![Transcription Center logo](/themes/custom/tc_theme/assets/image/logo.png)
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
- 24 - feet long. It consists of 25 bamboo poles placed side by side and strapped together. The poles are about six inches in diameter and one joined to another so they will reach the full length of the raft. The front of the raft turns up like a toboggan. On quite a few of the rapids there are great rocks and boulders over which the water roars in a threatening manner. One could get scared if he wanted to. At Yachow the magistrate first said he would send four men with rifles to escort us, but finally sent three unarmed men. On this river the Yachow township ends, and the Hong Ya township begins in a deep gorge where there are on all sides steep cliffs covered with trees and shrubbery. There are thickets near the shore of the river. Here four men appeared, two with rifles and one with a bugle, and ordered us to stop. We were on a rapid and the boatmen said they would stop below the rapid. The men ran after us, calling for us to stop. The escort told them they were escorting a foreigner. I said "What do you want us to stop for?" In a little while the raft would turn a bend and be out of sight. The boatmen asked me, "Shall we stop?" I hesitated and did not answer. Later I said "Go on." We did and were soon out of sight. They wanted to rob us. A little later I heard four shots behind us, but I do not know who fired them or why. This morning there was a steady, light rain and this afternoon it rained hard. We are spending the night at Tai Bu Gai. I have already walked over 2800 li this summer, a distance of over 800 miles. I'll add to this at Kiating. We have still 740 li or about 210 miles to travel by boat to Suifu, counting today's trip from Yachow. The men who tired to stop us were apparently a part of a large robber band, the main part of which was in a village on the main road on top of the hill or mountain. They would have robbed us if we had stopped, and fired their guns to they could report that they tried hard to stop us, even firing at us, but failed. They were apparently waiting to rob a large shipment of postal goods being carried overland to Yachow on men's backs. We got through by good luck. L'll insist on a good escort with rifles tomorrow. Aug. 29. Today we reached Kiating and are now in a mission bungalow. We escaped being robbed yesterday by sheer good luck. Today we passed three places where brigands rob and have robbed recently. We had an armed escort from Hong Ya to Kiating, so arrived safely. Robbers do not appear when you have a good escort. I saw a flock of over twenty large wild ducks on the Ya River today. This is the earliest that I have noticed large wild ducks in central Szechuan. Aug. 30. Today was spent in the old tombs of which there are probably thousands around Kiating. We secured artifacts that will enrich the Smithsonian collection. Among other things, there is a good specimen of a duck. We also secured thirty or forty bats, a very large kind, and small ones. We secured at least a dozen of the large bats. I became sick in the afternoon. Aug. 31. Sent the helpers back to search new caves while I went across the river to see a cave-tomb with carvings of a chariot, a tiger, horses, a fish, the roof of a house, and men. I took pictures and drawings. In the afternoon I loaded the baggage on the boat and slept on the boat that night. I was still sick and conse-