and rock ran far out into its uneven course. By
day the joyous Burma sun smiled upon all, and at midday poured its
merciless heat down upon all mankind, unheeding the weary wanderer whose
tramp was now near done. At night the tropical moon turned all this
riverine world to the likeness of a very fairyland. Lying in a long
chair in the dak bungalows one drank in the scenes which succeeded one
another in bewildering succession, and felt himself thrilled by an
almost fierce appreciation of eastern beauty. It was good to meet again
an Englishman, a sturdy, firm-featured Englishman, whose love of the
East, like mine own, was a veritable obsession. The sun glare of the
tropics had parched the color out of our white skin, and despite the
fact that malaria came back again here to taunt me, yet I was again in
the East that I loved, that had scarred and marked me ere my time
mayhap. And yet I, with many such of my own countrymen, despite her
rough handling, worship her.

* * * * *

In three days I was in Bhamo.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote BF: _i.e._ New Year, New Year.]

[Footnote BG: _i.e._Great Man. "Ding" is my Chinese name.]

[Footnote BH: I believe personally that the main object of the Yuen-nan
provincial government in employing two American engineers, who at the
present moment (August, 1910) are surveying a route from Yuen-nan-fu to
the Yangtze, is merely official bluff. It is preferable to pay two men a
monthly stipend if the official "face" can be preserved and the Chinese
dogged official procrastination be maintained, rather than to allow
foreigners to come in still farther.]

[Footnote BI: This was of course written long before the Four Nations
Loan was signed, and Tuan Fang appointed Director General of the
Railways in May, 1911. We should now see a speedy reformation of Railway
matters in China if Tuan is given an absolutely free hand.--E.J.D.]

END OF BOOK II.

[Illustration: THE SWITZERLAND OF WESTERN CHINA

To travel in China is easy over country like this, granted that the
traveler sticks to the main road, sample of which is seen at lower
right.]

[Illustration: RED CROSS WORK IN CHINESE REVOLUTION

Red Cross workers at mass graves of men killed during the the Chinese
Revolution.]

[Illustration: TEA FOR FOREIGN COUNTRIES

Coolies carrying tea packed for export; picture was taken in British
concession of Hankow.]

[Illustration: TEA FROM NATIVE DISTRI