The Building of the Steamer 287 



for Li Hung Chang to swallow, he being the plenipotentiary 

 who signed the treaty on behalf of the Chinese Government. 

 By this treaty, under the favoured nation clause, the Upper 

 Yang-tse became open to the world, and I consequently 

 applied to our minister in Pekmg to ask if he would support 

 me in the event of my again having a steamer built for the 

 purpose. Sir Claude Macdonald, our present minister, a 

 man of action, unlike the kindly gentlemen who preceded 

 him in sleepy Peking, encouraged me by all means to 

 proceed, and promised energetic support. I thus ordered a 

 twin-screw steamer to be built in Shanghai, fifty-five feet long 

 and ten feet beam, with which to experiment in the rapids. 

 The boat was built, with a teak hull, by the Shanghai 

 Engineering Company, steamed nine knots, and proved her- 

 self an excellent little vessel for the work. I should have 

 much preferred a larger and more powerful vessel ; but, as 

 the risk was all my own this time, and insurance unobtain- 

 able, I had to cut my coat according to my cloth. I set out 

 from Shanghai on the 15th of January, 1898, and, including 

 delays at the various treaty ports on the way, spent three 

 weeks in ascending the 970 miles to Ichang, the then limit 

 of steam navigation on the river. Arrived at Ichang, the 

 Chinese Governor of the port sent officers on board, and also 

 to the Consul there, Mr. Holland, to propose the discussion 

 of regulations for preventing collisions, etc., and so delay our 

 departure. Having spent six months, a whole winter, over 

 futile discussions ten years before, we refused to reopen 

 the question, Mr. Holland wisely declining even to see the 

 " deputy " who called upon him ; he simply wrote to the 

 Governor that the steamer would start on the 15th of 

 February, with or without his permission, but that the vessel 

 would delay a week, so as to give him time to advise his 



