Note 1 — PREFACE[1]
Richard Davey translation
300Mr. Richard Davey is responsible for the translation of this work, but I have added a footnote here and there (signed by my initials), and I have revised the spelling of the proper names to bring them into accordance with English usage. To forestall the charge of inconsistency, I may say that I have acted on the principle generally adopted in the spelling of European proper names, that is, I have retained improper spellings consecrated by long custom—for instance, Chefoo, Suchow, Hankow, Kowloon, just as we write Florence, Munich, Naples, Moscow. But names not yet regularly Europeanized I have spelled according to a consistent and more reasonable system of transliteration-as Kiao-chau, Pe-chi-li, Kwei-chau. The French spelling of Chinese proper names looks very strange to an English eye, and would convey a wholly false impression to an English ear.