THE
Habitable World
DESCRIBED.
Inscribed by Permission to His Royal Highness Frederick
DUKE OF YORK, &c. &c.
HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE
LONDON: Published as the Act directs, by the Author. No . 62. Wardour-Street, Soho.
1788
THE HABITABLE WORLD DESCRIBED, OR THE PRESENT STATE OF THE PEOPLE IN ALL PARTS OF THE GLOBE, FROM NORTH TO SOUTH; SHEWING The Situation, Extent, Climate, Productions, Animals, &c. of the different Kingdoms and States; Including all the new Discoveries: TOGETHER WITH The Genius, Manners, Customs, Trade, Religion, Forms of Government, &c. of the Inhabitants, and every thing respecting them, that can be either entertaining or informing to the Reader, collected from the earliest and latest Accounts of Historians and Travellers of all Nations;
With some that have never been published in this Kingdom;
And, nothing advanced but on the best Authorities.
WITH A great Variety of MAPS and COPPER-PLATES, engraved in a capital Stile, the Subjects of which are mostly
new,
and such as have never yet been given in any English work.
BY THE REV. DR. JOHN TRUSLER.
VOL. VI.
LONDON.
Printed for the AUTHOR, at the
Literary-Press,
No. 62, WARDOUR-STREET, SOHO; and sold by all Booksellers.
M DCC XC.
A DESCRIPTION OF CHINA, From
Amiot, Verbiest, Lockyer, Premare, Du Halde, Le Compte, Dampier, Cunningham, Kircher,
and Others.
CHAP. IV.
continued.
THE gardens of the Chinese are generally very small. Nature is their plan, and their whole study is, to imitate her in all her delightful irregularities. The first consideration is, the form of the ground, whether it be flat, sloping, hilly, or mountainous; extensive, or of small compass; of a dry or marshy nature, abounding with rivers and springs, or liable to scarcity of water; to all which circumstances they carefully attend, chusing such dispositions as humour the ground, can be executed with the least expence, hide it's defects, and set it's advantages in the most conspicuous light. Such a plan of gardening, the English now pursue, and are the only nation that has yet thought proper to imitate them.
To form a garden on the plan of the Chinese, I will refer my readers to a pamphlet, lately published, called
Elements of modern gardening, with the art of embellishing the views round about our houses,
wherein every necessary instruction is given.
Not being great lovers of walking, we seldom meet with avenues, or spacious walks, as in European plantations. The whole ground is laid out in a variety of scenes, and you are led by winding passages, cut in the groves, to different points of view; each terminated by a seat, a building, or some other object.
The perfection of these gardens, consists in the number, beauty and diversity of the scenes. Chinese gardeners, like European painters, collect, from nature, the most pleasing objects, which they endeavour to combine, in such a way, as, not only to appear to the best advantage separately, but to unite in forming an elegant and striking whole.
Their artists distinguish three different species of scenes, to which they give the appellations of Pleasing, Horrid, and Enchanted. Their enchanted scenes correspond, in a great measure, with what we call Romantic; and in these they make use of several artifices to excite surprise. Sometimes a rapid stream, or torrent, shall rush under ground, and its turbulent noise, shall strike the ear of a passer-by, without knowing from whence it proceeds. At other times, they will dispose the rocks, buildings, and other objects that form the composition, in such a manner, that the wind shall whistle through the different passages and cavities made in them for the purpose, and cause other uncommon sounds. They introduce into these scenes, all kinds of extraordinary trees, plants, and flowers; form artificial and complicated echoes; and let loose different sorts of monstrous birds and animals.
In their scenes of Horror, they introduce impending rocks, dark caverns, bottomless abysses, and impetuous cataracts; rushing, and tumbling down the mountains, on all sides. The trees are ill-formed, seemingly torn to pieces by violent tempests; some are thrown up by the roots, and intercept the course of the torrent, appearing as if brought down by the fury of the waters; others look as if shattered and blasted by the force of lightning; the buildings, some in ruins, and here and there a miserable hut dispersed in the mountains, serve at once to indicate the existence, and wretchedness of the inhabitants. These dreadful scenes, are generally succeeded by pleasing ones. Knowing how powerfully contrast operates upon the mind, the Chinese artists constantly practise sudden transitions, and a striking opposition of forms, colours, and shades; thus they conduct you from limited prospects, to extensive views; from objects of horror, to scenes of delight; from lakes and rivers, to plains, hills, and woods; to dark and gloomy colours, they oppose such as are brilliant, and to complicated forms, simple ones; distributing, by a judicious arangement, the different masses of light and shade, in such a way, as to render the composition at once distinct in its parts, and yet striking in the whole.
When the ground is extensive, and a multiplicity of scenes are to be introduced, they generally adapt each to one single point of view; but where it is limited, and affords no room for variety, they endeavour to remedy this defect, by disposing the objects so, that, being viewed from different points, they produce different representations; and, sometimes, by an artful disposition, such as have no resemblance to each other.
A CHINESE VILLA
As the climate of China is very hot, they throw a great deal of water into their gardens. In small ones, if the situation admits, they frequently lay the whole ground under water, leaving only some islands and rocks; in larger ones, they introduce extensive lakes, rivers, and canals. The banks of their lakes and rivers are variegated in imitation of nature; being sometimes bare and gravelly, sometimes fringed with woods, to the water's edge: in some places flat, scattered with flowers and shrubs; in others rocky, and forming caverns, into which parts of the waters discharge themselves, with noise and violence. Sometimes you see meadows covered with cattle, or rice-grounds that run out into the lakes, leaving between them, passages for vessels, and sometimes groves; into which enter, in different parts, creeks and rivulets, sufficiently deep to admit boats; their banks being planted with trees, whose spreading branches form arbours for boats, droop their heads into the water, or feather to the ground. These generally conduct to some very interesting object, such as a magnificent building; places on the top of a mountain, cut into terraces; a casino, situated in the midst of a lake; a summer-room, built under the water, with steps leading from the shore, and surrounded with glass, to see the fish, as they swim over and about them; a cascade; a grotto, cut into a variety of apartments; an artificial rock, and many other inventions.
Their rivers are seldom strait, but serpentine, broken into many irregular points. Sometimes they are narrow, noisy, and rapid; at others, deep, spreading, and slow. Both in their rivers and lakes, are seen reeds and other aquatic plants and flowers; and over these they frequently erect mills, and other hydraulic machines, to enliven the scenes by their motion. They have also a great number of vessels on these waters, of different forms and sizes. In their lakes they intersperse islands, some of which shall be barren, and surrounded with rocks and shoals, and others enriched with every thing that art and nature can furnish, most perfect. They likewise form artificial rocks; and, in compositions of this kind, surpass all other nations. The making them is a distinct profession; and there are, at Canton, and probably, in most other cities of China, numbers of artificers, constantly employed in this business. The stone they are made of, is brought from the southern coasts of China, is of a bluish cast, and worn into irregular forms, by the action of the waves. The Chinese are exceedingly nice in the choice of this stone, insomuch, that a large price has been given for a bit, no bigger than a man's fist, when it has happened to be of a beautiful form, and lively colour. But these select pieces they use in landscapes, for their apartments: in gardens they employ a coarser sort, which they join with a bluish cement, and form rocks of a considerable size. When they are large, they make them into caves and grottos, with openings, through which you discover prospects at a distance. They cloath them, in different places, with trees, shrubs, briers, and moss, placing on their tops, little temples, or other buildings, to which you ascend, by rugged and irregular steps, cut in such rock.
When they have a sufficient supply of water, and proper ground, their gardens are never without cascades. In these works, they avoid all regularity, following nature, according to her operations, in a mountainous country. In some places, water shall burst from among the caverns and windings of the rocks; in others, a large and impetuous cataract shall appear, and in others again, are seen many gentler and lesser falls. Sometimes the view of a cascade shall be intercepted by trees, whose leaves and branches, shall scarce leave room to discover the waters, as they pass down the mountain's-side: and high wooden bridges, are frequently thrown from one rock to another, over the steepest part of the cataract, and its passage often interrupted, by trees and heaps of stones, that seem to be brought down by the violence of the torrent.
In their plantations, they vary the form and colours of their trees, mixing such as have large and spreading branches, with those of pyramidal figures, and dark greens with lighter, interspersing, among them, such as produce flowers, of which they have some that bloom great part of the year. The weeping willow is one of their favourite trees, and always among those that border their lakes and rivers, being so planted as to have its branches hanging over the water. They likewise introduce trunks of decayed trees, sometimes erect, sometimes lying on the ground, and are very nice about their form, and colour of their bark and moss.
Various are the artifices they use to surprise; sometimes they lead you through caverns, and gloomy passages; at quitting which, you are, on a sudden, struck with a view of a delicious landscape, enriched with every thing luxuriant nature affords most beautiful. At other times, you are conducted through avenues and walks, that gradually diminish and grow rugged, until the passage is quite intercepted, and rendered impassable, by bushes, briars, and stones; when unexpectedly, again, a rich and extensive prospect opens to the view, so much the more pleasing, as it was the less looked for.
Another of their artifices, is to hide some part of a composition, by trees, or other intermediate objects. This naturally excites the curiosity of the spectator, to take a nearer view, when he is surprised by some unlooked-for scene, or some representation totally opposite to the thing he expected. The termination of their lakes they always hide, leaving room for the imagination to work; and the same rule they observe in other compositions, where it can be put in practice.
Though the Chinese are not well versed in optics, yet, experience has taught them, that objects appear less, and grow dim, in proportion as they are further removed from the eye. These discoveries have given rise to an artifice in circumscribed grounds, which they sometimes carry into execution. This is, forming perspective, as a painter does upon a canvas, by diminishing the objects in size and colour, in proportion to their supposed distance. Thus they introduce buildings, vessels, and other objects, smaller and smaller, according as they are more distant in point of sight; and, by this, give an idea of much greater extent. And, that the deceptions may be still more striking, they give a greyish tinge to the distant parts of the composition; and plant, in the remoter parts of these scenes, trees of a fainter green, and smaller growth, than those which appear in front, or in the fore-ground.
Though they generally avoid strait lines, they do not always reject them. They sometimes form avenues, when they have any interesting object to expose to view. Roads they always make strait, unless the unevenness of the land, or other impediments prevent it; for expedition in travelling, is what every one wishes, and it is not natural, say they, to suppose men would travel a crooked, or round-about way, if they could go by a strait one.
What an English gardener calls clumps, the Chinese are not unacquainted with, but do not make such frequent use of them, as we do. They never fill a whole piece of ground with clumps. They consider a piece of ground as painters do a picture, and group their trees in the same manner as they do their figures, having their principal and subservient masses.
In short, the Chinese manner of laying out grounds, is very difficult, and not to be attained by persons of narrow intellects; for, though the principles are simple and obvious, it yet requires genius, judgment, and experience; a strong imagination, and a perfect knowledge of the human mind, to put them in execution. Their whole country, indeed, is a garden, dressed, and laid out in the manner I have here described; nay, as I have observed before, they cut their largest mountains into forms.
CHAP. V.
Of the People, their Customs and Manners.
ONE of those things, that have been thought most incredible and contradictory, by Europeans, is the prodigious population of China.
Amiot,
who has been at great pains to investigate this point, says, it contains, at present, two hundred millions of inhabitants. This enormous population, may appear astonishing, but were we to weigh the proofs, and follow the reasoning of this missionary, we should find his account no way exagerated.
By a register taken in 1760, the number of people were
196,837,977
Ditto in 1761
198,214,553
Giving an increase in the course of a year of
1,376,576
And as it is proved, by facts, that the population of China, for a long time past, has been progressively increasing, and 28 years has elapsed since the last numeration, may we not suppose that this empire contains, at present, not less than 200,000,000? Of course, it must be allowed, that no sovereign in the universe, commands so many people, united in the same society, and governed by the same laws. And what can such an inexhaustable increase of people, in that remote corner of Asia, be owing to? No precise answer can be given to this question; but the following, are the most apparent causes. The vast extent of cultivation, is one great physical cause; and this is seconded, and assisted by the influence of the following, moral and political institutions. 1. The strict observance of filial duty, and the privileges of a father, which makes a son his best and safest property. 2. The infamy attached to the memory of those who die without posterity. 3. That universal custom that makes the marriage of children the principal concern of parents. 4. The honours bestowed, by government, on those widows that do not enter a second time into the state of matrimony. 5. Frequent adoptions, which prevent the extinction of families. 6. The return of wealth to its original stock, by disinheriting of daughters. 7. The retirement of wives, which renders them more attentive to their husbands, saves them from a number of accidents when with child, and constrains them to employ themselves in the care of their children. 8. The marriage of the soldiers. 9. The fixed rate of taxes, which being always laid on lands, never fall but indirectly on the trader and mechanic. 10. The small number of sailors and travellers. To these may be added, the great number of people who reside in China, only by intervals; the profound peace the empire enjoys; the frugal and laborious manner in which the opulent live; the little attention that is paid to the vain and ridiculous prejudice of not marrying below one's rank; the ancient policy of distinction to men, not to families, by attaching nobility only to employments and talents, without suffering it to become hereditary; and, lastly, decency of public manners, and a total ignorance of scandalous intrigues, and ruinous gallantry.
In so large a country, it cannot be expected, but that the complexions and features, if not the stature of the distant inhabitants, must vary. If it is not difficult to distinguish a north from a south Briton, or an Englishman from a Frenchman; how much more distinguishable must the people of the North of China be, from those of the South, who are 30 degrees of latitude distant from each other? Therefore, when some authors say they are fair, and others tawny, they may both speak truth, but speak of different provinces. However, it seems to be admitted by most writers, that the major part of the Chinese (for the Tartars we have already described) are squat, well-set men, with broad faces, black hair, small, dark eyes, short noses and thin beards, which they wear long, on the bottom of the chin and upper lips, but pull it from their cheeks with tweezers. The gentry and the
literati,
suffer the nails of their left-hand to grow two or three inches longer than their fingers, to distinguish them from mechanics.
The Chinese admire one that is tall and fat, a little above the common size; and if he has a broad forehead, little eyes, a short nose, great ears, a little mouth, and a long beard, he is considered as a complete beauty. Their ears are universally long, broad, dangling, thick, open, and soft, with little or no border, and of a substance rather fleshy than cartilaginous. A loud voice, especially in a magistrate; is also, with them, a fine accomplishment. The women, who are kept up, and not exposed to the sun, are fair enough, and, excepting their little eyes, and short noses, may view hour Europ
n beauties, and their excessive modesty adds much to their charms; their fore-heads are large, their eye-brows small and well arched, their eyes black, but almost hid with the lid; their mouths little, with plump, vermilion lips; their cheeks and chin of a fine symmetry, the neck small, arms long and slender, and pretty, small hands; the nails of their fingers are never pared, but kept very clean, so that they are more than two inches long, to shew that they are not employed in servile work. But what is most remarkable, is their little feet, in which their principal beauty is thought to lie. And to give and preserve their beauty, great pains is taken to keep them as small as when they first came into the world. Scarcely is a girl born, but the nurse binds up her feet so right, that they cannot grow; and this torture must be endured, until the feet has naturally done growing. Owing to this, a Chinese woman rather drags herself along, than walks,; but a small foot is, to her, so great an ornament, that she thinks she cannot pay too dear for it; and her feet, of course, are no larger than those of a child of three years old. Some attribute this custom to jealousy, whilst others consider it as a political expedient to keep them at home, and in a state of dependence. Indeed, a Chinese woman is condemned to an almost, perpetual imprisonment in her apartment, and to be visible to none but her husband, and a few domestics; and yet she will employ as much time every day, as an English beauty who wishes to shine at a ball or an opera.
In cities, the dress of the Chinese, is agreeable to the gravity they affect, and almost the same among people of both classes (for there are but two, gentry and people in trade), and both sexes: but certain, accessary ornaments distinguish the rank of th
se that wear them, and those
insignia
being regulated by government, severe chastisement would be the consequence, to any one who should presume to put on a dress not authorised.
The general dress consists of a long vest, which folds over the breast, and reaches to the ground. It is fastened on the right s
de, by four or five, gold or silver buttons; the sleeves are wide at the shoulders, growing narrower to the wrist, where they terminate in form of a horseshoe, covering the whole hand, and leaving the ends of the fingers only to be seen. The vest is tied round the waist, with a si
k sash, the ends of which reach to the knees. From this girdle, hangs a knife in a sheath, with a pair of chopsticks, which they use as forks. In summer, their necks are bare, but in winter, and cold weather, they cover them with a satin cape, sewed to their vest, and edged with fur; and the vest itself is also trimmed with sheepskin, or quilted with silk and cotton. People of rank line theirs with sable, or the finest fox-skins trimmed with sable, and, in spring, with ermine. Over this vest, they wear also a kind of surtout, that reaches to the waist, with wide, short sleeves, ending at the elbow. This is also, in cold weather, lined with fur.
Under this vest, both men and women wear wide, short shirts, of different kinds of cloth, according to the season, rather made like a waistcoat that folds over the bosom, and with close, narrow sleeves, fastened at the wrist: they wear also, a pair of drawers of the same; over these, a pair of trowsers, made of linen, silk, or satin, and lined occasionally with furs, as they can afford. Under the shirt, some wear a silk net, to prevent it sticking to the skin. People of condition, never go out but in boots, generally made of quilted satin, silk, or cotton, but always dyed of some colour. These boots have neither heel nor top, they are made to fit the foot with great exactness,, and slippers worn over them. When they ride, these boots are made of leather, but soft and pliable. Under their boots, they wear boot-stockings, of quilted stuff, lined with cotton, reaching above the top of the boot, and ornamented with a velver or silk border. In summer, these stockings are made of cooler materials. The foot of the boot is like the leg; of course, slippers must be necessary, which have good substantial soles.
CHINESE
The dress of a villager differs from that worn by those who live in towns, in the same proportion as in other countries. It consists of a coarse, linen frock, over which is thrown a cotton vest, that reaches to the middle of the thigh. He has a pair of large drawers, that reach to his ancle. His wooden shoes terminate, at the toe, in a sharp point, and are turned backwards.
Le Comte
says, Persons of condition will often, at home, and among their friends, use a freedom not commendable, that is stripping themselves quite naked, except a pair of thin, transparent drawers; and that this is the more surprising, as they condemn all nakedness in pictures. Nay, he says, the vulgar, in the southern provinces, will transgress all bounds of modesty in this respect, and watermen and workmen will go abroad, in the public streets, without either cap, stockings, or shirt; by which they are much tanned and swarthy.
In those paintings which we have of the Chinese, they appear to be bald; they are not so naturally. That small portion of hair, which they preserve on the tops of their heads, or behind, is all that is allowed by custom: it is generally very long, and plaited into a tail. In summer, they cover their heads with a cap, formed like an inverted funnel, or a bell, which does not reach to their ears. These are made with rattan, or cane, very prettily wrought, and lined with satin, with a tuft of deep red hair, on the point, at top, which spreads over it, and covers it to the brim. This hair is that which grows between the legs of a certain species of cow, very fine, and takes any colour readily. Any one may wear this. Some will have, on the top of this cap, a button of amber, or glass, which glitters, and the hair-fringe, flowing in the wind, has a pretty effect. In winter, these caps are made of plush, turned up with fur; and being very shallow, are tied under the chin, with a string. The winter-caps of the gentry, will, from the value of the fur, cost, sometimes ten or twelve pounds sterling. When they ride, in bad weather, their surtouts, caps, and vests, are made of green, oiled skin.
There is another cap, which mandarins, and the
literati
have only a right to wear, made in the form above, but lined with red satin, and covered with white; with red, silk fringe flowing from the top, instead of hair.
When they visit any person of quality, or go abroad, they wear a long silk, gown, generally blue; over which they have a black, or violet-coloured cloak, that almost touches their knees, made very wide, with wide and short sleeves.
The colour of their mourning is white, among all classes; the whole dress white. In the first months of mourning for parentss, their habit is a kind of linen bag, of a bright red, and as coarse as packing-cloth; the girdle of cord, and the cap of hempen cloth; but this is succeeded by the uniform, white dress.
A son has no right to wear mourning whilst his father and mother lives; but, when he mourns for them, it must continue three years: and after this triennial mourning is out, his dress, ever after, must be of one colour. Silks and furs are forbidden to children, and the first cap they wear, is presented them by law, as to time of wearing, and is placed on their heads by the master of the ceremonies, who addresses them in the following words.
Consider that you now receive the dress of those who have attained to maturity, and that you cease to be children: renounce, therefore, all childish thoughts and inclinations, assume a grave and serious deportment, apply yourself closely to the study of virtue and wisdom, and endeavour to merit a long and happy life.
The Chinese give a kind of importance to every thing that can inspire youth with a taste for morality, and a love of good order. It might be useful to society to remind men, at certain epochs of their lives, of the new duties imposed on them by each successive change: but by uniting the solemnity of a public ceremony to this instruction, is certainly the way to make a greater impression, and imprint it longer on the memory.
In short, the law has regulated every thing, with respect to dress, and even fixed the colours that distinguish the different ranks. Emperors and princes of the blood alone, wear yellow. Certain mandarins are entitled to wear red satin, on days of ceremony; but, at other times, they are cloathed in black, blue, or violet. Peacock's feather, in their caps, are also badges of distinction; but none wear more than one, except the Emperor, and same few grandees, who wear two. The common people are confined to blue, or black, and the dress is composed always of plain, cotton cloth.
I shall not enlarge so much on the female dress, which seems, in shape and form, to have been dictated by modesty, and seconded by jealousy. Their robes are close at top, reach to the chin, and so long, as to cover their toes; in shape like a powdering gown. The slevees, if not held up, would hang down to the ground; of course, their hands are seldom seen. A Chinese woman conceals every thing but her face. As to colour of dress, this is arbitrary. Women in advanced life generally wear black, or violet-coloured.
Young women seem to be acquainted with paint, at least such paint as gives a bloom to their cheeks, and sets off the delicacy of their complexions. It is not like European paint, except making the face soon appear wrinkled.
Map of
TIBET,
with the
ADJACENT COUNTRY.
There general head-dress consists in the arrangement of their hair, forming it into a variety of curls, interspersed with small tufts of gold or silver flowers. Some make part of it up into a roll, fasten it with silver bodkins, and let the rest flow down the neck in ringlets. In cold weather, in Peking, they wrap it round with a kind of black hood.
Du Halde
says, some ornament their heads with the figure of a fabulous bird, of which antiquity has related many wonderful things. This bird is made of copper, or silver, gilt, according to the rank of those who wear it; its wings extended, lie pretty close to their head-dress before, embracing the upper part of their temples, while its long, spreading tail forms a kind of plume on the top of the head. Its body is directly over the forehead, and the neck and tail hang down; but the former, being joined to the body by an invisible swivel, plays freely about, and moves with the least motion of the head. The whole bird adheres to the head by its claws, which are fixed in the hair. Ladies of the first rank, sometimes wear an ornament composed of several of these birds, united together, forming a kind of crown. The workmanship alone of this ornament is very expensive.
(See the Plate of Chinese Music.)
Young ladies wear also, a kind of crown, made of pasteboard, covered with fine stuff, or silk; the fore-part of which rises in a point above the forehead, and is covered with pearls, diamonds and other costly ornaments. The rest of the head is decorated with flowers, either natural or artificial, among which are intersper
d, small, d
d
.
l
dies wrap their heads round with a piece of fine silk,
English ladies do theirs with broad ribband, for a
head-dress.
The Tartar Ladies dress somewhat different from the Chinese. Their robes are equally long, and close at the neck;
one does not reach so low as totally to
. They wear on their breasts, a kind of very large
, and on their head, a hat, much like those
l
die
, but l
ss ornamented, and put on more behind. They are often seen with a long pipe in their hands, with the use of which they are well acquainted.
The Chin
se are far from being whimsical or superstitious in their d
; they not only eat all kinds of flesh, fish, and f
, as Europeans do; but horse-flesh is in great esteem
dog, cats, snakes, frogs, or
of vermin, refused; but rice, roots,
, and
a
the common food; flesh and
, with rice mixed. Salt and pepper are never brought to table, all meat being seasoned in the dressing. They eat their flesh boiled, fried, and broiled; but before it is served up, it is cut into little, square pieces, like d
. They use neither cloth, napkins, knives, spoon, or fork, but two, little, round, ebony sticks, called chop-sticks; sometimes tipped at the ends with silver, with which they take up their meat very dextrously; and, for their rice and broth, they hold the cup to their mouths, and lade it in with their chop-sticks. Contrary to all eastern customs, where persons sit cross-legged on the floor at meals, they use high chairs and tables. Almost every one has a small, lacquered table to himself, at an entertainment, on which he sets his meat and rice, in little, china dishes or saucers, and sometimes in plates.
Tea is their principal liquor; wine they have none, though the country abounds in fine grapes; neither do they brew beer from barley, but distill strong liquors from rice and wheat. Cold water they never drink, their water being generally bad, and not fit to be drank, until boiled and corrected, by the infusion of herbs, or mixed with spirits.
The two principal strong liquors our seamen mention, who go that voyage, are
Hockshue
and
Samshue.
The first is of the colour of brown beer, but very clear and strong; said to be an infusion of wheat, in scalding hot water, and tastes more like mum than beer. Samshue is a spirit distilled from rice, a kind of arrack, and either of a pale or reddish colour, and is what some travellers have called wine. As to their tea, it is a beverage our sailors leave to the natives, which they drink without sugar. In the morning, a large, tin vessel is made full of it, to serve the family for that day. This tin vessel is covered very close, and put into another vessel of wood, which keeps the tea warm all day, and is drawn off into cups by a cock. When company is in the house, every person has a cup, with a close cover, set before him, and tea of such kind or quantity as the person pleases, is put into it; after which, a person attends with a saucepan of boiling water to pour into each cup.
These people generally eat their meat cold, but drink their liquor hot; and so much ceremony is used at their entertainments, that it must very much lessen the pleasure of eating and drinking; and the ceremonial of the invitation is no less complex and troublesome, than that of the entertainment. An invitation is not supposed to be given with sincerity, until it has been renewed three or four times in writing. A card is sent on the evening before, another in the morning of the appointed day, and a third when every thing is prepared, and nothing to be done but to sit down to table. The master of the house always introduces his guests into the hall, where he salutes them, one after another. He then orders wine made from rice to be brought to him, in a small cup made of silver, porcelain, or some precious wood, and placed on a small, varnished salver. He takes this in both hands, makes a bow to all the surrounding company, advances towards the fore-part of the hall, which generally looks into a large court, and raising his eyes and the cup towards heaven, pours out the wine on the ground, in imitation of the well-known libations of antiquity.
This done, he pours fresh wine into his cup, makes a bow to the most considerable person present, and places
the table set apart for that guest, who, in re
n,
for a cup of wine, and advances to place it on the
for the master of the feast, who endeavours to prevent him, and makes a thousand apologies, according to the rules of Chinese politeness. At these feasts, each person has a table for himself, and the master's table is below all the rest.
A superior domestic, or
maitre d'hotel,
conducts the chief guest to an elbow chair, covered with rich, flowered silk, who, after some apologies for taking the first seat, sits down. The rest of the company follow his example, and sit without asking, in order to abridge the ceremony. The principal place is always given to persons of greatest age and dignity, and to a stranger before all others, though younger, and of an inferior rank.
The tables are ranged in two lines, with a large space left between them. Scarcely are the company seated, but four or five comedians, richly dressed (I am speaking of great entertainments), enter the hall; who all bow together, so low, that their heads touch the ground four times: after this, one of them presents to the principal guest, a lift of the pieces they are able to perform
extempore.
The list is handed round, and again returned to him, and he then
on the piece. The representation begins with the
of
, covered with buffalo's hide, and the sound of flutes, fifes, trumpets, and some other instruments, used by the Chinese only, and which would, perhaps, little please a European.
The hall-floor serves the comedians for a stage, which, on these occasion, discovered with a carpet. The actors, about to perform, are placed in some of the adjoining apartments, from which they come forth, when they are to speak; and the guests present are the only spectators. But it is usual for the master of the house to admit a certain number of people into the court, to be partakers of the amusement: even women are indulged with a sight also, through a small wi
ket, made of interwoven bamboos, covered with a silk net, through which they can see without being seen. The subject of the plays are generally the history of some saint or hero.
The Chinese begin these repasts with drinking, and it must be always pure wine, such as I have before mentioned, and the
Maitre d'hotel,
falling down on one knee, invites the guests to take a cup. Each then lays hold, with both hands, of that which is placed before him, lifts it as high as his forehead, then lowers it below the table, and afterwards put, it to his mouth. They all drink together very slowly, and at three or four draughts; the master inducing them to drink the whole, by shewing them the bottom of his cup, that he has done so. If any one don't care to drink, it is necessary that he should go through all the motions, and hold his cup to his head, as long as the rest.
It is whilst they are drinking, always, that the domestics remove the dishes from the table, and bring in others. Every person has 24 dishes, in succession, served up to him, all of which are fat, and in the form of ragouts. They never begin to eat, until the master leads the way, and so through every fresh dish. When the master of the feast gives the signal, their two chopsticks are taken up, and flourished; they then strike the dish with them, and carry them to their mouths, all in regular, uniform motion, as if they were exercising. They are to take as much care as possible, that their mouths all move together; for to be before-hand, or make the rest wait, is a piece of rudeness. When they have thus taken two or three mouthfuls of a dish, the signal is given by the master, and they all lay down their arms. After this they drink as before.
During this business, says
Le Comte,
they never speak and will be silent at table three or four hours, for they continue eating till tea is introduced; after which they rise, take a turn or two in the garden or house, and then return to the dining-room, where they find a desert of sweetmeats. This desert, like the dinner, consists of 24 different things; preserved fruits, hams and sallad, ducks dried in the sun, with sheil and other kinds of small fish. The same ceremonies are again attended to, but the larger cups of wine are brought; no person is, however, urged to drink more than he likes, provided all the motions are gone through. These entertainments begin at the close of the day, and never end till midnight. As it was customary in England to give money to servants, so it is here; the quality of the entertainer date mines the sum, and this little contribution is always carried to the master, who distributes it among his servants: but money is only given when the entertainment has been accompanied with a comedy.
Each returns home in a chair, preceded by several persons, who carry large lanth
rns of oiled paper, on which the quality, and some times the name of their master is inscribed in large characters. Whoever ventures to go abroad, at such an hour, without such an attendance, would be stopped by the guard. The next day a card of thanks is returned to the officer of the watch.
The Chinese have the secret of salting large quantities of their flesh in such a manner, that it loses nothing of its original flavour, they also salt their eggs, by covering them with a coat of clay, mixed with salt: and so salted they will keep for years. Were they steeped in brine, it would not penetrate through the pores of the shell; but observation has taught the Chinese that clay alone, impregnated with salt has this property. These salted eggs are very wholesome, and even sick persons are permitted to eat them.
We have already said, that all their dishes are in the form of ragouts, but all very different in taste, highly seasoned, and much less expensive than ours. French cooks, says
Du Halde,
who have refined upon every thing that can awaken and excite the appetite, would be much surprised to see that the Chinese have carried the powers of invention, with respect to ragouts, much farther than they, and at a much smaller expence. Spices and strong herbs, combined in different proportions, produce this variety.
Of all the dishes served up at the entertainments of the great, none are more esteemed than stag's sinews, and the nests of a particular species of birds. The former they dry in the sun, afterwards cover them with nutmeg and pepper, and shut them in a close vessel for use. When they dress them, they steep them in rice-water, to soften them, stew them in kid-broth, and season them with a variety of spices.
The nests are procured from the rocks, and are made by a bird something like our swallows, and in the same way; not with clay, but small fishes, which they have the art of cementing together with a kind of scum, that is found floating on the surface of the sea. These nests are torn from the rocks as soon as the young ones have taken flight; whole barks are loaded with them, and they become a very profitable branch of commerce, for the inhabitants of those places. The property of this food, is to give an agreeable relish to whatever is mixed with it.
The inhabitants of the southern provinces feed more on rice than wheat, though there is abundance of the latter in the country: they make it into small loaves, and bake them in less than a quarter of an hour, by holding them over the steam of boiling water; which makes them exceedingly soft and tender. They also make thin cakes of wheat, mixed with herbs, that is very pleasant to the taste.
Their wine has no resemblance to ours, as to taste or quality. It is made from rice, by sleeping and boiling it: and they distil a spirit from the flesh of sheep. The Chinese are naturally sober. Citizens in easy circumstances, live chiefly upon pork, eating it every day; but this meat is easier of digestion, and more agreeable to the taste than ours. Chinese hams are in great estimation.
The ceremonies of the Chinese are part of their cons
itution. Every man is obliged to observe them. Even tradesmen, servants, seamen, and husbandmen have their respective forms assigned them, which the state conceives tend much to their civilization; and that the frequent use of the many, outward condescensions and mild expressions enjoined by government, and the seeming affection they are taught to express for one another, tends to promote peace and order, and produce mutual good-will; and that the forbearance of scurrilous and provoking language, prevents many quarrels. Oaths and obscene discourse are never heard among them.
But the ceremonies of the Chinese depend more upon positive laws than custom. The law has regulated every thing on this head. Every one, from the highest mandarin, to the humblest individual, is perfectly acquainted with the titles he must give to others, and what is due to himself; the honours and compliments he can accept, and those which he ought to pay. In China there are no disputes about rank or precedency. Every one knows his situation, and, as among our people of quality, take the lead according to their rank.
A visit in China, is a business of great solemnity, requiring formal preliminaries, which Europeans are unacquainted with. Familiar friends visit without much ceremony, but for all others there is a form prescribed. Visits from the inhabitants of any city to a governor, are always attended with presents. As soon as the visitors reach the hall where the governor gives audience, they all range themselves in a line, make a profound reverence on his coming in, throw themselves on their knees, and bend their heads even to the earth, unless raised up by the governor, which is generally done. Sometimes the most considerable among them takes a cup of wine, in both hands, and presents it to the governor, pronouncing aloud, by way of prayer,
To-siou!
that is, Behold the wine which brings happiness! or
Cheou-tsiou!
Behold the wine that brings length of days! After him, another advances with sweetmeats, presenting them with, "Behold the sugar of long-life!" Others repeat the same ceremonies three times, with the same wishes. When a governor has any way distinguished himself, the
literati
of his district, cause a dress to be made for him, composed of square pieces of different coloured satin, and present to him on his birth-day, amidst the sound of several musical instruments, and puts it over him. This vestment is worn but once, but preserved in his family as a badge of distinction, and is made up of so many different colours, to represent different nations, and to inform the mandarin he is worthy of ruling them all.
A visit to a superior is always made before dinner, before the visitor has tasted wine; the smell of such a thing would be a gross affront; but if a visit is returned the same day, it may be after dinner. No person can pay a visit without previously sending a card to the porter of the person the visit is to be made to. This card is of red paper, ornamented with flowers and folded like a screen, the visitor's name is written in one of the folds, and many respectful expressions in the other. If the visit is to an intimate friend, or person of ordinary rank, the
Tie tsée,
or visiting-card, is only a leaf of plain paper; if the person sent to is in mourning, a leaf of black paper. Sometimes these visits, as in England, are made and returned, by merely sending the card.
When the visitor arrives at the house of a superior, he is introduced into the hall by a couple of servants, who hold an umbrella and their master's fan, inclined to each other, so as to form a screen, behind which the visitor stands, concealed likewise behind a large fan, which an attendant of his own holds up before him, and these barriers are not removed until the visitor has advanced near enough to the master if the house to salute him, who never moves from his chair. If the person visited be much the inferior, he goes out into the street to conduct the stranger in, they bow low to each other as soon as they meet, and a set of short compliments are prescribed; one knows what he is to say, the other what to answer: at every door, they halt and bow, and dispute who shall enter first. But few expressions are used on this occasion: one says
Tsin,
which is, Pray walk in; the other,
Pau can,
It must not be. This being repeated four or five times, the stranger suffers himself to be overcome, and goes to the next room-door, where the same ceremony is repeated.
When the visitor, or visitors are all entered, then commence all those formalities, which are so minutely pointed out in the Chinese book of ceremonies. This book determines the number of salutations to be made, by bending the head towards the breast, the complimentary expressions that must be used, the reciprocal bendings of the knee that each must make, the steps to be taken to the right or left, and the manner of presenting the right hand. All this gone through, they bow to the chairs, dust them with their great sleeves, and, after a quarter of an hour's grimace, seat themselves opposite to each other. They are obliged to sit upright, without leaning, with down-cast looks, their hands stretched out on their knees and their feet even: they are to look grave and composed, and not be too talkative. sometimes not a word is said but the prescribed compliments, which are spoken with all imaginary submission, and always in the third person; as, "The favour your lordship has done one so much beneath him, lays his servant under the highest obligations." "Permit the servant to offer his lord this curiosity, which his poor country affords." They never say
I
or
you,
but
your servant,
or
your scholar,
and the
Doctor,
or
my Lord,
said this; not
you
said it,
you
did it. Such familiar expressions would be rude and vulgar. They seldom fatigue themselves with talking: indeed, they affect so much gravity, and say so little in company, that they resemble statues, or figures placed in chairs, for ornament. One missionary avers, that a mandarin paid him a visit, and did not open his mouth the whole time he was with him. But to return:
A little time after, as many cups of tea are brought in, as there are persons present; and the manner of taking up the cup, conveying it to the mouth, and returning it to the servant, form so many articles of this book of ceremonies, and are always performed with the most rigid minuteness and punctuality. Ambassadors are allowed masters of the ceremonies, to instruct them 40 days before they are admitted to an audience, that they may not commit blunders; and many of the Chinese will be offended, even with strangers, if they omit to fawn and cringe, according to the rules prescribed.
The ceremonies at departure are equally formal. The master of the ceremonies conducts you to your chair, waits till you are taken up, and bids you adieu. In saluting each other, they never uncover their heads. To be bare-headed, they consider as indecent; and in conformity to this national custom, the Pope thought fit to dispense with the converts appearing, in the christian churches in China, bare-headed. The use of pearls is forbidden in China, and if any presents are sent, and not accepted, as is often the case, they are always returned, with a note of thanks, and
Pi-fie,
that is, "These are pearls; I dare not touch them." Or, if some are kept, and others returned, it is with
Yu-pi,
or, "With regard to the rest, they are valuable pearls."
When a stranger is about to take horse, after a visit, and return home, this cannot be effected without great ceremony, for he will not be so rude as to mount before the master of the house; who, on the contrary, urges him to it. The stranger then protests, that the world shall be turned upside down, before he will be so rude. The master rather suffers this, retires out of sight, and, when his visitor is seated in his saddle, returns, and bids him adieu. And when the stranger is gone a little way, a servant is dispatched after him, to wish him a good journey.
Epistolary correspondence, even among private friends, is always attended with established ceremonies, which are more complicated. If a letter is written to a person of rank, it is then necessary to use a piece of white paper, with ten or twelve folds; the letter must begin in the second, and the signature be written in the last. Even the characters used, differ according to circumstances. The smaller they are, the more respectful. The style, the words used, and the distance used between the lines, are also to be suited to the rank of the person wrote to. Two seals must be affixed to the letter, one over the signature, and the other over the beginning. When written, such letter is folded in a cover, ornamented with flowers, as is now adopted in France. In this is written,
Nay-han,
"The letter is within;" and this put into another cover, directed, closed, and sealed at both ends, with the words
Hou fong,
"secured and sealed."
The form of salutation in China, even among persons of moderate rank, is much less expeditious than ours. A common salute consists in joining both hands together before the breast, moving them in an affectionate manner, bending the head a little, and saying, reciprocally,
Tsin-Tsin,
pronounced
Chin-chin,
a complimentary word, something like your humble servant, but which means no
humility.
When a person meets one of superior rank, he joins his hands by locking the fingers together, raises them above the forehead, and afterwards, brings them down towards the earth, making a profound bow with the whole body. When two friends meet, after a long absence, they both fall on their knees opposite to each other, bend their bodies to the earth, then raise them up, and repeat the same two or three times. At an ordinary interview, the common phrase is, "How d'ye do? And the answer is,
Cao-lao-ye-hung-fo,
"Well; thanks to your abundant felicity." When they see a man in good health, the first address is,
Yung-fo,
that is, "Prosperity is painted in your looks;" or, "You have a happy countenance."
When two mandarins of royal rank meet in the street, in their chairs, each joins his hands as before, lowers them down, and then raises them to his forehead, and repeats this till they are out of each other's sight. But if one of the two be of higher rank than the other, the latter orders his chair to stop; or, if he is on horseback he dismounts, and makes a profound bow to his superior. I have seen this with gentlemen in England, and the same compliment paid by a gentleman to a lady. In a word, politeness in China is as general in villages as in towns, and being established by law, is attended with as little sincerity
n one as the other. When a person pays his obedience to the Emperor, he falls on his knees, and then throws himself prostrate on the ground, after the Asiatic manner, as is represented in the plate of the Chinese sepulchre.
CHAP. VI.
Their Customs and Manners continued.
I WILL now speak of their amusements. As the Chinese generally employ their hours in the duties of society, they have little inclination or time for amusements. Being naturally a grave people, they seldom assume an air of gaiety, but in conformity to custom. They have no public theatres. Their comedians and tragedians are merely strollers, that go about from house to house, performing for those who are able to pay them.
But plays are sometimes performed in the public streets, on open scaffolds, and in half a dozen streets at a time. These actors are richly dressed, have a large wardrobe, and great variety. On each side of the stages are screens, but they have no painted scenes. When they act in the streets, they are paid by the inhabitants of that street; when they act in temples, as sometimes they do, they are paid by the members of that temple. No women appearing on the stage, female parts are performed by boys, or young men of an effeminate cast. Some companies of players consist of young men from 20 to 40 years of age: these the Chinese esteem most; but Europeans admire those between 12 and 18. Their tragic actors seem to act with great propriety, so as to affect the passions of a European spectator, though he is ignorant of th
language. It is the plea of inculcating virtue and ridiculing vice, that induces the state to suffer them to perform.
The whole streets are so filled on these occasions, with a pleased and an attentive crowd, that there is no passing. When an actor plays his part well, he is always encored. Plays are generally concluded with tumbling, fighting, or combating with giants or wild beasts, or else with some humourous postures, antic feats and expressions, which create a laugh.
Gaming, and every diversion that tends to promote or encourage idleness, is absolutely forbidden to young people; but there are instances of grown persons who have followed it so immoderately, that they have played away their estates, wives, and children; any of which they will sometimes hazard on a card, or the single cast of a die; but, in general, they are ignorant of all games at China.
The Chinese call chess the game of the elephant, and say, they had it from the Indians, about 537. Young maidens are here taught chess, and it is reckoned a part of their education, holding the same place as dancing does with us.
Cock-fighting is a favourite diversion, and hunting, which the gentry of England endeavour to confine to themselves, is free to every one in China. Such persons as wish to enjoy the diversion alone, shut up a quantity of game in parks for the purpose.
When the Emperor goes a hunting, he selects 30,000 of his life-guards, who are armed with darts and javelins. These he disposes in such a manner, that they quite surround a very large extent of ground, upon the mountains. The guards thus posted, form a large circle, marching nearer to each other with an equal pace, taking care not to quit their ranks; the circle is thus reduced to a much smaller one, and the beasts inclosed by the great circle, are taken in the smaller one, as in a net; for now, the guards alighting from their horses, keep so very close to each other, that not the smallest out-let is left for any wild-beast to escape. The animals, in this small circle, are hunted so close, that the poor creatures, quite spent, come and fall down at the feet of the hunters, and are thus taken with ease. Sometimes they will thus take two or 300 hares, and a prodigious number of wolves and foxes.
Once a year the Emperor goes into Tartary to hunt, and, at these times, often meets with tygers, which are the fiercest animals they have; but, fierce as they are, when they find themselves enclosed by a circle of hunters, they seem to be struck with a kind of terror, at the sight of such a number of enemies, all ready to direct the points of their lances against them. Far from imitating the stag and other animals, which so hemmed in, run up and down without ceasing, and try every means to escape, the tyger squats down, and endures for a long time, without moving, the barking of the dogs, which are let loose upon him; but afterwards, excited, either by excess of rage, or the necessity of defending himself, he darts forward with prodigious leaps, and incredible rapidity, to some particular part, which he has fixed on, and attacks the hunters on that part; but they receive him with the points of their lances, and plunge them into his belly, at the moment he is preparing to seize some one of them.
Strangers are astonished to see the boldness and intrepidity shewn by the Tartar horses, when they meet with any of these tygers. They, at first, appear frighted at the horrid cries of those terrible animals, but become insensibly accustomed to hear and see them, and their masters take great pains to inure them to this kind of hunting. The metal of such a horse, I have already described at a bear-chace.
See the Plate, vol.
4,
p.
186.
Fishery is considered rather as an object of commerce than amusement. But the soldiers have a method of fishing with a bow and arrow. The arrow being fixed to the bow by a string, is shot: if they hit their mark, the string enables them to draw the fish to them; if not, it prevents the arrow from being lost.
The Chinese can enjoy no amusements but those authorised by law respecting ceremonies. Their annual, public entertainments are established by custom, in every city of the third class, and the law has determined what degree of people shall be admitted to them. They must be either graduate doctors of unspotted reputation, mandarins of law or arms, who have retired from public life; aged heads of families, or citizens distinguished for probity and virtue.. This institution is principally intended to preserve that mutual regard and friendship which is too often forgot in other countries. These entertainments consist of eating and drinking and music, and are a kind of love-feasts, regulated in the minutest manner, by a mandarin, acording to an established ceremony. At these assemblies, some articles of the law are read, and the president adds, in the name, and by order of the Emperor, words to this effect.
If we have been assembled here to this solemn festival, it is not so much for the pleasure of eating and drinking, as to encourage us to shew fidelity to our prince, piety to our parents, affection to our brothers and sisters, esteem for our elders, respect for our relations, an attachment our friends, and a desire to promote peace and concord among our fellow-citizens and neighbours.
And the airs which are sung, and the music which accompanies them, all tend to the same end; to harmonize and conciliate universal benevolence and affection. Such a banquet may be truly called, a feast of love, an assembly of instruction!
We have already seen in what manner the Emperor of China celebrates the vernal festival. This is celebrated on the same day, throughout the empire, in a way somewhat different, but tending to the same end; namely, the encouragement of moral labour and industry. In the morning, the governor of every city, comes forth from his palace, crowned with a chaplet of flowers, and enters his chair, in which he is carried, preceded by music, and a number of standard-bearers, lighted flambeaux, &c. surrounded and followed by several litters, covered with silk carpets, on which are effigies of some illustrious persons who have encouraged husbandry; or some historical painting, on the same subject. The houses are hung with carpeting; triumphal arches are erected at certain distances; lantherns every where displayed, and all the houses illuminated. A figure, made of baked earth, representing a cow, richly cloathed, with gilt horns, is also carried in procession; and, so large, that 40 men sometimes can scarce support it. A child, with one foot naked, and the other shod, called, the "Spirit of labour and diligence," follows, driving on the image with a rod. Labourers, with all the implements of husbandry, march behind; and a troop of comedians, and people masked, whose grotesque appearance and attitudes afford much entertainment to the populace, bring up the rear.
The governor thus advances to the eastern gate, as if he intended to meet the spring; and then returns to his palace, in the same order. After this, the cow is stripped of her ornaments, and a great number of earthen calves are taken from her belly, which are distributed among the crowd. The cow herself is broken into pieces, and distributed in like manner; and the whole is concluded with a speech from the governor, in praise of agriculture, and an exhortation to the people, not to neglect so useful and valuable an art.
They have two other festivals, celebrated at a prodigious expence: one at the commencement of the year, which they call, "Taking leave of the old year; and, the other, on the 15th of the first month, called, "The feast of lantherns." At these times all business is stopped, and the tribunals are shut up throughout the empire. At the conclusion of the old year also, all business, whether private or public, is suspended; presents are given and received; inferior mandarins go and pay their respects to their superiors; children to their parents, and servants to their masters; all dressed in their best attire: something similar to the visits paid in France, on new-year's day. All the family assemble in the evening, and partake of a grand repast; but no stranger is admitted, not one of their nearest relations, from a superstitious opinion, that they may rob the family of that good fortune which descends on the house, with the first moment of the new year: but, on the next and following days, they give lively demonstrations of extraordinary joy. Every shop is shut; feasting and carousing is universal; every one appears in his best dress; visits are made to relations and friends; plays are acted; the whole empire is is in motion, and nothing goes forward but mirth and rejoicing.
On the feast of lantherns, every place throughout the empire is so illuminated, that if one could take a view of it from some high place, all the country would seem in a blaze. The festival begins on the 13th in the evening, and is continued to the 17th. Every person, both in city and country, on the sea-coast, and on the rivers, light up painted lantherns, of several fashions and sizes; even the poorest families hang them up in their courtyards, and at their windows. The wealthy will expend 10 or 15£. English, on this occasion; and the chief mandarins, the viceroys, and Emperor, will spend two or three hundred.
It is a spectacle to all the cities; people flock there from all parts, and the gates of the city are left open every evening to receive them.
These lantherns are very large, some square, some sexagon, and some octagon; the frame wood, and covered with transparent silk, on which is painted flowers, animals and human figures; others are round, and made of a blue, transparent kind of horn. Many lamps, and wax candles, are put into these lantherns; to the corner of each are fixed streamers of satin and silk, of different colours, and a curious piece of carved work is placed over its top.
Some of the large lantherns exhibit moving figures, in imitation of the
Ombres Chinoises,
or Chinese shades, that have been shewn in London. People, who lie concealed, by means of imperceptible threads, put the figures in motion; and we see horses galloping, ships sailing, armies marching, groupes dancing, and a variety of spectacles that amuse and divert the people. Some accompany these moving figures with droll expressions, that seem to proceed from the shades on the lanthern: others, carry about serpents and dragons, 60 or 80 feet long, illuminated within from the head to the tail, and have the art of making them twist themselves in different forms, like real serpents.
But that which adds new and additional splendor to this festival, are the various fire-works the Chinese are celebrated for.
Magailens
says, that he was surprised at one of these exhibitions, where an arbor of vines, with red grapes, was represented, and the arbor burnt without being consumed. The red grapes, the green leaves, and the colour of the wood, was so naturally represented, that any person might have taken them for real. But their excellence in this art may be better judged, from a description of one that was exhibited by the late Emperor,
Chang-hi,
for the diversion of the court. The fire-works began with half-a-dozen large cylinders planted in the ground, which formed in the air, so many streams of flames, rising to the height of 12 feet, and falling in showers of golden fire. This was followed by a covered box, supported by two pillars, which threw up a shower of fire; with several lantherns, and sentences written in large characters of burning sulphur, and afterwards, six branched candlesticks, forming pillars, with different tiers of silver-coloured lights, ranged in circles, so brilliant, as to convert night into day. At last, the Emperor set fire himself to one of the works, that was instantly communicated to all sides of the place, which was 80 feet long and 50 broad. The fire reached several poles and painted figures, from whence proceeded a prodigious multitude of sky-rockets, and at the same time, a number of lantherns and branched candlesticks were lighted in every place. The English artists, in artificial fire, have reached this excellence; and will light many thousand lamps, almost at one and the same time, by means of quick-match, which is a string of cotton, loaded with gunpowder, and enclosed in paper pipes, communicating with every lamp.
The Chinese endeavour to render every public ceremony as grand and striking as possible. A viceroy never quits his palace, or travels, but with a pomp truly royal. His common suite consists of 100 men: he is then dressed in his official robes, and carried in a sumptuous, gilt chair, on the shoulders of eight domestics, preceded by guards, and two drummers, beating on copper basons. Eight others carry standards of varnished wood, on which are inscribed, in large characters, all his titles of honour. These are followed with 14 flags, symbols of his office; six officers, bearing boards, with inscriptions of gold, declaring the good qualities of the viceroy; and two, carrying a triple umbrella, of yellow silk, and its cover. Two archers, on horseback, precede the first body of guards; the latter are followed by others, armed. Behind these, are two other parties of soldiers; some carrying large maces, some iron spikes, and others huge hammers; and others again, behind them, bearing battle-axes, of different kinds. After these, proceed another party of soldiers, differently armed, with triple-pointed spears, bows and arrows, and followed by two men, bearing the viceroy's seal, in a kind of box. Then come two other drummers, announcing his approach, followed by two officers, with plumes of feathers, and two others, bearing maces of gilt dragons; next, a number of magistrates and officers of justice, in silk scarfs, with whips, chains, and hangers. Two standard-bearers command this party, which immediately precedes the governor. Pages and footmen surround his chair; and an officer attends him, carrying a large fan, in form of a screen; and a number of guards, officers, and domestics, bearing various necessaries for his use, bring up the rear.
If he marches in the night, large, beautiful lantherns are carried before him; on the transparent part of which, his quality, titles, &c. are written in large characters, to tell the public who is coming; that passengers may stop, and such as are sitting, rise up with respect. Whoever omits this obeisance, is sure to be bastinadoed.
But, when the Emperor goes forth on any public occasion, the following is the procession.
Twenty-four drummers, two and two.
Twenty-four trumpeters, two and two; their trumpets three feet long, and eight inches diameter, at the lower end; made of the wood Ou-tong-chu, and ornamented with rings of gold: their shape is something like a bell.
Twenty-four men bearing sticks, varnished green, seven feet long, and decorated with gilt foliage.
One hundred soldiers, armed with halberts, the points of which terminate in a crescent.
One hundred mace-bearers, with lances varnished red, interspersed with flowers, and gilt at the ends.
Four hundred large beautiful lantherns of elegant workmanship, borne by as many men, and containing each a flambeaux, made of a wood which burns long, and gives a great light.
Two hundred men, some carrying lances, ornamented with tufts of different coloured silks, and others tails of foxes, panthers, and other animals.
Twenty-four banners, on which are painted the signs of the zodiac, which the Chinese divide into 24 parts.
Fifty-six other banners, representing different clusters of stars, according to their arrangement in the heavens.
Two hundred fans, supported by long, gilded poles, with the figures of different animals painted on them.
The Emperor, superbly dressed, on a beautiful horse, richly caparisoned; and a superb umbrella, of a prodigious size, held over him, that covers both him and his horse, and shelters them from the sun: 100 lance-bearers; pages of the bed-chamber, and 10 valets each, with a led horse, surround the monarch, the bridles and saddles ornamented with gold and precious stones.
All the princes of the blood, nobility, chief mandarins, and state-officers, two and two, in their habits of ceremony.
Five hundred young gentlemen belonging to the palace, richly dressed.
A thousand footmen, in red robes, interspersed with flowers and stars, embroidered in gold and silver.
An open chair, carried by 36 men, and guarded by 50.
A large chair, but shut, carried by 120 men, and guarded by 50.
Five large chariots, one after the other, drawn by elephants, and guarded by 50 men.
Two ditto drawn by horses, richly caparisoned; alike guarded.
Two thousand mandarins of letters.
Two thousand mandarins of arms.
European sovereigns have been attended by many thousands of persons, but never by 2000
literati
among the number.
Chinese horses are not only beautiful, but their harness is magnificent; the bits and the stirrups being either silver, or gilt. The saddle is very rich, and the reins are made of stitched satin, two fingers broad. From the upper part of the chest, hang two large tufts of fine, red hair, such as their caps are covered with, and these tufts are suspended by iron rings, gilt or silvered. When the grandees ride out, they are always preceded and followed by a great number of horsemen, who form their retinue, without reckoning their domestics, and who, according to the quality of their masters, are cloathed in black satin, or dyed callico.
Their chairs are a kind of sedan, like ours, made of bamboo, but have no glass. Those in which the ladies are carried, are always provided with a lattice, or blind. to prevent their seeing, or being seen. A piece of wood is placed a-cross, from the end of one pole to the other, which the chairmen lay upon their shoulders. Their carriages are something like our jocky-carts, drawn by two, or more horses, a-breast, and conducted by a driver on foot, except when they travel expeditiously; in which case, the driver rides in the carriage, and conducts the horses with reins, the carriage being wide enough to hold two. These carriages have only two wheels, some but one in the center underneath, are open, with an umbrella fixed behind; but those in which ladies are carried, are covered and close shut, with lattice-doors in front, and a curtain to drop down before them, when they please.
[See the plate, Chinese.]
If a mandarine travels by water, they are furnished with barks, at the Emperor's expence. These are equal, in size, to a third-rate man of war, and beautiful in the extreme, being painted and gilt, and japanned within and without. Barks, most in use, are about 16 feet broad, 24 long, and nine in depth, from the neck.
Besides the master's cabin, who has his family with him, a kitchen, two large rooms, one before and the other behind, there is a hall, about six or seven feet high, and eleven broad; also, an anti-chamber, and two or three other rooms, for the mandarin; all on the same deck. The inside is japanned red and white, with plenty of carved work, paintings and gildings on the cieling and sides. The tables and chairs are japanned, red and black. The deck is surrounded with galleries, so that the sailors can pass and repass, without incommoding the passengers. This apartment is covered with a platform, or terrace, open on all sides, set apart for music. Underneath is the hold, for the baggage, sails, &c.
The bark that carries the chief mandarin, is always followed by others, among which is one laden with provisions: this carries the kitchen, the eatables, and the cooks: another is full of soldiers; and a third, lighter than the rest, is dispatched before, to clear the way, and prepare things where they are to stop. These barks have a certain number of rowers, relieved by others; at the distance of every league, are from five to ten centinels placed, so that, if there is occasion, signals can be given from one to another, by fires, or pieces of artillery. These soldiers stand all of a row on the bank, as the mandarin passes; one of them bears an ensign displayed, the others are under arms.
Every time they cast anchor, as they do in the evening, or when they leave it in the morning, the
corps de garde
salutes the mandarin with a discharge of great guns, to which the trumpets reply with several flourishes. At night, lantherns are lighted at the head and stern, and the mast is strung with them. When these are lighted, the captain of the guard on shore, stands with his company opposite the bark; and having saluted the mandarin, retires leaving a centinel, who rattles a pair of bamboo castinets all night, to declare he is still on the watch. This centinel is relieved hourly.
CHAP. VII.
Their Way of Travelling.
HAVING spoken of their travelling by canals, it remains only to speak of their roads, &c.
The security of travellers, and an easy mode of conveyance for passengers and merchandise, are objects to which the Chinese have paid particular attention; and, the manner in which the public roads are managed, greatly contribute to the former.
Like the Romans heretofore, they throw up highways, from one end of the kingdom to the other. Through the low grounds, they raise cause-ways to a great heighth, and, in some places, pave them; cut passages through rocks and mountains, to make the ways as level as possible, and shorten the distance. The high road cut out across the mountains, to Si-ngan-fou, the capital of Chen-si, is the most remarkable thing in this country. The road was made by an army, in the course of a military expedition. Mountains are levelled, and bridges constructed, reaching from one mountain to another; and, where the vallies are very wide, large pillars are erected, to support these bridges, which, in some places, are so exceedingly high, that a traveller cannot look down from them without terror. They are wide enough for four horsemen to ride a-breast, and are railed in on each side. Villages and inns, for the accommodation of passengers, have been built, at certain distances, on the road.
On the side of some mountains, which are perpendicular, and have no shelving, they have fixed large beams in them, and, on these beams, have made a sort of balcony, without rails. Those who are not used to them, travel over them with great fear; but, the people of the place, pass them without concern.
The roads, in general, are very broad (25 or 26 yards), and, in all the southern provinces, paved; but, on the paved ways, no horse or carriage passes. They are, for the most part, bordered with very lofty trees; and sometimes with walls, eight or ten feet high, to keep people out of the grounds. On all the great roads, covered seats are erected, at proper intervals, where a traveller may shelter himself from the inclemency of the weather, and excessive heat or cold. Temples and pagodas are also frequently to be met with, to which admittance is always granted in the day-time. Mandarins may continue in them as long as they please; are there received with marks of distinction, served with attention, and are lodged, they and their whole retinue. Upon the road, says Mr.
Bell,
from the city of Siang-fou, are many turrets, called post-houses, erected at certain distances, with a flag-staff on each, on which is hoisted the Imperial pendant. These places are guarded by soldiers, who run from post to post, with letters that concern the Emperor, with great speed. As these turrets are within sight of each other, any intelligence may be speedily conveyed. It is thus the court is quickly apprized of any disturbance in the remotest places. These turrets or towers, are square, brick buildings, about 12 feet high, on the tops of which are watch-boxes and centinels. On the roads that conduct to court (for they are general on all roads) they are provided with large cast-iron bells. The stated distance by law, between tower and tower, is half a French league, so that the roads are well guarded from robbers.
Every man who goes by armed, is obliged to give an account whence he came, where he is going, on what business, and must shew his pass.
Administration have been at great pains to publish an itinerary of the whole Chinese empire. This book, which is a directory for all travellers, takes in every road and canal, from the city of Peking to the remotest extremities of China.
Post-houses have been here established, but they are not public; the couriers of the empire only have a right to use them, and officers dispatched by the court, who are always attended by a guard; but, excepting regular posts, travellers find no difficulty of getting their baggage transported from one place to another. In every city there are a great number of porters associated under a common chief, who regulates their prices and all their agreements; he receives their pay, and is responsible for all they carry. When porters are wanted (and porters carry every thing) he furnishes as many as are necessary, gives the same number of tickets to the traveller, who returns one to each porter when he has delivered his load, and the porter, with this ticket, receives his pay of his chief, who has the money in advance.
This establishment is settled by the general police of the empire. On all the great roads the traveller finds, in every city from which he is setting out, several offices of this kind, who have a correspondence with the next he is to pass. Before his departure, he carries to one of these offices, a list of such things as he wishes to be conveyed, which is immediately entered in a book, and if he has occasion for two or three hundred, he is immediately furnished. Every thing is weighed by their chief, and their price is five pence English for one day's carriage. An exact register is kept in the office. The traveller pays the money in advance, and on his arrival at the next office, he finds his baggage carefully delivered.
Every mile and a half, wooden buildings, like triumphal arches, about 30 feet high, with three doors, over which is wrote, upon a large frize, in characters so large as may be read at a quarter of a mile distant, how far it is from the town you left, and how far to the town you are going to, so that there is no need of guides.
It is the police also which regulates the custom-houses, for every thing here is on the Emperor's account. Chinese custom-house-officers are perhaps the civilest in the world. They have no concern but with merchants, whom they do not oppress by rigorous exactions. Travellers are not stoped here, as in other countries, till their baggage is examined, though the officers are authorised so to do, nor is the smallest see required.
As to the conveyance of letters, the royal post-master, for a little money, will favor the public, and carry letters from private persons, at as little expence, and with as much expedition as in Europe.
As it is a matter of importance that the Emperor's orders be quickly transmitted, so is it great part of a mandarin's care to see that the roads be good; and the Emperor, who often travels about the country to keep the mandarins to this duty, spreading a report, that he means shortly to visit this or that province; the governors of those provinces knowing this, spare neither charge nor pains to repair the roads; as not only their fortunes, but sometimes their lives are at stake upon the state of them.
A governor once hanged himself through despair, lest he should not have time enough to repair the roads, through which he expected the Emperor to pass to the capital city. Yet the Emperor never went the journey. But all their care will not keep them in very good order; the soil is so light, and being much beaten by travellers, the surface of them is ground so fine, that they are blown away by brisk winds, and the traveller is often obliged to wear a mask before his eyes; through clouds of dust he is frequently compelled to make his way, and swallow the sand instead of air: so that in hot weather, and the wind in his face, scarce any but a native can withstand it.
CHAP. VIII.
Of the Genius and Temper of the People.
THE Chinese have ever considered themselves as something superior to the rest of mankind, till the Europeans arrived among them, and to this day, though their ignorance is so notorious in the speculative sciences, and even in some mechanical arts, as for instance, in clock-work, architecture, and some others, they will have it, that they have one eye more than us.
But exclusive of their own overweening opinion of themselves, they are possessed generally of a great many good qualities, though they have some bad ones. They are a mild and affable people, polite even to excess; circumspect in all their actions, weighing the consequences of things before they attempt to carry them into execution: but more careful not to expose their prudence, than to preserve their reputation.
Politeness is with them a principle of morality, and no sort of men are excused from it; tradesmen, servants, even countrymen, nay, footmen, will take their leave of each other on their knees; and farmers in their entertainments, use more compliments than we do. Even seamen, who, from their manner of living, and from the air they breathe, draw in a natural roughness, treat one another like brothers, and pay each other that deference, that one would think them united in the strictest bonds of friendship.
Very much propossessed with an opinion of their own importance, they are not sensible of their defects; and, from entertaining too high ideas of their own knowledge, they shut their eyes and run against instructions from others. Though suspicious of strangers, they are eager to take advantage of them, and notwithstanding their boasted politeness, and the equitable rules they pretend to be governed by; injustice is too often found in their courts, and much of the time, both of princes and people, taken up, as in Europe, with amorous intrigues; but they use such caution to conceal their vices, that a stranger would be apt to suppose every thing was well regulated.
Though the Chinese are so jealous as not to suffer their wives to speak in private, even to their own brothers, much less indulge them with the enjoyment of that freedom, and those public amusements which, in Europe, is considered as gallantry and innocent pleasure, yet there are husbands who will be so complaisant as to let their wives freely commit adultery: and which permission, some women make a condition in their marriage-articles. Those who, according to such agreement, submit to this practice (as there are a certain sort of people that do), have no power to hinder debauchees from frequenting their houses, and from making an ill use of the easiness, or unruly passions of their wives. But such families are abhorred by the Chinese, who think so ill of them, that their children, though never so deserving or intelligent, can never obtain any degree, or be employed in any honourable office.
They continually apply themselves to discover the inclinations, humours, and tempers, of those they have any commerce with, and keep up a fair correspondence, even with their greatest enemies. When they have an interest to manage, no people know better how to insinuate themselves into the good opinion of others, or improve an opportunity when it offers to greater advantage; nor will they decline the most hazardous undertaking, when they have any gain in view. Trade and commerce, says
Le Compte,
seem to be the soul of this people, and the spring of all their actions; nor do they much scruple imposing on those they deal with, of which many of them are so far from being ashamed, that they will laugh at him whom they have bubbled. A foreigner is in great danger of being cheated, if he trusts to his own judgment; and if he employs a Chinese factor, as is usual, both factor and merchant will combine to deceive him. If the Chinese would accompany labour and natural industry, with a little more honesty, they would be complete merchants, but they seldom fail to cheat whenever it is in their power, and falsify almost every thing they sell. Hogs are sold alive by weight, and prior to their being weighed, they will make holes in their hide, beneath their bellies, and thrust in flat pieces of lead to encrease their weight; and they counterfeit gammons of bacon so artfully, that people are often taken in; and when they have boiled them a long time, shall find nothing, when they sit down to eat, but a piece of wood under a hog's skin.
Their subtlety in deception is still more extraordinary in their thieves and robbers, who will break through the thickest walls, burn gates, and make great holes in them, by means of a certain engine, that fires the wood without any flame. Thus will they penetrate into the most private recesses, and having with them a certain drug, the fume of which stupefies the senses, and casts persons into a deep sleep, will enter the very bed-chambers unperceived, and, when the people awake in the morning, they are surprised to find their bed without curtains, their chamber unfurnished, and the tables, cabinets, coffers, and every thing removed, without any traces of the thieves, but the hole in the wall through which they entered, and carried off the effects.
But with all their dishonesty, there do not want instances of fair-dealing, and open, generous usage, with a fidelity not to be corrupted.
Among their ill qualities, they are naturally litigious; and in China, as well as in some other countries, a man may, if he pleases, ruin himself by going to law. Great crimes are very uncommon among the Chinese, but vices frequent; and the misfortune is this, the law neither searches after, nor punishes them, but when they offend against and violate public decency.
A Chinese is vindictive, but he studies to seek revenge, not by violent means, or by duelling, which is prohibited; but by craftiness, or stratagem, and consequently, with impunity. Their revenge is secretly taken; and they will not only dissemble their malice, but seem patient, even to insensibility, till they have a favourable opportunity to strike home. For, however the Chinese may excell in cunning, their courage is not very remarkable.
But the Tartars, who, since their conquest of China have mixed with the Chinese, and are of a very different stamp; though they adopted its customs, they have still retained their original character; are obligingly liberal, an enemy to every kind of dissimulation, and more desirous of enjoying their fortune than encreasing it. In all business of the state, a Tartar discovers a penetration, that lessens the difficulty of what he undertakes; and, in affairs of smaller moment, he displays that expeditious activity, which may be justly called, the soul of business. In short, they are superior to the Chinese, in almost every thing.
In giving this general character of the Chinese, we have had an eye principally to the inhabitants of towns. In rural life, there is far more openness of temper, benevolence and friendship. A Chinese peasant often discovers moral qualities, which would add lustre to the character of more exalted rank. However, it must, on the whole, he admitted, that China has produced great men of every kind, and taken from all classes. Altogether, the people, as at present, are, to every other nation on earth, the most curious monument that has been handed down to us, from the remotest antiquity.
There is one virtue, however, peculiar to this country, in its universality and height to which it is carried, that must not be omitted, when we are speaking of their natural disposition; I mean their piety to their parents: and it is a subject that must give every rational reader some pleasure to dwell on, and almost atones for every other defect. It is inconceivable to what a degree of perfection this first principle of nature is here improved. There is no submission, no point of obedience, which a parent cannot command, or which a child can refuse. They have such a love, such an obedience, such a veneration for their parents, that neither the severity of their treatment, the impertinence of old-age, or the meanness of their situation, even when their children have met with preferment, can ever efface.
Filial piety is so much honoured and respected in China, that no instance is known of a legislator's having been under the necessity of enforcing it by law. It is not only considered as a natural duty, but a point of religion; and a point that is observed with the greatest strictness and attention. This duty seems to be the main-spring and principal cause of the existence of Chinese government, as the
amor patriae,
or love of one's country was the basis of the ancient republics; filial piety, in this empire is understood in a more extensive sense, than it generally is in Europe. It's chief object here, is that subjects should behave to their sovereign as children; and the sovereign protect his subject, as the common father of the nation.
They have a kind of written code, respecting the duty of a child, the precepts of which have acquired the force of laws. I will select some few passages from it.
"A son must honour his parents without any regard to their bad qualities; he must hide their faults, and conceal even his own knowledge of their defects; he is at liberty, however, to remonstrate with them on their conduct three times, if he thinks it necessary; but if his admonitions are rejected, or not attended, he is to remain silent, venting his grief only in silence, and is to continue to serve them with the same respect and attention as before."
"A son must never quarrel with his father, or an old friend."
"He never speaks of infirmities or old age in the presence of the authors of his existence."
"He never goes abroad without acquainting his father, nor ever enters the house without going to salute him."
"He quits every engagement, and, without the least delay, obeys the voice of his father when he calls."
"An ingenious youth equally avoids whatever may conceal or expose his talents, because his reputation is not his own, but belongs to his parents."
"A son possesses no property of his own, during the life of his parents: he cannot even expose his life to save that of a friend."
"A son ought not to sit any where on the same seat with his father; and when with his parents, listens always to them when they address him, and sees them without being in their presence."
"A well-disposed youth, never visits the friend of his father, but when invited; never retires, till he obtains permission, and speaks only when he is spoken to."
"When a parent meets with any cause of discontent or sorrow, a son neither pays nor receives visits. Is either of them sick, his concern appears in the negligence of his dress, the sadness of his looks, and his embarrassment in speaking."
"A son, who has lost his father and mother, ever after renounces brilliancy of dress, and abstains from wearing gaudy colours: his mourning is long and rigid, and part of it consists in fasting."
The Emperor, on the death of his father, mourns three years, and never takes the helm of government in his hands, till the expiration of that time. Public business is conducted by a regency. The observance of this virtue is strongly inculcated in all the public schools, and is that part of education first taught. The laws have also regulated, with the greatest precision, the relative obligations between children and parents, husbands and wives, uncles and nephews, &c. restraining on the one hand, by gentle chastisement, and encouraging on the other, by flattering rewards. The father has the merit of every good action, which the son performs; and the Emperor grants, only to fathers, whether living or dead, those marks of distinction which their sons have merited.
Nothing being more strictly enjoined by the laws, than submission and obedience to parents; if a father charges his son with any crime before a magistrate, the son is supposed to be guilty: and if the offence is capital, shall lose his life without any other evidence. Their reasoning upon this matter is as follows. Who is better acquainted with a son's merits or demerits than his father, who has brought him up, and, for a long time, observed all his actions? Can any person have a greater love, or a more sincere affection for him? If, therefore, he who knows his case exactly, and loves him tenderly, condemns him; how can a judge pronounce him innocent and guiltless? And when it has been objected to them that some persons have an in-bred dislike to others; and that fathers, who are men an well as fathers, are capable of such antipathies against their children; they answer, that men are not more unnatural than savage beasts, the cruellest of which never destroy their young, through caprice. But, even supposing there were such monsters among men, it is the part of children, by their modest deportment and sweetness of temper, to tame and to soften them. In short, say they, the love of their children is so deeply imprinted in the hearts of parents, that antipathy or dislike can never erase it; unless provoked and enflamed by undutifulness, stubbornness, ingratitude and disorderly con
of their children, in which case they are not fit to live.
If a son shall presume to lay violent hands on a parent,
them, the whole country is alarmed, and the judgment reserved for the Emperor himself, The magistrates of the place are turned out of office, and all the neighbourhood threatened, as having given countenance to so infernal a temper; as a man could never have arrived, they think, at such a degree of wretchedness at once; but must have discovered his disposition on other occasions, which they should have taken care to correct. The criminal, in these cases, is sentenced to be cut into 10,000 pieces, and afterwards burnt; his houses and lands destroyed, and even the houses that stood near to his are erased, to remain as monuments of so detestable a crime.
Even the Emperors themselves cannot reject the authority of their parents, without running the risk of suffering for it. And their history relates a story which will always make the affection which the Chinese have for this duty, appear amiable. One of their Emperors had a mother who carried on a private intrigue with a nobleman of his court, and the public notice that was taken of it, obliged him, both for her own honour, and that of the empire, to shew his resentment of it, so that he banished her into a far, distant province; and because he knew that his conduct, in so doing, would not be very acceptable to his princes and mandarins, he forbad them all, on pain of death, to give him any advice upon the subject. They were all silent for some time, hoping that he would, of himself, see his own error, and re-call her; but not doing it, rather than suffer so pernicious a precedent, they resolved to interfere in it.
The first who had the courage to put up a request to the Emperor in this affair, was instantly put to death on the spot. This did not check the mandarins proceedings, for a day or two after, another made a second attempt, and to shew the world that he was willing to sacrifice his life for the public good, ordered his hearse to stand at the palace-gate. The Emperor, rather than affected at this noble action, was the more provoked: he not only sentenced this man to die, but, to terrify all others from following his example, ordered him to be put to the torture. One would not surely have thought it prudent to hold out any longer; but the Chinese were of another way of thinking, for they resolved to fall one after another, rather than basely pass over in silence so bad an action.
A third, therefore, stood forth and devoted himself, He, like the second, ordered his coffin to be set at the palace-gate, and protested to the Emperor, that he could not any longer see him persist in his crime without remonstrating.
What shall we lose by our death, says he, but the sight of a prince, on whom we cannot look without amazement and horror? Since
you
will not hear us, we will go and seek out your ancestors and those of the
Empress
your mother,
they
will hear our complaints; and, perhaps in the darkness and silence of the night, you may hear our ghosts and theirs, reproach you for your injustice.
The Emperor, more enraged than ever, at this insolence, as he called it, of his subjects, inflicted on this last man, the severest torments he could devise. Many others, encouraged by these examples, exposed themselves to torment, and did, in effect, die martyrs to filial duty. At last, this heroic constancy wearied out the Emperor's cruelty; and, whether he was afraid of more dangerous consequences, or stood self-condemned, as the father of his people, he repented of having put any of his children to death; and, as the son of the Empress, was troubled that he had so long misused his mother. He, therefore, recalled her, restored her to her former dignities; and after this, the more he honoured her, the more was he himself honoured by his subjects.
Filial duty commences in families, and rises, step by step, to the sovereign, the common father, who surpasses even the meanest of his subjects, either in that kind of reverence which is due to ancestors, or in his conduct to the Empress-mother, if she survives her husband. No mother living, of whatever rank, is so highly honoured, and so publicly respected by a son.
On the first day of every year, acknowledgments of duty and respect are renewed in every family, and also in the Emperor's. As soon as the sun rises, all the mandarins of the different tribunals repair to the palace, dressed in their official robes; and the royal family and houshold, with distinguished badges, appear in their places. The Emperor, thus situated and accompanied, leaves his chamber to pay his respects to his mother, in an adjoining apartment. He is carried there in his chair of state, but quits it at the entrance of his mother's vestibule, preceded by a mandarin, the president of the tribunal of ceremonies, who, on entering her hall of audience, throws himself on his knees, and presents a petition from the Emperor, requesting her Imperial majesty to receive on her throne, the humble marks of duty and affection which he is about to pay her. The mandarin-eunuch carries it to the Empress, in her inward apartment, and she comes forth dressed in a habit of ceremony, followed by her whole court, and ascends her throne. The Emperor and his suite then approach, to the sound of soft and tender music, and a mandarin cries out,
kneel.
Immediately the Emperor, princes, and all the mandarins, fall on their knees; and, on the mandarin's crying out,
prostrate yourselves,
throw themselves on their faces. After nine prostrations, all by word of command; the mandarin cries,
rise up,
and they all rise and stand erect. This done, a petition is presented to the Emperor, from his mother, requesting him to return to his own apartments. The music again plays, and the Emperor departs in the same manner he came. He is then followed in this ceremony, by the reigning Empress, and all the princesses and ladies of the imperial family, who prostrate themselves before the Empress-mother, as he has done. The Emperor, on his return to his own hall of audience, receives the compliments of the nobility.
Besides this public ceremony on new-year's day, the Emperor is obliged to visit his mother every five days, all his life. And an Emperor newly proclaimed, cannot receive the homage of his grandees at court, till he has first paid his respects to his mother. He never takes a wife without her consent, never bestows any principalities on her children, or grants any favours to his people, without first consulting her. In short it is held, that the filial piety of the prince, doubles all the virtues of his subjects; that all villainy begins by disobedience to parents; that every virtue is in danger when filial piety is attacked; that to praise a son is to boast; to blame a parent, is to throw a stain upon one's self: and every thing which tends to promote filial piety, is a pillar to the state; and every thing that wounds it, a public calamity.
CHAP. IX.
Of their Marriages, Education, and Funerals.
THOUGH the Chinese, in some particulars, bear an affinity with other nations, yet, in their manners and customs, they differ from every known country in Europe. If mutual consent is necessary to constitute a marriage, there is no such thing as marriage in China. The parties never see each other till the bargain is concluded by the parents, and that is commonly when they are children; nor is the woman's consent even demanded afterwards. Girls may well be reckoned part of their father's treasure, since the poorest man must purchase his wife, and no fortune is given with her.
When the Tartars, in the late war, took Nanking, there happened a circumstance, which diverted the Chinese, notwithstanding all their misfortunes. Among the disorders which the victors committed in that province, they endeavoured to seize on all the women they could, to make money of; and, when they took the chief city of that province, they carried all the women there, and shut them up together in the magazines, with other goods. But, as there were some of all ages and degrees of beauty, they resolved to put them into sacks, and carry them to market, and so sell them to any one at a venture, ugly or handsome. There was the same price set upon every one; and, for 16 or 18 shillings, take which you would, without opening it. After this manner the soldiers, who were ever insolent in prosperity, shewed themselves more barbarous, in the most polite city in the world, than they had been in the desarts of Tartary.
On the day of sale, there came buyers enough. Some came to recover, if haply they could, their wives or children, who were among these women; others were led there, through hopes that good luck would put a fortune into their hands. In short, the novelty of the thing, brought a great concourse from the adjacent places. An ordinary fellow, who had but 12s. in the world, gave it, chose a sack, as did the rest, and carried it off. When he was out of the crowd, whether through curiosity, or a desire to relieve the person in the sack, who complained, he could not forbear opening it. In it he found an old woman, whom age, grief, and ill-treatment, had deformed to the highest degree. He was so confoundedly mad at it, that, to gratify his passion and rage, he was going to throw the old woman and sack, together, into the river; when the good old gentlewoman said to him,
Son, your lot is not so bad as you imagine; be of good cheer; you have made your fortune: take care only of my life, and I will make yours happier than ever it has been yet.
These words somewhat pacified him, and he carried her to a house hard by, where she made him acquainted with her quality, and her estate. She belonged to a mandarin of note in the neighbourhood, to whom she immmediately wrote. He sent her an equipage agreeable to her quality, and carried her deliverer along with her, and afterwards was so good a friend to him, that he had never reason to complain of the loss of the two crowns he had laid out in the purchase of her.
The same matrons that negotiate a marriage, determine the sum that is to be paid for the bride: and if such negotiators deceive the bridegroom in their accounts, respecting the figure and personal qualities of the lady, he is at liberty to refuse her, on losing the purchase-money, or paying a second sum equal to it.
The calendar is always consulted for a lucky day to solemnize the nuptials; and, in the intermediate time, letters pass between the young couple, presents are sent to and from the two families, and the bridegroom purchases some jewels for his bride; but the parties never see each other. On the day of marriage, the bride is locked in a close sedan, or close palanquin, which last is a kind of couch, covered with cushions and a tester, and carried by poles on men's shoulders: if, in a sedan, the key is commited to the care of a trusty domestic, who is to deliver it to the bridegroom, and she is carried to his house, preceded by a troop of musicians, with fifes, drums, and hautboys, and followed by her family. Every thing that composes her portion is borne before and behind her, by different persons of both sexes, whilst others surround her, carrying lighted torches and flambeaux. The bridegroom, richly dressed, waits her arrival at his gate, the key is given him, and, as soon as she approaches, he eagerly opens the chair. If he is pleased with his bargain he receives her with great joy. If not, he sometimes suddenly shuts to the chair, and returns her to her parents. The poor woman has no alternative, whether she likes her husband or not; if he likes her, she must continue with him; if not, must go back: but if the bridegroom once receives her, the marriage is irrevocable.
On quitting her chair, and entering the house, she is followed by both their relations, and the new-married couple salute the god
Tien
in the hall, four times; and afterwards the parents of the bridegroom. The bride is then introduced to the women invited to the wedding, and, with them, partakes of an entertainment that ends only with the day. The men are alike entertained by the husband; for in all Chinese feasts, men and women never eat and drink together, but the one sex always apart from the other.
The procession and entertainments are always in proportion to the rank of the parties; some are attended with more pomp than others, but all make the best appearance they can.
A Chinese can only have one lawful wife, and this wife must be nearly of his own rank and age; but he may purchase as many concubines as he pleases, and receive them into his house, provided he enters into a contract to treat their daughters well. These concubines, or wives of second rank, are totally dependant on the lawful spouse, and are expected to be always obedient to her orders. Their children are considered as hers, and they address her only as mother: indeed, she is given to understand, that her husband hiring concubines, is merely to procure her a number of women to attend her, agreeable to the nations of antiquity, who established this custom in favour of population. Some husbands, desirous of male issue, which perhaps they have not by their wives, will take a concubine from this motive only, and dismiss her when their wishes are accomplished, giving this concubine a permission to marry, and often procuring a husband for her themselves.
When
Le Compte
observed to them the jealousy and uneasiness a plurality of wives must needs occasion, they replied, there was nothing but what had some inconveniencies attending it, and they did not know but a man might have more vexation with
one
than with
many:
where there are several, some of them might probably be in humour, when others were out of temper; but where a man is confined to one, there is no relief, if she proves sullen or noisy.
On the death of the lawful wife, the concubines and their children mourn for her three years, and the husband will then raise his favourite of these women, to the rank of lawful wife; on which occasions, age and rank is dispensed with, and all the ceremony I have before menmentioned. The children of concubines have, however, a right to share with the children of the lawful wife, in their paternal succession.
These concubines are almost all procured from the cities of
Yang-tcheou
and
Sou-tcheou,
where girls receive the first of educations, and are taught singing, dancing, music, and every other accomplishment that can render them pleasing and agreeable. Many are here purchased to be again disposed of. Indeed this is the chief trade carried on in these two cities. The law of China permitted no person to keep concubines but the Emperor, the princes of the blood, and the mandarins: the monarch being allowed two, and each of the others one; but custom has broken through this law. The Emperor has a seraglio of more than 500, many of the nobles have numerous collections of women, and every other man, as many as he pleases, or can afford.
As wives there are obtained only by purchase, men of the lower class, and not in opulent circumstances are forced to content themselves with one; and in this respect, the poor women in China have much the advantage of the rich. What would a lady give to exchange condition with a cottager, and have a whole man to herself? For men of fortune will have a seraglio of an hundred, if their circumstances will admit of it, where these wretched creatures are perpetually confined, and scarcely allowed to breathe the fresh air. They never see any other man than their keeper, or are seen by any; while poor women, the wives of cottagers, range about at liberty, and enjoy the use of their feet in a double sense, not being made cripples from their cradles, as their betters have the honour to be, by bandages.
In all seraglios, she who is brought to bed first, has the preference of the rest, and, till a woman has had a child, she is not suffered to sit down at the table with the rest of the family, but must wait upon them. Next to being barren, the greatest scandal is to bring females into the world; and if a woman happens to have three or four girls together, without a boy, she will expose, or strangle them with her own hands. And whenever the parents are poor and unfortunate, they consider it as an act of piety to remove an infant from a miserable existence. This is the reason so many children are exposed in the streets and highways, whose parents possibly have so much tenderness remaining, that, notwithstanding a prevailing custom, they cannot see them die, much less butcher them with their own hands.
A widower or a widow, may marry a second time, when neither age or rank are necessary conditions; but a widow of rank, with children, being absolute mistress of herself, seldom marries again: those of ordinary rank do; but those of the poorer sort are generally sold for the benefit of their husband's parents; and, as soon as the bargain is concluded, a couple of cowlies or porters bring a chair, which is locked up, and guarded by a number of trusty people, and the widow is thus conducted to the house of her new husband. Widows with child, and the mothers of a son, those whom their own friends will maintain, and who will become priestesses, are exempt from this compulsion.
Marriage is here held in such esteem, that a poor man, who cannot afford to purchase a wife, will sell himself for a slave, on condition that he shall be permitted to marry a female slave in the family. Most men marry by the time they are twenty years of age. An old batchelor is looked on with contempt, and the Chinese in general, consider it as an unfortunate situation to leave no children to mourn over their graves. There is scarce a single man to be found in the country, and the women being exceedingly prolific, it is no wonder the country is so populous, especially, as few of them travel out of it, and there is seldom war or pestilence to take them off.
It may be matter of wonder, that in a country where every man marries, and the rich have many women, ten or a dozen each, how a sufficient number of females are found for them, considering it is admitted that as many are born of the one sex as the other. But when it is considered that the poor, who make up the bulk of the nation, have but one wife each, and that as the men live single till twenty, and the women are marriageable at twelve; all the females, between twelve and twenty, are supernumeraries, and may serve to fill the seraglios of the great. They make it a rule never to marry one of the same name, but degrees of kindred are not much attended to, on the mother's side: two brothers, however, cannot marry two sisters, as with us, nor can the children of a widow and a widower marry together, nor a man any of his own relations, however distant; nor can young folks marry, whilst in mourning for their parents, nor can the daughter of a free man marry her slave.
As in all other ancient nations, divorces are granted in China, but with less facility: they are only admitted here in cases of adultery, mutual dislike, incompatibility of tempers and dispositions, indiscretion, jealousy, absolute disobedience, barrenness, or hereditary and infectious diseases. No husband can repudiate a wife till a divorce is legally obtained. If a wife elopes from her husband, he can sue out a process, and obtain a sentence to sell the fugitive, who then ceases to be his wife and becomes his slave. The law also protects wives deserted by their husbands. If he absents himself for three years, she then lays her case before a tribunal, and will be authorised to marry again; but she would be punished, if she acted so without the authority of a court.
Persons of quality generally give their daughters two or three female slaves, when they marry, to attend her home to her husband,; and so sacred is the wife's apartment, that even her husband's father is never permitted to enter it: and, if the father would punish the son for any offence, as he is at liberty to do, even after marriage; should he get into his wife's apartment, he is as safe as in a sanctuary.
Every father of a family is responsible for the conduct of his children and his servants; all those faults being imputed to him, which it was his duty to prevent. A law full of wisdom, in a country where fathers and masters exercise so great an authority over their children and slaves.
No mother in China can make a will. Adoption of children is authorised by law, and the adopted child assumes the father's name, and enjoys all the rights of a legal son. Every father has a right to sell his son, if the son has a right to sell himself; as a son in China is not allowed to have more power over his own person than his father has. But a father cannot sell his son to a comedian, whose profession is held contemptible. In short, a son, during the life of his father, is always a minor: and a son is liable to pay his father's debts, if not incurred by gaming.
Fathers, fearful of not being able to provide for their sons, will sometimes make them eunuchs, and this renders them capable of serving in the seraglios: they are called
gelubden,
and no other are suffered to approach the women.
Slavery is authorised in China, but the master has no power to debauch the wife of a slave; he would be punished with death if he did. Though slaves are so for life, it frequently happens that they gain their liberty; and some have the command of what they earn, and at liberty to earn it where they please, on paying their masters, annually, a certain sum. If some of them grow rich, by their industry, the master will not strip them of their property, but, be satisfied with large presents. He will not, however, consent to their redemption at any price.
Masters are anxious to promote marriage among their slaves, as children born in slavery are the property of such masters, and constitute a fresh tye, that attach their parents to their service.
Chinese women, even of the greatest rank, seldom quit their apartments, which are generally situated in the most retired part of the house; and here they are secluded from all society but their domestics, employ themselves in painting and needle-work (but never meddle with trade) and have birds, dogs, and other animals to divert them. If daughters are not married in their father's lifetime, brothers are obliged to support them. "A wife," says the book of ceremonies, "is not mistress of herself; she has nothing at her own disposal; she can give no orders but in her own apartment, and here all her authority is confined."
Every man has three names; a sir-name, common to the family; a proper name, and a name he receives on entering any new employ; which is called his
great-name.
If he should enter any new sect, the doctor who introduces him, bestows a fourth name upon him. As for daughters, they retain their father's sir-name only, and are distinguished according to the order of their birth, as first, second, third, &c. and do not change their names on marriage.
In the education of their children, they begin very early. The wealthy never appoint any woman to be a nurse, that is not modest in her deportment and manner, that does not adhere strictly to truth, that talks much, that has not a mild temper, and does not behave with affability to her equals, and respect to her superiors. The manner of education of the Chinese make such nurses not uncommon.
As soon as a child can put its hand to its mouth, it is weaned, and taught to use its right hand. At six years of age, if a boy, he is made acquainted with numbers, and the names of most places in the world; at seven, separated from his sisters and taken out of the nursery; at eight, he is instructed in the rules of politeness, and learns the calendar; at nine, sent to school; at ten, to learn reading, writing, and accounts; from thirteen to fifteen, he is taught music, and all his songs are moral precepts; at fifteen they learn to ride and use the bow; at twenty they receive the cap of manhood, and are permitted to wear silk and fur; whereas, before this time, they could wear only cottons.
Europeans can scarcely conceive how far the sovereigns of China have carried their attention, in order to promote and encourage letters. In every city, in every town, and in almost every village, there are school-masters, in order to teach the sciences as far as they are able. Opulent parents provide preceptors for their children, to teach them virtue, politeness, history, and a knowledge of their laws. Many of these preceptors are, for their knowledge, afterwards ennobled; and a pupil is not astonished to see his preceptor become his viceroy.
When boys are brought forward in learning, they perform public exercises, and have public examinations, in noble buildings erected for the purpose, where every thing is conducted without the least force, as in our universities, and those that have made a sufficient progress, have honorary rewards. The mandarins of letters will condescend to examine them, and the governors of cities will bestow prizes on those who best deserve them.
We shall say very little of the education of girls: they are accustomed to modesty and silence, and to a taste for solitude. If their parents are rich, they are taught every female accomplishment. The duties, however, of women in China, as in other Asiatic countries, are of the passive kind.
The funeral rites of the Chinese are considered as the most important of all their ceremonies, and persons receive more honour and homage on the day of their deaths, than ever they did whilst alive. Persons of any distinction, cause their coffins to be made in their life-time; and those of the higher rank, cause their tombs to be built; each family, as with us, having a particular burying-place. Those of the common people are in cemeteries, without the city, there being none allowed within the walls. These coffins are commonly varnished, and sometimes carved and gilt; are made of durable wood, and upwards of six inches thick.
Rich people frequently lay out a thousand crowns on a coffin of precious wood, inlaid and ornamented with different colours. Those who are not worth above twenty crowns, will often expend the greatest part of it this way. In cases of poverty, and when all other means fail, a son will often sell himself, and become a slave to purchase his father a coffin, which, perhaps, shall remain 30 years useless in the family, but is considered by the head of it, as the most valuable piece of furniture in his possession.
When a man of fortune dies, his nearest relation informs his friends of it: they assemble, wash and perfume the corpse, and dress it in the best cloaths he used to wear. Then placing the dead body in a chair, the wives first, then the children, and afterwards the relations and friends of the deceased, prostrate themselves before the corps, and passionately bewail their loss. The third day the body is put into the coffin, laid on a layer of lime, laid over with cotton, covered with a piece of silk, and placed in the middle of the hall, hung with white linen, with some pieces of black or violet-colour interspersed; having a table set before it with a picture or effigy of the deceased upon it. The relations are then again introduced, and with wax-lights burning and incense, pay their homage to the coffin, and accompany their respects with lamentations. In the mean time, all the sons of the deceased, cloathed in linen and girt with a cord, stand on one side of the coffin, in a mournful posture, whilst the mother and daughters stand on the other side, behind a curtain, lamenting in such strains as custom requires; the attendant guests, all the time chanting mournful songs. During the days that the corpse is thus kept, there are tables well covered every morning, with sweetmeats and tea: the priest is the butler; the persons who come to pay their respects to the deceased, are ushered in and out by a relation appointed for the purpose; a large sheet of paper is hung over the gate, expressing the name and quality of the deceased, and giving a short detail of his life and great actions. The corpse is sometimes kept in this state for months, and all the sons of the deceased sleep on mats or places round about his coffin. They taste neither flesh nor strong drink, nor come near their wives all this time. All the visits made to the deceased, are afterwards returned by the eldest son. The custom is, not to be at home when he calls, and cards are left.
On the day of burial, the relations are again assembled, and most of them attend and follow the corpse to the grave; and the procession is as follows. A number of men, one before the other, march in file, carrying images of men and women, slaves, elephants, lions, and other animals, painted on pasteboard, in order to be burnt at the grave. Next proceed figures of triumphal chariots, castles, flags, and censors filled with perfumes, supported by men, two and two, followed by tables of sweetmeats, &c. after which follow the priests in their robes, with drums, music and bells, playing plaintive and melancholly airs. Immediately after the music, follows the coffin, carried by 20 or 30 men, under a canopy formed like a dome, composed of violet-coloured silk; its four corners ornamented with tufts of white silk, neatly embroidered, and covered with network. Next walks the eldest son, cloathed in a canvas frock, with his body bent and leaning on a staff: behind him his brother, two and two, leaning on crutches, as if not able to support themselves, and the whole procession closed, with the mothers and daughters, carried in close chairs, covered with white silk or linen, and all the relations and friends of the deceased in mourning, who, with the ladies shut up, deafen the air with their continual howlings; to which are added, often, a number of women on foot, hired purposely to howl.
At the burying-place, they find several temporary halls erected, and lined with tables covered with provisions, and served up with great splendor, as a regale for the mourners and attendants. If the deceased is a grandee of the empire, his relations never leave the tomb for a month or two, but reside in apartments purposely prepared for them, and renew their marks of homage daily. These funerals are more and more pompous in proportion to the rank and wealth of the deceased. In the procession of the Emperor's elder brother, there were more than 16000 people, all of whom had particular offices assigned them in the ceremony.
CHINESE SEPULCHRE
Some of the Chinese have carried their filial attachment so far, as to preserve in their houses, the bodies of their deceased fathers, for three or four years; and they have all, in general, such a veneration for the burying-places of their ancestors, that neither curiosity, nor the love of gain, can allure them to travel into remote parts of the world. They have a bad opinion of foreigners on this very account; and even despise their own countrymen, who, from necessity, or for the sake of trade, go to Sunda or other islands, to reside; because they imagine they must leave their bones in unhallowed ground. It is little wonder, therefore, that the Chinese are so seldom to be met with in very distant nations.
Each family of distinction has a large building, called the hall of ancestors, erected on some part of their estates, common for all the branches of the family, and destined for the following purpose. In this hall, a long table is set against the wall, on which is painted, or the effigy fixed up of, one of their ancestors, who has filled some office under government, with honour to himself, or rendered himself illustrious by his talents. Sometimes it contains only the names of men, women, and children, belonging to the family, with their ages, day of their deaths, and dignities, inscribed upon tablets, ranged in two rows, on steps about a foot high.
In spring, the relations assemble in this hall, the two wealthiest of which prepare, at their own expence, an entertainment for the rest. This entertainment, like the feasts at Tartar graves, were originally designed for the dead; for they never touch a bit of any thing till an offering has been made to them. But their annual festivals at this hall, does not free the Chinese from the obligation of visiting the real graves, or tombs of their ancestors, once or twice a year. When they repair to these places, they begin by plucking up the weeds and bushes that surround the sepulchre, and conclude by placing wine and provisions upon the tomb, which serve to dine their assistants. The poor, who have no hall to honour the manes of their ancestors, are satisfied with placing up the names of their deceased relations in the most open parts of their houses. If the Emperor happens to meet a funeral procession, when he goes abroad, he never fails to send some of his attendants to condole with the relations of the deceased. Such are the marks of honour which the Chinese pay their ancestors; perhaps the simple dictates of nature, supported by custom, but now established into a law, which cannot be broken with impunity.
CHAP. X.
Of their Trade and Manufactures.
THE commerce carried on within the country of China is so great, that the trade of all Europe is not equal to it; the provinces are like so many kingdoms trading with each other, so that plenty reigns throughout the whole. One furnishes rice, another silk, another imports ink, and curious works of all kinds; another iron, copper, and other metals, horses, mules, furs, &. another sugars, and the best teas; another plants, medicinal herbs, rhubarb, &c. and so of the rest: for it would be endless to run through, minutely, the particular riches of each province.
The great number of canals and rivers by which China is intersected, tend greatly to facilitate the conveyance of every kind of merchandize; and its prodigious population, occasions a rapid consumption. A single merchant shall often transport, to one city, 6,000 caps, proper for the season; and they shall all be sold, in three or four days. In a word, the most frequented fairs of Europe, is but a faint picture of that immense number of buyers and sellers, with which the large cities of China are continually crowded.
There are none but the poorest families that cannot, with a little contrivance, find means to subsist very easily by their trade; many, whose whole stock shall not exceed a crown, and yet the father and mother, with two or three children, are maintained by the little trade they carry on, get silk garments, and, in a few years, enlarge their commerce to something considerable.
This may be difficult to comprehend, and yet it happens daily. For instance, one of these small traders, possessing about 2s. shall buy sugar, meal and rice, and make small cakes, which he has baked, an hour or two before day, to warm, as they express it, the heart of travellers; and his shop shall be scarcely opened, before his merchandize is carried off, by country people who crowd the cities every morning, by workmen, porters, and children of the district. This little trade produces, in a few hours, 1s. 6d. more than the principal, the half of which is sufficient to maintain the whole family; so that, by thus saving daily a little money, they are enabled to deal to a larger extent, and, at the end of a few years, it is not uncommon to see a petty shop converted into a ware-house.
Trade being so extensive in all the interior parts of China, no wonder the inhabitants are so little desirous of foreign trade, especially as they hold all foreigners in a very contemptible light. Indeed, they are not at all calculated for maritime commerce: seldom do any of their ships go beyond the straits of Sunda, to Achen, Batavia, and Japan. At Japan, the articles which they barter, and which they fetch from Camboya and Siam, produce them
cent. per cent.
From China immediately to Japan, they export drugs, sugar, hides, silks, satins, silken strings for instruments, sandal wood, European cloth and camblets. In these last they have a quick sale; but, as they are imported by the Dutch, the Chinese never carry them, unless they can sell them at the same price; and yet they affirm, they gain 50
per cent.
which shews what a profit the Dutch made by their trade. If one could depend on the honesty of a Chinese, it would be easy for the Europeans to have commerce with Japan, by their means; but this is not to be done, unless we were to bear them company; be masters of the cargo, and had a sufficient force to prevent insults. By sugar they gain, sometimes, 1000
per cent.;
for silk, what costs in China but six taels, will sell, at Japan, for fifteen.
The merchandize which Chinese traders bring back from Japan, are fine pearls, by which they gain 1000
per cent.
red copper in bars, which they buy for three or four tael, and sell, in China, for ten or twelve; wrought copper sabre-blades, which produce 1000
per cent.;
smooth flowered paper, of which the Chinese make fans; porcelain; japanned works, which are not equalled in any other part of the world, by which their profits are immense; gold, which is very fine; and a metal called,
Tombac,
by which they gain 50 or 60
per cent.
at Batavia.
Their trade with the Manillas is much less profitable, exporting a great deal of silk, satins, embroidery, carpets, cushions, night-gowns, silk stockings, tea, china-ware, and japanned work, by which they gain 50
per cent.:
and bringing nothing back, but pieces of eight.
To Batavia their trade is more regular, easy and profitable; exporting tea, china-ware, leaf-gold, and gold thread, tuta-neg, or
Toutenack,
a metal between tin and iron, which gains 150
per cent.
drugs, and copper utensils; and bringing back silver in pieces of eight, spices, tortoise-shell, of which the Chinese make sundry toys, combs, boxes, cups, pipes, and snuff-boxes, like those in Europe, and which cost but five pence; sandal wood, Brazil wood for dying, red and black wood; agate stones, ready cut, which the Chinese use as ornaments in dress; yellow amber, in lumps; and European cloths, by which they gain as much as when they sell them at Japan.
Such is the greatest trade that the Chinese carry on, out of their own country. They go to Achen, in November and December, when the ships of Bengal and Surat are on the coast; and sometimes to Malacca, Cochin-China, &c. but they seldom import any thing from this country, but spices, those bird's-nests I have described, esteemed so delicious a dainty, rice, camphire, rattan, which is a kind of long cane, and which they weave together like small strings, and torches made of the leaves of certain trees, that burn like pitch.
Their commerce with the Russians, which is very considerable, and carried on at Kiachta, the frontier-town between Chinese and Russian Tartary, I have already largely dwelt on, when I spoke of that country, to which I must refer my reader; it only remains to speak of their trade with Europeans, by sea.
The gains of the English in a voyage to China, arise from the goods brought back from thence, and not from what are carried thither. We buy the most part of their goods with silver. Lead is almost the only commodity for which the India Company get more than prime cost. We carry also scarlet, blue, black, green and yellow broad-cloth. But the remnants, or small pieces, which are bought up cheap in England, turn to better account than whole pieces. Of these small pieces, the Chinese make long purses, which hang by their side, tied by silken strings to their girdle.
The following articles turn also to pretty good account, if they can be smuggled a-shore; otherwise, the charge and trouble will be equal to the profit. Large looking-glasses, coral-branches, flint-ware, ordinary horse-pistols with gilt barrels, old wearing-apparel of scarlet or blue cloth, sword-blades about 14s. a dozen, horn-spectacles about 8s. 6d. per dozen, clocks and watches of small price, small brass tweezer-cases, and any new toy, not imported.
Goods brought back are, teas, china-ware, quicksilver, vermilion and other fine colours, china-root, raw and wrought silks, copper in small bars the size of sticks of sealing-wax, camphire, sugar-candy, fans, lacquered ware, soy, borax, lapis-lazuli, galingal, rhubarb, coloured stones, tuta-neg, gold, and mother-of-pearl toys. Though the exportation of gold is prohibited, the mandarins themselves sell it, in a concealed way. Ten tael weight of gold, touch 92, bought at touch for touch (the most governing price), amounts to 111 oz. 8 dwt. 5 grs. current silver, at 5s. 6d. per oz. value 30l. 12s. 8d. for which you have 12 oz. 2 dwt. 4 grs. of gold, worth 4l. an oz. in London, value 48l. 8s. 8d. yielding a profit of 58
per cent.
But gold is a commodity not often bought there, but by those who have more money to lay out than they have either room, or privilege in the ship, which seldom happens. There are a great many sorts of goods that, if got on shore in London, without paying duty, and sold to proper hands, would make 5 or 600
per cent.
A great deal depends on a person's knowledge of what things are likely to take in England, and at what price they are commonly sold. If a private trader would improve such a voyage to advantage, he should consult with the hard-ware, china, or toy-merchants, in London, and should carry with him musters, or patterns, by which things may be made and painted, in China, for the Chinese workmen, of all professions, are so ingenious, that they will imitate any thing that is shewn to them, to the greatest perfection and exactness.
Prices of goods sold at Canton by the English Company, in
1748.
Note,
One cattie is 20 ounces avoirdupoise.
Sixteen tael is equal to one cattie.
One pecul (Chinese), is equal to 133 lb. ¼ English.
One tael of silver is equal to 6s. 3d. English, which is divided into 10 maces, equal to 7d.½ sterling each. An English crown passes for 10 mace, or 1 tael.
Their foot is nearly the length of ours, not above one hundredth part shorter.
Lead,
per
pecul, from 3 tael to 3 tael 6 mace.
Scarlet cloth,
per
cattie, from 3 to 4 tael.
Slips of ditto, from 3 tael to 3 tael 5 mace.
Looking-glasses,
per
square foot, from 1 tael 5 mace to 2 tael.
Prices of goods bought at Canton by the India Company, in
1748.
Bohea tea, per pecul, Common, from 13 tael to 15.
—
Congo,
25 — to 30.
—
Souchong,
35 — to 70.
Green tea, ditto,
First Singlo,
at 30 tael.
—
Second ditto.
25 —
—
Third ditto.
22 —
—
Fourth ditto.
16 —
—
Best Hyson,
60 —
—
Second ditto.
45 —
—
Hyson Gobi,
65 —
—
Uchang,
40 —
—
Imperial,
38 —
Rhubarb costs from 11 to 28 tael.
So that the best Hyson tea is bought there for about 2s. a pound, the best Souchong at 2s. 6d. and others in proportion.
Opium is an advantageous commodity, when carried to China; but must be smuggled into the country, the importation being prohibited.
The porcelain, or china-ware, is so various in quality and fashion, that it is impossible to fix a price. Exquisitely fine enamel-work, in cups and vessels, is there made, and would bring more profit than either teas or porcelain, but are liable to be damaged in the voyage, and would take up much room, and, as the duty on the exportation of all metals, is as much as the prime cost, such things must be smuggled out of Canton. The prices, of late years, may be collected from the prices of China goods sold at Kiachta, which will be found in Pallas's Tour.
The India-Company trade is thus conducted at Canton. As soon as the ships come to an anchor at Wampoo, a couple of Custom-house boats, called
Happo,
are placed on each side of them, to see that nothing is smuggled in or out of the ships: and all boats that go up to the factory with goods, or passengers, must have a
Chop,
or permit, from a Custom-house officer. There are three custom-houses by the river-side, distinguished by the Emperor's yellow colours, on a long pole, before the door; at each of which, these boats must call and be examined.
When the supercargoes have agreed with the Happo, or Custom-house, with regard to the duty, and with the merchants about the prices of goods on board, and what kind of Chinese goods are wanted to load with, the Custom-house retinue come on board, measure the ship, and weigh and take an account of all the goods, which are immediately sent to the factor's, or the merchant's house who buys them, in a large sampan. To prevent embezzlement, there are two or three of the ship's company, well armed, sent with the goods, and a Chinese custom-house officer. After they arrive, and the sampan is unloaded, the merchant weighs them over again, and the supercargoes after them, in English scales, for reasons which will be mentioned.
The Chinese merchants having agreed to provide such goods as are wanted, in particular quantities, at a fixed price, and to have all ready against a certain time; the supercargoes attend, view and taste the goods, and order every chest to be packed, tarred, weighed and marked; after which, they are carried from the Chinese merchant's warehouse to the factory.
These warehouses are commonly large, full of teas, standing in baskets, as they are brought from the field (only the coarser teas are here m
nt); fine Hyson is packed in chests, lined with sheet lead, to keep it from damps, which would entirely spoil it. Two hundred cowlies, or porters, all naked to the middle, are often seen packing and treading the tea in chests. Two of them get into a chest together, and tread it down as it is filled. If some nice British ladies were to see some of these fellows, with their nasty feet and legs, perform this office, they would be apt to lose conceit of their beloved plant.
The Chinese warehouses are generally very spacious, and contain large quantities of porcelain, of all sizes and sorts, fit for the European market. The supercargoes attend packing this also, for if a strict eye is not kept on them, they will sometimes put up china cracked, broken, or of inferior quality. They have even gone so far as to fill up chests with stones or bricks, instead of the finest commodities, which have not been discovered till they have been opened in England.
If the chests are not immediately sent to the factory, or to the ship, it is absolutely necessary to leave a man or two to watch them, in the merchant's warehouse; otherwise they may be subject to great abuse; and there must be a guard on them all the way to the ships. It requires a great deal of patience and cunning to trade with the Chinese. An even temper and a smooth tongue, are qualifications absolutely necessary for a supercargo; for they must be dealt with in the same crafty manner, that they deal with others.
Every thing is sold by weight in China; flesh, fowls, fruits, rice, &c. and even liquids; and to encrease the weight, they will cram their poultry with stones and gravel. They will not scruple exchanging a live hog for a dead one, if the latter is a little larger; and they like them as well when they die of a distemper, as when killed by a butcher. For this purpose they will sometimes give such hogs as the English purchase alive, a dose to kill them soon after they are brought on board; and when we are obliged to throw them away, will take them up and sell them again to their own people.
Every person dealing with the Chinese, must inspect their goods, and be careful of their weights and measures, if they would not be cheated. Their machines for weighing are so contrived, that they can easily encrease or diminish the weight, by imperceptibly altering the beam. The English, therefore, always use their own scales. Those also, who have confided on their package, have been no less deceived. They have found chests, boxes, tubs, and cannisters, so exactly imitated and marked, with damaged goods, or things of little value, and put in the place of fresh goods; that the chest has not been discovered, till brought, as I have before observed, to England.
"I myself," says the author of this account, who was was frequently at China,
once bought a piece of stuff, for waistcoats and breeches, without looking over the whole of it, presuming it was all alike; and sent it to the taylor, but was much surprised on his bringing them home, to find my waistcoat of different colours and different substances. A gentleman of my acquaintance, went into a goldsmith's shop, to buy a gold head for his cane. The goldsmith having none of the pattern he wanted but silver-ones, told him, he would make him one: he did, but this head afterwards turned out to be a silve-rone gilt; and was probably one of those he had seen in the shop. When I have been in the shops, I have had frequently my handkerchief, fan, or cane stolen from me; and, on demanding them again, have only been laughed at: to have used violence, would have been only making a bad cause worse. I knew a poor sailor, who pulled out his purse to count a few dollars, which he got from the purser at 40
per cent.
in order to buy a little tea, &c. for his homeward passage, and a Chinese observing him, snatched the purse out of his hand, ran off and the sailor after him; and though several Chinese saw the robbery, yet not one of them offered to stop the thief, but, on the contrary, laughed at the Englishman's simplicity in attempting to recover it. At last, the Chinese finding he was near overtaken, threw the purse from him, which the poor tar went and took up, but, to his great grief and mortification, found only one dollar left. Had he overtaken the thief, it is more than probable, the mob would have rescued the villain, and sent the poor sailor home to the factory half dead with blows: for the mob are often so insolent to foreigners, as if their was neither law or government in the country; excepting when a mandarin passes, and then they are all hush and stand aside, with their eyes fixed on the ground.
There is no one to complain to in such cases, but the English linguist, who always pretends, that he cannot find the aggressor; or, if he be found, that he denies the charge.
Du Halde
gives a striking example of the dishonesty and unconcern of a Chinese merchant. The Captain of an English vessel, bargained with a Chinese merchant at Canton, for several bales of silk, which the latter was to provide against a certain time. When they were ready, the captain went with his interpreter, to the house of the Chinese merchant, to examine whether they were sound and in good condition. On opening the first bale, all was right, but the rest were damaged and good for nothing. The captain, on this, fell in a passion, and reproached the Chinese merchant in the severest terms, for his dishonesty. The Chinese, after having heard him for some time, with great coolness, replied,
Blame, Sir, your knave of an interpreter; he assured me, that you would not inspect the bales.
The Chinese have but two sorts of money, silver and copper; their silver pieces have no proper figure, but their value is regulated by their weight. The copper money is not above nine tenths of an inch in diameter, has a square hole in the middle, and is stamped with two Chinese words on the one side, and two Tartar words on the other: numbers of them are strung like beads, and are counted by strings, not by pieces. An ounce of silver is sometimes equivalent to 1000 pieces of copper coin, and sometimes only to 800. It is the intrinsic value of the metal, that stamps the value of the coin. Their silver money is cast in large and small plates, merely for the sake of trade; and for want of small pieces, a Chinese carries always about him, besides his scales and weights, a pair of scissars, with which he cuts the silver money in pieces, and either gives or receives such pieces in buying goods. When a Chinese wants to cut a piece of silver, he puts it between his scissars and knocks them against a stone, till the piece drops off.
The commerce of China is under the inspection of the tribunal of finances; and the only commerce they consider as of any advantage to them, is that which they keep up with Tartary and Russia; as it furnishes them, by barter, with those furs which are so necessary, and so much used in all the northern provinces. The trade they carry on with the English and other Europeans at Canton, they consider as prejudicial to the Empire. "They take from us," say they,
our silks, our teas, and our porcelain; the price of these articles is, consequently, raised throughout the country: such a trade, therefore, cannot be advantageous. The money brought us by Europeans, and the high-priced baubles which accompany it, are mere superfluities to such a state as ours. We have no occasion for more bullion, than what is necessary to answer the exigencies of government, and to supply the relative wants of individuals.
Through the Royal canal, all barks from the south of China, bound to Peking, must pass; and their number is so considerable, and they transport such quantities of merchandise and provisions, that the duties collected on this canal alone, amount annually to 450,000
l.
sterling.
The porcelain manufactory employs more workmen, and contributes more to the good of commerce, than any other. As China abounds with potters earth, of various kinds, and of all colours, there is a great difference between the porcelain of one province and that of another, both in shape, size, and quality. In some places, vases are made four or five feet in diameter, and three feet deep; in others, some are manufactured four or five feet high, with a proportionable circumference. These are used by the rich, as basons to hold gold-fish, flowers, aquatic plants, &c.; and by the middling class, as reservoirs for water, or for containing pulse, seeds, and fruits. They have also vases made of a kind of earth that has the property of sweetening and cooling water; these are prefered to gold, chrystal, or the finest porcelain, and are used by the poor as well as rich.
The finest China is made in the village King-te-tching, in the province of Kiang-si, in which are collected the best workmen. It is reckoned to contain above a million of inhabitants, who consume daily more than 10,000 loads of rice, and is as populous as the largest city in China. It extends a league and a half along the banks of a beautiful river, and is not a collection of straggling houses, intermixed with gardens, or spots of uncovered ground, but the people complain of its being too crowded, and that the streets are too narrow; those who pass through them, conceive themselves transported into the midst of a fair, where nothing is heard but porters calling out to make way. Provisions are here dear, being brought from very remote places, and even the wood for the furnaces is brought from the distance of 100 leagues; but, notwithstanding the high price of provisions, it is an asylum for a great number of poor families, who could not subsist in any other place. Children and invalids find employment here; and even the blind, by pounding of colours. The origin of the China-ware is not known; but this is known from their words, that in the year 442 of our era, the workmen of this village have always furnished the Emperor with porcelain, and that one or two mandarins were sent from court to inspect their labours. The word porcelain is of European derivation, none of the syllables which compose it, can be pronounced, or written by the Chinese.
Porcellana,
in Portuguese, implies a cup or dish; but porcelain in China, is called
Tsé-ki.
The fine porcelain is so celebrated, that we cannot here omit giving some account of the manner of preparing the paste. This substance is produced by the mixture of two sorts of earth, one purely white, and fine to the touch; and one intermixed with small, shining particles. These first materials are carried to the manufactories, in shape of bricks. The white, fine earth, is the fragments of rock from certain quarries, reduced to powder, which is washed and scummed, and the fine sediment only used; which being formed into cakes by moulds, are sold by the hundred. Of the shining earth, their are large mines; and it is from this the fine porcelain derives all its strength; for the white earth will acquire no firmness, without it. But of late years, the Chinese have discovered a species of chalk, which, when mixed with the white earth, instead of the rock-stone, gives it a much finer grain, but renders the China dearer, the one being three times more expensive in the procuring and preparing than the other.
To give a detail of the manner of making porcelain, would be only swelling this account unnecessarily, China being made in England and other countries; I will only shew that several causes concur in rendering the best china very dear in Europe. Besides the great profit to the importers, and that gained from them by the Chinese factors; it seldom happens that a burning or baking succeeds as it should. It sometimes miscarries entirely, and when the furnace is opened, the porcelain, together with the cases, are found melted into a shapeless mass, as hard as flint. The Chinese have greatest success in making different kinds of animals. They have the art of making ducks and tortoises that will float in water.
Entrecolles
speaks of a porcelain cat, an excellent imitation of nature, in the head of which a lamp was fixed, the flame forming its two eyes, and the effect of this figure was such, that the rats in the night-time were afraid to approach it. The Chinese set some value upon Dresden china, and still more so on the manufactures of Seve.
The use of glass is very ancient in China, so early as the beginning of the third century; and the remembrance of a glass jar presented to the Emperor Tai-tsou, who mounted the throne in 627, is still preserved. This vase or jar was so large that a mule might have entered it with as much ease, as a gnat might have entered a pitcher, and it was necessary in order to convey it to the palace, to suspend it in a net, the corners of which were fixed to four carriages.
China appears to have been the natural and original country of the silk-work, and the art of making silk from silk-worms, has been in that empire from the remotest antiquity.
China indeed may be called a country of silk, for it appears to be inexhaustible, furnishing several nations in Europe and Asia; and all the numerous inhabitants of China, except the princes, are clothed in damask and satin; and they esteem that silk to be best, which is fine, soft, and white. They ever prefer the useful to the agreeable, and confine themselves chiefly to the making of plain silks. If they were certain of a market, they would make as rich silks as any in Europe. They make cloth of gold, but do not make the gold into small wire, and cover thread with it, as in Europe; but gild a long sheet of paper, which they cut into shreds, and cover threads of silk with it; of course this does not last long, and soon tarnishes with the damp.
A manufacture of stockings, ribbands, and silk-buttons, has been some time set up at Canton, all which are made very good. The largest buttons may be bought for ten pence a dozen, and silk stockings for a tael.
The materials of Chinese paper, and the way of preparing it, being different from those of Europe, it is necessary to give an account of this, among other curious manufactures of the country. Chinese paper is of various kinds; some is made of the rind, or bark of the bamboo and cotton-tree; but, in fact, every province has its peculiar kind of paper: some is made of hemp, some of wheat or rice-straw, some of the skins found in the balls of silk-worms, some of soft bamboo, and some of the mulberry-tree bark, of which it is the second coat, or skin, white and soft. Being first beat in water to a pulp, it is made into sheets 10 or 12 feet long, and afterwards dipped in alum-water to glaze it, and answer the purpose of size: even the wood of the bamboo and cotton-shrub, may be, and is, converted into paper. The young branches stripped of their outward bark, are cut into slips and suffered to lie in water till they rot, then boiled and beat into a pulp with, heavy hammers. After this it is mixed with an unctious juice extracted from a plant, till it is reduced to thick, clammy water, the surface of which is taken up in moulds, as we do the pulp of linen rags, and forms paper. After which it undergoes a process like sizing, to make it bear the ink.
This account of their paper leads me to describe their ink. The Chinese, or Indian ink (as we call it) is not fluid like ours, but solid like our mineral colours, though much lighter. It is made of lamp-black of several kinds, but the best is that obtained by hog's-grease, to which they mix a sort of oil, to make it smoother, and some odorous ingredients to take off the rancid smell. When mixed into a paste, it is formed in moulds into small sticks as we receive it in England; but their printing ink, is a liquid made of lamp-black well beaten, sifted through a sieve and exposed to the sun, and afterwards tempered with
aqua-vitae,
till it is of the thickness of paste: after this it is thinned for use. They print only on one side of their paper; hence it is that every leaf of their books is folded, the fold being at the edge of the book, and the opening at the back, where they are sewn together, so that their books are cut at the back, whereas ours are cut at the edges. Their ordinary books are covered with paste-board, but the better sort are bound in fine satin or flowered taffety.
The art of printing, so recent in Europe, has existed in China from the remotest antiquity; but it differs very much from ours. They do not print from types, but engrave the page on wood, so as to be a
fac simile
of the copy, imitating it exactly: and, to print from this engraving, the printer uses two brushes; one puts on the ink on the engraved wood, and the other, when the wood is covered with a sheet of paper, is drawn dry over it, and this makes it receive the impression. One man is able to throw off 10,000 copies in a day, and booksellers in China, have no occasion to print more than they can vend.
The Chinese do not write with pens like Europeans, but with a rabbit-hair pencil, holding it perpendicular, and writing from top to bottom; but, like the Hebrews, from right to left, so that the end of our book is the beginning of theirs.
They have a pretty method of silvering paper (if we may so call it) at a small expence, and without using any silver. In order to this, they take two scruples of a size or glue made of leather, one of allum, and half a pint of clear water. These they simmer over a gentle fire, till the water is evaporated, that is, till no more steam arises, and, with a pencil spread two or three layers of this glue over paper laid smooth on a table. Then through a fine sieve, sift over the paper, a powder made of talc and allum, which, having been boiled in water, is dried in in the sun and pounded. This done, the sheets are hung up in the shade to dry; and, when quite dry, are again laid on a table and rubbed gently with clean cotton, to take off the superfluous powder, which is used again.
They distil a spirit called
arrack
from rice, in great quantities. Proclamations prohibiting this distillery, are often published, and officers are appointed to visit the still-houses, and destroy the furnaces; but if the owner slips a few pieces of silver into his hand, the business is winked at. The mandarin sometimes goes round himself, and the workmen if caught, are seized and whipped; the masters then conceal themselves for a short time, change their habitations, and begin again: for, as the sale of arrack is not prohibited, numbers of carts loaded with this liquor enter Peking daily. The duty is paid at the gate, and it is sold publickly in more than a thousand shops throughout the city and suburbs.
I must not omit mentioning the pearl-fishery, and I cannot do it better than in this place. Pearls being fished up in some of the rivers which empty into the Sagha-lien-oula, and these rivers being very shallow, the divers plunge boldly to the bottom of the water, and having collected whatever oysters they can, as chance directs, return to the bank with their load. This fishery belongs to the Emperor; but the greater part of the pearls are small, and not of a fine water. A much more beautiful kind is found in greater abundance in other rivers in Tartary, which flow into the eastern sea.
The Emperor sends every year to this fishery, a certain number of men, chosen from the eight Tartar bands. The first three bands, which are most celebrated and numerous, furnish 33 companies; the other five furnish 36. Each company has a captain and a serjeant: three superior officers command the whole, and a certain number of merchants, well acquainted with the nature of pearls, accompany them. All these companies, for their permission to fish, must every year give the Emperor 1140 pearls, pure and without blemish. When these fishers return, the pearls they bring are examined: if they are few in number, the officers are mulcted in their pay, or cashiered for negligence.
CHAP. XI.
Of their Government, Laws, Policy, and Revenue.
THE Chinese government is built on the ancient patriarchal. Whatever authority the patriarchs had over their families, the Emperor of China has over his subjects. No potentate on earth possesses so unlimited a power as the Sovereign of this numerous people. He is stiled,
Holy Son of Heaven; Sole Governor of the Earth; Great Father of his People,
&c. He is the undisputed master of the lives of his subjects; though he seldom exerts this prerogative but to promote their happiness. No sentence of death pronounced by any of the tribunals, no verdict in civil cases, no determination of any moment, can be enforced, till it has been confirmed by him. On the other hand, whatever sentence he passes is immediately executed. All edicts from the throne are as much respected as if they proceeded from a divinity. He has the disposal of all offices of state, and the appointment of vice-roys and governors. No employment is here purchased; merit, for the most part, raising to place; and place exalting to rank. Family is no recommendation, and even titles are not hereditary; but in the family of
Confucius,
their ancient law-giver. The Emperor has a right of nominating two successors, whether from his own family, or from any of his subjects; and as he can ennoble, so can he degrade. A plebeian to-day, may be a nobleman to-morrow; and a nobleman one day, may rank with a plebeian the next.
There are only two ranks of men in China,
viz.
the nobility and the people. The first is composed of mandarins of letters and of war, and these enjoy every valuaable privilege; in cases of necessity, may remonstrate with the Emperor, either individually, or in a body; and their remonstrances are never ill received. But the Emperor acts as he pleases notwithstanding.
The
literati
are highly honoured in China; but government checks their pride and encourages their labours. To attain the eminence of a mandarin of letters, a man must be first batchelor; secondly, licentiate; and lastly, doctor. When several places become vacant, the Emperor invites to court, a like number of the
literati,
whose names are inserted in a list, and these choose the vacant governments by lot.
There are eight orders of mandarins of letters. In the first are ministers of state, presidents of supreme tribunals, and all the superior officers of the militia. The chief of this list is president of the Emperor's councils, and great confidence is reposed in him. The second men are the vice-roys and presidents of the supreme councils of the different provinces. Of the third order are the secretaries to the Emperor. The fourth order, if not governors, are to repair the harbours, royal lodging-houses, and the barks. The fifth order, has the inspection of the troops; the sixth, the care of the highways; the seventh, the superintendance of rivers; and the eighth, that for sea-coasts. These are all mandarins of letters, and to them is intrusted the administration of the Chinese Empire. From among them are chosen the governors of provinces; of cities of the first, second and third class; and the presidents and members of all the tribunals. Honours are lavished on them, and every privilege and mark of distinction reserved for them alone. The homage paid by the people to every mandarin in office, is almost equal to that of the Emperor himself. They amount in number to more than 41000, and yet the veneration the people entertain for them is always the same.
When any mandarin quits his office, if he has acted in it to the satisfaction of the people, they load him with such marks of honour as would engage the most stupid to be in love with virtue and justice. When he is taking his leave, in order to relinquish his office, almost all the inhabitants go into the highways, to entertain him, and place themselves, some here, some there, for almost 14 or 15 miles together; so that every where in the road are seen tables handsomely painted, with satin table-cloths, covered with sweetmeats, tea, and other liquors.
Every one almost constrains him to stay, to sit down and eat or drink something. He no sooner leaves one than another stops him, and thus he stands the whole day amidst the applauses and acclamations of his people. And what is more, every one desires to have something belonging to him. Some take his boots, others his cap, others his great-coat; giving him, at the same time, another of the same sort; and before he is quit of this multitude, it sometimes happens he has changed his boots thirty times. These boots, which perhaps have only been on and off, are considered as valuable ornaments. Those which are first taken off, are suspended in a cage, over the gate by which he quitted the city: the rest are preserved by his friends, with the same care as a French warrior would preserve the sword of a
Turenne
or a
Bayard.
Public honours are dispensed with a more sparing hand, on the mandarins of arms. These never have the smallest share in the public administration, not even the inspection of the troops. But, to be a mandarin of arms, a man must pass through gradations of military science, such as batchelor, licentiate, and doctor of arms. These hold tribunals, the members of which are selected from among their chiefs. Among these they reckon princes, dukes, and counts. All these dignities, or others equivalent, are found in China. The president of this tribunal is one of the great lords of the empire, whose authority extends over all the army, and corresponds with our commander in chief. This president has, for his assessor or assistant, a mandarin of letters, who is the superintendant of arms.
The chief of the mandarins of arms, is a general by birth, and has a certain number of mandarins who act as lieutenant-generals, colonels, captains, lieutenants, and ensigns under him. The number of mandarins of arms are between 18 and 20,000.
There are six tribunals established at Peking, and the presidents of these are the Emperor's grand council, which consists of all the ministers of state, and the assessors of the six sovereign courts or tribunals, of which I am going to speak.
The first tribunal watches over the conduct of the several provinces, keeps a journal of their good and bad transactions, reports them to the Emperor, who punishes or rewards them according to its report, and is a kind of civil inquisition. The second has the superintendance of the finances of the state, as the coins, money; collects the duties, directs the public magazines, and keeps an exact register of all the families that compose this vast empire. The third is that of ceremonies, regulates them and enforces their observance, repairs all temples, arranges the annual sacrifices, receives and entertains ambassadors, has the inspection of arts and sciences, and preserves tranquility among the different religious sects here tolerated. The fourth is the tribunal of arms, has the war-department and controul of the army, and is composed of mandarins of letters only. The fifth is the criminal bench. And the sixth has the care and charge of all the public works, palaces, buildings, tombs, monuments, bridges, streets, rivers, highways, barks, and every thing relating to inland and foreign navigation.
The members which compose these different tribunals, are half Chinese and half Tartars; and one of the two presidents of each tribunal is always a Tartar born. Each tribunal has also several subordinate ones, among whom the offices in its department are divided. These superior tribunals are none of them absolute, but are checked by the interference of others: and, lest a combination of the whole should act contrary to the interest of the Sovereign, a censor is appointed over each, who watches their conduct, revises their acts, and reports to the Emperor. These men hold their offices for life, and therefore are emboldened to speak out, when they see reason for it. Their accusation sets an enquiry on foot, and the accused is discharged from his office, were he even one of the first men in the empire. An example of this kind was once made of three mandarins, who were found to have taken money clandestinely for some services done by them in the execution of their office. The Emperor not only degraded them from their office, but ordered them to retire into the class of common men; and one of them, who had been a great while a magistrate, and was much esteemed for his understanding, and respected for his age, was condemned to attend one of the palace-gates with other common soldiers, among whom he was inlisted; but when on duty as a centinel, the people would bow to him, still respecting him on the slender remains of that honour, he just before possessed.
The censors of these six tribunals, form also, a tribunal of themselves, which has the inspection of the whole empire, placed, as it were, between the throne and the mandarins. The Sovereign is master of their lives; but many of them, having a power to remonstrate to the crown, have patiently suffered death, rather than betray the cause of truth, or wink at abuses; as we have seen in the instance of the Emperor banishing his mother.
Over this tribunal, there is a supreme one, that of princes, no where known but in China, composed of of princes only. Some of the ordinary mandarins belong to it, as subaltern officers, to draw cases and prepare writings, but this is all. All the children of the Imperial family, are entered among them as soon as born, and to these are also consigned the dignities and titles which the Emperor confers on them. This tribunal is the only court where they can be tried; and, in cases of accusation, it absolves or punishes them, according to its pleasure.
An extract from Chinese history, relates a circumstance which happened, in a late war, with one of the kings of Tartary. The Emperor sent a mighty army, under his brother's command, to punish the vanity and rashness of that puny king who had dared to make inroads on the Emperor's allies. The Tartar, whose warlike troops waited only for an opportunity of signalizing themselves, advanced to the Imperial army, attacked them, and routed them, notwithstanding he was far inferior in number.
The Emperor's father-in-law, an old Tartar, well versed in the trade of war, commanded the artillery, and played his part so well, that he was killed at the head of a few, yet brave, soldiers, whom he encouraged, as well by his example as his words; but the general was accused of flying first, and drawing, by his flight, the rest of the army after him. The Emperor, who was himself a man of courage, being less troubled at the loss of a battle, than he was at that of his brother's honour, sent for him to court, and tried him before a council of the blood-royal and the princes. The royal general, who was, on all other accounts, a man of singular merit, surrendered himself with the same humility and submission, as any inferior officer would have done, and without waiting till sentence was pronounced, condemned himself, and owned that he deserved death. "You deserve it," said the Emperor,
but you ought, to recover your lost honour, to seek your death in the midst of the enemy's troops, and not here amongst us, in the midst of Peking, where it can only increase your disgrace.
At last the Emperor was disposed to pardon him; but the princes, who thought themselves disgraced by this action, earnestly begged of the Emperor to use the utmost of his power to punish him; and his uncle, who assisted at the council, treated him with so much scorn and contempt, that, with us, such usage to a gentleman, would be worse than death.
There is a tribunal inferior to all the rest, called, the Tribunal of History; composed of the greatest geniusses of the empire, and men of the most profound erudition. To them is entrusted the education of the heir-apparent to the throne; and the compilation and arranging the general history of the nation. From this body are generally chosen the mandarins of the first class, and the presidents of the supreme tribunals. This is a court formidable even to the Emperor himself, it being proof against seduction; for, was the Sovereign to attempt it, it would be consigned to history, in spite of all his efforts to suppress it.
It is the duty of each of these persons who compose this tribunal, by himself, and without communication with the rest, as things fall out, to set them down on a loose piece of paper, and put these papers, through a chink, into an office, set apart for this purpose. In these papers, both the Emperor's virtues and faults, are constantly recorded, with the same liberty and impartiality. "Such a day," say they,
the prince's behaviour was unseasonable and intemperate; he spoke in a manner unbecoming his dignity. The punishment he inflicted on such an officer, was rather the effect of passion, than the result of justice. In such an affair, he stopped the sword of justice, and partially abrogated the sentence passed by the magistrates.
Or else,
He entered wisely into a war, for the defence of his people, and the honour of his empire. At such a time he made an honourable peace. He gave such and such marks of love to his people,
and so on. And, that neither fear on one side, nor hope on the other, may bias these men to partiality, this office is never opened during that prince's life, or whilst any of his family sit on the throne. When the crown goes into another line, which often happens, all these loose memoirs are gathered up, and after being compared, to come at the certain knowledge of the truth, they, from them, compose the history of that Emperor, to propose him as an example to posterity, if he acted wisely; or to expose him to the common odium of the people, if he has acted otherwise. When, therefore, a prince, who loves honour and glory, and hopes hereafter, to live in the dutiful memory of his subjects, and sees that it is not in the power of flattery and imposture to perswade the people to give it to him, he will be circumspect and cautious how he behaves himself, during his whole reign.
No fees are paid for the administration of justice; so that every poor man can prosecute his own rights, and is freed from being oppressed by the opulence of his adversary; and there being no barristers in China, a bad cause is never glossed over, nor the judge's mind perverted by fallacious and sophistical reasoning. The goodness of a cause is its best advocate; and, if sentence is given against a man in one court, he can appeal to a higher; and the definitive sentence is always given by the Emperor.
With them, as I have observed, nobility is never hereditary; nor is there any distinction of rank, except what office gives; so that, independent of the family of
Confucius,
who are looked upon with reverence, who is considered as the legislator, and of whom I shall speak hereafter, the whole kingdom is divided into magistracy and commonalty. There are no lands but what are held by soccage-tenure; not even temple-lands, or those destined for the priests: so that their gods, as well as men, are subject to the state; and, by taxes and contributions, obliged to acknowledge the Emperor's supremacy. When a viceroy, or governor, dies, his children, as well as those of other men, have their fortunes to make; and, if they inherit not their father's virtue and ingenuity, his name, which they bear, be it ever so renowned, will entitle them to no rank or precedence. By this state-maxim, trade rises in estimation, and the Emperor's revenues increase, as no estates are tax-free, and family-influence never gains such an ascendancy, as to inconvenience the prince; and it is, lastly, a received opinion among the Chinese, that if an Emperor would be obliged, he should lay his commands on his
subjects,
and not on little
kings.
All mandarins are obliged, every three years, to give in an exact account, in writing, of the faults they have committed in the discharge of their office. This kind of confession is examined at court, and the Emperor makes private enquiry into the truth of them, and whether such mandarins have done their duty; if they have, they are rewarded, if not, they are tried, disgraced, dismissed, and punished. And every three years, the viceroy, or governor of each province, makes his report to the Emperor of the conduct of the mandarins in his district. The principal mandarins are sometimes broke, and dismissed from all employments; at other times, are only removed a few degrees lower, and appointed to some inferior office. And, a singular regulation, which exists only in China, is, that every mandarin degraded to an inferior office, is, in the execution of that office, obliged, at the head of all the warrants, or precepts, he issues, to mention the number of steps he has lost. Thus, for example, he will say—
I, such a mandarin, degraded three, four, or six steps (according as the case may be), order and command, &c
And the inspector of a province, has an unlimited authority over such mandarins, and can, by his own power, deprive them of their employment, never consulting the court, but in cases where immediate punishment is not necessary.
And, that the mandarins may be more in the Emperor's power, the offices about court, are given to the sons of mandarins; by which means, these sons remain as hostages for their father's good conduct.
The Emperors of the Chinese have seldom appeared in public; but the present Tartar-family shew themselves to the people, about four times a month. When he visits the frontiers of Tartary, as he does almost every year, 30 or 40 Tartar princes attend, to do him homage; but he visits the provinces, riding post, with only a few of his officers, guards being planted along the roads, for his security.
An unbounded authority which the laws give the Emperor, and a necessity which the same laws lay on him to use that authority with moderation and discretion, are the two props which have, for 4000 years, supported this great fabric of the Chinese monarchy. He never presumes to enact a law, but with the concurrence of the great council; or ever suspend, or alter one, but with their approbation. But he is so absolute, that the grave itself cannot put an end to his power over his subjects; for, when he has a mind to disgrace, or honour families, he will confer titles, or infamy, even on the dead.
The women are excluded from having any share in their government or councils; and, by way of derision, having learned that women are sometimes vested with sovereign power in this part of the world, they call Europe,
The Ladies Empire.
Their civil laws are almost all taken from their canonical books of morality, and filial piety is their basis. Jurisprudence is taught in China, in the same manner as the principles, rules and mysteries of religion, are in other countries; all their laws being maxims of civil and social duty. Many of them I have already set forth, under their manners and customs. But no laws can be more severe than their penal laws; and these laws are so combined, that no fault escapes punishment, and the correction never exceeds the crime committed. Every person accused is examined by five tribunals; each examines the process, and their enquiries are directed not only against the accused, but the prosecutor, and his witnesses. The culprit remains, 'tis true, in prison, during all this slow process; but prisons here are not dungeons, they are spacious and convenient. It is the duty of a mandarin to inspect them frequently, to see the prisoners properly treated, to send for physicians when they need it, he being responsible for the sick. If any man dies in prison, the Emperor is informed of it, and another mandarin is dispatched to examine into circumstances, and see if the inspecting mandarin has done his duty.
Prisons, in great cities, are so large, that they consist of several streets, with market-places, walks, gardens, canals, &c. like the palaces. In Canton alone, 'tis said, there are not less than 15,000 prisoners. The offenders are allowed to work, in the day-time, for their living, the Emperor's allowance being but small; and the Chinese not being very charitably disposed.
The slightest of all their punishments is the
bastinado.
It is a mere paternal correction, which has no infamy annexed to it. The Emperor even orders it on some of his courtiers, but they are as respectable as before; and a mandarin, without ordering, will, if he meets any one abroad deserving of it, inflict it immediately, his officers of justice being always with him. The number of blows is in proportion to the crime, but never less than 20. The infliction is with a cudgel on the breech, by throwing the offender on the ground. The offender afterwards, if he is able, falls down to the mandarin, and thanks him for his kind correction; though one blow is enough to lame him, if the officer is not bribed.
The baton, or
Pan-tsée,
a piece of bamboo, a little flatted, is an instrument of punishment which every mandarin may use at pleasure, either when any one forgets to salute him, or when he administers public justice. On these occasions, he sits gravely behind a table, on which is placed a bag of small sticks; his officers furnished with some of these Pan-tsées, and waiting only his signal, to use them. When he means to punish any one, he takes one of these small sticks from the bag, and throws it into the hall of audience; the culprit is then seized, laid down on the ground, his breeches pulled down to his heels, and a strong domestic gives him five blows of his Pan-tsée, and another succeeds, and gives him five more, if the mandarin draws another stick from the bag; and so on, as long as the mandarin thinks proper. After this, the criminal is to throw himself on his knees, and thank his judge, for the attention he has been pleased to bestow on him.
The punishment of the wooden collar is also used in China. This is composed of two pieces of wood, like the yoke by which men carry pails, which, put together, inclose the head, and fit the shoulders. They are so large, that the criminal can neither see his feet, nor put his hand to his mouth; so that he cannot eat, without being fed. It generally weighs from 50 to 60 lb. weight, though some weigh 200lb. for greater offences; and the offender is obliged to carry this about with him, day and night. The time for a robbery, disturbing the peace of a family, or being a notorious gambler, is three months. He is not at liberty to take shelter in his own house, but stationed, for a certain time, in some public square, at the gate of a city, or at the tribunal where he was condemned. When the term of his punishment is expired, he is brought before the mandarin, receives an admonition from him, and is discharged, after having received 20 sound blows.
Other crimes, less than homicide, are punished by banishment for life, to tug the royal barks for three years, or be branded in the cheeks.
Theft from relations is more severely punished than theft from strangers. Whoever informs against his parents, grand-father or grand-mother, uncle, or eldest brother, is condemned to receive 100 blows of the Pan-tsée, and be banished for three years, though the accusation may be just; and, if false, the accuser is strangled. All incest is punishable, according to the offence. A grandson, deficient in duty to his parents, grand-father or grand-mother, receives 100 blows of the Pan-tsée; if he gives them abusive language, he is strangled; if he lifts his hand against them, he is beheaded; and, if he wounds, or maims them, his flesh is torn from his bones with red-hot pincers, and he is cut into 10,000 pieces. If a younger brother abuses his elder, he receives 100 blows of the Pan-tsée; and, if he dares to strike him, he is banished.
Homicide is punished with death. The man who kills another, even in an accidental quarrel, is strangled without remission; a rope of about six or seven feet long, with a running noose, is thrown over the criminal's head, a couple of domestics belonging to the tribunal pull it strongly, in different directions, then, on a sudden quit it. A few moments after, they give it a second pull, which generally does the business; and a third is seldom nenessary.
The cutting in 10,000 pieces, is a kind of punishment never known but in China, and too horrid to be related. This torture is also too severe for a feeling mind to bear any description of, of course, I trust my readers will excuse it. But to soften their severity, these cruel inflictions are never exercised but in cases of high treason, and other extra-offences; and no sentence of death is put into execution, till it has been approved and confirmed by the Emperor, after a careful examination into the whole of the trial: nor does he sign the death-warrant, till he has prepared himself, by fasting.
Le Comte
assures us, that it is a common thing for men to let themselves out to be bastinadoed, in the room of the criminal; and the near relation of an accused person, acknowledged to be guilty, is permitted to put himself in his place, and suffer the infliction of the law for his friend, if the punishment be a light one. A Chinese condemned to banishment, may take his family with him; and the relations of all persons accused, are encouraged to administer to their wants and comforts in prison. And such is their national humanity, that the ability of a judge, who has been able to detect a criminal among all his subterfuges to elude justice, is less esteemed than one whose penetration has saved an innocent man, when conspiracy and malevolence have combined to ruin him.
The Emperor himself is treated little less than a divinity. If he is dangerously ill, the palace is full of mandarins of every order, who spend night and day in a large court, in habits proper for the occasion, to express their own grief, and ask of Heaven their prince's cure. Rain, snow, cold, or any other inconvenience, never excuse them from this duty; and, as long as the Emperor is in pain, or in danger, any one that saw the people, would think, that they feared nothing but the loss of him.
Though the prince can nominate his successor, he never changes the succession, but suffers the Crown to be hereditary, unless the next heir has forfeited his claim, by the commission of some crime. Such princes of the blood as have merit to recommend them, are always titled, and protected; but, such as are un-titled, are subject to the same police as every other citizen; and, if they commit a crime, and are tried before any tribunal, are treated with the utmost rigour, and no sum of money, however great, can exempt them from punishment.
No kind of service, rendered to the state, is either forgotten, or goes unrewarded; and nothing is neglected, in China, that has any relation to government, Even the Gazette, printed daily at Peking, and circulated throughout the empire, is made subservient to the constitution. The writers of these papers never dare to insult the nation with the abilities or success of a buffoon, with the description of a new dance, or with the graces and figure of a comedian; but, in this Gazette, may be seen, the names of those mandarins who are deprived of their offices, the cause of their disgrace, and the names of those whose merit has raised them to a post of eminence. It takes the earliest opportunity of publishing the name of the most obscure soldier, who has displayed courage and intrepidity in battle; announces to the whole empire, an act of filial piety, or an example of female modesty, even in the humblest rustic; mentions the crimes of all those delinquents punished with death; acquaints the people with every step government takes; and contains, even the remonstrances, which superior tribunals take the liberty of presenting to the Sovereign. Nothing, however, is inserted till the Emperor has seen it; death would be the consequence to the authors, or the printer, if it was.
The Emperor's revenue amounts to above 41 millions sterling, and he might easily encrease it by new impositions, but seldom exercises this privilege, for he can levy what taxes he pleases, for the exigencies of government. The common tax is about a tenth part of the profits of all professions, which is seldom exceeded; and the Emperor, every year, exempts some one or more of the provinces from paying any, especially if they have been visited by any epidemic sickness, unfavourable weather, or any other calamity.
An account of every man's family, estate, and substance, with the taxes due to the crown, is taken every year and enrolled; a copy of which is hung up at the door of every man's house, and the master is obliged to carry in the Emperor's duties to the mandarins, without being called on, on pain of imprisonment and the bastinado till done; so that all the charges of collectors and receivers is saved, and the mandarins pay in theirs to the treasury of the province, who transmits the surplus to Peking, after he has paid the governors, officers, and soldiers of the province, and other necessary charges of government are defrayed.
The greatest part of the taxes are paid in kind, and the officers of government, are all furnished with every necessary both for food and cloathing, so that the commodities paid in taxes, are almost all consumed in those provinces in which they are levied; what remains is sold for the Emperor. Those taxes paid in money, arise from the customs and the sale of salt, which belongs solely to the Emperor, and other imports; the trader scarcely contributes any thing▪ all seems to fall upon the husbandman.
The annual expences of government are immense, but they are so regulated, that great savings are yearly made, and these savings support a war, or defray other contingent expences. In short, there is so little want of money, that though China, as I have observed, contains many mines of gold and silver, they are not suffered to be opened.
Their money having been spoken of, I have only to observe; they keep up a balance in the value of copper, of which their small coin is made; never suffering it to be so low in value, as to tempt men to coin; nor so high in value, as to induce them to convert the coin to other purposes.
CHAP. XII.
Of their Army.
HAVING treated of their navy, when giving an account of their rivers and ports, I shall here only speak of their army.
The conduct and business is, as I have already noticed, under the controul of the mandarins of letters; but the field-officers are all mandarins of arms, the president of whose tribunal is commander-in-chief. It is computed that there are between 18 or 20,000 mandarins of war. The troops of the empire amount to more than 800,000, and yet they are maintained with five millions sterling; whereas, only 100,000 of English foot, cost our government two millions, rating the maintenance of a soldier at fifteen pounds per year; yet no army is better cloathed than the Chinese, better paid, or better armed. This numerous army reminds us of those of Xerxes and Darius; but if we consider the extent of the empire and its great population, it is not so extraordinary.
CHINESE GUARD PRESENTED TO THE EMPEROR
The Emperor frequently reviews his army, at which time, he is seated upon a carpet spread for him in the field, and attended, on the right, by the commander in chief, and by his chief mandarins on the left
[See the plate],
where the officers of the guards, after the evolutions are gone through, are presented to him; the guards at a distance on their bended knee. At every review their arms are carefully inspected. Those of a horseman, consist of a helmet, a cuirass, a lance, and a large sabre. Foot-soldiers are armed with a pike and sabre; some of them with fuzees, others with bows and arrows. If any of these are found in bad condition, or in any respect rusted, the neglect is immediately punished: if the offender is a Chinese, by 30 or 40 blows with a stick; if a Tartar, with as many lashes.
The horse-guards of Peking, are above 160,000, divided into eight battallions, each of which has a banner, distinguished by the colours,
viz.
yellow, white, red and blue; or by the border,
viz.
yellow, with a red border, white with ditto, red with a white border, and blue with a red border. Green is the colour of the Chinese banner. Each batallion has a general, and under him, several lieutenant-generals. Each batallion has 100 companies, well officered, and the men are pretty well disciplined. They are rather tumultuous in their march, but want neither skill nor ability in performing their different evolutions. The horse form themselves into squadrons, make an attack, engage and rally, without the least difficulty, by the sound of a trumpet or a horn. They ride with short stirrups, their knees up to the saddle, which enables them to rise on their stirrups and give a heavier blow; indeed, all persons in China, ride in this manner. The Chinese soldiers, in general, handle a sabre well, and they shew much dexterity in shooting with bows and arrows; but notwithstanding this, they are easily routed; owing to an effeminate education that boys receive, and the little use they have to make use of their weapons. To see them reviewed, one would think them sufficient to awe all Asia, but the western Tartars think nothing of their numbers, and frequently say, in derision, that the neighing of a Tartar horse, is enough to rout all the Chinese cavalry: yet they take all possible care to have good soldiers, for they take no officers into the guards, till they have made trial of their stoutness, dexterity and skill, in military knowledge.
The soldiers look very smart, are neatly dressed in blue Nanking stuff, their gowns short and narrow, with ratan caps on their heads, and a bunch of red hair fixed on the top of them; which, when they perform any quick motion, or are agitated by the wind, make a grand appearance, especially when four or five hundred of them are marching in a body. Their boots are of silk lined with cotton. Their principal arms are the sword and bow; the former is very large, heavy, and broad; they wear them on the left side, but with the handle behind, and the point hanging down forward. When they draw them, they, with the left hand, take hold of the lower end of the scabbard, and lift up the sword behind them so high, that the handle may reach above the shoulder behind; so that, at the drawing the sword, with the right hand over the left shoulder, they can give a quick and a heavy stroke; and, aukward as this may appear to those who are unused to it, it is certain they do it with great case and agility; the effect of constant practice.
Their bows are very large and strong, and are carried in a case on the left side, with a quiver of arrows on their back. On the right thumb, they wear a broad and thick ivory or agate ring, on which they place the string of the bow when they draw it, and have another ring on the left thumb, for the arrow to run upon, when they shoot.
The officers, in sun-shine, make a splendid appearance, their dress being embroidered with gold and silver on the back and breast, where their badges of distinction are fixed, and which make a glittering shew. They all wear whiskers, as do the common men, and have a fierce look. The common Tartar-soldiers, though brought from the north, have tawny complexions, and their fierce countenances sufficiently distinguish them from the natives of China, who are more effeminate and soft-featured.
There is a large plain below Canton, where the cavalry quartered in that city, are frequently exercised, and is a kind of large horse-course, with posts fixed at small distances. In this broad path, the soldiers will ride one after another with incredible swiftness, shooting their arrows at these posts: they will dismount from their horses in full gallop, take up their arms, present and shoot again; and, what is still more surprising, will mount and dismount, in their career, for the same arrow, making use of one only, all the way round: but this last operation is performed only by the more experienced soldiers.
Though there is reason to believe that the use of artillery is very ancient in China, it appears to have been totally lost about the beginning of the last century. But father
Verbiest,
a jesuit-missionary, revived it, and, by order of the Emperor, put them in the way to cast a new set: and he raised the Chinese artillery to the number of 320 pieces. The same jesuit taught them the method of fortifying towns, and of constructing fortresses; for the jesuits in Europe were not contented with sending zealous missionaries to China, but thought it necessary that their zeal should be united with other useful talents. This wise precaution procured them admission to the center of the Empire, which, till then, had been shut up against every stranger.
CHINESE ARMY on the MARCH
It is now computed that there are more than 2000 places of arms in China, and 3000 towers, or castles, dispersed throughout the whole empire; all of which are garrisoned. The fortresses, besides the principal strength derived from their situation, are defended by a rampart, a brick-wall, towers, and a ditch, filled with water. A certain city of antiquity stood once a siege of ten years, but the neighbours of the Chinese, have long since lost the true art of attack.
Nature itself, however, has sufficiently fortified this country. The sea, with a very shallow shore, borders six of the provinces, so that large vessels cannot come near them; inaccessible mountains cover them on the west, and the remaining part is defended by the great wall.
They depend chiefly upon the Tartars for their safety, for since a Tartar-prince has been upon the throne, every Tartar is enrolled a soldier from his cradle; as soon as he is of sufficient age to carry arms, he is disciplined, and must be ready to take the field upon the shortest notice.
When they take the field, their banners are carried in chariots of war, which are little else than large boxes without covers, that will hold three, fixed upon two low wheels, and drawn by four horses, conducted by reins, and caparisoned with armour. They have a kind of steel petticoat, that surrounds their legs, like Bayes's troop, in the Rehearsal, and a frontlet of steel put on their faces, with holes to see through. On one side of the chariot, is the banner, fixed upright; and on the other side, are several pikes, lances, and halberts, set up in the same manner. The general rides in a chariot alone, guiding his horses himself, with two pikes fixed up before him; the horses of which are better cloathed and armed, having pieces of armour over their necks and tails; and when so equipped, have very much the appearance of rhinoceroses. Even their very tails are cloathed.
Though no kind of service rendered to the state, is either neglected or forgotten, military services are much less so than others. Government, in time of war, bestows distinctions and rewards with a lavish hand; it extends its favours even to the lowest. If a common horse or foot-soldier falls in battle, his hair, his bow, or his sabre, is transmitted to his family, to be interred in the sepulchre of his ancestors, instead of his body: an eulogium, suited to his atchievement, is sent to be engraven on his tomb. If an officer falls a sacrifice to his country's cause, either his whole armour, his ashes, his bones, or his whole body, if it can be found, is conveyed to his relations; and according to their respective ranks, certain ceremonies are performed in commemoration of some, and certain monuments erected to others. The body of an officer, or the hair, &c. of a soldier, will be transported, on such occasions, to the distance of 1000 or 1500 leagues, if his family is so far distant. The soldier, as well as the officer, is mentioned in the gazette; and his name thus passes before the eyes of the public, and thence into the general history of the empire. But no sooner shall the war be at an end, and peace restored, than the appearance of this vast army is almost lost. No soldier is permitted to wear arms in public, except when at a review, when he mounts guard, or accompanies any mandarin; all return to the state of, and appear like, plain and humble citizens, and pursue their respective trades.
The greater part of the Tartar-soldiers at Peking, with their families, are lodged, either in immense barracks, erected in the suburbs, or in the adjacent country; and every common man is allowed a complete and separate apartment for the use of his family. The officers have houses; and, in the midst, are public schools for the education of the Tartar-youth.
In order to secure the throne in the present Tartar-family, the principal, military offices are given to Tartars. A campaign is generally reckoned to be two years service. An exact journal is kept of every military transaction, and those who have given proofs of valour or superior skill, are there mentioned with honour. Promotion is the consequence of merit, if an officer survives; if not, his rewards are conferred on his widow, children, or brothers. Neither the father of a great family, an only son, nor the son of an aged widow, is obliged to serve as a soldier; unless the state be in great danger, or in cases of the most urgent necessity, and then government advances money to those who enlist, and gives them double pay whilst they serve; one for themselves, and one for their families. In short, rewards are always ready for those who have done their duty, and punishment is not slow in reaching those who neglect it.
CHAP. XIII.
Of their Religion.
FATHER
Amiot,
an impartial and competent judge of the literature, history, and antiquities of China, gives the result of his laborious researches, respecting the primitive religion of that country, in the following words.
The Chinese are a distinct people, who have still preserved the characteristic marks of their first origin; a people whose primitive doctrine will be found, by those who take the trouble of examining it thoroughly, to agree, in its essential parts, with the doctrines of the chosen people, before Moses explained it in the sacred records; a people whose traditional knowledge, when freed from the ignorance and superstition of latter ages may be traced back without interruption, for the space of more than 4000 years, even to the renewal of the human race, by the grandsons of Noah.
There is every historical probability to support the belief, that the colony which first peopled China, were composed of the immediate descendants of Noah. The
king,
or canonical books of the Chinese, every where confirm the idea of a Supreme Being, the creator and preserver of all things, the rewarder of good actions, and the punisher of evil ones; and, mysterious as it may seem, serve to favour the doctrine of a Trinity; and the doctrine of the existence and attributes of the Supreme Being, and of the worship and homage due to him, has subsisted in China, pure and without change, during a long series of ages.
Peking contains, at present, two principal temples, the
Tien-tan
and the
Ti-tan;
in the construction of which, the Chinese have displayed all the elegance and magnificence of their architecture. They are both dedicated to the
Chang-ti
or Supreme Lord. The ceremonies with which modern sacrifices are attended, are greatly multiplied, and nothing can equal the splendor and magnificence, with which the Emperor is surrounded, when he performs this solemn and sacred duty. He alone, in quality of the father of the nation, has a right to offer up sacrifice: and, from the manner, on the one hand, in which he prepares himself by fasting, for this high solemnity; the innumerable crowd of princes, lords, and officers that surround him in his procession to the temple; the magnificence of the vestments, utensils, &c. all in gold: and, on the other hand, from the manner in which he performs his prostrations, rolls in the dust, and speaks of himself to the Chang-ti, in terms of the most abject submission, it may easily be perceived, that he assumes so much pomp and splendor, only for the purpose of declaring, in a more sensible and striking manner, the infinite distance between the Supreme Being and man.
The ceremony of plowing and opening the earth, has sacrifice previous to it, prepared by fasting and prayer; and the grain, grown from what he sows, being afterwards preserved for future sacrifices, are convincing proofs that there is more than policy in the encouragement of agriculture in the ceremony. In short, it is a religious ceremony, and has been continued in China, from the remotest antiquity.
The religion of this country is, however, after all, but idolatry. But, of all idolaters on the face of the earth,
Nieuhoff
observes, that the Chinese have fallen into the fewest absurdities. There are three sects here tolerated, that of the Learned, who follow the doctrine of the ancient book, and look upon
Confucius
as their master; that of the Disciples of
Lao-kien,
which is nothing but a web of extravagance and impiety; and that of the Idolaters, who worship a divinity called
Fo,
whose opinions were introduced from India, about 32 years after our Saviour's crucifixion.
Of the first of these sects, are they who profess regularly to study it, in order to advance themselves by the degrees and dignities of the empire; the second has degenerated into magic and enchantment, and the third is nothing but a heap of fables and superstitions. To give some idea of these different sects, I shall follow the order of time, in which they took their rise.
Of the first, I have said, it has the Supreme God for its object, revived by
Confucius,
the Chinese philosopher, who is called in China
Coum-tse,
and who was cotemporary with
Pythagoras,
a little before
Socrates;
having been born 483 years before the birth of Christ. This man was beloved by kings, and the people reverenced him as a saint; and even at this day, they acknowledge no true, hereditary nobility but in his family. He made upwards of 3000 proselytes, and sent 600 of his disciples into different parts of the Chinese empire, to reform the manners of the people, and died in the 73d year of his age. His gravity (say historians), and sobriety, his rigorous abstinence, his contempt of riches and what are commonly called the goods of this life, his continual attention and watchfulness over his actions; and, above all, that modesty and humility, which are not to be found among the Grecian sages: all these would tempt us to believe that he was not a mere philosopher, formed by reason only, but a man inspired by God, for the reformation of the world, and to check that torrent of idolatry and superstition, which was going to overspread that particular part of it. He left several books of his own composing, full of fine principles of morality; which he ingenuously owned, were collected from those wise legislators
Yao
and
Chun,
the first Emperors of China; and who lived 500 years before him. Those books are held, at present, in the highest esteem and veneration, as containing all he could collect of the ancient laws, which are looked upon as the most perfect rule of government.
The sect of
Tao-ssé,
was founded by a philosopher, named
Lao-kiun
or
Lao-tsé,
who was born in 603 of the christian aera; he was librarian to one of the Emperors, and left a collection of 5000 sentences. His morality bears a great resemblance to the doctrines of
Epicurus,
and consists chiefly in banishing all vehement desires and suppressing impetuous passions. His disciples afterwards changed his doctrines, and said it was possible to discover a liquor, that would make the drinker of it immortal. This foolish idea, led them to the study of chemistry; afterwards to search for the philosopher's stone; till, at last, they were lost in all the wild extravagancies of magic; and the weakness of preceeding Emperors too much encouraged it.
The
Tao-ssé,
at present, offer up three different victims to the spirit they invoke, a hog, a fish, and a bird, and follow up their incantations with grimaces and horrible cries. Some of them in China, pretend to be fortune-tellers; and ridiculously as they act, their chief is invested by government, with the dignity of grand mandarin, which his successors enjoy, and he resides in a sumptuous palace in the province of Kiang-si. The superstitious confidence reposed in him, attracts a crowd of followers, who flock there for cures, from all parts of the empire, and to know their fortune. And this mandarin distributes small pieces of paper, filled with magic characters, to all around him, who depart satisfied, and without regretting the fatigue or expence of these pious pilgrimages.
This sect, still more pernicious, and much wider diffused throughout China, than the preceding, came originally from India: it was introduced by the Emperor Ming-ti, from a dream. He happened to dream, one night, says history, and a sentence which
Confucius
often repeated, occurred to his mind,
viz.
"That the Most Holy was to be found in the west." On this he sent ambassadors into the Indies, to discover who this saint was, and there, supposing they had discovered him among the worshippers of the idol Fo, brought the idol into China, and with it the fables, wherewith the Indian books were filled. This was in the 65th year of the Christian aera.
The priests attached to the worship of Fo, are called, by the Siamese,
Talapoins;
by the Tartars,
Lamas;
by the Chinese,
Ho-chang;
and by the Japanese,
Bonzes;
by which latter name, they are better known in Europe.
One of the principal doctrines of this sect, is transmigration, of which Fo appears to have been the inventor, as he lived 500 years before
Pythagoras;
and as we know that this Grecian philosopher travelled through Egypt and several parts of India, there can scarcely be a doubt of his having borrowed this notion from some of Fo's disciples. Another part of their doctrine, is the worship of ancestors. Every Chinese keeps in his house, a table whereon is written the names of his father, grand-father, and great grand-father; before which they frequently burn incense and prostrate themselves; and when the father of a family dies, the name of the great grand-father is erased, and that of the deceased added, to make up the number.
I shall not here attempt to examine all the errors of the doctine of Fo; its folly and absurdity will sufficiently appear, if the ideas on which it is founded be only mentioned.
Nothing, (say they) is the beginning and end of all that exists. From nothing our first parents sprung, and to nothing shall we all return. All beings are, in fact, the same, their only difference consists in their qualities and figure; the universal principle of which they consist, is so subtle, simple and pure, as to be, in reality, nothing; and to be in a state of rest, and obtain happiness, we must endeavour, by constant meditation, and frequent conquest over ourselves, to acquire a likeness to this principle, and to obtain this end, we must accustom ourselves to do nothing, will nothing, feel nothing, and wish for nothing; and when we have acquired this state of happy insensibility, virtue and vice, rewards and punishments, providence and immortality are out of the question. The nearer a man approaches to the nature of a stone or a log, the nearer he is to perfection: all holiness consisting in ceasing to exist, and being annihilated.
Can any one believe that a philosophy so absurd would have found partisans in China? But so it did; and the following are the tenets preached by the Bonzes, who profess this doctrine. They admit of distinction between good and evil, and the doctrine of future rewards and punishments. They say, as Christians do of their Saviour, that Fo came upon earth to serve mankind, and to redeem sinners; that by him all sins are expiated, and that, through him alone they are to have a happy regeneration in the life to come. They have five precepts which they enjoin a strict observance of. 1. Not to kill any living creature. 2. Not to take away the goods of another. 3. Not to pollute themselves by uncleanness. 4. Not to lie. And, 5. Not to drink wine. But above all, they recommend acts of mercy, to treat their Bonzes well, to erect temples and monasteries for them, and supply them with every necessary, that they may be enabled, by their prayers, to merit forgiveness for them, and a remission of their sins.
At the funeral of your parents (say they), burn paper gilt with gold and silver, gold and silver-stuffs; these substances will be changed into real gold and silver, (and so it is for them) in the other world, and all these riches will be transmitted to your fathers. Wo unto you, if you obey not these precepts! Your souls will be delivered over, after death, to the severest torments, and be subjected to the most disgusting changes: you shall live again in the form of dogs, rats, serpents, horses, and mules, and shall be for ever exposed to the most dismal and wretched transmigrations.
Le Comte
tells us of one whom the Bonzes had persuaded, that his soul was to go into one of the Emperor's post-horses, that conveys his dispatches; and they had advised him to eat little and endure it patiently, and God might be induced, the next remove, to let him pass into some person of quality. But the man was under such horror at being a post-horse, that his being a man of figure afterwards, gave him but little satisfaction: he could not sleep, day or night; his imaginations led him to think he was already in harness, and starting at the smack of the postilion's whip.
I awake (would he say) all in a sweat, half frantic,
not knowing whether he was still a man, or metamorphosed into a horse. He flew, therefore, to
Le Comte,
and begged of him to baptise him and make him a christian, that he might not undergo, when he died, so disagreeable a change.
Although each family is particularly sollicitous to pay the utmost honour to the idols they think proper to adopt, it does not appear that they have any sincere respect for them. In cases, where they have often prayed for success, the patience of their votaries is wearied out, and they will make their offerings to other deities. Others, less moderate, will treat them roughly, kick them about and load them with abusive language.
Thou dog of a spirit (will they cry), have we not lodged thee in a commodious temple? Art thou not well gilt, well fed, and well incensed? Yet, notwithstanding all our care and respect, thou art ungrateful enough to refuse us, even things that are necessary.
And with this will tie the idol with cords, drag it through the kennels, and bespatter it with filth and dirt, to punish it, for all the perfume they have before lavished on it: but, if, during this scene of frantic folly, they should chance to obtain what they pray for, they will wash, clean, and carry back the image with great composure, to its niche, prostrate themselves before it, make the humblest apologies for their rashness and presumption, and beg of it forgiveness.
Le Comte
entertains us with a story which happened while he resided at Nanking. A certain man whose only daughter lay dangerously ill, having tried all the art of the physicians, without effect, thought proper to implore the assistance of the gods. Humbly did he prostrate himself before his idol, and offer, not only prayers, but alms and sacrifice, for the recovery of his child. The Bonzes, who benefited by this, promised a cure, on the part and faith of the idol, but promised in vain. The girl died, and the father, to be revenged, prosecuted the god in form, by laying his case in writing before the judge. After having represented, in the liveliest terms, the deceitful conduct of the unjust divinity, he prayed that exemplary punishment might be inflicted on it for its breach of saith.
If the spirit,
said he,
had power to cure my daughter, it was guilty of fraud, in taking my money, and suffering her to die. If it had not power, it was equally as bad to pretend to it. By what right then, does it assume the character of a god? Is it for nothing that we adore it, and that all the province offers it sacrifice?
In short, he concluded, that whether it was want of power, or malice in the idol, its temple ought to be rased, its ministers banished with disgrace, and itself punished in its own person.
This affair being, by the judge, considered as important, was referred, by him, to the governor; who, unwilling to have any thing to do with the gods, begged the viceroy to enquire into it: he did, and finding the Bonzes much alarmed, advised the complainant to drop the suit; telling him, it was injudicious to quarrel with this kind of spirits, who were naturally revengeful.
I am afraid (continued he) that if you carry this matter too far, they will play you some, bad trick. Believe me, you had much better accommodate the matter with the Bonzes. They have assured me, that the idol will hearken to reason, provided you do not provoke it to the contrary.
The man, oppressed with grief for the loss of his child, persisted in his resolution, and declared he would rather die, than relax in his request.
I am determined, my lord,
said he.
The idol may conceive, he may commit injustice with impunity, because no one will have the courage to attack him; but he shall find himself mistaken, and we shall soon see which of the two is the most obstinate and malicious.
The viceroy, finding he could not prevail on the man to give up his point, ordered the trial to be brought on. The idol, not wanting partizans, those to whom the Bonzes gave money to defend it, found its right incontestible, and pleaded so strongly for the god, that he could not have spoke better for himself. But the opponent was a man of much greater penetration and shrewdness, and had, on his part, not been sparing of his money; of course, purchased as many proofs as were requisite, convinced that the devil would be very cunning if he withstood
golden
arguments: and the consequence was, a decree was given in his favour. The idol was condemned to perpetual banishment, as useless in the empire, its temple was demolished, and the Bonzes, who represented its person, were punished in an exemplary manner.
These Bonzes, or priests, are generally men of little or no character, and, being brought up in idleness, devote themselves to this kind of life, merely for a maintenance. There is no artifice they do not use to extort money from the credulous, and the tricks practised by these pious sharpers, often furnish subjects for conversation in China. The following, extracted from
The new Memoirs respecting the present Sate of China,
will divert our readers.
Two of these Bonzes perceiving one day, in the court-yard of a rich peasant, two large ducks sitting before the door, began to sigh and weep bitterly. The good woman of the house, who perceived them from her chamber, enquired the cause of their grief. "We know," replied they,
that the souls of our fathers have passed into the bodies of those ducks, and the apprehension of your killing them will kill us.
Very true, (said the woman), we meant to kill them, but since you tell me they are your fathers, we will preserve them.
This was not what the Bonzes wanted; they wanted the ducks.—
Alas! (returned they), your husband may not have that charity, and, be assured, that should any accident happen to them, it will prove fatal to us.
In a word, the woman was so affected with their pretended tears, that she gave the ducks into their own care, which they very respectfully took charge of, after twenty prostrations; but, the same evening, put their feathered fathers on the spit, and made a hearty meal of them.
There is scarce a source of hypocrisy which these fellows are not up to. With a design to appear very deserving among the vulgar, and to excite a compassion, which produces them presents, they will affect to put themselves under severe penances, and thus expose themselves publicly in the streets. Some will fasten thick chains, 30 feet long, about their neck and feet, and drag them along the street, seemingly in great pain, and stop at every house, and say,
See, good folks, what we suffer for the expiation of your crimes: cannot you afford us a trifling alms?
Others will cut their heads with flints, and go about all bloody, on the same pretence. But, among all the pretended penances related, none exceeds that told by
Le Comte,
the missionary, in his
Memoires,
of which he himself was an eye-witness, and which he relates in the following words.
I met one day, in the middle of the village, a young, brisk Bonze, whose mildness and modesty in asking charity, was very likely to ensure him success. He was standing erect in a kind of narrow, close chair, stuck full, in the inside, with nails, the sharp points of which projected so far, and left him so little room, that, move which way he would, they were sure to prick him. Two men, hired for the purpose, carried him, very gently, from house to house; and, when he was set down, he begged compassion.
I have,
said he,
shut myself up in this place of little ease, for the good of your souls; and am resolved never to quit it, until you have purchased all the nails (and their number was about 2,000). Each nail is worth six-pence; but there is none of them, but will prove a source of blessings to you and yours. If you buy but one, it will purchase a happiness, and be an act of heroic virtue; and the alms you thus bestow, will not be given to the Bonzes, to whom you may otherwise bestow your charity, but to the god Fo, in honour of whom we are building a temple.
At that time I was passing by: the Bonze saw me, and addressed me as he did the rest. I told him, he was much in the wrong, to torment himself so uselessly in this world; and advised him to leave his prison, to go to the temple of the true god, be there instructed in heavenly truths, and submit to a penance less severe, and more salutary.
He thanked me very mildly and calmly for my advice, but told me, he should be much more obliged to me, if I would buy a dozen of his nails, which would certainly procure me a safe and pleasant journey. Here, said he, turning himself on one side, take these, upon the faith of a Bonze, they are the best in my chair, because they give me most pain; but they are all of the same price. He uttered these words, with an air and action, that, at another time, would have made me laugh; but at this, it excited my compassion, to see this wretched captive of the devil, suffering more to destroy his soul, than a christian is obliged to endure to be saved.
All Bonzes, indeed, are not so industrious, for many will renounce these painful means of getting alms; but, to attain the same end, will sometimes go to the extremity of committing murder. Some years ago, says
Le Comte,
the governor of a city, passing along the highway, with his customary train, saw a large crowd assembled, and found, on enquiry, that the Bonzes were celebrating a festival. They had constructed, on a large scaffold, or theatre, a very high machine, at the top of which a young man put forth his head, above a small ballustrade that surrounded it. Nothing could be seen but his head; and of this, only his eyes seemed at liberty, which he rolled about with an apparent phrenzy. A little lower, on this scaffolding, an old Bonze was explaining to the crowd, the sacrifice which the young man, above, was going to make of his life, by throwing himself into a deep stream, which ran by the highway-side. "He will not die," said this Bonze,
because he must be received at the bottom of the waters, by the charitable spirits, who will hasten to protect him; in a word, it will be the greatest happiness that can befal him. A hundred other persons have offered to supply his place; but his zeal, piety and virtues, have given him the preference.
The mandarin having heard this tale, said, the young man shewed wonderful courage; he should like to talk with him; and begged he might be brought down to him. The old Bonze, frightened at this request, immediately opposed it, protesting, that all would be lost, if the victim only opened his mouth; and that he could not answer for the mischief that might thence arise to the province.
The evil you fear,
said the mandarin,
I will take upon myself: bring him down.
The young man, hearing this, made a noise, and rolled his eyes about. "See," said the Bonze,
his agitation and his looks! Your honour will drive him to despair, and he will expire with grief.
The mandarin, firm to his resolves, ordered his attendants to mount the scaffold, and bring him down by force. They immediately obeyed, and found him bound and gagged. As soon as he was released, and able to speak, he cried,
Ah! my lord, grant me vengeance on these assassins, who intended to drown me. I am a bachelor going to court, to attend the customary examinations, and these Bonzes seized me yesterday, and this morning bound me to this machine, in the manner you found me, before break of day, determining to throw me into the water in the evening, and to perform their abominable mysteries, at the expence of my life.
— As soon as he began to speak, the Bonzes fled; but the officers of justice, who always make part of a governor's train, soon overtook some of them. Their chief was immediately thrown into the river and drowned; and the rest were conducted to prison, and afterwards punished a
they deserved.
A letter of Father
Laureati,
an Italian jesuit, gives us a story of a different kind, but equally descriptive of the villainy of these men. Near the city of Fou-tcheou, there was formerly a famous pagod, inhabited by the most distinguished Bonzes of the province. The daughter of a Chinese doctor, who was going in a covered chair, accompanied by two, female attendants, to her father's country-house, had the curiosity to see this temple, and sent to beg of the Bonzes that they would retire, until she had said her prayers. The chief Bonze, desirous of seeing this young lady, secreted himself behind the altar; he had no sooner beheld her, than he was smitten with her charms, and became so desperately enamoured, that all thoughts of danger vanished, and he conceived, it would be very easy to carry off a feeble woman, so badly attended. Accordingly, he ordered some other Bonzes, his confidants, to lay hold of her attendants, whilst he forced the young lady to satisfy his brutal desires, in spite of all her cries and tears.
The father did not long remain ignorant of the cause of his daughter's absence. He knew she had entered the pagoda, and had then disappeared, and required, that she should be restored. And, on the Bonzes declaring, that she left the temple as soon as she had said her prayers, the father applied to the Tartar-general of the province, and demanded justice against the ravishers of his daughter. The Bonzes, relying on the credulity of the father and the governor, informed them, that the god Fo, having fallen in love with her, had carried her off; and the delinquent took pains to perswade the father, that he and his family were highly honoured, by this distinguished mark of the god's respect. But the Tartar-general had too much sense to be amused with such fables; he resolved to search the pagoda; and, whilst he was prying into every recess, heard some confused cries, which seemed to proceed from the bottom of a rock: he immediately advanced towards the place, and perceived an iron-gate, shut, leading to a grotto. Having ordered it to be broke open, he descended into a subterranean apartment, where he found the young lady, and above 20 other females, who had been confined in that dismal abode. The governor, after having relieved them, set fire to the four corners of the edifice, and destroyed, in the same flames, the temple, altars and gods, with their infamous ministers.
Notwithstanding the infatuation of the people, in favour of popular superstition, the Bonzes are held in contempt; for, springing from the very refuse of the people, they are, in general, but fanatical impostors. To perpetuate this sect, they purchase young children, and bring them up to their own mind, and, after all, are ignorant even of their faith. Though they are under no regular hierarchy, they have superiors among them: some collect alms; and some acquiring literary knowledge, are commissioned to visit the
literati,
and the houses of the great; and old men, rendered venerable by years, intermix with the women, and preside at their religious assemblies.
These assemblies, or clubs, consist of from 15 to 30 ladies of rank, when widows, or advanced in life. One of them is elected superior for a year; and at her house these meetings are held, where they have a kind of chapel. On common-days, when these female devotees are assembled, such an aged Bonze enters, and sings several anthems to the god Fo; and, after repeatedly singing,
O-mi-to Fo!
and dinging on the bottom of several small kettles, which they beat, they place themselves at tables, and finish their noisy devotion with mirth, and a good repast.
But, on days of greater solemnity, their place of worship is ornamented with a number of idols (one of which is the idol of Immortality, and represented by a very fat man, sitting cross-legged, with a great, naked belly, such as we have often seen in china-ware in England), and a variety of paintings, under a hundred, different forms, exhibiting the various punishments inflicted on the wicked in hell. A grand, or superior Bonze, is at this time invited, who attends with a whole train of ministers, and the prayer and feasting continues for seven days. One of the great businesses of this day, is to prepare and consecrate treasures for the other world. To this purpose, they erect a small edifice, with paper, painted and gilt, resembling a house, and being finished with great care and accuracy, they supply it with every piece of useful furniture found in the houses of the opulent; and fill it with a great number of boxes, in which they deposit pieces of gilt paper, as ingots of gold and silver. A hundred of these small boxes, are designed to redeem those sinners from the dreadful punishments of the Infernal King, who have nothing to give; twenty are also put aside, to bribe the officers of the tribunal of this King of shadows: the house is for lodging and boarding, in the other world, where they each hope to buy some office, or public establishment. The whole of these imaginary riches being put into their respective boxes, are secured by a paper lock; the house, or palace-door, is then secured. When the person who has fitted up this toy, happens to die, the paper-house, and it, contents, are burnt at the grave, with great formality; in order that the soul of the deceased may take out the treasure, which they conceive, will be then converted into realities, and enable it to make its peace with the King of Terrors. At these times, the priests who think differently, are not satisfied with paper-money, but expect to be see'd with that which is more substantial.
Thus is China become a prey to all sorts of ridiculous and extravagant opinions; and though some of the learned oppose these sects, treat them as heresies, and have sometimes inclined the court to exterminate them throughout the empire, yet such inclinations have been attended with no effect; either, through a fear of exciting commotions among the people, or, because they have had secret favourers and protectors among the learned themselves.
The learned, of modern times, have established a sect of their own. These give the first principle of all things the name of
Tai-ki,
which they say is impossible to be explained, being distinct from matter; and, of course, they have no terms to explain it by. However, they compare it to the ridge of a house, that unites the roof; to the root of a tree; to the axle-tree of a chariot; to a kingdom in which all things live; and affirm it to be the basis of every thing. They hold it to be eternal, infinite, perfect, and the essence of all other beings, But, some of the missionaries, have been perswaded, that all the learned in the empire are atheists; and, there is scarce an individual, but what forms imaginary deities of his own. Every city of China is filled with fortune-tellers, who are generally blind people, that play on a lute, and go about, from house to house, to tell fortunes, for a small piece of money. There are other people who consult oracles, respecting transactions they are about to perform; and these oracles, or kind of magic, are managed by the priests: and there are others, as extravagant in opinion as the human mind is capable of inventing. These are called
Fong-choui,
which signifies wind and water; or the lucky, and unlucky, situation of a house, or other building. If close to the house of one of these men, a neighbour has built another, but on a different plan; should the angle formed by its roof, stand in a particular direction, it is enough to occasion utter ruin and destruction; and the proprietor of the first house lives ever after in terror, conceiving, that he and his posterity, will be continually exposed to the malign influence of this unlucky angle. The erection of the new building becomes the epoch of universal hatred, between the two families, and perhaps ends in a law-suit; and, when a judicial process can give no relief, the only alternative left, is, for the proprietor of the first house, to place the figure of a devouring dragon on his roof, with his mouth directed to the hated angle, and form an opinion, that this dragon will, from time to time, devour its malignity; his apprehensions of ill luck will begin to subside, and tranquility be, in some measure, restored to the family.
The governor of Kien-tchang took this
wise
method to secure himself from the Jesuit's church, which, having been built on an eminence, overlooked his palace. He did not, however, depend entirely on the protection of this tutelary dragon, but altered the position of his principal apartments, raising, at the distance of 200 paces from the church, a kind of large facade, three stories high, the better to break the influence of the
Tien-tchu-tang
or Temple of the Lord of Heaven. It unluckily happened, that the death of the governor's successor was attributed to this facade. The mandarin was attacked by an astmatic complaint; he spit up a phlegm of a white colour, which was owing, they said, to the walls of the facade being painted white; they were, therefore, daubed over with black, in hopes of producing a contrary effect: but in vain, he died; and it was concluded, that the painting of the walls black, was not done soon enough.
I should never have done, was I to relate all the stories that are told of this kind. There are some men who follow no other profession than pointing out mountains, hills, and other places, that have an aspect favourable for burying-places: aad, when a Chinese is perswaded of the truth of such information, there is no sum that he would not sacrifice to purchase it; from a conviction, in his own mind, that all the happiness of his life will depend upon it. Such is their infatuation, and such their superstition; that if this, or that person, is endowed with a greater share of genius, if he is fortunate in life, rises rapidly to the degree of Doctor, is promoted to the rank of superior mandarin, blessed with a numerous family, has less sickness than others, and is more successful in trade, it is not owing to knowledge, activity or honesty, but only to a lucky
Fong-choui;
because his houses, and the burying-places of his ancestors, are happily situated.
The study of letters being the high road to dignities, and it being open to persons of all degrees, there must needs be many of mean extraction brought up in idolatry, and, when they become mandarins, either through the prejudice of their education, or a public complaisance to the people, and to maintain the public tranquility, seem to adopt the opinions of every different sect, and the rather, because the Chinese, of all ranks, seldom look any further than the present life. The mandarins, who are living deities of the country, have seldom any god but their fortune; and this being liable to several, troublesome vicissitudes, their principal care is to avoid misfortunes, and keep themselves safe in their posts. The students, who may be considered as the lesser nobility, have nothing at heart but a certain honour, which consists in succeeding in their examinations, and in raising themselves to the highest degree. Merchants think of nothing, from morning to night, but their business; and the rest of the people are entirely taken up in procuring a livelihood, which consists in a small quantity of rice and pulse. In this manner is all the time of the Chinese taken up; religion, with them, being only a secondary thought.
The Emperor, being a Tartar, follows the idolatry of his own nation, which does not differ much from that of the Chinese; except it be, that they worship a living man, whom they stile
Lama;
which,
Le Comte
says, is the same with the god
Fo,
only worshipped under a sensible figure. I have dwelt a good deal upon this religion, when I was speaking of the Tartars throughout Siberia. This Lama receives here, the title of
Eternal Father;
and all the Eastern Tartars have the highest veneration for him. He is shewn in a dark place, in his palace, illuminated with lamps. He sits cross-legged, on a cushion, raised above the ground, dressed in the richest robes; and all that approach him, fall prostrate, and kiss his feet. He is of such authority, that no king is crowned, till he has made rich presents to this pretended deity, and implored his blessing. His residence is at Barantola, where he holds a court like a king, but does not meddle with secular government, and may properly be stiled, the Tartar's Pope.
Since a Tartar-prince has been seated on the throne of China, the priests of this great Lama, who are also called
Lamas,
serve as chaplains to the Tartar-nobility living at Peking. The Emperor himself, for reasons of state, shews both Lamas and Bonzes a particular respect; but the jesuits observe, that he is no slave to their faith, that he sees through the folly of it, and laughs, in private, at their extravagant fables. But 'tis acknowledged, that the Emperor still pays those honours to
Confucius
that others do, and sacrifices in the heathen temples; and, though the jesuits would have us believe, that he adores only the Supreme Lord of the Universe, and that nothing but reasons of state prevent his embracing christianity, yet they acknowledge, at other times, that he assures them,
he cannot believe the christian religion; that whatever difficulties there are in it, if he was convinced of the truth of it, he would not delay a moment to embrace it; and that if he became a christian, the whole empire would soon follow his example.
Through the favour of the late Emperor, the christian religion gained such ground, that they had 200 churches and chapels, very well filled with converts, but these are of the poorer sort, christianity making but slow progress amongst the wealthy. They had also, when
Le Comte
was there, three bishops, appointed by the king of Portugal, who claims a right to the churches in the east; one of these bishops was at Peking, one at Nanking, and one at Macoa. The better sort of people are not only offended at the doctrine of the Trinity and Incarnation, but the magistrates, and opulent, are so universally given up to cheating and extortion, by which they acquire estates, that the Roman catholic doctrine of restitution does not agree with them. Parting with their women is another great objection to their embracing the christian faith; and to preach to the women to live with one man, when their husbands have an absolute power over them, and can sell and transfer them from one to another, as often as they please, seems to very little purpose: however, the missionaries assure us, that they converted above 50,000, in the space of a very few years. Were Protestant preachers to be sent amongst them, in all likelihood they would better succeed; for, though the jesuits have been very complaisant to the Chinese in many instances, and winked at their worship to
Confucius,
and their deceased parents, yet they rigorously exact their putting away all their wives and concubines but one, as a necessary qualification to their admittance into the christian faith; which is with them such a difficulty, that they cannot get over it, it being contrary to the laws and customs of the country to put away a wife, but for some misdemeanour; and the relations of the woman would demand justice upon such an occasion; but it would also be hard to separate children from their several mothers, which must be done in this case, or the father must part with the children too, and commit the education of them to strangers.
As for the women, it is not conceivable what effect this doctrine has upon them. One who had no other objection to christianity, very well replied to a certain father on this occasion:—
Sir, I belong to a mandarin who bought me; if I leave him, he has a right to follow me, bring me back again, and make a slave of me. But, supposing I could avoid his pursuit, where could I fly? My relations, who sold me, dare not harbour me; and I should infallibly fall into the hands of some other person, who would keep me in the state I seek to avoid. I must, therefore, remain in the house where I am: and how shall I be able to resist a brutish fellow, who consults only his lust, and will be justified by the laws and example of the whole empire? It will be to no purpose to lay before him the holiness of christianity, which I desire to embrace; neither my tears nor my entreaties, nor even the most obstinate resistance I can make, will be able to hinder him.
—So that the missionaries themselves, check the increase of that faith they wish to propagate, by proposing impossibilities, which surely the Divine goodness cannot countenance; nor can it enter into the heart of man to believe, that our Saviour himself, would have refused such a proselyte, who, in all other instances, was sincere.
But as all the great men in the empire will certainly remain averse to christianity, if nothing less than parting with their women will satisfy the jesuits; so, on the other hand, the women will infallibly promote it, to the utmost of their power, that every one may have her man to herself, and be a little more on a level with our sex. Were the interest of the ladies as good in that part of the world, as it is here, the jesuits would need no supernatural assistance, to carry their point. It is very unfortunate for the jesuits, that that they can scarce have any opportunity of approaching the fair-sex; whatever purity, or self-denial, they may preach, or practise, the Chinese understand human nature too well, to suffer the most mortified of them to converse,
tete a tete,
with their wives; for these surly men will not trust their women even in a church with the men.
Such was the state of christianity when
Le Comte
was there; but we understand since, that the Emperor, disliking the conduct of the missionaries, has banished them all, and overthrown their churches; so the christian religion is losing ground daily.
Among the many religions in China, there are not wanting Jews; and the discovery of a synagogue in an empire so remote, is a circumstance too interesting to be here omitted. This Jewish colony appeared in China, in the year 206 before Christ, and has continued ever since; though at present it is reduced to a small number of families, established at Cai-fong, the capital of the province of Honan. As we are indebted to
F. Gozani,
a Jesuit missionary, for the first knowledge of these Chinese Jews, we shall give the account from him.
These Jews consisted, when
Gozani
was there, of only seven families. He paid them a visit, hoping to find the Old Testament among them. They have a synagogue, and a variety of religious books.
I compared my bible,
says
Gozani,
with theirs, and found the most exact conformity between both.
These Jews here are called
Tiao-kin-kiao;
and still preserve several of the ceremonies mentioned in the Old Testament: such as circumcision, which, they say, originated from
Abraham;
the feast of unleavened bread; that of the Pascal lamb, in commemoration of their departure from Egypt, and of their passage through the Red Sea, and the Sabbath; and other festivals, prescribed by the ancient law.
These families form alliances with each other, and never mix with the
Hoei-hoei,
or Mahomedans, to whom they bear no resemblance, either in their books, or religious ceremonies. Their synagogue is something like our European churches, being divided into three aisles; that in the middle, like the choir, is occupied by the table of incense, the chair of Moses, and the 13 tabernacles, constructed in the form of an arch, containing 13 copies of the Pentateuch; the two other aisles are set apart as places of prayer: within the building is a passage, which runs quite round it. These Jews render homage to
Confucius,
as the
literati
do; and assist them in the solemn ceremonies, performed in halls dedicated to their great men: and, in spring and autumn, practise certain rites, in honour of their ancestors, as do the Chinese; but do not present them with the flesh of hogs, having, in their hall of ancestors, neither tables, nor images.
They told
Gozani,
that their ancestors came from a kingdom of the west, called, the kingdom of Judah, which
Joshua
conquered, after they had left Egypt, had crossed the Red Sea, and traversed the desert; and that the number of Jews, who departed from Egypt, amounted to 600,000 men. They spoke to him of the book of Judges, and of David, Solomon, and Ezekiel, who raised up dry bones; and of Jonas, who was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, &c. which plainly shews that they have, besides the Pentateuch, several other parts of the sacred writings. They informed him, that their alphabet was composed of 27 letters, but that they generally used only 22; which agrees with St.
Jerome
's account; who says, that the Hebrews have 22 letters, five of which are double.
These Jews neither kindle fire, nor dress any victuals, on Saturday; but prepare their Saturday's food on Friday. When they read the bible in their synagogue, they cover their faces with a transparent veil, in remembrance of
Moses,
who came down from the mountain covered, and, in that manner published the decalogue.
When
Gozani
spoke to them of the Messiah, promised in the holy scripture, they appeared much surprised; but, when he told them, that the Messiah was called
Jesus,
they replied, that mention was made in their bible of a holy man named
Jesus,
the son of Sirach, but they were wholly unacquainted with the new
Jesus,
of whom he spoke.
The Mahomedans have multiplied much more in China, than the Jews. It is above 600 years since they first entered this country, in which they have formed different establishments. For a great number of years, they were preserved only by marriages, and by alliances which they made; but, for some time past, they have encreased their number, by purchasing a great number of pagan children, and bringing them up in the principles of their religion. During a famine in Chang-tong, when parents of families were distressed for food, they bought more than 10,000 children, for whom, when grown up, they procured wives, and built houses, so that they formed whole villages of them. These insensibly increased; and are now become so numerous, that they entirely exclude from those places where they reside, every inhabitant who does not believe in their prophet, and frequent a mosque.
CHAP. XIV.
Of their Language.
THE Chinese language is not only one of the most ancient in the world, but has the advantage of being still a living one; and there is every probability to believe, that this language has, for 4,000 years, and upwards, remained always and invariably the same: China never having changed its inhabitants, never borrowed any thing from foreign nations, and it being universally admitted, that the first chapters of their canonical book called
Chou-king,
were written in the reign of
Yao,
2,300 years before the christian aera; or, at the latest, under that of
Yu.
Several speeches of the first Emperors are there related
verbatim;
which agree with the language now spoken; and Chinese players act dramatic pieces, written 1,000 years ago. Two songs have been preserved, which were composed in the reign of Yao; one of which, for the antiquity's sake, I will lay before my readers.
When the sun begins its course, I betake myself to work; and when he sinks below the horizon, I fall into the arms of sleep. I slake my thirst with water from my own well; and feed on the fruits of my own fields.—What, therefore, can I gain, or lose, by the power of the Emperor?
The Chinese tongue has no relation whatever with any known language; and, is such, that no laws of analogy can comprehend it. It has no alphabet; every word that composes it is a monosyllable, and expressed by a single character: and, rich as this language is in expression, it has but 330 radical or primary words; but we shall have a different notion of it, when we find that the sense of these primary words, may be multiplied, almost without end, by the variety of accents, inflections, aspirations, and points, used like the Hebrew, and by other changes of the voice. These accents, so fugitive, are, however, very sensible to the ear of a Chinese, who catches them very readily; as a Frenchman does
l'eau, l'os, lots,
which strike the ears of an Englishman, or a German, with the same sound.
The union and combination of the Chinese monosyllables is another cause of their great multiplication. By such a combination, a Chinese can express every thing.
Mou,
for example, signifies a
tree,
or
wood;
but, when joined to other words, acquires a new sense. Thus,
mou-leao,
implies, wood prepared for building;
mou-lan,
wooden bars;
mou-hia,
a box;
mou-siang,
a press;
mou-tsiang,
a carpenter;
mou-eul,
a mushroom;
mou-nu,
a kind of small orange;
mou-sing,
the planet Jupiter;
mou-mien,
cotton, &c.
Gai,
implies love;
je-gai,
ardent love;
tse-gai,
parental love;
king-gai,
respectful love;
ki-gai,
blind love, &c. in short, there are more than 100 different modifications of this single word
gai.
By this combination of words, the Chinese have names for every thing that exists, words that express every circumstance, or quality of a thing, and point out the smallest difference in that thing. Thus, instead of these six words, calf, heifer, steer, cow, bull, ox, in Chinese, they have not only these, but a multitude of others, which express the different years of their ages, their distinction, and the different varieties in colour, figure, and fruitfulness of these animals, and so on.
This is quite sufficient to give an idea of their language; to enter further into it, would require a separate work. As to the characters used to express the several words, there are more than eighty thousand of them; and, the greater part of the
literati,
spend their whole lives in learning them.
CHAP. XV.
Of their Literature.
WHEN we view the immense number of libraries in China, elegantly built, beautifully adorned, and furnished with a valuable collection of books; when we consider the prodigious number of graduates, and colleges established in every city throughout the empire; and when we further consider, that men are there never preferred, but in proportion to their literary talents; that the most exalted situations are acquired only by study; that none have been governors of cities and provinces, or have enjoyed offices about the court, but the learned, and that for upwards of 4,000 years: one would naturally imagine, that China must be superior to every other country, in literature and learning.
This, however, is by no means the case; for, though the Chinese are allowed to have a great deal of knowledge, that knowledge is not very intuitive, penetrating, or inventive; nor have any of the speculative sciences been brought to any perfection amongst them.
Logic, which in Europe is much refined, is void of all rules among the Chinese. Their rhetoric is merely natural and imitative, having no method or art of embellishing discourse. Their eloquence does not consist in an arrangement of periods, or an harmonious flow of words, but entirely in expressions, bold metaphors, and a happy application of the maxims and sentences of their ancient sages, who express a variety of thoughts in a very few words. They never address the Emperor, but in petitions, memorials, and remonstrances, which are void of every superfluous ornament, every useless expression, every weak argument, every ambiguous quotation, and every equivocal proof. "Study, day and night," says one of their best authors,
to write ten characters of a remonstrance, and of these erase six. The thunderbolts of the throne fly in every direction; a single syllable is sufficient to rouse them; and they may carry death and destruction to the remotest corner of the empire.
But, on particular occasions, such as academical discourses, written for degrees, &c. they will vary their general mode, and sometimes, to shew their abilities, will display high-sounding words, without meaning; thoughts which have more brilliancy than truth, embellished with all the tinsel of Chinese fancy; but such writers are distinguished by the names of
kiu-keou, mou-ché,
golden mouths, and wooden tongues.
Chinese rhetoricians reckon a great number of different kinds of eloquence; so many, as to leave us astonished, at their having been able to establish such a variety of shades in the art of persuading. For the information of my readers, I will enumerate some few of the principal.
The force and ornament of truth, they call,
the eloquence of things.
The emanation, or effusion of the orator's soul,
the eloquence of sentiment and conviction.
The eloquence of candour and innocence,
with them, is that which banishes doubt and suspicion.
The eloquence of connexion and combination,
is, the fruit of long study and meditation.
The eloquence of boldness,
spares nothing, and conceals nothing.
The eloquence of wonder,
subdues reason by the powers of imagination.
The eloquence of singularity and astonishment,
contradicts received truths, and seduces, by leading to discoveries.
The eloquence of illusion and artifice,
effects a change, by diverting the attention; overpowers the heart, by a melting pathos.
The eloquence of metaphysics and subtleties,
is wrapt up in obscurities, and imposes on the weak, by confounding them with things past comprehension.
The eloquence of the old language,
affects to imitate the tone of the ancients, and derives force from their authority.
The eloquence of grandeur and majesty,
rises, by the strength of genius, to the sublimity of the
king
A code of moral laws.
.
The eloquence of images
pleases, like the flowers.
The eloquence of abundance and rapidity
lays open reasons, accumulates proofs, and multiplies authorities.
The eloquence of softness and insinuation
is to the mind, what the light of the moon is to the eyes.
The eloquence of depth
is that which produces reflection, by the extent, importance, and majesty of the truths, to the discovery of which it appears only to conduct.
The eloquence of mystery
exhibits things partially, and engages, and pleases, by awakening the curiosity; and
Superficial eloquence
shines, without enlightening, &c.
In short, the Chinese have a still greater variety; and have as many kinds of style as of eloquence: but yet they seem not fond of animated declamation, and, in their oratory, never use those expressive gestures, and that powerful modulation of voice, that captivates the eye and ear, and so often contributes to the success of our public discourses. They think, like the savage
Illinois,
who were firmly perswaded that their missionary had fallen into a passion, because he concluded his sermon with a few pathetic sentences, delivered after the European manner. They labour to convince, by addressing the understanding only. In short, a Chinese orator, desirous of making any impression on his hearers, endeavours to affect, little by little; and this is best brought about, by appearing to be really affected himself. "It is not by its cries," says a Chinese writer,
it is by its flight, that the wild duck makes the rest depart, and guides them through the air.
The knowledge of astronomy may be traced back, in China, even to the foundation of the empire. In the time of
Yao,
whose reign began 2,357 years before the christian aera, they had mathematicians in China, who formed a calendar, by the Emperor's orders. They were then acquainted with the motion of the sun, moon, and planets; and their almanacks told the same things then, as ours do now. Their astronomical year began on the 21st of December, which is the winter solstice; but their civil year, rested on the determination of the Emperor. Those almanacks, at present, made and published for the use of the people, are filled with superstitious predictions, and all the nonsensical dreams of judicial astrology.
At Peking there is established a tribunal of astronomy, one of the most important offices of which is, the observation of eclipses. They are to acquaint the Emperor of all the particulars, respecting these
phenomena,
some months before they happen; notice of which is transmitted, by him, into all the provinces of the empire. The ancient opinion of the Chinese was, that during the time of an eclipse of the sun or moon, they were attacked by a celestial dragon, as I have had occasion to mention before; and though the learned, and people of distinction, are now quite free from this ancient prejudice, and are perswaded that eclipses are owing to natural causes, yet custom has such a prevalence over them, that they will not leave off their ancient ceremonies, which are general throughout the empire.
On the day of the eclipses, therefore, the mandarins of all the different orders, receive notice to appear in their proper dresses, and with all the badges of their dignity, in the court of the tribunal of astronomy, and there to wait till the eclipse takes place. Each of them carries, in his hand, a sheet of the paper, which contains a figure of the eclipse, and every circumstance attending it. As soon as they perceive the sun or moon begins to be darkened, they all throw themselves on their knees, and knock their foreheads against the earth. A frightful noise of drums and cymbals immediately succeeds throughout the city; this being the remains of an ancient opinion, that, by such horrid din, they assisted the suffering luminary, and prevented its being devoured by the dragon.
[
See the plate of this,
p. 90, Vol. IV.
At Peking there is a very fine observatory, with noble instruments and apparatus, fit for the observatory of a prince. The celestial globe is six feet in diameter, and though it weighs 2,000lb. is so well hung, that any child may turn it.
They have no clocks, or watches, in China, but what are brought from Europe; but they have sun-dials, and reckon their time almost as we do. The hours of the day and night, in towns, are sounded by bells, on which persons are stationed to strike.
The calendar, or almanack, when made and published, is first presented to the Emperor. It is, by his order, then distributed to the princes, lords, and great officers in every province, and by them to all subordinate officers. This done, it is re-printed for the people; no other than this approved calendar can be printed, under pain of death. This presenting of the calendar to the Emperor, is annually made, with a great deal of ceremony. All the mandarins of Peking, appear early in the morning, at the palace, in their proper habits; and the calendars intended for the Emperor and Empress, are on large paper, covered with yellow satin, and enclosed in cloth of gold. They are placed on a large gilded machine, in the form of a pyramid, and carried by 40 footmen, in yellow liveries. This is followed by 12 other similar machines, of a smaller size, surrounded with red curtains, on which are placed the calendars for the princes of the blood; these are bound in red satin, and enclosed in cloth of silver. Immediately after follow several tables, covered with red carpets, on which are carried the calendars of the grandees, the generals of the army, and other officers of the crown, covered with yellow cloth.
The porters, who quit their loads at the last gate of the great hall, and place the tables on each side of the passage, leave nothing in the middle, but the machine that comes with the Imperial calendars, from which the mandarins take the calendars, and place them on a table, covered with yellow brocade, within the hall, prostrating themselves three times, and then delivering them to the intendants of the palace, for the Emperor.
Each prince sends his chief officer to the Imperial palace, where he receives, on his knees, the calendar for his Royal master, and those for the mandarins of his household, which amount to 12 or 1300 for the court of every prince. Afterwards, the lords, and generals of the army, and the mandarins of all the tribunals, appear, and receive, on their knees, a calendar each, from the astronomical mandarins.
After this distribution, every one returns, in his rank, to the hall, and turning himself towards the most inward part of the palace, at a signal given, falls on his knees, and bows three times to the ground. After three genuflexions, and nine, profound reverences with the head, he returns to his own house.
Following the example of the court, the governors, and mandarins of the several provinces, receive the calendar in the same manner, in each capital city, according to their ranks. As for the people, there are none of them so poor, but they will buy a calendar every year; such purchase being a declaration of loyalty to their Sovereign. A non-purchase would be looked on as an act of disaffection.
Though they are not ignorant of arithmetic, they add and subtract by means of an instrument called
Souan-Pan,
which consists of a small board, crossed from the top to the bottom, having 10 or 12 parallel wires, with a separation in the middle. Little ivory balls are strung on these wires, on which they slip up and down; the two on the upper wire stand each for five units, and the five below for single units.
They reckon much in the same manner, in joining and separating the balls, as we do with counters; but with so much facility and quickness, that they can keep pace with a man, who is reading a book of accounts; and can cast up the most considerable sums, in less time than Europeans, with the use of figures.
THE SOUAN-PAN.
As we have spoken of their theatric representations, it is natural to suppose they are acquainted with the drama. But they have no rules for dramatic composition; nor do they make any distinction between tragedy and comedy. Each performer, when he enters, begins by telling his name, and the character he is going to support; and the same actor often performs several parts in one piece. Female parts are performed by boys.
Chinese tragedies are interspersed with several pieces of singing. In those parts, where the performer is supposed to be agitated most, he breaks off his declamation, and begins to sing, accompanied with instruments.
Voltaire
borrowed the subject of his tragedy, which
Murphy
has since translated, under the name of,
The Orphan of China,
from a Chinese tragedy, called,
The Orphan of Tchao,
which was translated from the Chinese by the missionary
Premare,
and which was among a hundred of the best theatrical pieces, composed in the fourteenth century. But the Chinese
literati
seldom employ their talents in this species of composition.
Neither do they turn their thoughts to poetry; this study being seldom pursued but from taste, or to fill up a vacant hour. When a Chinese, speaking of a man of letters, says, he has a talent of making good verses, he means, to speak of him as we would of a captain of dragoons, by saying, he is an excellent performer on the violin. A taste for poetry is, however, pretty general in China; and their art in this polite literature, differs very little from the manner of
Horace
and
Boileau.
But as a Chinese poet has not the same resources as Europeans, in the attracting fictions of ancient mythology, they supply the deficiency, by bold and ingenious metaphors, and using the names of several animals in an allegorical sense; thus supplying the place of Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, &c. The eagle they call—
the host of the clouds;
the jackdaw,
the bird of speech;
the head,
the sanctuary of reason;
the eyes,
the stars of the forehead;
and so on. But, to give a clearer idea of their poetry, I will transcribe part of a poem, written by the Emperor
Kien-long,
who had been 50 years on the throne of China, and was one of the most accomplished scholars, and best poets of the age. It was translated into French by a missionary, in 1770; and, in English, is as follows:
After delineating all the natural beauties which distinguish the country of his ancestors, and describing the prospect which the sea exhibits in the gulph of Lea-tong, he proceeds to celebrate the mountains that surround the city of Monkden. Thus —
Mountains! by you I begin—Mountain of iron, embroidered mountain, to direct the paths of the traveller, dost thou present thyself, at so remote a distance— To suspend his fatigue, and cheer his sight, dost thou exhibit a form and colours so singular—Thou art a certain mark to point out the route he ought to pursue, in order to reach, without interruption, the goal of his repose.—Shall I exhibit thee in that point of view, wherein thou appearest majestically beautiful and inchanting; or, in that, wherein thou inspirest sadness, mingled with terror?—No; to name thee only is sufficient to make thee known.—In vain should I attempt to describe those amphitheatres, covered with delightful verdure, with which your sides are eternally crowned; those charming views that form, at a distance, an almost insensible declivity, over which the ravished eye wanders with endless delight; those clustered mounts, which, from space to space, give birth to each other; those crystal streams, which pouring down in an infinity of cascades, hasten, through different channels, to unite their waters in the plain, and thence to form rivers, rivulets, and a thousand rills. In vain should I attempt to describe those lofty and thick ridges, which, at a distance, hide the light of the sun, during day, and the brightness of the moon, during night: those proud summits, which, after having pierced the clouds, still stretch towards the wide expanse of heaven.—My attempt would be equally vain, did I endeavour to delineate those gloomy caverns, those enormous fissures, those pointed rocks, those hideous precipices, which cannot be approached without awe, those dangerous clefts, which create terror, and those profound gulphs, which the eye cannot behold, but with horror. What language, however expressive—what pencil, however bold—can sketch out—can even pourtray—a part of thy soft, enchanting beauties; equally awful, and alike sublime!— They are beyond expression.—It is by viewing them only, that we can form an idea of them.—If the beauties which distinguish thee, are contrasted by objects, which seem, in our sight, to degrade thee, it is, because thou art not wholly destined for the use of man. —The wild animals, which press the earth with their feet; the reptiles, that creep; the fowls, that cleave the air; in thee, find nourishment and shelter. Children of nature, of that benevolent mother who watches over all, they claim an equal right to her protection.— Open then, O mountains! Open for them your bosoms; let your caverns and precipices afford a retreat to the most ferocious among them; let your hollow and steep rocks, be a concealment for others; be an asylum to all. Multiply your productions, to nourish them; and let your limpid streams distill, to quench their thirst. Man is not jealous; he will admire you the more!
Were we to credit the Chinese, they were the first inventors of music, and who formerly brought it to the greatest perfection. If this be true, they are greatly degenerated; for with them it is, at present, so imperfect, that it is unworthy the name. They seem, however, to regret the loss of their ancient harmony, as we do that of the Greeks and Egyptians, which has been so much extolled by antiquity, and of which so many wonderful things have been related. If Egypt had a
Hermes,
who by the softness and charms of his voice, humanized mankind— if Greece had an
Amphion,
at the harmony of whose voice, cities rose into being; or an
Orpheus,
who, by the sound of his lyre, could suspend the course of rivers, and make the rocks to follow him—China boasts of a
Lyaglun,
a
Kouei,
and a
Pin-mou-kia,
who, by a touch of their
kin,
and their
ché,
produced sounds that softened the hearts of men, and tamed the most ferocious of animals.
Father
Amiot
applyed himself, with the utmost study, to learn the musical system of the ancient Chinese, and discovered that, before
Pythagoras,
or even
Mercury
himself, the division of the octave into 12 semitones, was known in China; and that, from the remotest ages of antiquity, they had, in their scale, only five tones, corresponding to our
fa, sol, la, ut, re;
and two others, answering to our
mi
and
do;
and he is of opinion that the Greeks, and
Pythagoras
himself, did nothing but apply that theory to strings, which the Chinese had before formed, and applied to pipes. But whether or not the Chinese have the honour of being the first inventors, as I have said, they are now very much, in this science, below other nations. They are ignorant of musical notes, and have no signs to describe the diversity of tones, the rising or falling of the voice, and the rest of those variations that constitute harmony. The airs which they sing, or play, are only got by rote, and are learnt by the ear; notwithstanding which, they frequently compose new ones.
Music, with them, is seldom heard, but at plays, feasts, weddings, and such like occasions. Their concerts have no dependance on the variety of tones, or difference of parts. They all sing the same air, as is practised throughout the other parts of Asia. They have invented eight kinds of musical instruments, which they think have the nearest resemblance to a human voice: some are of stone, others of metal, like our bells, and one amongst the rest, is not unlike our trumpet. They have also others, made of skins, like our drums. They likewise make use of stringed instruments, but the strings are of silk; these are the cymbals that blind people play on: as also their violins, each of which has but three strings. They have also wind-instruments of two or three kinds, resembling our flutes; and a small species of organ, the sound of which is not disagreeable. But they are the only nation who have had the ingenuity to apply stones to the making of musical instruments. I have already mentioned their sonorous stones, and the instrument constructed of them is called a
king,
which consists of an assortment of 16 stones, formed like our carpenter's square, and suspended by the angles, as we now suspend our musical bells; which stones they strike in the same manner.
CHINESE MUSIC
Their wind-instruments are made with the bamboo, in a variety of forms, composed of pipes, joined together, or separate, and pierced with holes, more or less. The principal wind-instrument they have, is formed of a gourd, and a number of bamboo-pipes. The neck of the gourd being cut off, it is covered with a piece of wood, in which several holes, of different diameters, are bored; into each of these holes a bamboo-pipe, shorter or longer, is fixed, in order to vary the tones; and another pipe is, like the handle of a pipkin, introduced into the side, below the wood-cover; which, when applied to the mouth, conveys the air to all the pipes it contains. Father
Pereira,
who was a tolerable musician, as the Emperor played an air, pricked it down in European notes, and immediately played it himself; which so struck the Emperor with astonishment, that he could scarce believe his eyes and ears; not comprehending how a stranger could learn a piece of music so quickly, that had cost so much time and labour to his musicians to learn.
Having mentioned their music, I will say a few words of their painting, though not immediately connected with their literature; yet, if it be considered, that painting speaks to the eye as oratory paints to the ear, there is a great analogy between writing and painting.
Chinese painting has long been decried in Europe;— but why? Because we have seen none of their best performances. They pretend to have had their
Le Brun,
their
Le Sueur,
and their
Mignard;
and, at present, have painters among them, who are held in high estimation. Their works are never carried to Canton, and of course never fall into the hands of Europeans, who are fond only of naked figures, of licentious and indecent subjects, and who prevail on the daubers of Canton, to execute pieces for them, the obscenity of which may gratify the taste, and tickle the fancy, of a European voluptuary.— Had my readers seen the paintings from which the engravings in this volume are copied, they would have a better opinion of Chinese painting, than they have hitherto had.
They excell chiefly in plants and flowers, and are so accurate in describing them, that they will not fail to express the different shades of the leaves growing on two stems, having the same flowers, when the one shall be full-blown, and the other only breaking through the bud; and no person is astonished in China, to hear a painter ask his pupil, how many scales there are between the head of a carp and it's tail.
Painting, however, makes but little progress in China; it is reckoned among the frivolous arts; but the Emperor's cabinets and galleries are filled with European paintings; and he has, in his park, a European village, painted in
fresco,
which produces the most agreeable deception. The remaining part of the wall represents a landscape, and little hills, which are so happily blended with the distant mountains behind, that it is almost impossible to conceive any composition more ingeniously imagined, or better executed. This beautiful work is the production of Chinese painters, from designs sketched out for them. Indeed,
fresco
painting was known in China long before the christian aera.
Engraving, in a variety of colours, is very ancient among the Chinese; but their statuary is nothing to speak of. There is not a statue in all the squares, or public edifices, of Peking; nor in the Emperor's palace: what few statues there are, ornament the avenues to the tombs of princes.
With respect to their architecture, indifferent as it is, it is not without its principles, its rules, and proportions; and, though it has no relation whatever to Eutopean architecture, nor has borrowed any thing from the Greeks, has a certain beauty peculiar to itself The mansions of the Emperor are real palaces; and, by the immensity, symmetry, height, regularity and magnificence, of the numberless buildings which compose them, announce, in a striking manner, the majesty and greatness of the master who inhabits them. The
Louvre
at Paris would occupy but a very small space, in one of the numerous courts of the Imperial palace at Peking.
All the houses and buildings of China are of wood; not owing to a scarcity of stone or marble, for they have such abundance of the latter, that many cities are paved with marble, of all colours; nor to the difficulty of transporting it, for all the Emperor's gardens are interspersed with enormous, artificial rocks; the foundations of all his palaces, consist of immense blocks both of marble and alabaster, and the steps of all the stairs, however high, or broad, are all of one piece. It is the dread of earthquakes that prevents their building with marble; and the great heat in the southern provinces, and extreme cold in the northern ones, making such marble sweat, would render houses built with it unwholesome, and almost uninhabitable. During winter, at Peking, the cold is so exceedingly sharp and severe, that no window fronting the north can be opened, and water continues constantly frozen to the depth of 18 inches, for more than three months together.
The same reasons operate against their building houses with more than one story; as a second, or third story, would not be habitable in such cold weather, or during the great heats in summer. For, though Peking is situated more to the north, than the rest of the empire, the heat there, during the dog-days, is so intolerably scorching, that the police obliges tradesmen and shop-keepers to sleep in the piazzas of their houses, lest they should be stifled in the interior apartments.
When the court resided in the southern provinces, the greater part of these palaces, which former Emperors erected in their gardens, were built with different stories; and their taste for this manner of building, was carried to that length, that edifices were erected from 150 to 200 feet in height, and the pavilions at their extremities were sometimes 300 feet; but the Emperors became disgusted at this aërial architecture, and lowered their palaces, even before the court was removed to Peking: however, to preserve the remembrance of it, there are some few buildings, belonging to the Emperor, still standing, several stories high.
The only thing that remains to be spoken of, is their practice of physic, the study of which is coeval with their empire. Their physicians were never skilful anatomists, or profound philosophers; but they are, and always have been, such able practitioners, as to astonish the most skilful in Europe.
Vital heat, and radical moisture, are, with them, the two natural principles of life; the blood and spirits being only considered as their vehicles. These two principles, say they, are seated in all parts of the body, in which they perceive life and vigour; and that between all parts of the human body, there is a certain influence in the one kind, and a sympathy on the other; and these form the basis of their physic. They found their most infallible prognostics, on a knowledge of the pulse, the theory of which is very extensive. An ancient Chinese physician, has left a complete treatise on this subject, written 200 years before the christian aera; by which it appears, that the Chinese were acquainted with the circulation of the blood, long before any European nation; but, not to take the merit from our countryman Mr.
Harvey,
this circulation, in its full round, might not have been discovered before he found it out.
When a Chinese physician is sent for, he places the patient's arm upon a pillow, applies his four fingers along the artery, sometimes touching it gently, and sometimes more forcibly, and after examining it for a considerable time, without asking any questions, he will tell the patient where he feels pain, what parts are attacked, and what are most exposed to danger; he will also tell him in what manner, and in what time, his disorder will terminate.
Their physic, however, is almost quackery. They have the greatest confidence in their simples, with which, and a few fruits, they compose the greater part of all their cordials. Ginseng, of which I have spoken, is considered, with them, as a plant of the first class; and, to distinguish it from all others, is called,
The plant.
It is prepared 77 different ways; which form as many different prescriptions. It is a scarce root, was formerly sold for its weight in silver; and, at present, costs almost its weight in gold. They alllow tea to be a great and powerful medicine; but they recommend it to be used moderately, never to be drank hotter than warm, and by no means on an empty stomach.
I will conclude this chapter, with the method the Chinese tribunals take, to discover whether a person has died a natural death, or in consequence of some violence; and even after the body has began to putrify.
The body, being first taken from the earth, is washed in vinegar. After this, a large fire is kindled, in a pit dug on purpose, six feet long, three wide, and three deep; and this fire is continually augmented, till the surrounding earth is as hot as an oven. The remaining fire is then taken from the pit, a large quantity of wine poured into it, and it is covered with a hurdle, made of osier twigs, on which the body is stretched at full length. A cloth is thrown over both, in the form of an arch, in order that the steam of the wine may act upon it in every direction. At the end of two hours, this cloth is taken off, and, if any blows has been given, they will appear upon the body, in whatever state it may be. The same experiment is even extended to bones, stripped of their flesh. The Chinese assure us, that if the blows given, have been so severe as to occasion death, this experiment makes the marks appear upon the bones, though none of them may be broken, or injured.
We must here remark, that the wine mentioned, is a kind of beer, made from rice and honey.—A necessary observation, should any one in Europe make an attempt to prove the truth of the expedient, which deserves so much to be verified; as, in certain criminal cases, it may tend to clear up doubts, and exculpate innocence.
FINIS.
Of other Nations subject to the CHINESE. From
Dampier, Tavernier,
&c.
CHAP. XVI.
Of the Kingdom of Tonquin.
BESIDES the Tartars in the north, and bordering upon the Russian territories, whom I have already described; they have some mountaineers on the back, or western provinces of China, subjects to the empire: these are the
Si-fans,
the
Lo-los,
and the
Miao-tse.
The first inhabit the provinces of Chen-si and Se-tchuen; the second, are dispersed throughout the province of Yun-nan; and the latter, the mountains throughout the provinces of Se-tchuen, Koei-tcheou, Hou-quang, Quang-si, and on the frontiers of the province of Quang-tong.
The Si-fans live together, in small bodies, subject to families; the oldest of which becomes a Lama, who has the power of trying causes, and punishing criminals. The greater part live in tents, forming small hamlets, of five or six families each. They keep large flocks, and are in want of none of the necessaries of life. They are of a proud and independent spirit, and submit to the Chinese with reluctance. When summoned by the mandarins, they rarely appear, but government winks at their contempt, for political reasons, and endeavours to keep them in subjection, by mildness and moderation. Indeed, it would be difficult to reduce them, as their wild and frightful mountains, covered with snow, even in July, would afford them shelter, from which they could not be driven.
The Lo-los were formerly governed by their own sovereigns, but submitted to the Emperor of China, on condition of enjoying for ever, the honours of Chinese mandarins. These have a language of their own; their princes are absolute masters of their subjects, and can punish with death; and have an army, of horse and foot.
The Miao-tse are also under the government of princes, no less absolute than those of the Lo-los, and have a regular militia, maintained by feudatory lords. Their arms are, bows and half-pikes; and their horses, wonderfully expert and active. When officers are chosen among them, the candidates are obliged to ride, full speed, down the steepest declivities, and to clear, at one leap, very wide ditches, in which large fires are kindled. These horses are much valued in China, are very scarce, and fetch a very great price.
The Miao-tse are collected into villages, and live in great harmony. They employ themselves in husbandry, weave a coarse, muslin cloth, and a kind of carpets. Their dress is a pair of drawers, and a jacket, which laps over the breast, but they go bare-footed. The head-dress of their women is whimsical. They place, upon their heads, horizontally, a piece of board, about a foot long, and six inches broad; over which they spread their hair, and fix it to the wood, with wax. The Miao-tse ladies consider this as elegant, not perceiving the restraint to which it subjects the wearer; for they cannot lie down, without something to support their necks; and cannot make their way through their bushy country, but by turning their heads every moment. When they comb their hair, which they do three or four times a year, they are obliged to remain some hours before a large fire, to melt the wax, and make it run off; but, after they have combed it, they dress it again, in the same way.
The Chinese entertain the most sovereign contempt for this nation; and they, in their turn, despise the Chinese: however, at the loss of a great number of men, the Chinese made a complete conquest of them, in 1776.
There are also two or three large states, tributary to China, that I must mention. Korea, Tonquin, and Cochin-China. I will speak of each in their turn.
Korea, which the Chinese call
Kao-li,
is a large peninsula, extending between China and Japan; 200 leagues long, from north to south, and 100 broad, from east to west. It's distance, from Japan, is only 25 leagues. This kingdom is governed by a sovereign, who, though tributary to China, exercises absolute authority over his subjects. He is master of all their wealth, and inherits it, after their death; and, every seventh year, all the freemen of the different provinces, are obliged to go to court, in rotation, and keep guard round the monarch, for two months; so that, during this year, all Korea is in motion, and under arms.
They differ so little from the Chinese, in their persons, customs and manners, that it is not necessary to dwell upon the subject. Their women, indeed, are less confined; and, in matrimony, young folks choose for themselves.
Tonquin, and Cochin-China, formerly composed one of the most extensive provinces in China. Three hundred years before the christian aera, they were inhabited by savages; but, being conquered by China, 214 before Christ, the Emperor sent here 500,000 persons, from different parts of the Empire, filled these two kingdoms with Chinese families, and caused two brazen pillars to be erected on the boundaries, between Tonquin and the province of Quang-si, which are standing to this day. These columns have the following inscription:
When these pillars shall be destroyed, Tonquin shall perish.
The Tonquinese, at present, consider this inscription as a prophecy, and these columns as monuments, on which the fate of their kingdom hangs; of course, take great care to preserve them, by sheltering them from the weather.
Tonquin extends between the 17th and 23d degrees of N. latitude, bounded on the north, by the Chinese provinces of Yun-nan and Quang-si; on the east, by the province of Canton, and the sea; on the south, by the sea, and Cochin-China; and, on the west, by the country of Laos. The capital city is Cachao. Tonquin has a king of its own, tributary to China, and is divided into eight provinces, under as many governors. The king's guards consist of 2,000 soldiers; and about 20,000 more are stationed on the frontiers. On all the rivers of the kingdom, where it is probable an enemy might invade, are kept 100 large gallies, and a great number of galiots, in which the sailors row, standing. This country is healthful and pleasant in dry seasons; but, from April to August, the wet season holds, and the lands are annually flooded, as in all countries between the tropics, at this time of the year. This is the cause of the Nile's overflowing in Egypt. Between the beginning of August, and the latter end of October, happen those violent storms, called Tuffoons, or
Typhones,
which are so furious, that the Chinese dare not stir from their harbours.
In the woody, mountainous part of this country, are found elephants of an extraordinary size. Five hundred of them are kept for the king's use in war. Horses they have not many, but cows and buffaloes in plenty; with the last, they plow their land. They have neither lions, asses, nor sheep, except some few of the last, kept by the king; but they have abundance of stags, bears, tygers, and rhinoceroses. Apes here are remarkable for their size and boldness. They will enter a plantation in troops, of two or three hundred together, eat what they can, afterwards roll large wisps of straw round their waists, fill those wisps with rice, and march off in sight of the peasants, who dare not attack them. Their dogs will catch rats and mice; and their vigilant ones, will watch all night for them, like our cats. They have great plenty of fowls, both wild and tame, but very few, small birds.
Among the latter, however, they have a species of goldfinch, which sings so melodiously, that they call it the
celestial bird.
Its eyes sparkle, like the most brilliant ruby; it has a round, sharp bill, an azure ring round its neck, and a small tuft of parti-coloured feathers on its head. When perched, its wings appear variegated with beautiful shades of blue, green, and yellow; but, when it flies, they lose all their colours. In wet weather, it conceals itself in the thickest woods; but it comes forth when the sun shines, as the harbinger of fair weather. This bird is said to be an enemy to another singular bird of this country, found in marshes, and called
Ho-kien,
which it no sooner sees, than it appears struck with terror, mixed with fury. It's neck-feathers stand erect, it extends and agitates its wings, opens its bill, hisses like a serpent, and its attitude is that of a bird ready to dart on its prey, without offering to attack. It contents itself with looking on it's enemy with a fixed and disordered eye, as if it felt an inferiority of strength.
The wings, back and tail, of the Ho-kien, are of a dazzling white; it's head is covered with a reddish down, and its belly is a bright yellow, speckled with grey and black: it is about the size of a quail, and breeds only once a year. They have also a sort of locusts, about as big as a man's finger, which breed in ditches and the banks of rivers, and are esteemed good food by the natives. There are here great swarms of gnats and ants; the latter of which are so mischievous, that,
Tavernier
says, they will eat through a bale of silk in 24 hours, and it will look, as if it had been sawn asunder.
They have gold and silver mines in this country, but never open them. The soil, in general, is fertile; they grow a great quantity of rice, and cultivate it in the same manner as on the coast of Coromandel, flowing their land with water, and, when the plants are five or six inches high, transplanting them into other grounds. Their next important object of cultivation, is the sugar-cane, of which they have two kinds; and its process of culture, is as follows.
Having turned up the earth, to the depth of two feet, they plant two or three cane-shoots, a little inclined, and almost in the same manner as vines are planted in Italy, sinking these slips 18 inches in the earth, and planting them checquer-wise, at the distance of six feet: this is done at the end of the rainy season. Twelve or fifteen months after, it is fit to be cut; when the juice is pressed out, and boiled for several hours, to evaporate part of its water. In this state, it is carried to market, and looks like pure water. The merchants who purchase it, boil it again, with some alkaline substance, such as ashes of
Musa
leaves, or calcined shells, which produce a great froth. This is skimmed off, and, by force of boiling, the alkali separates the sugar from the water, and the juice is reduced to the consistency of syrup, which, when it begins to granulate, is poured into a large vessel, and left to cool. This syrup is soon covered with a thin, yellow, soft crust, and is then poured into vessels, like funnels. After it has stood, and acquired the appearance of salt, it is bleached and finished in the same manner as in our West-Indian islands.
The Tonquinese have but few, good fruits, and no sweet-scented garden-flowers. Their best fruits are, pine-apples, oranges, a kind of red fig, and a fig like those of Provence in taste and figure, that does not grow on the branches of the tree, but springs from its root, and, in such quantities, that 20 men may satisfy their hunger with them. They cultivate the mulberry and varnish-tree, cotton, tea, indigo, saffron, and pepper, but neglect the vine; and they have a large tree, that bears neither leaves nor fruit. They have another curious tree, the branches of which bend naturally down, strike root, and spring up again into other trees, whose branches do the same; so that one of these trees will, in course of time, extend itself a great way round. In their gardens they have yams, potatoes, and onions; and the betel leaf, which is so much valued over all India, is very common in this country.
Having a very large sea-coast, and many fine rivers, well stocked with fish; their fisheries employ a great number of hands; and many of them live, with their whole families, upon the water. Sea-turtles are very plentiful on their shores.
The bay of Tonquin, by which Europeans approach this kingdom, is about 30 leagues wide, in the broadest place, has about 46 fathom water, and a good anchorage every where. European ships pass up the river Domea to Cachao, where the English and Dutch East-India companies have each of them a factory. This city lies about 100 miles up the river, and 80 from the places where their ships anchor. There is a delightful prospect all the way up the river, of a large, level, fruitful country, consisting of pasture and rice-grounds, but no trees, except about their villages, which are surrounded with them.
Cachao stands on the river Domea, on a rising ground, but without either bank, wall, or ditch to defend it. It consists of about 20,000 low-built houses, with mud-walls and thatched roofs, except the English and Dutch factories, which are ordinary, low, brick houses. The chief streets are very wide, but ill paved, and are dirty, in wet weather; and there are several ponds and ditches full of black mud, which, in dry seasons, are very offensive, but yet the town is healthy. Every family has, in their back yard, an arched, brick building, like an oven, about six feet high, to secure his best goods, in case of fire, to which thatched buildings are very liable; but government, by way of prevention, obliges every man to keep a great jar of water on the top of his house, with buckets; and, if the fire cannot be extinguished this way, the thatch is so contrived, in large pieces, or frames, of seven or eight feet square, to be thrown off at once; and they keep hooks, like our firemen, to pull down the buildings that are in flames.
There are three palaces in Cachao, in the chief of which the
Boua,
or king, resides. It is three leagues in circumference, and has a wall about 15 feet high, faced on both sides with brick; and within the palace, besides the buildings and apartments, there are parks, gardens, and canals, as in the royal palaces of China. In one of the other palaces, the general resides: before this is a parade, where the soldiers are exercised. Opposite to this is another, low building, where the artillery is kept, which consists of about 50 or 60 iron guns, two or three whole culverins, and some iron mortars; but the carriages are generally out of repair. Near this palace, is a stable for 200 elephants, kept for war.
There are but few cities in Tonquin, besides Cachao. Hean is one of the principal, which has about 2,000 houses. Market-towns they have none; but every five or six villages take it by turns to have the market held in one of them. These stand very thick all over the country, in flat spots, and consist of 30 or 40 houses, always surrounded by groves of trees, and encompassed by large moats and banks, thrown up beyond the groves, to prevent the houses and gardens being overflown in the rainy season, for all the land about them lies there two or three feet deep in water, and they are forced either to wade through it, from one village to another, or go in boats.
The partitions, in their houses, are made with split cane; and their rooms have no other light, than what they receive from a little, square hole. Their furniture consists of tables, stools, and an ordinary bed or two, in their innermost rooms. Every house has a little altar, with an image or two, and incense put upon it. They dress their meat usually in their yards, in fair weather; and within doors, in wet; but the rooms having no chimnies, they are, at such times, almost suffocated with smoke.
The Tonquinese are neither so flat-nosed, nor so broad-visaged, as the Chinese. Their complexion is olive; they are clean-made, strong-limbed, and of a middle stature; have long, black, lank hair, which grows very thick, and hangs down over their shoulders. They suffer their nails to grow, as do the Chinese; and, when they are about 12 or 13 years of age, dye their teeth black, which operation takes up three or four days; during which, the composition being so nauseous, they scarce take any nourishment. They are ingenious, and, in disposition, free and open; though cheating, among them, when done with address, is considered as a piece of prudence and skill. They are generous, but their generosity being regulated only by their interest, they never give, where there is no expectation of a return; of course, lest they should be importuned, take great care to conceal their wealth; and yet are lavish in their public expences, especially in feasts, marriages, and funerals. They hate the Europeans, and take great pleasure in overreaching them.
The different sexes are not distinguishable by their dress. The outward habit is a long gown, tied round the waist with a sash. Persons of distinction wear silk; but they never think themselves finer, than when cloathed in red, or green, English broad-cloth; and wear caps of the same stuff with their gowns. Inferior people, and soldiers, wear cotton cloth, dyed of a dark colour; and a soldier's upper-garment reaches no lower than his knees: but they have drawers, or trowsers, that come down to the middle of the leg. The very poor scarce wear any thing but a doublet, and a pair of drawers, without either shirt, shoes, or stockings; and sit cross-legged on benches, raised about a foot high, and covered with mats, all round the rooms where they make their entertainments, after the manner of the Asiaticks. But they place a cushion for their friends to sit on, another at their backs, and place a kind of umbrella, or alcove, over their heads.
From a barbarous perswasion, that they have a power of disposing of their own lives, and those that belong to them, the Tonquinese, says the Reverend
Mr. Ovington,
in his
Voyage to Surat,
poison, each year, one of the fruits of the Araguer, and give it to a child to eat, conceiving, that by the death of an innocent child, they shall thrive the better the succeeding year.
One part of the year all the people are slaves; for, except the citizens of the capital, all the tradesmen, joiners, smiths, masons, carpenters, &c. are obliged to work three months in the palace, and two or three for the mandarins and great lords: the rest of the year they act as they please. They have also particularities in their food. They eat buffaloes, dogs, cats, locusts, horse-flesh, which they esteem equal to beef, and the flesh of the elephants that die a natural death. The trunk is often made a present of to some great mandarin, as a delicacy. Frogs are another great dish with them. Bullocks they singe like bacon-hogs; and having steeped slices of raw beef in vinegar for three or four hours, will eat it with a particular gust. Small fish and shrimps they throw into a jar of salted water, made very weak, which, after some little time, is reduced to a pulp. They use this as we do foy, and think it equally good, and often eat it with rice; but people of quality are seldom without flesh, fish and fowl, at their tables every day. Their meat is served up in small plates of lacquered wood, and being cut into little, square pieces, they eat it, as do the Chinese, with chopsticks. They also salt their eggs, in the manner I have mentioned; and putting them in an earthen pot, close stopped, they will keep for years.
Their usual liquor is tea, sold by women in the market-places; and they have also arrack, but of the worst kind, in which they infuse snakes and scorpions, and consider it thus, as an antidote against poison.
Father
Horta
gives us some very interesting details, respecting the ceremonies the Tonquinese use, in their visits
entertainments. The person who pays the visit, stops at the gate, and gives the porter a few, loose leaves of paper, containing about eight or ten pages, on which are written, in large characters, his name and titles, together with the intention of his visit. These leaves are white, covered with red paper; but they have them of different colours, according to the rank of the person whom they visit. If the master is out, the paper is left, and the visit paid; if he is at home, the visit is conducted as I have described in China, with all their ceremonies and customs, not omitting the comedies. Their cards of invitation run thus, the following being one that
Horta
copied:—
Chao-ting has prepared a repast of some herbs, cleaned his glasses, and arranged his house, in order that Se-tong may come, and entertain him, with the charms of his conversation, and the eloquence of his learning; he therefore begs he will not refuse him that divine pleasure.
—But the first thing they entertain with, is betel and arak. They wrap up several slices of the arak-nut in a betel-leaf, and daub it over with mortar, made of lime; and strangers, on a visit, are offered some of this to chew, the person giving it with the right hand from a box which every man, like a snuff-box, carries about him. I particularly mentioned the right-hand, as the left is only used for the worst of offices; nor can a man be more unfortunate, than to be found left-handed among this people, or, indeed, in any part of India. The betel and arak, which they eat is a kind of opiate, which lulls people that use it into a pleasing dream, and it gives a red colour to the lips. It makes the chewer spit; but the better sort of people in India, have a servant whose sole business it is, to carry a pot after them to spit in.
Having a number of rivers, there is good traveling by water; and their highways and bridges are kept in good order; and tho' they have no public inns, yet, a traveller is sure to meet, by the way-side, with fire, water and other conveniences to dress his food, and refresh himself. The baggage in time of war, is carried by elephants; and, in the upland countries, they probably use porters, as does the Chinese, for they have but few beasts of burden.
TONQUINESE
The favourite diversions of the Tonquinese are comedies; which they generally act at night, and accompany with abundance of machinery and decorations. They excel particularly in the representation of torrents, rivers, seas, tempests and naval-battles.
There are no common burial-places in Tonquin; every one is buried in his own ground; and within a month afterwards, a great feast is made at his grave, at which the priest, by his office, assists. Over the graves of the opulent a tower of wood is built, seven or eight feet square, and above five and twenty feet high, which the priest ascends, and makes a speech from the top, then comes down, and the building in set on fire, which being slightly built with painted boards, is soon consumed; after which the people proceed to rejoicing and are very merry. On the death of a monarch,
Tavernier
says, the mandarins wear mourning for three years, those of the houshold for nine months, the nobility six, and the common people three months; but, there are no public amusements for three years, except at the coronation of the succeeding king.
This government is one of the strangest we have heard of. The rightful prince enjoys little more than the empty title of king; the general or prime minister being master of all the treasure and forces of the kingdom, and to whom all men pay their court. This is a usurped power of the general's, which he keeps up, having near 100,000 men at his command; and keeps the real king, as it were, a prisoner in his own palace. Soldiers are here taught to make their own gunpowder in little hand-mills. Every one has a
touch box, their guns have matchlocks, and no people
and fire quicker. They keep their arms very bright, and cover them with lacquered cane in bad weather. They pick their men by their appetites, and the general's guard consists of the best eaters: the greatest part of their forces are kept on the frontiers of Cochin-China, and between the outguards of each kingdom, they have frequent skirmishes, but these seldom come to a general engagement. The army never takes the field, or encamps, but in the dry season. When it marches, the guards and principal officers are mounted upon elephants, in little wooden apartments. They carry no artillery with them, but some long guns, which they rest on forks to fire, and which they use, to clear a pass, or fire across a river. Their naval force is but small; consisting only of gallies 60 or 70 feet long, and very narrow; the head and stern raised 10 or 12 feet above the water, but in the middle not more than two. The captain sits in the stern, which is finely painted and gilded; and the soldiers, who are always the rowers, have an awning over them to keep them dry. They push their oars from them and plunge them all into the water, at once, according to a signal given. These vessels do not draw above two feet and a half water, and cannot be used at sea, but in calm weather. They employ their soldiers to prevent smuggling, and these also keep watch in the towns at night, but are then only armed with long staves, yet yet are insolent and troublesome to all that pass them, and their officers to whom only they are accountable, are not very ready to receive complaints.
There are no courts of judicature, but any single magistrate can punish, agreeable to the laws, and without appeal; sentence being executed immediately. Murder and capital offences are punished by beheading before the offender's own door, or where the fact was committed. The criminal is set on the ground, and his head is taken off at one blow, by a back-sword. Theft is punished by mutilation, or cutting off the the joint of a finger, a whole finger, or the whole hand, according to the degree of offence. Adultery, as I observed before, by throwing the adulteress to an Elephant. For lesser offences, the wooden collar, and bamboo are used, as in China. And for debt, the debtor is condemned, to become a prisoner to his creditor, and work for him, till the debt is paid.
Most of their magistrates are eunuchs. Each governor is absolute in his province; and when a eunuch-mandarin dies, his effects are the property of government; on which account, their extortions are winked at. The mandarins, tho' eunuchs, will keep young wenches to play with, and will often recommend their girls to Europeans who trade there, and take their acceptance of them kindly.
Once a year, an oath of fidelity is administered, to all the subjects, in every province; and on this occasion, every one drinks a cup of some fowl's blood, mixed with arrack. They have no coin, but Spanish rials, of course make their payments in little pieces of silver, as do the Chinese.
This country produces great quantities of silk, such as pelongs, soosees, hawkins, peniascoes and gause, the two latter are sometimes plain, and sometimes flowered. The lacquered ware is another great manufacture in this kingdom, and, next to that of Japan, esteemed the best in the world. The excellence does not so much consist in the paint and varnish, as in the wood, which is a kind of fir. The different coats of varnish, are laid on, in fine weather, one after another, as they dry; and after the outer coat is dry, it is polished by rubbing. This country is famous also for
Lignum Aloes. Tavernier
tells us, there is so great a difference in the goodness of this wood, that it may be had, from three crowns to a thousand. If it be close and oily, a piece, the size of a pea, thrown into the fire, will perfume a room; as much as a dry piece, as large as a man's fist.
The Tonquinese make no long voyages, nor export any merchandize in their own bottoms, except fish and rice, to some neighbouring countries. They deal much fairer than the Chinese, and perform their contracts punctually: only that the merchant is forced to wait several months for the making of his goods. They are pretty, good mechanicks, and have almost all kinds of handicrafts among them. Money changing is here a great profession, and managed by the women, who are so dextrous at it, that they will raise and lower the price of cash, as artfully, as our stock-jobbers do the stocks.
Learning in Tonquin, is on a par with that of China; the Tonquinese apply to letters from emulations, as they open the way to honour, and they cannot be promoted to offices of dignity, but in proportion to their abilities. Degrees in literature are conferred by the monarch, after a public examination in the palace court-yard, before the king and all the grandees of the state. Their language is a kind of guttural Chinese.
Their physicians study little but the nature of simples, and the doctrine of the pulse; by which like the Chinese, they pretend to discern the cause and seat of every disorder. The purple fever, a disorder very dangerous in Europe, is here thought little of; they treat it as follows. Taking the pith of a certain reed, they dip it in oil, and apply it to all the purple spots, on the body, one after another: the flesh then bursts, with a report as loud as a pistol, and after the corrupted blood has been squeezed out, they compleat the cure, by rubbing the wounds with ginger. This remedy must be painful, but we are assured that its efficacy is certain.
Persons are often bit here by serpents; but the cure is at hand. They have a small stone much resembling a chesnut, the virtue of which is almost miraculous. It is called the
Serpent-stone.
When any one has been bit by a venemous reptile, the blood is pressed out, and this healing stone applied to the wound, where it adheres, and gradually sucks out the poison. When impregnated with the poison it drops off, like a leech when full. It is then carefully washed with milk and water, in which lime has been diluted, and applied to the wound a second time where it sticks, till it has exhaled all the virus. In less than an hour, the patient finds himself without fever, or any kind of pain.
Bleeding is the physician's last resource; but to purify the blood, they use the powder of a crab, found on the shores here, often in a state of petrifaction; and which they reduce to powder, and administer it internally, in water, wine or oil.
Their religion is a mixture of the Chinese worship and other superstitions. They admit of the doctrine of transmigration, believe the world to be eternal; imagine the air to be full of spirits; but acknowledge one Supreme Being. Men of learning follow the doctrine of
Confucius
to whom they often sacrifice. They study astrology, and consult the pretenders in this art, on every occasion. The christian religion had made a considerable progress in this kingdom some few years back. The Jesuit-missionaries had built several churches, and made many thousand convents; but as the King and court were averse to it, it is impossible to say what may be the case now.
CHAP. XVII.
Of Cochin-China, Thibet, Hami, and the Island of Formosa, &c.
COCHIN-China
is a kingdom that extends from the eighth degree of north latitude, to the 17th; is upwards of 400 miles long, and about 150 broad. It is bounded on the North by Tonquin; by the Chinese sea on the East; the Indian ocean on the South; and the kingdom of Camboya, on the West. It is divided into five provinces. The King keeps his court in that of Sinuva, which lies contiguous unto Tonquin.
This state is tributary to China, whilst the Kings of
Tsiampa
and
Camboya
are tributary to Cochin-China. The islands of
Pulo
and
Condore,
which lie in eight degrees 40 min. north latitude, are also subject to it. These islands are but small, and only one, the largest, is inhabited, being between four and five leagues long, and three broad. The inhabitants are Chochin-Chinese, and speak the Malayan language. The English had a settlement here in 1705, consisting of 45 Europeans, whom the natives massacred in their beds, on the second of March that year, and set fire to the factory. They have wild cocks and hens here, about the size of crows.
The natives of Cochin-China have a common origin with the Tonquinese; and differ so little in their manner of living, laws and customs, which they have borrowed, in great part, from the Chinese, that it is not necessary to describe them. It is from four small islands, situated on this coast, that those celebrated birds-nests are found, so much sought after, for seasoning ragouts, and which give so exquisite a taste to sauces; and where those turtles are found, in such prodigious number, the flesh of which is so delicate, that the Tonquinese, and people of Cochin-China, often fight desperate battles, in order to take them from one another.
THIBET.
THE kingdom of Thibet, though partially visited by some missionaries, was never properly explored, till Mr.
Bogle
went there. He resided several months at the capital of this kingdom, and it is expected, will one day favour the public with an account of it. The following is chiefly collected from his papers, by Mr.
Stewart,
and was sent to our Royal Society.
This country is known ih India by the name of Boutan. It lies north of Hindostan, and is all along separated from it, by a range of high and steep mountains, properly a continuation of the great Caucasus, which stretches from ancient Media, and the shores of the Caspian sea, round the north-east frontiers of Persia, to Candahar and Cassemire; and thence continuing its course morse easterly, forms the great, northern barrier to the various provinces of the Mogul empire, and ends either in Assam, or China. It is reckoned to be 640 leagues in extent, from east to west, and 650, from north to south; and is tributary to China.
The Bonzes of Thibet, about the year 1426, assumed the title of Grand Lamas, the most powerful of whom made Lahassa the place of his residence, and was acknowledged chief of all the Lamas: and the successors of the Grand Lama, about the beginning of the last century, took the title of
Delai Lama;
at which time, an attempt was made, to introduce the christian religion, by Father
Andrada,
a jesuit-missionary, and the reigning prince seemed inclined to embrace it; but the Delai-Lama opposed him, made a league with the Tartars of Kokonor, marched an army against him, defeated him, and put him to death.
Mr.
Bogle
divides the territories of the Delai Lama into two different parts. That which lies immediately contiguous to Bengal, and is called by the inhabitants
Docpo,
he distinguishes by the name of
Boutan;
and the other, which extends to the northward, as far as the frontiers of Tartary, called, by the natives,
Pû,
he styles
Thibet.
Boutan is ruled by the Dah Terriah, or Deb Rajah, who is a feudatory of Thibet. It is a country of steep and inaccessible mountains, whose summits are crowned with eternal snow. They are intersected with deep vallies, through which numberless torrents pour, that increase in their course, and at last gaining the plains, lose themselves in the great rivers of Bengal. These mountains are covered, down their sides, with forests of stately trees, of various kinds, pines, &c. many of which are known in Europe, and others peculiar to this country and climate. The vallies and sides of the hills, which admit of cultivation, are not unfruitful, but produce crops of wheat, barley, and rice.
The inhabitants are a stout and warlike people, of a copper complexion, in size rather above the middle, European stature, hasty and quarrelsome in their temper, and addicted to the use of spirituous liquors; but honest in their dealings: robbery, by violence, being almost unknown to them.
The chief city is Tassey Seddein, situated on the Patchoo. Thibet begins properly from the top of the great ridge of the Caucasus; and extends from thence, in breadth, to the confines of Great Tartary, and perhaps to some of the dominions of the Russian empire. Mr.
Bogle
says, that having once attained the summit of the Boutan mountains, we do not descend, in an equal proportion, on the side of Thibet; but, continuing still on a very elevated base, traverse vallies wider, and not so deep as the former, and mountains neither so steep, nor apparently so high. On the other hand, he represents it, as the most bare and desolate country he ever saw. The woods, which every where cover the mountains in Boutan, are here totally unknown: except a few straggling trees near the villages, nothing of the sort is to be seen. The climate is extremely severe and rude. At Chamnànning, where he wintered, although in latitude 31° 39′, only eight degrees north of Calcutta, he often found the thermometer, in his room, at 29° under the freezing point, by
Fahrenheit
's scale; and, in the middle of April, the standing waters were all frozen, and heavy showers of snow perpetually fell; owing, no doubt, to the great elevation of the country, and to the vast, frozen space over which the north-wind blows uninterruptedly, from the Pole, through the vast desarts of Siberia and Tartary, till it is stopped by this formidable wall.
The Thibetians are of smaller size than their southern neighbours, and of a less robust make. Their complexions are also fairer, and many of them have even a ruddiness in their countenances, unknown in the other climates of the East. Mr.
Stewart
says, that he saw, at Calcutta, one who had quite the Tartar-face. They are of a mild and chearful temper, continues Mr.
Bogle;
and the higher ranks are polite and entertaining in conversation, in which they never mix either flattery, or any strained compliments.
The common people, both in Boutan aad Thibet, are cloathed in coarse, woollen stuffs, of their own manufacture, lined with such skins as they can procure; but the better order of men, are dressed in European cloth, or China silk, lined with the finest Siberian furs; the use of linen, is totally unknown among them. The Lamas of Thibet, wear a napped kind of woollen stuff. The Delai Lama is cloathed in a red dress of this stuff, wearing on his head a yellow cap, ornamented with gilding. Besides this cap, the Lamas wear, occasionally, a tiara, resembling a bishop's mitre; but the cloven part of this mitre is in front, and comes down to the forehead. The Lamas in China appear in public, investments of red and yellow satin, trimmed with the richest furs; are all mounted on excellent horses, and are followed by a number of domestics, proportioned to their ranks as mandarins, which rank they are allowed.
The Thibetians speak a language different from the Tartars, and almost similar to the Chinese Sifans. Their chief food is the milk of their cattle, prepared into cheese, butter, or mixed with the flour of a coarse barley, or of peas, the only grain which their soil produces, and even these articles are in scanty proportion; but they are furnished with rice and wheat from Bengal, and other countries in their neighbourhood. They are also supplied with fish, from the rivers in their own, and the neighbouring provinces, salted, and sent into the interior parts. They have no want of animal food, from the cattle, sheep, and hogs, which are raised upon their hills; and are not destitute of game. They have a singular method of preparing their mutton, by exposing the carcase entire, after the entrails are taken out, to the sun and bleak, northern winds, which blow in the months of August and September, without frost, and which so dries up the juices and parches the skin, that the meat will keep uncorrupted, for the year round. This they generally eat raw, without any other preparation. Mr.
Bogle
was often regaled with this dish; which, however unpalatable at first, he says, he afterwards preferred to their dressed mutton, just killed, which was generally tough, lean and rank. It was also common for the principal men in the villages, through which he passed, to make him presents of sheep so prepared, set before him on their legs, as if they had been alive.
Polygamy, at least in the sense we commonly receive the word, is not in practice among them; but it exists, in a manner more repugnant to European ideas. It consists in a plurality of husbands, which is firmly established and highly respected there; and, the degree of kindred between the husbands, are no obstacle to the marriage. A woman, for example, may marry all the brothers of one family: the children are divided among them; the eldest has the first-born, and the younger, those that are born afterwards. Notwithstanding such brothers having one wife in common, they generally live in great harmony and comfort with her; not but sometimes little dissentions will arise (as may happen in families constituted on different principles). An instance of which Mr.
Bogle
mentions, in the case of a modest and virtuous lady, the wife of half a dozen of the Tayshoo Lama's nephews, who complained to the uncle, that the two youngest of her husbands, did not furnish that quota of love and benevolence to the common stock, which duty and religion required of them. Their excuse for this custom (which, strange as it is, is an unquestionable fact), is the scarcity of women in Thibet and Tartary. More girls than boys are seen in their families; of course, the plea is a pretended one. Indeed, in a country where the means of subsisting a family are not easily found, it seems not impolitic to allow a set of brothers to agree in raising one, which is to be maintained by their joint efforts.
The manner of bestowing their dead is also singular, They neither inter them, like Europeans, nor burn them, like the Hindoos; but expose them on the bleak pinnacle of some neighbouring mountain, to be devoured by wild beasts and bird of prey, or wasted away by time, and the changes of weather. The mangled carcases, and bleached bones, lie scattered about; and, amidst this seene of horror, some miserable, old wretch, man or woman, lost to all feelings but those of superstition, generally sets up an abode, to perform the dismal office of receiving the bodies, assigning each a place, and gathering up the remains, when too widely dispersed.
The city of Lahassa, which is the capital of Thibet, is of no inconsiderable size, and is represented as populous and flourishing. It is the residence of officers of government, and of the Chinese mandarins, and their suite. It is also inhabited by Chinese and Cassemirian merchants and artificers; and is the daily resort of numberless traders from all quarters, who come in occasional parties, or in stated caravans. The waters of the Great River, as it is called emphatically in their language, wash its walls, Father
Du Halde
traces this river, with great accuracy. It rises in the Cassemirian mountains, runs through the great valley of Thibet, till, turning suddenly to the southward, it flows into the middle of the kingdom of Assam, thence returns, traversing that country westerly, enters Bengal towards Rangamatty, and thence, bending its course more southerly, joins the Ganges, its sister and rival, with an equal, if not more copious stream; forming, at the conflux, a body of fresh, running water, hardly to be equalled in the known world; and disemboguing itself into the bay of Bengal. Two such rivers uniting, in this happy country, with all the beauty, fertility, and convenience which they bring, well entitles it to the name of the
Paradise of Nations,
always bestowed upon it by the Moguls.
Their cities, in general, are very small; and indeed, Lahassa itself, is rather a celebrated temple than a city. As to fortified towns, or places of defence, they have none. The residence of the Delai Lama is at Pateli, a vast palace, on a mountain near the banks of the Baram-pooler, about seven miles from Lahassa. The Tayshoo Lama, who, in authority and sanctity of character, is next to the Delai Lama, and who, during the minority of the latter, acts as chief; this Tayshoo Lama has several palaces and castles, in one of which Mr.
Bogle
lived with him, five months. Every thing within his gates, breathed peace, order, and dignified elegance. The castle is of stone, or brick, with many courts, lofty halls, terraces, and porticoes; and the apartments are, in general, roomy, and highly finished, in the Chinese stile, with gilding, painting, and varnish. But there are two conveniences to which they are utter strangers; namely, stair-cases and windows. There is no access to the upper rooms, but by a sort of ladders, of wood or iron; and for windows, they have only holes in the cielings, with pent-house covers, contrived so as to shut up on the weather-side. Firing is so scarce, that little is used, but for culinary purposes; and they trust altogether for warmth in their houses, to their furs, and other cloathing. When Mr.
Bogle
conversed with the Lama, he gave him to understand, that his knowledge was not merely confined to his own country; but he found, that the Russian empire was the only one in Europe known to him, that he had a high idea of its riches and strength, and had heard of its wars and success against the empire of Rome (for so they call the Turkish state), but could not conceive, it could be in any wise a match for Cathay. Many of the Tartar subjects of Russia, travel to Thibet; and the court of Petersburgh has, at various times, sent letters and presents to the Lama. Mr.
Bogle
saw many European articles in his possession; such as pictures, looking-glasses, and trinkets of gold, silver and steel, made in England, which he had received as presents from Russia, and particularly a repeating-watch by
Graham,
which not going, they said, had been dead for some time.
Of the religion and political constitution of this country, which are intimately blended, I can only say, that ever since the expulsion of the Eluth Tartars, the kingdom of Thibet is considered as dependant on China, which they call
Cathay;
and that there actually reside two mandarins, with a garrison of 1,000 Chinese, at Lahassa the capital, to support the government; but their power does not extend far: and, in fact, the Lama, whose empire is founded on the furest grounds, personal affection and religious reverence, governs every thing internally with unbounded authority. We have seen that the Delai Lama is the great object of adoration among the various tribes of heathen Tartars, who roam through the vast tract of continent, which stretches from the banks of the Wolga to Corea, on the sea of Japan; the most extensive, religious dominion, perhaps, on the face of the globe. He is not only the Sovereign Pontiff, the vice-gerent of the Deity on earth; but, as superstition is ever the strongest, where it is furthest removed from its objects, the more remote Tartars regard him as the Deity himself. They believe him, as I have had occasion to observe before, immortal, and endowed with all knowledge and virtue. Every year they come up, from different parts, to worship, and make rich offerings at his shrine. Even the Emperor of China, who is a Mantchou Tartar, does not fail in acknowledgments to him, in his religious capacity; and actually entertains, at a great expence, in the palace of Peking, an inferior Lama, as has been noticed, as a nuncio from Thibet. It is even reported, that many of the Tartar chiefs receive certain presents, consisting of small portions of that from him, which is ever regarded, in all other persons, as the most humiliating proof of human nature, and of being subject to its laws, and treasure it up with great reverence, in gold boxes, to be mixed occasionally in their ragouts. Mr.
Bogle
indeed, asserts, that the Lama makes no such presents; but that he often distributes little balls of consecrated flour, like the
pain benit
of the Roman Catholics, which the superstition and blind credulity of his Tartar votaries, may afterwards convert into what they please. On the mountain where his palace stands, are a great number of pagods, the most sumptuous of which he inhabits. He passes great part of his life on a kind of altar, sitting cross-legged and motionless, on a large and magnificent cushion; and receives the adoration, not only of the people of Thibet, but of a prodigious number of pilgrims, who undertake long and difficult journies to worship him on their knees, and receive his benediction. He salutes no one; neither uncovers, nor rises, to the greatest prince: he merely lays his hand on the head of his votary, who imagines, that by this imposition, he receives a remission of his sins.
This profound veneration paid him, arises from an opinion, that all the divinity of the god Fo centers in him; and, that when he appears to die, either of old age or infirmity, his soul, in fact, only quits an actual, crazy habitation, to look for another, younger or better; and it is discovered again, in the body of some child, by certain tokens, known only to the Lamas, or priests, in which order he always appears.
Large pagods are frequendy met with in Thibet, where the most distinguished of the Lamas reside, and assume different titles of honour. The grand Lamas are 200 in number; and, when common Lamas arrive to the dignity of one of these, whether Thibetian, Tartar, or Chinese, they live in splendor and opulence, and are continually surrounded by a crowd of admirers, who load them with presents, and they become possessed of great estates. Indeed, the Lamas form the most powerful body in the state, have the priesthood entirely in their own hands, and besides, fill up many monastic orders, which are held in great veneration among them. Celibacy does not seem to be positively enjoined to the Lamas; but it is held indispensibly necessary for both men and women, who embrace a religious life; and this celibacy, their living in communities, their cloisters, their service in the choirs, their strings of beads, their fasts, and their penances, give them so much the air of christian monks, that it is not surprizing an illiterate capuchin should be ready to hail them as brothers, and think he can trace the features of St. Francis in every thing about them. It is an old notion, that the religion of Thibet is a corruption of christianity; but, from whencesoever it sprung, it is pure and simple in its source, conveying very exalted notions of the Deity, with no contemptible system of morality; but, in its progress, it has been greatly altered and corrupted, by the inventions of worldly men—a fate we can hardly regret, in a system of error; since we know that, that of truth, has been subject to the same.
Though many of the principal
dogmata
of Lamaism are totally repugnant to the religion of the Bramins, or of India, yet, in others, it has a great affinity to it. They have, for example, a great veneration for the cow; but they transfer it wholly from the common species, to that which bears the tails, of which I shall speak hereafter. They also highly respect the waters of the Ganges; the source of which they believe to be in heaven, and one of the first effects which the treaty between our India-company with the Lama produced, was, an application to the governor-general, for leave to build a place of worship on its banks; which was granted, and a spot was appropriated for that purpose, about two or three miles from Calcutta. Of this water, some is always kept in the palace, at Peking; and the Emperor carries some with him, whenever he travels. On the other hand, the Sumniasses, or Indian pilgrims, often visit Thibet, as a holy place; and the Lama always entertains a body of two or three hundred in his pay.
The chief trade from Lahassa to Peking, is carried on by caravans, that employ full two years in the journey, thither and back again; which is not surprising, when we consider, that the distance cannot be less than 2,000 English miles; and yet it is to be observed, that an express from Lahassa reaches Peking in three weeks;—a circumstance much to the honour of the Chinese police, which knows how to establish so speedy and effectual a communication, through mountains and desarts, for so long a way.
The Thibetians, besides a less traffic with their neighbours, in horses, hogs, rock-salt, coarse cloths, and other articles, enjoy four, staple articles, which are sufficient in themselves to procure every foreign commodity of which they stand in need; all of which are natural productions, and deserve to be particularly noticed. The first, though the least considerable, is that of the cow-tails, so famous all over India, Persia, and the other kingdoms of the east. It is produced by a species of cow, or bullock, different from what I believe is found, says Mr.
Stewart,
in any other country. It is of a larger size than the common Thibet breed; has short horns, and no hump on its back. Its skin is covered with whitish hair, of a silky appearance; but its chief singularity, is in its tail, which spreads out broad and long, with flowing hairs, like that of a beautiful mare, but much finer, and far more glossy. These tails sell very high, and are used, mounted on silver handles, for
Chowras,
or brushes, to chase away the flies; and no man of consequence, in India, ever goes out, or sits in form at home, without two
Chowrawbadars,
or brushers, attending him, with such instruments in their hands.
The next article is the wool, from which the shawl, the most delicate, woollen manufacture in the world, so much prized in the east, and now so well known in England, is made. This wool is the produce of a Thibet sheep. They are of a small breed, in figure nothing differing from our sheep, except in their tails, which are very broad; but their fleeces, for the fineness, length, and beauty of the wool, exceed all others in the world. The shawls made from this wool, all come from Cassemire; and the Cassemirians engross this article, and have factors established, for the purchase of the wool, in every part of Thibet; from whence it is sent to Cassemire, where it is worked up, and becomes a great source of wealth to that country, as well as it is originally to Thibet.
Musk is another of their staple articles. The deer which produces it, is common in the mountains; but, being exceedingly shy, and frequenting only places the most wild and difficult of access, hunting it becomes a trade of great trouble and danger. The musk is sent down to Calcutta in the natural bag, not without great risk of its being adulterated; but still it is far superior to any thing of the kind sold in Europe.
Their last staple article is gold, of which great quantities are exported from Thibet. It is found in the sands of the Great River, as well as in most of the small brooks and torrents that pour from the mountains. The quantity collected in this manner, though considerable with respect to national gain, pays the individual but very moderately for the labour bestowed on it. There are, however, mines of this metal, in the northern parts, which are the reserved property of the Lama, and rented out to those who work them. It is not found in ore, but always in a pure, metallic state, and only requires to be separated from the spar, stone, or flint, to which it adheres. Mr.
Hastings,
the governor-general of Bengal, had a lump sent him to Calcutta, of about the size of a bullock's kidney, which was a hard flint, covered with solid gold. He caused it to be fawn in two, and it was found, throughout, streaked with the purest metal. Though they have this gold in great plenty in Thibet, they never coin any of it into money; yet it is still used there as a medium of commerce, and goods are rated by the purse of gold-dust, as here by pounds.
By a letter sent by the Lama to Mr.
Hastings,
in March, 1774, written in Persian, and translated by Mr.
Stewart,
this high-priest seems not only to be a sensible man, but a man of some learning and policy.
A Mr.
Foster,
a gentleman in the East-India-company's service, passed from Bengal, through Thibet, and contrived to penetrate between that kingdom and the Caspian sea; but when we shall be favoured with his narrative, is at present uncertain.
The country of HAMI, is situated north-east of China, at the extremity of the desart of Cobi, 90 leagues only distant from the province of Chen-si. Its prince is a vassal of the Chinese emperor, and pays tribute to the Emperor. The country, though surrounded with desarts, is one of the most delightful in the world, producing every kind of grain, fruit, and culinary herbs. Their melons are more wholesome than European ones, and will keep fresh almost all the winter. In 1778, some seeds were brought to Paris, were sown the year following, and succeeded well; but, the most esteemed production of Hami, is its dried raisins, which have been since cultivated in China. The latitude of this place is 42° 53′, more northward than many provinces of France, and yet the grapes thrive better here than there, and have a superior flavour.
It never rains in Hami; and seldom is dew, or fog, seen there. The country is watered only by the snow, which falls in winter, whose waters are carefully preserved all the summer. The Chinese dry their grapes, or raisins, by holding them over the steam of hot urine, and sometimes boiling them, a few seconds, in wine, with a little clarified honey in it; but the people of Hami, let them stand to be ripe, then gather them, and only hang them in the sun. They shrivel, but lose none of their substance, or grow flat. Good raisins should be almost as crisp as sugar-candy.
Hami has a number of villages, but only one city, which is surrounded with lofty walls, half a league in circumference, with two beautiful gates, to the east and west, which make a fine appearance at a distance. The streets are straight, and well laid out; the houses have only ground-floors, and are built with clay: but, notwithstanding this, as the city stands in a beautiful plain, watered by a river, sheltered by mountains on the north, and enjoys a serene sky, it is a delightful place of residence. Approach it, which way we will, gardens may be seen, containing every thing a fertile and cultivated foil can produce, in the mildest climates. All the surrounding fields are enchanting, terminating in dry plains, covered with beautiful houses, and the large, broad-tailed sheep. The country appears to abound with fine fossils, and valuable minerals. The Chinese have, for a long time, procured diamonds, and a great deal of gold from it; and it supplies them with a kind of agate, which they prize exceedingly.
With respect to inhabitants of this small state; they resemble the Chinese, in almost every thing; are brave, capable of enduring fatigue, very dextrous in all athletic exercises, and make excellent soldiers. They are fickle, however, and soon irritated; and, when in a passion, extremely ferocious and sanguinary.
The ISLAND OF FORMOSA, called, by the Chinese,
Tai-ouan,
lies, as it were, at their own door, within 30 leagues of the province of Fo-kien; and yet they did not discover it till the year 1430. It is situated between 22° 8′ and 25° 20′ N. latitude, is about 85 leagues long, and 25 broad. A long chain of mountains runs through it, from north to south, and divides it into two parts, eastern and western. The Dutch settled in the western part in 1634, and built the fort of Zealand, which secured to them the chief harbour in the island; but they were driven from thence, by a Chinese pirate, in 1661; who took the place, and, in 1682, submitted to the Emperor of China.
The capital city, Taï-ouan, is in the western part; and is large, well peopled, and a place of great trade. Every necessary of life may be found in it; being as extensive as some first-rate cities in China. Its natural productions are, rice, sugar, tobacco, salt, fruits of all kind, medicinal herbs, cotton, cloth, hemp, &c. The greater part of the streets are laid out in a straight line, and are all covered with an awning, for seven or eight months in the year, to moderate the excessive heat. These streets are 30 or 40 feet wide, and many of them a league long, full of rich shops on both sides, in which are displayed silks, china, lacquer-ware, &c. alll ranged with such order and symmetry, as to wear the appearance of so many decorated galleries; and was not the pavement so bad, and the place so much crowded with passengers, it would be a pleasure to walk through them. The houses are generally built of clay, and bamboo reeds, and the roofs thatched with straw; but the awning leaves nothing to be seen but the shops. There is only one handsome house in the whole city. This was built by the Dutch, when here; is a large edifice, three stories high, and defended by four demi-bastions. The city has no walls, or works, to defend it; its harbour is a good one, but is choking up with sand, and will be soon rendered useless.
That part of the island which the Chinese possess, has a number of fertile and extensive plains, with many rivulets, and a pure and wholesome air. The eastern side is inhabited by Indians wholly. Most of the Indian fruits are found here; and tobacco, sugar, pepper, camphire and cinnamon, are common. Horses, sheep, hogs and goats, are scarce; but domestic fowls are plentiful, and monkies and stags have multiplied so much, that they wander about in large flocks. For want of horses and mules, the inhabitants train up oxen for riding, and, by exercise, they go as well and expeditiously as the best horses, being furnished with bridles, saddles, and cruppers. And a Chinese looks as big and proud, when mounted in this manner, as if carried by the finest Barbary courser.
The only thing wanting, to make this island desireable, is wholesome water. They have not a drop fit to drink; to strangers, it is a deadly poison; there is none but the water of the capital that can be drank. Besides this city, there are two others, and some villages, inhabited by Chinese alone; for they do not suffer any Indians to live with them, but such as are slaves, or domestics. The Indians inhabit villages to the north and south of them, and keep them in awe. A garrison of 10,000 Tartars is kept in the capital, which are changed every three years, or oftener, if necessary.
The Indian habitations are merely earth-huts, without any kind of furniture, and they live on rice, and the game they catch; and we are assured, they will run with such surprising swiftness, as to outstrip the swiftest greyhound. This the Chinese attribute to their confining their knees and reins, by a light bandage, till they are 14 or 15 years old. The women till the land, and the men are employed in hunting. Their favourite arms are lances, which they will throw with great dexterity, so as to hit a mark at 60 or 80 feet distance; but they have bows and arrows, and will kill a pheasant flying, with as much certainty, as a European will with a gun. They go almost naked, wearing only a piece of cloth round their waists. Those who excel in running, or coursing, are distinguished, by having their skin punctured, and ornamented with flowers, trees and animals; but all blacken their teeth, and wear bracelets, and crowns of shells and chrystal. Those in the north, cover their bodies with the skins of stags, of which they make a dress, without sleeves; and cover their heads with caps of palm-leaves, in form of a cylinder, and ornamented with several crowns, placed one above another, on the top of which they fix pheasant-feathers.
They àre dirty in their manner of eating; placing what they dress on a plain board, and conveying it to their mouths with their fingers. They eat their flesh half raw, and sleep on beds of fresh-gathered leaves.
Their marriage-ceremonies approach near to the simple laws of nature. Parents are seldom consulted. If a young Indian has fixed his mind on a girl, he is about the place where she lives for several days, serenading her with a musical instrument. If she is satisfied with his figure, she comes forth and joins him, and the wedding-contract is soon settled. After this, they give their parents notice, and the bride's father prepares an entertainment, where the bridegroom remains, and afterwards considers that house as his own, becoming the whole support of it, and has no further connection with his own friend; of course, these islanders prefer daughters to sons, and these become the supporters of their old age.
Although these islanders are entirely subject to the Chinese, they still preserve some remains of their ancient government. Each village chooses three or four old men, of the first reputation, whom they appoint rulers and judges of the rest, and to whom they enjoin implicit obedience.
To civilize these Indians, and regulate their taxes, government has deputed a Chinese to live in every village, who is to learn the Indian language, and to act as interpreter to the mandarins; but these interpreters having turned out cruel extortioners, the natives have rebelled, and expelled the greatest part of them.
It was in this island that
John Struys
affirms, he saw, with his own eyes, a man, who had a tail more than a foot in length, covered with red hair, and greatly resembling that of an ox. This man, with a tail, said, that his deformity, if it was one, proceeded from the climate; and that all those of the southern part of the island, were born with tails like his. But
John Struys
is the only author who attests the existence of this extraordinary race of men. No other writer, who has spoken of Formosa, makes the least mention of them.
Another singular circumstance in this island, but which appears to be no better authenticated, is what
Rechteren
asserts (and which may be found in his
Collection of Voyages of the Dutch East-India company,
Vol. v. page 96), that women are not permitted to bring forth children, before they are 35 years of age, though they are obliged to marry long before. His words are—
When women are first married, they bring no children into the world; they must, before that is permitted, have attained the age of 35 or 37. When they are big with child, their priestesses pay them a visit and tread on their bellies with their feet, if it be necessary, and make them miscarry, with, perhaps, greater pain than they would have had, in being brought to bed. It would be not only a shame but an enormous crime to bring forth a child before the time prescribed. I have seen some females who had already discharged the fruit of their womb 15 or 16 times, and who were big for the 17th when it was lawful for them to bring forth a living child.
On the 22d of May 1782, the waters of the ocean had very nigh deprived China of this Island, owing to an earthquake, as it is apprehended. A most furious wind, accompanied with heavy rains and a swell of the sea, kept the inhabitants on the coast, under continual apprehension, from three in the morning, till five in the afternoon, of being swallowed up by the waves, or buried in the bowels of the earth. This dreadful tempest seemed to blow for some time from the four corners of the compass, and continued with equal violence during the time above-mentioned. The whole city of Tai-Ouan was overflown and destroyed, and nothing but ruins and heaps of rubbish left. Of 27 ships of war in the harbour, (by these are meant Chinese gallies), 12 disappeared; two were dashed to pieces, and ten were so shattered as to be unfit for service. Above 100 smaller vessels shared the same fate. Eighty were swallowed up; five others laden, were sunk; and 10 or 12 without the harbour sunk also, without leaving the least piece of wreck behind them. The whole island was covered with water, the crops destroyed, and the provisions swept away or spoiled. Part of the mountain which divides the Island, sunk and disappeared, the rest was overturned, and the greater part of the inhabitants perished. On hearing of this calamity, the Emperor ordered all the houses that had been thrown down, to be rebuilt, and those that were damaged to be repaired at his expence, and sufficient provisions sent for the people remaining. In short, it appears that the humanity of the Chinese Emperor, who is truly a father to his people, made good every loss he could find had been sustained, out of his private treasury.
The Islands of
Lieou-kieou,
have been tributary to China since the year 1372, are in number thirty-six, and situated between Korea, Formosa and Japan. Though they are little known to Geographers, they form a powerful and extensive empire, whose inhabitants, being civilized, ought not to be classed with the savage nations dispersed throughout the Islands of Asia.
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE North-Western Coasts of America. From Captain
Cook,
who visited those places in the Summer of 1778.
THE continent of America, being now traced to the north-west, from California, quite up to latitude 70 north; it appears to be separated only from the eastern-most coast of Asia, by a streight of 13 leagues in breadth, called Bherings straits. Captain
Cook
coasted this continent from Nootka-Sound, in latitude 50. to Norton-Sound, in latitude 64; an extent of 700 miles. He was not so long on shore, at any one time, as to be able to give a perfect description of the country, and its inhabitants; but, as his is the best account, we can procure, the public must rest satisfied, until they are furnished with a better. It is reported that a gentleman having travelled through Asia, to the country of the Tschouktsches, has crossed Bherings-streights, landed on the American continent; and means to pursue his way by land, through all that continent to Hudson's-bay. Should he live to return, before the completion of this work, our readers may probably have a fuller account of the savage inhabitants of that part of the globe: but, circumstanced as we are, we can only give them the following.
Face of the country.
The country in general seems to be mountainous, and in the higher latitudes their mountains are covered with snow. Captain
Cook
discovered two volcanos near the coast, one a complete cone, with its crater at the very summit in latitude 54°. 48′. N. and longitude 195°. 45′. E. This vulcano, when he was there, continually threw up vast columns of black smoke. It was seldom wholly clear of clouds; at times, both base and summit would be clear, when a narrow cloud, sometimes two or three, one above another, would embrace the middle, like a girdle, which, with the column of smoke, rising perpendicularly to a great height, out of its top, and spreading before the wind into a tail of vast length, made a very picturesque appearance; and in the back ground of the seene, some elevated mountains whose tops towered above the clouds, to a most stupendous height, added not a little to its awful grandeur. It may be worth remarking, that the wind, at the height, to which the smoke of this vulcano reached, went sometimes in a direction contrary to what it did at sea; even when it blew a fresh gale. The other volcano is in latitude 60°. 23′. but emitting only a white smoke and no fire, made no very striking appearance.
At Nootka-sound, the land rises every where into steep hills, agreeing in their general form, ending in round or blunted tops, with some sharp, though not very prominent ridges on their sides, and all of them cloathed round to their summits with the thickest woods, as well as all the flats bordering on the sea. The surface of these hills have but little soil on them, their interior parts being solid rocks, extending to the sea-shore.
The vallies in the neighbourhood of Prince Williams-Sound, which lies in latitude 61°, are filled with pine-trees, about 50 feet high, and 4 feet in girth; and from the drift-wood, which consisted only of firs, and which lay in quantities on the beach, it is supposed that the pines, higher up the country, are much of the same size, and all of the same kind: not a Canadian pine or cypress is to be seen. Prince William's Sound is calculated to be 520 leagues West of any part of Baffin's or Hudson's-Bay; and Captain
Cook
was of opinion that if there is any passage from one to the other, it must be, at least part of it, to the North of latitude 72°.
Three degrees and a half West of Prince William's Sound, is the mouth of a very large river, that appears to be navigable, and extends a great way up into the country. This river is now called Cook's River, and the point of land being the most eastern extremity of all America hitherto known, and lying but 13 leagues from East Cape on the continent of Asia, is called, in the charts, Cape Prince of Wales, and situated in latitude 65°. 46′. and longitude from Greenwich, 191°. 45′. E.
Climate.
The climate at Nootka-Sound is infinitely milder than on the East coast of America, under the same parallel of latitude. The mercury in the thermometer in the month of April, never fell in the night lower than 42°. and very often in the day, it rose to 60°. No such thing as frost was perceived in any of the low grounds; on the contrary, vegetation had made a considerable progress, and grass was already above a foot long.
Produce.
Though both tin and copper were met with in this country, there is little reason to believe that either of them belong to the place. Neither were any ores of metal seen, except a coarse, red, earthy or ochry substance, used by the natives in painting themselves, which may probably contain a little iron, with a white and a black pigment used for the same purpose.
Besides the rock and stone that constitutes the mountains and shores, which sometimes contain pieces of very coarse quartz; things were seen among the natives, made of a hard, black granite, though not remarkably compact or fine grained; a greyish whet-stone, the common oil-stone of our carpenters, in coarser or finer pieces, and some black bits, little inferior to the hone-stone. The natives use also the transparent, leafy glimmer, or Muscovy glass, a brown, leafy or martial sort; and they were sometimes seen with pieces of rock chrystal, tolerably transparent. The first two were met with in considerable quantities, and probably are found on the spot; but the latter seemed to be brought from a greater distance, and were held as valuable.
In Nootka-Sound, the trees consist of the Canadian pine, the white cypress,
Cypressus thyoides,
or wild pine, with two or three other, less common pines. The first two make up two thirds of the whole; they in general grew with great vigor, and were all of a large size.
Of other vegetable productions there is but little variety, though many might have sprung up. About the rocks were found strawberry, rasberry, currant and gooseberry-bushes, and all in a thriving state, and some few, small, black alders; also a species of sow-thistle; goose-grass, some crow's-foot, with a fine crimson flower; and two sorts of
anthericum,
one with a larg, orange flower, and the other with a blue one. Some few, wild roses were likewise met with, just budding; a great quantity of young leeks, with triangular leaves; a small sort of grass, and some water-cresses, which grew abundantly on the sides of rills.
In latitude 60° were found some currant and strawberry-bushes; a small, yellow-flowered violet, and the leaves of a plant supposed to be the
heraclium
of Linnaeus, and which the Americans here dress for food, in the same manner as the na
ives of Kamtschtka. In latitude 64°. in the month of September, when Captain
Cook
went ashore, he found the country, where there was no wood, covered with heath, and other plants, which produced hurtle-berries, currant-berries, heath-berries, &c. The berries were ripe; the hurtle-berries too much so; and scarce a single plant in flower. The under-wood consisted of birch, willow and alder, which grew thick among the trees. The last consisted wholly of the spruce-fir, none of them above six or eight inches in diameter.
Animals.
The animals of this country, could be collected only from the skins in possession of the natives. There are bears, wolves, foxes, deer, racoons, polecats, martins, and the sea- otters, which are found at the islands east of Kamtschtka. The bears are small, but of a shining, black colour; the deer seem to be the fallow-deer of Carolina. Foxes are in great plenty, and in as great variety; some being quite yellow, with a black tip to the tail, others of a deep or reddish yellow, intermixed with black; and a third sort of a whitish grey, or ash-colour, intermixed also with black. The ermine is likewise found here, but small and scarce, nor is the hair remarkably fine, tho' quite white, except at the tip of the tail; the racoons and squirrels are of the common sort, but the latter is less than ours, and has a deeper rusty colour running along the back.
Captain
Cook
says, he was clear as to the existence of all the above animals, but that there were two, which he could not distinguish with that certainty; one seemed to be that of the elk, or moose-deer, or buffalo; the other a species of the wild cat, or lynx. Hogs, dogs and goats have not as yet found their way to this place; nor do the natives seem to have any knowledge of our house-rats. Such as they saw on board the English ships, they called squirrels; and the goats they called
eineetla,
which is the name they give to fawns.
At Prince William's Sound, they have the white bear, the wolverene, or quickhatch, with very bright colours; and a large sort of ermine; but one of the most beautiful skins met with, and which seems peculiar to this place, is that of a small animal, about ten inches long, of a brown, or rusty colour on the back, with a great number of obscure whitish specks; and the sides, of a blueish ash-colour also, with a few of these specks, something of the mouse or squirrel kind.
The sea-animals seen off this coast are whales, porpoises and seals. The porpoise is the
phocena.
The sea-otter is of this class, it living mostly in the water. Captain
Cook
having procured a young one, weighing only 25lb. made a drawing of it. It was of a shining, or glossy black colour; but many of the hairs being tipt with white, gave it, at first sight, a greyish cast. The face, throat and breast were of a yellowish white, or very light brown colour, which in many of the skins, extend the whole length of the belly. It had six cutting teeth, in each jaw; two of those of the lower jaw being very minute, and placed without, at the base of the two middle ones. The fur of these animals, (as I have had occasion to mention before, when speaking of the trade at Kiachta) is certainly softer and finer than that of any other we know of; and therefore the discovery of this part of the continent of North America, where so valuable an article of commerce may be met with, cannot be a matter of indifference. I have had one in my hand, and think it is as soft as the skin of a mole. It was of the same colour as a mole, but the fur rather longer. They are sold by the Russians at Kiachta to the Chinese, from 16l. English, to 20l. the skin.
Birds here, in general, are not only rare, as to the dif
erent species, but very scarce as to numbers, and the
ew there are, are very shy, being constantly pursued by the natives for their feathers. Those which frequent the woods, are crows and ravens similar to ours; a blueish jay or magpye; common wrens, which are the only singing birds they have; the Canadian, or migrating thrush, and a considerable number of brown eagles, with white heads and tails. They have also a small species of hawk; the heron and the
al
yon
or large-crested American kingfisher. They have likewise two species of woodpeckers, one less than a thrush, black above, with white spots on the wings, a crimson head, neck and breast, and a yellowish, olive-coloured belly. The other is a larger and more elegant bird, of a dusky brown colour on the back, richly waved with black, except about the head; the belly of a reddish cast, with round, black spots; a black spot on the breast, and the under-side of the wings and tail, a plain scarlet, tho' blackish above, with a crimson streak, running from the angle of the mouth, a little down the neck on each side▪ They have also a small bird of the finchkind, about the size of a linnet, of a dark, dusky colour, whitish below, with a black head and neck, and a white bill; and a sand-piper, the size of a small pigeon, of a dusky brown colour; white below, except the throat and breast, with a broad, white band across the wings. Add to these, humming-birds, which frequently flew about the ships, whilst at anchor; and a very beautiful bird of the hawk kind, met with in 56°. N. latitude. It is something less than a duck, and of a black colour, except the fore-part of the head, which is white; and from above and below each eye, rises an elegant, yellowish-white crest, revolved backwards, like a ram's horn: the bill and feet red. These are frequently seen in large flocks, and is a sea-bird; perhaps the
alca monochroa
of Kamtschatka, mentioned by
Steller.
The birds that frequent the waters and the shores, are not more numerous than the others: the quebrantahuessos, gulls and shags are seen off the coast. The shag is our cormorant or water-crow. There are here two or three sorts of wild ducks, one black, with a white head, which flys in flocks; and the other white, with a red bill; also a brownish duck, with a black or deep-blue head and neck. They have also grouse, snipes and plover: add to these, the great
lumme,
or diver, found in our northern countries.
Fish are more plentiful than birds, tho' not so various. The principal sorts, found in numbers, are herrings about seven inches long; the anchovy, or sardine; a white, or silver-coloured bream; and another of a gold, brown colour, with many narrow, longitudinal, blue stripes. Other fish are scarce, as a small, brown kind of sculpin, such as is found on the coast of Norway: frost-fish; a large one, something like the bull head, with a rough skin, without scales; and a small, brownish cod, spotted with white. There are also considerable quantities of the
chimara,
or little sea-wolf, which is also a-kin to the elephant-fish; some few sharks, star-fish, crabs, and a large cuttle-fish.
About the rocks, there is abundance of large muscles, some a span long, containing now and then, large pearls, but badly shaped and coloured, and a variety of other small shell-fish; and as the natives of Nootka-Sound, had some thick branches of red coral; we may conclude it is found upon the coast.
The only animals of the reptile-kind, found here, are harmless, brown snakes, striped with white, about two feet long, and a brownish water-lizzard, with a tail exactly like an eel.
The insect-tribe seems to be more numerous; for tho' when Captain
Cook
was at Nootka, the season of their appearing was only beginning, he saw four or five, different sorts of common butterflies; many humble-bees; some of our common, goosberry-moths; two or three sorts of flies, a few beetles, and some musquitoes.
People.
The people of Nootka-Sound, are, in general, of the common stature, but not slender in proportion, being commonly pretty full and plump, tho' not muscular. Their visages are round and full, and sometimes broad, with high, prominent cheek-bones; the face much depressed above, seemingly fallen in, across, between the temples; the nose flattening at the base, with wide nostrils, and a rounded point; the forehead rather low; the eyes small, black, rather languishing than sparkling; the mouth round, with large, round, thick lips, and the teeth tolerably equal, and well set, but not very white. Few of them have any beards, except old men; those who have, wear it only on the chin, all the rest they pluck out by the root. Their eyebrows are scanty and narrow, but the hair of their heads is very coarse and strong, and, without a single exception, black, streight and lank, hanging down over the shoulders. Their necks are short; their arms and body have no particular elegance in their form, but are rather clumsy, and the limbs in all, are very small, in proportion to the other parts, and crooked or ill made, with large feet, badly shaped, and projecting ancles; which last seems to arise from their squatting so much on their hams and knees, both in their canoes and houses.
Their complexion is naturally as white as ours, but they so incrust their bodies with paint and dirt, that there is no distinguishing the colour of their skin. During their youth, some of them have no disagreeable look, if compared with the generality of the people; but after attaining a certain age, they are all ugly alike. On the whole, a very remarkable sameness seems to characterize the countenances of the whole nation: a dull, phleghmatic want of expression, with very little variation, being strongly marked in all of them.
The women so much resemble the men, that it is not easy to distinguish them, especially as they possess not sufficient, natural delicacy, to render their persons agreeable: and not one did Captain
Cook
see, even among those who were in the prime of life, who had the least pretensions to be called handsome.
In Prince William's Sound, the men are square-made, and strong chested, with very large heads, disproportioned to their bodies; short, thick necks, and large, broad, spreading faces. Their eyes, tho' not small, are not proportioned to their faces, and their noses are broad, and turned up at the tip; their teeth are broad, even and white; and their hair, like those at Nootka, black, thick, straight and strong. Their beards, in general, thin or wanting, and about the lips of those who had them, stiff, bristly, and brown. With these people, indeed, the features vary, and tho' not handsome, their countenances commonly indicate a considerable share of vivacity, good-nature and frankness; yet some have an air of sullenness and reserve. Some of their women have agreeable faces, and many are here distinguishable from the men, by a delicacy of features. The complexion of the women is fair, but that of the men, brownish or swarthy.
The natives of Norton-Sound, resemble those of Prince William's Sound, differing much, as we have shewn, from the natives of Nootka, who, according to the best calculation, Captain
Cook
could make, by the number of houses in the two towns of Nootka, and those people whom he saw in this last Sound, amount to about 2000 in the whole.
The common dress of the inhabitants of Nootka, is a flaxen mantle, trimmed on the upper edge, with a narrow strip of fur, and at the lower edge, with fringe and tassels. It passes under the left arm, and is tied over the right shoulder, by a string before and one behind, near its middle; thus both arms are left free, and it hangs, evenly covering the left side, but leaving the right open, except from the loose edges falling on it, and except when it is tied round the waist, with a girdle of coarse matting or woollen, which is often done. Over this mantle, which reaches below the knees, is worn a small cloak of the same materials, fringed at bottom, and reaching to the waist. This cloak resembles a round dish-cover, being quite close, except in the middle, where there is a hole, just large enough to admit the head, and then resting on the shoulders, it covers the arms to the elbows, and the body, as far as the waist. The head is covered with a cap of a truncated cone, or like a flower-pot, made of fine matting, having the top frequently ornamented with a round or pointed knob, or bunch of leather tassels, and tied under the chin, to prevent its being blown off.
INHABITANTS OF NOOTKA SOUND.
Whilst their bodies are thus always daubed with red paint, their faces are often stained with a black, or a bright red, or a white colour, by way of ornament: this last gives them a ghastly and disgusting look. They also strew the brown, martial
mica
on the paint, which makes it glitter. The ears of many of them are bored in the lobe, where they make a pretty large hole, and two others higher up on the outer edge. In these holes they hang bits of bone, or quills, fixed on a leather thong; small shells; bunches of woollen tassels, or pieces of thin copper. The
septum
of the nose, in many, is also perforated, through which they draw a piece of small cord; and others wear in the same place, small, thin pieces of iron, brass or copper, shaped almost like a horshoe, the narrow opening of which receives the
septum,
so that the two points may gently pinch it, and the ornament thus hangs over the upper lip. About their wrists, they wear bracelets, or bunches of white, bugle-beads, made of a conic, shelly substance; bunches of strings with tassels, or a broad, black, shining, heavy substance, of one piece: and about their ancles, they also wear frequently many solds of leather-thongs, or the sinews of animals twisted to a considerable thickness.
Thus far, their common dress; but they have others which they use on extraordinary occasions, on visits of ceremony, or when they go to war. For the first, they make of the skins of animals, trimmed at the edges, with broad borders of fur, or that woolen stuff they make, embroidered with various figures, and tied on as the other garments, but over them. At such times, the general head-dress, is a quantity of withy, or half-beaten bark, wrapped about the head, stuck with various, large eagle-feathers, or powdered, as it were, with small, white feathers. The face is then painted, with its upper and lower parts of different colours, in stripes, so that the stripes shall appear as bleeding gashes; or it shall be smeared with a kind of tallow, mixed with paint, and formed into a variety of figures, resembling carved-work. Sometimes, again, they will divide their hair into small parcels, and tie it in intervals of two inches, to the end, with thread; and others will tie it behind, as we do, and stick bunches of cypress in it. Thus dressed, they will have a truly savage and ridiculous appearance; but this is much heightened, when they put on, what may be called their monstrous decorations. These consist of an endless variety of carved, wooden masks, or vizors, applied on the face, or upper-part of the head, or forehead. Some of these resemble human faces, furnished with hair, beards, and eyebrows; others, the heads of eagles, and other birds; and many, the heads of wolves, deer, porpoises, and the like. In general, these representations, much exceed the natural size; and they are painted, and often strewed with pieces of the foliaceous
mica,
which makes them glitter; and seems to augment their enormous deformity. They even exceed this, sometimes, and fix on the same part of the head, large pieces of carved-work, resembling the prow of a canoe, pointed in the same manner; and projecting to a considerable length.
The only dress, among the people of Nootka, seemingly adapted to war, is a thick, leather mantle, doubled; which, from its size, appears to be the skin of an elk or buffalo, tanned. This they fasten on, in the common way; but so as to reach up, over the breast quite to the throat; falling, at the same time, almost to the legs. It is sometimes ingeniously painted, in different compartments, like our herald's coats; and is sufficiently strong to resist arrows, and the points of spears. On the same occasion, they sometimes wear a kind of leather-cloak, covered with rows of dried hoofs of deer, disposed horizontally, appended by leather-thongs, covered with quills; which, when they move, make a rattling noise.
Though these people cannot be viewed, without a kind of horror, when equipped in such extravagant dresses; yet, when divested of them, and seen in their common habits, they have not the least appearance of ferocity, but appear, on the contrary, as I have already observed, to be of a quiet, phleghmatic and inactive disposition; destitute, in some measure, of that degree of animation and vivacity, necessary to render them agreeable.
Though not reserved, they are far from being talkative: but their gravity is rather a consequence of their natural disposition, than any sense of propriety, or mode of education; for, when in the greatest passion, they know not how to express their anger, by any warmth of language or significancy of gesture.
Their orations, which are made either when engaged in dispute, or to explain their sentiments, on any public occasion, seem little more than short sentences; or rather single words, forcibly repeated, and constantly in one tone, and degree of strength, accompanied only with a single gesture, at every sentence, that of jerking their whole body a little forward, by bending the knee; their arms hanging listless by their sides.
Though there is too much reason to infer, from their bringing human skulls and bones to sale, that they eat their enemies with a degree of brutal cruelty; this circumstance rather marks a general agreement of character, with that of almost every tribe of uncivilized men, in every age, and every part of the globe, than that they are to be reproached with peculiar inhumanity. They seem to be a docile, courteous, good-natured people; yet quick in resenting what they consider as an injury, but, like most other passionate people, soon forgeting it.
The chief employment of the men, seems to be that of fishing, and killing land and sea-animals, for the maintenance of their families; whereas the women are generally employed in manufacturing their flaxen or under-garments; in preparing sardines for drying, which they carry up from the beach, in large baskets, after the men have brought them in their canoes. The women are also sent in small canoes to collect muscles, and other shell-fish, and perhaps on some other occasions: for they manage these with as much dexterity as the men, who, when in the canoes with them, seem to pay little attention to their sex, by offering to relieve them from the labour of the paddle; nor indeed do they treat them with any particular respect or tenderness in other situations. The young men appear to be the most indolent, or idle of the whole community; for they were either sitting about in scattered companies, to bask in the sun, or lay wallowing in the sand, on the beach, like a number of hogs; without any covering. But, this disregard to decency was confined to the men. The women were always properly cloathed, and behaved, with the utmost propriety, justly diserving all commendation, for a bashfulness and modesty becoming their sex, and the more meritorious, as the men seemed to have no sense of shame.
Their houses are disposed in three ranges, or rows, rising gradually behind each other, the largest in front, the others less; besides a few, straggling ones at each end. These ranges are interrupted or disjoined at irregular distances, by narrow paths, or lanes that pass upward, but those which run in a line with the houses, between the rows, are much broader. Though there is some appearance of regularity in their disposition, there is none in the houses themselves; for each building, divided by a path, let it be ever so long, may be considered as one house, or many; though there are no complete separations, either without, or within, to distinguish them. They are built of very long and broad planks, resting upon the edges of each other, fastened or tied here and there, by withs of pine-bark, and having only slender posts or rather poles at considerable distances on the outside, to which they are also tied; but within, are some, larger poles, placed aslant. The height of the sides, and ends, of these habitations, is seven or eight feet, but the back-part, is a little higher, by which means the planks, that compose the roof, slant forwards, and are laid on loose, so as to be moved about; either to put close, in order to exclude the rain, or in fair weather to be separated to let in the light, or pass out the smoke. They are, however, upon the whole, miserable dwellings, and constructed with little care or ingenuity: for though the side-planks are made to fit pretty closely together, in some places, in others, they are quite open; and they have no regular doors, the entrance being either by a hole, where the unequal length of the planks has accidentally left an opening; or where, in some cases, the planks are made to lap over each other, and, thus being shortened, leave a kind of door-way. Some holes are also left in the sides, by way of windows, but without any regularity; and, these have bits of mat hung before them, to keep the rain out. The habitations further north, on this coast, where
Bhering
landed, in 1741, are very like those of Nootka.
Within we may frequently see, from one end to the other of these ranges of buildings, without intermission; for though, in general, there are apartments on each side, for the accomodation of families, they are such as do not intercept the sight, and often consist of no more than pieces of plank, running from the sides, towards the middle of the house; so that if they were complete, the whole might be compared to a long stable, with a double range of stalls, and a broad passage in the middle. Close to the sides, in each of these parts, is a little bench of boards, raised five or six inches higher than the rest of the floor, covered with matts, and on which the family sit and sleep. These benches are commonly seven or eight feet long, and four or five broad. In the middle of the floor, between them, is the fire-place, which has neither hearth nor chimney. In one house which Captain
Cook
saw, and which was at the end of a middle range, almost separated from the rest, by a high, close partition, their were four of these benches, each of which held a single family at a corner, and the middle of the room appeared common to them all.
Their furniture consists chiefly of a great number of chests and boxes of all sizes, which are generally piled upon each other, close to the door, or ends of the room or house, and contain their spare garments, skins, masks and other things, which they set a value on; some of these are double, or one covers the other as a lid; others have a lid fastened with thongs, and some of the larger ones have a square hole in the upper part, by which the things are put in and taken out. They are often painted black, studded with the teeth of different animals, or carved with a kind of frieze-work, and figures of birds, or animals, by way of ornament. Their other, domestic utensils are mostly square and oblong pails or buckets to hold water, and other things, with wooden cups and bowls, and small, shallow, wooden troughs, about two feet long, out of which they eat their food; and twig-baskets, bags of matting, &c. Their fishing-implements, and other things lie or hang up in different parts of the house, but without the least order; so that the whole is a complete scene of confusion.
The nastiness and stench of their houses, is equal to their complexion; for they dry their fish within doors; they also gut them there, which, with their bones and fragments thrown down at meals, and the addition of of other filth, lie about in heaps, and and are not cleared away, till such heaps become almost insupportable. In a word, their houses are as filthy as hog-styes, every thing in and about them stinking of fish, train-oil and smoke.
Filthy however as they are, many of them are decorated with images. These are nothing more than the trunks of very large trees, four or five feet high, set up singly, or by pairs, at the upper end of the apartment, with the front carved into a human face; the arms and hands cut out on the sides, and variously painted; so that the whole is truly a monstrous figure. A net, by way of curtain, for the most part, hangs before them, and it seems at times, that they make offerings to them.
Though their food, may be said to consist, of every thing they can procure, either animal, or vegetable, the quantity of the latter, bears a very small proportion to the former. Their greatest dependance is on what the sea produces them. Their chief food is herrings, and sardines; which, being dried and smoked, are sewed up in matts, so as to form bales, three or four feet square. They make also a kind of caviare of herring's roe, which is their winterbread.
Large muscles they roast in the shells; they are then stuck on long skewers, taken off occasionly, and eaten, dipping them in oil, as a sauce. Of sea-animals, their most common food is the porpoise, the flesh of which they dry in pieces, as they do the herrings. They also make a kind of broth of it, by putting it fresh, with water, into a boiler, and throwing heated stones into it, till sufficiently seethed. They put in the flesh, and take out the stones with a cleft stick, which serves them for tongs. The oil these animals produce is stored away, and often eat with a spoon. Of vegetables, they eat the leaves of the gooseberry and currant, and also of the lily, without any preparation, and some few bulbous roots.
Their manner of eating is exactly consonant to the nastiness of their houses, and persons, for the troughs and platters, in which they put their food, appear never to have been washed, from the time they are first made, and the dirty remains of a former meal are only swept away by the succeeding one. They tear every thing solid, or tough, to pieces, with their teeth; for, though they make use of knives, to cut up their animals, they never use them at their meals; and the roots which they dig, they will eat, without even shaking off the earth that adheres to them.
Weapons.
Their weapons are bows and arrows, slings, spears, short truncheons of stone, and a small pick-axe, not unlike the common, American
tomahawk.
Their spears have a long point of bone, but some of their arrows are pointed with iron. The tomahawk is a stone, six or eight inches long, pointed at one end, and the other fixed into a wooden handle; which resembles the human head and neck, the stone fixed in the mouth, and representing a large tongue, and to make the resemblance stronger, human hair is fixed to the head. This weapon they call
taaweesh
or
tsuskeeah.
Their number of stone-weapons, and the great quantity of human skulls, Captain
Cook
saw, lead him to suppose, that they have frequent wars among them, and that those wars are bloody.
Musick.
With respect to their manners and customs, we are able to say little of: they seem to be fond of singing, and to make it a part of their ceremonies. When they approached our ship, says Captain
Cook,
they all stood up in their canoes and began to sing; some of their songs, in which the whole body joined, were in a slow, and others in quicker time, and they accompanied their notes with the most regular motions of their hands, or beating in concert, with their paddles, on the sides of their canoes, and making other very expressive gestures. At the end of each song, they remained silent a few seconds, and then began again, sometimes pronouncing the word
hooee!
forcibly as a chorus.
They keep the exactest concert in their songs, which are often sung by great numbers together, as those already mentioned. These are solemn and slow, but their music is not of that confined sort found amongst many rude nations; for the variations are very numerous and expressive, and the cadence or melody powerfully soothing. Besides, their full concerts, sonnets of the same, grave cast, were frequently sung by single performers, who kept time, by striking the hand against the thigh. The music, however, was sometimes varied, from its predominant solemnity of air, and there were instances of stanzas being sung in a more gay and lively strain, and even with a degree of humour.
The only instruments of music seen, (if such they may be called) were a rattle, and a small whistle, about
n inch long, incapable of any variation, from having but one hole. They use the rattle when they sing, and the whistle, when they dress themselves like particular animals, and endeavour to imitate their howl or cry. The whistles are made in the shape of a bird, with a few pebbles in the belly, and the tail is the handle. They look more like a child's rattle.
Canoes.
Their canoes are of simple structure, but apparently well calculated for every useful purpose; from the largest, which carry 20 persons or more, are framed of one tree. Many of them are forty feet long, seven broad, and about three deep. From the middle, towards each end, they become gradually narrower, the after-part and stern ending abruptly, or perpendicularly, with a small knob on the top; but the fore-part is lengthened out, stretching forward and upward, ending in a notched point or prow, considerably higher than the sides of the canoe, which run nearly in a straight line. They are chiefly without ornaments, though some have little carved work, and are studded on the sides with seal's teeth, as are their masks and weapons. A few have also a kind of additional prow, like a large cut-water, which is painted with the figure of some animal. They have no seats, or other supporters in the inside, than several, round sticks, little thicker than a cane, placed across, at mid-depth. They are very light, and their breadth and flatness, enables them to float firmly, without any out-rigger, which none of them have; and which is a remarkable distinction, between the navigation, of all the American nations, and that of the southern parts of the East Indies, and the islands of the Pacific ocean. Their paddles are light, and small, shaped, in some measure, like a large leaf, pointed at the bottom, broadest in the middle, and gradually losing itself in the shaft, the whole being about five feet long. They have acquired great dexterity, by constant use, in managing these paddles; for sails are no part of their art, in navigation.
The canoes of the nations, in latitude 61° N. longitude 213°, are not made with wood, as at Nootka, except the frame, which consists of slender laths. This is covered with the skins of seals, or such like animals.
The canoes of Prince William's sound, are exactly the same with those of Greenland, and the Esquimaux Indians, and their weapons and instruments of fishing and hunting, are also the same; of course, they need no description.
Implements.
Their implements for fishing and hunting, at Nootka, which are both ingeniously contrived, and well made, are nets, hooks and lines, harpoons, gigs, and an instrument like an oar. This last is twenty feet long, four or five inches broad, and about an inch thick. Each edge, for about two thirds of its length (the other third being its handle,) is set with sharp bone-teeth, about two inches long. Herrings and sardines, and such other, small fish, as come in shoals, are attacked with this instrument, which is pushed into the shoal, and the fish are caught either upon or between the teeth. Their hooks are made of bone and wood, and rather clumsily; but the harpoon with which they strike the whale, and lesser sea-animals, shews a great deal of contrivance. It is composed of a piece of bone, on which is fixed the oval blade of a large muscle-shell, in which is the point of the instrument; to this is fastened about two or three fathoms of rope; and to throw this harpoon, they use a shaft of about 12 or 15 feet long to which the line or rope is made fast, and to the end of which the harpoon is fixed, so as to separate from the shaft, and leave it floating on the water, as a buoy, when the animal darts away with the harpoon.
Their fishing wears, are composed of pieces of wicker-work, made of small rods, some closer than others, according to the size of the fish intended to be caught in them. These pieces of wicker-work, (some of whose superficies are at least 20 feet by 12) are fixed up edgeways in shallow water, by strong poles or pickets, that stand firm in the ground. How they were used, Captain
Cook,
cannot say, as he saw no one attending them; but it is apprehended they may be erected for the purpose of enclosing fish in the manner I have represented that the Cossacks use them, in Siberia.
Every thing of the rope-kind, is made from thongs of skins, and sinews of animals, or from the same flaxen substance of which their mantles are manufactured.
Their great dexterity in wood-work, may, in some measure, be attributed to the assistance they receive from iron tools, such as chissels and knives; a stone serves them for a mallet, and a piece of fish-skin for a polisher. Their knives are of various sizes; some very large and their blades are crooked, resembling our pruning knife, but the cutting edge in the back or convex part. They sharpen their tools, on a coarse slate, whet-stone, and keep them constantly bright.
Manufactures,
&c. Their manufactures and mechanic arts, are far more extensive, and ingenious, whether we regard the design, or the execution, then could have been expected from the natural disposition of the people, and the little progress that cultivation has made among them. The flaxen and woollen garments, with which they cover themselves, are their first care, and the chief object of their attention; the former of these are made of pine-tree bark, beaten into hemp. It is not spun; but, after being properly prepared, is spread upon a stick which is fastened across, to two others that stand upright. It is disposed in such a manner, that the manufacturer, who sits on her hams, at this simple machine, knits it across, with small plaited threads, at the distance of half an inch from each other; though by this method, it is not so close or firm, as cloth that is woven, the bunches, between the knots, fill up the interstices and form it into a compleat cloth; and it has the advantage of being softer and more pliable. Their woollen garments, are very like woven cloth, and the various figures, which are artificially inserted in them, destroy the supposition of their being wrought in a loom. Probably they are made, as we have shewn that the Tartars make their felts. They are of different degrees of fineness, some resembling our coarse rugs or blankets, and others almost equal to our finest sorts, even softer, and certainly warmer. The wool or fur seems to be that of the fox, and brown lynx, and the ornamental parts or figures in these garments, which are disposed with great taste, are commonly of different colours, being dyed chiefly of a deep brown, or of a yellow; the last of which when new, equals in brightness that in the best of our carpets.
To their taste or design, in working figures on their garments, corresponds their fondness for carving on every thing they make of wood. Nothing is without a kind of frieze-work, or the figure of some animal upon it; but the most general representation, is that of the human face, which, is often cut out upon birds, and on their stone and bone-weapons. The general design of all these things is sufficient to convey a knowledge of the object they are intended to represent; but the carving is not executed with that nicety, that an ingenious artist would bestow even on an indifferent design. Indeed, in many of their masks, and vizors, they shew themselves able sculptors, not only preserving, with great exactness, the general character of their own faces, but finishing the more minute parts with a degree of accuracy in proportion, and neatness in execution. The strong propensity of these people to works of this sort is remarkable in a great variety of particulars. Small, whole human figures, representations of birds, fish, land and sea, animals, models of their houshold-utensils, and of their canoes, are found amongst them, in great abundance.
The imitative arts being nearly allied, it is no wonder they should be as good designers, as carvers. The whole process of their whale-fishery, is often seen painted, on the caps they wear; this, though rudely executed, serves at least to shew, that though there is no appearance amongst them of a knowledge of letters, they have some notions of commemorating and representing actions, independant of their songs and traditions.
Their manner of smoke-drying fish, is as follows: they first hang them within their huts, on small rods, about a foot from the fire; afterwards, they remove them higher and higher, to make room for others, till the rods, on which the first hang, reach the top of the house; when completely dried, they are taken down, packed close in bales, and covered with matts till they are wanted. Cod and other large fish are also cured in the same manner, though they sometimes dry them in the open air, without fire.
In trafficking, they betray a knavish disposition, and would carry off the goods they wanted, without making any return; and yet were unwilling to let any grass be cut, without it was first paid for. The inhabitants of Nootka, are thieves in the strictest sense of the word, for they would pilfer nothing but what they thought would be useful to themselves; and Captain
Cook
had reason to apprehend that stealing is much practised among them, and chiefly gave rise to their quarrels.
The beads, iron, and copper found amongst these people, leave it beyond a doubt, that they must have procured them, through an interview with the more inland tribes, from Hudsons bay, or the settlements on the Canadian lakes; unless it can be supposed that the Russian Indians from Kamtschatka (which is less likely) have extended their habitations further than the nations of the Eastern islands, communicating along the coast, with those of Prince William's Sound.
Of the political and religious institutions, we can say but little; Captain
Cook
could only observe, that there are such men as chiefs amongst them, called
Acweek,
and to whom the others, are in some measure subordinate; but it appeared that the authority of these chiefs, extended no farther than to the family to which each chief belongs; and who own him for their head. As these
Acweeks,
are not all elderly men, it is concluded, that the title comes to them by inheritance. Of their religion, nothing of any moment could be collected.
Language.
Their language is by no means harsh or disagreeable, further than what proceeds from their using the
k
and
h
with more force, or pronouncing them with less softness than we do; and on the whole it abounds, rather with what we may call labral and dental, than with guttural sounds; so that it may be compared to a very coarse or harsh method of lisping. It is difficult to represent this sound, by any combination of our own letters, unless, by
Iszthl.
This is one of their usual terminations, though it sometimes begins a word. The next most general termination is
tl,
and many words end with
z
and
ss,
as for example,
Opulszthl,
the Sun.
Onulszthl,
the Moon.
Rahsheetl,
dead.
Teeshcheetl,
to throw a stone.
Koomitz,
a human skull.
Quakmiss,
fish-roe.
They seem to take so great a latitude in their mode of speaking, that they have sometimes four or five different terminations of the same word. Their language in general, seems to shew the nearest affinity to the American.
Opulszthl,
the Nootka name of the sun, not being very unlike
Vitziputzli,
the name of the Mexican divinity.
The following comparison with other neighbouring countries, will serve to shew their affinity with those countries.
 
OONALASHKA.
NORTON SOUND.
GREENLAND.
ERQUIMAUX.
One.
Taradak:
Adowjak:
Attousek:
Attouset.
Two.
Alac:
Atba:
Arlak:
Mardluk.
Three.
Canoogn:
Pingashook:
Pingajuah:
Pingasut.
Four.
Sechn:
Shetamik:
Sissamat:
Sissamat.
Five.
Chang:
Dallamik:
Tellimat:
Tellimat.
A Canoe.
Eakeac:
Caiac:
Kajak:
Kiroik.
A Paddle.
Chasec:
Pangehon:
Pautik:
Pow.
Darts.
Ogwatook:
 
Aglikak.
 
The Leg.
Ketac:
Kanaiak:
 
Kin-aw-auk.
The Eye-brow.
Kamlik:
Kameluk:
 
Coup-loot.
Where I to affix a name, says Captain
Cook,
to the people of Nootka, as a distinct nation, I would call them
Wakassians,
from the word
Wakash,
which is frequently in their mouths. It seems to express applause, approbation, or friendship; for when they appeared to be satisfied or well pleased with any thing they saw, or any accident that happened, they would, with one voice, call out
wakash! wakash!
In short, so essentially do they differ in their persons, their customs and language, from the inhabitants of the Islands in the Pacific ocean, that we cannot suppose their respective progenitors to have been united in the same tribe, or to have had any intimate connection, when they emigrated from their original settlements, into the place where we now find their descendants.
The common dress of the natives of Prince William's Sound (for men, women, and children), is a kind of close frock, reaching generally to the ancles, though sometimes only to the knees. At the upper part is a hole, just sufficient to admit the head; with sleeves to the wrist. Their frocks are made of the skins of different animals, the hairy side outwards: some have their frocks made of the skins of fowls, with the down only remaining on them. The seams of these garments are ornamented with tassels, or a fringe of narrow thongs; and a few, have a kind of cape or collar, and some a hood. When it rains, they put over this, another frock, ingeniously made from the intestines of whales, so thin, and well prepared, as to resemble our gold-beater's skin: this is made to draw tight round the neck, and at the wrists; and its skirts, when they are in their canoes, are so drawn over the brim of the hole in which they sit, that no water can enter.
They generally go naked-legged; but some few have a kind of skin stockings, reaching half way up the thigh; and scarce any appear without mittens for the hands, made of the skins of bears-paws. Those who wear any thing on the head, resemble those at Nootka; having high, truncated, conic caps of straw, and sometimes of wood, resembling a seal's head, well painted.
The men commonly wear the hair cropt round the neck and forehead; but the women allow it to grow long, and most of them tie a small lock of it on the crown; and a few club it behind, after our manner. Both sexes have their ears perforated with several holes, about the outer and lower part of the edge, in which they hang little bunches of beads. The
septum
of their noses they also bore, and thrust thro' it, the quill-feathers of small birds; or little, bending ornaments, made of a shelly substance, strung on a stiff string, or cord, three or four inches long, which gives them a truly picturesque appearance. But the most uncommon and unsightly fashion, adopted by both sexes, is that of slitting, or cutting the under-lip, quite through, in the direction of the mouth, a little below the swelling part: this in i
on, which is made even in sucking children, is often above two inches long; and either by its natural retraction, when the wound i
fresh, or by the repetition of some contrivance, assumes the true shape of lips, and seems so large, as to admit the tongue through; so that they seem to have two mouths. In this artificial mouth, they stick a flat, narrow ornament, of solid shell, or bone, cut into little narrow pieces, like small teeth, almost down to the base, or thickest part, which has a small, projecting bit at each end, to support it, when put into the divided lip; the cut part then appearing
wards. Others have the lower lip only performed into separate holes; and then the ornament consist, of as many distinct studs; when the points are pushed through these holes, and their heads appear within the lip, a
another row of teeth, immediately under their own.
These are their native ornaments: but Captain
Cook,
found many b
d among them, of European manufacture, chiefly of a pale, blue colour, which they hang in their ears, about their caps, or join to their lip-ornaments, which have a small hole drilled in each point, to which they are fastened, and others to them, till they hang sometimes as low as the point of the chin. But in this last case, they cannot remove them so easily; but as to their own lip-ornaments, they can take them out with their tongue, or suck them into the mouth at pleasure. They also wear bracelets, of shelly beads, or of a substance like amber.
The men frequently paint their faces of a bright red, and of a black colour; and sometimes of a blue, or lead-colour, but not in any regular figure; and the women, in some measure, endeavour to imitate them, by puncturing or staining the chin with black, that comes to a point on each cheek; a practice, says
Crantz,
very similar to one in fashion among the females in Greenland. They do not paint their bodies, says
Cook,
but I no where ever saw savages, who took more pains to ornament, or rather to disfigure their persons.
For defensive armour, they have a kind of jacket, or coat of mail, made of thin laths, bound together with sinews; which makes it quite flexible, tho' so close, as not to admit an arrow or dart: it only covers the trunk of the body, and may not be improperly compared to a woman's stays.
Of their domestic utensils, they have round, shallow, wooden dishes; and others of a cylindrical shape, much deeper; the sides being made of one piece, bent round, like our chip-boxes, though thick, neatly fastened with thongs, and the bottoms fixed in, with small wooden pegs. Others they have smaller, and of a more elegant shape, somewhat resembling a large butter-boat, without a handle, but more shallow; made from a piece of wood, or heavy stubstance, neatly carved; and they have many little square bags, much of the same sort with their outer-frocks, neatly ornamented with very minute red feathers, interwoven with it; also, many chequered baskets, wrought so close, as to hold water; some wooden-models of their canoes; many little images, four or five inches long, cut in wood, or stuffed, cloathed in fur, and ornamented as they do themselves; a kind of dolls. And, as a substitute for the rattling-bird of Nootka, they have two or three hoops, or concentric pieces of wood, with a cross-bar fixed in the middle, to hold them by: to these are fixed a great number of dried barnacle-shells, with threads, which serve as a rattle, and make a loud noise, when they shake them.
Captain
Cook
could not speak, with any decision, of their tools; but he saw a kind of stone adze, many iron knives, some straight, others crooked; and some very small ones, fixed in pretty long handles, with the blades bent upwards, like some of our shoemaker's instruments. They have still knives of another sort, near two foot long, shaped like a dagger, with a ridge in the middle. These they wear in sheaths of skins, hung by a thong round the neck, under their frock, and used only as weapons. Every thing they have, however, is as ingeniously made, as if they were furnished with a complete tool-chest; and their sewing, plaiting of sinews, and small work, on their little bags, may be put in competition with the most delicate manufactures, found in any part of the known world. In short, considering the otherwise uncivilized, or rude state, in which these people are, their northern situation, amidst a country perpetually covered with snow, and the wretched materials they have to work with, it appears that their invention and dexterity, in all manual works, is at least, equal to that of any other nation.
The food they were seen to eat, was dried-fish, and the flesh of some animal, either broiled or roasted. They eat also the larger sort of fern-root, mentioned at Nootka, Their drink is water; and they swallow lumps of snow, by mouthfuls. They are decent and cleanly in their food; and though they sometimes eat the raw fat of some sea-animal, they cut it carefully into small pieces with their knives. They are also cleanly in their persons, and in all their utensils.
Their language, from the various signification their words bear, is at first difficult to be understood; and seems to have no affinity with that spoken at Nootka, except the word
Akashou?
which implies,
What is the name of that?
and is the same, at both places.
Namuk.
An ornament for the ear.
Lukluk.
A brown shaggy-skin.
Aa.
Yes.
Keeta.
Give me something.
Naema.
Change with me.
Ahleu.
A spear.
Veena.
Stranger!—calling to one.
Tawuk.
Keep it.
Yaut?
Shall I go?
Whaehai?
Shall I keep it?
At Norton-Sound, in latitude 64°. 55′. and 197°. 13′. longitude, the dress of the natives is much the same as at Prince William's-Sound; only that here, they wear wide boots, and deer-skin frocks, with large hoods, in which the women carry their children, as do the Eskimauxs and Greenlanders. The women which Captain
Cook
saw, are short and squat, with plump, round faces, punctured from the lip to the chin; their complexion a light copper-colour, black and short hair; the men with little beards; and both sexes have black teeth, seemingly filed down level with the gums.
SNUG CORNER COVE.
The view given, is Snug-Corner-Cove, in Nootka-Sound, where Captain
Cook
anchored.
Francis Maurelle,
a Spaniard, who traced the American coast northward, from the coast of California, in 1775, tells us, that in latitude 41°. 7′. which is about nine degrees more to the southward, than Nootka-Sound, where Captain
Cook
anchored, the men wear no covering, except the cold is intense; when they throw over their shoulders the skins of animals, binding their heads with garlands of sweet-smelling herbs. They likewise wear their hair either dishevelled over their shoulders, or as the Spaniards say,
en castanna;
that is, so as to resemble a chesnut-tree. In the slaps of their ears, they have rings, like those the Spaniards have at the end of their musquets. They paint their faces, and the greater part of their bodies, with a black or blue colour; and puncture their arms in circles, as the common people in Spain, often paint ships and anchors. They bind their loins and legs quite down to the ancles, very closely, with strips of hide or thread.
The women cover the tops of their heads with an ornament, like the crest of a helmet, and wear their hair in two tresses, in which they stick many sweet-smelling herbs. They also use the same rings in their caps (which are of bone) as the men do in their ears, and cover their bodies with the same skins; besides which, they wear an apron of the same kind, about a foot wide, with some thread formed into a fringe. They likewise bind their legs, in the same manner as the men.
The under-lip of the women is swelled out into three
fascias,
or risings; two of which issue from the corners of the mouth, to the lowest part of what would be the beard in men, and the third, from the highest point, and middle of that point to the lower, like the others;
This description is rather unintelligible, but we are not mistaken in the translation.
leaving between each, a space of clear flesh, which is much larger in young women than in old, whose faces are generally punctured or tattooed, so as to be totally disfigured. A mask of such a face may be seen in the Leverian Museum, London.
On their necks they wear various fruits or seeds, instead of beads. Some other ornaments also consist of the bones of animals, or shells from the sea-coast.
Their houses are square, and built with large beams; the roof being no higher than the surface of the ground; for doors to which, they make use of a circular hole, just large enough to pass through
Similar, we apprehend, to Kamtschatka dwellings.
. The floors of these huts are perfectly smooth and clean, with a square hole, two feet deep, in the centre, in which they make their fire, and round which they are continually warming themselves in cold weather. Such habitations also secure them, when not employed out of doors, from the wind and noxious animals. This similarity of hut or house, to those of the natives in higher latitudes, and further west, is another argument of the north-western coast of America being originally peopled from the eastern coast of Asia.
This tribe of Indians is governed by a ruler, who directs where they shall hunt and fish for what the community stands in need of; and it seems that the authority of this ruler, is confined to a particular village of these habitations; together with such a district of country, as may be supposed to belong to the inhabitants of such a community; who sometimes are at war with the villages.
They are very early taught the use of a bow; for, says this author, we observed an infant, who could scarcely be a year old, shooting arrows from a bow, proportioned to size, and strength; and, who hit the hand at two or three yards distance, if held up for a mark.
We never observed that these Indians had any idols, or made sacrifices; but, as we found out, that they had a plurality of wives, or women at least, we inferred, with good reason, that they were perfect atheists.
On the death of one of these Indians, they raised a sort of funeral cry, and afterwards interred the body within the house of their ruler; but from this we could not pronounce that they were idolaters, because the cry of lamentation, might proceed from affliction, and the body might have been burnt, that the corpse might not be exposed to wild beasts, or to avoid the stench arising from putrefaction.
We could not understand their language, but they pronounced the Spanish, with great ease.
Their arms are chiefly arrows pointed with flint, and some of them with iron or copper, which we understood were procured from the north, probably bartered at the English forts in Hudsons bay, or with the traveling hords of Indians, who resort there at stated times. Such arms are to be seen at the Leverian museum, London; brought from King George's Sound, on the N. W. coast of America, latitude 50° by Captain
Cook.
At this museum is also a bow, from some place resembling one from the Labrador coast. These arrows are carried in quivers of wood or bone, and hang from their wrist or neck.
What they most value is iron, and particularly knives, or hoops of old barrels. They are accustomed to tobacco, which they smoked in small, wooden pipes, in form of a trumpet, and procured from little gardens, where they had planted it.
They chiefly hunt deer, cibulos, sea-wolves, and otters. The only birds met with on this part of the coast, were daws, hawks, very small paroquets, ducks, and gulls; there were also some parrots, with red feet, bills and heads, like lories, both in their heads and flight.
The fish, on this coast, are chiefly sardines and cod, and what this voyager calls
pejerey;
of which, they bring home only as much as will satisfy the wants of the day.
We could not learn, continues
Maurelle,
whether these people had ever been visited by any other ships than ours. Indeed, we had every reason to think they had not; but what we saw of the country, leaves no doubt of its fertility, and that it is capable of producing all the plants of Europe. In most of the gullies of the hills, were rills of clear and cool water, the banks of which were covered with herbs (as in the meadows of Europe) of both agreeable verdure and fragrancy. Among these are Castillian roses, smallage, lilies, plantain, thistles, cammomile and many others. We also found strawberries, rasberries, blackberries, sweet onions, and potatoes, all which grew in great abundance, and particularly nearest the rills.
The hills were covered with very large, high, and strait pines some of which we noticed were 120 feet high, and four in diameter towards the bottom; pines proper for masts and ship-building. The tides here are as regular as in Europe.
Maurelle
traced the coast northward, as far as latitude 57°, 18′ found the appearance of the country similar to that of latitude 41° and the natives dressed as their more southern neighbours, only that their garments were longer, and they wore a cap on their hair, which covered their whole head. The weather here, in July, was exceedingly cold, with much rain and frost; but in latitude 56° the air was much warmer, owing to some large volcanos burning in that neighbourhood, and which Captain
Cook
also mentions, and which we have described, in the plate of the natives of Nootka Sound.
Thus has the North-Western Coast of America, been traced from California, to Bherings-Streights, by
Maurelle
and
Cook,
and no inlet discovered, to raise hopes of a north-west passage, by Hudson's-Bay, unless it be above the latitude 72°. where the seas are obstructed by large bodies of floating ice, in summer-time; but if a navigator could get into this latitude before June, it is generally thought, that the ocean, between the latitudes 80 and 90, is quite open, and that in all likelihood, land and inhabitants might be found within 10 degrees of the pole. But though our government has long held out a reward of 5000l. to the first person that shall sail within a degree of the Pole; and £.20,000, to the first discoverer of a north-west passage by Hudsons-bay, or north of it; yet, as it is the Greenland fishing vessels only, that sail so far north, and these vessels lose their insurance, if they presume to go further than a certain latitude, the interest of their owners militates against the encouragement held out by parliament; and till these two interests can be reconciled, there is little hopes of such a discovery.
A DESCRIPTION OF SWEDEN, From
Busching, Motraye, Coxe, Marshal, Wraxhall, Conset,
and others.
CHAP. I.
SWEDEN, part of the ancient Scandinavia, famous for being the native country of the fierce and warlike Goths, whose emigrations make such a figure in history, is bounded by Norwegian Lapland on the north, by the dominions of Russia on the east, by the Baltic Sea on the south, and by Denmark and Norway on the west. It is about 250 Swedish miles in length,
One Swedish mile, is equal to six English ones.
and 130 broad, that is extending from the 56th to the 69th degree of north latitude; and from the 10th to the 30th degree of longitude, reckoning from the meridian of London. But, within these bounds is included the province of Finland, which the Russians are now contending for. It was originally divided into seven provinces, 1. Sweden proper; 2. Gothland; 3. Livonia; 4. Ingria; 5. Finland; 6. Swedish Lapland; and 7. the Islands; but is now reduced to five, Livonia and Ingria, being taken from them by the Russians.
Vast tracts of this country are taken up by desarts and lakes, so that the habitable part is confined to narrow bounds. The face of the country is pretty similar to that of its neighbours, only that it has the advantage of navigable rivers; the largest of which are 1. the Motalastrom, which issues from the Wetter lake, and being increased by seventeen rivers, forms a water-fall of sixteen feet near Nordkioping, emptying itself into the Baltic; 2. the Stang which divides East-Gothland into two parts; 3. the Gothic river, which rises in the Wener lake, falls into the North Sea near Gottenburg, forming a steep cataract in its way; 4. the Gullspang, dividing West Gothland from Wenerland; and 5. the Dal-Elbe in the vale-country, which is the largest in all Sweden.
The water-fall of Trolhatta is a stupendous cataract in the Gothic river, almost seven and a half Swedish miles from its mouth; and the water is here precipitated between two rocks, and consists of three cascades, each of which is above five fathoms high, but 300 fathoms from each other. Half a mile from one of these falls is a bridge, built from one rock to another; over another high cataract formed by this water, at the bottom of which great numbers of fine salmon are caught. These two cataracts make a fine appearance.
In one place says
Conset
it falls over a rock 60 feet high, with such a noise, that it is heard at the distance of 200 furlongs. The timber that is floated down this river to Gottenburg, falls over this precipice with such impetuosity, that it disappears for a considerable time, before it rises again; and the bed of the river, into which this cataract falls, has been sounded by lines of several hundred fathoms, but could never be reached.
The cataract of the river
Dahl,
which rises in Norwegian Lapland, and passing through a vast extent of country, empties itself into the gulph of Bothnia, is one of those objects, says Mr.
Wraxhall,
which to be felt, must be seen, and before which all language sinks unequal. A small island or rather a rock of half a quarter a mile in circumference, divides the river at this place. In the winter, when one of the cataracts is frozen over, the island is accessible, but at other times, it would be impossible to reach it alive. The eye takes in both falls at once, from either bank. The depth of each is about forty feet, but one is a direct perpendicular, the other oblique and shelving; the breadth of each about ninety yards. The tremendous roar of these cataracts, which, close to them, is greater far than the loudest thunder, the spray which rises incessantly from them, and even in many parts obscures them from the eye; the agitation of the river, below, for several hundred yards, before it resumes its former tranquility, and the sides covered with tall firs, which seem to be silent spectators of it, form one of the most picturesque and astonishing scenes to be beheld in nature's volume, nor would I have resigned the pleasure I experienced, as I lay on the loose stones immediately below it, and was covered with the spray from its dashing billows, for the most voluptuous banquet a sovereign could bestow. Incautious fishermen are sometimes carried down the torrent, hurled on this precipice, and meet their death below.
Sweden, though a very mountainous country, affords a great many tracts of even ground, fit for agriculture. The soil, in general, is sandy, swampy, or ferruginous, but is not void of fertility. Of all the provinces, Gothland produces the greatest quantity of grain. This part of the country, had anciently its own sovereign, but was united to Sweden, in 1132. Sweden also affords good pastures, and some orchards of fine fruit, but is more famous for mines, than for any other thing. In Thal-lande, or the vale-land, there is less arable ground, than in the other provinces; but some, good meadows and pastures. The Nordlands, being full of rocks and mountains, produce but little corn, yet have some, fertile spots for grazing. Lapland is still more in this predicament, but Finland is in most places very fertile, though it is far from being well cultivated.
Finland, which was the country of the Vandals, was, also formerly, governed by sovereigns of its own, and, at present, has the title of a great Duchy; it contains about 3000 square Swedish miles, but is not sufficiently peopled, in proportion to its extent; which would subsist three millions of labouring hands well; whereas its population does not amount to one million.
The climate of Sweden is very healthful; the winters are extremely cold, and continue nine months in the year, but the air is clear and salubrious, and the inhabitants arm themselves against it with furs, sheepskins, &c. which they wear as they can afford.
Wraxhall
who was there in May, says, it was as cold as in our December. But, as the winters approach with but little intervention of autumn, so they depart suddenly, without such a gradation of spring, as we experience in England. As soon as the sun has thoroughly thawed the land, it is in order for tillage. The power of the sun succeeding the winter's frost, with once ploughing, sets all the weeds loose; so that it is necessary to plough the land, at the end of the summer, before the frost sets in; which, in this case, will naturally destroy the weeds, and make the ground clean; an experiment worth the trial with us, though our climate will favour a spring-ploughing.
At Stockholm, the sun, in the midst of summer, is eighteen hours and a half above the horizon, and, for some weeks, makes a continual day. In winter, the days are proportionably shorter, the sun being up but five hours and a half, which defect is so well supplied, as to light, by the moon, the
aurora-borealis,
the whiteness of the snow, clearness of the sky, and the brilliancy of the stars, that travelling by night, is as usual as by day, and journeys are begun in the evening, as frequently as in the morning. Not to mention the twilight, which, in the north, begins four or five hours before sun-rise, and lasts as long after sun-set, and thus affords a light sufficient for most of the necessary occasions of life. At Tornao (at midsummer) which is in north latitude 66°, the sun does not set, but may be seen at midnight, with half its disk above the horizon. In winter, the want of the sun's heat is supplied by stoves within doors, and fires without; and so necessary is good cloathing against the severity of the cold, that the common people are better habited, than those of other parts of Europe. As the winters are severe, the summers are very hot. Violent storms and rains are seldom seen, and the sharp, keen north-wind, serves only to purify and refresh the air.
The Swedish coasts are surrounded with innumerable capes, islands and rocks, so that an approach to land is dangerous. These islands or rocks lie very near each other, several thousand of them are inhabited, and the people live chiefly by fishing.
The lakes in Sweden, which are numerous, contain also some thousands of islands. There are twenty-three lakes in East Gothland, twenty-one in Smoland, and several in the other provinces. The lake Wetter is near 100 English miles in length, and resembles rather a sea, than a piece of inland water. The Wener is eighty-four English miles long, and forty-two broad; twenty-four rivers empty themselves into it, and only one flows from it. Many of these lakes are navigable, and might be made much more so at a very little expence. The Maeler lake in Lapland, is seventy-two English miles long, full of fish, and is said to contain 1290 islands. Its banks are so beautifully diversified with trees, castles, churches, noblemen's seats, and other edifices, as to afford many beautiful prospects. The views, says
Conset,
are not inferior to those of Richmond or Windsor, large fields of luxurious corn, and hills richly cloathed with lofty trees, especially oaks of an amazing size. The beautiful and large lake, Wetter, along the side of which the high road runs for several miles, is skirted by many pleasant villages, and in its center is an island, fourteen or fifteen miles long, forming one complete parish, and a most delightful place of residence it is. Were it not for the intense cold and drifted snow, a passage over the rivers and lakes, in winter, would be as much more commodious for the traveller, as it is for the business and intercourse of the inhabitants; who are safely conveyed over the ice in sledges, at the rate of fifteen English miles an hour.
Woods and vast forests overspread much of the country, and consist chiefly of pines, fir, beach, alder, juniper, and some oak; especially in the province of Bleaking, where the trees grow so thick, and lie to rot where they fall, that the ways are impassable. They afford, however, plentiful and cheap firing, and being generally very streight and tall, are easily convertible into timber fit for all uses. Charcoal, is not half so good as ours, but is six times as cheap as in England.
In Finland, they burn whole tracts of underwood; by felling it in the spring, letting it lie all the summer, till it is dry, then burning it, and strewing the land with wheat, &c. before the ashes are cold. They often plough the seed and ashes in together, and if the season is a good one, the crop will be from 100 to 150 fold. In many parts of Gothland, the firs, on the high road to Stockholm, form avenues as noble as those which are planted in the entrance to palaces or noblemen's seats; but, in other parts, a scanty soil says
Wraxhall,
where the utmost industry can only produce a sickly harvest, covers the bosom of a vast expanse of rock, which, in many places, appears bare and hideous, or only gives birth to a number of firs, which run up to a vast height on its naked surface, and seem kindly lent by nature, to hide, in some measure, her penurious and inhospitable aspect. In Delecarlia, says
Marshal,
the country is so romantic, that the view, as far as the eye can command, from the tops of the mountains, is one vast range of mountain beyond mountain, till you see the ridge that parts Sweden from Norway, rising far above the common clouds. The whole prospect is a thick woodland, intersected with lakes, and forming wonderful scenes, strikingly awful and sublime. The situation of the village of Lyma, continues the same author, is greatly uncommon; it lies within the bend of a river, which is, in fact, a continued water-fall, running over one ridge of rocks, the moment it has passed another, and making such an incessant noise, as almost to stun the whole village; immediately behind it, rises a ridge of mountains, whose tops in lowering weather, reach above the clouds; so that the appearance of these dreadful heights, with the torrents tumbling at their feet, is magnificent in the extreme. I have viewed mountains, says he, rocks, water-falls, and lakes, in the north of England and in Scotland, but they are pigmies compared with these. There is an impression in these scenes, that strikes the spectator with a far superior degree of awe.
The provinces of Upland, Westmanland, and Nerike, which I traversed says
Coxe,
in my way to Gottenburg, are esteemed the richest and finest parts of Sweden; and indeed I can hardly figure to myself a more variegated and pleasing scene, than is exhibited by the general face of the country; hills, dales, rocks and vallies, small plains, numerous lakes, fertile meadows and arable land, frequent country villages and scattered farm-houses are blended together with a constant and delightful variety. Thus Sweden, which some travellers, forming their judgment merely from the few districts that fall under their immediate observations, have discribed as a barren and ungenial soil, is evidently not deficient in the most picturesque beauties of rural nature.
It abounds in every species of the three natural kingdoms, especially those of the fossile, or mineral kind, as chrystals, amethysts, topazes, porphyry, lapis-lazuli agates, cornelian, a reddish stone, called
violstein,
a greenish semi-pellucid stone, asbestos, coral, load-stone, touch-stone, lime-stone, slate, free-stone, beautiful petrifactions, &c. Near Nordkioping are large quantities of excellent, white marble, with beautiful, green veins. Muscovy ising-glass, a rhomboidical spar, white earth, quicksilver, lead-ore, ceruse, cobalt, allum, sulphur, mother-of-pearl and fullers-earth, are also here found: and in Finland they have pearl-fisheries of great value.
But the great wealth of Sweden, arises from its mines, and metals. Gold-ore has been discovered in Smoland, and pure silver is dug up in Warmeland; but the largest silver mine is near Sala.
The gold-mine from 1741 to 1747 produced annually 2398 gold ducats, at 9s, 4d. sterling each, and the produce of the silver mine at Sala, from 1743 to 1747 was 8700 Lothige marks, per year, each equal to nine ounces twelve pennyweights troy.
At the above silver-mine, workmen are let down in baskets, to the first landing-place, which is 105 fathoms below the surface of the ground. The roof there is as high as a church, supported by vast arches of ore. Thence the descent is by ladders or baskets to the lowest mine, above 40 fathoms. They have no records so ancient, as the first discovery, either of this or the copper-mine mentioned below, which must needs have been the work of many ages. The ore seldom yields above four per cent, and requires great pains to refine it. The water, as well as the ore, is drawn by mills, and of its produce the king has the pre-emption, paying one fourth less than the real value.
The great copper-mine at Falun, is 80 fathoms deep, and of great extent, and yields annually, the value of 200,000
l.
sterling, of which the King has a fourth part in kind and a duty of 25 per cent, on the remainder, if exported unwrought.
They have also a great number of iron-mines, and forges, especially in the mountainous parts of the country, where they have the convenience of water-mills to work them, and from these, besides what they keep for their own use, they export yearly to the value of 300,000
l.
The ore, says Mr.
Wraxhall,
who visited one of these mines at Danmora, in 1774, is not dug, as in our mines of tin and coal, but is torn up by gunpowder.
This operation is performed every day at noon, and is, beyond conception, tremendous and awful, resembling subterraneous thunder, or rather vollies of artillery discharged under ground. The stones are thrown up, by the violence of the powder, to a vast height above the surface of the earth, and the concussion is so great, as to shake the surrounding earth or rock, on every side. I felt a pleasure corrected with terror, as I hung over this vast and giddy hollow, which is half an English mile in circumference, and to the bottom of which, the eye attempts in vain to penetrate. I ventured however, says Mr.
Wraxhall,
to descend into this mine, and was let down with two men, in a large, deep basket, fastened by chains to a rope; and I am not ashamed to own, that when I had got a good way down, and found myself suspended between heaven and earth, by a rope, and looked down into the deep and dark abyss, below me, to which I could see no termination, I shuddered with apprehension, and half repented my curiosity; but this was only a momentary sensation, and before I had descended a hundred feet, I looked round on the scene, with very tolerable composure. I was near nine minutes before I reached the bottom, it being eighty fathoms, or 480 feet. The view of the mine when I reached it, was awful and sublime in the highest degree. The light of the day was faintly admitted into these subterraneous caverns. In many places it was lost, and flambeaus supplied its place. I saw the frame of wood, across some parts, from one side of the rock to the other, whereon the miners sat boring holes for the admission of the powder, with as much unconcern, as I could have felt in any ordinary employment, though the least dizziness, or even a failure in preserving their equilibrium, must have made them lose their seat, and dashed them to pieces against the rugged surface of the rock beneath. The weather above was very warm, but here ice covered the whole surface of the ground, and I found myself surrounded with the colds of the most rigorous winter, amid darkness and caves of iron. In one of these which was a considerable way under the rock, were eight wretches warming themselves round a charcoal fire, and eating their little, scanty subsistance, produced from their miserable occupations; I say miserable, for it is little else than confinement for life in a horrid dungeon. There are no less than 1300 men here constantly employed, and their pay only threepence English a day. These mines were first opened in 1580, and with little intermission have been worktill this time.
The country in the village of Upsal is chiefly a horrid desart, covered with shapeless stones, or with impenetrable woods, incapable of cultivation, and devoid of inhabitants. The quantity of land in tillage does not bear the proportion of one to twenty. Nature has, however, made them, in some degree, amends for this parsimony, by enriching their barren wastes with inexhaustable mines, and the forges attendant on these mines are numerous, each forge employing from four to fourteen hundred workmen in iron. Whereever there is a country-seat, there is one of these iron-works, and no people were ever more expert in working their materials, than are the peasants of this country. They will exert themselves almost beyond the power of man, and strike the iron with such prodigious force, and such quick repeated blows, as to be envelloped in red-hot sparks. I had the pleasure, continues Mr.
Wraxhall,
of viewing the whole process, used to reduce the ore into iron, and must own it was curious and instructive. They first roast it, in the air, for a considerable time, after which it is thrown into a furnace, and when reduced to fusion, is poured into a mould of sand, about three yards long. These pigs of iron are next heated in a forge, and when redhot, a piece is pinched off, and beat to a less size, with hammers. This smaller piece is then formed into a bar, by a great hammer, of a ton-weight, raised by a water-mill. Five of these mills, says
Motraye,
who travelled through Sweden in 1716 and 1718, annually work 4000 shipunds of iron; each shipund three Cwt. English.
Marshall,
who travelled through Sweden in 1769, and who enquired into the husbandry, says a tolerable good farm, of about 100 English acres, will let for about 22
l.
sterling; that, though, till lately, Sweden raised no wheat, they now sow sufficient for their own consumption, and the farmers find it as profitable to them, as it is in other countries, though their crops are not so plentiful. In sheltered situations they have, as in warmer climates, on the best lands, very fine crops, and an acre will produce from one and a half to three quarters, but they never sow wheat, except in their best fields. Oats is their most general crop, though they have a large produce of peas and beans. But the article they are most deficient in, is grass; as few of the farmers know any thing of the artificial grass, except clover, and not a twentieth part of the kingdom raise corn. The low grounds of Sweden are generally converted into pasturage, a kind of coarse meadow, and many of them are little better than bogs and marshes. They are however taking great pains in the state, to improve their agriculture, prohibiting the importation of corn; affixing premiums for good conduct and improvements, for draining of bogs, cultivating wastes, and breeding of cattle.
In the woody parts of Sweden, though the ground is rich and fertile, thickly covered with fine timber, and provisions can be procured in the greatest plenty, yet the see-simple of such an acre of land may be purchased for four shillings. Nothing wants a regulation more than the woods of this kingdom, the waste that is made in cutting them, both in timber and land, being exceedingly great.
There being so short a summer and no spring in this country, the productions of the earth are more speedy in their growth, than in other places. In the beginning of summer, the fields are stored with variety of flowers; and strawberries, rasberries and such kind of fruits, grow on every rock. Melons are brought to perfection in their gardens, in dry years, but peaches, apricots, and other wall-fruits are exceedingly scarce; as are also apples, pears and plumbs; and those they have, are not well-tasted; cherries they have of several sorts, and some tolerably good, and plenty of all kinds of roots. The gardens about Stockholm, says
Motraye,
are very fine, and notwithstanding the severity of the winter, their green-houses afford orange, fig, myrtle, and other trees, and plants and flowers of the most tender nature.
The wild beasts of this country, are bears, wolves, elks, deer, foxes, hares, weasels and squirrels, of which the last three, in the northern provinces, change their colour, in winter-time, to white. There are but few parks, and those indifferently stocked, owing to the expence of supporting deer through their long winters. Swedish hunting scarce deserves the name, for they surround the game, and shoot and murder it, as they can. There is very little riding in the case, either here or in Germany; they have no rabbits, but such as are brought into the country, as a curiosity, and are kept tame.
Fowl, both wild and tame, are, plentiful and good, within land; except sea-fowl, which feed on, and taste of, fish. The orre and chader, are peculiar birds, so are the hierpe, and snoripa. The orre resembles our black game in England, but larger, with a webbed foot. The chader or kader, is a remarkable fine bird, as large as a common turkey, the cock is black, the hen of an orange-colour, and not quite so large as the cock; the hen generally lays about eight or ten eggs; but the hierpe is reckoned the finest game that can be eaten. In size, it is like a young pidgeon; in colour, black, grey and white. The snoripa is rather larger for the first two years, turns white in winter, and grey in summer, like the hares, afterwards it remains always white. It is a bird, peculiar to Swedish Lapland, says
Conset,
or the neighbouring countries. A single one once made its appearance within a hundred mile, of Stockholm, and from the particular noise it made at night, alarmed the country-people, who took it for the voice of a ghost, and so much were they terrified by this invisible spirit, that nothing could tempt the post-boys after it was dark, to pass the wood it frequented. It was, however, found out, at last, by some gentlemen, who ordered their gamekeepers to watch by moon-light, to be the harmless snoripa. These birds I have mentioned are reckoned great rarieties at Stockholm, where they are sent in winter, and sold at great prices.
They have also pheasants and partridges, but not so good-flavoured as ours, and in the woods of Finland and Lapland, abundance of woodcocks; but the better class of people being exceedingly fond of woodcock's eggs, encourage the boors to rob their nests, and this not only makes them scarce in many parts of Sweden, but even England, and some other countries feel the ill effects of it; pidgeons also are very scarce. The northern and desart parts abound with eagles, hawks and other birds of prey, where nature seems to call them, as may be presumed from a large hawk, belonging to the French King, being shot some years since, in the north of Finland, which had a gold ring round one leg, with this inscription,
Je suis an Roy,
"I belong to the king": and on the other, a similar one, with these words
Duc de Chevereuse me garde.
"the duke de Cheveureuse keeps me".
Their lakes and rivers are stored with a variety of good fish, as salmon, perch, trout, tench, pike, and also a fish called a
streamling,
rather less than a pilchard, which are salted, barrelled up, and sent to all parts of the country. In the gulph of Bothnia they catch a quantity of seals, of which they make train-oil.
The cattle, as in all other northern countries, are generally of a small size, nor can the breed be improved, as they naturally degenerate in cold climates. Their sheep yield but a very course wool, fit only to make cloaths for the peasants. The horses especially the Finnish, though small as our ponies, are hardy, vigorous, strong, sure-footed, and good trotters, and the soldiery pretend that, in war, they are not only able to resist, but will break a body of the best German horse. The riches of many of the farmers consist in large droves of black cattel, many sheep, and numerous herds of hogs. They pay their rent in corn and cattle, and their peasants in cattle, hogs, and the keep of cows, which give a good deal of milk, and are reckoned the most profitable cattle they keep.
CHAP. II.
Of the People and Cities.
SWEDEN, in proportion to its extent, is not sufficiently peopled, of this says
Busching
there is a remarkable instance in one place, not the most northern part of the kingdom, where are scarce 4700 persons in the compass of 225 geographical square miles. This want of population, Mr.
Marshall
attributes to the small number of farmers; they being only peasants, with land enough round they cottages for the subsistance of the people within them. Many of these little spots belong to them, and none of their children will ever brook living in a worse manner than their fathers did; so that a family, in this situation, is sure to have but one representative. This prevents marriages among the sons, for as they cannot have their own cottages and lands, they live at home unmarried with the brother who inherits, and thus little or no increase happens but by accident. But if all these peasants lived in hired cottages, without land, as with us, and the country was cultivated by great farmers, these farmers would extend their farms, employ these peasants, till more land, and what they could not expend, they would export; they would fix their sons in other farms and the country would be more populous.
At present, the country behind Wassay, quite to the White-sea, through several Russian provinces, at the distance of 700 miles, is nearly one continued forest, and so thinly peopled, that scarce one inhabitant is to be met with the whole way. I traversed the province of Smoland, says
Coxe,
from Gotheborg to Carlscrone, which is said to be the wildest and most uncultivated region of this kingdom, and in the distance of 247 English miles, only one place, dignified with the name of a town, presented itself. The villages, for the most part, consisted of six or seven houses; and sometimes where I stopped to change horses, I found nothing but a single, solitary cottage; yet all through this seemingly inhospitable track, I met with good roads, tolerable accomodations, and a chearful and contented peasantry. In Smoland, says
Wraxhall,
I have driven from one stage to another of 12 to 14 English miles, without meeting or seeing a single person though I impatiently looked for them. Some learned Swedes compute the number of the inhabitants of Sweden and Finland to about three millions, others about two millions. Some parishes are so extensive that a peasant must travel many Swedish miles to visit his next neighbour, and some others are so large, as to equal a whole province of Holland, though such a parish shall not have as many wretched cottages as there are towns in such a flourishing province. Mr
Coxe
says, that from an accurate survey, in 1781, the number of people amounted to 2,767,000, being an increase of more than half a million in 80 years.
The Swedes are robust, hardy and vigorous, and are inured to all kinds of hardships and fatigues, which they undergo with chearfulness; and the peasants are a heavy, plodding kind of people. Where they are not too much exposed to the weather, their complexions are good, and their hair like all other northern nations, frequently inclined to yellow. The women are of a just proportion, have tolerable features, and many are pretty, with golden locks; those who do not live by labour are generally fair; those who do, are as tawney as the Laplanders. For here the peasants make the women take a part in all their laborious employs, they go to plough, thresh the corn, carry the water, serve the bricklayer and carry loads, as the men do with us.
SWEDES in the COURT DRESS.
The common people dress, as do the natives of Denmark. Those who are poor make their cloaths of sheep-skins, with the wool on; and go bare-footed, but are, in general, better habited than the poor of other countries. The fashion is much the same with other European nations, and like them in summer, wear such cloaths or stuffs, as they can procure.
The usual court-dress, introduced into this country by the present King, is like the ancient Spanish, a sash round the waist, a sword, large and full breeches, roses at the knees and in the shoes. The cloak of black cloth, edged with red satin, the jacket and breeches all black, ornamented with red stripes and buttons; the waistcoat, sash, pinks at the knees, and roses for the shoes, are of red satin. The lady's dress, is a black-silk robe, with slit sleeves, puffed with a white gauze, coloured sash and ribbands. This is the usual dress, but on solemn occasions, the men wear white cloth or satin, lined or striped with red satin; the women, white silk or satin, with coloured ribbands, and sash. The men who have not been presented at court, are dressed almost intirely in black, without any red lining and ornaments; and the women of the same description, must not appear with the white gauze sleeves. In other respects, their attire is similar to that just described.
The diet of people of condition is much the same with our own, except that they drink freer. They have a variety of wines without end, and a profusion of dishes at their entertainments, but shew no taste in the arrangment or disposition of them. The table groans beneath a number of covers, all brought in at once, and then left to cool, during a meal of two hours, and is followed with fruits and sweet-meats. Every dish, after being cut up, is handed about in rotation, from one to another; and every one helps himself and passes it to the next. Wine and all other liquors stand upon the table; the rule is to help yourself, without any kind of ceremony. Healths are not drank. The ladies are particularly assiduous in filling the gentlemen's glasses. After dinner, the cloth is not drawn as in England, nor do the men sit after the women withdraw. Each gentleman conducts a lady to another suit of apartments, where coffee is prepared. Tea about three hours after, then cards and music, or a walk till supper.
But, it is customary here to assemble round a side-board, previous to dinner, and regale with bread, cheese, and butter, and followed by both sexes with a bumper glass of brandy; for in Stockholm, and other cold countries, the custom of drinking prevails rather too much; not only among the men, but the women, which, though it doubtless originated from the severity of the climate, is only worthy of the Muscovites, before the reign of their reformer Peter, when it was a regulation at all Russian entertainments, that ladies were not to get drunk before ten o'clock. At an entertainment at which Sir
Harry Lyddel
was present, one of the dishes served up was a pike-pudding, consisting of a pike dressed so as to resemble the taste of a custard, and yet not lose the flavour of the fish.
There being a scarcity of wheat in the northern parts of Sweden, the poor eat a sort of bread, made of the bark of birch and pine-trees, straw, and roots. The
Hacke-brod
or
Stampe-brod
is also very common; it is made of the ears of corn, cut from the stems, minced small, and afterwards dried and ground. The bark-bread is made of the outer-bark of fir, first paring off the coarse knots, then drying it, till it becomes brown, either in an oven or before the fire, when it undergoes a fermentation, so as to consume the resin. This bark is then ground into meal, and thus made into bread. Twice in the year, they bake their bread in large, round cakes, which are strung upon files of sticks, and suspended close to the cielings of their cottages. They are so hard, as to be occasionally broken with a hatchet, but are not unpleasant. The common drink of the peasants is beer, but they have frequent recourse to malt-spirits. The low-priced brandies here, says
Conset,
are distilled from rye and ants, a species of insect very plentiful in this country.
The ant used on this occasion is a large, black insect, commonly found in small round hills, at the bottom of the fir-tree. They not only distil them but eat them, and consider them as highly palatable and pleasant. As I was walking, continues this author, with a young gentleman, in a wood near Gottenburg, I observed him sit down on one of these living hills, which from the nature of its inhabitants, I should rather have avoided, and begin, with some degree of alacrity, to devour these insects, first nipping off their heads and wings. The flavour he declared was of the finest acid, and rather resembling that of a lemon. My young friend invited me to taste them, but my antipathy, to such kind of food, overcame me. In physic we are told, these ants supply a resin, an oil and an acid. Smoking is general among the second and lowest class of people after dinner.
Plan. of the CITY of
STOCKHOLM,
A
Th
B
North
.
C
South
.
a
New Pal
b
Old Palace
c
Ho
of Nobles
d
The Bank
e
St Nicholas Church
f
R
lm Ch
g
Corn
h
Ki
Stables
i
St Claras Ch
k
St
l
's Ch
l
St John Ch
m
Observatory
n
Orphan House
o
Ul
El
ne
r Ch
p
E
k El
nor Ch
q
S
psholm Ch
r
The Ars
al
s
St . Marys Ch
t
St Catherines Ch
u
Su
er
alm Market
w
Iron W
House
As we shall have an opportunity of spearing more particularly of their houses, dress, &c. in describing the chief towns, we will say no more on this head at present, but proceed to give some account of their principal cities, &c.
Stockholm, being the capital of the whole kngdom and the city where the court is held, demands our first attention. It is situated in 59 degrees 20 min. north latitude, at the junction of the Baltic and the Maeler lake, and has thus the convenience of both salt and fresh water. It's circuit, computed from one gate to the other, is two Swedish miles, and it stands partly on islands, and partly on peninsulas, and somewhat resembles the city of Venice. Most of the streets are broad, strait, and regular, and kept very clean, and the market-places are spacious. The public buildings are many, and are great ornaments to the place. It is considerably larger than Copenhagen, but its superiority of size, results more from singularity of situation, than any real advantage over Copenhagen in extent. It is built on seven small islands, or rocks, formed by the river, and the suburbs extend on the main land, a considerable way, north and south. A variety of contrasted and enchanting views are formed by numberless rocks of granite, rising boldly from the surface of the water, partly bare and craggy, partly dotted with houses, or feathered with wood. The inequality of the ground renders almost all the streets steep and inconvenient for carriages, and they are badly paved, but the houses are lofty and handsome, though chiefly composed of brick. It is half as large again, as it was in the reign of
Charles
XII. and, in the new quarter, there are many noble streets of a vast length.
The harbour is an inlet of the Baltic, the water as pelucid as chrystal, and of such a depth that ships, of the largest burden, can approach the quay, which is very broad, near an English mile long, and lined with spacious buildings and warehouses. The harbour is large enough to contain a thousand sail of ships, but, with all its convenience, the utility of its situation is diminished, from its difficulty of communication with the sea, here being no tides, and the whole being frozen up four months in the year. At the extremity of the harbour several streets rise, one above another, in form of an amphitheatre, and the palace, a magnificent building, crowns the summit. Towards the sea, about two or three miles from the city, the harbour is contracted into a narrow streight, and, winding among high rocks, is lost to the sight. This, with the prospect, terminated with distant hills, overspread with trees, exhibits such singular views, as is beyond the power of words to deliniate.
This city carries the chief trade of the kingdom, of course, there is a face of business and activity on the public quay, which, in a town, is far more lively than the perpetual rattle of coaches.
The palace, which stands in the center of the city and on the highest spot of ground, on a hill, very steep on every side, commands a complete prospect of the metropolis, the river, and surrounding country. It is a large, quadrangular, stone edifice, elegant and stately in its stile of architecture, was begun to be built by
Charles
XI. continued under Frederic and the late Kings, but is not yet quite completed. It has within, a citadel, but badly fortified. During the winter, the whole royal family reside in it; many of the apartments are splendidly furnished, but these are three or four pair of stairs high, the palace serving for many public uses, and all the rooms of the first and second floor, which are small, being appropriated to the private meetings of the senate, and the courts of judicature.
The senate-house, where the public meetings of the privy-council are held, is a regular, fine edifice, and makes the best appearance of any in the town. Excepting in the suburbs, where the houses are of wood, painted red, the generality of the buildings are of stone, or brick, stuccoed white; there is also a public bank, covered with copper, as are the houses of the nobility, and thus appear rich and beautiful to the eye. The suburbs, being mostly built of wood, are liable to accidents from fire, but, to remove the danger, as much as possible, the city is divided into 12 wards, and in each of these, is a master and four assistants, whose duty is to repair to the fire immediately, with a number of porters and labourers. They have also a fire-watch, in each church-steeple, and a bell is rung on the first appearance of any such calamity.
The arsinal is a large building, but by no means kept well-stored, except it is with standards and trophies, chiefly taken from the Imperialists, Poles, Russians, and Danes; and of these there are a great number. Among other curiosities here, is the skin of the horse, stuffed, which carried
Gustavus Adolphus
at the battle of Lutzen, a boat made by
Peter the Great
at Sardam, and taken by a Swedish vessel as it was conveying by sea to Petersburgh, and the cloaths and hat worn by
Charles
XII. when he was shot in the trenches before Frederickshall. This coat is a plain, blue uniform, like that of a common soldier, with gilt buttons, yellow waistcoat and breeches, and black cravat, such as he has always been painted in; the stockings are sewed to the breeches; his boots are thick and large, his gloves of white leather with stiff tops, and reaching almost to the elbows; the right-hand glove considerably stained with blood, the left only sprinkled with a few drops, and part of a bracelet he wore that day, a little bloody also.
The royal stables, and the great hospital also make some figure, but the market must not be omitted. Butchers meat is sold in shambles on the shore, whilst vegetables, and other marketable commodities, are exposed to sale in boats upon the water. This is at once a singular and a pleasing sight. The moving shops, and variety of wares, that are passing before the eye; the mixed and busy multitude which croud the surface of the water, renders this a very agreeable scene. Something of this kind may be seen on the Thames, on the arrival of a large fleet in the pool.
In this city there are upwards of 5000 houses, chiefly of stone, four or five stories high, built on piles. It is computed to be as populous as Bristol. There are 20 churches covered with copper, and superbly decorated with a great variety of splendid ornaments, having lofty spires, with musical bells in their steeples, but no large bells. In the church of St. Nicholas, which is the largest, and supported by marble pillars, are, a great number of tombs of different kinds of marble. This church has a picture on the right-side of the altar, upon the wall, well painted, describing paradise and hell, reaching from the floor to the roof, and is very rich in plate. Here is a chalice of beaten gold, enriched with jewels, which according to
Motraye,
is not worth less than 40,000 crowns.
In the church of Ritterholm, are the sepulchres of the Kings of Sweden. The tomb of
Charles
XII. is a raised tomb of black marble, with no other inscription than his name; over it are laid in cast bronze, a club and a lions skin.
The government of this city, is in the hands of a great stadtholder, who is also a privy-counsellor, under him are two burgo-masters, who have different apartments in the palace, and with these sit about twenty city-counsellors, men in trade. The city maintains a guard of 300 men, and to support this and the public buildings, they are empowered to levy a tax of from one pound to 60£. annually, on the traders, according to their wealth.
The King has several palaces, one at the east end of Ladu-gards-land, built in 1732: near it is a park and a fine orangery; the park is almost surrounded with water. It has a medicinal spring within, and nothing can be more delightful than the beautiful disposition of the fine groves, lawns and walks with which it is diversified. There is another palace at Carlsberg, with a garden laid out in elegant taste and decorated with beautiful statues, &c. Also another at Ulrichsdal with a fine park, and curious grotto, a few miles from Stockholm; but the finest of all his palaces is at Drotningholm, about a Swedish mile west of Stockholm. Facing the south front, is a large garden with a variety of fountains, and, on the north, commanding a view of the shipping at sea. The gardens, however, give us no idea of royalty; they are laid out in the Dutch taste, and considering this place is the summer residence of the King, it is wonderful they are not kept in neater order. The palace is a stately fabric, built with brick, on the banks of the Maeler lake, and all the apartments demonstrate the fine taste of the owner, who is the mother of the present King. Here is a great collection of antiquities from the ruins of Herculaneum, with a variety of gems and medals, natural and Roman curiosities; here is is also a well collected library in every branch of science, and two galleries of paintings, one descriptive of the victories of
Charles
X. the other, those of his son
Charles
XI. In the gardens the queen-dowager has lately built a little semi-circular pleasure-palace, fitted up in the Chinese taste, where whim and caprice, form the predominant character, and spread a grotesque air throughout the whole.
The situation of Stockholm, says Mr.
Wraxhall,
is injudicious and improper, for the capital of the kingdom. The inhabitants assured him that the place owed its origin, about 500 years ago, to an accidental contingency. The viceroy who governed the country at that time, under
Christian
II. of Denmark, determined to found a city, and instead of fixing on a proper spot for the execution of his plan, he very wisely set a large piece of wood afloat, in the Maeler lake; resolving, that at whatever place it stopped, there should be his city. A small island stopt the log in its way, and the name of Stockholm was given to it in consequence.
There is something, continues the same author, uncommonly savage and inhospitable in the whole circumjacent country. Even at the latter end of the month of May, when all nature, animate and inanimate, awakes from the long slumber of a polar winter, every thing here is joyless and infertile; and the rays of the sun are reflected, from an expanse of stone, which invests the city round on every side, and from whose bosom no verdure springs to chear the eye.
The only amusement, of any moment, in Stockholm, seems to be an opera, performed every Thursday, in Swedish. The building is handsome and large, mag
ently illuminated, and the dresses of the actors are superb. In winter the, weather is too cold to seek amusement abroad, and as soon as the ice and snow leaves the surface of the land, every one that can afford a country-house, takes his amusement there. They have a theatre however, in which French comedies are represented sometimes concerts and oratorios, but the musical performers are Germans, and not much encouraged.
This country was formerly involved in the grossest darkness of pagan idolatory, and Upsal was the seat of their superstitious worship. It was also, in ancient times, the chief seat of the Sovereigns of Sweden, and where they held their supreme tribunal. The greatest sacrifices offered in all the northern provinces, were brought to this place in the time of paganism, and the most eminent heathen-priests had here their residence. It was the most ancient town in the Swedish highlands, and the chief ornament of the whole country. It is now a university and archiepiscopal see, and a neat city, though not large, containing about 3000 inhabitants, and about 1500 students. The ground plot is extremely regular, divided into two equal parts, by a small rivulet, and the streets are drawn at right angles, from a central kind of square. A few of the houses are built with brick and stuccoed, but the generality are constructed with trunks, smoothed into the shape of planks, painted red, and the roofs covered in with turf. There is not a stone-edifice in it. Fach house has its small court-yard or garden. Old Upsala the residence of the high-priest of Oden, stood at a small distance from the present city, which rose upon the ruins of the ancient one, as it fell into decay. The old palace by
Gustavus-Vasa
was consumed by fire, in 1702. The remains, which stand on an elevated spot, and command a fine prospect of the adjacent country, consist of one wing, a small part of another, and the principal front which has been repaired, and covered with a red stucco. The room in which the diet of Sweden used to assemble, is now converted into a granary, 140 feet long, and 90 broad, and the few, other apartments in the broken wing, are used as a common gaol. Underneath are three dungeons formerly appropriated to state-prisoners.
UPSAL
This town is particularly celebrated for its university, the students of which, are not men of family and condition, as with us; but, are, for the most part, miserably poor, and lodge five or six together, not in cottages, or appropriate buildings, but in and about the town, in wretched hovels, amid dirt and penury. But I shall have to speak of the university again.
There is also at Upsal a botanical garden, founded by the celebrated
Linnaeus,
and, about seven miles from the town, a piece of antiquity, the remains of several mutilated stones, one of which is known in Swedish history, as the stone of Mora, upon which the Sovereigns of Sweden, were annually elected, enthroned, and received the homage of their subjects. They stand in an open plain and are covered with a brick-building, to preserve them. The names of the Swedish Kings there enthroned, are inscribed on the stones, and dated from 1276 to 1512. The stone of Mora is placed in the midst of 12 other stones, standing in a circle round it. There is a similar monument near St. Buriens in Cornwall, which Camden conjectures, to have been some trophy of the Romans under the later Emperors, or of
Athelstan
the Saxon, after he had subdued Cornwall; or, according to
Wormius,
this piece of antiquity in Cornwall, is where the ancient, Anglo-Saxon kings were elected and enthroned.
Gothenburg is, next to Stockholm, the principal and most trading town in Sweden. It lies on the borders of West-Gothland, at the mouth of the river Moludal, which lies close to the north-side of the city, and is carried by several canals, through the town. Since 1746, the greatest part has been rebuilt with stone; the streets are broad and kept very clean. It is a bishop's-see, has two printing-houses, a seminary, an Orphan-house, and several docks. Its inhabitants are computed at 13,000. It has an East-India company; a squadron of men-of war lies in the port, and a constant garrison, is kept in the city. Gothenburgh is the fourth in order, among the towns, which have a vote in the diet.
Mr.
Coxe,
who was there lately, gives the following description of it. Gothenburg is built in a very singular situation. At a small distance from the sea is a marshy plain, scarcely more than half a mile in breadth, watered by the rivers Gotha and Moludal, and almost intirely inclosed with high ridges of rocks, so bare and rugged, that they scarcely produce a single blade of grass, and exhibit as barren an appearance, as the summits of the loftiest Alps. Gothenburg stands partly on the ridges and partly in this plain, and divided by these different situations, into the upper and lower town. The latter is entirely level, intersected by several canals, in the manner of the Dutch towns, and its houses are all constructed upon piles; the upper part hangs on the declivities, and rows of buildings rise, one above another, like the seats of an amphitheatre. The whole is regularly fortified and its circumference is near three miles, exclusive of the suburbs. The streets are all uniformly straight; a few of the houses are of brick, but the generality are of wood, painted red; and it has several tolerable churches. The harbour is formed by two chains of rocks, and is about a quarter of a mile broad. Its entrance from the north sea is defended by the fort of Elfsborg, which stands on a small rocky island, and contains a garrison of 250 men.
Abo is another university, the capital of Swedish Finland, lying on the point, where the gulphs of Bothnia and Finland unite. It is the most considerable town in the whole country, surrounded with hills, and has a very commodious harbour. It is a bishops-see, has a handsome cathedral, a royal high-court of judicature, and is the residence of the governor of the province. The city, which is not ill-built, has some few brick-houses, but the generality are of wood painted red, so as to resemble brick. The university contains about 300 students, and its library about 3,000 volumes. Here is also a school for 300 scholars; and a tolerable trade carried on in linen, corn, provisions, planks, &c.
FIN PEASANTS
Tornao being situated on the confines of Finland, both the Finnish and Lapland languages are here spoken; and the inhabitants, though far distant from polished society, are far from being an unpolished people. It is a beautiful, well-built city, consisting of three streets running parallel to each other, from north to south, intersected at right angles by 14 cross-streets or lanes. The church is built with timber, and all the houses have large oblong courts, two sides of which are taken up with apartments, the other two with stables, barns, &c. All houses, in the adjoining country, are so constructed, but those have their court-yards square.
In the month of December, Mr.
Maupertuis
says this town, on its approach, has a most frightful appearance. It's little houses are buried to the tops in snow, which if there was any day-light would effectually shut it out. But, the snows continually falling, or ready to fall, hide the sun the few moments, he might be seen at mid-day. In the month of January,
R
u
's
mercurial thermometer, which at Paris, in the great frost of 1709, it was thought strange to see fall to 14 degrees below the freezing-point, was here fallen to 37, the spirit of wine in other thermometers was frozen. If we opened the door, says he of a warm room, the external air, instantly converted all the vapour into snow, whirling it round in in white vortexes. If we went abroad, we felt as it the air was tearing our hearts to pieces, and the cracking of the wood with which the houses are built, as the violence of the cold splits it, continually alarmed us with an approaching increase of cold. The solitude of the
, was no less, than if the inhabitants had all been
and, in this country, you may often see
been maimed, or have had an arm
off. The
ld, which is always very great, increases, sometimes, by such violent and sudden fits, as are almost infallibly fatal to those that happen to be exposed to it. Sometimes sudden tempests of snow arise, that are still more dangerous. The winds seem to blow from all quarters at once, and drive about the snow with such fury, that, in a moment all the roads are lost.
The peasants of Finland, are a rougher kind of people than the Swedes, dress, more like the Russians, but still differ from them in their look and their dress. They have, for the most part, fair complexions, and red hair. They shave their beards, wear their hair parted at top, and hanging to a considerable length on their shoulders; whereas the Russians have generally dark complexions and hair, wear their beards and cut their hair short.
There is here a fine salmon-fishery, and their method of taking it is this; they first form an enclosure, 300 yards long and 100 broad, by driving poles down into the water, in the Tartar-manner, leaving only entrance for the salmon; and this enclosure they drag with nets every two hours, and catch from forty to fifty at a time. A salmon of 21lb. weight may be bought here for 2s. 6d. English.
But, Carlserone is reckoned the next best city, in Sweden, to Stockholm. It lies in the Baltic-Sea, about
500 miles from the capital, and stands partly on a small island or two surrounded with other islands. These, with the woods of oak, beach, and birch, on all sides, render the place extremely pleasant. Here are two handsome churches, and about 118,000 inhabitants. It is famous for the admiralty-college, and dock-yard, separated from the town, by a high, stone-wall, and a squadron of ships of war, is here laid up. The dock is dug out of a mountain, to the depth of 80 feet, and is upwards of 300 feet long; it's entrance towards the sea, has sufficient depth of water, to float the largest men of-war. It is closed by two flood-gates, and can be emptied in ten hours, so as to become quite dry.
The way into the town, from the main land, is over a dyke, and from thence along two wooden-bridges, joined by a barren rock. The suburbs are fortified towards the land by a stone-wall. A number of new docks were begun in 1757, on a stupenplan, worthy of the ancient Romans, but are not yet completed. It is intended to construct 20 docks. A large bason, capable of holding two men-of-war, now finished, is designed to communicate with two smaller ones, from each of which are to extend, like the radii of a circle, five rows of covered docks, each row to be separated by walls of stone, and provided with gates, so as to be filled, or emptied by pumps. Close to the docks, magazines for naval stores are to be constructed, and the whole enclosed with a stone-wall. The ships of Carlscrone, are built chiefly by English artizans. Ships of very great burthen, are also built at Tornao.
Having thus given my readers a description of the principal towns, I will endeavour to furnish him with some idea of the seats of the nobility, by describing from Mr.
Marshall,
that of M
De Verspot
at Ravesburg near Horsten. This nobleman had attended the government of Sweden, as a senator, for twenty years; but was now retired to his country-seat, and amused himself with agriculture. The situation of his house is very romantic. It is a large quadrangular building round a court, situated on the side of a vast mountain, near the bottom, but high enough to command a great view in front; a large tract of falling ground parts the house from a very beautiful lake, four miles long, and one and a half broad, in which are several lofty islands covered with wood; on one of which M.
Verspot,
has built a summer-house, enchantingly situated. On the other sides of this lake, the country is extremely various, either irregular vales, or hills rising very boldly, and, in general, covered thick with wood. The whole country belongs entirely to him, for several miles every way. On the side of one of the hills, less steep than the rest, he has built a new village of more than 70 houses, which being all of a white-stone, has a most chearful appearance. In the lake he has a small ship of two masts, carrying ten brass-cannon; three sloops, and various boats. It put me more in mind, says
Marshall,
of a nobleman's ornamented seat in a wild part of Britain, than any place I had ever seen, since I had left England; and yet he had travelled through all Flanders, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
This gentleman (alive in 1770) lives in a very plentiful, and elegant style. His table is spread with all the delicacies which art can name, in so northern a climate; he has the finest wines in Europe, and his lake furnishes him with admirable fish. His establishment may be guessed, when it is said he has seventy menial servants, in the house, one of whom has the title of Captain of the guard, after the custom of Sweden; who has a table, at which is the secretary and two chaplains, and besides this, there are five other tables kept; at the lowest of which the peasants who please to come, are indiscriminately admitted, and their number is very often great, even to some hundreds; but that is only on festivals; some however make free to visit him every day. The house was built by himself, the apartments are amazingly numerous and many of them very large, the largest house, says
Marshall,
belonging to a subject, I ever saw. There is a suite of eleven rooms fronting the lake, not one less than forty feet long, and thirty broad, all well-furnished, each with two chimney-pieces, in the English taste; the stoves are at each end of the room, and in all these stoves and chimnies, as well as in every room of the house, are constant fires, all the winter.
I rode, continues the same author, about a mile and a half, over this gentleman's improvements, and found them ornamented. The fields were all regularly disposed in squares or oblongs, and in high cultivation, the fences regular and admirable, and all the gates, rails, &c. in good order, and painted white, as in some of our ornamented farms in England. The lands were covered with wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans, buck-wheat, carrots, turnips, trefoil, &c. and meadow-grass, superior to most English crops.
From this princely residence of M.
Verspot,
let us turn to the lot of a farmer, in more humble life. In the domain we have just visited, we may judge of the Swedish nobility, though all are perhaps, not so wealthy as M.
Verspot,
yet all might be equally happy and respectable. A nobleman, who spends the greatest part of his time in the midst of his tenants, with the benevolence and hospitality of a prince, must feel his heart much more elated, than he who fritters away his time and fortune, in selfish amusements, useless to himself and others.
Mr.
Coxe,
who travelled through many parts of Germany, Poland, and Russia; tells us that in no kingdom, except in England, had he observed so many seats scattered over the face of the country, as in Sweden; where gentleman, of moderate fortunes, as with us, are accustomed, to reside, on their estates, in rural plenty. These seats being composed of an assemblage of wooden buildings, and painted red, make a neat appearance. Occupying a large extent of ground, they look at some distance, like small villages, and contribute greatly to the ornament of the country. They are most frequent near the lakes, and are not uncommonly situated, in the midst of hanging-woods or broken rocks, suspended over the water.