562 BAILEY WILLIS 



When the embassy returned, von Richthofen remained in the East, 

 in accordance with the original resolution with which he had left 

 Europe, to solve some problem of broad bearing with reference to 

 the Asiatic continent. His early plans were thwarted, and he finally 

 made a voyage to San Francisco, whence he extended his travels 

 through California and Nevada. Years had passed since he left 

 home, and his original purpose remained unaccomplished, but 

 unshaken, when on New Year's, 1867-68, he discussed with Professor 

 J. D. Whitney those regions of the world of which geological studies 

 were most needed. They agreed that China was, in view of its 

 civilized state and general relations, the land which promised the 

 richest results, and, in spite of the gigantic dimensions of the problem, 

 von Richthofen determined to devote his energies to a study of that 

 country for a number of years. He proposed to himself to explore, 

 with individual resources, a land one-third larger than the United 

 States, of which there were no maps more useful than rude Chinese 

 sketches, and regarding which there was no scientific literature. 

 Although China had been traversed by missionaries for centuries, 

 and in the beginning of the eighteenth century the Jesuit fathers had 

 determined the astronomical positions of nearly all the principal 

 cities of the empire, our ideas of its geography were still an assem- 

 blage of myths. The conditions of investigation among a supersti- 

 tious and unfriendly people, of whose language he was ignorant, might 

 well, even under ordinary circumstances, have deterred the explorer, 

 and they were at this time peculiarly unfavorable in consequence of 

 the Tai-ping rebellion, and of the Mohammedan rebellion in the 

 northwest provinces. Casting about for a companion, who might act 

 as servant and interpreter, von Richthofen found it impossible to 

 secure a Chinese of sufficient education who would submit to the 

 hardships of such a journey as he proposed. There was at the 

 moment in Shanghai a Belgian, Paul Splingaert, who, having killed 

 a Chinese, was on trial and liable to sentence of death. Von Richt- 

 hofen believed that the act was justified by attendant circumstances, 

 and proposed that the man, who was accomplished in the Chinese 

 dialects, should be released to accompany him. The authorities, 

 being quite willing to yield the responsibility of his execution to some 

 mob of the interior, agreed, and during four years Splingaert was von 



