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DIFFICULTY IN PEOCURmCr Chap. VII. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Difficulty in procuring black-tea manufacturers — Return to Shanghae 



— City taken by a band of rebels — Chief magistrate murdered — 

 Strange prejudices of foreign residents — Their professions of 

 neutrality — Chinese warfare — Dr. Lockhart's hospital and patients 



— Value of medical missions — Public opinion changes — Shanghae 

 evacuated by the rebels — Entered by the Imperialists — Cruelty 

 of soldiers — Effects of the rebellion on the face of the country. 



The arrangements I had been making during the 

 summer months with farmers and tea-cultivators 

 for supphes of plants and seeds in the autumn, 

 were brought to a successful termination in the 

 end of August. But as tea-seed does not ripen in 

 China until October or November, I had two 

 months before me to attend to another and equally 

 important part of my duties. This was to procure 

 and forward to India some first-rate black-tea 

 manufacturers — a task which I found much more 

 difficult than that of selecting and exporting seeds 

 and plants. The Chinese are supposed to be an 

 erratic race, and are found almost populating such 

 places as the straits of Malacca, Java, and Manilla. 

 Of late years shiploads of coolies have been sent 

 to the West Indies, while thousands have emigrated 

 to the gold-fields of California and Australia. 

 But nearly all these are natives of the province of 

 Canton, and the southern part of Fokien, and 



