HALF A LECTURE ON CHINESE SUBJECTS
The dinner on board of the Blanche was fully up to the standard of the
epicureans on board of both steamers; for the cooks of both had been
busy all day, and the consuls declared that it was fully equal to the
best of which they had partaken in London or Paris. As it was to be the
last time the tourists were to meet these excellent and accomplished
officials, the occasion was a very jolly affair. Speeches were made by
both of them, in which they were lavish in praise of both the dinner and
the elegant accommodations of both the steamers.
Captain Ringgold replied, returning the most hearty thanks to both of
the official gentlemen for their kindness in acting as the guides of the
travellers, and for the interesting and valuable information they had
given them. Both of them had declared that the company ought to remain
in Manila at least a week; but the commander pleaded the long voyage
still before the ships, and repeated what he had so often said before,
that, in such a long cruise as they were taking, it was quite impossible
to do anything more than obtain a specimen of each country or island
they visited.
When they left the table the consuls took leave individually of each of
the passengers, and were sent on shore in the barge of the Blanche, for
the steam-launch had already been taken upon the deck of the ship.
During the day both steamers had taken in a supply of coal, and the
chief stewards had procured stores of provisions, ice, and especially
fruit. As the party were taking leave of the two agreeable gentlemen,
they heard the hissing of steam on the Blanche, which they did not quite
understand, as the commander or Captain Sharp "had made no sign." The
Guardian-Mother's people were taken on board, after another
leave-taking, and conveyed to their ship in their own boats.
"What is going on, Captain Ringgold?" asked Mrs. Belgrave, when she
heard the hissing steam on board of the Guardian-Mother.
"Going on to Hong-Kong," replied the commander.
"To-night?"
"To-night."
"But we have been here only one day," suggested the "first lady."
"The anchor is hove short; but if you think of anything more that you
wish to see in Manila or its vicinity, I will remain," added the
captain.
"I don't know that there is anything more to be seen. I seemed to know
the city before I had seen it."
"Very well, then we will go to sea to-night."
By ten o'clock the ships were under way; and in a couple of hours more
they were in the China Sea, headed north-west-by-north, for Hong-Kong.
The sea was as smooth as glass, for the east monsoon seemed to be
interrupted under the lee of the islands. The passengers retired at an
early hour, and there was no excuse for not going to sleep at once.
In the morning the ship was a long way out of sight of land. Breakfast
had been ordered for an hour later than usual, in order to let the party
sleep off the fatigue of the day before. But some of them were on deck
at sunrise, and saw the beautiful phenomenon of that orb coming out of
the eastern sea. There was not an island or anything else in sight but
the broad expanse of water. The air was delightful; and it was not hot
in the early morning, and under the awnings it would not be during the
day. A gentle sea gave the ship a little motion, but it was a quiet
time.
Breakfast was served at the appointed hour; and at this time Mr.
Gaskette was busy with his assistants, arranging the frame for a new
map, considerably larger than any used before, at the head of Conference
Hall. He had been at work upon it for several days, and he intended that
it should surpass anything he had done before. The orang-outang, the
monkey, and the pheasant had been removed to the library, where there
was plenty of room for them.
China was a great country, and the professor thought it would require a
long talk to dispose of it; and the conference was called for ten
o'clock, and so announced at breakfast time. When the passengers went on
deck, the first thing that attracted their attention was the new map;
and considering that it was made on board of the ship, it was a
beautiful piece of work, for the second officer was an artist. At the
appointed hour they were all in their seats.
This map, though correct at the time it was made, did not, of course,
include the changes which resulted from the war between Japan and China,
and which have not even yet been incorporated in modern history. The
pacha had been invited to give the lecture on China; but he declared
that it was too difficult a subject for him to undertake, and he begged
to be excused, and Professor Giroud had willingly undertaken it. It had
required all his time on the voyage from Saigon, and all his spare time
at Manila, to prepare himself for the difficult task. With the three
siamangs in their usual places, he mounted the platform.
A signal from the Blanche caused him to resume his seat, and the screw
was stopped. The barge from the consort dropped into the water; and the
general, his wife, the rajah, Mrs. Sharp, and Dr. Henderson came on
board, and chairs were provided for them. Miss Blanche gave up the baby
to Mrs. Noury, who was very fond of the little creature. The professor
then took his place again on the rostrum, with the pointer in his hand.
"Mr. Commander, ladies and gentlemen," he began. "Before I say a word, I
desire to acknowledge my very great obligations to Mr. Gaskette for the
elegant map he has prepared and placed before us. You observe that it
extends from the Amur River,--which is spelled in older books Amoor; but
the latest fashion is to make it Amur, as Hindu and similar words have
been changed from oo to u, for both have the same sound in most European
and Oriental names,--from the Amur River to Tonquin, about thirty
degrees of latitude, with the nineteen provinces of China, with Korea,
properly spelled with initial K, with the islands of Formosa and Hainan.
It has given the artist a great deal of labor, and he has done his work
in a manner to call for your highest commendation."
The audience vigorously applauded this statement; and the siamangs added
their "Ra! Ra! Ra!" with a volley of squeaks. Mr. Gaskette bowed his
acknowledgments; and the professor handed him the pointer, which looked
like a new arrangement.
"The artist is as well or better acquainted with the map than I am, and
I have invited him to assist on the platform. Manchuria, and I adopt the
most modern spelling of the name," continued the professor, as the
artist pointed to the province.
"I thought the subject for to-day was China," interposed Mrs. Belgrave.
"So it is, madam; but the modern history of China begins with Manchuria.
On the west of it is Mongolia, which any of the old-fashioned gentlemen
may call Chinese Tartary if they prefer, though that designation is not
in use now. Manchuria is a province of China; though the latter was a
province of the former three hundred and fifty years ago, for then it
conquered China, whose present emperor is the descendant of the
conquering Manchu monarch. Manchuria has an area of 280,000, and a
population of 21,000,000; but not more than one million of the people
are Manchus, who wear the costume and speak the language of the Chinese.
The rest of the people are emigrants from China or other countries, and
are as industrious and prosperous as any other in the vast empire.
"The Manchus are the aristocracy of the country; and ever since they
gave China its ruler, their country has been the principal territory for
recruiting the Celestial armies; and there are said to be 80,000 of
their soldiers in service. And they also furnish China with its
magistrates and police. But I will leave their country to take its place
with the other provinces of the empire. China is believed by its own
chronologists to have been in existence 2637 years before the Christian
era, and perhaps from a date still farther back; but these dates are
doubtful.
"The people of China do not know their country by the name so familiar
to us, or they know it only so far as they have learned it from
merchants and travellers. In the matter of names they all seem barbarous
to us; I do not attempt to pronounce them; and I don't think you will
succeed in doing so any better than I have. I may add that I have never
been in China; and what I tell you I did not pick up myself, but must
derive it from others who have travelled and lived in the country.
"I have obtained nearly all my information from the very learned and
valuable article of Dr. Legge, in Chambers's. He is familiar with the
language of the Chinese, has travelled and lived in the country, and is
fully acquainted with the manners and customs of the people. In the
oldest literature of the empire, it is called _Hwâ Hsiâ_, the first word
meaning 'flowery,' and the second is the proper name of the country.
Chung Kwo is the Middle Kingdom, which came into being in the feudal
period, in the midst of the several states and tribes; and if you wish
to know more of China, there is an American edition of Dr. Williams in
four volumes, which will tell you all about it. But the name did not
mean the middle of the earth, as sometimes claimed, nor is it the
foundation of the derisive term applied to China, 'The Central Flowery
Nation.'
"Other names have been given to China, though seldom seen or heard; but
Cathay, perhaps coming from the Russian name Kitai, is not at all
uncommon, especially in poetry. The name we use comes to us from India,
when two Buddhist missionaries, who came from 'the land of Chin,'
called it China and Chintan.
"As stated before, the native Chinese line of rulers, the Ming dynasty,
conquered China in 1644, and placed the first of the Tsing monarchs on
the throne. I will not tangle up your intellects by following out the
individuals of the succession any farther than to say that the present
emperor, or Hwangti, of China is Tsait'ien, who was proclaimed as such
in January, 1875. The ruler may name his successor, for the descent is
not hereditary to his eldest son; and if he fails to do so, the default
is made good by his family. He is the ninth emperor of the Manchu or
Tartar dynasty.
"As I said, China has nineteen provinces, including the island of
Formosa, all of which are represented on the map before you. The
divisions of the country are immensely populous; though the average of
the whole to the square mile is less than that of Belgium by nearly
one-half, several of whose provinces are more densely peopled than any
in China. It is also less than the State of Rhode Island, and but a
little above that of Massachusetts,--the two States the most densely
inhabited in our own country.
"Many say that the population of China has been exaggerated; and it is
variously given at from 282,000,000 to 413,000,000, a very great
difference, and you suit yourselves with the figures if you can. Dr.
Legge thinks that 400,000,000 is not an over-estimate. The area of the
eighteen provinces is 1,336,841 square miles, to which about 15,000 may
be added for Formosa; but the area of the whole Chinese empire is
4,218,401, while that of the United States, including Alaska, is
3,501,409.
"If you look at the map, you will see that there are numerous chains of
mountains in the countries lying west of China, especially in Tibet,
while China proper has but few of them. The land generally slopes from
the several ranges to the sea, but I will not perplex you with the names
of them. The rivers, of course, flow from the mountains, and you can see
that they have space for a long course. They are generally called _ho_
in the north, and _chiang_ or _kiang_ in the south. The Ho, Hoang-ho, or
Yellow River, and the Chiang, known to us as the Yang-tsze-Chiang, must
be over three thousand miles long. I will not follow them from source to
mouth. Canton, or _Choo-Chiang_ River, which means Pearl River, is also
a very large stream. All these waterways, you notice on the map, have a
general course from west to east. All of them are navigable, though the
Hoang-ho is less so than the Yang-tsze-Chiang, the 'most beloved' of the
Chinese; for its counterpart in the north is a turbid stream, so tricky
that it changed its course in 1853 so that its mouth is now about two
hundred and fifty miles north of where it was before that date."
Mr. Gaskette pointed out the former course, which he had indicated by
double dotted lines, and that of the present course to the Gulf of
Pe-chi-li.
"Chinese history begins twenty-four hundred years before our era, when
the first human kings of Egypt were on the throne, with the narrative of
a tremendous inundation, which some have identified as that of the Flood
in the Old Testament. But the floods did not cease with that event, for
several others have followed. As late as 1887, only half a dozen years
ago, the treacherous Hoang-ho broke loose, and poured its waters into
the populous province of Honan, tearing everything to pieces and
destroying millions of lives. There have been so many of these floods
that they have given the great river the name of 'China's Sorrow.' But
the Manchu rulers are repairing damages, and providing against such
disasters in the future.
"I have to speak next about the Grand Canal and the Great Wall; but I
will defer it for half an hour for a recess, for I think you must be
tired of the dry details I have been giving you," said the professor, as
he stepped down from the rostrum.
The company then promenaded the deck for the time indicated.