A VOYAGE UP THE YANG-TSE KIANG.
[Illustration: CANAL SCENE SOUTH OF SHANGHAI.]
The plans of the Doctor included a journey up the great river, the
Yang-tse. There was abundant opportunity for the proposed voyage, as
there were two lines of steamers making regular trips as far as Han-kow,
about six hundred miles from Shanghai. One line was the property of a
Chinese company, and the other of an English one. The Chinese company's
boats were of American build, and formerly belonged to an American firm
that had large business relations in the East. The business of
navigating the Yang-tse-kiang had been very profitable, and at one time
it was said that the boats had made money enough to sink them if it were
all put into silver and piled on their decks. But there was a decline
when an opposition line came into the field and caused a heavy reduction
of the prices for freight and passage. In the early days of steam
navigation on the Yang-tse-kiang a passage from Shanghai to Han-kow
cost four hundred dollars, and the price of freight was in proportion.
For several years the Americans had a monopoly of the business, and
could do pretty much as they liked. When the opposition began, the fares
went down, down, down; and at the time our friends were in China the
passage to Han-kow was to be had for twenty-four dollars--quite a
decline from four hundred to twenty-four.
The boys had expected to find the boats in China small and inconvenient.
What was their astonishment to find them like the great steamers that
ply on the North River, or from New York to Fall River or Providence.
They found the cabins were large and comfortable, though they were not
so numerous as on the American waters, for the reason that there were
rarely many passengers to be carried. The captain, pilots, engineers,
and other officers were Americans, while the crew were Chinese. The
managers of the company were Chinese, but they left the control of the
boats entirely in the hands of their respective captains. One boat had a
Chinese captain and officers, but she was a small affair, and, from all
that could be learned, the managers did not find their experiment of
running with their own countrymen a successful one.
At the advertised time the three strangers went on board the steamer
that was to carry them up the river, and took possession of the cabins
assigned to them. Their only fellow-passengers were some Chinese
merchants on their way to Nanking, and a consular clerk at one of the
British consulates along the stream. The captain of the steamer was a
jolly New-Yorker, who had an inexhaustible fund of stories, which he was
never tired of telling. Though he told dozens of them daily, Frank
remarked that he was not like history, for he never repeated himself.
Fred remembered that some one had said to him in Japan that he would be
certain of a pleasant voyage on the Yang-tse-kiang if he happened to
fall in with Captain Paul on the steamer _Kiang-ching_. Fortune had
favored him, and he had found the steamer and the captain he desired.
Frank observed that the steamer had been provided with a pair of eyes,
which were neatly carved on wood, and painted so as to resemble the
human eye. The captain explained that this was in deference to the
Chinese custom of painting eyes on their ships and boats; and if he
looked at the first boat, or other Chinese craft, large or small, that
he saw, he would discover that it had eyes painted on the bow. This is
the universal custom throughout China; and though a native may have a
suspicion that it does no good, he would not be willing to fly in the
face of old custom. In case he should leave his craft in blindness, and
any accident befell her, he would be told by his friends, "Serves you
right for not giving your ship eyes to see with."
The steamer descended the Woosung River to its intersection with the
Yang-tse-kiang, and then began the ascent of the latter. The great
stream was so broad that it seemed more like a bay than a river. This
condition continued for a hundred and fifty miles, when the bay narrowed
to a river, and the far-famed Silver Island came in sight. It stands in
mid-stream, a steep hill of rock, about three hundred feet high, crowned
with a pagoda, and covered from base to summit with trees and bushes and
rich grass. At first it might be taken for an uninhabited spot, but as
the boat approaches you can see that there are numerous summer-houses
and other habitations peeping out from the verdure. A little beyond the
island there is a city which straggles over the hills, and is backed by
a range of mountains that make a sharp outline against the sky. This is
Chin-kiang, the first stopping-place of the steamer as she proceeds from
Shanghai to Han-kow. She was to remain several hours, and our friends
embraced the opportunity to take a stroll on shore. Here is Frank's
account of the expedition:
[Illustration: A CHINESE FAMILY PARTY.]
"The streets of Chin-kiang are narrow and dirty, and the most of them
that we saw seemed to be paved with kitchen rubbish and other unsavory
substances. The smells that rose to our nostrils were too numerous and
too disagreeable to mention; Fred says he discovered fifty-four distinct
and different ones, but I think there were not more than forty-seven or
forty-eight. The Doctor says we have not fairly tested the city, as
there are several wards to hear from in addition to the ones we visited
in our ramble. I was not altogether unprepared for these unpleasant
features of Chin-kiang, as I had already taken a walk in the Chinese
part of Shanghai.
[Illustration: A GENTLEMAN OF CHIN-KIANG.]
"Everybody says that one Chinese town is so much like another that a
single one will do for a sample. This is undoubtedly true of the most of
them, but you should make exceptions in the case of Canton and Pekin.
They are of extra importance; and as one is in the extreme north, and
the other in the far south, they have distinctive features of their own.
We shall have a chance to talk about them by-and-by. As for Chin-kiang,
I did not see anything worth notice while walking through it that I had
not already seen at Shanghai, except, perhaps, that the dogs barked at
us, and the cats ruffled their backs and tails, and fled from us as
though we were bull-dogs. A pony tried to kick Fred as he walked by the
brute, and only missed his mark by a couple of inches. You see that the
dumb animals were not disposed to welcome us hospitably. They were
evidently put up to their conduct by their masters, who do not like the
strangers any more than the dogs and cats do, and are only prevented
from showing their spite by the fear that the foreigners will blow their
towns out of existence if any of them are injured.
"We bought some things in the shops, but they did not amount to much
either in cost or quality. Fred found a pair of Chinese spectacles which
he paid half a dollar for; they were big round things, with glasses
nearly as large as a silver dollar, and looked very comical when put on.
But I am told that they are very comfortable to the eyes, and that the
foreigners who live in China, and have occasion to wear spectacles,
generally prefer those made by the Chinese opticians. A pair of really
fine pebbles will cost from ten to twenty dollars. The glasses that Fred
bought were only the commonest kind of stuff, colored with a smoky tint
so as to reduce the glare of the sun.
[Illustration: CHINESE SPECTACLES.]
"We went outside the town, and found ourselves suddenly in the country.
It was a complete change. Going through a gate in a wall took us from
the streets to the fields, and going back through the gate took us to
the streets again. We saw a man ploughing with a plough that had only
one handle, and made a furrow in the ground about as large as if he had
dragged a pickaxe through it. The plough was pulled by a Chinese buffalo
about as large as a two-year-old steer, and he was guided by means of a
cord drawn through the cartilage of his nose. It was a poor outfit for a
farmer; but the man who had it appeared perfectly contented, and did not
once turn his eyes from his work to look at us.
[Illustration: PLOUGHING WITH A BUFFFALO.]
"A little way off from this ploughman there was a man threshing grain on
some slats; they looked like a small ladder placed on an incline, and
the way he did the work was to take a handful of grain and thresh it
against the slats till he had knocked out all the kernels and left
nothing but the straw. Such a thing as a threshing-machine would
astonish them very much, I should think, and I don't believe they would
allow it to run. Labor is so cheap in China that they don't want any
machinery to save it; when you can hire a man for five cents a day, and
even less, you haven't any occasion to economize.
[Illustration: THRESHING GRAIN NEAR CHIN-KIANG.]
"The man who brought the bundles of grain to the thresher had them slung
over his shoulder, as they carry everything in this country; two bundles
made a load for him, and they were not large bundles either. Such a
thing as a farm-wagon is as unknown as a threshing-machine, and would
not be useful, as the paths among the fields are very narrow, and a
wagon couldn't run on them at all. Land is very valuable in the
neighborhood of the towns, and they would consider it wasteful to have a
wide strip of it taken up for a road. And, as I have just said, labor is
very cheap, especially the labor of the coolies who carry burdens. All
the men I saw at work in the field were barefooted, and probably the
wages they receive do not leave them much to spend on boots, after they
have supported their families and paid their taxes. They must have a
hard time to get along, but they appear perfectly cheerful and
contented."
[Illustration: CARRYING BUNDLES OF GRAIN.]
From Chin-kiang the steamer proceeded up the river. The account of what
they saw was thus continued by the boys:
"The southern branch of the grand canal enters the river at Chin-kiang;
the northern branch comes in some distance below. The river is
plentifully dotted with junks, but this condition is not peculiar to the
vicinity of the canal. All the way up from Shanghai to Han-kow it is the
same, and sometimes twenty or thirty boats will be sailing so closely
together as to endanger their cordage and sides. Perhaps you have seen
New York Bay on a pleasant afternoon in summer when every boat that
could hoist a sail was out for an airing? Well, imagine this great river
for hundreds of miles dotted with sails as thickly as our bay on the
occasion I have indicated, and you can have an idea of the native
commerce of the Yang-tse-kiang. Nobody knows how many boats there are on
the river, as no census of them is taken. The mandarins collect toll at
the river stations, but do not trouble themselves to keep a record of
the numbers. I asked a Chinese merchant who is a fellow-passenger with
us how many boats there are engaged in the navigation of the Yang-tse
and its tributaries, and he answers,
"'P'raps hunder tousand, p'raps million; nobody don't know.'
"Another says, 'Great many big million,' and he may not be far out of
the way, though his statement is not very specific.
[Illustration: A RIVER SCENE IN CHINA.]
"I have heard a curious story of how the foreigners have secured more
privileges than are allowed to the native merchants. Every district has
the right to tax goods passing through it. At each district there is a
barrier, commanded by a petty official, with a military guard, and here
each native boat must stop and pay the transit tax. For long distances
these taxes amount to a large sum, and frequently are a great deal more
than the goods cost originally. These taxes are known as 'squeezes,' and
the barriers where they are paid are called 'squeeze stations.' But the
foreigners have secured a treaty with China, or, rather, there is a
clause in one of the treaties, which exempts them from the payment of
the transit 'squeezes;' they only pay the customs duties, and the local
tax at the place of destination. Transit passes are issued by which
goods belonging to foreigners, though carried in native boats, are
exempt from squeezing, but these passes can only be obtained by
foreigners.
"Since the law went into operation, many Chinese merchants have gone
into partnership with foreigners; the former furnishing the capital and
attending to all the business, while the latter obtain the transit
passes and give the name to the firm. A gentleman whom we met in
Shanghai is associated with some wealthy Chinese; they put in the money,
and he furnishes his name and gets the passes, which none of them could
do.
"The native junks will always give a free passage to a foreigner who
will pretend to own the cargo, since they can escape the squeeze if he
plays his part successfully. The captain says that last year a sailor
who wanted to join an English gun-boat at a place up the river was
carried through for nothing by a junk whose cargo he pretended to own.
He passed as a 'foreign merchant,' but the fact was he had never bought
anything in his life more valuable than a suit of clothes, and had sold
a great deal less than that.
[Illustration: A NINE-STORIED PAGODA.]
"The river above Chin-kiang is in some places very pretty, and the
mountains rise out of the water here and there, making a great contrast
to the lowlands farther down. There are several large cities on the way,
the most important (or, at all events, the one we know the most about)
being Nanking. It was famous for its porcelain tower, which was
destroyed years ago by the rebels. Every brick has been carried away,
and they have actually dug down into the foundations for more. There is
only a part of the city left; and as we did not have time to go on
shore, I am not able to say much about it. But there are several other
cities that were more fortunate, since they were able to save their
towers, or pagodas, as they are generally called. These pagodas are
always built with an odd number of stories, usually five, seven, or
nine; but once in a great while there is an ambitious one of eleven
stories, or a cheap and modest one of only three. We saw one handsome
pagoda of nine stories that had bushes and climbing-plants growing from
it. I suppose the birds carried the seeds there, and then they sprouted
and took root. They make the pagoda look very old, and certainly that is
quite proper, as they are all of an age that young people should
respect.
[Illustration: LITTLE ORPHAN ROCK.]
"There is a funny little island--and not so little, after all, as it is
three hundred feet high--that stands right in the middle of the river at
one place. They call it the Little Orphan Rock, probably because it was
never known to have any father or mother. There is a temple in the side
of the rock, as if a niche had been cut to receive it. Fred thinks the
people who live there ought not to complain of their ventilation and
drainage; and if they fell out of the front windows by any accident,
they would not be worth much when picked up. Away up on the top of the
rock there is a little temple that would make a capital light-house,
but I suppose the Chinese are too far behind the times to think of
turning it to any practical use. Great Orphan Rock is farther up the
river, or a little out of the river, in what they call Po-yang Lake.
"Around the shores of Po-yang Lake is where they make a great deal of
the porcelain, and what we call 'China ware,' that they send to America.
The captain says he has frequently taken large quantities of it down the
river to Shanghai, and that it was sent from there to our country. They
dig the clay that they want for making the porcelain on the shores of
the lake, and they get their fuel for burning it from the forests, not
far away. The entrance to the lake is very picturesque; there is a town
in a fortress on a hill that overlooks the river, and then there is a
fort close down by the water. Probably the fort wouldn't be of much use
against a fleet of foreign ships; but it looks well, and that is what
pleases the Chinese."
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO PO-YANG LAKE.]