Page 95 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 95
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 95
and being attacked by an army of twelve or thirteen thousand brigands, two of our
helpers insisted on accompanying me. And so to-night for every manifestation of
Divine protection, for every instance of human loyalty and sympathetic assistance I
would devoutly return most humble thanks to Almighty God.
As harvest prospects were very promising and we had no intention of
establishing a permanent relief institution, with pauperizing effect, we fixed August
31st. as our date for closing the relief centres. On September 8th we left Lanchow on
our return journey. We had sold our motor truck to the Government and we travelled
down the Yellow River. Our craft was of the same kind as that on which I
accomplished the same journey last year. Two hundred and forty specially prepared
and inflated goat skins were lashed together by a light wooden framework and this
constituted our craft, which proved of remarkable buoyancy. For nearly one hundred
miles after leaving Lanchow the river runs through gorges and over a whole series of
rapids. Shooting these rapids on a craft of the above description constitutes one of
the most exciting forms of sport, especially when the water runs as high as it did this
year. We were accompanied by three other rafts of equal size, carrying numbers of
other passengers, mostly women and children, who were all taking advantage of the
opportunity of our escort. From Lanchow to the nearest railway terminus at Paotow is
a distance of one thousand two hundred miles. We accomplished this journey in
fourteen days and only heard one shot fired during the whole of that time. This was a
remarkable instance of Divine Providence for, with such a party of women and
children, had we had to undergo experiences such as last year when our raft
grounded and we had to submit to being fired at from the banks, or had a fire been
directed at us causing a panic to ensue, I don’t know what would have happened.
That the route was not without very pronounced possibilities of danger was
frequently evidenced. At one place seven boats had been robbed and several
persons killed and drowned just a few days before we arrived at that particular place.
On another occasion as we were trying to slip past a certain point, which was then
infested by a large band of brigands, at midnight a strong wind blew us on shore and
kept us on the tiptoe of apprehensive expectation for three hours. A Catholic priest
who left Lanchow a week before our departure, travelling with two wood rafts down
to Ninghsia and planning from there to join our raft, was caught by bandits at a spot
on the river, just three days before our arrival at the same spot, and all the ten
persons on the first raft were shot and killed. He with those on his raft were taken
and about to be shot when his pleading procured their release but with the loss of all
their possessions.
(David Bentley-Taylor sums up this time:
“Operating in 14 districts of Kansu, he employed 20,000 labourers reclaiming farmland,
excavating springs, building bridges, dykes, and hundreds of miles of road. At three main relief depots
10,000 people, mostly women and children, received daily rations. Grain was still floated down from
Sining but in addition "we planted a crop of buckwheat over a wide area and reaped it within fifty days.
and being attacked by an army of twelve or thirteen thousand brigands, two of our
helpers insisted on accompanying me. And so to-night for every manifestation of
Divine protection, for every instance of human loyalty and sympathetic assistance I
would devoutly return most humble thanks to Almighty God.
As harvest prospects were very promising and we had no intention of
establishing a permanent relief institution, with pauperizing effect, we fixed August
31st. as our date for closing the relief centres. On September 8th we left Lanchow on
our return journey. We had sold our motor truck to the Government and we travelled
down the Yellow River. Our craft was of the same kind as that on which I
accomplished the same journey last year. Two hundred and forty specially prepared
and inflated goat skins were lashed together by a light wooden framework and this
constituted our craft, which proved of remarkable buoyancy. For nearly one hundred
miles after leaving Lanchow the river runs through gorges and over a whole series of
rapids. Shooting these rapids on a craft of the above description constitutes one of
the most exciting forms of sport, especially when the water runs as high as it did this
year. We were accompanied by three other rafts of equal size, carrying numbers of
other passengers, mostly women and children, who were all taking advantage of the
opportunity of our escort. From Lanchow to the nearest railway terminus at Paotow is
a distance of one thousand two hundred miles. We accomplished this journey in
fourteen days and only heard one shot fired during the whole of that time. This was a
remarkable instance of Divine Providence for, with such a party of women and
children, had we had to undergo experiences such as last year when our raft
grounded and we had to submit to being fired at from the banks, or had a fire been
directed at us causing a panic to ensue, I don’t know what would have happened.
That the route was not without very pronounced possibilities of danger was
frequently evidenced. At one place seven boats had been robbed and several
persons killed and drowned just a few days before we arrived at that particular place.
On another occasion as we were trying to slip past a certain point, which was then
infested by a large band of brigands, at midnight a strong wind blew us on shore and
kept us on the tiptoe of apprehensive expectation for three hours. A Catholic priest
who left Lanchow a week before our departure, travelling with two wood rafts down
to Ninghsia and planning from there to join our raft, was caught by bandits at a spot
on the river, just three days before our arrival at the same spot, and all the ten
persons on the first raft were shot and killed. He with those on his raft were taken
and about to be shot when his pleading procured their release but with the loss of all
their possessions.
(David Bentley-Taylor sums up this time:
“Operating in 14 districts of Kansu, he employed 20,000 labourers reclaiming farmland,
excavating springs, building bridges, dykes, and hundreds of miles of road. At three main relief depots
10,000 people, mostly women and children, received daily rations. Grain was still floated down from
Sining but in addition "we planted a crop of buckwheat over a wide area and reaped it within fifty days.
