entrance to the village: it was an elementary school; we could hear the
nasal drone of the children repeating their lessons. The schoolmaster,
a crabbed Chinaman, scared by my presence, placed himself on the
threshold, and looked as if he would not allow me to enter. But at the
explanations made in good Chinese by Mr. Wade, the surly old fellow,
undergoing a sudden metamorphosis, bent his lean spine in two, and
ushered me, with many forced obeisances, into his wives' room. There,
before I had time to recollect myself, these ladies carried me off by
force of arms, and installed me upon a kang or couch, where I had
scarcely stretched my limbs before I was offered the inevitable tea. I
was gradually passing into a delightful dizziness, when a disquieting
thought suddenly restored all my energy: I was lying on a heap of rags
and tatters of all colours, and certainly the kang possessed other
inhabitants than myself. I immediately arose, in spite of the
protestations of my Chinese hostesses, and took a seat in the courtyard
under the galleries. When I was a little rested, I seated myself in my
litter, and about half-past six in the evening we arrived at the town of
Tchaing-ping-tchan."
On the following day our travellers turned aside to visit the famous
sepulchre of the Mings--a vast collection of monuments, which the
Chinese regard as one of the finest specimens of the art of the
seventeenth century--that is, the seventeenth century of _their_
chronology. And, first, there are gigantic monoliths crowned with twelve
stones placed perpendicularly, and surmounted by five roofs in varnished
and gilded tiles; next, a monumental triumphal arch in white marble,
with three immense gateways; through the central one may be seen a
double row of gigantic monsters in enamelled stone, painted in dazzling
colours; finally, you pass into an enclosure with a gigantic tortoise in
front of it, bearing on its back a marble obelisk covered with
inscriptions. At the time of Madame de Bourboulon's visit the entrance
was closed, and while the Ting-tchai went in search of the guardians,
she and her companions dismounted, seated themselves on the greensward,
in the shadow of some colossal larches, and enjoyed a pleasant repast,
the sepulchral stones serving as tables.
"'Oh,' she exclaims, 'ye old emperors of the ancient dynasties, if any
of your seers could but have told you that one day the barbarians of the
remote West, whose despised name had scarcely reached your ears, would
come to disturb the peace of your manes with the clinking of their
glasses and the report of their champagne corks!'... But at length the
keys are turned in the rusty locks, the guardian of the first enclosure
offers us tea, and we distribute some money among the attendants.... In
China, perhaps more even than in Europe, this is an inevitable formula:
the famous principle of _nothing for nothing_ must have been invented in
the Celestial Empire. Out of respect, or for some other reason, the
guardians left us free to go and come at will, dispensing with the
labour of following us. At first we traversed a spacious square court,
paved with white marble, planted with yews and cypresses, cut into
shapes as at Versailles, and peopled with an infinite number of
statues; then we climbed a superb marble staircase of thirty steps,
which led to another square court, planted in the same style, and shut
in on the right and left by a thick forest of huge cedars, which
conceals eight temples with circular cupolas, crowned and ornamented by
the grimacing gods of the Chinese Trinity, with their six arms and six
heads. Now another staircase, leading to a circular platform in white
marble, in the middle of which rises the grand mausoleum. It is of
marble; a great bronze door admits to the interior. We pass under a
vault, the niches of which enclose the bones of the Ming emperors; a
spiral staircase, with sculptured balustrades, very handsome in style,
conducts to a second platform, elevated some seventy feet above the
ground. The view from it is magnificent, overlooking a world of
mausoleums, pagodas, temples, and kiosks, which the great trees had
concealed from us.
"The mausoleum is continued into an immense cupola, and terminates in a
pointed pyramid, covered with plates and mythological bas-reliefs.
Finally, the pyramid is crowned by a great gilded ball."
The travellers here quitted their English horses, and mounted the
frightful Chinese steeds which carry on the postal service. After a
couple of wearisome days, occupied in clearing narrow defiles, torrents,
and plains of blinding dust, they reached the Lazarist Mission.
On entering the town, they were surrounded by an immense multitude, all
silent and polite, but not the less fatiguing--_genant_, as Madame de
Bourboulon puts it. "Their eager curiosity did not fail to become very
inconvenient, and we could well have dispensed with the 20,000 quidnuncs
who accompanied us everywhere. We halted at last before the great
gateway above which figures, though only for a few days, the cross, that
noble symbol of the Latin civilization. It is the standard of humanity,
of generous ideas and universal emancipation, placed throughout the
extreme East under the protection of France. The English occupy
themselves wholly with commerce: for them, faith and the sublime
teachings of religion take but the second place."
Very few French travellers seem able to avoid an occasional outbreak of
splenetic patriotism. The greatness and the generosity of France are the
hobby-horse on which they ride with such a fanfare of trumpets as to
provoke the ridicule of the passer-by. Madame de Bourboulon, as a woman,
may be excused her little bit of sarcasm, though she must have known and
ought to have remembered what has been done and endured by English
missionaries in the name and for the sake of the cross of Christ.
The Lazarist priests gave our travellers a hearty welcome; and after a
good night's rest, the caravan quitted Suan-hou-pu, a large town,
remarkable for the number of Chinese Mussulmans who inhabit it. They
reached Kalgan on the 23rd of May, and were greeted by Madame de
Baluseck, who was to return to Europe in company with Madame de
Bourboulon. Thus, as Sir Frederick Bruce was still with them, the
representatives of the three greatest Powers in the world met together
in this remote town, which, previously, was almost unknown to Europeans.
* * * * *
Kalgan, the frontier town of Mongolia, is not so well built as the
imperial cities; it is a commercial centre, where bazaars abound, and
open stalls; the foot passengers touch the walls of the houses as they
file by, one after the other, and the roadway, narrow, squalid, and
muddy, is thronged with chariots, camels, mules, and horses. "I have
been much struck," writes Madame de Bourboulon, "with the extreme
variety of costumes and types resulting from the presence of numerous
foreign merchants. Here, as in all Chinese towns, the traders at every
door tout for custom. Here, porters trudge by loaded with bales of tea;
there, under an awning of felt, are encamped itinerant restaurateurs
with their cooking-stoves; yonder, the mendicant bonzes beat the
tam-tam, and second-hand dealers display their wares.
"Ragged Tartars, with their legs bare, drive onward herds of cattle,
without thought of passers-by; while Tibetans display their sumptuous
garb, their blue caps with red top-knots, and their loose-lowing hair.
Farther off, the camel-drivers of Turkistan, turbaned, with aquiline
nose and long black beard, lead along, with strange airs, their camels
loaded with salt; finally, the Mongolian Lamas, in red and yellow
garments, and shaven crowns, gallop past on their untrained steeds, in
striking contrast to the calm bearing of a Siberian merchant, who
stalks along in his thick fur-lined pelisse, great boots, and large felt
hat.
"Behold me now in the street of the clothes-merchants; there are more
second-hand dealers than tailors in China; one has no repugnance for
another's cast-off raiment, and frequently one does not deign even to
clean it. I enter a fashionable shop: the master is a natty little old
man, his nose armed with formidable spectacles which do but partly
conceal his dull, malignant eyes. Three young people in turn exhibit to
the passer-by his different wares, extolling their quality, and making
known their prices. This is the custom; and to me it seems more
ingenious and better adapted to attract purchasers, than the
artistically arranged shop-windows which one sees in Europe. I allowed
myself to be tempted, and purchased a blue silk pelisse, lined with
white wool; this wool, as soft and fine as silk, comes from the
celebrated race of the Ong-ti sheep. I paid for it double its value, but
the master of the establishment was so persuasive, so irresistible, that
I could not refuse, and I then left immediately, for he was quite
capable of making me buy up the whole of his shop. The Chinese are
certainly the cleverest traders in the world, and I predict that they
will prove formidable competitors to the dealers of London and Paris, if
it should ever occur to them to set up their establishments in Europe.
"After dinner, M. de Baluseck took leave of his wife, and set out on his
return to Pekin; Sir F. Bruce goes with us as far as Bourgaltai, the
first station in Mongolia. From our halting-place I can perceive the
ramifications of the Great Wall, stretching northward of the town
towards the crest of the mountains. Kaigan, which has a population of
200,000 souls, is the northernmost town of China proper."
On the 24th of May, the travellers, accompanied by Madame de Baluseck,
departed from Kaigan and crossed the Great Wall. This colossal defensive
work consists of double crenelated ramparts, locked together, at
intervals of about 100 yards, by towers and other fortifications. The
ramparts are built of brickwork and ash-tar cemented with lime; measure
twenty feet in height, and twenty-five to thirty feet in thickness; but
do not at all points preserve this solidity. In the province of Kansou,
there is but one line of rampart. The total length of this great
barrier, called Wan-ti-chang (or "myriad-mile wall") by the Chinese, is
1,250 miles. It was built about 220 B.C., as a protection against the
Tartar marauders, and extends from 3 deg. 30' E. to 15 deg. W. of Pekin,
surmounting the highest hills, descending into the deepest valleys, and
bridging the most formidable rivers.
Our travelers entered Bourgaltai in the evening, simultaneously with the
caravan of camels, which had started a fortnight before, and were lodged
in a squalid and filthy inn. Nothing, however, could disturb the
cheerful temperament of Madame de Bourboulon, who rose superior to every
inconvenience or vexation, and this _bonhommie_ is the chief charm of
her book. Thus, speaking of the first evening in this dirty Mongolian
inn, she says:--"There was nothing to be done but to be content with
some cold provisions, and our camping-out beds. It was the birthday of
Queen Victoria, and as our landlord was able to put his hand upon two
bottles of champagne, we drank, along with Sir Frederick Bruce and Mr.
Wade, her Majesty's health. Afterwards we played a rubber at whist (for
we had found some cards). Surely, never before was whist played in the
Mongolian deserts!"
* * * * *
Before accompanying our travellers into these deserts, it may be
convenient that we should note the _personnel_ of their following, and
the organization of their expedition. In addition to Monsieur and Madame
de Bourboulon, the French caravan consisted of six persons:--Captain
Bouvier, of the Engineers; a sergeant and a private of the same branch
of the service; an artillerist; a steward (_intendant_); and a young
Christian, a native of Pekin, whom M. de Bourboulon was taking with him
to France. Madame de Baluseck's suite consisted of a Russian physician;
a French waiting maid; a Lama interpreter, named Gomboi; and a Cossack
(as escort). A small carriage, well hung on two wheels, was provided for
the two ladies. The other travellers journeyed on horseback or in
Chinese carts. These small carts, with hoods of blue cloth, carry only
one passenger; they are not hung upon springs, but are solidly
constructed.
[Illustration: HONG KONG.]
At Zayau-Tologoi, the Chinese drivers were replaced by Mongolian
postillions, and the Chinese mandarins gave up the responsibility of
escort to Mongolian officials.
The Mongolian mode of harnessing is very strange: a long wooden
transversal bar is fastened to the end of the shafts, and on each side a
horseman glides under his saddle; then they set off at full gallop. When
they halt the horsemen disappear, the shafts fall abruptly to the
ground; and the travellers, if they have not a good strong hold, are
projected from the vehicle.
The officers of the escort go in advance to prepare tents or wigwams
formed of hurdles, upon which is stretched a great awning of felt; the
whole has very much the appearance of an enormous umbrella, with a hole
at the top, to let out the heated air, and at need the smoke.
As the travellers carried with them a large stock of provisions, and
fresh meat could generally be obtained from the nomad shepherds, their
table was well served; but owing to the absolute dearth of any other
kind of fuel, they were compelled to kindle their fires with _argols_,
or dried cow-dung.
In due time they entered upon the great desert of Gobi, where the grassy
plain is covered by a countless multitude of mole-hills, which render
locomotion very difficult. This apparently boundless desert,
notwithstanding its lack of trees and shrubs and flowers, and its
monotonous uniformity, is not without a certain charm, as many
travellers have acknowledged. Madame de Bourboulon, writing of it,
says:--
"I grew accustomed to the desert; it is only for a few days that I have
had experience of tent-life, and yet it seems to me as if I had always
lived so. The desert is like the ocean: the human eye plunges into the
infinite, and everything speaks of God. The Mongolian nomad loves his
horse as the sailor loves his ship. It is useless to ask him to be bound
by the sedentary habits of the Chinese, to build fixed habitations, and
cultivate the soil. This free child of Nature will let you treat him as
a rude barbarian, but in himself he despises civilized man, who creeps
and crawls like a worm about the small corner of land which he calls his
property. The immense plain belongs to him, and his herds, which follow
his erratic courses, supply him with food and clothing. What wants he
more, so long as the earth does not fail him?"
There is another light in which this vast desert may be looked at.
Unquestionably, its influence on the destinies of the human race has
been injurious; it has checked the progress of the Semitic civilization.
The primitive peoples of India and Tibet were civilized at an early
period of the world's history; but the immense wilderness put an
impassable barrier between them and the barbarous tribes of Northern
Asia. More than the Himalaya, more than the snow-capped peaks of
Sirinagur and Gorkha, these boundless wastes, alternately withered by a
tropical summer, and blighted by a rigorous winter, have prevented for
ages all intercommunication, all fusion between the inhabitants of
Northern and those of Southern Asia; and it is thus that India and
Tibet have remained the only regions of this part of the world which
have enjoyed the benefits of civilization, of the refinement of manners,
and of the genius of the arts.
The barbarians who, in the last agonies of the Roman Empire, invaded and
devastated Europe, issued from the steppes and table-lands of Mongolia.
As Humboldt says--"If intellectual culture has directed its course from
the East to the West, like the vivifying light of the sun, barbarism at
a later period followed the same route, when it threatened to plunge
Europe again into darkness. A tawny race of shepherds of Thon-Klueu--that
is to say, of Turkish origin, the Hioungum--inhabited, living under
sheepskin tents, the elevated table-land of Gobi. Long formidable to the
Chinese power, a portion of the Hioungum were driven south into Central
Asia. The impulse thus given, uninterruptedly propagated itself to the
primitive country of the Fins, on the banks of the Ural, whence irrupted
a torrent of Huns, Avars, Chasars, and divers mixtures of Asiatic races.
The armies of the Huns first appeared on the banks of the Volga, then in
Pannonia, finally on the borders of the Marne and the Po, ravaging the
beautiful plains where, from the time of Antwor, the genius of man had
accumulated monuments upon monuments. Thus blew from the Mongolian
desert a pestilential wind which, even as far as the Cisalpine plains,
blighted the delicate flower of art, the object of cares so constant and
so tender."[18]
The temperature is extremely variable in these steppes, so that Madame
de Bourboulon records having experienced in the morning a frost of one
degree below zero, and some hours afterwards a heat of thirty degrees
above zero (Centigrade). These changes are most numerous and most
violent in the spring.
The difficulty of travel is increased by the peculiar rapid trot of the
Mongol horses and the formidable unevenness of the ground. The jolting
is almost intolerable. However carefully the traveller's wares may have
been packed, they are infallibly damaged; and Madame de Bourboulon says
that they strewed the desert with the wreck of their wardrobe and their
linen. Her husband laughingly averred that the very money in the
iron-bound chests was broken by the violent friction, and his veracity,
at first impugned, was confirmed by the exhibition of a handful of
silver filings; a pile of piastres was found pared and ground down as if
by a file, and had the journey been much prolonged, "all would have been
reduced to dust."
* * * * *
As the travellers advanced, they observed the increasing scarcity of
vegetation; here and there might be seen a few tufts of saxifrage
lifting up amidst the stones their rose-tinted posies--a rank, thorny,
and creeping herbage--some attenuated heaths, and in the crevices and
hollows of the rocks, a little couch grass. They had taken leave of the
irises, white, purple, and yellow, and the scarlet anemones, which at
first had brightened the way, and filled the plains with their
delicious balmy odour.
Madame de Bourboulon affords us a glimpse, and an interesting one, of
the manners of the nomad tribes:--"Throughout the day a tropical heat
had prevailed, and in the evening, on arriving at Haliptchi, where they
were to pass the night, the postillions eagerly moved down upon the
vessels of water and camel's milk which the women and children had made
ready for them. A violent altercation ensued, because one of the Hagars
of the desert had allowed a stranger to drink before her husband had
been supplied. The latter emptied out the contents of the vessel and
threw some at the head of his immodest wife, amidst the shouts and
laughter of the shepherds." This scene reminded Madame de Bourboulon of
the Bible and the age of the patriarchs.
Quitting the desert of the Gobi, our travellers entered the country of
the Khalkhas, a region of great forests, pasturages, and crystal rivers;
but even this earthly paradise of bloom, verdure, and freshness was not
without its dangers. We take an extract, in illustration of them, from
Madame de Bourboulon's journal:--
"I rode on horseback this morning," she says, "enticed by the aspect of
the beautiful green prairies of Tairene. My horse bounded over their
surface, and giving him the reins I allowed myself to traverse the plain
in a furious gallop, lulled by the dull sound of his hoofs, which a
thick carpet of grasses deadened, paying no heed to anything around me,
and lost in a profound reverie. Suddenly I heard inarticulate cries
behind me, and as I turned to ascertain their cause, I felt myself
pulled by the sleeve of my vest; it was a Mongolian of the escort, who
had been sent in pursuit of me. He lowered first one hand and then
another, imitating with his fingers the gallop of a runaway horse; at
length, perceiving that I did not understand, he pointed fixedly to the
soil. My presence of mind returned; I had an intuition of the danger
which I had escaped, and I discovered that the animation of our horses
was not due to the charm of green pasture, but to fear, the fear of
being swallowed up alive. The ground disappeared under their feet, and
if they remained still they would sink into the treacherous bogs which
do not restore their victims. I tremble still when I think of the peril
I have escaped; my horse, better served by its instinct than I by my
intelligence, had dashed onwards, while I perceived nothing: a few paces
more and I was lost!
"White vapours, rising from the earth, gave our postillions a fantastic
appearance; one might have mistaken them for black shadows of gigantic
proportions, mounted upon transparent and microscopic horses. Madame de
Baluseck and I were amusing ourselves with this grotesque mirage, when
our attention was attracted by a still more curious phenomenon: the sun,
as it rose, dissipating the morning mists, revealed to us Captain
Bouvier, who, hitherto hidden in the obscurity, was galloping about a
hundred yards in advance of us; he had become trebled--that is, on each
side of him a double had taken its place, imitating faithfully his
movements and gestures. I do not remember ever before to have seen such
a phenomenon, and I leave it to those who are more learned than I am to
decide what law of optics disclosed it to our astonished gaze."
* * * * *
We must pass more rapidly than did our travellers through the land of
the Khalkhas, a race who nominally acknowledge the authority of the son
of Herica, the great Mandchoo, the descendant of Genghiz-khan, who
governs the empire of the Centre, but pay him neither tax nor tribute,
and are, in reality, governed and administered by the Guison-Tamba, one
of the divine incarnations of Buddha in the body of an eternal child who
comes from the holy court of Tibet.
At Guibanoff, on the frontiers of the two empires, Russia and China, our
travellers found provided for them, by the Governor-General of Eastern
Siberia, new means of transport. He had sent them also an escort, and
his own aide-de-camp, M. d'Ozeroff, who was to conduct them to Irkutsk.
The carriages supplied were tarantas, or large post-chaises, drawn by
six horses, and telagas, or four-wheeled waggons. They speedily made
their way to Kiakhta, where they met with a most hospitable reception,
and were splendidly feted. Dinner, concert, ball were given in their
honour; "nothing was wanting, not even the polka." The large number of
political exiles always residing here has introduced into the midst of
the Siberian deserts the urbanity of the best society; nearly all the
ladies speak French.
According to Madame de Bourboulon, Siberia is more civilized than old
Russia; so true is it that it is easier to overlay a new country with
civilization than to rejuvenate an old one.
* * * * *
On reaching the bank of Lake Baikal, our travellers were greatly
disappointed to find that the steamers which navigate the lake had
sustained severe injuries, and were undergoing repair. After some
hesitation, they decided upon embarking in the sailing-vessels, heavy,
lumbering, and broad-beamed boats, intended only for the conveyance of
merchandise, and terribly unclean. The tarantas were hauled up on their
decks, and after a night of peril, when a sudden hurricane put to the
test their solidity and staying qualities, they effected the transit of
the lake in safety. The "Holy Sea," as the natives call it, is the third
largest lake in Asia--about 400 miles in length, and varying in breadth
from nineteen miles to seventy. Though fed by numerous streams it has
only one outlet, the Angara, a tributary of the Yenisei. Lying deep
among the Baikal mountains, an offshoot of the Altai, it presents some
vividly coloured and very striking scenery. Its fisheries are valuable.
In the great chain of communication between Russia and China it holds an
important place, and of late years its navigation has been conducted by
steamboats. An interesting account of it will be found in Mr. T. W.
Atkinson's "Oriental and Western Siberia."
* * * * *