at will.
"At Canton, February 18th, 1894, we met and conversed with a
missionary lady who had just come from a station in the interior.
She had travelled from her station on a Chinese boat, which had
been chartered by her adopted son for his use going up, and for
hers coming down the river. When she was about to embark, she
required that the men should search the boat, and down below, in
the very bottom, were a lot of little girls--_child slaves_--being
smuggled to Canton for the trade of a vile life. She made the men
take the children off the boat, but with great difficulty. They
resisted, but she stood courageously, and saw her commands
executed. After she had accomplished this, and started down the
river, all alone, so far as any English-speaking person was
concerned, the men, who were still deeply enraged at being
defeated in their plans, greatly annoyed her by intruding on her
constantly, and finally they threatened to kill her; but she
presented as brave a front as possible, and at last took hold
of one man who was especially insolent, by the shoulder, in an
authoritative manner, bidding him to go out of her presence. He
went away cowed, and they all said, as was reported to her by one
of her attendants, 'She is not afraid'; they then became very
superstitious at the idea of a woman taking hold of them, and
troubled her no more.
"The five or six Christian friends where we were staying in Canton
all agreed that it was the most common occurrence for little girls
to be bought and sold for immoral purposes. One of the group
has often heard the wretched blind girl