On the Yangtsekiang,

May 2d, 1874.

Dear Sister:

I am on board the "Fire Queen," and descending the mightiest river of the Old World, about which I read in my Geography when a boy at school. Just 24 hours ago I left Kiukiang, and now we are already half way to Shanghai. To-morrow is Sunday, and I expect to attend evening service in Shanghai; Monday I shall have to spend in buying articles for the missionaries at Peking; and on the Tuesday steamer -- if there is one -- I expect to sail over a new expanse of salt water along the eastern coast of China, until I reach Tientsin, the port of the Imperial City; and long before you read these lines, I expect to have wandered through the streets of the Capital of the Chinese Empire, to have stood on the banks of the Grand Canal, and to have taken a hop, step, and jump on the Great Wall.

This sounds like strange missionary operations I confess; but then we need our seasons of recreation as well as other folks. I never studied harder in my life than during the 9 months I have been in Kiukiang; and although I do not feel any deleterious effects, yet my health has not been quite what it was in America, and I have been warned that it was possible for me to do too much. All hands seemed to think a change would be of great benefit to me, and that I ought to take it before the hot weather; so the Mission kindly granted me a two month's vacation, and I am improving it by going on a visit to Peking, bearing my own expenses, of course, which are far from being slight.

I do not say these are all the reasons, nor indeed the most weighty, that have taken me from Kiukiang; but I confess that a desire to see the Capital, and to become acquainted with our missionaries there, has been a very strong motive. And as the Mission is involved in no expense, and as my time will not be fully lost, since I am studying the language every day, and as the new scenes through which I pass will have a decidedly recuperating influence on me, I think I have a right to enjoy myself while on this pleasure excursion. I long to get one more sniff of sea air, and to be tumbling about over the jolly billows of the Pacific -- even at the risk of heaving overboard the disordered contents of a sea-sick stomach. The distance from Kiukiang to Peking is about as far as from Portsmouth, O., to New Orleans; but in China we don't think much of taking a trip of a thousand or fifteen hundred miles -- at least if we have the money to carry us through.

The "Fire Queen" is one of the swiftest and finest steamers on the Yangtse river, and it is delightful sailing in her. Her motion through the water is so gentle and easy, that you hardly notice when she comes to a halt; and the machinery (which is not at all like that of the Ohio River steamers) makes very little more noise than a big flutter mill. The cabin is furnished with chairs, tables, and luxuriant sofas, and you can read or sleep all day long. The "cabin boys" are all Chinese, smart and well-dressed, and the rigor of the rules compels them to be very cleanly, and attentive and accommodating to passengers. There is but one passenger on board beside myself, and it is not often that more than two or three passengers are found on a steamer. The Companies make their money only through carrying cargo.

The river is, I judge, more than a mile wide here and of course is all the time

getting larger as we descend. The land on each side is low, covered with green wheat fields, and some miles back there rise lofty ranges of hills. Now and then we pass a large city, with its walls and pagodas, looking exactly as the pictures in the Geographies represent them. There are not more than five or six stopping places, however, between Kiukiang and Shanghai, for the number of open ports along the river is still very few.

Last night about 9 P. M. we ran into a violent thunderstorm, and the vivid glare of the lightening and the crashing peals of Heaven's Artillery were really terrifying. The rain poured down in torrents, and the steamer rocked like a cradle in the tremendous gale. If we had been out at sea, it would have been decidedly interesting. To-day is cloudy and stormy, so that it is not pleasant to go outside of the cabin; but once in a while I climb up on the hurricane deck and watch the vessel scudding proudly through the muddy waters, or look out over the green plains and lovely hills and mountains of this Celestial country. Sometimes the scenery is really beautiful, but again it becomes monotonous, just as the scenery along the Ohio or Mississippi. I expect to see some interesting features of the Coast between Shanghai and Tientsin.

I give myself two weeks for the trip to Peking, three weeks for the stay there, and two weeks for the return home; so that at the very time you are reading this letter I shall probably be on the Yangtse again going up to Kiukiang. Tell me the day you receive the letter, and then I can find out from my Journal. I wrote you some time ago to address all letters written in March to Peking, as they would come to hand while I would be there. Of course all letters written after March must be forwarded to Kiukiang. By the last mail I received a letter from Joe, but did not answer it, as I had written to him only a little while before. I expect no home letters by the next mail, which is due in Shanghai in five days.

As I close my letter, the Fire Queen is just rounding into the port of Chinkeang. This is a very important station on the river, and in a couple of years may be occupied by a branch of the Kiukiang Mission. It is even possible that I may be sent here, although the probability is that I shall stay in Kiukiang.

Now I shall close. Will probably add a postscript in Shanghai.

Yr. aff. bro.

A. Stritmatter

Shanghai, May 5th.

P. S. Reached here Sunday morning at 10 o'clock, and in six hours the Ningpo community kicked up a big riot with the French police, in which 5 or 6 Chinamen were shot or bayoneted.