CHAPTER XXY'III 



THE LAST OF CHINA 



AT Ti-hua-fu we found a larger number of Euro- 

 peans than we had encountered since leaving 

 Hankow. They were all living in the Russian 

 concession, just outside the town, so as to avoid 

 complications in the event of trouble. Mr. Han- 

 sen, a mining engineer, with two Spaniards, who 

 had left Lanchow on the day we arrived there, 

 had been in the town for nearly a fortnight. Mr. 

 Peterson, the Postmaster, who was due in Peking, 

 had also been detained ; whilst, on the day follow- 

 ing, Major Pereira arrived from Kashgar. Mr. 

 G. W. Hunter, a member of the China Inland 

 Mission, had resided here for some years, and had 

 travelled extensively in Sinkiang. His journeys, 

 as was remarked in the "Field," afford another 

 example of the romance of Bible distribution, and 

 of the value to geographical and ethnographical 

 science of the work of the missionaries. 



The air was full of rumours, the roads were 

 declared to be unsafe, and we had again to make 

 up our minds to a period of inaction. Our carters, 

 who had declared their willingness to take us any- 

 where to London if we liked hearing of wars 

 and rumours of wars, announced their intention of 



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