CHAPTER III.
ADVENTURES AT SEA.--RESCUE.
Having recovered his strength, Chow took a turn at the oars, and for anhour pulled lustily, to get as far from the coast as possible, for fearof being observed by any straggling party of the rebels who might pursuethem, when, if they searched Nicholas and discovered the letter,farewell to the sea chief's schemes. This fear, however, soon becameabsorbed in a greater; night came on, and brave sailor as he was,Nicholas did not fancy being upon that stormy sea in such a fragileboat.
Then Nicholas took the oars, and had not been pulling long, when heperceived the glimmering of a light in the distance. He rested for amoment; the light grew larger and nearer: this was hopeful; it might bethe lantern of a trading ship; yet fearful, for it might be a pirate.The suspense was terrible, and like a gallant fellow he determined toend it as soon as possible; for this purpose he pulled heartily, and wasrewarded at length by getting near enough to the stranger to distinguishvoices, then a few long pulls, and strong pulls, and he reached theship, when by the light from her lanterns perceiving some ropes hangingout, he clambered up her side, telling Chow to follow. In anothersecond they both stood upon the deck, but also in the arms of men, whowould have stabbed them with their knives but for the presence of mindof our hero, who exclaimed, "Fear not, brothers of the sea, we are notpirates."
The men, however, not being so easily appeased, bound the arms of theboys with ropes and took them into the presence of the captain, much tothe disgust of Chow, who said, "Truly it is a maxim that a servantshould follow his master, but our career will be one of short measure bythis strange frolic, O noble Nicholas."
"Silence, Chow, let not thy heart leap between thy lips at the firstthreat of danger," said Nicholas angrily.
"The bravest war tiger would become a mouse with his body packed asclosely as a cotton ball," said Chow surlily.
The captain, however, no sooner saw Nicholas, than with a start ofsurprise he ordered the sailors to leave the cabin, and took up a largeknife from the cabin table, when the terrified Chow cried, "Take theworthless life of thy mean slave, O noble commander, but in the name ofthy ancestors spare my noble master."
Chow's fear became surprise in no small degree when the captain, withoutnoticing his prayer, not only cut the cords from the arms of Nicholas,but made him a respectful bow.
"Thanks, worthy commander," said Nicholas, taking the knife andreleasing Chow.
"Truly the heavens have tumbled down a surprise," said Chow, with acaper, adding, "Is the noble man-boy a good demon, that he can transformenemies into friends with a glance of his eye?"
Without, however, satisfying Chow, Nicholas asked the captain to givethe boy a sleeping mat in another cabin, after which he said, "It iswell, O Yung, that you chanced to be at sea this night, or my nobleparent would have had to mourn his son." But little more passed, forNicholas was glad to seek a long rest, and possession of the sleepingmat which the captain resigned to him.
The reason of this civility is easily explained--the vessel itselfbelonged to the sea chief, and its commander was one of his officers incharge on a voyage to Ning-Po, which port they reached the followingday. Having landed, the boys took leave of the captain, and sought alodging at one of the largest inns, where, after resting for a few days,Nicholas began to prepare for his journey inland.
His first care was to furnish Chow with a becoming robe of stout silk, acap, trousers, and thick-soled leather boots. As soon as the boy had putthem on he began to caper about, crying, "My master is generous, and thegods will reward him for making a poor boy decent enough to pay duereverence to the tombs of his ancestors, for truly he could not worthilysweep the dust from their resting-place in such unbecoming tatters; foralthough Chow is poor, he is of worthy descent and honorable relations."
"Truly, Chow, thou art now fit to take a degree at the next examinationat Pekin, if we ever arrive there," said Nicholas.
"It is not reasonable that the noble Nicholas should laugh at his meanservant, for at the examination of his Hien he passed so creditablythrough the first two sacred books, that he would have obtained agovernment promotion but for the villain who destroyed his house. _Mayhis soul pass into the body of a rat!_" said Chow gloomily.
"Pardon, O disappointed scholar. It was villainous to laugh, for it is awise saying, 'that the well to do should sympathize with theunfortunate,'" said Nicholas, adding, as he took his cap, "But let usnow seek for a passage-boat, for it is also wisely said, 'that theloiterer about the business of another is incapable of conducting hisown affairs.'"
When they reached the river, they engaged a passage to Hang-tcheou, andhaving waited for a favorable tide, the barge was soon out of the riverinto a canal, upon which for days they proceeded, at times being pushedalong by poles thrust into the water, at others, being drawn along bycoolies, or porters, an employment that affords a means of existence toa vast portion of the population of China.
Tche-Kiang, through which they so leisurely traveled, is, perhaps, themost fertile and beautiful of the eighteen provinces of China, andlarge enough to contain the whole of Scotland and its adjacent islands.Besides rivers, it is watered by some sixty canals, which serve not onlyas an easy method of transit, but so to irrigate the great plains aroundthat they yield crops of rice, pulse, and cotton, twice and sometimesthrice a year. It was pleasant to watch these canals pouring forth theirsparkling limpid streams to lave the feet of the neighboring hills andmountains, which for many miles presented an aspect of singular beauty;some, like carved and nature painted pyramids, being wrought intoterraces, which shot one out of the other, teeming with the yellowgrain, cotton, or tea-trees, while others were thickly sprinkled withshady trees, which waved over sloping cemeteries of quaintly shapedtombs and temples. It was a charming picture--nature dressed to theverge of foppery--more, it was a glorious land, and smiling as if inpride at its power of blessing the human race--and more again, that itsowners knew its worth and industriously stretched its blessings to theutmost.
Then the boat came to a dike, or sluice, and they were about to enteranother canal at least fifteen feet beneath their level. To pass this,the barge was hoisted by Coolies up an inclined plain of freestone bymeans of ropes upon capstans and sheer strength of muscle, then gentlylet down a slope upon the other side into the water, a mode adopted tothe present day to move even the largest vessels from canal to canal.
Thus pleasantly the young travelers were wafted through the province,now through vast plains of rice, then by the sides of great hillsclustering with the tea-plant, on again through vast orchards ofmulberry-trees and the useful and curious tallow-plant; then againthrough plantations of bamboo, that inseparable companion of theChinaman from the cradle to the grave--for it receives the infant,corrects the boy, is the means of living for the man, and entwines thecorpse. Then again they passed through towns and cities, swarming withbusy workers at the silk-loom and multifarious handicrafts, and toilingchildren, women, and men in the fields, till they passed another dike,and then they were upon the beautiful lake Tsao-hou, about the naming ofwhich the following pretty story is told:--
"Many years ago there lived a priest of the Taouist religion, who hadobtained a reputation for his skill in magic. At the festival of thefeast of dragon boats, the priest went to sport in the river in honor ofhis gods, but by some mischance he was drowned, and his body no where tobe found. His dutiful daughter, Tsao-hou, a girl fourteen years of age,felt her father's loss so deeply that she wandered along the banks ofthe river for seventeen days and nights, weeping and wailing over herloss. At last she threw a large melon into the river, putting up theprayer, 'May this melon sink wherever the body of my father lieth.' Withanxious eyes she watched the gourd as it floated on the surface of thestream, until it stopped at a certain spot where it sank. The poordamsel, frantic with grief, rushed to the place and plunged after it.She too was drowned, but five days afterward her lifeless trunk rose tothe surface with her father's body in her embrace. Both were buried onthe riv
er bank, and in commemoration of that incident the name of thegirl was given to the lake and a magnificent temple erected to hername."
On the sixth day they came to Chao-Hing, the Venice of China, where thecanals are so numerous that any portion of the city may be reached byboats. Imagine a city with, in place of streets, one large network ofwater-roads, intersected with bridges, so light and fanciful that onecould imagine them to have been blown together by the breath of fairies,and you will have some notion of Chao-Hing.
This city is celebrated alike for its silk-worms and book-worms. Sogreat is the reputation of the scholars of Chao-Hing that they aresought for by the viceroys of provinces to fill government offices. Nearto this city and not far from the mountain of Asses (so called from itsbeing shaped in the form of that animal) is the sepulchre of the greatEmperor Yu, the model sovereign of China.
This prince obtained the throne by having saved the empire from thedeluge of water which in his time covered the lands; indeed, he musthave been no common engineer, for in thirteen years, by unwearied labor,he leveled high mountains, embanked and confined great rivers withintheir channels, drained lakes and marshes, enclosed rapid torrents withbanks, and divided rivers into canals, which not only gained a greatextent of country, but rendered the whole more fertile. It was the greatgenius and wonderful energy of Yu that caused the reigning Emperor tochoose him for his successor in preference to either of the fourprinces, his sons.
Among other remarkable things told of this Emperor, it is said that hefirst taught the people to cultivate, sow, and manure lands, and dividedhis dominions into nine provinces, causing as many great brazen vesselsto be made, on each of which a map of a province was engraved. Insucceeding times these vessels became very precious, for it was believedthat the safety of the state depended on their security, and thatwhoever obtained them would also obtain the crown.
A qualification rare amongst kings was possessed by this useful prince.He hated flatterers, and the only way to gain his favor was to tell himof his faults. Moreover, Yu thought no employment so becoming asovereign as doing justice to the people; thus he gave access to hissubjects at all hours, and that no obstacle might be thrown in theirway, he had affixed to his palace gates a bell, a drum, and threetables, one of iron, one of stone, and another of lead, upon either ofwhich people who wanted an audience were to strike.
The bell was to distinguish civil affairs, the drum for matters relatingto law or religion, the leaden table for the ministers, the tablet ofstone to denote a complaint of wrong done by some magistrate, and lastlythe iron tablet was to denote any very serious trouble. So rigorouslydid Yu adhere to this rule, that it is said that he arose from tabletwice in one day, and another day came three times out of his bath atthe sound of the bell.
Another story is, that when wine, which was first invented in his reign,was shown to him, he expressed great regret, "for," said he, "thisliquor will cause the greatest trouble to the empire." But wise andpowerful as he was, Yu could not conquer sensuality; for in China, as inmost other countries, the love for strong liquors is potent.
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