moored close against the banks. These boats carry elevated cabins on their decks, and are very prettily carved, painted, gilded and decorated throughout. The windows and doors are curtained with silk; and through one of these, which stood conveniently open, we could discern gaily-dressed young dandies, and even elder Sybarites, flirting with gaudily painted girls, who waited upon them with silver pipes or Chinese hookahs, or served up cups of tea. There were pleasure boats, too, fitted up with private cabins, in which families were being conveyed into the country to enjoy a glimpse of the green rice-fields and orchards.
At San-shui we entered the north river, passing into a pictur- esque district, in some places not unlike the Scottish lowlands, covered with ripening fields of barley. Halting not far from the town of Lo'pau, at Wong-Tong village, on the right bank of the stream, I prepared to take a photograph, and my in- tention was to include a group of old women who were gossiping and drawing water; but when they saw my instrument pointed towards their hamlet, they fled in alarm, and spread abroad the report that the foreigners had returned and were preparing to bombard the settlement. A deputation soon set out from the village, led by a venerable Chinaman, the head man of the clan, and to him we explained that we had come on no hostile errand, but only to take a picture of the place. He gave us a hearty welcome to his house, spreading tea and cake before us. This was one of those many instances of a simple, genuine hospitality which I experienced all over the land; and I feel assured that any foreigner knowing enough of the language to make his im- mediate wants understood, and endowed with a reasonable, even temper, would encounter little opposition in travelling over the greater part of China. But there is always a certain amount of
