d the natives, indignant at her
misdeeds, proceeded into it and cut off her head!

I have been skimming over a Chinese book, translated by Stanislas
Julien: the travels of a Buddhist. It is full of legends of the
character of that which I have now narrated.

[Sidenote: Peasants.]

_November 29th.--12.30 P.M._--We have been very near the bank this
morning. I see more cattle on the farms than in other parts of China.
They are generally buffaloes, used for agricultural purposes; and when
out at pasture, a little boy is usually perched on the back of each to
keep it from straying. _Six P.M._--I went ashore to pass the time, and
got into conversation with some of the peasants. One man told us that
he had about three acres of land, which yielded him about twenty
piculs (1-1/3 ton) of pulse or grain annually, worth about forty
dollars. His tax amounted to about three-fourths of a dollar. There
was a school in the hamlet. Children attending it paid about two
dollars a year. But many were too poor to send their children to
school. We went into another cottage. It was built of reeds on the
bare ground. In a recess screened off were two young men lying on the
ground, with their lamp between them, smoking opium.

[Sidenote: Unknown waters.]
[Sidenote: Kew-kiang.]

_November 30th._--We are now in waters which no Englishman, as far as
is known, has ever seen. Lord Amherst passed into the Poyang Lake
through the channel I described yesterday, and so on to Canton. We are
proceeding up the river Yangtze. Hue came down this route, but by
land. I mentioned the sand-drifts two days ago. Some of the hills here
look like the sand-hills of Egypt, from the layers of sand with which
they are covered. What with inundations in summer and sand-drifts in
winter, this locality must have some drawbacks as a residence.
_Noon._--Anchored again. We have before us in sight the pagoda of Kew-
kiang; one of the principal points which we proposed to reach when we
embarked on this expedition.... We have not much to hope for from our
Chinese pilot. Our several mishaps have disheartened him. He said to-
day with a sigh, when reminded that we had found no passage in the
channel he had specially recommended: 'The ways of waters are like
those of men, one day here, another there, who can tell!'--a promising
frame of mind for