CHAPTER III.

GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE WESTERN PROVINCES.

~THE PROVINCE OF HUPEH.~

The central provinces of Hupeh and Hunan formerly constituted a single one under the name of Hukwang (_i.e._ Broad Lakes), and they are still commonly known by this appellation. HUPEH (_i.e._ North of the Lakes) is the smaller of the two, but contains the most arable land. It is bounded north by Honan, east by Nganhwui and Kiangsí, south by Hunan, and west by Sz’chuen and Shensí. Its area is about 70,000 square miles, or slightly above that of New England.

The Great River flows through the south, where it connects with all the lakes on both its shores, and nearly doubles its volume of water. The Han kiang, or Han shui rises in the southwest of Shensí, between the Fuh-niu shan and Tapa ling, and drains the south of that province and nearly the whole of Hupeh, joining the Yangtsz’ at Wuchang. It is very tortuous in its course, flowing about 1,300 miles in all, and is navigable only a portion of the year, during the freshes, as far as Siangyang, about 300 miles. Boats of small size come down, however, at all times from Sin-pu-wan, near its source in Shensí. The mouth is not over 200 feet broad, but the bed of the river as one ascends soon widens to 400 and 500 feet, and at Shayang, 168 miles from Hankow, it is half a mile wide. The area of its whole basin is about the same as the province.

The extraordinary effects of a large body of melted snow poured into a number of streams converging on the slopes of a range of hills, and then centring in a narrow valley, bringing their annual deposit of alluvial and silt are seen along the River Han. The rise of this stream is often fifty feet where it is narrowest, and the shores are high; at Íching the channel varies from 300 to 1,500 feet at different seasons, but the river-bed from 2,000 to 9,000 feet, the water rising 18 feet at the fresh. In these wide places, the river presents the aspect of a broad, winding belt of sand dunes, in which the stream meanders in one or many channels. Navigation, therefore, is difficult and dangerous, since moving sands shift the deep water from place to place, and boats are delayed or run aground. In high water the banks are covered, but the current is then almost as serious an obstacle as the shallows are in winter.

The southeastern part of Hupeh is occupied by an extensive depression filled with a succession of lakes. The length and breadth of this plain are not far from two hundred miles, and it is considered the most fertile part of China, not being subject to overflows like the shores of the Yellow River, while the descent of the land allows its abundance of water to be readily distributed. Every spot is cultivated, and the surplus of productions is easily transported wherever there is a demand. The portions nearest the Yangtsz’ are too low for constant cultivation.

The Ax Lake, Millet Lake, Red Horse Lake, and Mienyang Lake, are the largest in the province. The remaining parts of both the Lake provinces are hilly and mountainous; the high range of the Ta-peh shan (‘Great White Mountains’), commencing far into Shensí, extends to the west of Hupeh, and separates the basins of the Great River from its tributary, the Han kiang, some of its peaks rising to the snow line. The productions of Hupeh are bread-stuffs, silk, cotton, tea, fish, and timber; its manufactures are paper, wax, and cloth. The climate is temperate and healthy.

~WUCHANG AND HANKOW.~

The favorable situation of Wuchang, the provincial capital, has drawn to it most of the trade, which has caused in the course of years the settlement of Hanyang and Hankow on the northern bank of the Yangtsz’ and River Han. The number of vessels gathered here in former years from the other cities on these two streams was enormous, and gave rise to exaggerated ideas of the value of the trade. The introduction of steamers has destroyed much of this native commerce, and the cities themselves suffered dreadfully by the Tai-pings, from which they are rapidly recovering, and on a surer foundation. The cities lie in lat. 30° 33′ N. and long. 114° 20′ E., 582 geographical miles distant from Shanghai.

Wuchang is the residence of the provincial officers, the Manchu garrison, and a literary population of influence, while the working part depends mostly on Hankow for employment. Its walls are over twelve miles in circuit, inclosing more vacant than occupied surface, whose flatness is relieved by a range of low hills that extend beyond Hanyang on the other side of the river. The narrow streets are noisome from the offal, and in summer are sources of malaria, as the drainage is bad.

When Hankow was opened to foreign trade in 1861, it presented a most ruinous appearance, but the sense of security inspired by the presence of the men and vessels from far lands rapidly drew the scattered citizens and artisans to rebuild the ruins. The foreigners live near the river side, east of Hankow and west of the River Han, where the anchorage is very favorable, and out of the powerful current of the Yangtsz’. The difference in level of the great stream is about forty feet in the year. In the long years of its early and peaceful trade up to 1850, this region had gathered probably more people on a given area than could be found elsewhere in the world; and its repute for riches led foreigners to base great hopes on their share, which have been gradually dissipated. The appearance of the city as it was in 1845 is given by Abbé Huc in a few sentences:

“The night had already closed in when we reached the place where the river is entirely covered with vessels, of every size and form, congregated here from all parts. I hardly think there is another port in the world so frequented as this, which passes, too, as among the most commercial in the empire. We entered one of the open ways, a sort of a street having each side defined by floating shops, and after four hours’ toilsome navigation through this difficult labyrinth, arrived at the place of debarkation. For the space of five leagues, one can only see houses along the shore, and an infinitude of beautiful and strange looking vessels in the river, some at anchor and others passing up and down at all hours.”[72]

The coup d’œil of these three cities is beautiful, their environs being highly cultivated and interspersed with the mansions of the great; but he adds, “If you draw near, you will find on the margin of the river only a shapeless bank worn away with freshets, and in the streets stalls surmounted with palisades, and workshops undermined by the waters or tumbling to pieces from age. The open spots between these ruins are filled with abominations which diffuse around a suffocating odor. No regulations respecting the location of the dwellings, no sidewalks, no place to avoid the crowd which presses upon one, elbowing and disputing the passage, but all get along pell-mell, in the midst of cattle, hogs, and other domestic animals, each protecting himself as he best can from the filth in his way, which the Chinese collect with care for agricultural uses, and carry along in little open buckets through the crowd.”

Above Hankow, the towns on the Yangtsz’ lie nearer its banks, as they are not so exposed to the freshets. The largest trading places in this part of Hupeh on the river, are Shasí, opposite Kinchau fu, and Íchang near the borders of Sz’chuen, respectively 293 and 363 miles distance. From the first settlement there is a safe passage by canal across to Shayang, forty miles away on the River Han; the travel thence goes north to Shansí. The other has recently been opened to foreign trade. It is the terminus of navigation for the large vessels used from Shanghai upward, as the rapids commence a few miles beyond, necessitating smaller craft that can be hauled by trackers. These two marts are large centres of trade and travel, and were not made desolate by the Tai-pings, as were all other towns of importance on the lower Yangtsz’.

The portion of the Yangtsz’ in this province, between Íchang and the Sz’chuen border, exhibits perhaps some of the most magnificent glimpses of scenery in the world. Breaking through the limestone foundations that dip on either side of the granite core of the rapids, the river first penetrates the Wu shan, Mitan, and Lukan gorges on the one side, then the long defile of Íchang on the other. At various points between and beyond these the stream is broken by more or less formidable rapids. Among these grand ravines the most impressive, though not the longest, is that of Lukan, whose vertical walls rise a thousand feet or more above the narrow river. Nothing can be more striking, observes Blakiston, than suddenly coming upon this huge split in the mountain mass “by which the river escapes as through a funnel.”

The eastern portions of Hupeh are rougher than the southern, and were overrun during the rebellion by armed bands, so that their best towns were destroyed. Siangyang fu and Fanching, near the northern borders, are important places in the internal commerce of this region. Its many associations with leading events in Chinese early and feudal history render it an interesting region to native scholars. A large part of the southwestern prefecture of Shingan is hilly, and its mountainous portions are inhabited by a rude, illiterate population, many of whom are partly governed by local rulers.

~NATURAL AND POLITICAL FEATURES OF HUNAN.~

The province of HUNAN is bounded north by Hupeh, east by Kiangsí, south by Kwangtung and Kwangsí, west by Kweichau and Sz’chuen. Its area is reckoned at 84,000 square miles--equal to Great Britain or the State of Kansas. It is drained by four rivers, whose basins comprise nearly the whole province, and define its limits by their terminal watersheds. The largest is the Siang, which, rising in the hills on the south and east in numerous navigable streams, affords facilities for trade in small boats to the borders of Kiangsí and Kwangtung, the traffic concentring at Siangtan; this fertile and populous basin occupies well-nigh half of the province. Through the western part of Hunan runs the Yuen kiang, but the rapids and cascades occur so frequently as to render it far less useful than the Siang. Boats are towed up to the towns in the south-west with great labor, carrying only four or five tons cargo; these are exchanged for mere scows at Hangkia, 200 miles above Changteh, in order to reach Yuenchau. The contrast between the two rivers as serviceable channels of intercourse is notable. Between these two main rivers runs the Tsz’ kiang, navigable for only small batteaux, which must be pulled up so many rapids that the river itself has been called Tan ho, or ‘Rapid River;’ its basin is narrow and fertile, and the produce is carried to market over the hills both east and west. The fourth river, the Lí shui, empties, like all the others, into the Tungting Lake, and drains the northwestern portion of the province; it is navigable only in its lower course, and is almost useless for travel. These rivers all keep their own channels through the lake, which is rather a cesspool for the overflow of the Yangtsz’ during its annual rise than a lake fed by its own springs and affluents. At Siangyin, on the River Siang, the banks are 35 feet above low water, and gradually slope down to its mouth at Yohchau, or near it. The variation of this lake from a large sheet of water at one season to a marsh at another, must of course affect the whole internal trade of the province, inasmuch as the rivers running through it are in a continual condition of flood or low water--either extreme cannot but seriously interfere with steam vessels.

The productions of Hunan do not represent a very high development of its soil or mines. Tea and coal are the main exports; tea-oil, ground-nut and _tung_ oils, hemp, tobacco, and rice, with iron, copper, tin, and coarse paper make up the list. The coal-fields of southern Hunan contain deposits equal to those in Pennsylvania; anthracite occurs on the River Lui, and bituminous on the River Siang, both beds reaching over the border into Kwangtung. The timber trade in pine, fir, laurel, and other woods is also important. The population of Hunan was somewhat reduced during the Tai-ping rebellion; its inhabitants have in general a bad reputation among their countrymen for violence and rudeness. The hilly nature of the country tends to segregate them into small communities, which are imperfectly acquainted with each other, because travelling is difficult; nor is the soil fertile enough to support in many districts a considerable increase of population.

The capital of Hunan, Changsha, lies on the River Siang, and is one of the most influential, as it is historically one of the most interesting, cities in the central part of China; the festival of the Dragon Boats originated here. Siangtan, at the confluence of the Lien kí, more than 200 miles above Yohchau, is one of the greatest tea-marts in China. Its population is reckoned to be a million, and it is a centre of trade and banking for the products of this and other regions; it extends for three miles along the west bank, and nearly two miles inland, with thousands of boats lining the shores. Its return to prosperity since the rebellion has been marvellously rapid. The city of Changteh on the Yuen River is the next important town, as it is easily reached from Yohchau on the Yangtsz’; large amounts of rice are grown in the prefecture.

Hunan has a high position for letters, the people are well dressed, healthy, and usually peaceable. The boating population is, however, exceptionally lawless, and forms a difficult class for the local authorities to control. Aboriginal hill-tribes exist in the southwestern districts, which are still more unmanageable, probably through the unjust taxation and oppression of the imperial officers set over them. In addition to these ungovernable elements a large area is occupied by the _Yao-jin_, who have possessed themselves of the elevated territory lying between Yungchau and Kweiyang, in the southern point of the province, and there barricaded the mountain passes so that no one can ascend against their will.

~MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS OF SHENSÍ.~

The province of SHENSÍ (_i.e._, Western Defiles) is bounded north by Inner Mongolia, from which it is divided by the Great Wall, east by Shansí and Honan, southeast by Hupeh, south by Sz’chuen, and west by Kansuh. Its area is not far from 70,000 square miles, which is geologically and politically most distinctly marked by the Tsingling shan, the watershed between the Wei and Han rivers. There is only one good road across it to Hanchung fu near its southern part; another, farther east, goes from Sí-ngan, by a natural pass between it and the Fuh-niu shan, to Shang, on the Tan ho, in the Han basin. This part comprises about one-third of Shensí. The other portion includes the basins of the Wei, Loh and Wu-ting, and some smaller tributaries of the Yellow River, of which the Wei is the most important. This river joins the Yellow at the lowest point of its basin, the Tung-kwan pass, where the larger stream breaks through into the lowlands of Honan, and divides eastern and southern China from the northwestern regions. The whole of this part presents a loess formation, and the beds of the streams are cut deep into it, the roads across them being few. The Wei basin is the most fertile part of the province; the history of the Chinese race has been more connected with its fortunes than with any other portion of their possessions. Its productiveness is shown in the rapid development and peopling of the districts along the banks and affluents.

On the north, the Great Wall separates Shensí from the Ordos Mongols, its western end reaching the Yellow River at Ninghia--the largest and only important city in that region. All the connections with this region are through Shensí and by Kwei-hwa-ching, but the configuration of the ranges of hills prevents direct travel. None of the rivers in this region are serviceable to any great degree for navigation, and but few of them for irrigation; the crops depend on the rainfall. The climate is more equable and mild than in Shansí, and not so wet as in many parts of Kansuh. The harvests of one good year here furnish food for three poor ones. The chief dependence of the people is on wheat, but rice is grown wherever water can be had; sorghum, millet, pulse, maize, barley, ground-nut, and fruits of many sorts fill up the list. Cotton, hemp, tobacco, rapeseed, and poppy are largely cultivated, but the surplus of any crop is not enough in average years to leave much for export. The ruthless civil war recently quenched in the destruction of the Mohammedans in the province has left it quite desolate in many parts, and its restoration to former prosperity and population must be slow.

The travel between Shensí and Sz’chuen is almost wholly confined to the great road reaching from Sí-ngan to Chingtu. It passes along the River Wei to Hienyang hien on the left bank, where the road north into Kansuh diverges, the other continuing west along the river through a populous region to Paokí hien, where it recrosses the Wei. During this portion, the Tai-peh Mountain, about eleven thousand feet high, with its white summit, adds a prominent feature to the scenery. At Paokí, the crossing at the Tsingling shan commences, and occupies seven days of difficult travel through a devious road of 163 miles to Fung hien on the confines of Kansuh. It crosses successive ridges from 6,000 to 9,000 feet high, and is carried along the sides of hills and down the gorges in a manner reflecting much credit on the engineers of the third century A.D. who made it. These mountainous regions are thinly settled all the way down to Paoching, near Hanchung; but upon gaining the River Han, one of the most beautiful and fertile valleys in China is reached. Its western watershed is the Kiu-tiao shan,[73] running southwesterly into Sz’chuen on the west side of the Kialing River.

~SÍ-NGAN ITS CAPITAL.~

The city of Sí-ngan is the capital of the northwest of China, and next to Peking in size, population, and importance. It surpasses that city in historical interest and records, and in the long centuries of its existence has upheld its earlier name of _Chang-an_, or ‘Continuous Peace.’ The approach to it from the east lies across a bluff, whose eastern face is filled with houses cut in the dry earth, and from whose summit the lofty towers and imposing walls are seen across the plain three miles away. These defences were too solid for the Mohammedan rebels, and protected the citizens while even their suburbs were burned. The population occupies the entire enciente, and presents a heterogeneous sprinkling of Tibetans, Mongols and Tartars, of whom many thousand Moslems are still spared because they were loyal. Sí-ngan has been taken and retaken, rebuilt and destroyed, since its establishment in the twelfth century B.C. by the Martial King, but its position has always assured for it the control of trade between the central and western provinces and Central Asia. The city itself is picturesquely situated, and contains some few remains of its ancient importance, while the neighborhood promises better returns to the sagacious antiquarian and explorer than any portion of China. The principal record of the Nestorian mission work in China, the famous tablet of A.D. 781, still remains in the yard of a temple. Some miles to the northwest lies the temple Ta-fu-sz’, containing a notable colossus of Buddha, the largest in China, said to have been cut by one of the Emperors of the Tang in the ninth century. This statue is in a cave hewn out of the sandstone rock, being cut out of the same material and left in the construction of the grotto. Its height is 56 feet; the proportions of limbs and body of the sitting figure are, on the whole, good, the Buddha being represented with right hand upraised in blessing, and the figure as well as garments richly covered with color and gilt. Before the god stand two smaller colossi of the _Schang-hoa_, Buddha’s favorite disciples; their inferior art and workmanship, however, testify to a later origin. The cave is lighted from above, after the manner of the Pantheon, by a single round opening in the vaulting. Sixty feet over the rock temple rises a tile roofing, and upon the hillside without the cavern are a number of minor temples and statues.[74]

Next to this city in importance is Hanchung, near the border of Sz’chuen; it was much injured by the Tai-pings, and is only slowly recovering, like all the towns in that valley which were exposed; none of these rebels crossed the Tsingling Mountains. Yu-lin (‘Elm Forest’) is an important city on the Great Wall in the north of Shensí, the station of a garrison which overawes the Mongols. Several marts carrying on considerable trade are on or near the Wei and Han Rivers.

Gold mines occur in Shensí, and gold is collected in some of the streams; other metals also are worked. The climate is too cold for rice and silk; wheat, millet, oats, maize, and cotton supply their places; rhubarb, musk, wax, red-lead, coal, and nephrite are exported. The trade of Sí-ngan is chiefly that of bartering the produce of the eastern provinces (reaching it by the great pass of Tung-kwan) and that from Tibet, Kansuh, and Ílí. Wild animals still inhabit the northern parts, and the number of horses, sheep, goats, and cattle raised for food and service is large compared with eastern China.

~KANSUH PROVINCE.~

The immense province of KANSUH (_i.e._, Voluntary Reverence, made by uniting the names of Kanchau fu and Suh chau) belonged at one time to Shensí, and extended no farther west than Kiayü kwan; but since the division by Kienlung, its limits have been stretched across the desert to the confines of Songaria on the northwest, and to the borders of Tibet on the west. It is bounded north and northeast by Gobi and the Dsassaktu khanate, east by Shensí, south by Sz’chuen, southwest by Koko-nor and the desert, and northwest by Cobdo and Ílí. Its entire area cannot be much under 400,000 square miles, the greater part of which is a barren waste; it extends across twelve degrees of latitude and twenty-one degrees of longitude, and comprises all the best part of the ancient kingdom of Tangut, which was destroyed by Genghis.

The topography of this vast region is naturally divided into two distinct areas by the Kiayü kwan at the end of the Great Wall; one a fertile, well-watered, populous country, differing _toto cœlo_ from the sandy or mountainous wildernesses of the other. The eastern portion is further partitioned into two sections by the ranges of mountains which cross it nearly from south to north in parallel lines, dividing the basins of the Wei and Yellow Rivers near the latter. The passage between them is over the Făn-shui ling, not far from the Tao ho and by the town of Tihtao, leading thence up to Lanchau. This part of the province, watered by the Wei, resembles Shansí in fertility and productions, and its nearness to the elevated ranges of the Bayan-kara induces comparatively abundant rainfall. The streams in the extreme south flow into Sz’chuen, but furnish few facilities for navigation. The affluents of the Yellow River are on the whole less useful for irrigation and navigation, and the four or five which join it near Lanchau vary too much in their supply of water to be depended on.

The peculiar feature of Kansuh is the narrow strip projecting like a wedge into the Tibetan plateau, reaching from Lanchau northwesterly between the Ala shan and Kílien shan to the end of the Great Wall. This strip of territory commands the passage between the basin of the Tarim River and Central Asia and China Proper; its passage nearly controls trade and power throughout the northern provinces. The Ta-tung River flows on the south of the Kílien Mountains, but the travel goes near the Wall, where food and fuel are abundant, a long distance beyond its end--even to the desert. The roads from Sí-ngan to Lanchau pass up the King River to Pingliang and across several ranges, or else go farther up the River Wei to Tsin chau; the distances are between 500 and 600 miles. From Lanchau one road goes along the Yellow River down to Ninghia, a town inhabited chiefly by Mongols. Another leads 90 miles west to Síning, whither the tribes around Koko-nor repair for trade. The most important continues to Suhchau, this being an easier journey, while its trade furnishes employment to denizens of the region, whose crops are taken by travellers on passage; this road is about 500 miles in length. Its great importance from early days is indicated by the erection of the Great Wall, in order to prevent inroads along its sides, and by the fortress of Kiayü, which shuts the door upon enemies.

The climate of Kansuh exhibits a remarkable contrast to that of the eastern provinces. Prejevalsky says it is damp in three of the seasons; clear, cold winds blowing in winter, and alternating with calm, warm weather; out of 92 days up to September 30, he registered 72 rainy days, twelve of them snowy. The highest temperature was 88° F. in July. Snow and hail also fall in May. North of the Ala shan, which divides this moist region from the desert, everything is dry and sandy; their peaks attract the clouds, which sometimes discharge their contents in torrents, and leave the northern slopes dry; a marsh appears over against and only a few miles from a sandy waste.[75]

The country east of the Yellow River is fertile, and produces wheat, oats, barley, millet, and other edible plants. Wild animals are frequent, whose chase affords both food and peltry; large flocks and herds are also maintained by Tartars living within the province. The mountains contain metals and minerals, among which are copper, almagatholite, jade, gold, and silver. The capital, Lanchau, lies on the south side of the Yellow River, where it turns northeast; the valley is narrow, and defended on the west by a pass, through which the road goes westward. At Síning fu, about a hundred miles east of Tsing hai, the superintendent of Koko-nor resides; its political importance has largely increased its trade within the last few years. Ninghia fu, in the northeast of the province, is the largest town on the borders of the desert. The destruction of life and all its resources during the recent Mohammedan rebellion, which was crushed out at Suhchau in October, 1873, is not likely to be repeated soon, as the rebels were all destroyed;[76] their Toorkish origin can even now be traced in their features.[77] No reliable description of the towns belonging to Kansuh in the districts around Barkul, since the pacification of the country by the Chinese, has been made.

The province of SZ’CHUEN (‘Four Streams’) was the largest of the old eighteen before Kansuh was extended across the desert, and is now one of the richest in its productions. It is bounded north by Kansuh and Shensí, east by Hupeh and Hunan, south by Kweichau and Yunnan, west and northwest by Tibet and Koko-nor; its area is 166,800 square miles, or double most of the other provinces, rather exceeding Sweden in superficies, as it falls below California, while it is superior to both in navigable rivers and productions. The emperors at Sí-ngan always depended upon it as the main prop of their power, and in the third century A.D. the After Hans ruled at its capital over the west of China.

~TOPOGRAPHY OF SZ’CHUEN PROVINCE.~

Sz’chuen is naturally divided by the four great rivers which run from north to south into the Yangtsz’, and thus form parallel basins; as a whole these comprise about half of the entire area, and all of the valuable portion. The western part beyond the Min River belongs to the high table lands of Central Asia, and is little else than a series of mountain ranges, sparsely populated and unfit for cultivation, except in small spaces and bottom lands. The eastern portion is a triangular shaped region surrounded with high mountains composed of Silurian and Devonian formations with intervening deposits, mostly of red clayey sandstone, imparting a peculiar brick color, which has led Baron von Richthofen to call it the Red Basin. The ranges of hills average about 3,500 feet high, but the rivers have cut their channels through the deposits from 1,500 to 2,500 feet deep, making the travel up and down their waters neither rapid nor easy. The towns which define this triangular red basin are Kweichau on the Yangtsz’, from which a line running south of the river to Pingshan hien, not far from Süchau at its confluence with the Min, gives the southern border; thence taking a circuit as far west as Yachau fu on the Tsing-í River, and turning northwesterly to Lung-ngan fu, the western side is roughly skirted, while the eastern side returns to Kweichau along the watershed of the River Han. Within this area, life, industry, wealth, prosperity, are all found; outside of it, as a rule, the rivers are unnavigable, the country uncultivable, and the people wild and insubordinate, especially on the south and west.

The four chief rivers in the province, flowing into the Yangtsz’, are the Kialing, the Loh, the Min, and the Yalung, the last and westerly being regarded as the main stream of the Great River, which is called the Kin-sha kiang, west of the Min. The Kialing rises in Kansuh, and retains that name along one trunk stream to its mouth, receiving scores of tributaries from the ridges between its basin and the Han, until it develops into one of the most useful watercourses in China, coming perhaps next to the Pearl River in Kwangtung. Chungking, at its embouchure, is the largest depot for trade west of Íchang, and like St. Louis, on the Mississippi, will grow in importance as the country beyond develops. The River Fo Loh (called _Fu-sung_ by Blakiston) is the smallest of the four, its headwaters being connected with the Min above Chingtu; the town of Lu chau stands at its mouth; through its upper part it is called Chung kiang. The Min River has its fountains near those of the Kialing in Koko-nor, and like that stream it gathers contributions from the ranges defining and crossing its basin; as it descends into the plain of Chingtu, its waters divide into a dozen channels below Hwan hien, and after running more than a hundred miles reunite above Mei hien, forming a deep and picturesque river down to Süchau, a thousand miles and more from the source. At its junction, the Min almost doubles the volume of water in summer, when the snows melt. The Yalung River is the only large affluent between the Min and the main trunk; it comes from the Bayan-kara Mountains, between the headwaters of the Yellow and Yangtsz’ Rivers, and receives no important tributaries in its long, solitary, and unfructuous course. The Abbé Huc speaks of crossing its rapid channel near Makian-Dsung just before reaching Tatsienlu, the frontier town; it takes three names in its course.

From Chingtu as a centre, many roads radiate to the other large towns in the province, by which travel and trade find free course, and render the connections with other provinces safe and easy. The roads are paved with flagstones wide enough to allow passage for two pack-trains abreast; stairs are made on the inclines, up and down which mules and ponies travel without risk, though most of the goods and passengers are carried by coolies. In order to facilitate travel, footpaths are opened and paved, leading to every hamlet, and wherever the traffic will afford it, bridges of cut stone, iron chains or wire, span the torrent or chasm, according as the exigency requires; towns or hamlets near these structures take pride in keeping them in repair.

The products of this fertile region are varied and abundant. Rice and wheat alternate each other in summer and winter, but the amount of land producing food is barely sufficient for its dense population; pulse, barley, maize, ground-nuts, sorghum, sweet and common potatoes, buckwheat and tobacco, are each raised for home consumption. Sugar, hemp, oils of several kinds, cotton, and fruits complete the list of plants mostly grown for home use. The exports consist of raw and woven silk, of which more is sent abroad than from any province; salt, opium, musk, croton (_tung_) oil, gentian, rhubarb, tea, coal, spelter, copper, iron, and insect wax, are all grown or made for other regions. The peace which Sz’chuen enjoyed while other provinces were ravaged by rebels, has tended to develop all its products, and increase its abundance. The climate of this region favors the cultivation of the hillsides, which are composed of disintegrated sandstones, because the moist and mild winters bring forward the winter crops; snow remains only a few days, if it fall at all, and wheat is cut before May. The summer rains and freshets furnish water for the rice fields by filling the streams on a thousand hills. This climate is a great contrast to the dry regions further north, and it is subject to less extremes of temperature and moisture than Yunnan south of it. When this usual experience is altered by exceptional dry or wet seasons, the people are left without food, and their wants cannot be supplied by the abundance of other provinces, owing to the slowness of transit. Brigandage, rioting, cannibalism, and other violence then add to the misery of the poor, and to the difficulty of government.

~CHINGTU AND THE MIN VALLEY.~

Chingtu, the capital, lies on the River Min, in the largest plain in the province, roughly measuring a hundred miles one way, and fifty the other, conspicuous for its riches and populousness. The inhabitants are reckoned to number 3,500,000 souls. This city has been celebrated from the earliest days, but received its present name of the ‘Perfect Capital’ when Liu Pí made it his residence. Its population approaches a million, and its walls, shops, yamuns, streets, warehouses, and suburbs, all indicate its wealth and political importance. Marco Polo calls it Sindafu, and the province Acbalec Manzi, describing the fine stone bridge, half a mile long, with a roof resting on marble pillars, under which “trade and industry is carried on,”[78] which spans the Kian-suy, _i.e._, the Yangtsz’, as the Min is still often termed. The remarkable cave houses of the old inhabitants still attract the traveller’s notice as he journeys up to Chingtu, along its banks.

M. David, who lived at this city several months, declares it to be one of the most beautiful towns in China, placed in the midst of a fertile plain watered by many canals, which form a network of great solidity and usefulness. The number of honorary gateways in and near it attract the voyager’s eye, and their variety, size, inscriptions, and age furnish an interesting field of inquiry. Many statues cut in fine stone are scattered about the city or used to adorn the cemeteries.

The city of Chungking, on the Yangtsz’, at the mouth of the Kialing River, 725 miles from Hankow, is the next important city in Sz’chuen, and the centre of a great trade on both rivers. The other marts on the Great River are also at the mouths of its affluents, and from Kwaichau to Süchau and Pingshan hien, a distance of 496 miles, there is easy and safe communication within the province for all kinds of boats; steam vessels will also here find admirable opportunities for their employment.

In the western half of Sz’chuen, the people are scattered over intervales and slopes between the numberless hills and mountains that make this one of the roughest parts of China; they are governed by their own local rulers, under Chinese superintendence. They belong to the Lolos race, and have been inimical and insubordinate to Chinese rule from earliest times, preventing their own progress and destroying all desire on the part of their rulers to benefit them. Yachau fu, Tatsienlu, and Batang are the largest towns west of Chingtu, on the road to Tibet. On the other side of the province, at Fungtu hien, occur the fire-wells, where great supplies of petroleum gas are used to evaporate the salt dug out near by. The many topics of interest in all parts of Sz’chuen, can only be referred to in a brief sketch, for it is of itself a kingdom.[79]

~THE PROVINCE OF KWANGTUNG.~

The province of KWANGTUNG (_i.e._, Broad East), from its having been for a long time the only one of the eighteen to which foreigners have had access, has almost become synonymous with China, although but little more is really known of it than of the others--except in the vicinage of Canton, and along the course of the Peh kiang, from Nanhiung down to that city. It is bounded north by Kiangsí and Hunan, northeast by Fuhkien, south by the ocean, and west and northwest by Kwangsí; with an area about the same as that of the United Kingdom. The natural facilities for internal navigation and an extensive coasting trade, are unusually great; for while its long line of coast, nearly a thousand miles in length, affords many excellent harbors, the rivers communicate with the regions on the west, north, and east beyond its borders.

The Nan shan runs along the north, between it and Kiangsí and Hunan, in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction, presenting the same succession of short ridges, with bottom lands and clear streams between them, which are seen in Fuhkien. These ridges take scores of names as they follow one another from Kwangsí to Fuhkien, but no part is so well known as the road, twenty-four miles in length, which crosses the Mei ling (_i.e._ Plum ridge), between Nan-ngan and Nanhiung. The elevation here is about a thousand feet, none of the peaks in this part exceeding two thousand, but rising higher to the west. Their summits are limestone, with granite underlying; granite is also the prevailing rock along the coast. Lí-mu ridge in Hainan has some peaks reaching nearly to the snow-line. The bottoms of the rivers are wide, and their fertility amply repays the husbandman. Fruits, rice, silk, sugar, tobacco, and vegetables, constitute the greater part of the productions. Lead, iron, and coal, are abundant.

The Chu kiang, or Pearl River, which flows past Canton, takes this name only in that short portion of its course; it is however preferable to employ this as a distinctive name, comprehending the whole stream, rather than to confuse the reader by naming the numerous branches. It is formed by the union of three rivers, the West, North, and East, the two first of which unite at Sanshwui, west of the city, while the East River joins them at Whampoa. The Sí kiang, or West River, by far the largest, rises in the eastern part of Yunnan, and receives tributaries throughout the whole of Kwangsí, along the southern acclivities of the Nan shan, and after a course of 500 miles, passes out to sea through numerous mouths, the best known of which is the Bocca Tigris. The Peh kiang, or North River, joins it after a course of 200 miles, and the East River is nearly the same length; these two streams discharge the surplus waters of all the northern parts of Kwangtung. The country drained by the three cannot be much less than 150,000 square miles, and most of their channels are navigable for boats to all the large towns in this and the province of Kwangsí. The Han kiang is the only river of importance in the eastern end of Kwangtung; the large town of Chauchau lies near its mouth. There can hardly be less than three hundred islands scattered along the deeply indented coast line of this province between Namoh Island and Annam, of which nearly one-third belong to the department of Kwangchau.

Canton, or Kwangchau fu (_i.e._ Broad City), the provincial capital, lies on the north bank of the Pearl River, in lat. 23° 7′ 10″ N., and long. 113° 14′ 30″ E., nearly parallel with Havana, Muskat, and Calcutta; its climate is, however, colder than any of those cities. The name _Canton_ is a corruption of Kwangtung, derived in English from _Kamtom_, the Portuguese mode of writing it; the citizens themselves usually call it _Kwangtung săng ching_, _i.e._ the provincial capital of Kwangtung or simply _săng ching_. Another name is _Yang-ching_, or the ‘City of Rams,’ and a third the City of Genii, both derived from ancient legends. It lies at the foot of the White Cloud hills, along the banks of the river, about seventy miles north of Macao in a direct line, and ninety northwest of Hongkong; these distances are greater by the river.

The delta into which the West, North, and East Rivers fall might be called a gulf, if the islands in it did not occupy so much of the area. The whole forms one of the most fertile parts of the province, and one of the most extensive estuaries of any river in the world,--being a rough triangle about a hundred miles long on each side. The bay of Lintin--so called from the islet of that name, where opium and other store ships formerly anchored--is the largest sheet of water, and lies below the principal embouchure of the river, called _Fu Mun_, _i.e._ Bocca Tigris, or Bogue. Few rivers can be more completely protected by nature than this; their defences of walls and guns at this spot, however, have availed the Chinese but little against the skill and power of their enemies. Ships pass through it up to the anchorage at Whampoa, about thirty miles, from whence Canton lies twelve miles nearly due west. The approach to it is indicated by two lofty pagodas within the walls, and the multitude of boats and junks thronging the river, amidst which the most pleasing object to the “far-travelled stranger” is the glimpse he gets through their masts of the foreign houses on Sha-meen, and the flagstaffs bearing their national ensigns.

~SIZE AND SITUATION OF CANTON.~

The part of Canton inclosed by walls is about six miles in circumference; having a partition wall running east and west, which divides it into two unequal parts. The entire circuit, including the suburbs, is nearly ten miles. The population on land and water, so far as the best data enable one to judge, cannot be less than a million of inhabitants. This estimate has been doubted; and certainty upon the subject is not to be attained, for the census affords no aid in determining this point, owing to the fact that it is set down by districts, and Canton lies partly in two districts, Nanhai and Pwanyü, which extend beyond the walls many miles. Davis says, “the whole circuit of the city has been compassed within two hours by persons on foot, and cannot exceed six or seven miles;”--which is true, but he means only that portion contained within the walls; and there are at least as many houses without the walls as within them, besides the boats. The city is constantly increasing, the western suburbs present many new streets entirely built up within the last ten years. The houses stretch along the river from opposite the Fa tí or Flower grounds to French Folly, a distance of four miles, and the banks are everywhere nearly concealed by the boats and rafts.

The situation of Canton is one which would naturally soon attract settlers. The earliest notices of the city date back two centuries before Christ, but traders were doubtless located here prior to that time. It grew in importance as the country became better settled, and in A.D. 700, a regular market was opened, and a collector of customs appointed. When the Manchus overran the country in 1650, this city resisted their utmost efforts to reduce it for the space of eleven months, and was finally carried by treachery. Martini states that a hundred thousand _men_ were killed at its sack; and the whole number who lost their lives at the final assault and during the siege was 700,000--if the native accounts are trustworthy.[80] Since then, it has been rebuilt, and has increased in prosperity until it is regarded as the second city in the empire for numbers, and is probably at present the first in wealth.

The foundations of the city walls are of sandstone, their upper part being brick; they are about twenty feet thick, and from twenty-five to forty feet high, having an esplanade on the inside, and pathways leading to the rampart, on three sides. The houses are built near the wall on both sides of it, so that except on the north, one hardly sees it when walking around the city. There are twelve outer gates, four in the partition wall, and two water gates, through which boats pass, into the moat, from east to west. A ditch once encompassed the walls, now dry on the northern side; on the other three, and within the city, it and most of the canals are filled by the tide, which as it runs out does much to cleanse the city from its sewage. The gates are all shut at night, and a guard is stationed near them to preserve order, but the idle soldiers themselves cause at times no little disturbance. Among the names of the gates are _Great-Peace_ gate, _Eternal-Rest_ gate, _Five-Genii_ gate, _Bamboo-Wicket_ gate, etc.

~SIGHTS OF CANTON CITY.~

The appearance of the city when viewed from the hills on the north is insipid and uninviting, compared with western cities, being an expanse of reddish roofs, often concealed by frames for drying or dyeing clothes, or shaded and relieved by a few large trees, and interspersed with high, red poles used for flag-staffs. Two pagodas shoot up within the walls, far above the watch towers on them, and with the five-storied tower on Kwanyin shan near the northern gate, form the most conspicuous objects in the prospect.

To a spectator at this elevation, the river is a prominent feature in the landscape, as it shines out covered with a great diversity of boats of different colors and sizes, some stationary others moving, and all resounding with the mingled hum of laborers, sailors, musicians, hucksters, children, and boatwomen, pursuing their several sports and occupations. On a low sandstone ledge, in the channel off the city, once stood the Sea Pearl (_Hai Chu_) Fort, called Dutch Folly by foreigners, the quietude reigning within which contrasted agreeably with the liveliness of the waters around. Beyond, on its southern shore, lie the suburb and island of Honam, and green fields and low hills are seen still farther in the distance; at the western angle of this island the Pearl River divides, at the _Peh-ngo tan_ or Macao Passage, the greatest body of water flowing south, and leaving a comparatively narrow channel before the city. The hills on the north rise twelve hundred feet, their acclivities for miles being covered with graves and tombs, the necropolis of this vast city.

The streets are too narrow to be seen from such a spot. Among their names, amounting in all to more than six hundred, are _Dragon_ street, _Martial Dragon_ street, _Pearl_ street, _Golden Flower_ street, _New Green Pea_ street, _Physic_ street, _Spectacle_ street, _Old Clothes_ street, etc. They are not as dirty as those of some other cities in the empire, and on the whole, considering the habits of the people and surveillance of the government, which prevents almost everything like public spirit, Canton has been a well governed, cleanly city. In these respects it is not now as well kept, perhaps, as it was before the war, nor was it ever comparable to modern cities in the West, nor should it be likened to them: without a corporation to attend to its condition, or having power to levy taxes to defray its unavoidable expenses, it cannot be expected that it should be as wholesome. It is more surprising, rather, that it is no worse than it is. The houses along the waterside are built upon piles and those portions of the city are subject to inundations. On the edge of the stream, the water percolates the soil, and spoils all the wells.

The temples and public buildings of Canton are numerous. There are two pagodas near the west gate of the old city, and one hundred and twenty-four temples, pavilions, halls, and other religious edifices within the circuit of the city. The _Kwang tah_ or ‘Plain pagoda,’ was erected by the Mohammedans (who still reside near it), about ten centuries ago, and is rather a minaret than a pagoda, though quite unlike those structures of Turkey in its style of architecture; it shoots up in an angular, tapering tower, to the height of one hundred and sixty feet. The other is an octagonal pagoda, of nine stories, one hundred and seventy feet high, first erected more than thirteen hundred years ago. The geomancers say that the whole city is like a junk, these two pagodas are her masts, and the five-storied tower on the northern wall, her stern sheets.

~BUDDHIST TEMPLES IN CANTON.~

Among the best known monuments to foreigners visiting this city was the monastery of _Chong-show sz’_, ‘Temple of Longevity,’ founded in 1573, and occupying spacious grounds. “In the first pavilion are three Buddhas; in the second a seven-story, gilt pagoda, in which are 79 images of Buddha. In the third pavilion is an image of Buddha reclining, and in a merry mood. A garden in the rear is an attractive place of resort, and another, on one side of the entrance, has a number of tanks in which gold fish are reared. In the space in front of the temple a fair is held every morning for the sale of jade ornaments and other articles.”[81] This temple was destroyed in November, 1881, by a mob who were incensed at the alleged misbehaviour of some of the priests toward the female devotees--an instance of the existence in China of a lively popular sentiment regarding certain matters. Near this compound stands the ‘Temple of the Five Hundred Genii,’ containing 500 statues of various sizes in honor of Buddha and his disciples.

The _Hai-chwang sz’_, a Buddhist temple at Honam usually known as the Honam Joss-house, is one of the largest in Canton. Its grounds cover about seven acres, surrounded by a wall, and divided into courts, garden-spots, and a burial-ground, where are deposited the ashes of priests after cremation. The buildings consist mostly of cloisters or apartments surrounding a court, within which is a temple, a pavilion, or a hall; these courts are overshadowed by bastard-banian trees, the resort of thousands of birds. The outer gateway leads up a gravelled walk to a high portico guarded by two huge demoniac figures, through which the visitor enters a small inclosure, separated from the largest one by another spacious porch, in which are four colossal statues. This conducts him to the main temple, a low building one hundred feet square, and surrounded by pillars; it contains three wooden gilded images, in a sitting posture, called _San Pao Fuh_, or the Past, Present, and Future Buddha, each of them about twenty-five feet high, and surrounded by numerous altars and attendant images. Daily prayers are chanted before them by a large chapter of priests, all of whom, dressed in yellow canonicals, go through the liturgy. Beyond this a smaller building contains a marble carving somewhat resembling a pagoda, under which is preserved a relic of Buddha, said to be one of his toe-nails. This court has other shrines, and many rooms for the accommodation of the priests, among which are the printing-office and library, both of them respectable for size, and containing the blocks of books issued by them, and sold to devotees.

There are about one hundred and seventy-five priests connected with the establishment, only a portion of whom can read. Among the buildings are several small temples dedicated to national deities whom the Buddhists have adopted into their mythology. One of the houses adjoining holds the hogs (not _bugs_, as was stated in one work) offered by worshippers who feed them as long as they live.

Two other shrines belonging to the Buddhists, are both of them, like the Honam temple, well endowed. One called _Kwanghiao sz’_, or ‘Temple of Glorious Filial Duty,’ contains two hundred priests, who are supported from glebe lands, estimated at three thousand five hundred acres. The number of priests and nuns in Canton is not exactly known, but probably exceeds two thousand, nine-tenths of whom are Buddhists. There are only three temples of the Rationalists, their numbers and influence being far less in this city than those of the Buddhists.

The _Ching-hwang miao_ is an important religious institution in every Chinese city, the temple, being a sort of palladium, in which both rulers and people offer their devotions for the welfare of the city. The superintendent of that in Canton pays $4,000 for his situation, which sum, with a large profit, is obtained again in a few years, by the sale of candles, incense, etc., to the worshippers. The temples in China are generally cheerless and gloomy abodes, well enough fitted, however, for the residence of inanimate idols and the performance of unsatisfying ceremonies. The entrance courts are usually occupied by hucksters, beggars, and idlers, who are occasionally driven off to give room for the mat-sheds in which theatrical performances got up by priests are acted. The principal hall, where the idol sits enshrined, is lighted only in front, and the altar, drums, bells, and other furniture of the temple, are little calculated to enliven it; the cells and cloisters are inhabited by men almost as senseless as the idols they serve, miserable beings, whose droning, useless life is too often only a cloak for vice, indolence, and crime, which make the class an opprobrium in the eyes of their countrymen.

Canton is the most influential city in Southern China, and its reputation for riches and luxury is established throughout the central and northern provinces, owing to its formerly engrossing the entire foreign trade up to 1843, for a period of about one hundred years. At that time the residence of the governor-general was at Shao-king fu, west of Canton, and his official guard of 5,000 troops is still quartered there, as the Manchu garrison is deemed enough for the defence of Canton. He and the Hoppo, or collector of customs, once had their yamuns in the New City, but a Romish Cathedral has been built on the site of the former’s office since its capture in 1857. The governor, treasurer, Manchu commandant, chancellor, and the lower local magistrates (ten in all), live in the Old City, and with their official retinues compose a large body of underlings. Some of these establishments occupy four or five acres.

The _Kung Yuen_ or Examination Hall, lies in the southeastern corner of the Old City, similar in size and arrangement to these edifices in other cities. It is 1,330 feet long, 583 wide, and covers over sixteen acres. The wall surrounding it is entered at the east and west corners of the south end, where door-keepers are stationed to prevent a crowd of idlers. The cells are arranged in two sets on each side of the main passage, which is paved and lined with trees; they are further disposed in rows of 57 and 63 cells each--all reached through one side door. The total is 8,653; each cell is 5 feet 9 inches deep, by 3 feet 8 inches wide; grooves are made in the wall to admit a plank, serving as a table by day and a bed by night. Once within, the students are confined to their several stalls, and the outer gate is sealed. A single roof covers the cells of one range, the ranges being 3 feet 8 inches apart. The northern portion includes about one-third of the whole, and is built over with the halls, courts, lodging-rooms, and guard or eating-houses of the highest examiners, their assistants and copyists, with thousands of waiters, printers, underlings, and soldiers. At the biennial examination the total number of students and others in the Hall reaches nearly twelve thousand men.

There are four prisons in the city, all of them large establishments; all the capital offenders in the province are brought to Canton for trial before the provincial officers, and this regulation makes it necessary to provide spacious accommodations for them. The execution-ground is a small yard near a pottery manufacture between the southern gate and the river side, and unless the ground is newly stained with blood, or cages containing the heads of the criminals are hung around, has nothing about it to attract the attention. Another public building, situated near the governor’s palace, is the _Wan-shao kung_, or ‘Imperial Presence hall,’ where three days before and after his majesty’s birthday, the officers and citizens assemble to pay him adoration. The various guilds among the people, and the clubs of scholars and merchants from other provinces, have, each of them, public halls which are usually called _consoo houses_ by foreigners, from a corruption of a native term _kung-sz’_, _i.e._, public hall; but the usual designation is _kwui kwan_ or ‘Assembly Hall.’ Their total number must be quite one hundred and fifty, and some of them are not destitute of elegance.[82]

~THE THIRTEEN HONGS OR FACTORIES.~

The former residences of foreigners in the western suburbs were known as _Shih-san Hang_, or ‘Thirteen Hongs,’[83] and for nearly two centuries furnished almost the only exhibition to the Chinese people of the _yang jin_ or ‘ocean-men.’ Here the fears and the greed of the rulers, landlords, and traders combined to restrain foreigners of all nations within an area of about fifteen acres, a large part of this space being the Garden or _Respondentia_ Walk on the bank of the river. All these houses and out-houses covered a space scarcely as great as the base of the Great Pyramid; its total population, including native and foreign servants, was upwards of a thousand souls. The shops and markets of the Chinese were separated from them only a few feet, and this greatly increased the danger from fire, as may be inferred from the sketch of the street next on the west side. In 1856, the number of hongs was reckoned to be 16, and the local calendar for that year contained 317 names, not including women and children. Besides the 16 hongs, four native streets, bordered with shops for the sale of fancy and silk goods to their foreign customers, ran between the factories. This latter name was given to them from their being the residences of _factors_, for no handicraft was carried on here, nor were many goods stored in them. Fires were not unusual, which demolished portions of them; in 1822 they were completely consumed; another conflagration in 1843 destroyed two hongs and a street of shops; and in 1842, owing to a sudden riot, connected with paying the English indemnity, the British Consulate was set on fire. Finally, as if to inaugurate a new era, they were all simultaneously burned by the local authorities to drive out the British forces, in December, 1856, and every trace of this interesting spot as it existed for so long a time in the annals of foreign intercourse obliterated. Since the return of trade, a new and better site has been formed at Shameen, west of the old spot, by building a solid stone wall and filling in a long, marshy low-tide bank, formerly occupied by boats, to a height of 8 or 10 feet, on which there is room for gardens as well as houses. This is surrounded by water, and thereby secure from fire and mobs to which the old hongs were exposed. Residences are obtainable anywhere in the city by foreigners, and the common sight in the olden times of their standing outside of the _Great Peace Gate_ to see the crowd pass in and out while they themselves could not enter, is no longer seen. A very good map of the enciente was made by an American missionary, Daniel Vrooman, by taking the angles of all the conspicuous buildings therein, with the highest points in the suburbs; he then taught a native to pace the streets between them, compass in hand (noting courses and distances, which he fixed by the principal gates), until a complete plan was filled out. When the city was opened four years afterwards this map was found to need no important corrections.

The trades and manufactories at Canton are mainly connected with the foreign commerce. Many silk fabrics are woven at Fatshan, a large town situated about ten miles west of the city; fire-crackers, paper, mat-sails, cotton cloth, and other articles, are also made there for exportation. The number of persons engaged in weaving cloth in Canton is about 50,000, including embroiderers; nearly 7,000 barbers and 4,200 shoemakers are stated as the number licensed to shave the crowns and shoe the soles of their fellow-citizens.

~ENVIRONS OF CANTON.~

The opposite suburb of Honam offers pleasant walks for recreation, and the citizens are in the habit of going over the river to saunter in its fields, or in the cool grounds of the great temple; a race-course and many enjoyable rides on horseback also tempt foreigners into the country. A couple of miles up the river are the Fa tí or Flower gardens which once supplied the plants carried out of the country, and are resorted to by pleasure parties; but to one accustomed to the squares, gardens, and esplanades of western cities, these grounds appear mean in the extreme. Foreigners ramble into the country, but rowing upon the river is their favorite recreation. Like Europeans in all parts of the East, they retain their own costume and modes of living, and do not espouse native styles; though if it were not for the shaven crown, it is not unlikely that many of them would adopt the Chinese dress.

The Cantonese enumerate eight remarkable localities, called _pah king_, which they consider worthy the attention of the stranger. The first is the peak of Yuehsiu, just within the walls on the north of the city, and commanding a fine view of the surrounding country. The _Pi-pa Tah_, or Lyre pagoda at Whampoa, and the ‘Eastern Sea Fish-pearl,’ a rock in the Pearl River off the city, on which the fort already referred to as the ‘Dutch Folly’ was formerly situated, are two more; the pavilion of the Five Genii, with the five stone rams, and print of a man’s foot in the rock, “always filled with water,” near by; the rocks of Yu-shan; the lucky wells of Faukiu in the western suburbs; cascade of Sí-tsiau, forty miles west of the city; and a famous red building in the city, complete the eight “lions.”

The foreign shipping all anchored, in the early days, at Whampoa, but this once important anchorage has been nearly deserted since the river steamers began their trips to the outer waters. There are two islands on the south side of the anchorage, called French and Danes’ islands, on which foreigners are buried, some of the gravestones marking a century past. The prospect from the summit of the hills hereabouts is picturesque and charming, giving the spectator a high idea of the fertility and industry of the land and its people. The town of Whampoa and its pagoda lie north of the anchorage; between this and Canton is another, called Lob creek pagoda, both of them uninhabited and decaying.

~MACAO AND HONGKONG.~

Macao (pronounced _Makow_) is a Portuguese settlement on a small peninsula projecting from the south-eastern end of the large island of Hiangshan. Its Chinese inhabitants have been governed since 1849 by the Portuguese authorities somewhat differently from their own people, but the mixed government has succeeded very well. The circuit of this settlement is about eight miles; its position is beautiful and very agreeable; nearly surrounded with water, and open to the sea breezes, having a good variety of hill and plain even in its little territory, and a large island on the west called _Tui-mien shan_ or Lapa Island, on which are pleasant rambles, to be reached by equally pleasant boat excursions, it offers, moreover, one of the healthiest residences in south-eastern Asia. The population is not far from 80,000, of whom more than 7,000 are Portuguese and other foreigners, living under the control of the Portuguese authorities. The Portuguese have refused to pay the former annual ground-rent of 600 taels to the Chinese Government, since the assassination of their governor in 1849, and now control all the inhabitants living within the Barrier wall, most of whom have been born therein. The houses occupied by the foreign population are solidly built of brick or adobie, large, roomy, and open, and from the rising nature of the ground on which they stand, present an imposing appearance to the visitor coming in from the sea.

There are a few notable buildings in the settlement; the most imposing edifice, St. Paul’s church, was burned in 1835. Three forts on commanding eminences protect the town, and others outside of the walls defend its waters; the governor takes the oaths of office in the Monte fort; but the government offices are mostly in the Senate house, situated in the middle of the town. Macao was, up to 1843, the only residence for the families of merchants trading at Canton. Of late the authorities are doing much to revive the prosperity of the place, by making it a free port. The Typa anchorage lies between the islands Mackerara and Typa, about three miles off the southern end of the peninsula; all small vessels go into the Inner harbor on the west side of the town. Ships anchoring in the Roads are obliged to lie about three miles off in consequence of shallow water, and large ones cannot come nearer than six or seven miles.[84] Since the ascendancy of Hongkong, this once celebrated port has fallen away in trade and importance, and for many years had an infamous reputation for the protection its rulers afforded the coolie trade.

Eastward from Macao, about forty miles, lies the English colony of Hongkong, an island in lat. 22° 16-1/2′ N., and long. 114° 8-1/2′ E., on the eastern side of the estuary of the Pearl River. The island of Hongkong, or Hiangkiang (_i.e._, the Fragrant Streams), is nine miles long, eight broad, and twenty-six in circumference, presenting an exceedingly uneven, barren surface, consisting for the most part of ranges of hills, with narrow intervales, and a little level beach land. Victoria Peak is 1,825 feet. Probably not one-twentieth of the surface is available for agricultural purposes. The island and harbor were first ceded to the Crown of England by the treaty made between Captain Elliot and Kíshen, in January, 1841, and again by the treaty of Nanking, in August, 1842; lastly, by the Convention of Peking, October 24, 1860, the opposite peninsula of Kowlung was added, in order to furnish space for quartering troops and storehouse room for naval and military supplies. The town of Victoria lies on the north side, and extends more than three miles along the shore. The secure and convenient harbor has attracted the settlement here, though the uneven nature of the ground compels the inhabitants to stretch their warehouses and dwellings along the beach.

The architecture of most of the buildings erected in Victoria is superior to anything heretofore seen in China. Its population is now estimated at 130,000, of whom five-sixths are Chinese tradesmen, craftsmen, laborers, and boatmen, few of whom have their families. The government of the colony is vested in a governor, chief-justice, and a legislative council of five, assisted by various subordinate officers and secretaries, the whole forming a cumbrous and expensive machinery, compared with the needs and resources of the colony. The Bishop of Victoria has an advisory control over the missions of the establishment in the southern provinces of China, and supervises the schools in the colony, where many youths are trained in English and Chinese literature.

The supplies of the island are chiefly brought from the mainland where an increasing population of Chinese, under the control of the magistrate of Kowlung, find ample demand for all the provisions they can furnish.

Three newspapers are published in English, and two in Chinese. The Seaman’s and Military hospitals, the chapels and schools of the London and Church Missionary Society, St. John’s Cathedral, Roman Catholic establishment, the government house, the magistracy, jail, the ordnance and engineer departments, Exchange, and the Club house, are among the principal edifices. The amount of money expended in buildings in this colony is enormous, and most of them are substantial stone or brick houses. The view of the city as seen from the harbor is only excelled in beauty by the wider panorama spread out before the spectator on Victoria Peak. During the forty-odd years of its occupation, this colony has slowly advanced in commercial importance, and become an entrepôt for foreign goods designed for native markets in Southern China. Every facility has been given to the Chinese who resort to its shops to carry away their purchases, by making the port free of every impost, and preventing the imperial revenue cutters from interfering with their junks while in sight of the island. The arrangements of this contested point so that the Chinese revenue shall not suffer have not satisfied either party, and as it is in the similar case of Gibraltar, is not likely to soon be settled. Smugglers must run their own risks with the imperial officers. The most valuable article leaving Hongkong is opium, but the greatest portion of its exports pay the duties on entering China at the five open ports in the province of Kwangtung. As the focus of postal lines of passenger steamers, and the port where mercantile vessels come to learn markets, Hongkong exerts a greater influence on the southeast of Asia than her trade and size indicate. The island of Shangchuen or Sançian, where Xavier died, lies southwest of Macao about thirty miles, and is sometimes visited by devout persons from that place to reverence his tomb, which they keep in repair.

~TOWNS OF KWANGTUNG PROVINCE.~

The city of Shauchau in the northern part of the province lies at the fork of the river, which compels a change of boats for passengers and goods; it is one of the largest cities after Canton, and a pontoon bridge furnishes the needed facilities for stopping and taxing the boats and goods passing through. Shauking, west of Canton, is another important town, which held out a long time against the Manchus;[85] it was formerly the seat of the provincial authorities, till they removed to Canton in 1630 to keep the foreigners under control. It stretches along six miles of the river bank, a well-built city for China, in a beautiful position. Some of its districts furnish green teas and matting for the Canton market, and this trade has opened the way for a large emigration to foreign countries. Among other towns of note is Nanhiung, situated at the head of navigation on the North River, where goods cross the Mei ling. Before the coast was opened to trade, fifty thousand porters obtained a livelihood by transporting packages, passengers, and merchandise to and from this town and Nan-ngan in Kiangsí. It is a thriving place, and the restless habits of these industrious carriers give its population somewhat of a turbulent character. Many of them are women, who usually pair off by themselves and carry as heavy burdens as the men.

Not far from Yangshan hien is a fine cavern, the _Niu Yen_ or ‘Ox Cave,’ on a hillside near the North River. Its entrance is like a grand hall, with pillars 70 feet high and 8 or 10 feet thick. The finest part is exposed to the sun, but many pretty rooms and niches are revealed by torches; echoes resound through their recesses. The stalactites and stalagmites present a vast variety of shapes--some like immense folds of drapery, between which are lamps, thrones and windows of all shapes and sizes, while others hang from the roof in fanciful forms.

The scenery along the river, between Nanhiung and Shauchau, is described as wild, rugged, and barren in the extreme; the summits of the mountains seem to touch each other across the river, and massive fragments fallen from their sides, in and along the river, indicate that the passage is not altogether free from danger. In this mountainous region coal is procured by opening horizontal shafts to the mines. Ellis[86] says, it was brought some distance to the place where he saw it, to be used in the manufacture of green vitriol. Many pagodas are passed in the stretch of 330 miles between Nanhiung and Canton, calculated to attract notice, and assure the native boatmen which swarm on its waters, of the protection of the two elements he has to deal with--wind and water. One of the most conspicuous objects in this part of the river are five rocks, which rise abruptly from the banks, and are fancifully called _Wu-ma-tao_, or ‘Five-horses’ heads.’ The formation of this part of the province consists of compact, dark-colored limestone, overlying sandstone and breccia. Nearly halfway between Shauchau and Canton is a celebrated mountain and cavern temple, dedicated to Kwanyin, the goddess of Mercy, and most charmingly situated amid waterfalls, groves, and fine scenery, near a hill about 1,850 feet high. The cliff has a sheer descent of five hundred feet; the temple is in a fissure a hundred feet above the water, and consists of two stories; the steps leading up to them, the rooms, walls, and cells, are all cut out of the rock. Inscriptions and scrolls hide the naked walls, and a few inane priests inhabit this somewhat gloomy abode. Mr. Barrow draws a proper comparison between these men and the inmates of the Cork Convent in Portugal, or the Franciscan Convent in Madeira, who had likewise “chained themselves to a rock, to be gnawed by the vultures of superstition and fanaticism,” but these last have less excuse.

~THE ISLAND OF HAINAN.~

The island of Hainan constitutes a single department, Kiungchau, but its prefect has no power over the central and mountainous parts. In early European travels it is named Aynao, Kainan and Aniam. It is about one hundred and fifty miles long and one hundred broad, being in extent nearly twice the size of Sicily. It is separated from the main by Luichau Strait, sixteen miles wide, whose shoals and reefs render its passage uncertain. The interior of the island is mountainous, and well wooded, and the inhabitants give a partial submission to the Chinese; they are identical in race with the mountaineers in Kweichau. This ridge is called Lí-mu ling; a remarkable peak in the centre of the southern half, _Wu-chi shan_ or ‘Five-finger Mountain,’ probably rises 10,000 feet. The Chinese inhabitants are mostly descendants of emigrants from Fuhkien, and are either trading, agricultural, marine, or piratical in their vocation, as they can make most money. The lands along the coast are fertile, producing areca-nuts, cocoa-nuts, and other tropical fruits, which are not found on the main. Kiungchau fu lies at the mouth of the Lí-mu River, opposite Luichau. The port is Hoihau, nineteen miles distant, but the entrance is too shallow for most vessels, and the trade consequently seeks a better market at Pakhoi, a town which has recently risen to importance as a treaty port on the mainland. All the thirteen district towns are situated on the coast, and within their circuit, on Chinese maps, a line is drawn, inclosing the centre of the island, within which the _Lí min_, or Lí people live, _some_ of whom are acknowledged to be independent. They are therefore known as wild and civilized Lí, and are usually in a state of chronic irritation from the harsh treatment of the rulers. It is probable that they originally came from the Malayan Peninsula (as their features, dress, and habits indicate their affinity with those tribes), and have gradually withdrawn themselves into their recesses to avoid oppression. In 1292, the Emperor Kublai gave twenty thousand of them lands free for a time in the eastern parts, but the Ming sovereigns found them all intractable and belligerent. The population of the island is about a million. Its productions are rice, sweet potatoes, sugar, tobacco, fruits, timber, and insect wax.[87]

~THE PROVINCE OF KWANGSÍ.~

The province of KWANGSÍ (_i.e._, Broad West) extends westward of Kwangtung to the borders of Annam, occupying the region on the southwest of the Nan ling, and has been seldom visited by foreigners, whose journeys have been up the Kwai kiang or ‘Cassia River’ into Hunan. The banks of the rivers sometimes spread out into plains, more in the eastern parts than elsewhere, on which an abundance of rice is grown. There are mines of gold, silver, and other metals, in this province, most of which are worked under the superintendence of government, but no data are accessible from which to ascertain the produce. Among the commercial productions of Kwangsí, are cassia, cassia-oil, ink-stones, and cabinet-woods; its natural resources supply the principal articles of trade, for there are no manufactures of importance. Many partially subdued tribes are found within the limits of this province, who are ruled by their own hereditary governors, under the supervision of the Chinese authorities; there are twenty-four _chau_ districts occupied by these people, the names of whose head-men are given in the Red Book, and their position marked in the statistical maps of the empire, but no information is furnished in either, concerning the numbers, language, or occupations, of the inhabitants. Kwangsí is well watered by the West River and its branches, which enable traders to convey timber and surplus produce to Canton, and receive from thence salt and other articles. The mountains on the northwest are occasionally covered with snow; many of the western districts furnish little besides wood for buildings and boats. The basin of the West River is subdivided by ranges of hills into three large valleys, through which flow many tributaries of the leading streams, and as they each usually drop the old name on receiving a new affluent, it is a confusing study to follow them all. On the south the river Yuh rises near Yunnan, and deflects south to Nan-ning near the borders of Kwangtung, joining the central trunk at Sinchau, after a course of five hundred miles. On the north the river Lung and the Hung-shui receive the surplus drainage of the northern districts and of Kweichau, a region where the Miaotsz’ have long kept watch and ward over their hilly abodes. The waters are then poured into the central trench a few miles west of Sinchau. This main artery of the province rises in Yunnan and would connect it by batteaux with Canton City if the channel were improved; it is called Sz’ ho, and ranks as the largest tributary of the Pearl River.

The capital, Kweilin (_i.e._, Cassia Forest), lies on the Cassia River, a branch of the West River, in the northeast part of the province; it is a poorly built city, surrounded by canals and branches of the river, destitute of any edifices worthy of notice, and having no great amount of trade. During the Tai-ping rebellion, this and the next town were nearly destroyed between the insurgents and imperialists.

Wuchau fu, on the same river, at its junction with the Lung kiang, or ‘Dragon River,’ where they unite and form the West River, is the largest trading town in the province. The independent _chau_ districts are scattered over the southwest near the frontiers of Annam, and if anything can be inferred from their position, it may be concluded that they were settled by Laos tribes, who had been induced, by the comparative security of life and property within the frontiers, to acknowledge the Chinese sway.[88]

~KWEICHAU PROVINCE AND THE MIAOTSZ’.~

The province of KWEICHAU (_i.e._, Noble Region) is on the whole the poorest of the eighteen in the character of its inhabitants, amount of its products, and development of its resources. A range of mountains passes from the northeast side in a south-westerly course to Yunnan, forming the watershed between the valleys of the Yangtsz’ and Siang Rivers, a rough but fertile region. The western slopes are peopled by Chinese tillers of the soil, a rude and ignorant race, and rather turbulent; the eastern districts are largely in the hands of the Miaotsz’, who are considered by the officials and their troops to be lawful objects of oppression and destruction. The climate of the province is regarded as malarious, owing to the quantity of stagnant water and the impurity of that drawn from wells. Its productions consist of rice, wheat, musk, insect wax, tobacco, timber, and cassia, with lead, copper, silver, quicksilver, and iron. The quicksilver mines are in Kai chau, north of the provincial capital, and apparently exceed in extent and richness all other known deposits of this metal; they have been worked for centuries. Cinnabar occurs at various places, about lat. 27°, in a belt extending quite across the province, and terminating near the borders of Yunnan. Two kinds of silk obtained from the worms which feed on the mulberry and oak, furnish material for clothing so cheaply that cotton is imported from other provinces. Horses and other domestic animals are reared in larger quantities than in the eastern provinces.

The largest river is the Wu, which drains the central and northern parts of the province, and empties into the Yangtsz’, through the river Kien near Chungking. Other tributaries of that river and West River, also have their sources in this province, and by means of batteaux and rafts are all more or less available for traffic. The natural outlet for the products of Kweichau is the river Yuen in Hunan, whose various branches flow into it from the eastern prefectures, but their unsettled condition prevents regular or successful intercourse.

The capital, Kweiyang, is situated among the mountains; it is the smallest provincial capital of the eighteen, its walls not being more than two miles in circumference. The other chief towns or departments are of inferior note. There are many military stations in the southern prefectures at the foot of the mountains, intended to restrain the unsubdued tribes of Miaotsz’ who inhabit them.

This name Miaotsz’ is used among the Chinese as a general term for all the dwellers upon these mountains, but is not applied to every clan by the people themselves. They consist of eighty-two tribes in all (found scattered over the mountains in Kwangtung, Hunan, and Kwangsí, as well as in Kweichau), speaking several dialects, and differing among themselves in their customs, government, and dress. The Chinese have often described and pictured these people, but the notices are confined to a list of their divisions, and an account of their most striking peculiarities. Their language differs entirely from the Chinese, but too little is known of it to ascertain its analogies to other tongues; its affinities are most likely with the Laos, and those tribes between Burmah, Siam, and China. One clan, inhabiting Lípo hien in the extreme south, is called _Yau-jin_, and although they occasionally come down to Canton to trade, the citizens of that place firmly believe them to be furnished with short tails like monkeys. They carry arms, are inclined to live at peace with the lowlanders, but resist every attempt to penetrate into their fastnesses. The Yau-jin first settled in Kwangsí, and thence passed over into Lien chau about the twelfth century, where they have since maintained their footing. Both sexes wear their hair braided in a tuft on the top of the head--but never shaven and tressed as the Chinese--and dress in loose garments of cotton and linen; earrings are in universal use among them. They live at strife among themselves, which becomes a source of safety to the Chinese, who are willing enough to harass and oppress, but are ill able to resist, these hardy mountaineers. In 1832, they broke out in active hostilities, and destroyed numerous parties of troops sent to subdue them, but were finally induced to return to their retreats by offers of pardon and largesses granted to those who submitted.

A Chinese traveller among the Miaotsz’ says that some of them live in huts constructed upon the branches of trees, others in mud hovels; and one tribe in cliff houses dug out of the hillsides, sometimes six hundred feet up. Their agriculture is rude, and their garments are obtained by barter from the lowlanders in exchange for metals and grain, or woven by themselves. The religious observances of these tribes are carefully noted, and whatever is connected with marriages and funerals. In one tribe, it is the custom for the father of a new-born child, as soon as its mother has become strong enough to leave her couch, to get into bed himself and there receive the congratulations of his acquaintances, as he exhibits his offspring--a custom which has been found among the Tibetan tribes and elsewhere. Another class has the counterpart of the may-pole and its jocund dance, which, like its corresponding game, is availed of by young men to select their mates.[89]

~THE PROVINCE OF YUNNAN.~

The province of YUNNAN (_i.e._, Cloudy South--south of the _Yun ling_, or ‘Cloudy Mountains’[90]) is in the southwest of the empire, bounded north by Sz’chuen, east by Kweichau and Kwangsí, south by Annam, Laos, and Siam, and west by Burmah. Its distance from the central authority of the Empire since its partial conquest under the Han dynasty has always made it a weak point, and the uneducated, mixed character of the inhabitants has given an advantage to enterprising leaders to resist Chinese rule. It was recovered from the aborigines by the Tang Emperors, who called it Jung chau, or the region of the Jung tribes, from which the name _Karajang_, _i.e._, Black Jung, which Marco Polo calls it, is derived; Kublai Khan himself led an army in 1253 thither before he conquered China, and sent the Venetians on a mission there about the year 1278, after his establishment at Peking. A son of the Emperor was his Viceroy over this outlying province at that time. The recent travels of Margary, Baber, and Anderson, of the British service, with Mouhot and Garnier of the French, have done much to render this secluded province better known. The central portion is occupied by an extensive plateau, ramifying in various directions and intersected with valley-plains at altitudes of 5,000 to 6,000 feet, in which lie several large lakes and the seven principal cities in the province. These plains are overtopped by the ridges separating them, which, seen from the lower levels, appear, as in Shansí, like horizontal, connected summit-lines. All are built up of red sandstone, like the basin in Sz’chuen, through which rivers, small and large, have furrowed their beds hundreds and thousands of feet, rendering communication almost impossible in certain directions as soon as one leaves the plateau. In the east and northwest, the defiles are less troublesome, and in this latter portion of the province are some peaks rising far above the snow line. These are called on Col. Yule’s map the _Goolan Sigon_ range. The climate is cooler than in Sz’chuen, owing to this elevation, and not very healthy; snow lies for weeks at Yunnan fu, and the summers are charming.

The Yangtsz’ enters the province on the northwest for a short distance. The greatest river in it is the Lantsan, which rises in Tibet, and runs for a long distance parallel with and between the Yangtsz’ and Nu Rivers till the three break through the mountains not far from each other, and take different courses,--the largest turning to the eastward across China, the Lantsan southeast through Yunnan to the gulf of Siam, under the name of the Meikon or river of Cambodia, and the third, or Salween, westerly through Burmah. The Meikon receives many large tributaries in its course across the province, and its entire length is not less than 1,500 miles. The Lungchuen, a large affluent of the Irrawadi, runs a little west of the Salween. The Meinam rises in Yunnan, and flows south into Siam under the name of the Nanting, and after a course of nearly eight hundred miles, empties into the sea below Bangkok. East of the Lantsan are several important streams, of which three that unite in Annam to form the Sangkoi, are the largest. The general course of these rivers is southeasterly, and their upper waters are separated by mountain ridges, between which the valleys are often reduced to very narrow limits. There are two lakes in the eastern part of the province, south of the capital, called Sien and Tien; the latter is about seventy miles long by twenty wide, and the Sien hu (_i.e._, ‘Fairy Lake’) about two-thirds as large. Another sheet of water in the northwest, near Talí fu, communicating with the Yangtsz’ kiang, is called Urh hai or Uhr sea, which is more than a hundred miles long, and about twenty in width.

~INHABITANTS AND PRODUCTIONS OF YUNNAN.~

The capital, Yunnan, lies upon the north shore of Lake Tien, and is a town of note, having, moreover, considerable political importance from its trade with other parts of the country through the Yangtsz’, and with Burmah. The city was seriously injured in 1834, by an earthquake, which is said to have lasted three entire days, forcing the inhabitants into tents or the open fields, and overthrowing every important building.[91] The traffic between this province and Burmah centres at the fortified post of Tsantah, in the district of Tăngyueh, both of them situated on a branch of the Irrawadi. The principal part of the commodities is transported upon animals from these dépôts to Bhamo, upon the Irrawadi, the largest market-town in this part of Chin-India. The Chinese participate largely in this trade, which consists of raw and manufactured silk to the amount of $400,000 annually, tea, copper, carpets, orpiment, quicksilver, vermilion, drugs, fruits, and other things, carried from their country in exchange for raw cotton to the amount of $1,140,000 annually, ivory, wax, rhinoceros and deer’s horns, precious stones, birds’ nests, peacocks’ feathers, and foreign articles. The entire traffic is probably $2,500,000 annually, and for a few years past has been regularly increasing.

There is considerable intercourse and trade on the southern frontiers with the Lolos, or Laos and Annamese,[92] partly by means of the head-waters of the Meinam and Meikon--which are supposed to communicate with each other by a natural canal--and partly by caravans over the mountains. Yunnan fu was the capital of a Chinese prince about the time of the decadence of the Ming dynasty, who had rendered himself independent in this part of their empire by the overthrow of the rebel Lí, but having linked his fortunes with an imbecile scion of that house, he displeased his officers, and his territories gradually fell under the sway of the conquering Manchus. The southern and western districts of the province are inhabited by half-subdued tribes who are governed by their own rulers, under the nominal sway of the Chinese, and pass and repass across the frontiers in pursuit of trade or occupation.

The extension of British trade from Rangoon toward this part of China, has brought those hill tribes more into notice, and proved in their present low and barbarous condition the accuracy of the ancient description by Marco Polo and the Roman Catholic missionaries. Colonel Yule aptly terms this wide region an “Ethnological Garden of tribes of various race and in every stage of uncivilization.” The unifying influence of the Chinese written language and literary institutions has been neutralized among these races by their tribal dissensions and inaptitude for study of any kind. Anderson gives short vocabularies of the Kakhyen, Shan, Hotha Shan, Le-sau and Poloung languages, all indicating radical differences of origin, the existence of which would keep them from mingling with each other as well as from the Chinese.[93]

The mineral wealth of Yunnan is greater and more varied than that of any other province, certain of the mines having been worked since the Sung dynasty. Coal occurs in many places on the borders of the central plateau; some of it is anthracite of remarkable solidity and uniformity. Salt occurs in hills, not in wells as in Sz’chuen; the brine is sometimes obtained by driving tunnels into the hillsides. Metalliferous ores reach from this province into the three neighboring ones. Copper is the most abundant, and the mines in Ningyuen fu, in the southwestern part of Sz’chuen, have supplied both copper and zinc ores during the troubles in Yunnan. The copper at Hwuilí-chau in that prefecture is worked by companies which pay a royalty of two taels a pecul to the government, and furnish the metal to the mine owners for $8 per pecul. The _pehtung_ or argentan ores are mixed with copper, tin, or lead, by the manufacturers according to the uses the alloys are put to. Silver exists in several places in the north, and the exploitation of the mines was successful until within 30 years past; now they cannot be safely or profitably worked, in consequence of political disturbances. Gold is obtained in the sand of some rivers but not to a large extent; lead, iron, tin, and zinc occur in such plenty that they can be exported, but no data are accessible as to the entire product or export.[94]

FOOTNOTES:

[72] _Annales de la Foi_, 1845, Tome XVII., pp. 287, 290. See also Huc’s _Travels in the Chinese Empire_, Harper’s Ed., 1855, Vol. II., pp. 142-144. Pumpelly, pp. 224-226; Blakiston’s _Yangtsze_, p. 65; _Treaty Ports of China_, 1867, Art. _Hankow_.

[73] Usually known as the Ta-pa ling; but Baron von Richthofen found that the natives of that region “call those mountains the Kiu-tiao shan, that is the ‘nine mountain ridges,’ designating therewith the fact that the range is made up of a number of parallel ridges. This name should be retained in preference to the other.” _Letter on the Provinces of Chihlí, Shansí, Shensí_, etc. Shanghai, 1872. See also his _China_, Band II. S. 563-576; Alex. Wylie, _Notes of a Journey from Chingtoo to Hankow_, _Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc._ Vol. XIV., p. 168.

[74] See Kreitner, _Im fernen Osten_, p. 504. Wien, 1881.

[75] Prejevalsky’s _Travels in Mongolia_, Vol. II., pp. 256-266.

[76] _Dip. Cor._, 1874, p. 251.

[77] That this insurrection was not unprecedented we learn from a notice of a similar Mohammedan revolt here in 1784. _Nouvelles Lettres Edifiantes des Missions de la Chine_, Tome II., p. 23.

[78] Yule’s _Marco Polo_, Vol. II., p. 23.

[79] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. XIX., pp. 317 and 394. _Annales de la Foi_, Tome III., pp. 369-381, and Tome IV., pp. 409-415. _Letter_ by Baron Richthofen _on the Provinces of Chihlí, Shansí, Shensí, Sz’chuen_, etc. Shanghai, 1872. Kreitner, _Im fernen Osten_, pp. 780-829.

[80] French bishop Palafox gives still another account of the capture of Canton; his statement contains, however, one or two glaring errors. Vid. _Histoire de la Conquête de la Chine par les Tartares_, pp. 150 ff.

[81] Dr. Kerr, _Canton Guide_.

[82] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. II., pp. 145, 191, &c.

[83] This word is derived from the Chinese _hong_ or _hang_, meaning a row or series, and is applied to warehouses because these consist of a succession of rooms. The foreign factories were built in this manner, and therefore the Chinese called each block a hong; the old security-merchants were dubbed _hong-merchants_, because they lived in such establishments.

[84] _Chinese Repository_, passim. _An Historical Sketch of the Portuguese Settlements in China._ By Sir A. Ljungstedt. Boston, 1836.

[85] Palafox, _Conquête de la Chine_, p. 172.

[86] _Embassy_ (of Lord Amherst) _to China_, Moxon’s ed., 1840, p. 98.

[87] E. C. Taintor, _Geographical Sketch of the Island of Haïnan_, with map. Canton, 1868. _Journal N. C. Br. R. A. S._, No. VII., Arts. I., II., and III. _China Review_, Vols. I., p. 124, and II., p. 332. N. B. Dennys, _Report on the newly-opened ports of Kiungchow (Hoihau) in Hainan, and Haiphong in Tonquin_. Hongkong, 1878.

[88] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. XIV., pp. 171 ff.

[89] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. I., p. 29; Vol. XIV., pp. 105-117; G. T. Lay, _Chinese as They Are_, p. 316; _Journal of N. C. Branch of Royal Asiatic Society_, No. III., 1859, and No. VI., 1869. _Chinese Recorder_, Vols. II., p. 265, and III., pp. 33, 74, 96, 134 and 147. _Peking Gazette_ for 1872. _China Review_, Vol. V., p. 92.

[90] Known as _Widiharit_ in Pali records. _Chinese Recorder_, Vol. III., pp. 33, 74, sqq.; see also pp. 62, 93, 126, for the record of a visit.

[91] _Annales de la Foi_, Tome VIII., p. 87.

[92] Two thousand Chinese families live in Amerapura.

[93] Yule’s _Marco Polo_, Vol. II. Anderson, _Mandalay to Momien_.

[94] _Proced. Roy. Geog. Soc._, Vols. XIII., p. 392, XIV., p. 335, XV., pp. 163 and 343. Col. Yule, _Trade Routes to Western China_--_The Geographical Magazine_, April, 1875. Richthofen, _Recent Attempts to find a direct Trade-Road to Southwestern China_--_Shanghai Budget_, March 26, 1874. _Journey of A. R. Margary from Shanghae to Bhamo._ London, 1875. Col. H. Browne in _Blue Books_, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 (1876-77).