HONG-KONG AND CANTON.--CHINESE PIRATES.
The story of the coolie-trade and some of the conversation that followed
cleared the mystery that surrounded the narrator and had given him the
name by which he was known. He had been an active participant in the
peculiar commerce of the East, which includes the violation of laws
whenever they prove inconvenient, such as the smuggling of opium and the
shipment of coolies to the countries where they are in demand. His
latest venture was one that required considerable secrecy, as it
involved the purchase of arms for the rebels in Japan. For this reason
he had been very cautious in his movements around Yokohama and during
his whole stay in Japan, and he had found it judicious to leave the
country on the vessel that came so near being wrecked in the typhoon
that overtook our friends. He was safely away from Japan now, and the
arms that he had purchased for the rebels were in the hands of the
government. He had made money by the operation, and was on the lookout
for something new.
"That man belongs to a class which is not at all rare in the far East,"
said Doctor Bronson to the boys when the subject of the conversation had
left them. "A great many adventurers find their way here, some of them
being men of ability which borders on genius, while the others are not
far removed from rascals. Ward and Burgevine were of the better sort;
and there are others whom I could name, but they are not so numerous as
the other and worse variety. They are very often men of good manners,
and not at all disagreeable as travelling companions, but it is not
advisable to be intimate with them. Travelling, like poverty, makes us
some strange acquaintances. We can learn a great deal from them if we
proceed properly; and if we know where the line of familiarity should be
drawn, we are not in any danger of suffering by it."
The morning after the above conversation the steamer arrived at
Hong-kong, and dropped anchor in the harbor. She was immediately
surrounded by a fleet of small boats, which competed eagerly among
themselves for the patronage of the passengers. Our friends selected one
which was rowed by a couple of women, and had a group of children in a
little pen at the stern. Doctor Bronson explained to the boys that in
Southern China a great deal of the boating is done by women, and that
entire families live on board the little craft on which they earn their
existence. The boat population of Canton numbers more than sixty
thousand persons. They are not allowed to live on shore, and their whole
lives, from birth to death, are passed on the water. The most of the
boatmen and boatwomen at Hong-kong come from Canton, which is only
ninety miles away; and as they have privileges at the former place which
are denied them in the latter, they are quite satisfied to stay where
they are.
[Illustration: HONG-KONG.]
Hong-kong is a rocky island on the coast of China, and has an excellent
harbor, sheltered from most of the winds that blow. The town of Victoria
is built at the edge of this harbor, and the streets that lead back from
the water are so steep that the effort of climbing them is liable to
throw a stranger from the North into a violent perspiration.
Fortunately, there is an abundance of sedan-chairs, and any one who
wishes to take a promenade may do his walking by hiring a couple of
chair-coolies to do it for him. The chairs are everywhere, and it is
generally desirable to hire one in order to be rid of the continual
applications from those that are unemployed. At the wharf where they
landed the Doctor engaged porters to carry the baggage to the hotel,
and then took chairs for the transportation of himself and the boys. As
they had the afternoon before them, the chairs were kept for making the
ascent of the mountain just back of the town, and as soon as the rooms
were secured, and a slight lunch had been served, they started on their
excursion.
At the highest point of the mountain--about eighteen hundred feet above
the water-level--there is a signal-station, where all vessels coming
into port are announced by means of flags. Our friends were carried
along a zigzag road to this station, the coolies stopping every few
minutes to rest from the fatigue of ascending a steep road with a burden
on their shoulders. At the station they had a view extending a long
distance out to sea and over the coast of China, and the mountain was so
nearly perpendicular that it seemed as if they could toss a penny on the
town or into the harbor. Fred tried it, and so did Frank; but after
throwing away several ounces of copper, and finding they only went a
short distance, they abandoned the experiment. They returned well
satisfied with the excursion, and agreed that no one who visits
Hong-kong should omit the journey to the top of the mountain.
Hong-kong, being an English colony, is governed after the English form,
and consequently the laws enforced in China do not necessarily prevail
on the island. The population includes four or five thousand English and
other European nationalities, and more than a hundred thousand Chinese.
The number of the latter is steadily increasing, and a very large part
of the business of the place is in their hands. The money in circulation
is made in England for the special use of the colony. It has the head of
the Queen on one side, and the denomination and date on the other; and,
for the accommodation of the Chinese, the denomination is given in
Chinese characters. The smallest of the Hong-kong coins is made to
correspond with the Chinese cash, and it takes ten of them to make a
cent, or one thousand for a dollar. It has a hole in the centre, like
the Chinese coins generally, to facilitate stringing on a wire or cord,
and is so popular with the natives that it is in free circulation in the
adjacent parts of the empire.
[Illustration: Obverse. Reverse.
FAC-SIMILE OF A HONG-KONG MILLE.]
[Illustration: Obverse. Reverse.
FAC-SIMILE OF A HONG-KONG DIME.]
[Illustration: Obverse. Reverse.
FAC-SIMILE OF A HONG-KONG CENT.]
There was not a great deal to be seen in the town, and so the next
morning the three travellers started for Canton. There is a boat each
way daily, and the journey is made in seven or eight hours; the boys
found that the boat in which they went was of American construction, and
had an American captain, and so they felt at home, as they had felt on
the Yang-tse under similar circumstances.
Soon after they left the dock, Frank observed that the gangway leading
to the lower deck was covered with a grating fastened with a padlock,
and that a Malay sailor stood over it with a sword in his hand and a
pistol at his belt. He called Fred's attention to the arrangement, and
as soon as they found the captain at leisure they asked what it meant.
"It's a very simple matter," said Captain B----, "when you know about
it. The fact is, that we were once very near losing our lives by Chinese
pirates, and we don't propose to have another risk like it."
"Why, what could pirates have to do with this boat, I wonder?" said
Frank.
"We didn't know at the time," was the reply, "but we found out."
"How was that?"
"Well, it seems that some Chinese pirates determined to capture this
boat, murder all the foreigners on board, rob the Chinese passengers,
and then get away on a junk that was to be ready to receive them. They
made their plans, and on a certain day fifty of them took passage from
Canton to Hong-kong. When about half way, they were to meet a junk with
more men; and as the junk hung out her signal and came near, the fellows
were to fall upon us with their knives, and capture the boat. They
intended to kill us all, but their scheme failed, as there were four
ships at anchor that day close by the spot where the junk was to meet
them, and so the junk took the alarm and left. There was no disturbance,
and we did not have a suspicion of anything wrong. Finding they had
failed with us, they went the next day and captured the steamer _Spark_,
which runs between Canton and Macao. They killed the captain and
officers and the only European passenger who happened to be on board,
plundered all the native passengers, and got away. Some of them were
afterwards captured, and confessed to their part in the affair, and then
the whole story came out that they had intended to rob this boat. Since
then we always have the gratings down, so that the third-class
passengers cannot come on deck; and we keep plenty of rifles and
revolvers in the pilot-house and captain's cabin ready for use. They may
never try it on us again, and we don't intend to give them a chance to
do so."
[Illustration: FORT IN CANTON RIVER.]
The captain went on to say that there were many pirates in the waters
around Canton, and all along the southern coast. The government tries to
suppress them, but it is not easy to do so, and hardly a day passes
without the report of a robbery somewhere. All trading-junks are obliged
to go heavily armed, and out of this fact comes a great deal of the
piracy, as a junk may be a peaceful trader at one o'clock, a pirate at
two, and a peaceful trader again at three. It takes very little to
induce a Chinese captain to turn pirate when he sees a rich prize before
him, and he has no trouble in winning over his crew. It is impossible to
distinguish the pirate from the trader; and as the coast is seamed with
island passages and indented with bays, it is easy for a junk to escape
after she has committed a robbery.
The voyage from Hong-kong to Canton is partly among islands and through
a bay, and partly on the Pearl River. The navigation is easy in the
first part of the course, but after the steamer has reached the narrower
portion of the river the great number of junks and other craft compels a
sharp lookout on the part of the pilots, to avoid accidents. They passed
the famous Whampoa Anchorage, where the ocean-bound ships used to
receive their cargoes before Hong-kong assumed its present importance. A
few miles farther on, the great city of Canton was brought into sight as
the steamer swung around a bend in the river. In front was the island of
Ho-nan, with its temple bowered in trees, and on the surface of the
river there were thousands of boats of many kinds and sizes. The boys
remembered what they had heard of the boat population of Canton, and now
they realized that they had reached a city where sixty thousand people
make their homes on the water.
Before the steamer stopped she was surrounded by dozens of the smaller
boats, and, as soon as they could do so, many of the boatwomen came on
board. The captain recommended one of them who was known as "American
Susan," and the trio were confided to her care for transfer to the hotel
on Ho-nan Island. Susan and her attendant women shouldered the valises
which the travellers had brought from Hong-kong, and led the way to her
boat. The gallantry of the boys received a shock when they saw their
baggage carried by women, while their own hands were empty; but the
Doctor told them it was the custom of the country, and by carrying their
own valises they would deprive the women of an opportunity of earning a
few pennies. To this view of the matter they yielded; and before they
had recovered their composure the boat was gliding across the river,
propelled by the powerful arms of her feminine crew. Susan proposed to
be in their employ during their stay at Canton, and a bargain was
speedily concluded; for fifty cents at day, the boat was to be at their
disposal from morning till night to carry them over the river, or to any
point they wished to visit along its banks. Frank thought they would be
obliged to look a long time to find a boat with two men at the oars for
a similar price in New York, and Fred thought they would have to look
still longer to find one rowed by two women.
They had three or four hours to spare before sunset, and at once set
about the business of sight-seeing. Their first visit was to the temple
on the island, and they were followed from the landing by a crowd of
idle people, who sometimes pressed too closely for comfort. There was an
avenue of trees leading up to the temple, and before reaching the
building they passed under a gateway not unlike those they had seen at
the temples in Kioto and Tokio. The temple was not particularly
impressive, as its architectural merit is not of much consequence, and,
besides, it was altogether too dirty for comfort. There was quite a
crowd of priests attached to it, and they were as slovenly in appearance
as the building they occupied. In the yard of the temple the strangers
were shown the furnaces in which the bodies of the priests are burned
after death, and the little niches where their ashes are preserved.
There were several pens occupied by the fattest pigs the boys had ever
seen. The guide explained that these pigs were sacred, and maintained
out of the revenues of the temple. The priests evidently held them in
great reverence, and Frank intimated that he thought the habits of the
pigs were the models which the priests had adopted for their own. Some
of the holy men were at their devotions when the party arrived, but they
dropped their prayer-books to have a good look at the visitors, and did
not resume them until they had satisfied their curiosity.
[Illustration: GATEWAY OF TEMPLE NEAR CANTON.]
From the temple they proceeded to a garden, where they had an
opportunity of seeing some of the curious productions of the Chinese
gardeners in the way of dwarfing trees and plants. There were small
bushes in the shape of animals, boats, houses, and other things, and the
resemblance was in many cases quite good. They do this by tying the
limbs of the plants to little sticks of bamboo, or around wire frames
shaped like the objects they wish to represent; and by tightening the
bandages every morning, and carefully watching the development of the
work, they eventually accomplish their purpose. If they represent a dog
or other animal, they generally give it a pair of great staring eyes of
porcelain, and sometimes they equip its mouth with teeth of the same
material. Many of the Chinese gardens are very prettily laid out, and
there are some famous ones near Canton, belonging to wealthy merchants.
On their return from the garden they stopped at a place where eggs are
hatched by artificial heat. They are placed over brick ovens or
furnaces, where a gentle heat is kept up, and a man is constantly on
watch to see that the fire neither burns too rapidly nor too slowly. A
great heat would kill the vitality of the egg by baking it, while if the
temperature falls below a certain point, the hatching process does not
go on. When the little chicks appear, they are placed under the care of
an artificial mother, which consists of a bed of soft down and feathers,
with a cover three or four inches above it. This cover has strips of
down hanging from it, and touching the bed below, and the chickens
nestle there quite safe from outside cold. The Chinese have practised
this artificial hatching and rearing for thousands of years, and
relieved the hens of a great deal of the monotony of life.
On the river, not far from the hatching establishment, they saw a man
engaged in the novel occupation of herding ducks. A hundred or more
ducks were on the water, and the man was near them in a small boat and
armed with a long pole. The ducks were very obedient to him, but
occasionally one would show a little opposition to the herder's wishes,
and endeavor to stray from his companions. A rap from the pole brought
him speedily to his senses, and back to the herd, and he was pretty
certain not to stray again till the blow had been forgotten. Geese were
herded in the same way, and both they and the ducks managed to pick up a
good part of their living from the water. Ducks are an important article
of food among the Chinese, and the rearing of them gives occupation to a
great many persons in all parts of the empire.