ae ais oP Ea 
eet ; ae 
8 A. §. Bickmore—Journey through China. 
high wall of limestone, through which had been chiseled a — 
large hole, were pointed out by our boatmen as indications 
that we were nearing the capital-of the province of Kwangsi. - 
Instead of being situated on the west side of a lake, as repre 
sented on the best maps, we found it on the west side of the 
Kweikong river, which in the rainy season probably overflows 
its banks. The walls of the city are of limestone blocks neatly 
cut, with a parapet of bricks. 
e carefully closed our boat and in the evening rowed Up 
to the city. I at once dispatched my servant to the Yamun—_ 
as the Chinese call the place where their officials reside—to ask 
for chairs and policemen to protect me as far as the next city, 
but all arrangements could not be completed till the next day. — 
Meantime we were careful not to let any one see us, but m 
some way they found we had come, and early the next morning — 
all the streets and boats near us were perfectly packed with 
people anxious to get a sight at the foreigners. At first we 
tried to escape by ordering our boatmen to move, first to one 
place and then to another, and thus we darted hither and” 
thither like a bird trying to escape from a hawk, but every- 
where we found a greater and greater throng, and finally we ~ 
concluded it was best to try to partially gratify their insatiable | 
curiosity by going out on to the forepart of the boat and ex- 
hibiting ourselves by turns. | 
hen one crowd had satisfied their desire to see “ the barba- 
Mr. Graves kindly translated the proclamation for me. It 
ran as follows : 
and young, shall be at once put to death.. 
By ORDER OF THE WHOLE ProvinoraL Cir. 
ee great crowd ees on the shore where I landed and the 
oys hooted and shouted, but I could not understand what they 
said and only hurried on my chair rs through the suburbs, 
which were everywhere perfectly thronged. Two or three times 
: o 
# * 
