TO PEKING AND HOME 
1253 
American Society of the Christian Alliance, which main- 
tains a chain of mission-stations all the way from Peking 
to Bao-to. 
But now my patience was utterly at an end ; and I 
fear my readers’ too. Leaving my caravan and Islam 
Bai in trusty hands, I started on February 12th alone, 
with one Chinese driver, in a little two-wheeled cart 
drawn by mules, and travelled east through the towns of 
Sa-la-chi, Dor-chi, and Beh-sia-chi, until I came to Kwei- 
hwa-chung or Koko-khoto. In each of these places I had 
the great pleasure of meeting my own countrymen ; indeed, 
in the last-named I found no less than eighteen Swedes, 
one Norwegian, and one Dane, all members of the 
American Christian Alliance. Kwei-hwa-chung' is the 
centre of the society, where new aspirants to mission 
labour learn Chinese before being sent to their several 
stations. 
From Kwei-hwa-chung I drove in eight days through 
Mei-dar, Cha-kha-bu-lo, No-bo-sha, To-do-go, Wo-ja-wa, 
and Jo-jeh-chong to Jan-ja-khu or Kalgan, where the 
Great Wall winds up and down the crests of the hills that 
shut in the town on both sides. In Kalgan too there were 
Swedish and American missionaries ; but I had no time 
to stay, I was now within four days of Peking. 
At Kalgan I hired a to-jo (palanquin or sedan-chair) and 
two mules to carry it. Then, accompanied by my servant, 
1 travelled through Shwen-hwa-fu, Do-mo, and Nan-kho, 
halting for the night at each of these places. After that 
we descended from the Mongolian plateau to the plains 
which stretch right away to the walls of Peking, threading 
the border mountains through the valley of Nan-kho. 
Once down in the lowlands (March 2nd), we passed in- 
numerable villages and temples, crossed over innumerable 
canals, and met crowds of travellers along every part of 
the road. I was not insensitive to the peculiar solemnity 
of that day, the last of my long journeying through Asia. 
The time dragged with painful slowness ; the mules had 
never moved so sluggishly. “We shall soon be there!” 
cried my Chinese servant again and again. But fresh 
