"The kings or Wangs, on the other hand, seem exceedingly
lazy and vicious, and when they make their appearance, with a theatrical attempt at assuming a dignified deportment, clad in the yellow costume of a mountebank, and with a tinsel crown upon their heads, they present a most ludicrous aspect. Not one of these so-called kings understands the Mandarin dialect, so widely diffused among the educated classes;—not one, except Hung himself and Kan-wang, has a better education than one of his coolies.[186] They have linguists at their elbow, who do their reading and writing for them.
"The arms of the Tai-ping are very wretched, and the bare fact that they are able to make head against the Imperial troops, speak volumes for the utter helplessness and incapacity of the Imperial Government. I have not the slightest expectation that any advantage will accrue to civilization or Christianity from the religio-political movement of the Tai-ping. No Chinese will have anything to do with them. Their whole activity consists in burning, murdering, and devastating. They are universally detested by the people; even those inhabitants of the city who do not belong to the 'Brotherhood' detest them. For eight years their head-quarters have been at Nankin, which they destroyed, nor have they as yet made the slightest attempt to rebuild it. Trade and industry are forbidden. Their taxes are three times higher than those of the regular Government. They take no measures to staunch the wounds which they have
inflicted on the people, nor do they occupy it as though they had any permanent interest in the land. They take no pains to tap those slow but sure springs of revenue, or to increase the resources of the state. They lay themselves out to maintain themselves by plunder. Nothing in their organization gives hope for any amelioration of the present or consolidation of power in the future; there is nothing in the entire history of the Tai-ping to enlist sympathy or compel confidence in a movement which, under the mask of religious reform, conceals the most hateful self-interest and terrorism, and under the pretext of spreading peace amongst men, brandishes the scourge of destruction and desolation among the provinces through which it has passed."[187]
On the 11th of August the Novara quitted her anchorage off Shanghai, and with the steam-tug Meteor[188] fastened to her side availed herself of a spring-tide to make her way into the Yang-tse-Kiang. Off Wusung we awaited the arrival of the post,
after receiving which we were on 14th August towed as far as Gutzlaff's Island. Here we had once more to lay to, owing to calms and currents, till at last on the 15th August a fresh breeze sprang up from the S.E., and enabled us to make an offing.
The temperature had materially altered during the last few days. After a cycle of oppressive heat the weather had suddenly changed to severe squalls, with a marked fall in the barometric column. The thermometer, which while we were lying off Shanghai marked from 86° to 93°.2 Fahr., now indicated in the morning only 68° Fahr., and during the day never rose above 77° Fahr. The number of fever cases, which had reached the number of seventy, began gradually to fall off. Several cases of dysentery forthwith began to show symptoms of amendment.
Considering the latitude we were in, and the season of the year, the barometer stood unusually high (30°.100), and although this might be attributable to the constant prevalence of easterly winds, we nevertheless knew we were approaching the period when the monsoon changes, and little reliance was to be placed on the steadiness of that from the S.E. Accordingly on the 17th the wind shifted round to N.E. by E., while our course was due S.E. This however rendered it necessary to tack, if we wished to pass to the northward of the Loo-Choo group, whereas we could run free and with a fair wind through the southern channel. The sun set behind a bank of dense clouds on the horizon. The western sky was tinged a deep red, and the stars shone out with uncommon brilliancy,
but with a sort of trembling ray. The barometer fell slowly but steadily; the sea began to heave perceptibly. Our course was now changed to S.E. by S.
The following morning the breeze freshened, and drew somewhat further aft; the sky was covered with clouds massed together, those to the N.E. of a very dark, almost black, colour. Wind and sea were now rising, the sky became more and more obscure, the barometer kept falling—there was every indication of the approach of heavy weather.