MEMORIES OF GORDON
[Sidenote: 1869. Hankow, Mar. 19]
Mr. Caine, the Consul, and son of my old friend of former China days,
having given notice of my intention the day previous, at 10 A.M. we
crossed the river to Wu-chang, that I might pay my respects to the
Viceroy. Besides the Consul and myself our party consisted of Swinhoe,
Mr. Davenport, the consular interpreter, and Keppel Garnier, Flag
Lieutenant. The Viceroy was Li Hung Chang, who had fought for eighteen
years against the Tai-peng rebels and was considered the first general
in the Imperialist Army.
Gordon had held a command as brigadier-general under him, and Li it was
who so treacherously put to death Lar Wang and nine of the rebel chiefs
at the surrender of Soo-chow, on 7th December 1863, although Gordon
had pledged himself for their safety. The only time that Gordon was
known to carry arms were the two days after the execution of the Wangs,
when, had he fallen in with Li, there would have been two holes in Li’s
yellow waistcoat!
Besides my curiosity to see this celebrated scoundrel, I wanted the
loan of a most convenient little steamer, the _Hyson_, now lying in the
river, which had performed such wonderful feats in co-operation with
Gordon during the war.
We landed about a quarter of a mile below a pagoda, just built or
renovated, on the point where the city wall touches the river. Chairs,
with the official number of bearers, were found ready, proceeded at
once inside the city walls to the Viceroy’s Yamun. There was the usual
rush of guards and deliberation before the outer gates were opened,
although we were only punctual to our time.
There is a regular etiquette on all ceremonial visits as to how far
you may advance in your chair towards the first door of the three
apartments, at which you are met by the person you visit.
[Sidenote: Wu-chang.]
I received the honour due to the highest rank, and was placed on a
raised platform on the left of the Viceroy Li. Tea was ready, and
another table with sweetmeats--the usual compliments of asking your
age, health, and the balance of your family.
Before I proceeded to announce my intention of proceeding up the river,
His Excellency hoped I would not attempt to do so, urging that the
natives were troublesome and unaccustomed to foreigners, and he could
not be responsible for them. I replied that I had no fear with the
passport of so great a man. To this he made objections and excuses. We
then gathered round the sweetmeats and replied to numerous questions
about armament and guns, all showing a warlike tendency.
Viceroy Li is a tall, hard-looking man, and I should think quite
capable of ridding himself and his country of any number of rebel
kings, whether a British officer had become security or not. He seemed
to take a great fancy to my Bath Star, and said he should recommend me
to the Emperor for the distinguished order of the Imperial Dragon.
Our interview lasted for over an hour.
We took our departure for the residence of the Reverend Mr. John,
one of the greatest travellers in China, at whose house we found a
real English luncheon. He had a pretty, lively little daughter and a
wife who shared his labours. Mr. John afterwards accompanied us to
the curio-shops, which were poorly provided and inferior to those in
Hankow. He gave us much valuable information from the experience he had
gained in the Upper Yang-tse, and seemed to think the _Salamis_ would
have little difficulty in getting up to I-Chang, about 15 miles below
the first rapids.
[Sidenote: Mar. 20.]
Among those we visited was the Russian Consul, who concocted a
delicious beverage out of some rare green tea; so scarce that in a
twelvemonth he could seldom succeed in getting more than 120 lbs., and
that went to Russia for the Emperor’s use. There are several Russian
merchants who have been located for years in the interior cities
carrying on an extensive trade in furs, as well as silks and tea.
Russians appear to have a greater facility in acquiring languages than
other nations. In spite of the rain, cold, and damp, and anything but
the best of meat, certainly the worst of cooking, we enjoyed ourselves.
[Sidenote: Hankow, Mar. 21.]
_Sunday._--We were astonished at the appearance, before tiffin, of our
mail from England, four days before the expected time. Two Admirals
dead, and I top of list of Vice; _Rodney_ ordered home.
There is a neat little church in course of construction. Clergyman a
Mr. MacClatchy; his wife a sister of Sir Harry Parkes.
Of course there was a race-course, an agreeable and innocent amusement,
our host being among the light weights and about the best rider. The
old course was outside the city walls, on a flat some 12 miles in
extent with scarcely a tree to be seen. In winter, I am told, the flat
is covered with bustards, geese, and hares.
[Illustration: _May and Webb._]
The vessel that brought the mail did not bring the long-expected
_Faust_, and our departure was deferred. The good Doctor Gregory kindly
volunteering to look after my belongings, we left them, with the worthy
Webb to help: it was not so bad an arrangement.
[Sidenote: Mar. 24.]
At 3 P.M. the _Fusiama_ steamer put in an appearance, with the _Faust_
in tow. She was quickly in readiness to proceed, but Risk had too much
work to get through, so the early morning was fixed for our next start.
_En route_ to take leave of the children, found them with Webb in sad
distress over a string of rats secured by wire to a six-foot stick.
With the _Faust_ came up two surveying officers, Dawson from _Sylvia_,
and Palmer, who had been serving in the _Insolent_ at Chefoo. We
managed to get two Chinese pilots, who knew something of the river as
far as Yoh-chow, at the entrance of the Tung-ting Lake. We had also our
Shanghai pilot, Mr. Pendleton, an intelligent man, experienced in river
navigation. With all this staff, and the _Opossum_ some days ahead to
look out for difficulties, the knowing ones were betting that I should
never reach I-Chang. There is a good and well-conducted club at Hankow.
[Sidenote: Mar. 25.]
At 8 A.M. we had taken leave of the children and friends; a few
minutes after we were on our way to the interior of the Celestial
Empire--_Faust_, and a native boat hired by Messrs. Francis and Michi
to sleep in, in tow. Cannot say much for the interesting scenery, for
though the whole country is scarcely raised above the level of the
river from July to October, at the present time we were twenty feet
below. Except where there was a village we were steaming between mud
walls, on the top of which a few natives, or a boy on a buffalo with
the sky for a background, appeared, to break the monotony. When I say
between mud walls, the river was seldom less than half a mile wide.
We anchored at sunset, having had much bother with the hired native
boat. These craft are loosely put together, and do not stand towing
at any speed. This one looked like a lashed-up hammock. The woman on
board with a child in her arms roared to be released, declaring the
boat was filling and calling to her countrymen on the banks to come to
her rescue; but when Messrs Michi and Francis went on board the boat
was found to be all right, no attention was paid to her, while she
continued to roar and wipe her tears with the arm of her child, while
her crew joined in chorus: one of them, to prove his distress, lay on
his back kicking the air with his nailed boots.
[Sidenote: Tung-ting Lake, Mar. 26.]
At about 3 P.M. we had struck off from the Yang-tse to go down the
branch that leads to the Tung-ting Lake, and five miles farther came
to off Yo-chow, situated at the outlet. A high wall hid from our view
the city, which appears to have been built on a bluff; for healthiness
it must be as well, or better, than any of the towns we had passed.
Yo-chow is the great port for the wealthy province of Hainan, and I
should imagine well adapted for one of the Treaty Ports, but, opening
it would shut up Hankow, where sufficient money has already been
expended.
[Sidenote: Yo-chow.]
There was a good assortment of trading junks; two customs Government
boats were showily decorated, the Captain was entertaining a tea
party. Our surveying officers landed to take sights for chronometers
and soon collected a crowd, some of whom, when the officers had picked
up their instruments and turned their backs to go down to the boat,
began hooting and throwing stones, a number of specimens of which were
brought on board; some of them quite big enough to have knocked a man
off his thwart.
Observing what was going on, I ordered a blank gun to be fired to
remind them that we were a vessel-of-war, and might pitch something
into them that would hit harder than stones. I asked Swinhoe, who was
just shoving off from the ship, to go alongside the Government vessel
and demand an explanation. The Captain, who was at that moment sitting
down to entertain his guests, said that, seeing the gathering of roughs
that was taking place, he had despatched a messenger to the Prefect,
telling him of the outrage and recommending his sending down a force to
keep the peace; informing him that a great British Admiral had arrived
with a thousand men, and that he would assuredly avenge the insult.
Swinhoe informed this officer he had better go on board and explain
matters to the Admiral. The customs official, who had some misgivings
as to the propriety of trusting himself within the power of an incensed
British Admiral, hesitated. He held many consultations with his guests,
and they all appeared to think he ran great risk; but on Swinhoe
assuring him that he could not answer for the consequences if he did
not go and explain, at the end of three-quarters of an hour he figged
himself up with another cup of tea, and, taking his pink-buttoned hat,
with its hanging feather, like a fox’s brush, he resigned himself to
his fate, took leave of his fat friends and descended with Swinhoe into
the _Salamis_ boat.
Seeing him coming, I had only just time to put on uniform and a _war_
expression, when he was ushered on board.
After the usual “chin chin,” we were seated opposite one another,
when he broke out in a nervous, but loud voice to explain matters.
I informed him that it was a very serious offence; that by treaty a
man-of-war was allowed to go to any part of China and have protection;
that the affair at Swatow commenced in the same way by some roughs,
over whom the authorities professed to have no control, throwing
stones, which ended in my having to destroy three large towns, with
great loss of life to the inhabitants.
I told him, in this case, one presumed the Governor was not aware we
were coming, and I should content myself with reporting to Peking the
treatment my officers, while unarmed, had received. I requested the
official to inform the Governor that, when I returned, a life would,
probably, be taken for every stone thrown! He then thanked me for my
forbearance, and, I imagine, was glad when he found himself again with
his tea party.
Having landed our Hankow pilots, failed in getting others for I-Chang,
but as we got our sights, there was no further cause for detention. The
ill feeling by a few roughs was anything but the prevailing one among
the natives, who swarmed alongside to see the ship, bringing vegetables
and sweetmeats for sale.
Two or three boats full of the fishing cormorants amused us amazingly:
they had probably been fishing in the clear waters of the lake. The
birds were perched all over the boat, on the gunnels, on the top of
the covering, or anywhere they could get a footing. Although each had
a small line to one leg, none of them were secured; there were perhaps
twenty in each boat.
The fish they had caught were of various sorts, and, strange to say,
the perch, with its prickly fin, that a pike will refuse to touch, was
not the least common among those in the tub; in fact, while the man
was holding the fish-tub, one of the cormorants shoved his beak in and
seized a large perch. He, in his turn, was seized by the throat and
made to disgorge. I noticed that the man cleverly turned the fish round
in the throat of the cormorant, so that it came out head foremost.
It would have puzzled the cormorant to have got rid of it otherwise,
unless the perch had gone clean through him. I was anxious to ascertain
how the Chinaman prevented the fish passing into the stomach of the
cormorant, and found that it was by a twist of straw tied just tight
enough round the lower part of the neck to hold a fish of about 3/4
lb. When we started I daresay the roughs went home rejoicing, thinking
they had driven us away. We weighed about an hour before sunset, and
turned down the stream to where we had diverged from the Yang-tse, in
which we brought up for the night.
[Sidenote: Mar. 27.]
We weighed at daylight, with Blakiston’s geographical flying survey of
the river as our only guide. This, officers had enlarged to a scale
of one inch to the mile. We managed between 70 and 80 miles the first
day, without accident beyond that of fouling a junk that persisted in
placing itself under our bows, turn which way we would. No great damage
done: a Chinaman was knocked overboard from the junk, but he managed
to take a plank with him. It is so seldom that a Chinaman ever helps a
drowning man, that we stopped a few minutes until we saw him picked up.
There was but little variety in the scenery. One remarkable object was
the skeleton of a large forest tree, noticed also by Blakiston. The
only way to account for its standing alone in a country where fuel is
scarce, is that it must have been struck by lightning, when it would be
considered a thing accursed! If a junk is struck by lightning she is
deserted. Porpoises continued to tumble over, and bottles that floated
past gave indication that we were not the first Europeans up the
Yang-tse.
[Sidenote: Sunday, Mar. 28.]
As if to made up for our good fortune on the previous day, we
frequently touched the bottom. Came to at Shi-show.
[Sidenote: Mar. 29.]
We had gone but a short distance after daylight when we suddenly came
into shoal water. The vessel was quickly stopped and her head put
at another point without success. This operation was repeated four
times, each attempt a little farther towards mid-channel. Whether
the commander was losing patience, and made the last more spitefully
than before, he certainly managed to fix her as firmly as on a rock
on a sandbank about mid-channel. Every attempt to heave her off after
lightening failed; but the _Opossum_ had orders not to proceed farther
than where there was a channel for us, and she must be some way ahead.
A sandbank soon formed on the side opposite to the current, on which
the men walked; but this, our experienced American pilot assured us,
was a matter of course, on grounding on a sandbank in a river with a
rapid current.
The _Faust_ was got ready and preparing for a start to Shi-show for
junks, by which we might lighten ourselves, when the outline of three
Europeans, with the sky for a background, appeared on the edge of
the bank which formed our mud wall. They were from the _Opossum_,
having heard from a native boat of our position. On consultation, it
was decided that our case was merely one that required patience: the
current would take its time, and eventually release us; we might be
twisted about and fresh banks appear, but in the end we should be
floated off, and none the worse.
[Sidenote: Mar. 30.]
Shooting parties landed, bringing on board a tolerable bag: ducks and
teal had not yet taken their departure for their summer abode; several
pheasants, hares, and snipe. We supplied _Opossum_ with what coal she
could stow, while her native pilot held out hopes of taking us up to
I-Chang.
[Sidenote: Mar. 31.]
Shortly before 4 A.M., the rush of the stream chain through the
hawse-hole, and a tremulous motion, informed me that we were off the
bank, while the other bower anchor brought us up in the channel.
It took us the remainder of the day to recover our anchors, stream
chain, and hawsers. On the Sabbath afternoon I invited Risk, my
secretary, to accompany me in a stroll. My feelings were shocked to
see him, on landing, produce a gun and well-stocked bag of cartridges,
while Ponto, a pointer, but a still better retriever, soon came on
the scent of game. Snipe and teal got up in twos and threes, a fair
proportion falling to Risk’s gun. The temptation was too much for
me. Borrowing the gun, while Risk looked on, in the course of a few
moments I returned him an empty cartridge bag. Fortunately he had a few
cartridges left, and was rewarded by a brace or two of pheasants on the
homeward journey. The spring snipe afford splendid shooting, even up to
May, as they work north to their breeding grounds by easy stages. The
birds are nearly double the ordinary size, the result, I presume, of
good feeding in the pâdi-fields. Bags of even fifty couple a gun await
a good shot.