evil. In 1875 the Chinese merchants here subscribed funds for an attempt to restore the channel formerly connecting the neighbouring main river with the upper part of the little stream which runs past Hoihow to the sea, the object being to enable the up-country boats to get to and from the town without having to go round by Baksha. The passage was found to silt up almost as fast as it was dug out, and eventually the work was abandoned, the little that was done sufficing, however, to enable boats of but a few inches draught to get through at the top of high water. A foreign engineer could most likely devise simple means for cutting and maintaining the required channel, and it is very probable that such a work, by increasing the tidal scour through the Hoihow river, would go far towards stopping the silting up of its seaward entrance. But whatever may be the commercial future of the port it is to be feared that it will never prove a very fertile field of enterprise to foreign merchants. The great bulk of the trade is, and will naturally remain, in the hands of the native firms and their Chinese correspondents in Hongkong, through which colony flow the main streams of commerce to and from Hoihow. And as with goods, so with the vessels carrying them; those under foreign flags are, with few exceptions, in Chinese ownership or under Chinese charter, and all arrive at present to Chinese consignment." Hoihow is celebrated for the manufacture of bamboo ropes and hawsers of great length and stability. These are made in the main thoroughfare which runs through the town parallel with the river. Huge bundles of bamboos are brought in from the surrounding country, each one being then split up into very thin and pliable lengths, which only those belonging to the trade know how to do properly. These thin strips are then twisted into strands, varying in size according to the diameter of the rope or hawser being made. When these strands, with their bamboo yarns, are ready they are fastened to "spinning jennies," placed at both ends of the rope, and the strands turned separately; then they are joined, and the rope spun, one hand helping to screw the rope to its proper tightness by means of a hand-rigged "Spanish windlass." There were then only twelve foreign residents altogether in Hoihow and I soon found that life was extremely monotonous

there, especially as they had become morose and sometimes cynical through having been so long bereft of all the more desirable acquisitions of social intercourse, which one urgently needs to make life worth living for in such a world-forgotten wilderness, where the only diversion on a fine day was to visit the inland city of Kiungchow, some five miles distant, which is the centre of the Hainan branch of the American Protestant Mission, begun by Mr. Jeremiassen-acting as independent missionary-in 1881. In 1885 he joined the American mission, and his valuable work became a part of it.

The latter portion of my stay on the island was spent in Kiungchow at the residence of a missionary doctor, who brought me through a second lung attack and abscess. The journey to the capital is generally made in a sedan chair, the cost of hire ranging from 60 cents to one Mexican dollar for the journey there and back, and half that for the single fare.

You step into the chair, close up the screens against all noxious odours, and in ten minutes find yourself clear of the fusty town; being borne along at a swinging pace, the chair shafts resting upon the hard shoulders of two stalwart coolies, who seem to possess a tremendous amount of staying power. Onward they doggedly go, over hill and dale, striding along at a tiring pace, which they often keep up without cessation until arriving at your destination.

For the first three miles the path lies through well cultivated undulating country, and the remaining two miles, after passing the "Five-Palms," as the far-seen landmark is still called, although there are only four trees standing now, the fifth one having been blown down some years ago during a typhoon, through one vastly spacious cemetery. Acres and acres are covered with the Omegashaped tombs of the rich and the gravemounds of the poor— holding generations and generations of dead and buried Chinese. A few ancient tombs of early Jesuit Fathers, noble and heroic spirits long passed away, men who are remembered yet by the humble country folk for their piety and benevolence, stand amid, and help to consecrate this forest of forgotten graves.

At length you pass through a pretty little green lane with