Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/195

Rh shops at which the products of Europe and America are on sale, and there must be a very large local trade. Silk is conspicuous among the local productions, the Ch'êngtu Fu district itself being responsible for an annual production valued at upwards of 3¾ million taels, out of a total production for the whole province of Tls. 15,000,000.

But the commercial interest of Ch'êngtu takes second place to its political interest. It is the capital of the "largest and probably the richest province in the empire." It is the seat of a viceroy who, in addition to administering the internal affairs of his kingdom, has the pleasure of keeping an eye upon the long line of the nebulous, and not infrequently troublous, Tibetan borderland. Here is a fertile field for seed-plots of sedition and intrigue. In truth, the Tibetans have not infrequently treated their Chinese overlords with scant respect. The Abbé Huc gives a delightful picture of the attitude of the Tibetans of Gaya towards the Chinese official who had been deputed to escort him and his colleague, M. Gabet, on their memorable