Every kind of European trade is carried on at Hong-Kong for the benefit of the English residents. Few Chinese women perform any kind of manual labour; and, except in shops of the very poorest description, they are not even to be seen behind a counter. Costermongers and provision-vendors, peripatetic cake, fruit, and sweet-stuff sellers, and enterprising speculators in grilled fish, roast fowls, and other smoking delicacies, here abound. Of beggars, old and young, there is no scarcity; and the blind go about the streets ringing a little bell to attract public attention. Besides these, there are plenty of wandering singers and musicians, who recite quaint and monotonous legends "for a consideration."
Not the least curious members of the population are the barbers and hair-dressers, who twenty times a-day make the tour of the city, carrying their shaving apparatus on their backs. Should a shopkeeper or pedestrian wish to have his head shaved, his pig-tail dressed, or his eyebrows trimmed, he beckons to the first artiste who passes by, and the operation is forthwith performed, either in the shelter of a doorway, or in a shady angle of the open street.
There are but two hotels in Hong-Kong, and both lodging and provisions are quite as expensive as in California. As might be expected, the accommodation is far inferior; and even the cleanest and best regulated houses are infested with frightful insects. Everywhere, on the furniture, in the presses, hidden in your shoes, clinging to your curtains, and ensconced in your portmanteaus, you find spiders, beetles, and mosquitoes. If you take out a garment for use, two or three of these disgusting creatures are sure to be lying in the folds of it. The beetles, however, are the most annoying of all; and at night, when the candles are lighted, become almost unendurable. One falls on your head; another alights upon your nose; and in the morning, when you wake, you are sure to find half-a-dozen lying drowned in your wash-hand basin, or served up, struggling, in your tea. At table you meet with them constantly in the gravy, or the vegetables; but this is a matter of course, and cannot be avoided.
The vegetation of Hong-Kong is the most luxuriant in the world, and the flowers are redolent with a perfume more sweet and more penetrating than those of Europe. Admitted to visit the garden of a mandarin, I scarcely knew which was the greater, my delight or my astonishment. It was an artificial world in little, interspersed with grottoes, rocks, rivulets, and miniature mountains. There was not a straight path in the place, and at each turn I came upon some fresh point of view. Here were fantastic kiosks with windows of coloured glass; rustic suspension bridges; and tranquil shrubberies, musical with birds. It is only in balmy solitudes such as these that the Chinese ladies can, with their pinched and mutilated feet, enjoy any kind of out-door recreation.
Taking advantage of the time that still remained to me, I agreed to join my fellow-travellers in a visit to Canton. Just at this period the insurrection of 1854 was at its height, and, although the city itself was tolerably tranquil, the neighbourhood all around was up in arms. Under these circumstances, we could hardly hope to make any lengthened stay.
In this enormous city (only two streets of which were then accessible to Europeans), factories, English counting-houses, and extensive warehouses abound. There is not a single hotel in the place. At the houses where you wish to transact business, you send in your card. The retail dealers are classed as a separate body of tradesmen. One quarter of the city is wholly occupied by the porcelain-sellers, another by the tea-dealers, a third by the silk-merchants. I was never weary of admiring these magnificent warehouses, where are displayed specimens of the most exquisite handiwork imaginable. Lacquered furniture, ivory fans, carved jewel-cases, silken tapestries, and resplendent stuffs, distract the attention of the stranger at every step. The thoroughfare called New China Street is bordered by these superb stores, each of which has its flat roof decorated with parti-coloured balls, and its upright sign, where golden letters on a scarlet ground proclaim the name and trade of the merchant. The streets are filled by a busy, noisy crowd: strolling vendors, with their strange guttural cries; grave and solemn citizens, with their flowing robes and perpetual parasols; and, now and then, one or two women of the poorer class, hurrying along with children in their arms.
If a traveller desire to visit a Chinese interior, he will not be refused admittance to the houses of those merchants who are in the habit of trading with the English. Having sought and obtained the necessary invitation, I went one day to a house celebrated for its luxury, and belonging to one of the wealthiest mandarins of the city. I scarcely know how to describe what I there beheld. There were flowers, musical instruments, opium-pipes, and cigarettes. From the ceiling hung lanterns of every shape, colour, and material—lanterns in glass, gauze, and paper—lanterns fringed, tufted, hung with bells, and decorated in every possible manner. From the walls were suspended pictures representative of the very infancy of art, and varnished tablets inscribed with philosophical and poetical sentences. Above all, however, I was curious to visit the apartments of the women; but this was forbidden.
During the three days that I stayed at Canton, I witnessed a fraças amongst the Emperor's soldiers. A Chinese army is the most ludicrous affair imaginable. How shall I describe these absurd warriors, dignified by the titles of "War-tigers," and "Mountain-splitters?" Standing on a lofty terrace, I was quite near enough to distinguish all their proceedings. Armed with lances and cumbrous matchlocks, they crowded along in the greatest disorder, and almost every soldier carried an umbrella, a fan, and a lantern; all of which forcibly reminded me of the Chinese burlesques that I had seen in the theatres at San Francisco.
The perpetual thundering of cannon, the brawling and skirmishing of the insurgents, the frequent encounters which took place beyond the walls, and the false alarms by which we were continually harassed, all combined to hasten my return to Hong-Kong.
After I had been resident about a month in China, our vice-consul informed me that a ship was about to sail for California. He was so extremely kind as to interest the captain in my favour, and this officer, whose name was Rooney, promised to pay me every attention in his power. Having thanked M. Haskell for all the interest which he had taken in my affairs, I hastened to my hotel with a light heart, and prepared forthwith for my journey.