About this time the Museum authorities were becoming somewhat doubtful as to the advisability of proceeding with our Expedition.  We had a long talk with Dr. Wellington Koo, the Chinese Minister to the United States, at the Biltmore Hotel in New York.  Dr. Koo, while certain that the rebellion would be short-lived, strongly advised us to postpone our expedition until conditions became more settled.  He offered to cable Peking for advice, but we, knowing how unwelcome to the government of the harassed Yuan would be a party of foreigners who wished to travel in the disturbed area, gratefully declined and determined to proceed regardless of conditions.  We hoped that Yuan would be strong enough to crush this rebellion as he had that of 1913, but day by day, as we anxiously watched the papers, there came reports of other provinces dropping away from his standard.

On the Tenyo Maru we met the Honorable Charles Denby, an ex-American Consul-General at Shanghai and former adviser to Yuan Shi-kai when he was viceroy of Chi-li.  Mr. Denby was interested in obtaining a road concession near Peking and was then on his way to see Yuan.  His anxiety over the political situation was not less than ours and together we often paced the decks discussing what might happen; but every wireless report told of more desertions to the ranks of the rebels.

It seemed to be the beginning of the end, for Yuan had lost his nerve.  He had decided to quit, and one hundred days after he became emperor elect he issued a mandate canceling the monarchy and restoring the republic.  But the rebellious provinces were not satisfied and demanded that he get out altogether.

About this time we reached Peking, literally blown in by a tremendous dust storm which seemed an elemental manifestation of the human turmoil within the grim old walls.  Our cousin, Commander Thomas Hutchins, Naval Attache of the American Legation, was awaiting us on the platform, holding his hat with one hand and wiping the dust from his eyes with the other.

The news we received from him was by no means comforting for in the Legation pessimism reigned supreme.  The American Minister, Dr. Reinsch, was not enthusiastic about our going south regardless of conditions, but nevertheless he set about helping us to obtain the necessary vise for our passports.

We wished first to go to Foochow, in Fukien Province, where we were to hunt tiger until Mr. Heller joined us in July for the expedition into Yuen-nan.  Fukien was still loyal to Yuan, but the strong Japanese influence in this province, which is directly opposite the island of Formosa, was causing considerable uneasiness in Peking.