"Every kind of strong drink, too, would seem to come into the same category, and if any is used, it is only by special permission."
At the city of Wuhu:—
"The people had returned:—whole families,—men, women, and children,—were seen in their own houses, merchants in their shops, and market people going and coming with provisions; all most submissive to the officers and police, as they passed along the streets.
"It was at their 'holy city,' however, as they frequently called their new capital, that their order and discipline were observed in the greatest perfection. Parts of the city were appropriated exclusively for the uses of the wives and daughters of those men who were abroad, as their armies, or elsewhere employed in the public service.
"Everywhere else, as well as in the 'holy city,' extreme watchfulness was observed in the maintenance of order; and all irregularities, and infractions of the laws, were rebuked or punished with a promptitude seldom seen among the Chinese. All persons, without exception, had their appointed places and their appropriate duties assigned, and all moved like clockwork."
Their unity of purpose Dr. Bridgeman speaks of as follows:—
"There is no community separate from their one body politic; at least none appears, and no traces of any could we find."
Of their religion he reported:—
"Christians they may be in name; and they are, in very deed, iconoclasts of the strictest order. They have in their possession probably the entire Bible, both the Old and New Testaments; and are publishing what is usually known as 'Gutzlaff's Version' of the same.