FOOTNOTES:
[112] The analysis of these hieroglyphics, by which abstract ideas are sought to be expressed, is extremely interesting. Thus a heart with the badge of slavery over it represents "anger;" a hand, and the sign for the middle, signifies an "historian," because it is his duty not to lean to either side; by the sign of uprightness and motion is represented "government," because it must always observe probity in the transaction of affairs; to indicate the idea of a "friend" two pearls are represented side by side, because friendship is as rare as two pearls, exactly resembling each other! The well-known French missionary Huc, in his valuable work on the Chinese Empire, gives a variety of most interesting particulars respecting the Chinese language.
[113] A very abstruse treatise upon the preparation of the Chinese ink is contained in the important labours of the Russian Embassy at Pekin, relating to China, published in German by Dr. Abel and Mecklenburg, Berlin, F. Heinike, 1858, vol. ii. p. 481. The information is borrowed from a small treatise which was written in 1398 by a certain Scheu-zsi-Sun, who had been for thirty years engaged in the fabrication of the India ink. The author therein mentions how, after he had tried every known method, and every substance usually employed, without attaining any result, he at last put them all on one side, mingling only pin-soot with glue together, and diluting this mixture with but hot water, again kneaded it thoroughly, and thus succeeded in getting an ink "black and lustrous as a child's eyes." According to another method, India ink is prepared, besides pin-soot and lime, of a sort of tincture, consisting of the following various pigments,—pomegranate-rind, sandal-wood, sulphate of iron and copper, gamboge, cinnobar, dragon's-blood, gold-leaf, musk, and glair. This tint is said to be remarkable for preventing the glue from getting spoiled by age, or the colour changing, and may be thus kept for any length of time. 1⁄2 lb. of glue and 1⁄4 lb. of this colouring matter are the proportions for one pound of pin-soot. However, only a very small portion of the different materials used seems to possess the power ascribed to them, and many are used out of mere prejudice, and not at all to the advantage of the ink prepared.
[114] This custom is of remote antiquity in Oriental countries, as witness the circumstances attending the birth of Ishmael, and also of several of the children of Israel.
[115] Many European residents at Hong-kong and Shanghai have Chinese mistresses bought in this way, who are bound to live with them only so long as their masters choose.
[116] The title of this work is:—"Notices sur le vert de Chine et de la teinture en vert chez les Chinois, par Natalis Rondot, imprimé aux frais de la Chambre de Commerce de Lyon, à Paris, 1858."
[117] The Chinese of Shanghai called the plant Li-lu-schu, and the substance obtained from it Gah-schik.
[118] We give the following translation of one of these proclamations: "Listen, O listen, ye detestable barbarians! We, patriots and honourable subjects of the reigning dynasty, wish to hold up a mirror to you, that ye may see what ye are doing, and what like you are! Only in speech, and in no other respect, do ye differ from wild beasts! We have understanding, we observe laws and commandments; but you are blind and dumb, and will not receive advice. You must—there is nothing else for it—you must be cut off to the very last man!... Since you first came to the Middle Kingdom, you have done all that you can to destroy us; you have shot at us from your ships; you have poisoned us with opium, you have erected devils' houses (churches) within the walls of the city! Nay more, in order to hold your horse-races, you have profaned graves, and not suffered the dead to rest in peace! Insatiable as sharks, greedy as a set of silk-worms upon a mulberry tree, the more you get the more you want. Even our most trifling profit you have taken to yourselves. Now, however, the cup is full, Heaven in its wrath has decreed your destruction,—our people shall cut you off with divine weapons of fire. Hearken now, O people, to the four following rules for the extermination of the barbarians: All barbarians must be beheaded, that our reproach may be removed, and our Middle Kingdom be no longer insulted. So runs the order of the leader!—To none other shall any disaster happen, no one shall be molested. Whoever strikes back, shall himself be struck.... The day of vengeance shall be secretly appointed. We shall circumvent the barbarians with treachery, we shall fall on them unawares, and destroy them. Natives who are in the habit of attending their schools, or of serving them, or of trading with them, must leave them and return to their old pursuits. If they remain, then the subjects of the exceedingly beneficent dynasty as well as the barbarians, the diamonds and the hailstones, shall be destroyed together.... After the destruction of these hideous hordes, their possessions shall be distributed among those who have distinguished themselves on the day of battle. So runs the order of the leader!"
[119] Yeh, as is well known, has since died in imprisonment at Calcutta.
[120] In front, Canto X. v. 25; XII. vv. 79-80. On the back, Canto VI. vv. 95, 131, and Canto VIII. v. 42.
[121] Even these four dollars sustain a reduction during the first year, since the emigrant must for the first year pay one dollar a month to defray necessaries, partly provisions, partly clothes, supplied to him to the amount of $12, before his departure.
[122] J. F. Crawford, Esq., British Consul-General at the Havanna, in an official document respecting the number of Chinese imported in the course of one year into Havanna proves that in the case of the Peruvian ship Cora, 117 out of 292 coolies perished owing to bad water. In one single year (1857) 63 ships, of 43,933 tons, cleared from Chinese ports for the Havanna, with 23,928 Chinese labourers, of whom 3842, or above 16 per cent., died during the voyage.
[123] We give in the Appendix the original text of one of these contracts, which the Chinese emigrants have to sign preparatory to their going on ship-board, together with a translation, and shall leave the reader to judge whether those are very far wrong who denounce the system as but another form of slave-trade.
[124] The cruelty and injustice with which the poor Chinese emigrants are treated, have repeatedly had the most appalling consequences. The "China Overland Trade Report," published at Hong-kong, under date 28th February, 1861, gives the particulars of one such tragedy, which had shortly before occurred on board of one of these emigrant ships. On 22nd February, the American ship Leonidas sailed from Canton for the Havanna with a number of coolies on board. Near what is known as the Macao passage, a tremendous noise was suddenly heard in the between-decks. Two of the mates, on descending to inquire into the cause of the disturbance, were attacked with knives and severely wounded. Meanwhile some of the coolies had overpowered the captain and his wife, and had inflicted on them several dangerous wounds. However, the crew ultimately succeeded in driving all the coolies into the hold, though not till after the 29th had been passed in constant fighting. In their desperation they sought to set fire to the ship, by preparing a regular pyre of combustibles, to which they set fire. Ere long, however, the smoke became so intolerable in the hold, that they themselves speedily made every effort to extinguish the fire. The ship returned to Canton. Out of 250 coolies, 94 were dead, of whom some were shot, some were drowned, some suffocated. Singular to say the French man-of-war Durance refused to render any assistance. Other accounts speak in the highest terms of the efforts of a German missionary to put a stop to this practice of kidnapping, dignified by the name of emigration, it having not unfrequently happened that young Chinese were openly carried off to Macao, and there as openly sold. This is the more readily credible, inasmuch as the Chinese are most desperate gamblers, and after they have lost all they possess, think nothing of staking their personal liberty. Thus, a short time since, the son of respectable parents in Sunon was sold by the Emigration Society at Macao for 40 dols., and it was only by the most unremitting efforts of the German missionary already mentioned that the wretched lad was re-purchased for £60, and thus escaped a terrible destiny. Two other Chinese were shipped at the same time, the bargain in their case being recognized.
[125] See "Chinese Repository," vol. x., of October, 1849.