CHAPTER VI.

More Grumbling--Sailing Orders: Hurra!--A Trial of Patience--Sail from Hong-Kong for Shanghai--Beating past Formosa--Danger ahead--’Bout Ship--An anxious Moment--The Danger escaped--Woosung--Anchor at Shanghai--The Nobs--Life in the Streets--Coolie Jams--Sedan-bearers’ Salutes--Shops and Shopkeepers--Buddhist Temple--The Worshippers--Ogling and carving--Divination by Sticks--Big Ear and Big Eye--Yankee Rowdies--Broken Heads--Hot Weather--Patience rewarded--A Parcel from Home--An Alarm--Attempt at Murder--Feeders on Christians--You English one Rogue--Fern Tea--Carrion Food--A Rat Scramble--Sea Spawn--Chinese and English Landscapes--Chinese Painters and Pile-drivers--Fourth of July--Dogs and Sailors classed together--A Warning to Old Ugly--Funeral Rites.

January 1st, 1858.--My entry in the journal for the day runs thus: “Here we are, still in the river, grumbling at long delay, and wanting to be sent out of it.” Nothing of importance happened, and we filled up our time with ordinary duty and more growling till the 14th of February, when we received orders to go to Shanghai, and all were very glad at the prospect of a change; for my part, I was positively happy in expectation of soon again dancing upon blue water.

So we left the river for Hong-Kong, where we arrived about the time of the mail from England, and soon got our letters. Mine informed me that a young lieutenant of the _Sanspareil_ had kindly brought me out a parcel, and I asked leave to go and fetch it, but was refused as we were under sailing orders, and I had to exercise patience and hope for the best. We sailed from Hong-Kong on the 10th of March; it was nasty dirty weather, and the north-west monsoon was blowing dead in our teeth. On the 14th we were beating to windward of the Island of Formosa; in tacking we stood close in shore, which presented a fine appearance, being bold and high; in some parts woodland and heath, deep valleys and swelling plains. The water is very deep close in shore; but we saw no good harbours. On the 16th we were bowling along handsomely, the weather being squally, and thick and hazy, hiding from us a small island which we expected to weather, when a startling incident took place. Bow look-outs had been placed about a quarter of an hour, when the man to the starboard sang out in hurry and alarm, “Land on the starboard bow, close aboard.” The mist had partially cleared away, suddenly revealing to us a rock about two cables’ length distant; its craggy sides looming fearfully grim through the yet misty offing. This danger, startling as it was, was met coolly and promptly as soon as discovered; the first-luff sprang upon the netting, and with a decisive energy equal to the emergency, delivered his orders, which, however, the seamen hardly needed. “’Bout ship,” and “ease off head sheets,” “haul over the boom,” and “ready, ho!” followed in quick succession. Then a profound silence, while all gazed anxiously at the motion of the ship as with the helm ‘hard over,’ she fell off rapidly. Then was thundered out “Mainsail haul,” and all the after-yards were swung and braced up on the opposite tack. The topsail and huge mainsail flapped and shivered for a moment, one of intense anxiety, and then--what a relief--bellied out bravely to the breeze. On looking astern, we saw the rock close to us, rising high and threatening, and a caldron of waves boiling and surging at its base. But attend! “Haul of all!” resounded along the deck; we swung and braced up the head yards, hauled the bowlines, and dashed away from the danger so mercifully escaped. A few moments more and our gallant corvette would have been a wreck, and our fate would not have been recorded in these pages.

On the seventeenth day after leaving Hong-Kong we arrived at Woosung, and steamed up the river to Shanghai, and our anchor was soon down in the soft, thick, but firm mud of the dirty Chinese stream.

The city stands on the east bank. In the English quarter the houses are large and well built, streets clean and decent, with a fair proportion of shops, native as well as European. The river is about half a mile wide; along the bank runs the Bund, a broad terrace, on which, backed by the houses, is a smooth road, and plenty of room for passengers. Here, in the cool of the evening, the “nobs” of Shanghai, as we used to call them, used to drive or walk, and create a fashionable bustle. The residences of the consuls, built after European fashion, are fine large buildings, and more like palaces than private dwellings. The Chinese city lies more to the east, and is a large, busy, dirty, and uncomfortable place. It has four massive gateways resembling a tunnel built in the wall, which are closed every night. The streets are so narrow that three persons can with difficulty walk abreast; they are miserably ill-paved, and all kinds of filth being thrown into them, the stench is fearful; there’s a precious sight more than “two-and-seventy,” as old Archy said one day to me after a ramble through the city.

There is plenty to see, and plenty to see you. Now a string of coolies come trotting along with wood, fish, and vegetables, or some other such universal commodity. Stand clear you must, or they will run over you, so wishing the fellows anything but good luck, you jam yourself against the wall and let them pass. You have but partially recovered from your jam, and are looking in admiration at some fine delicate silk-work, and wishing you had enough money to buy it, when bang comes against you some high dignitary’s sedan-chair, carried by bearers in showy livery. You probably salute the sternmost one with a kick for his rudeness, and your vengeance is appeased. These bearers would sooner run against you than sing out and warn you of their approach. And everywhere you find the streets infested with beggars, who are quite as importunate as the tribe in Ireland are, or used to be, begging from foreigner or countryman alike.

The shops have no front, but are quite open, and the houses are generally low, with only a single room above the shop, sometimes with a low balcony outside, embellished with a variety of carving and varnish so as to appear smart to the by-passer. The shops are made to serve as eating and smoking rooms also, for the masters and their men are often to be seen having their chow-chow on the counter, or falling asleep behind it over their pipe of opium, which most of them smoke to a degree perfectly astounding. The shopkeepers are mostly very obsequious, and those of the same trade dwell together, so that here we have a community of tea-dealers, whose neighbourhood is fragrant with the smell of the refreshing herb; farther on, shoemakers, who sit as our own do, but don’t make the same kind of shoe; farther yet are booksellers, and opposite to us again a bevy of bankers. The booksellers are the quietest and neatest traders, and no doubt they keep on hand a large stock of the Life of Confucius: “Confuse-us,” as our men called him.

I went, in the middle of the city, into a temple, and saw how they worshipped and offered up to that venerable monstrosity--the effigy of Buddha. The building was lofty, large, and gloomy, with a damp brick floor, showed no signs of beauty, and was, moreover, full of the sickly smell of Joss-stick incense. Joss himself was in the main building abutting on the entrance; on a dais hung with crimson drapery and enthroned in state. Numbers of worshippers were bowing down to him with many genuflexions; a large fire was burning in a brazen vase, into which the worshippers cast pieces of scented paper of an oval form. But the total want of earnestness in the worshippers surprised me. Here was a woman just before me on her knees, muttering and making a motion it is true, but all the while ogling a young priest; and their grins and soft looks were mutual. Yonder a young lad was praying away very hard, but at the same time, carving something out of a piece of wood with a knife. Some of the devotees had come to know the issue of an expedition they were about to take; others to see if they could venture on a voyage. Mothers came to solicit a male child as the first one; and young damsels came to find husbands. The way they found out all this was, by tossing up two sticks, and by the direction in which they fell, or as they lay after their fall, so did the priest interpret the failure or success of the undertaking. Sometimes the applicants, not liking the construction the priests put upon it, had come to a conclusion for themselves, and going before Joss, prostrated and returned thanks, and went out of the temple seemingly satisfied. Bob Brady, one of our party, after being silent a long time, said, “He’d be hanged, though, if that didn’t lick him all together; he wondered where they’d all go to some day.”

I saw many of them praying to a big-eared god, under the impression, perhaps, that he could hear everything they said, and to another with large eyes, with the notion that he could see all their faults; but I should say they might spare themselves that trouble, for the one who sees all surely ought to be able to hear all.

However, I liked my first ramble in a Chinese city, for we were not allowed to ramble at Canton, and I was interested with the strangeness and singularity of the place and the people, with only one drawback, that of having to keep my handkerchief pretty constantly to my nose to intercept the dreadful smells.

Just as I was coming down the pier to get a boat and to go on board, I was witness to an affray between American men-of-war’s men and certain Chinese boatmen. These Yankees, with their usual bombast and swagger, had interfered with and ill-treated the Chinamen, who, being roused, made common cause against the enemy, and rushed to the scene of contention armed with long bamboos, which they used freely on Jonathan’s head; the seamen were soon surrounded by numbers, and though they made a mad defence, two of their party were left bleeding and stunned upon the Bund, while the others fled into sanpans near the pier and there tried to mollify their opponents. At first the enraged Celestials would come to no terms; and again made show of another assault; but for some reason their mob diminished, they gave up the contest, and the crestfallen Minnesotas were allowed to land and carry away their wounded from the inglorious battle-field.

May, the month of sweet-blossoming hedgerows where English breezes blow, brought us beautiful but intensely hot weather; thermometer 114°, which compelled us to stretch our double awnings. Often all day a nice cool breeze came up the river, softening the intense heat, and making the smoking stream look like molten lava in rapid motion.

By the first mail which followed us to Shanghai I got my parcel; the young lieutenant having taken the trouble to forward it; for which kindness I here present him my thanks. I cut the string eagerly, and was delighted on turning out what lay underneath: English books, and all from home: there were _Airy’s Astronomical Lectures_, _The House with the Seven Gables_, and other works of pleasant reading. Many a weary hour did they beguile! I read some of them to messmates and shipmates, and after a time they got well thumbed by frequent lending.

One night we were all turned in, and lying comfortably about the main-deck under the awning, when the silence was rudely broken and the sleepers were awakened by the shrill pipe and rough voice of the boatswain’s mate: “’Way there, launchers; hurry up, now, hurry up! Bring your cutlasses with you!” We all started up to see what was the matter, when we learned there had been an attempt to murder on board a Dutch merchant ship lying just ahead of us. Our launch brought the culprit on board and his intended victim, whose throat was bleeding profusely from a cut not very deep, but awkward and painful. One or two more of the crew also came with their comrades. I couldn’t help laughing at the wounded man’s narrative of the affair. He began in imperfect English: “I vas lying in my bunk you know; it vas in de middle of de night, when I see de door of de galley open; and a man poke his head in and say, Who are you? I am cook, I say! Den he say again, Cook, I was kill you. I say, Oh no; no kill me, kill pig; when he cut me vit de long knife and I roop out and you English man-o’-war hear!” One of the other men said, “He was hear noise and cook sing out murder, and so he was yump off de yib-boom into yolly-boat in one yump, and come to de man-o’-war.” There being no Dutch consul in Shanghai, the murderous fellow was sent to Hong-Kong.

The weather grew hotter and hotter: the only relief we got was in the cool of the evening; but with this relief we had the annoyance of mosquitoes. As you lie comfortably with the faint breeze fanning your heated brow, one comes buzzing about your ear, and presently you are assailed by millions, which dart upon the feet and ankles. You get up and walk about, thinking that during your absence the tiny tormentors may have cleared out; but no! You return and find them just as voracious and numerous as ever. And so it continues in one unceasing battle against the swarming foe; till quite wearied and exasperated, you fall into uneasy slumber. “Well, Bill, how d’ye fare?” “Oh!” slap, slap; “bless the mosquitys, you know what I mean, they’ll eat a fellow alive.” “Yes! and what pauls me, they won’t touch the Long-tails; but don’t they feed on Christians! Why, they walked off with the slack of my blanket last night.”

The _Antelope_ steamer came in to-day from the North, bringing the news that a treaty had been signed between France and England and his Celestial Majesty, by which the entire seaboard was to be opened to foreigners, and an indemnity paid to the allies. This is what puzzles the Chinese mightily. “You makee bobbery up Pekin,” they say; “you makee take city, all same rebels; you piecey soldier makee stop Canton, by’m by you go! Chinaman have pay you plenty dollar. This no right me thinkee; no ploper. You English one rogue; you no speakee true.”

In my rambles about the city I saw the process of tea-drying and sorting by men, women, and children, just as I had read about it in books at home. I saw them also doctoring tea which had been damaged by water. Many of the poor people, unable to buy, or not caring for tea, use an infusion of a large broad-leafed fern; it has a bitter taste and is extremely yellow in colour, and they appear surprised that you do not appreciate its goodness as well as themselves.

In passing through Chinese streets, you meet with such abominations in the shape of food as would suffice to overturn the soundest or coarsest of nautical stomachs: stewed cats, rats, and young puppies are in great demand; and you may see urchins and old men ogling a string of stewed or roasted rats, a boiled mess of toads, or a finely-browned young puppy, with watery mouths and wistful eyes; and here another fellow at the corner will be trying to cheapen a mess of fish-spawn, dirt and all.

Rat seems to be an especial treat, for let the cabin-boy of a European ship hold up a captured rat above the bulwarks, and immediately there is a rush and scramble from all the tea-lighters alongside; each man striving to be first to grab the coveted game.

Pork seems to be an especially favourite article of food; and you may see all sorts of nasty-looking doughy cakes, and dough made from rice-flour, sold hot in vast quantities.

Another disgusting mess, and one which the common people eat with great relish, is a medley of small sea-slugs and snails and weedy-looking things, all put together and thrown into a large deep earthenware jar, where they remain in salt water till they smell strongly, when I suppose they are good eating. I noticed at Lucong that the people ate large quantities of this.

I have not said anything yet about the scenery of Shanghai, so I may as well begin. The country is one dead plain, sparsely ornamented with willows and fine low leafy trees; every available inch of ground, as it were, is tilled, the very footpaths being exceedingly narrow. Near Woosung, on the south bank of the river, the country is well wooded and finely cultivated, paddy and rye-fields stretching away on each side; but there is still the same vast level.

The Chinese scenery, so far as I saw, is very different from English: there are no fine, deep, luxuriant valleys, no lofty and large clumps of trees; but uncultivated land is rare, except in hilly districts, and the country is like an endless, well-cultivated garden. The hedgerows and the pastoral sheep, the richly-laden orchards, the fine old hoary monarchs of the forest, the babbling and sparkling wayside brook, affording music and refreshment to the traveller--and, above all, the wonder-speaking flowers in every nook and corner such as we are accustomed to at home--are wanting in China; where, as it seems to me, the leading features are level fields and barren hilly wastes as burial-grounds.

One day some native painters came on board to re-decorate our capstan: their pots were much the same as those used by our own painters, but in their tools and methods they were very different. All their tools are small and flat, somewhat like a grainer’s brush, and take up but a small quantity of paint, consequently the workmen dip frequently. The colour was pretty well mixed, and Johnny showed himself an adept at thinning with turpentine. The ‘dryers,’ or what I took to be such, was a pale liquid without smell, but which has a cold feeling; this mixed freely with the paint causes it to dry quickly. But if all the Celestial workmen are as slow as the party I am describing, they do their best to carry out their own precept, which exhorts them to put off whatever they can till to-morrow; allow them to take their own time and you get your work done well; but hurry them with repeated “Chop! chop! Johnny!” and you may as well whistle for rude Boreas.

The same applies to labourers on shore. I watched a party who were pile-driving, using for that purpose a big ram, to which they all tailed on. Then the leader commenced a song of which “Yah” was the general burden; with the word “Yah,” down went the ponderous ram, and the stake was driven in a little bit; and the song went on till “Yah” came round again, about ten minutes distant from the first “Yah,” so that you couldn’t exactly apply the term “hard-working” to those fellows. But some of the coolies who carry the tea from the warehouses to the piers work very hard; one of these men thinks nothing of carrying six chests of tea on his bamboo yoke. I saw two of them carrying a 90-gallon cask of rum from the store, and they didn’t make a bit of fuss about it. These men, too, have a habit of uttering musically as they trot along with a heavy load, keeping step with one another, the phrase “A ugh,” “A ugh,” and as each one intones it in turn, it sounds very pleasing.

But while I am talking about all this, the 4th of July overtook us. We fired a royal salute and dressed ship in honour of Brother Jonathan. The skippers of the American ships in port made a present of two bottles of stout to each one of our ship’s company, in which we cordially drank success to the republicans. In the evening there was a great firing of cannon from the merchant shipping, and the Yankee consulate was brightly illuminated.

Talking about Yankees, there’s a precious lot of them in Shanghai; they live by trading, keeping grog-shops, boarding-houses, and by ‘beach-combing,’ which, in their own phrase, means loafing about on shore. Once while passing the Yankee Presbyterian chapel in their own part of the settlement, seeing the door open, I was about to satisfy my curiosity, and take a peep at the interior, when a placard caught my eye, “DOGS AND SAILORS NOT ADMITTED;” so I passed on, wondering to myself whether the fellow who planned it looked like a wise man or not. The same notice appears on the door-posts of their sporting houses.

In one of my rambles, I came suddenly upon a crowd of natives, chiefly of the working classes, and being desirous to ascertain the cause of the gathering, I went up to them, and found a party busily digging up a body, which they carefully handled, but not so carefully as to prevent its falling in pieces. These pieces were collected and placed in a new coffin at the head of the grave, together with a new suit of clothes and a hat, for the deceased to make a respectable appearance elsewhere, I presume. At the foot of the grave six wax tapers were kept burning as an offering to Joss, while every few moments they discharged a volley of crackers, and lighted Joss-papers to keep Old Ugly at bay. I afterwards learned that people were in the habit (if not able to pay for a funeral) of burying the dead in some convenient place, and after a sufficient sum had been raised by a little extra industry, or by a little less opium and samshu, the body was dug up and placed in a coffin, as before stated, and buried in some proper spot. A little thatched or tiled house is built over the grave, according to the means of the surviving relatives.

The graves of the rich are built of stone, something like a horse-shoe in shape, neatly carved, and exhibiting pretty good workmanship; a chamber is dug in the hill-side for the coffin, and the entrance is ornamented by this stone-work, and closed by a stone door. When a body is interred, it is brought in procession, as described in a former chapter, to the grave, and after various ceremonies the body is placed in the chamber, the food placed by its side, the door is closed and a seal put upon it, not to be disturbed till the annual season comes round for repeating the memorial rites.

This annual visiting the tombs is, I believe, looked forward to for a long time by both old and young; and as the day approaches, great preparations are made in the shape of pastiles, sweetmeats, bunches of flowers--real and artificial--evergreens, and so forth. Upon the day, the hill-sides leading to the tombs are alive, as it were, with groups of devotees, come after a year’s absence to show their unabated veneration for the dead. The door of the tomb is opened, the chamber is swept out and garnished with flowers, and a fresh supply of sweetmeats placed by the coffin; then offerings are made, the friends gaze once more upon their beloved dead, the door is again closed and sealed, and the body is left to its long repose. Upon leaving the tomb, crackers innumerable are let off, and lighted pieces of paper flung for the purpose before mentioned.

The poor people make no display in their interments, but bury their dead in their gardens and fields. The river population, and those living on the banks, seem to have no regard for their dead at all. I think they must be devoid of natural feeling, or, perhaps, poverty pressing grievously upon them makes them callous, for in the waters round about Canton, Shanghai, Whampoa, floating dead bodies are quite common--it is loathsome to see so many; sometimes, also, bodies are swathed in mats and laid on the banks of the stream, in solitary places or in lonesome creeks clear of the tide. At night, little corpse-lights are placed at the head and foot; the solitary watcher, faintly visible by the dim light, keeping them replenished till daybreak.