bare surfaces, is said to be oppressive, and
perhaps the flowers down there want a pleasant
shade. From our elevation we can see few
patches of cultivation, but leaping down the
rocks are many picturesque cascades. Hong
Kong is christened from its own waters, its
name signifying in Chinese "the Island of
Fragrant Streams." There is a goat upon the
nearest rock; but look beyond. On one side
is the bay, with shipping, and behind us the
broad expanse of the ocean; and before us is
the sea, studded as far as our eyes reach with
mountainous islands, among which we must
sail to reach Canton. Now we float onward
in the Phantom, and among these islands our
sharp eyes discover craft that have more hands
on board than usually man an honest vessel. In
the holes and corners of the islands pirates
lurk to prey upon the traffic of Canton. We
pass Macao on our way into the Canton river.
Portugal was a nation of quality once, with a
strong constitution, and in those days, once
upon a time, wrecked Portuguese gained leave
to dry a cargo on the Island of Macao. They
erected sheds a little stronger than were
necessary for that temporary purpose; in fact,
they turned the accident to good account and
established here an infant settlement, which
soon grew to maintain itself, and sent money
home occasionally to assist its mother. Twice
the Emperors of China offered to make Macao
an emporium for European trade: the Portuguese
preferred to be exclusive. So the settlement
fell sick, and since the English made
Hong Kong a place of active trade, very few
people trouble themselves to inquire whether
Macao be dead yet, or only dying. The
Portuguese town has a mournful aspect, marked
as it is by strong lines of character that indicate
departed power.

Still sailing among islands, mountainous and
barren, we soon reach the Bocca Tigris, or
mouth of the Canton river, guarded now with
very formidable forts. The Chinese, since their
war with England, have been profiting by sore
experience. If their gunnery be as completely
mended as their fortifications, another war
with them would not be quite so much like an
attack of grown men upon children. The poor
Chinese, in that war, were indefatigable in
the endeavour to keep up appearances. Steam
ships were scarcely worth attention—they
had "plenty all the same inside;" and when
the first encounter, near the spot on which we
are now sailing, between junks and men-of-war,
had exhibited the tragedy, in flesh and bone,
of John Bull in a china-shop, the Chinese
Symonds, at Ningpo, was ordered to build
ships exactly like the British. He could not
execute the order, and played, therefore,
executioner upon himself. Cannon were next
ordered, that should be large enough to
destroy a ship at the first burst. They were
made, and the first monster tried, immediately
burst and killed its three attendants; nobody
could be induced to fire the others. One
morning, a British fleet was very much
surprised to see the shore look formidable with a
line of cannon mouths. The telescope, which
had formed no part of the Chinese calculations,
discovered them to be a row of earthen
pots. Forts, in the same way, often turned
out to be dummies made of matting, with the
portholes painted ; and sometimes real cannon,
mere three pounders, had their fronts turned
to the sea, plugged with blocks of wood, cut
and so painted as to resemble the mouths of
thirty two pounders shotted. However, we
have passed real strong forts and veritable
heavy cannon, to get through the Bocca Tigris.
Nothing is barren now; the river widens,
and looks like an inland sea; the flat land
near the shores is richly cultivated; rice is
there and upon the islands, all protected with
embankments to admit or exclude the flood
in its due season, or provided with wheels for
raising water where the land is too high to be
flooded in a simpler manner. The embankments,
too, yield plantain crops. The water
on each side is gay with water lilies, which
are cultivated for their roots. Banyan and
fig-trees, cypress, orange, water-pines, and
weeping willows, grow beside the stream,
with other trees; but China is not to be called
a richly-timbered country; most of its districts
are deficient in large trees. There is the
Whampoa Pagoda; there are more pagodas,
towers, joss-houses; here are the European
factories, and here are boats, boats, boats,
literally, hundreds of thousands of boats—the
sea-going junk, gorgeous with griffins, and
with proverbs, and with painted eyes; the
flower boat; boats of all shapes, and sizes,
down to the barber's boat, which barely holds
the barber and his razor. There is a city on
the water, and the dwellers in these boats,
who, whether men or women, dive or swim so
naturally that they may all be fishes, curiously
claim their kindred with the earth. On every
boat, a little soil and a few flowers are as
essential as the little joss-house and the little
joss. Canals flow from the river through
Canton; everywhere, over the mud, upon the
water side are wooden houses built on piles.
But here we will not go ashore; the suburbs
of Canton are full of thieves, and little boys
who shout fan-qui (foreign devil) after all
barbarians, and we should not be welcome in
the city; so we will not go where we shall
not be welcome. After floating up and down
the streets and lanes of water made between
the boats upon the Canton river, pleased with
the strange music, the gongs, and the incessant
chattering of women (Chinese women are
pre-eminent as chatterers), we sail away. We
do not wait even till night to wonder at the
scene by lantern light; but returning by the
way we came, repass the rice fields, the water
lilies, and the forts, the islands, and Macao,
and Hong Kong, and have again before us
the expanse of ocean. Canton lies within the
tropic; sugar-cane grown, in its vicinity yields
brown sugar and candy; but our lump sugar
is a luxury to which the Chinese have not