Language--Marine dies--Canton interpreter--Lieut. Douglas--Secret
letters--Soap--Money--Christmas--Court-martial--Fires--Chinese
dinner--Ladies' apartments.
One evening, about the latter end of November, we were surprised by the
appearance of the moving board, and expected that we were to be taken
away again, when, to our great amazement, one of the marines that we
had left in the prison walked in, looking stout and well; but after
him came, or rather was carried, the other, a most horrid spectacle, a
moving skeleton, with the skin stretched tightly over his bones; his
eyes were sunk deep in his head, and his voice was awfully hollow; he
was the most melancholy sight I ever saw. When on board the ship he
was a stout, well-made man, and now how dreadfully changed! he had
come up merely to die with his old companions. The other had been very
ill indeed, but (owing to a good constitution, and the kindness and
attentions of Mrs. Noble, who did all that possibly lay in her power to
alleviate their sufferings) he had got over his sickness, and was now
in a fair way for recovery.[12] They brought notes from Lieut. Douglas
and Mrs. Noble, promising us some money. The marines had received their
pice, and ours were to come the next day, which they accordingly did;
four hundred pice for each of the white men, and three hundred for each
of the Lascars.
I now began to learn a little of the language, and found out the name
of several things in the eating way; such as pork, beef, and all sorts
of cakes, and the celebrated bird's-nest soup, which, by-the-bye, was
uncommonly good; these things we were enabled to buy with the money we
had received.
This evening the doctor came and looked at the sick man, and shortly
after his visit, one of the servants brought him a dose, which he
took. That night this old servant was constantly at our window, with a
lantern, to look at the sick person. Towards morning the marine became
much worse, and lost his senses, and soon after he died. He was no
sooner dead than the servant, who had been watching very narrowly at
the window, came in, and rolling the body up in a long coat, and taking
it by the arms, threw it on his back, and making signs for one of the
Melville's boys to keep the legs off the ground, they walked off with
him through the gate, and some way into the town, till they came to an
open space, where there was a shed with some straw in it. Here he laid
the body down, and covering it decently with the coat, made the boy
understand that it would be buried that night.
There were now only two left of the seven marines who came on board
of the Kite from the Melville; and it was not long before one of these
was taken ill; he soon became so bad, that he was obliged to be moved
out of our room, and we hoped he might be taken down to the jail, where
he would have better attendance, and the advantage of Mrs. Noble's
kindness. Our jailer and attendants made signs to this effect, but they
moved him only to another part of the joshouse. He had received several
spear-wounds when he was taken, which had never properly healed; and
when attacked by the dysentery, these wounds broke out afresh, and
reduced him to a dreadful state, and it was not long before we heard of
his death. There was now only one marine left.
A short time after this, a new interpreter, who had just arrived, as he
said, from Canton, came up to us; he brought us two letters to read,
one from Mrs. Noble, and the other from Captain Anstruther, to their
friends at Chusan, requesting to have some clothes and other things
sent to them. This man told us that it would most likely be peace,
and that we should be released in a short time. We complained of the
smallness of our room, and of our having nothing but rice to eat, and
said we wished to have meat sometimes; he agreed that it was a most
uncomfortable place, and promised to speak to the mandarins, and get
all things put to rights for us. He then left us, I cannot say with
revived hopes, for we placed but little reliance on his assurances,
being by this time fully aware of the deceitfulness of the Chinese.
He told us, however, that either Captain Anstruther or Lieut. Douglas
would come to see us in a few days.
On this point he did not deceive us; for two or three days after
his visit, Lieut. Douglas, to our great pleasure, walked in: he was
very indignant at the treatment we had received, and at our being
confined in such a miserable place, and said he would get it altered
immediately. We learned from him, that though the mandarins pressed
the officers to write to their friends at Chusan, and promised that
the letters should be safely conveyed, they had never kept to their
word, but had detained the letters when they had obtained possession of
them; perhaps as curiosities. The officers at Chusan, finding that the
prisoners at Ningpo did not write, suspected the cause to be something
of this kind, and therefore bribed a Chinese to carry letters from
them to Lieut. Douglas and the others; and they answered them by the
same person. They asked for all they wanted, in their letters by the
Chinaman, and always mentioned the same things in those that were given
to the mandarins, so that these gentlemen imagined the English were
conjurors, or some such thing; for with all their cunning they never
found out the spy, and the things that were written for, through them,
always came, although they never sent the letters. Lieut. Douglas,
therefore, knew all that was passing at Chusan, and could tell us what
chance there was of our being speedily released. He told us he had
tried several times to get up to see us, but that the mandarins would
not allow him to come. He had sent us several things, and amongst the
rest a bar of soap; but none of these things arrived, I suppose the
Chinese ate the soap; as they have no such article themselves, they
would most likely imagine it to be some eatable; and as they are in the
habit of eating far nastier things, the soap might have been rather a
delicacy to them than otherwise. After some more conversation, he gave
us a dollar apiece to procure us better and more substantial food,
and then left us, promising to see us soon again, and to improve our
situation.
Lieut. Douglas continued to supply us with money, at the rate of a
dollar apiece for fourteen days; but the persons who brought it to us
generally pocketed one or two dollars each time, and altogether robbed
us of nine dollars; a large sum in that country, where the necessaries
of life are so cheap. The proper exchange, I believe, is rather more
than a thousand pice to the dollar, but we could only get nine hundred
and thirty-two, or at most nine hundred and fifty.
Christmas was now close at hand, and we accordingly bought some meat
and other things, that we might not eat such an un-Englishlike dinner
as rice, turnips, and very small fish, our usual food; and with a
little coaxing on our part, we prevailed on the old jailer to allow us
to have some samshu, a liquor very like gin, and obtained from rice.
We made a better Christmas of it than I had expected, and after our
dinner we called our jailer in, and drank his health, to his great
delight; in fact, he was so much pleased, that he ran out of our room,
and immediately returned, bringing with him a haunch of goat, which
he said "he gave to us;" and was going to hang it up in our room, but
we deemed it expedient to place it in the outer air, so he hung it up
outside, and we had it for dinner the next day. From this time we were
allowed to have as much samshu as we liked; and with the exception of
one Lascar getting drunk, no one ever forgot himself. The Lascar, when
he came to his senses in the morning, we tried by court-martial, and
sentenced him to receive three dozen, which were administered with a
cat made for the purpose, of threads twisted and plaited together.
The marine was now the only Englishman in irons, and notwithstanding
the mandarins had promised Lieut. Douglas, in consequence of his
remonstrances, that they should be taken off, they had as usual
deceived him; so one day we took them off ourselves, and lifting up one
of the floor planks in a corner of the room, hid them there. This we
were enabled to effect the more easily, as they had been taken off when
he was at the jail, to allow him to put on a pair of flushing trousers
Lieut. Douglas had given him; and therefore they were not rivetted, but
merely padlocked together. The Chinese never noticed that his irons
were off, and they were left in the hole as a legacy to the rats.
One evening, whilst at our supper, one of the soldiers came to the
window, and amused himself by imitating our awkward attempts to eat
with the chopsticks. This impertinence so incensed one of our men, that
he jumped up, and filling a basin with water, dashed it through the
bars into the soldier's face, taking him quite by surprise; the water
streamed down his breast, inside his numerous jackets, and must have
made him most uncomfortable. But his only revenge was swearing and
shaking his fist at us as he ran away. Finding that no harm arose from
this first attempt, we determined never to be annoyed again, regretting
that we had allowed ourselves to be overlooked so long; therefore all
parties that would not pay for peeping, we drove away by throwing water
at them; and having a bucketful in the room, the water was always at
hand. Our proceedings amused the old jailer exceedingly, and he very
often brought people to see us, and then getting behind them, made
signs for us to throw the water in their faces; taking care, however,
always to get out of reach of the shower, and to condole with the
visitors, who generally received a good ducking.
It was now January, and we had some very cold weather, and several
falls of snow; our jailer, therefore, allowed us sometimes to have a
small earthenware pot, in which was some mould, and on the top a few
pieces of charcoal; this, of course, was soon expended, so, to keep up
the fire, we tore out the bars of the door, and part of the flooring,
and burnt them. These were the only things I saw in use at the joshouse
in lieu of fire-places.
Our room was too crowded for us to feel the cold much, but still it was
rather chilly; so, to keep ourselves warm, we ran round and round our
apartment, played at leapfrog, and such other games, which kept the
blood from freezing in our veins; besides, we bought pipes and tobacco,
and constantly smoked, which warmed us a little, and probably prevented
sickness getting in amongst us; this was a great advantage, for if any
fever had broken out, we might all have been carried off, from the
extreme unwholesomeness of our apartment. We could see the old officer,
who lived in the room next ours, sitting, for hours together, in his
yard, basking in the sun, and smoking a long pipe; wrapped up in two or
three dresses, made of skins sown together, and wearing a curious kind
of head-dress, resembling the cap worn by jesters in the olden time,
only minus the bells.
Soon after Lieut. Douglas's visit, Wombwell and I were sent for by the
mandarins; thanks to the person for whom we had written on the fans,
as he came with the servants, and pointed us out. On arriving at the
mandarin's, we found the Canton interpreter, with several letters and
boxes from Chusan. The letters contained the good news that peace
was concluded; this information, coming from English authority, was
the more likely to be true, and of course gave me greater pleasure.
The interpreter wished me to explain the letters, which I did, making
him understand our expressions as well as I could; I then told him
to whom the boxes belonged. Wombwell and I were kept separate, and,
after interpreting one letter, I was sent away, and Wombwell brought
in, to give his interpretation. This way of proceeding of course took
a long time; so that we were there nearly all day. About noon a small
table was brought in, upon which they placed refreshments for us; cold
meat cut into small pieces, hard boiled eggs, cakes, and a metal jug
containing about a quart of samshu. This came in very happily, and the
interpreting went on with fresh vigour.
Once, when I retired whilst Wombwell was giving his version of a
letter, I was taken to an officer's rooms, and saw him and three others
at dinner; but, notwithstanding my signs to that purpose, they would
not allow me to share it with them. In the centre of the table was
a large bowl, with a heater in the middle of it, containing a rich
soup, full of vegetables and meat, cut into very small pieces. Around
this were several large plates, containing pork and fowls cut up, the
bones having been taken out, pickled fish and vegetables in a rich
thick gravy; two small plates, one containing salted shrimps, and the
other, something exactly like sea-weed, and also a small basin, filled
with a white lard, into which the officers dipped their chopsticks,
and taking out a small quantity, mixed it with their rice. The rice,
which was very fine and white, was in a small wooden bucket; from which
the servants gave their masters a fresh supply, when their basins
were empty. The chopsticks were made of a hard black polished wood,
something like ebony; and the basins and plates were of that beautiful
transparent China ware which we esteem so highly, with figures and
flowers painted on them, in most brilliant colours. Two servants stood
behind their master's chairs, and waited upon them with the assiduity
of European servants. When the officers had finished, the servants took
their places, and made their dinner off the remains. They followed
their masters' example in excluding me from their repast; though they
very readily gave me cups of hot water, which I suppose they called
tea, as I could discern two or three leaves at the bottom of the cup.
Having now nothing to do, I went to the entrance, and on looking out,
I observed, opposite to me, a building, from which proceeded a Babel
of voices, and seeing a little girl come out of the door, I thought
I would take the opportunity, whilst the officers were in another
apartment, and the servants intent upon their supper, to walk over, and
see what was in this place; so on the girl's return, I followed her;
but was noticed too soon by the ladies inside, who no sooner saw me
than they jumped up, and slammed the door in my face, setting up most
dreadful shrieks, which brought the officers out, who immediately ran
over to me, and led me back, laughing heartily at the same time; so
that my attempt to see a Chinese lady's apartment was frustrated.
I now returned to the interpreter, and having finished our task, the
small table was again placed before us, furnished in the same manner as
before; so that we could not complain of their want of hospitality.
The mandarin, a fat jolly-looking old gentleman, asked me, through the
interpreter, whether we ever had any snow in our country; and seemed
very much surprised when I told him, we had far more than was then
on the ground; he was very much taken with the appearance of my blue
flannel shirt, which I was then wearing: but as it was my warmest
piece of clothing, I could not afford to make him a present of it. The
room we were in was very nicely furnished; with painted arm-chairs, a
few couches, with soft cushions, small tables, inlaid with different
kinds of woods, several handsome China vases, and a small English clock
in a wooden case, inlaid with brass. The ceiling was painted buff
colour, and varnished; and from it were suspended four large ornamented
lanterns. There were neither rushes nor mats on the floor, but merely
the bare boards, and these by no means too clean.
When we reached home (as we were obliged to call our miserable prison)
it was quite dark, and we found all the others had lain down. We
communicated the happy news we had learned from the letters, and then
followed their example.
FOOTNOTE:
[12] These two marines had their irons on their legs when they came to
us.