BOOK II.

First journey—­tong-ch’uan-fu to the capital.

    Chapter XIII.  Departure for Burma.  DISCOMFORTS of travel
    chapter XIV.  YUeN-nan-fu, the capital

Second journey—­YUeN-nan-fu to tali-fu (via ch’u-hsiong-fu).

    Chapter XV.  Does China want the foreigner? 
    Chapter XVI.  Lu-feng-hsien.  Mountainous country.  Chinese
                    untruthfulness
    chapter XVII.  Kwang-tung-hsien to SHACHIAO-ka
    chapter XVIII.  Storm in the mountains.  At Hungay
    chapter XIX.  The reform movement in YUeN-nan.  Arrival at
                    tali-fu

Third journey—­tali-fu to the Mekong valley.

    Chapter XX.  Hardest part of the journey.Hwan-lien-p’u
    chapter XXI.  The mountains of YUeN-nan.  Shayung.  Opium
                    smoking

Fourth journey—­the Mekong valley to Tengyueh.

    Chapter XXII.  The river Mekong
    chapter XXIII.  Through the Salwen valley to Tengyueh
    chapter XXIV.  The li-su tribe of the Salwen valley

Fifth journey—­Tengyueh (Momien) to Bhamo in upper Burma.

    Chapter XXV.  Shans and Kachins
    chapter XXVI.  End of long journey.  Arrival in Burma

To travel in China is easy.  To walk across China, over roads acknowledgedly worse than are met with in any civilized country in the two hemispheres, and having accommodation unequalled for crudeness and insanitation, is not easy.  In deciding to travel in China, I determined to cross overland from the head of the Yangtze Gorges to British Burma on foot; and, although the strain nearly cost me my life, no conveyance was used in any part of my journey other than at two points described in the course of the narrative.  For several days during my travels I lay at the point of death.  The arduousness of constant mountaineering—­for such is ordinary travel in most parts of Western China—­laid