Mapping the Frontier by Sargent Rufus Harvey;Hartman Jan Cigliano;

Author:Sargent, Rufus Harvey;Hartman, Jan Cigliano;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 4086641
Publisher: Down East Books

Ruler used by R. Harvey Sargent to draw the first modern survey maps of China.

As we came near Taiyuan, a most welcome stranger, Mr. Lyman, an American missionary from Taiyuan, came into camp. Hearing about our approach from the Chinese, he came out to meet us and welcome us to the city. It was pleasant for us to contact this English-speaking gentleman after so many weeks living entirely among Chinese. Mr. Lyman offered to aid us if possible. The only thing we needed was money. When Mr. Willis left Tianjin, he had sent to Taiyuan, through a Chinese bank, an adequate amount of money to carry us through the remainder of the trip, $1,200 gold, or $4,000 Chinese money, I believe.

A curious crowd gathered about us one day, and among the crowd was an old woman, extremely poor, who prostrated herself most humbly and in a plaintive tone begged for a few cash (ch’ien). We had no cash, so, instead, handed her a piece of silver worth about a dime in our money or 150 in theirs.

She looked hesitant for a moment, then returned what we had given her, saying she wanted money. We returned what we had given her, urging her to keep it, and with a disappointed look, she turned away. The crowd gathered around her, and someone exclaimed, “Yin-tze!” The poor old soul stared in amazement, gazed intently at the fortune in her hand, and in a tone of surprise and joy that will always be fresh in my memory, she exclaimed, “Yin-tze?” She had not recognized this precious metal!

At Fen-Chow-Fu, Shanxi, we stayed in the old mission quarters, in the house that the Boxers in 1900 murdered the missionary, his wife, their three children, and five other people. It was a strange sensation to be in these villages, among these people, even to stop in the very homes of the dead, a thousand miles and more from civilization. We were virtually without communication with the outside, and we had no means of rapid transit, yet we were not afraid.

I was enjoying the greatest experience of my life, an experience that few young men are privileged to have.

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