Chapter 36

piece was a little larger than our dime. The value was given in Chinese as well as English for the benefit of the natives; and the cash piece had a square hole in the centre, for the natives keep them on strings or wires.

The captain gave about a half a dollar's worth of this money to each person, so that none need be bothered about paying for small articles. The boys invested a portion of their wealth for a quantity of Swatow oranges, about the size of heavy bullets. They could not understand the native seller, and permitted him to take his pay out of a handful of coins; but he took next to nothing, and they were confident they were not cheated, for he took the same coins from the hands of all.

Among the pedlers all sorts of vegetables were for sale, and the groper-fish, shark-fin soup, meats minced with herbs and onions, poultry cut up and sold in pieces, stewed goose, bird's-nest soup, rose-leaf soup with garlic--heaven with the other place, Scott called it--and scores of other eatables for native palates, and some of them would suit the taste of Americans.

Taking their places in the vehicles, the tourists were borne through the principal streets. There are only five or six thousand English in the city, and Hong-Kong is substantially Chinese. At about eleven, the coolies toted the sedans to the top of the peak, where an observatory is located, following a zigzag path. The approach of every vessel of any consequence is signalled from this elevation by flags. The ascent is difficult, it is so steep; and the bearers of the sedans had to stop and rest occasionally. The view is magnificent, and the consul pointed out the objects of interest.

It was easier to get down the steep than to get up, and the party reached the hotel at the appointed time. The lunch was ready, though it was hardly first-class. When the captain asked about the expense of living for Europeans in China, the colonel said that the price per day at the best hotels was from four to six dollars, and that one could not keep house for less than four thousand dollars a year. In summer the people live in bungalows on the peaks, where quite a town has grown up. The captain paid the bill in English gold. In the afternoon the company made an excursion by a regular steamer to Macao, on the other side of the river, forty miles distant. It has been a Portuguese settlement since 1557; but it had little interest for the tourists, and they returned by the same steamer, and went on board of the ship.

The colonel dined on board, and the captain announced his intention to go to Canton the following day. The next morning the tourists were on board of the steamer for that city. The colonel could not go with them; but he procured a couple of English guides to attend them, one of whom was Mr. Inch and the other Mr. Larch.

"Kwang-tung is the native name of the city to which we are going, and from this the English had made Canton," said Mr. Larch, as the boat left the shore; and he proceeded to name the islands in sight, and point out all objects of interest, as he did all the way up the river.

The city is on the north side of the Choo-Chiang, or Pearl River, ninety miles from Hong-Kong. They saw nothing of especial interest except a temple on the shore, and a fort with a three-story pagoda rising from the centre of it. On the arrival of the steamer off the city, she was surrounded by boats as at Hong-Kong. The captain of the boat recommended one he called Tommy, though it was a woman; and her craft was engaged, with as many more as were needed, indicated by her.

At the landing-place Mr. Seymour, the American consul, to whom the colonel had telegraphed, was waiting for them. He introduced himself, and was soon on the best of terms with all the tourists. He advised them to go to the International Hotel, and they went there. A score of sedans and rickshaws were at once engaged; and Tommy and the other women carried the valises and bags for them, each attended by the owner. They were to remain three days in Canton. Dinner was the first ceremony they performed after they went to the hotel, and the consul joined the party by invitation.

"Canton is a city with a population estimated at a million and a half, including the people that live in boats from one year's end to the other, and doubtless you noticed their aquatic dwellings as you came up the river," said the consul, who had been invited to tell the company something about the place. "It is surrounded by a wall nine miles in length, built of brick and sandstone, twenty-five to forty feet high, and twenty feet thick, and divided by a partition wall into two unequal parts. There are twelve outer gates, and also gates in the partition wall. The names of these are curious, as Great Peace Gate, Eternal Rest Gate, and others like them. There are more than six hundred streets, lanes you will call them; for they are not often more than eight feet wide, very crooked, and very dirty. This is the general idea of the city, and the details you will see for yourselves."

After breakfast the next morning the party was organized for sight-seeing, and the sedans they had used the day before were ready for them. The two guides insisted upon going on foot, the better to discharge their duties. They rode through some of the principal streets, looked into the shops, and observed the pedlers; but all was about the same as in Hong-Kong, except that the streets were wider in the latter. The same goods were for sale. They looked into a tea saloon; and the gentlemen entered an opium den, which nearly made some of them sick.

"This is called the Plain pagoda," said Mr. Inch, when they came to it. "It was built a thousand years ago, and is one hundred and sixty feet high."

They were taken to a couple of Joss-houses, or temples. A sort of tower attracted their attention; and they were told that the one before them, and hundreds of others, were occupied each by a watchman at night to call out the hours of the night, and give the alarm in case of fire. They halted before the nine-story pagoda, the most interesting structure they had seen, and the most peculiarly Chinese.

"It is one hundred and seventy feet high, and was built thirteen hundred years ago," Mr. Larch explained. "Brick, covered with marble or glazed tile, is the material used. Each story is smaller than the one below it, and each has a balcony around it."

"Now we come to the Temple of Honam, which is one of the largest in China," said Mr. Inch, as they halted before its gates, after the party got out of the sedans. "With its grounds it covers seven acres, and one hundred and seventy-five priests are employed in it."

"What is the religion of these people?" asked Mrs. Woolridge.

"The priests and nuns of Canton number more than two thousand, and nine-tenths of them are Buddhists. The Temple of Five Hundred Genii contains that number of statues, various in size, and was erected in honor of Buddha and his disciples."

At the usual hour the party went to lunch, and were tired, though they had done but little walking. The sedans were dismissed till the next morning; the afternoon was devoted to an excursion on the river, and Tommy had been directed to provide the boats. They moved through the wilderness of floating dwelling-places, and looked them over with wonder and surprise. Many of the sampans were made of three planks; and the people on board of them, mostly women, were exceedingly amusing.

Large junks, some of them from five hundred to sixteen hundred tons burden, were to be seen, and long, broad, flat Chinese men-of-war, with twenty to forty guns; but the latter are out of fashion now, and modern-built vessels take their places. They have two great painted eyes on the bow to enable them, as the Chinese say, to find their way over the sea. But the most beautiful sight was the flower-boats, having galleries decorated with flowers, and arranged in most fantastic designs. Each of these floating gardens contains one large apartment and a number of cabinets. The walls are hung with mirrors and graceful draperies of silk, and glass chandeliers and colored lanterns are suspended from the ceiling. Elegant little baskets of flowers are hung in various places. It seems very like fairy-land on these boats. They are stationary, and dinners are given on board to the Chinese who can afford them. They are also places of amusement by day and night, and plays, ballets, and conjuring take place at them; but no respectable females frequent them.

During the next two days the tourists continued to wander on foot and in sedans over the city with the guides. One day they went to the great examination hall, 1330 feet long by 583 wide, covering sixteen acres, and containing 8653 cells, in which students are placed so that there shall be no stealing others' work.

When a member of the party asked the meaning of certain tall buildings, he was told that they were pawnbrokers' offices; for the Chinese have a mania for pawning their clothes, or whatever they have, even if not in need of the money, to save the trouble of taking care of the articles. Before the third day of the stay in Canton was over, some of the party had seen enough, and preferred to remain at the hotel while others were out with the guides. The next day they returned to Hong-Kong, and were glad to be once more on board the ships, for sight-seeing is the most tiresome work in the world.