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

by Oliver Optic

  CHAPTER XXXV

  SHANG-HAI AND THE YANG-TSZE-CHIANG

  The passengers of the Guardian-Mother were on deck at an early hour thenext morning, and the smoke was rising from the funnel as though it wasthe intention of the commander that she should sail soon; and some ofthem began to wonder if they were to see anything more of China thancould be seen from the deck of the ship.

  "Well, ladies and gentlemen, have you seen all you wish of China?" saidCaptain Ringgold, as he seated himself at the head of the table atbreakfast.

  "We can put it to vote," suggested Mrs. Belgrave.

  "I don't think it is necessary," replied the commander, laughing. "Weshall sail this forenoon for Shang-hai, for I suppose that some of youwho keep hens wish to see the home of the famous rooster that bears thatname."

  "I thought yesterday afternoon that I had seen enough of China to lastme the rest of my lifetime; but I feel a little different this morningsince I got rested," said Mrs. Woolridge.

  "It is said that travellers enjoy their visits to foreign countries moreafter they get home, and think over what they have seen, than they dowhile going from place to place," added Mrs. Belgrave. "I think of ahundred things I saw in Canton, and did not understand, that I shallrecall when I read about China, as I intend to do when I get home."

  "That is just my idea!" exclaimed Mrs. Woolridge. "It will take me threeyears, at least, after I get home to read up what I have seen on thisvoyage."

  Much more in the same general direction was said by others. When theywent on deck they found the pilot who had brought the ship into portwalking back and forth. He had brought off the _China Mail_, and threeother newspapers in English, and a pile of others in Chinese to be keptas curiosities by the party. The captain had obtained his clearance andother papers the day before, as soon as he arrived from Canton, with theassistance of the colonel, who had come off with the pilot to make hisadieux. In less than half an hour the ship was under way again, with theBlanche following her.

  "How far is it to Shang-hai?" asked Mrs. Belgrave, as she met thecaptain in front of the pilot-house.

  "It is eight hundred and seventy miles, and the voyage will require twodays and fourteen hours," he replied. "I shall keep well to theeastward, and if you are up by six to-morrow morning you will see theisland of Formosa. Then we shall be about on the Tropic of Cancer, whenwe shall pass out of the Torrid Zone--out of the tropics."

  This information was circulated by the lady among all the passengers.Before noon the ship was out of sight of land, and the voyage was justabout the same as it had been in smooth seas and pleasant weather. Allthe party were seated on the promenade at six o'clock the next morning.

  "But there is land on both sides of us, Captain Ringgold," said Mrs.Belgrave. "Which is Formosa?"

  "That on your right. We are going through the Formosa Channel; and theislands on the port side are the Pescadores, about twenty miles fromFormosa."

  After breakfast, when the ship had passed the smaller islands, and thepassengers were seated on the promenade, the commander opened upon themwith a talk about Formosa: "The name of the island in Chinese is Taiwan;and it is off the province of Fu-chien, and from ninety to two hundredand twenty miles from it. It has an area of 14,978 square miles, orabout the size of the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, andConnecticut put together. It has a chain of mountains through it, thehighest peak of which"--and the speaker looked at his memoranda--"is12,847 feet high.

  "The number of inhabitants is estimated at about 2,000,000, mostlyimmigrants from China, with the original natives. The island isexceedingly rich in its vegetation, and the plants are about the same asthose of the main land. Rice paper is made of the pith of a tree foundonly in Formosa. In the south sugar and turmeric are the staples. Thelatter is a plant whose root is bright yellow, used in dyeing silk.Formosa tea has become well known at home as of excellent quality. Otherproductions are about the same as in southern China.

  "There are plenty of birds there, but no wild animals of any consequencethat are game for the Nimrods. A great deal more might be said about theisland, but you have more now than you are likely to remember. You cansee many junks now, and the trade with China is mostly carried on inthem; and some of them are pirates in these seas, even to the south ofHainan, for a trading-junk turns into a pirate when her captain can makesome money by it."

  After lunch the Blanche's people came on board, and all hands had theusual frolic during the afternoon and evening. The next morning thecaptain told his passengers that they had passed out of the China Seathe day before, and that they were on the Tung-hai, or Eastern Sea,outside of which was the broad Pacific Ocean. On the third morning fromHong-Kong, when the company came on deck, they found the Guardian-Motherat anchor, but just getting under way with an English pilot on board,who had been taken late the evening before.

  "Where are we now, Captain Ringgold?" asked Mr. Woolridge, when theparty had seated themselves on the promenade to see what was to beseen.

  "We are at the mouth of the great river Yang-tsze-Chiang; but we shallsoon pass into a branch of it called the Woo-Sung, and find Shang-hai,for it is correctly written with a hyphen between the syllables,"replied the commander. "But the tide is right; and we can go over thebar without any delay, the pilot says. It is about twelve miles up theriver to the town; and, as you can see, the country is low and flat. Thecity has 250,000 inhabitants, and is the principal central port of Chinafor foreign trade."

  The channel of the river was crowded with junks, and there are sometimesas many as three thousand of them between the town and the sea; but theywere careful to keep out of the track of steamers, even though they hadthe right of way. The two steamers picked their way through the nativeboats, and they were at anchor off the city in season for the latebreakfast ordered.

  "Shang-hai stands on low ground; and cholera, dysentery, and feversprevail here in summer," said the commander when they were all seated atthe table. "The English, French, and American quarters are in the suburbnorth of the native city, and they have broad and clean streets; but inthe city proper, they are narrow and filthy, not unlike those of Canton.It is enclosed by a wall five miles in extent. What else there is hereyou can see for yourselves."

  The captain decided, after the pacha came on board in his barge withthe rest of his party, to lunch and dine at the Astor House, perhapsbecause the name sounded like home; but he found that the hotel "was ahorse of another color." They went on shore in some of the native boatsthat crowded around the ship; and their first care was to secure sixguides, all that offered their services on the quay. The next was toprocure a supply of the money current in the city, which wasaccomplished with the aid of the principal guide, all of whom wereEnglish, who could speak Chinese and pidgin.

  The company were then divided into six parties, who had suggested thisplan when they found that this number of guides could be obtained. The"Big Four" went together, and the rest of the company were in parties ofthree. The conveyances were found to be small, low broughams, pony gigs,palanquins, jinrickishas, and wheelbarrows, the last such as the partyhad seen in Cholan. The boys decided to walk first, and try the vehicleslater. They went into a shop where Louis saw something in a window hewanted, and the guide asked the price for him. The dealer refused toshow the article, or to name a price, unless Louis would agree to buy ifhe did so.

  They were not like the Hong-Kong salesmen; for there were several ofthem, and they were impolite enough to make fun of the tourists. Scottdoubled his fists, and was inclined to pitch into the one who refused toshow any goods till they were practically sold; but Louis begged him todesist. They next went into a tea saloon in the middle of a dirty pondof water, which would have just suited the taste of a Dutchman at home.

  The tea was given to them in the cups, and they poured in hot water. Thekeeper swindled them in asking about five times the price, and the guideremonstrated; but the fellow was saucy, and the charge was paid to avoidtrouble. The guide said the other fellow would have cheated them i
n thesame ratio, if Louis had agreed, as he required, to buy. Then theylooked into an opium joint, where the smokers were reclining on broadbenches. The pipe was a tube with the bowl on the top. The drug isboiled till it is of the consistency of honey. Something like aknitting-needle is then taken by the smoker, the end of which is dippedin the jar; the needle is then turned till the opium becomes a ball asbig as a pea. It is then held in a flame till it is partially lighted,when it is dropped into the bowl of a pipe. The amount used is countedin pipes, some being satiated with two or three of them, while the hardcases require twenty. In either case he goes to sleep, and has pleasantdreams. The habit is very deleterious to those who practise it, anddeath results from excessive use of the drug.

  "There is a sedan with a Chinese magnate in it, with four bearers," saidthe guide; "but it is not so common here as in Hong-Kong and Canton."

  The barrow excited the attention of the boys more than the othervehicles. At the door of the shop they saw a native reading a paper,wearing a pair of spectacles whose eyes were almost as big as saucers.After walking through the streets of Hong-Kong and Canton, the boys sawvery little that was new to them.

  "Is there a cemetery in the town?" asked Louis, after they had becomesomewhat tired, not to say disgusted, with the dirty streets, and thecrowd in them.

  "Nothing that you Americans would call by that name," replied the guide."There are some small burial-grounds; but the Chinese generally burytheir dead in private grounds, outside of the cities. They have areverence for their dead which is not equalled by any people on the faceof the earth. The graves of the rich and noted are very carefullyselected, and are decorated with great care and taste. Some of thefinest gardens in the country are those enclosed in a privateburial-place.

  "A rich Chinaman thinks more of his coffin than he does of his house. Heoften buys it years before he has occasion to use it, and keeps it,taking better care of it than he does of his female children. Wherever aChinaman dies, he must be sent home to be buried; and many of them comehere from America, taken up from the earth even a year or more afterdeath."

  At this point the party came to an open place where there were all thedifferent vehicles used in the city waiting to be employed; and as itwas nearly time for the lunch, they decided to ride to the hotel. Louistook a rickshaw, as it is called here; Scott and Morris preferred awheelbarrow, and Felix took another, balanced by the guide. They werenovel conveyances to the boys, and they enjoyed the ride very much. Therest of the parties returned to the hotel about the same time. Therewere Chinese dishes on the table; and those who had tried some of thembefore ordered them, especially the bird's-nest soups. The hams werevery nice, and the captain hoped that Mr. Sage had procured some of themfor the ship.

  The afternoon was spent as the forenoon had been, but the party foundlittle to interest them. The next day the tourists made an excursion upthe Yang-tsze-Chiang, and enjoyed it very much. They saw a little of thefarming operations, as a man ploughing with a buffalo, which looked morelike a deer than a bovine; others carrying bundles of grain, one at eachend of a pole on their shoulders; another threshing by beating a bunchof the stalks on a frame like a ladder or clothes-horse; but whatpleased them most were the fishermen. One had a net several feet square,suspended at the end of a pole. It was sunk in the water, and thenhauled up. Any fish that happened to be over it then was brought up withit; but Scott declared that this device was an old story, and they wereused in the United States, though an iron hoop was the frame of the net.

  They were more interested in the fishing with cormorants. A man with adip-net in his hand stood on a bamboo raft, on which was a basket likethose the snake-charmers use in India, to receive his fish. The birdswere about the size of geese. They dived into the water, and brought upa fish every time. They have a ring or cord on their necks so that theycannot swallow their prizes, and they drop them into the dip-net.

  They went up as far as Taiping, where they took a returning steamer, andthat night slept on board the ships. On the following morning thesteamers went down the river; and then the question where they were togo next came up, and the commander soon settled it by announcing thatthe ship was bound to Tien-tsin, on the way to Pekin.