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

Belgrave's games, music, and dancing with the assistance of the Italian band, and finally the singing of the Gospel Hymns.

The Blanchita was prepared for her voyage as soon as she came off from the shore, coaled for the round trip, supplied with cooked provisions, though the galley was available, and with everything that[346] could possibly be needed. She was put in about the same trim as when she went up the rivers of Borneo. Felipe was to be the engineer, Pitts the cook, and four sailors were detailed for deck-hands. The excursion had been arranged for five days; and the bags, valises, and other impedimenta of the voyagers, were on deck at an early hour. Breakfast was ready at half-past six; and at half-past seven the Blanchita got under way with a native pilot for the river, who could speak pidgin English.

The party were in a frolicsome mood; and they went off singing a song, to the great astonishment of the native boat-people. Mr. Psi-ning joined with them; for he had learned the tunes in the United States, where he had travelled extensively. Tien-tsin is the terminus of the Grand Canal in the north, and they passed through a small portion of it into the river. The trip was through a low country. The road to the capital was in sight, and they saw various vehicles moving upon it. The first that attracted their attention was one of the barrows, with a native between the handles, supporting them with a band over his shoulders. On one side of the large wheel was a passenger; and behind him was a lofty sail, like those depending from the yards of a ship, but about three times as high in proportion to its width. It had five ribs of wood in it below the upper yard to keep it spread out. The boys thought the craft would be inclined to heel over with all the cargo on the starboard side.[347]

They saw a rickshaw rigged with a sail in this manner. A man on a farm was working with an ordinary wheelbarrow sailing in this way. There were no end of men riding ponies, or in the two-wheeled passenger-carts having a cover over them which extended out over the horse. Farther up they observed a couple of coolies irrigating the land with a machine which had four paddles for moving the water, with four more each side of the stream, under a frame to which two men were holding on, and working treadmill fashion, with their feet on each of the four arms. They noticed mixed teams of horses and bullocks, such as one sees in Naples. The most curious was a mule-litter, which was simply a sedan between two animals.

Felipe drove the launch at a nine-knot speed, and at half-past three in the afternoon the boat arrived at Tung-chow. Contrary to their expectation, the passengers had greatly enjoyed the trip; but it was out of their own hilarity rather than their surroundings. Pitts had arranged the lunch in a very tasty manner on the tables in what the boys had called the fore and after cabins. They found all the variety of vehicles they had seen on the road, and in three hours they came to the great gate of Pekin. They were conveyed to the small German hotel, which they more than filled; and other lodgings were provided for some of the gentlemen, though the meals were to be taken at the public-house.

The Chinese gentlemen had to leave them to[348] attend to their own affairs, but after dinner the professor told them something about Pekin: "The city is in about the same latitude as New York, and the climate is about the same. It is situated on a sandy plain, and the suburbs are comparatively few. The town consists of two cities, the Manchu and the Chinese, separated by a wall; and the whole is surrounded by high walls, with towers and pagodas on them, as you have already seen. The Manchu wall is fifty feet high, sixty feet wide at the bottom, and forty at the top. Without the cross-walls, there are twenty-one miles of outer wall, enclosing twenty-six square miles of ground.

"There are sixteen gates, each with a tower a hundred feet high on it. Your first impression must have been that Pekin is the greatest city in the world. You came in by a street two hundred feet wide, with shops on each side; but when you have seen more of it, you will find dilapidation and decay, and about the same filth you have observed in other Chinese cities. But it is one of the most ancient cities in the world, for this or another city stood here twelve hundred years before Christ. Kublâi, a grandson of Genghis Khan, the great conqueror of the Moguls, made Pekin the capital of all China. When the Manchus came into power the city was all ready for them, and for a time they kept it in repair; but for more than a hundred years it has been going to ruin.

"The Manchu, or inner city, is divided into three[349] parts, the largest of which is the real city. In the middle of it are two walled enclosures, one within the other. The outer one seems to be the guardroom of the inner, to which entrance is forbidden to all foreigners, and even to Manchus and Chinese not connected with the court. This last is called the Purple Forbidden City, two and a quarter miles around it, and is the actual imperial residence. It includes the palaces of the emperor and empress and other members of the family. It contains other palaces and halls of reception.

"The 'Hall of Grand Harmony' is built on a terrace twenty feet high, and is of marble, one hundred and ten feet high. Its chief apartment is two hundred feet long by ninety wide, and contains a throne for the emperor, who holds his receptions here on New Year's Day, his birthday, and on other great occasions. The 'Palace of Heavenly Purity' is where the monarch meets his cabinet at dawn for business; and you see that he must be an early riser. Within these enclosures are temples, parks, an artificial lake a mile long, a great temple in which the imperial family worship their ancestors, and many other grand palaces, temples, and statues, which I have not time to mention.

"The outer, or Chinese, city, is thinly populated, and a considerable portion of it is under cultivation. The principal streets are over a hundred feet wide; but those at the sides of them, like Canton and other cities, are nothing but lanes. None of the streets[350] are paved, and mud and dust reign supreme. As with other Eastern cities, the population of Pekin is exaggerated, being estimated by some as high as two millions; but Dr. Legge thought it was less than one million.

"The charge of infanticide seems not to be applicable to Pekin or the surrounding country, and is said to be almost unknown there. A dead-cart passes through the streets at early morning to pick up the bodies of children dying from ordinary causes whose parents are too poor to bury them. There are foundling hospitals, to which the mothers prefer to take their female children rather than sacrifice them. In fact, infanticide is said to be known only in four or five provinces. I have nothing more to say, and I leave you to see the rest for yourselves," said the professor, as he resumed his seat.

The next morning Mr. Psi-ning presented himself at the hotel, before which were gathered vehicles enough to accommodate the entire party. The rickshaw had recently been introduced from Japan, and several of them were included in the number; but the carts and the barrows were generally preferred. The company selected what they pleased. Mr. Psi-ning led the way through the principal street, and through some of the lanes; but the scenes in them were so much like what they had seen in three other cities that the novelty of them had worn off. The residences of the ambassadors of foreign countries were pointed out to them, including that of the Hon.[351] C. Denby, before which they halted; and the Chinese gentleman conducted them all into it, where they were presented in due form to His Excellency, who received them very pleasantly.

They then went to the Temple of Heaven, which was quite a curious building, somewhat in pagoda style. It began on the ground at a round structure, with an overhanging roof. The second story was smaller, with the same kind of a roof; and the third was the same, but with a roof coming to a point, like a cone. It was almost a hundred feet high. The tiles were of blue porcelain, in imitation of a clear sky.

In the afternoon the tourists were conveyed to the office of the Board of Punishments, and Mr. Psi-ning explained the criminal processes and sentences. The latter are very severe, including torture, which makes one think that he is reading Foxe's "Book of Martyrs." The party declined to witness any of the punishments. Some culprits are treated to twenty or more blows with a bamboo. Men suspected are tortured to make them confess. They are put in all sorts of painful positions.

Capital punishment is inflicted by placing the victim on his knees, with his arms bound behind him, and his head is severed from his body by the stroke of a heavy knife or sword.

The next day the mandarin conducted the tourists to the gate of the Forbidden City; for he had obtained a permit for the admission of the whole of[352] them in a body. The professor had described the principal structures within the enclosure; and it would be only a repetition to report what the mandarin said of them, though he added considerable to what had come from the books. The third gateway was especially noted as one of the finest pieces of Chinese architecture the party had seen.

The "Abode of Heavenly Calmness" was the noblest, richest, and most luxuriously furnished in the great palace; for it is the private apartment of the emperor. The Great Union Saloon, where His Imperial Majesty receives the high-class mandarins, was elegant enough for any royal apartment.

The tourists walked about among the Chinese glories till they were tired out. The two Cupids were completely "blown;" and when they found a place, they seated themselves, and let the rest of the company finish the survey of the Forbidden City. The palace of one prince of the imperial house was so large that three thousand men could be quartered in the out-buildings, and doubtless as many more could be accommodated in the main structure. The Cupids were picked up on the return; but there was more to be seen, and they went to the beautiful temple of Fo, containing a gilded bronze statue of the god, sixty feet high, with one hundred arms, and Scott remarked that he was like a big man-of-war, well armed.

They came again to the Temple of Heaven; but the mandarin had not obtained a permit, which was[353] exceedingly difficult to procure in recent years. Mr. Psi-ning told them that the interior, in its chief hall, represented the heavens. It was a circular apartment surrounded by twenty-two pillars, and everything was painted sky-blue. A portion of this temple is the "Penitential Retreat" of the emperor, where he keeps three days of fasting, meditating over his own sins and those of the government, previous to offering up his sacrifice. Connected with the temple was a band of five hundred musicians, who reside there; but the commander was thankful that the party were not compelled to listen to their performance.

The tourists were very glad to get back to the hotel in the street of the legations, and they did not go out again that day. The question of visiting the Great Wall then came up for discussion. Brother Avoirdupois and Brother Adipose Tissue declared in the beginning that they would not go; and the mandarin laughed heartily when these names were applied to them, and still more when they were called the Cupids.

"It is forty-five miles to the loop-wall which travellers generally visit from Pekin," said Mr. Psi-ning. "You would have to go in mule-litters, or on horseback, or by the carts you have used; and it would take you a day to get there, and as long to return. Then it would be only the loop-wall, and not the Great Wall, which cannot be reached without going over a hundred miles. I can say for myself that I[354] have never been to either, just as I heard a man in Boston say that he had lived there over sixty years, and had never been to Bunker Hill Monument."

"The wall is an old story to you, I suppose," said the princess.

"You have seen the walls of Pekin, and they are a good specimen of the Great Wall; at any rate, they satisfied me," replied the mandarin.

But the "Big Four" and Professor Giroud decided to visit the loop-wall, and the Chinese gentleman advised them to start immediately