boat, get in provisions for the
voyage, engage his crew, pay off debts, and attend to a thousand and one
minute details--all to be done after the contract to carry the madcap
passengers had been signed and sealed, added to the more practical
triviality of three-fourths of the charge being paid down. And then our
captain, to add to the dilemma, vociferously yelled to us, in some
unknown jargon which got on our nerves terribly, that he was waiting for
a "lucky" day to raise anchor.

However, we did, as the reader will be able to imagine, eventually get
away, amid the firing of countless deafening crackers, after having
watched the sacrifice of a cock to the God of the River, with the
invocation that we might be kept in safety. Poling and rowing through a
maze of junks, our little floating caravan, with the two magnates on
board, and their picul of rice, their curry and their sugar, and
slenderest outfits, bowled along under plain sail, the fore-deck packed
with a motley team of somewhat dirty and ill-fed trackers, who whistled
and halloed the peculiar hallo of the Upper Yangtze for more wind.

The little township of Ichang was soon left astern, and we entered
speedily to all intents and purposes into a new world, a world
untrammelled by conventionalism and the spirit of the West.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote A: This was written at the time I was in Hankow. When I
revised my copy, after I had spent a year and a half rubbing along with
the natives in the interior, I could not suppress a smile at my
impressions of a great city like Hankow. Since then I have seen more
native life, and--more native dirt!--E.J.D.]

[Footnote B: The _Kinsha_ was the first British gunboat on the Upper
Yangtze.]

SECOND JOURNEY

ICHANG TO CHUNG-KING, THROUGH THE YANGTZE GORGES

CHAPTER II.

_Gloom in Ichang Gorge_. _Lightning's effect_. _Travellers' fear_.
_Impressive introduction to the Gorges_. _Boat gets into Yangtze
fashion_. _Storm and its weird effects_. _Wu-pan: what it is_. _Heavenly
electricity and its vagaries_. _Beautiful evening scene, despite heavy
rain_. _Bedding soaked_. _Sleep in a Burberry_. _Gorges and Niagara
Falls compared_. _Bad descriptions of Yangtze_. _World of eternity_.
_Man's significant insignificance_. _Life on board briefly described_.
_Philosophy of travel_. _Houseboat life not luxurious_. _Lose our only
wash-basin_. _Remarks on the "boy." A change in the kitchen:
questionable soup_. _Fairly low temp