Returning northward, we find the same great colonizing power stationed
at the mouth of the Red Sea, in the British citadel of Aden. Again a
trifling journey, and we reach Egypt, via the Suez Canal, both virtually
controlled to-day by England. Then, like the three stars in Orion's belt,
across the Mediterranean lie Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar; in fact, we
find one mighty girdle of imposing strongholds all the way, bristling
with cannon, guarded by leviathans in armor, and garrisoned by thousands
of such soldiers as were drilling at Hong-Kong.
[Illustration: CHAIR-COOLIES AT HONG-KONG.]
One of the first desires of the visitor to Hong-Kong is to explore
the mountain which towers above the city of Victoria to a height of
nearly two thousand feet. To do this with the least exertion, each of
our party took a canvas-covered bamboo chair, supported by long poles,
which Chinese coolies carry on their shoulders. On level ground, two of
these bearers were enough, but on the mountain roads three or four men
were usually needed. To my surprise, I found the motion of these chairs
agreeable. The poles possess such elasticity that, leaning back, I was
rocked lightly up and down without the least unpleasant jar. In fact,
at times the rhythm of that oscillation gave me a sense of drowsiness
difficult to resist.
But, alas! we had not here for carriers the cleanly natives of Japan. It
may be, as some residents of Hong-Kong assert, that Chinamen are more
trustworthy and honest than the Japanese, but certainly in point of
personal attractiveness the contrast between these races is remarkable.
The bodies of the lower classes of Chinese reveal no evidence of that
care so characteristic of the natives of Japan. Their teeth are often
yellow tusks; their nails resemble eagle's claws; and their unbecoming
clothes seem glazed by perspiration. Nor is there usually anything in
their manner to redeem all this. Where the light-hearted Japs enjoy their
work, and laugh and talk, the Chinese coolies labor painfully, and rarely
smile, regarding you meantime with a supercilious air, as if despising
you for being what they call "a foreign devil."
[Illustration: THE MOUNTAIN ABOVE VICTORIA.]
Nevertheless, despite the repulsive appearance of our bearers, we
thoroughly enjoyed our excursion up the mountain. At every step our
admiration was increased for the magnificent roads which wind about the
cliffs in massive terraces, arched over by majestic trees, bordered
by parapets of stone, lighted with gas, and lined with broad, deep
aqueducts, through which at times the copious rainfall rushes like a
mountain stream. It will be seen that such a comparison is not an
exaggeration, when I add that not many years ago, thirty-two inches of
rain fell here in thirty hours. This mountain is the favorite abode of
wealthy foreigners, and hence these curving avenues present on either
side, almost to the summit, a series of attractive villas commanding
lovely views. On account of their situation, the gardens of these
hillside homes are necessarily small; but in the midst of them, about
five hundred feet above the town, a charming botanical park has been laid
out.
[Illustration: THE CABLE-ROAD TO VICTORIA PEAK.]
Forgetful of our coolies at the gate, we lingered in this garden
for an hour or two, delighted with its fine display of semitropical
foliage. It is marvelous what skillful gardeners have accomplished
here, in transforming what was fifty years ago a barren rock into an
open-air conservatory. Palms, banyans, india-rubber trees, mimosas
with their tufts of gold, camellias with their snowy blossoms--all
these are here, with roses, mignonette, and jessamine, surrounded with
innumerable ferns. Occasionally we encountered in this fragrant area a
Chinese gentleman, indulging leisurely his love of flowers; for this
delightful park is open to all without regard to race or creed, although
the population of the island is extremely cosmopolitan. Englishmen,
Americans, Germans, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Parsees,
Mohammedans, Jews, Hindus, and fully one hundred and fifty thousand
Chinamen, are residents of the city of Victoria alone.
[Illustration: THE BOTANICAL PARK, HONG-KONG.]
In this retired park one does not realize that Hong-Kong is such a
rendezvous for different nationalities; but frequently, while we were
walking here, the sharp report of a cannon forced a discordant echo from
the neighboring hills and told us that some foreign man-of-war had just
appeared within the bay; for here some ship or steamer is continually
arriving or departing, and many times a day there comes a deafening
interchange of salutes that sends a thrill through every window-pane upon
the mountain.
[Illustration: AN OPEN-AIR CONSERVATORY.]
One can well understand, therefore, that with so mixed a population and
in such close proximity to China, the officers sent out here by the
British government must be men of courage, the garrison of the island
strong, and its administration prompt and resolute. A single incident
revealed to me the crimes which would undoubtedly creep forth, like
vipers from a loathsome cave, were they not kept in check by vigorous
justice and incessant vigilance. In one of the residences on the height
above Victoria, I met one day at dinner the captain of a steamer anchored
in the bay. He asked me to come out some evening and pay a visit to his
ship. The following night, soon after dark, I walked down to the pier,
intending to embark on one of the many boats along the shore. I was about
to enter one, when a policeman rapidly approached. "Give me your name and
number," he said roughly to the Chinese boatman. Then turning to me, he
politely asked my name, address, and destination, and when I intended to
return, "I am obliged to do this," he explained, "for your protection.
There is a population of twenty thousand Chinese living in this harbor
upon boats alone, besides the usual criminals who drift to such a place.
Before we adopted this precaution, a foreigner would sometimes embark
on one of these craft and never be seen again. In such a case search
was useless. He had disappeared as quietly and thoroughly as a piece of
silver dropped into the bay."
[Illustration: A HONG-KONG STREET--IN THE CHINESE QUARTER.]
[Illustration: IN THE BUSINESS SECTION.]
[Illustration: VIEW FROM VICTORIA PEAK]
When I stood on the apex of Victoria Peak, I thought that I had never
seen a finer prospect. Nearly two thousand feet below us lay the renowned
metropolis of the East which bears the name of England's queen. From
this great elevation, its miles of granite blocks resembled a stupendous
landslide, which, sweeping downward from this rocky height, had forced
its cracked and creviced mass far out into the bay. Between this and the
mainland opposite, curved a portion of that ocean-girdle which surrounds
the island, and on its surface countless boats and steamers seemed, in
the long perspective, like ornaments of bead-work on a lady's belt.
[Illustration: THE RACE-TRACK, HONG-KONG.]
Around the summit of the mountain are several handsome villas and hotels,
whither the residents of Victoria come in summer to escape the heat; but,
as a rule, in riding over the island I saw outside of the city very few
houses, and little agriculture. The soil of Hong-Kong is not fertile;
but politically and commercially the island is immensely valuable, for
England has now made of it the great emporium of the Far East, and,
garrisoned by British troops, it guards completely the approaches to that
river, upon which, ninety-two miles inland from the ocean, lies the city
of Canton.
One of the pleasantest excursions in Hong-Kong may be made in
sedan-chairs, some six miles over the hills, to the great reservoir
which supplies the city with water. The aqueduct which comes from it is
solidly constructed, and on its summit is a granite path protected by
iron railings. This winds along the cliffs for miles, and is in many
places cut through solid rock. It is an illustration of the handsome,
yet substantial character of everything accomplished here. One feels
that such works are not only artistic, but enduring. Here are no wooden
trestles, no hastily constructed bridges and no half-made roads to be
destroyed by mountain-torrents, but everywhere the best of masonry,
cyclopean in massiveness and perfect in detail.
[Illustration: THE AQUEDUCT, HONG-KONG.]
On reaching the terminus of this granite pathway we saw before us the
principal reservoir of Hong-Kong. Though largely artificial, it looks
precisely like a natural lake hidden away among the mountains. Before it
was constructed the island's water-supply was lamentably insufficient,
and the notorious "Hong-Kong fever" gave the place an evil name. But now,
in spite of its large native population, Victoria has as low a death-rate
as most European cities. The foreign residents are very proud of these
magnificent water-works; yet, after ten days' sojourn here, when I took
leave of several gentlemen by whom I had been entertained in private
houses and at clubs, candor compelled me to confess that, so far as I had
been able to observe, the foreign population makes very little use of
this water for drinking purposes.
[Illustration: A MOUNTAIN ROAD, HONG-KONG.]
[Illustration: AN EASY DESCENT.]
On starting to descend the mountain, we found a shorter route than the
circuitous path by which we had come--an admirably managed cable-road.
In viewing this, the question naturally arises how the Chinese can look
on such conveniences as England has here introduced, and still remain
content to have in their enormous empire scarcely a decent road, and
only a few miles of railway, built to transport coal. Canals and rivers
are still the usual arteries of travel through the most of China. In the
northern provinces, where carts are used, the roads are often worn below
the surface of the adjacent land, and hence become, in the rainy season,
mere water-courses. Travelers are occasionally obliged to swim across
them; and cases have been known of people drowning in a Chinese roadway.
Moreover, the characteristic carts of China are of the most primitive
description, having no seats except the floor, and no springs save the
involuntary ones contributed by their luckless passengers. Yet, in many
districts, even such vehicles can find no path, and people travel about
in wheel-barrows propelled by coolies who are sometimes aided by a sail.
The Bishop of North China, for example, makes many of his parochial
visits in a wheelbarrow.
[Illustration: A CHINESE ROAD.]
[Illustration: A CHINESE VEHICLE.]
[Illustration: CHINESE GRAVES.]
There is now in China a small progressive party which favors building
railroads, as the Japanese have done, but the immense majority are
against it. Some years ago a foreign company built a railroad near
Shanghai, but the Chinese speedily bought it up at a great cost,
transported the rails and locomotives to the sea, and left them to rust
upon the beach. This opposition to railways is principally due to the
belief that the use of them would deprive millions of people of their
means of gaining a livelihood, and that they would, moreover, disturb
the graveyards of the country. This latter objection seems at first
incredible; but it must be remembered that Chinese cemeteries are strewn
broadcast over the land,
"Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa."
[Illustration: HONG-KONG.]
[Illustration: AN ELABORATE TOMB.]
[Illustration: THE FOREIGN CEMETERY, HONG-KONG.]
One sees them everywhere, usurping valuable tracts of territory needed
for the living. Outside the city of Canton, for example, there is
a graveyard thirty miles in length, in which are buried fully one
hundred generations. Yet the Chinese insist that not one grave shall be
disturbed, lest multitudes of avenging ghosts should be let loose upon
them for such sacrilege. In fact, the permanence and inviolability of
graves lie at the very foundation of Chinese life and customs, which is
ancestor-worship. From childhood to old age the principal duty of all
Chinamen is to propitiate the spirits of their ancestors, and to make
offerings to them regularly at their tombs. This custom cripples the
colossal empire of China as paralysis would a giant, and fear of doing
violence to their dead holds China's millions in an iron grasp.
[Illustration: A FELLOW PASSENGER.]
[Illustration: ON THE CANTON RIVER.]
The discussion of this theme, as we were descending the mountain,
suggested to us the idea of visiting the foreign cemetery in Hong-Kong.
In this, as in the public garden, charming results have been obtained
by care and irrigation. We were accompanied by a gentleman who had
resided on the island nearly thirty years. "In spite of the beauty of
this place," he said, "I dread to think that I shall probably be buried
here--unable to escape from China even after death. For notwithstanding
many pleasant friends, my life, like that of many here, has been at
best a dreary banishment from all that makes your Occidental life so
stimulating to the intellect and so rich in pleasures. The world at
home," he added, "sometimes blames us for faults, the cause of which
is often only an intense desire to counteract the loneliness of our
existence; and foreigners in the East deserve some sympathy, if only from
the fact that in these cemeteries, kept with so much care, the graves
of those we love increase so rapidly." After a few days at Hong-Kong we
embarked on one of the American steamers which ply between Victoria and
Canton. These boats are modest imitations of the Fall River steamers on
Long Island Sound. We found the one that we took clean and comfortable
and its American captain cordial and communicative. During the trip he
related to us many incidents of his life in China. This he could easily
do, for there were only two other foreign passengers on board, and hence,
so long as we remained upon the promenade deck, the spacious vessel
seemed to be our private yacht.
[Illustration: RIVER BOATS.]
On passing, however, to the deck below, we found a number of Chinamen,
likewise going to Canton. Most of them were smoking, lying on their
backs, their heads supported by a bale of cloth. At first we thought
these constituted all the passengers; but presently we learned, to our
astonishment, that farther down, packed in the hold like sardines in a
box, and barricaded from us by an iron grating, were more than a thousand
Chinese coolies. A sentry, heavily armed, stood by the padlocked grating
constantly; while in the wheel-house and saloon were stands of loaded
muskets ready for emergencies. The danger is that Chinese pirates will
come on board in the disguise of coolies, and at a favorable moment
take possession of the ship. One naturally thinks this an impossible
occurrence; but only a few years ago this actually took place on one of
these boats. A well-armed band of desperadoes swarmed up from the hold,
shot down the captain in cold blood, and also some of the passengers who
tried to interfere. Then, taking command of the ship, they forced the
engineer and crew to do their bidding, steered to a lonely point where
their confederates awaited them, unloaded the valuable cargo into their
boats, disabled the engine so that the survivors could not give the
alarm, and finally made their escape. Such are the indisputable facts.
Yet, sailing up this peaceful river, reclining in our easy chairs, and
soothed by the soft, balmy air, the tragedy seemed so incredible that we
were obliged to put our hands upon the guns, in order to realize that
precautions were still needed.
[Illustration: EXECUTION OF THE PIRATES.]
As an additional proof, the captain showed us a photograph of the sequel
to that act of piracy. For, as a matter of course, the British Government
demanded satisfaction for this outrage, and in compliance nineteen
criminals were beheaded. Whether they were the actual pirates, however,
has been doubted. China always has scores of men awaiting execution--a
dozen here, a dozen there. What matters it if those who merit death
are said to have committed one crime or another? England had no way
of identifying them. Accordingly she shut her eyes, accepted what the
Chinese said of them, and took it for granted that the decapitated men
were the real culprits. At all events, as an eye-witness told us, the
deed itself was quickly done. In each case there was only one swing of
the executioner's arm, and one flash of the two-edged sword; then, like
a row of flowers clipped from their stems, the heads of all the kneeling
criminals were lying in the sand, with staring eyes turned upward toward
the sky.
[Illustration: WITH STARING EYES TURNED UPWARD.]
[Illustration: AN OLD CHINESE FORT, CANTON RIVER.]
[Illustration: OPIUM-SMOKING.]
[Illustration: SINGING GIRLS.]
On leaving this repulsive picture in the captain's cabin, we found that
we were approaching the once important settlement of Whampoa. Its glory
is gone now, but formerly it played a prominent part in Eastern politics
and commerce; for previous to the Opium War of 1841 and the establishment
of the Treaty Ports, this was as far as foreign ships were permitted to
come, and Whampoa was then a kind of counter across which Cantonese and
Europeans traded. We now began to observe along the shore strange-looking
boats protected by a roof and filled with fruits and vegetables for
the Canton market. Moreover, on both sides of the river for many miles
we looked on countless little patches of rice, bananas, oranges, and
sugar-cane. At one point our attention was called to an island on which
are some old fortifications used by China fifty years ago in her attempt
to exclude opium from her territory. I suppose that no intelligent
student of the subject doubts that the real cause of the war of 1841 was
the attempt of England to force upon the Chinese a drug which no one
dares to sell in London, even now, unless it bears the label "poison." In
1840, the Commissioner of Canton thus addressed the Queen of England:
"How can your country seek to acquire wealth by selling us an article so
injurious to mankind? I have heard that you have a generous heart; you
must be willing, therefore, to obey the motto of Confucius, and refuse to
do to others what you would not have others do to you."
In an address to foreign traders, issued in 1840, the Chinese also said:
"Reflect that if you did not bring opium here, where could our people
obtain it? Shall, then, our people die, and your lives not be required?
You are destroying human life for the sake of gain. You should surrender
your opium out of regard for the natural feelings of mankind. If not, it
is right for us to drive every ship of your nation from our shores."
[Illustration: A CHINESE BRIDGE.]
Finding that these appeals were of no avail, the Chinese finally
compelled the British merchants in Canton to give up all the opium in
their possession. It amounted to twenty-one thousand chests, or about
three million pounds. This mass of poison the Chinese threw into the
river, chest after chest, much as Americans treated English tea in
Boston harbor. As it dissolved, it is said that a large number of fish
died. England retaliated by broadsides from her men-of-war, and in 1842,
after an unequal struggle, China was forced to pay her victorious enemy
twenty-one million dollars--six millions for the opium destroyed, and
fifteen millions as a war indemnity, besides giving to England as her
property forever, the island of Hong-Kong, and opening five new ports to
foreign trade.
[Illustration: THE CURSE OF CHINA.]
About a century ago opium was rarely used in China except as medicine.
To-day it enters through the openings made by English cannon, at the
rate of six thousand tons a year, and at an annual profit to the Indian
treasury of from thirty to forty million dollars. But this is not the
worst: the vice of opium-smoking has spread with such rapidity that in
one Chinese city alone, where thirty years ago only five opium dens
existed, there are now five thousand. In the minds of many Chinamen,
therefore, Christianity is principally associated with the gift of opium
and its attendant evils. China has now begun to cultivate the poppy for
herself, and in some provinces six-tenths of the land is given over to
producing opium, to the great detriment of agriculture. For the Chinese
argue that if they must have it anyway, they may as well profit by it
themselves, and let their own crop vie with that which England sends
from India. It should be said that earnest protests have often been made
by conscientious Englishmen against this conduct of their Government,
but all remonstrances have failed to change its policy. Hence, when our
British cousins sometimes humorously say that we Americans worship only
the almighty dollar, it may be well to ask if any deity under the sun is
more devoutly reverenced than the omnipotent pounds, shillings, and pence.
[Illustration: A VILLAGE SCENE.]
When we had steamed about five hours from Hong-Kong, we came in sight
of our first Chinese pagoda. It is a hollow tower of brick about three
hundred feet in height, and resembles, on an enormous scale, one of
those tapering sticks which jewelers use for sizing rings. At first, I
thought that the nine circular terraces which mark its different stories
were adorned with flags or tapestry, but closer scrutiny revealed the
melancholy fact that weeds and bushes are now growing here. Indeed, like
most of the sacred buildings that I saw in China, it looked both dirty
and dilapidated.
[Illustration: PAGODA, NEAR CANTON RIVER.]
Soon after leaving this neglected edifice, we found ourselves amid a
constantly increasing throng of Chinese boats, and I began to realize
that these were specimens of that "floating population" of Canton of
which we have all read, but of which nothing but a visit to it can give
an adequate idea.
Hardly was our steamer anchored in the stream before the city, when
hundreds of these boats closed in upon us on all sides, like cakes of
floating ice around a vessel in the Arctic sea. Wedging and pushing
frantically, the boatmen almost swamped themselves. They fought for
places near the ship like men and women in a panic. The din of voices
sounded like the barking of five hundred canines at a dog-show;
and Chinese gutturals flew through the air like bullets from a
_mitrailleuse_. It seemed impossible to disembark in such a mob.
But suddenly I felt a pressure on my arm. I turned and saw apparently
three laundrymen from the United States. A glance assured me they were
father and sons. "Good morning, sir," said one of them in excellent
English, "do you know Carter Harrison, of Chicago?"
[Illustration: NEARING CANTON.]
This question, coming in such a place and at such a time, rendered me
speechless with astonishment.
"He mentioned us in his book, 'A Race With the Sun,'" continued the
young Chinaman. "This is my father, the famous guide, Ah Cum. This is my
brother, and I am Ah Cum, Jr. The others are engaged for to-morrow, but I
can serve you. Will you take me?"
"So you are Ah Cum?" I rejoined; "I have heard much of you. Your
reference book must be a valuable autograph album of distinguished
travelers. Yes, we will take you; and, first of all, can you get us
safely into one of those boats? And if so, who will guarantee that we
shall not be murdered?"
"Ah Cum."