THE LAST DAYS OF PEKIN
Copyright, 1901, by J. C. Hemment
Emperor's Throne in the Forbidden City
The Last Days of Pekin
Translated from the French of
Pierre Loti
By
MYRTA L. JONES
Illustrated from Photographs, and Drawings
by Jessie B. Jones
Boston
Little, Brown, and Company
1902
Copyright, 1902,
By Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Published November, 1902
UNIVERSITY PRESS · JOHN WILSON
AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
DEDICATION
TO
VICE-ADMIRAL POTTIER
Commander-in-Chief of the Squadron of the Far East
Admiral:—
The notes which I sent to the "Figaro" from China areto be collected in a volume which will be published in Parisbefore my return, so that it will be impossible for me to lookit over. I am therefore a little uneasy as to how such a collectionmay turn out; it will doubtless contain much repetition.Yet I beg that you will accept this dedication as a token of theprofound and affectionate respect of your first aide-de-camp.You will be more indulgent than any one else, because youknow under what conditions it was written,—from day to dayduring a painful campaign in the midst of the continual excitementof life aboard ship.
I have restricted myself to noting the things which havecome under my own observation while undertaking the missionsto which you assigned me, and in the course of the journeywhich you allowed me to take into a certain part of Chinahitherto almost unknown.
When we reached the Yellow Sea, Pekin had been taken,and the war was over. I could, therefore, only observe oursoldiers during the period of peaceful occupation. Underthese circumstances I have seen them always kind and almostfraternal in manner toward the humblest of the Chinese. Maymy book contribute its small part toward destroying theshameful stories published against them!
Perhaps you may reproach me, Admiral, for saying almostnothing of the sailors who remained on our ships, who wereconstantly toiling with never a murmur or a loss of courageduring our long and dangerous sojourn in the waters ofPetchili. Poor sequestered beings living between steel walls!They did not have, to sustain them, as their superiors had,any of the responsibilities which make up the interest of life,or the stimulus that comes from having to decide serious questions.They knew nothing, they saw nothing, not even thesinister coast in the distance. In spite of the heat of aChinese summer, fires were burning day and night in theirstifling quarters; they lived bathed in a moist heat, drippingwith perspiration, coming out only for exhausting d