Travels in China - Sir John Barrow (drm ebook reader .TXT) 📗

them apparently all in pursuit of pleasure. The margins of the lake were studded with light aereal buildings, among which one of more solidity and of greater extent than the rest was said to belong to the Emperor. The grounds were enclosed with brick walls and mostly planted with vegetables and fruit trees; but in some there appeared to be collections of such shrubs and flowers as are most esteemed in the country. Among the fruits we got at this place was the Jambo or rose apple; and, for the first time, fresh from the tree, but not yet perfectly ripe, two species of oranges, the common China and the small one usually called the Mandarin orange; pomgranates, bananas very indifferent and melons equally bad; apricots far from being equal to those of our own country; a large plumb, resembling the egg plumb, also indifferent, and peaches that might have been much improved by judicious culture; apples and pears that in England we should have no hesitation in pronouncing execrably bad; and a species of fruit unknown to all of us which the Chinese called Zee-tsé, of a sweet sickly taste when ripe, otherwise most insufferably astringent. Some of the gentlemen thought they saw hazel nuts among the shruberry, but it is more than probable they were mistaken. A few bad grapes were sometimes brought to us, but the party who went from hence to Chu-san met with abundance of this fruit, and of very good quality, growing upon standards erected in the several canals and forming a shade under which the barges could pass.

Among the most conspicuous of the shrubs, on the borders of the lake See-hoo, was the Hibiscus mutabilis, the Hibiscus Syriacus, the Syringa Vulgaris or common lilac, and the paper mulberry; we observed also a species of Mimosa, a Crotularia, Cratægus, Rosa, Rhamnus, Sambucus, Juniper and the cotton plant. Of flowers we particularly noticed a large purple-coloured double poppy which, with the Nelumbium that grew here in all the ponds and a species of pæonia, appear most frequently on the large sheets of painted paper used for covering the walls of their apartments. A great variety of beautiful balsams were also in flower, a species of Amaranthus, a Xeranthemum and Gnaphalium. I mention only such plants as caught the eye in passing, for our Chinese companions, who had a much better appetite for the eels of the lake and other goods things they had taken care to provide than for botany, had no notion of being detained by a bush or a flower.

The next day Lieutenant Colonel, now General, Benson, Doctor Gillan, and myself, accompanied by a military officer and his orderly, rode over the neck of land to look at the yachts that were preparing for our future journey. As it was rather late before we returned, I proposed that we should pass through the city as I had done the day before with our conductor Van, which would save us half the distance. The officer perceiving our intention endeavoured to draw us off to the right, but finding us persevere he whispered the orderly, who immediately pushed forward towards the gate. Aware that the intention of this measure was to shut the gate against us, we spurred our horses and followed him, upon which the officer and his orderly set up such a hue and cry that the whole suburbs were presently in a state of commotion. The gates were instantly shut and surrounded by a crowd. Within all was confusion. Message after message was dispatched to the Governor, the gongs were beat and the guards were drawn out in every part of the city. I assured them there was nothing to fear; that we were only three, and had no other design but to pass to our yachts. During this time our mandarin of war, in presence of the whole populace, was down on his knees in the dirt, first before one and then another, intreating us to give up the point; so mean and despicable have the maxims of the government made these people. At length our friends Van and Chou, with the interpreter and a numerous train of soldiers and attendants, made their appearance, and pretended to enjoy the joke of three Englishmen having caused so much alarm to one of their strongest cities, which at that time had a garrison of three thousand men within its walls. On expressing our surprise at such unnecessary precaution, Van observed, that our conductor did not know us so well as he did, and, as he was responsible for our safe return, he would rather have travelled us all night through the country than brought us among the crowd in the streets. When the new viceroy of Canton (who travelled with us from hence) heard of this affair, and understood from our conductors that the English found great pleasure in walking and looking about them (a pleasure of which a Chinese can form no idea) he immediately gave orders that the gentlemen in the train of the Embassador should walk whenever they pleased without any molestation.

In the city of Hang-tchoo-foo, being particularly famed for its silk-trade, we were not surprized to meet with extensive shops and warehouses; in point of size and the stock contained within them they might be said to vie with the best in London. In some of these were not fewer than ten or twelve persons serving behind the counter; but in passing through the whole city not a single woman was visible, either within doors or without. The crowd of people, composed of the other sex, appeared to be little inferior to that in the great streets of Pekin. Here, though mostly narrow they had in other respects much the advantage of those in the capital, being paved with broad flagstones, resembling the Merceria of Venice or courts of the Strand; Cranburn-Alley is rather too wide for a Chinese street, but those of this city were equally well paved. They appeared to be kept extremely neat and clean. In every shop were exposed to view silks of different manufactures, dyed cottons and nankins, a great variety of English broad-cloths, chiefly however blue and scarlet, used for winter cloaks, for chair covers and for carpets; and also a quantity of peltry intended for the northern markets. The rest of the houses, in the public streets through which we passed, consisted of butchers and bakers' shops, fishmongers, dealers in rice and other grain, ivory-cutters, dealers in laquered ware, tea-houses, cook-shops, and coffin makers; the last of which is a trade of no small note in China. The population of the city alone, I should suppose, from its extent and appearance, to be not much inferior to that of Pekin; and the number of inhabitants in the suburbs, with those that constantly resided upon the water, were perhaps nearly equal to those within the walls.

Here our conductor Sun-ta-gin took his leave, after having introduced to the Embassador the new Viceroy of Canton, who was now to accompany the Embassy to the seat of his government. His manners appeared to be no less amiable than those of the Minister. He had travelled post from Pekin and, with many assurances on the part of the Emperor of the highest satisfaction he had derived from the embassy, he brought an additional present from him to His Majesty, consisting of gold tissued silks, purses taken from his own person and the Card of Happiness. This is an ornamented piece of paper, neatly folded up and having in the centre the character foo or happiness inscribed by the Emperor's own hand, and is considered as the strongest mark a sovereign of China can give to another prince of his friendship and affection. Another card was given to the Embassador of a similar import, as a testimony of his approbation of the conduct of the embassy, which was further confirmed by a present of silks, tea, fans and other trinkets to every individual of it.

A few miles beyond the city we again took shipping on the river Tcheng-tang-chiang, which might properly be called an estuary, the tide rising and falling six or seven feet at the place of embarkation, which was not very distant from the Yellow Sea. After seven days of tedious navigation, if dragging by main strength over a pebbly bottom on which the boats were constantly aground and against a rapid stream, could be so called, we came to its source near the city of Tchang-san-shien. But its banks were not deficient in beautiful views and picturesque scenery. The general surface of the country was mountainous and romantic, but well cultivated in all such places as would admit the labours of the husbandman. One city only occurred in the course of seven days; but we passed numerous villages, situated in the valleys and the glens between the ridges of mountains; and fishermen's huts were constantly in view. There was here no want of trees, among which the most common were the tallow-tree and the camphor, cedars, firs and the tall and majestic arbor vitæ. Groves of oranges, citrons and lemons were abundantly interspersed in the little vales that sloped down to the brink of the river; and few of the huts were without a small garden and plantation of tobacco. The larger plains were planted with the sugar-cane. We had thus far passed through the country without having seen a single plant of the tea-shrub, but here we found it used as a common plant for hedge-rows to divide the gardens and fruit groves, but not particularly cultivated for its leaves.

At the city of Tchang-san-shien we had again a neck of land to cross, in order to join the barges that were prepared on another river falling towards the westward, by which a connexion was formed with the usual route from Pekin to Canton, from whence we had deviated at the Yang-tse-kiang river, on account of some of the suite being intended to join the Hindostan in the harbour of Tchu-san. We were the less sorry for this deviation, as it gave us an opportunity of seeing a part of the country over which there is no general communication with the grand route. In passing this neck of land, on a very fine causeway, judiciously led through the defiles of the mountains, we first observed the terrace system of agriculture, so frequently mentioned in the writings of the missionaries. The Chinese seem to entertain a particular aversion against sowing or planting on sloping ground and, accordingly, when such occurs, they level it into a number of terraces one rising above the other, which they support by stone walls, if the earth should not be thought sufficiently strong for the purpose. The great conveniency of leading the water from the uppermost to the lowest terrace, without losing any of its nutritive effects by a rapid course, seems to have suggested this mode of preparing the ground. In a hot and dry country, vegetation becomes languid without the command of water; and I observed that on the uppermost terrace there was invariably a tank or reservoir to collect the waters falling from the upper parts of the hills. The expense of labour, that had evidently been employed on such terraces, was so great as to make any suitable return to the husbandman apparently impossible; and still less so in other places where the hills were completely dug away to the skeleton rocks, and the soil carried upon the marshy ground at their feet.

With all this industry it might be concluded, from the general appearance of the people, that they merely gained a subsistence. It was with the utmost difficulty that the officers of government could procure, in the whole city which we last departed from, a sufficient number of chairs for themselves and those gentlemen of