The Cabinet, in a circular telegram has informed all the provinces that
Vice-President Li-Yuan-hung, in accordance with the constitution, has
become president of the Chinese Republic (Chung-hua-min-kuo) from the
seventh instance.

So ended Yuan Shi-kai's great plot to make himself an emperor over four
hundred millions of people, a plot which could only have been carried out
in China. He failed, and the once valiant warrior died in the humiliation
of defeat, leaving thirty-two wives, forty children and his country in
political chaos.




CHAPTER III


UP THE MIN RIVER

_Y.B.A._

Three days after leaving Shanghai we arrived at Pagoda Anchorage at the
mouth of the Min River, twelve miles from Foochow.

We boarded a launch which threaded its way through a fleet of picturesque
fishing vessels, each one of which had a round black and white eye painted
on its crescent-shaped bow. When asked the reason for this decoration a
Chinese on the launch looked at us rather pityingly for a moment and then
said: "No have eye. No can see." How simple and how entirely satisfactory!