Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 38 (Color Image)

0038	Among the Celestials : vol.1

AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. I.

part we were now in has been colonized by

pure Chinese, who are taking the place of the

original Manchus. These latter were few in

number, and had been drafted off with their

families to garrison the towns of China proper,

and now the Chinese immigrants from the over-

populated or famine-stricken districts of China

were flowing into the Manchurian valleys,

clearing away the forests, and bringing year

by year more land under cultivation. They

were, in fact, doing here exactly what our

colonists have been work* ng at for so many j

years in Canada. The amount of work they 'c

got through was marvellous. At the first streak

of dawn they rose, had a good meal, and then

set to at that heart-breaking labour, clearing

the ground of the stumps of trees which they

had felled. Hour after hour they would toil

away, hacking and hewing, and some of them

digging up the ground and preparing it for

a crop, and at midday they would stop and

have another square meal ; then return to the

same old wearing task till darkness set in when

they would come trooping in for their evening

repast. They were for the most part strong,

hard men, with enormous appetites. Millet

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