220 RUMOURS OF WAR 



a dent in the barrel. Fortunately we had more luck 

 with our rifles, and they came through unscathed. 



Choni w^as full of rumours. The Ko-lao-hui, 

 or " League of the Elder Brother," which owns a 

 vast number of adherents all over China, was strong 

 in the neighbourhood. For the most part their 

 bands are nothing but organised collections of 

 bandits. Military in its inception, the League was 

 started by General Tseng-kuo-fan, the Imperialist 

 commander, during the siege of Nanking, with 

 the express purpose of resisting the influence of 

 " Chinese " Gordon and the " ever- victorious " 

 army under his command. Originally recruited 

 from among the patriotic soldiers of Hunan and 

 Honan, it has since spread all over the country. 

 Mr. Percy Kent writes of its members as follows : 

 " Their motto might well be ' War on Mankind.' 

 A salutary dread of the law may keep their evil 

 propensities dormant ; but, the law once relaxed 

 or become powerless, all their savage instincts 

 burst forth, the rest of mankind become a prey : 

 they scour the country in bands, terrorising, 

 pillaging, killing if it please them, and burning." 

 Some of these local ruffians had intimated that 

 within the next day or so the missionaries' house 

 was to be the object of an attack and that all 

 foreigners were to be killed. Naturally, Mrs. 

 C^hristie, in the unavoidable absence of her husband, 

 was nervous ; for she had been through the troubles 

 of 1900, and knew the Chinese. We heard later 

 that the heads of this Society had signed an 

 agreement promising not to go against the re- 

 volutionaries, but to aid them, and to protect 

 foreigners and '' good people " ! 



