after the conclusion of the lecture in the afternoon, the passengers of the two ships had another frolic, as captain ringgold called it, and then dined in the cabin; after which those from the blanche "went home," as the ladies termed it.
towards the close of the following day, while the passengers of the guardian-mother were seated on the promenade, the lookout forward shouted, "land, ho!" the announcement caused a sensation, as usual, though it was an old story. it was reported off the port bow; and the captain said it was lema island, a considerable distance from hong-kong.
"the chinese name of hong-kong is hiang-kiang, which means 'sweet waters,'" said the commander. "it is a ridge of rocks, the highest point of which is over eighteen hundred feet above the water. it is ninety miles south by east of canton. the island has an area of twenty-nine square miles, and is not more than half a mile from the main shore. it is a barren rock, and you will hardly see a speck of vegetation on the whole of it. in the south-west corner of the island is the city of victoria, with a[322] population of two hundred and twenty-one thousand; and it is one of the great centres of trade with western nations. the principal import is opium, and the principal exports are tea and silk. we shall anchor soon in its splendid harbor."
an english pilot was taken; and at sunset the ship was at anchor, and the party had abundant occupation in observing the rugged shores, the shipping that filled the harbor, and especially the chinese boats, in charge of boat-women generally. a few junks were in sight; and they had seen several of them among the islands which form an archipelago at the mouth of canton river, extending some distance up the stream.
"there are a number of hotels here with english names," said the captain at dinner; "but i shall not trouble you to take a vote on the question of going to one of them, for we shall not remain here long, not more than one day. our steamers can go up to canton; but i think we had better go up in one of the regular steamers, not chinese."
after breakfast the next morning, the first thing in order was to ascend the promontory for the view it would afford. but they could not walk up, it was so difficult and tiresome. before they left the ship the american consul visited her, and proffered his assistance to the tourists; for he had read about the ships in the papers of some of the ports they had visited.
this gentleman was very kind and very polite, and[323] while he was on board the party from the blanche came to the ship in the steam-launch. he was introduced to everybody, and advised the travellers to take chinese sampans for their visit to the shore, for the novelty of the thing. the water around the ship was covered with them, and a sufficient number of them were taken to accommodate the party. "the colonel," as the consul was generally called, talked "pidgin" english, which is practically a dialect in itself, to the boat-women.
the captain, mrs. belgrave, the colonel, and a few others went in the first sampan, and the lady was pleased with the women in charge of the craft; and several children were in a coop at the stern. the price of the craft was ten cents for half an hour. in a few minutes they were landed at the town; and then a crowd of coolies, as the laborers are called here, surrounded the party with sedans and rickshaws, and all were anxious for a job. the passengers waited till all the company had landed, and then took sedans or rickshaws for the hong-kong hotel.
it required twenty of them to accommodate the party. the commander and the consul went into the hotel; and a lunch, or tiffin as it is called here as in india, was ordered for the tourists at one o'clock. then the colonel instructed the coolies where to go, and the procession started for a round in the city. the buildings are constructed of granite, which is the material of the surrounding heights, the dwellings with verandas.[324]
"how is the weather here, colonel?" asked the captain, when they stopped to examine a locality.
"the average temperature is seventy-five; and that, of course, gives us some hot days in summer, which is a rainy season. thunder-storms come often; and once in a while a typhoon breaks in upon us, sometimes doing an immense amount of damage," replied the consul. "but the climate is not unhealthy. if the town had been built around the corner of the island, it would have been cooler, though we could not have had this magnificent harbor."
the company had all descended when a stop was made; and most of them insisted upon walking along queen's road in order to have a better opportunity to look into the stores, and see the street traders, for most of the chinese pursue their business in the open air. the stores were filled with the curious goods peculiar to the east, such as china crapes, porcelain vases, and other wares, and camphor-wood boxes, proof against moths. the shop people were well dressed and extremely polite. several stores were visited, those indicated by the colonel.
one man, who appeared to be the "boss," sat at a desk with a little brush, or camel's-hair pencil, for the natives do not write with pens, and made a tea-chest character in a kind of book for every article sold. the salesmen were very skilful in handling the goods, and showing them in the most tempting manner. mrs. belgrave bought some things that she fancied; and then came up the question as to how to[325] pay for them, for they had no chinese money. the colonel helped them out by giving cards, like bank-checks, payable by the steward of the hong merchants.
continuing the walk, they came to a money-changer. the commander put down two english sovereigns, for which he received a bag full of the current coins, which were not the native cash, but the pieces made for hong-kong, as they are made for the island of jamaica, where an english penny will not pass. the smallest was of the value of a cash, or one mill. a cent was about the size of our old copper one, and a ten-cent piece was a little larger than our dime. the value was given in chinese as well as english for the benefit of the natives; and the cash piece had a square hole in the centre, for the natives keep them on strings or wires.
the captain gave about a half a dollar's worth of this money to each person, so that none need be bothered about paying for small articles. the boys invested a portion of their wealth for a quantity of swatow oranges, about the size of heavy bullets. they could not understand the native seller, and permitted him to take his pay out of a handful of coins; but he took next to nothing, and they were confident they were not cheated, for he took the same coins from the hands of all.
among the pedlers all sorts of vegetables were for sale, and the groper-fish, shark-fin soup, meats minced with herbs and onions, poultry cut up and sold in[326] pieces, stewed goose, bird's-nest soup, rose-leaf soup with garlic—heaven with the other place, scott called it—and scores of other eatables for native palates, and some of them would suit the taste of americans.
taking their places in the vehicles, the tourists were borne through the principal streets. there are only five or six thousand english in the city, and hong-kong is substantially chinese. at about eleven, the coolies toted the sedans to the top of the peak, where an observatory is located, following a zigzag path. the approach of every vessel of any consequence is signalled from this elevation by flags. the ascent is difficult, it is so steep; and the bearers of the sedans had to stop and rest occasionally. the view is magnificent, and the consul pointed out the objects of interest.
it was easier to get down the steep than to get up, and the party reached the hotel at the appointed time. the lunch was ready, though it was hardly first-class. when the captain asked about the expense of living for europeans in china, the colonel said that the price per day at the best hotels was from four to six dollars, and that one could not keep house for less than four thousand dollars a year. in summer the people live in bungalows on the peaks, where quite a town has grown up. the captain paid the bill in english gold. in the afternoon the company made an excursion by a regular steamer to macao, on the other side of the river,[327] forty miles distant. it has been a portuguese settlement since 1557; but it had little interest for the tourists, and they returned by the same steamer, and went on board of the ship.
the colonel dined on board, and the captain announced his intention to go to canton the following day. the next morning the tourists were on board of the steamer for that city. the colonel could not go with them; but he procured a couple of english guides to attend them, one of whom was mr. inch and the other mr. larch.
"kwang-tung is the native name of the city to which we are going, and from this the english had made canton," said mr. larch, as the boat left the shore; and he proceeded to name the islands in sight, and point out all objects of interest, as he did all the way up the river.
the city is on the north side of the choo-chiang, or pearl river, ninety miles from hong-kong. they saw nothing of especial interest except a temple on the shore, and a fort with a three-story pagoda rising from the centre of it. on the arrival of the steamer off the city, she was surrounded by boats as at hong-kong. the captain of the boat recommended one he called tommy, though it was a woman; and her craft was engaged, with as many more as were needed, indicated by her.
at the landing-place mr. seymour, the american consul, to whom the colonel had telegraphed, was waiting for them. he introduced himself, and was[328] soon on the best of terms with all the tourists. he advised them to go to the international hotel, and they went there. a score of sedans and rickshaws were at once engaged; and tommy and the other women carried the valises and bags for them, each attended by the owner. they were to remain three days in canton. dinner was the first ceremony they performed after they went to the hotel, and the consul joined the party by invitation.
"canton is a city with a population estimated at a million and a half, including the people that live in boats from one year's end to the other, and doubtless you noticed their aquatic dwellings as you came up the river," said the consul, who had been invited to tell the company something about the place. "it is surrounded by a wall nine miles in length, built of brick and sandstone, twenty-five to forty feet high, and twenty feet thick, and divided by a partition wall into two unequal parts. there are twelve outer gates, and also gates in the partition wall. the names of these are curious, as great peace gate, eternal rest gate, and others like them. there are more than six hundred streets, lanes you will call them; for they are not often more than eight feet wide, very crooked, and very dirty. this is the general idea of the city, and the details you will see for yourselves."
temple and garden in china. temple and garden in china.
page 329.
after breakfast the next morning the party was organized for sight-seeing, and the sedans they had used the day before were ready for them. the two[329] guides insisted upon going on foot, the better to discharge their duties. they rode through some of the principal streets, looked into the shops, and observed the pedlers; but all was about the same as in hong-kong, except that the streets were wider in the latter. the same goods were for sale. they looked into a tea saloon; and the gentlemen entered an opium den, which nearly made some of them sick.
"this is called the plain pagoda," said mr. inch, when they came to it. "it was built a thousand years ago, and is one hundred and sixty feet high."
they were taken to a couple of joss-houses, or temples. a sort of tower attracted their attention; and they were told that the one before them, and hundreds of others, were occupied each by a watchman at night to call out the hours of the night, and give the alarm in case of fire. they halted before the nine-story pagoda, the most interesting structure they had seen, and the most peculiarly chinese.
"it is one hundred and seventy feet high, and was built thirteen hundred years ago," mr. larch explained. "brick, covered with marble or glazed tile, is the material used. each story is smaller than the one below it, and each has a balcony around it."
"now we come to the temple of honam, which is one of the largest in china," said mr. inch, as they halted before its gates, after the party got out of the sedans. "with its grounds it covers seven acres, and one hundred and seventy-five priests are employed in it."[330]
"what is the religion of these people?" asked mrs. woolridge.
"the priests and nuns of canton number more than two thousand, and nine-tenths of them are buddhists. the temple of five hundred genii contains that number of statues, various in size, and was erected in honor of buddha and his disciples."
at the usual hour the party went to lunch, and were tired, though they had done but little walking. the sedans were dismissed till the next morning; the afternoon was devoted to an excursion on the river, and tommy had been directed to provide the boats. they moved through the wilderness of floating dwelling-places, and looked them over with wonder and surprise. many of the sampans were made of three planks; and the people on board of them, mostly women, were exceedingly amusing.
large junks, some of them from five hundred to sixteen hundred tons burden, were to be seen, and long, broad, flat chinese men-of-war, with twenty to forty guns; but the latter are out of fashion now, and modern-built vessels take their places. they have two great painted eyes on the bow to enable them, as the chinese say, to find their way over the sea. but the most beautiful sight was the flower-boats, having galleries decorated with flowers, and arranged in most fantastic designs. each of these floating gardens contains one large apartment and a number of cabinets. the walls are hung with mirrors and graceful draperies of silk, and glass[331] chandeliers and colored lanterns are suspended from the ceiling. elegant little baskets of flowers are hung in various places. it seems very like fairy-land on these boats. they are stationary, and dinners are given on board to the chinese who can afford them. they are also places of amusement by day and night, and plays, ballets, and conjuring take place at them; but no respectable females frequent them.
during the next two days the tourists continued to wander on foot and in sedans over the city with the guides. one day they went to the great examination hall, 1330 feet long by 583 wide, covering sixteen acres, and containing 8653 cells, in which students are placed so that there shall be no stealing others' work.
when a member of the party asked the meaning of certain tall buildings, he was told that they were pawnbrokers' offices; for the chinese have a mania for pawning their clothes, or whatever they have, even if not in need of the money, to save the trouble of taking care of the articles. before the third day of the stay in canton was over, some of the party had seen enough, and preferred to remain at the hotel while others were out with the guides. the next day they returned to hong-kong, and were glad to be once more on board the ships, for sight-seeing is the most tiresome work in the world.
