The compradore looked at me searchingly.

"What pidgin belong you ?" he asked--meaning what is your business?
Humbly I answered, "My belong Jesus Christ pidgin"; that is, I am a missionary, to which he instantly and with some scorn replied, "No dam fear!" We called at the river ports and reached Hankow on the 14th.

Hankow, the Chinese say, is the mart of eight provinces and the centre of the earth.
It is the chief distributing centre of the Yangtse valley, the capital city of the centre of China.

The trade in tea, its staple export, is declining rapidly, particularly since 1886.

Indian opium goes no higher up the river than this point; its importation into Hankow is now insignificant, amounting to only 738 piculs (44 tons) per annum.