The people who stood round, and those seated at the tables, were friendly and respectful, and plied my men with questions concerning their master.

And I did hope that the convert was not tempted to backslide and swerve from the truth in his answers.
My men were now anxious to push on.

Over a mountainous country of surpassing beauty, I continued my journey on foot to Fan-yien-tsen, and rested there for the night, having done two days' journey in one.
On March 24th we were all day toiling over the mountains, climbing and descending wooded steeps, through groves of pine, with an ever-changing landscape before us, beautiful with running water, with cascades and waterfalls tumbling down into the river, with magnificent glens and gorges, and picturesque temples on the mountain tops.

At night we were at the village of Tanto, on the river, having crossed, a few li before, over the boundary which separates the province of Szechuen from the province of Yunnan.
From Tanto the path up the gorges leads across a rocky mountain creek in a defile of the mountains.

In England this creek would be spanned by a bridge; but the poor heathen, in China, how do they find their way across the stream?
By a bridge also.