The natural highway of Central and Southern Yunnan is by Tonquin, and no artificial means can ever alter it.

At present Eastern Yunnan sends her trade through the provinces of Kweichow and Hunan to the Yangtse above Hankow, or via the two Kuangs to Canton.

Shortness of distance, combined with facility of transport, must soon tap this trade or divert it into the highways of Tonquin.

Northern Yunnan must send her produce and receive her imports, via Szechuen and the Yangtse.

As for the trade of Szechuen, the richest of the provinces of China, no man can venture to assert that any other trade route exists, or can ever be made to exist, than the River Yangtse; and all the French Commissioners in the world can no more alter the natural course of this trade than they can change the channel of the Yangtse itself.
I am not, of course, the first distinguished visitor who has been in Yunnan City.