NOTE 1.—­CHIN-KIANG FU retains its name unchanged.  It is one which became well known in the war of 1842.  On its capture on the 21st July in that year, the heroic Manchu commandant seated himself among his records and then set fire to the building, making it his funeral pyre.  The city was totally destroyed in the T’ai-P’ing wars, but is rapidly recovering its position as a place of native commerce.

[Chen-kiang, “a name which may be translated ‘River Guard,’ stands at the point where the Grand Canal is brought to a junction with the waters of the Yang-tzu when the channel of the river proper begins to expand into an extensive tidal estuary.” (Treaty Ports of China, p. 421.) It was declared open to foreign trade by the Treaty of Tien-Tsin 1858.—­H.C.]

Mar Sarghis (or Dominus Sergius) appears to have been a common name among Armenian and other Oriental Christians.  As Pauthier mentions, this very name is one of the names of Nestorian priests inscribed in Syriac on the celebrated monument of Si-ngan fu.

[In the description of Chin-kiang quoted by the Archimandrite Palladius (see vol. i. p. 187, note 3), a Christian monastery or temple is mentioned:  “The temple Ta-hing-kuo-sze stands in Chin-kiang fu, in the quarter called Kia-t’ao h’eang.  It was built in the 18th year of Chi-yuen (A.D. 1281) by the Sub-darugachi, Sie-li-ki-sze (Sergius). Liang Siang, the teacher in the Confucian school, wrote a commemorative inscription for him.”  From this document we see that “Sie-mi-sze-hien (Samarcand) is distant from China 100,000 li (probably a mistake for 10,000) to the north-west.  It is a country where the religion of the Ye-li-k’o-wen dominates....  The founder of the religion was called Ma-rh Ye-li-ya.  He lived and worked miracles a thousand five hundred years ago. Ma Sie-li-ki-sze (Mar Sergius) is a follower of him.” (Chinese Recorder, VI. p. 108).—­H.C.]

From this second mention of three years as a term of government, we may probably gather that this was the usual period for the tenure of such office. (Mid.  Kingd., I. 86; Cathay, p. xciii.)

CHAPTER LXXIV.

OF THE CITY OF CHINGINJU AND THE SLAUGHTER OF CERTAIN ALANS THERE.

Leaving the city of Chinghianfu and travelling three days south-east through a constant succession of busy and thriving towns and villages, you arrive at the great and noble city of CHINGINJU.  The people are Idolaters, use paper-money, and are subject to the Great Kaan.  They live by trade and handicrafts, and they have plenty of silk.  They have also abundance of game, and of all manner of victuals, for it is a most productive territory.[NOTE 1]

Now I must tell you of an evil deed that was done, once upon a time, by the people of this city, and how dearly they paid for it.