Huiqin, my beloved wife:
I don't know if all is well in Jinling. Father and I have arrived in San Francisco a few days ago. The sights and sounds along the way are not convenient to detail in a letter, but I deeply feel my own insignificance and impotence. The ship I boarded set out from Guangdong Province, passing through Hong Kong. Yet the majority of Chinese on board were human traffickers and the young girls they had tricked. Upon arriving in San Francisco, people were weighed and sold like livestock, a heartbreaking sight that left me feeling powerless. I had thoughts of abandoning my pen and taking up arms, but I could only hate my own weakness and inability.
