A couple of years or more before my visit to the gorges, Mr. Archibald Little, a merchant of Shanghai, had, in one of the ordinary boats of the country, sailed through upwards of four hundred miles of a continued succession of gorges, and reached as far as Chunking.

This journey was made with the intention of studying and learning all that could be learnt from the natives of the nature and particulars of the rapids, swirls, currents, depth, and other intricacies of the navigation of the upper waters of the river. So well did he complete his work that, as soon as he returned to Shanghai, he left for England, with the intention of getting a company together to build a couple of steamers after his own designs, which he had carefully planned from the knowledge he had gained during his six months' voyage in a small and confined boat.

The steamers were intended to trade between Ichang and Chunking, about four hundred and twenty miles apart—which they had a perfect right to do, according to the terms of the Chefoo Convention of 1876—and to open up to foreign trade the vast and fertile province of Szechuen.

Mr. Little's mission to London was eminently successful. He soon formed his company, and a steamer of five hundred tons burden was put on the stocks at Glasgow from the designs of Mr. J. McGregor, the chairman of the company, which carried out the requirements furnished by Mr. Little.