Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/305

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235

CHAPTER XIV.


TALI FU.


Tali Fu has passed through stirring times. It became the stronghold of the Mohammedan faction during the great rebellion which scourged the province from 1855 to 1873. The last town to hold out against the Imperial forces, it succumbed finally to treachery, being betrayed by the chief Minister of the Mohammedan commander within its gates.

The so-called "Panthay" rebellion began in a riot at a copper mine, and ended in the devastation of a province. The hand of God, indeed, lay heavy upon this corner of the dominions of the "Son of Heaven," for as though seventeen years of relentless civil