ClIAP. I. 
START FOR THE INTERIOR. 
7 
of them away, but, as I had but little confidence in 
either, I thought that in their present jealous state the 
one would prove a check upon the other. The projected 
journey was a long one, the way was unknown to me, 
and I should have been placed in an awkward position 
had they agreed to rob me, and then run off and leave 
me when far inland. The jealous feeling that existed 
between them was therefore, I considered, rather a safe- 
guard than otherwise. 
As I was anxious to keep the matter as secret as 
possible, I intended to have left the English part of the 
town at night in a chair, and gone on board the boat 
near to the east gate of the city, where she lay moored 
in the river. Greatly to my surprise, however, I ob- 
served a boat, such as I knew mine to be, alongside of 
one of the English jetties, and apparently ready for my 
reception. " Is that the boat that you have engaged ?" said 
I to my servant Wang. " Yes," said he, " that coolie has 
gone and told the boatman all about the matter, and 
that an Englishman is going in his boat.'' " But will 
the boatman consent to go now V " Oh ! yes," he re- 
plied, " if you will only add a trifle more to the fare." 
To this I consented, and, after a great many delays, 
everything was at last pronounced to be ready for our 
starting. As the boatman knew who I was, I went on 
board in my English dress, and kept it on during the 
first day. 
When I rose on the morning of the second day we 
were some distance from Shanghae, and the boatman 
suggested that it was now time to discard the English 
dress, and adopt that of the country, according to our 
