Our intention of returning this visit the next day was not mentioned during the discussions in the cabin, from the certainty of its being combated, and perhaps overruled: but when the last of the chiefs was getting into the boat, the interpreter was desired to tell him, in a careless way, as a matter of course, that next morning this visit would be returned on shore. As had been foreseen, this did not receive their approbation; the interpreter went into the boat, where every persuasion was used to convince him of the impropriety of our intention: they could not succeed, however, in making him yield this point, and at length went away. This interpreter is called "John" by all parties, and though merely an under servant of the factory at Canton, he is a very shrewd fellow. His English is certainly not the best, and probably the Chinese he speaks is the base provincial language of Canton; so that misunderstandings are no doubt often caused by his erroneous interpretation.
John's report after the boat had put off, and from which we gather that we shall be expected, was as follows: "They ax me, 'what for my Ta-yin come sho?' I say, 'to make chin-chin[7] they Ta-yin;' they tell me, 'You Ta-yin too much great mandarine, no can come sho;' I say, 'What for my Ta-yin no come sho? He great man; he[8] Ta-wang-tee too much great man; he let you Ta-yin come board ship, and you no let him come sho, chin-chin you Ta-yin; what for this?' Then they speak long time together; by and by ax me, 'how many people bring sho you Ta-yin?' So I shake my head, I no like give answer long time, (they always take long time answer me). When they ax me again, I say, 'Ta-yin bring five people mo besides me.' They say, 'too much men come;' I say, 'No, no too much.' They ax, 'What time come?' I give no answer."
23d September.—As we had not contemplated such adventures as these, we had made no preparations for them; and now that it was necessary to make some return to the chief whom we were going to visit, we found great difficulty in preparing a suitable present. Captain Maxwell took with him several dozens of wine, some books, glasses, various trinkets, and a large piece of blue broad cloth. I took half the quantity of Captain Maxwell's other presents, and a table cloth in place of the broad cloth. Smaller presents were also made up for each of the chiefs. At one o'clock we set out in the barge, with a large union jack flying, and as it blew fresh, we soon reached the harbour. As we rowed past the shore, the people were seen running along all the roads leading to the town, so that by the time we reached the harbour, the crowd on both sides was immense: the trees, walls, and house tops, and in short every spot from which we could be seen, was literally covered with people, forming a sight as striking and animated as can well be conceived. As we entered the harbour several of the chiefs were observed to come down to a point, and wave for us to go round the end of a pier or mole, forming the inner harbour, where there was a good landing-place.
The chiefs helped us out, and then led us along, Ookooma taking Captain Maxwell's hand, Shayoon mine, and Jeema Mr. Clifford's; the others, according to their rank, conducted Mr. M'Leod of the Alceste, Mr. Maxwell, and another midshipman, Mr. Browne. They held our hands nearly as high as the shoulder, while a lane was formed for us through the crowd of people, who were perfectly silent. The children were placed in front, and the next rank sat down, so that those behind could see us in passing. At about a hundred and fifty yards from the landing-place, we came to the gate of a temple, where we were met by the Chief, who stood just on the outside of the threshold, on a small raised pavement: he took Ookooma's place, and conducted Captain Maxwell up a few steps into the temple, which was partly open on two sides, with deep verandahs, which made the interior shady and cool. A large table, finely japanned, was spread, and two ornamented chairs were placed for us. The Chief seated himself at one end of the table, and placed Captain Maxwell on his left.
He expressed himself much gratified and honoured by the visit, asked our ages, and if we were married. He was greatly pleased with Captain Maxwell's account of his family, which nearly corresponded with his own. He guessed Mr. Maxwell's age to be twenty-seven, and was with difficulty persuaded to believe that a person six feet high could be only sixteen. The same mistake was made by all the natives, who invariably judged of the age of our young men by their height alone. An entertainment was now served, beginning with a light kind of wine, called sackee, which was handed round in very diminutive cups, filled by Issacha, from a small high pot in which the sackee was kept hot. They insisted on our emptying the cup every time, shewing us a fair example themselves. During the whole feast the sackee never left the table, being considered apropos to all the strange dishes which we partook of. The first of these consisted of hard boiled eggs, cut into slices, the outside of the white being coloured red. A pair of chopsticks[9] was now given to each person, and these were not changed during the feast. Next came fish fried in batter, which we found an excellent dish; then sliced smoked pork, next pig's liver sliced. After this, tea was handed round in cups of a moderate size; the tea was quite new, resembling, as was observed, an infusion of hay. Pipes and tobacco served to fill up the short intervals between the courses. A man attended behind each of our chairs, whose sole business it was to fill and light the pipes. The next dish was the strangest of any, and disgusted most of the party; it consisted of a mass of coarse, soft, black sugar, wrapped up in unbaked dough, powdered over with rice flour, dyed yellow. After this we had dishes of round cakes, like gingerbread nuts; then cakes made in the form of wreaths, and in a variety of other shapes. There was something like cheese given us after the cakes, but we cannot form a probable conjecture of what it was made. Most of the dishes were so good that we soon made a hearty dinner, but the attendants still brought in more, till the Chief seeing that we did not eat, recommended the sackee to us. The old gentleman's eyes at length began to glisten, and observing that we felt it hot, he requested us to uncover, shewing the example himself. He seized the doctor's cocked hat and put it on, while the doctor did the same with his hatchee-matchee. The oddity of the Chief's appearance produced by this change overcame the gravity of the attendants, and the mirth became general; nor was the joke relished by any body more than the Chief's two sons, who stood by his chair during all the entertainment: they were pretty little boys, with gaudy dresses, and their hair dressed in high shewy top-knots.
[Illustration: LOO-CHOO CHIEF and his TWO SONS.]
During the early part of the feast, our presents were brought in on trays, and laid at the feet of the Chief: the old man rose and saw them arranged, he then made a graceful bow, and acknowledged his satisfaction, observing that we had sent him too much, and had done him more honour than he was entitled to, and that he could not think of accepting the whole. This we considered matter of form, and in reply lamented our inability to make suitable presents; upon which he sat down and said no more. The other chiefs ran about shewing the list of their presents to their friends among the crowd.
The room in which this entertainment was given was open at first on two sides only, but afterwards the partitions on the other two sides were taken down, being contrived to slide in grooves; thus the rooms are enlarged or diminished at pleasure. When the partition behind us was removed, several strange looking figures made their appearance, who we found were Bodezes or priests. Their heads and faces were shaved, their feet bare, and their dress different from that worn by the rest of the people, being somewhat shorter, and much less free and flowing, without any belt round the waist, the robe being merely tightened a little by a drawing string tied at the side; over the shoulders hangs an embroidered band or belt, like that used by drummers: the colour of their dress is not uniform, some wearing black, others yellow, and some deep purple. They have a timorous, patient, subdued sort of look, with a languid smile, and ghastly expression of countenance. They are low in stature, and generally look unhealthy; they all stoop more or less, and their manners are without grace, so that a more contemptible class of people cannot easily be imagined. Along with the Bodezes were several boys, whom we took to be their children from the resemblance they bore to them; but this mistake must have arisen from these boys being dressed like the priests, for the Bodezes are strictly confined to a life of celibacy. From the circumstance of our being in a temple, as well as from our general habits of respect to persons filling sacred stations, we felt at first disposed to treat these Bodezes with attention, but this was looked upon as ridiculous by the chiefs, who seeing us bowing to them, begged we would take no further notice of them. Instead of being the class most respected, they are considered the lowest, and if not held in contempt, are at least neglected by all other ranks.
During all the time we were at table, the crowd pressed round the verandahs, and perched themselves upon the walls and house-tops in the vicinity, or wherever they could get a peep at us. The satisfaction here was mutual, as we were anxious to make the most of the opportunity, not knowing if we should ever be allowed to land again. After sitting two hours we rose, and were escorted to the boats in the same order as when we landed. An attempt had been made during the feast, when the whole party were in good humour, to prevail upon the old gentleman to sanction our taking a walk into the town; but the bare mention of such a thing sobered the whole party in an instant, and the subject was accordingly dropped. The sailors, who had been kept in the boats for fear of their doing mischief, had not been neglected by the Chief, who had sent them part of the feast, nor did it seem that they had any objection to the sackee. We looked anxiously on the right and left as we passed through the crowd, in hopes of seeing some of the women, but in this expectation we were disappointed. At a considerable distance indeed, on the opposite side of the harbour, we saw a group of women, several of whom came down to the causeway to obtain a better view of the boats as they passed. Six or eight young girls ran to the pier head, round some rocks near the end; they reached this spot just as we rowed past, but looked quite frightened at finding themselves so near us, and immediately drew back out of our sight. We fancied that we could discover a good deal of beauty in some of their faces, and that their figures were handsome; but as we had not seen a fair lady's face for nearly half a year before, our judgment in this case is not perhaps to be depended on. Ookooma and his associates put off to accompany us in one of their own boats, but as it blew hard, they came no farther than the pier head: Jeeroo, however, was sent along with us, to see that there were no stray sheep.
What is to follow is uncertain, but it is clear that we have made little progress of late, while fresh obstacles have been hourly rising against our landing; in the meantime, the Loo-chooans shew no little sagacity and kindness of disposition in supplying us liberally with all kinds of stock.