Wishing to defer the subject until I should bring the reader well into the districts infested by them, I have omitted all reference to the Sz'chuan rebels in the chapter which has just closed; but it must not, therefore, be supposed that on our voyage we heard nothing of them, for the whole way above Chung-king there was one continual flow of reports of the depredations and atrocities committed by these lawless bands. Day after day we heard the same story, that they had possession of the river just above, and that it would be impossible for us to proceed much farther; but at the end of each succeeding twenty-four hours of our journey we found ourselves no nearer to them; the remains of the plundered boats and the murdered crews were nowhere to be seen, and the visions of rebels, which had been aroused in our brains each day grew dimmer and dimmer, till at last we ceased altogether to believe in the phantom “Tu-feh.” The people of the districts through which we passed were in great consternation at all these reports, and we found that on account of the weakness of the Imperial power they had formed associations for their own protection.