f this is given by him in his account of his stay at Lo-shan,
a small naval station on the Yangtsze. In returning from a visit to the
mandarin of the place, he was surrounded by a dense crowd of street
rabble, leaping and screaming like maniacs, and shouting to one another:
"I say! Come along. Here's a foreigner. What a lark! Ha, ha, ha!"
Margary descended from his chair and delivered a short address:

"Why _do_ you crowd round me in this rude manner? Is this your courtesy
to strangers? I have often heard it said that China was of all things
distinguished for civility and courtesy. But am I to take this as a
specimen of it? Shall I go back and tell my countrymen that your boasted
civility only amounts to rudeness?" "I was astonished," he adds, "at the
effect this speech produced. They listened with silence, and when I had
done walked quietly back quite abashed. Only a few remained; and over
and again after this many an irrepressible youngster was severely
rebuked for any sign of disrespect by his elders."

Contrast this with the effect which such a speech as that of Margary's,
delivered by a Chinaman, would have had upon an English or American mob,
and we cannot repress a slight feeling of sympathy with the natives of
the Flowery Kingdom when they call us "outside barbarians."

His Chinese letters of recommendation, given him by the Tsung-li-yamen
to the viceroys of the three great provinces through which he passed,
proved of inestimable value. In the viceroy of Yunnan especially he
found an unexpected ally and friend, who issued instructions to the
officials all along the road to receive the foreigner with the utmost
respect. The extent to which these instructions were carried out
depended, of course, very largely on the temperament of the local
mandarins. "Some were obsequious, others reserved, but most of them met
me with high bred courtesy worthy of praise, and such as befits a
welcome from man to man."

"Taking all these experiences together," says Sir Rutherford Alcock,
formerly British minister to China, a gentleman by no means inclined to
judge Chinese officials favorably, "the impression left is decidedly to
the advantage of the central government so far as the _bona fides_ of
the safe-conduct given is concerned."

A great deal of Margary's success was also undoubtedly due to his
personal magnetism and thorough acquaintance with Chinese habits.
Indeed, no one can read this diary without deriving from it a h