But, as we proceed further to the East, we find still larger and richer fields gradually being opened out by means of steamers. In China there are vast regions with teeming millions of industrious people who could never have been reached by the traders of Europe and America without the intervention of steam; countries hitherto unknown, yet exhibiting a high state of civilization. With all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life, their inhabitants have little or no knowledge of any other country beyond their own: favoured by a superior soil and excellent climate, they have, however, become rich by their own genius and unwearied industry: not one out of every hundred thousand of those in the interior having ever seen the ocean, and knowing as little about England as the people of ancient India knew about Greece, Babylonia, and Macedonia when Alexander made his celebrated march across the Panjâb. Nor, indeed, are the descriptions of its civilization, wealth, and refinement, as given to us by occasional travellers who have penetrated the interior, wholly unlike those Arrian has handed down to posterity, with reference to the great cities of ancient India.
The Yang-tse-Kiang.
If my readers will take the trouble to glance over a map of China and trace the windings of the great Yang-tse-Kiang to its outlet near Shanghai, they will see the extent of territory watered by this mighty stream, together with its various navigable branches. Rising in the southern slope of north-eastern Tibet, and, thence, flowing to the south-east, the Yang-tse at first passes through a country of lofty snow-covered mountains, the drainage of which in warm weather largely increases the volume of its waters, and produces at the same time, in great measure, the vast floods which, in the months of July and August, inundate the widely extending valleys near Hankow and the lower portions of the river.[391]
Its source and extent.
From these mountain ranges, the Yang-tse winds its way through others of less magnitude and through fertile plains for 800 miles to Chong-kin-foo, forming the northern boundary of the provinces of Yunnan and Kweichow, and greatly increased in its volume by various tributary streams, two of which are of considerable magnitude. Through the province of Szchuen its course extends, for many hundred miles, in a north and north-easterly direction. Thence, passing onwards through numerous gorges and passes, at present altogether unnavigable, it debouches on the plain of Hupeh, where it is about half a mile in breadth; thence again, it proceeds for about 250 miles to Yo-choo-foo, at the Lake Tongting, where the upper Yang-tse ends, and where the lower or greater river of the same name, commencing its course, passes the important city of Hankow, receiving near this city the waters of the Han river, its greatest tributary, and the Chin-kiang: at this place, it is a mile and a half wide, but, at its mouth, near Shanghai, the Yang-tse extends to a width of 12 miles, its whole course being upwards of 3000 miles in length.
This great river is subject periodically to floods, some of these, as that of 1870, converting the country for miles on either bank into a vast sea submerging many villages, whose position can only be traced by the roofs of the houses, as the highways are by the tops of the willow trees lining them.
Opened to trade, 1860.
First steam-ship direct from Hankow to England, 1863.
In February 1860, the Yang-tse was for the first time opened (by treaty) to the ships of other nations; and one of my own, the Scotland, an iron auxiliary screw steam-ship of about 1100 tons gross register, commanded by Captain A. D. Dundas, R.N., was the first foreign merchant-vessel[392] which loaded a cargo from Shanghai to Hankow,[393] bringing back teas for transhipment to Europe and America; but it was not until 1863 that any English vessel loaded a cargo direct from Hankow for Great Britain. On the 8th May of that year, another of my auxiliary steam-ships, the Robert Lowe, of 1250 tons, commanded by William Congalton, left Shanghai for Hankow for the purpose of loading a cargo of teas direct for London: two other English vessels had, however, preceded her.
Passage of the Robert Lowe and her cargo.