Part 13

We left Chusan, and soon afterwards anchored off the mouth of the Ningpo River, which is only thirty miles to northward and westward of the Chusan isles. The first object of interest before us was the famous joss-house fort, which gave us so much trouble at the capture. General D'Aguilar and Captain Mundy being about to visit the city of Ningpo, a party of us obtained a week's leave of absence for the same purpose. We landed in a ship's boat at Chinghae, a small but tolerably fortified town, which, however, needs no description. There we obtained a covered Chinese boat, in which we put our beds and blankets, intending to live on board her during our stay at Ningpo. Starting with a fair wind and tide, by noon we were within five miles of the city, which is built about forty miles up the river. The banks of the river appeared to be highly cultivated, and the river was crowded with boats of all descriptions, some going up with the tide, others at anchor, waiting for the tide to change, to go in an opposite direction. The first that we saw of Ningpo was a low wall, from the middle of which rose a tall pagoda. This, with innumerable masts of the vessels lying off the town, was all that was visible: nor could we discern much more on a nearer approach. Threading the crowd of vessels which filled the river, on our left we could only see the wall and battlements of the town, the before-mentioned pagoda soaring above every thing. To the right, on the side of the river opposite to the town, were several detached houses, surrounded with low shrubberies; behind these was the Chinese country, and then the eye wandered over countless paddy fields, until it at last rested upon some faint blue mountains in the distance.

Among the houses on the right was that of the vice-consul, Mr. Thorn. Anchoring our boat as near to his landing-place as possible, we made arrangements for the night, it being then too late to pay him the accustomed visit. We had, however, scarcely spread our mattresses, and put some supper on the fire, when we were hailed by a Chinese boy, and requested to come on shore. Ignorant from whence the invitation might come, but nothing loath, we hauled our boat to the jetty, and, landing, followed young pigtail, who ushered us through a court-yard into a house of tolerable dimensions, agreeably arranged according to English ideas of comfort. In five minutes more we were introduced to Mr. Mackenzie, an English merchant, who, having been informed of our arrival, had sent for us to request that, during our stay at Ningpo, we would make his house our home. We would not tax his hospitality so far as to sleep at his house, having already made our own arrangements; but we willingly accepted his kind offer of being his guests during the day, and proved our sincerity by immediately sitting down to an excellent dinner, and in the evening we retreated to our boat. The next morning we breakfasted with our host, and then crossed the river, to inspect the city. Having landed at one of the gates, we hired a sort of sedan chairs, which were carried by two athletic Tartars, and proceeded to examine a very remarkable building called the Ruined Pagoda. I shall give Dr. Milne's description of it, taken out of the Chinese repository, as I think it will be better than my own:--

"We bent our steps to the Tien-fung, called by foreigners the Ruined Pagoda. Foreigners make for it as soon as they enter the east gate. After shaping their course in a south-east direction through numberless streets, it abruptly bursts upon the view, rising 160 feet above their heads, and towering high above the surrounding houses. The pagoda is hexagonal, and counts seven stories and twenty-eight windows. Above every window is a lantern, and when the pagoda is illuminated, the effect is very brilliant. This building is in much need of repair, and is daily becoming more dilapidated. It has already deviated many feet from the perpendicular, and might not unaptly be described as the Leaning Tower of Ningpo."

Dr. Milne thus describes the view from the summit:--

"The entire city and suburbs lay beneath us; the valley of Ningpo, with its hamlets and villages, hills and rivers, on every side; and away in the distance, on the one hand chains of lofty mountains, the sea, with all its islands, on the other." Dr. Milne asserts that Ningpo is 10,000 years old, and that the pagoda was raised antecedent to the city being built. He concludes by explaining the object of the Chinese in raising these monuments.

The view from the summit is remarkably fine, and the ruinous condition of the pagoda almost warrants the supposition of its being nearly as ancient as Dr. Milne asserts. I made a drawing of it, and we then proceeded to the joss-house, which is considered as the handsomest in the Celestial empire. No part of the building was visible from the street, and we stopped at an unpretending door where we dismounted from our vehicles. A Bhuddist priest, clothed in grey and his head shaved, ushered us through a long gallery into the court-yard of the temple. To describe this building accurately would be impossible. It was gilt and carved from floor to ceiling. The porch was supported by pillars of stone beautifully carved with figures of griffins and snakes. In the court-yard were two lions carved out of a purple marble, and in the middle of the yard was an immense brazen ram highly ornamented with hieroglyphics and allegorical designs. As for the temple itself, it was so vast, so intricate, and so various in its designs and gildings, that I can only say picture to yourself a building composed entirely of carving, coloured porcelain, and gilding, and then you may have a faint idea of it. I attempted to make a drawing of it, but before I had obtained much more than the outline, it was time to recross the river. We dined and passed the evening with Mr. Mackenzie as before. The next morning I walked to the Chinese cemetery with my gun in my hand, and shot a few snipe and wood pigeons, and after breakfast we crossed the river to pay a visit to the shops of Ningpo. The streets of the city are narrow, but superior to any that we had yet seen. The principal streets are ornamented with stone arches, and the huge painted boards used by the Chinese for advertisements give them a very gay appearance. We first entered into a furniture warehouse, some 300 yards in length, and filled with Chinese bedsteads carved and gilt in a very splendid manner. These bedsteads consist of moveable frames about twelve feet square, and within them are disposed couches, chairs, tables, and the requisites for the toilet, besides a writing desk, so that a bedstead in China contains all the furniture of the room. Some of these were valued at five and six hundred dollars, but were very highly ornamented and of exquisite workmanship.

A hat shop was the next visited. Its interior would have been considered splendid even in Regent Street. A long highly polished counter with a top of cane-work, was loaded with the hats and caps of Mandarins of every class, and the display was very tempting to those who wanted them. We then passed five minutes in a porcelain warehouse; from the warehouse we went to a toy-shop, and being by this time pretty well encumbered with mandarins' hats and caps, gongs, and a variety of other articles which we did not want, at the same time making the discovery that our purses were not encumbered with dollars as they were when we set forth, we thought it advisable to leave off shopping for the day.

The next day we visited the Hall of Confucius, which was not worth seeing, nor could we discover to what use it was dedicated, so we turned from it and went off to see a Chinese play. As we proceeded to the theatre we were surprised to hear a lad singing "Jim along Josey," we turned round and found it was a real pig tail who was singing, and we inquired where he learnt the air. We found that he had served on board one of our vessels during the Chinese war, so we hired the young traitor as a cicerone during our stay at Ningpo, and ordered him to follow us to the theatre, which as usual was a temple or joss-house.

We found it crowded with Chinese, and the actors were performing on a raised platform. Our entrance caused a great sensation, and for a short time the performance was unnoticed by the audience. Our beaver hats quite puzzled them, for we were in plain clothes; even the actors indulged in a stare, and for a short time we were "better than a play." The Chinese acting has been often described: all I can say is, that so far it was like real life that all the actors were speaking at one time, and it was impossible to hear what they said, even if the gongs had not kept up a continual hammering, which effectually drowned the voices. At all events they were well off in the property line, being all very showily dressed. Fireworks were at intervals exploded, and occasionally a tumbler would perform some feat, but I felt little interest in the performance, and kept my eyes on the gallery containing the ladies, among whom I saw one or two very pretty faces.

The wall round Ningpo is built wide enough for a carriage drive. It has embrasures, but no guns were mounted. By ascending some steps near to the town gate we found ourselves on the top of the wall, and walked half round the town on the parapet. It was very extensive, and, as far as the eye could reach, the plain was studded with country houses of a slate colour.

I forgot to mention that while here we visited a sect of Chinese nuns or female devotees. They were assembled in a large room, at one end of which was an image of the god Fo. Each nun was seated at a small table on which was a reading stand and a book of prayers. They were all reading, and at the same time beating a hollow painted piece of wood: the latter duty was, we were informed, to keep up the attention of the god. What with them all gabbling at once, and the tapping noise made with the wood, god Fo appeared more likely to have his attention distracted than otherwise. However, it was of no consequence, as Fo was one of that description of gods mentioned in the Bible, among whose attributes we find, "Ears have they, but they hear not."

We remained here a week, and I was much interested with what I saw; but so much has already been written about the Chinese, that I wish to confine myself to what may be considered unbroken ground. As the time fixed for our departure approached, we determined to go to Chinghae overland, in chairs. Taking a farewell of our kind and hospitable host, Mr. Mackenzie, we each took a chair, and took our departure. The road was interesting, being at one time through tea plantations, and at another through paddy fields. Our bearers were strong muscular fellows, and thought little of carrying us twenty-five miles. We passed crowds of Chinamen irrigating the land, and working in the paddy fields. In some instances they favoured us with a salute of yells and stones; and as we approached Chinghae, the unwashed vented their feelings in some very unpleasant ways. In the town we were followed by a mob; and by the time we had reached the quay, and procured a boat to take us off to the ship, the whole town had turned out. Tapping one or two of the most officious with the bamboo oars, we managed to shove the boat off, and pulled on board.

We sailed for Chusan the same evening, but this time I unfortunately was attacked by one of the prevailing diseases of the country, and was confined to my hammock. We revisited Amoy, and then shaped our course for Hong Kong. On our arrival, we found no ship there but the Castor, the admiral and fleet being employed on the coast of Borneo, subduing the pirates in Maludu Bay. The ship being again about to start for the northward, I was considered too unwell to remain in her, and was sent on board the Minden hospital ship, to live or to die, as it might please God.

The Minden hospital ship is a fine 74; and as all the guns, masts, and stores, had been landed at the time that she was selected for the duty, there was great accommodation on board of her; but great as it was, unfortunately there was not sufficient to meet the demands upon it in this unhealthy climate. A description of her internal arrangement may not be uninteresting. The quarter-deck and poop was set apart for the convalescents; but the heat of the sun was so overpowering, that it was not until late in the afternoon that they could breathe the purer atmosphere. Long confinement below had left them pale and wan, and their unsteady gait proved how much they had suffered in their constitution, and how narrowly they had escaped the grave. To some this escape had been beneficial, as their constant perusal of the Bible established; others, if they even had during their illness alarms about their future state, had already dismissed them from their thoughts, and were impatiently awaiting their return to health to return to past folly and vice. The main deck was allotted to the medical and other officers belonging to the ship, the seamen who composed the ship's company, and also on this deck were located the seamen who had been discharged cured, and who then waited for the arrival of their ships, which were absent from Hong Kong. On this deck, abaft all, was the inspector's cabin, and adjoining it the mess-room of the assistant-surgeons, who, like all their class, rendered callous by time and habit to their dangerous and painful duty, thought only of driving away the memory of the daily mortality to which they were witnesses by jovial living and mirth. Indeed nothing could be a more harassing scene than that of the lower deck, where the patients were located. Under any circumstances an hospital is a depressing and afflicting sight, even with all the advantages of clean well-regulated wards, attentive nurses, and pure ventilation. Imagine then the feelings of a sick wretch, stretched on a canvass cot, who is first hoisted up the ship's side, and then lowered down a dark hatchway (filled with anxiety and forebodings as to his ever leaving the vessel alive) to the scene of misery which I am about to describe--the lower deck of the Minden hospital ship.

This lower deck has on each side of it three rows of iron bedsteads, for the most part filled with the dead and dying; an intolerable stench, arising from putrefaction, which it is impossible by any means to get rid of, salutes his descent; and to this is added the groans of lingering sufferers. He may chance, God help him, to be lowered down at the very hour of the inspecting surgeon's visits. The latter is seated by a bed, having probably just performed, or in the act of performing, an operation. The goodly array of instruments meets his eye, and he wonders, as they are displayed, what these several instruments of torture can be applied to; the groans of the patient fall upon his ear, and his nerves are so shattered and debilitated by disease, that the blood curdles to his heart. The inspector writes the particulars of the case on a printed form, while the dressers are passing bandages round the fainting patient. As soon as he is out of the cot which lowered him down, the new arrival is washed, and clothed in hospital linen, ready to be put into a bed. Not unfrequently he has to wait till room can be made for him, by removing the corpse of the last occupant, just deceased. He is then placed on it, a coarse sheet is thrown over him, and he is left to await the inspector's visit, which, as that officer has all his former patients first to prescribe for, may perhaps be not for an hour or two, or more. At last he is visited, prescribed for, a can of rice-water is placed at the head of his bed, and he is left to his own thoughts, if the groans of those around him, and the horror that he feels at his situation, will permit him to reach them. If he can do so, they must be any thing but agreeable; and a clever medical man told me that this admission into the hospital, and the scene which the patient was introduced to, was quite sufficient, acting upon a mind unnerved by disease, to produce fever. Excepting that the hospital was too crowded, which indeed could not be prevented, there was, however, every arrangement for the comfort of the patients which could be made under such a climate. No one was to blame--the hospital for the military was building, and until it was ready for the reception of the patients, the men of both services were received on board of the Minden. But if the day is so trying, who can describe the horrors of the night? The atmosphere becomes still more foul and pestilential, from the partially closed port-holes, and from the indifference of the nurses to the necessary cleanliness required. The whole becomes alive with cockroaches and other vermin, creeping over the patients; and the mosquitoes prey upon the unfortunate sufferer, or drive him mad with their unceasing humming preparatory to their attacks. Add these new trials to the groans of the dying, which, during my residence on board, never ceased, and at night were more awful and painfully distinct. The nurses were all men, obtained from the scum of the sea-ports, for no others would volunteer for the duty--a set of brutes indifferent to the sufferings of others. As long as they were, during the day, superintended and watched by the officers, they did their duty, but at night the neglect was most shameful. In fact, these wretches composed themselves to sleep instead of watching. Patients may in vain call, in a feeble voice, for water--the only answer is a snore. On one occasion, having listened to the call of a poor fellow for more than an hour, and each time in a weaker voice, for drink, I was obliged to get up myself to wake the nurse, that the man might not die of thirst.[2]

[Footnote 2: These rascally nurses have all been discharged. When enlisted as nurses in England, they signed for three years' service. When their time was expired, they applied to Admiral Cochrane for their discharge. After some demur their request was complied with; but their conduct had been so disgraceful, that, as it was not in the agreement, they were refused a passage home in a man-of-war. I met some of them ashore at Hong Kong, looking in vain for employment, and at a distance of 20,000 miles from their own country. The retribution was just.]

My cabin, for all the officers were separated from the men, commanded the whole view of the lower deck, and I was compelled to be witness of scenes of the most frightful description. An English sailor had been hung for murder, in consequence of his accomplice, who was by far the most criminal of the two, having turned queen's evidence. This latter soon afterwards was brought on board the Minden, having been attacked with the fever, and never was there such an evidence of the racking of a bad conscience. In his ravings he shrieked for mercy, and then would blaspheme in the most awful manner. At one moment the spectre of his dead comrade would be invoked by him, requesting it to depart, or desiring those around him to take it away. At others, the murdered man was standing at his bed-side, and he would attempt to run, that he might flee from the vision. Thus was he haunted, and thus did he disturb all around him till his very last hour, when he died in an extreme of agony, physical and mental. What a relief it was when this poor wretch was at last silent!

Almost every day there was to be seen a Roman Catholic priest administering the last unction to some disciple of his faith, some Irish soldier or sailor, whose hour was come. On these occasions the amputation table was his altar, and a brass flat candlestick the only ornament. He never failed to be at his post every day, and was a good old man. At the same time that the old priest was officiating by the side of one bed, the chaplain of the ship would be attending the last moments of some other victim. On these occasions all would be silent on the deck, even the groans were stifled and checked for the time, and nothing would be heard but the muttered prayer of the Catholic priest, or the last, and often futile, attempts of the clergyman of our own creed to extract some sign of faith and hope from the fast-sinking and almost senseless patient.

"He dies, and makes no sign! O God, forgive him!"

At times the uproar on the deck would be appalling. Some powerful man in the strength of delirium would rise from his bed, and, bursting from some half-dozen of the nurses, would rush through the tiers of beds roaring like a bull, and dealing blows right and left upon the unfortunate sick men who fell in his way. Then there would be general chase after him, until, overpowered by additional help, he was brought back to his bed and confined by force. An hour or two afterwards, the nurses who watched him would quit the side of the pallet; a sheet would be thrown over it; no other communication was necessary to tell me that the storm had been succeeded by a calm, and that life's fitful fever was over.

At the forepart of the hospital deck is a bath room; adjoining to that is a small dark cabin, with no other furniture than a long white-washed board, laid upon two tressels, with hooks fixed to the carlines of the deck. Above these the dead bodies are removed: immediately after their decease a _post mortem_ examination is made by the assistant surgeon, a report of which is sent into the inspector. A port-hole has a wooden shoot or slide fixed to it, by which the bodies are ejected into the boat waiting to convey them for interment.

The church service is read every morning on the hospital deck, and during the performance the strictest attention was paid by the patients. When convalescent I enjoyed the privilege of walking on the poop with the others who had been spared, and truly grateful was I for my recovery. Such scenes as I have described could not but have the effect upon me: I hope that I left the hospital a wiser and a better man.