 1860. The only difference is, that they are now sometimes well armed. I heard an account of the Lung-chou engagement from two braves, engaged there, who journeyed two days with me on the way to their homes in Kuei-chou. The French marched into the midst of a body of 50,000 men, armed with repeating rifles and abundant ammunition (in spite of Chang Chih-tung's statement to the contrary in his Memorial). They said: "We were ordered to fire all day and all night; the French said it was not fair, as they had no time to sleep or eat." The lesson to be learnt from the Tonquin war is to strike quickly if it is necessary to strike at all. The Chinese can make good plans, and carry them out with much determination, but they are never ready, and require a comparatively long time to consult and prepare. No time should be given then.
Burmoh.
The Yünnan officials treated me with marked politeness, and the mediation of Sir R. Hart was frequently mentioned in flattering terms; nevertheless, there was much uneasiness about Burmah: all inquired what we were going to do there, and preparations were made for defence on the Burmese frontier, General Ting, with 5,000 men, being sent from Kai-hua Fu to Têng-yuch in January 1886, and T'aug Taotai being sent from Yunnan Fu in February to superintend the defence of the border. This meant, no doubt, intriguing against the semi-independent tribes south of T'êng-yueh to secure their hostility to England. At Ssu mao, where I stayed eleven days and became intimate with the officials, steps were being taken to put the frontier into a state of defence; besides the right wing of the P'u-êrh Brigade, which should number about 500 men, and which has its permanent quarters at Ssă-mao, an auxiliary force was being enlisted for the defence of this part of the frontier, the officer in command of which, with 200 men, arrived from the Tonquin border a few days before I did. The Magistrate, who was a protégé and a fellow-provincial of the Governor-General Ts'ên, told me that he had recently received instructions to repair the wall of the town and to have a Map of the neighbourhood constructed; he said that the reason for strengthening the garrison was the confusion that reigned in the Ch'ê-li territory.
The Chinese Government wields little real power south of Ssu-mao, and contents itself with keeping up the prestige of its authority by an occasional act of treacherous violence. Thus in 1884 Ma Chung, the General at Pu-erh, engaged a Mahommedan, also named Ma, to assassinate the Ch'ê-li Prince (called Chiu-lung Wang by the Burmese). The man sent was a friend of the Wang-more, they had exchanged tieh-tzu, i.e., were sworn brothers or he would not have obtained admittance, the Wang being extremely wary. He was to receive 1,000 taels and a place for his pains, but he caught malarial fever on the Meklong, and only returned to die, as he deserved. In the same year the Shan Chieftain of Liu-k'un was invited to dinner at Ssŭ mao by the same officer to discuss local affairs, and taken straight out to the market-place and beheaded. I was told in Ssu-mao by several merchants that these
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acts had greatly disgusted the Shans, and had consequently damaged trade at 327
Ssă-mao.
Inquiries along the route showed that the Shan family is a very widely divided one. From Ssu-mao, along the Tonquin border, Shans, under various names, occupy everywhere the lower lands. The whole population of Northern Kwang-si is Shan, and they stretch in large communities, e.g., Shui-chia, Chung-chia, &c., as far north as Kuei-yang Fu, the capital of Kuei-chou. The country between Ava and Ssŭ-mao is probably the home of this race, migration having been apparently from the south; the Shans in Kuei-chou migrated there from Kwang-si in the beginning of the 18th century only. They are indefatigable nature-worshippers in China, and generous supporters of Buddhism and Burmese priests in the Shan States, so that there should be a likely field for English missionaries among them on both sides of the border.
The Chinese frontier will be found figured in the last edition (1836) of the Topography of the Yunnan Province," and perhaps a frontier running through the passes there named would be all that Her Majesty's Government would claim. But the Topography mentions a number of small clans or places south of this line to which garrisons are said once to have been sent by China, &c. The Topography would have therefore to be carefully studied before it could be suggested as a basis of arrangement.
With regard to the opening up of commercial relations between Burmah and Yünnan, I have shown in my Report that even at present Burmese cotton comes as far east as Yunnan Fu, and that in spite of bad roads, Western Yunnan will certainly be supplied with foreign goods from Burmah when the route is Western Yünnan
open.
is much richer than the eastern part of the province bordering on Tonquin, and is being filled up more quickly, and by a more vigorous race (Ssu-chuanese), and a very profitable trade will no doubt spring up; but the idea of a route through Yunnan competing with the lower Yang-tzů ports is chimerical, to use a mild term. How far
the area supplied from Burmah may encroach on the areas that now are, or ought to be, supplied from Canton, Tonquin, and Sui Fu (above Chungking on the Yang-tzů), depends on the success of our diplomacy, and on the skill with which our interests may be pushed with the Yünnan Government.
With regard to the regulation of the frontier trade, there should be the least possible restriction as to what persons or what goods cross the frontier, and in what manner they do so.
Perhaps it will be found advisable to promise with regard to smuggling, for it is a wholesome check on greedy Customs officials, and is favoured by the ground and the traditions of the people.
I would beg to suggest that the future of agriculture and manufactures in Burmah should not be forgotten. The nature of the ground--Yunnan being an elevated plateau 4,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea, and Burmah a broken plain with an altitude for the most part of a few hundred feet only-involves a great difference of climate and production.
Yünnan will not grow cotton, tobacco, or tea, for instance, necessities to Chinese, in the production of which there may be a great future for planters in Burmah.
Tobacco comes at present from Ssu-chuan and the Kwang provinces, and tea from the Shan States outside Ssu-mao, but the supply of the latter is insufficient even at present, and the people in South Yünnan drink all sorts of decoctions in its stead.
Salt is produced in many parts of Yunnan, but the supply is insufficient, and there should be an increasing import from Bhamo as the western parts of the province fill up.
The Report of a six months' journey in Yünnan and Kuei-chou would be incom- plete without some mention of the Governor-General, Ts'ên Yü-ying, who has long been, and no doubt will remain, the right arm of the Chinese Government in these parts. He is a Shan of the Pu-man family, born at Hsi-liu Hsien in Northern Kwang-si, where the borders of Yünnan, Kuei-chou, and Kwang-si mect. He has been engaged in fighting all his life, having had to fly from home when a youth because of a clan quarrel about which he was wanted, and having fought through the twenty years of Mabommedan and Miao-tzů rebellion. He is superstitious and cruel, bloodthirsty many say,
but a strong ruler, and, for an Oriental, thorough in all that he does. There is no man in China who is so feared by officials and people under him, and his presence is the best security for the peace of that province. He is supposed to hate foreigners, and is generally accredited with the murder of Margary and the
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