_1860-1861 TIENTSIN_
Arrangements for troops--The city--Absence of Tartar soldiers--
Rides--Dogs and birds--Agriculture--Grain-stores--Winter--Great
cold--Moderating--Spring--Temples--Chinese “sport”--New Year’s
Day--Public baths--Ice-house--Foundling hospital--Story of Roman
Catholic bishop--Hospital for Chinese--The “golden lily”--
Gratitude--Wounded Tartars--Chinese Christian--Tortured Sikhs--
French hospitals--Death of General Collineau--Sickness among
the troops.
Arrangements rapidly advanced in regard to accommodation, food
supplies, and medical care of the troops. _Yamens_--_i.e._, residences
of wealthy inhabitants--were hired for temporary conversion into
barracks. Markets and shops presented ample supplies of food, clothing,
and articles of convenience, their owners showing much eagerness to
do business with us. A tendency to pilfer, and other petty crimes,
manifested itself on the part of some Asiatic followers and others,
but was quickly suppressed by the Provost Marshal and his staff, after
which discipline and order reigned among all classes pertaining to our
force. Our French allies occupied quarters provided for them in the
part of the city on the left side of the Peiho, the British and Indian
being on the right of that river.
The city was of great commercial importance, its population some
800,000; streets narrow and filthy, houses low and dilapidated; in
extent stretching away to and embracing the point of junction between
the Imperial Canal and Peiho, thus covering a space of at least four
miles by three. Merchandise from Corea and the south of China arrived
abundantly as at a general depôt. Around the city proper a high wall
extends, the crowded portion outside being called “suburbs,” but in no
other respect different from the intra-mural city. In the Peiho was
a Russian gunboat; in the city a small colony of Russian merchants,
peacefully carrying on their business, and apparently on the most
friendly terms with the people. A few Tartar traders, some leading
their strong shaggy ponies, others Bactrian camels, all laden with
merchandise, were met with. As we pursued our way through the mazes
of the city, the people simply ignored our presence, taking not the
slightest notice of us, although by the caricatures of Europeans we
frequently came across in shops and elsewhere it was evident that
we were by no means welcome guests. In an open space a modeller was
occupied in making, with great ease and rapidity, a series of figures
in clay, representing, though with droll exaggeration, the Sikh and
British soldiers. Women were conspicuous by their absence; virtue in
the sex was honoured and commemorated by memorial arches at certain
points throughout the city. Everywhere in the crowded, narrow, and
extremely dirty streets, foot-passengers jostled each other; the
diseased, of whom many suffering from loathsome affections, coming
in contact with those better-to-do, and to all appearance healthy.
At intervals a puppet show, the prototype of Punch and Judy, or more
pretentious “show” attracted crowds; itinerant “doctors,” their carts
decorated with exaggerated illustrations of diseases and accidents,
remedies for which were vociferously lauded and offered for sale. On
either side pawnshops and restaurants; at the doors of the latter
customers gambling whether they should pay double or quits for
refreshments or foods served to them.
In vain we looked for representatives of Tartar troops, who were said
to form the ordinary garrison force of Tientsin. We learned that, for
the period of occupation by the foreigners, steps had been taken “to
keep them out of sight.”
A series of rides into the country in the vicinity of the city
presented a great variety of interesting objects and incidents. On the
left bank of the Peiho, a short distance down the course of that river,
numerous large stacks of table salt attracted attention, as similar
stacks on the same spot did that of Lord Macartney’s mission nearly
seventy years before. The arrival of the first trading ship under
the recent treaty was an event not without interest; it was a small
schooner, the property of a very eminent firm[229] at Hong-Kong, and
as it immediately became ice-bound, it was to be a familiar object to
us throughout the succeeding winter. Although so recently at war with
the Chinese, we from the first walked or rode into the country without
molestation, receiving invitations by signs to enter houses and huts
that lay in our way; tea and cakes of various kinds being invariably
pressed upon us on such occasions. In certain directions it seemed as
if there was one continuous burial ground; coffins in all stages of
decay strewed the surface; at intervals bodies of children sewn up in
mats were seen, while on one occasion we saw the revolting spectacle
of a dog in the act of carrying away the dead body of an infant.
In every village there were great numbers of dogs, fierce towards us
foreigners; some by no means unlike “collies,” others terriers, of
which a very handsome variety obtains its special title from Shantung,
to which district it more especially pertains. There were also the
mandarin or “sleeve dogs,” so named from the fact that as pets the
smaller varieties are carried in the wide sleeves of the outer garments
worn by the wealthy classes. There was the Canton or “chow-chow” dog, a
large animal with a very thick coating of hair, the tail curling from
its root; the head triangular, broad at the base, rapidly tapering to
the muzzle; the eyes far forward, as if looking upward, something like
those of the lemur. Pet birds were kept by many people, songsters being
the greatest favourites. Of those observed were a large species of
skylark, canaries, thrushes, linnets, a species here called the wamee,
like the Shamah[230] of India.
It became an object of interest to note the progress of agriculture,
and the phenomena of nature generally, from the first opening of mild
weather, onwards till autumn. On the 1st of March wheat sowing began,
the fields having been prepared during the previous few days for
that operation; five days thereafter--namely, on the 6th--the first
indication was evident that buds were about to open, a species of
poplar being the tree to take the lead in this respect. The operation
of ploughing the fields then began; the implement used was of light
construction, drawn by one man, while another guided it. Fields then
began to be cleaned, manure to be spread, seed of various kinds for
grain and vegetables sown, preparations for irrigation carried out;
and as the surface ground thawed, and so became the more easily dealt
with, ploughs of heavier kinds were used, mules, bullocks, and men
promiscuously used and yoked together in draught. In other places women
and girls were employed in field work. By the 15th signs of verdure
began to show themselves near the irrigation canals, partly in the
first leaf of autumn-sown wheat, partly of some culinary vegetable. On
the 20th, wheat sown on the 1st had “shot,” and was in tolerable leaf;
after this its progress was rapid, for by the 9th of June the fact was
noted that “some fields of wheat were turning yellow the crop nearly
ready to be cut”; pease, full in the pod.
At the distance of about four miles from Tientsin, on the left bank of
the Peiho, we came upon a series of buildings, the purpose of which the
storage of grain against famine. Sixteen such buildings, arranged in
two rows of eight, constitute the group devoted to that purpose; each
building some 300 feet in length, 45 to 50 in breadth, its walls 30
in height, the whole raised on a plinth from the ground. By Imperial
edict cultivators are obliged to deposit in these and kindred stores
elsewhere a certain proportion of grain every year: an arrangement
which has come down from ancient times, and on that account is now
mentioned.
Very rapid was the increase of winter cold to its point of culmination.
Situated in the latitude of Lisbon, the temperature of 5·5° F. during
the night preceding the shortest day was to us a new and unlooked-for
experience, yet next day active outdoor exercise was indulged in;
the sensations soon ceased to indicate the actual degree of cold
prevailing. Already the Peiho was closed in by ice, boats had given
place to sledges, and they, pushed on by means of poles, were used in
great numbers for transport of merchandise. A detachment of troops
had just arrived by _White Star_ at Taku. The officer in command
landed with his men, his intention being to make arrangements for
their march from that place, and then return to the ship for his
wife. But meanwhile ice had formed so rapidly on the shallow bay
that communication between the vessel and shore was impossible, the
result that the _White Star_ had to return to Hong-Kong, nor did the
officer[231] alluded to see his wife or kit until next spring had well
advanced. According to the Royal Chinese Almanack, published at Pekin,
the winter season is divided into nine periods of nine days each. The
first begins on December 20, the third on January 8, it ends on 17th of
that month, and is considered to be that of the greatest cold; the last
of the series is considered to end on March 2.
Communication with ships in the northern part of the Gulf of Pe chili
being cut off, letters had to be dispatched by land to Chefoo, two
hundred miles to the southward, there to be put on board. Now a cold
north wind set in; the temperature in our rooms sank at night to 3°
F. As we awoke in the morning small icicles clung to moustaches,
and during the day the sensation of cold became unpleasant. In the
provision shops, fish and game frozen; some of the latter, especially
deer, in artistic or picturesque attitudes, were exposed for sale.
Men were engaged in cutting blocks of ice from that which covered the
river, to be kept in pits and ice-houses for use during the heat of
next summer. Through the openings so made small nets were let down for
the capture of fish that happened to resort to those air-holes. Within
our quarters water for cooking purposes and for the morning bath had
to be obtained by breaking blocks of ice and placing the fragments to
be liquefied in a vessel on the fire. Out of doors the unusual sight
might be witnessed of soldiers carrying in sacks on their backs the
blocks of ice into which the daily allowance of beer or porter had
been congealed. As winter advanced sensation of cold naturally enough
increased; northerly winds came over the long tract of flat country,
several degrees in extent, that lay between us and Mongolia. Now it
was that in our quarters we utilised the Chinese heated platform as
a bed, to which is given the name of _kang_, not only for sleeping
thereon, but for sitting or reclining during the day. Fireplaces
according to advanced Western principles had been constructed, under
the superintendence of the Royal Engineers; in them was burnt a liberal
allowance of fuel, consisting of Manchurian coal and Pe chili mud in
about equal proportions; but, as expressed by our Chinese servants, the
arrangement was more calculated to carry the warmth clean away up the
chimney than to diffuse it in our apartments.
On February 19 there were signs that the intensity of winter was about
to cease; the mid-day sunshine had in it some genial warmth; intensely
cold winds that had for some time prevailed now did so no longer; the
haze in which city and district had been concealed was to some extent
gone, and yet the reading of the thermometer was a minimum at night
of 8° F., at nine a.m. 19·8° F. Snow that had shortly before fallen
began to melt as day advanced, and the thick coating of ice on the
Peiho became wet and sloppy. The few succeeding days, increasingly mild
and genial, well illustrated the regularity and rapidity with which
seasonal changes here take place. On March 3 winter was considered
to be ended, spring to have began according to the Chinese estimate
already mentioned, though at night the thermometer indicated 30° F.,
and at nine a.m. 33° F., snow meanwhile falling gently.
On 5th of that month a state of great electric tension in air was
indicated by our registers. As in India, that condition heralded change
in weather, its seasonal recurrence so regular that it is reckoned on
to a day. The crews of a Russian gunboat and of an English schooner,
frozen up through the winter, at once began the work of preparation for
sea. On the 11th the ice suddenly broke up; in massive blocks grating
against and rolling over each other, it floated along the stream.
Next day, bridges of boats were re-established, ordinary traffic by
boat resumed; within a few hours all traces of ice had disappeared.
On the 14th the gunboat _Drake_ arrived from Taku, bringing for us
thirteen weeks’ letters from home, none having been received while
cut off from the world as we had been for so long. Orders were at the
same time received directing Mr. Bruce to proceed to Pekin, and our
force to remain at Tientsin, pending the manner of reception given
to His Excellency at the Imperial capital. By April 6 the temperature
rendered the exercise of walking unpleasant. By the middle of June, in
the absence of tatties and other Indian appliances, resource was had
to large blocks of ice supported over a tub in our apartments; close
to and half embracing these we sat, in the airiest of costume, in our
endeavours to keep ourselves cool under the circumstances.
Everywhere in and around the city, steps were taken to maintain due
observance of respect towards buildings dedicated to purposes of
“religion” or philosophy. In the early days of occupation, some of the
Asiatics with us treated a few of those buildings in a manner that
they would have violently resented if directed against their own in
India; but the employment of stringent measures put an end to such
demonstrations. In one of those temples, namely that dedicated to
“Oceanic Influences,” at a short distance beyond the city walls, the
Treaty of Tientsin of 1859 was signed, the ratification of that deed
being the actual cause of the present war.
Invited to a Chinese hunting and hawking party, the “meet” to take
place at a distance of a few miles from the city, we proceeded to the
appointed rendezvous under guidance of men sent for the purpose by our
hosts. In early morning of a bitterly cold day in January we started,
our steeds, shaggy, unkempt-looking Tartar ponies. Arrived at the
appointed ground, several falconers, all on foot, each bearing on his
wrist a peregrine, hooded, awaited us; the hounds of the kind known in
India as the rampore, all under charge of a mounted whipper-in. All
around us a dead flat plain extended, to all appearance interminably,
all crops removed, the surface frozen hard, but without snow. Soon the
pack was scouring the plain in full chase of an unfortunate hare, the
hounds being slipped as the quarry started; the falcons, unhooded,
take wing. Away went our ponies at full speed, their pace a run, not a
gallop. First one falcon and then another swooped down upon and rolled
over the hunted animal; the dogs fast gain upon her; she disappears,
for in this forestless region holes in the earth and burrows are so
taken advantage of by ground game. A huntsman bares his arm; he reaches
into one such opening; the hare is drawn out, crying in its terror like
a child; it is dispatched by a blow on the nape. This we are told is
“sport.” To some of us it would be more appropriately called barbarous
and unmanly cruelty. Further details of what proved to be “a successful
day” need not be related.
New Year’s Eve,[232] according to the Chinese Calendar, was
celebrated by the discharge of thousands of crackers and other
fireworks, that being their manner of announcing to the world that
the ceremony of propitiating their household gods had begun; the
object in view, absolution for equivocal acts committed during the
past twelve months. For several previous days the city was _en fête_;
establishments closed; caricatures distributed as so many valentines;
visits of friendship and of ceremony exchanged; family and other
misunderstandings arranged; much feasting and carousing indulged
in; houses swept and garnished in token that all things unpleasant,
whether physical or ethical, had been cast out. The fronts of houses
were decorated with strips of vermilion-coloured paper containing
expressions of good-will and congratulation; ornamental lanterns were
everywhere on sale, for purposes of illuminations, their shapes various
and often grotesque, as fishes, frogs, dragons, and monsters of various
forms. Buddhist temples had on their altars a series of gigantic
candles, all “dyed red,” bearing designs of dragons and other mythical
creatures, before which people knelt with every appearance of devotion.
It became a source of interest to a few of us to visit places and
institutions of purely Chinese origin or character. Of such places,
a public bathing establishment was one, the interior well lighted,
spacious, pervaded by steam from water heated by a furnace, the fuel
of which consisted of reeds and straw. A series of troughs, and at
one end a plunge bath, were being used by considerable numbers of men
at a time, the charge for each being about a farthing. Here then were
public baths existing as a Chinese institution, though even yet their
introduction generally into England remains rather in the initiative
than accomplished stage.
Very different in kind was an ice pit, otherwise a large underground
room, one part of which was devoted to the preservation of that
substance, another having a series of shelves crowded with vegetables
and fruit of different kinds. As we descend into that pit, the
sensation we experienced was that of comparative _warmth_, so bitterly
cold had the wind outside become.
The Chinese Foundling Hospital, situated in the suburbs of the city,
was a large and substantial building; its chief ornament a tablet,
the characters on which intimated that the door over which it was
placed was the entrance to “The Hall for Cherishing Children.” At the
time of our visit the institution contained eighty foundlings; to
each of those still in infancy was assigned a wet nurse. One portion
of the establishment was occupied by children, and some grown-up
persons affected with various infirmities, as the blind, the deaf,
and the idiotic, together with their respective attendants. Being
invited by the superintendent to visit his own quarters, a tablet
over the entrance door thereto displayed the characters, “We beseech
thee to rescue the naked”; on the walls of the reception hall a
series of tablets with names of patrons and donors of considerable
sums; others with items of regulations relating to the administration
of the institution. The children, if in good health, are disposed
of at fourteen years of age--some adopted, some become servants,
others apprenticed to trades. To the girls who marry, a dowry of the
equivalent value of £5 is given.
At the end of March a visit by the Roman Catholic bishop of Pekin
gave us the opportunity of hearing from himself his strange story. In
1834 the cathedral erected in Pekin by the Jesuits in the seventeenth
century was closed during an outbreak of the populace against that
mission, several of its members put to death, others “disappearing,” to
be no more heard of. Among the latter was for many years the bishop.
Taken from the power of the rioters by some of the Catholic converts,
he was concealed by them in the capital, and protected for the long
period of twenty-seven years, he meanwhile carrying on his special
work among them. The arrival at Pekin of the allied army was quickly
followed by the re-opening of the cathedral and celebration of Grand
Mass therein. On that occasion, as the procession of priests attached
to the forces, and their acolytes, advanced toward the altar, the
bishop, wearing ordinary Chinese costume, emerged from the throng,
and took his place at its head. The Emperor of the French being made
acquainted with the story, desired to see the bishop at the Tuileries
to hear it from himself. While on his way through Tientsin the bishop
remained with us several days. To inquiries on the subject, he remarked
that his _first_ endeavour with the Chinese was to teach them the
practical results of Christianity, rather than inculcate doctrines, the
significance of which were beyond their train of thought.
As early as practicable, measures were taken to establish a charitable
hospital for the sick poor of Tientsin. For that purpose £100 was
given by Admiral Sir James Hope, and subscriptions established among
the officers of the force; applications to the rich natives being
unproductive. At last, a building capable of accommodating twenty
patients was engaged and fitted up for its purpose; professional
work being undertaken by Dr. Lamprey, 67th Regiment. Under him its
reputation rapidly spread, so much so that applications for admission
exceeded our means of reception. In those days the use of chloroform
was still in its infancy; very wonderful in the idea of the patients
did its effect appear, exceeding, as they expressed themselves,
“the power of the Dragon.” The majority, however, looked upon the
drug with suspicion, preferring to undergo operations--even of
great severity--without it or any other anæsthetic. Their apparent
indifference to pain under such circumstance was to us subject of
amazement.
Duties connected with this hospital gave me an opportunity of seeing
the contracted foot, otherwise “golden lily,” of a Chinese woman. The
foot had been deformed by the method of cramping usually followed
for that purpose; the four smaller toes pressed under the sole, the
natural arch raised to an altogether abnormal degree, the points of
support limited to the heel and tip of the great-toe. The process of
contraction takes place in early youth; it is conducted by means of
bandages “artistically” applied, and is said to be painless. The aspect
of the foot is thus made hideous, while the natural contour of the
calf being destroyed, the appearance of the limb below the knee is--to
Western eyes--ungraceful.
Neither by word or manner was the slightest gratitude expressed for
benefits thus conferred upon them. But in one respect their demeanour
drew from us a measure of appreciation; namely, in the care and
assistance shown to each other by male patients. Contrasted therewith,
however, their want of thoughtful care for sick women was no less
remarkable; the more suitable of the two wards having been given up to
the latter, the arrangement was protested against in no “gallant” terms
by the men.
For a short time an idea seemed to prevail that an object with which
the hospital was set on foot was, that in it attempts would be made
upon sick inmates to press upon them what they called “the Western
philosophy.” Their minds were set at rest on this point; but among the
patients there was a Christian convert, around whom other inmates in
increasing numbers came to listen, while he read and expounded from a
Chinese version of the Scriptures of which he was the possessor.
In our regular military hospital were several Tartar soldiers, some of
them severely wounded, who had been picked up on the field of battle
by our establishments, and now treated like our own men. In due time
they recovered from their injuries as far as art could effect their
restoration; they came to appreciate the _comforts_ of their position
so much that among their numbers no anxiety was expressed to be
discharged. Application was made to the Chinese local authorities to
receive them. The reply by them was to the effect that “the men having
fallen in battle, they were officially dead; there being no precedent
of dead men coming to life again, they could in no way recognise or
acknowledge them.” A liberal sum of money was subscribed by us for
them; it was distributed among them; they were then, with military
formalities, handed over to the local authorities, to be by them sent
on to the care of the British Representative at Pekin. Before being so
disposed of, they were seen by the bishop already mentioned. To his
question, “What do you now think of the Barbarian doctors?” the answer
given by one was that he could no longer fight as an infantry soldier,
but he might do so as a cavalry man; by a second, that “he had been
left upon the field dead, his wife a widow, his children orphans. By
the care shown to him, he had been lifted up from death, fitted to
return to and work for those dependent upon him; nor had he breath in
his chest sufficient to express his gratitude for it all.”
Among the inmates of the hospitals pertaining to our force were
some of the Sikhs who, during the advance of the army on Pekin, had
the misfortune to be taken prisoners, and subsequently subjected to
cruelties as already mentioned. Their wrists bore large cicatrices,
marking the position of the cords with which they had been so tightly
bound that ulcers in which maggots crawled were results, the agony so
great that several of their companions in misery had become delirious,
and died under it. On September 18, a party of eighteen, including an
officer, all of Fane’s Horse, were taken prisoners; of them the officer
and eight sowars succumbed under the atrocious cruelties to which they
were subjected, the remaining nine being now in hospital.[233] But it
would serve no good purpose to give particulars in regard to these sad
occurrences.
Our French allies suffered in health during the period of greatest cold
to an extent even greater than did our own men, the circumstance being
readily accounted for by the fact that the former were insufficiently
provided with warm clothing; indeed, many of them were dressed as when
on board the transport ship in which several months previous they had
been brought, _via_ the Red Sea, to China. Whereas with us, every
honour was shown at the burial of such soldiers as succumbed to the
circumstances of our position, no such formality was seen by any of
us in the quarter occupied by the French; but as day by day the black
wooden crosses increased in number in their cemetery, these silent
tokens told that they too had the hand of death among them. A temple
had been converted by the French into a military hospital; the sick
accommodated therein well cared for, its administration altogether
under the Intendance, the duties of medical officers limited to
professional attendance on the patients. Among the latter was a soldier
who bore marks precisely like those of our own men already alluded to
as having been made prisoners and tortured, he having been of their
party.
While the winter cold was most intense an epidemic of small-pox raged
among the native Chinese, and to a less degree among both the British
and French portions of our combined force. In the latter, General
Collineau, its commanding officer, was an early victim. As he expressed
himself before he lost consciousness, it was hard that after having
escaped the dangers of various campaigns, including thirty battles, he
should come to Tientsin to die of such a disease. He entered the army
as a private soldier, obtained each succeeding step for services in the
field, culminating in that of general officer for the Italian campaign.
Our British soldiers suffered severely in health, and, what was
remarkable, to a greater extent than did the Sikhs, although the latter
paid less attention to warm clothing and care of their persons in
other respects than the British soldier. Our officers were affected
variously; the younger, and those who had not undergone tropical
service, enjoyed the cold weather immensely; but with those of us who
had but recently undergone the wear and tear incidental to the Mutiny
campaign, things were very different, the severity of the winter cold
inducing among us serious illness.