COCHIN-CHINA, CHINA, MANCHURIA, COREA, AND JAPAN.
Cochin-China. M. Hedde has published a few notices of a visit to Turon in Annam in 1844, on his passage from Singapore to Macao.[102] He represents the country as altogether in a wretched, declining condition, misgoverned and beggared by despotic officers, presenting a painful contrast in its general prosperity with the Chinese empire. The present monarch is named Thieufri (or Yuen-fuh-siuen in Chinese) and succeeded his father Ming-ming or Minh-menh in 1841, but no improvement in the domestic or foreign administration of the government has taken place. Several Cochin-Chinese youth have been educated at Singapore, and the king purchased two steamers several years ago from the Dutch, but the natives probably were too little acquainted with the machinery and motive power to make the least use of them, as nothing has since been heard of them. The country is highly favored by its natural advantages and navigable rivers for maintaining a large population, but oppression on the part of the rulers and ignorance among the people, vitiate the sources of national prosperity. The port of Turon alone, is open in Annam for foreign trade, but no American vessels have been there for a cargo since Lieut. White's unsuccessful voyage in the Franklin in 1804. Capt. Percival of the U.S. ship Constitution anchored there in May, 1845, but no official account of his visit has been published, which if the rumors of his firing upon the town are true, is not strange. The Peacock and Enterprize also anchored there in 1836, but Mr. Roberts, the American diplomatic agent, was too ill to have any communications with the authorities.
China. The late war between England and China has directed the attention of other nations towards that empire in an unusual degree. Except the immediate details of the contest and the personal incidents connected with it, however, the works of those officers who have written upon that war, have not contained so much information as was expected by some, but quite as much as could be collected under the circumstances. The war was almost wholly a maritime one, confined to attacks upon cities and forts upon the coast and rivers, by both the army and navy, and few or none of the officers were acquainted with the language of the people, so that little information could be obtained from those natives whom suspicion or terror did not drive away. The region around Ningpo, Chusan and the mouth of the Yangtsz kiang, has been described with more minuteness than any other part of the maritime provinces; and the careful survey of the coast from Amoy to Shanghai, with the Chusan and Pescadore archipelagoes by Captains Collinson, and Kellet and others, has left little to be done for the navigator's benefit, in making known the hydrography of this part of China. The general topography of China is, however, but little better known now than it was at the close of the general survey of the Jesuits in 1714, and their maps form the basis of the best extant.
The embassy sent by the French government in 1844, under M. Th. de Lagrené, to form a commercial treaty with China, was furnished on a most liberal scale with everything necessary to make the greatest improvement of the opportunities offered to examine into the mechanical arts and productions of the land. Four gentlemen were attached to the ambassador's suite, to make inquiries into the various agricultural and mechanical arts of the Chinese, one of whom, M. Isidore Hedde, was especially designated to investigate everything relating to the growth and preparation of silk. In pursuance of this object, he visited the city of Tuchan fu, which lies a few miles northwest of Shanghai, and is the capital of the province of Kiangsu. This place is probably the second or third city in the empire, Canton or Hangchau fu being the only ones which can compete with it for wealth and beautiful manufactures. It lies in a highly cultivated region, and is connected with Peking and other large places, through the Grand canal and the Yangtsz kiang. M. Hedde went in a Chinese dress, and succeeded in visiting the principal buildings in the city, such as the provincial mint, the hall of examination, an establishment for the education of unhappy females destined for sale for the amusement of the opulent, and some manufactories. The suburbs of Suchau, as is the case with most Chinese cities, exceed that part within the walls, and here he found most of the craftsmen in iron, ivory, gold, silver, wood, bone, horn, glass, earth, paper, cotton and silk. His errand being chiefly to examine the silken fabrics, he noticed whatever was peculiar in spinning, dyeing and weaving, in the shops he entered. The Chinese have no such immense establishments as are found in this country, where large buildings accommodate an immense quantity of machinery and numerous workmen, but all their products are made by manual labor in small establishments. M. Hedde was struck with the immense population of the city and its environs, including a floating suburb of great extent, the whole comprising a population of not far from two millions. The Chinese census gives an average of over nine hundred souls to a square mile in the province of Kiangsu, and every opportunity which has been offered for examining it, has added new evidence to the truth of this statement, though closer investigation and further travel is necessary before we can give implicit reliance to the assertions made on this subject.
Two English missionaries have lately gone long journeys into the interior, but as Protestants have no coadjutors among the people away from the ports, who would be willing to receive and conceal them; and as their system of operations aims rather to impart a true knowledge of Christianity than to make many converts to a form of worship, these excursions have not been frequently made. One of the two here referred to, was across the country from Ningpo to Canton, by the same route Lord Macartney came, and the other was up the Yangtsz kiang. Two American missionaries visited the large city of Changchau fu near Amoy in 1844, where they were received with civility though not with kindness.
Mr. Robert Fortune, sent out to China by the Horticultural Society, has lately returned to England, with new plants of great beauty, and a large collection of botanical and ornithological specimens, among which are doubtless many not heretofore described. Mr. Fortune visited all the ports, and made excursions in their neighborhoods, and his reception among the people was generally kind. The people in the cities of Ningpo and Shanghai, and their vicinities, compare favorably for their kindness and general courtesy, with the coarse mannered natives of Canton.
The opening of this great empire to the commercial enterprise of western nations, has given rise to anticipations of an extensive trade, and the importation of cotton and woolen fabrics during the last few years has been increasing; and if it was not for the abominable traffic in opium, which is both impoverishing and destroying the Chinese, there would be every reason for believing the commerce with China would soon be one of the largest branches of trade. The principal articles in which it is most likely to increase are tea and silk, but there is a great assortment of other productions, which can be taken in exchange for the cloths, metals and wares of the west. Mr. Montgomery Martin for a short time colonial treasurer of Hongkong, has collected all the statistics bearing on this subject in his work, which will aid in forming an opinion on this point. Commercially, politically and religiously, the Chinese empire now presents a most interesting spectacle, and the experiment of regenerating it and introducing it into the family of nations, without completely disorganizing its present form of government and society, will constantly go on and attract still more and more the notice of Christendom. The probabilities at present are in favor of a successful issue, but it is impossible to contemplate the desolating effects of the use of opium, brought to the people in such quantities, without great apprehension as to the result. The lava like progress of the power of Great Britain in Asia, has just commenced on the borders of China, and when the country is drained of specie in payment for this drug, there is reason to fear that the native government will be unable to carry on its operations and maintain its authority.
Corea. Since the extermination of the Catholic priests from Corea in 1839, the most rigid measures have been adopted to exclude all foreigners; in fact, the determination on the part of the government of Corea to prevent all intercourse between its people and those of other countries seems to have been adopted from its neighbor of Japan. These measures are even extended to the Chinese, against whom a strong natural antipathy exists, growing out of the persecutions formerly inflicted on the Coreans by them. Accurate descriptions of Europeans are kept at the various posts on the frontier, and from their well known characteristics they are easily distinguished. The Coreans themselves on leaving their country for China for purposes of trade, receive a passport, which on returning must be given back or they are not permitted to enter. Many Christians still remain in Corea, and though they are subject to persecution, the minds of the people are well disposed towards the Christian religion. The literary class hold it in the highest estimation, and seem only to be waiting for the moment when they will be free to declare in its favor.[103]
Farther accounts from this country have lately appeared in the Annals of the Propaganda Society,[104] in a letter from Keemay Kim a native of Corea, and a Christian, who had just completed his studies at Macao in China. He was sent on a mission to the Christians in Corea, but owing to the vigilance observed on the frontiers of that country, was unable to enter it. Determined to persevere in the attempt, he posted on to Hoong-tchoong, a small frontier town near the mouth of a river which separates Corea from Manchuria, where he waited until the period arrived when the great fair was to take place at Kee-eu-Wen, the nearest town in Corea, four leagues distant. "They supply the Coreans with dogs, cats, pipes, leather, stag's horns, copper, horses, mules and asses; and receive in exchange, baskets, kitchen utensils, rice, corn, swine, paper, mats, oxen, furs and small horses." A few officers are permitted to trade every year, but they are closely guarded. All others who pass the frontier are made slaves or massacred at once. Our traveller here met a few Corean Christians in the immense crowd which had come to traffic, and whom he recognised by a badge previously agreed upon; but so great was the confusion and hurry on the occasion, added to the fear of being recognized, that the interview does not seem to have been productive of good, or increased our information of the people or country. Since the great persecution a few years since, the church had been at rest; and though a few converts had been made, the faithful had retired to the southern provinces for better security. They still entertained the idea of introducing a European missionary through the north, though with the knowledge that if discovered by the authorities, instant death would follow. Such is the zeal and perseverance with which these men pursue their philanthropic and Christian labors.
The fair to which allusion has been made, is thus described by our Corean. The traders cannot begin their operations until a signal is given, by hoisting a flag and beating the gong, "when the immense and densely packed crowd rush to the market place; Coreans, Chinese, and Manchus, are all mingled together. Each speaks in his own tongue, and so great is the uproar produced by this mass of people, that the echoes of the neighboring mountains repeat their discordant shouts."
"Four or five hours is the whole time allowed for buying and selling; consequently, the tumult which takes place, the quarrels which arise, the blows which are exchanged, and the plundering which goes on, give the place more the look of a city taken by storm and given up to pillage, than that of a fair." At evening, when the signal is given, the strangers are driven out by the soldiers with the points of their lances.
Manchuria. The vast regions of Manchuria, lying north of Corea to the Hing-an or Yablonoi mountains, and east of the Sialkoi to the ocean, are inhabited by various tribes speaking different dialects and subsisting principally by hunting and fishing. The Manchus are now the dominant race, but some of the tribes near the sea and in Taraka island, bear no tributary relations to them, if indeed they are much acquainted. Since the conquest of China, the Manchus have gone on steadily improving this part of their possessions by stationing agricultural troops at the principal ports of observation, and collecting the hunters around these points as much as possible. Criminals are also constantly banished there, who carry with them their arts, and by their industry both maintain themselves and set an example to the nomads. The southern part called Shingking, has become well cultivated in many parts, and considerable trade is carried on at Kinchau with other parts of China.
Manchuria produces pulse, maize, (Indian corn), millet, barley and buckwheat; pulse, drugs and cattle, form the leading articles of trade. The climate of this country is so inhospitable, as to prove a serious obstacle in the way of its settlement and cultivation.
The Manchus have no national literature; all the books written in their language are translations of Chinese works, made under the superintendence of the Academies at Moukden and Peking. Their written characters are derived from the Mongols, but have undergone many changes. The emperors have taken great pains to elevate their countrymen by providing them with the best books in Chinese literature, and compelling them to go through the same examinations before they can attain any office; but the numerical superiority of the Chinese and their active habits, give them so much the advantage, that except in their own country, the Manchus find it difficult to preserve their native tongue to the second generation.
Mongolia. The last volume of the Annals of the Propaganda Society contains an interesting narrative of a journey into Mongolia, by the Rev. Mr. Huc.[105] This vast country, covering a million of square miles, consists of barren deserts and boundless steppes. In the limits allotted each corps, there is seldom more than one town, where the chief resides. The people live in tents, without any permanent residence. They move from place to place, with the changes of the seasons, or when their immense herds of oxen, camels and horses have exhausted the grass around their encampment. To-day presents an animated scene of hundreds of tents, filled with an active population; the children playing as happy and contented as though surrounded with every luxury a civilized life affords; the women cooking their food and drawing water from a well just dug; and the men, mounted on horseback, are galloping over the plain, keeping their countless herds from straying away. To-morrow, this picturesque and animated scene will be changed to a dreary and forbidding desert. Men, flocks, and tents have vanished, and nought remains to mark the visit of this wandering race, but the curling smoke of their unquenched fires, or the birds of prey hovering over the carcase of some dying camel, or feeding on the remains of their late repast. The Mongols are irreclaimable nomads, though some tribes of them, as the Tsakhars, Ortous, and Solous, cultivate the soil. The four khanates of the Kalkas are called Outer Mongolia, and comprise within their borders, several well built towns, though none of any size, compared with the cities in China. Few Chinese have settled among the Mongols, except near the Great Wall, nor will they allow them to do so, as there is a deep antipathy between the two races. The Mongols of the present day have probably made no advances in civilization over their ancestors in the days of Genghis and Kublai.
The approaches of the British power up the valley of the Sutlej, into the regions lying along the base of the western Himalayas, are such that they will ere long come in contact with Tibet through Ladak, and with Yarkand through Badakshan. But there is probably more geographical than ethnological information to be gained by traversing these elevated regions, where stupendous mountains and arid deserts offer nothing to tempt man from the fertile plains of India and China. Two Romish missionaries have lately arrived in Canton from H'lassa in Tibet, by the overland route through Patang in Sz'chuen to the capital of Kwangsi, and thence to Canton. This route has never been described by any traveller.
Lewchew Islands. This group of islands, including the Madjico sima, lying between it and Formosa, form a dependency of the principality of Satzuma, in the southwest of Japan, though the rulers are allowed a limited intercourse with China through Fuhchau fu. During the late war between England and China, the transport Indian Oak was lost on Lewchew,[106] August 14, 1840, and the crew were treated with great kindness, and provided with a vessel, in which they returned to Chusan. Every effort was made by the authorities to prevent the officers and men from examining the island, but their kindness to the unfortunate people thus cast on their shores, made such an impression, that a mission to the islanders was determined upon in London, by some naval gentlemen connected with the expedition, and a society formed. The Rev. B.J. Bettelheim was appointed to the post, and had reached Canton in March, 1846. He afterwards proceeded on his voyage, and his journal received at Hongkong, from Napa, contains a few details of interest, but shows plainly that the authorities are decided in refusing to allow foreigners to settle in their territories.
An attempt has been made by the Romish missionaries to establish a mission in this group.[107] The Rev. W. Forcade and an associate were left on Lewchew in May, 1844, and after a residence of fifteen months were able to transmit some notices of their treatment to the directors, through Sir Edward Belcher, R.N. who stopped at Napa in August, 1845. On their arrival, M. Forcade and his companion were conducted to their dwelling, where they were surrounded by a numerous guard under the control of officers, and attended by domestics, as they were told, "to charm their leisure moments." Their table was bountifully supplied, and everything they could ask to make them comfortable was granted them, except their liberty. Whenever they went abroad, they were accompanied by a guard, but allowed to hold no intercourse with the natives; they had not been able to proceed beyond twelve miles into the interior, but as far as they had opportunities of conversing with the natives, found them simple and courteous in their manners, and disposed to talk when not under surveillance. It is probable, however, that under such restraint as these gentlemen were placed, it is not likely that they had attained to such fluency in the language as to be able to hold very ready communication with natives met in this hasty manner. The intentions of the government were plain, however, not to allow them to disseminate their doctrines, (if it had learned their real object), nor, by intercourse with the people, become acquainted with their character, or the state of the country. No assistance was granted them in learning the language, and they were forbidden to adopt the native costume. Notwithstanding this opposition, they had been able to acquire a partial knowledge of the language, and to compile a vocabulary of six thousand words. Permission to preach the Christian religion was not granted them, lest, as the authorities said, the Chinese, to whom they are tributary, would break off all intercourse; but the real reason was doubtless their fear of the Japanese. Yet these obstacles did not dishearten them, and they seem determined to persevere in their attempts, though it is not unlikely that when Mr. Bettelheim arrives, the authorities will take measures for deporting them all.
The Lewchewans are intimately connected with the Japanese. The language is the same, with unimportant dialectical variations, and Chinese letters and literature are in like manner cultivated by both. In personal appearance, however, the two people are very unlike. The Lewchewans are not on an average over five feet four inches high, slightly built, and approach the Malayan cast of features more than the Chinese. They are darker than the Chinese, and their mild traits of character, unwarlike habits, and general personal appearance, suggests the idea that they are akin to the aborigines of Formosa and Luçonia by descent, while their proximity and subjugation to their powerful neighbors on the north and west, have taught them a higher civilization, and introduced arts and sciences unknown to their early conquerors. When Lewchew was subjugated by the Japanese, it was agreed that embassies with tribute might be sent to Peking, and according to the Chinese account, they come to that court twice in three years.[108] The secretary or deputy embassador in 1841, was drowned in his passage from Peking to Fuhchau. This embassy is a source of considerable profit to the Lewchewans, for their junks, which are built on the Chinese model, have free entrance to Fuhchau, and all the goods they import and export, are passed without duty. The travelling expenses of the embassy to and from the capital are also defrayed, and permission is given them to study Chinese when in the country. This intercourse is therefore both honorable and profitable to the Lewchewans, but the Chinese are not allowed to trade there, and the only act of sovereignty the emperor exercises, according to M. Forcade, is to send a delegate to sanction the accession of a new incumbent of the throne—whom, however, it would be ridiculous for him to refuse. He adds, "In conversation, if one is a stranger, the Lewchewans will be continually dwelling on China, they will boast about it, they will relate its history, they will describe its provinces and its cities; but Japan is never mentioned! Such are the words, but the facts are quite another thing."
The real character of the connection between Lewchew and Japan is not well ascertained. No Japanese officers are seen on landing, and the officers appointed to attend the people of the Indian Oak, exhibited the greatest alarm when a few were seen at a distance, while the party were taking a walk. The trade between the two countries is confined to the ports of Napa and Kagosima, between which the vessels of both nations pass; the junks from other parts of Japan are not permitted to resort to Napa, but it is not probable that the prince of Satzuma has the right of appointing the residents, or whatever authorities are sent thither. M. Forcade says there were from ten to fifteen Japanese vessels in the port, but when the American ship Morrison was there, in 1837, there were only five. Lackered-ware, grass cloth, sugar, and earthen-ware, are exported to Kagosima, and a great assortment of metallic articles, cloths, provisions, and stationery taken in exchange. The country in the vicinity of Napa, and towards Shudi, the capital, is highly cultivated, and the people appear to be as well clothed, and possess as many of the comforts and elegancies of life as their neighbors. They still retain enough of their own customs, however, to distinguish them from the Japanese, even if their physical appearance did not point them out as distinct. M. Forcade says that there is reason for supposing Christianity to have been implanted in Lewchew at the same time it was introduced into Japan, but Lewchew at that time seems to have been much less dependant upon Japan than subsequently; and it is not probable that much was done to proselyte its inhabitants. He mentions that a cross is cut on the end of the rampart where foreigners land, who are thus obliged to trample on this symbol; but no other visitors mention any such sculpture or custom. The landing place at Napa is a long stone jetty, stretching across the beach, which at low tide, prevents boats approaching the shore.