5° 



The National Geographic Magazine 



all of the passengers it could carry, pro- 

 ceeded to Blagovestchensk. 



" BENEVOLENT ASSIMILATION" 



The city is on the north bank of the 

 river. Just below and on the south 

 bank ivas the Chinese city of Aiguu. 

 Two years ago it had twenty thou- 

 sand population and there were three 

 thousand Chinese in Blagovestchensk. 

 When the Boxer troubles began and the 



A European-Russian Village 



railroad down into Manchuria was de- 

 stroyed, the order came to General 

 Gripsky to ' ' fling the Chinese across 

 the Amur." He tried it, but as the 

 river is more than a mile wide there, it 

 was impossible, and most of them never 

 reached the other side. But the Cos- 

 sacks went across, and today all that is 

 left of Aigun could be put in a freight 

 car. Not a house is standing, not a 

 Chinaman remains. The gold mines 

 up and down the river, all on the Man- 

 •churian side, are being worked by Rus- 



sian soldiers. Alt's qzdet in Manchuria, 

 but a Russian gentleman told me that at 

 Aigun alone ten thousand Chinese found 

 a watery grave, and that the Cossacks 

 on the Amur had been drinking vodka 

 and living on the plunder from Manchu- 

 ria ever since. That Manchuria has 

 ceased to be Chinese and is thoroughly 

 Russian now, there is no question what- 

 ever, and though the methods employed 

 were awful, the results will in the end 

 be better for Manchuria and the world, 

 for Russian occupation cer- 

 tainly means progress. 



LOW-WATER NAVIGATION 



At Blagovestchensk we called 

 on General Gripsky and were 

 informed that as the water was 

 still falling and the regular 

 boats were unable to run, he 

 had decided to send on the small 

 working boat with the mails, 

 and that we were welcome to 

 such accommodations as there 

 were upon it. He said we 

 would have trouble, but that 

 there was a possibility that we 

 might get through. The alter- 

 native was to wait at Blagoves- 

 tchensk until the water rose. 

 After much consideration we 

 decided to purchase our tickets 

 and go forward, and the expe- 

 riences of the following thir- 

 teen days will never be for- 

 gotten. 

 With no accommodations whatever ■ 

 for carrying passengers, the boat was so 

 horribly overcrowded that there was' 

 hardly standing room, and at night both 

 decks were an indistinguishable mass of 

 heads and legs and arms. As first-class 

 passengers, by courtesy we occupied the 

 dining-room, a room about 10 by 12, 

 just large enough for a table and seats 

 on each side. A French captain slept 

 on the table, the correspondent of the 

 Paris Morning Journal slept under it, 

 and my friend and I occupied the cush- 



