But he will not always be so content and so cheerful. He
will not always suffer a leathering from a man whom he knows he dare not
now hit back.[AI] Some day he may hit back. We have seen it before, how
at some moment, by some interior force making a way to the light, an
explosion takes place: there is an upheaval, all sorts of grave
disorders, and because some Europeans are killed the Celestial
Government is called upon to pay, and to pay heavily. Indemnities are
given, but the Chinese pride still feels the smart.
[1
Pulling away up the sides of barren, sandy hills in my lonely
pilgrimage, I could see wide, fertile plains sheltered in the undulating
hollows of mountains, over which in arduous toil I vanished and
re-appeared, how or where I could hardly calculate. Suddenly, rounding
an awkward corner, a magnificent panorama broke upon the view in a
rolling valley watered by many streams below, all green with growing
wheat. A high spur about midway up the rolling mountain forms a capital
spot for wayfarers to stop and exchange travelers' notes. A couple of
convicts were here, their feet manacled and their white cotton clothing
branded with the seal of death; by the side were the crude wooden cages
in which they were carried by four men, with whom they mixed freely and
manufactured coarse jokes.
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