[Sidenote:  Peasants.]

November 29th.—­12.30 P.M.—­We have been very near the bank this morning.  I see more cattle on the farms than in other parts of China.  They are generally buffaloes, used for agricultural purposes; and when out at pasture, a little boy is usually perched on the back of each to keep it from straying. Six P.M.—­I went ashore to pass the time, and got into conversation with some of the peasants.  One man told us that he had about three acres of land, which yielded him about twenty piculs (1-1/3 ton) of pulse or grain annually, worth about forty dollars.  His tax amounted to about three-fourths of a dollar.  There was a school in the hamlet.  Children attending it paid about two dollars a year.  But many were too poor to send their children to school.  We went into another cottage.  It was built of reeds on the bare ground.  In a recess screened off were two young men lying on the ground, with their lamp between them, smoking opium.

[Sidenote:  Unknown waters.] [Sidenote:  Kew-kiang.]

November 30th.—­We are now in waters which no Englishman, as far as is known, has ever seen.  Lord Amherst passed into the Poyang Lake through the channel I described yesterday, and so on to Canton.  We are proceeding up the river Yangtze.  Hue came down this route, but by land.  I mentioned the sand-drifts two days ago.  Some of the hills here look like the sand-hills of Egypt, from the layers of sand with which they are covered.  What with inundations in summer and sand-drifts in winter, this locality must have some drawbacks as a residence. Noon.—­Anchored again.  We have before us in sight the pagoda of Kew- kiang; one of the principal points which we proposed to reach when we embarked on this expedition....  We have not much to hope for from our Chinese pilot.  Our several mishaps have disheartened him.  He said to- day with a sigh, when reminded that we had found no passage in the channel he had specially recommended:  ’The ways of waters are like those of men, one day here, another there, who can tell!’—­a promising frame of mind for one’s guide in this intricate navigation! Five P.M.—­We found a channel in about an hour, and came on swimmingly to Kew-kiang.  From the water it looked imposing enough.  An enclosing wall of about five miles in circuit, and in tolerable condition.  I landed at 3 P.M.  What a scene of desolation within the wall!  It seems to have suffered even more than Chin-kiang Foo.  A single street running through a wilderness of weeds and ruins.  The people whom we questioned said the Rebels did it all.  The best houses we found were outside the city in the suburb.  We were of course very strange in a town where the European dress has never been seen, but the people were as usual perfectly good-natured, delighted to converse with Lay, and highly edified by his jokes.  We did some commissariat business.  We had with us only Mexican dollars, and when we offered them at the