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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
ENGLISH LIFE
IN
CHINA
ENGLISH LIFE
IN
CHINA
* BY
MAJOK HENRY KNOLLYS
ROYAL ARTILLERY
AUTHOR OF 'FROM SEDAX TO SAARBRUOK '
EDITOR OP ' INCIDENTS IX THE SEPOY WAR ' ' INCIDENTS IN THE CHINA WAR
ETC.
LONDON
SMITH, ELDER, & CO, 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1885
PEEFACE
The statements contained in this book have, at all
events, the advantage of having been recorded on
the spot, and at the time when they were originally
deduced. Taken down day by day in shorthand, I
venture to hope that the opinions may possess the
freshness, sometimes so conducive to accuracy, of first
impressions ; while the authenticity of the facts has
been safe-guarded by subsequent careful revision.
HENRY KNOLLYS,
Major, Royal Artillery.
Arthur's Clur, St. James', London
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
OUR FARTHEST BRITISH OUTPOST— HONG KONG.
I'AGK
Ignorance concerning Hong Kong — Beauty of harbour — Interior
of houses— The bank — Shops— Flowers — Means of trans-
port — Shipping — Chinese funeral — Population — Pedlars —
The ' Happy Valley ' — Precautions against rain^Hourly
record of a hot day — Botanical Gardens — Hong Kong
healthy or unhealthy ? — Dinner-party — Ascent of the ' Peak '
— Insect annoyances — Hong Kong Sunday — English mail
signalled — Chinese • boys ' — Pidgin-English — The native
qu3,rter— Queen's birthday parade — Military funeral —
Thomas Atkins' routine— Lascars —Defences— The Birming-
ham standard of success 1
CHAPTEE II.
A MODEL BRITISH REPUBLIC — SHANGHAI.
Shanghai a republic — Yellow Sea— English imperiousness —
Busy aspect of town — Frontier territories — Chinese immi-
gration — American settlement — French Concession — Their
faulty administration— Gloomy outlook — English Council —
•Finance — Law — Police court— Adjudications — Social life—
' The old folks at home '—Gambling — Kacing — Sunday
promenades — The incomprehensible English^ Agriculture —
Graves — A Chinese theatre — Music — Stage — Audience , 65
viu CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
INSIDE CHINA— THE EIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG.
PAGE
A China Company's steamer — Mixture of nationalities — Euro-
peans in the power of the Chinese — Natives at meals —
French missionary — Chinkiang — Square miles of grave-
yards—Highways and byways — Railroads —Education —
Nankin— The 'Little Orphan '—Wildfowl— Sport— River
scenery — Kiukiang— Features of the river Yang-tsze-Kiang
— Hankow - -The English concession — The small European
community — Tea and tea-tasting— Brick tea— The currency
— Suburban market gardens 115
CHAPTER IV.
MEDICAL MISSIONS AND THE MISSIONARY QUESTION.
Chinese ignorance of physiology — Principal maladies — Opera-
tions — Italian medical mission — Clinical practice — A de-
formed foot — Nurseries— The process of foot bandaging —
School — Religious instruction — Wesleyan medical mission
— The service and singing — Secular and religious teaching
— Misrepresentation in missionary reports — Unpractical
principles — Foochow Mission — Its general superiority —
Missionary difficulties — Zic-a-wei — Vespers — Chinese
science a fallacy— Deductions from past experience— Charges
brought against Protestant missionaries — Failure thus far
— Incumbent to persevere — Suggested reforms . . . 163
CHAPTER V.
A CHINESE INLAND METROPOLIS — HANKOW.
Novelty of the experience — Entrance to the native quarter —
Pestilential alleys — Revolting inhabitants — Inharmonious
voices— Horrible sights— Foul stenches — Chaffering — Ab-
sence of machinery — Unfriendly demeanour — Hair-dressing
CONTENTS. ix
PAGE
— Food — Funeral cortege — Expression of the emotions —
Joss houses — Administration of law — Prisons — Torture —
Executions — Mandarin state— Chinese guilds — Their con-
tents and splendour — Gardens — Opium shops— The opium
question — Exaggeration of evils— Experience of opium
smoking — The dragon devouring the moon .... 215
CHAPTEE VI.
CHINESE EIVEE AND TOWN LIFE — FOOCHOW.
Magnificent coasting steamers — Forts — Anglo-Chinese hospitality
— Animated aspect of River Min— Boat life— Chinese child-
hood — Ducks — Panorama of Foochow — English mercantile
community — Chinese dinner-party — Female guests — Small
talk — The food — Singing — Slaves— A journey across country
— Buffaloes— Dogs— House-boat — A night voyage — Scenery
— A rapid-boat — Disembark— Ascent of the Yuen Fuh moun-
tain — Cultivation — The monastery of Yuen Fuh — Toil up
the mountain — The monk's cave — Devils and divinities —
Return rapid- voyage — A garden jungle — ' Lead, kindly light '
— Illness — Cross countiT sights — Kuh Shan Monastery —
Carp— Chinese language— Chinese capacity for learning —
Conclusion 267
INDEX 331
ENGLISH CHINA.
CHAPTER I.
OUR FARTHEST BRITISH OUTPOST — HONG KONG.
Hong Kong — Jericho — Timbuctoo ! Are not these
names used indifferently to represent the extreme of
remoteness ? Do not nine out of ten, even among well-
informed English gentlemen, consider the first named
a place with which we have little in common though
it be a British possession, or at all events of little
momentous interest ? And are they not of opinion
that its contingent loss need not, to any material
extent, affect our national prosperity? Yet Hong
Kong, apart from its military and naval value as our
most advanced outpost in the far East, and from its
com^mercial interest represented by an annual average
British exchange of about forty-two millions sterling,
is marked by characteristic advantages unparalleled
in any single one of our other possessions.
The testimony of many who have preceded me in
2 ENGLISH CHINA.
this subject is frequently puzzling from its contra-
dictory nature. Hong Kong is alternately described
as unquestionably healthy and deplorably sickly ; as
pleasantly cool and intolerably hot; as replete with
interest and a desert of dulness; as hospitably
sociable and savagely churlish — by the large majority,
perhaps, as an odious place of exile, and by the
minority as a fascinating residence. These dis-
crepancies are chiefly due to the special circumstances
under which the witnesses may have resided there ;
to the freedom from, or existence of, home ties and
anxieties; to the extent to which health has been
affected by climate, and, above all, according as hot-
or cold-season-life has been selected as the type
described.
Now inasmuch as scorching weather prevails over
by far the greater part of the year, it is surely most
rational to base our judgment on that period. Let us
then assume the date of our arrival to be the beginning
of July, and by a detail of first experiences — as valuable
in a traveller as first thoughts are valuable in a
woman — let us endeavour to reconcile discrepancies
and to arrive at just and independent conclusions.
As our ship slowly steams into Hong Kong harbour,
I defy you to be otherwise than entranced, whatever
your previous experience of nature's beauties, with
the unsurpassed loveliness of the scene — the brightest
sky, and the bluest sea, whereon rest a large fleet of
mammoth merchant ships, of men-of-war of every
HONG KONG. 3
nation, thousands of picturesque junks and myriads
of sampans, or native boats.
On our right is the large flourishing town of Vic-
toria, very un-Enghsh in its aspect, and in some
respects resembhng a French or ItaHan seaboard cit}^
Built along the slope of a steep mountain, the lower
part seems to have a constant tendency to be thrust
towards the sea; while higher up the houses are
large, substantially built edifices, embosomed in the
varied green shade of glorious tropical vegetation. Still
higher are the steep slopes of the Hong Kong moun-
tains, dotted over with patches of wood, or covered
with a darker coloured brushwood, which instantly and
vividly brings to the thoughts, ' Scotland, deer, grouse,'
were it not for the almost perpendicular rays of the
sun, which, in lieu of Scotland's charming alternation
of light and shade, result in a uniform fierce glare.
The whole is crowned by a long, sharp, blue crest
ridge, the highest point of which (the ' Peak ') is nearly
2,000 feet above the sea level ; and which, when rain
threatens, loses itself in the white woolly clouds.
Now turn to the other side of the harbour, about
a mile broad, to Kowloon, a promontory of the
mainland of China. Here we have a changed scenery
in the most rugged, bare, and wild of illimitable
mountains, streaked over with large patches of brilliant
red granite.
As we step on shore, a glow seems to rise from
beneath our feet, a very uncomfortable contrast to the
B 2
4 ENGLISH CHINA.
ever cool sea surface, and, however leisurely one's
movements, in a few minutes we shall lapse into a
sticky, clammy condition of body, which I warn you
will be your normal state for nearly eight months out
of the twelve. Disregarding the importunities of a
crowd of three-quarters naked, chattering, pigtailed
coolies, we make our way to a hotel, large but terribly
stifling — second-rate as regards comfort and equip-
ment, but first-rate in point of cooking, excelling
herein nineteen out of twenty of similar palatial
European establishments. It is not comfortably
bearable for more than a few hours, and we forthwith
rset to work to search out the addresses of our letters
of introduction -passports which in Europe are some-
what disdained, but in Asia are invaluable. Here we
' are welcomed with a genuine eager hospitality, un-
paralleled out of China. Our addressee is, we will
suppose, a local merchant-prince, a Government
employe, a military officer, or a well-to-do agent of a
commercial firm. Steer clear of the rank and file of
the civilian community, inasmuch as they are not on
the whole a favourable set either in their associates or
in their ways of life. Our friend does not merely
invite us to dinner or reluctantly offer us a bed, in the
fashion of grudging home conventional civility ; he
peremptorily orders you to come and stay with him ;
he instantly despatches his own coolies to fetch your
baggage ; he instals you in a suite of luxurious, large,
lofty apartments, consisting of bedroom, bath-room,
HONG KONG. 5
and sitting-room ; and, best of all, he avoids that fatal
error of hounding you with amusements and occu-
pations. Life indeed would be very agreeable if it
were not for its amusements, and he extends to you
the immeasurable bliss of leaving you entirely to your
own sweet pleasure.
The interior of these houses, indeed, presents an
aspect of luxury — I might almost say, of splendour —
peculiarly characteristic of the East, and yet at-
tainable at comparatively small expense. The shell,
certainly, is exceedingly fragile, but every room and
passage is of a magnificent size. Carpets, curtains,
hangings, and rugs — those devouring expenses in a
cool climate — would here be offensively out of taste,
and insufferably uncomfortable. In lieu thereof we
have beautifully stained floors, high, wide windows,
and folding doors, prettily coloured rattan mattings,
large bamboo chairs of every ingenious form to con-
duce to repose and coolness, feather-weight hand-
tables, which can be shifted about almost at a thought,
a multiplicity of bright fans scattered conveniently about
for use, plenty of handsome lacquer-work, and enough
revoltingly ugly china to satisfy the most vitiated
taste of a depraved virtuoso. Then there is a pro-
fusion of lovely flowers and foliage which can never
be out of place, while overhead, solemnly, gracefully,
wave the white punkahs— huge oblong fans which
stretch completely across the room. They move
noiselessly by means of pulleys and ropes worked by
6 : ENGLISH CHINA.
a coolie outside, and set up regular waves of cool air,
each puff of which gives a feeling of relief. The
room is wisely darkened towards the attainment of a
lower temperature. A broad, covered verandah lines
the entire exterior length of the house, and, in fine,
the combination of surroundings produces on a new-
comer a strange, Arabian-night sensation. ' Stale
trifles,' sneers the military habitue of the East.
*Eien si bete qu'un vieux militaire, or a dried-up
Anglo-Indian,' is my reply. ' The above minutiae are
striking and even interesting to those who have the
luck to stray for a time into a new country, and
the good fortune to have been saved from a lifelong
expatriation from the civilised centres of ex23erience,
and the scenes of the true battles of life.'
Not improbably our first night's slumbers wijl
be broken by a mighty roar of thunder, by blinding
flashes of lightning, and by a dashing down of rain.
At about six o'clock in the morning we shall be roused
by A ' house boy ' bringing to our bedside the invariable
cup of tea, which will be followed by a nine o'clock
breakfast, generally disposed of in solitude, but
whereat in some households the whole family is wont
to assemble. Afterwards the comparative coolness,
due to last night's storm, tempts us to sally forth on
a tour of exploration. Why, the slopes of the moun-
tains are covered with alabaster white ! Chalk patches ?
No, only large drying grounds of the native washer-
men of European linen, the stock of which is of
HONG KONa. 7
necessity four times more abundant here than in a
temperate chmate.
All the roads seem to lead straight down hill into
the town, and after passing many a handsome bunga-
low, each with its tract of bright garden, sheltered by
clumps of graceful bamboo, we find ourselves in the
midst of the Anglo- China metropolis. Here European
employes and heads of commercial houses are has-
tening to their business rendezvous, or bustling about
with true English vigour, and a comparative indiffer-
ence to climate, which we cannot but admire. Their
numbers are almost swamped by swarms of coolies
and Chinese shopmen, interspersed with specimens of
Arabs, Parsees, Sikhs, Madrasses, Negroes, and half-
caste, or rather quarter-caste, Portuguese. The
streams to a great extent converge towards the Hong
Kong and Shanghai Bank, where we get a glimpse
of the outside forms of local business. Under the
porticoes are sacks of Mexican dollars — the principal
current coin — and each coin is being tested one by one by
the Chinese servants of the bank. The man, squatted
on his hams according to the national attitude, which
in five minutes would cause an Englishman to yell
with cramp, shovels into his hands a heap of these
rough, clumsy pieces from the open sack. Balancing
each separately, on two fingers, he instantaneously
decides on its fitness for currency. The undoubtedly
good he tosses into one heap ; the undoubtedly bad
into another, and the doubtful coins into a third for
8 ENGLISH CHINA.
future test. These latter comprise the spurious
and the Hght, many of which have had their original
weight materially diminished by the ' chop ' or trade
mark of different firms. Each punch has withdrawn
a tiny atom of silver, which the Chinese dealers have,
with characteristic economy, carefully preserved for
sale in the aggregate. The rapidity and accuracy
with which the scrutinisers will detect a slightly
depreciated or spurious coin by its mere weight on the
finger is truly extraordinary, and can only be ac-
quired after years of practice.
The interior of the bank consists of a large sombre
hall, kept fairly cool by the waving of innumerable
punkahs, and here are employed a small proportion
of European clerks, working in their shirt sleeves,
according to the sensible universal custom of the
place, and a large proportion of white-clothed natives
swiftly ready to do their bidding. As Englishmen
J we are treated with the utmost civility, and though
strangers, with the utmost liberality in the etiquette
of business procedure. We wish, suppose, to cash a
cheque. * Schroff ! ' shouts the clerk, and immediately
answering to the above term — not German, but a
corruption of the Hindu word Sarraf, Sharraf, banker's
clerk — there glides forward one of the native cashiers
with smooth-shaven skull, a four-foot pigtail, and
spotlessly white flowing garments. He is silent and
rapid in his movements, and though his scanty stock
of English is scarcely intelligible to you, he speedily
HONG KONG. 9
carries out to your satisfaction the transaction in
hand, your own pencil and paper complicated conver-
sion of pounds into dollars and cents being easily
distanced by the schroff's peculiar method of calcula-
tion. Taking up a counting machine, a precise
counterpart of the coloured wired balls used in our
village schools, his long lithe fingers move over it far
more quickly than the eye can follow — he plays on it
with the rapidity of lacemaking.
' All right as regards the total — now give me, say,
3/. of small change,' for a large supply of five-cent
(about ^id.) pieces is here indispensable.
A means has been devised of avoiding the weari-
ness of counting out one by one the 300 tiny silver
coins representing the sum in question. A pile of
them is poured on to a small fiat wooden tray contain-
ing 100 recesses, each of which is just deep enough to
lodge one five- cent piece, and just shallow enough to
prevent the possibility of two such lurking together.
A jerk of the wrist— the 100 recesses are instantly
filled, the surplus is sw^pt off, and at a glance you
perceive you have your correct tale, which is then
funnelled into your hand, the schroff tucking up his
enormous sleeves to disarm suspicion that he is
playing at legerdemain by concealing stray coins in
the folds. The idea is so simple and yet so oddly
clever that it never fails to elicit a smile of amusement
on first experience.
The streets and the shops in that part of Victoria
10 ENaLISII CHINA.
which is frequented by Europeans bear a mingled
Eastern and Western aspect, which is very striking
and by no means displeasing. Order is maintained
among the multitudes of nude chattering coolies by
the red-turbaned, picturesque-looking, stalwart Sikh
policemen, gravely promenading in Eegent Street
fashion, and there is a general sense of brightness
and activity, regularity and cleanliness. British
wares, and Chinese and Japanese products, are
blended together in amusing confusion, the first
named at a robbery price, and the latter to be pur-
chased after a long and humiliating bargaining.
The native shopkeepers are emulative of London
fame. One announces himself as ' Hoby, shoes-
maker,' another ' Sam Hing Stulz, tailor,' another
' John Bull,' a fourth and fifth bear the suggestive
names of * Old-ah-you,' and ' Wink-kee.' Given a
pattern they will produce a copy so exact as to com-
prise patch, darn and tear, but woe to you if you
entrust them with any originality however trifling. I
once ventured to direct the variation of about an inch
in the position of a button as shown in the pattern
coat. In the copy the button was shifted sure enough,
but no alteration whatever had been made f:r the
corresponding button-hole.
Do not believe the oft-repeated statements that
tropical flowers have little scent, and are in appear-
ance less charming as a mass than the products of an
English garden. Squatting under a long stretch of
HONa KOXG. 11
banyan trees, in one of the broad, hilly side streets,
are knots of flower-men, making up bouquets of the
most beautiful contrasts of green, scarlet, orange,
blue, and white, and with the scent of frangipanni, or
gardenia, or tuberose, or jessamine predominating
according to the season. They arrange their flowers
with extreme dexterity, I might almost say taste,
according to certain prescribed patterns ; and we are
importuned to purchase for about 4:d. a wonder of
loveliness and perfume, which in London would cost
four guineas, if indeed it could there be procured at
any price. ' Beauty and the Beasts ' is the parallel
mentally suggested by the sight of these hideously
repulsive Mongolians and their lovely wares.
On our way we look in at the Club, where our host
has inscribed our names as honorary members. This
inevitable institution of all Anglo-Chinese communi-
ties is not at Hong Kong favourably represented,
although the premises and cooking are fair ; it contains
a few good bedrooms, and the library is remarkably
extensive and good. It is, however, the hottest, most
stifling Acheron in the town.
How entire and conspicuous is the absence of
wheel transport on these wide, well-paved thorough-
fares ! You may wander about them for days without
seeing a single carriage, cart, horse, or even pony.
The reasons are that the roads are mountainous
inclines except in the lower part of the town ; that
forage in this small, and for the most part unfertile,
12 ENGLISH CHINA.
island is preposterously dear, and that manual labour
is ridiculously cheap. Look at those pairs of coolies,
each one supporting on his shoulder the end of a
bamboo pole, in the centre of which is slung a heavy
weight. If the burden be bulky but light, a single
bearer will suffice, supporting his bamboo by the
centre and the weights at the extremities ; or again,
if the object be indivisible, the coolie, with an
amusing recognition of the mathematical principle of
the lever, will constitute his pole into a long arm to
which he fastens his goods, and into a short arm to
which he affixes a counterpoising stone. The coolies
shuffle along at a hybrid walk-and-trot pace, partly
for speed, partly because this jog more easily fits into
the regular springing of the bamboo poles. By these
agents you can cause your heavy portmanteau to be
conveyed nearly two miles for about 4^f?. Even five-
year old children are sometimes to be seen toddhng
along carrying light objects of domestic use on little
bamboo canes.
As for personal conveyances, we have at an
infinitesimally small cost a light, luxurious kind of
sedan-chair, or a singular, small, two- wheeled carriage
holding one person, and called a ' Jinricksha,'
habitually abbreviated into Eicksha, both of which
are transported by coolies. The Jinricksha, mean-
ing ' man-power-cart,' was introduced from Japan
only a few years ago. We jump into one of them,
as possessing the greatest novelty, and smoothly
HONG KONG. 13
and comfortably are dragged along at a rate of six
miles an horn- by the one native in the shafts, who
labours mider this sweltering smi with an unfaltering
energy absolutely astounding, and of which no
Englishman who ever breathed would be capable
under similar circumstances.^ First along the Praya,
a two-mile stretch of marine parade, or rather har-
bour embankment. The area of the port, almost
unsurpassed in anchorage and extent, is ten square
miles ; its depth admits of the passage of ships of
the deepest draught in the world; here are riding
men-of-war of every type and nation, in curious inter-
mixture, and the multiplicity of craft which throng it
as thick as bees may be estimated from the fact that
in 1882, 26,668 vessels, with a total tonnage of nearly
five millions, passed into the harbour — a greater
amount than entered the port of London during the
year Hong Kong was acquired (1842). Moreover,
there are five docks for ships of large construction.
The boat population of Victoria alone is returned at
over 16,000 — I have nearly done for the present with
these useful but dry numbers — partly living on board
those clumsy, typical junks, but chiefly in little sam-
pans, or partly roofed wherries. Each contains an
entire family of four or five persons, whose domestic
life is entirely restricted to the few square feet
enclosed by the few fragile planks. At irregular
' In Japan, however, the performances of the 'Kicksha' coolies
are even more astonishing.
14 ENGLISH CHINA.
intervals a fusillade on board of ten or twelve crackers
indicates the performance of ' chin-chin,' or worship
connected with their idiotic superstitions, to which the
term ' religion ' can only be metaphorically applied.
Yet they are half ashamed of those rites, which never-
theless they will not abandon. ' Boy,' I maliciously
ask my Chinese servant, 'what is the meaning of
those shots in the harbour ? ' ' Hum, I no savvy. I
tinkee it P. and 0. ship makee chin-chin before sailing.'
As we bowl along in our rickshas we may note
many a curious feature of Chinese life if we are only
watchful to observe. There a funeral procession
passes along the quay. Several gaudily gilt cars
convey various eatables for the use of the dead in the
next world, such as fruit, sweetmeats, and cakes,
together with various joss-house paraphernalia, and
gilt paper-money. At various intervals in the cortege
are hired mourners and coolies blowing trumpets,
banging cymbals, and letting off crackers. The
nearest relations of the deceased, men, women, and
children, all dressed entirely in white — the sign of
mourning — follow the cof&n, which is carried on bam-
boo poles by twelve coolies. It is indeed a singularly
strange, substantial-looking object, carved, orna-
mented, in general shape like the trunk of a tree, and
hermetically sealed up with plaster. The females
nearest in kin never cease emitting a kind of tearless
howl. Each woman is propped up by two supporters,
and it is evidently a point of honour to roll about
HONG KONG. 15
from side to side as boisterously as possible in a
supposed exhaustion of grief. I have observed some
of the supporters manifesting much irritation at thus
receiving sudden jobs in the side, and clearly mutter-
ing to the effect : ' My word ! when will this work
be over ? ' The crowd, so far from showing decent
sympathy, grin at my curious watching, and tacitly
assent, ' Yes, what fools we are ! ' The noisy, grotesque
procession, sometimes nearly a mile in length, wends
its way to some far-off hillside, pronounced favourable
for interment by the soothsayers. But let us watch
a ceremonial of a humbler nature, where a junk is to
convey the remains to the other side of the harbour.
The coffin is first deposited on the quay, where a
small fire is lighted, and some refreshment burnt
whereby the spirit of the deceased is supposed to be
invigorated. The so-called mourners stand chattering
around, manifesting the utmost indifference, with the
exception perhaps of the widow, who grovels down in
the mud, and with a howling between that of a jackal
and the miauling of a cat, gabbles forth lamentations,
but always without tears. Then the coffin is bundled
into a boat, which is rowed away, and the formalities
of this repulsive, unfeeling ceremonial are brought to
a conclusion. The sorrow of the Chinese for thfeir dead
and their compassion for the living are apparently
about on a par.
The straggling town is about four miles long, and
though the houses are chiefly wooden, it contains as
16 ENGLISH CHINA.
many as 6,000 buildings of brick and stone. It must be
owned that the streets and population are orderly in
the highest degree, and the instinctive submission of
the Eastern to the Western races is here very strikingly
illustrated. The colony numbers about 160,000 ^ in-
habitants, exclusive of the military and foreign ships'
population, of which the whites compose the utterly
insignificant fraction of about 3,100. Yet that a
Chinaman should either by speech or action engage
in an open stand-up contest with an Englishman
would be an almost inconceivable anomaly. The
police it is true number as many as about 650, but
not more than 120 are Europeans, the balance being
Sikhs and Chinese. Here and there in the most crowded
thoroughfares a solitary constable is to be seen, and
his somewhat imperious directions are obeyed with the
most unhesitating submission.
As to the dress of the fairly well-to-do natives, I
can only refer you to the pictures on our nurseries'
willow-pattern plates : flowing white or dark blue
robes, with sleeves reaching nearly to the knees ; loose
' In 1881 there were : —
Europeans and Americans .... 3,040
Mixed nationalities 968
Temporary 188
Prisoners 682
Boat population — Victoria .... 16,687
Boat population elsewhere — in Hong Kong . 12,302
Chinese (about) 126,133
Total (about) .... 160,000
Exclusive of military and naval forces and police.
HOXa KONG. 17
cotton trousers; the typical turned-up Chinese stuff
shoes ; and a fan shading the skull, instead of a hat.
Several wear spectacles of stupendous size, more
for decoration and dignity than for utility. The
women's costume differs comparatively little from that
of the men, the chief additions being, occasionally,
ponderous earrings, jade bracelets, silver anklets, and
large pins fastening piled-up rolls of coarse, shiny-
looking black hair. They are, however, models of
decency. The practice of deforming their feet is now
going out of fashion in the south, but a not incon-
siderable minority may still be seen, slowly, painfully,
waddling along on their poor distorted stumps. _^
Our first impressions of the population as a whole,
so far as externals are concerned, is, to say the least,
displeasing ; and as, by degrees, we notice their stupid
ugly eyes, their air of stolid conceit, their fat, smooth I
faces, their shaven, pigtailed skulls, and their cease-
less discordant chatter, our feelings deepen into ab-
solute disgust.
What a clatter of small wooden drums ! It is
caused by peddlers calling attention to their wares,
mostly consisting of what they are pleased to call
eatables ; but, apart from fruit and cigars, of dark,
mysterious masses of sweetmeat nastiness, from which
the greediest English school boy would turn with
loathing. Here we turn down some slums, and,
though we choke with close heat and Chinese vapours,
English administration has actually prevailed in pre-
18 ENGLISH CHINA.
serving a fair amount of cleanliness, and in prevent-
ing the accumulation of rotting garbage. Eeally a
comparison with the worst districts in Bethnal Green
and the Seven Dials would not be unfavourable, a suc-
cess which speaks volumes to those who, like myself,
had subsequent opportunities of exploring the horrors
of the large inland China cities.
Emerging from the town, we suddenly arrive at
that which is, perhaps, the most beautiful and the
saddest acre in the British Empire : the so-called
* Happy Valley,' the English cemetery of Hong Kong.
No natives are allowed inside, so, leaving our rick-
shas at the gate, we pass into the peaceful solitary
groves, the silence of which is unbroken, save by the
joyful notes of many a singing-bird, and the splash-
ing of a burn down the adjacent overhanging rocks.
The term * cemetery ' conveys, perhaps, an erroneous
impression of gaudy gardens, crowded and disfigured
with monuments which are types of bad taste in con-
struction, and still worst taste in inscription. I
would rather describe it as a carefully tended expanse
of turf, with a pretty little chapel shaded with mag-
nificent tropical trees, intersj)ersed with beautifully
.flowering shrubs, and luxuriant foliage of every tint,
where are scattered the graves of our countrymen
whose sad fate has been to die * far from the old folks
at home.' The inscriptions tell in a few words many
a melancholy story, for Hong Kong has been subjected,
at intervals, to devastating epidemics. Here we read of
HONCt KONG. 19
whole families swept off in a few days by fever ; there
is a long record of the losses of a ship's crew, the
' Calcutta.* ' Some men fell while engaged with the
enemy, others from the effects of climate.' Here is a
hecatomb from the 95th Eegiment, 225 deaths from
cholera and various causes, between May 1847 and
January 1850 — a little over tw^o and a half years.
Of these, 102 cases were carried off by fever alone in
four months, viz. from June 1 to September 30, 1848.
Of the 1st Battalion of the 9th Regiment there is
even a more terrible record, inasmuch as the destroy-
ing angel was smiting them so heavily over the longer
period of nine years, viz. from 1849 to 1858. We
read that, during that time, the battalion lost by
sickness a total number of 658, of whom 107 were
children.^ Are not our soldiers and sailors as de-
serving of recognition when faithfully carrying out
dreary routine duty in a trying, depressing tropical
climate at the antipodes, as when engaged in a cam-
paign which may not, in the long run, claim more
victims, with the inspiriting anticipations of prospec-
tive public honours, promotion, and abundance of
medals within a brief space ?
^ The exact numbers were : —
Officers 10
Non-commissioned officers 35
Privates and drummers 470
Women 37
Children 107
Total . . . . . ... 669
c 2
20 ENGLISH CHINA.
The picture we are contemplating is, indeed, set
in a worthy frame. We are standing in an angle at
the base of one of nature's large amphitheatres.
Overhead is the unclouded brilliant sky; in front a
large green racecourse, bordered in its entire circum-
ference with a fringe of graceful bamboo ; through a
gap in the hills we catch a glimpse of the harbour,
with the red mountains of Kowloon in the far dis-
tance, while in our immediate rear rise, almost per-
pendicularly, dark rugged rocks besprinkled with firs,
and losing themselves in the lofty distant main range.
Yet, in spite of all my efforts, I am conscious that
* thought hath not colours half so fair ' to paint this
scene. It is somewhat heightened by the disadvan-
tageous contrast of the neighbouring plot set aside
for the Eoman Catholics — over-decorated, gaudy, and
glaring with untrue sentiment, almost the only ad-
junct in keeping with the locality being the carved
inscription over the portals : ' Hodie mihi, eras tibi '
— Your turn next. That little strip reserved for
Mahomedan sepulture is surely preferable, for there
is, at all events, about it a sort of dismal honesty.
Our ricksha coolies, who, during our absence,
have been contentedly resting on their hams, and
reinvigorating themselves with chewing sticks of
sugar-cane, now resume their journey homewards.
Suddenly they stop short with a certain amount of
dismayed fuss — a few heavy drops are falling. Well,
considering that you have little else on but your
HONa KONG. 21
* birthday suits,' I do not see how you can be damaged
even if you do get wet to the skin. But they think
far otherwise. From below the carriages they detach,
hitherto unnoticed, enormous mushroom- shaped bam-
boo hats, which form admirable umbrellas, and the
queerest cloaks of loosely woven mango leaves, in
which they envelope their naked hides, at the same
.time availing themselves of every atom of roof and
tree shelter.
In precautions against climate the seasoned abori- |
gines furnish useful lessons to the reckless, raw, new-
comers. While careful to guard their skulls from the
direct rays of the sun, no matter how high the tem-
perature they revel in it like salamanders, though
in a European brain fever would be the result ; but
the moment December comes, with a breeze a little
less hot than the blast of a blow-pipe, all the Chinese
w^ho can afford the expense swaddle themselves, from
crown to sole, in innumerable folds of thick woollen
garments, and the most palpably skinny are trans-
formed apparently into the most conspicuously obese.
As for wet, notwithstanding that they are far more
clean in their persons than might be expected, they
take the precautions of confirmed hjrpochondriacs
against exposing their feet or bodies to the slightest
sprinkling of rain.
During a few minutes of downpour, such as is
experienced only in the tropics, nearly all the Chinese
wayfarers improvise some sort of covering : mats, ^
2 4 ENGLISH CHINA.
thermometer may range much higher. This vapour-
bath-result exercises a very debiUtating effect. A wet
deposit covers the entire exposed surface of the body,
but especially the hands, which drip, drip, so con-
stantly as to render writing vexatious, a sheet of
blotting-paper between the wrist and the paper being
absolutely indispensable.
Weary at last of your fruitless efforts to keep cool,
perhaps you try the inexperienced new-comer's expe-
dient of a stroll. In the thinnest of white linen
garments, with racquet shoes, helmet, and large sun
umbrella, you slowly saunter forth. In a quarter of
an hour you return ; with feverish haste you drag off
every stitch of your clothes, so saturated that they fall
with a thud on the floor. No — swearing will only make
you hotter ; you must grin and bear it. You come to
the conclusion that there is no escape from this heat
— it finds you out in your hiding-places in the shady
verandah, or shoots across from the white face of the
opposite house. You feel all the better for picking a
little bit at luncheon, you succeed in obtaining forty
winks afterwards, and you spend the entire afternoon
in your room as motionless as possible, for to move
into another apartment, even to shift from chair to
chair, produces a tendency to renewed soaking. Only,
at all hazards, fight against brandy and soda, at any
rate until after dinner. The man who dallies with
it, like the woman who hesitates, is lost. As for any
number of cigars, which, by the way, are h^re of sur-
. HONG KONG. 25
passing cheapness and unsurpassed excellence, in crass
defiance of the wisest medical dicta, I have not a word
to say against them. I liken their prohibition to
withholding chloroform in confinements. Smoke as
many as you please. They will do you no good
certainly, but it is less hard to boil when soothed with
their sweet comfort.
Half-past six o'clock. The * Victor Emanuel ' in
harbour fires its evening gun, and the surrounding
junks, as though in imitative chaff, pop off their
chin-chin crackers. The sun is down ; you may get
a breath of cooler air out of doors, but make haste, for
there is scarcely any twilight in these latitudes, and
pitch darkness will quickly and suddenly succeed
broad daylight. All the English inhabitants, children
and their amas (nurses) included, are following suit,
and are emerging from their retreats with simultaneous
activity. This one hour's walk is the most valuable
in the twenty-four ; and though on your return you
find yourself once more dripping, you feel tranquil-
lised, you can face dinner, and you are consoled with
reflecting that after all this pulling down surely bed
will be an unmixed enjoyment. Ah, no ! Now you
are expecting too much. The night season is to be
dreaded above all others. You wriggle into your lair
through your carefully closed musquito curtains, for
this vindictive enemy is ingenious in finding his way
through the smallest aperture, and you close your
eyes in presumptuous expectation of the death of
26 ENGLISH CHINA.
each day's life. Utterly in vain. You have never
felt more thoroughly awake in your life. You are on
the coolest, and therefore the hardest, of beds and
pillows ; in lieu of a mattress you lie on a rattan mat,
you kick off even your sheets ; the draught of night
air sweeps directly across you from the wide open
windows to the wide open doors. And yet you break
out into a lather, you toss about in intolerably feverish
weariness, you hear the endless half-hours solemnly
tolled forth across the harbour stillness from the
ships' watches — until at last, when matters seem to
have reached their worst, you lapse into a broken,
unrefreshing slumber. At an early hour in the
morning you awake in a debilitated condition of
body, suggestive of a previous night of wine and
wassail, of riot and debauchery.
Such is a specimen of an average hot day in
Hong Kong, and yet the climate is not without a
certain charm of variety. After a definite number of
days when the sensation of stifling seems to have
reached its climax, the clouds suddenly pile up in
black masses, sheet lightning glares all over the
horizon, the distant thunder growls, heavy raindrops
fall, and at last the storm bursts with a fury of which
most of us have read, but which none can realise
without a personal experience of the tropics. His
must be a dull, torpid mind which is not awed by the
incessant blinding, almost scorching, flashes, and by
the crackling, rolling roar of a thunder which makes
HONG KONG. 27
heaven and earth quiver. The rain is hurled violently
down in thick unbroken sheets, in layers of water so
to speak, the fall in half an hour being as much as
would represent weeks of wet weather in England.
One of the chief charms of Hong Kong is that
which by the inhabitants is most lightly regarded —
according to the way of the w^orld — the Botanical
Gardens. Outside the town, part of the way up the
mountain, with every advantage which natural site
and lavish expenditure can render, surely these
grounds are without equal in the world. The Palla-
vicini Gardens of Genoa are in comparison vulgar
cockney dom. Take the hothouses of Kew and Chats-
worth as marionette imitations ; think of acres of
green slopes covered with flower beds and flowering
shrubs, shaded with giant palms, with towering cocoa-
nut trees, with banyans, magnolias, azaleas, gardenias,
frangipanni, and ylang-ylang ; picture to yourself
enormous ferns and huge-leaved orchids, shrouded
beneath a feathery mass of drooping bamboo ; add
thereto the beauty of art in skilfully disposed shrub-
beries, in a diverted natural waterfall leaping down
the granite steeps, in a winding path cut out of yon
crag, in carefully mown lawns, and in neatly kept
gravel w^alks. Here, too, congregate all the bright
plumaged birds in the island, while wild doves in
hundreds never cease their soft coo. And you can
enjoy almost complete solitude in these enchanted
grounds during the greater part of the day. Only
28 ENGLISH CHINA.
among certain central broad walks will you sometimes
find a queer sprinkling of visitors.
The Chinese, in whom appreciation of nature's
beauties is strangely non-existent, admit, in their
conceit, admiration of English management in two
respects only : our administration of law, and our
formation of public gardens. There are a few pigtails
pointing out the gardening skill of those ' foreign
devils.' More numerous are the groups of children:
some repulsive, swarthy little Portuguese ; others the
pallid, washed-out offspring of English residents.
Melancholy indeed is their appearance, as they
listlessly, joylessly, creep by the side of their amaSy
who, I should mention, are universally represented as
proud of and devotedly kind to their charges. Where
is the healthy shouting, romping, dirt-pie-making,
without which childhood seems so unnatural ?
English mothers, do not bring out your children,
whatever their age, to Hong Kong except under dire
necessity. They will not drop off suddenly, but they
will inevitably droop and pine, and drift into weakly
health, which not improbably may permanently
affect them.
Then is the station so very unhealthy ? Yes —
very unhealthy for a prolonged residence, though not
deadly, and not subjected to the devastating epidemics
of cholera and fever except at long intervals. Only
that minority whose constitutions apparently defy
all unfavourable conditions escapes scathless. The
HONG KONG. 29
majority of the men, nearly all the women and the
children without exception, succumb more or less,
sooner or later, to the enervating effects of severe
heat combined with extreme steamy humidity.
Dysentery, fever, liver, or a general break down
ensues, and it is out of the question to re-establish
health thoroughly here after such attacks — a voyage
to other climes is inevitable.
The most favourable admission I could extort from
impartial and experienced witnesses was that Hong
Kong is not unfavourable to asthmatic, bronchial, and
other pulmonary complaints, provided the health of
the patient be maintained unimpaired in every other
respect. Truly this is damning with faint praise.
In indignant refutation of the above verdict, the
remarkably low death rate is frequently quoted as
being actually lower than that of temperate and
admittedly healthy regions. An illusory argument.
All whose circumstances admit fly to other climes as
soon as they sicken, for the only question then is
w^hether they will be carried away from the island or
on the island. During the first years indeed of
English occupancy. Hong Kong was little better than
a charnel house, in proof whereof we have only to
quote the records of the ' Happy Valley.' The neces-
sity for climatic precautions was not recognised ; the
appalling system of Chinese drainage, or rather the
entire absence of all drainage, exercised to the full its
pestilential effects ; and, moreover, it was only dis-
30 ENGLISH CHINA.
covered by degrees that the wholesale turning up of the
ground for building purposes involved a disintegration
of the red granite, and the consequent emanation of
fatal mephitic vapours. This last evil has now subsided
with diminished building, but even now old stagers
are careful to avoid loitering about recently ex-
cavated ground, as fraught with more or less risk of
an attack of fever. Sanitary measures have done
much to obviate the other sources of sickness. To
sum up I would say : fairly strong people encounter
only an average amount of risk, provided their stay
is not to extend over a considerable length of time,
and provided, above all, they are prepared to quit the
island on the first clearly marked development of ill
health. I must, however, warn you of the probable
ungenerous treatment of your friends when you first
return as an invalid. They will make no allowances
for the invigorating sea voyage, change of air and
scene, and unless you are carried on shore on a
stretcher or hobble about on crutches, you will be
regarded as a rank impostor.
To pass from the locality to the English inhabit-
ants thereof, to the general composition of the society.
Here we find a small number of heads of banks or of
wealthy mercantile houses, whose energy and ability
have so largely contributed to raise the colony to its
present condition of prosperity. Pleasing in manner,
of enlarged ideas, and the essence of liberality, their
presence is a credit to Hong Kong — would be an
HONG KONG. 31
honour to any community in the world. Then we
have a small sprinkling of able administrators from
the mother country, a larger proportion of Anglo-
Chinese officials whose views scarcely range beyond
the town of Victoria, and a number of clerks whose
thoughts are engrossed with dollars, and who are seek-
ing their fortunes, which probably will be ultimately
largely swallowed up in drink, play, and rowdyism.
There is, however, a corrective leaven in the shape of
the military element, which represents by far the
greater proportion of the educated and gentlemanlike
stratum. As to the Hong Kong women, born and
bred there, the most charitable criticism is that
their attractions are on a par with their scanty
numbers, and that those with whom an English
gentleman would care to exchange two words of
conversation are rari nantes in gurgite vasto.
Let me detail the ordinary experience of a local
dinner-party. You are carried to your destination in
a sedan-chair, like a Guy Fawkes, by a couple of
coolies struggling with native energy under your
English weight — an average Chinese rarely exceeds
nine stone. You find the guests — men in black
alpaca evening dress or in white jackets and trousers
— assembled in lofty spacious rooms furnished with
every luxury compatible with a maximum of coolness.
The dinner table is a beautiful mass of flowers and
foliage arranged by the native servants with native
care and skill, and with a taste which they have
30 ENGLISH CHINA.
covered by degrees that the wholesale turning up of the
ground for building purposes involved a disintegration
of the red granite, and the consequent emanation of
fatal mephitic vapours. This last evil has now subsided
with diminished building, but even now old stagers
are careful to avoid loitering about recently ex-
cavated ground, as fraught with more or less risk of
an attack of fever. Sanitary measures have done
much to obviate the other sources of sickness. To
sum up I would say : fairly strong people encounter
only an average amount of risk, provided their stay
is not to extend over a considerable length of time,
and provided, above all, they are prepared to quit the
island on the first clearly marked development of ill
health. I must, however, warn you of the probable
ungenerous treatment of your friends when you first
return as an invalid. They will make no allowances
for the invigorating sea voyage, change of air and
scene, and unless you are carried on shore on a
stretcher or hobble about on crutches, you will be
regarded as a rank impostor.
To pass from the locality to the English inhabit-
ants thereof, to the general composition of the society.
Here we find a small number of heads of banks or of
wealthy mercantile houses, whose energy and ability
have so largely contributed to raise the colony to its
present condition of prosperity. Pleasing in manner,
of enlarged ideas, and the essence of liberality, their
presence is a credit to Hong Kong — would be an
HONG KONG. 31
honour to any community in the world. Then we
have a small sprinkling of able administrators from
the mother country, a larger proportion of Anglo-
Chinese officials whose views scarcely range beyond
the town of Victoria, and a number of clerks whose
thoughts are engrossed with dollars, and who are seek-
ing their fortunes, which probably will be ultimately
largely swallowed up in drink, play, and rowdyism.
There is, however, a corrective leaven in the shape of
the military element, which represents by far the
greater proportion of the educated and gentlemanlike
stratum. As to the Hong Kong women, born and
bred there, the most charitable criticism is that
their attractions are on a par with their scanty
numbers, and that those with whom an English
gentleman would care to exchange two words of
conversation are rari nantes in gurgite vasto.
Let me detail the ordinary experience of a local
dinner-party. You are carried to your destination in
a sedan-chair, like a Guy Fawkes, by a couple of
coolies struggling with native energy under your
English weight — an average Chinese rarely exceeds
nine stone. You find the guests — men in black
alpaca evening dress or in white jackets and trousers
— assembled in lofty spacious rooms furnished with
every luxury compatible with a maximum of coolness.
The dinner table is a beautiful mass of flowers and
foliage arranged by the native servants with native
care and skill, and with a taste which they have
32 ENGLISH CHINA.
borrowed from their masters. The Chinese attendants
with their pigtails and white, fresh-looking, flowing
robes, glide noiselessly, ra.pidly about, the perfection
of waiters whom no European can match. You have,
however, according to custom, brought with you your
* boy,' whose special function it is to attend to your
wants.
The cool puffs from the waving punkahs give a
slight spur to your moribund appetite. The cooking
is excellent in spite of the difficulty that the meat
having been killed the same day, the tissues are apt
to be as hard as death stiffened them ; the wines even
better. So far good ; but the dinner, which ought to
lubricate conversation, soon turns out a dreary affair,
and hangs fire terribly. The current momentous
incidents of the world, including those of the vast
adjacent Chinese Empire, politics, literature, and
even educated small talk, are almost ignored, save in
a few exceptionally favourable houses, and the topics
are limited to inquiries as to how you like the colony,
to sordid matters of dollars, to racing speculations,
and to spiteful petty scandal. Nor can you take a
greedy refuge in the enjoyment of your food. Your
appetite allows you little more than to trifle with it,
at least until dessert time arrives, when your spirits
are raised by the wealth of mangoes, pineapples,
leichees, pummelows and bananas, which amply com-
pensate, I maintain in opposition to general received
opinions, for the absence of English strawberries and
peaches.
HONG KONG. 33
Cigars, more sleepy talk in the drawing-room, and
at an early hour you escape from this house of enter-
tainment as from a prison. Outside, the carriage
equipage certainly amuses you. There are clustered
knots of patient squatting coolies with their sedan-
chairs. The ladies and gentlemen emerge, each one
steps into his or her own vehicle, which is then
hoisted on to the bearers' shoulders, and in strings,
or side by side, according as the occupants wish to
converse, they are borne off at a rapid jog, two large
coloured Chinese lanterns swinging from each set of
poles, and gradually disappearing in the darkness
of the steep, winding road.
Let us avail ourselves of this comparatively cool
opportunity and make our way home on foot. The
thoroughfares are solitary and silent as the grave,
for the Chinese are forbidden, with a Kussian sort
of despotism, to wander abroad after 9 p.m. unless
provided with a special police permit. We only meet
with an occasional red-turbaned, white-clothed Sikh
policeman, swarthy, stealthy, and stalwart, provided
with a dark lantern and a loaded carbine which he
handles somewhat ostentatiously at the approach of
footsteps. 'Easy, my friend, with that weapon of
yours,' with a slightly jumpy sensation. Neverthe-
less this guardianship is expedient, and was abso-
lutely necessary a short time ago, when knots of
Chinese footpads would, without a moment's hesita-
tion, have robbed and made away with any belated
D
34 ENGLISH CHINA.
Englishman. It is still the practice for a policeman
at the wharf invariably to take down the number of
any sampan hired to convey a diner-out to one of
the men-of-war, lest the rowers should revert to their
former favourite practice of suddenly lowering the
awning, scragging the passenger beneath, rifling
him, and then pitching his body overboard.
Our experience of Hong Kong society at this
season of the year will, however, be comparatively
limited, inasmuch as nine-tenths of those who can
afford the expense take refuge from the heat at the
cooler *Peak,' a sharply defined range of mountains
overhanging the town, and nearly 2,000 feet high.
There they betake themselves with their families
about the end of May, and do not return to their
town residences until October, making the journey
backwards and forwards daily to their hongs, or places
of business.
We have been asked to dine and sleep at one of
these mountain chalets, and at 5 o'clock one swelter-
ing afternoon we make a start in a sedan-chair,
wherein also is stored our baggage, and which is
borne by four coolies, for the ordinary team of two
would here be quite insufficient for the tremendous
work in hand. The path is so steep that it can only
attain its objective point by incessant turns and
returns, and so narrow that during a considerable
portion of the time we are half-swinging over giddy
precipices. Our coolies struggle on valiantly, the
HONG KONG. 35
two rear bearers being careful to keep out of step
with the two leaders, and thus converting the move-
ment of our chair from a tiring tilting into a pleasant
swing. How horny must be the soles of their feet,
which are either entirely unprotected from these sharp
rocks and flints, or at most are shod with thin open-
work grass slippers. The sun beats down on their
tanned carcases, the poles press heavily on their poor
protruding shoulder-blades, which are sometimes
kneaded into black and blue, and we almost feel a»
sensation of shameful sloth at thus taking our ease,
while four human beings are slaving under our
weight. But they themselves, totally indifferent to
heat and fatigue, are jubilant over their remunerative
task, and are quite content if we will occasionally
wait for a few minutes while the relative positions
of the bearers are changed, or while they regain
their breath squatting on their hams at one of the
broadened angles of the path.
After nearly an hour's toil we are at the summit
of the range, whence the bird's-eye view certainly
is incomparable. On one side and at our very feet is
Kowloon, with its encircling framework of mainland
mountains ; the harbour swarming with gigantic
vessels, whereof I have often counted as many as
fifty, exclusive of myriads of junks ; the town and
its beautiful slopes. Still higher are the web-like
tracings of the mountain tracks, the splashing burns,
and the alternate shades of green ferns and scrub,
D 2
36 ENGLISH CHINA.
and bright azaleas glowing in wild profusion. Creep-
ing up the hills are innumerable specks showing the
merchants returning in their chairs from their daily
labours. As we peer over the reverse side of the
range we see the blue expanse of the China Sea,
dotted with numerous rugged volcanic islets. Closer in
are isthmuses, bays, and villages, which are exceedingly
picturesque provided you keep at a distance, and un-
utterably filthy if you approach them closely. Scat-
tered all over the jagged summit are low, straggling
bungalows, simplex mundiiiis, which English taste and
coolie labour have rendered gems of picturesqueness
among the rough mountainous beauties of nature.
Then how delightful is the eight or ten degrees of
cooler temperature ! We are no longer stifled and
depressed ; we pluck up spirits, vigour and appetite ;
we actually welcome a single blanket at night.
The Peak is the sanatorium of Hong Kong. Its
drawback is the damp, the effects of which are
astonishing and vexatious. In a week's time books
and clothing are ruined, papers and bindings are
transformed into pulp, linen is hopelessly mildewed,
and the only alternative to the complete ruin of all
such property is a perpetual drying at a large glow-
ing stove.
Our return journey will be most comfortably per-
formed by a start at 9 o'clock the next morning.
Plenty of society on the way, for strings of business
men are streaming down in their chairs in single file.
HONG KONG. 37
Some carry on a shouting bothering conversation with
those in front or in rear, some con their business
papers, and some are immersed in books. The trans-
formation from the mountain coolness to the valley
heat is like stepping into the kitchen boiler, and
hence many consider that the advantages of cool
nights a,t the Peak are more than counterbalanced by
the contrasts of temperature, and by various other
attendant inconveniences.
There is one serious subject of annoyance connected
with the island which I cannot pass over in silence :
the insect life. The inexperienced will pronounce the
place an elysium if its troubles are to be measured by
such a standard of comparison, which he will liken to
the advertiser's warning, that the only drawbacks to
his country place are the littering of the rose leaves
and the hubbub of the nightingales. But the expe-
rienced stager will burst forth with the eager declara-
tion that this evil, though infinitesimally small in
its single instance, when incessantly repeated, involves
a disgust and a bodily discomfort which cannot be
ignored. The butterflies are undoubtedly of sur-
prisingly varied and beautiful hues ; the myriad
swarms of dragon-flies, which so mysteriously portend
the approach of a typhoon, are local and can be
' dodged ; ' but the cockroaches, enormous brown
creatures twice the size of an English black beetle,
twice as nimble, alternately flying and running, here,
there, and everywhere ; eating up bodily the bindings
38 ENGLISH CHINA.
of your books and all leather work, rnmmagin^
through and devastating your clothes, and, worse than
all, intruding their huge loathsome bodies on to the
tablecloth, up your sleeves or down your neck. I
have seen an assemblage of middle-aged officers, some
of whom had faced shot and shell, rise in simultaneous
dismay at dinner, angrily shout for coolies, and decline
to resume their seats until a pigtailed myrmidon, pur-
suing the agile disgusting insect monster like a terrier
pursuing a rat, has triumphantly proclaimed, ' Hab
kill 'um ! ' Then the nasty fat-stomached spiders are
of Brobdingnag proportions, and surely one may shud-
der at centipedes without affectation.
Of snakes, there are some cobras and other
scarcely less venomous sorts in the island, but we are
not often brought face to face with them. The Chinese
have a terror of reptiles which is almost morbid. One
twilight evening I narrowly escaped treading on one in
the prettiest of the Botanical Garden walks. * Snek ! '
screamed a solitary Chinaman standing by, sj)ringing
into the air with affright, and excitedly dancing
about at a cautious distance, while I performed the
easy task of dispatching it. The frogs are more noisy
in their croakmg than even a chorus of their congeners
called ' Canadian Nightingales.' During the daily few-
minutes of twilight they set up a series of short
barks so loud that it would seem almost impossible
such a noise could be emitted by so small a creature.
Eeally it resembles the yapping of a Skye terrier, yet
HONG KONG. 39
herein their powers are far exceeded by the tree-
cricket, a single one of which will worry one past en-
durance with its never-ceasing chirp, so like the rasp
of a grindstone that they are locally termed scissors
grinders. The noise is produced by the vibration of
a horny spring affixed to the stomach. It has been
calculated that if a human being in London could
shout as loudly in proportion to his size as an Eng-
lish cricket, he would be audible at St. Petersburg. It
is certain that with a similar comparison of magnitude
with these brown Hong Kong creatures, which are
about as large as a black beetle, the voice could be
heard at the antipodes. Crickets are often kept in
jars by the Chinese for fighting purposes, wherein
they are considered superior even to the pugnacious
quail. At Canton I saw a man tending a collection
of these insect captives on which large sums are
habitually staked.
Sometimes a gigantic green grasshopper, with hind
legs serrated like a saw and capable of inflicting a
nasty scratch, will come in banging with enormous
jumps against the lamp, startling the guests as he
falls with a thud on the dinner-table. Foremost, too,
in nastiness are the ants. At a certain season they
develop wings and are attracted in myriads by the
gleam of a light — to perform suttee ? Nothing half so
convenient. A moment or two after alighting they
convulsively wriggle their legs and bodies, ending by
stripping themselves of their large wings which in-
40 ENGLISH CHINA. \
stinct prompts them to cast. Thus we have platefuls
of their filthy old clothes, while the original owners
scamper off on their own hind legs into every possible
corner. Purely an ideal sentiment of disgust ? Well,
at all events you cannot say as much for the mus-
quitoes. A naturalist has discovered that these
ubiquitous and indefatigable assassins have their jaws
furnished with seven miniature working implements,
whereof one is a gimlet, two are lancets, and two saws,
by which means they can with the greatest ease stab
through thin drawers or silk stockings. Stifled with
your musquito curtains, you throw aside their protect-
ing segis, or drop off in the daytime in your chair for five
minutes, or engrossed in writing, ignore the heralding
hum of their sinister intentions. Forthwith you are
aware of a number of tiny red spots on your body :
twelve hours after you begin to scratch unless, indeed,
you are possessed of heroic fortitude ; big lumps, as
though from hornets' stings, make their appearance ;
again you scratch like a madman, fingers are of no
use, nothing but a rusty nail will serve your turn.
Most people prefer positive pain to extreme irritation,
and if you are one of them, pour a little ammonia into
the torn-open bite. It is true you will dance about
the room for ten minutes afterwards, but this pain is
less severe than, say, the extraction of a tooth, and the
intolerable itching will have ceased. I have known
soldiers incapacitated from duty and admitted into
hospital owing to a musquito bite. But my fullest
HONG KONG. 41
sympathy is reserved for the poor women. I have
noticed them at dinner-parties, first their eyes
wandering aggravatingly in the midst of one's most
eager sentences, then almost perspiring with unre-
lieved itching, and at last, desperately casting to the
winds all conventionality, set to work scratching
with might and main arm or — ankle, like the veriest
coolie.
The Sunday aspect of Hong Kong is represented
almost exclusively by service at the cathedral, practi-
cally the sole parish church, although divine service
is habitually held in other buildings improvised for the
purpose. The home sound of the church-going bells
falls pleasantly on our ears ; a concourse of English
people are wending their way thither, a few in rickshas
but more in chairs, especially women. Inside and
outside the building is all that could be reasonably
wished ; architecturally handsome, fitted up with good
taste, comfortable, large and roomy ; almost sadly
roomy indeed, since the space available for about 2,000
is only occupied by a scanty congregation of four or
five hundred. The majority of our countrymen seem
to have left their religion behind them in England.
In every point of view, practical and theoretical, it is
but coldly regarded here, and it is a poor plea to retort
that a large proportion of the shepherds are idle and
inferior.
At first we are bewildered at the novelty of
the scene, chiefly due to oriental expedients for
42 ENOLISH CHINA.
obviating the heat and discomfort which otherwise
would render attention to the service impracticable.
Each seat in the wide spacious pews is partitioned off
to prevent neighbours crushing on to each other.
Men and women are dressed in the lightest, whitest,
and airiest of costumes ; there some ten or twelve
natives, forming a strange contrast in their national
costumes, have been persuaded thither by the mission-
aries. Eows of gigantic punkahs, extending completely
across the interior, wave aloft with solemn graceful
movement, and with each wave send forth streams
of fresh air which render the cathedral the coolest
place in Hong Kong ; the heathen Chinee, pigtailed,
barefooted, and only just saved from nakedness by a
light robe thrown loosely across his shoulders, is
monotonously tugging at the punkah ropes through-
out the entire service, occasionally refreshing himself
by a supplementary flourish of his own hand-fan. He
is stolid, unobservant, and un wondering, in the midst
of music which he considers harsh, and worship which
he considers fetish. The place seems in externals to
resemble a Moorish mosque as much as an English
church. And yet in these antipodes the familiar
hymns and the incomparably beautiful prayers of our
simple service stir up many a thought of our own far-
off village churches.
Once a week there sounds in Hong Kong a note
which thrills with the effect of magic. We will
suppose ourselves at a large luncheon-party, a sub-
HONG KONa. 43
stantial mid-day meal, here ranking almost first in
eating proportions. Suddenly there is a roar from a
cannon which makes the windows rattle and re-echoes
over the distant mountains. In an instant the party
is spell-bound in profound silence. ' What is it ? ' we
whisper interrogatively to our next-door neighbour,
and he answers in an undertone, ' The gun at the Peak
is signalling that the English mail is in sight.' Ah !
that sound is indeed a harbinger of joy or a knell of
grief. Perhaps that girl's face brightens with eager
expectation, or that young fellow's mouth is twitching
with the sorrow of the recollection that his nearest
and dearest no longer exist to cheer him with a sight
of their handwriting. Perhaps that middle-aged man's
face grows anxious and overcast in dread anticipation
lest he should be about to learn of some calamity
which has befallen absent wife or children ; at all events,
everyone is stricken with silence, and though after a
few minutes the conversation resumes its course, it is
forced and abstracted. Each is anxious to get away,
to receive and read in solitude the letters of weal or
woe which will be shortly delivered to him, and which
will darkly or brightly tinge his existence for at least
the next week.
To enter into some further details of social life.
Among the natural productions of the country, the
very best and foremost is the race of Chinese servants,
or ' boys ' as they are invariably called, whether their
age be sixteen or sixty : very quick in learning their
4-1 ENGLISH CHINA.
business, sharp all round, clean, attentive, and for the
most part singularly honest, so far that they will suffer
no one but themselves to pilfer their masters, and
that their own depredations are limited to certain
recognised ' squeezing ' or extortion in commission.
Each one makes the general and particular cha-
racter of his master his special study — sometimes
to a very amusing extent. The first day I engaged
my *boy,' I had carelessly tossed my hat into one
corner of the room, gloves on the bed, a stump of
pencil at an acute angle with one corner of the mantel-
piece, and a pipe at the other corner. For many
successive days I found hat, gloves, stump of pencil
and pipe carefully deposited in exactly the same spot
and at precisely the same angle. He has a proper
idea of his own dignity derived from a carefully
considered estimate of the status of his master. For
instance, he holds a lieutenant in contempt in com-
parison with a major, and while he will condescend
to do no rough work himself, he takes care that the
coolie hired as slavey fulfils every imaginable require-
ment to render his master comfortable. He is
never by any chance drunk ; he is never in the way
or never out of the way ; and in fact is so admirable
as to render subsequent experience of the average
English man-servant odious. Again, in the transac-
tion of minor matters of business with which they
may be entrusted, they show a great deal of zeal and
aptitude — indeed it is necessary to bew^are lest they
HONG KONG. 45
exceed instructions, as in the case of the following local
Joe Miller.
The Chinese heing totally unable to pronounce
our English names with any proximity to accuracy,
it is customary for a visitor, even though well known,
to send up his card in advance, and it is quite allow-
able during the hot siesta hours for the * boy' to bring
back the message * no can see.' ' Here is that stupid
Mr. Smith,' says the lady to her husband. * Oh, do
not let the snob in,' is the drowsy reply. Accordingly
the *boy' thus delivers himself to the self-complacent
Smith : ' No can see. Master say you snob. Missus-ee
say you plenty too much fool-o.'
In travelling, the value of the Chinese servant
becomes still more apparent. In most steamers the
native 'boy' of an Englishman is conveyed free, and
whether on board ship, in a , hotel, or as a guest in a
private residence, you never have a moment's trouble
about his food, lodging, or comfort. You may be
quite sure he will turn up at exactly the right moment,
encumbered only with a small handbox and a large
pile of bedding, on which latter, however, he bestows
extreme care. After he has attended to your com-
fort, off he marches with the above bedding to the
servants' domain, where he at once makes himself at
home. An occasional few friendly words will estab-
lish your mutual relations on the most pleasant foot-
ing, though as for gratitude, do not delude yourself
with any such futile expectation, however constant
46 ENGLISH CHINA.
and prolonged may have been your kindness. Grati-
tude is a plant which does not exist for twenty-four
hours in the mental flora of the Chinese. A hairs'
breadth of advantage will instantly counterbalance
the friendship and obligations of years, and he will
throw you over without a grain of regret.
The mistress of an English household, tormented
for years with the worries of legs of mutton, soap, and
candles, enters on a period of holiday in these details
when she lands in China. A few directions in the
morning to the comprador or native family agent will
provide for the whole of the daily requirements of the
dining-room. This sleek long-tailed major-domo has
a sort of secret freemasonry tie with every native
tradesman in the place, but he suffers no one but
himself to cheat his employer. The servants cater for
their own food, and stow themselves away in myste-
rious multiplicity in sleeping nooks according to their
own fashion. Apparently they altogether ignore our
own exigencies in the matter of space.
There is, however, one shady side to the above
picture — the language. It is exceedingly vexatious to
be compelled to deal with that miserable substitute
Pidgin ^ English — not, remember, the imperfect broken
jargon of foreigners, but a hybrid gibberish interspersed
with a variety of bastard Chinese or Portuguese terms
concocted by our nation when we first took possession,
on a supposition about as reasonable as would be the
• The Chinese pronunciation of ' business.'
HONG KONG. 47
idea of an Auvergnafc patois being more comprehen-
sible to a stranger than Parisian French. That
dreadful pidgin is almost a new language, the basis
of which is the conversion of every r into an I, adding
final vowels to each word/ and the constant use of
certain argot expressions. An * American ' is rendered
' Mellican man ' ; * savvy ' means ' to know,' from the
Portuguese ' sabe.' * Speak ' is ' talkee ' ; ' piece '
* piecee ' ; exalted ' rank ' or * excellent,' * number
one ' ; * do you understand ' and * that will answer
the purpose ' are both translated * can do.' ' Pidgin '
means business in the most varied and illimitable
extent of the word; 'joss' means 'religion.' Their
periphrases are certainly sometimes rather ingenious.
A paddle steamer is ' outside- walkee-can-see,' a screw,
' inside-walkee-no-can-see.' The Chinese designate the
officer commanding the Royal Artillery as ' number-
one-big-gun-man,' the commanding Engineer as
' number-one-bricklayer-man,' the Bishop of Hong
Kong as ' number-one-topside-heaven-pidgin-man,'
and really there is no burlesque in the rendering of
by
My name is Nerval. On the Grampian hills
My father feeds his flock . . .
My name belong Norval, topside that Glampian hillee
My father he chow-chow he sheep-ee.
The jargon has now taken a firm root and consti-
tutes an indispensable acquirement, for until you can
fluently speak, and, far more difficult, understand it
48 ENGLISH CHINA.
readily when rapidly slurred over in a monotonous
tone of voice, all communication with the servants is
a source of constant vexation and misunderstanding.
It is urged that if we ourselves were to persist in
grammatical English, our employes would soon fall
into the way of it. I tried the experiment individu-
ally, and it was a dead failure. To be successful, it
must be unanimous throughout the community, and
to expect this is clearly out of the question. No ; the
language is a small thorn in one's side. To attempt
to pick up Chinese would, in nineteen cases out of
twenty, be a deplorable waste of time, as I will en-
deavour to show in a subsequent chapter. Even the
pidgin is confined to a small fraction who are in direct
communication with Europeans ; the street multitudes
of the Treaty Ports do not know a single sentence.
French, very rarely spoken even in the F.rench settle-
ments, though broken, is not pidgin ; German, Italian,
^nd Spanish are totally unknown to the Chinese.
Let us not fall into the frequent English error of
dismissing with a mere allusion the native population.
True, their submission to the behests of our autho-
rities is of a spaniel nature, but inasmuch as for
every European resident there are about forty-five
Chinese, it is evident that on the latter must largely
depend the commercial prosperity and social order of
the colony. We set out on a tour of exploration of
that part of Victoria which is exclusively occupied by
the natives, and is known as * China Town.' On our
way we traverse a sort of intervening neutral terri-
HONG KONO. 49
tory, the Portuguese quarter — ' Geese,' as they are
called in the abbreviation of contempt — a little nucleus
of a singularly effete and deteriorated Iberian popula-
tion. The women, with traces of mantilla and national
costume, missal in hand, are dawdling and gossiping
on their return from vespers. The mother-tongue
has been maintained fairly unimpaired. The men
are modern Portuguese, worn-out descendants of
valiant ancestors ; the Senhoritas have bartered part
of their national beauty, so entrancing at sixteen years
of age, for a Chinese cast of countenance which has
ruined the original ; the crones are more haggish than
in Pyrenean Spain ; and the muddy- complexioned
children, many of whom are the hybrid offspring of
effete Portuguese fathers and half caste native mothers,
arouse a disgust not entertained towards the pure-
blooded Chinese children.
Farther on, and we are in the native quarter,
quite unlike any of the Chinese cities which I subse-
quently visited in the interior, still more unlike any
European town, and perhaps the best specimen ex-
tant of the possible amelioration of the aborigines
under a wise and energetic civilisation. The front
part of the houses is entirely open, the upper stories
are built with inconsistently handsome balconies, and
the exteriors are decorated with oriental colour and
gilding which produce rather an imposing effect.
Nowhere is there a trace of a chimney or a glass
window. There is the usual 'bouquet de Chinois,'
50 ENGLISH CHINA.
chatter, and nakedness, but the wares are abundant
and of fairly substantial value, and throughout there
is an evidence of prosperity and order for which we
may search in vain in Canton, Foochow, or Hankow.
A large open area, half market, half recreation ground,
is thronged with natives, some hucksters, some con-
jurors, and some fat old fellows simply taking their
pleasure fanning themselves in unclothed indolence.
The skinny coolie is a queer sight ; the obese idler is a
marvel, with roll upon roll of layers of fat upon his
portentous stomach thicker than would be revealed by
incision in a sleek oily seal. Englishmen so seldom
penetrate into China Town that we are looked at with
sm-prise, but are treated with perfect civility. One
street, * Kum Lung,' illustrates by its nomenclature
the curious transformation of words by the mere lapse
of time. It was much frequented during the early
years of the colony by English sailors, and * Come
along. Jack,' was the persuasive greeting addressed to
them by the female denizens. This phrase became
modified into ' Kum lung,' which in Chinese happens
also to signify ' Eed Dragon,' and when names were
painted in both languages on the corners of the
thoroughfares, the place was designated as ' Kum
Lung ' and ' Eed Dragon ' Street, by which term it is
now known.
Thus far we have been dealing with normal Hong
Kong — with its resident European and native popula-
tion. But it contains in addition an important
HONG KONG. 51
element, that of the military, without which the
colony would lapse into an aggregate of traders at the
mercy of the adjacent, ill-governed, overwhelmingly
numerous brutish Chinese nation. Not only does
the garrison serve to safeguard English interests in a
constant condition of a contingent crisis where ex-
traneous aid is too remote to be available ; not only
does it give the character of a slice of our empire to
this farthest advanced British outpost ; but by its mere
presence it establishes a nucleus of administration
and order, of civilisation and educated society. The
normal strength is a battalion of infantry, one and
sometimes two batteries of artillery, and a section of
the militarj^ departmental adjuncts. We have no
reason to be ashamed of the general appearance of
our soldiers here, for the immature weeds have been
left behind in England, and the chosen residue look
very striking in their clean well-ordered array, of
course enormously favoured by their contrast with the
rabble rout around them.
The Queen's birthday parade presented a so
strongly mixed oriental and occidental aspect that I
am tempted to describe it in detail. The site is a
slope of bright green turf in the middle of the town,
stretching down to the water's edge, shaded with rows
of banyan trees, and overshadowed by the cathedral
and lofty, eastern-looking public buildings, with an
adjacent background of rugged mountains. Here is
drawn up the single line of British soldiers, white in
E 2
52 ENGLISH CHINA.
feature and still more white in their snowy tunics and
helmets. Their bayonets glitter in the bright clear
light, though eventide is now approaching; their
carefully dressed, serried ranks are motionless, their
mere silence and immobility in the midst of the noisy
crowd imparting to them an imposing and masterful
air. For patches of colour we have the red-turbaned
swarthy Sikhs scattered along the margin and keep-
ing the ground. A few English ladies and their
sickly stalky olive-branches gather languidly round
the saluting flag, while on every advantageous spot
in the neighbourhood, level ground, mounds, walls,
windows, verandahs, and housetops, are clustered in
hive-like swarms a multitude composed of numerous
nationalities. The black-coated, respectable Parsee
gentlemen, who, but for their foolscap-shaped head-
dresses, might be mistaken for Europeans with a dab
of the tar-brush ; the solemn-looking Arabs with their
beards dyed red, such as were the associates of
Haroun al Easchid ; mongrel Portuguese ; here and
there a Hindoo or a negro, and an overwhelming
multitude of Chinese, unanimous in their pigtails, but
in every descending stage of deshabille, or rather
nakedness. The General (Lt.-Gen. J. Sargent) comes
on the ground, and forthwith is carried out a ceremonial
which bears with it a strange aspect under such novel
circumstances. A salute of twenty-one guns from
the volunteer field-battery echoes over the mountains ;
the crack of the feu de joie rolls up and down the
HONG KONG. 53
ranks, and the magnificent * God save the Queen '
almost justifies the legendary remark of the Indian
potentate, ' Is your sovereign a divinity that you
worship her with such music ? ' The native popula-
tion, which has hitherto been jabbering like talking
machines, is instantly hushed into wondering silence
w^hich lasts throughout the operations. Then comes
the trooping of the colours, when ' Meet me by moon-
light,' and ' 'Tis my delight of a shiny night,' played
by the band marching down the line, arouses curious
mixed emotions, half smiles and half sighs. Finally,
the march past in the now rapidly deepening twilight
by the mathematically dressed companies, with their
regular tramp and their resolute warlike demeanour,
convince us that this 'thin white line,' notwithstand-
ing its tenuity, would without difficulty cut through
and through like a razor any aggregate thousands of
Chinese soldiery in the open. While guarding against
the folly of despising an enemy, it is not, surely, too
much to say that the idea of these miserable wretches
offering any serious resistance in a fair stand-up fight,
seems preposterous beyond measure. Nor is this
view confuted by the recent ill success of the French.
They were baffled by sun, sw^amp, sickness, and mal-
administration, certainly not by the fighting powers
of their antagonists.
Once more let us turn to a military display, but
of an exactly converse nature — a soldier's funeral.
Most of us are acquainted with its impressive sim-
54 ENGLISH CHINA.
plicity at home, and here too is the * Dead March ' with
its funeral cadence, the firing party with reversed
arms, the lengthened files of the deceased's comrades,
the coffin borne on the gun-carriage with the Union
Jack, the dead soldier's helmet and bayonet. But
the white clothing of our men, the red-turbaned
Lascar gunners dragging the carriage in default of
horses through the grotesquely built native streets,
the crowd of ugly chattering Chinese, unmoved in
their grinning materialism by the saddest strains of
music and the most touching form of ceremonial,
present additional features which almost make us
feel as if we were taking part in some dream pageant.
We reach the * Happy Valley,' and here we can shake
off these vermin. The coffin is borne on soldiers'
shoulders through those beauteous groves of which I
have already spoken ; the long white procession winds
slowly up the mountain side, standing out clear
against the varied green and red dazzling tropical
foliage ; the three volleys are fired with an effect
augmented by the echo ; the drums beat the Point of
War, * Fall in. Quick March,' and homewards to a
lively tune. For aught I know, technicalities may
render the scene unsuitable for a painter's delinea-
tion, but as an episode in real life no human inge-
nuity could devise a more extraordinarily impressive
combination of sight, sound, and circumstance.
Are deaths among the soldiers frequent? No —
although the hospital returns are startlingly high,
HONG KONG. 55
and I have had as many as 20 per cent, of my battery
on the sick Hst, during part of a season by no
means exceptionally unhealthy, and with every con-
ceivable precaution for the preservation of health.
The patients are sent off to the roomy hospital ship,
' Meanee,' a teak-built three-decker, which formerly
belonged to the East India Company ; should they
continue to droop in spite of the sea air, they are
transferred to the cool sanatorium high up on the
* Peak ; ' and should this fail, they are unhesitatingly
invalided home.
The precautions taken by the military combatant
authorities to avert sickness are wisely minute and
incessant, inasmuch as the conveyance of each soldier
to China costs the Imperial Government about lOOL ;
but they involve such apparent though necessary
pampering that a new comer will in his inexperience
bristle with horror. The men are strictly prohibited
stirring out of barracks between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
during the hot season ; or if some emergency renders
the despatch of a European orderly necessary, he is pro-
vided with an immense sun-parasol, a certain number
of which are furnished by the commissariat. To wear
a forage cap instead of a helmet before sunset is a
punishable offence, and inspections are held to ascer-
tain that each man has on a cholera belt. Barrack
accommodation is luxuriously spacious — commissariat
coolies are told off to work punkahs in orderly rooms,
schools, workshops, and guard-rooms during the day,
56 ENGLISH CHINA.
and during the night in the barrack-rooms — though,
as an old gunner explained to me in one pregnant
sentence, * Them punkah coolies are not of much
count, sir, unless you keep a boot handy by your
bedside ' — i.e. to use as a missile.
The following may be taken as a fair sample of
Gunner Thomas Atkins' daily routine during the hot
months. At 5 a.m. he awakes with a soft punkah
breeze fanning him. 5.15. Cup of cocoa and a
biscuit brought to his bedside by a coolie. (N.B. A
silver salver is dispensed with.) 5.30. The barber
coolie shaves him, still in bed. 6. Bathing parade.
7.30. Breakfast, of which Jib. of beef-steak forms
an invariable component. 8 to 11. Nothing what-
ever to do, and plenty to help him to do it — the
everlasting coolies perform nearly all the cooking,
sweeping, and cleaning up in barracks. 11. A short
spell of school and theoretical instruction in gunnery.
After dinner unanimous repose on bamboo matting,
as being cooler than a mattress. 5 p.m. One hour's
easy gun-drill. 6 to 10. Sally forth to chaff the
Chinese folk, try a trifle of ' samshu,' and practically
ascertain that this potent rice spirit will prostrate
with splitting headache the seasoned old soaker to
whom a tumbler of brandy would be but as a glass of
water. In fact during the hot weather he merely
mounts guard, and is available for emergencies ; in
the cool season he is of course made to rub up his
drill. His idle life is not a happy one, destitute as it
HONG KONG. 5l
is to him of interest and active amusements, and in a
very short time he becomes listless, depressed and
pulled down, contrasting painfully with his newly
landed, fresh-looking comrades. This unfavourable
condition seems to' extend to the officers. I have
known it asserted that no efforts of a commanding
officer can keep European troops permanently sta-
tioned at Hong Kong in a state of military efficiency.
As a supplement to the British force, two com-
panies of gun-Lascars have been brought from India,
and they form most useful adjuncts for dutfes such as
orderly and fatigue, involving an exposure to the sun,
which they can face with impunity, but which would
surely entail sickness on Europeans. Both companies
are dressed like gunners, except that the Sikhs wear
turbans. The Madras company is, however, in most
respects, miserably inferior to the Sikhs. Undersized,
feebly built, contemptible in cast of features, they
approximate to the usual type of the cringing eastern.
Those splendid Punjaubees, on the other hand, of
powerful physique, handsome features, grave and
dignified, are fine specimens of orientals. In the
bygone period of the Sikh war they put forth all
their powers to try conclusions with us, and after a
valiant struggle were defeated. Since then they have
accepted their fate with dignity, and, without self-abase-
ment, have acknowledged us as their masters. They
rely with implicit faith on the justice of their British
officers, and are confident in the efficacy oi an appeal
58 ENGLISH CHINA.
for redress in any of their little grievances. I can
imagine few prouder positions than the command of
such a splendid body of men on active service. Owing,
however, to the general ignorance of any language but
Hindustani, and to the consequent necessity of the
services of half-instructed native interpreters, adjudi-
cation and administration are frequently attended
with difficulties. Their diction, both written and
verbal, is of an amusing grandiloquence. * Sahib,'
was the translated peroration of a proud, swarthy,
turbaned Sikh — nobleman, shall I call him — who con-
sidered that he had been both defrauded and insulted :
* I no care for dollar, I care only for shameful disgrace
how I treated before all peoples.' Another, presenting
a written petition for discharge, explains that he * had
the determined resolution to pass my life as a soldier.
But the Almighty's decision cannot be rescinded. I
try to satisfy you that this is true.' Another, re-
porting on a drain, says : * It (the drain) had a great,
disagreeable, and bad smell, quite impure, causing the
men to be in unhealthy state . . . according to the
rules of sanatory.' They entertain a most exaggerated
idea of the far-reaching authority of the British officer.
One man draws up a petition setting forth that a girl
in India to whom he had been engaged was about
to be bestowed by her avaricious father on a more
wealthy suitor, and praying the commanding officer
to issue an injunction which would restrain the father
irom such a measure for two years.
HONG KONG. 59
Hong Kong harbour is well adapted for defence,
and the expense of the small garrison stationed there,
to which the colony annually contributes 20,0001., is
money well spent. It is urged that under any cir-
cumstances a landing could be easily effected on the
opposite side of the island, but it must be first
assumed that our fleet would be either absent or
perfectly inactive ; and, secondly, granted the landing,
the invaders would be compelled to fight their way
against the defenders along a single road easily broken
up, or to toil up to the crest of the main range of
mountains. Eestricted in either case to field-j)ieces,
they could, after a considerable expenditure of time
and ammunition, effect a great deal of damage on the
open town below ; but they could not hold it : the
merchant ships would be well under the shelter of
the detached forts, and if the latter were strengthened
and more efficiently armed, their guns could both
effectually hold the harbour and checkmate any
further operations on the part of the enemy by land.
These forts and batteries, six in number, even now
command the narrow eastern or Lye-moon sea-pass,
only a quarter-mile broad, the western entrance,
which to a great extent is blocked by shoal water,
and, in fact, the entire area of this incomparably
splendid harbour. It is, however, greatly to be
desired that the Imperial Government should resolve
upon the expenditure of some small additional sum in
strengthening the defences according to some reso-
60 ENGLISH CHINA.
lutely carried out scheme, and thus take full advan-
tage of the natural capacities for rendering this
important post absolutely impregnable.^
It is worth while to cross over to the promontory
of Kowloon on the Chinese mainland, acquired at the
conclusion of the war of 1860 so successfully con-
ducted by Sir Hope Grant, on the indisputable ground
that its possession is tactically indispensable for the
efficient defence of the harbour. On this strip of
ground, about two miles in length and an average of
three-quarters of a mile in breadth, commercial enter-
prise has been so busy as to imperil the attainment of
the proposed military objects. Forts and barracks
have, it is true, been erected on a stunted scale, and
a small detachment of infantry is habitually stationed
here for rifle practice ; but docks, wharves, godowns,
hongs, and villa residences have sprung up with
flourishing rapidity, and every year tend more and
more to elbow the military out of the field.
Kowloon is occasionally resorted to during hot
afternoons, as a more breezy spot where lawn tennis
may be played, with the pleasant sequence of a cool
return voyage in the evening across the harbour.
Steam ferries ply constantly to and fro.
The barren, uncultivated red ground presents a
curious feature in the large patches of the sensitive
* Since this was written the Home Government has taken mea-
sures of a practical and comprehensive nature for rapidly putting
Hong Kong in a far more efficient state of defence.
TLO'^G KONG. 61
plant so well known in English hothouses. The
waving of a stick over them seems to produce a
withering curse as in the case of the wand of a
malignant necromancer. The green plants simul-
taneously quiver, shiver, shrivel, and close, showing
streaks of leafless, dry, withered stalks.
A steam-launch voyage round the island — the
extreme length of which is eleven miles, maximum
breadth five miles, and area, including Kowloon,
thirty-two miles — gives us a good epitome of our
survey of details. Throughout, the coast scenery is of
that rugged, towering nature characteristic of igneous
formations, but the back part of the island differs
from the harbour side in its wide, unlandlocked
expanse of the China Sea, in the rougher nature of
its waters, in its precipitous little islets dotted about
in every direction, and in its solitude and entire
absence of all shipping save for a few piratical-looking
junks, which, sallying forth from semi-hidden inlets,
perpetrate abominable crimes for wretchedly small
game. These wasps are, however, fairly cleared out
from their former Hong-Kong haunts. Here we
arrive at the little village of Stanley, in the bend of a
bright, quiet, yet breezy little bay. It is now occupied
by a few Chinese, in their usual tumble-down pigsties.
It once formed a sanatorium, and here are the officers'
quarters, the barracks, now utilised by the police,
hospital, surgery, and the various accompaniments of a
military establishment. But, for some occult reason,
62 ENGLISH CHINA.
it was not found to answer its purpose ; and, indeed,
the justice of this conclusion is justified by the terrible
extent to which its unduly large cemetery was in a
very short time filled. English officials have cared
for these sepulchres, first whitening, then crumbling,
and finally blackening under the full glare of a
tropical sun, with an unfailing solicitude. The ground
is trim, even as an English village churchyard, and
the renovated records still tell their tale of how, say,
Sergeant Smith, died of fever on 3^^ Aug*, his wife on
5*^, and their 2 children on 7*^, and so on. A large
proportion of the tombstones are in memory of
officers who died in China as far back as forty years
ago, and whose bodies were apparently brought here
for interment.
Let us now apply to Hong Kong the Birmingham
standard of £. s. d. — the inexorable test of receipts
and expenditure. Its estimated revenue for 1884 was
1,200,000L; its expenditure, 1,190,000L; its exports
to the United Kingdom in 1882 were of the value of
1,429,000Z., and its imports 3,143,000L ; and it is the
only one of our colonies which, so far from being
burdened with a public debt, has for many successive
years been accumulating a surplus for unforeseen
emergencies. In 1845 it cost the British taxpayers
50,000L plus its military expenses. Now, it draws
not a farthing from the home exchequer, and actually
contributes 20,000L a year towards defraying the
expenses of the troops quartered in the garrison, the
HONG KONG. 63
total strength of which, all told, is about 1,200 men.
Its shipping, trade, and wealth are annually in-
creasing, and, as already pointed out, have now
assumed enormous proportions. Its local government,
which is of an admii'able simplicity, is smoothly and
prosperously administered by a Governor and an
Executive Council of six members, aided by a Legis-
lative Council of eleven — one of whom is a Chinese —
nominated by the Crown.
Well — have I succeeded in persuading you, even
by this sketchy account, that Hong Kong is one of
the most singular spots in the world ? Other localities
possess their own special characteristics and as great
beauties — superior of their kind they can hardly be.
But this island, owing to its extreme remoteness from
all centres of European civilisation, and to its strange
population, which only resembles ourselves — apart
from the theological point of view — in being two-
footed, unfeathered, grinning mammals, possesses a
novelty unequalled elsewhere. In addition to the
advantages which I have already endeavoured to set
forth, it is conspicuous by the fact that during the
past thirty years its opulence has been increasing
without a substantial check, and that, of all our vast
colonial possessions, it may be considered, on the
whole, as the most prosperous. Ceded in January
1841, and confirmed to us by the Treaty of Nankin,
August 1842, its retention has never cost a drop of
blood, or involved a single diplomatic difficulty, and
64 ENGLISH CHINA.
there has never heen a breath of allegation against a
harsh or unjust sway. Indeed, its large native popu-
lation, far from resisting our rule, flies to us from
their own misgoverned country as to a haven of rest,
justice, and security. As a nation, we are in the
habit of contrasting our public measures unfavourably
with those of other European countries, of pro-
claiming our shortcomings, of minimizing our suc-
cesses. Here, at all events, we may point proudly to
results, and quote Hong Kong as an instance of what
may be achieved by English rule, English industry,
and English integrity of administration.
65
CHAPTEK 11.
A MODEL BRITISH REPUBLIC SHANGHAI.
British Kepublic ! The very title sounds like a parody.
Is this chapter a mere repetition of those numerous
prophetic fables which endeavour to delineate the
supposed conditions of existence, when England shall
have learned antiquity of usage is not identical with
excellence, and America that innovation is not per se
amelioration ? No. I seek to draw a picture of a small
British community, over 10,000 miles distant from
England — a nucleus which contains the elements of
importance and aggrandisement in a future when,
according to modern Chinese philosophers, the history
of China will be the history of the governing world,
while the annals of the British Empire will be com-
prised in a marginal note, to the effect that this
active, intelligent race started into a sudden and
ephemeral existence for a couple of thousand years,
or so, and then vanished from the face of the earth.
Even now, our fellow-countrymen in the Shanghai
settlement, though theoretically English subjects,
practically owe no allegiance to the Foreign Office,
F
66 ENGLISH CHINA.
Colonial Office, or Horse Guards ; the settlement ad-
ministers its own government with an independence
little short of that exercised by Switzerland, and, in
fact, the tiny Kepublic realises the supposition of an
English tribe without a sovereign.
In 1884 British Eepublican Shanghai having
requested British Imperial Hong Kong to send an
officer to inspect their volunteers, horse, foot, and
artillery, I was selected for this duty. Our stormy
four-days' voyage between the two places resembled a
prolonged Dover and Calais crossing, the discomfort
of which no size of ship or luxury of accommodation
could obviate.
As we enter the Yellow Sea, the hitherto blue water
assumes the colour and consistency of pea-soup ; we
steam a short distance up the Yang-tsze-Kiang Kiver,
the mere pronunciation of which brings on a sore
throat, and arriving at its confluent the Hwangpoo,
are transferred to a tug to enable us to cross the
rapidly silting-up Woosung bar, which subsequently
assumed importance as a tactical obstacle to French
operations. We paddle through slime, amidst dark-
ness and bitter cold, for about ten miles to Shanghai.
Here some dozen brilliant meteors, the last efforts
of that electric light which here, as elsewhere, suc-
ceeded in enriching the directors and impoverishing
the shareholders, reveal some large English buildings
standing out in weird distinctness through the sur-
rounding darkness, and the scene is rendered still
SHANGHAI. 67
more striking by the sudden influx of swarms of
hideous chattering Chinese cooHes springing on board
from the adjacent wharf, Hke a flock of sheep through
a gap.
The master of the tug, thinking this influx in-
opportune, quietly knocks down the foremost cooHe,
and intimates his intention of bestowing similar
marks of favour on the others. Were there cries of
* Shame ! ' or threats of vengeance from the mob of his
outraged comrades ? Oh dear no. The knocked-
down coolie submissively slips away, and his outraged
comrades fall back like frightened partridges. A few
minutes afterwards, when the master's attention is
diverted, they again swarm on board and handle the
luggage with such dangerous freedom that I interpose.
Merely stretching my leg across the gangway, I shout
out in the ridiculous pidgin-English : * Plenty too
many coolie ' ; and these men, about 120 in number,
keen for hire and shrouded in darkness, who could
have brushed me aside like a fly, never dream of dis-
puting the self-assumed authority of the single
Englishman, but submissively and instinctively fall
back until, in my good pleasure, I graciously permit
one or two of their number to pass. Why do I dwell
on this triviality ? Because ^ I want to illustrate the
fact, so incomprehensible to those who have never
dwelt in the East, that a solitary resolute Englishman
can cow into spaniel submissiveness, under certain
circumstances, an almost unlimited number of Asiatics.
F 2
68 ENGLISH CHINA.
Herein, too, lies a tendency to grievous oppression,
against which it behoves us to be on strict guard — that
tendency on the part of Anglo-Indians to strike and
ill-use those who, they well know, will never lift a
finger in their defence.
At Shanghai I was once rowed by some taciturn,
quiet, respectable blue-jackets to a jetty crowded
with native boatmen, who did not show sufficient
alacrity in getting out of our way. Whereupon the
blue-jackets, quite as a matter of course, metho-
dically banged their heavy oars about the heads
and the shoulders of the unfortunate Chinese, shoved
the sampans right and left into the swiftly running
river, and then the coxswain respectfully touching his
hat, * Beg pardon, sir, but them Chinamen are very
slow in getting out of the way unless you hurry them
a bit.'
Sallying forth in broad daylight, the first impres-
sion on my mind is that the English part of the
settlement is a collection of small palaces. No alter-
nation of houses and hovels, of neatness and filth, of
luxury and squalor characteristic of most Anglo-
Eastern towns. The private residences, the public
banks, the wholesale warehouses, and even the retail
shops, are large substantial stone buildings, con-
structed on a scale of absolute grandeur, externally
handsomely decorated, internally equally handsomely
fitted up. Along the whole frontage a broad marine
parade called the ' Bund ' — I presume from the Indian
SHANGHAI. 69
term Bunder — with an expanse of beautifully mown
turf, slopes down to the water's edge and marks the
European highway where commercial activity is at
its highest. On the ^.djacent river, Hwangpoo, huge
European ocean steamers are loading or discharging,
while Chinese junks, Chinese sampans, and even
Chinese steam-launches are fussing about in every
direction. Their business-like appearance is en-
hanced by the six or seven foreign ironclads show-
ing their teeth in the shape of monstrous guns,
but riding in dignified repose at anchor, and by
some large unwieldy opium hulks freighted with a
burden which many pronounce to be somewhat more
deadly, and infinitely more disastrous, than 25-ton
guns and 400-lb. projectiles. Then the streets are
as busy as a swarm of bees. Innumerable rickshas
dash along at a sustained speed which would soon
distance the whole tribe of Westons and pedestrian
competitors. Innumerable pairs of coolies, with
burdens suspended on bamboo poles which they bear
on their shoulders, shuffle eagerly along. Their
weights seem perfectly back-breaking, a contingency
which they recognise by the most absurd rhythmical
groans which apparently solace their minds and ease
their bodies. Innumerable ' chit '-carriers, with that
useful contrivance a chit book, wherein the recipient
of the letter signs his name, hurry to and fro, imi-
tating the businesslike anxiety of the English which
foreigners pronounce to be our uncomfortable charac-
70 ENGLISH CHINA,
teristic, but which perhaps is merely an incident due
to the fact that that which we do, we do with all our
might.
But where are the master minds, the irresistible
potentates, in whose service these ricksha-men, these
coolie labourers, these factory agents are working with
an unwearied striving energy which only these pig-
tailed Chinese can exercise ? There are numerous
tangible signs of them, from the street lamp-post, the
invariable concomitant of English settlers in the most
remote regions, to the vast storehouses of wealth
which line the river frontage ; but their presence in
the body is comparatively rare. They are but as
single salmon in a river teeming with myriads of
smelts. Yet here and there the imperious subduer is
seen striding through the crowds of the subdued, who
carefully avoid jostling the Saxon potentate, intuitively
fall back from his path, and obey his behests with the
docility of well-broken spaniels towards their stern
but not unkindly masters.
Let us now walk round the frontier territories of
our republic, which we must remember is outside,
and completely separated from, the enormous adjacent
native city of Shanghai. Its strict limits, indeed,
comprise an area of not more than one square mile,
yet within this narrow space are assembled upwards
of 250,000 human beings. One side is bounded by
the river, two sides by brooks, and the fourth by a dry
ditch. The top of the local Piccadilly is marked by
SHANGHAI. 71
its corresponding Hyde Park under the jurisdiction of
the RepubHc Woods and Forests. About an acre of
neatly turfed, prettily planted garden is railed in with
handsome iron palings which no turbulent Reform
mob has ever yet carried away. For nearly a mile
the main road runs in a straight direction, then turn-
ing to the right we find ourselves in the Chinese
section of the European settlement. Here a vast
number of natives have established themselves, re-
joicingly submitting to our taxation and incompre-
hensible cranks respecting sanitary laws. Some
seeking that security of person and property for which
they vainly search elsewhere ; some hoping to escape
from the spite and tyranny of their own rulers, and
others, women, about 13,000 in number, concerning
whom the least said the better. Yet these immigrants
under such unfavourable auspices are a thoroughly
law-abiding, orderly community on the whole. Under
the restrictions of the Board of Works, even the
poorest streets contrast most favourably with the back
slums of Bethnal Green, and in general aspect are far
handsomer and wider than the handsomest and widest
in the native capitals of Foochow and Canton. The
walls are, it is true, the thinnest possible shells —
merely the three-inch thickness of a single brick — but
a brick shell must surely be deemed superior to a thick
mud and dirt crust. Most wonderful of all, there is
not a garbage heap within nose-shot. The thorough-
fares are a marvel to all Celestials ; amply broad and
72 ENGLISH CHINA.
well paved, and lighted sometimes with gas and some-
times with electricity, and strikingly supplemented by
the painted paper lanterns swinging in front of the
windowless tenements, under the provisions of the
Defence Committee they are patrolled by policemen
in dress and appearance the very dittos of the London
Cerberus, and differing only in being more stalwart,
more useful, and less meddlesome.
The densely thronged thoroughfares at first pro-
duce an impression of market day, instead of a normal
condition of business. The dwellings of narrow
frontage but of wonderful horizontal depth — I still
insist on their comparative salubrity — are packed as
closely as corpses in a speculator's cemetery. The dis-
gorging process never comes to an end ; the stream of
human beings is incessantly pouring out of the doors
into the streets and vice versa, and we can now more
readily understand how in China vast seething masses
are compressed into minute areas, and why the ordi-
nary European rules for estimating population are in
this country entirely fallacious. Here we are outside
the pale of the luxurious ricksha conveyance, but the
thrifty Chinaman still finds a little opening for
swagger according to his notions, by means of a
double-seated wheelbarrow, whereon I have seen as
many as three specimens of flesh, fat, and pigtail
conveyed by a single coolie, struggling, staggering,
sweltering, and inwardly groaning. A few years ago,
indeed, these wheelbarrows were the sole means of
SHANGHAI. 73
conveyance for diners out. Now they are largely used
at a fare of one cash — about twenty-five cash make a
penny — by the Chinese women, and for a very suffi-
cient reason. The practice of forcing their miserable
feet into a shapeless mass, which is becoming less
universal in Southern China, here prevails with un-
abated unanimity. The push of a little finger will
cause a pedestrian thus deformed to topple on one
side, and the accomplishment of a few yards on their
own hind legs is more formidable and tedious to them
than to the traditional tortoise. It may interest
Darwinites to learn that this disuse of the feet muscles
has called into play those of, shall I say, the dorsal
vertebrae, thus developing enormous curves which,
according to Chinese taste, constitute a line of beauty,
and are held in far higher estimation than mere facial
attractions.
Dear to the heart of the Chinese are the pursuits
of bargaining, buying, and selling, but they despise
any ostentatious display of their wares. Nastier,
dirtier, more trumpery, and, in fact, more loathsome
shops I have never seen in Whitechapel or the Seven
Dials. Here is a display of cakes, of sweetmeats, and
of black quivering jellies ; they remind me of child-
hood's dirt pies. Here is a butcher's shop. Oh the
horrors of the dangling fragments of fish, flesh, and
fowl, carrion which they call food ! they would be
beneath the notice of a London cat's-meat-man, while
the street is ornamented with extraordinary frequency
74 ENGLISH CHINA.
with the strange, artistic, cheerful productions of the
coffin makers.
Next crossing a bridge over a creek, I find myself
in the American settlement Honkiew, a long straggling
strip fairly busy and prosperous, and yet, according to
the fashion of American locations, only half occupied.
Indeed it bears in every lineament the stamp of its
imported nationality, which, mixed up with local abo-
riginal features, forms an amusing mongrel medley.
Large pretentious mansions, but without any features
of details ; embryo factories and incipient storehouses,
not unlike a mushroom town in a Colorado clearing,
indicate commercial enterprises which may result in
enormous wealth or wholesale bankruptcy, for there
will be no medium. The one long unfinished-looking
street ambitiously called Broadway contains an excel-
lent hotel and a few flourishing shops. The majority
are, however, Chinese, and have accumulated their
trumpery wares in true Yankee ' store ' fashion, the
principal dealer proclaiming his name as * chop- dollar-
Jack,' anglice 'Honest John.'
In the course of my exploration of the British
settlement, I pass abstractedly over a narrow stream
and bridge, and in an instant am roused into con-
sciousness that the scene has changed. Why, where
is the business activity, where the handsome mansions,
where the throng of populace ? All is languid and
unenterprising. I stare in surprise. * Kue Mon-
tauban ' and ' Quai des Fosses ' meet my eyes, while
SHANGHAI. 7b
* voulez-vous croire ' and * sapristi ' strike my ears.
Oh, I see, I have wandered into the French conces-
sion, spiritless, unprosperous, an instance supporting
Mr. Forster's assertion in his 'Manual of Political
Economy,' that of all nations who have had recourse
to colonisation the English and the Chinese alone have
been conspicuously successful ; a warning to other
settlers ' how not to do it.' The two settlements are
side by side with every possible identity of circum-
stances and equality of advantages. Yet our success
could scarcely be surpassed, their failure scarcely ex-
ceeded. Why this remarkable contrast ? I suggest
because the French national character is innately
antagonistic to successful colonisation ; and this in
spite of Algeria glorious as a conquest, invaluable
as a military school, and disastrous as a £. s, d,
transaction.
At Shanghai, for example, they seem to be unable
to modify their system of administration and business,
suitable in Normandy and Auvergne, to meet the
altered and inexorable requirements of the far East;
they have tried to introduce a fraction of France and
have failed. Their administration is imperious, auto-
cratic, and at the same time injudiciously paternal.
Enterprise and independence are strangled ; wealth
and the producers of wealth drift into another habitat
— unwilling to be encumbered with the vexations of
official cross-questionings; official permits, official
stamps and official blotting sand. Neither Europeans
76 ENGLISH CHINA.
nor Chinese can endure that their private transactions
should be supervised by pubHc functionaries, and
consequently there is a steady flow from this atro-
phied district, the French population of which does
not at the utmost exceed 200, across a few feet of
planking into the English settlement, where an exactly
converse state of affairs results in an expanding
prosperity.
Still more gloomy is their outlook. Erst flourishing
firms are now deplorably consumptive, the population
is actually diminishing, and there is little or no
young blood, fresh money, or enterprise flowing in to
recuperate the ravages of a premature decay caused
by over-fostering. Why, the very sergents de ville
are absurdly fish out of water. The ' il est defendu,'
the ozone of municipal atmosphere in France, is here
amusingly out of place. The Chinese chatter and
cannot comprehend ; the English mockingly grin and
will not obey ; the officers of state look outraged and
woe-begone, but are perforce silent. Their language
scarcely finds a place in China generally ; it is rarely
employed in international commerce, nor have the
coolies manufactured a pidgin-French corresponding
to pidgin-English. Address these officials, with a
redundancy of galons and a scantiness of clean linen,
in their own tongue, and the floodgates of their
national garrulity will be opened ; they will feelingly
expatiate on their sensation of isolation, on their
aversion to a country so dissimilar to la belle France,
SHANGHAI. 77
and on their longings — fatal feature in a colonist — to
return to the home of their fathers.
Again, at long intervals native rowdyism breaks
out into a feeble spasmodic ebullition, which we
English consider is best quelled by a body of police
dealing whacks all round on the heads of the most
noisy. But the French, with a vast amount of turmoil,
turn out all their employes with rifles — unlike our-
selves, they have no volunteer corps — and fire with
wanton precipitancy on the mob, entailing a deplorable
sacrifice of human life, and engendering much bad
blood against the European community generally.
An instance of the above occurred some years ago,
when a new road having been marked out to run
through a Joss house, the Chinese populace became
turbulent. A little timely concession in slightly de-
viating from the original track, even a few conciliatory
words, would have calmed them down. Instead of
which the French rushed to arms, and with little
semblance of leadership — for they failed in dragging
their consul from his refuge under the bed — they
charged down the street, bayoneting on their way
innocent wayfarers, and finishing up with a rain of
bullets.
Quitting the sombre, unprosperous-looking main
thoroughfare, gardenless and Bundless, lining the
river, I strike into some squalid side streets, with their
names engraved Paris fashion at the corners in white
porcelain on a blue ground, a trace, however slight, of
78 ENGLISH CHINA.
an imported practice. Every external is strongly
suggestive of an effete provincial French town. Here
and there is a hairdresser, a pastry-cook, a marchand
cle modes, with a shadow of their habitual taste in
their window displays. But there are few shops, and
those few have scarcely any customers. Dinginess,
dulness, and depression of trade reign throughout.
There is indeed one oasis. The ' Hotel des Colonies '
is a very fair counterpart of the ' Hotel des Deux
Mondes ' in Paris. A French landlord, French waiters,
or Chinese, who for a marvel speak the language
excellently, French floors, French furniture, French
cooking and French atmosphere ; in fact, thoroughly
French, inside and out.
And now that we have surveyed the domains of
our model British Eepublic — have scanned its outward
appearance, its size, its population, and its wealth —
avoiding indeed the bare statement of facts which in
Colonial reports are habitually only less deceptive than
the bare statement of figures, our next logical step is
to investigate how so successful a system of adminis-
tration has been attained, now is maintained, and will
be sustained. Happy the country whose previous
constitutional history may be summarised in such few
words.
In 1842, during the first China war, Shanghai was
captured by the British, but was not subsequently
claimed as an appanage of our crown. Foreign
commercial residents, among whom the English from
SHANGHAI. 79
the very outset immensely preponderated, began to
settle down — first of all in the native city. But in 1850,
finding the horrible purlieus intolerable to civilisation,
they shifted their habitat to the present adjacent open
area. * Veni, vidi, vici,' but in this instance with little
or no physical violence. Gradually, peacefully, they
elbowed out of the way the native administration, and
the native administration, philosophically admitting
the inexorable logic of facts, tacitly recognised three
settlements : one English, one American, and one
French. The two former, wisely content with the
substance without the shadow, accept the term
* settlement,' and lay no formal claim to the privileges
of British territory. The French, on the other hand,
persists, in season and out of season, in designating
itself a 'concession,' a portion of France, and
struggling to obtain its individuality merely succeeds in
prolonging a struggling and somewhat -contemptible
existence.
Since 1843 the English settlement has steadily and
without a material check been increasing in population,
wealth, and prosperity, threatened, it is true, by dangers
from Chinese rebels, especially by the Taepings, who
held the native city from 1853 to 1855, and desolated
the province up to 1862, and by the hostile operations
carried on by the English and French in 1860, but
always successful in dealing with those perils through
the resolution and courage of the settlers.
Here I must explain that the American conces-
80 ENGLISH CHINA.
sionists have dealt with certain difficulties arising out
of their inferiority of numbers by merging their
administration into that of the English. Smoothly
and harmoniously does the plan work at present,
our cousins are excellent neighbours and valuable
mercantile coadjutors. But we are on delicate ground,
perhaps the Sleswick Holstein of the Shanghai future ;
and it is a question whether, with increasing prosperity
and numbers, there may not be a development of
friction.
The Government at the present moment (1884) is
carried on by a council of nine, which comprise a
chairman, who to all intents and purposes is President
of the Eepublic, a vice-chairman, and seven members,
four of whom are English, two German, and one
Frenchman who formerly was actually President of
the council for his own settlement. The absence of
any special American representative is an eloquent
index of the extent to which the two tribes of cousins
have merged their interests into one. The Parliament
is annual, but the members are eligible for re-election,
and the propriety of the substitution of a biennial or
triennial one has been actively mooted. The franchise
is extended to every European adult in the English
and American settlement who is rated to the extent of
lOOL a year. They number about 300 persons.
Subjects of Great Britain pay a poll-tax of $5 a month,
^1 for artisans, which entitles them to registry in their
consulate, and to be heard as plaintiffs in their own
SHANGHAI. 81
court. The council assembles in conclave once a week,
and the minutes of its proceedings are published. At
the end of each financial year a sitting is held, which
is freely open to the general public, and on which
occasion are stated "the various measures, executive
and financial, which have been adopted during the
past year, the existing state of the treasury, and the
Budget for the coming twelve months.
The absence of an organised opposition is clearly
a great evil; but this is, to some extent, counter-
balanced by healthy internal bickering and spite, a
tolerable substitute for the clap-trap, stump-oratory
of certain sections of English politicians, whose first
thought is the acquisition of place or power, and
whose last thought is the public welfare.
The council is, moreover, subdivided into three
working committees : one for finance, one for public
works, and one for watch and police, who, of course,
render accounts of their stewardships to the main
conclave. The following is an epitome of the printed
Budget, dated, I think, January 1883 : —
Keceipts (in round numbers).
Taels.
Land taxes 31,800
Municipal rates 112,400
Licences 72,100
Loan 60,000
Miscellaneous . . . . . . 44,000
Total 319,800 = £80,000
G
8'2 ENGLISH CHINA.
Expenditure.
Taels.
Police 49,000
Sanitary 22,800
Public works 73,200
Volunteers 5,300
Municipal expenses, such as lighting, ceme-
teries, surveyor's office 38,700
Secretariat and collection of taxes . . 19,400
Public buildings and land and stores . . 49,700
Previous deficit and interest . . . 18,900
Various 42,800
Total 819,800 = £80,000
There is in addition a funded public debt of about £60,000.
Thus we see that the bulk of the revenue is derived
from a tax on houses and land, and from licences. It
is collected with astonishing ease and regularity, albeit
in a somewhat high-handed manner. The English,
recognising the necessity of adequate supplies for
the support of the administration, magnificently and
as a matter of course accept their heavy assessment ;
while the natives cheerfully contribute their quota,
which secures for them a treatment of justice and
humanity, instead of a treatment of robbery and
cruelty — a boon for which, by the way, they entertain
the customary gratitude of recipients towards bene-
factors.
Finally, as an evidence of the commercial prosperity
of Shanghai, I quote the following few statistics for
1882, in fear and trembling all the time for their
unutterable dulness : —
SHANGHAI. 83
Entered port, steamers (over) . . . 2,000
Entered port, sailing vessels . . . 500
Tonnage 3,850,000
Of these, the percentage was —
English . . ' 54-8
Chinese 42*5
Other nations 2'7
Gross vakie of trade of port nearly 31,000,000L, of
which the EngHsh percentage was -67.
There are four splendid dry docks.
The Shanghai Eepublic has framed its laws on
the principle of the deflagration of gunpowder — not in-
stantaneously whereby the agents and the machine
would be simultaneously shivered, but progressively
rapid. The Statute Book has been codified from the
regulations drawn up from time to time by the
residents themselves, assisted in legal and interna-
tional technicalities by the foreign consuls ; and here
we stumble upon an element of protectorate similar
to that exercised in behalf of Belgium by the great
European Powers. Laws and transactions affecting
the relations of Shanghai with the external world
are transmitted, through the combined consular body
at Shanghai, to the ambassadors at the Pekin Court
for final ratification.
The police is composed of 54 European and 240
native constables. After a little experience these
latter appeared to be such nonentities that for a time
they were entirely suppressed. Whereupon a sudden
G 2
84 ENGLISH CHINA.
accession of street offences occurred at night, and it
then became evident that the mere sight of the func-
tionaries of the law, even though they were Chinese
dummies, exercised a deterrent effect on Chinese
malefactors. They were consequently re-established.
The administration of justice in a community
composed of such heterogeneous materials as English,
Americans, Germans, Portuguese — of whom there
are a considerable number,^ many of them descen-
dants of the settlers in Macao in 1550 — French
w^anderers from their own settlement, Chinese, a few
Italians, Danes and Eussians, is a matter requiring
the very nicest management, and has been skilfully
dealt with. The principle is that every case shall
be adjudicated by a tribunal which represents the
nationality of the defendant. If, for instance, an
Englishman were assaulted by a German, the offence
would be disposed of by a court presided over by the
German consul, while a Chinaman robbed by an
American would seek redress in the Consular Court
of the United States. Some modification is, however,
necessary in the frequent cases of the Chinese being
involved as defendants, for to relegate them to their
country's tribunal in the adjacent native city would
indeed be to involve the unfortunate offender and not
less unfortunate plaintiff in the meshes of systematic
extortion and prolonged cruelty. Therefore a ' Mixed
Court ' has been organised, presided over by a Chinese
' I conjecture about 300.
SHANGHAI. 85
mandarin, who generally plays the part of a puppet
with the wires out of order, while the English, Ameri-
can, and German consuls act theoretically as * asses-
sors,' hut practically as judge, jury, prosecutor, and
counsel for the defence. For the trial of important
civil suits, and as a supervisor of the general admi-
nistration of justice, a member of the English bar, Sir
Henry Eennie, has been nominated, or rather lent, by
the British Government, furnishing almost the only
faint trace of imperial authority over the settlement.
So simply and so efficiently is the police admi-
nistered that a single court-house and machinery
suffices for the enormous Chinese population of about
200,000 souls. I admit that it is chiefly composed of
industrious law-abiders, who have taken refuge in
European equity from mandarin rascality. Yet, of
course, there is a leaven of scoundrelism both among
the natives and in the shape of some stray cosmo-
politan black sheep, of whom the most conspicuous
are seventy * she ' black sheep, chiefly Americans.
Chaperoned by an English police superintendent,
I proceed to the local Bow Street, in the outside
courts of which are collected a large motley crowd of
loungers, witnesses, plaintiffs, and prisoners. Here
the contrast of silence, so far as silence can be en-
forced on these everlasting chatterers, order, the
absence of smells, and the presence of the traditionally-
garbed British policeman, attest European adminis-
tration. The prisoners are tied together in twos by
86 ENGLISH CHINA.
their pigtails, looking very much like captured hares,
and so shrinking and unintelligent that one would
suppose them to be equally incapable of an active
deed either of good or evil. The native bystanders,
in awe of all European ' casuals ' as representatives
more or less of the majesty of the law, awful in its
mysterious far-reaching and inflexibility, make way
for me with ostentatious deference, and I am con-
ducted to the centre of the judgment hall, where, with
the strange- looking surroundings of English official
tables, chairs, and writing apparatus, is seated the
mandarin, who in pigtail and Chinese robes appears
an absurd burlesque of ' his worship.' A nonentity
and full of effete national self-importance, he holds
the scales of justice de jure^ but by his side is the
Thetis de facto, the European assessor, Mr. Giles, the
vice-consul, full of English acumen and activity.
He introduces me to his mandarin worship, Mr.
Huang, and in response to the latter's obsequious
obeisances I instinctively shake his slender snaky hand
with a hearty national grip, by which unaccustomed
proceeding he seems totally disconcerted.
The first case is called, and a Chinese policeman,
dressed exactly like a fair-weather-man in the card-
board toy barometer, drives into the open dock, at
the magistrate's feet, a prisoner as though he were
vermin. Down he flops on his knees, and the pic-
ture of oppressed spiritless misery retains his grovel-
ling attitude during the whole of the evidence. * But
SHANGHAI. 87
perhaps he may establish his innocence,' I whisper to
my cicerone, in scandaHsed compassion at this en-
forced demeanour of guilt. ' No matter, old-o cus-
tom invariably prescribes that attitude for a prisoner ; '
which rather reminds one of the American lynch law
system of first the execution, then the verdict, and
finally the trial. The natives do not seem to have
the courage of great crime, and offences against the
person are rare, resort to the knife being almost un-
known. Hence the great majority of the charges are
of the lightest possible nature. Number one case is,
we will say, for gambling in the streets. The evi-
dence, to be worth much, must be supported by a
European, for both Chinese police and Chinese popu-
lace are incurably venal as witnesses, and are quite
prepared to exculpate the guilty or to inculpate the
innocent for a consideration of a few farthings. One
or two pertinent searching questions from the asses-
sor ; fair play for the defendant's defence, but no legal
quibbling. * Fined 20 cents (lOt?.),' says the Vice-
Consul in a low tone of voice to the mandarin. * Fined
20 cents,' echoes the nonentity in a loud tone of voice
to the Chinese public. Away scuttles the prisoner
with every appearance of relief at the short and
decisive nature of the investigation, and number two
case is brought forward, a theft at the same time
ludicrously trivial and disgusting. * Three days' im-
prisonment,' repeats the cuckoo mandarin at the
dictation of the Vice- Consul, who, however, treats ihe
88 ENGLISH CHINA.
Chinese cypher with affability personified compared
with the browbeating of the German or American
assessors. ' I should have thought three minutes
ample,' was my whispered remark. * Not at Shanghai,'
is the reply, the case here affects the whole question
of agricultural prosperity.
Next appear three Chinamen lashed together by
their pigtails, and charged with burglary, which in
point of fact amounts, perhaps, to prowling at night
about an outhouse and absconding with property of
the V3,lue of about three half-pence. The Chinese
witnesses set to work in * independent file firing ' in
a breathless chorus of gabble, supplemented by the
Chinese policeman. There is a certain amount of
conflicting evidence, and gradually the case becomes
amusingly typical of the people, and the administra-
tion of justice in China. Notwithstanding the ener-
getic endeavours of the English functionaries to pre-
serve silence, they are not even moderately successful.
Not only the Chinese official underlings, but the
witnesses, the prosecutors, and the general public, at
uncertain intervals suddenly shove themselves for-
ward, utter in loud simultaneous chatter their
opinions and remarks, and — scandal of scandals —
even proffer eager advice to the magistrates ! Per-
haps in a certain way they perform the functions of
a jury, and thus, in a country where even truth is a
lie, they assist by this expression of public opinion in
the equitable administration of justice. At all events
SHANGHAI. 89
the assessor seems to deduce sufficient therefrom to
enable him to form his own opinion, for with sudden
decision he says, ' Not proven ; released,' and after
a moment's, dumb amazement on the part of the
prisoners, that anyone accused should thus be dis-
missed scotfree, away they shuffle voluble in their
delight. But even after the verdict has been pro-
nounced, fresh comments are volunteered from the
public, and it certainly may be laid down as a general
rule that, the less justice is tempered with mercy, the
greater the advantage to the community at large.
It sometimes actually happens that, after sentence
has been passed, the accused and his friends will
harangue the magistrates on the iniquity of the judg-
ment, and will bring forward new facts to show that
the verdict was all wrong.
The next captive is charged with unlawful posses-
sion, and is led off by the tail to imprisonment for
forty- two days. The next, a crafty old offender, has
been arrested for returning to his settlement after
having been deported, as a penalty for previous
offences, to his own city. Cat-like, he will not be
driven away ; he prefers an English prison to liberty
in his native dens, and is condemned to a further
period of incarceration, which appears rather to gratify
him than otherwise. The next case is suggestive.
The prosecutor, an inhabitant of the French settle-
ment, with a mean opinion of the executive of his
own countrymen, has so adroitly managed the point
90 ENGLISH CHINA.
of venue as to have transferred the adjudication to
the English court. The offence is one of pilfering,
and the sentence, I think, ten days' imprisonment.
' Won't you order him the cangue ? ' (public exposure
in a wooden collar) asks the plaintiff entreatingly, and
the peremptory ' No ' of the Vice-Consul conveys to
me the satisfactory reluctance of our officials to in-
flict a form of punishment which, though when
carried out by us is merely a form of discomfort,
has nevertheless been borrowed from the severely
torturing infliction of the cruel Chinese.
I could not but remark that, on passing sentence
in each case, there was a general air of exhilaration
and surprise among the culprits. Subsequent ex-
perience confirmed the explanation thereof which
was given me. Chinese offenders subjected to their
own tribunals invariably suffer petty extortion, cruelty
and suspense, so that our prompt, clear, and dis-
interested awards appear to them in the light of
positive benefits. The above-described mixed court,
unique among modern tribunals of justice, was es-
tablished by the late Sir H. Parkes in 1864, and, in
defiance of its theoretical imperfections, its practical
working is undoubtedly admirable.
The Anglo- Shanghai prisons would perhaps barely
satisfy finicking humanitarianism in England, but
they fully meet the requirements of wise humanity
in China ; indeed, in comparison with native dungeons
they are so little punitive as to be barely deterrent.
SHANGHAI. 01
The prisoners are confined in what I may describe as
Brobdingnagian windowless cages, one side of which
is barred by bamboo poles at wide intervals, admitting
an unrestricted view into the interior, and the pas-
sage of extra food, opium, and tobacco to the incar-
cerated from their outside friends. The normal
temperature obviates suffering from cold, as a rule ;
the atmosphere, the unrestricted air of heaven, is
untainted, save by the inevitable civet-cat-like accom-
paniments of all natives, the Bouquet de Chinois.
Here let me be pardoned for adding one word in all
seriousness on this unsavoury subject, not so much on
the score of interest, but as an admonition to practical
forbearance all the world over. There is no living
creature whose presence is not accompanied by
emanations utterly loathsome to those not of its own
species or even tribe. Let the cleanest woman-
finger touch a bait and no rat will look at it. Enter
a room occupied by four or five young Chinese who
have daily been scrubbed in hot water from child-
hood, and you cannot abstain from grimaces of dis-
gust. ' Why,' asked an Englishman of a highly
educated, refined native gentleman, * do your country-
men evince such reluctance to hold with us occasional
intimate social intercourse ? ' ' Well,' was the em-
barrassed reply, * we are many of us fully aware in
our hearts that you are very wise, humane, learned,
clever, and often very friendly disposed towards us.
But, to tell you the truth, there is one feature about
92 ENGLISH CHINA.
all you English which we are totally unable to endure.
We cannot at any price stand your esprit de corps. \
The actual term used would of course strike the
reader very disagreeably in print.
To revert to our prisoners. Thirty or forty are
incarcerated in each cage, which in our eyes amounts
to overcrowding; but they are clearly of another
opinion owing to their unmistakable appreciation of
a large gathering. I walk along the rows of lock-
ups, scrutinising at my leisure the scene within. The
occupants are gleefully chattering with their fellow
inmates inside, or through the bamboo bars are
holding unrestricted converse with their clustering
acquaintances outside. They have no sense of
shame at this public exposure, because Chinamen
have no sense of distinction between virtue and vice
otherwise than as it affects profit and loss ; they
would consider as pure gibberish the classical invoca-
tion, ' Disguise thyself as thou wilt. Slavery, still,
still, thou art a bitter draught ; ' and so they sit
happily on their hams — Easternlike they always
prefer nature's portable chair — congratulating them-
selves on this repose from their everlasting toil, toil,
toil, and on this chance for healing afforded to their
shoulders and neck muscles, habitually bruised and
strained by the burden-bearing bamboo poles. A few
of the worst offenders are, it is true, subjected to a
somewhat more strict form of imprisonment, and a
fewer still to the cangue, a wooden collar encircling
SHANGHAI. 93
the neck. The Chinese implement is so ponderous
as to cause torture, and so broad that the hands
below cannot reach the face above, either for purposes
of eating, or for brushing away the clouds of per-
secuting stinging insects which settle on their per-
spiring skins. But that used by the English is so
small and light that it inflicts inconvenience rather
than pain, and its chief object is to attract the atten-
tion of the public to the special crime of which the
prisoner has been guilty. Strokes with the bamboo
are in rare instances applied to persistent offenders,
but in a very mild form.
In the social life of Shanghai, where each numeri-
cally small nationaHty maintains a resolute exclusive -
ness, the prominent features, especially among the
English, are unstinted luxury and open-handed hospi-
tality, mingled withal with a considerable amount of
formality, and the casual ' Globe Trotter ' (i.e. amateur
traveller) and the sportsman will find their objects
furthered with friendly zeal. Invitations to dinner
and to ' tiffin ' are incessant — and at the latter mid-
day meal you will not be spared a single item of a
luxurious artistically cooked dinner, from which you
will rise with a sense that your digestion, brain
faculties, and afternoon's leisure have been equally
impaired. Indeed, a week's experience of these double
daily dinners will make you crave for the simplicity
of gruel and parched peas. As regards the company,
the element of Englishwoman is very scantily re-
94 ENGLISH CHINA.
presented ; the men are usually of the successful
merchant class — for Shanghai, offering almost a
certainty of ultimate wealth, at all events of com-
petence, to the diligent and able, is no place for the
bankrupt loafer or the disreputable fool. And the
conversation? Well, perhaps it would be improved
were there less mercantile and dollar and tael talk,
but at all events the outsider gains thereby a faint
idea of the world-wide magnitude of English com-
merce, a dim insight into the real meaning of the
term * merchant-princes.' After dinner it is cus-
tomary, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, to
drink one of three toasts. * Sweethearts and Wives,'
says the host — received with the usual levity con-
sidered appropriate to the strongest ties by which
mankind can be bound. Or, more gravely, * Absent
Friends,' and * Absent Friends ' is warmly repeated,
perhaps with a sigh of regret, perhaps with a chuckle
at the recollection of former larks carried on with
those absent friends. But there is one health, usually
given at the Sunday luncheon, which is invariably
received with the gravest earnestness : ' The Old Folks
at Home,' and in a subdued tone, which bespeaks
softened feelings, even the spendthrift, the ne'er-do-
weel, or the callous materialist will re-echo the words :
* The Old Folks at Home.'
And now that I have alluded to kindly influences
which have originated probably in childhood's reli-
gion, and which more than aught else distinguish
SHANGHAI. 95.
US from the Chinese — unkindly hearted, their fetish
of ancestral worship notwithstanding — I am led to
speak a word of the Shanghai Protestant Cathedral.
The only fault I can find with the building is that it
is of a size and internal splendour absurdly in excess
of the requirements of the English Protestant resi-
dents, and the money thus spent might have been
far more usefully applied in improving the local
clerical administration. Outside, a Chinese heathen
coolie is summoning Christian worshippers by banging
with a bludgeon a huge tongueless bell; inside, the
tiny congregation looks even more tiny in contrast
with the dreary array of empty seats — though this
again is somewhat relieved by the presence of the
pleasant-looking, decent blue-jackets from the adjacent
British * Champion.' In addition to the cathedral
there is a Wesleyan place of w^orship, the frequenters
whereof set a conspicuous example of humble sin-
cerity, while their affiliatied temperance society effects
immense good amongst those who can abstain, but
cannot be moderate. Perhaps a China Sunday rather
jars upon the old notions of an English Sunday,
but perhaps, too, the hard-working, money-making
merchants will reply that they are so busy during the
week that on this day alone have they leisure to start
on shooting expeditions, to play at rackets and lawn-
tennis, to look after their racing ponies; and that,
after all, church-going is in many cases a mere form.
Well, is it wise to acquiesce in the abandonment of a
96 ENGLISH CHINA.
form which yet estabhshes a hnk with duty, and in
which may be recognised the shadow of a forsaken
good?
An invariable concomitant of all English settle-
ments in the East, large or small, flourishing- or
impecunious, is the Club. That at Shanghai, to
which casual visitors are made welcome with generous
hospitality, is an excellent specimen of its kind. A
large, handsomely furnished building, a first-rate
library, innumerable European newspapers and
periodicals, a good coifee-room, and infrequent
rowdyism — it surpasses a considerable number of
London clubs in its presence of comforts and absence
of scandals. Unfortunately it tends to become a focus
for gambling both in the stockbroking and pony-
racing line— evils of serious dimensions, especially
among the younger members of the community.
There is no written or unwritten code among the
brokers, whose over-crowded ranks are largely
recruited from the Shanghai failures in other a\oca-
tions ; there is no regular Stock Exchange, and im-
moderate gambling in shares has blasted, not only in
Shanghai but in China generally, the fortunes of a
number of young men to an extent out of proportion
to the total residents. A good deal of money is lost
at cards, the whist stakes being portentously high,
though the Australian standard of ' sheep points,
and a bullock the rubber,' has not yet been intro-
duced.
SHANGHAI. 97
Then the pony racing — what a boyishly harmless,
wisely to be encouraged, pastime does it sound ! But
in the majority of cases it is a mere subterfuge for all
the evils and none of the advantages of horse racing —
little of the plain sailing of the * 4 to 1 bar one '
element, but an elaborate system of selling lotteries,
of squaring races, of roping, and of most of the
ingredients of racing blackguardism. Its best feature
is the racecourse itself, which here, as at Hong Kong,
Amoy, Foochow, and even at the far inland settle-
ment of Hankow, is the principal natural characteristic
of the place — a large, carefully turfed space, just
outside the town — fair, fresh, and free from the
native throng which elsewhere seems to choke one.
Here I see strings of racing ponies being exercised,
sometimes thirty or forty belonging to one stables.
They are small, rough, wild-looking Mongolian
' Griffins,' as fresh importations are called, well-
shaped, singularly strong and enduring, but with
no turn of speed, and with a sour temper evinced
by their habitual knack of catching hold of an un-
suspecting bystander, and with a simultaneous craunch
shaking him as a dog would a rat. They are wonder-
ful proficients in the art of bucking. If once the
aggravating little beast stops short, and arches its
back like a spitting cat, it is all over with the best
rider who ever sat in saddle. The mafoos, or native
grooms, who habitually stick like leeches, the moment
they recognise in an apparently placid animal the
H
98 ENGLISH CHINA.
first signals of an intention to set to bucking, roll off
to the ground with grotesque agility.
A walk about Shanghai environs on Sunday after-
noon will throw on the daily life of the inhabitants
fresh lights which we might seek in vain elsewhere.
Starting, let us assume, from the Bund or Marine
Parade, we pass through the Anglo- Chinese portion
of the settlement, and emerge into the country, where
a continuous combination of sight and sound never
ceases to remind us of England, and yet, at the same
time, never suffers us to forget that we are 10,000
miles off, amongst a race almost as divergent from
ourselves as Gulliver's Houyhnhnms. The one ad-
mirable, metalled, high road would alone mark the
presence of Europeans — it has no parallel throughout
the whole gigantic empire, for the Chinese routes, for
thousands of miles in the interior, are literally wheel-
barrow paths.
The English have obtained from the Fuhtai, or
governor of the district, a concession of this road for
a distance of three miles into the imperial territory.
Here flock the Europeans of all, and the Chinese of
the elite, classes ; and here, too, the amount of gossip
would imply that everybody knows a great deal more
of his neighbour's affairs than his neighbour knows
about his own affairs. Here are merchants bent on
a brisk constitutional during the cool season, bearing
that aspect of earnest intent which foreigners declare
render even our pleasures melancholy and laborious.
SHANGHAI. 99
A few family couples are strolling about ratlior spirit-
loHsly; you may depend upon it that the wife has
been loading up to the never-ceasing Hubject : ' Let us
go home,' iuu] lli.il \]\(' huHbantl has replied: 'Lot
U8 firht ;l(•(•()rrl|)li^h llii; objoct for which WO came out.'
AmaH (( 1 1 1 1 1 ' < n urses), in charge of two or three Eng-
liHh childnm, moHt of whom are so pale — here, as else-
whoHi in C}ilii:i, I Ik ( litrKih iH Hadly nnldrid to ilu'iri —
HO languid, ro J", I' , ;'ii<l nil.li n.n idcnllHffl J.Ikmi'^IiJ,-
flll (iXpr* i')ii ;ip).l'-;ic|iiii;'^ |(. Im ;ii|l \ , 'Mil; (<.Im :(<i|
when tb(; faint ruHtle of the an{.^< I "I <l<iith has been
hoard. TIk' :iiii;i : ;it(' ii ii;illy ((xccllcht nurn* :\ V( i-y
fond of, kind lo, ;iimI Ii1.< I l.y, ih(; oliildrcn ; l>iil 111* ir
grotoHquo uglincHH r< mhimI ono of a baboon taking
care of kitttaiH.
Thoro arc })nt few reproRentatives of the eager * he '
making n rondcizvoim with tlio bashful, modest, Eng-
liHh * Hb(},' for all these garden plants are transplanted
at an early age to home nurseries, and their would-ba
iiKurp(;rH :\rc ]:\v:'c uninlM , >^' Vi ;izon AmericariH, with
ifio nioHi i:i;;;;''l "j i( jditm ,■. , iriving fiaultlesH turnH-
out, usually Victorias or basket carriages. In their
vehicles thoy havcj found a host of imitators, in the
Hlin-pe of wcjaltby (JhincHo merchants, who come to
Shanghai as the AnK^ricans go to Paris, to spend
their money and acquire an illusory veneer. They
are an amusing burlesque as they bowl along in a
rickety aniiqiuiiod landau, (irjuipptul with tawdry,
furhih;}i(;(l-«ji) lianicKH, and driven by a Chinese coach-
H 2
100 ENGLISH CHINA.
man bedizened in national rags. Their equipage is
calculated to hold four, but into it perhaps six fat old
mandarins have wedged themselves, conspicuous with
their six pendent pigtails lying coiled up in each
other's laps, with six flabby parchment physiognomies,
and six loud cackling voices.
Here, again, are merchants' broughams, which
only differ from the best-appointed London ones in
that their back panels are of splendid movable plate
glass, ensuring a current of air in hot weather, and
imparting a pleasing appearance of lightness. I may
observe that, except at Shanghai, carriages are almost
unknown to the English in China, so impossible are
the routes for this species of conveyance.
The handsome villas with pretty gardens which
line this English road really smack of Peckham and
Balham, except that here they are comfortably habit-
able, while the illusion is heightened by a pillar-post,
and a reproduction of Policeman X patrolling, ap-
parently more for ornament than for use, inasmuch
as, in this ignorant, semi-civilised country, there is
neither drunkenness, rowdyism, nor brawling. There,
too, is the Country Club, charming inside and out,
well furnished with literature and available for ladies,
who resort to it in large numbers. And yet a woman
in a club somehow always seems out of place, and is
generally sour, masculine, and long in the tooth — a
pleasant rosebud is rarely to be found there. But
Englishwomen in China are wont to fall away ter-
SHANGHAI. 101
ribly. Habitually they abominate the country, and
not unnaturally, for there is little to accord with their
tastes, or to enlist their interests — they grow languid,
listless, out of health, and out of temper. They are
in a bad plight, indeed, unless they are wise enough
and good enough to find happiness in the conscious-
ness that they can safeguard the health and happiness,
the material and moral welfare of their husbands, who,
but for this influence, have here a tendency to go to rack
and ruin in the above respects — prosperous, perhaps,
in their business avocations, but deteriorating in
almost every other point of view.
We pass numerous lawn-tennis grounds, of which
game almost everyone here, male or female, who is
not a cripple owing to avowed infirmity or dissimu-
lated age, is wisely a devotee ; then the racket court
and cricket ground, and above all the pack of drag
hounds, about nine couple in number, the Chinese
never resenting their trespassing. The country is
perfectly flat and open, and is sufficiently intersected
with big water jumps to ensure a keen pleasure in
watching for the calamities of others. The sight of
the apparently purposeless, exhausting, and dangerous
run quite confirms the natives in their opinion that
these * Fung Yang ' (foreign devils), who hold over them
such a mysterious and lordly sway, are the maddest
lunatics the world ever produced. Their general line
of argument is as follows : —
* You will spend hours, you will face cold and
102 ENGLISH CHINA.
heat, wet and fatigue, in the pursuit of a few snipe or
wild duck, which you could obtain far more easily in
the shops, and at a mere fraction of the enormous
sums you spend on your houseboat and other shooting
arrangements. Then a number of you, to whom every
hour may mean hundreds of taels, will, after toiling
in your offices all day, drill every evening for a month
without the slightest compulsion, and without receiv-
ing one cash in payment. (Alluding to the Shanghai
Volunteers.) Can you maintain that your hunting is
a reasonable occupation ? Wherein consists the plea-
sure or the profit in riding behind a quantity of
barking dogs, risking your lives in jumping over
broad wet ditches, when you had much better remain
on the safe side ? But of all your insane occupa-
tions that which you call athletics is surely the most
insane. Coolies stagger under heavy burdens, and
toil at other severe manual labour, because it is their
sole means of earning a few cash. But you rich
Englishmen will actually reduce yourselves to an
exhausted condition of perspiration in purposeless
lifting of weights, in wearing your mu$cles, in running
at full speed, in fact, in performing coolies' work
without even coolies' pay — sometimes indeed at a
positive expense. Are these the pursuits of reasoning
beings, or of hare-brained madmen ? '
My long strolls after spring snipe answered the
additional purpose of studying the Chinese farming
system and agricultural labourers. Hideously flat and
SHANGHAI. 103
naturally marshy — for water may always be found
here three feet below the surface — the country had
yet a sort of pleasing aspect of its own from its extra-
ordinary fertility and careful cultivation. Every
iquare yard, almost every square inch, is tilled to the
lighest point, and in the main by that hand industry
in which the Chinese have no equals on the face of
the earth. An inefficient buffalo plough is to be seen
on Are occasions — a horse plough never. Fertilising
agens, which we in England consider too trumpery
or to» disgusting, are here utilised with miserly
econony ; the results charm the eye of the practical
farmer— the emanations insult the nostrils of the
sentimental wayfarer, and this impression is not
counter aited even by the vast expanse of sweet smell-
ing beanfelds, or by the acres of peach trees spread
all over tie plains, and in all the beauty of their
spring blosiom.
Such inportance do the inhabitants attach to
putting plenty^ into the land, by which system indeed
they get three full cereal crops annually out of it, that
they yearly pough in as manure many a sack of
good sound beins, and many an acre of half-grown
l)ean crop, to vhich plant they attribute specially
enriching qualiies. Indeed the bean crop is the
staple Shanghai product, varied with a considerable
area of paddy fields (rice), corn, cotton, and roots.
Conspicuous by tleir absence are flocks and herds —
not an ox or a cow not a sheep or a goat, not even a
104 ENGLISH CHmA.
pig, except as a refined member of their hovel society,
is to be seen over the entire landscape. There are
no products of milk, butter, cheese, mutton or beef.
We have little to learn from China in the way of
agriculture.
In search of further details, tramp with mQ
reader, gun in hand, and coolie at heels, over 1/ie
fields. The ground must be left entirely to your (Wn
selection, for the coolie, useful as a creature of burlen,
cannot speak a syllable of English, and wiU not
exert himself an ounce to further the game-s(eking
objects of his lunatic employer. Strangely mough
the agriculturists, with all their minute c^e and
industry, let me wander at my own sweet wilUhrough
their standing crops, eagerly beckoning me to come
on when my farmer instincts would be scanialised at
such trampling down, and when a Briti^ yeoman
would pitchfork me for less than half th/ amount of
trespass. /
The beanfields, knee-high with their /v'hite flecked
stalks, are the dearly-loved resort of Spring snipe,
innumerable, mysteriously fat, and renting here for
about a fortnight in their flight fron Mongolia to
Cochin China. Now and again a pleasant gets up
with the same fuss and under the sai^ie circumstances
as his English brother, with whcm indeed he is
identical in shape, size, and plumaie. Of course he
gets off scotfree at this season of th^ year, being ' pere
de famille,' as Alphonse would say /-though, alas ! in
SHANGHAI. 105
these climes Alphonse does not usually spare him
even under these sacred circumstances.
Two or three shots, and up start in every direction
Chinese urchins in keen competition for the prize of
an empty cartridge' case, which the inscrutable
natives turn to some use. They accumulate in
numbers such that to fire in almost any direction
would produce the same results as to fire into the
* brown ' of a dame's school. It is critical work, for it is
hardly possible to point your gun without finding a
Chinese child at the end of your barrel. * Masquie ' —
pidgin-English * Never mind ' — says my coolie encou-
ragingly. I know better. Humanity apart, I am
fully aware that the parents would rejoice were a
couple of pellets to lodge in the eye of one of their
offspring, provided I would pay a few dollars indem-
nity. I must seek for fresh pastures — a vexatious
task, because the entire country is intersected, at
, widths sometimes only four or five hundred yards
apart, with narrow, seethingly stagnant canals, deep
enough to float small junks, broad enough to deter a
jump, and muddy enough to entail on failure a mass
of execrably smelling nastiness. Sometimes it is
necessary to tramp many hundreds of yards in search
of a foot-bridge.
By far the most astonishing objects in these large,
flat, hedgeless fields — for Shanghai stands on a plain
without a hillock for twenty miles — are the innumer-
able graves. It has been estimated that the area of
106 ENGLISH CHINA.
ground thus withdrawn from cultivation in this locality
is equivalent to about one-tenth of the total arable
space, and I can quite beheve it. Single circular
graves, or large grave heaps containing ten or twelve
coffins, stand out in bare ugliness in the midst of every
beanfield and cornfield, in every roadside patch and
thicket. The sites seem to have been chosen in de-
fiance of all convenience to the living, the sole require-
ment being a thoroughly dry, well-drained spot. The
areas thus occupied are held sacred to an extent
attained only where bigotry or superstitious folly
are rampant. Should the land change hands, the
grave mounds still remain the property of those who
there interred their relatives ; they remain undisturbed
from generation to generation, and to level them, or to
cultivate the superficies of the most insignificant or
the least known, would be held not only a criminal
offence but an outrage shocking to humanity ; yet
there is no attempt to decorate them or even to trim
them, not a sign of 'that would-be-prettiness over a
grave which, prompted by sorrow for the dead, saves it
from the sneers applied to mere sentiment.
I was once puzzled by observing an English-made
bye-road twisting like a snake, apparently in the most
stupid purposeless fashion, over a perfectly level sound
country. At last I discovered that these expensive
deviations were absolutely necessary in order to avoid
disturbing the adjacent places of sepulture. Here we
have an illustration of the strength of their tenets of
SHANGHAI. 107
ancestral worship— tenets which at first appear to
pivot on some of the better and softer feehngs of our
nature, but which on further examination prove to be
merely another feature of that fetish superstition
which is so strangely mingled with their repelling
scepticism.
Even more repugnant than their gaunt graves
are their ghastly coffins, standing on the surface of
the ground in the ratio, say, of about one to every ten
acres. Originally they were constructed with remark-
able solidity, were lutened up and made carefully air-
tight, and were bound round with thick straw plaits.
But time has more or less rotted all away, and the
revelation of a weird outline of corpse shocks our
sense of decency, still further outraged, by the way,
by the unceasing inquisitiveness of our English
Ponto.
Next we come to a flimsy bamboo fence, im-
penetrable to eyesight, but so fragile that a puff of
wind would overthrow it. It encloses a collection of
some twenty or thirty low, tumble-down-looking sheds.
Pigsties? No, only in the sense that they are the
habitat of the Chinese human. Mud and wattle, often
mud without the wattle, windowless, chimneyless,
doorless, filthy outside and curiously loathsome in-
side, they can only be paralleled with the worst of those
hovels for the retention of which the Irish shoot their
landlords, who desire to clear away such eyesores;
only the Irish miscreant with national hypocrisy
108 ENGLISH CHINA,
whitens his den-sepulchre. Here are a few of the
typically ugly, featherless, indecent Shanghai fowls
which some years ago a perverted English taste valued
at nearly their weight in gold; here some English-
looking magpies and sparrows with more than English
pertness ; and here, numerous above all, the everlast-
ing crow, less of a garbage eater than the Shanghai
human. There is a conspicuous absence of trees,
gardens, and inside or outside ornament.
The approach of a European stranger rouses that
aggravating chorus of the jackal-like dogs, which in
turn evokes the presence of a population, young and
old, so numerous in comparison with the numbers of
dwellings that a hive of bees might herefrom pick up
a hint in economising space. They all watch the
Englishmen with some dislike and contempt, but with
still more curiosity. One glance at the interior, one
sniff at the atmosphere, causes me to hurry away with
unfaltering haste.
Strange, striking, other-world like, as are the
impressions produced on Europeans by Chinese sur-
roundings, these sensations are never so thoroughly
developed as in a native theatre. Thither I one
evening betook myself, accompanied by my Hong
Kong * boy ' as cicerone, on one of those expeditions of
personal experience which casual visitors seek and
residents shirk. The coolie trots my ricksha
through darkness and rain as quickly as a pony, and
as comfortably as a brougham, down the broad, well-
SHANGHAI. 109
lighted English Bund into the narrow, dim, French
settlement, where the principal Chinese theatre is
situated in close proximity to the native city. As we
draw near, the crowd becomes too thick to be parted
asunder by the mere* cry ' Hyah ! ' which habitually
announces the approach of a European and ensures
the immediate removal of all obstacles. Slowly we
thread our way, and finally pull up at an unusually
broad entrance, bright with many-coloured paper
lanterns, and redolent with that odour peculiar even
to clean Chinese atmosphere— a sickly, mingled
smell of sandal-wood, joss-sticks, camphor, and
opium.
The custodian, at the sight of European prey,
shuffles obsequiously forward and demands a price of
admission which would probably be equivalent to a
charge of four guineas for a box at the 'Victoria.'
He would gladly have accepted one-fourth of the sum,
but I am growing sick of the atmosphere of everlasting
chaffering in which I have been living, and prefer to
allow the robber to pick my pocket. He ceremoni-
ously conducts me through a throng of natives, who
stare at the isolated intruding foreigner with the stare
of suspicious /er<g naturce, to the parterre where innu-
merable chairs and tables are scattered about. Here
he assigns to me a seat of honour, kicking out, to
create a vacancy, a fat Chinaman who had probably
paid the lawful sum for possession, but, unlike me,
had not submissively permitted himself to be fleeced.
110 ENGLISH CHINA.
The dispossessed man angrily chatters, expostulates
and abuses, but there his spirit of resistance, accord-
ing to the wont of his countrymen, stops short, and I
am at leisure to realise the scene, which however at
first bewilders me owing to its extraordinary novelty.
The theatre is luridly lit up with a few lanterns
and miserable oil lamps, which gradually reveal to me
a house of the average size of a London theatre, filled
exclusively with the long blue robes and pigtails of
males, with the glazed rolls of black horsehair and
with the deformed feet of females, and with the hideous,
opaque, demon-looking faces, from whence arises a
diabolically ugly clatter of voices which almost drowns
the stage dialogue. Dialogue, do I say ? 1 use the
term in sheer despair of accurately qualifying the
yelling falsetto of the actors— not a civilised falsetto,
but a loud discordant monotone between an eldritch
yell and a wooden howl, and in it every single word
of the play from beginning to end is uttered. Still I
should have pooh-poohed the notion of its being un-
endurable to a strong-nerved man, but for three fiends
who, seated at the back of the stage, smote, with the
ceaseless regularity of machinery, a wooden drum,
clashed cymbals which would have disgusted a Punch
and Judy audience, and so manipulated some tight-
ened strings of catgut that they emitted shrieks which
would form a suitable accompaniment to Dante's re-
frain : ' Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.' In
all sober seriousness I declare that I, a matter-of-fact
SHANGHAI. 1 1 1
middle-aged man, after having been subjected to the
above combination of sounds, the description of which
is miserably inadequate, felt overpowered by the hys-
terical sensations of a miss of seventeen, and that
eighteen hours afterwards those sensations of the
' horrors ' still remained in the ears. But that ' One
dog's meat is another dog's poison ' is more true in
China than in any other part of the world, and the
opinion of native gentlemen whose appreciation of
the fine arts has, after their own fashion, been culti-
vated is as follows : —
* In all the sciences and in most departments of
civilisation you greatly surpass us. ' But in one respect
we are undoubtedly far ahead. We alone understand
true harmony : you are ignorant of its very first
principles.'
Of course I was entirely dependent on my * boy's '
interpretation for a complete comprehension of the
plot ; it was apparently the essence of dulness, it was
unquestionably grossly indecent. Happily in the in-
terests of morality the women's parts were repre-
sented by men, and indeed they were almost undistin-
guishable from females so perfect was their feminine
get-up. The piece continued until about one or two
A.M. every day, and to follow out the whole story it would
be necessary to attend on six or seven consecutive occa-
sions. There is no division of acts and no scenery,
the normal dim lighting being supplemented by an
attendant bearing a long pole with a candle fixed at
112 ENGLISH CHINA.
the end, and waved about according to the direction
where its rays are required. The players from time
to time explain to the audience the situation of affairs
very much after the manner pf Pyramus and Thisbe
in ' Midsummer Night's Dream.' Let me make the
most of one note of admiration. The costumes, if
sometimes a little ridiculous owing to the peacocks'
feathers quivering about six feet above the heads of
the wearers, were most beautiful, and must have cost
enormous sums. The actors were covered with paint,
red, black and white, thickly laid on and highly
polished.
So much for the stage. Now I am beginning
gradually to realise the surroundings. The audience
is certainly enjoying the play in their way, though
that way assumes the form of a universal chatter
which at times almost rises above the recitative.
That man dispossessed of his seat in my favour is
loudly holding forth on his wrongs, and now and again
there surges what I assume to be roars of execration,
imperfectly represented by * Hoo-gh,' ' Boo-oo,' ' Y-ah,'
and which every moment I expect will be followed by
* Turn him out ! ' But my boy explains that these are
national interjections of applause, corresponding to
our ' bravo,' and are directed to the actors. A shuffling
waiter puts before me a little pile of melon seeds which
the Chinese consider delicious. My untrained taste
likens them to beech-nuts without kernels. Tea, in
the form of an infusion from a pinch of leaves at the
SHANGHAI. 113
bottom of each cup is likewise provided. It is sugar-
less and milkless, but somehow is better than any I
have ever tasted in England. More refreshment in
the shape of little flour paste-balls swimming in hot
water-bath substance's taste equally of dirt. Then
some glutinous nastiness of the nature of sweetmeats,
but which would be efficacious as an emetic. I con-
tinue to shake my head in negative. There is no
pleasing these foreign devils, thinks the waiter. So
at last he brings a huge trayful of smoking hot, wet
cloths, and insists on my taking one. * Very happy to
gratify you, but what on earth am I to do with this
dripping rag ? ' Then I observe that my neighbours,
greasy, fat, perspiring, and in fact Chinese in olfactory
details, snatch hold of some, and therewith dabble,
pat, and mop their unlovely countenances with every
expression of luxurious enjoyment, and then pass
them on to their sweltering neighbours. I master
my own emotion, and do not hurl my own rag at the
head of the attendant who has just presented it to
me.
The gallery is crammed with a well-to-do, poorer
class of native, obviously delighted ; the boxes barely
filled with gaudily bedizened, childishly vain-looking
mandarins, ostentatiously indifferent ; the basement
with the overwhelmingly prevalent type of the upper
middle classes, perhaps the truest type of the average
Chinese. The men largely predominate, and are
of sedate middle age — vicious youth and satyr-like
I
114 ENGLISH CHINA.
dotage being entirely absent. The women, a minority
though a numerous one, are decent both in demeanour
and dress. Indeed were they what we term decolletees,
i.e. as bare as far as they dare, they would be con-
sidered by their countrymen as half mad and wholly
brazen. The reputation of most of them is tattered
according to our standard, but according to their own
they are not held in the same disrepute, and are quiet
and orderly under the jurisdiction of their attendant
duennas.
But I feel that my powers of endurance are
rapidly coming to an end. The inharmonious gabble,
the jarring sounds of the orchestra, the ear-cracking
falsetto of the actors, the flickering lurid lights, the
peculiar Chinese odours so strange and so distasteful
to European nostrils ; above all, the concentration of
so many unfriendly pairs of eyes on one's every move-
ment, produce at last a sensation of discomfort and
daze closely akin to indisposition. I elbow my way
out, jump into a ricksha forming one of a string as
long as a line of carriages on a London opera night,
and splash at a rapid trot through the driving rain
and wind. I rejoice, having witnessed a sight, un-
paralleled in any other part of the world, once; I
should regard it as a hardship to be compelled to be
present a second time at such a jarring, displeasing,
unlovely display.
115
CHAPTEE III.
INSIDE CHINA. — THE RIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG.
Notwithstanding the modern thirst for exploring, we
are almost entirely without knowledge concerning
one-fourth of the population of the globe — the enor-
mous Chinese Empire, numbering at a moderate
estimate 350,000,000.^ We have, it is true, nibbled
at the Treaty Ports, but they differ from the normal
country almost as much as the rind of a Cheshire
cheese differs from the inside. So perhaps I may be
able to say somewhat interesting concerning a journey
I have recently made 600 miles into the interior, as
far as Hankow on the mighty river Yang-tsze-kiang.
Provided with an amount of baggage so small as
to be scarcely consistent with respectability, I embark
on board the ' Kung-wo,' one of the ex-China Merchants
Company's steamers recently handed over to an
American firm. A regular type of her class, she is
adapted for carrying a large cargo of tea and several
hundreds of coolie passengers, and is moreover pro-
vided with a little niche where three or four Euro-
peans can be accommodated, with a comfort and
* Various authorities differ to a most puzzling extent in their
computations.
I 2
116 ENGLISH CHINA.
cleanliness on which Englishmen will insist, as we
have taught the Chinese, at whatever trouble and cost.
We screw along through a river broad as the arm of
a sea, and more yellow and thick than the Thames at
London Bridge, and yet not half so dirty, the extra-
ordinary colour being due to the clay washed from
the banks of the ever-shifting current and held in
suspension. The distant country looming through the
plain of dreary waters is as flat as though it had been
planed and spirit-levelled. There is for the present
no interest to be gathered out of that, but there is
abundant novelty in the circumstances of the steamer.
"What a curious mixture of nationalities we have
on board ! The captain, a sharp, civil little American,
as amusing and worldly-wise as most of his country
are, and as quiet in his demeanour as most of his
countrymen are not ; two or three English ship's-
officers ; a Manila Spaniard ; a couple of ' Geese,' i.e.
Macao Portuguese ; fifty Chinese crew ; about 200
Chinese and three European passengers, viz. a French
Jesuit, a Danish tea agent, and an English artillery
ofi&cer. The Chinese consider that to be jammed into
an individual contact of carcasses, and to breathe the
same atmosphere several times over, is essential to
comfort, and hence the rest of the community was by
no means crowded. Diverse as are the above nation-
alities, they may nearly all be blended into two great
divisions : European and Asiatic. The Europeans
regard all who are not of their own continent as half
THE RIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 117
intelligent and wholly strange baboons, with a strain
of man-nature in them ; the Asiatics here consider all
who are not Chinese as * Fung Yang ' (foreign devils) —
nearly all, not quite.
The original Portuguese settlers in Macao of the
sixteenth century, the fellow-countrymen of Vasco de
Gama and Camoens, have so degenerated from their
original nationality, have so deteriorated from climate
and intermarriage with the aborigines, are so com-
pletely changed in physical aspect and mental charac-
teristics, that they can only be regarded as displeasing
hybrids, view^ed with contempt by Europeans and with
mistrust by Chinamen.
Peering down hatchways and wandering aft, where
are congregated the natives, three-parts naked, crafty
and* diabolical, wizened and skinny, with none of the
dignity of the human race, the sensation of one's own
isolation, of being one amongst a tribe with whom we
cannot have the most remote affinity, gradually be-
comes very strong. Why should not these 250
wretches, whose sole principle is that of gain, without
the common tie of civilisation which is the common
tie of brotherhood, select one day or night out of the
three we are to spend on board with them, far from
other human aid, cut the throats of the five or six
Europeans, plunder the ship at leisure, and disappear
into the wide adjacent country ? I really feel grateful
to them for their forbearance. They could crush us
by mere numbers as easily as they could a few flies, and
118 ENGLISH CHINA.
such deeds have from time to time been perpetrated.
Indeed, to enable Europeans to fight at all events with
the same chance as rats at bay, it is the almost in-
variable practice to range rifles and ammunition in
handy spots about the cabin. Why is this omitted in
the present instance ? ' Oh,' says the American cap-
tain, with that ignoring of danger which is the surest
way of inviting it, ' there is nothing to fear from out-
rage. There is not a Christian within 100 miles of
us.' Nevertheless I am not sorry I brought my
revolver with me.
In the middle of one of the following nights, a din
of compound noises in an instant roused me to the
keenest, startled, attention. Intense darkness was
emphasised by incessant flashes of lightning, the
thunder cracked rather than rolled, and the rain
splashed down with a violence which resembled blows,
yet high above the riot rose the shouts and yells of
many voices in tones both of anger and entreaty,
and the trampling of many feet. Have the hundreds
of Chinese passengers risen upon the half-dozen
Europeans, and is the * last scene ' being enacted ?
The swift course of the ship is suddenly stopped, and
there is a profound stillness ; then an imperative
order to go ahead ; then hark ! the splash of
rapidly dipped oars, boats are approaching ; louder
and closer grow the angry shouts and yells, once more
the ship is suddenly arrested, junks are grating against
the side, swarms of men are clambering on board
THE RIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 119
.... pirates perhaps . . . my revolver . . . not
much use . . . and ... *I hope you were not
roused last night opposite that village,' says the
captain next morning. * We took on board a wonder-
ful number of passengers who thought we were not
going to wait for them. What a row they did make
to be sure ! ' The evils we suffer from most are those
which never occur.
Look at those Chinese at meals, or * Chow-chow '
as they call it, on deck, squatting in knots with true
Eastern preference for their own hams over chairs,
an attitude which draws an invariable but sharp line
of demarcation between civilisation and barbarism.
Why, their very method of eating would disgrace a
well-bred jackal. With a large caldron of rice, and,
on a separate dish in the centre, a fearful mess of
salad and pickled fish or flesh carrion, each eater
plunges his basin into the rice pot, holds it close to
his widely stretched open mouth, and, with his two
chopsticks in one hand, shovels the contents down his
gullet with extraordinary rapidity. During the pro-
cess he apparently neither masticates nor breathes —
his eyes start from his head— he perspires — his cheeks
and another department of his interior economy swell
almost visibly, but he never ceases from his shovelling
and his gulping, save for a second or two when he
turns to his pickled garbage for a relish. ' Graceful
chopsticks, dexterity, skill, neatness.' Traditional
nonsense. The transaction is nasty beyond measure,
120 ENGLISH CHINA.
and its sole palliation is that it is performed only
twice a day — at about ten and five— though if in the
intervals an odd snack comes in their way it is never
regarded as amiss.
Then, although the bulk they consume is consider-
able, Europeans certainly would not consider an
almost exclusively rice diet sufficiently nutritious on
which to perform so astonishing an amount of hard
work. Yes, literally, ' almost exclusively.' Milk is
only consumed under circumstances too filthy for
publication, and the small coarse fish like Thames dace
or tench, the little lumps of fat pork or reeking semi-
putrid viscera of their unhealthy swine, can only be
regarded as subsidiary adjuncts to impart flavour to
the staple bulk. It is only natural they should con-
sider our consumption of steaks and chops as indicat-
ing the propensities of ravenous ogres, and they can
only account for our powers of assimilating such large
quantities of animal food by the assumption that all
Englishmen possess, in their interior economy, two
grindstones which, gizzard-like, reduce to a pulp all
they swallow.
While sitting quietly in the little cabin, inditing the
notes from which this account is taken — the hypothe-
tical value of which is chiefly due to the fact of their
being recorded day by day on the spot while impres-
sion and memory still retain that vividness which
must inevitably be weakened with every twenty-four
hours — I notice with surprise a tall Chinese figure
THE KIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANa. 121
seat himself at the table, very humbly, very quietly.
Yet I cast about in my mind for an explanation, inas-
much as only under very exceptional circumstances
does a Chinaman, however well-to-do, seek to intro-
duce himself into the society of Englishmen. A tall,
middle-aged, grave fellow, 'in Chinese hat, blue robe
and shoes, with every detail of native costume, in-
cluding, of course, the inevitable pigtail. And yet —
and yet, what is there about you which puzzles* me ?
Your movements are not like the shambling furtive
movements of the Chinese ; your expression of counte-
nance is simple and straightforward, instead of shifty
and crooked ; the few sentences you mutter in pidgin-
English possess not the genume aboriginal clack.
Come, my friend, this won't do, you are no more
Chinese than I am. So I hazard, ' Monsieur, parle-
t-il Fran9ais ? ' ' Ah, oui, Monsieur, bien mieux
qu' Anglais,' he answers, brightening at the sudden
and unexpected sound of his native language, and in
a very short time we are talking with all the confi-
dence of intimate friends.
Pere Gannier is a Jesuit priest who has devoted
himself to a missionary life in China— not merely
come to China for a short time to do a ' spell of mission-
arising,' as is the wont with so many of our Protestant
workers. Six months ago he had never quitted
France in his life ; then at forty, suddenly feeling him-
self called on to a new work, he sailed for Shanghai,
where, at the adjacent French Jesuit College of Zik-a-
122 ENGLISH CHINA.
wei, he had spent some months in that most dis-
couraging of all studies, the Chinese language, in pick-
ing up a few words of EngHsh, and in making himself
acquainted with the customs and character of the
natives.
* And how long do you expect to remain out ? ' I ask.
* Toute ma vie, Monsieur,' with rather a melan-
choly smile.
A Missionary Jesuit once in China seldom revisits
his own country; he tries to nationalise himself with
his flock, with whom, indeed, he lives and dies.
* I have left for ever all who are near and dear tome.'
* What a sacrifice ! ' I involuntarily exclaim.
* Yes,' he assented, * and yet I feel perfectly happy
and without a vestige of regret. But I admit this is
an unnatural kind of happiness, and can only be
attained by divine grace.'
* Is not the adoption of Chinese dress and customs
very distasteful to you ? '
* Well, yes, it is. But to do so is almost one of
the conditions of success. Of course a Chinaman
would detect my nationality in an instant, and it is
very rare that even after a life-long residence we can
disguise our origin. Still, our attempts to assimilate
ourselves with our flocks dissipate the otherwise never-
failing reminder that we belong to the hated race of
foreign devils, and is an evidence of sympathy which
they appreciate.'
* Have the efforts of your Order at conversion been
successful ? '
THE RIVEE YANG-TSZE-KIANa. 123
* Oh, yes, conspicuously so,' ^ is his answer. * You
see that, in addition to Christianising them, we civilise
and educate them.'
* Ah, yes ; education,' say I, with a train of argu-
ment roused in my mind, * i.e. individual reasoning
fostered by reading — reading the Bible.' But here I
had heedlessly stumbled on a quagmire.
* Not so. Monsieur,' vehemently. * This indis-
criminate reading of the Bible by semi-educated per-
sons is fraught with grievous danger. Besides the
Saint Pere '
I try to evade the discussion; my companion
fiercely persists — and here, in the poky cabin of a
China ship on the Yang-tsze-kiang river, the French
Jesuit and the English artillery officer set to work
hammer and tongs for hours, arguing on respec-
tive tenets, growing hotter and hotter, probably
each considering the reasoning of the other to be
specious, and each angry that faith — fanatic faith —
once wedded fast to some dear error, hugs it to the
last.
* Well,' I say after a while, 'let us agree to differ.
We are both Christians, we both believe in the same
Almighty and same atonement. Let us agree to hope
that we may both reach the same goal, though each
one thinks his own route the best, the clearest, and
the shortest.'
From his aspect and tone of reply, I question if
he agreed to hope anything of the sort.
' Query, but more anon.
124 ENGLISH CHINA.
Night had ah^eady fallen when we steamed up to
the ant-like city of Chinkiang, my Jesuit acquaintance's
terminus. He knew not a soul there, but it was
possible that a French ' confrere ' might have heard
of his intended arrival, and might come to the wharf
to meet him, and might put him up. Otherwise it
was very problematical in what den of horror he
might be compelled to pass the night. As this disciple
of Xavier and Ignatius Loyola stood on the deck,
solitary, in poverty, friendless, without even what
Europeans consider a bare necessary of life, a Chinese
* boy,' I could not but say : ' Whatever our differences
of opinion, mon Pere, permit me to express my
reverence for your noble self-sacrifice. Shake hands ; '
and then thoughtlessly cheery : * au revoir ! '
* Au revoir ! ' he said gravely, as he took my hand,
and then pointing upwards : ' Je I'espere — la haut.'
Chinkiang is one of the treaty ports, and a depot
for tea. A small knot of English, a few tens merely,
with a consul to safeguard their rights, and some
Protestant missionaries who might learn many a
lesson from their more humble Eoman Catholic fellow-
Christibns, have there settled down in a little group of
houses, according to custom completely outside the
precincts of Chinese filth. One of the mercantile
agents who had resided there for twenty-two years
without a break had reluctantly resolved, after many
a postponement, to revisit his native country. He
was an educated gentleman, unmarried, and though
THE KIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 125
deprived of all that we value in civilised life, he had
grown into his isolated and, as we should call it,
joyless existence so completely, that he quitted it
manifestly with a heavy heart. Thousands of crackers
rattling off like Sb feu' de joie was the Chinese God-speed
at his departure, and he stepped on board our ship
with the solemn gravity of the old Westward Ho ! emi-
grants, rather than with the exhilaration of a twenty-
two years' exile about to revisit friends and country.
Here I may remark that on my return journey I
set to work in a business-like manner to explore the
neighbourhood of Chinkiang, as a type of country in
contradistinction to town in inland China. Walking
through the suburbs, where I notice groups of Chinese
children playing at the time-honoured English rustic
game of 'tipcat,' I pass under one of the archways
of the never-failing walls which here surround all
towns at a considerable distance from the main mass
of buildings, and make my way to an eminence, from
whence I obtain a good bird's-eye view of the curious
surrounding country. The shifting vagaries of the
Yang-tszye are here strikingly illustrated. * Golden
Island ' is a large, high tumulus, now situated well
inland. But in 1842 it was an island round which
our fleet sailed in their ascent to attack Nankin. There
is the usual childish Chinese fort enclosing a large area,
its parapet little stronger than pasteboard, on the top
of which flaunt innumerable large gaudy standards.
There again in a little hollow nook is the small English
126 ENGLISH CHINA.
cemetery. About sixteen or eighteen graves represent
the mortality of the tiny European population during
as many years. The simple, reverential decency with
which it is kept contrasts vividly with the large hideous
grave mounds of the natives, and with their repelling
coffins placed on the open ground as at Shanghai.
Now we have trudged about three and a half miles
into the country, and staring around we become aware
that we are in the midst of the largest necropolis on
the face of the earth, the radius being about three
miles. We are standing in a vast depression, bounded
afar by ranges of hills ; the whole plane of site is a
series of gently undulating turf-covered knolls, and is
not unlike Aldershot in its pre-military era, ere the
heather had been ground down, and with Caesar's camp
in the distance.
Within this vast perimeter of nearly nineteen
miles, and as far as the eye can reach, are packed,
rows upon rows in dismal monotony, the grave mounds,
without a sign of care or of decoration even according
to the depraved ideas of taste of the country. Leoking
around, I could scarcely see a square yard not thus
occupied, except in cases of a few rare patches of rice
or other cultivation in swampy spots.
Now in such a monstrous graveyard, which may
have extended, for aught we could tell, on the reverse
slopes of the encu'cling hills, is it not probable that
the expression ' millions ' — a number of which nine-
teen people out of twenty have not a conception— of
THE EIVEK YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 127
graves may be perfectly accurate ? Here indeed the
whole population of the district, or rather province,
must have buried their dead for decades, or even for
centuries, of years.
Glad to quit a laildscape, the dreariness of which
the most ingenious human imagination could not
realise, I retrace my steps along the so-called high
road. It is about six feet wide, with a thin breadth
of paving stones in the centre, sloping towards the
sides, which, in dry weather, are ankle-deep in dust,
and in wet weather in sticky mud. From time to
time bye-roads, really mere sheep tracks, strike in.
A-long the main route, where ordinary wheeled loco-
motion could not for one moment be thought of, small
gangs of peasants are toiling in the hot sun under
heavy burdens of agricultural produce, suspended on
bamboo poles, or are struggling with clumsy barrows
dragged up the slopes by strings of rope draught, at a
maximum expenditure of labour, with a minimum
result. And yet this type of Chinese highways is a
main artery of communication between enormously
populous cities, and through a thickly inhabited
country. This consideration, isolated and trifling as
it may seem, throws a ray of light on that question of
enormous magnitude, the immediate future of one-
fourth of the world's inhabitants.
I venture to hazard the suggestion, which I trust
may not be considered childish in its simplicity — may
not the solution of the above question be contained in
128 ENGLISH CHINA.
the single expression : * Highways and byeways ' ?
At this moment the entire gigantic empire is, in our
sense of the word, destitute of all means of efficient
road communication — each city, each district, however
poi3ulous and important, is virtually isolated. Fuh-
tais, Taotais, and Mandarins may misgovern, cheat,
and oppress with impunity. Those subject to them
may, and do have, a general sense of their iniquities ;
but they entirely lack that nature of educational
training which enables men to distinguish between
good and evil, to reason on the cause of wrongs, and
to devise means for their remedy.
To go a step further : cut off from intercourse
with the various fractions of their fellow-countrymen,
from a general knowledge of the Chinese world, from
the means of collating or disseminating their opinions,
they are ignorant of their own powers of combination
to pj'ocure redress. They acquiesce in the infamous
national misgovernment and robbery, and I believe will
continue to acquiesce until there arise a mighty simul-
taneous convulsion of the whole population, combined
to annihilate the old order and to set up a new one.
Now, of these facts, China's rulers are perfectly well
aware. * No innovations,' they tacitly argue, ' no in-
ventions, no education beyond that of musty, useless
fables, and, above all, no communications. Otherwise
the people will learn, will combine, and will overthrow
us.' Is not the authenticity of this line of argument
established beyond all doubt by the destruction of the
THE RIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 129
short line of railway between Shanghai and Wosung,
so hated by the mandarins, so warmly appreciated by
the populace. Have not the former, with unswerving
determination, nipped in the bud the fairest projects
for railway lines, which were so easy of construction,
and so productive of future wealth, that even bigoted
conservatism cannot account upon righteous grounds
for their rejection ?
The skilled English engineer, Mr. Morrison, who
some years ago came out for the special purpose of
laying down the Shanghai railway and carrying out
other apparently dawning projects, assured me that
there is scarcely any other country in the world where
railways could be constructed with greater ease, speed,
and cheapness, and with a certainty of a profitable
return, equal to those certainties on which we deter-
mine the most important transactions of life. But
the destruction of the Wosung line, coupled with the
general line of action pursued by the imperial autho-
rities, has, he considers, transferred to the remote
future the actual construction of a railway system on
a large scale, and he has acted up to this opinion
by returning to England.
Within the past year the concession of the Pekin
Government for the construction of a line from the
capital to Tien-tsin has been heralded with much
ostentation. It is quite possible that a few miles may
be laid down, it is much more than possible that this
show of yielding is a fresh illustration of the Chinese
130 ENGLISH CHINA.
method of evading that which they are determined
not to perform. ' Highways and byeways,' angrily
remarked an Enghsh merchant, who dreaded any
change, lest it should entail a diminution in the old-
fashioned abundant influx of dollars, ' we don't want
them. No country in the world is so well provided
with natural waterways, and these are far cheaper
than roads or railways. They would do us no good.
Do leave us alone.' Almost the mere statement of
the argument carries with it its own refutation. For
instance, it might be infinitely cheaper to pay a half
dollar for conveyance by railway in four hours, than
to expend four days, without actual disbursement of
cash, in struggling in a boat against the tortuous and
rapid current of the Yang-tsze-kiang. Of course, as
regards expense of transport, rapidity and facility are
foremost considerations, and Holland, the best canalled
country in Europe, has found it expedient to intersect
her area with an infinity of railways.
Now let us draw the converse picture of the
principal districts in the Chinese empire efficiently
connected with roads and railways. I see before me
a magical change effected with startling rapidity.
The fertile country is rendered productive because
means have been brought into existence to render its
productiveness available ; ^ commerce instantly receiv-
ing a gigantic impetus; communication so extended
' Mr. Fawcett, in his Manual of Political Economy, shows clearly
the striking distinction between the terms ' fertile ' and ' productive.'
THE EIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 131
and increased as to become habitual; then experience,
then diffused knowledge and education, and, pari passu
with the above, Christianity. Meanwhile the nation
has been learning nolens volens the difference between
right and wrong, between a good government and
a rascally one ; then comes a knowledge of their own
power, then combination, and finally the subversion
of the old regime and the establishment of a righteous
administration, happiness and prosperity ; not indeed
without the calamities of a terrible intestinal convul-
sion, without which, alas ! the subsequent blessings
are unattainable.
* But,' it may be rejoined, * in indicating highways
and byeways, you merely indicate an improved condi-
tion without the means of effecting it. You do not point
out how existing circumstances are to be so reversed
as to remove present obstacles ; you do not really bring
us nearer to the solution of the problem.' Granted,
and herein I can only look to the unforeseen, fortuitous
concourse of events, or rather, to write more gravely,
to the inscrutable workings whereby Providence is
wont to remedy the greatest evils. It may take the
form of the action of one or more of the great civilised
Powers ; or the still further decadence of rulers, so
corrupt and effete that the slightest further decadence
will overwhelm them ; or possibly the spontaneous
rising of the millions3 wearied at last beyond submission
by a rule of infamy and misery.
To resume our return walk from Chinkiang necro-
K 2
132 ENGLISH CHINA.
polls to the steamer. The dwelHngs of the peasants
are little better than mud caverns above-ground,
small covered spaces through which the rains must
frequently penetrate, only just high enough to admit
of the inmates standing upright, without windows or
even window openings, chimneys, or doors. The smoke
of the small cooking fire rushes out of the entrance
aperture, and through it I can discern an accumulation
of horrors — crawling imps and crowding harridans in
numbers and condition which, together with other
nameless filth, can only be paralleled with a carcass
decomposing in the sun.
We continue our course up the never-varying
calm river, the yellow opaqueness of which has now
so much increased as to convey the impression that
we are ploughing our way through masses of thick
seething mud. At night I still find my ulster a bless-
ing, in pursuance of that experience which travellers
are so slow to learn — that w^e suffer most from cold in
warm climates. But the temperature is much higher
than at Shanghai, and there is a pleasant sensation
of health in the pure atmosphere after the pest- laden
air of the native cities. Then the river bank scenery
is losing its previous ugliness, dotted with mountainous
intervals it is becoming prettier and prettier, is at
last almost beautiful, and to sit watching on deck will
repay all but those who stupidly close fast their eyes
when on their travels".
There is Nankin, famous in the annals of history
THE EIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 133
for centuries, captured by Lord Gough in 1842, the
scene of many a wholesale massacre in later years,
a focus of political intrigue, and of rebel plot and
outrage. Once it was the capital of " the Chinese
empire, now it is of contracted importance, with a
greatly diminished population of about 130,000
inhabitants. Yet to Europeans it is almost exclu-
sively known by reason of its white cotton fabrics.
Perhaps its size can better be appreciated by the
extent of its city walls, which start from the river
bank, and which we can make out trending for miles
inland, tapering and winding among the hills sur-
rounding the main part of the city, which is sit-
uated in a vast hollow about three-quarters of a
mile from the Yang-tsze. I can quite believe the
prevalent assertion that these walls are twenty miles
in perimeter. The city is defended by some large
straggling earthworks, armed with artillery which
is supposed to command the river, but unskilfully
constructed and injudiciously placed, inasmuch as
they are themselves completely commanded by the
adjacent heights. I estimated the breadth of the
river at this point to be about 900 yards. About two
miles distant on the opposite side is a lower range,
not fortified, but occupied as a military station. The
ground at the base of the hills is perfectly flat, and
in some places marshy.
For some reasons, inscrutable to all but Chinese
cabinets. Nankin is not comprised in the comparatively
134 ENGLISH CHINA.
few treaty ports which the Pekin Government in the
last extremity of distress has on various occasions
consented to throw open to European trade. By
such concession some EngHsh merchants have made
several hundred thousands of pounds, but the towns
themselves several millions, plus an increase of pros-
perity and civilisation which has enabled them to
gallop on 100 years ahead of their closed fellows —
advantages not to be gauged only by a pecuniary
scale. However the fact cannot be got over. Nankin
is to all intents and purposes a closed port, though by
the Chefoo convention of 1875 steamers are allowed
to touch for the purpose of landing or shipping, but
in all cases by means of native boats only. There is
no European population, jetty, or custom-house, and
we steam past it, ignoring and ignored.
Our next point of interest is the ruined city of
Tungliu, childhood's Jericho conceived from grotesque
old woodcuts which here seem accurately reproduced.
There is the enormous square enclosure with per-
fectly straight walls, there the low, ugly, half-ruined
houses, the narrow streets, and above all the con-
ventional battlements ready to topple over at Joshua's
blast. Once it had been a flourishing city, but in
1864 it was occupied by the Taeping rebels, who
slaughtered indiscriminately and W'holesale every in-
habitant on whom they could lay hands, and then
left it in the condition in which the Prussians left
Bazeilles in 1870 — there being, by-the-bye, a strong
THE RIVER YANa-TSZE-KIANG. 135
resemblance between the two races in their method
of carrying on war.
The number of human beings massacred during
the rebelHon defies all computation, but it also exceeds
all belief excepting where ocular evidence still fur-
nishes a clue. For example, this ,city, clearly so con-
siderable from the area it covered, is now gaunt and
staring in utter desolation. Then, in the rural scenes
of the operations of the Taepings, skulls and thigh
bones are still sometimes found lying about the fields
like flints ; they represent hecatombs of untraced
human beings slaughtered in these shambles, otherwise
the requirements of ancestral worship would have
insured their burial. Finally, whatever the variations
in the estimates of the population of the empire, all
authorities are unanimous in pronouncing it several
millions less after than before the rebellion.
It would be difficult to cite a more striking
specimen of river scenery than the ' Little Orphan '
island, the Ehrenbreitstein of the Chinese Ehine.
Standing right in the centre of the river, the ink-dark
w^aters of which here hasten their speed and swirl
round it with cataract-like rapidity, it rises with
abrupt, almost perpendicular, rocky sides to a tower-
ing peaked height, but in proportion as it ascends
so does it become less rugged and austere. The
lights grow brighter, the dark vegetation of the crags
becomes more brilliantl}^ green, the luxuriant creepers
of the tropics twine their tendrils in a beautiful maze,
136 ENGLISH CHINA.
patches of colour are represented by patches of bright
flowers, small sparkling cascades emerge from mys-
terious sources, and leap splashing down into half-
hidden basins, until at last the contrast between the
base and summit is so great that it would seem as
though ' eternal sunshine settles on its head.'
Then as regards animated life, there is the
national mixture of nature's beauty and man's gro-
tesqueness. Water-fowl, gulls, and cormorants sweep
and shriek round the base. Other graceful birds
with bright plumage and still sweeter voices flash
about the foliage midway up ; an occasional butterfly,
so painted that highest art is in comparison a mere
daub, flutters from the sun above to the gloom below;
and, lastly, we have Horace's beautiful woman's
head fitted on to a hideous fish ; the apex is crowned
with ugliest of ugly, childish-looking pagodas, while
dotted about the sides are squalid dwehings, whence
emerge inhabitants out of keeping in the highest
degree with nature's beauties — with pigtails, turn-up
shoes, draggle-tailed gowns, and motionless though
diabolical countenances.
It really is time that I should say somewhat about
the wild-fowl, which at Wuhu, a noted centre of river
sport, far exceeded my New Brunswick and Canada
experience. Yet people are wont to receive the
records of American numbers not merely with incre-
dulity, but with a thinly veiled imputation that you
are an impudent liar. Then how can I hope for
THE ElVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 137
credence here ? Simply by no attempt to deal with
numbers, but to quote acreage, and leave the reader
to estimate for himself. Well, as we ploughed our
way, several acres on either side were crowded with
wild geese, teal, and mallard as thickly as in a feeding
pond. But what surprised me most was that, whereas
their American congeners take flight at the approach
of any craft, merely showing as dark patches against
the skyline, these Chinese wild- fowl with national
sagacity allowed us to steam up to within a few yards
of them, tumbling, quacking, and flapping out of our
way, making by successive lengths a lane which
sometimes extended over a mile. Sorely was I tempted
by that brute instinct which, according to foreign
ideas, habitually prompts an Englishman ' to go and
kill something,' to see how many I could tumble over
by firing from deck into the ' black ' of them, and
was only restrained by remembering that, as I could
not stop the steamer to secure the spoil, such an act
Would constitute animal murder. But had I been in
a small noiseless sampan, instead of a huge roaring
steamer, these crafty creatures would almost unani-
mously have flapped an adieu just when I was still a
yard or two out of shot, merely leaving a certain
number of boy and girl loiterers to be picked up
singly.
And here a few words about sport in China gene-
rally. It is pre-eminently not the country for big
game ; certainly there is throughout a sprinkling,
138 ENGLISH CHINA.
thin, but never entirely failing, of tigers, which in pro-
portion to their numbers commit great devastation ;
there are some leopards, panthers, and a fair amount
of small deer and wild pig. But nothing can sur-
pass the excellence of the small game shooting, and
this I assert without a shadow of doubt. Of duck
and geese I have already spoken ; add thereto snipe
as often as you choose to fire off your gun, quail so
plentiful that you soon cease to take any notice of
them, partridges in great abundance, pheasants, and,
above all, swans — not isolated shy specimens, but a
plurality of those big fellows to be picked up in an
ordinary day's shooting, say five swans for two guns.
Eemember, too, that all this is genuine wild shooting.
You make your way up, or drift down, the innumer-
able large rivers or small streams in that floating
shooting-box, a ' house-boat,' land when and where
you please, and having tried ground which suits your
fancy without the poaching dread of being warned
off as trespassers — for the natives view with perfect
indifference your trampling even through high stand-
ing crops, you can re-embark and do likewise else-
where. No jealous guardianship of shooting rights.
Probably there is about one sporting Englishman
to every hundred square miles, and as for the natives,
it certainly is sport, though in another sense, to see
them on a shooting excursion. Weapon, a long iron
tube without a stock ; powder, a handful of what looks
like dried black mud; j)rojectiles, a heap of small
THE KIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANa. 139
irregularly shaped iron pellets — lead is beyond their
means ; firing arrangement, a piece of slow match
fastened to the thick end of the iron tube, which is
discharged from the thigh. Eeally they deserve
astonishing credit in that sometimes and somehow
they do manage to knock over some supremely care-
less winged creatures crowded together for feeding.
Their usual method of destruction is, however, by
snaring.
There is no legal close season, but nature has
established conditions which limit the shooting period
from the beginning of October until the beginning of
March. Outside these dates feathered game dis-
appears in the furtherance of their domestic avoca-
tions, or if a jpere de famille in the shape of a wild
duck or pheasant be criminally slain, his flesh is so
exceedingly black and nasty, that after one mouthful
you put down your knife and fork and beg his pardon.
One freak, however, specially distinguishes the snipe.
In early March he grows very lean and disappears ;
in the middle of April he reappears, crying with un-
usual shrillness, well plumaged, as fat as a prize bird,
and plus two handsome extra tail feathers, viz. seven
instead of five. Some that I shot at Shanghai and
Foochow were little inferior in size to woodcock.
Three weeks later he makes his final adieu. It has,
however, been conjectured that these ' spring snipe '
represent hatchings from the north of Japan making
their way southwards.
140 ENGLISH CHINA.
No, I unhesitatingly say; do not come 10,000
or 11,000 miles to China to shoot, unless indeed you
are one of those who consider that shooting, the
tamer the better, constitutes one of the most noble
occupations of life, and that a poor shot is a poor-
spirited, weak-minded individual, not fit to live. But
if you, as a keen sportsman, happen to be in China,
remember that you have during the season a certainty
of first rate, unlimited small game shooting, first
and foremost on the Yang-tsze-kiang river, especially
at Wuhu, and then in descending gradations of
excellence in the neighbourhoods of Shanghai, Han-
kow, Foochow, Amoy, and Swatow. As for a little
information respecting that inevitable accompaniment
the house-boat, you must search for it in a future
chapter, or I shall be very happy to reply to any
written inquiries, for the general reader would, I fear,
become weary of any further shooting talk.
On the Yang-tsze I have an opportunity of veri-
fying the statements concerning the immensity of the
Chinese river population. All day and every day we
pass through gatherings of small, crazy floating
dwellings rather than ordinary boats, each of which
represents a family. The occupants always appeared
particularly busy, but about what I never could
fathom, unless they were endeavouring to secure some
of those coarse, small, fresh-water fish which, when
cooked, resemble nothing so much as a tallow candle
stuck full of pins, but one of whichi would be held to
THE RIVEE YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 141
impart a delicious relish to a whole bucketful of
rice.
As for the fields on the margin of the river, they
are sprouting riches to the utmost closeness which
the area admits— grain of every sort, beans, roots,
clover, and grasses. Surely the most ingenious
farmer could not grumble here; at a later period
large districts will be turned into paddy (rice) fields,
and thus the agriculturist manages to get two and even
three substantial main crops out of his ground in the
year — not merely those impositions in the shape of
hastily got in patches of vetches or mustard, whereby
the English farmer seeks to cheat himself into the
belief that he has made his field do a double tour of
duty. As at Shanghai, the cultivation is almost
entirely spade. Horses and stock are almost un-
known, and hence the enormous value of every con-
ceivable species of manure.
Now we approach another treaty port, Kiukiang,
where we take in a further load of Chinese passengers,
and stop a few hours for breathing time and explor-
ation. Every leaf of green tea which is imported to
England passes through this city, and for a short
time, therefore, during the summer the shipping
business is here very active and extensive. The re-
quirements of European commerce are met by two
large hulks purchased from the P. and 0., and for-
merly among the largest and best of their class.
Eoofed over on the upper deck, cleared of all mastSj
142 ENGLISH CHINA.
gear, and sea-going machinery, they constitute first-
rate wharfage buildings, and for many years will float,
splendid examples of the strength of our ships of
commerce.
Even at remote Kiukiang, where the permanent
English residents might almost be counted on one's
fingers, they have intuitively set up a lilliputian
European administration, with a municipal council of
three, which rules the settlement with the regularity
of a European principality, and by means of ten
Chinese police causes its behests to be obeyed by the
swarming natives. And my eyes are gladdened by the
small English Bund, in close proximity to horrible
surroundings, with its beautiful greensward, its
narrow strip of neatly kept marine parade, lined with
six or seven handsome European storehouses, and
shrouded in a beauty of foliage which only these
latitudes can produce.
Of course a European here arrests attention as
instantaneously as would a bustard promenading
Hyde Park ; and, placing myself under the chaperonage
of a local agent in the service of those merchant-
princes, Jardine and Matheson, I proceed to explore
the native town. As usual, it is a type of all that is
shocking, filthy, and wonderful, and is utterly unlike
anything seen out of China. Then, instead of mere
abuse, why do I not tell you something of its details ?
Because, first of all, I wish that my opinion on these
and similar features should be matured by more
THE RIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 143
abundant experience, and because, also, I am keeping
the subject in reserve, until we have reached those
more complete types — Hankow and Foochow.
Kiukiang, in addition to its monopoly of green tea
commerce, is the chief representative of Chinese porce-
lain manufacture. It seems to be Sevres, Dresden, and
Valloris rolled into one, and then multiplied fourfold.
Shops of china, streets of china, acres of china. I
turn into one establishment after another; there is
no necessity to buy. The European may rummage
about for as long as he pleases, the shop people being
apparently fully repaid by their curiosity in watching
a foreign devil. Each shop is crammed to overflowing
with porcelain ware, some of it pretty enough to
delight non-connoisseurs, and a great deal of an
intensely grotesque ugliness, which raises its value to
a proportionate price, and would render a true expert
lackadaisical in his depraved admiration. If one
could but take some to England ! only it would be in-
convenient to pack up a pair of six foot, valuable,
fragile vases in a field kit bag. I finish my ex-
pedition at my cicerone's handsome residence, com-
fortable with every practicable imported comfort, and
where, together with a single comrade of the shipping
trade, he will spend — might he not say ' obliterate ' —
four or five years of his life, with little work, except
for a month during the tea season, and fairly happy
and contented.
The impression conveyed to me of such an exist-
144 ENGLISH CHINA.
ence of inactive exile was melancholy beyond descrip-
tion. ' Good-bj^e ' — acquaintances of three hours' date
here part with as much warmth as those of three
years' elsewhere — ' Pray come and stay with me
whenever, and for as long as, you can ; ' and I am
persuaded the invitation was sincere. He would
gladly receive as a guest even a first-class beast.
And now I am becoming conscious that all this
time I have been somewhat cavalierly ignoring the
most important feature of my journey, the mighty
Yang-tsze-kiang itself, concerning which some de-
scription may be the less tedious, inasmuch as prior
to 1860 scarcely any, if any, Europeans, except the
Abbe Hue, had travelled higher up than Nankin, 200
miles from the mouth. Of late years, it is true, a
certain number of tea agents have been beforehand
with me on the track 1 am now pursuing; yet the
country is to the general public a Urra incognita.
We are approaching Hankow, 600 miles inland from
Shanghai, the very heart of China proper, the most
remote settlement in the empire, and, with the excep-
tion of Ichang, the furthest spot where a European
resident is to be found.
What the Amazons are to South America, what
Niagara is to Upper Canada, what the Thames is to
London, such is the Yang-tsze-kiang — the Eiver of
Golden Sand — to China. It runs through a length of
over 1,500 miles, it affects the commerce and pro-
sperity of the nation more than all other physical
THE EIVEE YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 145
objects put together, and is regarded by them with a
veneration exceeding that which they pay to their
most cherished divinities. In fine, it is the richest
river in the world — richest in navigable waters, in
cities, population, tributaries, and in wide margins of
inexhaustible fertility.^ I have already noticed how
far out at sea the ocean waters have been thrust out
of their bed by the discharging deluge of the Yang-
tsze, proclaiming its presence by the masses of thick
alluvial soil held in suspension, the particles washed
down thousands of miles, some from the Himalayas
and Central Asia, where the river takes its source.
Then as we ascend one hundred miles after another,
how wayward it is in its currents and wanderings !
Not stormingly aggressive, but with quiet caprice
upsetting, womanlike, all the calculations of experi-
ence, and entirely altering the face of its domain.
Highest in June, it is lowest in December, and when
its waters rise, what freaks they play ! Here the
margins of the richest fields are crumbling away into
the river before our very eyes ; in a few months the
monster will have shifted her bed several yards
laterally; while the plundered soil will have been
capriciously heaped up elsewhere, causing a new
island to emerge from the waters. At one spot the
current, or rather torrent, runs at the rate of six
miles an hour ; at another, this is reduced to two
without any assignable reason. Well may its navi-
* See also Mr. Wingrave Cooke's China.
L
146 ENGLISH CHINA.
gation be considered the acquirement of a lifetime,
requiring renovation every year.
We are steaming straight as a Kne through the
midst of an expanse some miles broad. Suddenly we
turn off at right angles and almost scrape the bank.
' Why ? ' I ask in bewilderment. * Oh, within the
last eighteen months the river has been shifting its
bed at this spot, and over all yonder square miles of
water there is scarcely depth enough to float a
sampan.' In certain stretches, indeed, for hours to-
gether, the leadsman scarcely quits his post, and car-
ries on day and night the splashing of his lead and
his monotonous sing-song chaunt, sufficiently dismal
to evoke a legion of blue devils.
Here we are at Hankow — do not confuse it with
Hangchow — about one hundred miles south of Shan-
ghai. At a single glance I can picture to myself
how enormous must be the population and the com-
merce of this city, the subject of legendary fame and
of that modern curiosity which appertains to the little
known. Hankow, together with Hanyan and Wuchan,
each situated on the opposite banks of the bifurcating
river, extend far into the hazy plains in the distance,
and virtually comprise one in the same sense as New
York, Brooklyn, and New Jersey make up a single
city. Its sharply defined yellow Styx, unbroken by
bridges, here crawls with sewer-like sluggishness be-
tween the three sections, and over each section ex-
tends an acreage of low, level, uniform, thickly crowded
THE EIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANa. 147
roofs, pagodaless, towerless, spireless, and therefore
monotonously dreary.
Estimates of population in China are notoriously
most difficult of formation, and are habitually in-
accurate. At Hankow, one computation fixes the
population of the joint city at three millions, which I
do not believe ; another, with a fair basis for accuracy,
at two millions ; while a third pronounces it not to
exceed 250,000, which is a preposterously low figure,
furnished by a preposterously contradictory sub-official,
whose chief delight is to differ.
What Hong Kong is to England as regards the pale
of civilisation, what Shanghai again is to Hong Kong,
that Hankow is to Shanghai. Eeally on first arrival
one may be justified in feeling like Gulliver amongst
the Laputians ; and oh, how one's heart rises with
pleasure at the sight — in juxtaposition with that
obscene monster the native city — of our pretty little
English concession with the charm of its soft turf, its
neat gravel road, its park-like avenue, and its splendid
houses ! They are about fourteen in number, facing
the river, each with its handsome columns, porticos,
and verandahs, each semi-embosomed in the shade of
its own beautiful trees planted in the adjacent com-
pound, and each sufficiently comfortable with furniture
which has been imported from England 11,000 miles
distant. Our tiny tract of territory, 800 yards long
and 400 yards broad, having been let to us by the
Chinese on a lease of 99 years, constitutes a concession
L 2
148 ENaLISH CHINA.
with much greater independence than appertains to a
settlement, such as Shanghai.
The most prominent physical features in addition
to the palatial hongs, which are half residences and
half merchant's buildings, are the English and Eussian
churches, the Italian convent, the Marine Parade or
Bund, with three or four wharves, and some ex-P. and
0. hulks moored alongside them for the transaction
of the tea trade business, two Eussian brick-tea
factories, a European club, and finally, on the out-
skirts, the inevitable large, well-kept racecourse. The
English population amounts to about fifty, including
five or six ladies, and the affairs of the community are
managed by a municipal council of five, somewhat
after the fashion of Shanghai and Kiukiang. The
revenue, of the annual value of about 3,000L, is chiefly
raised by a property tax on European residents, and
normal public order is maintained by twenty native
constables under an English superintendent.
But this resolute little assemblage of Europeans
have concerted further measures against the contin-
gency of a popular rising and the rush of a flood of
city scoundreldom, for they are by no means prepared
to abandon without a struggle their own property and
that of their employers, and to take refuge on board
tea ships in the river ; though with wise foresight they
have provided for the instant removal of women and
children to the above place of security. A large
supply of rifles and ammunition has been stored in
THE RIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 149
one of the central hongs, ready for issue at a
moment's notice. Certain residents have been told
off to defend special roads, at the corners of which
movable chevaux-de-frise are always kept handy as a
check to a Chinese mob, which, however, takes good
care never to advance a yard under fire ; and, finally,
a central keep has been designated as the final re-
treat of the defenders if hard pressed. It is calculated
that resistance may thus be prolonged over twenty-
four hours, within which period it is hoped some con-
tingency of external aid may occur to their relief.
In the entire demeanour of our Hankow country-
men there is a fine spirit of pride and independence —
observable, indeed, throughout China in precise pro-
portion as we are cut off from external aid — which
makes us proud of our nation, and not prone to resent
at all events the intended sarcasm of the Brahmin,
*You English can do nothing but spin cotton and
conquer the world.'
It would have been my own fault had I not in a
very short time been on terms of cordial fellowship
with nine-tenths of the handful of Englishmen here
collected in self-imposed exile. Perhaps their friend-
liness was involuntarily aroused by the unusual
incident of a stray English traveller. Perhaps the
words ' Eoyal Artillery ' after my name may have
acted as an additional passport. At all events, keen
as I was in my Kosa-Dartle-like thirst for information,
they were equally keen in even forestalling my wishes.
150 ENGLISH CHINA.
Their hospitality was unbounded, and I soon dis-
covered that the whole gist of their ' shop ' table talk
was tea ; and no human artifice has yet succeeded in
the total suppression of ' shop,' whether among poli-
ticians, soldiers, sailors, lawyers, doctors, racing men, or
clergymen. Testa semel imhuta diu servahit odorem.
I quickly catch the epidemic and become persuaded
that the one object of surpassing moment in life is tea.
What a chance to learn all about it, for Hankow is
the largest tea market in the world ! Thither, during
the season, converge from radii of many miles tons
on tons of the newly plucked plant. Thither comes
puffing up the yellow waters of the Yang-tsze many
a monstrous steamer, with a mixed native crew and
one or two charsees (tea-tasters) eager to speed home-
wards the moment the freight is on board, for in the
English market the first arrivals of tea invariably
command fractionally higher prices. Foremost among
the consignees are Twining and Coope. Then the
whole population, European and Chinese, are in the
highest ferment of activity, and a day of twenty-four
hours is not long enough for their needs. Charsees,
compradors (native agents), schroffs (Chinese in the
cashier's offices), agents, clerks, and coolies are at
work from five a.m. until far into the hours of dark-
ness ; they are a proof of the toil of which human
beings are capable under sufficient inducement ; they
concentrate labour which most men sj)read over a
year into a few weeks. For happily for them the tea
THE EIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANa. 151
trade here lasts little more than three weeks. It
begins about May 10, is in bulk concluded by June 5,
and is completely wound up a fortnight later.
Some kindly, communicative, typical charsees put
me through the whole business of tea tasting and tea
judging, and in turn thus communicate to me the
following facts : —
* Most of the education of a tea-taster, which is a
speciality of itself, is carried out in London, though
the finishing touch is given in China. Prior to
coming out I spent five or six years in the house of
one of the great tea merchants in London, Messrs.
, beginning quite at the bottom of the ladder,
learning my business and acquiring the power of dis-
crimination between the shades of tastes of different
samples — the faculty can hardly be acquired in a
shorter time. Then of late years I have resided here
as local agent for one of the China merchants, my
sole duty during the tea season being to test and to
taste the thousands of samples which then come
pouring in. Sometimes I have to taste as many as
150 in a single morning, and at the end of the month's
duration my digestive and nervous functions become
completely upset by the extra strain on them. On
my own responsibility I purchase on behalf of my
employers enormous consignments, which are shipped
off as fast as possible to Shanghai, and from thence to
London.'
Now we enter the charsee's office, spacious and
152 ENGLISH CHINA.
cool like all apartments for Europeans in China, but
differing from them in having a special arrangement
of outside shutters whereby an exact degree of light,
neither too bright nor too dim, is thrown on the tables.
On them are ranged rows of small white cups and
saucers — a coloured pattern would not answer the
purpose — little tins of * musters ' or samples of tea,
small scales and weights, and on the ground enor-
mous classically shaped, handsome vases, the use of
w^hich we shall discover in a few moments. Now we
must concentrate our whole attention on the process.
Any dawdling would be fatal, and the tests of sight,
smell, touch, and taste must be almost instantaneous.
It is a cardinal principle that a charsee, to be suc-
cessful, can allow himself no second judging, but must
make up his mind at one stroke on the spot. His
first thoughts, like a woman's, will chiefly be valuable.
To proceed to actual business : a preliminary ex-
amination is held on the general aspect of each of the
samples, which resembles nothing so much as a
farmer's scrutiny of a little bag of specimen corn, or a
troop officer passing the forage. A small quantity is
poured into the hand. Its appearance should be
* neat ' and * level,' with small, even, tightly rolled
leaves, free from dust, small pieces of stick, and
sweepings, while here and there should be visible
little light tips called pekoe points, pieces of tea
blossom, which indicate that the plant has been
stripped while the leaves were still in a tender state.
THE KIVER YANa-TSZE-KIANG. 153
Then ensues a great deal of sniffing, for a fragrant
leaf will of course produce a fragrant infusion, whereas
a sour smell indicates undue fermentation in the
early stages of preparation, which will render the
product comparatively valueless.
But the one test worth all the others put together
is naturally the infusion, and here the charsee seems
absolutely absorbed in applying all his senses to this
operation. From each muster a small quantity —
not more than good-sized pinches — are weighed out
with chemical exactitude and placed in respective
cups, which are filled up with water just boiling but
not overboiled. The cups are covered with the
saucers, a five minutes' sand-glass is set running, and
the infusion is left to draw. Precisely as the last
grain runs out, the charsee begins his tasting, and an
exceedingly nasty process it proves. He draws the
liquid — of course milkless and sugarless — through his
teeth like a horse drinking; he rolls it about his
mouth, gurgles, squelches, and finally cascades it out
of his mouth into one of those beautiful vases I have
already mentioned, and which I should designate by
the homely title of spittoon, though it is sought to
extenuate the nastiness of their purpose by the
classical expression of * cuspidores.' Then comes the
first verdict, or weeding out rejected samples. A tyro
can of course easily decide between an exceedingly
good and an exceedingly bad sample, but on coming
to gradations involving differences of prices amount-
154 ENGLISH CHINA.
ing perhaps to hundreds of pounds, he will be com-
pletely baffled, and the necessity for a six years'
education of palate becomes abundantly manifest. If
you are penetrated with the conceit of ignorance, you
will perhaps hazard an expression of approval of one
sample which possibly corresponds to English three-
shilling-tea, and will slight another which is possibly
four-shilling-tea. The charsee becomes quite vexed
with what he suspects must be your obstinacy or
stupidity. * Try again,' and once more you gargle
and spit, and if you be honest you will resolutely
declare that for your part you cannot detect a pin's
difference between the two — but it is more probable
that to dispose of the tiresome reproaches you will
truckle and fib.
Next we examine the grouts. The colour of the
infusion itself is not of any consequence whatever
provided it be not suspiciously dark, but that of the
soaked unrolled leaves should be light, their smell
still fragrant, and each leaf small and unbroken. If
large and fragmentary, it may be assumed as a
certainty that the sample is of a rough, coarse nature.
Among the specimens shown me were some so fine
and valuable that they could not be purchased in
England by reason of their prohibitive price, ranging
as high as eighteen shillings a pound, and moreover
the wealthiest Chinese take jealous care to retain it
for home consumption. These sorts are, however,
mixed in small quantities of the finest qualities, and
THE RIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANa. 155
the compound is retained at preposterous prices. I was
given as a favour about an ounce of twelve-shilling- tea.
In appearance totally unlike the usual production,
it strongly resembled dried cowslip blossoms, and
though delicious in smell and delicate in taste, I
must own it likewise reminded me of childhood's
cowslip tea. But I should never have dreamed so
high a price could be assigned to it. I should add
that the tender green leaf of tea can be tasted only in
China. It must be dried up ere it is fit for English
export.
Without writing a general disquisition on tea, I
may venture to add a few additional facts concerning
this little-known subject. The various processes are :
* l^lucking,' as the trade terms stripping the trees ;
' withering ' the leaves in the sun ; rolling them ;
drying ; rolling again ; packing, which when required
for exportation is performed by the English mer-
chants.
I observed in one of the hongs bars of solid lead
piled in large heaps, ready for conversion into tinfoil,
the quantity of which used is amazing. There is
but one description of tea plant in cultivation, and
the various designations are due to varieties in the
qualities or to the districts whence they are obtained,
or to the method of preparation. For instance,
* Flowery Pekoe ' is composed almost entirely of the
blossom, and like all other tea has only a faint
natural scent. ' Orange Pekoe ' has been artificially
156 ENGLISH CHINA.
scented with orange flowers. Congo is not necessarily
an inferior tea, but is habitually manufactured out of
leaves in an advanced stage of growth, and is there-
fore large, coarse, and rank. Souchong comes from
a particular district. It is curious that there should
be some doubt respecting green tea, but according to
the majority of authorities it is not stripped from a
distinct plant, but derives its peculiarities from a
special process of preparation.
Have you ever heard of brick-tea? Not those
semi-divided cakes of ordinary pressed tea sometimes
sold in England, but the large cakes as hard as stones,
consumed exclusively in Siberia and the north of
China, and sometimes passing current as money, so
well illustrating Professor Fawcett's definition of money
as a measure of value and medium of exchange.
Hankow is the head-quarters of its manufacture,
which is there carried on by two large Eussian houses,
under the supervision of a couple of Eussian agents
and a handful of Eussian employes— for every other
European nation ignores with contempt that article
of commerce.
On entering the out-buildings one is struck with
the never failing and powerful steaming tea-pot smell,
as distinguished from the fragrancy of the simple
leaf, as though a thousand English village crones were
holding a debauch of Is. lOd. tea. Then into the
manufacturing sheds, where there is a hum of the
busiest activity — when indeed are Chinese labourers
THE KIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 157
otherwise than desperately busy ? — but there is an
entire absence of EngHsh order, cleanHness, and
method. Crowds of half- naked coolies are shambling
about with heavy burdens, getting in each other's
way, and claiming ' by leave ' in constant discordant
cries ; and the noise, darkness, dust, steam, and
confusion are such that for some time I am quite
unable to evolve a clear idea of the system of
operations. To take them seriatim : here are rows of
barrels containing the raw material — the dust tea as
it has been brought in from the country districts. It
is partly the result of self-formed powder, partly that
of grinding the small broken leaves.
There is no necessary reason why the material
should be inferior tea, but as a matter of fact and
custom its average goodness is not high. It has been
passed through sieves so fine that it is of the minute
dustiness of flour. Accurately weighed portions, each
of about two pounds, are shovelled into small canvas
bags, which are tossed into large perforated metal
cylinders, where they remain until impregnated with
steam, and without being muddy are of sufficient con-
sistency for manipulation and pressing. From time
to time a Chinaman half bends over his naked body
into the cylinder and drags forth a dripping bundle of
bags, with which he hurries off to the press machine,
the whole apparatus and working of which makes up
a picture of grotesque absurdity unexampled out of
China. The canvas bag is placed in a box without a
158 ENGLISH CHINA.
lid, which in turn is shoved under a press in order to
squeeze out the moisture and to jam the tea dough
into the properly shaped flat brick.
The pressure is applied, in a most singular sort of
nut-cracker fashion, by means of a long bamboo pole,
fixed horizontally high up and working on a hinge.
A Chinaman, considerably more naked than his fellows,
and therefore wearing no clothes worth mention, runs
swiftly along a plank fixed close to the bamboo nut-
cracker, and with the impetus thus gained springs
down a considerable height, accompanying his move-
ment with a piercing yell ; but he breaks his fall by
catching adroitly at the end of the bamboo, which he
thus drags down with him, and by the jerk subjects the
tea box under the hinge to a hearty squeeze. Then
four or five coolies rush forward, seize the still quiver-
ing elastic bamboo, and jerking it down several times
the squeezing process is completed. The lever is then
released, the box withdrawn, a fresh one substituted,
and the whole process repeated. Sometimes pressure
is effected by more scientific steam machinery, but
the operation I have described is the usual one.
The press-cake, turned out of its mould, proves to
be a perfectly flat cube, more like a tile than a brick,
about nine inches long, six inches wide, and one inch
deep, nearly black, as hard as a brick and with a pleasant
tea odour about it. After a slight amount of drying,
dusting, glazing and trimming, it is wrapped, packed,
and then sent off to Mongolia and Kussian Siberia,
THE EIVEE YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 159
where alone it is consumed — and consumed in vast
quantities — little lumps being sometimes mixed with
soup, and sometimes used as ordinary tea. In taste
it is not unpleasant, and there is nothing repulsive
in the composition, for the statements by various
travellers that it is consolidated with bullock's blood and
other abominations are, as I have proved by personal
experience, pure fiction. The only uncleanly feature
is the slovenly manner in which the tea dust is strewed,
kicked, and trampled over every square foot of flooring,
whence from time to time it is swept up, and with
imperfectly pressed bricks worked up into new material.
Supervision to prevent pilfering is carried to the
highest pitch, but is greatly simplified by the scanti-
ness of clothing of the coolies. For a naked man to
smuggle away even a quarter of a brick of tea would be
beyond the ingenuity of even the Chinese themselves.
It is evident that the large commercial dealings
to which I have referred must involve equally large
money transactions ; but among the Europeans they
are always carried out, both for large and small
amounts, by paper bonds, to the almost total exclusion
of bank notes and metal currency. I scarcely saw a
Mexican dollar or a dollar note during my entire stay.
Whist points and ' club drinks ' were equally met by
* chits,' I. 0. U.'s scrawled on scraps of paper which,
clearing-house fashion, are adjusted at the end of
the month — a fruitful source of recklessness and
extravagance.
160 ENGLISH CHINA.
But even the better class of Chinese merchants
look askance at paper bonds, and to meet their require-
ments a large amount of * sycee ' silver — silver cast in
the shape of shoes — has to be provided, and kept in
great heaps in the hongs available for immediate use.
Every shoe — rough, glittering white lumps — has to
be separately weighed and valued, the majority being
worth about ,^100, and weighing about 7 lbs. They
may be divided, subdivided, and even chopped into
pieces of the approximate value of one tael, equal to
5s. 2d., but the mere process of subdivision diminishes
the value. With the lower orders the medium of
payment becomes a great nuisance. They are sus-
picious of silver — the peasants are even frequently
ignorant of its value as a precious metal, and the only
coin they favour is the copper * cash ' — clumsily stamped
pieces of metal, with a square hole punched out of the
centre to admit of string. Each cash is the size of a
shilling and about 1,100 of them are equal to a dollar.
Imagine the weight of carrying about such a mass of
copper requu'ed to make up even a few dollars. My
expedient was to load my Chinese boy with several
strings of 1,000 cash each, which he disbursed ac-
cording to my directions.
While I was at Hankow, a Chinaman applied to
me to purchase for a couple of dollars two live golden
pheasants, which he had trapped wild, and which were
in such perfect plumage that their ci'est-feathers alone
would have been a mine of wealth to a salmon-fisher.
THE RIVER YANG-TSZE-KIANG. 161
At the time 1 saw a specimen of that compara-
tively rare and recently discovered bird the * Beeves '
pheasant, the habitat of which is in this province.
One of its tail-feathers measured five feet one inch, and
its size and plumage were of corresponding magnifi-
cence. Prompted by the sight of these game birds, I
tramped, under the guidance of an experienced sports-
man, over miles of the adjacent country in quest of
spring snipe, the arrival of which was daily — about
April 5 — expected. In fields where a week hence they
would be as plentiful as sparrows in a rick-yard,
not a feather was to be seen, save several specimens
of that singular and beautiful bird the hoopoe ; but
my failure enabled me to verify a singular fact in
natural history. The arrival of these snipe en masse
is preceded by no avant-couriers ; they suddenly pour
in, and with equal magical suddenness they depart.
For instance, search at 2 p.m. may be fruitless, and
at 4 P.M. the same day may be attended with brilliant
results. But if I failed to find game I stumbled across
innumerable objects of interest, for the Saul-like
experience of going forth to seek an ass and finding a
crown is for ever recurring even to a stupid traveller,
if he will but train himself to watch and note. Wliat
a wealth of wheat ! I should almost say six quarters
to an acre. What a still more astonishing wealth of
garden stuff ! Not a weed is to be seen ; the entii'e
surface is emerald green with vegetation; every
square foot is carefully, laboriously cultivated, irri-
M
162 ENGLISH CHINA.
gated, and fertilised. Oh, entrancing picture of
abundance ! But as you value your peace of mind do
not touch a leaf, a root, a tuber. It is remarkable that
notwithstanding the general deficiency of timber the
Chinese peasantry carefully clear the land of all bush
and forest, not indeed to facilitate stock breeding, but
with a view to drive out of the country all wild beasts.
The soil is saturated with a Gehenna of manure
which I dare not particularise ; the air, in lieu of
being the pure atmosphere of the open country, is
charged for miles around with pestiferous emanations
which can almost be tasted. Parsimonious ingenuity
is exercised to the utmost in turning to account and
in accumulating as fertilising agents that which is
being now carried about in open buckets, and the con-
sequence is that Europeans will touch no vegetables
but those which have been grown under their own
supervision. It may, however, be borne in mind as
to some extent a set- off that, although there is a total
absence of stock and therefore of farmyard manure, a
part of the above fertility is due to tjie widely extending
annual overflow of the river Yang-tsze, which on re-
tiring leaves a deposit varying from four to six inches
of the richest mud. My companion being a doctor,
we pass by a natural transition and successive grada-
tions from the subject of our outraged olfactory nerves
to that of Chinese sanitary considerations, medical
science and medical missions ; but these questions are
too comprehensive to be tacked on to the end of a
chapter.
163
CHAPTEK IV.
MEDICAL MISSIONS AND THE MISSIONARY QUESTION.
To speak of Chinese medical science would be a
parallel to the traditional chapter headed * The snakes,
frogs, and other reptiles in Ireland,' with its descrip-
tive amplification * There are no snakes, frogs, or
other reptiles in Ireland.' There is no medical science
among the Chinese. No ignorance could be more
profound than the ignorance of their so-called doctors
of the first elements of physiology. They have not a
notion of the position and function of the chief organs
of the body and of the arteries. Their religion, as
they are pleased to call their grovelling superstition,
imperatively forbids the dissection of human bodies,
and even those of animals; and to submit to a
surgical operation under the knife of a Chinaman
would be almost tantamount to submitting to decapi-
tation. Their doctors, impudent, ignorant quacks,
habitually spend about ten minutes on each visit in
feeling the left wrist pulse, and then an equal period
in testing the right wrist, declaring that there are
M 2
164 ENGLISH CHINA.
notable differences between the two, and that, more-
over, there are about twenty-four varying pulses in
the human body. Among their further ludicrous
ideas is a belief that the human eye contains a tiny
being — of course this is due to reflection. They also
consider that the heart is the seat of the intellect and
of the emotions.
Then as to their pharmacopoeia, it may be likened
to the wdtches' caldron in ' Macbeth.' I was once
shown a very large, rare, and costly collection of their
medicinal remedies. It resembled a geological mu-
seum, and consisted chiefly of curious coloured stones,
various crystals, shells, and pieces of rock, all of
which are ground up and administered in small doses.
The Chinese also put great faith in ground tiger-
bones, macerated puppies, and dried and powdered
parts of other animals. In addition were several
specimens of roots and herbal medicines, and here
' lateat scintillula forsan.'
My wise and learned informant. Dr. Begg — son of
the eminent Scotch Nonconformist divine — had been
sufficiently liberal-minded to investigate in a fair
spirit of inquiry these vegetable therapeutics, and had
come to the conclusion that, though they are mixed
with a vast amount of rubbish, and are administered
in a preposterously bulky form, they possess valuable
curative properties from which civilised practice might
learn much. In one department the Chinese doctors
are most carefully reticent, though my informant has
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 165
succeeded in discovering clues which may lead to a
more perfect knowledge. I can only allude to it as
prophylactics for diminishing the numbers of births.
I may remark that the confinements are marvellously
easy, that the midwives are singularly skilful, and
that newly born males average six pounds.
The prevalence of small-pox is evidenced by the ex-
cessive percentage of seamed faces. Of course every
consideration of superstition, ignorance, and obstinacy
combine to oppose vaccination, but even the Chinese
have been more susceptible than the English anti-
vaccination society to the convictions of sense and
tests, as plain as the postulate that two and two
make four. They are now yielding to the preventive
system, but, true to their practice of befouling every-
thing they touch, they insist on vaccination being
performed up the nostrils.
Cholera and fever are fearfully rife — of course
they are. Otherwise it is healthy in tropical climates
to live in districts more putrid than sewers, and to
breathe an atmosphere so laden with stench as to
suggest the possibility of cutting it with a knife.
During the hot months the inhabitants of the cities
die like flies, while the Europeans in the adjacent
settlements continue faMy healthy. In some cases —
at Shanghai for example — attempts have been made
to cover up one or two open drains, but the conse-
quent outburst of typhoid illustrated the principle
that a stifled stench is dangerous, and, paradoxically,
166 ENGLISH CHINA.
that no smells are so dangerous as those which you
do not smell.
My doctor-friend dwelt on the incomparable field
of practical experience open to the English practitioner
in China, especially in surgical cases, which in London
would be reserved solely for such eminent surgeons
as Sir James Paget, and related to me some charac-
teristic incidents. He once undertook to remove a
deep-seated tumour from the favourite wife of a
powerful Taotai (governor of a district). Scene : the
operating room ; crowd of onlookers, wondering at
the temerity of the Taotai, prompted by despair in
thus trusting a foreign devil ; chloroform, and rapid
insensibility ; exclamations of bystanders, and vehe-
ment assertions that the patient is stone dead ; rapid
manipulation of the knife and instantaneous excision
of the tumour. General horror, inasmuch as no
Chinese doctor dares even scratch skin deep with a
knife ; astonishment at the bodily removal of the
cause of evidently impending death ; awe-stricken ex-
pectation a3 they see that the patient, alleged to be
dead, really still breathes ; but she is slow in coming
round, and the doctor feels his own head sitting
somewhat loosely on his shoulders. At last resuscita-
tion, and the patient proclaims — wonder of wonders —
that she did not feel so much as a pin prick ! Tableau :
general outburst of jubilate, and, on the part of the
Taotai, transports of delight, accompanied with a
handsome cumsha (present) as the doctor's fee.
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 167
On another occasion he aroused intense admira-
tion and marvel by the simple operation required to
rectify a harelip. Indeed, if it be possible to suppose
a Chinaman susceptible under any circumstances of
ordinary gratitude, or capable of publicly recognising
any point wherein Europeans are superior to them-
selves, these concessions would apply to English
medical practice. In serious cases they will not trust
their own doctors one inch, while with a dog-like
confidence they will commit themselves unreservedly
to an English surgeon. Even in minor current mala-
dies they fiock in anxious crowds to the European
medical missions. Medical missions — this expression
opens up a field for investigation under favour-
able opportunities of a question which is wrangled
over with a malignant acerbity, so frequently the
curse of the most beneficent religious enterprises.
Hankow is not only one of the centres of the rival
missions of rival creeds, but is a focus of that blind
hostility to all missionary work on the ground that
the undertaking effects no positive good, and is in-
directly productive of much harm.
Dr. Begg himself endeavoured to befriend in turn
the Protestant and Dissenting institutions, but finally
attached himself to the Italian Eoman Catholic mis-
sion. * Will I pay a visit to the establishment and,
jwojmti manu, dig out every feature connected with
its management?' Yes, please; for if I can first
satisfy myself as to results of medical missions, I can
168 ENGLISH CHINA.
subsequently more easily trace the causes of rotten-
ness. The surgery has a friendly look with its
familiar rows of reservoirs of black draught, blue pill,
and castor oil, accompanied with the medicine smell
with which the past generation of childhood was so
well acquainted. My doctor-friend eagerly informs
me that my arrival is a fortunate coincidence. He
is just about to cut out a diseased eye. One glance
at the poor Chinese girl stretched on the operating
table, another at the array of knives, and I flee like
a dog with a tin kettle tied to its tail, and in a cold
perspiration, preferring to reverence my friend's un-
doubted skill upon trust. My Chinese 'boy,' less
squeamish and more curious, remains a delighted
spectator, and when after all is over the eye is pro-
duced in a tea-cup, remarks to me in tones of pro-
found admiration, * Major, that take-out-eye-pidgin,
and that medicine house, number one good pidgin.
No hab likee that in China.'
But if I am really bent on forming an independent
opinion derived from personal observation, I must
brace myself up to witness the painful and the revolt-
ing. So I valiantly walk round the wards and visit the
patients one by one. Inasmuch as the city popula-
tion has been variously computed at from 250,000 to
two millions, it is evident that only a mere tithe of the
applicants can be admitted, and that a careful selec-
tion must be made of the cases which are not only
the most piteous, but which will best repay treatment.
THE MISSIONAEY QUESTION. 169
Surgical cases form the bulk, and tumours, cancerous
growths, necrosis, fractures, and local injuries are
largely represented. As the doctor approaches each
bedside, the occupant gives tongue in good truth. A
torrent of eloquence unmarked by commas or full-
stops, a detail of symptoms, lamentations, and even
tears— so very rare among the Chinese — and pas-
sionate appeals to the doctor, as if in his hands indeed
were vested the issues of relief or of suffering, of
life or of death. He succeeds in soothing each with
a few kindly sympathising words in their own
language. Without this linguistic accomplishment
a doctor could not dispense with an interpreter, and
hence he would be much hampered in his labour of
love ; yet few have emulated Dr. Begg in his industry
and humanity, which have prompted him to master
that type of intricacy, the Chinese tongue, sufficiently
for medical practical purposes.
I had long sought for an opportunity of inspecting
the deformed feet of the women, but hitherto without
success. With the national inverted ideas of decency,
the foot is the one part of the person which more
than any other part the Chinese female is reluctant
to bare, but here at last is my chance. In my
assumed character of a medical friend of the surgeon
I visited a female patient, who was directed to strip
her legs. To have witnessed the removal of the eye
could have been scarcely more revolting. The leg
bone near the ankle fleshless and shrivelled, as thin
170 ENGLISH CHINA.
as a chicken's drumstick; the parchment-Hke,
purply skin stretched tightly over it ; the four lesser
toes stunted and twisted so completely under the
foot that they are three parts buried in the flesh ; the
great toe and the edge of the heel bone forming mere
points of tottering support ; the other portion of the
heel and the instep clubbed into a hideous, shapeless
mass of deformity. Never again do I wish to see so
ghastly an object as the naked foot of a Chinese
woman.
The wards would perhaps have barely met with
approbation in England ; in China they were a
marvel of comfort and cleanliness. The difficulties
in enforcing the latter quality, even in the most
limited degree, are enormous, and of incessant vexa-
tion both to the doctor and the nurses. These are
chiefly Italian lay sisters, kind, quiet, pleasing-looking
young women, the mention of whom leads me to the
main work of the mission, the hospital being merely
a sub-section supported by special contributions.
Very civilly and readily did the madre superiore
accede to my request to view the establishment,
deputing Sorella Carolina to act as my guide. Loyally
and freely did she show me over every corner, answer-
ing in detail all my questions, and even encouraging
me to seek confirmation of her replies from the other
sisters. Their staple language was of course Italian —
a few words of French, but not a syllable of English.
The interior arrangements of the convent were of
THE MISSION AEY QUESTION. 171
that severely simple nature characteristic of similar
religious seminaries ; the sisters had allowed for
themselves few comforts and comparatively little
extra cubic space, notwithstanding that the plea of
the stress of extreme heat is elsewhere universally
accepted. Then I am conducted into room after
room full of Chinese children, and it is explained to
me that one of the functions of the place is that of a
foundling hospital.
' Then what are those eighteen or twenty miser-
able old cripples doing here ? '
* Ah, signor, herein we have deviated a little from
our rules ; out of pure compassion we allow those few
poor wretches to linger out their last miserable days
here in peace. Their subsistence costs us next to
nothing. But we have some 1,000 children on the
strength of the mission. About 500 are babies and
are put out to nurse, on payment, in the city, subject
to the constant supervision of our sisters. I can show
you the greater number of the remaining 500.'
And sure enough I walk through several nurseries
full of grotesque little Chinese imps, ranging from
about two to twelve years old, and in every stage of
employment.
' Tell me first where you get your recruits ? ' I ask.
* They are brought to us, generally as infants,
without any particular secrecy, and abandoned with-
out reluctance, inquiry, means of subsequent iden-
tification or reclamation. All these children without
172 ENGLISH CHINA.
one single exception are girls, for Chinese regard with
indifference, if not with annoyance, the existence of
girls, as trumpery vexatious expense. The parents
are only too rejoiced to get rid of them. Of their boy
children, on the other hand, they are immoderately
fond, and we have never yet had a boy-child among
the hundreds of babies who have been left here.'
Subsequent inquiries fully confirmed Sorella
Carolina's representations. There can be no doubt
that infanticide is carried on in a wholesale manner
throughout the length and breadth of the empire,
with little or no check from the authorities. As soon
as the girl- child is born, say No. 2 or 3, and whose
existence therefore is held to be a costly superfluity,
the father quietly scrags and buries it, and there is
an end of the matter.
The mission children are divided into different
classes according to their ages. The two-year-old
group, strange little imps, grotesque with their in-
fantile Mongolian features, intensely black-haired and
bright-eyed, are too young, notwithstanding all their
precocity, for much beyond play. Here a class, on
an average five years old, is being taught to weave.
The habitual cheerfulness of the place seems to be at
a strangely low ebb here, and I notice many instances
of unhappy expression. After a little inquiry I trace
the cause. Many are actually suffering from that
terrible national cruelty practised on girls as soon as
they approach the age of five : the tying up of child-
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 173
hood's chief beauty, their plump httle dimpled
feet.
' Imbandite,' says Sister Carolina, pointing to some
children whose looks of torture are even more piteous
than tears, and then she further explains : * Their
sufferings are dreadful, especially at the first binding
up, and never seem entirely to quit them day or
night, giving their faces that settled look of pain.
By degrees the feet become partially numbed, but
even then the old pain sets in acutely whenever the
bandages are removed and replaced. This continues,
though with diminished severity, until they are sixteen
or seventeen. Sometimes festering and consequent
effluvium ensues, for which the only remedy is powdered
alum. We employ two Chinese women for the sole
purpose of bandaging feet. You are shocked, signor,
and so are we ; we consider the practice barbarous and
cruel beyond measure. But it seems a matter of ex-
pediency that we should yield to a prejudice far more
intense than any other in this country. Were we to
run counter to it our repute among the Chinese would
be very evil, and our sphere of utility much curtailed.'
My excellent nuns, I demur to your reasoning.
The mere stupidity which will render these children
crippled, hobbling, practically feetless, I can, though
with difficulty, waive. But I do not see that the
intense and prolonged suffering involved can be par-
doned by any special pleading of expediency or justi-
fied by any sophistry of your religion.
174 ENGLISH CHINA.
On further inquiry I ascertained a few additional
particulars concerning a practice which seems to have
been introduced about 970 years ago. It appears
that the muscles of the legs become strained by con-
tracted feet, and that the calves entirely disappear.
The first process is to truss the foot up tightly in such
a manner as to bend the four smaller toes under the
sole, in the soft part of which they almost disappear ;
then the foot is bound down like the turned over angle
of a jujube until at last the ball of the natural foot fits
into the hollow of the sole, and it becomes a shape-
less lump. The instep is where the ankle was, and
all that is left to tread the ground is the ball of the
great toe. Sickly children sometimes die under the
process. It is, however, difficult to find a husband
for a girl with natural feet. The Chinese admire
the distorted gait induced, they consider a full-size
to be of masculine ugliness, and urge the advantage
that the crippled women are prevented gadding
about.
It is sometimes stated that the practice is be-
coming somewhat less frequent, and I think this is to
some extent true in the south. But north of Amoy
it continues universal, while among the richer classes
throughout there are no exceptions. Here is a point
of consideration for the Darwinites. Though the
hands and likewise the feet of men and women
of all classes in China are conspicuously small,
slender, and tapering, the feet are not of that dimi-
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 175
nutive size which we should be led to expect accord-
ing to the theory that the artificial usage of many
generations at last constitutes a hereditary charac-
teristic.
I inspect room after room full of children, busily,
eagerly, and— putting aside the feet abomination —
happily employed in all the stages of weaving,
spinning, and needlework, from the simple operation
of passing the threads from right to left, to the
climax of silk embroidery, which even a clumsy man
devoid of taste can perceive to be of extraordi-
nary skill and beauty. Then the little creatures
are so proud of their work, so eager that I should
scrutinise and examine the labours of each separately.
Their instructors, about seventeen in number, and
all Italian sisters, have furnished another instance of
religious zeal surmounting mountainous difficulties.
They are fully purposed to devote the whole of their
young lives to the most practical and least alluring
forms of God's service, so they do not carry out
their undertakings by halves — they have actually
learned to speak Chinese, and the clatter between
mistresses and pupils is of a very amusing description.
' Now,' said practical, cheerful Sorella Carolina, * I
will show you our school. The teaching seldom lasts
longer than two hours a day, and is limited to reading
and religious instruction.'
* What, no writing, or arithmetic, or geography ? '
* No, signor, none whatever. Our limitation, which
176 ENGLISH CHINA.
at first sight may appear so preposterous, has only
been adopted after the fullest consideration. The
happiness and prosperity of these children when
grown-up will be immensely furthered by their skill
in handicrafts, and by an education which shall make
them first-rate housewives. Any book-learning beyond
reading would be a positive drawback to them. Their
friends and their husbands would regard such un-
wonted knowledge with suspicion and dislike, and
the acquirement of writing, for instance, would be to
them somewhat worse than a complete inutility.'
My entrance as a visitor is invariably signalised
by the little elves springing to their feet, and, in lieu
of the traditional curtsey bob, bending down and glee-
fully banging their foreheads against the floor. Only
my conceit, flattered at such an obeisance, is instantly
put to flight by their inharmonious peals of mocking
laughter at the strangely absurd appearance of this
barbarian, and I understand that their comparisons
with their own childish experiences are somewhat as
follows : —
* How red his cheeks are ; how ugly white his face
is; what an enormous nose; his eyes are quite round;
what a lump of hair he has over his mouth ; why, he
has got no pigtail, and he has just got a big pair of
ears ! ' Then fresh peals, but, apparently prompted by
the instructress, they wind up with what was intended
for a chorus of song, but which, far from possessing
a trace of the melody of childhood's musical voices,
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 177
remind me of nothing so much as the rasping of
dozens of nutmeg-graters. But I do not see a sign
of punishment or grief. Here at all events we have
' Reading without tears.'
* And your religious instruction classes ? '
* Are held daily, and of course we attach to them
a maximum of importance. We find the children
intelligent, and readily responding to teaching ; ' and
I am shown a baptism class of eight or ten girls,
aged about twelve years, being prepared for the rite.
Probably circumstances had interfered with the usual
convent custom of baptising the foundlings on first
admission. These children seemed to listen atten-
tively, and to answer readily, and the sister assured
me that any who were backward or unappreciative
were put back for further instruction.
* Now, Madre Superiore and Sorella Carolina, I
admit you have given me the fullest latitude to in-
vestigate every detail of your foundling establishment.
Will you explain to me the outline of your system.
In more definite terms, in seeking to spread Chris-^
tianity, how and where do you start with your task,
and what is your subsequent guiding principle ? '
Reply. * How : by taking in hand the pliable twig,
i.e. childhood, and ignoring the gnarled, hardened,
obstinate old tree. Where : in the very thick of this
city, the most populous district in China, of which
these numerous twigs are part and parcel, and whose
leaven must, in time, leaven the whole lump On
N
178 ENGLISH CHINA.
what principle : so to train these children, so to free
them from the trammels of their countrymen's abom-
inations, so to render them exemplifications, moral
and physical, of the blessings of Christianity, that in
grown-up age they may unconsciously become apostles
who will turn the folly of vice and superstition to the
wisdom of our Saviour's religion.'
'Amen. Thank you; God speed you in your
efforts.'
At Hankow, and indeed throughout China generally,
European opinion strongly approves the Eoman Cath-
olic system of medical missions and strongly condemns
the Protestant. * Oh, there are always two sides to a
story,' urge the defenders of the latter. Very true,
and habitually one side is the right, and the other the
wrong one. That I might judge impartially, I in-
spected on two separate occasions, with even a more
careful scrutiny, the Hankow kindred Wesley an
Medical Mission.
I apply for admission. ' No can come,' says the
coolie Cerberus, *they makee Joss Pidgin.'
* Well, but I Christian, I make Joss Pidgin too,*
and half reluctantly I am admitted into a room where
Divine service is being performed in the presence of
about eighty Chinese, of whom some twenty-five are
children.
Great as was the surprise which my entrance
created, it fell far short of my own stupefaction when,
on the 100th psalm being given out, the congregation
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 179
sets up the most extraordinary yelping it has ever
been my fortune to hear. There is not a single note
which is not outrageously discordant, or which does
not remind me of cats screaming on the roofs of
houses. There is, it is true, a certain approxima-
tion to cadence, but this renders the general effect
still more burlesque. Higher rises the wooden shouting,
half jangle and half yell, and the first sensation of
the ridiculous- gives way to painful surprise that the
missionaries do not seem to be aware of the absurdity
of the performance. My neighbour — an English
assistant — thrusts into my hand a Chinese hymn-book,
with vehement indications that I too should join in
this novel harmony. I firmly resist ; I do not know a
single word or a single character, while the only sound
I fancy I can recognise is * chin-chin.' To attempt to
lead the congregation into a more melodious strain by
the mere repetition of * chin-chin ' would, I conceive,
be both futile and irreverent.
Then follow extempore prayers in Chinese, then
a harangue, and then some of the congregation ascend
the platform and relate their experiences. One rather
hang- dog-looking fellow of about thirty discourses
volubly, his subject being, as I was informed, his
experience of opium eating. He somewhat reminds
me of a temperance lecture by an ex-inebriate, and
does not impress me favourably. Another speaker of
equal glibness, but more mature years, holds forth to
the same effect. At about this stage I am assailed by
N 2
180 ENGLISH CHINA.
that frequent concomitant of indeterminate services,
a sensation of vacuity and dulness, and, which is more
important, I notice that this is fully endorsed by the
rest of the audience.
Thus far they had at all events preserved a sem-
blance of attention, but at last nature asserts herself,
and the undisguised sighings and naive yawnings are
impressively portentous. Then empty medicine bottles
and cups are held up to the light, and, say as plainly
as spoken v^ords, ' About time to finish your harangue.
Let us get on to the salves, the potions, and the boluses.
At the conclusion of service the patients flock into the
surgery for treatment.
* Do you make attendance at prayers a condition
of medical advice ? ' I inquire.
* Oh, dear no, certainly not ; the former is entirely
optional.'
Still unsatisfied, I run the matter to ground, and
come to the conclusion that, though no record of names
is kept, the patients proceed ^traight and immediately
from the chapel to the surgery, and therefore I can-
not reverse my opinion that the spirit of compulsion
is present.
The Scotch doctor, whose practical Christianity
and zealous exercise of skill on a suffering humanity
which neither can nor will repay him I hold in high
esteem, conducts me round the wards, which under
the circumstances were satisfactory, though perhaps
not quite equal to those in the Italian mission. The
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 181
scale of operations appears much smaller, the out-
patients are far less numerous, and the inmates do
not exceed thirty. As in my former experience, there
is the same verbosity of querulous sufferers, and the
same revolting sights ; but the maladies seem to be
of a somewhat different type, surgical cases being
greatly in the minority. Skin diseases, fever, cholera,
dysentery, and the results of opium eating are most
prevalent, the latter vice especially being regarded as
a distinct disease, and subject to special medical
treatment.
One applicant holds out a string of 900 cash, equal
to about three shillings. This is taken possession of
by the doctor, and the patient is entitled to residence
in the hospital under restraint for fifteen days.
Should he demand his freedom at an earlier date,
he forfeits a proportion of his deposit. This little
incident speaks volumes. Three shillings to a coolie
would represent the value of about a pound to an
English labourer, and with a people so pre-eminently
thrifty, the mere pledging of so large a sum is to
them the strongest inducement to submit to restraint
for the allotted time, and so to get their full money's
worth.
In the school the attendance was thin, and, inas-
much as no handicrafts are taught, there was an
absence of that cheerful activity which so much
impressed me in the Italian institution. Instruction
was given both in reading and writing Chinese, and
182 ENGLISH CHINA.
an amusing effect was produced by the discordant
sing-song of the children, accompanied by violently
swinging their bodies. Various texts w^ere pasted up
in the different wards, but the selection did not appear
to me judicious. Instead of typifying the happiness
and kindly affection of the beautiful Christian religion,
they were the usually adopted Shibboleths of that
special section of a party which approximates to
the Eoman Catholics in meting out the most ap-
palling retribution to all who differ from their own
tenets, which, after all, are not always to be found in
the Bible; that party which denies that all forms
of the Christian religion lead to the same end, though
some routes are surer and safer than others; that
party which holds other Christian views than their
own to be only a shade better than heathenism, and
regard workers of Christianity under another flag as
more detrimental than open foes ; that party, in fine,
w^hich is almost hostile to the conversion of 350,000,000
Chinese, unless the conversion be carried out precisely
according to their own prescription. A single incident
to illustrate the narrow-mindedness of their teaching.
In the room of one of the Chinese assistant mission-
aries was a prayer-book, which called forth some
remarks from my conductor evidently of the nature
of .strictures. On my inquiring their purport, the
reply was : * This prayer-book has, you see, a large
cross embossed on the outside. Our Chinese friend
here has certainly High Church tendencies, and to
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 183
this I was taking exception.' High Church tendencies
among the natives of Hankow, where among several
hundreds of thousands of Chinese heathen there are
not probably a score of them who in a religious point
of view know their right hand from their left ! Can
the tithing of pot-herbs go farther ?
* A-re you satisfied with the results of your mis-
sionary labours ? ' I inquire.
* Very much indeed. I have in this district a total
of about 500 converts. For many years I have been
labouring, and the good seed is at last springing up
and bearing fruit.'
Now the very magnitude of the number quoted
first aroused my doubts as to its accuracy, which
ripened subsequently into absolute certainty, as oppor-
tunities enabled me to prosecute inquiries in authori-
tative sources, and to compare results. Five hundred
converts ! Not a single unprejudiced witness among
lay authorities ventured to assert that that number
could be even approximately correct as applied to
the joint results of the huge cities of Hankow, Chin-
kiang, Kiuchiang, Shanghai, Foochow, and Swatow.
And among the ostensible converts how fractionally
small is the number of those who are sincere in their
convictions, who are not actuated by any considerations
of aggrandisement, and who would incur misfortune
through adherence to their faith. ' Five hundred
converts,' and ' the good seed is bearing fruit ! ' Fifty
honest converts would represent a stupendous success ;
184 ENGLISH CHINA.
and as for the good seed, alas ! that that idle, careless,
unpractical labourer should have flung it about in so
unwise and wanton a manner as to have extinguished
in so many cases all hope of its germinating, as to
have entailed a dismal desert of failure, and as to have
brought down ridicule, discredit, and discouragement
on the few more wise and more devoted husband-
men.
Yes ; I take indignant exception to the published
glowing accounts of results and success, backed up by
statistics so fallacious that they only just escape the
stigma of being garbled. Indeed, I have before me at
this moment a flaming report on China missions —
would that I might particularise its title — the state-
ments wherein have been concocted either by a knave
or a fool, so grossly false are they. A case came
within my knowledge where one of two missionaries
who had been journeying together furnished a dis-
couraging report. The head of the mission remon-
strating, declined to forward it, and urged him to
re-write it in the spirit of his coadjutor, who had
expressed himself to the following effect : —
* One Sunday afternoon we landed at , and in
a very short time the poor natives came crowding
round us, thirsting to hear the Word of God.'
The reply was : ' I was present at that moment
with my coadjutor, and I assert that his statement is
not true in the sense he implies. We landed on a
Sunday, and the inhabitants mobbed us — but the
THE MISSIONAEY QUESTION. 185
remarks of the inquisitive rabble were : " Look at
those foreign devils, how oddly they are dressed ; and
what enormous noses they have ! " '
To resume my inquiries at the mission : —
* Yes ; the patients are very grateful to us for the
spiritual as well as for the physical advantages we
afford them.'
Good people in England — the one point in which
the most experienced observers in China concur, is
that the inhabitants show their strangest deficiency
in the lack of gratitude. Gain being their sole
motive power, they consider self-interest to be the
mainspring of the incomprehensible dominant race.
The optimist philanthropist, if he have one grain of
the wisdom of the serpent, will be incredulous of the
disinterested attachment of his most trusted employe,
or his most faithful Chinese friend. Under some
circumstances he will put the fullest amount of confi-
dence in their integrity, but he will be equally confident
that to gain the slightest shade of personal advantage
the kindness of years will be tossed to the winds.
Gratitude ! No, the plant does not grow at the
Hankow mission, or elsewhere in China ; and as for
' spiritual advantages,' the phrase ceases to be hypo-
critical when it obviously can deceive none but those
who have stitched up their eyelids.
* I see you do not teach your pupils any handi-
crafts, any sewing, weaving, or spinning ? '
* Oh, no ; we omit this on principle, lest the
186 ENGLISH CHINA.
adoption of the Christian religion should be a mere
cloak for worldly advantages.'
The Chinese * humph,' properly intoned, has the
eloquence of pages, and here appears to be the most
appropriate reply.
'Why do you not start with **the twig" — with
the children without previous convictions to be up-
rooted ; whose untaught minds would be ready recep-
tacles for religious truths, which they would naturally
transmit to their children, and who would not be
subjected to the same obloquy as adults ? '
* Well, we do not approve of that system : firstly,
because the right principle is to convince adults of
their errors, that they may train up their children in
the way they should go ; and secondly, on the ground
of expediency, because the unconverted parents would
oppose us on the ground of detriment to their
children's prospects of attaining their summum bonum,
future civic dignities.'
I reply that the * right principle ' is the one which,
provided it be straightforward, attains the greatest
success ; and I quote the results of the Italian mission
to refute this argument, and the equally weak one of
' expediency.'
It is probably quite unnecessary to state my con-
clusions, whatever little they may be worth, in
comparing the Protestant and Eoman Catholic mis-
sion systems as illustrated at Hankow. But as a
counterbalance I gladly point to a brighter picture
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 187
of Church of England work at Foochow — brighter
because more wise and liberal, and bearing some
traces, however faint, of honest results. Here, too, I
obtained a good deal of reliable information from an
ex-army chaplain, with whom I had served in auld
lang syne.
Foochow is the centre of mission work over an
enormous district, where the total number of Chris-
tians is, according to missionary statistics, about 400
— a number which other authorities attenuate to a
fractional part. In the country sub-districts the
clergymen in charge adopt to some extent the national
costume, live among the people, and learn their dia-
lects, of which there are six variations within a very
small area. Although their expatriation is not life-
long, as with the Jesuits, their residence is prolonged
over a sufficient number of years to familiarise them
with the inhabitants.
In fine, I gather that a large proportion of the
Foochow workers, in favourable contrast with their
brethren in some parts of China, perform useful,
genuine, disinterested, though not brilliantly success-
ful, work. Once, when in the native city, I stumbled
across a neat plain building, which challenged obser-
vation in opposition to the inconceivable dirt and
tawdriness of the adjacent dwellings. A few China-
men were dropping in, and I discovered that it was a
sort of native Christian meeting house. A Chinese
teacher was addressing a congregation of about thirty,
188 ENGLISH CHINA.
whom he certainly had managed to mterest. I may
add that the curiosity which my entrance aroused
was utiHsed by the preacher, who pointed me out as
an exemphfying moral that, though I was a foreign
devil, differing in race, language, aspect, and habits, I,
even I, had a soul to be saved, and in this respect was
identical with the Chinese.
* How do you set to work in the first stages of
conversion ? ' I asked the ex-army chaplain.
* We address promiscuously gathered assemblages.
Perhaps the interest of two or three stray individuals
may be thus arrested, and they come to us afterwards
to know what this new religion may mean. If teach-
able, they receive further instruction, and, after a
probation which sometimes extends over a year, and
tests of sincerity evidenced by minor sacrifices in con-
formity with the Christian religion, they are admitted
to baptism. From time to time we travel about the
country, passing the nights in a meeting house where
practicable — otherwise reduced to the horrors of a
Chinese inn. We find a little knowledge of medicine,
even though it be the slightest smattering, invaluable
in procuring for us a footing where other means fail.
Christian converts are not subjected to any consider-
able persecution unless they decline to share the ex-
penses of ancestral worship, i.e. prayers and offerings
to the spirits of the dead. Deception and insincerity
is so all-pervading a spirit among the Chinese, that it
is especially expedient to avoid pressure on our con-
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 189
verts, and hence I even make attendance at family-
prayers entirely optional with my own coolies.'
* Are the Eoman Catholic missions friendly to
you?'
'Fairly so, except the Spanish, whose hatred of
Protestants is unbounded. It is necessary to be very
suspicious of Eoman Catholic statistics. Their sole
object seems to be to obtain consent to baptism.
That effected, they have done with the individual,
who simply goes to swell the number of converts,
many of whom are ignorant of their most elementary
tenets. This very morning I asked a Eoman Catholic
convert, who was Jesus Christ? Not only was he
unable to answer, but he was totally ignorant of the
Virgin Mary.'
' Tell me some of your principal difficulties.'
* Polygamy. For instance, a childless convert,
yielding to the sorrowful entreaties of his wife, recently
took to himself a second. We considered ourselves
compelled to put before him the alternative of re-
pudiation, or of being put out of our congregation.
Then there is the open, prevalent licentiousness of the
European merchants ' (of which more anon).
' Ancestral worship is another difficulty. The
Jesuits sanction it, and, at first sight, there may
appear certain advantages in tolerating this, almost
the sole, feature of softness and reverence in the
Chinese character. But were we to concede it, we
should be assenting to the worship of another besides
190 ENGLISH CHINA.
God, and, with such an inconsistency, how could we
hope for honest progress ? '
Here I may remark that at first sight that ancestral
worship which plays so prominent a part in the religion
of the Chinese appeals strongly to our sympathies.
Homage to the spirits of departed forefathers ! it sounds
at worst but a weak superstition, and surely it carries
with it the brightest of virtues in the veneration it
also inculcates of children to parents. The young are
even compelled by law to support the aged, who to
the last day of their lives can, ostensibly at all events,
legally enforce obedience and respect. A father struck
by his son is justified in putting the offender to death
on the spot, and the most torturing forms of execution
are reserved for parricides. On the death of parents
sons are compelled, whatever be their occupation and
rank, to withdraw from the world for a space of two
years. Thus it is a common remark that the career of a
great statesman is never ' safe ' until both his parents
are dead, inasmuch as their decease may suddenly
compel him to withdraw from public life at his most
critical period, leaving the field free for the machina-
tions of his rivals. Only a special rescript of the
Emperor can abrogate this requirement — a favour
which was recently extended to Li Hung Chang, the
Bismarck of China — and yet this alleged veneration
for parents when probed deeply contains in it little
which is really virtuous. There is little reverence of
heart, little really kindly feeling and less tender affec-
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 191
tion. It is merely an outward act of superstition, a
compliance with ' old-o ' custom and law ; an obedi-
ence to the letter, a total absence of the spirit. Who
ever supposes that a Chinaman would incur voluntary
genuine self-sacrifice out of true love for his father ?
Those authorities who are best qualified to judge are
unanimous in declaring that the national capacity for
personal affection and friendship, for gratitude and
generosity, for chivalry and honour, exists in a most
limited degree. Even for their simple ' thank you '
their language has no equivalent. They have many
hyperboles at their command to express grovelling
submission and adulation, but no term in acknow-
ledgment of the thousand and one daily amenities
which embellish civilised life. Truth indeed is no
virtue, and a lie is no vice with them, involving on the
perpetrator not a vestige of discredit or shame. As
Mr. Cooke aptly remarks in his book on China, to say
to a Chinaman ' you are an habitual liar ' would be like
saying to an Englishman 'you are a confirmed punster.'
Amongst certain excellent features of the Foochow
mission, I must specially cite their system of colpor-
teurs, and in praising this valuable work the most
reliable opinions concur. They tramp about all over
China, apparently free from sectarian tricks and pre-
judices, and limiting their attempts at conversion to
an annunciation of the first principles of Christianity.
They distribute Chinese Bibles at a low price, the sale
whereof is considerable, because even a Chinaman of
192 ENGLISH CHINA.
the poorest class considers that the mere possession
of a printed work may originate a profitable repute
for knowledge. Moreover, these books are secure
from destruction, since a special sanctity attaches to
all written characters, quite irrespectively of their
purport, inasmuch as they form a medium of instruc-
tion in the doctrines of Buddha and Confucius.
Even printed advertisements, or the merest scrap of a
letter, may not be utilised for waste-paper.
* Does the purchaser sit down at once to search his
Bible ? '
' Oh, dear, no. It is quite a chance if he will open
it once to the day of his death. On the other hand
there is also an off-chance that their curiosity may
some day be stimulated ; that they, or perchance their
descendants, may turn over the pages to find out for
themselves somewhat concerning that Christ Whose
teaching they may, or should, have heard will make
them so much better and happier. And if, in future,
there be among our missions more Christianity and
less " Churchianity," this distribution of the only guide,
which can never mislead, may be described without
the shibbolpth of spiteful sectarianism as the " sowing
of the good seed." '
I may add that high authorities have informed
me that the Chinese translation of the Scriptures is
exceedingly incorrect and unsatisfactory, partly owing
to the impossibility of finding native words which
accurately correspond to certain Bible expressions.
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION, 193
For instance, it is undoubted, however amazing, that
there is even now a considerable question as to the
Chinese equivalent for * God.' A revised translation
is an urgent desideratum.
My record of missionary evidence would be very
incomplete were I to omit my experience of that most
celebrated institution in all China — the Jesuit estab-
lishment of Zic-a-wei, Europeanised into Sickaway —
about six and a half miles from Shanghai. Founded
by the French, whose missionaries far preponderate
over those of all other nations, it comprises a
monastery, convent, schools, and an observatory
of such excellence as to supply foreign shipping with
valuable astronomical and nautical data. Through
the usual foul and tawdry village, over the inevitable
stream, with its seething mass of putrid slime, and
I find myself before a large block of stone buildings,
the architecture and general plan of which bear an
indefinable stamp of French origin, in such marked
opposition to the English settlement. Baffled in my
attempts to penetrate the enceinte of the fortress-
looking walls, I address myself in French to a Chinese
figure, with a long black pigtail, but with the betray-
ing brown beard, and the brown hair on the top of
his head. * Mon Pere ' beams with delight at hearing
his native language, and eagerly constitutes himself
my chaperon and guide.
Within I notice various eagles and strange sea
birds in captivity, and a kitchen garden like that of a
194 ENGLISH CHINA.
French country house, fertile in the production of
those salads and pot-herbs which play so prominent a
part in a French repast. The chapel bell tolls for the
Benediction, and the numerous inmates, all in Chinese
costume, are streaming forth to the service. My
guide must leave me.
' May I too not attend ? '
'Ah, oui. Monsieur, most certainly if you like.
But,' askance, * surely you are not of our faith ? '
' I am of the Christian religion, so why should I
not be present at Christian worship ? ' and so, with
unconcealed marvel at the laxity of my principles, the
Pere conducts me through gloomy passages and dark
cloisters, replicas of foreign monasteries, into the
chapel, extensive and gloomy, but revealing a certain
amount of grandeur. Oh, the strange sight, partly
solemn, partly burlesque, and, must I add, partly pain-
ful through its theatrical insincerity. Of course the
central group is about the altar, as brilliant with
candles, as gaudy with tinsel and flowers, as richly
decorated with heavy gold embroidery and carving, as
is the wont of a Church which seeks to touch the heart
through the ephemeral impressions of sight and sound.
The priest, in all the splendour of his pontifical vest-
ments, chants with sonorous intonation the Latin
service ; but dignified and devout as he seems, there
is something strange about his enunciation, and
something still more strange about the cut of his jib.
Why — yes — my heart alive ! he is a genuine John
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 195
Chinaman dressed up in all the simulacra of Koman
Catholic prelacy. Around him cluster eight scarlet
acolytes, likewise Chinese imps, and an additional imp
who rings the bell and whirls the censer. Three
assistant priests, however, are Frenchmen, and about
twenty French Jesuit Fathers are my fellow occupants
of the gallery. They are dressed from top to toe in
orthodox Chinese fashion — blue robes, blue trousers,
turned up shoes and pigtails. Yet the would-be dis-
guise is too transparent to baffle a moment's scrutiny.
The mobility and dignity of expression, the European-
cut features, the abundant beard, in opposition to the
parchment and almost hairless face of the native ;
above all, the fine hair, sometimes red, surmounting
the coarse, artificial, intensely black pigtail, form the
strangest contrast to the original.
From the dark recesses of the chapel peal forth the
tones of an organ played with manifest taste and skill,
and with familiar strains accompanied by Chinese
choristers, who, though not equal to those at St.
Margaret's, Westminster, have been tuned out of their
wonted national yelping. The rest of the congregation,
of which the total is about four hundred, is made up
of two hundred native school children, quiet, orderly,
and with a supernatural look of impish wickedness
about them, and of the employes of the establishment.
The service lasts but a few minutes ; the congregation
streaming outside resume their avocations, reminding
me of a pious French village called to vespers, and I
o 2
196 ENGLISH CHINA.
resume my investigation with the Jesuit Father. He
informs me that the actual residents, exclusive there-
fore of children and assistants, amount to 500, some
of whom are Chinese candidates for priesthood ;
others, about 100, are European priests, studying the
language and making themselves acquainted with
their business ere setting forth on the vast scene of
their missionary labours, and twenty are perma-
nent resident instructors and priests. Of course he
declares the success of the missionary efforts to be
great, and indeed his assertion that the recognised
Koman Catholics in the vicinity number 400 may be
accurate. But this estimate includes the hereditary
Christian families, for it is one of the national features
that if the head of a household changes his religion
his descendants follow the same faith. By-the-bye
he never spoke of ' Christian converts,' and evidently
regarded all who were not ' Catholic ' proselytes as
still in a condition of heathendom. Nor were Pro-
testant missionaries, mutatis mutandis^ one pin more
liberal.
The investigations and records of the Zic-a-wei
observatory form valuable addenda to modern astro-
nomical science.
* Does your experience confirm the general belief
in the scientific knowledge and mathematical acquire-
ments of the Chinese sages ? ' I inquire of the
superintendent.
* Oh, dear me, no ! Herein they are as utterly
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 197
ignorant as children. I am of opinion that some ages
back they may have had some rudimentary glimmer-
ing, but that through lapse of time they have quite
lost the little they ever knew.'
I would here express my own belief that the much-
bepraised Chinese system of universal education,
honour paid to learning, and competitive examinations
open to the whole empire for public offices of emolu-
ment, are all of the purest nature of 'windbag.'
There is, it is true, much learning by heart page
after page from their preposterously absurd authors,
much poring over antiquated writings, which are in
the main such a farrago of folly, fable, and false-
hood, such a compound of pedantry and puerility,
that a knowledge thereof does more harm than good.
The names of the proficients in these various grades
of rubbish are published all over the kingdom, and
they themselves are publicly conducted from city to
city with every pomp and circumstance.
It must, moreover, be conceded that a large
proportion of the general population can manage to
read and write a little of their own appallingly difficult
language. But of genuine education in its good sense
there is scarcely a trace. Originality they have none.
Arts and sciences, modern history, languages and
literature, philosophical investigations, mechanics,
matters affecting the daily welfare of the community,
nay, the most elementary knowledge of the geography
of the world — any attempt to diffuse instruction in
198 ENGLISH CHINA.
the above is successively ridiculed, scouted, and then
hounded out of existence. Talk to average types, not
of the lower but of the middle classes, of the benefits
of railways, electric telegraphs, steam machinery and
engineering undertakings. They listen with the aggra-
vating stupidity of incredulity, or else will reply : ' Oh,
yes. Long ago, many a time and oft, we discovered
and essayed in China these railways and telegraphs,
and others of your so-called inventions. But we have
deliberately abandoned them as either useless or
mischievous.'
Point out to them that China on the map repre-
sents only a fraction of the world, and their reply is :
* All very fine, but that map is one of your construc-
tion. Take a Chinese map and you will see that our
country comprises the greater part of the universe.'
On the other hand, show them England. * What, that
little remote spot, scarcely so large as a single one of
our provinces ! Talk no more to us of your wisdom,
power, and riches. You are only allowed to exist
through the sufferance of China.'
One morning a comparatively highly educated
instructor of the Chinese language expressed to his
English pupil, with whom I was acquainted, his
satisfaction at just having read in a native newspaper
that *the Queen of England had, with her usual
accuracy and punctuality, handed over to the Govern-
ment at Pekin her usual tribute which she pays to
the Chinese empire.' Piidicule and argument were
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 199
completely thrown away. The professor remained
unshaken in his belief that England was a tributary,
in a sense, of China. The unparalleled and universal
ignorance of the Chinese is indeed the mainspring
of the power of the mandarins, and were this dis-
sipated, their reign of tyranny would be indeed
jeopardised.
Quitting the convent I encountered my first and
last experience of a Chinaman showing even a sem-
blance of fight against a European. The coolie
holding my horse, dissatisfied with my payment, and
evidently regarding me as an easy subject for plunder,
especially as the shades of evening were gathering,
and the natives of the solitary village were crowding
around, snatched hold of my bridle. * Ah, would
you?' said I, merely raising my switch, and in an
instant he slunk aw^ay like a whipped spaniel.
Having put the reader in possession of certain
missionary facts, can we not draw similar deductions ?
1. Does China offer a wide and promising field
for missionary labour ?
Wide ? Yes — of unparalleled magnitude in every
sense. A nation comprising one-fourth or thereabouts
of the population of the world, spread over every
vicissitude of climate and soil. Promising ? No —
discouraging to the highest degree. To consider thp.
Chinese, with so much intelligence and industrious
foresight, in the light of untutored savages, whose
minds may be easily moulded to a new creed, would
200 ENGLISH CHINA.
clearly be the height of absurdity. But to attribute
to them, with their intellects so hemmed in by the
restrictions on the diffusion of knowledge, and so
stunted by the prejudice and custom of ages, powers
of reasoning by analogy and following up a chain of
deductive argument . would be scarcely less fallacious.
The missionary, thei-efore, has to contend with the
anomalous combination of the incredulity of civilisa-
tion and the crass stupidity of ignorance.
The religion of the Chinese is comprised in the
observance of a few symbolical rites, and in the study
of the moral precepts of Confucius and Lao-tse, and
is held in contempt by the learned, the indifferent,
and the materialist.
I can scarcely be wrong in asserting that the psy-
chological characteristics of the Chinese are scepticism,
superstition, and indifference, plus a lingering sus-
picion that after all religion may turn out, after
death, not to be a fraud, and that it will be prudent to
provide for this eventuality and to keep an eye on the
main chance. In other words, ' Oh, God, if there be
a God, save my soul if I have a soul.' A missionary
reproached his Chinese convert for invoking the as-
sistance of false gods during the perils of a typhoon.
' What for no have two chancey (chances) ? ' was his
excuse. * Jesus Christ number one chancey — Buddha
number two chancey.' One day, trudging in the in-
terior of China over miles of ancestral graveyards,
I impatiently broke forth to my unusually intelligent
THE MISSIONAEY QUESTION. 201
China servant : ' Surely, surely, boy, you cannot be
so silly as really to believe that this mock paper money
and these masses of corrupted provisions, with which
the graves are far and wide bestrewn, can be of the
slightest use to the spirits of the dead ? ' Answer :
* Humph, I no savvy (know) ; perhaps yes, perhaps
no. No can tell. Plenty many peoples think joss
pidgin (religious business) great foolo. But China
oomans talk, and China mans must do.' One touch
of nature makes the whole world kin.
2. Has Eoman Catholic mission work been hitherto
successful, Eind, if so, to what is due its superiority
over ours ? Compared with Protestants it has pros-
pered, and even absolutely it has achieved a fair
amount of apparent success. But I doubt if the roots
have really struck deep, if they would survive the
slightest intermission of labour or the slightest ten-
sion from persecution. Their teachers have carried
the doctrine of expediency too far — they have appealed
to superstition and self-interest rather than to reason
and righteousness — their teaching has not been founded
on a rock ; so when the rains descend and the floods
come the house falls, and great is the fall of it. But
in the first instance their task has been easier than
ours, because their tenets can be more easily assimi-
lated to those of Buddhism. The Jesuit priest may
say to his flock, ' You invoke the shades of your an-
cestors. Well, there is no great harm in that under
restrictions. We, too, pray to the spirits of the de-
202 ENGLISH CHINA.
parted just.' By-the-bye the Dominicans will not
admit ancestral worship, and hence have been much
less successful. 'Your priests profess asceticism.
So do we. They are the medium of communication
with heavenly powers. So are ours. You love to
decorate your temples and shrines. So do we.'
During my travels, I carefully inspected about
twelve of the most venerated Buddhist temples,^ some
of them indeed of China-wide celebrity. In every
single instance without exception their resemblance
internally to Koman Catholic places of worship was
most striking. In many cases a couple of hours'
labour in transformation, and the likeness would have
been comj)lete. There is the same interior architec-
tural decoration, the same gilding and sombre lights,
the same richly embroidered altar cloths and draperies,
the same guardianship of relics, and the same highly
beautified raised shrines with burning tapers, flowers,
and clouds of incense. Even the postures and genu-
flections are not dissimilar. Eemove those monstrosi-
ties representing Buddha and his wives, and those
miniature devils representing the Chinaman's ' num-
ber two chancey,' or alternative to a deaf god, affix a
few crosses, distribute a few prie-clieu, introduce a
pot of holy water, and, as I have said before, in the
shortest possible space of time the temple will be con-
verted into a gorgeous counterpart of a Eoman Catho-
lic place of worship.
* Viz. at Shanghai, Hankow, Foochow, Yuen-foo, Kushan and Canton.
THE MISSIONAEY QUESTION. 203
When the Jesuits first began then- labours in
China, they themselves exclaimed that the devil had
been allowed to burlesque their rites. Vice versa, at
Shanghai, I observed in a chapel for Koman Catholic
converts, representations of our Saviour as a China-
man, and of the Virgin Mary as a Chinawoman, while,
minus the idols, the chapel closely approximated to
a Buddhist temple. But it is an act of simple justice
to acknowledge the self-sacrifice of those Jesuit priests
who, for ever abandoning their country and snapping
in sunder the dearest earthly ties which can bind a
human being, devote the rest of their existence to an
unattractive life of cheerless solitude and privation,
with the sole and noble object of furthering the
welfare of the most odious and ungrateful vermin
whom Providence hath ever suffered to crawl on the
face of the earth. By so doing, however, their
measures, unlike those of many of the Church of
England, are of no half-nature. Living and dying
amongst their flocks, speaking their language, sharing
their vicissitudes, and participating in their interests,
they become in course of time one of themselves, and
acquire a hold unattainable by any other means.
3. * You have spoken with scarcely veiled con-
demnation of the " expediency " system of conversion
pursued by the Jesuit missionaries. Can you not,
then, express an opinion favourable to their antipodes
in every possible respect, the Protestant labourers ? '
Oh, no ! With the staunchest loyalty to its prin-
204 ENGLISH CHINA.
ciples, I cannot conscientiously express an opinion
otherwise than that that faith has never shone so
feebly or worked so ineffectually as under the present
guidance of its, on the whole, idle shepherds and
dumb dogs — at least according to my own feeble lights.
* Your lights forsooth. Can the superficial obser-
vation of a casual amateur contain at best more Hght
than a flickering phosphorescent iridescence ? '
I reply that, in the first place, the casual amateur
has greater facihties for hitting blots than the bigoted
professional. Secondly, I adduce in support the
evidence which I began with prescience to collect as
soon as I suspected the rottenness of the tree— the
evidence of the most righteous, reflective, and reason-
able among our communities at Shanghai, Hankow,
Kiukiang, Chinkiang, Foochow and Swatow. In one
place only, Foochow, did I hear a single voice raised
in defence. Elsewhere there was an absolute un-
broken consensus of disapprobation, rismg sometimes
to reprobation.
Now to substantiate so sweeping a condemnation,
I may be fairly required to adduce some specific
charges. I charge, then, Protestant missionaries
with postponing the interests of their religious callmg
to the furtherance of their worldly prospects; I
charge them with frequent sloth, with an unhumble
strife for social status — for which of course their
wives are habitually responsible — with an arrogance
of ipse dixi, and with an absence of conciliation. I
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 205
charge them with promulgating glowing statements of
success which are not borne out by facts ; with undue
absence from the scenes of their supposed labours;
with discreditable readiness in looking back from the
plough before making moderate progress in their
labours. In fine, I hold them largely responsible for
a state of affairs which will be denied by few but
those who have stitched up their eyelids and then
declare that they cannot see — a state of sloth, non-
success, and disrepute. I will quote the evidence of one
layman out of much which I garnered in — that of an
English official resident at Pekin. After fourteen
years of much personal experience among the mis-
sionaries, he had only encountered three EngHsh
whom he could respect.
To use the plain-spoken terms of another official,
the missionary business in China is by no means a
bad business to run by that class of the clergy who
occupy that debatable land which is one grade below
gentlemanship, and from which the majority of the
Chmese Protestant missions are recruited. Poverty
stricken and without prospects at home, out here they
are provided by the various missionary societies with
an assm-ed and liberal income, to which is added
lOOZ. a year should they be married and 501. extra
for each child — a practice surely founded upon
Mormon principles. The above is supplemented
by liberal contributions from the resident English
merchants, amongst whom illiberality is an unknown
206 ENGLISH CHINA.
quality even in matters whereof they do not approve.
The missionary now lives in a condition of affluence
which would be unknown to him elsewhere ; a luxu-
rious house with luxurious appliances and table,
coolies to carry him about, and an ample margin of
dollars. * Why not ? ' Granted if he fairly earned it ;
but the contention is that he metes out labour to
himself with an unduly indulgent measure, that he
shirks those privations to which the Jesuits so cheer-
fully assent, and that he even declines a temporary
sojourn among his nominal flock — that potent means
of acquiring personal influence. In epidemics or
during the trying hot season he flies to pleasanter
pastures. In fine, he performs his perfunctory duties
in a perfunctory fashion. Meanwhile he, and
especially his wife, live in a constant state of bicker
with the influential European community, who, if
approached in a wise, conciliatory manner, could do
so much to aid him. On one point, indeed, his zeal
rarely flags — his extra incomings of dollars, for which
he appeals with a mixture of petulance and the air of
a man denied sacred rights.
Well, in the course of a few years the missionary
becomes tired of his work, or discovers a more
attractive opening elsewhere. Apparently regardless
of the fact that during the first part of his sojourn
his services can have been little more than of an
apprentice nature, he leaves the scene of his labours
precisely when, by his indoctrination, he could be
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 207
most useful, and hies him back to England, probably
with a nice little accumulation of dollars wherewith to
start in his new clearing. There he holds forth, on all
possible public occasions, on the privations and 'toils,
the thrilling adventures and hair-breadth escapes of a
missionary's life — the chances are 20 to 1 against
any of his audience being in a position to contradict
him — and dilates with touching unctuousness on the
heathen Chinee ' thirsting to hear the Word,' ^ such
is the conventional but preposterously inaccurate ex-
pression. He can scarcely fail to gain repute —
especially among silly women little apt in weighing
evidence — as a noble champion of Christianity,
whereby he assumes a social status to which his birth
and breeding have by no means entitled him, and in
many instances he will in some fashion reap much
substantial advantage.
Or, suppose him nominated a missionary bishop
or dean, in how many instances do not his residences
become discreditably brief and far between ? It might
be supposed that in this more than in any other
calling, the principle of a scrupulous performance of
distasteful duties would apply with irresistible force,
but the normal condition of missionary dignitaries
seems to be that of home leave and handsome salaries,
which have been calculated on the assumption that
the post has involved expatriation. At last the
scandal of absence becomes too grave to be longer
» See p. 184.
208 ENGLISH CHINA.
endured ; the dignitary gracefully resigns, and as the
ex-bishop of this or the ex-dean of that, holds a high
ecclesiastical status in England, probably ultimately
eventuating in a sinecure, where he has little or
nothing to do and is well j)aid for doing it.
"With such captains, with such rank and file, can
we be surprised at our present failure ? Can we even
hope to hold our own with the Jesuits who, whatever
their errors, at all events possess the splendid
characteristics of unfaltering perseverance, of un-
deviating performance of duty, and of unhesitating
self-sacrifice. No; we must concede that the best
founded evidence, including that of the few really
honest, disinterested Protestant workers, admits
almost unanimously the failure hitherto of our
missionary enterprises in China.
* You know you have my unbounded sympathy
and respect,' said an official high in authority to a
missionary on his way from Singapore to China, ' but
tell me honestly how many sincere conversions you
consider you have effected during your twelve years'
sojourn,' and the answer, sadly and deliberately given,
was, ' Three, only three, who I believe were thorough
and honest. I have met with numerous other nominal
cases, but after my years of toil I cannot persuade
myself that I could reckon more than three staunch
Christians.'
At Pekin, one of our missionaries employed as a
teacher a native Christian of whose sincerity he had
THE MISSIONARY QUESTION. 209
had, as he believed, seven years' experience. At the
end of that period it was discovered that the convert
at the conclusion of evening service had been wont
habitually to open the chapel as a gambling house.
On another occasion, as I learned, a party of English
sportsmen came across an English missionary, who
offered to conduct them to some good shooting ground.
As their intimacy increased he told them his story.
With a self-devotion rare amongst Protestants he had
buried himself in the midst of a rural population, and
yet, after three years of unremitting toil, he had come
to the conclusion that during that time he had not
made one single honest convert.
May we not deduce from the foregoing evidence
that those who assert that thus far missionaries have
made numerous sincere Christians are governed by
delusion or are guilty of fraud ?
I have been sometimes met with the argument
that the above statements in no wise apply to the
China Inland Mission, w^hich is an entirely distinct
organisation. But in the almost unanimous chorus
of strictures passed in China itself no exception w^as
made in favour of any one missionary branch, and,
moreover, I have before me the publication of this
society called ' China's Spiritual Need.' I am per-
suaded that no impartial resident in China would for
one instant deny that it is replete with mis-colourings,
and chat the whole tenor of their own evidence com-
p
210 ENGLISH CHINA.
pels US to bracket this branch with the other Pro-
testant societies.
Of course the Chinese will, for the sake of the
smallest temporary gain, assent to many of the forms
of Christianity, and this hypocrisy is not unfrequently
fostered by the shallow views of their teachers. A
-religious deputation entreated the Governor of Hong
Kong to discontinue employing on the public works
on Sundays certain coolies, who, be it noted, were not
supervised by Europeans, on the ground that this
labour was opposed to the precepts of Christianity.
Was this sheer stupidity or sheer duplicity, for it could
hardly be maintained as a reasonable conviction ?
With equal force a Jewish community might entreat
that Christians should not be employed to work on
Saturdays. Sunday is no more a sacred day in
Chinese belief than any other day, and is, in fact, much
ess so than their very few semi-religious festivals.
But they have worked this mine among the English
with considerable acumen and success. * Chinese
Sunday ' is a frequent plea for leave of absence, and
even ' Chinese Good Friday ' is occasionally attempted.
* So you join the chorus that missionary labours
are a failure, and a mere subterfuge for clerical hawks ;
that converts are invariably scoundrels, and that we
had much better leave the natives to their heathendom,
and in lieu apply the much-needed labour closer
at home ? '
* God forbid ! ' is my earnest disclaimer of a thread-
THE MISSIONAEY QUESTION. 211
bare argument, which I suggest is utterly fallacious.
Had the principle held good in early days that a work
should be perfected in its birthplace ere it is diffused
elsewhere, when would Christianity have been intro-
duced into England, or indeed into Europe ? Because
an enterprise, in itself noble, has failed through causes
which can be distinctly traced and remedied, is it,
therefore, to be abandoned ? Far more ; if the clearest
injunction : ' Go ye into all the world and preach the
Gospel ' may be disregarded without guilt, there is an
end to the obligation of obedience to the plainest com-
mands of our Saviour. No ; let us remodel the enter-
prise and try again, remembering that a fool, a bigot,
or a firebrand can do more harm than ten good men
can repair. Perhaps even my indication of defects
and remedies may be worth a passing thought.
1. One of the foremost desiderata, I consider, is
that the heads of missionaries should in all districts
be gentlemen, gentlemen in the conventional sense if
you choose so to phrase it, who are not only highly
educated, but who wear well-cut, well-brushed clothes ;
who are men of the world, of tact and discrimination ;
who will say and do the right thing, at the right time
and place ; whose experience is varied and conversation
interesting. * Oh, my dear sir, do you suppose the
apostles were gentlemen ? ' says Mr. Oily Gammon,
and in replying to this irrelevant, irreverent remark,
anger becomes a virtue ; but the following single
argument amongst many available is a sufficient con-
p 2
212 ENGLISH CHINA.
futation. The cases are not analogous. The apostles
had received direct teaching from our Saviour, and,
as 99 out of 100 Christians believe, were inspired by
the Ahnighty. An ecclesiastical official, connected with
missionary administration and in authority second to
none, was once w^armly refuting the disparaging
opinions which he had induced me to express, and
he wound up vexedly : * I cannot admit your charges ;
but what we really require is a higher class of man,
both of gentlemen and scholars. My urgent re-
monstrances on this point have been quite unheeded.'
Exactly herein lies the gist of my contention.^
I would point out another grave drawback ac-
companying a low type of missionaries, with a good
deal of *land' on their own hands,, and with a de-
ficiency of clean linen and h's. They are outside the
pale of that powerful European interest, the resident
merchants or their agents, most of whom possess the
externals of gentlemen, while all recognise one when
they see him. The missionaries are never by any
chance met at their houses in a social capacity.
Generally they are antagonistic or unknown to,
or despised by, those local potentates and vast em-
ployers of labour, who possess in the aggregate an
enormous influence over the native population. Now
suppose the case reversed, and the clergyman working
with the friendly co-operation — to put aside the better
' Would that I felt myself at liberty to publish the name of this
witness and of others equally authoritative. They are, however, at
the service of those who may choose to inquire further.
THE MISSIONAEY QUESTION. 213
motives — of the merchant. Can the influence of this
new factor be over-rated. * Ah, but the open and
prevalent immorahty of the EngHsh residents compels
the missionaries to shun transactions with them,' says
the already quoted ecclesiastical dignitary. What ! do
you deal with a great evil by merely evading its open
presence ?
2. Let the resident merchants continue their
present splendid liberality, but let the contributions
be in the first instance transmitted to the central
administrations in England for subsequent payment
of salaries and other disbursements. Thus the pres-
tige of the local missionary will not be weakened by
his sending round the hat.
3. Let residence among their flocks of all the
missionaries, whether high or low in office, be actual
for a certain specified time — not theoretical. I am
far from endorsing the requirement of the Jesuits that
the worker should immolate himself in a life-long
expatriation, for I believe that the infusion of fresh
blood materially strengthens working machinery, and
that labour will be more vigorous and successful if
maintained only for a limited time. But for the
time being let them not be constantly shirking their
duties. That which their hands find to do, let them
do it with all their might, regardless of privations,
weariness, and the disruption of home ties, like duty-
doing soldiers, of whom they should be types. ' This is
a hard saying.' Yes, indeed. Therefore pledge not your-
214 ENGLISH CHINA.
self to the task without counting the cost, lest you bring
the noWe cause to shame.
4. Lastly, let the aspirant for missionary labour in
the far East make a point of acquiring in England a
considerable proficiency in practical medical art, such
as how to deal with fractures, to take up arteries, to
treat flesh wounds, abscesses, skin diseases, &c. ; how
to prescribe for ague, rheumatism, cholera, small-pox,
dysentery, and fever. Of course he can merely learn
the most elementary principles of treatment, but in
the 23resent profound ignorance of the Chinese of the
science of physiology and medicine, even a slight
knowledge will be many points in his favour, while a
moderate, though practical, proficiency will ensure his
influence and further his success to an extent greater
than all other advantages put together.
And lest I should appear designedly to cast ridicule
or discredit on all missionary enterprise, I venture to
suggest for the consideration of my readers my own
conviction that the disinterested, sincere, hardworking
missionary has emulated the deeds of the ancient
heroes of the Christian religion, and has excelled the
most brilliant exploits recorded in chivalry.
215
CHAPTEK V.
A CHINESE INLAND METROPOLIS. — HANKOW.
I KNOW not if I shall succeed in telling you aught
which will interest you, but I can guarantee that what
I relate must possess the advantage of novelty.
Comparatively few Europeans have visited, far less
systematically explored, the huge inland Chinese cities,
and our imperfect knowledge of so many millions of
these our strange fellow -creatures illustrates indeed the
threadbare saying, that one half the world knows not
how the other half lives. Said a seasoned Indian
general whose life had been spent in Oriental scenes,
and who accompanied me on one of my numerous ex-
plorations of a large native city, ' No, among the many
strange sights I have witnessed in India, I have never
seen anything approximating to this, or even in the
least resembling it.'
Again, among the few who visit or reside in the
littoral settlements, there are still fewer who are not
more than satisfied with a single experience of all that
is unwholesome, foul, and disgusting. Only those
who are bent on sifting the matter to the very bottom
216 ENGLISH CHINA.
will face the ordeal of incessant explorations. Hankow
I take as a type of a Chinese city, and I will describe
seriatim my wanderings about the city ; but inasmuch
as Foochow, Shanghai, Kiukiang, Amoy, and Swatow
each possesses remarkable characteristics of its own,
I will from time to time diverge from my original to
call attention to the collateral.
To take one day's experience as a type of several
others, accompanied by my Hong Kong ' boy ' and by
a local Chinese employe of Jardine and Matheson's
firm, I set forth from the English concession at
Hankow, entirely cut off and distinct from the Chinese
locality, to the native city. We pass by the chevaux-
de-frise stretched across the entire breadth of the road,
and under the custodianship of the native police,
dressed like a chimney ornament on a cottage shelf,
stiff, dazed, and uneasy in his walk, and altogether
the oddest, most childish amalgam of Chinese puerility
and the dignity of the British police. His authority
over his fellow-countrymen is paramount. His busi-
ness is to keep the British concession quiet and
select ; he will not allow it to be desecrated and
disturbed by any naked, shambling, talkative coolies,
and all such, unless they are mercantile employes, or
unless they can produce the inevitable * squeeze '
money, are refused admission by this Cerberus. Im-
mediately on the other side of the barrier runs the
never-failing city wall, ditchless, with its gloomy arch-
way and its guard of three or four loungers, ostensibly
HANKOW. 217
soldiers, but the very incarnation of disreputable,
dirty, hang-dog raggedness.
We pass under the portals, and at the first glimpse
the thought occurs to my mind, * Abandon hope, all ye
who enter here.' But for the shame of irresolution,
it is not improbable that I should turn round and
flee. I scarcely think that the historical hero of the
* Night in a "Workhouse ' had greater need to clench
his teeth, hold his breath for a moment, and vow
that he would go through with his self-imposed
task.
Now for it; let us go ahead, and in an instant
we plunge from decency, order, and civilisation into a
crowded throng and surroundings the furthest anti-
podes to the above characteristics which the wildest
fancy could devise. I am in a narrow — not street, not
alley, but — labyrinth, eight feet wide measured straight
across, but owing to cumbered margins, with not more
than three feet of width available. Two cannot walk
abreast; single file is indispensable, and even then
the jostling is incessant. The path is roughly paved
it is true, but with a depression in the centre wherein
stagnate the liquid impurities of the city. Then the
dwellings which line this labyrinth — they are merely
propped-up laths, rickety, shaky as a pack of cards,
without windows, doors or chimneys ; inside shaded
off into a darkness which here is a friendly conceal-
ment of all which is best hidden ; outside with the
single overhanging story stretching across, and nearly
218 ENGLISH CHINA.
cutting off the only pure element in the huge den,
heaven's atmosphere.
Let us hurry on, the mere sense of motion is a
relief. Are these bustling throngs really our fellow-
creatures ? Are they not anthropoidal demoniacal
baboons ? Look at their three-quarter naked bodies,
sometimes indeed equipped only with an eight-inch-
wide cloth, which covered their dirty, parchment, un-
naturally hairless skins. As a matter of fact they
must be of extraordinary endurance, but there is not
one fine-built fellow amongst them — muscleless, all
arms and legs, and far below the average European
standard. As for their faces, suffice it to say that
their eyes are mere slits, their mouths enormous fis-
sures, noses like flattened pieces of putty, cheek-bones,
high, disfiguring knobs, and expression, an evil and
malignant leer. Of course their shaven foreheads,
and their pigtails trailing down their naked backs,
give the final touch to one's disgust. The women
are but a shade better in appearance. Clothed with
decency, I grant, there is the counter set-off of their
hair piled high on the top of their heads, in black
glutinous moulds like huge leeches ; they are more
stunted in appearance, and, worse than all, being
almost invariably possessed of the distorted feet, they
hobble about in the most ungainly, crippled fashion.
As for the children— where is the prettiness which I
supposed accompanied the young of all animals on
emerging from a condition of callowness ; where the
HANKOW. 219
smooth, unwrinkled skins, the tender, dimpled limbs,
the downy hair, and childhood's laugh and expres-
sion ? Not a vestige of all this. In lieu they are
in every respect of form, feature, and coal-black pig-
tail merely pigmy, stunted men and women, further
consi^icuous with scabious heads. No scenic master
could picture to himself more perfect representations
for the imps of hell in the opera of *Eoberto il
Diavolo.'
Hark to the voices and clatter, carried on in one
loud unvarymg din ! Is it mere fancy or prejudice
which originates extreme repulsion thereto, which
seems to weary the ear and the brain ? No ; it is
susceptible of a reasonable explanation. We usually
talk of the pitch, the intonation of the human voice —
it is high or low, soft or discordant, and thereby we
imply the existence of musical attributes. But the
Chinese voice possesses not the faintest trace of me-
lody or resonance. I can only liken it to the noise
produced by pieces of bone or lumps of wood knocked
against each other. A loud, wooden, expression-
less, monotone cackle, without rise, fall, or rhythm
— without the burst or even the ripple of laughter,
without the minor key of plaintiveness. A single
sentence uttered in their midst by a European seems
in contrast like music.
Quickly wending my way with my guide and my
' boy,' forming respectively my advance and rear
guard, I pass through the outlying labyrinths into a
220 ENGLISH CHINA.
small, square, unbuilt-over place, into the narrow area
of which are crowded some of what I may call the
incidents of tlie city. There are four jugglers and
acrobats. Their performances are quite childish,
with the exception of their sword exercise, executed
with a weapon in each hand. The bright, sharp
blades flash about high and low in a singular and
dexterous network of involutions, their chief joke
apparently being to ' w^h — ish ' them close to the faces
of the sj)ectators without inflicting injury. I was im-
mediately singled out as the subject of their skill, and
the ridicule of the bystanders, for I own that my
nerves were not sufiiciently steady to resist the im-
pulse of starting back in avoidance of the flash which
seemed almost to scraj^e my nose.
There again is a horrible cripple, dragging him-
self along on his knees, for he is footless, and reveals
his two dreadful ankle stumps in order to extract sub-
scriptions from passers-by. The injury has been
self-inflicted by tying strings tightly round the lower
part of the leg, causing the feet to mortify, rot, and
drop off. A large proportion, about 70 per cent., die
under the mutilation, but those wdio survive consider
themselves amply repaid by ensuring for themselves
a source of income which lasts out their lives.
There is a heaving, seething heap of bodies and
rags ; they too are beggars, filthier than the most
filthy apes in the manner they divest each other
of vermin. There is another beggar prone on the
HANKOW. 221
gronncl, his head wantonly grabbling in a mass of
putrid liquid offal, with concomitants about his
mouth and head which I dare not further describe,
lest the reader should close the pages in pure nausea.
He, too, demands alms, which are put in a basket
held by one of those strange, weird, black-tongued,
half-wolf, half-Pomeranian, Chinese dogs. Poor,
faithful, obedient dog, he too has plunged his head
into a heap of mud, in imitation of his master, but
with much of the grotesque about him. For not-
withstanding his grovelling attitude, which he has
patiently maintained when two hours after I find
him in the same position, his tail is wagging, his
ears are cocked, and his black beads of intelligent
eyes are sparkling with a roguish twinkle, as if he
were poking sarcastic fun at the imposition.
Now I cross a sort of shallow canal, but in looking
over the edge I almost start back in amazement and
disgust. It is nothing half so sweet as an open cess-
pool, or half so clean as an open sewer ; it is a large
stagnant oblong, winding between the thick masses of
dwellings, filled with every organic element of putre-
faction, with every object of indescribable horror, ex-
posed to the full rays of the sun; just sufficiently
solid to prevent its being trickled away, or desiccated
into comparative innocuousness ; just sufficiently
liquid to aid to the utmost the process of putrefaction
and to ensure the liberation of the poisons to the at-
mosphere. It is safe to assert that no other towns in
222 ENGLISH CHINA.
the entire universe except Chinese towns have in
their midst such a Gehenna; because in no other
towns are there the same combinations of enormous
populations packed in such small areas, the same con-
tradictions of semi-civilisation and bestiality, and the
same conditions of climate, soil, temperature, and
stagnant sites.
But, with such an accumulation of essence of
plague, what becomes of the principles and laws of
hygiene which have been dinned into our ears during
the last twenty years ? The laws of hygiene are
thoroughly vindicated, for the dwellers in this neigh-
bourhood die off like flies, especially in the hot
weather, and especially of fever, cholera, and dysen-
tery. * Masquie ' — never mind — say the mandarins.
It is difficult to imagine any subject held in lighter
esteem than human life in China, unless, indeed,
when a special form of death, such as suicide or mis-
adventure, becomes the means of extortion from the
survivor, who in point of fact may be entirely irre-
sponsible for the catastrophe. Here I may remark
that by no Utopian perversion of truth could we call
the Chinese brave, and their strange readiness for
suicide can only be accounted for as one of their
characteristic national contradictions. A man who
wishes to spite his enemy will sometimes kill himself
with a roundabout view to vengeance. For example,
at Hankow, recently, a barber prosecuted his em-
ploye for the theft of two or three dollars, whereupon
HANKOW. 223
the latter, after a little scheming, committed suicide,
not through morbid shame, for theft in China involves
not a shadow of discredit, but as a means of involving
disastrous consequences on his master. Sure enough,
the widow was easily able to prove that her husband's
death had been due to the course pursued by the
prosecutor, who thereupon was condemned to pay
about 120 dollars for the support of the bereaved
family.
Having completely mastered all squeamishness,
and thoroughly satisfied myself as to the chief con-
stituents of this lake of infamy, I scuttle away as fast
as possible from it, and again plunge into the laby-
rinths of the more central part of the town. And yet,
in my capacity of investigator, I must still, with how-
ever great reluctance, say somewhat more on this
unsavoury subject of the atmosphere of Chinese cities,
because of the momentous considerations which hinge
on it. This circumstance of pestilence has involved
with it ignorance of the great centres of native life,
development of commerce, and the most fatal curtail-
ment of missionary action. Neither interest nor duty
have thus far in the smallest degree counteracted this
evil. Englishmen will pass years in the concessions,
and unless under dire stress will not for years enter
the precincts of the city ; many will not allow their
wives to be even carried rapidly through the streets in
a chair.
Now let me strenuously repudiate all affectation.
224 ENGLISH CHINA.
A disagreeable smell, say at Betlmal Green or Belle-
vue, may be met with a wry face and a salutary spit,
and there is an end of the matter. The stench of the
Chinese cities, in their worst forms and under a swel-
tering sun, produce nausea and headache of a severe
nature which last throughout the day, with the pro-
bability of subsequent indisposition which, if you are
fortunate, will only last several days. A case came
under my notice at Amoy of a lady who, notwith-
standing her husband's prohibition, visited in a sedan-
chau' the city. In about half an hour she could no
longer hold out, and was brought back, having liter-
ally fainted. Many Europeans during their progress
keep a lump of camphor in their mouths. Others,
myself among the number, smoke incessantly and
furiously. I can only say that when I could smoke
no longer, I used to feel myself perforce compelled to
retreat out of the town, and that after my final ex-
perience — viz. Amoy, which I believe to be the most
loathsome town throughout the length and breadth of
China — I was attacked by indisposition which clung
to me for many a day after, and the nature of which
pointed to malaria.
But, says the sceptic, why should the miasmas be
of the altogether exceptional nature which you de-
scribe? Well, I cannot and I will not enter into
details ; they are not fit for publication in such a
work as this. I can only hint that garbage of every
conceivable nature, including household detritus, is
HANKOW. 225
piled not only under one's feet, but under one's very
nose in festering masses, fermenting in the sun.
Remember, too, that this effluvia is not to Europeans
merely an abomination, but a never-ceasing abomina-
tion. A French gentleman, asked by a lady to send
her an assortment of perfumes, replied, * Madame,
in China there is but one scent, and that is not a
perfume.' Their emanations can almost be tasted, and
one can only express surprise, where every ounce of
manure is prized as though worth its weight say in
copper, the smells are not cut into slices and laid for
fertilising purposes over the ground.
Numbers of coolies, aye, and even of female
bearers, are incessantly staggering through the streets,
jostling one with their burdens of foetor carried in
tubs, and evoke the sympathising remark of my com-
passionating * boy ' : * Major, plenty too much take care
of bucket.'
Well, if we cannot away from the smells, let us get
away from the discussion of the odious subject for
good and all. Choking, exhausted, sweltering with
the hot stifling atmosphere, I continue to shuffle
rapidly through the everlasting labyrinths, and turn
my attention to the strange shops. Special trades
and handicrafts are allotted to special localities,
and entire streets are occupied with dealers in coffins,
very substantial, handsome in carving and strange in
form, for the Chinaman attaches great value and will
spend large sums of money on his last tenement.
Q
226 ENGLISH CHINA.
Others are filled with smoking apparatus, with ivory
carvings, with silk produce, with provision supplies,
or with porcelain ware. Among some of the latter I
noticed large collections of old English bottles, which
are highly prized, there being a large proportion of
Bass' beer bottles, with the familiar red trade-mark
and label. These sold for about ^d. each, relatively
an extremely high sum.
There was perfect freedom to stroll into every shop,
to turn over the wares higgledy-piggledy, and yet to
make not the smallest purchase. The traders were
lost in gaping wonder at the strange aspect of the
customers, at their extraordinary dress, their long
hair, their, to them, grotesque features, and especially
at the stupendous size of their noses. Kemember that
this organ in the Chinese is represented by a little
pat of putty.
When I really meant business and wished to buy,
a scene of chaffering and wrangling took place more
appropriate to fishwomen at Billingsgate than to the
purchase transactions of an English gentleman.
' How much ? ' I ask.
* Ten tollare ' (ten dollars) is the reply.
* Oh,' genuinely moving away, ' that is too much.'
* How much will give ? ' is the eager inquiry.
* How much ? ' I say contemptuously ; ' why, about
three dollars.'
* Can do, can do ! ' is the joyful assent, and before
I can say * knife ' the article is transferred to my
HANKOW. 227
possession. Next time I am more crafty, and instead
of offering a third of the sum demanded, name a
fifth.
But all this chaffering is excessively distasteful.
Of course it is all carried on by means of interpreters,
and when it comes to paying, my ' boy ' takes off some
of the heavy necklaces of cash under which he has
been staggering, and unstrings a few hundreds of
these clumsy coins.
This process of paying is mechanically a trouble-
some business ; as I have already explained, there is
no gold coinage whatever, and very little silver. In
ordinary cases of minor value, even silver coins are
looked at suspiciously — they are little known to the
mass of tradesmen here. They are fingered, chattered
and disputed over in a tedious manner, until after
some experience I adopted the expedient of loading
my ' boy ' with necklaces of copper cash, of which
about 1,100 equal 3s. 8d., or 24 equal Id. They are
small disks of metal with square holes punched out
of the centre, as means whereby they may be strung,
and clearly a back-breaking weight represents a very
small sum.
On one occasion my conductor led me through
many a weary maze in search of a particular shop
wherewith he assured me I should be enraptured. It
proved to contain a collection of Lowther Arcade
refuse stock, of every imaginable description, and
the ideal of everything that was trumpery — broken
Q 2
228 ENGLISH CHINA.
accordions, gingerbread ornaments, children's toys,
and for all of which were demanded preposterous
prices.
It was a subject of incessant interest to watch
their manufactures, wherein, although great industry
and a quaint sort of ingenuity were displayed, there
was a primitiveness and simplicity of the patriarchs.
There was no vestige of steam machinery, although
one would have supposed that the steam appliances on
board the tea ships would have suggested how advan-
tageously they might be utilised for general industries.
No, * old-o custom ' again interposes ; let us beware of
the vicious innovations of those foreigners. Such
mechanical, routine processes as silk winding and
weaving, for example, are carried on entirely by hand.
A dozen naked creatures manipulating threads, warps,
woofs, shuttles, and wheels, which could have been
worked with double the efficiency, and at a tithe of
the cost, by a single steam crank. Even grinding
corn is performed in a manner which it may be sup-
posed was pursued by Abraham and Lot. There is
the threshing floor, across which a current of air
blows and carries off the chaff ; there the uncovered
mill-stones, and there the Oriental-looking, meek-eyed
buffaloes tramping in a circle, in endless monotony.
Those meek-eyed buffaloes, by the way, display a good
deal of sour Chinese bigotry. Though they are
blinded with leather pads, in an instant they discover
by their scent the proximity of us Europeans ; they
HANKOW. 229
sniff, stamp, and evince a raging desire to make for
us if they could only ascertain our whereabouts.
As a rule I used to walk for hours through the
most crowded parts of the city, without encountering
a single specimen of a European, or at most one
missionary or official agent, almost undistinguishable
in the recesses of a covered sedan-chair, in which he
was being hurried rapidly along. My appearance,
therefore, leisurely investigating afoot, aroused a con-
siderable amount of curiosity, and young and old
quickly gathered around me in unsavoury proximity.
So long as I was on the move it was always possible
to keep the numbers down to some twelve or fourteen ;
but the moment I halted or went into a shop they
clustered around me unpleasantly close, criticising my
appearance and acts evidently in no favourable man-
ner, and when I wished to resume progress my way
was for some time actually barred.
I cannot say there was any overt act of hostility
against me, but the demeanour of the rabble was
habitually distinctly scowling and unfriendly. I was
classed as one of the foreign devils, somewhat more
unpopular at that time than usual owing to the French
transactions at Tonquin ; for in the minds of the
Chinese all Europeans are bracketed together be they
English, French, Germans, or Eussians. This covert
aversion in every countenance of a surrounding crowd
gave a very unpleasant sensation of the necessity of
never-failing watchfulness, prudence, and forbearance.
230 ENGLISH CHINA
A wrangle, and in an instant the consequences might
be serious.
I must own that on more than one occasion there
lay ensconced in the bottom of my pocket, but handy
for instant use, a small loaded revolver, and a hand-
ful of loose cartridges. Of what avail against a crowd
of assailants ? Of much, if driven by dire necessity to
produce it. A totally defenceless European might be
instantly kicked or hustled to death, where one armed
with a six-shooter might, with resolution, clear a lane
for himself through a Chinese rabble, each individual
of whom, fearful lest a bullet should find a billet in
his particular head, would with national pusillanimity
shrink aside from a resolute Englishman, before
whom they intuitively cower. It seems almost super-
fluous to remark that in such contingencies the keynote
is instant action and resolution. A faltering moment
and the position becomes desperate. I found the
demeanour which secured for me the greatest freedom
from annoyance was a more masterful one than would
be wise or indeed would be tolerated in a civilised
city. ' Step aside, idlers and toilers, wayfarers and
bucket -carrying coolies; you must needs make way
for me. I will not diverge one inch for you,' and
without fail was the tacit demand conceded. ' Very
boorish and ill-judged,' do you say ? No, not here. A
Chinaman would regard your mutual give and take
of civilised courtesy as an acknowledgment of your
inferiority, and quite possibly might next proceed to
HANKOW. 231
hustle you. As one old resident once put it to me :
if a passer-by in England were to spit in your face
you would knock him down. A parallel insult is in-
tended when a Chinaman jostles a European.
After all, however, so far as is practicable deal
with every incipient quarrel ere it has developed into
aught serious with a laugh and a joke, so far as a joke
can be perpetrated by gestures. The rabble will in-
stantly respond, and, under cover of this, you can
retire with dignity. But beware, above all things, of
sarcasm or scorn. To this ridicule a Chinaman is
childishly sensitive, and prone to take desperate and
vengeful offence at the slightest indication thereof.
Now that the first feelings of bewilderment and
dazedness has w^orn off, let us watch those minutiae
of street scenery which reveal so much of the national
character. At frequent intervals I see men having
their pigtails tidied up by professional barbers or by
the friendly aid of a neighbour — to perform the opera-
tion alone would be quite impracticable. The un-
plaited queue streams in thick masses four or five
feet in length down to the ground. So it really is
in most cases your own, and not borrowed. The
luxuriance is remarkable, though the quality takes
away all admiration ; of one intense, uniform black,
even in children coarse and straight as wire;
slimy, clammy, and unhandsome. One soft, brown
English curl, which one would caress as the plumage
of a beautiful bird, would be worth a whole sackful of
232 ENGLISH CHINA.
this horsehair. What a careful dry shave over three-
fourths of the forepart of the skull, which process has
to be repeated about every six days ! What a feminine
brushing and plaiting and finishing up of the pigtail
with ribbon, white when mourning is represented.
You nasty creatures ! every single one of your actions
has an element of dirt in it, and here you wind up
with a filthy operation on the ears.
'Boy, why do you submit to such bother with
your hair ? Why do you not wear it like mine ? '
* No savvy. Every Chinaman do same ting; old-o
custom.'
* Well, I savvy ; 300 years ago, the Tartars con-
quered you and compelled you to wear the national
type of servitude, pigtails, and you have continued
the custom without comprehending the meaning.'
The pigtail is valued as dearly as life, and to be
without one is the sign of a rebel.
I remember noticing at Foochow a man who, in
consequence of his father's participation in rebellion,
was under sentence of permanent deprivation of his
pigtail. A more abased, shame-stricken wretch it
would be difficult to imagine. He had adopted the
clothes of a European, and seemed to be constantly
in cringing conciliation of the English favour.
Boy-children of scarcely a year old are shaved as
to their skulls and equipped with a miniature black
pigtail, depending down their yellow little necks.
Old men, naturally as bald as coots, carefully twist
HANKOW. 233
up their few scanty grey hairs about the nape, into
the size and shape of a mouse's tail. On the other
hand, if they be grandfathers, custom concedes to
them alone the right of wearing moustaches, which at
soonest is never worn until forty years have been
attained. For some occult reason — certainly not
veneration, for they are incapable of that — advanced
age is considered a great merit. *What is your
honourable age ? ' is a frequent form of polite
questioning. As a matter of fact, nature seems to
deny the whole race of Chinese any hair whatever
on the face until they are about fifty years old, and
then in very mangy quantities.
What an enormous number of fresh-water fish,
chiefly carp and eels, just gasping out their lives, are
exposed for sale in tubs ! Coarse, innutritious food,
no doubt, comparable to a tallow candle stuck thickly
full of bristles ; but so very little animal food suffices
for the needs of the Chinese. I often meet them carry-
ing three or four gudgeon-looking creatures, strung
with great care on a rush, according to the method
of the fisher- schoolboy. Or look there at woman
after woman carrying with elaborate precaution two
or three ounces of animal matter, clearly destined
to form the accompaniment to the family mid-day
meal of rice. I say ' animal matter ' advisedly, for
to define the nasty morsel more accurately would be
perplexing. I should hazard the conjecture that as a
rule it consists of the brain and eyeballs of a rat, with
234 ENGLISH CHINA.
a piece of the viscera of a pig in an imperfect state of
health and preservation. The mere sight sends a
shiver down the back.
Here I come across a street full of eating-houses.
Upon the floor is heaped every edible in a Chinese
dietary : some hissing hot lumps of roast pork and
gelatinous stews, fish rapidly decomposing, livid
joints, bean cakes resembling tablets of honey soap ;
their one civilised eating luxury — roast duck, and
various dark treacly masses, which quiver as they are
divided. The tea-houses are better. Tea alone is sold
there ; the * fixings ' are clean, and the occupants are
quieter than those of an English beer-house. Look
at those everlasting coolies and their bamboo supports
and packages, or, ten times worse, buckets. Always
at a rapid jog-trot, as being the pace most in con-
formity with the elastic bendings of the bamboo,
always toiling with might and main — one of their few
virtues — and always emitting horrible howls, more
or less loud in proportion to the weight of their
burdens. These groaning apostrophes apparently
afi'ord them infinite relief, but the annoying clamour
they originate may be gathered from the fact that in
most English concessions this coolie-groaning is
strictly forbidden, though the enforcement of the pro-
hibition can only be carried out with great difficulty.
These pigs — the in England highly prized, queer-
snouted, aboriginal pigs of China — wander about the
labyrinths, and are for ever getting in one's way, but
, HANKOW. 235
they are less objectionable than the aboriginal human
beings. They are here largely consumed, but no
European would under any compulsion dream of
touching a morsel of their foul-fed flesh. A piece of
Chinese pork is a synonym for the acme of that which
is horrible, and if a native official presents as a
* cumshaw ' (complimentary gift) a loin of pork, it is
instantly handed over to coolies. Mother-pigs too
contribute to the Chinese dairy. Cows, and even
goats, are unknown as farm- stock, and therefore milk
does not exist as an article of diet, which in some
measure may account for the sickness of the children.
Here is a peep-show. Think twice ere you look at
it. The first two or three pictures will be singularly
pastoral and innocent ; the next two or three will be
ingeniously and grotesquely obscene. Here again is
a fortune-telling bird, an ordinary-looking little
creature, cooped up in the narrowest of cages, impli-
citly believed in by the superstition and the credulity
of sceptics to forecaste fate by picking out with its
beak a particular card from amongst a pack spread
before it.
Now w^e stumble across a queer description of pro-
cession. Everyone looks so extremely cheerful that I
should have taken it for a w^edding, were it not for the
handsome, substantial, dark wooden coffin, not at all
like the English conventional skull and crossbones
pattern, in rear. Behind us is borne a paper image of
a white cock, symbol of the creature into the body of
236 ENGLISH CHINA.
which it is believed the soul of the deceased passes at
the moment of dissolution. The cortege winds up
with various sorts of provisions, a small baked pig
being especially noticeable. These funeral feasts are
carried out on a most rationally economical principle.
The ghosts of the departed, it is argued, can feast
only on the spiritual essences of the food, and there-
fore, after it has done duty in dumb show at the
grave, it is devoured with a great deal of relish by
the mourners. Mourners indeed ! I have seldom
seen a more grinning, jovial, talkative lot ; not a
vestige of a tear or a sigh from the nearest relations
close to the corpse. A Chinaman laughs when he
tells you of the death of a friend, even though he be
dear to him. Nor can I think this was merely the
concealment of real deep feelings, for I believe that a
less affectionate race of creatures than the Chinese do
not exist on the face of the earth.
Carefully on the look-out for the expression of the
emotions, I have never yet seen a Chinese mother kiss
her baby, or any interchange of caresses between any
two individuals. I have never even witnessed a tear,
a sigh, or a sob, except indeed on two occasions — at
Hong Kong,^ and near Foochow — where I came across
a woman making a formal set lamentation over a hill-
side grave, with gestures, invocations, and discordant
yelps, suggestive of the most perfunctory of perform-
ances. It is singular, moreover, that the Chinese nod
' See p. 14.
HANKOW. 237
the head in token of affirmative, but that the nega-
tive shake is unknown amongst them.
Here comes a rehgious show ; it is as well to get
under a doorway while it passes, for it sweeps along
the entire width of the alley, and, like many another
religious show, is arrogant in claiming for itself
exclusive rights of mummer deference and egotistical
space. Tomtoms and cymbals, rabble and priests,
precede it and follow it. In the centre is a grotesque
idol, nearly shrouded in canopies, and bedizened with
abundance of tawdry insignia. I have seen shows not
unlike it, though less of a burlesque, in Eoman Catho-
lic countries. In rear of the procession are conveyed
two little demon idols, with a distinct though carefully
restricted amount of honour. The Chinese, in the
midst of honour done to their gods, almost invariably
pay a little simultaneous court to their devils, on the
principle of making sure of both powers.
From this procession I turn by a natural transi-
tion to a joss-house, a general description of which I
have given elsewhere,^ but many possess special
characteristics of their own. For example, one at
Shanghai contained a greater multiplicity of inferior
idols : I counted about thirty-six of them. Eather
larger than human size, tawdry in decoration, of
course of grotesque ugliness, and ranged along both
sides of the temple. One idol was especially efficacious
in answering the prayers of the sorrowful childless.
' See p. 202.
238 ENGLISH CHINA.
A repulsive-looking priest rushed up to me, and with
many gesticulations set going a ' chin-chin ' (worship),
tomtoms banging, lights burning, and incense smoul-
dering, finally violently claiming high payment for the
display.
At another joss-house I was invited to pry into
my futurity by the casting of lots. A vase full of
rolled up spills, on each of which was marked a
number, was put into my hand, and by a jerk of the
wrist I shook a single one out. Its corresponding
number was then sought out of some sacred ciphered
sentences on separate slips, and from it I was supposed
to be able to deduce my future good or evil fortune. I
may remark that the Chinese have a philosophical
principle that each one can absorb a certain limited
amount of good fortune, and that any superfluity does
harm. The only individuals who regarded the process
with greater unconcealed contempt than myself were
the joss-house functionaries themselves.
I suppose there are few countries in the world
where there is a more elaborate and ostentatious
machinery for upholding the action of the law, as
certainly there are none where such action is distorted
into the most barefaced iniquity and oppression.
Maladministration and an absence of public probity
are universal, the mandarins being chiefly occupied in
raising money by outrageously nefarious means. The
Yamen (native court-house) is a constant place of re-
ference in all official transactions, whether with the
HANKOW. 239
Chinese or with Europeans, and a Yamen next enHsts
my attention. On its outside archways are stone
figures of fanciful monsters, or rudely executed pic-
tures in flaring colours of savage beasts, dragons spit-
ting flames, tigers with appalling fangs and claws, in
grinning rage, and apparently intended to warn the
population not to come within the grasp of the law.
As an instance of bullying being defeated by a
swagger, which was justified by success, I may men-
tion that in one Yamen at Foochow, I and my com-
panions asked to see the interior of the com't-house.
' No can, Mandarin [magistrate] not there.' We
resume our progress through the streets, and in a few
minutes are overtaken by breathless myrmidons of
the law. * Mandarin say he must savvy who you are
— what your names — what you want here' — through
an interpreter. ' You impudent fellows ! ' we angrily
reply. * How dare you speak to us in that way ?
Just go back and tell the mandarin to mind his
own business, and not to send insolent messages to
Englishmen.' Now the result quite excused the arro-
gant answer. Had we submitted ourselves to the
authority, we might probably have been subjected to
serious inconvenience, whereas, as a matter of fact,
the emissaries shrank away cowed, and, though we
lingered about the place for a considerable time, we
were not subjected to any further annoyance.
To resume. In the vicinity of the Yamens were
disposed several cages constructed of bamboo, with
240 ENGLISH CHINA.
gaps between the poles. Each cage was full of pri-
soners, and each set of prisoners represented a sight
distressing to humanity. The passing throng cast
glances at them of feeble curiosity, but I could only
marvel with painful interest at a scene so tho-
roughly typical of this strange, cruel, little-known
people and of their backward civilisation, one of the
features of which is a stolid inhumanity to man and
beast, and a total indifference to sufferings however
piteous. One day at Foochow the struggles of a
drowning man absorbed the interest of a crowd, who
nevertheless made not the slightest effort to rescue
him. A bystander, unable to obtain a clear view,
expressed a doubt whether the man had really per-
ished, whereupon the irritated mob immediately tossed
the sceptic into the river with the remark, * You had
better go and look after him yourself.' He, too, per-
ished. Their wanton torture of their domestic ani-
mals is a daily sight in the streets. To rescue human
life even at a minimum amount of personal risk never
enters their heads. Compassion is an unknown factor
in their unamiable hearts, and how then should they
display any pity for those on whom the law has
laid its hands. Men and women, boys and girls,
young and old, there they were huddled indiscrimi-
nately together ; the entirely innocent — for there are
always many such incarcerated, victims of mandarin
extortion — with the indisputably guilty, unless nature
has told a malignant falsehood respecting their scoun-
HANKOW. 241
drelly physiognomies ; a few are cheery, more look
miserable, and still more stolid and indifferent. But
all without exception, inured and acclimatised as they
are, cannot fail to suffer dreadfully from the heat,
the stifling atmosphere, and the swarms of musquitoes
and other insects. In some cases their friends have
come to supply them with food and drink, and are
talking to them through the bars.
I look a little more closely and I see that a certain
proportion of the captives are being subjected to
the torture of the cangue, or heavy wooden collar
— not, remember, as in our infliction at Shanghai
on Chinese criminals, a mere advertisement of their
offence and restriction of their freedom, but down-
right severe torture, bearing some resemblance
similar in its nature to the rack, the boot, and the
thumbscrew. The sufferers' hands are bound, the
collar projects far outwards all around, the griev-
ous weight is pressing heavily on their shoulder
blades, and in course of time swelling of the bones
and festering ensues. With expressions of patiently
borne yet extreme pain the miserable creatures seek
for a little alleviation by jamming the edges of the
cangue against the sides of their prison, and in this
attitude they stand for hours, tortured with ever-in-
creasing bodily anguish, with fever, weariness, and
thirst. My thoughts travel back to the middle
ages at the sight of these terrible cages, with their
animal-like captives, who are treated with much less
R
242 ENGLISH CHmA. ^
humanity than civilised nations would treat trapped
vermin.
Of course a few cash induce the nondescript ruffian-
looking prison officials to answer all my inquiries, and
to show me over some of the precincts. These triangu-
lar wooden frameworks, like our rough paling round
single trees, are strangling machines, and are in fre-
quent requisition. The prisoner's neck is screwed up
within so that his toes can just touch the ground.
Very slowly he chokes, and becomes insensible. Then
he is cast loose and revived ; then choked again ; and
so backwards and forwards until, at the discretion of
the head functionary, his life is finally extinguished.
* To-day is an unfortunate day,' says my guide. * No
executions happen to be on hand, but if you will come
two or three days hence you may see plenty. Mean-
while I can show you several murderers awaiting
their turn for disposal,' and before I can realise what
I am to behold^ I am ushei-ed into a separate prison
yard. In an instant ten or twelve frenzied-looking
creatures shuffle up to me, some men, some women.
Forbidden to wear pigtails, their long black hair is
flying in Medusa-locks about their heads ; the heavy
fetters of remote tradition clank on their arms and
legs; wild, ragged, maniacal-looking, they address
^themselves to me with furious gesture and raging
speech. I can only suppose they have become dis-
traught with suffering and terror. They are every
one of them atrocious murderers, and every one of
HANKOW. 243
them qualified for the next batch of executions, though
the actual date of the punishment of each is rendered
cruelly uncertain. What do they want of me ? Oh,
money to buy food and opium. Well, there are thirty
cash (lid.) for you, dreadful woman, who poisoned
your grown-up daughter, and one hundred and twenty
(about 5d.) for you, comparatively light offender,
who murdered your friend. The recipients are quite
satisfied.
While on the subject of murderers I will retail the
account given me by an English resident at Pekin of
a scene of execution which he witnessed. A criminal,
tightly bound and in a miserable condition through
ill-treatment and terror, was dragged to the place of
public execution and brought before the presiding man-
darin. Knocked over, prostrate, his captors banged
his head against the ground, in imitation of the
habitual voluntary gesture of obedience. Now it is a
fundamental principle of Chinese jurisprudence that
a prisoner before he can be executed must not only
make a public confession and written acknowledgment
of his guilt, but must entreat that capital punishment
may be inflicted on him. Should he prove unaccommo-
dating in the matter of this formality, he is taken
back to prison and subjected to a little further torture
and ill-treatment, until at last he will recognise that
death is the least of the two evils. In this instance
the prisoner was perfectly amenable. 'Yeow'— or
some similar word signifying ' Pray do ! ' shouts
2 B
244 ENGLISH CHINA.
the executioner in his ear suggestively. ' Yeow,'
howls the wretch. * Ah, hearken, people,' says the
mandarin. 'He acknowledges his crime, and begs
to be allowed to expiate it. Go on, executioner.'
Whereupon that functionary, with a grotesque
affectation of scrupulous precaution against the sub-
stitution of a scapegoat, with a piece of red chalk
ruddles a line down the prisoner's neck, who is then
dragged back a short distance. An assistant seizing
his pigtail drags it until the neck is in a state of
tension, the sword descends, and decapitation is
easily and neatly effected. The bleeding remains
are then dragged up to the mandarin's chair, and
head and trunk are placed in juxtaposition, so that
the ruddled marks may correspond, in fact just as we
test the accuracy of a cheque by the counterfoil. The
total number of criminals paraded was twenty, but of
these only fifteen were executed. A certain number
are habitually reprieved just as the sword is about to
descend, sent back to prison for about a year, and
then brought out again. So that the miserable
prisoner is kept in all the horrors of uncertainty until
the blade is raised. But if reprieved three times his
life is finally spared.
There are three degrees of capital punishment :
* To be cut into one thousand pieces '—the most severe
sentence reserved for the crime of parricide or matri-
cide, and I have no particular quarrel with its being
regarded in this country of ancestral worship as the
HANKOW. 245
most horrible wickedness which it is possible to com-
mit. The criminal is stabbed and slashed in non-
vital parts for such a length of time as niay seem fit
to the presiding mandarin ere he receives his coup de
grace. Next comes simple decapitation ; and last of
all strangulation, which is held in higher favour than
the other two methods, inasmuch as the criminals are
then sure that in the next world there is no prospect
of the wrong head being fitted on to the body.
Well, we have had enough of this native prison,
with its spectacles of misery and bodily torture ; but,
though we may hasten from the precincts of the en-
closures, I cannot, as a faithful narrator, so far as lies
in my power, of native city sights and characteristics,
let you off from the consideration of one of the most
prominent features of Chinese life — the never-ceasing
action and tyrannical meddling of the civil power.
Here comes a mandarin's procession, swaggering
along, before which the quaking natives give way in
shrinking submission. All authorities in China are
surrounded by satellites, such as bodyguards and
police agents. The mandarin we now meet is preceded
by two lictors, with rods, in black caps, and two
executioners in red caps. Next walks his aide-de-
camp, his head protected from the sun by an enormous
gay umbrella, carried by two men; then the great
man himself in a handsomely decorated, closed sedan-
chair, borne by six coolies. After all, the terror with
which they are regarded is perfectly reasonable, con-
246 ENGLISH CHINA.
sidering the enormous extent of their power of life or
death.
A short time ago the countless mobs of the poorest
classes in Hankow showed signs of getting a little out
of hand, of becoming somewhat disorderly, and the
Taotai considered that a little mild but practical ad-
monition would be salutary to the mass. Accordingly
his underling executives gathered up, more or less hap-
hazard, sixty low class inhabitants, chopped off their
heads, and affixed them over sixty gateways. Why the
precise number of sixty heads ? Because there were
precisely sixty gateways which required this decora-
tion. These ghastly grinning headpieces retained
their position for so long that the sight and effluvium
became unendurable even to the Europeans in the
settlement, and the Taotai at last consented to their
removal. To gratify my wish, to confirm this un-
doubted statement, my guide searches for ' one, two
piecey head,' if by chance I may thereby still obtain
* good look-see.' No, they have all been removed.
Semi-officially perpetrated horrors are, indeed, of
incessant occurrence in these remote cities, f5r which
the head mandarins have always ready some excuse
equally plausible and hj^pocritical. Quite recently a
man was publicly strangled, with prolonged tortures, in
one of the above described wooden frameworks. Said
the British Consul remonstratingly : ' It is no part of my
business to take exception to the capital punishment.
But why did you not carry it out in a manner less
HANKOW 247
revolting to humanity and civilisation ? ' * Oh,' re-
plied, in substance, the Taotai, 'you are under a mis-
conception ; we were without the necessary authority
from Pekin, and we had no intention of inflicting death
at all. We merely put him in the strangling machine
to punish him a little, and while there he happened
to die.'
Again, a short time previously. Dr. Begg, the
skilled English official doctor, a most trustworthy and
enlightened source of information, witnessed, he told
me, a large crowd gathered round a flaming pile. He
ascertained that a Buddhist nun was being burned to
death. His allegation of a fact, which really virtually
occurred then and there before his eyes, was pooh-
poohed and hushed up. But how can we doubt its
actual occurrence ?
Will you next accompany me, reader, in my visit
to some * guilds,' as the Europeans designate certain
traditionally celebrated institutions of all important
Chinese cities ? The two selected for inspection were
the Shangsi and Tchangsi corporations, perhaps the
most celebrated in the Chinese Empire. The build-
ings alone cost over 75,000Z. each, an enormous
sum when the abundance of costly material at hand,
and the nominal price even of skilled labour, are
considered. They have been completed within the
last five years, and permission to view them was only
obtained after preconcerted arrangements with the
mandarins. These guilds, which greatly resembled
248 ENGLISH CHINA.
one another, strongly illustrated the absence of com-
bination in Chinese architecture, as in every Chinese
undertaking. For example, we were shown over a
series of halls until we lost entire count of their
numbers, each individually a wonder of beauty and
magnificence, and yet bearing not the slightest
relation to its neighbour as regards builder's plans,
purposes for which designed, or style of decoration.
Elaborate galleries could only be reached by pigeon-
house ladders, magnificent halls through coal-hole-
like staircases. However, this haycock of wealth,
and, in a vitiated sense, of beauty and art, when
examined in detail was of extreme interest, and pro-
bably constitutes objects without any sort of parallel
throughout the world.
Their banqueting halls were enormous in area.
The centre space was unroofed, as is quite permissible
in such a climate, and thereby greatly added to the
sense of vastness. A fountain played in the centre,
and around the sides the space was arranged in wide
covered archways. Here again is evinced the absence
of co-operation. The hall contains no central table
whereat, according to Western notions, a president
may exhibit his pompous disposition, and the members
bore one another with orations which are but
self-glorifications in ambush. Instead, innumerable
small tables to accommodate six or eight are scattered
about, and here the company unstring their tongues
in the ceaseless talk so dear to a Chinaman, be-
HANKOW. 249
cause as no one requires an audience, each man is at
liberty to speak simultaneously. At one end stands
the inevitable stage, destitute of scenery, but an end-
less amount of wonderful, intricate carving, which is
carefully protected by wire gauze, about the flies and
margins of raised platforms. There is throughout a
considerable amount of decoration on a large scale
in the way of arches, pillars, and gateways, and on a
small scale in gilding and minute carving. But the
all-pervading impression of dirt and dust mars the
general effect terribly.
Now I crawl up many a flight of ladder steps to
the galleries, and in an instant I am struck dumb
with astonishment, and — rare sensation in China —
with admiration. Assuming that one acre measures
about seventy yards each way, several acres of guild
roofing and ceiling are exposed to my view, and every
square inch inside and out is covered with porcelain
ware of surpassing brilliancy, delicacy, and beauty.
Imagine the treasures of a dozen Mortlocks in the
shape of the most valuable breakfast, dinner, and
dessert services spread out before you most neatly
and artistically affixed to the roofs of Eegent Street
in a bright July sun. There is not a scrap of coarse
work ; the yellows, the purples, the blues, and the
reds are of the most delicately blended colours, and
these superb, elliptically shaped tiles slope gently up
to the topmost ridges where at home we should look
for chimney-pots, and wind down to the eaves where
250 ENGLISH CHINA.
we should expect gutters, finishing off with twists
which are rather Chinese-ish and pagoda-ish, but
which certainly cannot be called out of place.
Eeally a few dozen of these tiles turned into a
dessert service would constitute a magnificent wed-
ding present. And the final finish to this splendour
of decoration is given by some beautiful dark-wooden
fretwork lining the porcelain inside and out.
Next I go over several joss temples. Will you
come too ? No — better not. I have already spoken so
much about them, and have still so much more to say
concerning certain remote and unknown shrines, that
repetition will place me in additional imminent danger
of being cast aside as an intolerable bore. I will
only mention that they deviate in no respect from
the usual type of every combination of Koman Cath-
olic magnificence and meaninglessness, of subdued
light and stifling incense, of the richest tawdriness
and the most repulsive priests, plus some monstrous
figures of Buddha, his wives, and several small devils.
But if you will accompany me to one of several
halls of audience or ceremonies, we can survey that
which is scarcely less wonderful and beautiful than
the porcelain roofs, and which is most favourably
illustrative of painstaking industry and undeveloped
wealth of this strange country. The roof of the large
hall, lofty and heavy with sombre arches like a
typical baronial hall, is supported not only by im-
mense dark-wooden cross-beams, but by the most
HANKOW. 251
stupendous pillars of the same material — in aspect it
resembled walnut — which it has ever been my fortune
to behold. Of these pillars, eight or ten in number,
each is composed of a single trunk which cost 1,000L
Beautifully varnished or lacquered over, they glow in
various shades of the richest dark mahogany. A
collection of seats, compromises between thrones and
arm-chairs, are canopied and shrouded by innumer-
able folds of lovely silk drapery, the original texture
of which is half concealed by a marvel of gold em-
broidery. Walnut-wood carvings are ranged on every
available space, and is strikingly relieved by gilding of
that gold, not brassy, look which only China can pro-
duce.
The ugliest objects in the hall are innumerable
carved and gilt dragons, with protruding goggle eyes,
indicating ubiquitous vision, and five appalling claws,
tokens which represent the Imperial crest, in contra-
distinction to the four clawed dragon, and as such
are supposed to confer extreme honour on the guild.
Around the walls are ranged twenty or thirty gigantic
gilded implements which are the insignia of the
guild, and are carried in procession on State occa-
sions, such as enormous spears, axes, swords, hal-
berds, and, most strange of all, a long pole surmounted
by a huge hand holding a pen in the attitude of
writing.
Perhaps those who in England vex our souls with
swaggering or with selfishly mysterious scrawls —
252 ENGLISH CHINA.
selfish because to decipher them necessitates an un-
pardonable amount of trouble — might condescend to
learn a lesson from the value which the Chinese
attach to caligraphy. Numerous carefully preserved
manuscripts, some of them two hundred or three
hundred years old, are disposed all over the walls,
prized not by reason of the purport of what is written,
but solely as specimens of perfect handwriting.
Altogether the general aspect of these audience
halls strikes me as imposing and handsome, the sole
occasion when to my mind aught that I witnessed in
China merited these epithets; and, moreover, there
is an air of Eastern golden magnificence and
solemnity about them which reminds me inces-
santly of the descriptions of the old temple . in
Jerusalem. To carry out the parallel, this court-
yard might be the outer precincts ; immense ironwork
railings, heavily gilded and stretching half-way
towards the roof, separate it from yon outside court
of the Gentiles, the illusion being further heightened
by a few grotesque, squalid-looking figures who bask
in the sun, and watch with never-ending curiosity the
progress of us, the strange-looking visitors.
Those who performed the part of cicerones are
gratified beyond measure at our wonder and admira-
tion. * Come,' say they, hurrying us away eagerly,
* we show you what belong to number one good look-
see,' is their pidgin expressed promise. What an
anti-climax! We are conducted to a Chinese garden,
HATs^KOW. 253
the acme of all that is finicking, trumpery, and
ridiculous.
The miniature trees, however, are wonderful. Oaks,
chestnuts, pines, peach, orange, and cedars growing in
flower plots, some of them sixty, some of them thirty
years old, but not one of them thirty inches high. To
effect this, the tap-root of the seedling is in the first in-
stance cut off. Subsequently the suckers are constantly
removed, the young shoots pinched back, and the soil
continually stirred. The leaves of these dwarfs become
by degrees smaller, and their trunks and branches ridi-
culously gnarled like miniature patriarchs of the forest.
I can only liken their gardens to the little plots of
ground appertaining to some of the earliest built
Wandsworth villas. It is a duplicate of the scene
represented on the domestic willow pattern plates.
There is a miniature puddle into which trickles a
miniature gutter; there are some miniature goldfish,
there a miniature arch-bridge and temple, miniature
trees artificially stunted, pathways wriggling about
like worms all over the poky cramped area, and
miniature rock- work. Every inch is economised, but
the whole is childish beyond description. I need
scarcely say that even on the assumption that one
trace of prettiness could have been discernible, it
would have been entirely marred by the inevitable
accompaniment of a heap of extreme nastiness in a
corner, and the normal overpowering stench.
Our Mandarin entertainer winds up his civilities
254 ENGLISH CHINA.
with a repast wherein he has evidently flattered him-
self he has combined the luxuries of China with the
coarse tastes of Europeans. Champagne, introduced
with much circumstance, like tepid gooseberry ; the
new season's tea in China cups, each of which con-
tains a pinch of the sweet-smelling leaves, sugarless,
milkless, pale, and oh ! so good ; melon seeds like
little chips of wood ; raw water-chestnuts like elder-
pith steeped in sugar ; Chinese pears, yellow and russet
like the finest jargonels, but dig your teeth in one
and you will find it inferior to an inferior swede ;
cigars, always good out here; and, to finish up,
five or six very stale sweet biscuits out of a genuine
Reading Huntley and Palmer's box. My eyes are
riveted during the meal on my host's astonishing
finger nails ; nails ! they are talons, projecting
literally about three-quarters of an inch from the
quick. He is elaborately careful in displaying
these beauties of which the Chinese are very proud,
as they consider them characteristics of high rank
and of exalted avocations which have exempted them
from manual work. We part with much ceremony,
* Chin-chin ' we incessantly reciprocate, and press
together the palms of the hands, by way of intimating
*I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient
servant.' Do what I would a European bow or two
on my part would slip in, but I fancy he attributed
it to a sort of St. Vitus's dance, and replied in Chinese
according to the usual form : ' Do not walk fast,' to
HA^^KOW. 255
which the proper response would have been to the
effect, ' Pray sit clown and take your rest.' Hand-
shaking is here unknown.
But ere I quitted these famed guilds, I crawl up
to one of the loftiest of its pinnacles, from whence I
obtain a complete bird's-eye view of the conjoint
cities of Hankow, Hanyan, and Wuchau, and then I
realised into how very small an area a vast Chinese
population is crammed. The entire expanse is a
vast sheet of the curved, traditional Chinese roofs,
more dismally black except where porcelain tiles
intervene, through exposure to the weather than the
dingiest purlieus of Westminster; perfectly level
because all the houses are of the same height, un-
broken by chimneys, and unmarked by those columns
of smoke and factory tpwers without which, or some
such conspicuous marks, it is almost impossible to
estimate the area of a town. Besides I cannot dis-
cover a single opening, I cannot even trace a single
street. Ah ! yes, those almost illegible lines indicate
the lengths of their narrow labyrinths, with their
eight feet of breadth. They argue, ' If room to pass
with bucket, what for use of largee road which take
up ground ? ' and in a purely utilitarian point of view
their reasoning is tenable, for throughout my entire
experience of Chinese cities, and indeed country dis-
tricts, I have never encountered a single wheeled
vehicle of any sort or description, except occasionally
a kind of wheelbarrow.
256 ENGLISH CHINA.
Perhaps the reader will now understand why the
extent of population is so uncertain a factor. That it is
enormous in comparison with the number of and area
occupied by dwellings is self-evident. But in the
absence of a properly organised census this mere
huddling together presents an insuperable obstacle to
even an approximately accurate calculation. A fire,
one would suppose, would be as instantaneously and
wholesale destructive as a lump of smoking sulphur
thrown into a wasp's nest. Well, a conflagration here
is a terrible calamity; but, on the other hand, the
sketchy construction of the houses renders their de-
molition, and consequently the interposition of a vacant
space between the flames, a rapid process ; and see,
the masses of wooden houses are intersected at wide
intervals by lines of fire-proof brick walls, which limit
the effects of destruction.
We pass an immense number of opium shops ; let
us go into some of them, and witness for ourselves the
alleged terrible effects of opium smoking, apparently
habitually admitted without question as an incontro-
vertible fact. There is the long, dark, low opium
room, down which are arranged numerous divans of
dkty, tawdry, scarlet drapery, on which are stretched
the smokers. There are rows of opium pipes, lamps,
and various apparatus, together with little jars of
about the capacity of a good-sized ink bottle, contain-
ing the treacly-looking drug. The atmosphere is
sickly and heavy, and perhaps one-third of the inmates
HANKOW. 257
are stretched in a condition of coma, one-third are
smoking, and one-third are lounging vacuously about.
Yes, I must own that the occupants are, as a whole,
in a miserable condition of stupefaction, and present
the aspect of emaciated but perfectly quiet, sluggish
drunkards. The silence and stupor are painful, and
are only broken by the rare sound of a child's squalling,
who is reduced to silent terror by the threat of being
given to that foreign devil, which is equivalent to any
English menaces of old bogey.
Now on many occasions I repeated my visits to the
opium shops, and always with the same result. I found
that these so-called dens by no means reveal any
patent amount of evil, except the wasting of money,
and as I investigated more and more the whole ques-
tion of opium, I became more and more persuaded
that the wholesale denunciation of our national
wickedness, apparently ignoring the fact that an
enormous amount of opium is grown in China itself,
contains a good deal of catchpenny claptrap. It
w^ould not be listened to by any reasonably wise man
for five minutes consecutively if the matter were
argumentatively represented and fairly weighed, and
if instead of the begging- the- question title-page, * our
iniquitous traffic in opium,' were substituted ' British
commerce and the exportation of papaver juice.'
To classify the abuse of opium with that of alcohol
is clearly preposterous, inasmuch as the influence of
opium does not in the smallest degree tend to mania
s
258 ENGLISH CHINA.
and violence — indeed, its promptings are precisely in
the contrary direction. The Chinaman detests beer,
wine, and spirits ; he will not get drunk, but consumes
opium instead, and it has been estimated that one-
fourth of the population are opium- smokers. Opium
represents in fact that nature of stimulant which,
however disguised, is used in some form by almost
every nation in the world. That opium hinders con-
version is absurd ; but, say the missionaries who
declaim, but cannot reason, in antagonism to wiser
men who can reason, but for want of practice cannot
declaim, 'Nothing shall persuade me but that to
further the commerce of, and to profit by large
revenues raised on, an article the use of which is
attended with such appalling evils, must be a national
crime.' No — * nothing will convince you,' if you
start with that preface; do not let us waste thirty
seconds in trying. It would be more hopeful to en-
deavour to persuade the total abstainers that to drink
a spoonful of alcohol is not an evil equal to prostitu-
tion, or a High Church person that to wear peas in
his boots and a hair cloth next his skin is not a
transcendently pious action. But if it can be esta-
blished that the use of opium is not an abuse per se ;
that indulgence in small quantities does not necessarily
lead to excess ; that moderation herein, like modera-
tion in wine, is the rule, and excess the exception ; that
opium in small quantities like wine, which ' maketh
glad the heart of man,' may be regarded as in many
HANKOW. 259
cases beneficial and in others as one of those enjoy-
ments bountifully bestowed to increase our enjoyment
in life — if this be established, is it necessary to add
one single word in refutation of the alleged crime of
opium commerce ? And those who are best qualified
to judge have answered thus to my inquiries : —
* Do you know many consumers of opium, and are
the effects always evil ? '
* I know an immense number of people who have
consumed opium for twenty years without injury to
their health. The practice is almost as common here
as tobacco-smoking is in England. Vast numbers
have practised it for years and without any ill effects
whatever. Some, but a comparatively small minority,
have become the slaves of it, and have declined rapidly
in mind, body, and general prosperity.'
* Then I deduce that you consider temptation to
excess is not so overpowering ; that a single iota of
enjoyment does not irresistibly lure a man to destruc-
tion ? '
*Most emphatically not. The seductiveness is
far less than that of alcohol, its results are far less
fatal, and its dominion is far more easily broken
through.'
* Does the practice meet with the condemnation
that it is fraught with much general evil of the mass
of the reasoning population ? '
* By no means. If indulged in moderately it is
held a harmless enjoyment, and deprivation would be
s 2
260 ENGLISH CHINA.
like depriving the poor labouring man of his pipe in
England.'
But I can adduce far better evidence than my
own cursorily gathered information. Dr. Ayres, the
eminent prison medical officer at Hong Kong, in con-
sequence of the bigoted action taken by the local
anti-opium league, felt compelled to set forth the
results of his vast practical experience and carefully
registered observations concerning the alleged evils of
the use of opium. Briefly stated, they are that
1. Opium smoking neither emaciates the body nor
enervates the mind if indulged in moderately. Of
course a man may starve his stomach by it as by
tobacco, if to indulge in the luxury he applies money
which should be spent in the purchase of food.
2. Prisoners who are old and confirmed opium
smokers when deprived of their opium suffer no
greater inconvenience than is experienced by the de-
privation of any luxury to which a man is habituated.
Neither their weight or their health is affected by opium
smoking being prescribed or withheld as a medical
measure. On liberation from imprisonment its re-
sumption is attended with no ill results.
3. The great proportion of opium is consumed in
the form of smoking, and not in chewing or drinking.
But when the two latter practices are resorted to, the
evils are great and unmitigated, and can be vindicated
by none of the arguments which apply to smoking.
May not this latter point be the solution of all
HANKOW. 261
the contradictions and misapprehensions ? May it
not be that the opium eater, who is comparatively
seldom met with, but who invariably offers a pitiable
object of physical and mental decadence, is indis
criminately taken as a representative of the opium
smoker, and that the sins of the vice of excess have
been laid on the moderate gratification of an innocent
indulgence. As for the opium tax, it rests on the
same foundation as that on spirits. It renders dear
an article which is harmless if used temperately, but
injurious if indulged in to excess.
I was once present at the receipt and examining
by a mercantile firm of a large and valuable consign-
ment of opium. The precious treasure was carefully
packed in ordinary casks. The hard earthy-looking
balls, almost in the condition in which they had been
scraped from the poppies in Persia, were of the size
and weight of a cricket ball ; cut open they presented
a laudanum look and smell, and needed but little
melting and purifying to transform them into the
thick glutinous mass ready for immediate use.
I induced a wealthy Compradore — Chinese agent
of an English mercantile establishment — to invite me
to his house that I might experience to some small
extent the sensations of an opium smoker's gratifica-
tion. There was the still, cool, quiet room with its
subdued light, its handsome scarlet luxurious divan,
and its necessary apparatus of pipes, lamps, and
implements, and there were the cups of tea. By
2Q2 ENGLISH CHINA.
direction of my host I stretch niyself at full length
and place the amber mouthpiece in my mouth, while
he manipulates the appliances. A lump about the
size of a pea of the semi- viscous opium is drawn out
with a small silver sort of skewer ; the substance is for
a few seconds frizzed in the lamp, then placed in a
hollow in the pipe stem, rather than in a bowl, then
frizzed again with the red-hot point of the skewer,
and I am told to inhale. About four whiffs of
rather sickly, sleepy, but pleasant smoke are the
result, when the small spluttering pea goes out, and
the fidgeting with more opium is resumed. ' Well,'
said I at last, tired of the apparent preliminaries,
* but when is the real smoking going to begin ? '
* Begin, why you are hard at it.' And after a few
more inhalations, which produce rather giddy, Dover
and Calais sensations, I arrive at the conclusion that
to derive the slightest gratification from opium
smoking, a long apprenticeship is indispensable.
But we have now been toiling through Hankow
from eleven till two, on foot the whole time, for
though a sedan-chair is possible, it is not under the
circumstances pleasant, through miles of alleys in the
closest contact with everything which to a European
is odious. 1 may fairly urge that I have had enough
of it. So passing through a waterside population
living in the most fragile of rush pens, called * mat-
houses,' such as might be suitable cover in England
for a few chickens, I make my way to the river's
HANKOW. 263
edge, and quickly jumping into a sampan I escaped
from the curiosity crowd following me in numbers at
this moment, as I counted, exactly forty.
The river Yang-tsze Kiang is at this point about
a mile broad, and crowded with every description of
boat, from mandarin junks to the ordinary sampan,
as densely as the city streets of London at three o'clock
in the afternoon. But our boatmen thread their
rapid way with the most remarkable dexterity, cutting
in and out with the nice calculation of a London
coachman, and at the very last moment avoiding even
a graze where a violent collision seemed inevitable.
My flagging interest is once more roused by this
remarkable water highway. There is a junk laden to its
gunwales with copper cash, and yet the amount esti-
mated does not in value exceed 5Z., or about 29,000 coins.
Money in this instance scarcely seems to fulfil its func-
tion of being a convenient means of exchange. There
are a large number of war junks armed with a single
swivel gun, probably a S.B. 6 -pounder, altogether
beneath contempt for warfare against civilised nations,
but possibly serviceable in keeping down those pesti-
lential vermin of Chinese waters, the murderous creek
pirates. There is a Chinese gunboat, built under Euro-
pean direction, and in general bearing all the dignified
aspect of a perfect capacity for the give and take of the
hard blows of work and war. But at this moment she is
employed in some pompous ceremonial connected with
the conveyance of city magnates. Kidiculous flags, with
264 ENaLISH CHINA.
burlesque sprawling five- clawed dragons, are fluttering
from every yardarm; bright canopies on deck are
extended over figures which look inappropriate out of
a pantomime ; tomtoms and cymbals bang and crash,
and the stern vessel of war is transformed into a
burlesque of a Lord Mayor's barge. Those miles of
hulks, those forests of junk masts, I know not whether
to calculate them by thousands or by the hundred
thousand, they represent the greater part of the
trade of midland China with England, and therefore
with the world. Without this foreign export trade
Hankow and its hundreds of thousands of population
would be decimated by famine, for nearly all the city
revenues and industries are derived from it or sup-
ported by customs dues.
Here, too, are the wonderful . . . No, I will tell
you nothing more as yet about the river life because
I wish to narrate it to you under the still more
interesting form which I witnessed at Foochow, and
because, according to the practice of a judicious visitor,
I would wish to say * Good-bye ' when you would
desire that I should yet linger a few minutes. And
yet I must add a postscript.
My departure from Hankow was marked by an
incident which will illustrate better than many pages
of writing the anomalies of the Chinese character.
One evening, on April 10, at about 9.30, when pacing
the deck of the steamer which was to convey me
back to Shanghai, I was amazed by the sudden simul-
HANKOW. 265
taneous sound of tomtoming all over the city, rising
every moment and increasing in violence to such an
extent as to render it evident that some momentous
event was occurring. I scan the horizon in vain for
a fire ; the only light is that of the soft moonbeams,
unusually bright this evening. But there is rather a
queer aspect about the moon itself, the upper limb is
disappearing. Here is a clue to the sudden com-
motion — an eclipse of the moon, always regarded by
the Chinese with awe and terror. They had sufficient
wit to forecast the event to within a few minutes of
accuracy, but not sufficient wisdom to divest them-
selves of an idiotic superstition at a phenomenon
which they could both prophesy and explain. No ;
for ages they have decided that an eclipse of the moon
is caused hj an attempt of the dragon, or devil, to
devour that luminary, and that it is necessary to
frighten him away from his repast.
A further portion of the limb disappears. The up-
roar of the tomtoms and the crashing of the most inhar-
monious cymbals increase until it might be imagined
that every tin kettle in the place had been called
into requisition, and at the same time fussy moving
lights appear in the usually dark town in every
direction, betokening universal agitation. Eemember
this is not carried on in a few slums merely, but
throughout the entire city, with its stupendously large
population. And when an occasional deep-toned bell,
tocsin-like, mingles with the hubbub, I think that
266 ENGLISH CHINA.
now surely the disturbance has reached its acme.
No ; part of the moon is still disappearing ; the devil
is still devouring her. The most desperate measures
must be adopted, at all costs he must be driven off,
and from the Chinese forts bang, bang, thunder at
constant intervals their heavy seven-inch guns with
appalling effect, with startling reverberations over the
muddy waters of the broad Yang-tsze Kiang. The
moon is no longer diminishing, the devil has been
arrested in his meal. Bang, bang ; the moon is recover-
ing her shape, she is once more perfect; the devil
has been frightened away. Sudden cessation of guns,
tomtoms, and cymbals ; the lights are extinguished,
the city sinks into profound repose, and their fears for
the existence of the moon are lulled to rest until the
occasion of the next eclipse, when the whole folly will
inevitably be repeated.
26:
CHAPTEE VI.
CHINESE RIVER AND TOWN LIFE. FOOCHOW.
After having travelled many hundreds of miles
through China, I have come to the conclusion that as
regards its city and country districts, its population
and its products, it is a source of immeasurable
interest and amazement, though accompanied with
little admiration and much disgust. * Is there not a
charming aspect or a beautiful view throughout this
enormous empire ? ' * Yes,' I am told, * unsurpassed,
at Foochow.' So I embark at Shanghai in the * Hae-
Shin,' 750 tons burden, belonging to the ex-' China
Merchants Company.' The captain, Petersen, is a
Dane, there are four or five English ship officers, as
many English passengers, a crew of about eight
Chinese, and, as usual, an indefinite number of Chinese
passengers.
The reality of how completely the mere handful of
Europeans is at the absolute mercy of the over-
whelming numbers of the Chinese is brought home
by the sight of rifles, eighteen in number, for which
abundant ammunition is handy, and bayonets osten-
268 ENGLISH CHINA.
tatiously ranged under our very noses around our
saloon. The precaution is most salutary. The
slight moral force which keeps the rabble in order is
most remarkable, and usually perfectly efficacious,
but it may snap — occasions have arisen when it has
snapped — and weapons in the hands of even a handful
of Europeans may then with prompt, resolute action
suffice to stifle the further progress of easy butchery
and piracy.
Eeally these coasting steamers, so far from fur-
nishing a traditional example of dirt and discomfort,
are models of luxury and liberality. Perfect cookery,
first-rate wines and cigars, the utmost civility — the
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company
may borrow many a hint from them. For twenty-
four hours we plough through the muddy outpour of
the Yang-tsze Kiang, the volume of whose waters is
so considerable as to tinge even the ocean for many
miles. Then gradually we merge into the bluest,
clearest water of the China Sea, which is almost
without a ripple at this time of the year ; the sun is
bright, the temperature only just not too hot, the
scenery of the rocky coast and rugged volcanic islands
between Shanghai and Foochow is becoming more
beautiful each mile ; to watch the aspect, the doings,
and the chatterings of our Chinese cargo is a source
of never ending amusement, and the voyage really
proves lazily enjoyable. Now we enter the river Min,
the mouth of which is guarded by two Chinese gun-
FOOCHOW. 269
boats of European construction and armament, and
designated * alphabetical ' gunboats in distinction from
the trumpery native junks armed with a single swivel
small smooth-bore gun. They are in close proximity
to several pasteboard-looking, childishly constructed
forts, traced on the supposition that the enemy will
attack on the strongest side, and will not attempt any
flank movement ; their armament is manifestly very
weak, they possess no flanking defence, they are
painted white, probably to afford a better mark to
the enemy's guns, and are decorated with a mass of
flags. ^
Between the forts and the alphabetical gunboats
are little groups of gaily bedizened junks, whereon are
gathered crowds of ragged soldiers, ready, although
there is not a vestige of hostilities, to convey garrisons
at a moment's notice to defences which are only
separated from each other by a few hundred yards.
Can puerility possibly go further ?
Now we are steaming up the beautiful Min, and
I am reminded of the scenery of the Italian lakes in
the vicinity of Ancona, especially from the feature of
the carefully cultivated terraces which descend in
endless steps almost from the summits of the moun-
tains to the water's edge. Look at yon Chinese
hamlet nestling in an adjacent hollow, its low uni-
formly level, chimneyless, smokeless, streetless mass
of buildings is crowded into a small area ; it is much
^ Written just, before the Frencla attack of 1884.
270 ENGLISH CHINA.
too tiny to be marked on any map. But look again
more carefully into details ; count the houses in one
small slice only, estimate therefrom the total popula-
tion. You will find it amounts to several thousands,
and in England would probably send a representative
to Parliament. Here it is quite beneath notice, in
exemplification of the deceptive and overwhelming
numbers of the Chinese population.
Pagoda Anchorage, formerly a roadstead for a large
fleet of sailing merchantmen of all nations, is now
being rapidly silted up, and is little more than a ren-
dezvous for a few coasting vessels. It takes its name
from the adjacent pagoda-topped hills, at the base
of which is a large China town and an arsenal,
which turns out a considerable number of smooth-
bore small-arms and guns of about the same relative
value as the mangonels, petards, and arquebuses of
the time of Queen Elizabeth. We are transhipped to
a small launch, cross the bar of the three-quarters of
a mile broad tributary river Yuen Fuh, and steam
towards the capital city Foochow, with its acres of
shipping, its forests of masts, its square miles of
buildings, and its 750,000 of population, but which
shares the habitual comparative obscurity of similar
Chinese towns. There are so many of them, they are
so remote, and really to Europeans they are scarcely
known even by name, unless rendered prominent by
historical ckcumstances.
Arrived at the wharf opposite +he handsome,
FOOCHOW. 271
prosperous -looking establishment and godowns of
those English merchant-princes, Messrs. Jardine and
Matheson, I am considerably baffled as to my next
step. * Why, put up at an hotel, of course.' Hotel,
in the European sense of the word, does not exist in
China. You perhaps might, though with difficulty,
obtain, in what corresponds to our inn, the shelter of
a roof, and of course food can always be purchased.
But the associations and accessories would go far
beyond the terms privation or hardship ; they would
involve contact with such disgusting horrors, that no
European would willingly face them save for preser-
vation of existence.
I have, however, a letter of introduction to the re-
presentative of Messrs. Jardine and Matheson, and I
put to the strongest test the traditional hospitality of
China merchants of which I had already heard, and
indeed personally experienced so much. What! an
utter stranger, with a reasonable amount of baggage,
with an attendant, swagger into an equally utter
stranger's house, summon the head servant, and
finding the master absent, state your intention to
reside there some days ; desire a room, or rather suite
of rooms, to be prepared, take possession of them,
order tea, and direct that the master be informed on
his return that you would appear at the dinner-hour
at eight o'clock ! Why in England the head of the
house would very naturally be dumb with astonish-
ment, and white with rage. Ah, but then in England
272 ENGLISH CHINA.
circumstances do not foster Anglo-Chinese hospitality
until it becomes a true virtue which welcomes a stranger
with eager kindness ; which makes the host honestly
solicitous to retain his guest as long as possible, cater
for his amusement, and regret his departure ; and for
all this he is more than repaid — of course assuming
that he is a first-class good fellow, and that the guest be
not a first-class beast — by temporary association with
a fellow representative of the old country, who with
him will compare recollections of the general race here
known as the * old folks at home.'
So when, at the dinner-hour, I presented myself
in the drawing-room, furnished with all English
taste and every English comfort, having arrived by
this time at a proper self-consciousness of the inso-
lence with which I had taken my host nolens volens
by storm, he barely and deprecatingly glanced at my
few lines of introduction for the purpose of ascertain-
ing my name, and then made me as welcome as the
flowers in May. Indeed, but for his unwearied
efforts to interest me during my residence at Foo-
chow, I should have gathered but little there about
which the reader would care to be told.
Early the next morning I was aroused by sounds
and sights which for novelty could be paralleled in
no other part of the universe. Immediately outside
my window flowed the Yuen Fuh river of pea soup
muddiness, which I have come to the conclusion is
the normal condition of most Chinese rivers, about
. FOOCHOW. 273
a mile broad, shallow, oily, and apparently almost
boiling under the fierce glare of the sun. Over its
area are packed, as thickly as herrings in a barrel,
ships of every size and sort, from the little British
gunboat the ' Foxhound,' with its English ensign, dear
familiar token of our country's empire even in these
antipodes, to the unwieldy, grotesque junks and the
toy sampans, inhabited by a race which philan-
thropy only can call human. What a snapping of
crackers and what a banging of tomtoms far and
near. It is the * chin-chin,' that fetish which stupid
superstition designates worship on board ships which
have just come in, or are on the point of weighing
anchor, in praise of propitious deities, or to deprecate
the spite of malignant powers who in this country
certainly receive a very large share of adulation.
Loud as is this din, that of human voices rises
still higher ; the struggling, sweltering, naked coolies
are not merely shouting, they are yelling, screaming
in incessant chorus, as though subjected to incessant
torments. Oh, let us quickly hurry through break-
fast, and examine more in detail and in closer prox-
imity that which will amaze everyone who is not a
fool. Every sort of cargo, from opium to birds' nests
and melon seeds, is being shipped or discharged.
Let us step on board some of those sampans. Each
is about the capacity of an average-sized Thames
punt, but as light and flimsy as papier mache, and
is covered with a gipsy-shaped awning, beneath
T
274 ENGLISH CHINA.
which an entire family, consisting of, say, father,
mother, and three children, cooks, eats, sleeps, and
has its being ; I will not say dresses, because they
wear no clothes worth mention, and I have an
opportunity of observing that the funny little
stomachs of the child imps are swollen to amazing
protuberance. And then, oh wonder of wonders, the
sampan is as clean and tidy as a new fourpenny bit —
the only clean Chinese object I have seen in China.
Sometimes, it is true, this virtue is rather marred
by the presence of a pig on board, but he is a small,
quiet, tidy, dog-like pig, and is unobtrusive, as though
ashamed of his own existence. Quack ! Why here is
a duck tied up in the corner, so sleek and fat. Some
day he will furnish a feast for the entire family in
this little flesh-eating community.
Look at the bright hothouse plants ranged
around the extreme edge of the sampan, they alone
give an aspect of prettiness to the craft, each of
which is thus decorated. And the mother sits, busy
with some feminine nothingness, on boards so clean
that you might eat dinner off them. Every vestige of
bedding, cooking, and household apparatus is stowed
neatly away in a hollow in the bows. The women's
pillows are curious wooden blocks, rivalling in
comfort, it may be supposed, the stones or sword-
hilt which is recommended in the * Soldier's Pocket-
book.' But the Chinese female's pillow merely acts
as a support to the small of the neck. She dares not
FOOCHOW. 275
rest her head on it lest she should thereby disarrange
that tower of starched hair which she has spent hours
in erecting, and which she contrives to keep unrumpled
for many days.
The children of tender age skip about as securely
as though in a large nursery. They shriek with child-
hood's terror of Old Bogey when I try to coax one of
these hideous little baboons to sit upon my knee.
Surely, with all the care in the world, they must some-
times topple over, or be jerked into the water ? Ah,
I see, you have provided for that contingency by
fastening round the child's waist a long, light cord, to
which a float is attached, and which, bobbing about as
though a huge salmon were at the end, enables you to
lug out the little amphibious animal. But only one
float is provided ? To be sure. There is but one boy.
The others are girls. Let them drown and welcome.
Here I must explain that the importance of male
offspring can scarcely be expressed in words. Child-
less Chinese will adopt a nephew, or buy or even
kidnap a boy, notwithstanding that capital punish-
ment is inflicted for the theft of a male child. It is
the duty of the adopted son to perform funeral cere-
monies at his father's tomb. This fetish, and the
mysterious honour shed on the possession of boys,
rather than pure parental affection, causes the utmost
anguish at an illness threatening life ; and should the
son be at the point of death, it is customary for the
mother to go outside the house and entreatingly to
T 2
276 ENGLISH CHINA.
cry aloud its name several times, hoping to bring back
its wandering spirit. All this honour and consideration
is not conceded to girls. Their existence is considered
an expensive nuisance ; infanticide, though theoreti-
cally criminal, is universal, the victims being scragged
at the instant of birth, aiid without any concealment
tossed into the nearest hole. A large convenient
ditch just outside Foochow was so incessantly used
for the purpose that it was found necessary to post
up a notice, * Female infants may not be thrown '
here.'
I hire one of these sampans in search of snipe,
which swarm here. The man acts as chasseur, the
woman rows, and the four-year-old imp boy is in a
frenzy of excitement, crouching at the sight of wild
fowl, gesticulating and shouting with delight when his
quick little beads of eyes mark down game. After-
wards I explore a large, muddy, back river, running
between a large, dense mass of houses. In my pro-
gress I make close acquaintance with what I have come
to the conclusion are the most comical and the most
interesting animate objects on the face of the earth :
the ducks of China. Horses, dogs — pooh, they do not
possess a tithe of the intelligence and sense of fun of
these most ridiculous creatures. In flocks varying from
fifty to one hundred, they are taken into the country
under the care of boys, or even of men, for air and exer-
cise, and to pick up their living, and there they behave
like a gang of mischievous school children : at one time
FOOCHOW. 277
they march in long lines as evenly as soldiers across
the cleared rice or corn fields, greedily gobbling up
gleanings ; a boy with a long bamboo rod * dresses '
them, and plenty of trouble do they give him. Now
play fair, do not slip out of your ranks to seize hold of
what does not fall to your share, but every now and
then some cunning flankers or some headstrong young
duckling makes a greedy dash aside to gobble up some
irresistible morsel. The keeper swears, abuses him,
and down comes the bamboo with smart smacks on
their fat glossy backs. The duck screams out that he
will ' never do so any more,' and bustles in his place
again.
Here we come to a ford which is so crowded with
sampans that young ducks must cross carefully lest
they be run over. They collect in a heap, ready at
a signal from their keepers to make a rush, like chil-
dren passing from one side to the other in Eegent
Street. There is that tiresome duckling again, always
giddy and behindhand. You are past bearing. The
boy takes him up in his hand, gives him a good birch-
ing, and passes on him the sentence of being shut up
supperless in chokee for the night. You may bet
fifty to one that duck will be exceedingly crestfallen,
and will take care not to be late again.
In steaming up the Yuen Fuh, our launch sud-
denly drives between two or three flocks gravely and
compactly swimming across, with a man in a canoe
paddling behind and indicating to them the required
278 ENGLISH CHINA.
direction. They are terrified at the inroad, but in-
stead of wildly flapping and scattering like English
ducks, they set up a chorus of frightened quacks, and,
huddling together, they crowd under the canoe of their
master until the danger be over.
This back river becomes wider, shallower, and so
thick that we seem to be floating on the top of ill-
savouring treacle. At last we come to a regular
block of traffic, and in common with dozens of junks
and sampans are aground. Out jumps the man into
the water and drags us, but, this proving insufficient,
the woman tucks up her — shall we say trousers ? — re-
markably high, and follows suit. ' Eeally, you might
have a little more natural modesty ! ' Honi soit qui
mat y pense. It is purely a matter of custom. These
Chinese women would hoot in disgust, my English
young lady, at your low-necked dresses and bare
arms. I must say this jostling crowd are perfect
models of good temper ; and here again I exhort that,
whatever be the irritation or emergency, make a point
of laughing and do not be irritable, and the mob will
seldom be surly or abusive or spiteful. They, too, will
grin, and be rather pleased at the pantomime-chaff of
the foreign devil.
At last we extricate ourselves from our quagmire,
and shoot into the middle of the swiftly running main
river, which spins the crowds of light shipping about
with the rapidity of a Niagara current. It is worth
something to see the dexterity with which collisions
FOOCHOW. 279
are avoided, the violence of the current circumvented,
and the goal of the opposite shore reached, though so
far from at right angles to our starting point.
And now I begin to be aware that my informant's
admiration of Foochow was fully justified. Close at
hand we have the animation of a large river sweeping
through a large town. Yet a little further off are the
steep, green turf slopes, whereon are dotted the decent
church which topped the neighbouring hill, kindly
emblem of a kindly humanity unknown in this coun-
try, the club with its imposing Italian architecture,
and the few European residences, some ten or twelve
in number. How charming do these handsome edi-
fices look, with their English gardens, flourishing in
all the splendour of colour and luxuriance of tropical
growth ! Yet a further stretch and we view the fertility
of a country, the natural productiveness of which is
such that, if the ground be scratched a little and a
handful of seed thrown on the top, in a few weeks
a splendid crop will be ready for harvesting. Afar
off are the * distant hills,' alternately turfed, wooded,
and rugged with rocks. Then over the whole is
that bright blue canopy, without which even the best
beauties of nature seem to be deprived of half their
charm.
Perhaps Foochow more than any other city in
China calls forth those qualities in moral superiority,
resolution, and dogged laboriousness which alone can
enable Englishmen to maintain their position in the
280 ENGLISH CHINA.
face of the overwhelmingly swamping superiority of
the natives in point of numbers and wealth. Here
we have no concession, not even a distinct band to
form a nucleus of action and influence of the tiny
community — the European residences are scattered
about the hills overlooking the city. We are com-
paratively fewer in number — about thirty-five in all —
here than in most other settlements, though the
aggregate of wealth at stake is inferior to none. Of
course we have a consul, but our rights formally con-
ceded or tacitly acquiesced in by the Chinese are un-
usually limited. Finally — and this is a point which
can only be fully appreciated by those who have ex-
perienced tropical countries — the climate is more hot,
stifling, enervating, and sickly than at Hankow, Kiu-
kiang or Shanghai. Hence it is not surprising that
intimacy is close, that hospitality is unsurpassed, and
that even a casual stranger has opportunities of be-
coming acquainted in the shortest possible period
with the ins and outs of the lives of the Anglo-
Chinese merchants and their employes, with their
points of excellence and with their shortcomings.
You may dine out as often as you please. Of
course you meet the same guests over and over again.
You will find them almost exclusively composed of
men — clear-headed in action, and energetic both in
business and pleasure. Their conversation is apt to
drift unduly into trade and dollars, but they are libe-
rality personified. Their gambling is considerable
EOOCHOW. 281
both in cards and racing, their immorality in many
cases more than considerable, and it would be well if
that homage which vice pays to virtue, sometimes
falsely termed hypocrisy, were exercised to throw a
cloak over their dealings with Chinese women which
at home would cause the transgressors to be rigidly
relegated to Coventry. Their houses are furnished
with every luxury, comfort, and taste ; that endless re-
source and amusement of Asiatic life, billiards, being
represented by eleven tables in a community of about
thirty-five Englishmen ; wine and cooking quite per-
fect, coolies and servants preposterously numerous. A
lively debating society, a club house, and racing asso-
ciation are maintained, the only drawback to which
is the paucity of members. Yet, after all, there is a
sufficiency of highly educated, conscientious, well-prin-
cipled gentlemen in this miniature society to render
the average standard of excellence high.
On several occasions at Foochow and elsewhere I
have addressed to the English employes the following
questions : — 'lean perfectly understand your resolution
to exile yourselves from England for a definite period,
to wipe out of your existence a certain number of
valuable years so far as the advantages of civilisation
and the enjoyments of a public life are concerned, for
the purpose of amassing such a fortune as may enable
you to pass the rest of your days free from the cares
of poverty. But this limit attained — and one would
suppose that to gain it every self-denial would be
282 ENGLISH CHINA.
cheerfully encountered — why do you not relinquish
what must surely be a life of sacrifice, why do you
not then return in content to England, and pick up
the threads of friendship and interest which, for the
time being, you have consented to drop ? Instead of
which I observe that a large proportion linger on
to middle age, even to old age, in profuse expenditure
of that which they have earned, as though they were
content to live and die in China.'
The answer has invariably been the same : * Nearly
all of us come out with the project you have indicated,
and nearly all fail to put it into execution. At first
we put by money; but example, and the universal
principle that only by the indulgence of certain
luxuries and the participation in certain expensive
amusements can life here be rendered endurable, gradu-
ally lead us into extravagance ; dollars in China are
scarcely more than equivalent to shillings in England,
and our annual savings steadily diminish in amount.
Then at the end of about five years we return home on
leave, and our previously contracted habits, coupled
with a resolution to enjoy our holiday, cause us to fling
away our accumulations recklessly, and we resume our
business in China precisely as poor as when we started,
and so the story is repeated da capo, until we grow to
acquiesce in a life-long residence. Besides the country
is no longer a Golconda, and a young fellow must be
exceedingly prosperous in his first start, self-denying
in incessant economy, and fortunate in speculative
FOOCHOW. 283
investments, if at the end of fifteen years he have piled
together 15,000L'
A position in a flourishing merchant's house in
China offers, indeed, an opening which many an
industrious, steady young fellow might think himself
fortunate in securing. Even the junior clerks receive
a salary of about 300L a year, plus an allowance in
lieu of messing and lodging, or provision for the same
in the ' hong,' which enables them to save and invest
with high profit the greater part of their income ;
while if capable and laborious they are almost certain
of rapid advancement. But the career must not be
regarded as a last resource of a failure scapegrace, who
has to be shipped out of England. Good antecedents
are exacted, and the mauvais sujet spendthrift will not
for one moment be countenanced. At the end of five
years he is usually allowed a year's leave, with half
income provided he return. But should the firm wish
to get rid of him, advantage is taken of the conclusion of
this recognised cycle of five years to intimate to him
that he will do well to seek employment elsewhere.
During my stay at Foochow I obtained, not with-
out difficulty, an invitation to a Chinese dinner party.
Our hosts w^ere four eminent Chinese merchants, and
it was a clearly understood arrangement that the
entertainment was to be in every respect exclusively
national, and without the almost invariable alloy
under such circumstances of the English element. At
about 6.30 p.m. our party of four Englishmen proceeded
284 ENGLISH CHINA.
in four sedan-chairs, borne by coolies, through many
a maze of alley to the Foochow * Philippe's,' or ' Trois
Freres,' at the doorway of which we were received
with a great deal of ceremonious politeness by our
entertainers, whose evening costume varied almost
imperceptibly from their habitual morning dress.
Indeed throughout China the clothing of the highest
and lowest classes differs apparently in little but in
fineness of texture.
We were at once ushered into a good-sized dining-
room, handsomely furnished, according to Chinese
custom, with much heavy grotesque carving, with
gilding and silk hangings, the close, heavy atmo-
sphere and the subdued light imparting a sense of
oppression. In one part of the room was an elaborately
spread round dinner table, in another one of smaller
dimensions as a drawing-room table. Buffet, divans,
and chairs occupied the remaining space. We were
forthwith introduced to four young Chinese ladies of
about twenty years old. Now, to make matters clear, I
will at once explicitly state that in England their repu-
tations would be considered decidedly ragged, or, to
speak more accurately, would have been considered
such before the female franchise had received its present
wide extension. But they were by no means Pink
Dominoes, and in China polygamy and the generally
liberal views of morality would accord to them a social
status very different from that which they would occupy
in respectable European society. Any semblance of
roocHOW. 285
a free and easy or disrespectful demeanour towards
them was instantly quietly and indignantly resented.
I have been thus minute in explanation in order
that my subsequent account may not lose its value
from the supposition that I am indiscriminately
mixing up demi-monde and family life. Indeed, for
an Englishman to obtain any personal knowledge of
the penetralia of the feminine home would be quite
out of the question, their daughters and wives being
invariably retained in the strictest seclusion.
Well, what is the general appearance of these
young ladies ? Their dress is certainly of the finest
texture, well blended, brilliant colours, expensive and
peculiar to the country, consisting of the national
turned-up Chinese shoes, loose trousers scarcely be-
yond the pattern of a divided skirt, and a loosely
fitting robe tied up close to the neck. They certainly
do not follow the habitual English principle that as
few beauties as possible should be hidden in ambush,
for their costume is the ne plus ultra of modesty.
Here my encomiums must cease ; they wear a few
trumpery ornaments, among which some ugly jade-
stone is conspicuous, and their head-dress is that
marvel of ingenious ugliness which we have already
described. Complexion disagreeably, almost leprous,
white with enamel and powder, eyebrows a thin high-
arched line almost approaching a semicircle, the
result of the incessant use of the tweezers, and two
flaring, inartistic rouge splotches on the upper part of
286 ENGLISH CHINA.
the cheeks. Now, what physical beauties has nature
bestowed on you ? Few indeed. Undersized, thoroughly
stumpy, and ungraceful in figure ; with long slits for
eyes and mouth, and a pat of putty for a nose, a
thick bull-dog neck and prominent cheekbones, your
hands are your only pretty features, and these indeed
are extraordinarily small, not bigger than those of
children of thirteen or fourteen, but without any
tapering prettiness. In fine, I can only call you
distortions of nature ; in detail not wholly ugly, but
when there seems to be some approach to prettiness,
the favourable item is so little set off by, is so inhar-
monious with, the rest, that the general effect is one
of distaste. Admiration, pshaw ! It would be more
natural to be enamoured with a beetle because of
its bronzed wings, or of a cockroach by reason of its
delicate legs.
So much for externals. Let us make ourselves
acquainted with the mental attributes of our Chinese
company, and although the ladies and ourselves
cannot speak one single syllable of our respective
languages, yet by means of interpreters and gestures
we are quickly in the midst of an animated though
scarcely loquacious conversation. Their opening
sentences are clatter and pout. Why, wherein have
I done wrong already ? Kept you w^aiting for dinner,
and you look as if you knew how to scold and to scratch.
Well, we sit down to what I may call the hors d'oeuvre
table, whereon are arranged dishes of melon seeds,
FOOCHOW. 287
almonds, sweetmeats, tea, and cigars, at all of which
we nibble or sip, and endeavour to set up a thaw by
that running fire of vacuous drivel euphemistically
called small talk.
*May I venture to inquire if you have had any
previous acquaintance with foreign devils similar to
ourselves ? '
Translated reply. ' Te hee ' (what a nutmeg-
grater laugh !) ' What an odd devil you are ! You
have not got a pigtail, and how big your nose and
ears are ! '
(No doubt, but your remarks are free and your
voice is like the crackling of thorns.)
* That bracelet is very pretty. Will you permit
me to examine it somewhat more in detail ? '
' There ' (suddenly chucks it into my lap ; then
gabble clatter, gabble clatter).
' I want the pin you have got on your neck ' (and
she makes a grab at my pearl scarf-pin, on which
the curious eyes of all the women are fixed). I
(trying to soften my refusal with a deprecatory bow),
' Really, really,' and then seeing a corporeal struggle
impending, * Well, then, I tell you fairly, I won't.'
Scoffing mimicry of me and much anger.
' Do you ever read ? can you write ? are you fond
of music ? ' and so on. But, in truth, to retail our
conversation would be a sheer waste of ink and
paper. Their minds are in a condition of complete
blankness and imbecility, but little removed from
288 ENGLISH CHINA.
idiocy. During the entire evening from seven to
eleven, and with an incessant chatter, there is not
one single sentence or the vestige of an idea worth
record. After dallying for exactly three-quarters of an
hour with our melon seeds and almonds, we proceed
to the dinner table, and enter on the serious business
of the evening.
Now I must do the Chinese the justice to admit
that, as a rule, they are remarkably moderate eaters,
except when it is a question of coolies or children
thrusting quarts of watery rice down their flaccid
stomachs, and in the present instance the main
feature of the table was, that it was crowded with
innumerable small dishes of unsubstantial trifles
which would scarcely furnish a good mouthful apiece.
Little shreds of cold chicken, ham, pickles, cakes,
preserved fruits, sweetmeat messes, and dried fish were
placed pro bono puhlicOy and each individual, stretching
towards the centre, helped himself at intervals to such
morsels as his fancy might dictate.
But in this case ' help yourself ' was to me a cruel
sarcasm. There was not a vestige of knife or fork,
and in great perplexity I helplessly twiddled my two
chopsticks, not unlike thin lead pencils cut square at
the end. Their manipulation, a mere knack, consists
in pivoting both sticks between the fingers of one
hand, and after a little practice it is not difficult to
grasp a small object with the tenacity of a pair of
pincers ; but at the first essay it would appear far easier
FOOCHOW. 289
to eat peas with a two-pronged fork than to catch
hold of sHppery Httle jelly fragments with the ends
of two slippery sticks, in using which you are not
allowed the services of both hands. Of course the table
resounds with jackdaw-like laughter at my failures, and
the women find endless diversion in applying their
own chopsticks to shoving various selections down my
throat.
In course of time relays of hot dishes are brought
steaming from the kitchen, and set down in the centre
of the table. Bird's-nest soup, of course — an expensive
luxury which is never wanting in really recherche
dinners. It is not a mass of twigs, moss, and feathers,
but a clean, clear fluid with a yellow tinge, a slightly
gelatinous consistency, and about as insipid to the
palate as dissolved isinglass. Nothing except in
thought to disgust one here, and as we are supplied
with little scoops like porcelain medicine spoons, I am
not behindhand in the swallowing race. Shark's fins —
humph ! — pulpy and viscous, one need be hungry to
enjoy them. Toadstools — they look spotted and deadly
poisonous, but Sir James Paget assures me that they
are nutritious as beef steak. Fishes' maws, that is,
the lower lips stewed into a snail-looking broth. Ugh !
all this mixture of unwonted food in however small
quantities, together with the heat, the charged atmo-
sphere, and the ' bouquet de Chinois,' is beginning to
make me feel thoroughly squeamish. Still the women,
who by the way annoy me by hawking, hemming,
u
290 ENGLISH CHINA.
and expectorating as incessantly as a forty-year-old
Frenchwoman, in keen amusement ply their chop-
sticks in my behalf. Shark-fin, toadstool, fish's
maw. ' Stop, please ' (half choking), * I cannot eat
any more.' But as I open my mouth in enunciation
of despairing remonstrance, one last tit-bit is thrust
in — a pigeon's egg, and a pigeon's egg which, according
to Chinese ideas of dainty dishes, had acquired a pecu-
liar relish by having been preserved for twenty years.
I hesitate no longer. An alleged inconvenience in
my boot enables me to stoop my head under the
table. There I spit out my accumulated mouthful
of filthiness, and to a similar receptacle I frequently
relegate during the course of the evening individual
mouthfuls which even my anxiety to be civil could
not persuade me to swallow.
Our drink is of extreme simplicity : samshu, raw
and cold, and said diluted and warm, both distilled
from rice, naturally fiery strong, and with a horrible
rotten rice-straw flavour. A small quantity would
render one helplessly drunk, and the Chinese deliber-
ately set to work to produce that effect on their
English guests. But the thimble size of the glasses
renders the preservation of tolerable sobriety perfectly
practicable.
After the incident of the pigeon's egg, the host
considerately suggests that we should * rest a little
from eating,' and adjourn to an adjacent table for tea,
smoking, and music. What a rehef ! The tea is like
FOOCflOW. 291
nectar, and the cigars dispel that pertinacious impres-
sion on my palate made by the decomposed egg. How
delightful will be the music, for these ladies have ac-
quired some celebrity by their acquirements ; yet evil
suspicion is beginning to dawn on me. Two slave
girls hand their mistresses a rude, ominous-looking
guitar and fiddle ; the Chinese host takes possession
of a wooden drum with a look of placid enjoyment, and,
ah ! spirit of music, which should awaken kindly tran-
quillising emotions and drive away vexed thoughts,
what a terrible yowl is uplifted ! The Shanghai
opera all over again, only in closer proximity. The
women yell with a discord remarkable in its piercing
effects ; the stringed instruments shriek like a con-
cord of field gun axles deficient in oil, and the tom-
toms bang out a dropping fire of wooden shots.
Loud is the applause bestowed on, great is the
pride of performance evinced by, these prime donne,
stimulated thereby to still more deafening results.
Their flagging energies are from time to time sus-
tained by the services of the slave girls who hold tea
to their lips, sipped without any break in the melody,
or the amber mouth-pieces of long pipes from which
whiffs are continually drawn.
After about three-quarters of an hour of this pas-
time : * Let us resume dinner,' says our host, and we
solemnly, formally reseat ourselves at the replenished
board. ' Gentlemen,' I announce in a ceremonious set
speech, ' believe me how thoroughly I value the hospi-
i; 2
^92 ENGLISH CHINA.
tality manifested by China towards England. But
take it not amiss if I frankly confess that the degluti-
tion of a single additional mouthful is utterly beyond
my capacity,' and my plea for mercy is recognised
though with manifest reluctance. But if I cannot
eat, I can be compelled to drink, and the mirth
waxes somewhat fast.
A childish game is played, consisting in passing
from hand to hand a smouldering paper spill, and he
in whose hands the last spark is extinguished pays
forfeit by drinking a certain extra amount of samshu.
As some relief to the horror of great dulness which
is now beginning to steal upon me, I make friends
with the two little slave girls who are never tired of
supplying me with little water-pipes, out of which
exactly three delightful inhalations may be drawn,
when the bowl must be replenished. Poor little
creatures, twelve years old, bright eyes, intelligent,
free from deformed feet, and of a type of feature
probably from the north of China, and differing
from the ordinary repulsive Chinese, they interest me
further from the melancholy outlook of their lives.
In this part of the world the vast inferiority of women
is acted on in a practical, systematical manner, and
though theoretically slavery only exists in a very
modified form, virtually the lives of these children
will be one of cruel and degraded bondage.
Eleven o'clock. — I can't, and I won't stop any longer.
So after a hand shaking all round, which is regarded
FOOCHOW. 293
with extreme wonder and amusement, for the habit
is unknown to the Chinese, we betake ourselves to
our sedan-chairs, and each of us borne by two or more
cooHes, our procession wends its way homewards.
This part is by no means the least interesting in
the evening's amusement. Our puffing, scuffling
coolies hurry us across many a muddy canal with its
antiquated high-arched span, through many miles of
street labyrinth, destitute of wayfarers, silent as
death, dark as Erebus. Then over the broad rapid
Yuen Fuh river, with its wonderful bridge of fifty
arches, all of which have been constructed with-
out the aid of a trowel full of cement ; then through
the Foochow Belgravia, where a few swinging dark
red Chinese lanterns seem to render the surrounding
obscurity still more profound.
In this business quarter there are still some pas-
sengers, and they are warned out of our path by the
waving of our lanterns by our coolie-bearers and by
their loud ' Hyah,' with which, proud of the proces-
sion they constitute, they imperiously intimate ' Get
out of the road.' Then, as Mr. Pepys would express
himself, ' So home to bed, mightily content thereat.
But to think how our repast made us not one whit ill
the next day.' The secret of this was that about half
a mouthful of each dish more than satisfied our
appetites, and that thus the aggregate of food con-
sumed was so small that practically we went to bed
dinnerless. The whole experience was one to be
294 ENGLISH CHINA.
eagerly sought out for once, but to be resolutely
avoided on a second occasion.
Yuen Full monastery in this district has the fame
of a local Lourdes or Loretto, though personally
known to an iniinitesimally small number of Euro-
peans, and hence is wrapped up in the dreadful awe
of mystery. That I may make an expedition thereto,
my host with typical magnificent hospitality places
at my disposal the indispensable house-boat with its
equipment of coolies.
In order that I might avoid the tedious windings
of the river about Foochow, the house-boat, with my
Chinese servant and baggage, started at an early hour
for a preconcerted rendezvous at Yuenki, to which
place I betook myself by cutting across country.
Setting forth in the cool of the afternoon, I was
carried by three coolies in a chair for over six miles
through a country entirely novel in my experience of
China, up high hills, down into deep valleys, across
turfy declivities, weird indeed with thousands of closely-
packed graves, and pine-covered summits, and through
fields in the highest state of tillage. The aspect pos-
sesses all the combined charms of beauty and variety.
Suddenly we reach a solitary little hill-top hamlet, and
ere I can divine the purpose of my coolies, they flop
me down on the ground, scuttle off without even a
grunt of apology or explanation, and leave me bafiled,
bewildered, and helpless in the midst of a knot of
wondering villagers who quickly gather round their
FOOCHOW. 295
strange visitor. Unlike the city people, they look pretty
friendly and very good tempered, and ready for a joke.
So I encourage those nearest to me, who never-
theless half shrink back, as from something uncanny,
by showing them the dozen little trifles which every
traveller carries in his pocket — bunch of keys, many-
bladed knife, pencil, chain, and, above all, a little box
of wax matches. When I explain that each vesta
represents a miniature wax candle, and with much
ceremony make a present of five to them, they break
out into a cackle of pleasure, and seek to propitiate me
by bringing me various edibles.
As I shake my head at each successive nastiness,
they hold a consultation. * What does this strange
animal feed on ? ' * Ha, I think I have it ! ' and off
bolts a man, reappearing quickly with a pot of boiling
water, and a cup, into which he puts a pinch of
roughly rolled but sweetly-smelling home made tea
leaves. Oh, how good was that five o'clock tea at the
Chinese hamlet above Yuenki, and how the now
familiarised villagers watch with laughing observa-
tion my every motion as I make signs to pour fresh
water on the tea leaves, many of which I splutter
out as they slip through the superposed saucer which
admits of the tea-cup performing likewise the func-
tions of a teapot. In my anxiety to establish further
friendship, I give one of them a cigar — a mistake, like
Columbus's gift of fire-water to the Indians ; they begin
to crowd round and clamour for presents. 'Coolie,
296 ENGLISH CHINA.
coolie ! ' I shout in angry desperation, and forthwith
my bearers sHnk out of a shed where they had been
having a debauch of tea.
The extraordinary habitual abstinence of the
Chinese from alcohol certainly is a great point in their
favour. Their sobriety is unimpeachable, it cannot
be exceeded. At rare intervals some of them drink a
little of their horrible rice spirit, called samshu,
diluted with abundance of hot water. But through-
out the whole of my experience never did I behold
one single Chinaman the worse for liquor. Virtually
they are a nation of abstainers. I address a volley
of abuse to the truants which, from their utter ignor-
ance of English, may have been assumed by them as
a shower of encomiums, disengage myself from the
now troublesome crowd, seat myself in my canopied
chair, which, with a chorus of * ugh's ' the coolies hoist
on their bruised, swollen, naked shoulders, and at a
rapid pace resume the journey. We have now reached
the highest point of our route. Afar off I can make
out the winding river, we descend the slopes, and
henceforth our road lies through low marshy ground.
The shades of evening are closing in, the scenery
has become extremely ugly and uninteresting, and I
am growing pretty sick of my monotonous journey,
and watching my three-quarters naked coolies as
they patter along with the measured cadence of their
naked feet. We have completely penetrated into the
region of rice swamps ; for miles the fields are one
FOOCHOW. 297
perfectly unbroken level of slush and water, through
which run slightly raised paths, but so narrow that
there is only just room to advance in single file.
Now, coolies, pray do not swing me and my chair over
the edges in that jaunty manner, and do pick your way
a little more carefully. A single false step and I shall
be floundering in that slosh alongside.
There are some buffaloes struggling with light
native ploughs through the rice swamps, wherein the
water just rises to the junction of their legs and their
bodies. Extraordinarily sagacious animals ! When
a European approaches in an instant they detect a
change of scent, and these mild creatures, once roused,
more savage than many an honestly swaggering British
bull, act accordingly.
My cortege passes alongside many of them as they
are released from plough-work at nightfall ; they take
no notice of my coolies, but suddenly they wind me ;
they sniff suspiciously, stamp angrily with every
appearance of fury, they lower their heads, and, good
gracious, there is no doubt about it, they are on the
point of ' making for me ; ' five seconds more and I
shall be rolled over in the two feet of slush adjacent.
Their driver holds on by the nose ring with all
his might, the coolies quicken their pace a little, and
the prejudiced, narrow-minded creature is induced
to forego for the present his malignant intention.
This little pantomime is repeated about every ten
minutes, the darkness has become blackness. When
298 ENGLISH CHINA.
shall we have passed these unutterably dreary rice
swamps. Hurrah, here is a straggling village, where
the oil lamps flickering in Chinese lanterns, and
torches flaring fitfully through volumes of smoke,
just give enough light to reveal any number of naked,
dusky forms, young and old, men and women,
shuffling hastily forward to get a glimpse of the bar-
barian and his chair. We thread through scattered
streets made of rickety tumble-down mat-sheds ; and
here again I am assailed by enemies in the shape of
dogs, not the Pomeranian shaped, fur-coated, black-
tongued, thoroughbred Chinese gentleman, such as
the well-known pet of the Princess of Wales, but the
ubiquitous cur, the mangy, lank, black, pariah which,
in servile imitation of the buffaloes, instantly scents
the Englishman, and in numbers almost a pack
pursue him in yelping chorus for about three-quarters
of a mile. Here we reach some rocks and cliffs. Our
path, picturesque, so far^as the rising moon now gives
sufficient light, in the highest degree with the large-
trunked banyans and the overhanging bamboos,
wriggles about in winding descent, such as might be
burlesqued in the rock scenery of Fra Diavolo.
Now we are at the river side. I see our house-
boat floating motionless alongside. I hear through
the darkness one interrogative English word ' Major ? '
in the quite exceptionally soft tones of my Chinese
boy. Wearied out with a long and laborious day,
and unhinged with indisposition I had contracted in
FOOCHOW. 299
the slums of Foochow, I scramble on board in delight.
No more rice swamps, buffaloes, or yelping pursuers.
Here, indeed, I am in the midst of enervating luxury.
The boat is pushed off ; with the combined aids of tide,
oars, and sail we are carried rapidly along the winding
river, past villages, past scattered hamlets, past all
sign of human habitations, into the profoundest depths
of solitude and silence.
The sense of isolation when coupled with illness
is extreme. One Englishman completely cut adrift in
a country of not over friendly natives, dependent on
a Chinese servant for the bungling translation of the
simplest directions, the tempting and easiest imagin-
able prey of the innumerable depredators. On the
other hand this is far more than counterbalanced by
the charm of novelty and independence, the romance
of the scenery, and the little, if ever so little, element
of the adventurous infused therein. Let me explore
my present domain, the house-boat, which in China
plays so essential a part in the sport, amusements,
and comfort of English residents. From my previous
experience of their proficiency in the art of ' No. One,
and how to take care of him,' I am quite confident
that laborious ingenuity will have been exercised in
providing for luxury. Our crew, I find, consists of
six men and a cook, in addition to my own native
servant. Below, they and the whole of their apparatus
are stowed away in a recess of the size approximately
of a Newfoundland's kennel, the whole of the remain-
300 ENGLISH CHINA.
ing available space being reserved for Europeans,
that dominant race who in this country ever claim the
best and foremost, and ever as a matter of course
have those claims allowed. Speed and appearance
in the ship have been made entirely subordinate to
roominess and comfort.
There is a most delightful, however tiny, dining-
cabin, with every ship's contrivances in the way of
cellaret, sideboard, table, rack, and couch. There is
my own cabin equally ingeniously arranged. Dinner,
cooking materials, and every description of drinkable
were here set forth with a perfection very rarely to be
found in the average English establishment, with all
the appliances and means to boot.
The drawback to the night was that the stamping
and shouting of the rowers, the heat and fever, chased
far away sleep. Those were miserable hours, of which
we have all had experience, and which we mark in our
memorj' with a black stone.
At last the shallowness of the Yuen Fuh prevents
my large house-boat ascending any further ; by day-
break we anchor in what I can best describe as an
amphitheatre of waters overhung with bamboos and
topped with perpendicular, rugged, red granite rocks.
Several * Kapid-boats,' flat bottomed, very light, and
specially constructed for travelling up the higher
branches, crowd round, to one of which I transfer
myself and two house- boat coolies for the purpose of
carrying my gun and other equipment. We then
FOOCHOW. 301
begin our ascent of the Twenty-rapid course. Two
boatmen labour at the bows, two at the stern, my
coolies stretch themselves flat, and in ten seconds are
asleep — these wise economisers of time are invariably
able to drop off at a moment's notice — and bestowing
myself under the large central canopy am kept at such
tension of admiration and surprise that for no consi-
deration would I miss a single glance. Once more
portions recall to me vividly Lago Maggiore, in the
blueness and brightness and warmth of the sky espe-
cially.
Yet the parallel is scarcely appropriate on the
whole, for what lake, however attractive, can compare
with the ever-varying, never-ceasing charms of this
beautiful mountainous river. Here we are in a dark
melancholy river gorge ; the water is sombre, thick, and
torpid ; it is tepid in its warmth to my hand plashing
over the boat. Here we suddenly emerge into radiantly
bright clear water, dashing along with the foamy speed
of a Scotch stream. Here are Aberdeenshire-looking
mountains with a carpet of what I am able to persuade
myself is Chinese heather, and with bright patches of
red granite. Mountain pines run up to the very apex
of the slopes, on the sky line of which I scan, with the
delusion of association, for the majestic forms of the
red deer. Here, overhanging the waters, is a mass of
foliage and flowers, of which the largest conservatories
in Kew would represent but a sickly and stunted
transplanting. Those bamboos, some very tall, per-
302 ENGLISH CHINA.
fectly straight, and uncompromising, and bedecked
all over with a foliage more lovely in form and colour
which no artist in his most high-flown reveries could
have pictured to himself — those bamboos prove that the
perfection of grace and beauty is not invariably repre-
sented by a curve, but sometimes by a perfectly straight
line.
Then there are the feathery bamboos, a some-
what different variety as regards leaf, more pliant and
drooping, less independent and vigorous in growth,
almost coquettishly dipping their tapering branches
into the rushing current at their feet. There are
azaleas in full bloom with masses of red blossom ; there
roses in festoons of white ; there orange flowers in
carelessly wild profusion, loading the air with their
scent ; there banyan trees, marvel of all trees, with
roots starting downwards from branches twenty feet
high, the tendrils swinging towards the ground, in
which ultimately reached inheritance they will firmly
establish themselves, enlarge to an enormous trunk,
and found a new generation. Then one's attention and
admiration are diverted to living nature. That concert
of songsters are they skylarks, thrushes, blackbirds, or
nightingales, for I seem to be able to pick out some
notes of each ? The dictum that tropical birds do
not sing is falsified here, for the chorus rivals that of
the Bagshot rhododendron groves. Hark to those
cock pheasants challenging and crowing as though in
Norfolk farmyards. Which are brightest, orioles or
FOOCHOW. 303
kingfishers ? both species flash in vast numbers out of
every bamboo thicket. Butterflies so beautifully and
brilliantly enamelled that a jewelled setting would
seem appropriate to them, flutter along the margin of
the river. And what a mighty fish leaps out of that foam
and swirl ; but he is not a salmon, he is only an over-
grown yellow, ugly, vulgar carp, an appropriate denizen
of waters owned by yellow, ugly Chinese.
Now the difficulties and interests of navigation
engross our attention. We have been sailing, rowing,
and even poling thus far, but the river is becoming
capriciously and alternately deep and shallow, and at
length we reach one of those long stretches of rapids
of which we have to surmount about twenty ere we
reach our highest point. New tactics must be adopted.
At one time we shoot oft' suddenly at right angles to
our original course, and crossing over to the opposite
bank avoid a cataract which no boat could oppose.
At another we are fairly aground. Out jump the
nearly naked boatmen into the water, lash their long
oars to the boat so as to form a sort of yoke, attach
themselves thereto, and with many a groan, grunt,
and struggle plough the craft through the sand bank.
At another the swiftness of the rapid would carry the
men off their feet, so they are obliged to wade ashore
and haul at a long tow line, gaining ground inch by
inch, and sometimes straining with such desperate con-
tention against the tumbling rapids, that I am in doubt
whether the tumbling rapids will not gain the day.
304 ENGLISH CHINA.
Though this is one of the district highways, we
have few companion craft in our upward voyage, nearly
all the traffic is drifting down the river. It is of a
multitudinous nature, and is largely composed of those
enormous rafts of timber whereon a temporary village
has been constructed, reminding one of similar acres
floating on Lake Ontario. As if in picturesque contrast,
a little five-year-old elfin of the woods darts out from
a thicket, springs on to an adjacent floating trunk,
thrusts out into the midst of the hurrying torrent,
and managing his raft with wonderful sangfroid and
dexterity, is borne swiftly round a bend of the river
out of view. Such a child in England would be
taking his mid-day sleep in his cradle, and a mother
would grow sick with terror if he were to toddle
within ten yards of the Bound Pond in Kensington
Gardens.
For nearly four hours do my boatmen toil with
that surprising Chinese endurance which knows no
diminution, chatter and laugh incessantly, and ex-
change chaff with the down-river passengers, to whom
I am unquestionably an object of amazement and
ridicule. Then we reach a point beyond which no
boat can ascend ; I must disembark and trust to my
own legs. Order of march : Coolie carrying my gun.
I scarcely know to what use I. can apply it — to shoot
these bright-plumaged birds, or any posssible game
out of season, would be wanton slaughter. However,
it adds to my dignity, and I think it just as well to
FOOCHOW. 305
retain the cartridges in my own possession. Twenty
yards behind I march with umbrella and pugger}^ in
mitigation of the fierce sun, while the rear is brought
up by my head boatman, bearing provisions and
abundance of soda water.
We strike straight into the country towards those
mountains where is situated the object of my pilgrimage,
the China-famed monastery of Yuen Fuh, through
a native village, where the everlasting yelping pariah
curs pursue me as persistently as a pack of draghounds
after a red herring dipped in aniseed, and where I
cause the same amazement among the inhabitants as
a Life Guardsman among the yokels of Devonshire.
Come, the miasma of this Chinese slushy-cum-slime
is actually thrown into the shade by the fragrance of
the orange trees which thickly crowd the ground in
careless wild profusion, charming in their covering of
snow-white blossom.
Then up the most fertile of valleys, up a glen rather,
with a burn which, cleverly dammed at intervals, covers
wide steppes of rice fields with exactly the required
depth of water. The sluices are adjusted to the
nicety of an inch, and the water is further regulated by
tread-wheels which the inhabitants work with never
varying labour. Here, however, are the usual narrow
raised footpaths running between swamps, and the same
odiously clever buffaloes, irritated by the scent of
a European, doing their very best to bowl me over.
Elsewhere the road is bordered with heavy crops of
306 ENGLISH CHINA.
corn, with sweet potatoes so extraordinarily prolific as
to throw into the shade the productive powers of all
other potatoes, and with acres of luxuriant tobacco
plant. The ground is growing very rugged, and precipi-
tous, and steep, and the toil of climbing under this
tropical sun is far more severe than ascending the
steepest moor on the hottest twelfth of August.
' Coolie ' (by signs), ' are we near the monastery ? '
and he points to a far, far-off crag, suitable for an eagle's
eyrie. * Well ' (in extreme dismay), *I must go till I
drop, but I shall never reach it.' Then for the next
three-quarters of an hour there is a struggling for-
ward a few hundred yards at a time, varied by the
coolie constantly administering to me pick-me-ups of
brandy and soda ; then panting up fresh crags until
in a lather of perspiration, nape of neck and skull
aglow, with flanks sobbing like an over-ridden broken-
winded hunter, I giddily stagger up to the threshold
of the Yuen Fuh Monastery, the Mecca of my pilgrim-
age.
Why, this is like the most picturesque of Swiss
chalets, with its light-coloured pine planks, airy con-
struction, and fretwork roof. And what an astonish-
ing site has been selected — a gigantic three-quarter
arched natural cavern, through the immensely lofty
dome of which is seen the brightest and bluest of
skies, but with its heat tempered by the deep descent
of the rays. Arch and precipitous rock-walls are drip-
ping with innumerable rills, which, in some spots.
FOOCHOW. 307
form stalactites and stalagmites ; in others, induce the
growth of many a tuft of clinging, large, bright-
leaved vegetation ; while at the swampy base, or rather
open front terrace, is an impenetrable tangled mass of
jungle, with every tree from pine to banyan and
bamboo, thick enough to shelter fifty tigers, or a herd
of buffalo. Chinese are insatiable in their curiosity
concerning aught that appertains to the human being,
but are as insensible as blocks to all the wonders and
beauties of nature.
My coolies impatiently beckon to me to follow them
up the outside ladder staircase, and, according to the
wont of the country, without a knock, and with your
leave or by your leave, we march into the domicile of
these holy recluses. There they are, about ten of
them, industriously pottering about household trifles.
They wear no specially characteristic dress, they are
undersized, skinny, grotesque-looking baboons of any
age between eighteen and eighty, rather like an
average set of coolies, with nothing extraordinary
about them except the absence of a pigtail, and the
whole of their scalps being shaved as smooth as marble,
which makes them extraordinarily ugly. Without
surprise or resentment at my intrusion they instantly
cluster about me with their habitual buzz of curiosity,
and I, in my turn, am bound to admit that I extracted
far more amusement out of these creatures than had
yet been my hap during my travels in China.
Noticing my prostration as I unceremoniously
X 2
308 ENGLISH CHINA.
flopped down on a bench, they bolt off for the usual
sugarless, milkless, teapotless tea ; the home-prepared
leaf as fragrant as flowers, and the infusion far more
renovating than my former therapeutic of brandy and
soda. But that pot of nearly boiling water about
which you are dancing in gesticulation, you surely do
not expect me to swallow that likewise ? Oh, 1 see.
I am to mop my scorched streaming face with it ; quite
right, far more refreshing than the coolest of baths.
Then, as I rest and set to work at my sandwiches, the
whole ten come near and scrutinise intently my
every gesture and mouthful, evidently exchanging
between themselves the freest comments.
By way of retaining my prestige, I repeat yester-
day's experiment and show off to them, as I would to
a set of infants, the various traveller's items I carry
about me, with the same brilliant success. Match-box,
many-bladed knife, pencil-case, compass, are each
examined in careful detail, and when with dumb pan-
tomime, appropriate to a Christmas mummery, I ex-
plain the various uses of each, their admiration and
delight are boundless. My sixpenny self-closing
tobacco pouch sends them off into peals of laughter,
but they are fearful and awed at my manipulation
of my small leather haversack ; concealing the spring-
lock with my hand, and simultaneously pressing and
blowing on the aperture, I make it fly open in the
manner with which most of us have at times attempted
to amuse children in arms. But my monk spectators
FOOCHOW. 309
shrink back scared and discomfited : ' This is magic,
and we certainly have got the evil one amongst
us.'
Yet one of the brethren, I fear of a dangerously
latitudinarian turn of mind, resolved to get to the
bottom of the mystery, surreptitiously twitches the bag
aside, and I watch him, unperceived as he fancies,
creep into a corner and puff away at the bag, with
cheeks distended ready to bursting. No result. ' There,
that white devil clearly is a necromancer,' and he
quavers with unconcealed dread.
Come, let us change the subject. They are hand-
Img my gun, and, though familiar enough with match-
locks, they are puzzled at the breech-loading appa-
ratus. They eagerly entreat of me to fire it off, and
two rapidly successive shots awaken echoes over the
hills and far away in a descending gamut of softness
inexpressibly striking, I might almost say, beautiful.
Over and over again am I entreated to renew this
amusement, and keen is the competition for the pos-
session of the empty cartridges ; what they want them
for I cannot surmise.
' Come, old fellows,' say I, with all the hilarity of
recent brandy and soda, 'let us be friends — have a
sandwich.'
They shrink back.
' No — well, do try a nip of brandy.
Violent dissent.
' At least join me in a bottle of soda,' making the
310 ENGLISH CHINA.
cork fly out with a bang, which once more renews
their quaking.
*Ah, that white demon is actually pouring his
smoking, hissing liquid down his throat ! ' Dead silence,
pause, and one of the monks is apparently seized
with an idea. Catching hold of my sleeve and
signing to me to follow him, he hastily drags me into
an adjacent shrine, and, ignoring the Buddha, eagerly
directs my attention to two images of demons which
the Chinese habitually worship to avert malignant
influences. Clearly he is introducing me to some
evil spirits of whom he supposes I must have special
cognisance.
But now I have an opportunity of examining
every detail of this most sacred idol temple. As
regards the mere aspect, such sights have lost nearly
all their interest for me from previous frequent obser-
vation. There is the usual carving, and gold and
silk decoration, half tawdry, half magnificent ; the
flowers, the subdued light, the candles and tapers,
incense, and highly adorned altar — such melancholy
counterparts of Eoman Catholic ornamentation.
There is a mammoth gilt Buddha, sitting cross-
legged, with the luring expression to be traced in a
fat elderly gentleman or a sensuous satyr. His long
slit eyes are of Mongolian type, but his other features,
strangely enough, are distinctly European and not
Chinese. Still more remarkable, the idols are inva-
riably without pigtails. ' You see we dress our hair
FOOCHOW. 311
like your gods,' said a European to a Buddhist. * Yes,
I see, and is your bodily frame of the same material,
brass ? ' was the ready retort. Eanged alongside of him
are his three wives, smaller gilt monstrosities, but their
features again revert to the Mongolian form. In a
modest recess are the two devils to which I have
alluded, and whence comes the strange fact that the
tradition of their appurtenances is identical in the
far East as in the West ? for they are represented with
horns, and forked tails tucked in semi-concealment
under them, but not with hoofs. They are dressed
in conventional Chinese fashion, and hold a hor-
rible-looking hammer and nail as implements of
torture. Some clumsy pictures close by represent,
as far as I can make out, the future sufferings of the
damned.
Now, my friends, I want to find out, but with
every possible care to avoid wounding your suscepti-
bilities, what are your genuine sentiments of respect
or religion towards these ostensibly most holy objects,
not symbols merely, of your worship. I carelessly
finger the sacred vessels, I turn over the incense and
joss-sticks, I stroll close up to the altar, and at last I
smack Buddha's fat ugly thigh contemptuously. I
believe I might almost have spat upon him, but the
monks evince not a vestige of withholding me, of
vexation, or even of disapproval. On the contrary,
their careless cackle and laughter is not for a moment
intermitted, and with increasing merriment they
312 ENGLISH CHINA.
actually comply with my request for a bundle of the
sacred fragrant joss-sticks placed in a corner of the
shrine.
The famiHarity and contempt with which they
treat their idols relieves us from the consideration
for feehngs which one w^ould otherwise show to the
professors of even a degraded folly. ' Buddha smokes
his incense and is glad to get it,' rephes a priest
charged with irreverence ; * why should not I smoke
my tobacco ? ' During a drought it is common to
drag the rain-god into the sun, to make him feel how
parched the ground is.
Then the priests show me over their domestic
arrangements, rather in a spirit of pride than asceti-
cism, but were the practice of this latter quaHty their
object, nothing could be more frugal and rough. The
item of their provisions which struck me was an
enormous accumulation of ginger roots, identical with
those which we transform into preserve, but which
they eat simply boiled in their natural condition. Their
source of water supply is unique. High overhead the
thick root of a bamboo has wriggled its way through a
cleft in the solid arched rocks, and, acting as a depend-
ing conduit to a subterranean stream, sends a silver
thread of the purest, coldest water into a reservoir
below.
Once more the brethren drag me off to another
temple and triumphantly exhibit to me seven more
golden idols and two modestly retiring demons. But
FOOCHOW. 313
I have had enough of so much which, taken on the
whole, is hideously, revoltingly grotesque, with the
occasional trace of that which is handsome. Well,
monks, good-bye ! I thank you much for your civility
and hospitality, and I beg to present you with these
two empty soda-water bottles (received with extreme
delight), and with this pecuniary donation for the
good of your monkery (eagerly clutched at, demon
though I be). You greedy creatures — more — you don't
often get such a windfall as this, and are trying your
tricks on a traveller. So, you admit this, and grin
thanks, and ' chin-chin,' and away I start to regain
my Eapid-boat.
My downhill return journey, freed from the scorch-
ing and overwhelming toil of the ascent, gives me
opportunities to note many objects previously over-
looked. The many thousands of cut-out steps, the
narrow path with incessant winding, now skirting the
edge of a precipice, now enlarging and running through
giant archways or beautiful natural grottoes ; above
all, the mountainously diversified and tropically rich
scenery, a vast garden, and the only one I could call
beautiful which I had seen in China — here, indeed, if
anywhere, ' every prospect pleases, and only man is
vile;
Suddenly there emerges round a corner a regular
type of the disreputable, ill-looking, country loafer
and semi-scoundrel. In England he would be a
poacher by occupation. Here he hangs about with
314 ENGLISH CHINA.
one of those absurd matchlocks, a tube of iron, stock-
less, and fired from the thigh by a piece of slow-
match — ready to pick up prey in the shape of bird,
beast, or human being. After all it is just as well to
go about always armed in this country. Some of
these rice-fields are used as small fish stews, from
which inhabitants are even now taking out the
occupants, and are carrying two or three coarse
little carp, or a loathsome eel already semi-festering
in the hot sun, as a relish to their meal of rice and
pickles. I re-embark in my Eapid-boat, in which I
am speedily steered down the little cataracts, which
remind me of a miniature ' Lachine ' on the St.
Lawrence, and regain that comparative colossus, my
house-boat. Then I cause myself to be conveyed to
the vicinity of another riverside object, a waterfall,
of which I had picked up a tradition, land on a
desolate-looking shore, and again with two coolies
strike straight into country. But the sun is now
hidden by clouds which are rapidly piling up into
inky masses, and my head coolie, partly by signs,
partly by a few words of argot which he has picked
up, and calls pidgin-English, intimates that we are
about to have a deluge — will I not turn back ? No,
begun, half ended. I may never have another chance ;
press on.
What began with a thin forest now thickens into
an almost impenetrable jungle, with bamboo poles in
places as close as stockade work, and a tangled under-
FOOCHOW. 315
growth ; through them, however, rushes a mountain
torrent, and by following its rocky course, and work-
ing tooth and nail, we make fair progress. True, I am
often obliged to wade ankle-deep, even over stepping
stones and shallows, but this wetting below matters
nothing in prospect of our drenching from above ; for
now the enormous thunder-drops are splashing down,
they come faster and faster, until they assume the
proportions of sheets of water. Heaven's artillery
crashes as if it would rend these solid rocks, the
lightning seems to blind one, and, straining every
muscle, I struggle forward through the jungle under
the fury of a tropical thunderstorm, the violence of
which it is impossible could be exceeded. And yet,
and yet, who could close their eyes to the beauties of
our path? Those beautiful red masses of hothouse
azaleas — I cannot but sometimes snatch at a dripping
spray, still more lovely in its bath — those orange
blossoms, wild and white among the tangled foliage,
imperiously claim my homage by the reminder of the
fragrance with which they load even the water-charged
air ; and those jewelled butterflies lend themselves
more readily to admiration from the fact that, beaten
down by the storm, they can flutter but slowly aside.
Higher we scramble, until among the crash of
the storm and the swi — shing of the torrents a fresh
roar arises — ah! the waterfall — but I can only discern
it dimly as I stand on the precipitous path, mid-
way between the stream below and the crags above.
316 ENGLISH CHINA.
* Walkee down,' imperiously shouts in my ear my
head cooHe. All very well, but that means walkee
up again. However, sliding, slipping, and scrap-
ing I find myself at the base. Yes, the waterfall
is very magnificent, as it leaps down in volumes of
white foam, hundreds of feet from the crags above to
the boiling cauldron below ; but, after all, I have seen
similar beauties in beautiful Scotland, and the sur-
rounding tropical adjuncts constitute to me the real
charm, so, friend coolie, * walkee back again,' if you
please, to the path above, which is only reached by
pulling ourselves up, hand over hand, with the aid of
the friendly bamboos.
Back again as fast as possible ; as we retrace our
steps the torrent is no longer wade-able in many places.
On hands and knees do I crawl along the slippery
ledges, the firm grasp only of my sure-footed coolies
saving me from sliding into the angry rushing deep
stream, which would sweep me away as though I were
a leaf on the surface. Not a dry thread have I on
me, but this is not so much due to the streams over-
head as to the streams of perspiration which trickle
from me in the midst of the stiflingly hot atmosphere
of this steaming jungle. There, in a small clearing, is
a wood and rush structure ; is it a sort of lair or a
human habitation ? Human, but it will be hardly
wise to seek refuge among these wild Chinese men of
the woods.
On, on ; but the coolies have lost their way, and
FOOCHOW. 317
the blackness of the storm is growing into the dark-
ness of night. At last there is a gleam from our house-
boat. I may without sentiment mutter, * Lead, kindly
light, amidst the encircling gloom,' and in a few
moments I have reached my haven, a dripping, pros-
trate specimen of thoroughly exhausted humanity.
If I expend even half a dozen lines on a matter of
such profound indifference to the reader as my per-
sonal indisposition, it is only to explain the sudden
termination of a journey whereof the interest was far
from exhausted. Fever and other indisposition, ma-
terially increased by recent exposure in the sun and
the jungle, at last prostrated me so completely, that
all my recourse to opium and to an invaluable little
medicine chest furnished by Squire failed to bring me
to time, and after a mental struggle I decided that
my only expedient was to issue the word of command
* Back to Foochow.'
The heat and the rain had reduced all my garments
to such a state as to be unwearable until they had
been subjected to the stove. So a fire is lighted in
the saloon, and I am compelled to sit on deck in what
I may describe as coolie costume. Partly drifting
with the current, partly aided by the struggling efforts
of six rowers, partly wafted along by the light breeze,
we speed quickly down the river. The storm has
cleared away, the moon gives enough light to tempt
us to look, and enough shadow to mystify.
Jagged mountain crests and wooded hill slopes
318 ENGLISH CHINA.
stand out clearly, and the normal silence is rendered
more striking by incidental sounds. Nightingales, or
their Chinese representatives, burst forth with their
entrancing *jug-jug;' a startled night bird gives a
sudden shriek ; hark to that shrill whistle from the
bank, human without doubt. It is quickly responded
to, and followed by the signalling flashes of a lantern
and a certain scuffling on the shore as we pass. The
creek pirates, or rather river marauders, are as plen-
tiful as blackberries in these regions. At all events
we have been carried quickly beyond those night
birds. My coolies work like galley slaves, and pull
away at their heavy oars with an unwearied energy
which is astounding ; and they now begin to lift up
their voices in a chorus of unearthly yells, which
apparently affords them immeasurable ease and
delight, accompanied with stamps of their naked
feet which cause to quiver every timber in the boat.
Sleep to the fever-tossed unfortunate — pooh ! — not a
wink till long after daylight. Then I awake about
twenty-six miles from yesterday's starting point, and
disembarking, buckle to for my six miles' walk across
country ere I can regain Foochow. Of course the
blazing sun nearly prostrates a European, but the
natives heed it no more than we should heed a couple
of degrees of frost. Oddly sheltered as to their heads
by bamboo-plaited hats, literally of the same expanse
as an average umbrella, and with their naked bronzed
skins free from perspiration, they dig and harrow, and
FOOCHOW. 319
SOW and gather, they drive pigs, ducks, geese, and
buffalo, and, above all, they dig-in manure. The
children run about as naked as the day they were
born ; the women, decently clothed, however, perform-
ing more than a fair share of work; and I witness
busy scenes of suburban industry which I had missed
during my previous eventide journey over the same
district. The anachronism of sowing and reaping,
simultaneously, identical crops attests the fertility of
the soil, the industry of the workers, and the favour-
able nature of the climate. Here are rice, beans,
sweet potatoes, barley and wheat, but no oats ; not a
sign of a horse, a few buffaloes, and no machinery
whatever ; the labour is entirely manual — even in
some cases to the extent of ploughing.
The narrow slippery paths running through the
rice swamps are constantly choked with passenger
traffic. The wayfarers stop to stare, but make way
for me with perfect good temper, and without any
attempt at hustling. Group after group do I pass of
the most jovial processions of coffin-bearers, singing
and splitting their sides with laughter. They are
conveying bodies to yonder hill burying grounds, and
these spread over an extent equal to that which I have
described at Chinkiang, but the graves are far more
elaborate and carefully tended. The only qualification
for site is that the surface should slope and drain off
the rain — no exigencies as to the head and feet lying
east and west. Every little tumulus is crowded with
320 ENGLISH CHINA
irregularly placed mounds, and every mound is be-
sprinkled with joss paper money, on which is stamped
in gilt characters a fancy value, destined for the service
of the ghosts. There are few inscriptions and still
fewer stone or masonry vaults, though here and there
is a large semicircular wall enclosing a family resting-
place. The space inside has been utilised by the
practical agriculturists as thrashing floors, and I see
many labourers, like Bible Gideons, beating out the
grain with a stick, or causing the buffaloes to trample
over the bundles, and effecting the winnowing by
exposing the products to the wind of the open air.
Foochow at last,
Moderate diet,
A snug loose box, and perfect quiet,
is the best prescription in these climes.
Shall I tell you aught about Kuh Shan, a monas-
tery in the immediate vicinity of Foochow, of almost
equal repute and sanctity with Yuen Fuh, but larger
and richer? Very little, because there would be a
wearisome monotony of description, although in actual
experience there was considerable difference between
the two. Let me, therefore, dwell only on these points
of divergence. Once more I toil up a mountain of the
same characteristics as at Yuen Fuh, and as we ap-
proach an outlying shrine the deep tolling of a bell, at
exactly equal intervals of about thirty seconds, sounds
solemn beyond measure, almost weird, as it re-echoes
over the rocks and dark, solitary, wooded hills. Here is
FOOCHOW. 321
its origin — a burn turning an ' overshot ' water wheel
constitutes a never-ceasing automatic bell-striker.
We dispose of our luncheon within the sacred pre-
cincts to the perfect content of the ragged priests, and
pick up a little waif and stray experience of the spiritual
exercises of the agricultural population. A few way-
farers prostrate themselves before the idol of Buddha,
grovelling on the earth, and banging their heads
frequently against the hard ground. One inquirer
into his impending fortune first knocks his forehead
and begs that the divination may be a true one, then
he applies himself to a priest, who shakes haphazard
out of a vase one of a heap of rolled up papers, each
of which bears a sentence which may be twisted into
almost any sort of prophecy, and the seeker departs,
apparently quite contented. Then to the cluster of
wooden chalets constituting the head-quarters of the
monastery.
There we see an oblong pond tenanted by sacred
carp, whicM as curiosities surpass their historical fellows
at Versailles. The moment we tossed a crust of bread
a few feet from the edge, the coarse creatures, about forty
in number, varying in size from one to eight pounds,
rushed to the spot, crowded as, but far less fearless
than, a flock of sheep. These naturally shyest of all
shy fish showed not a vestige of timidity. In struggling
for the morsels they dragged themselves over the backs
of their competitors, half thrusting their own bodies
out of the water ; they fought, they set up a chorus
Y
322 ENGLISH CHINA.
of loud sucking with their hideous leathery mouths,
and they afforded us a full opportunity, for which
anglers might vainly seek during a lifetime, of
observing their ways. Their existence is carefully
guarded over, and they bore many marks of an age
which their comparatively small size seemed to nega-
tive. One, a six-pounder, was distinguished above his
fellows as being of a golden colour, closely approxima-
ting that of the ornamental gold fish.
In the temple was a relic, the object of immeasur-
able reverence— a tooth of Buddha. For long our
endeavours to see it were fruitless. The priests
declare they do not understand us — they have no
relics here — certainly none so holy. But our
ascending bids of backsheesh reach at last a point which
induces compliance. We are led with trembling awe
to a temple, to its altar, to the small shrine thereon ;
a casket is unlocked, and there we see set, in the precise
fashion of a Eoman Catholic relic, an ugly, dirty,
yellow, gigantic tooth, which an amateur physiologist
would pronounce to have belonged to a mammoth
horse. Probably the priest judges from our anxiety
to inspect the object that we are inspired with a
reverential belief in the doctrines of his religion, and,
anxious to transact a little more profitable business, he
offers for a dollar to convoke a chin-chin, or orison of
monks, which shall produce a shower of rain. But we
at once close negotiations herein by explaining that
our present wish is for a continuance of the cloudless
sky.
FOOCHOW. 323
Quitting the large crowd of dirty, lounging,
despicable, degraded monks — the universal contempt
with which the ministers of superstition in China are
regarded is indeed fully justified — we retrace our steps
by a fresh route to our point of re- embarkation. The
road leads us through an infinity of stone arch-
ways, down a multiplicity of some thousands of
steps, and past rocks carved with the strangest and
most elaborate devices and curious inscriptions ; then
through villages scattered about the hot steaming
marshes.
In all cases clumps of trees are planted, apparently
with the view of absorbing some of the noxious
miasmas. But the Chinese seem to possess a talent
for giving an air of squalor to all their towns and
villages, and here too there is an entire absence of all
sanitary arrangements, the usual accumulation of de-
composing organic matter, and the consequent terrible
stenches.
Before I quitted Foochow I came across a German,
from whom I obtained some photographs of the adja-
cent localities. He assured me that the suspicion
and dislike with which Chinese of all classes regard
his art is invincible. On one occasion he offered
thirteen dollars to clear away some obstructing
bamboos which were only worth three dollars, but the
proprietor spitefully refused. Ten dollars is the low^est
bribe w^hich will induce even a coolie to allow himself
to be included in a group, as he considers that by
Y 2
324 ENGLISH CHINA.
having his portrait taken he brings down on his head
the probabiHty of a great calamity within twelve
months.
I have repeatedly referred to the serious and
incessant inconvenience I experienced, owing to my
total ignorance of the Chinese language. Why had
I not picked up a few sentences, either by dint of con-
stant association with it or by methodical study ? I
only abandoned this common sense intention after the
most mature deliberation. As for pronunciation and
grammar, the books dealing with these intricacies
are such as to strike dismay even into those who have
made European languages their study, for the Chi-
nese have not so much as a parallel to our alphabet.
Certain symbols, derived from sign writing, represent
certain root w^ords, which when combined, expanded,
and added to, make up their whole vocabulary. Prac-
tically, therefore, there is no such thing as spelling ;
there are as many symbols as there are words — and
these are variously computed by different students
from 40,000 to 50,000, though for ordinary purposes
as few as about 4,000 characters will suffice. It is
evident w^hat a prodigious exercise of memory is in-
volved in acquiring the mere rudiments of the written
language. Nor can even a slight colloquial knowledge
be acquired without immoderate study. An approxi-
mately literal translation of an English sentence is
constantly impracticable owing to the entire absence
of many corresponding terms, and a roundabout
FOOCHOW. 325
paraphrase only is attainable.^ Translators of the
Bible have been beset by a yet unsolved difficulty in
adequately rendering the word ' God.' Terms specially
applicable to civilisation, such as steamer, railway,
telegraph, artillery, can only be rendered by a child-
ish periphrasis. It is worth notice, as an illustration
of national churlishness, that they possess no corre-
sponding terms whatever for * please ' and * thank
you ; ' they ignore all kindly recognition for small
services. Again, the same word frequently expresses
different meanings according as it is pronounced in
a low or high key, there being four different tones in
the language. Thus ' shan ' may mean a mountain,
or virtuous ; * yen ' salt, tobacco, or an eye ; according
as the pitch of the voice is base or treble. The gradu-
ated inflections are to a foreigner almost imperceptible.
Great as is the difficulty of adults in acquiring Chi-
nese, greater still is the difficulty in preventing
English children in picking it up from their amas.
The most stringent rules on the part of exceedingly
silly mothers fail to prevent gabbling with fluency a
language which learned men toil in vain to acquire.
But the most serious drawback of all is the differ-
ence of dialects, almost amounting to a difference of
language, within very narrow zones. Supposing the
student after much patient labour to have vanquished
the difficulties of paraphrase and of rapid, inharmo-
nious slurred-over pronunciation, and to be able to
» See p. 47.
326 ENGLISH CHINA.
convey his meaning at Canton ; he travels a hundred
miles northwards, towards Swatow or Amoy, and the
former vernacular is totally unrecognisable. My
Hong Kong * boy ' in such a case was as incapable of
making himself understood as was I, and he declared
with much anger his inability to comprehend one
word which his countrymen were saying. At last I
discover him talking briskly with some local native
servants — but they are actually conversing in pidgin-
English. You would search far indeed ere you would
overhear a more ludicrous jargon.
In fine, is it worth spending a single week in a
labour where the results are so infinitesimally small ?
Or will it repay one to devote years in acquiring a
language so illimitable and ill-defined that erudite
scholars never feel they have mastered it, but are for
ever compelled to * keep it up ' — a language destitute
of the literature of science and art, possessing only
compilations of so-called philosophy, which have been
palmed off on an uninvestigating world as marvels of
sagacity, but which a closer scrutiny reveals as in the
main a farrago of folly ? I submit, No — waste not
an hour in a study as a general rule so useless. There
are clearly certain exceptional occupations, such as
missionaries and doctors, where a certain colloquial
knowledge is absolutely indispensable. Nay more — I
cannot but think that such a knowledge would be
valuable to the permanently resident English em-
ployes. Yet it is a remarkable fact that practically
FOOCHOW. 327
scarcely an individual among these educated gentle-
men who have spent ten, fifteen, twenty years in the
country can speak a single syllable of the language.
But beware how you tread on this ticklish ground, lest
you produce a dynamite explosion, the effects of which
are altogether disproportionate to the bulk. * A
knowledge of Chinese would be worse than useless —
it would be pernicious to us,' is the angry outburst. ,
* Our transactions are all conducted through the
native compradores, who invariably know Enghsh,
and were it even suspected that we understand the
vernacular, the Chinese traders would defeat us with
their own facile weapons of linguistic chicane and
fraud, and in the long run our business would suffer.'
These arguments are so superficial that it will surely
suffice to reply that every knowledge must be power,
and that the optional exercise of that power cannot be
otherwise than a potential element of prosperity. Of
course the real reason is that the task of acquisition
w^ould be intolerably laborious, with which arguments
I heartily concur.
Of the peculiarities, good and bad, of the Chinese
intellect in respect of instruction, I once had experi-
ence — perhaps rather a favourable one — in one of my
' boys ' of about twenty-three, who after two or three
unsuccessful attempts at persuasion, at least induced
me to undertake to teach him to read and write our
language, of which acquirement he was entirely igno-
rant. He was, however, fairly versed in a colloquial
328 ENaLISH CHINA.
knowledge, and was of an intelligence considerably
above the average. At first his progress in reading
was startlingly quick— at last it w^as portentously
slow. He exhibited wonderful powers of memory, but
a singular absence of powers of deduction. I could
easily teach him the spelling and pronunciation of
chrononhotonthologos and latitudinarianism, but if
with patient endeavour I explained to him that b-o-o-t
must spell * boot,' and then asked for the reading of
r-o-o-t, the chances were that the reply would be
' great coat ' or ' umbrella.' Similarly in wTiting, in
an inconceivably short time he picked up the knack
of caligraphy ; so much so, that I was disconcerted
at his reproduction of his master's handwriting to an
absurd extent of accuracy. Often was I compelled to
inquire of him, ' Where does my copy end and where
does your exercise begin ? ' But when we advanced
to intelligent dictation, still more to the construction
of simple original sentences, he was as much at sea
as a child of seven years old. His laboriousness was
beyond praise, his artfulness in inveigling me to give
him a few extra minutes of instruction was touching
— and yet at the end of three months' regular per-
sistent teaching, my feeling was one of disappoint-
ment. A dull European scholar would in my opinion
be more encouraging in the long run.
Here, for the present, ends the narrative of my
experiences of the Far East. I am confident that my
facts and deductions will be flatly contradicted by at
FOOCHOW. 329
least one class of individuals — the ' twenty-years-in-
the-country-and-speak-the-language ' men, who resent
the most evident propositions enunciated by unpre-
judiced newcomers. Forgetful or ignorant of the
Western world, and ignorant of their own ignorance,
they insist that we should disbelieve all we have
actually seen and heard. And though I have laboured
to write truly and impartially, how, as Mr. W. Cooke
says in ' China,' can I hope to escape inaccuracies in
speaking of a country which represents one mass of
contradictions — of a country where roses have no fra-
grance, the women no petticoats, and the magistrates
no honour; where old men fly kites, and puzzled
people scratch their backs instead of their heads ;
where the seat of honour is on the left, and the abode
of intellect is in the stomach ; where to take off your
hat is insolent, and to wear white is to wear mourn-
ing ; where, finally, there is a. literature without an
alphabet, and a language without a grammar ?
INDEX.
ABO
Aborigines near Foochow, 295
Agriculture, 102, 141, 161, 319
Ancestral worship, 189, 190, 201
Anglo-Chinese, 30, 280
Animosity towards Europeans,
229
Anomalies, national, 329
Bank at Hong Kong, 7
Barbers, 231
Bargaining, system of, 227
Bell, automatic, 321
Bird's-nest soup, 289
Boat. See Eapid-boat and House-
boat
'Boys,' Chinese, 44, 327
Brick tea, 156
Buddhist monks, 307, 322
Buffaloes, animosity towards
Europeans, 228, 297, 305
Cangue, 241
Carp, 321
Children, importance of male,
275
Chinese submissiveness, 67, 230 ;
inability to comprehend Eng-
lish character, 101 ; suppres-
sion of knowledge, 128 ; in-
capacity for gratitude, 185,
191 ; courage, deficiency of,
222 ; beauty, low type of, 286 ;
conversation, 286 ; temperance,
296
Chinkiang, 124
Cholera, 165
Chopsticks, 288
FOO
Climate, Chinese dread of wet,
21 ; tropical downpour, 22 ;
heat of, 23; health of, 28;
unsuitable for children, 28
Compradores, 327
Devil-woeship, 311
Dinner-party at Hong Kong, 31
— Chinese, 284
Doctors, 163
Dogs, pariah, 298
Dragon-devouring moon, 264
Drainage, neglect of, 222
Dress, native, 16, 21
Ducks, extraordinary numbers of,
136
Ducks, sagacity of, 277
Eating, Chinese method of, 119
Eggs, decomposed, a luxury, 291
Emotions, expression of, 236
Employe, career of English, 283
Executions, 243
Extravagance of Anglo-Chinese,
281
Eye, extraction of, 168
Feet, deformed, 169, 173
Fever, 165
Firewalls, 256
Fish, coarseness of, 233
Foliage, 301
Foochow, arrival at, 270 ; scenery,
279 ; social life in, 280
Foochow Mission, 187
Food, Chinese, 73, 254, 289
332
INDEX
FEE
French administration at Shang-
hai, 75-78
Funeral, Chinese, 14, 235
— military, 53
Gardens, botanical, 27 ; private,
253
Gateways decorated with heads,
246
Graves, at Shanghai, 105 ; at
Chinkiang, 126; at Yuenki,
309
Groaning of coolies, 234
Guilds, 247
Hankow, 146; precautions against
revolt, 149 ; exploration of city,
216 ; streets, 217 ; guilds, 247
Hanyan, 146
Happy Valley, 18
Health, 19
Hong Kong, ignorance concern-
ing, 1 ; harbour, 3 ; hos-
pitality, 4 ; houses, 6 ; popula-
tion, 16 ; cemetery, 18 ; Sun-
day at, 41 ; native quarter, 48 ;
Queen's birthday parade, 51 ;
defences, 58 ; financial statis-
tics, 62 ; acquisition of, 63
Honkiew, 74
Hospitality, 272
Hospitals, 169, 180
House-boat, 299
Hwangpoo Eiver, 66-69
PEE
KlUKIANG, 1
Kowloon, 60
Kuh Shan, 320
Ladies, Chinese, 285
Language, knowledge of Chinese,
324
Lascars, gun, 57
Machinery, absence of, 228
Mail, arrival of, 42
Mandarin pageantry, 245, 263
Medical Missions, 167, 178
Medicines, 164
Min, Eiver, forts at mouth of, 269
Missioimries, P^re Gannier, 121
ill success of, 185 ; Foochow
labours, 187 ; difficulties, 189
at Zic-a-wei, 193 ; opening for
200 ; success of Eonian Catho
lies, 201 ; failure of Protestants
203 ; their indifference, 205
remedies of defects, 211
Money, nature of currency, 159,
227, 263
Music, 110, 291
Musquitoes, 40
Nankin, 132
Navigation, difficulties of river,
303
Night scenery, 347
Idols, 236, 310
Ignorance respecting Europe, 198
Imitative powers, 328
Infanticide, 276
Inland Mission, 209
Innovations, aversion to, 128
Insects, 37
Instruction, religious, 177, 186
Jinricksha. Sec Eicksha
Joss-houses, 237
Jungle, 315
Op/i'.ii -HOUSES, 256 ; opium, exag-
geration of evil, 257 ; examin-
ation of samples, 261 ; experi-
ence of smoking, 262
* Orphan ' Island, 135
Pagoda anchorage, 270
Passengers, mixed nationalities
of, 116
' Peak,' 34
Peep-shows, 235
INDEX
333
PER
Perfumes, 225
Pheasants, gold, 160 ; Beeves'
161
Photography, 323
Pidgin-English, 46, 326
Piracy, 61, 347
Police court at Shanghai, 85
Ponies, 97
Population on rivers, 140
Porcelain tiles, 249
Portuguese in China, 49
Prisons, 239
Procession, religious, 237
Quarrels, street, 230
ZIC
Soldiers' daily routine, 56
Sport, 104, 136
Stanley village, 61
Street sights, 220
Surgical operations, 166
Tea, brick, 156
— judging, 154
— tasting, 150
Temples, 202, 310, 322
Theatre at Shanghai, 108
Thunderstorms, 26, 315
Toadstools, 289
Torture, 241
Trees, miniature, 253
Tungliu, 134
Kacing, 97
Railways, 129
Rapid-boat, 300, 314
Ricksha, 12
River life, 273
Roads, 126
Robbers, 33
Roofs, decoration of, 249
Routine of a hot day, 22
Samshu, 290
Schools, 171, 181
Science, Chinese, a delusion, 196
Sedan-chairs, 12
Shanghai, river approach, 66 ;
general aspect, 68-70 ; boun-
daries, 72 ; French concession,
74 ; history, 78 ; form of
government, 80; statistics, 82 ;
social life, 93 ; Sunday at, 95,
98 ; gambling, 96 ; suburbs, 99
Ships, facilities for rising of na-
tive passengers, 117
Sickaway. See Zic-a-wei
Singing, 110, 291
Slaves, 262
Smells, foul, 223
Snipe, 16
Uneducated Chinese women, 286
Victoria, town of, 11
Villages, Chinese, 107, 132
Voices, inharmonious, 219
Waterfall, 316
Writing, excellence of, 252
Wuchau, 146
Wuhu, 136
Yamens, 238
Yang-tsze-kiang River, 116 ;
shifting of bed, 125, 145;
scenery, 132; unknown to
travellers, 144 ; magnitude and
riches, 145 ; a crowded high-
way, 263
Yuen Fuh Monastery, 306
— River, 272, 301
Yuenki, 296
Zic-a-wei, Missionary station at,
193
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