anchoring at Shanghae, at 3 P.M. As
soon as the tide rose (about midnight) it lifted us off our shoal. We
had to go cautiously sometimes to-day; but we have closed this
eventful expedition successfully.

The general results and chief incidents of the interesting expedition thus
happily completed, were reported to the Government in England in a
despatch, dated January 5th, 1859, from which are taken the following
extracts:--

[Sidenote: Difficulty of getting at facts.]

The knowledge of the Chinese language possessed by Messrs. Wade and
Lay enabled me to enter, without difficulty, into communication with
the inhabitants of the towns and rural districts which we visited. At
various points in our progress we wandered, unarmed and unattended, in
parties of three or four, to a distance of several miles from the
banks of the river, and we never experienced at the hands of the
natives anything but courtesy, mingled with a certain amount of not
very obtrusive curiosity. Notwithstanding, however, these favourable
opportunities, the budget of statistical facts which I was able to
collect was hardly as considerable as I could have desired. Chinamen
of the humbler class are not much addicted to reflection, and when
subjected to cross-examination by persons greedy of information, they
are apt to consider the proceeding a strange one, and to suspect that
it must be prompted by some exceedingly bad motive. Moreover, having
been civilised for many generations, they carry politeness so far,
that in answering a question it is always their chief endeavour to say
what they suppose their questioner will be best pleased to hear. If,
therefore, the knowledge of a fact is to be arrived at, it is, above
all things, necessary that the inquiry bear a tint so neutral that the
person to whom it is addressed shall find it impossible to reflect its
colour in his reply. He will then sometimes, in his confusion, blunder
into a truthful answer, but he does so generally with a bashful air,
indicative of the painful consciousness that he has been reluctantly
violating the rules of good breeding. A search after accurate
statistics, under such conditions, is not unattended with difficulty.

[Sidenote: Exaggerated reports of population.]

I am confirmed, by what I have witnessed on this expedition, in the
doubts which I have long entert