134 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. VIII, 



empty house, rented by Captain Hely, who had 

 kindly offered me the use of it during my stay. I 

 had just entered the house, and had gone up stairs to 

 look for a room in which I could have my bed placed, 

 when I heard a person below putting various ques- 

 tions to my servants. I paid little attention to this 

 at first, as I knew the Chinese to be very inquisitive ; 

 but as the examination continued longer than was 

 agreeable, I went down stairs to see what was the 

 matter. There I found an ill-looking fellow with a 

 brass button in his hat, and evidently belonging to 

 the lowest class of mandarins, standing over my ser- 

 vants, and putting questions to them in a most autho- 

 ritative manner, and in the Fokien dialect, which, as 

 they were both northern men, they did not under- 

 stand. For ten minutes they had been going on in 

 this way, and neither party was any wiser than when 

 they began. Turning to my servants, I asked them 

 who the man was, and what he wanted. They 

 replied that he was a mandarin, that he had been 

 putting some questions to them concerning me ; but 

 as he spoke in the Fokien dialect they could not 

 understand him. 



The Chinese generally stand in great dread of 

 their Government officers, and on this occasion my 

 servants thought they had given me a good and suffi- 

 cient reason for their having been detained so long, 

 But I had not forgotten the annoyances which I had 

 formerly endured at this place from Government 

 spies, and at once ordered my servants to leave their 

 interrogator, and attend to their duties. The officer 



