MRS BISHOP'S " THE YANGTZE VALLEY AND BEYOND"* 

 By Eliza Kihamah Scidmoke 



In these two volumes Mrs Bishoj) relates incidents of her travels in China 

 during the years 1896 and 1897, including visits to Shanghai, Hangchau, and 

 Xingpo, an<l along tiie regular tourists' route up the Yangtze to the head of 

 steamer navigation and the Gorges. Mrs Bishop jiushed on beyond this 

 scenic region to Chingtu in Szechuen jjrovince, and from that western center 

 went on to the wild mountain region to the northwest of it, where she encoun- 

 tered the mysterious Man-tze, peojde of another race, differing from the Chinese 

 entirely, some forgotten Aryan offshoot. At this furthest interior point this 

 intrepid woman- traveler traversed a district wliere no European had ever gone 

 before, even the ubiquitous Jesuit missionary not having visited those villages. 



It is a record of the direst discomforts and hardships that any woman ever 

 deliberately encountered and willingly endured. The wonder grows, as one 

 reads, that she should have remained in the jjrovince, should have followed 

 her itinerary to the end, as she had planned it. Only escape from prison, or 

 from an enemy's country in war time, would seem warrant forsucli repetitions 

 of fatigue and exposure, with the barest necessaries of subsistence, under the 

 most revolting conditions. For months Mrs Bishop slept in the worst rooms 

 of the worst of Chinese inns, often adjoining and over the pigsty, and some- 

 times in it, and always obliged to take every precaution against the vermin 

 swarming and the filth dripping from every side. Privacy, quiet, cleanliness, 

 pro{)er food, and baths were as imjjo.ssible for her as for the Chinese, who have 

 no need or longing for such luxuries. Often she went shivering to bed in wet 

 clothes, often the roof leaked and storms blew in upon her, and once she went 

 to bed when the winds and drafts in her bedroom blew out the candle. Tea 

 and a bowl of wheat flour stirred up in boiling water constituted her break- 

 fast, cold rice or a nibble of chocolate her luncheon, and dinner was a modest 

 course of rice with curried meats or chicken. She lived on this fare during the 

 months sj)ent in small native boats and in a chair borne by coolies over the 

 busy roads of Szechuen. Mrs Bishop did not travel in the conventional closed 

 sedan chair of the country, but rode in an ordinary wicker armchair fastened 

 to poles, as is shown in one of the illustrations. 



When she discovered that such open travel was contrary to etiquette and 

 custom, attracted unpleasant attention, and left her at the mercy of street 

 crowds and mobs. Mrs Bishop did not abandon it, but valorously continued 

 to run dangers the ordinary male traveler might avoid. Every indignity and 

 discourtesy was put upon her l>y her boatmen at the start, and contimied by 

 coolies and street crowds throughout Szechuen province. All of Chinese rude- 

 ness, hostility, brutality, and insult was vented on this quiet, kindly disposed 



*The Yanqtze Vallci/ nnd Beyond. By Is.ibella L. Bird (Mrs Binhop), F. R. G. .S., aiulior of 

 Unbeaten Trachi in Japan, A Ladi/'s Life in the Rocky Mountains, The Hawaiian Archipelarjo, etc. 

 With map and 116 illustrations from photographs by the author. Svo, 2 vols., pp. 410, 30.5. 

 New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. S6.00. 



