CHAPTER XV.

THE CONSULAR PORTS OF CHINA.

CANTON.

THE approach to Canton by water is through the Bocca Tigris, and up the Pearl or Canton river. The anchorage for foreign shipping is at Whampoa (pronounced Wompoo), a reach in the river, twelve miles below Canton, above which it is impossible for large ships to go. The anchorage is four miles in length, the American vessels generally occupying the higher berths, and the English the lower. Their cargoes are here taken out in boats and carried to Canton, and their return-freight brought down. Her British majesty's ship Blenheim, seventy-four, sailed up within four miles of the city of Canton, in May, 1841, along the south side of Honam island; but that channel has since been blocked up by the Chinese. The town of Whampoa lies on the island north of the anchorage, and may be seen in the distance in our engraving. The prospect from the hills beyond is picturesque and charming, giving the spectator a high idea of the fertility of the land and the industry of its people. At the bottom of the engraving is represented a part of Dane's island, which is a small rocky hill, where sailors who die at this port are buried. West from Dane's island, at the left-hand corner of the engraving, is represented a small portion of French island, on which are the tombs of many foreigners, residents, and captains. Large herds of cattle are reared on these and other islands, for supplying the shipping with beef, but the people themselves do not use it.

The appearance of the river, beyond the Whampoa anchorage, in going up to Canton, is of so diversified and picturesque a character, that description can but ill convey an idea of the reality. On the heights, which are frequently surmounted by pagodas or places of worship, cultivation is carried to the very summit, by means of terraces, formed tier above tier up the side of the hill; while the fantastically-built cottages of the cultivators of the soil dot the earth, and the water-wheels used in irrigation add materially to the picturesque appearance of the scene.

On these waters dwell thousands of families in boats, which may rather be called floating-houses, for the poor people who inhabit them have no other homes. The river population of Canton is estimated at two hundred thousand, of whom the men go on shore in the day to work in the fields, or at any employment they can obtain; while the women earn a little money by carrying passengers in their boats, which they manage with great dexterity.

The male children of the occupants of these aquatic dwellings are taught the art of swimming as soon as they know the use of their legs, until which time they wear a calabash suspended round their necks, to buoy them up in case of their falling overboard.

Boats used for the rearing of poultry of all descriptions, but more particularly ducks, are moored along the banks, and in these floating domicils dwell the proprietors, with their families, kith, kin, and generation. Very curious, to our ideas, is the method adopted by the Chinese, to inculcate obedience and discretion into the breasts or brains of these ducks. In the morning, these feathered bipeds are turned out to seek their food in the lakes and marshes. At sunset the owner, standing with a long flat-lashed whip in his hand, calls them, uttering a peculiar whistle, or squall. This whip will be used most energetically upon the body of the last straggler, and dire experience has impressed this unpleasant fact upon the reasoning capabilities of these sapient ducks. The instant the call is heard, the ducks are seen swimming homeward at the top of their speed, each one exhibiting a laudable anxiety to avoid being the last duck, and receiving the modicum of blows allotted to the latest arrival, and no scene in nature can be more

ludicrous or amusing. These poultry-boats are from thirty to forty feet in length, and fitted up as domestic abodes; over the deck is a wagon-shaped roof, made of bamboo-ribs, and thatched with paddy (rice) straw, under which the rowers sit upon stools eight inches in height.

terns.

Advancing further up the river, the scene is richly diversified: here and there may be seen a dilapidated fort, telling a sad tale of the late war; while a tall pagoda rears its fantastic form in the distance; and orange-groves, bananas, and leichee-trees, fill the atmosphere with fragrance. Mandarin or police boats, having ten and twenty oars on each side, increase in number and add to the picturesque effect; the rowers wear gayly-painted bamboo-caps, of a conical form; from the masts float long silken streamers, or flags, stamped in golden characters with the name, style, and titles of the owner, while the stern of the boat is decorated with gaudily-painted lanVarious small boats, or san-pans, are sculled to and fro, filled with the delicious and luscious fruits of China, the owners endeavoring to induce passers-by to purchase their refreshing stores. Clumsy, ponderous Chinese junks, intermixed with many from Siam, with their gayly-painted sterns, add to the strangeness of the scene. The holds of these junks are divided into several water-tight compartments, so that a leak may be sprung in one while the others remain dry; and these compartments are generally hired by different merchants, so that the goods of each are kept distinct and separate. On the prow of these vessels is painted an enormous eye, round as a bull's; the reason for which is thus expressed by them in Anglo-Chinese : "No got eye, how can see? —no can see, how can walkey ?"

Further on are various fishing-boats, with numerous aquatic birds perched on their sides, or darting into the water, diving after fish, which they are trained to catch. Round the necks of these birds rings are fastened, to prevent them from swallowing the fish they capture. Next are seen war-junks, in all their gaudy splendor, provided with no better sails than the Siam junks; many of these vessels have a series of cabins, raised over their poops, one above the other, which present a very singular appearance.

As you approach Canton, the river, which is nearly half a mile in width, becomes so crowded with boats of all sizes and classes, crossing and recrossing each other, that a novice might be in despair of forcing a passage, or making his way through them. On either side of the river are moored boats, in which whole families are domiciled, and the fronts of some of these aquatic dwellings are very handsomely carved and gayly painted in arabesque; while on the decks, or flat roofs, are constructed gardens, where they sit and smoke amid flowering shrubs, planted in painted porcelain flower-pots, fantastically grouped around. There are also other boats, fitted up in very elegant style, which serve as cafés, where Chinese gentlemen spend their evenings. The most gayly-decorated of all boats-which have carved fronts painted in arabesque, silken lanterns suspended from their roofs, while looking-glasses, pictures, and verses of an amatory character,

inscribed on party-colored paper, decorate their sides-are those sinks of iniquity called "flower-boats." The wretched female inmates, bedizened in tawdry finery, tottering on their deformed feet, appear at the doors and on the decks, beckoning the passers-by, trying to entice them by their allurements to enter. These degraded females are, at an early age, purchased from their parents, for prices varying from five to one hundred dollars, and are retained in bondage until worn out by disease and profligacy; they are then turned adrift by their vile owners, with scarcely sufficient covering for their bodies to protect them from the weather, or answer the purpose of common decency. Their career of vice is usually commenced at ten years of age, and they seldom live to number twenty-five years: in short, the profligacy practised in China, unabashed, by all classes, is most appalling and heart-rending to an undepraved character.

Of all the extraordinary scenes which can be witnessed, nothing can be more surprising or astounding to an American than the appearance of the Canton river; for, let him have travelled "far and wide," nothing can give an idea of the scene but ocular demonstration. Myriads of boats float on the waters, some devoted to handicraftsmen of all descriptions; others to retailers of edibles, cooked and uncooked; boats laden with chests of tea, piled one upon the other, tier above tier, until the side of the boat is level with the water's edge; and mandarin-boats forcing their way authoritatively through the crowd. Flower-boats, and others belonging to artisans, venders of food, pedlars, merchants, poultry and san-pans, are wedged together, as far as the eye can reach, in one solid mass, apparently impenetrable; while the air is filled, and the ears stunned, with the deafening sounds of gongs and wind-instruments, discoursing most unearthly music, accompanied by the yelling, screeching, gabbling, and clamor, of hundreds of thousands of human tongues, producing a hodge-podge of sounds, unrivalled and unequalled since the building of the tower of Babel.

As there is no part of the world so densely populated as China, so there is no part of China so thickly populated as Canton, the population of the city of Canton and its suburbs being estimated at above one million; and the denizens of the river, who habitually reside in their boats, are said to