e several
poor wretches are seen almost flayed alive with bamboos-flower-boats,
silk, jade-stone, ivory-carving shops, temple of tortures, and a dozen
other interesting places are visited under the pilotage of the genial
guide and interpreter Ah Kum.

The strange boat population, numbering, according to some accounts, two
hundred thousand people, is one of the most interesting features of
Canton life. Wonderfully animated is the river scene as viewed from the
balcony of the Canton Hotel, a hostelry kept by a Portuguese on the
opposite bank of the river from Canton proper.

The consuls and others express grave doubts about the wisdom of my
undertaking in journeying alone through China, and endeavor to dissuade
me from making the attempt. Opinion, too, is freely expressed that the
Viceroy will refuse his permission, or, at all events, place obstacles in
my way. The passport is forthcoming on October 12th, however, and I lose
no time in making a start.

Thirteen miles from Canton I reach the city of Fat-shan. Five minutes
after entering the gate I am in the midst of a crowd of struggling,
pushing natives, whose aggressive curiosity renders it extremely
difficult for me to move either backward or forward, or to do aught but
stand and endeavor to protect the bicycle from the crush. They seem a
very good-natured crowd, on the whole, and withal inclined to be
courteous, but the pressure of numbers, and the utter impossibility of
doing anything, or prosecuting my search for the exit on the other side
of the city, renders the good intentions of individuals wholly
inoperative.

With perseverance I finally succeed in extricating myself and following
in the wake of an intelligent-looking young man whom I fondly fancy I
have enlightened to the fact that I am searching for the Sam-shue road.
The crowd follow at our heels as we tread the labyrinthine alleyways,
that seem as interminable as they are narrow and filthy. Every turn we
make I am expecting the welcome sight of an open gate and the green
rice-fields beyond, when, after dodging about the alleyways of what seems
to be the toughest quarter of the city, my guide halts and points to the
closed gates of a court.

It now becomes apparent that he has been mistaken from the beginning in
regard to my wants: instead of taking me to the Sam-shue gate, he has
brought me to some kind of a house. "Sam-shue, Sam-shue," I explain,
making gestures of disapproval at the house. The young