Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/149

Rh Ch'êngtu, the capital of the province, visiting the celebrated salt wells of Tzu-liu-ching on the way, and I lost little time in making the necessary arrangements for covering the 300 miles that lay before me. A travelling-chair was purchased for 14s., not with any particular view to assisting my physical progress, but with a view to averting the awful fate held up by Colborne Baber before the luckless traveller who is without one. I had no desire to be "thrust aside on the highway, to be kept waiting at ferries, to be relegated to the worst inn's worst room, and generally to be treated with indignity, or, what is sometimes worse, with familiarity as a peddling footpad, unable to gain a living in my own country"; therefore, I say, I indulged in an outlay of 14s. on a sedan-chair. For the baggage coolies were engaged, who guaranteed to carry loads of 133 lb. apiece, and to cover the distance in thirteen marching days, for wages at the rate of 10d. per man per day, and an escort was applied for and provided by the local officials.

The Taotai (the highest civil official) was a charming old gentleman, who supplied me