Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics, Oliver Optic [best thriller books to read .TXT] 📗

After breakfast the next morning the party was organized for sight-seeing, and the sedans they had used the day before were ready for them. The two[329] guides insisted upon going on foot, the better to discharge their duties. They rode through some of the principal streets, looked into the shops, and observed the pedlers; but all was about the same as in Hong-Kong, except that the streets were wider in the latter. The same goods were for sale. They looked into a tea saloon; and the gentlemen entered an opium den, which nearly made some of them sick.

"This is called the Plain pagoda," said Mr. Inch, when they came to it. "It was built a thousand years ago, and is one hundred and sixty feet high."

They were taken to a couple of Joss-houses, or temples. A sort of tower attracted their attention; and they were told that the one before them, and hundreds of others, were occupied each by a watchman at night to call out the hours of the night, and give the alarm in case of fire. They halted before the nine-story pagoda, the most interesting structure they had seen, and the most peculiarly Chinese.

"It is one hundred and seventy feet high, and was built thirteen hundred years ago," Mr. Larch explained. "Brick, covered with marble or glazed tile, is the material used. Each story is smaller than the one below it, and each has a balcony around it."

"Now we come to the Temple of Honam, which is one of the largest in China," said Mr. Inch, as they halted before its gates, after the party got out of the sedans. "With its grounds it covers seven acres, and one hundred and seventy-five priests are employed in it."[330]

"What is the religion of these people?" asked Mrs. Woolridge.

"The priests and nuns of Canton number more than two thousand, and nine-tenths of them are Buddhists. The Temple of Five Hundred Genii contains that number of statues, various in size, and was erected in honor of Buddha and his disciples."

At the usual hour the party went to lunch, and were tired, though they had done but little walking. The sedans were dismissed till the next morning; the afternoon was devoted to an excursion on the river, and Tommy had been directed to provide the boats. They moved through the wilderness of floating dwelling-places, and looked them over with wonder and surprise. Many of the sampans were made of three planks; and the people on board of them, mostly women, were exceedingly amusing.

Large junks, some of them from five hundred to sixteen hundred tons burden, were to be seen, and long, broad, flat Chinese men-of-war, with twenty to forty guns; but the latter are out of fashion now, and modern-built vessels take their places. They have two great painted eyes on the bow to enable them, as the Chinese say, to find their way over the sea. But the most beautiful sight was the flower-boats, having galleries decorated with flowers, and arranged in most fantastic designs. Each of these floating gardens contains one large apartment and a number of cabinets. The walls are hung with mirrors and graceful draperies of silk, and glass[331] chandeliers and colored lanterns are suspended from the ceiling. Elegant little baskets of flowers are hung in various places. It seems very like fairy-land on these boats. They are stationary, and dinners are given on board to the Chinese who can afford them. They are also places of amusement by day and night, and plays, ballets, and conjuring take place at them; but no respectable females frequent them.

During the next two days the tourists continued to wander on foot and in sedans over the city with the guides. One day they went to the great examination hall, 1330 feet long by 583 wide, covering sixteen acres, and containing 8653 cells, in which students are placed so that there shall be no stealing others' work.

When a member of the party asked the meaning of certain tall buildings, he was told that they were pawnbrokers' offices; for the Chinese have a mania for pawning their clothes, or whatever they have, even if not in need of the money, to save the trouble of taking care of the articles. Before the third day of the stay in Canton was over, some of the party had seen enough, and preferred to remain at the hotel while others were out with the guides. The next day they returned to Hong-Kong, and were glad to be once more on board the ships, for sight-seeing is the most tiresome work in the world.[332]

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

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

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

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

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

"It is said that travellers enjoy their visits to foreign countries more after they get home, and think[333] over what they have seen, than they do while going from place to place," added Mrs. Belgrave. "I think of a hundred things I saw in Canton, and did not understand, that I shall recall when I read about China, as I intend to do when I get home."

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

Much more in the same general direction was said by others. When they went on deck they found the pilot who had brought the ship into port walking back and forth. He had brought off the China Mail, and three other newspapers in English, and a pile of others in Chinese to be kept as curiosities by the party. The captain had obtained his clearance and other papers the day before, as soon as he arrived from Canton, with the assistance of the colonel, who had come off with the pilot to make his adieux. In less than half an hour the ship was under way again, with the Blanche following her.

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

"It is eight hundred and seventy miles, and the voyage will require two days and fourteen hours," he replied. "I shall keep well to the eastward, and if you are up by six to-morrow morning you will see the island of Formosa. Then we shall be about on the Tropic of Cancer, when we shall pass out of the Torrid Zone—out of the tropics."[334]

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

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

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

After breakfast, when the ship had passed the smaller islands, and the passengers were seated on the promenade, the commander opened upon them with a talk about Formosa: "The name of the island in Chinese is Taiwan; and it is off the province of Fu-chien, and from ninety to two hundred and twenty miles from it. It has an area of 14,978 square miles, or about the size of the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut put together. It has a chain of mountains through it, the highest peak of which"—and the speaker looked at his memoranda—"is 12,847 feet high.

"The number of inhabitants is estimated at about 2,000,000, mostly immigrants from China, with the original natives. The island is exceedingly rich in its vegetation, and the plants are about the same as those of the main land. Rice paper is made of[335] the pith of a tree found only in Formosa. In the south sugar and turmeric are the staples. The latter is a plant whose root is bright yellow, used in dyeing silk. Formosa tea has become well known at home as of excellent quality. Other productions are about the same as in southern China.

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

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

"Where are we now, Captain Ringgold?" asked Mr. Woolridge, when the party had seated themselves on the promenade to see what was to be seen.[336]

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

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

"Shang-hai stands on low ground; and cholera, dysentery, and fevers prevail here in summer," said the commander when they were all