the short journey and pay a visit to his dear ones in
Hongkong.

He did not get back quite as soon as he intended, for the French
blockade delayed his vessel. But at last he stepped out upon the Tamsui
dock into a crowd of preachers, students, and converts who were weeping
for joy about him and exclaiming over his improved looks.

The voyage had certainly done wonders for him, and at once he declared
he must take a trip into the country and visit those who were left of
the churches.

It was a desperate undertaking, for French soldiers were now scattered
through the country, guarding the larger towns and cities and everywhere
mobs of furious Chinese were ready to torture or kill every foreigner.
But it would take even greater difficulties than these to stop Kai
Bok-su, and he began at once to lay plans for going on a tour.

He first went to the British consul and came back in high spirits with a
folded paper in his hand. He spread it out on the library table before A
Hoa and Sun-a, who were to go with him, and this is what it said:

British Consulate, Tamsui,

May 27th, 1885.

To THE OFFICER IN CHIEF COMMAND OF THE FRENCH FORCES AT KELUNG:

The bearer of this paper, the Rev. George Leslie Mackay, D.D., a British
subject, missionary in Formosa, wishes to enter Kelung, to visit his
chapel and his house there, and to proceed through Kelung to Kap-tsu-lan
on the east coast of Formosa to visit his converts there. Wherefore I,
the undersigned, consul for Great Britain at Tamsui, do beg the officer
in chief command of the French forces in Kelung to grant the said George
Leslie Mackay entry into, and a free and safe passage through, Kelung.
He will be accompanied by two Chinese followers, belonging to his
mission, named, respectively, Giam Chheng Hoa, and Iap Sun. A. FRATER,
Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Tamsui.

They had all the power of the British Empire behind them so long as they
held that paper. Then they hired a burdenbearer to carry their food,
and Mackay cut a bamboo pole, fully twenty feet long, and on it tied
the British flag. With this floating over them, the little army marched
through the rice-fields down to Kelung.

It was an adventurous journey. But, wonderful though it seemed, they
came through it safely. Poor Kai Bok-su's heart was torn as he saw the
ravages the mob had made on his churches. But what a cheer his heart
received when he found that persecution had strengthened the converts
that wer