each time i begin a book of travel i search for the reasons that sent me awandering. foolishness, for i ought to know by this time the wander fever was born in my blood; it is in the blood of my sister and brothers. we were brought up in an inland town in victoria, australia, and the years have seen us roaming all over the world. i do not think any of us has been nearer the north pole than petropaulovski, or to the south pole than cape horn—children of a sub-tropical clime, we do not like the cold—but in many countries in between have we wandered. the sailors by virtue of their profession have had the greater opportunities, but the other five have made a very good second best of it, and always there has been among us a very understanding sympathy 'with the desire that is planted in each and all to visit the remote corners of the earth.

anybody can go on the beaten track. it only requires money to take a railway or steamer ticket, and though we by no means despise comfort—indeed, because we know something of the difficulties that beset the traveller beyond the bounds of civilisation, we appreciate it the more highly—still there is something else beyond comfort in life. wherein lies the call of the unknown? to have done something that no one else has done—or only accomplished with difficulty? where lies the charm? i cannot put it into words—only it is there, the “something calling—beyond the mountains,” the “come and find me” of kipling. that voice every one of the gaunts hears, and we all sympathise when another one goes.

and that voice i heard loudly in china.

“come and find me! come and find me!”

the livelong day i heard it, and again and again and yet again i tried to stifle it, for you who have read my woman in china will know that travelling there leaves much to be desired. to say it is uncomfortable is to put it in the mildest terms. everything that i particularly dislike in life have i met travelling in china; everything that repells me; and yet, having unwisely invested $10 (about ￡1) in an atlas of china, the voice began to ring in my ears day and night.

i was living in an american presbyterian mission station in the western suburb of the walled town of pao ting fu, just beyond european influence, the influence of the treaty ports and the legation quarter of peking. i wanted to see something of the real china, to get material for a novel—not a novel concerning the chinese; for i have observed that no successful novel in english deals with anybody but the british or the americans; the other peoples come in as subordinates—and the local colour was best got on the spot. there was plenty in pao ting fu, goodness knows. it had suffered severely in the boxer trouble. in the northern suburb, just about a mile from where we lived, was a tomb, or monument rather, that had been raised to the missionaries massacred then. they have made a garden plot where those burning houses stood, they have planted trees and flowers, and set up memorial tablets in the chinese style, and the mission has moved to the western suburb, just under the frowning walls of the town, and—is doubly strong. a god-given fervour, say the missionaries, sends them forth.'who am i to judge? but i see that same desire to go forth in myself, that same disregard of danger, when it is not immediate—i know i should be horribly scared if it materialised—and i cannot claim for myself it is god-given, save perhaps that all our desires are god-given.

so there in the comfortable mission station i studied the local colour, corrected my last book of china, and instead of planning the novel, looked daily at the atlas of china, till there grew up in me a desire to cross asia, not by train to the north as i had already done, as thousands of people used to do every year, but by the caravan route, across shensi and kansu and sinkiang to andijan in asiatic russia, the terminus of the caspian railway. thousands and thousands of people go slowly along that way too, but the majority do not go all the way, and they do not belong to the class or nation whose comings and goings are recorded. in fact, you may count on the fingers of one hand the people who know anything of that road. the missionaries, particularly the womenkind, did not take very cheerful view's about it.

“if i wanted to die,” said one woman, meeting me as i was going round the compound one day in the early spring of 1914, “i would choose some easier way.”

but the doctor there was keenly interested. he would have liked to have gone himself, but his duty kept him alongside his patients and his hospital in pao ting fu, and though he pulled himself up every now and then, remembering i was only a woman and probably couldn't do it, he could not but take as great an interest in that map and ways and means as i did myself. then there was mr long, a professor at the big chinese college in the northern suburb—he was young and enthusiastic and as interested as dr lewis.

he too knew something about travel in unknown china, for he had been one of the band of white men who had made their way over the mountains of shansi and shensi in the depths of winter to go to the rescue of the missionaries in sui te chou and all the little towns down to hsi an fu at the time of the revolution. yes, he knew something of the difficulties of chinese travel, and he thought i could do it.

“the only danger would be robbers, and—well, you know, there mightn't be robbers.”

but peking—the peking of the legations—that, i knew, held different view's. i wrote to an influential man who had been in china over ten years, who spoke the language well, and he was against it.

“i was very much interested” (wrote he) “to read of your intention to do that trek across country. you ask my opinion about it, but i can only give you the same advice that punch gave many years ago, and that is, don't. you must realise that the travelling will be absolutely awful and the cost is very great indeed. you have not yet forgotten your trip to jehol, i hope, and the roughness of the road. the trip you contemplate will make the little journey to jehol look like a sunday morning walk in hyde park, particularly as regards travelling comfort, to say nothing about the danger of the journey as regards hostile tribes on the southern and western borders of tibet. you will be passing near the lolo country, and i can assure you that the lolos are not a set of gentlemen within the meaning of the act. they are distinctly hostile to foreigners, and many murders have taken place in their country that have not been published because of the inability of the chinese troops to stand up against these people. what the peoples are like farther north i do not know, but i understand the tibetans are not particularly trustworthy, and it will follow that the people living on their borders will inherit a good many of their vices and few of their virtues.

“if you have really made up your mind to go, however, just let me know, and i will endeavour to hunt up all the information that it is possible to collect as to the best route to take, etc., though i repeat i would not advise the journey, and the geographical society can go to the deuce.”

this not because he despised the geographical society by any means, but because i had advanced as one reason for going across asia the desire to win my spurs so and be an acceptable member.

“my dear,” wrote a woman, “think of that poor young brooke. the tibetans cut his throat with a sharp stone, which is a pleasant little way they have.”

now the man's opinion was worth having, but the woman's is a specimen of the loose way people are apt to reason—i do it myself—when they deal with the unknown. the “poor young brooke” never went near tibet, and was murdered about a thousand miles distant from the route i intended to take. it was something as if a traveller bound to the hebrides was warned against dangers to be met upon the rhone.

one man who had travelled extensively in mongolia was strongly against the journey, but declared that “purdom knew a great deal more about travelling in china” than he did, and if “purdom” said i might got—well then, i might. mr purdom and mr reginald farrer were going west to the borders of tibet botanising, and one night i dined with them, and mr purdom was optimistic and declared if i was prepared for discomfort and perhaps hardship he thought i might go.

so it was decided, and thereupon those who knew took me in hand and gave me all advice about travelling in china, how to minimise discomfort, what to take and what to leave behind. one thing they were all agreed upon. the chinese, as a rule, are the most peaceable people upon earth, the only thing i had to fear was a chance band of robbers, and if i fell into their hands—well, it would probably be finish.

“the chinese are fiendishly cruel,” said my friend of mongolian travel; “keep your last cartridge for yourself.”

i intimated that a pistol was quite beyond me, that that way of going out did not appeal to me, and anyhow i'd be sure to bungle it.

“then have something made up at the chemist's and keep it always on your person. you do not know how desperately you may need it.”

i may say here that these remarks made no impression upon me whatever. i suppose in most of us the feeling is strong that nothing bad could possibly happen. it happens to other people, we know, but to us—impossible! i have often wondered how near i could get to danger without feeling that it really threatened—pretty close, i suspect. it is probably a matter of experience. i cannot cross a london road with equanimity—but then twice have i been knocked down and rather badly hurt—but i gaily essayed to cross asia by way of china, and would quite certainly as gaily try again did i get the chance. only next time i propose to take a good cook.

to some, of course, the unknown is always full of danger.

the folks who walked about peking without a qualm warned me i would die of indigestion, i would be unable to drink the water, the filth would be unspeakable, hydrophobia raged, and “when you are bitten, promptly cut deep into the place and insert a chloride of mercury tabloid.”

that last warning made me laugh. it reminded me of the time when as a little girl, living in a country where deadly snakes swarmed—my eldest brother killed sixty in a week, i remember, in our garden—i used to think it would be extremely dangerous to go to europe because there were there mad dogs, things we never had in australia! i think it was the reference to hydrophobia and the chloride of mercury tabloid helped me to put things in their proper prospective and made me realise that i was setting out on a difficult journey with a possible danger of robbers; but a possible danger is the thing we risk every day we travel in a railway train or on an electric tramcar. i am always ready for possible risks, it is when they become probable i bar them, so i set about my preparations with a quiet mind.

a servant. i decided i must have a tall servant and strong, because so often in china i found i had to be lifted, and i had suffered from having too small a man on my former journeys. the missionaries provided me with a new convert of theirs, a tall strapping northern chinaman, who was a mason by trade. tsai chih fu, we called him—that is to say, he came of the tsai family; and the chih fu—i'm by no means sure that i spell it right—meant a “master workman.” he belonged to a large firm of masons, but as he had never made a dollar a day at his trade, my offer of that sum put him at my service, ready to go out into the unknown. he was a fine-looking man, dignified and courteous, and i had and have the greatest respect for him. he could not read or write, of course. now a man who cannot read or write here in the west we look upon with contempt, but it would be impossible to look upon tsai chih fu with contempt. he was a responsible person, a man who would count in any company. he belonged to another era and another civilisation, but he was a man of weight. a master of transport in babylon probably closely resembled my servant tsai chih fu.

0027

my interpreter, wang hsien—that is, mr wang—was of quite a different order. he was little and slight, with long artistic hands, of the incapable artistic order, and he was a fool in any language; but good interpreters are exceedingly difficult to get. he used to come and see me every day for a fortnight before we started, and i must say my heart sank when the simplest remark, probably a greeting, or a statement as to the weather, was met with a “repeat, please.” i found this was the invariable formula and it was not conducive to brisk conversation. on my way through the country things were apt to vanish before i had made mr wang understand that i was asking, and was really in search of, information. he had his black hair cut short in the progressive foreign fashion (it looked as if he had had a basin put on his head—a good large one—and the hair snipped off round), and he wore a long blue cotton gown buttoned to his feet. always he spoke with a silly giggle. could i have chosen, which i could not, he would have been about the very last man i should have taken on a strenuous journey as guide, philosopher and friend.

and there was another member of the party, a most important member, without whom i should not have dreamt of stirring—my little black and white k'ang dog, james buehanan, who loved me as no one in the world has ever loved me, thought everything i did was perfect, and declared he was willing to go with me to the ends of the earth.

so i began my preparations. one thing only was clear, everyone was agreed upon it, all my goods must be packed in canvas bags, because it is impossible to travel by mule, or cart, or litter with one's clothes in ordinary boxes. and i had, through the kindness of messrs forbes & company, to make arrangements with chinese bankers, who have probably been making the same arrangements since before the dawn of history, to get money along the proposed route. these things i managed satisfactorily; it was over the stores that, as usual, i made mistakes. the fact of the matter is that the experience gained in one country is not always useful for the next. when first i travelled in africa i took many “chop” boxes that were weighty and expensive of transport, and contained much tinned meat that in a warm, moist climate i did not want. i found i could live quite happily on biscuits and fruit and eggs, with such relishes as anchovy paste or a few bologna sausages for a change. my expensive tinned foods i bestowed upon my servants and carriers, greatly to my own regret. i went travelling in china, in northern chihli and inner mongolia, i dwelt apart from all foreigners in a temple in the western hills, and i found with a good cook i lived very comfortably off the country, with just the addition of a few biscuits, tea, condensed milk, coffee and raisins, therefore i persuaded myself i could go west with few stores and do exactly the same. thus i added considerably to my own discomfort. the excellent master of transport was a bad cook, and a simple diet of hard-boiled eggs, puffed rice and tea, with raisins for dessert, however good in itself, is apt to pall when it is served up three times a day for weeks with unfailing regularity.

however, i didn't know that at the time.

and at last all was ready. i had written to all the mission stations as far west as tihwa, in sinkiang, announcing my coming. i had provided myself with a folding table and chair—they both, i found, were given to fold at inconvenient moments—some enamel plates, a couple of glasses, a knife and fork, rudimentary kitchen utensils, bedding, cushions, rugs, etc., and all was ready. i was to start the next week, ten days after mr purdom and mr farrer had set out, for honan, when there came a telegram from hsi an fu:

“delay journey” (it read).

“white wolf in shensi. shorrocks.”

was there ever such country? news that a robber was holding up the road could be sent by telegram!

china rather specialises in robbers, but white wolf was considerably worse than the average gentleman of the road. he defied the government in 1914, but the last time we of the mission station had heard of him he was making things pleasant for the peaceful inhabitants of anhwei, to the east, and the troops were said to have him “well in hand.” but in china you never know exactly where you are, and now he was in shensi!

i read that telegram in the pleasant march sunshine. i looked up at the boughs of the “water chestnuts,” where the buds were beginning to swell, and i wondered what on earth i should do. the roads now were as good as they were ever likely to be, hard after the long winter and not yet broken up by the summer rains. we discussed the matter from all points that day at the midday dinner. the missionaries had a splendid cook, a chinese who had had his kitchen education finished in a french family, and with a few good american recipes thrown in the combination makes a craftsman fit for the savoy, and all for ten mexican dollars a month! never again do i expect to meet such salads, sweet and savoury! and here was i doing my best to leave the flesh-pots of egypt. it seemed foolish.

i contented my soul with what patience i might for a week, and then i telegraphed to honan fu, at which place i expected to be well away from the railway. honan fu answered promptly:

“the case is hopeless. hsi an fu threatened. advise you go by t'ai yuan fu.”

now the road from honan fu to hsi an fu is always dangerous. it is through the loess, sunken many feet below the level of the surrounding country, and at the best of times is infested with stray robbers who, from the cliffs above, roll down missiles on the carts beneath, kill the mules and hold the travellers at their mercy. the carters go in large bodies and are always careful to find themselves safe in the inn-yards before the dusk has fallen.

these were the everyday dangers of the way such as men have faced for thousands of years; if you add to them an organised robber band and a large body of soldiers in pursuit, clearly that road is no place for a solitary foreign woman, with only a couple of attendants, a little dog, and for all arms a small pistol and exactly thirteen cartridges—all i could get, for it is difficult to buy ammunition in china. then to clinch matters came another telegram from hsi an fu, in cipher this time:

“do not come” (it said).

“the country is very much disturbed.”

from anhwei to shensi the brigands had operated. they had burned and looted and outraged by order of pai lang (white wolf), leaving behind them ruined homes and desolated hearths, and when the soldiers came after them, so said rumour of the many tongues, white wolf, who was rich by then, left money on the roads and so bribed the avenging army to come over to him.

but to the ordinary peaceful inhabitant—and curiously enough the ordinary chinese is extremely peaceful—it is not a matter of much moment whether it be pai lang or the soldier who is hunting him who falls upon the country. the inhabitants are sure to suffer. both bandit and soldier must have food, so both loot and outrage impartially, for the unpaid soldiery—i hope i shall not be sued for libel, but most of the soldiery when i was in china appeared to be unpaid—loot just as readily as do the professional bandits. a robber band alone is a heavy load for a community to carry, and a robber band pursued by soldiers more than doubles the burden.

still the soldiers held tungkwan, the gate into shensi, the mountains on either side blocked the way, and hsi an fu breathed for a moment till it was discovered that pai lang in strategy was equal to anyone who had been sent against him. he had taken the old and difficult route through the mountains and had come out west of the narrow pass of tungkwan and, when i became interested in him, was within a day's march of hsi an fu, the town that is the capital of the province of shensi and was the capital of china many hundreds of years ago. it is a walled city, but the people feared and so did the members of the english baptist mission sheltering behind those walls. and, naturally, they feared, for the society of the elder brethren had joined pai lang, and the society of elder brethren always has been and is markedly anti-foreign. this was the situation, growing daily a little worse, and we foreigners looked on; and the government organs in peking told one day how a certain tao tai had been punished and degraded because he had been slack in putting down white wolf and possibly the next day declared the power of white wolf was broken and he was in full retreat. i don't know how many times i read the power of white wolf had been broken and yet in the end i was regretfully obliged to acknowledge that he was stronger than ever. certainly pai lang turned my face north sooner than i intended, for the idea of being a target for rocks and stones and billets of wood at the bottom of a deep ditch from which there could be no escape did not commend itself to me. true, in loess country, as i afterwards found, there are no stones, no rocks and no wood. i can't speak for the road through tungkwan, for i didn't dare it. but, even if there were no stones, loose earth—and there is an unlimited quantity of that commodity in northern china—flung down from a height would be exceedingly unpleasant.

of course it all might have been rumour—it wasn't, i found out afterwards; but unfortunately the only way to find out at the time was by going to see for myself, and if it had been true—well, in all probability i shouldn't have come back. that missionary evidently realised how keen i was when he suggested that i should go by t'ai yuan fu, the capital of shansi, and i determined to take his advice. there was a way, a little-known way, across the mountains, across shansi, by sui te chou in shensi, and thence into kansu, which would eventually land me in lan chou fu if i cared to risk it.

this time i asked mr long's advice. he and the little band of nine rescuers who had ridden hot haste to the aid of the shensi missionaries during the revolution had taken this road, and they had gone in the depths of winter when the country was frozen hard and the thermometer was more often below zero, very far below zero, than not. if they had accomplished it when pressed for time in the great cold, i thought' in all probability i might manage it now at the best time of the year and at my leisure. mr long, who would have liked to have gone himself, thought so too, and eventually i set off.

the missionaries were goodness itself to me. dr mackay, in charge of the women's hospital, set me up with all sorts of simple drugs that i might require and that i could manage, and one day in the springtime, when the buds on the trees in the compound were just about to burst, and full of the promise of the life that was coming, i, with most of the missionaries to wish me “godspeed,” and with james buchanan under my arm, my giggling interpreter and my master of transport following with my gear, took train to t'ai yuan fu, a walled city that is set in the heart of a fertile plateau surrounded by mountains.

the great adventure had begun.