the Last Town in China Tis 
now in deep shadow, looked like snow. Then the stars 
came out in their myriads, and distant lightning could be 
seen flickering behind Pei-ma-shan. 
July 27th, two days later, was a perfect day. From the 
time the sunlight flooded the valley at ten o’clock till it sank 
down behind the lonely monastery at four there was not a 
cloud in the sky. 
In the evening Gan-ton, whom I had given up as 
a deserter, arrived unexpectedly from Tsu-kou, bringing 
me a message from the French priest; and as I read 
it I realised that an entire change of programme would 
immediately be necessary. The message read as follows :— 
““The English are in Lhasa, the Chinese soldiers have capitu- 
lated....A British officer has gone in from Y‘a-k‘a-lo on a secret 
mission. The Chinese are furious and swear to exterminate every 
Englishman. I fear you will be killed before the end. You must 
leave A-tun-tsi at once.” 
The situation demanded action, not thinking over. But 
what? The story seemed on the face of it improbable, yet it 
was not a message to be entirely disregarded. To sit still 
and wait for something to happen was against all my prin- 
ciples, and I decided to follow this advice and leave A-tun-tsi 
immediately. 
But there was no object in going south down the Mekong, 
for if true, the story would be known throughout southern 
Yunnan long before I could reach T‘eng-yueh, while on the 
other hand if it were not true, I ran the risk of ruining a 
year’s work for nothing. I made up my mind therefore to 
go still further into the country, and within ten minutes of 
receiving the message I told the men that we were starting 
for Batang the first thing in the morning. 
The advantages of going north were obvious. In the 
first place, Batang being on the main road to Lhasa, I should 
there hear the truth of this wild rumour from Tsu-kou, if 
indeed there was any truth in it. Again, there were several 
European missionaries at Batang, and it would be best in 
the event of trouble to band ourselves together, while as 
regards routes Batang perhaps offered a greater choice than 
did A-tun-tsi. Finally, by going north I should be keeping 
within the chosen area for botanical work, and might reason- 
ably hope to find many of the plants I had already observed 
8—2 
