Bulletin of Catholic University of Peking

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF PEKING 53 :

mountains. The fascination of our surroundings was as entrancing as it was unexpected.

On the river we were surprised to find many rafts of lumber and poles going down to Chang Fang Kou. There the rafts would be broken up and the lumber and poles disposed of. The lumber was green and hence floats were required to keep the raft above water. These floats were made of bundles of kao-liang, lashed to the lumber. The rafts were made in sections and were perhaps a hundred feet in length. One man, with a long pole, was stationed in front, and another at the end, which was elevated and looked like the tail of some sea-monster. It required but slight imagination to regard these rafts as living creatures.

In an article written shortly after returning from this expedition, Dr. Ament affirms:

“There was a charm about this lonely ride, we never experienced in China. If any man can go through such scenes, after leaving the dull flats of Chinese life and sur-

roundings, and not be helped and healed by

the gentle influences of Nature, he must be indurate indeed.”

The road was tortuous, steep, and difficult, but after three days of climbing, our donkeys finally brought us to the border of the region of the “‘Lost Tribe.”

We tried in several places to find accommodations, but the people looked upon us with suspicion. After much inquiry, we were directed to a place where travelers might find shelter. The master of the house was away and his wife was less vigorous in her protests than at other places, so we took possession. We had carried medicines with us and gained some friends by

dispensing them. When the master of the house returned an hour later, he was furious at finding us there, and protested that he did not keep an inn and demanded that we move on. Our patients came to our rescue and pleaded with him to allow us to remain. He finally gave in to them, after he had manifested the proper amount of reluctance. These people have been regarded as political offenders and subjected to espionage for so many generations that, as a consequence, they are suspicious of any strangers who enter this territory. They apparently feared we were about to spring some foreign form of calamity upon them, to still further embitter their unhappy lives, and render existence even more intolerable. We were probably the second foreigners to visit the colony.

An instance of the oppression practiced upon them came under our notice some years ago. Before the poppy was so extensively cultivated by the military, the Cho Chou magistrate thought he might as well allow it to be grown in this area, which was practically never visited by outsiders. In this way he could increase his revenue without much danger of detection. He sent his agent up to inform the people that if they paid a fee of $6.00 per mu of land, they could cultivate the poppy unmolested and they would make a handsome profit from the sale of the drug. The sum of $6.00 per mu was paid down before the crop was planted. The yield proved very large. As soon as the opium was harvested, this same magistrate sent his soldiers up and seized the entire crop, saying that he “was under orders to confiscate all opium within his jurisdiction.”