French aspirations in Tonkin--Margary receives his instructions--Work already done on the Yang-tse--Margary is insulted at Paï-Chou--He awaits instructions in vain at Lo-Shan--The Tung-Ting lake--A Chinese caravanserai--The explorer leaves the river to proceed by land--He meets a starving missionary--Kwei-Chou and the French bishop there--A terrible road--Arrival at the capital of Yunnan--Armed escort from Bhâmo--Meeting between Margary and Colonel Browne--Threatening attitude of natives--Margary crosses the frontier alone--Colonel Browne's camp surrounded--Murder of Margary outside Manwyne--Importance of Yunnan and Szechuan to Europeans. Whether, as has been asserted by more than one French writer, it was the French operations in Tonkin which so roused the jealousy of the British as to determine them at all risks to render those operations futile in the opening of a direct route from Yunnan to Burma, or whether they were merely pursuing their usual astute policy of making exploration precede the flag, there is no doubt that the tragic fate of the young explorer, Margary, whose adventurous journey deserves relation here, was fruitful in most important political results alike to England and to France. The French, who looked upon Tonkin as their own special key to China, had meant to make the Song-coi, or Red River, which is its chief artery, the outlet of the wealth of Yunnan; the English succeeded in making the Yang-tse that outlet by the concessions they wrung from the Chinese as part of the indemnity for the murder of their explorer. [Sidenote: MARGARY'S INSTRUCTIONS] It was in 1874 that Augustus Raimond Margary, an _attaché_ of the British Embassy at Pekin, received instructions from Sir Thomas Wade, then Minister Plenipotentiary to China, to go to Bhâmo, and there meet Colonel Browne, who was about to start on an expedition across Western China, with a view to open the overland route between Burma and the Celestial Empire. Margary, who knew the natives well, and had on many occasions given proof of his tact in dealing with them, was to act as interpreter and guide to the English party.