But I tarry too long at my old home.  We have practically an empire still before us, and will, therefore, steer west for Hangchow.

In the thirteenth century this was the residence of an imperial court; and the provincial capital still retains many signs of imperial magnificence.  The West Lake with its pavilions and its lilies, a pleasance fit for an emperor; the vast circuit of the city’s walls enclosing hill and vale; and its commanding site on the bank of a great river at the head of a broad bay—­all combine to invest it with dignity.  Well do I recall the day in 1855 when white men first trod its streets.  They were the Rev. Henry Rankin and myself.  Though not permitted by treaty to penetrate even the rind of the “melon,” as the Chinese call their empire, to a distance farther than admitted of our returning to sleep at home, we nevertheless broke bounds and set out for the old capital of the Sungs.  On the way we made a halt at the city of Shaohing; and as we were preaching to a numerous and respectful audience in the public square, a well-dressed man pressed through the crowd and invited us to do him the honour of taking tea at his house.  His mansion exhibited every [Page 23] evidence of affluence; and he, a scholar by profession, aspiring to the honours of the mandarinate, explained, as he ordered for us an ample repast, that he would have felt ashamed if scholars from the West had been allowed to pass through his city without anyone offering them hospitality.  What courtesy!  Could Hebrew or Arab hospitality surpass it?

Two things for which the city of Shaohing is widely celebrated are (1) a sort of rice wine used throughout the Empire as being indispensable at mandarin feasts, and (2) clever lawyers who are deemed indispensable as legal advisers to mandarins.  They are the “Philadelphia lawyers” of China.

As we entered Hangchow the boys shouted Wo tsei lai liao, “the Japanese are coming “—­never having seen a European, and having heard their fathers speak of the Japanese as sea-robbers, a terror to the Chinese coast.  Up to this date, Japan had no treaty with China, and it had never carried on any sort of regular commerce with or acknowledged the superiority of China.  Before many years had passed, these youths became accustomed to Western garb and features; and I never heard that any foreigner suffered insult or injury at their hands.

In 1860 the Rev. J. L. Nevius, one of my colleagues, took possession of the place in the name of Christ.  He was soon followed by Bishop Burden, of the English Church Mission, whose apostolic successor, Bishop Moule, now makes it the seat of his immense diocese.