I think of starting in a few days, and calling at the other portsFoochow, Amoy, and Ningpo.

We are at anchor off Chinhae at the mouth of the river which leads to Ningpo.

On the east and north, the sea studded with the islands of the Chusan group; on the west, a rich plain, through which the river meanders on its way from Ningpo; on the north, a succession of mountain ranges.

[Sidenote: Ningpo.]

About 100, however, including children, attend churches in Ningpo, of whom thirty have been baptized.

Ningpo was one of the places which had been treated with more than ordinary severity in the last war.

They say, 'Remember what happened at Ningpo during the last war, and observe the consideration and respect which is evinced towards you there.

Ningpo is situated on the south-eastern verge of the mighty valley of the Yang-tze-kiang, which is inhabited by a population the most inoffensive, perhaps, both by disposition and habit, of any on the surface of the earth.

Yesterday, I called on a clergyman to see Miss Aldersey,a remarkable lady, who came out here immediately after the last war, and has been devoting herself and her fortune to the education and Christianisation of the Chinese at Ningpo.

In the 'fifties it fell to a native of Ningpo, where I then lived.

Let those who adopt Dutch customs, as at Amoy, continue, if they see fit, their peculiarities, and those who adopt other Presbyterian customs, as at Ningpo and other places, continue their peculiarities, and yet all unite as one Church.

" When the Minister came back in September, Robert Hart was appointed to the British Consulate at Ningpo, and started off immediately, travelling up to Shanghai in a trim little 150-ton opium schooner called the Iona.

Still more adventures awaited Robert Hart on the short trip from Shanghai to Ningpo; indeed I think the best and the most romantic adventures took a certain pleasure in following him always.

Ningpo itself in 1854 was the quietest place under the sun.

In 1855, owing to a dispute with his Portuguese colleague, the British Consul at Ningpo was suspended from duty, and young Hart put in charge of affairs for some months.

" The Portuguese were much in evidence in the Ningpo of those days.

They were numerous; they had power, and they abused it: with the result that retribution came upon them so sure, so swift, so terrible that not only Ningpo but the whole of China was deeply stirred by the horror of it.

Rumours of Cantonese revenge began in the winter of 1856, when news came that all the foreigners in Ningpo would be massacred on a certain night.

With great bravery and determination the Cantonese under Poo Liang Tai swept the Portuguese lorchas up the entire coast and into Ningpo.

She had come straight from South America and put in at Ningpo after her long voyage, all unconscious of the terrible events passing there.

From Ningpo he was transferred to Canton in March 1858, and made Secretary to the Allied Commission governing that city.

Life was very different there from what it had been in Ningpo.

Then, just when the political atmosphere was most electric, Bishop Russell, an old friend of Ningpo days and a charming and genial Irishman, came to Peking on a visit.

They talked long over old Ningpo days, and presently Russell said, "D'ye know, Hart, my converts have grown to have such faith in me that they believe I can not only show them the way to heaven, but arrange matters on this earth as well.

The military operations carried on against that Empire by the English Government have been terminated by a treaty, according to the terms of which four important ports hitherto shut against foreign commerce are to be open to British merchants, viz, Amoy, Foo-Choo-Foo, Ningpo, and Chinghai.