22 2 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



it is not as though one were hving with savages : the China- 

 man has all the outward manifestations of a refined civiliza- 

 tion, and hence the greater disappointment when you do 

 pierce the crust. The only way to travel here with any 

 profit is to conceal your real feelings and appear to 

 sympathize with all their comical beliefs : this the Chinaman 

 travelling in the West does to perfection, every Chinese 

 child being an actor by nature. Thus our few Chinese 

 visitors in Europe have acquired a reputation for acuteness 

 far beyond their merits, and it is curious to see, in the rare 

 instances where, as in their published journals, the veil has 

 been lifted, how trivial are their ideas, and how totally they 

 fail to grasp the grand truths which lie at the bottom of 

 Western progress. Hence the disappointment we experience 

 at the absence of all influence in favour of Western ideas, 

 displayed by returned Chinamen, diplomats no less than 

 merchants. 



The sun was now blazing forth out of a cloudless sky, and 

 the reflection of its rays from the bare rocks drove me back 

 to the glad shelter of the tea-shop, until at ten o'clock, after 

 nearly five hours' waiting, our boat arrived. The junk mean- 

 while had got under way, and was slowly creeping through 

 the still waters of the pool, looking, with her low deck and 

 dozen sweeps on either side, like a huge centipede. We 

 soon caught her up in the sampan, and, when we got on 

 board, found her drifting down-stream at the rate of five 

 miles an hour — drifting, I say rightly, for though we had no 

 less than sixty men toiling at the sweeps, their united efforts 

 did no more than keep the head of the heavily laden craft 

 pointed down-stream. On the down trip the junks, large 

 and small, unstep their masts, and lash them alongside ; 

 this feature, together with the high deck-houses aft, culminat- 

 ing in the lofty stern, gives them an ungainly look. The 



