FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



Without the walls fruit-trees grew in abundance ; peaches, plums, 

 pears, and pomegranates. Although the climate struck us as 

 healthy, and the nights were cool, the inhabitants seemed much 

 afflicted with goitre. 



Disagreeable news awaited us at this place, to the effect that 

 the English traveller before mentioned had already been here, 

 coming from Yiinchou by the way we had intended to take. 

 This meant that we must seek another line. 



Our stay at Mienning, though not of long duration, was quite 

 enough for our enjoyment. We were badly housed in dingy and 

 stifling quarters under the eaves, looking out into a crowded 

 court. Food was scarce, and, if we e.xcept some fair Chinese 

 fritters, which we sampled at a pastrycook's, was limited to pork, 

 owing to the prohibition of the slaughter of oxen, which were 

 kept exclusively for labour. The surrounding population was 

 mostly Pai, and a petty village headman was found to give us 

 directions as to the route. He was no better than an old free- 

 booter, and informed us that he had been a leader on the Bur- 

 mese frontier, but that some English having been killed by the 

 natives, the regrettable occurrence had been laid at his door, and 

 he had had to make himself scarce. This individual showed con- 

 siderable local familiarity with the country ; but when he pro- 

 ceeded to discourse further upon geography, and unfolded a Chinese 

 map to assure us that the Mekong flowed to Canton and Chang- 

 hai, we thanked him, and said that would do for the present. 



Actinv on his instructions, we resolved to make an elbow bv the 

 side of the Mekong, thus avoiding the Englishman's tracks. The 

 soldiers lent us by the mandarin could not grasp the idea that we 

 were engaged in " sialon," nor was it worth while to enlist their 

 sympathy with the aims and ambitions of exploration. 



I lO 



