Canton and Hongkong, and the fact that the British Concession at
Canton is an interesting survival from an earlier stage of our
relations with China, justify us in paying a flying visit to that
city before continuing our voyage northwards. So we board one of
the small local steamers and pass up the broad river, with the
old forts on its banks, which more than once have been bombarded
by our fleets, until the growing crowd of native shipping tells
as that we are approaching the great commercial city. Here are 32
junks and sampans packed together or moving slowly about the
river, and huge shallow-draught steamers, resembling pictures
of the old boats on the Mississippi, fifty years ago. We land
at last on the Shameen, the British settlement outside the 33
walls. It was originally a mere mud bank, facing the main river
and protected by a narrow creek at the back. Now it is laid 34
out as a European town, with open spaces, a church, and 35
European houses and gardens. Here is a view of the creek 36
with the English bridge. Across the creek is a Chinese suburb,
thickly packed with native houses, and beyond are the high
walls of the vast city with its million of turbulent people.
We cross the bridge and make our way to the massive gates; if
we are wise we shall take a guide with us. From the top of the
old wall we look down over a sea of roofs, with here and there
a fire lookout or a huge building, a pawnshop, showing above
the general level. Hidden below is a mass of narrow and winding
streets, and far away, in the very midst of the city, towers 37
the great Flowery Pagoda. Just below it is a building which we
must visit, the old British Yamen, at one time the residence of
our officials, though they now prefer the greater comfort of the
Shameen. Here, in the heart of Canton, in the former palace of a
high Chinese official, we established a British representative.
It was a great change from the days when British merchants
carried subservient messages to the city gates and the Chinese
refused to interview or in any way recognize British officials.
This interesting building is of great significance in the history
of our relations with the great Empire of the East. Here are two 38
views of the Yamen; we seem to be very much in the heart of 39
China.
Canton has, to some extent, lost its former importance for us,
and its merchants no longer have the monopoly of the whole
external trade of China; so we return to Hongkong without further
delay, and rejoining our ship steam out through the narrow
eastern passage, the _Lai-i-mun_, and turn northwards on our
voyage.
Our next port of call is Shanghai, a most important centre of (1)
British trade and influence and in close connexion with
British stations in the East, though not one of them itself.
Hongkong is the great exchange station for shipping and trade
in the Far East; Shanghai is the market and business centre for
the great basin of the Yangtse river and for much of North China
as well. Its importance may be measured by the fact that over
half the total trade of China passes through the hands of its
merchants. There are two Shanghais, and the contrast between
them is great; on the one hand we have the old native walled 40
city, dirty and decaying and purely Chinese, and on the other
the new Foreign Settlement, where all the business is done. 41
This part has grown steadily in size and prosperity. The
French still have entire control of their own section, but
in the International Settlement, which was at one time purely
British, Germans and Americans have now a considerable share.
We have here a very curious system: a foreign municipality
established on Chinese soil and governing itself, subject only to
the control of the foreign Consuls and the Ministers at Peking.
It is responsible for a few thousand Europeans and over half a
million Chinese. At Hongkong we are supreme in everything; but at
Shanghai, though the citizens of foreign nations are subject to
their own laws, the city is still legally part of China, so that
the natives are under the jurisdiction of Chinese officials. This
has been the cause of great trouble in the past, as Chinese and
Western ideas of law are widely different. It is a very strange
position. Here is a small body of foreign merchants, practically
unprotected, in the midst of a vast native population, yet
responsible for the well-being of one of the greatest commercial
cities in the world.
Trade is the sole foundation of this new Shanghai, and trade 42
depends on the river Hwangpu; for though Shanghai is the outlet
for the Yangtse basin, it stands at some distance from the
main river and the sea, at the head of the tideway of a small
tributary and in close contact with a great network of canals
and rivers in the fertile country to the west. The bank of the
river is lined with wharves, warehouses and factories, and the
Settlement is spreading steadily down towards Wusung. The flat
country round has been built up of silt brought down by the main
river; centuries ago Shanghai may have been on the coast. The
river is still at work: great banks are formed under water, and
in a few generations become dry land thickly populated. In the
whole breadth of the Yangtse mouth there are only two channels
navigable by large vessels. Everywhere the land is gaining on the
sea. Into the broad silt-laden estuary the little Hwangpu empties
itself below Wusung; it brings down no silt, but the incoming
tide sweeps in the muddy water of the main river. The silt is
dropped and the stream is too weak to scour it away. At the mouth
of the Hwangpu is a great bar, which is still growing; and so
much has the channel changed and shallowed that it is no longer
safe for the largest vessels to approach Shanghai. We may see the
same process going on in England, in the Humber and the rivers
flowing into the Wash. The Chinese are at last beginning to move;
a new channel has been cut for traffic on the Hwangpu; the bed of
the river has been dredged and its course straightened, and an
embankment built to keep out the silt from the main river. But
the size of the vessels engaged in trade increases every year
and the future of Shanghai is in the balance; it remains to be
seen whether modern engineering will win the day against the vast
forces wielded by the Yangtse. Any decline in the activity of
Shanghai would be likely to result in more business for Hongkong.
We leave Shanghai for the last stage of our long voyage from 43
Europe. As we steam northwards, the coast on our left is low,
fringed with banks and without harbours or inlets; it is the
edge of the great alluvial plain of China. But on the second day
we come in sight of high bare cliffs, backed by dark mountains.
We are approaching the promontory of Shantung, an isolated block
of highland, cut off sharply by the sea on its eastern edge and
sinking on the west to the shifting beds of the Hwang-ho and
the maze of waterways which covers the great plain. Towards the
southwest corner of the peninsula lies Kiaochau, now a possession
of Germany; in the middle of the north side is the old Treaty
Port of Chifu; and between Chifu and the extreme eastern point
of the promontory is the bay and port of Wei-hai-wei. The map
shows us that north of Shantung the coast again becomes low and
uniform, difficult of access and without good seaports; but
a hundred miles away, across the water, another mountainous
peninsula, Liaotung, stretches out to meet Shantung, where a
string of little islands partly bridges the broad channel. In
Liaotung, as in Shantung, are headlands and deep inlets and
harbours; here we have Port Arthur and Talienwan. The two great
promontories seem framed by Nature to guard the approach to the
Gulf and the capital province of China. On the one, two foreign
Powers are established by diplomacy; two more have fought for the
control of the other.
We steam round the eastern headland, with its white lighthouse 44
nestling below the gloomy hills, and soon a wide bay begins to
open out ahead of us. We have reached the end of our voyage. The
bay forms a rough semicircle, about six miles across, ringed in
by hills to the south and west, but open to the northeast, except
where for two miles across the entrance stretches the island
of Liukung, hilly in the west but tapering off to a long low
reef in the east. The island and the northeastern bend of the
mainland enclose an anchorage sheltered from the northerly gales
which sweep in from the sea in winter. This is the harbour of
Wei-hai-wei. In the midst of the broad southern channel, a mere
dot upon the water, is a rocky islet, _I-tao_, or Sun Island,
crowned with the ruins of strong fortifications. There are other
such ruins on the high ground to the north and south, commanding
the two entrances to the bay. These relics contain the history of
Wei-hai-wei.
[Illustration: WEI-HAI-WEI.]
It was here that the Chinese fleet, during the war with Japan
in 1895, took refuge after the loss of Port Arthur and the
defeat off the Yalu. Japanese troops landed further east and
captured the forts on the mainland, while their fleet attacked
the booms drawn across the wide entrances. The nearness of the
mainland was a source of weakness to the island and the Chinese
fleet; and Admiral Ting, assailed both from land and sea, was
at length compelled to surrender, so that Japan now held the
two defences of the passage-way to Peking, and China’s case was
hopeless. Early in 1898, Germany obtained a lease of Kiaochau,
as compensation for the murder of some missionaries; a few weeks
later Russia seized Port Arthur, and in July of the same year
Wei-hai-wei was leased to us. It was not merely by chance that
the three events followed one another so closely.
Wei-hai-wei was adopted as a naval base and for the protection
of our commerce, since Hongkong is over a thousand miles away.
The control of a considerable zone on the neighbouring mainland
is necessary for the security of the harbour, so that the leased
territory covers in all an area of 285 square miles, or about
twice the size of the Isle of Wight. The case is like that of
Kaulun. We are fortunate in the time of our visit, as the fleet 45
is at anchor in the bay and the crews are practising mining
operations; but at another time we might find the place deserted.
There is no permanent garrison, as Wei-hai-wei is only to be
used as a flying base and practice ground for the fleet. On the
island are the marine barracks, which remind us of England, and 46
the naval hospital, which looks quite Chinese, in spite of its
English occupants. The hospital is the more important, since
our squadrons in the Eastern seas have great need of a
sanatorium, and Wei-hai-wei, with its temperate climate, is the
most healthy of all our positions in this part of the world.
There is a cricket pitch on the parade ground and English sailors
are everywhere to be seen in the little town; but we turn a
corner and come upon a building which is peculiarly Chinese, 47
an open-air theatre, to remind us that we are merely visitors
among a foreign people with customs very different from our own.
Let us climb the hill towards the golf links, and crossing over
look down on the northern channel. There is no town here, as the
shore is rugged and unsheltered and lashed by heavy seas in the
winter storms. The island is a natural breakwater and this is the
seaward side.
[Illustration:
_Copyright._) (_See page 103._
VICTORIA: THE WATER FRONT.]
[Illustration:
_Copyright._) (_See page 105._
A HAKKA WOMAN.]
[Illustration:
_Copyright._) (_See page 111._
NAVAL HOSPITAL, LIUKUNGTAO.]
We will now cross in the steam launch to the mainland and 48
step ashore at Port Edward. Here is a general view of the
new town, with its ugly modern hotel and its European houses
scattered about the lower slope of the hill. The territory (44)
on the mainland is rather more interesting than the island. It
is little more than a strip, ten miles wide, along the coastline
of the bay, though we have certain rights over a larger area.
Mountain ridges, rising to over a thousand feet, with sharp
peaks still higher, cross it from west to east, dark and bare
with deep-cut ravines which are torrents in rainy weather. A
low isthmus divides the high ground round Port Edward from the
main mass of the Territory; through it runs the new road towards
Chifu, and at its eastern end, close to the sea, stands the
Chinese walled town of Wei-hai-wei, from which the whole district
takes its name. Far away in the southwest are the high mountains
of Chinese Shantung. The old city, though within sight of Port
Edward, is not like the surrounding territory under British
control. Let us pay it a short visit to see what a Chinese
provincial town is like. We can go in by the eastern gate 49
and look along the street and visit the temple of Confucius, 50
the great Chinese teacher and philosopher, who was a native of
the Shantung province. Much of the space within the walls is
not built on; the whole town seems sleepy and decaying, and
our ideas as to cleanliness and sanitation are quite unknown
to the Chinese. In the British area there are no such towns,
but hundreds of little agricultural villages scattered about in
the low-lying parts of the country. The Chinese peasant here is
very different from the coolie or shopkeeper of Hongkong and is
governed in a very different way. A Civil Commissioner, assisted
by a few Europeans and a small force of police, is responsible
for the control of over 150,000 Chinese. At one time there was
a regiment of soldiers, recruited from the natives; when this 51
force was disbanded, some of its members became police. Even
in the central offices many natives are employed on the
staff, while the villages practically rule themselves through
the local headmen. Here we have a portrait of a typical 52
headman, and here a group receiving medals as a reward for 53
good service. The Governor of Shantung is the nearest high
official representative of China; and we may see him here in his 54
chair of state on his way to pay a formal visit to the 55
Commissioner. Here again is a group of the two high officials and
their respective staffs. We are a long way from those early days,
in the middle of the nineteenth century, when Chinese officials
refused even to write to our representatives on terms of equality.
Let us now see something of the natives and their occupations.
It is market day in Port Edward; the streets are alive with
crowds, buying, selling and haggling, and crowding round the 56
food stalls with their piles of strange delicacies in bowls and
saucers. In one corner they are bargaining for pigs, in another
are piled loads of fuel, scrub oak and fir, brought in from the
country round on the backs of donkeys and mules. There is no
coal, and the peasant has stripped the country of most of its
woods, here as in other parts of China. Here again we have a 57
village market and a group of peasants with sacks of grain and
bundles of brushwood for sale. Outside the village they are 58
threshing the grain in a primitive way with a roller, and drying
peanuts on the threshing floor. Everywhere, on the banks of the
streams, we find the village washing-places, where clothes 59
are washed and pounded in the fashion which the Chinese adopt
all the world over. Down on the shore we see the fishermen 60
cutting up sharks for the fins, which are greatly prized by the
Chinese as a relish. _Mat’ou_ was a fishing village on the site
of the present port before the Japanese occupation, and fish of
all kinds swarm in the neighbouring seas. Agriculture and fishing
are still the main business of the people. It is true that 61
here at Port Edward we see them repairing junks, and a great
quantity of timber is lying about; but the timber must all be
brought from the Yalu river, and the old iron which is piled 62
near has been salved from the sunken warships at Port Arthur.
Notice the pony, with his load of brushwood, in the foreground.
There are as yet no materials for local industries, and it does
not seem likely that Wei-hai-wei, in its isolated corner, will
grow into a great commercial centre. None the less we may see
an important European settlement develop on the site of the
old native fishing village. It is not too far away from Peking
and Shanghai; the rainfall in the year is about the same as in
London, though there are far fewer rainy days, as the rain falls
more in heavy showers; while the summer is dry, and cooler than
in most of China. There is already a school for European boys at
Port Edward, and it seems well fitted as a summer watering-place
for those whose work takes them to the Far East. In winter it is
less pleasant. The northern gales bring snow, as we see in this 63
picture, and the cold is so severe that the thick ice is
collected, as in northern Europe, to be stored for use in summer.
We have visited Canton and Shanghai because there we find a few
Englishmen, living on Chinese soil, but under their own laws and
with certain limited powers of self-government. In Shanghai,
even these privileges are not exclusive, as they are shared with
other foreigners; and they do not imply any interference with the
political sovereignty of China. Wei-hai-wei and the New Territory
behind Kaulun we govern, but only on lease; Hongkong and the
peninsula of Kaulun alone are ours in full possession. So we
return to Hongkong, as the last outpost of British power in the
Far East and the real terminus of our voyage.
Let us pause here, on the outer rim of our Eastern Empire, and 64
try to realize its position with reference to the great lines
of the world’s traffic. South of us lies the route which we have
traced from Singapore and India; while another route, as yet in
its infancy, leads past Borneo to Australia. Across the Pacific,
from the eastward, come the steamers from British Columbia and
San Francisco; and soon, when the Panama Canal is finished, there
will be direct communication from the Atlantic seaboard of the
United States. So we see a great concentration of routes on our
Eastern Empire, in the region where the influences of India and
China meet and overlap. The key to this frontier region is in
Singapore, but behind Singapore lies India.
We have approached India from the northwest, by the passage
of the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal; and we have seen how
our interests in the Mediterranean, at first purely European,
have become more and more related to the control of the seaway
to India. Southwest is the older route, by way of the Atlantic
and the Cape, a route still valuable for some purposes. Here
the control of the route led us on to the occupation of the
neighbouring mainland of Africa. Southeast again we reach
Australia, either directly across the ocean or threading the
island group of Malaya; while the Indian Ocean has its own system
of minor local routes. So we have lines of traffic from every
part of the world converging on the Indian region, with its vast
trade and swarming population; the natural junction of all these
sea roads, great and small, is Colombo, close to the mainland of
the Peninsula, yet at the same time well out in the open sea, the
centre of control from which India reaches out in every direction
and dominates the Indian Ocean.
List of Slides
[_The titles printed in heavy type are those of the Maps and
Illustrations appearing in the book._]
SET I
_Slide No_
1. Map of the Roads from Europe to the East.
2. Map of Strait of Gibraltar.
3. Distant view of Gibraltar.
=4. Nearer view of Gibraltar.=
5. Gibraltar, Town and Harbour.
=6. Map of Gibraltar.=
7. The Rock from Devil’s Tower Road.
8. The Causeway and Bay from above.
9. Southport Street.
10. The Old Moorish Castle.
11. Outside one of the Galleries.
12. View from a Gallery Window.
=13. The Isthmus and Linea from the Galleries.=
14. Water Catchment on North Peak.
15. The South Gate.
16. In the Alameda Gardens.
17. Troops, on parade.
18. The Southern Suburb, from the Alameda Gardens.
19. The Dockyard, from Europa Main Road.
20. Europa Pass.
21. The Lighthouse, Europa Point.
22. The Rock, from the Governor’s Cottage.
23. The Rock and Europa Advance Battery.
24. The Ridge, looking North.
25. Catalan Bay.
26. Genoese Fishermen, Catalan Bay.
27. The Signal Station, Gibraltar.
28. Map of the Western Mediterranean and the Channel.
29. Map of Malta and the Mediterranean.
=30. Plan of Valetta Harbour.=
31. Valetta, from the Sea.
32. Fort Ricasoli.
=33. Fort St. Angelo.=
=34. Valetta Harbour, looking towards the Sea.=
35. Valetta Harbour, from the Lower Baracca.
36. Sadtar San Giovanni, Valetta.
37. Portrait of a Maltese Gentleman.
38. Maltese Lady, in faldetta.
39. The Armoury Corridor, Governor’s Palace.
40. Connaught Hospital, Citta Vecchia.
41. House in Balzan Village.
42. Auberge de Castile.
43. The Cathedral of St. John.
44. The Old Aqueduct.
45. View towards Citta Vecchia.
46. View from Ramparts of Citta Vecchia.
47. Underground Granaries, Valetta.
48. Working in the Granaries.
49. Gateway of Citta Vecchia.
50. A Norman House.
51. Roman Villa.
52. Maltese Regiment, at drill.
53. Map of the Maltese Islands.
54. Rabato, from the East.
55. The Cathedral, Rabato.
56. View across Country, from Rabato.
=57. Lacemakers, Gozo.=
58. Old House, Gozo.
59. Gigantea, Gozo.
60. Hagar Kim, Malta; the North Apse.
SET II
1. Map of Railway from Calais to Brindisi.
2. Map of the Eastern Mediterranean.
3. Phœnician Rock Tomb, Cyprus.
4. Ruins of Temple of Zeus.
5. Slag Heaps at Scariotissa.
6. Limassol.
7. Othello’s Tower, Famagusta.
8. Old Lusignan Palace, Famagusta.
9. St. Sophia, exterior.
10. St. Sophia, interior.
11. In the Monastery of Kikko.
12. Abbey of Bella Paise.
13. The Cloisters, Bella Paise.
14. Modern Greek Church.
15. A Tekkye: Shrine of Mohammed’s Aunt.
=16. Map of Cyprus.=
17. View of Nicosia and the Messaoria.
=18. Famagusta, from the roof of St. Sophia.=
19. Troodos, from the South.
20. Vineyard near Limassol.
21. Harvesters: Noonday Siesta.
22. Forest Guards.
23. Threshing Floor, with Oxen.
24. Orange Orchards of Lefca.
=25. Turkish Villager, at Well.=
26. Bronze Cannon and Stone Cannon Balls.
27. Site of Ancient Salamis.
28. View of Old Famagusta.
29. St. Hilarion.
30. St. Hilarion, the Banqueting Hall.
31. Guard at St Hilarion.
32. Bay of Salamis.
33. The Landing Stage, Famagusta.
34. Railway Station.
35. Map of Euphrates Valley Railway.
36. Coaling at Port Said.
37. Street in Port Said.
38. Suez Canal Offices, Port Said.
39. Steamer in Suez Canal.
40. One of the Bitter Lakes.
41. Map of Lower Egypt.
42. The Dam at Assuan.
43. A Pyramid.
44. Southern end of the Suez Canal.
45. Egyptian Bumboats at Suez.
46. Map of Upper Egypt.
=47. Map of Aden.=
48. The Signal Station, Aden.
49. Off Steamer Point, Aden.
=50. Arab Boats, Aden.=
51. The Akaba; Aden.
52. In the Akaba; the Main Pass.
53. Aden, from the top of Shumshun.
54. A Tank, Aden.
55. A Tank, Aden.
56. A Well at Sheik Othman.
57. Scene at Sheik Othman.
58. The Camel Market, Aden.
59. Shipping Camels for Somaliland.
SET III