arm of the Yang-tse-Kiang, as formed by the above-named island, is about six and a half nautical miles in width, and a little higher up is further narrowed by Bush Island to a width of four miles.
The first inhabited spot at the junction of the Wusung and Yang-tse-Kiang is the wretched filthy village of Wusung, which owes its importance solely and exclusively to the opium boats, which the merchants of Hong-kong and Shanghai used to station here in the stream, in order more readily to sell and deliver to the Chinese that forbidden article. Thus the natives took on themselves the responsibility of opium smuggling, while the foreign merchants became thereby involved in a conflict with the Chinese Government. The opium sold per month from the ships stationed at Wusung amounts to from 2500 to 2800 chests, in value about 500 taels (£150) per chest (£375,000 to £420,000).
The mouth of the Wusung is the entrance to Shanghai, which lies about 12 miles up the Wusung or Shanghai river, but in consequence of a mud-bank is only accessible to large ships at spring-tide. Nankin lies up the Yang-tse-Kiang 180 miles from Shanghai, the channel being so deep that even a frigate may sail close up under its walls. Six hundred miles distant from the embouchure of the Wusung lie the three immense cities of Wu-chang, Hang-iang, and Shan-Keu, containing 8,000,000 inhabitants, the central point of the internal commerce of China; and about 400 miles further up are the first rapids of the Yang-tse-Kiang, which completely
prevent all further navigation. Up to this point the mighty river, like the Mississippi, the Rhine, or the Danube, may be navigated by river steamers, without the slightest danger or difficulty. What an enormous trade, what a tremendous development, will ere long be witnessed here, so soon as, in accordance with the stipulations of the Tien-Tsin and Pekin treaties, English ships, freighted with goods and necessaries of all sorts, shall steam up this most splendid of rivers and its tributaries, and the inhabitants of the far interior shall become acquainted with the products of European industry, and in exchange shall export to Europe innumerable articles of new and valuable trade. For it is the greatest service of the merchant that he not alone opens new channels of commerce, and by increased exportation of the fabrics of his native land tends to build up his power, but that he civilizes foreign nations, and enriches science and industry with innumerable fresh acquisitions.
The larger ships usually lie at anchor at the little Chinese village of Wusung on the river of that name, just where it falls into the Yang-tse-Kiang, and here accordingly, owing to the hostilities, we found upwards of twenty ships of war of various nationalities at anchor. Among others the powerful American steam-ship Minnesota, and the French frigates Audacieuse and Nemesis, an imposing spectacle in these distant regions, and to which the half-ruined Chinese fort on the tongue of land between the Wusung and the Yang-tse-Kiang, with its couple of wretched cannon, presented a tragi-comic contrast.
Numbers of Chinese boats, from the smallest cloth-awning sampan propelled by one man with a paddle to the large junk with fifteen masts, and sentences painted along the bends, were cruising in every direction. Ere long a Comprador found his way on board, who according to custom undertook to provide the frigate with everything she required.
Commodore Wüllerstorff purposed proceeding with the frigate to Shanghai; but as it would be necessary to wait for a fair wind, or else to engage another steam-tug, implying a delay of several days, the naturalists were permitted to avail themselves of the opportunity offered by the Comprador's boat to proceed at once to Shanghai, which voyage we were two hours and a half in performing.
While the number of European merchantmen that we passed, some lying at anchor in front of Wusung, others sailing up or down stream, was quite surprising, yet the sight of the river at Shanghai far surpassed all expectation. Here, close packed together in a channel rather narrower than elsewhere, was drawn up tier after tier of shipping, a quite impervious forest of masts, athwart which at intervals the large warehouses of the European merchants indistinctly loomed, lining the banks on either side. The newspaper lists at the time of our visit gave the names of no less than 102 large American and European merchantmen in the Shanghai River, in addition to which there were upwards of a thousand native junks lying in the stream with their short crooked masts, the most convincing evidence of the commercial importance
which this place has attained within the short space of time that has elapsed since by the Treaty of Nankin in 1842 foreign factories were authorized to be erected here.
On the shore the flags of the Consulates of the more important sea-faring nations fluttered gaily in the breeze from lofty flag-staffs on the top of the imposing buildings. Hardly had we landed ere we were surrounded by an ungainly crowd of Chinese coolies, who with their bamboo staves began such a serious battle among themselves for the right of carrying our baggage, that it was only by the interposition of the police that several were not left on the spot severely wounded.