164 START UP RIVER 
officers at places where passports are issued to act in 
compliance with our request. 
‘(Signed) Ya, Viceroy of Sze-chuen.’ 
The boat was evidently taken for one of foreign 
build because of her colour, and as to the statements 
said to have been made by Mr. Kricheldorff and myself 
that we were purchasing goods as we went along, they 
were mere fabrications. 
However, the Consul wrote to Sir John Walsham at 
Pekin, enclosing a copy of the letter, and I also wrote 
explaining matters. After I had left on a second 
journey to Kia-ting-fu a reply came, saying that 
H. B. Majesty’s Minister considered that it was a rash 
proceeding to have gone as far as Chung-king in a boat 
that might be mistaken for a foreign one. 
I should add that when the boat was varnished all 
over she attracted no attention whatever. 
Arriving at Ichang on February 8, 1890, I set to 
work at once preparing for the journey up river again, 
engaging trackers and crew, and seeing that a large 
supply of boxes, nets, &c., were got on board, and I 
left for my second trip up the river on February 18, 
being determined to get to Ta-tsien-lu in time for the 
earliest species. 
At Huang-yang-mu, just beyond the Ichang Gorge, 
