THIRTY THOUSAND MILES IN CHINA 15 



Evidently the carter did not realize that we were experienced 

 travellers in China and could not be thus played with. Still 

 it required more than an hour of argument and even threats 

 of official punishment before suitable animals were brought 

 and even then we had to be content with one less than the total 

 number bargained for, but we had the satisfaction of with- 

 holding a dollar at the end of the day's journey. 



The second was that on reaching the small village at the 



foot of the mountains where pack-mules were to be engaged 



to carry our equipment to Yingchow in Shansi, the young 



muleteer with whom our advance agent from the inn at 



Liangkochwang had begun negotiations, shouted out in front 



of a whole crowd of onlookers that the price would be seven 



dollars (Chinese Currency) a day per mule ! Now the ordinary 



price for which a native could hire them would be about 70 



cents. We therefore could only laugh at his offer, as did all the 



bystanders. His ridiculous claim being thus publicly made 



he could not accept any reasonable offer from us without 



great loss of face. I had finally to seek out the headman of 



the village, invite him to our inn to have tea, and get him to 



talk the whole matter over with the muleteer who finally 



under pressure accepted my original offer of one dollar per 



mule per travelling day and 40 cents per mule per day of halt. 



Having thus "overcome" him at the very start he and his 



associate muleteers proved to be the best set we have ever 



employed, in spite of their initial intention to swindle us. To 



the headman of the village we presented a tin of salmon, with 



great ceremony on our part and great appreciation on his ! 



Thus ended a half -day devoted to the "diplomacy" of the 



road in China. 



In 1907 before the building of the Tientsin-Pukow Bail- 

 way we journeyed by cart from Tsinan the capital of Shan- 

 tung to Tsining on the Great Canal and at Taian on the way 

 ascended the Sacred Tai Shan. Evidently the day of leisure 

 which our carters had enjoyed while we visited the Holy 

 Mountain had been too much for them and had spoiled their 

 sweet dispositions, for the next morning, when we expressed 

 our desire that they should proceed southward as agreed 

 thev refused unless they were paid more money. They had 

 already been paid a half of the full bargain and had not yet 

 proceeded half way on the journey. They would not listen to 

 reason and became violent, locking up the inn and attempt- 

 ina to prevent our exit. However, we produced our passport, 

 which we handed to the keeper of the inn and asked him to 

 convey our compliments to the nearest magistrate and re- 

 quest 'his presence to settle the dispute. We finally went to 

 the magistrate ourselves with the paper and after some parley 



