ial
recognition by England that Burma is still a tributary of the Middle
Kingdom. I may here say that I often heard of this tribute in Western
China. The Chinese had been long waiting for the arrival of the
elephants, with their yellow flags floating from the howdahs,
announcing, as did the flags of Lord Macartney's Mission to Peking,
"Tribute from the English to the Emperor of China," and I suppose that
there are governments idiotic enough to thus pander to Chinese
arrogance. No doubt what has given rise to the report is the knowledge
that the Government of India is bound, under the Convention of 1886, to
send, every ten years, a complimentary mission from the Chief
Commissioner of Burma to the Viceroy of Yunnan.

It was late when I left Jinmaasuh, and long after sundown before I
reached the city. The flagged causeway across the plain was slippery to
walk on, and my mule would not agree with me that there was any need to
hurry. He knew the Chinese character better than I did. Gunfire, the
signal for the closing of the gates, had sounded when we were two miles
from the wall; but sentries are negligent in China and the gates were
still open. Had we been earlier we should have entered by the south
gate, which is always the most important of the gates of a Chinese city,
and the one through which all officials make their official entry; but,
unable to do this, we entered by the big east gate. Turning sharply to
the right along the city wall we were conducted in a few minutes to the
Telegraph Offices, where I received a cordial welcome from Mr. Christian
Jensen, the superintendent of telegraphs in the two great provinces of
Yunnan and Kweichow. These are his headquarters, and here I was to rest
a delightful week. It was a pleasant change from silence to speech, from
Chinese discomfort to European civilisation. Chinese fare one evening,
pork, rice, tea, and beans; and the next, chicken and the famed Shuenwei
ham, mutton and green peas and red currant jelly, pancakes and
aboriginal Yunnan cheese, claret, champagne, port, and cordial Medoc.

CHAPTER XIII.

AT YUNNAN CITY.

Yunnan City is one of the great cities of China, not so much in size as
in importance. It is within easy access at all seasons of the year of
the French colony of Tonquin, whereas the trade route from here to
British Burma is long, arduous, and mountainous, and in its Western
portions is closed to traffic during the rains. From Yunnan City to
Mun