92 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



open to an interview. This gentleman, known as Wang sze 

 Ta Jen, i.e. Wang, the Fourth Excellency, received me very 

 politely ; but after the customary ceremonious compliments 

 had passed, and we were duly seated on the dais at the head 

 of the reception-hall — the cynosure of the ragged crowd 

 who never seem to be refused admission — the poor old 

 gentleman seemed so discomfited at the barbarian irruption, 

 that I truly pitied him. And, indeed, much as one may 

 abuse the mandarinate in general, it is the system more than 

 the individuals — mostly kindly, well-meaning men — which 

 is to blame. And as all the responsibility of any hitch in 

 dealing with the aggressive, unscrupulous foreigner devolves 

 upon the local official concerned, while his duty is to oppose 

 a non possumus to every request, he stands between two 

 fires, and his life is not a happy one. At length, having got 

 through the regulation business, we sipped our tea — the 

 conventional sign that the interview is at an end — ^and I 

 took my departure, greatly to his Excellency's relief. Being 

 a Hunan man, his patois was difficult to understand, even 

 had he been conversationally inclined. The Tao-tai's yamen 

 still bore the traces of ancient grandeur, court above court 

 rising by successive flights of steps, each courtyard adorned 

 with two superb Hoang-ko trees, but the buildings looked like 

 those of a deserted ruin. The Hsien's or Magistrate's ya-men 

 was equally ruinous, but in no way deserted. A large, dirty 

 crowd, including three cadaverous-looking wretches with big, 

 square cangues (wooden collars, three feet square) round 

 their necks, which seem to trouble their neighbours more 

 than the occupants, surrounded my chair, until I ordered my 

 coolies to make a dash and get clear of them. But the 

 absence of any rude remark, such as one is inevitajbly 

 greeted with in the east of China, was surprisingly noticeable. 

 Upon returning, I found an altercation going on on board 



