All were natives of the province of Szechuen, and all carried out their agreement to the letter.
On May 3rd I left Tali.

The last and longest stage of all the journey was before me, a distance of some hundreds of miles, which I had to traverse before I could hope to meet another countryman or foreigner with whom I could converse.

The two missionaries, Mr.Smith and Mr.
Graham, kindly offered to see me on my way, and we all started together for Hsiakwan, leaving the men to follow.
Ten li from Tali we stopped to have tea at one of the many tea-houses that are grouped round the famous temple to the Goddess of Mercy, the _Kwanyin-tang_.

The scene was an animated one.

The open space between the temple steps and the temple theatre opposite was thronged with Chinese of strange diversity of feature crying their wares from under the shelter of huge umbrellas.