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THE FAR EAST
BY
ARCHIBALD LITTLE
AUTHOR OF 'THROUGH THE YANGTSE GORGES,' 'MOUNT O.MI
AND BEYOND,' ETC.
ORIENTIS ORAE SERAS ET INDOS'
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
i9cr
HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH
NEW YORK AND TORONTO
PREFACE
This work owes its origin to the suggestion of Mr. Mackinder
and its completion to his encouragement. The author, not
being a Geographer or Geologist by profession, as are the
distinguished writers of the Geographical series with whom
he has the honour to be associated, undertook the task with
much diffidence : he did so, however, in the hope that his
long personal acquaintance with the bulk of the countries
described would make amends for his lack of expert know-
ledge; and that the power, acquired by a life-long residence
in the East, of imparting a ' local atmosphere ' to his descriptions
would atone for the many deficiencies which he is the first
to recognize.
The book has been written literally ' in the intervals of
business ' and that of an absorbing character : but this
business has necessitated extended travel in China and the
neighbouring countries, and so facilitated the accumulation
of the needful knowledge of the regions described. The first
of such journeys was made in the year i860, at the time
that Shanghai was invested by the Taipings ; and led from
Ningpo up the Tsien-tang river through Nganhui, and so by
way of the famous potteries of Kingtehchen down the Poyang
lake to Kiukiang — the whole country traversed being the
scene of the great struggle then going on between the forces
of Hung-hsu-chuen and the Imperialists ; a long journey which
his acquaintance with the language, and the prestige that in
those days surrounded the Englishman in China, enabled him
to accomplish in safety. The present work might have been
more elaborate but for the author's remoteness from the great
literary centres : yet possibly there is a compensation in this
respect, in that the book is not crowded with more matter than
iv PREFACE
the average reader can digest ; although at the same time its
value as a work of reference is undoubtedly impaired. To
comprise in a handy volume a description of such a vast area
of the earth's surface, and of such a series of countries and
peoples, has considerably taxed the author's powers of com-
pression, and he trusts that the result, if not affording com-
plete satisfaction to the scientific inquirer, may yet prove
its worth as a useful vade-mecum to the traveller in the
Far East, and likewise as an epitome acceptable to the general
reader at home. He trusts that the book will be thus received,
and that its superficial treatment, as compared with the
wealth of detail and the plethora of accurate information
that distinguish the accompanying volumes of 'The Regions
of the World,' will not render it altogether unworthy of a place
in this valuable series.
The author has in the volume itself made his acknowledge-
ments to all the authorities consulted : he has further to
express his obligation to Dr. Morrison, the indefatigable
correspondent of the Times, for allowing him free access,
during his recent stay in Peking, to his valuable and truly
unique collection of books on China; to Major Ryder, R.E.,
for kindly revising the chapter on Tibet ; and to his old
friend, Mr. Thos. W. Kingsmill of Shanghai, for revising the
ethnographic and antiquarian data, upon which subjects he
is, in China, the chief living authority.
ARCHIBALD LITTLE.
LUNGMENHAO (Dragon-gate Inlet),
Chungking, China.
EDITORIAL NOTE
During Mr. Little's absence in China, the proofs of this
book were kindly read for me by my colleague at the London
School of Economics, Mr. A. J. Sargent, to whom my thanks
are due. Mr. Little returned in time to see the last revise.
The maps and diagrams in the text have been prepared by
Mr. A. W. Andrews of the Diagram Company, to whom and
to Mr. J. G. Bartholomew, who executed the coloured maps,
my thanks are also due.
H. J. M.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface ........... iii
Editorial Note v
List of Maps and Illustrations . . . . . vii
Chapters —
I. Definition ......... i
II. The Central Kingdom: China .... 8
III. The Northern Basin. The Yellow River . 19
IV. The Middle Basin : Part I. The Yangtse River 53
V. The Middle Basin: Part II. The Province of
Szechuan 69
VI. The Middle Basin: Part III. The Chengtu
Plateau -78
VII. The Middle Basin: Part IV. The Lower
Yangtse Provinces 91
VIII. The Intermediate Provinces. . . . .110
IX. The Southern Basin. Yunnan to Canton. . 121
X. The Dependencies: Part I. Manchuria . 155
XI. The Dependencies: Part II. Mongolia . .171
XII. The Dependencies: Part III. Turkestan . . 186
XIII. The Dependencies: Part IV. Tibet . . . 203
XIV. Whilom Dependencies: Part I. Indo-China .219
XV. Whilom Dependencies : Part II. Corea . . 243
XVI. The Buffer Kingdom : Siam 258
XVII. The Island Empire : Japan 279
INDEX 318
LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG
I.
2.
3-
4-
5-
6.
7-
8.
9-
io.
ii.
12.
13-
14.
15.
16.
17-
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
Europe superimposed on China .
Europe. Comparative to area of China proper
The Far East ....
Area of China and the British Isles
The Empire of Japan .
Population of China .
Population of Eastern Asia
South-east Asia. River Basins .
Coal and Iron in China
Changes in the course of the Yellow River
Railways in China
North China. Orographical
North China. Political
Growth of the Chusan Archipelago
The ' Red Basin ' of Szechuan
Bridge on the Chengtu-Tibetan Road, crossing
Channel ....
View of the Min River above Kwan-hien
View of the Min River as it emerges from the ' A
Range
First Breach in the ' Barrage ' at Kwan-hien
Near View of ' Barrage' in position .
Map of Kwan-hien .....
Map of Chengtu with Irrigation Channels .
Approaches to Shanghai ....
The Taiping Insurrection ....
Polam Bridge, Amoy
Trade Routes from Yunnan
Geological Sections on the West River
The Canton Delta .....
Irrigation
zure Wall
PAGE
2
3
6
8
16
17
17
19
3o
37
43
44
45
59
7i
71? face 79
81
84
84
105
109
120
128
14S
153
Vlll
LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
23. Meteorology of Eastern Asia . . . . . . . .156
24. Meteorology of Eastern Asia 157
25. Encroachment of the Land on the Chihli Gulf 163
26. Routes from China proper to outlying Dependencies . . . .191
27. The Pamir and its Offshoots : the Tarim Basin to the north and the
Indus Valley in the south 193
28. Chinese Turkestan. Political 202
29. Approaches to Saigon 223
30. The Delta of the Red River 238
31. Currents in the China Seas 244
32. Corea. Orographical 248
33. South-west Siam and the Isthmus of Kra 275
34. Japan. Orographical 280
35. Part of the ' Inland Sea' of Japan 298
36. Storm Tracks in the China Seas 302
37. Formosa 305
MAPS
The Far East. Political and Commercial .
„ ,, Vegetation Features
,, „ Ethnographical .
„ ,, Orographical
Central and Southern China. Orographical
The Route of the Chows ....
Mongolia and Northern China. Orographical
Farther India. Orographical
Japan and Corea. Orographical .
To face
A
1
5
JJ
8
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9
J>
19
5?
)>
21
171
219
279
TM'£ TAIL JEAjT - political s comkerci
THE FAR EAST
CHAPTER I
DEFINITION
The portion of the earth's surface comprised in this term
covers a vast extent of territory. Setting aside the Dutch
East Indies, a group of islands many of which are singly as
large as a European state, aggregating an area equal to that
of the European continent outside Russia ; as well as the
Malay peninsula, which, attached to the mainland alone by
the narrow isthmus of Kra, may be treated as belonging
geographically, as it assuredly does ethnographically, to the
great Malay archipelago ; we have the whole of Eastern Asia
outside of British India and Siberia for our theme. The
Philippine group should also rightly be included in the 'Far
East,' but it is comprised in the Malay archipelago, and so is
technically beyond our limit. We include then in the defini-
tion, for the purpose of the present work, the continental
countries of China with its outlying dependencies, Siam and
Indo-China, together with the long string of islands in the
Pacific which make up the empire of Japan — being all the
countries commonly understood in the term ' Far East.'
The varying scales on which the maps in our atlases are
drawn render them utterly deceptive as far as comparative
areas are concerned, and an atlas of the world on one and that
a fairly large scale is a desideratum for which we shall prob-
ably have long to wait. Occasionally an inset map of the
British Isles is added to maps of Asiatic lands and forms
a welcome basis of comparison. When we see Great Britain
and Ireland superimposed and enclosed in the one island of
Borneo, or the whole of France included in the one Chinese
province of Szechuan, untravelled readers are enabled to grasp
the idea that Asia covers four and a half times the area of
a THE FAR EAST
Europe, and that the Chinese Empire is nearly half as large
again as the United States excluding Alaska. Yet Europe
looms in our minds greater than Asia ; not that the soil of Asia
is less productive of all the fruits of the earth that go to supply
the needs of humanity in food and clothing ; on the contrary, it
is infinitely more so, but it fails in its production of men1. Man
being the highest product, to which all other products are
purely subsidiary, rightly takes the first place in our estimates
of comparative value, and man in his highest present develop-
FlG. I. — Europe superimposed on China.
ment is only to be found in Europe and in the countries
colonized and now inhabited, almost exclusively, by men of
European descent. The teeming millions of tropical and sub-
tropical Asia are little more than hewers of wood and drawers
of water to the Europeans with whom they come in contact.
Thus their vast territory and countless numbers fail to out-
weigh in the world's scale the limited area and restricted popu-
lation of our own continent, inferior as it is in natural resources ;
1 The epoch-making war between Russia and Japan, which has broken out
since this book was written, renders this statement true of the Asiatic
Continent only.
DEFINITION 3
and so, in one sense, our atlases are not so misleading after all :
they fairly represent, from the point of view of the relative
value of the humanity produced, the relative values of the areas
they depict.
The most valuable, the most important, as well as the most
interesting portion of the Far East is the great empire of China
— a world in itself, and during several millennia a world to itself.
Tien Hia, literally ' under Heaven,' the only term by which
the Chinese designate the world, means, to the Chinese, the
Chinese Empire. This marvellous people, until the time when
Fig. 2. — Europe. Comparative to area of China proper.
Western nations broke in upon their seclusion, only knew the
world as China fringed round by a few semi-barbarous countries,
all of which paid not unwilling homage to the Son of Heaven.
Nepaul, whose northern frontier marches with the Chinese
dependency of Tibet and which may be accepted as represen-
tative of Hindustan, continues to-day to send tribute to Peking ;
as did Burma until she came under British rule in 1885, and
Cochin-China and Annam, annexed by France respectively in
1863 and 1878. Tibet, Chinese Turkestan, Mongolia, and
Manchuria are all under Chinese rule ; the latter country alone,
B 2
4 THE FAR EAST
since the conquest of China by the Manchus in 1644, having
changed places, given a Manchu dynasty to China and made
itself supreme over the whole empire. Mountains and deserts,
in ancient times impassable, hemmed China in on the north and
west, while the Pacific Ocean formed a shoreless sea out of which
the sun daily emerged in the east. On the only other open side
another impassable sea, bounded by the fiery south, formed the
frontier of the ' world,' guarded by death-dealing typhoons
and studded with cannibal islands. The only remaining border
country, Siam, was covered in ancient times with an impene-
trable jungle, sparsely inhabited by wild beasts and by men,
the ancestors of the present semi-barbarous Shans, and cut off
from China proper by malarious lowlands, which the Chinese
reckon fatal to cross even at the present day. Hence the Far
East is properly defined as China with a fringe of half-developed
countries on its southern border, and with the islands of Japan,
including Formosa, in its eastern sea. The Japanese, in the
Middle Ages, were known to the Chinese only as a nation of sea
pirates who from time to time ravaged their coasts ; an attempt
to conquer them was made in the thirteenth century, by the
Mongol dynasty under Kublai Khan, which then held sway in
China. This attempted conquest resulted in an utter defeat of
the Mongols and in the sealing up of Japan, by its own initiative,
from all intercourse with the outside world. Corea, after being
a bone of contention to the two countries during the thirteenth
and the fourteenth centuries, eventually settled down under
Chinese protection, retaining its independence subject to a
nominal tribute to China, until the Japanese war of 1895 resulted
in its establishment as a self-contained separate empire. The
Liuchiu islands occupied the last place in the fringe of
countries to the eastward, their independence being safe-
guarded by paying tribute to both China and Japan ; until
recently, on the rise of Japan to a world power, they were
made to cut off their connexion with China and forced into
direct annexation to the Japanese Empire. Thus the ' Far
East ' is composed of China and her whilom dependencies plus
the empire of Japan, including its recent annexations.
The high Tibetan plateau, with an average altitude of sixteen
thousand feet above the sea. slopes eastwards into the Pacific
.(-!■■ :,.■-. .- .. ,.:
^
DEFINITION 5
Ocean and the Far East lies on this slope, forming one of the
great peripheral regions that depend from the vast highlands in
its centre that go to form the nexus of the great Asiatic con-
tinent ; the culminating highland, the Pamirs, being well named
by the natives of India ' the roof of the world.' The high
Tibetan plateau falls to the sea in a series of steps, each of the
earlier steps buttressed by lofty snow ranges traversable only by
difficult bleak passes ; its northern boundary is the Kwenlun
range, with the Altyn-tagh, which form its buttresses from the
Tarim valley — a depression believed to have once been an inlet
of the Arctic Sea; while to the south it is buttressed by the
ranges, so far unnamed as a whole, which bound the lower in-
habited plateau of Tibet, of which Lhasa is the capital, on the
north. This first step, running roughly between the thirtieth and
thirty-first parallels of latitude, leads down into a comparatively
fertile region, twelve to thirteen thousand feet in altitude, and
a region blessed with a healthy temperate climate. Farther
to the east, this step winds round until it touches the western
borders of China proper, where we find a similar temperate
plateau of like elevation, before we descend by the next step
into the sub-tropical region of the integral Chinese province of
Szechuan, one to two thousand feet above sea-level. To the
south of Szechuan, the step is less steep. After crossing the
ravines of the four great rivers of Eastern Asia which take their
rise in the high plateau — two, the Salwin and the Mekong,
flowing south into the Bay of Bengal and the China Sea ; one,
the Yangtse, flowing, first south, in company with the other
two down to latitude 26 , and then north and east across China
into the Pacific at Shanghai ; the fourth, the Yellow River,
which, with its source not far distant from that of the Yangtse,
flows, after making its great w Ordos ' loop north into Mongolia,
due east, through North China, into the Yellow Sea — this last
step dips below and is merged in the delta sloping into and
beneath this shallow sea, now rapidly silting up before our eyes
with the detritus ceaselessly accumulated from the turbid floods
of China's two great rivers. These two mighty streams testify
in their nomenclature to the isolation of thought of the Chinese
geographers : they are known simply as the KlANG and the Ho,
— the Strom and the Fluss — the two rivers of the world par
THE FAR EAST
excellence, and around them centred the whole development of
the human race as known to the Chinese, pending the slow
advance of the ancient Limin — the black-haired, or, as the
etymology of the ' character ' Li would seem rather to indicate,
the race of ploughmen — along their banks : a steady advance
from the land now known as Turkestan, begun, in all probability,
some three thousand years or more before the Christian era.
FlG. 3. -The Far East.
The other two great rivers of Eastern Asia, the Sal win and
the Mekong, were totally unknown to the ancient Chinese;
they were practically discovered by the modern Chinese quite
recently, in the period of the actual reigning dynasty, the
Tatsing, at the time of the ' expansion ' under the great
emperors Kanghi and Kien-lung, in the eighteenth century.
The rivers of the north, the Amur and the Sungart, may equally
be said to have been ' discovered ' at the same period.
DEFINITION 7
The last, and the least, of the five great East Asiatic rivers
whose basins are embraced in our purview, is the Menam, the
river which, taking its rise to the south of the West-China
plateau, has formed the delta of which Bangkok is the centre,
and so given rise to the kingdom of Siam. Thus the Chinese
Empire with its peripheral dependencies, Siam and Annam,
the outlying peninsula of Corea, and the island empire of Japan
in the extreme East, together form the subject of our present
study.
CHAPTER II
THE CENTRAL KINGDOM : CHINA
When China is spoken of, that portion known as the ' Eigh-
teen Provinces1,' and inhabited by the pure Chinese race, is
usually understood. This, the integral part of the Chinese
Fig. 4. — Area of China and the British Isles.
Empire, and so called ' China proper,' extends from Hainan and
Canton in the tropical south to Peking and the 'Great Wall' in the
frozen north ; from the wide alluvial delta round Shanghai on the
Pacific Ocean in the east to Szechuan and Yunnan, embracing
1 The Chinese still speak of China colloquially as the ' Eighteen Provinces'
(Shih-pa sheng), but recently Manchuria and Turkestan have both been
directly incorporated : — the former as the ' Tung san sheng ' or Three
Eastern Provinces, the latter as the Shin Kiang or ' New Dominion.' Thus
China is now officially known as the ' Er-shih er sheng ' or Twenty-two
Provinces.
Mongol!
Aryans
80
['..■ Bdfabnrgih iv.
IHI FAIR ISABT-ETHMOGBAPHICA
THE CENTRAL KINGDOM: CHINA 9
the high border-land of Tibet in the west — an area of one and
a half million square miles, or seventeen times that of the island
of Britain, inhabited by a population estimated at ten times the
number of the inhabitants of our own country. But beyond and
surrounding this central region, lie the outlying dependencies —
Manchuria, Mongolia, Turkestan, and Tibet, together aggregating
double the area of China proper, to which (except in proportion)
they bear much the same relation as do our own colonies and
dependencies to their mother country : indeed, the affinity in
the relation of China to her dependencies and that of Britain
to her colonies is very marked when compared with those of
other European countries to their colonies — in the one bottom
fact that neither derives any direct pecuniary benefit from the
relation ; the obligation, if any, being on the side of the depen-
dency fostered and protected at the expense of the parent
country. We shall find other and more striking analogies
when we come to describe these countries in detail and the
mode of their acquisition by China and present retention, as
well as their actual condition. These colonies and dependencies,
which encircle China on the land side, comprising mainly snow-
clad mountains and half-desert plateaux, shut China off from
the rest of the world as effectually as did the Pacific Ocean on
the other side. On the north of the uniformly fertile and
mainly sub-tropical region of China proper, we find Mongolia,
a grass-covered plateau of about four thousand feet in altitude,
but subsiding to the west, where it unites with the arid regions
of Central Asia, into an actual desert with a fall in altitude to
about one thousand feet only above sea-level. Continuing
round the frontier and advancing southwards, we come next
to the triangle-shaped Hi valley, better known by its capital
city Kulja. This Ili valley is separated from the Mongolian
plain, or as it is here called by the Chinese, the Shamo or Sand-
dust desert, by the Bogdo mountains, a steep lofty range rising
to twelve and fourteen thousand feet, crossing which we descend
to Kulja on the Ili river at two thousand feet above sea-level.
Continuing our survey south, we find the small Ili valley
bounded in that direction by the lofty range of the Tien-shan
or Celestial Mountains, which form an effectual water-parting
between it and the Tarim valley — our next southern step.
10 THE FAR EAST
These Celestial Mountains, the Tien-shan, which extend with
their great height and steep flanks, like a wall, for nearly fifteen
hundred miles from the Pamirs in the west to the Mongolian
plateau in the east, attain their greatest height almost imme-
diately to the south of the town of Kulja ; they are here crossed
by the Musart pass leading down into the Tarim valley, close
to, and to the east of, the Peak of Tengri, twenty-four thousand
feet in height. This range of the Tien-shan is the prototype of
the numerous minor folds which, taking their rise in the Tibetan
plateau, traverse the peripheral region of China proper in
a WSW. and ENE. direction ; all lofty, all with steep flanks,
many with summits rising into the region of perpetual snow,
and well named by the Chinese ' Walls ' or ' Azure Wall range,'
from their wall-like aspect, confirmed in their long-drawn-out,
continuous horizontal lines ; the difficulty of crossing them
completing the analogy. The Chinese have, from time imme-
morial, possessed two roads, and two only, connecting them
with the west, with Turkestan and Central Asia, known as the
north and south roads. The north road, called ' Tien-shan-peh-
lu,' i.e. the ' road north of the Tien range,' and the more easily
traversed, leaves China proper by the province of Kansu, passes
out by the town of Hami and thence down the Hi river valley,
past Kulja, and so into the Turkestan plain and the regions to
the east of the Aral Sea. The second road is the ' Tien-shan-
nan-lu,' i.e. the 'road south of the Tien range,' leading through
the basin of the Tarim, along the banks of which it passes : we
leave this basin by crossing the Tien range to the north, but
our path now turns southwards. As Kulja is, coming from
China, the immediate objective of the Hi or north road, so
Kashgar and Yarkand are the objective points of the Tarim or
south road : continuing beyond Kashgar, this road leads across
the high passes of the Pamirs to Bokhara, Khiva, and the Trans-
caspian. The Hi and Tarim rivers, along whose valleys respec-
tively these two main roads pass, flow in parallel lines but in
opposite directions, the Hi flowing west and finding its outlet
in Lake Balkash in Russian territory ; the Tarim flowing east
until it is lost in the sands and swamps of Lob-nor, a lake
situated near the eastern edge of the Tarim basin whose
drainage it receives, and at the foot of the lofty Altyn range,
THE CENTRAL KINGDOM: CHINA n
which walls in the basin on the south. This and the Kwenlun
range, its western extension, form the northern buttresses of
the great Tibetan plateau, up on to which our rough delineation
of the Chinese frontier now carries us in our southward pro-
gress. Thus, crossing Tibet, we descend — in the west, through
the Himalayas to Kashmir, Nepaul, and British India ; and in
the east, to Assam and Burma, which country is coterminous
with the western frontier of the Chinese province of Yunnan
in China proper. A third road, now little used, is described in
Chapter XII ; this leads along the south edge of the Tarim
sand-waste, at the foot of the Kwenlun mountains.
Along the greater portion of its land frontier the Chinese
Empire is bounded by that of Russia : in the east by the
maritime province of Primorsk, better known by the name of
its capital, Vladivostock, and which was annexed by Mouravieff
from China as recently as i860 : in the extreme north-east,
by the Amur region to the north of Manchuria : in the north
by the Trans-Baikal to the north of Mongolia, then by the
' government ' of Irkutsk, on the opposite or western shore of
Lake Baikal : on the north-west and west by the Russian
' governments ' of Tomsk and Semipalatinsk, which latter
divides the depression of Lake Balkash with the recently
annexed government of Semirechinsk : then, in the extreme
west by the Pamirs, the lofty nexus of the Asiatic continent,
the area of which is now, according to the recent delimita-
tions, shared between the three great empires of China, Russia,
and Great Britain. Coming round to the south-west frontier,
across the wall of the Himalayas and their offshoots, the Chinese
Empire has British India for its boundary ; and farther east,
Burma up to the banks of the Mekong, where we meet the
French possessions of Indo-China — Annam and Tongking,— and
east of which again, and south of the Chinese provinces of
Kwangsi and Kwangtung (Canton), the Pacific Ocean marks
the boundary: from here on, following up the coast-line, east
and north, for a distance of eighteen hundred miles, we arrive
once more at our starting-point on the borders of the Corean
peninsula.
Roughly, omitting inequalities in both coast- and land-lines,
the circumference of the Chinese Empire may be taken as
\i THE FAR EAST
8,000 miles, of which the Russian frontier of 3,600 miles forms
about one-half; the British frontier of i,8oo miles, one-fourth ;
and the coast-line, another 1,800 miles, the remaining fourth.
The other land frontiers, of less importance geographically, but
possibly of greater politically, not included in this enumeration
are : — the line of neutral ground bordering the Corean peninsula
where it is attached to the Manchurian provinces of Kirin and
Liaotung, and the northern boundary of Tongking to the south
of the provinces of Yunnan and Kwangsi, each about 250 miles
in length. China's object, ever since her final assimilation of the
eighteen provinces proper in the sixteenth century of our era,
has been to surround herself with dependent buffer states — an
object most persistently pursued by the powerful early emperors
of the present dynasty in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies, and still spasmodically pursued by their feeble successors
in the nineteenth. These buffer states, of no value financially,
but practically impassable before the advent of railways, still
cover more than double the area of China proper, although
largely curtailed during the past century by the encroachments
of Russia in the north and west, and in the south by those of
France. The store that the present decrepit rulers of the
empire still set by these barren dependencies is seen in the
exertions put forth for the reconquest of Kashgaria and western
Yunnan in the seventies, by the retrocession then obtained from
Russia of a portion of the Hi basin, and by the not wholly un-
successful war with France for the recovery of Tongking in the
eighties. That the maritime frontier is still more open to
attack is a lesson only recently learned by the Chinese, who
have been disappointed in discovering that the ocean is no
longer an impenetrable buffer of safety : indeed, the fact that
the ocean is a highway and not a barrier — an open door rather
than a ' moat defensive ' — has only in modern times reached
the status of an axiom in Europe.
Resuming our study of the geography of the ' Far East '
outside of the limits of the Chinese Empire, we have in Siam
a small kingdom embracing, in the north, a portion of the foot-
hills of the Tibeto-Yunnan plateau, in which its principal river,
the Menam, takes its rise, and by its delta, projected into the
gulf of Siam, has produced the rich rice lands round Bangkok,
THE CENTRAL KINGDOM: CHINA 13
the capital, which form the mainstay of the Siamese kingdom
and the chief support of its population and trade. Enclosed
on the north and west by the frontiers of British Burma, from
which it is divided — in the north by the river Salwin and for
a long stretch south by the steep range to the east of Moulmein
and Tenasserim : and again to the north and on the east by the
French Annamese possessions, where, by the recent Anglo-
French Convention, the river Mekong now forms the boundary
on this side, less a neutral ground, practically French, on the
western side of its valley — the kingdom of Siam is now restricted
to the basin of its one river, the Menam, plus a long narrow
prolongation south, past the isthmus of Kra, down into the
Malay peninsula as far as the British possession of Penang. The
southern boundary of the kingdom, otherwise, is formed to
the west by the waters of the gulf of Siam, and to the east by
the French-protected kingdom of Cambodia. The area thus
enclosed, omitting the above-mentioned peninsular extension —
which, sparsely populated by semi-independent Malay tribes,
possesses no political importance — forms a rough square, with a
circumference of about 1,500 miles. Measuring from Chantabun,
on the Cambodian frontier, in the south, to the Laos states of
Zimme and Chieng-hai in the north, the distance is about four
hundred miles, with an east to west diameter averaging about
three hundred. Siam, together with the mountain ridge of
Annam to the east and the Mekong-formed delta of Lower
Cochin-China to the south, forms a peninsula jutting into the
China Sea and one of the main peripheral extensions of the great
Tibetan Central Asiatic plateau. Incidentally we may note the
connexion of Siam with China in the etymology of its name :
Siam is only a dialectical variety of the Chinese word ' Shan ' —
mountain, — the word Siamese, applied to the direct subjects
of the king of Siam, and the word Shans, applied to the semi-
independent tribes that people the mountains and jungles
through which pass the ill-defined boundaries of China, Burma,
Siam, and Annam, being practically identical. Although Shan
means ' mountain ' in Chinese, yet this meaning is not believed
to apply to the name • Shan.' The origin of the name is
unknown, nor is it used by the people themselves ; the designa-
tion originates with the Burmese, who so denominated these
i4 THE FAR EAST
immigrants from across the Chinese border. The term ' Laos '
would appear to denote the aboriginal inhabitants driven north-
wards by the Malay invaders from the south.
Crossing the Mekong eastwards we land in the third of our
' Far East ' countries — Annam, or, as it should be spelt, after
the analogy of its neighbour, Yunnan — ' Annan ' — the ' Peace-
ful South,' together with its northern extension, Tongking, the
'Eastern Capital,' the Chinese words being the same as those
which in Japan spell ' Tokio.'
Annam, commonly known in Europe as ' Cochin-China,' was,
until the French advanced their frontier to the Cis-Mekong,
virtually confined to the narrow mountain range which walls
in Siam and the Menam and Mekong valleys, both of which were
originally comprised in the latter kingdom, from the Pacific
Ocean. Annam is thus little more than a narrow strip of moun-
tain land, not a hundred miles in width, but with a coast-line
extending north and south of nearly eight hundred miles, with
its capital and the sand-barred port, Hue, in its centre. This
mountain ridge effectually shuts off the valley of the Mekong
lying behind it from the sea, into which the great river even-
tually finds its outlet to the south of this barrier, where it has
formed the rich rice delta of Lower Cochin China with Saigon for
its capital. At its upper or northern end the range swerves to the
west, inland, and so has left an opening through which a portion
of the drainage of the Yunnan plateau is enabled to flow direct
to the China Sea ; and the water thus escaping has deposited
in the north the correspondingly rich delta of the Red River of
Tongking. Annam has thus, with its long impassable coast
barrier of comparatively unproductive mountains, led to the
establishment of two rich delta-countries upon its extremities.
These two deltas, Tongking in the north, Cochin-China in the
south, linked together by Annam in the centre, stand now all
united in the French Empire of Indo-China, the area of the
whole with the recent annexations being 360,000 square miles,
or about double that of Siam, its neighbour on the west.
Corea, another of the whilom dependencies of China, but,
since 1895, an independent ' empire,' comes next on our list.
This, the Hermit Kingdom as it used to be called, lies between
the Yellow Sea of China on the west and the Sea of Japan on the
THE CENTRAL KINGDOM: CHINA is
east and distant from either country about one hundred miles
to the nearest point of the opposite shores : — the province of
Shantung in China and that of Kiushiu in Japan. But the
Hermit Kingdom, though insular in character, owing to the
wild and difficult roadless country through which alone it can
be approached by land, is actually another of the Asiatic peri-
pheral countries, the last on the circuit until, in the extreme
north, is reached the peninsula of Kamschatka on the Behring
Sea. Corea is attached to the main mass of the Asiatic con-
tinent by the isthmus of Phyengyang-Gensan (Port Lazareff),
ioo miles in width, its northern boundary, where it joins on to
the Chinese kingdom of Manchuria, to the south of the snowy
range of the Chang-pei-shan — the 'long white mountain' — in
the north and east ; while its north-west frontier is defined
by the Yalu river. This feeble little country, which has
proved so great a bone of contention amongst her three big
neighbours — Russia, China, and Japan — extends north and
south about 550 miles, with a width varying from 100 to 150
miles, giving an area of 80,000 square miles. The country is
mostly mountainous, the highest elevation being on its eastern
border, where a ridge with an altitude of about 4,000
feet falls abruptly into the deep waters of the Pacific. On the
opposite side of this ridge the country slopes more or less gradu-
ally westwards into the shoals and mud-flats that form the
western coast-line along the Yellow Sea. As in the island of
Formosa, 500 miles to the south, which is similarly constructed,
the drainage is necessarily to the west and on the easier slope
of the mountain backbone, whereon lies the main watershed :
while, east of the water-parting, we have, in both cases, little
more than a steep wall rising straight out of the ocean depths.
Even on the western side, the rivers are short, steep, and rapid,
and yield only shallow bar harbours to navigation. But Corea,
unlike Formosa, possesses at least one fine harbour in her coast
barrier — that of Port Lazareff in the north ; while the more
gentle southern coast owns — facing Japan — the attractive ports
of Masampo and Fusan.
Last in order, but to-day the greatest in importance, comes
the island empire of Japan — a string of islands lying in the
Pacific immediately to the east of the great Chinese Empire, and
t
16 THE FAR EAST
aggregating, including the recently acquired island of Formosa
and the Liuchiu archipelago, an area of 165,000 square miles —
just one twenty-seventh of that of her mighty neighbour.
The island group that goes to make up the empire of Japan
extends from Formosa, with its southern extremity dipping
into the tropics, to Yezo, renamed Hokkaido, and the Kuriles
reaching up to the foot of the Kamschatka peninsula in latitude
500 north — a 'string of pearls' fringing the main Asiatic con-
tinent in a south-west and north-east direction, now at last
brought into the complete possession of the Mikado's empire,
from the Philippines in the south to the con-
• fines of Behring Sea in the north. The islands,
* over four thousand in number, form a con-
tinuous chain of mountain peaks, not im-
probably the surviving summits of an ancient
r^^ continent now submerged. The chain through-
^^L out has been the scene of great volcanic energy,
*^Bt and still comprises active volcanoes which ex-
iBp' tend in an almost unbroken line yet farther
r JJif north into the mainland in Kamschatka. The
J>M rivers are small and short, mostly falling in un-
.gk navigable rapids direct from the high central
1 **s backbones of the islands into the sea — -occasion-
) ally yielding small but rich rice deltas; more
: often embanked above the level of the narrow
* lowlands traversed by them in their downward
course from the mountains behind. The agri-
'.«* cultural wealth of the ground is small when
A compared with that of the vast plains and culti-
'^ vable mountains of the mainland opposite,
Fig. 5. — The but the energy of the people, favoured by
a less relaxing climate than is that of Middle
and South China, more than compensates the inhabitants
for their inferiority in natural resources. China and Japan
exhibit scenery of exceptionally picturesque outline and colour-
ing, that of China being naturally on a more imposing scale ;
while Japan affords the more exquisite variety of detail.
The above is a general outline of the physical geography of
China and of the buffer states still under her control : the once
FlG. 6. — Population of China.
TAR EAST
FlG. 7. — Population of Eastern Asia.
C
j8
THE FAR EAST
dependent tributary states of Burmah, Siam, and Annam com-
plete the circle ; and these again, with the addition of the
independent empires of Corea and Japan, but with the omission
of Burma, now forming an integral portion of British India,
complete our definition of the ' Far East.' It remains, in this
chapter, to add a summary of the figures dealing with their
political geography.
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China proper : —
0 O
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1 ,500 ft.
380,000,000
2 80
Yellow R. Valley
34 @4*
95 @ "9
390,000
2,000 „
95,000,000
243
Yangtse R. Valley
25@34
90 @ 122
57O,CO0
1,5°° „
190,000,000
333
West R. Valley
22@25
106 @ 114
200,000
1,000 ,,
40,000,000
200
Chekiang and Fukien
34@3i
116 @ 122
76,000
i,5°° 11
33,000,000
421
Chihli and Kou-wai
37@42
112 @ 118
104,000
1,000 „
22,000,000
163
Chinese Dependent
States : —
Mongolia
38@53
82 @ 125
1,288,000
5,000 „
2,000,000
if
Manchuria
39 @ 54
ii7@J35
362,000
1,000 „
18,000,000
50
Turkestan w. Dsun-
garia
37@4<>
74 @ 98
580,000
3,°oo „
1,000,000
2
Tibet
27 (S38
79 @ 101
651,000
13,000 „
6,000,000
10
Chinese Protected
States (formerly) : —
Corea
34 @ 42
125 @ 129
80,000
1,000 „
12,000,000
150
Nepaul
26(0)30
80 @ 88
50,000
5 j000 »
4,000,000
80
Burma, excluding
Tenasserim and
including Shan
country
16 <3 28
92 @ 100
168,000
7°° »
10,000,000
51
Siam, excluding strip
in Malay peninsula
12 @ 20
97 @ J°5
l8o,000
600 ,,
5,000.000
2S
French Indo-China
9@22
100 @ 109
360,000
1,500,,
17,000,000
47
Japan
2I@51
120 (g 151
162,000
2,000 „
45,000,000
280
Comparisons.
Great Britain
5°@59
2 E. to 6 W.
88,000
3°° »
40,000,000
455
British Empire
—
—
11,000,000
—
400,000,000
37
Russian Empire
38 @ 80
i9@ M5
8,660,000
200,,
130,000,000
J5
Chinese Empire
22@53
74(3 125
4,200,000
3>°oo „
420,000,000
IOO
United States, exclud-
ing Alaska
26@49
73 (3 125 W.
3,000,000
5°o »
75,000,000
25
Average area of the 18 provinces composing China proper, 75,000 square miles.
Average area of the 48 states composing U.S.A. (excluding Alaska and District of Columbia),
62,000 square miles.
Average population of the 18 provinces of China, 21,000,000.
Average population of the 48 states of U.S.A., 1,570,000.
^/
3
CHAPTER III
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER.
From the general outline given in the preceding chapter, we
will now turn our particular attention to the chief country of
the series — the Central Kingdom of China proper. ' Chung
Fig. 8.— South-east Asia. River Basins.
Kwo,' or the ' Central Kingdom,' is the name by which the
Chinese people have designated their country from the days
when their empire was confined to a few settlements along the
banks of the Wei and Yellow rivers in the north. Surveying
c 2
so THE FAR EAST
the Central Kingdom as it exists in the eighteen provinces of
to-day, we find it comprised in three river basins : that of the
' Ho ' or Yellow River in the north, that of the ' Kiang ' or
Yangtse River in the centre, and that of the West River, the
river of Canton — the branch that flows past the city being
known as the Pearl River — in the south. The three great
rivers that drain these basins all take their rise on the east side
of the Tibetan plateau — for, even in the case of the West River,
the province of Yunnan, whence it flows, is but an eastern pro-
longation of this same plateau — and pursue their courses,
practically due east, in parallel valleys to the Pacific Ocean,
and the northernmost of these three valley-basins formed the
original home of Chinese civilization in China proper. The
Chinese are the aboriginal inhabitants of China with a
physical, mental and (lower) nervous organization all their own,
and little more can be said about them. The historical period
does not commence in China until the eighth century B.C.,
at which period the empire was held by the Chows : this
dynasty goes back to the semi-historical period of its founder,
Wu Wang, the ' Martial Prince,' who acceded to the Prin-
cipality of Chow, as suzerain of the feudal kingdoms into
which China was then divided, in the year 1122 B.C. The
Martial Prince was descended from Wen Wang, the ' Literary
Prince,' or — the title by which he was known in his lifetime —
' The Chief of the West.' Father and son together put an end
to the preceding cruel despotism of the Yin dynasty, and
it is with this dynasty of Chow that authentic Chinese history
first begins. All previous is purely traditional.
Yet tradition, as collated by the Chinese historian^ of the
Han dynasty, seems to show that the superior order and
civilization introduced by the Chows — notably by Chow
Kung, younger brother of the Martial Prince — was derived
from immigrant ancestors from the West, who entered China
by the road of the Tarim. Whether these were an Aryan
tribe from Bactria and the slopes of the Hindu-Kush, as some
suppose, it is impossible to say. Still there is reason to
believe that the aboriginal Chinese race, of whom the semi-
independent Miaotse in Kweichow and elsewhere are a
surviving remnant, did receive an infusion of culture from the
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THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 21
West, such as the old stock of the English folk received from
the Norman invaders of England. As with the latter, so in
China, the invaders were gradually absorbed in the aboriginal
race, which was the more numerous and persistent. Except
in dress and language there is little to-day to distinguish the
Miaotse from their Chinese neighbours. Their features are
similar, of a like so-called Mongolian type, with small, deli-
cately formed hands and feet, and the commonly occurrent
small mouth with the 'Cupid's bow' upper lip, the black wiry
hair and beardless face. The old Chinese type is extra-
ordinarily persistent, and this is seen in the mixed offspring
of Europeans and Chinese to-day, in which the Chinese type
persists even to the quadroon of the second generation. The
immigrants, whom for want of better knowledge we may call
the Chows, conquered the Chinese and taught them the arts
they had brought from the West, but gradually lost their own
individuality. In the same way the numerous ' Tartar '
invaders, who gave North China an intermittent succession
of ' Tartar ' dynasties from the fifth century onwards, became
equally absorbed by the Chinese. The resultant strong infusion
of ' Tartar ' blood is evidenced in the north, both in the
language and in the superior physique and stature of the
northerners. The southerners are of purer Chinese type, and
this fact is confirmed in their language to-day, the so-called
Cantonese dialect being undoubtedly a survival of the ancient
language of the country. The Tarim valley, even in historical
times, nourished a considerable population in comparison with
its present scattered inhabitants, as is shown in the remains
of ancient cities dating from the ninth to twelfth century of
our era, unearthed in what is now the howling wilderness of the
Takla-makan desert. Thence along the depression in which
lie the modern cities of Sining and Lanchow, by a road leading
through the present Chinese province of Kansu, their path to
the Wei would lead the immigrants to the upper course of the
Yellow River, but here only to cross it at right angles where it
washes the walls of the present Kansu capital, Lanchow, and not
to meet it again until, after traversing the whole extent of the
valley of the Wei, they came to the point where the two rivers
finally unite in the pass of Tungkwan : thence onward their course
22 THE FAR EAST
lay continuously in the Yellow River valley until they reached
the Yellow Sea. The Wei river, which has its source in Southern
Kansu, about 250 miles to the west of its outlet into the Yellow-
River at Tungkwan in Shensi, flows past the capital, Si-an
(Si-ngan), along the foot of the Pe-ling (i.e. Northern Range), the
two forming one channel in a direct line from Kansu to the sea :
for the Yellow River coming from the north after forming the
eastern boundary of the Ordos desert meets the Wei at right
angles, and in this, its great northern loop, is of little or no value
to navigation, while the Wei and the Yellow River below this
point together form a main artery of trade. The Pe-ling, with
its eastern extension the Tsing-ling — itself practically an eastern
extension of the Kwenlun range — marks the water-parting
between the Yellow River and the Yangtse basins, the sub-
aerially formed loess lands of the northern and the sedimentary
rocks and sub-aqueous deposits of the centre region. By this
barrier, at a time when its mountains were closed by impene-
trable forests, the Chows were withheld from penetrating
southwards, while the open prairie land of the Shensi loess
plateau invited them eastwards away from the more arid and,
from its greater elevation, chilly region of Kansu. Thence
later, leaving the mountainous region of the present province of
Shansi on their left hand, they continued their eastern advance
down the Yellow River into the plains of Honan, until turning
north they found these again merged in the old marine estuary
now known as the great plain of Chihli : crossing these plains
and extending their march eastwards, they reached the hilly
region of modern Shantung, the detached mountain peninsula
that juts out into the Yellow Sea between two wide alluvial
plains on either side — that of Chihli on the north, and that of
the ' Hwai ' region, the modern North Kiangsu, or, as it is
commonly called, 'Kiang-peh,' 'North of the Kiang,' on the
south. Passing from the swamps of the ever-changing Yellow
River, which, after it leaves the neighbourhood of Kaifeng, the
capital of the Honan province, has, in historical times, con-
stantly fluctuated in its course thence to the sea, — finding its
outlet at times to the north, at times to the south of the Shantung
promontory, and in its wanderings leaving behind it wide
areas of swamps and shallow lakes and ill-defined creeks, —
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 23
they advanced until they reached the highlands of modern
Shantung. Here they found a country of gentle uplands
(stretching away from the central nexus of the famous Tai-shan
— the ' exalted ' mountain — though barely exceeding 5,000 feet
in height) and fertile valleys and a more bracing and sea-
tempered air ; in short, more equable and temperate climatic
conditions than any they had yet experienced, and forming
a strong and pleasing contrast to the violent extremes of heat
and cold that distinguish the implacable regions of Central
Asia — their original home. To these favouring conditions we
may well attribute the fact that here in the hills of Shantung the
peculiar civilization of the Chinese attained its highest develop-
ment, and produced, in the seventh and sixth centuries before
our era, a school of philosophers worthy to rank with their
contemporaries in the West — in India and in Greece. It seems
a marvellous coincidence that three advanced schools of elevated
human thought should have thus arisen at the same period in
three distinct centres totally independent of each other ; schools
which fixed the type of the three great civilizations of the
world — the Chinese, the Indian, and the Greek, this latter the
foundation upon which rests the modern civilization of Europe
and the West.
If we adopt the Yellow River valley as the type and definition
of North China, as is the Yangtse valley that of the centre of
the ' Central Kingdom ' as it now stands, it will be found to
comprise just six of the eighteen provinces of China proper —
Kansu, Shensi, Shansi, Chihli, Honan, and Shantung. These six
provinces are distinct from the rest of China in their climate, food
production, and in the character and mode of life of their inhabi-
tants. North of the dividing range rice cultivation ceases, and
although imported rice is here still the favourite diet of the
rich, the masses live on wheat and millet 1, chiefly the latter.
These Northern Chinese, though a slow-moving, are a sturdy
race and, while essentially of the same type, present a great
contrast in physique to their effeminate neighbours to the
south of the line. The configuration of North China with its
1 Shu-tse, commonly called ' Siao-mi ' (small rice), the glutinous millet,
a variety of Panicum miliaceum, as distinguished from Kao-liang (Sorghum
vulgare), the tall millet, used for distilling spirits.
24 THE FAR EAST
unique development of the great loess deposit that forms the
characteristic surface of this region, has been exhaustively
described by Richthofen in his monumental work, China. He
there tells how the original mountain outline of the country has
been obliterated by enormous sub-aerial deposits of dust, swept
across by the winds blowing eastwards from the sandy steppes
of Central Asia. This dust has, in the course of ages, filled up
the valleys, smoothed over the original rugged mountain for-
mation, and deposited upon it a fertile loam many thousand
feet in thickness. The fertility of this loam Richthofen attri-
butes to the secular decay of the grasses with which the land
was covered and which arrested the dust as it swept over them.
As one crop of grass was buried and decayed, so another crop
sprang up on the new surface, the procedure being so uniform
and gradual that there is little trace of horizontal stratification,
but marked vertical cleavage, due to the perpendicularity of
this vegetable growth. The minute vertical hollows left by the
decayed grasses have furnished a porosity to the loam deposit
which has given opportunity for capillary attraction to draw
moisture to the surface, together with a perennial supply of
the salts necessary to agriculture, from the depths below.
Richthofen goes into long arguments, one of the chief being the
constant presence of land snail-shells and the entire absence of
marine fossils, to prove the land origin of the formation ; and
his proofs, at first ardently combated by the older school of
geologists \ have now met with general acceptance. This loess
1 It may be well to state the reasons for a contrary opinion, although I do
not share it myself. Mr. Kingsmill writes : ' Richthofen's theory of the
loess is untenable by a geologist who knows the country : it is apparent
that the fertility of the loess is due to its containing a small amount of phos-
phates. The best wheat in China is grown on the impalpable sand spread
by the inundations of the Yellow River over the districts overrun in the
floods after the breach of 1854. The vertical tubes in the loess I have
always found pentagonal, a form not appertaining to vegetation.
'So far from the chief external geological features of China being carved
out of tertiary strata, the enormous antiquity of the superficial geology has
often struck me. The surface of China was in pre-tertiary, or at least eocene
times, carved out into the same main features as at present. The mountain
ranges and the valleys were the same as to-day ; the water system, except in
a few localities, very similar. The mountains were however higher and
probably more rugged, and the valleys more abrupt. Some ages then, up
to the waning days of the tertiaries, China was under water, and the surface
sandstones, Laterites, gravels, and loess were laid down in the valleys
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 25
formation, to the eye a level plain with low rugged ridges and
peaks rising out of it, somewhat as the ' Nunataks ' rise out
of the vast snow neves of the Arctic regions, is, as Richthofen
points out, in reality a succession of basins, depressed in the
centre and rising thence imperceptibly to the edges where the
loess ascends the flanks of the steep, rocky mountain ranges
which form the rims of these wide-spread valleys. Each of
these valley-plains constitutes, as a rule, one of the ' Hien ' or
counties, into which the province is divided, and in whose
centre we find usually the fortress-capital of the county, the
' Hien ' city. Of these Shensi, with an area of 81,000 square
miles, contains seventy-three, and Shansi, with an area of
66,000 square miles, eighty-six ; grouped respectively under
seven and nine prefectures or ' Fu.'
The rivers, and notably the Yellow River, that drain this
unique loess region are unable to rest on its loose yet compact
surface : hence they have cut down through it to the rock
foundation below, and have left on either hand the vertical
cliffs by which their banks are lined. The roads, or rather cart-
tracks, in this region have produced a like effect on its surface.
According to the varying compactness of the loess in different
places and to the amount of the traffic over it, we find that,
in the course of centuries, the roads, like the rivers, have cut
out ravines with vertical walls of varying depth, their floors
rising and falling and their courses winding through the country
in bewildering perplexity. Along these roads, and out of their
vertical walls, the inhabitants have excavated their dwellings,
— originally simple caves in the loess, now developed into houses
of two and three stories with wooden doors, window frames, and
inside staircases — houses warm in winter and cool in summer
at the expense of the mountain chains. Then, at the dawn of the human
epoch, the ocean waters retreated and the rivers of to-day commenced to
flow. For the most part they followed the old drainage lines, but here and
there were deflected by outbursts of basaltic lava which continued to flow
till late in the Pleistocene. The beds of the modern rivers were for the most
part formed in the low-lying tertiaries, which, however, they have in a few
places cut into deeply. In the higher valleys the gradual erosion of the
tertiary rocks proceeds at a greater rate, but everywhere the tendency is to
pause when the old bed rock is reached, so that the rivers of to-day flow
in the old channels occupied by their predecessors in cretaceous or eocene
times.'
26 THE FAR EAST
and marvellously free from damp. When travelling in the
country and at a distance from the few large towns in the region,
the view over the surface of the loess plain shows an unlimited
extent of flat cultivated land, unfenced, houseless, and to the
eye, except when agricultural work is actually in progress,
uninhabited. This desolate-looking country is, however, split
up by cracks and crevices ramifying through it in all directions,
and at the bottom of these crevices, invisible to an observer on
the surface, lie the paths of the roads and the rivers intersecting
it — the life and movement of the region. The loess country,
fertile as it is, being incapable of irrigation by manual labour,
is dependent upon the rainfall for its fertility, and of late years
unhappily this prime necessity has made default. Central
Asian conditions, determined, it is now believed, by the denuda-
tion of the mountains, due to the remorseless destruction of the
forests by successive generations of inhabitants, appear now to
be invading Northern and Western China. Shensi, once the
granary of the empire, has, in recent times, rivalled India in its
disastrous famines, and the whole region north of the ' River '
has been suffering from insufficient rainfall. Even Szechuan
on the other side of the water-parting— cloudy Szechuan, where
the sun shines so rarely that the dogs bark when it appears — is
no longer immune from this curse of big continents : indeed, of
late years complaints of drought have come in from all the
eighteen provinces, with the exception only of the tropical
province of Canton.
The province of Shensi, the second on our list, was said,
previous to the recent three years' drought (1898 to 1900),
to maintain a population of eight millions upon its surface
of 81,000 square miles : the major portion being distributed
along the fertile valley of the Wei, in which stands the capital
Si-an, and again to the south of the Tsing-ling range, in the
valley of the Upper Han. This rich valley, in whose centre
stands the important prefectural city of Hanchung, has for its
southern frontier the crest of the Tapa-shan, which likewise
forms the water-parting between Shensi and Szechuan to the
south. A journey two hundred miles north of this range brings
us to the northern boundary of the province, the ' Wan-li-
cheng ' or ' Great Wall,' which cuts the province off from the
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 27
Ordos territory of Mongolia and the great bend of the Yellow-
River where this latter makes its excursion into the Mongolian
desert, and whence it returns to form the eastern boundary of
the province as it flows in a due south direction, having on
its left bank the neighbouring province of Shansi. Si-an, the
capital of the province, situated to the south of the Wei river in
a fertile plain at the foot of the lofty Tsing-ling, is famed, under
its ancient name of Chang-an, as having been the metropolis
of the empire under two dynasties. From B.C. 206 to a.d. 220,
Chang-an was the capital seat of the glorious dynasty of Han,
and once more, from a.d. 581 to 618, of the short-lived dynasty
of Sui. When, in a.d. 220, the dynasty of Wei succeeded in
North China to that of the Han, it made its seat in the more
ancient capital of the 'Chou' dynasty (B.C. 1122-249) inLo-yang,
sixty miles farther east and just across the Honan border. Upon
the destruction of the Han dynasty and their capital Si-an,
a surviving scion of the house, Liu-pei, escaped across the Tsing-
ling into Szechuan and there founded the contemporary dynasty
known as the ' Shu Han,' with his capital at Chengtu until,
after a lapse of forty-five years of anarchy, China was once more
united under one dynasty, the Chin. These latter restored the
capital to Lo-yang. Si-an, as we know, was made the capital
by the present Empress Dowager in the winter of 1 900-1, before
her return to Peking in the spring of the latter year : the city is
also noted as the site of the famous Nestorian tablet, an Im-
perial Edict according toleration to the Nestorian missionaries
as far back as a.d. 781 under the dynasty of Tang. The southern
region of Shensi — the smiling valley of the Han, with its chief
city Hanchung — was ravaged by the Taiping rebels during
their northward advance in 1857, but Si-an was saved by the
interposition of the rugged Tsing-ling, which the Taipings never
succeeded in crossing : living, as they did, on the countries they
ravaged, they were ever stopped in their marches when con-
fronted with unfertile mountains. Si-an is said to have been
first founded by Wu Wang, the v Martial Prince,' who overthrew
the vicious last ruler of the 'Chang' dynasty, B.C. 1122. Its
old name of Chang-an, or ' Continuous peace,' may be said to
have justified its existence from that time on until the destruc-
tion of the Han dynasty in a.d. 220. Of late years Shensi has
2H THE FAR EAST
been the scene of terrible Mahometan risings, a succession
of rebellions and their suppressions having devastated the
province, in the seventies, up to the walls of Si-an. These
walls saved Si-an, but in the siege the inhabitants were reduced
to selling human flesh in the streets, and recent travellers
describe the city as presenting scarcely a trace of its former
prosperity. So it is, alas ! with half the cities of China at the
present day. The climate of Shensi is dry and salubrious, and
milder and more equable than that of its neighbour, Shansi : the
fertile loess which covers the greater portion of its northern
area is entirely dependent on the rainfall for its fertility ; this
rainfall is very precarious, and of late Shensi has reaped a full
harvest only once in three years, although in ancient times it
was the reputed granary of the empire. The principal crops
are barley, millet, sorghum, and maize ; cotton, hemp, tobacco
(a mild quality much esteemed by smokers of the hubble-bubble
and exported to distant provinces), the ground-nut, and the
opium poppy are also largely cultivated : rice is not grown
north of the Tsing-ling range. Shensi being, after Kansu, the
province most difficult of access of any in the empire, its people,
as might be expected, are extremely ignorant and conservative,
while proud of their ancient traditions as the earliest known
seat and Ursftrung of Chinese culture and of the Chinese race
generally. The main interest of the region to-day is in its
unique example of sub-aerial loess, which has been so minutely
described in Richthofen's great work.
While the largely arid and thinly populated province of
Kansu — which, though containing an area of 260,000 square
miles with ninety-six counties grouped under twenty-one pre-
fectures, has only eight million of inhabitants — is little more to
the Chinese than a fortified road to the ' New Dominion,' as
their possessions in Eastern Turkestan are now styled ; and
Shensi, the next province going eastward, is, as we have seen,
a region of late years impoverished by famine ; we have in
Shansi, the third and next province on our list, a country more
ruggedly mountainous, though still interspersed with rich loess
valleys. On the northern edge of the richest and widest of these
loess valleys, and in the centre of the province, stands its famous
capital city, Taiyuen.
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 29
This province of Shansi, with its eleven million inhabitants
to 66,000 square miles of territory, may be said to be virtually
composed of the broken mountains, running south-west and
north-east, which form the buttresses of the Mongolian plateau
where it falls into the plain of Chihli, and from which, viewed
from the plain, they appear to rise abruptly as a wall fencing
in the metropolitan province from incursions of man and nature
on its north-west frontier. These mountains shelter the warm
plains of Chihli from the bitter north-west gales and provide
it with perennial irrigation by their streams. These north-west
gales are a feature throughout the northern and coast provinces
of China, bringing, as they do, the Central Asian climate with
its terrible extremes of heat and cold, for the time being — usuallv
a three days' spell — down to the Pacific. The wind is laden
with fine sand, which, in the strong spring gales, is carried far
out to sea, darkening the air and impeding navigation. I have
myself travelled in a steamer compelled by a storm of impalpable
dust to anchor in the Inland Sea of Japan, 500 miles distant
from the coast of China, as though fog-bound. This was in the
month of April. In winter these gales bring severe frosts as
far south as Shanghai, latitude 310, where, in an exceptionally
severe winter, I have seen the swift tidal Hwang-pu river frozen
out several yards from the shore. In the northern provinces the
rivers are frozen to a thickness of one to two feet, the ice
being full of sand, and this in latitude 390, concurrently with
warm sunshine : in summer these west winds blow equally
from a cloudless sky and produce a corresponding extreme of
heat. The fertile interior valleys of the province of Shansi
need only a regular rainfall to ensure the production of ample
crops : unfortunately the reckless deforestation of the once
thickly wooded mountains has sterilized the rich valleys ; the
rains fall, but are immediately carried off with an impetuous
rush to inundate the plains of Chihli in the summer monsoon
season, leaving behind dried-up water-courses during the
remainder of the year. But no recklessness of man has been
able to interfere with nature's gifts of mineral wealth to this fine
province. The coal and iron of Shansi are not only found side
by side as in the flourishing manufacturing regions of Britain
and North America, but their quality has been famous from
3°
THE FAR EAST
ancient times, and, although only worked by Chinese primitive
hand methods, the iron competes in price with the cheaply-
smelted, machine-forged ironware of the West, for which there
is here no market. Nothing but the want of roads and civilized
means of intercommunication prevents the development of the
mineral resources of Shansi, and competition in the world's
markets with the iron of Britain and America. Shansi is, in
short, a second Pennsvlvania ; its vast coal measures spread
Fig. 9. — Coal and Iron in China.
over twenty-five degrees of the meridian — from the western
deserts right across the province and thence round, in the ex-
tension of its mountains to the north of the Chihli plain, to the
sea-coast, and again rounding the Chihli Gulf into Manchuria.
These coal and iron strata are said to belong to the old carboni-
ferous formations ; the deposits are inexhaustible ; the coal-
seams reach as much as forty feet in thickness, and lie mostly
undisturbed and are easily worked, resting as they do on a
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 31
horizontal limestone foundation and at an altitude of some
three thousand feet above sea-level : hence the coal and iron
of Shansi are in a position to be forwarded for consumption in
the populous wood-bare plains to the south and east, and to the
coast for export, almost by means of their own gravity, as soon
as the needful railroads are constructed. The rivers, dry in
winter and torrents in summer, are, although utilized to their
utmost capacity by the all-patient Chinese boatmen, worthless
for heavy traffic. Shansi is drained north and south by the
classical Fen-ho, which empties into the Yellow River at a point
in its Great North Bend below the gorge of Lungmen — the
Dragon Gate — and about one hundred miles above the junction
of the latter river with the Wei : it traverses the great Taiyuen
loess-plain and washes the walls of the two important prefectural
cities of Fenchow and Pingyang. The mountains of Shansi
culminate in the famous range of the Wu-tai-shan, the 'Five
Peaks,' the oldest worshipped of the nine sacred mountains of
the empire : this range stands to the north of the capital,
Taiyuen-fu, and immediately to the south of the Great Wall of
China that protects the province, and farther east, Peking, on
its Mongolian border. Two other notable rivers in Shansi take
their rise in this range ; these are the Hu-to river and the Hun-
ho, which, after cutting their way down through the boundary
ridge of the ' western hills,' whose crest forms the dividing line
between Shansi and Chihli, and along which runs a two hundred
miles long inner and southern projection of the Great Wall —
a rampart erected specially to guard the fat Chihli plains from
incursions from the Shansi mountaineers — enter the sea at Taku.
After leaving the mountains, the Hu-to flows east past the im-
portant Chihli city of Chengting, whence it doubles back north
to fall into the Pei-ho, immediately above Tientsin. The Hun-
ho coming from the north-west has a longer course: it enters
the plain immediately west of Peking, and after traversing the
bridge — ' twenty-four arches, all of very fine marble, well built
and firmly founded ' (Marco Polo, ch. xxxv), and as I saw it
this year 1903 — also joins the Pei-ho (North river) just above
Tientsin. The inhabitants of Shansi are a sturdy mountain
folk, well liked by the Europeans settled among them ; but
their province obtained an evil notoriety in the great upheaval
33 THE FAR EAST
of 1900 by the terrible massacres of missionaries that took place
in its capital, although the initiative was due to reactionary
officials headed by an exceptionally brutal Manchu governor,
the notorious Yu-hien, who has since been executed under
foreign pressure. There is no doubt a strong fanaticism latent
in the people, due primarily to their ignorance of the out-
side world, but also to the strong militant Buddhist influence
in their midst, stimulated moreover by the existence of the
sacred Wu-tai mountain, whose soaring peaks, rising to a height
of 10,000 to 12,000 feet, attract crowds of pilgrims to their
shrines, rendered supremely holy by their being also the home
of a Gajen or living Buddha. The Buddhist monks feel them-
selves attacked in their main strongholds, and, while droughts
and famines are attributed to the neglect of their altars and to
the contumely cast upon their local protecting deities, the
people will not yield to Christianity without farther struggles,
the more so as they see the new converts — the Catholics more
especially — sheltered under the aegis of extra-territoriality, and
so often able to ride roughshod over their ' pagan ' neighbours
with impunity. However, Shansi, with its vast mineral re-
sources, is now destined to be the field of large ' foreign '
engineering enterprises, which, judiciously pursued, will have
a calming effect by affording profitable employment to numbers
of the impoverished population.
The province of Shansi ('west of the mountains'), with an
area of 66,000 square miles, little more than that of England
and Wales, possesses barely one-third of the population of the
latter. Though the soil of the loess-filled valleys which intersect
the mountain ranges that cover the greater portion of the
province is extremely rich in the constituents of vegetable
growth, and only needs a moderate rainfall to produce the
abundant crops of the latitude, chiefly barley, wheat, and millet,
with fruits of excellent quality such as persimmons, pears, dates,
and. grapes, yet a large portion of its area is high plateau,
desolated by Central Asian dust-storms, incapable of irrigation
and supporting a population ever on the verge of famine.
When rain does fall, it runs off the deforested slopes like water
off the roof of a house, in deep gullies which are dry again as
soon as the storm is over. The lower plateau of Shansi rises
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 33
from the plain of Honan on its northern border to a height of
3,000 feet, and is composed of the coal formation which underlies
the limestones of the precipitous hills that bound the plain, and
which has made the province famous. The Ho range divides
this plateau again from the Taiyuen plain and the valley of the
Fen : the rocks are here granitic and (so Richthofen tells us)
divide the coal measures, anthracite lying on its eastern side
and bituminous coal on the west. The high plateau north of
Taiyuen rises to 6,000 feet : both plateaux are covered with the
loess deposit and are furrowed by very deep gullies which have
facilitated the opening of adits, on the native method, into the
widely spread coal and iron deposits in the rocks below. A
curiosity of the province is a shallow lake in its south-eastern
corner, eighteen miles long by three broad, surrounded by a high
wall. It adjoins the town of Lungchuen, whose 80,000 inhabi-
tants derive their subsistence from it. The lake is salt nearly
to saturation, and its waters are evaporated under government
direction and form a valuable constituent in the takings of the
salt gabelle.
The next province, and the fourth on our list, is the metro-
politan province of Chihli, ' Direct Rule,' which is situated
immediately east of Shansi and between that province and the
sea. Chihli, barring the plainward slopes of the mountains
that hem it in on the west and north — and along the crest of
which the natural boundary of the province is marked out — is
a sandy plain, superficially alluvial, laid down in a shallow sea,
what time the waters of the Chihli Gulf extended inland to the
foot of the Shansi uplands. This onetime arm of the Yellow
Sea, that once covered the present plain and washed the feet of
the Shansi mountains, made an island of the highlands of
Shantung, until the surrounding gulf became gradually converted
into dry land by the detritus deposited in it by the streams
descending from the continental uplands in the west. The land
thus formed is now known as the great plain of Chihli, and is
chiefly famous from the building, near its northern limit, of the
celebrated metropolis of the Chinese Empire — Peking — the
' Northern Capital.' Peking city is a parallelogram of flat sandy
land, cut four-square to the points of the compass, enclosed by
high walls of brick, those surrounding the Tartar city being sixty
34 THE FAR EAST
feet in height and forty feet in thickness, the total enclosed
area measuring about five and a quarter miles north by south
by four miles east by west. The population, prior to the Boxer
destruction of 1900, was estimated at about 500,000 ; it is now
probably not half that number. Peking is a comparatively
modern capital, originally founded by the ' Liao ' rulers of
Manchuria and Northern Chihli in a.d. 920 and then called
Yen-ching. The ' Liao ' were ousted by the ' Kin ' Tartars or
' Golden Horde 'in 11 15, and these occupied the site of Peking
under the name of Chung-tu,the 'central capital,' from a.d. 1115
to 1234, the native Chinese dynasty of Sung having been mean-
while driven south, until they were compelled to accept the
river Yangtse for the northern limit of their empire. The
' Kin ' then gave place to the conquering Mongols, who made it
their capital under the name of Shun-tien-fu, the ' City obedient
to Heaven,' which name still exists in the official title of the
prefecture in which the modern city of Peking stands. Its
Mongol name, as Marco Polo tells us, was Kambalu (Khanbalig),
the ' City of the Khan ' — the great administrative ruler Kublai
Khan, ever memorable as the constructor of the Grand Canal.
On the driving out of the Mongols in 1341 the Ming made
Nanking their capital, until, summoned north by renewed
Tartar irruptions, in 1368 they removed to Peking, which has
remained the capital ever since, for a period of 535 years without
interruption. Peking, with its broad streets and vast open
spaces, presents a marked contrast to the cities of the south.
It is more Central Asian than Chinese in character : its unpaved
streets are thronged by files of the majestic double-humped
Mongolian camel bringing coal, wool, and other produce into the
city, while passenger locomotion is carried on in the springless
Peking mule-carts. Advantage was taken of the ' foreign '
occupation of the city in 1901 to bring the railways from Tientsin,
connecting with Siberia and Europe, and from Paoting-fu, con-
necting with South China, across the Chinese city and so up to
the walls of the hitherto sacred Tartar city, the necessary
breaches in the walls having been made without imperial con-
sent, but to the great boon of the population. To reach the old
stations outside the walls a journey through five miles of dust
in the dry, and of morass during the rainy season, was formerly
needed.
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 35
The wide plain of Chihli is formed principally of marine sands
and gravels mostly covered by alluvial detritus deposited by
the Hun-ho, the ' muddy river,' and numerous other small
rivers having their sources in the Shansi mountains and in the
ranges buttressing the high Mongolian plateau on the north.
The great Yellow River itself, whose northern arm formerly
entered the sea on the site of the present city of Tientsin, has
also contributed its share : detritus washed down from regions
a thousand miles and more to the west, and of which the fertile
loess, here relegated to the position of a sub-aqueous deposit, is
a main ingredient. This plain, which continues steadily to en-
croach upon the shallow Chihli Gulf, extends from the old Honan
city of Changteh in the south to Peking in the north, a distance
of 120 miles north by south and averaging sixty east and west,
and supports the dense population characteristic of lowlands
everywhere '. This population has overflowed the mountain
barrier that walls in the province of Chihli to the north, passed
the Great Wall and invaded Mongolia. The Tartar hordes that
kept China in a ferment during two millennia, and whose irrup-
tions necessitated the removal of the capital to the extreme
north, have ceased to trouble : their invasions are now returned
by swarms of peaceful agriculturists who are rapidly converting
the nomads' pastures into productive farm-lands. These agri-
cultural settlements now extend northwards beyond Kalgan
almost to the shores of the salt lake Dalai-nor, Kalgan itself
being an important trading depot situated on the crest of the
plateau, at the summit of the Nankou Pass, 4,000 feet above
the plain and about forty miles to the north of Peking. The
plain is subject to inundations, and a large part, especially to
the south and along the Shantung border, is traversed by a net-
work of shallow rivers with ill-defined banks, forming extensive
marshes and swamps. The rains in this region do not set in until
the late summer, as the south-west monsoon forces its way north.
It was owing to neglect of this phenomenon that the Taiping
1 Looking at a map one might imagine that the great plain of China —
from the Hangchow bay to the Mongolian border — is a homogeneous delta
product ; whereas the true alluvial deposit, commencing south of the old
embouchure of the Yangtse in the Hangchow bay, only extends north to the
border of the Shantung highlands, where the paddy-fields cease. North and
west of these is a recent marine basin, only thinly covered with fertile loam.
D 2
36 THE FAR EAST
rebels lost the result of their bold advance on the capital in 1856.
With true Chinese insouciance, after their long procession of
victories culminating in the capture of Nanking (the 'southern
capital') in 1854, they set out with 300,000 men from Nanking
in June, marched 300 miles across Kiangsu and Shantung
carrying all before them until, entangled in these unending
swamps, and depending as they did on the country for supplies,
and constantly harassed by the brave local militia of the north,
they were unable to extricate themselves from the maze of
marshes and streams, and so perished miserably. An ex-
ceptionally wet season once more came to the rescue of the long-
threatened effete Manchu dynasty. These floods often con-
tinue until the December frosts set in, and do not disappear
until the following dry spring season enables the husbandmen
to get in their crops. The soil, though light and powdery and,
in the long dry season, covered with saline incrustations and
watered from never-failing wells, is by no means unfertile, — even
the wide salt marshes that line the sea-coast being rendered
fairly productive by the aid of the manure which the dense
population produces for its needs. The population of Chihli is
generally estimated at 20,000,000, of which two-thirds are found
in one-third of the area, — the plain just described, and which
measures about 20,000 square miles. The remaining two-
thirds of the total area of 57,000 square miles comprises the
mountains to the west and north, and the cultivated portion of
Mongolia recently added to the official limits of the province.
The inhabitants of Chihli are the most robust in China, due
largely to the predominance of Tartar blood in their veins, in
their height and build contrasting strongly with the smaller-
limbed, more effeminate Chinese of the south. The inhabitants
dwelling to the north of the water-parting of the Yellow River and
Yangtse valleys doubtless owe their markedly superior physique
to their stimulating, cool climate, and their dry-grain diet of
millet-porridge and wheat. They are less quick-witted but, as
the Chinese say, more ' solid ' (in the sense of the German word).
In personal bravery they compare equally favourably, as was
shown in the righting of 1900. The testimony of many actors
in that drama goes to show that in physical courage the peasan-
try of Chihli could give points to some of the European troops
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 37
opposed to them. Notably was this shown to be the case in the
sanguinary contests for the possession of Tientsin in June of
that year. Had the Chinese leaders been as good in their
training as the men in theirs, the result would have been
reversed : as it was, the superior leading and organization of
its foreign defenders barely succeeded in saving the European
settlement at Tientsin from capture and extermination.
Tientsin was the key of the situation — as both sides felt — and
had it fallen nothing could have saved Peking at the time, nor
indeed the remainder of the foreign settlements scattered
throughout the empire. At the mouth of the Pei-ho, forty
miles below Tientsin, stands the hamlet of Taku, famous for
its forts which once succeeded
in repulsing a British fleet —
that of Admiral Hope in 1859 —
and which have since succumbed
to two attacks, those of the
Anglo-French expedition in i860
and of the fleets of eight allied
Powers in 1900. It is also
famous as the site of the first
interview held between Chinese
and British plenipotentiaries,
who met on this spot in the
year 1840.
The alluvial plain of Chihli
is now fast advancing upon the
shallow gulf named from it : the land now slopes so gradually
into the sea that it is difficult to define the shore-line. Vessels
bound up the Pei-ho to Tientsin have often to lie out as much
as five miles from the coast town of Taku at the mouth, while
waiting for a change of wind to allow more water to enter
the river. In the year 1900, when assembled for the relief of
Peking, the men-of-war and transports had to lie out in the
Chihli Gulf as far as nine miles off shore, the depth of water -it
this distance being only twenty-eight feet at low water ; and so
low is the land that it is invisible from the anchorage. The
Yellow River, which again discharges its muddy waters north of
the Shantung promontory instead of, as it did prior to 1854,
FlG. 10.— Changes in the course of
the Yellow River.
3<S THE FAR EAST
into the Yellow Sea, is now the main contributor to this rapid
silting up of the gulf. The climate of North China and of
Manchuria is healthy and temperate, not unlike that of Central
Europe, the mean temperature being about the same, although
the extremes of heat and cold are greater than any found in
Europe outside of Russia, and the air, except during the short
rainyseason, is markedly drier. But totheinhabitantsof thelofty,
wind-swept Mongolian plateau, the fertile and comparatively
sheltered plains of Chihli are a terrestrial paradise, and hence
the peaceful agricultural Chinese have been their constant prey:
the long annals of Chinese history recording one Tartar dynasty
after another seated on the 'Dragon Throne,' and ruling the
northern provinces— the ancient Chinese patrimony ; while one
dynasty, the Mongol, under Genghis and his successor Kublai,
ruled the whole empire. Subsequently, by their conversion to
Buddhism and under the influence of their Lama priesthood,
the wild Mongols and allied tribes have been tamed into willing
submission to the ' Son of Heaven,' — the divinely appointed
regent of the whole Far East ; and so the officina gentium is no
longer a Yellow Peril to China nor to the rest of the world. The
real ' Peril ' to the peace-loving industrious Chinese race hails
from farther north. The Chihli plain, like all other unirrigatcd
land, is dependent upon timely rainfall for its fertility : when
this fails, as occasionally happens, the loess or loam, of which
a layer of varying thickness covers the upper or more inland
portions of the plain (the underlying stratum being an
unfertile marine gravel to which the consequently rough, stony
roads have cut down), is blown by the winds in thick clouds
of dust to great distances, and, with dust and sand from
farther west, makes the famous dust-storms of Peking. But
the cause of these persistent dry westerly gales which bring
the dust-storms is difficult to detect. The meteorology of
Eastern Asia is not yet observed as it some day will be,
and still less properly understood. We can understand that
the heated deserts of Central Asia in summer lead to an
immense ascending column of hot air, and so to an inrush
of colder air from the surrounding seas, causing the pheno-
menon of the south-west monsoon — and that a reverse process
in winter leads to the north-east monsoon in the China Sea —
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 39
veering to a north-west monsoon in the Yellow Sea farther
north ; but how to account for the steady westerly gales that
(as in 1900 and in 1903) often prevail day and night, with
but a day or two's interruption at intervals, throughout the
months of March, April, May, and on into June ? The result of
these long-persistent, hot, dry land-winds is not only to render
Peking almost uninhabitable at that season with any comfort,
but so to parch up the country that a view across the western
hills over brown burnt-up grass and the dry parched plain
is one of mid-winter, and, but for the heat, it is hard to realize
that the month is June. On such occasions it is pitiful to
see the winter wheat only sprouting above the ground to
wither and die, and the country people walking round their
fields with bunches of the parched stalks held in their hands
above their heads for Heaven to witness and relent. Spring does
not then begin really before July, when the rains set in and
enable the peasants to plough the land for an autumn crop
of millet, a quick-growing cereal whose prolific yield makes
amends for the loss of the wheat.
The fifth province in the northern region is Honan, literally
' south of the river ' — the river of the old Chinese — the Yellow
River. Honan has an area of 67,000 square miles and is credited
with a population of 22,000,000. In the west, the province is
mountainous and so sparsely populated. The mountains com-
prise the eastern extension of the Tsing-ling, which runs east
and west to the south of Si-an, the capital of Shensi, and is
prolonged through the western half of Honan, when it loses
itself beneath the alluvial eastern expansion of the province,
after having given rise to two of the ' Three rivers ' (the San
Kiang of ancient China) — the Lo and the Hwai, the third
being the Yellow River itself, which traverses the province east
and west, before bending north-east to flow through Shantung
to the sea. Immediately above this point and south of the river
stands the capital, Kaifeng. The ' Lo ' falls into the Yellow
River not far below the city of Honan-fu, whose southern
walls it washes. The 'Hwai,' after traversing the province of
Nganhui to the east, discharges into the 'Red Lake' in Kiangsu
and is lost amongst the network of canals and lagoons that cover
the central portion of this province, ultimately draining into
4o THE FAR EAST
the Yangtse through the Grand Canal and other semi-artificial
channels to the east of Chinkiang. The western limit of Honan
is coterminous with that of Shansi, where the Yellow River
makes its great rectangular bend from south to east, and so,
leaving Shansi on its left bank, traverses the Honan plain, — its
upper course forming the boundary between Shansi and Shensi
in the west. It is at this point that stands the ancient fortress
of Tung-kwan, the ' eastern barrier ' at the gorge where the
Yellow River, after its great sweep to the north, unites with the
Wei from the west. It was not till this strong natural barrier
had been left behind that, in 1900, the Empress Dowager felt
herself safe in her flight from Peking, when she took up her
residence in Si-an, the ancient capital of Shensi, fifty miles
farther west. The eastern border of Honan abuts on four
provinces — Chihli, Shantung, Kiangsu, and Nganhui : the boun-
dary appears to-day an arbitrary one, but it was probably
dictated in ancient times by water-courses and impassable
swamps that have since altered their position. The southern
boundary is formed by the crest of the Hwai range, which shuts
it off from the Yangtse province of Hupeh. This range is now
traversed by the new Hankow-Peking railway, the Pe-han
as it is now called, and which crosses the Yellow River at
Kaifeng-fu, the capital. Kaifeng, under the name of Pien-liang,
was made the capital by the Liu-Sung dynasty, which ascended
the Dragon Throne in a.d. 420. The city, which once stood on
the left bank, now lies twenty miles to the south of the river and
some twenty feet below its level. Constant embanking (to the
neglect of the maxim enunciated in Szechuan by the ' Lord of
waters ' and there religiously obeyed), without dredging or
digging out the bottom, has resulted in raising the bed of the
river far above the level of the plain it flows through. Travelling
on the plain advancing to meet it, no one would anticipate
a river in the distance, — rather it looks like a lofty railway
embankment, and the traveller has to climb up a steep ascent
to reach the ferry-boat on the top. Hence a breach in the em-
bankments, such as occurs at frequent intervals, means the
flooding of the plain and the destruction of crops throughout
a vast extent of country, attended with great loss of life. Al-
though the Chinese show marvellous cleverness in closing such
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 41
breaches with no better material than mud and millet-stalks,
yet they cannot prevent sufficient time elapsing meanwhile to
suffer an escape of water which floods the land for hundreds of
miles round, and sometimes takes years to drain off. At the
time of the Manchu invasion in 1644 the embankment was pur-
posely cut through by the Chinese defending Kaifeng in the
interest of the Mings, when 300,000 of its inhabitants are said
to have perished : an heroic measure which was, however,
unsuccessful in arresting the southern progress of the victorious
Manchu. In Kaifeng is still to be found the remnant of the
colony of Jewish merchants established here, under characteristic
Chinese toleration, in the early years of the Sung, nine hundred
years ago. The ancient capital of China, from the commence-
ment of the historic period, say B.C. 781, stood in this province,
but in its mountainous western portion, close to the Shensi
border. This ancient capital, known as Lo-yang, was situated
150 miles to the west of the present capital, near the source of
the river Lo 1. In feudal times, all this region formed part of
the Imperial domain of the ' Chow,' the feudal overlords of
a congeries of semi-independent States, whose internecine
struggles were brought to an end B.C. 221 by Cheng, Prince of
Tsin, the famous ' First Emperor,' the builder of the Great Wall
and destroyer of books, well styled the ' Napoleon of China.'
The founder of the Han dynasty, who succeeded in ousting the
' First Emperor's ' feeble successor from the throne twenty years
later, removed the capital to Chang-an, the modern Si-an, in
Shensi. Chang-an remained the capital for 230 years, through-
out the reigns of the Western Han, until a.d. 25, upon the acces-
1 Lo-yang is also of interest as the site of the first recorded introduction
of Buddhism into China. Although Sakiamouni taught in India in the
seventh century B.C., yet it was not till about the date of the Christian era
that his doctrines appear to have been heard of in China. Chinese historians
tell us that it was due to a dream of the ' Han' emperor, Mingti, that in
A.D. 65 envoys were sent to the Isles of the West (Ceylon ?), whence they
returned to Lo-yang a.d. 67, bringing with them an image of the great
founder, whereupon the doctrine of Sakiamouni was officially accepted in
China; but it was not until A.D. 399 that the celebrated monk, Fa-hien,
set out for India, whence he returned fifteen years later with copies of the
sacred books, but China was then in too distracted a state to profit by them,
it being then in the throes of establishing a new dynasty ( the Sung) ; again,
during the flourishing Tang dynasty, the monk Haiian-tsang made a similar
journey, a.d. 628-645.
42 THE FAR EAST
sion of the hence-called ' Eastern Han ' dynasty, Lo-yang was
restored to its old pre-eminence, and remained the capital of
all China until the fall of the Han, a.d. 220. Lo-yang was once
again the capital during the ' Eastern Tsin ' dynasty, a.d. 317
to 419 : and lastly, during the period of the famous Tang
dynasty — whose glories lead the Cantonese to this day to style
themselves ' men of Tang,' while in North and in Central China
the inhabitants style themselves ' men of Han.' This period,
a.d. 618 to 907, closed by the accession of the Sung to power
and the establishment of their new capital 150 miles farther east
at Pien-liang — now known as Kaifeng-fu (a.d. 960-1126). Since
this date Lo-yang has so declined in importance that its site
has disappeared from the map and is only known to students.
Though its birthplace was farther west (probably in the neigh-
bourhood of the present province of Shensi), Honan may be well
considered the nursery of Chinese culture and civilization.
Lying mostly to the south of the thirty-fifth parallel, the climate
is warmer and more temperate than that of the provinces of
Shensi and Shansi to the west and north, being protected from
the bitter north-west gales of winter by the Tai-hang range, on
the borders of Shansi, on the north, and by the lofty Tsing-ling
range of Shensi on the west. Honan produces large quantities
of cotton and hemp, as well as the cereals common to the
latitude. It was this province that gave rise to the old de-
nomination of China as the Chung-hua-ti or ' Central Flowery
Land,' now shortened into Chung-ti or Chung-kwoh, the ' Middle
Kingdom.' As Dr. Wells Williams has told us, in his invaluable
work, The Middle Kingdom : ' The earliest records of the Black-
haired race refer to this region, and the struggles for dominion
among feudal and imperial armies occurred in its plains.' Its
mineral resources are known to be of great extent ; the huge
deposits of coal and iron that characterize the neighbouring
province of Shansi extend unbroken across the Honan border,
but, as elsewhere in China, have long lain undeveloped, the
absence of roads of communication restricting the output to the
needs of the limited local consumption : for the Yellow River,
which borders that province on two sides, is practically un-
navigable ; its shallow waters spread out over a wide bed, and
flow with a rapid current to the sea. Central and Southern
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 43
China, equally deficient in made roads — ' dry ways,' as the
Chinese call them — have their compensation in a magnificent
network of deep navigable rivers and canals : but Honan still
depends for the circulation of its produce largely upon man-
power wheel-barrows driven over unmetalled roads which in
wet weather are practically impassable. Now, at last, however,
a British company, the ' Peking Syndicate,' have obtained a
concession to develop its minerals, and are (1903) building a
railway with the view of connecting the mineral regions of the
north and west with the Hankow-Peking trunk line which
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traverses the east of the province. Geographically and his-
torically a northern province, the boundaries of Honan dip far
to the south (lat. 31° 30'), thus embracing the northern portion
of the valley of the Hwai, a river which has its sources in the
northern slope of the Fu-niu-shan, the steep range that divides
Honan from Hupeh, and which may be considered as the eastern
terminus of the great Kwenlun chain of mountains, prolonged
from Northern Tibet across China proper. It was doubtless
with the view of obtaining as a frontier a mountain crest —
that true scientific frontier that prevails throughout the empire,
44
THE FAR EAST
down to the divisions of the 1,300 counties of China proper
(and even in the boundaries of private properties), the nearest
water-parting — that the bounds of Honan were pushed, in early
days, as far south as we find them. This nearest water-parting
was first met with in the mountains of the Hwai.
The last of the six provinces on our list — which in themselves
Fig. 12.— North China. Orographical.
comprise North China, and which may be taken as identical
with old China — is Shantung (' east of the mountains'), the home
of ancient Chinese philosophy and its revered expounder Con-
fucius. Jutting out into the Eastern Sea in a high mountain
promontory, the province of Shantung is, with the exception of
the flat land, through which flows the Yellow River along its
north-western border, formed of an involved nexus of granitic
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 45
mountains totally disconnected with the great ranges of the rest
of China, from which it stands separated by the great plain of
Northern Shantung and the valley through which the ' Grain
Canal ' (Grand Canal) has been cut. The promontory of Shantung
stands out as a big mountainous island from the plain which
separates it from the mountains of Shansi, and which left it
Scale of Miles
Fig. 13.— North China. Political.
a true island, what time the plain was not yet deposited and an
arm of the Yellow Sea flowed round behind and so cut it off
from the main continent and what is now the highland of Shansi.
Indeed, Shantung is more immediately connected with the
opposite shores of Corea and Liaotung, the chain of the Miao
islands forming the bridge. This bridge of islets running north
and south from the city of Tengchow in North Shantung to
46 THE FAR EAST
opposite Port Arthur, situated at the southernmost point of the
Liaotung peninsula, divides off the enclosed Chihli Gulf from the
open Yellow Sea to the east and is about sixty miles in length.
From Corean territory the Shantung promontory is distant
ioo miles across the bay of Corea, so called, which the pro-
montory bounds on the south, thus dividing the Corea bay
from the Yellow Sea which washes its southern shore.
This noted promontory forms a barrier right in the way of
steamer traffic between the important marts of Shanghai and
Tientsin, and its precipitous shores, being frequently enwrapped
in fog, have been the scene of many naval disasters, one of the
most noted being that of the German gunboat litis in July, 1896,
with a loss of seventy-seven lives. Near the eastern extremity,
and on the Corea bay side, is the port and quondam fortress of
Wei-hai-wei, which after its capture by the Japanese in 1895 was
finally leased by China to Great Britain in 1899 and is now used as
a northern anchorage and sanatorium, and no longer as a forti-
fied naval base. On the opposite shore of the promontory, in
its southern elbow as it were, facing the Yellow Sea, is the fine
bay of Kiaochow, seized by the Germans in 1897, and now by
them being vigorously developed into a great trading port and
railway terminus. Midway in the neck of the peninsula, where
an eastern fork of the delta land of the Yellow River abuts upon
the Lai mountains which go to form the well-known Shantung
promontory, stands the city of Laichow. This city is situated
on the shores of a bight of the Chihli Gulf, at the point of the
southernmost extension of the latter, and so on the northern
coast, almost directly north of Kiaochow, situated on an ana-
logous bight of the Yellow Sea on the south coast, — the depression
here crossing the peninsula, and through which flows the Kiao-
chow river, being about sixty miles in length. To the east of
Laichow the mountains are composed of Archaean schists, gneiss
and crystalline limestones of probably Laurentian age : and to
the west of horizontal limestones rising into coal measures near
Wei-hien in the prefecture of Tsingchow, whence, by the new
railway, a German company now supplies Tsingtao with coal.
West of these the limestones terminate in a great fault, by which
they are separated from the granitic and gneissose nexus of the
Tai-shan and the mountains of the Shih-men (Stone Gate) range,
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 47
which together compose the mountainous region of Western
Shantung, and which, farther west, subside again into the level
valley of the Yellow River.
The total area of Shantung is 57,800 square miles, feeding
a population of some 25,000,000 souls : the mountainous eastern
half of the province is dry and comparatively barren, and the
population is poor, and so emigrates in large numbers to the more
fertile plains of Chihli and Manchuria, this latter country being
now largely populated by immigrants from Shantung and their
descendants : the western part of the province includes the
great plain traversed by the Yellow River, which here flows in
a direction south-west and north-east, and the Grand Canal, or
the 'Imperial River' (Ue-ho, as it is called in Chinese), crossing
the former at right angles. The canal is dug for one hundred
and fifty miles within the boundaries of the province in a direc-
tion north-west by south-east. The wide alluvial area through
which it runs, and which is prolonged uninterruptedly into the
Chihli plains, is extremely productive and supports numerous
cities and marts, among the former being the capital of the
province, Tsi-nan-fu. This city stands on the right bank of the
Yellow River, four miles south of the actual channel, and is
approachable within a short distance by small flat-bottomed
steamers; it is built at the edge of the extreme northern
slope of the famous Tai-shan, an isolated range of lofty peaks
distant a day's journey to the south : but the city through
which the Tai-shan is approached is Tai-an-fu, built at the foot
of the mountain on its south side. This Tai-shan, a northern
outlying range of the mountain mass that fills the western por-
tion of the province, is the oldest sacred mountain of which
Chinese history makes mention : the mention occurs in the
Shu-king, or ' Book of History,' where sacrifice to and worship of
Shang-ti, i.e. God (or [?] Supreme Gods ; cf. Dii supcri of the
Romans), is recorded as having been offered by the emperor
Chun, B.C. 2255, on the Tai-shan. The ' Book of History,' the
earliest of the nine canonical books of China and believed to
have been edited by Confucius himself, professes to go back to
the mythical Golden Age of Yao and Chun, and to record the
principal events from B.C. 2375 to 627. At this day the preci-
pitous peaks of the range are covered with temples and monas-
4H THE FAR EAST
teries which are the goal of thousands of pilgrims in the spring
season : the peaks rise to 5,000 feet and stand out prominently
from the neighbouring mountains. Shantung is farther pre-
eminently famous for containing within its borders the grave
of the ' Perfect Sage ' — Confucius — and the home of his succes-
sors, Dukes Kung, who are still living on the same spot, now
for seventy-six generations — the oldest pedigree in existence :
the birthplace and tomb of Mencius, the second sage, are also in
this province. But to European residents in China the province
is chiefly notable as containing the Treaty Port of Chefoo,
situated on the northern shore of the promontory : the main
' foreign ' trade of the province still centres in Chefoo, and consists
chiefly in the export of straw-braid and pongees, the latter
a strong useful silk stuff woven from the cocoons of the wild
silkworm that feeds on oak-leaves. Chefoo is connected with
the interior of the province by rough mountain-paths over
which pack-mules convey the inland produce to the port ; and
it is only to be expected that the new German port of Tsingtao
to the south of the promontory, now happily freed from Chinese
obstruction, and one day nearer Shanghai by steam, will ulti-
mately divert to itself the trade that now has Chefoo for its
outlet. Tsingtao is nearer the consuming districts, besides being
the terminus of the new railway traversing the province. If
Chefoo is not to succumb entirely it must cease to ' stand on its
ancient ways,' and promptly form railroad connexions of its own.
So much interest now centres in Tsingtao, and so little is known
about the actual state of things there, that we venture to add an
account written by us after a visit to the port this summer
(1903), a translation of which was published in the principal
German newspapers.
Tsingtao lies 300 miles north of Shanghai and is a thirty-six
hours' run for the steamers that now perform the service. The
complete change of soil and climate experienced in this short
interval is very striking ; the rich alluvial plain of the Yangtse
delta is left behind, until its northern boundary is reached in the
arid granite mountains of Shantung. Into these the wide bay
of Kiaochow gives an opening, and at the eastern extremity of
the bay is situated the whilom fishing village of Tsingtao, now,
since 1898, the proud metropolis of Deutsch-China.
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 49
The impression made upon the writer upon approaching
Tsingtao for the first time, was that of a collection of toy houses
set down on a shore of glittering yellow sand : so clean and new,
of red brick and white plaster, and scattered over a considerable
area without any apparent plan, seen from a distance the innu-
merable isolated buildings fail to convey the common idea of
a town with regular streets of continuous houses. Towers at
the corners of buildings with red and white cupolas complete
the illusion, and the lack of traffic in the wide well-kept streets
confirms the idea of a model town capriciously erected at the wave
of a magician's wand rather than that of an ordinary city whose
growth has adapted itself naturally to the wants of its inhabi-
tants. Such is the impression on approach ; on landing at the
fine jetty run out into the sea, one realizes that the bright new
buildings are really inhabited, although, from the deserted air
of the streets, the inhabitants would appear to be mostly indoors.
A main cause of this apparent absence of population is the lack
of Chinese residents such as swarm in our Treaty Ports and give
life to our settlements, while in Tsingtao the Chinese coolie is
relegated to a special quarter a couple of miles inland, and only
invades the new German city when work or business calls him
there. For German official ' thoroughness ' is exhibited at
every step in their new possession, and having planned a town
for Europeans they have been careful to maintain the town
purely European by expropriating the original Chinese inhabi-
tants in a most thorough fashion.
Thus the original villages on the site of the new town have
all been pulled down, their ruins being still visible in many
places, the owners having been paid a fair money compensation
besides having new ground allotted to them at a distance, in
which roads and drains have been built at the government
expense and in which sanitary rules are strictly enforced, much
to the disgust, if not to the benefit, of the Chinese ; certainly
the benefit to European residents is indisputable, and one can
but regret that similar enlightened measures were not originally
adopted in Shanghai and Hongkong, and still more markedly
in the neighbouring port and should-be sanatorium of Chefoo, in
which cities the interests of landowners, largely absentee, and land
speculators have been allowed to set aside those of the general
public, whose health and comfort have been sadly impaired
by their being compelled to live amidst a dense Chinese popu-
lation, brought around them by their own activities. A paternal
government that, unlike our own municipalities, has no land-
owning interests to serve, is thus not without its advantages,
FAR EAST
5© THE FAR EAST
however much it is the fashion to decry, if not to despise,
German officialdom — which appears at its best in Tsingtao — at
least if we may judge by outside results to-day. ... As a harbour
Tsingtao has the drawback of being open to easterly winds, and,
when these prevail in strength, vessels may lie for days without
being able to discharge their cargoes, owing to the heavy sea
that then rolls into the bay: but this defect is being energetically
remedied by the construction of a large inner artificial harbour,
a short distance higher up the bay and round and behind a pro-
jecting rocky point, in which vessels will lie alongside wharves
and godowns as in a dock at home, and whence the railway
will convey their cargoes direct into the interior of the province.
This railway is destined to connect with the ' Lu-han,' across
the Grand Canal, and so with the interior of China generally.
A similar harbour on a small scale has already been constructed
under the shelter of this point for junks and cargo-boats.
Dredging is being carried on vigorously, a peculiarity of the
Kiaochow bay being that, large as its area is, it is being ever
choked with sand which the short-lived but heavy summer rains
wash down in impetuous torrents from the steep mountains of
friable granite which surround it on all sides : to the mighty work
of these torrential rains are due the jagged picturesque outlines
of the hills, renamed litis Gebirge, Prinz Heinrich Gebirge, and
others, which add so greatly to the beauty of the site. Well-
made macadam roads now lead up and over the former range
and are being constructed in the direction of the latter. These,
with the easier graded roads leading into the more level interior,
together with the bright bracing atmosphere, form a great
attraction to the cyclist. . . .
But of all the many works undertaken by the German admi-
nistration during the four short years of the occupation, the
attempt to re-afforest the barren mountains of Shantung is likely
to prove of the greatest benefit to the Chinese ; if only they
were capable of profiting by the example set them ! Dwarf pines,
rarely over three feet in height and spreading laterally for want
of shelter from the gales, already cover the hills in the less
exposed spots ; their low growth is due to the Chinese habit of
annually docking the tops for fuel. It remains to be seen how
far the forestry department will succeed in acclimatizing a true
forest growth on these bare slopes. Of course, when the forest
is once there it will in time furnish its own soil, but immense
care and toil is required to make the start. It is interesting to
notice that so far the old indigenous growth, planted by nature,
has decidedly the best of it, especially now that it is religiously
THE NORTHERN BASIN. THE YELLOW RIVER 51
protected from the rapacious fuel collector. We have ourselves
seen, in other parts of China, promising plantations utterly
destroyed by that all-pervading pest, the small boy, and small
girl too, sent out from home in the morning, to collect, by hook
or by crook, a load of brushwood before evening. It is worth
a journey to Tsingtao for a China resident. to enjoy the sight of
trees — small though they be — growing on the hillside unmo-
lested. The administration is very strict ; signboards with
the word ' Schonung ' surmounted by a black eagle abound.
The new trees -oaks, acacia, horse-chestnut, sterculia, crypto-
meria, paulownia, and others that we saw — were only a few
inches above the soil, and so at present make no show amidst
their ancient predecessors on the ground ; but the start has been
made, millions of young trees have been sown and planted, and
in a few years' time the result will be seen, and youngsters yet
in Shanghai may live to see another Bournemouth in China,
where now is nothing but yellow clay, intercepted by ravines —
the beds of now dry water-courses.
A marked feature in the great work now proceeding at Tsing-
tao is the regulating of these water-courses, with a view of holding
back the water and distributing it more evenly over the ground.
With this object a succession of barriers has been carefully built
athwart the course of each torrent from its source to the sea,
beginning with an unsubstantial row of small stones high up
near the source, and ending with solid dams of masonry as the
streams gain in volume and approach the sea. Behind these,
ponds are collected which serve for irrigation, natural and arti-
ficial. It is a most interesting experiment and, based as it is
upon experience gained under similar conditions in other parts
of the world, should prove successful ; in which case it will be
an invaluable object lesson to this empire of floods and drought.
The occupation of Kiaochow seems to us justified by this work
alone, even if it fail to serve the purpose (and there is no reason
to expect it will fail) of promoting trade generally, and of en-
riching the impoverished province of Shantung in particular.
Great expectations were founded upon the connexion of the
Wei-hien coal-fields with the new port, but so far these have
hardly been realized. The reasons given to the writer were :
first, that the German mining company find it more profitable
to sell their coal locally ; second, that the railway has few
coal-trucks : time will doubtless correct both these causes of
short supply in Tsingtao. The quality of the coal too, as
everywhere in Eastern China, is poor — friable, peaty, and
very smoky. The revenue of the colony, drawn from local
E 2
.52 THE FAR EAST
taxation, reached last year a total of half a million marks, the
product of land sales (to bona fide settlers only, who are com-
pelled, subject to forfeiture, to occupy within a limited time)
forming one-third of the amount. The subvention granted by
the Home Government for public works for the year 1903 is
roundly one million dollars. It were to be hoped that our own
government in the neighbouring Crown colony of Wei-hai-wei,
which is naturally a still more favoured site than is Tsingtaj,
would take a lesson from the Germans and there, too, cover up
the nakedness of the hills, as has been so successfully done in
Hongkong.
At Tsingtao great results have been achieved in a short time,
and the good taste and practical sense in making ample pro-
vision for future growth, a need generally lost sight of in British
Crown colonies, must strike every visitor to the place. The
architecture of the public buildings is of a high order and agree-
ably varied ; it ranges from antique Gothic to the newest
Renaissance. As the vacant spaces fill up, and trade and popu-
lation develop, Tsingtao should become one of the handsomest
cities in the East, and may, as its sanguine residents fondly hope,
and as their energy merits it should, yet become the Hongkong
of the north.
We thus complete our survey of the northernmost of the three
natural divisions of China proper, and now quit the watershed
of the Yellow River for that of its mighty rival, the Yangtse.
This stream, which flows in a parallel course south of the dividing
mountain crests, and whose watershed determines the vaster
area of the Yangtse Valley, forms the subject of the chapter that
follows.
CHAPTER IV
THE MIDDLE BASIN I PART I. THE YANGTSE RIVER
This middle basin of the Central Kingdom — China — is cor-
rectly defined in the words of a dispatch penned by Sir Claude
Macdonald to the Chinese Foreign Office on February 19,
1898, as 'The Yangtse region' and the 'provinces adjoining
the Yangtse.' A more exact definition is the ' Yangtse basin,' as
is the definition of the northern basin we have just described —
the ' Basin of the Yellow River.' The boundaries of the Yangtse
basin are the crests of the water-partings that surround the
catchment area, which area, in order to confine ourselves to
the Middle Kingdom proper — the 'eighteen provinces,' — we bring
to an end in the west at the political frontier of Tibet, cutting
out from our purview that upper part of the basin that lies along
the higher courses of the Yangtse across the frontier. This
limit, as given in modern Chinese maps, in no way corresponds
with the geographical limit, the province of Szechuan ; which
the older maps marked as bounded on its western border by the
Tatung river, and which is the true physiographical and ethno-
graphical limit, the boundary being now made to embrace a
large slice of the Tibetan plateau up to and beyond Batang :
much as Yunnan, since the suppression of the Mahometan
rebellion in 1875, is now made to include Atuntse and the
country west of Tengyueh, nearly up to the walls of Bhamo.
While the northern basin is of the greatest historical interest,
as the early home of the Chinese race and the seat of their
ancient literary activity in its classical period, yet the middle
basin holds the chief modern interest as the richer commercially
and the seat of the endless roll of produce derived from a fertile,
richly watered, sub-tropical region, rendered accessible to out-
side commerce by the finest of the world's great rivers — the
Yangtse. The valley of the great Yangtse, with its tributaries,
is to China what the valley of the Mississippi and Missouri
34 THE FAR EAST
rivers is to North America, or the valley of the Amazon to
South America. In each case it is the heart of a continent as
represented by the valley of its greatest river. In the case of
China, this heart comprises an area of 600,000 square miles in-
habited by 180,000,000 people, and embraces the six large
provinces of Szechuan, Hupeh, Hunan, Kiangsi, Nganhui, and
Kiangsu, besides the northern drainage area of the southern
provinces of Yunnan and Kweichow, — a region extending
roughly between the twenty-sixth and thirty-second parallels of
north latitude and between the ninety-eighth and one hundred
and eighteenth meridians of east longitude.
The striking effect of geographical conditions in the develop-
ment of a people is shown in the long confinement of the Chinese
race to the region north of the Tsing-ling mountains, — the range
that forms the water-parting between the basins of the Yellow
River and the Yangtse. It seems idle to speculate on the
primary origin of the Chinese race, but this we do know, namely,
that they remained stationary during a period of about three
thousand years (say, B.C. 2852 to 202) in this region, cultivating
the fertile bottom lands of the Wei and Yellow rivers and the
open loess country of Shensi, from whose yellow soil the old name
of ' Yellow Emperor ' — Hwangti — is supposed to be derived.
The loess prairie lay open ready for the plough, while to the south
were lofty mountains covered with impenetrable forest, with
which also the whole Yangtse basin was at that period equally
filled up. It was the continually increasing pressure of Tartar
incursions from the north that probably drove the Chinese to
seek more peaceful homes in the south, and gradually to clear
away the forests that covered the country. Although Chinese
history records fighting with the savages who then occupied
the region, we hear of no long continuous struggles like those
carried on almost uninterruptedly with their northern neigh-
bours. The Chinese were so harassed by these savage irruptions
from Mongolia that they underwent the enormous labour of
building a series of walls and fortresses along their northern
frontiers, culminating in the Great Wall, itself built about 200
B.C., to keep them out. And they were so frequently conquered
in these struggles that they had to submit to a succession of
Tartar dynasties (as now to that of the Manchus) in North
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART I 5.5
China, until finally the Mongol dynasty under Kublai ruled the
whole empire, north and south ; the Mongols were driven out
by the Mings in a.d. 1368, whereby an interregnum of Chinese
rule, lasting 276 years, succeeded until the final conquest of
China by the Manchu Tartars was completed in a.d. 1644. The
more manly Tartar element infused into the blood of the inhabi-
tants of North China is shown in the superior physique and
bearing of the northerners as compared with the effeminate,
more purely Chinese inhabitants of the Yangtse region. The
Tartars throughout appear to have fused with the Chinese, and
to have ultimately adopted their civilization with all its features,
good and bad ; then each hardy tribe, one after another, has
succumbed to Chinese luxury, become effete, and so has had to
submit to be driven out by more vigorous successors, until
these in their turn ultimately go the same road. In the present
Manchu dynasty we see, thus, how the splendid early emperors,
men of active habits who made royal progresses through their
magnificent acquisition and saw things with their own eyes, have
been succeeded by palace debauchees content to leave the
government in the hands of corrupt favourites. The reigning
Empress Dowager would seem to have incarnated the vigour of
her ancestors of the seventeenth century, but she has fallen upon
troubled times and lacks the knowledge and education necessary
to cope with them.
The southern aborigines of the Yangtse basin in its western
portion seem to have been driven back with little serious oppo-
sition into the mountains of the Tibetan border, much as the
Saxons drove the ancient Britons to take refuge in the Welsh
mountains : in the eastern portion of the basin the Chinese
appear to have intermarried with the natives who were less bar-
barous than those of the west : but this is only conjecture
founded upon the appearance of the present inhabitants of the
region. But the truth is that, taken generally, the inhabitants
of the China of to-day are a wonderfully homogeneous race, quite
as much so as are the inhabitants of modern Europe ; their
habits, customs, manners and deportment being absolutely
identical throughout the ' eighteen provinces.' This evidence of
close intermixture is astonishing when one notes the wretchedly
primitive means of intercommunication in parts where water-
56 THE FAR EAST
carriage is unavailable ; it must be attributed to the indefati-
gable energy of the travelling merchants, who are found daily
on all the roads, 'wet' and 'dry,' throughout the empire, and to
the constant interchange of swarms of officials, due to the law
that precludes an official from serving in his native province, and
to the custom of removing an official from his post after a term
of three years or less of service. Orders, only possible under a
despotic government and with a submissive people, to change
their costume to that of their rulers and (notably in Yunnan and
Szechuan) to adopt the language of the Court have also been
effective in producing this homogeneity, such as the inhabitants
of Hindustan, for example, have never attained to, and such as
Europe is still striving for to-day1.
Before we proceed to describe the six separate provinces
which we have taken to compose the Yangtse basin, or, as we
have entitled our chapter, the ' Middle Basin,' it will be well to
fix in the mind the position and character of the great river itself
which forms the axis of the region, and I do not think this can be
better done than by quoting here my sketch of the subject as
printed in the twelfth chapter of my work Through the Yangtse
Gorges : —
The Yangtse river, which is known to the Chinese as the
' Kiang,' i.e. ' The River,' par excellence, in contradistinction
to the Yellow River, which is called the ' Ho ' far excellence
(compare German Strom and Fluss), has a course of about 3,000
miles in length. It is unknown to the Chinese as the Yangtse,
which means the river of Yangchow (opposite Chinkiang), an old
district and town of Kiangsu situated nearer the then mouth
than it now is, although this term has been unearthed in some
ancient topographical work. In their maps and in converse
the Chinese call it the Chang-kiang, or ' Long River,' up to the
Tungting Lake ; the Chuan-ho, or ' Szechuan River,' between
Ichang and Sui-fu ; and the Kin-sha-kiang, or ' Gold-sand River,'
1 A main and beneficent factor in bringing about the homogeneity of the
inhabitants of China has been their ideographic writing. For, whereas the
phonetic writing of Europe has led to the differentiation of dialects derived
from one original tongue (notably of the Latin ; cf. Italian, French, Spanish,
Portuguese, Roumanian, &c.) becoming crystallized into distinct languages,
the ideographic writing of the Chinese has arrested such differentiation
and led to the innumerable dialects of China becoming welded into one
language universally intelligible.
THE MIDDLE BASIN : PART I 57
above that point. The style ' Yangtse ' does well enough,
however, and is now generally accepted, and is in any case a
better term than the French ' Fleuve bleu,' by which I can
only imagine the early Fathers desired to contrast it carto-
graphically with the Yellow River of the north, for, except in
the depth of winter (the dry season) and then only for a short
time and in its upper reaches, the river is as heavily silt-laden
and as yellow as its older prototype, the ' Ho.'
Starting from its source in the Kwenlun mountains of the high
Tibetan plateau, the Yangtse river first cuts its way through
Eastern Tibet in a south-east direction and, after entering
Szechuan north of Batang,dips down into Yunnan and then turns
north-east, traversing the whole of China from west to east ; it
may be said to divide the Chinese Empire into two nearly equal
portions, eight provinces being situated on the left bank, with the
same number on the south ; two only, Nganhui and Kiangsu, lying
partly on both banks. For two-thirds of this distance it runs
through mountain land in a continuous ravine, the valley being
nowhere wider than the river bed. In the lower portion of its
course, which forms the remaining third of the distance, the
valley widens out, and the stream flows through an alluvial
plain, following generally the southern boundary of the valley
except where it forces its way athwart the limestone range
which forms the division between the provinces of Hupeh and
Kiangsi, above the Treaty Port of Kiukiang, past the vertical
cliffs called Split Hill and Cock's Head in our English charts,
until it emerges into its delta proper at Kiang-yin, no miles
above the mouth of its estuary at Yangtse Cape. The stream
first emerges from the mountains at the Ichang gorge, 960
nautical miles from its mouth : and some fifty miles below this
point the boulders and gravel of the upper river give place to
banks of soft alluvium, the outline of which varies every season,
notwithstanding the gigantic embankments with which it is
sought to retain the stream in its channel. These begin a short
distance above the great emporium of Shashih, situated in the
midst of the Hupeh plain, eighty-three miles below Ichang.
Here we find the river, at the time of its summer floods, running
with a six-knot current at a level of ten or fifteen feet above thai
of the surrounding county, the great dyke on the north bank
58 THE FAR EAST
being continuous nearly to Hankow : while, owing to the decay
of the embankments there, the south bank is open to the floods
as far as the eye can reach, and a vast inland sea is thus formed,
which mingles its waters with those of the Tungting lake
proper, from which its outline is then indistinguishable. From
this point downwards the fall in the bed is comparatively slight.
A comparison of three years' barometrical readings at Chung-
king, in Szechuan, and at Sikawei, the observatory of the Jesuit
Fathers near Shanghai, and the resume of some 4,000 observa-
tions enumerated in Mr. Baber's paper on the subject, exhibit
the unexpectedly small difference of level between the two places
of 630 feet. Now, as the average rate of the current down the
rapids, which, large and small, obstruct the river throughout
the whole distance of nearly 500 nautical miles between Chung-
king and Ichang, is not less than five knots, a fall of twelve
inches to the mile between those two places cannot be considered
excessive. This would give a total of 500 feet as the fall for
these 500 miles and leave 130 feet for the fall from Ichang to the
sea, 960 miles below. The great fall in the river bed is, as is
only natural, in the upper half of its course, where the stream
rushes as an unnavigable mountain torrent through the defiles
of the unpenetrated ranges of Western Szechuan and Tibet, and
where Mr. Baber estimates the fall at no less than six feet to the
mile. The average speed of the comparatively more tranquil
lower half, say from Pingshan, the city situated at the head of
the present junk navigation, some 1,700 nautical miles from the
sea, is still, as Captain Blakiston, the early explorer of the Yang-
tse, points out, double that of the Nile and Amazon, and three
times that of the Ganges. This greater fall in the bed and
consequent rapidity of current is attributable to the greater
hardness and insolubility of the rocks over which the Yangtse
water flows
The volume of water brought down per second, as measured
by the same careful observer, is, at Ichang in June, 675,800
cubic feet ; that at Hankow, 360 miles lower down, being at
the same period, according to Dr. Guppy of H.M.S. Hornet,
nearly 1,000,000 cubic feet : the increase being due to the influx
from the Tungting lake, 120 miles above Hankow, and from
the Han river, which flows into the Yangtse at Hankow and
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART I
59
from which the town of Hankow takes its name, which two are
the only noticeable affluents throughout this stretch of the river.
Compared with these figures, it is curious to note that the water
discharged into the sea by the old familiar Thames is estimated
at 2,300 feet per second. Reducing the figures given by
Captain Blakiston for Ichang in June to the average of the year,
on the basis of Dr. Guppy's monthly observations in Hankow,
we find the discharge at the former port to be actually 560,000
feet per second for the whole year round, which would make
<ri
.. ***%€
**
3» '%v-J'. W\*
Recent additions lu land area
Under cuhiration
Fig. 14. — Growth of the Chusan Archipelago.
the volume of water at Ichang, 960 miles from the sea, just 244
times that of the Thames at London, distant from the sea forty
miles only. The amount of solid matter in suspension carried
annually past Hankow, 600 miles from the sea, is estimated by
the same observer at five billion cubic feet.
The comparison of the sediment annually brought down by the
respective rivers at these two points, admitting the estimates to be
fairly approximative, is as 2,000,000 cubic feet to 5,000,000,000
or as 1 to 2,500. Taking the drainage area of the Yangtse at
60 THE FAR EAST
600,000 square miles, and estimating the sediment discharge as
above, both Captain Blakiston's and Dr. Guppy's figures give
a rate of sub-aerial denudation for the whole catchment basin
of about one foot in 3,000 years. Allowing that one-half of
this amount of sediment is employed in raising the banks and
in filling up the expanse of its inferior valley while inundated
by the summer floods, the remaining half, carried out to sea, is
sufficient to create annually a fresh island in the Pacific one
mile square and fifteen fathoms deep. The rapid rate at which
the coast-line is gaining on the ocean, startling ocular evidence
of which is presented to every old resident of Shanghai, is thus
not surprising. In the very near future the innumerable rocky
islands which fringe the coast, the ' Saddles,' the ' Ruggeds,'
and the Chusan archipelago generally, and which now stand
out of the shallow waters of the estuary, will look down upon
embanked paddy-fields, with the river flowing between, precisely
as the hills inland from Shanghai now stand out from the fields
which have been raised by the same process within the limits of
the historical period.
It seems to me a matter of no doubt, that in comparatively
recent geological time the Yangtse river, upon leaving the
Tibetan mountains, discharged its waters into the ocean through
a series of lakes, the remains of which still occupy a considerable
portion of the valley in winter and which, in summer, are
enlarged by the floods to almost their original surface area.
Leaving out of account the ancient tertiary lake which once
covered the surface of Eastern Szechuan, and in which the sand-
stones of its famous ' red basin ' were deposited, we find the
first of these recent lakes comprised within the boundaries of
the present province of Hupeh, and at the highest floods, which
occur once every ten years or more, the waters — making sport
of the numberless embankments — still flood the cultivated fields
on either shore to a depth of several feet ; a vast inland sea is
then formed in the centre of China, a few tree-tops and roofs of
houses still standing alone breaking the boundless water hori-
zon. When we see that every summer a quarter of an inch or
more of sediment is deposited, and the level of the surrounding
country raised each year to that extent, we cannot help being
struck by the fact that there must have been a vast lake bottom
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART I 61
to fill, — seeing that the soil setfree by the erosion of the Szeclman
water-courses throughout a long geological period has failed
even now to entirely fill up this old lake basin. A few years
more of geological time, and this and the other lake basins will
be entirely filled, and the whole sediment brought down will be
exclusively available for promoting the advance of the coast-line,
— an advance even now so rapid that within the lifetime of men
now living Shanghai threatens to be left an inland city unap-
proachable by tidal waters. This first of the lower lake system
was formed by the damming up of the river seawards by the
limestone range of Wusueh (thirty miles above the present
Treaty Port of Kiukiang), and is drained into the basins next
below — those of the Nganhui province — by a confined channel
cut through the range, through which the river still flows in an
accelerated current, much as the Detroit river drains Lake
Huron into Lake Erie.
The next lake basin I take to be represented by the plain
north of Kiukiang and the valley west of Nganking, together
with the Poyang lake region ; this is again bounded seawards
by a ' cross range,' through which the river has burst its way in
the narrow, winding, rock-infested channel known as 'Hen Point.'
Below this again we have the wide plain and ancient lake basin
of which Wuhu, now a ' Treaty Port,' forms the centre, its
eastern outlet being through the ' gate ' known as ' the Pillars.'
We then come to Nanking, to the south of which, as of Wuhu,
now stretches a wide alluvial flat, the lower portion being still
for a considerable portion of the year below the level of the
river, and in it are still found extensive swamps, the resort of
innumerable wildfowl, and a wide, rich, rice-producing region,
providing cargoes for numerous steamers which load at Wuhu
for the south. These swamps, in which must be included the
shallow Tai-hu or ' Great Lake ' of Kiangnan, formed part of the
ancient estuary of the Yangtse, what time the river here turned
southward and debouched into the Hangchow bay. At present
we find these old lakes practically filled up, being ourselves
only just in time to see the annual finishing touches given by
the summer floods to the land that now occupies their site.
Formerly, the bulk of the sediment was arrested in these lakes
and the turn of the delta had not yet come. At the same time,
62 THE FAR EAST
however, we have no reason to expect that, as the land along
the banks becomes thus rapidly raised, the inundations will soon
cease altogether, natural as this result would at first sight seem
to be : for the bed of the river must be rising simultaneously in
the ratio of its extension seawards, and thus higher embank-
ments are constantly needed.
Marco Polo, 600 years ago, in his chapter on the ' Great River
Kian ' says, ' It is in some places ten miles wide, in others eight,
in others six, and it is more than one hundred days' journey in
length from one end to the other ; it seems indeed more like a sea
than a river.' Now if, as seems probable, Marco visited the
river during the summer floods, there is no exaggeration what-
ever in these statements, and it is curious to find an acute critic
like Colonel Yule explaining away this passage by suggesting
that Marco's expressions about the river were accompanied by
a mental reference to the term 'Dalai' — 'the sea,' — which the
Mongols, in whose dynasty Marco visited China, appear to have
given to the river. But then Colonel Yule, as a writer on China,
laboured under the disadvantage of never having lived in the
country, and had never seen with his own eyes the incredible
expanses of water through which the river steamers now cau-
tiously thread the channel in the season of the annual floods.
Ascending once more and quitting the alluvial region, we pass
between the rock-bound banks which distinguish the river from
Ichang upwards to its source ; we here ascend by a series of
wide steps, well described by the Chinese as ' men-karh ' or
' thresholds,' over each of which flows one of the famous rapids
— 'effrayantes cataractes,' as Pere Amand David, the celebrated
naturalist, describes them. These steps lead us by way of the
great gorges cut through the limestone ranges which bound the
province of Szechuan on the east, and which shut in its basin
from the wide plains of ' Hukwang ' (Hupeh), the province of
' Broad Lakes,' where begins the level country immediately
below Ichang. These ' steps ' extend all the way from Ichang
up to the source, a distance of 2,000 miles, and provide for a
rise of 16,000 feet in this distance.
If we turn to a map of Indo-China, we are at once struck with
a peculiarity in the Yangtse as distinguished from the other
great rivers which, together with it, take their rise near the
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART I 63
eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. Four great rivers — the
Irawaddy, the Salwin, the Mekong, and the Yangtse — here
start seawards. All four, in the early part of their courses, flow
together in deep parallel ravines running almost due north and
south. Upon reaching the south-eastern extension of the
plateau where it enters the Yunnan border, these deep-cut
defiles approach so close that the distance from one to the other
barely exceeds thirty miles, and these defiles, with the ranges
that separate them and the dangerous malaria that lurks in
their wind-protected hollows, have proved an impassable bar-
rier to free intercourse between the peoples of Burmah and
China, thus keeping the two races quite distinct in character ;
although such has been the conquering force of Chinese civili-
zation that the arts and customs of China have deeply influenced
the Burmese, as they have all the other neighbouring peoples
of the great Central Kingdom. Under powerful leaders, armies
from China have at different times even succeeded in invading
Burma, but have never made a permanent conquest, — the
wiser rulers of China having been content to leave it finally
a buffer, and nominally tributary, state to the Son of Heaven.
Following down the courses of the four streams — the Irawaddy,
the Salwin, the Mekong, and the Yangtse, — we find that the
three former alone continue to follow the prevailing lay of the
mountain ranges, and persevere in their southward course to
the Indian Ocean and the Cochin-China Sea. The Yangtse — the
Murui-ussu or 'Blue Water' of the Tibetans, the Kin-sha or
'Gold-dust River' of the Chinese — behaves differently. After
accompanying its less vigorous neighbours down through
nearly ten degrees of latitude, the Yangtse, upon reaching the
vicinity of Tali-fu, suddenly recurves northward, abandons its
associates and strikes out a course of its own, athwart transverse
rows of mountain barriers which fail to turn it aside from its
steady progress to the ' Eastern Sea.' Owing to this circum-
stance of its course being mainly in a direction transverse
to the lay of the ranges, we find its channel thence down
to the point of its emergence in the plains of Hupeh to be
a series of zigzags, consisting of a succession of reaches running
at right angles to each other alternately, the long reaches SW.
and NE., and the shorter reaches NW. and SE. In the former
64 THE FAR EAST
it runs in comparatively open ravines, parallel to the radial
axes of the mountains enclosing it : in the latter it breaks through
them in the magnificent clefts of the gorges. The strata in
these latter are for the most part horizontal, — or where tilted,
are so only in limited areas ; in these the folding of the rocks
has been beautifully exposed by erosion, the gorges, it can
hardly be doubted, having been formed by the cutting back
of ancient waterfalls, what time the old lakes were being
drained seawards, like as we see to-day in the Niagara river
below the existing falls1. In many of the gorges, and these
spots naturally afford the most striking pictures — together
with most formidable whirlpools, — we find a sharp rectangular
turn such as is only likely to occur where vertical erosion
attacks strata generally horizontal ; the absence of more
extended denudation being very striking, and giving, I should
say, unmistakable proof of their comparatively recent origin.
The confused mountain mass which separates Hupeh from
Szechuan commences a short distance below Ichang, and extends
to the city of Kweichow, a distance of 120 miles from east to
west. The radial axis of elevation appears to be a mass of
igneous rock, chiefly gneiss, traversed by dykes of porphyry in
vertical strata. These rocks have not been clean cut like the
limestones of the gorges, but have been decomposed by the
water, and their debris now towers in gigantic stone heaps, fill-
ing up the desert-looking valley which breaks the continuity of
the grand limestone gorges of Ichang and Niukan. The difficult
piece of river which rushes over and amidst these rock piles is
known to the native boatmen as the Yao-tsa-ho — say, 'Broken-
up River.' This basin of the Yao-tsa-ho is to-day a wide
depression filled with scattered rock-piles, in the midst of a sur-
rounding mass of lofty precipitous limestone mountains which
form the background to pine-covered foothills of gneiss, which
the water has not reached and which afford a contrast by their
1 Niagara Falls. — The average recession along the whole contour of
the Horseshoe Fall has been, since 1842, two and four-tenths feet per year :
in the centre of the channel, where the bulk of the water passes, the average
yearly recession is four and eight-tenths feet. At the point where the
acute angle is formed, the recession from 1842 to 1875 was about 100 feet,
and from 1875 to 1886 more than 200 feet. The recession of the American
Falls since 1842 has been slight.
THE MIDDLE BASIN : PART I 6$
verdure to the lower piles bordering the river which the water
has denuded and disintegrated. The scene in these reaches
is extraordinarily instructive and picturesque. These limestone
mountains with their dolomite cliffs and peaks, extend east-
wards to the mouth of the Ichang gorge, dipping under the sand-
stone and coarse conglomerate which form the outlying spurs of
the range. The city of Ichang stands upon this conglomerate
which, with its superincumbent sandstone, dips in its turn
under, and is lost in, the alluvial plain which begins about fifty
miles lower down. West of the Yao-tsa-ho basin we again
traverse a wide limestone tract, until, on the other side, this
meets with and is lost under the new red sandstone plateau of
Szechuan. As we ascend the river further we meet, however,
with fresh cross ranges of the same limestone formation, upon
the flanks of which the inexhaustible coal seams of the province
lie conveniently tilted.
Above and beyond Kweichow-fu we enter the ' Red Basin,'
so named by Richthofen, where the fiver traverses the vast
new sandstone formation of Eastern Szechuan in a ravine cut
down 1,000 feet or more below the surface : and again in short
gorges with vertical sides, where the river has cut through the
numerous intervening cross limestone ranges. Here, owing to
the softer nature of the rock, the rapids are less violent, though
there is always a fierce current to contend against. These
conditions prevail until we reach the big fork of the Yangtse at
Sui-fu (abbreviation of Hsu-chow-fu), where, on the one hand
we meet the Kinsha river flowing hence onwards as a mountain
torrent through inaccessible gorges, and on the other the Min,
which, though the shorter stream, at times brings down as much
water as does the main branch, and which, in view of its superior
navigability, is regarded by the Chinese as the true ' Kiang,'
while the Kinsha sweeps round the 'Terrace of the Sun,' — the
wild range inhabited by the independent ' Lolo,' — in a fierce
continuous rapid, and is useless for traffic.
By the fork of the Min river we ascend, due north, through
a rich deep-red sandstone region, and up a succession of com-
paratively shallow but steep and often dangerous rapids, to the
unique plateau of Chengtu, the political capital of the province.
The distance by the Min from Sui-fu to Chengtu is over 200
66 THE FAR EAST
miles and the difference in level from 600 to 700 feet, giving
a fall of over three feet to the mile, Sui-fu itself being 150 miles
to the west of Chungking and standing 200 feet higher than that
city. Beyond and above Chengtu the Min river, which takes
its rise in the Tibetan plateau to the north, 11,000 feet above
sea-level, descends in an unnavigable torrent, washing in its
descent the walls of the cities of Sungpan (9,500 feet) and Mao-
chow (5,000 feet), until it emerges upon the Chengtu plain at
Kwan-hien (2,400 feet), the city where the splitting up of the
Min into the myriad channels of the Chengtu plain commences.
Thus, from the plateau above Sungpan to the plain at Kwan-
hien the fall is 9,000 feet in a distance of 150 miles, sixty feet to
the mile. To the west of the Min valley the land rises rapidly,
past the conspicuous range of the O Shan, the famous sacred
Mount Omi, on the right bank of the Min river near Kialing, and
11,000 feet high, up to the ' Great Snow range ' — the Himalaya of
China — with its peaks rising to 22,000 feet and upwards, which
forms the eastern bulwark of the great Tibetan plateau beyond.
The alluvial plain of Chengtu, through which now flows a net-
work of clear streams with gravelly beds, appears undoubtedly
to have once been a lake whose basin was gradually filled by the
boulders and coarser detritus from the surrounding mountains,
and the southern wall of which was eventually cut through by
the rivers now draining it. Below this we have evidence of the
great inland sea that probably in tertiary times occupied the
rugged country of Szechuan, subsequent to the deposition of
the coal measures with their superincumbent sandstones.
Thereafter, as the land rose, the surface of the former sea-bed
must have been gradually exposed to denudation, and the
channels of the present rivers began to be cut out ; and if, as
seems probable, a dam then existed on the eastern borders
of this sea, it had not been broken through, nor had the gorges,
through which the water subsequently escaped seaward, then
been opened. Through and across this sandstone plain run,
at close intervals, the succession of earlier formed parallel ranges
of limestone mountains, all tending in a nor-north-east and sou-
south-west direction, and now rising to a height of two to three
thousand feet above the sea, forming the ' cross ranges ' through
which the Yangtse and its affluents now break their way in a long
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART I 6y
series of magnificent gorges. The intervening plateaux, origin-
ally level, except where tilted against the flank of these ' cross
ranges,' have since been worn away by erosion into a fantasti-
cally rugged landscape, recalling the picturesque scenery of the
Saxon Switzerland, but on a grander scale. Every stream,
large and small, has cut its way down and flows in a steep
ravine. Hence the land roads, which pervade the country in
every direction, are nothing but the usual narrow footpaths
broken by a succession of ascending and descending stone stair-
cases, often cut out in the solid rock itself, where they are not
paved causeways on the dykes dividing the terraced paddy-
fields. It is in spots where the sandstone cliffs overhang the
streams, that we find the numerous square porthole-looking
entrances to the scooped-out dwellings of the aboriginal in-
habitants of the country, cave-dwellings often artistically sculp-
tured, and more solid though less dry and commodious than the
cave dwellings cut out of the loess by the present inhabitants of
the loess country to the north ; for the sandstone of Szechuan
is as porous as the loess, but, unlike the latter, is ever saturated
with moisture. No trace of the original inhabitants now exists,
nor is the date of their extermination now known ; they are
called by the modern Chinese ' Mantse ' or Barbarians, and do
not seem to have been akin to the Mantse now living on the
Tibetan border-land — a hardy race of mountaineers, far superior
to the Chinese in physique, who build their homes in solid stone
houses perched upon the summits of the precipitous mountains
they inhabit.
Coal, often of unusual quality, underlies the whole sandstone
formation of the ' Red Basin,' and ironstone abounds ; the coal is
exposed in the gorges of the Yangtse and its affluents, where
these cut through the cross ranges ; it, as well as the iron, is
largely mined, through adits run into the mountain side, in the
primitive but effectual Chinese way, and forms the staple fuel
of the country ; the junks in the upper waters all have their
brick chimney, and, at meal-times, when vomiting the soft-coal
smoke, might well be taken for antediluvian steamers. Tho
disturbed granitic country of the western highlands and Tibet
abounds in every description of the precious metals, which are
exploited, with more or less success, by thousands of Chinese
F 2
68 THE FAR EAST
bold enough to invade the Mantse country, away from Chinese
official protection. The sands and gravels of the numerous rivers
when exposed each winter by the draining off of the summer
floods, are thoroughly washed by armies of coolies, who have
no agricultural work at this season, and so can afford to work
for the pittance of gold which they are daily able to collect.
The copper supply for the minting of the current coin of the
realm, copper ' cash,' of which fifty go to a penny sterling, is
drawn from this region which, given modern means of communi-
cation, may one day prove its wealth to the outside world.
Having thus sketched the river that dominates the region,
we will now proceed to an enumeration of the six great pro-
vinces comprised within its limits, and give a short account of
their separate characteristics.
CHAPTER V
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART II. THE PROVINCE OF SZECHUAN
Starting from the west and following down the course of the
Yangtse river, the first province of the middle basin is Szechuan .
The name means ' Four Streams,' derived probably from the
fact that the four great north and south valleys which comprise
its richest agricultural region, and that earliest settled by the
Chinese, are watered by four parallel rivers which take their rise
in the mountains to the north and debouch into the Yangtse,
which flows along the southern frontier of the province : these
rivers, which form such a conspicuous feature in its geography,
are the Min, the Chung-kiang (or Central River), the Fu-kiang
and the Kialing, — the two latter uniting into one stream a few
miles above their junction with the Yangtse at the Treaty Port
Chungking. Farther to the west are three larger rivers, likewise
running in parallel channels north and south — the Kinsha, the
Yalung and the Tatu-ho, but these, though larger in volume,
are comparatively of small importance, as they flow through
the wild mountains of the Tibetan border as unnavigable
torrents I.
The last of these rivers once formed the western boundary
of the province, but recently the boundary has been moved
farther west until it now includes the right bank of the Kinsha,
west of Batang in Tibet : thus the area of Szechuan is now put
down as 185,000 square miles and the population at fifty to sixty
millions ; the valuable and populous half lies east of the Min
1 The area of the one province of Szechuan is almost exactly nine-tenths
that of France, 185,000 : 207,000 square miles, and is nearly double that
of Hungary (including Transylvania, 108,000 square miles), a country with
which it has not a few analogies in situation and resources. A noticeable
coincidence is that the arms of Hungary display four silver stripes to denote
its four chief rivers (the Danube, Theiss, Drave and Save), while the name of
Szechuan, U\a JjJ, equally denotes its four principal streams.
70 THE FAR EAST
river, the western half being thinly peopled by aboriginal tribes,
and valuable only for its wealth in minerals ; isolated fertile
valleys are found amongst the lofty mountain mass which fills
this region, such as the Chien-chang valley with its chief city,
Ningyuen, in the south, and the rich valley of Yachow in the
north. Tarchendo, or Ta-chien-lu as it is written in the Chinese
character, is an important entrepot of Tibetans and Chinese,
and is situated on the great highway from Chengtu to Lassa,
and, as the crow flies, sixty miles west of Yachow, in a valley
bottom 8,400 feet above sea-leveL About one hundred miles
farther west is the frontier town of Batang, built on a small
cultivable flat in the valley of the Kinsha, 8,600 feet above the
sea ; but to reach any of these places from the east, several high
passes, ranging from ten to thirteen thousand feet, have to be
crossed, the roads being little more than mule tracks with long
painful ascents up the steep mountain sides, often blocked by
snow in winter or rendered temporarily impassable by wash-outs
in summer. The extreme east of the province enters like
a wedge between the lofty Tapa-shan, which divides it from
Shensi in the north, and the highlands of Hupeh in the south —
these latter a plateau four to five thousand feet in height, with
a steep face to the Yangtse valley : this eastern portion is filled
with rugged mountains again and is comparatively unproductive
and thinly populated. At the western foot of these mountains
runs the Pa-shui, which makes the seventh of the rivers that
drain Szechuan north and south into the Yangtse ; the Pa-shui
unites with the Kialing and the Fu rivers at the mart of Hochow,
fifty miles above Chungking. These, rivers, all of which take
their rise in the snowy mountains which divide sub-tropical
Szechuan from the northern provinces of Kansu and Shensi,
fall about 500 feet in level in their two-hundred-mile journey
athwart the Red Basin ; they are navigable for vessels drawing
about two feet of water through the greater portion of this dis-
tance, the Chinese boatmen being indefatigable in forcing their
boats up and down apparently hopeless rapids ; some of the
boats, like the stern-wheelers in the United States, requiring
only a heavy dew to float them ; and the traffic on these rivers —
coal, cotton yarn, piece goods and coast produce up-stream, and
of the local crops, such as sugar, hemp, tobacco, &c, down-
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART II
7*
stream, — is unceasing. This rich central portion of Szechuan,
' the Red Basin,' which in comparison with the surrounding
mountains is only moderately elevated, say, one to two thou-
sand feet, extends east and west from longitude 1070 to 103^-°,
and north and south from latitude 31^° to 28^°, an area of
120 miles by 170, equalling 20,000 square miles. The whole of
this region, with the exception of the Chengtu plain, which
occupies only one-tenth of this area, is exceedingly accidentc,
with steep ravines and tower-like summits, but is well watered,
the rock indeed mostly dripping with moisture, so that the in-
dustrious farmers are able to terrace the hill sides to their very
summits, and thus produce an astonishingly rapid and varied
succession of valuable crops. The principal crops are : — rice,
Fig. 15. — The 'Red Basin' of Szechuan.
wheat, maize, beans, and opium, which alternate in summer
and winter, besides sugar, hemp, and tobacco, with quantities
of the famous ' T'ung you ' or Dryandra oil, together with the
produce of the varnish, soap, wax, and tallow trees. Oranges
— the mandarin and common variety — are widely grown and
exported to Hupeh ; the salt production from the famous brine
wells is the leading element in the provincial revenues, that and
silk, raw and woven, being, with opium, among the leading
exports from the province. Szechuan also produces a vast
assortment of drugs, collected in the western mountains, of
which rhubarb is the most important, and for which Chungking
is the entrepot.
72 THE FAR EAST
The climate of the Red Basin is warm and damp ; there is
practically no winter, frost and snow being unknown except on
the hill-tops, their place being taken by drizzling rains : thus
the country is always green and never without crops ; no sooner
is one crop ready for reaping than another is seen sprouting in
the intervening furrows ; the rains in summer are heavy and
continuous, causing the summer freshets in the rivers, and a rise
of the Yangtse at Chungking in August of seventy feet and more,
with an increase in the width of the river at that point of from
500 up to 1,000 yards ; not seldom these rains produce serious
landslips, blocking the streams and washing down the soil
from its rocky background, which then has to be toilsomely
replaced by the untiring farmers. Cesspool manure is carefully
removed from the many populous towns, and carried up to the
hill summits, whereby rotations of five and six crops in a year
are rendered possible. As in the north the Chinese from Chihli
and Shantung are carrying on a steady peaceful invasion of
Mongolia and Manchuria, so here the Tibetan border is being
steadily invaded by the agricultural Chinese, who are gradually
driving back the warlike border tribes and relegating them to
inaccessible and unfertile highlands. The most interesting
feature in the agricultural development of the province, and
the one most worthy of special study, is the exploitation of the
old lake basin in which stands to-day the capital, Chengtu, at
a height of 1,700 feet above sea-level, and the only piece of level
land in the province. Though apparently level to the eye, this
old lake bed has a natural slope, north and south, of 700 feet ;
we reserve a special description of this unique plateau for
a new chapter.
The history of the province has, like indeed that of all the
other provinces of this vast empire, been a chequered one, and
to give it in detail would require a volume, as does the history of
a European kingdom, many of which this one province surpasses
in dimensions, and all of which it excels in productiveness.
It would appear to have been first occupied by Chinese from
Shansi in the third century B.C., and to have been finally sub-
dued by the Han, B.C. 206 to a.d. 220, who, at their capital,
Chang-an,now Si-an, drew their wants in sub-tropical fruits and
produce and in rice, the luxury of the north and the necessary of
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART II 73
the south, from that region. Upon the defeat of the Han in the
latter year by the founder of the dynasty of Wei, the last scion
of the house of Han migrated to Szechuan and there established
the shortlived dynasty known as the Shu-Han orSzechuan-Han.
This prince, the famous Liu-pei of the ' Three Kingdom ' period,
together with his son and sole successor who is known as the
Hou Chu, or 'After Lord,' ruled Szechuan as an independent
kingdom from a.d. 221 to 263, after which date the three king-
doms of Shu, Wei and Wu were merged in a once more united
empire under the dynasty of the Western Tsin. Liu-pei's
grave is still green just outside the walls of Chengtu, — a tree-
covered mound standing in the grounds of a beautiful temple
erected in his memory, and which is still maintained in perfect
repair. The province seems to have pursued a career of long-
undisturbed prosperity, self-sufficing, producing every natural
product that the necessities or luxuries of mankind can demand,
— shut out in a Rasselas valley, as it were, from the seething
outside world, and enjoying a soft, almost windless, climate
and an inexhaustible soil. But, during the fifty years of tur-
moil (circa 1620 to 1670 a.d.) that accompanied the revolution
which began with the destruction of the ' Ming ' and ended in
the conquest of all China by the ' Tsing ' or Manchu dynasty —
Shunchih, the first actual Manchu ruler, ascended the ' Dragon
Throne' in 1644, — the then inhabitants of Szechuan were almost
totally exterminated. When a dynasty in China becomes effete
and is in the throes of dissolution, and no dynasty in modern
times has reached a life of three or four hundred years without
this ending, rebellions spring up all round, leaving the best man
to win when — after two or three generations of intermittent
anarchy reducing large portions of the empire to a condition
not unlike that of Germany after the ' Thirty Years' War ' —
exhaustion supervenes, and a new dynasty is accepted as the
decree of Heaven. A noted rebel of these times was a
man from Shansi, named Chang Hien-chung, who invaded
Szechuan, carrying all before him. His rage against the unfor-
tunate Szechuanese, who appear then as now to have held an
exceptional reputation for treachery and deceit, was such that
he deliberately set about massacring the whole population,
making piles, it is said, of the small bound feet of the women.
74 THE FAR EAST
A stone tablet exists in Chengtu to this day, on which is engraved
the Chinese character ' Sha ' — ' Kill,' written by the monster's
own hand : it stands walled in, in a back court of the Treasurer's
Yamen, and tradition asserts that should this record be again
exposed to view, new massacres will take place. The present
population are all descendants of immigrants from the east,
a fact that is impressed upon the inquiring traveller to-day,
for, when he makes the customary complimentary query, 'Where
is your honourable home ? ' the reply invariably is, ' Hupeh,'
' Kiangsi,' &c, as the case may be; and after the first surprise,
he learns that the respondent's ancestors immigrated two hun-
dred or more years back. One party of immigrants, ' Hakkas,'
from Kwangsi, has still descendants occupying two districts
fifty miles west of Chungking, who are distinguished from
the remainder of the inhabitants of the province by their women
having natural unbound feet, as have their relatives in the
south at this day. Since the final conquest of the province by
the ' Ta Tsing ' (Great Pure) dynasty, — which is emphasized in
the large (but now totally effete) Manchu garrison, inhabiting
a quarter of its own within the walls of Chengtu city, the pen-
sioned descendants of the original invaders, — the province has
been undisturbed and is now suffering from over-population
and concomitant poverty of the lower classes, while a large
upper landowning class displays ample wealth. The isolation
of the province which proved its ruin and impeded the escape
of its people in the seventeenth century, proved its salvation in
the nineteenth, when, in the fifties, the Taiping rebels made their
famous march west under the great leader, Shih Ta-kai, the
' I Wang ' or ' Prince of I ': his army of 300,000 men, flushed
with their victories in the neighbouring province of Hupeh,
marched south of the Yangtse, which, for want of boats they
were unable to cross until, marching on and on over the moun-
tains along the right bank of the river, they first succeeded
in seizing boats at the ferry of Hui, opposite the Chien-chang
valley : they ascended this valley, the Government troops sent
against them from the capital, Chengtu, retreating as they slowly
advanced, until they lost themselves in the mountains or
perished in crossing the fierce torrent of the Tatu-ho, the
remnant proving an easy prey in the defiles beyond. Shih
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART II 75
Ta-kai was taken alive, carried to Chengtu and there executed ;
as the imperial commander himself said to me : — ' Had the
Taipings succeeded in crossing at Sui-fu, which without boats
they were unable to do, he could not have stopped them ; the
rich Red Basin would have been once more ravaged and the
whole empire would probably have fallen into their hands ' :
Heaven, or good luck rather than good management, seems in
this, as in their wars with the outer barbarians, to have given
the effete Manchus a fresh lease of life. Several small later
anti-missionary rebellions have been successfully crushed, and
the rich province again enjoys ' great peace.'
Chungking was opened as a Treaty Port in 1890, since which
its trade has steadily increased until this emporium, with the
impending development by European capital of the rich mineral
country beyond, promises, as the French say, to become the
Lyons of China ; or, as the Americans say, another St. Louis, its
situation at the junction of the Yangtse and Kialing rivers being
analogous to that of the latter city at the junction of the Missis-
sippi and Missouri. The province is further conspicuous for the
number and grandeur of its temples and monasteries, many
richly endowed with broad lands under the Han and Tang
dynasties, and, in later days, the Buddhist monasteries
especially, by the pious Ming emperor, Wan-li (a.d. 1573).
Under the Mackay Treaty, signed in Shanghai in 1902, a second
Treaty Port, Wan-hien, situated two hundred miles below
Chungking, will be opened for foreign settlement. One of the
chief staples of the trade of Wan-hien at present is paper, manu-
factured from the luxuriant bamboo groves in its vicinity, junk-
loads of which are shipped down river, notwithstanding that
a new dangerous rapid was formed in 1896, owing to the sudden
irruption of a gigantic landslip, which narrowed the river to
one-third of its previous width and is proving a serious impedi-
ment to navigation. Whether the Chinese will aid in the clearing
of this ' heaven-sent ' barrier, and so facilitate navigation by
steam, as well as by junk, or whether the real opening of Sze-
chuan will have to wait for the construction of a railway athwart
the rugged mountains of Hupeh (or by way of the Shensi
border), time will show. To foreigners residing in the country the
inaccessibility of this rich region is but a stimulus to exertion
to overcome it.
76 THE FAR EAST
Wan-hien, besides being an important trade mart and shipping
centre, has pre-eminent claims upon lovers of the picturesque,
its site being one of the most beautiful of any city in the world.
Surrounded by distant ranges, rising to three and four thousand
feet, it stands itself in the midst of a broken sandstone basin,
through which the great river has cut its way in a graceful
curve, leaving a deep bay for a junk anchorage sheltered from
the velocity of the main current. In the basin stand many
isolated sandstone peaks : one, known as the ' Heaven-born
fort,' towers over the city to a height of 1,200 feet, its sides being
almost vertical and accessible only by long flights of steep stone
staircases. The summit is flat and is about twenty acres in
extent : it is walled round, admittance being through an arched
gateway. This natural city of refuge is inhabited by several
families of ' gentry,' and possesses an unfailing water supply
derived from copious springs ; while, perched high in the air, it
forms a most salubrious residence. Wan-hien is the first city
of importance reached after the great rapids of the Yangtse
have been surmounted, and will doubtless, ere long, be the ter-
minus of steam navigation for the easier stretch of 400 miles
of comparatively smooth river beyond. A wide coal-field
stretches almost immediately in rear of the city, a soft coal of
excellent quality and cheap. Wan-hien may be called the Gate
of the Red Basin, all produce up and down having to pass its
doors, the only other means of access being by the land roads
in the north leading over steep mountain passes into Shensi and
Kansu. It is the landing-stage for the numerous officials con-
stantly travelling between the metropolitan and provincial
capitals. The ' Great Northern Road ' through Shensi by
which this journey used to be made having been abandoned for
the more convenient route via Shanghai — by rail from Peking
to Taku, thence by steamers as far as Ichang, thence on by junk
to Wan-hien, and thence again in chairs, sixteen days' overland
journey to Chengtu— these three stages thus occupy forty days,
as against sixty for the 1,500 miles by the all-land route, viz.
2,000 miles by steam in ten days, 200 miles by junk in fourteen
days, and 300 miles by chair in sixteen days. On the opening
of the Pe-han railway from Hankow to Peking, this time will
be farther reduced to about thirty-three days. These details
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART II 77
emphasize the seclusion of Szechuan from the outer world ;
four weeks is the average time for a quick winter journey from
Shanghai to Chungking ; in summer, in unfavourable seasons,
I have known the same journey to occupy four months.
From Wan-hien eastwards, down to the Hupeh border, a
distance of 100 miles, the river flows through a poor mountainous
country, the inhabitants of which depend chiefly on their scanty
crops of beans, maize, barley, and potatoes for subsistence. At
the head of the great Feng-hsiang — the gorge of the ' fearsome
pool,' sixty miles below the ' New Great Rapid,' stands the
frontier customs station of Kweichow-fu, once one of the
richest and gayest cities of the province, due to the great
revenue collected there before the ' foreign '-managed Imperial
Maritime Customs at the Treaty Ports of Ichang and Chungking
replaced it. It is now a decaying city, noticeable chiefly from
its great walls and magnificent situation, a calling-place for all
upward and downward-bound junks and a station for the inspec-
tion of their cargoes by the officers of the Likin (inland barrier
tax office). The frontier line between the two provinces of
Szechuan and Hupeh is met in the centre of the twenty-two
miles long ' Great Gorge of Wushan,' which it traverses at right
angles at points where narrow ravines emerge north and south
upon the Great River. The spot is noticeable as the eastern
terminus of a road, following the banks of the Yangtse, destined
to form a new and practicable land connexion between Ichang
and Wan-hien. The Szechuan half was completed at great
cost ten years ago, the road through the gorges being carried
high up in galleries excavated in the hard limestone cliffs that
here form the banks ; the Hupeh portion is wanting, the Viceroy
Chang-chih-tung, after the work had been sanctioned, as is so
often the case in China, declining to provide the funds — funds
more urgently needed for his unprofitable industrial experiments
in Hankow. Thus this fine road now ends in a cul-de-sac, high
up in the cliffs of the Wushan gorge, and is useless for through
traffic, while the local traffic in this wild region is practically
nil. One more fresh hope of shortening the time for reaching
Szechuan from the east has, like that of regular steam traffic,
which was inaugurated by the voyage of the Leechuen in 1808,
been again relegated to the dim and distant future.
CHAPTER VI
THE MIDDLE BASIN ; PART III. THE CHENGTU PLATEAU
This unique area of level land in the wide, otherwise purely
mountainous, region of Szechuan cannot be passed over in
a general description of the province, but demands a short essay-
to itself, so important is its relation to the rest of the province
and so peculiar are its characteristics in China, and, we may
confidently add, in the world at large. There are other lake
basins now dry and converted into fertile agricultural land, but
we know of no other similarly isolated basin, unless it be that of
the Great Salt Lake in North America, that depends for its
perennial fertility upon a so complicated and original system of
artificial irrigation as that which we see to-day exhibited in the
Chengtu plain. This plain is, roughly speaking, a parallelogram
measuring some seventy miles south-west and north-east by about
forty miles north-west to south-east, thus possessing an area of
about 2,800 square miles — just that of County Cork in Ireland,
and little more than half the area of the one county of York in
England, but probably the most highly productive and thickly
populated piece of land of its size on the surface of the globe :
the population of the county of London may possibly be still
closer packed, but there is no comparison in the relative produc-
tiveness of the soil, due, in the case of Chengtu plain, to its
artificial enrichment by the return to the soil of all the refuse
matter emanating from a dense population, coupled with a
system of irrigation the most elaborate conceivable. But for
the irrigation works we now proceed to describe, the southern
portion of the plain would be a marsh and the north a desert of
boulders : the floor of the old lake bed is Composed almost
throughout of boulders and pebbles brought down by numerous
rapid mountain streams from the high range bordering the plain
on the north-west, and which, previous to the introduction of
the present artificial channels, were everlastingly changing
their courses and so leaving no portion of the plain uncovered
Bridge on the Chengtu-Tibetan Road, crossing irrigation channel-
partly natural, partly artificial.
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART III 79
by the rough debris ; upon this unfertile but natural drainage-
giving floor has been built up a layer of fertile loam, the product
of sewage matter diluted by the annual vegetable decay. Now
we find innumerable water-channels lined with trees, chiefly
poplars, and farmhouses and residences so thickly stud the
plain that they appear almost continuous ; numerous fine
temples and well-endowed monasteries, surrounded by spacious
groves of tall forest trees and bamboo thickets, are constantly
in evidence, while the whole plain and surrounding hills afford
a pleasing contrast to the tree-denuded slopes so common
throughout China generally. Indeed, looking down on the
plain from the neighbouring mountains, one might imagine it
covered with a continuous forest growth, the agricultural fields
being entirely concealed under the foliage. The crops them-
selves are those common to sub-tropical China, rice being the
staple, preceded by the poppy and rape flower, and followed by
maize, wheat, barley, buckwheat, beans, and tobacco ; patches
of sugar-cane, cotton, aconite, saffron, madder, egg-plant, &c,
also abound, as well as plantations of oranges, persimmon,
and other fruit-trees, with market gardens producing the best
flavoured vegetables in China.
The irrigation system that thus makes the Chengtu plain the
garden of Szechuan has its source in the range of mountains that
bound the plain on the north and west ; this range, well named
by the Chinese the Ching-Cheng-shan, or ' Azure Wall range,'
actually fences in the plain like a wall, limestone cliffs descending
into the level ground which is cultivated up to their very feet.
Through this wall break, in gorges and narrow valleys, the rivers
and mountain torrents from which the irrigation of the plain is
drawn. During the summer the great rush of water down these
streams is shown by the wide sand and shingle banks deposited
on the fields in places where the embankments have given way.
The 'Azure Wall' as seen from the plain appears to be from two
to three thousand feet in height, but on mounting the wall
through one of the many passes, one sees behind range upon
range more than double the height of the front wall, and behind
these again snowy peaks rising to twenty and more thousand feet,
the foot-steps of the north-eastern extension of the Tibetan
plateau beyond. This latter pastoral plateau, ranging about
8o THE FAR EAST
11,000 feet above sea-level, forms the limit of agricultural
Szechuan on the north as does the Tibetan plateau proper on the
west ; and on it the rivers that go to irrigate the Chengtu plain
take their rise, and after traversing the plain in myriads of
channels are ultimately absorbed in the bosom of the mighty
Yangtse. Of these, the chief are the Min river, which, coming
from Sungpan, debouches into the plain at Kwan-hien situated
in its north-western corner, and the Shih-chuen (Rocksprings)
river which debouches near An-hien in the north-east. Still
further east the wall is again broken through by the important
Siao-ho (Small River), so called, that takes its rise in the snow-
covered 'Shueh-pao-ting,' and, flowing past the prefectural city
of Lungan, enters the plain at Chiang-yii and forms one of the
three main forks of the widely navigable Kialing river, which
joins the Yangtse at Chungking. But this river cannot be said
to irrigate the Chengtu plain proper ; it irrigates a smaller similar
plain to the east, separated from the main basin by a range of
low foothills running at right angles to the ' wall,' and known
as the ' Pa-tse ' or ' Expanses ' of Mienchu and Chung-pa-chang
(Central Plain Market).
On the south and east the old lake basin is shut in by low
rolling hills, composed mostly of sand and gravel but, with
careful manuring, bearing fair crops of barley, maize, and sweet
potato. Behind these the true red sandstone reappears, water-
worn into scarped ravines, terraced valleys and flat-topped
pinnacles, having the air of being crowned by artificial fortresses.
On numbers of these summits ' Chai ' — elaborately walled-in
enclosures of masonry, pierced by arched gateways — have been
built, cities of refuge to the inhabitants of the valleys in times
of political disturbance. Behind these again are the true moun-
tain ranges, — those long parallel limestone chains, rising from
two to three thousand feet, that traverse Eastern Szechuan from
south-west to north-east, often running for many tens of miles
in an almost straight line, their crests showing a level sky-line,
hardly interrupted by a single prominent peak. Their flanks
are steep, and form dividing walls to the fertile terraced expanse
of broken steeply accidented red sandstone valleys that He
between them. Through three of such ranges the reunited
drainage of the plain makes its way to the Yangtse river, some
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THE MIDDLE BASIN: TART III 81
two hundred miles to the south, in two channels : the one, the
Min, which unites with the Yangtse at Sui-fu, there nearly
doubling the volume of the main stream coming from Yunnan
and the Far West : the other, the Chung-kiang, or Central
River, a body of less volume but navigable by light draft boats
throughout the greater part of its course, falling into the Yangtse
at Luchow, an important mart and depot for the produce of the
celebrated Tze-liu-ching salt-wells, situated a few miles above
the point of junction.
The main roads by which the traveller approaches Chengtu,
the great city of the plain and the capital of the province, up
and down the steep stone staircases which form the high-roads
of Szechuan, everywhere except in the ' Pa-tse ' we are describ-
ing, viz. that from Chungking in the south-east (300 miles), that
from Si-an in the north-east (700 miles), that from Wan-hien in
the east (400 miles) ; all fall to the plain by a steep descent,
the view from the summit in each case suggesting unmistakably
the idea of an old lake basin at one's feet. This is due to the
abrupt contrast between the flat plain, apparently level as
a billiard table, and the steepness of the gorge through which
the path falls to the very edge of the plateau. But the plateau,
in reality, is not level ; it has a slope from north to south of 700
feet, the level at Chengtu in the south being 1,700 feet above the
sea, and at K wan-hien, forty miles to the north-west, 2,400
feet. This steady fall greatly facilitates the irrigation, besides
adding to the picturesqueness of the scenery by necessitating
innumerable dams and overflows to regulate the rapid currents
of the watercourses, and, as we shall see, has been taken advan-
tage of in a masterly way by the famous hydraulic engineer to
whose genius the inauguration of the system is due.
It is from Kwan-hien that the main irrigation takes its rise
in the Min river, which descending from the high plateau to
the north (12,000 feet) and flowing past the border city and
flourishing mart of Sungpan (9,000 feet) here emerges on the
plain, having fallen 9,000 feet in a distance of 200 miles. Even
in the dry winter season the Min at Kwan-hien is a stream of
considerable volume, about fifty yards wide, over a fathom in
depth and flowing with the torrential current which the above
heights impose ; in summer the boulder bed of the river, lure
FAR EAST (1
82 THE FAR EAST
half a mile in width, is entirely covered, and, at the height of
the monsoon rains, becomes a vast torrent threatening to sweep
everything before it. To regulate such a river, tame its violence,
bring its vast force into subjection, and make it a boon in lieu
of a curse to the plain it flows through, would severely tax the
capacity of one of our twentieth-century engineers ; yet a simple
Chinese prefect of the almost mythical period of the Tsin
dynasty (B.C. 255-206) did not hesitate to tackle the problem
which his successors have brought to such a marvellously suc-
cessful issue. It is not without a feeling of emotion that the
Western traveller of to-day stands on the site of Li's first work,
the gorge cut through a foothill of the ' Azure Range,' which
turns back half the volume of the Min away in a north-easterly
direction, while he looks down on the rushing waters below, and
upwards to the temple which commemorates the great author
of the work and his immortal labours 2,100 years ago. Li Ping,
the first ' Tai-shou ' or hereditary governor of Chengtu, who was
appointed by the ' Tsin ' after the armies of the ' First Emperor '
had invaded and overthrown the aboriginal kingdom of Shu
(B.C. 215) — the name by which the whole province was known
subsequently in the Han dynasty — is said to have designed and
begun the work which was finally carried out by his son whose
surname alone has survived to posterity, hence he is designated
simply as Li Erh-lang — literally, Li the second gentleman, or,
as we should say, Li the Second. This second Li has likewise
been canonized and his image is ensconced in another and newer
temple, one of the most magnificent in the empire, the successive
pavilions of which rise tier above tier up the steep bank of the
Min, a mile above the city wall of Kwan-hien ; the pavilions are
solidly built, adorned in the highest decorative style of Chinese
art, and, above all, kept in perfect repair. New honours and
titles have been conferred on the hero by emperors of successive
dynasties, all which are duly recorded in his temple. Conspicuous
amongst the many elegant inscriptions cut in stone with which
the temple is adorned, is the dictum, attributed to Li, ' Shen
t'ao t'an ; ti tso yen,' ' Dig deep the bars ; Keep low the dykes,'
i.e. Keep the water at a constant level. This maxim has been
religiously observed in Szechuan for the past two thousand
years ; pity that it has not been similarly observed in the north,
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART III 83
where the frequent breaking through its banks has given to the
Yellow River the name of ' China's Sorrow.' Doubtless the
religious sanction given to Li's teaching by Imperial Edicts —
the ' Bulls ' of successive emperors, the Popes of the Chinese
people — has been effective in assuring the literal observance of
the ' Saint's ' precepts ; anyhow, during the long succession of
years since Li's death, through all the changes of dynasties and
political turmoils of which Szechuan has been the scene, we
read, in the native history of the province, that the annual
alternate damming of the rivers and the digging out of their
beds — which may be seen in operation to-day in the winter
season — has never been pretermitted ; and this while throughout
the empire generally all the great works of old have been ruined
by neglect and suffered to fall into irreparable decay. Witness
the grand canal in Kiangsu — the glory of Kublai Khan,— the
Yellow River, the network of water-courses that pervade
the great plain of Chihli, the neglect of the post-roads and the
dilapidated condition of public works everywhere, culminating
in the filthy condition of the capital, Peking, and the collapse
of its once elaborate drainage system, since the advent of the
warlike but barbarous Manchus two hundred and fifty years
ago. The distinction is probably due to the absolute depen-
dence of the five millions of people on the Chengtu plain upon
the minute organization of their irrigation system, to the pressure
they are able to bring upon their rulers — the Provincial capital
being in their centre — and their willingness to tax themselves
or allow themselves to be taxed for the work. [Cf. Diagram on
p. 89.]
It is not until after the advent of the Mongol dynasty to the
throne of China that we read of any additions to Li's great
work ; during the intervening fourteen centuries the annual
necessary repairs to the channels would appear to have been
faithfully attended to, but the local history mentions nothing
of importance until we reach the commencement of the Mongol
rule (a.d. 1280-1368), at which time we learn that the Provincial
Judge of the period (a learned Chinese ' Don ' probably, equally
capable of leading an army or damming a river at a minute's
notice), sought to control the forces of nature, while at the same
time he propitiated the invisible powers, by having a tortoise
G 2
84 THE FAR EAST
cast in iron and weighing forty tons which he fixed in the bed
of the river and thereby kept back the flood. But he did more
than this ; he lined the dykes with quarried stone, stopped up
the interstices with molten iron, made a cement of lime and oil
from the Dryandra tree (the well-known T'ung you) with
which he caulked the stone facings of the embankments and
prevented leakage through them. He also planted willows
and briar shrub, ' thick as the teeth of a comb,' to ensure their
durability. Where a stream was divided off into two channels
he erected flood-gates by which the water could be diverted to
either channel separately. In fact ' he did all that wisdom
could devise or strength carry out.'
This artificial multiplication of the channels is the striking
feature of the system. The main stream is first carefully em-
banked and then an arrow-headed tongue of boulders from the
river bed is built up in mid-channel ; this tongue is formed of
boulders encased in open wickerwork formed of plaited strips
of bamboo, each crate so formed having the appearance of a
Brobdingnagian sausage, some thirty feet in length by two in
diameter, and which it needs a big gang of men to place in posi-
tion ; these are piled one above another, after which no rush
of water appears capable of dislodging them ; the friction of
the pebbles carried down by the flood does indeed in time wear
through the bamboo network in places, but all such damage is
made good each winter when the water falls, and it is astonishing
to see how effectively these seemingly fragile makeshifts succeed
in permanently resisting the heavy summer freshets. On either
flank of this tongue new channels are dug out and carefully
bunded. Then lower down, say at a distance of a couple of
miles, the two original channels are again subdivided into four,
and so on ad infinitum, until, where the multiplied small channels
have attained the dimensions of a brook that one can leap, the
whole watercourse is floored and embanked with slabs of lime-
stone and the current diverted to irrigate some individual
farmer's fields, who himself controls the irrigation of his land
by private sluices. At the original subdivision of the main
stream, the caisson by which the water can be shut off from, or
laid on to, the right or left system of channels as the case may
be, is constructed out of a similar pile of bamboo crates which
I l» x
kw»V
Near view of 'barrage' in position, shutting out the water from one of the
two channels into which the river is here divided.
First breach in the 'barrage1 at Kwanhien (to be followed by its total removal), whereby
the waters of the Min are admitted into the hitherto dry North-eastern irrigation system.
This 'barrage' is removed each year in April and replaced again in November.
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART III 85
has to be shifted at the low water season by coolies working in
the water. But the Chinese engineers do not place their reliance
in crates of boulders alone, nor in iron tortoises and bronze oxen,
efficacious as these are believed to be in maintaining embank-
ments throughout the empire generally ; dangerously exposed
corners have an additional protection of cedar piles and balks
of elmwood, besides, in places, huge cut stone slabs morticed
together by iron clamps.
We next learn of a great flood having necessitated extensive
improvements in the time of the Mings — that pure Chinese
dynasty that succeeded the Mongol and is still more celebrated
for its public works and roadmaking. In the reign of Kiaching
the officer in charge caused a pair of oxen to be cast weighing
twenty-two tons apiece ; these he erected on the dyke placed
together in the shape of the 'character ' man (>Ak), the head and
tail meeting. Mr. Vale, of the C. I. Mission, from whose trans-
lation I borrow these facts, tells us in a quotation from the
' Chen-liu Record ' : ' When water is brought in conflict with
any substance the heaviest prevails ; it is possible to collect
together myriads of stones but you cannot unite them in one
body, but tens of thousands of " catties " of iron may be melted
and thus united in one ; being united it makes one solid weight
than which there is nothing heavier. When water is brought
in conflict with such a weight it rebounds and divides itself into
many streams ; divided thus, its strength is weakened ; in this
weak condition even bamboo, wood, or sand may resist it ;
thus, though there is nothing more swift than the waters of
a dyke, yet there is no better way to cope with it than by using
iron.'
And so, in the reign of Wan-li in the same dynasty, the gover-
nor ordered that thirty iron pillars, each ten feet long, should be
added to the dyke at Kwan-hien. The work occupied six months ;
eighteen tons of iron were used and the expenditure amounted
to three hundred catties of gold (£1,550). The repairing the
damage caused by a previous flood cost, we are told, 253,000
days' work, say, the labour of 1,000 men for 253 days, which,
at fourpence per man per day, would amount to the, for China,
large sum of ^4, 217. The chronicler goes on to say that the
present system of enclosing boulders in bamboo crates dates
86 THE FAR EAST
from the time of the emperor Wan-li of the Ming dynasty
(acceded a.d. 1573). Iron tortoises and bronze buffaloes are
no longer employed, though these seem to have been popular
throughout China up to ' Ming ' times : the great dyke of the
main Yangtse river which protects the country extending along
its banks from Shashih to Hankow, a distance of two hundred
miles, where in summer the vast agricultural plain lies twenty
feet below the river level, is also graced with these antediluvian
looking monsters : but in Kwan-hien to-day money is better
spent in careful repairs to the embankments, at an annual cost
of only some two thousand taels. A special tax to provide this
modest sum is levied upon the districts using the water, and the
maintenance of the system is under the charge of a special
' Water Commissioner,' appointed by the Viceroy of the pro-
vince. The allotted amount may, of course, be largely exceeded
in years of exceptional freshets ; one year's flood repairs cost
£4,000, although the current official allowance for digging out
a square ' chang ' is only ten cents, equal to about one penny the
cubic yard. There is not much room for official 'squeezing' here.
Evidently the work of irrigation at Chengtu is well done and
honestly done ; local repairs lower down are usually carried
out by the farmers at their own cost, either jointly or indi-
vidually. The annual opening of the dyke takes place at the
time of the Ching-ming feast, which coincides with our Easter
and is attended with great ceremony. The intendant of the
circuit (Taotai) then proceeds in state to Kwan-hien and first
inspects the repairs ; after inspection of these and the dyke,
worship is solemnly offered up in Li's temple ; on the following
day the Taotai with his retinue of officials proceeds to the en-
trance of the dyke and superintends the removal of the barrier
by the workmen, whereupon the surplus water rushes in from
the main stream of the Min river, through the gorge cut by Li
Ping into the north-east channel, and proceeds to fill the irri-
gating channels of that system ; after these are fully supplied
the water is again diverted to the south-east system. Later in
the year, when the monsoon rains have yielded a superabundant
water supply, all the channels are left open and the whole plain
is musical with the sound of flowing water and miniature falls.
In Chungking, in the early spring, before a true rise in the river
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART III 87
has begun and the water is still transparent blue (a striking
contrast to its thick chocolate colour in summer), a slight rise
of a few inches, disappearing again the following twenty-four
hours, often occurs, whereupon the boatmen tell you, ' They
have opened the dams at Kwan-hien ' : the distance by water
from Kwan-hien to Chungking being nearly eight hundred miles,
with a fall of about eighteen hundred feet in the river bed. The
normal rise of the Min at Kwan-hien is about ten feet ; should
the rise exceed this figure disaster ensues, as the water then
overflows the dykes. The water-gauge in Li Ping's gorge is
marked up to twelve feet, Chinese, only ( = thirteen and a half
feet, English). At Chungking the normal summer maximum is
seventy feet, while a rise to ninety or one hundred feet may be
looked for about every seventh year ; but the upper Min is only
a minor contributor to the rise at Chungking ; the Yangtse at
this point receiving not only the whole drainage of the region
to the north of Chungking, but that of northern Yunnan and the
whole south-west in addition.
The admirable system of irrigation described above has
resulted, not only in converting a stony plateau into fertile
agricultural land, but it has made this land, favoured by a warm
sub-tropical climate, almost twice as productive as ordinary
irrigated land elsewhere, as much as five crops of varied produce
being culled on some mixed farms in one year. Consequently,
rice-land in the plateau (upon which several intermediate crops
are grown) is worth £yo an acre, as against about £40 round
Chungking, the ratio of relative productiveness being as seven
to four, and this irrespective of the rainfall. The produc-
tion of paddy at Chengtu is four to five tons per acre (valued
at £15), as compared with two to three tons in other rice-growing
districts. M. Eugene Simon, in his Carte agricole de V empire
chinois, places the proportionate production of the Chengtu
rice-fields and those of Hupeh as three to one, but this is mani-
fest exaggeration. In Szechuan the landlord and tenant divide
the produce equally, whereby in normal years the former
receives eight per cent, interest on his investment.
Below is a sketch of the ancient city of Kwan-hien — ' Barrier
City,' so called from the fortresses built at the mouth of the
gorge of the Min against the incursions of the nomad tribes of
THE FAR EAST
the high Kuku-nor plateau to the north of Sungpan. It is at
this point that the Min river, which rises about one hundred
miles north of Sungpan, and which is considered by the Chinese
FlG. 16.— Map of Kwan-hien.
as the true source of the Yangtse, breaks through the ' Azure
Wall ' and emerges into the Chengtu plain.
Mr. Consul Litton, in his report to the Foreign Office, where
he gives a minute description of the hydraulic works, which
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART III
«9
Fig. 17.— Map of Chengtu with Irrigation Channels.
yo THE FAR EAST
he says, deserve for their ingenuity, simplicity, and utility to
be ranked among the first public works of China, makes the
following interesting remarks : —
' The objects which the ancient engineer seems to have set
before himself were : — (i) To prevent an excessive rush of water
down the rest of the plain ; (2) to irrigate the north and centre
of the plain ; (3) to effect this by connecting the watersheds of
the Min and Lu (the Chung-kiang or Central River ?) rivers by
streams across the plain.' He adds — ' Between Hanchow and
Chengtu, a distance of thirty miles, no less than fourteen
bridges are crossed, and I gather that some of the streams which
they cross are artificial, but they are all banked up, in some
places with earth dykes and in others with stones plastered to-
gether or packed in bamboo baskets, to such an extent that it
is impossible to say which are natural and which are artificial
channels : besides the main stream, there is a great network
of deep cross-ditches, averaging five yards broad, by which
water is conducted to every field that requires it ; at frequent
intervals water-gates with low dams are erected by which the
water when it fills to a certain level shuts itself off.'
And now we will leave this survey of the great work of Li Ping
and his nameless son, the ' Lord of Streams ' — ' Chuan Chu,'
with his sacred maxim, visible to this day cut deep in a granite
rock above the gorge — ^ y^] ^| ^ fii ^jj| ' Dig deep the
bars ; Keep low the dykes,' and resume our course down the
Yangtse to the sea.
CHAPTER VII
THE MIDDLE BASIN '. PART IV. THE LOWER YANGTSE
PROVINCES
The province of Hupeh, the second on our list, comprises in
the main the lower Han valley in the north and the middle
Yangtse valley in the south ; the two valleys being divided by
the range of the wild Tapa-shan, the same mountains that
divide Szechuan from Shensi and which, in their prolongation
eastwards, finally subside under the alluvial plain of the Hwai
river. It lies between the thirtieth and thirty-second parallels
of latitude and between seven meridians of longitude (109 to
116), the total area being 69,000 square miles, carrying a popu-
lation generally estimated at 30,000,000 souls. Hupeh, literally
translated, means 'North of the Lake,' the Tungting being the
lake alluded to ; the province by which Hupeh is bounded on
the south being Hunan, meaning 'South of the Lake,' while
the two provinces together are known as the Viceroyalty of
Hu-kwang, meaning 'Lake expanse,' — the ancient name of
this region. The country here formed in prehistoric times
a vast lake which the Yangtse had to fill up before it com-
menced to form its present delta. Hupeh may then have
meant northern lake (expanse), and Hunan, southern lake
(expanse). One half of the area of the province, the thickly
populated central portion, an ellipse the two foci of which
are the great marts of Shashih and Hankow, is an alluvial
plain once a vast inland sea, to this day largely covered by
lagoons and swamps, and in the frequently recurring years of
flood reconverted into a lake of nearly the old surface dimen-
sions. Such floods occur in seasons when the ' Szechuan river '
that flows past Shashih and the main river flowing forth from
the Tungting lake rise simultaneously. The immense mass of
water is then dammed up by the narrows at ' Split Hill,' fails
to run off as fast as it is fed from behind and so spreads over the
92 THE FAR EAST
surrounding country. At such times nothing is seen above the
waste of waters but the roofs of the farm-houses, insufficiently
raised on artificial earth-mounds. Even the cities of the plain
are then only partially raised above the flood level, the greater
portion of their areas being under water, sometimes for months
together, involving terrible loss of life and a vast destruction of
property. In normal years the Tungting lake region, fed from
the south, receives the first burst of the monsoon rains, and its
waters have time to escape before the Szechuan river, as it is
here called, is in flood from the drainage from the far west — the
produce of the late summer rains in Yunnan and the melting
of the Tibetan snows. The northern and western half of the
province is mountainous, thinly populated except in the narrow
valleys of the Han river in the north and of the ' Tsing ' or Pure
River in the west ; this latter, a pellucid stream that waters
the vale of Shinan and falls into the Yangtse a few miles below
the Treaty Port of Ichang. Through these mountains the
Yangtse, after quitting Szechuan, continues its way through
the grand gorges that terminate at Ichang, situated one hundred
miles to the east of the border line between the two provinces.
The only possible land road from Hupeh to Szechuan follows
up the valley of the Tsing river to Shinan, climbing over a suc-
cession of low passes until, after leaving Shinan, it ascends to
the plateau country of Lichuen until the path falls again to the
level of the Yangtse at a point fifty miles above Wan-hien in
a precipitous descent of 4,000 feet ; the road then crosses to the
left or north bank of the river and continues west across a series
of mountains to Chungking. This road, in the Hupeh portion,
is quite impracticable for heavy traffic, although used at times
by travellers debarred from the water route by the fierce summer
downward current ; but the scenery is extremely picturesque,
owing to the high white limestone cliffs which hem in many of
the rich intervening valleys, and the frequent ascent of the path
up and over them. Yet porters, for many years, carried chests of
opium from Szechuan to Hupeh by this route in order to avoid
the Likin stations on the river, until the gabelle officials at last
made up their minds to place Likin stations upon the land route
as well, which led to the present readoption of the water route.
The Tapa-shan range, which divides the Yangtse valley at
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART IV 93
Ichang from the Han valley to the north is still more rugged,
and the trails over it are scarcely used by any but charcoal-
burners ; what little traffic there is makes its way round by
the Han to Hankow. Leaving Ichang and its foothills of rough
gravelly soil, producing little beyond barley and dwarf pines,
a descent of eighty miles down stream brings us to the mart of
Shashih, the western focus of the great Hupeh plain. All of
Shashih not built on raised land lies below the summer level of
the river and is protected from it by a magnificent embankment
of cut limestone. Adjoining Shashih stands in the low plain
the walled prefectural city of Kingchow, the seat of the inten-
dant of the region (the Taotai) and of a Manchu garrison — strong
in numbers but effete — living as pensioners with their wives
and families in a fortified enclosure apart from the Chinese
city. Kingchow in ancient times was renowned as the capital
of the feudal state of Tsu, and many are the battles for supre-
macy fought in its neighbourhood. It was here that, about
B.C. 300, Chii-yiian, the faithful Minister of Prince Hwai of Tsu,
committed suicide by drowning himself in the Mi-lo river.
This famous suicide occurred on the fifth day of the fifth moon,
and, on the anniversary of that day, throughout all Mid- and
South China, the great Dragon-boat Festival is still celebrated,
the people having thus been searching the rivers of China for
the recovery of his body and the appeasement of the hero's
manes for over 2,200 years.
Shashih is an important canal centre and junk entrepot, and
was formerly, until superseded by the establishment of Ichang
as a Treaty Port in 1876, the port of transhipment for the pro-
duce of Szechuan brought down by junk from Chungking.
A canal to the north and east gives a short cut to Hankow,
whereby the dangerous navigation by the quicksand-infested
' King River,' as the Yangtse is here called, is avoided, while
a canal to the south provides easy communication by the Yuan
river to the province of Kweichow, and by the Tungting lake
to Hunan. Now that foreign steamers run to Ichang and call
at Shashih, to whom the shoals and quicksands of the ' King '
mean nothing more than temporary delays, the canal system is
diminishing in importance and its maintenance is being neg-
lected. Two hundred and eighty miles below Shashih by the
94 THE FAR EAST
windings of the Yangtse, we come to Hankow, which lies in the
same latitude (3o|-0), and is distant only two degrees, say ioo
miles, in longitude. The three cities which together make this
spot the commercial and official capital of the province spread
out on all sides around the meeting-point of the Han and Yangtse
rivers ; Wuchang, the residence of the Viceroy on the right or
south bank of the Yangtse ; Hanyang, another walled city and
seat of a magistracy on the right bank of the Han, and north
shore of the Yangtse ; and Hankow, the greatest of all, but
which has neither walls nor officials, on the left bank of the Han,
and north of the Yangtse facing Wuchang. The water traffic
is enormous, and seeing that Hankow will shortly be the railroad
centre of the vast empire, if Chungking, as Wells Williams opines,
is the coming St. Louis, then Hankow bids fair to become the
Chicago of the east. Its population, now estimated at over
a million, rivals that of Chicago ; it is a depot for a surrounding
country of more varied productions, while new industries and
factories are daily coming into existence. To those residents
in China who can still remember the utter ruin and desolation
of these triple cities after their evacuation by the Taipings in
1855 (these cities were taken and retaken by assault no less than
six different times between December, 1852, and May, 1855),
their revival is astonishing ; a revival due, unquestionably, not
alone to the great recuperative power of the Chinese themselves,
but in the main to the opening of the port to foreign settlement.
This measure, so bitterly opposed by the official Chinese and so
welcome to the people, has been the salvation of Hupeh, by the
introduction of foreign capital, and energy stimulated by inter-
national rivalry. The Abbe Hue, who passed up the Yangtse
in 1845 while on his memorable voyage to Tibet, gave what
must then have been an exaggerated estimate of the population
of the triple cities as 3,000,000 and the extent of the buildings
along the banks as five leagues ; but this estimate appears to
be gradually materializing, as each successive visit after two or
three years' interval demonstrates. The bulk of the trade,
however, is in Chinese hands, though largely carried in foreign
bottoms. The foreigner makes new openings and organizes
new enterprises, but in time the slow persistent native on the
spot, with his inexhaustible patience and boundless thrift,
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART IV 95
absorbs them to himself, and the hare is overtaken by the
tortoise.
The productions of Hupeh are less varied than those of Sze-
chuan to the west or of Hunan to the south, its mountains —
denuded of their forests — being mostly barren, and the plain
producing little more than the strict requisites of the people for
food and clothing, barley and cotton being the chief : the large
supply of rice for consumption is mainly derived from the richer
province of Hunan, as is also the chief article of foreign export,
tea. Cattle are raised in large numbers in the north, and their
hides are a prominent feature in the exports ; oil-bearing seeds
are also raised in considerable quantities, silk is spun and woven
to a large extent — as everywhere in China where the mulberry-
tree will grow — together with numerous fruits and other products
common to sub-tropical China ; coal and iron are found close
to the Yangtse, but the quality of the former, as throughout all
the Yangtse basin until Szechuan is reached, is poor, and it is
not over-plentiful. The Han river is now navigated by small
Chinese-owned steamers as far north as Siangyang, a distance
of 300 miles, and, during the summer freshets, by junk and
small boat up to Hanchung in Shensi, six hundred miles further.
Hupeh is separated from Honan and the Hwai valley on the
north by the Ma-ling range, which is now traversed by the Lu-
han railway on its way to Kaifeng and Peking ; and, in the
south by the Wu-feng-ling, or ' Five-peak ' range, which divides
the province from Kiangsi. Leaving Hankow, the river flows
south-east and breaks through the northern prolongation of
this range in the narrow winding channel of 'Split Hill,' — a
channel not yet enlarged sufficiently to carry off the summer
freshets as they come down from the west, and which, by its
interposition, contributes to the annual rise at Hankow of
forty-five feet and more above the winter level. After passing
these narrows we emerge, at Wusuch, into the plain that now
extends to the north of Kiukiang, and which, in conjunction
with the Poyang lake and the alluvial lands surrounding it,
once formed the second of the great inland seas of which the
present lakes are only the attenuated remnants. From Hankow
to Kiukiang the distance is 140 miles by a south-east course,
Kiukiang being situated in latitude 29!°, at the southern bend
96 THE FAR EAST
of the river whence it continues in a north-easterly course to
Nanking and thence E. and ESE. to the sea. Kiukiang stands
on the right bank of the Yangtse, in the province of Kiangsi,
which we describe later. The opposite or left bank is still
included in the province of Hupeh down to the entrance of the
Poyang lake. — We now turn back to Hunan, the northern
boundary of which we skirted on our way, past the Tungting
lake, from Shashih to Hankow.
The province of Hunan, the third on our list, is mountainous
throughout ; it comprises, in all, four river basins, those of the
Li and Yuan rivers in the north, of the Tze-kiang in the centre,
and that of the Siang-kiang in the east, all draining into the
Tungting lake and so tributary to the Yangtse. The area of
the province is 83,000 square miles, and its population is esti-
mated at 21,000,000. Hunan, owing to the strong anti-foreign
feeling of its inhabitants, and to the fact of its lying aside from
the main routes of travel, was, until quite recently, the least
known of the eighteen provinces. Now, however, the route of
the newly authorized grand trunk, north and south, line of
railway, conceded to an American syndicate, has been surveyed
through it, while its capital, Changsha, has been placed in
steam communication with Hankow. The province extends
north and south about 300 statute miles between the 26th and
30th parallels of north latitude, and east and west, between the
107th and nith meridians of longitude, about the same distance,
forming a rough square between Hupeh on the north, the two
Kwang provinces on the south, Szechuan and Kweichow on the
west and Kiangsi on the east. Hunan possesses little level
land ; what there is, is confined to the deltas of the rivers where
these fall into the shallow basin of the Tungting lake, and these
form naturally the chief rice-growing region, of which the pre-
fectural city of Changteh on the Yuan river is the centre, and
whence large quantities are exported to Hankow. The province
is situated in the midst of the mountainous region which covers
the whole of South-east China, and extends uninterruptedly
from the Yunnan plateau to the sea. These confused mountain
masses, with a general trend east to west, averaging some three
thousand feet in height, but often reaching to five and six
thousand feet, especially at the boundary lines and water-
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART IV 97
partings, isolate the provinces from each other, as well as thev
do the districts into which the provinces themselves are divided.
This naturally enforced isolation tends, in the absence of
practicable roads, to segregate the inhabitants into small com-
munities, ignorant of the outside world and even imperfectlv
acquainted with each other ; this condition of affairs is strikingly
exemplified in the myriads of local dialects. Time was when
I was able to recognize the difference in dialect between
the inhabitants of the six different Hien, or counties, of one
prefecture, as easily as the distinct flavours of the tea which
each of these separate valleys produced ; a marked contrast tr>
the countries north of the Yangtse, throughout which the ' man-
darin,' almost absolutely useless for travel in the south, is every-
where intelligible. The northernmost of the four river basins
of Hunan, that of the Li — the Li-shui, the waters of Li, so named
from Li-hien, the city situated at the head of its delta — is sepa-
rated by a range running east and west from the parallel valley
of the Yuan. The Li-shui takes its rise within the boundaries
of the province itself, and is navigable, by small scows only, as
far as Shih-men, the ' Stone Gates,' a distance of about thirty
miles above the town of Li, more generally known under the
name of its prefectural city, Fengchow, The Yuan river, on
the other hand, which takes its rise as far west as Kweiyang, the
capital of Kweichow, is navigable up to the borders of that
province and is the scene of an important traffic, notwithstanding
that its course also is obstructed by almost continuous rapids.
By painful toil the boatmen manage to convey merchandise as
far as the city of Yuanchow, 200 miles above the city of Chang -
teh, built at the head of the delta. The Yuan river is likewise
utilized by Szechuan travellers, who, by a short land portage,
are able to connect with the Kung-tan river, which also takes
its rise in Kweichow, and by it descend to the port of Fuchow,
situated fifty miles below Chungking, whereby the dangerous
summer navigation of the Yangtse is avoided and advantage
taken of the corresponding sufficiency of water in the Yuan.
The Tze river, which rises in the south on the borders of Kwang
si, and which drains another fertile valley, flows northward
until it joins the Siang at its mouth in the Tungting lake ; this
river has little value for navigation, as it- alternative name — the
98 THE FAR EAST
T'an or ' Rapids ' river — would seem to imply. The Siang,
by far the largest river of the four, takes its rise in the neigh-
bourhood of Kweilin, the capital of the province of Kwangsi,
and has a course of three hundred miles before it falls into the
Tungting lake in the north. The Siang river is navigable by
small craft throughout the whole of its course ; a short canal
connects its head-waters with those of the Ku-i river on the
other southern slope of the water-parting, thus connecting the
Yangtse by continuous inland water communication with
Canton. Steamers of five hundred tons burden now run, in
summer, between Hankow and Changsha, the capital of the
province, which stands on the right bank of the Siang, sixty
miles above the new Treaty Port of Yochow at its mouth ; and
smaller steamers to the great tea mart of Siang-tan, situated
on the left bank, thirty miles higher up. From Siang-tan is
drawn the greater portion of the tea shipped from Hankow in
ocean steamers to Odessa and London, the neighbourhood of
latitude 280 being that in which the tea-plant in China best
flourishes. All these south-eastern provinces of China, moun-
tainous as they are, are well exposed to the monsoon coming up
from the China Sea, and so, in normal seasons, being well
watered, are susceptible of terraced cultivation for rice and all
other sub-tropical crops, and no eyrie susceptible of cultivation
is unoccupied. Oil-producing seeds are grown in quantity
here as in Hupeh and elsewhere, the oil being shipped away in
tubs and in bamboo crates lined with oil-proof paper : these,
with tea, coal, hemp and tobacco, form the principal articles of
export. The timber trade of Hunan is likewise a very large
one, immense rafts being floated down-stream from Changsha
and on down the Yangtse, the lower ports on which, denuded
of their own natural forests, are now supplied exclusively from
Hunan. Shanghai is supplied with lumber from the Pacific
coast and with small poles from Foochow. These huge rafts,
drawing six and eight feet of water, with temporary but com-
plete houses for their crews erected on them, are a great feature
in the navigation of the Lower Yangtse, timber yards lining the
river banks for miles at the more populous cities where the rafts
are broken up. The lumber is derived from the forests, rem-
nants of which are still found in the higher mountains remote
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART IV 99
from water carriage ; but, as the Hunanese are cutting into these
from the north and the Cantonese are cutting into them from
the south, not many years will pass before these too are ex-
hausted, after which time China will be entirely dependent upon
Puget Sound for her lumber supply, as Tientsin and the coast
ports are to-day. These mountains, which divide the water-
shed of the Yangtse from that of the ' West River ' of Canton,
are known as the Nan-ling or southern range ; they are crossed
by three passes, over which lead wide stone-paved roads, built
in ancient times of huge stone blocks over a foot in thickness,
the two chief being the ' Che-ling ' which leads into the Canton
province from Hunan, and the ' Mei-ling ' which leads from
Kiangsi also to Canton. The introduction of steamers on the
coast and rivers has led to the practical abandonment of these
tedious land routes, where merchandise is carried on men's
backs, for all but local traffic.
The Tungting lake, which still looms large on the maps, is
now silted up to such an extent that it is only navigable in the
channels of the rivers flowing into and through it to the Yangtse,
the Yuan river crossing the lake east and west, and the Siang
river crossing it north and south ; though their banks are
flooded in summer and so give to the basin the appearance of
a lake, yet in winter it is little more than a vast expanse of sand
flats. This with the Poyang and other lakes bordering on the
Yangtse form backwaters for the storage of the surplus floods
of the great river, at which time the current in the contributary
rivers flows up-stream instead of down.
The fourth of the Yangtse provinces is Kiangsi. This
province lies immediately to the east of Hunan, in the same
latitude, and is similar in size, climate and natural conditions
generally. Its area is 69,000 square miles and its population
24,000,000. A smaller area supports a larger population, owing
to the greater extent of level land formed by the deltas of the
rivers falling into the Poyang lake ; in the centre of the alluvial
plain thus formed stands the provincial capital, Nanchang-fu,
originally built on the shore of the lake, which lias since receded
thirty miles northward. The main artery of the province is
the Kan river, which, rising on the southern border, in the
neighbourhood of the Mei-ling Pass, traverses the province
h 2
ioo THE FAR EAST
from south to north, and, after collecting numerous affluents
on both sides, debouches into the Poyang lake, and so into the
Yangtse. It was over the Mei-ling Pass and down the Kan
river that, in old days, the embassies landing in Canton pro-
ceeded north on their visits to the Court at Peking ; thus we
possess long and glowing accounts of this country in the records
of the Macartney embassy in 1793, and the Amherst embassy
in 1816, which returned by this route ; these accounts of the
wealth in natural products and the swarming activity of the
people still hold good, notwithstanding that Kiangsi, like its
neighbours, suffered severely from the devastation of the Tai-
pings in the 'fifties,' although the people of Kiangsi still pride
themselves on the fact that their capital city, Nanchang, success-
fully withstood a long siege until the advent of the imperial
troops from the north compelled the ' rebels ' to retreat. Other
affluents of the lake on the east are : the Fouliang river, by
which is received the produce of the famous potteries of King-
tehchen ; the Yaochow river, which drains a rich ' green ' tea dis-
trict and coal region ; and the King-kiang, which drains a similar
region farther south. On the west, the Siu river, which takes
its rise in the ' Five Peaks ' mountains dividing Kiangsi on the
north-west from Hupeh, falls into the Kan at Nankang after
draining the famous vale of Wuning and Ningchow, wherein is
produced the finest congou in China, if not the finest tea in the
world, now retained mainly for consumption by connoisseurs in
Russia. The potteries of Kingtehchen on the Nganhui border
owe their fame to the existence near by of an apparently inex-
haustible quarry of the white clay, formed from decayed granite,
known as ' kaolin,' a word derived from the local name of the
range and meaning ' High Pass,' whence the clay is quarried in
a condition ready for the hand of the potter. The only similar
deposit in England is in Devonshire in the Teign valley. King-
tehchen supplies nearly the whole of the empire with rice bowls,
a necessity in every Chinese family, rich or poor, besides endless
varieties of ornamental porcelain, which, however, showr a sad
falling off, both in colour and form, from the productions of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, specimens of which are hardly
now obtainable in China, owing to the high prices paid for such
by amateurs in Europe and America. Kiukiang, the Treat}"
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART IV 101
Port situated twelve miles above the outlet of the lake, is the
port of shipment for the valuable productions of the province,
among which tea, porcelain, paper, and vegetable tallow are the
chief. Kiukiang was opened to foreign trade in 1861, at which
time the fine native city was a waste of broken bricks with
scarce a single inhabitant. The native city and the country
round still show signs of their devastation by the Taipings, but
the foreign settlement and adjoining native suburb prosper by
the hea\y transit trade, developed by steam, of which Kiukiang
is the centre ; to foreign residents in the Yangtse valley, from
Shanghai upwards, Kiukiang is best known as the landing-place
for the Lu-shan mountains, at the foot of which Kiukiangstands.
This fine range — a hog-back in appearance — 5,000 feet in height,
has recently been opened up for foreign residence ; hundreds
of bungalows have been built, and the place is now known as the
sanatorium of Killing. The summer climate is delightful, so
cool that the Chinese inhabitants there wear their wadded
clothes all the year round. The climate of Kiangsi generally
is hot in summer, as befits the latitude, but the winters are cold,
so much so that occasionally the lakes that intervene between
Kiukiang and its mountain background are frozen, and I have
myself enjoyed good skating on them : this in latitude 290 and
at not fift}' feet above sea-level is an evidence of the extremes
to which a continent subject to monsoons is exposed. Kiangsi
may be summed up as an inland amphitheatre of mountains,
one-fifth larger in area than England and Wales, draining into
a central lake, now all but filled up by their detritus.
Leaving Kiukiang, the Yangtse is deflected north by the high
granitic ranges of Eastern Nganhui and traverses that province
in a NNE. course, 250 miles to Nanking. Hence the river flows
alternately, north-west to south-east, where it breaks through
the mountain chain, and south-west to north-t ast, where it flows
in the ancient valleys between the ranges, its course being thus
d< prudent on the ancient configuration of the land. These
mountain ranges consist throughout of palaeozoic rocks, the
newer formation existing only in patches, mainly of loess and
laterite, filling the bottoms of the old valleys. The province of
Nganhui embraces an area of 55,000 square miles (compare
England and Wales, 58,000), and is credited with a population
102 THE FAR EAST
of 21,000,000. It is situated between Honan and Kiangsu on
the west, north and east, with Kiangsi and Chekiang on the
south. The province comprises two valleys : that of the Hwai
in the north and that of the Yangtse in the south, separated by
the eastern extension of the Tapa-shan, the range that marks
the northern boundary of the adjoining province of Hupeh and
which finally disappears under the alluvial plain of Northern
Kiangsu ; this low chain turns north-east on leaving Hupeh
and runs parallel to the high range of the Hwang-shan or Yellow
Mountains that shut off the Yangtse valley from Kiangsi and
Chekiang in the south and east. Both valleys are well watered
and fertile, but the higher ranges, now denuded of their forests,
are rugged and uncultivated. The valley of the Hwai, an
eastern prolongation of the Honan plain, inclines seaward to
the absolutely flat plain of Kiangsu, the land being gently
undulating, and yielding in years of normal rainfall good
crops of cereals, as across the frontier in Honan. In the Yangtse
valley, in the south-east, on the foothills of the Sung-lo or Pine
range, large quantities of a superior quality of green tea (i.e.
tea-leaf so prepared) are grown and brought to Shanghai for
sale, whence they are exported, mainly to the United States ;
a certain portion, and that of the finest quality, going to Bombay
for consumption in Persia and Central Asia. The centre of this
tea-packing region is Huichow-fu, situated in the extreme
south of the province and commonly known to tea-buyers as
'Fychow,' a district also famous throughout the empire for the
superior quality of its ' Indian ' ink, made from the soot of
burning oil from the seeds of the Tung-tse tree (Aleurites cordata),
mixed with glue and scented. In the east of the province, two
hundred miles down river from Kiukiang, we have the Treaty
Port of Wuhu situated in the centre of the lowest of the ancient
lake basins, now the richest rice-producing region in China.
This basin is shut off on the east by the Nanking highlands and
the low range through which the Yangtse makes its way by the
gate of ' The Pillars.' To the south and east this ancient basin
is open to the Tai-hu lake and the sea, many evidences going
to show that the Yangtse at one time made its way to the sea
by this exit, before the low promontory on which Shanghai now
stands, and which divides the present estuary from the Hang-
THE MIDDLE BASIN : PART IV 103
chow bay, was laid down. Wuhu was utterly destroyed during
the Taiping rebellion and the whole country round denuded of
its inhabitants, yet the region is so fertile, and its lowlands so
suitable to the cultivation of the paddy, that it furnishes im-
mense supplies of rice annually for export to the south, whither
it is conveyed by foreign steamers, a fleet of which is constantly
moored off the port. The capital of the province, Nganking,
situated on the left bank, sixty miles below Kiukiang, was also
for seven years in 'Taiping' hands, during which it was desolated
by the rebel occupation and by its capture by the Imperialists
under Tseng-kwo-fan in 1861, but now, having been made a port
of call for the river steamers, it is slowly recovering its old
importance. Immediately below Nganking the Yangtse flows
through the narrows of ' Hen Point,' one of the ' gates ' giving
exit to the old lake basin above. Another noted city of Northern
Nganhui is Fengyang ('Rising Phoenix'), situated on the right
bank of the Hwai and at the foot of the hills which bound its valley
in the south. Fengyang was destined for his capital by Hungwu,
the founder of the Ming dynasty in a.d. 1368, but was subse-
quently abandoned for Nanking. In modern times Nganhui has
become noted as the home of Li Hung-chang, China's only states-
man, as his admirers called him, and who used his power largely
to promote Nganhui men to important posts without regard
to their competence and with disastrous results to the empire
at large ; his native town of Ho-fei is famous in history as the
scene of the great defeat of Sun-kwan, founder of the dynasty
of Wu in the romantic epoch of the ' Three Kingdoms ' (a.d.
220-280), by Ts'ao Ts'ao, the rival prince of Wei (a.d. 215).
Nganhui suffered worse than any of the provinces from the
struggles between the Taipings and Imperialists that were carried
on for ten years (1852-1862) on its soil, which ultimately became
a wilderness swarming with wild animals ; it has now been
gradually repeopled, largely by immigrants from neighbouring
provinces less cruelly used, and its many towns that line the
Yangtse are now the scene of great activity. The introduction
of railways and the concomitant order and strengthening of the
central power will, it is to be hoped, render a repetition of the
awful and prolonged horrors of the Taiping conflict an impossi-
bility in the future. Nganhui forms one of the three provinces,
io4 THE FAR KAST
Kiangsu, Nganhui. and Kiangsi, that together make up the Vice-
royalty of Kiangnan.
The sixth and last of the Yangtse provinces is Kiangsu, with
an area of 45,000 square miles and 30,000,000 inhabitants : it
is thus one-tenth less in size than England, but with about the
same population. Kiangsu is best known as the site of the
southern capital, Nanking, the seat of the Viceroyalty of Kiang-
nan : and of Shanghai, the commercial metropolis of the empire.
The Yangtse enters Kiangsu at 'The Pillars,' twenty miles above
Nanking, where tide-water is met at two hundred miles from the
river's mouth. Hills, from five hundred to one thousand feet
in height, continue to line the banks, stopping short of Chinkiang
on the left bank but continuing beyond that port on the right
bank until well within the delta, fifty miles from the mouth ;
with this exception, and that of a few isolated hills that rise steep
from the plain, like islands from the sea, the province is one wide
alluvial flat, formed entirely by the encroachment of the river
silt on the Pacific Ocean ; it is the Holland of China, the Yangtse
taking the place of the Rhine, and, like the former country, is
traversed by canals and canalized streams in every direction,
cultivation along the coast being carried on in polders, where
the country is below the level of high water. The province is
traversed from north to south by the Grand Canal, which crosses
the Yangtse at Chinkiang, 150 miles above Shanghai : nearly
one-tenth of its area is covered by shallow lagoons and reed-
producing swamps. This delta is limited on the south by the
highlands of Chekiang and the Chusan archipelago, and on the
north by the highlands of Shantung, between which it extends,
from the 31st to the 35th parallel of latitude, a distance of
250 miles, the width of the delta averaging 150 miles. The
delta is steadily growing seawards and every year sees new land
reclaimed from the sea ; the water-courses, tributary to the
river and open to tidal action, are fast filling up with the silt
brought in by each flood tide from the Yangtse. This growth
of the land is specially noticeable at Shanghai, where, in the
memory of men still living, the Wusung and Hwangpu rivers,
at whose junction Shanghai is built, have lost one-third of
their former volume, and threaten in the very near future to
depend entirely on artificial measures to keep them navigable.
THE MIDDLE BASIN: TART IV
ic
At the rate the coast is now making out to sea, the next century
may see Shanghai situated on the banks of a clear-water canal
above tidal influence ; so flat and spongy is the land that it
seems to absorb the greater part of the rainfall and to leave
little for the rivers intersecting it to carry off : these therefore
become relegated to the position of canals, and have to be main-
tained as such, forming as they do the grand highways of the
country. Shanghai is roughly said to be situated at the moutli
of the Yangtse, but in reality the city is built on the banks of
a tributary, the Hwangpu,
which falls into the
Yangtse at Wusung, forty
miles above Yangtse Cape,
a point which marks the
southern entrance into the
river. The Hwangpu and
Wusung are in reality tidal
creekscommunicatingwith
the network of tideless
canals which, free of all
locks or weirs, thread the
interior country. Shanghai
thus stands on a branch
river, and in much the
same relation to the moutli
of the Yangtse as Chat-
ham to the mouth of the
Thames; its name, mean-
ing 'Up to the sea,' would
seem to show that in an-
cient times it certainly was nearer to the sea than it is at present ;
it lies now fourteen miles up the Wusung river, and fifty-four miles
distant from the sea : still, in dry seasons, the water at Shanghai
is distinctly brackish. Shanghai stands in latitude 31" 15' north,
and in longitude 121° 20/ east, or, in time, eight hours and six
minutes east of London ; its relation to the Yangtse river is
compared by Wells Williams to that of New Orleans to the
Mississippi, and, although Shanghai has the distinction of lying
up a side creek and not on the main river itself, the analogy with
FlG. 18.— Approaches to Shanghai.
106 THE FAR EAST
New Orleans (which stands close upon latitude 300) is good in
the fact of its being the sea-going port of the great river artery
of the country, and in the necessity of artificial means to con-
serve its communication with the ocean. Shanghai, however,
serves a richer country with larger and far more varied produc-
tions than New Orleans, and has the advantage of the open sea
in every direction ; hence it is naturally the great centre of the
foreign trade with China and is rapidly becoming the commercial
metropolis of the whole vast empire, — much as is New York
that of the United States, an equally rich and extensive region
with like varied and unlimited natural resources. Previous to
its establishment as a Treaty Port at the instance of the British
Government in 1843, Shanghai was the chief port of call for
sea-going junks on the China coast, large fleets of which were
always anchored, and still anchor, off the Chinese suburb built
under the walls of the native city, above the ' foreign ' inter-
national settlement. It was not apparently until the eleventh
century a.d., when the Southern Sung dynasty, driven from
the north by the Kin Tartars, had established their capital
in the neighbouring city of Hangchow, that the trade of
Shanghai warranted the establishment of a custom-house on
its shores ; this being one of the earliest recorded facts in the
history of the district ; and it was not till the fourteenth cen-
tury, when the Mings had driven out the Mongols and established
their capital in Nanking, that Shanghai was raised to the dignity
of a walled city and county capital. Two centuries later the
growing mart was destroyed by pirates from Japan, who were
then ravaging the whole coast of China (leading to the wholesale
removal of many coast cities inland), and at last, on June 13,
1842, Shanghai was attacked by 4,000 British troops under
Sir Hugh Gough, whereby the port was thrown open to foreign
trade, and its eventual prosperity finally assured. In 185 1 the
native city was captured by Triad rebels, affiliated to the Tai-
pings, but these were driven out again in 1853. In i860 the
extensive suburbs to the east and north of the walled city were
set fire to and destroyed by the French as a precautionary
measure against the Taipings, who were then again threatening
the place, which suburbs were afterwards incorporated in
a separate French settlement — the French having from that
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART IV 107
time refused longer to unite with the general international
settlement originally established by the British, although when
the port was first opened the French combined with the British
in drawing up the regulations under which, up to that date, the
settlement was governed ; the fire, of which the writer was an
eye-witness, burnt furiously for three days and nights, destroyed
enormous quantities of merchandise, and rendered 100,000
Chinese homeless. The ' settlement ' took a great start in
that year, largely owing to the influx of wealthy Chinese flying
from the ravages of the insurgents, and now bids fair to ere long
occupy the whole of the fourteen miles of river frontage down
to the port of Wusung, where the Shanghai river falls into the
Yangtse. The total population in this year (1903) is estimated
to have increased to 10,000 ' foreigners ' and 600,000 Chinese,
who are under the administration of a municipality annually
elected by the European residents. The work of the municipal
councillors, administering a revenue of a quarter of a million
sterling, is very exacting and is unpaid ; but the result is a
model settlement ; unpaid labour, here as elsewhere, yielding
the best return. No place better than Shanghai exhibits the
gulf between East and West ; the contrast between the native
city — a walled-in mass of reeking filth — and the clean, spacious,
well-paved, tree-shaded streets of the settlements, must be seen
to be credited, while the crowded walled city takes one back to
the fifteenth century in Europe. 'The Chinese are ready enough
to enjoy and support the higher style of living, but they are not
yet prepared to adopt and maintain similar improvements
among themselves. The difficulty of ensuring the co-operation
of their rulers in municipal improvements deters intelligent
natives from imitating even the commonest sanitary enterprise
of their foreign neighbours.'
Outside of Nanking, the official capital, the official name of
which is Kiangning, the Treaty Port of Chinkiang, and Shanghai,
the commercial capital, the principal cities are Suchow, sixty
miles west of Shanghai on the borders of the Tai-hu lake, and
Yangchow, on the Grand Canal, twenty miles to the north of
Chinkiang ; it is from the latter city that the Yangtse derives
its name, or possibly, vice versa. Fifty miles higher up the
Canal is situated Hwai-an-fu, chiefly important as the centre
io8 THE FAR EAST
of the manufacture of fc Hwai ' salt, a government monopoly
and the main source of the provincial revenue — the salt being
evaporated from the sea. The most valuable production of
Kiangsu is silk ; mulberry-trees line the banks of the canals
both here and in the adjoining province of Chekiang, the quan-
tity produced being practically illimitable. There are few
provinces in which silk is not produced, silk being the common
wear of all but the poorest classes in China, but the finest quality
and the largest quantity is produced in this low plain, which
extends across the border into Chekiang as far west as Hang-
chow and Huchow, where the unbroken highlands reaching
away west to the far Atlantic commence. Next in importance
comes cotton, which, besides supplying the looms to be found
in every cottage and the steam mills of Shanghai, yields the
main supply to the numerous spinning-mills in Japan. Rice
and innumerable other sub-tropical crops are raised in abun-
dance, but sugar and tobacco to supply the wants of the people
are imported from other provinces. The climate is soft and
mild ; the heat and cold being tempered by almost constant sea-
breezes, and the Suchow women with roses in their cheeks and
fair skins are reckoned the handsomest in China : rain falls
more or less throughout the year, but chiefly with the setting
in of the monsoon, from May to July.
The province suffered severely in the middle years of the past
century from the ravages of the Taiping rebels, who made Nan-
king the capital of the new dynasty the}7 vainly attempted to
found. The then rich and flourishing city of Nanking was
captured by them, after their march through Hunan and down
the Yangtse, in 1852, and, like a second Troy, stood a ten years'
siege before it was retaken by the Imperialists in 1864. Up to
i860 the rich cities of the plain — Changchow, Suchow, Huchow,
and Hangchow — had escaped molestation, nor, while the Taipings
were besieged and hemmed in in Nanking, did the happy-go-
lucky inhabitants attempt to organize any measures of defence.
Suddenly in i860, without warning, the half-starved rebels
made a grand sortie from their capital, utterly routed their
besiegers and overflowed like a torrent into the rich plain to the
south ; one city after another fell without opposition, until the
' Chung' Wang, well named the ' Faithful ' Prince, was brought
THE MIDDLE BASIN: PART IV
109
up against the walls of Shanghai, defended by foreign troops.
Then followed four years of fighting, chiefly under the leader-
ship of Gordon, the Taipings displaying a courage and deter-
mination worthy of a better cause, until in 1864 Nanking fell
to the Imperialist besiegers, and the reactionary Manchu
dynasty had another chance given to it. During these four
years the luxurious cities of the plain were taken and retaken
by the contending forces until scarcely one brick was left stand-
ing on another. I myself
visited Hangchow after it
was retaken by the Im-
perialists in 1862, and
walked for ten miles along
the banks of the Grand
Canal and Tsien-tang river
over a waste of broken
bricks. Nanking, with its
thirty-five square miles
enclosed in a wall fifty
feet high, once the seat of
innumerable flourishing
manufactures, met with
equal destruction. The
whole country-side was de-
populated, half the people
were killed, half may have
escaped to Shanghai and
other cities of refuge, where they led a precarious existence until
peace was restored and they were able to return to their ruined
homes. It is generally estimated that, in this and the neighbour-
ing provinces subject to ten years of Taipingdom, fully 20.000,000
people perished by the sword and famine. The remarkable en-
durance and recuperative powers of the Chinese, as well as the
resources in the soil, are shown in the marvellous way in which
the country has since been redeemed from savagery and the
cities rebuilt. As a result of the Japanese War of 1894. Suchow
and Hangchow were made open ports as well as Nanking, and
the consequent outlay of foreign capital and the introduction
of steam traffic have aided the impoverished people in their
recovery.
Original Seat of the Insurrection .
Zone of the Greatest Devastation
/Irea of the Spread of the Insurrection.
Fig. 19.— The Taiping Insurrection.
CHAPTER VIII
THE INTERMEDIATE PROVINCES
Two intermediate provinces which, speaking accurately,
belong neither to the middle basin of the Yangtse nor to the
southern basin of the ' West River,' their rivers draining as they
do direct into the Pacific, are Chekiang and Fukien : in climate
and productions, however, they belong rather to Mid China
than to the south and so are fitly introduced into this chapter.
They may be said to be cut off from the great province of Kiangsi
on their west by the range of the Wu-yi-shan, commonly pro-
nounced ' Bohea,' the crest of which forms the water-parting
from the Yangtse basin and turns their streams eastward to the
sea. Both provinces are wholly mountainous, with the excep-
tion of a few square miles of flat land to the north and east of
Hangchow, which geographically form a part of the Yangtse
delta, there being no line of demarcation whatever.
Chekiang is the smallest of the eighteen provinces, having an
area of 36,000 square miles only, with a population estimated
at 11,000,000. Its name is taken from a river in the southern
part of the province called the Che-kiang, meaning Crooked
River, one of the many small rivers that, rising in its western
mountains, traverse the province in a west-east direction and
fall with a rapid incline into the sea. Chekiang is one of the
best-known provinces to European travellers ; its chief port,
Ningpo, has been frequented by ' foreign ' ships on and off since
the Portuguese first visited it in the sixteenth century ; its
people are friendly and highly civilized, and the region, besides
being easily accessible, presents every possible attraction in its
products and its scenery to the intelligent traveller. Robert
Fortune, the botanist, who visited the province in 1848 and
subsequent years, has left us an elaborate account of its richness
and social characteristics : Baron Richthofen has also given us
a good account of its topography. To the writer, familiar with
the West, it appears as a miniature Szechuan, which in climate
THE INTERMEDIATE PROVINCES in
and productions and the sociability of its people it much
resembles. With the exception of valley bottoms, limited in
extent, the province is covered with mountains rising to about
two thousand feet, less steep than in Szechuan and either culti-
vated or covered with valuable forest trees and bamboo planta-
tions throughout. The whole province produces cotton, silk,
tea, rice, ground-nuts, wheat, indigo, vegetable tallow, and
beans in abundance. ' It possesses within its limits every
requisite for the food and clothing of its inhabitants, while the
excellence of its manufactures ensures it in exchange a supply of
the luxuries of other regions.' Lord Macartney traversed the
province in 1793. The principal river is the Tsien-tang, which
drains the northern half of the province, and, after a general
north-east course (parallel to the Yangtse 200 miles to the west),
falls into the Hangchow bay, after washing the walls of Hang-
chow, the capital of the province. The Tsien-tang is a river of
clear water and brings down no silt ; above Hangchow it flows
through a picturesque gorge in a stream three to four hundred
yards wide ; it is navigable for fair-sized craft as high as Yen-
chow, and in its upper forks, which here branch off, by rafts
to the borders of Kiangsi and Nganhui. The Hangchow bay at
its mouth is no longer navigable for seagoing vessels, although
a few solidly constructed junks of special build are used for
local traffic of a rough nature. At low water (springs), this wide
bay, with an area of not less than four thousand square miles,
appears a vast expanse of sand traversed by a few streams of
fast flowing water, until the tide turns and the flood comes in
with a rush, converting the estuary into an apparently shoreless
sea. At full and change of the moon this phenomenon of the
Hangchow bore is a sight that attracts many visitors from
Shanghai. Fifty miles below Hangchow, and equally on the
north shore of the bay, stand the ruins of Chapu, once the port
of Hangchow and enjoying a large sea-borne trade : the sea
around it has now silted up, but sixty years ago (1842) it was
accessible to the light-draft ships of the British fleet which
attacked the place and defeated its Manchu garrison. Midway
between these two places is situated the far older port of Kanpu,
now left entirely high and dry, and which was the great resort
of Arab traders in the eighth and ninth centuries, at which time
U2 THE FAR EAST
itvvas the chief port in China and the onlyone atwhich foreigners
were admitted to trade during the Tang dynasty. Marco Polo,
who visited the site in 1290, says of it : ' The Ocean Sea comes
within twenty-five miles of the city (Hangchow) at a place
called Ganfn \ where there is a town and an excellent haven,
with a vast amount of shipping which is engaged in the traffic
to and from India and other foreign parts. And a great river
flows from the city of Kinsay (Hangchow) to that sea-haven by
which vessels can come up to the city itself.' Chinese annals
report the massacre and driving out of the Arabs and other
strangers settled in Kanpu in the ninth century, to the number
of 800. Disputes seem to be chronic between Chinese and
' foreigners,' due probably to the difficulty of understanding
each other's language and customs, as well as to the
venality and chicanery of the officials. The accelerated rate
at which this, on the map, fine bay has silted up can probably
be accounted for by the growth of the Shanghai peninsula
seawards in the north, by which the tidal scour up and down
has become shut off, and by the narrowing of the channels
between the south point of the bay and the Chusan islands
which lie off its mouth. The bay has thus become a sort of
1 The site of Kanfu (or Kanpu) has long formed a vexed question amongst
foreign historical students in China. Sinologues who have searched the annals
of the Tang dynasty have generally reached the conclusions given in our
text, but, having been over the ground, I am rather inclined to endorse
Mr. Kingsmill's deductions, — also drawn from a survey of the ground, and
set forth in one of the many articles contributed by him to the Journal of the
China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Mr. Kingsmill writes: 'The
Kanfu of the Arabian travellers was not Chapu. Any one except a " Sino-
logue " might have known that to an Arab it meant Kwang (chow) fu =
Canton. There never was a foreign port in Hangchow Bay any more than
at present. The regular port was Ningpo, whence goods were taken to
Yuyao (a small city on the Yung river twenty miles above Ningpo). They
were then unloaded and carried across two embankments to the mouth
of a small river flowing from the Pingshui district (a noted tea mart), whence
they entered a large canal communicating with Shaoshing, and with Shao-
shan, a small city on the right bank of the Tsien-tang opposite Hangchow.
I have been through the route myself and so speak from knowledge. In
Polo's time the Tsien-tang fell into the sea between Yuyao and Shangyu,
where probably was a port, — possibly called Ngan-pu = Polo's Ganfu.'
Thus the massacre of the Arabs and other foreign merchants during the
disturbances that accompanied the dying throes of the once great dynasty
of Tang, occurred in Canton and not in any port on the Hangchow bay.
Canton has always been the great seat of foreign trade from time im-
memorial.
THE INTERMEDIATE PROVINCES 113
backwater to the stream of mud which flows down the coast
out of the mouth of the Yangtse and which is carried into the
bay by the tide. Surveying vessels of H.M. Navy have at-
tempted of late years to enter the bay and survey it, and report
an eleven-knot current rushing amidst shoals and quicksands.
The bay probably commenced silting up as soon as the exit of
the Yangtse direct into the bay, by way of the present Tai-hu
lake, was cut off, possibly five thousand years ago. Hangchow
is one of the two famous cities of which the Chinese proverb
says : ' There is Heaven above but Suchow and Hangchow
below.' Both cities are indeed most beautifully situated, land
and water combining to perfect their sites ; Hangchow lies at
the foot of the Tien-mu-shan, the ' Eye of Heaven ' mountains,
which shelter it from the north-wrest winter gales, and between
the sea on the one hand and the ' West Lake ' on the other.
The beauties of the site have taxed the descriptive powers of
Chinese and Europeans alike. Marco Polo says of it : ■ Inside
the city there is a lake which has a compass of thirty miles ;
and all around it are erected beautiful palaces and mansions,
of the richest and most exquisite structure that you can imagine,
belonging to the nobles of the city. There are also on its shores
many abbeys and churches of the idolaters. In the middle of
the lake are two islands, on each of which stands a rich, beauti-
ful and spacious edifice, furnished in such a style as to seem fit
for the palace of an emperor V The notorious effeminacy of the
people of Kiangsu is in harmony with their luxurious climate
and beautiful natural surroundings. Hangchow was visited by
Marco Polo in or about a.d. 1290, after the conquest of China by
the Mongols, previous to which the city flourished greatly as
the capital of the Southern Sung dynasty, a.d. 1127 to 1278, —
an offshoot of the Sung dynasty that had ruled the whole empire
for 160 years before, and were driven south by the irruption of
the 'Kin' Tartars, who, after a.d. 1127 and until their conquest
by Genghis Khan, divided the empire with the southern Sung ;
Sze-ma-kwang, the historian, and Chu-hi, the orthodox commen-
1 The Si-hu = West Lake, is an artificial, not a natural lake; it was inside
the city in Polo's time, the wall then running by the Tien-tu temples and
skirting the river some seven miles above the present city. This accounts
for the length of the walls and the number of the bridges as given by him.
ii4 THE FAR EAST
tator of the Confucian classics, shine among the galaxy of poets
and philosophers who made the Sung period the Augustan era
and the city of Hangchow the Rome of mediaeval China. This
literary activity was not extinguished under the Mongol rule ;
Kublai Khan was himself a patron of literature and would
appear to have left the Chinese unmolested so long as the
provinces contributed punctually to his revenue at Peking.
As seems to have been the case with each successive conquering
dynasty that invaded the fair land of China, the hardy north-
erners succumbed to the luxury and civilization of the soutli
and became effete ; misrule grew rampant, until at last the exas-
perated people succeeded in throwing off the yoke and in re-
establishing a native dynasty. This occurred with the Mongols,
after sixty years of rule only, during which period nine of their
emperors sat on the ' Dragon Throne.' The leader in the ousting
of the Mongols was a poor Buddhist priest, who successfully
headed a rebellion which resulted in his gaining the empire
and founding the Ming dynasty, with Nanking for its capital,
a.d. 1368. The next city of importance, and one even more
familiar to Europeans than the capital itself, is Ningpo, situated
one hundred miles to the east and south, on a small river, the
Yung, that falls into the sea ten miles lower down, almost im-
mediately opposite the island of Chusan. This fine city is built
in the midst of a rich rice plain surrounded by an amphitheatre
of lovely mountains open to the sea of the Hangchow bay in
the north. Ningpo was made a Treaty Port in 1842, and in the
old sailing-ship days enjoyed a direct trade with foreign coun-
tries ; since the advent of steam its exports have been diverted
to Shanghai and the trade of the place is now entirely in Chinese
hands. The natives have lately established cotton mills which
pay handsome dividends, and with which the foreign-managed
mills of Shanghai are unable to compete ; these latter are now
(1903) mostly in difficulties. Chinese labour in foreign employ
is not cheap, and requires conscientious European supervision
to remedy the carelessness and indifference of the workmen in
order to render it efficient ; but European supervision in the
East is necessarily so expensive that it outweighs the gain from
the low wages which the native is willing to accept. This is
the crux of all ' foreign ' industrial enterprises, at least in North
THE INTERMEDIATE PROVINCES 115
China. Midway between Ningpo and Hangchow, and connected
with both by canalized rivers, dammed by mud weirs up which
the junks are hauled by windlasses, stands the city of Shaoshing,
sometimes called the Venice of China, from the canals that
thread its principal streets, and further noted for the skill of its
accountants, who are in great demand in mercantile offices at
Shanghai. All this region was devastated by the Taiping
rebels in 1862, causing untold misery to the industrious inhabi-
tants, of which the writer, who was at that time resident in
Ningpo, was a harrowed witness. After a few months' occupa-
tion the rebels were driven out by a British fleet under Com-
mander Roderick Dhu, who breached the walls of Ningpo city
for that purpose. During the cruel war of 1841, Ningpo sub-
mitted peacefully to the British, who confined hostilities to the
assault on the fortress of Chinhai at the mouth of the river and
the capture and occupation of Chusan. The archipelago of that
name consists of about one hundred islands, all mountainous
and fertile ; the chief is Chusan itself, upon which stands the
city of Tinghai, the administrative centre of the group ; Chusan
is a rich and beautiful island twenty miles east and west
by ten miles in width. The other best known island of the
group is Puto, about four miles long, which lies to the east of
Chusan. This island was given to the Buddhists in the Tang
dynasty and is still in possession of the priests ; it is covered
with temples, many now in ruins, and is visited by pilgrims
from all parts of China, especially women who go to pray to
Kwan-yin Buddha, the Virgin Mary of the Buddhists, for male
offspring, but who are forbidden to pass a night on the island
(in Mount Athos women may not even land). In the extreme
south of the province, in latitude 28', is the city of Wenchow,
also noted for its monasteries and picturesque scenery, and
which was made a Treaty Port in 1877 '■> a nne quality of tea,
besides bamboo paper and rape-seed oil, is produced in the
district, but the trade is entirely in Chinese hands and there
are no foreigners, outside of consular and customs officials,
established there.
The other intermediate province is Fukien, which lies im-
mediately to the south of Chekiang and which is wholly moun-
tainous. Its area is 46,000 square miles and it is credited with
1 2
n6 THE FAR EAST
20 millions of inhabitants ; it forms a parallelogram, 270 miles
NE. and SW., by 170 miles NW. and SE., the longer axis of the
province coinciding with the prevailing run of its principal
mountain ranges. It is bounded on the west by the province
of Kiangsi, the crest of the Wu-yi range, celebrated as producing
the finest tea in China, if not in the world, forming the water-
parting ; on the south by the province of Kwangtung (Canton),
on the north by our other intermediate province, Chekiang, and
on the east by the Formosa Channel and the Pacific Ocean.
The island of Formosa was, up to 1895, a part of the govern-
ment of Fukien, but in that year Formosa was ceded to the
Japanese as a portion of the huge indemnity which they suc-
ceeded in extracting from the distressful empire. The interior
of Fukien, up to its western border, presents a succession of
steep valleys difficult of access, producing but a bare subsistence
for their inhabitants, who have the reputation of being the
rudest and least educated of all the peoples of China, and were
those who offered the most desperate resistance to the Manchus ;
its sea-coast of bold precipitous granitic rocks is deeply indented
and fringed with lofty islands, creating numerous sheltered
inlets at the head of which stand the principal cities of the
province and the mouths of its principal rivers. The chief of
these is the Min, at the head of whose estuary and at the upper
end of a bold and picturesque gorge is situated ' Pagoda
Anchorage,' a wide reach forming the harbour for sea-going
vessels, and fed by the narrower Min, which descends from
Fuchow, the provincial capital and nominal port, fifteen miles
higher up, in a stream two to three hundred yards wide.
The river Min is formed by the union of three large streams
at Yenping-fu, an important mart situated near the centre of
the province and about one hundred miles above Fuchow, which
drain all but the south-east corner, which last is drained by the
Kiu-lung river, falling into the sea at the Treaty Port of Amoy.
The Min river and its affluents are well supplied with water all
the year round, and, notwithstanding that they are obstructed
by a constant succession of rapids, serve as a sufficient means
of intercommunication, owing to the art with which the Chinese,
better than any other people, succeed, with infinite toil, in
navigating rapid rivers : the transit is extremely tedious, as
THE INTERMEDIATE PROVINCES 117
on the Upper Yangtse, and the trackers have high cliffs to
scramble over here as there. An early writer in the Chinese
Repository says of the Min : ' Bold, high and romantic hills
give a uniform yet ever varying aspect to the country, but it
partakes so much of the mountainous character, that it ma}' be
truly said that beyond the one plain of the capital we saw no
plain even of small extent. Every hill is covered with verdure
from the base to the summit. The less rugged were laid out in
terraces rising above each other sometimes to the number of
thirty or forty. On these the yellow barley and wheat were
waving over our heads. Here and there a labourer, with a
bundle of grain which he had reaped, was bringing it down on
his shoulder to thrash out. Orange, lemon and mulberry, with
other trees, shaded the narrow strips along the banks, half con-
cealing the cottages of the inhabitants.' The Min of Fukien,
of a certainty, in either beauty or usefulness to its inhabitants,
yields the palm to no other river in the world., and it is doubtful
whether any navigable river possesses such a magnificent en-
trance from the sea ; there is no delta ; the channel, ten to
twenty fathoms deep, leads between lofty cliffs, emerging from
which the river opens out in the basin of Pagoda reach, a lake-
like expanse in an amphitheatre of verdure-covered mountains
two to three thousand feet in height. Ten miles further bring
us to the capital, built in a valley interspersed with tree-clad
hills, with high mountains surrounding it ; nearly the whole
valley being covered with houses and picturesque temples. An
old stone bridge of sixty arches spans the river and connects
two quarters of the high-walled city, intervening spaces being
filled with green paddy-fields and bamboo groves. The river,
in the length of its longest fork above Yenping, flows for a
distance of 250 miles above the capital, giving access to no fewer
than twenty-seven walled cities on its banks. Fortune, in his
quest of the tea-plant, traversed Fukien as well as Chekiang,
and in his Tea Districts has described the scenery of the ' Bohea '
mountains, which are famous in Chinese poetry and paintings,
and the outlines of which have inspired much of the fantastic
mountain scenery which Chinese artists delight in depicting.
Fortune tells us of ' the picturesque grouping of steep rocks,
lonely temples on jutting ledges and hidden adits, alternating
1 1 H THE FAR EAST
with hamlets along the banks of the stream which carries away
the produce to market.' The Bohea tea, prepared as congou
(meaning ' worked,' i.e. fermented tea-leaf), is esteemed by
Chinese the best in China, and especially, after two or more years
preservation in tin-foil, as a panacea for indigestion and migraine :
its praises are frequent by the poets of the Sung period.
Fuchow is one of the five original ports opened to foreign trade
by the Nanking Treaty of 1842. During a generation of mer-
chants, who made large fortunes in the trade, the Fukien teas
had an equal reputation abroad and the export both to England
and the Colonies was a large and flourishing business, giving
employment to the celebrated tea clippers of the period (now,
alas ! extinguished by prosaic steam), whose neck-and-neck races
home created more excitement than those of the Derby at
Epsom ; but in the ' seventies ' the quality of the teas began to
deteriorate, and this fact, coupled with the increasing competi-
tion from India, at length ruined the trade and those engaged
in it, and Fuchow is now but the shadow of past greatness. The
chief export to-day is timber, of which large quantities are
shipped up the coast, chiefly in the picturesque, painted Fukien
junks — paipiku, meaning ' white sterns,' — but this trade is
diminishing, the poles getting smaller in size and quantity as
the forests are being cut away, while lumber from Puget Sound
is cheaper and better.
The second Treaty Port in the province, likewise opened in
1842, is Amoy, situated in the embouchure of the Lung river
in latitude 24° 40' north, at the head of an extensive bay, ren-
dered picturesque by mountainous shores and the rocky islands
which defend its entrance. In the eighteenth century Amoy,
and in the thirteenth century Chinchew, situated at the head
of another fine bay thirty miles to the north, monopolized the
trade of China with foreign lands, large fleets of junks sailing
from these two ports with the north-east monsoon to the
' Straits ' and Java, returning the following summer with the
setting in of the south-wrest monsoon. Marco Polo, who reached
Zayton, the port now, after much discussion among antiquarians,
generally accepted as Chinchew (mandarin pronunciation,
Chuanchou), after five days' journey from Fuchow, says : ' At
this city is the haven of Zayton, frequented by all the ships
THE INTERMEDIATE PROVINCES 119
from India . . . and by all the merchants of Manzi, for hither is
imported the most astonishing quantity of goods and of precious
stones and pearls. . . . For it is one of the greatest havens in the
world for commerce.' It was from Zayton that Kublai Khan's
expeditions to Java and Japan sailed, and hence the Arabs are
said to have exported silks, sugars, and spices after the aban-
donment of the port of Kanpu in the Hangchow bay. Subse-
quently Zayton was replaced by Amoy as a more convenient
port for the junk trade, as it remains to-day for the steamer
traffic of the coast. Chinchew acquired a short notoriety in the
' thirties ' as a port of call for the opium smugglers of that
period, and has since lost its former importance. The harbour
of Amoy is now considered the best on the coast, and a flourishing
and beautifully situated foreign settlement on the island of
Kulangsu, opposite the crowded native city, has grown up
there ; the firing and packing of tea-leaf is the chief foreign
industry ; there is also an active interchange of native products
with Hongkong and the other coast ports. Thirty-five miles
inland from Amoy, on the banks of the Kiu-lung river that
falls into the head of the bay, is the prefectural city of Chang-
chow, famous for the bridge that here spans the river, exhibiting
the solidity of the works of ancient times : this bridge is eight
hundred feet long and consists of granite monoliths stretching
from one abutment to another. It is known as the Polam
Bridge and is truly a Cyclopean work, and one of the few lasting
monuments of antiquity to be found in China ; each one of its
granite monoliths is estimated to weigh 100 tons. Amoy and
Chinchew are the chief ports for the great emigration that goes
on from Fukien to the Straits Settlements and the Dutch
Colonies ; Fukien seems always to have had a larger .popula-
tion than it could provide food for, and hence is the province in
which infanticide chiefly prevails. The Chinese emigration to
the ' Straits,' America, and Australia, which totals 200,000
annually, is derived exclusively from Fukien and from the two
Kwang provinces (where similar conditions prevail), while the
northerners who emigrate, notably those from the arid province
of Shantung, go to Manchuria and the Liaotung peninsula.
The people of Fukien are active and energetic, and they are not
debilitated by the foot-binding of their women, which is mostly
120
THE FAR EAST
confined to the wealthier class, unlike the Yangtse and northern
provinces where the very poorest follow this pernicious fashion.
The Fukienese were likewise the last to submit to the Manchu
conquest and to the revolution in dress imposed upon the
people by their conquerors ; to this day the Fukienese conceal
the pigtail in a becoming black turban. As late as 1674, the
Fukienese, under their then Viceroy Keng Ching Chung, in the
thirteenth year of the famous emperor Kanghi, attempted unsuc-
cessfully to throw off the Manchu yoke. The long isolation of
Fukien is exhibited in the dialect spoken by the people, of which,
while the construction is the same, the pronunciation differs in
toto from that of the rest of China, and renders their speech quite
unintelligible to inhabitants of other provinces : as an instance —
Fuchow is pronounced in Fukien, Hokchiu ; Amoy is the local
rendering of the ' mandarin ' Hsia-men, and Quemoy (Golden
Gate), an island in the Amoy bay, is the equivalent of the man-
darin pronunciation, Chinmen.
Polam Bridge, Amoy.
CHAPTER IX
THE SOUTHERN BASIN. YUNNAN TO CANTON
The four southern provinces which lie stretched east and
west, to the south of the Yangtse basin and to the north of
Tongking and the China Sea, are Yunnan, Kweichow, Kwangsi,
and Kwangtung. The two latter are drained entirely by the
West or Pearl River and its forks, which fall into the China Sea
a short distance below Canton, — as are also portions of the two
former provinces; Northern Yunnan and Kweichow, however,
drain into the Upper Yangtse, while Southern Yunnan drains
mainly into the Red River of Hanoi, flowing into the gulf of
Tongking. In addition to these we find, traversing the south-
west corner of the province of Yunnan, the Salwin, draining
into the gulf of Martaban, and the Mekong with its delta in
Cambodia. The four provinces are all mountainous, with little
or no level land outside of the delta of the Pearl River, some
high plateaux in Yunnan and a few narrow river bottoms.
Yunnan is in fact a south-eastern peninsular extension of the
great Tibetan plateau, itself a wide, similarly uneven, highland
region in the nature of a plateau from six to seven thousand
feet above sea-level, sloping gradually to the south and east,
with ranges of mountains rising up to three and four thousand
feet higher, with some peaks in the west above the snow-line
(here fifteen thousand feet). The plateau is buttressed on three
sides by rugged mountains, through which the descent is made
to the valleys upon its margin : the Yangtse valley on its north
side, the valley of the West River on the east, with those of the
Black (i.e. clear water) and Red Rivers of Tongking on the south,
These mountains, which in Yunnan run generally north and
south, continue eastwards without a break, but at decreasing
levels and trending more to the north-east, right across the
three other provinces of the basin we are describing — Kweichow,
Kwangsi, and Kwangtung; and are projected into the islands
off the coast, one of which constitutes the British colony "f
122 THK FAR EAST
Hongkong — the limestones and sandstones of the interior giving
way, as we approach the sea, to the well-known decomposing
granite formation of the China coast. Yunnan itself has an
area of 122,000 square miles, being somewhat larger than
Great Britain and Ireland combined. Owing to the devastation
of the province by the twenty years' war of the great Maho-
metan rebellion, which was finally suppressed in 1873, the
population is usually estimated at only six to seven millions, but
seeing the immigration that has since taken place from Szechuan
and which still continues, three millions may to-day be well
added to this estimate. Under good government and rulers
who should take steps to repair the old roads and improve the
communications, support irrigation works and facilitate trade
and intercourse, most travellers are of opinion that Yunnan
would afford a much larger outlet for- the surplus of the over-
populated neighbouring provinces and so double its present
population : but the ordinary Chinese officials care for none of
these things : their great fear being that improved communica-
tions will only facilitate access to marauders, foreign and native ;
nor, if willing, do they seem to possess at the present day the
organizing power to undertake public works or innovations of
any kind ; their only object seems to be to squeeze the last
' cash ' out of the impoverished people and to clear out of the
wretched country as soon as possible. Under the Manchu
system of government the officials are always appointed from
other provinces and so are strangers in the land ; while the
central government appear to value the province solely for the
copper tribute with which it still furnishes them and which they
need for the coinage of copper cash ; as General Mesny says
(Asiatic Society'' s Journal, January, 1893), ' China has lost a
favourable opportunity to benefit her people in Yunnan, and it
is now too late to repair the fault : Yunnan will never flourish
under Chinese rule.'
The name Yunnan means ' South of the Clouds,' i.e. south
of Szechuan, a region of perpetual cloud and calms, an aerial
Sargasso sea where the clouds seem to collect and hover undis-
turbed between the region of north-west gales, north of the
Tsing-ling and the wind-swept plateau of Yunnan, with its con-
stant gales from the south and east. Thus the Chinese proverb
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 123
says : ' In Szechuan the dogs bark when the sun shines ' ; but
Yunnan enjoys almost perpetual sunshine, and the strong winds
together with its high elevation make of Yunnan a cool and
healthy climate for Europeans, notwithstanding its situation
between the 22nd and 28th degrees of latitude north. The deep
ravines in the west of the province are, however, notoriously
malarious, owing to the stagnant air in the confined gorges ;
the Chinese farmers there, in order to cultivate the fertile strips
of valley bottom, descend in the day-time, returning to the
plateau to sleep — a night spent in the valley being reckoned
fatal ; nor are the pack-mules and ponies used in the carrying
trade between the Red River valley and the Yunnan plateau
ever allowed by their owners to pass a single night in Manhao.
These intervening ravines have had the effect of restricting
intercourse with the Irawaddy valley to very narrow limits,
although armies have passed from China to Burma, marched
across seemingly impassable regions by the determined leaders
of whose exploits the records of the ancient dynasties tell us.
Yet on the whole there has been no intermingling of peoples in
this direction, and the Burmese form a distinct race, though
allied to the Shans and Siamese. It is estimated that more than
half the population still consists of aborigines, in appearance
a cross between the Siam and Mongol types and known to the
Chinese as ' Miaotse,' who hold their own in the more moun-
tainous parts and who, while paying tribute, are more or less
independent and unmixed with the Chinese immigrants. In
South-western Yunnan, on the confines of Siam and Burma,
the soil is richer than in the north and east (though the mineral
wealth is there greater), and the people consequently are better
off; whereas in Eastern Yunnan maize is the ordinary food of
the people and rice the luxury of the rich. In the south and
west the fertile plain-valleys (Tiefebcnen) are more numerous
and more extensive, the undulating country becoming in-
creasingly level as the land drops towards the gulf of Siam ;
a celebrated Tiefcbcne in the west, seven thousand feet above
sea-level, is the three mile wide strip on the Tali shore of the Erh-
hai Sea, at the foot of the fifteen thousand feet high Tien-tsang
range ; on the eastern shore the lake washes the cliffs of the
ten thousand feet Meng-hua range, and no cultivable land inter-
124 THE FAR EAST
venes. One-third of the cultivable area of Yunnan is said to be
devoted to the poppy, from the capsules of which the juice is
tapped in April, after which a pea crop is sown in its place. It
is noteworthy that the aborigines, although they grow the poppy
extensively, do not themselves smoke it ; the crop is a sure one
unless injured by premature rains, which may wash off the
exuding juice, but the rule in Yunnan is for rain to fall from
May to September, leaving the remainder of the twelvemonth
bright and clear.
The old trade route between Yunnan and Burma, passing
through Tengyueh in the extreme west of the province, and on
the farther side of the Salwin, to Bhamo on the Irawaddy, is,
now that the wild Kakyens have been brought under British
rule, becoming daily of greater interest. A British Consul has
been established at Tengyueh (the scene of the murder of
Margary in 1875), to watch over the road and promote the
trade with Burma. Tengyueh is situated on the edge of the
plateau at an elevation of 5,300 feet and near the head -water of
the Taiping river, an eastern affluent of the Irawaddy which
falls into that river at Bhamo, one hundred miles to the west.
This is from old time the natural trade route, but, owing to the
difficulty of reaching the western capital of Yunnan, Tali-fu,
and the eastern capital and present seat of the provincial
government, Yunnan-fu, by a railway necessitating the crossing
the valleys of the Salwin and Mekong and the intervening
mountain ranges at right angles, a new experimental route
farther south is in contemplation. A railway, starting from
Mandalay, goes north-east to the bank of the Salwin, which is
to be crossed at Kunlong Ferry in latitude 230 20', whence, if
ever built, it is to be taken north in Chinese territory and run
parallel with the prevailing strike of the mountains, due north
to Tali-fu ; but this line will pass through a wild thinly-peopled
country and it is doubtful if a private company will be found
to build it1. The old trade route, via Tengyueh to Bhamo,
1 Rangoon, owing to its greater proximity to the ' West,' is the natural port
of entry for European goods into Yunnan, and it would seem wise to connect
up the province with the existing Burmese railways, even at a loss, rather
than to allow the rapidly increasing trade (vide Mengtse I. M. Customs'
Reports) to be diverted into foreign channels. But the existing Burma
railways would immediately profit by the transference of the trade to their
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 125
looks at first glance the more promising; its practical diffi-
culties, however, are almost insuperable. But when once the
road from Kunlong to Tali-fu is built, then the 200 miles ex-
tension to Yunnan-fu will be found comparatively easy : — the
prolongation thence to the Yangtse valley by the main trade
route, which goes via the Yunnan cities of Tengchuan and
Chaotung, is again too costly a project for an unassisted
private company to undertake ; while the Yangtse is easily
navigable from Sui-fu down, and Szechuan produce must in-
evitably continue to follow that, the natural channel to
Shanghai and the sea. The French arc now actively con-
structing, and expect to open in 1908, a railway connecting
Yunnan-fu with Tongking by way of the Laokai-Mengtse ascent,
the French Government having guaranteed the interest on the
railroad debentures to be issued for the purpose ; it would seem
that it now but remains for our Government to follow suit and
assist a British company to connect Yunnan-fu with Burma.
Another route to connect British Burma with Yunnan is that
proposed by Mr. Colquhoun. This road starts from Moulmein,
at the mouth of the Salwin, and, passing farther to the east
than either the direct Bhamo line or that by the Kunlong Ferry,
outflanks the high parallel ranges of the Salwin and Mekong
rivers and traverses the easier country of North-west Siam,
past the town of Zimme, then on through the Shan state of
Kianghung (2,000 feet elevation and recently transferred by
treaty to the government of Yunnan), where the line crosses
the Cambodia or Mekong river, and so goes north into Yunnan,
entering the province near Szemao, the new frontier Treaty
Port opened in 1896. Szemao, which is situated on the southern
edge of the Yunnan plateau, at an elevation of 4,700 feet, is the
residence of a British and of a French Consul, and, being the centre
of a fertile district, may, given railway communication, become
an important mart ; at present, owing to want of communica-
tions, its trade is insignificant, notwithstanding its favourable
situation in the richest agricultural region of the provinces.
An Anglo-French combination, the ' Syndicat du Yunan,' has
lines, to an extent probably sufficient to recoup the temporary loss on the
proposed Tali-fu extension. There can be no possible doubt, however, that
the Rangoon merchants and importers would at once find a great new market
opened to them— chiefly for cotton yarn, Manchester goods, kerosene, and
hardware.
126 THE FAR EAST
recently obtained a concession for mining in the province, but
the concession will prove absolutely worthless under the actual
regime, the Chinese officials being past-masters in planning such
obstructions to European enterprise in the country, that, like
water wearing out a stone, they will, failing strong diplomatic
pressure, in time wear out the patience of the richest trading
syndicate and nullify their work. It is to be hoped that this
question will be tackled seriously, if only in the interest of the
impoverished inhabitants. The great limestone plateau of
Yunnan, although in parts composed of a poor gravelly soil,
contains a countless number of fertile valleys interspersed amidst
its mountains — the now dry lake bottoms of ancient ' sinks ' —
and, while the rainfall falls short of that in Szechuan, yet it is
still sufficient to fill innumerable water-courses and many large
fresh-water lakes. As General Mesny, who resided many years
in Yunnan and in the adjoining province of Kweichow, truly
says : ' The natural resources of Yunnan are great indeed. It
produces everything necessary for the sustenance of a dense
population, despite its present poverty-stricken appearance.
Opium, hemp, flax, rhubarb, and other drugs abound. Maize,
rice, wheat, and other cereals are grown almost everywhere ;
pears, oranges, lemons and other fruit, potatoes and other
vegetables are cultivated. . . . Fine oxen, excellent sheep, goats,
pigs, dogs, ponies, asses, mules, fish, ducks, geese, peacocks,
and fowls are reared and eaten by all who can afford such
Milk, butter, cheese, tea, sugar, and salt are also produced, . . .
and at reasonable prices. Clothing stuff is, however, very dear,
although coarse flannels and strong silks are woven from native
produce, and an abundance of fine wool is available for manu-
facturing the best of cloth The mineral wealth of Yunnan is
something enormous and almost inexhaustible. . . . Rubies and
sapphires, garnets and topazes, amethysts and jade abound in
the western prefectures ; gold, silver, platinum, nickel, copper,
tin, lead, zinc, iron, coal, and salt also abound. Copper is
especially abundant ; its ores are of excellent quality and have
been worked for ages in over one thousand different places.
Yunnan . . . has been administered entirely as a Chinese province
for six centuries, yet nothing has been done by the Chinese
government for the benefit of the native tribes whose country
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 12;
has been so forcibly annexed to the Chinese Empire. . . . The
wealthiest of the natives are neither fed, dressed, nor housed
with anything like comfort, not to say luxury. Their best
food is frugal indeed, and their best clothing is far inferior to
that worn by our servants in Shanghai, whilst most of their
houses would hardly be considered good enough for the cattle
on a respectable English farm.'
The contrast between the magnificent natural resources of
the province, as described by General Mesny, and the poverty
of the people is doubtless due in the main to the constant unrest
in the province ever since it has come under Chinese rule ; this
unrest is not due to natural turbulence, for the Yunnanese are
a quiet, submissive, not to say cowed, people ; but to the fact
that Yunnan has lain far away from central control, and so the
rapidly succeeding satraps, who have bought their posts in
Peking, have to make good their investment in a limited time
and take no permanent interest in the province. The people
too have only just commenced to recover from the devastating
wars of 1855-1873, have not had rest to accumulate, and live
mainly from hand to mouth.
It is not easy to explain how Yunnan, with the same latitude
and a similar elevation to that of the Transvaal, with a climate
in which the summer heat rarely exceeds eighty degrees and the
winters enjoy perpetual sunshine, should possess a population
so apathetic, while again, farther east and equally touching the
tropic of Cancer, we find the most active race in China, the
Cantonese. The explanation probably is, that in Yunnan, as
in Kweichow, the aboriginal tribes, the Miaotse, have neither
been driven out nor assimilated by the more industrious Chinese
race, while periodical rebellions have led to internecine slaughter.
At the present day, the almost universal consumption of opium,
the growth of which the soil and climate of Yunnan appear
singularly to favour, has added its deadening influence. As in
Szechuan, the mass of the people are engaged on hard manual
labour ; but here, on insufficient food, opium acts as a great
stimulant and food economizer at first, but increased reliance
on it soon wears out its victim, and thus few of the opium-
smoking coolies, which one meets in gangs on the Yunnan roads,
outlive their fortieth year.
The Burma route into Yunnan has been so much put forward
12«
THE FAR EAST
of late years that we have devoted some space to discussing
its merits ; but, in truth, the three other main trade routes are
of greater actual importance, being in full swing at the moment,
both for the export of Yunnan's most valuable product, opium,
and for the import of yam and cotton-cloth from Shanghai
and Hongkong. These are : in the north, the high-road to
Szechuan, past the famous customs barrier of Lao-ya T'an
to Sui-fu, by which the bulk of the foreign goods now sold in
Yunnan passes ; this, the Yangtse route, though by far the
longest, being in the end the cheapest, owing to the heavier
taxes incurred in French territory by the Red River route, as
Scale of Miles
iio io' ' ' ' o '
Fig. 20. — Trade Routes from Yunnan.
well as by the Chinese customs on the route, via Po-se, through
Kwangsi and Kwangtung to the east. This last is the natural
route to Hongkong, but of late years it has been little used
owing to the disturbed condition of the Kwangsi province.
The northern or Yangtse route leaves Yunnan-fu (commonly
known as Yurman-seng, i.e. the provincial capital) by a road
which, crossing a series of mountain ridges, passes through
the prefecture of Tungchuan and on, over the dividing
range, past Chaotung, into the valley of the Heng-kiang
and along the gorges of the Laowatcan river, by a rapid
descent of six thousand feet to the valley of the Yangtse, at
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 129
a point a short distance above the shipping mart of Sui-fu
in Szechuan, a land journey of twenty-four stages. This is
to-day the main trade route uniting northern Yunnan and the
provincial capital with the outer world. But the shortest of
all routes by which the province can communicate with the sea
is that by the Red River to the Tongking Gulf : this river rises
in Western Yunnan in the range of mountains to the south of
Tali and flows nearly the full length of the province east and
west, but it is not navigable until after its descent into French
Tongking. The disadvantages of this route are — the difficult
land journey of eleven stages from Yunnan-seng to Laokai, the
head of navigation, and the insuperably dangerous and uncer-
tain navigation of the river itself. The French Government
would seem at last to have appreciated this fact and to have
abandoned the project of improving the river, and have now
decided to build a railway instead, which, when completed, will
necessarily form the great artery of traffic of the province. This
railway follows the valley of the Namti, an affluent which, rising
on the plateau above Mengtse, falls 4,000 feet in a torrential
stream which has cut out a deep, precipitous, and highly
malarious gorge, into the Red River, at the French boundary
town of Laokai. Mengtse is now an Imperial Maritime Customs
station, having been made a Treaty Port by the ' Convention
additionnelle ' between China and France in 1887, as the town in
the province of Yunnan to be opened to Franco- Annamite trade,
for which the Red River was to serve as a thoroughfare ; and
(in order to cut out Hongkong) the Chinese Government was
forced to admit imports from French territory at seven-tenths
of the tariff rate of five per cent, ad valorem, payable generally
under the Treaty of Nanking, and to pass exports from China
into French territory at six-tenths of the duty payable by the
West River and other competing routes passing through Chinese
territory to the coast. So far the conservative Chinese (and
there are as yet no foreign merchants established in these 'out-
side ' Treaty Ports) continue to draw their supplies of yarn and
piece-goods from Hongkong ; but, if the French colonial authori-
ties persist in enforcing high transit dues, Rangoon, as the port
nearest to Europe and India, should naturally gain the
trade, in preference to the shorter route through French
FAR EAST K
j3o
THE FAR EAST
territory. Tin, however, which with opium forms the chief
article of export through the Mengtse customs, is necessarily
shipped by the Red River route. This valuable mineral is
found in the high mountains (9,000 feet) that bound the Mengtse
plain on the south-west, the annual produce being about 3,000
tons. The walled city of Mengtse is beautifully situated in the
centre of one of the characteristic Yunnan valley-basins or
Hochebenen ; the plateau stands 3,500 feet above the sea and
measures twenty-five miles north and south by twelve miles
east and west, and is surrounded by an amphitheatre of wall-
like mountains rising two to four thousand feet above the level
of the plain. The climate, as of all the Yunnan cities, is most
equable and salubrious, although Mengtse has not escaped
the bubonic plague which has been ravaging south China ever
since the suppression of the great Mahometan rebellion, after
twenty years' civil war, in 1873 ; Europeans, fortunately, are
rarely attacked by it.
The third and last of the main routes of approach to the pro-
vince, andthe chiefoutlet to the east, may, as to time and facilities,
be compared with that by Sui-fu and the Yangtse river in the
north. The land journey by this route from Yunnan-seng to
the Kwangsi frontier town of Po-se is twenty-five stages, and
thence down-stream to Canton in ten to twenty days, according
to the state of the river, the journey up-stream occupying about
a fortnight longer. The ascent from navigable water up to the
plateau is easier and more gradual by this route than by any of
the others, and would hence seem to be marked out as the
natural route for a railway to connect Yunnan with Canton and
Hongkong, and so secure those ports from the threatened diver-
sion of their trade to French territory. Of the countless streams,
large and small, that take their rise in the great Tibetan plateau,
none are navigable within the plateau owing to the steep incline
of their beds : and so of the rivers in Yunnan, none are navigable
until the border is crossed and the descent from the plateau to
manageable levels completed. The remoteness of the province
from the centre of government in pre-steam days can be appre-
ciated by the fact that Yunnan-seng is distant by land road two
thousand miles from Peking, and that the journey comprised one
hundred stages and usually occupied the officials appointed from
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 131
Peking four months to reach their posts. How, with such
mule-tracks, called roads, as exist, the armies of the Mongols
succeeded in overrunning the whole of Asia and part of Europe
during one man's lifetime is one of the puzzles of history. The
two provinces of Yunnan and Kweichow form together one Vice-
royalty, that of Yun-kwei, with its seat at Yunnan-seng. The
sister province now demands a short description.
Kweichow, the second province traversed in our progress
from west to east across South China, lies midway between the
Yangtse and West River basins, the rivers that rise in its moun-
tains draining respectively north and south into both basins,
the dividing line being the water-parting formed by the range
which, following the prevailing direction of the mountain ranges
throughout China, crosses the province from south-west to
north-east immediately south of the capital, Kweiyang, which
stands almost exactly in the centre. The province forms
another step in the descent of the Tibetan plateau to the east,
and slopes gradually towards the sea from 5,000 feet elevation
on the Yunnan border in the west to half that height where the
Kung-tan and Yuan rivers, in rapid-obstructed but navigable
channels, flow to the Yangtse valley in the north and east : it
is the same in the Miaotse territory in the south, where the
main branch of the West River takes its rise, and, after
traversing the province of Kwangsi, falls into the sea at Canton.
The province of Kweichow, owing to its inaccessibility, the
rugged character of its surface, and its position forming the
mountain nexus of the highlands to the north, east, and south,
may be regarded as the Switzerland of China proper, although
it does not compare with Switzerland either in the height of its
mountains or in the beauty of its scenery; its area is over four
times as great, being 67,000 square miles as against Switzerland's
15,500 ; its population 8,000,000 as against 4,000,000 of Swiss.
More than half the population consists of aboriginal tribes,
called by the Chinese Miaotse ; these interesting peoples occupy
the southern and eastern portions of the province and have
succeeded in preserving a semi-independence better here than
elsewhere inChina,byconfmingthemselves topathless mountains
where Chinese troops do not care to follow them : they retain
their own dress and customs : that of the women being a short
k 2
i32 THE FAR EAST
sailor jacket leaving the chest exposed, with an accordion-pleated
skirt of silk or cotton according to their means and elaborately
embroidered, with a turban round the head ; that of the men
being robes of native cotton cloth, dark blue or black, girdled
with embroidered sashes not dissimilar to those worn by the
Chinese ; both men and girls wear one or more silver rings
round their necks and their youths carry a six-tubed flute
resembling the bass of an harmonium.
' Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine jagi ' inevitably
recurs to one's memory as one contrasts these joyous aborigines
with their stolid Chinese neighbours ; they are a cheerful,
kindly, timid people, frank in manner but suspicious of strangers:
intercourse between the sexes is free and unrestrained, and as
they are generally illiterate they are regarded by the Chinese
as utter barbarians. The Lolo branch, inhabiting Northern
Yunnan and Southern Szechuan, — in which latter province an
independent tribe of more warlike habits dwells amidst the
inaccessible snowy ' Mountains of the Sun ' between the valleys
of the Yangtse and the Yalung, — are reported by Baber to possess
a written language which would appear to be formed from
abbreviated Chinese characters for common words, not unlike
the Katagana of the Japanese derived from the same source.
The distinction of race between the Miaotse and their civilized
Chinese neighbours is not marked like that between the Mantse
and the Chinese of Szechuan ; the Mantse are distinctly a race
apart, wedged in between the Chinese and the Tibetans, with the
features of neither, but rather with those of the Caucasian races
farther west. Indeed the Miaotse of Kweichow — the tame
Miao, as the Chinese call them — who have adopted the dress and
civilization of the latter are hardly distinguishable from the
Chinese themselves ; they would thus appear to be the real
aboriginal inhabitants of South China crossed with the races
that at various periods have invaded their territory — the Shans
from the south, and the Chinese, with their Tartar blood, from
the north — and who, while retaining their separate language
and habits, are little more distinguishable from the Chinese than
are the Welsh from their Saxon neighbours in England.
Kweichow, like Yunnan, contains numerous fertile Hoch-
ebenen interspersed, surrounded by amphitheatres of mountains,
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 133
each the seat of the capital of one of the thirty-three districts
or counties into which the province is divided ; rice, maize and
tobacco are the principal crops, with abundance of excellent
fruit ; nutgalls are collected in the oak forests and form an
important article of export to foreign countries, notably to
Germany. Excellent silk pongees famous for their durability
are exported in quantity to Chungking, where they compete with
grass-cloth for the summer robes of the wealthier classes. Opium
is also a valuable crop to the agriculturist as now in almost every
province of the empire. Minerals abound here as in Yunnan ;
the cinnabar mines in the north-east being now exploited by the
Anglo-French Corporation, an international syndicate, who
find access for their machinery by way of the Tungting lake
and the Yuan river. Of late there has been a considerable
immigration into the province from Szechuan, a province which,
notwithstanding its great fertility, is unable to feed its ever
increasing population ; in the summer time the traveller meets
whole families of decent farming people camping by the road-
sides and carrying food for the journey with them. In this way
does the population of China tend to homogeneity by constant
migration from congested districts to lands in neighbouring
provinces rendered vacant by war and famine ; or, as we see
outside the Great Wall, to regions hitherto exclusively pastoral.
The province gives rise to three important streams which become
navigable for small craft on its borders, but all obstructed by
dangerous rapids : the Kung-tan, which drains the northern
half and flows into the Yangtse sixty miles below Chungking ;
the Yuan, which has its source in the neighbourhood of the
capital and flows east and north-east, athwart the province of
Hunan into the Tungting lake ; and lastly, the Hung-shui (Red
Water), which rises in the Miaotse country in the south and
goes to form the northern and main branch of the West River
of Kwangsi. The mountainous regions of Kweichow contain
a larger proportion of the independent aboriginal tribes, Miao-
tse (the equivalent of the Indian Mlech cha, i.e. Barbaroi, people
speaking an unknown tongue), than any province of China.
Leaving Kweichow, we descend another step into the valley
of the West River which drains the territory of Liang-kwang,
the two Kwang provinces — Kwangsi and Kwangtung (Canton).
134 THE FAR EAST
The two provinces are united under one Governor-general in the
so-called Viceroyalty of Liang-kwang, the seat of government
being at the city of Canton, whither it was moved from Chao-
king, a prefectural city on the banks of the West River and
a hundred miles further inland, in the eighteenth century ; the
removal being due to the need of the Viceroy's presence in
Canton to ' control' the relations of the Chinese with foreigners,
who were at that period flocking to Canton to trade in yearly
increasing numbers. The province of Kwangsi is wholly
mountainous, but the elevation is lower, two to three thousand
feet being the average height of the mountains as against six
to nine thousand in the provinces on its north and west, Kwei-
chow and Yunnan ; it is well watered by the West River, whose
three forks drain the three main valleys into which the province
is divided and unite at the newly opened Treaty Port of
Wuchow, situated in the extreme east on the borders of Kwang-
tung. The West River of South China has many analogies
with the great Yangtse river of Central China ; from its extreme
source in Yunnan, where it is known as the Hung-shui or Red
Water, to its mouth below Canton, the distance is 1,000 miles ;
its southern fork, the Pearl River, which also has its source in
the Yunnan plateau, is nearly as long, and is navigated by small
boats right up to the Yunnan border, to the frontier mart of
Po-se ; like its great prototype, it has cut through the limestone
ranges athwart its path in picturesque walled-in channels or
gorges constricting the water-passage, and, at the season of the
summer rains, causing rises in the river level of fifty to sixty
feet. The northern fork, which falls into the main river at
Wuchow, takes its rise in the north-eastern corner of the pro-
vince, on the borders of Hunan, and, as we noticed in our account
of this latter province, is connected by a short canal with the
upper waters of the Siang river, thus giving through communi-
cation to the Tungting lake and the Yangtse, although, since
the advent of steamers on the coast, the route has fallen into
disuse. The capital city of the province, Kweilin, meaning
' Cassia grove,' stands on the upper waters of this northern fork
in a wild, little-visited region ; indeed, a great portion of the
province is still occupied by Miao or aboriginal tribes, especially
in the south along the Tongking border ; the Chinese, as usual
where aborigines are still numerous, confining themselves
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 135
chiefly to the more fertile river bottoms where rice is cultivable.
Wide river bottoms extend along the shores of both the south
and main forks of the West River, and in these is found the bulk
of the population ; a Chinaman is not happy without rice, and
no southern or central Chinese will live outside the range of
paddy-fields if he can possibly avoid doing so. Out of the fifty-
four counties into which the province is divided, thirty-four
are governed by aboriginal Tu-sze or headmen under Chinese
supervision ; the inhabitants generally have a reputation for
turbulence, and it was in this province that the great Taiping
rebellion of 1849-1865 had its origin, and that a new rebellion
has broken out this year (1903), and, as we write, the rebels are
reported to have made themselves masters of three-fourths
of the province *. Since 1894 the province has been connected
by rail with Tongking, a daily train now running between
Hanoi, the capital of Tongking, and the Chinese city of
Lungchow just across the border. Lungchow was opened
to Franco-Annamese trade as one of the results of the French
war with China of 1885, and was made a Treaty Port and
station of the Imperial Maritime Customs, but so far the
trade is almost nil ; the railway taps a wild Miaotse country,
and until it is prolonged to the Chinese mart of Nanning on the
Pearl River, one hundred miles distant, will be of little practical
use, except possibly as a convenient means of forwarding troops
from Tongking to China. Lungchow is a Chinese military
station, situated in one of the many circular valleys surrounded
by mountains that characterize South-west China and where
we find Chinese in the plain and aborigines in the mountains ;
it stands on the Tso-kiang or Left River, which rises in Tongking,
and, after a course of about a hundred miles, falls into the Pearl
River thirty miles above Nanning. Continuing up the Pearl
River we reach the frontier town of Po-se, by which, as we
showed in our account of Yunnan, we attain the easiest ascent to
the Yunnan plateau from the outside world, and by which the
railway about to be built from Hongkong to Canton will doubt-
less, some day, be prolonged into Yunnan. The other Treaty
Port of Kwangsi, Wuchow, has much brighter prospects before
it than Lungchow can possibly enjoy ; to continue our analogy
1 News of the final suppression of this rebellion, accompanied by great
barbarities, by Viceroy Tsen Chun-hsiien is now to hand.
136 THE FAR EAST
of the ' West ' with the Yangtse river, we may compare Wuchow
with Hankow ; and Canton, 220 miles below, with Shanghai :
for Wuchow is situated at the point to which all the navigable
branches of the West River converge, much as Hankow stands
at the junction of the Han with the Yangtse, and below the
confluence of the Hunan and Szechuan forks of the Great River
at the Tungting lake. Wuchow, like Hankow and its sister
cities, is one of the earliest places mentioned in the history of
its region ; in the time of the Han dynasty, this part of China,
including Tongking, was known as ' Southern Yueh,' and in
B.C. 135 Han Wuti (the Martial Emperor) placed the country
under the governor of Tongking. Wuchow was made a walled
city in a.d. 592, and was for a long period the seat of the
provincial government, which was removed to Kweilin under the
present Manchu dynasty in a.d. 1665, probably as a defence
against the incursions of the revolted Hunanese. In 1897 steam
communication with Canton was inaugurated by the arrival in
the port of the stern-wheeler Nanning in June of that year, the
port having been opened to British (and so to all foreign) trade
under the Burmese Frontier Convention with China of the
previous year. Kwangsi is famous for its products of cassia,
cinnamon and mace, and for a variety of valuable woods drawn
from its forests, for which the port of Wuchow is the depot.
Notwithstanding that the tropic of Cancer passes almost through
the centre of the province, tropical heat is only experienced in
summer ; the winters are cool and pleasant and in the higher
mountains in the north-west snow is constantly seen. The
province has an area of 80,000 square miles or about the same
as that of Great Britain, but it is thinly peopled, partly owing
to its large unproductive mountain area, but largely owing to
the political unrest it has been subject to for the last half-
century, beginning with the devastation caused by the Taiping
rebellion and later by the war with the French and the exploits
of the 'Black Flags' along its Tongking border. During the
past two years, as in so many other parts of the empire, and
contemporaneously in India, the rainfall has been deficient and
the population has been decimated by famine, to which cause
the outbreak of the rebellion now in progress may be attributed.
The present population is estimated at about eight millions, of
whom half are semi-independent aborigines.
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 137
The last province in our list, the fourth in our survey of the
southern basin and the eighteenth of the provinces of China
proper, is in many respects the most important of all, not only
in view of the richness of its sub-tropical soil and climate and the
marvellous energy and activity of its inhabitants, which has
made ' the Cantonese ' familiar throughout the world, but
farther for the reason that Canton has been for many centuries
the only gate open, or half opened, by which the Western world
has been able to obtain a glimpse of the wonderful empire
behind it. ' From its maritime position, its natural wealth and
its convenient harbours, it became in ancient times the seat of
an extensive foreign trade, and had an earlier knowledge of
foreign nations than any other province. It appears to have
been in touch with the Roman Empire, while Arab, Dutch, and
Portuguese traders early brought it within reach of Western
commerce. It was almost the first field of labour of Roman
missions in China, and it was there also that Robert Morrison
began, in 1807, the work of Protestant missions. The Hakka
section of the province was the cradle of the great Taiping
rebellion, and its people are always strongly inclined to revo-
lutionary schemes. These plots are usually fruitless, but the
great Taiping rebellion held on its conquering course for years
over a wide region of the empire, and it held its own until the
moral degeneration of its chiefs under their unexpected successes
prepared the way for their defeat and failure. The numerous
estuaries of the province, and the complicated network of its
rivers and canals, not only lend themselves to legitimate com-
merce, but have from time immemorial been the shelter and
hunting-ground of hordes of daring and formidable pirates V
—(Rev. J. Campbell Gibson, M.A., D.D., E. P. Mission).
1 The word ' Hakka ' is the local pronunciation of K'ochia, i. e. ' Guest
families ' : the Hakka being the descendants of immigrants from the north
who squatted amongst the natives or ' Punti,' and have been and are always
at feud with the descendants of the ancient inhabitants. The Hakkas who
are scattered throughout Kwangtung in separate communities, but who in
appearance are indistinguishable from other Chinese, possess however one
distinction in the fact that their women do not bind their feet, a distinction
which throughout the whole of China and Manchuria is only shared by the
pure Manchus: a colony of Hakkas that emigrated to Szechuan in the
seventeenth century is also found to-day occupying two counties to the west
of Chungking, and their women likewise uphold the ancient habit of natural
138 THE FAR EAST
The province of Kwangtung, together with the large island
of Hainan, separated from the mainland by a strait twelve miles
wide, may be regarded as the last step in our descent from the
Tibetan plateau to the sea, the general elevation being gradually
reduced as we approach the delta of its chief valley, — that of the
West River, — which, in its lowest part, the delta, lies below the
sea-level at high water. All the land, with the exception of
this delta, a triangle measuring roughly a hundred miles on each
of its three sides, is mountainous, the chains following the usual
trend of south-west and north-east, with fertile bottom lands
watered by perennial streams interspersed, — the rainfall being
regular and abundant (70 inches). Kwangtung has to the north
three provinces, Hunan, Kiangsi, and Fukien ; to the west the
sister province of Kwangsi, and on the south the China Sea.
The granite mountains of the coast are continued in the large
island of Hainan, which rises to an altitude of six thousand feet,
and in some three hundred smaller islands, amongst which is
Hongkong, with Victoria Peak, 1,825 feet high- The northern
feet : but their example has had no effect upon their neighbours, whose
women, rich and poor, have all goats' feet, except in preventing inter-
marriage, as (before the introduction of anti-foot-binding leagues inaugurated
by a society of philanthropic European ladies in Shanghai) no self-respecting
Chinaman would marry a woman with natural feet. The Hakkas do much
of the hard work in Canton, and hence foreigners and travellers, noting the
numbers of poor women there moving about with naked natural feet, have
come to the erroneous conclusion that foot-binding is a luxury of the rich.
In the Yangtse provinces rich and poor bind universally, even the beggars
by the wayside : the perverted taste of the men is the cause of the persist-
ence in this self-torture by the women. In the north, one may see goat-
footed women engaged in field work reduced to moving on their knees to
relieve their feet : the women of the rich who lie on couches and have
servants to support them when they get up to walk about suffer less than
the poor who have to work for their living, and these latter seldom attain
to the ideal of the fine lady, which is a shoe two and one-half inches long,
although they do their best to imitate their ' betters ' and keep in the fashion,
— as, unfortunately, do women in countries outside China.
Some writers derive the origin of the Hakkas from Shantung, a province,
owing to the merciless devastation of its mountains, now largely barren :
the Hakkas would then be the last representatives of the old inhabitants,
the bulk of whom were exterminated in the continual wars, from the Kins
(Golden Horde, a.d. 11 16-1234) to the coming of the Manchus who attacked
from the NW. The Shantung people continue to emigrate in large numbers,
and Manchuria, Primorsk (Vladivostock, where they do all the hard labour,
as in Port Arthur), and the Liaotung peninsula are largely peopled by them.
The Shantung people are a tall, manly race; — witness our Wei-hai-wei
regiment.
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 139
boundary of the province is denned by the Nan-shan chain, the
crest of which forms the water-parting between the rivers of
Hunan and Kiangsi, flowing north into the Yangtse, and the
affluents of the West River, flowing south to Canton and Macao :
over this range passes the great road of communication of Can-
ton with the north, across a low pass known as the Mei-ling
(Plum-tree Pass). The range averages about two thousand
feet, but this convenient notch falls to one thousand feet, and
thus a land portage of twenty-four miles connects the head-
waters of the ' North River ' with the great artery of Kiangsi,
the ' Kan' : by this route, in old days, an immense traffic was
carried on, in goods and passengers, between Canton, the central
provinces, and the north ; by it the different embassies, previous
to the opening of the coast to steam navigation, proceeded from
Canton to Peking, and different travellers from the time of
Lord Macartney in 1793 have left us glowing accounts of the
country passed through. As showing the isolation of the great
Yangtse basin from South China, we may note here that the
Mei-ling is one of the only five principal routes of communication
that exist between the two basins : beyond the Mei-ling leading
into Kiangsi, we have the ' Lesser Mei-ling,' or ' Che-ling ' Pass,
one hundred miles to the west, which leads by way of the ' Wu-
shui ' to Chenchow in Hunan, and ultimately on by the Siang
river to the Tungting lake — this appears to be the proposed
line of the recently sanctioned Canton-Hankow Railway ; the
other three are — the Kweilin route from Kwangsi, another
hundred miles to the westward, also leading into Hunan by way
of the Siang river ; the route from Kweichow province down
the Yuan river to the Tungting lake, also across Hunan and
starting from Kweiyang-fu, the capital of the province, two
hundred miles farther west (from Kweiyang likewise proceed
two minor roads : one down the dangerous Kungtan river to
Fuchow on the Yangtse; one via Tsunyi to Chungking) ; and
lastly, in the far west at five hundred miles distance from Kwei-
yang, the land road from Yunnan-seng (the capital of Yunnan)
past Tungchuan and Chaotung down into the Yangtse valley
at Sui-fu. A sixth road, of some local value, leads from Yunnan-
seng in three marches to the banks of the Kinsha river, two
hundred miles above Sui-fu, which it crosses by ferry into
i4o THE FAR EAST
Hui-li-chou, and so down the Chien-chang valley to Ningyuan
and Kiating. The traffic on all these routes, so far as water
communication is not available, is carried mainly by human
beasts of burden, travellers being conveyed in sedan-chairs and
merchandise slung from the native ' pientan ' or carrying pole ;
the water communication, where it exists, is slow, uncertain
and dangerous.
The area of Kwangtung, including the island of Hainan, is
79,500 square miles, about one-fifth less than the area of Great
Britain. The province stretches along the southern seaboard
of the empire for a distance of nearly 800 miles. It lies for the
most part within the tropics and is well watered by four ample
river systems, to wit : the three northern affluents of the West
River which unite at the capital, and the smaller Han river
which drains direct into the sea at the Treaty Port of Swatow,
situated in the east of the province near the Fukien border.
The products of its fertile plains comprise, outside the great
staple rice — silk, sugar, indigo, tea, tobacco, oils, and many
luscious sub-tropical fruits, while large quantities of fish and
fresh vegetables are exported to Hongkong and the surrounding
islands. At the census of 1812 the population was reckoned
at 19,000,000 ; it is now estimated to have increased to 30,000,000
or more. ' The people present strongly marked features of
national character, with very considerable variations in different
portions of the province. Three principal varieties of language
are spoken, and these represent the most ancient forms of the
language.' This is the now generally accepted theory ; the
explanation of the fact that the mandarin dialect, so called, is
spoken over two-thirds of the empire being that the speech of
Northern and Central China has been so modified by the suc-
cessive waves of Tartar invasions as to have been robbed of
many of its ancient characteristics, notably the consonantal
finals of its monosyllables, the pronunciation in the north being
generally softer and the tones less harsh. The Cantonese are
distinguished as the ablest and most enterprising of Chinese
merchants, while from this province and from neighbouring
Fukien proceed the most fearless and industrious of emigrants ;
70,000 are recorded as leaving the one port of Swatow annually
for the Straits Settlements and beyond.
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 141
The mountain structure of the Canton province harmonize-,
generally with that of the neighbouring provinces, the distinc-
tion being that the underlying granite, traceable throughout
all China, here (as in Fukien) comes to the surface in larger and
more exposed mass in the coast ranges. The general character
of the geological formation of the whole country to the south
of the Yellow River is remarkably persistent. As the American
geologist, A. S. Bickmore, tells us in the record of his journey
overland from Canton to Hankow in 1866 : ' we find first and
lowest the granite, on which rests the second formation con-
posed of grits and slates ; these are covered thirdly by old lime-
stone, highly tilted ; on these rest, fourthly, another series of
limestone strata, often undisturbed from their original horizontal
position and of the same age as the coal beds ; these again being
covered, fifthly, by the new red sandstone.' Mr. Bickmore
obtained fossil Brachiopods from the old limestone on the banks
of the West River, and comes to the conclusion that these old
limestones probably belong to the Devonian period. Mr. T. W.
Kingsmill, in his essay on the geology of Kwangtung, published
in the Asiatic Society's Journal (North China Branch) for 1865,
speaks of Kwangtung as presenting ' a connected sequence of
formation ranging upwards from the early palaeozoic rocks of
Hongkong and the adjacent continent and islands, to the
Tertiary l sandstone of Canton and the delta of the Pearl River,
and such as occurs at intervals from Hongkong up to near
Hankow, intermixed with some traces of later formations.'
Speaking of Hongkong, Mr. Kingsmill adds : ' A minute investi-
gation of the water-courses worn into the sides of the hill, and
a walk to Aberdeen and the other districts at the south of the
island, will however show that other causes besides igneous
have been at work, and that the igneous rocks themselves are
by no means confined to granite, — slate and quartz as well
as trappean rocks presenting themselves in many localities.'
Proceeding to describe the stone of similar quality that extends
along the coast-line far into the province of Fukien, he explains
the peculiarly wild appearance given to the scenery by this
decomposing granite (wherever met with in China), and to which
1 This word is a subsequent correction by Mr. Kingsmill from the words
1 New Red ' in his original paper.
i42 THE FAR EAST
we have drawn attention in our account of the granite valley
that intervenes between the Ichang and Niukan gorges on the
Upper Yangtse, where mountains of piled-up gneiss boulders
mark a desert in the midst of the surrounding fertility ; this
being the only point at which, in the 1,500 miles from Hankow
to Chengtu in Szechuan, igneous rocks emerge on the surface.
' The granites of Kwangtung, from the large amount of mica they
contain, as well as from the excess of alkaline materials in the
felspar, have readily decomposed and have yielded to the
disintegrating action of the atmosphere, in these regions im-
pregnated with water for a large portion of the year, to an
enormous extent; leaving behind a mass of soft, unctuous clay
surrounding the grains of unaltered quartz. The granite is,
however, very concretionary in its structure and irregular in
character, and here and there are to be seen large masses of
solid stone which have resisted decomposition, and lie like
enormous boulders imbedded in the surrounding matrix ; in
places exposed to the wear and tear of the tropical rains this
matrix has been washed away, and the undecomposed masses,
left far and wide over the surfaces of the hills, have more than
once been referred to as the result of glacial action corresponding
with the boulder drift of more northern latitudes. Along the
coast this decomposed rock annually washed by the rains
assumes a most barren aspect, giving a bleak and desolate
aspect to the coast as approached from the sea, often hiding
exceeding fertility within, whilst the deep channels worn by
the mountain torrents, and the detached masses of rock of
every form scattered about, give the whole an air of utter con-
fusion and render walking amongst these ruins of Nature's handi-
work no easy task.' The numerous headlands that jut out into
the sea along the coast of the southern provinces of China are
composed of granite, while the sea has intruded on the softer
clayrocks and shaleswhich form the recesses. 'Next in antiquity
to the Hongkong series appear to come the Shaoking slates
and grits, a fine opportunity for studying which is afforded at
the pass called the Shaoking Gorge, a few miles below Shaoking-
fu. These rocks consist of slates and grits of various degrees
of fineness, from the fine-grained inkstone for which this locality
is famous throughout China, to grits sufficiently coarse to form
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 143
grindstones. . . . Limestone rocks, always preserving the same
lithological character, lying uniformly on the subjacent rocks,
are to be met with in very different localities in China. . . .
Mountains of this formation form the boundary between Hupeh
and Szechuan . . . where the Yangtse forces its way from its
upper to its lower course, as also along the boundary line
between Kiangsi and Hupeh, abutting on the Yangtse between
Kiukiang and Hankow, where again, for a distance of many
miles, the river runs between high limestone hills. The rocks
here are stratified, dipping at high angles, the beds varying
from a few inches to five or six feet in thickness, the thicker
strata being much fractured. . . . These limestone rocks so
clearly too, in composition and appearance, resemble the car-
boniferous limestone of Europe and America, that on these
grounds alone one might feel justified in looking upon them as
their representatives ; fossils too, though scarce, do not appear
to be altogether absent, and the writer has seen some Ortho-
cerites, a very common carboniferous form, in slabs of limestone
from the North River of Canton. . . . Limestone is also found in
the Mei-ling Mountains, the celebrated Mei-ling Pass having
been cut through this rock, associated here with granite. This
limestone also occurs in Shantung and in Shansi, and is charac-
teristic of the boundary mountains along which runs the Great
Wall, as in Kwangtung. Overlying immediately these lime-
stone formations we arrive at the coal measures. Three coal-
fields are known to occur in Kwangtung province.' Leaving
the coal measures we arrive at a rock probably the representa-
tive of the Tertiary sandstone of Europe, from which it does
not differ much in lithological character. Ascending the
Canton river from the sea, we first meet with this formation
above the Bogue forts at Tiger Island ; here it dips at an angle
of about 150 towards the NNW., lying unconformably on the
slate and grit rocks of which the hills to the south of this are
composed ; the edges of the beds here and in other places in the
plain are much denuded, while the slopes parallel with the
bedding have suffered but little waste, giving these rocks, when
viewed from a distance, the appearance of couchant wild beasts,
whence probably the origin of the name. In the hills imme-
diately to the westward of Canton basaltic outbursts may be
J44 THE FAR EAST
noticed in many places ; one mass at the second bar pagoda 15
very conspicuous to the traveller proceeding up the river, the
rock here being exposed in cubical masses rising like steps from
the river's edge, the adjacent rocks at both sides being red
sandstone. Mr. Kingsmill, writing thirty-eight years ago,
adds: 'The subject for its own sake is an interesting one, but
bearing as it does immediately on the industrial resources of
this great country, so lately opened to European enterprise, it
is scarcely presumptuous to look forward to the day when
these studies shall be pursued with the view to the profitable
investment of capital, and when the mineral resources of the
country, worked in an enlightened manner, shall draw wealth
to her treasuries, and peace and prosperity to her teeming
millions.' Yet now, in 1903, although the land- and mine-
owners of China are most anxious for European co-operation
in developing their latent riches, the invincible repugnance of
the official classes to associating with foreigners in such enter-
prises has not been overcome, and we still await the promulga-
tion of practicable mining regulations which shall open the way
for this much-desired free co-operation of foreign capital and
experience in the work.
We have allowed ourselves this lengthy description of the
Kwangtung province chiefly on account of its having been more
thoroughly explored than any other in South and Central
China — the north having been minutely described byRichthofen
in his monumental work China — but also because, with the
exception of the granite of the coast-line, it fairly serves as an
epitome of the geology of the southern and central provinces
from the Tibetan border (in which we include Yunnan) to the
sea. We have seen Orthocerites from Hunan and from the
limestone gorge above Ichang ; in this latter district these
fossils abound in inexhaustible quantity : the slates in which
they are found embedded are cut into thin slabs, and as
' Pagoda stones ' are much prized by both foreign and native
collectors ; by the latter they are mounted as screens and
esteemed as an ornament for the dais at the head of every
Chinese reception room. Before leaving the subject we must
venture on one or two additional quotations from Mr. Bick-
more's paper (see Journal of the North China Branch of the
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 145
Royal Asiatic Society, 1867), as his description of Kwangtung
may be almost equally applied to the provinces to the north
and west, where the older limestone ranges obtrude from the
more recent sandstones, and the features of the landscape and
the mountains as we see them to-day have been carved out of
tertiary strata but little tilted from their original horizontal
deposition, by means of prolonged denudation. Mr. Bickmore
writes : Our course (after leaving Canton) was first westward
for about sixty miles through the great delta of the West River,
whose low fertile fields spread out widely along the river banks
and support a most dense population. Along the borders of
these low lands rise serrated mountains, some peaks attaining
an elevation of fifteen hundred to two thousand feet, their
sharp ridges and projecting spurs coming out in strong relief on
account of the scanty vegetation on their sides. . . . This naked-
ness appears to be a universal characteristic of mountain
scenery in China, but it is not the fault of the soil or the climate,
for wherever the pines are suffered to rise they show a vigorous
growth. . . . The old trees seen in groves around the Buddhist
temples, that only owe their preservation to the superstition
of the destroyers, show what splendid timber thousands of hill-
sides in China might yield. But in regard to the low lands, it
hardly seems possible that they could be made to produce more
than is raised at present, two full crops being obtained nearly
everywhere throughout the empire. The continued fertility
of these lands is due, no doubt, chiefly to two causes : first,
the Chinese are careful to save everything that can possibly
serve for manure, in some places even to the hair they shave
from their heads ; and secondly, these low lands, or very nearly
all, are subject to floods at least once a year, and a deposit of
fine mud is thus spread over them, just as in the valley of the
Nile. Following up the West River through a deep gorge in
the first mountain range we come to the city of Shaoking, where
the Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi resided when the Por-
tuguese first appeared off the coast. At present it is mostly
in ruins and its population probably does not exceed twenty
thousand. About two miles behind it rise the famous marble
rocks or ' Seven Stars,' like dark, sharp needles out of the low
green plain. ... I found them to range from one hundred to one
FAR EAS1
i46 THE FAR EAST
hundred and iifty feet above the plain, though they have been
reported as nearly twice that height. The rock is a highly
crystalline limestone, of a dark blue colour on the weathered sur-
faces, and of a rusty iron tinge where large fragments have been
lately detached : the whole traversed in every direction by milk-
white veins, and completely fissured by joints and seams. They
form as striking objects in the surrounding plain as the ' Little
Orphan ' does in the waters of the Yangtse (below Kiukiang),
and also, like it, contain groups of little temples in the natural
niches in their sides. ... In the second day from Shaoking I came
to ' Cock's Comb Rock,' a huge wall or dyke of limestone, with
a crest so jagged that the name that the Chinese have given it
accurately describes it. North-east from this, in a small plain,
is a conical hill of the same rock, whose whole interior has been
washed away, forming a much grander cave than the one
previously visited in one of the 'Seven Stars.' . . . All the moun-
tains in these regions are composed of fine, hard, siliceous grits,
which in some places are compact and flinty, i.e. quartz rock
or quartzite, in others as soft as sandstone ; and, besides these,
of slates that are interstratified with these grits, and in some
places are soft clay-slates, and in others as hard as shales. Half
a mile below the little village of Kok-han on the left bank of
the West River, just before I reached the boundary of Kwangsi,
I found these grits and slates resting immediately upon granite,
in a nearly horizontal position. The granite at this place was
changed to gneiss to the depth of a few inches below these
sedimentary deposits. Two miles below this village rises
4 Ornamental Monumental Rock.' It belongs to the lower
part of this series of grits and shales, but is composed of a coarse
conglomerate, and perhaps represents the conglomerate ob-
served near granite in other parts of the empire. Above
Chaoping in Kwangsi the river flows through deep gorges, and
we entered one called ' Forest Pass ' as the bright day was
darkening into twilight. The rock was of hard siliceous grit
and quartzite, and sharp peaks in the range rose up to a height
of i, 600 or 1,700 feet. Like the famous Shaoking Pass, this is
also a cleft in a mountain range ; but, while that is about 600
yards wide, this is but from 50 to 150 feet, and, as we sailed
along with such overhanging precipices on either hand, the
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 147
effect was far grander than anything I have seen elsewhere in
China. . . . On the evening after leaving Pinglo, as we were
following the river round a high bluff, we suddenly found our-
selves on the edge of a valley ten or twelve miles broad and
extending farther than we could see to the right and left. In
every direction it was perfectly bristling with sharp peaks of
limestone. The strata of the limestone were nearly horizontal,
and once the whole valley was filled with this deposit, which in
the course of ages has been worn into deep channels, that have
kept widening until only sharp peaks are left of what was
originally a broad continuous sheet of solid rock. From a single
low position on the river bank I counted 193 separate peaks.
The highest was, I judge, 1,200 feet above the plain, but even this
probably does not represent the original depth of the formation.
We conclude with a copy of some of the sections given by
Mr. Bickmore in his interesting essay. (See next page.)
Kwangtung and the south was first annexed to China B.C. 216
by Shih Hwangti, the great emperor of China who abolished
the feudal states, proscribed the obstructive literati, and built
the Great Wall. The south, or 'Yueh,' the name by which the
region was then called, was inhabited by uncivilized tribes akin
to the stock from which the natives of Cochin-China and
Cambodia were derived, and who, in all probability, were the
progenitors of the present Miaotse. A celebrated character
of the period was a Chinese general named Chao-to, who had
assisted in the conquest, and who, on the final extinction of the
Tsin dynasty shortly after the death of its great founder, and
the establishment of the house of Han on its ruins, declared
himself, about the year B.C. 206, Sovereign Prince of Southern
Yueh, and rapidly extended his sway over the region lying to
the west and south which had been designated the province of
Kweilin (the present capital of Kwangsi). On the decease of
Chao-to his grandson succeeded to the throne of Yueh, but was
not long permitted to retain the position of virtual independence
which had been bequeathed to him. As the house of Han grew
firmer in its grasp of the sovereignty in Northern China, its
demands upon the south grew gradually more imperious, and
hostilities at length broke out between the empire and its
feudatory, which resulted in the subjugation of the principality
l 2
WEST RIVER •• HINGPING
ew Limestone
Old Limestone
WEST RIVER : K I YANG
Coal Strata
interstratified
j/vith Limestone
Red Sandstone
WEST RIVER : PINCH1APU
Red Sandstone
stone
Red Sandstone
WEST RIVER ■• LI CHANG
Fig. 21. — Geological Sections on the West River.
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 149
of Nan Yueh and its incorporation among the provinces of
China. The conquest was consolidated by the pouring in of
thousands of military colonists from the cultivated regions
beyond the mountain barrier of the Mei-ling into the newly
acquired territory, a favourite method pursued by successive
Chinese conquerors and one which has contributed largely to
the homogeneity of the present Chinese. A central position
for the seat of government was selected at the confluence of
the East and West rivers, where already a native town existed,
and, by a well-directed choice, the foundations were planted of
what was to become the future city of Canton. ' Up to this
epoch, as may be gathered from the indications afforded by the
histories of the Han dynasty, all beyond the more central
portions of what is now known as Kwangtung was virtually
a terra incognita to the Chinese, and the existence of such an
island as that of Hainan was probably known only by vague
report from the occupants of the promontory ... of Seu-wen,
immediately facing the northern shores of Hainan V To sub-
due a rebellion which had broken out in B.C. in, fresh armies
were dispatched to Nan Yueh by Han Wuti, the ' Martial
Emperor' (reigned 140 to 86 B.C.), and in the following year the
island of Hainan was annexed to his dominions. The island is
150 miles long by about 100 broad and has about twice the area
of Sicily ; with the exception of a fringe of level land round the
coast the whole island consists of jungle-covered mountains,
culminating in the peak of Wu-chih (Five Fingers) near the centre,
6,000 feet in height. The mountains are inhabited by aborigines
known as Li, and whose language would show them to be of the
same family originally as the Miaotse of the mainland ; the
coast and the more accessible valleys are inhabited by Chinese
who grow rice and agricultural products generally and trade
with the aborigines, who, to this day, are only partially under
Chinese control. These Chinese inhabitants are mainly from
Fukien, and are in part, it is said, the descendants of 23,000
families imported under the Han dynasty subsequent to the
annexation ; 'a large number, but not excessive when viewed
with reference to the magnificent scale upon which removals
of population were ordered and effected in that age.' A Treaty
1 Mayers, K. A. S. Journal, 187 1 -2.
150 THE FAR EAST
Port was opened in Hainan in 1876, on the north coast opposite
the Seu-wen peninsula, from which, as we have seen, it is
separated by a. strait twelve miles wide ; on the east side of this
peninsula, and distant fifty-two miles from Hoihow, is the en-
trance to Kwangchow bay, the fine harbour of which, together
with the surrounding shores, was made French territory in 1898,
the distance from Hongkong being 200 miles to the westward.
The chief export from Hoihow to-day is pigs for the Hongkong
market, but the original attraction to Chinese settlement
appears to have been the mussel beds from which a valuable
description of pearl was drawn, Chu-yai or 'Pearl Shore' being
still the name of the northern of the two prefectures into which
the island is divided, — the southern prefecture being called
Tan-erh, or 'Drooping Ear,' from the long ear lobes of the native
chief of that region. Robert Swinhoe, formerly of H.M. Con-
sular service, who has written a most interesting description of
the island, mentions the fact of pine and coconut trees growing
in the same field, with a magpie's nest in the latter ; seeing that
Hainan is situated between the 18th and 20th parallels, the
fact of pines growing at a low elevation in this latitude testifies
to the cool winter enjoyed by Hainan owing to its exposure to
the full force of the north-east monsoon.
The province of Kwangtung boasts three Treaty Ports outside
of the metropolis and the port in Hainan just described ; these
are — Pakhoi, to the north of Hainan, on the west side of the Seu-
wen peninsula and about fifty miles distant from the Tongking
frontier, opened to foreign trade by the Chefoo Convention of
1876, and notable only as an alternative and little-used route
to Kwangsi and Yunnan, by a land road connecting it with the
Pearl River; Samshui, situated at the junction of the North
and West rivers, opened under the Burma Convention of 1897,
the seat of an enormous junk trade and the converging point
of two inland steamer lines ; and, finally, Swatow, situated on
the extreme east coast, one of the Five ports opened by the
Treaty of Nanking, August 29, 1842, the centre of a large
steamer traffic with Hongkong and the south. The free ports
of Hongkong and Macao belong likewise to the province of
Kwangtung, both being situated in the estuary of the Pearl
River, the local name by which the West River is commonly
THE SOUTHERN BASIN 151
known. Macao, where leave to settle was first obtained by the
Portuguese under the Ming dynasty in 1557, *s situated on
the west side of the estuary and at the southern extremity of the
fertile delta enclosed between the two branches of the Pearl
River that flow into the sea, dividing at Canton into a SW. and
SE. branch respectively, and ninety miles to the south of that
city. Macao is not to-day and never has been an important
trading port, the bay upon which it stands being too shallow
for any but light-draft steamers and junks ; sea-going vessels
trading with Canton have always anchored at Whampoa,
situated on the SE. branch of the Pearl River, the one most
directly accessible from the sea, and twelve miles below Canton.
During the 150 years that the East India Company held the
monopoly of the trade with Canton (1684-1834) and until after
the war with England and the subsequent Treaty of Nanking
in 1842, the Chinese forbade Europeans to bring women to their
residences at the 'Factories' situated in the suburbs of Canton
city, and Macao was consequently used as a place of residence
for their families. This port enjoyed a short fictitious pros-
perity in the ' seventies,' by its protection of the infamous trade
in coolies shipped thence to the Peruvian guano mines ; when,
in 1874, this trade was happily abolished, Macao, owing to its
salubrious site and exposure to the SW. monsoon, became chiefly
noted as a sanatorium and watering-place of residents in Hong •
kong ; the Portuguese population number about 7,000, and
owing to intermarriage with Chinese are almost a separate
race, known throughout China as Macao Portuguese. Since
1849 the settlement has been under the direct rule of Portugal,
the 90,000 Chinese now settled there being equally under
Portuguese jurisdiction, and the long-disputed Portuguese
sovereignty over the peninsula has been finally admitted by
treaty made with China in 1887.
As far as we know, no investigation, such as has been made
on the Yangtse river, has ever been undertaken in regard to
the weight of solid matter annually deposited in the sea by the
Pearl River of Canton ; but some estimate may be formed from
the facts ascertained in regard to the silting up of the harbour
of Macao. Macao stands at the extremity of a small penin-
sula jutting out into the sea from the southern shore of the
jrj2 THE FAR EAST
alluvial island of Heong-shan, with which it is connected by
a narrow sandy isthmus (or Macao Island), the harbour being
formed by the rocky islands of Lappa and Taipa, situated to
the south and west of the peninsula. On one side the Si-kiang,
or west branch of the Pearl River, enters the sea, and on the
other is the wide estuary of the main branch of the river ; the
now British islands of Lantao and Hongkong lying on the east
side of the same estuary. The British Admiralty chart of
1865 gives a depth in the roadstead off Macao of nine to ten
feet at low water (springs), which the survey of 1881 found
reduced to five and a half feet. C. A. Montalto de Jesus, in his
interesting work Historic Macao (Hongkong, 1902), tells us
that, from a subsequent survey held in 1883, it was estimated
that in twenty-five years the harbours of Macao had been laden
with no less than sixty-nine million metric tons of alluvial
deposit ; and that, at the inner shores, the condition was such
as to warrant the dismal conclusion that within two decades
the legendary port that had sheltered the junk of Tien How
(Queen of Heaven) would be dry at neap-tides. The harbour
of Macao is now only practicable for small craft and light-draft
river steamers, although a fair anchorage is still available for
sea-going vessels under the shores of Taipa, two miles distant.
But during the past fifty years the steady rise of Hongkong
has led to the gradual effacement of Macao, which now rests in
the glories of its historic past and of its salubrious climate, which
contrasts so favourably with the muggy atmosphere of the
mountain-locked harbour of Hongkong. Hence it is hardly
probable now that reclamation works, proposed by Portuguese
engineers and estimated to cost £500,000, will ever be taken in
hand by the Portuguese Government.
On the opposite shore of the estuary and at the southern
extremity of the Kowloon peninsula that forms its eastern
margin, and forty miles distant from Macao, is situated the
island of Hongkong, ceded by the Chinese Government in 1841
and founded as a British colony under Royal Charter dated
April 5, 1843. In i860 the point of the opposite peninsula of
Kowloon was leased for a naval and military depot, and in 1898
the whole of the peninsula, comprising an area of 200 square
miles between Mirs Bay on the east and Deep Bay on the west,
THE SOUTHERN BASIN
*53
was added on a lease of ninety-nine years obtained from the
Chinese Government. The original island colony is little more
than a barren mountain peak, 1,825 feet m height, dominating
a pile of decomposing rugged granite hills, measuring in all
nine miles east and west by eight miles north and south, with
no level land suitable for occupation. Yet, notwithstanding
this unpromising outlook, its fine, sheltered and roomy harbour
and the freedom of movement consequent on its having been
early declared an absolutely free port to all comers, have made
of Hongkong the shipping metropolis of the Far East, a credit
to British rule and an example to surrounding countries ; its
only drawback is the fact that the necessity of building the
FlG. 22. — The Canton Delta.
town of Victoria opposite the harbour on the north side cuts
the town off from the south-west breeze in summer, and so makes
the air unpleasantly close for a city situated just within the line
of the tropic; on the other hand, during the north-east monsoon,
the winter climate is delightful1. Victoria, as the capital is
1 The warm vapour brought to the coast of China by the south-west
monsoon is precipitated in steadily diminishing quantity as it is carried
north. Thus the average annual rainfall is : in Canton 70 inches, in Shanghai
30 inches, and in Chihli 16 inches. Three-fourths of the rain falls in
Canton and Shanghai in May, June, and July : and in Chihli in July and
August. The winters are bright and free from cloud, and thus we find in
North China (Shanghai to Shanhaikwan) frequently with the north-east
monsoon, hot sunshine accompanied by freezing gales, — 700 and So° in the
sun, and io° and 200 Fahr. in the shade.
154 THE FAR EAST
called, now contains a population of ten thousand Europeans
of all nations and about a quarter of a million Chinese, and it is
one of the most beautiful cities in the world, the dwellings of
the residents rising up, from a five mile sea frontage, tier upon
tier, in every available nook a thousand feet and more above the
water. Afforestation has been most successfully pursued from
the beginning of its settlement, avenues of banians and forests
of pine-trees showing what might be made of the barren islands
off the coast and the innumerable clean-shaved mountain ranges
of the mainland, did the Chinese care to follow our example or
to improve their country — a conception which is unfortunately
beyond the grasp of Chinese officialdom as it is undoubtedly
beyond that of the ' stupid people.' Not only has the island
been thus beautified, but its old evil reputation for malaria has
disappeared, and, but for the hesitation of the Government in
enforcing complete sanitary regulations upon the reluctant
Chinese population, it would be one of the healthiest commercial
cities in the world, as it undoubtedly is one of the most pros-
perous and most beautiful.
We here bring our cursory survey of ' China proper ' to an
end and proceed to examine her numerous dependencies and
offshoots.
CHAPTER X
THE DEPENDENCIES \ PART I. MANCHURIA
The eighteen populous provinces which compose ' China
proper ' are enveloped on all sides, excepting the one open to
the Pacific, by thinly peopled regions of more than double the
area of the kernel, all acknowledging Chinese sway, having been
acquired, some by conquest, some by inheritance, some by
hardly unwilling submission to the superior civilization of their
illustrious neighbour ; all form together an area exceeding
that of Europe, and not the least valuable of these outlying
possessions is Manchuria.
Manchuria is so named from the Tartar tribe originally
dwelling in the country, the Manchu, which conquered China
in 1644 and whose descendants form the ruling dynasty to-day.
The country, including the maritime province of Primorsk, has
an area equal to that of France and Germany combined, pos-
sesses an exceptionally rich soil, and potential resources which
only need development to render it equally productive : this
vast region, extending from the 39th to the 52nd parallel of
north latitude, lies farther to the south than do those countries,
but, owing to the drop in the isotherms of Eastern Asia, the
winter climate is colder by some thirty degrees than in the corre-
sponding latitude in Europe, and ten to twenty degrees colder
than in the same latitude in New England. Of the cold Arctic
currents that alike wash the eastern shores of both continents,
that which descends upon the Asiatic coast is greater in volume
and is traceable farther south than the analogous current that
cools the eastern side of the American continent, and gives
to New York, in latitude 410, a winter climate akin to that of
Copenhagen in latitude 560. By the interposition of the high
mountainous island of Formosa, the warm equatorial current <>f
the Pacific is deflected from the coast of China before the stream
leaves the limits of the tropics, whereas, on the American coast,
Cape Hatteras, whence occurs a similar deflection of the Atlantic
Gulf Stream, is in latitude 350. This Pacific current, named by
the Japanese the Kuro-siwoor Black Stream, from the deep blue
156
THE FAR EAST
of its waters compared with the lighter tint of the downward
Arctic current, follows along the chain of the Liuchiu Islands to
the southern coast of Japan, making way, as it turns eastward,
for the counter-current of cold water which pours down through
the Corean Straits, and with which the wide basin of the Yellow
Sea, from latitude 250 off the coast of Fukien to latitude 41° in
the gulf of Liaotung, is perennially filled. This cold Arctic
current, descending from the Sea of Okhotsk, washes the eastern
shore of Manchuria (in its maritime province of Primorsk) where
Wind Sj.»m) ,n JANUARY
Fig. 23.— Meteorology of Eastern Asia.
this abuts upon the Sea of Japan, and modifies the climate much
as the Greenland current on the corresponding coast of the
American continent modifies the climate of New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia. The monsoon winds are, however, a peculiar
feature in the meteorology of South-eastern Asia, produced
by the indraft upon the high central plateau in summer and
by the corresponding outdraft in winter ; thus the north-east
and south-west monsoons, so called, blow alternately to and
from the Equator up to latitude 500 N., and so go to accentuate
THE DEPENDENCIES : PART I
Kil
the difference between the winter and summer climate of
this region, noted for its extremes of temperature. Manchuria
and North China endure in winter a succession of north-west
gales raging down from the high table-land of Mongolia,
producing a semi-arctic climate, tempered, however, by almost
continuous sunshine ; yet from November to March the rivers
and sea-coast are frozen down to latitude 38°, while in ex-
ceptionally cold winters skating may be indulged in at the
sea-level as far south as latitude 29 ; on the other hand the
FlG. 24.— Meteorology of Eastern Asia.
summer heat is great, and at that time the warm monsoon
rains prevail which, coupled with the great heat of the sun in
these latitudes, enable magnificent crops to be secured from the
fertile soil. These conditions prevail all along the coast of
China ; Canton, on the edge of the tropic, enjoys a cool winter
season and snow is occasionally seen on the surrounding hills.
Even Singapore, situated almost on the Equator itself, is. during
our northern winter months, cooled by winds originating in
Mongolia.
158 THE FAR EAST
If we include in the outline of Manchuria the coast province
of Primorsk, ceded to Russia in i860, but which physically
belongs to it, we have a country with an area of over 400,000
square miles ; with a soil yet more productive than that of China
proper, consisting, as it does, largely of the black loam that gives
its marvellous fertility to North-west Canada; and with mineral
resources equal, if not superior, to those of any similar area in
the world. Deducting, however, the maritime province, now
Russian, and which, as it now stands marked in our maps, falls
geographically into Siberia, we have still left as a dependency
of China, an area of 280,000 square miles, divided into three
districts, which give their Chinese name of Tung-san-seng —
' Three Eastern Provinces ' — to the country ; these are :
South: Fengtien, 50,000 squaremiles. Population, 12,000,000.
Capital, Mukden ; port, Newchwang.
Centre: Kirin, 90,000 square miles. Population, 7,000,000.
Capital, Kirin ; chief commercial mart, Kuanchangtse, eighty
miles north-west of the capital. Centre of Russian occupation :
Harbin, on the Sungari river, point of junction of Vladivostock
branch of the Manchurian Railway with the main line to Port
Arthur.
North : Heilungkiang, 140,000 square miles. Population,
2,000,000. Capital, Tsitsihar, or, in Chinese, Pukwei ; chief
mart, Aigun, on the Amur, forty miles below Blagoveschensk
(destroyed by the Russians in 1900).
In all: Chinese Manchuria, 280,000 square miles, with a popu-
lation of 21,000,000, which gives an average of seventy-five
persons to the square mile, dense in the agricultural plain of
Liaotung in the south, and thinning out in the forest-covered
hilly regions of the north and east. These three provinces com-
prise the Manchuria of to-day ; the name ' Manchu ' is now
obsolete, having been superseded by that of ' The three
Eastern Provinces.' These extend from Port Arthur, the
extreme southern point of Fengtien (the Liaotung peninsula),
to Albazin, on the Amur, in the north, a distance of 900
miles ; and east and west, from Lake Hinka on the Primorsk
border to Huldu on the Mongolian border, a distance of 600
miles. Throughout all this vast region the land is only
partially cultivated, the mountains being mostly covered with
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART I 159
virgin forest awaiting clearance and cultivation ; the pastoral
steppe, now covered with troops of horses and flocks of sheep,
besides innumerable antelope, begins with the Mongolian plateau
on the western frontier. Manchuria, as a whole, may be
said to consist of one alluvial Ticfebene in the south — the
valley of the Liao, which occupies the main portion of the
province of Fengtien, or, as it is commonly called, Liaotung
(east of the Liao), the rich agricultural plain being continued
northwards in the valley of the Sungari, 100 miles beyond
Harbin ; of wide marshlands with undulating forest country
in'the north and centre, drained by the Sungari and its affluents
in Kirin and Heilungkiang ; and of the high mountain ranges
that wall in the dependency on its eastern and western
frontiers. In the south Manchuria lies open to the Yellow Sea,
and in the north to the valley of the Amur. The two great
mountain ranges that enclose the Manchurian basin on the east
and west, and the spurs from whose flanks yield the undulating
surface that pervades the bulk of the Manchurian basin, are: on
the east, the Chang-pai-shan, the 'Long White Range' and the
steep mountains, 3,000 to 8,000 feet in height, that border
the Pacific Ocean, from Corea to Kamschatka ; on the west, the
great Khingan range which walls in the high Mongolian plateau
on its eastern border, and at the end of which the land falls
gradually to the lower level of the Manchurian basin. To the
north of the Sungari valley and separating it from that of the
Amur, is a range, running east and west, known as the lesser
Khingan and north again, beyond Blagoveschensk and Aigun,
the Alin range in which the Nonni — flowing south into the
Sungari near Petuna — takes its rise. Both these bleak ranges
may be regarded as offshoots of the greater Khingan on the wesl .
Unlike the mountain land of which the bulk of the surface of the
' eighteen provinces ' of China proper consists, chiefly stratified
deposits of lime- and sand-stones, worn by denudation into often
precipitous outlines, the Manchurian ranges are composed of
igneous rocks whose decomposition has created a softer, rolling
country, needing less strenuous efforts in terracing and irrigation
than we find devoted to the reclamation of the soil throughout
the 'eighteen provinces,' excepting in the wide alluvial deltas
of the great rivers, as described in the preceding chapters. As
160 THE FAR EAST
in China proper, the axes of these ranges incline generally from
SSW. to NNE., but the formation is less regular and the water-
partings are less clearly defined, giving rise to rivers flowing to
every point of the compass. Manchuria is remarkably well
watered by numerous large navigable rivers, which, owing to
the more gentle lie of the land, are not obstructed by the rapids
and shoals that infest the rivers of China proper and render their
navigation possible only under conditions that none but Chinese
boatmen would attempt to master, and in regions where alterna-
tive land roads are generally wanting. The chief rivers of Man-
churia are : first, in the north, the great river Amur, which takes
its rise in two main forks flowing down from the Mongolian
plateau, the Shilka and the Argun, whose point of junction a few
miles above the Russian town of Pokrovskaia marks the north-
western corner of Manchuria together with the eastern boundary
of Transbaikalia. The Amur, from the point of union of its two
western forks, forms the northern boundary between Manchuria
and the Russian ' government ' of Amurskaia for a distance of
1,089 English miles, from Pokrovskaia in the west to Habarovsk
at the junction with the Ussuri in the east. The Amur from its
sources near Urga in Mongolia to its mouth at Nicolaievsk, in
the gulf of Tartary, opposite Saghalien, traverses thirty-five
meridians of longitude, its total length being about 2,500 miles,
little short of the great rivers of China, the Yellow River and the
Yangtse. During six months of the year, the Amur is navigable
for 1,500 miles of its course by steamers drawing four feet of
water, as far as Stretensk in Transbaikalia, whence a branch
railway, via Nerchensk, connects with the 'Trans-Siberian' at
Chita. Similarly the Sungari is navigable for a distance of
600 miles from its mouth in the Amur above Habarovsk past
Harbin to Petuna and Kirin — this latter an important river
port and the great inland ship-building centre of Manchuria.
The river Argun forms the western boundary of the province
of Heilungkiang, dividing it from Russian Transbaikalia from
the point whence the river issues out of Lake Dalai-nor in
Mongolia to the point where, united with the Shilka, it goes to
form the main Amur river, from Pokrovskaia downwards.
The Argun flows northwards along the western slopes of the
great Khingan range ; the eastern slopes of this range are drained
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART I 161
by the Nonni, a river which rises in the north-east of theHeilung-
kiang province, in the neighbourhood of the Amur and to the
north-west of Tsitsihar, the capital, flowing past that city,
whence it continues south to within twenty miles north of the
town of Petuna in the province of Kirin, where it falls into the
Sungari coming from the Long White Mountain in the east;
at this point the Sungari is deflected back to the east and to
the north-east, until the united streams fall into the Amur at
a point 150 miles above Habarovsk. The region where the
Nonni and the Sungari unite is a vast swamp, and the inland
estuary of the two rivers, as Mr. James tells us in his Long
White Mountain (Longmans, 1888), is here ten miles across.
The Nonni is navigable by large junks from the Sungari in
summer as far up as Tsitsihar. It will be seen by the map
that the Mongolian plateau projects an eastern extension into
Manchuria separating Heilungkiang in the north from trans-
mural Chihli and the Manchurian province of Fengtien, or
Liaotung, in the south; this extension, like Mongolia generally,
comprises a rolling pastoral country, while the inhabitants are
no longer Manchu-Chinese but Mongols pure and simple, owning
only indirect allegiance to the emperor at Peking.
The second largest river of Manchuria is the Sungari, which
rises in the Long White Mountain in latitude 420, traverses
the province of Kirin, until, 400 miles from its source in the
south, it reaches the capital of the same name which it embraces
in a fine sweep of deep water four hundred yards in width, flowing
thence in a north-westerly course athwart the province until
joined by the Nonni near Petuna, where it is deflected north-east
until it falls into the Amur in latitude 48 after a course of over
1,000 miles, receiving at Sansing another large affluent, the
Hurka, or ' Peony River,' which rises on the eastern slopes
of the Long White Mountain, not far from the Pacific coast. Of
the other rivers that take their rise in the mountain nexus of
the 'Long White ' range, in the east, the principal are the Yalu
and the Tumen, the two rivers that together mark the boundary
between Manchuria and Corea, the former flowing west into the
Yellow Sea, and the latter east into the Pacific ; the Yalu is
a large river and utilized chiefly for the conveyance to the coast
of the fine timber which is cut along its upper reaches and on the
FAR EAST M
162 THE FAR EAST
slopes of the ' White Mountain.' This river is also famous for
the naval engagement at its mouth in 1894, so disastrous to
China, whose fleet was here destroyed by the Japanese. The
last river of importance is the Ussuri, which forms the boundary
line between Manchuria and the eastern province of Primorsk ;
this river takes its rise in the coast range near Ussuri Bay, north
of Vladivostock, and flows thence NNE. until it falls into the
Amur at Habarovsk, after a course of 350 miles. We see then
that the prevailing direction of the courses of the Manchurian
rivers is northwards into the valley of the Amur, following the
trend of the mountain ranges which sink in elevation as they
approach the north ; a marked exception, however, to this
general rule is the Liao, which, rising on the Mongolian steppe,
flows southwards into the Liaotung Gulf — the northern pro-
longation of the Yellow Sea,— after draining the rich metro-
politan province of Fengtien and providing access to sea-going
steamers at the Treaty Port of Newchwang.
The western half of this province is formed from the alluvial
valley and delta of the Liao, its right bank being termed
Liao-si (west of the Liao) while the left bank is termed Liao-
tung (east of the Liao), and gives its name to the hilly country
to the east, up to the Corean boundary, and to the peninsula
of the 'Regent's Sword' with Port Arthur at its point. On
either side of the rich Liao valley, — protecting it on one side,
the north-west, from the incursions of the Mongols, and on the
other side, the north-east, from the Coreans and the outlaws
of the 'White Mountain,' — stood in ancient times the' Palisades,'
which are still marked on our maps, but which, unlike the
Great Wall which they adjoin, are traceable to-day alone in
a few ruined gateways across the main roads, still upheld for
purposes of octroi. Fengtien has been a valued possession of
the Chinese for nearly a thousand years, and, unlike the northern
provinces of Manchuria, is thoroughly settled and cultivated
by them ; during the terms of the many Tartar dynasties that
have ruled northern China, Fengtien (or Liaotung) was always
considered as an integral part of the empire and the source of
many of its richest productions. It is known to Europeans
generally through the Treaty Port of Newchwang, by which
passes a vast trade, in steamers and in junks, estimated at some
THE DEPENDENCIES : PART I
163
ten millions sterling annually in value, the exports being chiefly
beans and their products as well as Tussah silk, and the imports
mainly cotton piece-goods from England and America. So
rapidly is the land making out seawards, here as in the deltas
of the other rivers that fall into the Liaotung and Pechili gulfs, —
especially the Peiho on the west and the Yalu on the east, — that
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the original port of Newchwang has had to be shifted thirty miles
lower down-stream to Yingtse, the spot on which now stands
the ' foreign ' customs station and the ' Concession ' town, and
the site of which eighty years ago was at the bottom of the
sea (James); and yet Yingtse itself now stands twenty miles
from the mouth. This valley of the Liao, together with the
M 2
164 THE FAR EAST
valley bottoms of the great inland rivers, comprises the best
level land in Manchuria, and it is on this that the great crops
of pulse (and recently opium) are mainly raised. But agri-
culture is daily pressing northwards, embracing not only the
rich bottom lands of the Nonni and the Sungari, but is fast
invading the undulating land as the forests get cleared, and
large crops of cereals of every description are grown — in Chinese
garden-like cultivation — as the rich black loam is disclosed by
the clearances 1. The crops comprise millet, wheat, hemp,
maize, barley, indigo, tobacco, and the sorghum or Kao-liang,
the grain of which is the chief source of the large export of
alcohol, while the stalks make an excellent fence or thatch,
and also form the fuel of the people in regions where wood is
scarce. The small millet — or Ku-tse, which grows to a height
of only three feet — boiled as porridge, constitutes the staple
food of the inhabitants, while the straw, mixed with moistened
Kao-liang, is the fodder to which the hard-worked mules and
horses of Manchuria owe their generally excellent condition.
The forests abound with every description of valuable timber —
elm, oak, pine, walnut, birch, spruce, and plane — besides the
stately Salisburia, common in temple grounds throughout North
China and Szechuan. Coal and minerals of all kinds are abun-
dant ; gold is washed in nearly all the numerous southern
affluents of the Amur, the product of the sands of the
Sungari near Sansing being, according to Hosie (Manchuria,
Methuen, 1901), three pounds avoirdupois per day. Sables
and ginseng by no means complete the roll of Manchuria's
almost unlimited resources.
Manchuria is probably best known in Europe as the home
of the present ruling dynasty in China. The ancestral home of
the great founder and warrior, Nurhachu, was on the western
slope of the Long White Mountain, where he ruled one of the
1 As Putnam Weale, who well describes the general aspect of Manchuria
in his well-known Manchu and Muscovite (Macmillan, 1904)— alluding to
the undulating country which surrounds the head-waters of the Liao— writes:
' From Mukden's walls a splendid view is to be had of the surrounding
country, and certain it is that the old capital of the country lies in a pleasant
land. Rolling plains covered with magnificent tilled fields surround the city,
with hills in the middle distance, and mountains vaguely seen far away. . . .
What a land flowing with milk and honey is Manchuria, even if there is
a winter of terrible cold and blizzards.'
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART I 165
petty independent states into which Manchuria was then split
up, — a state capable of setting in the field two to three hundred
armed men. With these as a nucleus, Nurhachu proceeded to
conquer the surrounding tribes ; he established his capital at
Liaoyang on the banks of the Liao river, and in a.d. 1603
removed to the site of Mukden (in Chinese, Shen-yang) — at the
same time that Ieyasu was consolidating the rule of the Shogu-
nate in Japan and removing his capital to the site of the present
Tokio. By 1625 the whole country, up to the Amur in the
north and to the Pacific in the east, had been brought under his
sway. He thus made his rear secure and felt himself strong
enough to attack the Chinese, whom he utterly routed in the
great battle of Kaiyuen (North Liaotung) ; a year later
Nurhachu died in the sixty-eighth year of his age ; his son,
known in Chinese history as Tai-tsung, now set about attacking
the effete Ming dynasty in Peking ; he carried on the war for
fourteen years, but it was reserved for his son, the grandson of
Nurhachu, known in history as Shun-chih, to effect the final
conquest of China ; he was aided by disloyal Chinese, whom
he compelled to shave their heads and adopt the Manchu pigtail,
in order that they might be safely distinguished from the Chinese
who fought against them ; and thus, in 1644, the new Manchu
dynasty was established in Peking, but another generation
passed before the whole ' eighteen provinces ' were finally
reduced to Manchu sway.
The present ' Tatsing ' is the third dynasty that Manchuria
has given to China. In the tenth century of our era the Kitan
Tartars (from whom is derived the mediaeval name for China,
Cathay) founded the Liao dynasty, making Yenching — the site
of the present Peking — their capital, finally dividing the empire
with the Sung, who were driven to make Hangchow their capital
and to content themselves with the country south of the Yangtse.
Secondly, the Nu-chen Tartars, a tribe living on the Sungari,
ousted the Liao and established the Kin or Golden dynasty and
ruled North China from Peking, from n 15 to 1234, when they
were in turn ousted by the Mongols, Kublai Khan eventually
seating himself on the throne of China in 1280. One often hears
China spoken of as being ruled by an alien dynasty, but, as
a matter of fact, China has been so often overrun by the various
166 THE FAR EAST
races of the Tartar family living outside the Great Wall, and
these have so readily assimilated the superior civilization of
the Chinese, that there is to-day no distinguishing feature
perceptible between the two races ; this fact has been con-
stantly remarked upon by all writers on the subject from
Thomas Taylor Meadows downward. An analogous case is
seen in the gradual absorption of their conquerors by the
Saxon English in the three hundred years succeeding the
Norman conquest of England in 1066. The Tartars have given
much of their superior manliness to the Chinese, and lost it in
so doing ; the Chinese have imparted their civilization, both
material and moral, to the Tartars and rendered these nearly
as effeminate as themselves in turn. Even the Manchu language
is now entirely obsolete ; edicts have, from ' old custom,' to be
issued in Manchu as well as in Chinese, but it is difficult nowa-
days to find writers to translate them ; the present reigning
Empress Dowager is said not to understand a word of her
native language.
Of the 21,000,000 of inhabitants now attributed to Man-
churia, at least nine-tenths are pure Chinese or the descendants
of Chinese immigrants : of the remaining tenth not half are
pure Manchu, and even these are only distinguishable by
a doubtful pedigree record and have forgotten their native
language, having insensibly adopted that of their peaceful
invaders. Chinese writing, and Chinese only, is employed
everywhere ; even the Government proclamations, which every
self-respecting mandarin is persistently engaged in issuing, are
couched in the one language understanded of the people. The
Manchu language, which appears to have had no writing prior
to the fifteenth century, when a modification of the Mongol
script was adopted to represent its sounds, never possessed any
literature of its own. The tribes speaking it were mostly
wild nomads and its disappearance is no loss to the world. It
was only when the semi-barbarous Manchus found themselves
seated on the Dragon Throne that their dignity required a recog-
nition of their language in China, and for a time all proclama-
tions and coinage inscriptions were bi-lingual : but to-day no
one speaks Manchu, and nothing but ' old custom ' leads to its
perfunctory production at special functions of the Peking Court.
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART I 167
The great ' Chinese Eastern ' Railway— as the new line,
financed by the Russo-Chinese Bank, which crosses Manchuria
from north to south, from the Siberian frontier to Port Arthur,
and west to east to Vladivostock via Harbin, is officially
designated — follows naturally the 'lay' of the wide Manchurian
plain — the vast central valley which extends from Newchang
in latitude 410 to 100 miles north of Harbin in latitude 470 —
and so the sites of its chief cities. By following up the lines
of railway we are thus enabled to gain a clear conception of
the physical geography of Manchuria and of its chief natural
resources. The ' Chinese Eastern ' from Port Arthur in latitude
380 to Dalai-nor in latitude 50° — north of which point the new
line is linked up with the Siberian Railway running in acknow-
ledged Russian territory — traverses Chinese territory for
a distance of 1,100 miles, while the eastern branch (formerly
the original line) that connects Harbin with Vladivostock
covers a distance of 500 miles in a line running ENE. by
WSW., of which the last 100 miles traverse the Russian
maritime province of Primorsk to the Japan Sea, the fine bay
of Vladivostock being situated at its southern extremity.
Starting from Port Arthur, with a short branch line to the
mushroom town of Dalny in the bay of Talienwan, the railway
traverses the Kwantung peninsula, quitting the c leased
territory' at the frontier town of Pulantien, whence it proceeds
north 100 miles to Tashihchiao, at which point another short
branch of eighteen miles connects the main line with the Treaty
Port of Niuchwang (cattle depot) situated in the embouchure
of the Liao river to the west. This Tashihchiao junction is
a place of great strategic importance, and here we find spacious
machine and repairing shops for the railway as well as
extensive barracks for the Russian army of occupation, with
a large Russian civilian population dependent upon the rail-
way and the military, as at Port Arthur and Dalny. All this
section of the line traverses a hilly barren-looking granitic
country, a replica of that on the opposite coast of Shantung,
60 miles distant across the Pechili Gulf. The soil is dry and
sandy, the mountains bare of vegetation, and alone in the
valley-bottoms we find agriculture carried out in small plots
by the hardy inhabitants, — immigrants from Shantung and
i68 THE FAR EAST
their descendants. After leaving Niuchwang the line traverses
the rich valley of the Liao to Liaoyang and Mukden, and runs
along the foot of the mountain spurs that come down from
the high ranges of Korea and Chang-pai-shan, and form the
boundary of the Liao plain on the east. From Niuchwang to
Mukden is another ioo miles1. Following up the valley of the
Liao and of its affluent the Hei-shui, the line passes near
Yentai, from which the railway derives its chief coal supply ;
Tiehling, a prosperous trading-mart and chief centre of the
Manchurian iron industry ; and then, 160 miles north of Mukden,
passes Kwangchengtse, the largest city in Manchuria, being
credited with over 250,000 inhabitants. The line here grazes
the Mongolian frontier ; the district of Kwanchengtse, although
included in the Kirin ' government,' being in reality a Chinese
colony in Mongolian territory : it is to this fact that it owes
its importance : analogous to Kwei-hua-cheng, on the Shansi
border 700 miles to the west, it is situated on the edge of the
'grass lands' and is a place of barter for Mongolian produce.
Farther north, a bad cart-road leaves the railway for Kirin,
situated two days' journey. Kirin is the capital city of the
central of the three Manchurian provinces, has a population of
200,000, and is the head of steam navigation on the Sungari.
From Kwangchengtse 140 miles' ride takes the traveller across
the Sungari to Harbin, the great railway junction and present
centre of the Russian occupation. Harbin stands almost
equidistant, 500 miles in each direction, from Niuchwang in
the south, Blagoveschensk in the north, Vladivostock in the
east, and the Jedyn Pass (3,500 feet) over the Khingan
mountains, past Tsitsihar, to Khailar in the west, — and is thus
equally the natural centre of the country ; it stands, too, in the
midst of a magnificent wheat country, and its steam flour-
mills turn out nearly 1,000,000 pounds of flour per day. The
Sungari is here half a mile broad, and numerous steamers
convey its flour and lumber to the Amur ports and bring back
1 Mukden may be classed as a small Peking : the Yamens and offices of
the Imperial City are here duplicated ; it is the seat of government of the
' three eastern provinces,' the residence of the Chinese Governor-General,
and the rendezvous of the ' expectant ' officials that pervade all the Chinese
provincial capitals. The region is sacred in Chinese eyes as containing the
tombs of the ancestors of the reigning dynasty.
THE DEPENDENCIES: PARTI 169
ocean-borne imports in return. It is a wide straggling town,
the Russian portion newly built in the last four years, and in
1903 held a population of 30,000 Russians and some 250,000
Chinese, mainly attracted hither by the vast government
expenditure in the place. Harbin and Port Arthur are the
two towns in Manchuria, and the only two, where a Russian
civil population is really in existence.
Two hundred miles north-west of Harbin stands Tsitsihar,
the capital of Heilungkiang (Black Dragon River — the Chinese
name for the Amur), the third, the largest and northernmost
of the three Manchurian provinces, on the banks of the Nonni,
with a Chinese population of 100,000. The railway passes it
ten miles to the south and the main traffic continues to go by
water, the Nonni being navigable in summer by steam-launches
up to the gates of the city. After leaving the valley of the
Nonni, which flows through an undulating plain rich in bound-
less fields of wheat and Kao-liang, the land rises as Mongolia
is approached, the railway runs between high mountains until
the Khingan range is passed at the station of that name and
Khailar, 250 miles distant from Tsitsihar, shortly before the
line enters Transbaikalia to the north of Lake Kulun or Dalai-
nor. This last section of the line traverses a purely pastoral
country inhabited by Mongol nomads.
Returning to Harbin, and leaving the south-western extension
to Niuchwang and Dalny on our right, we find the original
line of railway continuing on in a south-easterly direction to
the borders of the Russian province of Primorsk, after entering
which the line turns due south to its terminus at Vladivostock.
The train runs nearly for another hundred miles through the
Harbin wheat-field, after which it enters the hilly table-land
that separates the great Manchurian plain from the Japan
Sea. In the long journey of nearly 500 miles, the only large
town passed is Ninguta, situated on the upper waters of the
Mutan Kiang or Peony River, an affluent of the Sungari,
coming from the south, which it joins at the town of Sansin.
The banks of the Peony River (' Hurka' in Manchu) arc known
as the home of the Fish-skin Tartars, the aboriginal inhabitants
of Northern Manchuria, who lived by fishing and hunting, and
are now almost extinct under the last hundred years' advance
i7o THE FAR EAST
of the agricultural Chinese into their domain. These Tartars
derive their name of ' Fish-skin ' in that they clothe themselves
in the skin of the Tamara, a species of salmon whose flesh and
skin are reputed to possess marvellous heat-giving properties.
Ninguta lies some ten miles to the south of the railway line
and is a flourishing city of 50,000 inhabitants.
One other railway in Manchuria (together with its branch
line from Yladivostock to Habarovsk), and there is only this
one other than the 'Chinese Eastern ' we have just described,
deserves notice before we quit this interesting region, which
only want of space prevents our picturing at far greater-
length — and that is the Chinese railway from Shanhaikwan,
the point where the Great Wall comes down to the sea and
divides Manchuria from the intramural province of Chihli, to
Sinminting, a line 200 miles in length and stopping short
about 30 miles to the west of Mukden. This line is an
extension of the Peking, Tientsin, Shanhaikwan, a railway
solidly built by British engineers and with capital borrowed
from Britain, but owned entirely by the Chinese Government
and worked for their benefit . Unlike the ' Chinese Eastern '
this line carries on a valuable local trade and pays handsome
dividends. It notably serves a rich grain district in the Liao
valley around Sinminting, and will doubtless, as soon as
Russian opposition to its extension can be overcome, be carried
through to Mukden.
Now, as we are about to conclude, and that war has actually
broken out in Manchuria, we cannot but pay a just tribute to
the foresight displayed by the talented author of Manchu and
Muscovite, and we venture to intrude another quotation which
we consider truly a propos in the present conjuncture.
Speaking of the callous neglect of Chinese susceptibilities by
the Russians in Manchuria — those of the merchant no less
than those of the mandarin, Mr. Weale remarks: — 'Two
hundred years' experience of Englishmen in China who, in
spite of their government, have succeeded far more than any
other nationality, proves conclusively that, not only must the
Chinese be considered in all commercial and economical
matters, but their wishes and inclinations in the end carry all
before them and win the day.'
1
CHAPTER XI
THE DEPENDENCIES : PART II. MONGOLIA
Mongolia, the land of the Mongols, covers a vast extent of
territory. It comprises the wide and in parts waterless plateau
that divides the warm, fertile lowlands of China on the south
from the cold Siberian depression on the north ; the intervening
distance being about 1,000 miles. The actual area of the
plateau is 1,300,000 square miles, three times that of Manchuria
(including the maritime province alienated to Russia), which
itself, as we pointed out in the preceding chapter, exceeds that
of France and Germany combined. But area alone is no test
of value, and while Manchuria, as we have shown, is one of the
richest countries in the world, Mongolia is one of the poorest.
This natural poverty is due, always excepting the western
desert portion, not so much to poorness of soil as to unfavour-
able location ; the plateau is walled in by mountains which
intercept the bulk of the moisture in the winds which sweep
over its highlands, rendering these hot and dry in summer;
while the elevation renders them bitterly cold in winter, so that
agriculture can only be attempted in a few favoured spots,
thereby confining its inhabitants to a pastoral life and so making
of the Mongols a nomad race as much by necessity as by pre-
dilection. As with all nomad races, the population is sparse,
and so this huge territory extending roughly over ten degrees
of latitude (400 to 500 N.) and no less than forty degrees of
longitude (850 to 1250 E.) in its greatest length and width,
contains, by Chinese computation, some 2,000,000 inhabitants
only, tent-dwellers and herders of cattle, with none but the
most primitive industries, ignorant of everything but of the
best means of maintaining and increasing the flocks whirl 1
supply their few simple wants, and in which lies their only
wealth. Mongolia forms a rough parallelogram, i,8oo miles
east and west and 1,000 miles north and south ; its frontiers are
difficult to define with precision, owing, in the east, to encroach-
ments on the fertile edges of the plateau by agricultural Chinese
172 THE FAR EAST
settlers, who have gradually driven out the Mongols from their
best grazing-grounds and incorporated them into the adjoining
provinces of China proper ; while in the west, as at Kwei-hua-
cheng and outside the Great Wall generally, we find Chinese
settlers slowly absorbing all the border land capable of agri-
culture, up to the margin of the Gobi, the ' great ' desert, and
on to where this latter descends into the depression of the Tarim
and the sands of the Takla-makan desert. This invasion has
been pursued steadily since the eighteenth century, the now
absolutely peaceful Mongols quietly accepting the situation.
We propose to take the political line as usually marked in the
maps as the boundary, and to exclude Chinese Turkestan (com-
monly called the ' New Dominion ' and administered directly
by Chinese officials appointed from Peking) from the Mongolia
we are describing, whose inhabitants are under the rule of their
own chiefs, the Chinese suzerainty being practically limited to
confirmation of these in their hereditary positions, and the
receipt of a yearly tribute of Mongolian horses for supplying the
Chinese cavalry.
The long northern boundary of Mongolia is coterminous with
the southern frontier of Siberia from Kobdo and the upper
waters of the river Irtish in the west to Dalai-nor, on the
Manchurian border in the east. The extreme northern boun-
dary ascends in the west to the north of the latitude of Irkutsk,
where the crest of the lofty Saiansk range, an outlying northern
buttress of the Great Altai mountains, walls off the high Mon-
golian plateau from the Siberian depression on its northern
frontier, whence the land slopes gently into the frozen tundra
and the Arctic Sea beyond. Continuing round the southern
shores of Lake Baikal the Saiansk range, which runs generally
in an east and west direction, finds its eastern termination in the
wooded hills amidst which the great frontier mart of Kiachta
(on the Russian side of the line, Maimachin on the Mongol side)
is situated, the ground there falling to within 2,500 feet of the
sea-level. If we thence proceed east along the Russo-Chinese
frontier, the ground rises again, until, in the range of the
Khingan mountains, it again reaches an elevation of 7,000 to
8,000 feet.
This Alpine chain which stretches SSW. and NNE. through
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART II 173
fifteen degrees of latitude, from the borders of Shansi in China
proper up to the Russian town of Nerchinsk, where it forces the
Amur to make its great northern bend, walls off the Mongolian
plateau on the east and separates it from the depression which
stretches from its eastern slopes across Manchuria to the sea.
Intercepting, as it does, the moisture-laden winds from the
Pacific Ocean beyond, this important range is a main factor in
the contrast between the fertility of Manchuria on the one hand
and the aridity of Mongolia on the other.
If we follow the Khingan range round southwards past Jehol
and the imperial hunting-park to the borders of China proper,
we find its southern prolongation continued to the north of
Chihli and Peking, where it forms a mountain barrier of parallel
ranges, 100 to 130 miles wide, walling off the plateau from the
Chihli plain, to which it is rendered accessible by more than one
narrow, water-carved cleft in the mountain wall, — the easiest and
most frequented of these passes being that which leads through
the Nankou and the gates in the inner and outer Great Walls
that guard the road between Peking and Kalgan. The line of
the range hence west is defined by the Great Wall itself, which
follows the crest of the mountains of Northern Shansi and passes
by Han-nor, north of Kalgan, at an elevation of 4,800 feet *,
Farther west the range subsides into the Ordos desert and admits
the return south of the Yellow River after it has been forced
into making its great northern bend, by the lofty Lu-kwan
range which forms the border-land between the provinces of
Kansu and Shensi ; from this point the river flows due south, for
a distance of 400 miles, to its junction with the Wei at Tung-
kwan, marking the boundary between the two provinces of
Shansi and Shensi.
The Ordos desert, a southern extension of the plateau, is
enclosed within this, 1,000 miles long, great bend of the Yellow
River, and is inhabited by Mongols and, unlike the Ala-shun
sand desert still farther west, furnishes pasture, though some-
what scanty, to the flocks and herds of the nomad tribes scat-
1 The Great Wall east of Kalgan leaves the line of the mountain crests and
cuts across the barrier until it dips into the sea at Shanhaikwan, and there
forms the boundary between China proper and the Liaotung province of
Manchuria.
i74 THE FAR EAST
tered throughout its area ; the western extension of the Great
Wall, with the Lu-kwan range behind it, formerly defended the
cultivated uplands of Shensi and Kansu from nomad incursions,
as did the eastern Great Wall (at this point only a heap of ruins)
north of Kalgan, with its corresponding belt of mountains, the
metropolitan province of Chihli.
West of the Ordos, but separated from it by the mountain
peninsula of the lofty Ala-shan range, which is enclosed in a
northern outjutting extension of the Chinese province of Kansu,
lies the desert of Ala-shan, as this eastern portion of the great
Gobi desert is named. The existence of the Ala-shan desert is
due to the interception of the rainfall by the high ranges along
its southern border; the Ala-shan range rising to 10,000 and
11,000 feet on the south-east, and the Richthofen range, with
peaks ranging up to 20,000 feet, on the south-west. The Russian
traveller, Prejevalsky, describes the fertility of these forest-
covered mountains, upon which the clouds from the southern seas
deposit their moisture in the south-west monsoon season, giving
rise to the Sining and other northern affluents of the Yellow
River, thereby enabling it, by the resulting increased water-
supply, to pursue its long course through the Ordos desert
without being lost by desiccation. On the other hand, the
limited drainage from the northern slopes of these mountains
after feeding the Hei-ho, or Black River of the Chinese — the
Etsingol of the Mongols — finally disappears in the desert,
forming a salt lake known as the Kashun-nor. The existence
of this fertile mountain strip placed between the Gobi desert on
the one hand and that of the Koko-nor plateau on the other,
accounts for the high-road to the ' New Dominion ' that runs
along it, as well as for the curious long, narrow north-west
extension of the province of Kansu in this direction which is
so noticeable on a first glance at our maps of China.
Proceeding still farther west, the desert of Gobi extends into
Turkestan and encircles the Mahometan-peopled oases of the
Tarim basin, a region politically outside Mongolia, though
physically one with it. The Ordos and Ala-shan deserts appear
now as desiccated lake-beds, and together with the Tarim basin
would seem to have been, at some period still more remote, an
arm of the sea which once filled the area now occupied by the
THE DEPENDENXIES: PART II
/j
Gobi desert and to have extended, not improbably from the
foot of the lofty Altyn-tagh to the Arctic Sea.
Crossing this gap in the surrounding wall, we come, still pro-
ceeding west, to the east-and-west running range of the Bogdo-ula,
and then, leaving on the south Dsungaria and the province of
Hi, which form part of the administration of Chinese Turkestan,
we cross to the southern Altai range, and, round again by
Uliassutai and Kobdo north-west to the Saiansk range which
walls off the north-western extension of the high plateau from
the depression of Lakes Ala and Balkash (700 to 800 feet above
sea-level) and the lowlands of Siberia. As in the north the land
slopes from the northern outposts of the dividing range gradually
down to sea-level in the Arctic Ocean, so in the west the land
slopes away from the plateau in a gradual descent to the
Caspian eighty-four feet below sea-level. In allusion to this
natural frontier between the two empires, the Russian writer
Veniukoff, in his review of the frontiers of Russia in Asia, makes
an interesting remark worth quoting (Delmar Morgan's trans-
lation of Prejevalsky's From Kulja across the Tien-shan to
Lobnor, Sampson Low, 1879) : ' The Treaty of Chugushak
(1864) was never fully carried out, probably owing to the
outbreak in 1864 of the Dungan insurrection, and the Dsun-
garian section of the frontier from Khan-Tengri on the south to
Kharbar-assu on the north, remains practically undefined.'
East of this again, in the Altai-Sayan (Saiansk) section, he
estimates the Chinese regular forces at 580 Manchus and Chinese,
distributed in two towns situated 2,000 versts (1,300 miles)
from the Great Wall, i.e. from the frontiers of China proper.
1 From Kobdo and Uliassutai we could drive the Chinese out at
any time, for their fortifications are so weak that in 1870 and
1872 bands of badly armed insurgents had no difficulty in
taking them. But (he adds) it is clearly our interest not only
not to molest the Chinese in this part of Central Asia, but, on
the contrary, to use every means in our power to consolidate
their rule over the local nomads.' ' A glance at the map (adds
Mr. Delmar Morgan) will at once convince the reader, how un-
wise it would be for Russia to advance beyond the splendid
natural frontier afforded by the mountain ranges of South-
western Siberia, into the steppes and deserts <>n the smith.'
i;6 THE FAR EAST
We thus see Mongolia to be a high steppe land, ranging from
3,000 to 5,000 feet above sea-level, walled in by encircling
ramparts of mountains which separate it on the north and west
from Siberia and Russian territory, on the east from Manchuria,
and on the south from China and Eastern Turkestan, all lands
situated at lower elevations, the descent to which is made
through passes in the mountain girdle, whence the land falls
again in every direction gradually to the nearest sea. Only in
the south-west, descending to Turkestan we come to a ' dry sea,'
as the Chinese name the basin of the Tarim, a depression which
intervenes between Mongolia and the far loftier plateau of
Tibet to the south.
The plateau is not all level steppe as is the impression derived
after studying the descriptions given us by travellers who have
visited the ' grass-land,' as the Chinese term the rich prairie
plateau north of Kalgan ; on the contrary, spurs run out from
the mountain girdle into the plateau and cross it in many direc-
tions, the loftiest and longest ranges being those emanating
from the Altai in the west, the little known Kobdo district being
almost wholly mountainous. Nor is the country generally
barren as is the Sahara in Africa or the great central desert in
Australia. It rather resembles the high veldt of South Africa
with its adjoining deserts; though the extent of the Gobi, the
actually barren portion of Mongolia, is greater than that of the
deserts that lie west of the Transvaal and the Orange River.
The actual waterless sand desert of Gobi, including the Ordos
country and the Ala-shan, is confined to the south-western
portion of the plateau and covers barely a fourth of its whole
area ; the remainder is steppe, in parts fairly watered and
covered with rich grasses capable of feeding immense herds of
cattle and horses, in other parts arid and comparatively barren,
providing only sparse nourishment for camels and antelope.
In the west, the river Irtish, flowing out of Lake Zaisan, drains
a valley to the south of the Altai containing agricultural settle-
ments, and in the north the rivers Khua-kem, to the south of
the Saiansk range, and the Selenga with its affluents which drain
the Urga steppe into Lake Baikal, water valleys comparatively
fertile and well wooded. In fact, the 200 miles, wide stretch of
undulating land along the northern border, which is tra-
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART II 177
versed by the high-road between Kiachta and Urga, is distin-
guished by abundance of trees and water — undulating country
drained by the Orkhon and its tributaries which ultimately
unite in the Selenga : in many of these valleys a rich black loam
is found, cultivated by Chinese colonists. But south of Urga,
which is situated 4,200 feet above sea-level, the gravelly steppe
begins, a steppe in part floored with fragments of agate and
chalcedony, and the confines of the Gobi are entered ; the soil
still supports scattered desert shrubs, and water is obtainable
by well-sinking. Here is no remorseless sand-waste with its
waves of moving sand such as are found to the south and west
of the Altai and its eastern prolongation the Gurhan Saikhab,
the range that may be looked upon as the backbone of the
plateau, and which forms a rough dividing line between the
Eastern and Western Gobi. The Eastern Gobi slopes from its
marginal mountains to a depression in the centre, elevated
only 2,400 feet above sea-level, probably the dry bottom of an
ancient salt lake, into which the now dried-up watercourses,
with which the ravines of the projecting rocky ridges that
traverse the steppe are scored, drained at a time prior to the
recent desiccation of the country.
South of this depression the land rises again to 5,400 feet,
as the Alpine range is reached which limits the steppe in this
direction of China. The ranges which wall in China on the
north and are 100 to 150 miles in through-diameter are Alpine
in character and contain many fertile valleys, all occupied by
Chinese settlers ; such valleys we find south of the frontier mart
of Kalgan, 2,800 feet above the sea, built on the southern slope
of the mountain range, through which breaks the narrow pass
leading up by a farther ascent of 2,000 feet to the plateau which
commences 10 miles to the north, the only road giving easy
access, by a comparatively gentle descent, to the wide Peking
plain below. This descent from the plateau into the low-lying
plain of Chihli, via Kalgan, is by the most gradually sloped and
easily traversed of all the main roads leading from Mongolia
into China, and it is consequently the one which has been most
strongly fortified by the Chinese ; it is also the route in which
the transition from the rugged mountain rampart to the level
grass-covered table-land is most striking and abrupt. The
178 THE FAR EAST
Peking plain which slopes seawards from the foot of the moun-
tains at the imperceptible inclination of about one foot to the
mile, abuts directly upon the cliffs of the barrier range, giving
unmistakable evidence of these having once formed the sea-
coast of the to-day still steadily narrowing gulf of Pechili.
At the village of Nan-kou (southern mouth) situated thirty miles
to the north of Peking, a cleft in the mountains, formed by an
ancient river which has now dwindled to a tiny streamlet, gives
access to the Nan-kou Pass. Hence an ascent of 1,500 feet in
a distance of fifteen miles leads to the summit of the pass,
through precipitous granite mountains, rising, in the lesser
Wu-tai-shan to the left, to a height of 9,000 feet and upwards.
The pass is crossed by no less than four walls, under gateways
pierced in which the cart-road passes ; these walls are continued
over the crests of the surrounding mountains ; they are all alike
solidly built of dressed stone, with towers and battlements, are
in a good state of preservation and give evidence of the great
importance attached in former times to this natural break in
the rampart that guards the imperial city of Peking. They
testify to an amount of labour almost inconceivable until seen,
and date from various periods, the latest having been built by
those indefatigable road- and wall-builders, the Mings, the last
of the few purely Chinese dynasties 1. This pass leads up to the
first step in the mountains, a valley filled in and characteristically
levelled by the wind-borne loess, yielding a plain some ten by
twenty miles in extent, bounded on the north by the precipitous
Chi-ming-shan, a limestone range yielding anthracite coal.
A gorge has been cut down through these mountains by the
waters of the muddy Yang -ho, and high above its banks a
cornice road has been excavated in the hard, blue limestone
1 It is across this pass, at a point where, passing from China, the limestone
rocks begin to be replaced by granite — coarse, crystalline and of a reddish hue.
that, in 1345, was built the beautiful and famous gateway, familiarized by the
many photos taken of it, and of the inner wall which it here pierces. The
interior of the hexagonal archway is covered with bold carvings of Buddhist
divinities which the dry climate has preserved almost intact, and with
a Buddhist invocation, or Dharani, in six languages : Devanagari and
Tibetan in horizontal lines, and Mongol, Uigur, Manchu and Chinese in
vertical lines. The spot where this gateway stands is known as Chii-yang-
kwan, ' Imperial stopping-place,'— from Chin Shih Hwangti, the builder of the
original Great Wall (B.C. 246-210), who is said to have encamped here while
planning his great work.
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART II 179
wall, by which the traveller ascends the next step, and reaches
the famous fruit-growing valley-plain of Hsuan-hua, Polo's
Sindachu. This is another of the loess-formed, levelled moun-
tain-basins that, as Richthofen tells us, are distributed through-
out an area of 250,000 square miles on the Mongolian border
and in North China ; and of these Hsuan-hua is one of the
most fertile and thickly populated, and its mild climate
admits of the low lands along the Yang-ho being endyked
into paddy-fields, which elsewhere are seldom seen north
of the Yellow River. The Hsuan-hua loess plain extends
about twenty miles in every direction and at its north-
western extremity, built into a bight running into the pre-
cipitous engirdling mountains, is the large frontier city of
Kalgan, the cart-road to which is sunk in parts between vertical
walls of loess. Kalgan stands at the foot of another pass, not
unlike that at Nan-kou, a picturesque cleft in the mountains,
about 200 yards wide, giving access to a winding, gradually
ascending road, fifteen miles in length, the bed of a generally
dry stream, but which on occasions is filled by destructive
storm water. The pass itself has an almost flat, gently ascending
floor of gravel and small boulders, with walls of porphyry and
metamorphic schists, covered up in places by the all-pervading
loess. This last pass lands us on the Mongol plateau proper,
here 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. At this point stands
the village of Han-nor, so named from an ancient lake on this
spot, the only trace of which to-day is a muddy fresh-water pond
that stands at the summit of the pass, on a ridge which forms
a kind of isthmus between the rugged mountain rampart just
traversed and the level, lava-formed plateau of Mongolia — a wide,
broken, half loess-filled, valley depression separating the two
regions, the contrast between which affords a most fascinating
coup d'ceil as viewed from a neighbouring peak ov< r which the
Great Wall passes. On one side we have the confused and
broken mass of precipitous mountains extending south-west
and north-east as far as the eye can reach, while across the
intervening depression rises the smooth vertical outline of the
wall of the table-land with its level surface fading away to the
far horizon ; nowhere is the appellation of table-land more
strikingly appropriate to the eye than at this romantic spot.
N 2
i8o THE FAR EAST
From here starts the great high-road to Urga and Kiachta ; and
here we cross Chin Shih Hwangti's original wall, now a pile of
unhewn and unmortared brown-black volcanic rock fragments.
The Great Wall here marks the natural line of demarcation
between a settled agricultural people and nomadic pastoral
tribes, — passing from a region of limestone, coal-measures and
granite to one of tertiary and recent volcanic deposits,- —
from the fertile wooded valleys of Northern Chihli, rich in grains
and fruit, to a treeless expanse of grass, the support of innumera-
ble flocks and herds, and where 'argol,' the dung of cattle, is the
only fuel. The difference in climate is equally striking ; once
on the plateau, even in early autumn, one finds no shelter from
the cold, piercing, north-west winds, while in the Peking plain
below it is still summer1.
1 One hundred and fifty miles to the north-east of Kalgan the little-less
celebrated pass of Ku-peh-kou leads up, through the Khingan range, from
the Peking plain to Jehol and Dolon-nor (in Chinese, Lama-miao). This
pass is famous as that by which Lord Macartney's embassy ascended on
their way to visit the great emperor, ' Kien-lung,' in 1793, and of which
Staunton has left us such a graphic account. The early emperors of the
present dynasty were wont to migrate to their Mongolian hunting-grounds
every autumn, a custom which has been discontinued by their effeminate
successors, — the nineteenth century having passed without a single imperial
visit to Jehol, except when, on the approach of the Anglo-French expedition
to Peking in i860, the effete emperor Hienfung fled there to die. Thus this
pass, the road through which was originally cut and paved regardless of cost,
and which to this day is lined with the ruins of magnificent rest-houses, has
fallen into comparative disuse, though still visited by rare tourists. It crosses
mountains similar to those near Kalgan but better wooded : their south-east
face is covered with an undergrowth of hazel nut, wild rose, and the fragrant
artemisia, while the ravines are filled with elm, birch, maple, pine and oak,
and the colder north-west face with dwarf willow and elm. The wild silkworm
is largely cultivated throughout this region, being fed by the leaves of the
Quercus obovata (Dr. Bushell). The mountains here are mostly conglomerate
and limestone, affording extremely rugged and picturesque outlines. The
range is cut through by the Luan-ho, a river debouching at the foot of the
Liaotung Gulf and which was formerly navigated up to Jehol, which stands
in a rich mountain valley lying between the inner and outer ridges of the
range 1,250 feet above sea-level. To the north of Jehol, in the wide fold
embraced in the folds of the Khingan range, is the imperial hunting-ground
(Wei-chang), a park some six thousand square miles in extent, surrounded
by forty guard-houses occupied by an army of Manchu 'bannermen.' The
grand palaces built by Kanghi for himself, his court and his suite of horsemen
and foot-soldiers, are long since deserted and in a ruinous condition.
Continuing across the higher inner range, the pass leads, still by the valley
of the Luan river, to Dolon-nor (seven lakes), a town situated in a barren
sandy plain, with a population of about 20,000, chiefly Chinese ; thence the
road leads twenty-five miles NYV., over a series of low sand-dunes and across
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART II 181
East of this north and south line across the plateau (Kiachta
to Kalgan) the steppe slopes upwards towards its eastern limit,
the Alpine range of the Khingan mountains, and the soil, sandv
and in some places saline, produces excellent grass throughout,
as is seen in the fine condition of the animals, camels, horses,
and sheep that the Mongols bring down in large numbers from
this region into the Peking plain for sale and hire. To the west
of the line the country falls off in value as we proceed in the
direction of Central Asia, the rainfall being less and the preva-
lent north-west gales, often sand-laden and always devoid of
moisture, being more severe and persistent. And yet, the
many mountain ranges traversing the country, though often
rising out of sand desert on either side, are able to arrest suffi-
cient moisture in the shape of rain and snow during the short
summer season, when southerly winds prevail, to provide their
flanks with forest growth and their summits with snow caps,
whence waterfalls descend into and are lost in the surrounding
deserts. Thus, turning west again, we find the In-shan, north of
Shensi, where its western extension bars the great north bend
of the Yellow River to the south, to be a well-wooded range, as is
the lofty Richthofen range, the backbone of Northern Kansu ;
but the intervening range of the Ala-shan, cut off by higher
mountains to the south, shows up a wilderness of igneous rocks
a steep range of volcanic hills into a wide rolling prairie covered with long
grass and fragrant shrubs, the haunt of numerous herds of antelope.— to the
ancient Mongol capital, 'the city of 108 temples,' now known as Shangtu,
which is situated on the river of that name. The city of Shangtu is now
in ruins, but its remains testify to its former populousness and importance.
Kanghi established there a great lamaserai in 1694, which still houses
some 2,000 to 3,000 lamas, who live in sloth and dirt. Here is the park
described by Marco Polo, inside which were ' fountains and rivers and
brooks and beautiful meadows, with all kinds of wild animals, which the
emperor has procured and placed there to supply food for his gerfalcons and
hawks which he keeps there in mew. The khan himself goes every week to
see his birds sitting in mew, and sometimes he rides through the park with
a leopard behind him on his horse's croup; and then, if he sees any animal
that takes his fancy, he slips his leopard at it. and the game when taken is
made over to feed the hawks in mew.'
We ourselves once met a party of 100 men bound for this region, each
carrying two huge tame unhoodcd eagles, sitting one at each end of a carry-
ing-pole borne on a man's shoulders, — to hunt for game, chiefly hares, to
supply the Peking market. The hunting is pursued from September to
January, when the frozen carcases of the quarry are taken to Peking for
sale.
1 82 THE FAR EAST
with micaceous limestone in between. The Ordos desert forms
the first step down on this side from the Mongolian plateau to
the lowlands of Shensi and the valley of the Wei, the average
elevation of the Ordos being 3,000 feet only.
Still farther west and trending north, we come to the moun-
tainous region of the Altai and its southern offshoots, and so
reach the Russian frontier in the west by way of Uliassutai,
Kobdo and Tarbagatai. This western country of the Mongols,
unlike the central steppe, is characterized by almost continuous
mountain ranges, their prevailing direction being east and west,
and giving rise to numerous short rivers terminating in salt
lakes, except in the northern slopes of the rampart, where, on
crossing the watershed, we find the rivers naturally flowing
north and communicating with the Siberian system. All this
region affords pasturage for the flocks and herds of the nomad
Kirghis and Kalmuk Mongols, which feed on the mountains in
summer and retire to the warmer plains in winter, often crossing
into Russian territory (Semipalatinsk), where at a lower level
they meet with a milder climate. In the oases at the foot of
the mountains, agriculture is also carried on by colonies of
Chinese. This difficult region has been little explored, no main
roads of traffic leading through it, such as we find on the south
and east, but only tracks of the camel caravans which carry on
the limited trade of the region, tracks quickly obliterated by
the moving sands and dimly marked by the bones of the dead
pack-animals. The region is very sparsely inhabited by nomad
Mongols ; its extreme western border is famous in history for
the emigration thither in the eighteenth century of the Staro-
vertsi or ' old believers ' from Russia, a few of whose descendants
are still to be found in the wild recesses of the Altai.
The chief road across Western Mongolia, from China to Kobdo
— from the Great Wrall, north of Shansi, to the Russian frontier,
a distance of 1,500 miles — starts from Kuei-hua-cheng, a point
170 miles to the west of Kalgan, or, as this latter place is called
by the Chinese, Chang-kia-kou. From Kuei-hua-cheng, the
eastern gate of the desert and great frontier mart for the barter
by Chinese of tea, flour, and millet, in exchange for Mongol
live-stock and skins, and latterly notorious by the murder there
of Lieutenant Watts-Jones of the Royal Engineers during the
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART II 183
' Boxer ' uprising of 1900, the road proceeds through nearly
1,000 miles of desert country, to the north of the 'Southern
Altai ' range to Uliassutai. Of this road, Mr. Ney Elias, who
traversed it in 1872, writes : ' The general aspect of the desert
between Kuei-hua-cheng and Uliassutai is that of lone hills or
downs with valleys and plains intervening — more of a stony
than a sandy nature, — here and there intercepted by low rocky
ranges with scarcely any grass ' (Ney Elias, Geographical
Journal, 1873). Water and pasturage are scarce, the best pools
being found in or near the rocky ranges of hills that intersect
the desert at intervals, the water in them being always sweet,
whilst in those on the plains it is frequently brackish. The
chief mountain ranges crossed are the Khangai, composed of
bare granite, red and gray, but giving rise to the clear, sweet
stream of the river Baitarik which flows southwards through
a rugged country which, however, supports large numbers of
wild ponies and asses. Before reaching Uliassutai, a snow-
covered pass of about 8,000 feet is crossed in the mountains
which give rise to the tributaries of the river Jabkan. A
gradual descent hence leads to Uliassutai, situated 5,700 feet
above sea-level, in a deep valley, having a narrow opening or
gorge at its eastern end, through which flows the Uliassutai
river ; the climate of Uliassutai is severe and the prevalent
cold dry winds render the valley barren, nothing but a few
vegetables being grown in it ; the population is about 4,000,
chiefly Mongol.
The road continues to Kobdo by way of the Turgen lake,
from the south-west shores of which a bold chain of mountains
runs NNW. to the southern extremity of Lake Aral. Ranges
of sand-hills composed entirely of loose sand form peculiar
features in the country, being sometimes nearly 200 feet in
height ; a gale of wind transforms their outline and an incon-
siderable breeze is sufficient to obliterate the tracks of a large
caravan of camels almost immediately after it has passed,
extinguishing all traces of the line generally traversed, and
rendering it dangerous and disastrous for the next comers. In
the month of November, Mr. Elias crossed this lake on the ice.
NNW. of the lake stands Kobdo, the chief town of the district
situated in a large stony plain mostly devoid of vegetation,
i84 THE FAR EAST
although some opium, cabbages, and turnips are grown. The
trees which are said formerly to have flourished here have been
all destroyed. The population is about 6,000, chiefly Mongol.
From Kobdo the road crosses the lower range of the northern
Altai and proceeds to the Chinese border town of Suok by a
pass of 8,000 feet. The chain of the Altai here forms the boun-
dary between Russian Siberia and the Chinese territory of
Mongolia ; an excellent natural boundary, and serving as a line
of demarcation between the Kalmuks on the north and the
Mongols on the south of the line.
We have thus seen that Mongolia comprises a vast plateau,
in part desert (known to the Chinese as Shamo (i.e. Sand-waste),
and to the Mongols as Gobi), in part grassy steppe, and in part
mountain ranges with peaks rising to the snow-line ; the country
extending from the upper waters of the Irtish on the west to
Manchuria in the east, and from Siberia on the north to the
Great Wall and the Mahometan countries lying along the
Tien-shan on the south. The nomad tribes who have inhabited
this wide region from time immemorial were once probably more
numerous than they are to-day, when — to judge by the fall in the
level of the many inland salt-lakes, as shown in the markings
on their shores— the country obtained a more ample rainfall
than it now enjoys and so supported a more numerous
population. In the centre of the region are still to be seen the
ruins of the Great Khan's (Genghis) former capital of Kara-
korum, situated north of the Altai on the head-waters of the
Selenga river.
The Mongols, splendid horsemen and extraordinarily hardy,
have ever been a thorn in the side of the peace-loving agricul-
tural Chinese, who, as we know, already in the third century
B.C. undertook that stupendous defensive work, the Great Wall,
in the vain hope of confining them to the steppe. Converted
to Buddhism in its form of Lamaism, some five hundred years
ago, their character has been softened, while the practice of
every family devoting one or more of its sons to the priesthood,
in which as Lamas they lead a celibate life, has tended to
prevent excess of population above the resources of the country ;
and since, in the thirteenth century (a.d. 1280-1341), the short-
lived Mongol dynasty of Genghis Khan and his successors con-
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART II 185
quered and occupied China, until driven out by the purely
Chinese dynasty of the Ming in 1368, China has been unmolested
by her northern neighbours, and the old officina gentium has
ceased to be a menace to the world outside. When the
Mongol dynasty was then driven out by the Mings, who were
too glad only to be let alone by their warlike neighbours, the
Mongols remained independent ; but after the accession of the
present ' Tsing ' dynasty and in the reign of the warlike emperor
Kanghi (1662-1723), they were again brought under the
Chinese yoke, their ' princes ' having to come to Peking for
investiture and being forced to pay an annual tribute of camels,
cattle, and horses to their Peking rulers.
It was not until the year 1691 that Kanghi succeeded in
conquering the powerful Khalka tribe, while Usungaria and the
Kalmuks were reduced to subjection by that other famous
emperor of the present dynasty, Kienlung, in 1756. The
Mongols are distinguished by their hospitality and friendliness
to strangers, where their superstitious fears are not aroused.
Their features differ little from those of their neighbours (except
that the broad flat features and high cheekbones are more pro-
nounced), the Chinese and the Manchus ; though their life in the
open air, exposed to the fierce winds of the high steppe, gives
them a ruddy tanned skin in contrast to the yellow pallor of the
sedentary Chinese. Their country will ere long be traversed
by the railway which the Russians are contemplating from
Peking to Kiachta, thence to connect at Irkutsk with their great
trans-Siberian line ; this short cut will bring the capitals of the
two empires — Peking and Petersburg — within ten days' journey
of each other, and will bring Mongolia into line with the civi-
lization of the West, and, like China, out of its old seclusion ;
its undoubted mineral resources will then be developed and
a sedentary population to a great extent replace or convert the
present nomads ; it will then be found that there is more in
Mongolia than the desert of Gobi.
CHAPTER XII
THE DEPENDENCIES : PART III. TURKESTAN
If we start from the southernmost corner of Mongolia where
the Gobi desert impinges on the Great Wall, north of the Chinese
province of Kansu, — crossing, on our way south, the arids and
waste of Ala-shan, — we are suddenly brought up by the high
mountain range that divides the Gobi desert on the north from
the little-less desert country of the Koko-nor and Tibet on the
south.
This mountain range, crossed by Prejevalski and named by
him the Richthofen range, after the celebrated German traveller
of that name, forms a fertile isthmus between two deserts by
which the road leads from China proper to the Tarim basin and
the Lob-nor depression in the west, and so brings us to the sub-
ject of our present chapter — Chinese Turkestan.
Chinese Turkestan, also known as Eastern Turkestan, is
officially called by the Chinese, Hsinkiang or the New Dominion,
adding, since 1877, as the result of Tso Tsung-tang's great cam-
paign against the successors of Yakob Beg, a nineteenth to the
original eighteen provinces of China proper, — although this
name is unknown to the inhabitants, who are familiar only with
the local names, such as Hi with Kulja to the north of the
Tien-shan; and Khotan, Yarkand and Kashgar to the south1.
The area of the country is about half a million square miles : it
forms a wedge inserted between Mongolia on the north and
Tibet on the south ; closed in by the Pamirs on the west and
open to China on the east, a depression falling at its lowest
point, at Lake Lob-nor, to 2,000 feet above sea-level, the average
1 It is noticeable, as showing the laxity common in drawing up official
documents where China is concerned, and the general ignorance of Chinese
geography, that in the new ' Mackay ' treaty drawn up between China and
Great Britain in 1902, China is spoken of as 'the eighteen provinces,' —
whereas in the subsequent American treaty with China, the clause, which
is transcribed almost verbatim from the British Treaty, speaks of ' the nine-
teen provinces.' Other documents speak of China as 'the twenty-two
provinces,' meaning thereby to include the 'three Eastern provinces' of
Manchuria now occupied by Russia.
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART III 187
height of the Mongolian plateau on one side being 4.500 feet
and of the high plateau of Tibet on the other 15,000 feet. This
remarkable depression separating the two great plateaux of
Eastern Asia is drained by the Tarim river, and the basin of this
river, together with that of Dsungaria to the north of the Tien-
shan mountains drained by the Hi river, — a valley which, how-
ever, belongs geographically to Mongolia, — constitutes Eastern or
Chinese Turkestan. The basin is bounded on all sides by high
mountains which form a horseshoe-shaped amphitheatre, at
the feet of which are set out a series of oases watered by
streams rising in perpetual snow, a few of which go to swell the
long, thin stream of the Tarim, while the majority are lost in
the great central sand-waste of the basin, — the worst desert of
all being the moving sand-dunes of the Takla-makan ; the
opening in the horseshoe leaving room for the direct connexion
of this western offshoot of the Gobi desert with the wider but
less arid desert of Mongolia proper. Richthofen, in a paper
read before the Berlin Geographical Society (Bemerkungen zu
den Ergebnissen von Oberst-Lieutenant Prejevalski's Reise
nach den Lop-nor und Altyn-tagh), well summarizes the aspect
of this unique basin in these words : — ' The region which gives
birth to this river (the Tarim) is on a scale of grandeur such as no
other river in the world can boast. It is girt round by a wide
semicircular collar of mountains of the loftiest and grandest
character, often rising in ridges of 18,000 and 20,000 feet in.
height, while the peaks shoot up to 25,000 and even 28,000 feet.
The basin which fills in the horseshoe-shaped space encompa-><d
by these gigantic elevations, though deeply depressed below
them, stands at a height above the sea varying from 6,000 feet
at the margin to about 2.000 in the middle, and formed the bed
of an ancient sea. From its wall-like sides on the south, west,
and north, the waters rush headlong down, and though the
winds, blowing from all directions, deposit most of their mois-
ture on the remoter sides of the surrounding ranges, viz. the
southern foot of the Himalayas, the west side of the Pamir, and
the northern slope of the Tien-shun, the streams formed thereby,
winding through the cloud-capped, lofty cradle-land, and
breaking through the mountain chains, reach the old ocean bed
but only in limited quantity. The smallest of them disappear
188 THE FAR EAST
in the sand, others flow some distance before expanding into
a level sand basin and are there absorbed. Only the largest,
whose number the Chinese estimate at sixty, unite with the
Tarim, a river 1,150 miles long, and therefore in length between
the Rhine and the Danube, but far surpassing both in the
massiveness of the surrounding mountains just as it exceeds
the Danube in the extent of its basin. Its tributaries form
along the foot of the mountains a number of fruitful oases, and
these, by means of artificial irrigation, have been converted into
flourishing cultivated States and have played an important part
in the history of these regions.'
Eastern Turkestan is an expression employed by European
geographers to distinguish the Central Asian desert east of the
Pamirs with its oases of Kashgar and Yarkand, and ruled by
China, from the western desert of the Aralo-Caspian depression
with its oases of Khiva, Bokhara and Samarkand, now ruled
by Russia and generally known simply as Turkestan. At
times Dsungaria and the Hi valley in Kulja are included in
our maps of Chinese Turkestan, at times not. Seeing, how-
ever, that these latter districts are under direct Chinese rule
with a special governor deputed from Peking, possess a
sedentary population, and so are distinguished from Mongolia,
which is inhabited by nomad tribes under their own princes,
we have treated them as included in our account of Eastern
Turkestan, the more so as their value to China consists in the
road to the West that lies through them — which is known as the
1 Great North Road of the Tien-shan,' in contradistinction to
the ' Great Road South of the Tien-shan ' which leads up the
Tarim valley. The Tien-shan or ' Celestial Range' is one of the
many long mountain-folds that, starting out in more or less
parallel lines from the great central nexus of the Pamirs,
traverse Eastern Asia in a generally south-west north-east
direction ; of these, the Tien-shan range shuts off the Hi valley
from the Tarim basin, of which it forms the northern boundary,
and, at the same time, separates the south road, Tien-shan nan-
lu, from the north road, the Tien-shan peh-lu. Connected with
the mountains of Kokand and Tashkent farther west, and
starting from about the meridian of Kashgar (longitude 750 E.),
this imposing range, in its eastern prolongation in the Bogdo-ula,
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART III 189
extends as far as the 96th meridian of longitude east, where it
terminates in low hills which gradually disappear, sinking under
the sands and clays of the Great Gobi. All this region has been
conquered and of late years pertinaciously held by the Chinese,
as providing the one practicable through route to the West and
the road which opens the way to the invasion of China by the
restless tribes of Central Asia.
From the days of the Roman Empire up to the time that the
sea-route to China was opened up by the Portuguese navigators
in the fifteenth century, the one road of communication between
the eastern and western extremities of the Eurasian continent
lay by way of the deserts of Chinese Turkestan. Leaving China,
the road in question starts from the city of Suchow1 in Northern
Kansu and passes round the western extremity of the Great
Wall, through the ' Jade Gate ' into the desert beyond, until it
reaches the oasis of An-hsi (a ' chow,' or prefectural city). At
An-hsi the road turns due north until it reaches Hami, an im-
portant post situated in an oasis at the foot of the Bogdo-ula
and near the point where the eastern promontory of the Tien-
shan dips under the Gobi plain. The oasis of Hami is formed
by the streams descending from the Bogdo-ula, small rivulets
quickly dissipated in this thirsty land. From here on, the road
turns west to Turfan, at which place the bifurcation of the
road takes place, the north road crossing the Bogdo-ula to
Urumtsi 2 and so north of the Tien-shan to Kulja ; while the
south road turns south, past Lake Bagarash (or Tenghiz) to
Korla on the Konchen-daria, an important affluent of the Tarim
which issues from this lake, and so on along the southern slope
of the Tien-shan to Kashgar.k
1 The province of Kansu takes its name from this city and from Kanchow
situated farther east : these two prefectural cities, Kan and Su, derive their
main importance as being the gates to the West through which the road from
Lanchow, the capital, passes out into the desert. The Jade Gate is supposed
to derive its name from being the site of the import into China of the much-
prized nephrite from Khotan.
2 Dsungaria is, by some writers, presumed to have been the home of the
semi-mythical Trester John of mediaeval travellers, with the seat of his rule
at Bishbalik, an ancient city to the north-west of Urumtsi. His kingdom is
supposed to have been destroyed in the fourteenth century, by Timur (or as
he is styled by English writers, Tamerlane), the devastator of Central Asia
and Northern India; having been previously conquered by Jagatai, one of
the numerous sons of the great Genghis and whilom ruler of Bokhara.
190 THE FAR EAST
Proceeding on from An-hsi by the 'north road,' — the Tien-
shan peh-lu, — the track leads through the Gobi desert to the
oasis of Hami, and then crossing the Bogdo-ula by a low pass,
leads on to the oasis of Urumtsi, situated on the northern slope
of the range, and in which now resides the Futai or Chinese
governor of Dsungaria.
From Urumtsi, the road continues west along the edge of the
Dsungarian desert to Bamor on the Sairon-Kol, a salt lake
situated in an angle of the Alatau range. Here the road turns
south, recrosses the mountains and descends into the fertile
valley of the Hi, traversing Kulja, the capital of Dsungaria;
then on through the Russian province of Semirechinsk (seven
rivers) by a comparatively easy descent, by way of Kokand
and Bokhara, to the Aralo-Caspian depression, and so to Persia,
Asia Minor, and Europe.
The south road — Tien-shan nan-lu — leaves the north road at
the oasis of Turfan, and then crosses the desert to Karashar
and Korla ; thence it proceeds under the southern slopes of the
Tien-shan to Kucha and Aksu, following round the inner edge
of the horseshoe, along its northern border, to Kashgar on its
western edge, where the road practically terminates in the cul-
de-sac of the Pamirs ; confining itself within the limits of the
Tarim basin, the road now pursues its way round the interior
edge of the horseshoe, and, after connecting Kashgar with
Yarkand, turns back to the east and passing through the oases
of Khotan and Keria, situated on the southern margin of the
Takla-makan sand-waste, connects again by way of Cherchen
and Lob-nor with the desert road to An-hsi, the point from which
we set out on the main Tien-shan nan-lu, via the oases of Korla,
Kucha, and Aksu, situated on the north side of the basin ; the
road thus encircles the great sand-waste of the Tarim, a basin
surrounded by lofty snow mountains with a ring of oases at
their feet, of which the Chinese count sixty in a circle of 2,000
miles.
It is agreeable to turn from the wide desert of the Tarim
basin, mitigated though it be by its rich border of oases, to the
land across the Tien-shan, on the northern slope of that range, —
the fertile valley of Hi. This province of Hi, the gem of Chinese
Turkestan, was lost for a time to the Chinese Empire as a result
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART III
191
of the Mahometan uprising in Turkestan in 1870. At this
period, the lower Hi valley, from New Kulja downwards to the
mouth of the Hi river in Lake Balkash, was totally devastated
by the rebels, and the Russians occupied Kulja in 1871 to
restore order. Ten years later, this, the richest province in
the Chinese dominions outside of China proper (always excepting
INLAND RIVER BrtDIN J
Fig. 26. — Routes from China proper to outlying Dependencies.
Manchuria), was restored to the Chinese by the Russians, and
Hi now again forms an integral part of the 'New Dominion.'
Prejevalski thus describes this favoured region of Central
Asia : ' Our road lay at first up and alongside of the Hi, whose
valley is here thickly settled by Taranchis (from Taran — agri-
culturists). Clean, pretty villages with gardens, shaded by
lofty silver poplars, follow each other in quick succession. In
192 THE FAR EAST
the intervals are cornfields irrigated by numerous water-courses,
whilst on the meadows along the river bank large herds of sheep,
oxen and horses are grazing. The population is everywhere
apparently prosperous ; the Mohammedan rising not having
desolated this part of the valley. The districts that were laid
waste lie below Kulja, following the Hi. Here, too, agriculture
once flourished, but since the extermination of the Chinese
inhabitants by the Taranchis and Dungans, the villages are
mostly destroyed, and even such towns as old Kulja, Bayandi,
Chimpanzi and others are in ruins, the fields deserted and
choked with weeds. After crossing to the left bank of the Hi
near the mouth of the Kash (50 versts beyond Kulja), we con-
tinued as before to ascend its valley, in this part twenty versts
wide, and having the appearance of a steep plain with a clayey
and slightly saline soil, producing Ceratocarpus, dwarf worm-
wood, and Lasiogrostis ; in the more fertile parts Astragalus,
a few kinds of herbs and plants of the order Compositae and
small gnarled bushes, while the river bank is fringed with thick
cane-brake.'
The width of the Hi near the mouth of the Kash is about
500 feet with a very rapid stream. Taranchi villages continue
for twelve versts farther up the right bank from the confluence
of the Kash; the left bank has no settled population. Here
only occasional fields temporarily tilled by the Kalmuks may
be seen, and these only nearer the river Tekes. The last-
named stream flows from the Musart (the ravine up which the
noted pass over the Tien-shan, to the south, leads), and unites
with the Kunges to form the Hi, which empties its muddy
waters into Lake Balkash.
Prejevalsky left the Hi valley for the Tarim basin' by way of
the Yulduz, a double plateau lying in a fold of the Tien-shan
7,000 to 8,000 feet above sea-level, where it forms a depression
which Prejevalsky considers to be the bed of an ancient lake —
lesser Yulduz in the north and greater Yulduz in the south,
divided by an unnamed range rising above the snow limit, the
lesser Yulduz measuring 100 miles east and west by about
twenty north and south. In ascending from Kulja, which
stands about 2,000 feet only above sea-level, the traveller
found the country improve as he ascended. At 4,000 feet
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART III
J9.3
larch woods commence, and, on the banks of the Kunges, tall
poplars, some eighty feet high and ten to fifteen feet in girth. In
the Yulduz itself, the plain is covered with luxuriant herbage
near the marginal mountains, and it is traversed by a river,
the Yulduz-gol, flowing into Lake Balkash.
In crossing to the Tarim by a pass 9,000 feet in altitude,
OVER 12.000 rl
Fig. 27.
6000- 12000 ft rv^n
(JNDEReOOFT ITTTTn
-The Pamir and its offshoots : the Tarim basin to the
north and the Indus valley in the south.
Prejevalsky found elms at 6,000 feet, but on the Tien-shan side
' the neighbouring desert has affixed the seal of death.' Rain
is plentiful on the northern side, but the last drops are wrung
out by the snow mountains of Yulduz and it is exceedingly
probable that the whole southern slope of the Tien-shan is arid
and barren !
FAR 1 AVI
194 THE FAR EAST
Thus we see that the origin of the Tarim desert lies in its
encircling mountains ; these arrest the rain-clouds on their outer
slopes — the Kwenlun in the south and theTien-shan in the north,
— and allow none to reach the intervening basin, which is thus
dependent, for the crumbs of moisture it receives, upon the few
small snow-fed rivers that in summer flow into the plain from
its surrounding barrier.
Marco Polo made his way to China through Persia and Badak-
shan, and thence across the Pamir and down the Yamunyar
ravine, emerging into the Tarim depression at Yangi-hissar.
This oasis is situated two days south of Kashgar, at which place
the great traveller appears to have halted before continuing his
journey east to China. From Kashgar he travelled via Yarkand
and Khotan, skirting the southern edge of the Takla-makan
desert, along the foot of the Kwenlun and Altyn-tagh to Cher-
chen and Lob, and so to the large oasis of Sha-chow ; he probably
avoided the easier northern route, via Aksu and Kuchar, under
the southern slope of the Tien-shan — this being the common
route to-day, as of old, — in consequence of the war then going on
between the Khans Kublai and Kaidu in the neighbourhood of
Urumtsi. The southern road, too, has apparently much de-
teriorated during the six centuries that have elapsed since Marco
made the journey ; the liusha, or moving sands, have over-
whelmed numerous oases that then made the route practicable.
The two elder Polos, on their first visit to China, we know,
travelled by the ' Tien-shan peh-lu,' the road to the north of the
Tien-shan, by Urumtsi (Bishbalik) and Hami (Polo's ' Camul ')
to An-hsi, at which place the road taken on their second journey,
when they took the young Marco with them, — that via Khotan
and Cherchen, — unites with the north road; the first road, via
Dsungaria and the Hi valley, gives access to the plains of
Western Turkestan by comparatively easy gradients and through
a more fertile country, besides, by passing to the north, circum-
venting the desert mountain-mass of the Pamir. But, in the
Middle Ages, man was often more to be dreaded than mountains,
and, in the constantly disturbed condition of Central Asia, the
choice of routes was largely affected by this consideration.
Sha-chow (Sand City) is the point at which the Khotan-Lob
road turns north to the junction at An-hsi. It is an oasis nearly
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART III 195
200 square miles in extent, and is one of the best oases of Central
Asia and situated at the foot of the Altyn-tagh range, 3,700 feet
above-sea level. Sha-chow was one of the original colonies
established, B.C. ill, under the Han dynasty as an outlying
defence against the Hiung-nu. It was re-established under the
Tang, a.d. 622, and is to this day a flourishing place, not showing
the decay that has overcome the other ancient cities of this
region.
The Tarim basin is traversed from west to east by the Tarim
river, whose course lies north of the centre and so nearer the
Tien-shan range, the main body of the desert lying on its right
bank between the river and the Kwenlun and Altyn-tagh ranges
on the south. The rolling sand-dunes of the Takla-makan are
here replaced by plains of clay, sand, and gravel, and we find
along the left bank of the river a country still affording food for
camels and so employed as the main route to the West. At
An-hsi-chow, the city at which, as we have seen, the Tien-shan
peh-lu turns north and leads through the province of Hi, we find
another road branching off in the opposite direction and pro-
ceeding south to the Altyn-tagh by way of the oasis of Sha-chow ;
here the road turns west, skirting the mountain range until the
region of Lob-nor is reached. From this point, rounding the
southern edge of the lake, the road ascends the Cherchen river,
an important affluent from the south that falls into the Tarim
immediately above the point where the latter discharges into
the lake, past the site of the ancient city of Cherchen, Marco
Polo's Circian, and so up the slope of the basin to the oases at
the foot of the Kwenlun, where the Cherchen-daria and its
affluents emerge from the southern mountains. This southern
road (not to be confounded with the ' Tien-shan nan-lu ' or road
south of the Tien-shan) proceeds west to Yarkand and Kashgar
by way of Keria and Khotan and the many oases formed by the
streams which descend from the snow-capped flanks of the
Kwenlun ; and thus the journey round the horseshoe is com-
pleted at a point where this road, turning north again, at last
unites with the ' Tien-shan south road,' which runs along the
north side of the basin. It was by this road, now little used, and
at a time when the existence of many oases now smothered
under the sand rendered the road less dangerous to man and
o 2
196 THE FAR EAST
beast than it now is, that in the thirteenth century Marco Polo
made his way to China, traversing Yarkand and Khotan, and
he has left us a vivid description of the perils of the Lob-nor
route. ' Lop,' he says (in Colonel Yule's translation), ' is a large
town at the edge of the desert, which is called the desert of Lop,
and is situated between east and north-east. It belongs to
the Great Khan and the people worship Mahomet. Now such
persons as propose to cross the desert take a week's rest in this
town to refresh themselves and their cattle, and then they make
ready for the journey, taking with them a month's supply for
man and beast. On quitting the city they enter the desert. . . .'
This once important city and recruiting place for caravans
bound to China from the West is no longer to be found ; six
hundred years of the desert wind having sufficed to blot out all
certain traces of its existence.
Prejevalsky tells of having discovered traces of three former
cities on the shores of the Lob-nor, one of a very large city at
a place called merely Kunia-shari, i.e. old town, and which
Colonel Yule, in his edition of Marco Polo's Travels, identifies
with Polo's Lop. Judging from the great mediaeval traveller's
account above, one may infer that the route from Khotan and
down the Cherchen-daria to the Lob-nor was far better watered
600 years ago than it is now, and that the greatest difficulties of
the route to China commenced eastwards after leaving the lake.
Certainly numerous cities then existed throughout the Tarim
basin, of which no trace beyond a few mounds remains, nothing
but an uninhabited desert being now left in their place.
The recent explorations of the Swedish traveller, Dr. Sven
Hedin, in 1896, and of Dr. M. Aurel Stein {Sand-buried Ruins
of Khotan, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1903), of the Punjab
University, in 1900-1, have demonstrated the fact that, in the
first millennium of our era, numerous cities existed throughout
the Tarim basin which have been as effectually hidden from our
knowledge by the all-encroaching sands of the Takla-makan as
was Pompeii during 1,500 years by the ashes of Vesuvius. The
first European to direct attention to the possible archaeological
value of the Takla-makan sands north of Khotan was the dis-
tinguished but ill-fated French traveller, M. Dutreil de Rhins,
amongst whose papers were found fragments of birch-bark
THE DEPENDENCIES : PART III 197
leaves, covered with writing in early Indian script, which had
been acquired by him in the vicinity of Khotan ; while chance
finds of ancient manuscripts in Sanscrit and mostly Buddhistic, —
which commenced in 1890 with Captain (now Colonel) Bower's
famous birch-bark leaves from Kucha, — were the first tangible
proof that precious materials of this kind might still be preserved
under the arid soil of Chinese Turkestan. Exploration has now
unearthed from their cloak of sand in the numerous buried
cities to the north and east of the Khotan oasis a mass of records
written on wood and leather, mostly in Sanscrit and older than
any document yet found in India itself, some going back as far
as the third century of our era. Among the recent finds are
numerous documents written in the Chinese language, and these
fortunately give the exact dates (a.d. 781-90), from which Mr.
Stein concludes that the cities containing them were abandoned
in the eighth century, when they were enveloped in the moving
sands of the dreaded Takla-makan. The process of desiccation
must have advanced rapidly in these centuries and is apparently
still going on. Many writers on China derive the origin of the
Chinese people from the banks of the Tarim, and assume that
the desiccation of the basin drove the ancestors of the Chinese
six thousand years ago to migrate east to the fertile highlands
of Kansu and the valleys of the Yellow River and the Wei.
The ancient Chinese are described as a race of agriculturists
coming from the West, who at first drove out but ultimately
amalgamated with the wild aborigines of the country, a people
living by the chase. And it would seem likely that these fore-
runners of the Chinese worked out their agricultural experience
in the oases of the Tarim — their practice of irrigation and their
unparalleled garden system of farming. Those Sinologists who
(and, we are inclined to think, with reason, especially where the
more ancient characters of the classics are concerned) trace
a definite meaning in the combinations of hieroglyphs that go
to build up the Chinese written characters, are confirmed in this
view by the fact that a favourite classical expression descriptive
of the Chinese people as the ' Li min ' may be translated as the
' race of ploughmen.' It is true that this character 'Li' is now
interpreted by Chinese scholars to mean 'black-haired,' and so
' the black-haired race,' a meaning for which, however, the
i9« THE FAR EAST
character itself gives no warrant except in the sound, while in
its composition it is hardly distinguishable from the character
of the same sound now used for ' plough.' If we go farther and
analyse the hieroglyph, we find it composed of grain, man, and
millet or water, and thus highly suggestive of irrigated rice-
fields ; in the same way we find the aboriginal savages repre-
sented by man and bow. We are now describing the Tarim,
and, in doing so, pointing out its interest as the onetime home
of the Chinese ; we need not go farther afield and speculate as
to the cradle of the race having been in Accadia, but it looks as
though the Chinese, who are themselves by no means profound
archaeologists, in their continuous efforts during the past two
centuries to conquer and hold Chinese Turkestan, were instinc-
tively led to safeguard from alien domination not alone their
one road to the West, but likewise the home of their early pro-
genitors. Unlike their Tibetan possessions, which are a steady
drain on the Szechuan treasury, Turkestan, since its reconquest
by the Chinese, is a source of revenue, nominal though the sum
it affords be. According to the Imperial Gazetteer, published
at Peking, the rich oases of the 'New Dominion' furnish together
an annual subvention of 5,000 tons of grain and 100 horses and
camels (though this 'tribute' is doubtless mostly consumed on
the spot in the maintenance of the imperial post-stations).
The wide expanse of Chinese Turkestan, half a million square
miles in extent, is roughly credited with a population of one
million souls only, the bulk of whom inhabit the western edge
of the basin where we find the most flourishing cities and an
appreciable area of cultivated land. Add to the above the area
of Dsungaria with that of the fertile Hi valley and Kulja to the
north, estimated at 150,000 square miles with a population of
350,000, and we have a total population in Chinese Turkestan
of 1,350,000. The perennial streams that descend upon the
western rim of the basin from the high Pamir plateau and the
northern spurs of the Himalaya mountains supply the chief
feeders of the Tarim — the Khotan, the Yarkand, the Kashgar,
and the Aksu — and enable it to flow in a continuous, though
steadily diminishing stream of fresh clear water across 600 miles
of desert to its estuary in Lob-nor, the lake known under that
name being now believed to comprise two sheets of shallow
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART III 199
marsh water, one in the north in latitude 400 30', the remains
of the old salt lake, and one (Prejevalsky's fresh-water lake)
sixty miles to the south. This latter appears to be kept fresh
by the current of the Tarim through it, until at last its waters
drain off to the north-east in a series of reed-covered salt marshes
and to a lower shallow depression in the desert beyond. The
Tarim, 600 miles from its mouth, is a river 400 feet wide and
twenty in depth, flowing with a three-knot current. At the
head of the affluents named above, and which enable it to main-
tain this volume of water while flowing 1,000 miles through
a thirsty sand-waste, stand the cities of the same name, the
oases in which they are situated being formed by the irrigation
of as much of the surrounding desert area as the water can be
made to supply ; thus we find Yarkand and Kashgar, cities
with populations as large as 30,000 and 50,000 respectively ; but
the latter city has already outgrown the capacity of its own
oasis to feed it, and is dependent upon the former to supply the
deficit. Maize, rice, wheat, barley, hemp, tobacco, and excellent
fruits common to the temperate region grow luxuriantly in
these favoured oases, but the area of supply is only equal to the
wants of a limited stationary population, and to this fact may
well be attributed the turbulent character of the people and the
frequent wars that periodically devastate the country.
Although we have spoken of the ' Nan-lu ' as leading up to
a cul-de-sac, yet, as a matter of fact, we find Chinese Turkestan
here connected with India by difficult passes across the Hindu-
Kush, by which a limited amount of trade is carried on by
caravans of pack-animals, yak and goat, during the short
summer season ; while from Kashgar, going north-west, a
march of six days, via the Chadyr-kul and over a pass of 12,800
feet, leads to the frontier of Russian Turkestan. From the
eastern extremity of the basin another road leads south from
An-hsi across the Kwenlun into the Koko-nor and the Tsaidam,
and so over the high Tibetan plateau on to Lhasa. The Kwen-
lun appears to be the true backbone of the continent in this
direction, being of far older date than the Himalayas. 'The
prevailing rocks are syenitic gneiss and more recent triassic
formations, whereas in the southern range is comprised the
whole series between the palaeozoic and eocene deposits. Hence
2co THE FAR EAST
the Kwenlun rather than the Himalaya must be regarded as the
eastern extension of the Hindu-Kush and the true backbone.'
The relations of China with Turkestan, from the glorious
times of the great Han dynasty (B.C. 206 to a.d. 23), and our
first Chinese accounts of the region, date from the days of Wuti,
the Martial Emperor, B.C. 140 to 86, to whom the officer sent to
subdue the region round Lob-nor reported : ' On the salt lake
lie the unwalled places and towns of Leu-Ian and Kushi.' The
country was at this time under the dominion of the Hiung-nu,
a tribe supposed to be of Turkish descent, whom the Chinese
succeeded in driving out, thus becoming the masters of theTarim
basin, which they held for over two centuries, losing it again in
the disorganization which preceded the break up of the 'Eastern
Han ' dynasty, commencing a.d. 25 and ending a.d. 220. We
learn that Leu-Ian contained 1,500 families. In later times
the little kingdom was known as Shen-shen, a different sounding
in Chinese hieroglyphs of the same root-word, which was pro-
bably Darshan ; Yuni was the residence of the prince, and it is
stated that 14,000 families and 3,000 troops were included in it.
After the downfall of the Han dynasty we hear little more of the
small state of Lob. Its only visitors who have left us any record
of the region were occasional Buddhist pilgrims on their journey
to India, and these, intent upon Buddhistic researches, have
left us but scanty records of the geographical and political
features of the period. In a.d. 399 the famous Buddhist pilgrim
Fa-hien, and in the seventh century, during the Tang dynasty,
the equally famous Hwen-tsang, travelled from China to India
by this route. ' Many evil spirits,' he says, ' are there and
burning sirocco winds (buran) which kill all who encounter
them . . . the people are Buddhists, about 4,000 being priests.'
Notwithstanding the fact that the Chinese emperor, Taitsung,
who succeeded the founder of the great Tang dynasty Taitsu
in a.d. 627, proclaimed himself Khan of Tartary and succeeded
for a time in subduing the tribes on the western frontier and in
making himself the nominal ruler of Kashgaria, yet the annals
of the Tang dynasty, which occupied the throne from a.d. 618
to a.d. 905, contain no notice of these countries subsequent to
the year 750; fromwhich time on, up to theadventof theMongols
in the thirteenth century, Chinese power to the west of the older
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART III 201
settled provinces seems to have died out altogether. The
extraordinary rapidity with which the Mahometan religion
spread over Central Asia, from the time (a.d. 676) that the then
Arab governor of Khorasan set out on the conquest of Samar-
kand, may have been one of the causes of the ebb of information
in the eighth century concerning the road leading past Lob-nor,
for the road via Hami now came more and more into exclusive
use ; and the constant process of desiccation going on in the
oases along the southern margin of the Tarim basin appears
also to have diverted the traffic to the northern route. When
Marco Polo traversed this, the Khotan, route in a.d. 1272, as
we learn from his narrative, the country of Lob was a well-
populated oasis at which travellers were accustomed to break
their journey through the desert. It is not until we come to
modern times, that, in consequence of the campaigns of the
emperor Kanghi (1662-1723) and the great conquests of his
successor, Kien-lung (1736-96), the attention of the Chinese
was again directed to the west. In a work written in 1741 we
find it stated that, forty years before, an army occupied two
months in marching round the Lob-nor district, and that the
people, as now, live on fish, and will neither eat bread nor meat
because it disagrees with them. At this time (say in a.d. 1700),
there were living there 2,160 people. A subsequent account
written in 1758 states that the population had then fallen to
600 ! In 1877 Prejevalsky found the then population at the
lake to consist of seventy families, comprising 300 souls in all.
The Chinese power was thus never consolidated in Turkestan
until the middle of the eighteenth century, nor has it been unin-
terrupted since that time. Following on the Mahometan
rebellion that broke out in Yunnan in 1855, and which it took
the Chinese twenty years to suppress, Buzung Khan, a son of
Jehangir — who, early in the century, had invaded Kashgaria
from Khokand and had been acknowledged as Sultan until
driven out by the Chinese under Tao-Kwang — again invaded
the country, which, with the aid of his co-religionists on the spot
and of his able lieutenant, Yakub Beg, he quickly succeeded in
conquering. In 1867 Yakub took the rule into his own hands ;
a few years later he was assassinated, and the ensuing discord
made it an easy matter for the Chinese under Tso Tsung-tang
20Z
THE FAR EAST
to reconquer the country, which is now strongly garrisoned and
ruled by a brigadier-general who has his head quarters in
Kashgar. It seems strange that so unpromising a country as
Eastern Turkestan, and separated from China by pathless
deserts and from Western Turkestan by the lofty Pamir, should
have proved a bone of contention to its neighbours from time
immemorial; the signs of the times point tothe coming exchange
Fig. 28.— Chinese Turkestan. Political.
by the Moslems of Kashgar of the easy-going ascendancy of the
Chinese for the inexorable rule of the Muscovite, when the phrase
Chinese Turkestan will be again nothing more than a geographi-
cal expression.
We now turn due south from the depression of the Tarim
basin, cross the backbone of Asia, the Kwenlun, and enter the
great upland region of Tibet, a brief description of which forms
the subject of the following chapter
CHAPTER XIII
THE DEPENDENCIES '. PART IV. TIBET
Eurasia, the greatest land mass on the globe, appropriately
holds in its centre the loftiest table-land ; a table-land walled in
by the highest mountains on the earth's surface, rendering it as
difficult of access as it is inhospitable to live in. Yet its very
inaccessibility has proved a great attraction to travellers, and
to-day the character of the country, its chief orographical
features, its climate and resources are familiar to all ; the blank
spaces have been filled in step by step by a series of capable
and adventurous travellers, until finally, in 1904, by the
members of the mission dispatched by Lord Curzon to Lhasa,
under Sir Frank Younghusband, the • Forbidden City ' has been
once more visited by Europeans and so its mysteries have
been unfolded to the outer world.
Tibet occupies an area of some 700,000 square miles, and latest
travellers credit it with not more than 800,000 or possibly
1,000,000 inhabitants, making little more than one inhabitant
to the square mile ; but seeing that six-sevenths of the country
is uninhabitable and frequented only during the short summer
by nomads on the northern border, who find, in a few of the more
favoured spots of the high plateau, a scanty pasture for their
flocks and an escape from the great heat and the insect plagues
of the lower surrounding depressions, we may relegate some
700,000 inhabitants to the 70,000 square miles of the lower
plateau, which should thus be credited with ten inhabitants to
the square mile, a figure probably well within the mark.
For, in our estimate of Tibet, a marked distinction must be
made between the high plateau, north of the Tangla mountains,
and which ranges from 14,000 to 16,000 feet in elevation, and
the lower plateau, bordering on India and China, with anelevation
of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet only. The former is an absolutely
2o4 THE FAR EAST
inhospitable waste of frozen stony desert, interspersed with bare
steep mountain ridges, rising from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above the
plateau itself, and salt lakes fed by the sparse snows on their
summits ; while the lower plateau, receiving a moderate rain-
fall, contains rivers descending to the sea, often with small
cultivable valley-bottoms along their banks. The altitude of
10,000 to 12,000 feet in a latitude of 28 to 30 degrees by no
means implies a too rigorous climate, and, as a matter of fact,
Chinese officials, who have been appointed to Lhasa, have de-
scribed to me the climate of the residency as healthy and agree-
able ; the surrounding country producing ample cereals, fruits,
and vegetables for the needs of the few inhabitants, while the
cold in winter is so modified by the strong sunshine and the
shelter of the mountains of the high plateau to the north, that
the climate is really less severe than on the Mongolian plateau
to the north of Peking with an altitude of 4,000 to 5,000 feet
only. The British mission who were at Lhasa in August and
September describe the weather as good though rainy, and
the climate, from April on, at Gyangtse as charming. The
Tsangpo river, which flows south of Lhasa, and is now iden-
tified as the upper stream of the Bramaputra, is seldom en-
tirely frozen, and snow, though often piled up in the passes,
rarely lies on the steppe-plain to a depth of over a few inches
at a time. This fact, largely due to the dryness of the air,
renders the underlying pasture easily accessible to the herds
of yak, sheep, and ponies which go to make the wealth of the
Tibetans, and renders winter travel possible without danger,
except when crossing the higher passes on the border, while, as
a residence, given comfortable quarters, no better sanatorium
for debilitated residents in the peripheral lowlands could be
desired, and that during all four seasons of the year. It goes
without saying that ' comfortable quarters ' are not to be found
in Tibet ; to-day, the hardy Tibetan has not even introduced
the Chinese ' kang,' or stove-divan, charcoal and argol braziers
supplying all the artificial warmth needed ; but with the coming
promised opening of the country to foreign trade, amenities of
civilized life will follow. The common conception of Tibet for
many years has been derived from travellers' reports descrip-
tive of the horrors of the high plateau : the habitable lower
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART IV 205
plateau has been a sealed book since the missionaries Hue
and Gabet passed through Lhasa more than fifty years ago,
until the year 1904, perhaps the most important date in the
history of Tibet.
Tibet extends east from the border of Ladak and Kashmir,
on the western side of the plateau, to the Chinese province of
Szechuan in the east, a distance of 1,100 miles, and from the
Kwenlun mountains in the north, which separate it from
Kashgaria and the Tarim basin, to the crests of the Himalayas in
the south, where these great southern ramparts of the plateau
divide it from thecontiguous Indian bufferstates,Nepaul,Sikkim,
and Bhutan, for a distance of about 600 miles. A fringe along
the southern border of this wide expanse, with a curve east and
by north as the Chinese frontier is approached, limits the
inhabitable region, of which Lhasa is the capital, Gyangtse and
Shigatse the two most important places, and Batang and Litang
two considerable towns on the road thither from China. The
two districts of which these latter towns form the administra-
tive centres, though belonging geographically to Tibet and still
administered by Tibetan ' Tu-sze ' or governors, under the
supervision of the Chinese Viceroy at Chengtu, are now set down
in the more recent maps as an integral portion of the province
of Szechuan. Much of this country is rolling plateau covered
with rich grasses, part bare gravelly steppe — the lower slopes
of ravines cut by water-courses deep down in this steppe afford
space for small crops of barley and vegetables ; the mountain
ridges that cross this lower plateau, at an elevation above it of
generally 2,000 to 3,000 feet, are mostly composed of bare rock
with a few dwarf pine and stunted poplar in the crevices ; in
coming from China via Tarchendo (Tachienlu) two such ridges
have to be crossed before the banks of the Yangtse, here known
to the Chinese as the Kinsha or River of Golden Sand and to the
Tibetans as the Murui-ussu (Winding Water), are reached at
Batang. Twenty miles west of Batang we quit the land under
Chinese rule and enter that directly under Lhasa; the boundary
line runs along the crest of the range that walls in the valley
of the Kinsha on its right bank and crosses the frontier of
Lhasa-de, the territory under the direct rule of the Dalai Lama
and from which the Western barbarian has been successfully
ao6 THE FAR EAST
excluded by the jealous Lama priesthood for the period from
1846 to 1904.
The route by which the British mission in 1904 advanced
on Lhasa will undoubtedly, should the Tibetans carry out
their agreements, become the main trade route into Tibet.
Passing through the protected native state of Sikkim, this
road, which has been much improved of late, crosses the
Na-thu La (pass) and descends into the Chumbi valley, which
is one of the richest valleys in the Himalayas. Its waters
drain through Bhutan into the plains of India, and although
the higher portion near Phari Dzong is barren and unpro-
ductive, we find the lower portion well cultivated and wooded.
This valley is, geographically speaking, no part of Tibet, as it
lies on the southern side of the Himalayas — a wedge thrust in
between Bhutan and Sikkim. No difficulty presents itself in
crossing the water-shed by the Tang La, a broad easy pass,
15,200 feet in height, lying between the two great snow-peaks
Powhunri and Chumolarhi. The road then descends into
broad open plains, past the two lakes, Bam Tso and Kala Tso,
and thence through a narrow gorge leading to Gyangtse. Here
a side route follows the Nyang Chu valley to Shigatse, famous
for its large monastery the Tashi Lhumpo, as well as for its
prosperous town. Here resides the Tashi Lama, who divides
with the Dalai Lama of Lhasa the religious supremacy of Tibet.
From Gyangtse the road to Lhasa leads over the Karo La, an
easy pass with snows on either side, round the borders of the
Yam-dok Tso, the horseshoe lake to which so much romance
attaches, over a low pass and down to the bed of the Tsangpo.
After crossing the river a level road leads up the Kyi Chu valley
to Lhasa. A glance at the map will show what a short and
easy route this is. The valleys of Lhasa, the Tsangpo and that
running from Gyangtse to Shigatse, are all well cultivated and
thickly populated, the inhabitants suffering from none of those
hardships which their less fortunate comrades in the uplands
have to endure.
Lhasa itself, besides being the capital, is the largest town in
Tibet. The population is probably about 20,000, exclusive of
the three great monasteries, Debung, Sera, and Garden, which
lie outside the town and contain some 18,000 monks. The
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART IV 207
most prominent points are the Potala, the residence of the
Dalai Lama, a massive building on a conspicuous steep sided
hill, and the Chagpori, or medical hall, on another eminence,
both lying to the west of the town. The To Kang, or cathe-
dral, is situated in the town itself, which, together with the
Potala and Chagpori, is encircled by the pilgrims' road, or
Ling-kor, some five miles in length.
The government of Lhasa which rules Tibet has three heads,
the actual ruler being that man who at the time is the
strongest. The Chinese Amban represents the Emperor of
China, but his influence has fallen off during the later effete
reigns and is now practically nil, the real government being at
different times held by the Dalai Lama or the Regent, accord-
ing as either succeeds in gaining the upper hand. It seems to
have been the custom to kill off the Dalai Lama as he reached
manhood, so that a baby might be put in his place and power
remain with the Regent, but the present Dalai Lama, the
thirteenth reincarnation of Padma Pani, has proved himself
stronger than his predecessors and so has reversed the situa-
tion. Next in importance come the four Shar-pes, who, with
the Song-du or national assembly, also exercise great influence,
especially in foreign affairs.
The easiest road by which to enter Tibet from the east
is that over which the traffic with China passes and that by
which Chinese armies have repeatedly invaded and conquered
the country, and along which Chinese military posts are
established to-day ; that is, the great road from Chengtu,
the capital of the province of Szechuan, which leads through
Tarchendo l, Litang, and Batang to Lhasa ; this road, after
crossing the Min river at Kiating, leads up the valley of the
Ya to the Chinese prefectural city of Yachow. In the
beautiful Yachow valley is grown the shrub which provides
the Tibetans with one of their chief necessaries of life — tea
— which is here pressed into bricks and carried by toiling
coolies over three mountain passes, up to 10,000 feet in height,
1 Tarchendo is the Tibetan name, meaning 'junction of the Tar and Chen
rivers,' which unite at this town. The Chinese write the sound with the three
characters, Ta-chien-lu (needlessly translated in Gill's River of Golden Sand
as ' Great Arrow Forge ').
208 THE FAR EAST
to Tarchendo. Yachow lies at the foot of the Siang-ling,
an outwork of the high Tibetan barrier, over which leads the
first of these three passes. The Siang-ling or Elephant range
(so named in memory of Pu-hien, who carried the sacred books
of Buddha from India to China over this pass on the back
of an elephant x) forms the first of the mountain barriers that
separate China from Tibet, and which, up to the time of Kien-
lung's conquests in the eighteenth century, formed the political
barrier as well. Crossing two more passes in the barrier ranges,
the road traverses the swift-flowing Tatung river by the famous
suspension bridge of Lu-ting Chiao (Kiaking, 1796-1821), built
in Taokwang's reign (1821-51), and enters the Ta-hsueh-shan,
the Snow range -, the great girdling rampart of the Tibetan
table-land, by the ravine of Wa-sze-kou (tiled roof monastery),
down which flows the impetuous river of Tarchendo, which here
discharges into the Tatung after falling 3,000 feet in a distance
of twenty miles. The building of the bridge at Lu-ting greatly
facilitated the intercourse between China and Tibet, the Tatung
river being otherwise impassable in the rainy season, which
prevails from May to October and is here very pronounced;
while in winter, when the rivers are ferryable, the passes beyond
are closed by snow. The rain-clouds from the China Sea are
driven by the south-west monsoon against the flanks of the
snow range that lines the right bank of the Tatung, and, rising
up them, are there relieved of their moisture, leaving little or
nothing for the thirsty table-land beyond. The heavy precipi-
tation of this region, coupled with the fact that, from Lu-ting
Chiao to its mouth in the Min at Kiating, the Tatung river,
here a stream 100 yards wide and six to ten feet deep, falls
3,000 feet in about 100 miles, sufficiently accounts for there
being neither ford nor ferry across it from below the mouth of its
1 Pu-hien's statue, with that of his colossal elephant, cast in bronze, now
adorns one of the many temples on Mount Omi (a sacred mountain, 11,000
feet high, situated in the angle of the Ya and Tatung rivers, near Kiating). —
Vide author's Mount Omi ami Beyond, Heinemann, London, 1899.
2 The high range that walls in the Tibetan plateau from China, a north-
eastern prolongation of the great range of the Himalayas, that does the same
service for India, is so far unnamed in our maps. It might be well to call it
by the Chinese name, Ta-hsueh-shan, ' Great Snow Mountains,' identical in
meaning to the name given by the Hindus to the Himalayas, 'Abode of
Snow.'
THE DEPENDENCIES : PART IV 209
copious tributary the Tarchendo at Wa-sze-kou until it quits
the Tibetan border fifty miles lower down. Here, at a place
called Kin-ho-kou, it unites with the Kin river, and, changing
its course from south to east, forms the northern frontier of the
independent Lolo country, that extends hence to the banks of
the Kinsha river in the south. The ' Snow range ' is prac-
tically, by way of many intervening folds to the north of Assam
and the Burmese ' Kachin ' country, a north-eastern extension
of the Himalayas curving round north of Burma and then
trending north-east and so forming the western and northern
barrier of the Szechuan lowlands up to the borders of Shensi.
This glacier-bearing range, where it runs north, with the foot of
its precipitous eastern slope washed in the swift-flowing Tatung
river, averages some 20,000 feet in height; 15,000 feet being
about the level of the snow-line in this latitude, and Gill gives
22,000 feet as the height of the peaks of the ' Nine-nails range,'
which shuts off the Chengtu plateau on its north-western side
from the upper valley of the Min and the Tibetan table-land
north of Sungpan. Shortly after crossing the Lu-ting bridge,
the road ascends the Wa-sze-kou ravine through the narrow
cleft of the Tarchendo ravine to the town of that name, situated
8,400 feet above the sea. Tarchendo is the great frontier mart
of Tibetan trade with China, is a busy populous place, a walled
city, and the seat of the native 'Wang,' or prince (called Tu-sze),
who, under the surveillance of a Chinese Taotai, rulesthe Tibetan
population of the town and district. Here the Chinese porters
deposit their heavy loads, which are then repacked on to the
backs of the Tibetan yak, and so carried across the Thamo and
Gila passes to Batang and Lhasa. A large barter trade is
carried on in skins, musk, wool, and gold from Tibet, and in tea,
cotton-cloth, and ' notions ' from China, many of the most
important Szechuan mercantile firms possessing branch hongs
in Tarchendo. A few Manchester goods also find their way to
and are on sale in the Chinese shops, but the poor Tibetan is
fully clad, winter and summer, in a sheepskin robe (pushtu),
yak-skin boots, and a fur cap, and has little money and still less
inclination for the luxury of clean linen (literally, cotton), such
as his more civilized Chinese neighbour delights in ; what money
he does manage to accumulate is invested in jewellery for the
210 THE FAR EAST
women, many of whom are well groomed and smartly dressed,
and to whose hands all business is entrusted. The city of
Tarchendo is situated at the junction of two narrow valleys
hedged in by steep mountains running up into the snow-line ;
westward the road leaves the ravine and leads by an easy ascent
to the comparatively arid table-land, 4,000 feet above the town.
These valleys are well watered by the two torrential streams,
the Tar and Chen, which unite above the town, and flow through
it. The opening in the mountains has left space for about one
hundred acres of level ground outside the city, carefully tilled
by Chinese settlers and producing good crops of maize and
vegetables. The surrounding mountains are covered with
impenetrable scrub, and are reported by the Chinese to be rich
in minerals, formerly worked in petty painstaking Chinese
fashion ; but all mines are now closed by order of the officials,
partly from the fear of their collecting disorderly crowds, and
partly from fear that prospectors from the West might otherwise
discover their value and claim to exploit them.
Other roads lead over passes, mostly practicable only in the
short summer season, through the Himalayas to India ; but these
have lost their importance since the adoption of late years of
a policy of exclusion by the Tibetan Lamas and their Chinese
overlords, and in any case cannot compete with the route
already described via the Chumbi valley. Tibetans cross the
frontier at Ladak by way of the Karakorum, and thus a limited
barter trade is carried on at Leh, a small British outpost not
far from the spot 'where three empires meet.'
Next in importance to the great high-road via Tarchendo is,
however, that from the north, which communicates with Mon-
golia and North China by way of Koko-nor and Sining ; cara-
vans of traders and Mongol pilgrims pass annually by this route
to Lhasa, but endure much privation and no small risk in crossing
the arid high plateau and the lofty barren mountain ranges that
guard the sacred Tibetan capital on its northern side. This
road starts from the city of Sining (7,400 feet) in Western Kansu,
leaves the famous Lama monastery of Gumbum on the left
hand and goes west fifty miles to Donkyr (11,300 feet), the
frontier town on the border of Kansu province, through which
the road passes into Tibet, the eastern extremity of Lake
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART IV 211
Koko-nor being a day's journey distant. Hence the road passes
south of the lake, and so on over a series of high passes to Lhasa,
which is reached in fifty-four days from Sining. This road
turns the flank of the Nan-shan by way of the valley of the
Yellow River, near whose sources in the ' Starry Sea ' to the
west of the Charing-nor, it afterwards passes on its way south.
The itinerary from Sining to Lhasa comprises, first, two days
to Donkyr, where the border of Kansu is reached, thence fifteen
days across the Tsaidam and the valley of the Bayan-gol, a river
flowing out of the lake Toso-nor, and thence 200 miles in a north-
westerly course to its mouth in the salt lakes and marshes of
the Western Tsaidam. At the point where the track crosses
the river, midway between its source and its mouth, Prejevalsky
found a rapid stream 1,600 feet wide and three feet deep, giving
evidence — unlike the high Tibetan plateau — of a fair amount of
atmospheric precipitation in the joint basins of the Koko-nor
and Tsaidam, and consequent favourable pastoral resources for
the nomads frequenting these two depressions of 11,000 and
9,000 feet respectively above sea-level. Thence the road leads
to the pass (16,500 feet) over the Burkhan-Bota (Lord Buddha)
mountains, thence ten days across a small dry plateau, at a level
of only 2,000 to 3,000 feet below that of the bordering ranges to
the pass over the Shuga range and the plateau which gives rise
to the Shuga river, a stream that makes its way north round
the western extremity of the Shuga mountains to debouch into
one of the small salt lakes of the Tsaidam. Crossing another
spur of the range which limits the Shuga plateau on the south
by a pass (14,400 feet), the road comes down on the plain of
Odontala, famous as holding within its limits the sources of
the Yellow River, while on the other side of the mountains
(the Baian-kara-ula) that bound the plain on the south
are the sources of the great Yangtse. The Yellow River here
has its source in the springs of the 'Starry Sea,' the Sing-su-hai
of the Chinese, whence it flows into the large lake Charing-nor,
situated 14,000 feet above sea-level ; thence, by a connecting
channel a couple of miles wide, which unites the two lakes, into
the smaller lake Oring-nor ; from this point the stream flows
east until it reaches the eastern extremity of the Burkhan-Bota,
when it turns sharp to the north and, after traversing the eastern
p 2
212 THE FAR EAST
edge of the Koko-nor plateau, enters Kansu south of Sining.
The road to Lhasa now leaves the Odontala plateau and crosses
the third chain, seventy miles to the south of the Shuga, by
a pass 15,900 feet in height and descends into the plateau in
which are found the head-waters of the Yangtse, or Murui-ussu,
here flowing at an elevation of 13,000 feet above sea-level, and
200 miles east of its farthest source in the recesses of the Kwen-
lun to the north-west ; hence, by a five days' march the road
leads over the Tang La, the range dividing the high plateau of
Tibet from the lower and less unfriendly southern plateau, along
which flows the Tsangpo, between the Tang La and the northern
slopes of the Himalaya, to enter Assam, through an as yet unex-
plored gap in the latter, as the Bramaputra. On the hither
side of the Tang La stands the Tibetan village of Napchu, whence
Lhasa, the capital, is reached in a comparatively easy march
of 12 days. The Tang La, with the parallel ranges to the south,
protects Lhasa on the north and contributes, in addition to the
lower elevation of about 11,000 feet only, to the relative mild-
ness of the climate by which Lhasa-de, or Tibet proper, is dis-
tinguished. Lhasa, it must be remembered, is in latitude 290,
the same as that of New Orleans and Cairo.
It may be well here to survey the route just described and
so endeavour to obtain a clear conception of the leading features
of the plateau as viewed from the side of China. We find then
that the Nan-shan, together with the Altyn-tagh and the Kwen-
lun, of which it forms the eastern prolongation, divide the de-
pression of Turkestan from the table-land of Tibet, forming
a wall-like boundary on their northern slopes, while their south-
ern slopes merge more gradually into the high plateau ; then
passing south across the range, we come to the relative depression
which has the great salt lake of Koko-nor, 10,700 feet high, for
its centre, and the depression of the Tsaidam, the bed of another
great lake which once filled the area of the present morass,
which is situated 1,700 feet lower than the level of the Koko-nor.
It seems to beamoot point whether these depressions or plateaux,
according to the point of view as we regard them from the north
or from the south, should be mapped accordingly as belonging
either to Mongolia or to Tibet ; for the Koko-nor and Tsaidam
plateaux communicate, through a gap in the high mountains to
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART IV 213
the north, directly with the Western Gobi, while they are walled
off from the higher great plateau and closed basins in the south
by a triple rampart of lofty mountains before Tibet proper is
entered in this direction. This triple rampart of mountains
may be regarded as consisting of parallel folds of the great
Kwenlun system1, much as we regard the mountain masses
north of the Tarim basin as parallel folds of the Tien-shan
system ; the folds of both systems running generally in a west-
east direction, and sending off an increasing number of offshoots
as they spread east, until they ultimately sink to the lower levels
of the surrounding country; the Tien-shan into the plateau of
Mongolia, the Kwenlun into the less formidable ranges that
mark the dividing line between Northern and Middle China,
separating the Yellow River basin from that of the Yangtse ;
1 The Kwenlun is now regarded by geologists as the true backbone of
Asia, the composition of its rocks showing it to be an older formation than
the Himalayas and so of earlier elevation. Captain Deasy made an interest-
ing discovery in Sarikol, east of the Kiria river (to the south of Yarkand),
of fossil seaweed lying at a height of 16,500 feet above sea-level, which he
thus describes: 'a deep stratum, over twelve feet in depth, of dry water-
plants, Zostera marina.) Linn., the Grasswrack, a marine flowering plant,
widely distributed on temperate coasts; its slender, ribbon-like green leaves
are a common object on our shores.' Glaux maritima, Linn., and Triglochin
maritimuni) Linn, (both in Captain Deasy's list), are similar examples of
maritime plants with a north temperate distribution occurring at high altitudes
in Central Asia. Their presence may be explained by a former connexion
with the Mediterranean basin, indicated by the band of tertiary marine
deposits stretching eastwards from the Alps to the Himalayas and occurring
at Leh at a height of 21 ,000 feet. ' As to the age of the deposits of Zostera
and blue shaly clay, it is impossible to hazard a guess ; from their appearance
these plant remains ought to be only a few years old : beyond being very dry
and dusty and broken they show no alteration, and the internal structure is
perfectly well preserved. The intermittent occurrence of layers of blue clay
points to repeated changes in level in the salt lake in which the plants were
presumably growing.' Mr. Kingsmill remarks upon this discovery: 'There
is geologically no difficulty in either view of the mode of occurrence of the
Zostera, whether as fossil in the rocks, or as sub-fossil in recent lake accu-
mulations. If fossil, the remains point directly to the existence of compara-
tively late tertiary formations in Tibet situated now 16,000 feet above the
sea-level : if the remains are recent (geologically) they indicate the survival
of tertiary marine forms. A more curious instance occurs in Lake Tan-
ganyika in East Africa, where remains of a mezozoic marine fauna still
survive, though the lake is still fresh. There are abundant evidences else-
where of the comparatively late, post-eocene, elevation of the Himalayas.
As a geological fact the higher a range of mountains is, the greater is the
likelihood of its youth. The natural tendency of a great mountain mass is
to sink, owing to the compression of its base, &c.
2i4 THE FAR EAST
both ranges having, so to say, their sources in the great central
nexus of the Pamirs. These three rampart ranges are, beginning
from the Tsaidam and proceeding south, the Burkhan-Bota,
now generally accepted as the northern limit of the true Tibetan
plateau, a range running 130 miles east and west (Prejevalsky),
rising 7,500 feet above the Tsaidam to a height of 16,300 feet
with a plateau 13,000 to 15,000 feet high along its southern
border ; the lowest elevation yet found in crossing Northern
Tibet being 11,300 feet. The next range is that of the Shuga,
which is crossed by a pass 15,500 feet high ; and the third chain,
the Baian-kara-ula ('Precious Black range '), which runs 450 miles
east and west, having the upper waters of the Murui-ussu
(Tangutan, Di-chu) or Kinsha flowing past its southern slope.
In the parallel valleys of these chains rise the four great rivers
of Eastern Tibet — the Salwin, the Mekong, the Kinsha (Yangtse),
and the Yalung — all rivers which, starting on an easterly course,
eventually turn due south, following the folds of the innumerable
parallel ranges which run north and south along the eastern
border of the plateau, a distinct mountain system which would
appear to unite the eastern extension of the Himalayas in the
south with the like extension of the Kwenlun in the north.
This independent system, which has no aggregate name beyond
that of the Chinese ' Ta-hsueh-shan ' or ' Great Snow range,' is
remarkable in that, in contradistinction to the prevailing con-
tour of the mountain ranges of the Eurasian continent of which
the folds tend generally east and west, its folds run almost due
north and south, through io° of latitude, from the northern
frontier of Burmah and the Yunnan plateau in the south (latitude
240) till they meet the Kwenlun, in latitude 340, in the north.
This range is composed mainly of crystalline rocks and is highly
mineralized throughout; gold, silver, copper, lead, and quick-
silver being (mostly surreptitiously) mined by enterprising
Chinese immigrants in innumerable spots in the wild border
districts which are under the rule of aboriginal chiefs (Tu-sze)
subject to the Szechuan and Yun-kwei Viceroys. No statistics
are obtainable of the output, but in the aggregate the yield must
be considerable, notwithstanding the primitive methods em-
ployed ; and, when the time comes for this remote region to be
rendered accessible by roads and railways, then this borderland
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART IV 215
of Tibet, Szechuan, and Yunnan will be proved another Colorado
in its mineral wealth and in its attractiveness to competent pro-
spectors and resultant mining companies to develop its resources.
On the western side the boundary is more complex ; the
mountains are higher and more difficult of access, and the
plateau itself more elevated and more barren, being, unlike the
eastern plateau, entirely cut off from the sea, and so a region of
basins absolutely enclosed, with rare intermittent rivulets
descending from the successive ranges of barren mountains
that traverse the plateau in all directions, discharging into a
series of bitter salt lakes, some reduced by evaporation to
a simple expanse of salt. These mountains that render the
high plateau far more difficult of access on its western than on
its eastern side, are the Karakorum and the north-western spurs
of the Himalayas ; so difficult is the track over the passes —
16,000 to 18,000 feet in height — by which Tibet is approachable
from the side of Kashmir, that the few journeys attempted in
that direction, and then only in the best season, are almost
invariably attended by loss of life to man and beast, whereas
to visit Tibet from the side of China involves no risk and little
serious difficulty whatever ; the effeminate Chinese officials,
and the opium-smoking military commanders sent to defend
Tibet from ' foreign ' aggression, riding the whole way from
Chengtu to Lhasa in sedan-chairs. The approach from Khotan
in Chinese Turkestan lies over the barely practicable passes of
the Kwenlun, and, in fact, there is no intercourse between the
two countries in this direction.
Tibet, apart from its elevation, its rigorous climate, its inac-
cessibility, is chiefly remarkable as being, together with Mongolia,
the home and centre of that peculiar form of the Buddhist
religion known as Lamaism. The earliest records we have of
the country are derived from Buddhist sources, and, while the
inhabitants of the country, the present Tibetans, belong un-
doubtedly to the Mongol family, showing their affinity in dress,
language, features and habits of life, they do not appear ever
to have adopted Shamaism, the original religion of the Mongols,
which is still prevalent with certain tribes in Mongolia, but have
ever remained pure Buddhists of the strictest kind : they enjoy
indeed the distinction of being the sole adherents of thai faith
216 THE FAR EAST
who really show fanaticism, almost rivalling in this respect the
fanatical adherents of Mahomet ; while their progenitors in
Mongolia, though accepting Lama rule, but infected probably
by closer intercourse with the indifferentism of their Chinese
neighbours, have exhibited the easy-going tolerance charac-
teristic of Buddhism generally, and have allowed Christian
missionaries to settle and teach in their midst without remon-
strance. We learn from Buddhist records (Hannah, A Brief
History of Central Asia, T. Fisher Unwin, 1900), that, while the
southern church was spreading Buddhism through the tropical
regions of Asia, the same faith was being propagated in Central
and Northern Asia by the northern church, and that, in Tibet,
the tribes were first brought under one government by a chief
named Seger about B.C. 310, and that Buddhism was introduced
during his reign. Lhasa, the present capital of Tibet and seat
of the ruling high-priest, the Dalai Lama, was founded by the
then 'Wang' or King of Tibet, a.d. 630, but the Potala was
not built, at least in its present form, until the seventeenth
century. The most ancient monument in Lhasa is the Doring,
— the stone pillar on which is recorded the treaty of a.d. 783
between the Chinese and the Tibetans. Two hundred and
fifty years prior to this, the present Tibetan alphabet, de-
rived from the Sanscrit, was introduced. According to
its own annals, the early kings of Tibet were Hindu, but
we learn little definite about Tibet until the time of the all-
embracing Genghis Khan (a.d. 1206-29), anc^ °f his suc~
cessor on the throne of China, the great Kublai (a.d. 1280-
95) ; the latter appointed his nephew, Phagspa, a Lama, to
be temporal ruler of the whole country ; but Lamaism, in the
shape of the Dalai Lama's divine rule, was not finally accepted
by the Buddhists throughout Tibet, Turkestan, and Mongolia
until the seventeenth century, under the powerful support of
the great emperor Kanghi. 'Lamaism, the form of Buddhism
now prevalent over Tibet and Mongolia, was developed chiefly
by the growing powerof the priesthood, and it is a system entirely
antagonistic to primitive Buddhism, the theory of the successive
incarnations of Buddha, which is a dogma of Lamaism, being
the chief point in which the competing faiths differ.' In Chinese
history from the Tang dynasty (a.d. 611-905) down, we read of
THE DEPENDENCIES: PART IV i\;
constant frontier fighting between the Szechuan Viceroys and
the border tribes of the Ch'iang, as the land of Bod (Tibetan,
Bod-ul) is called by the Chinese, but subsequent to the period
of the Mongols (a.d. 1206-1341), no serious attempt to reconquer
the country appears to have been made until the reign of Kang-
hi (a.d. 1662-1723), the warlike emperor of the present Manchu
dynasty, who drove out the Kalmucks and set Chinese officials
to control the Lamas in Lhasa. Under the reign of his successor,
Kien-lung (a.d. 1736-96) the Lamas rose and massacred all the
Chinese resident in the country, but Kien-lung, a conqueror no
less energetic than his predecessor, sent an army to restore his
authority, and, at the same time, he expelled from Lhasa a
mission of Capuchin monks, who had succeeded in establishing
themselves in the capital. The armies of this same emperor
drove the Gurkhas out of Tibet, crossing the Himalayas and
pursuing them to their capital, Khatmandu, where peace was
established on condition that Nepaul should henceforth pay
tribute to China ; this remarkable instance of Chinese prowess
took place as recently as 1792. Since that date, Chinese
supremacy has been undisputed in Tibet ; Chinese garrisons
line the main road from Chengtu to Lhasa and a Chinese resident,
called by Europeans ' Amban,' is supposed to direct the policy
of the Lamas, but, as a matter of fact, the Chinese power is little
more than nominal, and their supremacy entails a financial
burden which has to be met annually out of the revenues of the
province of Szechuan. In the conservative policy which would
exclude all foreign intercourse, the Chinese are naturally at one
with the Lamas, while the exclusiveness of these latter is due
as much to fears of the destruction of their commercial mono-
poly as to fears of interference with their religious convictions.
One-third of the male population is said to live in the huge
lamaserais, picturesque monasteries containing each hundreds,
sometimes thousands, of monks, with which the mountain sides
are dotted ; while the lay population seem to spend the greater
part of their time in religious exercises and unceasing repetitions
of the phrase ' Om mani padmi um,' ' The jewel in the lotus.'
i.e. Buddha. Prayer cylinders turned by the current of the
numerous streams maintain the circulation of the mystic phrase,
while flags covered with the same words llv from every house.
218 THE FAR EAST
In short, Tibet is the most superstitiously religious country in
the world, and its people are correspondingly poor and ignorant.
Another attempt has now been made to open up trade communi-
cation between Tibet and India. Warren Hastings originally
accomplished the task, and for some years a limited trade, by
way of Sikkim, was carried on between the two countries, but
subsequent Viceroys failed to keep the door open ; it remains
to be seen whether Lord Curzon will be more successful. It is
certainly to be hoped that the treaty signed at the Potala in
September, 1904, will inaugurate a new era in our relations
with the Tibetans, and that a wide extension of friendly rela-
tions, commercial as well as political, will result. The much-
oppressed Tibetan people may come at last to enjoy the benefits
of civilization, while, if the ruling theocracy can be persuaded
to loyally carry out their obligations, a relatively important
trade, via the Chumbi valley, with British India is assured in
the near future, as well as a sensible increase in the small trade
now existing in Western Tibet. Wool and pushm (the short
silken hair of the goat) are likely to form important articles of
export, while the tea-planters of Darjiling have only to adapt
their produce to the taste of the Tibetans to find a practically
inexhaustible market at their doors. It has always been an
anomaly that a vast region like Tibet should remain a sealed
country to the rest of the world, and persist in shutting its
door to trade and intercourse with its neighbours an anomaly
dangerous to the peace of nations, and which, it is to be
hoped, has, thanks to the tardy but, at last, energetic resolu-
tion of our Indian Government, been now removed for all
time to come.
J
FAI1T2IE3R J1TSJIA. - orograph.
3
CHAPTER XIV
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART I. INDOCHINA
While the empire of China, or rather the Central Flowery
Land, as the Chinese designate the eighteen provinces of China
proper, is surrounded on the north and west by the depen-
dencies surveyed in the preceding chapters, and on the east by
the sea, the southern frontier is coterminous with Indo-China.
Tongking in ancient times formed, with the present ' Kwang '
provinces — Kwangsi and Canton, the kingdom of Yuen, which
was conquered under the martial Han dynasty in the second
century B.C. The hold of the Chinese was intermittent, how-
ever, from the time of the break-up of the Han until com-
paratively recent times, when the country was definitely
reconquered under the reign of Yunglo, the third emperor of
the Ming dynasty, a.d. 1403-25; but subsequent emperors
contented themselves with the acknowledgement of Chinese
suzerainty and the sending of an annual tribute. Meanwhile,
the Annamese had adopted Chinese civilization and had or-
ganized the government on the Chinese model, with officials
selected by competitive examination in the Chinese classics,
Confucianism having long previously been adopted as the
national cult. In the eighteenth century Roman Catholic
missions were established in the country, quarrels ensued,
resulting ultimately in annexation, first of Lower Cochin-China
in 1859-63, and lastly of Tongking, after an inglorious war with
China, in 1884; and thus the present French empire of Jml<>-
China became an established fact.
Indo-China is the easternmost of the peripheral peninsular
countries dependent from the central Asian plateau which
project into the Indian Ocean and the China Sea : these being,
in the order from west to east, Hindustan, the Malay pen-
insula, and the Siam-Annamese, of which latter Indo-China
22o THE FAR EAST
forms the eastern half. This region, under French rule, com-
prises Cambodia and Cochin-China in the south, Annam in the
centre, and Tongking (with the Laos country) in the north, the
whole covering an area of 260,000 square miles, an area one-
fourth greater than that of France in Europe, and extending
north and south through fifteen degrees of latitude, 1,200
miles, following round the S-shape of the three united districts,
with a width, east and west, varying from 100 miles across the
narrow waist of Annam in the centre, to 375 miles across the
provinces of Tongking and Laos in the north. The whole area
lies within the tropics, but the northern portion, being subject
to the influence of monsoons, enjoys a comparatively cool
winter climate, and thus produces, in addition to those usually
found in the tropics, many fruits and crops common to the
sub-tropical regions of China proper. The configuration of
the country is peculiar : two deltas, that of the Red River in the
north, and that of the Mekong in the south, 800 miles apart,
are united by an isthmus of mountainous country, the long,
narrow coast-range of Annam : these three natural divisions
are known as Cochin-China (including Cambodia) in the south,
as Annam in the centre, and as Tongking in the north : the
Laos territory, a wild, mountainous region only partially ex-
plored and very thinly peopled, lying along the southern
frontier of Yunnan, between Tongking and Burma, completes
the territory entitled by its alien conquerors Indo-China.
The country has been so short a time under French rule that
no proper census has yet been taken, and so nothing better
than an estimate can be given of the number of the inhabi-
tants. Cochin-China with Laos are the only districts under
direct French administration and of which a reliable census
has been taken ; Cambodia, Annam, and Tongking being
(according to the treaties determining their acquirement)
simply protectorates. Hence a great divergence of views as
to the actual population amongst French writers on the
subject. We quote two extreme estimates published re-
spectively in 1901 and 1902 : the question is of special interest
in view of the varied estimates put forth of the population
of China.
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART I
2:1
Cochin-China
Cambodia
Annam
Tongking
Laos
Area in
square miles.
2I,2CO
38,460
50,000
42,330
109.5)0
261,500
Population,
Bernard (1901).
2,300,000
1 ,200,000
3,000,000
2,700,000
500,000
9,700,000
Population,
Beauclerc ( 1900)
2,100,000
1,000,000
6.200,000
6,8oo.coo
2,400,000
18,500,000
Seeing that in the more sanguine estimate the pathless
mountains of the Laos are credited with a population of
2,400,000, and that this can only be a pure guess, we are
inclined to think that the more conservative estimate is nearer
the truth. Captain Fernand Bernard, who goes into a detailed
argument to prove the exaggeration in the usual estimates of
the population of Tongking, points out that the mountains
are practically uninhabited, and that the populous region is
confined to the deltas of the Red River and the Tai-bin
(i.e. Song-ma river), a quadrilateral of 5,200 square miles
only, and that, if we allow 450 inhabitants per square mile,
this gives us a total of 2,340,000, leaving 360,000 for the
uncultivated mountain region. A comparison with other similar
regions is instructive and would seem to show that even
Captain Bernard's conservative estimate is, if anything,
beyond the mark. Thus we have : —
Bengal (including Calcutta, 500,000) 381 inhabitants pcrsq. mile
Province of Mytho (in the Cochin-China rice-delta) 346 ,, ., .,
,, ,, Sadec ., „ „ 220
France 174 ,, ,.
Belgium 450 „
Alone in Cochin-China are the statistics the product of
a methodical census : the rest is estimate based on uncertain
premises. We may consequently set down the population of
Indo-China at about 10,000,000, until such time as definite
statistics of the whole are available. This gives, for the whole
territory, mountain and delta combined, an average popula-
tion to the square mile of only 38 persons. The neighbouring
empire of China possesses a not dissimilar proportion oi
mountain and delta land, and the figures for the rig] it ten
provinces, the 'Central Kingdom,' are— area, 1,300,000 square
222 THE FAR EAST
miles ; population, 300,000,000, which gives an average to the
square mile of 230 persons ; but in China, it must be remem-
bered that the mountains have been cleared everywhere, and
that, in the southern and central provinces, these are terraced
and irrigated, often to a height of 2,000 feet, whereas in Indo-
China, as in the neighbouring Malay peninsula, the mountains
are yet uncleared, being still covered with virgin forest and
impenetrable jungle.
The boundaries of Indo-China are simple and well defined :
on the north the escarpments of the Yunnan plateau and the
southern frontier of the Chinese province of Kwangsi ; on the
west, the river Mekong which separates the Laos from British
Burma and the province of Annam from Siam, and which, in
its delta, traverses Cambodia ; on the south and east, the sea.
French and British territory are coterminous for a distance
of about seventy miles, where the Mekong, descending from
Yunnan, passes through the 'Shan' state of Kiang-keng, once
under nominal Burmese suzerainty, but now divided between
two European Powers. Thence the 'great river of the south,'
passing by the much-disputed frontier of Luang-prabang,
marks, for a distance of 600 miles, the boundary between
Siam and ' Lower Laos ' till it reaches the frontier of Cam-
bodia. This ' Lower Laos,' usually included in our maps as
a part of Annam, comprises the strip of country running north
and south between the coast ridge of Annam and the Mekong
river ; Annam, strictly speaking, being confined to the country
east of the water-parting and the land drained by the rivers
flowing into the China Sea : west of the water-parting the
streams discharge into the Mekong and cross Lower Laos to do
so. Upon entering Cambodia, the Mekong ceases to form the
boundary ; the latter turns west at the Laos town of Stung-
treng, crosses the great lake ' Tale-sap ' (to the north of which
lie, hidden in jungle, the marvellous ruins of Angkor-wat) and
descends to the sea in the gulf of Siam at Cape Samit. South
and east of this line lies Cambodia, a French protectorate with
a titular king, Norodom I, having his court at Pnom-penh on
the Mekong ; and north and west the still nominally inde-
pendent kingdom of Siam. Shortly after leaving Pnom-penh
the Mekong enters Cochin-China proper, a province formed in
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART I
**3
the course of time from the alluvium brought down by the
Mekong and to-day constituting the upper delta : with the
exception of a few hills in the north and the hilly promontory
of Cape St. James — once an island in the sea, but which now
forms a welcome relief in the wide belt of mangrove-swamp
out of which it rises — the whole of Lower Cochin-China
consists of lowland, painstakingly reclaimed from the sea and
the mangrove, and gradually transformed into endyked paddy-
fields. Saigon, the capital, stands on the river Donnai, which
FlG. 29. -Approaches to Saigon.
rises on the western slope of the Annam mountains, on the
Lang-biang plateau, and enters the sea at Cape St. James, in
the estuary of the Mekong, but cast of its principal mouths.
Saigon communicates with the Mekong directly by a fifty-mile
long railway to the town of Mytho, built on the left bank of
the river; the whole delta is intersected by numerous navi-
gable creeks — arroyos, as the French call them — greatly facili-
tating the inter-transport of the main staple, rice, of which
Saigon is the entrepot and shipping-port.
224 THE FAR EAST
Leaving Cape St. James, the frontier trends north and we
enter the hilly country, which extends thence uninterruptedly
until low land is once more reached in the deltas of the Song-
ma and of the Red River and its affluents : between the crest
of the mountains, which run up to 7,000 feet, and the seashore
stretches the kingdom of Annam with its capital Hue. The
city of Hue is built 14 miles from the mouth of the Hue river,
and forms the residence of the king — Than-tai, as his present
majesty is named ; on the same coast, 65 miles to the south of
Hue, is situated the French settlement of Tourane, on the fine
bay of that name which is inserted midway between Cape
St. James and Haiphong, and is the only really safe and
commodious harbour in all winds along this 800-mile stretch
of coast-line. Captain Bertrand (VIndo-Chine, Paris, Char-
pentier, 1901) tells us that in the early period of the conquest
Annam was compared to the beam of a scale with two rich
' corbeilles ' hung at each end — a mountain-chain with an
alluvial delta at each extremity. He says, ' Never was there
a falser analogy. . . . Annam yields nothing to the two other
divisions of Indo-China : on the contrary, from many points of
view it is from Annam that the coming wealth of our colony
will be derived. Taken altogether and looked at superficially,
it is a long, narrow strip of land shut in between the
sea and a wall of forbidding mountains : in reality, it is
a succession of valleys which reproduce on a small scale, each
with its own special characteristics, the features exhibited
on the banks of the Red River and the Donnai. The chain
of Annam is not a continuous and uniform rampart : north of
Kvyang-binh (250 miles below Haiphong) it exhibits a series of
parallel ridges, running south-east and north-west, separated
from each other.' These depressions are traversed by three
rivers flowing east into the sea and by two which flow west
and discharge into the Mekong, besides many smaller streams :
those flowing east have formed alluvial valleys, stepping-
stones, so to say, by which, in the early centuries of our era,
the original inhabitants of Tongking, spreading southwards,
gradually made their way to the occupation of Annam.
South of Kwang-binh, where the Annam range commences
to sink towards the Tongking plain, and where the moun-
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES : PART I 225
tain chain is at its narrowest, we find a thickly wooded crest
diversified by high peaks, similarly drained by streams dis-
charging respectively into the Mekong and the sea.
This coast-line is deeply indented, forming a succession of
bays and promontories, with many rocky islands — prolongations
of the mountain spurs — in the adjoining sea. Hue, the capital
of Annam, is situated on one of these, a bay at the mouth of
the Hue river, but the port is obstructed by a bar covered with
only ten feet of water, rendering it difficult of access at all
times, but especially during the prevalence of the north-east
monsoon : the whole of this coast is exposed to the full force of
the monsoon, rendering the inter-coastal traffic dangerous in
the winter season, while in the summer the typhoons of the
China Sea are a risk to be constantly dreaded. Hence, as in
China proper, the dangers of the open sea and of the great
rivers have been sought to be circumvented by internal water-
ways. Such are not practicable along the steep coast-range,
but at the point where this recedes and leaves room for the
Song-ma delta, such coastwise canals have been attempted.
A land road going northwards leads along the coast from Hue
to Ha-tinh, at which point a canal connects the rivers Song-ma
and Song-ka, which take their rise in the Laos country behind,
with the Red River basin in the north : here the Annam coast-
range is more broken up and less wall-like, and admits these
rivers to force their way through to the coast, and so discharge
into the sea. About 60 miles south of Hue* is a deep bay,
into which falls the river Han, forming one of the most spacious
and safest ports in Indo-China ; on this bay stands the French
settlement of Tourane, and port of call for the Messageries
Maritimes steamers : 20 miles farther to the south lies the
coal-field of Fai-fu, which communicates with Tourane by a
canal navigable by large junks. Between Tourane and Cape
St. James, a distance of 900 miles following the coast-line, two
ports only are available, Quin-hon and Nha-trang, both situated
on bays with fertile strips of land between the sea and the
mountains in the rear. These mountains form a barrier which
has confined the kingdom of Annam to the strip of land between
them and the sea, and left the less civilized Laos behind them
independent. Towards its northern extremity, north of Kwang-
TAR EAST Q
aa6 THE FAR EAST
binh, the rampart is broken into a series of parallel ranges
running south-east and north-west, separated by depressions
which now admit the rivers that take their rise in the Laos
country behind to pass through to the sea. The water-parting
here recedes to the west, the rivers rising on the east side of the
Luang-prabang plateau, the Song-ka, the Song-ma, &c, flow-
ing seawards, their alluvium having gone towards forming
a southern extension of the Hanoi plain ; while the rivers that
take their rise on the western side of the plateau, the Nam-hou
and others, discharge into the Mekong. All these rivers are
mountain streams navigable only a few miles from their mouths
until we come to the Riviere Noire, the dark river, which flows
south of and parallel with the great Red River of Tongking, of
which it forms the principal affluent. South of Kwang-binh
the coast range is at its narrowest, and consists simply of a steep
densely wooded chain, practically impassable : below Tourane
the mountains increase in size, and are cut up by deep, narrow
valleys, giving rise to streams in whose fertile deltas we find
the inhabitants of the country congregated : south of these the
mountains spread out into a succession of plateaux sloping
gradually to the west, with spurs protruding seawards, and so
forming a series of separate bottoms divided by rocky walls,
the width of which between the mountains and the sea varies
considerably. The southernmost of these spurs is that ter-
minating in Cape Varella : in each of these natural divisions
small independent settlements arose in early times, but the
barriers between them being not absolutely impassable like the
mountain range behind, the conquering Annamese had little
difficulty in welding the whole into one, once powerful, king-
dom. The Chinese and Annamese came down by land from
the north ; the Hindus and Malays by sea from the south ; and
for long centuries the country was disputed between these
different races, now at length amalgamated into one people.
In the seventh century of our era the Shans became masters of
Northern Annam until, in their turn, they came in contact with
the Tongkingese in the north, and had to succumb before a more
warlike and vigorous race.
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART I 227
COCHIN-CHINA
The southernmost of the five divisions of Indo-China (Cochin-
China, Cambodia, Annam, Tongking, and Laos) is Cochin-China :
this was the province first taken by the French in 1863, and is
the richest and most populous. The province corresponds
almost entirely with the lower delta of the Mekong, that of the
Donnai, a short but copious river descending from the Lang-
biang plateau in Annam, to the east and on the banks of which
is situated the capital, Saigon, being absorbed within it. The
Donnai stands in relation to the Mekong much as the Brama-
putra to the Ganges, the Sunderbunds of their joint delta being
represented in the Mekong delta by the wide band of mangrove
swamp which separates the cultivated rice land from the sea,
and the network of salt-water creeks, or arroyos, traversing the
swamp land, from the fertilizing fresh-water creeks of the land
reclaimed from the salt mangrove, now made by art into
a patchwork of endyked paddy-fields. North-east of the delta,
twenty miles above Saigon, at Bien-hoa, low hills appear,
outlying foothills of the Lang-biang mountains of Annam :
here the alluvial land ceases on the Annam side, the rocks rise
above the alluvium, and at Bien-hoa is found a very compact
reddish-coloured stone, formed of a ferruginous clay con-
glomerate known as Bien-hoa stone. The new railway
now being built from Saigon to the Lang-biang plateau,
4,500 feet, passes through Bien-hoa and is the commencement
of a grand trunk line, destined to connect Cochin-China
with Tongking in the north, and ultimately with the Chinese
Empire beyond : one branch leading by way of Langson,
Kwangsi, to the southern provinces of China, and the other
climbing on to the Yunnan plateau by way of Laokai and the
valley of the Red River. Cochin-China, simply a tropical
delta, is naturally devoted to rice as its main production,
and, with an area of one-twelfth only of the whole of Indo-
China, it produces four-fifths of the total supply of the colony ;
other tropical productions, chiefly sugar and cotton, being as
yet produced only on a limited scale. Rice is the staple
resource of the colony, and although, owing to the less
efficient labour of the Annamese as compared with that of the
o 2
2 2<S THE FAR EAST
neighbouring Chinese, the yield per acre is less and the quality
inferior to that produced in the surrounding countries, while
the taxation is far heavier, yet the surplus available for
export from Saigon is annually about 750,000 tons. Siam
exports nearly the same amount from Bangkok, and Burma
just double the quantity from Rangoon. Seeing that the area
of the paddy-land of the three countries respectively is,
Cochin-China 150,000 acres, and in Siam and Burma each
more than one million, many economists deduce the fact
that the Cochin-Chinese are driven to sell an unduly large
proportion of their produce, leaving themselves insufficiently
provided for. The yield of an acre in Cochin-China averages
1,500 lb., as against an average of 2,000 lb. from the irrigated
fields of Java and of Burma, while the respective values are
approximately : Cochin-China £8, Burma £10, and Java £20
per ton. Owing to its inferior quality, the export is confined
principally to China and Japan ; a small quantity is shipped
to France, where its import is artificially encouraged by pro-
tective duties. Rice forms two-thirds of the total exports
from Indo-China, other tropical productions being so far
mostly in the initial stage of development. Indo-China being
favoured with an ample rainfall, a rich soil, and altitudes
varying from the sea-level to 4,000, 6,000, and 8,000 feet, will
doubtless in time, as the country is cleared and population
increases, rival Ceylon and Java in the wealth and variety
of its produce, especially if the present regulations hampering
Chinese immigration be modified or withdrawn.
The Tongkingese are the immediate descendants of Chinese
immigrants from Kwangsi and Kwangtung (Canton) : they
exhibit similar aptitudes, but, living in a warm malarious
climate, and owing also to intermarriage with the aboriginal
Shans and with immigrant Malays, they lack the persistent
energy of the Chinese, whose customs and methods they
however religiously follow. Out of a population estimated
at about 10,000,000 only about 100,000 are Chinese : mostly
merchants, handicraftsmen, and petty traders congregated
round the European settlements. In 1900 the European
population, of whom French functionaries form the chief
proportion, was given as 5,000 (Lagrilliere-Beauclerc, delegue
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART I 229
en mission d'etudes par M. le Ministre des Colonies, Paris,
Jallandier, 1900). The ' foreign ' population is said to have
increased since to 8,000 : this is exclusive of an equal number
of French troops forming the permanent garrison of the
country.
CAMBODIA
Cambodia, formerly an independent kingdom, appears to
have been founded originally by Hindu conquerors who
advanced by way of Siam, overcame the original inhabitants
of Malay stock, and left permanent evidence of their high state
of civilization in the immense palaces and temples whose
stupendous ruins now form one of the wonders of the world.
These huge edifices, built entirely, roof and all, of solid
stone, and now buried in the jungle, show signs of having
been abandoned before completion, probably owing to a suc-
cessful Siamese, or possibly Annamite, invasion which scattered
the inhabitants and made an end of Hindu rule. Cambodia in
early times was one of the most powerful and flourishing
kingdoms of the Siam-Annamese peninsula. Chinese annals
of the Han dynasty quote it, in 57 B.C., as being under Chinese
rule, and we know that Buddhism and sculpture were intro-
duced into Cambodia in the fifth century a.d. ; we also read
in Chinese annals of ambassadors from Cambodia being sent
to Chang-an in the time of the Sui dynasty, a.d. 616. In the
sixteenth century the Cambodians overran Siam, but in the
following century, at the time when Europeans first gained
a knowledge of the country, the Cambodian Empire was in full
decay, the Siamese encroaching on its territory from the west
and the Annamese from the east ; while its outlying provinces
on the upper Mekong were annexed by the invaders from the
north, the ancient capital of Angkor Tarn falling into their
hands. The southern provinces were captured by the An-
namese, and were still in the hands of the latter, when Tuduc,
the Emperor of Annam, was forced to cede three provinces of
Cochin-China to the French in 1863, and the remainder by
a new treaty signed at Hue in 1867. Already, in 1864, Siam
had been compelled to transfer her protectorate over Cambodia
to the French. Although their territory was long ago reduced
230 THE FAR EAST
to its present narrow limits, the kings of Cambodia claim that
their dynasty has occupied the throne for over 1,000 years,
having, however, been since 1706 tributary to Siam, much as
Annam was tributary to China. It is noteworthy in this con-
nexion that a British factory was established off the coast of
Cochin-China in 1702 on the island of Pulo Condore, and that
a consul for the Far East was appointed to reside there by
King William III.
The territory of Cambodia, measuring 240 miles north and
south and 180 miles east and west, and now containing only
38,000 square miles, comprises an extensive and exceedingly
fertile plain, watered by the Mekong and the great lake Tale-
sap, with their numerous affluents and connecting channels.
The plain is diversified in the west by isolated hills and short
ridges, and is bounded in the north by the P'nom Dangrek
range — the last of the heights that extend thence uninter-
ruptedly to the borders of Yunnan and beyond. The space
between this range and the northern shores of the lake is
strewn with the Brobdingnagian ruins of Angkor and many
other remains which still attest the former greatness of the
Cambodian Empire when it formed one of the chief centres of
Buddhist culture in the East. The population of this plain is,
as we have seen, only about 1,000,000 souls. Cambodia thus
commences at the point where the Mekong issues from the
northern mountains, and ends at the point where the river splits
up into several mouths, by which has been formed the delta of
Cochin-China : it is bounded by Siam and the great lake on
the north, i. e. that half of Siam which lies along the right bank
of the river and has now been acquired by the French as their
' zone of influence ' by the treaty of 1893, negotiated with Siam
under British intervention ; on the south its shores are washed
by the gulf of Siam, and on the west the wild Laos country
forms the boundary; in the centre, on the banks of the
Mekong, stands the capital, Pnom-penh.
The Mekong, taking its rise in the high Tibetan plateau
14,000 feet above sea-level, where it is known as the Lan-tsang,
flows almost due south for a long distance parallel to the
Kinsha, or Upper Yangtse river, traverses Yunnan, and con-
tinuing its course south, descends through the Shan country
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART I 231
from terrace to terrace to the sea. Its middle course thus
forms a series of comparatively tranquil navigable reaches
separated from each other by formidable rapids. At first sight
the river, on inspection of the map, appears to be a magnificent
artery of communication, and this the French took it to be
until actual exploration proved the contrary. Owing to this
peculiarity and the fact of the country being covered with
thick jungle from of old, isolated settlements grouped them-
selves along either shore, holding little intercourse with each
other. Up to Kratie, a town situated on the Cambodian
frontier, 100 miles above Pnom-penh, the river is unobstructed :
below Pnom-penh it divides into three branches, of which the
western, at the season of the summer rise, goes to fill the great
lakes, draining them off again as the river falls in the winter
dry season ; these lakes thus act as reservoirs for the surplus
water much as, in China, the Poyang and Tungting lakes do
for the Yangtse in its lower course. The Mekong thus fertilizes
Cambodia each year, like as the Nile does Egypt. The
remaining branches subdivide again lower down, and mingling
their waters with those of the Donnai, coming from the east,
discharge into the sea by numerous mouths. Thus the regions
traversed by the river offer a similar succession of contrasts, as
do those traversed by its sister stream, the Yangtse : above,
the deep gorges of the Tibetan border, Yunnan and the
Shan states, then the plateau of Luang-prabang, seamed by
lofty thickly-wooded ranges, then the open forest region and
the wide plateau valley of Bolowen, which is annually sub-
merged when the river is in flood, and, lastly, the alluvial plain
of Cambodia and the delta of Cochin-China. It is in these last
two divisions alone that any considerable population is found
at the present day — a population deriving its origin mainly
from the west — India, Siam, and Malaya ; yet, notwithstanding
the mountain barrier to the east, the more warlike Annamese
succeeded in the seventeenth century in making themselves
masters of the Mekong delta and so intermingled with the
inhabitants that at this day all racial distinction has ceased to
exist. Up to that time the two great delta lands of Indo-
China, Cambodia and Tongking, had pursued concurrently an
independent development : of the former the earl}' records are
232 THE FAR EAST
fragmentary and obscure (although Chinese historians mention
Cambodia and write of the Cambodians as a warlike race
rendered effeminate by their great wealth). The more detailed
history of the latter is preserved in the prolix annals of the
Chinese Empire, whose domination over Cochin-China was too
short to produce any lasting result, literary or political. From
the facts that are known, the Mekong delta appears to have
been a bone of contention to the surrounding nations from
time immemorial, and to have been in a constant state of
unrest ; the Red River delta, on the other hand, adopted from
China a high civilization and a scientific system of administra-
tion tending to more permanent stability, and a stronger
national feeling amongst its inhabitants.
The river Mekong has, since the occupation, been the scene
of heroic attempts on the part of French naval officers to prove
its navigability and so open the Laos country bordering its
upper waters : but the rapids are such that, though traffic by
steamers is not absolutely impracticable, yet the difficulties and
delays are too great for this route, however politically valuable,
ever to prove commercially profitable : the rapids commence
at Kratie in Cambodia, 300 miles from the mouth, and are
passable by small, high-powered, light-draft steamers at high
river, but above these are the famous cataracts of Khong,
round which a railway, four miles long, has been built, and
special steamers now navigate intermittently stretches of the
river as far as Luang-prabang, and so the country of the Laos
is being gradually brought into touch with Cochin-China by
their means. The numerous launches and small steamers that
circulate throughout the delta do not, however, ascend above
Kratie, and the navigation of the great lakes and the channels
leading to them is entirely restricted to the high-water season
from July to December. During this season, however, the
traffic is very active, and tropical produce from Siam, as well as
forest products from Laos, are brought to the Saigon market :
the soil of Cambodia has been found eminently suitable to the
growth of cotton, which is steadily extending, and which finds
a ready market in Japan, to which country some 5,000 tons
were exported from Saigon in 1900.
Thus, from Cambodia, by way of the Mekong, we penetrate
the next division of Indo-China
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART I 233
LAOS
The Laos country, which contains nearly half the area with
only about one-twentieth of the population of the whole
colony, forms the Hinterland of the Indo-Chinese peninsula,
shut off from the sea by Cambodia, Cochin-China, Annam, and
Tongking, and comprises all the land between these and the
Mekong up to the Yunnan frontier, and includes the kingdom
of Luang-prabang, until 1893 a dependency of Siam. All this
region is now being actively administered by French officials,
and, as in Tongking, every inducement is held out to European
settlers to open up the country and develop its resources ; but
the Laotians, of Malay type and lacking the Chinese element
which has stamped its energy and civilization upon the
Annamese of the coastal lands, dislike work and are of little
use for the purpose. They live idly along the banks of the
numerous rivers of the country, their mat-shelters built out on
piles over the water, as in Malaya ; the people are, however,
taller and more robust than the Annamese of the hot deltas :
they live chiefly on glutinous rice, cooked by steaming, with
salt fish as a condiment, and it is interesting to be told that
they are water-drinkers, pure and simple. The land, as we
have seen, lies high, descending in a series of terraces from an
altitude of 7,000 feet in Yunnan to the sea-level in the Mekong
delta. The whole country is covered with forest, and the
paths that traverse it are only passable in the dry season ;
thus an extraordinary amount of labour must be expended
before the country can be really thrown open to settlement.
The country is analogous in many respects to the famous
1 Terai ' at the foot of the Himalayas ; the rainfall is heavy, the
clouds being largely intercepted by the Laos mountains before
they reach the plateau of Yunnan : in the wet season from
May to November, the rainfall is said to average 90 inches, six
times the amount that falls on the plateau beyond.
ANNAM
The protectorate of Annam comprises the strip of narrow
land compressed between the Annamese mountains and the
234 THE FAR EAST
sea, about 800 miles in length and nowhere more than 100
miles in width. Annam is best known by its capital, Hue, the
residence of the late 'emperor,' Tuduc, with its magnificent
citadel, constructed by French engineers in the eighteenth
century, after Vauban ; and by the French settlement at
Fai-fu on the fine bay of Tourane, finally ceded to France in
the reign of Louis XVI. In 1802 the Annamese conquered
Tongking, and the emperor, Chia-lung, was recognized at
Peking as the ruler of Cochin-China, Annam, and Tongking.
His successors recommenced a persecution of the Christians,
and put to death the French and Spanish missionaries after
ordering them to leave the country, which they refused to do :
the result was the bombardment of the forts in the bay of
Tourane, and the destruction of the Annamese fleet by
Admiral Rigault de Genouilly in 1847. In 1856 another naval
demonstration in the bay of Tourane was made and the forts
were taken ; in 1863 Saigon was attacked and taken ; in 1867
Cochin-China was finally annexed and Annam placed under
a protectorate, the former country being handed over from
military to civil administration in 1879. Meanwhile the sub-
jugation of Tongking was proceeding : the capture of Hanoi by
Francois Gamier took place in 1873, and the conquest was
cemented by the treaty signed with Li Hung-chang at
Tientsin in 1885.
The people of Annam produce little beyond what suffices for
their own needs, and have no surplus available for export : the
most important local industry is the preparation of salt fish,
the fisheries along the coast being very productive, supplying
the wants of the bulk of the population of Indo-China ; but
this once flourishing trade has sadly diminished (' boule verse,'
Captain Ferrand) since the decree of 1899 raising the salt-tax
to 50 cents the picul of 133 lb., and so increasing the cost to
the consumer tenfold. In British India the tax is, however, still
heavier (1 rupee 8 annas per maund), and is held by economists
to lessen the consumption of this indispensable condiment to an
extent detrimental to the health of the poor ryot as well as of
his cattle. In Burma the tax is 1 rupee only. Through-
out Indo-China, rice and salt fish is the staple diet of rich and
poor alike, and the salt fish with his rice is as indispensable to
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART I 435
the Annamese as is tea to the Tibetans with their diet of
parched barley-porridge. A curious and peculiar feature of
Annam is that, in distinct contrast with all the surrounding
countries, the chief rainfall occurs in the winter with the
north-east monsoon ; the Annam range intercepting the
summer rains from the south-west which deluge the Mekong
delta, and in a less degree that of the Red River in Tongking,
and which give to India and China their wet summers and
dry winters. The rains in Annam set in usually about the
middle of September, commencing with violent storms which
occur at intervals up to the end of October, by which date the
north-east monsoon is thoroughly established up and down the
China Sea from Singapore to Newchwang. The wet season
lasts on until March, the rain in midwinter often continuing for
days together ; the summer, on the other hand, is extra-
ordinarily dry : the clouds which gather on the mountain-tops
every evening discharge their moisture on the heights, filling"
the rivers which flow through a perfectly dried-up country to
the sea. Under these abnormal conditions the rice-harvest is
reaped in May, the planting-out having taken place in January,
leaving the grain to ripen slowly under an overcast sky,
whereby a crop of poor quality and small in quantity is
secured. The Annamese farmer is fortunate if he secures
a yield of 700 lb. to the acre, as against 1,500 lb. in Cochin-
China adjoining. If the rains are prolonged beyond the usual
period, or if they cease too soon, the crop may prove a failure
altogether. In short, the yield is precarious, and Annam in
consequence is subject to periodical famines, which in the
absence of practicable land-roads and with constant gales
interfering with the navigation along the rock-bound coast
have, even under French rule, gone unrelieved. It is no
wonder that, under such circumstances, the Annamese have
looked with longing eyes on the rich delta lying behind their
mountains : at the time of the French conquest, Cochin-China
had been so long settled by them, and the original Indo-Malay
population so driven out or assimilated, that the race is now
undistinguishable from the pure Annamese; Chinese Confucian
civilization having entirely replaced the ancient theocratic rule
originally introduced from India.
236 THE FAR EAST
TONGKING
The great rivers Yangtse and Mekong, starting together
from Tibet, diverge in their courses as they approach the
table-land of Yunnan, the former taking an eastern and
the latter a southern course ; they leave vacant between them
a wide drainage area which has been occupied by the Red
River of Tongking. The Red River takes its rise in two main
forks, the Ta-tung-ho and the Ma-lung-ho, not far south of
Tali, in the snow-capped mountains surrounding the famous
Lake Erh-hai, at an elevation of some 7,000 feet above
the sea; thence it traverses the Yunnan plateau as an un-
navigable torrent, in a gorge cut down through the plateau to
a depth of 3,000 and 4,000 feet : crossing the Laos border
at Manhao, south of the inland * Treaty Port ' of Mengtse,
whence it forms the boundary between Yunnan and Tongking
as far as Laokai, situated at the head of navigation of the
Red River, 300 miles from the mouth. The fall in the river-
bed in the short distance from Manhao to the sea being
nearly 500 feet, the channel is necessarily infested by rapids
and only navigable in the high-water season from May to
November, and then only by steamers drawing 4 to 5 feet.
The ostensible reason for the seizure of Tongking was originally
the utilization of this short cut to what M. Lagrilliere-Beau-
clerc terms the richest province of China — Yunnan : experience
has, however, demonstrated that the Red River route is
impracticable for serious traffic and hence, at the instigation of
the enterprising late governor of Indo-China, M. Doumer,
a railway is now being constructed from Hanoi to the capital
of Yunnan, destined to tap the rich El Dorado of this dis-
tressful province and to compete with the longer and tortuous
outlet via the West River to Canton. The scheme is a bold
one and deserves success : it only remains to be seen how
a thinly-peopled and partially-developed colony like Indo-
China will support the cost of the necessary subvention. From
Laokai downwards the river continues to flow in a ravine with
wooded mountains on either bank rising to 4,000 and 5,000
feet ; until at Vietry, half-way down, the river enters the delta
and receives its two main affluents, the Riviere Noire from
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: TART I 237
the Laos country to the north-west and the Riviere Claire
from the Kwangsi border on the north. Thence to the sea, it
flows between banks endyked to protect the surrounding
paddy-fields, and leaving the capital of Indo-China, Hanoi, on
the right bank, it enters the sea by several mouths, none of
which are available for ocean-steamers : hence M. Doumer's
project of creating a new shipping-port in the beautiful bay of
Along, adjacent to the Hongay and Kebao coal-fields, which
would then be connected with the present port of Haiphong
by a canal 25 miles long. Haiphong, after Saigon the prin-
cipal port of Indo-China, is situated not on the Red River, but
at the mouth of a stream called the Cua-cam, a canalized off-
shoot, part of the intricate network of sluggish streams, half
canals, half tidal creeks, with which the whole delta is inter-
sected. Tradition avers that Hanoi in the fifth century was
on the sea-coast. Certainly the delta, as everywhere in the
vicinity of the great Asiatic rivers, is fast encroaching on the
sea, as much as 150 yards of land annually being gained in
parts of the Tongking Gulf : the Annamese first endyke and
then wash out the salt from the land by fresh-water canals
drawn from the river, and, as the river's mouth advances,
raise ever fresh embankments to protect themselves : yet, as
in China, these are frequently overflowed and undermined,
when great damage ensues. The fact of the mouth of the
Cua-cam being the most easily accessible entrance to the delta
had thus led to the establishment at its mouth of the port of
Haiphong in the days of junk traffic prior to the French
occupation, but it is obstructed by two bars which the
French, with their usual energy and disregard of cost, are
busily engaged in removing; 4,000,000 francs having been
voted for the purpose in 1902. At present the steamers of the
Messageries Maritimes, running from Marseilles to China,
connect with the port by means of a branch line of coasting
vessels running from Saigon to Hue and Haiphong, there being
at present only 20 feet on the bar at high water: but
Haiphong, as the port of the capital Hanoi, 80 miles higher
up, and with which it is now connected by rail, as well as
being the head quarters of the inland steam navigation of the
Red River and the countless 'creeks' of the delta, is hardly
238 THE FAR EAST
now likely to be dethroned from its premier position. Cotton-
mills and other manufactories are being established, and the
place has undoubtedly a great future before it, such as to
justify the outlay incurred and the enterprise displayed in
building a large city on a wretched swampy site barely raised
above the level of high- water mark.
Tongking, though its area corresponds generally with that
of the Red River basin, outsteps this limit in the east, where
Fig. 30.— The Delta of the Red River.
the boundary between Tongking and China crosses the water-
shed ; the district of Langson, now annexed to Tongking, being
part of the basin of the West River of Canton. The railway,
now opened to the Kwangsi border, climbs the ridge that
forms the water-parting, running through a jungle-covered
country rendered desolate by ten years' warfare, and descends
to the walled city of Langson, and so to the frontier, whence
an extension across Chinese territory via Nanning and Wuchow,
and down the West River valley to Canton, is in contemplation.
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PARTI 239
The delta of Tongking, with its converging rivers and sur-
rounding difficult mountain country, forms a natural focus
of immigration and home for an independent people : as,
however, the low lands became crowded, the rivers were
reascended to their limit of navigability, settlements were
founded along their banks, and clearances effected.
Tongking was apparently colonized long before the Christian
era by immigrants from South China who, as in China
generally, absorbed the aborigines and imposed upon them
Chinese civilization. The difficulties then met with in pene-
trating into the interior were the same as to-day — the
mountains, the wild inhabitants, and the climate ; the former
the Tongkingese vanquished, but they succumbed to the latter.
The confused mountain mass which fills up Northern and
Western Tongking offers in turn steep forest-covered slopes,
narrow ravines enclosing torrents, intermingled with small
flat valley-basins which rains and river-floods combine to
convert into impassable quagmires. 'The " assainissement "
of a country like this requires the sustained effort of genera-
tions, and a secular change in the habits of the inhabitants
and their methods of agriculture ; now there were other lands
more easy to conquer and situated under similar conditions,
viz. the series of deltas in Annam. . . . Thus by degrees the
Annamese, as they developed, were led to extend along the
low coast-line until they reached Cochin-China, keeping
steadily outside of the mountain zone in which the tribes
fleeing before the invader took refuge.' And so the Indo-
Chinese peninsula became peopled with a race of Chinese stock
thickly congregated along the coast, while the mountains of
the interior remained the home of widely-scattered Shans
and Laos, races allied to the Siamese and first cousins to the
southern Chinese : the Annamese, on the other hand, are more
distinctly Mongol-featured, and, in Chinese dress, would always
pass for Chinese, from whom they are hardly distinguishable
by their slighter frame and generally darker tint.
Apart from a few tentative plantations of tropical produce
— coffee, tea, indigo, &c, the chief development-work under
French occupation has been the opening up of the vast coal
deposits found at Hongay, situated on the bay of Along to the
240 THE FAR EAST
east of Haiphong. The mines now turn out about 1,000 tons
a day, which finds a ready market in the steamers plying on
the coast and in Hongkong and Shanghai, as well as in the
various industries of the colony. These mines were originally
opened out by Hongkong capitalists ; the venture was at first
unsuccessful, but since it has been taken over by a French
company with its head quarters in Paris, with ample capital,
development has proceeded on a large scale, and dividends up
to 25 per cent, per annum have been earned by the share-
holders. The seams, one of which is over 70 feet in thickness,
are worked from the surface. ' Hongay is one of the few open
coal-fields of the world, and contains hills of coal with seams
70 and 80 feet thick ' (Cunningham, ' The French in Tongking
and South China,' Hongkong Daily Press, 1903). There
seems little doubt that the coal measures are distributed
throughout Indo-China as they are throughout the greater
part of the immense area of China proper, as well as in
Mongolia and Manchuria, and that the ' Far East ' holds in
its bosom the world's coal supply of the future. M. Sarreau,
in his report published in 1899, quotes the tertiary formation
of the Red River basin as exceeding 3,000 feet in thickness,
and states that the strata range from stratified limestone and
conglomerate below, to argillaceous schists and green and yellow
sandstones above. The Hongay coal is a kind of friable
anthracite, such as is so common in China, but deeper boring
is expected to show a type similar to that of Cardiff, and more
bituminous. Speaking of the coal at Laokai on the Yunnan
frontier, he says : ' This coal burns rapidly like a combustible
impregnated with petroleum ; this confirms our view that the
coal grows richer in volatile matter as we proceed from east
to west of the coal basin.'
We have been able to write more fully about Tongking
because, being under ' foreign ' rule, the country and its
resources have been better observed, and so more is known
about it than is of those parts of Asia still left under native
rule, where every obstacle is thrown in the way of the explorer
and the natural instinct of the governments is to keep the
c foreigner ' at arm's length, and fight shy of his dangerous
proposals to help reveal the talents they themselves try to
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART I 241
keep hidden in a napkin. Indo-China is an epitome of China
proper, and it only needs time, coupled with a more liberal
regime, for the country to become as productive as China
proper, and far more prosperous. But the French ' mandarin '
needs conversion to common sense almost as much as his
Chinese prototype. The country is overburdened with officials,
needing oppressive taxation to support them, while the influx
of Chinese, whose labour has so enriched the Malay states and
Sumatra, is actively discouraged. A tariff-wall has been
sedulously built round the colony, and the cost of every article
of consumption heavily increased to the inhabitants without
a corresponding relief to the colonial budget. Thus in the
Budget General of Indo-China for 1902, we find under receipts,
' Product of Customs, 86,250,000 ' ; and under disbursements,
'Administration of Customs, $5,351,000'; nearly the whole
receipts going to support the 800 functionaries employed to
collect them. The late Prince Henri d'Orleans, whom no
one can accuse of not being a patriotic Frenchman, wrote,
in his Around Tongking and Siam : 'We had not been masters
of Tongking for two years before we surrounded it with a thick
wall of customs dues, and in order to gratify a few French
traders we arrested the commercial development of the colony,
not reflecting that a. budding colony needs a maximum of
liberty and free action ; that the greater the imports and
exports, the greater the profits.' But, apart from this what
appears to us most short-sighted fiscal policy, the French
municipal administration is ages in advance of anything
known in British colonies ; not only is everything conceivable
done for the health, comfort, business needs, and pleasure of
the present inhabitants, but a wise forethought, which seems
to be absolutely lacking in our dependencies and Crown
colonies, provides amply for future expansion. 'Hanoi (first
settled only fifteen years ago), a city built up among Asiatic
surroundings, is superior in these respects to any in the Far
East. Shanghai may claim more business: Hongkong may
proudly refer to its Peak residential quarter and its roads cut
in solid rock ; Manila to its ancient city ; and Singapore to its
splendid breadth ; but in tout ensemble, Hanoi is undoubtedly
the superior.' In the amenities of life, in arrangements for
242 THE FAR EAST
preventing native overcrowding, and in sanitation generally,
in wide streets, open places, strict building rules, and, above
all, in a careful provision for the future extension of the city
on a prearranged plan, Hanoi and Haiphong stand pre-
eminent. Bombay and Calcutta display far more solid wealth
and activity, but in elegance as well as in the practical
amenities of city existence will bear no comparison with
Saigon and Hanoi. The latter city now claims to be the
healthiest of all European settlements in sub-tropical Asia.
The home French Government is proud of its colonies, as it
has reason to be, and aids them in every way financially as
well as politically, but is too much inclined to treat them as
a private preserve for Frenchmen. Indo-China is now pro-
gressing by leaps and bounds : it only needs some relaxation
of native imposts and greater freedom in external trade to
assure the permanence of its present phenomenal progress.
CHAPTER XV
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES : PART II. COREA
The analogy we have already indicated between the eastern
coast of North America and that of Eastern Asia cannot fail
to strike any one who studies their geography and is familiar
with the climate and resources of the two regions. Either is
situated on the east coast of a great continent : each is affected
by a warm gulf stream, the reflux of the trade-wind driven
current in the tropical regions to the south — deflected off its
shores by the land-masses obstructing a continuous western
flow — and thus the stream, as it starts eastwards, leaves room
in both cases for the descent of a cold Arctic current between
it and the coast to the north. The distinction is that on the
Indo-China coast, owing to the different configuration of the
land and the wider sweep of the Pacific, these phenomena take
place in a lower latitude. On the coast of North America,
the Gulf Stream ascends to 350 north before moving east ; on
the coast of China the Kuro-siwo takes its departure on the
verge of the tropics. The monsoon winds, due to the larger
land-mass of the Asiatic continent, that prevail off the coasts
of India and China go farther to emphasize the distinction ;
blowing in winter steadily from the north they drive the
surface cold water at that season farther south than do the
more intermittent gales of the North Atlantic ; on the other
hand, in summer the persistent southerly winds drive the warm
surface water of the tropics farther north along the coast of
China ; hence, in the Formosa Channel, between the island
of that name and the mainland, we have a two-knot northerly
current in summer, while in winter we find a still stronger
current flowing south, and the Kuro-siwo deflected entirely to
the outside of Formosa. Surprising extremes of climate are the
result, the shores of the gulf of Pechili being fringed with solid
ice several miles out to sea in winter, while in summer the
R 2
244
THE FAR EAST
temperature of the water rises to the verge of 8o° ; Tientsin, in
latitude 390, is a closed port from December to March, while
in the summer the heat is tropical. Japan receives in summer
the full force of the south-west monsoon on its southern coast
and of the warm vapour-bearing Kuro-siwo current, and the
air there at that season is fully as damp and muggy as at Hong-
kong. Corea, situated between the two, and in the same
latitude, happily escapes these extremes : it seems to lie in an
Fig. 31. — Currents in the China Seas.
intermediate zone, the warm gulf stream passing by on the
south, while it is sheltered from the hard, dry, north-east winter
winds by the protecting range of mountains that line its Pacific
coast. To complete the American analogy — the Corean penin-
sula holds a position in relation to China similar to that held
by the peninsula of Nova Scotia in relation to the mainland of
New England. Both peninsulas escape the debilitating summer
heat of the mainland, while the winters are fine and bracing
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES : PART II 245
and the cold not excessive : both thus present conditions
favourable to the growth of hardy cereals, well-fed cattle, and
a sturdy population.
Mrs. Bishop, in her Korea and her Neighbours, gives such
a succinct outline of the geography of the country, that we
venture to quote it as it stands. ' The geography of Korea or
Chao Hsien (" Morning Calm " or "Fresh Morning1 ") is simple.
It is a definite peninsula to the north-east of China, measuring
roughly 600 miles from north to south and 135 from east to
west. The coast-line is about 1,940 miles. It lies between
34° 17' N. to 430 N. latitude, and 1240 38' E. to 1300 33' E.
longitude, and has an estimated area of upwards of 80,000
square miles, being somewhat smaller than Great Britain.
Bounded on the north and west by the Tu-men and Am-nok, or
Yalu, rivers, which divide it from the Russian and Chinese
empires, and by the Yellow Sea, its eastern and southern limit
is the Sea of Japan, a "silver streak" which has not been its
salvation. Its northern frontier is only conterminous with
that of Russia for 11 miles.
'Both boundary rivers rise in Paik-tu San, the "White-
headed [Mountain," from which runs southward a great
mountain range, throwing off numerous lateral spurs, itself
a rugged spine which divides the kingdom into two parts, the
eastern division being a comparatively narrow strip between
the range and the Sea of Japan, difficult of access, but extremely
fertile ; while the western section is composed of rugged hills
and innumerable rich valleys and slopes, well watered and
admirably suited for agriculture. Craters of volcanoes, long
since passed into repose, lava beds, and other signs of volcanic
action are constantly met with.
' The lakes are few and very small, and not many of the
streams are navigable for more than a few miles from the sea,
the exceptions being the noble Am-nok, the Tai-dong, the
Nok-tong, the Mok-po, and the Han, which last, rising in
Kang-won Do, 30 miles from the Sea of Japan, after cutting
the country nearly in half, falls into the sea at Chemulpo on
1 Chao Hsien does not mean the ' Land of the Morning Calm' ; it applies
to the land as seen from off the coast of Shantung and means the ' Fresh
Glow of Morning,' as compared with Japan, the ' Land of the Rising Sun.'
246 THE FAR EAST
the west coast, and, in spite of many and dangerous rapids, is
a valuable highway for commerce for over 170 miles.
'Owing to the configuration of the peninsula, there are few
good harbours, but those that exist are open all the winter.
The finest are Fusan and Wonsan, on Broughton Bay.
Chemulpo, which, as the port of Seoul, takes the first place,
can hardly be called a harbour at all, the outer harbour, where
large vessels and ships of war lie, being nothing better than
a roadstead, and the inner harbour, close to the town in the
fierce tideway of the estuary of the Han, is only available for
five or six vessels of small tonnage at a time. The east coast
is steep and rocky, the water is deep, and the tide rises and
falls from 1 to 2 feet only. On the south-west and west coasts
the tide rises and falls from 26 to 38 feet !
'Off the latter coasts there is a remarkable archipelago.
Some of the islands are bold masses of arid rock, the resort of
sea-fowl ; others are arable and inhabited, while the actual
coast fringes off into innumerable islets, some of which are
immersed by the spring tides. In the channels scoured among
these by the tremendous rush of the tide, navigation is oft-
times dangerous. Great mud-banks, specially near the mouths
of the rivers, render parts of the coast-line dubious.
' Korea is decidedly a mountainous country and has few
plains deserving the name. In the north there are mountain
groups with definite centres, the most remarkable being Paik-tu
San, which attains an altitude of over 8,000 feet and is regarded
as sacred. Farther south these settle into a definite range,
following the coast-line at a moderate distance, and throwing
out so many ranges and spurs to the west as to break up
Northern and Central Korea into a congeries of corrugated and
precipitous hills, either denuded or covered with chaparal,
and narrow steep-sided valleys, each furnished with a stony
stream. The great axial range, which includes the " Diamond
Mountain," a region containing exquisite sylvan and mountain
scenery, falls away as it descends towards the southern coast,
disintegrating in places into small and often infertile plains.
'The geological formation is fairly simple. Mesozoic rocks
occur in Hwang-hai Do, but granite and metamorphic rocks
largely predominate. North-east of Seoul are great fields of
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART II 247
lava, and lava and volcanic rocks are of common occurrence in
the north.
'The climate is undoubtedly one of the finest and healthiest
in the world. Foreigners are not afflicted by any climatic
maladies, and European children can be safely brought up in
every part of the peninsula. July, August, and sometimes the
first half of September, are hot and rainy, but the heat is so
tempered by sea-breezes that exercise is always possible. For
nine months of the year the skies are generally bright, and
a Korean winter is absolutely superb, with its still atmosphere,
its bright, blue, unclouded sky, its extreme dryness without
asperity, and its crisp, frosty nights. From the middle of
September till the end of June, there are neither extremes of
heat nor cold to guard against.
'The summer mean temperature of Seoul is about 750
Fahrenheit, that of the winter about 330 ; the average rainfall
36-03 inches in the year, and the average of the rainy season
21-86 inches (3^ years' average). July is the wettest month
and December the driest. The result of the abundant rainfall,
distributed fairly through the necessitous months of the year,
is that irrigation is necessary only for the rice crop.'
Corea thus occupies an area little larger than that of one
of the smaller provinces of China proper and is credited with
a population of 10,000,000 only. The country could well
support double this number, but, especially in the northern
half, it is very thinly populated, large areas being still virgin
forest : the soil is everywhere fertile and favoured with a suffi-
cient and regular rainfall, but the Coreans are idle and indifferent
husbandmen, showing a great contrast in this respect to their
industrious neighbours the Chinese and Japanese. Life is easy
and their wants limited to the bare necessities of food and
clothing : all stimulus to exertion has been crushed out of the
people by a government which exists solely for the benefit of
the privileged classes, whose exactions are only limited by the
poverty of the masses : these dare not accumulate wealth of
which they may be robbed with no power of protest ; yet in
physique they are superior, and in intelligence, where the
opportunity of its development is afforded, not inferior to other
races of Mongol type ; their long isolation has, however, proved
34**
THE FAR EAST
an effectual bar to progress, and the ^spasmodic interference of
the Japanese, owing to their arbitrary and often brutal methods,
has had no permanent influence, either in reforming the govern-
ment or in elevating the people. It is noteworthy that some
20,000 Coreans of the poorest class, who have crossed the
frontier into Russian territory and are now settled in the
Manchurian coast province of Primorsk, where land has been
awarded them on easy terms, and where the taxation is fixed
and moderate, have been raised out
of their home poverty and listless-
ness into a thrifty and prosperous
people. Corea has been a bone of
contention amongst her neighbours,
whose repeated invasions have led
to periodical devastations of the
country : the Coreans are essentially
a peaceful and unwarlike race ; they
stood alone for a season and en-
joyed peace and stagnation under
Chinese protection — now this has
been withdrawn, some other foreign
protectorate is inevitable ; the people
seem too utterly apathetic to be
able to reform their government
and improve their condition on their
own initiative.
Corea, being mainly a peninsula of
lofty mountains projected from the
Manchurian highlands southwards
into the sea, has little plain country,
there being no room for the exten-
sive deltas which play such a leading part in the countries of the
main continent. The rivers are necessarily short, and flowing
mostly through granitic soil are not, like the rivers of China,
turbid writh loess and disintegrated sandstone, and so laden
with land-forming silt. The peninsula is limited to the land
developed from its mountain backbone in the east, averaging
6,000 feet in height with only a very narrow strip of cultivable
land between it and the Pacific. On the west, the land slopes
Fig. 32.— Corea.
Orographical.
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART II 249
gradually to the Yellow Sea, but is broken up by the spurs
that spring from the high backbone into rich, undulating
country giving rise to rapid rivers and beautiful scenery ;
comparatively level, cup-shaped basins, well adapted for rice
cultivation, and in the centres of which are built the principal
cities — among them the capital Seoul — are interspersed through-
out. The principal rivers, to the number of five, are navigable
by small craft for a considerable distance, and in the absence
of roads form valuable though still very imperfect means
of inter-communication. Thus, commencing in the north, we
have, to the east, the Tumen, which takes its rise in the Paik-
tou-shan (White-headed Mountains ; white from tufa, not from
snow), the peaks of which go up to 8,700 feet, and in conjunc-
tion with the Yalu forms the boundary between Corea and
Manchuria, and in the last eleven miles of its course the
boundary between Corea and the Russo-Manchurian province
of Primorsk, the Tumen falling into the sea to the south of
Possiet Bay, 80 miles below Vladivostock. Then, forming
the northern boundary on the west, we come to this, one of
the most important rivers of Corea, and famous for the
Japanese naval victory off its estuary in 1894 — the Yahi, or,
as it is called by the Coreans, Am-nok. At its mouth stands
the town of Wiju, whence Chinese junks carry to China the
timber rafted down the river, cut in the unexhaustible forests of
the White-headed Mountains, in which the river has its source.
This mountainous northern frontier was in old times set aside as
a pale or neutral ground between China and Corea, and no
settlers from either side were permitted to enter it, much less
to clear any of the land and engage in farming. A road passes
through it across Liaotung to Peking, over which travelled
the Corean tribute-bearers, the site of whose former encamp-
ment in the Tartar city of Peking is now covered by a brand-
new two-storied European brick building, the home of the
resident European-garbed Ambassador from the now styled
Emperor of Corea to the Peking Court. This ' neutral ground '
and the wild slopes of the White Mountain are the resort of
mounted bandits, tigers, and leopards, who have harassed
impartially both sides of the border ever since the buffer land
was established by agreement with the Mings after the sub-
250 THE FAR EAST
sidence of the cruel Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century.
The Corean province of Phyeng-an adjoining is famous for its
ginseng, the fanciful root in such demand in China as an
aphrodisiac that when of the right quality, in which the
resemblance to the figure of a man (gin-seng = man-born) is
unmistakably traceable, it is worth, the wild £3, and the
cultivated £30, per ounce.
Below the Yalu, the Tai-dong river, upon which is situated
the ancient capital, Phyengyang, also takes its rise in the
high coast range to the east. Phyengyang, a walled city
beautifully situated on a rise on the right bank of the river,
which is navigable thus far at high water, about 40 miles from
its mouth, in the centre of one of the largest valley-plains of
the country, and surrounded by a fertile soil of stoneless
alluvium, was formerly the richest and most luxurious city
in Corea. In 1894 it was the scene of a Japanese victory
which decided the fate of the war, when the flower of the
Chinese army was mown down by a circle of artillery fire
with which the Japanese had surrounded the unfortunate
Chinese — much as the Germans, twenty-four years before,
surrounded the French at Sedan ; 5,000 Chinese perished, and
250 Japanese. But the Coreans were the worst sufferers at
the hands of their two would-be protectors ; Phyengyang
was rendered desolate and its 70,000 inhabitants reduced to
15,000. Chinampo, situated in the estuary, was made a
Treaty Port in 1897, and when the country recovers should
prove a useful port of distribution for this rich region.
The river Han, upon which stands the capital, Seoul, is the
most important of Corean rivers, being used for the carriage
of produce grown in its watershed over a distance of 170 miles
from its mouth, where is situated what is to-day the chief
Treaty Port of the country, Chemulpo. Flowing through hilly
country from its rise in the Diamond Mountains — the central
nexus of the long coast range — at a distance of only 30 miles
from the Japan Sea, to its mouth in the wide mud-flats that
line the west coast on the Yellow Sea, the river-bed falls
steeply, and so, when tide-water is left behind, presents an
almost continuous series of rapids, which, however, are
navigated with the toilsome patience that distinguishes the
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART II 251
Chinese boatmen under the like circumstances ; but railways,
now in course of construction under Japanese auspices, will
ere long, as in China, supersede water carriage under such
naturally difficult conditions. Little definite was known
about Corea until after 1882, in which year the United States
' opened ' the country to foreign intercourse and trade. Great
Britain followed suit in 1884, and the establishment of
Chemulpo as a Treaty Port was the consequence. Corea
being, as we have shown, almost inaccessible by its one land
frontier, may be treated to all intents and purposes as an
island, all its present contact with the outer world being by
sea : the trade with America, China, and the European world
is carried on by steamers calling at Chemulpo ; the ports on
the Pacific coast, Fusan andGensan (Wonsan), having relations
mainly with Japan l. The port of Chemulpo is little more than
an open roadstead, but standing at the head of a bight,
corresponding to the projecting peninsula of Shantung on
the opposite coast of China, is fairly well sheltered, and forms
a convenient port of call for the coasting steamers that
navigate the Yellow and Japan Seas — as much as any port
can be on a coast where the tide rises and falls nearly 40 feet.
The tide reaches 56 miles as far as Mapu, the port of Seoul,
4 miles distant, above which the rapids render steam navigation
impracticable.
The mountain range that forms the backbone of the country,
the core of which is granitic with tertiary beds prevailing
along the east coast, extends right through to the southern
extremity of the peninsula, and may be said to terminate
in the 'Corean Archipelago' — a crowd of rocky islands and
islets that fringe the wide southern coast, among which are
those forming the harbour of Port Hamilton, temporarily
occupied by the British fleet in 1886-7, and the large harbour-
less island of Quelpart, with the high peak of Mount Auckland
in its centre. As it approaches the southern end of the
peninsula, the mountain wall {qua wall) disappears and
spreads out fan-wise into gentler elevations of 2.000 to
1 The Japanese are now constructing a north and south trunk line, which
connects their settlement of Fusan with the China-Siberian Railway in
Manchuria.
252 THE FAR EAST
3,000 feet, making room for numerous rich cultivated valleys
in their recesses ; the dense forest which covers the northern
border-land being here relegated to its proper place— the
mountain tops and their higher slopes ; and so this region
is, agriculturally, the richest and most productive of the
Empire. As we follow the west coast down south from
Chemulpo, we arrive at another Treaty Port, Mok-po, situated
at the mouth of the small river of that name, which also takes
its rise on the western slope of the main range. So far, no
trade has developed, and Mok-po has not yet been made
a port of call by the coasting steamers.
Continuing round the coast, and passing the fine bay and
harbour of Masampo, which lies east of the main ridge, a long
narrow inlet between steep green hills, reminding one of
Dartmouth in Devonshire, which this part of the country
much resembles, we reach the Treaty Port of Fusan, situated
in the south-east corner of the peninsula, 7 miles above the
mouth of the Nak-tong river, which also takes its rise east
of the main range, and is navigable by small junks for over
100 miles of its course. The port of Fusan is the chief
depot for Japanese trade, and is now being connected with
Seoul by railway, notwithstanding the mountainous country
intervening. Leaving Fusan, no port is passed until we reach
Gensan, the fifth and last of Corea's Treaty Ports, situated
in a beautiful bay 2 miles to the south of the fine harbour of
Port Lazareff, at the foot of an amphitheatre of magnificent
mountains. Corea, with its long mountain range walling it in
on the side of the Pacific, bears a certain analogy to Annam
in the Indo-Chinese peninsula walled in by a similar range from
the China Sea. Both coasts present long stretches wanting in
harbours : in both countries the mountains in the central
length of the range present a practically impassable barrier,
and the inhabitants on either side carry on intercourse mainly
by outflanking the barrier at its southern end. The thirteen
provinces or countries into which Corea is divided are all more
or less mountainous, although interspersed with many extensive
valley-plains, extremely fertile, and producing magnificent crops
without the need of irrigation or manure ; this, together with
the sunshine of a low latitude and a climate free from extremes,
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART II 253
seems to have produced an easy-going, apathetic people, never
wanting the necessaries of life and so long isolated from the
rivalry of neighbouring nations that all ambition or desire for
progress seems to have died out from among them : an ideal
condition according to that school of philosophy which deems
content and resignation the secret of human happiness.
Situated midway between China and Japan, Corea seems to
unite the natural advantages of both without their drawbacks,
much the same as its mountains with their basalt and lavas
combine the volcanic structure of Japan with the granite and
sedimentary limestones prevalent in China. The continental
phenomena of prolonged droughts and overwhelming floods,
from which the adjoining mainland is never entirely free, are
happily unknown in Corea, while the volcanic eruptions that
periodically disturb the equanimity of the neighbouring island
empire are equally non-existent. Corea derived her civiliza-
tion from China at a period (Tang and Sung dynasties, seventh
to twelfth centuries) when the great empire was at the zenith
of her culture, and at the time stood far in advance of any
other country in the world in progress and refinement, and it
is no discredit to the Coreans that the civilization of China
was and is the ideal by which their own is guided. The fact
that this civilization, like all preceding ones, bore within
itself the germs of its decay the Coreans as a people have not
yet realized, notwithstanding the utter collapse of the Chinese
on their soil : but in the East, military collapse does not carry
with it the disgrace with which in Western countries it is
associated, few Asiatics being sufficiently educated to see that
war is the supreme test of a nation's virility, and that
corruption and indolence spell the rationale of defeat, while
the teaching of the old Chinese philosophers has succeeded in
thoroughly discrediting the military profession. Japan, on the
other side, adopted her civilization from China, mainly through
Corea, and has been driven by the comparatively limited area
of her cultivable land to more strenuous exertion than is
needed in a country fertile throughout. The feudal system,
which ceased in China B.C. 250, continued in full force in
Japan until a.d. 1868, and upheld the martial ardour of her
people much as did the long continuance of the same system
254 THE FAR EAST
in the West. That the Coreans should have preferred to the
activity of Japanese methods the philosophical repose of China,
and paid voluntary tribute to the great empire that has left
them in peace since the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth
century, is not surprising. Japan, partly driven to find new
fields for the expansion of her people, partly urged by ambition
to reform a government in decay, has made many attempts to
conquer the country, all of which have proved abortive, more
through the sullen resistance of its people than in consequence of
the assistance given by China to her feudatory.
It is noteworthy that Corea, which has never proved herself
capable of maintaining her independence, should in the first
instance have been tributary to Japan, and that, if Japanese
accounts are creditable, as far back as a.d. 202. The invasion
of the famous empress Jingo, in the third century, led to the
quiet submission of the three kingdoms which then divided the
peninsula between them, and to their payment of tribute,
which, as usual in the East, was probably purely nominal. It
was under another empress, the notorious Wu (a.d. 655-705),
concubine of the second and third emperors of the great Tang
dynasty, that Corea was again invaded — this time by the
Chinese, who conquered the northern kingdom and fortified its
capital, Pingan, whereupon a revolt led by a Buddhist priest
and assisted by Japanese succeeded in driving them out. But
the empress Wu was not to be beaten : she again overran
the country and drove out the Japanese, and from this time
on, until 1894, Chinese ascendency was completely established
in Corea. From this time, too, dates the introduction of
Corean civilization into Japan ; many revolted Coreans fled
with the Japanese, who at that date (a.d. 700) had hardly
emerged from a state of barbarism, while the Coreans then
possessed a culture and art, developed from Chinese sources,
which was then probably in its zenith : the Japanese proved,
as ever, willing learners and soon left their teachers far behind.
It was not till early in the tenth century that the three
kingdoms in Corea became united under one crown : it was at
this period that Buddhism was formally established as the
religion of the country and the national capital fixed at
Songdo.
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART II 255
Songdo stands in the midst of a rich valley-plain, and still
maintains much of its ancient splendour as the second city of
the kingdom or, as it now is, empire : it is situated about 50
miles north of the actual capital, Seoul, by which it was
superseded in 1392. Songdo is now the centre of the lucrative
ginseng trade, the cultivated plant being grown in the vicinity
and packed for export in the city under government supervision.
The Coreans were now left in peace for a couple of centuries
until, in a.d. 12 18, the Corean king acknowledged himself
a vassal of Genghis Khan, but failed thereby to escape war :
quarrels with the great Khan's envoys resulted in the invasion
of the country in 1235, when the land was laid waste in
customary Mongol fashion and a heavy tribute exacted from
the people. In the following century, the degeneracy of the
Mongol government in Peking gave opportunity for the Coreans
to revolt ; their successful leader, now surnamed Taijo or Great
Ancestor, founded, in 1350, the dynasty of Ni, which still
nominally rules the country : as soon as the Mongols were
finally expelled from China and the native dynasty of Ming
became fully established on the Dragon Throne under Hungwu
in 1368, the Coreans, who have always held the Chinese
Empire in the greatest respect, while unable to submit to the
barbarous Mongol usurpers, voluntarily renewed their vassal-
ship to the new dynasty : Buddhism was disestablished in
favour of Confucianism and competitive examination for all
government offices introduced. The Ming dynasty, already
menaced by the growing power of the Manchus, was nearing
its end when, in the reign of the Buddhist-favouring Chinese
emperor Wan-li (a.d. 1573-1620), the great Japanese invasion
of Corea under Hideyoshi took place, a.d. 1592. A long two
hundred years' peace had totally unfitted the Coreans for
resistance, and scarcely any worthy the name was offered. The
Japanese, in whose suite was a Jesuit priest named Cespedes,
who had aided the Japanese in preparing artillery, and who
joined them in the hope of christianizing the Coreans, had an
easy walk-over : the non-resistance of the Coreans availed them
little, however, against the barbarous inhumanity displayed
by their conquerors1. The Japanese landed at their ancient
1 In Kioto, Japan, is still to be seen a mound, surmounted by a pillar,
256 THE FAR EAST
trading port, Fusan, and marched northwards right through
the country, capturing Seoul and later Pingan, which proved
no city of refuge for the Corean Court, who, together with the
bulk of the inhabitants, were captured in the city and mostly
put to death. The Chinese now at last accepted their
responsibility as protectors of Corea in earnest, drove the
Japanese back as far as Seoul, where these fortified themselves,
but ultimately withdrew on the signing of a treaty of peace,
by which Japan was to be allowed to retain Southern Corea
while accepting Chinese suzerainty. But this treaty was
haughtily rejected by Hideyoshi, and a second invasion was
organized. This met with little success ; the Chinese were
victorious both on sea and land : in 1598, while the remnant
of the Japanese forces were closely hemmed in near Fusan,
Hideyoshi died ; his successor, Ieyasu, who had previously
been an opponent of the war, withdrew from the contest, and
Corea was once more left in peace. It is characteristic of the
Coreans that history does not report their having taken any
part in the war which had desolated their country during
seven long years, nor of their having been in the least con-
sulted by either side in the various conventions and treaties
entered into during its course. After the Japanese had
thus been successfully driven out by their Chinese protectors,
the Coreans were henceforth enabled to enjoy undisturbed for
nearly three centuries the quiet isolation which is all they
ask for, but which they have never had the strength to
defend.
The mineral resources of Corea appear to be fully as great,
in proportion to her size, as are those of the neighbouring
mainland, and probably greater than those of volcanic Japan,
while less rich than those of the adjoining region of Manchuria.
As in China, gold-washing is carried on in the beds of the
rivers throughout a large extent of the country, while coal and
iron are mined on a small scale in many districts ; but, as the
Corean officials are in accord with Chinese officials in their
opposition to mining enterprise, until quite recently all mining
was carried on surreptitiously and mainly by poor coolies
under which lie buried the ears of the victims of the Corean war, brought to
be laid at the feet of Hideyoshi as evidence of his generals' success.
WHILOM DEPENDENCIES: PART II 257
without capital. The country has still to be carefully surveyed.
So far only two foreign companies appear to have succeeded
in obtaining concessions of value from the Corean Government ;
of these, one is doing exceedingly well, working a quartz reef
in the Phyenyang district by up-to-date American methods
and turning out gold in annually increasing quantity : their
success should prove an encouragement to wider exploration.
CHAPTER XVI
THE BUFFER KINGDOM : SIAM
Siam, the last of the continental countries on our list, whose
frontier until recently marched with that of China, and whose
people are one in which the Mongol type of the inhabitants
of the countries hitherto described fades off into that of the
Hindu-Malayan races to its west and south, forms the outermost
extension of the wide region abutting on the China Sea and
that has Chinese civilization as its base, in contradistinction
to the races of Aryan or Iranian type that people the western
half of the Eurasian continent, in which civilization developed
simultaneously but independently from the early Graeco-
Phenician inhabitants of the shores of the Mediterranean.
The contrast in mental type and consequent modes in which
the phenomena of mind and matter are regarded by the
Mongol * and the Aryan, is as marked as is that of their
physical conformation ; the typical distinctive feature of which,
in the Mongol, is the bridgeless nose with wide flattened
nostrils, the prominent cheekbones and retreating forehead,
contrasting with the aquiline nose and dome-shaped forehead of
the Aryan. Holding this main distinction in view, the Malays,
like the Japanese, must be classed with the Mongol division of
humanity, to which, likewise, the Shans and Siamese undoubtedly
belong, although a certain admixture of Aryan and Hindu blood
is apparent among them, which may account for their greater
receptivity of western ideas and less subservience to that
1 We have used this term throughout for want of a better— not in its literal
sense, but as descriptive of the typical features of the Eastern Asiatic, from
the Esquimaux in the north to the Malay in the south (as well as of the
North-American ' Indians'). To speak correctly, we should call it the Chinese
type. The Chinese are the oldest living homogeneous people and a pure race
with characteristics entirely their own, the admixture of Aryan stock (sup-
posed to have been brought by the Chows somewhere in the second mil-
lennium B.C.) having been sufficient to introduce their culture and colour the
language, but insufficient to affect the physical and mental idiosyncrasy of
the aboriginal Chinese inhabitants.
THE BUFFER KINGDOM: SIAM 259
Chinese philosophical teaching, which has been at once the
glory and the bane of the neighbouring nations. We have
seen in the case of Corea how a naturally capable race holding
an exaggerated reverence for their Chinese teachers has, like
China, lapsed into a condition of self-satisfaction and con-
sequently arrested progress without, at the same time, having
acquired Chinese devotion to work, which seems to be an
hereditary instinct in that remarkable people. To the mingling
of blood, due to the accident that the original Shan tribes from
the north, when they quitted China and gradually descended
the valley of the Menam, came in contact with Hindu and
Malayan immigrants from the west and south — these latter
themselves having further a strain of negritic blood in their
veins — may be attributed the fact that the Siamese have
escaped the stagnation into which the Far East generally
has sunk. The Siamese of to-day, as represented by their
ruling dynasty, notwithstanding the Buddhist education of the
people still prevailing and their devotion to its soporific
teaching, show an adaptivity to Western ideas which the many
Europeans who have made their home in the country, and so
are justified in forecasting its future, hope and expect may
enable the Siamese to preserve their independence ; their
progress in orderly administration — assisted by a wise employ-
ment of competent European advisers — while hardly rivalling
that of their Japanese compeers, with whom, both in appear-
ance and mental characteristics, they show considerable affinity,
is leading them to follow in the path hewn out by Japan,
although necessarily at a considerable distance.
We have named Siam the 'Buffer Kingdom,' inasmuch as
by the Treaty of 1896, whereby all Siamese territory east of
the Mekong river was ceded to France, the independence of the
Menam valley being at the same time placed under the joint
guarantee of France and England, Siam became a treaty-
defended buffer state between British and French territory in
the Indo-Chinese peninsula. Thus the kingdom of Siam now
separates British Burma from French Indo-China, in all but
a narrow district in the north where the possessions of either
country abut on the Mekong, the line of that river forming the
boundary. The tacit acquiescence of the British Government
s J
26o THE FAR EAST
in the occupation by the French of the eastern half of the
original Shan states, Kiang-hung and Kiang-keng — which, as
dependencies of Burma, reverted of right to Great Britain
upon her annexation of Upper Burma in 1885, — resulted in the
frontiers of the two empires being brought together for a
distance of nearly one hundred miles in a north and south line ;
the above-mentioned, now annexed, Shan states intervening
between Siam and the Chinese province of Yunnan. The Shan
state of Kiang-tung (meaning, East of the River) lies east of the
Salwin and between that river and the Mekong; it was
originally conquered by the Burmese from Siam and now
belongs to Britain. East of the Mekong again, is the Siamese
Shan state of Luang-prabang, now annexed by France ; thus
the Siamese are now cut off entirely from their ancestral Shan
dominions and are totally separated from China. The Laos
territory south of Luang-prabang, on the east bank of the
Mekong down to the Cambodian frontier, has likewise been
ceded by Siam to France. French cartographers go still
farther and mark off in their maps the whole of Eastern Siam
lying to the west of the Mekong, outside of the actual Menam
valley — more than half the still remaining area of the country —
as French or in the French sphere ; whereby the Siam of to-day
is restricted to the valley which debouches at Bangkok, and to
her strip of settlements, known as Lower Siam, in the little-
visited northern part of the Malay peninsula. Excluding these
latter, as also the Korat plateau as being in the French sphere,
all which, as now exploited, possess little economical value, we
find that Siam proper, i. e. the valley of the Menam and its
affluents, contains only an area of about 96,000 square miles —
little more than that of the one island of Great Britain ; but
this limited area is the richest and most valuable of its size in
the whole Indo-China peninsula. The region of the Menam
comprises a gentle slope extending north and south a distance
of about 640 miles, by 150 in width — from Kieng-hai on the
Burmese frontier to Chantabun (at present occupied, but
under promise of restoration, by the French) on the gulf of
Siam in the south. To make the distinction clear, we would
define the Menam valley as Inner Siam, and the outlying
portions of undeveloped country still marked Siamese in our
THE BUFFER KINGDOM: SIAM %6\
British maps, as Outer Siam. Outer Siam will then consist of
(i) the French sphere so called west of the Mekong, 100,000
square miles ; and (2) the southern extension into the Malay
peninsula — the British sphere so called, 50,000 square miles —
bringing up the area of all Siam to a total of 246,000 square
miles. This vast territory, greater by 40,000 square miles
than the areas of France or Germany, is credited with a scanty
population of some 5,000,000 only, thus distributed : — Siamese
proper, 1,700,000; Chinese, 700,000; Malays, 600,000; the
balance of 2,000,000 being composed of Laotians with immi-
grants from Burma, India and Cambodia; also 1,000 Euro-
peans, of whom about one- third are British. We thus see
that, although the capital, Bangkok, contains half a million
inhabitants, and the cultivated rice delta, in the midst of which
that city stands, is densely populated, the bulk of the country
is still unreclaimed jungle. Owing to the difficulty of clearing
this jungle, — the deadly malaria that attacks the pioneers who
attempt to clear it, the unheal thiness of the tropical swamps, and
the enervating tropical heat, — the huge Indo-China peninsula
remains still, throughout the greater part of its area, the undis-
turbed haunt of wild elephants and the other usual denizens
of the jungle, man having only really occupied the deltas of
the great rivers, starting from which, the pressure of popula-
tion in these limited areas (compare like conditions in the
Tongking deltas) is slowly forcing the descendants of the
original pioneers back into the jungle which their ancestors
from China traversed to reach these deltas. For the reasons
above given, this retrograde advance proceeds slowly, the
energetic Chinese immigrants doing the bulk of the work.
These arrive from the salubrious, cleared, hill}' country of China
proper, bringing their energy and fine physique into play to
develop these Indo-Chinese countries commercially and agri-
culturally, until they too, as the result of intermarriage and
the enervating climate, subside after a few generations into
native conditions; not, however, without having infused much
of their native vigour into the population, as is notably the
case in Tongking — the part of Indo-China most easily accessible
from the Chinese frontier. The whole of China proper has.
as we have seen, been thoroughly reclaimed and the popula-
262 THE FAR EAST
tion has nearly doubled during the last century ; hence
China suffers from over-population, the natural outlet for
which is in the surrounding uncleared countries. And we see
the Chinese do emigrate freely into the Indo-China peninsula,
and the only sure means of further developing the country is
in facilitating this immigration. The small fraction of the
peninsula that lies under British supervision — the Federated
Malay States, — with a total area of 26,000 square miles, con-
tains, in a gross population of 600,000, 303,000 Chinese, and is
being rapidly developed accordingly. Siam contains 700.000
Chinese, but French Indo-China, with an area of 256,000
square miles, has only 133,000, and these mostly traders and
artisans. Chinese immigration is discouraged by the French,
who seem to fear Chinese competition and so place arbitrary
restrictions upon Chinese labour, badly as the country needs
it. In French Indo-China, as in Siam, we find, outside the
rice deltas, neither population nor agriculture ; seven-eighths
of the huge area is virgin forest and swamp, waiting for the
hand of man to bring it into cultivation.
That the ancestors of the present Siamese people came from
China is shown by the prevalent Mongol type ; the fact that
they descended gradually from the Yunnan plateau, making
their way by the Menam river — the only available road through
the dense tropical jungle, — may be traced in the successive
establishment and subsequent abandonment of their capital
places as they advanced seawards. They thus occupied suc-
cessively Sawankalok, at the foot of the hilly Laos country
and 300 miles distant from Bangkok ; Pitsunalok, 50 miles
lower down at the foot of the mountain of that name ; then
Ayuthia, 40 miles above Bangkok, in 1350, and finally
Bangkok itself in 1769. The Siamese have no elaborate
written annals, such as the Chinese possess of the past twenty-
five centuries of their history, and so few dates are obtainable
previous to European acquaintance with the country early in
the sixteenth century. All we know for certain is, that the
Siamese established their capital in Ayuthia in a.d. 1350, from
which date trustworthy Siamese history may be first said to
commence. Mr. Warington Smyth, in his delightful book,
Five Years in Siam (Murray, 1898), tells us that tradition
THE BUFFER KINGDOM: SIAM 263
makes Lopburi, now over 100 miles inland, a seaport, where
the tide reached as late as the ninth century, while at the
present day it does not flow beyond Ayuthia. ' The depth of
the marine sands formed below the thick covering of river
deposit shows that the sea occupied the site of Bangkok at no
distant geological period.' So fast is the delta developing sea-
ward that Professor Keane ventures to prophesy that the time
is approaching when the narrow inlet of the gulf of Siam will
be entirely filled in and men will walk dry-shod from Tenas-
serim to Chantabun. Though the time in question must be
taken as geological time, still the fact is undoubted, that the
ancestors of the Siamese remained for a long period in the
uplands of the Menam valley, before the river silt had
sufficiently raised the swamps of the delta to admit of their
clearing and conversion into agricultural land. The consequent
metamorphosis of a hill people cultivating dry crops and
addicted to the chase, into a race of swamp-dwellers toiling in
paddy-fields under a tropical sun, may well account for the
degeneration of the Siamese ; from being in ancient times an
active, martial people who fought the Burmese with success,
and wrested Southern Siam from the once powerful kingdom
of Cambodia, the Siamese of to-day are one of the most
indolent and least energetic of any of the civilized tropical
peoples. They are content to let the Chinese immigrants do all
the hard work in the cities, and even to supplant them in the
agricultural development of the country, while work in the
mines is carried on by immigrants from Burma and the La< >s
uplands. Rice is so cheap and plentiful under an unfailing
system of natural irrigation, the nutritious banana can be had
for the plucking, while the climate necessitates a minimum of
outlay for clothing and shelter, that, for a people with no
artificial wants, real exertion is uncalled for. They lack the
ambition of the Chinese to better their condition, and thus
the inertia of the masses, coupled with the general corruption
and venality of the officials, would long ere this have rendered
the Siamese people an unresisting prey to their powerful
neighbours but for the growing enlightenment of the ruling
dynasty and the reliance of these upon outside support.
The whole of Indo-China may be regarded geographically as
264 THE FAR EAST
one country, shut off from the rest of the continent by rough
mountain barriers, and possessing marked physical features of
its own ; of this country Siam forms the heart, lying between
Annam on the east and Lower Burma on the west. Burma,
Siam, Cochin-China, Annam, and Tongking form together
a second peninsular extension from the Tibetan plateau
parallel with the Hindustan peninsula farther west, and of
about the same area ; the area of British India, exclusive of
Burma, being 1,500,000 square miles, while the actual penin-
sular portion, viz. that lying south of the tropic of Cancer,
occupies more or less one-half of this area — say, 750,000
square miles. On the other hand, the Indo-Chinese peninsula,
of which Siam forms the centre, occupies an area of just
734,000 square miles. Of the peripheral lands dependent from
the central Asian nexus of the Pamir and the high Tibetan
plateau, Hindustan, Indo-China, with China itself, all slope
to the sea-level in the south and east ; in the case of India by
an abrupt descent from the Himalayan wall to the valleys of
the Indus and the Ganges ; in the case of China and Indo-
China by a series of steps, providing intervening tropical and
sub-tropical plateaux, ranging from the high, cold, barren,
central table-land down to the hot tropical deltas formed by
the alluvium derived from the table-land itself. Hence these
rivers, by means of whose extension from the table-land south-
wards, the alluvial plains of Siam, of Cambodia, of Tongking,
as well as of Canton and of Shanghai, have been created, are
all in their upper courses obstructed by formidable rapids and
yield no easily navigable highways outside the limits of their
respective deltas. This is especially noticeable in the larger
rivers of the Indo-Chinese peninsula ; the Mekong in Cochin-
China and the Red River in Tongking have disappointed the
expectations originally formed of them as practicable roads to
the country behind their deltas, the steep slope of their beds
rendering their courses a succession of falls and rapids until
the lowlands are reached at comparatively short distances
from their mouths. On the other hand, the Menam, the river
of Siam, is more fortunately situated, and, although the
country it serves will bear little comparison in value with
the highly-developed provinces of China proper — served by
THE BUFFER KINGDOM : SIAM 265
the Pearl River of Canton and by the mighty Yangtse in the
north, — still, in proportion to its size and in relation to the
country it drains, it compares not unfavourably with these
great arteries of commerce and, in this respect, is greatly
superior to its sister rivers in Indo-China. The Menam, to
Siam, the 'Mother of waters,' together with its tributary the
Meping, has its source in the ' Shan ' uplands — the first down-
ward step from the Yunnan plateau (itself an extension of the
Tibetan) — and descends thence into the lowlands of Central
Siam, which continue to be raised and fertilized by means of
its annual overflow. At the same time it furnishes throughout
the year an unhindered highway from Chieng-mai to Bangkok,
a distance of over 400 miles. Siam thus possesses in its great
river, with its affluents, a means of communication from its
northern to its southern frontier by which up-country produce
is cheaply conveyed to the maritime port of Bangkok from
every part of the rich Menam valley; and so the country
hardly feels the lack of good land roads, such as the rulers of
Siam in company with those of the neighbouring states, and of
the Far East generally, have never cared to construct. The
Menam is the one large Indo-Chinese river whose course lies
entirely within the limits of the peninsula. Its source is in
the extreme north, on the borders of the Shan state of Kiang-
tung, now a dependency ^of British Burma, near the Siamese
town of Kienghai, having on the one side the valley of the
Mekong and that of the Salwin on the other; low ranges on
either hand shutting off its valley from the basins of its larger
neighbours. The Menam reaches the gulf of Siam through
three channels; of these, the easternmost, on the banks of
which Bangkok is built, has the greatest value to commerce,
although its mouth is obstructed by a bar giving a depth of
12 feet at high and of 4 feet only at low water. Hence Large
sea-going vessels with cargoes for Bangkok, distant 38 miles
from the mouth, must discharge in the open roadstead— a
roadstead, however, which offers a fairly well -sheltered
anchorage, owing to the configuration of the bay into which
the river discharges. This bay is a bight 60 miles square,
which forms the head of the Siam Gulf; and it is notable that
this gulf (measuring 500 x 250 miles) is, unlike its neighbours,
266 THE FAR EAST
the Bay of Bengal and the China Sea, never visited by
typhoons or other heavy gales. Throughout the greater part
of its course the Menam is fringed with forest trees, behind
which the low-lying rice- and sugar-fields are regularly flooded
during the summer inundations, by means of which fresh
fertility is added to the soil and the land is slowly raised
from the condition of the mangrove-swamp in which the
reclamation from the sea of these tropical deltas originates, —
in short, the Menam is to Siam what the Nile is to Egypt.
Enthusiasts, mostly French, bent upon 'tapping' the supposed
wealth of Western China by way of Indo-China, seeing the
failure of the once-belauded routes by way of the Mekong in
the south or by the Red River in the east, have now turned
their attention to the valley of the Menam ; and certainly,
if an outlet from Yunnan southwards be ever opened up
and a trade route through Indo-China to the southern seas
established, then Siam by means of its great river affords
the most promising route to the supposed El Dorado.
When this short cut has been made and the isthmus of Kra
pierced, Bangkok may equal Singapore and surpass Rangoon
in commercial importance, and it is the prescience of this
future that leads Siam's French neighbours to aspire to her
possession. Siam, herself, needs the development of the land
she has and the spreading of the congested population of
the delta around Bangkok over the sparsely-peopled jungle-
covered country of which three-fourths of the kingdom still
consists, rather than the making of a new through route
across her territory. We have seen that the population is
largely Chinese; these energetic immigrants do the bulk of the
trade, work the valuable concessions, such as the opium and
gambling ' farms ' from which the Siamese Court derives the
chief of its revenue, while the demoralized Siamese population
live only from hand to mouth, notwithstanding the great
natural wealth of their country. It is due, however, to the
present enlightened ruler to state that, since his visit to
Europe, many improvements have been introduced into the
administration ; competent European counsellors are more
heeded than of yore ; while steps are being taken gradually to
abolish the opium and gambling 'farms,' the sums furnished
THE BUFFER KINGDOM: SIAM 267
by these being replaced by other more legitimate sources of
revenue. Canals are being dug, railways are being built, new
land is being fast reclaimed ; the people are being trained to
work, and most resident Europeans regard the future of the
kingdom as assured, provided the Siamese are left in peace to
carry out the reforms so auspiciously begun.
We have seen that the Siam of to-day is little more than the
one valley of the Menam. This valley is limited on the west
by the mountains that bound the British province of Tenas-
serim and the valley of the Salwin in the north ; the eastern
boundary of the valley-plain is formed by the foothills of the
Korat plateau and the Laos country which drains to the Mekong
in the east. But even of this valley a large portion still awaits
development by man ; the great alluvial plain to the north-east
of Bangkok is to-day ' a lonesome waste of swamps and grass '
extending from the banks of the Menam to the head-waters of
the Bangpa-kong, which flows past the town of Petriu and dis-
charges into the bight of Bangkok some thirty miles only to
the east of the mouth of the Menam. Petriu is connected with
Bangkok by one of the cross canals, or ' klong,' which traverse
the lower delta of the Menam from east to west and also
connect Bangkok with Ratburi, situated on the Meklong, a river
which comes down from the north and drains the eastern flanks
of the long Tenasserim range and discharges into the sea at
the upper western corner of the Bangkok bight. To the north
of the Petriu cross 'klong' lies the alluvial swamp above-
mentioned. A concession has now been given to a British
company to drain this swamp and render it fit for settlement ;
canals are being dug and the land is being raised and drained,
but the company has to struggle with the official obstruction
commonly met with under Asiatic governments, and its title
to the reclaimed lands is still a subject of arbitration. Pro-
ceeding farther north-east, a distance of some ninety miles, and
following up the valley of the Nam-sak, the easternmost affluent
of the Menam, we reach the Korat plateau, which lies at a level
of about 600 feet above the sea and is cut off from the rest
of the world by the forest of Dawng Praya Yen,— a Siamese
Terai, — a dense jungle, impassable in the rainy season, but
through which a trail leads, practicable in winter, by which
368 THE FAR EAST
goods are conveyed to Korat by elephants and ox-waggons
from Saraburi at a cost of £10 per ton. Saraburi stands on the
left bank of the Nam-sak, by which there is direct water com-
munication with Bangkok, 90 miles below. A railway is now
in course of construction between Bangkok and Korat, traversing
the Dawng Praya Yen ; this dreaded obstruction has fully
maintained its evil reputation ; during the first five years
occupied in clearing the forest and constructing the road-bed,
the lives of no fewer than 5,000 coolies and 36 European
superintendents were sacrificed ; — such is the price demanded
by the ' Nat ' or genii loci, for invading their precincts and
for opening up new work in tropical deltas. The plateau of
Korat itself, when reached, is by no means a promising country ;
in the rainy season many parts are flooded to a depth of
several feet, while in the dry season the dust is all-pervading.
The town of Korat is situated upon the head-waters of the
Se-mun river, which flows 200 miles to the eastwards and falls
into the Mekong after passing the Laos town of Ubon. All
these mellifluous sounding so-called towns prove to the traveller
to be little more than collections of Attap hovels — clearances
in the jungle supporting a few thousand inhabitants ; — the
Mekong again forms a hardly passable barrier to the plateau in
this direction.
The Menam, after rising in the extreme north of Siam, in
the heart of the Chieng-mai plateau, flows through an unbroken
plain from Paknam-po downwards, up to which point, 105
feet above sea-level, large boats ascend from Bangkok, a
distance of 150 miles, at all seasons, without difficulty.
Paknam-po is situated at the junction of the two rivers Nampo
and Meping, which here unite to form the Menam, both having
their sources in the Shan country above. Beyond Paknam we
enter the broken country and the great teak forests which, after
rice, form the main source of Siam's wealth. At Paknam the
up-country navigation proper may be said to commence.
Here, Mr. Smyth tells us, ' the character of the two rivers is
quite distinct.' The Meping from the west rushes down in
a shallow torrent over its sandy bed, while the Nampo comes
gliding gently through its deep narrow channel, past the groups
of sharp-gabled floating houses that cluster along its banks,
THE BUFFER KINGDOM: SIAM 269
bringing the evergreen floating weed which one meets in
quantities below. The Meping is sudden and capricious in its
movements, and in the flood season it rises and falls irregularly,
changing its level to an extent of 4, 6, or 8 feet in compara-
tively few hours. These rises and falls, which occur sometimes
as often as three or four times in the season, make the raft
work uncertain and even exciting. The Nampo, on the other
hand, is constant and reliable ; during and after the rains its
rise is sure and regular, until high water is reached in October
and November, and then the fall begins inch by inch, and
gradually foot by foot it sinks to its bed again. Thus, whereas
floating houses avoid the capricious stream of the Meping, the
Nampo is for half a mile the main street of the town, and the
rice-boats and the shops and houses lie thick along the banks,
moored to the great teak mooring-posts, which by their height
attest to the amount of the yearly rise of the river.
The secret of the river lies in the great overflow swamps and
backwaters about Pichit (60 miles higher up and 130 feet above
sea-level), which act as safety-valves to it, as the Talc-sap on
a larger scale does to the Mekong in Cambodia ; and as do the
great backwater lakes of the Lower Yangtse. With the
rise of the floods these backwaters become vast inundated
lakes, holding large bodies of water in reserve, and, as the level
falls in the river later on, they slowly part with their store of
water. Thus considerately does nature work to make the great
yearly inundation of the Lower Menam plain gentle and bene-
ficial, and to tame the angry water spirits into blessing instead
of cursing. Old Turpin aptly says {Histoire de Siam): "The
Menam is to Siam what the Nile is to Egypt,' and on its yearly
rise and fall depends the life of the people.
The Nampo may thus be regarded as the main river, and in
most maps it is marked simply as the Menam. From Pitsunal >k ,
one of the old capitals, situated 100 miles above Paknam, the
fall in the river bed to the point of its junction with the Meping
is under 50 feet, and, by the left fork of the Nampo which
flows past Sachanolai, another of the early capitals, we ascend
a farther 100 miles, almost up to the borders of the mountainous
Shan country, where the bed is still only 200 feet above sea-
level. On the other hand, on the Meping, the town of Raheng,
270 THE FAR EAST
in the same latitude as Pitsunalok, stands 421 feet above the
sea ; and Keng-pakwang, in the latitude of Sachanolai, at 600
feet. Above this point the river bed rises rapidly to Chieng-mai,
another 100 miles north, which stands at an elevation of 900
feet above the sea ; hence we are not surprised to learn that
between Raheng and Chieng-mai thirty rapids have to be
negotiated, and the water traffic is confined to small craft and
to the summer or rainy season. Chieng-mai is the northern
capital and the second largest town in the kingdom, its popula-
tion being estimated at 60,000 souls. Chieng-mai is noteworthy
as being on the main road from the British port of Moulmein
to South China, and, owing to the uncertainty of its water com-
munication with Bangkok, its trade is mainly with Moulmein.
Its inhabitants are largely Shan, who, their elevation affording
them a more bracing climate, display far more energy than do
the pure Siamese. Mr. Campbell (Siam in the Twentieth Century)
states that the roads around Chieng-mai are more developed
than are those round Bangkok itself, and that there are over
400 bicycles in the place. When the railway uniting Chieng-mai
with Bangkok is built, the former, which is now the centre of
a great teak and cattle trade, bids fair to rival Bangkok, while
its trade will then probably be diverted from Burma to the
Siamese capital, its natural outlet.
The great teak forests of Siam abound chiefly in the hill
country surrounding the upper sources of the Menam, and
descend into the plain as far south as latitude i3°5o', while in
the far less accessible Mekong valley they only reach the lati-
tude of 170 50'. The logs are floated down the Menam, and four
years elapse from the time they are cut to the time they are
ready for shipment in Bangkok ; hence a large capital is invested
in the business, estimated at about ;£i, 000,000 sterling, with a
resultant export of from 40,000 to 60,000 tons of an annual value
of ,£200,000 to ^260,000. The Siamese Government has recently
imported forestry officials from Burma, with the result that
stringent regulations are now enforced with the view of arresting
the reckless destruction of the forests, and whereby the trade
is being thrown into the hands of large capitalists, of whom
the Borneo Company and the Bombay Burma Corporation are
the most important.
THE BUFFER KINGDOM: SIAM 271
To the east of Chieng-mai lies the plain of Chieng-kong, in
the angle of the Mekong river where this runs east before
again turning south — a plateau of 2,000 feet elevation. Across
the Mekong, along its right bank, lies the higher plateau of
Chieng-kwang, now French territory, with an elevation of
5,000 feet, with peaks rising to 7,000 feet and over. The
Chieng-kwang plain is destitute of teak, the original forest
having been partially cleared by its Laos inhabitants ; in places
where these clearings have been abandoned, grass springs up,
in the dry season fires occur, the saplings of young trees,
nature-sown, which have sprung up in place of the old forest,
are destroyed, and eventually nothing but the long grass and
bamboo survive the constant fires. In this way prairie land
is formed on the site of the forests, which probably once
covered the whole continent with the exception of the sand-
wastes, and these are thus lost without recovery until the
hand of man, by artificial planting, once more restores portions
of the prairie to a semblance of their ancient condition ; for
the deep loam due to the annually decaying grasses of the
prairie land is eminently suitable to forest growth, once man
steps in to mitigate or abolish the fatal prairie fires. It is in
the Chieng-kong district that occur the gem mines which seem
to have acquired a reputation far exceeding their deserts.
Mr. Warington Smyth, formerly Director of the Department
of Mines in Siam, who was sent to report upon the sapphire-
bearing ground in the early nineties, says : ' The crystals occur
in the stream beds on the left bank of the river opposite Chieng-
kwang, and the Shans had prospected with their usual patience
for some years, and at length were rewarded by the discoverv
of a very fair sapphire-bearing gravel at a depth of from
12 to 20 feet, varying with the surface irregularities of the
Hue or stream beds in which it lies. It is from 5 to 18 inches
thick, and consists of a water-rolled gravel, with a large
number of angular fragments of a particularly beautiful
basalt, which sometimes decomposed into a soft bluish or (in
some places) reddish clay, seems to be the origin of the gravel
here, as in the other gem-bearing districts of Siam. The long,
flat-topped hill, in which all the gem-bearing streams have
their rise, seems to consist entirely of this rock, and it forms
272 THE FAR EAST
the bed-rock under the gravel. . . . The basalts of the hills —
the decomposition of which has produced the clay which is
the base of the gravel, and which we found in all stages of
decomposition, from hard, sharp-edged fragments to soft,
yielding clay — was, I concluded, the matrix in which the
sapphires were originally formed. And from subsequent
observations in the Chantabun neighbourhood, I see, at
present, no other possible hypothesis.' After proceeding to
the banks of the Mekong, Mr. Smyth adds, ' At the Chieng-
sen boundary, we found what appeared to be regular granites,
with gradations into gneissose and schistose masses, and
into syenite and mica syenite. Coming down river to Hue-
nam-ngau, we came on mica and shorl schists. . . . Below
this are large rounded masses, of basaltic character, followed
by a series of altered basalts standing up jagged and sharp
from the water, arid cutting the feet and hands like knives.
Situated in the same angle of the Mekong, is found a series
of volcanic vents, each about 200 yards long by 80 yards wide,
and rising about 200 feet above the plain. ' Smoke and free
sulphuric acid rise in small quantities, the ground is very hot,
and a couple of feet down the cracks are at a red heat, and
a bamboo thrust in will take light.' The action seems local,
and does not appear to have largely influenced the geology
of the neighbourhood. What follows emphasizes the similarity
in the physiography of the Mekong and Yangtse rivers, and
might well pass as a description of the great Wushan gorge of
the latter, though the courses of the two rivers lie at right
angles to each other, and lead through widely separated
regions of country : ' The magnificent scenery of the river
between Chieng-kong and Luang-prabang seems to be largely
due to the dislocations of the schists, which have been subject
to powerful pressures, and, in places, present remarkable
contortions. Specimens from these rocks are chiefly silicates
of magnesia and iron, with sometimes alumina and iron. . . .
The worst rapids always occur in the neighbourhood of these
rocks, both in the Mekong and the Nam-u. Farther east,
mica schists predominate. The high peaks, towering 5,000 feet
above the river, which give it such a sombre appearance, are
generally of the very extensive limestone series. They present
THE BUFFER KINGDOM: SIAM 273
tremendous precipices on some of their sides, and their outlines
are particularly bold. Seen against some of the lurid evening
skies which accompanied the first heavy thunderstorms of the
season, while the crashes pealed and echoed off the cliffs of
the narrow valley, they completed a scene which convinced
me the people had certainly every reason to believe in spirits '
(compare the Witches' Gorge on the Yangtse!). Some miles
above Luang - prabang the large and important tributaries
of the Nam-u and Nam-suang enter the Mekong, whose
volume at that town is about a third greater than at Chieng-
kong, where Mr. McCarthy found it to discharge about 42,000
cubic feet per second in low- water season. The clear trans-
parent water of these tributary rivers forms a strong contrast
to the brown, sediment-laden water of the Mekong ; as do the
like tributaries of the Yangtse flowing through the high lime-
stone mountains that divide the Chinese province of Hupeh
from that of Szechuan.
'A glance at the map shows the geographical advantage
which the gulf of Siam has over the Mekong as an outlet for
the trade of Indo-China. To attain the latitude of Ayuthia,
60 miles from the sea, by the Mekong route, a boat-journey of
nearly 400 miles and a transhipment of goods over the great
Khong barrier must be accomplished. Utaradit, which is not
20 miles from the parallel of Chieng-kan, is only 250 miles
beyond Ayuthia, and can be reached in three weeks without
transhipment. On the other hand, Chieng-kan is 500 miles
from Khong, and separated by 90 miles of rapids. The
splendid elevated plateau of Tung Chieng-kum and Chieng-
kwang is the only portion of the new possessions of France
which does not naturally communicate with Bangkok.'
West of the Menam valley, and between it and the British
province of Tenasserim, lies the province of Rachaburi.
This province is formed out of the valley of the Meklong
which drains the eastern flanks of the dividing Tenasserim
range, and flows from due north, parallel with the Menam,
into the sea past the town of Ratburi, the capital of the
province, situated 20 miles from its mouth. Ratburi is
reached from Bangkok by one of the cross ' klong ' uniting
the two rivers — canals built in the palmy days of the kingdom,
I \K I AM
274 THE FAR EAST
but which are now in a sadly neglected condition, the through
traffic having often to wait for spring tides before the shallow
canal-boats can make their way through them. As fed from
the streams of the axial range, which is built up of granites,
conglomerates and sandstones ' which have become distorted
and metamorphosed in magnificent confusion along its flanks,'
the Meklong presents itself as a clear river running over a
sandy bottom. The steep incline of its bed interferes with
the navigability of the river, which flows through a well-
populated country, rich in rice-fields and fruit-plantations.
' The valleys of the Meklong basin are inhabited largely by
the Mons, who are a fine agricultural people, the remains
of the old Peguan Empire, cultivating their paddy, Indian
corn, and fruit gardens along the banks of the rivers, and
preserving their language and customs in the monasteries.
Teak grows on the hill lines as far down as latitude 13' 50',
the most southerly point it is known to reach in Indo-China.
But it has never been worked, owing chiefly to the smallness
of the streams, which in the hot season are a collection of dry
sand-banks and occasional buffalo wallows, and in the rains
are mere rushing torrents.' Mr. Smyth adds : ' What struck
me most in the great plain was the vast amount of rich open
country undrained, and unclaimed except by the buffalo and
the heron. ... All over the Lower Menam delta the same thing
is observable.'
Tin is mined in Ratburi, as in the long Malay peninsula to
the south. 'The mines are situated on a series of alluvial
valley-bottoms, draining eastwards from the granites of the
main axial range. The tin-bearing gravel rests on a bed of
clay slate which, in places, is much altered on approaching the
junction with the granite. It contains enormous granite
boulders, the constituent minerals of which may be seen in
every variety of combination and every stage of decom-
position. The overburden seldom exceeds 5 feet in depth, and
the blue Karang (tin-bearing stratum) averages from 4 to 8
feet.' South of Ratburi extends the chain of states occupying
the upper portion of the Malay peninsula from latitude 120
down to latitude 4°, from which point south to Singapore the
remaining Malay states are under British protection. The
THE BUFFER KINGDOM: SIAM
-,.>
coast facing the gulf of Siam 'may be described as a suc-
cession of vast sweeping bays, separated from one another by
bold, lofty promontories of limestone, whose ragged outlines
stand far out into the gulf, detached and quite distinct from the
main-range hills of the peninsula. . . . The shortness of the courses
of the streams does not favour
the deposition of rich soil,
and, though the average rain-
fall is not as large as in most
parts of Siam, the floods are
sudden and violent, and the
narrow strip of country be-
tween the mountains and the
sea offers no facilities for the
formation of rich, deltaic
deposits. . . . The mineral
produce of this part of the
east coast has never been
great ; alluvial tin is known
at Bangtaphan and up the
Champawn river, near the
junction of the central gran-
ites and the flanking Cam-
brian rocks, but so far it has
never been worked commer-
cially, as has been done in
Ratburi to the north and
Langsuan to the south. Gold
is found, as throughout Indo-
china, in alluvial sands, just
sufficient in quantity (as in
China) to reward the easy-
going native. ... Of the large
outcrops of gold-bearing quartz reported by the "Gold-fields of
Siam " Company, which was to have worked Bangtaphan as the
biggest thing ever discovered, practically nothing is known,
after an expenditure of a capital of £150,000.'
On the west coast, facing the Bay of Bengal. Chinese immi-
grants have mined tin for many decades and arc still doing
T 2
Fig.
33.— South-west Siam and the
Isthmus of Kra.
27 6 THE FAR EAST
so to advantage. Of the island of Puket, or 'Junk-Ceylon,'
Mr. Smyth writes : ' The whole island is a gigantic tin-mine.
The granite of the hills is full of tin, the soil of the valleys is
heavy with it. There is tin under the inland forests, and tin
beneath the sea. In search of tin the indefatigable Chinamen
have transformed the scenery. The valleys have been turned
inside out, the hills have been cut away, the sea has been
undermined, and the harbour has disappeared.' In the year
1894 the island produced 2,500 tons, but of late years, owing
to the incompetence of the Government officials, neglect to
maintain roads and water -claims or to keep the harbour
open, the production is fast diminishing. The royalty pay-
able to the Siamese Government is one slab of tin out of
every six smelted. The hill-workings 'lie along the thickly-
jungled granite hills which form the backbone of the island,
and are a prolongation of the coast-range running south
through Takuapa and Takuatung. The granite, when it comes
in contact with the overlying sandstone series, becomes stanni-
ferous, and the tin is scattered through its mass in small, black
crystals as one of its essential ingredients. The nearer the
junction the richer the granite, and in some of the deep
cuttings good sections are exposed showing the granite-veins
ramifying through the red, micaceous sandstone above it. . . .
The general characteristic of the granite is its large grain and
loose texture. It decomposes very rapidly on being exposed
to the air. The sandstone referred to is often greatly altered
near the granite ; in places it assumes a schistose appearance,
and becomes highly micaceous, in others it becomes almost
assimilated with the granite. When first cut it is fairly hard,
but a season s exposure transforms it into a clinging clay of
a deep red, which adds greatly to the colouring of the stream-
works, and contrasts gorgeously with the heavy green of the
surrounding forest.'
The limestone islets off the east coast produce a large supply
of the edible birds' nests, the costly luxury of Chinese epicures.
* The range over which these nests are found is extensive.
From the gulf of Tongking to the Andamans, in the gulf of
Siam, among the Mergui Islands (off the Tenasserim coast),
and in the Malay Archipelago, wherever the steep-sided lime-
THE BUFFER KINGDOM: SIAM 277
stone islands stand up from the water's edge, there the little
swift, known as Peale's swiftlet (Collocalia spodiopygia), builds
his shallow cup-like nest against the rock and in the caves.
The silvery appearance of the nest and the absence of all but
the finest threads and attachments make it look like a
beautiful, white gelatine. Converted into soup it is like
a tasteless vermicelli, although pronounced by Chinamen and
Siamese as extraordinarily nutritious and strengthening for
invalids. The collector can only reach them swinging in the
bight of a rope, and he sweeps them down with the aid of
a long bamboo.'
Our account of Siam would not be complete without
mention of the famous ruins of Angkor. These are situated in
the district of Siamrep to the north of Tale-sap = Sweetwater
Lake. The boundary-line between Siam and Cambodia runs
through this great backwater of the Mekong ; the lake runs in
a north-west and south-east direction for a distance of 90
miles, has an average width of 22 miles, and a depth of from
3 to 6 feet ; in the rainy season its length is increased to 120
miles and its depth to 20 feet or more. The ruins have been
frequently described and photographed ; their chief features
are their immense size and great solidity, especially of the
stone-roofing. ' Here this wondrous construction is as sound
to-day as the foundation on which it stands : it is this roofing
which makes Nakawn Wat incomparable.' These ' Wat,' or
monasteries, are supposed to date from the sixth century,
and to have been commenced by Brahmin conquerors from
India, and to have been continued as Buddhist temples after
the conversion of the Cambodians to Buddhism a century
later. This, with the adjoining districts of Battambang and
Chantabun, was conquered by the Siamese from the Cam-
bodians in 1795.
The early Siamese, when somewhere about the beginning of
the Christian era they dwelt in the Upper Laos country, were
known as the ' Thai ' or ' Free ' — a federation of free, self-
governing communities ; they were more particularly distin-
guished as the ' Thai noi,' or Inside Free, in contrast with the
Shan who were known as the 'Thai yai,' or Outside Free
(Chinese, Wai and Nei). In their advance down the Men. 1111
278 THE FAR EAST
valley some hundreds of years later, they would appear to
have split in two the aboriginal inhabitants of the valley, so
giving rise to two nations — the Kmer or Cambodians who were
driven to the east, and the Mon or Peguans who escaped to
the west ; and the little we know of Siamese history is full of
the wars with these two races on their borders. The Siamese
still call themselves ' Thai ' and are proud of the name ; it is
not a common coincidence that the one free, tropical people left
in Asia should bear this name. The Siamese are an educated
people in their way, as are their Laos and Shan neighbours :
nearly all the boys enter a ' Wat ' for education, and remain
there from their eighth to their fifteenth year, rich and poor
alike ; ' The yellow robe of the monk is among the Laos like
the scholar's robe at home; the "Wat" is his college, where
philosophy and letters are taught and studied. The refine-
ment of many of the men is largely due to its influence among
them, when as lads they wore the yellow garment of the pupil.'
The Siamese, both in language and civilization, exhibit their
Chinese origin ; if they have lost the distinctive Chinese
virtues of perseverance and adaptability to hard work, they
are free, on the other hand, from many of the repulsive habits
and from the boorish behaviour to strangers which, up to
quite recent times, distinguished the denizens of the Flowery
Land. Their Chinese and Malay admixture gives the Siamese
a certain physical resemblance to the Japanese, more or less
noticeable in all the peoples of Indo-China, but which scarcely
goes below the surface. This fact, together with their cordial
manners and their liking for Western education and foreign
improvements, has led some of their admirers to style the
Siamese the Japanese of Indo-China ; but they hardly deserve
this distinction ; the damp, enervating climate of the country
renders them indolent and careless, and assuredly it is hopeless
to expect a tropical people to be imbued with the vitality of
a race like the Japanese, favoured with a fine sea-girt
temperate country, free from the curse of malaria and re-
joicing in summer gales and winter snows ; for the glory of the
tropics spells the decadence of man.
JAP AH & XOELEA- OROGRAPHI
o
CHAPTER XVII
THE ISLAND EMPIRE : JAPAN
The Empire of Japan comprises a chain of islands over 2,000
miles in length, which lie like a fringe along the shores of China,
Corea, and Manchuria, and form a breakwater arresting the
rollers of the wide Pacific on its eastern face, and enclosing
between it and the mainland of Asia the land-locked Sea of
Japan in the north and the Tung Hai, or Eastern Sea, that
washes the coast of China in the south. This string of islands,
all acknowledging the sway of the Mikado, number about
4,000, the five principal ranging in area from 13,500 (Formosa)
to 87,500 square miles (Hondo); the rest forming an archipelago
of islets ranging from a fraction of 1 square mile up to an area of
335 square miles (Sado Island). This long chain of picturesque
fragmentary domains, all, with the exception of the northern
Kuriles, richly clothed with sub-tropical vegetation set in the
sapphire frame of a sun-illumined sea, from which they rise
steeply with no unlovely foreshore to detract from their beauty,
form a fitting home for the unique people that dwell in them,
and go far to explain the remarkable qualities that distinguish
the Japanese race, who proudly call themselves the Anglo-Saxons
of the East, — with the home of whom their own home exhibits
a certain analogy of position, although the closeness of the
analogy vanishes upon a near inspection of the two groups of
islands which thus fall into comparison. The British Isles,
separated only by a narrow strait, are far more closely con-
nected with the continent of Europe than are the islands of
Japan with the mainland of Asia. These, it is true, in the
island of Tsushima approach the peninsula of Corea, — across
the Broughton Strait at a distance little greater than that
which separates Dover from Calais: 42 as against 22 miles.
But the distance between the westernmost point of Old Japan
(Nagasaki) and the nearest point of the true mainland
(Shanghai) is 450 miles, over a wide stormy sea, almost
280
THE FAR EAST
impassable by the ill-found coasting craft of old ; and the
actual distance across the Corea Strait from Nagasaki to Fusan,
omitting the stepping-stone of Tsushima, is 150 miles. Hence,
owing to its greater proximity, Chinese civilization filtered
through to Japan across Corea —
itself isolated by its position, and
holding only a spasmodic intercourse
with its powerful suzerain in the
shape of an annual tribute-bearing
embassy that made its slow way
overland, through largely unin-
habited territory, to the Chinese
metropolis. While the British
islands invited access from the Con-
tinent by their navigable rivers and
fertile uplands, the islands of Japan
rose steeply from the sea in forest-
clad mountains, separated by a few
narrow cultivable deltas formed at
the mouths of unnavigable torrents
which, though now controlled by
lofty embankments, still at times
break loose and devastate the sur-
rounding plains. In their total area
of 121,000 square miles, the British
Isles come after Japan with 147,000
(excluding Formosa), but while the
former are practically cultivated
throughout, in Japan barely one-
eighth of the area is cultivated.
With the exception of the small
river deltas, the whole country con-
sists of mountains, amongst which
tillage is confined to narrow valleys
and small hollows and to a few larger elevated valley basins where
a rich soil, mainly of volcanic origin, has collected. Large areas
of this hilly region, outside the volcanic peaks and the chains of
hills belonging to the older schist mountains, are composed
of undulating plateaux of clay and sand, the insoluble products
FlG. 34.— Japan. Oro-
graphical.
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 281
of the disintegration of a much weathered granite rock,
frequently overlaid with diluvial gravel. These support light
woods of pine and coarse innutritious grasses but little or no
pasture land, the succulent herbage of Europe and of North
China and Mongolia in the same latitude being entirely wanting.
The 40,000,000 population of the fertile British islands is
largely dependent upon imported food ; the equally large popu-
lation of Japan, up to the time of the opening of the country
to foreign trade in 1854, were ever dependent on the crops
they could themselves produce ; hence an intensive cultivation
of every available spot of arable land, chiefly with rice, the
staple food of the people and most prolific of cereals, and of
which the hot summer sun and abundant rainfall enabled, in
the south, two crops to be produced in the year ; hence also,
the necessarily extraordinary thrift of the people, a generally
insufficient diet, and probably their small stature. To-day, the
population totals 50,000,000, but the establishment of manu-
factures and a foreign trade increasing by leaps and bounds,
as in Britain, renders possible the import of unlimited food
supplies from abroad, and so more wholesome conditions now
rule. Of subsidiary products of the sub-tropical zone, Japan
yields an endless list, while the wealth and variety of the
Japanese flora is proverbial. From South Cape in Formosa to
the northernmost of the Kuriles, off Cape Lopatka in Kams-
chatka, the Japanese islands reach, in a direction south-west
and north-east, through thirty-one degrees of latitude (21' to
510 N.), and from the Pescadores to the outermost Kurile,
thirty-six degrees of longitude (119° to 136° E.); while the
British Isles, from the Land's End to the Shetlands, cover eleven
degrees of latitude only (50 to 61 N.), and, from Valentia to
Yarmouth, twelve degrees of longitude (io° 50' W. to r° 50' E.).
The relative great compactness and homogeneity of the Briti>Ii
domain is thus strikingly demonstrated. If wo take York in
latitude 54 as the centre of the British system and Yokohama
in latitude 35° as the centre of the Japanese, we find an average
difference of nearly twenty degrees of latitude in favour of the
latter. But while the summers are hotter and moister, the
winters are longer and colder than in the same latitude in
Europe, and although Japan is free from the greater extremes
282 THE FAR EAST
of the ' continental ' climate of the mainland adjoining, yet it
partakes largely of the character of the latter, and a peculiarly
varied flora, as Professor Rein points out, is the result. Yoko-
hama is in the same latitude as Malta, but the period of
development for wheat is in Japan two months longer than in
Malta, 'because there a pause of several months occurs, while
in Malta even the coldest day of io° C. is still warm enough to
stimulate growth.' Sugar, which flourishes as far north as lati-
tude 300 in China (Szechuan), can only be grown in the extreme
south. On the other hand, the Japanese can now obtain an
inexhaustible supply of this staple from their latest acquisition
— Formosa, as they have done formerly from the Liuchius.
The Japanese islands make a long link in the chain of active
and extinct volcanoes that surround the Pacific Ocean, and
the land of which they are formed is mainly volcanic in
character. Japan proper, or Old Japan as it is called by the
Japanese, consists of the three main islands, Hondo1 (main-
land), Kiushiu (nine-lands), and Shikoku (four-lands), together
with the adjoining islets ; to these must be added the northern
island of Yezo, now styled Hokkaido (northern sea route), the
present home of the aboriginal Ainu, and only of recent date
colonized by the Japanese proper. The islands next in im-
portance are Sado, off the north coast, in the Sea of Japan,
famous for its gold and silver mines, and Tsushima, the
stepping-stone from Japan to Corea, noteworthy as the scene
of a fruitless attempt at occupation by the Russians in 1861,
an attempt frustrated by timely British intervention. Then
we have the Goto (five islands), lying off Nagasaki on the
west, and the large island of Amakusa to the south, famous
for the sudden conversion of its inhabitants to Christianity by
orders of the Daimio in 1577, and the revolution in the opposite
direction in the next century, when, by orders of the Shogun
Iemitsu, the whole of the Christian inhabitants, amounting to
some tens of thousands, were ruthlessly exterminated. Farther
to the south of Kiushiu, lying off the Kago-shima Gulf and
separated from it by the Van Diemen Strait, 30 miles wide,
1 The Japanese, in their passion for symmetry, have now renamed Hondo
— Honshiu. We retain the, to our ears, more euphonious name, Hondo,
throughout as being easier to distinguish from other names and easier to
recollect. We have done the same with Yezo, renamed Hokkaido.
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 283
lie the two large islands of Tanega-shima and Yaku-shima — the
former long, low, and highly cultivated ; the latter, ' a circular
maze of lofty mountains, rising to a height of over 6,000 feet
and covered with dense forest, wherein grow some of the fine
cryptomerias of Japan.' Murray's Handbook, from which we
take these details, tells us that Tanega-shima was the first
Japanese dependency on which Mendez Pinto set foot. In
1543, this famous Portuguese adventurer found his way to the
town of Oita, in Northern Kiushiu, on the Inland Sea (now
connected with Shimonoseki by rail), and there met with a
friendly reception from the local Daimio. The great Jesuit
missionary, St. Francis Xavier, also spent some time at Oita,
and Otomo, its lord, was the first Daimio to embrace Chris-
tianity. Still farther south, and in line with these, stretches
the chain of the Liuchiu islands, the westernmost of the group
lying within 50 miles of the Formosan coast. The total area
of the group is only 171 square miles, with a population of
170,000. These islands, formerly independent, but paying
nominal homage and tribute to both their powerful neighbours,
China and Japan, were, in 1876, quietly mediatised by Japan,
and their king carried off to Tokio. The islands now form the
thirty-sixth ken or prefecture of the empire. The smaller
islands to the north are volcanic and rise steeply out of the
sea ; the larger islands are of coral formation, the two chief
being, Oshima (Big Island), with its port of Nase, and Okinawa
(Great Liuchiu), with its port of Nafa ; here ' the constant out-
crop of coral on the surface renders walking very arduous.'
The Liuchiuans subsist almost exclusively on sweet potatoes
and on sago obtained from the pith of the Cycas revoltUa,
a small tree resembling the sago-palm, which grows in immense
quantities.' The Liuchiu race is one with that of Japan, though
the spoken dialect is unintelligible to the Japanese. Still
farther south and to the eastward, lie the Bonin, ' No-man '
or uninhabited islands — in Japanese, Mu-nin-to — 140 miles
distant from the southernmost point of Kiushiu ; these lie in
the direction of the 142nd meridian, from north to south, and
extend from latitude 260 30' to 27' 55' north. These small
islets were originally annexed by Captain Beechy, of H.M.S.
Blossom, in 1827; but in 1861, when the Japanese asserted
284 THE FAR EAST
their claim to the islands, the British Government waived
their rights ; in 1875 the population consisted of sixty men —
Europeans and Kanaks — and two Japanese women. At the
other end of the string, stretching northwards from the large
island of Hokkaido to the peninsula of Kamschatka, are the
Kuriles, the Chishima or Thousand Isles of the Japanese,
eighteen uninhabitable islands, ceded by Russia to Japan in
1875 in compensation for Japan's abandonment of her claim
to the rich island of Saghalien. The Kuriles derive their name
from the Russian word ' kurit,' to smoke, in allusion to the
numerous volcanoes which the islands contain. Originally
valued by the Russians for the wealth of fur-bearing animals
found among them, and which have now been hunted almost
to extinction, their present value to the Japanese lies in the
rich solfataras found in the southern island of Kunashiri.
The island contains a volcanic peak 7,900 feet high ; this and
the adjoining large island of Iterup are thickly wooded with
conifers, and the streams from August to December are alive
with salmon ; bears too are plentiful. Of the Kuriles generally
the China Sea Directory states : ' The fog in which these islands
are constantly enveloped, the violent current experienced in
all the channels separating them, the steepness of their coasts,
and the impossibility of anchoring, are such formidable
obstacles that it tries to the utmost the patience and
perseverance of the mariner to acquire much knowledge
respecting them.' The Izu group or 'Seven Islands' are
known to all visitors to Japan, as lying off the entrance to the
gulf of Yokohama, and conspicuous by the active volcano in
Vries island, the largest island of the group, which rises to
a height of 2,500 feet ; these lie at the head of a string of
isolated volcanic peaks rising out of the Pacific along the
140th meridian down to and below the 30th parallel of
latitude. Off the north shore of Hondo, in latitude 360, lies
one more group of islands, famous for their romantic scenery
and historical associations — the archipelago of Oki-no-shima,
or ' the islands in the offing.' They are about 40 miles
distant from the port of Akasaki on the mainland, are
mountainous and well wooded. The population of 30,000
depend mainly upon the collection and drying of cuttle-fish,
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 285
of which, besides timber and firewood, quantities are exported
to the mainland, employing a large fleet of boats ; their area
is 130 square miles. Mr. Lacfadio Hearn, in his Glimpses of
Unfamiliar Japan, writes most enthusiastically, both of the
scenery and of the prosperity of the inhabitants. He says :
1 1 think the scenery of this archipelago much finer on the
whole than that of the boasted inland sea. The glimpses
between high islands, the openings of straits, the vistas of
tender blue distance between rugged high cliffs, are wonder-
fully beautiful.'
The three large islands of Old Japan, which comprise
together with Yezo, and excluding Formosa, ninety-five per
cent, of the total area of the empire, are : Hondo, 87,485
square miles ; Kiushiu, 16,840 square miles ; and Shikoku,
7,031 square miles. Hondo, extending from the straits of
Shimonoseki in the west, which separate it from the island
of Kiushiu, to Tsugaru Strait in the north-west, by which it
is separated from the island of Yezo, has a length of about
700 miles, and a greatest width, in about the meridian of
Fuji-yama, of 180 miles; it contains within its area the two
capitals, the old and the new — Kioto and Yedo ; the latter
made the capital by Ieyasu, the first Shogun of the Tokugawa
dynasty, in 1603 5 the former, the ancient seat of the Mikado,
once more restored to power by the revolution of 1868. The
two capitals have now been renamed respectively : Saikio, the
western capital, and Tokio, the eastern capital ; this last
being the present seat of government and residence of the
Mikado. The ' mainland ' of Hondo also contains the two
chief Treaty Ports — Kobe, situated at the eastern extremity
of the ' Inland Sea,' and Yokohama in the bay of Tokio,
18 miles south of the capital ; a third open port, Niigata, is
situated on the opposite or western coast, opposite the island
of Sado, from which it is distant 32 miles. Owing to the bar,
common to the mouths of Japanese rivers, steamers cannot
enter the port, and have to anchor in the open roadstead ;
hence the trade by sea, never of any real importance, is
confined to the summer months — May to October. The winter
storms that set in with the north-eastern monsoon, blowing
from the cold Siberian coast, rage with terrific violence ; deep
286 THE FAR EAST
snow falls, and traffic ceases. Mr. B. H. Chamberlain tells
us that the site of the present town has become dry land
only within historical times, and that 800 years ago its site
was 8 or 10 miles out at sea : ' There exists confirmatory
evidence that the whole of the rich alluvial plain here
extending between the mountains and the sea — 100 square
miles or more — has become dry land within historical times,
partly by the silting up of rivers, partly by upheaval of the
land.' Such secular elevation of the land appears to be
going on slowly but steadily on both coasts. Osaka, the
Manchester of Japan, situated 20 miles east of Kobe and also
containing a ' foreign ' settlement and a total population now
estimated at 1,000,000, is the chief manufacturing, and, with
Kobe, the largest shipping centre of the empire. Osaka and
Tokio are situated in the two largest of the few delta-plains
that the almost exclusively mountainous surface of the
Japanese islands have left room for: Osaka, in that of the
Sumida-gawa, a small stream that has its source in the central
mountains of Hondo ; at the same time, the gradual elevation
of the land has facilitated the reclamation of large areas of
level land from the shallow waters of the estuary on which
Tokio is situated.
Standing on the summit of the highest mountain in Japan —
the famous volcanic cone of Fuji, which rises at first in a gentle
slope from the gulf of Suruga, and, as the summit is approached,
ends in the steep wall-like declivity so familiar in Japanese
pictures— from a height of 12,395 feet, the tourist looks north
over a sea of mountains, often described as the Japanese Alps1.
These wide mountain masses may be said to form the meri-
dional backbone of the Hondo 'mainland,' separating it into
two portions and forming a great natural rampart between the
more anciently settled and highly developed south and east
and the wilder, less productive, north and west. Fuji towers
so high above its immediate surroundings, and its isolated peak
provides such a magnificent bird's-eye view of Central Japan,
that one hardly appreciates the fact that in the mountains to
the north and west are at least a dozen peaks rising to a height
1 August is said to be the only reliable month in which to ascend Fuji.
We made the ascent on August 12, and enjoyed magnificent weather and
a splendid view.
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 2K7
of over 10,000 feet. These peaks rise out of the two parallel
ranges which run north and south roo miles athwart the main
island, and which enclose the provinces of Etchu and Hida,
and partly Mino, on their western and eastern sides respectively,
their granite cliffs falling steeply into the Japan Sea, while
among them the peak of Haku-san, the White Mountain, forms,
with its snow-filled ravines, a brilliant landmark to sailors in
the stormy Sea of Japan. Professor Rein has named this range,
which thus closes in the provinces of Etchu and Hida on the
west, the ' Snow Range ' ; he tells us that it is mainly granite, but
describes Haku-san as ' an imposing mountain-mass built upon
Jurassic sandstones and trachytic conglomerates of magnificent
hornblende andesite.' In a gorge at the foot of this mountain,
he had the good fortune to discover the fossil remains of
sixteen plants belonging to the middle oolitic system — the
earliest prototypes of species still represented in the flora of
Japan, being akin to the Jurassic formation of Eastern Siberia
and the Amur country. In the adjoining province of Mino
to the south, is found the felspar of a splendid pegmatite, the
product of whose disintegration forms the basis of the ceramic
industry for which Seto is famous — Seto-mono, or Seto ware,
being synonymous with our word 'china,' used for porcelain
generally in England. Farther to the east, and along the
western edge of the fair vale of Kofu, runs the third meridional
ridge which likewise contains several peaks of from 8,000 to
10,000 feet, composed mainly of rugged granite out of which
rise volcanic summits, wild and difficult of access. This great
mountain mass, second only in orographical importance to the
Echu-hida (the westernmost of the three main ridges), rises
between the valleys of the Fuji-gawa and the Tenryu-gawa ;
its best-known peaks being the Shirane-san (8,400 feet) and the
Komaga-take (9,840 feet) of Koshu. Taken together, this group
of lofty ranges which forms the distinguishing characteristic of
Central Japan, provides the nexus from which the backbone of
Northern Japan, running NNW. to the Tsugaru Strait, and that
of Western Japan, running WSW. to the straits of Shimonoseki,
set out. Here is the point in which the mass of the main
island, — Hondo, the 'mainland,' — starting from the shore
of the Krusenstern Strait, and spreading thence west to east,
past Kioto and Lake Biwa, to what might be termed the axial
288 THE FAR EAST
peak of Komaga-take, makes a great bend to the north ; where
the luxuriant semi-tropical vegetation of Western and Southern
Japan is left behind, the palm and bamboo disappear, and a
region of cold winters, with heavy snowfall such as is unknown
in Western Japan, is encountered. The mountains in this
northern projection run fairly north and south, so far as their
course can be traced in the involved complex system of a
volcano-studded country. As the land bends northwards from
Tokio and we leave the wide Tokio plain (the Kwanto or land
east of the Barrier) we reach the group of mountains of which
Nikko, with its magnificent tombs of the Shoguns, enshrined in
a forest of grand Cryptomeria, forms the centre, and of which
the sacred Nantai-san (8,150 feet) is the principal peak. In
these mountains is situated the famous copper mine of Ashio *,
said to be the most productive in the East ; farther north, in
latitude 37 40', we find the active volcano of Bandai-san,
situated nearly in the centre of the backbone, famous for its
great outbreak in the year 1888, when four villages were com-
pletely and seven partially overwhelmed by the ashes ejected.
Still farther north, 217 miles by rail from Tokio, stands, on the
east coast, Sendai, the capital of the province of Rikusen — famed
amongst the Japanese for its outlying group of 808 pine-covered
islets, formed of volcanic tufa — the ' Matsu-shima.' Hence
northwards the mountain chain extends unbroken a farther
distance of 250 miles to the extreme northernmost point of
Hondo, Cape Omasaki, throwing out spurs to the east which
have formed a series of fine fiord-like harbours and bays on the
Pacific side, while on the side of the Japan Sea the coast shows
no, indentations and is furnished with but a few indifferent
harbours. The coast here, where the volcanoes have sent down
lava to the sea, is steep-to and between the lava cliffs a flat
shallow shore spreads out, composed of slaty shingle and bright
red sand. Rein tells us that granite is the prevailing rock of
this region and forms the foundation for thick strata of schist
and sandstone : old schists rich in quartz overlay these, and
1 ' The ore is found in a matrix of clay, calcite and quartz, and is almost
entirely the pyrite of copper sulphide. . . . The lodes vary from 6 to 20 feet in
width. The average yield is 19 per cent, of metal, the total annual product
of finished metal being 6,000 tons.' — Murray's Handbook.
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN' 289
bear the ores of copper and magnetic pyrites. 'These schist
ridges, rich in quartz, show, to a depth of 40 feet, considerable
disintegration ' which results in strewing the country with
pebbles and quartz sand totally unfit for agriculture, and sup-
porting chiefly a stunted growth of pines whose roots travel far
seeking nourishment. The Pacific shore of Hondo, from Sendai
northwards to the Tonami peninsula on the Tsugaru Strait,
was the scene of a terrible calamity in 1896, when a so-called
tidal wave, supposed to have been due to the eruption of a sub-
marine volcano, swept away whole towns, drowning the sur-
prised inhabitants.
Running through Western Hondo, from Lake Biwa to Shimono-
seki, the backbone of the country, which stretches out from the
central nexus, is better defined and so forms a distinct water-
parting between the drainage to the south into the ' Inland
Sea' and the drainage to the north into the Sea of Japan.
Two trunk roads lead along either foot of this range (reminding
us of a somewhat analogous condition in the choice of the two
roads along the Tien-shan mountains in Chinese Turkestan),
the Sanindo, the ' shade road ' along the northern slope of this
central ridge, and the Sanyodo, the 'sunny road' along its
southern slope. Mountain spurs jut out from the main ridge
on either side to the shores of the Inland and Japan Seas
respectively, and their crests go to form the natural boundaries
of the sixteen provinces into which this portion of the main
island is divided. Here agriculture is confined to mountain
basins of limited extent and to narrow valleys, and embraces
barely five to six per cent, of the total area. The inadaptability
of the land to cultivation is not due either to deficiencies in
the climate or to the steepness of the ground, but to the dry
and rocky soil of the rounded schist ridges. In the broader
valley bottoms, especially on the Sanyodo, the alluvial soil is
for the most part very fertile and a flourishing agriculture is
carried on — notably in the province of Harima. Again, if we
turn to Northern Japan, we find a central backbone, less well
defined, also proceeding from the central nexus, running in
a continuous chain through the eight provinces of this northern
bend, from the Nikko mountains to the bay of Aomori on
the Tsugaru Strait. Its spurs here again mark ofi the natural
290 THE FAR EAST
divisions of the provinces, while the backbone forms the water-
parting between the Pacific and the Japan Sea. Its summits
are chiefly volcanic cones protruding from older mountains,
and rise from 4,000 to over 6,000 feet, with passes between of
2,000 to 3,500 feet. More imposing volcanic peaks rise isolated
on either side of the principal range, the chief being Ganju-san
(6,800 feet) which ' with its regular logarithmic curves ' forms
a striking object to those travelling on the northern line of
railway. The aspect of the mountain may be compared to
that of the three joints of a telescope, its structure thus making
visible the three successive cones of the volcano. The two
peninsulas which form the northern extremity of Hondo like-
wise exhibit a series of volcanic peaks. Farther to the south,
on the west coast, the fine snow-capped volcanic peak of
Chokai-san rises from the border of the Japan Sea to a height
of 7,200 feet, and rivals the cone of Fuji itself in symmetry and
beauty. A rounded hill country covered with brushwood
forms to the south, on the borders of Sendai, the transition
from these schist mountains to the central chain, in which the
saddle-shaped mountain, Komaga-take or ' pony-back,' forms
the most conspicuous elevation.
Once more proceeding north and quitting the ' mainland ' —
Hondo, we cross the deep Tsugaru Strait, 20 miles wide, and
land in the island of Yezo (the name by which it is best known
and generally marked in ' foreign ' maps). The area of Yezo is
30,000 square miles, about the same as that of Scotland, its
mountain-system being a continuation of those of Saghalien
and the Kuriles. ' That of Saghalien we can follow in its
southern continuation along the whole north coast of Yezo.
The second mountain-system continues the range of the
Kuriles. ... To these two mountain-systems Yezo owes its
four corners, and to their crossing its most considerable
elevations. The mass of the old chain running from north to
south consists of granite and old schists ; in the axis of the
range running west of south, volcanic formations predominate
with trachytic and basaltic rocks.' The central peak is
Tokachi-dake, 8,100 feet high, from which the rivers of Yezo
flow outwards in all directions to the sea. There are several
remarkable volcanoes to the north of Hakodate ; Rishiri, the
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 291
small island in La Perouse Strait, which separates Yezo from
Saghalien, has also its volcanic summit, while in the Kurile
islands beyond numerous volcanoes are found, some still
active. Yezo is best known by its Treaty Port of Hakodate,
situated on the Tsugaru Strait, and as the home of the existing
remnant of the Ainu, the aboriginal race of Japan, who, to the
number of 16,000, make a living in this bleak northern island
(although it lies between the parallels of 420 and 45°) by
hunting and fishing. Otherwise the island is of little interest ;
large sums have been spent by the Government Agricultural
Department of late years in the hope of establishing profitable
agriculture, and 'experts' from the United States were engaged
for the purpose of training the people in American methods of
farming, which, being totally unsuited to Japanese conditions,
proved an utter failure and have now been abandoned. ' The
chief resources of the island are the sea with its abundance of
fish and algae, the collection of which has lead to the addition
to the aboriginal coast-population of numbers of Japanese
immigrants, many of whom only come over from the " main-
land " for the summer months and are employed by traders as
day-labourers in fishing and in the collection and preparation
of edible algae.' This edible seaweed is exported to China in
large quantities, where, throughout the whole empire, no set
meal is complete without its dish of seaweed. The artificially-
raised cost of common salt in China is another cause of the
large consumption of the salt weed. The Tsugaru Strait,
though of such narrow width, forms a sharp dividing-line
between Japan proper and this northern island. The difference
in the fauna and flora point to the fact that Yezo has been
separated from the main island through long geological ages.
The flora of Japan proper is largely common to China, whence
it has chiefly been derived, partly by natural methods of
propagation and partly by the hand of man : the flora of Yezo
on the other hand would seem to have been derived from
Saghalien and the Amur region, but, as Rein points out, it is
still very imperfectly known. The island is under snow and
ice for five months of the year, and its colonization has only
been actively taken in hand since the revolution of 1868 ; the
Japanese population of Yezo is now estimated at 500,000. The
U 2
29 2 THE FAR EAST
north and east coasts are inaccessible in winter owing to the
ice — such is the effect of the cold Arctic current descending to
the latitude of Nice and Rome.
Over against the south shore of Western Hondo, running
parallel with it for a distance of 150 miles and separated from
it by the bays and narrows of the Inland Sea, lies another of
the three large islands which go to compose ' Old Japan.' This
large island, called Shikoku, the 'Four Countries,' after the
four provinces into which it is divided, possesses an area of
6,854 square miles. The greater part of the island is covered
with mountain-ranges of from 3,000 to 4,000 feet in height
with few salient peaks, the loftiest being Ishizuchi - yama,
6,480 feet. The island of Awaji, lying off its north-east
corner, would join Shikoku to the mainland with its travers-
ing mountain - ridge (1,500 feet) running SSW. and NNE.
but for the intervening narrow straits of Naruto at one end
and those of Akashi at the other. Professor Rein further
points out that the parallel south-west and north-east schist-
ridges that are prominent on the mainland, across the Kii
Channel in the provinces of Kishu and Yamato, continue this
line through the province of Shikoku, where, from the main
range, branches run out north and south which in lithological
character, as well as in elevation, essentially resemble the
central chains. ' Thus, then, we observe in Shikoku a number
of considerable mountain-ridges of substantially the same
height — 3,500 to 4000 feet, above which the highest summits
hardly rise 300 to 600 feet. The plain of Taku-matsu is
fringed towards the sea by several volcanic cones, quite
distinct from the schist mountains in the interior: they
include no important heights but are a very striking feature
in the landscape.' Owing to the warm Kuro-siwo stream
impinging directly upon its shores, Shikoku enjoys a very mild
climate compared with that of the mainland opposite, and is
the only region in Japan where two rice-crops each year are
assured. ' In the higher regions the eye is delighted by
a vigorous growth of deciduous trees, where horse-chestnuts
and magnolias are variously intermingled with beeches, ash,
oak, and alder trees. Laurel-leaved oaks, camellias, and other
evergreen trees venture much higher than in Hondo ; while still
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 293
lower, camphor trees and other cinnamon species, the wild
star-anise, Nandina and many other plants which we only find
in the main island in a state of cultivation, take part in the
composition of the evergreen forests.' In the north-west corner
of the island is situated the famous Besshi copper-mine, the
second largest in the country, with an annual output of 4,000
tons. Shikoku is also noteworthy as the home of the Tosa clan,
whose ability, courage, and democratic sentiments led to their
taking a foremost part in the recent renovation of the country.
Shikoku contains no open or Treaty Port within its area.
Adjoining Shikoku on the west, and separated from it by
the Bungo Channel, is the large island of Kiushiu, the second
in size of the three main islands of Old Japan ; it lies to the
south of the western end of Hondo, the narrow straits of
Shimonoseki forming the dividing-line. Kiushiu has an area
of 13,763 square miles, being about the same size as that
other recent island addition to the empire — Formosa ; and is
best known as the site of the earliest port visited by European
trading-ships — Nagasaki, with its old Dutch settlement of
Decima. The island of Kiushiu consists throughout of con-
fused ranges of mountains, cut up by arms of the sea into
peninsulas and headlands, and, at first sight, showing no
general direction. The island is studded throughout with
volcanoes, some of which are still active, and is crossed by
mountain-ranges of very old schist formation. A backbone,
not continuous, runs north and south from Moji to Cape
Satasaki and forms the water-parting of the chief rivers which
flow east and west, into the Pacific and the Amakusa Sea
respectively. The average height of these ranges is 3,000 feet,
several peaks rising to 4,000 and 6,000 feet, the highest in the
island being Sobo-san, 6,600 feet, situated near the city of
Kumamoto on the Shimabara Gulf behind Nagasaki, and
Kirishima-yama, 6,500 feet, not far north of the famous
stronghold of the Satsuma clan — Kagoshima. It is not easy
to distinguish presently active volcanoes from potentially
active ones, and thus to say decisively which volcanoes should
be classed as active and which not. Scarcely a decade passes
that we do not hear of an unexpected outbreak in one part or
other of the Japanese islands : the chief features of these
294 THE FAR EAST
eruptions, now as apparently in ancient times, are less the
amount of lava outflow than the masses of scoriae, pumice,
and lava-bombs ejected — and which have been spread over
large surfaces of the country — usually devastating the land,
but in some parts disintegrating and yielding good, arable soil.
In Kiushiu we find numberless small, rich valleys and well-
cultivated terraced mountain-slopes, interspersed with ' Hara,'
the characteristic barren moorland of the Japanese islands,
overlying volcanic ashes ; but as a whole the island of Kiushiu
is extremely productive, the original rock, metamorphic schists
and other, disintegrating rapidly under the alternations of rain,
frost, and drought the year round, while in summer the heavy
downpours coupled with a high temperature stimulate vegeta-
tion, whereby humus is quickly formed and tillage rendered
possible. As to scenery, its wonderful beauty, its endless
variety and the rapid changes in the picture, so encouraging
to the pedestrian, can hardly be described. Murray compares
the coast beyond Oita in North-east Kiushiu to the Riviera,
only far greener, and other parts as not surpassed by anything
in Switzerland. Of the great volcano of Kiushiu, Aso-san,
5,630 feet, we abbreviate the description given in the Hand-
book. ' Aso-san is nothing extraordinary in height ; it is not
even the highest mountain in Kiushiu, nor is the fact of its
being an ever-active volcano any great singularity in this
volcano-studded land. Its title to celebrity rests on the
exceptional size of its outer crater, which is the largest in the
world and rises almost symmetrically to a height of 2,000 feet.
The only actual break is on the western or Kumamoto side,
through which the river Shira-gawa runs out. According to
popular tradition, the whole plain enclosed by this wall was
originally a lake, till one day the god of the mountain opened
this breach to let the waters out and leave the land fit for
cultivation. The crater measures 10 to 14 miles in diameter
and is popularly said to contain 100 villages. Eruptions of
Aso-san have been chronicled from the beginning of Japanese
history. In February, 1884, immense quantities of black ash
and dust were ejected and carried by the wind as far as
Kumamoto, where for three days it was so dark that artificial
light had to be used. The crops in many of the fields in the
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 295
intervening valleys were destroyed by the ashes. Great
activity also marked the volcano and the geyser in 1889. The
latest eruption took place in 1894, altering the floor of the
modern inner crater which has now two vents besides
numerous rifts in the inner wall, whence smoke issues. In
1897, the fall of ash resulting from this outbreak was still con-
tinuing : it resembled a blight filling the greater part of the
sky. At times it is quite impalpable, at others it may be
easily collected in pailfuls. The country people state that
there are two kinds of ash, one harmless, the other sulphu-
reous, which spoils all garments left out in it and withers
the crops.'
The island, washed on two sides by the Kuro-siwo, enjoys
a very mild climate, and produces in abundance every kind
of sub-tropical crops, fruits, and evergreen trees and shrubs.
Its most valuable minerals are coal and kaolin ; the latter
is the source of the great ceramic industry for which Kiushiu
is famous, its inhabitants having been taught the art bv
Corean workmen imported in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. Arita- and Satsuma-ware is exported in large
quantities, though nowadays, unfortunately, quality is sacri-
ficed to quantity. Kiushiu derives its name from the ' nine
provinces ' into which the island is divided. It is to-day the
chief seat of the coal-mining industry in Japan, and the centre
from which large exports of the mineral find their way to
Shanghai and ports to the north, and from which the fleets
of mail steamers that now make Nagasaki a port of call
derive their supplies ; the coal trade thus now forms the
chief interest for 'foreigners' in Kiushiu. Outside of the
coal district in Northern Kiushiu, little coal is found in the
Japanese islands (apart from Formosa) ; the only other mine
of any importance in the country being at Mito, on the east
coast of Northern Japan, one of the few spots in Japan where
true carboniferous limestone has been observed ; and in Yezo,
where latterly both anthracite and peat-coal are said to have
been discovered in paying quantities. Rein points out that
most of the coal measures in Kiushiu belong to younger
groups of tertiary formation, in which limestone gives way
to sandstone and schistose marl, and are therefore properly
296 THE FAR EAST
peat-coal. ' At Mike in Chicugo an earthy peat-coal is found
below red argillaceous sand, and below that 20 feet of friable
clay-schist ; here leaf impressions show the brownish-black
coal to be tertiary.' Owing to the scarcity in China of good
coal near accessible waterways, the Japanese coal found close
to the seaports in Northern Kiushiu is in great request, as it
makes fair steaming coal though it burns away rapidly and
leaves a heavy percentage of ash. The Japanese are steadily
prospecting and opening up fresh seams in this region ; the
coal here does not crop out on the surface, as is commonly
the case in the vertically-tilted seams that provide an inferior
coal in the Lower Yangtse valley, and so has to be sought
at greater depths. The development of the true carboniferous
series, characteristic of wide regions in northern and western
China, is entirely wanting in the Japanese islands. In the
thirteenth century Kiushiu was the scene of Kublai Khan's
attempted conquest of Japan. Hakata, on the north-west
coast, was the scene of the defeat of the Mongol fleet by the
then Regent, Hojo Tokimune. Kublai Khan's soldiers had
seized the half-way islands of Tsushima and Ike, but gave
them up after their defeat off Hakata, when the remnant of
the invading fleet of 500 vessels sailed for China, and was
almost entirely destroyed by an opportune typhoon. This
event occurred in 1281, and was the precursor, by three
centuries, of a like destruction of an invading fleet — that
of the Spanish Armada in British waters, in 1588.
The main island, Hondo, embraces in its mountains numerous
lakes and tarns, of which four of the best-known deserve
special mention ; these are : Lake Biwa, to the east of Kioto,
drained by the Yodo-gawa, which flows west, past Kioto, and
enters the sea at Osaka. This lake of Omi has about the
same area as the lake of Geneva, being 36 miles long by
12 miles in breadth ; its level is 330 feet above the sea, and
its greatest depth 300 feet. Lake Chusenji, to the west of
Nikko, 7 miles by 2 miles, 4,300 feet above the sea, and 240
feet deep. Lake Hakone, to the south-west of Fuji, with an
area of only 10 square miles, and lying 2,430 feet above sea-
level, is famous as a health-resort and for its view of the great
mountain, and also for the great barrier built beside it, which
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 297
in old days shut off Western Japan from the east ; this was
built across the highway of the Tokaido, at that time the only
practical thoroughfare across the sea of mountains filling
Central Japan, and which formed an effectual rampart to in-
cursions from the west. Lastly, Inawashiro, to the south and
at the foot of the active volcano Bandai-san, a large circular
basin, 10 miles in diameter ; ' this is not a true crater-lake
but probably a depression formed by evisceration of the
ground, resulting from the copious outpourings of volcanic
matter in its vicinity.'
Glaciers, such as we find in a lower latitude, but on higher
mountains, in Western China, are not found in any part of
Japan ; nor do we find here, any more than there, traces of an
ancient ice age. The chief features of Japan, i. e. of the main
islands — which, as Rein points out, lie between the parallels of
the Nile delta and the Bosphorus — are, its volcanic formation,
and its position in the heart of the warm gulf stream. Solfataras
and hot sulphur baths are scattered throughout the land, and
baths at a temperature of no0 to 120° F. are in daily use by large
numbers of the people. Nothing more surprises and delights
a Chinaman visiting Japan — to whom cold water is anathema,
shocked as he is by the, to him, gross immodesty of the free
intercourse of the sexes — than the providential provision of
natural hot water in almost every village. Nearly all the
peaks one meets with in Japan are volcanic, either of ancient
or — geologically speaking — of modern formation, and are not
the products of denudation, as is the case commonly on the
mainland of China opposite. The smiling hilltops that encircle
the lovely harbour of Nagasaki, and which rise to a height of
800 to 1,300 feet, are volcanic; 'and the highest mountain in
the neighbourhood, Yagami-take, which rises a few miles east-
ward of the town, to a height of 2,000 feet, and provides it
with excellent building-stone, is a trachytic cone. Rock-salt
is not found in Japan ; and valuable minerals in paying
quantities, excepting copper, antimony, and, in some places,
magnetic iron ore, are generally conspicuous by their absence.
The temperate climate, fine scenery, and cleanly habits of the
people, as compared with the omnipresent filth of China, make
of Japan a favourite health-resort for foreign residents in China,
29«
THE FAR EAST
as well as the goal of round-the-world travellers from Europe
and America. To the resident in the interior of China, with
its dirt and mediaeval stagnation, a change to lively, pro-
gressive Japan is one from darkness to light. The Japanese
may well be proud of their unique country and call it ' Kami-
no-kuni ' — Country of the Gods, — with more justification than
exists for a favourite term with many Americans — ' God's own
country,' for the United States of North America.
Another interesting natural feature, forming one of the chief
Fig. 35.— Part of the 'Inland Sea' of Japan.
attractions to foreign travellers, is the well-known picturesque
Inland Sea, which is embraced between the three main islands
of the archipelago. From the straits of Shimonoseki, by
which it is entered from the west, to Osaka, situated on the
Izumi-nada — Sea-reach of Izumi — in the east, it extends for
a distance of 270 miles, across six Nada (seas), separated from
each other by narrow, often winding, straits — not rivers, such
as separate, or rather unite with each other, the five great
inland ' seas ' of North America, but narrow, tidal, salt-water
passages, where, as between the Harima-nada and the Bingo-
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 299
nada, there is barely room for two steamers to pass. The
Inland Sea is now the common route for steamers bound from
Shanghai and Nagasaki to Kobe, and thence on to Yokohama,
affording a fine, smooth-water passage in lieu of the shorter
distance through Van Diemen Straits to the rough seas of the
open Pacific. This inland channel, spreading out in the Suwo-
nada to a width of 40 miles, is studded with a countless
archipelago of steep islands and volcanic islets of all shapes
and sizes, rendering the scenery as picturesque as the naviga-
tion is intricate. The deep waters of the Pacific shoal rapidly
from 60 to 20 fathoms as they approach the two main com-
municating channels — the Bungo at the western end of
Shikoku, and the Kii at its eastern end, the latter leading
through the famous Naruto whirlpool ; thus it is not impossible
that the elevation of the coast, of which many evidences are
recorded 1I may some day convert portions of the bottom into
dry land. Although numerous rivers intersect the country in
all directions, these would, in Western lands, be regarded as
hopelessly unnavigable ; yet, as with similar rapid rivers in
1 Rein states : ' Trustworthy evidences of a gradual so-called secular eleva-
tion of the east coast of Hondo were adduced by me for the coast of Nambu,
and recently by Naumann for the plain of Kwanto. . . . The harbour of
Kamaishi (lat. 380 50') has lost its former active shipping trade during the last
thirty years, owing to the shallowing of the entrances on each side of Oshima.
... A newly-constructed road leads from Kisenuma along the margin of the
bay and lies about half a metre above high-water mark. Soon after leaving
Kisenuma it bends round a steeply falling limestone wall, which is traversed
by narrow veins of calcareous spar, and, like the schist formation around, is
undoubtedly of palaeozoic origin. Now, on this wall directly over the road,
we observe a horizontal band about eighty centimetres broad, in which the
limestone is coarsely perforated like a sponge. Lithophaga, the widely spread
Saxicava rugosa, and in particular the Petrolica j'aflottt'ca, Dunker, whose
well-preserved shells may still be observed in many of the holes, present as
clear a testimony to the most recent history of this coast as the Atodiola
lithophaga in the columns of the temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli. The eleva-
tion which the coast of Kamaye-Ura (bay) has undergone in very recent
times must be estimated as at least 1-5 metres. ... In his study of the plain
of Tokio, Naumann (Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1879, p. 121 1 has adduced
certain proofs of its recent elevation, and indeed of the whole plain of Kwanto.
He has drawn attention to the fact that maps from the first half of tin:
eleventh century make Yedo Hay run much farther to the north ; the mouth
of the Sumida lay farther back, and the soil of the whole town of the present
Tokio was under water. . . . Formerly, Yedo Hay stretched further over the
whole level country of Shimosa and Hitachi, and northwards as far as the
plain of Kwanto extends. Moreover, in Shikoku and other parts of Japan,
there is more that points to the secular elevation of the coasts. . . .'
300 THE FAR EAST
China, they have been utilized with wonderful perseverance,
and, although now largely superseded by railways, small flat-
bottomed boats still convey large numbers of passengers as
well as loads of merchandise on their troubled surface ; yet
the true royal road of communication along the Japanese
coasts is the sea. A glance at a map on a fairly large scale
shows how wonderfully the islands — notably Kiushiu — are
indented by far-reaching firths and bays, affording every
facility for sheltered water-carriage between the different
parts, while the Inland Sea itself may be said to take the
place of a wide central river. This condition applies mainly
to the Pacific side, and the islands bordering the China Sea.
The north-west coast affords to shipping little more than
open roadsteads, practically available only during the summer
months. With the setting in of the north-east monsoon in
October, a wild sea breaks on the rocky coast, snow-storms
prevail, and an icy wind blows straight from Siberia and
Kamschatka. Farther north, on the coast of Yezo, although
the cold even there is far less severe than at Vladivostock on
the Asiatic mainland opposite, the ice on the north and east
coasts extends often 5 or 6 miles out to sea.
The Japanese islands are the easternmost region to come
under the sway of the monsoon winds that, drawn to and from
the deserts and highlands of Central Asia, rule from the Indian
Ocean to the China Sea, and which form so predominant
a feature in the climates of India and China. But in Japan
their action is modified by the course of the great Pacific gulf
stream (the Kuro-siwo) which, with its western branch, the
Tsushima current, effectively reduces the continental extremes
of climate prevailing on the mainland opposite, rendering the
summers cooler and the winters milder, yielding, as it does,
a large amount of moisture to the surrounding air : its
temperature ranges from eight to ten degrees above that of the
neighbouring sea, although generally two or three degrees lower
than is that of the analogous current in the Atlantic. The
Kuro-siwo meets no icebergs in its course across the North
Pacific, the narrow, shallow Behring Strait and the long chain
of the Aleutians not admitting egress to the Arctic ice as do
the Davis Straits and the open Greenland Sea in the Atlantic.
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN' 301
The Kuro-siwo appears to take its rise in the vicinage of the
Banshee islands, lying between Formosa and the Philippines
in latitude 200 S., the northern equatorial current of the Pacific
meeting the land of Asia being hereabouts deflected north and
east, as is the Atlantic current by the land of Central America.
The stream then flows outside Formosa along its eastern coast,
in a current averaging 40 knots a day, as an ocean river 40
miles wide and 100 fathoms deep ; it then washes the Liuchiu
archipelago, which stands almost in mid-current, until it
impinges on the island of Kiushiu. Here the current divides,
the bulk of the water flowing on past the shores of Shikoku
and Eastern Japan, whence it ultimately spreads out until, with
diminished force it washes and warms the coasts of North
America and Alaska. The western branch of the current, of
comparatively small volume, washes the west coast of Kiushiu
and flows on past the Goto islands and through the Krusenstern
Strait between Tsushima and Kiushiu, on into the Japan Sea,
whence a portion passes out again through the La Perouse and
the Tsugaru straits, to the north and south of Yezo respectively,
and so rejoins the main branch : this is known as the Tsushima
current. The Arctic current from the Okhotsk Sea washes the
east coast of Yezo and of Hondo down to about latitude 39' ;
hence, in travelling by coasting steamer from Hakodate to
Yokohama in summer, the cold current is left off the coast of
Rikusen and the Kuro-siwo entered — a rise of ten degrees in
the temperature of the water marking the change. Another
cold current makes its way from the Okhotsk Sea through the
gulf of Tartary and washes the coast of Manchuria, Vladi-
vostock and Corea, and with the cold water discharged from
the Amur, fills the western basin of the Japan Sea passing west
of Tsushima and so on to the coast of China. Thus, while to
the west of the Liuchiu islands on December 16 the tempera-
ture of the sea has been noted as high as 73, on the opposite
coast of China at the same time the temperature was down t<>
500, for the cold north-east monsoon produces little effect <>n
the temperature or direction of the powerful Kuro-siwo
current. The rise and fall of the tide on the coast of Japan
varies from 3 to 7 feet and is felt equally in the Inland Sea,
where, however, its time and extent are considerably modified
3°2
THE FAR EAST
by the straits and channels by which it is connected with the
outside ocean. The typhoons of the China Sea, two or more
of which are bred each summer in the neighbourhood of the
Philippines, usually follow the course of the Kuro-siwo and
pass to the eastward of Formosa, and thus avoid the coast of
China ; occasionally, however, the typhoon turns inwards and
strikes the coast of China, usually between Canton and Amoy,
Fig. 36. — Storm Tracks in the China Seas.
as was the case with the great typhoons of 1874, which
devastated both Hongkong and Nagasaki. The true centre
of a typhoon never strikes the coast north of the Liuchius ;
one often reads of Shanghai and other places experiencing one
of these visitations, but in such cases it is the outside edge of
the gale, many miles from the true centre, which is felt. Japan,
however, has her full share of these visitations, besides the
ever-recurring calamities of flood and earthquake, all of which
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 303
may go to account for the happy-go-lucky mercurial tempera-
ment of her extraordinary people.
The southernmost and latest addition to the string of
innumerable islands, large and small, which go to make up the
empire of the Mikado, and which extend south-west and north-
east a distance of 2,000 miles along the coasts of China and
Siberia — from the tropic of Cancer to latitude 500 north — is
the island of Formosa. Acquired from China as the result of
the war of 1895, misgoverned and little valued by the Peking
authorities after 200 years of partial occupation, it now forms
the brightest jewel in the chain of the Japanese group, so
happily interposed as a protective barrier between the thus
land-locked seas of China and Japan and the broad expanse of
the rolling Pacific beyond ; in relation to its area, Formosa is
undoubtedly the richest of the Japanese islands, although its
possibilities are not yet half proved by actual development.
In area, Formosa slightly exceeds the second of the three
islands that compose 'Japan proper' — Kiushiu — while its
population is barely one-third of the latter, the respective
figures being : — Kiushiu, 13,763 square miles, with a population
of 6,000,000 ; Formosa, 14,978 square miles, with a population
of 2,000,000. Formosa is thus just half the size of Scotland
with one-third of its population. The island is 255 miles long,
and its greatest width is 80 miles ; it consists of a backbone
of mountains, steep to the Pacific, but falling more gradually
to the west and giving room to an extensive plain on the side
of the China Sea. This central backbone culminates in the
lofty peak of Mount Morrison, which rises near the centre of
the island to a height of 14,500 feet and is now renamed Nii-
taka-yama by the Japanese, i. e. the ' new high mountain,' in
allusion to the fact of this, the last to be added to their
empire, being also the highest — higher even than Fuji itself.
This grand mountain slopes steeply seawards on the Pacific
side, where it ends in the highest sea-cliffs in the world; and in
more gradual undulations on the side of China. ' It is not
volcanic, though very hot springs are met with ; it consists of
argillaceous schists and quartzite.' The ' Formosa Channel '
separates the island from the mainland of China, from which
it lies distant 90 miles; Amoy, in the province of Fukien,
304 THE FAR EAST
being the nearest town on the mainland. This town and
Treaty Port, situated immediately opposite Taiwan-fu, the
administrative capital under Chinese rule, was formerly the
seat of a large trade with America in Formosa teas, which were
brought across in the raw leaf and prepared and packed for
shipment by the foreign merchants in Amoy ; now, under
Japanese administration, this business is being diverted to the
island itself. On the east coast, the land falls away so steeply
from the mountain backbone of the island that the rivers there
are nothing but mountain torrents, which fall into the sea in
magnificent cascades, but provide no harbours in the iron-
bound coast. Dr. Guillemard, in the Cruise of the Marchesa,
says : — ' Upon rounding the north-east promontory of the
island, after leaving Kelung, the magnificent line of precipitous
mountains which, with few interruptions, characterize the east
coast of Formosa down to latitude 230, begins. The lower
third of these mountains (5,000 to 7,000 feet) falls to the sea
in vertical cliffs. All the rest, except on the sea face, is clothed
from base to summit with the densest vegetation ; and the
gigantic wall of rock is riven every few miles by huge gorges
of unparalleled grandeur. . . . The cliffs of the Yosemite fall
into insignificance by comparison.'
To the west, on the other hand, the land slopes more
gradually, giving rise to fertile, undulating country, and rich,
alluvial plains, teeming with every description of tropical and
sub-tropical produce fitting to a latitude of 200 54' (South
Cape) to 250 10/ (Syauki Point) with an annual rainfall of 120
inches. These western slopes give rise to several fair-sized
rivers, all however so choked with sand that only one, and
that in the extreme north of the island, is navigable for a few
miles and provides an anchorage for moderate-sized coasting-
steamers — the well-known harbour of Tamsui. The only
really good harbour is situated, not in Formosa itself, but in
the adjacent Pescadores or Fisherman islands ; these lie in the
Formosa Channel, somewhat to the south of the centre of the
island and about 40 miles distant from it — their distance from
the mainland averaging 80 miles. This excellent harbour is
formed by the two islands, Panghu and Fisher — the former
the largest of the group and having a circumference of 84
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN
3°5
miles. 'Their formation is chiefly basaltic, the inland is flat
and the soil poor, and the prevalence of violent north-east
(monsoon) winds for half the year prevents the growth of
trees. Typhoons also exert their full fury in the Pescadores
Channel, which is consequently littered with wreck.' The
P. & O. steamer Bokhara was wrecked here in 1892, with
'$ g-^Pong hu
An p
Fig. 37. — Formosa.
a loss of 125 lives, including the Hongkong cricket team. It
was from Chinese fishermen settled in these islands that the
Chinese, in the thirteenth century, first learnt of the existence
of Formosa.
The lofty mountain-range which forms the conspicuous
feature of the island has been described as volcanic, but the
306 THE FAR EAST
thick jungle with which it is covered and the savage nature of
its still untamed inhabitants have stood in the way of any
thorough examination of the range : escaping, inflammable gas
seen flaming in the high jungle simulates volcanic outbursts,
but no actual volcanoes have been found ; solfataras exist in
the northern end of the island, and under Japanese auspices
may in time come to rival those of Japan itself. Rock-oil
abounds, and its value has long been familiar to the natives,
by whom it is employed both as fuel and medicine ; coal, of
a highly bituminous nature, has long been mined successfully
at Kelung in the north and supplies the coasters abundantly
with fuel. The vegetation is characterized by tropical luxuri-
ance ; the mountains are densely clad with forest palms, the
cassia, aloe, pineapple, and camphor trees ; these last are
a speciality of the island and in their abundance a main
source of its wealth — formerly to the Chinese settlers, now to
the Japanese Government, who have taken over the monopoly
of the distillation of the oil and are attending to the preserva-
tion of the camphor-forests, which the Chinese regarded as
inexhaustible and were rapidly destroying. In the plains
along the west coast and on the lower western slopes of the
mountains, the soil is sand and alluvial clay covered with rich
vegetable mould, producing heavy crops of rice, besides a large
yield of taro, sweet potato, wheat, barley, millet, and maize.
Sugar, tea, indigo, ground-nuts, jute, hemp, oil-seeds, and
rattans — the tea of better quality than that of the neighbour-
ing mainland — all provide ample material for a valuable
export trade. Situated full in the path of the two monsoons
and being so largely mountainous, the island enjoys a healthy
and agreeable climate, though malaria is deadly, as throughout
the tropics where new soil is disturbed. The scenery is every-
where beautiful, in the mountains imposingly grand, and well
justifies the name of Formosa bestowed upon it by the
Portuguese, the first Europeans to visit the island, in 1590.
Formosa while still Chinese had four open ports, negotiated for
under British treaties with China, and which continue such
under Japanese rule. These are : Kelung, with its coal-mines
and camphor ; Tamsui, the best available of the ' bar ' har-
bours, with a depth of 3^ fathoms — these two lying close
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 307
together on the north coast ; Takao, the sugar port in the
extreme south ; and Taiwan, the late capital, in the centre,
situated 2 miles inland from the open roadstead of Anping ;
this city is credited with 100,000 Chinese inhabitants, and
is famous as containing the remains of the old Dutch fort,
Zealandia. The Japanese conquest of the island has resulted
in the removal of the capital to the ancient Chinese walled
city of Taipeh, now renamed Taihoku and outside of which
stands the 'foreign' settlement of Twatutia. Taihoku is
situated 13 miles from the mouth of the Tamsui river, and has
been made the capital owing to the fact that this river,
together with the imperfectly protected anchorage off Kelung,
with which Taihoku is now connected by a short railwaj',
makes of Taihoku the site most accessible by sea of any in this
generally harbourless island. The combined population of the
three places is about 120,000 Chinese and 50 Europeans,
besides a garrison of 6,000 Japanese.
The varied and prolific yield of the rich soil of Formosa,
depicted above, is due to the energy of the Chinese immigrants
and settlers in the last century ; these have gradually driven
back the aboriginal inhabitants to their fastnesses in the high
mountains, whence the latter take their revenge by sallying
forth and collecting heads from the Chinese tillers of the soil ;
without the possession of at least one, either Chinese or of
a neighbouring tribe, no young 'Che-huan' dares call himself
a man. These aborigines appear to be of Malay stock, and,
like the Liuchiu islanders, are believed to be one with the
Tagalas of the Philippines. But while the Liuchiuans, having
for generations past opened their arms to the civilizing in-
fluences of China, are an absolutely peaceful race, the For-
mosans, though living in a land easily sufficing for all their
material wants — being split up by internecine feuds into
unnumbered tribes, ignorant of each other's language, with no
written signs or means of computing time — remain hunters and
warriors, and despise the quiet life of the agriculturist. Yet
there would seem to be the making in them of a fine race ; the
few Englishmen who have visited their country describe the
Che-huan as a noble savage, hospitable, and tine to his blood
bond, but an irreconcilable enemy to the Chinese. It will be
x 2
3o8 THE FAR EAST
interesting to see how far the Japanese will succeed in gaining
their confidence and so civilizing them in the end. The cause
of their aloofness is well explained in the physical isolation of
the precipitous walled-in valleys they inhabit and the pathless
jungle whereby they are split up into isolated groups. Their
racial characteristics are attractive, for they are described as
' well-built, handsome, strong, large of eye, bold, and honest,'
and they are, in their Malay mixture, akin to the Japanese.
In the neutral zone between the mountains and the alluvial
plains, mixed marriages with the Hakkas (Chinese from
Swatow) have developed a race of half-castes, known as
Pe-pa-huan, who shave the head, wear the Chinese garb, and
are to all intents Chinese. The inhabitants of Botel-Tobago
(rechristened by the Japanese Kotosho) — the lofty island
lying off the south cape of Formosa, from which it is distant
50 miles to the east — belong likewise to the Malay family.
These, though barely more civilized in other respects, are
a gentle, kindly race, very different from their kin on the main
island.
The history of Formosa is a chequered one. Before the
island came under Chinese sway, towards the end of the
sixteenth century, the Portuguese established themselves at
Kelung, to which they gave the name of Formosa — afterwards
extended to the whole island. After these, in 1624, came the
Dutch, who established themselves at Taiwan-fu and fortified
themselves in the fortress which they named Zealandia, so
solidly built that its walls remain to this day. At the same
period the Manchus were occupied in conquering South China,
the province of Fukien being the last to hold out and offering
the most determined opposition to the new foreign rule ; it was
thence that the beaten adherents of the Ming took refuge in
the then almost unknown island opposite — Chinese from A1T103-,
and Hakkas ('Guests,' i.e. immigrants, originally from the
Yangtse valley) from Swatow — and found a refuge among the
Tung-fan, or eastern barbarians, of Formosa. Their leader,
Coxinga (Dutch simplification of the three syllables composing
the Chinese name), determined to drive out the Dutch, and
fought them with varying success according to the strength of
the successive reinforcements which the Dutch, during the long
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 309
period of the struggle, received from Batavia. Notwithstanding
diversions on the mainland by the Dutch fleet — the attack on
the Min and the capture of Amoy — the Chinese, after thirty-
seven years' almost continuous lighting, succeeded in blockading
the Dutch in their fort, in which, after a nine months' siege,
the remnant of the garrison were compelled to surrender. Fort
Zealandia was finally captured in 1662, when the garrison of
500 men, besides the women and children, were all put to the
sword, 1,600 men having previously fallen in the siege. The
home authorities in Batavia now seem to have given up
Formosa as a bad job, and the island thus came under the sole
rule of Coxinga. The Dutch meanwhile had sent an embassy
to Peking renouncing their claim to the island, and the Manchus
having now completed their conquest of China proper, Formosa
submitted likewise, and was formally incorporated in the
Chinese Empire for the first time in 1682, Coxinga being
ennobled by the emperor Kanghi as Hai-ching-kung or Sea-
quelling Duke. In 1714 the Jesuit mathematicians, who were
employed to make a survey of the empire, visited Formosa in
the course of their work. Later in the century rebellions, due
to the exactions of the officials sent from Fukien to govern the
island, were frequent and severe. The savagery, even of the
Chinese inhabitants, was shown as lately as 1842, when forty-
three men, the crew of the, British brig Ann, were executed at
Taiwan ; this place was at length opened as a Treaty Port in
i860. Fort Zealandia was once more occupied in 1868 by
British bluejackets and by request of the Acting British Consul,
consequent upon unprovoked attacks by the Chinese upon
British and French missionaries ; this action was disavowed
by the Home Government, and the indemnity that had been
meanwhile collected from the Chinese was restored to them.
In 1872 the crew of a shipwrecked Japanese vessel were
murdered by the savages, whereupon Japan landed a military
expedition in the island and would probably at that time have
held possession of it but for the intervention of the British
Minister at the Court of Peking, Mr. Wade. A treaty of 1 1
was at length, in 1876, signed between China and Japan, by
which the Chinese paid an indemnity of ^750,000. This evenl
seems to have woken up the imperial councillors in Peking to
310 THE FAR EAST
the fact of the existence of Formosa, other than as an out-
lying district of the province of Fukien — to its value and, for
the first time, to its true position on the map ; for, from this
date on, a better class of governor was appointed, peace and
order prevailed, and the foreign trade and steam communica-
tion with Hongkong and the Chinese mainland exhibited a
most satisfactory development. In 1884 the Treaty Port of
Kelung suffered a bombardment at the hands of the French
fleet, by way of reprisal for the alleged support given by the
Chinese authorities in Kwangsi to the 'Black Flags' in Tong-
king. The turn of Tamsui came next, and in the resistance
500 Chinese were killed ; the whole island was now blockaded by
the French, and Makung, a fort in the Pescadores, bombarded
and occupied. From the time of the attack on Kelung until
its evacuation in June, 1885, ten months had elapsed. Nine
years later occurred the ill-omened war between China and
Japan, resulting in the substitution of Japanese for Chinese
rule — a change which has not so far proved beneficial to the
' foreign ' trade with the island. It is noteworthy in this regard
that, upon the outbreak of the war, when the Chinese com-
menced withdrawing their troops, a deputation of resident
merchants and officials made an offer of the island to the then
British Consul in Taiwan, Mr. (now Sir Pelham) Warren, but
the Home Government, unwilling to take the lead in the
'break-up of China,' declined the tempting offer. Under
Japanese rule order will no doubt be gradually established,
and it will then be possible to traverse the aborigines' country
in safety and so to learn more of the physical character of
the land than has been practicable under hitherto prevailing
conditions.
When we come to the question of ethnography in relation to
the inhabitants of the Japanese islands, we find it impossible
to speak authoritatively on the subject. As the earliest
historical work of the Japanese dates from only the eighth
century A.D., it is useless to seek in Japanese literature for any
solution of ethnographical problems. That the Japanese are
a branch of the great Mongol family, originating in Eastern
Asia, is shown in an only cursor}' observation of the prevailing
type of feature and habit among them. The prominent facial
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 311
development which is so marked in the Caucasian race, so called
— the high-bridged nose and projecting forehead — is mostly-
absent in the Japanese type ; here we find the small eye-sockets
and drooping eyelids, the long, stiff, copious, straight, black hair,
with elliptical section, associated with a generally hairless body
and beardless chin, all proclaiming the Tartar descent. Hence
there is little reason to doubt that the origin of the Japanese,
like that of the Chinese, must be traced back to the officina
gentium, supposed to have existed somewhere to the south of
Lake Baikal and in the vicinity of the Altai mountains ; whence,
in prehistoric times, the forefathers of the Japanese migrated
by way of Manchuria and Corea to the western islands of the
Japanese archipelago. Kiushiu to-day exhibits the strongest
trace of Chinese stock in its inhabitants, and appears to have
been the part of Old Japan earliest settled from the mainland
of Asia. Many of the customs of the Japanese, their domestic
arrangements, the style of their dwellings, even their national
dances, as well as the freedom of intercourse between the sexes,
have led ethnographists to infer the presence of a decided
strain of Polynesian stock ; and there would seem little doubt
that this is the case, otherwise it is difficult to account for the
wide divergence in character from the parent Mongol stock.
The lively, friendly temperament, the receptivity of new ideas,
the quick active brain, and the cleanliness and neatness of the
people which so forcibly strike the foreign visitor to Japan,
especially when approaching the country from the mainland of
China or Corea, cannot be attributed to climatic influences
alone, but presuppose an infusion of outside, probably Kanak
blood. A farther mingling of Malay stock may be inferred,
not only from the propinquity of the Malay islands and the
favouring gulf stream, but from many racial characteristics
common to the two peoples to-day. The Japanese people, as
one travels throughout the islands, exhibit a far greater variety
of feature than do their unnumbered cousins, the Chinese, who
are a far more homogeneous race. Various types are met with,
as in the composite race inhabiting our own islands, and, as 1 lie-
Teuton forms the groundwork of the Anglo-Saxon, so the
Mongol forms the groundwork of the Japanese race. In both
instances the composite race has (at least we think it in our
312 THE FAR EAST
own case) improved upon the individual elements from which
it has been drawn, although the characteristics of the great
parent stock prevail throughout — in the Anglo-Saxon, in the
strong family ties, the high position given to woman, the love
of truth, justice, order, and liberty, and the plodding per-
severance of the Teuton ; in the Japanese, in the endurance,
the capacity for toil, the aestheticism, the indifference to
suffering, and even the cruelty of the Mongol — qualities which
are generally wanting in races of pure Polynesian and Malay
stock, as we find them to-day in the other extensive island
regions of the Pacific.
No inquiry into the formation of the Japanese race can be
understood without taking into account the long sway of the
feudal system that, as we have seen, was originally common
to both peoples — the Chinese and the Japanese. In China
the feudal system was brought to an end by the usurpation of
Chin Shih Hwangti, the Napoleon of China, b. c. 255 ; while in
Japan the system continued on unbroken up to the time of
the revolution of 1868, as a result of which the feudal lords,
or Daimios, were ' mediatised,' and compelled to abandon their
feudal rights in exchange for pensions from the State. The
contrast in the civilization of the two peoples is essentially
marked by this fact ; for the Chinese social system, although
nominally swayed by an all-powerful despotic emperor, pro-
ceeded along essentially democratic lines, based upon the
semi-independence of the provinces formed out of the ancient
feudal states, with village communes ruled by their self-elected
' elders,' practically undisturbed by the central power as long
as they furnished the prescribed quotum of revenue in the
shape of an extremely moderate land-tax. Hence the develop-
ment in China of a local patriotism as distinguished from the
intense national patriotism of the Japanese. In China the
feudal era is only remembered as the time of the mythical
Golden Age, when men's word was their bond (as is now the
nominal reason given for every written contract, and so expressed
in deeds and contracts to this day), and loyalty to the prince
the first duty of man. The virtues of feudalism — truth,
honour, chivalty, patriotism, sacrifice of self — seem to have
become extinct in China from about the time of the fall of
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 313
the famous dynasty of ' Han.' that succeeded to the troublous
times of the short-lived dynast}' of Chin Shih Hwangti and his
five degenerate successors — the time of the Burning of the
Books and the building of the Great Wall. The Han dynasty,
which gave to the Chinese their present cognomen of ' sons of
Han,' as did the style of the First Emperor's patrimony,
' Chin,' give to his whole empire the European name of China,
established the ' Middle Kingdom ' as a progressive united
empire, its laws and customs based upon the teachings of the
ancient sages, whose writings the early emperors of the dynasty
diligently restored to light, after their attempted destruction by
Chin Shih Hwangti. The rule of the ' Han ' resulted in making
China the cynosure of surrounding nations during a glorious
career extending over four centuries (b.c. 206 to a. d. 220).
Their system of government was perfected under subsequent
dynasties — notably under the 'Tang,' which reigned through-
out the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, whose founder
introduced the system, still in vogue, of selection of officials
by competitive examination. In this period China may be
said to have reached her zenith. During the struggles that
followed upon the fall of the 'Han,' China was again split
up for a term of forty years, and the short but famous
epoch of the 'Three Kingdoms' set in. In the triangular
duel that ensued, traces of the old conditions are still con-
spicuous in the chivalrous conduct of the combatants and
their self-sacrificing loyalty to their chiefs, so vividly com-
memorated in the romantic history of the period, and in the
shrines still kept up in honour of the heroes of that time, one
of whom, Kwan-ue, canonized under the ' Sung ' in the twelfth
century, has been selected as the patron deity of the reigning
Manchu dynasty, and is now known as Kwan-ti, the God of
War. This romantic and chivalrous period is to-day the
favourite theme of the historical plays, whose periodical
representation delights and instructs every village throughout
the huge Chinese Empire. As the Japanese deduce their
civilization from China, and from it inherit their feudal system
and the ethics it enunciates, so we find to-day the motive
word for loyalty, and the nearest equivalent of our Western
word 'chivalry,' in the Japanese word 'Bushid.V which is the
314 THE FAR EAST
Japanese pronunciation of the three Chinese words ' Wu shih
Tao ' = ' the path of the warrior.' While the phrase is now
out of date and practically forgotten in China, it survives in
Japan as the expression and motive of all loyal conduct
between man and man, and may still prove the corrective
to the self-seeking and chicane that seems inseparable from
such commercial activity as that into which the versatile
island-folk have during the past thirty years thrown their
restless energy. Meanwhile, the ancient warlike spirit and
determination, so different from the common love of peace
at all costs, and the quiet spirit of resignation which dis-
tinguishes the mainland Asiatics, reigns as strong as ever,
and is due undoubtedly to the late survival of the feudal
system among the Japanese, as is their contempt for death,
and the high honour in which the warrior is still held. Up
to the commencement of the seventeenth century, Japanese
history records an almost uninterrupted succession of inter-
necine feudal wars. The struggle was finally brought to an
end by the warrior Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokagawa rule,
who routed the armies of the opposing feudal princes in the
decisive battle of Seki-ga-hara, a wide heath situated not far
from the shores of Lake Biwa. Ieyasu proved himself as able
an administrator as he had shown himself warrior, and the
system of government by which he settled the country kept
it in profound peace, with the exception of religious dis-
turbances due to the alternate favouring and persecution of
Christianity, for a term of nearly three centuries, from a. d.
1603 to a. d. 1868, which latter year saw the end of the feudal
system, exactly 2,123 years subsequent to the date of its
abolition in China. In the same way that that remarkable
innovator, the 'First Emperor,' broke up feudal China into
thirty-six provinces, all dependent on the central power, so
the successful revolutionary government in Japan, either as
a coincidence or of intention, divided up the Mikado's empire
into thirty-six prefectures or departments. The opening of
the country to foreign influences, inaugurated by Commodore
Peny's tactful visit to Shimoda in 1854, and the treaties
resulting therefrom, would seem to have tolled the death-knell
of feudalism, a system which has had a longer and stronger
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 315
hold upon Japan than upon any other country in the world,
and which has thus exerted a correspondingly exceptional in-
fluence upon the character of the Japanese people. Modern
Japanese writers on the subject express a doubt as to whether
or no feudal traditions will continue to exert their influence
on the Japanese character, and so infuse morality into
business that the merchant shall be imbued with the principles
of the Samurai warrior. At present, the feudal idea that
a gentleman who soils his hand with trade can no longer
remain a gentleman is still the popular one. But now the
Samurai, who formerly relegated trade to the lowest class
of their countrymen, are beginning themselves to enter the
ranks as merchants, shipowners, and manufacturers ; and the
question now asked by many Japanese thinkers is : \\ 'ill trade
corrupt the warrior, or will Bushido principles one day ennoble
the calling of the merchant ? Prophecy is at fault with a
people like the Japanese ; possibly the future may hold
surprises in store for us in this domain also. A recent
Japanese author defines Bushido as ' the precepts of knight-
hood ' — the Noblesse oblige of the warrior class, the Samurai,
originally guards = soldurii. The Samurai were farther
under the influence of Shintoism, the ancient religious belief
of the Japanese, akin to that of the early Chinese : submission
to the sovereign as the vicegerent of God on earth, and
reverence for ancestors (mistranslated as ancestral worship),
and Nature-worship — the worship of the unseen and inscrutable,
though ever-present, forces of nature. To these were added
the ethical doctrines of Confucius and the more democratic
teachings of Mencius. Confucius defined the five ' constants'
of the Chun-tse, or Noble Man, as Benevolence, Uprightness,
Decorum, Enlightenment, Sincerity. Of these, the Japanese
seem to have selected the second and third (in Chinese, I, Li)
as the watchword of the nobleman — in Japanese, ' Giri,' which
is commonly rendered by our word ' duty ' ; to this, the
Japanese characteristically added 'Courage,' which was to
be taught by purposely inflicted hardship. Upon all these
was superimposed the teaching of Buddhism, which seems t«»
have had a fully equal power in taming the savage instincts
of the Asiatic to that exercised by Christianity in taming our
316 THE FAR EAST
own savage ancestry in the West. Thereby was enforced the
first of the five virtues originally taught by Confucius —
'Benevolence,' — and so 'Bushi no nasake,' the tenderness of the
warrior, became proverbial. 'Li,' which we have translated
above as ' Decorum,' but which in Japanese is rather rendered
by ' Politeness,' Confucius placed third, and after Benevolence ;
hence the Japanese define politeness as a modest respect for
the feelings of others, a duty not actuated solely by the fear
of offending good taste ; it includes ' Gracefulness,' a special
quality of the warrior as exhibiting the most economical
employment of force, and ' Fine Manners ' as exhibiting power
in repose. It also includes Honesty, which curiously enough
comes last in the list of Confucian virtues, and which we, like
the Japanese, derive from Honour ; and the Mencian virtue
of Shame, the root of all, in that it makes its successor
ashamed of the least ignoble act. The insistence on self-
control led to stoicism, and hence the small provocation,
such as the slightest impeachment of his honour, with which
the Samurai resorted to suicide, in the cruel form of the
Hara-kiri. The beauty of the warrior-creed lies, not in its
contempt for money, as such, but in its fixed belief that true
service is not purchasable by, or repayable with, money ; the
Samurai believed alone in service without price, not because
it was valueless, but because it was invaluable; the best
service being immeasurable, money (the ostensible measure
of value) cannot apply. Yet the principles of knighthood
may be carried too far, as in the all but deification of the
warrior's sword, the touching of which, only accidentally, by an
outsider, was deemed an insult that could only be avenged
with blood. The moral characteristic that mainly distinguishes
the Japanese is ' Reticence ' : reticence in art, as shown by
moderation in detail and in ornamentation : reticence in conduct,
as shown by their self-control, and their treatment of children
and animals without ever giving way to temper or blows : reti-
cence in manners, as shown by simplicity of decoration in their
homes and in their contempt for vulgar display. One notices
in the Japanese the common Oriental lack of frankness and
plain-speaking, coupled with an extreme politeness of manner :
their long submission to a feudal despotism and government
THE ISLAND EMPIRE: JAPAN 317
espionage has doubtless led to this excessive caution. The
inauguration of popular government in 1868 may, in the course
of time, produce a change in this respect. Whether increased
intercourse with the essentially vulgar West will, as many well-
wishers fear, at the same time destroy the old simplicity of living,
the future will show.
The titanic struggle now proceeding in Manchuria de-
monstrates that willing self-sacrifice, as dictated by the pre-
cepts of Bushidd, is to-day as freely offered as it ever was,
while the result of the contest between ' brains ' and brute
force is the same now as of old —
Vis consili expers mole ruit sua :
Vim temperatam di quoque provehunt
In matus.
The final result is no longer in doubt : the attainment of this
result is a warning to the West to revise its estimate of the
East in general, and in particular to note, if not to copy, the
teaching and the methods by which the result has been
reached, and farther, to learn the lesson that Providence is
not necessarily upon the side of the Christian West.
In any case, the extraordinary contrast we find to-day
between the Chinese and Japanese, both branches of one
family, affords a most interesting subject of study and a
theme for endless prophecies. Indeed, all the various peoples
contained in the region known as the ' Far East,' that we have
here attempted to depict, all of the same stock, and all
deriving their civilization from a common source, deserve
an exhaustive description where we have only attempted an
impressionist sketch. The time will come when the Far East
will be thought worth}* of the same historical research that
savants have devoted to the countries bordering the Mediter-
ranean and the ' Near East ' — the site of our own intellectual
ancestry ; but the language difficulty remains an obstacle,
never to be completely overcome. To such exhaustive
treatment in the time coming, the present work may perhaps
serve as a modest introduction.
INDEX
ACCADIA, I98
Aconite, 79
Aigun, 158, 159
Ainus, the, 282, 291
Akasaki, 284
Akashi, Straits of, 292
Aksu, 190, 194; River, 198
Ala Lake, 175
Alashan, 186 ; Mountains, 181 ; Sand
desert, 173, 174, 176
Alatau Range, 190
Albazin, 158
Aleutian Mountains, 300
Algae, edible, 291
Alin Mountains, 159
Along Bay, 237
Alps, Japanese, 286
Altai Mountains, 172, 175, 176, 182,
184
Altyn-tagh Mountains, 5, 1 1, 175,212
Amakasa, 282 ; Sea, 293
Amazon River, 58 ; Valley, 54
Amban, Chinese, 207, 217
Amherst Embassy, 100
Am-nok River, 245, 249
Amoy, 116, 118, 119, 303, 308
Amur region, 11 ; River, 7, 158, 160,
161, 173; Valley, 159
Amurskaia, 160
Andaman Islands, 276
Angkor, 230, 277 ; Angkor Tarn, 229 ;
Angkor-wat, 222
Anglo-French Convention, 13
An-hien, 80
An-hsi, 189, 190, 194, 195
Ann, British brig, 309
Annam, 3, 11, 13, 14, 220, 221, 224;
area, 14, 233; crops,235; fisheries,
234 ; Mountains, 223, 224, 225 ;
rainfall, 235
Annamese, the, 219, 234, 239
Anping, 307
Aomori Bay, 289
Arabs, the, 119
Aral Lake, 1S3; Sea, 10
Arctic current, 301 ; Sea, 5, 175
Argun River, 160
Arthur, Port, 46, 158, 162, 167, 169
Aryans, the, 258
Ashio copper mine, 288
Asia, area, 1 ; analogy of coast with
North America, 243 ; compared
with Europe, 2 ; Eastern, meteor-
ology, 38, 156, 157; population,
17 ; South-east, river basins, 19
Aso-san Volcano, 294
Assam, 11, 209
Athos, Mount, 115
Atuntse, 53
Auckland, Mount, 251
Awaji, 292
Ayuthia, 262, 263, 273
Azure Wall Range, 79, 82, 88
Baber, Mr., 58, 132
Bactria, 20
Badak-shan, 194
Bagarash Lake, 189
Baian-kara-ula Mountains, 211, 214
Baikal, Lake, II, 172, 176, 311
Baitarik River, 183
Balkash Lake, 10, 11, 175, 193
Bamor, 190
Bam Tso Lake, 206
Bananas, 263
Bandai-san Volcano, 288
Bangkok, 7, 13, 228, 260, 261, 262,
263, 265, 266, 267, 268 ; Bangkok-
Cheng-mai Railway, 270; Bang-
kok-Korat Railway, 26S
Bangpa-Kong River, 267
Bangtaphan, 275
Banshee Islands, 301
Barley, 28, 32, 77, 80, 93, 95, 164,
199, 306
Batang, 53, 69, 70, 205, 207, 209
Batavia, 309
Battambang, 277
Bayandi, 192
Bazan-gol River, 211
INDl'.X
3T9
Beans, 7 1, 77, 79, ill
Beechy, Captain, 283
Behring Sea, 16; Strait, 300
Belgium, 221
Bengal, 221 ; Bay of, 266
Bernard, Captain Fernand, 221
Bertrand, Captain, 224
Besshi copper mine, 293
Bhamo, 53, 124
Bhutan, 205, 206
Bickmore, A. S., 141, 144, 147
Bien-hoa, 227
Bingo-nada, the, 298
Bishbalik, 189
Bishop, Mrs., 245
Biwa Lake, 287, 289, 296
Black Flags, 136, 310; River, 121, 174
Blagoveschensk, 158, 168
Blakiston, Captain, 58, 59, 60
Bod, 217
Bogdo-ula Range, 9, 175, 189
Bogue Forts, 143
Bohea Mountains, 117
Bokhara, 10, 1 88
Bokhara, wreck of s.s., 305
Bolowen, 231
Bombay, 242
Bombay-Burma Corporation, 270
Bonin Islands, 283
Borneo Company, 270
Botel-Tobago, 308
Bower, Colonel, 197
Boxers, 183
Bramaputra River, 204
British Isles, 279, 280, 281
Broad Lakes Province, 62
Broughton Bay, 246 ; Strait, 279
Bubonic plague, 130
Buckwheat, 79
Buddhism, 41, 115, 1S4, 200, 215,
216, 229, 230, 254, 255, 259, 315
Bungo Channel, 293, 299
Burkhan-Bota Mountains, 211, 214
Burma, 3, 11, 13, 125; Convention,
150; invasions of, 63
Burma-Yunnan, proposed railway,
125
Burmese, the, 63
Bushell, Dr., 180
1 Bushido,' 313, 315
Buzung Khan, 201
Calcutta, 241
Cambodia, 13, 121, 220, 22r, 222,
229 ; area and population, 230 ;
Hindus in, 229
Cambodians, the, 232, 278
Campbell, Mr, 270
Camphor, 306
Canton, 8, 11, 26, 98, 100, 112, 130,
134, 136, 137, 139. 143. '49. I51-
l57> 238; delta, 153; dialect, 21 '
Cantonese, the, 42, 137, 140
Canton-Hankow Railway, 139
Capuchin Monks, 217
Caspian Sea, 175
Cassia, 136
Cattle, 95
Celestial Mountains (see Tien-shan
Mountains)
Cespedes, 255
Chadyr Kal. the, 199
Chagpori, the, 207
Chai, ?o
Champawn River, 275
Chang- an, 27, 41, 229; Chang-chih-
tung, Viceroy, 77; Chang-Hien-
chung, 73 ; Chang-kia-kou, 182 ;
Chang-kiang River, 56 ; Chang-
pei-shan Mountains. 15. 159
Changchow, 108, 119
Changsha, 96, 98
Changteh, 35, 96
Chantabun, 13,260, 263, 272,277
Chao Hsien, 245; Chao-to, General,
147 .
Chaoking, 134
Chaoping, 146
Chaotung, 125, 128, 139
Chapu, ill
Charing-nor Lake, 21 1
Chefoo, 48, 49 ; Convention, 150
Che-huans, the, 307
Chekiang, 102, 104, 10S ; area and
population, 1 10; crops and manu-
factures, ill ; River, no
Che-ling Pass, 99, 139
Chemulpo, 245, 246, 250, 251
Chen, Prince of Tsin, 41
Chenchow, 139
Chengting, 31
Chengtu, 27, 65, 70, 74, 76. 90. 207 ;
Plain, 66, 71, 78, 209; crops, 79,
S7 ; drainage, Mo; irrigation, 79,
83, 86, 89 ; lake-bed, 78 ; refuge
cities, 80; roads, 8l ; Taotai of,86
Chen-liu Record, K5
Cherchen, 190, 105 ; River, 195.
3?o
INDEX
Chia-lung, the Emperor, 234
Ch'iang, 217
Chiang-yii, 80
Chicugo, 296
Chien-chang Valley, 70, 74, 140;
Chien-kan, 273 ; Chien-Kwang,
271, 273
Chieng-Bangkok Railway, 270
Chieng-hai, 13; Chieng-mai, 265, 270,
268
Chihli, 23, 33, 40, 161, 174, 177, 1S0 ;
area and population, 36 ; inhabi-
tants, 36, 37 ; Gulf, 33, 35, 163 ;
Plain, 22, 29, 33, 35, 38
Chii-yang-kwan, 178; Chii-yuan, 93
Chi-ming-shan Range, 178
Chimpanzi, 192
Chin Dynasty, 27
China, 3 ; burning of books, 313 ;
Central Kingdom, 19 ; coal and
iron, 30 ; dependencies, 9, 191 ;
Dowager Empress, 40, 55, 166;
Er-shih er sheng, 8 ; Europe com-
pared, 3 ; superimposed, 2 ; feu-
dal system, 3 12; geology, 24; Great
Wall, 8, 26, 31, 35, 41, 54, 133,
143, 147, 162, 166, 170, 172, 173,
174, 175, 178, 179, 180, 182, 184,
186, 189, 313 ; beginning of his-
torical period, 20 ; Imperial Gazet-
teer, 198; Indo-French Empire, 14;
China-Japan, Treaty of Formosa,
339; China-Japan War, 109; middle
basin, 53 ; north-west gales, 29 ;
population, 17, 262 ; ruling dy-
nasty, 164 ; railways, 43, 167, 200;
Roman Catholic Missions, 137 ;
scenery, 16 ; Shih-pa sheng, 8 ;
Shu-king, or Book of History, 47 ;
Three Kingdoms Epoch, 313 ;
north, climate, 38 ; configuration,
24; orographical, 44; political,
45 ; Sea, 14, 98, 208, 266 ; storm
tracks, 302; typhoons, 225, 302
Chi?ia Sea Directory, 284
Chinampo, 250
Chinchew, 118, 119
Chinese, the, 4, 20, 23, 166, 201, 258 ;
Amban, 207, 217 ; civilization, 23,
313, 317 ; diet, 23 ; emigration, 1 19,
307; homogeneity, 55 ; ideographic
writing, 56; origin, 54, 197; re-
cuperative power, 109 ; Empire,
area, 2 ; circumference, 12
Cliinese Repository, 1 1 7
Ching-cheng-shan Range, 79
Ching-ming feast, 86
Chinhai Fortress, 115
Chinkiang, 40, 104, 107
Chin Shih Hwangti, the Emperor,
178, 180, 312, 313
Chokai-san Peak, 290
Chow Dynasty, 20, 27
Chowkung, 20
Chows, the, 20, 22, 41, 258
Christianity, 314, 315
Chuan Chu, 90; Chuan-ho River, 56
Chugushak, Treaty of, 175
Chu-hi, 113
Chumbi Valley, 206, 210, 218
Chumolarhi Peak, 206
Chun, the Emperor, 47
Chung -hua-ti, 42; Chung - kiang
River, 69, 81 ; Chung-king, 58, 66,
69, 7h 75, 77, 81, 86, 92, 139;
Chung-kvvo, 19, 42; Chung- pa -
chang, 80 ; Chung-ti, 42 ; Chung
Wang, 108
Chusan Archipelago, 59, 104, 1 12,
114, 115
Chusenji Lake, 296
Chu-yai, 150
Cinnabar, 133
Cinnamon, 136
Circian, 195
Cis-Mekong, the, 14
Claire River, 237
Coal, 29, 30, 33, 42, 51, 67. 76, 95 1
143, 164, 178, 237, 239, 240, 256,
295, 296, 306
Cochin China, 3, 13, 220, 221, 227,
234 ; crops, 227 ; population, 228 ;
rice delta, 14
Cock's Comb Rock, 146 ; Head, 57
Colquhoun, — , 125
Confucius, 44, 47, 48,219,255,315,316
Copper, 68, 122, 214,239, 288, 289,293
Corea, 4, 15, 45, 243, 244, 251 ; archi-
pelago, 251 ; area and population,
247 ; Bay of, 46; civilization, 253 ;
climate, 247 ; divisions, 252 ; Em-
peror of, 249 ; geology, 246 ; Her-
mit kingdom, 14, 15 ; Japanese
invasions, 255 ; mineral resources,
256; Mongol invasion, 250, 254;
orographical, 248 , Peninsula, n,
12, 244 ; rivers, 248 ; tributary to
Japan, 254
INDEX
321
Coreans, the, 162, 247
Cork County, 78.
Cotton, 28, 42, 79, 108, in, 227, 232,
308, 309
Cua-cam River, 237
Cunningham, — , 240
Curzon, Lord, 203, 21 S
Dalai Lama, the, 205, 206, 207, 216
Dalai-nor, Lake, 35, 160, 167, 169,
172
Dalny, 167
Daimios, the, 283, 283, 312
Danube River, 69
Darshan, 200
Dates, 32
David, Pere Amand, 62
Davis Straits, 300
Dawng Praya Yen Forest, 267, 268
Deasy, Captain, 213
Debung Monastery, 206
Decima, Dutch Settlement of, 293
Deep Bay, 152
Detroit River, 61
Dhu, Commander Roderick. 1 1 5
Diamond Mountains, 246, 247
Dolon-nor, 180
Donkyr, 210
Donnai River, 223, 224, 227, 331
Doring Monastery, 216
Doumer, M., 236, 237
Dragon Boat Festival, 93 ; Dragon
Throne, 40, jt» ir4> 166, 255
Drave River, 69
Drought, 26
Dryandra oil, 71
Dsungaria, 175, 185, 188, 189; Futai
of, 190
Dungans, the, 192 ; insurrection of,
175
Dust-storms, 38
Dutch, the : Decima Settlement, 293 ;
in Formosa, 308
Dutreil de Rhins, M., 196
East India Company. 151
Echu-hida Mountains, 2S7
Edible birds'-nests, 276
Egg-plant, 79
Elias, Ney, 183
Erh-hai Sea. ) 23
Erie, Lake, 61
Etchu, 287
Etingsol. the, 174
Eurasia, 203
Europe, comparative to China Proper,
3; superimposed on China, 2; com-
parison between Asia and, 2
Fa- hi en. 41, 200
Fai-fu coal-field, 225, 234
Far East, definition of, 1, 4, 6, 7, 16;
political geography of, 18
Feet-binding, 119, 137
Fengchow, 97
Feng-hsiang Gorge, jy
Fengtien, 158, 162
Fengyang, 103
Fen-ho River, 31, 33
Ferrand, Captain, 234
Fisher Island, 304
Fish-skin Tartars, 169
Five Peaks Mountains, ico
Foochow, 98
Forest Pass, 146
Formosa, 4, 15, 16, 116, 155, 279,
280, 282, 301, 305 ; area and popu-
lation of, 303 ; Channel, 243, 303.
304; China-Japan treaty of 1876.
309 ; Chinese immigration to. 307 ;
climate of, 306, 308 ; Dutch in.
308 ; history of, 308 ; Portuguese
in, 306. 308 ; products of, 306
Fortune, Robert, no, 117
Fouliang River, 100
France, 12, 221
' Fu,' of Shansi, 25 ; River, 70
Fuchow, 97, 116, 118
Fuji Mountain, 286; Fuji-gawa Val-
ley, 287 ; Fuji-yama, 285
Fu-kiang River, 69
Fukien, 115. 116, 119. 30S ; River,
no
Fukienese, the. 120
Fu-niu-shan Range, 43
Fusan. 15. 246, 251, 252. 256
Fychow, 102
Gabet, 205
Ganfu, 1 12
Ganges River, 5S
Ganju-san Peak, 290
Garden Monastery, 206
Gamier, Francois, 234
Gem mines of Siam, ^71
Genghis Khan, 4, 34, 38, 113. 13»i
184, 185, 216, 255
322
INDEX
Gensan, 251, 252
German Mining Company, 51
Gibson, Rev. J. Campbell, 137
Gila Pass, 209
Gill, Mr., 207, 209
Gin-seng, 250
Gobi Desert, 172, 174, 176, 177, 184,
186, 187, 189, 213
Gold, 68, 214, 256, 275
Golden Age, the, 47, 312
Gordon, General, 109
Goto Islands, 282, 301
Gough, Sir Hugh, 106
Grain Canal {see Grand Canal)
Grand Canal, 40, 45, 47, 50, 83, 104,
107, 109
Grapes, 32
Grasswrack, the, 213
Greece, 23
Greenland Sea, 300
Guillemard, Dr., 304
Gumbum, Monastery of, 210
Guppy, Dr., 58, 59, 60
Gurhan Saikhab Range, 177
Gurkhas, the, 217
Gyangtse, 204, 205, 206
Habarovsk, 160
Hai-ching-kung, 309
Hainan, 8, 138, 140, 149
Haiphong, 224, 237, 242
Hakata, 296
Hakka, 137
Hakkas, the, 74, 137, 308
Hakodate, 290, 291, 301
Hakone Lake, 296
Haku-san Peak, 287
Hami, 10, 189, 190, 194
Hamilton, Port, 251
Han Dynasty, 20, 27, 41, 42, 75, 82,
136, 147, 149, 195, 2co, 219, 229.
313; River, 58, 92, 95, 140, 225,
245, 246, 250; the, 72, 73 ; Valley,
26, 27, 91 ; Wuti, the emperor,
136, 149, 200
Hanchung, 26, 27, 95
Hangchow, 90, 106, 107, 108, 109,
III, 112, 113, 165 ; Bay, 35, 61,
103, 112; Bore, in
Hankow, 57, 59, 77, 91, 93, 94, 95,
96, 98, 136; Hankow-Canton rail-
way, 1 39 ; Hankow- Peking railway,
40
Hannah, — .216
Han-nor, 173, 179
Hanoi, 121, 135, 234, 237, 241, 242 ;
plain, 226; Hanoi-YunnanRailway,
236
Hanyang, 94
Hara-kiri, 316
Harbin, 158, 159, 160, 167, 168;
population, 169
Harima, 289; Harima-nada, 298
Hastings, Warren, 218
Ha-tinh, 225
Hatteras, Cape, 155
Hauan-tsang, the Monk, 41
Hearn, Lacfadio, 285
Hedin, Dr. Sven, 196
Hei-ho River, 174
Heilung-kiang, 158, 159, 161
Hei-shui River, 168
Hemp, 28, 42, 70, 164, 199, 306
Hen Point, 61, 103
Heng-kiang Valley, 128
Heong-shan Island, 152
Hermit Kingdom, the, 14, 15
Hida, 287
Hideyoshi, 255, 256
Hien City, 25 ; counties, 25
Hienfung, the emperor, 180
Himalaya Mountains, II, 205, 215
Hindu-Kush, 20, 199
Hindus, 229, 258, 259
Hindustan, 56, 219
Hinka Lake, 158
Hiung-nu tribe, 195, 200
Ho River, 5 ; Ho Range, 23
Hochow, 70
Ho-fei, 103
Hoihow, 150
Hojo Tokimune, 296
Hokkaido, 16, 282
Honan, 23, 40, 42, 43, 44 ; area, 39 ;
coal and iron, 42 ; plain, 22 ;
roads, 42
Hondo, 279, 282, 285, 287, 296,299 ;
tidal wave, 289
Hongay coal-field, 237, 239
Hongkong, 49, 52, 119, 121, 129,
130, 138, 141, 150, 152, 241, 244,
302
Honshiu, 282
Hope, Admiral, 37
Hosie, — , 164
Hou Chu, 73
Hsuan-hua Plain, 179
Hsu-chow-fu, 65
INDEX
;-,
Hue, the Abbe, 94, 205
Huchow, 107, 108
Hue, 14, 224, 225, 234, 237 ; River,
224, 271 ; Hu^-nam-ngau, 272
Hui ferry, 74
Huichow-fu, 102
Hui-li-chou, 140
Hukwang, 62; viceroyalty of, 91
Hulda, 158
Hunan, 54, 91, 93, 134 ; area and
population, 96 ; dialects, 97 ; rail-
ways, 96 ; timber trade, 98
Hung-shui River, 133, 134
Hungwu, the emperor, 103, 255
Hun-ho River, 31, 35
Hupeh, 40, 43, 54, 60, 62, 64, 87,
143; area and population, 91;
floods, 91; plains, 63; products.
95 ; Szechuan routes, 92 ; Taotai
of, 93
Hurka River (see Mutan Kiang)
Huron Lake, 61
Hu-to River, 31
Hwai, Prince of Tsu, 93; Range, 40 ;
River, 39, 43, 91 ; salt, 108;
Valley, 102
Hwang -hai Do, 246; Hwang - pu
River, 29, 104, 105 ; Hwang-shan
Mountains, 102
Hwangti, 54
Hwen-tsang, 200
Ichang, 56, 58, 59, 65, 76, 77, 92, 93 ;
Gorge of, 57, 64, 142
Iemitsu, 282
Ieyasu, 165, 256, 285, 314
Ike Island, 296
Hi, 175, 186; River, 9, 10, 187, 191.
192; Valley, 9, 12, 188, 190
litis Gebirge Hills, 50
litis, German gun-boat, loss of, 46
Inawashiro Lake, 297
India, British, 11, 23 ; area of, 264
Indigo, in, 140, 164, 239, 306
Indo-China, 1, 219, 241,264; area
of, 220 ; boundaries of, 222 ; Bud-
get-G£ne'ral of, 241 ; climate and
crops of, 220 ; French Empire of,
14; population of, 221 ; Roman
Catholic Missions in, 219
Indo-Chinese Peninsula, area of,
264 ; rivers of, 264
Ink, Indian, 102
Inland Sea, the, 289, 298, 300
In-Shan Range, 181
Irawaddy River, 63, [24: Valley,
123
Irkutsk, 11, 172
Iron, 29, 30, 33, 42, 67, 95. 2-/>
Irtish River, 172, 176
Ishizuchi-yama Peak, 292
Iterup, 284
Izu Islands, 284
Izumi-nada, 298 ; sea reach of, 298
Jabkan River, 1S3
Jade Gate, 189
Jagatai, 189
James, Mr., 161, 163
Japan, I, 4, 16, 244; area of, 16,
279 ; baths, 297 ; chief features,
297; climate and crops, 2S1 ;
civilization in, 253, 313, 317 ; cul-
tivation, 280; feudal system, 312,
314 ; flora, 291 ; Formosan treaty
of 1876, 309; glaciers, absence of,
297; Inland Sea of (see Inland
Sea); island group of, 16; Mikado
of, 279, 285, 303; Murray's Hand-
book, 283, 2S6, 288, 294; Old, 282,
285 ; orography of, 280 ; popula-
tion of, 281 ; scenery, 16; sea of,
14, 169, 245, 250, 279, 289; war
with China, 1 09; war with Russia, 3,
317
Japanese, the, 4 ; Alps, 286 ; ethno-
graphy of, 310 ; pirates, 106 : war
of 1894, 109
Jedyn Pass, 168
Jehangir, 201
Jehol, 173, 180
Jesuits, the, 309
Jingo, the Fmpress, 254
Jute, 306
Kachin COUNTRY, 209
Kagoshima, 293 ; Guli, 2^2
Kaidu Khan, 194
Kaifeng, 22, ~y>, 40. 4'. 4-. 95!
Jewish merchants at, 41
Kaiyuen, battle of, 165
Kakyens, the, 124
Kala Tso, 206
Kalgan, 35, 173- "7". '77. "79
Kalmuks. the, 182, 1 84, 192, 217
Kamaishi, 299
Kamaye-ura, 29 >
V :
324
INDEX
Kambalu, 34
Kami-no-kuni, 298
Kamschatka, 15, 16
Kan, 189; River, 99, 100
Kanghi, the Emperor, 6, 120, 180,
181, 185, 201, 216, 217, 309
Kang-won Do, 245
Kanpu, ill, 112, 119
Kansu, 10, 21, 22, 23, 28, 174, 212
Kao-liang, 164, 169
Kaolin, 100, 295
Karakorum, 184 ; Mountains, 215
Karashar, 190
Karo La, the, 206
Kash River, 192
Kashgar, 10, 186, 188, 190, 194, 199,
202; River, 198
Kashgaria, 12, 200
Kashmir, 11, 205
Kashun-nor Lake, 174
Keane, Professor, 263
Kebao coal-field, 237
Kelung, 304, 306 ; French bombard-
ment, 310; Kelung-Taihoku Rail-
way, 307
Keng Ching Chung, Viceroy, 120
Keng-pakwang, 270
Keria, 190
Khailar, 168, 169
Khalka tribe, 185
Khangai Mountains, 183
Khan-Tengri, 175
Kharbar-assu, 175
Khatmandu, 217
Khingan Mountains, 159, 172, 173,
181
Khiva, 10, 188
Khong, 273; cataracts, 232 ; railway,
232
Khorasan, 201
Khotan, 186, 190, 197, 215; river,
198
Khua-khem River, 176
Kiaching, the Emperor, 85, 208
Kiaochow Bay, 46, 48, 50 ; river, 46
Kiachta, 172, 177, 180; Kiachta-
Peking Railway, 185
Kialing River, 69, 70, 80
Kian, Great, River, 62
Kiang River, 5, 20
Kianghung, 125, 260
Kiangkeng, 222, 260
Kiangnan, viceroyalty, 104
Kiangning, 107
Kiangpeh, 22
Kiangsi, 53, 143 ; area and popula-
tion, 99 ; climate, 101 ; products,
101
Kiangsu, 22, 36, 40, 54, 56, 113;
area and population, 104; climate,
108; products, 108
Kiangtung, 260
Kiangyin, 57
Kiating, 66, 140
Kieng-hai, 260, 265
Kien-lung, the Emperor, 6, 180, 185,
201, 208, 217
Kii Channel, 292, 299
King River, 93 {and see Yangtse)
Kingchow, 93
King-kiang River, 100
Kingsmill, T. W., 24, 112, 141, 144,
213
Kingtehchen, 100
Kin Dynasty, 165 ; River, 209 ;
Tartars, 106, 113
Kinhokou, 209
Kinsay, 112
Kinsha River, 56, 63, 65, 69, 159,
205, 209, 214
Kioto, 255, 285, 287
Kirghis, the, 182
Kiria River, 213
Kirin, 12, 158, 159, 160, 161, 168
Kirishima-yama Peak, 293
Kisenuma, 299
Kishu, 292
Kitan Tartars, 165
Kiukiang, 57, 95, 96, 100, 143
Kiu-lung River, 116, 119
Kiushiu, 15, 282, 285, 300,303, 311 ;
area, 293 ; ceramic industry, 295 ;
climate, 295 ; coal, 295 ; products,
294, 295 ; volcanoes, 293
Kobdo, 172, 175, 176, 182, 183
Kobe, 285, 286
Kofu, 287
Kokand, 188
Kok-han, 146
Koko-nor Lake, 211, 212; plateau,
174, 186, 199, 210
Komaga-take Mountain, 287, 288,
290
Konchen-daria River, 189
Korat, 268; plateau, 260, 267; Korat-
Bangkok Railway, 268
Korla, 189, 190
Koshu, 287
INDEX
3*1
Kotosho, 308
Kowloon Peninsula, 152
Kra Isthmus, I, 13, 266, 275
Krati£, 231, 232
Krusenstern Strait, 287, 301
Kuanchangtse, 158
Kublai Khan, 4, 38,83,114, 119, 165.
194, 216, 296
Kucha, 190, 197
Kuchar, 194
Ku-i River, 98
Kuku-nor Plateau, 88
Kulangsu Island, 119
Killing, 101
Kulja, 9, 10, 186, 189, 190, 191, 192
Kulun Lake, 169 (and see Dalai-nor)
Kumamota, 293, 294
Kunashiri, 284
Kung Dukes, 48
Kunges River, 192
Kung-tau River, 97, 131, 133, 139
Kunia-shari, 196
Kunlong Ferry, 124
Ku-peh-kon Pass, 180
Kuriles, the, 16, 279, 281, 284, 290.
291
Kuro-siwo River, 155, 243, 244, 292,
295. 3°°» 3d
Kushi, 200
Ku-tse, 164
Kwangbinh, 224
Kwangchengtse, 168
Kwangchow Bay, 150
Kwangsi, II, 12, 121, 134; area and
population, 136; products, 136
Kwangtung, 11, 121, 138 ; area and
population, 140; emigration, 140;
geology, 141 ; languages, 140 ;
products, 140; Viceroyalty, 145
Kwanhien, 66, 80, 82, 88; dyke, 85 :
Water Commissioner, 86
Kwanti (God of War), 313
Kwanto plain, 299
Kwanue, 313
Kwanyin Buddha, 115
Kweichow, 20, 54, 64, 65, 77, 93.
121 ; area and population, 131 ;
crops, 133; immigration, 133
Kwei-hua-cheng, 168, 172, 182
Kweilin, 98, 134, 136, 139, 147
Kweiyang, 97, 131, 139
Kwenlun Mountains, 5, 11. 43, 57.
199, 205, 212, 213
Kyi Chu Valley, 206
Ladak, 205, 2IO
Lagrilliere-Beauclerc, M., 228, 236
Lai Mountains, 46
Laichow, 46
Lama-miao, 180
Lamas, the, 184, 206, 210, 215, 216,
217
Lanchow, 21, 189
Lang-biang Plateau, 223
Langson, 227, 238
Langsuan, 275
Lantao Island, 152
Lan-tsang River, 230
Laokai, 129, 227, 236; coal-field,
240
Laos, 220, 221, 222, 225, 260, 267 ;
area and population of, 233 ; rain-
fall, 233 ; the, 14, 239
Laotiens, the, 233
Laowatan River, 128
Lao-ya Tan, 128
La Perouse Strait, 291, 301
Lappa Island, 152
Lazareff, Port, 15, 252
Lead, 214
Leechuen, voyage of s.s., 77.
Leh, 210, 213
Lemons, 1 17
Leu-Ian, 200
Lhasa, 5, 70, 199, 203, 204, 205,
207, 209, 212, 216; Lhasa-de, 205,
212; British Mission to, 204, 206 ;
monasteries of, 206 ; population,
206; Valley, 206
Li, 97 ; River, 96, 97 ; the, 149
Liang biang-Saigon Railway, 227
Liang-kwang, 133 ; Viceroyalty of,
134
Liao, the, 165 ; dynasty, 165 ; valley,
159, 162; crops and products of,
163; river, 162; rulers of Man-
churia, 34; Liao-si, 162
Liaotung, 12, 45, 161, 162, 249;
plain, 158
Liaoyang, 165, 168
Lichuen, 92
Li Erh-Iang, 82
Li-hien, 97
Li Hung-chang, 103, 234
Likin, the, 77, 92
Limin, the, (>, 197
Li Ping. 82, 86, «7, 90
Lit;ing, 205, 207
Litton, Mr. Consul. 88
326
INDEX
Liuchiu Islands, 4, 16, 156, 282, 283,
301.
Liu-pei, Prince, 27, 72,
Liu-sung Dynasty, 40
Lo River, 39, 41
Lob, 200
Lob-nor Lake, 10, 187, 190, 198
Loess lands, 22, 25
Lolo, the, 65, 209
London County, 78
Long White Mountain, 161, 164
Lop, Desert of, 196
Lopatka Cape, 281
Lopburi, 263
Lo-yang, 27, 41, 42
Lu River, 90
Luang-prabang, 232, 233, 260 ; fron-
tier of, 222 ; plateau, 226, 231
Luan-ho River, 180
Luchow, 81
Lu-han, 50 ; railway, 95
Lu-kwan range, 173, 174
Lung River, 1 18
Lungan, 80
Lungchow, 135
Lungchuen, 33
Lungmen Gorge, 31
Lu-shan Mountains, 101
Lu-ting Chiao Bridge, 208
Macao, 139, 150, 152 ; harbour, 152;
population, 151
Macartney Embassy, 100 ; Lord,
III, 139, 180
McCarthy, Mr., 273
Macdonald, Sir Claude, 53
Mace, 136
Mackay Treaty, 75, 186
Madder, 79
Mahometan risings, 28, 53, 122,
130, 191 ; religion, spread of, 201
Maimachin, 172
Maize, 28, 71, 77, 79, 80, 123, 133,
164, 199, 210, 306
Malay Archipelago, 276 ; federated
states, 262, 274; Peninsula, I, 13,
219, 260, 261 ; tribes, 13, 258
Ma-ling Range, 95
Malta, 282
Ma-lung-ho River, 236
Manchu Dynasty, 36, 55, 109, 136,
155, 165,217,313; invasion, 1644,
41 ; language, 166; Tartars, 55
Manchuria, 3, 9; area, 15, 155-8;
Chinese invasions, 72 ; Chinese
population, 158; climate, 38; in-
habitants, 166 ; Liao rulers of, 34 ;
Shantung immigration, 47
Manchurian Railway, 158
Manchus, the, 4, 83, 116, 255, 308
Mandalay, 124
Manhao, 123, 236
Manila, 241
Mantse, 68 ; the, 67, 132
Manzi, 119
Maochow, 66
Mapu, 251
Margary, — , murder of, 124
Martaban Gulf, 121
Masampo, 15, 252
Matu-shima, 288
Mayers, — , 149
Meadows, Thomas Taylor, 166
Mei-ling Pass, 99, 100, 139, 143
Meklong River, 267, 273
Mekong delta, 231, 232 ; River, 5, 6.
11, 13, 14, 63, 121, 214, 220, 222,
227, 230, 231, 232, 236, 259. 264,
268, 272, 273 ; Valley, 14, 270
Menam River, 7, 12, 13, 264, 265,
266, 268, 269, 270; Valley, 14,
259, 260, 267
Mencius, 48
Mendez Pinto, 283
Meng-hua Range, 123
Mengtse, 129, 130, 236
Meping River, 265, 268
Mergui, Island, 276
Mesny, General, 122, 126, 127
Miao Islands, 45
Miaotse, the, 13, 123, 131, 132, 133,
147
Mienchu, 80
Mikado, the, 279, 285, 303
Mike coal-field, 296
Millet, 23, 28, 32, 39, 164, 306
Mi-lo River, 93
Min River, 65, 66, 69, 80, 81, 82, 86,
88, 90, 116, 117, 207 ; Valley, 66
Ming Dynasty, 86, 103, 114, 151, 165,
178, 185, 219, 255, 308
Mings, the, 34, 41, 55, 73, 85. 106.
249
Mingti, the Emperor, 41
Mino, 287
Mirs Bay, 152
Mississippi River, 53
Missouri River, 53
INDEX
V-1
Mito coal-field, 295
Moji, 293
Mok-po, 252 ; River, 245
Monasteries, 206, 210, 216
Mongol Dynasty, 38, 55, 83, 185
Mongolia, 3, 9, 35, 157 ; area and
population, 171; boundary delimi-
tation, 176; Chinese invasions, 72;
natural poverty, 171 ; Ordos terri-
tory, 27; plateau, 179, 184
Mongols, the, 4, 34, 62, 106, 113, 114,
161, 162, 165, 171, 173, 181, 184,
185, 200, 217, 249, 254, 255, 258 ;
irruptions of, 54; Kalmuk, 182
Mons, the, 274, 278
Monsoon, North-east, 153, 225, 235,
285, 305
Montalto de Jesus, C. A., 152
Morgan, Delmar, 175
Morrison, Mount, 303 ; Robert, 137
Moslems, the, 202
Moulmein, 13, 125, 270
Mouravieff, 11
Mukden, 158, 164, 165, 168
Mulberry, the, 117
Murray's Handbook of Japan, 283,
286, 288, 294
Murui-ussu River, 63, 205, 212
Musart Pass, 10, 192
Mutan Kiang River, 161, 169
Mytho, province of, 221, 223
Nafa, 283
Nagasaki, 279, 293, 295, 297, 302
Nakawn Wat, 277
Nak-tong River, 252
Nambu, 299
Nam-hon River, 226
Nampo River, 268, 269
Nam-sak River, 268 ; Valley, 267
Nam-suang River, 273
Namti Valley, 129
Nam-u River, 272, 273
Nanchang-fu, 99, ico
Nandina plant, 293
Nanking, 34, 36, 61, 96, 100, 101,
103, 104, 106, 108, 109, 114 ; high-
lands, 102; treaty, 118, 129, 150,
151
Nan-kou, 178; Pass, 35, 173, 178
Nan-ling Mountains, 99
Nan-lu, the, 199
Nanning, 135, 238 ; steamers, 136
Nan-shan Mountains, 139, 211, 212
Nantai-ban Peak, 288
Nan Yueh, 149
Naruto, Straits of, 292 ; whirlpool,
299
Nase, 283
Na-thu La, 206
Naumann, 299
Nepaul, 3, 11, 205, 217
Nerchensk, 160, 173
Nestorian Tablet, the, 27
Newchwang, 158, 163, 167, 168;
trade, 162
New Dominion, the. 172, 174, 186,
188, 191, 198
Nganhui, 39, 40, 54, 103 ; area and
population, 101 ; granitic ranges,
101
Nganking, 103
Ngan-pu, 1 12
Nha-trang, 225
Niagara Falls, 64
Nicolaievsk, 160
Ni Dynasty, 255
Niigata, 285
Nii-taka-yama, 303
Nikko, 288; Mountains, -
Nile River, 58
Nine-nails Range, 209
Ningchow, 100
Ningpo, no, 112, 1 14, 115
Ninguta, 169, 170
Ningyuen, 70, 140
Niuchwang [see Newchwang)
Niukan Gorge, 64, 142
Noire River, 226, 236
Nok-tong River, 245
Nonni River, 159, 161, 164, 169
Norodom I, King, 222
North River, 139
Northern Road, Great, 76
Xova Scotia, 244
Nu-chen Tartars, 165
Nunataks, the, 25
Nurhachu, 164, 165
Nutgalls, 133
Nuts, ground, 2.S. in, 306
Nyang Chu Valley, 206
Odontala, Plain <>f, 211, 212
Oil, 71, 140; seeds, 95. 98, 306
(Vita, 283, 21*4
Okhotsk. Sea of. 156, 301
Okinawa. 283
Oki-no-shima Archipi ..
338
INDEX
Omasaki, Cape, 28S
Omi, Lake, 296 ; Mount, 66, 20S
Opium, 28, 71, 127, 130, 133, 164
Oranges, 71, 79, 117
Ordos Desert, 22, 173, 174, 176, 182
Oring-nor, Lake, 211
Orkhon River, 177
Orleans, New, 106
Orleans, Henri d', Prince, 241
• Ornamental Monumental Rock,' 146
'Orphan, the Little,' 146
Osaka, 286, 298
O Shan Range, 66
Oshima, 283
Otomo, the Daimio, 283
Pacific Ocean, 4, 11, 173
Padma Pani, 207
Padoga Anchorage, 116, 117
Paik-tu San Mountain, 245, 246, 249
Pakhoi, 150
Paknam-po, 268
Palisades, the, 162
Pamirs, the, 5, 10, 11, 190, 194,
214
Panghu Island, 304
Paoting-fu, 34
Paper, 101, 115
Pa-shui River, 70
Pa-tse Hills, 80, 81
Peale's Swiftlet, 277
Pearl River (see West River)
Pears, 32
Peas, 124
Pechili Gulf, 167, 178, 243
Pe-han, 40 ; Railway, 76
Pei-ho River, 31, 37
Peking, 27, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 39- 7&,
83, 95, 100, 114, 130, 139, 165, 173,
178, 185,249; dust storms, 38; Pe-
king-Hankow Railway, 40; Peking-
Kiachta Railway, 185; Plain, 177,
178 ; population, 34 ; relief, 37 ;
syndicate, 43
Pe-ling Range, 22
Penang, 13
Peony River (see Mutan Kiang and
Hurka)
Pe-pa-huans, the, 308
Perry, Commodore, 315
Persia, 194
Persimmons, 32, 79
Pescadores Channel, 305 : Islands,
281, 304
Petersburg, 185
I'etriu, 267
Petuna, 159, 160, 161
Phagspa, 216
Phari Dzong, 206
Philippine Islands, 1, 16
Phyeng-an, 250, 257
Phyeng-Gensan, isthmus of, 1 5
Phyeng-yang, 250
Pichit, 269
Pien-liang, 40, 42
Pigs, 150
Pillars, Gate of the, 61, 102, 104
Pingan, 254, 256
Pinglo, 147
Pingshan, 58
Pingshui, 112
Pitsunalok, 262, 269
Plum Tree Pass, 139
P'nom Dangrek Range, 230
Pnom-penh, 222, 230
Pokrovskaia, 160
Polam Bridge, 119
Polo, Marco, 31, 34, 62, 1 1 2, 1 13, 1 18,
179, 181, 194, 195, 196, 201
Pompeii, 196
Pongees, 48
Poppy, the, 28, 79, 124
Porcelain, 101
Port Arthur (see Arthur; ; Hamilton
(see Hamilton) ; Lazareff (see
Lazareff)
Portuguese, the, no, 189, 306, 308
Po-se, 128, 130, 134, 135
Possiet Bay, 249
Potala, the, 207, 216
Potatoes, 77, 80, 283, 306
Potteries of Kingtehchen, 100
Powhunri Peak, 206
Poyang Lake, 95, 96, 99. loo, 269 ;
region, 61
Pozzuoli, Serapis Temple of, 299
Prejevalsky, — , 174, 175, 1S6, 191,
192. 193, 196, 199, 201, 211, 214
Prester John, 189
Primorsk, 11, 155, 158, 167, 169;
Corean settlement in, 248
Prinz Heinrich Gebirge Hills, 50
Puget Sound, 94. 118
Pu-hien, 208
Puket, 276
Pukwei, 158
Pulantien, 167
Pulo Condore, 230
INDEX
Pulse, 164
Pushan, 218
Puto, 115
Ol/ELPART, 251
Quemoy Island, 120
Quicksilver, 214
Quin-hon, 225
Rachaburi, 273
Raheng, 269, 270
Railways, 40, 43, 76, 95, 96, 124, 125,
I39» 158, 160, 166, 169, 170, 185,
227, 232, 236, 238, 251, 252. 267,
268, 270, 307
Rangoon, 129, 228
Rape, 79 ; seed oil, 115
Ratburi, 267, 273 ; tin in, 274
Rattans, 306
Red Basin, 65 ; Lake, 39 ; River, 14.
121, 129, 220, 224, 236, 237, 264 :
delta, 232, 238
Regent's Sword Peninsula, 162
Rein, Professor, 282, 287, 288, 291.
292, 295, 297, 299
Rhubarb, 71
Rice, 23, 71, 79, 87, 96, 98, 102, 103.
108, in, 123, 133, 135, 140, 199,
223, 227, 235, 263, 281, 292, 306
Richthofen, Baron, 24, 25, 28, 33.
65, Iio, 144, 179, 187; Range. 174.
181, 186
Rigault de Genouilly, Admiral, 234
Rikusen, 288, 301
Rishiri Island, 290
Riviere Claire, 237 ; Noire, 226. 236
Roman Catholic Missions, 137. 219;
Empire, 189
Rugged Islands, the, 60
Russia, 12
Russo-Japanese War, note on, 2
Sachanolai, 269
Saddles, the, 60
Sadec, province of, 221
Sado Island, 279, 282, 285
Safiron, 79
Saghalien, 160, 290
Sago, 283
Saiansk Range, 172, 175
Saigon, 14, 223, 227, 234, 237, 242 :
Saigon-Lang-biang railway, 227
Saikio, 285
Sairon-kol Lake, 190
St. James's Cape. 223, 224
Sakiamouni, 41
Salt, 71, 107, 108, 306 ; Lake, Great,
78; Tze-liu-ching wells, 81
Salwin River, 5, 6, 13, 63, 121, 214,
260
Samarkand, 188, 201
Samit Cape, 222
Samshui, 150
Samurai, the, 315, 316
Sanindo Road, the, 289
Sansing, 161, 169
Sanyodo Road, the, 289
Saraburi, 268
Sarakol, 213
Sarreau, M., 240
Satasaki Cape, 293
Satsuma Clan, the, 293
Save River, 69
Sawankalok, 262
Seger, 216
Seki-ga-hara, battle of, 314
Selenga River, 176, 177
Semipalatinsk, 11, 182
Semirechinsk, 11, 190
Se-mun River, 268
Sendai, 288, 289
Sentai, 168
Sen-wen Promontory, 149
Seoul, 246, 247, 249, 250, 252, 255,
256
Sera Monastery, 206
Seto, 287
Seven Stars, the, 145, [46
Sha-chow, 194
Shamaism, 215
Shamo Desert, 9, 184
Shan States, 260
Shanghai, 8, 29, 46, 49, 60, 61. . \
I02, 104, 105, 106, 109, 136, 241,
279; cotton - mills, 114: model
settlement, 107; Peninsula, 112;
River, 107
Shangtu, 181
Shangyu, 1 12
Shanhaikwan. 173: Shanhaikwan-
Sinminting Railway. 170
Shans, the, 4, 13, 239
Shansi, 22, 25, 28, 29. 40, 17;;
Buddhist monks, 32 ; coal an. I
iron, 29, 33; crops, 32; inhabitants,
31, 32 ; mountains, 33,45; moun-
taineers. ;i : plateau. 32 ; -.alt
lake, 33
33°
INDEX
Shantung, 15, 22, 23, 36, 40, 44;
iirea and population, 47 ; forests,
50; highlands, 104; plain, 45;
promontory, 22, 45
Shaoking. 145; Gorge, 142
Shaoshan, 112
Shaoshing, 112, 114
Shashih, 57, 91, 93
Shen-shen, 200
Shensi, 23,25, 27, 54, 174; climate,
28 ; famines, 26 ; loess plateau,
22, 28
Shigatse, 205, 206
Shih-chuen River, 80
Shih-Hwang-ti, the Emperor, 147
Shih-men, 97 ; Shih-men Range, 46
Shih Ta-kai, 74
Shikoku, 282, 285 ; area, 292 ; climate,
292 ; crops, 292
Shilka River, 160
Shimabara Gulf, 293
Shimoda, 314
Shimonoseki. 283, 289 ; Straits, 285,
287, 298
Shinan, Vale of, 92
Shintoism, 315
Shira-gawa River, 294
Shirane-shan Peak, 287
Shogunate, the, 165
Shu, Kingdom of, 82
Shiieh-pao-ting, the, 80
Shuga Range, 211, 214 ; River. 211
Shu-Han Dynasty, 27, 7^
Shu-king, or Book of History, 47
Shun-chih, 73, 165 ; Shun-tien-fu, 34
Siam, 1, 4, 7, 12, 13, 222, 229, 258,
260, 261, 275 ; area, 260; canals,
267; etymology, 13; gem mines,
271 ; Gold Fields Company, 275 ;
Gulf, 13, 230, 263, 265, 276 ; im-
migration, 261 ; railways, 267 ;
teak forests, 270
Siamese, the, 258, 259, 262. 263,
177, 27S
Siamrep, 277
Si-an, 22, 26, 27, 40, 41, 72
Siang River, 97, 98, 99, 134. 139
Siang-kiang River, 96; Siang-ling
Range, 20S; Siang-tan, 98; Siang-
.yan£) 95
Siao-ho River, 80
Siberia. 158
Siberian Railway, 167
Sihu Lake, 113
Sikawei Observatory, 58
Sikiang River, 152
Sikkim, 205, 206, 218
Silk, 71, 95, 108, hi, 133, 140, 163
Silkworms, 180
Silver, 214
Simon, M. Eugene, 87
Sindachu, 179
Si-ngan, 22
Singapore, 241, 157
Sing-su-hai, the, 211
Sining, 21, 210; River, 174
Sinminting - Shanhaikwan Railway,
170
Smyth, Warington, 262, 268, 271,
272, 274, 276
Snow Range, Great, 66
Sobo-san Peak, 293
Solfataras, 297, 306
Songdo, 254, 255
Songdu, the, 207
Song-ka River, 225, 226 ; Song-ma
River, 221, 224, 225, 226; Delta,
225
Sorghum, 28, 164
South Cape, 281, 304
Spanish Armada, 296
Split Hill, 57, 91, 95
Staroverts'. the, 182
Starry Sea, the, 211
Staunton, — , 180
Stein, Dr. M. Aurel, 196, 197
Straw-braid, 48
Stretensk, 160
Stung-treng. 222
Su, 189
Suchow, 107, 108, 109, 113, 189
Sugar, 70, 140, 227, 282, 306; sugar-
cane, 79
Sui Dynasty, 27, 229; Sui-fu, 56, 65,
125, 129, 139 ; River, 100
Sumida-gawa River, 286, 299
Sung Dynasty, 34, 41, 42, 106, 113,
165,253,313
Sungari River, 7, 158. 160, 161. 164,
168 ; Valley, 159
Sunglo Range, ic2
Sungpan, 66, 80, 81
Sun-kwan, the Emperor, 103 ; the
mountains of, 132
Suok, 184
Suruga Gulf. 286
Suwonada, the, 299
Swatow, 140. 150, 308
INDEX
331
Swiftlet, Peale's, 277
Swinhoe, Robert, 150
Switzerland, Saxon, 67
Syauki Point, 304
Szechuan, 5, 9, 26, 53, 54, 60, 62, 64,
65, 66, 123, 143, 205 ; agriculture,
72 ; area and population, 69 ;
crops, 70, 71 ; history, 72 ; Hupeh
routes, 92 ; monasteries and tem-
ples of, 75 ; Red Basin, 70, 71 ;
climate, 72 ; River, 92 ; viceroys,
217
Sze-ma-kwang, 113
Szemao, 125
Ta-chien-lu, 70, 205
Tagalas, the, 307
Ta-hsueh-shan Range, 208, 209, 214
Tai-an-fu, 47
Tai-bin River, 221
Tai-dong River, 245, 250
Tai-hang Range, 42
Taihoku,307; Taihoku-Kelung Rail-
way, 307
Tai-hu Lake, 61, 102, 107, 113
Taijo, 255
Taipa Island, 152
Taipeh, 307
Taiping Rebels, 27, 35, 74, 94, 100,
101, 103, 106, 108, 109, 115, 135,
136, 137 ; River, 124
Tai-shan Mountains, 23, 46, 47 ;
monasteries and temples, 47
Taitsu, the Emperor, 200
Tai-tsung, the Emperor, 165, 200
Taiwan, 307, 309 ; Taiwan-fu, 304,
308
Taiyucn, 28 ; Plain, 31, 33
Takao, 307
Takla-makan Desert, 21, 172, 187,
195
Taku, 31, 37, 76
Takuapa, 276
Takuatung, 276
Taku-matsu Plain, 292
Tal^-sap Lake, 222, 230, 269, 277
Tali, 236
Talienwan Bay, 167
Tali-fu, 63, 124; railways, 124
Tallow, 101, in
Tamara, the, 170
Tamsui, 304, 306 ; French bombard-
ment, 310 ; River, 307
T'an River. 98
Tanega-shima. 283
Tan-erh, 150
Tang Dynasty. 27. 4L 75- 112. 115,
195, 200, 216, 253, 254, 313;
Men of, 42
Tanganyika Lake, 213
Tang La Mountains, 203, 206, 212
Tao-Kwang, the Emperor, 201, 208
Taotai of Hupeh, 93
Tapa-shan Mountains. 26. 70, 91,
92, 102
Tar River, 209
Taranchis, the, 191, 192
Tarbagatai, 182
Tarchendo, 70, 205. 207. 109, 210;
River, 208, 209 ; Wang of, 209
Tarim Basin, 174, 176, 187, 190, 195,
197; Desert, 194; River, 10, 187,
198, 199; sand-waste. 11 ; Vallty,
5, 10, 21, 172
Taro, 306
Tartars, 21, 34, 35, 55. 166: Dynas-
ties, 38, 54, 162 ; Fish-skin. 169 ;
invasions, 34. 35, 54, 140: Kin, 34,
106, 113; Kitan, 165; Manchu,
55 ; Nu-chen, 165
Tartary, Gulf of, 301
Tashihchiao, 167
Tashi Lama, the, 206; Tashi-Lhumpo
Monastery, 206
Tashkent, 188
Tatsing Dynasty, 6, 74, 165
Tatu-ho River, 69, 74
Tatung River, 53, 20S ; Tatung-ho,
236
Tea, 97, 98, 100, 101. 102, in. 115,
116, 118, 140, 207, 239, 304. 306
Tekes River, 192
Tenasserim, 13, 263
Tengchow, 45
Tenghiz Lake, 1S9
Tengui Peak, io
Tengyueh. 53. 124
Tenryu-gawa Valley. 287
Thai-noi, 277 ; Thai-yai. 277
Thames River, 59
Thamo Pass, 209
Than-tai, King. 224
Thirty Years' War. 73
Tibet, 3. 9, 11. 53. 57. 186 ; area and
population of, 203 ; Chinese in-
vasions, 72, 207 ; early kings of,
216 ; government. 207 ; monas-
teries. 2o(>. cio. 216: mountains.
33-
INDEX
60; Plateau, 4, 12, 79, 121, 176,
203 ; religions, 218 ; rivers, 214 ;
Shar-pes, 207 ; Songdu, the, 207 ;
trade, 218 ; Treaty of 1904, 218
Tibetans, the, 209
Tiefebene, 123
Tiehling, 168
Tien Hia, 3 ; Tien-shan Mountains,
9, 10, 113, 188, 193, 213 ; Tien-nan-
lu Road, 10, 188 ; north and south
(great) roads, 188 ; Tien-pehlu
Road, 10, 188, 190; Tien-tsang
Range, 123; Tien-tu temples, 113
Tientsin, 31, 34, 35, 37, 46, 99, 244 ;
Treaty, 234
Tiger Island, 143
Timber, 98, in, 118, 136, 145, 164,
180, 249, 270, 274
Timur, 189
Tin, 130, 274, 275, 276
Tinghai, 115
Tisza River, 69
Tobacco, 28, 70, 79, 133, 140, 164,
199
Tokachi-dake Peak, 290
Tokaido, the, 297
To Kang, the, 207
Tokio, 165, 283, 285, 286 ; Bay, 285 ;
Plain, 288, 299
Tokugawa Dynasty, 285
Tomsk, 11
Tonami Peninsula, 289
Tongking, 11, 12, 14, 125, 129, 219,
220, 221, 234, 236, 238, 261 ; colo-
nization, 239 ; customs, 241 ; Delta,
239; Gulf, 121, 276; products,
239 ; Tongking-Yunnan Railway,
125
Tongkingese, the, 228, 239
Tosa clan, 293
Toso-nor Lake, 21 1
Tourane, 224, 225 ; Bay, 234
Triad rebels, 106
Tsaidam, 199, 211 ; Plateau, 212
Tsangpo River, 204, 206, 212
Ts'ao Ts'ao, Prince, 103
Tseng -kwo-fan, 103
Tsieng-tang River, 109, in
Tsin Dynasty, 42, 73, 82, 147
Tsi-nan-fu, 47
Tsing Dynasty, 7^, 185 ; River, 92
Tsingchow, 46
Tsing-ling Range, 22, 27, 42
Tsingtao, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51
Tsitsihar, 158, 161, 169
Tso-kiang River, 135
Tso Tsung-tang, 186, 201
Tsu, Feudal State of, 93
Tsugaru Strait, 285, 289, 290, 291,
301
Tsunyi, 139
Tsushima, 279, 282, 296 ; Current,
300, 301
Tuduc, the Emperor, 229, 234
Tumen River, 161, 245, 249
Tung Chieng-kum, 273
Tungchuan, 125, 128, 139
Tung-fan, the, 308
Tung-hai, the, 279
Tungkwan, 22, 173 ; Fortress, 40 ;
Pass, 21
Tung-san-seng, 158
Tungting Lake, 56, 58, 91, 92, 93, 96,
97, 98, 99, 133, L34, 139, 269
Turfan, 189, 190
Turgen Lake, 183
Turkestan, 6, 9 ; relations with China,
200; Chinese, 3, 186; area and
population of, 198 ; Buddhistic
and Sanscrit MSS., 197; New
Dominion, 172, 174, 186, 188, 191,
198; orographical, 193; political,
202
Turpin, Old, 269
Tussah silk, 163
Tu-sze, the, 135 ; Wang, 209
Tze-kiang River, 96, 97; Tze-liu-
ching, 81
Typhoons, 225, 305
Ubon, 26S
Ue-ho River, 47
Uliassutai, 175, 1S2, 183
Urga, 160, 177, 180; Steppe, 176,
177
Urumtsi, 189, 190, 194
Ussuri Bay, 162; River, 160, 162
Utaradit, 273
Vale, Mr., 85
Van Diemen Straits, 283, 299
Varella, Cape, 226
Vauban, 234
Veniukoff, — , 175
Victoria, 153 ; Peak, 138
Vietry, 236
Vladivostock, 11, 158, 167, 169, 300
Vries Island, 284
INDEX
333
Wade, Mr., 309
Wan-hien, 75, 76, 81
Wan-li, the Emperor, 75. 85, 255
Wan-li-cheng, 26
Warren, Sir Pelham, 310
Wa-sze-kou, 209 ; Ravine, 208
Watts-Jones, Lieut., murder of, 183
Weale, Putnam, 164, 170
Wei Dynasty, 27, 73 ; River, 19, 21,
22, 40, 54, 173; Valley, 26
Wei-chang, 180
Wei-hai-wei, 46, 52
Wei-hien, 46; coal-fields, 51
Wenchow, 115
Wen Wang (the Literary Prince), 20
West, Isles of the, 41; Lake, 113;
River, 20, 99, 121, 131, 134, 138.
140, 145, 148, 151, 265
Whampoa, 15 1
Wheat, 32, 39, 71. 79. in, 164, 169,
199, 306
Wiju, 249
William III, King. 230
Williams, Dr. Wells, 42, 94, 105
Witches' Gorge, the, 273
Wonsan, 246, 251
Wool. 218
Wu, the Empress, 254
Wuchang, 94
Wu-chih Peak, 149
Wuchow, 134, 135, 136, 238
Wu-feng-ling Range, 95
Wuhu, 61, 102, 103
Wuning, Vale of, 100
Wushan Gorge, 77, 272
Wushui, the, 139
Wusueh, 95 ; Range, 61
Wusung, 105. 107 ; River, 104, 105
Wu-tai-shan Mountain, 32, 178
Wuti, the Emperor, 136, 149, 200
Wu Wang (the Martial Prince), 20, 27
Wu-yi-shan Range, no, 116
Xavier, St. Francis, 283
Ya Valley, 207
Yachow, 208 ; Valley, 70, 207
Yagami-take Mountain, 297
Yak, 209
Yakub Beg. 186, 201
Yaku-shima, 283
Yalu River, 15. 161, 245, 249
Yalung River. 69, 214
Yamato, 292
Yam-dok Tso Lake, 206
Yamungar Ravine, 194
Yangchow, 56, 107
Yanghi-hissar, 194
Yang-ho River, 178
Yao, Golden Age of, 47
Yaochow River, 100
Yao-tsa-ho River, 64
Yangtse River, 34, 40, 53, 56, 63, 88,
92,95,99, i°i> 104. 121, 134, 143,
212, 214, 236, 265, 272, 273;
ancient estuary of, 61 ; dividing
China into two nearly equal
parts, 57 ; drainage area, 59 ;
' King River,' 93 ; lake basin, 60 ;
sources, 211 ; Yangtse Basin,
20, 22 : boundaries of, 53 ; im-
penetrable forest of, 54; southern
aborigines of, 55 ; Cape, 57, 105 ;
cave dwellings, 67 ; Delta, 48 ;
gorges, 57, 64, 66, 77, 92, 142, 272,
273; lower provinces of, 91 ; Valley,
91, 102
Yarkand, 10. 186, 188, 190, 199;
River, 198
Yedo, 285 ; Bay, 299
Yellow Emperor, the, 54 ; Yellow
Mountains, 102
Yellow River, 5, 19, 21, 22. 24, 25,
27, 35, 39, 40, 42, 44, 47, 52< 83,
141, 173, 211; changes in course
of, 37 ; Basin, 20 ; Ordos loop, 5
Yellow Sea, 14, 33, 159, 245, 250
Yenching, 165
Yen chow, 1 1 1
Yenping-fu, 116, 117
Yezo, 16. 282, 285, 290, 300 ; coal,
295 ; flora, 291 ; population, 291 ;
rivers, 290
Yin Dynasty, 20
Yingtse, 163
Yochow, 98
Yodo-gawa River, 296
Yokohama, 281, 282, 285, 301
York, 78, 281
Yosemite, the, 304
Younghusband, Sir Frank, 203
Yuan River. 93, 96, 97, 99, »3»>
L33
Yuanchow, 97
Yueh, ancient province of, 136. 147,
219
Yu-hien. 32
334
INDEX
Yulduz Plateau, 192; Yulduz - gol
River, 193
Yule, Colonel, 62, 196
Yung River, 112, 114
Yunglo, the Emperor, 219
Yuni, 200
Yun-kwei, viceroyalty of, 131
Yunnan, 9, 11, 12, 20, 53, 54, 121,
236; area and population, 122;
climate, 123; copper tribute, 122 ;
Mahometan rebellion, 201 ; natural
resources, 126 ; Syndicat du, the,
125 ; trade routes from, 128 ; Yun-
nan-fu, 124
Yunnan-Burma, proposed railway,
125
\unnan-Hanoi Railway, 236
Yunnan-seng, 129, 130, 139
Yunnan-Talifu Railway, 124
Yunnan-Tongking Railway, 125
Yunnanese, the, 127
Yuyao, 112
Zaisan, Lake, 176
Zayton, 118
Zealandia, Old Dutch Fort of, 307,
308, 309
Zimme, 13, 125
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