On which Mr. Burns, not knowing the cause of the disturbance, asked to rejoin his companions.  He found them shut up in a very loathsome cell, with several other prisoners; a place something like my Canton prisons; but he said they did very well while there, for they were able to preach to the other prisoners.  At one of the interrogatories, one of his companions, the more zealous of the two, on being asked why he had brought a foreigner to the place, answered that it was because he was a Christian, and that their books said, ’It is better to die with the wise than to live with fools.’  This sentiment was not considered complimentary by the mandarins, who immediately ordered him to be beaten, upon which he got ten blows on each side of his face with an instrument like the sole of a shoe.  Mr. B. told this story, but added that he believed the beating had been determined on before, for his other companion, who was the more worldly of the two, and who had probably found his way to the heart of the gaoler, was told that he too would be beaten that day, but that the blows would be laid on by a friendly hand, and that if he kept his cheek loose, he would not feel them much.

[Sidenote:  Amoy.]

March 8th.—­We are entering Foochow; a most beautiful day; the sea smooth as glass.  We left Amoy last night.  I went to church in the forenoon at the Consulate.  An American missionary preached.  There are several missionaries at Amoy.  They have, as they say, about 300 converts.  The foreigners and natives get on very well there.  The town is a poor enough place, and the island seems rocky and barren.  How it can sustain the great population which inhabits the villages that cover it is a mystery.

March 14th.—­A vessel from Shanghae brought me this morning a letter from Oliphant, which shows that he has got well through the business which I entrusted to him.[3] He went with my letter for the Prime Minister of the Emperor to a city named Soochow, which is not open to foreigners, and which is moreover the seat of beauty and fashion in the empire, and he seems to have been well received.  This is a good sign.  An edict has moreover been issued by the Emperor degrading Yeh, and moderate in its tone as regards foreigners.  All this looks as if there would be at Pekin a disposition to settle matters.  God grant that it may be so, that I may get home, and not be required to do farther violence to these poor people.

[Sidenote:  Foochow.]

The scenery of Foochow and its neighbourhood struck him as singularly beautiful.  Even in an official despatch we find him writing of it as follows:—­