The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

THE GREAT REBELLION. 339
CIIAPTEE XXA^.
THE TAE-PING REBELLIOX.— SCENES ON THE GIJEAT RIVER.
''r^HE evidences of a large population along the Yang-tse were easy t u
-L see ; but, nevertlieless, Frank and Fred were somewhat disappointed.
They had read of the overcrowded condition of China, and they saw the
great miniljers of boats that navigated the river, and consequently they
looked for a proportionately dense mass of people on shoi'e. Sometimes,
for two or three hours at a time, not a house could be seen ;
and at others
the villages wei'e strung along in a straggling sort of way, as though they
were thinly inhabited, and wished to make as good a show as j^ossiljle.
There were many places where the land did not seem to be under cultiva-
tion at all, as it was covered with a dense growth of reeds and rushes. In
some localities the country appeared so much like a wilderness that the
boys half expected to see M'ild beasts running about undisturbed ; they
began to speculate as to the kind of beasts that were to be found there,
and finally questioned Dr. Bronson on the subject.
The Doctor explained to them that this desolation was more apparent
than real, and that if they should make a journey on shore, at almost any
point, for a fe\v ujiles back from the river, they would find all the people
they wanted. " About thirty years ago," said he, "they had a rebellion
in China ; it lasted for a long time, and caused an immense destruction of
life and property. The rebels had possession of the cities along the
Yang-tse, and at one period it looked as though they would succeed in
destroying the government."
" Did they destroy the cities that we see in ruins?" Fred asked.
" Yes," answered the Doctor, " they destroyed several cities so com-
pletely that not a hundred inhabitants remained, where formerly there
had been many thousands ; and other cities were so greatly injured that
the traces of the rebel occupation have not been removed. I believe there
is not a city that escaped uninjured, and you have seen for yourselves how
some of them have suffered.
"The rebellion," he continued, " is known in history as the Tae-ping