Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/258

Medhurst was able to write: "On quitting Shantung it may be proper to observe that we have nowhere been roughly used or ill-treated, while the natives have been uniformly found harmless and peaceable," but it is certainly remarkable that a man of such eminent piety and benevolence did not appreciate the provocative influence of his own methods. Mr. Gutzlaff penetrated farther into the interior in 1837. He too found everywhere a cheerful, polite reception, and the mandarins left him severely alone. His verdict was: "The farther from the coast, the more the moral condition of the people appears to improve, and the greater the interest they take in our books."

Every reader must be at once struck by the fact that while the people in and about Canton were calling foreigners "devils" and stoning or bambooing them whenever opportunity offered, the people in other districts treated them with courtesy, geniality, respect, and even friendship. How is the difference to be explained? Can there be any doubt about the explanation? Precisely the same experience has had to be recorded in Japan. At the open ports and in their vicinity children frequently address opprobrious epithets to foreigners, and persons of the lower orders occasionally display towards them a mien rude if not truculent, whereas in the interior of the country the stranger can count with absolute certainty on a smiling welcome and the most graceful courtesy.