244 Notes on the River Yang-tse-Kiang . [No. 3, 
constructed on the banquette, as the hills close to them completely 
command them and expose them to an enfilading- fire ; the Prefect 
was here at first very civil, and promised all assistance, but said the 
rebels were in the neighbourhood and that we had better leave the 
place ; the townspeople closed the gates and fired on us from the 
walls, but no bullets came anywhere near us, and finding we remain- 
ed quiet they discontinued ; that same night the rebels attacked the 
town ; the walls were illuminated, and every man of the attacking 
party carried a lantern ; the fighting did not appear to be very 
severe, being confined to distant firing and shouting. 
Except for purposes of exploration there is nothing to bring a steam- 
vessel beyond Siichow ; the river is navigable as far as Ping-shan, 
with the exception of the eighty miles between Iehang and Quaicliow, 
and even that may be practicable ; above Ping-shan I can give no 
information about the river, but from the tops of the highest hills 
near the town, nothing can be seen but high hills towards the West. 
From this point we were compelled to turn back, no one being 
willing, for any amount of pay, to venture into a district overrun 
by rebels ; no boats ascend the river beyond Ping-shan so that we 
were unable to visit the country of the Maoutse or independent 
tribes, which is near Ping-shan to the West ; a chief of these tribes 
with some of his followers paid us a visit and were vel-y friendly ; 
we exchanged presents of knives and wine ; they are a totally dif- 
ferent looking race to the Chinese, their faces being open and honest, 
which the Chinese faces certainly are not ; some had the head clean 
shaved, others let their hair grow, and one only had a queue ; the 
weather was warm and their dress consisted only of a coarse white 
cotton jacket, drawers and grass sandals ; their turbans were of blue 
cotton twisted into a knot above the forehead ; they called them- 
selves “Huh-I” or “ I-jin” black barbarians or foreigners, and repeat- 
edly said they were not civilised men ; they were very curious and 
inspected everything in the cabins narrowly, but were perfectly well 
behaved ; the chief spoke a little Chinese but none of his followers 
could make themselves understood ; we were considered by the people 
to be in some way connected with these people, and were called by 
them “ White Maoutse none of the Maoutse could read or write ; 
they possess horses and cattle in their own country ; they said their 
only crop was indian corn ; the chief said if we came to his country 
