PREFACE.

Y recent detention in the Chinese Le

MY

gation, 49 Portland Place, London, has excited so much interest, has brought me so many friends and has raised so many legal, technical and international points of law, that I feel I should be failing in my duty did I not place on public record, all the circumstances connected with the historical event.

I must beg the indulgence of all readers for my shortcomings in English composition, and confess that had it not been for the help rendered by a good friend, who transcribed my thoughts, I could never have ventured to appear as the Author of an English book.

SUN YAT SEN.

LONDON, 1897.

kidnapped in London.

CHAPTER I.

THE IM BROGLIO.

THEN in 1892 I settled in Macao,

WHEN

a small island near the mouth of the Canton river, to practise medicine, I little dreamt that in four years time. I should find myself a prisoner in the Chinese Legation in London, and the unwitting cause of a political sensation. which culminated in the active interference of the British Government to procure my release. It was in that year however, and at Macao, that my first acquaintance was

made with political life; and there began the part of my career which has been the means of bringing my name so prominently before the British people.

I had been studying medicine, during the year 1886, in Canton at the AngloAmerican Mission, under the direction of the venerable Dr. Kerr, when in 1887 I heard of the opening of a College of Medicine at Hong Kong, and determined immediately to avail myself of the advantages it offered.

After five years' study (1887-1892) I obtained the diploma entitling me to style myself "Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery, Hong Kong."

Macao has belonged to Portugal for 360 years; but although the Government is Europeanised, the inhabitants are mostly Chinese, and the section of the population which styles itself Portuguese, consists really of Eurasians of several in-bred generations.

In my newly selected home, I found the Chinese authorities of the native hospital willing to help me forward in the matter. of affording me opportunities to practise European medicine and surgery. They placed a ward at my disposal, supplied me with drugs and appliances from London, and granted me every privilege whereby to secure my introduction amongst them on a fair footing.

This event deserves special notice as marking a new and significant departure in China; for never before had the Board of Directors of any Chinese hospital throughout the length and breadth of the great empire given any direct official encouragement to Western medicine. Many patients, more especially surgical cases, came to my wards, and I had the opportunity of performing several of the major operations before the Directors. On the other hand, I had difficulty from the first with the Portuguese authorities.