192 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



the position of one rock, reef, or shoal being fixed, or 

 even noted. The European embassies passing to and 

 from Canton and Pekin had of coiirse navigated that 

 portion of the river between the Poyang Lake and the 

 entrance of the Grand Canal, but as they were con- 

 veyed in state barges, which naturally hugged the 

 banks of the stream, or sought for short and shallow 

 cuts of water, the information to be found in the 

 writings of Barrow, Staunton, Davis, and others, 

 served but little for nautical purposes. Even the 

 writings of the Abb Hue, interesting as they were 

 upon the interior of the country to the north-west, 

 threw no light upon the Yangstze, except that, in a 

 general sense, in the upper valley, above the falls of 

 Kinchow, more than a thousand miles from the sea, 

 there would still be found a stream as deep and as 

 navigable as the lower Yangstze. 



Having, thanks to the indefatigable exertions of 

 our gallant second - lieutenant, Duncan Davidson, 

 and the kind services of those distinguished Sino- 

 logues, Mr Wade and Mr Lay, assured ourselves that 

 there was no more information to be collected in 

 Shanghai, we agreed with our worthy friend Captain 

 Barker that there was only one thing left for us to do, 

 and that was to start up the stream when called upon 

 by Lord Elgin, and to do all in our power to test its 

 navigability, and in the meantime to fill our ships 

 with coal, and take a month's provision on board ; for 

 we hardly contemplated that the voyage to Hankow, 



