There is also in the Calle de Hospicio a Military Hospital, somewhat better kept, and not like the former under the charge of a brotherhood, but of a medical staff. Unfortunately the arrangements here leave very much to be desired. The rooms, insufficiently ventilated, are in the immediate vicinity of the kitchen, the smoke and odours from which cannot but be very prejudicial to the patients. In the various wards there were about 150 to 200 sick, whose lot called for redoubled sympathy, considering the little attention paid them.
Unfortunately no opportunity presented itself during our stay at Manila of witnessing any of those processions of the Church, which are necessarily so frequent in the course of the year. This was the more to be regretted, as we were told of many peculiarities of these costly processions. Here apparently, as in the earlier dependencies of Spain, in Central and Southern America, the Roman Catholic ritual has become mingled in the most extraordinary manner with ceremonies borrowed from paganism. The earliest Spanish missionaries were especially prone to believe that by retaining some of the former ceremonies they would facilitate the work of conversion, and increase the number of neophytes. They saw no scandal in the native, attired sometimes as a giant twelve feet high, sometimes as a Malay warrior, sometimes as an aboriginal savage, fantastically painted, and accoutred with bow and arrow, in a word, in all sorts of masquerading costume, frolicking in the very midst of the sacred procession, and performing all manner of buffoonery in front of the life-sized and gaily-adorned images of saints; but appeared rather to contemplate with pleasure that these wild beings, who had resisted the Spaniards on their first arrival on the island, were now subjected to the Holy Church, and rejoiced in her service! There are also numbers of natives dressed up as animals, and girls gaily decorated with flowers and in robes of spotless white, as also a fantastically-attired jester, who from time to time gives national dances and sings national songs, to the best of his ability, all in one long procession, accompanied by monks singing chorals and carrying wax tapers, while a promiscuous crowd of the faithful bring up the rear.
The sight of such processions have anything but an edifying influence upon a European, but on the mind of the masses they seem to make a deep impression, and for weeks after, when smoking a cigarette in the privacy of the family circle, they will talk of the splendour of such solemnities, and the motley episodes that accompanied it. If it were admissible to judge of the religious mind of a people by their outward observances, the Tagalese would be the most devout race in the world. Wherever the natives come in contact with the Church, they put on an extraordinary stern and reverential deportment, and even in the most trivial matters the great influence of the priesthood upon the masses becomes abundantly apparent. This is the most conspicuous every evening as the clock tolls for the Ave Maria. The tones work like enchantment upon the people at whatever distance they may be audible, and for a few moments a profound silence succeeds to the noise and bustle. The labourer and the promenader, the ladies and gentlemen of the upper ranks in their elegant carriages, as well as the poor Tagale returning homeward from his hard day's work, and driving his laden mule before him, are for the space of an instant awed by the solemn sounds. All vehicles stop suddenly short, the gentlemen and servants uncover their heads, the restless masses stand as though nailed to the ground, and then sink gradually on their knees in prayer, their heads bared and their cigars extinguished; no one would venture to break in upon the universal stillness so long as the bell continues to toll. But as soon as it is silent, each jumps to his feet, and proceeds on again, believing he may now in safety give way to his frolicsomeness and pursue his pleasures.
Life in Manila during the dry season was described to us as exceedingly agreeable and gay. Then almost every evening joyous groups thread the city singing and joking, while from every hut resounds some snatch of melody accompanied by the guitar. We had a slight foretaste of the joviality which must prevail in Manila during the delicious summer evenings from the joyous disposition manifested by the various Tagal families, even during the wet season, when the almost incessant rain, and the swampy state of the streets, compelled the natives to remain crowded in the narrow rooms of their poor little huts. In St. Miguel, a hamlet in the immediate neighbourhood of Manila, with a number of country-seats of wealthy foreigners and natives, we repeatedly heard the sweet plaintive notes of the native women singing Tagal ditties, which for pathos and thrilling tenderness surpassed all we had hitherto heard or read of the talents of the coloured races for song and melody. We shall be able in the Appendix to give the notes of a very characteristic melody, the words of which form a very favourite popular song (Condiman), which we ultimately succeeded in taking down through the kindness of Señor Balthasar Girandier of Manila.
It was at San Miguel that we had not alone the most agreeable, but also the most melancholy, experience of our entire stay in the capital of the Philippines. On an island opposite the handsome, beautifully situate residence of our hospitable friend Mr. Steffan, the Bremen Consul, is the Poorhouse, in which the insane as well as the sick are confined together, the whole being, like all the other humane institutions of Manila, under the superintendence of an ecclesiastic, in the present case a Mestizo. It appeared there was no proper or regular medical attendance. Without assistance, or any one responsible for their proper care, these miserable beings, left in an indescribably desolate and neglected condition, cower down upon the bare stone floor in the damp, filthy rooms, staring vacantly before them, or slink about among the cool corridors, murmuring unintelligibly to themselves. The padre, habituated to such a state of matters, seems never to give it a moment's thought, but rather to make it his amusement to conduct strangers through the dismal, horrible wards, where at each step one encounters some fresh form of misery. We felt most pity at the sight of a female, whose features and whole appearance spoke of a happier lot in by-gone days. It seemed a mystery crying aloud for reparation, that this unhappy being, an orphan, worthy of all compassion, should for a slight attack of melancholy be liable to be sent to the asylum for the insane by her unscrupulous relations, that they might with the greater security possess themselves of her property. So deep and so permanent was the impression made by this melancholy spectacle, that even now, after the lapse of years of varied experience, since our visit to the lunatic asylum of Manila, the ill-fated being, with her wan yet striking features, her large, melancholy black eyes, and her wavy, shining black hair, her dress neglected and half torn into pieces, stands out life-like before us, as an embodiment of misery.
Early on the day on which we bade adieu to Manila we found an opportunity of seeing a live boa-constrictor, said to be 48 feet long and seven inches thick, at the house of a secular ecclesiastic in the suburb of Santa Cruz. This gigantic reptile had been confined for 32 years in a large wooden cage, where it had enjoyed such a carefully tended existence that it had fairly outlived the good padre, and was now for sale by his heirs. The indolent animal, constantly lying almost motionless among the sand, is fed only once in every four weeks, when it is usually presented with a young pig.
On the 24th of June the members of our Expedition went on board the small steamer plying to Cavite, where lay the frigate, on board which all necessary preparations had been made. Now, on the eve of departure, almost every one of our number mourned the disappointment of cherished expectations. The inclemency of the weather had not alone precluded our undertaking the more distant excursions which would have repaid our researches in the natural history of the islands, but had even interposed serious obstacles to our wanderings in the immediate neighbourhood; moreover, up to the very moment of our departure the Government manifested the utmost indifference to the objects of the Expedition, while even the educated portion of the Spanish residents never took the slightest notice. The more reason therefore is it, under such circumstances, that we should not be unmindful of the few, such as Messrs. Steffan, Schmidt, Wegener, Wood, Fullerton, Fonseca, Girandier, and Creus, who, with warm interest in our plans, furnished us with new material relating to the Philippines and their inhabitants, and left us with the agreeable prospect of a permanent exchange of literary and scientific labours.
At one A.M. of the 25th June we weighed anchor in the harbour of Cavite, on our voyage to the Empire of China. The land breeze, which sets in regularly every night, carried us clear out of the Bay of Manila, but in the open sea outside we found, contrary to expectation, instead of the S.W. monsoon, light variable winds and calms, which materially interfered with our progress. At last, when we were about mid-way across the China Sea, we fell in with the long-looked for S.W. wind, which speedily wafted us to the next station we were to visit, the British colony of Hong-kong, or Victoria. With favourable winds the voyage from Manila to Hong-kong, a distance of about 700 nautical miles, is four or five days' sail; owing to the constant contrary winds we were double that time.
Already, before we came in sight of land, a Chinese fishing vessel had put a pilot on board in the shape of a long-tailed son of the Celestial Empire, who jabbered English in a fashion to set the hair on end, and was lost in wonder at our flag, which he had never before seen. We afterwards found that the dialect used by our pilot was what is called Canton-English, such as is spoken by all Chinese who have dealings with the British, and consisting exclusively of a most ludicrous distortion of the commonest English phrases.
About noon on the 4th July we sighted the Chinese coast; and before sundown we had passed the Lemmas islands, and found ourselves in the island-studded, many-bayed archipelago at the mouth of the Canton River, where the English have selected Hong-kong, with its admirable harbour, for the site of their colony. Thousands of fishing-boats covered the surface of the ocean all around us, always sailing parallel with each other, in fact, quite a fleet of fishermen, who, on a favourable opportunity, add a little buccaneering, and have numerous secure retreats among the thousands of coves all around, so that even up to the present day they can carry on almost unpunished their piratical attempts upon their own fellow-countrymen, as well as upon foreigners ignorant of their danger. It was the first time we had seen in any numbers the Chinese Junk, with its strange-looking rigging. On most of these small but clumsy vessels there was cut or painted on either side of the forecastle a huge eye, as though the crew were anxious to increase the power of vision of their vessel, so that it might more readily pick its way through the numerous dangerous reefs and coral banks. On the other hand the superstitious sea-faring Chinese sometimes veil and cover up the eyes of their vessels, in order that they should not behold certain strange things passing by, as, for instance, a dead body, or an approaching thunder-storm, and not be frightened by them.[111]
The nearer we approached the coast, the more was our gaze rivetted by a landscape of the most imposing character, and now not owing to the altitude of the hills (for the highest peak is only 3000 feet), but to the grandeur of their form and their contour. Here are sharp, needle-shaped pinnacles, their steep rocky cones reminding one of the Sugar Loaf at Rio, and then round shoulders of hills, and far-extending ranges, penetrated by deep defiles, all nearly perpendicular, and without any extent of level land, and rising sheer out of the sea. These mountain ranges are almost entirely naked, or covered only with a scanty grass or bush vegetation: no tree, no forest hides the majestic groups of rocks and stones, and when the setting sun picked out with dark, well-defined shadows the sharp outline of the granite rock, it was as though there lay before us a "bit" of the Swiss Alps, bathed in the sea as far as the limit of forest-vegetation, and our sailors contemplated with redoubled enjoyment a scene which reminded them of their native Dalmatia.
As the night was dark, with neither moonlight nor light-house (of which latter there is unfortunately an utter lack here), we could not venture to wind our way through the narrow channel into the harbour of Hong-kong, on the north side of the island, and we anchored therefore about 9 P.M. on the west side, in the Lemmas Channel; and with the first beams of the sun, on the morning of the 5th July, we stood in to the enchanting harbour of Hong-kong. Where the previous day we could descry from seaward hardly any traces of human activity in the hills and rocks along the coast, so that the land seemed desolate and deserted, there now smiled upon us, as we doubled Green Island, the city of Victoria, rising amphitheatre-like; and, lying invitingly before us, its harbour, all alive with numbers of stately ships and steamers, looking like an inland lake,—in fact, entirely land-locked. Several old ships of the line, which the English use as hospitals and coal depôts, filled the background, among which was the Royal Charlotte, 130 guns, the first three-decker that has passed the Equator.
At 10 A.M. we cast anchor directly opposite the town; and amid the flags of England, America, France, Holland, and Russia, there now flaunted proudly forth the flag of Austria!
[72] In Manila the minimum annual rainfall is 84 inches, the maximum 102 inches.
[73] The expedition sailed from Madras with about 2300 men; the squadron consisted of 13 ships of war and transports. The English landed without any opposition, laid siege to Manila, stormed and captured the city proper within ten days after their arrival. The Citadel capitulated; the Governor, an Archbishop, binding himself to pay a contribution of 4,000,000 dollars (£833,000), in order to save the city from being sacked. This expedition was always looked on by the Spaniards of the Philippines as a very rash adventure, which by no means tended to diminish the national antipathy to the English race, although after such freebooting expeditions as have within these last two years been witnessed on the part of civilized states in law-abiding Europe, this invasion by an army of declared enemies must be viewed in an entirely different light.
[74] Spanish writers, treating of the Philippines, derive this name from "Losong," which in the native language means the wooden mortar in which the rice, which forms the chief subsistence of the inhabitants, is shelled and pounded. The first strangers who came to this island, and found in every hut one of these very peculiar clumsy-looking implements, spoke of the newly discovered island as "Isle de los Losenes" (island of wooden mortars), whence in process of time it became transformed into Luzon.
[75] One of these hotels, the Hotel Français, was, at the time of our visit, kept by a Frenchman named Dubosse, a man of a most adventurous disposition, who afterwards accompanied the French army to China as a mess-man, and was one of the victims seized by Sang-ko-lin-sin's soldiers, near Pekin, in September, 1860, who met with such a horrible fate. The other inn, the Hotel Fernando, kept by a North American, is yet more filthy and noisy than the first-named, since, being situated on the harbour, it serves for a rendezvous for the various ships' captains. In neither of these is the charge less than 4 to 5 Spanish dollars a day, or about £1 sterling.
[76] The Stranger's Guide to the Philippines (Guia de Forasteros) for the year 1859 gives the names of 61 commercial houses established by Spaniards in Manila. Besides these, there are in the capital of the Philippines, seven English, three North American, two French, one German, and two Swiss trading firms.
[77] We borrow this alphabet from the valuable work of Baron von Hügel, entitled the Pacific Ocean and the Spanish Colonies of the Indian Archipelago (Vienna, printed at the Imperial Press, 1860), and believe the reader will the more gratefully welcome it that only a small number of copies of Baron von Hügel's interesting journal were printed in manuscript for private circulation.
[78] This opinion of our Augustinian guide is not shared out there. An Austrian traveller, as widely renowned as highly cultivated, Baron Von Hügel, relates, in his Diary already alluded to, the following singular revelations by a friar in Manila: "The Philippine Islands belong to the Augustine monks; in Manila, Don Pasquale (the then Governor) or another may ruffle it and talk large,—in the interior we are the true masters. Tell me where you want to go and everything shall be laid open for you!... Police in the interior? It is laughable to hear of such an idea! As if such were possible! and I should be glad to make the acquaintance of that official who would venture to ask even the simple question of who any man is, who is under the protection of our order!... Should you like to ascend the Majayjay, the highest hill in the interior? An Augustinian friar shall accompany you thither. Should you care to make an excursion to the Lagoons and thence proceed to the Pacific Ocean? An Augustinian friar shall be your guide. Have you a hankering to visit the forests of Ilocos, northward from Manila, or to sail down the great river Lanatin? An Augustinian shall arrange all that for you. In one word, say what you wish to do!"
[79] Fray Manuel Blanco, whose portrait, the size of life, but by no means artistically executed, adorns one of the corridors, was born 24th November, 1778, at Navianos, in the province of Zamora in Spain, and died in the convent of Manila 1st April, 1845.
[80] Of these there were in 1857, 373,569 liable to taxation. Within the same year there were 85,629 persons baptized, 16,768 married, and 49,999 buried with the rites of the Church.
[81] In 1857 there were baptized in these 76 villages 21,604 children, 4512 couples were united in wedlock, and 12,002 were buried.
[82] In the entire Archipelago there is but one newspaper, "El Boletin Oficial," published under the auspices of Government, and which treats much more of religious than of political topics. There are but two printing and publishing houses in Manila, one of which is in the hands of the Dominicans, and prints almost exclusively Prayer-books and religious works.
[83] This historical poem is entitled "Luzonia, ò sea Los Genios del Pasig."
[84] Of this number of souls there were in 1857, 188,509 amenable to taxation, while during the year there occurred 31,285 births, 21,029 deaths, and 5713 marriages.
[85] In 1857, the order baptized 23,227, joined in marriage 4830 couples, and buried 15,627.
[86] The printed works obtained in the various monasteries of Manila consist of dictionaries and small grammars of the Togala, Bisaya, Ilocana, Tbanác, Bicol, and Pampangu dialects. The MSS. embrace vocabularies of the Igorotes and Ilongotes languages of Luzon, as also the idiom used by the natives of the Marianne Archipelago, together with a short treatise on the Marianne group written in Spanish by a missionary. All these works will be thoroughly and exhaustively treated of in the ethnological portion, where also the manuscripts will be published.
[87] Usted—contraction for "Vuestra Merced" (your Grace).
[88] The fair speeches and amiable phrases of the Spaniards lose all their value when one finds upon nearer acquaintance with this courteous nation, that the heart and the feelings take no part therein. There is nothing which a Spaniard will not offer to a stranger—but it is always on the clear understanding that the latter will with equal politeness refuse the proffer. We on one occasion, however, saw a Yankee take these professions at their apparent value, and by so doing put his Spanish host to no small confusion. The Spaniard wore a very costly diamond breast-pin, for which the American could not find words sufficient to express his admiration. To his exclamations of delight, the Spaniard kept repeating his nauseous "à la disposicion de Usted," till at last the American fairly took the pin out of the Spaniard's scarf and transferred it to his own. The latter felt so ashamed and dumbfounded that he could not utter a word. The following day the American, who had only taken it by way of joke, returned the costly bauble to the agonized Spaniard, but took occasion in so doing to remark that he now knew what was meant by Spanish courtesy.
[89] On the island of Mactan (10° 20′ N., 124° 10′ E.) there was also erected on the promontory of Sugaño, a monument to the memory of Magelhaens, and the happy idea was entertained of making it also into a light-house, to warn ships of the danger in approaching the immense numbers of reefs that are found here.
[90] V. Heinrich Heine's "Romanzero."
[91] It was estimated, we were told, at from $35,000 to $40,000 annually.
[92] Cock-fighting has been so long disused in England, that to most persons it only lingers as a grim tradition, mainly authenticated by Hogarth's well-known painting. The degrading associations which a cock-fight generated are sufficiently well illustrated by the prince of pictorial satirists. The "betting-ring" still brings together in England the same intermingling of grades of society, and consequent utter disruption of all social respect, but with all its faults it never has, nor can have, the same brutalizing effects of cock-fighting, which are instanced by the following anecdote, extracted from the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1789, and which may even now be found to repay perusal:—"Died at Tottenham, John Ardesoif, Esq., a young man of large fortune, ... who if he had his foibles, had also his merits (!) that far outweighed them. Mr. Ardesoif was very fond of cock-fighting, and had a favourite cock, upon which he won many very profitable matches. The last bet he laid upon this cock, he lost; which so enraged him that he had the bird tied to a spit, and roasted alive before a large fire. The screams of the miserable animal were so affecting that some gentlemen who were present attempted to interfere, at which Mr. Ardesoif was so enraged that he seized a poker, and with the most furious vehemence declared that he would kill the first man that interfered, but in the midst of his asseveration he fell dead upon the spot! Such we are assured were the circumstances attending the death of this great pillar of humanity!"
[93] This unhappy lady died a melancholy death, having, what rarely occurs among Spanish women, committed suicide at her hotel by swallowing Prussic acid. It was rumoured that an unhappy attachment led to this fatal resolve.
[94] Of these straw-plait manufactories the cigar-holders are especially noticeable for their fine texture and elegance. These are usually sold at very high prices; some of the more elegant of these fetching from 40 to 50 dollars (£8 to £10). Straw mats and hats, not inferior in fineness of texture to those of Panama, are made here of palm fibre, and form a not unimportant article of exportation.
[95] 8 reals = 1 Spanish piastre = 3s. 1 3⁄4d. at par; hence 1 real = 4.71875d. English.
[96] Owing to the universal interest felt in tobacco, the use of which has spread over the globe, till it has become a necessary of life to the civilized man as well as the half-savage races of mankind, we subjoin by way of completing the information above attained, the following remarks upon the tobacco culture in other possessions of Spain, extracted from an unpublished journal, kept by a member of the Expedition, during a visit previously paid to the West Indies.
"The best sites for growing tobacco in Cuba lie to the westward of the capital in what is called the Vuelta abajo, between Rio Hondo and San Juan de Martinez, and is about ten English miles in circumference; the tobacco grown on the Vuelta arriba is usually of inferior quality. In 1856 there were in Cuba 10,000 plantations or Vegas, with a superficial area of 8000 Caballerias, (about 414 square miles, 1 Caballeria being equal to 160,371,041 English square yards, or 33,134 acres), cultivated by from 14,000 to 16,000 negro slaves. The total value of the capital employed in this branch of culture (including manual labour, building utensils, draught animals, &c.) may be estimated at 13,000,000 piasters (£2,730,000), and the average weight of tobacco produced at a million and a half arrobas, or 37,500,000 lbs. annually. Of this quantity 400,000 arrobas, or 10,000,000 lbs., are consumed in Cuba itself, while the rest is exported partly in the leaf, partly in the manufactured state. One Caballeria of ground can produce on the average about 360 arrobas, or 9000 lbs., of which however only 1⁄20th will be of superior quality.
"A 'vega' usually consists of three Caballerias, which are in regular succession devoted to the tobacco cultivation, so that while two are devoted to maize and other vegetables for human subsistence, only the remaining third is under tobacco. The season for sowing is in October or November, and the crop is got in in January or February. On one Caballeria there are usually found under favourable circumstances 500,000 plants or Matas. Hence it results, that as the tobacco culture of Cuba extends over 8000 Caballerias, there are throughout the island 4,000,000,000 plants. Each plant has from 8 to 10 suitable leaves. They are collected together in bundles, called manojos (handfuls), of from 120 to 130 leaves each, and 80 manojos make one tercio, or 150 lbs. of tobacco. One manojo weighs about 1 1⁄4 lbs., and when prepared makes into about 400 cigars. There are in Cuba altogether 600 cigar-manufactories, of which above 400 are in the capital alone. A workman can make about 150 cigars a day; the rate of pay is about 10 Spanish piasters or duros for 1000. The manufacture of cigars gives employment to about 20,000 workmen, chiefly males. Under the designation of Tabagueros, they constitute almost an exclusive class, and owing to their improvidence are usually in wretched plight. In Cuba (as in Luzon) there is but one species of tobacco raised, but more attention seems to be paid to its cultivation in the former island. The leaves are sorted in Cuba according to colour and 'vein' (venas), and their quality fixed accordingly. In commerce there are three sorts, viz.—
The number of cigars annually exported from the Havanna averages from 200,000,000 to 250,000,000, without including the ramos, or tobacco exported in the leaf. The cedar-tree (Cedrela odorata), of which the cigar-boxes are chiefly made, is occasionally prejudicial to the contents, in consequence of the slight dampness still remaining in the wood bringing out white spots of decay upon the tips of the cigars."
[97] The United States of North America produce above 200,000 cwt., or more than one half the whole supply. The annual consumption of tobacco by the individual is in the United States 3 1⁄2 lbs., in England 1 lb. and 1⁄2 oz., in France 1 lb. 1 1⁄2 oz., and in Germany 2 lbs.
[98] The experiments made at Fort St. George near Madras in July, 1850, with lines and rigging made of abáca and European hemp, with the view of testing their respective availability, gave the following interesting results: a rope of Manila hemp, 12 feet long, 3 1⁄4 inches in circumference, and weighing 28 11⁄16 oz., required a strain of 4460 lbs. to break it: on the other hand a rope of English hemp of similar dimensions, weighing 39 oz., broke with a strain of only 3885 lbs. A second smaller rope of Manila hemp, 1 3⁄4 inches thick, and 9 1⁄2 oz. weight, also 12 feet in length, required 1490 lbs. to break it, while an exactly similar cord of English and Russian hemp, weighing 13 oz. per fathom, broke with 1184 lbs., so that in the first instance the abáca line was 13 per cent., and in the second nearly 22 per cent. stronger than ropes of similar size of European hemp.
[99] Compare with Forbes Royle's valuable treatise upon Manila hemp, entitled "The Fibrous Plants of India fitted for cordage, clothing, and paper." London, 1855.
[100] The best Manila hemp is worth from 4 1⁄2 to 6 dollars per Spanish picul=140 lbs. Cordage made by steam power of the various dimensions, from half to one inch thick, sells at 25, and from one to five inches thick, at 10, piasters per picul.
[101] The fabrics known by the name of Sinamay are on the other hand made of the fibres of the Musa textilis. They are of less gossamer tissue, but almost transparent, and far more durable than the fabrics made from the Piña.
[102] According to Buzeta the Lagoon is 36 Spanish leagues in circumference, by an average depth of 15 to 16 brazos (fathoms). While thirteen rivers of various dimensions flow into the lake, the Pasig alone issues from it, to carry off its waters to the sea.
[103] Pronounce Mahayhay.
[104] The size attained by the alligator or cayman in the Laguna de Bay borders on the incredible. Baron Von Hügel, in his work already referred to, tells of a French settler in Jalla-Jalla (pronounce Halla-Halla), who assured him that he had once killed an alligator, whose head alone weighed 250 lbs., while the body was 10 feet in circumference! It lay buried in the sluice at the mouth of a river, and it proved so difficult to get it brought to land and cut up, that only the head was severed by way of trophy, and brought home to his house.
[105] Cabeza, the head, whence it is further applied to express "chief," or "chieftain."
[106] Another description of tax is the compulsory labour exacted from the natives, which is expended in the construction of roads and bridges, transmission of mail matter, transport of military baggage, luggage of travellers, &c. &c.
[107] These joss-sticks, by the Chinese called "shi-shin-hiang," burn, when lighted, so slowly and regularly, that the Chinese often use them to mark the divisions of time.
[108] The church was utterly ruined, and a large portion of the buildings are similarly in a most desolate, neglected condition. A hope was however expressed that in the following year, 1859, members of the Society of Jesus would come from Europe to settle in the Philippines, who would include among their other labours that of rebuilding their own cloister.
[109] The graceful elegance of the Conchylia brought from Manila is so remarkable that an English ship captain, who, without a special knowledge of the matter, brought on speculation a freight of mussels from the Philippines to Europe, not only made by their sale an enormous profit, but even attained in consequence to a certain degree of celebrity in the scientific world!
[110] Unfortunately the students of Natural Science have met with but little encouragement or support from Government, and many parts of the interior still remain a sealed book to them, or are only accessible under great difficulties. The deficiency of definite information respecting the island attracts foreign naturalists thither, and of late there have been exploring it, M. M. Feodor Jagor of Berlin, Dr. Karl Semper of Hamburg, and La Porte of Paris, all intent on matters connected with the natural history of this Archipelago, but the majority of such visitants come back discontented and thoroughly undeceived to land, where all activity of scientific inquiry is allowed reluctantly, and regarded by the Government and the priests with an envious eye.
[111] A Chinese sailor, on being asked why his vessel had an eye painted on its bulwark, replied in Canton-English, "Suppose no hab eye, how can see?"
Victoria, the name by which the settlement situate on the north side of the island of Hong-kong is known in official documents, strongly recalls another renowned British possession, Gibraltar. A mere uninviting granite rock of about 9 miles in length, 8 in breadth, and 26 in circumference, Hong-kong, situate as it is at the mouth of the Canton River, is one of the best harbours in the Chinese Empire. Owing to the barren, treeless surface, which consists for the most part of chains of hills, the highest point of which is 1825 feet above sea-level, with narrow valleys between, and a small extent of level ground around the bay, hardly a twentieth part of its surface is adapted to agriculture. The modern cheerful town, thoroughly European in character, has within these few years rapidly attained large dimensions, and its numerous palatial structures speak volumes for the wealth and prosperity of the residents. The buildings of the colony rise terrace-like one above another, and extend in rows all along the steep slope of the granite, for a distance of nearly three miles. Besides the population inhabiting the town, many thousand Chinese of the very lowest class with their wives and children live here in small boats year after year, so that the total population of the island amounts to about 80,000 souls.
Twenty years back Hong-kong was but an insignificant place. Only since the peace of Nangking in 1842, which shook to its foundation the exclusive system till then prevalent, and among other important advantages secured the island of Hong-kong to the English, besides bringing into the community of nations the huge unwieldy empire with its 400,000,000, occupying 78 degrees of longitude and 38 of latitude, has it been developed into the most important business centre of China. It became an emporium for all European manufactures, as well as for all produce from the interior, which is shipped hence to the various marts of the world. Unfortunately the period at which the flag of the great Mandjing, or Double Eagle, as the Chinese call Austria, was for the first time unfurled on the shores of the Celestial Kingdom proved most unsuitable for scientific observation. While in the interior a variety of circumstances seriously threatened the stability of the throne of the reigning dynasty, the flames of war were once more breaking out along the coast also, and adding to the confusion and distress of the Chinese diplomatists. In the present war the English were for the first time in these waters fighting side by side with the French, while the Russians and North Americans were cautiously maintaining an observant, but none the less on that account menacing attitude. The hatred and animosity of the Chinese populace, stirred up by their own authorities, was continually goaded to increasing fury with each new victory of the "red-haired barbarians." The Chinese bakers in Hong-kong had devised the cruel expedient of poisoning the bread purchased by the English, and thus avenging themselves on the foe more fatally and more certainly than by Chinese weapons. Even while walking in the neighbourhood one's life was not safe, and even the usually not very easily terrified Englishman was now begirt with "revolvers," when he rode forth of an afternoon with his wife, or was taken in a sedan-chair to a friend's house of an evening.
Shortly before our arrival, the captain of a merchantman, while taking a walk outside the city, was set upon by some Chinese, robbed, and so severely maltreated that he expired of the injuries he received. So too the clerk of a mercantile house had been picked up just outside the city weltering in his blood and pierced with a number of wounds from a dagger, the murderer in this case also evading detection. An attempt was even made against the life of the Governor, Sir John Bowring, which was only frustrated through the vigilance of the sentinel, who discharged his piece at the scoundrels just as, favoured by night, they were stealing over the walls of the Government-house, with the view of creeping through the garden as far as Sir John's cabinet.
Even in the most ordinary domestic matters might be traced the same relentless hostility on the part of the Chinese, and the state of affairs was becoming every day more intolerable to the European residents. All the domestic servants at Hong-kong are Chinese, who come hither from the nearest provinces of the mainland, in order to benefit by the rate of wages paid by the "foreign barbarian." The Chinese officials, vying with each other in every possible method of showing their implacable hatred to the strangers and to embitter their life in China, now issued an order to all the Chinese resident in Hong-kong to quit the island and return to their native country. This ordinance would assuredly have been disregarded by most of the resident Chinese of the Middle Empire, had not any violation of the Imperial rescripts been visited with such appalling consequences. For by the Draconic laws of the Empire, the family of the criminal expiate his offence, should he take to flight and get beyond the reach of the arm of Chinese justice. For any such absentee from justice, some other member of the family is substituted, who may be still on the spot; as for instance, the father, mother, or brother, who is punished exactly as though he had in person been guilty of the crime or misdemeanour. With such terrific means of repressing disobedience impending over him, no Chinese would venture to set at defiance the orders of the Mandarins; and accordingly, during the summer of 1858, 10,000 Chinese returned home at once; others, who did not dare to return, but could not endure that the ruthless doom should be executed upon their relatives, committed suicide. The position of European ladies in Hong-kong became anything but enviable, as they had at a moment's notice to take up the pot-ladle for themselves, and get through the various fatiguing details of their households with what skill they could. Moreover there was good ground for apprehension that the Mandarins might cut off all communications with the neighbouring provinces, which move, as the greater part of the every-day necessaries of life are supplied from the mainland, might have exposed the population of Hong-kong to the severest straits.
Under these circumstances any more remote excursions, or visits to the adjacent mainland, were of course impossible. We had to confine our investigations to the island itself, there to collect what memoranda we could, and see as much of the island and its inhabitants as the shortness of our stay and the prevailing disorders might admit.
Life in Hong-kong has already a strong leaven of western civilization. Only in the narrowest streets does the visitor come upon examples of the genuine Chinese type. Most of the natives even inhabit houses built in the European style, so that one feels as though in a European city inhabited by a Chinese population, the latter having however greatly altered from its originality. Only very few types of Chinese popular life are met with in this English colony. Of these characters the most interesting and unique is the Comprador (Mai-pau), a sort of factotum, whom no household can dispense with, and whose importance only those can adequately do justice to who have lived some time in the country. The Comprador, or shroff, is the soul, the good or evil genius, of the house: he sees to all sorts of purchases, manages the domestic economy, and maintains order and discipline in the house and household. The entire domestic control is exclusively lodged in his hands, to that extent that even the master and mistress of the house may not, without consulting the Comprador, dismiss one of the servants or engage a new one. For all that goes on, the latter is responsible. He has to answer for the honesty of the servants, and must replace anything that may have gone amissing from the house inventory. If the family leave their house for any time, the Comprador is informed of the place where the most valuable articles are deposited, where they are more likely to be found in proper order on their return than by any other device. Even during the late war, in which the feeling of the Chinese to the Europeans was anything but friendly, the Comprador held to his fidelity, and was as useful as ever. In view of the actual state of matters, a traveller must feel no little astonishment at beholding the doors and windows of the private dwelling-houses everywhere wide open, and valuable articles lying exposed in the various apartments. As however the Comprador himself must get a number of bails to become responsible for him, and as the post is a very profitable one, it follows that there are but few cases of dishonesty in this singular profession. It is especially remarkable that few of the populace seem to be as hostile to the strangers as the Mandarins, and all the numerous annoyances inflicted on the latter are invariably to be traced to the intrigues of the Chinese authorities. How else would it be possible for a couple of hundred Europeans to rule a colony in which are 80,000 Chinese, and which moreover is dependent upon the mainland for the very first necessities of life?
The Comprador receives for all his services and attentions no higher pay than from 12 to 15 dollars a month, besides support for himself and family. This however is not his sole income, as every tradesman must give the Comprador a per-centage upon everything, even the most insignificant article that enters the house, and this custom even extends to any purchases made by a Chinese in the warehouses of the foreign merchant.
Another "public character," whom one frequently meets in the lower parts of the city in the public streets of the Chinese quarter, is the "soothsayer." On a small table before him stands an open draught-board with a number of squares, on which are inscribed a variety of proverbs and oracular sayings. In each square is a grain of rice, and quite close to the board is a bird-cage with a tame canary. Presently some good-humoured gaping rustic comes up, who wishes to learn his destiny, upon which the soothsayer suffers the canary to hop out of his cage upon one of the squares, and pick up a grain of rice ad libitum. The sentences and interpretations, which are inscribed on each square from which the canary snaps up his food serve for a reply and decision to the curious questioner, who hands over a small honorarium. The apparatus is simple and ingenious, but the proverbs are excessively silly, and recall much less the land of Confucius than the dream-books of certain countries standing high in European civilization.
The stores which seem most to attract the attention of a stranger are the "Curiosity-shops," in which are heaped up those innumerable articles of Chinese industry and Chinese taste which are so characteristic of the country and its inhabitants. Here the eye rests upon objects of the most bizarre shapes, which in material design and execution are totally unlike anything the European sees elsewhere; workmanship in wood and stone, that illustrates in a remarkable manner the extraordinary patience of the artisan, such as drinking-cups, barrels, frames, cut all in one piece, and beautifully carved, elegant fancy articles of horn, stone, mother-of-pearl, ivory, roots of trees, metal, or wood, vases and dishes, statuettes in copper and clay, woven portraits, embroidery, &c. &c.
Among all these various manufactures, one especially remarks those prepared from a leek-green, slimy-feeling stone (nephrite), which is in much request among the Chinese, and is highly valued. The Chinese name, Yo, from which in all probability is derived the French name Jade, does not indicate however a peculiar species, but is used for all sorts of carved stone-work and gems, while the most valuable one is called by the Chinese the "mutton-fat" stone. The articles prepared of what is named steatite, or soap-stone, are largely used in commerce, but are of very small value, and usually cut only in very clumsy figures.
But these manufactures make much less impression upon the stranger than the beautiful pictures of the Chinese artists upon rice-paper, a peculiar branch of art, cultivated by the Chinese alone, and which as yet has never been successfully imitated in any other country. The most exquisite specimens of these are sent to Canton, but among the Chinese in Hong-kong we saw several beautiful works in this style of painting. The common designation of rice-paper has led to the erroneous idea that the substance of which these pictures are made is manufactured from the leaves of the rice-plant, whereas it is prepared from the pith of an entirely different plant (Aralia papyrifera), which grows in Funan and Tukun. The marrow is steeped for some time in water, after which it is split by means of very keen sharp knives into thin leaves, which are then subjected to gentle pressure. The largest are about a foot square, and are reserved almost exclusively for pictures, the shreds and inferior sorts alone being used for the manufacture of artificial flowers. We saw portraits of the Emperor and Empress, of the rebel leader, Tai-ping, of the notorious Yeh, ex-governor of Canton, and other well-known or conspicuous personages. Latterly there has sprung up a strong tendency among the Chinese artists to daguerreotypes and photographs in miniature upon ivory; and in the ateliers of Hong-kong a number of artists were engaged in this, at present the most profitable branch of Chinese artistic skill.
In all these shops the medium of trade is what is called Canton-English, less a dialect than a confused jargon of English and Chinese words, consisting of concessions made on either side to the grammar and idiom of the other, so as the more readily to comprehend each other. A few Spanish and Portuguese words have also crept in, recalling the former relations of these countries with China. All English words ending in e mute have in this gibberish an i attached to them, as also all other words whatever. Thus they say timi, housi, pieci, coachi, cooki, &c. &c. There are certain Chinese, especially in Canton, who pick up a living by initiating young country folks, who are about entering service in English mercantile houses, in this singular language. Curious and unpleasant as this Chinese English dialect sounds in the ears of strangers, it is found greatly to facilitate intercourse with the Chinese, in consequence of the immense difficulties attending the study of Chinese, so that most Europeans find it far more comfortable to master this jargon, which is not without some influence on the spread of English in the chief commercial cities, than to occupy themselves with mastering Chinese. The language spoken by the sons of the "middle kingdom" consists of 450 monosyllabic sounds, which by various delicate differences in accentuation may increase to about 1600. The slight, and to unaccustomed ears almost inappreciable, shades of aspiration and accentuation, are the main difficulty in the way of foreigners desirous of learning the Chinese language.
To learn the written characters is equally arduous, and requires not less time and perseverance; for this does not consist of a number of letters, the varying arrangement of which constitutes words, but of 40,000 more or less complicated signs, each of which expresses a whole word. They are rude forms, representing most imperfectly ideas and material objects;[112] however, the knowledge of 4000 to 6000 such signs, with their various significations, suffices to understand most of the common Chinese books. These singular hieroglyphics are not written horizontally but vertically. Moreover, the Chinese begin from the right side, so that, directly the reverse of the European custom, the title of a Chinese book is found on the first page, the leaf furthest to the right hand. Long ago, the Chinese, like most other Asiatic nations at the present day, wrote with metal styli upon split leaves of bamboo. Ever since the third century before Christ, however, when the art was invented of making paper from the rind of the mulberry tree and the bamboo-cane, and preparing pin-soot, glair, musk, glue, Indian ink[113] (méh), and other substances, the pencil has taken the place of the graver. The hieroglyphics now made on paper are softer, more elegant, and in distinctness of outline admit greater varieties of form. Most of the Chinese whom we saw engaged in writing formed the most complicated characters with great celerity and ease upon the thin paper, and without the firm strokes losing anything of their neatness and clearness of outline.
Among the various scientific objects recommended as important objects of inquiry to the members of the Expedition, during their visit to China, by the renowned sinologue Dr. Pfitzmaier, was the obtaining of rare Chinese books, and the elucidation of certain ethnographic and linguistic questions. Whatever was achieved by us in throwing light upon these matters is due in great measure to the cordial reception with which we were received by men of science resident at Hong-kong. Especially we would name in this respect Dr. M. Lobscheid, a German by birth, a missionary and inspector of schools, who, thoroughly conversant with the Chinese language, exerted himself to the utmost in forwarding the objects of the scientific corps, besides assisting us in the purchase of a variety of the most valuable Chinese works, and giving us much interesting information respecting the country and the inhabitants. Dr. Lobscheid himself has a well-selected, valuable, and extensive library of rare Chinese works on geography, natural science, history, philology, and numismatics, and presented a number of valuable gifts to the Expedition. One of his colleagues, Dr. Ph. Winnes, also a German, and a missionary from the Mission Society of Bâle, compiled for us a list of words of the Hakka dialect, as spoken in the interior of the province of Quang-Tung, hitherto so little known philologically. It is indeed astonishing what English, and German, and American missionaries have effected as publicists, during the short period they have been resident here. The educational and religious works published in Chinese at the expense of the various religious societies form already quite a respectable literature of themselves, although the Chinese language puts as many obstacles in the way of mere Christian civilization as in that of the propagation of the Evangile itself. Most of the missionaries consider any attempt to substitute Romish for Chinese characters as being quite vain. The indistinctness of Chinese signs has already been fruitful of much controversy among the missionaries themselves. Thus, for example, those engaged in promulgating the Christian faith are not as yet agreed by what Chinese word the God of Christianity may best be indicated. The Roman Catholic missionaries write Tientschù (the Highest of all things); the English and German Protestants use the sign Schang-Ti (the Most High); the American Protestants make use of the word Schin (Spirit). These varieties of opinion as to the mode of expressing the idea of "God," have given rise to a vast number of publications, which however have unfortunately tended rather to envenom the dispute than smooth the way to a common understanding.
Conspicuous, however, as are the services of the missionaries in the publication and diffusion of useful and moral books in the Chinese language, their direct efforts have, on the other hand, been attended with but limited results hitherto, and although it is always laid down as an axiom in the books and manifestoes of the Tai-Ping insurgents, that the doctrines of Christianity, as deduced from the writings of the Missionary Societies, are the leading principle of the movement, yet, as set forth and promulgated by the insurgent chiefs, they cannot be said to deserve recognition by any known form of Christianity.
As in their religion, so in their mode of life, and their national customs, the Chinese remain stiff-necked and obstinate, and in this direction also Christianity is in but few cases capable of mitigating their frequently barbarous customs. Children in China are constantly exposed in large numbers, and that not owing to poverty, but from indifference to the female children. One Chinese woman who at present professes Christianity, and is a member of the Bâle missionary community, has herself killed eight female children whom she had herself carried in her womb! Dr. Lobscheid informed us that he was personally cognizant of one case, where a Chinese mother-in-law, irritated at the birth of a female child, murdered it before its mother's eyes, almost immediately after it had come into the world, and this in a rather well-to-do family! Young mothers often lay their children down in the open field, or on the sea-beach, watching anxiously if any one takes it away, or till a wave mercifully sweeps it off. One such infant, accidentally found by some of the crew of the English frigate Nankin, and tended with all the tender-heartedness of Jack when he finds an object of compassion, is at present in the German Mission House at Hong-kong, and was baptized in the cathedral by the chaplain of the frigate, who gave her the name of Victoria Nankin. Other mothers endeavour to choke the new-born girl with moistened ashes, which, not unfrequently with caressing hand, they lay upon the mouth of the little unconscious innocent. Male children, on the other hand, even such as are crippled or deformed, are very seldom, indeed quite exceptionally, exposed or put to death. In proportion to the harsh treatment which the female offspring experience, is the pride and anxious carefulness which wait on the male children. Indeed the Chinese are very much in the habit of having several wives, simply because by so doing they of course have a better chance of a number of male offspring, and it very frequently happens that the lawful wife of a Chinaman, if she has continued any length of time childless, will even seek out and bring to her husband a concubine by whom he may have heirs, that is, sons.[114] In such cases the two wives usually continue on the best of terms, which cannot be said of those instances where the second or third wife is introduced into the family by the husband, without the intervention of his wife. According to the old Chinese law, the man had to be thirty, the woman twenty, before marriage. At present marriages, as a rule, are made between sixteen and twenty years of age. It may be assumed that one in every fifteen Chinese has more than one wife; the first, usually known as "number one," is generally taken from inclination, whereas the rest are usually bought, the price varying, according to their youth and beauty, from 100 to 600 dollars. This custom gives rise to quite a peculiar trade. Chinese women make a practice of purchasing for themselves from the poorer classes such of the female children as are of good health and well formed, whom they bring up with great care, with the view of selling them, when grown up, to the wealthy Chinese, and even sometimes to—European residents.[115] The custom of child-murder is most prevalent in the coast districts of the province of Fo-kien, so that latterly there was a positive scarcity of women, and marriageable girls had to be imported from the northern part of the province. The prevalence of this custom of child-murder in these localities is to be ascribed to the enormous migration of the male population to Siam, to the islands of the Malay Archipelago, and other points. These emigrants supply the labour market in foreign countries, and but seldom return to their families. Numerous placards and pamphlets, pointing out the enormity of child-murder, and dissuading from its commission, are printed annually, partly at the cost of philanthropists, partly at that of the Chinese Government, and widely diffused, yet without producing any diminution in the practice of this appalling custom.
The custom of distorting the feet of the better class of women at the period of their birth, seems to have arisen from the jealousy of the husbands, who in thus preventing the possibility of gadding about, think they have secured an additional guarantee for the fidelity and chastity of their wives. However, one occasionally hears the first introduction of this singular and cruel custom ascribed to a Chinese empress having once been born with such distortion of the feet, and that in consequence it not only became the fashion among the females of the higher class in those days, out of pure obsequiousness, to imitate by artificial means a disfiguration accidentally arising from a freak of Nature, but even to recognize it as a necessary concomitant of the Chinese ideal of beauty.
The Governor of Hong-kong, Sir John Bowring, a distinguished savant, who received the members of the Expedition with the utmost consideration, invited them to his house and endeavoured to bring them into personal communication with those residents in the colony most interested in scientific pursuits, so that each one of us could consult with the gentleman best able to advise him in his own department, and thus attain in the shortest time the most satisfactory results. Sir John, moreover, as President of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, admitted the members of the Expedition to the honours of an extraordinary session. He welcomed the Austrian naturalists in the heartiest manner, and expressed the most flattering anticipations from their visit. Very deserving of remark was the speech made on this occasion by the Lord Bishop of Hong-kong. In his capacity of a dignitary of the Church, he too bade us welcome in the warmest manner, and expressed his conviction that Christianity had nothing to fear, but only to hope, from the study of natural sciences! What would certain ultramontanists, had they been present, have replied to this remark of a high ecclesiastical dignitary?—they who consider government impossible without restricting the study of the natural sciences!
Among the various subjects discussed at this meeting were several of great interest, which sufficiently evidenced what a thorough disposition to mental activity the English show, even in a place where material interests are necessarily the main objects of attention, and where they, moreover, are continually exposed to great personal danger.
One of the communications received by the Society was a memoir by Mr. W. Alabaster, who had accompanied ex-governor Yeh to Calcutta as interpreter, treating of the Chinese population there, and its influence on the state of society. The memoir contained the very remarkable statement that the Chinese colony in Calcutta, which in 1858 counted little more than 500 souls, had not alone monopolized several employments, such as shoemakers, tailors, &c., but had, even when thousands of miles distant from home, jealously maintained several of their customs and rites intact. This Chinese community, so inconsiderable in point of mere numbers, already possesses its own temple, its own priests, and its own teachers, who guard any Chinese immigrants from the perils of proselytism; it has founded a special association, whose object it is to transmit to their native land the bodies of such as die abroad, while their luxury is beginning to develope itself to the extent of ordering from China at considerable expense troops of actors, so as even at this distance to provide themselves with the national amusement of a genuine Sing-Song. This peculiarity is of great importance, inasmuch as the emigration from China is ever assuming more extended dimensions, and already embraces several portions of the world. We find Chinese scattered throughout Eastern Asia, in Australia, in California, in Peru, in Brazil, in the West Indies, and, what is very astonishing they thrive and prosper at most places they visit, despite the not very humane treatment they receive, and the wretched, desolate state in which they leave their homes. This enormous emigration of the sons of the Flowery Land seems destined to be of immense importance, and to be fraught with momentous influence upon the future of the other Asiatic populations, whom the Chinese greatly excel in capacity for work, mechanical dexterity, and dogged perseverance. Even the religious movement gives the Chinese certain advantages over all other nations of the Asiatic type of civilization. The Hindoo, like the Catholic, has numbers of festivals, which greatly diminish the number of his actual working days; the daily ceremonies prescribed by Brahminism further curtail the most precious hours of labour; his exclusively vegetarian food not alone prevents the proper development of his muscular power, but also by its ostentatiously morbid delicacy, brings him constantly into collision with the social order of a Christian household. The Chinese, on the other hand, keeps but one holiday-time, the beginning of the new year, which he celebrates for fourteen days without intermission. But the remaining 11 1⁄2 months of the year are for him but one long day of work. Moreover, the Chinese has no fastidious notions about his food. He eats pork, and drinks wine, and prefers fat meat to meagre fruit diet, thoroughly unrestrained by any considerations as to whether such a mode of life accords with the institutes of Brahma and Menu, or the teaching of Confucius. Their sobriety, their capacity, their industry, their frugal mode of life, and their numbers, all seem to indicate the Chinese as destined to play an important part, not alone in the development of the Oriental nations, but also in the history of mankind. They are, as a German philosopher has profoundly remarked, the Greeks and Romans of Eastern Asia, and they will, if once hurried onwards by the great tide of Christian civilization, perform such feats as to fill even the nations of the old world with wonder and amazement.
Another communication, made during the same meeting of this meritorious branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong-kong, related to that singular plant, which has within the last few years excited so much attention in industrial circles throughout Europe under the name of "Green dye," or "Vert Chinois." Notwithstanding the experiments hitherto made with this valuable dye, and the excellent use which has been made of it, more especially by the Chamber of Commerce at Lyons, the first in Europe to make application of the new colour, there was yet much to be learned respecting the mode of raising and manufacturing it, in order to render its employment entirely practicable. The elegant pamphlet of the Lyons Chamber of Commerce[116] had just arrived from Europe, and led to a variety of interesting investigations. Nothing was known in Hong-kong respecting the plant beyond what was already contained in Robert Fortune's excellent work and Rondot's treatise. Somewhat later, we were furnished with more accurate and circumstantial information respecting the Lu-Kao, the well-known "Green dye" of the English (a species of Rhamnus or buckthorn), which we shall here transcribe pretty fully.[117]