CHAPTER IV.

NORTH CHINA.

The Passage from Australia-Making the Chinese Coast-The Yang-tze-kiang-The Foreign Settlement-Dress and Life of the Resident Europeans-Chinese SoldiersNatural Characteristics in Northern and Southern China-Native Town of Shanghae -Streets-Pawnbrokers-Public Buildings-Temples, and Worship-Phonographic Writing-State Visit of the Taootai-A Chinese Café-Romish Mission-Executions and Torture-Indifference to Pain shown by Orientals-Captain Marryatt's StoryThe "Battle of Shanghae."

WE had a delightful passage of about sixty days from Sydney to Shanghae. The sea was so smooth that we might have come in safety in a small boat, and the light winds and fair weather made our long passage seem short by allowing us to amuse ourselves on deck, by reading in the day time, studying astronomy at night, and an occasional game of shovel-board, the standard amusement of ennuyés on shipboard. Our only excitements were the occasional violent squalls prevalent in that part of the ocean, which, as they give no warning, sometimes caught us with everything set and laid us right over on our side, frequently carrying away something aloft, and always occasioning a fearful disturbance in the steward's department. We had also two adventures; the losing of a boy overboard, and seeing a whale, which remained for a quarter of an hour within a cable's length of the ship. Though both these incidents were exciting, and the first saddening to us at the time, I feel that a description would be out of place. Any one can realize to himself the unfortunate boy, struggling in the water, unable to swim, impeded by his sea-boots and heavy clothing, and finally sinking, in full view of the ship, not two minutes before the arrival at the spot, of the boat despatched to his rescue. The whale is still less difficult to imagine. A black slimy bank, covered with barnacles, visible for a few minutes,

and then sinking to appear soon in another direction, is all we saw of the leviathan.

The 25th of June was foggy, and so thick that we dared not run for land, although we saw indications of its proximity in the quantities of cuttle-fish bones on the water, rockweed, and one yellow water-snake about four feet long. On the 26th we got soundings in thirty-five fathoms, and as it cleared up in the morning, we stood in for land, which we continued doing although the fog soon closed in again. About ten o'clock, just as we had tacked, having given up the attempt to make land, the fog rose just long enough to show us Leuconia on the port beam, and "The Brothers," two rocky islands, on the starboard quarter. We must have passed dangerously near the last. We thus ascertained our position for the first time in two days, and ran with confidence for the Barren Islands, which we made at two o'clock. Thence we steered for the Saddle-rocks, which are at the mouth of the Shanghae river, and anchored within them about eight in the evening. For the last two hours we had a man in the chains, sounding with a hand-lead-a precaution which is necessary in the Yang-tze-kiang, on account of the great shallowness of the river, the numerous banks and mud-flats, and the channel not being marked by any buoys or landmarks. The next morning we found ourselves among three or four other ships at anchor, the land nowhere visible, the water of the colour of coffee and consistency of chocolateI mean both as prepared for drinking, which the river certainly is not. The weather was thick and unpromising; but as it cleared up early in the day, we made sail, and anchored at Woosung, without adventure, at 44 P. M. We had taken a Chinese pilot before noon. He boarded us in a twomasted native boat, of about ten tons, which held some twenty-five men, who all talked, screamed, and jabbered at once, and at such a rate that we thought they were in distress. Once delivered of the pilot, however, their noise ceased, and they relieved our ears and olfactories of their noisome presence. The pilot laboured under the disadvantage of not understanding English; his whole attainments consisting in a

limited knowledge of the "pigeon-English," the lingua franca in which foreigners converse with Chinese shop-keepers and servants. This "pigeon-English" consists of English words, with a few Chinese intermixed. The idiom is Chinese, the nouns having no inflection, the verbs no conjugation. The first question of our captain may serve as a good specimen— "How many piecy Mellikan ship-poo have got top-side that river?" by which he meant, "How many American ships are there up the river ?" This pigeon-English is a real language, and it takes a stranger a month or more before he can speak it with fluency. Grammatical English is perfectly unintelligible to the Chinese. They learn this peculiar dialect from native teachers, who make a living by giving instruction to those wishing to enter the establishments of Europeans, or who expect to have business with them as shopkeepers.

The banks of the Yang-tze-kiang are low and level, with no landmarks, and piloting is rather difficult. The fellow we had, however, did very well until we reached the mouth of the Wang-poo river, at the hamlet of Woosung, where we found many foreign ships at anchor. As we turned to go up the Wang-poo, the pilot so mismanaged things as nearly to run us ashore, and then, getting frightened, he jumped into a native boat which was passing under our stern, and we saw no more of him.

We anchored at Woosung, and next morning, leaving the ship in the care of a European pilot, ascended the Wang-poo, in a pilot boat, to Shanghae-twelve miles. The Wang-poo is, in most parts, more than a mile broad, and is navigable for the largest ships. We passed several very large junks, some propelled by sail alone, and some by oars as well. I was surprised by seeing how fast they sailed, and how very manageable was their rig.

At a turn of the river, we came in sight of the foreign settlement, extending for a mile and a half, or more, on the left bank of the river; and a half-mile above it the Chinese city now came into view, with the countless fleet of junks which always lie in the river. Lower down were twenty or thirty European vessels. The houses of the European settle

ment are always of large size, built commonly of stone, covered. with stucco; and as they are not crowded together, but each residence is in a spacious compound, or square, which includes the stores and a large garden, the whole effect is very good. Before many of the hongs, as the residences of foreigners are termed, rose tall flag-staffs, bearing the flag of the power of which the proprietor of the hong was Consul. The first buildings which we passed were the American Episcopal Mission, a large white building, with a gothic chapel in its compound. This mission, and those of other societies, are separated by a creek from the rest of the settlement. The next house was her Majesty's consulate, which looked quite palatial, with its long row of great columns, and the fine gardens which surround it. Then came the establishments of the important firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co., (perhaps the largest commercial house in the East,) and those of other English business firms, and last, the two large buildings belonging to the great American house of Russell & Co. In the midst was the Chinese Custom House, a regular native wooden building, with two flag-staffs, from which floated pennants of the Imperial yellow. Behind this line of hongs, which front on the bund, as the quay is called, are the residences of the other merchants, all on the same magnificent scale.

We landed, and in accordance with the hospitable eastern custom, which welcomes any stranger to take up his residence, without invitation, at the house of any resident with whom he may be, however slightly, acquainted, proceeded at once to the house of B. N. & Co., to whom our ship was consigned.

On the way to the house we met several Europeans, in sedan chairs, each carried by two Chinamen. The costume of the foreigners struck me as delightfully cool and sensible. White canvass shoes, white cotton trowsers and jacket, no waistcoat, and a sola topee, forms the universal dress. The sola topee is a helmet, or broad-brimmed hat, made of pith, half-an-inch thick. It does not fit to the head, but rests on a frame work which does. It thus allows a constant circulation of air, and the pith is at once so thick and so light, as to prevent the ill-effects of the sun's rays, and not to inconvenience

the wearer by its weight. This same dress is worn, even to full dress dinners a sensible custom, contrasting strikingly with the regulations of society in India, which compel one to put on a full black dress suit when going out for the evening. On landing in China, every stranger at once provides himself with a Chinese servant, ("boy" as he is called,) who acts as valet, waits on him at table, and accompanies him wherever he may go out to dine. Should he not do this, he will find himself totally unserved, as each foreigner has one boy, and no one of them will wait on anybody but his master.

I spent about two weeks in the foreign settlement, and the description of one day will do for almost any other. I was called by my servant, about 8 o'clock, who put out clean clothes and got my bath ready in one of those large porcelain bathing tubs that we sometimes see in this country. Conveniencies for full ablutions are always attached to every room in the East. At half-past nine we had breakfast, which most of the company made every day of rice, fish and eggs, mixed into one mess. Breakfast commonly lasted an hour, and the gentlemen then went into the office to business. I should have mentioned before, that all the clerks and subordinates of these establishments, live in the same houses with their principals, and all take their meals together. At half-past two, we had tiffin, or lunch, which would be called a dinner in this country, and at which large quantities of "East India Pale Ale," the favourite beverage of the Orient, are commonly consumed. At five, we dressed in flannel, and went out for a drive on the race course, the only road which is passable for carriages; this part of China being entirely cut up by canals, by means of which, or on men's shoulders, all goods are transported. The drive generally lasted an hour and a half, and on our return, we dressed again for dinner, which was on the table by eight. While on the subject of dressing, I should have mentioned, that ladies in the east generally wear low necked dresses all day long, which must, I should think, con duce much to their comfort.

Dinners, in the East, are always on a great scale. It is the event of the day-the consummation, of which the tiffin is the