Travels in China by Sir John Barrow (best ereader manga txt) 📖

the embassy who preferred to be thus carried, and horses for the rest. For the soldiers, indeed, that composed his Excellency's guard, they had prepared a sort of open bamboo chair, fixed between two poles and meant to be carried shoulder-height. But the soldiers, squeezed into these little chairs and elevated in the air, with their feathers and their firelocks, soon perceived that they cut such ridiculous figures and that the soon wretches who carried them were in so miserable a condition, both with regard to their clothing and their habit of body, that, ashamed to be thus dragged along, they presently dismounted and insisted, in their turn, upon carrying the Chinese. Our conductors affected to consider this as a good joke, but others were evidently nettled at it, supposing it might have been meant as a kind of oblique reflection on the indifferent accommodations that had been provided at this place for the Embassador and his retinue; which were however the best that it was possible for them to procure by any exertions.

Having finished this land journey, of about twenty-four miles, in the course of the day, we lodged at Eu-shan-shien, a small city of mean appearance and the following day embarked on flat-bottomed barges, remarkably long and narrow, on the river Long shia-tong; but two complete days of heavy rain obliged us to remain quietly at anchor.

On the 24th of November we dropped down the river, which by the rains was swelled to an enormous size and in some places had overflowed its banks, though in general high and rocky composed of a deep brown-coloured freestone. Several rice mills were so completely inundated, that their thatched roofs were but just visible above the surface of the water; others were entirely washed away; and the wrecks of them scattered upon the banks of the river. A vessel of our squadron was upset upon the roof of one of these mills.

During two days' sail the surface of the country was hilly and well wooded with camphors, firs, and tallow-trees; but as we approached the Po-yang lake, a small inland sea, it began to assume the uniform appearance of an extended marsh, without any visible signs of cultivation: here and there a few small huts, standing on the brink of pools of water, with twice the number of small boats floating or drawn up on shore, sufficiently indicated the occupation of the inhabitants. In this part of the country we had an opportunity of seeing the various means practised by the Chinese to catch fish: rafts and other floating vessels with the fishing corvorant: boats with moveable planks turning on hinges, and painted so as to deceive fishes on moonlight nights and entice them to leap out of the water upon the planks; nets set in every form; and wicker baskets made exactly in the same manner as those used in Europe. Large gourds and blocks of wood were floating on the water, in order to familiarize the various kinds of water-fowl to such objects, which gave the Chinese an opportunity, by sticking their heads into gourds or earthen pots and keeping their bodies under water, to approach the birds in a gentle manner sufficiently near to take them by the legs and draw them quietly under the water; a method which is said to be practised by the natives of South America.

The nearer we approached the great lake Po-yang, the more dreary was the appearance of the country; and for the distance of ten miles around it, or at least on the south and west sides, was a wild waste of reeds and rank grasses, such as the Scirpus, Cyperus, and bulrushes, interrupted only by stagnant pools of water. Not a human dwelling of any description was to be seen. This place may justly be considered as the sink of China, into which rivers fall from every point of the compass. It is scarcely possible for the imagination to form to itself an idea of a more desolate region than that which surrounds the Po-yang lake. The temperature was so reduced, by the circumambient waters, that on the 27th November, with drizzling showers, the thermometer was down to 48° in the forenoon. We sailed near four whole days over the same kind of country and came, towards the evening of the last, to the city of Nan-tchang-foo, the capital of Kiang-see, where we observed from four to five hundred of the revenue vessels lying at anchor. We waited at this place a few hours to take in the necessary provisions and to receive a present of silk, tea, and some other trifles from the viceroy. We were told of a famous temple in the neighbourhood of the city, but we had no curiosity to go out of the way to see it, which was dedicated to the man who, as we have already observed, made his apotheosis comfortably in his own house; that there was a well belonging to this temple full of large snakes, whom the priests venerate and to whom they admonish the people to make sacrifices, as being children of the dragons which, if not constantly appeased by oblations to these their offspring, would destroy the whole world. Thus, in all countries where votaries of superstition are to be found, will knaves be met with to take advantage of their weakness. The priests of this temple are said to have made one observation, which is perhaps no superstition, that when these water snakes appear on the surface, rains and inundations are sure to follow. I took advantage, however, of the short delay, to go on board one of the revenue vessels and to measure the capacity of its hold. It was in length 115 feet, breadth 15 feet, and depth 6 feet; the sides streight and the width nearly the same fore and aft; so that the burden might fairly be estimated at 250 tons. Independent, therefore, of the innumerable small craft, there were lying before this city 100,000 tons of shipping.

The city of Nan-tchang-foo is situated upon the left bank of the river Kan-kiang-ho falling from the southward into the Po-yang lake. It was here about five hundred yards in width, against the stream of which we made a rapid progress with a brisk breeze. For the first sixty miles the country was flat and uncultivated, except in places where we observed a few fields of rice. But there was no want of population. Towns and villages were constantly in sight, as were also manufactories of earthen ware, bricks and tiles. The farther we advanced up the river, the more populous was the country, the more varied and agreeable the surface, and the more extended the cultivation. The banks were skirted with large trees, that cast a cool and comfortable shade on the walks beneath. Of these, some were willows, others camphors, but by far the greatest number were the Yang-tchoo, a large spreading tree that threw its branches down to the ground where, like the Ficus Indicus, of which indeed it was a variety, they took root and became stems.

At the city Kei-shui-shien, which like most cities in China offered little worthy of remark, the river divided into two branches; and at Kin-gan-foo, a city of the first order, which we passed the same night, by the river contracting suddenly the current became stronger and of course our progress slower. To track the barges it was necessary again to press a number of men; here, however, it may be observed, they undertook the service with more willingness than to the northward. The river meandered through a mountainous and barren country, rich only in picturesque beauty which, though pleasing to the eye of the artist and the connoisseur, has less charms for the philosopher, who finds more real beauties to exist in a soil, however tame and uniform, that can be rendered subservient to the uses of man.

On the 3d of November we approached that part of the river which, on account of the numerous ship-wrecks that have happened there, is held in no small degree of dread by the Chinese. They call it the Shee-pa-tan, or the eighteen cataracts: which are torrents formed by ledges of rock running across the bed of the river. They have not, however, any thing very terrific in them, not one being half so dangerous as the fall at London bridge about half-tide. But the Chinese have no great dexterity in the management of their vessels. They are so easily alarmed, that they frequently miscarry through timidity, when a little recollection and resolution would have secured them success. The mountains between which the river was hemmed in were covered with forests of the larch fir; the glens and vallies abounded with the bamboo, of which we here observed two species, one the same that is common in other parts of the East, and the second much smaller in its growth, seldom exceeding the height of ten feet; and the fibres of its small stem are more hard and solid than those of the other species. The Chinese use it in the finer parts of such household furniture and other articles as are constructed of bamboo. From the margins of the river to the feet of the forests the lower parts of the mountains were covered with coppice, among which the most common shrub bore a close resemblance to the tea plant, and accordingly the Chinese called it the Tcha-wha, or flower of tea. It was the Camellia Sesanqua of Thunberg, to which they had given the same name (not being very nice in specific distinctions), as to the Camellia Japonica of Linnæus. From the nut of the former not unlike to, though somewhat smaller than, the chesnut, a very pleasant oil is expressed and used for similar purposes to the Florence oil in Europe.

This intricate part of the river, where innumerable pointed rocks occurred, some above, some even with, and others just below the surface of the water, required two long days' sail with a fair breeze; and the falls became more rapid and dangerous the farther we advanced. At the fifteenth cataract we perceived two or three vessels lying against the rocks with their flat-bottoms uppermost; a terrible sight for our bargemen who, like the countryman in the fable, instead of applying the shoulder to the wheel, began to implore the assistance of the river god by sounding the gong, in order to rouse his attention and by regaling his olfactory nerves with the smoke of sandal-wood matches; so that had we been dropping down the stream, instead of going against it, there was every reason to apprehend that our barge would have shared a similar fate; for it received many a gentle rub against the rocks.

The appearance of the country in the neighbourhood of the cataracts was extremely beautiful. The transparency of the stream, the bold rocks finely fringed with wood, and the varied forms of the mountains called to mind those delightful streams that are discharged from the lakes of the northern counties of England. Like these too, the Kan-kiang-ho abounded with fish, not however with the delicious trout but one of much less flavour, a species of perch. Great numbers of rafts were floating on the river with the fishing corvorant, and we observed that he seldom dived without success. For the whole distance of three days' journey, the hilly country bordering on the river produced very little but the Camellia Sesanqua, which appeared to be every where of spontaneous growth.

We halted on the 6th of December, late in the evening, before the city of Kan-tchoo-foo, which is remarkable for nothing that I could learn except for the great quantity of varnish trees the Rhus vernix I suppose, that are cultivated in the neighbourhood. In the course of the journey we had picked up two