5,717
Hearers preached to 23,755
Books sold 3,067
Tracts distributed 4,500
Miles travelled 1,860
Money spent 120.92 taels = (about) 30_l._ to 40_l._

He adds, 'And out of all this there are only two men who have openly
confessed Christ. In one sense it is a small result; in another sense
there is much to be grateful for. I have to part with my assistant, and
am uncertain about whom to take in his place. My travelling arrangements
have broken down, and I am perplexed in more ways than I have patience
to write about; but

Where He may lead I'll follow,
In Him my trust repose,
And every hour in perfect peace
I'll sing, "He knows, He knows."

After a visit to Tientsin and a brief rest in Peking, largely occupied
with preparations for his next sojourn in Mongolia, he started on
January 25, 1887. At Ta Cheng Tz[)u] he secured a kind of home, so as
not to be exposed to all the discomforts and drawbacks of inn life,
hoping also that a fixed centre might forward the preaching of the
Gospel. Two rooms were taken for a year. They were situated at the inner
end of a little trading court, around which were a tin-shop, a
rope-spinner's room, and a stable. In one corner there was a pigsty.
'When first I saw it I almost refused to occupy it; but really there is
no help for it, and finally we took it for a year.' It is always
difficult to secure premises in a Chinese town, and exceptionally so
under the limitation of money and of suspicion and dislike to which
Christian missionaries are always exposed. 'It is only a lodging for
me,' Mr. Gilmour continues, 'convenient for seeing converts or
inquirers. The court is much too small, and the place not sanitary. But
don't be in the least uneasy. My health is quite as safe there as in the
best premises in Peking. I intend to occupy them for a month at the
beginning of the Chinese year, and ten or fifteen days in the fourth,
seventh, and tenth months. I hope also to come to some arrangement for a
lodging in Ch'ao Yang. In Ta Ss[)u] Kou I am simply in an inn, and pay
at the usual rate for the nights I am there.'

A letter to his boys, dated March 24, 1887, depicts the kind of scene he
so often witnessed, and t