[104] The size attained by the alligator_Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume II (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy.

borders on the incredible. Baron Von Huegel, in his work already referred

to, tells of a French settler in _Jalla-Jalla_ (pronounce Halla-Halla),

who assured him that he had once killed an alligator, whose head alone

weighed 250 lbs., while the body was 10 feet in circumference! It lay

buried in the sluice at the mouth of a river, and it proved so difficult

to get it brought to land and cut up, that only the head was severed by

way of trophy, and brought home to his house.

[105] Cabeza, the head, whence it is further applied to express "chief,"

or "chieftain."

[106] Another description of tax is the compulsory labour exacted from the

natives, which is expended in the construction of roads and bridges,

transmission of mail matter, transport of military baggage, luggage of

travellers, &c. &c.

[107] These joss-sticks, by the Chinese called "shi-shin-hiang," burn,

when lighted, so slowly and regularly, that the Chinese often use them to

mark the divisions of time.

[108] The church was utterly ruined, and a large portion of the buildings

are similarly in a most desolate, neglected condition. A hope was however

expressed that in the following year, 1859, members of the Society of

Jesus would come from Europe to settle in the Philippines, who would

include among their other labours that of rebuilding their own cloister.

[109] The graceful elegance of the Conchylia brought from Manila is so

remarkable that an English ship captain, who, without a special knowledge

of the matter, brought on speculation a freight of mussels from the

Philippines to Europe, not only made by their sale an enormous profit, but

even attained in consequence to a certain degree of celebrity in the

scientific world!

[110] Unfortunately the students of Natural Science have met with but

little encouragement or support from Government, and many parts of the

interior still remain a sealed book to them, or are only accessible under

great difficulties. The deficiency of definite information respecting the

island attracts foreign naturalists thither, and of late there have been

exploring it, M. M. Feodor Jagor of Berlin, Dr. Karl Semper of Hamburg,

and La Porte of Paris, all intent on matters connected with the natural

history of this Archipelago, but the majority of such visitants come back

discontented and thoroughly undeceived to land, where all activity of

scientific inquiry is allowed reluctantly, and regarded by the Government

and the priests with an envious eye.

[111] A Chinese sailor, on being asked why his vessel had an eye painted

on its bulwark, replied in Canton-English, "Suppose no hab eye, how can

see?"

[Illustration: Life in Hong-kong.]

XIV.

Hong-kong.

Duration of Stay from 5th to 18th July, 1858.

Rapid increase of the colony of Victoria or Hong-kong.--

Disagreeables.--Public character.--The Comprador, or

"fac-totum."--A Chinese fortune-teller.--Curiosity-stalls.--The

To-stone.--Pictures on so-called rice-paper.--Canton-English.--

Notices on the Chinese language and mode of writing.--

Manufacture of ink.--Hospitality of German missionaries.--The

custom of exposing and murdering female children.--Method of

dwarfing the female foot.--Sir John Bowring.--Branch Institute

of the Royal Asiatic Society.--An ecclesiastical dignitary on

the study of natural sciences.--The Chinese in the East Indies.--

Green indigo or Lu-Kao.--Kind reception by German countrymen.--

Anthropometrical measurements.--Ramble to Little Hong-kong.--

Excursion to Canton on board H.M. gun-boat Algerine.--A day at

the English head-quarters.--The Treaty of Tien-Tsin.--Visit to

the Portuguese settlement of Macao.--Herr von Carlowitz.--

Camoens' Grotto.--Church for Protestants.--Pagoda Makok.--Dr.

Kane.--Present position of the colony.--Slave-trade revived

under the name of Chinese emigration.--Excursions round Macao.--

The Isthmus.--Chinese graves.--Praya Granite.--A Chinese

physician.--Singing stones.--Departure.--Gutzlaff's Island.--

Voyage to the Yang-tse-Kiang.--Wusung.--Arrival at Shanghai.

Victoria, the name by which the settlement situate on the north side of

the island of Hong-kong is known in official documents, strongly recalls

another renowned British possession, Gibraltar. A mere uninviting granite

rock of about 9 miles in length, 8 in breadth, and 26 in circumference,

Hong-kong, situate as it is at the mouth of the Canton River, is one of

the best harbours in the Chinese Empire. Owing to the barren, treeless

surface, which consists for the most part of chains of hills, the highest

point of which is 1825 feet above sea-level, with narrow valleys between,

and a small extent of level ground around the bay, hardly a twentieth part

of its surface is adapted to agriculture. The modern cheerful town,

thoroughly European in character, has within these few years rapidly

attained large dimensions, and its numerous palatial structures speak

volumes for the wealth and prosperity of the residents. The buildings of

the colony rise terrace-like one above another, and extend in rows all

along the steep slope of the granite, for a distance of nearly three

miles. Besides the population inhabiting the town, many thousand Chinese

of the very lowest class with their wives and children live here in small

boats year after year, so that the total population of the island amounts

to about 80,000 souls.

Twenty years back Hong-kong was but an insignificant place. Only since the

peace of Nangking in 1842, which shook to its foundation the exclusive

system till then prevalent, and among other important advantages secured

the island of Hong-kong to the English, besides bringing into the

community of nations the huge unwieldy empire with its 400,000,000,

occupying 78 degrees of longitude and 38 of latitude, has it been

developed into the most important business centre of China. It became an

emporium for all European manufactures, as well as for all produce from

the interior, which is shipped hence to the various marts of the world.

Unfortunately the period at which the flag of the great Mandjing, or

Double Eagle, as the Chinese call Austria, was for the first time unfurled

on the shores of the Celestial Kingdom proved most unsuitable for

scientific observation. While in the interior a variety of circumstances

seriously threatened the stability of the throne of the reigning dynasty,

the flames of war were once more breaking out along the coast also, and

adding to the confusion and distress of the Chinese diplomatists. In the

present war the English were for the first time in these waters fighting

side by side with the French, while the Russians and North Americans were

cautiously maintaining an observant, but none the less on that account

menacing attitude. The hatred and animosity of the Chinese populace,

stirred up by their own authorities, was continually goaded to increasing

fury with each new victory of the "red-haired barbarians." The Chinese

bakers in Hong-kong had devised the cruel expedient of poisoning the bread

purchased by the English, and thus avenging themselves on the foe more

fatally and more certainly than by Chinese weapons. Even while walking in

the neighbourhood one's life was not safe, and even the usually not very

easily terrified Englishman was now begirt with "revolvers," when he rode

forth of an afternoon with his wife, or was taken in a sedan-chair to a

friend's house of an evening.

Shortly before our arrival, the captain of a merchantman, while taking a

walk outside the city, was set upon by some Chinese, robbed, and so

severely maltreated that he expired of the injuries he received. So too

the clerk of a mercantile house had been picked up just outside the city

weltering in his blood and pierced with a number of wounds from a dagger,

the murderer in this case also evading detection. An attempt was even made

against the life of the Governor, Sir John Bowring, which was only

frustrated through the vigilance of the sentinel, who discharged his piece

at the scoundrels just as, favoured by night, they were stealing over the

walls of the Government-house, with the view of creeping through the

garden as far as Sir John's cabinet.

Even in the most ordinary domestic matters might be traced the same

relentless hostility on the part of the Chinese, and the state of affairs

was becoming every day more intolerable to the European residents. All the

domestic servants at Hong-kong are Chinese, who come hither from the

nearest provinces of the mainland, in order to benefit by the rate of

wages paid by the "foreign barbarian." The Chinese officials, vying with

each other in every possible method of showing their implacable hatred to

the strangers and to embitter their life in China, now issued an order to

all the Chinese resident in Hong-kong to quit the island and return to

their native country. This ordinance would assuredly have been disregarded

by most of the resident Chinese of the Middle Empire, had not any

violation of the Imperial rescripts been visited with such appalling

consequences. For by the Draconic laws of the Empire, the family of the

criminal expiate his offence, should he take to flight and get beyond the

reach of the arm of Chinese justice. For any such absentee from justice,

some other member of the family is substituted, who may be still on the

spot; as for instance, the father, mother, or brother, who is punished

exactly as though he had in person been guilty of the crime or

misdemeanour. With such terrific means of repressing disobedience

impending over him, no Chinese would venture to set at defiance the orders

of the Mandarins; and accordingly, during the summer of 1858, 10,000

Chinese returned home at once; others, who did not dare to return, but

could not endure that the ruthless doom should be executed upon their

relatives, committed suicide. The position of European ladies in Hong-kong

became anything but enviable, as they had at a moment's notice to take up

the pot-ladle for themselves, and get through the various fatiguing

details of their households with what skill they could. Moreover there was

good ground for apprehension that the Mandarins might cut off all

communications with the neighbouring provinces, which move, as the greater

part of the every-day necessaries of life are supplied from the mainland,

might have exposed the population of Hong-kong to the severest straits.

Under these circumstances any more remote excursions, or visits to the

adjacent mainland, were of course impossible. We had to confine our

investigations to the island itself, there to collect what memoranda we

could, and see as much of the island and its inhabitants as the shortness

of our stay and the prevailing disorders might admit.

Life in Hong-kong has already a strong leaven of western civilization.

Only in the narrowest streets does the visitor come upon examples of the

genuine Chinese type. Most of the natives even inhabit houses built in the

European style, so that one feels as though in a European city inhabited

by a Chinese population, the latter having however greatly altered from

its originality. Only very few types of Chinese popular life are met with

in this English colony. Of these characters the most interesting and

unique is the _Comprador_ (_Mai-pau_), a sort of factotum, whom no

household can dispense with, and whose importance only those can

adequately do justice to who have lived some time in the country. The

Comprador, or _shroff_, is the soul, the good or evil genius, of the

house: he sees to all sorts of purchases, manages the domestic economy,

and maintains order and discipline in the house and household. The entire

domestic control is exclusively lodged in his hands, to that extent that

even the master and mistress of the house may not, without consulting the

Comprador, dismiss one of the servants or engage a new one. For all that

goes on, the latter is responsible. He has to answer for the honesty of

the servants, and must replace anything that may have gone amissing from

the house inventory. If the family leave their house for any time, the

Comprador is informed of the place where the most valuable articles are

deposited, where they are more likely to be found in proper order on their

return than by any other device. Even during the late war, in which the

feeling of the Chinese to the Europeans was anything but friendly, the

Comprador held to his fidelity, and was as useful as ever. In view of the

actual state of matters, a traveller must feel no little astonishment at

beholding the doors and windows of the private dwelling-houses everywhere

wide open, and valuable articles lying exposed in the various apartments.

As however the Comprador himself must get a number of bails to become

responsible for him, and as the post is a very profitable one, it follows

that there are but few cases of dishonesty in this singular profession. It

is especially remarkable that few of the populace seem to be as hostile to

the strangers as the Mandarins, and all the numerous annoyances inflicted

on the latter are invariably to be traced to the intrigues of the Chinese

authorities. How else would it be possible for a couple of hundred

Europeans to rule a colony in which are 80,000 Chinese, and which moreover

is dependent upon the mainland for the very first necessities of life?

The Comprador receives for all his services and attentions no higher pay

than from 12 to 15 dollars a month, besides support for himself and

family. This however is not his sole income, as every tradesman must give

the Comprador a per-centage upon everything, even the most insignificant

article that enters the house, and this custom even extends to any

purchases made by a Chinese in the warehouses of the foreign merchant.

Another "public character," whom one frequently meets in the lower parts

of the city in the public streets of the Chinese quarter, is the

"soothsayer." On a small table before him stands an open draught-board

with a number of squares, on which are inscribed a variety of proverbs and

oracular sayings. In each square is a grain of rice, and quite close to

the board is a bird-cage with a tame canary. Presently some good-humoured

gaping rustic comes up, who wishes to learn his destiny, upon which the

soothsayer suffers the canary to hop out of his cage upon one of the

squares, and pick up a grain of rice _ad libitum_. The sentences and

interpretations, which are inscribed on each square from which the canary

snaps up his food serve for a reply and decision to the curious

questioner, who hands over a small _honorarium_. The apparatus is simple

and ingenious, but the proverbs are excessively silly, and recall much

less the land of Confucius than the dream-books of certain countries

standing high in European civilization.

The stores which seem most to attract the attention of a stranger are the

"Curiosity-shops," in which are heaped up those innumerable articles of

Chinese industry and Chinese taste which are so characteristic of the

country and its inhabitants. Here the eye rests upon objects of the most

bizarre shapes, which in material design and execution are totally unlike

anything the European sees elsewhere; workmanship in wood and stone, that

illustrates in a remarkable manner the extraordinary patience of the

artisan, such as drinking-cups, barrels, frames, cut all in one piece, and

beautifully carved, elegant fancy articles of horn, stone,

mother-of-pearl, ivory, roots of trees, metal, or wood, vases and dishes,

statuettes in copper and clay, woven portraits, embroidery, &c. &c.

Among all these various manufactures, one especially remarks those

prepared from a leek-green, slimy-feeling stone (nephrite), which is in

much request among the Chinese, and is highly valued. The Chinese name,

Yo, from which in all probability is derived the French name _Jade_, does

not indicate however a peculiar species, but is used for all sorts of

carved stone-work and gems, while the most valuable one is called by the

Chinese the "mutton-fat" stone. The articles prepared of what is named

steatite, or soap-stone, are largely used in commerce, but are of very

small value, and usually cut only in very clumsy figures.

But these manufactures make much less impression upon the stranger than

the beautiful pictures of the Chinese artists upon rice-paper, a peculiar

branch of art, cultivated by the Chinese alone, and which as yet has never

been successfully imitated in any other country. The most exquisite

specimens of these are sent to Canton, but among the Chinese in Hong-kong

we saw several beautiful works in this style of painting. The common

designation of rice-paper has led to the erroneous idea that the substance

of which these pictures are made is manufactured from the leaves of the

rice-plant, whereas it is prepared from the pith of an entirely different

plant (_Aralia papyrifera_), which grows in Funan and Tukun. The marrow is

steeped for some time in water, after which it is split by means of very

keen sharp knives into thin leaves, which are then subjected to gentle

pressure. The largest are about a foot square, and are reserved almost

exclusively for pictures, the shreds and inferior sorts alone being used

for the manufacture of artificial flowers. We saw portraits of the Emperor

and Empress, of the rebel leader, Tai-ping, of the notorious Yeh,

ex-governor of Canton, and other well-known or conspicuous personages.

Latterly there has sprung up a strong tendency among the Chinese artists

to daguerreotypes and photographs in miniature upon ivory; and in the

_ateliers_ of Hong-kong a number of artists were engaged in this, at

present the most profitable branch of Chinese artistic skill.

In all these shops the medium of trade is what is called Canton-English,

less a dialect than a confused jargon of English and Chinese words,

consisting of concessions made on either side to the grammar and idiom of

the other, so as the more readily to comprehend each other. A few Spanish

and Portuguese words have also crept in, recalling the former relations of

these countries with China. All English words ending in _e_ mute have in

this gibberish an _i_ attached to them, as also all other words whatever.

Thus they say _timi_, _housi_, _pieci_, _coachi_, _cooki_, &c. &c. There

are certain Chinese, especially in Canton, who pick up a living by

initiating young country folks, who are about entering service in English

mercantile houses, in this singular language. Curious and unpleasant as

this Chinese English dialect sounds in the ears of strangers, it is found

greatly to facilitate intercourse with the Chinese, in consequence of the

immense difficulties attending the study of Chinese, so that most

Europeans find it far more comfortable to master this jargon, which is not

without some influence on the spread of English in the chief commercial

cities, than to occupy themselves with mastering Chinese. The language

spoken by the sons of the "middle kingdom" consists of 450 monosyllabic

sounds, which by various delicate differences in accentuation may increase

to about 1600. The slight, and to unaccustomed ears almost inappreciable,

shades of aspiration and accentuation, are the main difficulty in the way

of foreigners desirous of learning the Chinese language.

To learn the written characters is equally arduous, and requires not less

time and perseverance; for this does not consist of a number of letters,

the varying arrangement of which constitutes words, but of 40,000 more or

less complicated signs, each of which expresses a whole word. They are

rude forms, representing most imperfectly ideas and material objects;[112]

however, the knowledge of 4000 to 6000 such signs, with their various

significations, suffices to understand most of the common Chinese books.

These singular hieroglyphics are not written horizontally but vertically.

Moreover, the Chinese begin from the right side, so that, directly the

reverse of the European custom, the title of a Chinese book is found on

the first page, the leaf furthest to the right hand. Long ago, the

Chinese, like most other Asiatic nations at the present day, wrote with

metal _styli_ upon split leaves of bamboo. Ever since the third century

before Christ, however, when the art was invented of making paper from the

rind of the mulberry tree and the bamboo-cane, and preparing pin-soot,

glair, musk, glue, Indian ink[113] (meh), and other substances, the

pencil has taken the place of the graver. The hieroglyphics now made on

paper are softer, more elegant, and in distinctness of outline admit

greater varieties of form. Most of the Chinese whom we saw engaged in

writing formed the most complicated characters with great celerity and

ease upon the thin paper, and without the firm strokes losing anything of

their neatness and clearness of outline.

Among the various scientific objects recommended as important objects of

inquiry to the members of the Expedition, during their visit to China, by

the renowned sinologue Dr. Pfitzmaier, was the obtaining of rare Chinese

books, and the elucidation of certain ethnographic and linguistic

questions. Whatever was achieved by us in throwing light upon these

matters is due in great measure to the cordial reception with which we

were received by men of science resident at Hong-kong. Especially we would

name in this respect Dr. M. Lobscheid, a German by birth, a missionary and

inspector of schools, who, thoroughly conversant with the Chinese

language, exerted himself to the utmost in forwarding the objects of the

scientific corps, besides assisting us in the purchase of a variety of the

most valuable Chinese works, and giving us much interesting information

respecting the country and the inhabitants. Dr. Lobscheid himself has a

well-selected, valuable, and extensive library of rare Chinese works on

geography, natural science, history, philology, and numismatics, and

presented a number of valuable gifts to the Expedition. One of his

colleagues, Dr. Ph. Winnes, also a German, and a missionary from the

Mission Society of Bale, compiled for us a list of words of the Hakka

dialect, as spoken in the interior of the province of Quang-Tung, hitherto

so little known philologically. It is indeed astonishing what English, and

German, and American missionaries have effected as publicists, during the

short period they have been resident here. The educational and religious

works published in Chinese at the expense of the various religious

societies form already quite a respectable literature of themselves,

although the Chinese language puts as many obstacles in the way of mere

Christian civilization as in that of the propagation of the Evangile

itself. Most of the missionaries consider any attempt to substitute Romish

for Chinese characters as being quite vain. The indistinctness of Chinese

signs has already been fruitful of much controversy among the missionaries

themselves. Thus, for example, those engaged in promulgating the Christian

faith are not as yet agreed by what Chinese word the God of Christianity

may best be indicated. The Roman Catholic missionaries write _Tientschu_

(the Highest of all things); the English and German Protestants use the

sign _Schang-Ti_ (the Most High); the American Protestants make use of the

word _Schin_ (Spirit). These varieties of opinion as to the mode of

expressing the idea of "God," have given rise to a vast number of

publications, which however have unfortunately tended rather to envenom

the dispute than smooth the way to a common understanding.

Conspicuous, however, as are the services of the missionaries in the

publication and diffusion of useful and moral books in the Chinese

language, their direct efforts have, on the other hand, been attended with

but limited results hitherto, and although it is always laid down as an

axiom in the books and manifestoes of the Tai-Ping insurgents, that the

doctrines of Christianity, as deduced from the writings of the Missionary

Societies, are the leading principle of the movement, yet, as set forth

and promulgated by the insurgent chiefs, they cannot be said to deserve

recognition by any known form of Christianity.

As in their religion, so in their mode of life, and their national

customs, the Chinese remain stiff-necked and obstinate, and in this

direction also Christianity is in but few cases capable of mitigating

their frequently barbarous customs. Children in China are constantly

exposed in large numbers, and that not owing to poverty, but from

indifference to the female children. One Chinese woman who at present

professes Christianity, and is a member of the Bale missionary community,

has herself killed eight female children whom she had herself carried in

her womb! Dr. Lobscheid informed us that he was personally cognizant of

one case, where a Chinese mother-in-law, irritated at the birth of a

female child, murdered it before its mother's eyes, almost immediately

after it had come into the world, and this in a rather well-to-do family!

Young mothers often lay their children down in the open field, or on the

sea-beach, watching anxiously if any one takes it away, or till a wave

mercifully sweeps it off. One such infant, accidentally found by some of

the crew of the English frigate _Nankin_, and tended with all the

tender-heartedness of Jack when he finds an object of compassion, is at

present in the German Mission House at Hong-kong, and was baptized in the

cathedral by the chaplain of the frigate, who gave her the name of

Victoria Nankin. Other mothers endeavour to choke the new-born girl with

moistened ashes, which, not unfrequently with caressing hand, they lay

upon the mouth of the little unconscious innocent. Male children, on the

other hand, even such as are crippled or deformed, are very seldom, indeed

quite exceptionally, exposed or put to death. In proportion to the harsh

treatment which the female offspring experience, is the pride and anxious

carefulness which wait on the male children. Indeed the Chinese are very

much in the habit of having several wives, simply because by so doing they

of course have a better chance of a number of male offspring, and it very

frequently happens that the lawful wife of a Chinaman, if she has

continued any length of time childless, will even seek out and bring to

her husband a concubine by whom he may have heirs, that is, _sons_.[114]

In such cases the two wives usually continue on the best of terms, which

cannot be said of those instances where the second or third wife is

introduced into the family by the husband, without the intervention of his

wife. According to the old Chinese law, the man had to be thirty, the

woman twenty, before marriage. At present marriages, as a rule, are made

between sixteen and twenty years of age. It may be assumed that one in

every fifteen Chinese has more than one wife; the first, usually known as

"number one," is generally taken from inclination, whereas the rest are

usually bought, the price varying, according to their youth and beauty,

from 100 to 600 dollars. This custom gives rise to quite a peculiar trade.

Chinese women make a practice of purchasing for themselves from the poorer

classes such of the female children as are of good health and well formed,

whom they bring up with great care, with the view of selling them, when

grown up, to the wealthy Chinese, and even sometimes to--European

residents.[115] The custom of child-murder is most prevalent in the coast

districts of the province of Fo-kien, so that latterly there was a

positive scarcity of women, and marriageable girls had to be imported from

the northern part of the province. The prevalence of this custom of

child-murder in these localities is to be ascribed to the enormous

migration of the male population to Siam, to the islands of the Malay

Archipelago, and other points. These emigrants supply the labour market in

foreign countries, and but seldom return to their families. Numerous

placards and pamphlets, pointing out the enormity of child-murder, and

dissuading from its commission, are printed annually, partly at the cost

of philanthropists, partly at that of the Chinese Government, and widely

diffused, yet without producing any diminution in the practice of this

appalling custom.

The custom of distorting the feet of the better class of women at the

period of their birth, seems to have arisen from the jealousy of the

husbands, who in thus preventing the possibility of gadding about, think

they have secured an additional guarantee for the fidelity and chastity of

their wives. However, one occasionally hears the first introduction of

this singular and cruel custom ascribed to a Chinese empress having once

been born with such distortion of the feet, and that in consequence it not

only became the fashion among the females of the higher class in those

days, out of pure obsequiousness, to imitate by artificial means a

disfiguration accidentally arising from a freak of Nature, but even to

recognize it as a necessary concomitant of the Chinese ideal of beauty.

The Governor of Hong-kong, Sir John Bowring, a distinguished _savant_, who

received the members of the Expedition with the utmost consideration,

invited them to his house and endeavoured to bring them into personal

communication with those residents in the colony most interested in

scientific pursuits, so that each one of us could consult with the

gentleman best able to advise him in his own department, and thus attain

in the shortest time the most satisfactory results. Sir John, moreover, as

President of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, admitted the

members of the Expedition to the honours of an extraordinary session. He

welcomed the Austrian naturalists in the heartiest manner, and expressed

the most flattering anticipations from their visit. Very deserving of

remark was the speech made on this occasion by the Lord Bishop of

Hong-kong. In his capacity of a dignitary of the Church, he too bade us

welcome in the warmest manner, and expressed his conviction that

Christianity had nothing to fear, but only to hope, from the study of

natural sciences! What would certain ultramontanists, had they been

present, have replied to this remark of a high ecclesiastical

dignitary?--they who consider government impossible without restricting

the study of the natural sciences!

Among the various subjects discussed at this meeting were several of great

interest, which sufficiently evidenced what a thorough disposition to

mental activity the English show, even in a place where material interests

are necessarily the main objects of attention, and where they, moreover,

are continually exposed to great personal danger.

One of the communications received by the Society was a memoir by Mr. W.

Alabaster, who had accompanied ex-governor Yeh to Calcutta as interpreter,

treating of the Chinese population there, and its influence on the state

of society. The memoir contained the very remarkable statement that the

Chinese colony in Calcutta, which in 1858 counted little more than 500

souls, had not alone monopolized several employments, such as shoemakers,

tailors, &c., but had, even when thousands of miles distant from home,

jealously maintained several of their customs and rites intact. This

Chinese community, so inconsiderable in point of mere numbers, already

possesses its own temple, its own priests, and its own teachers, who guard

any Chinese immigrants from the perils of proselytism; it has founded a

special association, whose object it is to transmit to their native land

the bodies of such as die abroad, while their luxury is beginning to

develope itself to the extent of ordering from China at considerable

expense troops of actors, so as even at this distance to provide

themselves with the national amusement of a genuine Sing-Song. This

peculiarity is of great importance, inasmuch as the emigration from China

is ever assuming more extended dimensions, and already embraces several

portions of the world. We find Chinese scattered throughout Eastern Asia,

in Australia, in California, in Peru, in Brazil, in the West Indies, and,

what is very astonishing they thrive and prosper at most places they

visit, despite the not very humane treatment they receive, and the

wretched, desolate state in which they leave their homes. This enormous

emigration of the sons of the Flowery Land seems destined to be of immense

importance, and to be fraught with momentous influence upon the future of

the other Asiatic populations, whom the Chinese greatly excel in capacity

for work, mechanical dexterity, and dogged perseverance. Even the

religious movement gives the Chinese certain advantages over all other

nations of the Asiatic type of civilization. The Hindoo, like the

Catholic, has numbers of festivals, which greatly diminish the number of

his actual working days; the daily ceremonies prescribed by Brahminism

further curtail the most precious hours of labour; his exclusively

vegetarian food not alone prevents the proper development of his muscular

power, but also by its ostentatiously morbid delicacy, brings him

constantly into collision with the social order of a Christian household.

The Chinese, on the other hand, keeps but one holiday-time, the beginning

of the new year, which he celebrates for fourteen days without

intermission. But the remaining 11-1/2 months of the year are for him but

one long day of work. Moreover, the Chinese has no fastidious notions

about his food. He eats pork, and drinks wine, and prefers fat meat to

meagre fruit diet, thoroughly unrestrained by any considerations as to

whether such a mode of life accords with the institutes of Brahma and

Menu, or the teaching of Confucius. Their sobriety, their capacity, their

industry, their frugal mode of life, and their numbers, all seem to

indicate the Chinese as destined to play an important part, not alone in

the development of the Oriental nations, but also in the history of

mankind. They are, as a German philosopher has profoundly remarked, the

Greeks and Romans of Eastern Asia, and they will, if once hurried onwards

by the great tide of Christian civilization, perform such feats as to

fill even the nations of the old world with wonder and amazement.

Another communication, made during the same meeting of this meritorious

branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong-kong, related to that singular

plant, which has within the last few years excited so much attention in

industrial circles throughout Europe under the name of "Green dye," or

"Vert Chinois." Notwithstanding the experiments hitherto made with this

valuable dye, and the excellent use which has been made of it, more

especially by the Chamber of Commerce at Lyons, the first in Europe to

make application of the new colour, there was yet much to be learned

respecting the mode of raising and manufacturing it, in order to render

its employment entirely practicable. The elegant pamphlet of the Lyons

Chamber of Commerce[116] had just arrived from Europe, and led to a

variety of interesting investigations. Nothing was known in Hong-kong

respecting the plant beyond what was already contained in Robert Fortune's

excellent work and Rondot's treatise. Somewhat later, we were furnished

with more accurate and circumstantial information respecting the Lu-Kao,

the well-known "Green dye" of the English (a species of _Rhamnus_ or

buckthorn), which we shall here transcribe pretty fully.[117]

Lu-Kao is grown chiefly in the northern provinces, extensive plantations

of this valuable plant existing in the country around Foo-Chow and the

environs of the city of Haening. The valuable green dye matter is

obtained, however, from the rind, not of one but of two species _Rhamnus_,

of which the "yellow" grows on the flats, the "white" on the high-grounds

in a wild state. The preparation of the substance, which does not differ

much in appearance from common indigo, is exceedingly primitive. Both

plants are boiled for a considerable time in iron kettles, the yellow

deposit or _residuum_ being suffered to remain undisturbed for several

days. Transferred thence into earthen vessels, a piece of cotton cloth is

steeped into it five or six times, after which the adherent dye is wrung

out, and exposed a second time to the process of boiling in iron pans. The

next step in the manipulation consists in permitting the dye stuff, which

now has much more consistence, to be soaked up by some pieces of cotton,

when it is once more washed, sprinkled upon thin paper, and, lastly,

exposed for some time to the sun.

The Chinese have as yet only used the dye for colouring cloths of coarse

texture; all attempts hitherto to apply it to silks, &c., have proved

fruitless. But the great development of chemical science in Europe

justifies us in expecting that a method will ere long be devised for

fixing this beautiful, durable light green tint, which does not alter even

in candlelight, upon fabrics of fine smooth texture, and thus greatly

enhance its value in the industrial arts. The Lu-Kao has from time

immemorial been used by the Chinese in watercolour paintings, but its use

in industrial processes only dates from about 20 years back. The very

price charged for the small quantities hitherto brought from China, is by

no means natural, but seems to have been artificially forced up by

speculation, apparently in consequence of an unusual demand. In Foo-Chow

the price of one Catti, about 1-3/4 lbs., is 20 _Taels_, or about L6

10_s._ Were the production of this dye stuff really so expensive, we may

be sure it would not be made use of by the Chinese for their ordinary

stuffs, nor could these be sold as cheap as they are. We have found our

opinion confirmed by competent observers in various parts of China, that

this valuable product is susceptible of being acclimatized in Europe, and

of being cultivated with profit, especially in those places where,

together with favourable conditions of temperature and soil, the wages of

labour are not too high.

Like the English authorities and Government officials, our German

fellow-countrymen, resident in Hong-kong, did not fail to exercise their

hospitality for the benefit of the associates of the Expedition, and we

cannot sufficiently express our obligations to the Austrian Consul, Mr. G.

Wiener, and the Prussian vice-consul, Mr. Gustav Oberbeck, for their

delicate attention. The latter presented the Expedition with a number of

articles interesting as illustrating the advances of civilization, which

he had obtained during the siege of Canton, in Dec. 1857, and of which the

greater part have since been deposited at the Imperial Cabinet of

Antiquities at Vienna.

Through the kindness and interest of Dr. Harland (since deceased),

surgeon-in-chief of the colony, some of the members of the Expedition were

enabled to make corporeal measurements in the great prison, the inmates of

which come from the most various parts of the empire, as well as in the

hospital, upon a number of individuals of either sex, all "fair specimens

of the Chinese race," as Dr. Harland assured them, the results of which

will be found in the anthropological section of the _Novara_ publications.

Before the frigate left Hong-kong, despite the insecurity of public

affairs, several excursions were made to the south side of the island, to

Canton, and to the Portuguese settlement of Macao, which proved as

interesting as they were satisfactory.

In the course of their peregrinations about the mountains on the island,

as far as the fishing village on the south side of the island, known as

Little Hong-kong (sweet-waters), the naturalists of the Expedition were

accompanied by Dr. Hance, the botanist, and the missionary, Dr. Lobscheid,

both thoroughly acquainted with the Chinese language. Little as the pretty

name of this small settlement, founded so far back as 1668, is applicable

to the entire island, it yet corresponds well, and is eminently suitable,

to the smiling valley, entirely shut in by lofty rocks, in which lies

wretched Little Hong-kong. A beautiful wood filled with tufts of flowers,

forming for the labours of the botanist a rich supply of the most splendid

plants, and refreshed by copious springs of water from the mountains,

constitute a lovely landscape. Above the limit of vegetation of the

foliage trees, are seen on the slopes of the mountain groups of pines,

while the level ground at the bottom of the valley is laid out in smiling

rice fields. The miserable inhabitants of the village, which looks

gloomily out from among the trees, are not safe from the predatory

onslaughts of ferocious pirates, even among the recesses of the valley.

The streets of the village, hidden between trees, are uncommonly narrow,

so that two men can scarcely pass each other, and the huts are all placed

on purpose close against each other, in order, we were told, to be able

more easily to admit of defence. Our rambles were rewarded with an

abundant collection of specimens, and were particularly instructive in a

geognostical point of view, as satisfying us that the island does not

consist entirely of granite, but that a large proportion of the mountain

is porphyritic.

Another excursion was made by the Commodore and some of his staff as far

as Canton. The Commandant of the station, Commodore Stewart, had for this

purpose placed the gun-boat _Algerine_ at our disposal. The distance from

Hong-kong to Canton is about 87 nautical miles (100 statute miles), and

the voyage took full eleven hours, viz. from 6.30 A.M. to 5.30 P.M.

Canton, the third capital of the Chinese Empire, and its most flourishing

commercial city, which but a short time before had numbered about

1,000,000 inhabitants, was at this period a desolate, almost entirely

abandoned mass of houses, half in ruins, half burnt. The stately European

factories, which had adorned the banks of the river up to the walls of the

Chinese city, were heaps of ashes. The floating town upon the river

itself, the renowned flower-boats of Canton, with their marvellous

splendour and their luxurious beauty, had entirely disappeared, leaving no

trace. Whoever had anything to lose had fled the country. English

sentinels patrolled the walls and occupied the streets of the interior of

the city, and only the very poorest of the mob remained behind, watching

every opportunity of getting the "head-money," which the Mandarins of the

province of Kuang-Tung had offered for every head of a "barbarian" brought

in. "The state of matters in Canton gets worse and worse every day," said

the latest issue of the Hong-kong journals. Since the Americans and

Russians had concluded private treaties with the Imperial Government, and

the English and French allied fleet had gone north to the Gulf of

Pe-Cheli, to treat at Tien-Tsin with the Imperial commissioners, the

Chinese of Canton had been plucking up courage. They conceived the allies

to be isolated; the Russians and the Americans they held to be hostile to

them. The Mandarins and Imperial commissioners launched proclamations by

the dozen at the "foreign devils,"[118] set on foot organized Guerilla

bands, which were called "Braves," who every night discharged rockets

into the city, murdered and pillaged, and kept the allied troops, who were

only 3500 strong (800 of whom were in hospital) almost continually on the

alert.

When the gun-boat _Algerine_ arrived off Canton, the Commodore, although

it was late in the evening, was accompanied by a military escort to the

head-quarters of General Straubenzee, commander of the allied troops. A

stillness as of a grave-yard reigned throughout the city, and not a light

was to be seen. By 10.30 P.M. the Commodore reached the post, and was

most hospitably received by the General. The head-quarters were situated

on a hillock commanding the city, surrounded by the numerous buildings of

a country-seat or _Yamun_, which had been the property of the father of

Governor Yeh, who had acquired such notoriety during the recent warlike

troubles. The ostentatious splendour of the apartments, the splendid ebony

carved work, gave such an idea of the magnificence, the luxury, the

gorgeousness of the Chinese princes, as can only be paralleled by what we

read of the palaces of the emperors of ancient Rome. Yeh himself had by

this time been removed from the political scene, and was a state prisoner

in Calcutta, where he lived in more than monastic seclusion. To judge by

his portrait, which was for sale in all the print-shops of Hong-kong, Yeh

was a fine-looking man with energetic features, and an expression full of

intellect, and, so far as his physical appearance went, seemed to take

after his father, who in his ninety-second year was still tasting joys of

paternity. In his own country, even among the Europeans, Yeh enjoys the

reputation of being not only an able diplomatist, but a man of varied

information as well. While at Hong-kong we were shown some large

anatomical woodcuts, which Yeh had himself borrowed from a European work

on anatomy, and published at his own cost on an enlarged scale,

accompanied by a preface from his pen.[119]

Even more extensive and elegant in its outward aspect than that of Yeh,

was the palace of the Tartar general Pihkwei, now employed for barracks

and the officers of the English and French commissariat, while a much less

pretentious building had been assigned to the Tartar general for his

present residence.

The Commodore had reached head-quarters and was sitting at the tea-table

with General Straubenzee, when an alarm of fire was heard. The "Braves"

had fired a house close by in the hope, it should seem, that the flames

would catch the barracks as well as the powder depot, or at all events

compel the English to withdraw their troops from the post, and give an

opportunity for inflicting some loss on them. Fortunately, however, what

had been set on fire burned quite out, without fulfilling the

anticipations of the "Braves."

In the course of a stroll, which our Commodore took with the General

somewhat later in the night, they perceived that the Chinese kept up a

continual flight of rockets against the sentries and buildings of the

post, from a small eminence not two hundred yards distant, which was

provided with ramparts and cannon, and the Austrian guests greatly

marvelled that no energetic steps were taken to obviate the disorders

produced by these guerilla bands of Chinese, who every night with their

incendiarism and fire-balls kept the city, the head-quarters, and the

pickets in constant alarm, seeing that their inactivity only tended to

animate the courage of the Chinese, while in such harassing service,

unattended as it was with any results, their own forces, already very much

reduced, were proportionately weakened.

The morning after their arrival the Austrian officers, accompanied by the

English commissioner Mr. Parkes, whose imprisonment near Pekin has since

made his name widely and universally known, paid a visit to the sole

Chinese authority still remaining in the town, the Tartar General and

Mandarin, Pi-Kwei. An immense crowd had assembled in the streets through

which the foreigners wended their way, and their reception by the Tartar

General was accompanied by all the ceremonial of Chinese etiquette: three

howitzer salvo-shots, and ear-splitting Chinese music, the General's

body-guard, disarmed, drawn up on the staircase, the General himself,

wearing his Mandarin cap on his head, nodding and laughing more or less to

the foreigners presented, according to their higher or lower rank. The

Commodore was provided with a raised seat. In the course of conversation,

during which Mr. Parkes kindly acted as interpreter, tea was served.

Pi-Kwei inquired as to the objects of the Expedition, and asked the names

of the officers, which, owing to the symbolic nature of Chinese writing,

could not be done but after much difficulty. Pi-Kwei, a man of colossal

proportions, behaved and spoke like a lamb in presence of the small

physically insignificant-looking Mr. Parkes. Like the regents appointed by

the Dutch Government in Java, he was nothing more than the agent to carry

out the orders of the English.

Our departure was not less ceremonious and noisy than our reception: a

number of fire-balls were let off in front of the building, the noise of

which gave much more the impression of an infernal machine than a salute.

The rest of the day the officers spent in reconnoitring various parts of

the city, as far as circumstances admitted, and all returned in the

evening to Hong-kong in the same gun-boat which had conveyed them to

Canton.

While we were lying at anchor in Hong-kong, an extra sheet of the "_North

China Herald_," published at Shanghai, brought intelligence of a treaty of

peace having been signed at Tien-Tsin, by Lord Elgin, on the part of

England, and the Imperial Commissioners, and that it had been dispatched

to Pekin for the purpose of being ratified by the imperial autograph. This

treaty, which contained 56 clauses, invested England with far more

extensive rights than she had hitherto possessed. Especially it was

stipulated that an English ambassador should reside in a palace at Pekin,

and be accorded all the honours due to his rank, and that the Christian

religion should be professed and taught without any restrictions. British

subjects, provided with passes from their own consuls, to be countersigned

by the local Chinese authorities, were to be permitted to traverse the

empire in every direction on business or pleasure; the navigation of the

Yang-tse-Kiang, or Blue River, was also declared free; and in addition to

the five harbours already opened to foreign commerce by the treaty of

Nankin, the English were now to be at liberty to trade with New-Chwang,

Tang-Char, Tai-Wan (on the island of Formosa), Chau-Chow, and Kiung-Chow

(in Hainan), to settle in any of these, to buy and sell house property,

as also to erect churches and hospitals, and lay out cemeteries. Chinese

subjects guilty of crimes or offences against the English, to be punished

by the native authorities in conformity with the law of the land. English

subjects, on the other hand, to be subject to the jurisdiction of the

British authorities, in similar circumstances, and treated according to

British law. All official communications on the part of the English

authorities to be drawn up in English for presentation to the Chinese

Government, and although, for the present, accompanied by a translation,

shall in the event of uncertainty be construed according to the text of

the English original. Article L provides that the symbol [Chinese

character(s)] (Barbarian) shall be discontinued in all official documents,

whether in the capital or the provinces, and the term "English" or

"English Government" be substituted. On the other hand, the Treaty of

Tien-Tsin is silent on the subject of the opium trade, the main point in

dispute, the prime cause of the various wars hitherto broken out! There

was mention made of a revision of the tariff only. Obviously the British

plenipotentiaries thought they would more readily attain their object if

they endeavoured to get this difficult question solved in some less

conspicuous manner. The opium merchants, as well as their antagonists the

London philanthropists, seemed equally dissatisfied that the opium matter

was still left a "pending question." On the whole, however, this was one

of the most marked diplomatic peculiarities of the Treaty of Tien-Tsin.

Instead of rousing anew the passions of the Chinese, and, by wringing such

an open and public concession from that Government, weakening still more

the hold of the Emperor over his own people, and, whatever their

professions of amity, rendering the authorities yet more hostile and

rancorous against the foreigners, the wily English ambassador preferred

quietly to include opium amongst the other articles of import under the

revised tariff, and thus convert it into a common article of import.

Accordingly, opium, like cotton, hides, and stockfish, may now be imported

at a fixed duty of 30 _taels_ (L8 15_s._) per _picul_ of 100 _catties_

(133-1/2 lbs.).

The events of which China was the scene shortly after the signature of the

treaty, the hostilities of the troops in the Taku forts, the desperate

resistance which was made to the advance of the British ambassador, when

the latter, agreeably to the stipulations in the new treaty, was preparing

to travel to Pekin, all combine to prove that, in their professions of

peace and friendliness, the Chinese were not in earnest.

Since that period an army of 20,000 Europeans has dictated a peace to

400,000,000 Asiatics, and their till then deemed impregnable capital; and

on 24th October, 1860, Lord Elgin countersigned a new treaty, which,

together with the clauses contained in the previous Treaty of Tien-Tsin

drawn up two years before, provides for the permanent residence of a

British ambassador in the capital of the Chinese Empire, as also for a war

indemnity of 8,000,000 _taels_ (L2,333,333); throws open the harbour of

Tien-Tsin to foreign commerce, permits Chinese subjects to emigrate,

without any restrictions, to any part of the British colonies, and to take

service there; assigns to Great Britain a portion of the district of

Kow-loang or Cow-loon on the mainland opposite Hong-kong; and, finally,

ordains that the original treaty, and all the various additional articles,

shall be published by placard in every part of the Empire. Never before

had the Middle Kingdom sustained such a humiliation. True, during the rule

of the former dynasty, Tao-Kwang (Light of Reason), an end was put to a

system that had endured for a thousand years, but conditions such as those

that had been imposed by the western nations in the treaties of Tien-Tsin

and Pekin, were altogether unheard of in the history of China, and afford

convincing proof of its weakness and approaching downfal, the more so, as

the late Emperor Hien-fung was a jealous upholder of the old Asiatic

doctrines and state craft. Only the utmost necessity and unceasing

pressure could have induced him to lower his arms before the barbarians of

the west, and to endure that an enemy should have dictated conditions of

peace in his own capital, hitherto inaccessible to foreign nations.

English, French, and American ships of war hold possession of the most

important forts of China. In several provinces of the interior, a rebel

emperor has set up his camp, while on the banks of the Amoor, on the north

of the Empire, Russia is building fortresses, and acting as if she were

quite at home in that region. But all these phenomena, however divergent

the interests, may at present point to one stupendous result,--rousing

the immense Chinese Empire from its thousand years' lethargy, and forcing

the natives who populate it to follow in the great onward career of

civilization, which in our days is rushing with the rapidity of a tempest

through the world!

While the Commodore and some of his staff were proceeding to Canton in the

gun-boat, the naturalists made an excursion to the Portuguese settlement

of Macao, about 35 miles distant from Hong-kong, with which there is

bi-weekly communication by an English steamer. Usually this voyage

occupies from four to five hours, but the _Sir Charles Forbes_ was a small

slow-going tub, and as our departure was delayed several hours in

consequence of a large shipment of chests of opium, for which it was hoped

a better price would be obtained at Macao, and as we had on our way

thither to contend with rain, squalls, and contrary winds, it was dark ere

we reached Macao.

We were not a little taken aback at finding several of the passengers

armed with revolvers. However, these seemingly superfluous precautions

against danger in a pleasure sail of a few hours were well founded. Not

long before, it had happened that the European passengers to Macao had

been assailed by the Chinese on board, and all murdered in cold blood! the

Chinese had stealthily watched for the moment when the captain and

passengers were at table in the confined cabin of the little craft, took

possession of the vessel, and murdered every European on board. The

captain and some of the passengers sprang overboard to save their lives,

but only one man, an Englishman, succeeded in effecting his escape, and

giving intelligence of this terrible affair. After they had possessed

themselves of a considerable booty, the pirates set the vessel on fire,

and set at nought all efforts to bring them to punishment by escaping into

the interior of the country.

The arrangements for paying passage-money, expenses, &c., are apt to

strike a stranger as singular. Gold is absolutely out of use, and the

current coins, such as Mexican dollars, and copper money, or cash, are too

bulky to admit of their being lugged about to pay large amounts. In order

to provide for the expenses of a pleasure party of a couple of days it

would be necessary to take a large bag, which there was the further danger

might disappear somewhere without hands. An excellent arrangement has

accordingly been introduced, by which each passenger pays his fare and

other expenses, by means of a check on any one of the mercantile houses in

Macao or Hong-kong, which is filled up with the entire amount for

collection by the controller, and is cashed on his return. This custom is

also a remarkable example of mutual confidence in public life, even if it

be explained by the fact that the majority of the passengers are well

known, and that China has as yet only been frequented by well-off

foreigners.

The passage from Hong-kong to Macao is not entirely devoid of interest.

The course of the steamer lies at first among narrow canals, between

lofty granite rocks: so soon as she emerges from these, the muddy

disturbed colour of the water indicates that she is now crossing the mouth

of the Canton River proper. Stately ships are seen passing up or down,

while junks and fishing-boats are plying on every side. The majestic

conical peak, 3000 feet high, of the island of Lantao, and the Castle Peak

scarred with a deep furrow from top to bottom, on the mainland of the

province of Quang-tong directly opposite, form the background. The

regularity of the conical shape in these peaks, which seems to point to

their being of volcanic origin, renders it probable that they are either

granite or porphyritic in structure. The mouth of the Canton River is so

wide, that the opposing shores only gradually become visible, the wide

expanse of water, extending on every side till lost in the horizon, giving

the traveller the impression that he is on the open sea.

Already, before the houses of Macao could be very easily made out, we

passed the merchant ships lying in the roads, which cannot approach within

from six to eight nautical miles. The small thoroughly land-locked "inner

harbour," as it is called, lying on the other side of the narrow tongue of

land on which Macao is situate, is only accessible for small vessels and

Chinese junks, which visit it in large numbers.

The first view of the city of Macao is not less charming than that of

Victoria. The long ranges of houses are picturesquely grouped around the

numerous little hills surmounted by forts, which form the greater part of

the isthmus; while the beautiful Praya Grande, where palaces and imposing

mansions are disposed in long array close along the shore, in order to get

the benefit of the refreshing sea-breezes, makes a deep and lasting

impression upon the stranger. Churches with lofty double towers shooting

into the air, and the vast dome of the Jesuit College, at once single the

city out as Catholic, and impart to its external aspect a strong contrast

with the adjoining English colony.

Macao is a favourite resort of the foreigners settled in Hong-kong for

change of air, which in these latitudes seems to be even more necessary

than in Europe. So long as Canton was the chief seat of the European

traders, the Portuguese settlement was used by them as a summer residence

for their families, whither they could themselves occasionally retire from

the bustle of Canton, and the attendant insecurity of life, to spend a few

days of calm enjoyment with their families. On account of the alarms of

war of the previous year, most of the Canton merchants had come down to

Hong-kong and Macao to settle, in consequence of which the latter town has

an unusually lively appearance, while its trade, which had previously been

in a rather languishing condition, has materially improved.

When the steamer makes its appearance in the roads of Macao, it is

immediately surrounded by an innumerable swarm of what are called

Tanka-boats, mostly propelled by women, who with yells and shrieks bid for

the privilege of conveying the passengers to shore. As there is no

suitable landing-place on the eastern side of the roads, the traveller is

conveyed to the shore through the lash of the waves in a small

cockle-shaped boat, just as at Madeira or Madras, and equally

uncomfortably; but although the boat and the mode in which it is navigated

are anything but calculated to inspire confidence, such a thing as an

accident is of rare occurrence.

The naturalists of the _Novara_ found an exceedingly friendly and hearty

reception at the beautiful residence of the Russian Consul, M. Von

Carlowitz, who shortly before had come from Canton to settle in Macao,

with his excellent wife, a very beautiful lady of Altenburg in Germany,

there to await the upshot of the war.

Our first visit the following morning--a bright and beautiful Sabbath

morning--was to the renowned Camoens Grotto, situated in a large

well-wooded park, partly covered with primeval forest, the property of a

Portuguese family of the name of Marquez. All around there reigned utter,

almost sacred silence. Here it was that Camoens, banished from his native

land, wrote his Lusiad. The park with its fragrant shady aisles, its

majestic leafy domes, impervious even to the rays of the tropical sun, its

huge piles of rock round which clamber the immense roots of gigantic

fig-trees, its deliciously cool atmosphere, its soft green velvet paths,

its heaps of ruined walls, and its death-like quietness, seems as though

destined for the asylum of an exiled poet, who, instead of lamenting his

destiny like common men in sullen silence, felt his spirit roused amid

this wonderful tropical beauty to fresh sublime efforts,--"Things

unattempted yet in prose or rhyme!" In an ill-contrived niche in the

substructure of the grotto is a bust, in terra-cotta, of the great poet,

with the inscription, "Louis de Camoens, born 1524, died 1579." On the

broad marble pedestal whereon stands this bust, which savours but little

of artistic taste, various verses from the Lusiad have been engraved with

an iron stylus.[120] Formerly this grotto must have had a much more

agreeable appearance, but the present proprietor thought to beautify it by

making an addition to it, which has resulted in its having almost entirely

lost its original character. From one point within the grotto, called the

observatory, and traditionally used as such by Camoens, there is a

beautiful peep over the inner harbour, with its throng of busy human ants.

Quite close to this singular abode for a poet, is the meeting-house of an

evangelical Christian community, numbering about 200 souls, with a

cemetery attached, which, with its handsome stone monuments and

beautifully laid-out gardens, constitutes one of the most interesting

places of outdoor resort in the colony.

The most extensive and important edifice in the settlement of Macao,

founded in 1563 by the Portuguese, on a peninsula of the same name, about

five square miles in extent, is the Pagoda of Makok and its different

temples, situate on the slope of a hill between picturesque groups of

granite rocks, studded with gigantic Chinese inscriptions and splendid

clumps of trees. At the entrance of this retreat for the gods, is a large

fantastically-adorned Buddhist temple, surrounded by a large number of

apartments, in which reside the priests, and where they carry on their

household duties, and prepare tapers and sycee-paper for the worship of

their deities, and where are also a few private altars to divinities,

whose influence and protection the Chinese ladies of doubtful reputation

do not, it seems, venture publicly to invoke.

Steps cut in the granite rock conduct to the highest point, about 200 feet

above sea-level, on which there is likewise a temple. At the time of our

visit, a number of Buddhist priests in long yellow plaited garments were

ascending to the summit, preceded by flute-players, there to perform their

devotions. On their return they distributed among the poor Chinese

congregated in the chief apartment of the temple, a large quantity of

fruit and other eatables.

While at Macao we visited one of the most respected of the foreigners

settled there, Dr. Kane, an English physician, who has for years resided

in the colony. This gentleman was so kind as to present us with the head

of a statue from the renowned nine-storied or Flower Pagoda (Hwa-tah) near

Canton, which during a visit he paid to that half-ruined edifice in March,

1857, he had found lying on the ground, a fragment from a sandstone figure

on the seventh story, representing a pupil of Buddha. This Pagoda, 160

feet high, was constructed upwards of a thousand years since, which must

accordingly be the age of the relic in question.

The number of inhabitants at present in Macao amounts to about 97,000, of

whom 90,000 are Chinese and 7000 Portuguese and Mestizoes. Of other

foreign nations there are but a very few in the peninsula. The chief

article of commerce in the colony is opium, which finds its way hence into

the interior in large quantities. Hong-kong is in too close proximity, is

too favourably situated, and is inhabited by too energetic a race, to

admit of Macao, especially so long as it remains in the hands of the

Portuguese, recovering its former commercial importance. Portugal derives

but little profit from her colonies, and it is only national pride that

will not hear of this possession, which is more a burden than a source of

aid to the mother country, being disposed of by way of sale to either the

English or the North Americans. However, the maintenance of this colony

costs the Portuguese home Government but little, as the colonists support

the chief expenses themselves. Thus the pay of the Governor, who receives

L1260 per annum, as also that of the military force of about 400 men, and

of a small ship stationed in the harbour, are all defrayed by the

colonists.

Macao is at present the chief point for the shipment of Chinese labourers

or coolies to the West Indies. There are above 10,000 Chinese annually

whom hunger and want drive to sell themselves virtually as slaves to the

traders in human flesh, to drag out a miserable existence far from home.

They are chiefly sent from Macao to the Havanna. We visited the house in

which these pitiable objects are confined till the departure of the ship;

we saw the haggard, reckless look of these wretched beings, who, despite

the dreadful fate that awaits them, hire themselves out to Portuguese and

Spanish kidnappers. In return for a free passage to Havanna, they bind

themselves to work for eight years after their arrival with whatever

master is found for them at four dollars a month,[121] a rate of wage very

much lower than that paid to the labourer of the country, or even to the

manumitted slave. This immense difference however does not accrue so much

to the West India planter as to the speculators who are engaged in the

importation of Chinese, for each of whom a large premium is paid. The

voyage, which usually lasts from four to five months and costs about L70 a

head, is chiefly carried on in French, Portuguese, and--alas! that it

should be so--English and German ships. What sufferings the unhappy

emigrants are exposed to during the voyage, appears from the fact that a

number of them not unfrequently jump overboard, to seek a refuge from

their misery under the waves. Cases have been known in which, owing to

hard fare and mismanagement, 38 per cent. of the emigrants have died on

the passage![122]

The society which takes charge of this trade in exporting men is known as

the _Colonisadora_, and has its head-quarters in the Havanna. Each Chinese

must before leaving Macao subscribe a contract which is for the exclusive

benefit of the society, and by which the poor emigrants explicitly

renounce all the advantage they might derive from certain paragraphs in

the Spanish Emigration Act, passed in 1854, which bear upon the

interpretation of such contracts. As it is usually only the very poorest,

most shiftless, and most ignorant class that emigrates, the contract is

enforced without the smallest scruple, and if afterwards the emigrant in

the foreign country becomes aware of the privations and oppression he has

to submit to in comparison with other workers, the obligations he has

entered into are made use of to invoke the protection of the Spanish

authorities.[123] The fact however that these latter secretly favour the

objections of the colonization society, sufficiently proves that the

interests of a social class and the extension of the labour market in the

island are considered by them as of far higher importance than the good of

mankind.

To the English Government is due the credit of having initiated an

energetic protest against this trade in human beings, and of having taken

such steps as tend to mitigate the evil consequences which cannot but

result from such a system of deportation. Its representative at the

Havanna, Mr. Crawford, was the first and indeed only individual who

ventured to make representations to the Spanish Government as to the

little humanity shown for these poor Chinese emigrants, and to draw public

attention to the system.[124] Under a humane and well-managed

administration of the emigration system in China, it might prove of

immense service to those countries which are eager to absorb labour, as,

owing to the super-abundance of labour in China, a far larger supply as

well as a much higher class of labourers might be procured.

M. de Carlowitz was so kind as to accompany us in our various rambles to

the more interesting sights and points of view, and more especially when

we were busied "doing" the "lines" of the city. On an eminence in the

suburbs, about 200 feet high, is what is known as Monte fort, garrisoned

by 150 men, whence there is a charming panorama, and the eye catches sight

of the Chinese village of Whang-hia, at the period of our visit most

hostilely disposed, and where on July 3rd, 1844, the first treaty of

peace, friendship, and commerce, was drawn up and signed between China and

the United States. Another hill, about 300 feet high, at the outer

extremity of the peninsula, on which many years ago the Portuguese had

erected a fort, of which only the foundations can now be traced, commands

the tongue of land on which stands the city, as well as all the eastern

portion of the island, and amply repays the trouble of ascent. On the road

thither, by which the communication with the mainland of China is mainly

carried on, we came upon the corpse of a coolie, which had apparently lain

for several days in the very middle of the road. A part of the head and

the right hand had been already stripped of the flesh by the

carrion-crows, and enormous swarms of insects had fastened on the upper

portions of the naked horribly swollen dead body. The miserable being had

obviously fallen a victim to want and destitution. His strength seemed to

have failed him while he was earning his miserable subsistence, as two

empty broken panniers were lying close beside him. Crowds of people were

passing daily, men, women, children, even Portuguese taking their

customary promenade on foot or on horseback, without any person giving

himself the least trouble to remove the shocking spectacle. Even the

representations of the foreign consuls seem to have but little influence

on the Portuguese authorities in these matters, and it appears that it is

by no means an infrequent occurrence to see dead bodies lying about. A

hardly less sickening spectacle was presented on the slope of the hill,

where were erected a couple of dozen of small, wretched, filthy huts of

palm-straw, which served for the reception of a number of sick and lepers,

who, shunned and abandoned by all the world, were sinking in their misery

into the grave. Leprosy is regarded by the Chinese as a punishment for

secret sins, and those visited with it are accordingly deprived of all

assistance or attention. Very probably this coolie, whose body we thus saw

lying on the road, was one of those unfortunates who were here digging, as

it were, their own graves.

The isthmus which unites the Portuguese settlement on the peninsula with

the mainland, is barely a quarter of a mile in length by 500 feet in

breadth. Formerly there was a wall built right across the centre of this

tongue of land, which marked the limit of the colony. Here Chinese

sentinels used to march to and fro to protect the Flowery Kingdom. This,

however, did not prevent the "_Macaoistas_," as the inhabitants of Macao

are accustomed to call themselves, from making frequent excursions and

pic-nic parties to the mainland and the adjacent Chinese villages. On 22nd

August, 1848, however, when the then governor of Macao, Dom Joao Maria

Ferreira do Amaral, while riding along the narrow part of the isthmus, was

set upon by a couple of armed Chinese, torn from his horse, and beheaded,

his skull and hand being carried off by the murderers, the Portuguese

pulled down the wall and destroyed the adjoining Chinese fort, so that not

a vestige of either now remains. The government of Macao insisted on the

murderers being delivered up, as also on the restitution of the head and

hand of the victim, but after the lapse of a year the authorities received

an official notification that the murderers had been discovered, and on

confession of the crime had been executed at Shunteh. The head and hand of

the unhappy Amaral were delivered to the Portuguese officials by two

Chinese commissioners, and solemnly interred with the other remains. In

the course of the correspondence with reference to this matter[125]

between the Chinese and Portuguese authorities, it appeared that, owing to

certain stringent regulations he had laid down, Governor Amaral had long

been marked out for destruction by the Chinese population of Macao. The

chief complaint against him was that he had profaned the graves of their

ancestors in the suburbs of Macao, and had constructed new streets right

through them. Every attack of illness, every unlucky speculation, every

unexpected mischance, which happened to any of the Chinese residents in

Macao, was ascribed to the vengeance of those spirits, whose repose had

been so wantonly violated for such an insignificant purpose. The Chinese

have no regular cemeteries for their dead. They inter them anywhere about

the township, simply marking the spot with a stone or an inscription. At

the new-year's festival these graves are adorned in the most gaudy manner,

none, not even of the poorest, being neglected in this respect. This pious

feeling for the dead is in singular and rude contrast with the

indifference with which the Chinese regard the misfortunes of their

neighbours, and the cruelty with which mothers expose their new-born

children, or even leave them to die.

The trade between Macao and the mainland is very active: in the quarter of

an hour that we were upon the isthmus there passed at least 60 men loaded

with goods or provisions, moving to and fro to the settlement. Among these

there were also sedan-chairmen, conveying back to the neighbouring

villages such of the better class of Chinese as had been doing business in

the city. The effect of warlike rumours from Canton and the Pei-ho had

meanwhile become apparent among the European population of Macao. The

insecurity of life and property increased daily. No one could venture to

go a mile or two beyond the city. Even a beautiful pic-nic house, erected

by the foreigners on "Green Island," close by the town, whither during

peaceful times frequent excursions were made by European residents with

their families, had been for months empty and gutted.

The Praya Grande, or rather the shady promenade, at its eastern extremity

serves as a rendezvous for the gay world, and on Sundays, when a band of

music plays here, one can scarcely pass through the crowd.

The Portuguese, who even in their native country are not a handsome race,

lose still more in their physical qualities by the unscrupulous manner in

which they cross with the native races. This circumstance makes the

contrast still more apparent of simple, graceful, pale ladies of the

Anglo-Saxon race, who now and then appear between the ugly dark natives.

In the evening, towards sunset, these lovely creatures make their

appearance in their sedan or other chairs in the Campo San Francisco,

there to enjoy the cool evening sea-breezes. A great number of sedan

porters halt here with their precious burdens, and elegantly-attired

cavaliers saunter about, striving by amiable phrases and flattering

remarks to elicit a smile. While these vehicles form the commonest mode of

conveyance, we also saw there but few saddle-horses, and only one single

carriage, the property of a rich brownish native, baronized for the amount

of 40,000 dollars, and who thought by this means to display his taste,

his luxury, and his nobility!

We had heard so much of certain wonderful singing stones, on a large

island opposite the inner part of the harbour, that several of our party

made an excursion thither. Neither natives nor indeed Europeans could give

us any explanation of this singular phenomenon, but all hold that the

stones must contain metal in some certain proportion, while electricity

and magnetism would do the rest. The naturalists were accompanied to this

mysterious spot by M. Von Carlowitz, Dr. Kane, and a Chinese physician,

Dr. Wong-fun. The estimable and highly-educated Wong-fun had graduated as

Doctor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, and had afterwards

enlarged his experience by practising some time in the United States,

since which he had practised the healing art with great success upon his

own countrymen. A European in intelligence and education, he was still a

Chinese in external appearance, and wore, as formerly, a long tail.

Probably Wong-fun adhered to this ancient custom in order the more readily

to indoctrinate his fellow-countrymen with European ideas.

Some small Tanka-boats, in which, as already mentioned, only two persons

can be accommodated at once, and which are exclusively managed by women,

conveyed our party over the bosom of the inner harbour to the opposite

shore. We then proceeded through a beautiful valley, covered with rice

fields, and traversed in its entire extent by a mountain torrent, which

is dammed off, and drives a number of Chinese mills with the small

water-courses. In the background of this valley lies the mysterious spot.

The marvel itself presently became visible in a large expanse of syenite

rock, greatly resembling that in the Oderwald of Hesse. Some of these have

been tilted on the others, and the hard syenite resounds when struck with

a hammer, just as a block of marble or basalt vibrates when struck, with a

bell-like sound. These musical blocks therefore are but little

interesting, unless that the Chinese make use of them to sculpture the

figures of lions and tigers to adorn the entrances of their temples.

After a stay of two days in Macao, the naturalists returned to Hong-kong,

where they had to devote the little time that would elapse ere the frigate

sailed to sorting and packing the collections, and arranging for their

transmission: for the manipulation of packing is, as Humboldt well

remarked, as important as actual science in such undertakings. That

naturalist confers but a small boon on science, whose only care is to

collect, but who takes no pains to preserve, the fruits of his labour, by

an exact indication of the place where found, and such special particulars

as may prevent mistakes, and by carefully guarding against damage to the

objects about to be sent, while on their way.

The kind reception and hospitality of our new friends in Hong-kong

remained undiminished to the very last moment of our stay. We were fairly

overwhelmed with attentions of all sorts, each apparently striving to

make us forget the unfavourable circumstances under which we visited the

Empire of China.

The steamer _Hong-kong_, early on the morning of 18th July, towed us out

through the narrow Eastern Straits, the Ly-e-num Pass, and the

Ta-thong-wun Channel, into the open sea. As we passed alongside the

English frigate _Nankin_, carrying the broad pendant of the amiable and

excellent Commodore Stewart, our band played "God save the Queen," while

the English ensign was dipped, by way of parting salute. A little further

on the Chinese Comprador, who had supplied the _Novara_ with provisions

daily during her stay, had stationed himself in his boat to give us a

parting farewell with a roar of gong-gong, while innumerable rockets

whizzed and exploded in the air.

We found a tolerably high sea outside, but a fine fresh S.W. breeze, under

which we rapidly increased our distance from the shore. In like manner as

when we entered, we had now in getting out to thread our way among

thousands of fishing-boats sailing about in couples, which cruise about to

a distance of even 50 and 60 miles to sea. The steamer which towed us

through the narrow Eastern Channel, and had us just four hours and twenty

minutes in tow, charged the amount of 300 dollars (L63), so that each

minute of towing cost rather over one dollar. After making a tack towards

Lemma Island, in order to avoid the dangerous Nine-pin rock, the wind

sprung up from E.S.E., so that we were enabled to lie our proper course,

and by sundown had cleared _Piedra bianca_.

With fine weather and a fresh S.W. monsoon our voyage was so speedy, that

by 2nd July we were in the latitude of Formosa, but without being able to

distinguish the high land, either on the Chinese coast or on that island,

and by 23rd July we were off the Saddle Islands, at the mouth of the

Yang-tse-Kiang.

Just as we reached this, the door, as it were, through which we had to

enter, the weather chose to change with the utmost suddenness. Calms and

contrary winds, coupled with the powerful current of the mighty river,

sweeping through the islands, prevented our further advance, and on the

24th we had to cast anchor near the easternmost Saddle Island. Close to us

on every side were numbers of other ships equally unfortunate with

ourselves, while the spectacle of the steamers, pursuing their course

without feeling any obstruction, filled us with envy. We had taken a

Chinese pilot on board, and by 25th July were in sight of Gutzlaff, a

small islet of rock 210 feet high, the best land-mark of the "Son of

Ocean," and just before sunset anchored off the outer bar. We now had fair

breezes, and without further obstacles passed over the bar in from 30 to

33 feet water, which in bad weather, however, is exceedingly dangerous. We

were still out of sight of land; even the islands we had already passed

sank below the horizon, and still there was nothing visible but an

unbroken expanse of yellowish-red water, which reflected with the utmost

brilliancy the rays of the sun. A light-ship moored to a sand-bank, and a

wreck on another sand-bank, are, after leaving Gutzlaff Island, the sole

land-marks by which the pilot can hope to keep the channel, which is only

from one to two miles wide in this vast shoreless river estuary. Indeed

the entrance of the Yang-tse-Kiang is regarded as one of the most

difficult feats for a large ship. With favourable wind and weather, the

_Novara_ cleared without accident the 47 miles between the bar and the

place where the Wusung falls into the Yang-tse-Kiang, and on the evening

of the 26th July dropped anchor in front of Wusung. The navigation

presented little that was interesting, yet each man involuntarily felt a

thrill as he reflected that he was sailing in the current of the longest

river in China, whose source lies thousands of miles inland at Khukkunor,

among the Mangolians.

As we neared Wusung, signs of life began to be visible on the river

itself; tall three-masters were passing, bound in or out, and scores of

Chinese junks with their peculiar rig and build. Far above the light-ship

the shore first became visible, low, flat, scarcely above the level of the

river, but green and fertile. A Pagoda of the well-known form of the

Porcelain tower of Nankin and a few lofty trees enable the pilot to take

the bearings of the channel at this point. Only the land on the left is

actual mainland, the shore on the right being the coast of the island of

Tsuning, lying at the mouth of the river. At the mouth of the Wusung, this

southern arm of the Yang-tse-Kiang, as formed by the above-named island,

is about six and a half nautical miles in width, and a little higher up is

further narrowed by Bush Island to a width of four miles.

The first inhabited spot at the junction of the Wusung and Yang-tse-Kiang

is the wretched filthy village of Wusung, which owes its importance solely

and exclusively to the opium boats, which the merchants of Hong-kong and

Shanghai used to station here in the stream, in order more readily to sell

and deliver to the Chinese that forbidden article. Thus the natives took

on themselves the responsibility of opium smuggling, while the foreign

merchants became thereby involved in a conflict with the Chinese

Government. The opium sold per month from the ships stationed at Wusung

amounts to from 2500 to 2800 chests, in value about 500 _taels_ (L150) per

chest (L375,000 to L420,000).

The mouth of the Wusung is the entrance to Shanghai, which lies about 12

miles up the Wusung or Shanghai river, but in consequence of a mud-bank is

only accessible to large ships at spring-tide. Nankin lies up the

Yang-tse-Kiang 180 miles from Shanghai, the channel being so deep that

even a frigate may sail close up under its walls. Six hundred miles

distant from the embouchure of the Wusung lie the three immense cities of

Wu-chang, Hang-iang, and Shan-Keu, containing 8,000,000 inhabitants, the

central point of the internal commerce of China; and about 400 miles

further up are the first rapids of the Yang-tse-Kiang, which completely

prevent all further navigation. Up to this point the mighty river, like

the Mississippi, the Rhine, or the Danube, may be navigated by river

steamers, without the slightest danger or difficulty. What an enormous

trade, what a tremendous development, will ere long be witnessed here, so

soon as, in accordance with the stipulations of the Tien-Tsin and Pekin

treaties, English ships, freighted with goods and necessaries of all

sorts, shall steam up this most splendid of rivers and its tributaries,

and the inhabitants of the far interior shall become acquainted with the

products of European industry, and in exchange shall export to Europe

innumerable articles of new and valuable trade. For it is the greatest

service of the merchant that he not alone opens new channels of commerce,

and by increased exportation of the fabrics of his native land tends to

build up his power, but that he civilizes foreign nations, and enriches

science and industry with innumerable fresh acquisitions.

The larger ships usually lie at anchor at the little Chinese village of

Wusung on the river of that name, just where it falls into the

Yang-tse-Kiang, and here accordingly, owing to the hostilities, we found

upwards of twenty ships of war of various nationalities at anchor. Among

others the powerful American steam-ship _Minnesota_, and the French

frigates _Audacieuse_ and _Nemesis_, an imposing spectacle in these

distant regions, and to which the half-ruined Chinese fort on the tongue

of land between the Wusung and the Yang-tse-Kiang, with its couple of

wretched cannon, presented a tragi-comic contrast. Numbers of Chinese

boats, from the smallest cloth-awning _sampan_ propelled by one man with a

paddle to the large junk with fifteen masts, and sentences painted along

the bends, were cruising in every direction. Ere long a Comprador found

his way on board, who according to custom undertook to provide the frigate

with everything she required.

Commodore Wuellerstorff purposed proceeding with the frigate to Shanghai;

but as it would be necessary to wait for a fair wind, or else to engage

another steam-tug, implying a delay of several days, the naturalists were

permitted to avail themselves of the opportunity offered by the

Comprador's boat to proceed at once to Shanghai, which voyage we were two

hours and a half in performing.

While the number of European merchantmen that we passed, some lying at

anchor in front of Wusung, others sailing up or down stream, was quite

surprising, yet the sight of the river at Shanghai far surpassed all

expectation. Here, close packed together in a channel rather narrower than

elsewhere, was drawn up tier after tier of shipping, a quite impervious

forest of masts, athwart which at intervals the large warehouses of the

European merchants indistinctly loomed, lining the banks on either side.

The newspaper lists at the time of our visit gave the names of no less

than 102 large American and European merchantmen in the Shanghai River, in

addition to which there were upwards of a thousand native junks lying in

the stream with their short crooked masts, the most convincing evidence of

the commercial importance which this place has attained within the short

space of time that has elapsed since by the Treaty of Nankin in 1842

foreign factories were authorized to be erected here.

On the shore the flags of the Consulates of the more important sea-faring

nations fluttered gaily in the breeze from lofty flag-staffs on the top of

the imposing buildings. Hardly had we landed ere we were surrounded by an

ungainly crowd of Chinese coolies, who with their bamboo staves began such

a serious battle among themselves for the right of carrying our baggage,

that it was only by the interposition of the police that several were not

left on the spot severely wounded.

The intelligence that there was in Shanghai not a single house of

entertainment, such as we understand by the name of "hotel" in Europe, was

the less agreeable, as the dwellings of the resident Europeans, where,

under ordinary circumstances, strangers are received with the utmost

hospitality, happened at present to be occupied by the officers of the

numerous war-ships, as well as by members of the two embassies. The only

place where we could be received was what is known as the Union Hotel, a

den in the fullest sense of the word, in which we passed one of the most

uncomfortable nights we ever remember. Myriads of mosquitoes, the true

blood-thirsty "gallinipper," loud-shouting drunken seamen, dogs howling,

intolerable heat, which not even a tremendous thunder-storm that broke

forth during the night could assuage,--such were some of the amenities of

our reception, which, despite our exhaustion, utterly precluded sleep.

With unspeakable longing we watched for the dawn of the morning, and,

thanks to the hospitality of our new friends, we were in the course of the

day fortunate enough to be released from this hideous abode.

The _Novara_ did not remain long behind us. A few days later, on 29th

July, she sailed gallantly up in an hour and a half, from Wusung, on the

top of a spring-tide, and with favourable breezes, and on reaching

Shanghai was welcomed with pride and delight by the German residents

here--the first ship-of-war of a first-class German power that had ever

been seen in the river Wusung.

FOOTNOTES:

[112] The analysis of these hieroglyphics, by which abstract ideas are

sought to be expressed, is extremely interesting. Thus a heart with the

badge of slavery over it represents "anger;" a hand, and the sign for the

middle, signifies an "historian," because it is his duty not to lean to

either side; by the sign of uprightness and motion is represented

"government," because it must always observe probity in the transaction of

affairs; to indicate the idea of a "friend" two pearls are represented

side by side, because friendship is as rare as two pearls, exactly

resembling each other! The well-known French missionary Huc, in his

valuable work on the Chinese Empire, gives a variety of most interesting

particulars respecting the Chinese language.

[113] A very abstruse treatise upon the preparation of the Chinese ink is

contained in the important labours of the Russian Embassy at Pekin,

relating to China, published in German by Dr. Abel and Mecklenburg,

Berlin, F. Heinike, 1858, vol. ii. p. 481. The information is borrowed

from a small treatise which was written in 1398 by a certain

Scheu-zsi-Sun, who had been for thirty years engaged in the fabrication of

the India ink. The author therein mentions how, after he had tried every

known method, and every substance usually employed, without attaining any

result, he at last put them all on one side, mingling only pin-soot with

glue together, and diluting this mixture with but hot water, again kneaded

it thoroughly, and thus succeeded in getting an ink "black and lustrous as

a child's eyes." According to another method, India ink is prepared,

besides pin-soot and lime, of a sort of tincture, consisting of the

following various pigments,--pomegranate-rind, sandal-wood, sulphate of

iron and copper, gamboge, cinnobar, dragon's-blood, gold-leaf, musk, and

glair. This tint is said to be remarkable for preventing the glue from

getting spoiled by age, or the colour changing, and may be thus kept for

any length of time. 1/2 lb. of glue and 1/4 lb. of this colouring matter

are the proportions for one pound of pin-soot. However, only a very small

portion of the different materials used seems to possess the power

ascribed to them, and many are used out of mere prejudice, and not at all

to the advantage of the ink prepared.

[114] This custom is of remote antiquity in Oriental countries, as witness

the circumstances attending the birth of Ishmael, and also of several of

the children of Israel.

[115] Many European residents at Hong-kong and Shanghai have Chinese

mistresses _bought_ in this way, who are bound to live with them only so

long as their masters choose.

[116] The title of this work is:--"_Notices sur le vert de Chine et de la

teinture en vert chez les Chinois, par Natalis Rondot, imprime aux frais

de la Chambre de Commerce de Lyon, a Paris, 1858._"

[117] The Chinese of Shanghai called the plant _Li-lu-schu_, and the

substance obtained from it _Gah-schik_.

[118] We give the following translation of one of these proclamations:

"Listen, O listen, ye detestable barbarians! We, patriots and honourable

subjects of the reigning dynasty, wish to hold up a mirror to you, that ye

may see what ye are doing, and what like you are! Only in speech, and in

no other respect, do ye differ from wild beasts! We have understanding, we

observe laws and commandments; but you are blind and dumb, and will not

receive advice. You must--there is nothing else for it--you _must_ be cut

off to the very last man!... Since you first came to the MIDDLE KINGDOM,

you have done all that you can to destroy us; you have shot at us from

your ships; you have poisoned us with opium, you have erected devils'

houses (churches) within the walls of the city! Nay more, in order to hold

your horse-races, you have profaned graves, and not suffered the dead to

rest in peace! Insatiable as sharks, greedy as a set of silk-worms upon a

mulberry tree, the more you get the more you want. Even our most trifling

profit you have taken to yourselves. Now, however, the cup is full, Heaven

in its wrath has decreed your destruction,--our people shall cut you off

with divine weapons of fire. Hearken now, O people, to the four following

rules for the extermination of the barbarians: All barbarians must be

beheaded, that our reproach may be removed, and our Middle Kingdom be no

longer insulted. So runs the order of the leader!--To none other shall any

disaster happen, no one shall be molested. Whoever strikes back, shall

himself be struck.... The day of vengeance shall be secretly appointed. We

shall circumvent the barbarians with treachery, we shall fall on them

unawares, and destroy them. Natives who are in the habit of attending

their schools, or of serving them, or of trading with them, must leave

them and return to their old pursuits. If they remain, then the subjects

of the exceedingly beneficent dynasty as well as the barbarians, the

diamonds and the hailstones, shall be destroyed together.... After the

destruction of these hideous hordes, their possessions shall be

distributed among those who have distinguished themselves on the day of

battle. So runs the order of the leader!"

[119] Yeh, as is well known, has since died in imprisonment at Calcutta.

[120] In front, Canto X. v. 25; XII. vv. 79-80. On the back, Canto VI. vv.

95, 131, and Canto VIII. v. 42.

[121] Even these four dollars sustain a reduction during the first year,

since the emigrant must for the first year pay one dollar a month to

defray necessaries, partly provisions, partly clothes, supplied to him to

the amount of $12, before his departure.

[122] J. F. Crawford, Esq., British Consul-General at the Havanna, in an

official document respecting the number of Chinese imported in the course

of one year into Havanna proves that in the case of the Peruvian ship

_Cora_, 117 out of 292 coolies perished owing to bad water. In one single

year (1857) 63 ships, of 43,933 tons, cleared from Chinese ports for the

Havanna, with 23,928 Chinese labourers, of whom 3842, or above 16 per

cent., died during the voyage.

[123] We give in the Appendix the original text of one of these contracts,

which the Chinese emigrants have to sign preparatory to their going on

ship-board, together with a translation, and shall leave the reader to

judge whether those are very far wrong who denounce the system as but

another form of slave-trade.

[124] The cruelty and injustice with which the poor Chinese emigrants are

treated, have repeatedly had the most appalling consequences. The "_China

Overland Trade Report_," published at Hong-kong, under date 28th February,

1861, gives the particulars of one such tragedy, which had shortly before

occurred on board of one of these emigrant ships. On 22nd February, the

American ship _Leonidas_ sailed from Canton for the Havanna with a number

of coolies on board. Near what is known as the Macao passage, a tremendous

noise was suddenly heard in the between-decks. Two of the mates, on

descending to inquire into the cause of the disturbance, were attacked

with knives and severely wounded. Meanwhile some of the coolies had

overpowered the captain and his wife, and had inflicted on them several

dangerous wounds. However, the crew ultimately succeeded in driving all

the coolies into the hold, though not till after the 29th had been passed

in constant fighting. In their desperation they sought to set fire to the

ship, by preparing a regular pyre of combustibles, to which they set fire.

Ere long, however, the smoke became so intolerable in the hold, that they

themselves speedily made every effort to extinguish the fire. The ship

returned to Canton. Out of 250 coolies, 94 were dead, of whom some were

shot, some were drowned, some suffocated. Singular to say the French

man-of-war _Durance_ refused to render any assistance. Other accounts

speak in the highest terms of the efforts of a German missionary to put a

stop to this practice of kidnapping, dignified by the name of emigration,

it having not unfrequently happened that young Chinese were openly carried

off to Macao, and there as openly sold. This is the more readily credible,

inasmuch as the Chinese are most desperate gamblers, and after they have

lost all they possess, think nothing of staking their personal liberty.

Thus, a short time since, the son of respectable parents in Sunon was sold

by the Emigration Society at Macao for 40 dols., and it was only by the

most unremitting efforts of the German missionary already mentioned that

the wretched lad was re-purchased for L60, and thus escaped a terrible

destiny. Two other Chinese were shipped at the same time, the bargain in

their case being recognized.

[125] See "Chinese Repository," vol. x., of October, 1849.

[Illustration: Flower Boat on the Wusung at Shanghai.]

XV.

Shanghai.

Duration of Stay from 25th July to 11th August, 1858.

A stroll through the old Chinese quarter.--Book-stalls.--Public

Baths.--Chinese Pawnbrokers.--Foundling hospital.--The Hall of

Universal Benevolence.--Sacrificial Hall of Medical Faculty.--

City prison.--Temple of the Goddess of the Sea.--Chinese

taverns.--Tea-garden.--Temple of Buddha.--Temple of Confucius.--

Taouist convent.--Chinese nuns.--An apothecary's store, and what

is sold therein.--Public schools.--Christian places of worship.--

Native industry.--Cenotaphs to the memory of beneficent

females.--A Chinese patrician family.--The villas of the foreign

merchants.--Activity of the London Missionary Society.--Dr.

Hobson.--Chinese medical works.--Leprosy.--The American

Missionary Society.--Dr. Bridgman.--Main-tze tribe.--Mission

schools for Chinese boys and girls.--The North China branch of

the Royal Asiatic Society.--Meeting in honour of the Members of

the _Novara_ Expedition.--Mons. de Montigny.--Baron Gros.--

Interview with the Tau-Tai, or chief Chinese official of the

city.--The Jesuit mission at Sikkawei.--The Pagoda of Long-Sah.--

A Chinese dinner.--Serenade by the German singing-club.--The

Germans in China.--Influence of the Treaties of Tien-Tsin and

Pekin upon commerce.--Silk.--Tea.--The Chinese sugar-cane.--

Various species of Bamboos employed in the manufacture of

paper.--The varnish tree.--The tallow tree.--The wax-tree.--

Mosquito tobacco.--Articles of import.--Opium.--The Tai-ping

rebels.--Departure from Shanghai.--A typhoon in the China sea.--

Sight the island of Puynipet in the Caroline Archipelago.

Shanghai, or Shanghai-Hein (the city near the sea), is divided into the

Chinese city proper, enclosed within walls twenty-four feet in height,

and the foreign quarter, which has been laid out beyond the walls since

the year 1843, and is as much distinguished by elegance as by comfort. Old

Shanghai, only accessible by three of the six gates with which it is

furnished, contains 250,000 inhabitants in a superficial area of nine Li,

or about two and one-third English miles, and, including the population of

neighbouring towns, who are constantly flocking to and fro, about 400,000.

The streets are filthy and singularly narrow, so much so that occasionally

it is difficult for two men to pass each other, the small cross streets

vividly recalling Venice, or the "lanes" of London. It is with difficulty,

and only by a constant succession of cries and hearty buffets, that the

bearers of merchandise can force their way through these intricate

passages, and find their way to their destination. The houses, for the

most part one and two storeys in height, usually consist of shops on the

ground-floor, each with a flaming superscription in gigantic characters,

which, the better to arrest the curiosity of the passers-by, is generally

hung diagonally across the narrow street. The living throng, which

throughout the entire day surges to and fro here, is so immense and so

various that it leaves upon a stranger an impression even deeper than that

made by the crowds and bustle of Piccadilly or Regent Street, on a fine

day in the height of "the season." The grotesqueness and filth of almost

everything that meets the eye rather adds to the singularity of the

spectacle, and while the visitor on the one hand speedily finds ample

justification for extricating himself from the din and confusion, he

nevertheless encounters at every step some new object of attraction and

absorbing interest.

Entering the city through the east gate, on whose walls, by way of example

to the multitude, are suspended in sacks and wicker-work numerous skulls

of rebels and murderers, on whom justice has been done, we find ourselves

in China street, one of the principal streets of Shanghai, and in which

are most of the best class of native shops. It is however no wider or

cleaner than the other streets of the city, and might be termed a "lane"

with far more propriety than a street. We were conveyed within the lofty,

gloomy "enceinte" of the walls in the sedan-chair of the country, after

which, under the guidance of Mr. Muirhead, an English missionary, who in

the kindest manner had offered to be our _cicerone_, we proceeded to

stroll through the town.

Close to the east gate we entered a book-stall, in which were heaped up

immense piles of stitched books. A number of Chinese in white nankeen

jackets, their foreheads smooth shaved, and each with a "tail" behind

dependent to the heels, started forward to inquire the strangers' wants,

and minister to them. Our inquiries however were by no means merely

dictated by the desire to gratify a silly curiosity. A learned countryman,

Dr. Pfizmaier, one of the profoundest of Chinese scholars, had intrusted

us with a list of fourteen rare Chinese books, the purchase of which

seemed to us specially desirable, and we accordingly made every exertion,

with the assistance of our companion, himself well acquainted with

Chinese, to crown our search with success. With one exception we succeeded

in purchasing the entire catalogue, and therewith gladly brought to an end

our wearisome stay of upwards of an hour in the close steaming book-shop,

exposed the while to a more than tropical temperature.

Chinese authors are, it must be allowed, terribly prolix in the treatment

of their subjects, and instances are by no means uncommon in China of

works, especially those of an historical nature, extending to from forty

to fifty volumes! Thus, for example, the "Seventeen Historical classics"

consists of 337 parts:--"Mingschintschuen" (History of the most renowned

ministers and statesmen), of thirty volumes:--"Singpu" (Lives of

remarkable persons), of 122 parts:--the "Encyclopedia of Matuanlin," with

its additions, even reaches the immense number of six hundred

volumes!![126] Books are generally far from expensive in China; for a few

dollars, comparatively, one may, owing to the cheapness of labour and of

cost of production, purchase quite a large supply of ordinary literature.

Adjoining this book-shop is a public bath establishment, where for 16

copper cash[127] (rather less than 1_d._ sterling), one may get a vapour

bath, while six cash more are paid for keeping custody of the habiliments.

The bath is far from being elegant or comfortable, but when one reflects

on such extraordinary cheapness, it seems as though the very utmost had

been attained. It consists of a large apartment, filled with steam, which

is from time to time renewed, by dashing hot water upon stones, maintained

at a high temperature, while ranged in readiness all round are a number of

tubs of cold water for cooling the bather. In one of these establishments

about thirty persons may bathe at once, and as John Chinaman, despite his

filthy manners, is passably clean about the body, as testified by the

pains he is at with his head and hands, these places are as extensively

patronized as they are greatly needed.

Our next stoppage was at a pawnbroker's, an institution which, to all

appearance, has been far longer in vogue in China than in Europe, and is

made great use of by the wealthy as well as the poorer classes. In the

Celestial Kingdom, the same custom prevails as with us of pawning the

winter habiliments in summer, and summer apparel in winter; and this not

so much for the sake of the money borrowed upon them, as to have them kept

in safety and carefully preserved, especially in the case of costly furs.

In China the usual advance is of one half the value, upon a very low

computation of the article pledged, for which the monthly charge is ten

cash per 500, or twenty-four per cent. per annum. Whatever has not been

redeemed at the end of three years, or of which the interest has not been

paid, is put up to auction and knocked down to the highest bidder, the

proceeds going to the benefit of the establishment. The utmost per-centage

allowed by law is three per cent. a month; but it must not exceed two per

cent. in winter, in order that the poor may be enabled to redeem the

articles pledged. The broker gives a ticket for the articles pledged,

which have a definite value, and may be sold in the street. Thieves find

these establishments very handy for disposing of their plunder, as they

deface or destroy the pawn-ticket so as to prevent the rightful owner from

regaining possession of the stolen articles. When a pawnbroker sustains

any loss through theft, or the outbreak of fire on his premises, he must

make good to his customers the value of the destroyed articles that had

been left with him as pledges. If, however, the fire has broken out in the

house of a neighbour, he is only bound to pay one half of the loss he may

sustain. The establishment is managed by fifty individuals, whom the

concourse of people flocking in to pledge or redeem property keeps in

constant activity.

Considering the notorious and openly avowed indifference everywhere

manifested throughout China for the poor, the sick, and the unfortunate,

the number of charitable institutions to be found in all parts of China is

very surprising, all which, as has lately been proved, do not owe their

origin to the introduction of Christianity, but had been in a flourishing

condition for a long time previously. Thus in several of the streets of

Shanghai, we came upon hospitals for children and foundlings ([Chinese

character(s)]), of the latter of which the one we visited was founded by

voluntary contribution so far back as 1710. This humane institution has a

landed property of about 30 acres, by the produce of which, as well as

frequent public collections, it is supported. In 1783, this orphan

hospital was amalgamated with an asylum for old and decrepit persons, and

others incapacitated for labour, and one wealthy Chinese gentleman

provided 3000 taels[128] for this praiseworthy object, but somewhat later

this joint plan was abandoned, and the Orphan Asylum remains to this day

self-supporting, while the poor, the sick, and the aged are relieved every

month at the Custom-house out of funds specially set apart.

At the period of our visit we found thirty infants in the building, who

had been deposited by their mothers in a basket suspended in a recess at

the entrance. After the new-born child has been deposited, a signal is

given with a bamboo-stick, after which the receptacle is turned inwards

and the innocent without delay taken charge of. Each child has its own

wet-nurse or attendant.

The building is lofty, roomy, and passably clean, but the children, one

and all without exception, have a sickly appearance, and seem to suffer

much from eruptions and affections of the eye. There was not one child

above two years of age. It is worth recording that every one of these

children was of the female sex; their male offspring, even when

illegitimate, the mothers seem much less disposed to part from. It

frequently happens, moreover, owing to the low considerations in which the

female sex are held, that even legitimate children of that sex are

occasionally committed to the silent receptacle of the foundling's basket.

We inquired of one of the overseers what was the destiny of these unhappy

children when they grew up, but could get no satisfactory reply. We were

informed that they were occasionally adopted as children by those who had

no family. But more extended inquiries leave us rather inclined to believe

that these poor waifs of humanity constitute a not inconsiderable

contingent to that unhappy class of beings who, carefully brought up,

clothed, and fed by speculative foster-mothers, are at a suitable age sold

for concubines to the well-to-do Chinese.

One very remarkable charitable institution, for which there is no

parallel in Europe, is the Tung-jin-tang ([Chinese character(s)]) or Hall

of United Benevolence, founded by a number of philanthropists in 1804, for

the interment of the poor. This establishment, through its legacies,

donations, and voluntary contributions, speedily became so wealthy that it

has been enabled to take up, in addition to its original business, other

objects of a not less humane nature. It pensions poor widows of

respectable families with 700 cash (about L1 8_s._) per month; it presents

persons above 60 years of age, if sickly and unable to work, with 600 cash

(about L1 4_s._) a month, and provides, free of charge, wooden coffins, as

also digging implements, for those who are too poor to inter their dead

relatives. Another humane occupation of the society is the interment of

coffins containing dead bodies, which used to be exposed on the bare

ground in various parts of the city. Finally, it was the intention of the

founder of this charitable institution, so soon as the money should

permit, to erect schools for the poor, to provide warm clothing in winter

for the helpless, as also to buy up animals destined for the

slaughter-house, and set them at liberty again.

Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume II (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. · 第 13 / 16 章

[104] The size attained by the alligator or cayman in the Laguna de Bay