[Sidenote: Sand storm.]
November 28th.—Eleven A.M.—The morning began as usual: calm, fair, and hazy. At about nine it began to blow, and gradually rose to a gale, causing our river ripple to mimic ocean waves, and the dust and sand to fly before us in clouds, obscuring earth and sky. About ten we approached a mountain range, which had been for some time looming on the horizon. We found we had to pass through a channel of about a quarter of a mile wide; on our left, a series of barren hills, bold and majestic-looking in the mist; on the right, a solitary rock, steep, conical-shaped, and about 300 feet high. On the side of it a Buddhist temple, perched like a nest. The hills on the left were crowned by walls and fortifications built some time ago by the Rebels, and running over them in all manner of zigzag and fantastic directions. I have seldom seen a more striking bit of scenery. When we had passed through we found more hills, with intervals of plains, in one of which lay the district city of Tongtze, enclosed by walls which run along the top of the hills surrounding it. The inhabitants crowded to the shore to witness the strange apparition of foreign vessels.
[Sidenote: The 'Hen Barrier.']
I mentioned a rocky passage through which we passed on the morning of the 26th. Ellis, in his account of Lord Amherst's Embassy, speaks of it as a place of great difficulty. A series of rocks like stepping- stones run over a great part, and the passage is obtained by sticking close to the left bank. Our pilot tells us that it is named the 'Hen Barrier,' and for the following reason: Once on a time, there dwelt on the right bank an evil spirit, in the guise of a rock, shaped like a hen. This evil spirit coveted some of the good land on the opposite side, and proceeded to cross, blocking up the stream on her way. The good spirits, in consternation, applied to a bonze, who, after some reflection, bethought himself of a plan for arresting the mischief. He set to work to crow like a cock. The hen rock, supposing that it was the voice of her mate, turned round to look. The spell was instantly broken. She dropped into the stream, and the natives, indignant at her misdeeds, proceeded into it and cut off her head!
I have been skimming over a Chinese book, translated by Stanislas Julien: the travels of a Buddhist. It is full of legends of the character of that which I have now narrated.
[Sidenote: Peasants.]
November 29th.—12.30 P.M.—We have been very near the bank this morning. I see more cattle on the farms than in other parts of China. They are generally buffaloes, used for agricultural purposes; and when out at pasture, a little boy is usually perched on the back of each to keep it from straying. Six P.M.—I went ashore to pass the time, and got into conversation with some of the peasants. One man told us that he had about three acres of land, which yielded him about twenty piculs (1-1/3 ton) of pulse or grain annually, worth about forty dollars. His tax amounted to about three-fourths of a dollar. There was a school in the hamlet. Children attending it paid about two dollars a year. But many were too poor to send their children to school. We went into another cottage. It was built of reeds on the bare ground. In a recess screened off were two young men lying on the ground, with their lamp between them, smoking opium.
[Sidenote: Unknown waters.]
[Sidenote: Kew-kiang.]
November 30th.—We are now in waters which no Englishman, as far as is known, has ever seen. Lord Amherst passed into the Poyang Lake through the channel I described yesterday, and so on to Canton. We are proceeding up the river Yangtze. Hue came down this route, but by land. I mentioned the sand-drifts two days ago. Some of the hills here look like the sand-hills of Egypt, from the layers of sand with which they are covered. What with inundations in summer and sand-drifts in winter, this locality must have some drawbacks as a residence. Noon.—Anchored again. We have before us in sight the pagoda of Kew- kiang; one of the principal points which we proposed to reach when we embarked on this expedition…. We have not much to hope for from our Chinese pilot. Our several mishaps have disheartened him. He said to- day with a sigh, when reminded that we had found no passage in the channel he had specially recommended: 'The ways of waters are like those of men, one day here, another there, who can tell!'—a promising frame of mind for one's guide in this intricate navigation! Five P.M.—We found a channel in about an hour, and came on swimmingly to Kew-kiang. From the water it looked imposing enough. An enclosing wall of about five miles in circuit, and in tolerable condition. I landed at 3 P.M. What a scene of desolation within the wall! It seems to have suffered even more than Chin-kiang Foo. A single street running through a wilderness of weeds and ruins. The people whom we questioned said the Rebels did it all. The best houses we found were outside the city in the suburb. We were of course very strange in a town where the European dress has never been seen, but the people were as usual perfectly good-natured, delighted to converse with Lay, and highly edified by his jokes. We did some commissariat business. We had with us only Mexican dollars, and when we offered them at the first shop the man said he did not like them as he did not know them. Lay said, 'Come to the ship and we will give you Sycee instead.' 'See how just they are,' said a man in the crowd to his neighbour; 'they do not force their coin upon him.' This kind of ready recognition of moral worth is quite Chinese, and nothing will convince me that a people who have this quality so marked are to be managed only by brutality and violence.
[Sidenote: Difficult navigation.]
[Sidenote: Highland scenery.]