CHAPTER VIII.
THE MAHOMMEDANS OF YUNNAN.
Their origin—Derivation of the term “Panthay”—Early history—Increase in numbers—Adoption of children—The Toonganees—Physical characteristics—Outbreak of the revolt—Tali-fu—Progress of revolt—The French expedition—Overtures from Low-quang-fang—Resources of the Panthays—Capture of Yunnan-fu—Prospects of their success—Our position—The governor’s presents—Preparations for return.
The Mahommedans of Yunnan have a tradition of their origin, which is curious, but mythical. The governor and the hadji at Momien stated, in substance, that their forefathers came from Arabia to China one thousand years ago, in the reign of the emperor Tung-huon-tsong, who had sent his chief minister, Khazee, to Tseeyoog(?) to implore help against the rebel Oung-loshan. Three thousand men were accordingly sent, and the rebellion was crushed by their assistance. Their former compatriots refused to receive them back, as having been defiled by a residence among pork-eating infidels, so they settled in China, and became the progenitors of the Chinese Mahommedans. This information was furnished in the form of answer to questions put by me carefully written, and translated into Chinese, and Sladen also procured a Chinese document, giving substantially the same account.[29] It will be seen that the variations of this from the account furnished to General Fytche are important;[30] but as the name of the emperor Tung-huon-tsong differs but slightly from that of Hiun-tsong of the Tung dynasty, against whom Ngan-Loshan[31] rebelled, it seems possible to connect this account with Chinese history. His son Sutsung, A.D. 757, was rescued from his difficulties by the arrival of an embassy from the khalif Abu Jafar al Mansur, the founder of Bagdad, accompanied by auxiliary troops, who were joined by Ouigoors and other forces from the West. It must be added that my informants, while claiming Arab descent, stated clearly that their more immediate ancestors had migrated from Shensi and Kansu to Yunnan about one hundred and fifty years ago. History, however, shows the early growth and rapid increase in China of a large Mahommedan population, whom the Chinese term Hwait-ze; the name Panthay or Pansee being of Burmese origin.
As to the derivation of this term, several theories have been suggested. Major Sladen gives Puthee as a Burmese term for Mahommedans generally. Garnier says that the word Pha-si, which the Burmese have corrupted into Pan-thé, according to Colonel Phayre, is the same as Parsi or Farsi, which in India is applied to the Mahommedans, and that this denomination is very ancient, as Colonel Yule pointed out that in a description of the kingdom of Cambodia, translated by A. Remusat, a religious sect is described, called Pâssi, who were distinguished by wearing white or red turbans, and by refusing to drink intoxicating liquors, or to eat in company with the other sects; but that distinguished Chinese scholar, Sir T. Wade, derives the term Panthay from a Chinese word Pun-tai, signifying the aboriginal or oldest inhabitants of a country; and Garnier mentions that a people called Penti are found on the eastern side of the Tali Lake, and in the plain of Tang-tchouen, to the north of Tali. They are a mixed race, descended from the first colonists sent into Yunnan by the Mongols, after the conquest of the country by the generals of Kublai Khan.
Mr. Cooper tells us that the term Pa-chee, or white flag party, as distinguished from the Hung-chee, or red flag, or imperialists, was also used to designate the rebels in the north of Yunnan, and Garnier frequently applies these terms to the contending parties. The termination -ze in the name Hwait-ze, as in Mant-ze, Thibetans, Miaout-ze, hill tribes, and Khwait-ze, foreigners, seems always to imply political and tribal separation from Chinese proper. These names occur in the curious prophecy of the Four -Ze Wars, quoted by Cooper.[32]
From the account of China compiled in the middle of the ninth century by Abu Zaid, from the reports of Arab traders, it is evident that his countrymen had long resorted to China. Even then the Arab community of Hang-chew-fu (Khanfu) was of great importance: it possessed a separate judge, appointed by the emperor of China, and we are told that the Mahommedan, Christian, Jewish, and Parsee population massacred in A.D. 878 numbered one hundred and twenty thousand. Mahommedanism was little known among the Tartars before the time of Chengis-khan, but his conquests were the means of bringing a considerable population of Uigurs into Shensi and Kansu; and the faith of the Prophet had spread amongst this tribe long before the Tartar conquest of China.
The vigorous trading and political intercourse subsisting between China and their mother country kept alive the religious life and social individuality of these immigrants. This large addition of population to their co-religionists already derived from the contingents of the khalifs, and the Arab traders, accounts for the number of Mahommedans which Marco Polo noted during his residence in China (1271-1295). In his description of the people on the western border of Shensi, where the celebrated mart of Singui was situated, and his account of Singan, and Carajan, a part of Yunnan, he describes the Mahommedans as forming a considerable part of the foreign population.
How strong a position this sect had obtained under the reign of Kublai appears from Marco Polo’s statement that the provincial governments were entrusted to Tartars, Christians, and Mahommedans. The invasion of Burma and the sieges of Singan and Fun-ching were entrusted to Mahommedan generals. The story of Bailo Achmed, the great minister of finance, is the most striking illustration of the Mahommedan influence, although the discovery of his crimes brought the khan’s anger upon the Saracens, and led to their being prohibited the practices as to marriage and slaughter of animals, enjoined by their religion. This check could only have been temporary, and as we find Mahommedans filling high places of trust, both civil and military, it can be fairly conjectured that after the conquest of Yunnan these enterprising soldiers and traders established themselves in the colonies planted in the new province.
In the early part of the fourteenth century, Rashid-ood-deen, Vizier of Persia, mentions Karajang or Yunnan province, and states that the inhabitants were all Mahommedans. Ibn Batuta, who visited China in the middle of the same century, found in every large town Mahommedans, who were mostly rich merchants. In all the provinces there was a town belonging to them, each of which usually possessed a mosque, market, a cell for the poor, and a kadi and sheikh ul Islam, while in some districts they were exceedingly numerous.
The Jesuit fathers, in the seventeenth century, make frequent mention of the Chinese Mahommedans. Le Compte, writing to Cardinal de Bouillon in 1680, says, “that they had been six hundred years in the country undisturbed, because they quietly enjoyed their liberty without seeking to propagate their religion, even by marriages, out of their own kindred, even in places where they were most numerous, and longest settled, as in the provinces north of the Hoang Ho, and in towns along the canal, where they had built mosques, differing altogether from Chinese architecture. They were regarded as foreigners, and frequently insulted by the Chinese.”
The oppression to which they were subjected after the second Tartar conquest began to show itself as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century, when their mosques were destroyed by the populace of Hang-chow in Hu-quang province, notwithstanding the efforts of the magistrates to protect them. At an earlier period, however, about 1651, they had been deprived by the Tartar emperor, Chunchi, of the honours enjoyed by some of their number in connection with the Board of Mathematics. This change of policy, thus begun, caused a rebellion, which broke out in the reign of Kien-hung, 1765-71, on the western frontier, and spread to the province of Kansu. The rebels resisted the imperial forces with great valour, but were ultimately subdued. The Abbé Grosier, writing subsequently to this event, says, “that for some time past the Mahommedans seem to have been more particularly attentive to the care of extending their sect.”[33]
The method they resorted to was the free use of their wealth in purchasing children to bring up as Mahommedans. During the terrible famine which devastated the province of Quangtong in 1790, they purchased ten thousand children from poor parents; these were educated, and, when grown up, provided with wives and houses, whole villages being formed of these converts. This system has been followed by them to the present day, so that large numbers of the faithful are of Chinese origin; and we found instances of it at Momien. According to Garnier, the sultan of Tali was a Chinese orphan, adopted and educated by a wealthy Mahommedan. Yunnan appears, from the Pekin Gazette, to have been the scene of almost incessant insurrections from 1817 to 1834, attributable, in all probability, to the Mahommedan element in the population. During one rebellion, in 1828, the leader had an imperial seal engraved, and issued manifestoes summoning the people to join his standard. At the same time, the mixed populations of this province appear to have been always distinguished by an independent and insubordinate spirit, which often defied the central authority. Some towns were even governed by elective municipal councils, only nominally ruled by the mandarins.
Grutzlaff mentions that during his residence in China, in 1825-1832, they had several mosques in Chekiang, Pechili, Shensi, and Shansu; but as they had occasionally joined the rebels of Turkistan, the government viewed them with a jealous eye. Nevertheless, some of their number filled offices of high trust. He also states that many of them performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, and brought back Arabian MSS. of the Koran, which a few could read imperfectly, that they were by no means bigoted nor proselytising, and that they venerated Confucius. These Mahommedans of Northern China and Turkistan include the people called Toonganees, who are said to trace their origin to a large body of Uigurs, who were transplanted to the vicinity of the North Wall, under the rule of the Thang dynasty, between the seventh and tenth centuries. These settlers were encouraged to intermarry with the Chinese women, and after this, when, following the example of their fellow tribesmen, they embraced Islam, they still retained this practice, although careful to bring up all their children in the Faith. Though a mixed race, they are distinguished from both Manchoos and Chinese by their intelligent countenances and superior strength. They have always evinced special aptitude for mercantile speculations, like their southern brethren. They have also shown themselves to be excellent warriors in the successful rebellion of Turkistan, and that which broke out in 1861 in Kansu, and under Abdul Jaffier threatened to be as successful as the revolt of Yunnan.
In the course of the present century, the Faithful appear to have multiplied in Yunnan more rapidly than in the northern provinces. Colonel Burney tells us that in 1831 almost the whole of the Chinese traders who visited the Burmese capital were Mahommedans, except a few who imported hams. Some of them could speak a little Arabic, and one read to him passages from the Koran; but none of them could tell him whence they derived their origin.
As far as appearance goes, there are strong traces of descent from a non-Chinese and, we may say, Turkish stock visible among the present Mahommedans of Western China. Garnier remarks that “the Mussulmans of Arab origin are tolerably numerous, and many are to be met with who manifest very markedly the principal traits of Arabs, some preserving the ancestral type in great purity. But the majority cannot be readily distinguished from Chinese, except by their superior stature, greater physical strength, and more energetic physiognomies. Although they only contract matrimonial alliances with those of their own creed, they commonly take Chinese women as concubines. Hence a large infusion of Chinese blood, notwithstanding which they have preserved almost all the warlike qualities of their ancestors.” Mr. Cooper describes a merchant who called upon him as “a splendid specimen of the Yunnan Mahommedan, standing over six feet; his countenance was singularly haughty and noble, and his manner peculiarly gentle and dignified.” His long black moustache and hair, hanging in a huge tail almost to the ground, are also particularly noticed.
The leading men met with by us at Momien were well-made, athletic, and of a goodly height, the governor standing six feet three inches. They were fair-skinned, with high cheek-bones, and slightly oblique eyes, their cast of countenance being quite distinct from the Chinese. In fact, the general type of face recalled that of the traders who come down to Calcutta from Bokhara and Herat. They generally wore moustaches, but depilated the rest of the face, while their long hair was coiled in the folds of huge white turbans. The only other distinctive article of dress was a bright orange-coloured waistband, which usually supported a silver-mounted dagger. As a rule they abstained from intoxicating drink, and smoking opium or tobacco; but some were lax in these particulars. Our strict Mussulmans rather despised them for laxity in worship as well, and the native doctor, who was a fanatic, declared that they were not true believers at all. On the whole, the conclusion which may be fairly arrived at as to their origin is, that to the descendants of a possible Arab stock have been added a considerable number of Turkish emigrants, who, in truth, constitute the main origin of the Mahommedan population in Yunnan. A number of Chinese proper have from time to time been added to this community, which, in all places, seems to have included the wealthiest and best class of the population. The rebellion in Yunnan seems to have been brought about solely by the oppression to which the Mahommedans were subjected by the mandarins. Their proud independent spirit would not brook the tyranny and extortion universally practised by the official class, from which they were excluded. The mandarins, according to their wont, secretly hounded the mob on to their rich and respectable enemies, riots were provoked, and their mosques were destroyed, as at Momien, where a handsome building, constructed after plans brought home from Mecca, had existed before the war. Thus their religious hatred was aroused, as the ruined temples and Buddhist monasteries testified, and both interest and revenge for insults to their religion led to a universal and well-planned rising. As the insurrection which broke out in 1855 spread, the Chinese towns and villages which resisted were pillaged, and the male population massacred; while the women were spared to minister to the passions of the undisciplined soldiery, and children were captured to be brought up as Mussulmans; but all the places which yielded were spared.
That the country suffered terribly in the struggle was proved to us by the mute evidence of the deserted towns and villages, and from the most southern border of the province to the farthest north we have the reports of eye-witnesses of the fearful devastation. The contending parties invoked the aid of the hill tribes, such as the Lolos, Lou-tse, and Kakhyens, and these had to be rewarded for their services by licensed pillage. Thus it happened that places on the debatable borders were pillaged three times over, by the Red Flag, by the White Flag, and by the marauders. In this way the towns of Sanda and Muangla had been plundered by the Kakhyens after the Panthay invasion. The officers at Momien told many stories of the conduct of their soldiers, which spoke volumes of the misery brought on the peaceful inhabitants; but the Chinese soldier is, by all accounts, as dangerous in peace to the towns on which he is billeted as any enemy could be, and scenes of violence and outrage accompany the march of the undisciplined ruffians under the imperial banners wherever they go.
The exact order of events which led to the establishment of the Mahommedan kingdom is somewhat uncertain; we could not, for want of interpreters, gain trustworthy information. In the account of the French expedition,[34] M. Garnier refers the commencement of the rebellion to an outbreak of the Mahommedans, the cause of which is not stated, and describes them as having instigated a riot in 1856, and pillaged the city of Yunnan-fu. The imperial authorities thereupon determined to rid themselves of these intractable subjects by a general massacre, which was ordered to take place on a given day. This commenced at Hoching, a town between Li-kiang-fu and Tali-fu, when upwards of a thousand Mahommedans were murdered; while similar treacherous massacres followed in different places. A simple bachelor or literatus of Moung-ho, named Tu-win-tsen or Dowinsheow, a Chinese orphan who had been adopted by Mahommedans, rallied his co-religionists. His followers at first numbered only forty, but their ranks were speedily joined by fugitives from Hoching, Yung-pe, and other places, till with six hundred men he attacked the ancient and holy city of Tali-fu, which surrendered in 1857. Although Tali-fu is a small town, the population of which did not at that time exceed thirty-five thousand, the rich plain walled in by mountains, and with a lake teeming with fish, stretching forty miles in length and ten in breadth, maintained a population estimated before the war at four hundred thousand. Garnier states that there were one hundred and fifty villages, but the Old Resident numbers them at two hundred and fifty-three. The mountains to the north and south close in upon the lake, and the plain and city are accessible only by two strongly fortified passes, Hiang-kwang and Hia-kwang, or, as the Burmese call them, Shangwan and Shagwan. Thus Tali has been from the earliest times a strong city; it was the capital of a kingdom at the invasion of Kublai Khan, and is still regarded by the Thibetans, who make pilgrimages to its vicinity, as the ancient home of their forefathers. The Mahommedans made it their head-quarters, and it seemed likely again to become the capital of an independent kingdom. Their success was facilitated by the jealousy which existed between the pure Chinese, mainly descended from immigrants from Sz-chuen, and the Minkia and Penti mixed races, descended from the early colonists planted by the Mongols, and probably by the later Tartar dynasty in 1679. These tribes, inhabiting the eastern plains of Tali and other adjacent districts, were despised, as being sprung from intermarriage with the Shan and barbarous races, by the Chinese, as the true Creoles looked down upon any in whose veins ran negro blood.[35] Hence they stood aloof in the struggle between the Chinese and the Mahommedans; the latter even succeeded in occupying Yunnan-fu for a short time, but were speedily expelled. A local revolt, however, was organised there by a Mahommedan hadji of great repute, called Lao-papa, who assassinated the viceroy Pang, and was proclaimed emperor or sultan, but enjoyed his dignity a very short time. Another Mahommedan, named Ma-kien, who, before the war, had been a seller of barley-sugar, but had become a soldier, and took the imperialist side, subdued Lao-papa in 1861, and established the authority of another Lao, who had been appointed viceroy. Ma-kien was named ti-tai, or commander of the forces, but an officer called Leang, in the south of the province, refused to obey his orders, and a little civil war ensued between their respective partisans. The Mahommedans took advantage of this division in the camp of the enemy to consolidate their power under their elected chief, Tu-win-tsen, who was proclaimed sultan, or imam, in the year 1867. Momien had been captured three years before our visit, and the Shan states on the Tapeng brought under the Mahommedan king, whose authority extended over a considerable portion of the province. In the beginning of 1868, the French found the government at Yunnan-fu administered ad interim by a mandarin of the blue button, named Song, the viceroy Lao having recently died, and his successor, though appointed, not having ventured to assume the perilous post. The office of commander-in-chief was filled by Ma-kien, supported by a staff of Mahommedan officers, whose costume and physiognomy marked them as different from the Chinese. Lao-papa also resided in Yunnan, invested with rank and honours, as the religious head of all the Mahommedans.[36] It does not appear how this could be reconciled with the religious authority of Sultan Suleiman, and it is plain that the Mahommedans were themselves divided into two parties.
It is interesting to compare this account with that derived by Mr. Cooper from information furnished him in the north of the province as to the rebellious attitude assumed by the imperial viceroy, himself a Mahommedan proselyte, who had actually concluded a treaty of partition with the sultan of Tali, and corrupted the imperial troops sent to quell the revolt with funds furnished by the sultan. We do not, however, possess such information as will enable us to reconcile the two accounts which present so many points of agreement and difference. By a curious coincidence, that most enterprising traveller, having been turned back by the impossibility of penetrating to Tali, was detained at Weisee-fu, one hundred and twenty miles distant, at the very time of our stay at Momien. The utter want of communication kept us in perfect ignorance of his being comparatively so near at hand, and he was equally unaware of our presence in Western Yunnan. Our information as to the passage of the French mission was, if anything, worse, as an obstructive falsehood is perhaps more aggravating than complete ignorance. During the first week of July the governor communicated the information that some six or eight months previously the French expedition had come into collision with hostile tribes in the vicinity of Kiang-hung, and had suffered severe losses; some of their number had perished, and the remainder had arrived in a state of exhaustion and want at a place called Thela, where they had been kindly received. This information he declared to be authentic, and furnished by a relative of his own, resident at Thela, who had purchased some of the arms and other property taken from the French. As at that time the last news received some time before our departure from Burma had stated the party to be at Kiang-tong or Xiang-tong, a Laotian state tributary to Burma, we could not help fearing that some disaster must have befallen them. The statement may have been a distorted account of the detention experienced by the French before reaching Kiang-hung, and the fact that they were obliged to reduce their baggage, some of the articles referred to as proof positive by the Panthays having perhaps come from the superfluous stores, given or bartered away to the Laotians. It does, as M. Gamier remarks, appear improbable that the governor, who was a trusted officer of the sultan, should have received no information as to the visit to Tali-fu of the party in the month of March preceding.[37] On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine any reason for his suppression of his knowledge of it, unless he feared that we should be thereby inclined to mistrust the letters from the sultan. As regards Garnier’s theory that the apparent welcome given to us was intended to do away with any unfavourable impression which might have been produced in the minds of foreigners by the sultan’s refusal to see the French party, and ordering their instant departure, it is much more probable that the French were regarded with strong suspicion, and taken for spies. The fact that they had travelled under Pekin passports, and had been guests of the viceroy ad interim at Yunnan-fu, was not in their favour; but worse than that was their connection with the French missionaries, who were everywhere most hostile to the Mahommedan cause. One of their number had been engaged in the sacerdotal task of manufacturing gunpowder for the viceroy, and had been blown up by his own petard; others had forwarded a memorial by the medium of the French minister to the emperor in favour of Ma-kien, as the only man capable of saving the province from the rebels. An imperial reply to this, promising to aid him with troops and supplies, was received before Garnier left Yunnan. It is more than probable that this was known to the authorities at Tali, and, even independently of the circumstance narrated by Mr. Cooper, would have operated against a cordial reception of the French visitors.
At our first entrance into the country, without any passports whatever, we, as commercial explorers, had appealed to the existing authorities, and had refused to advance until their safe-conduct had been received. Our neutrality between the two contending parties had been most carefully sifted by letters and envoys before we were made welcome at Momien, and little more than a week after our arrival it was tested, if not by the contrivance, certainly with the knowledge, of the governor. One evening Moung Shuay Yah, in a mysterious manner, made known the presence of an important visitor, namely, an officer sent by Low-quang-fang, the officer who, in conjunction with Li-sieh-tai, supported the imperial cause. He had brought a pony as a gift, and desired to make our friendship, and provide us with a safe escort on the return route, always provided we were unaccompanied by the Panthays. Our leader declined an interview, and refused the pony, stating that we were guests of the governor, and as such could not confer with his enemies, except with his consent. We soon learned that the governor was aware of the mission of this envoy, and that in course of time a treaty was signed by which Low-quang-fang undertook not to attack the Panthay possessions, or molest us on our return, and was to be left undisturbed in the possession of a small customs post; whether this was a ruse on the part of the Chinese partisans to win our support, or of the Panthays to sound our real opinions, it is impossible to say. At all events, it confirmed the conviction of the governor in our good faith. The terms of the agreement, if true, were another proof of the anxiety of the Panthays to re-open the western trade routes, to which we doubtless mainly owed our friendly reception.
Gamier remarks that they had all along found it essential to keep open the trade with Sz-chuen, and Mr. Cooper found Mahommedan merchants unmolested in Chinese Yunnan. The king of Burma, not only as an ally, but as a tributary of China, could not recognise the rebel sultan, nor enter into political or commercial relations with him. The sultan, who had visited Rangoon and Calcutta as a pilgrim to Mecca, may well have been disposed to court the favour of those Feringhees whose power and wealth he had witnessed in the City of Palaces. It is possible that the hospitable governor of Momien was only amusing his guests with complimentary mockeries, and that there was no intention of suffering us to proceed to Tali, and see the real state of things in the interior, the desolation of the province, and the scanty forces at the disposal of the new power. Subsequent events have shown the instability of the Panthay kingdom as soon as a regular and determined attack was made on it by the imperial government; but as regards their then condition, with the utmost respect for the memory of that distinguished explorer, Lieutenant Gamier, it is impossible to overlook the fact that he was strongly prejudiced against the Panthays, by their treatment of him, as well as by the French missionaries, one of whom speaks of the “detested yoke of the Mahommedans.” Garnier even attributes the closing of the western traffic to the robberies of the Kakhyens and the arbitrary oppression of the Panthays; who were, as our observation showed, doing all they could to encourage the Burmese and Shans to carry on the former traffic. It is possible that we were prejudiced by kindness, and misled by outward appearances of strength; but whatever the cause of the origin and progress of this rebellion, it is certain that from the outset the rebels met with little direct resistance from the imperial authorities, and the officials, with their few adherents, were gradually driven from the fertile valleys of Western Yunnan to more inaccessible fastnesses; thence they still maintained a guerilla warfare, neither side ever bringing anything like a large or well-appointed army into the field. The imperialist commanders, such as Li-sieh-tai and Low-quang-fang, who were designated robber chiefs by the Panthays, although really officials of the Pekin government, could only harass their enemies by desultory attacks. Their followers, if captured, were speedily tried and executed as robbers. We witnessed more than sixteen executions of these poor wretches. The criminal was led to the outskirts of the bazaar by a small escort, with music and banners flying, and, with his hands tied behind his back, was made to kneel by the side of the road. The executioner chopped off the head usually at one blow; the body was buried on the spot, and the ghastly head hung up by the gate of the town.
The superior prowess of the Panthays and the unanimity of their councils, directed by the sultan of Tali-fu, were apparently carrying all before them. During our stay at Momien, news was brought, apparently authentic, of the capture by his army of the great city of Yunnan-fu. The condition of Central Yunnan may be imagined from the statements made in the proclamation announcing the fall of the capital. In it are enumerated forty towns and one hundred villages as having been taken and destroyed, and upwards of three hundred persons being burned to death; while the losses of the Chinese, in various fights, amounted to over twenty thousand men. The communications were, however, interrupted by constant fighting on the road between Momien and Yung-chang, two out of three messengers, with despatches from Tali, being killed, while the Mahommedan convoys of specie, and presents sent from the sultan to us, were stopped at Sheedin, near Yung-chang. During our stay, a force of some hundreds of so-called soldiers, commanded by our friend, the chief military officer, or tah-zung-gyee, marched to repel an attack on the town and mines of Khyto; and as proofs of a victory gained by them within a few days, two hundred ears were sent into Momien, while they owned to a loss of forty men.
Although the Panthays were merciless in warfare—only those inhabitants of the towns and villages who at once tendered their submission being spared—they were desirous of establishing a firm and orderly government: in all cases their officers protected the passage of merchants, and dealt much more justly by them than the mandarins had been accustomed to do; this was admitted by the Chinese and Shans, who, though outwardly submissive, were at heart thoroughly opposed to the new régime. Similar testimony is borne by the two travellers already quoted, as regards the caravans trading with Sz-chuen and Thibet. It seemed at this period almost certain that Yunnan would become an independent kingdom, if indeed Sz-chuen and the northern provinces were not also formed into a great Mahommedan empire, and the same idea is recorded by Mr. Cooper, as having been the result of his observations of the state of the country to the north.
For us, however, to attempt to advance was impossible; even if progress had been safe, it would have been impolitic. Whether our presence at Momien was an infraction of the Chinese treaty or no, it was made necessary if any information as to the real state of the country was to be obtained, and this had been the principal object of the expedition set forth in the instructions.
The reader is earnestly requested to bear in mind that politically, socially, and almost geographically, this border land of China had been almost a terra incognita before our arrival at Momien. We realised the fact that we were in China indeed, but in a province which the rebellion had almost converted into an independent kingdom; and from which it seemed almost certain that the lingering remains of obedience to the emperor at Pekin would be soon thoroughly erased. Our leader was, therefore, very soon desirous of effecting a return, but the governor, on various pretexts of securing our safety and communicating with Tali, postponed our departure; and this although he insisted on supplying the whole party with all necessaries during the whole time of our stay. The kindly Tah-sakon was really busy preparing as good a display of presents to his English friends as he could. As de facto ruler of the country, we arranged with him the duties which should be levied on future caravans, and received letters expressive of the desire of the Panthay sultan’s government to enter into friendly relations with our government, and to foster mutual trade. The governor asked for and obtained two seals, wherewith to authenticate his future letters, and gave in exchange an official seal and a vase of red ink, the use of which would, he said, ensure the safe delivery of any letters forwarded to him.
Our farewell visits were exchanged on the 11th of July, and the good-natured governor, who was most sincerely sorry to part with his guests, brought his presents. These consisted of seventy white jackets and bamboo hats for our men, a mandarin’s full dress suit, figured silk jackets, three fine straw hats covered with oilcloth for our wear in the rain, silver-mounted daggers and spears, a gold and jade chatelaine, and amber rosaries. The mandarin’s suit was his own, and he had previously insisted on taking off the rings from his fingers, and placing them in the same order on the fingers of his “English friend,” whom he begged always to wear them for his sake.
Our departure was fixed for the 12th of July, the last advice of the governor being that we should not loiter en route, and only pass one night at each stage. A body of troops were to precede and another to follow in our rear; as a further precaution it had been decided not to employ mules but coolies to carry the baggage, as the engagement of mules would have given some days’ warning to the hostile Chinese; for the same reason the porters had not been engaged till the last—so that our anticipated start was delayed by the insufficiency of porters, and the need of cutting up old rafters to make poles for the few who did appear. The governor was very wroth with his officers, and one of them, an old Chinese, not a Panthay, pleaded in excuse that we were carrying away a number of boxes filled with mud, and worthless weeds and skins—the pursuit of natural history was by no means appreciated by the people, except by the Kakhyens, who were ready enough to bring any sort of animal or reptile they could catch. The same Chinese official tried to represent that we were carrying back a number of boxes of powder. As his object was evidently to make delays and mischief, other officials were appointed to superintend our departure, and Sladen thought it right to remove any possible ill-feeling from the kindly governor’s mind by showing him that the stock of ammunition was only as much as was needful for the escort; and we parted on the best terms.