ch'ien-t'ang river 173 



right when he said there must be some- 

 thing in all that ? But on the 14th, about 

 noon, we were convinced that our philo- 

 sophical mood would have to give way to 

 one more practical. After a morning shoot 

 we returned to the boat about noon and 

 found that the entire crew had deserted. 

 When we saw that our situation was getting 

 desperate we at once admitted that some 

 reforming agency, in the interest of fair 

 dealing, was imperatively needed in China 

 It appeared that the loadah had been in 

 arrear to the crew for several weeks, and 

 after they had succeeded in getting what was 

 due they would not remain on the boat any 

 longer without security for the future 

 which he could not give. Had we known of 

 what was going on the trouble could have 

 been avoided. There was nothing to do but 

 remain where we were during the night 

 and to find a district magistrate the follow- 

 ing morning and place our case before him. 

 Early next morning we sent a boy to find 

 a magistrate, and soon there came two 

 Chinese from his official residence. We 

 were told that the magistrate would receive 

 us, and so we put on our best shooting 

 clothes and made an earlv start for his 



