The story of the coolie-trade and some of the conversation that followed cleared the mystery that surrounded the narrator and had given him the name by which he was known. He had been an active participant in the peculiar1 commerce of the East, which includes the violation2 of laws whenever they prove inconvenient3, such as the smuggling4 of opium5 and the shipment of coolies to the countries where they are in demand. His latest venture was one that required considerable secrecy6, as it involved the purchase of arms for the rebels in Japan. For this reason he had been very cautious in his movements around Yokohama and during his whole stay in Japan, and he had found it judicious7 to leave the country on the vessel8 that came so near being wrecked9 in the typhoon that overtook our friends. He was safely away from Japan now, and the arms that he had purchased for the rebels were in the hands of the government. He had made money by the operation, and was on the lookout10 for something new.
"That man belongs to a class which is not at all rare in the far East," said Doctor Bronson to the boys when the subject of the conversation had left them. "A great many adventurers find their way here, some of them being men of ability which borders on genius, while the others are not far removed from rascals11. Ward12 and Burgevine were of the better sort; and there are others whom I could name, but they are not so numerous as the other and worse variety. They are very often men of good manners, and not at all disagreeable as travelling companions, but it is not advisable to be intimate with them. Travelling, like poverty, makes us some strange acquaintances. We can learn a great deal from them if we proceed properly; and if we know where the line of familiarity should be drawn13, we are not in any danger of suffering by it."
The morning after the above conversation the steamer arrived at Hong-kong, and dropped anchor in the harbor. She was immediately surrounded by a fleet of small boats, which competed eagerly among[Pg 401] themselves for the patronage14 of the passengers. Our friends selected one which was rowed by a couple of women, and had a group of children in a little pen at the stern. Doctor Bronson explained to the boys that in Southern China a great deal of the boating is done by women, and that entire families live on board the little craft on which they earn their existence. The boat population of Canton numbers more than sixty thousand persons. They are not allowed to live on shore, and their whole lives, from birth to death, are passed on the water. The most of the boatmen and boatwomen at Hong-kong come from Canton, which is only ninety miles away; and as they have privileges at the former place which are denied them in the latter, they are quite satisfied to stay where they are.
HONG-KONG. HONG-KONG.
Hong-kong is a rocky island on the coast of China, and has an excellent harbor, sheltered from most of the winds that blow. The town of Victoria is built at the edge of this harbor, and the streets that lead back from the water are so steep that the effort of climbing them is liable to throw a stranger from the North into a violent perspiration15. Fortunately, there is an abundance of sedan-chairs, and any one who wishes to take a promenade16 may do his walking by hiring a couple of chair-coolies to do it for him. The chairs are everywhere, and it is generally desirable to hire one in order to be rid of the continual applications from those that are unemployed17. At the wharf18 where they landed the Doctor[Pg 402] engaged porters to carry the baggage to the hotel, and then took chairs for the transportation of himself and the boys. As they had the afternoon before them, the chairs were kept for making the ascent19 of the mountain just back of the town, and as soon as the rooms were secured, and a slight lunch had been served, they started on their excursion.
At the highest point of the mountain—about eighteen hundred feet above the water-level—there is a signal-station, where all vessels20 coming into port are announced by means of flags. Our friends were carried along a zigzag21 road to this station, the coolies stopping every few minutes to rest from the fatigue22 of ascending23 a steep road with a burden on their shoulders. At the station they had a view extending a long distance out to sea and over the coast of China, and the mountain was so nearly perpendicular24 that it seemed as if they could toss a penny on the town or into the harbor. Fred tried it, and so did Frank; but after throwing away several ounces of copper25, and finding they only went a short distance, they abandoned the experiment. They returned well satisfied with the excursion, and agreed that no one who visits Hong-kong should omit the journey to the top of the mountain.
Hong-kong, being an English colony, is governed after the English form, and consequently the laws enforced in China do not necessarily prevail on the island. The population includes four or five thousand English and other European nationalities, and more than a hundred thousand Chinese. The number of the latter is steadily26 increasing, and a very large part of the business of the place is in their hands. The money in circulation is made in England for the special use of the colony. It has the head of the Queen on one side, and the denomination27 and date on the other; and, for the accommodation of the Chinese, the denomination is given in Chinese characters. The smallest of the Hong-kong coins is made to correspond with the Chinese cash, and it takes ten of them to make a cent, or one thousand for a dollar. It has a hole in the centre, like the Chinese coins generally, to facilitate stringing on a wire or cord, and is so popular with the natives that it is in free circulation in the adjacent parts of the empire.
FAC-SIMILE OF A HONG-KONG MILLE. Obverse. Reverse.
FAC-SIMILE OF A HONG-KONG MILLE.
FAC-SIMILE OF A HONG-KONG DIME28. Obverse. Reverse.
FAC-SIMILE OF A HONG-KONG DIME.
FAC-SIMILE OF A HONG-KONG CENT. Obverse. Reverse.
FAC-SIMILE OF A HONG-KONG CENT.
There was not a great deal to be seen in the town, and so the next morning the three travellers started for Canton. There is a boat each way daily, and the journey is made in seven or eight hours; the boys found that the boat in which they went was of American construction, and had an American captain, and so they felt at home, as they had felt on the Yang-tse under similar circumstances.
Soon after they left the dock, Frank observed that the gangway leading to the lower deck was covered with a grating fastened with a padlock,[Pg 403] and that a Malay sailor stood over it with a sword in his hand and a pistol at his belt. He called Fred's attention to the arrangement, and as soon as they found the captain at leisure they asked what it meant.
"It's a very simple matter," said Captain B——, "when you know about it. The fact is, that we were once very near losing our lives by Chinese pirates, and we don't propose to have another risk like it."
"Why, what could pirates have to do with this boat, I wonder?" said Frank.
"We didn't know at the time," was the reply, "but we found out."
"How was that?"
"Well, it seems that some Chinese pirates determined29 to capture this boat, murder all the foreigners on board, rob the Chinese passengers, and then get away on a junk that was to be ready to receive them. They made their plans, and on a certain day fifty of them took passage from Canton to Hong-kong. When about half way, they were to meet a junk with more men; and as the junk hung out her signal and came near, the fellows were to fall upon us with their knives, and capture the boat. They intended to kill us all, but their scheme failed, as there were four ships at anchor that day close by the spot where the junk was to meet them, and so the junk took the alarm and left. There was no disturbance30, and we did not have a suspicion of anything wrong. Finding they had failed with us, they went the next day and captured the steamer Spark, which runs between Canton and Macao. They killed the captain and officers and the only European passenger who happened to be on board,[Pg 404] plundered31 all the native passengers, and got away. Some of them were afterwards captured, and confessed to their part in the affair, and then the whole story came out that they had intended to rob this boat. Since then we always have the gratings down, so that the third-class passengers cannot come on deck; and we keep plenty of rifles and revolvers in the pilot-house and captain's cabin ready for use. They may never try it on us again, and we don't intend to give them a chance to do so."
FORT IN CANTON RIVER. FORT IN CANTON RIVER.
The captain went on to say that there were many pirates in the waters around Canton, and all along the southern coast. The government tries to suppress them, but it is not easy to do so, and hardly a day passes without the report of a robbery somewhere. All trading-junks are obliged to go heavily armed, and out of this fact comes a great deal of the piracy32, as a junk may be a peaceful trader at one o'clock, a pirate at two, and a peaceful trader again at three. It takes very little to induce a Chinese captain to turn pirate when he sees a rich prize before him, and he has no trouble in winning over his crew. It is impossible to distinguish the pirate from the trader; and as the coast is seamed with island passages and indented33 with bays, it is easy for a junk to escape after she has committed a robbery.
[Pg 405]
The voyage from Hong-kong to Canton is partly among islands and through a bay, and partly on the Pearl River. The navigation is easy in the first part of the course, but after the steamer has reached the narrower portion of the river the great number of junks and other craft compels a sharp lookout on the part of the pilots, to avoid accidents. They passed the famous Whampoa Anchorage, where the ocean-bound ships used to receive their cargoes34 before Hong-kong assumed its present importance. A few miles farther on, the great city of Canton was brought into sight as the steamer swung around a bend in the river. In front was the island of Ho-nan, with its temple bowered35 in trees, and on the surface of the river there were thousands of boats of many kinds and sizes. The boys remembered what they had heard of the boat population of Canton, and now they realized that they had reached a city where sixty thousand people make their homes on the water.
Before the steamer stopped she was surrounded by dozens of the smaller boats, and, as soon as they could do so, many of the boatwomen came on board. The captain recommended one of them who was known as "American Susan," and the trio were confided36 to her care for transfer to the hotel on Ho-nan Island. Susan and her attendant women shouldered the valises which the travellers had brought from Hong-kong, and led the way to her boat. The gallantry of the boys received a shock when they saw their baggage carried by women, while their own hands were empty; but the Doctor told them it was the custom of the country, and by carrying their own valises they would deprive the women of an opportunity of earning a few pennies. To this view of the matter they yielded; and before they had recovered their composure the boat was gliding37 across the river, propelled by the powerful arms of her feminine crew. Susan proposed to be in their employ during their stay at Canton, and a bargain was speedily concluded; for fifty cents at day, the boat was to be at their disposal from morning till night to carry them over the river, or to any point they wished to visit along its banks. Frank thought they would be obliged to look a long time to find a boat with two men at the oars38 for a similar price in New York, and Fred thought they would have to look still longer to find one rowed by two women.
They had three or four hours to spare before sunset, and at once set about the business of sight-seeing. Their first visit was to the temple on the island, and they were followed from the landing by a crowd of idle people, who sometimes pressed too closely for comfort. There was an avenue of trees leading up to the temple, and before reaching the building they passed under a gateway39 not unlike those they had seen at the[Pg 406] temples in Kioto and Tokio. The temple was not particularly impressive, as its architectural merit is not of much consequence, and, besides, it was altogether too dirty for comfort. There was quite a crowd of priests attached to it, and they were as slovenly40 in appearance as the building they occupied. In the yard of the temple the strangers were shown the furnaces in which the bodies of the priests are burned after death, and the little niches41 where their ashes are preserved. There were several pens occupied by the fattest pigs the boys had ever seen. The guide explained that these pigs were sacred, and maintained out of the revenues of the temple. The priests evidently held them in great reverence42, and Frank intimated that he thought the habits of the pigs were the models which the priests had adopted for their own. Some of the holy men were at their devotions when the party arrived, but they dropped their prayer-books to have a good look at the visitors, and did not resume them until they had satisfied their curiosity.
GATEWAY OF TEMPLE NEAR CANTON. GATEWAY OF TEMPLE NEAR CANTON.
From the temple they proceeded to a garden, where they had an opportunity of seeing some of the curious productions of the Chinese gardeners in the way of dwarfing43 trees and plants. There were small bushes in the shape of animals, boats, houses, and other things, and the resemblance was in many cases quite good. They do this by tying the limbs of the plants to little sticks of bamboo, or around wire frames shaped like the objects they wish to represent; and by tightening44 the bandages every[Pg 407] morning, and carefully watching the development of the work, they eventually accomplish their purpose. If they represent a dog or other animal, they generally give it a pair of great staring eyes of porcelain45, and sometimes they equip its mouth with teeth of the same material. Many of the Chinese gardens are very prettily46 laid out, and there are some famous ones near Canton, belonging to wealthy merchants.
On their return from the garden they stopped at a place where eggs are hatched by artificial heat. They are placed over brick ovens or furnaces, where a gentle heat is kept up, and a man is constantly on watch to see that the fire neither burns too rapidly nor too slowly. A great heat would kill the vitality47 of the egg by baking it, while if the temperature falls below a certain point, the hatching process does not go on. When the little chicks appear, they are placed under the care of an artificial mother, which consists of a bed of soft down and feathers, with a cover three or four inches above it. This cover has strips of down hanging from it, and touching48 the bed below, and the chickens nestle there quite safe from outside cold. The Chinese have practised this artificial hatching and rearing for thousands of years, and relieved the hens of a great deal of the monotony of life.
On the river, not far from the hatching establishment, they saw a man engaged in the novel occupation of herding50 ducks. A hundred or more ducks were on the water, and the man was near them in a small boat and armed with a long pole. The ducks were very obedient to him, but occasionally one would show a little opposition51 to the herder's wishes, and endeavor to stray from his companions. A rap from the pole brought him speedily to his senses, and back to the herd49, and he was pretty certain not to stray again till the blow had been forgotten. Geese were herded52 in the same way, and both they and the ducks managed to pick up a good part of their living from the water. Ducks are an important article of food among the Chinese, and the rearing of them gives occupation to a great many persons in all parts of the empire.
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1
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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violation
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| n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯 | |
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inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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smuggling
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| n.走私 | |
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opium
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| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
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secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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judicious
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| adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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rascals
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| 流氓( rascal的名词复数 )； 无赖； （开玩笑说法）淘气的人（尤指小孩）； 恶作剧的人 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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promenade
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| n./v.散步 | |
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unemployed
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| adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的 | |
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wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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zigzag
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| n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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denomination
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| n.命名，取名，(度量衡、货币等的)单位 | |
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dime
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| n.（指美国、加拿大的钱币）一角 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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plundered
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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piracy
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| n.海盗行为，剽窃，著作权侵害 | |
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indented
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| adj.锯齿状的，高低不平的；缩进排版 | |
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cargoes
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| n.（船或飞机装载的）货物( cargo的名词复数 )；大量，重负 | |
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bowered
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| adj.凉亭的，有树荫的 | |
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confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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39
gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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slovenly
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| adj.懒散的，不整齐的，邋遢的 | |
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niches
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| 壁龛( niche的名词复数 )； 合适的位置[工作等]； （产品的）商机； 生态位（一个生物所占据的生境的最小单位） | |
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42
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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dwarfing
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| n.矮化病 | |
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tightening
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| 上紧，固定，紧密 | |
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porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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herding
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| 中畜群 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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herded
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| 群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动 | |
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