The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton Before Treaty Days 1825-1844. William C. Hunter
to whose watch he belonged, threw him a rope, which he just caught and was soon hauled up on deck. 'You must have been asleep,' said Mr. Hughes, who then asked him if the water felt warm or cold. When the officer came in the cabin later, he exclaimed, 'That fellow wouldn't have fallen had he not been fast asleep; but it is lucky for him he "awoke in time" to get hold of the rope, or he would have gone down.' This is a specimen of what 'Jack' calls 'sojer's comfort.' They had what they called 'sailor's comfort' every Saturday afternoon in the middle watch. It consisted in overhauling their chests and bags, or mending their clothes, on the system, as they said, of putting a patch next to a patch, as being neighbourly, but never a patch upon a patch, as that was beggarly. Many of the men remembered, as boys, the wearing of 'pig tails,' and their being mutually dressed, preceded by the calling out in the 'foksle' of 'Tie for tie,' or, 'Tie me, I'll tie you, and damn all favour.'
No happier crew were ever 'rocked upon the cradle of the deep' than the one of which the 'Citizen' was composed. This was the result of uniformly taut but considerate treatment, the best of food, good grog, and no needless botheration, while the utmost harmony prevailed between Captain Keen and his officers. On the return of the ship to Canton, on her second voyage after, in 1827, Captain Keen related the homeward passage of 1825, which was an unusually hard one. The ship was forty days from point Natal to the Cape, knocked about in the teeth of westerly gales and frightful seas, and referring to his crew he remarked, 'No better men ever manned a ship.'
We made the coast of China at 5 A.M. on February 11, 1825. A pilot came on board off the Lema Islands, took us through the channel of the same name, having to starboard the then 'terra incognita,' 'Hong Kong,' and anchored the ship under the island of 'Lintin,' at 2 o'clock P.M., 125 days from New York.
The island of 'Ling Ting,' or the 'Solitary Nail,' commonly called 'Lin Tin,' was at this time the anchorage of the 'opium store ships,' and temporarily of vessels whose destination was Whampoa (with some exceptions). On the arrival of an American ship, she communicated with her agent at Canton by means of a 'fast boat,' meanwhile despatching another one to Macao for a pilot to take her inside the river. The exceptions were the ships of the English East India Company, and country ships from India having no opium on board (those which had anchoring at Lintin to deliver it); these then took pilots off Macao and sailed directly to the 'inner anchorage,' as Whampoa was called. The Lintin anchorage was not, however, only an opium station. All vessels bound to Whampoa were loaded with general cargo, or with rice only, and were subject to what were called Cumsha and Measurement charges. These were very heavy in the case of the former, but moderate in the latter. It was therefore an object for a vessel entering the river with only part of a general cargo to fill up with any freight that might offer, and thus reduce the heavy charges referred to, or to send up what she had on board, if of moderate quantity, in another ship, then load with rice and go on to Whampoa, if she was to load with tea for her return voyage. It almost always happened that these arrangements could be made, as arrivals were continually taking place with rice cargoes or general cargoes.
After a week's detention at Lintin, the 'Citizen' was directed to receive any river freight that might offer, and proceed to Whampoa. In passing the Bogue[5] Forts, the main topsail was backed while the pilot went on shore to exhibit his pass to the Mandarin, with whom he returned to the ship, ostensibly to verify description with fact; but it is unnecessary to say this had become a mere matter of form. After a glass of wine, and presenting the old gentleman with a few sheets of writing paper, which, I found out afterwards, were considered a great treat, I offered him a box of a then recent invention, viz., friction matches; they astonished him mightily, and he left us with numerous 'Chin-chin's' and best wishes for 'good wind and good water,' equivalent to a quick passage. We anchored abreast of French Island on the 20th.
It was in the year 1745 that Yung Ching, the third Emperor of the present dynasty, ordered all foreign trade to be confined to the port of Canton, universally known as Whampoa. Separated by a branch of the river from French Island stands Dane's Island. These were so named from the privilege that those nationalities originally enjoyed of occupying bankshalls or storehouses upon them, wherein to shelter the crews while smoking ship and overhauling after the desperately long passages they must have made from Europe. All vestiges of those buildings have long since disappeared, but numerous decaying tombstones, half buried beneath earth and weeds, still tell the tale. The regular tea season being over, we found few vessels at Whampoa, and these, as with the 'Citizen,' were designated, 'out of season ships.' The northern side of the anchorage is formed by the important island of Wang-Po; the river is named the Wang-Po, and the same is applied to the anchorage. The words mean the 'Yellow Anchorage.' On the island is a large town of many thousand inhabitants, almost all of whom are directly or indirectly connected with the foreign shipping, as compradores, stevedores, blacksmiths, &c.
The Choo, or Pearl River, commonly called the Canton River, presented a vastly different appearance on the 21st February, 1825, from what it did twenty years later. It was then crowded with native vessels, including those immense coasting junks which have now almost entirely disappeared. They then made voyages to the northern and southern ports of China, to the Celebes, Borneo and Java, and to Singapore, as well as to Manila. Long tiers of salt junks lined the shore of the island of Honam; these brought cargoes from Teenpak and places on the coast south-westward of Macao. They were owned by a corporation of salt merchants, who enjoyed a monopoly of the trade, and, to prevent smuggling, a special fleet of cruisers was organised by the local government. The penalties against a clandestine introduction of salt were as severe and more rigorously carried out than even against opium. The merchants were an influential body, as much considered as the Hong merchants, whom they rivalled in wealth. The number of cargo boats from the interior, of passenger boats, floating residences and up-country craft, with Government cruisers and flower boats, was prodigious. To these must be added sampans,[6] ferry boats plying to and from Honam, and quantities of barbers' boats, vendors of every description of food, of clothes, of toys, and what would be called household requirements if in shops on shore; besides boats of fortune-tellers and of theatrical performers—in short, imagine a city afloat, and it conveys a very correct idea of the incessant movement, the subdued noises, the life and gaiety of the river.
But now, an additional interest was added to this floating scene, from its being the first days of the Chinese new year. The noise of gongs, as a compliment to the meeting of mutual acquaintances or when one boat or junk arrived or set sail, was startling; and finally, the red and gilt patches of paper, on which words or sentences were written in large black characters, appropriate to the opening of the new year, formed another conspicuous feature on every kind of craft. Ships' boats were usually furnished with paddles, which were always brought into use from below the Dutch Folly to the landing place in front of the factories. The oars of our boat being therefore replaced by them, with skill and patience, after two hours from Whampoa, we landed at 'Jackass Point,' so memorable in the days of old Canton. Crossing the Square, under the guidance of Captain Keen, we entered the Suy-Hong, and met with the kindest reception from Mr. Jacob Covert and Oliver H. Gordon, the special agents of Mr. Smith, and from the two younger members of the office, John H. Grosvenor and Thomas Bloodgood.
Having been sent by Mr. Smith to Canton expressly to study the Chinese language preparatory to entering his office there, as the difficulties to be overcome in providing a teacher for me proved insuperable, Mr. Covert decided to send me at once to Singapore, where a college had been commenced in which foreign students could be received, and which might be ready for the purpose. I went, therefore, to the Straits in the Bombay ship 'Good Success,' Captain Poynton, and arrived at my destination in the month of April, after seventeen days' passage. I took letters to the Resident, Mr. Crawford, and others, and was consigned to Messrs. A. L. Johnston and Co. The college, however, had not only not been finished, but there was no prospect of its being. My friends, therefore, after taking information from Malacca, where the Anglo-Chinese College was in full operation, sent me there in a small native brig. We arrived after four days' passage from Singapore. During the two months that I passed at Singapore I was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Read in their bungalow on the ascent of Government Hill. I shall never forget the parental care of my host and hostess. They soon caused me to forget that I was the youngest of strangers in, to me, a most strange land. To this day I recall their quiet and unaffected efforts to make me at home, and the drives they took me in their