278 ARISTOCRATS OF THE GARDEN 



opposed to the idea of a railway in Yunnan and ugly 

 rumors of impending trouble were abroad. 



At Hanoi I had to wait four days for a steamer and 

 leaving at ten a. m. on June 24th I found on board a 

 young Frenchman newly appointed to the Chinese 

 Imperial Maritime Customs and bound for Mengtsze 

 to take up his post. This gentleman spoke English 

 and we made an arrangement to travel in company. 

 At Yenbay, which was reached on the evening of the 

 25th idem, we had to transfer to a smaller steamer 

 of lesser draught and here a report reached us that 

 an attack on foreigners had occurred at Menstsze 

 and that the Custom House and French Consulate 

 had been destroyed by fire. My newly-found com- 

 panion became very pessimistic and vowed that we 

 should never reach our destination. 



On the afternoon of the 29th idem Laokai was 

 reached and the news of the Mengtsze outrage con- 

 firmed in detail. Across a small tributary stream 

 from Laokai is the Chinese town of Hokou where a 

 station of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs 

 is maintained. The officer in charge gave us what 

 information he had and read a telegram from the 

 Commissioner of Customs at Mengtsze warning in- 

 tending travelers that the road was unsafe. 



At Laokai a small hotel, styled "Hotel du Com- 



