Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume Ii Part 23

[159] Since sacked by the Tai-ping rebels.

[160] Abandoned after a large part of the course of the Yang-tse had been explored. Lieutenant-Colonel Sarel published lately a most interesting and valuable pamphlet on this expedition, of which he was the leader, under the t.i.tle, "Notes on the River Yang-tse-kiang from Hankow to Ping-Shan.

Hong-kong, Printed at Noronka's office."

[161] Report of the deputation, appointed by the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, on the commercial capabilities of ports and places on the Yang-tse-kiang visited by the expedition under Vice-Admiral Sir James Hope, K.C.B., in February and March, 1861. Supplement to the China Overland Trade Report of 28th Feb. and 27th May, 1861, and Supplement to the Overland China Mail, No. 237 of 12th June, 1861.

[162] According to Dr. W. H. Medhurst's translation of this rare work, for a copy of which, rescued from the last great conflagration at Canton, we are indebted to the kindness of Mr. Wylie, the portion especially referring to this runs as follows: "The mulberry ground having been supplied with silk-worms, the people descended from the hills and dwelt in the plains," (p. 91,) and further on, "their tribute baskets were filled with black silks and checkered sa.r.s.enets" (p. 96). See Ancient China, [Chinese character(s)] The Shookin, or the Historical Cla.s.sic. Being the most ancient authentic Records of the Annals of the Chinese Empire.

Ill.u.s.trated by later commentators. Translated by Dr. W. H. Medhurst, Sen.

Shanghai, 1846.

[163] Thus Yuen-tschin in the third month (April of our calendar), Chay and Yuen in the fourth month (May), Gae-tschin in the fifth month (June), Sai in the sixth month (July), Han-tschin in the seventh month (August), Sze-tschan in the ninth month (October), and Hau in the tenth month (November).

[164] The value of a tael, as already stated, varies from 6_s._ to 6_s._ 6_d._ It is estimated that a bale of silk, until it is s.h.i.+pped at Shanghai for England, has cost from 80 to 100 sterling.

[165] The word _Cha_ is, however, used by the Chinese to designate not the tea plant alone, but every description of _Camelia_.

[166] Arabian travellers who visited China in the 9th century, A.D. 850, speak thus early of tea, as of a beverage in universal use. According to Kampfer tea was introduced from China into j.a.pan about A.D. 519, by a native prince named Daeme, who, during his residence in China, had learned its invaluable properties. The j.a.panese, however, do not drink their tea as an infusion, but grind the leaves into powder, pour hot water upon them, and stir them with a bamboo-stick till they are thoroughly mingled together, when they swallow the decoction and the powder together, as is done with coffee in some parts of Asia.

[167] The term "Bohea" is in fact only a corruption of the Chinese Wu-yi, which again is derived from Wu-i-kien, a well-known Chinese divinity.

[168] In Java, where the tea plant has been cultivated for a series of years, the mountain region from 4000 to 5000 feet above the sea, and with an average temperature of from 58.1 to 73.7, Fahr., has been found best adapted for the growth of the plant.

[169] The first scientific arrangement of the tea plant according to dried specimens was made in 1753 by Linnaeus, who in his _Species Plantarum_ included among these one species, which he called _Thea Sinensis_. But by the time the second edition of his renowned work made its appearance in 1762, Linnaeus found himself compelled to make two species of it, and to a.s.sign them the names by which they are known to the present day. The first living tea plant was brought to Europe in October, 1763, by a s.h.i.+p captain named Ekeberg, and planted in the Botanic Garden of Upsala.

[170] According to Fortune ("A Residence among the Chinese." London, 1857.

Murray), the various sorts of tea have added to them from two to four spoonfuls of a mixture in which the plant _ma-ki-holy_ largely enters, as also indigo and pulverized _gypsum_, in order to increase the green tinge of the leaves.

[171] A picul, 133-1/3 lbs., of these leaves costs on the average 15 to 18 dollars, though it occasionally ranges as high as 30 dollars.

[172] In the year 1859, the exports into England were 30,988,598 lbs.

(viz. 22,292,702 lbs. black, and 8,695,896 lbs. green), out of a total export of 55,328,731 lbs. Within the same period 19,952,147 lbs. went to the United States, 1,879,584 lbs. to Australia; to Hong-kong, and other ports along the coast of China, 1,261,347 lbs.; to Montreal, 510,600 lbs., and to the entire continent of Europe 736,455 lbs.

[173] Some experiments on a small scale were made with the _Sorgho_ at Aquileia near Gorz, by M. Karl Ritter, a well-known merchant and sugar refiner, of Trieste. We were shown samples of refined sugar, extracted from the _Sorgho_, which promised the best results. A large quant.i.ty of seeds which were sent a year ago to one of the members of the _Novara_ Expedition by M. de Montigny, had been made use of to inst.i.tute a series of experiments in cultivation, in those parts of the Empire, the climatic conditions of which promised to be most favourable for the growth of the _Sorgho_.

[174] During our stay at Shanghai we also made inquiries as to an alleged new species of potato, concerning which there have been current for years such contradictory accounts in the European and American journals, that the foreign community of Shanghai was beset with inquiries from all parts of the world, begging for more accurate information as to this newly discovered tuber, which promised to supply a much-needed subst.i.tute for the apparently effete, worn-out, disease-smitten potato of Peru. No one, however, could furnish us with the slightest information on the subject, and ultimately it became apparent that the rumours. .h.i.therto current were founded on an erroneous impression. It would seem, according to the opinion of Mr. Fortune, that the rumour first arose from mistaking for a new sort of potato, the _Calladium esculentum_, which is quite commonly exposed for sale in the streets of Shanghai, and the small tubers of which, both in flavour and external appearance, resemble those of the potato, when, without taking the slightest further trouble to inquire into the matter, the pretended new discovery, fraught with such important results for the poorer cla.s.ses, was duly trumpeted to the entire world. In no part of China hitherto accessible was there at the time of our visit any other description of potato in use than the common Peruvian. Officers of the English and American navies, who at the time of the first Peace of Tien-Tsin were eating potatoes in the Gulf of Petcheli, a.s.sured us that they were precisely identical with those that have so long been acclimatized in Europe. Of edible tubers there are at Shanghai, besides potatoes, the yam (_Dioscorea_ sp.) and the Yucca (_Jatropha_ sp.).

[175] The following is the process as we observed it: the bamboo strips are first soaked for a considerable period in water, after which they are peeled, and again saturated with lime-water, until they are perfectly flexible. After this, they are converted, according to the method in use at that special locality, either by water power or hand labour, into a fluid of a pap-like viscosity, after which it is boiled till it has attained the requisite fineness and consistency for conversion into paper.

[176] These consist chiefly of cotton and woollen goods of every description, steel cutlery, iron-ware, gla.s.s, clocks, watches, musical clocks, tin-ware, &c.

[177] The quant.i.ty of home-grown opium, chiefly produced in the province of Yun-nan, cannot be accurately ascertained, as the returns are not made at certain points; but the quant.i.ty must fall far short of the amount imported from India.

[178] According to MacCulloch's Commercial Dictionary, opium had been introduced into China and India by the commencement of the 16th century by Mahometan merchants, and it sounds like an apology when the learned and patriotic author, in treating of the part taken by England in the much-to-be-lamented traffic in this noxious drug, adds by way of palliation--"A century and a half before the English had _anything_ whatever to do with its _cultivation_."--(Latest edition, p. 939.)

[179] Only a certain number (originally twelve) of wealthy Chinese merchants, "Hong," were permitted by law to trade with foreigners at Canton. They had not only to account to Government for all duties and taxes, but were likewise responsible for the good behaviour of the strangers!

[180] It is a coincidence worthy of notice, that simultaneously with the rise of the opium trade with China, the importation of slaves into America began to increase, and that European commerce in these two infamous traffics seemed to be ever increasing and gaining ground in Eastern Asia and in America! At the end of last century the number of slaves in the Southern States of the Union was little greater than that of opium-smokers in China: at present the number of the former is about 4,000,000, and the latter may be put at about the same figure; the latter, slaves of their own intemperate pa.s.sions,--the former, of the covetousness and cold calculating selfishness of their masters. The opium question and the slave question--these two seem destined to be solved simultaneously!

[181] A very similar result is arrived at by MacCulloch, who calculates that the Company cleared 7_s._ 6_d._ per lb. on opium, which they bought by their agents from the Bengal ryots at 3_s._ 6_d._ per pound, and retailed at 11_s._ per pound.

[182] There are indeed smokers who smoke their two, four, five, and even eight drachms per diem, but these are solitary instances, while the very costliness of the article forbids the use of the narcotic to the great ma.s.s of the population, except in the very smallest quant.i.ties.

[183] One poem of the Chinese Imperial Pretender, which is not included in Dr. Medhurst's collection of the writings published by the insurgent press at Nankin, and for a copy of which we have to thank Mr. Meadows, Government interpreter at Shanghai, has lately been translated by our learned countryman, Dr. Pfitzmaier. The splendidly got up binding of this little book is of a golden yellow on the t.i.tle page, and red on the reverse; the river Yang-tse-kiang appears to pay homage to the Tai-ping, whose residence it surrounds. The t.i.tle printed on the exterior of the wrapper runs as follows: "Imperial announcements in theses upon the words of the Heavenly Father, the Most High Ruler." The t.i.tle within is: "Ten poems upon Supreme Felicity," although these so-called poems are simply strophes, never exceeding four verses of seven feet. The writing bears date the number _Kuei-hao_ (50), corresponding to A.D. 1853, the third year of the reign of the Heavenly King, Tai-ping. The whole production is, if that be possible, yet more bombastic, unintelligible, and stupid than Chinese poems usually are to Western readers.

[184] Between February and September, 1855, there were executed in Canton 70,000 persons all told. Many of the rebel leaders were, in conformity with the _penal laws_, hewed in numerous pieces while yet living; a certain Kausin in 108! See K. F. Neumann's History of Eastern Asia, from the first Chinese war to the Treaty of Pekin, 1840-1860. Leipzig, Engelmann, 1861.

[185] We extract from the _London and China Telegraph_ of 31st March, 1862, the following severe but just criticism on this gentleman, whose letter, which we also quote, shows him to be a person of but limited education:--"Even the Rev. J. Roberts, who, as our readers are aware, has lived with the rebels at Nankin, and has to his discredit defended their conduct in the strongest possible manner, has at length discovered that they are nothing better than robbers and murderers. This change of opinion in a man who on all occasions so confidently urged the claims of the Tai-pings, arose from a very simple cause:--he at length suffered, personally, from their barbarity. A servant to whom he was attached was killed before his eyes; and considering his life in danger, he fled to Shanghai, and wrote the following letter, dated 22nd January, 1862, reprobating the conduct of his former friends:--'From having been the religious teacher of Hung Sow-chuen in 1847, and hoping that good--religious, commercial, and political--would result to the nation from his elevation, I have hitherto been a friend to his revolutionary movement, sustaining it by word and deed, as far as a missionary consistently could, without vitiating his higher character as an amba.s.sador of Christ. But after living among them fifteen months, and closely observing their proceedings--political, commercial, and religious--I have turned over entirely a new leaf, and am now as much opposed to them, for good reasons, I think, as I was ever in favour of them. Not that I have aught personally against Hung Sow-chuen, he has been exceedingly kind to me. But I believe him to be a crazy man, entirely unfit to rule, without any organized government, nor is he, with his coolie-kings, capable of organizing a government of equal benefit to the people of even the old Imperial Government. He is violent in his temper, and lets his wrath fall heavily upon his people, making a man or woman 'an offender for a word,' and ordering such instantly to be murdered without 'judge or jury.' He is opposed to commerce, having had more than a dozen of his own people murdered since I have been here, for no other crime than trading in the city, and has promptly repelled every foreign effort to establish lawful commerce here among them, whether inside of the city or out. His religious toleration and multiplicity of chapels turn out to be a farce, of no avail in the spread of Christianity, worse than useless. It only amounts to a machinery for the promotion and spread of his own political religion, making himself equal with Jesus Christ, who, with G.o.d the Father, himself, and his own son const.i.tute one Lord over all! Nor is any missionary, who will not believe in his divine appointment to this high equality, and promulgate his political religion accordingly, safe among these rebels, in life, servants, or property. He told me soon after I arrived that if I did not believe in him, I would perish, like the Jews did for not believing in the Saviour. But little did I then think that I should ever come so near it, by the sword of one of his own miscreants, in his own capital, as I did the other day. Kan-w.a.n.g, moved by his elder brother (literally a coolie at Hong-kong) and the devil, without the fear of G.o.d before his eyes, did, on Monday the 13th inst., come into the house in which I was living, then and there most wilfully, maliciously, and with malice aforethought, murder one of my servants with a large sword in his own hand in my presence, without a moment's warning or any just cause. And after having slain my poor harmless, helpless boy, he jumped on his head most fiend-like and stamped it with his foot; notwithstanding I besought him most entreatingly from the commencement of his murderous attack to spare my poor boy's life. And not only so, but he insulted me myself in every possible way he could think of, to provoke me to do or say something which would give him an apology, as I then thought and I think yet, to kill me, as well as my dear boy, whom I loved like a son. He stormed at me, seized the bench on which I sat with the violence of a madman, threw the dregs of a cup of tea in my face, seized hold of me personally, and shook me violently, struck me on my right cheek with his open hand; then, according to the instruction of my King for whom I am amba.s.sador, I turned the other, and he struck me quite a sounder blow on my left cheek with his right hand, making my ear ring again; and then perceiving that he could not provoke me to offend him in word or deed, he seemed to get the more outrageous, and stormed at me like a dog, to be gone out of his presence.

'If they will do these things in a green tree, what will they do in the dry?'--to a favourite of Teen w.a.n.g's, who can trust himself among them, either as a missionary or a merchant? I then despaired of missionary success among them, or any good coming out of the movement--religious, commercial, or political--and determined to leave them, which I did on Monday, Jan. 20th, 1862.' Mr. Roberts adds that Kan-w.a.n.g had refused to give up his clothes, books, and journals, and that he had been left in a state of dest.i.tution. Most persons will agree that he fully deserves any amount of suffering that may be inflicted on him. Mr. Roberts has done his utmost to delude Europeans as to the true character of the Tai-pings; he has kept back some facts, has falsified others, and has acted throughout in a manner utterly inconsistent with his a.s.sumed character of a Christian missionary. On such conduct no comment can be too severe."

[186] Nankin accordingly is usually called now-a-days the "City of the Coolie-Kings."

[187] Very similar are the reports made by the English who, in Dec. 1858, accompanied Lord Elgin on his voyage of discovery up the Kiang, and remained a considerable period among the Tai-ping. "The tenets of their religion," says Mr. Laurence Oliphant (vide Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and j.a.pan, vol. ii. p. 463), "consist of a singular jumbling of Jewish ordinances, Christian theology, and Chinese philosophy. Like the Jews in the Old Testament they wage wars of extermination, they live like the worst professing Christians, and they believe like--Chinese."

[188] The charges forwarded by the owners of the little _Meteor_ for towing, and which are calculated according to the draught of water of the s.h.i.+p towed, was as follows:--

+--------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-----------+ Itinerary or 15 feet 15 to 17 to 18 to 19 ft. & vice versa. and under. 17 feet. 18 feet. 19 feet. all beyond. +--------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-----------+ From Shanghai 300 taels, 350 taels, 450 taels, 450 taels, 500 taels, to Gutzlaff's or or or or or Island. 90. 105. 135. 135. 150. Shanghai to 150 taels, 175 taels, 200 taels, 225 taels, 250 taels, Wusung. or or or or or 45. 52 10_s._ 60. 62 10_s._ 75. From Wusung 225 taels, 250 taels, 275 taels, 300 taels, 350 taels, to Gutzlaff's or or or or or Island. 62 10_s._ 75. 82 10_s._ 90. 105. +--------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-----------+

[189] Typhoon, or _Tei-fun_, a strong wind. While some authors derive this word from the Arabic _Tufan_, a violent wind, others see in it the giant _Typhos_ of Greek mythology, who was begotten by Tartarus of Earth, and from whom proceeded all that was disastrous and destructive. Whoever has experienced a typhoon will most readily acquiesce in the latter derivation.

[190] During this storm, we made the not uninteresting observation in a physiological point of view, that when the gale was at its worst, even the least hard-a-weather of us seemed quite free from sea-sickness, apparently the result of extreme excitement. For similar reasons, men who have been bitten by a snake, and who have had raw spirits administered as an antidote, seem able to take four or five times the quant.i.ty which they can on ordinary occasions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Distant View of the Island of Puynipet.]

XVI.

The Island of Puynipet.

18th September, 1858.

Native boats in sight.--A pilot comes on board.--Communications of a white settler.--Another pilot.--Fruitless attempts to tack for the island.--Roankiddi Harbour.--Extreme difficulty in effecting a landing with the boats.--Settlement of Rei.--Dr.

Cook.--Stroll through the forest.--Excursions up the Roankiddi River.--American missionaries.--Visit from the king of the Roankiddi tribe.--Kawa as a beverage.--Interior of the royal abode.--The Queen.--Mode of living, habits and customs of the natives.--Their religion and mode of wors.h.i.+p.--Their festivals and dances.--Ancient monumental records and their probable origin.--Importance of these in both a historical and geological point of view.--Return on board.--Suspicious conduct of the white settler.--An asylum for contented delinquents.--Under weigh for Australia.--Belt of calms.--Simpson Island.--"It must be a ghost!"--Bradley Reef.--A Comet.--The Salmon Islands.-- Rencontre with the natives of Malata.--In sight of Sikayana.

While yet, on 16th September, 1858, five or six knots distant from the island of Puynipet,[191] first discovered in 1828 by the Russian Admiral Lutke, and just as we found ourselves off what is called "Middle Harbour,"

we remarked a boat of European construction making for the frigate. Two hours later it came alongside, with four natives and a white man, the latter of whom came on deck and offered his services to the Commodore as pilot. He proved to be a Yankee named Alexander Tellet, who had lived 20 years on the island as smith and carpenter, to which he added the functions of pilot for the harbour in which he lived. Presently we were surrounded by a considerable number of natives in elegant canoes streaked with red, and formed of hollowed-out trunks of trees with outriggers, which have very peculiar scaffold-like supports, so that there is a kind of platform formed in the centre of the canoe, whereon the master usually seats himself, but which serves on occasion for festive meetings, and even for a small dance! The sails, made of mats, are triangular, the most acute angle being confined between two long bamboos, while a third serves as a mast, the whole capable of being s.h.i.+fted to either end of the boat by one of the crew, according to the direction of the wind. While some were doing what they could in their small boats to keep within the speed of the frigate, though we were going pretty fast, just as parasites make fast to the shark, others followed us a little distance, like dolphins, those faithful companions of s.h.i.+ps, as far as the nearest harbour. With the exception of a short ap.r.o.n of cocoa-palm leaves, the natives were quite naked, and seemed pretty well made. On their heads they wore a sort of projecting pent-hat, also of palm-leaves, obviously intended to s.h.i.+eld the eyes from the vertical rays of the sun, and in form most resembling those lamp shades which old men or youths with weak eyesight are with us in the habit of using to ward off the full glare of artificial light.

Among the natives who favoured us with their escort, there were two who from their personal grace, their light colour of skin, and thoroughly European cast of features, especially attracted our attention. They were the sons of an Englishman named Hadley, who had been for many years resident on Mudock island, E. of Puynipet, where he supported himself by fis.h.i.+ng and pilotage, and had married a native woman. Shortly before our arrival, Hadley had started with several hundred pounds of tortoise-sh.e.l.l for Hong-kong, whence he intended to sail for England. He had intrusted his two sons to the care of a European settler, who succeeded him as pilot on Mudock island. According to all appearance, however, Hadley had little intention of returning to this island, notwithstanding the family tie that should have bound him to it.

As we were coasting along the west side of the island about 1 to 17 miles from the reefs, Tellet was overwhelmed with questions on every hand and on every possible subject, and among other subjects of information we presently found that the chief intercourse of foreign s.h.i.+ps was carried on with Roankiddi or Lee Harbour, some 15 or 20 miles distant, and Metetemai or Foul-weather Harbour, which lies six or seven miles E. of Roankiddi.

During the N.E. trade (November to April), from 50 to 60 American whalers put in to Puynipet to take in wood and water, and fresh provisions, chiefly yams, taro, sweet potato, poultry, and pigs. Many s.h.i.+ps, moreover, bound from Sydney for China prefer at that season the voyage through the Pacific to pa.s.sing round the south of Australia, and thence through the Straits of Sunda, or the yet more dangerous pa.s.sage through Torres Straits, and usually make a tolerably fast run. Thus the Swedish corvette _Eugenie_, on her voyage round the globe, performed in November, 1852, the astonis.h.i.+ng feat of making the pa.s.sage from Sydney to Hong-kong, 5000 miles, in the unprecedentedly short s.p.a.ce of 37 days!

The number of aborigines on this island, which is about 60 miles in circ.u.mference, was estimated by Tellet at about 2000. Formerly it was as many as 5000,[192] but the small-pox had since then committed fearful ravages among the population. The circ.u.mstances under which this frightful scourge was first introduced into Puynipet, throw considerable light upon the history of the spread of that disease, as well as much useful information upon the question of vaccination.

In 1854, the English barque _Delta_ arrived at Roankiddi Harbour, with one of her crew ill with small-pox. The white settlers then on the island, who were well acquainted with the virulence of the disease, implored the native chief to forbid the captain's remaining, and insist on his putting to sea forthwith. The latter, however, seemed determined to leave the patient on the island. When he learned the hostile feeling of the population to himself and the crew, and found that they would neither take his sick man off his hands, nor supply himself and s.h.i.+p's company with provisions, he availed himself of the silence and obscurity of night to deposit the sick man on the sh.o.r.e with all his property, and at daybreak made off under full sail. Next morning the natives found the unfortunate wretch stretched suffering and utterly helpless on the strand, while the barque was no longer in sight. Hostility to the captain was now converted into sympathy with, and active compa.s.sion for, the sick man; a couch was prepared in an adjacent hut, and as much attention lavished on him as was possible under the circ.u.mstances; but his effects, consisting chiefly of linen and upper clothing, were speedily appropriated by the thievish natives. A few weeks later the small-pox broke out with frightful violence, and raged five months with undiminished severity all over the island. Almost every one of the natives was attacked, and of 5000 inhabitants 3000 succ.u.mbed to the virulence of the epidemic. The sailor, however, with whom first originated this terrible fatality, completely recovered. His clothing, scattered through every part of the island, had no doubt essentially contributed to the speedy diffusion of the malady. Of the thirty white settlers, who had all been inoculated, only one was attacked, and he soon got well again. In August, 1854, the destroyer disappeared almost as suddenly as he came, and has since then spared Puynipet a second visit, but wherever one goes the traces of the disease are visible in the faces and on the bodies of the natives.