to the framing of falsehoods and misrepresentations with regard to the
views of the British embassy, but has continued to exert its influence
at the court of Pekin, in the same secret and dishonourable way,
whenever an opportunity occurred that seemed favourable for raising
unwarrantable suspicions in the minds of the Chinese against the English
nation. Towards the close of the last war, when it was found expedient
to take possession of some of the Portugueze colonies, and an expedition
for this purpose was actually sent out to secure the peninsula of Macao,
this missionary lost no time in suggesting to the Chinese court, that
the designs of the English in getting possession of Macao might be of
the same nature as those they had already practised in India; and that
if they were once suffered to get footing in the country, China might
experience the same fate as Hindostan. Fortunately for the concerns of
the British East India Company this officious interference and the
malevolent insinuations of _Bernardo Almeyda_ took a very different turn
to what he had expected. The intelligence of a hostile force so near the
coast of China coming first from an European missionary, implied a
neglect in the Viceroy of Canton, and an angry letter was addressed to
him from court, ordering him to give immediate and accurate information
on the subject. The Viceroy, nettled at the officious zeal of the
Portugueze, positively denied the fact of any hostile intention of the
English, "who, being a brave people, and terrible in arms, had
intimidated the Portugueze at Macao, though without reason, as their
ships of war, as usual, came only to protect their ships of commerce
against their enemies." When this dispatch of the Viceroy reached Pekin,
the Emperor was so exasperated to think that the Court had suffered
itself to be misled by an European missionary, that he ordered Almeyda
to appear before the master of the household, and on his knees to ask
forgiveness of a crime, which, he was told, deserved to be punished with
death; and he was dismissed with a caution never more to interfere in
the state affairs of China. The whole of this curious transaction is
published in the Pekin Gazette of last year; so that the English have
gained a considerable degree of reputation by it, so much, indeed, that
the Chinese at Canton (and a great deal depends upon their
representations) would have no objection to see the English in
possession of Macao; for they cordially hate, I believe it is not too
much to say they despise, the Portugueze, and they speak with horror of
the French. What a moment then is this for England to turn to its
advantage!
Independent, however, of the machinations of missionaries, such is the
pride and the haughty insolence of the Chinese government, that, in no
instance on record, but that of the British embassy, has it ever relaxed
from its long established customs, nor acquiesced in any demands of
foreign embassadors, whether the tone in which they were made was
supplicating or authoritative. The forms of the court they contend to be
as immutable as were the laws of the Medes and Persians. Every thing
must be conducted by prescriptive usage, and no deviation allowed from
the rules which for ages have been established by law, and registered by
the council of ordinances; much less the remission of any duty that
might derogate from the reverence and respect which are considered to be
due to the person of the Emperor.
It may be imagined, then, that an event so new as a refusal to submit to
the degrading ceremony required from an embassador, at his public
introduction, could not fail of making a very strong impression on the
minds of those about the person of his Imperial Majesty; who, as Mr. Van
Braam says, were (and without doubt they were) much better satisfied
with the complying temper of the Dutch, than with the inflexible
pertinacity of the English. Yet, they did not venture to lodge the
latter in a stable, nor think proper to persevere in demanding
unreasonable homage. Neither was any pique or ill-nature apparent in any
single instance, after the departure of the embassy from the capital,
but very much the contrary. The officers appointed to conduct it to
Canton testified the most earnest desire to please, by a ready attention
to every minute circumstance that might add to the comforts of the
travellers, or alleviate, if not entirely remove, any little
inconvenience. It was a flattering circumstance to the embassador to
observe their anxiety for the favourable opinion of a nation they had
now begun to think more highly of, and of whom, in measuring with
themselves, it was not difficult to perceive, they felt, though too
cautious to avow, the superiority.
The British embassy was a measure which it was absolutely necessary to
adopt, for reasons that are stated at full length in the first chapter
of Sir George Staunton's valuable work, and the foundation it has laid
for future advantages more than counterbalances the trifling expence it
occasioned to the East India Company, which did not exceed two per cent.
on the annual amount of their trade from England to Canton. Those who
had formed immoderate expectations must have little understood the laws
and customs of China, which admit not the system of mutual intercourse
between distant nations, by means of embassadors or resident ministers
at the respective courts. Their custom is to receive embassadors with
respect and hospitality; to consider them as visitors to the Emperor,
and to entertain them accordingly as his particular guests, from the
moment they enter the country till they return to the boundaries of his
empire. This being necessarily attended with an enormous expence[3], the
court of ceremonies has prescribed forty days for the residence of
foreign embassadors, either in the capital, or wherever the court may
happen to be; though on particular occasions, or by accident, the term
may sometimes be extended to double that time.
[3] The expence occasioned to the court of China by the British embassy,
will be stated in a subsequent chapter.
Thus by consulting the accounts of the different European embassies that
have been sent to China in the two last centuries, it will be found
that the residence of none of them was extended to thrice the term fixed
by the court of ceremonies, and two of them did not remain the period
allowed.
The first embassy sent by the Dutch arrived in Pekin the 17th July 1656,
and departed the 16th October following, having remained ninety-one
days.
The second Dutch embassy arrived in Pekin the 20th June 1667, and
departed the 5th August, having resided forty-six days.
The first Russian embassy arrived at the capital on the 5th November
1692, and left it on the 17th February 1693, having remained there one
hundred and six days.
The second Russian embassy arrived at Pekin on the 18th November 1720,
and did not leave it till the 2d March 1721, being one hundred and
fourteen days.
These two embassies were immediately connected with the commercial
concerns of the two nations, which were then transacted in the capital
of China, but now confined to the adjoining frontiers.
The Pope's embassy arrived in Pekin on the 15th December 1720, and
departed the 24th March 1721, being ninety-nine days.
The Portugueze embassy entered Pekin the 1st May 1753, and left it the
8th June following, being only thirty-nine days.
The British embassy arrived in Pekin the 21st August 1793, and departed
the 7th October, being forty-seven days.
The third Dutch embassy entered the capital the 10th January 1795, and
left it the 15th February, being thirty-six days.
On the whole, then, it may be concluded, that neither Monsieur Grammont,
nor they who conceived that an unconditional and servile compliance, on
the part of the British Embassador, would have been productive of more
favourable results, were right in their conjectures. On the contrary, it
may, perhaps, be rather laid down as a certain consequence, that a tone
of submission, and a tame and passive obedience to the degrading demands
of this haughty court, serve only to feed its pride, and add to the
absurd notions of its own vast importance.
CHAP. II.
Occurrences and Observations in the Navigation of the Yellow Sea, and
the Passage up the Pei-ho, or White River.
_Different Testimonies that have been given of the Chinese
Character.--Comparison of China with Europe in the sixteenth
Century.--Motives of the Missionaries in their Writings.--British
Embassy passes the Streights of Formosa.--Appearance of a_
Ta-fung._--Chu-san Islands.--Instance of Chinese Amplification.--Various
Chinese Vessels.--System of their Navigation--their Compass, probably of
Scythian Origin--foreign Voyages of.--Traces of Chinese in America--in
an Island of the Tartarian Sea--in the Persian Gulph--traded probably as
far as Madagascar.--Commerce of the Tyrians.--Reasons for conjecturing
that the Hottentots may have derived their Origin from China.--Portrait
of a Chinese compared with that of a Hottentot.--Malays of the same
descent as the Chinese.--Curious coincidences in the Customs of these
and the Sumatrans.--Cingalese of Chinese Origin.--One of the Brigs
dispatched to_ Chu-san _for Pilots.--Rapid Currents among the
Islands.--Visit to the Governor.--Difficulties in procuring
Pilots.--Arbitrary Proceeding of the Governor.--Pilots puzzled with our
Compass--Ignorance of--Arrive in the Gulph of_ Pe-tche-lee.--_Visit of
two Officers from Court, and their Present--enter the_ Pei-ho, _and
embark in convenient Yachts.--Accommodating Conduct of the two
Officers.--Profusion of Provisions.--Appearance of the Country--of the
People.--Dress of the Women.--Remarks on their small Feet.--Chinese an
uncleanly and frowzy People.--Immense Crowds of People and River Craft
at_ Tien-sing.--_Decent and prepossessing Conduct of the
Multitude.--Musical Air sung by the Rowers of the Yachts.--Favourable
Traits in the Chinese Character.--Face and Products of the
Country.--Multitudes of People Inhabitants of the Water.--Another
Instance of arbitrary Power.--Disembark at_ Tong Tchoo, _and are lodged
in a Temple._
"If any man should make a collection of all the inventions, and all the
productions, that every nation, which now is, or ever has been, upon
the face of the globe, the whole would fall far short, either as to
number or quality, of what is to be met with in China." These, or
something similar, are the words of the learned Isaac Vossius.
The testimony given by the celebrated authors of the _Encyclopédie des
Connoissances humaines_ is almost equally strong: "The Chinese who, by
common consent, are superior to all the Asiatic nations, in antiquity,
in genius, in the progress of the sciences, in wisdom, in government,
and in true philosophy; may, moreover, in the opinion of some authors,
enter the lists, on all these points, with the most enlightened nations
of Europe."
How flattering, then, and gratifying must it have been to the feelings
of those few favoured persons, who had the good fortune to be admitted
into the suite of the British Embassador, then preparing to proceed to
the court of that Sovereign who held the government of such an
extraordinary nation; how greatly must they have enjoyed the prospect of
experiencing, in their own persons, all that was virtuous, and powerful,
and grand, and magnificent, concentrated in one point--in the city of
Pekin!
And if any doubts might have arisen, on consideration that neither the
learned Canon of Windsor, nor the celebrated Authors of the
Encyclopédie, were ever in China; that the first was wonderfully given
to the marvellous, and the latter had no other authorities, than those
of the Jesuits, and other missionaries for propagating the Christian
faith, yet such doubts were more inclined to yield to the favourable
side, as being supported by the almost unanimous concurrence of a
multitude of testimonies, contained in the relations that have, at
various times, been published not only by the missionaries, but also by
some other travellers.
The late Sir William Jones, indeed, who deservedly took the lead in
oriental literature, had observed, in speaking of the Chinese, that "By
some they have been extolled as the oldest and wisest, as the most
learned, and most ingenious, of nations; whilst others have derided
their pretensions to antiquity, condemned their government as
abominable, and arraigned their manners as inhuman; without allowing
them an element of science, or a single art, for which they have not
been indebted to some more ancient and more civilized race of men."
It is true, also, the researches of Mr. Pauw, the sagacious philosopher
of Berlin, and the narrative of the elegant and impressive writer of
Lord Anson's Voyage, convey to the reader's mind no very favourable
ideas of the Chinese character; yet, as the enquiries of the one were
entered upon in a spirit of controversy, and directed to one single
point, and the author, as justly has been observed of him, delights
sometimes to take a swim against the stream, many deductions were
clearly to be made from the conclusions of Mr. Pauw. And with regard to
the Narrative of Mr. Robins, it may be remarked that, to decide upon the
general character of the Chinese, from the dealings Lord Anson had with
them in the port of Canton, would be as unfair, as it would be thought
presumptuous in a foreigner to draw the character of our own nation from
a casual visit to Falmouth, Killybeggs, or Aberdeen. The same remark
will apply to the accounts given of this nation by Toreen, Osbeck,
Sonnerat, and some others, who have visited Canton in trading ships,
none of whom were five hundred yards beyond the limits of the European
factories.
It would also have been highly illiberal to suppose, that a body of men,
remarkable, as the early Jesuit missionaries were thought to be, for
probity, talent, and disinterestedness, should studiously sit down to
compose fabrications for the mere purpose of deceiving the world. Even
Voltaire, who had little partiality for the sacerdotal character, is
willing to admit, that their relations ought to be considered as the
productions of the most intelligent travellers that have extended and
embellished the fields of Science and Philosophy. This remark, with
proper allowances being made for the age in which they were written, may
perhaps be applied to the narratives of the early missions to China,
though not exactly to some others of a more modern date. All the praises
bestowed by the former on this nation, the latter, it would seem, have,
injudiciously, considered themselves bound to justify; without taking
into account the progressive improvements of Europe within the last
century and a half.
That China was civilized to a certain degree before most of the nations
of Europe, not even Greece excepted, is a fact that will not admit of a
doubt; but that it has continued to improve, so as still to vie with
many of the present European states, as the missionaries would have it
supposed, is not by any means so clear. From the middle to the end of
the sixteenth century, compared with Europe in general, it had greatly
the superiority, if not in science, at least in arts and manufactures,
in the conveniences and the luxuries of life. The Chinese were, at that
period, pretty much in the same state in which they still are; and in
which they are likely to continue. When the first Europeans visited
China, they were astonished to find an universal toleration of religious
opinions; to observe _Lamas_ and _Tao-tzes_, _Jews_, _Persees_, and
_Mahomedans_, living quietly together, and each following his own creed
without molestation; whilst most of the countries in Europe were, at
that time, torn in pieces by religious schisms; and man was labouring
with enthusiastic fury to destroy his fellow-creatures, in honour of his
Creator, for a slight difference of opinion in matters of no real
importance, or even for a different acceptation of a word. In China,
every one was allowed to think as he pleased, and to chuse his own
religion. The horrid massacre of the Protestants in Paris had terrified
all Europe. China knew nothing of internal commotions, but such as were
sometimes occasioned by a partial scarcity of grain. The art of
improving vegetables by particular modes of culture, was just beginning
to be known in Europe. All China, at that time, was comparatively a
garden. When the King of France introduced the luxury of silk stockings,
which, about eighteen years afterwards, was adopted by Elizabeth of
England, the peasantry of the middle provinces of China were clothed in
silks from head to foot. At this period, few or none of the little
elegancies or conveniences of life were known in Europe; the ladies'
toilet had few essences to gratify the sense of smell, or to beautify,
for a time, the complexion; the scissars, needles, pen-knives, and other
little appendages, were then unknown; and rude and ill-polished skewers
usurped the place of pins. In China, the ladies had their needlework,
their paint-boxes, their trinkets of ivory, of silver in fillagree, of
mother-pearl, and of tortoise-shell. Even the calendar, at this time so
defective in Europe, that Pope Gregory was urged to the bold undertaking
of leaping over, or annihilating, ten days, was found to be, in China, a
national concern, and the particular care of government. Decimal
arithmetic, a new and useful discovery of the seventeenth century in
Europe, was the only system of arithmetic in use in China. In a word,
when the nobility of England were sleeping on straw, a peasant of China
had his mat and his pillow; and the man in office enjoyed his silken
mattress. One cannot, therefore, be surprized if the impressions made
upon these holy men were powerfully felt, or if their descriptions
should seem to incline a little towards the marvellous. Nor may perhaps
their relations be found to be much embellished, on a fair comparison of
the state of China with that of Europe in general, from the year 1560 to
the close of the same century.
These religious men, however, might have had their motives for setting
this wonderful people in the fairest point of view. The more powerful
and magnificent, the more learned and refined they represented this
nation to be, the greater would be their triumph in the event of their
effecting a change of the national faith. It may also have occurred to
them, that common prudence required they should speak favourably, at
least, of a nation under whose power and protection they had voluntarily
placed themselves for life. There is every reason to suppose, that in
general they mean to tell the truth, but by suppressing some part of it,
or by telling it in such a manner as if they expected it would one day
get back to China in the language of that country, their accounts often
appear to be contradictory in themselves. In the same breath that they
extol the wonderful strength of filial piety, they speak of the common
practices of exposing infants; the strict morality and ceremonious
conduct of the people are followed by a list of the most gross
debaucheries; the virtues and the philosophy of the learned are
explained by their ignorance and their vices; if in one page they speak
of the excessive fertility of the country, and the amazing extension of
agriculture, in the next, thousands are seen perishing by want; and
whilst they extol with admiration the progress they have made in the
arts and sciences, they plainly inform us that without the aid of
foreigners they can neither cast a cannon, nor calculate an eclipse.
Upon the whole, however, the British embassy left England under a
favourable impression of the people it was about to visit. Whether the
expectations of all those who composed it, independent of any political
consideration, were realized, or ended in disappointment, may partly be
collected from the following pages. The opinions they contain are drawn
from such incidents and anecdotes as occurred in the course of an eight
months' visit and from such as seemed best calculated to illustrate the
condition of the people, the national character, and the nature of the
government. A short residence in the imperial palace of Yuen-min-yuen, a
greater share of liberty than is usually permitted to strangers in this
country, with the assistance of some little knowledge of the language,
afforded me the means of collecting the facts and observations which I
now lay before the public; and in the relation of which I have
endeavoured to adhere to that excellent rule of our immortal poet,
----"Nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice."
And as the qualities of good and evil, excellence and mediocrity, in any
nation, can only be fairly estimated by a comparison with those of the
same kind in others, wherever a similitude or a contrast in the Chinese
character or customs with those of any other people ancient or modern
occurred to my recollection, I have considered it as not wholly
uninteresting to note the relation or disagreement.
The dispatches from China, received by the British Embassador on his
arrival at Batavia, communicated the agreeable intelligence that his
Imperial Majesty had been pleased, by a public edict, not only to
declare his entire satisfaction with the intended embassy, but that he
had likewise issued strict orders to the commanding officers of the
several ports along the coast of the Yellow Sea, to be particularly
careful that Pilots should be ready, at a moment's notice, to conduct
the English squadron to _Tien-sing_, the nearest port to the capital, or
to any other which might be considered as more convenient and suitable
for the British ships.
By this communication a point of some difficulty was now considered to
be removed. It was deemed a desirable circumstance to be furnished with
the means of proceeding directly to Pekin through the Yellow Sea, and
thus to avoid any intercourse with the port of Canton; as it was well
known the principal officers of the government there were prepared to
throw every obstacle in the way of the embassy, and if not effectually
to prevent, at least to counteract, any representations that might be
made at the imperial court, with regard to the abuses that exist in the
administration of the public affairs at that place, and more especially
to the exactions and impositions to which the commercial establishments
are liable of the different nations whose subjects have established
factories in this southern emporium of China. It could not be supposed,
indeed, that their endeavours would be less exerted, in this particular
instance, than on all former occasions of a similar nature.
The navigation of the Yellow Sea, as yet entirely unknown to any
European nation, was considered as a subject of some importance, from
the information it would afford the means of supplying, and which, on
any future occasion, might not only lessen the dangers of an unknown
passage, but prevent also much delay by superseding the necessity of
running into different ports in search of Chinese Pilots, whom, by
experience, we afterwards found to be more dangerous than useful.
We passed through the streight of Formosa without seeing any part of the
main land of China, or of the island from whence the streight derives
its name, except a high point towards the northern extremity. The
weather, indeed, during three successive days, the 25th, 26th, and 27th
July was so dark and gloomy, that the eye could scarcely discern the
largest objects at the distance of a mile, yet the thermometer was from
80° to 83° the greater part of these days. A heavy and almost incessant
fall of rain was accompanied with violent squalls of wind, and frequent
bursts of thunder and flashes of lightning; which, with the cross and
confused swell in the sea, made the passage not only uncomfortably
irksome, but also extremely dangerous, on account of the many islands
interspersed in almost every part of the strait.
On the evening of the 25th the sun set in a bank of fog, which made the
whole western side of the horizon look like a blaze of fire, and the
barometer was observed to have fallen near one third of an inch, which,
in these latitudes and at sea, is considered as a certain indication of
a change of weather. There were on board some Chinese fishermen who had
been driven out to sea in one of the East India company's ships, which
we met with in the straits of Sunda. These men assured us that the
appearance of the heavens prognosticated one of those tremendous gales
of wind which are well known to Europeans by the name of _Ty-phoon_ and
which some ingenious and learned men have supposed to be the same as the
Typhon of the Egyptians or [Greek: typhôn] of the Greeks. The Chinese,
however have made use of no mythological allusion in naming this
hurricane. They call it _Ta-fung_ which literally signifies _a great
wind_. The wind was certainly high the whole of the night and the
following day, the thunder and lightning dreadful, and the variable
squalls and rain frequent and heavy; the depth of the sea from 25 to 30
fathoms.
The charts, however, of this passage into the Yellow Sea, constructed by
Europeans when the Chinese permitted foreign nations to trade to
_Chu-san_, are considered as sufficiently exact for skilful navigators
to avoid the dangerous rocks and islands. By the help of these charts
our squadron ventured to stand through the still more intricate and
narrow passages of the Chu-san Archipelago, where, in the contracted
space of about eight hundred square leagues, the surface of the sea is
studded with a cluster, consisting, nearly, of four hundred distinct
islands.
These islands appeared to us, in sailing among them, to be mostly
uninhabited, extremely barren of trees or shrubs, and many of them
destitute even of herbage, or verdure of any kind. In some of the creeks
we perceived a number of boats and other small craft, at the upper ends
of which were villages composed of mean looking huts, the dwellings most
probably of fishermen, as there was no appearance of cultivated ground
near them to furnish their inhabitants with the means of subsistence.