IN CHINESE CITIES
1855-1856
At Hongkong I went to our correspondents, Williams, Anthon & Co., and
took passage in Endicott's little steamer, the Spark, for Macao, the
Portuguese port of China. Before leaving Hongkong, however, as I had
some little time on my hands, I determined to see everything that was to
be seen there. I had the remarkable experience of meeting the man who
was afterward the husband of Hetty Green. This was E. H. Green, who was
married twelve years later. He was then connected with the house of
Russell & Sturgis, our correspondents in Manila, and he joined me for
the trip to Macao and Canton. After a short stay in Hongkong, we went on
to Macao and Canton.
We had, on this voyage, the common experiences of Chinese
waters--pirates and typhoons. At the Boca Tigris, the mouth of the
Canton, or Pearl, river, we were overtaken by the typhoon, and we had to
anchor near an island in the midst of a number of junks. These soon
proved to be pirate ships, and we were, apparently, in great danger. The
pirates immediately began to draw up about us, as if meditating an
attack. The little Spark would, of course, stand no chance in such a
contest. I did not think she could last ten minutes in a fight with
those ugly junks.
The Chinese anchored their boats up close to the Spark, and I noticed
that a dozen of the ugliest ruffians our own sailors had ever
encountered were staring in through the cabin windows. I could not
imagine what they were looking at, and went forward to see what was
wrong. There was Mr. Green, sitting facing the window, his feet on the
table, and making faces at the crew. He was the coolest man, I think,
that I ever saw. Nothing moved him out of his imperturbable calm. The
Chinamen were scowling at him, but this did not at all disconcert him.
If he was going to be killed by these devils, he seemed to be thinking,
he might as well die in a cheerful humor. How could he know they were
not pirates in disguise?
The pirates expected that we should fall an easy prey into their hands,
as our coal had given out, and there was no assistance within reach. We
were in a dilemma, but we attacked the woodwork of the deck, and got
enough to fire up the engines and get a head of steam, when suddenly, to
the amazement of the pirates, we steamed out and away. The storm having
subsided, the junks were soon left far behind and we reached Macao
safely.
Macao was at that time the headquarters of the new slave trade. I went
to the top of a high hill for the purpose of looking at the barracoons,
where slaves were kept. The barracoon is, in meaning, a little barrack,
but it is, in reality, a pest-hole. Here were gathered the Chinese who
were to be sent as victims and slaves to the Peruvian islands. The
practise was to bring Chinamen from the interior by telling them of the
great riches their countrymen had found in America, which was then a
name that tempted all Chinamen of the coast regions. Many Chinamen, it
was known, had gone to America and done well, and the wretches that the
slave-dealers wanted to ship to Peru were told that they would be sent
to America. They thought they were going to California; but they were
shipped to the Chincha islands, near Callao, the port of Lima, Peru.
As Boston was then deeply interested in the subject of slavery in the
Southern States, I wrote a description of this new slavery in the
Chincha islands, giving the names of the boats that had recently sailed
from Macao with full cargoes of slaves. I had heard of this horrible
traffic in human flesh at Singapore, but could not believe it, until I
actually saw it at Macao. Whenever the wretches mutinied, or grew
restive, they were put down in the hold and the hatches closed. The
horrors of such a position were as great as those of the infamous
"Middle Passage," made so conspicuous by the abolitionists in the
campaign against African slavery. Chinamen perished by hundreds, and
many of the survivors were maimed or invalided for life. In a single
case, some two hundred victims were smothered and died in the hold of
one of these slavers. My letters to the New York Herald were copied far
and near. It was discovered that some of the Boston people themselves
were interested in enslaving the Chinese. But the practise could not
stand the light of exposure, and so was broken up.
We hurried on from Macao to Canton, arriving there during the Chinese
New Year. This city astonished me in a number of ways. It was dirty and
miserable beyond imagination, with narrow streets and indescribable
filth. But that it carried on a tremendous volume of trade was apparent
from a glance. The river was covered with junks and larger vessels at
Whampoa, the lower port, floating the flags of every nation. Warehouses,
the "godowns" of the foreign traders, revealed the existence of an
enormous, and profitable commerce. The word "godown," which many take to
be a "pidgin-English" word composed of "go" and "down," and signifying
putting things down in a warehouse, is a Malay word, and comes from
"gadang," meaning a place for storing articles away. The warehouses were
surrounded by high walls, in the manner of private villas and town
residences of the Chinese, and were adorned by beautiful gardens.
There was a pretty custom, among foreign residents, to invite all
visitors to dine with them. These invitations were sent informally upon
little cards called "chits." As I was already known in the business
world there, I received a great many of these invitations. I was walking
with Mr. Green one day, when he said it was getting time to think about
dinner. "Where will you dine?" he asked. I replied that I did not know
which invitation to accept. I thought that I would take some of his
conceit out of him, by showing him that I had received a great number of
"chits," and I drew a package of them from my pocket. I remarked coolly
that I could not make up my mind what to do, as I had an _embarras de
richesses_. I counted the "chits," and there were eleven. Green, with
great nonchalance, drew out his package of "chits"; he had thirteen!
He had a great way of taking care of himself in such circumstances. He
suggested that there was only one thing to do--to find out who, among
our intending hosts, would have the best dinner. He then took me around
to the rear of the residences, where a high wall separated the gardens
from the native city, and where I discovered that the Chinese cooks
always hung up the game, poultry, and other things they were preparing
for meals. From this array we could tell what everybody was going to
have for dinner. After a stroll through the alley, we selected the house
that had displayed behind it some lovely pheasants and salmon. "The
owner of that house shall have the honor of being our host," said Green.
I approved his choice both then and after the dinner, which was an
excellent one, at which the golden pheasants were the _piece de
resistance_. I soon discovered for myself, what I had long heard, that
the Chinese are the best cooks in the world.
Another thing I learned about the Chinaman was that he is the most
honest tradesman in the world, and the most careful about debts. The
Chinese New Year is the season when the Chinaman wipes off the slate and
begins life over again, with a clean record. He pays up all debts, and
starts even with the world. I learned that on this anniversary the
Chinaman will sell everything he possesses, even his liberty, his
person, his life itself, to settle his debts, so that he may face the
new year with a clean conscience and a pure heart, as well as with no
bills hanging over him.
As this was practically the first Chinese city I had seen, I was very
curious about it. It was all new ground to me, and I was eager to
explore it. I knew that this was not permitted, for six Englishmen had
been killed shortly before my arrival, for daring to venture inside the
walls of the Chinese city, which was then as much forbidden ground as
the "Pink City" of Pekin. The fate of the Englishmen only made me more
keen to get inside the walls. I thought I could take care of myself
sufficiently well. I was warned by friends not to risk the thing, but I
took all the responsibility, and went inside, while the gates were open.
I had not gone more than a few rods when I heard behind me and all
around me the wildest cries. Men ran toward me with shouts of
"Fankwai"--foreign devil; and I saw at once that I had stirred up a
hornet's nest. I looked about me, and discovered that the gate I had
come through was still open. There was a pretty fair chance, by running
fast, for getting through it before the Chinamen could head me off. This
calculation took about one-millionth of a second, and I plunged for the
gate, "like a pawing horse let go." If the stop-watch could have been
held on me, I am sure I should have established a record for a
short-distance sprint.
The next time I visited Canton was in '70. The gates were open, and the
walls were of no avail to keep the foreign devils out. The American
merchant Nye, who was familiarly known as the Napoleon of China, because
of his gigantic enterprises, took me over the city. I had read and heard
about Chinamen eating rats, but this was the only time I ever saw the
thing done, and I could hardly believe my eyes. A Chinaman came up to
Mr. Nye and me in the street, and offered to sell us a rat, a big
fellow still alive. I asked if it was to be eaten, and the Chinaman said
it was. "But it is not cooked," I objected. "I am not going to begin on
live rats." The Chinaman said he would prepare it--the rat cooked and
served to cost me two cents. I told him to go ahead. To my surprise he
took a little stove from under his arm, lighted a fire, and in a few
minutes had the rodent roasted to a crisp. I was astonished--and
ashamed--to see how nice it looked. It did appear toothsome. I said to
the Chinaman, "Now, you can eat it." He did, and with great gusto and
smacking of the lips. So he got his rat and my two cents, also.
But I ascertained that there is about as much truth in the common
stories in our silly juvenile literature about Chinamen generally eating
rats as there is in stories of other marvelous things in far-off lands.
I also found that there is no deadly upas-tree in Java, which was a
distinct shock to me. I had been reared, so to speak, in the fatal shade
of that upas. I had watched birds drop dead as they tried to fly across
its swath of malignant shadow; I had seen animals stricken by its fatal
exudations and writhing in agony. I saw all these things in the old New
England farmhouse, which was the headquarters of the Methodists; but in
Java, they had all disappeared. There was no upas-tree, and the
mortality among birds and animals was no greater than necessary to
satisfy the predatory natures of other animals, birds, and men. And now
to find in China that the New England stories about general rat-eating
were false, was another shock.
But the Chinese are not as cleanly as they might be. I learned this
interesting fact in connection with my taste for Canton ginger. I had
always, from earliest childhood, been outrageously fond of this delicate
comfit. I had eaten it in great quantities whenever I got the chance;
and when I arrived in Canton, the home of this conserve, I at once
thought of it, and wanted to know more about its manufacture. I learned,
after some inquiry, that it was put up at a factory on the island of
Ho-nan, near Canton. Ho-nan is also the name of a famous Buddhist temple
on the same island. The factory, as well as most of the so-called
island, is built on piles. I had not altogether overlooked this fact
when I asked the factory people where they got the water for the sirup
of the preserves. They looked at me as if I were demented. "Water! why
we are right over the river!" Yes, they were right over the river, the
dirtiest and most villainous river in the world. The sewage of the
dirtiest city in China--which is saying about all that can be said on
the subject--is emptied into this river. I need not say that I did not
eat any of the Canton ginger then, and I have not eaten any of it since.
I have set down my views as to the topsy-turviness of things in
Australia. I found China topsy-turvy in a different way. The Chinese
begin their books and letters where we end ours, at what we should call
the back. They read from right to left, instead of from left to right,
and, strangest of all, the men wear gowns, and the women--don't! When I
was introduced to How-kwa, a warm friend of the Russells, I advanced to
shake hands with him, but he stepped back and solemnly shook hands with
himself for me. Then he waved his hands toward the door, as if to say,
so it seemed to me, "get out of here," and I was amazed, but Sturgis
informed me that the great Chinaman was merely beckoning to me to come
nearer to him. I went up to him, by that time so impressed with the
Chinese way of doing things backward that if he had kicked at me, I
should have thought he was asking me to embrace him. We were in
How-kwa's residence, which was surrounded by the most exquisite gardens,
and were invited to partake of a cup of tea. For the first time in my
life I drank tea that cost $30 a pound. We used no sugar nor milk, of
course, as these things are considered in China to spoil good tea. The
next best tea I have drunk, I think, was the tea I got at the fair of
Nijnii Novgorod, Russia, in '57, which had been brought overland
thousands of miles across mountains and deserts, packed in little
bricks.
Again, I found that the Chinese look backward, and not forward, and
ennoble their ancestors, instead of their offspring, and pay little
attention to the coming generation. They say that they know what their
ancestors--the dead--were, but can not foretell what the living may
become. They scull their boats in the rivers from the bow, instead of
from the stern. Their boatmen are usually women. While we fear the
water, and seek to make our dwelling places upon the rock or upon very
dry land, the Chinaman will get as near as possible to the water. In the
Canton, or Pearl, river there were, when I was there, some 100,000
persons living on the river, in boats, or on floats, or rafts. A
Westerner would suppose children were in danger of falling into the
water. They do fall in, but their mothers have devised a method of
rescuing them without mischance. Cords are fastened to their bodies, and
when a child falls overboard, the cord, which is made fast to the boat,
prevents it from sinking too far before the mother or father catches
hold and pulls it back into the boat.
They call all servants, male and female, "boy," which reminds me that in
the Europeanized parts of some of the Japanese cities they do the same,
and when they want to specify definitely that the "boy" is a girl, they
say "onna no boy," which means "girl-boy," or girl servant. This is, of
course, pidgin-English, the business English of the Chinese littoral. I
had an amusing experience with this pidgin-English. I had invited some
friends to dine with me, a merchant and his two sons and three
daughters, and when I asked the servant who had come, he said that the
merchant had arrived and "two bull chilo, and three cow chilo."
Pidgin-English amused me very much, as it amuses every one who visits
China. Augustine Heard, the merchant, who was a master of this lingo,
used to interest me by reciting phrases from it, and once gave me the
following poem, which is a translation of Longfellow's Excelsior. The
translation was made by Mr. Heard. It has been published throughout the
world as an "anonymous" production:
THE CHINESE EXCELSIOR
That nightee teem he come chop-chop
One young man walkee, no can stop;
Maskee snow, maskee ice;
He cally flag with chop so nice--
Top-side Galah!
He muchee solly; one piecee eye
Lookee sharp--so fashion--my;
He talkee large, he talkee stlong,
Too muchee cullo; alle same gong.
Top-side Galah!
Insidee house he can see light,
And evly loom got fire all light,
He lookee plenty ice more high,
Insidee mout'h he plenty cly--
Top-side Galah!
Ole man talkee, "No can walk,
"Bimeby lain come, velly dark;
"Have got water, velly wide!"
Maskee, my must go top-side--
Top-side Galah!
"Man-man," one girlee talkee he,
"What for you go top-side look--see?"
And one teem more he plenty cly,
But alle teem walk plenty high--
Top-side Galah!
"Take care t'hat spilum tlee, young man,
"Take care t'hat ice, must go man-man."
One coolie chin-chin he good night,
He talkee, "My can go all light"--
Top-side Galah!
T'hat young man die; one large dog, see,
Too muchee bobbly findee he.
He hand b'long coldee, all same like ice,
He holdee flag wit'h chop so nice--
Top-side Galah!
When I was ready to start for Japan, I had made up my mind to visit
Shanghai on the way, and was about to start, when Canton merchants,
native and foreign, tried to dissuade me. They told me it would be
terribly disappointing, and that I would regret wasting any time there.
They did not know my nature, and that this sort of thing merely
stimulated my curiosity and hardened my determination.
I took passage in the P. & O. boat, the Erin, Captain Jameson, and
supposed, of course, that I should have a state-room. But I was to meet
with another Chinese surprise. A great Chinese mandarin, going from
Hongkong to Shanghai, had engaged the whole cabin. I was very desirous
to see this great personage, and soon had the opportunity. It is my
practise, when at sea, to take exercise by walking rapidly up and down
the deck, thus covering many miles a day. I was taking my daily exercise
the day when the mandarin came on board ship, and every time I passed
the cabin I noticed that he followed me with his eyes. And so we kept it
up for some time, I walking as unconcernedly as I could, and the great
mandarin watching my movements as curiously as if I were some strange
animal.
After a while he called the first officer, and asked what I was doing.
"Walking up and down the deck," he was told. "But why does he do it? Is
he paid for it?" The officer told him it was for exercise. "What is
that?" asked the Chinese great man. This was explained to him, but he
could not understand why any one wanted to walk up and down, and do so
much unnecessary work. The Chinese are not averse to work; indeed, they
are one of the most industrious people on the face of the earth, but
they do not do unnecessary work, having, I infer, to do as much
necessary work as is good for them. And this great dignitary pointed to
me with scorn and said: "Number one foolo." I hardly need explain that
"number one," throughout the far East, means the superlative degree.
This mandarin was the great Li Hung Chang, who had been summoned by his
emperor to save the country from the terrible Tai-ping rebellion. He
was on his way from Canton to Shanghai. He there called in the splendid
services of three great foreigners--the Frenchman, Bougevine, the
American, Ward, and the Englishman, "Chinese" Gordon; but it was largely
and chiefly due to the stubbornness and genius of Li that the empire was
saved to the Manchus, at a cost, it is estimated, of twenty millions of
lives.
When we reached Woosung there were six armed opium ships for cargoes of
opium from Calcutta and Bombay, which the English were forcing upon the
Chinese, much as we should force rum on the Mexicans, and make them pay
for it. The English and Americans were reaping fortunes in the most
unholy traffic the world has seen--and it will never be forgotten in
China, or anywhere else, that England went to war with China to force
China to permit the shipment of opium into that country to ruin millions
of lives and impoverish millions of families. I feel heartily ashamed of
myself for having once smuggled a little of this horrible drug into
China. But I found that many Americans and Englishmen were devoting
themselves to the trade as a regular business.
In Shanghai I was the guest of Russell & Co., who were then represented
by Cunningham and G. Griswold Gray. The fighting in the great rebellion
was still raging--it was not put down until after Gordon recaptured
Nanking--and when I was in Shanghai the Chinese authorities kept the
gory heads of rebels hanging from the walls as an example to all who
contemplated opposing the Manchu rule. These hideous trophies of the war
were the most impressive things that I saw in Shanghai.
Dr. Lockhart, the missionary, acted voluntarily as my dragoman and guide
in Shanghai, and showed me things in the city that I could never have
discovered for myself. In one of the squares I noticed a monument 150
feet high, which, I was told by Lockhart, had been built by the poor
people of China in commemoration of an old lady, who had been the Helen
Gould of her day. Each of the subscribers had contributed cash equal to
one tenth of a cent.
Some really splendid virtues of the Chinese impressed me deeply. I liked
and admired them the more I saw them. I have already said that they are
the most honest people on the globe. It seems to me an extraordinary
thing that this race, the world's highest type of honesty, should be the
only race to which we are inhospitable. The Chinese were far ahead of
Europeans in many ways for centuries. If they have fallen behind now, it
may be only because Europeans are rushing hastily through their brief
civilizations, while China, having enjoyed hers for ages, is content to
watch us rise, flourish, and decay, as we watch the passing generations
of the forest and the field.
They invented and used the things that we regard as almost the highest
products of our civilization. They had used the mariner's compass for
centuries before we had it; they invented printing perhaps a thousand
years before Gutenberg; they invented gunpowder, which they had used in
war and every-day life; they had the best paper ever seen long before
the rest of the world had any, and the outside nations have not yet been
able to duplicate theirs; they invented the newspaper, and have the
oldest journal in the world, the Pekin Gazette; they discovered the
Golden Rule, unless that honor belongs to the Greek, Thales; they
developed philosophy--the highest system of the world, in
Confucianism--before the Greeks, and, of course, long before the
Germans; and they were the first people of the world to appreciate
education.
Moreover, as Mr. Wu, the great Chinese minister at Washington, has so
often pointed out, they were democratic long before Thomas Jefferson,
and long before the Greeks had invented the word "democracy," or had
discovered the idea of a democratic state or city. I had been taught
that the hard-headed and practical Scotch had invented the macadam road,
naming it from a canny Scot of that name; but I found a macadamized road
in China three or four thousand years old, and long enough to wrap
around the British Isles. The Chinese have long preceded us, and they
may long survive us, nullifying all the "imperialism" and
"expansionism" of Europe and America, which would cut her into fragments
as the spoil of the world.
While I was in China, on this first visit, and on the several occasions
of my later visits, I gave much thought to the vast population of that
country. I have come to the conclusion that the population is less than
half, probably less than one-third, of what it is generally estimated to
be. I notice that the Chinese viceroys have recently made an estimate of
their respective provinces, at the command of the emperor, and that the
total reaches the enormous figure of 425,000,000. I do not believe that
there are 200,000,000 people in the entire empire, and I should prefer
estimating the population at something between 150,000,000 and
175,000,000.
I found that China is not a densely populated country, as is generally
supposed. The seashore is fairly crowded, and the impression one gets
from seeing the surface of the water covered at Canton with rafts and
floats on which more than 100,000 persons live, is that the inhabitants
must swarm in the same degree over the face of the land. This is not the
case. Even the coast is merely fringed with people. Back in the interior
there are no such dense masses of population. All accounts that I can
read of the interior, from Father Huc down to Mr. Parsons of New York,
bear me out in this. I can not see where there are more than
175,000,000, or 150,000,000, people in that empire. The reports of the
slaughter in the Tai-ping rebellion, of some 20,000,000 people, would
seem to indicate a population of at least 200,000,000 or 250,000,000;
but these figures were greatly exaggerated, as all such things are in
China. All statistics are nothing but guesswork, and the bigger they are
the better people like them.
I engaged passage in the Greta, which was to go to Shimoda and Hakodate,
Japan. My objective point was Yokohama, where it was my purpose to
establish a branch of the house of Train & Co., Melbourne. My Australian
house was not connected with Colonel Train's Boston and Liverpool packet
firm. At this time, however, the English and Russians, who were not as
good friends then as they are now, were fighting, and the little war
completely upset all of my plans. I could not get to Yokohama at all,
and did not visit Japan until several years later. I had, therefore, to
give up my passage in the Greta, and turn my face from Japan. Just at
this point, Augustine Heard invited G. Griswold Gray, of Russell & Co.,
and me to go to Fu-chow, on one of his sailing ships, the John Wade.
[Illustration: George Francis Train dictating his autobiography in his
room in the Mills Hotel.]
This trip I very willingly made, as I wanted to see everything of China
that was possible; but it was more adventurous than I had expected. As
we were sailing down the China coast, a typhoon struck us, and over
went sails and masts. Our pilot from Shanghai was immediately in
difficulties, as the pilot from Fu-chow, whom we had just picked up, did
not understand the pilot we had brought from Shanghai. I had the utmost
difficulty, owing to my inadequate mastery of pidgin-English, in
establishing communication between these essential elements of our
little crew. We had, finally, to get into a boat and make our way up the
River Min for forty miles in the dark. It was a very trying experience,
as the river was absolutely unknown to me; the darkness was
"unpierceable by power of any star," and the river was treacherous in
itself for small boats. To make matters worse, it was infested by junk
pirates. This latter danger I had got somewhat accustomed to, as almost
every inch of Chinese water was, in those days, the field of operations
for these pirates. The other nations of the world had not yet adopted
effective means for getting rid of them as the United States got rid of
the Algerian and Tripolitan plunderers.
We arrived at Fu-chow, after a harassing night on the river. Almost the
first thing to greet my curious eyes, as they were sweeping the horizon
for wonders in that land of wonders, was the old suspension bridge,
which the Chinese assert was built in the fourteenth century. It proved
to be as much of a curiosity as the Chinese wall in the north. At
Fu-chow I was a guest in the house of the Russells. Immediately upon
landing, Gray, Heard, and myself took sedan chairs for a tour through
the city.
On this occasion I had my first opportunity to appeal to the American
flag for protection. As we were passing through a very narrow, but
important street, our coolies were suddenly set upon and overturned. We
scrambled out of the chairs, and asked what was the matter. We learned
that the viceroy was also passing through the thoroughfare, and that
everything and everybody had to give way for his retinue. My companions
at once stepped out of the way, but my blood was up. I resented being
upset in the street, like so much refuse, in order to have the filthy
thoroughfare cleared for the passage of a mere Chinese viceroy.
I had a small American flag in my pocket, carefully wrapped about its
little staff, and I took it out with a great deal of display and waved
the tiny emblem around my head. I dared the Chinese servants of the
viceroy to touch me or to interfere with my right to pass through the
streets of Fu-chow. This had its effect. I noticed at once that the
Chinese in the street, who recognized the colors of the United States,
fell back from me, our coolies got up out of the dirt, and once more
took hold of the poles of the chairs. The viceroy passed on, pretending
not to have noticed the incident, and in a few minutes the way was clear
again.
Fu-chow was the black-tea port of China at that time, and it had been
opened just two years before. It was astonishing at what a rapid pace
business of a certain kind swung along in the coast cities of the Far
East. In two years several of the Canton houses, representatives of the
great shipping and other business concerns of the world, had opened
branch offices in Fu-chow. Commercial life there was intensely active
and very prosperous.
From Fu-chow I went on down the coast to Hongkong, this being my second
visit there. I noticed at Swatow several ships loaded with Chinese
slaves destined for the Chincha guano islands of Peru. My destination
was Calcutta, so we did not have much time to explore the Chinese coast,
much as I should have liked to do so.