Interview with Pi-Kwei, YeJis Successor. 385 



The morning after their arrival the Austrian officers, ac- 

 companied by the English commissioner Mr. Parkes, whose 

 imprisonment near Pekin has since made his name widely 

 and universally known, paid a visit to the sole Chinese au- 

 thority still remaining in the town, the Tartar General and 

 Mandarin, Pi-Kwei. An immense crowd had assembled in 

 the streets through which the foreigners wended their way, 

 and their reception by the Tartar General was accompanied 

 by all the ceremonial of Chinese etiquette : three howitzer 

 salvo-shots, and ear-splitting Chinese music, the General's 

 body-guard, disarmed, drawn up on the staircase, the General 

 himself, wearing his Mandarin cap on his head, nodding and 

 laughing more or less to the foreigners presented, according 

 to their higher or lower rank. The Commodore was pro- 

 vided with a raised seat. In the course of conversation, 

 during which Mr. Parkes kindly acted as interpreter, tea was 

 served. Pi-Kwei inquired as to the objects of the Expedi- 

 tion, and asked the names of the officers, which, owing to the 

 symbolic nature of Chinese writing, could not be done but 

 after much difficulty. Pi-Kwei, a man of colossal proportions, 

 behaved and spoke like a lamb in presence of the small 

 physically insignificant - looking Mr. Parkes. Like the 

 regents appointed by the Dutch Government in Java, he was 

 nothing more than the agent to carry out the orders of the 

 English. 



Our departure was not less ceremonious and noisy than 



our reception : a number of fire-balls were let off in front of 

 VOL. II. a c 



