CHAPTER V.Leave Macao for Whampoa—Entrance to the Bocca Tigris—Country about Chuen, pee—Scene at Whampoa—Approach to Canton—The town and suburbs—The sailor’s coffee-shop—Selling by weight—Dwarf orange trees—The tea shrub—Visit to the celebrated Fa-tee gardens—Topics of conversation—Exaggeration—Rambles in the suburbs—The city-gate—Manufactories—Sandal-wood.
Leave Macao for Whampoa—Entrance to the Bocca Tigris—Country about Chuen, pee—Scene at Whampoa—Approach to Canton—The town and suburbs—The sailor’s coffee-shop—Selling by weight—Dwarf orange trees—The tea shrub—Visit to the celebrated Fa-tee gardens—Topics of conversation—Exaggeration—Rambles in the suburbs—The city-gate—Manufactories—Sandal-wood.
On the 16th of October I left Macao for the “Cum, sing, moon,” and the following morning sailed in the Lady Hayes, Captain Hector, for Whampoa, which afforded me an excellent opportunity of viewing the scenery of the river. We passed the island of Lintin, off which, (in the roadstead, on the north-west side,) a number of ships were lying at anchor. About tenP.M.we anchored off Chuen, pee, for the night. On the morning following, as soon as the tide was favourable, we were again under weigh, and aboutnoon passed, with a light, but favourable breeze, the Bocca Tigris, and entered the river. This entrance to a very magnificent and extensive stream, is capable of being very strongly fortified. The Chinese have forts, mounting a great number of cannon, erected on each side of the passage: they excited some degree of interest in our minds, as being those silenced by the broadside of his Majesty’s ship Alceste, some years since; a triumph of British firmness over Chinese impudence.
The country about Chuen, pee had a picturesque appearance; but although we hear so much related about the Chinese cultivating every spot of land, not leaving even the most barren spots unoccupied, in few countries have I seen more land left waste, much of which has an appearance of fertility: the valleys certainly were cultivated, and had an animated and pleasing feature in the landscape from the vivid green of the numerous plantations of what seemed to be sugar-cane scattered about. But with this exception, and the neat cottages nearly buried in the foliage of the trees surrounding them, there was no interesting view: the elevated land was, principally bare, barren, and uncultivated.
On entering the river, the scenery was very pleasing; the banks were low, and, for the mostpart, under rice cultivation, which, still retaining its green tinge, imparted a luxuriant and animating beauty to the view. Small huts were scattered about, over which the graceful bamboo waved its towering stem; the high and wooded hills arose in the distance of the back ground of the landscape; and this, with boats passing about the intersecting canals of the paddy-fields, formed the principal feature of the country about the Canton river to Whampoa, where we arrived in the evening,[34]and left in a boat for Canton (a distance of twelve miles) on the following day.
The scene at Whampoa, with so large a number of shipping collected together, was remarkably animating; and at this season, there was a noble addition of most of the ships of the Honourable East India Company, the finest class of merchant-ships in the world. On proceeding from Whampoa to Canton, the banks of the river were flat, and cultivated with wooded hills in the distance,villages, pagodas,[35]which formed, in combination, some very interesting scenery. As we approached Canton, the bustle and multitude of boats increased upon the river: these boats contained whole families, who had been born and bred in them. They could often be seen containing the young sprawling infant, just able to walk, the new-born infant, and the aged grandmother, all reared in this confined space; but at the same time, the people wore an appearance of happiness and content upon their countenances, in spite of their squalid misery. They keep their boats, in a very neat and clean condition, which certainly confers some degree of credit upon the people. The flag-staffs and the noble pile of buildings, forming the factories of the different nations, appeared to our view; and, arriving soon after, I called upon and remainedduring my residence in Canton with my friend, Mr. Whiteman.
Canton is generally said to possess but little, in the confined spot allotted to the range of Europeans, to interest the stranger. This may be partially correct; but still the peculiar customs of the people and the range of the suburbs may afford many days of amusement, being novel, and unlike what is seen in any other country in the world. The range of factories or Hongs belonging to different nations, having flag-staffs, on which the national colours are hoisted from sunrise to sunset, are fine buildings, more especially those belonging to the English East India Company, which are of greater extent than the whole of the others. Several weeping willows are planted about the open space near the river, in front of the factories. The English and Dutch hongs have neat gardens, laid out for a promenade, in front of them; but the open space before most of the others forms the “quarter-deck,” where every evening the European residents take their limited walk.
The weather in front of the factories is usually at this season of the year sultry, but on entering the alleys of the hongs, cold currents of air are felt pouring down upon the just heated frame. A sudden atmospherical change very frequentlyoccurs, which certainly cannot be regarded as conducive to health, but, on the contrary, must prove highly detrimental: from the little ill-effects experienced from this by the residents, all that can be said on the subject is, that they probably get habituated to the frequent vicissitudes. There are two broad paved streets,[36]filled with shops, in which every description of manufactured articles, both after European and China patterns, can be purchased. Here are contained a profusion of specimens of the arts, more particularly those of ivory, tortoiseshell, and lacquered ware,[37]tempting to the visitor, and which soon cause him to return from Canton very deficient in the dollars he had brought with him.
In front of one of the shops was a lacquered board, upon which, in golden letters, was the following attraction for Jack, who may be accidentally rolling by the shop:—“The Sailor’s Coffee Shop, Chan Lung, No. 10, New China Street, where all kinds of silks and teas are sold, and goods of every description for seamen.Sailors! you are invited to try this shop, where you will find honest dealing, and where you can have ready made coffee and tea, but no samshoo.” The rooms, for this purpose, were very neat, with small couches for honest and sober Jack to recline upon, some pamphlets and tracts to amuse his mind as he sipped the decoction of the Indian berry; the shop contained straw hats, various portraits, and coarse articles of Chinese manufacture, tempting him to purchase for his friends and acquaintances at home; and the owner appeared to be an intelligent man. Eatables are seen carried about the streets in great numbers, and of all descriptions. Dogs, cats, rats, living and dead; with fowls, ducks, and other kinds of poultry, as well as living eels, carp, &c. in buckets of water: the latter are fed and fattened in stews, and taken out for sale when considered in a sufficiently prime state; the fresh water fish are very insipid in taste.
Every thing living or dead, organic or inorganic, is sold by weight in this celestial country, whether it be fruit or ballast stones, oil or vegetables, living dogs or pigs, cats or poultry, they are all purchased by the catty. The dogs and pussies are highly esteemed by the Chinese, who convert them into delicious (according to their organs of taste) bow-wow soup, and richpussy broth. A Chinese does not appear to have any idea of measurement, for one was asked whether we should have much wind—“Yes, plenty catties of wind, by, by, come;” and when some gentlemen were taking observations of the sun, the Chinese observed upon them, that “they were weighing the sun.” Eating shops are very numerous in the suburbs of Canton, containing an immense number of made dishes, and decorated also with enormous fat pigs, varnished over, and pendent from different parts of the shops, together with varnished ducks and geese; the latter birds are also dried and pressed, and then have a curious appearance.
One evening I visited the celebrated Fa, tee gardens, which are situated a short distance up the river, and on the opposite side to that upon which Canton is situated. On visiting these nursery gardens I certainly expected to have seen a splendid collection of Chinese plants and flowers, but I was sadly disappointed; the worst nursery garden in any of the provincial towns in Great Britain, was far, very far beyond any of these, both in size, extent, display of flowering plants and shrubs, even of the boasted flowers of China themselves. In how many of the greenhouses at home are not theAzaleas,Cammelias,Chrysanthemum,Hibiscus, &c. seenin large and beautiful varieties, flourishing in the highest state of perfection? Yes, and equal to (except in a few novel varieties, which have not yet survived the voyage home) the boasted display in these wretched places, called “flower gardens.”
A board at the entrance of one of them has the following attractive notice painted upon it in English:—“Aching has for sale, fruit trees, flowering plants, and seeds of all kinds: Fa, tee gardens, No. 2.” The gardens merely contained some varieties of the Chrysanthemum, small trees of the Finger Citron, with that curious fruit tied upon them to look as if they were growing from the tree; and a number of dwarf orange trees of different varieties, laden with green and ripe fruit.
The Chinese procure the dwarf orange trees, laden with fruit, by selecting a branch of a larger tree upon which there may be a good supply of fruit: the cuticle being detached from one part of the branch, is plastered over with a mixture of clay and straw, until roots are given out, when the branch is cut off, planted in a pot, and thus forms a dwarf tree laden with fruit. Other means are adopted to give the trunk and bark an appearance of age, and these, with the dwarf bamboos and other trees, must certainly be regardedas the principal Chinese vegetable curiosities. As far as gardening, or laying out a garden is concerned, these people possess any thing but the idea of beauty or true taste, neither being in the least degree attended to in the arrangement of their gardens; every thing bears the semblance of being stiff, awkward, and perfectly unnatural. To distort nature a Chinese seems to consider the attainment of perfection.
At these gardens the different species and varieties of the tea shrub, both in seeds and young plants, can be procured. According to Chinese botany there exist many varieties as well as species of the tea shrub. The quality of the tea does not only depend upon the mode in which it is prepared, but also upon the soil where it is cultivated. They make a very minute distinction about the hills where the tea is grown, in the same manner as we do in regard to the vine. The Kwang Keun, fang pao, a work on Chinese botany, in forty volumes, treats largely upon the subject, and mentions every hill where good tea grows. Fokien province is the richest tea territory; but it grows more or less in all the provinces, except the northern ones. There are many species mentioned, which had never come under the notice of Europeans, and their flavour is highly extolled.The writer of this work largely expatiates upon the wonderful qualities possessed by some trees, with all the vanity of a Chinese. He treats upon the modes in which the tea shrub is cultivated, and the crop gathered; but he possesses too much learning to be a good botanist, and quotes continually verses and the sayings of the ancients to embellish the subject. There is certainly, in the whole, more learning than good sense. He also treats upon how the seed is to be sown, how the leaves of the tea shrub ought to be prepared, and in what manner the shrub is to be pruned in order that it should produce luxuriant foliage. He also enters upon minute details, how the tea leaf is to be plucked, and afterwards dried and packed. Though the subject is trivial, it would require some study to make this work intelligible to Europeans.
The Rev. C. Gutzlaff, having looked over this botanical work in the Chinese language, favoured me with the above brief opinion on it.
TheCycas revoluta(Fung, maee, cho, of the Chinese) was planted in pots, and from being so generally seen about the dwellings of the people, I should consider was a favourite with them; a number of dwarf elms, bamboos, and other trees, with a number of varieties ofHibiscus,Althæa,were Malva, were all thesecelebrated gardenscontained.
The principal topics of conversation, as the space in front of the factories is traversed over and over again by the foreigners, are opium, Areka-nut, (erroneously called betel-nut,) pepper, rattans, and cotton. The different reports that have been set in motion, (gaining as they proceed from mouth to mouth during the day,) are discussed early in the morning: true, or untrue, is immaterial; every body credits them, and they servepour passer le temps. If one person meets another, a cool bow of acknowledgment is made, and he passes on his way; or he may be doomed to run the gauntlet, if any important event has been started, with every one he meets, at the corner of every hong, at the risk of being scorched by the sun, or, if taken under shelter, exposed to a chilling blast: as the day advances, he will find the tale increased to such an extent, that the person who heard it in the morning would hardly recognize the bantling by the evening: the three black crows is a mere trifle to some of their inventions: one relates mutinies happening on board an Indiaman, of the existence of which even the commander was ignorant: a slight illness of a lady at Macao, by the time itreaches her husband at Canton, by passing from individual to individual, becomes a dangerous state, if not her actual decease; and at the time the intelligence is communicated to her afflicted husband, she is probably attending one of the gay evening conversational parties at Macao, in which one derives exceeding enjoyment, hearing the ladies “discourse most eloquent music,” and mildly pass over the personal defects or mental faults of each other. One may very naturally therefore ask, “if anything has been invented this morning?” and if accuracy is requisite, how the news arrived, whose authority, &c.
One person happened to say casually, of a long-missing ship, “Perhaps she has been dismasted, and put into Manilla, and that may account for her detention:” in the evening, a report was in circulation, and believed, that accounts had that day been received of the missing ship having safely arrived at Manilla, but that she had lost all her masts. It is therefore dangerous to make an observation; for should it not at first be deemed sufficiently important, it will soon be increased, both in intricacy and consequence, as it passes the daily course. Any person, then, who may visit China, will show his wisdom by preserving silence as much as possible, and he willbe lauded by some for the space of a few days; then he will rise in importance, and every body will buzz and talk the most extraordinary things about him; he will be a mystery, and all the residents will be delighted with him, for he will listen tranquilly, and in much of the conversation he will hear far more than he will in any way be inclined to believe. The trifling or casual passing observations are usually—“What news?” “None.” “Fine weather?”—“Yes.” “Warm?” “Yes, exceedingly sultry.” “Is opium getting up?”—“Have not heard. No arrivals?” “None! Good morning.”
Taking rambles over the narrow streets of the suburbs of Canton, filled with elegant shops, strictly Chinese, with the various gilded signs, I witnessed a very novel and agreeable sight to a stranger: every thing assumed a different appearance to that seen in any other country: the narrow and crowded streets, hardly afford a passage for two persons abreast, and the constant passing and repassing of porters with their burdens, bawling out to clear the way, is annoying to passengers. The shops are fitted up in an elegant style, and are, in many of the streets, exceedingly spacious: the shoemakers’ shops are filled with shoes, from those of the small-footed woman decorated in a most tasteful and fancifulmanner, to the larger ones of the long-footed race. The shops of tailors, sign-painters, apothecaries, book and paper sellers, glass-blowers, &c. are numerous; and eating-shops, filled with all kinds of birds and beasts, cooked in their peculiar manner, and afterwards varnished; and poulterers’ shops, with living and dead poultry of all descriptions, were in some of the streets very abundant.
On arriving at the large or principal gate leading into the city, strangers are not permitted to pass: there are also smaller wicket-gates, leading into the city, at other parts, at which persons are stationed to prevent foreigners from passing: several mandarins would occasionally be seen carried in their chairs, as well as some of the superior class of Chinese small-eyed beauties borne in a kind of sedan, upon the shoulders of coolies. On entering any of the shops, to see the process of manufacturing, every attention was paid us by the Chinese: one that attracted our attention, was the melting and manufacturing the lead into thin plates, for lining tea-caddies, chests, &c. This is effected by throwing rapidly the molten lead between two flat stones, upon the inner surfaces of each of which paper was placed, pasted by its edges upon the stone: as soon as the lead was thrown in, the upper stonefell immediately upon the lower; (the process is very simple;) the upper stone is then taken off, and the sheet of lead removed. Their method of glass-blowing, cotton-cleaning, and spangle-manufactory, were also seen; and we were readily permitted to view the various processes employed without any interruption. A walk about the streets of the suburbs I always found full of interest, as throwing much light upon the peculiar customs and manufactures of these extraordinary and industrious people.
It is well known that sandal-wood is esteemed by Europeans, on account of its being a valuable article of merchandize to China: the Chinese are particular, however, in their choice of the wood; they prefer it when the pieces are about the diameter of the arm,[38]straight, smooth, of a dark colour, with a faint and agreeable smell, not the rank odour that some of the wood possesses. The yellow wood is inferior in the market; and the very light yellow and white woods are too young, and almost, if not totally, unsaleable. The Chinese name for it, is Tan-heong; (Taan, or Tan, being thename given to that particular tree; and Heong, scented wood;) and it sells from two and a half to twenty dollars the pecul, according to the quality of the wood. The usual size of the wood, as an article of commerce in China, is of a diameter of four or six inches, and a length of three or four feet; from eight to twelve pieces of wood of that size usually weighing a pecul. A piece of sandal-wood, of the size just mentioned, is considered the most acceptable offering that a person can carry in his hand to present to the idols in the temples: the large pieces are the votive offering of a rich person, to burn on particular occasions, such for instance as at the commencement of the new year; small pieces are then abundantly sold about the streets, for the lower class of people to purchase, for burning before the deities. “The Canton people,” said a Chinese merchant, “do not burn so much sandal-wood as those of the northern provinces, as in the latter superstition reigns to a greater extent than in the former.”[39]
In the plantations of this tree, belonging to the Honourable East India Company, upon the Coromandel coasts, it is not permitted to attain a large size, but is cut down when of a growthand quality calculated to render it available for the China market. The wood is rasped by the Chinese, made into pastiles, and in that form burnt before the idols: the oil is said to be expressed from the wood, and also to be extracted by boiling or distillation. Sandal-wood oil is highly esteemed, by some persons, in herpetic eruptions.
The sandal-wood tree, (Sántalum) is placed in the natural order Santalàceæ, class Tetrándria, order Monogynia. There are several species, but all have not wood possessed of fragrance. Of those from which the scented wood is procured I am acquainted with three species: two have been described, one theSántalum myrtifòlium, found on the coast of Coromandel; andS. Freycinetiànum, found at the Sandwich Islands; the other, an undescribed species, at the New Hebrides group; the latter appearing to have an affinity to that found on the Coromandel shores.
The native names of the sandal-wood, in some of the countries where it is found indigenous, are as follow:—
Among the Malays, Jeendana. New Hebrides: Island of Erromanga, Nassau; Island of Tanna, Nebissi; Island of Annatom, Narti, niat. The Marquesa group, Bua ahi. The Island of Oparo, Turi, turi. At the Island of Tahiti (where ithas been found on the mountains, but is very scarce) and Eimeo, Ahi. On the Malabar coast, Chandana cotte. In the Island of Timor, Aikamenil. In the Island of Amboyna, Ayasru. At the Fidji group, Iarsé. At the Sandwich Islands, Iliahi.
Different varieties of the sandal-wood are likewise found in India, Eastern Archipelago, (more particularly in the islands to the eastward,) the Marquesas, Fidji, New Hebrides groups, &c.; the Island of Juan Fernandez; and have been occasionally found on the high mountains of Tahiti, Eimeo, and Raivavae, or High Island. Mr. Crawford observes, (Indian Archipelago, vol. i. p. 419, 420,) respecting sandal-wood, that it is “a native of the Indian islands, and is found of three varieties, white, yellow, and red; the two first being most esteemed. From Java and Madura, eastward, it is scattered in small quantities throughout the different islands, improving in quantity and quality as we move to the east, until we reach Timor, whence the best and largest supply is obtained.” And he observes:—“In the western countries, where it either does not exist at all, or exists in small quantity and of bad quality; it is universally known by the Sanscrit name of Chandana, from whence it may be fair to infer, thatits use was taught by the Hindûs when they propagated their religion, in the ceremonies of which it is frequently employed.”
The sandal-wood tree is most usually found in hilly districts and rocky situations; and, when growing on low land, is of a degenerated quality. This latter circumstance is known to the Chinese; for, at Singapore, a Chinese merchant observed, that the sandal-wood found growing on the rocky mountains contains the greatest quantity of oil, and is of more value than that which grows in low situations and rich soil, as the latter is found to have degenerated. On asking him from whence he derived his information, he stated, “from Chinese books.” At the Friendly Islands they use the wood for scenting their cocoa-nut oil, and a piece of the wood is considered a valuable present by the chiefs; they procure it occasionally from the Fidji Islands, and call it Ahi Fidji. The tree will not thrive at Tongatabu. The species found at the island of Erromanga (New Hebrides) has ovate, entire, smooth, petioled leaves, of a light-green colour above, whitish and distinctly veined underneath; some of the leaves varied by being pointed. It is a tree of irregular and slow growth; it attains the height of about eight feet without, and thirty feet with branches, andabout two feet in diameter. I always remarked, however, that after attaining a moderate size, it was invariably found rotten in the heart. Sandal-wood is very heavy, sinks in water, and the part of the tree which contains the essential oil (according to Cartheuser, one pound of the wood will yield two drachms of the oil) on which the agreeable odour depends, is the heart, the other portions of the tree being destitute of any fragrance: this portion is surrounded by a lighter wood of some thickness, denominated the sap, which is carefully removed from the heart-wood. Sandal-wood is sold by weight, and varies in price, according to the size and quality, from three to twenty dollars and upwards the pecul (one hundred and thirty-three pounds.) When young, the wood has a whitish colour, and possesses but little fragrance; as it increases in age it becomes of a yellowish colour, and when old of a brownish red colour, and at that period is most valued, from containing the greatest quantity of that essential oil on which its fragrance depends. It is considered that the wood is never attacked by insects: this opinion is erroneous, as I have seen the nidus of some species formed in it.
At the Sandwich Islands, the tree is named Iliahi, or Lauhala, signifying sweet wood, (lau,wood; hala, sweet,) and when young the tree is here of very elegant growth. At Wouhala (island of Oahu) I observed numbers of the young trees, some of which were covered by a profusion of beautiful flowers of a dark-red colour: the flowers, however, are often observed to differ in colour on the same tree, and even on the same stalk; they grow in clusters, some having the corolla externally of a dark-red colour, and internally of a dull yellow; others having it entirely of a dark-red, and others again have the corolla partly red and white externally; the young leaves are of a dark-red colour, and give an elegant appearance to the tree. This was not observed in the species found at the island of Erromanga; indeed, the species found at the Sandwich Islands had a more handsome appearance in its growth than that at Erromanga. At the Sandwich Islands, two varieties of the wood are observed by the natives, depending, however, only on the age of the tree; the young or white wood is called lau, keo, keo; (lau, wood; keo, keo, white;) and the red wood, lau, hula, hula; (lau, wood; hula, hula, red.) As before stated, the wood, when taken from a young tree, is white, containing but a small quantity of oil; as the tree increases in growth, the wood becomes of a yellowish colour, and theoldest and best is of a brownish red colour:[40]the different varieties of the wood depend, therefore, on the age of the tree, and are of three kinds, white, yellow, and red, of which the yellow and red (from containing the largest quantity of oil) are most esteemed in the Chinese market, where the wood is principally used, the expressed oil being mixed with pastiles, and burned before their idols in the temples, as I have before mentioned.
Indigenous to the Sandwich Islands is a species of Myóporum, (M. tenuifòlium,) the heart of which is fragrant; and, from having been mistaken for sandal-wood, has received the name of spurious sandal-wood from Europeans, and is called Naiho, or Naihio, by the natives. The heart contains a quantity of essential oil; but the fragrance is not so agreeable as that derived from the sandal-wood, and for that reason it is not esteemed in the Chinese market; the heart is also surrounded by a lighter wood, termed the sap, as in the sandal-wood tree. An instance of the resemblance this bears to the sandal-wood, so as to deceive a common observer, occurred during my visit to the island ofOahu, (Sandwich Islands,) in December, 1829. Two large pieces of the Naiho, deprived of the sap, were collected for me, and had been placed in the yard of a mercantile gentleman previously to my taking them on board. At this time there was some sandal-wood, of small size, weighing in the yard, to be sent on board an American ship about to sail for Canton. The supercargo, who was superintending the weighing, seeing these pieces, mistook them for sandal-wood; and, anxious to secure two such large pieces among the small kind which he had purchased, placed them in the scales, and they were sent on board with the rest, the person engaged in weighing being also ignorant of the difference. This circumstance was not discovered until some time after the ship had sailed: engaged in other pursuits, I had for some time forgotten my wood; but on inquiring for it, its disappearance was accounted for, after some time, by the cause just related. I was informed that a cargo of this wood was taken by an American ship to Canton; and, on its arrival there, it was only considered fit for fire-wood.
The name of a “spurious sandal-wood” is a source of alarm to those who, engaged in purchasing sandal-wood, are not able to judge ofthe difference, or have only known the “spurious kind” by name. An instance of this occurred under my own observation. A vessel arrived from the New Hebrides group at the Bay of Islands, (New Zealand,) in July, 1829, having on board some sandal-wood. This was purchased by the commander of a ship lying at that place; he had heard of the existence of a spurious kind when at the Sandwich Islands, but never having seen it, was unable to judge of the difference. When the sandal-wood came on board, it was found to consist of the white, yellow, and red varieties, having been procured from trees of different ages; that which was of a whitish colour, and had less fragrance than the other wood, was considered immediately to be what he had heard of as spurious wood, and was rejected, much to the annoyance of the owner, who declared it was all sandal-wood. This supposed spurious kind was laid aside, and was finally delivered to the cook for fire-wood; and, when burning, it diffused a delightful fragrance over the ship. Some of it was landed amongst the fire-wood from the same ship, at the Sandwich Islands, much to the surprise of some of the merchants, who thought that sandal-wood must be very common on board when it was used as fire-wood.
The Naiho (Myóporum tenuifòlium) attains the height of fifteen to twenty feet, and a circumference of three or four feet: the scented wood differs, according to the age of the tree, from a light-yellow to a reddish colour; the tree is branchy.