were standing on the brow of a steep
hill overlooking the valleys of Chaochow and Tali. The plains were
studded with thriving villages, in rich fields, and intersected with
roadways lined with hedges. There on the left was the walled city of
Chaochow, beyond, to the right, was the great lake of Tali, hemmed in by
mountains, those beyond the lake thickly covered with snow, and rising
7000 feet above the lake, which itself is 7000 feet above the sea.

We descended into the valley, and, as we picked our way down the steep
path, I could count in the lap of the first valley eighteen villages
besides the walled city. Crossing the fields we struck the main road,
and mingled with the stream of people who were bending their steps
towards Hsiakwan. Many varieties of feature were among them, a diversity
of type unlooked for by the traveller in China who had become habituated
to the uniformity of type of the Chinese face. There were faces plainly
European, others as unmistakably Hindoo, Indigenes of Yunnan province,
Thibetans, Cantonese pedlars, and Szechuen coolies. A broad flagged road
brought us to the important market town of Hsiakwan, which guards the
southern pass to the Valley of Tali. It is on the main road going west
to the frontier of Burma, and is the junction where the road turns north
to Tali. It is a busy town. It is one of the most famous halting places
on the main road to Burma. The two largest caravanserais in Western
China are in Hsiakwan, and I do not exaggerate when I say that a
regiment of British cavalry could be quartered in either of them. At a
restaurant near the cross-road we had rice and a cup of tea, and a bowl
of the vermicelli soup known as _mien_, the muleteer and his son sitting
down with my men. When the time came to go, the muleteer, unrolling a
string of cash from his waistband, was about to pay his share, when
Laohwan with much civility refused to permit him. He insisted, but
Laohwan was firm; had they been Frenchmen, they could not have been more
polite and complimentary. The muleteer gave way with good grace, and
Laohwan paid with my cash, and gained merit by his courtesy.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE CITY OF TALI--PRISONS--POISONING--PLAGUES AND MISSIONS.

Three hours later we were in Tali. A broad paved road, smooth from the
passage of countless feet, leads to the city. Rocky creeks drain the
mountain range into the lake; they are spanned by numerous bridges of
dressed stone, many of the sl