Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics

by Oliver Optic

  CHAPTER XXXI

  HALF A LECTURE ON CHINESE SUBJECTS

  The dinner on board of the Blanche was fully up to the standard of theepicureans on board of both steamers; for the cooks of both had beenbusy all day, and the consuls declared that it was fully equal to thebest of which they had partaken in London or Paris. As it was to be thelast time the tourists were to meet these excellent and accomplishedofficials, the occasion was a very jolly affair. Speeches were made byboth of them, in which they were lavish in praise of both the dinner andthe elegant accommodations of both the steamers.

  Captain Ringgold replied, returning the most hearty thanks to both ofthe official gentlemen for their kindness in acting as the guides of thetravellers, and for the interesting and valuable information they hadgiven them. Both of them had declared that the company ought to remainin Manila at least a week; but the commander pleaded the long voyagestill before the ships, and repeated what he had so often said before,that, in such a long cruise as they were taking, it was quite impossibleto do anything more than obtain a specimen of each country or islandthey visited.

  When they left the table the consuls took leave individually of each ofthe passengers, and were sent on shore in the barge of the Blanche, forthe steam-launch had already been taken upon the deck of the ship.During the day both steamers had taken in a supply of coal, and thechief stewards had procured stores of provisions, ice, and especiallyfruit. As the party were taking leave of the two agreeable gentlemen,they heard the hissing of steam on the Blanche, which they did not quiteunderstand, as the commander or Captain Sharp "had made no sign." TheGuardian-Mother's people were taken on board, after anotherleave-taking, and conveyed to their ship in their own boats.

  "What is going on, Captain Ringgold?" asked Mrs. Belgrave, when sheheard the hissing steam on board of the Guardian-Mother.

  "Going on to Hong-Kong," replied the commander.

  "To-night?"

  "To-night."

  "But we have been here only one day," suggested the "first lady."

  "The anchor is hove short; but if you think of anything more that youwish to see in Manila or its vicinity, I will remain," added thecaptain.

  "I don't know that there is anything more to be seen. I seemed to knowthe city before I had seen it."

  "Very well, then we will go to sea to-night."

  By ten o'clock the ships were under way; and in a couple of hours morethey were in the China Sea, headed north-west-by-north, for Hong-Kong.The sea was as smooth as glass, for the east monsoon seemed to beinterrupted under the lee of the islands. The passengers retired at anearly hour, and there was no excuse for not going to sleep at once.

  In the morning the ship was a long way out of sight of land. Breakfasthad been ordered for an hour later than usual, in order to let the partysleep off the fatigue of the day before. But some of them were on deckat sunrise, and saw the beautiful phenomenon of that orb coming out ofthe eastern sea. There was not an island or anything else in sight butthe broad expanse of water. The air was delightful; and it was not hotin the early morning, and under the awnings it would not be during theday. A gentle sea gave the ship a little motion, but it was a quiettime.

  Breakfast was served at the appointed hour; and at this time Mr.Gaskette was busy with his assistants, arranging the frame for a newmap, considerably larger than any used before, at the head of ConferenceHall. He had been at work upon it for several days, and he intended thatit should surpass anything he had done before. The orang-outang, themonkey, and the pheasant had been removed to the library, where therewas plenty of room for them.

  China was a great country, and the professor thought it would require along talk to dispose of it; and the conference was called for teno'clock, and so announced at breakfast time. When the passengers went ondeck, the first thing that attracted their attention was the new map;and considering that it was made on board of the ship, it was abeautiful piece of work, for the second officer was an artist. At theappointed hour they were all in their seats.

  This map, though correct at the time it was made, did not, of course,include the changes which resulted from the war between Japan and China,and which have not even yet been incorporated in modern history. Thepacha had been invited to give the lecture on China; but he declaredthat it was too difficult a subject for him to undertake, and he beggedto be excused, and Professor Giroud had willingly undertaken it. It hadrequired all his time on the voyage from Saigon, and all his spare timeat Manila, to prepare himself for the difficult task. With the threesiamangs in their usual places, he mounted the platform.

  A signal from the Blanche caused him to resume his seat, and the screwwas stopped. The barge from the consort dropped into the water; and thegeneral, his wife, the rajah, Mrs. Sharp, and Dr. Henderson came onboard, and chairs were provided for them. Miss Blanche gave up the babyto Mrs. Noury, who was very fond of the little creature. The professorthen took his place again on the rostrum, with the pointer in his hand.

  "Mr. Commander, ladies and gentlemen," he began. "Before I say a word, Idesire to acknowledge my very great obligations to Mr. Gaskette for theelegant map he has prepared and placed before us. You observe that itextends from the Amur River,--which is spelled in older books Amoor; butthe latest fashion is to make it Amur, as Hindu and similar words havebeen changed from oo to u, for both have the same sound in most Europeanand Oriental names,--from the Amur River to Tonquin, about thirtydegrees of latitude, with the nineteen provinces of China, with Korea,properly spelled with initial K, with the islands of Formosa and Hainan.It has given the artist a great deal of labor, and he has done his workin a manner to call for your highest commendation."

  The audience vigorously applauded this statement; and the siamangs addedtheir "Ra! Ra! Ra!" with a volley of squeaks. Mr. Gaskette bowed hisacknowledgments; and the professor handed him the pointer, which lookedlike a new arrangement.

  "The artist is as well or better acquainted with the map than I am, andI have invited him to assist on the platform. Manchuria, and I adopt themost modern spelling of the name," continued the professor, as theartist pointed to the province.

  "I thought the subject for to-day was China," interposed Mrs. Belgrave.

  "So it is, madam; but the modern history of China begins with Manchuria.On the west of it is Mongolia, which any of the old-fashioned gentlemenmay call Chinese Tartary if they prefer, though that designation is notin use now. Manchuria is a province of China; though the latter was aprovince of the former three hundred and fifty years ago, for then itconquered China, whose present emperor is the descendant of theconquering Manchu monarch. Manchuria has an area of 280,000, and apopulation of 21,000,000; but not more than one million of the peopleare Manchus, who wear the costume and speak the language of the Chinese.The rest of the people are emigrants from China or other countries, andare as industrious and prosperous as any other in the vast empire.

  "The Manchus are the aristocracy of the country; and ever since theygave China its ruler, their country has been the principal territory forrecruiting the Celestial armies; and there are said to be 80,000 oftheir soldiers in service. And they also furnish China with itsmagistrates and police. But I will leave their country to take its placewith the other provinces of the empire. China is believed by its ownchronologists to have been in existence 2637 years before the Christianera, and perhaps from a date still farther back; but these dates aredoubtful.

  "The people of China do not know their country by the name so familiarto us, or they know it only so far as they have learned it frommerchants and travellers. In the matter of names they all seem barbarousto us; I do not attempt to pronounce them; and I don't think you willsucceed in doing so any better than I have. I may add that I have neverbeen in China; and what I tell you I did not pick up myself, but mustderive it from others who have travelled and lived in the country.

  "I have obtained nearly all my information from the very learned andvaluable article of Dr. Legge, in Chambers's. He is familiar with thelanguage of the Chines
e, has travelled and lived in the country, and isfully acquainted with the manners and customs of the people. In theoldest literature of the empire, it is called _Hwa Hsia_, the first wordmeaning 'flowery,' and the second is the proper name of the country.Chung Kwo is the Middle Kingdom, which came into being in the feudalperiod, in the midst of the several states and tribes; and if you wishto know more of China, there is an American edition of Dr. Williams infour volumes, which will tell you all about it. But the name did notmean the middle of the earth, as sometimes claimed, nor is it thefoundation of the derisive term applied to China, 'The Central FloweryNation.'

  "Other names have been given to China, though seldom seen or heard; butCathay, perhaps coming from the Russian name Kitai, is not at alluncommon, especially in poetry. The name we use comes to us from India,when two Buddhist missionaries, who came from 'the land of Chin,'called it China and Chintan.

  "As stated before, the native Chinese line of rulers, the Ming dynasty,conquered China in 1644, and placed the first of the Tsing monarchs onthe throne. I will not tangle up your intellects by following out theindividuals of the succession any farther than to say that the presentemperor, or Hwangti, of China is Tsait'ien, who was proclaimed as suchin January, 1875. The ruler may name his successor, for the descent isnot hereditary to his eldest son; and if he fails to do so, the defaultis made good by his family. He is the ninth emperor of the Manchu orTartar dynasty.

  "As I said, China has nineteen provinces, including the island ofFormosa, all of which are represented on the map before you. Thedivisions of the country are immensely populous; though the average ofthe whole to the square mile is less than that of Belgium by nearlyone-half, several of whose provinces are more densely peopled than anyin China. It is also less than the State of Rhode Island, and but alittle above that of Massachusetts,--the two States the most denselyinhabited in our own country.

  "Many say that the population of China has been exaggerated; and it isvariously given at from 282,000,000 to 413,000,000, a very greatdifference, and you suit yourselves with the figures if you can. Dr.Legge thinks that 400,000,000 is not an over-estimate. The area of theeighteen provinces is 1,336,841 square miles, to which about 15,000 maybe added for Formosa; but the area of the whole Chinese empire is4,218,401, while that of the United States, including Alaska, is3,501,409.

  "If you look at the map, you will see that there are numerous chains ofmountains in the countries lying west of China, especially in Tibet,while China proper has but few of them. The land generally slopes fromthe several ranges to the sea, but I will not perplex you with the namesof them. The rivers, of course, flow from the mountains, and you can seethat they have space for a long course. They are generally called _ho_in the north, and _chiang_ or _kiang_ in the south. The Ho, Hoang-ho, orYellow River, and the Chiang, known to us as the Yang-tsze-Chiang, mustbe over three thousand miles long. I will not follow them from source tomouth. Canton, or _Choo-Chiang_ River, which means Pearl River, is alsoa very large stream. All these waterways, you notice on the map, have ageneral course from west to east. All of them are navigable, though theHoang-ho is less so than the Yang-tsze-Chiang, the 'most beloved' of theChinese; for its counterpart in the north is a turbid stream, so trickythat it changed its course in 1853 so that its mouth is now about twohundred and fifty miles north of where it was before that date."

  Mr. Gaskette pointed out the former course, which he had indicated bydouble dotted lines, and that of the present course to the Gulf ofPe-chi-li.

  "Chinese history begins twenty-four hundred years before our era, whenthe first human kings of Egypt were on the throne, with the narrative ofa tremendous inundation, which some have identified as that of the Floodin the Old Testament. But the floods did not cease with that event, forseveral others have followed. As late as 1887, only half a dozen yearsago, the treacherous Hoang-ho broke loose, and poured its waters intothe populous province of Honan, tearing everything to pieces anddestroying millions of lives. There have been so many of these floodsthat they have given the great river the name of 'China's Sorrow.' Butthe Manchu rulers are repairing damages, and providing against suchdisasters in the future.

  "I have to speak next about the Grand Canal and the Great Wall; but Iwill defer it for half an hour for a recess, for I think you must betired of the dry details I have been giving you," said the professor, ashe stepped down from the rostrum.

  The company then promenaded the deck for the time indicated.