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CHAP. III.

A CHINA PASSAGE-BOAT.

45

CHAPTER III.

Leave Hang-chow-foo- A China passage-boat Scenery and natural productions Remarkable hills Our fellow-passengers A smoker of opium I am discovered to be a foreigner - City of

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Botany of the country ·

Yen-chow-foo-A Chinaman cheats a Chinaman! - The river and water-mills A valuable palm-tree — Birds Lime-kilns and green granite — Tea-plant met with The new FUNEREAL CYPRESS discovered - Its beauty How its seeds were procured — Dr. Lindley's opinion of its merits — Strange echo River and land beggars Charity.

WHEN the next morning dawned we got under way and steered out into the river, which is here three or four miles in width. The boat was strongly built, flat-bottomed, and very sharp both fore and aft. Ordinary boats, such as those seen at Shanghae, would be perfectly useless here, for they would soon be broken to pieces on the rocks and stones which abound in this shallow but rapid river.

We were deeply laden with cargo, and carried about twenty passengers. The cargo was packed in the bottom of the boat, and the passengers above it. Two rows of sleeping-berths were constructed along each side of the boat, and a passage between them, so that both passengers and boatmen could walk from stem to stern without any inconvenience. The firstclass passengers occupied the side-berths, and their servants and coolies slept in the passage.

A Chinese bed is not a very luxurious one. It

consists simply of a mat to lie upon, a hard square pillow for the head, and a coverlet stuffed with cotton to draw over the body as a protection from the cold.

I had the berth nearest the stern of the boat, a dwarf occupied the one opposite, and my two servants slept in the passage between us. The galley, or, I should rather say, cooking apparatus, was placed outside in the stern, near to the steersman.

Each passenger, when he takes his passage in these boats, agrees for three meals a-day at a certain fixed rate. We were to have congé in the morning, rice at mid-day, and rice-congé again in the evening. Anything else the passengers wanted, such as tea, fish, meat, or vegetables, they had to provide and cook for themselves. The arrangement seems a good one, and it enables those who are so inclined to travel at a very small cost. Many of the passengers had nothing else than what was provided by the boatmen, excepting perhaps a little tea, which they all carried with them, and which in this country is cheap enough.

In the morning a basin of hot water, with a cloth in it, was brought to me to perform my ablutions. The following is the Chinese way of using this: the cloth is dipped in the hot water and then wrung until the greater part of the water is pressed out. In this hot and damp state it is spread out on both hands, and the face, neck, and head rubbed over with it. This mode of washing is not the most effectual, but there is nothing more refreshing on a warm day, if

CHAP. III.

BREAKFAST ON BOARD.

47

one comes in from a walk hot and weary; it is far more refreshing than bathing in cold water, and perhaps more conducive to health.

After I was dressed I received a cup of tea-tea in the strict sense of the word-without sugar or milk, these additions never being used in this part of China. About eight o'clock the cook had six large earthenware basins placed at the side of the rice-pot; each of these he filled brim full of congé, and set them in the open air to cool. When it was cool enough to be eaten, the basins were placed in a row in the passage between our berths; the passengers then arranged themselves into messes, four in each, and breakfast began. By this arrangement the dwarf, who occupied the berth opposite to mine, my two Chinese servants, and myself formed the mess nearest to the stern of the boat. Each man was furnished with a small basin and a pair of chop-sticks; a wooden ladle was placed in the earthen pan, with which each filled his basin.

Having had little to eat the day before, except some sweet potatoes which one of my men brought me, I was hungry enough not only to eat the congé, uninviting as it certainly was, but also to disregard the presence of the Chinese, or what they might think of the awkward way in which I used the chopsticks. I got on very well, however, and found that I had not quite forgotten the art of eating with these highly-civilized instruments. It is, however, easier to eat rice and congé with them than other kinds of food, for the basin is generally brought quite close up

to the mouth, and its contents partly sucked and partly shovelled in.

The tide and wind were both fair, so that we glided up the river with great rapidity; it was a beautiful autumnal day, and the scene altogether was a most charming one. We had left behind us the great plain of the Yang-tse-kiang, and the country was now hilly and most romantic. The hills were richly wooded; pines, cypresses, and junipers clothed their sides from the base nearly to the top, and their foliage of a sombre green contrasted strongly with the deep-red, ripened leaves of the tallow-tree, which grows in great abundance on the plains. A few mulberry-trees were seen in the neighbourhood of Hang-chow, but, as we got higher up the river, their cultivation appeared to cease. Tobacco, Indian corn, millet, and a small portion of rice seemed to be the staple productions of the plains; millet and Indian corn were also observed on the lower sides of the hills.

Buddhist temples and pagodas were observed, here and there, rising high above the trees; one of the latter is called Lui-foong-ta, or the "temple of the thundering winds." It stands on the borders of the Se-hoo lake, and appeared to be a very ancient edifice. Wild briers and other weeds were growing out of its walls, even up to its very summit, and it was evidently fast going to decay. It formed a striking feature in the landscape, and reminded me of those ancient castle ruins which are so common on the borders of England and Scotland.

CHAP. III.

SCENERY AND PRODUCTIONS.

49

At night, when it became too dark to see our course, the boat was anchored abreast of a small village until the following morning, when we again got under way. We were now forty or fifty miles to the south-west of Hang-chow-foo.

The hills here had not that rich appearance which those nearer the sea had presented, but they were far more striking in their formation. Their sides were ridged and furrowed in a most remarkable manner, and their summits broken up into many curious peaks and cones. Some were low, others were three or four thousand feet in height, and all were rugged, barren, and wild.

The river now became narrow, shallow, and in many parts very rapid. Near Hang-chow-foo the country seemed densely populated, but up here there is so little ground capable of cultivation that a numerous population could not find subsistence. We only passed two towns of any note, named Fu-yang and Tung-yu, all the way from Hang-chow to Yen-chowfoo, a distance of 380 le. The people in the villages amongst these hills seemed to earn a scanty subsistence by cutting firewood and sending it down to the lowland towns for sale.

My fellow-passengers, who were chiefly merchants and servants, were quiet and inoffensive, indeed they did little else but loll in bed and sleep, except when they were eating or smoking. One of them was a confirmed opium-smoker, and the intoxicating drug had made him a perfect slave. I have seen many opium-smokers in my travels, but this one was the

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