Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China. Robert Fortune
for one night Government House was robbed; and another time they actually stole the arms of the sentries. These armed bands, sometimes a hundred strong, disappeared, as they came, in a most marvellous manner, and no one seemed to know whence they came or whither they went. Such attacks are fortunately now of rare occurrence. In all my wanderings on the island, and also on the main land hereabouts, I found the inhabitants harmless and civil. I have visited their glens and their mountains, their villages and small towns, and from all the intercourse I have had with them, I am bound to give them this character. But perhaps the secret of all was, that I had nothing for them to take, for I was always most careful not to have any thing valuable about me, and my clothes, after scrambling amongst the rocks and brushwood, were not very tempting even to a Chinaman.
Since the island of Hong-kong has been ceded to England, the foreign population in it has been much changed. In former days there were only a few mercantile establishments, all known to each other, and generally most upright and honourable men. Now people from all countries, from England to Sydney, flock to the Celestial country, and form a very motley group.
Viewed as a place of trade, I fear Hong-kong will be a failure. The great export and import trade of southern China must necessarily be carried on at Canton, as heretofore, there being at present, at least, no inducement to bring that trade to Hong-kong. It will, nevertheless, be a place of great importance to many of the merchants, more particularly to those engaged in the opium trade; and will, in fact, be the head-quarters of all houses who have business on the coast, from the facilities of gaining early information regarding the state of the English and Indian markets, now that steam communication has been established between this country and the south of China. Moreover, with all its faults, its importance may yet be acknowledged in the event of another war. Our countrymen cannot have so entirely forgotten the kind of protection which used to be afforded them by the Portuguese at Macao, as to make them wish to be put in the same circumstances again; and it is of no little importance to know that their lives and property are safe under the British flag, which has
. … " braved a thousand years
The battle and the breeze."
[1] Before leaving China, I had occasion to visit this spot of ground—the grave of many a brave soldier. A fine road leading round the island, for the recreation and pleasure of the inhabitants, passed through the place where they had been buried. Many of their coffins were exposed to the vulgar gaze, and the bones of the poor fellows lay scattered about on the public highway. No one could find fault with the road having been made there, but if it was necessary to uncover the coffins, common decency required that they should be buried again.
CHAP. III.
LEAVE HONG-KONG FOR AMOY.—OPIUM STATION AT NAMOA.—LIBERTY THE ENGLISH ENJOY THERE.—CHINESE POPULATION, AND THEIR MODES OF LIVING.—A NEW ADMIRAL MAKES NEW LAWS.—CHERRY-BRANDY ALTERS HIS VIEWS.—THE ACCOUNT WHICH, AS IN DUTY BOUND, HE SENDS TO PEKING.—NATURAL TUNNEL THROUGH CHAPLE ISLAND.—AMOY.—REMARKS ON ITS TRADE.—TRAVELS IN THE COUNTRY AMONGST THE PEOPLE.—THE WANT OF A TAIL.—THE HILLS.—ISLAND OF KOO-LUNG-SOO.—EFFECTS OF WAR.—STRANGE ROCKS.—UNHEALTHY NATURE OF THE ISLAND.—BOTANY AND BIRDS.—VISIT TO ONE OF THE CHIEF MANDARINS.—HIS HOUSE AND GROUNDS.
I left the pleasant bay of Hong-kong on the 23d of August, and sailed for Amoy. As we came out of the harbour by the western entrance, and rounded the south side of the island, I had an excellent view of the little town of Chuckchew, and the military station established there. The town, or village, for it is but a small place, is pleasantly situated on the shores of a deep bay, and fully exposed to the refreshing breezes of the south-west monsoon, and is generally considered much more healthy than the town of Victoria, on the opposite side of the island.
It was now my lot to be seized with that dreadful fever, which I have already noticed, as so prevalent in our new settlement at this time. I lay in a very precarious state for several days, without the means of procuring medical aid; but the sea air probably did more for me than any thing else, and, under Providence, was the means of saving my life. After encountering a strong gale of wind, which we rode out in a deep bay for three days, we at last reached the opium station at Namoa.
Namoa is the name of a small island about half way between Hong-kong and Amoy, and is well known as one of the stations where the contraband trade in opium is carried on between foreign vessels and the Chinese smugglers. At this time I was fresh from England, and full of all the notions which we form there of the sacredness of the Chinese empire. I then thought that, although I might perhaps get a view of the celestial country, no barbarian feet would be allowed to pollute the sacred soil. Great was my surprise and pleasure when I found the captains of vessels wandering about all over the island unmolested. They had made roads to a considerable extent, and had built a cottage as a sort of smoking lodge when they landed in the evenings for recreation. They had also erected stables, and had small Chinese ponies for riding all over the island; in fact, they seemed quite the lords of the soil, and were not subjected to the least annoyance from the natives.
Hundreds of Chinamen gather round this spot, where they have erected huts and a bazaar, or market, for supplying the shipping, and, what appears not a little strange to European eyes, whenever the ships move to any other anchorage in the vicinity, the whole of the inhabitants, houses, market, and all, move along with them, so easily do these individuals change about from one place to another. One of the captains informed me that it was in contemplation to leave that particular spot shortly, and that if I happened to visit it a day or two after this event, all the motley groups would be gone, and the place entirely deserted. Nor was this statement at all exaggerated, for on my return a few months afterwards, the change of station had taken place, and not a vestige of the little village remained: men, women, and children, with their huts, boats, and all that belonged to them, had followed the ships, and had again squatted opposite to them on the beach.
The different modes which these people have of obtaining a livelihood are really astonishing: with one of these I was particularly struck. There are boats of all kinds engaged in bringing off stock, such as ducks, fowls, and other things, to the ships; but one kind consisted only of five or six thick pieces of bamboo fastened together in the form of a raft, and with this the poor fellows paddled along with two oars, the water washing all over the raft, and frequently also over its contents. The fowls which some of these people brought off were in a most pitiable plight, and certainly could not exist long in such a state.
A few months after this time a complaint was made to Sir Henry Pottinger, then governor of Hong-kong, by the Chinese authorities regarding this state of affairs at Namoa. It set forth that the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty had built houses, made roads, and in fact were making another Hong-kong at the island of Namoa, which, according to the treaty, they had no right to do. The old Chinese admiral, who had shut his eyes to all these irregular proceedings, had been removed, and another, remarkable for his prowess and bravery in the suppression of piracy on that coast! had been appointed to this station, and it was the latter with whom the complaint originated. Sir Henry Pottinger acknowledged the irregularity of the proceeding, but blamed the Chinese authorities for allowing it for such a length of time, and claimed a period of six months to give time for the sale or removal of any articles the English might have on shore. This was agreed to on the part of the Chinese.
And now comes the part of the business, which so nicely illustrates the peculiar character of the Chinese. When I visited Namoa, in October, 1845, I made enquiry regarding the state of affairs on shore, and found that a little civility and a few bottles of cherry brandy had wonderfully softened the good old admiral, and that a communication had been received stating that some little show of compliance was actually necessary: they must pull down the house, for example, but the stables and horses might remain as before, and the captains might go on taking their accustomed exercise and recreation on the island, as they had been in the habit of doing. It was even hinted that no objection would be made to their putting up another cottage,