Chap, III. 
BORDER COUNTRY. 
playing upon the old walls and watch-towers of Wae- 
ping. How different the old place looked in daylight 
from what it had done in the darkness ! Then the 
imagination assisted in making it appear like a dungeon, 
dark and gloomy, and inhabited by thieves and robbers. 
Now it seemed an ancient city, watered by a clear and 
beautiful river, surrounded by hills and romantic scenery, 
and defended by time-honoured walls. Such is the 
difference between night and morning, and such the 
power of imagination. 
When I returned to the cabin I found my servants 
rubbing their eyes, and scarcely awake. ''Well," said 
I, " you see nothing has happened, and we are now 
under way, and some distance from Wae-ping." " Oh ! 
that is all very well,'' said one of them, "but, had we not 
been on our guard, we should never have lived to see 
the morning.'' 
As the river was now shallow, and in many parts very 
rapid, I had daily opportunities of rambling over the 
country, and of inspecting its productions. Soon after 
leaving Wae-ping one of my guides informed me that 
we were now on the border of another province, and 
that here I had better not go much out of the boat. I 
found that this advice was good and worth attending to. 
The river here is considered the highwaj^ or passage 
from the one district to the other, and this pass is well 
guarded by soldiers. Each province has its own guard- 
town. On the Che-kiang side we passed a long, 
straggling town on the river's banks, chiefly inhabited 
by troops, who were the guards of the pass, and under 
the orders of the Hang-chow mandarins. As soon as 
