12 A, §. Bickmore—Journey through China. 
suppose, & man whose prime motive was to take revenge on 
his government should care much about elevating his country- 
men, It is true he and his confederates invited foreigners to 
participate with them in overthrowing the dynasty of-the 
Manchus, but I believe that they did this only because they 
needed assistance, and that if they had once gained the’ supreme 
authority they would have been as hostile to foreigners as the 
present dynasty ; anda partial proof of this appears in the 
reserved manner in which their chief conducted himself as soon 
as he had secured Nanking and believed the whole empire 
within his grasp. This territory where the “Great Peace” 
rebellion began, and the territory too that they held the longest, 
is the most despoiled, the most dangerous and the most un- 
promising of any I have seen in my long journeys over China. 
Revolution has followed revolution throughout the whole length 
and bréadth of China until her soil has been reddened with the 
blood of tens, even hundreds of millions of her people, and yet 
she remains just where she was two thousand years ago ; and — 
simply because all these movements have been originated by 
those whose only desire was to get the throne, to plunder or to 
avenge personal wrongs; and not by high-minded,’ generous 
men, having in view the good of their fellow countrymen. 
A walk of 35 li brought us to Tai-ung-gong, a small village 
on the Kweilin or Cassia river, for the water still flows toward 
Kweilin. Before we reached it we crossed a small stream flow- 
ing into the Kweikong from the north. In its bed I noticed 
pebbles of granite and porphyry, but all the rocks seen in sitt 
were the common siliceous grits, rafts of 
bamboos to be floated down to Kweilin and Wuchau. The 
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water here flows to the north and the water-shed is a few li to 
the southwest. It is not natural but artificial, and what were 
originally small streams have been changed into canals and 
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