The intelligence that there was in Shanghai not a single house of entertainment, such as we understand by the name of "hotel" in Europe, was the less agreeable, as the dwellings of the resident Europeans, where, under ordinary circumstances, strangers are received with the utmost hospitality, happened at present to be occupied by the officers of the numerous war-ships, as well as by members of the two embassies. The only place where we could be received was what is known as the Union Hotel, a den in the fullest sense of the word, in which we passed one of the most uncomfortable nights we ever remember. Myriads of mosquitoes, the true blood-thirsty "gallinipper," loud-shouting drunken seamen, dogs howling, intolerable heat, which not even a tremendous thunder-storm that broke forth during the night could assuage,—such were some of the amenities of our reception,
which, despite our exhaustion, utterly precluded sleep. With unspeakable longing we watched for the dawn of the morning, and, thanks to the hospitality of our new friends, we were in the course of the day fortunate enough to be released from this hideous abode.
The Novara did not remain long behind us. A few days later, on 29th July, she sailed gallantly up in an hour and a half, from Wusung, on the top of a spring-tide, and with favourable breezes, and on reaching Shanghai was welcomed with pride and delight by the German residents here—the first ship-of-war of a first-class German power that had ever been seen in the river Wusung.
FOOTNOTES:
[112] The analysis of these hieroglyphics, by which abstract ideas are sought to be expressed, is extremely interesting. Thus a heart with the badge of slavery over it represents "anger;" a hand, and the sign for the middle, signifies an "historian," because it is his duty not to lean to either side; by the sign of uprightness and motion is represented "government," because it must always observe probity in the transaction of affairs; to indicate the idea of a "friend" two pearls are represented side by side, because friendship is as rare as two pearls, exactly resembling each other! The well-known French missionary Huc, in his valuable work on the Chinese Empire, gives a variety of most interesting particulars respecting the Chinese language.
[113] A very abstruse treatise upon the preparation of the Chinese ink is contained in the important labours of the Russian Embassy at Pekin, relating to China, published in German by Dr. Abel and Mecklenburg, Berlin, F. Heinike, 1858, vol. ii. p. 481. The information is borrowed from a small treatise which was written in 1398 by a certain Scheu-zsi-Sun, who had been for thirty years engaged in the fabrication of the India ink. The author therein mentions how, after he had tried every known method, and every substance usually employed, without attaining any result, he at last put them all on one side, mingling only pin-soot with glue together, and diluting this mixture with but hot water, again kneaded it thoroughly, and thus succeeded in getting an ink "black and lustrous as a child's eyes." According to another method, India ink is prepared, besides pin-soot and lime, of a sort of tincture, consisting of the following various pigments,—pomegranate-rind, sandal-wood, sulphate of iron and copper, gamboge, cinnobar, dragon's-blood, gold-leaf, musk, and glair. This tint is said to be remarkable for preventing the glue from getting spoiled by age, or the colour changing, and may be thus kept for any length of time. 1⁄2 lb. of glue and 1⁄4 lb. of this colouring matter are the proportions for one pound of pin-soot. However, only a very small portion of the different materials used seems to possess the power ascribed to them, and many are used out of mere prejudice, and not at all to the advantage of the ink prepared.
[114] This custom is of remote antiquity in Oriental countries, as witness the circumstances attending the birth of Ishmael, and also of several of the children of Israel.
[115] Many European residents at Hong-kong and Shanghai have Chinese mistresses bought in this way, who are bound to live with them only so long as their masters choose.
[116] The title of this work is:—"Notices sur le vert de Chine et de la teinture en vert chez les Chinois, par Natalis Rondot, imprimé aux frais de la Chambre de Commerce de Lyon, à Paris, 1858."
[117] The Chinese of Shanghai called the plant Li-lu-schu, and the substance obtained from it Gah-schik.