Chap, XI. 
JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR. 
187 
Soo-chow — fine pictures, fine carved work, fine silks, and 
fine ladies, all come from Soo-chow. — It is the China- 
man's earthly paradise, and it would be hard indeed to 
convince him that it had its equal in any town on earth. 
In addition to its other attractions, I was informed by 
the Chinese nursery gardeners at Shanghae that it con- 
tained a great number of excellent flower-gardens and 
nurseries, from which they obtained all or nearly all the 
plants which they had for sale, and I was therefore 
strongly tempted to infringe the absurd laws of the Ce- 
lestial Empire, and try to reach this far-famed place. 
My greatest difficulty was to meet with boatmen who 
would travel with me, as they were all frightened for 
the mandarins, who had issued very stringent orders to 
them after the circumstance happened which I have 
already noticed. They were told that they might take 
foreigners down the river towards the sea, and up as far 
as a pagoda a mile or two above Shanghae, but on no 
account were they to go up the western branch of the 
river. This was a direct infringement on the right which 
had been secured to us by the treaty of Nanking, and 
her Majesty's consul at this port soon found it necessary 
and prudent to interfere in the matter. Some time after 
this period, when what are called the boundaries were 
fixed, the foreign residents were allowed to go a day's 
journey into the interior, that is, as far as they could go 
and come back again in twenty-four hours. 
Having at length procured a boat, we set off on our 
journey, the boatmen neither knowing where I intended 
to go to, or how long I was to be absent from Shanghae. 
I simply told them we were going into the country in 
