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THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
p <
a o
o tq
THE
COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD:
A POPULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIOUS CONTINENTS, ISLANDS, RIVERS,
SEAS, AND PEOPLES OF THE GLOBE.
Robert Brown, m.a.
I'lI.U., I'.L.S., F K.G.S.
Author oj " The Races of Mankind,'' etc. etc.
* * *
Cashell, Petter, Galpin & Co.
LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK.
[Ai.i, KiGiirs Keskbvkii.]
Annex
1-1
%
Y.S"
CONTENTS.
Siberia
Kamtchatka ...
Amooklaxd
Siberia Proper
The Chinese Empire
Physical Geography
The Climate ...
The Provinces
The Nation ...
The Eulers ...
Trade ...
HoxG Kong
COREA ...
Mantchvria
Mongolia
The Desert of Gobi
Chinese Turkestan ...
KfLDJA ...
Tibet
BURMAH :
The Country anu the Government
Products
Government, Trade, and Industry
Cities, etc.
Climate and Diseases
The Shan States
British Burmah
SlAM ...
Cambodia
An AM...
Cochin-China
India : —
Andaman Islands
The Nicobar Islands
Ceylon ...
The Maldives...
The Cocos or Keeling Islands
The Lacc.\dives
Plains and Table-land
The Ghauts and Backwaters
The River System ...
The Hill Country' ...
The Climate ...
Mineral "We.^lth
Anim.\l and Plant Life
Bengal ...
The North- Western Provinces
PAGE
1
2
6
10
23
26
30
31
43
47
.52
58
66
71
77
78
82
92
101
111
114
118
120
121
122
123
127
138
147
1.51
157
159
163
175
176
176
178
181
183
188
188
190
194
203
209
PAGE
India {continued) : —
The Punjab 214
The Central Provinces ... ... ... 221
Assam 223
Madras... ... ... ... ... ... 226
Bombay ... ... ... ... ... ... 231
Rajpootana ... ... ... ... ... 245
Central India and Malwa... ... ... 246
Bundelkhund and ^YESTERN India ... 247
Southern India ... ... ... ... 248
Northern India ... ... ... ... 250
Medi.\tised and Minor Chiefs ... ... 252
Southern and Eastern India ... ... 254
North-Western India ... ... ... 255
Foreign Settlements in India ... ... ?55
Its Commerci.\l Condition... ... .. 258
Exports and Imports ... ... ... 259
Revenue, etc ... ... ... 261
Its Neighbours ... ... ... ... 263
Nepaul 263
SiKHIM AND BhUT.\N ... ... ... 264
Baloochistan ... ... ... ... 267
Afghanistan ... ... ... ... 270
Afghan Turkest.\n and the Other Central
Asiatic States ... ... ... ... 280
Petty Himal.\y'.\n Kingdoms and Re-
publics 283
The Pamir Steppe 286
" The Khanates " 288
The Turkoman Country ... ... ... 291
Eussi.iN Central Asia ... ... ... ... 294
The Kirghiz Steppe, etc. ... ... ... 295
Ferghana ... ... ... ... ... 295
Z.iRAFSHAN ... ... ... ... 301
The Sea of Aral ... ... ... ... 302
The Caspian 303
Persia : —
The Country and its Products ... ... 304
The Clim.\t£ 306
Mineral Resources ... ... ... ... 307
The Products, etc. ... ... ... ... 309
The Gulf and its Tr.\de, Revenue, etc. 310
The Pearl Fisheries ... ... ... 314
The Government and the Popul.^tion ... 315
The TR.iDE 317
Towns 318
Progress ... .. ... .. ... 318
2024950
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Thu Marble Bridge of Seventeen Arches, leiiding
to the Ishind in the Lake of Onane-Cheon-
Chane, China ... ... ... ... Frontispiece
Entrance to the Harbour of Potropavlovski
Map of Siberia and Part of China ...
A Tungoose Encampment ...
View of Nikolaievsk, the Capital of A moorland ...
A Siberian Dog Sledge
View of Lake Baikal, Siberia
Prisoners on the Road to Siberia ...
View of Omsk, Siberia
Ostiak Hunters of Siberia .
Map of China and Some of the Adjoining Countries
View in the Village of Polo-Hang, Province of
Canton
View in the Village of "SVong-Tong, Province of
Canton ...
View on the Poi-Ho River, at Ticn-Tsin, China ...
A Mosqiie in Pekin ...
A Pagoda, or Memorial Tower, in the Province of
Quel- Chow, China ... ... To face page
Sorting Tea in China
View of the City of Amoy, in the Province of
Fo-Kien
View of Part of Swatow, in the Province of
Q,uang-Tung
A Farm in the Province of Quang-Tung ...
Hata-Menc-ta-Kie Street, Pekin ...
A Tradesman of Tien-Tsin, the Treaty Port of the
Province of Pe- Chili
Chinese Artillerymen
Camels of the North of China
Chinese and Tartar Ladies ...
After Dinner: A Family Scene in China ...
A Street in Hong Kong-
View of the Rapids of the Chu-Kiang, Canton, or
Pearl River
A Chinese Cart
Fire on an Asiatic Steppe To face imcjc
A Street in Hong Kong
A Corean Palanquin ...
Mongol Kalkhas
A Sandstorm in the Desert
A Mongol Camel on the March
Scene in the Desert of Gobi
4
5
8
9
12
13
1.7
20
21
24
28
29
32
33
33
36
37
40
44
48
49
.V2
.')3
o7
60
Gl
64
6o
6.1
69
72
73
76
SO
Map of Central Asia, etc.
A Mongol Camp on the Move
A Street in Yarkand, Eastern Turkestan ...
jNIerchants of Yarkand, Eastern Turkestan
Gate of the Fort of Yaugy-Shahr, Five Miles from
Kasghar, Eastern Turkestan ...
A Kirghiz Bride
Tungans and Kabnuks of Kuldja ...
Scene in a Village in the Laos Country
To face page
A " Tartar " of Kuldja
A Tarantchi Mosque at Kuldja
Natives of the Valley of Spiti, Province of
Ladiik
View of the Salt Lake of Tsonioriri, Western
Tibet
View in Leh, the Capital of Ladak ..
View in Pegu, British Burmah
View on the River Irrawaddy, Burmah ...
Idols on the Banks of the River Irrawaddy,
Burmah ...
View of Bassac, Laos
A Village in the Interior of Laos ...
A Buddhi-st Wat, or Temple, at Bangkok, Siam . . .
A Hamlet and Bridge in Cambodia To face page
General View of Bankok and the Menam River ...
The Supreme King of Siam in his State Robes . . .
The "Second King" of Siam in his State Robes
A Siamese War Elephant ...
View in Khong, Cambodia ...
Barges on the Mekong River, Cambodia ...
View on the Banks of the Mesap, Cambodia
View of Panompin, the Capital of Cambodia
Ruins on Mount Bakheng, Cambodia
The ilain Street of Hue, Capital of the Kingdom
of Anam ...
Anamite Workmen Inlaying with Mother-of-Pearl
Street View in Saigon
A Bullock Carriage in Cochin- China
On the Course (Maidan), Calcutta, with a View of
Government House and the Ochterlony Monu-
ment ... ... ... ... 7b face page
Elephant Ploughing in Ceylon
View of Point de Galle, Ceylon
Map of Lower India and Ceylon ...
PAGE
81
88
89
93
96
97
97
100
104
105
109
112
113
117
121
124
128
129
129
132
133
136
140
141
144
14.',
148
1.53
156
157
160
161
161
164
165
vm
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Cocoa-nut Plantation in Ceylon 169
Singhalese Dancer ... ... ... ... 172
Singhalese Cloth Seller ... ... . ... 172
" Burghers " of Ceylon ... .. ... ... 173
Singhalese of the Coast ... ... ... ... 173
View of Cape Comorin, the Southern Point of
India 177
View in the Western Himalayas ... ... ... 180
View on the Ganges ... ... ... ... ... 184
View of the City of Benares ... ... ... 185
View of Simla 189
Scene in the Diamond Minos of Poonah ... ... 192
Gate of AUa-ud-Deen Koutah, near Delhi
To face page 193
Tiger Hunting with Elephants iu India ... ... 193
The Great Banyan Tree {Ficiis Indira) in the
Botanical Gardens, Calcutta ... ... ... 197
The Mausoleum of the Emperor Akhar, at Sikandra,
a Suburb of Agra City 200
Hindoo Dancers, or Culhacks ... ... 201
View of the Port of Calcutta ... ... ... 205
The Mausoleum of Etmaddowluh, Agra ... ... 208
An Indigo Factory at Allahabad ... ... ... 209
The Hoosseinabad Imambara, Lucknow ... ... 212
Temple at Muchkounda, near Dholepore ... ... 216
Palace at Lahore ... ... ... ... 217
Railway Travelling in India ... ... ... 220
Guadama, the Last Budha ... ... ... ... 224
Temples of the King at Ulwur ... To fare page Tib
Tea. Plant [Thea virulis) 225
A Katamaran in the Surf before Madi-as ... ... 228
A Pagoda at Tanjore 229
A Hindoo Pagoda at Malabar Hill, near Bombay 232
Parsee Cotton Merchants of Bombay ... ... 236
Entrance to the Cave-Temples of Kanhari, Isle of
Salsette 237
The Principal Grotto of Kanhari, Isle of Salsette 241
Xautch, or Dancing Girls, at the Court of the Rana
of Oodeypore 244
The Exterior of the Gemetei-y of ^laha Sati, at
Ahar, near Oodeypore ...
The Mausoleum of Rajah Buktawur, at I'lwur ...
The Gopel Bhowan in the Palace of Digh
View of the City of Baroda (from the River Bis-
wamintri)
Vif w in Srinagar, Kashmir ...
Cemetery at Khiva ... ... ... To fare page
Indian Cotton Operatives ...
The Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum) ...
Sir Jung Bahadur
Palace of the Rajah of Nepaul
View of the Bolan Pass
View of Khelat
View of the City of Cabul ...
The Tomb of the Emperor Baber at Cabul
View of Yangi Hissar, at the Foot of the Pamir
Chain
A Kirghiz Sultan
View of Lake Victoria, Pamir Steppe
Bibi Khanym Place, Samarcand ... To face page
Crossing the Sj-r-Darya
Turkoman Women ...
Court of the Palace of the Ex-Khan of Khokan . . .
Native Police at the Gate of the Mosque of Shah
Zindeh, Samarcand
The Tomb of Saint Daniar-Palvan, near Samarcand
Map of Central Asia, Persia, Arabia, and Turkey
in Asia ...
Scene on the Steppes of the Caspian
The Maidan Shah, or Royal Square, Ispahan
The Shah's Palace at Teheran
The Old South Gate, Teheran
The City Gate, Tabriz
View of Shiraz
Tower on the Site of the Ancient Raghes, Persia
(believed to be the Tomb of a ^Mongol
King)
The Tomb of Bavnzid-Bastam at Charout-Bastaiii
248
249
252
253
256
257
260
261
264
265
268
269
272
277
281
284
285
289
289
292
293
296
297
300
301
304
305
308
312
313
316
317
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOELD.
CHAPTER I.
SiBEEIA : KaMTCHATKA; AlIOOELAXD AXD SiBERIA PrOPER.
>^^^^ROM America to Asia is geographically but a step. Behring Strait is^ indeed,
^^-^'^ at its narrowest point, only thirty-six miles wide. Here Prince of Wales Cape —
on the snows of which Eugene Sue, in his most famous work, places his
'^juif errant^' — faces East Cape on the Asiatic shore, and as the Strait is at
'^ ' no place more than thirty fathoms in depth, it is more than probable that
''^ ■ in some of the changes which the volcanic region has undergone, this con-
nection between the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific has been opened within comparatively
recent geological jjeriods. The Diomede, and other islands in it, which now play to
the tribes on either side the part of the Roman " termes " — a commercial neutral ground —
may be the last fragments of this vanished isthmus. Haze and fog often overhang
the sea hereabouts, but owing to the shoaliness of its waters icebergs are rare. The
walrus is found on its northern shores, and in the southern parts, as well as on the
Aleutian islands, there is carried on a great trade in killing the sea otter (Vol. I.,
p. 305) and the fur seals, which, in spite of the war of extermination which until
recently was waged against them, are still numerous on these lonely volcanic-shaken
isles. Some of them, particularly Behring^s Island, when first discovered, were in-
habited by a species of sea-cow, the Hhjtina SteUeri, on which Behring and his com-
panions fed, but the visits of hungry seamen soon exterminated it, and even a fragment
of its skeleton is now rare in museums. The whole group seems at one time
to have been inhabited by Eskimo, and, indeed, the Aleuts are only members of the
same widespread family.^ The Eskimo, however, do not extend on the Asiatic shore
further than Tuski Land ; and it may be noted that the point of contact between the
essentially American Eskimo and Asia is just where the long winter's ice would allow them
to cross in their dog-sledges.
But the country we have now entered is a widely different one from the land we have
* Dall : ' ' On the ricmains of rrehistoric ilan in Caves of the Catherina Archipelago and the Aleutian
Islands." (" Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," 1878.)
161
2 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
left. Its novtlieni reg-ious are not so barren as the Arctic bonndaries of America, and its
southern plains and forests are not so luxuriant. It is a lone land nearly one million square
miles larg-er tnan Europe, but is not, contrary to the common belief, desolate throughout,
being in the more southern parts extremely rich and fruitful. It is thinly peopled, either by
wandering heathen tribes herding reindeer, or gaining a precarious livelihood by hunting,
or by Russian settlers, the majority of whom passed the Oural mountains from no wish
of their own. Siberia, in a word, is, as all the world knows, the Russian penal colony,
and though there are on the high roads of travel busy, populous, and even fine cities —
just as there were in Australia when that continent was our place of banishment —
everything in Siberia is temj^ered by the prevailing convict element. The ^^unfortunates''
are everywhere^ but as these exiles have in many cases been the foremost men in Russian
public life, the material for progress in the great traus-Oural territory is great. Stretching
from Cape Chelyuskin or Severo, the most northern point of Asia — the Fromontorlum
Tabiii of Pliny — it stretches south for nearly 2,000 miles, and from east to west for 3,600
miles. For political purposes the country is divided into the two great divisions of
Western and Eastern Siberia, among Avhich are distributed the Governments of Tobolsk,
which contains over a million of inhabitants, Tomsk, Yeniseisk, Yakutsk, Irkutsk,
Transbaikalia, the Amoor Province, and the Littoral Province, . which includes Kamtchatka
and the shores of Behring Strait. Kamtchatka and the Amoor are, however, naturally
separable from the rest of Siberia. Accordingly, it will be more convenient for our purpose
to say a few words about each of them before sketching in fuller detail the great plains
lying to the west.
Kamtchatka.
This peninsula,* perhaps the dreariest part of the Russian empire, was not discovered
by the Siberian conquerors until the close of the seventeenth century; but in 1G97 the
work of subjection began, and by 1711 the docile inhabitants, who were only a few
savages living imder petty chiefs, had submitted to their new masters, who, however,
have never been able to gain much glory or revenue from the new territory. The
tribute is paid in sable and other furs, and the coast affords few good harbours. The
settlements of the " Littoral Province " are still in a very embryonic condition, and likely
to continue so. Yet the first sight of Kamtchatka is, to the voyager in whose mind it is
associated with " the wolf's long howl from Onalaska's shore," not unpleasing. He
expects ice, glaciers, and the bare lichened rocks of the country in the same latitude on
the other side of America. Instead, his eye lights upon hills, covered with trees and
verdant thickets, upon valleys white with clover and diversified with little groves of
silver-barked birch, and even on rocks gay witli wild roses and columbines, as he enters
the harbour of Petropavlovski (p. 1), whose red-roofed and bark-thatched log-houses, and
green-domed church, contrast pleasingly with the high hills, which '^ sweep in a great
semicircle of foliage" round the quiet pond-like inlet of Avatcha Bay on which the village
is placed. Petropavlovski, one of the most isolated of all the spots dedicated to the honour
* The word "Kamtchatka" is derived from "Kontchatj," to terminate.
SIBERIA: KAMTCHATKA. 3
o£ Peter and Paul, has iew " lions " for the sight-seeing- tourist. The two rude monuments
to the memory of the famous navigators, Behring and La Perouse, are the visible signs of the
better side of the Kamtchatkan village. The grass-grown fortifications, built during the Crimean
War to repel the ill-advised and unsuccessful attack of the allied French and English
squadrons, and the densely-peojjled graveyard not far off, present the history of Petropavlovski
in its less pleasing forms. The roar of the allies' cannon was, perhaps, the first intimation
that the inhabitants — native Cossacks and peasants — ever had of Turkey and the " Eastern
Question.''^ But to this day it is customary, on the anniversary of the battle, for all the
inhabitants to march in solemn procession "round the town and over the hill from which
the storming party was thrown, chanting hymns of joy and praise for the victory/' The
extreme length of the Peninsula of Kamtchatka is about 700 miles, and it is divided
longitudinally by an almost continuous range of rugged mountains, containing many extinct
volcanoes, in addition to five or six in a state of nearly continuous activity. To the north
of this range is high level steppe or "dole,'"" a dreary desert, the chosen home of the
wandering " reindeer Koriaks.'^ The central and southern parts of the peninsula are, according-
to Mr. Kennan, broken up by the spurs and foot-hills of the great mountain range into
deep sequestered valleys of the wildest and most picturesque character, and afford scenery
which, for majestic and varied beauty, is not surpassed in all Northern Asia. The climate,
excej)t in the north, is comparatively mild and equable, and the vegetation is luxuriant,
beyond anything which our pre-conceived ideas of the country would ascribe to it. The
population of the Littoral Province the Russian statists put down (in 1873) at 50,512,
and of this number Mr. Kennan credits Kamtchatka with 5,000. Of these the Kamtchatkdals
are the most numerous. They are settled in little log villages, chiefly near the mouth of
the small rivers which rise in the central range and fall into the sea of Okhotsk and
the Pacific, and are engaged in fishing, fur trapping, and the cultivation of rye, turnips,
cabbages, and potatoes, which grow fairly well as far north as 58°. In the fertile
valleys of the Kamtchatka river there are many such settlements, where, an American
visitor affirms, the farmers, in spite of their isolation, enjoy as much material comfort
as do the occupants of many of the rough, imkempt outposts of civilisation in the
United States. The Russians are, for the most part, traders among the Kamtchatkdals,
and some of them are freed exiles, or Cossacks of the rudest type. The latter also
form the garrisons. The wandering Koriaks are a wild race, who shun civilisation,
and rarely come farther south than latitude 58*^, and then only for the purpose of
trade. They wander about from place to place, depending for subsistence on their
large herds of reindeer, and living in fur tents pitched in spots suitable for pasturing
their domestic animals. The Russians are prudent enough not to attempt governing
these independent folks too much. But the rest of the Kamtchatkdals are nominally
ruled by an " Ispravnik,''' or district governor, who is at once the judge and the collector
of the annual "yassak,'' or tax of furs, which is levied on every male inhabitant in the
province. But as in Kamtchatka, pack-horses, canoes, and dog sledges are the only means
of getting about in a country where a road is unknown, his Excellency the Ispravnik
is rarely seen outside Petropavlovski, where he has his head-quarters. Tagil is another
* Kennan : " Tent Life in Siberia," p. 38.
4 THE COUNTEIES OF THE WORLD.
" fortress/-' and Nijni-Kamtchatka, in the valley of the Kamtchatka river, is the only-
other place of consequence. Altogether, in the Peninsula, which varies in breadth
from 30 to 120 miles, there may be about 80,000 square miles. The volcanoes, only
one of which (Kliuchev, 16,131 feet) is of great height, constitute the northern
continuation of those traversing the Philippine and the Japanese Islands. On the east,
where the mountains ajiproach close to the shore, the cliffs are high and precipitous, but
li.NTKANCE TO THE HAUBOCK OF PETllOrAVLOVSKJ.
as most of the inlets are blocked at their mouths with reefs, the harbours which naturally
exist are for the present incapable of being utilised, and as the only river which cannot
be employed as an inlet to the country debouches into a shallow bay exposed to the full
force of the easterly winds, the opening up of Kamtchatka is still in the far future.
Nor is there much to develop. The few vegetables grown — when they are not destroyed
by untimely frosts, heavy rains, or armies of mice and rats — are not more than sufficient
for local consumption, and the same may be said in regard to the cattle and horses which
are reared in the valley of the river just noted. Accordingly, unless mines are discovered,
the peninsula is likely for ever to remain in its present condition of solitary desolation, a
6 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOELD.
home for a few semi-savages of habits too disgusting to he recorded in all their
minutiae, and for convicts harmless enough to be trusted so near the sea.*
Amoorlaxd.
The oToat rivers of Siberia flow into the Arctic Sea^ but that which drains the Amoor
country debouches into the Pacific : hence its imjwrtance. The Amoor, Amour,, Amur, or
Sakalin formed by the union of several streams, is in all about 1,000 miles in length.
Naturally, therefore, the climate of the country through which it flows varies. In the
ui)per part of its course the summers are short and the winters cold ; further south it
passes throuo-h a region which enjoys almost tropical heat. Here oaks, limes, and elms
flourish in great forests, instead of the stunted larch and firs on its upper waters. On
the lower Amoor the climate is again that of typical Siberia. The river is frozen up
half the year, and the general surroundings are also of the Island of Saghalinf, opposite
which is its mouth (Vol. IV., p. 31G). Amoorland first became known to the Russians in.
1639, and soon after then Cossack irregulars began conflicts with the Chinese, who
controlled and partially occupied the country. These skirmishes were not always on the
side of the invaders, but in the end a treaty was concluded, the effect of which was to
transfer a considerable portion of the region from the Chinese to the Russians. This
was in 16S0, and up to 1817 there wore not many alterations of the state of matters
thus brought about. But in 1847 the Russians began to make preparations for further
conquests in the Amoor Valley, which preparations ended as they have usually done when
the Asiatic pot and the Riissian pan came into collision; for in 18G0 the whole Amoor
Valley, as we now know it, fell into the hands of the Czar, and has continued as
part of his dominions. Though the advantages to be gained by the possession of this
country have not been fulfilled to the extravagant extent it was at one time believed they
would eventuate in, it cannot be denied that the Amoor drains a country for the most
part very fine, and that eventually it may form a home for millions quite as attractive
as most parts of Canada. Though the Amoor proper is only 1,600 miles long, its
tributaries are many of them very large rivers, and altogether, taking its largest feeders
as the continuation of the river, it is over 2,800 miles long, and 2,200 of these are
navigable by steamer. Altogether, it drains an area of 700,000 square miles, comprising
much fertile and well-wooded country. The " Amoor Province " proper embraces an area
of 101,000 square miles, while part of the Littoral Province, under which is also included
Kamtchatka, is embraced in this country. The total population of the former province
was, in 187'3, 25,201 — the greater portion of them Tungoose barbarians (p. S) and con-
* Kamtchatka never changes much. Accordingly, the chief literature on it, though old, is yet quite scasonaLlo.
The works of Krashcninnikov have been translated into English, and those of Cochrane, Cottrell, Dohell,
Habersham, Tronson, Collins, Kittlitz, Steller, and Erman, in addition to the more recent narratives of Kennan
and Bush, almost exhaust the original sources of information on this part of Eastern Siberia, unless we accept
the numerous oflRcial — political, gcograjihical, and scientific — reports present-ed to the St. Petersbiirg authorities
from time to time ; but these arc, for the most part, in the Eussian language.
t Also spelled " .Sakalin," and " Saghalien." The native name is said to be "Krafto," or " Taraki," under tho
latter of which designations the Eussians are now beginning to describe it.
SIBERIA: AMOORLAXD. 7
victs. There are numerous steamboats on the river^, and a considerable trade is carried on.
But the channel is narrow and intricate, and even, according to Captain Bax, with a
vessel drawing- only eight feet and a half of water, the greatest care is necessary to
keep it from grounding. It, however, abounds with salmon and other fish, and may,
under a better system, contribute more extensively than it does at present to the wealth
of the world."^ ISIr. Ronald Bridgett, who, a few years ago, made a voyage up the river,
describes the ice on it as breaking up in April, and moving away down stream with
great uproar at the rate of about twenty miles a day. By the middle of October it again
begins to freeze, and when sufficiently firm a sledge track follows the course of the
stream, post stations being established at intervals of fifteen to thirty miles, and provided
with the customary Government order, the traveller can ordinarily obtain post-horses,
though on the lower part of the river he has to content himself with a Giliak sledge and
a team of dogs. The winter post from Nikolaievsk to St. Petersburg across Siberia
usually occupies fifty to fifty-five days, but there is a case on record in which a Government
courier, travelling uninterruptedly, made the journey in thirty days. During the summer
months steamers ascend from Nikolaievsk, in the Pacific, to Stretensk, on the Shilka
tributary, in the Government of Transbaikalia, in about the same period, though the
descent is made in half that time, the steamer anchoring dvn-ing the night.
Nikolaievsk (p. 9), the capital of the Government, is, when first seen by the voyager
entering from the Gulf of Tartary, a rather striking place. The houses are not numerous,
but their green and red shingle roofs, contrasted with sombre forests, give a gay aspect
to the town. The buildings are usually of one storey, and built of wood, with double
windows to exclude the cold, which, during the seven months' winter, is intense. There
is a public library and reading-room, and a club where balls and concerts of the amateur
musical talent of the place are held; but the wide streets, bordered by a wooden plankway,
are very deserted looking, and the garden, where the band performs in the summer
evenings, is an enclosure where weeds and a few seats have taken the place of the forest
which everywhere else dominates, except where it has been hewn to supply the place
with fuel and timber. The church is — as in all Russian towns — a prominent object;
but the dreary cemetery, among the rugged stump-dotted ground in the outskirts of
the town, is among the most desolate of the cities of the dead. The river is at this
spot about a mile in width, and on the opposite shore is bounded by lofty pine-clothed
cliffs. Villages dot the river banks at intervals, and rolling wooded hills arise from the
water's edges for the first few miles, though here and there the stream widens out and
divides into a number of channels. The Russian peasants at these villages grow grain
for their ovm maintenance, and feed a few bullocks on the meadow hay. They have
firewood, fowls, milk, eggs, wild strawberries and raspberries, potatoes, cucumbers, &c.,
for sale, but appear far from prosperous, and not much more comfortable in their menage
than their neighbours, the Giliaks and Goldi, who live by fishing and hunting. The
* Collins: "Exploration of the Amoor River" (1858); Ravcnstein : "Russians on the Amoor" (18G1) ;
Schrenck : " Reisen und Forschungen im Amurland " (1858-67) ; Atkinson : " Travels in the Region of the Amoor "
(1868) ; lists of works in Chavanne, Karpf and Lc Monnier : " Die Litcratur iiber Polar-Rcgionen"' (1878) relating to
the neighboming country.
8 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
mosquitoes, which darken tlie air, make life hy no means a summer dream, and the
bush fires, which often envelop the country in smoke during- the warm weather, render any
settlement in the back country precarious. After leaving- the river's mouth, everything in
the form of a road ceases: the river is hereafter the only highway. Khabarofka, 014
miles from Xikolaievsk, where there is a garrison, is destined to become a place of some
importance, for here the River Usuri, which flows from Mantchuria in the south, joins
the Amoor. For some days after leaving this town the river banks are flat and uninteresting,
and the current divided into a number of channels by several low islands. At Ekaterin-
Nikolski, a Cossack village, the passage of the Hinghan mountains begin. The stream
then becomes very rapid, and narrows to about a quarter of a mile in width. The
scenery also changes entirely. Instead of flat, monotonous, wooded shores, hills 1,000 to
A TUXGOOSE ENCAMPMENT.
1,000 feet in height rise precipitously from the water's edge, on either side. Birch, fir,
and mountain oak cover them, while at intervals the steamer passes the outlets of valleys,
which add to the beauty of the scene. For fifty miles this is the characteristic of the
stream. Then there is a change after the Hinghan mountains are passed. The country
opens out in swelling woodland interspersed with park-like patches of grass, so that the
banks on either side look not unlike the English downs. Russian villages umltiply, and
considerable quantities of grain are cultivated in the now more genial climate of the
south. Mantchu villages appear on the Chinese shore, while a few gaily painted junks
belonging to the navy begin to strike the eye at the spot where the river forms the
boundary between the Russian and Chinese territory; and at fifteen miles above Aigun,
at the junction of the River Dsaya with the Amoor, is Blagovestchensk, the residence
of the Governor of Amoorland. It is, next to Nikolaievsk, the principal town on the
river, and consists of two streets running parallel to the river banks, the houses rather
SIBERIA: AMOORLAXD. 9
wide apart and built of log's. There is a public garden and esplanade, and here is quartered
a considerable garrison. The country around is without a tree, but many cattle are grazed
in the vicinity, and thoug'h the summer is short, the heat is sufficiently great to allow o£
melons ripening in the open air. Opposite the town is the village of Saghalin, where
reside the Mantchu traders, the Russian authorities not allowing them to remain at night on
the Russian side of the river. They bring for sale flour, cattle, tobacco, &c., in return for
European goods, silver roubles, and Mexican dollars, which latter are sent south to
Tsitsihar, and melted into what the English merchants in China call ''shoes" of silver, or
"sycee.-" Along the Dsaya, which here joins the Amoor, are numerous settlements of
VIEW OF NIKOLAIEVSK, THE CAPITAL OF AMOOKLAXD.
Russians, who have left their country on account of persecutions for conscience sake.*
They cultivate great crops of grain, which the Government readily purchases, in order
to supply the less favoured colonies on the Amoor, which, on their first foundation, were
forced to rely for their stores on sea-borne cargoes from the Baltic, or on what reached
them from Transbaikalia. Low hills covered with fern, stunted oak, and birch beeches,
are the characteristic of the banks for many miles. Above Blagovestchensk, and for 200
miles up, the chalk cliffs of the White Mountains are the most remarkable features in a
very pleasing country. Immense flocks of wild fowl %-equent these parts of the river,
* Among these are some of the strictest sectaries of the " Starovertsi," or Old Believers, who have also taken
refuge in the wildest parts of Siberia. (:\Iorgan, in Prejevalsky's "From Kulja Across the Tian Shan to Lob-Xor "
(1879), p. 202 ; nnd Wallace's '' Eussia," Vol. I., p. 14.)
162
10 THE COrXTKIES OF THE WORLD.
and sturgeon are eaug-ht in such numbers as to render tlie preparation of caviare an important
industry. Game is also abundant and boldly pursued : villagers will even attack the bear single-
handed on foot. Among the fur animals are fine sables, trapped by the Aronchonee, a wild
tribe who wandor about this part of the country. Albazin is a village of some importance.
Gold is found in the vicinity, but the crowds who flocked thither in the summer of 1807
were disappointed in the hope of wealth. Higher up the stream narrows to the breadth
o£ the Thames at London, but in places it is very shallow. For 120 miles it passes
through the Little Hinghan Mountains, among lofty hills covered with dense pine forests,
and high limestone cliffs here and there rising up from the water's edge. In general
character, it reminded ]\Ir. Bridgett of the Danube between Passau and Linz, but instead
of ruined castles on the heights, there are only a few solitary post-houses. Rafts floating-
cattle down stream, and immigrants on their way to the lower river country, after a journey
often of twelve to eighteen months from Southern Russia and the Caspian, are among
the most familiar objects that break the monotony of an up-river voyage in this section
of the Amoor. In the province of Transbaikalia, which is entered after passing the
village of Gorbitza, the mountains recede from the river, and the country assumes a
more settled aspect. The habitations are uo longer confined to the banks of the river,
and the country, which is diversified with pine and white birch-patched hills, shows
considerable cultivation. The frosts begin early, and in October the crops are often in
the fields and even uncut. But the peasants consider this no hardship, as the first fall
of snow enables them to carry the sheaves to the barn on sledges, and thus saves what
they consider much labour. Steamers can proceed to Chetah, but Stretensk is considered
the head of navigation, for here the overland carriage road to Russia commences. A few
log-houses, barracks for soldiers, and a convict establishment, with the inevitable domed
church, make up the town, and two miles further up stream is the port with dry docks,
A\ orkshops, and all other needful appliances for repairing the steamers and barges navigating
the river. The few European articles in use find their way to this isolated town, partly
after a long water carriage up the river from the sea-board, and partly by the still moi'e
costly land journey across Siberia. The result is that everything not the produce of the
country is dear. At the date of Mr. Bridgett's visit, loaf sugar was selling at an equivalent
of .'3s. per lb., English bottled porter at Is. Gd. per quart, and other articles in proportion.
It may be added, that the Cossack, having proved but an indifferent colonist, the Government
is doing its best to introduce German emio-rants into the Amoor Yallev.
Siberia Proper.
The continent of Asia is usually described as consisting of certain plateaux and low-
lands. The plateaux are the eastern one, comprising the table-land of Tibet and the
Desert of Gobi, and the western plateau, or table-land of Iran, divided up into lesser areas
by various mountain ranges. The six great lowland areas arc the Bucharian lowland, a wild
sterile waste between the Caspian Sea and Lake Aral; the Syrian and Arabian lowland,
the lowlands of Ilindostan, the Indo-Chinese lowlands, through which the Irawaddy
SIBERIA ritOrEK: GENERAL ClIAliACTERISTICS. 11
flows, Cambodia and Siam, the Chinese lowlands, and finally Siberia, the lowland of
the north, and the greatest of them all. Indeed, the country may be described as one
immense plain, bounded on the south by mountains, but gradually getting- lower and lower
as it approaches the north, until along the shore of the Frozen Ocean it is one dreaiy flat,
little raised above the level of the sea. Even there, however, as noted in the recent
voyage of Professor Xordenskjold, there is a difference. West of the Lena the forest
keeps a considerable distance from the shore; but to the east of that promontory it
approaches in the form of stunted pines almost to the water's edge. It is also evident that
the country is, like most of the circumpolar region, rising, for lagoons, only separated
by a few yards of land from the sea, are common all along that coast, and recent
marine shells are found on the " tundras,'" or moss}^ barrens along the coast, while the
Liokov or Siberian Islands, though almost unknown, are said to be scattered with
the bones of oxen, horses, and other animals, at present unknown even in a fossil con-
dition on the mainland, as well as with the remains of the mammoth, the fossil tusks
of which still form an article of commerce. This mammoth was a wool-covered
dwarf elephant, which there is every reason to believe lived in the northern part
of Siberia, when the climate Avas very much the same as it is now, and whose form
has in a more or less complete shape been preserved to this day in the ice or frozen soil.
The region to the west of the Yenisei presents one monotonous level, unbroken by hills
of any sort, covered in its north-western parts by forests, though for the greater extent
this province is steppe or upland plain. Much of it consists of dry sand, salt marsh,
and bogs; but the Barabinskarii Steppe, between the Rivers Irtish and Obi, has large birch
groves, and is well suited for agriculture; while the soil of the Abakan Steppes, which
lie along the River Abakan, a tributary of the Yenisei, is so rich that it requires no
manure. But even where the soil is unsuited for crops its fine pastures afford abundance
of food to the . countless herds of reindeer and cattle possessed by the natives. Eastern
Siberia is more diversified, for in this part of the country the plains are intersected by
offshoots of the Altai, Sagan, and Stanovoi range of mountains. Much of it is suited for
agriculture, and the south is covered for the greater portion of its extent with magnificent
forests. "S'ineyards are common. The fruit is excellent, and wine of a fair quality is made,
though as yet it has not found a market out of the country. The northern part, extending
to the Arctic Ocean, is for the most part a dreary moss-covered "tundra'" on which,
however, can be pastured, at certain seasons of the year, herds of reindeer, though the
swarms of mosquitoes which, during the warm weather, infest this and every other portion
of Siberia, render life almost intolerable to man ; and the oestrus, or " hot," which attack
the deer, combined with the disease which has broken out among them, is rapidly re-
ducing the Samoyedes, Ostiaks, Voguls, and other tribes which depend on them, from
affluence to poverty.
Siberia was in early times under Tartar princes, but about 15^0 it was subdued by
the emissaries of the Czar, and has ever since been looked upon, not so much as an integral
part of the Russian empire as a convict settlement, or a region to which colonists could
be attracted only by offering special inducements. It has an offensive smack of the hulks
about it still, even though there are manv free settlers in the country, and, indeed, the
12
THE COUNTRIES OF THE TVOKLD.
peasants in tlie region east of the Ural look upon Siberia as the perfect land of promise.
Formerly a proprietor was empowered by law to despatch to Siberia any unruly serfs on his
estate, and could transport them thither without a trial. ^ It is, moreover, shut off either
from the markets of the south by the long land journey and the exclusivoness of China, and
bv the equally extensive region which separates it from Europe; while the great rivers
which flow throuo-h it, and afford water-ways in every direction, debouch into the Arctic
A SIBERIAN DOG SLEDGE.
Seas. Therefore, unless the water-way which the enterprise of Wiggins and Nordenskjold
have opened up be found practicable, Siberia, until a railway links it to Russia proper, will
remain a country much larger than Europe, and yet with only about three and a half million
people — savage and civilised, bond and free — within its whole boundaries. Hence, with
the exception of its mines, its trade is unimportant, and its manufactures few and languish-
ing. Spirits and leather are, however, produced to a considerable extent. Soap-boiling,
tallow-melting, and the making of stearine candles employ a good deal of capital; while
cotton and wool are woven into coarse fabrics in some of the cities, which, like Irkutsk,
* Wallace's *' Russia," Vol. I., p. 376.
STBEEIA: MINES.
13
Tobolsk, Tjumen, Omsk (p. 20), and Tomsk have from 17,000 to 27,000 inhaLitants. The
fisheries on the great rivers afford occupation for many of the native Siberians ,; and at the
fairs which are periodically held business is done with the most remote parts of Europe
and Asia. Kiakhta is the meeting- place for the Chinese and Siberian traders, and here is
a school for teaching young merchants the Chinese language. The mines are, however,
the great sources of wealth for Siberia at present. At one time all of them were Government
VIEW ON LAKE BAIKAL, SIBEKIA.
monopolies, and worked for Government alone, but of late most of them have been thrown
open to private individuals, the Crown simply exacting a royalty, and claiming particular
gems as its perquisites. The result is that the Government not only makes more than
it did in former times when it worked the mines on public account, but by abandonmg
its monopoly has stimulated those directly dependent on their working to greater energy
than was evinced by public officials sure of their salaries, whether the soil was
searched after the most antique or most approved method, or whether it yielded little
or much. Large sums are often made by mere peasants in the gold mines of the Ourals,
and particularly in the sands of the River Nertcha and its tributaries in Eastern Siberia;
14 THE COrNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
indeed, some of the greatest Russian fortunes have been accumuhited from this source.
Silver, lead, platinum, copper (especially the form known as malachite), iron, coal, tin,
cinnabar (the ore of quicksilver), zinc, bismuth, arsenic, sulphur, alum, sal ammoniac,
nitre, natron, and naphtha are also found in greater or less abundance in some parts of
Siberia. Among precious stones the topaz, hyacinth, Siberian emerald, beryl, onyx, red
and green jasper, chrysolite, red garnet, lapis lazuli, bakalite, and op?.ls exist in greater
or less abundance in different parts of this region.
In the Murinsk district emeralds of extraordinary brilliancy are often picked up, as
well as other precious stones, in which this district is particularly rich. The aqua marina
is in like manner one of the prizes of the Nertchinsk district, famous for its copi^er mines,
tlie lapis lazuli of the Kultuk Valley, and zircon of the vicinity of Lake Ilmenskoi.
Cinnabar is also abundant, particularly in the vicinity of Nertchinsk, where the ore is
worked by the worst class of criminals, and if gold and quartz mines are ever developed
in the country, as undoubtedly they will be in time, the quicksilver will prove of great
value in their working. Most of the gems are cut and polished in the country. The
Russian peasant is not an inventor, but he has a genius for imitating. He has only to
be told to go and do so and so, and in time it will be done. He will in this manner
become a blacksmith, a wood carver, a copyist of painters, an engineer, or a lapidary, provided
that he is only given time enough. He will v.atch the next workman to him using Iiis
saw, chisel, or file; then he will cautiously imitate him, doing a little at a time, and nothing
rashly. Next day he will show more skill, until in a few weeks he becomes a sufficiently
skilful workman to be entrusted with tasks requiring great judgment and even knowledge
to execute. In the Graniloi Fabrik, in Ekaterinbui'g, for example, the visitor is astonished
to find men not above the rank of peasant; and in all likelihood convicts under serveillance,
executing the most beautiful engravings on beryl, amethysts, topaz, and emeralds, or
carving on jasper and porphyry vases with a skill which coidd not be exceeded, if equalled,
in the great centres of fine art workmen in Europe. Yet such intelh'gent labourers are
— or were, at all e\ents, in Erraan^s day, fifty years ago — not paid more than 3s. 8d..
per month, with rations of a few pounds of black bread. Yet they are quite content
with their lot, and toil on to make fortunes for the rich mine-owners, who live in
great state in fine mansions. Even the master workmen or overseers are only paid
some £11 or £1:2 per annum, but they, like the ordinary labourers, have their per-
quisites, in the unrecognised pilferings which they can manage to effect among the
treasures they handle. Indeed, if we are to credit the gossip of the Siberian towns,
only a moiety of the gems discovered find their way into the hands of their legitimate
owners ; and though Government officials are not allowed to own mines, it is reported that
they are not the most stoical of those who find amethysts and topaz lying about unnoticed
too great temptations for ordinary virtue. The buying and selling of precious stones form
a business which all classes dabble in. The visitors to a Siberian town are, soon after
their arrival, waited on either with stones cut and uncut, by the recognised or by the
irreguhir ai^-ents of the numerous lapidaries or dealers. The very children dog the new arrivals
at every step with rare bargains wra])])ed up in bits of rag, either on their own account
or as the least suspected means of entrajiping the unwary traveller into purchasing at
SIBERIA: TEADE, ETC. 15
what seems a low price stones worth next to nothing", or which may have been made
hy the skilful artificer o£ artificial gems in Paris or Vienna, and exported to Siberia. The
stones are also set in the gold and silver obfained from the vicinity, though usually
with less taste than is displayed in the cutting of the gems. The iron mines of
Siberia have been worked for almost two centuries, and at Neviansk the best iron is
manufactured into articles of domestic utility, which find their way into every part of
the country ; and among other uses is applied in the manufacture of the coarse but
efficient rifles in use among the poorer classes of Siberians. At Tagilsk copper ore is
worked and smelted ; and in the school of design, founded by one of the wealthy family
of Demidofs, the iron made out of the magnetic ore in the vicinity is finely lacquered and
damascened by the pupils. ^Malachite vases, tables, and doors are also made here, the
masses of the metal found often weighing several thousand pounds. Platinum was at one
time cast into coins, but this use for it has been abandoned, and in all about 4,000 lbs.
are now mined annually, though the '^ mining " in reality consists in picking up the
grains in which the metal is usually found. The fine " sable iron," so-called from being-
stamped with the figure of that animal, is still produced at Tchernoistotchinsk in the
Urals, and is so good that its fame has even reached Birmingham and Sheffield. Shot,
shell, cutlery, and swords, and a hundred other articles, are also produced in the country,
and would add still more to its wealth, did not the cost of transporting them to Europe
impose an almost prohibitor\' tax on their competing in the markets of the world with goods
which have not had to travel so far. The native nitre is utilised in making gunpoAvder.
The making of paper, glass, linen, cloth, carriages, carpets of goats' hair, swan-down
coverlets, and other manufactures, are carried on in different places, though in no case
have they attained great proportions. Mica is used in place of \Aindow glass ; and on
the Oka is found plumbago, said to equal that of the now almost exhausted Cum-
berland mines. "^ On the great rivers are built a vast number of boats, and other
vessels suitable for their navigation; and on Lake Baikal (p. 13) there is an Admiralty
dockyard, and at Vladivostok — "the Dominion of the East'' — a naval arsenal, which is
rapidly assuming great proportions, has been established. The corn brandy trade is under
Government supervision, but is almost entirely in the hands of the Jews. According
to law, none of the natives are allowed to obtain it, but in reality, as happens under
similar circumstances in America, they only cease to get drunk when they can find no
more furs to purchase the liquor. The same decree is in force in Kamtchatka, but there
the natives manage to produce a more deleterious intoxication with a poisonous fungus,
the " muck-a-moor," or Aii/anild, vmscaria. It is in large doses a narcotic poison, but in
small quantities produces all the effects of alcohol. The authorities prohibit, as far as
they can, the natives using it, but so eager are the Koriaks for it, that, as it does not
grow in their country, they will readily give valuable furs in exchange for it. They are,
however, economical in its use, and can reproduce the intoxication caused in one individual
by one fungus in a manner so peculiar and repulsive, that it is better not to enlarge on
the point of Kamtchadal convivial economy. The fur trade is another great staple of
Siberia, but is pursued often with great hardshij^s to the natives toiling uniler their task-
* Eaen: '-Frozen Asia" (1879), pp- 244—249,
16 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
masters, and as the liuuting of wild animals jirevents their settling down to civilised
pursuits, its effect on the country cannot be said to be in any way g-ood.
But Siberia is, in the minds of the world at larg-e, associated with something more
familiar than either furs or precious stones. As the writer has remarked in another
place,* for a century and a half no tidings have come from the North more familiar than
the news that so many people have been " sent to Siberia.-" Since the days of Peter the
Great it has been the doom of tens of thousands — gentle and simple, high and low,
criminals the vilest, patriots the loftiest, dreamers the most imprudent. In 187J;, nearly
15,000 M'ended their way thither, and in 1870, the number of "unfortunates" was even
greater. The word conveys to the mind of Southern Europe all that is most repulsive
in penal banishment. Instinctively the mind of the newspaper reader who catches the
word recalls the "Exiles of Siberia." He pictures to himself long dreary troops (p. 17) of
'' unfortunates " trudging through the snow, or perishing of hunger and cold and misery
long before they reach the mines of the Ural, or the jasper quarries of Ekaterinburg,
He hears the clanking of the chains, the moan of the exiles, and the crack of the Bashkir
Tartar's whip, as he drives along the victims of the ''Third Section of the Imperial
Chancellery," to lead a desolate existence and die a felon's death amid the desolation of
Siberia. Even in Russia there is a dread of the name which is not altogether inspired
by its penal terrors, with which the refractory subjects of the Czar are only too familiar.
But, in reality, our ideas of Siberia are, like the majority of popular impressions transmitted
by tradition, altogether beside the truth. With the winter's snows we should contrast the
flower-covered ])lains of summer, the luxuriant corn-fields and purple vineyards of autumn
in Southern Siberia. Mines there are, and very rich ones too, but there are also noble
cities, splendid residences, and society as polished as any in Europe. Siberia, indeed, is
a general place for emptying the gaols of Russia, and men are banished to Siberia who
would, in other parts of Europe, merely suffer a few years' imprisonment. And of late
years the traditional horrors of exile over the Urals have greatly altered for the bettei-,
though doubtless the worst class of criminals are not treated with any great leniency.
The great numbers sent at different times have leavened the whole of society in
Siberia. Indeed, if we take into account them and their descendants, as well as the
convicts whose sentences have expired, and who have remained in the country, they
form the most numerous portion of the population. No traveller can have journeyed along
the post route leading from Nijnei Novgorod, over the Urals, across Siberia by way of
Tjumen, Tobolsk, Tomsk, or Yeniseisk, without meeting long strings of exiles, some of
whom have been on the road six, eight, or ten months, and sometimes, as in the case of
those destined for the settlement in the Amoor Valley, Saghalin, and Kamtehatka, even
two years, though, during the year 1879, the exiles for the maritime parts of Eastern
Siberia have been despatched by sea. The worst are chained, but, except in the vicinity
of the towns through which they may pass, great leniency is usually shown to the
" unfortunates," as with kindly tolerance the exiles are styled by the country people.
The women and rhildron — especially when they are the families of the convicts, permitted
to accompany them — are usually conveyed in wagons, or, farther north, in reindeer or
* " Casscll's Family :\ragazinc," 1879, p. 434.
SIBERIA: THE EXILES.
17
dog-sledges; while political prisoners of rank, when once they are clear of the large cities,
may be seen consorting with the officers of the guard, and even sharing their meals in
the block-houses along the route. Sometimes in passing through a fanatical village the
actual sharers in a conspiracy will be spat upon, and even stoned, by the loyally ignorant
peasants; but more frequently the simple-minded people will bring them presents of food
PRISONERS ON THE KOAD TO SIBERIA.
and other necessaries, and ask heaven to forgive and shelter them. At each station on
the road there are barracks for the accommodation of the prisoners. These barracks are
usually outside the villages, and are surrounded by high stockades of pointed trunks of
trees, over which it is impossible to climb, though the precaution is always taken of
having the exiles well guarded by mounted Cossacks. The daily march is not toilsome,
and varies accordinor to the nature of the road or the accommodation for man and beast:
it is usually about fourteen or fifteen miles. Nevertheless, on the long journeys many
die by the way — indeed, I have heard it affirmed by Russians well acquainted with the
163
IS THE COUNTKIES OF THE WOKLD.
system, that not over fonr-fiftlis of those sent to the far North or to Eastern Siberia ever
rcaeh their destination.
As soon as they arrive in Siberia the convicts are divided into three chisses. First
come those condemned for the foulest crimes known to the Russian law, such as would
in Eng'land lie awarded death,"^ or penal servitude for life, or for a long term of years.
These culprits are doomed to work in the mines, and usually have a hard lot. Such exiles
are called in Siberia KafonJinilci, a term no doubt derived from Ktirepov, the name given
to a galley by the Byzantine historians, as well as by the Greeks on the Black Sea at
the present day. Next come the Loslaniv/je na rohoio, or exiles condemned for shorter
periods, and for minor offences. Vagrants at large, rogues worthy of a more severe
punishment than imprisonment, prisoners sentenced by the communal courts, and, in former
days, serfs condemned, as refractory labourers, by the Government, on application by the
proprietors of estates on which they lived, as well as minor political offenders, who are
well out of harm's way, comprise the bulk of these "unfortunates.'^ The place they are
sent to is projiortioned to their turpitude, the worst offenders being dispatched farthest
from the boundaries of Russia in Europe, for instance, to the shores of the Arctic Sea,t
and the Eastern provinces, while the lighter culprits are permitted to settle down in
Western Siberia, immediately to the east of the Urals. This class of convicts are usually
condemned only for short terms, and are designed for colonists on the expiration of their
term of forced labour. Even before that date they are often employed in the Government
service, more like ordinary labourers than as legal slaves. The third and highest class of
exiles are the Loslanmjje na poselenije, who are condemned for mild crimes. In fact, they
arc considered to have expiated their offences by the time they arrive in the country, and
are at once established as proj^er colonists, sometimes in villages already existing, at another
time in new ones laid out for them.
Siberian society, constituted to a great extent of such elements as these described, is
very genial, and frequently refined, but not moral. Many of the convicts are political
offenders, some of the highest education and nobility of character ; but a vast number who
have gained a certain amount of freedom, or, whose sentences being expired, have settled
down in the country, are of quite another class. Actual criminals have no place left
them for repentance; they are always under the gaol ban. But offenders of the higher
class, and especially political exiles, are rarely scowled on. Russian society is the most
tolerant in the world, and since political exiles have increased, the front of their offending
lias ceased to be visible. They are after a year or two received into the best company,
and m every way obtain the treatment their rank and education would have entitled
them to at home. It is only the worst offenders who are not allowed to be accompanied
by then- wives and families; and as many of them are people of rank, the balls, clubs,
and card-parties of Tobolsk or Tomsk are very different from what similar social gatherings
recruited from the dHenuH of Port Arthur would have been. In Tasmania (Vol. I^'.,
p. 117) we have seen how little room the "lag'' had left for re])entance. In Siberia—
unless he be an actua^. criminal in the strict sense of the term— he is not considered to
• CM])ital i)iini>limtTit has ceased in Puis.sia, cxicpt fur the ciiino of hi,i;h treason.
t Tlicre is also a penal settlement in the Department of Archangel, in Europe.
SIBERIA: THE EXILES. 19
liave done anything to merit even remorse. Of course, thei'e is in the country a large
amount o£ the worst criminal element. All the Siberian unfortunates have not been
Nihilists or political offenders. Hence the gaol taint attaches to many villages, imd even
to the large cities. But with such people the traveller does not come much in contact,
and the severe police regulations secure him against any serious annoyance from their
attentions. Civil and military officials are the principal people, and among them life
seems one continual round of pleasure, especially in South Siberia, where the summer
and autumn climate is excellent, though, as elsewhere throughout the country, the
winter cold is severe, but dry and healthy. To those who have lived in the country
in any other capacity than that of convicts, the name which to Europe is redolent <if
iill unsavoury memories recalls only sweet reminiscences. The families of officials will
often, even in St. Petersburg and Moscow, talk longingly of the pleasant days of " Sibir,"-'
and the "good society^' of, say Irkutsk, is as refined as that of any European city of the
same size. " The interior of the houses,'' writes ]M. Wahl, '' is more comfortable, Parisian
fashions more brilliantly represented, and the champagne sparkles there in greater profusion
and better quality than in many a fashionable saloon of the most important European
cities. AVhile in Europe people think twice before they start on a visit of a few miles'
distance, a ball in Siberia sometimes brings together people from distances of eighty to
•one hundred and more miles across riv^ers, hills, precipices, and over roads and bridges, which
would terrify a European brought up in the luxuries of a refined civilisation." The Russian
Government have offered special inducements for opening up Siberia to settlement, but at
the same time have not, until recently, shown much inclination to lessen its isolation from
the rest of the Avorld. The peculiar nature of the population would naturally account for
this hesitation at making escape from it any easier than it is. And the causes which
conduce to the remoteness of Siberia from the world at large is the fact that though it
is permeated from south to north by great rivers which form Avater-ways throughout the
entire countrj-, it has no good seaports, for the Yenisei, Obi, and Lena, with the
smaller rivers, flow into the Arctic Ocean. The Obi is, indeed, the largest river of the
Old World, being 3,000 miles long, and draining an area of about 1,300,000 square
miles, a country only inferior in size to the Valleys of the Amazon and La Plata in South
America. Tlie Yenisei is not much smaller, running as it does from the confines of China
•over 'a course of 2,800 miles, while not to enumerate smaller drainers of half of Asia, the
Lena flows for 2,500 miles, and drains an area of 800,000 square miles. All of these
rivers are important water-ways into the country, and are the seat of plenteous fisheries,
4?ither at their mouths during the summer, or throughout their entire courses.
Of the Yenisei country Mr. Seebohm gives a most attractive account.* lie
describes in graphic terms the roads covered with thousands of pack-horses carrying
goods between one town and another ; the immense rivers flowing through half a con-
tinent, but as yet not a quarter utilised — the highways for "country vessels" in the
summer, and great sledge-roads when frozen over during the winter. In the valley
■of the Yenisei dried fish can be bought for "almost nothing;" grouse are 7d. a brace;
* Joiniial of tJic Roijal Geographical Society, A^l. XLA'III. (1S78), p. G; Procccdi.Kjs of the Royal Geographical
Soviet I/, Vol. XXII., p. 101.
£0
THE COUNTEIES OF THE WORLD.
excellent beef, 2jcl. a pound; and a little further south, at Krasnoiarsk, a ton of wheat
can be bought for the same price we give for a hundredweight. So extremely cheap are
corn and hay on the great steppes between Tomsk and Tjumen, that the hire of horses
is only a halfpenny per horse per English mile. At Yeniseisk, a town in the midst of
an immense forest, a ship's mast of hard larch, sixty feet long, three feet in diameter
at the base, and eighteen inches at the apex, can be bought for a sovereign, and
hundreds can be delivered in a week.
Captain "Wiggins and Professor Nordenskjold are hardly less enthusiastic, though as a
VIEW or OMSK, SIBERIA.
field for commerce Captain Wiggins is understood to give the preference to the Obi. The
latter distinguished explorer tells us that near the mouth of the Yenisei, though still far
north of the Arctic circle, they were astonished at the luxuriance of the meadows over-
flowed by the summer floods. The fertility of the soil and the immeasurable extent and
richness in grass of the pastures, drew forth from one of the walrus hunters who accom-
panied Dr. Nordenskjold a cry of envy. This man was the owner of a little patch of
ground among the fells in Northern Norway ; but when he saw the meadows that no
creature pastured, and no scythe mowed, he expressed a longing for the splendid land
"our Lord had given the Russians." Daily and hourly "we heard the same cry repeated,
and in even louder tones, when some weeks after we came to the grand old forest between
Yeniseisk and Turukhansk, or to the nearly uninhabited plains on the other side of the
SIBERIA: ITS AGRICULTURAL RICHES.
21
Krasnoiai'sk, covered with deep icherno-sem (black earth), equal without doubt in fertility to
the best parts of Scania [Southern Sweden], and in extent surpassing the whole Scandinavian
peninsula. This judgment, formed on the spot by a genuine though illiterate agriculturist,
is not without interest in forming an idea of the future importance of Siberia." *
Since it has been proved that during the latter end of summer and the beginning
of autumn the ice, during most seasons, is driven sufficiently off the coast by the force
of the floods of their rivers to allow vessels to reach their mouths, the Russian Govern-
ment have made some efforts to utiHse the discoveries made by Nordenskjold and Wiggins.
OSTIAK HUNTERS OF SIBERIA.
As the result of their explorations in 1875, it has been found that by the expenditure
of a few thousands the Angora, a tributary of the Yenisei, the navigation of which is
at present difficult, on account of the cataracts or rapids, might be made navigable to Lake
Baikal (p. 13), and to connect the Obi with the Yenisei, and the Yenisei with the Lena.
Thus, a territory calculated by Von Baer to exceed that drained by the combined river
tributaries of the Danube, Don, Dneiper, Dneister, Nile, Po, Ebro, Rhone, and all the
rivers which flow into the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmora, and the Mediterranean.
"Part of the territory in question,^' Professor Nordenskjold remarks, "no doubt lies to
the north of the Arctic circle ; but here, too, there are to be found the most extensive
and the finest forests on the globe. South of the forest region proper level stone-free
"The Arctic Voyages of A. E. Nordenskjold," by Alex. Leslie (1879), pp. 209, 300.
23 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOKLD.
plains, covered with the most fertile soil, stretch away for hundreds of leagues, which
only wait for the ploug-h of the cultivator to yield the most ahuudant harvests; and
farther south the Yenisei and its tributaries flow through regions where the grape ripens
in the open air. As I write this I have before me a bunch of splendid Siberian grapes."
Tiie trade bv this route is not yet fully organised; the charts are imperfect, and a class
of vessels which can prudently undertake the voyage has not yet been provided. Hence the
failure of the ill-found vessels, which, without proper ice-masters or instructions, attempted
during 1879 to reach the Yenisei — only one of them succeeding. But in previous years
manv vessels have o-one thither and done a profitable trade. The Siberian merchants
have even built live ships on the rivers, two of which reached England last year, and
three are at in'esent on their way. An idea of the profitable character of the trafiic Avliich
mio'ht be carried on may be gathered from the fact that Captain Wiggins on one ol his
voyages took out five tons of salt bought at 15s. per ton, and that he sold this for nearly
£1.5 per ton. On the return voyage he ballasted his ship with fine black-lead. "VVheat can
be bouo-ht for 2os. a ton on the Yenisei, which in England would command £15 or £16
per ton. But until the trade of the rivers is properly organised, and warehouses for
storing the cargo to be shipped are built at their mouths, the new sea route which
may by-and-by revolutionise the trade of Siberia ought not to be judged too harshly,
or allowed to raise over sanguine expectations. Meantime, Professor Nordenskjold,
by his voyage, considers that he has established the practicability of the route even to
the Lena, and during the summer of 1879 a Russian expedition descended the Obi from
Tobolsk, in order to buoy the mouth of the river, and establish custom-house regulations
in view of the expected increase in the trade of the country.
There is, doubtless, a great future for Siberia. The mighty rivers permeating the
countiy on to the very confines of Mongolia will, when the new Arctic route is thoroughly
oi)ened up, form great highways down which the wool, beef, timber, wheat, wine, and
ores of Siberia, as well as the fossil ivory found on its shores, will find their way to
Europe. Nor has the discipline of the penal settlements of the country which, after very
exhaustive inquiries on the subject, I can affirm to be in modern times, as a rule, firm
without harshness, been without good effect, for in no part of his dominions is the Czar more
adored ; and it is noted that the most turbulent characters often become, after a few years of
" Sibir," docile citizens and industrious farmers."^ By-and-by a railway will penetrate the
country, and with a cheapei** mode of transit for its goods than sledges or pack-horses,
Siberia will be properly appreciated in the world. Even at present it is a far richer
country than Canada, and with a climate very much the same. In its isolation from the
world it is not worse situated than were the Western United States before railways
penetrated them, and the lakes utilised as a water-way to the coast ; while its
capabilities and varied products are very much greater, and its internal natural comnumica-
tions far sui)erior to any part of North America, if we except the ^Mississippi Valley.
* Ermiin: " Travds in Siberia" (1848); Atkinson: "Oriental and A\%stcrn Siberia'' (18.')S) ; Hill: "Travels
in Siberia" (1854); Cottrcll : " Kecollections of Siberia" (1842); ]Mitldendorft" : " Siberisehc Rei.s<>" (l.S(30) ;
Kaddc: " Koisen ini Siiilen von O.st-Sibericn" (ISfi."?) ; Baron li [oson] : " Kussian Conspirators in Siberia"
<1872); " Finseh : " KeUe nach West-Siberien im Jabre, 1876" (1879), &c. &c.
23
CHAPTER II.
The Chinese Empire : Its Physical Eeatukes.
Ix a former work"^ a summary was given of the manners and institutions of tte Chinese.
In the sketch which follows we propose outlining the general geography of their country,
and supplying some account of its natural resources and industries so far as these have
not been already described in the account referred to. A country containing by the best
estimates— and the best are only estimates — 3^924,627 square miles, f possesses manj^
climates and varied features. But in general terms it may be said that China is a great
sloping basin "surrounded by lofty mountains on the north-west and south-west, with the
sea on the south and south-east." Within this area there is hilly and level country.
There are mountains with peaks 6,000 feet above the level of the sea; but in the
northern and midland provinces the snow rarely lies long or foils to a great extent, while
in the south it is almost unknoAvn. The physical features of the country are equally
varied. In parts of it there are fine champaign tracts like France and Belgium, swampy
districts like Holland, and mountainous regions like Switzerland. These various districts,
embracing country from the hot low flats by the seashore to the high cool uplands of
Mongolia, produce everything that can be desired for the sustenance, comfort, and luxury
of man: hence the disinclination of the Chinese to have any dealings, more than they
can help, with "the outer barbarian,'" whose goods they do not require, though theirs
are coveted by him. The country has mineral resources surpassing those of Europe and
Australia, and not far short, if they were properly developed, of those of some of the
Western States of America in some varieties of metals. The coal-fields of Xorth China
alone have been estimated to occupy an area of 83,000 square miles, which is nearly
seven times that of those of Great Britain, and more than two-thirds that of the United
States. Iron-stone and iron ore of various kinds are found in every province in such
abundance that the Chinese seldom work any but the finest black magnetic. Copper,
lead, tin, silver, and gold are so plentiful that scarcely a district of the empire is without
them, while the water communications, either natural or artificial, are so well distributed
that ' any portion of the empire can be reached cheaply, if not quickly, even without
the railways, of which the Government so obstinately oppose the building. J Xor are
the people occupying this great region unworthy of the land which has for ages been
indisputably theirs. As diplomatists, we have the authority of Sir Frederick Bruce for
saying that they 'are equal to any in Europe; as we have more than once experienced,
they can hold their own with our most expert statesmen; and, as recent events have
proved, Russian art is, when matched against Mongol patience, of but little account. Their
* "Eaces of Mankind," A'ol. IV., pp. 158—21.5.
t Other estimates make the area as low 'as 1,300,000 square miles.
J "Williamson : " Journeys in North Cliina," Vol. I., p. 3.
MAI' OF CHINA AND aOME OF THE ADJOINING COUNTlilES.
CHINA: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.
25
merchants^ in spite of the fact that their experience is limited to the nations visiting
their ports or living in the vicinity of their country, are proverbially keen traders. From
the first day Europe came in contact with them it found its match, and of late years,
as their knowledge has extended, the Chinese merchants are coping successfully with our
own in every department of trade, and, indeed, in many cases gaining ground on them.
China is no longer the country in which fortunes can be made rapidly, and though they
object to change their ancient habits at the bidding of the new comers, the literati are
not insensible to the advantages of picking up such knowledge from us as they find it
VIEW IX THE VILLAGE OF POLO-HANG, PKOVINCE OF CANTON.
convenient to use, while the body of the people, as we shall presently see, are not much
more prejudiced against foreign innovations than some nations nearer home. For
centuries their system of competitive examinations has been pushed to an extreme
which the most enthusiastic of the advocates of this plan for fixing the literary status
of the candidates for public offices have never dreamed of introducing into Britain ; and
in the few instances in which their young men have sought education in the universities
of Europe and America, they have been found, if not so eager to seize every novelty as
the Japanese, not inferior in ability to the best students of Nippon. The mandarins
are, like all bureaucrats, jealous of losing by the introduction of a new system what
they have gained by an old one — conservative of their privileges, and bigoted to a degree
164
26 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
which has often brought evil on China. But the people at large are — it is the opinion
of Mr. AVilliamson and all \\ho have travelled much in the country — shrewd, painstakino^,
and indomitable. They are intelligent, docile, and orderly, and if not so polite as the
Japanese, often what seems rudeness is dictated by invincible curiosity — in its way
a species of intelligence — by a misunderstanding on the part of the visitors, or, at worst,
by the malicious suggestions of the official aristocracy, few of whom can tolerate " the
foreign devils.-*'
Physical Geography.
The great delta plain of the north-east is the most noticeable feature in it&
topography. It varies in breadth from ]50 to 500 miles, and extends for about
700 miles in a southerly direction. The greater portion of it is generally below the
level of the Yellow River; hence the disastrous inundations which often accompany the
rise of that river. It is, indeed, as much the delta of the Yellow River, and to some
extent of the Yang-tse-Kiang, as Egypt is the daughter of the Nile; and owing to
the great quantity of mud brought down by the Yellow River, and the absence of
ocean currents, this delta is rapidly increasing, and the adjoining sea shoaling. As
an instance, Mr. Douglas, from whom we have taken these facts, notes that the
town of Pootai was one le — that is, about one-third of an English mile — west of the
seashore in the year 2:20 B.C., and in 17o0 it was 130 le inland, thus giving a yearly
encroachment of about 100 feet. Again, Seen-shway-Kow, on the Pei-ho, was on the
seashore in 500 a.d., and it is now about eighteen miles inland. This delta plain is remark-
able for its annular form, and for the fact that it encloses within it the mountainous
districts of the province of Shan-tung\ "\Ve have mentioned the inundations which,
directly or indirectl}', have exerted such an influence on the social life and history of
China. The rivers, of which there are many throughout the country, are in general
confined within low banks, and though efforts are made by means of embankments and
other artificial barricades to prevent both them and the canals overflowing, the industrious
agriculturists are not always able to prevent disastrous floods and inundations. The two
greatest rivers in the country are the Yang-tse-Kiang, and the Iloang-Ho, or Yellow
River. The first mentioned is well known to commerce, but the second has attained an
evil reputation, on account of the great inundations of the low country which it has
caused. In the neighbourhood of the city of Kai-fung-Foo it enters the great Eastern
plain of China, and so often has it changed its course between this district and the sea,
lluit the Chinese know it by the expressive name of the "Sorrow of Han."-' In 2,000
years it has altered its course nine times, flowing into the sea by as many different beds.
In 185 J, 1852, and 1853, it overflowed its banks, submerging a country twelve miles wide,
and forcing its waters into the narrow channel of the Ta-tsing River, with the result
that it is rapidly eating away the banks of its new course, in time to precipitate a still
greater catastrophe than that which it was the cause of nearly thirty years ago. The
Yang-tse-Kiang flows for 2,900 miles from the mountains of Tibet, and drains a basin
of 518,000 square miles. It is navigable for steamers 1,200 miles from its mouth, but
CHINA: ITS EI^-ERS. 27
Ijeyoud this distance it ceases to become navigable for any but lig-bt native craft, the
rapids which occur in the deep mountain gorges between Kwai-chow and I-ehang effectually
barring the way (pp. 26, 28). The Grand Canal — one of the many canals in China — was
■constructed as early as the seventh century, and as in all parts of its course there is a
perceptible current, it is usually classed among- the rivers of the Celestial empire. Com-
mencing at the town of Hang-chow, it ti-averses 700 miles of country, until it unites
with the Pei-ho, near the town of Lin-tchin Chow. It varies in breadth, but is connected
with so many offshoots and branches, that it plays a most important share in the commerce
and agriculture of the country which it ruins. Its banks are lined with cities, towns,
and villages, and owing to its richness of soil, and the easy means of communication which
the Canal affords, the plain of the Grand Canal is one of the most thickly populated in
all the country. Since the Taeping rebellion, some parts of this important public work
have been allowed to fall into decay, with the consequence that regions once prosperous
now look arid and barren, and villages and towns which for hundreds of years were the
homes of busy hives of the most industrious of men, are now falling into decay, and, in
some instances, are almost deserted. It is true that the authorities often talk about
undertaking the repair of the Canal. One savant has written a treatise on its hydrology
extending, it is said, to forty volumes, and other officials are almost equally industrious
in compiling reports. But the genius of Yu, the famous engineer, who deepened the
channels and drained the flat, is yet wanting to these literary hydrologists, and meantime
China is becoming a desert in its very best portions. As a specimen of the reckless
policy adopted, it may be noted that there used to be a brick-faced dyke at Kao-chia-
jen, but the bricks were used to l)uild a wall around Chingchiaug-pu, on the old course
of the Yellow Eiver. Accordingly, should its waters chance to return, incalculable
damage would be done."*^ Another ' large river is the Han Kiang, which is remarkable
for the fact that, contrary to the rule, it is narrow at its mouth, and widens as
it is ascended, and in that, during the summer, its waters are high above its banks,
and would therefore overflow the surrounding country were it not for the artificial barriers
which confine it, and afford admirable facilities for irrigation. Sekiang, in the south,
the Pei-ho (p. 29), which is the highway to Pekin, the Men, and Chu-Kiang, or Pearl
Hiver, are among the other principal water-ways of China. On all of these rivers there is
an immense local traffic. They are covered with boats, and near the cities vrith thousands
of floating dwelling-houses, in which are born, live, and die a large population, whose
habits and mode of existence form some of the most curious features in the strange life of
China. Mr. Thomson describes the " country boats '' being towed along the banks, and
even through the rapids by the united efforts of from fifty to two hundred men. These
traders are natives of the neighbouring villages, and gain their living by this laborious
work, and by pillaging the numerous wrecks which are thrown upon the shores of the
Y^ang-tse-Kiang and other rivers. By law, all such wrecks become the property of the
first person who finds them. Even were a junk to drift from its mooring, and in sight
of its owner be carried to the opposite bank, the law would authorise the first man
who seized it to appropriate it, provided the crew were not aboard. In ancient times
* Froceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (1S79), p. 719.
28
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
the upper part of the Yang--tse-Kiang was unnavig-ablej owing to its bed being- completely
blocked up with rocks. But the local inhabitants set to work and cleared out the channel
partially. They have, however, been careful, Mr. Thomson notes, with true Chinese instinct,
to leave some of the most dangerous obstructions, so as to profit by the fees paid
for haulao-e, and out of the pillage of wrecks. Some day this river may form a route
between India and China, but meantime the merchants who do business on its upper
waters must be men of courage and energy, for to shoot some of the rapids in this part of
the Yang-tse-Kiang is a feat which requires no ordinary nerve. Scarcely a week passes but
VIEW IN THE VILLAGE OF WONG-TON(i, rUOVINt'E OF CANTON.
some trader loses his all in these wild cataracts. But if he survive he calmly begins
life anew, in the same perilous occupation in which the savings of years have been engulfed.
The lakes of China are numerous, for not only do they drain considerable tracts of country,
but, as in the case of the Toong-ting in Hoouan, and the Poyaiig in Kiang-si, they unite
with the great Yang-tse-Kiang, and aid in increasing the noble network of water-ways
which permeate the most populous provinces of China. The Poyang Lake is said, during
the rainy season, when it receives the superfluous waters of the Yang-tse-Kiang and other
rivers, to be nearly 300 miles long : then a great portion of the country in the vicinity is a
perfect morass. At this season it is a wild stormy w^ater, and when the wind blows its
waters lash with such fury ngainst the bank on which Nan-chang-Foo stands, that a strong
stone harbour of refuge for vessels has been constructed. But in the dry season its
30 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
waters abate so rapidly tliat, in the course of a few weeks, the Poyang Hoc, to use the
words of Archdeacon Gray, " resembles not so much a lake as a river, winding its course
towards the Yang-tse-Kiang between low banks of mud/' During the dry season the
peasants erect huts of straw on the land from which the water has receded, in order to
be on the spot to cut down the coarse grass and reeds which the rich alluvial yields in great
quantity. Tiiese they stack in front of their huts, to be afterwards sold in the neighbouring
villages as fuel for the winter. The waters of this lake abound in wild fowl, chiefly geese,
ducks, teal, divers, and pelicans, which are captured by the native fowlers, and sold in the
cities that stud the banks of the great river which flows near by. These birds are
captured in a curious fashion. " Sometimes,"' writes Dr. Gray, '' he [the fowler] fixes
two gingals [native firelocks] in a boat which is constructed to sit low in the water,
and, laying hold of the stern, wades or swims, as the case may be, gently pushing the
boat towards the wild fowl. When he has come within gunshot he discharges his gingals
into the midst of the birds by means of a long fuse. At other times the fowler floats
a number of baskets on the water, and when the wild fowl have become used to them,
and swim close to them without fear, he covers his head with a similar basket and wades
into the lake. B}'- a gradual approach he tries to get into the very centre of the flock,
and then he suddenly stretches out both hands, and generally succeeds in capturing a
brace of them, which he at once deposits in a creel on his back." * The Toong-ting
Lake is studded with islands, one of which, much visited by the pious Chinese, contains
many temples in honour of Buddha, and is the abode of numerous priests of his sect,
who not only serve the altars of Buddha, but also those of the Toon-ting idol, or King
of the Lake. On the " Golden Island " the tea plant is grown in great abundance ; but
as the tea grown in this locality is considered to prolong life, a quantity of it is annually
sent to the Lnperial Palace at Pekin, for the use of the Emperor and Court. Tai-Hoo is
another large lake — the circumference is estimated at 260 miles — surrounded by a pleasant
country, producing large quantities of cotton, green tea, silk, and plastic clays, of which
some of the best ''china'' is made. Three of the Chinese lakes are accounted sacred.
These are the Toon-ting and Poyang — already noticed — and the Hoong-chak, which is in
the same province as the last-mentioned one, namely, in Kiang-su. State worship is
paid to the spirits which are supposed to preside over them, and on such occasions a
sheep and a pigeon are sacrificed to the genius of the lake. " An imperial communica-
tion addressed to the genius of the lake is also read aloud, and afterwards committed to
a sacred fire."
The Climate.
The climate of China is a rather comprehensive phrase. One might as well talk
of the climate of Europe, for a country stretching through twenty-six degrees of
latitude and twenty-seven degrees of longitude, must vary as to its atmospheric character
* "Giina" (1878), Vol. II., p. 32G. In "Races of Mankind," Vol. I., pp. 277—278, an almost identical
mode of capturing wild fowl is dcscriljcd as being practised ty the Indians living on the shores of a great
shallow lake off the Gulf of Maracaibo, in Venezuela.
CHINA: ITS CLIMATE. 31
in different quarters o£ it. One peculiarity about it is, that thoug-h much of
China lies within the tropics^ its temperature is, even in the height of summer, much
lower than that of countries lying" in the same latitude. For instance, though Pekin
is a degree south of Naples, its mean annual temperature is ten degrees lower than
that of the Italian city. In the northern provinces the winter cold is severe, and
the midsummer heat severe. In July, August, and September the interior and coast-
lying towns in the southern provinces are almost furnaces; and this is the period at
which the dreaded typhoons arrive, as well as those virulent and epidemic diseases for
which the country has obtained so fiital a notoriety. In the extreme south the southern
monsoon begins to blow in March or April, and brings with it from the heated ocean
annual rains, so heavy that their fall averages seventy inches j)er annum. This
humidity, combined with the heat and the want of all sanitary regulations in the
crowded houses and towns, makes parts of the country during the warm season very
unhealthy. Famines rage at intervals, owing to the droughts and inundations, while the
typhoons that visit the southern coast cause immense destruction. On the estuary of
the Canton River the authorities calculated that, in 18G3, upwards of 60,000 people were
drowned, or killed by falling houses during one of these hurricanes, Avhich lasted fourteen
hours. From the south to the east they rage, and are not unknown in the north as far
as Shanghai. On page 3'2 is engraved a view showing one at Hong Kong in the
south. But it may be said that as a rule the climate of the northern and inland
provinces is pleasant, and sometimes even more than pleasant. During' the winter season,
that is, from October to February, little or no rain falls in the south. Towards the
end of September the north-eastern monsoon sets in, and continues to April, when, as
already noted, it is succeeded by the south-western monsoon, invariably accompanied by
rain, which, on reaching the coast, assumes the form of thick fogs, ending in heavy
showers, refreshing at once to the parched earth and to man, exhausted by the heat of
the dry air. At the change of each monsoon thunder-storms are frequent, but are usually
neither of such long continuation nor so severe as those with which Great Britain is occa-
sionally visited.
The Provinces.
Roughly speaking, China (Maps, pp. 5, 24) may be divided into two great halves, the one
mountainous, hilly, little developed, though rich in minerals, but sparsely peopled ; the other
consisting of plains and fertile valleys, highly tilled, and supporting, unless we except the
Valley of the Ganges, the densest agricultural population in the world. The country thu&
physically distinguished is China proper, excluding Tibet, Tartary, and other dependencies,
which we shall consider as Chinese colonies separately, or which, as in the case of
Formosa, have been already noticed. The geography of the eighteen provinces, into which,
for administrative pui-poses, the empire is divided, need not be gone over in great detail,
for every map and every school geography narrates their bald characteristics with wearisome
conscientiousness. Each of these provinces constitutes a separate Government, with a
capital which is a city of the first class, and is again divided into departments, districts.
32
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
and hundreds^ which in their turn are administered from cities of lower grade in the civic
hierarchy of China, the land being so apportioned that each city has under it an area
corresponding to its class or rank. The lord paramount of the whole empire is the
Emperor or " Tieu-tze " himself, unless in cases in which a viceroy, who superintends two
provinces, forms another step between the governors and the throne. Under them come the
provincial governor-generals. Their authority is again delegated to minor officials, who further
A MOSQUE IN PEKIN.
divide their responsibility with smaller mandarins, until at length the Imperial mandate,
or that of the ministers who act in his name, is brought to bear upon " the mass of
the people." Of the provinces, Kan-su, Se-chuen, and Yun-nan are the largest, all the
other fifteen being very much smaller, though it ought to be added that their importance
is often in an inverse to their area in miles.
In Pe-Chili, for example, in which is situate the city of Pekin, there are said to be
nearly as many people as in Great Britain, though its area is under 59,000 square miles.
Among these are many Mohammedans. In the capital itself it is believed that there are
over 20,000 Moslem families; and in Pow-ting Foo, the chief provincial city, about 1,000
A PAGODA, OR MEMOUIAL TOWER, I^^ THE PROVINCE OF QUEI-UHOW, CHINA.
42
CHINA: SHAN-TUNG; SHAN-SE ; HONAN.
33
followers of the Prophet. The whole province is rich in coal, as yet untouched for com-
mercial purposes. '^ At Chai -tang-/' writes Baron von Richthofen, " I was surprised to
walk over a regular succession of coal-bearing strata, the thickness of which, estimating-
it step by step as I proceeded gradually from the lowest to the highest strata, exceeds
7,000 feet." These beds are of anthracite, a valuable form of hard coal found in other parts
of the province. Silver and gold also exist, but not in large quantities ; but wheat, oats,
millet, pulse, and other agricultural produce are plentiful, and an immense quantity of
pears, apples, plums, apricots, peaches, persimmons, and melons is brought down to Pekin.
In SIian-tuHg, which, unlike the last-named province, is mountainous, with fertile
valleys, is situated the fountain Tai-shan, which has been famous in Chinese history for 4,000
SORTING TEA IN CHINA.
years, and for long has been the resort of hundreds of pilgrims. But though there are
fertile basins here and there, and many minerals, the province is not as a rule a productive one.
S/iaii-se, though rich in minerals, is so deficient in agricultural capabilities that all
kinds of food command high prices ; and in the mountainous districts the people are often
subjected to famine, and at the best of times to semi-starvation. Professor Douglas
describes meat as being a rare luxury, and even salt fish, which is the usual substitute
for meat, as being consumed only by the wealthier classes.
Honan is, on the other hand, a very fine agricultural region. The province is said to
contain 30,000 square miles of coal-fields, for the most part untouched. So abundant, however,
are coal and labour, that the best anthracite is sold in some parts of the province for 7d.
per ton at the pit^s mouth. Lead is also abundant. The prefecture of Hwae-king, north
of the Yellow River, consists of a fertile plain, described as '' rendered park-like by
numerous plantations of trees and shrubs, among which thick bosquets of bamboo contrast with
165
31. THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
the gloomy groves of cypress/^ The population is extremely dense^ but by no means so numerous
as in Kiang-SK, which, with its GS^OOO^OOO souls, is one of the most thickly populated parts of
the world. It is magnificently watered by the Grand Canal, and by several rivers and lakes, and
containing scarcely any hills, and no mountains, is, throughout the greater part of its area,
well fitted for agriculture. Within its bounds is the famous city of Nankin, once the
seat of the Chinese Court, and at a later day the stronghold of the Taiping rebels. Two
other cities are so beautiful that they have their name embalmed in the Chinese proverb
which says that "above them is Paradise, below are Soo and Hang^' — that is, Soo-chow
Foo and Hang-chow Foo. Shanghai and Ching-Kiang are also well-known cities, and
likely in time to rise to be places of great importance.
The province of Nfjan-whl is scarcely less densely populated, nor is its agricultural
wealth inferior. " Peace and plenty '' the Chinese call it, and from Baron von Richthofen's
account the name is well deserved. He assures us that the exuberant fertility of the soil
in the lower parts of the province is not excelled by anything he had seen in temperate
climates. The embankments and system of irrigation deserve the highest praise, the
result of the care exercised in utilising its natural advantages being that on the Kiang
River the traveller may walk for miles through fields of hemp, the stalks of which are
eleven to thirteen feet high, or through cotton patches scarcely less exuberant. The
Shung-gan Kiang is the principal river of the province, and down it float to Hang-
chow the immense loads of tea produced farther to the north and east.
In the province of Kiang-si is grown the celebrated '^ Moyune " green tea ; and the
black Kaisow teas are brought down from the Ho-kow district by the River Kin to
Juy-hung on the Poyang Lake ; while E-ning Chow, a city in the neighbourhood of which
the best black teas of this part of China are grown, can be reached by another navigable
stream, the whole trade finally concentrating as in a focus at Wooching on the lake so
often mentioned.
In C/ie-klang there are lovely valleys, rich and well cultivated, but few minerals,
and none in great quantities. On the plains along the coast is reared much silk, and on
the hilly country are produced large quantities of tea. Opposite Ningpo, one of the chief
cities, and a treaty port, lies the mountainous island of Chusan, twenty -one miles long,
and about fifty in circumference, in no way very remarkable, except that on its south
side stands the walled city of Tinghai. Ningpo, though, as early as 1523, chosen
as a place of refuge by the Portuguese, who, however, were twenty years later massacred
by the enraged Chinese, has proved rather disappointing as a centre of trade, many of the
most valuable products of the country finding their way to the greater market of Shanghai,
The settlement is, however, in favour with the Europeans as a place of residence, mainly
on account of the proximity of the Chusan Islands and the lovely scenery met with in
about a day's journey inland from Ningpo. Here are richly wooded islands, with fresh
bracing air, which may be also enjoyed on the Tiendong Hills, thirty miles or more to the
south-west, and to which the Europeans make many excursions. "These hills, where dark
pme woods shade quaint monastic retreats, where crystal rivulets and foaming waterfalls
abound, make a very brilliant show in spring-time when the azaleas are in bloom, for
these plants grow in wild profusion all over the district, and mingle with the ferns and
CHINA: CHE-KIANG; FO-KIEX ; HOO-PIH. 35
flowers common to more temperate latitudes. The tea plant also flourishes in this region,
but it is only cultivated to meet the wants of the inhabitants. The bamboo, too, grows in
great perfection, and spreads a pleasant shade over the houses with its graceful plumes/^ *
Fo-kien, though a mountainous province, is, as its name signifies, a " happy establish-
ment/' The soil in the valleys is rich, and the hills are covered with the tea shrubs, and
when they permit of this mode of culture are laid out in terraces. In Fo-kien is raised
the tea which by a mis-pronounciation of the Woo-e Mountains on which it grows is known to
us as Bohea, and a great number of the other characteristic crops of China, while under
the soil are found gold, silver, tin, lead, iron, and salt. Some of the scenery among the
Nanling Mountains is said to be unsurpassed for weird grandeur. These mountains
constitute the boundary between the provinces of Fo-kien and Kiang-si, and the road
connecting them crosses by the Fung-shui Pass. Here jNIr, Thomson describes the track
as becoming steep, narrow, and difficult of ascent, but nevertheless great quantities of tea
from the district of Hokow are annually carried along the elevated defile in baskets
slung on the bamboo poles of coolies hired for this purpose. In the romantic recesses
of the Woo-e Mountains are situated hundreds of Buddhist shrines, and the homes of
countless hermits, living here singly or in monasteries and nunneries, the good repute of
which is not universally taken for granted. Foochow is the capital, but Amoy (p. 3G) is
the principal port for trade and for foreign merchants, who for over three hundred years
have trafficked here, though not always without opposition. The tourist who wanders
among the Amoy Hills and adjacent islands may still come upon gravestones of European
traders and priests who were buried there over three centuries ago. The soil in the neigh-
bourhood of Amoy is sterile, and incapable of yielding food enough for the large population,
who, in addition to poverty, have to bear a crushing load of local taxation. Fo-kien,
Avith its 23,000,000 people, is the province which Europeans know best, and it may be
taken for granted that most of the current ideas about China and the Chinese have been
founded on the observations of residents in or about Amoy. Formosa (Vol. IV., pp.
295-300) is a part of this province, and contributes to its prosperity, especially in the direc-
tion of the agricultural products, in which the coast-lying mainland is deficient.
The province of Hoo-jnh — "north of the lakes'' — is mostly a great plain, traversed
by the Han Ptiver, which joins the Yang-tse-kiang at Hankow. Cotton, wheat, rape-seed,
tobacco, beans, and vegetable tallow are largely exported. Gold is also washed out of
the sands of the Han River, but in quantities not more than safl[icient to be barely
remunerative. Every winter the supply is exhausted, but in the course of the annual
flood more is brought dowTi and deposited on what the Californian miner would call the
"bars" of the river. Baron von Richthofen calculated that the washers did not make
over 100 or 150 cash f per diem, so that there is no likelihood of a "rush" to the Han
River diggings. Hoo-pih is the central province of China, and supports a population of over
29,000,000. Woo-chang stands on the south bank of the Yang-tse-kiang, opposite the city of
Han-yang, which is, however, nowadays little more than a place of official residence, the densely
* Thomson: "The Land and the People of China" (187G), p. 33.
t 1,000 cash are equal to ahout 6s. sterling. The Chinese currency is. however, in a most chaotic condition
(Williamson: "China," A^ol. I., pp. 58—62, and Williams: "Middle Kingdom," Vol. I., p. 234).
36
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOELD.
populated suburb of Hankow, with its foreign residences, having almost entirely monopolised
the trade. Hankow is, take it all in all, a very pleasant place to live in. It is
well supi^lied with food, and the fine line of steamers between it and Shanghai render
communication with the rest of the world easy. But it has this disadvantage, that the
well-made roads in the foreign settlement are often submerged by the rising of the river
at the end of the summer season. At such seasons the dwellings can only be approached
by boats. " After the novelty of aquatic visits and boating parties has worn off, when
the hall stairs have been transformed into jetties, and the lower apartments and offices
into swimming baths, the residents, perched for safety among their mouldy furniture on
the upper floors, look down drearily enough upon the brown flood that threatens to sap the
VIEW OF THE CITY OF AMOY, IN THE rilOYIXCE OF FO-KIE.V.
foundations of their dwellings. It cannot be agreeable to have the poultry roosting in
one bedroom and the children sleeping in the next, while a third is set apart for the
accommodation of the milch cow and the native domestics.'^ The neighbouring Chinese
cities are not so pleasant. They look picturesque at a distance, but, as Mr. Thomson
very justly remarks, a nearer inspection of the details reveals, as it often does in the East,
the squalor and unkemptness of what looks afar off so charming. T/teu the mysterious
effect of atmosphere softened and beautified the quaint houses ; now they dwindle down
mto paltry shanties, "propped up over muddy banks by a multitude of lame-looking poles
and posts, and disfigured by the slimy deposit of the river. The green slopes of the
hills are dotted with wretched, ruinous tenements, patches of kitchen garden, and manure
heaps, and their pigs are wallowing or lighting over reeking garbage; while, as for the
children, they are as numerous as the vegetables in the garden plots, and as dirty as if
they had been manured for growth there. Tens of thousands of boats are moored close
CHINA: HOO-PIH; HOO-XAX.
37
to the shores, each one with its family of small traders, who aid the general uproar and
discord by raising their voices in praise of their wares. Such are the impressions that
are apt to fill the eye and the ear of the beholder as he gazes upon a river-side population
and its immediate surroundings/''
Hoo-nan — "south of the lakes'*' — is a hilly province, the only level land beiuo- that
which surrounds the Toong-ting Lake (p. 28), though this is in the summer covered by
- ' eSS.V'^'^?
VIEW or I'AKT OF SWATOW, IN THE I'llOVINCE OF aUANG-TCNG.
water. It is, however, intersected by rivers^ and tea and other products are produced in
great abundance, while the whole province may be aptly described as one immense
anthracitic and bituminous coal field. Iron and lead are among its mineral deposits,
and the timber rafts, dotted with huts, whicli the voyager upon the Yang-tse-kiang
must be familiar with, are among the most noted wealth of the province. These rafts,
indeed, are so thickly studded with temporary dwellings as to look like floating viHages.
By-and-by, as the great cities are reached, they are broken up for sale. The
owners, meantime, transfer their huts to the river bank, and there remain until their
cargo is disposed of. Last of all, they sell their huts, and then start for the mountains
38 THE COUNTRIES OF THE AVORLD.
to cut down another supply of timber, and pilot it south in the manner they and their
ancestors may have been doing for centuries perhaps.
S/ioi-sc — not to be confoimded with the neighbouring- province of Shan-se (p. 3:3)
— is bounded on the north by the Great Wall, and before the Mahommedan reljellion,.
which ];iid so many cities and districts waste, was a prosperous region. Se-gan-foo, its
capital, was for nearly 2,000 years the metropolis of China; and the basin of the Wei
River, which lies to the north of the range of mountains which divides the province in
two, is so situated as in some respects to constitute it the key of the Empire. For,
shut off from the rest of China by the Yellow River on the east, and on the south by
the range of mountain mentioned, this valley is on the highroad to Central Asia, and hence
in the possession of an enemy communication with the Turkestan and other colonies in that
direction would be entirely cut off. This accounts for the eagerness with which the province
has, during all the revolutions of China, been retained by the Government for the time,
being, and the energy witli w^iich invaders and rebels have tried to possess themselves of
it. To this day its capital city is well fortified, and contrary to the rule in China, the
fortifications — enclosing an area of six square miles — are kept in good repair, so that the
Mahommedan rebels, though they invested it closely for two years, were unable to capture
it. From it roads branch off in every direction, and render Se-gan-foo an important
enfrejwf of trade, though, like the province, which is purely an agricultural one, it produces
nothing whatever for the foreign market.
Kansn, in the north-west corner of China proper, is cut off from Mongolia by the
Great Wall, though the jurisdiction of its governor extends over the Desert of Gobi to the-
borders of the Central Asiatic territory of Dsanguria. It is mountainous and sandy in
character, and with the exception of a large agricultural community settled to the west of the
Yellow River, its inhabitants are largely mixed with Mongols. The mountains, like those
of Shan-se and Shen-se, abound in minerals — gold, silver, and copper, which, in the days
to come, are destined to play a great part in the development of the oldest, yet newest,
of the kingdoms of the world.
St'.f/uipii (also written Sze-chuen, or Szetchouan) is one of the largest provinces of
China, and, what does not necessarily follow, it is also one of the richest. Its varied
surface — hills, mountains, valleys, and plains — yields an equally varied supply of products
suitable for export, and its soil is bountifully supplied with coal and iron, as well as
copper and sulphur to a smaller extent. In addition, it is one of the chief of the silk-
growing districts of China, and exports an inferior quality of opium to other provinces,
as well as white wax, which, in sjiite of the corrupt mandarins winking at the former
traffic, is a more legitimate article of commerce. Tobacco is also largely grown, and
oe-chuen is the only province in which the custom of smoking cigars is indigenous.
Salt IS made from brine raised from wells, and in one district petroleum is struck
when a doi)th of from 1,800 to 2,000 feet is reached. Sugar, tung oil, barley, wheat,
Indian corn, beans, rice, potatoes, &c., are among the other crops of this favoured
region. Copper is smelted to the extent of 500 or 600 tons per annum, and sold at a
price fixed by Government to certain concessionnaires, who, in their turn, pay a royalty
to the Crown. The coal-mines mav be seen all along the banks of the Yang-tse-kiang-
CHIXA: QrAXG-TUXG; QUAXG-SI ; QUEI-CHOAV. 39
■which flows — a tortuous hig-hway for commerce — through the province ; but the method
of working them is very defective.
Qaaug-tioig, or "Canton/'' as the name has been Anglified, is one of the provinces of
China which we know best, and the one which at one time was our almost sole source of
information about the country. Its characteristics are well-wooded highlands and alluvial
lands, especially towards the sea-board, near the mouth of the Pearl River (p. 01), which forms
one of many inlets to the interior. The Quang-tung plain is indeed formed by the denudation
of the highlands. This river has brought down soil and shoaled up the sea, and thus
gradually turned it into drj' land. At the present day it is intersected by a multitude of
streams and lagoons, so that, ^Ir. Thomson remarks, it is difficult to say which is the
true navigable channel. The delta lies so low that it cannot be descried from seaward
until vessels get close in shore ; but it is exceedingly fertile, and is occupied in every
available foot for the careful cultivation of sugar, rice, tobacco, the mulberry tree, and
kitchen vegetables. The city of Fatshan, near which Keppel destroyed the Chinese fleet
during the ^' Opium War,^'' is the Shefiield of China, but the blades produced are not
very remarkable either for keenness of edge, temper, or other qualities. Silk, tea, cassia
twigs and buds, matting-, fire-crackers, sugar, and palm-leaf fans — the last of which are
sent to New York alone to the extent of from four to five millions per annum — form the
principal articles of export. Coal abounds, but, as in the case of the iron manufactures,
none of it is sent out of the country. Off the coast lie many islands, such as Hainan,
which is about 100 miles long, and not much less in breadth, and is very mountainous,
except in the north, where there is a plain of some extent. This island possesses gold and
other riches, some of which reach the cities of Canton and Swatow (p. 37), the treaty
j)orts of the province, though, since the opening of Kien-chow, on the northern coast of
Hainan, some of the island trade has been diverted in that direction (pp. :iO, 28).
Quang-si is a less important province, mountainous in the south and east, but level
or hilly in the north, and is intersected by the Si-kiang and the Kwei-kiang, or Cinnamon
River. On the mountains large-sized timber is reared, lower down the all-important
bamboos, and in the fertile valleys the usual food staples. On the hot humid marsh-lands
of the south rice is raised, but the people sidfer from the relaxing character of the climate.
Qiiei-choio is a smaller and even more thinly populated province — that is, speaking of
the population from the Chinese standpoint, which must always be comparative, for it
has really more inhabitants than all the Australian colonies put together, and about three
times the number the United States possessed when they began the world for themselves
—in other words, it has about 6,000,000. It is, with the exception of the plains in the
central and northern regions, mountainous, and has been for long m a chronic state of
disturbance, owing to the manner in which the aborigmal tribes of Meaou-tze, who are the
original owners of the soil, have been maltreated by the Chinese officials. The \un-nan
rebellion also reached some of the south-western districts, and, in addition, the unhealthiness
of the climate has almost ruined the trade of this part of the empire. Its agriculture is
limited, but its mines of copper, silver, and lead are valuable, and its quicksilver can
compete in quality and quantity with that of any part of the world. Realgar, orpiment,
and coal are also shipped, and silk forms a regular article of commerce.
40 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
Yim-nayi is a large Init thinly-peopled province, consisting of plains, with valleys,
and in the north it is broken up by mountains, and everywhere intersected by large rivers
and lakes. The province lies along the frontiers of Tibet and Burmah, and accordingly
it has been proposed to open up a trade route between India and China by way of the
Brahmapootra and Yang-tse-kiang, the space between the two rivers to be connected by
a road 2.")() miles long. But up to date this great work has not been achieved, although
for ages there have existed important trade routes between China and the neighbouring
countries passing through this province,"^ and along which considerable commerce passes.
Gold, tin, silver, lead, zinc, copper, precious stones, &c., are all found; and in common
with silk, musk, gum, and ivory, form articles of exjDort, while the tea of southern Yun-nan
is appreciated throughout the empire. The opium is, however, of very poor quality.
Altogether, though the country is rich, it is little developed, and, owing to the recently
crushed Panthay or Mohammedan rebellion, is not likely for a time to recover even the
limited prosperity which it formerly enjoyed.
S/iiiig-ki)ig — not always included among the Chinese provinces, as it is properly the
government of Southern Mantchuria — though mostly mountainous, with many plains,
is extremely fertile, but in the vicinity of the sea covered with a saline exudation
which renders all efforts at culture hopeless. In the summer the country suffers great
heat, in the winter extreme cold ; but the climate is healthy, and to an Englishman home-
like, the English trees and shrubs growing well, and the general facies and scenery
being rather European than Asiatic, or, in other words, like the Amoor country which
adjoins it. Mr. Williamson describes the plains as monotonous, but pleasant, owing to
the numerous villages embosomed in foliage, and surrounded by well-cultivated fields, in
which is heard the crack of the ploughman^s whip, or the joyous song carolled forth
by peasants on whom the decrees of Pekin sit but lightly. The hill country is, however,
extremely picturesque. " Ever-changing views, torrents, and fountains, varied and abounding
vegetation, flocks of black cattle grazing on the hill-sides, goats perched on the overhanging
crags, horses, asses, and sheep on the less elevated regions, numerous well-built hamlets
everywhere, enliven the scene ; while a clear blue canopy overspreading all, and fine bracing
air, make the country delightful to the traveller.'^ Wheat, barley, millet, oats, maize,
cotton, indigo, and tobacco are its crops ; but coal, iron, and gold, though little worked,
exist. It is so rapidly being settled, and in many respects is so like the rest of China,
that we have preferred to treat it here rather under the head of the outlying parts of the
Empire.
It thus appears that there is really little of anything in Europe which China needs
or cannot produce. Its coal and iron are inexhaustible, but the former is worked but slightly,
lest — so the professors of Feng-shui or " geomancy " declare — the " plain of the earth "
should capsize by the balance being destroyed when the loads of fuel are extracted, while
the ores are, perhaps on that account, but little smelted, and in most places only by
wood. No land has a more magnificent soil, or one in which art does more for nature.
The great "loess'' plain, extending over an area of 250,000 square miles, comprises
* Anderaon: " Mandalay to Momien" (1876); Ridithofcn : "China: Ergebnissc eigener Reisen und darauf
gftgriindoter Studien" (1877-8), iScc.
C5
H
<
O"
fa
o
o
o
166
43 THE COUNTKIES OF THE WOKLD.
mueliof the province of Pe-cbili, all of that of Shan-se, the northern part of Sheu-sc, Kan-su,
and northern Ho-nan. It consists of a solid but friable earth of a l)rownish-yello\v colour,
which overlays the subsoil to the depth often of 1^000 feet. Professor Doug-las describes
it as having" a "tendency to vertical clearage, and wherever a river cuts into it^ the loess
encloses it between perpendicnlar cliffs 500 feet in height. These, when washed by the
water, are speedily undermined, and the loess breaks off in vertical sheets, which fall into
the river, and are carried down by the stream.^' In this way the great plain has been
formed (p. •Zii), and through the means described the Gulf of Pe-chili and the Yellow
Sea are shoaling up. To the Chinese this earth is of the utmost value, for wherever
found — in the lowlands or on the hills at an elevation of 7,000 or 8,000 feet — it is available
for the purposes of agriculture, and yields abundantly without the application of manure,
and with a minimum expenditure of labour on the part of the tiller. It not only supplies
the happy people whose soil it overlays with food for use and export, but in the cliffs which
it forms on the banks of the rivers are dug numerous caves, used as dwellings by the great
majority of them. Indeed, so important is it, that some ingenious philologists consider that
one of the Emperor's numerous titles — " Whang-te,^' i.e., " Yellow Emperor,'^ or " Ruler of
the Yellow " — is derived from the fact that he is lord of the loess, or '' yellow earth "
(whang-too). It is probably the residuum which fell to the bottom of a lake in days
when the country it now overspreads was submerged.
CHAPTER III.
China: People; Rulers; Trade.
In a country so rich, the first requisite for its development is to have it peopled by a
race capable of taking advantage of the opportunities at their hand. This China only
partially is. In the first place it is densely populated by a nation chiefly agricultural or
dependent on agriculture, and the want of manufactories prevents the surplus population
of the cities and rural districts from being absorbed. Hence China is, under the present
circumstances, densely stocked, though, were its mineral and other resources properly
developed, it would not have more than enough of labourers, and these would rank among
the most comfortable of toilers. The exact number of people in the Empire we do not
know ; it can only be roughly calculated, and the estimates vary from 4^5, 213, and 152
millions to not one quarter of that number. The usual statement accepted in Europe is
ihat China proper — excluding Mantchuria, Mongolia, Tibet, Corea, Dsangaria, and Turkestan
— contains nearly 405,000,000 souls j'^ but a Chinese statistician,! who during the past yeai
has calculated the number of his countrymen, considers that if they are put at from
• r.rliin and "Wagner: "Die Bcvolkcrung der Erde," 1874-78.
t Kwang Chang Ling.
CHINA : CENSUS ; STATE OF THE NATION. 43
100,000,000 to 120,000,000, tliey will not be done injustice to. But Mr. Hippesley, of
Shaiig-hai, in another calculation made in November, 1870, considers that the population of
China proper is about 250,000,000. The truth will most likely be found between the two
latter estimates. A census which was made towards the close of the sixteenth century
gave 307,407,000 as the number of Kien-lung Wong's subjects, but in 1743 Grosier
considered that they did not exceed 200,000,000 ; and though various enumerations taken
since that date give the population at a much higher figure, it is very doubtful whether some of
the returns are not apocryphal, constructed to gratify the vanity of the Kinsman of the Sun
and ]Moon, albeit, if in error to the extent imputed, they would rather rudely interfere with
the financial estimates of his ministers. But the latest statist is of opinion that the
Empire has been decreasing in population since 1761, and doubtless during the Taiping
rebellion between 1847 and 1862 the destruction of numerous cities, towns, and villages, and
the massacre of their inhabitants, must have materially reduced the density of the inhabitants
of the Empire. The po2)ulation of Pekin is estimated at from 500,000 to 1,050,000, which
shows how loose are the data we have to go on. Canton has, it is reported on the
same vague authority, one million and a half of people; Tien-tsin, nearly a million; Ilaug-
chow, 600,000; Shanghai, 278,000; and the number of other cities with a population
over 100,000 is considerable. A census of the foreign residents, taken in 1879, gives the
following particulars : —
English ....
Americans ....
Germans ....
French ....
Dutch ....
Danish ....
Swedes and Xorwesians .
Firms.
Persons
220
1,953
35
420
49
384
9
224
1
24
2
69
1
35
Spanish
Russians .
Austrians .
Belgians .
Italians
Japanese .
Sundry, uncertain
Firms.
Persons
1
163
17
55
1
38
—
10
—
17
9
81
6
341
Thus the firms engaged in commerce are 351, and the total foreign population of the
empire 3,814, while the population of the nineteen treaty ports, including those of Formosa,
is estimated at 4,990,000.
The Nation.
But even at the lowest figures given China is a thickly-peopled region, though to
nothing like the extent of the valley of the Ganges, and the swarms of its people who arc
hiving off into other countries — tossing to the winds the traditions of centuries — ought,
under other conditions, to find at home the employment which they now seek abroad. Of
the character of the people at large it is somewhat difficult for a foreigner to speak.
They must not be judged according to the Old World canons of morality, nor above
all, meted in the European measure. As Archdeacon Gray justly remarks, their morals
are written in strange characters more difficult for one not of their race to decii^her
than their own singularly compound word syllables. '' In the same individual virtues and
vices, apparently incompatible, are placed side by side. Meekness, gentleness, docihty,
industry, contentment, cheerfulness, obedience to superiors, dutifulness to parents and.
44
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
reverence for the aged are, in one and the same person^ the companions of insincerity,
lying, flattery, treachery, cruelty, jealousy, ingratitude, avarice, and distrust of others."
But deceit and fraud are with them, as with all timid races, the natural defence of the
weak, while, as the English courts of law abundantly demonstrate, the other inconsistencies
of their character are not peculiar to them. The despotism of their Government, the gross
superstition of their religion, the abominable cruelty of their judicial code, and their
}IATA-MENE-TA-KIE STREET, I'EKIN.
general ignorance, in spite of the fact that as a rule they are more lettered than were
until recently any people in Europe, combined with the degraded social life which polygamy
always entails, are serious disadvantages for any race to contend against. But still, those
well acquaiuted with them pronounce the Chinese, as a rule, " courteous, orderly, industrious,
peace-loving, sober, and patriotic." ]\Ir. Seward, the American Minister at Pekin, wrote
eight years ago in much the same strain, and as his opinion is, perhaps, in some respects
better worth quoting than that of a European, I think it worth giving in full. " The
prevailing tendency," writes this experienced publicist, "among foreigners in China is
to debase the Chinese to a very low place in the scale of nations, to belittle their
CHINA : THE CHAEACTER OF THE NATION. 45
intellectual capacity, to condemn their morals, to declare them destitute of vitality and
energy. Each person who argues the case finds facts ready for his use which seem to
him to demonstrate his own view. I confess that the case is different with me. ^ Faith
in the race is a matter of intuition with me. I find here a steady adherence to the
traditions of the past, a soher devotion to the calls arising in the various relations of life,
an absence of shiftlessness, an honest and at least somewhat earnest grappling with the
necessities and difficulties which beset them in the humbler stages of progress, a capacity to
moralise withal, and an enduring sense of right and wrong. These all form what must be
considered an essentially satisfactory basis and groundwork of national character. Among
the people there is practical sense, among the gentry scholarly instincts, the desire of
advancement, the disposition to work for it with earnestness and constancy, amongst the
rulers a sense of dignity, breadth of view, considering their information, and patriotic
feeling. Who will say that such a people have not a future more wonderful even than
their past? Why may not the wheels of progress and empire roll on until the countries
of Asia witness again their course?'' The present writer sees no reason, except that
worn out nations rarely revive. But it may be said that the Chinese have never
gone back. Their civilisation is old, very old ; but already there are signs that the new
wine which is pouring into the empire is bursting the old bottles, and that though China
has not been in such haste to clothe itself in Western garments as Japan, it will in the
end, though not running so fast, make quite as much progress, and, as its wealth is
infinitely greater, win in the race for the prizes of the new civilisation. Nor is then-
docility so great as has been usually represented. The many rebellions, often fierce and
prolonged, one of which drove the Emperor off his throne, prove that the Chinaman, though
easily ruled when properly treated, can be a fierce zealot and even a courageous asserter
of his rights when the slumbering Asiatic tigerishness of his nature is roused. It is also
akin to the bigotry of which we accuse the Chinese to style them unprogressive, exclu-
sive, and dead to the advantages of European inventions. They do not wish for rail-
ways. How long is it since all England was enamoured of these, since scores of squires
of all degrees rushed to the capital to protest against the iron horse coming near them,
and from the pulpit and the press these inventions were denounced as ruinous to English-
men, English horses, and English schoolboys' morals? Vaccination is still denounced, as
were inoculation and vaccination long after they were introduced ; and tramways were until
lately — perhaps they are still — vilified as inventions of the Americans or of the evil one,
the power of darkness and our transatlantic cousins being, in the eyes of the British Chinaman,
very nearly akin. Occasionally a European is mobbed in the villages of the remoter parts of
t:ie Empire. This is no doubt exceedingly rude on the part of a people who never saw a
Bi-iton, and never heard much good of them in their dealings with the Celestial Empire ; but
only a few months ago the members of the Chinese Embassy were mobbed in one of the
most fashionable streets of London, and at this day a strangely-dressed foreigner would
fare but badly in some of the more outlandish parts of the Black Country, or elsewhere.
The soldier in Goldsmith's story hated the French because ''they ate frogs and wore
wooden shoes," and would doubtless have put his sentiments in regard to our amiable
neiirhbours into force had he cauMit one of them in a region less remote perhaps than those
40 THE COUXTEIES OF THE \A'0KL1).
piirts of China where the "foreign deviP' meets with roiiyh usag-e. Even the Irish
or Scotch have not yet escaped tlie prejudice of the vulgar English, and the inhospitable
half brick is yet in some parts of the country the legitimate weapon for the insular
Cliauvanist to apply to the stranger^s head. The man with the evil eye is in Italy a
worse terror to the peasant than the wonder-working foreigner to the ignorant Kan-su
herdsman. A woman accused of witchcraft was only lately burnt to death by some
Russian j^easants, and the authorities of Chin rank so far approved of the act as to award
her murderers the most nominal punishment known to the law, and to acquit others.
Connecticut Puritans, and among other English judges the learned. Sir Matthew Hale,
not very long ago were of the same opinion. Even yet in many districts of Great
Britain a person supposed to be endowed with such occult powers would fare well if he or
she did not make the acquaintance of one of those capacious horse-ponds with which rural
]'higland is so plenteously studded. The truth is, that those who superciliously criticise the
Chinese display, by the very words they use, the selfsame prejudices they despise in the ^Mongols.
For instance, Mr. Wingrove Cook * is shocked that the Chinese rose has no fragrance,
that the women have no petticoats, the labourer no Sabbath, and the magistrate no
sense of honour. He thinks it something absurd for a man when puzzled to scratch
the antijiodes of the head, to consider the seat of intellect in the stomach, or the i)lace
of honour on the left hand; that be wears white garments when in mourning-, and considers
that to bare the head is insolence instead of respect. And why not ? The left is nearest
to the sun-producing east, and is therefore as honourable as our west. The brain is
just as unlikely to be stimulated by irritating the scalp as any other part of the body,
whi-le it is not more absurd to consider the intellect in the stomach than to imagine, as do
half mankind and all the poets, that loves and hates are in the hollow muscle called the
heart. But the people are not stationary. The Chinese army is a formidable force com-
pared with what it was twenty years ago, and foreigners are taken into their service when-
ever the Government finds that any gain is to be reaped by doing so. Arsenals are springing
up everywhere, ships are being built on the most approved models, and arms — unfortunately —
forged to a wonderful extent and perfection. Their embassies have gone to Europe, and
those of ]^]urope to them. They are amenable to reason, have no caste, and, unlike the other
peoples of the East, are singularly free from religious prejudice. As Mr. Williamson points
out, history shows that they have adopted every manifest improvement which has presented
itself for many centuries. At the time when Caractacus and his blue-painted warriors
were meeting Caesar on the Kentish shore, the Chinese had adopted the Buddhist system
of decimal notation, and had changed their custom of writing figures from top to bottom
for the Indian plan of inscribing them from left to right. Every dynasty up to the
present time has improved the calendar by the light derived from foreign astronomers,
and in open competitions Father Schall, of the Jesuit mission, was appf)inted by the fii-st
Tartar i:mi)eror President of the Board of Astronomy at Pekin. When the Emperor Kangh-i
began to print his encyelopa-dia in 300 volumes he adopted movable copper types, and
to this day movable types of wood are employed in printing the Vehti Gazcffe. Tho
cotton-plant, the potato, the maize, tobacco, and opium, have all been naturalised by
* Cook-: '•tliinu" (1S.>8).
CHINA: PROGRESS OF THE NATION; ITS RULERS. 47
them^ while every year dozens of foreign books on science and medicine are translated
into Chinese. The Buddhist religion — not to mention scores of other innovations eagerly
welcomed by them — is a foreign faith, while the Taiping rebellion which shook the
Empire, and at one time promised to regenerate it, originated in the perusal of a foreign
tract, and was fed from the doctrines of the Old Testament Scriptures. The Chinese
mind, though their system of government is doubtless sluggish, is not shut to new
impressions, and the fact that the people take to them slowly is perhaps no cause for regret,
for they will be all the better able to assimilate what they learn. Already, unhappily, they
have learned enough, to prefer other nations^ goods to ours. A race adroit in all the tricks of
■commercial knavery is not likely soon to be deceived by cotton plastered with dirt and
size. For their own very ancient proverb declares that " the conjuror does not deceive the
man who beats the gong ! "
The Rulers.
It is really from the governing class that the obstacles to Chinese progress come. Mr.
Kobert Hart, so long the Chinese Inspector- General of Customs, and one of the most
powerful men in China, is very desponding over these factors in the history of the Middle
Kingdom. Only an infinitesimally small percentage of the officials have a glimmering of
what is meant by progress, and a still smaller number are prepared to boldly enter upon
the path of reform, or even to take the consequences of an initiative. Indeed, of late years,
the example of Japan is often held up as a warning to over-enthusiastic reformers. The
Chinese system of competitive examinations, as the tests for every office, is not the
best to secure enlightened officials ; but of late years even this has been diverged
from, the neediness of the Government having induced them in some cases to dispose
of offices to the highest bidder, and to encourage the basest intrigues for place and the
pelf for the sake of which place is desired. This lamentable result is tersely described
in a report from the British Consul at Chefoo, in the province of Shan-tung : — "Large
tracts of land,'^ he remarks, " which might be covered with vines (to which cultiva-
tion the climate is peculiarly favourable), as the hills by the Rhine and Moselle,
produce nothing but stunted weeds. Rivers which, by a little deepening, might be made
highways of commerce and centres of irrigation, wind their w^ay through shallow sands
and undrained marshes, carrying their wealth of water to the sea. Noble lakes, which
by a little trouble could be made into valuable reservoirs, periodically overflow their banks,
and devastate the fields they should fertilise, and choke up the water highways they should
keep full and clear. Natural routes, winding througli hills of gentle gradients, and of
just sufficient altitude to afford good drainage, only requiring a few shovelfuls of the
stone that abounds in the neighbourhood to make them into excellent roads, are by neglect
utterly impassable at all times by wheeled conveyances, and after a small shower of snow,
even by pack mules. A little surreptitious washing of a few streams is all the advantage
taken of the rich store of gold in the province ; the silver mines have been closed, and
the same neglect and obstruction are evinced with regard to the less precious but equally
valuable metals, such as tin, lead, iron, and coi:)per. Coal exists all over the province, and
48
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
at points whence it could be transported with ease to centres of industry, and to ports
in which are anchored many steamers of Chinese and foreig-u nationality. In a comitrj-
where thousands starve annually from the cold, where every weed and stick are valuable
for fuel, the best of fuel lies on the ground with no one to pick it up, while coal imported
from Australia and Jai)an not only feeds the steamers, but also the furnaces of the native
blacksmiths and ironmongers. The fine marble, the granite, the splendid sandstone to be
seen stretching hundreds of feet without a Haw, which might erect magnificent palaces,
are only carved into a few tombstones, or picked out to build cottages and pigsties. An
A TRADESMAN OV TIEN-TSIN, THE TKEATY I'OKT OF THE I'UOVINCE OI' PE-CHILI.
industrious and stalwart population, pre-eminently sober and law-abiding, incapable, it is
true, of the larger commercial undertakings, such as railways and steamboat companies,
without also the high intelligence of our artisans, yet peculiarly apt at the smaller branches
of trade, and with a fair skill in the ruder arts, are kept in bondage by ignorance, unrelieved
by religious feelings and aspirations, and, under the yoke of bad laws and worse adminis-
tration, have their intelligence stunted and individuality destroyed; condemned to a state
of hand-to-mouth poverty, they enjoy at the best of times but a vegetable prosperity,
and on the failure of a single harvest perish by thousands of starvation.-"
Add to this, that tlumsands are leaving the country to settle in the Malay Islands,
Australia, and America, and the condition at which China has arrived can be imagined. In
CHINA: ITS FUTURE.
49
spite of the prejudice and even opposition to him^ it is all but certain that before long
the industrious Chinaman will become the principal labouring element^ not only in
America^ but in Europe. The European is aristocratic, generally disliking manual
toil, and aspires, wherever he can, to anything rather than the obscure life of the
"working man/' In a few years, as wild lands are being settled up, Europe, and even
America, will find itself face to face with the problem of how best it can find hands for
handicraft. Then, when the time has arrived, will appear the Chinaman as the dens ex
CHINESE ARTILLERYMEN.
machina who is to solve the problem. In fifty years steamers will transport, at fabulously
low prices, the teeming Mongols to all parts of the world, and then in European cities
will arise Chinese quarters, inhabited by a race who have fixed themselves amongst us as
surely as have the Jews; and who at first will create as much discontent and prejudice
in their capacity of toilers as have the other Orientals in their chosen role of keen
traders in money, and in the most money-making merchandise. Undoubtedly we shall
see Chinese workmen in Europe sooner than we imagine, or than the directors or
labour organisations care to conceive."^ The Government is essentially patriarchal. The
* On this question, sec a thonghtful article in Annnles de V E.rf rrme Orient, November, 1879.
167
50 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
Emperor is the father of his people, and is supposed to rule his suhjects as a parent
rules his children ; but though the people are bound to obey the ruler in every-
thing, at the same time their philosophers, from Confucius to jNIencius, taught the
sacred duty of rebellion, and of even executing the Emperor, when he diverged from the
path of rectitude and oppi*essed the nation. These doctrines the numerous rebellions
of China prove to have been attended to. The Emperor is otherwise viewed almost as a
divine person — the intermediary between heaven and earth — and to the common people he
is a personage so awful, that unless they picture him sitting astride the sacred dragon, he
conveys to them no resemblance to anything tangible. He is the '' son of Heaven/'' the
reiiresontative of God upon earth ; the source of law, office, power, honour, and emolument, and
the owner of the soil, the resources and wealth of the whole country. He is the controller
of " Tien-hia " — all under heaven, or " within the four seas ; " he is the '' lord of ten thousand
years," the " imperial sublime," the " Kwa jen " — the " man who stands by himself" — or " Kwa
kuin,'' the " solitary prince," who represents, or did represent, the embassies which came
to him merely as the messengers of "niu-i" and '^ wai-i," the internal and external barbarians
coming to do homage to their liege lord. So ignorant are the peoj^le of any other nations
that they suppose the English only to be a tribe somewhere on the outside of the emjiire,
and therefore that they all know each other. It must not, however, be supposed that
the term '' foreign devil," commonly applied to the Europeans and Americans, is intended
to be contemptuous. Rather it expresses the wondering awe and mystery with which we
are regarded, as is evinced by the fact that a distinguished foreigner is commonly
addressed b}- the title of " His Excellency the Devil." Yet they hardly consider us much
superior to fools ; and their country is to them the " middle kingdom," which occupies
four-fifths of the earth, the rest of the world being merely a fringe to it. '^Not one
Chinaman in ten thousand," writes Mr. Hart, " knows anything about the foreigner ;
not one Chinaman in a hundred thousand knows anything about foreign inventions and
discoveries ; and not one in a million acknowledges any superiority in either the condition
or the appliances of the West ; and of the ten or twenty men in China who really thiuk
Western appliances valuable, not one is prepared to boldly advocate their free introduction." This
opinion was given ten years ago, but it is still almost as strictly true as when i^ronounced.
The present Emperor, Kuangsu, was born in 1871, and is the ninth Emperor of the
Tartar dynasty of Tsing, which in the year 1611 succeeded the native dynasty of
]\Iing. The two great departments of state are the ''Neko," or Privy Council, and the
" Chun-chi-chu," or Secretariat of State. The Privy Council consists of three members of
Mantchu origin and three Chinese.^ The four chief members of the "Neko" are known
as actual members, the other two are only assistants. The duties of the Council are
to generally regulate the laws and administrative affairs of the empire, and to counsel
the Emperor on the high duties of his station ; but of late years it has lost much of its
old importance, most of the power having now fallen into the hands of the Secretariat
of State, which is composed of the princes of the Imperial house, the members of the
different departments of the Privy Council, and of the other administrators in the capital.
* In sonic works its composition is stated to bo iiino IMimtchus and seven C'liinesc, 1)111 in the latest official
list-;, wliere tlie names of the membcra of the " Neko " are given, the numbers are as I have adopted them.
CHINA: GOVERNMENT; REVENUE; ARMY; NAVY. 51
It concevus itself mainly with the revision of the Imperial edicts and decisions, and the
control of the different civil and military departments. Under the Secretariat are the
six ministries or boards, each presided over by two presidents and four vice-presidents,
partly Chinese and partly Mantchus, thoug-h the composition of the control varies. These
ministries are the Boards of War, Punishments, of Offices, Ceremonies, Revenues, and Works.
In addition, there are the administrations for subject countries, and those of music, of the
■censors, and of the military command of Pekin. The censors are inferior but old officers,
;and are privileged to report any irregularity in the Government departments, and even to
criticise the conduct of the Emj)eror himself. Of late this, like most other dej^artments
of the Chinese Government, has fallen into corrupt ways, though now and then some
■offender in high places is brought to condign punishment through the action of a more
than ordinarily active and honest censor. In fact, the " Tou-ch^a-'iuan," or censors' department,
may be considered a kind of court of appeal. In addition, there are departments charged
with the Imperial mciiafje, and, above all, with reporting on the different members of the
Imperial household, their abilities, marriages, and general behaviour, so that the Emperor
may be guided by these notes in the selection of a successor, or in the dignities which he
shall give to or take away from them. The Han-lin-'iuan, generally known as the
^' Academy of Pekin,'"' or Hanlin College, is another institution of Government, for from
it are usually selected the ministers, while the important department of Foreign Affairs (or
Tsoungli-Yamen) has sprung into existence since China has had intercourse with strangers.
The provincial governments are almost autonomous, and theoretically are very perfect;
hut in reality they are corrupt to the core, the low salaries which tbe mandarins and other
•officials get being utterly incapable of paying their expenses without their resorting to
the bribes and " squeezes " which are looked upon by every Chinese servant, public or
private, as the perquisites of office, and, indeed, to which the peoj)le themselves have got
so accustomed that they will hardly believe in any other system.
The Chinese revenue is only known by estimates, but according to the best sources
of information it averages 79,500,000 taels,* or about £^1,400,000. Up to the year 187-:t
China had no national debt, and even now its sole burdens from foreign loan are £G£7,G75,
bearing interest at 8 per cent., and secured on the revenue ; and though doubtless there is a con-
siderable amount of floating internal debt, yet nothing like the sum which there is in Japan.
The army is composed of twenty-four "banners'' of the imperial guard and of the
provincial army, the latter being composed of Chinese alone, while the others are limited
mostly to Mantchu Tartars, to which race the present dynasty belongs. In all there may be
about 800,000 Chinese and 271,000 Mantchus, and not over 270,000 of this paper army
is organised on the European model. The navy consisted in 1876 of thirty-eight ships of
inconsiderable size, but to this fleet there have been lately added several powerful gun-boats^
which in any war with a coast-lying nation are capable of inflicting great damage. f
* A Haikwan, or Custom House, tacl is about 6s.
t Williams: "The Middle Kingdom" (18-i8) ; Guetzlaff: "China Opened" (1838); Doolittle : "Social Life
of the Chinese " (1865) ; PumpcUy : " Geological Researches in Northern China " (1866) ; Edkins : " Religion in China "
(1877); Medhurst: "The Foreigner in Far Cathay;" Thomson: "Straits of Malacca" (1875); "Illustrations
of China and its Peoxile ; " Eden: "China"' (1876); Douglas and Yule in i\\o EHCi/dopmdia Britunnka (1879), &c.
52
THE COUNTlilES OF THE WORLD.
TliADE.
The greatest portion of the trade of China is carried on between the different provinces
(pp. 31-iO), but there is also a considerable foreign commerce, though nothing like
there mio-ht be under more enlightened rulers. For instance, in 1877, the last year for
which we have full returns, the imports were valued at 73_,253,170 taels, and the exports
at G7,l 1-5,022 taels, of which the great proportion went to Great Britain, either direct,
or to our colony of Hong Kong, which in time will be an entrepot for British goods, to be
scattered thence throughout the length and breadth of China. The East Indies also took
and sent a very considerable quantity of goods, but the commerce with all other countries.
CAMELS OF THE NORTH OF CHINA.
including Russia, via Kiakhta, in Siberia (p. 13), was comparatively small. Indeed, it may
be said that over three-fourths of the foreign trade of China are with Britain and her
dependencies, the vast proportion of this traffic going on through the port of Shanghai,
and consisting, on the one hand, of importations of opium, cotton, woollen fabrics, and
metals, and on the other hand of the export of teas, silks, and sugar, in addition to mis-
cellaneous articles. It may be added that more than one-half of this merchandise is carried
in British ships, and a little more than one-fifth in those of the United States. In China.
railways have yet to be built. An experimental line was opened between Shanghai and
"Wouscng in 187G, but next year the Government ordered it to be torn up. The posts
are carried through the empire either on foot or by carriers with relays of horses.
Telegraphs are beginning to be tolerated, but as yet there are only a few short and
unimportant lines, merely for the use of the Government, who, however, still prefer to
use the 20,000 imj)erial roads which the Chinese boast as permeating the empire, though.
CHIXA: RAILWAYS; ROADS.
53
as has already been pointed out, tliey maintain them in a wretched state. The experimental
line of railway laid down was torn up, not because the Government considered it useless or
on account of the people declining to patronise it, but simply because the people patronised
CHINESE AND TARTAR LADIES.
it too well. Its success raised fears in the official mind that if it were allowed to go
on there would be a difficulty in keeping the hated foreigners out of the interior, and
that in addition, if they once allowed them to establish railways they would acquire a hold on
the soil which might in the end produce complications fatal to the peace of the empire.
54 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOPxED.
So the Mandarins tore up the rails of the Shanghai and Wousong railway, and forced the
people, who during its brief career crowded the carriages, to travel between the two towns
as their fathers had done from times beyond which the mythical records of China runneth not.
One Chinese trading town is so very much like another, that the graphic description
which ^fr. Thomson gives of one will apply to almost all of them. The first impression which
one of these cities gives when looked down upon is that of an immense mass of roofs,
the intervals between the rows of the houses being so narrow, and the projecting eaves
so broad, that a bird's-eye view fails to reveal the presence of streets at all. A closer inspec-
tion shows that these are exceedingly narrow, but crooked, and that the houses are huddled
so closely together that fresh air can only be got — and then merely from a comparative
point of view — by climbing to the roof. This is accordingly in most Chinese houses a
common place of reunion, decked with flowers and furnished with seats. Here also along
the sides of the flat space are arranged great jars of water, to aid in extinguishing
fire, for even did fire-engines exist, the tortuous ways would not permit of their being
brought to bear upon the flames. In order also to further prevent conflagrations
spreading among the densely huddled-up masses of flimsy Chinese houses, here and there
strong dividing fire-walls are built, thus separating the buildings into blocks. If a deter-
mined fire breaks out, the cardboard-like buildings within the limits of the fire-walls
usually go, but the chances are it will stop there. Yet the Chinese crowd together
for sociality rather than from necessity, for often in the middle of the densely-packed
cities there are large open spaces which might be devoted to buildings instead of to
agricultural purposes. But though many Chinese cities are surrounded by strong walls,
pierced by triple gates, yet in the streets outside the ramparts the buildings display the
same arrangement as in the more crowded spaces within, the fact being that the frugal
Chinaman considers house-rent the smallest part of his expenses, and is very careless
about the blessings of fresh air and breathing space. It is indeed wonderful to see the
space into which a Chinese family will cram itself. The monotonous mass of roofs would
give most Chinese towns a most prosaic appearance when seen from above, Avere it not
for the break in the level supplied by pagodas, yamens, or official residences, temples,
gudd-houses, and in the southern provinces the square towers of the pawnbrokers' estab-
lishments towering above the others. Some of the Chinese bridges (Plate XLI.) are master-
pieces of architecture, and many of them, as was formerly the case in Europe, are
lined on either side with shops and private houses, so that only a narrow path is left
open for passengers. The streets themselves are particularly unsavoury. Bad drainage
blends its typhoid odour with those of charcoal, garlic, oil, opium, and tobacco ; while the
lower classes are, contrary to the rule of the rural Chinese, in most instances sadly in need
or a bath. The shopkeepers, however, look rosy, contented, and prosperous, and many of
them live to a good old age, and rather pity their confreres in the broad streets of Pekin
(p. 44) and Nankin, in so far that they suffer more from the hot summers than do the trades-
men, ensconsed behind their counters in these shady alleys, into which the rays of the
sun so rarely reach. There are, of course, as in Europe and America, more private streets,
inhabited by rich merchants, who, however, usually live above their shops, and in
the suburbs the villas of "retired people." But though a Chinaman, after his own
CHINA: TOWN HOUSES; YILLAC4E LIFE. 55
fashion, loves to be eomfortablej he does not care for ostentation, and a visitor whose
ideas have been moulded on the habits of the newer world would never suspect that
the establishment he has entered was owned by a man who would even in the rich cities
of the Western Hemisphere be thought wealthy. China is the " Flowery Land " of its
poets, but the stranger who has not the entree to a Sinetic paradise would scarcely
coincide in the justice of this eulogistic phrase. All he sees from the outside as he
walks through the suburbs is a high wall, which is in its way as much intended to shut
out from prying eyes the preserve in which the rich Chinaman has ensconsed himself, his
waves, and daughters, as the high wall or palisades were to keep out of the INIiddle
Kingdom the Tartar barbarians who now rule it. Climb a hill overlooking one of the
typical Chinese towns, and the curious traveller may have an opportunity of seeing
from above what he fails to observe from below. "There is a tiny landscape garden,
with model bridges and. model mountains, wherein dwell the blessed genii ; living fish
in little pools, just as in the ocean and rivers; rocks and chasms like the weird peaks,
and gorges of Woo-e Hills ; shady nooks beneath bending bamboos, where the ladies
may bask in the smile of their lord when he is in the mood for their attentions. Here
and there miniature pagodas and temples occur, or sometimes a real shrine, dedicated to
the worship of the ancestors of the family. Food in abundance from unknown sources,
rich and costly raiment to put on, paint to bring back the hues of health to the cheek
which has shrivelled and faded even in this earthly paradise; above all, a living Chinaman
to love and worship (or to hate, as the humour suits them) — what more can women
want r ^' This, Mr. Thomson remarks, is to the Chinaman^s mind " the perfection of
human abode, the result of four thousand years' civilisation. ""^ In all that period it is
questionable wdiether Chinese life — and, above all, Chinese rural life — has changed, for
the descriptions of the oldest writers w^ould apply equally well to the village routine of
to-day. Indeed, rural life in China is very pleasant as things go in that part of Cathay,
where a cycle of years is as a decade in Europe. The people are less exclusive, and the
wealthy Chinaman does not think of barring out by walls his household gods from the glare
of his neighbours, when he is all but certain that the "foreign deviP' is not likely to
be among them. In the cities the paternal care of the rulers, even when M'ell disposed
towards the people, cannot always reach the poorest of the governed. The mandarin
may be a just man, who has not knowingly oj)pressed a single individual, but yet,
owing to the rapine and villainy of his subordinates, he may leave his seat of govern-
ment with the curses of the robbed people following him. But in a village, often the only
authority the people know is the patriarch or headman of the "tribe,'' who is responsiljle
to the mandarin for his conduct, and for the content of the people whose happiness
accordingly', for his own interest, if for no higher motive, he strives to secure. The magnates
of the village are some wiseacres possessed of greater knowledge than their neighbours,
or who have the art of making them believe they are endowed with it, the man, white-
haired it may be, who has passed some examination in the great competitive tournaments
of the Chinese literati, or, in default of the village being honoured with such a prodigy,
the local schoolmaster. The pedadogue may not perhaps possess any degree, but he can always
explain, to the perfect satisfaction of his neighbours, that it was solely through the jealousy of
56 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
the Hanlin College and the literati, who dreaded his presence among them, that long ago he
had not heen called to the councils of the Emperor at Pekin. The schoolmaster might,
perhaps, if he cared, tell his neighbours who are the rulers of the land, but as the information
would not make the rice grow better, or the pigs farrow more abundantly, village China
is not very particularly interested in listening to such recondite bits of politics. It is
enouo-h for them that Ah Sam is their headman : and happy are the rustics who are
not compelled to know more. This village life is really the best part of China, and the
secret of how for four thousand years — perhaps longer — the nation has proved true to
its old conditions, and remained, take it all in all, peaceable and contented, if not happy
and prosperous. There are, as might be exf»ected, occasional feuds in the village. The
elders, or old men, are apt to presume on their time-honoured privileges, one of the
chief of which is to occupy the best seats at any feast, no matter whether they are
invited or not, and to exact what is, indeed, never disputed, the deference due to their
threescore and ten years. The matrons wrangle and the gossips are busy, but jealousy,
heart-burning, and the ambition to do much more than live by daily toil, is not
markedly seen in rural China. In one or two of the southern provinces, or in parts of
those provinces, village feuds were formerly very common. Two villages went to
war with each other, the combatants being in reality hired bandits or bravoes, who
robbed the side they were paid to oppose, carried off their women, and captured the
men, in order to torture and maltreat them.
These vendettas would often go on until the parties engaged were utterly exhausted
and the Imperial Government found it impossible to collect the taxes. Then, and not
until then, it interfered, though the villagers, indeed, dreaded the exactions of the Pekin
soldiers much more than they did the robbery of the banditti, and accordingly, at the first
news of their advantage, flew to the mountains with what goods they could carry. In
the end the robber chiefs were subdued, not by force of arms, but by bribes of money and
titles bestowed by the central authorities, until in due time they found it convenient to
transfer their services to another part of the country. Such disorderly scenes were,
however, solely local, and occurred in those parts of the country which were far removed
from the capital, imperial or provincial, and had been disorganised by rebellions or similar
disturbances. The province of Quan-tung was long notorious for such raids, and is yet,
especially in the vicinity of the mountain passes. The better kind of farm-houses and the
residences of the gentry (pp. 41, 57) are built in the form of a rectangle, the walls of which,
made of earth, lime, and sand, are often pierced with loopholes for musketry, and protected at
each of the four corners with a turret or bastion, from which the defenders can sweep
the entire sides and ends of the enclosure. Inside are placed the dwelling-house of the
owner and the other buildings belonging to the farm. The villages in the quieter parts
of the country are generally embowered in banyan or other trees, and over the entrance
gate to the village ancestral hall is often placed a notice warning all whom it concerns
not to injure the trees or shoot the birds roosting in them, as they '^ exercise a good
geomantic influence over the village and the adjacent rice plains. ^^ It may be added, for
the encouragement of future travellers who w.ish to see the interior of China, that Mr.
McCarthy, who two years ago journeyed from Chin-kiang to Bhamo, found everywhere
168
AFTER DIKNER: A FAMILY SCENE IX CHINA.
5S THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
oil liis long travel abundance of wholesome food. The prices in the g-ood agricultural
districts were veiy small. For instance, at the city of Liang-shan Hsien excellent beef
and mutton, as well as the never- failing pork, was 2d. to 3d. the catty (1^ lbs.), eggs
five a penny, and other articles in proportion. Throughout the whole of his journey he
received from the people nothing but civility and kindness, nor did an official even once
ask him to produce his passport, a jn-oof that the Chinese are on their part loyally carrying
out the provisions of the Cheefoo convention."^
CHAPTER IV.
China : The Outlyixg Colonies and Tereitories.
The Chinese empire — either de facto or nominally — extended in ancient times so far that
it is difficult to say what countries the Pekin authorities do not consider a more or less
integral part of it. Many of the Asiatic Khanates now under Russian rule the Chinese
maintain passively to be theirs, while, as all the world knows, Kuldja, which constituted
the main jiortion of their old province of Dsungaria, has been receded to them, while
Kashgaria, which a few years ago Yakoob Beg wrested from the conqueror, has again
fallen into their hands, to remain how long it would be rash to prophecy. Annam, Burmah,
and Siam the Emperor is understood to recognise as really tributaries, whatever he
may do diplomatically The Shan States are no doubt considered in the same light.
The Loochoos we have seen are in dispute (Vol. IV., p. 302), and though Cambodia and
Cochin China have passed out of the Emperor^s hands, the archives of Pekin recognise
the alienation of no part of the ancient territories of the Cousin of the Moon, and it is
just possible that his ministers may dream of recovering in the fulness of that time — in
waiting for which the Chinese excel all the sons of men — Hong Kong from England and
Amoorland from Russia. The last of these countries we have already described : the first-
named it will be now necessary to touch briefly upon in describing the outliers of China,
as well as those countnes which, like Corea and Mantchuria, acknowledge, either as
tributaries or directly, the rule of Pekin.
Hong Kong.
This little islet, though now a British colony, is geographically a part of the
province of Quan-tung, off the coast of which it lies, near the mouth of the Canton
River (p. 01). It is only about eight miles long and five miles wide, but within this
area of thirty-two square miles — including the peninsula of Kowloon, on the mainland,
* I'roceedbujn of the Royal Geograpluvnl Socicti/, 1879, pp. 489—509. .Sec also Cooper: "Travels of a
Pioneer of Commerce" (1870), and the various official reports of Blue Books. It is impossible in this place
to give references to even a fraction of the recent works on China, for a bibliography of the kind would
occupy a volume, so extensive has been the literary activity of Europeans and Americans wlio have visited
the "Middle Kingdom."
CHIXA: HOXG KONG— TPvADE— VICTORIA. 59
on the other side of the Lyeemooii Pass, which completes the insularity o£ the island — is
compressed a population of over ll'O^OOO, mostly Chinese, the whites numhering- (in 1876)
little more than 7;500, and the Indian coolies under 1,500. In ancient times this island
shared, with various others, the name of " Ladrones,^^ from the thieving or piratical character
of the inhabitants. But in 1811 Great Britain, during one of our little w^ars with the
Chinese, took possession of it. Next year, by the treaty of Nankin, it was formally
ceded, and in 1861 the opposite peninsula of Kowloon was added to the Colonial territory.
The Chinese name means the "fragrant streams,'^ and in picturesqueness it Avell deserves
this poetical designation. Surrounded by villa-dotted hills, 1,000 to 2,000 feet high,
the harbour of the chief town — Victoria — is one of the finest in the world. Here is
stationed a naval and military force, which can at any time be called on to protect our
commerce, while in and about the town concentrates a large amount of trade, which has
gravitated to it since the British obtained possession of the place. Opium, tea, sugar,
flour, rice, oil, amber, cotton, ivory, sandal-wood, silks, &c., are largely imported and
exported from Victoria; but the island itself produces little, and with a few unimportant
exceptions it can scarcely claim any manufactures. There are municipal institutions in
the town, but the Colonial Government is vested in a Governor, aided by an Executive
Council of five, and a Legislative Council of nine members. The revenue was at the
latest date £189,526, and the expenditure a few thousands less. Its exports to the
United Kingdom were, in 1878, £1,171,469, and its imports from the same source
£4,677,017. Victoria Peak, which is in reality the island, is one of the most prominent
landmarks to vessels making for the Canton River — and to the visitor entering the harbour
of Hong Kong for the first time from the Monsoon-tossed Cliina Sea, the busy swarm
of sampans, boats, junks, merchant and other ships through which he threads, form an
interesting sight. Forty years ago the broad harbour, along the shores of which rise
great warehouses, backed by fine villas on the cooler heights, was simply the haunt of a
nest of desperadoes w.ho infested the neighbouring sea. "Now,'' to use the words of a
recent visitor, "it is the great centre of trade and commerce, and vessels come from
Bombay, Calcutta, and Singapore, laden with the choicest products from those lands for
transhipment to England, America, or our Colonial possessions, receiving in return tribute
for their distant countries in exchange for teas and silk, opium, and other requirements.
It is already one of the most flourishing of our colonies in the East, and destined to still
further extension and greater importance. It has become the postal terminus of the many
lines of mail steamers that arrive weekly from Europe and America, and now, with the
:submarine telegraph, is in instant communication with every place of importance/' The offices
and warehouses on the Praya, or quay, by the shore, are suggestive of busy commerce,
•and the wide streets, lined by houses built of stone, in the European fashion, crovrded
"vvith busy pushing Englishmen, Chinese coolies, Indians, and Parsees, as well as hy British
soldiers and sailors, look, unless for the palanquins, which here take the place of cabs,
rery unlike any streets in China, though they bear a family resemblance to those which
in time grow up in every town over the world wherever the Briton has made his
Jiome. At Hong Kong are held " the races," to which visitors from Shanghai, Canton, and
Macao hie themselves, as to the great event of the year, and in the city itself liourish all the
60
THE COUNTraES OF THE WOELD.
A STllEET I.N HONG KONG.
'^institutions" whicli Englishmen love so dearly^ in addition to a few peculiar to the East
and to itself. The Chinese quarter is built quite apart from the English one, and though
the streets are wide and comparatively airy^, it is as dirty, and to English ideas as un-
CHINA: HONG KONG, CLI3IATE, ETC.
61
comfortable^ as a Chinese town almost invariably is. In addition to the tolerably well-to-
do population who live in houses^ there are thousands who are born, reside, follow their
business, and die in the sampans, or family boats, which cover the harbour of Hono- Kono-
as they do those of most other towns of China. The children are stowed away in a space
where one can scarcely imagine it possible for an infant to survive. And as a matter of
fact they do not always escape violent death. The mother rows with a child strapped on
her back, and at the age of two or three the other begins to learn the simple art by which
they are destined to earn their bread. Some little care is taken of the boys, for a o-ourd is
tied round their necks, so that if they accidentally fall overboard they may have a chance
to Hoat, but the girls are allowed to take their chance, one or two less in a Sampan family
^il-\V Ui- XJIL llAl'lDs Oi' THE CHU-K.IANG, CANTON, OK PEARL lUVER.
being considered no loss to the others. Yet, notwithstanding the beauty of the scenery
and picturesqueness of the villas and the Government House perched along the steep sides
of Victoria Peak, surmounted by the signalling apparatus. Hong Kong is said to be far
from healthy. The sea breeze, which ought to cool the town, is shut out by the high
peak that gives the island so pleasant an appearance; and as the place is so hot in summer,
invalids, in spite of sanitary precautions, are disagreeably frequent from the Hong Kong
station. Add to this the occasional prevalence of typhoons, which sweep along with such
fury that granite pillars and iron bars snap as if they were glass rods, and it will be
seen that to make money in Hong Kong is not unattended with drawbacks. Yet money
must be made. The fine cathedral. Government House, clubs, and pubHc buildings, would
not alone keep an eager Anglo-Saxon population together, and the best proof of all that
Hong Kong is a place where coin can be picked up is supplied by the swarms of Chinese
who have flocked to it during the last thirty years, and built that remarkable town of
Crl THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
theirs wliieli " skirts the bay and scrambles upwards and onwards over the hill behind/'
"\*ic'toria, or Hong- Kong, as it is universally called in ordinary converse, is, though not a
moral town, a compai-atively quiet one. There are already, among- the one hundred and forty
thousand Celestials on the island, forty thousand of British birth. A disorderly Chinaman
is uncommon, and a lazy one probably does not exist. He is rarely out of employment,
for he will turn his hand to anything : hence beggars are seldom met with in the streets ;
hence, also, unhappily, among their other industries, that of picking pockets is included.
In this pursuit they are very adroit, and in the allied art of asking half as much again for
anything than they intend taking they are perhaps equally skilled and unprincipled. "The
houses and shops are most curiously constructed, and just as strangely fitted up; not one,
however small or poor, but has its domestic altar, its joss, and other quaint and curious
arrangements known only to these peculiarly strange people. Look where you will there
are evidences of the customary industry and enterprise of the surprising sons of Shorn.
Up every alley and in every street Ave see crowds of little yellow faces, and stumble
against brokers or merchants hurrying on to their business, clad in the universal blue
jean jumper and trowsers, cotton socks, and shoes of worked silk with thick wooden soles ;
some with and others without hats ; the shaven face and pigtail so typifying the class, that to
note a difference between Sun Shing or Wang Heng is sometimes most embarrassing. The
dress of the women differs little from that of the men. The curious, built-up style the
married ladies have of wearing their hair gives them a strange appearance ; while the
younger lasses allow theii's to hang down their backs in tresses, or wear it bound tightly
over their foreheads, and secured aic cldgnon. Their cheeks are tinted bright pink, and
with their neat little feet and clean and loose clothing they make a very pretty picture.
Although great numbers of other nationalities are to be seen, the Chinese are most con-
spicuous and interesting to the stranger ; and when once the business of the day has
begun, the din and traffic are enormous, for crowds of men of all creeds and colours —
Jew, Pagan and Christian, Buddhist and Parsee, Chinese, Japanese and European — fill the
streets, while gangs of coolies chant to keep step, as they press on beneath their heavy
burdens. The merchants, whose places of business lie along the Queen's Road, are so
similar in appearance that a description of one will apply to all. He is generally a fat
round-faced man, with an important and business-like look, wearing the same style of
clothing as the meanest coolie — but of finer material — and is always clean and neat; his
long tail, tipped with red or blue silk, hanging down to his heels.''' Lest the reader
may, after reading the graphic description of Mr. Spry, imagine that Hong Kong is a
model town, it may Ije as well to remark that though the Europeans are no worse than
their neighbours, and rather more sociable than Europeans visually are, nearly everybody in the
small community knowing each other, and to some degree being " in the same boat," are not
so addicted to that " snobbery '' which in the East is the prevailing vice of our esteemed
countrymen, the Chinese are even worse in some respects than when under their own
rulers. They are certainly not idle — the Government sees to that — but many of them arc
roguish to a degree that is embarrassing to the Hong Kong jailer, whose duty it is to
find house-room for them. The freedom and protection afforded to all nationalities by our
laws, attracted to the colony the scum of the neighbouring Chinese towns, and though
CHIXA: HOXG KONG, SOCIAL LIFE. 63
many of these ruffians have become reformed characters^ a good many of them still o-ive
active employment to the police. Gamhliug'-houses and music-halls — with other even more
questionable resorts — are common; and thoug-h the Government tries, by licensiniT vices
Avliich it is impossible to suppr>?ss, to get the vicious elements under its control, it does
not always succeed, partly owing to the prevalence of the evil, and partially also no doubt
owing to the inefficiency of the police and the temptation which they meet with — but do
not always shun — to accept bribes. At one time the Government licensed the gambling-
houses, and drew a revenue of 14,000 dollars a month from them; but though the system
was productive not only of a large increase to the Colonial income, but of an improvement
in the morals at once of the police and their charges, public opinion, which even in
Hong Kong is not without a vague, arbitrary kind of conscience, was against it, and
the plan was abandoned, though from w^hat we can learn the vice has not gone with it.
The town — both British and Chinese quarters — swarms also with low dens kept by
English and Chinese, frequented by the seamen in port, and the hahltuh of which
give endless trouble to the police and the police magistrate. That Hong Kong contains
in its midst even yet some of the elements which in pre-Britannic times gave it a
piratical reputation, is demonstrated by the fact that a few years ago a number of
pirates shipped as passengers on board the steamer going up the Canton Biver,
and at a convenient opportunity rose and captured it, murdering the officers and
some of the passengers, and after ransacking it of what they wanted, ran it ashore
not far from Macao. Since then the Chinese passengers of the lowest class are carefully
secured within a padlocked enclosure, guarded by a sentry, and in the cabin arc several
stands of arms, so that, if need be, the more respectable passengers can be armed
against the possible pirates. Like every other place on the face of the earth where
thei*e is anything worth preying on. Hong Kong is periodically visited by adventurers of
all nations. But, as it might be expected, the people are shrewd enough to amuse
themselves with such specious characters, and if they do not recommend them to the attention
of the police, usually send them on their way — not rejoicing. There are, in Hong Kong,
specimens of almost every commercial people on the face of the earth, but the English
and Americans are the chief merchants. Living need not be dear, for nearly all neces-
saries are about the same price as at home, but the habits of the i-esidents make it so.
Large numbers of servants are requisite, either for comfort or because conventionality
demands it; and the ideas of the people having been formed on a scale graduated when
money was more abundant than it is now, it is found that to live in Hong Kong takes
an income about twdce what it would in England. The English are especially noted for
their extravagance in housekeeping. Even the "junior messes'''' in their mercantile estab-
lishments are the wonder of the fresh arrivals. The assistants are lodged and maintained
in the most luxurious fashion, though now nothing compared with what they were before
competition became too brisk to allow of w^aste, and hence a long residence in Hong Kong
is not calculated to promote that thrift, or even regularity of habits, essential to the complete
British merchant, however much the talk and habits of these bachelor establishments may
enable the novice to acquire sound notions on the subjects of wines and cuisine. Next to
the English and Americans come the Germans as commercial claimants for the trade of the
G-i
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
port. They are usually better educated than the English. The}' speak two or three languages,
are keener, less extravagant, and conduct their establishments with more regard to
econom}' than do the English. Hence they are rather sneered at, though it is just
possible that in commercial transactions the Teutons stoop to artifices which the English
scorn to practice. But their competition has resulted in the reduction of the English
establishments, for it was found that if the latter were to keep the lead which they had
obtained they could do so no longer with the old habits, which were entirely unsuited
for hard times, when money is no longer almost thrown at the merchant, but has to be
laboriously struggled for with new and eager rivals, whose ideas are the ideas of the era of
telegraphs and steamers, and who care nothing for the traditions of the good old times.
i,f^ili11i!iiiiiii!!ll
A CHINESE CAKT.
over which at Hong Kong, as at Shanghai, the ancients grieve with what is doubtless an
unaffected sadness. Hong Kong is, however, still a most hospitable colony. He must be
a very unobtrusive visitor indeed who does not learn this fact, and the " cheese-paring/^
about which the old residents talk so much, has not yet extended so far that an
Englishman is ever left in Victoria city in want.
The climate is a sore point with the Hong Kongers, and indeed, if all the tales told
are true, there is more in the request to '' go to Hong Kong " than would at first sight
a;)pear in that contemptuous ejaculation. Its evil reputation we have already noted. For
six months in the year the island enjoys dry and rainless weather, but when the heat
and the wet come together " the sky seems to descend and rest like a sponge on the hill,'^
which in itself would be a matter of no great consequence. But as always happens, the
sponge is squeezed, and the contents descend in torrents which wash the streets, and as
soon as the sun rises envelop the town and island in a hot unhealthy vapour. Then
llilllllli:nilllii;i///lll/lilll"/UUiliii'«'NiiHiiimiiilllijiimliim|!^
CHIXA : HONG KOXG.
Go
A STREET IX HOXG KOXG.
all the little world of Hong Kong- becomes limp, and damp, and mouldy, with scarcely
energy enough left to languidly weary for the dry weather and the sea breezes, which
for half the year Victoria Peak so jealously keeps out.'^
* Thomson: "Straits of Malacca," p. 203. Sir. Thomson's account of Hong Kong is acknowledged to be
one of the best extant, but, contrarj- to the almost universal opinion, he considers the island ' ' one ef the
healthiest stations on the coast of China." The last words may be a saving clause, for the "coast of China"
is not healthy. Yet, even with this qualification, naval officers will not altogether agree with this excellent
writer and observer.
169
6G , THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
COREA.
From Hong- Kong to Corea is a long voyage, for the little island lies at one end of China
and the Peninsula at the other extremity of the coast. But the voyage is even a greater
one politically than it is physically. To Hong Kong- all the world is invited to buy and
sell : from Corea all the world is as jealously shut out as were traders and travellers a
few years ago from Japan. " Chosen/' as the country is called by the natives, was known
to China from a very early period, though it was not until about the eleventh century that
the scattered states of which it was originally composed became welded into one monarchy,
which has always remained an integral part of the Chinese Empire — Mongol or Tartar.
The Japanese, however, have had something to say in the affairs of the Peninsula ; for, irritated
by the aggressive character of the Coreans, they invaded the country and for a time
occupied great part of it. Indeed, up to the year 1790, the Corean king was compelled
to send an embassy to Japan to announce his accession ; but beyond the fact that annually
a mission bearing tribute is sent to Pekin, the Coreans have remained almost unknown
to the world, and maintain a state of complete isolation from any other people. Towards
the close of last century the Roman Catholic missionaries managed to get a footing
in the Peninsula, and made some progress among the Buddhists, but in 1806 the last of
the priests were either assassinated or compelled to escape by aid of their converts from the
country. Corea was not, however, to be allowed to enjoy that happy existence which,
according to Montaigne, consists in being ennutjeme — forgetting* the world, and by the
world forgotten. The murder of some of the French missionaries brought on the scene
Admiral Roze, who in 18G6 destroyed the town of Kanghoa, with its military establish-
ments, but his exertions were fruitless in obtaining any concessions as to trade or
foreign intercourse. As little effectual — among other attempts — was the expedition of the
United States' Admiral Rodgers, in 1S70. He forced his way up the River Hang-Kiang to
Haniang, Seoul, or Seyool, the capital ; but beyond the fact that he expended much gun-
powder, and forced the Coreans to do the same, the Admiral returned as he had arrived.
The Japanese were, however, more successful. The eloquence of their envoys — aided by
the possible eloquence of their ironclads — has succeeded in opening two ports — Fusan-po
and Gensang — to the traders of Nippon, in gaining permission for a Japanese envoy
to permanently reside at the capital, and among other minor advantages for Japanese
vessels to enter Corean ports when in distress. In addition, an area of twenty-
five miles from Gensang — which is forty-five miles from the capital — is assigned as a
region in whi(;h the Japanese settlers may wander freely. The town of Gensang is
situated in the province of Tokugen, and '\= intersected by two highways, known as
Kankyo and Kagen. The harbour is one of the best and busiest on the eastern coast of
Corea, and its inhabitants are noted for their familiarity with business matters. A proof
of the importance of the place may be found in the fact that the natives have conferred
the name of gemantsii upon a certain fish in great demand in the country, because it
appears that the price of the commodity can only be established by that of the town market.
Something analogous was formerly the case with all kinds of merchandise in Japan, where
CHINA: THE KINGDOM OF COREA. 67
everything had, nominally, to pass throug-h the marts at Osaka. Of late years, however,
Gensang has received a check in its activity from the rivalry of the neighbouring city
of Basan, a circumstance Avhich at first induced the belief that the Japanese Government
had asked for the opening of the latter port. But as Gensang is only twenty " ri " —
that is, forty-five miles — distant from Fusan, the decision has been arrived at, with
justice, that it would not be advisable to have two commercial factories in such close
proximity to each other. Another reason for the j)refereuce shown to the site selected
is that it contains more than :2,000 houses, and it is hoped that when the Jaj^anese con-
cession and the works of the new harbour are terminated, the town will more than
regain its former consequence, and overtake, in the extent of its trade, both Fusan and
Basan. Now that all arrangements are completed on the east coast, the Japanese Govern-
ment is having a survey made along the peninsular shores of the Yellow Sea, with the
object of making choice of a western port, the authorities at Haniang having by treaty
consented to allow a settlement there also. The vicinity of a village called Saibutsu
would be admirably adapted for the purpose, although there is only a population of
about 100 souls. The Coreans deem it their best strategic position in that part of the
territory. It is near a famous castle named Eisojo, and a large fortress has been erected
hard by.* These concessions constitute the thin edge of the wedge, which cannot fail
eventually to open up Corea to the commerce of the world, much to the material wel-
fare of the people, though possibly not quite so much to their moral advancement.
We really know very little about this mysterious peninsula, except that it is about
three and a quarter times larger than Scotland, and is so mountainous that a French
missionary has compared its surface to the sea under the influence of a gale of wind.
The highest peaks, however, do not exceed 9,000 feet, and most of them are much lower;
but there is no part of the country so flat that it can be styled a plain. The coast line is
not very iiTegular, being broken into bays and harbours only here and there. The eastern shore
presents to the voyager along it the appearance of steep cliffs, here and there declining
into sandy dunes, but the south and west coasts are more irregular, and guarded by a
number of small islands, the largest of which is Quelpart, forty-six miles long; but
the Port Hamilton group, owing to the fact of their containing a good harbour, will be
of greater future importance to whoever holds them. The country is also intersected
by a number of rivers, some of them navigable for large vessels. The climate, on the
whole, is more equable, owing to the south-west monsoon, than that of the continental
portion of North China, but is subject to extremes of cold in winter and heat in
su.mmer, and is, moreover, very wet. It produces most of the fruits of Europe indif-
ferently well ; and in addition gives good returns of tobacco, rice, wheat, rye, millet,
cotton, hemp, and ginseng.* The potato also grows very well; but the Government
having interdicted its use, it is now only growing surreptitiously in some of the outlymg
districts, though its general cultivation would add greatly to the welfare of the population.
Coal is abundant, but little used, while the working of gold, silver, and copper — also
* The " Osaka Nippon,'' quoted in the Tolio Times, November 1st, 1879.
t The root of an araleaceous plant (Panax ginsciiy) in great demand in China as a medicine in fevers. Its
proper name is " Jin-san."
68 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
plentiful — is prohibited under severe laws. Sheep and goats succeed excellently, but the kinjj
has alone the right of rearing them^ and even then their use is restricted to sacrificial purposes.
The dog is considered a more dainty article of diet, and in addition, cattle and pigs are
eaten. Small but strong horses are plentiful, and the usual wild animals of North China
are found in moderate abundance in the less settled districts. The eight provinces into
which the kingdom is divided contain many walled cities, but none of them of any
magnificence. The king is a vassal of China. He reigns as an absolute monarch, and in
his prerogative and the divine afflatus which surrounds him, is considered even more sacred
a personage than his suzerain. The king rules, aided by three ministers and a number of
judges, and each province is presided over by a governor. But the nobility have obtained
inordinate privileges, and in reality oppose the people on one side, and encroach on the
royal prerogative on the other. The army consists of all persons capable of bearing arms —
the nobles excepted — and, theoretically at least, every office of state is open to any person
who can, under the Chinese system of competitive examination, attain the necessary degree;
but corruption universally prevails, in spite of the existence of a class of officials corre-
sponding to the Chinese "censors''^ (p. 51), whose duty it is to privately supervise the acts
of tlie higher dignitaries in the jorovinces. Though polygamy is not permitted, concv;binage
is, and women hold a very low rank in the domestic life of Corea. Filial piety is^ how-
ever, carried to an extreme even unknown in China, and the ties of blood are recognised
in a manner which would shame the proverbial " fortieth cousin " of the Scottish Highlands.
The people, who are said to number about eight and a half millions, are nevertheless
miserably poor, and their houses and dress bear witness to their impeeuniosity. There is
little trade in the country, but it is increasing. The Japanese and other foreign goods
imported at Fusan-po did not, during any year from 1876 to 1878, amount to more than
half a million dollars in value. But during 1878-79 Corean products to the value of over
c€90,000 were brought to Japan. These consisted for the most part of rice, white beans,
hides, gold dust, " irico,^^ poque silk, and bones. The imports for Japan were valued at
£75,000, and consisted of shirtings, lawns, T-cloth, copper slabs, and cotton yarn. Of the
imports, however, less than £11,000 worth were Japanese products. Twenty-four Japanese
steamers, and about 450 sailing vessels (junks), entered and left the port of Fusan.*
The roads are miserable, and consequently wheeled carriages are not in use (p. GO). At the
markets or fairs most of the commercial intercourse of the people is carried on, but as
each peasant usually supplies himself with all his needs, there is not a great prospect
of wealth to be derived from Corea, at least until permission to open up the mines is
accorded to foreigners. Paper is one of the few articles in the manufacture of which
they excel, and as the Japanese use paper for almost ever}' purpose in life, food excepted,
there may spring up a brisk intercourse between them and the Coreans in this staple.
They are skilled workers in metal, and in Eastern Asia Corean sabres and poniards bear
much the same reputation as Damascus blades once did in the West. But at present
nearly all transactions must be effected by barter, for, with the exception of a few
small copper coins, there is no medium of exchange in use. Finally, when we
add that anything worthy the name of a bridge is unknown except in the capital,
* To/cio Times, November 1st, 1879; see also "Reports of Embassy and Legation" for 1879.
CHINA: THE KINGDOM OF COREA.
69
the backward state of the country, compared with China and Japan even when first
opened to Europeans, may be imagined. The Japanese are, however, not likely to leave many
stones unturned in order to eiiect a profitable intercourse with their neighbours. It may
nevertheless be taken for granted that the Coreans will do all they can, both from their
own inclinations and by the instigation of the Chinese, to limit this as far as possible.
Even at present the Chinese and Japanese junks, which fish trepang (Vol. IV., p. 242)
A COREAX PALAXQrrS'.
and herrings off the coast, are not allowed to land their crews or cargoes, or to hold any
intercourse with the people.
As in China, education is held in high esteem in Corea, and is ostensibly the only
means of entering the Government service ; but the higher class greatly neglect their
own language, preferring to use, both in conversation and writing, the Chinese tongue;
and even the shopkeepers employ it on their sign-boards and announcements. The result
is that the once extensive literature of Corea has dwindled down to insignificant pro-
portions, and the purity of the native language is now merely preserved by translations
70 THE COrXTKIES OF THE WORLD.
of Chinese works, a few peetical collections, romances, and less important treatises,
When Admiral Roze captured the capital, he found carefidly preserved in one of the
buildings a library ©f upwards of four thousand books, bound in g-reen and crimson silk.
One volume, evidently highly valued, consisted of a series of marble tablets united by
copper-gilt hinges. Each tablet was embedded in a cushion of scarlet silk, and the letters-
were of encrusted gold. The native language is of the so-called " Turanian " family, but
it is now much mingled with Chinese words, which, however, are made to undergo the
regular Corean declension.*
The religion of the country has also undergone a metamorphosis at the hands of the
Chinese. At one time it was Buddhism, but since the introduction of the doctrines of
Confucius, in the fourteenth century, they have been gradually displacing the older faith,
until at the present time they are almost universally adopted, though with the admixture
of various indigenous superstitions, from which the purer form of worship practised in China
is exempt. The educated classes have even further advanced, until their religion mainly
consists in the worship of ancestors, with the attendant ceremonies connected with births,
deaths, funerals, and mourning. Soothsayers are, however, held in high repute, and a&
blind men are supposed to have prophetic power, the sightless people of the country have
formed themselves into a regular professional guild, whose services are greatly in demand,
to use Mr. Webster^s words, "for the discovery of secrets, the foretelling of the future,
and the exorcising of devils. In this latter operation they trust principally to noise as
a means of frightening the spirits, whom thej^ ultimately catch in a bottle and carry off
in triumph.'^ The Coreans, as both the x\mericans and the French learned to their cost,
are no despicable enemies. Their cannon were found to be well-finished breech-loaders, and
though their boats and junks are fastened together without a metal nail, they are very
fair specimens of Oriental vessels. At the present time a great deal of illicit trade
goes on between the Chinese and the Coreans at the palisade-gate, and other places on
the frontier, and much Manchester cotton finds its way into the country. Indeed, the
Coreans themselves declare that at one time they imported thirty thousand pieces of
foreign manufactures yearly, and as they cannot possibly i)roduce goods as cheaply as
we could sell them to their planters in exchange for raw material, there may in time be
a chance of opening up a trade with this exclusive people, their exclusiveness, however,
being more artificial restrictions put on them by their rulers than any desire on their
part to keep apart from the world.
Their mines are undoubtedly rich, and their other products quite equal to those
of China and Japan. Their cotton is, indeed, not much inferior to that of the
Carolinas, and would doul;tless command a ready market. One of their chief articles of
trade with the Chinese would, however, experience a less eager demand. This is human
hair, the abundance of which is accoimted for by a curious Corean custom. The boys*
hair is allowed to grow until it can be divided in the middle and the hind portion plaited
into a " tail.'-' At marriage the tail is cut off and sold to the Chinese.
On the borders of Corea and China, safe from either in their mountain fastness, live a
peculiar semi-savage Mantchu race, who employ themselves in collecting medicinal roots and
* Medhurst: "A Translation of a Comparative YocuLulary of Chinese, Corean, and Japanese" (1835).
CHINA: MAXTCHUEIA. 71
in cutting down trees, wliieli they float down the rivers to the Ya-lei-kiang-, in the vallev
of which some of them also live. They appear, likewise, to find gold in abundance, for
they invariably pay the balance in their dealings with the Chinese and Coreans in that
metal.^
Maxtchuria.
The founders of the present or " Tsing" dynasty of Chinese rulers — who ascended
the throne in lG-11- — were originally chiefs of the Mantehu Tartars — semi-savage nomads
■who roamed in the country north and east of China. This region of Mantehuria is still
a part of the Chinese empire, and, owing to its being the natal country of the emperors,
is especially favoured by them. It is divided into three provinces, though one of
these — viz.. Southern ^lantchuria, or Shinking — is almost a part of China proper, and
in our notice of that part of the empire has been briefly touched upon (p. 40).
■Central Mantehuria, known as Kirin, or Tchilin, is less incorporated, while Ho-lung-chiang,
•or Northern Mantehuria, is the Chinese part of the Amoor country, the greater part of
which we have seen (pp. C-lO) has been absorbed by Russia. These regions are usual! v
known as Tung-sau-sheng — the " three eastern provinces." The first-named division,
^Iso sometimes called Liao-tung, having been already noticed, may in this brief sketch
be dismissed. Kirin, or Central Mantehuria, is usually represented on the map as being
bounded for some distance on the west by a palisade or stake defence. This is, however,
;something very difiierent from the famous gi*eat wall which was built across the provinces
of Pe-chili and Shanse to keep out the Tartars, and which still, in greater or less integrity,
remains. In truth, " the barrier of stakes," which is pourtrayed with such circumstantiality
■on all the maps of China, exists merely in the imagination of the Emperor and the
■chartographers. There is, according to the report of Mr. "Williamson, only "a sort of
gate at the passes, and a ditch or shadow of a fence for a few yards on either side."
The whole area of the country may be estimated at 135,000 square miles, and like
Southern Mantehuria may be divided into two portions — one prairie and the other moun-
tainous — the first being, however, only a small area compared to the north-east corner
'^within the link of the Soongari" river. The mountain region is very fine, some of
the peaks rising to the height of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet, and covered all the year
round with snow on their summits. Often also in the middle of the plains may be seen
-conical peaks, isolated from every range, and appearing at a distance ^Hike a number
of dish-covers on a large dining-table." Through it coiu'se the Soongari, Hurka, and
Usuri, the waters of all of which eventually find their way into the Amoor. Indeed, it
is doubtful whether the first should not be considered the continuation j^roper of that
river. Central and Northern ^lantchuria may thus be considered "one huge basin,
-corrugated by several mountain ranges, with their respective streams, the mouth of the basin
t "Williamson: "Joiu-ncys in North China," Vol. IT., p. 303. Corca is known to the natives as Chosien
(Tso-sjon) ; to the Chinese as Kaoli, and to the Japanese as Korai, hence our name of Corea. It is one of the
least known countries in the world, our information regarding it being extremely scanty. The chief .source
for our data is M. DaUet's " L'Eglise de la Corce " (1874); see also Oppert : "A Forbidden Land" (ISSO).
n
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
lying towards the north-east." The extremes of climate are more marked than in Southern
Mantchuria, but as the shortness of the summer season is compensated for by the rapidity
of the growth and maturity of the crops, the weather does not interfere with agriculture.
Mr. Williamson, from whom we derive nearly all our knowledge of this part of China, describes
the country from Pet-tua-na eastward as a level plain, only broken by insignificant un-
dulations, and covered for the most part with a waving sea of tall grass, varied by a
MONGOL KALKHAS.
little brushwood, a few trees, and cultivated patches in the vicinity of hamlets. The
menotony of the prevailing scenery is, however, more than compensated for by the
variety, beaut}-, and frequent boldness of the mountain districts, and the ever-changing
aspects of the hills and valleys, woods and streams, and the extreme luxuriance of the
temperate vegetation. The contrast between this region and Shan-tung, further south, is
remarkable. In the former province (p. 3'5) the tops of the hills are bald : in this part of
Mantchuria the}' are as green as in Scotland, and in places cultivated to the summit. On
the tops of every high ridge are found oaks, elms, and willows of such huge size that they
look as luxuriantly clothed as some of the islands in the Indian archipelago. Here the
CHINA : MAXTCHURIA.
73
severe winter frosts freeze the moisture iu the s^il, so that when the summer heats come
with all their force the veg-etation is supplied with abundance of water. In the
regions further south the contrary prevails. In Shan-tung- there is little frost, and ac-
cordingly the rain which falls on the soil is evaporated rapidly, leavint)- little for plant life
A SANDSTORM IN" THE DESERT.
at the period when it most requires it. Socially, Mantchuria is really only an extension of
China, for the greater portion of the inhabitants are emigrants from the northern provinces.
They get land at nominal prices, and their industry not being left behind in the land of
their birth, they are gradually converting waste lands into rich farms, and are likely in
course of time, owing to the better climate and the more abundant supply of food, to
turn out a finer race than their relatives in China proper. There is, however, such an
170
74 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
enormous tract o£ country to be settled that it will be ages before much impression can
be made on it^ and under good g-overnment it ought to attract much of that immigration
which is flowing into foreign countries.
In addition to the Chinese, there are a considerable number of jNIohammedans settled
in Mantchuria. They are the proprietors of many of the best restaurants in the towns,
and their lodging-houses for the traveller are usually kept much more cleanly than
those of the Sinetic infidel. Their religion also keeps them apart, physically and socially,
from the Chinese, but to foreigners they are well disposed. The Mantchus, curiously
enough, are now in a minority, and so rapidly has the process of amalgamation been
going on that there is at this day some difficulty in distinguishing between them and the
Chinese. In the central i^rovince they are for the most part agriculturists, and in dress,
manners, customs, and language are ]Mantehu no longer. They are, indeed, gradually dropping
their own tongue, and it is only the youths, who from their position or prospects are
expected to cultivate the ancient language, who take the trouble to go to the jNIantchu
schools established in some of the larger towns. Nomad Mantchus are few ; indeed,
ISlv. Williamson in all his journeys met none, and is inclined to think that their
nomadic propensities have died out. Even the soldiers drafted from Northern INIantchuria,
though wilder in appearance than their brethren from the south, are, when at home,
agriculturists. Yet there is plenty of room for vagabond propensities did these exist, for
the land is great and the population small.
Most of the settlements are along the lines of travel, but away from these
the country is thinly dotted with farms and villages. Altogether, jNIr. Williamson
calculated nine years ago the jiopulation of central Manchuria to be about 2,000,000,
and the official statistics, or rather estimates, for the three provinces put it at
12,000,000. Of the cities, Kirin Oola is one of the finest, and perhaps one of the most
beautifully situated in China. Built on the banks of the majestic Soongari, at the
foot of a range of hills which form about three-fourths of a circle around it, it coidd
not be better placed as regards picturesqueness. But the narrow, imflagged streets, and
the low-roofed, poor houses, stamp it as a town of third-rate rank architecturally. Many
of the squares are, however, tastefully ornamented, and some of the streets are paved with
blocks of wood. Its chief commerce consists in the building of junks and boats, for
which industry the abundant supply of wood gives it great facilities. The country
is, as a rule, fertile, the soil being over great tracts a deep fat loam, apparently
formed by the decay of vegetation, so that after the brushwood and trees — where they
are found — are cleared off, little labour is needed to secure good crops. Pulse is the chief
crop. Maize is also cultivated extensively, and the surplus wasted in distilling a kind of
w^hisky; but wheat, barley, and potatoes, though grown to some extent, are not highly
appreciated. Another crop, which has only been introduced within the last few years,
is now attaining ominous and alarming properties. This is opium, now considered the
most profitable occupant of the soil ; and though illegal, its growth here, as in other
parts of the empire, is winked at by the corrupt mandarins. Its effect, not only on the
parts of the country into which it is sent, but on the growers themselves, is described
as being impossible to exaggerate. ^Nlen and women are becoming almost universally
CHINA: MAXTCHURIA. 75
addicted to smoking it^ and once the habit is begun there seems ahiiost no cure for it.
Indigo is also a profitable crop, and Mantchurian tobacco is famous all over China. Indeed^
the spread of tobacco culture over the empire, as well as its use by all classes, is very
remarkable. Tobacco is believed, on what grounds I have not been able to learn, to ha\e
been introduced into Japan by the Dutch. The Japanese acted as the agents in bringing
the herb over to Corea about 280 years ago. The Coreans, in their turn, made the
Mantchus acquainted with it, and when the latter conquered China they brought into the
Middle Kingdom the drug which is now smoked by probably every man and boy in the
empire. Coal has been found in the province, and it is probable that agates, cornelian^;,
onyxes, and other precious stones are not the only mineral riches of the country, though
as yet neither iron nor coal have been worked, nor indeed are they known to exist in
any great quantities, though abundant in the surrounding country.
Tigers of the Bengal species are common, and often commit considerable depredations
on the flocks, and even carry off human beings. Bears, polecats, weasels, foxes, sables,,
wolves, wild boars, stags, antelopes, rabbits, hares, &c., abound ; and horses, mules, asses,,
oxen, sheep, dogs, cats, and pigs — especially in the vicinity of the large maize distil-
leries — are common everywhere in the settlements. Trout, carj), perch, pike, eels, and
salmon are plentiful in the rivers. The last named, indeed, is a common article of food
among the natives, while their skins are prepared for summer clothing, and if pro-
perly dressed look very pretty. Snakes and other reptiles are too common, and the-
insect swarms which fill the air are among the worst disagreeables of travel here, as well
as along the valley of the Amoor further north and east.
Northern Mantchuria, Ho-lung-chiang, or Tsi-tsi-har, is a much less inviting country,.
and more thinly j^pulated, though its area is 199,000 square miles. The only cultivated
regions appear to be in the valley of the Nonni and along the banks of the Soongari..
In the former district are situated the cities of Tsi-tsi-har (or Pu-kwhe) and Mergen, and
in the latter the smaller town of Hu-lan, in addition to several villages. The other parts,
though fine, are either covered with forests and not likely to be soon reclaimed, or left
almost entirely in a state of nature, even when consisting of fine open valleys such as those
we described in a former chapter (p. S). In time the country may be settled up, for
the soil is rich, and the cattle which in places dot the prairies afford evidences of the
excellent pastures in which they wallow. Otherwise the remarks already made about
Central Mantchuria may be said to apply generally to this part of the imperial ''natal
land." The region is well fitted for receiving the surplus population of China, especially
of North China, but it is doubtful whether they will ever be able to people it rapidly
enough, for the Russians are anxious to colonise their part of the valley of the Amoor,.
and though their success has not hitherto been great, any misfortune to the Chinese
empire might be the signal for Sclav civilisation to find its way further east, until the
whole of Northern Mantchuria, and even of the central part of the country, met the
fate of the greater part of the Amoor Valley. The ]Mantchus and the Mongols are some-
times confounded. In reality they are of different habits, though, in common with the
Coreans, and perhaps the Tungoose, Goldi Giliaks (p. 7), ]Manguns, the Orokaps of
Saghaliii (Vol. IV., p. 319), and the Japanese, of one stock. But while the Mongols — as
76
THE COrXTElES OF THE WOKLD.
lias been very clearly explained by Mr. Meadows'^ — cast on the g-reat plains of Asia were
compelled to be nomadic^ the Mantchus, more highly favoured^ had in Mautchuria properf
A MONGOL CAMEL ON THE MAUClf.
a bnd o£ mountains and fertile valleys, and so lived by hunting, fishing, and agriculture.
* See also, passim, Mr. Iloworth's exhaustive " Histoiy of the Alongols " (1877 — 80).
t The present JIantchuria comprehends some country which, though hoj-ond the great wall, and often
]>olitieally separated from China, has from the earliest times been settled by Chinese agiiculturists, traders, and
aitisans.
CHINA: MONGOLIA. 77
The Mantchus have always been a settled people. In ancient times they dwelt during- the
winter in eaves excavated in the sides o£ dry banks, or in pits in the earth ; and in
summer in huts formed of boughs, covered with bark or with long wild grass. From
the earliest jwriods they have reared horses and oxen, but, unlike the Mongols, they have
never had camels and sheep. On the other hand, they have been greater breeders of
pigs, which fatten on the abundant mast shed by the great forests which cover so
much of their country. The Mantchus approximate to Mongols in being hunters, but of
a different kind of game, and have, in addition, always derived much of their sustenance
from the numerous rivers which intersect their country. The vague term "Tartar^'' is
generally applied to the Mantchus, but if by " Tartar ^^ is to be understood a nomadic
race of herdsmen the term is a misnomer, for at the period when a lettered race came in
contact with them they presented, according to Mr. INIeadows, a close resemblance to the
Red Indians of New England and Canada at the date of the discovery of Amex'ica. They
were divided into a number of tribes, but as from time to time one tribe gained the mastery
over another, the vanguished tribe dropped its old name in favour of that of the victors, and
thus it came to pass that before the Mantchus bore their present designation they were
known by various other titles, landmarks of the progress of the conquering and absorbing
characteristics of the people to whom they belong. In very early times, the Mantchus
paid tribute to China, but growing powerful, and taking advantage of a corresponding
weakness on the part of their more civilised neighbours, they began to assume the
aggressive, until in ]018 they routed a great army of Chinese and Coreans sent against
them. In 164-i the Ming dynasty was entirely displaced by the Tsing '^pure,'^ or
Mantchu emperors, who to this day reign with undisputed authority. Since that date
Mantchus have, as might be expected, really ruled the country, and occupied most
offices of profit and trust. But the " Tartar " sway has not been an oj^pressive one ; and
while the Mantchus have conquered China, the Chinese have conquered the Tartars, by
the victors having almost unconsciously imitated the customs of the vanquished, until at
the present moment it is difficult to distinguish the one race from the other, except that
the Mantchus are rather lighter in complexion than the Chinese, somewhat heavier
built, possess more beard, and as a rule are more intellectual-looking in appearance
(p. 72). They are also less under the control of the Buddhist priests than the Mongols, and
pay more respect to literature. Take them as a whole, they may be considered the most
improvable of all the Chinese people, and possibly present the best raw material on which
civilisation and progress can work in Asia.^
Mongolia.
The region of the Chinese Empire known under this name is not necessarily the
country of the Mongols, for this enthnological term is, like the corresponding one of
"Tartar,^^ used very loosely and comprehensively. Indeed, it corresponds in Blumenbach's
classification of the human race to the Turanian of later writers, and includes not only
♦Fleming: "Travels on Horseback in Mantchu Ttirtary " (1863); Gabelcntz : "Elcraens de la Grammaire
Mandchoue" (1833).
78 THE COUNTRIES OE THE WORLD.
the Mongols proper, but the Chinese, Indo-Chinese, Tibetans, Tartars of many kinds,
Siamese, Japanese, Burmese, Eskimo, Samoyedes, Finns, Lapps, Turks, and even Hungarians
or ^Magyars — in fact, a heterogeneous collection of about half of the human race. But
though collectively no people have played a more prominent part in the history of the
world, the country of jNIongolia proper is by no means an important region, nor are the
nomadic hordes inhabiting it suggestive of the warrior scourges who, under Attila, crushed
the Roman Empire, or under Genghis Khan and his successors formed the greatest empire
the world ever saw. Mongolia, as defined by General Strachey, is tlie almost rainless region
sloping in great grassy or stony plains towards the interior of the continent west of the
Khinghan range of mountains. The sight of these monotonous tracts weary the eye, and,
owing to the scanty pastures interspersed by deserts, are able to support but a thin
population — estimated at 200,000 — compared with their enormous extent, and that of a
nomadic character, ever on the move in search of grass and water for their flocks of sheep
and camels, and herds of horned cattle, and horses. In the eastern part of the country the
tribes, owing to contact with the Chinese, are approximately civilised, but those in the western
part of the region ai'o, so cruelly barbarous as to make the country, in si>ite of the travels of a
few adventurous exj^lorers,* to a great extent a terra incof/nifa. In the summer the heat is
great, and the winter colds correspondingly severe. Much of it, owing to the little rainfall,
is a hard stony desert, Avith here and there areas of blown sand. Except on the slopes
of the higher mountains bordering or intersecting it, on which the rain falls more
plenteously, or where the melting snow supplies water for irrigation, thei'e are not many
towns or settled villages. In such localities there is a little cultivation and some trees, but
beyond these oases all Mongolia presents few spots fitted for the abode of civilised man.
The Mongols are very pious, and in each of their circular tents there is almost invariably
an image of Buddha. ^lilk, cheese, and the flesh of their flocks- is their usual food, and
dried excrement their almost only fuel (pp. 72, 77, 8f).
The Desert of Gobi.
Shut in by the Yablonoi Mountains, the Thian-shan, the Tibetan plateau, and the
Khinghan range — its eastern part almost coterminous with Southern Mongolia, and its
western part merging into Eastern Turkestan — lies the great upland desert of Gobi.f It
is a plateau of some 1,200,000 square miles, elevated between 2,000 and G,000 feet above
the sea, while there are mountain ridges which traverse this Central Asian wilderness
reaching in some parts to 10,000 or 12,000 feet. It is Han-hai, or Dry Sea of the
Chinese, a term which Richthofen has proposed to substitute for that ordinarily in use, in
so far that it not only is suggestive of its present condition but of its former history.
In reality it is the bed of an ancient sea, the shores of which can still be traced
with more or less distinctness, and is divided into two great basins. The western of
these is intersected by the great Tarim River, which is swollen by tributaries from
* Prcjoviilsky : " Tnivels in Mongolia," translated by E. Dulniar ^Morgan (1876), etc.
+ It is the Turki fm- "groat," ami, like the term " Slnnio," sometimes used as a synonym of "Gobi," is
employrd liy tlio Chinese as a general term for any sandy desert.
CHINA: MONGOLIA. 79
the surrounding mountains, the course of which is as yet very imperfectly known,
and which ends in an inland lake, now very g-enerally believed to be the famous
Lob-nor, whose identitication has for so many centuries been one of the problems
of Central Asiatic geography. Colonel Prejevalsky, to whom of late years almost
our sole knowledge of this region is due, describes the country through which the
Tarim flows as one of the wildest and most unfertile in all Asia. A sadder desert
it would indeed be difficult to imagine. A meagre fringe of tamarisks and reeds line
its shores, while away to the south-west stretch those drifting fields of sand which
have immemorially given the country the evil reputation it so deservedly bears. On
the banks, where a little moisture enables a scanty vegetation to settle, about 1,200 souls
manage, by the rearing of cattle and the cultivation of a little wheat and barley, to
exist. The peojile, who are all jSIohammedaus — of the Kara Kalmuk, Khoshot, and
similar tribes — only came to the Lob country, as the district of the Lower Tarim is
called, about 170 years ago. But before these Kalmuk emigrants came there were
aborigines in the district about whom ver}' little is known, except that they are small
black men, with long matted hair, who shun the society of the new comers, and delight
to live with the wild beasts and the cattle in the thickets and brakes about the marshes.
Even the villages of the new comers are only a collection of reed huts, and though the people
live a little better since agriculture has been introduced among them, they still subsist chiefly
on fish, and the produce of their flocks, and the chase. But the Ameer of Kashgar, who
during the short-lived era of his kingdom claimed to be their ruler, never could get any
tribute out of them, while it is not very likely that the Chinese will be any more
successful now than they wore in former times. Some of their customs are extremely
peculiar, and well worthy the attention of ethnologists, though they are of such a nature as
to render these pages not the proper place for introducing them to a non-scientific audience.
At one time the population was much more numerous, but more than twenty years ago
small-pox destroyed the majority of the inhabitants. The Lake swarms with fish, and its
margins at seasons are noisy with wild fowl ; and among the reeds the tiger, wolf, fox,
wild boar, hare, and other animals prowl, affording abundance of food and sport to the
inhabitant, whose thoughts seem never to soar much higher than the material wants of
the day. At one time the wild camel was numerous near the Lob-nor, but at present
its chief haunt is the desert of Kum-tagh, to the east of the Lake, though specimens are
now and then come across in other districts. The eastern, or Shamo basin of the Gobi, is
varied by no water- courses, but seems to consist of a series of terraces, giving the country,
according to the observations of Mr. Ney Elias, the appearance of low hills or downs,
with valleys and plains intervening, the whole of a rocky or stony nature rather than
sandy, though patches of sand do occur at intervals. Vegetation is rare, and consists
of weeds, scrub, and ^Mieath,^' with scarcely a blade of grass, '^and only a dwarfed and
stunted tree here and there in the gorges or passes of these low rocky ranges that at
uncertain intervals cross the desert in almost parallel lines from east to west.^''*
But it is not this part of the desert which is of the greatest interest — it is the region
covered with the shifting sands towards the west, and regarding which for long there have
* JoKnial of the Moijal Geographical Socict >j ,\ o\. XLIII. (1873), p. 120; Richthofcn : "China," Vol. I. (1877)
80
THE COUNTEIES OF THE WORLD.
been strange tales. It has been immemorially reported that ages ago there were cities here,
and that they are now buried by the sand. Sir Doughas Forsyth, during his mission to
Kashgar, made careful inquiry into these stories, and the results of his researches are so
SCEKF. rS' THE PESEKT OF GOBI.
curious that it may be well to devote a brief space to some account of the opinion he has
arrive<l at. In the first place, it may be noted that such buried cities are not unknown
in other parts of Asia. For instance, in 1865 Mr. Johnson visited an ancient city not fav
from Kiria, and four marches distant from Khotan, which had been buried in the sands for
centuries, and from which gold and silver ornaments, and even a quantity of tea, were dug.
"When Colonel Prejevalsky crossed the sands of Kugupchi he also heard tales of buried
171
83 THE COUNTRIES OF THE "WORLD.
treasure. This part of the desert is a succession of hillocks^ from forty to one liundred feet
in heig-ht, composed of yellow sand, the upper stratum of which, when disturbed by the wind,
blows on either side of the hills, forming- loose drifts, which have the appearance of snow-
drifts. He describes the appearance of these bare yellow hillocks as being most dreary
and depressing". Nothing can be seen but the sky and the sand : not a plant, not an
animal is visible, with the single exception of the yellow-grey lizards which trail their
bodies over the loose soil, and mark it with the patterns of their tracks. " A dull heavi-
ness oppresses the senses in this inanimate sea of sand. No sounds are heard, not even the
chirping of the grasshopper: the silence of the tomb surrounds you" (pp. 73, 80). Such
a melancholy scene has conjured up in the Mongol imagination strange tales of warriors
who here fought against the Chinese, whose countless slain Allah caused the wind to
cover with the desert sand. ''To this day the Mongols relate, with superstitious awe, how
cries and groans may be heard in the sands of Kugupchi, which proceed from the spirits
of the departed; and that every now and then the winds, which stir up the sand, expose
to view different treasures, such as silver dishes, which, though conspicuous above the
surface, may not be taken away, because death would immediately overtake the bold man
who ventured to touch them." Many similar traditions might be quoted of the over-
whelming of cities by sand and of the treasures which still remain. Of course, such
legends must all be taken with great allowance, but after sifting out of them the evident
exaggerations and lies, there remains behind such a residuum of apparent fact that little
doubt need be entertained of the existence of several such towns in this part of the
country. Sir Douglas Forsyth and Dr. Bellew saw the traces of many in the part of
the desert nearest Kashgar, and though they obtained neither gold nor silver, they
obtained proof positive that these have been, and are yet found in other ruins, in addition to
the coins of the Greek and Roman conquerors, as well as images of Buddha, which refer
to a later date. The locality of most of these ruined cities is said to be many marches
east of Khotan, but near Ilchi, the chief city of Khotan, remarkable finds of great
gold ornaments have been made. Sir Douglas Forsyth is inclined to believe that on
the western part of the desert, at all events, the sand mounds are moving on, baring-
parts now covered, and covering regions now cultivated, and that in this manner the
cities and houses which are known to be buried have been from time to time over-
whelmed. It is likely that before long we shall learn more of these interesting and
mysterious regions from Prejevalsky, whose former explorations are so well known, a&
well as Count Szechenyi, a Hungarian traveller, both of whom are making strenuous efforts
to effect an entrance in this part of Asia, and through it on to Tibet, to which we shall
soon proceed.*
Chinese Turkestan.
Far away in the centre of Asia (p. 73) lies a region of sand}^ deserts, relieved by
oases of great riches, and peopled by a warlike race, half barbarous, but extremely Moslem,
* See also PovtsofH " Exprdition in North Western Mongolia," in Proceed} »(/.<< of the Boijal Gcogrnphlcnl Socletij
(1879), p. 701.
CHINA: EASTERN TURKESTAN. 83
^vllose wars, feuds, and conquests formed an important portion of tlie world's chronicles iu
the Middle Ag-es, and even in the earlier centuries of the Christian era. Then for a time
their names almost faded out of history, until recent events once more hroufjht them
i:)rominently before the world. The most famous kingdom of this great Mediterranean is
Little Bokhara, Kashgar, Eastern Turkestan, or Chinese Tartary, the name it bore for nearly
a century and a half, and which title, in the midst of the recent hurly-burly, it is destined
to bear once more. For some time prior to the ninth century the Chinese Empire extended
to the borders of Kokand and Cashmere ; but soon after that date internal dissensions
disturbed the country, and the Central Asiatic kingdom fell from the grasp of the distant
rulers, who had enough to do to hold their own immediate subjects in check. Then the
native princes each grasped what they could, sometimes more, sometimes less ; now giving
rise to a Genghis Khan or a Timour Leng, who were only prevented by death from con-
quering half the world; again falling asunder into fragments under the successors of these
lierce warrior chiefs, until amid the confused turmoil we come down to the year 17^0,
when the Chinese began once more to assert their power, and by 1760 had re-conquered
the country afterwards known as Eastern Turkestan. Under their rule it continued until
the year 1859, when the elements of decay once more began to develoj) themselves in the
Chinese Empire. Rebels had risen up against the Pekin authority, and on every hand were
successful. The Panthay ruler swayed over the Mohammedans in Yunnan, the Taopings
were at the height of their career, and in Kan-su and Shen-si ]\Iussulman insurgents
sprang to arms. Under these circumstances the time seemed ripe for the Tungans —
semi-independent tribes on the Kashgar border — rising and reclaiming the country for its
old masters. The latter called in the aid of Yakoob Beg, a Kokand soldier of fortune,
who, however, accomplished his task far too well for the taste of his employers, for not only
did he succeed in driving out the Chinese, but by the year 1866 had crushed the Tungans
also, and established himself ruler of a Mohammedan state whose capital was Kashgar. Here,
as Athalik Ghazi, Champion of the Faith, and Badaulet, the AYell-beloved, he reigned up
to the year 1877, when the Chinese, having settled affairs at home, began to once more
bestir themselves in Central Asia. If their fall had been rapid their recover}^ in that
region was even swifter. In the very first battle in which they encountered Yakoob he
was defeated. Then immediately the mushroom kingdom seemed to slip from his grasp ;
city after city surrendered or was taken, tribe after tribe deserted him. Worst of all, the
soldier king died himself, and after a brief but ineffectual stand by his sons and generals,
the latter fled over the border into Russian territory, and the Chinese were, after the brief
interregnum, once more masters of Eastern Turkestan.
Such, in a few words, is a bi-ief outline of the events which have led to this
part of the world appearing under the head of the outlying parts of the great
empire Avhose capital is in Pekin rather than — as would have been the case if these
pages had been written a few yeai's sooner — as an independent state. ^ Since the
Chinese have become masters they have ruled with a rod of iron. Every relative or
adherent of the Athalik Ghazi has been punished with a ruthlessness which only the
* The fullest history of Kashgar is contained in Mr. D. C. Boulgcr's "Life of Yakoob Beg" (1878), from
vlueh able Avork many of the facts in this sketch are (ieri\-ed.
81
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
Chinese can display when their ang-er is roused. Thousands of people have been
slau«2^htered, and thousands more have been forced to seek safety in exile. Hence, a
country which, while under Yakoob Beg's rule was calculated to contain 850,000 people, is
now estimated to include within its 400,000 square miles of territory not more than
600,000. Few countries are more isolated. East and west the Gobi Desert and the Bolar
Tagh, or Pamir Steppe, form its boundary ; on the north the Thian-shan, and on the
A MONGOL CAMP ON THE MOVE.
south the Kuen Lun mountain ranges separate it from the rest of the world. With the
exception of fertile oases here and there, Kashgaria is one wide undulating plain of sand
and salt, 3,000 to 4,000 feet high, but sloping off to the east, in which direction the
Tarim River, already noticed (p. 79), flows until it loses itself in the Lob-nor. In the
summer the climate is very hot and dry, and in the winter extremely cold. Glaciers creep
down from the mountain ranges, supplying tributaries to the Tarim, and sometimes by
forming mountain reservoirs, which suddenly burst, carrying destruction far and near.
Though the country is rich in gohl, silver, lead, copper, iron, coal, jade, and other minerals,
few of these are worked to any extent, and the population is chielly massed in towns on
SQ THE COUNTllIES OF THE WOKLD.
oases, either on the tributaries of the Tarim or on the outskirts of the mountains, whore
■some moisture enables the arid soil to bear crops of wheat, barley, maize, rice, cotton,
flax, tobacco, and hemp, or on which can be pastured the sheep which grow the fine wool
woven into the Turfan shawls, which bear so high a repute in Kashmir and other neigh-
bouring countries. Outside these oases there is little to tempt the wayfarer. Rain is
rare, and sand-storms and whirlwinds frequent. In the summer the traveller broils under a
merciless sky; in the winter deep snow covers the country like a white blanket. Trees arc
few, except by the water-courses, but around the villages are usually groves of willow,
poplar, and elm, in addition to orchards of various fruit trees.
Of the cities Kashgar, though not the greatest, is the chief, since here Yakoob
Beg established his capital. It is built on a plain on both sides of the little river
known as the Kizel Su — but from its streets may be seen in the far distance the snow-
dad peaks of the Thian-shan and the Aksai Plateau, with the lower hills intervening.
The population numbers about '30,000, and owing to the concourse of merchants from the
Russian and other portions of the surrounding country — we are speaking of what it was
in Yakoob's day — the caravanserais and bazaars present a busier appearance than the actual
size of the place would seem to warrant. The town extends for some distance along the
banks of the stream, but there are in it no buildings of any beauty or pretension, the old
palace of the Ameer itself being merely a great gloomy barrack, consisting of several
buildings within buildings, the outer ones occupied by the household troops and oflicials, the
inner by the Ameer and his family. It is hardly likely that matters will have much
improved under the Chinese tey'inic, for though the Chinese are more tasteful and domestic
than the Asiatics of this part of the continent, their rule has up to date been such a
continual hand to hand fight that the officials and colonists have not had much time to
develop the amenities of life. The Andyanis, or Khokandian merchants, were the most im-
portant class in the town, and had Yakoob Beg been a more enlightened ruler, or even allowed
longer to remain on his throne, it can hardly be doubted that with the trade he was opening
"up with Russia and India the city would in time have attained some of the prosperity
which in old time attracted the admiration of Marco Polo and the early Chinese
travellers. A few miles from Kashgar is the Fort of Yangy Shahr (p. 89), which
was one of the last places in which the Chinese held out against Yakoob Beg, and
iialf way on the road to Yarkand lies the city of Yangy Hissar, once a place of
some importance commercially and from a military point of view, but now fallen
greatly into decay, though, owing to the exceptional fertility of the surrounding
•country, still not without influence in Kashgarian politics. The road the traveller must
traverse in order to reach this town passes through the hamlet of Kokrobat, and skirts the
barren, stony desert of Hameed, with its scanty patches of grass and few stunted shrubs,
and through the busy little town of Kizil, where are situated furnaces for smelting the
iron ore of the lower slopes of the Kizil-Tagh, or Red IMountains. Then come a number
of little villages and a fertile plain, on which, on the left bank of the Sargrak, stands
Yangy Ilissar, or Yanghissar, as its name is sometimes spelt. The town contains about
11,000 houses, huddled together in the wildest confusion — a booth for the sale of silks
standing alongside of one used as a stall for the disposal of horseflesh. Yarkand the
CHINA: EASTERN TIKKESTAN. §7
ill-fated Lieutenant Hay ward* describes as containing- about 40,000 bouses, but be
estimated tbe population of tbe half-deserted town at only 120,000 : in all likeli-
hood it is now much less.f Unlike Kasbgar, which is an open town, Yarkand (pp. 85,
89) is defended by a strong- wall, pierced by five gates, and the streets are never
over ten or twelve feet wide, and lined with shops — curiously enough for a Moham-
medan town mostly kept by women. Some of the houses possess an upper storey,
in which the sharp-eyed observer may notice the women rocking the chikVs cradle with
their feet, a spectacle which, as Mr. Shaw observes, is not common in the East.
But, in addition to its military and commercial importance, Yarkand is a " university
town," on an expanded rather than a great scale. At the time the lamented pioneer of
commerce we are quoting J visited it, it possessed numerous mosques, colleges, and
caravanserais, or hotels, always crowded with merchants from every part of Asia, dealing-
in grain, fruit, and leather, of which last article the consumption was very great, the
late Ameer not only using it for the boots and saddles of his troopers, but even in
some cases for their uniforms also. ^lany of the bazaars and streets are roofed over as
a protection against the sun's rays, and the town is well supi^lied with water from tanks,
which are filled by canals. In every street during the summer ice is sold, iced sherbet,
at the cost of a twelfth of a penny the cupful, being- one of the most common refresh-
ments of thirsty pedestrians. Pheasants and venison are brought in frozen from
the mountains during the winter. Good bread is made " by steaming over boiling water,
the loaves being placed in vessels with a false bottom, made of open woodwork. In
similar vessels also are cooked various delicacies, which make good and savoury food,
especially what the Turks call ' mantoo,"" being little balls of forcemeat enclosed in small
dumplings with gravy. They are really delicious." ^Nlr. Shaw mentions that, unlike the
case in the East generally, the bazaars are not noisy with buyers and sellers, all bargains
being conducted in a silent manner with the hands. ''The seller, the buyer, and all the
officious assistants who never fail to present themselves on this occasion, pull their long-
sleeves over their hands, and in this way make bids on each other's fingers, saying,
'so many hundreds^ — a pull of the fingers; 'so many tens' — another pull; and 'so
many units ' — another pull." No bargain seems to be thought valid unless made in this
manner, which, it may be noticed, was described 500 years ago by !Marco Polo. In
Y'akoob's time — and it is not likely that the Chinese have been able to change the
system — the silver " kooroos," an ingot of silver, consisted of about 1,100 " tangas,"
each " tanga," in its turn, containing- twenty-five little copper cash, so that if change were
required for a piece of bullion a donkey had at the same time to be hired to carry
it home. Hence most transactions are done either on account or by barter.
The people are fairly treated. The "corvee," or forced labour, which is the rule in
Kashmir, and even in the hill districts of the Punjaub, was unknown under YakooVs rule.
All work done was paid for, and if insufficiently so the men refused to do it. The
peasant and coolie also work cheerfully, more like Englishmen than the listless Indian
* Journal of the liot/al Geograph\cal Society, Vol. XL. (1870), p. 33.
+ Sir Douglas Forsyth did not consider it had over a third of that number.
X Shaw: "Visits to High Tartary, Yarkand, and Kashgar " (1871).
88
THE COUNTKIES UF THE WORLD.
labourers, who would take four days to do what these Yarkandians accomplish iu one.
lu Yakoob Beg's time they were paid fourpence per day. But food is cheap. Flour
was selling iu the spring oi: 1SG9 at about a shilling lor 20 lbs. weight, and it is
said that before the rajlnie of Yakoob it was only one-third of that price. Indeed,
in ISOU many of the people wearied for the return of the Chinese, who allowed
the taxes to be collected by the native officials, and did not in any way interfere
MEUCIIANTS OF YARKAXD, EASTEllX TVKKESTAX.
with the local administration so long as their moderate tribute was paid. But at the
sam.i time they allowed the officials to plunder prodigiously, a course of action which
Yakoob, contrary to the wont of Oriental potentates, strictly prohibited. Indeed, under
the Chinese, Kashgar was only an inferior town, the seat of government being Yarkand,
and liere also were the chief Chinese merchants, who vanished when the new ruler made his
advent. It is, therefore, only fair that the evidence in favour of the much-abused Chinese
Government should be given, for it enables us to see at a glance the relative merits
and demerits of the two rcglincs which in a few short years the Yarkandians have had
experience of. " What you see on market days now," was the observation of an intelligent
CHINA: EASTEKN TUKKESTAN.
89
merchant^ " is nothing to the life and activity that was in the time of the Khitay (Chinese) .
To-day the peasantry come in with their fowls and eg-gs^ with their cotton and yarn,
or with their sheep and cattle and horses for sale^ and they go back with printed cotton,
a fur cap, or city-made hoots, or whatever domestic necessaries they may require^ and
always with a good dinner inside them; and then we shut up our shops and stow away
€)ur goods till next week's market-day brings back our customers. Some of usj indeed,
GATE OF THE FORT OF YAXGY-SKAHR, FIVE MILES FROM KASHGAR, EASTERN TURKESTAN.
g© out with a small venture in the interim to the rural markets around, but our great
day is market-day in town. It was very different in the Khitay time. People then
bought and sold every day, and market-day was a much jollier time. There was no Kazi
llais, with his six Muhtasib, armed with the dira, to flog people off to prayer and drive
the women out of the streets, and nobody was bastinadoed for drinking spirits and eating
forbidden meats. There were mimics, and acrobats, and fortune-tellers, and story-tellers,
who moved about amongst the crowd and diverted the people ; there were flags and banners
and all sorts of pictures floating at the shop-fronts ; and there was the jallab, who painted
her face and decked herself in silks and laces to please her customers.^' " But were not the
172
90 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
peopL; more depraved under lliis rule than under the stricter system enforced by the Athalilc
Ghazi?" "Yes, j^^^'^^'^P^ ^'^/' ^^'^s the reply. "There were many rogues, and gr.mblers too,,
and people did get drunk and have their pockets picked ; but so they do now, though not
so publicly, because we are under Islam, and the shaviat is strictly enforced." Still, there
is another side to the question; for though the Chinese rule is tolerant to a fault, it is
lax, and the exactions, or " squeezes," of the tax-gatherer know, in this out-of-the-way
l^art of the empire, no bounds. Under Yakoob the villag-ers would soundly thrash a roguish
oiiicial, and ho did not dare to comjilain, because had he, the Ameer would in all likelihood
have executed him for his fraud. Under the Chinese the same collector may take as much
as he pleases, so long as he brings to the imperial treasury the emjieror's dues. Yet even in
Turkestan they hold up their hands when they hear of Kashmir, in which the taxes are farmed
out, and where, between one official and another, from two-thirds to three-fourths of the-
produce of the jieasant^s land are filched from him.
About Yarkand are many vineyards. The vines are trained on trellis-work, along-
side of which is a trench. During the dry summer this trench serves to bring water
to their roots ; and during the winter, to protect them from the cold, they are detached
from the woodwork and twisted down into the trench, ^^•here they lie, Vv^ell banked
over with earth, until the spring comes. In the Kuen Lun jNIountains are the fine
quarries of jade, a mineral which forms an important article of trade in Eastern
Turkestan, and is carved by the natives into many pretty ornaments. It is mined
by a trench, being excavated on the top of a rock, and a fire lighted in it. AVhen
the heat is believed to have penetrated deep enough, a quantity of cold water is sud-
denly thrown into the trench, the result of which, of course, is the splitting off of
considerable fragments ; but the best pieces, and those freest from flaws, are picked
up in the beds of streams, Avhen the long tossing about they have been subjected to
has the effect of speedily discovering any cracks which exist in the mass, and which,
if not detected soon enough, may render the carver^s toil of weeks so much labour thrown
away. The town of Khotan, or Houtan, as the Chinese call it, or Ilchi, as it is locally^
known, is the eiifre/jot for all the trade of Tibet, and is therefore a bustling place.
Here arrive wool and gold from Tibet, as well as the latter metal from mines in the
neighbouring Kuen Lun, and musk, silk, and jade from other parts of the country.
"When jNIr. Johnson, in 18G5, made a flying visit to Ilchi, he found silks, felts, carpets--
of silk and wool mixed, coarse woollen cloths, and paper made from mulberry-fibre the
principal manufactures. The town was surrounded by a wall twenty-four feet high and
twenty feet broad. "Watchmen patrolled the streets at night; but as they all notified
their presence by striking a stick against a hollow piece of wood, which gave forth a
shrill, unmusical sound, as a terror to evil-doers they were of limited influence. The
Chinese instruments of torture were still in use, and hanging and blowing away from guns
were the ordinary modes of inflicting capital punishment. Gallows were erected in the
city in various places, so as to be handy in case of accident, and men and women v/ere
daily flogged with a leathern thong.*
* Joimial of the Jio>/al Geographical Society, Vol. XXXVII. (18G7), p. U. Ilutton : "Central Asia" (187o)»
p. 370.
CHINA: EASTERN TURKESTAN. 91
Ush Tiirfau and Aksu ara the names of two other cities. In the neighbourhood
of the latter town are rich mines of lead, copper,, and sulphur. Coal is the ordinarv
fuel among- the inhabitants; and here the road to Kuldja terminates, so that in times
more prosperous than the jiresent a considerable trade was carried on across the Thian-
shan to the valley of the Hi. These six cities are the only places of importance in
the country ; hence, indeed, in old times Eastern Turkestan was called Alty Shar, cr
the Six Cities. But in addition there may be mentioned, as a point of some strategic
importance, the post of Serikul, or Tashkurgan, important in tliis respect, that between
it and Afghanistan there intervenes only the Pamir Steppe. Xow as Yakoob Beg, had
not his career been cut short, was evidently pushing on to the Steppe with a view to
seizing AVakhan and Badakshan, he would eventually have embroiled himself with Shere
Ali. But China is not an aggressive — only an intensely conservative — nation; and Afghanistan
is not likely for long to come to be in a position to trouble any man outside its borders.
Maralbashi, at the junction of the Kashgar and Yarkand roads, is another important post,
and interesting as the chief stronghold of the Dolans, a tribe living in wretched
subterranean dwellings, and of habits and intelligence more degraded than any other race
in this region, the Bhots of Tibet, with whom they have been compared, not excluded.^
Kucha during the Chinese occupation was a place of consequence, and ran competition
in wealth with Aksu, but by the latest accounts it has now sunk into insignificance, and
is, indeed, little better than a mass of half-deserted ruins. The same may be said of
Korla, Kouralia, or Kouroungli, and Karashar, two towns lying to the east of it ; while
Turfan, through which, in old times, all the caravans proceeding east or west passed, is now
desolate, and the country round it a desert. Under Yakoob's rule the country between
Yarkand and Kashgar was a belt of prosperous farms not small in extent, though rather
isolated from each other, and surrounded by orchards of plums, apples, and other fruit
trees. A Kashgarian village is, indeed, a collection of farm homesteads, '^presenting to
the eye of a stranger rather a thinly-peopled district than a community of villagers."
The system of agricultui-e is, however, bad. The soil is soon exhausted, and hence, even
the limited amount of soil in any region is neither so fruitful nor so generally capable ot
bearing crops as it ought to be. Hence, each proprietor seems to have more land than
he requires. But outside of these oases the country is barren and bleak in the extreme.
''The scanty-marked bridle-track that supplies the place of a highway in every direction,
except where the Chinese have left permanent tokens of their presence, affords but little
inducement to travellers to come thither: nor must these expect anything but the most
imperfect modes of communication and of supply that a backward Asiatic district can
furnish. If we wish to imagine the scene along the road from Sanju to Y^irkand, we
have only to visit some of the wilder Sussex Wealds to have it before us in miniature.
The spare dried-up herbage may be still more spare, and the limestone may be more
protruding on the Central Asian plain, and the wind will certainly remind you that it comes
cither from the desert or from the mountain regions ; but you have the same undulating,
dreary expanse that you have above Crowborough. The miserable sheep, watched by some
* A sketch of the principal races of Central Asia is given in " Races of Xaukind," Vol. III., pp. 221 — 287,
and Vo\ IV., pp. 223-234, etc.
9a THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
nomad Kirghiz, will alone forcibly remind you tliat you are far away from the heights
of the South Downs. In the far distance a'ou will see the cloud-crested pinnacles of
the Sanju Devan or of the Guoharhrum, and then the traveller cannot but remember
that he is in one of the most inaccessible regions in the world/''* Yet the high-road from
Kashgar to Aksu, Kucha, Korla, Karashar, and Turfan, along which all the traffic that
passes or passed from China to Dzungaria, Kashgar, Kokand, and Bokhara, Mr. Boulger
justly characterises as a masterpiece of engineering skill, considering the character of
the road itself and the circumstances under which it was constructed. The heterogeneous
races who have at different times sought a home, a refuge, or wealth in Kashgar are,
as a rule, frugal and tolerably honest ; but the country suffers from the want of
cheap and easy communications between the different parts of it, and between it and other
countries — above all, India. The rivers in the country are scanty, but still they contain,
especially during the spring time, when the snows are melting, water enough for all
purposes of irrigation, though they can never be utilised as highways, nor even made to
do so in an indirect manner by tilling canals. The climate is, if not pleasant, healthy
enough. The people suffer from no prevalent disease, except goitre, which is common in
Yarkand and the more mountainous parts. Altogether the character of the country is
such that, without necessarily entertaining the over sanguine views that were in the early
days of Yakoob Beg's reign held regarding its future, it is difficult to come to any other
conclusion than that, considering its natural resources and position, it ought, under a
settled government, to advance greatly beyond any point it has attained since the day
when Alexis won the heart of Lalla Rookh.
KULDJA.
On the other side of the Thian-shan, in the fertile valley of the River Hi, shut in
by lofty ranges of mountains, from which descend cool streams to fertilise the whole
region, was, up to the time of the revolt Avhich drove the Chinese out of Turkestan, the
prosperous province of Dzungaria, a region which comprised the valley and much of the
surrounding country. The capital of the province was Kuldja, a large citv, prosperous and
pleasant beyond the lot of almost any town of Central Asia. But in 1871 the Chinese
fortunes stood low in Turkestan. Yakoob Beg was master of almost the whole country,
and the Tungan rebels, to whom that unscrupulous soldier had played the rule of the
man to the horse in the fable, had, with the Tarantchis,t captured Kuldja, and during
the eleven years they had held it had all but depopulated the neighbouring country.
Then in 1S71 Russia stepped in, and after defeating the Tungans and Tarantchis, annexed
the valley of the Hi, with the distinct promise that it would be surrendered whenever the
* Boulger: " Life of Yakqob Beg," p. 12; Bellow: "Kashmir and Kashgar" (187o) ; Henderson: "Lahore
to Yarkand" (1876); Gordon: "Roof of the World '" (1875); "Report of a Mission to Yarkand and Kashgar"
(1875), kv. This volume contains contributions regarding the result of Sir Douglas Forsyth's Embassy, by the
officers engaged in it. Capt. Trotter, R.E., has also given an abstract of the geographical observations of
the mi.ssion in the Joiirnnl of th ■ Roijal Georiraphicnl Soriefi/, Vol. XLVIIL (1878), pp. 173—234.
t Descendants of Kushgarian labourers imported by the Chinese into Kuldja in 17G2.
A KIRGHIZ BRIDE.
9^ THE COUNTRIES OF THE AVOKLD.
Chinese slioultl again be able to maintain order in Turkestan. At that time this
prospect seemed t'aiut, and Russia, doubtless, considered Kuklja hers for ever. Indeed, as
early as IS 15, soon after the foundation by Prince GortschakofE of the military settlement
of Kopal, on a fertile plateau at the base of a sno\v-capp3d mountain of the Ala-tagk
range — ostensibly to protect the Kirghiz, Cossacks of the Great Horde, who had been
formally annexed to the country erected into the Semipalatinsk district — Russian factories
were established in Kuklja and Tchugutchak, though both of these towns were then
indisputably Chinese possessions. Still later, in 18G0, when the Chinese were gasping for
existence in Turkestan, she granted to Russia by treaty the whole of the great Issik-kul
Lake, with the fertile country surrounding it. It was, therefore, but natural that in
1871, in order to protect her newly-acquired territory, and stop the ravages of the
" rebel ^^ hordes who bordered it, she should annex Kuldja on the conditions men-
tioned. It is even said that, had not events precipitated matters otherwise, Yakoob Beg
might have felt the heavy hand of the Czar. But the Chinese are a long-memoried
people, and, like the exemplary heir of a spendthrift estate, were rapidly redeeming the
possessions which had slipped through the fingers of the incapable or unfortunate rulers
of twenty years before. Finally, Kashgar fell from the opium and bang-shattered soldiers
of Yakoob Beg, and the army of General Tsao Tsung Tang appeared at the base of the
Thian-shan, and demanded the recession of the province which had for six yeai's been lying
in pawn on the other side of that historic range. After some threats and a good deal
of diplomacy, it is understood that the province is to be re-ceded to China, on condition
of her paying the cost of its occupation and certain claims of Russian merchants on
the Tui'kestan authorities, in addition to granting some of the territory and considerable
privileges to the Russian traders specified. Altogether, the bargain, if ratified, is not
a bad one for the Czar, either now or considered in its prospective advantages.
However, the country to be handed over to its old masters is one of the finest in
Central Asia, a region where the richest tracts alternate in oases with frightful sandy
deserts or dried-up beds of former inland seas. Its jwpulation was at one time
great. The town of New Kuldja was estimated to contain 75,000 permanent in-
habitants, and every year thousands of nomads and merchants from all parts of Asia
arrived to attend its famous markets. But since ISGO everything has been in such
disorder that the census usually given in the Russian statistical tables must be received
as merely approximate. Before the insurrection the population of the province —
Tarantchis, Tungans, or Dungan (p. 96),' Chinese, Sibos, Kalmuks (p. 90), Kirghiz
and Torgots — was 350,000. In 1871 the number was estimated at 114,-3'37, but later
statistics put it at 500,000, scattered over 28,000 square miles of territory. As the
population has gradually increased under Russian rule, the latter census may perhaps be
tolerably correct.
Kuldja is, in reality, the centre of Asia, and with the surrounding districts of the
ancient kingdom of Dzungaria, extinguished by the Chinese in the eighteenth century,
is considered by M. Semenoff, an eminent Russian geographer, who directed one of these
notorious "scientific expeditions^' (mainl}' consisting of Cossack cavalry), as the point from
which, from time immemorial, numerous races have migrated to the low and arid steppes
CHINA: KULDJA. 95
of the Aralo-Caspian depression, and the still more distant and better-favoured regions of
the West. Here, and on the fertile and smiling- banks of the Hi and Irtish, the
migrating hordes lingered for a time, loth, as it were, to venture out into the unknown
-plam before them, stretching far away into sandy deserts that separate Europe from Asia,
until a new tide of pojiular migration forced them at last to strike their tents, and depart
westward from their mountainous halting-grounds.^
There were two towns of the name of Kuldja, about twenty-five miles apart. Old
or Tartar Kuldja, which has for nine years been the head-quarters of the Russian
administration of the province of Hi, is, however, the only one now in existence, for the
other, Iloi-yuan-tchen, New or Mantchu Kuldja, which was a flourishing city of about
75,000 inhabitants until the date of the Mohammedan rising in 1858, was, as noticed,
taken by the '' rebels,'^ the whole population put to the sword, and the city reduced
to ashes.f The place has not been rebuilt, and presents an appearance dismal in the
extreme. Many buildings, especially the official residences, have been utterly raze.l to the
ground, and in places the earth is white with fragments of human bones ; while, at the
date of Dr. Schuyler's visit, skulls, and even whole skeletons, could be seen in every
direction. Only a few Tungan families lived among the ruins of Buddhist temples with
their broken idols ; and the jmlace of the governor, with the limiting wall, beyond which no
man Avas allowed to pass under pain of death, still stood, as if in mockery of the fate
that befell it. Past all flows the Hi, as of old; but instead of being covered with boats,
as in the palmy days of Kuldja, it is now silent and lifeless. " The ground is accursed,^'
remarked one of the rebel leaders; "no one will live here again. ^'' For two years the
Tungan and Tarantchi army sat before the town. At last it was taken. In the morning
there were 75,000 people within its walls : by night not a soul was left alive. Many
were butchered at once ; some killed their families and then themselves ; and many ran to
the steppes, only to be cut down there or to die in a few days from starvation. Everything
in the city worth plundering and portable has been carried away ; even the beams of the
houses have been torn out to serve either as firewood or as material for new constructions.
But it is believed that there is still buried among the ruins much treasure, a belief justified
by the fact that in the governor's palace eighty thousand ounces of silver were found.
Then, after slaughtering the inhabitants of other towns in the valley, or subjecting
them to heavy ransom, the Tungans and Tarantchis, as might have been expected, set to
quarrelling among themselves, and fought several battles, until the Russians interfered and
settled matters by becoming masters. Everywhere through the valley are still traces of the
ravages of these fiendish hordes, who ought much sooner to have been crushed by the nearest
civilised power : dried-up canals, abandoned fields, withered forests, and " every few miles
dismantled and ruined cities, which but ten years before had sheltered a civilised and
hard-working population." The industry and taste of the Chinese were, inter alia,
displayed in the planting and maintenance by constant irrigation of artificial forests;
but after the Huns of Central Asia were allowed to displace civilisation by savagery these
* Journal of the Hoyal Geographical Society, Vol. XXXI. (18G1), and Vol. XXXIX. (18G9), in addition to the
works of Ostcn-Sacken, Regol, Ujfulvy, and other scientific explorers of the last few years.
t Schuyler: "Turkestan," Vol. II. (1876), pp. 162 ct scq.
96
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
trees perished from drought. Alimtn, Bayandai, Tchimpantzi, &e.^ are all ruined i)hices, the
surrounding- fields deserted and choked with weeds; but Tchin-tcha-ho-dzi was left unharmed,
being chiefly inhabited by Mohammedans ; it has the unmistakable " pungent odour which
hangs about boxes and parcels brought unopened from China and Japan." Suidun is another
Chinese-Russian town^, over his visit to which Dr. Schuyler grows almost enthusiastic. Instead
of the narrow, crooked streets of Tashkend, in five days he had arrived at a town M'ith
-^-^ ,"* -^^
TVXGANS AND KALMIKS 01' KVLDJA.
broad, straight avenues shaded with trees, and bordered with buildings of brick, beautifully
carved and moulded, roofed with tiles, and with latticed windows and porticoes. Instead of
dowdy-figured women swathed in long, shapeless dressing-gowns, and faces hidden by black
horsehair veils, '' there were stout, healthy, and smiling women chatting over their
marketing, the bright, orange-coloured marigolds in their wonderful coiffures, or their
coquettish little caps, contrasting well with the indigo blue of their gowns. Instead of
Sarts and Uzbeks in gowns and turbans, there were Chinese and Tungans in wadded
petticoats, short jackets, long moustaches, and pigtails. ^^ The town itself is square in
outline, and strongly protected by a wall and battlements, and is cai)ab]e of standing a
CHINA: KULDJA.
97
determined sieg-e. The present town of Kuldja is very mucli like Suidun, but it is Luilt
on a larg-er and grander scale ; and at a g-lance one sees that the place is a Tartar town,
with the Chinese polish and civilisation very thinly laid on. All the houses are built
of clay, with flat roofs, like the buildings in the Uzbek countries of Central Asia. The
bazaars are not of great interest, and the visitor who expects to pick up anything- precious
in the way of porcelain and "curios" will be disappointed, for everything of value has
long ago been bought by the Russians, so that a fresh arrival has to resort to the Aksakal,
or Governor, in order to find out what private individuals have still anything to sell; or, in
A " TAUTAK " OF KULDJA.
other words, has to resort to something very like force. In the town itself, or its suburbs,
the Russians have established paper, vermicelli, and other manufactories; but the principal
buildings are the mosques (p. 100) and a Buddhist temple. Altogether, at the date
of Dr. Schuyler's visit in 1873, the population of the city was about 10,000, of whom
fully one-half were Tarantehis."^
The Hi, or Eelee — a name which is also sometimes given to Kuldja, the chief town
on its right bank — is a large river which, after flowing 300 miles through the Kuldja
country from the snows of the Thian-shan, falls into Lake Balkash. The vale
* In addition to the admirable work of Dr. Schuyler, and the various Eussian treatises on the province,
descriptions of the races wiU be found in a paper by Dr. Eadloif in Petermann's Gcogruphlsche MittheUuiigen,
1866, pp. 88, 250.
173
£S THE COUXTRIES OF THE WORLD.
tbroug-li which it runs is lOO miles in breadth, and averag^es over 1,000 feet
above the sea. The banks are low, and thoug-h the river is, at Kuldju, more than a
mile broad, the current flows with great rapidity. In the upper part of its course it is
surrounded by the wild and magnificent scenery of the Thian-shan and its spurs, but
in its middle part it passes between endless fields of grain and other crops, and amid
groves of peach, apple, and pear trees. Near its banks stood the old capital of the
Chagatai Empire, and the very name of this once important city of Ghenghiz Khan and
his descendants (Almalik) signifies "a grove of apple trees/^ Apple orchards, it may be
remarked, are the most common feature of the country. Fort Yernoe, an important
Russian post and rising town, forty-seven miles to the south of the ford over the Hi,
at the base of the Traus-Ilian Ala-tagh, and nearly 2,000 feet above the sea, is
surrounded with natural orchards of apple and apricot trees bearing excellent fruit, and
the mountains in the vicinity are clothed with abundant pine and other timber. Again,
Tashkeud, much further to the west, is in the centre of cotton fields, and here rice and
wheat are also grown, though the latter has also to be brought from the Keles A^alley, and
the vicinity of Chemkend. Mulberry trees are common and vines are abundant, but the fig
tree grows only in favoured spots, and probably finds its northern limit in the Trans-
Chu district, in the neighbourhood of Tashkend, where the fruit in the middle of
September is not quite ripe but extremely sweet. Gardens surround nearly every house,,
and between these are fields of lucern and corn, cotton, sesame, and the zedoary tubers,,
used so extensively throughout India and High Asia as perfumes and aromatic tonics.
In the Hi valley there were planted, after the fall of the Dzungarian Kingdom, numerous
Chinese settlements, each embosomed among lofty trees ; for the artificial cultivation of
timber is possible even in so dry a climate as that of Central Asia, and wherever the
industrious Chinese come there he makes a garden. Vines and pomegranates require to be
sheltered in winter, but bear fruit lavishly, whilst everywhere plums, apricots, pears, and
apples flourish with great luxuriance. Rice and maize are also among the Kuldja cropSy
and melons are so large that even the Californian, could he see them, would be forced to
acknowledge that something in the cucurbitaceous line can be grown out of the Sacramento
Valley. Dr. Schuyler, indeed, considers it the richest part of Central Asia, and about the
oidy ])art acquired or occupied by the Russians which will ever repay the labour spent
over it. The soil we have seen is fertile, and will yield abundant crops. The mountains
abound in iron and copper, and good coal is found within fifteen miles of the city of
Kuldja, and sold at from 5s. to 8s. per ton. Beef and mutton cost l|d. to 2d. per lb.,
and a fowl can be bought for 2d. Flour is 7d. per piid of 361b., maize and wheat half
that price, and rice and other grain are less, though prices have doubled and even
trebled since the advent of the Russians. But at present the trade of the province is
unimportant : even in the Chinese times, neither the imports nor the exports reached,
according to Dr. Schuyler's information, £30,000 per annum.
For the last 1G5 miles of its course the Hi passes through a sterile, sandy
steppe, and debouches into Lake Balkash (about 780 feet above the sea), through
a delta covered with thickets of reeds seventeen feet high, and almost impenetrable,
except to the boars, tigers, and other animals which haunt such places all along the
CHINA: KULDJA. 99
shores of this hike, which, with the two Ala-Kuls,'^ appears to be the last remnant
of a great dried-up inland sea. The river from Old Kuldja to New Kuldja is navigable
at high water for abont two and half months in the year, and then with great difhculty,
on account of the shoals and gravelly banks. From New Kuldja to the Hi station —
5S0 miles — it is practicably navigable at all times of the year, and easily at high water.
Finally, the section from the last-named point to Lake Balkash is easily navigable, but
the trade has not yet sufficiently developed to make the utilisation of the stream a
matter of much importance. In the mountains, which the traveller through the Hi
valley never loses sight of, and the occasional cool breezes from which relieve the
terrible summer heats, wild goats, deer, hares, and other animals sport among the woods
of jiine, poplars, willows, birches, and wild olives. Curiously enough, the dark brown sea-
sparrows of the Kurile and Aleutian Islands {C'uiclas Pallasii) are found on the Karabura
Mountains ; while on the southern slope of the same mountains, as well as in the
Kirghiznin-Alatau, is alone found the white-bellied variety iC. leucor/aster) of the same
bird. The ullar, a partridge {Mcfjalojjerdrix n'KjeUli) weighing from ten to fifteen pounds,
is common ; but the red-legged partridge of the Chu and Syr Daria Mountains is rare,
or entirely absent from the Kuldja Mountains. Silk- weaving is not common in Kuldjn,
but in the valley of the Syr Daria and on all the southern affluents it is one of
the great industries of the settled population, as is also the business of rearing the
mulberry and the silkworm. It might, perhaps, be extended here also.
Trade has been so disorganised of late that it would be difficult to say exactly
of what it at present consists, and under the Chinese regime will no doubt be entirely
revolutionised, in spite of the clause in the new treaty which stipulates that Russians
are to have free commercial intercourse with the Chinese provinces. Felt, silk, bang,
M'ool, gold, silver, cotton, may be looked upon as among the exports of the surrounding
region ; while opium, spices, sugar, tea, linen cloths, kinkal, broadcloth, Kashmir shawls,
leather, firearms, indigo, brass utensils, prints and calicoes, iron, silk, caps, cochineal,
porcelain, cutlery, tobacco, snuff, padlocks, &c., are among the articles that the wild
Kirghiz and other tribesmen mostly buy. But British trade with these provinces must
now be looked upon as a forgotten dream, whether Slav or Mongol is to rule it.
The soil of some parts of Central Asia is extremely fertile. In the valley of the
Arys wheat produces thirty-fold; lucern, after three cuttings, grows up nearly three
feet high, and is prevented from bending down by its density, the stalks supporting
each other, the outer ones alone bending down to the ground.'' f The Sorghum millet
and other crops are equally rank; for though the winter is extremely cold, the summer
is correspondingly hot, and the facilities of irrigation in many of the drier parts of
the country are great. The scenery near the shores of Issik Kul — 1;2U miles long,
33 broad, and elevated 1,900 feet above the sea— is said to be very beautiful; while the
peaks, covered with eternal snow, the torrents, and the wild rocks, add to the charm
of the still more attractive country immediately along the banks of the lake. The
deep, blue, brackish waters of the lake, though full of fish which are never caught,
* Kid 18 the Turki word for a lake, and is equivalent to the IMons-ol Xor.
t Sevcrtsof : Journal of the Royal Geographical Soc'uti/, YoL XL. (1S70), p. 371.
100
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD
are solitary enough now ; but it is known that once on a time cities of considerable
magnitude existed along its desolate shores. To this day the strand is strewn with
A TAUANTCm MOSQUF. AT KILD.IA.
skulls and bones, evidently of Kirgiiiz, the remnants, possibly, not of some "great battle
in the west/' as the natives tell, but of washed-away cemeteries in the near vicinity.
Under the clear waters of the lake, it is said, ruins can yet be seen of submerged
towns; and it is certain tliat in dig«;-ing in the neighbouring country brick walls,
CHIXA: TIBET. 101
sculptured stones, and inscriptions in an unknown alphabet have been found. Indeed,
the station-houses near the lake are often paved with diamond-shaped tiles, some plain,
others covered with a blue g-laze, which had. been found in the lake, and by the
peasants while ploughing* their fields in its vicinity.
Owing to the uncertain tenure of the Russian occupation of Kuldja, they have
not permitted the valley to be colonised by their own people ; and it is, indeed,
doubtful whether the shiftless Moujik would be able to make as much out of the
valley as did the Chinese, with their industrious habits and careful system of agriculture.
The people in the vicinity of Kuldja are mostly Tarantehis, and with a few exceptions
are agriculturists. The valleys of the rivers Kunges and Kash, which are prolongations
of the valley of the Hi to the east, are inhabited by the Torgots and Kalmuks
(pp. 9G, 97), remnants of the old Dzungarians, and descendants of the Kalmuk
tribes who at the beginning of last centmy returned from the Lower Volga. ]Much
of these valleys consists of salt-pools and districts destitute of water. But about
one-halt' is fitted for agriculture, and in the middle and upper part is possessed of
abundance of water, pastures, meadows, and even forests. In the upper part of the
valley, and in the mountains, there are reputed to be many kinds of trees — poplar,
apple, apricot, elm, fir, birch, mountain-ash, &c. — but the lower part of the valley is
waterless and salt. The Russians have not yet surrendered the province; and looking
at the cpiestion entirely apart from political considerations, it is questionable whether, in
the interests of the wretched inhabitants — Chinese and Tungan — they ought to leave them
to the mercilessness of the fierce Tarantehis, unless the Chinese provide an army strong
enough to keep order. Such fearful massacres as were perpetrated at the time of the
insurrection cannot be permitted to be repeated. But so little confidence have the few
Chinese now remaining in Kuldja in the power of the '' Khitay " to protect them, that
they make no secret of their intention to leave the moment the Russians withdraw.
Tibet.
The resident in the northern parts of India finds his view all along that frontier of
the empire bounded by a giant range of mountains, the Himalayas. At least, so the maps
represent it. In reality these mountains are more properly a mountainous country, wide in
extent, and " often consisting of high parallel ranges divided by great rivers (both ranges
and rivers running longitudinally in the same direction of the entire chain)," and finally
reaching "a high barren plateau, supported on the outer ranges as on a series of walls."
This high plateau is Tibet, Thibet, or Tubet, Bod, Bot, or Bodyul— the land of Bod— of the
natives, and one of the subject countries of China. "With the north-eastern part of the
country we are still only slightly acquainted, but from what is known of it the area of
Tibet is roughly estimated to be from 600,000 to 800,000 miles, and the population at
6,000,000. The most part of this area is enclosed in the angle between the Hindoo
Koosh, Pamir Highlands, the chain of the Kuen-lun ]Mountains, and the great range
of the Himalayas ; but though usually designated a plateau, in reality it is a " table
with the legs turned up." In other words, it is traversed by several mountain ranges
10:2 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
Avbich near its western and eastern frontiers interlace in so complicated a manner as
to deprive the table-land of any likeness to the upland plain usually so designated.
The average elevation of the southern portion is 13,500 feet, though in places it rises
to the height of 16,000 feet ; but in the north and east it is believed that the tract
of country descends to much lower levels. The great Himalayas, twenty summits of
which are higher than the loftiest of the Andes, and which we shall by-and-by have
something to say about when we cross the ranges on our way out of India, are only
connected with the plateau by ridges of lesser elevation, which, to use the simile of
a geographer, ''project from the highlands like buttresses which rise higher than the
walls which they support." The Tibetan table-land stretches away eastward towards the
frontier of China proper, but it can only be approached from India through mountain
gorges cut out by torrents, and of the wildest and most picturesque grandeur. The
four provinces of Tibet are usually divided between the eastern and western divisions
of the country, the first region being drained by the Sanpoo,"^ which lower down is
successively known by the more familiar names of the Dehong and Brahmapootra, and
the other by the Indus. Both these rivers lie close together, but they soon separate,
the one running eastward and the other westward, and both finally breaking through
mountains to the southward, and before they fall into the sea embracing between them
the whole of northern India. "Imagine,'' writes Mr. Shaw, "a, wall supporting behind
it a terrace of gravel. Suppose the gravel terrace to be hog-backed in the middle, so
that the waters rising there run away to the right and to the left till they each find
a low place in the wall, and escape away through it." This is the relation which Tibet
.and its rivers and the Himalayan chain bear to each other. It is still a mysterious
region, for the Chinese exclusiveness is there developed to a very pronounced extent;
and though travellers have perseveringly endeavoured to enter it, and in many cases
have partially succeeded, yet their observations have been conducted under great difficulties,
and in every case have been of a very limited chai'acter. But in spite of Tibet proper
not being well known, the outliers of the country are more familiar, for natives of Ladak
(pp. 101-, 109) — sometimes known as Middle Tibet, though politically a part of the
jNIaharajah of Kashmir's territories — Zanskar, and other waifs and strays from the
more accessible portion of Western Tibet, every year visit the Kangra and other
Indo-Himalayan valleys. " Black tents of peculiar make aj^pear for a few days at
a time in the winter on open spaces by the roadsides, and shelter dingy families of
narrow-eyed Tibetans — petty traders who come down with their wares. They are not
prepossessing in appearance, with their high cheek-bones, their dirt, and their long pigtails;
but they are the most good-tempered of mortals, and they always greet you with a grin.
Moreover, every year the few English sportsmen who penetrate into the wilder parts of
Ladiik bring down reports of the wonderful animals to be found there, and of the curious
customs of the Buddhist inhabitants. Wild sheep as large as ponies, wild cattle with bushy
tails like horses, and long hair on their flanks reaching nearly to the ground, besides
* Th.-it is, " t/ie River." In that portion of its course still unexplored it falls 8,000 feet, if not more, so that
future explorations must result in some grand discoveries in fluvial geography. {Proceed in ffs of the Royal Geo-
f/)(ij)hh-(tl SocUtij, 1S79, p. 27-t)
CHINA: TIBET. 103-
antelopes and gazelles, are to be obtained by those who toil sufficiently; while for non-
sportsmen the curious monasteries perched on almost inaccessible rocks, with their Romish
ceremonial,, their prayer-wheels, their gig-antic images and ancient manuscripts, form the
chief attraction/-' But long before Tibet is approached from China Tibetan tribes are met
with, as, indeed, Mr. Baber noted in his recent journey. Though the country lies in a
comparatively low latitude, yet its great elevation renders it in the winter almost as cold as
the Arctic regions. Owing, however, to the mountains and plains which intervene between
it and the sea robbing the winds of their moisture, its excessive dryness prevents either the
cold being so severely felt as otherwise it would be, or the country being unhealthy.
Flesh expose-! to the Tibetan air dries until it crumbles into powder, but it never
putrefies. Wood does not rot, but it breaks from mere brittleness caused by the arid
atmosphere, and a person dressed in sheej^skins gives out long electric sparks when his
garments approach any conducting substance. The very rocks during the winter crumble
into powder, and mixing their dust with that of the dry soil, are tossed up by the high
wind in blinding clouds. The air is, howevei', bracing after one has got acclimatised to it,
while a region in which there is perpetual snow at 10,000 to 18,000 feet, and where
enormous glaciers exist, must act as a sanatorium to the jaded dweller in the moist, ener-
vating plains of India, or even in the Asiatic khanates further west. At 18,544; feet — 2,800
feet higher than on Mont Blanc, and 1,279 feet above the snow-line of the Andes in
Ecuador — bushes and pastures make their appearance; and though lower down grazing land
of a bare and scanty description stretches, yet cedars and birches — the only trees of the
country — are only met with in a few very sheltered or comparatively moist places on
the hills. Salt and other lakes of large size (p. 105) are not unfrequent, but water-
courses and water generally are not characteristics of Tibet. In the plains the inhabitants
are herdsmen, but in the valleys, where fruit-trees, the vine, and grain can be cultivated
In aid of irrigation and the construction of terraces along the slopes, the people are for
the most part agriculturists. Hence the skill and industry demanded of the Tibetan
farmer have rendered him a peculiarly intelligent and hardy individual.
A nation so remote from the busy world cannot be expected to make great progress
in arts or commerce; but the country is known to abound in silver, copper, and tin,
though the absence of fuel renders these riches of little value. Gold mines are worked
and jealously guarded by the Chinese, and the deposits of salt, borax, sulphur, and nitre
are developed to a considerable extent. The produce is carried by caravans consisting of
long trains of pack oxen, sheep, mules, and horses, the rivers being crossed by inllated
skins. Jewellery and fabrics of wool and goats' hair, Buddhist idols, &c., are also traded
to Nepaul and Bhotan ; fine broadcloths and Indian manufactures are imported in exchange,
A little trade was also done with Turkestan during Yakoob Beg's time, and this will very
probably increase by-and-by. With China there is, however, a large traffic, the produce
of Tibet being exchanged for tea, Chinese manufactures, and European cutlery.^ The brick
tea-trade is, however, the most important one in the country. Of late a most interesting
* In ]\Ir. Clements Markham's monumental introduction and notes to tlie "Narrative of the Mission of
George Bogle to Tibet, and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhassa," is given an almost exhaustive
rcs'oni' of everything known about the country, or -written regarding it, up to the date of that publication (l876j.
104,
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
report on this subject has been g-iven by Mr. Colburne Baber, at that date of his journey
British Consul at Chung-Kingf, in a document so vahiable that as the original^ is Httle
known we may supply a condensation of it^ supplemented by some notes derived from
sources which the author has not drawn upon.
To the Tibetan, ;>rr. Baber remarks, tea is more than a luxurr, it is an absolute
NATIVES OF THE VALLEY OF SFITI, PKOVIXCE OF LADAK.
necessary ; a fact, indeed, noted by Horace della Penna, an old Cai.uchin friar, long-
resident at Lhassa, who wrote in 17.-30:— "The Tibetans drink a (juality of tea
made with milk, butter, and salt, and leave a little tea in the cup, in which they
make a paste with barley-meal, and afterwards eat it." This statement is confirmed
by Bogle, Turner, and Manning, and other later visitors, and though they dilTer as
* Gazcttv of JniUa, DtCLinLer, 1879: see also additional notes in the Standard (London), January 2, 1880.
i™niiiti[iiiii!iiiiiiiNiiiiiiiiBiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!ini iiiiiiTiiiiiP'i|iwii:ni«iiii!i'iiiiiii!iiwiiiniiiii!iiiiiiiiii!'pr wii
iiilliliEiilillllliBiillliHl!;:
174
106 THE COUNTRIES OF THE AVORLD.
to the quality and quantity of tea drunk by the Tibetans, it is undisputed that it con-
stitutes their principal beverag^e morning-, noon, and nig-ht, and that most of it comes from
the province of So-chuen (p. 38). Deprived of the costly, but indispensable, stimulant,
he suffers from headache, grows nervous, restless, out of condition, and altogether
unhappy. In outlying- districts mothers are careful to keep the seductive beverage from
their children for fear lest they should grow up unable, on occasion, to g-o without it. And
yet, to European taste, the infusion, as prej)ared by the Tibetans, is the remotest possible-
imitation of tea. The Tibetan teapot is a wooden churn, much like a butter-churn, into
which the boiling' infusion is poured through a strainer ; a little salt is added, and some
twenty strokes applied with a dasher pierced with five holes. A lump of Initter is then
thrown in, and the compound is again churned with from 100 to 150 strokes, adminis-
tered with much precision and regularity. The tea is then ready for drinking. It will
be remarked that, with the substitution of salt for sugar, the Tibetan preparation is of
much the same composition as the tea drunk in England; but the presence of the salt
is not perceptible, and Mr. Baber could detect no flavour of tea. It is impossible
accurately to describe the taste of the infusion ; but to force a comparison, it is something
like ^^•eak English tea with rich milk, but without any sugar or tea. And yet nobody
would mistake it for milk and water, still less for butter and water; for the tea principle
affects the flavour, while itself becoming modified into some un-tea-like astringent. It is
evident that astringency is the property desired, seeing that the many thousand Tibetans
who cannot afford tea use oak bark in its stead. The teacup of the Tibetan is a wooden
bowl, not seldom an object of high price and elaborate workmanship cased in precious
metals and encrusted with jewels. In this he allows the tea to stand for a minute or
two, and when the butter floats freely on the surface, he blows it off into another bowl.
The national farinaceous food is " tsampa,'' flour of grilled corn. The consumer takes
up a portion of this between the tips of his fingers and thumb, and opening them with
a jerk flicks it over the butter ; then moulding it into a consistency, he eats the immature
pie-crust without further formality, washing it down with the tea. This is the characteristic
nutriment of Tibetans. Two English pounds of butter and ten ounces of tea are considered
ly the latest observer a liberal, but not lavish, allowance for twenty drinkers for one day.
iSIr. T. T. Cooper, who in 1879 was murdered at Bhamo, estimated the export of
tea from Se-chuen at only six million pounds annually. Mr. Baber places it at ten
millions, though the Tibetans are contented with the most inferior qualities it is possible
to manufacture from the refuse of the crop. The poorest Chinaman in Chung-King
l)ays ten times as much for his tea as does the Tibetan. It is, therefore, allowable to-
conclude that the article sold to the latter is ten times worse, and that this fact holds
out some hope for the Assam and Bengal tea merchants being able to run the Chinese
out of the market by the introduction of a better quality of their favourite herb.
Indeed, it is doubtful whether any really good tea ever reaches Tibet, a supposition borne
out by the observations of Mr. Manning, who in 1811 was sent by Warren Hastings on
an embassy to Lhassa. Yet the Tibetans are willing to pay for good tea prices of which
half a rupee the pound may be taken as the minimum.
As far as Ba'tang is concerned, Mr. Baber considers that there is little prospect
CHINA: TIBET. 1(J7
of an outlet foi* Indian tea; but it is difficult to conceive how the idea of trading
between Assam and that place could ever have been conceived. It possibly arose
from an impression that Ba'tang* is a Chinese city, whereas it is a small Tibetan town of
200 houses, eighteen days distant from the true Chinese border, by a track which, practi-
cally closed in winter, crosses four passes at various elevations between 14-,000 and 17,000
feet, according- to the careful and corrected observations of Captain Gill, R.E."^ ^loreover,
when the Chinese border is reached at Ta-chienlu, the nearest city of any importance —
namely, Yachou — is still seven or eight days distant, and has water communication with the
sea. Setting" aside for the moment the Tibetan roads, the only practicable way from Assam to
Ba'tang is across the Patkoi to Burmah, thence into Yun-nan by the Irrawaddy track, and so
northwards by Weisee, a distance of 750 miles — a two months' journey at least in such
a country, whereby on arrival at Ba'tang the freight alone, calculated at Tibetan rates,
would be half as much again as the market price of Chinese tea. The most direct road
would of course be through Tibetan territory ; but if Tibet be opened, no purpose can be
served by going to Ba'tang. " That town is a junction of high roads to Se-chuen,
Yun-nan, and Lhassa, and is consequently a point of great political importance to the
Chinese Government. But its sole commercial significance worth the name, although there
is a good deal of peddlery, is derived from the passage through it of Y'erkalo salt and
Yachou tea on their way westwards. '^ Goods — salt among others — is carried in the country
on the backs of sheep, each sheep being laden with about 25 lbs. They are very obedient
to their drovers' whistles, and if any of them get out of the way, they are easily brought
back Ity the shepherds' dogs. Assam is admirably placed for taking the tea trade in flank,
and might even supply AVestern Tibet " without seriously affecting the Yachou export, since
the whole quantity of the latter would only suffice for the consumption of a million
Tibetans. The difficulty of crossing the Himalayas may be adduced as the most obvious
impediment; but if any track whatever exists — as we know it does — it cannot be more
formidable than the icy passes encountered by Abbe Hue on his journey from Lhassa to
Ta-chienlu by the Chinese tea-route." The districts where good tea would sell most easily
and advantageously are those which are furthest removed from the Chinese tea-route, or,
in other words, from those which are nearest to Assam. It is superfluous to remark that
the merest sweepings of the Assam "godowns" would make better tea than the Tibetans
have ever drunk.
The Lhassa Government — according to ^Ir. Kinny — force the sale of tea on their
subjects by issuing a certain quality of it to the governor of each province, and debiting
him with the price of it. In order to be no loser by the transaction, he issues a quantity
to each family, according to their wealth and status, whether they want it or not, and
fixes the price himself. Only the poorest are passed over in this extraordinary method of
■" pushing a trade."
" It is generally assumed," Mr. Baber goes on to say, '' that the obstacles to intercom-
munication are of a physical nature ; but if so, there would be no trade, whereas evidences
•of a very extensive exchange abound, even so far east as Ta-chienlu, in the use of rupees
* Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XLVIII. (1S78), p. 57, and "The Pdver of Golden
vSand" (1880).
108 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
and of many articles of Indo-European orig^in. To mention some of the more trivial —
but on account of their triviality the more convincing- — instances, the common dinner
plates of the Tibetans, when they use any, are of tin, stamped in the centre with an
effigy of some European celebrity. In those which I examined I recognised the Third
Napoleon, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and Mr. Gladstone, all supposed by the
natives to represent Buddahs of more or less sanctity. Round the rim of the plate, in
all cases, were stamped the letters of the English alphabet, from A to Z. The most
desirable buttons, again, are four-anna pieces, and so strong is the demand that three of
these are worth a rupee. British army buttons are as common as blackberries. Even
corkscrews are offered for sale in Ta-chienlu, although no one can explain their use. The
presence of such miscellaneous and cheap articles testifies to the facility of trade, while
the great quantity of rupees proves its extent. But although commercial intercourse
crosses ihe whole breadth of Tibetan countries, diplomatic relations have not yet penetrated
to the nearest of them, Lhassa-de. Yet the distance from Calcutta to Lhassa, in a direct
lino, is less than from Paris to Berlin. Until such relations are established and maintained,
there can be no hope whatever of a Tibetan market for Assam teas. Exploring missions,
no matter how well organised or amply furnished, can effect nothing in the interest of
the trade so long as the adverse influence of the resident Chinese Legates and of the
Lamas is unchecked. Xo matter how short the route or convenient the road, the hostility
of these two parties would be roused to the utmost against any project of a tea trade. ^'
Seventy years ago the Tibetan merchants told Manning that most of the articles
from India which came into Tibet were smuggled by the Fakirs or pilgrims, and that
if much gold was sent out of the country to India the Emperor of China would be
displeased. Yet for many centuries such a trade existed, until the conquest of Nepaid by the
Goorkha Rajah put a partial stop to it. The old tradition of the Indian Governor-Generals,
prior to the time of Warren Hastings, was that the Chinese ought to be kept off as
far as possible; but the efforts to open up a trade with Western China through
Burmah, the exploration of the Eastern Himalaya, the development of the resources of
Assam and the ]Mishmee tribes' country, all prove that this day of isolation is now over.
Indeed, the stipulation in the Treaty of Cheefoo that a consul is to be established at
Chung-King, " the Liverpool of Western China,'' has already been carried out by Mr. Baber
(whose report we have quoted) being stationed there, and is the best proof that India is
determined to draw as near as possible to her neighbours. Still, the physical obstacles of
tiie Himalayas, though great, are trifling compared with the hostility of the Chinese mandarins
and the jealousy of the Buddhist hierarchy of the Lamas, operating on the natural timidity
of the primitive people whom they hold in civil and religious bonds. Commerce is in
the hands of the Government, and so closely is it watched that it is next to impossible
hn- any stranger to enter the country without encountering the garrisons that are stationed
at all the inlets to it. This jealousy would be still more intensified by the commotion excited
among the Se-chuen merchants were a trade to develop between Assam and Tibet, through
Nepaul by the Kirong Pass, through Sikkim by the Chumbi ^'alley, by the route l)eyond
Sudiveli, or over the Patkoi hills ; it is doubtful whether the Pekin Government, supposing
they were willing, could force these edicts on the Chetu, Ba'tang, or Lhassa mandarins, who
CHINA: TIBET.
109
profit by the present state of matters^ or that the Lamas would care to risk any intercourse
between their serfs and the more enlightened Indians. In order to make a Tibetan
trade remunerative, Mr. Edg-ar pointed out, years ago, that it would be necessary to open
up not only one but all the Himalayan passes. Up to the present date we have seen
nothing to render this revolutionary measure less a sine qud non for trade with Middle
Asia. Colonel Lewin considers that if the flock-owners of Tibet were made aware of the
fact that at the foot of the Himalayas there was a steady market for their wool, they would
drive their sheep thither, and return with our products in exchange. In the same way.
VIEW rx LEH, THE CAriTAI. OF LADAK.
and with improved roads and open passes, large quantities of cows, sheep, goats, cheese, and
butter would be brought into India from the same source. At present the export
of live stock is limited to the carrying capacity of the animals. The traders drive
before them sufficient sheep, goats, or yaks to supply themselves with food on the road,
and to carry the merchandise and goods which they bring with them. Of late years even
the few ponies, Avhich at one time were bought for sale, have decreased in number and
increased in price, so that at present coarse woollen blankets and carpets, a little sheep's
wool (to the Northern and Central Himalayan districts), yaks' tails, musk, borax, and
rhubarb, are the main exjwrts from Tibet to India. A Tibetan in winter, owing
to the severe cold, is "like a moving bed," so heavily is he clothed. Hence English
woollens would always be in great demand. However, the Tibetans are somewhat peculiar
110 THE COITNTKIES OF THE WORLD.
in regard to the colours of their garments. " They will not wear blue or black, and
only persons of rank wear velvet; their favourite colours are scarlet, purple, liver
brown, and a snuff-coloured yellow. Turkey red cloths, prints, and flowered calicoes
arc in o-ood demand. Imitations of Indian handkerchiefs and Kashmir shawls are verv
popular among the lower classes ; chintzes do not seem to be worn. Cottons are not
used save for linings, and as coverings for sacred pictures. Cheap silk handkerchiefs
would meet with a large sale here, especially if the sacred sentence, ' Om mani padmi
houm,' were woven into the fabric.^' There is a good demand for indigo and opium, and
quicksilver, vermilion, and red and white lead are also imported for gilding the roofs of
religious houses. Mirrors, glass, and lanterns find a ready sale, and cutlery would be in
great demand were the articles more manufactured after native models. Colonel Lewin
considers that the best trade route would be from Darjeling to China rid Tibet — this
line, not only opening up Tibet, but tapping the rich province of Se-chuen, with its
30,000,000 inhabitants, and its silk, tea, rhubarb, musk, jade, amber, and cinnabar. "When
railway communication has been extended up the valley of the Brahmapootra, an even better
route might be found through Assam, but for the present this line is not available. The
Tibetans are a peaceful, well-educated, and commercially well-disposed race, and as their
faith — that of Buddha — is based on the equality and brotherhood of mankind, religious
intolerance does not exist as a barrier against intercommunication with other nations. The
Lamas, or governing class, have an interest in keeping up the present state of affairs. They
derive a profit from the duties on imported goods and on the sale of permits to traders ;
while the traders do not desire to see us competing with them, as this rivalry would soon
reduce their present enormous gains. The Chinese, in addition to these fears, dread that
we shall oust them from their political pre-eminence in the country. However, as the
Chefoo Convention sanctions us having intercourse with the country, and sending a mission
thither, it is not likely that consuls will long be absent from Shigatze and Lhassa,
or that trading posts such as the Russians have at Kiachta, in Siberia (p. V6), will not
be established on the frontier — say at Chumbi and Phaki."^
The Chinese gained a footing in Tibet so early that in the year 821 the country paid
tribute to it, but it was not until the year 1720 that the whole of it came under the yoke
of Pekin. Even yet the Government is to some extent under the control of the Buddhist
priests, or Lamas, and except in seeing that their tribute is paid, the Chinese leave the
people very much to themselves. But the large military force maintained in the country is
under the orders of Chinese generals, who also keep in their hands the direction of the
chief affairs of state. Captain Gill, however, noticed that in passing from China, the
moment the Tibetan frontier was crossed the Mandarin's orders no longer became law;
there, also, the Chinese officials do not issue their mandates in the peremptory manner usual
eleewhere. When they wish anything they make requests, and do not even expect the
Tibetans to protrude their tongues, and say, " La So " at the end of every remark, as
is the custom when an inferior wishes to be particularly respectful to his superior. It
* Transactions of the Geographical Section of the British Associntion, Shofficld TMectinp:, 1870; Proceedings of
ihe Hoyal Geographical Society, 1879, pp. 680— 8'2 ; and "Explorations in Western Tibet" (" Report of the
Survey of India for 1877-8," cited in Proceedings of the llogal Geographical Society, 1879, p. ^ H).
BURilAH: THE IRRAWADDY. HI
may be added that, though there are no diseases peculiar to the eountr}*, goitre — as is
also the case in other parts of Central Asia — prevails to a frightful extent in the more
mountainous districts. In some of these parts more than two-thirds of the population
have swellings on their throats, some of enormous size.
In Tibet proper there are several towns, but the only one of marked interest is the
capital, Lhassa, where reside the Dalai-lama, or chief Buddhist priest, and the jirineipal
Chinese political agents. The town is built on a level plain, 11,700 feet above the level
of the sea, surrounded by mountains, and dotted over with populous monasteries.
Though this region is so elevated, it yields harvests of barley and millet, has abundant
pastures, and there are clumj)s of trees, and even gardens, round the towns and monasteries.
The city itself has a circumference of two-and-a-half miles, the central object in which
is a Buddhist temple, containing images richly inlaid with gold and precious stones. The
bazaars are kept by Tibetans, Kashmiri, Ladaki, and Nepaulese merchants, many of whom
are Mohammedans, though Chinese merchants are common. "Western Tibet was much
exposed to incursions of the Turki tribes, and in the early part of the seventeenth century was
annexed to the Sikh Empire of Runjeet Singh. It now forms part of the territory of the
^Maharajah of Kashmir."^
CHAPTER V.
BuRMAH : The Country and the Government.
In the course of our description of Tibet we have more than once touched on the banks
of a river, mysterious as to its source, but familiar as to its termination. Where it rises
is not yet known, but as it flows through Independent and British Burmah, and is for
hundreds of miles navigated by ships and lines of steamers, there are not many rivers of
Asia better known than the Irrawaddy — the '' Father of Waters,^' and the great drainer of
Further India (pp. 113, 117) . At one time it was believed that the Sanpoo was the upper water
of this great river, but this hypothesis recent researches have completely disproved (p. 102). In
all likelihood, its main branches take their rise in the snow-covered Langtam range of
the Himalayas ; but the exact source is still a mystery, in spite of the many efforts made
to solve it.f Its course runs pi'etty nearly due south, and though, for the reasons mentioned,
it is difficult to say exactly how long it is, roughly speaking, it may be said to flow for
1,200 miles, receiving on its way to the sea large tributaries like the Ning-thee, Mogonny,
* For a description of the religious relations of Tibet, see "Races of Mankind," A'ol. IV., pp. 121 — 138, where
also will be found a fuller account of the Lamas, their mode of election, their monasteries, and the capital of
the country.
t Yule: "Mission to Ava," p. 273 and Appendix G; Fytche: "Burmah, Past and Present" (1878), A'ol. I.,
p. 268; Anderson: " The Irrawaddy and its Sources" [Journal of the Botjal Geographical Society, Vol. XL., 1870,.
p. 2G8), &c.
11:
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
BliamOj and Luug'tehuen. Between Rang'oon on the east and Bassoin on the west it
forms a delta, sometimes partially overfloxA-ed, comprising- about 10,000 square miles of
forest, agriculture, and pasture land, and traversed by an inextricable network of the
river's branches. The current is navigable even at low water for large vessels as far as Ava,
and steamers drawing- four feet of water have no difiiculty in reaching Bhamo, 580 miles
from the mouth. In the course of its traverse the Irrawaddy passes through British Burmah,
l^nrmah jirojier, and China, so that its mouths are under British control, and therefore the
1
VILW l.N I'EUU, liltlTIMI lilUMAH.
river, which forms the main entrance into the ancient empire of Ava, is really a British
river. Burmah is intersected by other rivers, such as the Kyen-dwen, Sittang, and Salween,
all of which run towards the Indian Ocean. The latter, like the Irrawaddy, forms a huge
delta at its mouth, which it overflows during the rainy season, but in its upper jiortion it
rushes through magnificent defiles. It is, however, owing to the frecpient obstacles in its
channel, practically useless as a highway into the interior.
Independent Burmah, Birma, or the Empire of Ava, was at one time much more
extensive than it is at present. In early times the kingdoms of Ava and Pegu coii-
tended for the mastery, but by \7o-l the latter had obtained the ui)pcr hand. However,
soon after, the founder of the present d\nasty rose, and subduing the IVguans, incorporated
BURMAH. ITS HISTORY.
113
their country with his own, and his successors continued to extend its influence and bounds
until the year 1823, when they came into collision with the British. The result of the
war which ensued was the imposition of a heavy fine on the Burmese, and the surrender
by them of a great part of their country, in addition to the sovereign rights which they
claimed over Assam and several neighbouring petty states. In 1852, the insolence of
the Burmese Court to our representative, the outrages of the people and officials on
British seamen, and their general hostility to us, brought on a second war, which,
VIEW OX THE RIVER IRRAWADDY, BURMAH
though like the first, not altogether one continuous success for the British, resulted
so far disastrously to the Burmese that they lost the cities of Pegu (p. 112) and the
whole of that province, which was accordingly formally annexed to India, and as part o£
British Burmah continues to this day an integral part of the Empire. The war had also
this secondary effect, that it deprived the Burmese of any seaports, the whole of the coast-
lying country being under our sway, only the inland or rolling hilly country being
Burmah proper.
Since that date — in 1867 — permission was obtained for British steamers to navigate
Burmese waters ; and to Bhamo, accordingly, the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company run a fort-
nightly steamer. The late king also showed considerable interest in the development of
175
114 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
the commercial resources of Lis country, by assisting- various expeditions despatched to
endeavour to open up the trade with Western China via Burmah. But, subsequently,
the evil counsellors who have always been abundant at Mandalay, the capital, have
obtained the upper hand. The old kmg died in October, 1878; his successor, Theebaw,
a young man of twenty, afterwards indulged in such a wild orgie of drunkenness and murder,
that it was found necessary, in order to avoid complications, to withdraw the British
Resident from his court.
The present kingdom of Burmah, including its tributary states, comprises about
188,000 square miles, and a population roughly estimated at between three and four
millions. In the northern part of the country the inhabitants are chiefly Singphos, Shans,
and other half-wild tribes; the eastern districts, or Shan states (p. 1-3), are peopled by
tribesmen who only acknowledge the INIandalay Government under protest ; while, lopped
of these quasi-independent parts, Burmah proper does not contain over ■15,000 square
miles, with a population of 1,200,000, scattered over '^ a varied surface of rolling upland,
interspersed with alluvial basins and sudden ranges of hills,''^ the country sloping uj)-
wards from the coast until it reaches the snowy highlands of the north, which contribute
so many of the rivers which drain the region described, and where alluvial tracts are rare.
Products.
Take it as a whole, Independent Burmah is not so fertile as the lower-lying maritime
tracts of British Burmah, but on the uplands rice of many different kinds, maize, millet,
wheat, various kinds of pulse, indigo, cotton, and tobacco flourish. But the sugar-cane,
which has from time immemorial been known to the Burmese, is not much cultivated,
although the climate seems particularly well suited for its growth. Most of their sugar
— of a coarse, but cheap, quality — is made from the juice of the Palmyra palm, which
is abundant in the country south of the capital. The tea-plant is indigenous, and is
cultivated by the wild tribes who live at a distance from Mandalay; but the hlapet,
or pickled tea, which is a favourite Burman relish, seems obtained from an entirely
different plant — the Elaodendron ^^ersicum. Mangoes, oranges, citrons, pine-apples, custard
apples, plantains, jacks, papayas, yams, and sweet potatoes are grown. Onions are less
common, but capsicum, which, after salt, is the most common condiment in the country,
is grown everywhere. The varied surface of the country yields an equally varied flora.
There are but few deciduous trees, but owing to the plentiful moisture and the warmth
of the atmosphere. General Fytche notices that the plains are during the greatest part
of the year enamelled with a most exuberant vegetation and flowers of the brightest
hues, while the moimtains are clothed to their tops " with perennial foliage of endless
variety, bright with the verdure of perpetual spring.'^ It is also curious to And on the
plains and on low hills extra-tropical plants, which only appear on the opposite coast, and
in India generally on the mountains, and at an elevation of several thousand feet, and
consequently in a much lower temperature. This cannot be attributed — as has been done —
to the moisture of the climate; for the same peculiar moisture of tropical and temperate
BUR5LA.H: ITS XATUEAL HISTORY. 115
forms of veg-etation occurs in Upper Burmah^ where the rainfall is much less, and
the atmosphere drier also than in Bengal."^ All the trees found in India flourish in
Burmah, and though with the loss of Pegu the Burmese were deprived of their finest
forests of teak, yet fine timber trees are still abundant. Among the most graceful of
these is the Am Ji erst in nohllh, peculiar to Pegu. It grows to a height of forty feet,
and is beautiful in the extreme, its slender pendulous branches being covered with bright
green foliage, ^' draperied with large pea-blossomed-shaped flowers of scarlet and gold,
which hang down from its graceful arches in tassels more than a yard long.^^ Dr.
Wallich considers that when this tree is in foliage and blossom it is one of the most
superb objeots which can be imagined. " It is unequalled in the flora of the East, and
I presume not surpassed in magnificence and eleg'ance in any part of the world. ^•' The
fragrant gold-coloured blossom of the Champac [Michella chawpaca), with which the
Burmese and ludian women deck their hair, but the strong aromatic scent of which is
disagreeable to bees, is another favourite ornament of Burmese gardens. The Mesua, or
Gungu, is another tree which readily attracts the eye of a new comer, ami though the
palm order comprises some twenty species, with the exception of the cocoa-nut, the Areca
{Areca catecint), and the Palmyra {Borassns jlaheUifortiih) , few of them are very widely
distributed.
The Buddhist sacred books are for the most part written on the leaves of the
Corijpha palm, while, as already noted, sugar is extracted from the veinous sap of the
Palmyra. " The mode of obtaining the sap is by crushing the young- inflorescence, and
amputating the upper half; the lower is then tied to a leaf-stalk, and has an earthen
pot attached to its end, which gradually fills with sap, and is removed every morning ;
when replaced, a fresh slice is cut from the wounded end of the inflorescence, an operation
which is repeated every day until the whole of the raceme is sliced away. In procuring
the sugar exactly the same process is followed, but the inside of the receiver is powdered
with lime, which prevents fermentation taking place ; the juice is afterwards boiled down,
and finally dried by exposure to the sun in little baskets, and in this form is sold in
Burmah under the name of tan-lyet. The female tree produces three or four times as much
sap as the male, and a good healthy one is said to furnish some three quarts a day, which
is continued for about five months.'' Pine-apples are so plentiful that in early morning
on the roads leading to Rangoon, carts laden with them like turnips in England may be
seen wending their way to market, in which they are sold at the rate of four for a
penny, or sometimes even more cheaply. Of the plantain there are at least thirty varieties,
some of which are used as a dessert fruit, and others cooked in various ways as a
vegetable. The famous durian (Vol. lY., p. 255) will not grow in Upper Burmah, but
before the annexation of Pegu the Kings of Burmah used to have this fruit despatched
to them from Martaban by horse post. In that country it is as great a favourite as in
Malaysia, and its warmest friends indignantly deny that it is so notoriously evil-odoured,
except when it putrefies, as it does very rapidly after being completely ripe. Bamboos
of many varieties are found, and are so valuable that the Bhatoos, one of the hill tribes
* Mason: "The Natural Pro^iuctions of Burmah'" (I80O) ; Kurtz: Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal (1874).
116 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
of India, offer worship to it as the impersonation or rei:)resentative of the deity of the
forest. But of all the forest products of Burmah, the teak {Teclonia grandls) is the most
valuable, both for home use and as an article of export. There are a great number of
varieties, but most probably they all belong" to the same botanical species. It comes to
maturity in about eighty years, when for eighty or ninety feet it will average a girth
of twelve to sixteen feet. It does not grow in large clumps, but is scattered through
the forest in the proportion or about one teak-tree to four hundred other trees. In the
teak forests proj)er the i •c|X)rtion is about one in three hundred, but confined to certain
localities, where, as noted by Dr. McClelland, it constitutes the prevailing tree for a few
hundred yards, ''seldom for a mile continuously.^^ "^ In 1875-70 the area of the teak
forests reserved by the Government of Pegu was 335,880 acres, and the products of them
delivered at the central depots during that year was 46,597 tons, which realised at auction
the average of £3 18s. per ton. In all, the total of British and foreign teak exported
from the Burmese was in the year mentioned 162,104 tons. Iron-wood {Iii/ja), Eng-
ghyeng {S/iorea), ebony, &c., are also obtained, and from two varieties of Bijderocarjias
wood-oil is obtained. A triangular excavation is made in the bole of the tree, and on
a fire being lighted therein the oil begins to flow freely into an earthen vessel placed
to receive it. A single tree will yield from thirty to forty gallons in a season without
injury.
Catechu is the inspissated brown juice obtained by decoction and evaporation from
the heart wood of Mimosa catechu, and is exported in considerable quantity for the use
of tanners and dyers, and also for the adulteration of various articles of commerce, among
others tea. The shellac and varnish used by the Burmese in their lacquer-ware manufacture
are also obtained in these forests, and exported in small quantities.
Iron has been worked in the country from the earliest times ; and as coal has been
discovered in various places, the materials for mining industry are in existence. Tin is
worked with success, and gold, silver, bismuth, nitre, amber, jade, galena, copper, plumbago,
antimony, &c., exist in some abundance. Sulphuret of antimony has been worked, though
without much profit; and the manufacture of salt, which was at one time a considerable
industry, is now partially abandoned, English salt of a better quality being imported much
more cheaply. This imported salt is brought as ballast for the rice-ships, and finds its way
to Upper Burmah and into China and the Shan States via Bhamo, and causes the Chinese
in their turn to bring to Bhamo their manufactures to offer in exchange. Long before the
American oil-wells were discovered " Rangoon earth oil,''^ or petroleum, was known in
commerce, and it is still utilised for burning and for the manufacture of candles from the
paraffine extracted from the crude oil. The candles are used locally, but considerable
quantities of the refined petroleum is exported to Calcutta and the Straits of Malacca.
The wells are situated on a plateau about sixty miles beyond our frontier, and
each yield from 250 to ],400 lbs. daily, the estimated return from all of them
being something like 12,000 tons per annum. The oil, when first taken out of the
well, is of the consistence of cream, greenish in colour, and of strong, pungent, aromatic
odour. The wells are private property, and. General Fytchc tells us, have been in the
* "Report on the Ttuk Forests of Pegu" (1854), cited by Fytchc: lib. cit., Vol. I., p. 303.
BUR^IAH: MINES.
117
possession of the same families for many years. They do not allow interlopers to dig any
wells in the vicinity; and by mutual agreement no well can be sold or morto-aged
except to a well-owner. The Government is supposed to exact a royalty of five per cent, ou
the value of the produce, but this varies in amount according to the caprice or exigencies of
the reigning king. The precious stones of Bui-mah are chieHy the ruby and sapphire, found
IDOLS ON THE BANKS OF THE KIVEH lllKAWAUDV, liUKMAH.
by sinking pits in a district sixty or seventy miles north-east from the capital. One of
the many titles of the King of Burmah is '' Lord of the Rubies," and a fine specimen of
this precious gem is, next to the possession of a white elephant, one of that monarch's
most valued treasures. Some of the finest rubies known have been obtained within
his territories ; and it is believed that in the Royal Treasury there are stones far sur-
passing anything which the eyes of the outer world have as yet lighted on. The Crown
lays claim to the produce of the sapphire mines, and all finds that exceed the value of £10
are sent to the Treasury. It may therefore be understood that not a great number of
118 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
sai^phires of that price are allowed to come before the eye of the officials, it being-
decidedly to the profit of the finder to break a larg-e one into two or three jneces, and thus
be able to keep it for himself. It is said that no stranger is ever permitted to approach
the ])]ace where these mines are situated. The Yu or jade mines are worked by private-
individuals, each of whom pays a licence for this privilege, and is entitled to all he un-
earths. Momien, in the Chinese province of Yun-nan, used at one time to have almost
a monojioly of the jade manufacture, and to this day many of the smaller articles are
produced in that city.
Roaming through the Burmese forests are the elephant and the one and two-horned
species of rhinoceros. The tiger, the leopard, the wild hog, several species of deer, and
many of the more familiar animals of India, are also often met with ; and in the Irrawaddy
lives a species of dolphin (Orceilu) corresponding to, but different from, the '^soosoo^'
[Platanisia) of the Ganges. The birds are very numerous, and comprise, among others, the
peacock and various species of ibis, pheasant, partridge, and quail. In the waters numerous-
forms of fish abound.* The buffalo, ox, and horse are used as beasts of burden. Elephants
are reserved for the use of the king ; while it is a piece of familiar knowledge ^o all
the world that in Burmah, as in Siam, an albino form of that pachyderm is so highly
valued that it is kept at court in state befitting a prince of the blood royal. Dogs, cats,.,
goats, and sheej) are seen, but they are neglected, and are of a poor description. Th&^
camel is unknown, and the only asses in the country are those brought from China.
Government, Trade, and Industry.
The king' rules as an absolute monarch, but justice is, on the whole, fairly ad-
ministered (for the East) ; and, contrary to the wont in such countries, women, though
occupying a degraded position in Burmah, are permitted access to the courts of law ia
their own names. Bribery and extortion, however, prevail, as might be expected froni
the system adopted, for few Burmese officials receive fixed salaries. The higher dig"-
nitaries are paid by the assignment of land or forced labour, and the lower by what
they can make in the way of bribes, perquisites, and other pickings, which make the-
administration of the law and the sale of " justice " so lucrative a trade in Burmah.
This system is, however, not peculiar to King Theebaw^s domain, but prevails to even
a worse extent in nearly all the neighbouring countries. The police are exceedingly
incompetent, the punishments cruel in the extreme, and, as many prisoners in our wars^
could testify, torture is a common accompaniment of prison life, and is resorted to by the-
gaolers, who are generally condemned criminals, and rank among the outcasts of society,,
in order to force their victims to pay fines to procure milder treatment. t
The revenue is collected mainly by extortion; and though the mode of assessment;
is vexatious in the extreme, the result is in no corresponding degree lucrative to the-
Court. Poll-taxes, taxes on agriculture, on fruit-trees, tobacco-land, on teak-forests, on
* Day: Procrediii^s of the Zoological Socictij (1869 TO), niid " Fi-shes of India" (187.') 78); Blyth : Journnl of
the Asiatic Socictt/ of Bengal (187o) ; Anderson: "Scientific Results of the Yun-nan Expedition" (1880), kc.
t For a fuller account of the habits of th(,' IJurmese see "Races of Mankind," Vol. IV., pp. 138-147.
CHIXA: TRADE. 119
petroleum-spring's, on the fisheries, ou salt-manufactories, on the ego;s of the green turtle,
and on edible swallows^-nests are amono^ those commonly exacted. But, in addition, extra-
ordinary imposts for the enrichment of favourites or to supply the exhausted exchequer
of the king^ are frequently resorted to, and cannot be detailed in any systematic schedule
of Burmese taxation. The civilisation of the country is really stationary, if not retro-
grading, and little money is spent on public works, the main extravagance in that direction
being for the repair of the Buddhist temples, on one of which more than £10,000 was
lavished in the way of gikling and general decoration. The Burmese commerce finds its
way through British Burraah to the sea, and consists of the articles mentioned ; but a
considerable amoimt of goods pass overland to China, the Ava cotton being in special
demand among the Celestials, while, on the other hand, the Chinese silk is valued in
Burmah."^ But in the northern part of Burmah most of the trade is carried on at fairs in
connection with the religious festivals. All commerce in Burmah is, however, much impeded
by the want of a proper circulating medium. There is no coined money, and the pieces of
silver which are used in lieu thereof are so frequently alloyed, and in all cases of such
indeterminate weight, that much trouble and expense are continually incurred in getting them
Aveighed and assayed. For small payments lead is employed. Money brings from 25 to GO
per cent, interest, according to the character of the security for its repayment ; and altogether
the commercial state of the kingdom is very low. The people excel in several arts. Their
architecture bears the impress of India, and is chietly practised in wood, though the elaborate
carving and the rich gilding, which are carried to an extraordinary extent, give the houses an
appearance of splendour out of all proportion to their rather flimsy character. The finest
buildings are those devoted to religious purposes, and of these there is a prodigious number;
but the private erections are usually not very imposing, owing to the people's prejudices
against any one walking over their heads preventing the architect from rearing his handiwork
higher than one storey. Cotton is woven on a rude loom ; and though the fabric is durable,
the Burmese women have never yet attained to the skill of their Indian sisters in the textile
arts. Silk cloth is manufactured from raw material, either raised within their own borders
or imported from China,t from which country most of the porcelain used in Burmah comes.
They smelt iron, but not being able themselves to prepare steel, the few common articles of
cutlery — such as swords, spears, knives, carpenters' tools. Sec. — made by them ai'c of metal
brought from Bengal. The late king, conceiving that the Burmese defeats during the
two wars with the British were owing to the want of cannon on his part, brought all manner
of European and other adventurers to his capital to cast these lethal weapons for him ; and
it is said that the number and variety of inefficient artillery possessed by his successor are
remarkable. But it is in the jewellery art that Burmese skill is chiefly displayed. INIany
of their ornaments of rejwussc gold and silver are very tasteful, and their cups and similar
vessels are often executed with much power. Yet the tools employed are few and rough. The
bellows used by jewellers and workers in metals other than gold and silver General Fytche
* For trade routes to China, see Coryton : Journal of the Hoyal Geographical SociJi/, Vol. XLY. (187-5),
pp. 229-249.
t Orthodox Buddhists, from their horror of destroying life, look upon .=erieulturc with abhorrenee. Hence
from time immcBiorial those practising it have resided in villages by them.selves — outcasts, holding little inter-
course with their neio-hboiu-s.
120 THE COUNTRIES OF TIIE WORLD.
describes as consisting' of a couple of wooden cylinders, tlieir diameter being proportioned to
the force required. These cylinders are fitted with pistons, alternately ''raised and depressed
by one or two men, and the air, forced out at an aperture in the lower end of the apparatus,
is conducted into the fire by an iron tube.^' By means of these simple bellows they are
enabled to melt the hardest metals. Ivory and wood-carving is also executed in clear and
bold alio relievo, and in most artistic designs ; yet the sister art of painting is in
Burmah at a very low ebb. Bell-casting is an art which the Burmese take a great
pride in, and in which they have accordingly attained a considerable degree of perfection.
In 1796 the largest bell in the world, with the exception of the one presented by the
Empress Anne to the Moscow Cathedral, was cast at Mengoon. Their gongs are also'
excellent^ and possess a much finer and deeper tone than those made by the Chinese.
The Burmese, though not artists in the proper sense of the term, have a keener sense of
the harmonies of colour and design than most of the neighbouring natives, and on their
best lacquered ware — made of fine cane and bamboo- work, covered with a red and yellow
and black or yellow lacquer — fanciful and sometimes elegant designs are traced.
Cities, etc.
Mandalay, the present capital of Burmah, is a city onl}' twenty years old, and is
laid out in a square, each side of which is a little over a mile in length, and is entirely
enclosed by a crenelated brick wall 26 feet high and 3 feet thick, as well as by strong'
earthworks, and by buttresses protruding from the wall, at intervals of about 200 feet.
The walls are pierced by twelve gates, each surmounted by a pavilion, or notch, with
double or triple roofs, and GO feet from the wall a deep moat, 100 feet in width, has been
dug, and is always kept full of water. The moat is crossed by four bridges, but being made
of wood, and easily raised at the approach of an enemy, there is no provision made for
their protection except from the wall. In round numbers the houses inside and outside
the walls will be about 12,000, and the inhabitants about 65,000. The king's palace is
the centre of the city, and is strongly protected by brick walls and a teak stockade. In
the city there is always a considerable garrison. But the Burmese arm}^, though much
improved as a fighting machine since the time we last encountered it, is still very con-
temptible. There is — as among the Easterns, and especially among the Mongols — no
distinction between the civil and military services. '' Treasurers and judges are expected
to take the command of armies. The Burmese army comprises the whole population of
adult males, or rather, as much of the population as can be brought together by a forced
conscription. Sometimes they are collected from particular provinces, townships, or districts,
but on great occasions levies are made of the whole population. The officials then become
generals. Such an army is a mere rabble. It is without any discipline or military virtue.
It is formidable only to the petty tribes and natives in the neighbourhood. The present
[late] king has occasionally employed Europeans to drill his army, but a very small
amount of success has hitherto attended his efforts in this direction.'^ Ava was for a long
time the capital of the Empire, and gave its name to the country, Ava being formerly
much more familar as the designation of the region we are now describing than Burmah..
BUEMAH: CITIES.
1^1
But for many years past it has been almost deserted. Pagan must in earlier times also
have been a fine city, but at present consists almost solely of a vast area of ruined temples,
chiellv of the crueifbrni vaulted type.'^ There are several other cities, but none of them
— with the exception of Bhamo — are of much importance, the chief towns having always,
in modern times, at least, been on the sea-coast, and therefore now under British rule.
The Burmese capital has been often changed. The first mentioned in Burmese history is
VIEW OF BASSAC, LAOS.
Tagoung, founded 500 years B.C. Afterwards the seat of government was at Prome, two
towns of the name of Pagan, Panya, Tsagain, Ava, Toungoo, Pegu, Amarapura, and other
cities, and once it even threatened to be in at Arakan.f
CLiifATE AXD Diseases.
As these two questions more nearly concern the European temporarily or for a length
of time requiring to reside in Burmah, we may devote the last of our notes on the
* Yule: " Xarrativo of the Mission to Ava under Sir Arthur Phaj-re" (1859).
t Fj-tchc : "Burmah, Past and Present," Vol. I., p. 30.
176
IZl THE COrXTKIES OF THE WORLD.
country to them. On the coast there are only two seasons, the wet and the dry. The
former depends on the prevalence of the north-east and the latter on the south-west
monsoon. In Burmah proper — this is, in the upper or independent country — no rain
falls, and there are three seasons, the hot, cold, and rainy. In ]May or June there are
showers, hut it is not un(il the autumn that the lieavy rains come. Then from the
middle of Octoher till early in April the weather is cool. The interval, however, hetween
April and August is hot — the thermometer often rises to So"^, and even lUO^ — rarely above
the latter limit, but just as rarely falling below the former. Even the coast region (British
Bm-mah) General Fytche considers, taking it all the year round, to be much cooler than
Bengal. The south-west monsoon sets in earlier, and hence the intense heat which
immediately precedes the commencement of the rains is shorter. A sultry night is a
rarity, and in the lower portion of the provinces, owing to their proximity to the sea,
there is generally a breeze. Even further inland the natural formation of the country in
vallej^s enables the residents to benefit by these winds. "When the rain does fall it pours
with no niggard downfall. In 1870, at the sea-coast town of Maulmain, 181*6 inches
fell — 59-2 inches in the month of August. On the 27th May, 1857, 12-97 inches were
recorded. " The rain descends from the land skies,^' writes the late Chief Commissioner of
Burmah, " in dense sheets, accompanied with vivid lightning and crashing peals of
thunder, and during the paroxysm of the monsoon has an appearance as if Heaven in
its justice had deemed fit to immerse in a second catacl3^sm an impenitent world." In
Upper Burmah drought is sometimes experienced, but happily famines, such as are too
familiar to many parts of India, are unknown. Those which have occurred arc ascribed
more to devastating wars and political causes than to soil and climate. Snow, it is
almost needless to say, is unknown, but at the commencement of the south-west monsoon
storms o£ hail are not unfrequent. On the higher ranges of mountains frost is, however,
experienced during the middle of the north-east monsoon. The climate, though trying,
like all parts of the tropics, is not particularly dangerous. The regiments stationed both on
the coast and on the frontier enjoy excellent health. Tlie complaints most prevalent are
fever, dysentery, and liver diseases, maladies from which the natives themselves are not free,
though their sturdy and vigorous ajipearance proves that Burmah is not a land of pestilence.
From a sanitary point of view, the soldiers' worst enemy in this, as in other parts of the
East, is the fatal facility for indulging in insobriety. " It's a fine country ; lots to drink,
and you are always dry,'' was the encomium passed on it by Private Thomas Atkins."^
The Shan States.
Between Munnipoor on the east and Yun-nan on the west, south of lat. 24'^, to the
borders of Siam and Cambodia, are a number of wild tribes, who, though owing allegiance
* Laurie: "Our Burmese Wars and Relations with Burma" (1880); Gouger: '"Two Year.s' TinprisonnKnt
in Burmah" (18G2) ; Winter: "Six Months in Bui-mah " (1858); Eorhos : " Bumiah " (1879); AndersoM :
"Expedition to Ea-st Yunnan via Bhamo " (1871); " Mandalay and Momicn " (1876); Trant : "Two Years in
Ava" (1827); Vincent: "The Land of the White Elephant" (1873); M'Mahon : "The Karens and the
Golden Chersonese" (1876); Bastian: " Reiscn in Birma " (1866); Ligandet : "Lif(> and Legend of G.nulama" (1870);
as veil as the works of Sangermano, Cox, Symes, Snodgrass, Wayland, Canning, Crawfurd, Burnoy. .md others.
THE SHAX STATES; BRITISH BUKMAH. . 123
either to Burmali or Siam, are really indepenJeut. They are known as the Shan States, a
term which includes much of the Laos country, partially under the authority of the Kino-
of Anam. Xicng Mai, the capital of Laos, is said to contain 50,000 inhabitants. It
stands on a plain on the rig-ht bank of the ^Nlenam, 500 miles north of Bangkok, the
capital of Siam. The other villages and towns (pp. 121, J 21) are unimportant. The
Karens also inhabit a mountainous country, partially indei^endent. "Western Karennee has
asked to be annexed to British Burmah, owing- to the assumption of authority on the part
of the Burmese over it; but for the present the people are independent.*
British Burmah.
The way this province of India was acquired has already been explained; and as it is
g-eog-raphically and essentially a portion of Burmah, thoug-h one of the "Commissionerships"
under the Indian Viceroy, it may be more conveniently noticed here than further on. The
part of the country intersected by the mouth of the Irrawaddy is flat, but the south, east,
and part of the north is more or less mountainous, some portions of the country being-,
indeed, so rug-g-ed as to render cultivation impossible. Tenasserim — one of the three
divisions, Arakan and Pegu being the other two— is divided from Siam by a high range
of hills. Blue Mountain, one of the peaks on the northern frontier of the province, rises
to a height of 7,000 feet, and some of the other elevations throughout the country are not
much less. For instance, the mountains of Tenasserim are about 5,000 feet hio-h, and
throughout their extent are covered with dense jungle, in which live no human beings.
Indeed, a large part of the country is clothed with forest containing the teak and other
timber-trees, which constitute a great portion of the riches of the country. Rivers also
intersect it everywhere, some of them navigable for considerable distances; but the
population is small compared with the extent and capabilities of the country. In the
year 1872 their number was placed at 2,71-7,118, scattered over an area comprising
something like 88,500 square miles. The great majority of these are Buddhists, the
remainder being IMohammedans, Hindoos, Christians, and Pagans of various types. The
province contained several Ioaatis, but only two of them have a population exceeding
10,000, Rangoon, the capital, containing, in 1872, over 98,000 people, though at the date of
writing this census is believed to greatly under-estimate the number of inhabitants of the
princijial seoport of Burmah. f Under the British Government the country has rapidly
increased in population, and its prosperity has been so great that no other province of
Indi.i can compare with it. This is the best i)roof that our rule has been to the
benefit of the natives. This they themselves acknowledge, though a ^^^^^ disaffected
individuals in Rangoon and elsewhere, acting, it is believed, as the tools of the vain,
Ignorant courtiers at Mandalay, sometimes exhibit signs of desiring to disturb the peace..
This, however, is not likely to be broken by any large number of the people. They
know well that under the King of Burmah they enjoyed no such privileges, or an.
* 0"Eilcy : "Journal of .1 Toui- in Karennee" (I80G).
f General Fytcho states that in 1875-6 the province hail a population of 3,010,602, and a gross revenue of
£2,001,813, imports valued at £6,109,925, and exjwrts at £7,208,896.
124 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
npproach to the comfort and freedom they now possess. Under their own rulers they
were oppressed by rapacious viceroys, whose only thoug-ht was to lill their coffers. Torture
was resorted to in all judicial difficulties, but, except in cases of treason or sacrilege, money
could expiate even an offence so serious that not only the actual criminal but all his relations
would have been made to share in the punishment. No man dared to grow rich, knowing
that his poverty was his main safeguard from oppression and robbery. Thus in time
trade languished, and industry was limited simply to provide for the worker^s daily
wants. So sensible are the Burmese of the difference between British and native rule
that, in spite of the almost sacred regard they pay to their monarch and their country,
they have migrated in large numbers across the frontier, so as to be under our prMteetion.
'- ^ -^ J^r-
-^-•^'V
\^^
A VILLAGE IX THE INTERIOR OF LAOS.
The example of the British administration has even had an effect on the king
himself. At one time all officials, court favourites, and dependents were paid either by
grants of revenue, or of land, or of the labour of the people living on these lands.
Now some of the chief ministers and inmates of the zenana are paid fixed salaries,
a reform which has, however, made the king more absolute than ever, and not much
improved the condition of his subjects. Indeed, to improve the subjeet^s condition is
not an idea which often crosses the mind of a Burmese monarch. The hrst great
principle on which his throne rests is that the people are his property, and as such
he is entitled to their labour. Land is in Burmah so plentiful that it has never
been looked upon as property in itself, the cultivator's labour being the valuable
commodity. He sits on the soil as the chattel of the king, and his business is to
raise produce for him, the balance remaining after the Government officials have taken
their shares being considered a kind of gratuity on the sovereign's part to liis lieges.
BRITISH BnniAH: COMMERCE. l>o
In this way the revenue o£ the king is calculated to reach over £800/100^ in addition
to various perquisites and exactions, the value of which it is impossible to exactly calculate.
Slavery also exists. Some of the slaves -we hereditary bondmen, such as those allotted
to serve in the pag-odas ; and others are debtors, who serve until they pay the uttermost
farthing-. But there are whole villages of outcasts, who live apart from the rest of
the world, and with whom few people will hold much intercourse, whose lot is almost
as bad. Lepers, deformed and mutilated people, all incurables, executioners, coffin-makers,
and others employed in the disposal of the dead are classed as such.
The productions of British Burmah consist of rice, cotton, tobacco, teak, and the articles
already noticed in our account of Burmah proper; and in addition, the enterprise of the
English manufacturer has resulted in the establishment of several rice-husking and saw-
mills throughout the province, in addition to various others for the manufacture of
silk and cotton goods. Education on the English plan has not made much progress, but
there is attached to the Buddhist monasteries numerous, cheap, and fairly efficient schools
of a kind; while Christianity, if rejected by the Buddhists, is, through the exertion of the
American missionaries, making headway among the wild Karens. The province is governed
by a Chief Commissioner stationed at Rangoon, who is assisted by a number of deputies and
other officials. Altogether the country is in a nourishing condition, and may be looked upon
as one ol: the portions of India which not only pays the cost of governing, but actually
yields a surplus for imperial purposes. This surplus amounted in IS lo-G — a fair average
year — to £1,11:2,019. Rangoon, the capital, lies twenty-six miles up the Rangoon River,
and at the height of the rice season is a busy place, owing to the presence of so many
foreign ships taking in cargo. The town runs for about a mile along the river-bank, and above
three miles inland. The principal thoroughfare, and the one in which are the Government
offices and the most imposing shoj^s and dwelling-houses, is " The Strand,^^ a broad
macadamised esplanade running along the river-side. The town from the river presents a
l^leasant aspect. Its teak and bamboo houses are shaded with thick trojHcal vegetation ;
while the English cantonment, the two or three European churches, and "^ several large
pagodas with gilded richly-ornamented spires,^'' give a semi-Oriental, semi-British aspect to
this town of the far East. " Beyond the city," wi'ites Mr. Vincent, " we see a jungle of
palms and bananas and bamboos stretching away, a wavy sea of green, to the very horizon
itself." Though the country round the city is of the usual nature of the delta of the
Irrawaddy (p. 113) — low, sandy, and muddy, and subject to tremendous floods in the rainy
season — it is not unhealthy. The town itself is laid down in streets — mostly broad,
macadamised, and clean — running at right angles to each other; and the European houses
are in the majority of cases raised on piles, and budt of plain teak boards with tile roofs.
The native town or quarter Mr. Vincent, however, considers " very mean-looking, the huts
there being of bamboo with palm-leaf-thatched covers." Maulmain is a town of about
10,000 people — Burmese, Chinese, Parsees, Armenians, Klings, Jews, Singhalese, and about
a couple of hundred Europeans — almost hidden amid immense groves of cocoa-nut, palm,
betel-nut, banana, pajjaya, bamboo, and other tropical vegetation. Timber is the great
trade of the jilaee. The teak-logs are hewn in the forests on the banks of the
Salween River, and then, after being seasoned, floated down, sometimes for hundreds of
126 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOKLD.
miles, to the town. A teak-log- is not a liglit weight anywhere; in a tropical climate to
handle it is a burden too great for men to bear. Accordingly, elephants are extensively
employed in this occni>ation — drawing, stacking, and shifting the immense blocks of wood,
some of which weigh two tons. "A log,^"* we are told by ]Mr. Vincent, ''that forty
coolies could scarcely move an elephant will quietly lift upon his tusks, and holding it
there with his proboscis, will carry it to whatever part of the yard he may be directed by
his driver. They will also, using trunk, feet, and tusks, put the huge timber as evenly
and correctly as one could wish. What surprised us most was to see the elephants select
and pick out jiarticular timbers from the centre of an indiscriminate stack or heap of more
than a hundred simply at the command of the driver. The huge beasts are directed
by the ' mahouts,"* or drivers, by spoken orders, pressure of the feet on their necks,
and. the customary use of the 'ankus,^ or elephant goad. It usually requires a year
or a year and a half to teach them the 'timber business/ and when thoroughly
taught they are worth from 500 rupees [£50] upwards, according to their abilities.
We saw one, a venerable old fellow, nearly ten feet in height, for which the owner
said he had refused an offer of 3,000 rupees. Sometimes an animal breaks his tusks,
being forced to carry an excessive weight by a stupid or brutal driver, though the
elephant knows his own power, and generally refuses to lift more than his tusks can
safely bear; for if these should be broken off close to the head death would soon
ensue : if only cracked, they are hooped about with iron bands, and are thus rendered
serviceable for many years.^' At one time most of the teak was purchased from the hill
chiefs, who divided their allegiance between the Kings of Burmah and Siam ; but of
late the timber, having become scarce, has had to be sought for much further from
the river banks. Disputes have also arisen between the rival chiefs as to the
ownership of the land on which the logs were cut, and, in addition to caravans having-
been attacked and plundered, often two or three litigants appear to claim payment for
the same log. The result of this state of matters has been a serious interference with
the trade of Maulmain, once regarded as the most flourishing town in British Burmah.
Bassein is an ancient seaport, the capital of a large and important district. Akyab,
Arakan, Pegu (p. 112), Sittang, Martaban, and Tenasserim may be mentioned as other towns,
all of which have, as tropical towns will have, an extremely family likeness. Where,
in addition, these towns are British, the similarity of one to another is to a stranger
still more marked, though of course long familiarity enables a resident to differentiate
sharply between the pleasures and miseries of particular districts and stations.
U7
CHAPTER VI.
Siam; Cambodia; Axam ; Cochin-China.
Under the name of Indo-China, Chen India, or Farther India, is comprised Burmab,
Siam, Cochin-China, and the neighbouring petty chieftainships, principalities^, and king-
doms, including Cambodia and Anam. China and India limit their extension to the
north, while the Bay of Bengal, the Malay Peninsula — the Golden Chersonese of the
ancients— the Gulf of Siam, and the China Sea bound them in other directions, liurmah
we have already noticed. But Burmah, though in some respects to us a more important
kingdom than Siam, is neither so prosperous nor on the way to such peaceful prosperity
as the latter. Thai, or Muang Thai— the Free, or the Kingdom of the Free — consists of
forty-one provinces, but except the northern part of the country, wdiich is mountainous,
Siam is really one great plain, intersected by two main rivers, to the overflow and silt
of which it owes its j^resent fertility, and in all likelihood its actual existence, just as
Holland may be said to be born of the Rhine, and Egypt — so far as the delta is co4i-
cerned— to be the child of the Nile. The chief of these rivers is the Menam, or Meinam,
which, as in the case of the Tibetan Sanpoo, is a word simply meaning f/ie river. Flowing
from the mountains of Yun-nan, it falls, after a course of 800 miles, into the sea thirty
miles below the city of Bangkok, it and its numerous tributaries draining a vast portion
of the kingdom. But the Menam is not only the great artery and highway of ^<iam,
but its inundations over some 12,000 square miles give fertility to the soil and ensure
the success of the rice crop, and in the rich deposit which they leave behind it supplies
a soil capable of yielding the finest crops with the slightest cultivation. Indeed, the
whole valley of the river is one of the most fertile regions in the world. The same
may be said of the lands adjoining the Mei-Kong, a river which flows for ],GO0 miles
through the eastern districts of the country. So grateful, indeed, is the soil, that though
to this day no better tillage is given to it in many districts than simply to turn buffaloes
into the fields to trample do\\'n the weeds and disturb the soil sufficiently to permit of
ithe seed being deposited, and harrowed over by dragging thorny bushes over it, immense
liarvests are obtained. Under a better system of agriculture, introduced by Europeans, and
through the exertions of the enlightened monarchs who have for some time ruled Siam,
rice, sugar, and the nsual tropical crops already noticed as the staples of Burmah are
grown in such abundance as to afford material for a large export trade. But Siam is
not only rich in an exuberant soil, in all crops which will grow in its warm climate, ui
jungles which yield teak, dye, and gum-woods, in forests full of wild animals, and rivers and
creeks swarming with excellent fish, but precious stones, gold, and silver are also found in no
small abundance. Copper, tin, lead, and iron are plentiful, and are worked by the Chinese,
who in this, as in all the neighbouring countries, are the most industrious and enterprising
.->f the inhabitants. That gold and silver is i>lentiful is proved by the extensive use made
128
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
of both metals in oniamental work. Vases, urns, and various '' knick-knacks " for
display or use are made of silver, with gold figures embossed on them, and sent all over
the East, in Avhieh they possess a certain celebrity. Among- their other arts, gold-beating
A lU 1)1)I1IST WAT, Oli TLMl'l.K. AT IiAN(;K()K, SIAM.
^— the gold being among the most ductile knowai — iron-founding, the making of glass-
wares, pottery, and the weaving of fine cloth may be included. Unlike Burmah, the
Siamese have a regular coinage, the tical, or bat, a silver coin worth about half-a-crown,
and impressed with the figure of an elephant. Spanish dollars are, however, much in use,
and of late years bronze money, coined in England, has displaced the numerous halfpenny
SIAM: TRADE.
129
paper notes in circulation. The Royal Mint is provided with machinery of English
manufacture^ though all the work inside the building is done by Siamese artizans. The
cannon foundry is also " run " by natives^ but many of the enormous brass guns which
are preserved inside the arsenal were originally cast under the direction of the Portuguese
during the time they visited the country.
Bad legislation and the system of monopolies which his Siamese Majesty, like
others of his Oriental brethren, loved, played such havoc with the commerce of the
GENERAL VIEW OF BANKOK AXD THE MEXAM llIYEIl.
country, that it was not until 1855 that the once brisk trade of Bankok began to
revive. In that year Sir John Bowring framed a treaty of commerce with the Siamese
king, providing for religious and commercial freedom, and, above all, giving the British
traders permission to purchase goods directly from the dealer or producer Avithout the
interference of the king or any other person. The effect was soon visible. At Bankok
— the only port from which we have anything like accurate statistics, and the one almost
alone visited by foreign ships — the value of the exports for 1876 was £1,985,678,
while the imports were of the value of £1,210,615. Bice is the main article exported,
but agila, or eagle-wood, much valued in the East for its perfume, gutta-percha,
cardamoms, gamboge, pepper, teel-seed, bamboo, rattans, sugar, tobacco, sago, coffee, skins,
guavas, mangoes, sapan-wood, rose-wood, and other timbers, and even the tusks of elephants,
177
130 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
wliicli, though considered the property of the king, and therefore not allowed to he killed, are
freely slain sub rosa, since the natives in the wilder parts of the country have discovered that
there is a lucrative market for them among the foreign traders. Among the articles imported,
various textile fabrics, hardware, and opium may be mentioned. But though the British
trade with Siam is considerable, the direct commerce between our islands and that
country is inconsiderable. Nevertheless, the number of British ships visiting Bankok is
vastly greater than that of any other nation. Even the Siamese vessels are fewer, while
the Chinese junks, numerous as they are, do not quite equal the number of British
merchantmen trading with the chief city of Siam. Forced labour for the benefit of the
owners of the land interferes sadly with the internal prosperity and producing power of
the country. Hence the soil, though as rich as any which the sun shines on, does not
produce a great surplus, and in some places returns to the scant tillage of the peasant
l)arely enough of food to support him and his feudal lord. The Chinese, not being subject
to forced labour, have settled in the country in great numbers. It is they who own the
large rice factories at the capital, in which the " paddy " is freed from the husk and packed
for export. It is, again, the Chinese who are the most prosperous merchants, and whose
floating shops along the river front strike the visitor as among the most ingenious arrange-
ments for trade devised by an ingenious people. One side is left open to display goods ;
the other shelters the trader^s family. When business is not brisk at the spot first chosen,
the floating dwelling is simply unmoored, and floated up or down the river with the tide
to a s2X)t which seems to present a more favourable opening for trade. Nor are they
backward in competing with the natives in more toilsome, but less money-making, occu-
pations. The Siamese are not a race addicted to over-exertion. Timid, careless, gentle,
almost passionless, idle, inconstant, exacting, and though not truthful when they find
lying a useful protection, sincere, affectionate, witty, and unworldly, they are but children
in the hands of the keen Chinese, who know no scruples, possess not a lazy bone in their
lithe bodies, and are ready at any moment to sell themselves (or any one else) to gain a
" pice.^' In Siam the male Siamese do not number more than 2,000,000, while the
Chinese exceed 1,500,000. The rest of the population, which is calculated by Dr. Bastian
to number in all under six millions and a half, is made up of Laotians, jMalays, Cambodians,
and Burmese from the province of Pegu — or Peguans, to be more precise. Of the inhabi-
tants of Bankok nearly one-half are Chinese, and, indeed, at Pekin the country is considered
to be one of the Emperor's tributary states, a theory borne out by the fact that Siam pa}'s
tribute to China, though it may be added this is only done as a convenience and according
to old usage, since the Siamese gain so far by this that their junks are admitted into
Chinese ports duty free. Siam, on the other hand, claims to be the suzerain of the Malay
Peninsula rajahs, of Tringame, Kalantan, Patani, and Kedah (Vol. IV., p. 260), the
Laotian princes of Xiengmai, Laptun, Lakhon, Phre, Nan, Luang-Phra-Bang, and Muang-
Lom; while Cambodia, being awkwardly situated between Siam on one side and the Anani,
or Cochin-Chinese kingdom, on the other, prefers as a matter of policy to pay tribute to
both. Indeed, the real limits of the kingdom are now difficult to trace, the borders being
occupied by so many half-independent tribes. Even the population, in spite of a more or
less accurate census, it is difficult to arrive at an accurate estimate of, for Siam, like many
SIAM : GOVERXilEXT. 131
other Eastern nations^ considers the males the only inhabitants worth enumerating". In
round numbers, however, the country may be said to comprise an area of about 250,000
square miles, inhabited by the number of people mentioned. Nevertheless, some statis-
ticians give the country from 390,000 to 309,000 square miles, and put the population
scattered over this wide region at nearly 12,000,000.
The Government was, until the law of 1S74-, an absolute monarchy — a despotism
as complete as that of Burmah ; but since that date — nominally, at least — the king's
authority has been limited and modified by the legislative power being shared by the
Supreme Council of the Empire and with the ^' Senabodi,^^ or Council of Ministers,
though in affairs of minor importance the vote of the Council of State suffices. This
council is presided over by the king (p. 132), and is composed of ministers — who, however,
have not the right to vote — of from ten to twenty counsellors, nominated by the king,
and of six j)rinces " of the blood. ^^ The crown is hereditary, but the eldest son of the
king does not necessarily succeed his father, the king reserving to himself the right
of appointing a successor. This choice must, however, be confirmed by the Senabodi,
in common with the princes of the four highest classes in the kingdom. One of the
peculiarities of the Government is, however, that there is a "second king^^ (p. 133), as
he is usually called in Europe, though he is in reality only a " major domo ; " but the
latter, often the son of the first, is now a very minor personage, and at most does
not exercise any other authority than being the nominal head of the army, though he
receives a large civil list, and a guard of honoui', and is usually consulted on all affairs
of importance by the first king, with whom, as a rule, he is on terms of the greatest
friendship. In most affairs of state he may practically be left out of account, for it is
evident that his position and character have been much misunderstood, it being very
doubtful whether he ought to be called a " king ■'■' at all in the usual acceptation of
the term. The forty-one provinces are governed by " phrayas,^^ a "phraya"'' being a
counsellor of the first class. A " tiaou phraya,""^ again, is equivalent to a privy counsellor,
and '^ enjoys ■'■' the title of " excellency .^^
The exact revenue of the country it is difficult to get even an estimate of. The
sum which annually arrives in the Bankok Treasury is sometimes put at £800,000; but
if the poll-tax, fines for exemption from the army, land-tax, tax on fruit-trees, pepper,
spirits, gambling, and customs yield over £3,000,000, as has been estimated by the
consular agents, there must be enormous peculation somewhere. The tax-gatherers, indeed,
receive no salary; and as there is no system of audit and check efficient enough to
keep their greed under control, a late writer on the subject* is perhaps not far wrong
when he affirms that the officials " s^appropriant frauduleusement la plus grande partie
des revenus." The king, in addition to the " controP-* of the revenue, is entitled to four
months' labour, or its equivalent, from each of his subjects, the priests and the Chinese
settlers (who commute for it by another tax), slaves, public functionaries, and the fathers
of three sons liable to serve excepted. Any one, however, can purchase exemption by
* Almanach de Gotha (18S0), p. 951. Another estimate puts the national income and expenditure each at about
£1,200,000.
13a
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
paying los. to 20s. per month, or by furnishing a substitute in the person of some other
person not liable to conscription. The army is at present drilled by European officers j
THE SUPREME KIXG OF SIAM IN HIS STATE ROBES.
and as every person over twenty-one years of age must serve under the colours, the result
is said to be a very efficient force. The Siamese navy consists of fourteen steamers with
fifty-one guns, chiefly officered by Englishmen, and organised on the English model. In
SIAM: AEMY AND NAVY,
133
addition to a great number of junks, or small vessels, there are about fifty-eight ships,
the tonnage of which amounts in the aggregate to 21,810 tons, including three
THE " SECOND K.IXG " OF SIAM IX HIS STATE ROBES.
steamers, under the Siamese flag. Altogether the country seems on a fair way to pros-
perity, though the material to work upon is not very promising. The last two kings were
men of considerable enlightenment, and even learning ; and the present sovereign — a young
134 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOULD.
man of twenty-seven — has already visited India and some of the neighbouring colonies in search
of knowledge. He is reported to he willing to imitate European ways so far as they seem to
suit his people. Already he has the distribution of four orders of knighthood — the Star of
Nine Points, the AVhite Elephant, the Crown, and the Chulachonclao — and, among other
of the distinctions which fall naturally to civilised or partially barbarous kings, is decorated
with the Grand Cross of the English Order of St. Michael and St. George. He has sent
ambassadors to England, has a consular agent in London, and is desirous of cultivating good
relations with the British Government. At one time the Siamese Empire extended to
Singapore, the suzerainty over the Malay rajahs exercised by the king being a survival of
those palmy days of "Thai,^^ but the present dynasty does not date back further than 1782.
The established religion of the country is Buddhism; and though Protestant and other
missionaries have been labouring in it since 1838, their efforts to change the opinions of
the Siamese have been almost in vain. The barbarous tribes on the border and the Chinese
have, however, been more impressible.
The country has great capabilities, and the prosperity of some of the cities astonishes
a visitor whose prepossessions have been derived from a visit to some of the more ordinary
Malay towns, which they are said to resemble. Bankok, or Bangkok, as it is sometimes
spelt, is sixteen miles in a straight line from the coast, but before it can be reached by
the Menam River eighty miles of winding current have to be traversed. Tlie Gulf of Siam,
into which this river flows, is 450 miles in length by 235 in breadth; and though the
peninsula of Cambodia consists for the most part of low-lying lands, it is unvisited by
hurricanes, and hence shi^^wrecks are rare in this portion of the Eastern seas. The jNIenam
River is impeded by a bar; but so far from the Siamese Government considering this a
disadvantage, they object to any efforts being made to dredge it out, and have even sunk
three junks in order to still further render the invasion of the capital by a foreign fleet a
difficult and dangerous operation. The mouth of the river is bordered by mangrove swamps
and jungle, but beyond these are immense rice-fields. Higher uj) the river is Pakuam, with
a population of 7,000, and several forts. Here is the Custom House, a very dilapidated and
altogether, to European ideas, most unofficial-looking building, where the method of trans-
acting business is about equally primitive. The river-banks are here covered with tropical
vegetation, and some immense sugar-plantations, rice-fields, and Burmese villages, with orange-
gardens and orchards of fruit-trees, make their appearance. But so dense is the vegetation,
and so low the ground, that the city cannot be seen until it is closely approached, the chief
signs of the capital of Siam being near at hand being the presence of foreign ships anchored
in the river, and a number of native vessels flying the national standard of a white elephant
on a crimson ground. Its population is vaguely estimated at from 255,000 to half a million.
In earlier days Bankok contested the commercial supremacy of the East with
Canton and Calcutta. It is often called the Venice of the East, not so much because,
either commercially or politically, the capital of Siam has anything in common with
the Queen of the Adriatic, but simply because locomotion through both cities must be
accomplished in much the same fashion. Almost every house in Bankok — as, indeed, in so
many towns in Malaysia — is built on piles or on a floating raft, and its thoroughfares are
SIAM : BANKOK. 135
simple canals and intersecting brandies of the river. There are a few footpaths on firm
land, and the king has Ijegun to build highways along the side of the principal canals.
Yet the town is not unhealthy, and, for the tropics, is even salubrious. At Bankok
the mean tempei'ature is about 84?°, the maximum heat 97°, and the lowest cold felt in
■eight years was 54<°. Every year the country is visited by the south-west and north-east
monsoons, the former laden with cool clouds, thunderstorms, and torrents of rain, the latter
the harbinger of refreshing weather, which " sets up " the residents, jaded by the hot
months which preceded it. Indeed, the building on piles and rafts was suggested to the
founder of Bankok solely by sanitary reasons. Originally the capital was at Ayuthia,
founded in 1350; but when, in 1769, it was removed to the present site, the new
town, like the old, was built on the banks of the river. Cholera, however, soon broke
out, and was so frequent that one of the kings ordered the dwellings to be built on
the river itself, in order to obtain greater cleanliness and ventilation. Hence at the
present day the Siamese of Bankok may be said to be almost amphibious. Most of
their life is passed on the water, and nearly all of their animal food they get from it.
Except about the king's palace, horses are rarely seen, and carriages were formerly
equally unknown. Canoes and boats are the ordinary modes of conveyance, and one or
other is an absolute necessary to every household. A child is early trained to navigate
it, so that men, women, and children use the oar, the paddle, and the rudder almost
intuitively. Even the Chinese have left their sedan behind them, and, in common
with the Siamese, take kindly to boat-life. The waters are covered with barges of all
sorts, from the skiff, to use the language of a modern writer, "' scarcely large enough
to hold a dog, to the magnificently adorned barge which is honoured with the presence
of royalty; from the shabbiest canoe hewn out of the small trunk of a tree from the
jungle up to the roofed and curtained, the carved and gilded barque of the nobles —
€very rank and condition has its boats plying in endless activity night and. day on
the surface of the Menam waters.^-" Bankok is, in a word, " a floating city/'' the limits
of which on land it is at first sight impossible to determine. The first view of it all
travellers agree in describing as rather imposing (p. 129). In the dim light, it may be,
of an Eastern morning there bursts on the sight a panorama of towers and the roofs of
what seems an endless array of temples, or pagodas, each standing in its own grounds.
The mind revels in old fairy tales of the " gorgeous East " as the sun glances over
the roofs and walls of these edifices, each of which seems ablaze with jewels and
plates of gold. A closer view is, however, disappointing. The walls which at a distance
seem built up of gems are discovered to be only brick and mortar, or perhaps wood,
■embellished with tawdry gilding, porcelain, and rich mosaics of glass, which, though
intrinsically of little value, present a splendid coruscation of colours. Most of these
pagodas, in which the rites of the Buddhist faith are administered by thousands of
priests — though many of these have now been turned adrift in order to earn a
livelihood by more honourable means than begging — have been built by pious men, who,
either by good works of this type during their lifetime, or by money which they
have bequeathed for the purpose, have hoped to atone for many previous shortcomings.
Porcelain enters into the composition of the walls of these buildings, but often in a
136
THE COUXTRIES OF THE WORLD.
peculiar fashion. It is humble earthenware^ frag-monts of broken plates^ and other
utensils of a like quality. There is a familiar story told at Baukok, which Mr.
Thomson lias recorded, how a rog-uish trader arrived in the river with a cargo of
crockery on speculation. The venture hung long on his hands. The willow pattern
seemed not in favour with a people who are not deficient in taste; but at last, when
the trader began to think that ruin was not far off, fortune delivered into his hands
a wealthy Siamese noble who was busy finishing one of these " wats/^ or shrines. To
him the owner of the shipload of crockery addressed himself, representing that it was
the fashion in Europe for places of worship to be decorated with ewers, soup-plates, milk-
A SIAMESE WAU ELErHAXT.
jugs, tea-cups, and even less noteworthy pieces of porcelain. The bait took, and hence
the recherche ornamentation of the Buddhist temple, in which rows of pudding-dishes
are fastened in the plaster, and collections of dish-covers decorate th^ balconies and
parapet. It is, however, satisfactory to find that before the trader was paid the
imposition was discovered by the '^ pious founder,^' and the tale ends by relating how
the rogue not only lost all chance of future dealings with the Siamese, but even met
present retribution liy not being paid for his useful wares put to a useless purpose.
The royal palace is a fine building, furnished in a mixture of European and Oriental
styles; however, of late years the decorations, especially in the apartments intended for
public inspection, have inclined more and more over towards Western tastes, or rather
towards those of the still Further East, Calcutta, and not London or Paris, being the
model in those parts of the world.
The Siamese prisons are almost as bad as those of Burmah, and the punishments
SIAM: RECENT PROGRESS. 137
awarded to crime quite as cruel, in spite of the Buddhist religion teaching" that it is more
blessed to preserve than to destroy life. Serious crime is not great, but is replaced by a
very lax condition of public morality. Polygamy flourishes with a vigour unknown in
China, opium-smoking is as universal as in the latter country, and gambling is equally
a passion among both nations. Justice is administered with ostentatious gravity, but
in reality is flagrantly bought and sold, the agents concerned in the business being,
however, so subtle and polished that, as Mr. Thomson remarks, even the sober, dignified-
looking judge almost persuades himself that he is practically the upright person he is
theoretically supposed to be, though he knows full well that a little gold mysteriously
dropped into the scales will make the balance of justice kick the beam on one side or
the other. However, of late years Siam has changed greatly for the better. The late
king was a man of superior intelligence, but his mind was moulded thoroughly on the
old lines, and therefore he could scarcely be expected to turn out a reformer after the
modern fashion. The present sovereign is, however, a person of a different stamp. His
early education was intrusted to an English lady, Mrs. Leonowens, who has published an
account of her life at the Siamese Court, and the early ideas he thus imbibed have been
enlarged by his visits to Singapore and Calcutta, and the constant intercourse he holds with
foreigners. Slavery has been abolished, and the custom of crouching in the presence of a
superior has been decreed no longer necessary. The army — we have seen — is equipped and
drilled after the European fashion, and is said to be more efficient than that of Burmah.
The artillery is modern and serviceable, and elephants (p. 13G) are carefully trained for war
purposes. Private houses are even beginning to be modelled on those of the West, and
the king, since his visit to Calcutta, seems anxious that some at least of the streets of his
capital should bear a semblance to those of that city by having a fountain in the circus
formed by the intersection of two ways. In addition, he has made a good road around
the city, just within the walls, and has added several blocks of compact two-storey brick
houses to those built by his father. When we mentioned that the river and the canals
which intersect the city were the only modes of conveyance in Bankok, it ought to have
been added, until the completion of this road. The possession of a road has suggested
carriages. Ox-carts {p. 160) have accordingly been introduced, and it is now reported that
some of the wealthier nobles have taken to importing carriages from Calcutta, and may be
seen taking a drive at the fashionable hour of the afternoon, " sitting gravely upright,
and, as they roll along the dusty streets, looking upon their friends and neighbours with
a very perceptible sense of new-found importance, illustrative of deep culture and nice
refinement." This advance in civilisation necessarily follows, since the king has started
a barouche and six horses, in which, driven by liveried postillions, and attended by " gorgeous
outriders and a mounted escort of the royal guard," he regularly takes his airing in the
proper style of the Maidan Esplanade in the Indian capital.
With the exception of Bankok, there are few other large towns in Siam worthy of
note. Among the exceptions may be included Pechaburi, about a hundred miles south-west
of the capital, where the king has built a palace, and the reputation of which for healthiness is
such that both the Europeans and natives use it as a sanatorium. It is built at the mouth
of the Pechaburi River, near the range of hills which divides Siam from the Tenasserim
178
138 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
province of British Burmah. Though its appearance would not lead one to imag-ine it>
thickly populated, vet so closely do these Oriental people huddle together that we are not
surprised to learn that there are some 20,000 inhabitants in this peculiarly Siamese town.
The king^s palace is built on the summit of a hill at the back of the city, and on an
adjoining eminence are some pagodas and temples, and near the foot of it various Buddhist
monasteries, the inmates of which are occupied in instructing native youth gratuitouslj'.
In this locality is also a cave '•filled with idols," chiefly gilt Buddhas, and the entrance ta
it is shaded by trees filled with chattering monkeys. The king lives for a few months
in the year at Pechaburi for the sake of his health, and since he has acquired a taste for
European luxury is fond of driving along the excellent roads which be has constructed in
and about the city. The governor of the place was also met b}^ one of the latest visitors
driving in a " buggy," the buggy and the European shirt and sun-hat being the outer
emblems of the Western habits which are being so rapidly engrafted on the Siamese, the
" panoung/'' or cloth worn round the waist and passed between the leg, with striped socks
and patent leather slippers^ and the finely- wrought gold '^xroh," or betel-box^ being the
native side of his excellency's culture.
At Pechaburi also reside several American missionaries ; but the extent of their success
is limited, the Siamese being more anxious to learn English than to exchange their old faith
for the new one offered to them by these self-denying visitors. Near the town is a Laos
village, the huts being built of bamboo on piles, and roofed with palm-leaves (p. 124).
Under the floor are housed the domestic animals, and here also are stowed away all kinds of
rubbish not valuable enough to be sheltered in the upper chamber. In the rear of the hut
is usually a large barn for keeping the supply of rice; but in the hut itself, with the
exception of a few baskets and large boxes, there is nothing in the shape of furniture.
These people have often been at war with the Siamese, who, though masters, have
learned to respect their adversaries as no mean foes. In Siam there are, especially at
Angkor, in the province of Siamrap, ruins of gigantic temples and other buildings,
pointing to an era when a higher stage of civilisation had been reached in this region.
But as these remains are found in greater perfection in the neighbouring kingdom of
Cambodia, it may be useful to economise our space by reserving what we have got
to say regarding this feature of the Further East until we reach the empire which
will be the subject of the next section.^
Cambodia.
Jammed in between Siam, the kingdom of Anam, and French Cochin-China, is
one of the most ancient monarchies in the world, albeit its name is little heard now-
adays, and has not yet been honoured with a place in that ^i^yro d'oro of sovereigns,
the Almanacli de Gotha. Cambodia — or, as it really ought to be written, Kamboja,
* Bowring : "The Kingdom and People of Siam" (18.57); Grehan : " Lc royaume do Siam" (1868);
Mouhot : "Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China, Cambodia, and Laos during the years 1858-18G0'*
(1864); Bastian : "Die Viilker dcs ostliehcn Asiens" (1860-67); Pallegoix : "Description du royaume Thai ou
Siam " (1854) ; " Mcmoires de la Societe Academique Indo-Chinoise," and " Annales de I'Extreme Orient " ; " Foreign
Office Reports" up to date, etc.
CAMBODIA: HISTORY AND GENERAL FEATURES. 139
or Kampouchia — the kingdom in question, though at present in a condition of passive
decay, is still a country of much interest, but more from what it holds of the
past than what it contains of importance to the modern workaday world. It is
the home of the " Ko,''^ " Kamer," or '' Khmer j^'' but as to who the Khmer are or were
there is the usual amount of obscurity which hangs around everything connected with
the history and ethnology of this part of Further India. Their own tradition is that
■before they came from the north the " Tsiam " or " Champa " j^eople were in possession
of the country, whilst " the Khmer themselves seem to have preceded the descent of
the ' Thai ' race, to which the people of Siara and Laos belong." "^ But the written
annals of Cambodia do not stretch further back than 134G — a period when, Colonel
Yule thinks, in all probability, the kingdom^s power, and perhaps its civilisation, had
passed their climax. When the Portuguese found their way to the country, soon
after the conquest of Malacca, some traces of the former splendour of Cambodia still
remained; but even these remnants soon died away. By the end of the sixteenth century
*' the land swarmed with foreign adventurers," the most active of whom were Japanese ;
and at the instigation of these vagabonds the Manilla Spaniards attempted various
filibustering expeditions, though with little result. The Portuguese, however, managed to
•establish factories in the country, and by the end of the seventeenth century both the
Dutch and the English had established settlements on the mainland or on the islands off the
•coast. Meantime the country was ground between Siam and Coehin-China as between the
upper and nether mill-stones. By repeated seizures the former reduced the kingdom to
its present limits. In 184-6 the kingdom was put under the joint protectorate of Siam
and Cochin-China as its suzerains ; but this step did not prevent France from seizing in
1859 the Anamite provinces in the delta of the Mekong, nor from constituting the colony
of " Cochin-China," and thus still further reducing the ancient kingdom of Cambodia.
Finally, in 1864, the country — or what remained of it — w^as put under a joint Siamese
and French protectorate, and the then king crowned in the presence of envoj^s from
the two " powers." But as a Siamese envoy has since that date ceased to reside at
the Cambodian capital, the country may be said to be practically under French control,
and its present respite from utter annihilation to be due to this fact. How long it
is so to continue it would be rash to proplles3^
The chief feature of Cambodia — geographically — is the Mekong River and its chief
tributary, the Mesap (p. 1 14), which flows through it, and the " Great Fresh- Water
Lake" (Tale-Sab), a shallow depression in the alluvial, which retains part of the
annual overflow of the river, and is hence subject to great variations in size and
depth. In Bengal such lakes — Colonel Yule notes — are called "jhils." The Cam-
bodian one during the rains is said to be about 1£G miles long, and from eight to
twenty-two in breadth. During the dry season its depth does not average over
four feet, though in some parts of the middle no bottom has been found. The
LTdong River — a broad channel, uniting the lake and the Mekong — fills the lake from
the latter river in the months from June to December, but for the rest of the year
* For notes on these people, and those of the neighbouring countries, sec " Races of Mankind," Vol. IV.,
pp. 147-1'57.
140
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
it drains the lake into the Mekong-. Its waters abound with fish, which during- the
dry season are caught in great numbers by the natives. During that period they build
pile villages in the lake, and there dry and salt the product of their industry for ex-
port to China, either in that condition, or living in cages, or for conversion into oiL
Durino- this period an immense fleet of fishing-smacks come on its waters, but the terrible
storms force them to seek shelter during the rainy season. Along the shores of the lake
during the dry season are also found large herds of wild elephants, which at one time
were so numerous that a fairly tamed one — useful as a beast of burden, though not equal
to those trained in India — could be bought for £10 or £12. A rhinoceros also haunts
the foot of the mountains north of the lake, and there are said to be three species of wild
VIEW IN KHONG, tAMliODIA.
cattle found throughout the country. The Cambodian ponies are noted for their strength
and beauty, and form a considerable article of export to Bankok. The horns of the rhino-
ceros, cardamoms, gamboge, and eagle-wood are also articles of commerce. Gamboge, indeed,
though deriving its name from the country, is chiefly found in the old Cambodian part of Siam
— not far from Korat — and, as Mr. Hanbury has shown, is the gum of Garcinia Morella, var.
pedicellata, though less esteemed varieties, scarcely known commercially in this country,
are obtained from various species of American, Ceylon, and Mysore plants.* Eagle or aloe-
wood (p. 129), for which the country was even noted among the early Arab voyagers, is
also at present chiefly found in Siamese territory, near Chantibun, not far from the coast.
The terms eagle-wood, agila, &c.. Colonel Yule observes, have really nothing to do with
eagles, but are corruptions of the Sanskrit Aguru, which again applies to the internal
cavities in the soft wood of Acpdlarla agaUocha, the result of disease, but for which the
* Transactions of the L'mnaan Socicltj, Vol. XXIV., p. 487.
14:1 THE COUNTEIES OF THE WOKLD.
tree is valued. Nutme^^, liquorice, caoutchouc, gutta-percha, sapan-wood, pepper, rice,
■cotton, aud benzoin are among the other products of the country recorded by Yule,
and hides, horns, tortoiseshell, ivory, lac, and dried elephant's flesh are also exported. The
iron smelted and wrought by some of the hill tribes, though not an article of commerce,
is of a high quality.
The country has now only one port — Kampot — and the trade is chiefly in the hands
of the Chinese. The capital itself and several of the interior cities are surrounded by fine
tracts of alluvial land, but a high range of hills has to be passed before Panompin (P'nompenh
of the Oriental purist), the metropolis (p. 145), is reached. When Cambodia was at the
height of its prosperity, Angkor was the chief city of the kingdom, but in consequence of
its exposure to Siamese attacks it was abandoned, and after much chopping about the seat
•of government was, in 18G6, transferred to Panompin, at the confluence of the outlet
of the Great Lake with the Mekong — though it ought to be noted that only the southern
half of this sheet of water, which is regarded with much superstition, belongs to Cam-
bodia, the northern part being claimed and actually in possession of Siam. " Panompin "
— " the Mountain of Gold " — is described by Mr. Vincent as dull. " Nothing
breaking the uniformity of the bamboo huts excepting a slender pyramidal pagoda, one
of the palace buildings, and two blocks of brick stores built by the king ; it
resembles many of the villages on the banks of the Mesap, only differing from them in
size, in number of dwellings, and shops." In the city is a French mission, a number
of European traders, a company of French troops, and a French commandant, or Proc-
tecteur, as he is styled, " who represents French interests versus his ]Majesty^s.''^ One
or more French gunboats are also usually stationed on the river, though the trim ap-
pearance of the vessels flying the tricolour, compared with the rather dilapidated war-
vessels from which float the red-bordered blue flag of Cambodia, must to the natives be
an ever present signal that the glory of the " Khmer " has departed. Panompin itself
extends along the banks of the river for a distance of about three miles, but with the
exception of an embankment of earth on the landward side, erected at the time of the
Anamite troubles, there is no wall about the city, nor even around the palace. The main
street runs along the river bank. Its macadam consists mainly of broken brick and
sand, and the shops on either side are bamboo huts, owned by Chinese, Klings, or by
Cambodians and Cochin-Chinese, though many of these shops are, in addition, gambling
dens and opium-smoking haunts. In the Cambodian stores cotton and the silk goods for
which the country is famous may be had, while the Klings deal chiefly in European
wares. There are also among the 20,000 people in the town a number of Siamese, but
the Cochin-Chinese are the principal foreigners, and may at once be distinguished from
the Cambodians by their lower stature, less muscular frames, more Mongol features, and
by their long hair being fastened in a knot behind. The palace is really a fine building,
King Norodom the First^s great ambition being to live in a finer house than his
Majesty of Siam, and to imitate as far as may be the manners, dress, and tout citseiuhle
of the French nation, and especially of the second French Empire, whose policy first
made him acquainted Avith his polite neighbours. It is also needless to say that his
Majesty is a Grand Cross of the Legion, and generally is as much of a Frenchman as his
CAMBODIA: GOVEENMENT. 143-
limited education and Indo-Chinese face will admit of. His people are good-natured and
apathetic, with little aptitude or ambition for trade, and hence the wealth of Cambodia
is monopolised by Chinese, Anamites, and Malays. The national religion is Buddhism,
mixed up with much pagan superstition, such as calling on the '^ devil-dancing medi-
cine man^^ in sickness. There are also 2,000 Roman Catholic Christians, and on the
coast very ancient settlements of Malay Mohammedans. In addition, there live on the
confines of Cambodia numbers of wild, or, as Colonel Yule more justly prefers to
call them, illiterate tribes, with whose religion and habits we are still very imperfectly
acquainted. The Cambodian language differs from all the neighbouring tongues, but their
letters are " an ornamental form of the Pali, which has been the foundation of all the
Indo-Chinese alphabets." The inscriptions on the ancient monuments are, however, in
an older form, not understood by the modern priests. The government has undergone
few or no changes of late years, except what the introduction of foreign manners has
forced on it. The king is an absolute monarch, and most accounts represent him having
under him a second king, corresponding to the '^Yuvaraja" of ancient India, and by
a corruption of which title he is known. The furniture and decorations of the palace are
quite as fine as the building itself, though, as always happens in such cases in Oriental
buildings, the costly articles which have been huddled wholesale into the rooms are scat-
tered in the most heterogeneous manner, more for the sake of being shown to visitors
than for any enjoyment the owner can derive from them. The king, however, takes a
great pride in his palace, the splendour of which contrasts so painfully with the squalor
of the surrounding streets of hovels. Indeed, his Majesty is said never to hesitate a
moment in appropriating private property when he finds that by doing so he can beautify
his own residence. Nevertheless, he is well liked by his people, and rules with as fair
an approach to rectitude as can be expected from an Oriental potentate. The presence
of French soldiers in his capital has, moreover, taken away from him that wholesale
fear of his subjects which at one time acted as a deterrent to any gross misconduct
on the part of himself and officials, while at the same time the watchful eye of the
" Proctecteur ^^ sees that anything in the shape of Burmah-like savagery does not openly,
at least, display itself. He is also beginning to imbibe something of the "free thinking-'^
notions of his Gallic neighbours, and when it suits his mood mocks at Buddha, or treads
under foot the ancient and almost religious etiquette of his country. Within the
last few years he has visited Hong-Kong, Shanghai, and other cities, in order, like his
Siamese brother, to see the world for himself. The Cambodians do not, however, hold
out even to an optimist much hope of ever attaining anything like their ancient great-
ness, for they are not an energetic race : the chances rather are that in time they will
gradually lose their independence by becoming part and parcel of the French Empire.
The king is, indeed, already surrounding himself with European advisers. His chief aide-
de-camp at the period of Mr. Yincent^s visit was an English Jew, and his small
army, mainly composed of natives of the Philippines, is beginning to be officered by
Frenchmen. The machine shops attached to the " arsenal " are superintended by French
artisans ; in the stables are French horses, though, owing to the all important absence
of good roads, neither they nor the French and English carriages owned by the king
144 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
can be used except on very hi^li and very painful occasions; and, as the European visitors
wlio have been hospitably entertained by Norodom the First are agreeably aware, his
Majesty of Cambodia has in his pay a French cook, cunning- in his art. Even between
the date of Mr. Thomson^s visit and the year 1880 there seemed to have been great
advances in the Cambodian monarches education, so that we may soon expect to hear
that the Indo-Chinese lacquer has been quite covered with French polish. Mr. Mouhot's
description of Oodong, when — in 1860 — it was the capital, corresponds very closely to
that which !Mr. Vincent has given of Panompin at the present day. He especially
notes the animation of the town, owing to the number of chiefs resorting to it for
business and pleasure, or who were passing through it on tlieir way from one province
A'lEW ON THE JiANKb OF THE MESAP, CAMBODIA.
to another. " Every moment,^^ he wu-ites, " I met mandarins, either borne in litters or
on foot, followed by a crowd of slaves carrying various articles ; some yellow or scarlet
parasols, more or less according to the rank of the person, and the boxes with betel. I
also encountered horsemen mounted on pretty, spirited little animals, richly caparisoned
and covered with bells, ambling along, while a troop of attendants, covered with dust
and sweltering with heat, ran after them. Light carts, drawn by a couple of small oxen,
trotting along rapidly and noisily, were here and there to be seen. Occasionally a large
elephant passed majestically by. On this side were numerous processions to the pagoda,
marching to the sound of music; there, again, was a band of ecclesiastics in single file,
seeking alms, draped in their yellow cloaks, and with the holy vessels on their backs/^
Kampot, the sole seaport of the country, is on the Gulf of Seam : it is approached by a
small shallow river, not easily navigable, and interrupted by a bar, which compels large
shijis to anchor in the roadstead outside. The chief merchants are Fokien Chinese, but
the trade is now reduced to very small proportions.
CAMBODIA : ITS ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS.
145
Cambodia is, however, in modern times of most note for its ancient remains
(p. 148). These gigantic remnants of a former age — comparable only, as regards their
contrast with the present, to the ruins of Mexico and Central America (Vol. III., p. 24) —
are found in more than forty different localities, though the most important localities for
them are now all in Siamese territory, north of the Great Fresh- Water Lake. " The remains,"
to use the concise description of Colonel Yule, ^^ embrace walled cities of large extent;
palaces and temples, stupendous in scale and rich in design, and often most elaborately
VIEW or I'ANo.Mrix, the capital or camiioiua.
decorated with long galleries of storeyed bas-reliefs; artificial lakes enclosed by walls
of cut stone; stone bridges of extraordinary design and excellent execution; elaborate
embanked highways across alluvial flats, &c. Were it possible to reconcile i\\e geography,
they would almost justify the extravagant fictions of Mendez Pinto regarding the palaces
and temples of Timplan and Timagogo." The most surprising of these structures is
the great Wat or Temple of Angkor, or Nagkhon, the ancient capital, fifteen miles north
of the lake, and the one with which, owing to the exertions of Mouhot, Bastian, Thom-
son, Carne, and Vincent, we are better acquainted than any other. Miles away from
any settlement, save the few rude huts of the attendant priests, embedded into the
heart of a primeval forest of cocoa, betel-nut, and toddy palms, the first sight of it
strikes the beholder with an awe and astonishment which a closer examination only
179
146 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
serves to intensify. The con-idors^ towers from 180 feet upwards, lordly fli<^hts of
steps, carved walls, griffins, pillars, and halls of this magnificent edifice well entitle it
io be called one of the architectural wonders of the world. It has been pronounced as
imposing as Memphis or Thebes, and more mysterious. All travellers who have visited,
it — and of late years it has attracted not a few — agree that in this distant part of Siam
there exists a building, hardly in ruins, though neglected, which defies all explanation.
*' The first view of the ruin is almost overwhelming,^^ writes Mr. Vincent, who confesses
that to attempt to describe it is beyond his powers. M. Mouhot, whose elaborate details, as
well as the fine photographs of ^Nlr. Thomson, are our chief data regarding this and other
Cambodian antiquities^ declares that the Nagkhon "Wat Temple is "a rival to that of
Solomon, and erected by some ancient jNIichael Angelo,^^ and " might take an honourable
place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by
Greece or Rome.'^ "^ It would be worse than useless attempting any elaborate notes on
this remarkable structure, or the almost as interesting remains which lie beside it ; but the
illustration on p. 14S will enable the reader to gain some idea of one of these very remark-
able and mysterious buildings of the East. The Nagkhon temple is five miles scuth of the
ruins of the city itself. This ancient town is surrounded by walls forming a quadrangle,
nearly eight miles and a half in circumference and thirty feet in height, and in addition, there
is a very wide ditch outside of all. The walls are pierced by four gates of very " grandiose,
though fantastic " architecture. But after examining all these ruins, the question still
remains unanswered, Who built these temples and cities? That it w^as a race identical
with the present Cambodians one can hardly bring oneself to believe. At the date of our
earliest acquaintance with this people they did not dwell in these cities, had no tradition
even of their builders, and, though living in more magnificent state than now, so far as
concerned their kings and magnates, they were then, no more than now, capable of such
sculpture or architectm-e. Indeed, the details of these ruins are in the main Indian, but
much also exists which connects them with Indo-China and Java. ]Much, again. Colonel
Yule properly remarks, " is unique.''^ But what has ever puzzled, and most likely ever
will puzzle, antiquaries is the Roman-Doric character of the enriched pilasters, so
frequent a feature in the building, though in Ceylon and in the mediaeval Burmese
remains something similar, though not so marked, occur. From the fact that the
Chinese ambassadors, who visited the country between 129G and 135£, do not mention
the Nagkhon Wat, it is by some thought that it must have been built subsequent
to that date. This is, however, too slender a foundation to rear a substantial theory
on ; and perhaps the building was, even at the date of their visit, an antiquity, though
they did not visit it or note its occurrence among the many other objects which attracted
their attention. We do not even know the object for which such temples were erected.
!M. Garnicr thinks they were for the worship of Buddha, and undoubtedly some of them
were ; though Mr. Fergusson, while admitting that he may be wrong, regai'ds the great
temples as monuments of that serpent-worship to the elucidation of which he has written
such able and extremely ponderous volumes. Every nation, from the Greeks to the lost ten
tribes of Israel, has been called in to explain their presence ; and though in time the
* "Travels," Vol. I., p. 279.
AXAM: HISTORY. 147
inscriptions on them may be deciphered, those which have already been made out afford
little hope of our just curiosity being much g-ratified in that direction. It is impossible to
believe that these monuments could have been reared by a race who were living' five hundred
years ago. The people who built them must have been different from the present Cam-
bodians ; and unless we have to revolutionise all our ideas of the rise and decay of
civilisation, a much longer interval than that must have been necesssary to allow of the
disappearance or displacement of this wonderful nation of architects and sculptors.^
AXAM.
In the south-west of China, drained by the rivers Tue-duk-kiang and Song-koi, falling
into the Gulf of Tonquin, is a considerable region which, though geographically, and perhaps
ethnologically, a part of the Middle Kingdom, is politically not of it. Still further south,
shut off from the rest of Indo-China by a range of mountains, is a long coast region
drained by many though unimportant rivers, long known as Cochin-China; while in the
delta of the Mekong is a flat, rich, but unhealthy tract of country which of late years has.
come before the world under the name of Lower Cochin-China, though from its present
owners it is more frequently called French Cochin-China. As the two regions first named
constitute part of the independent Empire of Anam, we shall accordingly designate them by
that political title, reserving the more familiar title for the southern province, which since
1867 the French have held.
Peopled possibly from China, it is historically known that for long this region was-
under the direct control of Chinese satraps. But towards the close of the tenth century a
successful rebellion enabled the Anamese to gain such a degree of independence that for at
least eight hundred years their country owed but a nominal allegiance to Pekin ; and not only
did the Anamese prosper within their own borders, but they expanded over them, at the cost
of their neighbours, the Cambodians, from whom they wrested Tsiampa and the country which
at a later period the French managed to wrest from them. About the year 1787 France
obtained a footing on the peninsula of Tourane and the Isle of Pulo-Condore, where at
present they have a penal settlement; but it was not until 1858 that, on the excuse of
French missionaries being murdered, Napoleon III. began to show the Emperor of Anam
what manner of men his hitherto amicable neighbours were. In 1862, after the experience
indicated, the court of Hue had to accept a treaty whereby, among other conditions which
do not concern us, it ceded three provinces to France, and in 1867 a second unwilling
compact, by which the remaining three provinces also passed out of the Anamese emperor's-
hands. This was the origin of the French colony of " Cochin-chine francaise.''-' The relations
of the Anamese "'court" with the French Republic rest on a treaty signed in 1871.
By this arrangement the King of Anam is to be independent of every foreign power,
including China, by whose emperor he was up to that date invested with the royal office.
* Gamier: "Voyage d' Exploration en Indo-CTiine " (1873); Cortambert and de Eosny : ''Tableau de la
Cochin-Chine" (1862); Dclaporte : "Voyage au Cambodge" (1880); Leonowen : "The English Governess at the
Court of Siam" (1864); Aymonnier: " Dictionnaire fran(,-ais-cambodgien, et Geographic du Cambodge" (1876);
and above all the valuable works of Thomson, ilouhot, Came, Bastian, and Fergusson, Vincent, and the article
of Colonel YuL? already quoted from.
148
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOKLD.
In return for this guarantee tlie Anamese monarch engages to "accommodate his policy to
that of France," to annul all ordinances he had passed against the Catholics in his kingdom,
to open his ports to foreign commerce, and to permit the residence at each of them of a
French consul, with a military guard of not more than one hundred men. Accordingly, at
present the ports of Haiphong, Hanoi, and Quinhon are open to foreign vessels. Haiphong
is a mere village, where, however, there is a French fort ou the Cua-Cam, which is an arm
RUINS ON MOUNT 13AKHENG, CAMBODIA.
of the embouchere of the Song-koi, or Hongkiong (Red Eiver). Hanoi (150,000 inhabitants),
on the Song-koi, properly so called, is the capital of Tonquin, and Quinhon is a port on the
coast of Anam, in the province of Binh-Dinh.* The government is an absolute monarchy,
without anything in the shape of a constitution, powerfvd custom being the sole check on
the despotism of the king. The throne follows the laws of primogeniture, but all other
offices are supposed, as in China, to go by merit— or, at least, by such merit as the system
of competitive examinations can discover. Hence, with the exception of the king, who
* Journal ojfickl de la Republique ffan^aise, August 4Ui, Gth, and 7th, 1S74 ; " Almanach de Gotha " (1880),
pp. 522-.523.
ANAM: PRODUCTS; COIMMERCE, ETC. 149
is sovereign, high priest, and supreme judge in one, and whose only advisers in the
executive portion of his offices are a Privy Council and seven Ministers, all the Anamese
are equal : for office is the only social distinction between man and man, and office goes
by fitness. Anam in this respect resembles China in Asia and Russia in Europe, only in
the latter country office goes by favour, not by fitness. The two chief parts of the
empire — Cochin-China and Tonquin — are governed by viceroys, and the twenty-four
provinces are each presided over by a governor.
The Kingdom or Empire of Anam, as it is sometimes called, comprises Cochin-China,
without the six lower provinces which now belong to France, Tonquin, which was conquered
in 180£, and Tsiampa, which at an early date was filched from Cambodia. Under Anam
imust also be included the tributary states of Laos and the territory of the independent
Mois, or Stiengs — wretched tribes of savages, about whom little is known, save that they
live on the frontiers of Cochin-China, and are pagans of a low type. Altogether, exclusive
•of the French colony, which has an area of 21,630 miles, Anam is about the size of
France, i.e., about 230,000 square miles, with a population of 21,000,000,-^ 15,000,000 of
whom are in Tonquin. Of these the greater part are Buddhists, though the higher classes
•of Anam profess the doctrines of Confucius; and it is estimated that there are 42,000
Roman Catholics, under six bishops, though, with the exception of a few thousands, these
are almost confined to Tonquin. Much superstition, however, mingles with their Buddhism ;
and beyond the respect paid to the dead and to their ancestors generally, religion little
troubles the apathetic, lazy, unemotional Anamese. They, however, respect their superiors, love
their parents and native land, and being fond of mimicry, learn with remarkable facility.
. Commerce, as usual in the Indo-Chinese countries, is mainly in the hands of the sharp
Chinese. From China come large quantities of cotton and silk-manufactured goods, tea, and por-
celain ; and among other articles may be mentioned opium, paper, potatoes, powder, medicinal
plants, petroleum, paints, wines and liquors, &c., while rice, salt fish, salt, undyed cotton, fish-oil,
mushrooms, &c., are sent abroad, the total amount of exports from the Port of Haiphong
•during eight months of 1S75-6 being 198,914 taels (72 taels equal to about £20).
The Anam army is said to number about 150,000 men, chiefly recruited from Cochin-
China, Tonquin loyalty not as yet being sufficiently established to allow the Government
to risk recruiting in that populous part of the realm. The Grand Marshal who com-
mands the army is personally responsible for the citadel of Hue. Formerly there
was a Department of Marine, but no navy. However, it now comprises 7 corvettes,
■300 junks, an old steamer, and some sailing ships presented to the king in 1876. These
are manned by some 16,000 men, and carry about 1,400 guns of all sorts, some of them
being chiefly remarkable from their antiquity and utter inefficiency as lethal weapons. f
The climate of the north of Anam differs much from that of the south. In the
former there is, according to M. Maunoir, no really dry season. In December and
January the thermometer falls to 43 '^ or 41^ Fahr. Summer lasts from the end of
* In some publications the estimate given falls short by one-half of this calculation of Behm and Wagner.
+ " Report by Sir Brooks Robertson respecting his Visit to Haiphong and Hanoi " (Parliamentarj' Paper, 1876) ,
Dutreuil de Rhins : Btilhtin de la Soc. de Gcogr. de Paris, Feb., 1878; De la Lii'aj-e : "Notes Historiques sur
la Nation Annamite" (Saigon, 1865).
150 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
April to the month of August/ during" which period it is excessively hot, and the-
coasts are frequently visited with typhoons and other storms. But^ as a rule, Tonquin
is healthy, though the same cannot be said of Cochin-China proper, and especially of the
French colony, the climate of which is extremely pestilent to Europeans. The country is com-
posed of low alluvial flats, and the shores are everywhere fringed with mangrove-swamps,
one of the most certain signs of the feverish malaria lurking in and beyond them.
The animals and plants of the region are much the same as those of the neighbour-
ing countries. The royal tiger was formerly met with in the hills close to Saigon.
The panther, rhinoceros, coca-nut bear^ buffaloes, monkeys, &c., are common, but the
elephant the Anamese have not yet learned to domesticate. Their chief beasts of burden
are the buffalo, with which the unhealthy rice-fields are cultivated, and horses. Birds of
numerous species are found ; among others there is met with about every village that
long-legged fowl of ungainly figure and monstrous appetite, which takes its name
from the country, and the low damp region swarms with reptiles, frequently of a
dangerous t}'pe. The vegetable products of the country are those usual to the
tropics. The forests abound in fine timber trees, and as the people of Anam are
essentially an agricultural race, rice, which forms the staple crop, is extensively culti-
vated ; but cotton, mvilberry, sugar-cane, maize, betel-nuts, pepper, &c., are also grown,,
and Tonquin is famous for its cinnamon. This part of the country also produces fair
tea, but the people of Anam generally do not know how to prejiare it. Among*
other arts they are skilful in inlaying work (p. 156). The country is believed to contain much
mineral wealth — including gold, silver, zinc, and iron ; coal is found in places — and though
the alluvial plains of the lower parts of the country cannot be expected to be metalliferous,
yet it is worked there. The natives are, however, exceedingly jealous of foreigners wishing
to work their mines, and if questioned on the subject, always affect ignorance of their
existence; hence the erroneous statements which have been hitherto made on the subject.
Hue, or Phu-tua-tien (p. 153), is the capital of the kingdom, and is remarkable chiefly a&
the seat of government and the place of residence of a variety of French officials, who really
control the king and his ministers. The inner town, or citadel, is occupied by " the govern-
ment ; " the outer by the general body of the population, whose numbers are estimated at
from 50,000 to 100,000. But otherwise it is a very tumble-down and by no means imjiosing
city. Hanoi, or Kecho (p. 148), the ancient caj)ital of Tonquin, was once a place of
some note, but though it still possesses a large fortress, which serves as a residence of the
Viceroy, it is now fast sinking into decay. Even the citadel, though, like that of Hue,,
built by European engineers, is falling into disrepair, and is so poorly equipped that were
it at all likely ever to be attacked by modern artillery its surrender would simply be a
question of a few days. The only other towns worthy of mention arc Hai-dzoung, Bac-
Xinh, Nam-Dinh, and Minh-binh, all of which possess fortifications of considerable importance ;
the castle of the latter town, though not on so vast a scale as the one which guards
the capital, is yet the strongest in Tonquin."^
* Du CailLiux : "La France au Tonj^ King" (1S7G); Hannand: "Apcrcu patholojiique sur la Cochin-chine;"
Yial: " Lcs premieres annees de la Cocliin-chinu " (1874); Veuillot : "La Cochin-chine et la Tonquin " (18j9);
FEEXCH COCHIN-CHINA. I5I
CoCHIN-CniNA.
How " Cochin-eliiae f rangaise " — or '' Basse Cochin-chine/^ as it is sometimes called —
was acquired we have already explained. It is now divided into four provinces,
■constituted out of the six wrested from Anam. A great delta, with little variety
of surface, and covered with mangroves in places where the water is absorbed
by the spongy soil, much of it liable to overflow by the rivers, in some places
below the level of the sea, it forms an uninviting place of abode. Europeans, M.
Maunoir informs us, never get acclimatised here, and children born of European parents
usually die soon after birth. Hence a race of Creoles is not likely to grow up in Cochin-
China. The native women have, however, large families, and Anamites, it is often noted,
recover from wounds which would be fatal to Europeans even in their o^\'n country. The
vast plain which constitutes the area of the colony is so slight in its slope that the tide
runs a long way inland, and so causes the borders of the rivers to be alternately covered with
shallow water, and bare fetid mud-flats, exposed to the festering rays of the sun. Accordingly
in this, a land of miasma, dysentery is the disease which, as in many other warm countries,
shortens life. The majority of Europeans who die in Cochin-China succumb to it, and
it is said that it frequently attacks them after their return to their native land. Cholera
is also another epidemic of '' Cochin-chine.'^ On the border of the rivers fevers are very
common, in the forest country the " wood fever " not even sparing the natives, who can
live unharmed in the middle of the rice swamps. Yet the excellent commercial position of the
country — only second in this respect to Singapore — as a depot, on the one hand, for the
trade of the middle provinces of China, and on the other for Siam, Cambodia, and the Malay
Islands, renders it of value to the French Government. The colony cannot — owing to the
circumstances mentioned — ever be a colony in the sense that Algiers is, but only a place
of trade, and accordingly the number of Europeans in the country is not much increasing.
In 1873 an official census put the entire population at 1,487,200 — 49,500 of whom were
Chinese, 82,700 Cambodians, and 1,114 Europeans, exclusive of officials and the garrison.
The rest were Anamites, Chams, a warlike, gay, honest people of Arab origin, much
intermarried with Chinese, Hindoos, endless crosses of whites with the natives, Anamites with
the Hindoo, with the Malay, and with the Cambodian, and above all Min-huongs, a numerous
and interesting people of mixed Anamite and Chinese origin. In 187G another census
put the whole population of the colony at 1,528,836.^
The capital of the country, as well as the chief "city,'' is Saigon. In reality it is
made uj) of three quarters. Tke native town is devoted to a population of over
30,000 Anamites, Chinese, Malays, Tagals, and Hindoos. This is known as Cholen,
and is at a distance of three miles from the European quarter, with which it is
connected by a good road and by the " Grand Canal " — grand, as Mr. Thomson remarks,
in name only, for its banks are overgrown with rank weeds, and the waters at high tide
and M. !Jr;iunoir's article in the Eiicyclopadla Brltanmca with references. The last named, however, contains no
allusion to the changes brought about by the treaty of 1874. In St. Martin's "L'Annce Geographique " will be
found lists of books on the countrj^ ; and in 1867 M. du Bocage published a bibliography of its literature.
* "Tableaux de la population, etc., des Colonies fran^aises pour I'annee 1876" (1878).
152 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOKLD.
are muddy, and at low tide mud. The Auamese towns are far from imposing-, and the people
who inhabit them are as little prepossessing* as their frail huts. They bear the repu-
tation of being the worst-built and least prepossessing" of any of the natives of Indo-
Chiua. The Anamite^s face is more Mongol-looking, his nose smaller and flatter, and his person,
dirtier even than is usual among* a people not fond of water as a detergent. The great width,
between his legs at the upper portion give his gait that curious swaggering ''theatrical^'
appearance which enables any one at all acquainted with the Anamites to distinguish them
among all the other races of Further India. It is also curious that the distance by which
the big toe in this people is separated from the other toes has served — if any confidence
is to be placed in the Chinese annals — to distinguish them for untold ages ; and the Sinetic
chronicles affect to mention their neighbours as early as 2285 B.C. ! A vast portion of
the poorer classes live in boats grouped together along the river bank, so as to form a
floating village, or in huts built on piles, which raise the floor a few feet above the surface
of the water, into which all the refuse is thrown. "The capitalist, if he proposes to build
a river residence of this sort — one offering every advantage to a large family in search,
of cheerful society, a commanding view of the stream, good fishing close at hand, unen-
cumbered by tolls and ground rent, and boasting a drainage system so unelaborated and
cheap — has to launch out the sum of two dollars and a half, or twelve shillings, in the
construction and decoration of the edifice. When built, the jDroprietor will let it on a
repairing lease." In Cholen the Chinese almost monopolise the trade, and though many
of them settle permanently in the country, the majority return to China witli the little
fortune acquired by their frugal and not invariably honest ways. Choquan is a leafy
village half-way between Saigon and Cholen, and the houses are so concealed by high
hedges and foliage that Mr. Thomson remarks that he had several times passed through
the heart of the hamlet before he was aware of the fact. The peoj^le here, indeed, love
privacy ; every prickle in the hedges that encompasses their dwellings is, to use the apt
expression of the keen observer whose notes we have been drawing on, a token that the
family within would rather be alone. Life is, indeed, in these sultry lands, one long
dolce far niente, only occasionally interrupted by the mild necessity of getting something
to eat.
Saigon proper — or the Government town (p. 157) — inhabited by the Government employes,
is mainly built of brick, and possesses, among other institutions, an excellent botanical
garden, and an interesting menagerie of the animals of the country. When the French
first obtained possession of it the town was little better than a fishing village on the
right bank of the Saigon river, twenty-five miles from the sea, and even }'et the place
does not at first sight predispose the visitor towards it. A large town-hall and hotel
in one is the object most prominent to the eye, while cafes, by no means very clean or
comfortable, at which most of the residents seem to take their meals, are numerous.
The streets are broad and macadamised with brick, and in two of them which run at
right angles to the river are stone canals, up which come country boats to load and unload.
Oil lamps make the darkness of night visible, and wide gutters — which give forth evil odours
— drain the surface refuse away. But there are no public squares, and unless the botanic
gardens and the street facing the river, and lined with double rows of trees, are to be considered
180
154 THE COUNTEIES OF THE "WORLD.
as such, public promenades are equally marked by their absence. With the exception of
a most imposing palace for the Governor, which contrasts strangely with its surrounding
of bamboo huts in the midst of a tropical jungle, the public buildings of Saigon are
in no way remarkable. There are, of course, a number of Roman Catholic chapels, and
to aid the propaganda among the natives a large nunnery.
The trade of the place is not large. In 1876 the value of the imports of the whole
colony was estimated at 01,814,000 francs, and the exports at 60,120,000 francs. But
though there are a number of French houses, the English and Germans are the most
active of the Saigon merchants ; and, as usual in these parts of the East, the real
work of the place is surrendered to the Chinese, who keep most of the small shops,
and in some cases are also traders in a very considerable way of business. The French
merchant enjoys life as well as life can be enjoyed in such a climate, and tries to
make a little France about him. Hence, the cafes, the promenades, cards, dominoes, and a
general addiction to fiddling, dancing, and pleasure, enter more than real business into
his daily life. The English and Germans — ^for the Americans were not at the date of
the latest accounts represented in Saigon — on the contrary, toil incessantly, hoping by
harassing care, and sleepless nights passed in devising schemes for money-making, to heap
up that competence which will enable them to pass as many years of their lives as
possible in their native land. . As for the natives, all this simply amuses them. The
masters of the country, however, make the native chiefs responsible for their subjects;
and hence rebellions against the French authority are much less frequent in Cochin-China
than in most countries similarly situated — such as, for example, among the Chinese of
Singapore, Penang, or the Malay Islands generally.
French is, of course, the language universally spoken in the town, and even the-
Anamites use it in their intercourse with foreigners. In Saigon — though the children
of Europeans are usually sent home to complete their education, or, indeed, as soon
after birth as practicable — there are in the town itself several good schools, largely
attended by the Anamite and half-breed population. There is always a considerable naval
and military force stationed here, and the police, who are chiefly Singapore Malays, are
said to be very efficient. But though serious crime is not markedly common in the
settlement, private morality is at the lowest ebb, and is, perhaps, in some respects,
hardly better than that which prevails in such Oriental settlements as Dilli, in Timor
(Vol. IV., p. 254), though the politeness of the Saigon colonist — not always, it may
be remarked, a gentleman of the best home-antecedents — glosses over the most revolting
features of life in a country that has no domesticity. Mi-tho, Vinh-long, and Bassac
are the capitals of the three other provinces of the same names. At Mi-thu there is
a large citadel with a consideraljle French and Anamite garrison, a palatial government
residence, with fine pleasure-grounds, and good roads bordered with young cocoa-nut
trees. "When Mr. Vincent visited the place a few years ago, there were several French
stores in the town, a large brick cathedral in course of construction, two or three gun-
boats anchored abreast of the town, and " several important carriages in the streets.^'
Vinh-long is another town with a fort, and of the same character is Chaudoc. Ha-tien,
in the Gulf of Siam, is an exceedingly unhealthy place, almost solely inhabited by Chinese
IXDIA: ITS SEAS AXD ITS ISLANDS. 155
and Anamese. Ba-ria, at Cape St. Jacques, is a port cliieily of importance as a military-
station ; while Go-cong-, in the midst of the great rice-fields to the south- west of Saigon,
is the market-town of a purely agricultural district, almost solely inhabited by Anamese.
The French colony in Cochiu-China it would be unfair to have judged either by a
Frenchman or an Englishman. The one individual, if endowed with even a modicum of the
Chauvinism of his amiable nation, will be certain to speak in inflated language of France
in Asia; while, if politically indisposed to the Napoleonic dynasty, he might be inclined
to anathematise Cochin-China as one of the evil works of the '^ Deeembrizeur.^^ A
Briton, on the other hand, is apt to sneer at this attempt to run rivalry with us
in the East. But no suspicion of undue leaning can attach to the opinion of Mr.
Viucent, an American. Yet this intelligent witness declares that Cochin - China is
a, failure, and is likely to continue so. After seeing '' the healthy, growing, and
usually paying colonies of the British Empire in the East,^^ a visit to Saigon '^ leaves a
ludicrous impression indeed upon the mind of an observant, thinking, and reflecting
traveller.''^ The Mekong River has proved useless as an outlet to the rich districts of
Southern China, the furious cataracts and currents rendering it impossible of navigation for
any great distance ; while, as the reader is already aware, not much better fortune has
•attended our efforts to tap the country by way of the Irrawaddy. The Songkoi, which
flows into the Gulf of Tonquin, is, however, navigable for nearly two hundred miles, and
may aid in promoting the longed-for intercourse with the '^celestial empire. ^""^
CHAPTER YII.
India : Its Seas and its Islands.
Saigox, if not a pleasant place to live in, is happily an easy place to get away from.
Steamers call in here from numerous ports east and west of it, and the traveller bound for
India will have no difficulty in reaching some of the ports in the Bay of Bengal, either
directly or by calling in at Singapore. From Saigon the voyager may sail to Singapore,
and thence round the *■' Golden Chersonese,^' with its island-dotted shore, through the
Straits of Malacca, he will once more emerge into the open sea laving the shores of
the mighty " land of the Hindoo '' — more familiarly known as India. He is among
:a strange people — black men of many races and tongues and faith, ^' living under
strange stars, writing strange characters from right to left," and whose gods are not
those of the white-faced islanders whose lot it is to be their masters. But the Eng-
lishman is no longer in a foreign land. For some time yet, we shall travel in
•countries as little like Britain as any of those through which the reader has thus
far been conducted. But wherever we go — among the languid millions of the great
* Came : " Travels in Indo-China and the Chinese Empire " (187"2).
156
THE COUNTEIES OF THE WORLD.
province of which Calcutta is the capital, through the country of the stern Rajputs, among^
the wild Goorkha horsemen, through the pleasant vale of Kashmir, or even in the land of
the fierce Afghan tribesmen — we shall hear our own tongue, and find the " Sahib " lord.
But before setting foot on the continent, we may sail a little while longer among the islands
that lie off India, in the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea. The
AXAMITE "WORKMEN INLAYING WITH MOTHEK-Ol'-rEAKL.
first-named sea, into which we have emerged from the Straits of Malacca, is a great
stretch of almost unbroken water. From Balasore to Chittagong, the northern exti*omity
of this ocean quadrangle, measures some 250 miles ; while from Coromandel to Malacca,
the southern side, is about five times that length. From India its waters receive the
drainage of half of Southern Asia. The Ganges, the Brahmapootra, the Irrawaddy, the
Mahunuddy, the Godavery, the Kistna, and the Cauvery all flow into this great "bay,^' while
the extensive harbours on its eastern side attract ships from every part of the world. The
climate of the bay is warm, the evaporation in the hot season sometimes amounting to one
inch per diem; but the north-east and south-west monsoons — those modifications of the
INDIA: BAY OF BENGAL; ANDAMANS.
157
trade winds — blow over it^ often fiercely^ while the wild typhoons which sometimes sweep its
low alluvial shores leave great havoc in their track. But the Bay of Bengal is not an
unbroken stretch of tropical sea. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie in it; and at
the southern extremity, like the dot at the end of a point of exclamation — ! — lies Ceylon,
a rich island colony, also under the English rule.
Andaman Islands.
From Cape Negrais to Atcheen Head, in Sumatra, there lies a broken line of
STREET VIEW IX SAIGOX.
islands, which point to the probability of this 700 mile curve, dotted here and there
with the Nicobars, the Andamans, and the small Preparis and Coco Islands, having at
one time been a bridge between Sumatra and India, of which only these imperfect
fragments now remain. The Andamans are the chief links in this shadowy chain.
The " Great Andaman " is, in reality, not one, but four islands, end to end, but very
close together, and each measuring from eleven to fifty-nine miles in length, the middle
one being the largest. The Little Andaman is thirty miles long and about seventeen
broad, and lies twenty-eight miles south of the others, but in addition to the land patch
mentioned, consists of a number of smaller islets in its close vicinity. Seen from
the sea, the Andamans appear like a number of low hills, densely wooded by a
158 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
thick jungle of tropical forest. Saddle Mountain, in North Andaman, is 3,000
feet in height ; but southward the hills sink, until they attain an inconsiderable
elevation. The scenery of the islands is in places very beautiful, but as a rule the
dense vegetation gives a sameness to the low-lying country. The shores of the bays
are in most cases fringed with mangroves. Behind the mangroves rise palms, and in
places, gi'eat forest- trees, their stems covered with climbers and their branches thick with
clustered orchids. The west coast, however, has not, as a rule, such lofty trees; and the
places where deciduous-leaved species prevail are. Colonel Yule remarks, of a " grey,
sterile aspect during the hot season.^^ Whole tracts are covered with the Andaman
bamboo, out from among which, here and there, tall forest-trees rise ; while in other
districts the arborescent euphorbias, screw pines, and a species of Cijcas, ''give a
remarkable aspect to the coast vegetation." Further in the interior the jungle is so
dense that in places it is all but impossible to force a way, so that the geology of
the country is very imperfectly known. Sandstone of a good building quality is found,
and traces of coal are met with. The useful timbers are believed to be numerous, but
as yet no trade is done in this reserve of Andaman wealth. The islands are too
narrow to afford play for rivers ; accordingly, though the general aspect of the vegeta-
tion is, according to Mr. Kurz, Burmese, it has been altered by the scarcity of running
water and other unfavourable circumstances. Malay types not found in the neighbouring
continent also occur, but there are no tree-ferns ; and though edible fruits abound, the
cocoa-nut palm, so abundant in the Cocos and Nicobars, is not indigenous here.
Animal life in its higher forms is not common in the Andamans, and, as might be
expected, mammals are especially few in number. None of the monkey tribe, so abundant
on the mainland, have been detected in the group ; and, indeed, with the exception of
a peculiar rat with spiny hairs, a small fruit-eating bat, and a diminutive pig, believed
to be identical with the one on the Nicobars, there are no members of this group of
quadrupeds of any note. Birds are more numerous ; but, according to the late Mr.
Edward Blyth, they do not approximate so closely to the species of India as to
those of the Malay Islands, the Philippines, and in one case even to China. The
swallow which builds the famous edible nests inhabits caves on the coast, and pigeons,
woodpeckers, and kingfishers are numerous. Reptiles and fishes are abundant, both as to
individuals and species ; and among the former is the turtle, which is imported in great
numbers for the Calcutta market.
But the Andamans are never likely to be colonised by any visitors save those of
the peculiar type for whose temporary home the Indian Government has selected them.
In other words, the islands have since 1858 been a convict settlement, the only European
residents being the officials, garrison, and possibly a stray white who may have "got
into trouble.''^ The climate is very wet, and, indeed, only four months' fair weather
can be relied on. When the convicts first arrived, the mortality among them was
enormous ; but of late, owing to the clearance of the jungle and the reclamation of
the swamps, the health of the settlement has wonderfully improved. It is also to be
hoped that the presence of a civilised colony on the islands may in time react favourably
upon the natives. These are of a very low type ; and though the islands are only 590
INDIA: ANDAMAXS; NICOBARS. 159
miles from the mouth of the Gano^es and 1(30 from Caj^e Negrais, in British Burmah,
and have been visited more or less for :J^000 years^ the aborigines are to this day rude
savages^ who have never in even the least appreciable manner shared in the civilisation
of the ancient empires off whose shores they live."^ Their very numbers are unknown,
the different estimates varying so widely as to have put them at all figures, from 3,000
to 15,000. As early as 1789 the Bengal Government attempted to establish a penal
colony on the islands, but the settlement was finally abandoned in 1796. But in 1855,
owing to the repeated outrages by the natives on the crews of wrecked vessels, the
scheme was again taken up; and though for a time it was interrupted by the Mutiny,
the great number of prisoners which fell into the hands of the Government made its
urgency evident as soon as that episode in the history of India had passed away.
Accordingly, in 1858 the present colony at Port Blair was established. Cattle have
been introduced, and large gardens have been laid out, in which mangoes, oranges,
pommeloes, pine-apples, and jack-fruit are grown in great luxuriance. In 1872 the
Andamans obtained an unhappy notoriety as the scene of the murder of Lord Mayo,
the Governor-General, when on a visit to the settlement. They and the Isicobars are
governed by a Chief Commissioner, residing at Port Blair.f
The Nicobar Islands.
Ser Marco Polo tells us that " when you leave the Island of Java (the lesser)
and the Kingdom of Lambri, you sail north about 150 miles, and then you come to
two islands, one of which is called Necuveran. In this island they have no king or
chief, but live like beasts. And I tell you they go all naked, both men and women,
and do not use the slightest covering of any kind. They are idolaters. ^^ J But long
before the day of the great Venetian traveller, the Nicobars are mentioned in the early
Sanskrit writings, being classed, like all islands placed in line, as the remains of bridges
made either by the gods or "^by the devils for some particular purpose." Though in 1711 two
Jesuit priests went to the islands to convert the people (and got killed, after a stay of two
years and a half), it was not until 175i that the first settlement on them was made by the
Danish authorities, who in those days had a colony in India, not far from where Calcutta
now stands. Fever, drunkenness, bad officers, improper food, indifferent shelter, and a
quarrel with the natives, ended the experiment in a couple of years. In 1768 the
Moravians landed; but in 1787 even these self-denying men, though supported by the
Danish authorities, had either left or died. Indeed, so rapidly did the missionaries fall victims
to the climate that they had not time to learn the language, and in consequence converted
no natives. Still, up to 1807 (when England seized the islands, and held them up to 1811),
Denmark kept a small garrison there to play the part of '' the men in possession. •'■' But
* " Eaces of Mankind," Vol. II., pp. 127 — 129. Mouat : Journal of the Anthropological Institute (1873), Sec.
t Mouat: "Adventures and Eesearches in the Andaman Islands" (1873); Kurz: "Report on the Vegeta-
tion of the Andaman Islands" (1870); Hamilton: '-Xew Account of the East Indies" (1727); Yule:
Eneyclopcedia Britannica (1875), &c.
+ "The Book of Ser Marco Polo," by Colonel Yule, A'ol. II., p. 248.
160
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOELD.
though this costly farce was enacted until 1831^ there were no colonists on the islands;
however^ in that year another missionary attempt was made^ and in 1837 this fresh departure
also came to the old end. In 1815 a final attempt was made; but except that through
it Dr. Rinkj afterwards Governor of South Greenland^ was enabled to write his account of the
islands^ the experiment ended miserably in 1818^ and up to 1869 the islands were
A laLLOCK CAUKIAGE IN COCHIN-CHINA.
without a master; for even the long-suffering Danes had tired of the farce of keeping
their flag floating in a region which it was evident they could never make any iise
of. But the frequent outrages committed on seamen compelled the Government of
Bengal to take over the islands ; and in 1869 they were affiliated to the Port Blair
Penal Settlement of the Andamans. Sepoys, convicts, and building materials were
ianded at Nancowry Harbour; and since that date perseverance has been rewarded
by the village now presenting a pleasant appearance, with its barracks, stores, houses,
cotton plantations, clearances in the old pestilential swamps planted with cocoa-nut trees
and flower and vegetable gardens. Cocoa-nuts and the oil made from them form the
INDIA: THE NICOBAR ISLANDS.
161
chief articles of commerce with the natives, who, unfortunately, have acquired a taste
for arrack, brought from the Straits of Malacca by the small vessels which visit the
islands for commercial purposes. The Nicobarians are infinitely more intelligent than
the Andamans. M. de Ropstorff tells us that they are great linguists. The old men
talk Portuguese, the middle-aged men English, the young men Burmese, the boys
ELEPHANT PLOUGHING IX CEYLON.
Hindustani, and everybody speaks Malay. This shows in whose hands the trade has
been for the last sixty or seventy years, and how it has changed.
M. de Ropstorff has a good opinion of the Nicobars. They consist of eight larger
and nine smaller islands, and from their position are all tropical; but the temperature,
though debilitating, is uniform. The rainfall is about 100 inches per annum; but, as
in the Andamans, it varies much in different years. Volcanic action has left its trace
over the whole of the islands, and the washing down of the soil from the hills has
formed swampy plains here and there. On this alluvium the wa-iter whom we have
just quoted describes mangroves as growing close to the sea, and on the land, elevated
181
16^ THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
above high water-mark, screw-pine groves abound. All arouiul the islands^ more or less, a
coralline alluvium has formed, and fring-ing reefs of coral stretch far out into the sen.
The Great Nicobar, the Little Nicobar, and the Katchall are of " brown coral forma-
tion," but the other islands are of volcanic origin, and covered with a peculiar clay,
full of miniite shells, sharks^ teeth, and whales^ bones, proving that it must have been
formed in the deep sea. The " brown coral formation " of Rink supports a luxurious
jungle down to the very edge of the sea, while the islands of clay on volcanic rocks
are only covered with high, useless " lalang " grass, which is fringed towards the sea
with jungle. The coralline alluvium is covered with cocoa-nut trees, but the interior
of each of the southern islands is still a /erra incofjiiita. '^ The jungle is high, and
difficult to get through, interwoven with rattan and thorny creepers; and though mag-
nificent to look at, it is very unhealthy. Into it no ray of light penetrates through
the massive foliage of the giant trees; and without light no flower thrives." The
colonisation of the Nicobars by the British has been more successful than the Danish
attempts, in so far that proper stores, houses, &c., have been provided ; but almost
every fresh arrival has to undergo that seasoning operation which takes the form of
catching an obstinate and dangerous jungle fever. "If," writes M. de Ropstorff, '^once
Government succeeds in making its little penal settlement healthy, settlers from Penang
will not be wanting, and the place will soon thrive, for it lies in the highway of all
the trade of Bengal. In this bay terrible hurricanes often meet the ships, and there
is no harbour which could offer a better shelter than Nancowry. It is sheltered from
all winds, and can be entered from the west or east. It could easily be provided
with docks, as there are deep and sheltered bajs. The cocoa-nuts which abound would
offer the settlers something profitable to commence with, but the best profits would be
from growing cotton and spices. The edible birds^-nests, which the Chinamen prize,
would at once bring in a little revenue; and the guano in the subterranean caves of
Katchall would be valuable for manure. There is not enough for exportation, but it
would be useful for local purposes. The cotton grown at the Nicobars has been
reported upon, and it appears that it is better than any Indian cotton. Every fruit
planted there has succeeded well, and we know from the Danish settlement that spices
thrive well. Hill paddy (rice) gave a very good crop in 187;i, when it was experi-
mentally grown. Building materials are plentiful ; and I think it is only a question
of time when the Nicobars will become a flourishing colony, and though one of the
latest, perhaps not the least jewel in Her INIajesty's crown." So little are the Nicobars
known that it is only recently that the rumour has been verified that in the interior
of the Great Nicobar there lives a tribe, not of Papuan or Negrito origin, as are the
Nicobarians at large, but of Mongolian race.^
* Kopstorff: Geographical Magazine, Yq\)., 187o, p. 44, Feb., 1878, p. 39; .Stecn-Billc : " Corvettcn Galatheas
.Jordomseiling " (1849); Rink: "Die Nikoburischcn Inscln" (1847); Kurz : Journal of Botany {X.S.), Vol. IV.,
p. 321; Blyth : Journal of the Asiatic Soelctg of Bengal, Vol. XV., p. 367; Rosen: '• I^rcudringor fra niit
ophold paa dc Xikobarsko Oer" (1839); Birch: Caleatta Jievletv, Jul}-, 1878; and Distant: Journal of th,-
Anthropological Institute, 1876, p. 209, where will be found a complete bibliography of Uic literature of tlie
group up to date.
INDIA: THE ISL.IXD OF CEYLOX. 163
Ceylox.
The Yoyag-er who approaches Ceylon from Europe usually sig'hts it near break of
day. The north-east monsoon is blowing', and Adam's Peak, 7,430 feet hig-h_, towering
majestically above the other lofty mountains of which it forms a j^^i't, is generally
visible; but the fleecy clouds which frequently hang around the summit conceal the
cap of the holy mount of the Buddhists from view, though at other times it
may often be seen sixty miles from land, looking at that distance like a pillar of
smoke. But the cautious mariner, as he nears the coast of this famous island, gives
the north-west shores of it a wide berth, for they are beset with shoals, sandbanks,
rocks, and reefs. Some of these, like Adam's Bridge and the Island of Rameseram,
almost bridge over Palk's Strait, which separates Ceylon from India. The west and
south coasts are low, and fringed with cocoa-nut trees, which grow down to the
water's edge, and impart to the island the beautiful appearance for which it is so justly
celebrated. However, from Point de Galle (p. 164) to Trincomalee the shores are
bold and precipitous. The ample vegetation which is characteristic of the coasts
we have left is no longer found ; a few dangerous rocks dot its shores, but the mariner
may fearlessly approach this side of the island, though he will miss the "back waters"
and inlets of the sea which on the south and west afforded so many useful harbours
for small craft. The island is noted for its loveliness, and the numerous writers who
have expatiated on its charms have in no degree exaggerated them. It would be
impossible to do so ; for though some of their data will not bear critical examination,
in other respects they fail to come up to the reality. The eye of the voyager, wearied
with the monotony of sea, tired of green waves and '' barren foam,'' lights with relief
on the varied expanse of verdure spread out before him, and listens with something
like pleasure to the unwonted boom of the surf breaking on the flat beach, and sending
its s^iray up to the very roots of the cocoa-nut trees. Colombo being an open
roadstead, vessels must anchor at a considerable distance from the shore ; but if the ship
cannot come to them, the Singhalese come to the ship. Canoes and boats soon surround
her, and up her sides clamber their crews, until the deck is covered with black, well-
proportioned, but withal rather naked coolies. In the harbour itself the various native
craft surrounding the new arrival suppl}' abundant material for observation. Here
is a Singhalese vessel, ark-like in form, and roofed over with thatch, which intensifies
its domestic appearance ; . alongside it a Coromandel dhoney and a Bombay petamar ;
while, crossing and re-crossing the harbour, are cargo-boats heaped with lading for
the vessels, " their swarthy rowers stimulating each other by a monotonous kind
of chant ; and the traveller lands amidst all the stir and confusion of an active
commerce — crowds of coolies and bullock-carts, and piles of merchandise, rice, coffee,
oil, and cinnamon." Ashore, the spectacle, especially to one coming from a long
voyage, is still more pleasing. The landing-place at Colombo is very unlike the wharves
in most ports with which the mariner is acquainted. Tulip-ti-ees grow around the jetty
and on each side of the principal streets, affording not only an agreeable shade from
the tropical sun, but giving a garden-like appearance to the place, " their green leaves
IG-i
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOELD.
contrasting" vividly with the peculiar red hue of the roads^ one of the first things that
attracts the eye of a stranger/' ^ This " utmost Indian isle " of the old geographers
has also been long celebrated for the aromatic odours which are supposed to herald it
afar off. Its " spicy breezes " are^ indeed^ stock allusions with the poets who refer to
Ceylon^ the belief with these gentlemen being that because the island produces spices
VIEW OF rOIXT DE GALLE, CEYLOM.
the winds which blow over it must necessarily be impregnated with their perfumes.
No doubt there is a certain odour in the air of the tropics — this the writer can
confirm from his personal experience — just as there is in a pine-forest or on a High-
land moor. But this has been much exaggerated ; the only ones which at all correspond
to those described by the writers — who have not visited Ceylon — are the overpowering
perfumes exhaled by the lemon-grass {Aailropoyoii), by the honey-scented nilla, and by
* " Coylon, hy an Officer late of the CVylon Rifles," Vol. T. (187<l), P- 371. This exhaustive work, which tho
industrious author has seen fit to puhlish under a thin pscudonymic disguise, I shall in future quote as " Ceylon."
166 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
tlie coffee-plantations, which when in full blossom send forth a jessamine odour. The
cinnamon, however, exhales little scent until the leaves are crushed in the hand.
The low level of the coast-line gives the palms which encircle it the appearance
of rising out of the ocean. But this level zone encircles a loftier region on the east,
south, and west, extending inland from thirty to eighty miles, and forming a picturesque
assemblage of hills, of which the most prominent, though not the loftiest, is Adam's
Peak. This pre-eminence is claimed by Pedru-talla-galla, 8,29o feet in height, while
there are two other mountains which surpass Adam's Peak in altitude, though in sanctity
it maintains a dignity which none of them can pretend to. In Adam's Peak is a
hollow which has the happy distinction of being equally reverenced by all the prevailing
religionists of the island. The Brahmins declare that it is the footprint of Siva, the
Buddhists that Buddha made it, the Mahommedans that it is the work of Adam,
while the Christians are divided in opinions between the claims of St. Thomas and
the eunuch of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia. Hence pilgrims crowd the mountain at
certain periods of the year. The footprint is covered by a roof, and the superstition of
the devotees administei'ed to by priests, who live in a monastery half-way up, but daily
attend the shrine on the summit. March is the favourite season for the climbing
pilgrimage — one, moreover, which is not devoid of danger, and has to be aided by
chains riveted to the rocks at critical places, and fabled to have been placed there by
Alexander the Great. In addition to money and other gifts, the worship at the summit
consists of offerings of rhododendron flowers and various invocations. Notwithstanding
the various religions of the pilgrims, they agree to differ about the origin of the foot-
print, and once there, get along without discord of any kind, the awe which the sacred
spot inspires, and the sublimity of the view from the summit, apparently quelling in
the pilgrims' breasts the contentions usual among sectaries of such pronounced views.
Indeed, the spectacle from Adam's Peak is by general concensus one of the most
sublime in the world. Sir James Emerson Tennent has very justly remarked that
though people climb many mountains much higher, there are few which present so
unobstructed a view over land, or tower so much over the surrounding moimtains.
" On the north and east," the author of " Ceylon " remarks, '^ the eye ranges over the
Kandyan hills. Turning to the south and west are undulating plains of light and
verdure, with rivers showing out at intervals in their silvery course, while in the
extreme distance the glitter of the sun on the surf marks the line of the coast. This
grand view is frequently eclipsed by clouds or dense mists which envelop the summit,
when neither land nor sky can be seen ; the mountain appears to melt under your feet,
and you feel suddenly lost in a cloud, Avithout a footing on earth. The sensation
whieli it jiroduces is very peculiar, and must be felt to be understood." The mountain
region of Ceylon covers an area of about 4,300 miles, but the whole breadth of the
island on the north, from Kalpitiya to Batticaloa, is an almost unbroken plain, covered
with noble forests of many trees, from the cashew-nut, which decays a month after
it is felled, to the ebony and satin-wood, which can alone resist for any great length
of time the climate and white ants of Ceylon. The latter insect pests are ubiquitous
except when the climate is too cold for them, and in a few hours destroy every
INDIA: THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 1G7
vegetable substance within their reach. All of the mountains are covered with verdure
to their summits ; but the slopes of many of them, once clothed with great forest
trees, have been cleared, and turned into tiuely cultivated coffee-plantations. Among
these mountains are some extensive plains, such as those of Horton, 7,000 feet above
the sea. But as this splendid site for a sanitarium is at present difficult to reach,
that of Xewera-Ellia, 0,240 feet high, has taken its place, the locality being distant
only 112 miles from Colombo. Here the European, jaded with the heat of the coast
and plains, where a single sheet at night feels too much, may regain somewhat of
his lost vigour, and as he sits by a fire, and finds blankets necessary, begin to get
new life into his languid, flabby limbs. He awakes after a refreshing sleep, and sees
" the grass white with hoar-frost, and hears the voice of the robin and the blackbird near
one's window. If an early riser, the new arrival takes a stroll before breakfast, feels the
crisp grass and leaves crackling under his feet, expands his chest, and inhales the pure air
with a degree of delight only understood by those who have felt the magical change,
returning to breakfast with a sharp appetite and a vigour of limb almost forgotten.
Clothing which makes one hot to look at in Colombo is here donned with pleasure, and
we are glad to sit near a fire at breakfast and in the evenings.'' Since the increased
facilities for travel Xewera-Ellia is yearly visited by numbers of Eui'opeans, and the place
is fast becoming a Singhalese Simla, or an insular representative of one of those sanataria
in the Neilgherry Hills to which the jaded Indian flees during the " heats." [Many English
flowers and vegetables grow to perfection ; and though wheat and other cereals have not
succeeded very well, potatoes are grown in such quantities, in spite of the introduction of the
potato disease, as to have become a considerable source of profit. Sir Samuel Baker, who,
prior to the days when he attained the acme of his fame as a traveller, lived several years in
Newera-Ellia,* advocates European colonisation of the mountains of Ceylon; but, even with
its comparative advantages of climate, the European constitution, anywhere in a tropical
climate, becomes most frequently too enervated to be capable of much exertion. Ceylon
compromises an area of 24,700 miles, is 271 miles long, and at the widest part is 1-37
miles broad — in other words, it is about one-sixth the size of Ireland, though altogether
different in shape, being cone-shaped, with the apex of the cone pointing towards the north.
The Hindoo poets call it " the pendant jewel of India : " the more jirosaic Dutch compared
it to a ham.
However, in spite of Ceylon being so near India, it is probable that it has never
formed a part of the continent of Asia as at present constituted. The Ceylon elephant
is specifically identical with that of India, but at the same time its variety is nearer
that of Sumatra than that of the continent. But in Ceylon we do not find the tiger,
hAitna, cheetah, wolf, fox, various deer, birds, &c., common in India, while several of
the Ceylon animals are wanting on the other side of Palk's Straits ; and some of the
insects have more affinity with those of Australia than of India. On the other hand,
the likeness to the fauna of the Indian Archipelago is almost as superficial, for many
* Raker: "Eight Years' "Wanderings in Ceylon"' (18oo); Tcnnent : "Ceylon" (1860); SiiT: "Ceylon and
the Cingalese" (1851), and the numerous other works referred to in these books.
168 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
Malay forms^ such as the argus pheasant (Vol. IT., p. 249) and the rhinoceros of Sumatra,
are absent. The gaur {Bos ganrns) is not now found in Ceylon, though at one time it
seems to have been present. On the whole, the facts we are in possession of do not point
to Ceylon having ever been actually joined to Sumatra, nor to India, but to its having been
part of a southern continent now nearly all submerged, and of which Southern India, then
entirely disconnected from Northern India, was a portion. Though heavy rains usher in the
changes of season, and swell the rivers to great dimensions, after the rains are over these
streams fall back to such narrow dimensions that under normal circumstances there are few
rivers in the island which cannot be forded on horseback. The lakes are numerous, and
some of considerable dimensions. Some of these, like those of Colombo and Negombo, are
formed by the emboucheres of rivers having become closed by an accumulation of silt,
&e., without, and, to use Mr. Dickson ^s words, "the rivers, swollen by the rain, forcing
new openings for themselves, and leaving their ancient channels converted into lakes."
The long, low embankments of sand, both on the east and west coast — locally known
as '^gobbs^^ — are formed in this manner. They are often several miles in breadth,
and are covered with thriving cocoa-nut plantations. There are also some lakes artificially
formed, and which play an active part in irrigation, and in the system of canals which
the Dutch, following the natural bent of their genius, constructed in various coast-lying
districts during their occupation of the country.
As the seasons of Ceylon do not differ widely from those prevailing along the shores
of the Indian peninsula, it is needless to enter into this portion of our subject in much
detail. The south-west monsoon begins to blow along the south-west coast between the
10th and 20th of May, and the north-east monsoon appears on the north-east coast
between the end of October and the middle of November. But while the south-west side
of the island is deluged by rain, owing to the moist breezes impinging on the mountains,
the opposite shore may be suffering from drought; and not unfrequently, it is said,
the opposite sides of the same mountain may be suffering at the same time, the one
from an overplus of rain, the other from having none at all. Owing to the proximity
of the island to the equator, the length of the day does not vary more than an hour
all the year round, and, as happens under these circumstances, dawn and twilight are of
brief duration, and their pleasures consequently little, if at all, experienced.
Coal, with the exception of a little anthracite, has not yet been found in Ceylon, but
in all likelihood it awaits some future explorer; but plumbago forms a considerable item
in the island exports, and the Singhalese have from time immemorial been in the habit of
manufacturing rude tools of fine temper out of the excellent iron which exists in such
vast quantities in the western, southern, and central provinces. Tin, platinum, copper,
black oxide of manganese, nitre, nitrate of lime, salt, &c., are all found, and, iu some
cases — as, for example, in that of salt — worked as a Government monopoly, to the not
inconsiderable benefit of the revenue, though perhaps not of the natives. The soil of the
ground is not uniformly rich, but there is yet a vast amount of country covered with
swamp or jungle capable of being cultivated. Agriculture is yet the chief occupation of the
natives ; but it is evident, from the irrigation works which have been allowed to fall
COCOA-NUT PLANTATION IN CEYLON.
182
170 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
into decav, they have at one time been much more skilful cultivators than at present.
•Cinnamon is indig-enous, and at one period formed the principal article of export, but
•coffee is now extensively grown, as well as tobacco, cinchona, and sug-ar. Among* other
crops, tea has been introduced, and promises to become a profitable plant. But cocoa-
nut culture is among the natives the great " industry/' A European does not find
this kind of farm a profitable investment for his capital, but to a Singhalese the cocoa-
nut grove around his house is an independence. It furnishes all he requires for food,
■clothing, drink, and timber; and after he has lived sumptuously all the days of his life on
the nuts and the sap, the trunk, hollowed out, makes a very comfortable coffin. Altogether,
it has been calculated that, apart from the area devoted to the Areca and Palmyra palms,
the cocoa-nut culture in the hands of Europeans or natives occupies about 25U,(JU0 acres
of Singhalese soil (p. 109).
There are no native manufactures except of the most primitive kind, though the gold
<;hain work and the imitations of gems are really very beautiful. For a " sapphire,"
hardly to be distinguished from the real stone at first sight, a ragged native will
•calmly ask the fresh arrival, or by choice the visitor who is just departing, from
■400 to J-,000 rupees, and at the last moment joyously accept the fourpence, which is
somewhat over its value. Though cinnamon, sugar, and coffee are all more important
sources of Singhalese wealth, yet the famous pearl-fisheries of the island are most
^associated in the popular mind with its fame. The chief banks are near Arippo,
off the northern part of the west coast, at a distance of six to twelve miles from
the shore, but though of great extent, they varj^ in their yield. The banks are
monopolies of the Government, who sell the privilege of fishing them by public auction.
But owing to causes never clearly explained, though it has been attributed to the
migratory character of the oyster i^Meleafjrlna maryarallfera), the business is a rather
precarious one, altogether apart from the fact that the divers must run the risk of
bringing to the surface many oysters which are of little or no value for one which
•contains the precious pearl loose in its '^ mantle." Since the Government sold the
privilege of fishing the beds, the oysters have been disposed of as they come ashore from the
boats, with the result that the returns vary from £87,000, the highest in any one year,
to £7,200, which was the net revenue in 1871-, though in the preceding year £10,000 was
derived from it. These are Mr. Dickson's figures, and give a fair idea of the fluctuating
character of this source of Ceylon revenue (which is, indeed, so old that it is mentioned
in a chronicle dating 300 years B.C.), though the writer is in error in believing that the
beds are worked by the Government directly. As soon as it is decided that there will be
a fishery, the privilege is disposed of at Colombo to the highest bidder. The i)urchasers of
this concession are generally Moors, Tamils, or Banian merchants, who now and then lose
heavily by it. Such a case occm-red in Jbl-l, when the calculations which the experts
profess to be able to make failed so egregiously that the Government remitted one-third
of the money to the renter. On the other hand, in 1857 the speculators combined to bid
low. Accordingly, though only £20,300 were obtained for the rental of the banks, an
cnorm(;us quantity of oysters were landed, and the Government, in chagrin at being
INDIA: THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 17L
duped^ threatened to close the fishery altog-ether. Indeed, during- the off-season a close-
watch has to be kept either by a vessel stationed on the banks or by guards on the shore
to prevent poaching- on these curious sea-preserves. The fishery commences at a period
varying from ^Nlarch to May, but never later than that month, when the little villages of
Arippo and Condatchy, which are the headcpiarters of the divers, the speculators, and the-
motley crowd who hie from far and near to profit by the money which for a few
weeks is scattered so freely by those eng-aged in the business. The country about
Arippo is naturally very dreary. Water is scarce away from the river, which flows into the-
sea at this place, and with the exception of a few scattered palms, a thorny, scattered
jungle is the only vegetation, scattered behind the long sandy beach. Yet here from,
time immemorial have congregated for the one month during which the fishery lasts a
motley multitude, numbering, it is said, upwards of one thousand, from all parts of
Asia. At this season the author of " Ceylon " describes the vicinity as assuming the
appearance of a vast fair. The dwellings are only temporary. Sheds, built of boards,,
palm-leaves, cotton-cloth, and straw, rise as if by magic on the barren sand; and
the region so desolate a few days previously is thronged by a crowd of snake-charmers,
jugglers, dancing girls, fakirs, whose revolting features enable them to prosper on the
superstition of the crowd, and the vagabondage of half of Southern Asia, the variety of
whose costume, features, tongues, and roguery afford endless subjects for the student of"
mankind and the artist's pencil. On the banks swarm canoes and dhoneys of all sizes,
most of which come from the opposite shores of India with provisions and other goods
to supply the wants of the multitude who inhabit the improm[)tu bazaar-like town,
ashore. Finally, the strong detachment of Malay police and military sent from Colombo-
are absolutely necessary to keep order in such a gathering.
The divers are principally ^Malabars from Cape Comorin, in India, but a few come-
from the Persian Gulf. They all wear amulets against sharks; and imtil recently the-
Government had to maintain a Kadal-Katti, or '^shark-binder," whose business it was to
suppl}^ the credulous pearl-divers with charms against their powerful submarine enemy.
Indeed, this functionary holds an ofiice which is hereditary in his family; and the fact
that in 1817 he was a Roman Catholic seemed, Sir J. Emerson Tennent tells us, in no-
way to have impaired the virtue of his charms in the eyes of his patrons. The oysters,
when brought ashore, are sold by the thousand to small speculators, who, in their
turn, cither take the risk themselves, or dispose of smaller quantities to still humbler-
adventurers. Indeed, few of those who camp on Arippo beach during the fishing season
do not venture from a few pence to several pounds in the prevailing lottery. The
smaller dealers usually open them on the spot, but most frequently the oysters are placed
in hollow enclosures, covered with sheds, and fenced round and guarded to prevent
pilfering. There they are allowed to remain until they rot, when the pearls, if any,,
are sought for. It is needless to say that the putrefaction of such an immense-
quantity of shell-fish fills the air with an abominable odour for miles around, and
nurtures vast swarms of flies, which blacken the air, and cover every article of food,,
furniture, and clothing. At first this horrible smell produces nausea, but after a time the
stomach gets accustomed to it, and some optimists will even declare that it sharpens
172
THE COUNTKIES OF THE WOELU.
the appetite. It does not^ however, seem to be injurious to health, for mortality is
not higher at Arippo than among- the crowded population of the native towns.
The trade of Ceylon is steadily increasing. In 1876 its imports were valued at
£5,562,884, and its exports at £1<,509,595, its commercial intercourse being chiefly with
India and Great Britain. Coffee, cinnamon, and cocoa-nut oil are the chief articles
SINGHALESE DANCER.
SINGHALESE CLOTH SELLER.
sent out of the country; for, of course, the pearls, though intrinsically valuable, do not
figure in Custom House schedules, and leave the island in small quantities and for the most
part in private hands.
The population is reckoned to be over two and a half millions. Of these
the Singhalese are by far the most numerous ; but Tamils, Moors, or
descendants of the Arab settlers, Malays, and other Asiatics are numerous. The
European and other half-caste descendants do not number over 20,000, the actual
European settlers not being over a third as many, while the Veddas and Ilodiyas are
wild tribes, about whom very little is known. The majority of the people are Buddhists
INDIA: THE I8LAND OF CEYLON.
173
of the strictest type, but there are Sivites, one of the Hindoo faiths, in large numbers,
Roman Catholics, ^Mohammedans, and Protestants of various sects. Missionaries have
for long laboured in the country, though, as the vast majority of the Christians belong
to the population of European descent, their efforts have not proved very successful.
The Singhalese, it is needless to say, are not barbarians. Among them a high
civilisation has long existed, though under their earlier native kings they had attained
a loftier grade of culture than in later times. In 1505 the decadence of native rule
"burghers" of ceylox.
SINGHALESE OF THE COAST.
began by the Portuguese settling in the country. There they remained until, in the
course of the next century, the Dutch gained a footing, and ousted the " Portugals.'*
The Netherlanders in their turn had to yield to the British, who in 1795-6 annexed
the foreign settlements in the island to the Presidency of Madras, and two years later
erected them into a separate colony. The inevitable, of course, soon followed. The Inst
of the "Kings of Candy,'' having made himself objectionable, was taken prisoner, and
with him ended in exile that long line of sovereigns whose pedigree could be traced
back for nearly 2,000 years. Since that date the British have exercised complete and —
with the exception of three outbreaks, only one of which was, however, of importance-
undisputed mastery of the island. Under our rule the condition of the population has im-
proved and the prosperity of the country increased. Roads are being rapidly made all over the
174 THE COUNTRIES OF THE ATOELD.
island, and 118 miles of railway have already been completed. The six provinces are
administered as a Crown colony by a governor, aided by execntive and legis-
lative councils, the actual officials being members of the Ceylon Civil Service, a
very highly trained 1x>dy of "competition wallahs." The revenue was in 187S — a fair
averao-e year — .£1,012,609 ; and though a del:»t of £900,000 was incurred for the con-
struction of public works, it is being so rapidly extinguished that at the end of 1878^
it amounted to only £350,000.* In addition to schools under various missionary
societies, the Government maintains a number in the villages throughout the island,
and pays large sums "on results" to those supported by private organisations.
There are numerous towns scattered over the colony, both in the interior and on the
coast, but the only ones of any size are Colombo (100,210), which we have already mentioned,
Galle (17,059), Jaffna (31,804), and Kandy, which, though once the capital of the
country, has now sunk down into insignificance. It is picturesquely situated on the
border of a small artificial lake, surrounded by wooded hills, at the base of which a
road runs around the lake, and forms the favourite evening drive of the inhabitants.
Between the lake and the town there is also an esplanade, and in the lake a tiny
island, on which in former days the Kings of Kandy kept their wives. The more
prosaic English have converted this Agapemone into a powder-magazine. Kandy
seems never at any time to have been an imposing town. The ruins of the king's
palace indicate a mean building, while the rest of the town is made up of mud
huts, the monarchs having reserved the luxuries of windows and tiles for them-
selves. The temples, which were at one time numerous here, are also falling into
ruins — the most elegant now standing being that containing the " tooth of Buddha " —
but since the arrival of the English many substantial houses have been built, and
the poorer natives have taken to the suburbs. Some of these parts of the town are
densely crowded, especially along the road to Peradenia, which is studded on either side
for mile after mile with huts, bazaars, and gardens. The place does not bear the best
of reputations for healthiness, and was formerly terribly infested by snakes. There is,
however, a good botanic garden at Peradenia, and the fine Government House adds a
little loveliness to this dull, hot Singhalese city. In a climate so warm athletic amuse-
ments must necessarily be limited ; but being an English dependency, of course a club
is among its "institutions," and where ladies live there are, it is needless to say,
balls also, and the usual pastimes which our race carry with them all over the
world. At Newera-Ellia two packs of hounds are kept : one is employed in hunting
the great elk, which, though abundant in the neighbourhood affords but poor sport,
owing to its habit of taking to the water as soon as it can ; the other is a pack of
harriers. The land-leeches, which are the pest of Ceylon, esi)ecially after rain, are very
troublesome alike to horses, men, and hounds. "Leech gaiters" are Avorn by planters, and
tliough efficacious enough in keeping off some of the species, one of the kinds [llannaiVipm
Ceijlaiiu-(t) which frequents the damp jungles climbs up the legs and gets inside the clothes,
and can spring on the passer-by from among the leaves. The "rest-houses," whicli
* Ferguson's "Ceylon Directory and Handbook" (1878).
INDIA : THE ilALDIVE ISLANDS. 175
are built for the accommodation of travellers on the Ceylon roads, are often infested with
them, and the writer whom I have already so often quoted mentions that wayfarers
liave been driven out of the one at Kaig-alle by these sanguinary annelids, and that
lhey have been known to draw blood from people in their palanquin carriages. The
railway route from Kandy to Colombo is one of the most beautiful in the world.
Near the sea the line runs across jungle and plains, but the latter portion gradually
iiscends, until the passenger can peep out of the carriage windows at rich tropical
vegetation, not only around him but in the valleys below, and at " distant mountains
shimmering in the glare and blaze of the burning sun." Colombo itself is a Euro-
pean-looking town, very pleasant in itself ; while from "VVockwalla, a hill commanding
the plain, and a favourite drive of the inhabitants, can be obtained a view over " paddy-
fields, jungle, and virgin forest, up to the hills close by and to the mountains beyond,
which it would be difficult to surpass in the tropics." ^ Trincomalee is noted for its
spacious harbour; and Galle (p. 161), though within six degrees of the equator, is
healthier than most of the tropical stations, and has a fair harbour, though small, and with
<3oral-reefs scattered over its entrance. Point Pedro, the harbour of Jaffna, is an open roadstead,
with tolerable shelter behind the coral-reefs ; but the coast is dangerous during the
prevalence of the north-east monsoon. f Altogether, in spite of the fungus which is
preying on the coffee-leaves, the bjetle that bores into its stem, the " bug " which makes
its home in its bark, and the rat which eats its buds and blossoms, Ceylon is prospering
fairly well. The mania for coftee-planting, which for a time threatened ruin to the island,
and actually caused great loss, has now abated, and as other crops are being cautiously intro-
•duced, a rich future evidently awaits this tropical dependency — for colony it cannot really be
called — of England. Ceylon has, moreover, dependencies of its own, though to these our
space will only admit of a few words being devoted.
The INIaldives.
They are governed by their own Sultan, who, how^ever, acknowledges his suzerainty to
Ceylon by sending every year a present to the governor, a courtesy which is returned by
the gift of a piece of red cloth. This custom dates, perhaps, from the period of the
Chinese supremacy in Ceylon — that is, from a.d. 1130. The curious vessels of the Maldives
are sometimes seen in the Ceylon harbours laden with cocoa-nuts, coir, and cowries, or
with dried hsh intended for the Indian market. The cowries are, in their turn, despatched
to "West Africa, where they are used — but nothing like to the old extent — in lieu of money.
At one time they were worth £20 per ton, but they are nowadays of less value. The
coral soil of the Maldives is rich, millet grows well, and banyan-trees, bread-fruit,
tamarinds, and various other fruits and vegetables flourish. Cocoa-nut-trees cover them
so densely that the voyager is C[uite close to them before anything can be seen,
and even then the view is only that of a forest of the favourite tree of the low-lying
Atolls. The dominant race is of Arab descent, but the other is evidently more or less
* Mrs. Brassey : " Voyage of the Sioibcain,'' p. 19-5.
t "CVylon," Vol. I., p. 68.
17G THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
aborig-inal^ though their origin is unknown, and both are strict Mohammedans. The
Europeans have formed no settlements, for the prospects of trade are not so bi'isk as to
counterbalance the fact of the climate being particularly unhealthy, dropsical complaints and
disorders of the bowels being very common_, and particularly fatal to strangers (p. 165).
Cocos OR Keelixg Islands.
This little group has been annexed by the Ce}'lon Government. They were dis-
covered in 1G08-9 by Captain William Keeling, of the East India Company's service,
but the first settler on the group was, perhaps. Captain Ross, who in 1825 came there,
and whose son is, we believe, still virtual governor of these lonely tropical isles. There
are a considerable number of inhabitants on the islands, but very few Europeans. Cocoa-
nut oil is the chief article of trade, but cyclones sometimes desolate the islands, sweeping
over them with such force as to carry trees, houses, grass — everything, before them. But
the experiment of colonising the Cocos has been more favourable than might have been
expected, since the climate is temperate and is reported to be extremely healthy. When
Captain Ross first arrived the islands were for the most part covered with brush ; but
much of this has been cleared away, and the ground planted with cocoa-nut trees and
other croj^s, with the result that a considerable trade is carried on with Java and the
neighbouring countries. Mr. Forbes, who is a modern visitor, speaks of the islands as
belonging to the Ross family. But this phrase is, we suppose, only to be understood
in the sense that their present representative is the chief trader on the group. "^
The Laccadives.
The " Lakara-Divh," or "Hundred Thousand Isles'' — as the natives call them- -were
discovered by Vasco da Gama in ll'OQ, but at present they are attached to the district of
Cananore, in the Presidency of Madras, to which they pay a tribute of about £1,000 per
annum. The population numbers over 7,000, and are known as Moplays. They are of Arabian
origin, and, like the people of the Maldives, are all Mohammedans, though not of a strict
type. The rearing of a small breed of cattle, cocoa-nuts, rice, betel-nuts, sweet potatoes, and
other vegetables, are their chief occupations, but the islands, seventeen in numbei*, are of
little value. They are composed of coral, and hence are mostly low, with deep water all
around them, and on that account are dreaded by navigators of the Arabian Sea (p. 165).
We are now within 150 miles of the Malabar coast, having skirted the shores of
India from Burmah to near the entrance of the Persian Gulf. It is but a short way to
the continent again, and of that portion of Asia which we have as yet not visited the
most part is India proper — that is, the Empire of Hindostan. Now, to describe India,
even in the briefest manner, would require — as, indeed, it has obtained — many volumes.
Our space will not admit of as many pages being devoted to it; but happily this is not
necessary. In another work, to which this is a companion, full descriptions have been
given of the native and other races, and in the English language the information in
* " Notes on the Cocos or Keeling Islands," by H. 0. Forbes [Proceedings of the Itoyal Geographical Societij,
1879, pp. 777—784, and 1880, p. 49); Darwin: "Coral Reefs" (1874).
INDIA: GENERAL EE:\L1RKS.
177
regard to the country itself is so abundant and easily accessible, that the outlines to
Avhichj in accordance with our plan, we are restricted can be easily filled up by any one
desirous of fuller information.^
CHAPTER YIII.
India : Its Physical Features.
In familiar parlance we talk of India, or Hindostan^f as that huge triangle of Asia
•comprised in the area l)etween the Indus on one side and the Ganges on the other, and
VIEW (jV lAI'i: ((JMOKIN, THE bOLTlIEUN POINT OF IMHA.
between Cape Comoriu on the south and the Himalayas in the north. In reality, India
includes within its comprehensive bounds a number of countries widely different as to
* "Races of Mankind,"' Vol. III., pp. 288—320, and Vol. lY., pp. 1—118.
+ I must here, if possible, shield myself from the wrath of rival nomenclatorial schools by at once declaring
for none of them. The Indian names will be spelt in the manner most familiar to the greatest number of my
probable readers, without any regard to the fact of its being arohaiac or modern, right or wrong. I am afraid
that, spelled after the new fashion, some of the old places would fail to be recognised.
183
17S THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
tlieir physical features, products, climates, races, reHj;'ions, Inng-uag-es, and g-overnments, and
thoug-h the Hindoos form a considerable proportion of the people of these countries, it
is almost needless to say that they are not the sole inhabitants of any large portion
of a reo*iou as larg-e as all of Eui'ope, if Russia is excluded from the computation.
Xor are the parts politically, historically, or socially one, thoug'h through the force of
circumstances they are, with a few exceptions, units in the British Empire. '' Wide
differences of race and creed," writes Dr. Hunter, "are known to exist, but the recognition
is dim and sjieculative rather than practically and substantially realised. Setting aside the
Mussulmans and their faith, it is generally supposed that the inhabitants of India are,
and for ages have been, Hindus ; that the religion of India since the beginning of history
has been the Hindu religion ; and that from time immemorial Indian society has been
artificially divided into four classes, known as the Hindu castes. Such opinions have led
to a complete misunderstanding of the Indian people, a misunderstanding which warps
our whole political dealings with India, and which stands as a barrier between our Eastern
subjects and that new order of things, with its more active humanity and purer creed,
of which E-ngland is the messenger and representative to the Asiatic world.'^"^
Plains axd Table-laxd.
Erom the twent}^ -fifth degree of latitude southward General Strachey justly characterises;
the Indian Peninsula as a great table-land, having its greatest elevation on the west,
where some hills rise to 8,000 feet or more, though the ordinary heights are not over
half of that, and the general level of the table-land lies between a maximum of 3,000
feet and a minimum of 1,000 feet. The great plain of Northern India, lying between
the Ganges and Brahmapootra on the east and the delta of the Indus on the west, and
between the table-land of the peninsula and the foot of the Himalayan slo2>e of the
Tibetan Plateau, rises at its highest point to about 1,000 {"eet, and if its prolongation up
the valley of the Assam is taken into account, is the richest, most populous, and most
civilised portion of India. It stretches in an almost unbroken flat from one side of
India to the other, and, to use General Strachey^s words, " is comjwsed of deposits so
finely comminuted that it is no exaggeration to say that it is jiossiblc to go from thc^
Bay of Bengal, up the Gauges, through the Punjab, and down the Indus again to the
sea, over a distance of 2,000 miles and more, without finding a pebble, however small. ^'^
India has, indeed, not unfittingly been called an " epitome of the whole earth,^' so varied
is its surface, so widely different the climates of its different portions. In the north we-
have mountains the highest in the world, whose peaks are covered with perpetual snow,
and through whose valleys creep great glaciers, compared with which those of the Alps
are mere puny ice-streams. Eurther south are fertile plains, sweltering under a torrid
sun, and close by arid wastes and jungles, impenetrated save by wild beasts or the rudesfc
savages — wrecks of the prevailing barbarism which overspread the country when the
Aryan race, from which most of the European nations are sprung, poured through the
mouutain passes from High Asia, and gradually brought in a higher civilisation, just as
* Hunter: "Annuls of Kiinil UcngHl" (1871), p. 07.
INDIA: PLAINS AND TABLE-LAND. 179
Ihey, in their turn, were and are partially making' way for a culture noLler still. Exclusive
of the Malayan or Trans-Cia noetic Peninsula, which we have already visited, ]Mr. Kurz,
a well-known botanist, has divided India from a physical point of view into three main
regions : — (1) The Himalaya, extending from Kashmir to Bhotan and Chittagong : (2)
The Peninsula with Ceylon, stretching as far north as the table-land extends ; and (-3)
The Great Plain between, the home of the Hindoos, or Hindostan proper."^ The Himalaya
is in reality not a mountain range, as it appears on the map, but a mountain region, and,
as Mr. Markham has pointed out, in his masterly description of its physical features, is
•composed of three great culminating chains, running more or less parallel to each other
for their whole length, from the Gorge of the Indus to that of the Dihong. Between
the inner and the outer range lies for the most part the lofty region of Great Tibet,
already described (pp. lOi-111), and most of the rivers of Northern India take their rise in
the central chain, and run through its length. The Karakoum Range is the name given
to the western section of the most northern and inner of the Himalayan chains. Its
valleys are blocked by vast glaciers, and among its peaks is one 28,000 feet above the
sea, while some of its passes are 18,000 and ll),000 feet in height (p. 180). The eastern section
of the Northern Range forms the natural boundary of Great Tibet, and, like the western
part, has lofty peaks, one being 25,000 feet high, while the Gangri '^Knot'^ of the
Tibetans — a name Mr. Trelawney Saunders has proposed for the whole range — is 22,000 feet
above the sea. The Central Range is very little known, but the Southern Himalaya, with
its stupendous peaks, has been more studied by travellers in this wild region. It averages
ninety miles in breadth, the culminating points being from 10,000 feet to 29,000 feet
above the sea level. In fact, the character of the Himalayan slope is a perpetual succession
of vast ridges, with narrow intervening glens, and open valleys, such as that of Nepal,
are very rare.f This Central Range is divided into three longitudinal zones, each varying
in products and climate according to its distance above the sea level, the temperature
■diminishing S^ and Sh'^ Fahrenheit for every thousand feet of ascent, while every move-
ment towards the west or north-west " brings the traveller into a dryer climate, and takes
him farther and farther away from the line of the rainy monsoon. In ascending the
gorges, from the terai [or lowest zone], to the Alpine ridges, the traveller passes through
three zones of vegetation. In the lower region he tinds the sal and si-ssn, banyans and
peepuls, bamboos and palms. The central slopes are clothed with oaks, chestnuts, magnolias,
laurels, rhododendrons, cherry and pear-trees, thorns, ashes, and elms ; and the upper region
is that of junipers, larches, yews, poplars, dwarf rhododendrons, hollies, birches, and
•willows.-'^ The animals also vary in a similar manner, according to the zone of altitude;
and altogether the great Himalayan mountain region — 2,000 miles in length and from
100 to 500 miles in breadth— has exercised a remarkable influence, not on the climate, but
on the peopling and civilisation of Asia. The highest elevations of the Himalayas are
of course incapable of nourishing animal life, but in the lower valleys live hardy races
of mountaineers who have from time immemorial maintained an independent existence,
* Clarke: Transact ious of the Lbnican Socuti/, 2nd Ser., Bot., Vol. I. (18S0\ p. 42.5.
t Hodgson: "Geography of the Himalaya," p. 3, cited by Markham: "Tibet," Introd., p. xxxiv.
ISO
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
■\IKrt' IN THE WKSTEUN HIMALAYAS
wliile the languid duellers in the lower plains, enervated by heat and luxury, have again
and again suceumhed to the conqueror.
The sub- Himalayan countries consist of Kashmir, Gurwhal, Kumaon, Nepal, Sikkhim,
INDIA: THE GHAUTS. 181
and Bhotan, all of which are hilly regions, with a cool climate and veg-etation of the
temperate zones. The Terai, or great Indian swamp, a belt five to twenty-five miles in
breadth, separates these countries from the Plain of India (p. 178). This terai, though
exceedingly fertile, is very malarious, at least from April to October, and at that season is
abandoned even by wild beasts, while most men shun it as a permanent place of abode
at all times of the year. The villagers in the vicinity speak of it with bated breath as
"Mar''' — i.e., death — and the only people who dare permanent residence in it are the
Taroos, a squalid, feebly-formed, truthful race, whose existence is a standing physiological
miracle. Great forest trees cover it, innumerable wild animals haunt it, and altogether the
terai forms a marked barrier between the rac^es of the sub-Himalayan countries and those
inhabiting the plains. It is not only a dividing wall between the cool uplands and the
hot lowlands of India, but is a narrow strip, the people on one side of which are shut
off, owing to their difference of language, from those living on the other side.
The Plain of the Indus, Brahmapootra, and the Granges, stretching right across India,,
we have already alluded to. It is not only one of the richest but one of the finest-watered
regions in the world. Throughout this rich alluvial flat the Ganges and its endless tribu-
taries ramify in a fertilising network, making the great Province of Bengal, which is
included in it, the most populous portion of all India. Bahar, the Doab, Oude, Rohilcund,
are all in the Plain of the Ganges ; and taking into account its cities, towns, villages,
and teeming agi-icultural population, the region cannot hold less than 100,000,000 people,,
or about one-fourth more than the whole inhabitants of the Russian Empire, and more than
twice as many as are at present settled in the United States of America. Crossing the
Aravalli Hills, we descend on the other side of India into the more circumscribed but still
vast plain of the Indus, a mighty river which flows into the oj)posite ocean. In this region
lies the Punjab : south of this province for nearly five hundred miles stretch parallel
with the river the sandy deserts of the Indus, and in its lower course the river flows
through the unhappy land of Sinde. In addition to the countries named, Cutch and
Gujerat stretch over the Indus Plain to the Arabian Sea ; while between the river and
the Aravalli Mountains is the Thur Desert, an expanse 4-00 miles long and 100 broad,,
covered with sandhills, among wdiich crops of grain can only be grown in a very few spots
in the vicinity of the rivers or after the rains. In the Hindoo records it is described as
the " Valley of Death." Men cannot cross it on foot, and even the horse and camel often
succumb before they can pass its dreary wastes of sand, which, like the moist terai on the
north, has ever acted as a dividing line between the races on either side of it.
The Ghai'ts and Backwater.s.
The table-land of India comprises Malwa and Rajpootana, the home of a fine race^
who live in an atmosphere 2,000 feet above the sea, north of the Yiudhya Mountains,
and the Deccan, or peninsular portion of Hindostan, south of that range. This vast
plateau is enclosed on all sides by lofty mountains, between which and the sea are
low strips of level land, from which the mountains rise abruptly by a succession of great
terraces, or ghauts, to the table-land beyond. These " Ghauts,''^ meaning literally gates or
182 THE COrXTKIES OF THE WOKLD.
passes, thus run parallel with the east and west coasts o£ India, and hence are known
as the Eastern and Western. On the land side they slope gradually to the table-land
of the Decean, but seaward they show perpendicular precipices, at a distance varying-
from six to seventy miles from the sea, forty or fifty miles, however, being the usv.al
distance. The interval is the maritime strip mentioned. To this region the south-west
monsoon brino-s fearful floods of rain, and aids in forming the interesting " backwaters "
about which so much has been written at different times. In the State of Cochin we
see many of these curious lagoons. The Hat country between the Ghauts and the sea
is elevated but slightly, if at all, above the tide, and may be said to be formed by
the alluvial soil brought down by the torrents from the wearing away of the great
precipitous buttresses beyond. Hence the brooks which plunge over the Western Ghauts
are in their upper course fierce torrents, which carry everything before them, and in their
lower sluggish, almost imperceptibly moving estuaries, black and unsightly in appearance,
and more or less brackish in taste. These estuaries are frequently breasted by a lighter
strip of ground, and by their union often form an inland lagoon, in one case — as in
•Cochin — 120 miles long, and varying in breadth from a few yards to more than 100
miles, only communicating with the sea at a few places where the streams which
form them flow into the ocean. The navigable value of these backwaters is great. The
Malabar coast is thus furnished by nature with a highway which traverses its whole length,
from Trivanderum to the railroad at Panany, except at one point, the Wurkallay Barrier,
which, if cut through, would complete the inland navigation of this part of India."^
The contrast between the rush of the bright mountain stream while its upper waters dashes
over the Ghauts, and the dark, sullen character of its final course to the sea, is very
marked. A correspondent thus graphically describes the sc^ne. Alluding to the Sarda,
he tells us that in its debouchere at Burrumdeo, down to Moondia Ghaut, it is a bright,
" sparkling, merry mountain stream, often broken into two or three channels. It flows
through grassy glades and sissu forests, swells here over deep sunken rocks, and then
forms a tail below a shoal of glittering gravel, wdiich makes the fisherman's eye glisten
;as it recalls to memory happy days on the Spey or Findhorn. But here and there a
backwater, still as death, runs back far into a ghastly swamp, where the water is never
rippled, save by the silent plunge of the weird snake-bird or the stealthy waddle of a
gorged alligator. Huge ungainly fish and bloated carrion-turtle glide far below the
surface, round the skeleton roots of bleached and barkless trees — a phantom forest,
lichen-shrouded. On the stark framework of bone-like branches sit motionless the gaping
lock-jawed cormorant, with half-spread, stiffened wings, a bony parody of taxidermy, or
the foul vulture, its livid neck smothered in fluffy feathers, like some shapeless Caft're
kaross, the only sign of life a dull, deceitful eye. On a dead willow, stretching far
over the inky pool, lies twined a python, limp and semi-rotten. The head is gone;
the muscles of the neck, blanched and torn into strings, are hanging a few inches
above the water, jagged by resistance to the tug of the turtle teeth. Here and there
scales have separated, and the glairy, sodden skin hangs flabby and ruptured. Can
.you believe that you are within ear-shot of a babbling mountain torrent, on whose
* Markham : Journal of the Royal Gvoijraphkal SocUti/, \ol. XXXVI. (18GG), p. 19o.
INDIA: THE INDUS: THE GANGES. 1S3
floods the mightiest tree-trunks are but straws — a torrent irresistible, ever livinf'-, ever
fitful ? "
The River System.
Some of the mightiest rivers in the world, and in Asia certainly the most in-
teresting-, are in India. The Ganges, the Brahmapootra, and the Indus drain the-
r.orthern part of the empire. They rise in the Tibetan I'ange; and, curiously enough,
almost the whole of the waters of the high plateau of Tibet flow through British
India between 9.jth and Totli meridians, the only part of the drainage thrown off to the
north being, as General Strachey notes, that of the northern mountain slope. The
Indus rises in a Himalayan peak 18,000 feet above the sea, and before it falls inta
the Arabian Sea, through a delta measuring 75 miles by 130, it drains more than 400,000
square miles of country, or an area cpiadruple that of Great Britain and Ireland. The
Cabul, the Attock, the accumulated waters of the Punjab, in the form of the Punjnud
and a hundred minor rivers, combine to swell the great flood of the Indus ; but below
its confluence with the Punjnud, so narrow is the valley through which it runs that its-
volume decreases rather than swells, while the circumscriljed character of its basin prevents it
receiving many affluents. Add to these circumstances the fact that the river here
divides into a number of branches, some of which never return to the main current,
but branch off, and, under different names, strike out new courses for themselves.
Others, again, return much shrunken in dimensions, so that the decrease of the size of
the waters of the Indus can easily be accounted for, though the observer does not at first
sight notice this, owing to the current now becoming sluggish, and the tides running
up to augment its bulk.
Yet, in spite of its size and length, the Indus is not of great value to-
commerce. Its channels through the delta are not all navigable, even at the highest
state of the water, for any save the smallest vessels ; but its importance has been
lessened since railways have permeated the country through which it flows. Kurrachee
is the terminus of these lines, while Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shikapore, INIooltan, and
other cities are united in their network, and the railway will soon cross the Indus
itself by the bridge which it is proposed to thro^\' over it from Sukkur on the
right bank to Roree on the left, the resting-place being Bukkur, a rocky island
between them. A still nobler river is the sacred Ganges, which, together with its
tributaries, drains about 500,000 srpiare miles from the ice-cave where it rises,
10,300 feet above the sea, in the Gurhwal State, to where it falls, 1,500 miles away,
through many mouths, into the Bay of Bengal. At Allahabad the Jumna joins it,
and in its course through the north-western provinces the Gumti and Gogra ; and
soon after passing the holy city of Benares into Behar the Son unites with it ;
and after Patna is left behind, the Gandak, from Nepal, adds its volume to the great
river of India. The Kusi is the next important tributary, and by the time the ruined
city of Gaur is reached the current has expanded into a mighty volume, and ap-
proached within 210 miles of the sea in a straight line, though by the tortuous windings
of the current the distance is much greater. It, however, soon loses its individuality.
184
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD!
iind branches out into the various mouths which, under different names, cut up the
delta into a number of low, marshy, ever increasing- or decreasing islands. The main
channel is the Padraa, and after being reinforced by the Jamuna, or chief stream of
the Brahmapootra, and numerous other additions from the hill country on the east, it
forms the broad estuary of ^Meghna, which ends in the Bay of Bengal, near Noakhali.
VIE^V ()\ iJIL (.AN<,LS.
But this is only one of many such estuaries. The Hooghly, on which Calcutta is
built, is one of these, and lietween it the Meghna is the delta proper, which in its
upper poi-tion is rich and thickly inhabited, but on its southern borders by the sea is
little better than a series of great swamps, seeped through by innumerable channels of
the river. The sundari-tree is the chief product of this tract, which is hence known as the
Sundarbans. The Ganges is well suited for navigation, but with the exception of the busy
traffic along the various channels below Calcutta, steam navigation on the river has ceased
to be important, the great cities by its waters being now all connected by rail. Calcutta,
INDIA: THE GANGES.
185
Monghyr, Patna, Benares, Allahabad, are populous towns on its banks below its union
Avith the Jumna, while Agra and Delhi are among the familiar names of places on its
— ■wimiiiimiwit^RnnvlluUlH'^
VIEW OF THE CITY OF liEXAHES.
upper waters. But the river itself, quite as much as the progress of railways, has
determined the fate of the cities which from time to time have grown up in its vicinity.
At uncertain intervals great changes take place in the bed of the stream, which alter
the whole condition of the neighbouring country. Islands are thrown up in places where,
184
186 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
a few weeks before^ the river rolled, and, owing" to tlie rapid <^rowtli of vegetation
in these eountriss, are speedily covered with bush, which afford a shelter to alligators
and the other wild animals of the region bordering the sacred river. By-and-by the
silt brought down shoals up the space between the islands and the bank, until the
current, deflected by the newly-formed peninsula abutting into it, sweeps against the
opposite shore, washing into its flood a cultivated farm, a mile of forest, or a village of
mud huts, or it may be cutting out for itself a new channel far away from the old
one. So frequent and. sudden are these changes in Lower Bengal that it is considered
dangerous to erect any edifice of a large or permanent character within the range
of the river's action. Kajmahal, which was formerly on its banks, is now seven
miles iu the back country, and the existence of ruined cities, long ago deserted of
their commerce and population, attest the vagaries of the Ganges in former times. But
apart from its character as a great highway for millions of people whose life will not
for a time to come be seriousl\' influenced by steamboats or railways, the Ganges is a
sacred river. Deo Prayag, the point at which the united currents of the Jahnavi and
Alaknanda takes the name of the Ganges, has for ages been a favourite place of
pilgrimag-e, though Gangotri, near which the river takes its source, has up to this
day maintained its popularity with the more devout Hindoos. Indeed, the points of
juncture of the tributaries with the main river have all pretensions to sanctity. But
even the deboucheres of the Gumti and Gogra are of sanctity very inferior to the tongue
of land at Allahabad where the Jumna flows into the Ganges, and to which every year
thousands of the pious flock in poverty and misery, happy if, after praying and
washing in the holy water, they can return to their distant village conscious that
they have taken a fresh start in holiness. Finally, not to enumerate the numerous
other places of more or less celebrity, Benares (p. 185) is everywhere celebrated, as
ihe holy city of the Ganges valley. Its fame in Warren Hastings' time has been
sketched in one of Macaulay's most brilliant passages. " It was commonly believed,^'
writes the famous histoi'ian, " that half a million of human beings were crowded into
that labyrinth of lofty alleys, rich with shrines and minarets, and balconies and carved
oriels, to which the sacred apes clung by hundreds. The traveller could scarcely make
his way through the press of holy mendicants and not less holy bulls. The broad and
stately flights of steps which descended from these swarming haunts to the bathing
places along the Ganges were worn every day by the footsteps of an innumerable
multitude of worshippers. The schools and temples drew crowds of pious Hindoos from
every province where the Brahminical faith was known. Hundreds of devotees came
hither every month to die: for it was believed that a peculiarly happy fate awaited the
man who should pass from the sacred city into tiie sacred river. Nor was superstition
the only motive which allured strangers to that great metropolis. Commerce had as
many pilgrims as religion. All along the shore of the venerable stream lay great fleets
of vessels laden with rich merchandise. From the looms of Benares went forth the most
delicate silks that adorned the halls of St. James and of Versailles ; and in the bazaars
the muslins of Bengal and the satins of Oude were mingled with the jewels of Golconda
and the shawls of Cashmere.^' The ]5enares of those days still paitially exists. It is still
INDIA: THE BlLVHMArOOTRA. 1S7
the holy city, but its Old World aspects are altered in so far that railways now run into
it, and amid the crowd of pilgrims who have adopted that modern mode of speeding on
an Old World errand, jostle at the station the " pugareed " oflicials of the dominant race,
and the noisy tourists who have come to "do" the sacred city, its monkeys, its bulls,
its devotees, and its ghauts* India, however, does not change much. The traveller
who in the last cold season glided down the Ganges might, for all the change he sees
in the fundamental habits of the people, have l)een performing his journey a couple of
centuries ago (p. 184). To read the narrative of Ralph Fitch, one of the earlv adventurers
in India, is to read the description of the river to-da}-. In 1585 he sailed down the
Oanges in a boat, which was one of a fleet of 123 vessels laden with salt, opium, indigo,
lead, carpets, and other commodities. The Brahmins then, as now, were performing
their mysterious rites. The Hindoo women were bathing, and the men saluting each
othcT with cries of " llama." At xVllahabad he saw naked mendicants. In those days
they were quite common, though — and this is one of the few changes which time has
wrought — they have almost disappeared from India in modern times. At Benares he
gazed on the same bewildering world of temples and idols, thronged with endless crowjls
of worshippers, that meet the eye at the present time. But Lower Bengal has vastlv
improved since the day when the pioneer of the English merchants wandered through
Hindostan ; where now spread indigo, cotton, and opium fields was then a wide region
'^so beset with thieves" that, to use General Fytche's words, "the jungle was safer than
the highways.^''
The Brahmapootra is a less important, though larger, river. It does not extend
far, for from its source in the Tibetan plateau to the place where it flows into the Bay
of Bengal it is about 1,800 miles long. But the last part of its course constitutes in
reality an estuary studded with islands, and formed by the union of the Ganges and
^leghna with it, while its upper waters are still impei-fectly known, and even some of
its main tributaries have been only partially explored. In its current are numerous islands.
Some of these, like Majuli, which contains over 280,000 acres, are well cultivated and
inhabited, and on its banks, ])oth in Assam and in India proper, are many towns and
populous villages, though it is navigable only as far as Dibrugarh, and even then during
the dry season only by steamers of light draught (Hunter). The "bore," which has
given the river a certain notoriety in text-books of phj^sical geography, is caused bv
the upward rush of the tide suddenly flowing through the passages between the islands
which stud the estuary formed by the union of the Brahmapootra, Ganges, and
Meghna into the great estuary mentioned. It is thus seen that India is cut up by three
great rivers and their tributaries. But there is no extensive region of the country which
has not the benefit of water communication of a more or less important character, the
* Ghauts — not to Le confounded with the cliffs of the same name (p. 181) — are buildings erected along the
hanks of the Indian rivers for the convenience of bathers. On the flights of steps which lead down from
the kiosks to the water the Hindoo passes some of the happiest hours of his life. Here, away from the
narrow, unwholesome streets, he can breathe the fresh air of the river, and sit in contemplative attitud-,
intent on devout things, gossip Avith the idle, or perhaps transact some business with those not unwilling to
•combine })leasure with profit.
188 THE COUNTEIES OF THE WORLD.
number of rivers, greater and smaller, which form a network throughout it being
much too numerous to describe, or eveu to name.
The Hill Couxtry.
In like manner, though the Himalayas are the great mountain partition between
the plains of Central Asia and India, they do not constitute the only upland range of
the latter country. In Southern India there are the Neilgherries, or Blue Mountains,
■which rise isolated in the midst of the surrounding plain to the height of over
7,100 feet, and extend over an area of GOO square miles. They form the greater sani-
tarium for the neighbouring region. Ootacamund is, indeed, to Madras what Simla is to
Calcutta, and Mahabaleshwar to Bombay — the breathing-place where the languid frames
of the dwellers in the low, moist plains can get recruited for the labours of life. It
is wet, but cooler even than its Himalayan rivals. The Palnai Hills, still further south,
form another retreat of the same nature, while the Shevarai Hills, which are part of
the Eastern Ghauts, afford a cool holiday home for those who do not care or are unfit
to undertake the journey to the Neilgherries. The Sewalik range — famous for its fossil
remains — rise to the height of 3,000 feet, the Kala, or Salt Mountains, to the height
of 2,500 feet, the Aravulli, forming the division between the basins of the Indus
and the Ganges, culminate in Mount Abu, 5,000 feet high, the Kattywar Hills, with
peninsula of the same name, are lower, the Bundelcunds lower still, but the Rajmahals
rise in places as high as 7,000 feet. The Yindhya Mountains, which cross India and
separate its southern or peninsular portion from Hindostan proper, nowhere exceed
6,000 feet, but the Suliman Mountains rival the Himalayas, of which they may indeed
be considered a part, in the grandeur of their peaks. The Satpura range is a spur of
the Vindhya, while the Western Ghauts, on which are situated the Mahabaleshwar
Sanitarium, are the counterpart of the eastern ones on the opposite coast, which we have
already described (p. 181).
Climate.
This, of course, varies greatly in different parts of a region so immense. In the
extreme north the difference between summer and winter does not exceed 40'^, but as the
traveller proceeds south he finds the difference less and less, until it is about 15° at
Calcutta, and only 10*^ or 20^^ at Bombay and Madras. But these figures very imper-
fectly explain the chai'acter of the climate of India, as it is dependent on different
circumstances than mere heat or cold. In all parts of the country there are three more
or less pronounced seasons — the hot, the rainy, and the cold.
These seasons, however, vary in different parts of the country. As a rule, the first
usually lasts from the middle of March to the middle of June, but the heui>:t in the moist
plains of Bengal, where for weeks life is passed in a vapour bath, and the same season
in Nortb-Western India and the Punjaub, where the hot dry winds raise the tempera-
ture to 120*^ in the shade, are the same, but with a world of difference. This season in
the low lands of the interior is unhealthy, but on the coast the cool breezes temper it,
while on the higher hill-stations existence is, during the " heats," most endurable.
190 THE COUNTRIES OF THE ^VOELD.
The rains — an era in the Indian social calendar — usually begin in the middle of
June, and though the amount of rainfall varies, continue with little intermission till the
end of September. At this period of the year, also, the melting snow on the high
mountains causes the rivers to fill, so that inundations are frequent in certain parts of
the countrv. The cold seawn falls in November, December, and January. In the north-
west provinces and the Punjaub water is, during these months, often frozen in the shallow
pools during the night, and there is hoar-Crost in the morning. The residents feel the
invigorating cold until the sun warms the air, and even welcome the unwonted sight of
a tire. In Lower Bengal and Southern India the cold season is not only pleasant, but
owing to the buoyancy of the air under a cloudless sky, life is '^something more than
enjoyable.^' At the hill-stations the cold is really intense, and the snow deep and
of long duration. It thus appears that the old ideas about the universally bad
climate of India is erroneous. The plains are certainly during a portion of the year
unhealthy, and European children cannot well be 
