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two faunal regions are joined as to this species by a narrow bridge, where the roe deer is found, across Asia Minor and northern Persia; and where the roe deer runs there has always been the dawn or the full presence of organized law, of stable institutions and statecraft, whose earliest game laws are often devoted to the preservation of this creature of the chase. The pheasant, another genus which connotes distinctly marked limits of rainfall, of climate, and of a certain production of seed and insect, in like manner stretches across this continental mass, in another rude linked shape, two larger masses lying east and west, whose connections extend through the region. which we are considering, and whose species enjoy a sufficiently similar environment to render it possible to transplant the Chinese pheasant to the preserves of England. Among the greater carnivora, the dividing line between the tiger and the lion runs across this region. The tiger represents the extreme Asiatic type of the Felida; the lion, the extreme African. The one has his most powerful development in Uganda, and the other in India. The lion extends to extreme tropical regions and beyond to the South Temperate Zone, and the tiger to Siberia and the arctic cold of the mountain regions in Manchuria. The two meet and mingle across the

valley of the Euphrates and the uplands of Iranistan. Both at the point of juncture are reduced to their lesser sizes and are less dangerous to man than in their centers of largest growth, and, it is possible, of original development; but their common home exists only along the uplands we are considering, though it is difficult to give any reason why the lion should not have spread over Asia or the tiger should not have pushed his way into Arabia and so on into the African jungle. Instead, they meet without penetrating farther, like their predatory human congeners on each side of the same line, the Arabian to the south and the Turk or Tatar to the north. While the line is less clearly drawn, there is reason to believe that the ass and the horse meet in the same region, the ass representing an Arabian or Persian origin and the horse, in all probability, harking back to the Asian plain. There is some reason to think that varieties of camel, Bactrian and Arabian, meet at this point. It is only on the caravan roads of Persia and extreme eastern Turkey that one may from time to time see the single hump, the light coat, the somewhat more nimble form of the Arabian camel, with the ruder outlines, the woolly coat, and the bulkier though similar shape of the Bactrian representative of the species.

(To be concluded in the August number)

D

MENT*

BY JOHN BARRETT, FORMERLY MINISTER TO SIAM

YNASTY upon dynasty, includ

ing the great Sung, from 960 to 1126, followed. In this period were wars of the Chinese against the Khitans and the Kins, until finally the invincible Mongols commenced their conquest, and the way was prepared for those famous men of Chinese history, Genghis and Kublai Khan. No more

interesting chapter in the history of any nation can be found than the record of the conquering armies of these Mongolian Alexanders or Cæsars or Napoleons. It is doubtful if any one of these three was a greater man than Genghis or Kublai Khan. Genghis, his son Okkodai, and his grandson Kublai were natural leaders of men and possessed rare military genius. They made invasions and conquests equal in danger and difficulties to that of Hannibal into Italy, Alexander into India, Cæsar into Great Britain, and Napoleon into Egypt or Russia. Marco Polo has sung the praises of Kublai, but the records of China tell likewise of his reign. Genghis and Kublai Khan, with Confucius, Mencius, and Li Hung Chang, are the five great names of Chinese history that come readily to our minds.

The Khitan Tatars, who had harassed the Chinese and were in turn harassed by the Khin Tatars, went down with the Khins before the Mongols under the leadership of Genghis. He extended his empire from the Caspian to the China Sea. His sway embraced forty conquered kingdoms, and he was making war on the Chinese when he died-about nine hundred years ago-and ordered his valiant son Okkodai to continue his labors.

Okkodai was pursuing the invasion of China with slow but sure results, for the Chinese resisted with wonderful bravery, when he died, and was succeeded by the mighty Kublai. He was the real conqueror of China. At Yaishau he fought the greatest battle in the annals of China; 200,000 men were killed, including Ti Ping, the last emperor of the Sung dynasty. It was fortunate for historical record that Marco Polo was in Asia during the reign of Kublai; otherwise the foreign world would never have appreciated the greatness of the man and his kingdom. When he passed away, in 1224, at the ripe age of 83, he was absolute autocrat of the most extensive empire of all time.

THE MONGOL SWAY

Thus in China there sat upon a throne almost in modern days an emperor who practically held all Asia and part of Europe in his grasp. No Roman, no Greek, no ancient or modern European king has ever held such sway; and yet some superficial critics class China as a land of barbarians, without history or civilization which can be compared with that of Europe or America. It is suggestive of later events that his only signal defeat was experienced when he strove to annex Japan. Two great expeditions against the intrepid islanders suffered disaster, and Japan remained independent. Kublai even favored Christianity. He was a good monarch, and ruled his people with kindness, but his successors were not equal to their responsibilities.

Thus again history repeated itself.

*Concluded from the June number.

The

The Mongol sway degenerated. famous Ming dynasty was ushered in about the middle of the 14th century, in 1365, and remained in power for two centuries. Romantic as it may seem, the first of the Mings was the son of a poor laborer in the Yangtze Valley, who saw his opportunity, seized it, led the Chinese armies to victory, established his capital at Nankin on the Yangtze, declared himself emperor under the name of Taitsu, and made a successful expedition to Pekin, entering the northern capital unopposed with flying banners. The story of the Mings is one for the greater part of wars with the Tatars, insurrections, expeditions, and disturbances, with now and then a period of quiet and content, when education, art, literature, and agriculture were fostered.

When the assertion is made that the Chinese are not a warlike people, it assuredly is not based on the martial records of the bloody past. It seems that the major portion of Chinese history is like a prize fight, if I may use the homely figure. There is a round of hot, fast blows; then there is a minute of rest and a breathing spell, followed by another period of merciless hammering, until one man succumbs and the other wins. China for nearly fifty centuries has been a ring, and the emperors, dynasties, and different races or tribes have been the fighters for the prizes of dominion and empire.

This incessant warring by Cathay of 75 cycles has in it a suggestion of warning for the rest of the world which must not be despised. Shall we not study the Chinese all the more carefully that the American people may coöperate with rather than antagonize such a powerful and persistent race in Asia? No other people of intense political activity, from the earliest records of man to the present hour of writing, has had such a marvelous history of persistent success over all difficulties. What are America's 400

years since Columbus compared to China's fifty centuries?

As we are now approaching the modern era, I shall bring my hurried view of China's history to an early conclusion. It has been my chief purpose to reach back to that far-distant past of which the world knows too little. What has occurred in later times and in recent days is so well known and so well described in numerous books that I shall not endeavor to even carefully summarize it. marize it. We are too apt to look upon China's past as a blank, when in reality it is a well-nigh limitless period of ceaseless activity. China need not be other than proud of it. She has produced warriors, statesmen, philosophers, and poets that equal those of other great peoples. The more she is studied the more profound will be our admiration of her and her people, and the less we will think of her as a weak state, and of her people as dirty, cruel coolies, without credit for the past or hope for the future. China and the Chinese have abundant shortcomings, but none can deny that they have a wonderful history.

THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE

MANCHUS

The end of the Ming dynasty brings us to the beginning of that of the Manchus, which now controls the throne of China. In 1644, 257 years ago, the present dominant dynasty began its reign. In view of the events of years gone by, it would not be surprising if the time were approaching for a new dynasty that will make China again one of the great powers of the world. Possibly a Wan Wang, a Kublai Khan, or a Taitsu is needed for the successful consummation of a radical movement for progress. May Kwangsu himself prove that he is equal to the opportunity and responsibility.

The achievements of the Manchus have not been limited or small. They

have done their part, and compare favorably with the preceding dynasties. Beginning in response to an invitation of the Chinese to drive out a Tatar usurper, they became in forty years the masters of China, showing surprising power and valor. Among the Manchu heroes was Koshinga, a semi-piratical leader, who expelled the Dutch from Formosa.

In the early days of this dynasty embassies began to arrive from western nations, and the Jesuit missionaries held high places on account of their mathematical and astronomical knowledge. Formosa was conquered and Chinese authority was made paramount in Tibet. Of Kanghi, who reigned for 61 years, or a cycle of Cathay, and made the Manchu sway complete over China, it is written: "The public acts and magnificent exploits of his reign show him wise, courageous, magnanimous, and sagacious. In the smallest affairs he seems to have been truly great."

In later reigns wars were waged against the Burmese and the indomitable Goorkas in Nepaul, who had invaded Tibet. Kien-Lung was another emperor of the Kanghi greatness, and under him relations with the outer world and knowledge of it among the people grew rapidly. Then followed Kia King, and then his famous son Tau Kwang, who was emperor when the first war with England aroused both China and Europe and practically opened the former to the trade of foreign nations. His reign ended with the Taiping rebellion, which swept over such a large portion of China, and was finally concluded through the skillful leadership of the eminent Chinese Gordon, who later was cruelly assassinated at Khartum. Hienfung, of mediocre abilities, succeeded Tau Kwang. Tung Chi, under whom the Taiping rebellion was subdued, followed Tau Kwang. The Mohammedan rebellion was another period of destructive interior wars, and Kwangsu, the present

emperor and cousin of Tung Chi, came to the throne.

It has been my privilege to have led rapidly in review Chinese dynasties, emperors, empresses, feudal lords, usurpers, philosophers, historians, travelers, merchants, and diplomatists who have figured in the annals of Chinese history from Fuhhi, 3,000 years before Christ and 5,000 years before the present era, down to the brilliant Tsi An, who controls through Kwangsu the destinies of China at the beginning of the 20th century.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

The foreign relations in the modern sense are chiefly limited to the last fifty years. Interesting events that have a direct bearing on the present have, however, occurred through the past two centuries. Only a few salient points can be here emphasized.

With Manchuria and Russia before our eyes every day in the papers, we note that the first treaty between China and Russia was imposed, as a result of a five-years' war, by the former on the latter, in 1689. By this the whole of the Amur Valley was placed in China's hands. Nearly two centuries later, or in 1858, Count Muravieff secured for Russia the Amur Province, while in 1860 General Ignatieff, taking advantage of the presence of the Anglo-French troops at Pekin, transferred to Russia with a stroke of the pen the entire Manchurian coast line from the mouth of the Amur River to the frontier of Korea. In 1898 Russia, by the Cassini convention, took Port Arthur and Talienwan ; and now, in April, 1901, the whole world is asking the significance of her occupation of Manchuria in relation to the integrity of China and the maintenance of the open door.

The French, as early as 1289, when Philip the Fair was king, received dispatches from China, suggesting common

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four centuries later, Louis XIV addressed a letter to Emperor Kanghi, whom he saluted as "Most High, Most Excellent, Most Puissant, and Most Magnanimous, Dearly Beloved Good Friend." In 1844 the first treaty was negotiated. France later engaged in war with China over the acquisition of Tonkin and Cochin-China, and a treaty was signed in 1885 giving France jurisdiction.

Germany's first expedition was in 1861, but her chief connection with China was the occupation of Kiaochau in 1897, which practically gave her control of the rich and resourceful province of Shantung.

English intercourse began with the East India Company in 1515, when it opened agencies at Amoy and in Formosa. For the next two centuries this great company's interests were England's own interests, but her position was that of a suppliant trader. In 1741, and again in 1816, British gunboats at Canton reminded the Chinese that British traders had certain rights that the mother country would protect. The embassies of Lord Macartney in 1792 and of Lord Amherst in 1815 accomplished but little.

Relations grew more and more strained after Lord Napier and Sir J. F. Davis had endeavored by authority of Parliament to establish new and better conditions. Open hostilities began in 1839. In 1841 the Island of Hongkong, now the most important port on the eastern Asiatic coast, was seized by Great Britain. This struggle was the celebrated "Opium War," which really opened China to the foreign world, and for which Britain has too often been unjustly criticised. Though it is called the Opium War, opium trading was only an incident in the list of causes. The war was waged, in fact, to stop an endless array of grievances that had accumulated during two centuries. The best re

sult was the opening as 'treaty ports" to the commerce of foreign nations Canton, Amoy, Fuchau, Ningpo, and Shanghai.

In 1856 England was again engaged in a brief Chinese war, and trouble continued until the Convention of Pekin was signed, in 1860. Other treaties, the occupation of Wei-hai-wei, Kowloon, and kindred negotiations I pass over, though important. In considering Great Britain's relations to China in the past and at present, it should be borne in mind that no other country had or has so much at stake in commerce and politics. For that reason we commend her energy in the former days and wonder at her inactivity in the last years and months.

AMERICA AND CHINA

America's relations with China have always been to her credit. Whether we consider the pioneer methods of our merchants and missionaries of a century ago or the work of our diplomatists and generals today, our Government has little or nothing of which to be ashamed and much of which to be justly proud.

The records of relations begin with the report of Major Shaw, the clever supercargo of the ship Empress of China, which, loaded with ginseng, sailed from New York Harbor for Canton on Washington's birthday, 1784, and returned on May 11, 1785, with a cargo of tea. The Secretary of State was then John Jay, who, like his successor, John Hay, was an honored advocate of the legitimate development of development of American interests. Major Shaw reported to him, and he submitted the report to Congress, which immediately resolved "That Congress feels a peculiar satisfaction in the successful issue of this first effort of the citizens of America to establish a direct trade with China, which does so much honor to its undertakers and conductors."

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