CHAP TE ROW: 
CLARK AND SOWERBY’S NARRATIVE OF JOURNEY TO HSI-AN FU. 
AS already stated in the last chapter, we left Yen-an Fu on January 28th 
on our way south to Hsi-an Fu, the capital of the province of Shensi. We 
took with us a small caravan of hired mules and three ponies. A groom to 
look after the ponies, and three personal servants including Lao Chao, a 
muleteer temporarily promoted, formed our retinue. The mules, of course, 
were accompanied by their owners, but these last devoted their energies 
mainly to opium-smoking, and incidentally to driving and feeding their 
animals. Lao Chao had first attracted attention in camp at Chao-chuang 
by his courage and unusual strength—on one occasion he forded the Fén Ho 
in flood to get provisions for the party. Showing himself very ready to be of 
use, he had been selected to accompany Cobb and Grant on their journey to 
Hsi-an Fu, and even went with the former as far as Honan, working his way 
back independently just in time to come with us on this trip. 
Grant had kept notes of the country passed through on his journey some 
weeks earlier, and these supplied us with a list of halting-places and inter- 
vening distances, information always warmly appreciated by travellers in 
China. The first day’s journey was across some very fine game country, 
which had already been visited by Grant and Sowerby deer-hunting. The 
travellers followed a long valley to its head in the high shrub-covered loess 
hills; a pass was crossed and a second valley entered, similar to the first. 
Numbers of charcoal-burners were noticed in this wooded area. Near the 
pass stood a roughly made hut, sheltering a small detachment of soldiers, who 
were stationed there to protect travellers against highwaymen, for whose 
atrocities this lonely stretch of country was at one time notorious. The 
robbers found ready cover in the many ravines branching off from the main 
valley ; but since the opening of the new road, and the posting of this little 
garrison, they had found it advisable to disappear. The first halt was made 
at a small town named Kan-ch’iian Hsien, ninety /2 from Yen-an Fu, and 
here comparatively comfortable quarters were found. 
An early start, and a long journey down an ever-widening valley, where 
large numbers of pheasants were seen and a few shot, brought us next day to 
a village not far from the large town of Fu Chou. 
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