The factories are called shih-san-hang, “the thirteen factories;” with the exception of two or three narrow streets, they form a solid block; each factory extends in length, through the whole breadth of the block, and has its own proper name which, if not always appropriate, is intended to be indicative of good fortune: the first, commencing on the east, is e-ho-hang, the factory of “justice and peace;” it communicates with the city ditch: the second is the Dutch; it is called paon-ho-hong, “the factory that ensures tranquillity:” Hog-lane separates this from the fourth, which is called fung-tae-hang, “the great and affluent or chow-chow factory;” it derives the latter name from its mixture of inhabitants, viz.:—Parsees, Moormen, &c.: the fifth, being the old English factory, is named bung-shan-hong: the sixth, the Swedish factory, is called suy-hang: the seventh, commonly called the imperial factory, ma-ying-hang: the eighth, paon-shun-hang, or “the precious and prosperous factory:” the ninth, the American factory, is termed kwang-yuen-hang, “the factory of wide fountains.” A broad street, called China-street, separates kwang-yuen-hang from the tenth factory, which is occupied by one of the hong merchants: the eleventh is the French factory: the twelfth, the Spanish factory: the thirteenth, and last, is the Danish factory. The twelfth and thirteenth are separated by a street occupied by Chinese merchants, generally called New China-street.
Each factory is divided into three, four, or more houses, of which each factor occupies one or more, according to circumstances. Brick or granite is the material used in the erection of these buildings, which are two stories high, and present a moderately substantial front. They form, with the foreign flags which wave above them, a pleasing contrast to the national banner and architecture of the celestial empire.
Besides the British East India company’s establishment, there are nine British merchants and agents, seven American, one French, and one Dutch. Between Canton, Macao, and on board the stationary ships at Linting, there are distributed one hundred and forty residents, exclusive of twenty-five belonging to the East India company’s establishment, viz.: Sixty-three British, thirty-one Asiatic British subjects, twenty Americans, eleven Portuguese, three Dutch, four Danish, three Swedish, three Spanish, one French, and one Genoese.
Messrs. Markwick and Lane keep a European bazar, and the British hotel is kept by C. Markwick in the imperial hong; the European ware-house and hotel is kept by Robert Edwards, in the American hong.
Two newspapers are printed in the English language, the “Canton Register,” and the “Chinese Courier;” the first, half-monthly, and the second, weekly, accompanied by price-currents. There is also, printed in English, a very useful and praiseworthy work, called the “Chinese Repository,” to which I am indebted for a considerable portion of the information relative to Canton, its commerce, &c.
The difficulty, which formerly existed in visiting and communicating with Macao, Linting, and Cap-shuy-moon, is now happily removed by the establishment of two excellent cutters, under British colours, which have very convenient accommodations. Chinese boats also may be had in abundance, either for the outer ship channel to or from Linting, Cap-shuy-moon, or Macao, or the inner passage to and from Macao, and which foreign boats are not allowed to use.
The style of living in China (we refer to foreign society) is similar to that of India, except that here man is deprived of that “help” appointed to him by a divine decree, which no human authority can justly abrogate, and enjoyed by him in every land save this.
A gentleman, fitting up an establishment in Canton, must first obtain a comprador; this is an individual permitted, by special license, to act as head-servant; to him belong the general superintendance of domestic household affairs, the procuring of other servants, purchasing provisions, &c., according to the wishes of his employer. Visiters to Canton usually speak in high terms of the domestic arrangements of the residents.
This place presents few objects of much interest to the mere man of pleasure. Considering the latitude, the climate is agreeable and healthy; provisions of good quality and great variety are abundant; but the want of a purer air, and wider range, than are enjoyed in the midst of the densely populated metropolis, to which the residents are here confined, often makes them impatient to leave the provincial city.
MANUFACTORIES.