Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics by Oliver Optic (best romantic novels to read .TXT) 📗

seated at the table. "The English, French, and American quarters are in the suburb north of the native city, and they have broad and clean streets; but in the city proper, they are narrow and filthy, not unlike those of Canton. It is enclosed by a wall five miles in extent. What else there is here you can see for yourselves."

The captain decided, after the pacha came on[337] board in his barge with the rest of his party, to lunch and dine at the Astor House, perhaps because the name sounded like home; but he found that the hotel "was a horse of another color." They went on shore in some of the native boats that crowded around the ship; and their first care was to secure six guides, all that offered their services on the quay. The next was to procure a supply of the money current in the city, which was accomplished with the aid of the principal guide, all of whom were English, who could speak Chinese and pidgin.

The company were then divided into six parties, who had suggested this plan when they found that this number of guides could be obtained. The "Big Four" went together, and the rest of the company were in parties of three. The conveyances were found to be small, low broughams, pony gigs, palanquins, jinrickishas, and wheelbarrows, the last such as the party had seen in Cholan. The boys decided to walk first, and try the vehicles later. They went into a shop where Louis saw something in a window he wanted, and the guide asked the price for him. The dealer refused to show the article, or to name a price, unless Louis would agree to buy if he did so.

They were not like the Hong-Kong salesmen; for there were several of them, and they were impolite enough to make fun of the tourists. Scott doubled his fists, and was inclined to pitch into the one who refused to show any goods till they were practically sold; but Louis begged him to desist. They[338] next went into a tea saloon in the middle of a dirty pond of water, which would have just suited the taste of a Dutchman at home.

The tea was given to them in the cups, and they poured in hot water. The keeper swindled them in asking about five times the price, and the guide remonstrated; but the fellow was saucy, and the charge was paid to avoid trouble. The guide said the other fellow would have cheated them in the same ratio, if Louis had agreed, as he required, to buy. Then they looked into an opium joint, where the smokers were reclining on broad benches. The pipe was a tube with the bowl on the top. The drug is boiled till it is of the consistency of honey. Something like a knitting-needle is then taken by the smoker, the end of which is dipped in the jar; the needle is then turned till the opium becomes a ball as big as a pea. It is then held in a flame till it is partially lighted, when it is dropped into the bowl of a pipe. The amount used is counted in pipes, some being satiated with two or three of them, while the hard cases require twenty. In either case he goes to sleep, and has pleasant dreams. The habit is very deleterious to those who practise it, and death results from excessive use of the drug.

"There is a sedan with a Chinese magnate in it, with four bearers," said the guide; "but it is not so common here as in Hong-Kong and Canton."

The barrow excited the attention of the boys more than the other vehicles. At the door of the shop[339] they saw a native reading a paper, wearing a pair of spectacles whose eyes were almost as big as saucers. After walking through the streets of Hong-Kong and Canton, the boys saw very little that was new to them.

"Is there a cemetery in the town?" asked Louis, after they had become somewhat tired, not to say disgusted, with the dirty streets, and the crowd in them.

"Nothing that you Americans would call by that name," replied the guide. "There are some small burial-grounds; but the Chinese generally bury their dead in private grounds, outside of the cities. They have a reverence for their dead which is not equalled by any people on the face of the earth. The graves of the rich and noted are very carefully selected, and are decorated with great care and taste. Some of the finest gardens in the country are those enclosed in a private burial-place.

"A rich Chinaman thinks more of his coffin than he does of his house. He often buys it years before he has occasion to use it, and keeps it, taking better care of it than he does of his female children. Wherever a Chinaman dies, he must be sent home to be buried; and many of them come here from America, taken up from the earth even a year or more after death."

At this point the party came to an open place where there were all the different vehicles used in the city waiting to be employed; and as it was nearly[340] time for the lunch, they decided to ride to the hotel. Louis took a rickshaw, as it is called here; Scott and Morris preferred a wheelbarrow, and Felix took another, balanced by the guide. They were novel conveyances to the boys, and they enjoyed the ride very much. The rest of the parties returned to the hotel about the same time. There were Chinese dishes on the table; and those who had tried some of them before ordered them, especially the bird's-nest soups. The hams were very nice, and the captain hoped that Mr. Sage had procured some of them for the ship.

The afternoon was spent as the forenoon had been, but the party found little to interest them. The next day the tourists made an excursion up the Yang-tsze-Chiang, and enjoyed it very much. They saw a little of the farming operations, as a man ploughing with a buffalo, which looked more like a deer than a bovine; others carrying bundles of grain, one at each end of a pole on their shoulders; another threshing by beating a bunch of the stalks on a frame like a ladder or clothes-horse; but what pleased them most were the fishermen. One had a net several feet square, suspended at the end of a pole. It was sunk in the water, and then hauled up. Any fish that happened to be over it then was brought up with it; but Scott declared that this device was an old story, and they were used in the United States, though an iron hoop was the frame of the net.

They were more interested in the fishing with cormorants. A man with a dip-net in his hand stood[341] on a bamboo raft, on which was a basket like those the snake-charmers use in India, to receive his fish. The birds were about the size of geese. They dived into the water, and brought up a fish every time. They have a ring or cord on their necks so that they cannot swallow their prizes, and they drop them into the dip-net.

They went up as far as Taiping, where they took a returning steamer, and that night slept on board the ships. On the following morning the steamers went down the river; and then the question where they were to go next came up, and the commander soon settled it by announcing that the ship was bound to Tien-tsin, on the way to Pekin.[342]

CHAPTER XXXVI THE WALLS AND TEMPLES OF PEKIN

The company had hardly expected that Captain Ringgold would go to the capital, for it was off the course to Japan, which was the next country to be visited; but their curiosity had been greatly excited, and he was disposed to gratify it.

"Pekin is not on navigable water, and we cannot go there in the ship," said he. "We go to Tien-tsin, which is the seaport of Pekin, about eighty miles distant from it. It is a treaty port, and is said to have a population of six hundred thousand; the number can doubtless be considerably discounted. The next thing is to get to Pekin; though we can go most of the way by boat to Tung-chow, thirteen miles from the capital. Some go all the way on horseback or by cart. We will decide that question when we get to Tien-tsin."

"How long will it take us to go there?" asked Uncle Moses.

"About two days; we are off Woo-Sung now. We have the pilot on board, and we shall go to sea at once," replied the commander.

Nothing of especial interest occurred on the voyage; and before noon on the second day out the two[343] ships were off the mouth of the Pei-ho River, and a Chinese pilot was taken. As they went up the river they saw the Taku forts, where the Celestial soldiers won their only victory over the English, but were badly beaten the following year. On the rising tide the ships got up the river, and anchored off the town.

The place was like any other Chinese city, and was quite as dirty as the dirtiest of them. Two of the guides from Shang-hai, who were couriers for travellers, had been brought, one in each ship; and both of them were intelligent men. The Blanchita had been put into the water as soon as the anchors were buried in the mud; and the party went on shore in her, to the great disgust of the boat-people.

The American consul came on board with the Chinese officials; and the commander took him into the cabin for a conference in regard to getting to Pekin, while the tourists were on shore with the guides. Mr. Smithers had seen the steam-launch, and the question was whether the party could go up Pekin River in her. The consul could see no difficulty in the way, any more than there would be in the ships' barges. He thought he could put them in the way of making the trip securely, and they went on shore together in the barge.

Mr. Smithers knew a couple of high officials who were going to the capital the next day, and the commander was introduced to them. They were very polite, and both of them spoke English. One had[344] been educated at Yale College in New Haven. They were invited to go with the party to Pekin in the Blanchita, and accepted. The arrangements were completed for the trip. They went on board of the Guardian-Mother, and were treated with the most distinguished consideration, shown over the ship, and invited to lunch.

When the launch came off with the party at noon, all the ladies and gentlemen were presented to them by the commander. The pacha, the rajah, and the princess were clothed in their elegant robes; and they evidently made a profound impression. The plan for the journey to the capital was announced to the passengers, and they could not help being delighted with it. Mr. Sage had been directed to spread himself on the lunch, and he did so. Monsieur Odervie even prepared a few Chinese dishes, the art of doing which he had learned from a native cook in Hong-Kong.

In the afternoon the party went on shore again, under the escort of Mr. Psi-ning and Mr. Ying-chau, visiting the temple in which the treaties had been signed, and several others, and then walked through the street of "Everlasting Prosperity," as the Chinese gentlemen explained it. The prosperity seemed to consist mainly in the sale of eel-pies with baked potatoes, the former kept hot at a small charcoal fire. Live fish in shallow bowls with a little water in them were common, and cook-shops for more elaborate Chinese dishes were abundant.[345]

Both the native gentlemen were mandarins of different orders, and they were received with the most profound deference by the common people. The tourists saw everything in the town that was worth seeing; and early in the afternoon they returned to the Guardian-Mother, where the consul and the native gentlemen were to dine. The latter were invited to sleep on board in order to be in readiness for an early start the next day, and they had ordered their baggage to be sent to the ship. Mr. Psi-ning said he had telegraphed to an official at Tung-chow to have conveyances ready for the party at that place, which was as far as the boat could go, thirteen miles from Pekin.

Mr. Smithers was exceedingly kind, and did far more than could be expected of a consul. The commander expressed his obligations to him in the most earnest terms for all he had done, and especially for introducing the distinguished Chinese gentlemen. The dinner was the most elaborate the steward and the cook could provide, and it was one of those hilarious affairs which have several times been described during the voyage. In the evening there were Mrs.