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 LIBRARIES 
 
 riHACA. N. Y. 14853 
 
 John M Echols 
 Collection on Southeast Aaa 
 JOHN M. OLIN LIBRARY 
 
__ Cornell University Library 
 
 DS 515.N84 
 
 The peoples and politics of the Far East 
 
 3 1924 011 118 449 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924011118449 
 
The Peoples and Politics 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FAR EAST 
 
, .^1>»« 
 
 v 
 
 '^^-1 
 
T 
 
 HE PEOPLES AND POLITICS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FAR EAST 
 
 TRAVELS AND STUDIES IN THE 
 BRITISH, FRENCH, SPANISH 
 AND PORTUGUESE COLONIES, 
 SIBERIA, CHINA, JAPAN, KOREA, 
 SIAM AND MALAYA 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY NORMAN 
 AUTHOR OF "THE REAL JAPAN" 
 
 WITH SIXTY 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS AND 
 
 FOUR MAPS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 153-157 FIFTH AVENUE 
 1895 
 
PRAESIDI SOCIISQUE HARVARDIANIS 
 rpo(l)ela 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This booJc is the result of nearly four years of travel 
 and study in the countries and colonies of which it 
 treats. I have described and discussed no place that 
 I did not visit, and in every one I remained long enough, 
 and was fortunate enough in learning the views and 
 experiences of the local authorities and best-informed 
 residents, to make sure at any rate that I was not 
 misled into mere hasty impressions. If I appear to 
 present some of my conclusions loith excessive confidence, 
 this fault is to be explained, and I trust excused, first, 
 by my conviction of the importance to Great Britain of 
 the issues involved, and second, by my faith in the 
 accuracy and wisdom of my many informants. 
 
 The Far Fast presents itself to the attentive traveller 
 under two aspects. It is the last Wonderland of the 
 World; and it is also the seed-bed of a multitude 
 of new 'political issues. I have endeavoured to reflect 
 in these pages this twofold quality of my subject. There- 
 fore the record of mere travel is interwoven with that of 
 investigation : the incidents and the adventures of the 
 
Vm PREFACE. 
 
 liou7- are mingled with the factors and the statistics of 
 the permanent problems. By this means I have hoped 
 to reproduce upon the reader^ s mind something of the 
 effect of the Far East upon my own. It is a picture 
 tohich is destined, either in bright colours or in sombre, 
 to become increasingly faviiliar to him in the future. 
 
 I find myself ivholly unable to acknoivledge here even 
 a small pai't of the help and hospitality I received', and 
 I can only express this general but deep obligation. To 
 Sir JRobert Hart, Bart., however, first of all; to Sir 
 Cecil dementi Smith, ex-Governor of the Straits Settle- 
 ment ; to Sir G. William Des Voeux, formerly Governor 
 of Hongkong ; and to Mr. F. A. Swettenham, C.M.G., 
 British Besident of PeraJc, I have to offer my sjDecial 
 thanks. To tny frieiid Mr. B. L. Morant, whose know- 
 ledge of Siam is more intimate than that of any foreigner 
 living, and who at the time of my stay in Bangkok was 
 governor of the late Groton Prince and. tutor to the 
 Boyal children, I have to acknoivledge great indebted- 
 ness. I need hardly add that these gentlemen must not 
 be forcibly connected with any of my opinions. Mr. J. 
 Scott Keltic, Assistant Secretary of the Boyal Geo- 
 graphical Society, the Librarian of the Colonial Office, 
 and the Librarian of the Boyal Statistical Society, 
 have been good enough to give me valuable technical 
 assistance. 
 
 In a few instances I have reproduced here, with 
 considerable alterations, farts of contributions to the 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 daily and periodical Press, cJiiefly descriptions of places 
 written on the spot. The greater part of the illustrations 
 are from my own photographs ; one or two are by that 
 excellent photographer A. Fong, of HongJcong, one or 
 two by Mr. Chit, and. one by Mr. Loftus, both of 
 BangJcoJc. The map)S, luhich present certain geographical 
 facts not — so far as I Jcnow — to be found in conjunction 
 elsewhere, have been drawn under my own supervision. 
 
 R.N. 
 
 London, December 31, 1894. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Pbeface 
 
 PAGE 
 
 vii 
 
 THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE FAR EAST. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. Outposts of Empiee : Shanghai and Hongkong . 3 
 
 II. A School of Empire : The Stbaits Settlements . 37 
 
 III. Anomalies of Bmpieb : The Peotected Malay States 52 
 
 FRANCE IN THE FAR EAST. 
 
 IV. In Feenoh Indo-China : Leaves fbom my Notebooks 71 
 
 V. On the Eeanco-Chinbse Fbontieb . . .95 
 
 VI. A Study of Eeench Colonial Administration . 103 
 
 VII. The Cost of a Eeench Colony . . . 124 
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST. 
 
 VIII. Vladivostok: The "Possession op the East'' . 141 
 
 IX. The Position of Eussia on the Pacific . 151 
 
 X. The Tbans-Sibebian Eailway and its Eesults 159 
 
 SPAIN IN THE FAR EAST. 
 
 XI. Manila : The City of Cigars, Hemp, Earthquakes, 
 
 and Intolerance ..... 169 
 
Sll CONTENTS. 
 
 PORTUGAL IN THE FAR EAST. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 XII. Macao : The Lusitanian Thule . . . 183 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 XIII. Peking and its Inhabitants 
 
 XIV. To THE Great Wall op China 
 
 XV. Chinese Hokboes 
 
 XVI. The Imperial Mabitimb Customs : Sie 
 
 Hart and his Woek 
 
 XVII. The Geand Seoeetaey Li . 
 XVIII. China among the Gbbat Powers 
 
 XIX. CONCTiENING THE PbOPLE OP ChINA 
 
 XX. The Future op China 
 
 EOBEBT 
 
 195 
 211 
 219 
 
 231 
 244 
 260 
 276 
 297 
 
 KOREA. 
 
 XXI. On Hoeseback aceoss Korea . . 323 
 
 XXII. The City op Seoul and its Inhabitants . . 341 
 
 XXIII. The Question of Korea .... 356 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 XXIV. The Japan op To-day . , . .375 
 XXV. Asia fob the Asiatics? .... 394 
 
 SIAM. 
 
 XXVI. Bangkok and its People. .... 407 
 
 XXVII. The Peinciflbs and Peesonalities of Siamese 
 
 Government ..... 434 
 
 XXVIII. Fictions and Pacts op Siamese Affaies . . 451 
 
 XXIX. The Teue Stoby of Feance and Siam . . 468 
 
 XXX. England and the Future op Siam . . 502 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 MALAYA. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 XXXI. The Political Position of the Native States . 523 
 
 XXXII. A Jungle Joueney in Unknown Malaya . . 534 
 
 XXXIII. On a Eaft through a Foebidden State . 658 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 An Basteen Hoeoscopb ..... 589 
 
 Index ........ 608 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. 
 
 Law in China : The Confession of Guilt Undee 
 ToETUEE. (Facsimile of a drawing by a Chinese 
 Artist) .... 
 
 A Native at Home, Tongking 
 
 A MuoNG Beauty, Tongking 
 
 A Geoup of Natives, Tongking 
 
 How I Eaened a Hundeed Feancs 
 
 Feancb and China : Watching the Feontibe 
 
 At the Gate of the Foet, Monkay 
 
 Vladivostok .... 
 
 The Boys' Band, Manila . 
 
 Feench Peisonbes at Hanoi 
 
 The Fiest Sight of Peking 
 
 The Beitish Legation, Peking 
 
 The Examination Cells, Peking 
 
 The Obsbevatoey on the Wall, Peking 
 
 A Steebt in Peking 
 
 The Gbbat Wall of China 
 
 A Watch-Towee on the Geeat Wall 
 
 A Magisteatb's Yamen 
 
 China : " Death by the Thousand Cuts " 
 
 Chinese Judicial Toetuees 
 
 A Peivate Caet, Peking 
 
 The Top op the Wall, Peking 
 
 Theeb Yellow Jackets 
 
 The Mongol in Peking 
 
 A Chinese Lady's Foot 
 
 The Peotbction of Foeeignees, Canton 
 
 The Tsungli YamSn, Peking 
 
 A Chinese School : Victims of Confucius 
 
 My Staet Aceoss Koeea 
 
 The Eoyal Apaetments, Monasteey op An-byon 
 
 A KoEBAN Hotel .... 
 
 To 
 
 Frontispiece 
 face page 72 
 76 
 82 -j 
 82 5 
 96 
 100 
 144 
 172 -, 
 172 .:■ 
 196 
 200 
 204 . 
 204.1 
 208 
 214 N 
 214.' 
 220 
 224 
 228 
 236 \ 
 236' 
 248 
 278 
 288\ 
 288^ 
 298 
 312 
 326 
 332 
 338 
 
XVl 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS. 
 
 Men and Women of Koeea . . To face page 
 
 A Gate of Seoul .... ,. " 
 
 The Old Palace and Nam-san, Seoul . ,, 
 
 The Consul Going to an Audience, Seoul. 
 Koeban Dancing Gerls : " Love's Young Dee am " „ ,, 
 
 Bangkok: "The Venice op the Bast " . ,, ,. 
 
 The Halls of Audience, Bangkok . ,, ,< 
 
 "Wat Chang, Bangkok, Feom a Pinnacle . ,, ,. 
 
 A Temple on a Canal, Bangkok . . ,, ,, 
 
 A Love-Scene on the Siamese Stage . ,, ,, 
 
 A Typical Siamese Woman . . . ,, ,, 
 
 At Ko-si-chang : The King of Siam and 
 
 the Second Queen . . ,, >. 
 
 The Fiest Queen, Siam . . . ,, ,, 
 
 The Late Ceown Peince of Siam and Some 
 
 of his Beothees . . . ,, ,, 
 
 A EoTAL Couet-yaed, Bangkok . . ,, 
 
 An Aftee-Dinnee Geoup, Bangkok ,, ,, 
 
 In the Palace Temple, Bangkok . . ,, ,, 
 
 The Geeat Beonze Buddha, Ayuthia 
 Wild Elephants bbfoeb the King, Siam 
 Pekan, the Capital of Pahang 
 A Belle op the Jungle 
 My Kitchen in the Jungle 
 A Geoup in Camp 
 In the Jungle : An Baelt Staet 
 My Camp at Kuala Leh 
 The Last Beitish Outpost, Peeak 
 Native Mills foe Ceushing Gold-quabtz, Temoh 
 My Eafts on the Kelantan Eivee 
 Shops in a Malay Town 
 A Malay Deama befoee the Sultan 
 The Main Stebet and Bnteance to the 
 
 Sultan's Eesidence, Teinganu 
 
 338 
 
 3M 
 
 350 ■) 
 
 350' 
 
 354 
 
 408 
 
 412 
 
 416 
 
 420 
 
 424 
 
 430 
 
 436 
 440 
 
 444 X 
 444 J 
 448 
 454 
 460 
 464 
 536 I 
 536 J 
 542 
 542 
 548 
 552 ~\ 
 552 ' 
 556 
 562 
 566 \ 
 566 i 
 
 578 
 
 MAPS. 
 
 The Haeboue of Vladivostok 
 
 The Settlements and Haeboue op Won-san 
 
 The Peoblems of Indo-China 
 
 The Malay Peninsula 
 
 Page 158- 
 „ 324 
 To face page xvi '\ 
 xvi ; 
 
THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE FAR EAST. 
 
CHAPTEB I. 
 
 OUTPOSTS OF EMPIBE: SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 
 
 \ N Englishman ■writing an account of the Far East finds him- 
 ■^■^ self in a dilemma at the outset. If he follows his natural 
 inclination to describe at length the British Colonies there, their 
 astonishing history, their race-problems, their commercial 
 achievements, and their exhibition of the colonising genius of 
 his race ; and especially if he yields to the temptation to dwell 
 upon their extraordinary picturesqueness, he lays himself open 
 to the just criticism that these are matters already familiar to 
 every one of his readers. On the other hand, if he takes this 
 familiarity for granted, and omits them from his survey, the 
 brightest colour is lacking from the picture and the most potent 
 factor from the problem. This would obviously be the greater 
 evil, and therefore in my own case, risking the reproach, I pro- 
 pose to touch upon the external aspects of the British Colonies 
 in the Far East just enough to convey some notion of the 
 physical conditions and surroundings under which our country- 
 men there live and labour, and to write at somewhat greater 
 length of a few vital matters which do not present themselves 
 on the surface. One thing, at any rate, can never be told too 
 often or impressed too strongly, namely, that our Par Eastern 
 Colonies are not mere outlying units, each with a sentimental 
 and commercial connection with Great Britain, but bone of the 
 bone of the Empire, and flesh of its flesh. 
 
 Among the many surprises of a journey in the Far East, 
 one of the greatest is certainly the first sight of Shanghai. 
 
 3 
 
4 THE BEITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 I was writing below as we steamed up the Hwang-pu river, 
 and did not come on the deck of the Hae-an till five minutes 
 before she anchored. Then I could hardly believe my eyes. 
 There lay a magnificent European city surrounding a broad 
 and crowded river. True, the magnificence is only skin-deep, 
 so to speak, all the architectural beauty and solidity of 
 Shanghai being spread out along the river; but I am speak- 
 ing of the first sight of Shanghai, and in this respect it 
 is superior to New York, far ahead of San Francisco, and 
 almost as imposing for the moment as Liverpool it<?elf. A 
 broad and beautifully kept boulevard, called of course " The 
 Bund," runs round the river, with a row of well-grown trees 
 and a broad grass-plat at the water's edge, and this Bund 
 is lined on the other side from one end to the other with mer- 
 cantile buildings second to none of their kind in the world — the 
 "hongs " of the great firms, and the banks ; the fine edifices of 
 the Masonic Hall and the Shanghai Club ; and the magni- 
 ficent new quarters of the Imperial Customs Service. At 
 the upper end of the Bund a large patch of green shows the 
 Public Garden, where the band plays on summer evenings. 
 At night all Shanghai is bright with the electric light, and 
 its telegraph poles remind you of Chicago — I believe I counted 
 nearly a hundred wires on one pole opposite the Club. And 
 the needed touch of colour is added to the scene as you look 
 at it from on deck, by the gay flags of the mail steamers and 
 the Consular bunting floating over the town. 
 
 The first sight of Shanghai, moreover, is only its first surprise. 
 As I was rolling away to the hotel the 'ricksha coolie turned 
 on to the right-hand side of the road. Instantly a familiar 
 figure stepped off the sidewalk and shook a warning finger, and 
 the coolie swung back again to the left side. It was a police- 
 man — no semi-Europeanised Mongolian, languidly performing a 
 half-understood duty, but the genuine home article, helmet, 
 blue suit, silver buttons, regulation boots, truncheon and all — 
 jnst " bobby." And his uplifted finger turned the traffic to the 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 5 
 
 left in Shanghai precisely as it does in front of the Mansion 
 House. A hundred yards further on there was a flash of 
 scarlet in the sun, and there stood a second astonishing 
 figure — a six-foot copper-coloured Sikh, topped by a huge red 
 tui'ban, and clad also in blue and armed with the same trun- 
 cheon, striding solemnly by on his beat. Then came the 
 Chinese policeman, with his little saucer hat of red bamboo 
 and his white gaiters, swinging a diminutive staff — a reduced 
 and rather comical replica of his big English and Indian 
 comrades. Then as we crossed the bridge into the French 
 Concession there appeared the sergent de mile, absolutely 
 the same as you see him in the Place de I'Gpera — ^peaked 
 cap, waxed moustache, baggy red trousers, sabre, and revolver. 
 And beyond him again was the Frenchified Chinese police- 
 man. In fact, Shanghai is guarded municipally by no fewer 
 than six distinct species of policemen — English, Sikh, Anglo- 
 Chinese, French, Franco - Chinese, and the long-legged 
 mounted Sikhs on sturdy white ponies, who clank their 
 sabres around the outskirts of the town, and carry terror 
 into the turbulent Chinese quarters. 
 
 Shanghai, like so much of the Empire, was originally spolia 
 opima. It was captured from the Chinese on June 19, 1842, and 
 opened to foreign trade in November, 1843. It is in the middle 
 of the coast-line of China, in the south-east corner of the province 
 of Kiang-su, at the junction of the rivers Hwang- pu and Woosung 
 (or Soochow Creek), twelve miles above the point where these 
 fiow together into the estuary of the Yangtsze. Shanghai is 
 thus practically at the mouth of the great waterway of China, 
 and it is the chief outlet and distributing centre for the huge 
 northern and central provinces. It has been called the " com- 
 mercial metropolis of China," since so large a percentage of 
 the total foreign trade of China passes through it. The native 
 city, which has about 125,000 inhabitants, and lies behind the 
 foreign city, was an important emporium of trade for centuries. 
 Its walls, which are three miles and a half in circumference, were 
 
6 THE BEITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 built in the sixteenth century to keep off an earlier Japanese 
 invasion. The French obtained a grant of their present Settle- 
 ment in return for services rendered in driving out the rebels in 
 1853. Shanghai has been the scene of a good deal of warfare. 
 In 1853 the native city was captured by the rebels, who held it 
 for seventeen months. In 1861, the Taiping rebels, after cap- 
 turing Soochow in the previous year, advanced upon Shanghai, 
 but were driven back by British and Indian regiments, aided by 
 French marines. It was at this time that " Chinese Gordon" 
 appeared upon the scene. The Imperial authorities, at their 
 wits' end, allowed an American adventurer to enlist a number 
 of more or less disreputable foreigners, and with their aid to 
 raise and drill a horde of natives. These passed under the com- 
 mand of another American name Burgevine, who finally deserted 
 to the rebels. The Imperialists were thus left with a mutinous 
 and almost uncontrollable band of their own people to deal with, 
 little more dangerous than the rebels themselves. It was these 
 that Major Gordon, E.E., was allowed to discipline and lead 
 against the Taipings, as the self- christened "Ever-Victorious 
 Army," and it was no doubt owing to his extraordinary prowess 
 that the Imperial authority was re-established. Opinions differ 
 among students of Chinese history as to whether it would not 
 have been better for China had the Taipings succeeded. I came 
 upon many curious reminiscences of General Gordon up and 
 down the coast of China. He was a man of remarkable virtues 
 and of no less remarkable weaknesses, and the stories of him 
 which survive in the Par East would make very interesting 
 reading. I do not give them, however, because public opinion 
 seems to have determined that this many-sided man shall be 
 known under one aspect only of his life— that of hero. I will 
 only say that there is correspondence of his still in existence in 
 China, some of which I have read, which should in the interests 
 of history be published. His opinions of the Viceroy Li Hung- 
 chang, whom he greatly respected and whom he had once spent 
 some time in trying to shoot with his own hand, were of a par- 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. < 
 
 ticularly striking character. The original regulations under 
 which Shanghai is governed were drawn up by the British 
 Consul in 1845. These were amended in 1854 by an agreement 
 between the Consul and the inhabitants; and in 1863 the 
 American Settlement was amalgamated with the British. A 
 number of vain efforts have been made to induce the French 
 to join this, but although much smaller both in area, population, 
 and trade it has declined to do so, and remains under the 
 " Eeglement d' Organisation Municipale de la Concession Fran- 
 caise " of 1862. The other two nationalities have not yet suc- 
 ceeded in agreeing with the diplomatic authorities for the revision 
 of the " Council for the Foreign Community of Shanghai North 
 of the Yang-king-pang " of 1870. 
 
 Modern Shanghai is thus divided, like ancient Gaul, iato 
 three parts : the English settlement, the American settlement, 
 called Hongkew, and the much smaller French " Concession." 
 Three creeks divide these communities from each other — 
 Yang-king- pang, Soochow Creek, and Defence Creek between 
 the English settlement and China. One wide thoroughfare, 
 called " the Maloo," runs through Shanghai out past the 
 race-course and the Horse-Bazaar into the country, and along 
 this in the afternoon there is a stream of ponies and smart 
 carriages and pedestrians and bicyclists. It is the Eotten 
 Eow of Shanghai, leading to the Bubbling Well, and the one 
 country drive the community possesses. But in truth there 
 is not much "country" about it, the environs of Shanghai 
 being flat and ugly — the nearest hill being nineteen miles 
 away, and covered with grave-mounds as thickly as the 
 battlefields round Gravelotte. 
 
 Shanghai dubbed itself long ago the " Model Settlement." 
 Then a noble English globe-trotter came along, and afterwards 
 described it in the House of Lords as " a sink of corruption." 
 Thereupon a witty Consul suggested that in future it should be 
 known as the " Model Sink." For my own part I should not 
 grudge it the first title, for it is one of the best governed 
 
8 THE BEITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 places municipally-at any rate, so far as the Anglo-American 
 quarters are concerned — that I have ever known. The 
 French, as I have said, live apart under their own Municipal 
 Council, presided over, and even dismissed at pleasure, by 
 their own Consul. The English and American elected 
 Municipal Council consists of nine members, with an elected 
 chairman at its head. And a short stay in Shanghai is 
 sufficient to show how satisfactorily this works. The roads 
 are perfect, the traffic is kept under admirable direction 
 and control, the streets are quiet and orderly, and even the 
 cooKes are forbidden to push their great wheelbarrows through 
 the foreign settlement with ungreased wheels. The third 
 surprise of Shanghai does not dawn upon you immediately. 
 It is a Eepublic — a community of nations, self-governed and 
 practically independent, for it snaps its fingers politely at the 
 Chinese authorities or discusses any matter with them upon 
 equal terms, and it does not hesitate to differ pointedly in 
 opinion from its own Consuls when it regards their action as 
 unwise or their interference as unwarranted. Over the Chinese 
 within its borders the Municipal Council has, however, no 
 jurisdiction. In the " Maloo " there is a magistrate's YamSn, 
 and there the famous " Mixed Court " sits every morning, con- 
 sisting of the Chinese magistrate and one of the foreign Consuls 
 in turn. All natives charged with offences against foreigners or 
 foreign law are dealt with there, petty criminals being punished 
 in the municipal prison or the chain-gang, serious offenders, or 
 refugees from Chinese law, being sent into the native city. 
 The Chinese magistrate in the Mixed Court is, of course, a 
 figure-head, chiefly useful, so far as I could see, in lecturing 
 the prisoners while the foreigner made up his mind what 
 punishment to award. In criminal cases the Mixed Court 
 works fairly well, but in civil suits it gives rise to numerous and 
 bitter complaints. The population of Shanghai on December 
 31, 1891, was estimated at 4,956 foreigners (British, 1,759 ; 
 Japanese, 751; Portuguese, 542; French, 332; American, 460; 
 Spanish, 245 ; German, 830), and Chinese, 175,000. 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 9 
 
 The Eepublic of Shanghai has its own army, of course, com- 
 posed of volunteer infantry, 159 strong ; artillery, with 4 guns 
 and 45 men; and a smart but diminutive troop of 38 light 
 horse. It has also volunteer fire-brigades, and no fewer than 
 seven distinct postal systems of different nationalities. An 
 amusing fact in connection with the artillery — amusing chiefly 
 to any one who appreciates the red-tape which binds the military 
 authorities at home, is that the latter presented the Shanghai 
 volunteers with four excellent field-guns, and send out an 
 annual allowance of ammunition. No doubt they believe that 
 Shanghai is a British colony, whereas the fun lies in the fact 
 that it is simply some land leased in perpetuity from the 
 Emperor of China, and that it is always possible — it may 
 be the case to-day for all I know — that a majority of those 
 serving the guns are non-British subjects. But this is only for 
 the joke's sake. The volunteers get great praise from the official 
 inspector each year, and they may be called upon to protect 
 British lives and property at any moment. So the War Office 
 did a wise thing after all, in spite of the fact that the volunteers 
 are a " politically anomalous " body 
 
 The social life of Shanghai is the natural outgrowth of its 
 Eepublican institutions. It is democratic, and characterised by 
 a tolerant good-fellowship. Upon this point a well-known lady 
 was kind enough to set me right. "In Shanghai," she explained, 
 "everybody is equal. In Hongkong everybody is not equal. 
 There are those of us who call at Government House, and those 
 who do not." After so lucid an analysis it was impossible 
 to err. All male Shanghai meets in the Club — one of the 
 most comfortable and complete in the world — before tiffin and 
 before dinner, to exchange news, make up dinner-parties, and 
 do business — all three with equal zest. And the hospitality 
 of Shanghai is another surprise. You might as well attempt 
 to give your shadow the slip as to escape from the gratuitous 
 good cheer of the Model Settlement. As for sport, on the 
 whole Shanghai is ahead of the rest of the East. It has 
 
10 THE BBITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 its charming country club, its races twice a year, its regatta, 
 when the Chinese authorities stop all the native trafiSc on the 
 river, its polo, its two cricket clubs, its base-ball, and its shoot- 
 ing parties in house-boats up the Yangtsze and to the hills twenty 
 miles away. And on Saturday afternoons if you walk out to 
 the Bubbling Well about four o'clock you can see the finish of 
 the paper hunt and a dozen well-mounted and scrupulously- 
 dressed jockeys come riding in to the finish and taking a rather 
 bad fence and ditch which has been carefully prepared with the 
 object of receiving half of them in the sight of their fair 
 friends. Finally, there are the hounds and their master. And 
 what matter if a slanderous tradition does fret their fair fame, 
 to the effect that once upon a time, discarding the deceptive 
 aniseed-bag, a fox was imported from .Japan, and that the end 
 of that hunting-day was that one-half the pack ran into an 
 unlucky chow-dog and broke him up, and the other half chased 
 a Chinese boy for his life, while the master stood upon a grave- 
 mound winding his horn to a deserted landscape ? 
 
 The trade of Shanghai may be roughly divided under five heads : 
 imports — cotton piece-goods, metals, and kerosene oil ; exports — 
 tea and silk. The tea trade, as elsewhere in China, has fallen 
 off grievously of late, owing to the gradual fall in quality, and 
 the competition of Ceylon and Indian teas. Foreign tea-men 
 have made efforts of every kind to induce Chinese growers to 
 improve their processes of preparation, but without much result. 
 It is chiefly in the English market, however, that the trade has 
 suffered. Improvement in quality (says the Commissioner of 
 Customs) is an absolute necessity, but " China can never hope 
 to produce a tea which will compare with Indian according to 
 the only standard which now seems to be applicable in England 
 —the standard of strength, the capacity to colour, to a certain 
 point of darkness, so many gallons of water to each pound of 
 tea." It seems as unlikely that the Chinese will learn to improve 
 their qualities as that we shall learn how to know good tea from 
 bad, and how to " make " it when we have secured it. To every 
 
BHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 11 
 
 Eastern tea-drinker the tea served at the best houses in England 
 would be a horror. Nobody who has not travelled in the East, 
 and arrived, after a day's tramp through a malarious and steam- 
 ing jungle, at some poor Chinaman's shanty, and thankfully 
 drunk a dozen cups of the beverage freely offered, can know how 
 delicious and invigorating even the most modest tea can be. 
 The same cause has already produced a standstill and will soon 
 produce a reduction in the Chinese silk trade. Chinese silk 
 would be as good as any in the world if it were properly pre- 
 pared, but it is now used only to add to other kinds ; whereas 
 Japanese silk, because prepared with Western methods and con- 
 scientious intelligence, has increased its output tenfold since 
 Japan began to sell it to foreigners. This is the old, old story 
 of China, and it will probably never be altered until foreigners 
 contrive — or their governments for them — to exert authority in 
 the Celestial Kingdom, as well as to tender advice and drive 
 bargains. The figures of Shanghai trade are, of course, a 
 striking testimony to the preponderance of British interests 
 and enterprise. In 1893 the number of ships entered and 
 cleared, both under steam and sail, was 6,317, with a total 
 tonnage of 6,529,870. Of these, 3,092 were British, and their 
 tonnage 3,664,175. Or, to exhibit the comparative insignifi- 
 cance of the shippiijg of all other foreign nations, out of the 
 above grand totals British and Chinese ships together numbered 
 no fewer than 4,721, with a tonnage of no less than 5,280,310. 
 The total foreign trade of Shanghai for 1893 was 139,268,000 
 Haikwan taels,* of which Great Britain, Hongkong, and India 
 stand for 80,826,000, or over 58 per cent., besides trade with 
 
 * It is practically impossible to give the accurate gold equivalent of these sums. 
 First, because silver falls so rapidly that a calculation of exchange is obsolete before 
 it gets back from the printer ; and second, because the purchasing power of silver 
 in the East has not fallen to anything like the same extent as its exchange against 
 gold. The average exchange of the Haikwan or Customs tael for 1893 was 3s. lljd., 
 and the British Consul calculates at this figure, making the total foreign trade 
 £27,418,888. In dealing with the figures of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs 
 later on I have reckoned the tael at 3s. 4d., as a nearer approximation. 
 
12 THE BRITISH BMPIBB. 
 
 other parts of the British Empire which it is impossible to cal- 
 culate separately. The direct trade with Great Britain, both 
 imports and exports, has fallen off greatly during the past twenty 
 years, largely because the Suez Canal has brought the southern 
 ports of Europe into closer communication with China. But the 
 trade between China and India is growing rapidly, although the 
 export of opium to China from Indian ports is falling steadily 
 and will ultimately aU but disappear. 
 
 It is curious that by the "Land Eegulations," which form 
 the Constitution of Shanghai, the Chinese are forbidden to 
 reside or hold property within the Foreign Settlements, and 
 yet there are 175,000 of them afloat and ashore ; and I fancy 
 even Shanghai itself would be astounded if it could be told 
 exactly what proportion of the whole property is in their hands. 
 There has been a good deal of talk about this, and in reply to 
 a " Cassandra " who wrote to the papers that nothing could save 
 Shanghai but amalgamation with the Chinese, a local writer 
 produced some witty verses, telhng how in a vision in the 
 twentieth century — 
 
 " I passed a lawyer's office, on the shingle 
 
 "Was ' Wang and Johnson, Barristers-at-Iaw ' ; 
 Where'er the nations had begun to mingle, 
 Chinese came first, I saw. 
 
 " A steamer passed ; a native gave the orders ; 
 An English quartermaster held the wheel ; 
 The chain-gang all were white, the stalwart warders 
 YeUow from head to heel." 
 
 Physically, at any rate, the Chinese are undoubtedly crowd- 
 ing out the Europeans. The wealthy Celestial keenly appre- 
 ciates the fact that his person and his property are infinitely 
 securer under the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes than 
 under the rapacious and unrestrained rule of the representative 
 of the Son of Heaven. He is therefore prepared to pay what- 
 ever may be necessary to secure a good piece of property within 
 which to live and trade in the foreign settlement. Whenever 
 such a piece comes mto the market it is almost sure to be 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 13 
 
 knocked down to a Chinese purchaser. "Very many retired and 
 expectant officials now make their homes in Shanghai, also 
 many merchants who have made money. As a result, the best 
 paying property is Chinese occupied, and of that the best is the 
 property on which stand the pretentious establishments which 
 furnish amusement to the Chinese jeunesse doree — a class which 
 in pre-Taiping days counted Soochow and Hangchow earthly 
 paradises, and which now finds that the pleasures of those 
 capitals are as abundantly supplied in the Foochow Eoad. This 
 influx of Chinese has had the effect of compelling foreigners, and 
 especially those of small means, to seek every year dwellings 
 farther away from the busy centres, which the Chinese now 
 monopolise. The rents of foreign houses in the Settlements are 
 gradually rising, for as each old foreign building is pulled down 
 Chinese houses take its place." * 
 
 Another very great and indeed vital change has come over 
 Shanghai of late years. Formerly business was done by real 
 merchants — that is, traders who bought to sell again. Those 
 were the days of quickly-realised and enormous fortunes — of the 
 merchant-princes of the Far East, whose hospitality, formerly 
 famous the world over, is now but a golden tradition, since 
 " luxurious living is practised by old-timers rather in obedience 
 to ancient custom than justified by present affluence." Now the 
 merchant, if not already extinct, is rapidly becoming so, and his 
 place taken by the commission agent. Competition and the 
 incalculable and ruinous fluctuations of exchange are the two 
 factors which have brought about this result. Both as regards 
 the character of business done, and the personnel of those who 
 do it, the change is for the worse. Little or no capital is neces- 
 sary, as every detail of the transactions is fixed beforehand by 
 telegraph — the price of the goods, the freight, and the rate of 
 exchange. It is therefore possible to do business on a very 
 small margin, with the result that men under-bid one another 
 
 • Mr. B. E. Bredon's very able Beport on Shanghai, Chinese Imperial Maritime 
 Customs, Decennial Beports, 1882-1891. 
 
14 THE BRITISH BMPIEB. 
 
 down to the last fraction, and the further result that an 
 unscrupulous member of the trading community is tempted to 
 get business of this kind by any and every means. It is obvious 
 that more intimate relations between the Chinese themselves 
 and the European markets would soon result in the elimination 
 of the foreign agent altogether. 
 
 Two other causes are also appearing to transform the 
 Shanghai of old time, and indeed all the business relations 
 between foreigners and Chinese. The first is the growth of 
 Chinese manufactures. The Chinese Cotton Cloth Mill Com- 
 pany, the Chinese Spinning Company, the Shanghai Paper Mill 
 Company, the Min-li Ginning Mill Company, and the Yuen-ehee 
 Ginning Mill Company, are all Chinese concerns, with Chinese 
 capital and under Chinese management, with foreign technical 
 assistance. The first-named of these is supposed to be financed 
 by the Yiceroy Li Hung-chang himself. It was recently com- 
 pletely destroyed by fire, but is being rebuilt on a much larger 
 scale than before. These enterprises have not yet paid much 
 in the way of dividend, owing probably to inexperienced direc- 
 tion, but there is no reason to suppose that they will not be 
 successful in the end. And their success would probably mean 
 a nearly proportionate amount of European failure. The reader 
 will naturally ask at once why foreigners have not started such 
 concerns themselves. The answer is based to a great extent 
 upon the supineness of a recent British Minister to China. The 
 Chinese claim — without any justice, so far as I can make out — 
 that the treaties give no right to foreigners to manufacture 
 within the treaty limits, and their claim has never met with 
 serious official resistance. They even go so far as to prohibit, 
 without a special permit, the importation of machinery on 
 foreign account, which is ridiculously in contradiction of plain 
 treaty rights. It is to be hoped that one among the innumer- 
 able results of the present war will be the settlement of this 
 question in favour of Europeans. The benefits to Chinese con- 
 sumers would be incalculable, and the whole world might well 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 15 
 
 gain an enormous and unexpected advantage from the opening 
 of China which would almost necessarily ensue, since, aa has 
 been truly said,* if China were only fairly open to foreign enter- 
 prise, there is room in her vast territories and among her 
 millions of inhabitants for all the surplus silver of the world for 
 many years to come. 
 
 In connection with this probable cause of a change in the 
 future of Shanghai must also be mentioned the great and 
 increasing amount of purely Chinese capital invested, not only 
 in native enterprises within treaty limits, such as those I have 
 mentioned, but also in foreign companies, with foreign manage- 
 ment, and known by foreign names. The China Merchants' 
 Steam Navigation Company, with its fine fleet, represents a 
 large native investment, in which the Viceroy Li is again 
 prominent, and it is freely said that many ships trading under 
 foreign flags are in reality Chinese property. Moreover, 
 although this is a well-kept secret, a surprising proportion of 
 the deposits in foreign banks is believed to stand in Chinese 
 names. In view of all this extensive and constantly growing 
 Chinese investment in property, mortgages, shipping, manufac- 
 turing enterprises, and banking deposits, it is inevitable that 
 those who thus pay the piper should claim more and more the 
 right to call the tune. The second cause of the change to be 
 anticipated is Japanese competition with European firms for the 
 foreign trade of China. This is a factor of the greatest future 
 importance, but discussion of it will come more appropriately 
 in a later chapter. Though Shanghai may change, however, 
 and indeed must change, there is no reason to despair of its 
 future as an outpost of British Trade. The openings for 
 foreigners and foreign capital may both decrease, but the bulk 
 of trade will increase. Mr. Commissioner Bredon says, "I 
 think the future of Shanghai depends on China and the Chinese 
 and their interests, and that foreigners would be wise to run 
 with them," and his opinion should carry great weight. Two 
 
 • By Mr. Consul Jamieson, F. 0. Eeports, Annual Series, No. 1442, p. 23. 
 
16 THE BRITISH BMPIEB. 
 
 events, on the other hand, may open up for Shanghai a future 
 brighter than its brightest past. The Chinese railway may make 
 it into the link between the whole of China and the rest of the 
 world ; or the present war may end by throwing China open at 
 last, in which case the unequalled situation of Shanghai would 
 give it the lion's share of the enormous trade that would arise. 
 
 The first sight of Hongkong, the farthest outpost of the 
 British Empire and the fourth port in the world, is disappoint- 
 ing. As you approach it from the north you enter a narrow 
 and unimposing pass : then you discover a couple of sugar- 
 refineries covering the hills with smoke ; and when the city of 
 Victoria lies before you it is only St. John's or Vladivostok on a 
 larger scale. It is piled up on the steep sides of the island 
 without apparent purpose or cohesion ; few fine buildings 
 detach themselves from the mass ; there is no boulevard along 
 the water-front ; and the greater part of the houses and offices 
 in the immediate foreground, though many of them are in 
 reality large and costly structures, look a medley from a little 
 distance. In one's disappointment one remembers Mr. Howell's 
 caustic characterisation of the water-front of New York — 
 that after London and Liverpool it looks as though the Ameri- 
 cans were encamped there. The face of Hongkong is not its 
 fortune, and anybody merely steaming by would never guess the 
 marvel it grows on closer acquaintance. For a few weeks' in- 
 vestigation transfigures this precipitous island into one of the 
 most astonishing spots on the earth's surface. By an inevitable 
 alchemy, the philosopher's stone of a few correlated facts trans- 
 forms one's disappointment into stupefaction. Shanghai is a 
 surprise, but Hongkong is a revelation. 
 
 When you land at the city of Victoria (it is strange, by the 
 way, that almost everybody at home and half the visitors there 
 are ignorant that " Victoria " is the name of the city and 
 " Hongkong " of the island), the inevitable 'ricksha carries you 
 through a couple of streets, far from being beautiful or well- 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 17 
 
 managed, but you forget this in the rush of life about you. 
 Messengers jostle you, 'rickshas run over your toes, chair-poles 
 dig you in the ribs. The hotel clerk smiles politely as he in- 
 forms you that there has not been a vacant room for a month. 
 Later on your fellow-passengers envy you the little rabbit-hole 
 of a bedroom you have secured at the top of the Club. When 
 you come down again into the hall you find it crowded with 
 brokers of many nationalities, making notes, laughing, whisper- 
 ing, drinking, but all just as busy as they can be. The Stock 
 Exchange of Hongkong was the gutter, the local Eialto ex- 
 tending from the Club for about a hundred yards down the 
 Queen's Eoad, and it was filled with Britishers, Germans, Anglo- 
 Indians, Chinese from Canton, Armenians from Calcutta, Parsees 
 from Bombay, and Jews from Baghdad, and with that peculiar 
 contingent known as the " black brigade," recognisable by the 
 physiognomy of Palestine and the accent of Spitalfields. And 
 on the Club walls and tables are a dozen printed " Expresses," 
 timed with the minute at which they were issued, and the mail 
 and shipping noon and afternoon " extras " of the daily papers, 
 announcing the arrivals and departures of steamers, the dis- 
 tribution of cargoes, the sales by auction, and all the multi- 
 tudinous movements of a great commercial machine running at 
 high pressure. For, to apply to the Far East the expressive 
 nomenclature of the Far West, this colony " just hums " all 
 the time. At least, it hummed in this way on the many occa- 
 sions when I was there, as it will hum again, though just at 
 present, what with the utter reaction from over-speculation, the 
 general depression of trade, the fluctuations of silver, and 
 the paralysing effect of the plague, Victoria is a depressed 
 and rather unhappy place. Then the chair a friend has 
 sent to take you to dinner arrives, with its four coolies 
 uniformed in blue and white calico, and by another twist 
 of the kaleidoscope you find yourself, three minutes after 
 leaving the Club, mounting an asphalte roadway at an angle 
 not far short of forty-five degrees, hemmed in above and on 
 
 3 
 
18 THE BRITISH EMPIKE. 
 
 either hand by great green palms and enormous drooping ferns 
 with fronds yards long, among which big butterflies are pla^ying 
 round long scarlet flowers. For as soon as you begin to ascend, 
 the streets of Hongkong might be alleys in the tropical con- 
 servatories at Kew. 
 
 Hongkong is built in three layers. The ground-floor, so to 
 speak, or sea-level, is the commercial part of the Colony. The 
 " Praya " along the water's edge is given up to shipping, and is 
 altogether unworthy of the place. It is about to be changed, 
 however, by a magnificent undertaking, now in progress, 
 the " Praya Eeclamation Scheme," originated and pressed to 
 a successful issue by the Hon. C. P. Chater, by which the 
 land frontage will be pushed out 250 feet, and a depth 
 of twenty feet secured at all states of the tide. The next 
 street, parallel to it, Queen's Eoad, is the Broadway of Hong- 
 kong, and all the business centres upon it. In the middle 
 are the Club, post-office, courts, and hotels ; then come all the 
 banks and offices and shops ; past these to the east are the 
 different barracks, and as one gradually gets further from the 
 centre, come the parade-ground, cricket-ground, polo-ground, and 
 race-course, and the wonderfully picturesque and pretty ceme- 
 tery, the " Happy Valley." In the other direction you formerly 
 passed all the Chinese shops for foreigners and then got into 
 Chinatown, a quarter of very narrow streets, extremely dirty, 
 inconceivably crowded, and probably about as insanitary as any 
 place on the globe under civilised rule. I never ceased to 
 prophesy two things about Hongkong, one of which, the epi- 
 demic, has come true indeed. The other waits, and as it is 
 rather alarmist it is perhaps better left out of print. The worst 
 parts of Chinatown have now been destroyed, literally at the 
 cannon's mouth, and in spite of every possible Chinese threat, 
 so that this blot on the Colony is erased. This is all on the 
 island of Hongkong, while across the harbour, in the British 
 territory of Kowloon, a new city is springing up — a splendid 
 frontage of wharves and warehouses ; a collection of docks, one 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 19 
 
 of which will take almost any ship afloat ; half a dozen summer- 
 houses, a little palace among them — whose splendid hospitality 
 is for the moment eclipsed ; and the pleasure-gardens and 
 kitchen-gardens of the community. 
 
 The second storey of Hongkong lies ten minutes' climb up 
 the steep side of the island. Here nearly everybody lives, and 
 lives, too, in a luxtary and ease that are not suspected at home. 
 Here is Government House, a fine ofi&cial residence in beautiful 
 grounds ; Headquarter House ; and the wonderful streets I have 
 already mentioned, although one might as properly call Windsor 
 a house as describe these palm-shaded walks and groves as 
 streets. 
 
 Finally, there is the third layer, the top storey of Hongkong, 
 known collectively as " The Peak." The Peak itself is one of the 
 highest of the hundred hills of the island, rising precipitously 
 behind the city to the signal station, 1,842 feet above the sea, 
 where a gun and a flagstaff announce the arrival of mails and 
 ocean steamers. But " The Peak " as a residential district 
 means all the hill-tops where cool breezes from the sea blow in 
 summer, where one can sleep under a blanket at night, and 
 where, in a word, one can spend a summer in Hongkong with a 
 reasonable probability of being alive at the end of it. Here 
 everybody who can afford it has a second house, and so many 
 are these fortunate people that the " top side " of the island is 
 dotted all over with costly houses and bungalows; there are 
 two hotels, and a steam tramway runs up and down every 
 fifteen minutes. The fare up is thirty cents — a shilling — and 
 down half as much. This is startling enough, but a better 
 notion of the expense of life here is conveyed by the fact that 
 to have a second house at " The Peak " for the summer 
 you must rent it for the whole year, as it is uninhabitable in 
 winter, at a rental of 150 to 200 dollars a month — about a 
 sovereign a day all the year round for four or five months' 
 residence. Besides this, there is the tramway fare, the cost 
 of coolies to carry your chair up and down, and the expense 
 
20 THE BEITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 of bringing every item of domestic supplies, from coals to 
 cabbage, a forty-five minutes' climb uphill. But what is the 
 summer climate on the second storey of Hongkong which forces 
 people to flee from it at so much trouble and cost? To be 
 frani, almost every man I asked before I had experience of it, 
 described it to me by the monosyllabic appellation of the ultimate 
 destination of the incorrigible unrighteous. One of the chief 
 summer problems of Hongkong is to. determine whether the 
 mushrooms which grow on your boots during the night are 
 edible or not. The damp is indescribable. Moisture pours 
 down the walls; anything left alone for a couple of days — 
 clothes, boots, hats, portmanteaus — is covered with mould. 
 Twenty steps in the open air and you are soaked with perspira- 
 tion. Then there are the cockroaches, to say nothing of the 
 agile centipede whose bite may lay you up for a month. When 
 the booksellers receive a case of books, the first thing they do 
 is to varnish them all over with a damp-resisting composition 
 containing corrosive sublimate. Otherwise the cockroaches 
 would eat them before they had time to go mouldy. If you 
 come home at night after dinner very tired, beware of carelessly 
 throwing your evening clothes over a chair, as you would at 
 home. If you do, the cockroaches will have destroj^ed them 
 before you wake. They must be hung up in a wardrobe with 
 hermetically fitting doors. It does happen, too, that men die 
 in summer in Hongkong between sunrise and sunset without 
 rhyme or reason. And the community is a pale-faced one, though 
 it is only right to add that it numbers probably as many athletes 
 and vigorous workers as any other. The place used to be known 
 as " the grave of regiments "—a stroll through " Happy Valley " 
 tells you why. Now the men are not allowed outside barracks 
 in summer until five p.m., and there is a regular inspection to 
 see that every man has his cholera-belt on. The "down side" 
 of Hongkong is damp and hot ; the " top side " is damp and cool. 
 That is the diflerence for which people are prepared to pay so 
 heavily. The first time I stayed at " The Peak " I noticed round 
 
SHiNGHAI AND HONGKONG. 21 
 
 the house a number of large stoppered bottles, such as you see 
 in druggists' windows, prettily encased in wicker-work. On 
 inquiring of my host he showed me that one contained biscuits, 
 another cigars, another writing-paper, and so on, each hollow 
 stopper being filled with unslaked lime in filtering paper, to 
 absorb any damp that might penetrate inside. These bottles 
 tell the whole tale. People run over to Macao, that Lusitanian 
 Thule, four hours' steaming away, for Sunday, and when the 
 summer is proving too much for them and their thoughts begin 
 to run on "Happy Valley" and a grave there — like that of 
 Martha's husband in Padua, " well-placed for cool and comfort- 
 able rest " — they just go on board a steamer and disembark at 
 Nagasaki or Yokohama. Japan is the sanitarium of the Par 
 East. 
 
 A striking feature of Hongkong is the elegance and solidity of 
 its public works. Its waterworks at Tytam, on the other side 
 of the island, are almost picturesque, and the aqueduct which 
 supplies the city is the basis of a footway three miles long, 
 called the Bowen Eoad, of asphalte and cement as smooth and 
 solid as a billiard-table, which laughs at the tremendous down- 
 pours of the rainy season. " Happy Valley " is the pride of 
 Hongkong, and the palm-shaded road I described above was a 
 dangerous and ugly ravine called " Cut-throats' Alley " a few 
 years ago. Speaking of cut-throats reminds me that Hongkong 
 even now is not a particularly safe place. People avoid walk- 
 ing alone at night in one or two directions ; every Sikh 
 constable carries a rifle at night and several rounds of ball 
 cartridge, and if you hail a sampan at night to go to dinner on 
 board some ship in the harbour, the constable at the pier makes 
 a note of its number, in case you should be missing the next 
 day. For these sampan people used to have a pleasant habit of 
 suddenly dropping the mat awning on the head of a passanger, 
 cutting his throat in the ensuing struggle and dropping his 
 pillaged body overboard. The Sikhs make admirable police- 
 men, obedient, trustworthy, and brave, and are correspondingly 
 
22 THE BKITISH EMPIRE, 
 
 detested by the Chinese. If they sin at all, it is from too much 
 zeal, and I believe they take a keen personal pleasure in -whack- 
 ing a Chinaman. There is a story to the effect that during an 
 epidemic of burglaries general orders were issued to them to 
 arrest all suspicious-looking people who did not halt when 
 challenged at night, especially if they had ladders. Next night 
 a Sikh on duty saw a Chinaman on the top of a ladder. Nothing 
 could have been clearer, so he challenged the man, who paid no 
 attention, and then fired and brought him down. It was the 
 lamplighter. Even now no Chinaman is supposed to be out 
 after nine p.m. without a pass. 
 
 Unlike Shanghai, which is an international republic, Hong- 
 kong is, of course, a genuine British colony, and in no part 
 of the world is the colonising genius of the British race, or the 
 results of its free-trade policy, better shown. It was ceded to 
 the British in January, 1841, as one result of the war which 
 broke out between Great Britain and China in 1839, and its 
 cession was finally recognised by the Treaty of Nankin in 1842. 
 At that time its population consisted of a few thousands of 
 Chinese fishermen, since it was to all intents and purposes a 
 barren island. So far were even competent judges from fore- 
 seeing its marvellous future, that in a valuable book on China 
 written by E. M. Martin in 1847, there is a chapter called 
 "Hongkong, its position, prospects, character, and utter worth- 
 lessness in every point of view to England." Prom the begin- 
 ning, however, it has been the Aladdin's palace of commerce. 
 The island itself has an area of only twenty-nine square miles, 
 and the whole colony, including a couple of little islands and 
 the strip of territory known as British Kowloon on the main- 
 land exactly opposite, just over thirty-two. Kowloon constitutes 
 our frontier with China in the Par East. It is two and 
 one-third miles in length, and is guarded in a peculiar way. 
 The duty on opium going into China is so high that the profits 
 on smuggling it have always tempted the Chinese, the most 
 expert smugglers in the world, to evade the Customs in any 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 23 
 
 ■way and at any risk. From the free port of Hongkong the 
 greatest danger in this respect was to be apprehended. The 
 Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs have a station at Kowloon, 
 with the business of&ce situated, for purposes of convenience, 
 within the British colony. They have a small fleet of revenue 
 cruisers to stop all junks and Chinese steamers, and they have 
 built an impassable fence of bamboo, eight feet high, between 
 British and Chinese territory. In this there are six gateways, 
 each guarded by a post of revenue officers, while on the Chinese 
 side there is a broad solid road ceaselessly patrolled night and 
 day by a Customs force, consisting of over one hundred "braves" 
 armed with loaded Winchester repeating-rifles, and under the 
 command of six foreigners. To avoid possible frictions or 
 collusions, these are all of non-British nationality. It is a 
 curious fact, by the way, as will be seen from my photograph 
 of the advanced French fron-tier-post at Monkay, that both 
 England and France are separated from China by a rampart 
 of bamboo, that strange and accommodating plant which serves 
 more purposes than anything else that grows. 
 
 The situation of Hongkong has, of course, had most to do 
 with its unexampled progress. It is the furthest eastern 
 dependency of the Crown, and forms the end of the arm of 
 the Empire which stretches round the south of Asia. The 
 next step in advance northward will be forced upon us within 
 a very short time by both commercial and strategical con- 
 siderations, but nothing can seriously interfere with the import- 
 ance of Hongkong as the next station north of Singapore, from 
 which it is 1,400 miles. A coaling station and naval base at 
 least a thousand miles further north has become a necessity 
 if we are to hold our predominant position in the Far East, 
 and for this purpose Port Hamilton will certainly not do. 
 Hongkong is 79 miles from Canton, the greatest trading city 
 of China, and an excellent service of daily steamers keeps the 
 two in touch. Macao, of little and decreasing importance, is 
 40 miles away ; the Philippines are 650 ; Saigon is 900 ; 
 
24 THE BEITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 Shanghai, 824; Bangkok, 1,454 ; Yokohama, 1,575; and Vladi- 
 vostok, 1,670. The former barren and almost uninhabited 
 island is thus the focus of the Par East to-day. 
 
 From a miUtary and naval point of view Hongkong is one 
 of the most important stations in the Empire. Its docks and 
 machine-shops are worthy of its position, several large ships, 
 and countless small ones, having been built and launched from 
 them. The Admiralty dock is 500 feet long, 86 in breadth at 
 the top and 70 at the bottom, and 29 feet deep. The land 
 defences of the Colony consist of six divisions : Stonecutter's 
 Island, Belcher's Bay, Kowloon West, North Point, Kowloon 
 Dock, and Lyeemoon Eort. The armament of the chief of 
 these consists of the justly-abused 10-inch and the admirable 
 9.2-inch guns. The place is probably quite impregnable from 
 the sea on the harbour side, but to make sure there is need to 
 fortify Green Island, since otherwise ships coming round the 
 island would not be visible from Stonecutter's or Belcher's till 
 they were almost in sight of the town. Any nation except our 
 own would have fortified this point years ago. Hongkong is 
 one of the few defences armed with the famous Watkins 
 "position-finder," for which the British Government paid so 
 much. By this all the guns of all the chief batteries can be 
 aimed and fired by one man in a commanding and secure 
 position. With the principal entrances mined— all preparations 
 for which exist in the most complete and detailed manner— any 
 hostile fleet attacking Hongkong harbour would in all human 
 probability come utterly to grief. The weak point is well known 
 to be on the other side. In the military manoeuvres the 
 attacking force has got in again and again. The redoubts are 
 all planned, and there are plenty of machine-guns and a few 
 howitzers, but with the large forces of infantry possessed by 
 Eussia in Siberia, and by Prance in Tongking, to say nothing 
 of the powerful Japanese army, it is impossible to feel quite 
 happy about Hongkong until its southern side is protected as 
 well as its harbour. Especially is this the case if the common 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 25 
 
 remark of naval men, that in the event of war the fleet would 
 at once put to sea and leave Hongkong to take care of itself, is 
 to he taken literally. 
 
 To my thinking, however, Hongkong is in more danger from 
 the Chinese than from any other quarter. Kowloon City is 
 a mass of roughs ; Canton is the most turbulent and most 
 foreigner-hating city in China ; 20,000 Chinese could come down 
 to Hongkong in a few hours; and a strike of Chinese servants 
 -would starve out the Colony. Before Kowloon was added to 
 the Colony, a Hongkong head was worth thirty dollars, and 
 " braves " used to come down to try and get them. The 
 defences have lately been increased by a regiment of Indian 
 troops, with a strength of 10 British officers and 1,014 natives 
 of all ranks, who were raised in a marvellously short time, and 
 have been brought to a high point of discipline and efficiency, 
 and besides these there is always a regiment of British troops 
 and a force of engineers and garrison artillery stationed there. 
 As an example, however, of the power of the Chinese, it may be 
 remembered that when it was found necessary to isolate and 
 fumigate the horrible Chinese quarters during the recent out- 
 break of plague in the Colony, this could only be done under 
 the guns of the fleet, and the actual work was performed by 
 British volunteers.* Asia — always excepting Japan — never has 
 been civilised and never will be, till a greater change comes 
 than this age is likely to see, otherwise than at the mouth 
 of the cannon and the point of the bayonet. At home this 
 statement will doubtless be regarded by many excellent people 
 with feelings akin to horror, but all who know the East will 
 know it to be tru'^„ 
 
 This question of the relations of foreigners and Chinese 
 presents much the same general aspect in Hongkong as it 
 does in Shanghai. Here, too, the Chinese merchant is 
 
 * It is to be hoped that the permanent committee of the Sanitary Board, and 
 the soldiers, will receive some official recognition of their efforts, for it was chiefly 
 by them that the plague was eradicated. 
 
26 THE BBITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 crowding out the British middleman ; here, too, it cannot be 
 very long before the bulk of the real estate of the Colony is ,^ 
 owned by Chinese. Every day they are advancing further into 
 the European quarter, and Chinese merchants are among the 
 richest men in the community. "In every dispute between 
 the Chinese and the Government," said a well-informed resident 
 to me, " the former have come off victorious." By and by, 
 therefore, we shall have virtually a Chinese society under the 
 British flag, ruled by a British governor. Such is "Empire," 
 and I see no particular reason to regret the fact, even if it 
 were not impossible to do anything to alter it. The Empire 
 depends upon trade first of all, and such a community must 
 always form the strongest trading link between Great Britain 
 and China. By means of trade alone the Empire stands for 
 the welfare and civilisation of the greatest number, and these 
 are undoubtedly to be found in the direction here prophesied. 
 At any rate, whether we like it or not, and whether we welcome 
 it or oppose it, this change is inevitable.* 
 
 Besides this " danger," however, if it be one, there is the 
 real danger arising from the unruly and criminal Chinese. 
 In spite of all denials, piracy is still rife in the waters round 
 Hongkong. Chinese junks are the constant victims, and the 
 eyes of the Colony were opened in 1890 by the piracy of the 
 British steamer Namoa, which was seized by her Chinese 
 passengers, two of her officers and a number of her crew shot, 
 the remaining officers and European passengers imprisoned in 
 the cabin, like another " Black Hole," for eight hours, the 
 captain dying there, the loot transferred into six junks which 
 came alongside at a signal, and then abandoned, after the 
 windlass had been broken, the fires drawn, the lifeboats stove 
 
 * To escape being misunderstood, let me make it quite clear that I tUnk this 
 Chinese progress absolutely dependent upon British guidance and control, both 
 political and commercial, and ask that what precedes and follows about the Chinese 
 in our Colonies may be read in connection with my chapters about the Chinese 
 in China. 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 27 
 
 in, and the side-lights thrown overboard. A long time after- 
 wards a number of men were beheaded in Kowloon for the 
 piracy, among them being at least one man who had been 
 concerned in the piracy of the Greyhound years before. Only a 
 few months ago disturbances broke out in Hongkong between 
 the members of two rival clans, the Sze Yap and the Tun Kun, 
 and work among many coolies was suspended for a time in 
 consequence, and many steamers delayed. The police were 
 kept very active and the military under arms, while a guerilla 
 warfare was carried on among the rival clans, " the combatants 
 watching for victims of the opposite party, and attacking them 
 individually in quiet places, or shooting them from the tops 
 of houses." Another piece of terrorism occurred when five 
 hundred men employed on the new reservoir were frightened 
 from their work. " A military procession," said a local paper, 
 " with a few small dragons in the shape of field and Maxim 
 guns, would probably exercise a wholesome influence upon the 
 Cantonese swashbucklers who now fancy they can work their 
 own sweet will in this British Colony." Hongkong is. in fact, 
 an Arcadia for the criminals of the neighbouring province, who 
 first plan their outrages there and then take refuge in it when 
 their coup has been effected. If the hue and cry after them 
 becomes too hot, they commit some small offence against the 
 laws of the Colony, with the view to getting committed to prison 
 for a few months, under which circumstances they are absolutely 
 safe against the pursuit of detectives from their own country. 
 Even if they are discovered, arrested, and formally charged, the 
 difficulties in the way of their rendition are so great that they 
 have a good chance of getting off after all. For as the British 
 authorities know very well that torture and punishment await 
 all whom they give up, they are naturally chary of handing 
 prisoners over, notwithstanding any assurances of fair trial 
 that may be given, and they therefore insist that a man shall 
 be proved guilty prima facie before he is surrendered, with the 
 result that the Chinese authorities regard British law as a 
 
28 THE BBITISH EMPIEE. 
 
 means whereby their own criminals escape punishment, as 
 many of them undoubtedly do. 
 
 The population of Hongkong in 1893 was 238,724, of whom 
 the whites were 8,545, the Indians 1,901, and the Chinese 
 210,995. This included the strength of the garrison. In addi- 
 tion there was a boat-population of no fewer than 32,035 
 Chinese. The expenditure of the Colony was 1,920,523 dols., 
 and its revenue 2,078,135 dols.,* the latter showing a net 
 decrease of 158,000 dols. and the former of 422,000 dols. The 
 assets of the Colony are put down at 2,417,054 dols., and its 
 liabilities at 928,031 dols. Its military contribution is £40,000, 
 paid in quarterly instalments. The ascending scale of Colonial 
 contribution in the present state of silver may be judged from 
 the statement that the four quarters of 1893 were paid in the fol- 
 lowing amounts of dollars— 72,000, 72,000, 75,000, and 77,000, 
 and that for 1894 the total will amount to 400,000 dols., or one- 
 fifth of the entire revenue. Hongkong being a free port there 
 
 • It is useless to attempt to translate these figures into sterling, as explained in 
 footnotes elsewhere. During 1893 the Mexican dollar fell from 2s. 8f d. to 2s. 3Jd. , 
 and now stands at 2s. l|d., with entire uncertainty as to the future. The 
 Chambers of Commerce of Hongkong and Singapore have petitioned in favour of a 
 British dollar, and it seems clear that such a coin should be introduced. There is 
 not the slightest reason for the persistence of the Mexican dollar, and many against 
 it and a British dollar is the only alternative to the legalisation of the Japanese 
 «en, the objections to .which are too obvious to mention. It is preposterous that 
 the Power doing beyond all comparison a preponderance of tradu with the Far East 
 should be dependent upon foreign coins like the Mexican dollar and Japanese yen. 
 A British dollar, now a rare coin, was introduced in 1866, but time was not allowed for 
 its general acceptance, and the Hongkong mint was closed two years later and its 
 machinery sold to Japan. (See Chalmers's " History of Currency in the British 
 Colonies," pp. 375 sqq. — a work of great industry and ability.) The British dollar 
 should, of course, be the metallic counterpart of the familiar " Mexican," and it 
 is to be hoped that among the opportunities for reform offered by the results of the 
 present Japanese war with China, this question may not fail of solution. As an 
 example of the inconvenience now prevailing I may add that when I was preparing 
 for the exploratii>n of the unknown north of the Malay Peninsula, of which an 
 account is given in a later chapter of this book, I was indebted to the courtesy of the 
 Penang branch of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China for a supply 
 of the old " pillar " dollars which alone are accepted there, and that I had to pay 
 a premium of nine per cent, for them. [Since the above was in type, the coinage 
 of a British dollar has been sanctioned.] 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 29 
 
 are no custom-house statistics available, but the record of 
 shipping gives some idea of the trade of this astounding place. 
 The total shipping entered and cleared in 1893 was 14,023,866 
 tons, of which the British flag covered 7,732,195 tons. This is 
 already an extraordinary proportion, but a little investigation 
 shows it to be far more striking than thus appears. The non- 
 British shipping of the Port of Hongkong remains from the 
 above figures at 6,291,671 tons, but of this Chinese ships carried 
 4,889,551 tons. Excluding Chinese ships, therefore, the British 
 shipping trade of Hongkong was 7,732,195 tons, against 
 1,902,120 tons carried by all other foreign nations put together. 
 In spite of all its commercial progress, however, and its vital 
 position in the Empire, Hongkong is in many respects curiously 
 behind the civilisation of its time. One may say roughly, for 
 instance, that the law of the Colony to-day is the law — both Com- 
 mon and Statute — that was in force in England on April 5, 1843. 
 I saw several Europeans in Hongkong gaol for debt. There is no 
 Married Women's Property Act in force, although this actually 
 exists in Chinese law. There is no copyright for British authors 
 under their own flag, and I saw the counters of the foreign book- 
 sellers crowded with pirated reprints of contemporary authors. 
 An Englishman living in the foreign settlement at Canton — 
 Shameen — is under one law ; an Englishman living in Hong- 
 kong under another. Hongkong is still — or to be quite exact, 
 was when I was last there — under the Bankruptcy Acts of 1849 
 and 1861. A petition had been presented, signed by all the 
 Chinese merchants of the Colony, suggesting amendments 
 suitable to local circumstances, but the authorities would have 
 none of them, so it was referred home, and the Secretary of 
 State ordered the suggestions to be introduced. This was 
 already six years ago, and nothing had been done. The 
 amalgamation of Law and Equity has never been introduced in 
 fact, whatever may have happened in theory. " Our law," said 
 a leading local lawyer to me, " is antediluvian. You cannot 
 even get a copy of the Hongkong Ordinances — that is, of the 
 
30 THE BKITISH BMPIBB. 
 
 complete law of the Colony. If Hongkong had not been blessed 
 with reasonable judges, we could never have got on at all." 
 Hongkong has long desired a Municipality, to deal with all 
 local matters except such— the defences, for example— as are of 
 a purely Imperial nature, but this justifiable ambition has been 
 enubbed again and again. A growing dissatisfaction, however^ 
 has been shown with the system of official and unofficial 
 membership of the Legislative Council. The former all vote as 
 they are required by the Governor, and the latter are in a 
 minority The official members once showed some signs of 
 voting according to their own views, but the Governor promptly 
 put his foot down upon such insubordination. " Gentlemen," 
 he said to the official members at the next Council meeting, 
 " you are quite at liberty to speak and vote as you like ; but if, 
 holding official positions, you oppose the government, it will be 
 the duty of the government to inquire whether it is for its 
 advantage that you should continue to hold those positions." 
 Official salaries, therefore, are consequent on official votes. 
 Among my notes about Hongkong I find this remark was 
 made to me : "An official member has never made a full and 
 free speech on any subject since Hongkong was a Colony." 
 The spirit of free criticism, however, has now sprung up, 
 thanks chiefly to the independence and tenacity of one un- 
 official member, the Hon. T. H. Whitehead, From the time 
 of his election, five years ago, as the representative of the 
 Chamber of Commerce, he has refused, in spite of every species 
 of pressure and influence, to fall into line with the old tradition 
 which prescribes that the unofficial member should make a 
 speech, including a mild protest in extreme cases, accept with 
 a deferential bow the Governor's assurance that " the honour- 
 able member's remarks shall not fail to receive every consider- 
 ation," and then let the matter drop. Mr. Whitehead, on the 
 contrary, has been tmkind enough to make the lives of govern- 
 ment officials burdens to them by his insistence upon expla- 
 nations, justifications, facts, statistics, records and appeals to 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 81 
 
 the higher authorities in England. It is not supposed, to adapt 
 Mr. Kipling's amusing verse, to be good for the health of an 
 unofficial member to hustle a Colonial Governor, but Mr. 
 Whitehead has thriven greatly in the exercise. He holds a 
 position which gives him an intimate knowledge of the affairs 
 and finances of the Colony, and it is doing him bare justice to 
 say that he is on the way to revolutionise the management of 
 official matters. He is strongly supported by the commercial 
 community, whose interests he thoroughly understands, and 
 the Chinese gave him such farewell honours when he left the 
 Colony the other day for a holiday in Europe as have never 
 been seen there before. 
 
 Mr. Whitehead has devoted himself to exposing the weakness 
 and defects of the existing system of government and the 
 constitution of the Legislative Council, and has just brought 
 home a petition, signed by nearly ninety per cent, of the British 
 ratepayers, praying for a measure of local self-government equal 
 to that possessed by the smallest community at home and by 
 colonies abroad with not a fraction of the wealth, importance, 
 or experience of Hongkong. This petition explains the position 
 of the unofficial inhabitants of the Colony so clearly, and sets 
 forth their grievances so temperately, that I cannot do better 
 than reproduce it almost in extenso, especially as its prayer will 
 have to be granted sooner or later. It runs as follows : — 
 
 It is a little over fifty years since the Colony was founded on a barren rock, the 
 abode of a few fishermen and pirates. To-day it is a city and settlement with 
 upwards of a quarter of a million inhabitants ; a trade estimated at about forty 
 millions of pounds sterling per annum, and a revenue of some two millions of 
 dollars, whoUy derived from internal taxation. Hongkong is a free port, through 
 which passes upwards of fourteen millions of tons of shipping per annum, and it 
 ranks amongst the very first in the list of the great seaports in Her Majesty's 
 dominions. It is the centre of enormous British interests, and is an extensive 
 emporium of British trade in the China seas, and, while it remains a free port, it 
 is destined to expand and develop, and to continue to be the centre of vast traffic 
 and of constant communication between Europe, the Australian Colonies, the United 
 States, and Canada on the one hand, and China, Japan, the Philippine Islands, 
 British North Borneo, Java, Indo-China, Siam, the Straits, and India on the other. 
 
 Hongkong has attained to its almost unequalled commercial position, through 
 the enterprise, skill, and energy of British merchants, traders, and shipowners; 
 
32 THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 through the labours of Her Majesty's subjects who have spent their lives and em- 
 ployed their capital on its shores; through the expenditure of many milhons of 
 dollars in roads, streets, and bridges ; in buildings, pubhc and private ; in extensive 
 reclamations; in docks, piers, and wharves; and last, but not least, m manufactures 
 of great and increasing value. The prosperity of the Colony can best be maintained 
 by the unremitting exertions and self-sacrifice of your Petitioners and the valuable 
 co-operation and support of the Chinese, and only by the continuance of Hongkong 
 
 as a free port. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the whole interests of your Petitioners are thus inextricably 
 and permanently bound up in the good administration of the Colony, in the efficiency 
 of its Executive, and the soundness of its finance, your Petitioners are allowed to 
 take only a limited part or small share in the government of the Colony, and are 
 not permitted to have any really effective voice in the management of its affairs, 
 external or internal. Being purely a Crown Colony, it is governed by a Governor 
 appointed by Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, and by an Executive and a 
 Legislative Council. The former is composed wholly of Oiiacers of the Crown, 
 nominated and appointed by the Crown; the latter consists of seven Official 
 Members, selected and appointed by the Queen, and five Unofficial Members, two 
 of whom are nominated by certain public bodies in the Colony, while the other three 
 are selected by the Governor, and aU are appointed by Her Majesty. 
 
 The Executive Council sits and deliberates in secret. The Legislative Council 
 sits with open doors, and its procedure appears to admit of full and unfettered dis- 
 cussion, but there is vinually no true freedom of debate. Questions are considered, 
 and fettled, and the poUoy to be adopted by the Government in connection there- 
 with is decided in the Executive Council. They are then brought before the 
 Legislative Council, where the Government — the Official Members being in a 
 majority — can secure the passing of any measure, in face of any opposition on the 
 part of the Unofficial Members, who are thus limited to objecting and protesting, 
 and have no power to carry any proposal which they may consider beneficial, nor 
 have they power to reject or even modify any measure which may in their opinion 
 be prejudicial to the interests of the Colony. 
 
 In the adjustment and disposal of the Colonial revenue it might be supposed 
 that the Unofficial representatives of the taxpayers would be allowed a potential 
 voice, and in form this has been conceded by the Government. But only in form, 
 for in the Finance Committee, as well as in the Legislative Council, the Unofficial 
 Members are in a minority, and can therefore be out-voted if any real difference of 
 opinion arises. 
 
 Legislative Enactments are nearly always drafted by the Attorney General, are 
 frequently forwarded before publication in the Colony or to the Council for the 
 approval of the Secretary of State, and when sanctioned are introiiuoed into the 
 Legislative Council, read a first, second, and third time, and passed by the votes of 
 the Official Members, acting in obedience to instructions, irrespective of their 
 personal views or private opinions. 
 
 The Legislation so prepared and passed emanates in some cases from persons 
 whose short experience of and want of actual touch with the Colony's needs, does 
 not qualify them to fully appreciate the measures best suited to the requirements of 
 the Community. 
 
 Those who have the knowledge and experience are naturally the Unofficial 
 Members, who have been elected and appointed as possessing these very qualifica- 
 tions, who have passed large portions of their lives in the Colony, and who either 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 83 
 
 have permanent personal interests in it, or hold prominent positions of trust which 
 connect them most closely with its affairs, and are therefore the more likely to have 
 been required to carefully study its real needs, and to have thoroughly acquainted 
 themselves with the methods by which these are best to be met. On the other hand 
 the offices occupied by the Official Members are only stepping stones in an official 
 career ; the occupants may be resident for a longer or a shorter period in the 
 Colony, and for them to form an opinion on any question which arises, diiierent 
 from that decided upon by the Government in Executive Council, is to risk a con- 
 flict with the Governor, and they are therefore compelled to vote on occasions 
 contrary to their convictions. 
 
 Your Petitioners humbly represent that to Malta, Cyprus, Mauritius, British 
 Honduras, and other Crown Colonies, more liberal forms of Government than those 
 enjoyed by your Petitioners have been given : unofficial seats in the Executive 
 Council ; unofficial majorities in the Legislative Council ; power of election of 
 Members of Council ; and more power and influence in the management of purely 
 local affairs : in none of these Colonies are the commercial and industrial interests 
 of the same magnitude or importance as those of Hongkong. Your Petitioners, 
 therefore, pray your Honourable House to grant them the same or similar privileges. 
 
 Your Petitioners fully recognise that in a Colony so peculiarly situated on the 
 borders of a great Oriental Empire, and with a population largely composed of 
 aliens whose traditional and family interests and racial sympathies largely remain 
 in that neighbouring Empire, special legislation and guardianship are required. 
 Nor are they less alive to the Imperial position of a Colony which is at once a 
 frontier fortress and a naval dep6t, the headquarters of Her Majesty's fleet, and 
 the base for naval and military opera,tions in these Ear Eastern waters ; and they 
 are not so unpractical as to expect that unrestricted power should be given to any 
 local Legislature, or that the Queen's Goverimient could ever give up the paramount 
 control of this important dependency. All your Petitioners claim is the common 
 right of Englishmen to manage their local offairs, and control the expenditure 
 of the Colony, where Imperial considerations are not involved. 
 
 At present your Petitioners are subject to legislation issuing from the Imperial 
 Parliament, and all local legislation must be subsidiary to it. Her Majesty the 
 Queen in Council has full and complete power and authority to make laws for the 
 island, and local laws must be approved and assented to by the Governor in the 
 name of the Queen, and are subject to disallowance by Her Majesty on the recom- 
 mendation of Her Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies. 
 
 Your Petitioners recognise the necessity and propriety of the existpnoe of these 
 checks and safeguards against the abuse of any power and authority exercised by 
 any local Legislature, and cheerfully acquiesce in their continuance and effective 
 exercise, but respectfully submit that, subject to these checks and safeguards, they 
 ought to be allowed the free election of representatives of British nationality in the 
 Legislative Council of the Colony; a majority in the Council of such elected 
 representatives ; perfect freedom of debate for the Official Members, with power to 
 vote according to their conscientious convictions without being called to account or 
 endangered in their positions by their votes ; complete control in the Council over 
 local expenditure; the management of local affairs; and a consultative voice in 
 questions of an Imperial character. 
 
 This power to control purely local affairs is but the common 
 right of every Englishman, and to deny it to Hongkong — the 
 
 4 
 
34 THE BEITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 absolute authority of the Crown over all purely Imperial 
 matters being safeguarded— is without a shadow of justifica- 
 tion. Besides being signed, as I have said, by ninety per cent, 
 of the British ratepayers, this petition has the strongest 
 support of the entire Chinese community, who pay nine-tenths Z 
 of the whole taxation. The inhabitants of Hongkong claim 
 that nothing could have shown more clearly the necessity for 
 municipal government than the muddle made by the Govern- 
 ment in dealing with the plague. This cost Hongkong a 
 million dollars, thousands of lives, many thousands of its 
 Chinese inhabitants, and inflicted a loss hardly calculable upon 
 its vast shipping interests. Much of all this, it is declared, 
 could have been saved by proper management. As an example 
 of a state of things against which the Hongkong press and the 
 unofficial members of Council have constantly protested, it may 
 be pointed out that at this most critical period of the Colony's 
 history it was administered by a Government most of whose 
 officials were " acting " men, and many of them, therefore, 
 necessarily less competent than the holders of their offices 
 should be. "Why is it," asked the Daily Press, " that so large 
 a number of officials can claim leave all at once ? ... It should 
 not be possible for any administration to become so depleted of 
 its responsible members as this Colony is at the present moment." 
 Without the actual list of the " acting " officers the state of 
 affairs would not be believed. It is as follows : Acting Colonial 
 Secretary, Acting Chief Justice, Acting Puisne Judge, Acting 
 Attorney General, Acting Director of Public Works (an untried 
 junior). Acting Assistant Eegistrar General (who was really 
 Acting Eegistrar General), Acting Clerk of Councils, Acting 
 Postmaster General, Acting Police Magistrate, Acting Clerk to 
 Magistrates, Acting Sanitary Superintendent, Acting Superin- 
 tendent of Civil Hospitals, Acting Assessor of Bates, Acting 
 Eegistrar, and Acting Deputy Eegistrar. This list by itself 
 is enough to show that something is seriously wrong. By 
 appealing single-handed to the Home Government, over the 
 
SHANGHAI AND HONGKONG. 35 
 
 heads of the Governor and his officials, Mr. Whitehead has also 
 obtained the appointment of a Eetrenchment Commission, of 
 which it has been truly remarked that if its recommendations 
 bear any resemblance to the Eeport just issued by a similar 
 Commission in the neighbouring Colony of the Straits Settle- 
 ments, which has recommended economies to the extent of 
 nearly a quarter of a million dollars per annmn, Hongkong will 
 have reason to be thankful. 
 
 Above all other considerations and criticisms, however, it is 
 the greatness of this outpost on the edge of the Empire that 
 must always finally recur to any Englishman who has studied 
 it. I doubt if there can be a more remarkable view in 
 the world than that of the city of Victoria and the ten 
 square miles of Hongkong harbour from "The Peak." At 
 night it is as if you had mounted above the stars and 
 were looking down upon them, for the riding-lights of the 
 ships seem suspended in an infinite gulf of darkness, while 
 every now and then the white beam of an electric search-light 
 flashes like the track of a meteor across a midnight sky. By 
 day, the city is spread out nearly 2,000 feet directly below you, 
 and only the ships' decks and their foreshortened masts are 
 visible, while the whole surface of the harbour is traversed 
 continually in all directions by fast steam-launches, making 
 a network of tracks like lacework upon it, as water-spiders 
 skim over a pool in summer-time. For Hongkong harbour, 
 as I have said, is the focus of the traffic of the East, though 
 what this means one cannot realise until one has looked down 
 many times into its secure blue depths and noted all that 
 is there — the great mail liners, the P. & 0., the Messageries 
 Maritimes, the North German Lloyd, the Austrian Lloyd, the 
 Occidental and Oriental, the Pacific Mail, and the Canadian 
 Pacific; the smaller mail packets, to Tongking, to Formosa, 
 to Borneo, to Manila, and to Siam ; the ocean " tramps " 
 ready to get up steam at a moment's notice and carry any- 
 thing anywhere ; the white-winged sailing-vessels resting after 
 
86 THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 their long flights; the innumerable high-sterned junks plying 
 to every port on the Chinese coast ; and all the mailed host of 
 men-of-war flying every flag under heaven, from the white ensign 
 of the flagship and the black eagle of its Eussian rival, to the 
 yellow crown of the tiny Portuguese gunboat or the dragon 
 pennant of China. On one day, the Governor told me, no 
 fewer than two hundred and forty guns were fired in salutes in 
 the harbour. All these vessels cross and recross ceaselessly in 
 Hongkong harbour, living shuttles in the loom of time, bearing 
 the golden strand of human sympathy and co-operation between 
 world and world, or like the Zeitgeist in Faust, "weaving the 
 garment divinity wears." I am not prepared to say that divinity 
 would always find itself comfortable in the garment that is woven 
 in Hongkong, but one thing I can afSrm, and that is that a visit 
 to our furthest Colony makes one proud to belong to the nation 
 that has created it from nothing, fills the word "Empire" 
 with a new-born meaning, and crystallises around it a set of 
 fresh convictions and resolves. 
 
GHAPTEB II. 
 
 A SCHOOL OF EMPIBE: THE STBAITS SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 OINGAPOEE, says an old chronicler, "presents to the eye of 
 ^ the voyager a scene that has repeatedly excited the most 
 rapturous admiration." The rapture probably began with the 
 descendant of Alexander the Great, who — the story goes — came 
 over from Sumatra and founded it, the first Malay settlement 
 on the Peninsula, exactly a century after the battle of Hastings, 
 naming it Singhapura, " The City of the Lion," from a lion-like 
 beast he saw on landing. Camoens felt the rapture, too, when 
 he sang — 
 
 "But on her Land's end framed see Cingapur, 
 
 Where the wide sea-road shrinks to narrow way ; 
 Thenee curves the coast to face the Cynosure, 
 And lastly trends Auroraward its lay." 
 
 And diluted to the thinner consistency of a less impressionable 
 age, the same rapture is experienced by every traveller who 
 enters the harbour. But his eye soon falls from the setting of 
 exquisite green hills to the marvellous multi-coloured wharf of 
 Babel awaiting the touch of the steamer. There Malay jostles 
 Chinaman, Kling rubs shoulders with Javanese, Arab elbows 
 Seedy-boy, and Dyak stares at Bugis, all their dirty bodies 
 swathed either in nothing to speak of, or else in scarlet and 
 yellow and blue and gold. Among them a dainty English lady 
 come to meet her husband or brother or lover, her eyes full of 
 laughter or tears, and her face flushed with anticipation, looks 
 
 37 
 
38 THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 SO white and fair and frail that one marvels in pride at the 
 thought that she and such as she are the mothers of men who 
 impose the restraints and the incitements of Empire upon the 
 millions of these dark races of the earth. 
 
 If it is unnecessary to describe Shanghai and Hongkong, 
 because of the hosts of people who visit them and the super- 
 abundance of books which discuss them, still less is it needful 
 to give a detailed account of Singapore. The Colony, however, 
 has several points of interest peculiar to itself, besides those 
 which it shares with other parts of the Par East, and though 
 a glance at the latter will suffice, the former call for considera- 
 tion at greater length. Singapore is interesting for its remark- 
 ably beautiful situation ; for its history, so full of vicissitudes 
 and bloodshed until it finally came under the administration of 
 Bengal in July, 1830 — as an example of vicissitudes, Malacca 
 was captured by us from the Dutch in 1786, restored in 1801, 
 retaken in 1807, restored in 1818, resumed for good in 1825 ; 
 for its geographical situation as the extreme southern limit of 
 continental Asia, and the " corner " between the Ear East and 
 the rest of the world ; for the fact that it was the first free-trade 
 port of modern times ; and very interesting, of course, as one 
 of the keystones of Imperial defence. To a casual observer, 
 however, Singapore does not present such striking features as 
 many other places. The business town is two or three miles 
 away from most of the private residences ; these are not in 
 groups but in units, each solitary in its own charming grounds ; 
 you cannot make a call under half an-hour's drive, and until 
 you have learned a little Malay it is a most difficult community 
 in which to find your way about ; and the Club is practically 
 closed at seven o'clock, and if you make arrangements to dine 
 there, your single lighted table only emphasises the surrounding 
 darkness. 
 
 This evergreen island, almost on the equator, where neither 
 Christmas nor Midsummer Day brings much change to the 
 thermometer, and in whose tropical jungles the cobra and 
 
THE STEAITS SETTLEMENTS. 39 
 
 hamadryad live and a stray tiger is occasionally found, is the seat 
 of a large number of very ticklish problems of government, and 
 the visitor would be surprised indeed if he could see for a 
 moment, through the eyes of the Governor of the Straits Settle- 
 ments, the variety and responsibility of the questions requiring 
 decision and action every day. It is a singularly complicated 
 problem, to begin with, to govern the city itself, with its six 
 thousand Europeans and Americans (including the garrison), its 
 . four thousand Eurasians, its four thousand Javanese, its sixteen 
 thousand Indians, chiefly Elings (natives of India, from the 
 Coromandel coast), its thirty thousand Malays, its hundred and 
 twenty thousand Chinese and all its mixed mass of Bengalis and 
 Bugis, Jawi Pekans and Boyanese and Burmese, Persians and 
 Arabs and Dyaks and Manilamen. These native peoples are quiet 
 enough when left alone, but a single unpopular ordinance is 
 sufficient to bring them rioting into the streets. A few years 
 ago Singapore was in the hands of a mob for two days — in fact, 
 until the government gave way — because it was decided to make 
 the causeways clear for passengers. The city used to be the 
 headquarters of several -of the principal Chinese Secret Societies, 
 the most inscrutable and ruthless and law-upsetting organisa- 
 tions in the world. These were suppressed by formal enactment 
 on the initiative of Sir Cecil Smith, four years ago, and a 
 " Chinese Advisory Board " created to deal with their legitimate 
 work, but it may well be doubted whether a system to which the 
 Chinese have an irrepressible tendency has not been made more 
 secret rather than extirpated. Mr. Wray, the "Protector of 
 Chinese," in his latest report, says that " sporadic attempts are 
 still made, and will always be made where Chinese congregate 
 in large numbers, to start illegal organisations," but he believes, 
 or perhaps one should say, hopes, that " secrecy is impossible 
 amid a heterogeneous society like ours, and incessant vigilance 
 and prompt action on the part of the Chinese Protectorate are 
 all that is necessary in such cases." The chief societies were 
 the Ghee Hin, the Ghee Hok, and the Hok Hin, The former 
 
40 THE BEITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 was the original and the most powerful one, and when it was 
 suppressed, after great difficulty and many disputes among its 
 members concerning the distribution of its property, its 
 membership in Singapore was thirty thousand and in Penang 
 forty thousand. The other two have been "registered" and 
 permitted, as they are ostensibly only Chinese mutual benefit 
 societies. There is still not the slightest doubt, however, that 
 they stand between their members and the foreign law. Profes- 
 sional bailers attend the courts to bail out any member of their. 
 society, and they help their members in all sorts of ways to flee 
 from justice. A chapter, and a most romantic one too, might 
 be written about these societies. They have, for example, the 
 most elaborate system of signs for mutual recognition. One of 
 them bases its signs upon the numeral three. At table, a 
 member wishing to make himself known to any fellow-member 
 present places three glasses together in a certain way, or passes 
 a cup of tea held peculiarly with three fingers. A man fleeing 
 from justice and praying for refuge, puts his shoes outside 
 another's house, side by side, with the heels turned towards the 
 door. If the owner turns one shoe over on the other, the 
 fugitive knows he can take refuge there. In spite of the sup- 
 pression, I fancy that Hoan Cheng Hok Beng — " Upset Cheng," 
 the present Manchu dynasty of China, "restore Beng," the 
 former dynasty— still has a magic and compelling significance in 
 Singapore, for these are the pass-words of the famous Triad 
 Society, which honeycombs China and has more than once put 
 the throne in terror. The Triad consists of the characters 
 TMen Tay Hoey—" Heaven, Earth, Man," 
 
 To appreciate Singapore as a city of Orientals, one must 
 spend a day or two in the native quarters, and this is just what 
 the ordinary visitor fails to do. From this point of view it 
 18 certainly one of the most astonishing communities in the 
 world. To begin with, it is enormous. For days you may 
 wander about without ever turning on your track, through miles 
 upon miles of semi-native houses and shops, through crowded 
 
THE STEAITS SETTLEMENTS. 41 
 
 streets, in variegated bazaars, -with all the merchandise of all 
 the East spread out fendlessly before you. Each race has its 
 own quarter — there is "Kampong Malacca," "KampongKling," 
 " Kampong Siam," " Kampong China." In one spot you are 
 dazzled with the silks of India ; in another the sarongs of Java 
 are spread out like a kaleidoscope ; in another you are suffoca- 
 ted with an indescribable mixture of Eastern scents ; in another 
 an appalling stench meets you, strange raiiibow-like birds utter 
 raucous cries, and the long thin hairy arrfi of a gorilla is 
 stretched out between bamboo bars in deceptive friendliness ; 
 in another there is such a packed mass of boats that 
 you hardly know when your foot has left dry land. And all 
 this mixed humanity exists in order and security and sanita- 
 tion, living and thriving and trading, simply because of the 
 presence of English law and under the protection of the British 
 flag. Eemove that piece of bunting from Government House, 
 and all that it signifies, and the whole community would go to 
 pieces like a child's sand-castle when the tide rises. Its three 
 supports are free trade, fair taxation, and even-handed justice 
 among white, black, brown and yellow, and these exist in the 
 Far East under the British flag alone. At least, I have been 
 almost everywhere else without finding them. Of course, in all 
 this the Chinese enormously preponderate. The foolish opinion 
 is sometimes heard at home that this Chinese community 
 represents China — that it is a specimen of what China may 
 become, a standing bond of union between ourselves and China. 
 The very opposite is the case. This community has grown up 
 and exists precisely because it is not China — because the con- 
 ditions of its existence are precisely the antithesis of Chinese 
 conditions. The Straits Chinaman would not exchange his 
 British nationality for anything else in the world; he plays 
 cricket, football, and lawn tennis ; he has his annual athletic 
 sports ; the recreation ground, and indeed every open space, is 
 covered in the afternoons with Chinese engaged in these games ; 
 he goes to the Free Library and he reads the newspaper; be 
 
42 THE BRITISH EMPIEB. 
 
 attends a Debating Society and he carries off prizes at the 
 Eaffles School ; he eats foreign food and imitates foreign vices. 
 When he has prospered he drives through the streets in a 
 carriage and pair with a European coachman on the box. He 
 knows that he is the equal of the Englishman before the law, 
 and considers that he is slightly superior to him in other 
 respects. He looks upon the Civil Service as his servants, upon 
 the Governor as his ruler, upon the forts as his protection, upon 
 the whole place as his home. A Chinaman is one of the most 
 influential members of the Legislative Council, 
 
 Mr. George C. Wray, the Protector of Chinese, whom I have 
 already quoted above, writes as follows in his last report : " We 
 have developed an ever-growing, permanent, law-abiding, Straits- 
 born population, who are proud of being British subjects, give 
 then- children a liberal English education, and are rapidly con- 
 solidating themselves into a distinctive, loyal subject-race, of 
 whose abilities and behaviour our Government may well be 
 proud." The number of these Straits-born Chinese, according 
 to the census of 1891, was 12,805 in Singapore, and 34,757 for 
 the whole Colony, and they are rapidly increasing. The 
 business of the European firms — and this is true of almost the 
 whole Far East — could not be carried on for a week without 
 their Chinese "shroffs," "compradors," and clerks. Between 
 the census of 1881 and that of 1891 the Chinese inhabitants of 
 Singapore had increased from 86,766 to 121,908. During the 
 year 1893 there were no fewer than 144,558 Chinese immigrants 
 into Singapore alone, to say nothing of the 68,751 who went to 
 Penang, to which the same remarks apply. It is therefore not 
 surprising that even the lethargic Chinese Imperial Govern- 
 ment has at last been struck with this new and strange China 
 growing up under a foreign flag, and that it has despatched 
 commissioners to inquire into the reasons why Chinese who 
 make money in the Straits never come back to their own land, 
 and has published an invitation to its self-exiled citizens to return, 
 and an order to its own officials to refrain from interfering with 
 
THE STEilTS SETTLEMENTS. 43 
 
 them when they do so. The hilarious scorn, however, with 
 which this invitation has been received, and the almost brutal 
 frankness of the reasons given in reply to the inquiries, show at 
 the same time the value the well-governed Chinaman sets upon 
 bis privileges, and his opinion of the prospects of reform — even 
 when backed by Imperial command — in his native land. Even 
 to the Chinese woman who is a prostitute in China, Singapore 
 is by comparison a paradise. Mr. Wray says : " There being 
 no supervision or means of redress in China, women of the 
 lower classes better themselves by coming to a land where debt- 
 slavery is not tolerated and where the mere act of reporting to 
 the nearest official means immediate freedom." * 
 
 * It would not be fitting to discuss here the whole question of the relations of the 
 prostitute class to the Colonial authorities, but I must put my opinion on record 
 somewhere in this book. I am profoundly convinced, after much study of statistics 
 and careful investigation into the question in the Par East, that the action of 
 Parliament and the Colonial Office in over-riding the repeated requests and protests 
 of the highest and most responsible local authorities is so seriously wrong that the 
 word " blunder " is wholly inadequate to describe it. From the point of view of 
 morality it is as wrong as from the point of view of administration it is improper. 
 The conditions of life and character are so utterly different in Europe and Asia that 
 any comparison between them for the purpose of justifying recent legislation is not 
 only impossible but absolutely ridiculous. What may be wise and imperative laws 
 for the women of Europe, may quite well be wrong in every respect for the women 
 of Asia. Hongkong and Singapore were in this respect two of the healthiest com- 
 munities in the world ; they are rapidly becoming, if indeed they are not already, 
 centres for the propagation and distribution of pestilence. From this the native 
 society and the British garrisons suffer in identical proportions. As for the fate 
 of the unfortunate women themselves, the pen of Dante would be required to 
 describe what it will soon become again. To the familiar horrors of the slave- 
 trade, add an equal amount of other and indescribable horror, and you will have 
 some notion of what life will be for the thousands of Chinese women under the British 
 flag but without its protection. Anybody who desires to inform himself upon the 
 normal condition of Eastern prostitutes should pursue inquiries into the lot of the 
 young women who are sold into this slavery, even by the female members of the 
 Siamese royal family, and who pass a great part of their lives in the district of Bangkok 
 known as Sampeng, behind barred windows and padlocked doors, from which they 
 never emerge until, dead or alive, they leave the place for good. The action of 
 Parliament and the Colonial Office has simply condemned thousands of Chinese 
 women to a fate of almost unimaginable woe, from a great part of which they were 
 previously shielded. As the Protector of Chinese in Singapore says, to suppress 
 the evil altogether is utterly impossible, though it may be greatly mitigated. All 
 that this legislation does is to afiord a certain relief to the consciences of partially 
 informed people at home, at the cost of enormous and unnecessary suffering to 
 
44 THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 The straits Settlements, which were incorporated as a Crown 
 Colony in 1867, having previously been under the jurisdiction of 
 the East India Company, consist of the large island of Singapore; 
 the smaller island of Penang ; Malacca and Province Wellesley 
 on the mainland ; another strip of territory and the island of 
 Pangkor — together known as the Bindings ; the Cocos Islands, 
 and Christmas Island. The three latter call for no special 
 mention ; Province Wellesley is a sugar-growing district, which 
 may become of importance if a railway runs into the inland 
 side of it; and Malacca is reposing, after its varied history 
 and its former prosperity as the outlet of the products of the 
 Peninsula, in a condition of peaceful stagnation. Its colourless 
 condition is well typified by its sole product — tapioca, produced 
 in large quantities by Chinese labour and capital. Commercially, 
 as the Governor has recently said, it is " a mere suburb of 
 Singapore," and it will remain so until the Chinese develop its 
 strip of very fertile land, which its own Malay inhabitants are 
 far too lazy to do. Camoens wrote of — 
 
 " Malacca's market grand and opulent, 
 Whitlier each Province of the long seaboard 
 Shall send of merchantry rich varied hoard. " 
 
 Three centuries ago Malacca was " the great emporium of 
 the Eastern Archipelago." * But its walls were " blown up 
 at great expense in 1807," and its history virtually ceased 
 long ago. There are compensations, however, for the quaint 
 and quiet little place, for its Eesident Councillor has just 
 described it as "a favourable example of a prosperous agri- 
 cultural district, where crime is almost unknown and the 
 people are happy and contented." Penang, on the contrary, 
 has been a discontented community lately. Singapore has 
 
 many thousands of natives in the Colonies. And it is of no use for the people who 
 hold a contrary opinion to denounce those who express this one, having formed it 
 after conscientious inquiries favoured by unusual opportunities. 
 
 * Lucas : " Historical Geography of the British Colonies," I. 107— a work of 
 which it wouid be impossible to speak too highly. 
 
THE STBAITS SETTLEMENTS. 45 
 
 ineyitably taken away much of the advantageous trade Penang 
 formerly enjoyed with the neighbouring Protected States ; 
 it claims that it has contributed more than its fair share 
 toward Colonial expenditure, and received less for its own 
 purposes ; and it has been refused the large amount it desired 
 for the erection of wharves. Much bitterness between the two 
 chief partners in the Colony has thus been aroused, and a 
 wordy war in paper and pamphlet, and even in Parliament, has 
 followed. The Government also declined to grant the Eoyal 
 Commission of inquiry which Penang desired. According to the 
 Acting Governor's annual report, however, this discussion is now 
 at an end. Mr. Maxwell writes : " A number of real or supposed 
 grievances were also ventilated, but when the chief ground of 
 complaint had been proved by a reference to statistics to be 
 without foundation, the agitation, to which some of the Penang 
 Chinese had somewhat blindly given their support, rapidly died 
 away." It is probable that the growing influence of the Chinese, 
 which is even truer of Penang than of Shanghai or Hongkong, 
 and the great depression of trade, were as much as anything 
 else the causes of the discontent of Penang. Last year the 
 expenditure of the municipality exceeded the revenue by 17,000 
 dols., and the cash balance was reduced from 24,107 to 6,860 
 dols., while its municipal indebtedness is 350,000 dols. This, 
 however, is a very small matter compared with the fact that 
 the revenue of Penang, as a whole, has increased yearly since 
 the "low-water mark" of 1891 by 3,000,000 dols., and this 
 although no new sources of revenue have been established. And 
 the figures of Penang's trade, 87,603,854 dols., are the highest 
 for the past five years. The outlook, therefore, does not warrant 
 any particular depression of spirits. In regard to the question 
 of municipal expenditure (for all parts of the Straits Settlements 
 have their municipalities, unlike Hongkong, which is still in 
 official leading-strings), I may add that in every case, and not 
 in that of Penang alone, the expenditure last year exceeded the 
 revenue. With regard to Singapore, a few statistics are of much 
 
46 THE BEITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 interest. The total trade for 1893, excluding the movements of 
 treasure, was 260,982,169 dols., an increase over 1892 of more 
 than 26,000,000 dols. In spite of this, however, owing to the 
 depreciation of silver, these same figures for the two years, 
 translated into sterling at the average rates for each year, give 
 ^37,135,141 for 1892, and ^36,769,590 for 1893— a silver 
 increase of 26,000,000 dols. thus appearing as a gold decrease 
 of £365,551 ! It would be difficult to find a more striking 
 object-lesson of the position of a silver-using colony in regard 
 to a gold-using mother country. That the trade of Singapore 
 is healthy enough, apart from the question of silver, is evident 
 from the shipping returns, which were 6,944,346 tons entered 
 and cleared in 1893, an increase of nearly half a million tons 
 over 1892. 
 
 In the finances of Singapore, however, one question far out- 
 weighs in importance, both Imperial and Colonial, all others — 
 that of the military contribution. Upon this matter Singapore 
 has been on the verge of revolt — hardly too strong an expression 
 to describe the bitterness aroused in the Colony by the action of 
 the home authorities. This is the more to be regretted since to 
 an outsider studying the dispute it seems eminently one which 
 could have been amicably settled by a compromise. When the 
 Straits Settlements desired to be removed from the jurisdiction 
 of India in 1867, and formed into a Crown Colony, the British 
 Government assented on the understanding that the Colony should 
 bear the cost of its own defence. At this time, however, there 
 was a distinction made between the troops and their accommoda- 
 tion at Singapore, Malacca, and Penang, for the defence of those 
 places ; and other troops and their cost and accommodation at 
 Singapore, for Imperial purposes — the latter being maintained 
 by the home Government. Up to 1890, the Colony had paid 
 a yearly contribution of £50,145 towards its defence, but in 
 that year the Secretary of State for the Colonies suddenly de- 
 manded that the contribution be raised at once to £100,000 per 
 annum, with an addition, first, of £28,976, being one-half of the 
 
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 47 
 
 alleged loss of the Imperial Treasury by exchange on previous 
 payments ; and second, of an indefinite sum for further barracks. 
 Now here, beyond any possible doubt, the Colonial Office made 
 an initial blunder. Admitting that an increased contribution 
 was necessary, and admitting that the sum asked for was entirely 
 just, to send a peremptory demand that it be voted immediately 
 by the Legislative Council, without having extended the courtesy 
 of an inquiry beforehand as to the views of the Colony upon 
 a matter so seriously affecting its income, was an act to arouse 
 resentment in the most loyal community in the world. Its 
 instant result might have been foreseen by the least imagi- 
 native person. The Governor of the Straits, Sir Cecil Smith, 
 passed the vote as ordered. " For my own part," he wrote to 
 Lord Knutsford, " I found myself wholly unable to eonscien- 
 ' tiously support the justice of all the claims which Her Majesty's 
 Government had made, and the same views which I held were 
 shared in by every member of my Council. My instructions, 
 however, were perfectly clear, and I had to require each member 
 of the Executive Council to vote against his conviction and in 
 support of the claims of Her Majesty's Government." And 
 in reporting the vote, he wrote : " It is very important that I 
 should not omit to point out that the course which has been 
 followed on this occasion has placed the Executive in very 
 strained relations with the Legislative authority, and has tended 
 to imperil good government. The constituted authorities in this 
 Colony have been required by Her Majesty's Government to meet 
 a money claim without having had an opportunity of having 
 their views on the justice and correctness of the claim considered. 
 Such a case is, so far as I am aware, wholly without precedent." 
 In studying the history of British colonial administration, the 
 student occasionally comes across acts on the part of the mother 
 country which might have been inspired by some demon of mis- 
 chief, so deliberately unfortunate do they seem. The method of 
 this demand is one of them. 
 
 Protests, appeals, minutes, and resolutions of public meetings, 
 
48 THE BEITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 were of no avail, and Lord Knutsford simply replied that "Her 
 • Majesty's Government would have been glad if they could have 
 allowed themselves to be influenced by arguments put forward 
 so temperately and so fully; " and somewhat sarcastically added 
 he had learnt " with satisfaction " that the Colony had included 
 a similar vote in the estimates for the ensuing year. For the 
 four years ending December 31, 1893, therefore, the Straits 
 paid a regular contribution of £100,000 a year, during which 
 time the Colonial revenue was further decreased by depression of 
 trade and dislocated by the fall of silver. Public works in the 
 Colony had to be abandoned, and almost imperative improve- 
 ments postponed, and at last a loan had actually to be raised. 
 "The financial arrangements," said Sir Cecil Smith to his 
 Legislative Council on October 15, 1891, " have been completely 
 upset; and although every endeavour has been made, and is 
 being made, to reduce our expenditure, it has been found 
 necessary, in order to meet our liabilities, to dispose of all our 
 realisable assets — namely, the investments in gold amounting 
 to 1,013,762 dols., and in Indian stock amounting to 350,000 
 dels." Even this state of things did not move the stony heart 
 of the home authorities, and the people of Singapore made one 
 more desperate set of appeals at the beginning of 1894, when 
 the first series of payments came to an end. In response the 
 Colonial Office removed £10,000 by way of solatium, and added 
 £20,000 for additional barrack accommodation — thus meeting 
 the appeals of the Colony by raising the total contribution for 
 the present year from £100,000 to £110,000 ! 
 
 A little calculation shows the situation of the Straits Settle- 
 ments to be as follows : — The revenue of the Colony for last 
 year was 3,706,308 dols., an increase on 1892. Its expenditure 
 was 3,915,482 dols., a decrease from 1892. Thus there was a 
 deficit of 209,174 dols. The military contribution is therefore 
 increased at a time when there is positively a financial deficit. 
 To see, however, how bad the case really is, we must look at 
 the effect of the depreciation of silver. The average Singapore 
 
THE STEAITS SETTLEMENTS. 49 
 
 exchange at sight of the Mexican dollar for 1892 was 2s. 10|d. At 
 the moment of writing it is 2s. Ifd. To remit £100,000 to London 
 in sterling during 1892 would therefore have cost the Colony (say) 
 700,000 dols. ; to remit the same sum home to-day would cost 
 932,000 dols. That is, the military contribution of the Colony 
 has risen between 1892 and 1894 by 232,000 dols., apart from 
 any act of either the British Government or the Colonial 
 authorities. Finally, the amount to be paid during the present 
 year, at the present rate of exchange, is 1,025,200 dols. — rather 
 more than twenty-seven and a half per cent, of the total revenue 
 of the Colony ! It is hardly surprising that such a state of things 
 " tends to imperil good government." 
 
 Yet, as I have said, the question at issue seems one which 
 should be settled without much difficulty on the time-honoured 
 principle of give and take. Everybody admits, to begin with, 
 that each part of the Empire ought to bear its proper share of 
 the defence of the whole. Unfortunately, many parts escape doing 
 so. Singapore, on the contrary, has always been eager to subscribe 
 its proportion. Lord Knutsford will remember, I am sure, how 
 in the famous confidential Colonial Conference of 1887 he held 
 up Singapore as a shining example to the lagging Australian 
 colonies. The Secretary of State bases his claim upon the 
 " colossal trade " of Singapore. The Colony retorts that at 
 least three-quarters of this trade merely passes through the 
 harbour on its way to other parts of the Par Bast, and that 
 therefore it is Imperial trade and not local. This is an indis- 
 putable fact. Lord Knutsford wrote : " The large stores of 
 coal which your trade requires, of themselves invite attack." 
 Singapore replies, first, that this coal belongs to ship-owners in 
 London, and that therefore it is they who should be asked to 
 pay for its defence ; second, that it is used chiefly for the transit 
 trade aforesaid ; and third, that by common consent and the 
 definite statement of a Eoyal Commission, Singapore is an Im- 
 perial coaling station second in importance only to the Cape 
 itself. And I may here remind the Colonial OfBce that when 
 
 5 
 
50 THE BBITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 the Eussian " scare " broke out in 1885, the home authorities 
 instantly telegraphed to the Governor of Singapore asking how 
 much coal was there. He replied. 200,000 tons; whereupon 
 they fell into a panic lest the Eussians should get it and our 
 ships be deprived of it, and telegraphed in all directions for- 
 ships to go and guard it. And this was the origin of Imperial 
 interest in the speedy and efficient arming of Singapore. The 
 Colonial Office has made one very misleading statement in 
 this controversy, namely, that the batteries of Singapore were 
 armed with heavier guns at the special request of one of its 
 own officials. But this official was, at the time of his recommen- 
 dation, lent by the Colony to the Imperial Government, and was 
 therefore an Imperial officer, acting in the interests of the Empire 
 as a whole. Singapore is, of course, a link of the greatest value in 
 the armed chain of Empire. Without it, or some similar place not 
 far away. Great Britain could not pretend to hold her position in 
 the Far East. On the other hand, the Colony has been hitherto 
 a very flourishing one. In it, therefore, Imperial and local 
 interests are pretty well divided. This is exactly what the 
 Colony says. It has built forts (which were kept waiting a 
 long time for their guns) at a cost of £81,000 ; it has 
 paid £28,976 to recoup the Imperial Treasury for loss on ex- 
 change ; for four years it has contributed £100,000 a year, 
 though its allowance of troops has generally been below the 
 strength promised ; and now, though its revenue shows a deficit 
 and its public works and imperative improvements are at a 
 standstill, it offers to pay gladly one-half the cost of its defence, 
 say £70,000 a year, notwithstanding the augmentation of this sum 
 by the ceaseless fall of silver. If this is not a fair and indeed 
 a thoroughly loyal offer, then facts and figures have no value, 
 and the people of Singapore are right when they declare that 
 the home Government exacts this contribution simply because 
 the Colony is able to pay it, and for no other reason whatever. 
 Before the British Government finally refuses the appeal of the 
 Colony, let the authorities ask themselves what would be their 
 
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 51 
 
 feelings if the inhabitants of the Straits Settlements absolutely 
 refused to pay it, and requested that the forts which they them- 
 selves have built should be dismantled and the garrison with- 
 , drawn. This has already been suggested. When the despair 
 in Singapore was at its height, I asked a highly-placed official at 
 home if there were anything more the Colony could possibly do 
 or say to avert their fate. "No," he replied, "the matter is 
 settled — unless, perhaps, they were to do one thing." " What 
 is that ? " I asked eagerly. " Shoot the Governor," he said. 
 The joke was heightened by the fact that there never was a 
 more deservedly popular governor than Sir Cecil Smith. There 
 are less desperate steps than this, however, in the power of 
 any Colony, which would still be very disturbing to the Colonial 
 Office ; and while we are straining the loyalty of Hongkong in 
 one direction by refusing it the measure of self-government 
 which its neighbours possess, it is to be hoped that we shall 
 not strain that of Singapore too much in another direction. 
 Our pride in these propiLgnacula imperii should be too great 
 to permit us to treat them unfairly. 
 
GHAPTEE III. 
 
 ANOMALIES OF EMPIBE : THE PBOTEGTED MALAY 
 
 STATES. 
 
 IN point of size the Straits Settlements are dots on the map of 
 the Malay Peninsula. One dot is Singapore ; a little way up 
 the coast Malacca is another ; still following the coast the Bind- 
 ings form a third ; Penang and Province Wellesley are two more. 
 Around and beyond these is a vast expanse of country of which 
 Europe may be said to know virtually nothing. Yet the lower 
 part of it is the scene of a successful experiment in government 
 second in interest to none in the world, while of the upper part, 
 Mr. Alfred Eussel Wallace's statement made in 1869 that " to the 
 ordinary Englishman this is perhaps the least known part of the 
 globe " is still literally true.* Omitting the Straits Settlements 
 the Malay Peninsula may be said to be divided into two parts by 
 what has been aptly called " the Siamese bunga mas line," that 
 is, to the north of the line lie the great Malay States whose in- 
 dependence is only impaired by their annual offering to the 
 Siamese Government of the bunga mas — " Golden Flower " — in 
 acknowledgment of nominal suzerainty. It is the latter which are 
 still as unfamiliar as the remotest parts of Africa to the foreign 
 explorer, and the journey I made through several of them, some 
 parts of which covered ground visited by no white man before, 
 
 * An admirable little handbook, edited by Capt. Foster, E.B., and issued in 1891 
 by tbe InteUigeuce Division of the War Office, under the title " Precis of Informa- 
 tion concerning the Straits Settlements and the Native States of the Malay Penin- 
 sula," should be better known than it is. Its information about the native States 
 is very meagre, but Capt. Foster conscientiously collected all that was then 
 accessible. Very few Europeans have travelled there. 
 
 62 
 
THE PEOTBCTED MALAY STATES. 53 
 
 ■will be found described in later chapters. It is the so-called 
 Protected Malay States lying between these semi-independent, 
 unknown regions and the flourishing British Colony discussed in 
 the preceding chapter, that I propose to consider here. 
 
 If the traveller from Singapore should embark on a steamer 
 and land at one of several ports along the coast without any 
 previous knowledge of the existence of the Protected States, he 
 •would be greatly puzzled to explain his environment. He would 
 arrive at a perfectly appointed foreign wharf ; his landing would 
 be supervised by a detachment of smart Sikh and Malay police ; 
 he would buy a ticket exactly as at a small country station at 
 home, and be conveyed to the capital town by aline of admirably 
 managed railway. There he would find himself in a place of 
 tropical picturesqueness and European administration. Man- 
 grove and bamboo-clump, coconut palm and sago-tree, would 
 meet his eye on every side ; Malay in sarong and baju, Kling in loin- 
 cloth and turban, Chinaman in the unvarying dress of his race, 
 and Englishman in helmet and white duck, would rub shoulders 
 with him in the street ; the long-horned, slow-stepping buffalo 
 harnessed to a creaking waggon, and the neat pony-cart of his 
 native land, would pass him in alternation ; he would drive away 
 along streets metalled and swept in foreign fashion and lined 
 with buildings of Eastern material and Western shape. This, 
 he would say, is not a British Colony, it is not a native king- 
 dom : what is it ? The answer would be. It is one of those 
 political anomalies, a Protected State of the Malay Peninsula. 
 
 Of these there are five — Perak, Selangor, Sungei Ujong and 
 Jelebu, Pahang, and the Negri Sembilan. Each was formerly 
 a Malay State or congeries of States, and is now a British 
 possession in all except the name. To each a British Eesident 
 is appointed, who is nominally the adviser to a Malay ruler, but 
 practically administrator of the whole State, subordinate only to 
 the Governor of the Straits Settlements and the Secretary of 
 State for the Colonies. Each Protected State is theoretically 
 ruled by a Council of State consisting of the Sultan, his 
 
54 THE BBITISH EMPIEE. 
 
 " adviser," the British Eesident, several of the prin-jipal chiefs 
 of the former, and the higher administrative officers of the 
 latter. This meets perhaps half a dozen times a year to give 
 final sanction to new laws and changes of local policy. Its 
 meetings, however, are merely formal, since, although the 
 Sultan might be consulted as a matter of courtesy upon a 
 new law affecting natives, it is out of his power to place any 
 effective opposition in the way of an ordinance drawn up by the 
 Eesident and approved by the two superior authorities I have 
 mentioned. The Sultans receive a liberal allowance from the 
 finances of the States for their personal expenses, and their 
 principal officers either receive a proportionate allowance or a 
 salary if they perform under the British Eesident any of the 
 duties of government. These five States have become pro- 
 tectorates in the familiar and inevitable method of Imperial 
 expansion — in several cases at their own request. Perak re- 
 ceived a Eesident in 1874 in consequence of a prolonged series 
 of hostilities between rival groups of Chinese tin-miners, in the 
 course of which British interests and investments were jeopar- 
 dised. The first Eesident was Mr. J W. W. Birch, who was 
 treacherously murdered in the following year. The Perak War, 
 which followed, will be remembered by many people. Three 
 native officials who had planned the murder were hanged, and 
 others, including Sultan Abdullah, were banished to the Sey- 
 chelles. The protection of Selangor and Sungei Ujong dates 
 also from 1874, and was equally due to internecine warfare. 
 The large State of Pahang was for many years a thorn in the 
 side of these two, owing to the disorderly condition of its 
 inhabitants and the hostility of the Eaja towards British sub- 
 jects. This culminated in the unprovoked murder of a China- 
 man, a British subject, in the streets of Pekan, the capital, in 
 1888. Whereupon the Colonial Government, at the limit of its 
 patience, placed the State under British protection. The fifth, 
 in order of time, the Negri Sembilan — two Malay words mean- 
 ing simply "nine countries "—quarrelled among themselves to 
 
THK PEOTECTED MALAT STATES. 55 
 
 the destruction of their prosperity and begged to be taken under 
 British protection in 1889, which was done. 
 
 The change in the condition of each State as it was removed 
 from native maladministration and placed under British con- 
 trol has been one of the most astounding spectacles in the his- 
 tory of the British Empire. Pahang, as I shall explain later, 
 lags behind the rest, but the others have surpassed the 
 condition of even the Protected States of India, and present 
 most of the features of a British Colony in a population 
 composed entirely of Malays and Chinese. They possess 
 hospitals, both paying and for paupers, leper hospitals, lunatic 
 asylums, and dispensaries ; there is a State store, a State 
 factory, and even State brick-fields ; there are sanitary boards 
 and savings banks, fire brigades and printing offices ; water- 
 works, roads, and railways ; post offices, telephones, and tele- 
 graphs; schools and police; and vaccination, which is compulsory, 
 though there is no necessity for compulsion, is performed with 
 "buffalo lymph," obtained from the Pasteur Institute in Saigon. 
 Order is preserved by forces of Sikhs linked with an equal 
 strength of Malays, and aU the duties of administration are 
 carried out under the Eesident by a mere handful of Europeans, 
 forming an uncovenanted civil service, directing a native staff. 
 The revenues have risen by almost incredible leaps ; two of the 
 States have large credit balances. One hundred and forty miles 
 of railway have been built by them, and their extraordinary 
 prosperity shows no sign of diminution. As Sir Andrew Clarke 
 has said, " The result of our policy of adventure is one of which 
 England may well be proud. A country of which in 1873 there 
 was no map whatever, has been thrown open to the enterprise of 
 the world. Ages of perpetual fighting and bloodshed have ended 
 in complete tranquillity and contentment." All this has been 
 accomplished by the administrative genius of literally a score of 
 Englishmen. 
 
 To exhibit the condition of the Protected States at a glance 
 and thus save much unnecessary description, I have compiled 
 
56 
 
 THE BEITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 the following table, which shows the area, population, revenue 
 (with its increase), expenditure, volume of trade (with its increase), 
 and the present credit or debit balance in the assets and liabili- 
 ties of each State. With two exceptions marked below the 
 figures are all ttiken from the Eesidents' reports for the 
 year 1893. 
 
 Perak 
 
 Selangor 
 
 SUNGEI UjONG 
 AND JeLEBTJ .. 
 
 Pahang 
 
 Negri Sembilan . 
 
 square 
 miles. 
 
 Popula- 
 tion 
 (1891) 
 
 10,000 
 8,600 
 
 1,660 
 
 10,000 
 2,000 
 
 214,264 
 81,692 
 
 23,602 
 
 57,462 
 41,617 
 
 Eevenub 
 Dollars. 
 
 3,034,094 
 2,765,351 
 
 888,976 
 
 130,938 
 
 In- 
 crease 
 
 OVER 
 
 1892. 
 
 344,628 
 
 34,972 
 
 33,644 
 12,989 
 
 Expendi- 
 ture. 
 Dollars. 
 
 2,605,688 
 
 376,562 
 
 278,892 
 182,067 
 
 Total 
 Trade. 
 Dollars. 
 
 24,687,923 
 19,546,459 
 
 4,804,107 
 
 (1892) 
 672,869 
 
 No returns. 
 
 In- 
 crease 
 oter 
 1892. 
 
 2,968,124 
 4,092,375 
 
 622,617 
 
 Assets 
 
 AND 
 
 Liabili- 
 ties. 
 Dollars. 
 
 + 444,584 
 -H,090,23£ 
 
 - 195,689 
 
 - 948,700 
 
 - 257,364 
 
 From this table it will be seen that Perak * is at the head of 
 the Protected States. Its area is much greater than any except 
 Pahang, its population is nearly three times that of any other, 
 and its revenue and volume of trade are much larger. Its 
 credit balance has been reduced chiefly by heavy and at present 
 unproductive expenditure in extending its railway system, of 
 which sixty-eight miles are now open for trafiic. Perak has 
 been called the " child of Penang," but much more truly should 
 it be called the child of the two enlightened men who have in 
 turn directed its administration, first. Sir Hugh Low, and 
 from 1884 to 1886, and from 1889 to the present time, Mr. 
 F. A. Swettenham. The former of these set Perak on the 
 right road, and to the foresight and administrative ability of 
 the latter the present happy condition of the State is largely 
 due. Mr. Swettenham has been connected with Perak since it 
 
 * The word perak (of whicii the last letter is not pronounoed) in Malay means 
 "silTer." There is, however, no silver found in the State, and the word is supposed 
 to rffer to the silver-hie mi sses of tin which are its principal product. 
 
THE PEOTECTEB MALAY STATES. 57 
 
 came under British influence. He was three times sent on 
 special missions there in 1874. He took an active combatant 
 part in the Perak War, and with Lieutenant Abbott and a 
 handful of men defended the Eesidency, after the assassination 
 of Mr. Birch in 1875, until it was relieved by British troops sent 
 hastily from Singapore, for which service he was three times 
 mentioned in despatches. At the conclusion of the war he was 
 placed in charge of the Eesidency for a time in succession to 
 Mr. Birch. He is one of the two or three best Malay scholars 
 living, and his annual Eeports are models of administrative 
 ability. As an example of the progress of Perak the following 
 passage from the report to the Resident by the magistrate of 
 the district of Kinta is instructive : — " The advancement of this 
 district is almost incredible. Ten years ago it was little more 
 than a vast stretch of jungle, unapproachable except by a 
 shallow and rapid river, and possessing not a single mile of 
 first-class cart-road nor a village of any importance." During 
 "the year, 4,492 acres of mining land were taken up, and 
 822 acres of agricultural land ; 15,847 acres of mining land 
 and 2,958 acres of agricultural land were about to be 
 assigned to applicants ; 29,143 acres of land had been applied 
 for, and fresh applications poured in every day. Mr. Swetten- 
 ham has proposed a scheme for the irrigation of 50,000 acres of 
 rice-growing land, and experts lent by the Indian Government 
 reported favourably upon it. The First Battalion of the Perak 
 Sikhs, which has a strength of 685 of all arms, has attained 
 a high pitch of discipline and efficiency under Lieut.-Colonel 
 Walker, and conducted itself with great credit on several 
 occasions when it has had to take the field, especially in 
 suppressing the recent revolt in Pahang. 
 
 In Selangor, substitute for the name of Mr. Swettenham 
 that of Mr. W. E. Maxwell, at present Colonial Secretary 
 in Singapore, and the history of the State might be told 
 in the same words. It has a yearly trade of over twenty 
 millions of dollars, and possesses in its treasury or on loan to 
 
58 THE BBITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 other states a balance of over a million. During the past 
 year no fewer than 47,773 Chinese immigrants arrived" within 
 its borders. Its railway pays over 12|- per cent, interest, and 
 would have paid more, as Mr. W. H. Treacher, the present 
 Eesident, explains, but for a deficiency of rolling stock, owing 
 to the traffic having increased beyond expectation. Selangor 
 has always been the rival of Perak in the race for the best show 
 of prosperity, and it is difficult to say to which the palm belongs. 
 
 The allied 'States of Sungei Ujong and Jelebu are administered 
 by an 0£ficer-in-Charge, who reports to the Eesident of Selangor. 
 The total number of tin-mines in these two States is 150, 
 covering 4,176 acres, and employing 4,000 Chinese miners, and 
 Sungei Ujong contains the most flourishing example of coffee 
 plantation in the Peninsula. This is the Linsum Estate, and 
 its crop in 1893, upon 210 acres, some not in full bearing, was 
 no less than 94,796 lbs. of clean coffee. The Negri Sembilan 
 occupy the district between the last-named and Malacca, and 
 have already attained a sufficient degree of prosperity to enable 
 them to pay the interest upon their loan. In these States, as 
 the Eesident writes, " a population of 40,000 Malays is con- 
 trolled by three Europeans and a few police," the remainder of 
 the police being required for the Chinese coolies at work in the 
 mines and on the estates. 
 
 The story of Pahang, the great State which extends from the 
 borders of all the above to the eastern coast of the Peninsula, 
 is unfortunately a very different one. When it was taken under 
 British authority its population was reduced to almost the 
 lowest level by Oriental rule. Mr. Eodger, the first Eesident, 
 described its condition prior to his arrival in 1888, in the 
 following words: — "A system of taxation under which every 
 necessary as well as every luxury of life was heavily taxed ; law 
 courts in which the procedure was the merest mockery of justice, 
 the decisions depending solely on the relative wealth or influence 
 of the litigant, and where the punishments were utterly bar- 
 barous; a system of debt-slavery under which not only the 
 
THE PROTECTED MALAY STATES. 59 
 
 debtor but his wife and their most remote descendants were 
 condemned to hopeless bondage ; an unlimited corvee, or 
 forced labour for indefinite periods, and entirely without re- 
 muneration ; the right of the Raja to compel all female 
 children to pass through his harem — a right which has 
 desolated almost every household in the neighbourhood of 
 Pekan, — such are some of the more striking examples, although 
 the list is by no means exhaustive, of administrative misrule 
 in a State within less than twenty-four hours of Singapore, and 
 immediately adjoining the two Protected States of Perak and 
 Selangor. The condition of the Pahang ryot may be briefly 
 expressed by stating that he had practically no rights, whether 
 of person or property, not merely in his relations with the Eaja, 
 but even in those with his immediate District Chief." 
 
 The distances in the State are enormous, and no means of 
 communication existed, while the most promising part was that 
 situated a considerable distance from the sea-board, around the 
 headwaters of a river rendered almost unnavigable by rapids. 
 The Sultan, moreover, a man of violent and depraved character, 
 conspired secretly against the authority of the Resident while 
 openly professing to support him. Two revolts subsequently 
 broke out, each of which had to be suppressed at great expense 
 and by prolonged fighting, with the result of plunging the State 
 heavily in debt to its neighbours and the Colonial Government. 
 To add to its embarrassment, during the year before the 
 arrival of the Resident, the Sultan had given away vast tracts 
 of his territory in concessions to Europeans, who used them 
 for speculative purposes, as thousands of investors in England 
 have good reason to know. Enormous districts were thus shut 
 out from native or Chinese development, while the European 
 concessionnaires were endeavouring to dispose of them for pre- 
 posterous sums. One of the first acts of the Resident was to 
 give notice that all concessions thus granted, which had not 
 been actively taken up by a certain date, would be cancelled, 
 and accordingly twenty of these were annulled a short time ago. 
 
60 THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 Owing to the monsoon and the lack of harbour accommodation, 
 the entrance to the rivers of Pahang is closed from the sea for 
 nearly half a year, from about November, and the State is only 
 accessible by a long and difficult overland route, when some 
 small steamer cannot be found to take the considerable risk of 
 attempting to cross the bar. During 1893 the pitiful sum of 
 21,205 dollars was spent on public works, and the whole trade 
 of Pahang only amounted to 672,869 dollars. Of this the output 
 of gold was 9,616 ounces, and of tin 265 tons. The only road in 
 Pahang is an 8 ft. bridle-path 52 miles in length, which affords 
 an instructive comparison with the 200 miles of good metalled 
 roads and the 68 miles of railway of Perak. This State is, 
 in fact, the " sick man " of the British possessions in the 
 Malay Peninsula. It is heavily in debt, with no prospect of 
 being able to discharge its liabilities, and all the money that it 
 can raise is expended on administration, leaving little or nothing 
 for the Public Works which alone would ensure its development. 
 Its native inhabitants have suffered so much from their past, 
 that even in so simple a matter as the procuring of a better 
 species of rice seed and planting it, Mr. Hugh Clifford, the 
 present Eesident, says, " they are at once so ignorant and 
 unenterprising that it would be futile to look to them to take the 
 initiative in such a matter." Although the State has thousands 
 of square miles of extremely fertile land, it imports all the rice 
 used by the non-agricultural class. During the speculative 
 period of 1889, houses were erected at Pekan, beyond any 
 possible need. At the present moment many of them are 
 deserted and are actually falling into ruin. The Sultan resides 
 at Pekan, therefore this is the capital, although the true centre 
 of the State ought to be moved, as Mr. Clifford shows, in the 
 very able Eeport from which I have already quoted, to Kuala 
 Lipis. In the interior are tribes of semi-wild natives, called 
 Sakeis and Semangs, who are treated with the greatest bar- 
 barity by the Malays, and for whom British administration has 
 done nothing. There is undoubtedly great mineral wealth in 
 
THE PKOTBCTED MALAY STATES. 61 
 
 Pahang, and tlie notorious Kaub gold mines are at last actually 
 paying interest upon their capital. Little can be done with 
 this so long as the present system of administration continues. 
 The native of Pahang is, of course, in a vastly happier state 
 than he was seven or eight years ago, and the changes effected 
 by British rule must be looked for almost entirely, as Mr. 
 Clifford says, " not in a vastly improved system of communica- 
 tion, nor yet in a very marked advance in the material prosperity 
 of the State, but rather in the great improvement noticeable in 
 the condition of the bulk of the native population." The 
 fertile and stanniferous lands of Pahang are no better than 
 those open in Perak and Selangor, and it is therefore unreason- 
 able to expect settlers for the former until all the latter are taken 
 up. Tear after year like the past two or three may go by without 
 any improvement in Pahang, and therefore, to quote Mr, Clifford 
 once more, " no one having the interests of Pahang at heart can 
 pretend to regard the continued adoption of the present policy 
 with any degree of satisfaction." The salvation of this great 
 tract of the Peninsula must come, if at all, from a much wider 
 scheme of reform. 
 
 The present Sultan of Perak, His Highness Eaja Idris ibni 
 almerhum Eaja Iskander Shah, C.M.G., succeeded on April 5, 
 1889. He is the twenty-eighth of his dynasty in succession 
 from Merhum Tanah Abang, who was buried by the Perak 
 Eiver four hundred years ago. " Before that time," says Mr. 
 Swettenham, " Perak was known as Kastan Zorian, and the 
 Malays of Perak had not then embraced the religion of Islam." 
 His Highness is a man of attractive character and agreeable 
 presence ; and a conversation I had with him at Euala Kangsa, 
 where he resides, showed him to be a keen and appreciative 
 observer of foreign ways. He visited England in 1882, and 
 told me that what most struck him was the fact that in London 
 there were "ten thousand times ten thousand carriages." The 
 two things that had interested him most were the making of 
 great guns at Woolwich, and the instrument-room at the General 
 
62 THE BBITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 Post Office. He was also much impressed by the urbanity of 
 British royal personages in general, and of the Prince of Wales 
 in particular. " In five minutes," he said of the latter, " I felt 
 as if I had always known him. A Malay prince not worth five 
 cents would make a thousand times more fuss." The Sultan 
 has written a very lengthy account of his life, beginning with 
 the genealogy of his own family, with the object of instructing 
 other Malay Eajas , though, he adds, it will make them very 
 angry, because it says, for example, that the lavatories of 
 Western peoples are better than the palaces of the Malays. 
 "The Malays," he continued, "are like the frog under the 
 coconut-shell — they think there is nothing but what they can see. 
 But Malaya is waking up — look at Perak and Selangor." His 
 Highness remembered the guidance of Sir Eobert Meade, of the 
 Colonial Office, and desired that his respects might be presented 
 to him. As an example of the friendliness existing between the 
 protected and their protectors, I may quote Mr. Swettenham 
 again, who wrote in his Eeport for 1890; "As regards my 
 relations with His Highness, I do not think they could be more 
 cordial than they are," and " His Highness's interest in the 
 administration is as great and intelligent as ever, and his 
 unvarying sympathy and good feeling are of the greatest assist- 
 ance to me in my work." The extent to which bygones are 
 bygones in the British protection of these States is sufficiently 
 shown by the fact that two sons of the ex-Sultan Abdullah, who 
 was banished for complicity in the murder of Mr. Birch, occupy 
 posts in the Government service on the same terms as Europeans, 
 and fill them faithfully and well. The Sultan himself has 
 recently put on record his opinion that the Eesidential system 
 has " vastly improved the material condition and prosperity of 
 the Perak Malays of all classes." One fact may be adduced in 
 support of this loyal admission. The Government of Perak now 
 pays more than 180,000 dels, a year in allowances and pensions 
 to Malays, whereas when the State was taken under British 
 protection its total revenue did not reach 80,000 dols. yearly. 
 
THE PEOTBCTED MALAY STATES. 63 
 
 These figures should be interesting to the Aborigines' Protection 
 Society. The truth is that the British Government is the best 
 aborigines' protection society that has ever existed. 
 
 The State of Johor is neither a Colony nor a Protected State 
 in the same sense as the preceding, but it must be mentioned 
 here to complete the survey of this part of the Peninsula. Johor 
 forms the point of the Peninsula, and contains about 9,000 
 square miles and 200,000 inhabitants, of whom the Chinese 
 outnumber the Malays by four or five to one. The capital, 
 Johor Bahru, is fifteen miles from the town of Singapore, and 
 less than a mile from the islalad. Its ruler is His Highness 
 Abu Bakar,* G.C.M.G., whose father was Temenggong, or Chief 
 of Police, to the Sultan Ali, and was placed on the throne by 
 the ludian Government, when the latter was deposed in 1855. 
 He succeeded in 1885, and receives a considerable annual subsidy 
 from the British Government, which controls the foreign relations 
 of the State. He will probably be the last of his line, as Johor 
 is understood, by the terms of his will, to pass to the British 
 Crown on his decease. The Sultan is a familiar figure in certain 
 circles in London, and he is well known to the inhabitants of 
 Singapore as an exceedingly genial and hospitable potentate, 
 who is always ready to entertain a distinguished visitor, or lend 
 the use of his territory for a horse-raffle or other mild form of 
 dissipation not sanctioned by the laws of the Colony. But his 
 State offers a painful comparison with the other Malay States 
 under British influence. It is undeveloped, without roads, 
 without any modern system of administration ; it contains only 
 two towns, the greater part of it is virgin jungle, and it differs 
 from the ordinary Malay State only by the absence of actual 
 misrule. The Sultan, however, has rendered great services to 
 the Straits Government as go-between in many negotiations 
 with other Malay rulers, although the latter do not regard him 
 as an equal, on account of his far from royal birth. 
 
 Such, in its briefest form, is the remarkable history of those 
 
 * Hence " Mr. Baker," in Brighton. 
 
64 THE BBITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 political anomalies, the Protected Malay States, down to the 
 present time. For the future, however, their history will have 
 to proceed along other lines. The experiment has been^ an 
 extremely successful one, but not much more success— possibly 
 only retrogression— can be looked for in the same direction. The 
 ■States have now outgrown the Eesidential system. While they 
 had yet everything Western to learn, and their affairs were on a 
 comparatively small scale, the personal rule of the Eesidents 
 was the best education and control they could have, though even 
 this would not have shown such good results if the Eesidents 
 themselves had not happened to *be men of unusual ability and 
 courage. But now that the original Malay population is exceeded 
 in numbers by the Chinese settlers, that the finances deal with 
 millions of dollars, that to the protected areas have been added 
 huge tracts of country which cannot possibly pay their way for a 
 long time to come, and that inter-State co-operation is therefore 
 absolutely necessary, I am convinced that the administration can 
 no longer profitably be left in the hands of half a dozen men, neces- 
 sarily often antagonistic to one another, none of whom possesses 
 any higher nominal standing than that of servant to a native 
 ruler. While the problems were small, the Eesidents were left 
 almost unhampered in their decisions, and their rule therefore 
 showed all the advantages of the " free hand." Now, however, 
 they have at once both too much and too little authority. In 
 details their control is virtually absolute, and it is they who 
 must invent and propose every important policy. This will be, 
 of course, of a piece with their action in small matters. At 
 this point, however, they sink back into the position of merely 
 subordinate officials. First, the Grovernor of the Straits Settle- 
 ments investigates the matter with much less experience and 
 knowledge than the Eesident who has proposed it; and if he 
 disapprove, there is an end at once. If he approve, the question 
 goes before the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with still less 
 ability to pronounce upon its merits — sometimes with not even 
 enough local knowledge to enable him to pronounce correctly 
 
THE PBOTBCTED MALAY STATES. 65 
 
 the name of the place whose destinies are in his hands. The 
 usual conclusion is that the Eesident is either overruled, or his 
 policy sanctioned with such conditions as deprive it of nearly all 
 value. As against the Governor and the Secretary of State, the 
 Eesident is helpless, and all he can do is to wait two or three 
 years for the opportunity of pointing out in his Eeport how much 
 hetter it would have been if his original suggestions had been 
 sanctioned. The Protected States, therefore, must be governed 
 by a man whose position enables him to deal direct with the 
 Secretary of State at home, and with much more authority than 
 at present. 
 
 Another reason for a change is that the less flourishing 
 States can only be set upon their feet with borrowed capital, 
 and as the Colony has none to lend them, while two of 
 their neighbours have substantial cash balances, it is easy 
 to see where this must come from. But Perak and Selangor 
 will be extremely unwilling to lend money to Pahang, unless 
 they are able to bring their knowledge and experience to bear 
 upon the spending of it, and under the present system they 
 would have no more control than if they lent the money to 
 Argentina. They might see their own savings being employed 
 just across their borders in a manner which they knew to be 
 futile, yet they could not stir a finger. In his Eeport for 
 1893, the Eesident of Perak says : " As Perak has no direct 
 interest in Pahang, and could profitably spend in Perak all the 
 revenue likely to be raised here, financial help can only be given 
 by making some sacrifice. There is no security for the advances 
 made, beyond what can be hoped for from the future develop- 
 ment of Pahang ; and it is therefore only reasonable that, if the 
 idea of advising the native rulers in the administration of the 
 Malay States is to be maintained, those States which now find 
 the means of financing Pahang should have a preponderating 
 voice in the expenditure of their own money, and the schemes 
 to which it is applied." But if the Eesidents of Perak and 
 Selangor direct the spending of practically all the money spent 
 
 6 
 
66 THE BEITISH EMPIEE. 
 
 in Pahang, then it is they, and not the Eesident of Pahang, who 
 control the latter State ; and why keep up the fiction of separate 
 control ? For this reason also, therefore, the time appears to 
 me to have come for the substitution of one head for five. 
 
 But there is a further consideration in support of this view, 
 which far outweighs in importance both those I have mentioned. 
 It is this : the prosperity of the Protected States rests upon such 
 an insecure basis that having risen as brilliantly and conspicu- 
 ously as the rocket, it may come down as rapidly and irrevocably 
 as the stick. It is based solely upon the products of the tin- 
 mines. The Perak Eeport shows this clearly, though indirectly. 
 The total value of exports for 1893 was 14,499,475 dols., and 
 of this no less than 11,895,465 dols. was tin and tin-ore — 82 per 
 cent. The total revenue collected was 3,034,094 dols., of which 
 Customs—" that is, duty on tin " — amounted to 1,342,741 dols. ; 
 and of course many of the other receipts are dependent upon 
 the tin industry. The Selangor Eeport puts the truth more 
 bluntly : " The revenue of the State hangs directly on the 
 output of tin." Now all prosperity dependent upon mining is 
 precarious, but that dependent upon alluvial tin-mines — and 
 lode-mining hardly exists — must be the most precarious of all. 
 It may be replied, however, that mining is a very good basis 
 upon which to start ; that California, for instance, owes its 
 present agricultural wealth to the original attractions of its gold- 
 fields. Undoubtedly, but the Malay States are not attracting a 
 class of people who will develop into agriculturists. At present, 
 when a tin-mine is exhausted, its neighbourhood becomes a 
 desert. A paragraph in the Eeport for Sungei Ujong illustrates 
 this : " The valuable tin- mines at Titi were in part worked 
 out, and the mining town which sprang up there so rapidly 
 has begun to dwindle." If the prosperity of these States is 
 to continue, it is therefore clear that something else must 
 be found and cultivated to take the place of mining when 
 this becomes less profitable or ceases altogether. This some- 
 thing must, of course, be agriculture, and fortunately there 
 
THE PEOTECTED MALAY STATES. 67 
 
 are no more fertile lands in the world than are here open 
 to every comer on the best possible terms. I have given one 
 example of coffee-growing, and it would be easy to multiply 
 testimony. The manager of the Waterloo Estate in Perak 
 writes: "The cultivation of coffee promises well, and where 
 land is judiciously selected and opened, it cannot, in my 
 opinion, fail to be a success." The Officer-in-Charge of Sungei 
 Ujong reports : " Liberian coffee will grow on almost any kind 
 of soil here. I have seen it growing on the ' spoil bank ' of an 
 old tin-mine, and at the present prices no form of agriculture 
 could be more remunerative." And what is true of coffee is 
 equally true of tea, pepper, gambler, tobacco, and rice. The 
 States governments have done everything in their power to 
 dispel the general ignorance of British settlers and planters 
 about Malaya, and they offer the very warmest welcome to any 
 who will come. Certainly no part of the Empire presents a 
 better field for the agricultural investment of capital and personal 
 efforts, yet what was said by the Eesident of Perak in 1889 is 
 still only too true : " Ten years ago, when almost nothing was 
 known of the capabilities of the Malayan soil and climate, it 
 seemed likely that the field just opened would attract many 
 experienced European planters and a considerable amount of 
 European capital. Now that the possibilities of agriculture 
 have been to a large extent proved, communications greatly 
 extended, and many facilities offered which did not then exist, 
 the State seems to have lost its attractions for the planter." 
 To assure the future of the Protected States, therefore, it 
 seems to me imperative that they should be formed into some 
 kind of separate confederation — the Crown Colony of the Malay 
 Peninsula, for example. This would remove them from the 
 jurisdiction of Singapore, which now hampers and robs them ; 
 place them on a strong footing before the Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies ; enable their problems to be solved in a uniform 
 manner, instead of by the conflict of interests; group their 
 resources so that the stronger can afford the needed help to the 
 
68 THE BEITISH EMPIBB. 
 
 weaker in the wisest and fairest shape ; develop and advertise 
 their agricultural possibilities ; protect their forests ; codify their 
 laws, and place the administration of them under a British 
 judge; and finally, present a firm and permanent foundation 
 upon which to build when the inevitable moment comes for the 
 absorption of the rest of the Malay Peninsula. 
 
FRANCE IN THE FAR EAST, 
 
GHAPTEB IV. 
 
 IN FBENGS INDO-GHINA: LEAVES FROM MY 
 NOTEBOOKS. 
 
 TT is one of the curious and significant facts of the Far East 
 that to get to a French possession there you must go in 
 either an EngUsh or a German boat, with the single exception 
 of the heavily subsidised Messageries Maritimes. I went to 
 Tongking the first time in the little Marie, hailing from 
 Apenrade, wherever that may be. As soon as we had crossed 
 the restless Gulf of Tongking and were in sight of a low-lying 
 green and evidently fertile country, wholly different from the 
 rocky and forbidding coast of China, Captain Hundewadt 
 hoisted the German flag, and the pilot came off. There are 
 two bars, one hard, which must not be touched, and the other 
 soft mud, upon which a ship can rush at full speed and 
 either get over or stick, as the case may be. We stuck. 
 
 Within gunshot of us as we lay in the mud was a large white 
 European house, built on the point of an elevated promontory. 
 It is the summer house Paul Bert built for himself, just before 
 death put an end to all his plans and ambitions for Tongking. 
 It has never been occupied, and the Government was thinking 
 of turning it into a sanitarium for the forces near the coast. 
 Once over the bars we steamed a mile or two up the river, past 
 half a dozen odd-looking river gunboats, and dropped anchor off 
 Haiphong. The port of Tongking is now a pretty little town, 
 with excellent broad streets, planted with trees on each side, 
 with spacious warehouses and solid wharves, with one Boulevard 
 of extensive shops, many pleasant bungalows, and an astonishing 
 
 71 
 
72 FEANCE. 
 
 hotel. At six o'clock its cafe holds a hundred people, taking 
 their pre-prandial drink. To see them it is difficult to realise 
 that you are at the other end of the earth from Paris, and there 
 could not be a better illustration of the saying that a Frenchman 
 takes Prance with him wherever he goes. The business part of 
 the town consists of several crowded streets of Chinese houses, 
 and the native town, which is miserable and very dirty, lies on 
 the other side of a narrow creek. There are three excellent news- 
 papers, one daily, one bi-weekly, and one weekly, and almost 
 every characteristic of a French town, including the duel, 
 which flourishes greatly in Tongking. Not a little money and 
 much intelligent labour have been expended to transform the 
 original malarious swamps into this bright and pleasing little 
 place, reminding one of Algiers, with its broad green and white 
 streets and constant sunshine. But I fear that both the labour 
 and the money must be looked upon as little better than wasted. 
 There is nothing to detain one in Haiphong. An afternoon is 
 enough to see it all. So next morning at eight I went on board a 
 big, powerful, twin-screw steamer, Le Tigre, for the trip to Hanoi, 
 the capital and largest town, upwards of a hundred miles up 
 the Eed Eiver. The navigation is extremely difficult in places, 
 owing to the mudbanks and sharp turns, but the twin-screw and 
 the Chinese pilot between them managed every twist but one. 
 There was no European captain, only a purser, and the China- 
 man was apparently in sole command. A stack of Snider rifles 
 stood in the saloon, and a plate of half-inch iron was suspended 
 on each side of the pilot and the two men at the wheel, com- 
 pletely shielding them from bullets fired from the shore. We 
 had a capital breakfast, and a charming French priest, in 
 Chinese dress and pigtail, who was returning to his inland 
 station in China via Tongking, told us string after string of 
 adventures and incidents of his work among the Celestials. For 
 hours the trip is monotonous. The banks are flat, the country 
 is always green and fertile, the water-buffaloes wallow in the 
 mud, and enormous flocks of teal rise in front every few minutes. 
 
a 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 H 
 ■< 
 
 « 
 
 t 
 
IN FEENCH INBO-CHINA. 73 
 
 A diversion came at one o'clock in the shape of a little post of 
 soldiers halfway between the seaboard and the capital. The 
 steamer came slowly alongside the high bank, a plank was 
 thrown out, and the garrison invited us on shore. They were 
 an officer, two non-commissioned officers, half-a-dozen privates, 
 and about fifty native troops. The post was a strongly stockaded 
 little place a hundred yards from the river, well able to keep off 
 any ordinary attack. But the garrison was a sorry-looking 
 band. The officers were in pyjamas, and the men's old thick 
 blue and red French uniforms were only recognisable by their 
 shape, nearly all the colour having long ago departed. Their 
 coats were patched, their trousers torn and ragged, their 
 boots split. As for their faces, anaemia of the most pro- 
 nounced character was written plainly across them. I have 
 never seen such a ragged and worn lot of soldiers. The arrival 
 of the daily steamer is the only distraction of the little force, 
 and they were profusely grateful for a bundle of illustrated 
 papers. We also gave them a little more entertainment by 
 running aground just opposite their post when we left. 
 
 The steamer reached Hanoi at midnight. The only hotel was 
 closed; vigorous hammering at the door produced no effect 
 whatever, and I was beginning to contemplate the prospect of 
 spending the night in the street, when a jolly captain of artillery 
 came past, evidently fresh from a good dinner, showed me a back 
 way into the hotel, and even accompanied me, because, as he 
 explained, I probably did not yet know how to treat the natives. 
 Certainly if he did, I did not, although his method was simplicity 
 itself. We discovered six " boys " sleeping sounder than I ever 
 saw human beings sleep in my life, on a table in the dining- 
 room. With one shove he pitched the whole lot in a heap on 
 the floor, and as they even then showed unmistakable symptoms 
 of an intention to finish their nap as they lay piled up on one 
 another, he fell to work on the heap with his cane so vigorously 
 that he soon had them scampering all over the room like a nest 
 of disturbed rats. " Tas de cochons," he said, and resumed his 
 homeward way. 
 
74 FEANCE. 
 
 Like almost every city of the Far East, so far as my experience 
 goes, Hanoi is less interesting than you expect. The foreign 
 town, of five or six hundred inhabitants, is little more than one 
 street, named, of course, after Paul Bert, and even that is dis- 
 figured by a narrow, irregular tramway, running down the middle 
 and carrying military stores all day long. There is a small 
 lake in the centre of the city, with a curious islet and pagoda, 
 that gives one pretty point of view, and the ride round the walls 
 of the Citadel, a square mile or so of enclosed land, is interesting 
 for once. And the "Pont de Papier," where the ill-fated Eiviere 
 met his fate so wretchedly on the afternoon of May 19, 1883, 
 with the tiny pagoda just beyond it, where the brave Balny dis- 
 appeared, are historically impressive if one has the whole story 
 of these days in mind. But Hanoi makes a poor showing as 
 the capital of Tongking. The Hotel Alexandre is the very 
 worst I ever set foot in. The monuments are second to those 
 of an ordinary Chinese town. The advent of the foreigner has 
 killed native art and handicraft, without contributing anything 
 to replace it. You may walk the length of the " Eue des 
 Brodeurs " without finding a piece of embroidery worth carrying 
 home. There is a "Eue des Inerusteurs," named after the 
 workmen who inlay mother-of-pearl into ebony, but I spent half 
 a day there before picking up a decent piece, and that was made 
 before the French were thought of. The native metal-work, 
 that sure test of the art-tendencies of an uncivilised people, has 
 vanished with theur independence. Even the Governor-General 
 apologised for his surroundings. " I shall be able to receive 
 you better," he said courteously, "when you come to Saigon." 
 But there is this compensation for Hanoi as compared with 
 Haiphong. The faster Tongking prospers, the faster will 
 Haiphong decay ; -while Hanoi always has been the capital, and' 
 nature has so placed it that it always will be, and the two will 
 prosper, if at all, together. 
 
 Of the native inhabitants, of whom Hanoi has 70,000, there 
 is much that might be said. After China, with its hundreds of 
 
IN FRENCH INDO-CHINA. 75 
 
 thousands of great brown coolies, and its slim ones wbo will walk 
 all day up-hill under burdens that would break down a European 
 athlete on the level, the Annamites strike the visitor as a nation of 
 pigmies. Their average height must be under five feet ; they are 
 narrow-chested and thin-legged, their mouths are always stained 
 a slobbering filthy red with the areca-nut and lime they chew 
 unceasingly, and they are stupid beyond the power of words to 
 tell. Whether it is in any degree due to the fault of their con- 
 querors or not, I cannot say, but they appear to be a people 
 destitute of the sense of self-respect. At anyrate, the French 
 treat them as if they had none. The first time I went into 
 dejeuner at the hotel at Haiphong one of the " boys " had left a 
 dirty plate on the little table to which the host showed me. 
 " Qu'est ce que tu fais, toi ? " demanded the latter, pointing to 
 the plate, and smack, a box on the ears followed that you could 
 have heard fifty yards off. And this in the middle of a crowded 
 dining-room. You would no more think of striking a Chinese 
 servant like that than of pulling a policeman's nose in Piccadilly. 
 Before a Frenchman, an Annamite too often appears to have no 
 rights. 
 
 Both men and women in Tongking wear their hair long and 
 twisted up into a kind of chignon on the top of the head. It is 
 of course always lanky and jet-black. Their dress is of the most 
 simple. The men wear a loose jacket and short trousers, and 
 the women a long, straight shift reaching from neck to heels. 
 The Annamite man is a very poor creature, and it is only among 
 the upper classes that one sees occasionally a well-formed or 
 handsome face, with some elevation or dignity of expression. 
 The women are much better looking, and would often be pretty 
 except for the stained mouth and teeth, which renders them 
 horrible to a European eye. But in figure they are the most 
 favoured of any I have seen in the Far East, as my illustration 
 may go to show, and in the course of a walk in Hanoi you may 
 meet a dozen who are straight enough and strong enough and 
 shapely enough to serve as a sculptor's models. Their native 
 
76 FEANCE. 
 
 dance is a burlesque of the Japanese, to the accompaniment of 
 a fiddle six feet long. The few women you see with clean 
 mouths and white teeth are almost sure to be the mistresses 
 of Europeans. 
 
 The most curious of the surface impressions of Tongking is 
 the language you must learn to talk with the natives. Tour ear 
 becomes familiar with "pidgin English " before you have spent 
 a day in the East, and, pace Mr. Leland, a horrid jargon it is, 
 convenient, no doubt, but growing positively repulsive after a 
 while. But "pidgin French," or "petit negre," as it is called, 
 comes as a complete surprise. And it is aU the funnier because 
 of the excellent native pronunciation of French. " Petit negre " 
 is characterised, as compared with French proper, by four 
 features — omission of the auxiliary verbs, ignoring of gender, 
 employment of the infinitive for all moods and tenses, and 
 absence of words taken bodily from the native, like "maskee," 
 "man-man," and "chop-chop," in Pidgin. The one expression 
 which recurs again and again with an infinity of meanings is 
 "y-a-moyen," or "y-a-pas moyen." And after this comes 
 " fill," for " fini," nearly as often. The " You savvy " of Pidgin 
 is " Toi connaitre ?" The "My wantchee," is " Moi vouloir." 
 The native servant is everywhere called by the English word 
 " boy," pronounced " boi-ee," in two syllables. And the 
 language is further enriched by a number of words recalling 
 the nurtsery, like " pousse-pousse," for jinrikisha, " coupe-coupe," 
 for a big knife, and so on. " Beaucoup " does duty for " tres " 
 and " bien," so one is constantly hearing sentences like these : 
 " Moi beaucoup vouloir avoir sampan," " Soupe beaucoup mau- 
 vais — moi donner vous beaucoup bambou," and " Toi beaucoup 
 imbecile." " Petit negre '' is of course much younger than 
 Pidgin ; for one person who speaks it a hundred thousand speak 
 the latter ; and it is not capable of the flights of oratory to 
 which the accomplished speaker of Pidgin can soar. Nor will it 
 ever become what Pidgin has long been— the lingua franca of 
 communication between vast numbers of people otherwise 
 
A MuoKG Beauty, Tongking. 
 
IN FEENCH INDO-CHINA. 77 
 
 acquainted with only a score different dialects and tongues. I 
 may add here that " Tongking " is the same word as " Tokyo," 
 meaning " Eastern Capital," and that the former is the only 
 correct spelling to express the Chinese sounds. " Tonquin " 
 and " Tonkin " are indefensible, either in French or English. 
 
 The northern part of the peninsula of Indo-China is Tong- 
 king, the French territory adjoining China ; the central part is 
 Ann am, which was formerly a long narrow strip of coast, but 
 by the recent Convention with Siam stretches back to the 
 Mekong; and the southern end of the peninsula is Cochin- 
 China, with Cambodia lying behind it. Of all the possessions 
 of France in the Far East, Cochin-China is the most imposing, 
 as it is also the oldest. Saigon, the capital, was first captured 
 by a combined French and Spanish expedition in 1859, and 
 held by a small garrison until 1861, when Coehin-China was 
 finally taken by France. For inhabitants it had in 1891, 1,753 
 French, 207 other Europeans, 6,600 Annamese, and 7,600 
 Chinese. It is connected by a steam tramway with the 
 Chinese town of Cholon, three miles away, which has 40,000 
 inhabitants. The severe fighting which took place in and 
 around Saigon practically destroyed the original native town, 
 and the French were therefore able to rebuild it on their own 
 lines. The result is that the Saigon of to-day is virtually a 
 French town. It is laid out on the chess-board pattern familiar 
 to all who have visited the western towns of the United States, 
 and French taste has made it very attractive in appearance. 
 The streets are lined with rows of trees, the roads are just like 
 those of any European city, the public buildings are numerous 
 and stately, the shops have all the external appearance of the 
 magasins of Paris, the cafes are at every corner and are 
 patronised with true French conviviality, and there is a very 
 good reproduction of the Jardin d' Acclimation. The Palais 
 du Gouvernement cost twelve million francs, and except 
 perhaps the European-built "Audience Halls" of Bangkok, 
 is the finest edifice in the Far East. The Cathedral is 
 
78 FRANCE. 
 
 almost equal to it, and every house is a little earthly 
 paradise in its trim garden. But Saigon has many draw- 
 backs to set against these advantages. The climate is 
 simply appalling. Hundreds of people avoid the journey 
 home from Shanghai or Hongkong by the comfortable Mes- 
 sageries Maritimes line, simply because they have once had 
 experience of a night passed in the river off Saigon. I have 
 seen a passenger fall on the deck, struck with heat-apoplexy 
 under a thick double awning, and I have twice paced the deck 
 for a whole night, fan in hand, sleep being out of the question 
 because of the heat and the mosquitoes. And except for the 
 Chinese, there is little commerce worth the name. It is a city 
 of fonctionnaires, and nine out of ten Frenchmen are occupied 
 in purveying either French luxuries or French personal services 
 to the official and military classes. Take away the shop-keepers, 
 the barbers, the taUors, the wine merchants, the tobacconists, 
 and the restaurant keepers, and there would be virtually no 
 Frenchmen left who was not a soldier, a sailor, or a Civil 
 servant. Even many of the former have recently left the place. 
 While I was at Bangkok the foreign community learned with 
 pleasure that a French barber had arrived, and everybody went 
 to him at once, thankful to escape from the doubtful comb and 
 fingers of the native. He had left Saigon in despair, thinking 
 that even in the Siamese capital he might do better. Like other 
 French colonies, Saigon is the victim of protection and of the 
 inability of the colon to shake off the depressing conviction of 
 exile. 
 
 I paid a flying visit to another French colonial town, and it 
 left an ineffaceable impression on my mind. I was on board a 
 private ship sailing down the coast of Annam, when we ran 
 short of medicine for one of our party who was down with fever. 
 So we anchored off Tourane, and two of us went ashore in the 
 ship's boat. It was in the middle of the afternoon on a week- 
 day, but the main street of the town was almost deserted. Not 
 a score natives were about, hardly a European was to be 
 
IN FEENCH INDO-CHINA. 79 
 
 seen, except a group of officers sitting in front of a cafe. It was 
 half an hour before we could transact business at the post-office. 
 The whole town was a spectacle of stagnation, though it is one 
 of the Annamese ports described as " ouverts au commerce 
 international." Tourane, in fact, was a vivid commentary upon 
 the words of Pierre Loti about precisely this part of the Far 
 East — " C'est le voile qui se tisse lentement sur les choses trop 
 eloignees, c'est I'an^antissement par le soleil, par la monotonia, 
 par I'ennui." 
 
 One very pleasant reminiscence of Cochin-China I have. The 
 city of Saigon is situated 60 miles from the mouth of the river, 
 where there is the well-known light of Cape St. James. 
 There is a charming little hotel there, where the Saigonnais 
 come to seek refreshment from the dreadful heat of the town. 
 One of the most important stations of the Eastern Telegraph 
 Company is at the Cape, for there the cable between Hong- 
 kong and Singapore touches land,* and connects with the 
 French cable to Tongking and the land lines to Cambodia and 
 Siam. It is a curious little colony at Cape St. James, a dozen 
 Englishmen for the service of the English cable, three or four 
 Frenchmen for the French cable, half-a-dozen pilots, and the 
 few invalid Saigonnais who come to the hotel. The electricians 
 get their supplies in a launch from Saigon every Sunday morn- 
 ing, and for the rest of the week their only communication with 
 the great world is by the zig-zag line which trickles interminably 
 out of the tiny siphon of Sir William Thompson's recorder. And 
 this tells them little, for even news messages come in code. The 
 great French mail steamers pass them twice a week, and the few 
 
 * At last a direct cable connecting Hongkong, Labuan, and Singapore has 
 been arranged for and is now being laid. In the interests of the Empire this 
 means of communication, independent of foreign soil, was absolutely essential. 
 The next step, which ought not to be delayed a single day, should be to 
 separate entirely from the British office in Hongkong the foreign employes 
 of the Danish Great Northern Company. Their presence might conceivably 
 constitute an Imperial danger of great magnitude. It should not be forgotten 
 that the King of Demnark once took an attitude in this connection hostile to 
 British interests. 
 
80 FEANCE. 
 
 other steamers which ply to Saigon for rice pick up a pilot. 
 The Company keep them well supplied with newspapers, and 
 they have an excellent billiard-table, but their life is not a 
 happy one. On Sundays, when the fresh supplies are in, they 
 feast. On Monday they feast again, for all meat must be 
 cooked at once. On Tuesday, cold meat. On Wednesday, 
 hash. On Thursday, back to tinned meats, and by Friday 
 there is probably neither bread nor ice at the Cape. Then, 
 too, fever makes its regular round among them. Their pale 
 faces, scarred with prickly heat and other physical nuisances of 
 a damp tropical climate, are a painful reminder that our 
 convenient telegrams, like everything else we enjoy, mean 
 sacrifices on somebody's part. The staff of the Eastern Com- 
 pany are everywhere among the most intelligent and hospitable 
 compatriots that the British traveller in the Far East can meet, 
 and the station at Cape St. James became like a home for me 
 for a few days. A good deal of romance is connected with this 
 remote pulse of the great world. Not many years ago, for 
 instance, the clerks used to work with loaded rifles beside them, 
 and on one occasion the sleeping staff were aroused in the night 
 by the report of a rifle, and on rushing out found that the night 
 operator had been visited by a tiger while working at his 
 instrument. The neighbourhood is still supposed, with more 
 or less scepticism by those who live there, to be infested with 
 tigers, and the government offers a standing reward of one 
 hundred francs for the destruction of one. During the few 
 days I spent at Cape St. James I made the acquaintance of an 
 Annamite hunter, named Mitt. He was a grave and sedate 
 man, extremely poor, and stone deaf, but his knowledge of 
 the jungle and its inhabitants might have rivalled that of 
 Mowgli himself. In the course of a long talk about shikar I 
 consulted him on the possibility of getting a tiger, though I had 
 already found that even in tiger lands tigers are not so common 
 as one's imagination at home pictures them. And moreover, 
 whenever there is a tiger there are a hundred men of his 
 
IN FEENCH INDO-OHINA. 81 
 
 ocality bent on trapping him, or poisoning him, or snaring him 
 irith bird-lime, or, if needs must, on shooting him. My first hopes 
 lad been set on Vladivostok. There are the woolliest tigers in 
 ;he world, and before reaching that remote spot I had been filled 
 ffith stories of how they were in the habit of coming into the 
 Dack yard for the scraps, and how men never walked abroad at 
 light in parties of less than a dozen, all armed to the teeth. 
 But once in Eussian Tartary, I found the tiger was a tradition, 
 md the leading merchant told me he had standing orders from 
 ihree different high officials to buy any tiger-skin that came 
 into the market, at almost any price. So I transferred my 
 bopes to Korea. Was not the tiger a sort of national emblem 
 Df the Hermit Kingdom ? And is there not a special caste of 
 tiger-hunters, the very men who once gave such a thrashing to 
 1 foreign landing-party ? In a ride across the country, there- 
 fore, I might well hope for a chance. Prom sea to sea, however, 
 [ never caught sight of even the hunter ; only with much difficulty 
 lid I succeed in finding and buying one poor skin, and the most 
 3atisfactory response I could get to my earnest inquiries was 
 the information, " There are two seasons in Korea : one in 
 svhich the man hunts the tiger, the otber in which the tiger 
 tiunts the man. It is now the latter ; therefore you must come 
 it another time." So in Northern China, so, too, in Tongking, 
 though there I once actually saw a tiger's footprint at the 
 mtrance to a coal-mine. Mitt was disposed to be encouraging, 
 md at last he declared, "Moi aller voir." So he disappeared 
 for a couple of days, and returned one morning with instructions 
 for me to be ready in the afternoon, and we started at five 
 3'clock, Mitt walking and running ahead and I following him on 
 i pony. 
 
 For a time we followed a road through the woods and then 
 struck off into the bush. An hour later Mitt motioned me to 
 iismount. A coolie waiting for us jumped into the saddle and 
 jalioped off. We were on a small rising ground, dotted with 
 Dushes, in the middle of a rough tangle of forest and brush- 
 
 7 
 
82 FRANCE. 
 
 wood. I looked everywhere for the mirador, and not finding it, 
 I yelled an inquiry into Mitt's ear. He pointed to a tree fifty 
 yards away and I saw how marvellously he had concealed it. 
 He had chosen two slim trees growing four feet apart, behind 
 these he had planted two bamboos at the other corners of the 
 square, and then he had led two or three thickly-leaved creepers 
 from the ground and wound them in and around and over a 
 little platform and roof, till he had made a perfect nest of live 
 foliage. The floor was about twenty feet from the ground, and 
 it looked perilously fragile to hold two men. But it was a 
 masterpiece of hunting craft. In response to a peculiar cry 
 from Mitt, two natives appeared with a little black pig slung on 
 a pole, yelling lustily. The mirador overlooked a slight de- 
 pression in which an oblong pond had been constructed for the 
 buffaloes to wallow in, as these creatures cannot work unless 
 they are allowed to soak themselves in water two or three times 
 a day. By the side of this the pig was securely fastened. The 
 two natives took themselves off with their pole, Mitt gave me a 
 " leg up " into the mirador, which shook and swayed as we 
 climbed gingerly in, and we arranged ourselves for our long 
 watch,. We loaded our rifles at half-past six, and till half-past 
 ten we sat side by side like two stone Buddhas. Then five wild 
 pigs came trotting down to the water to drink, which was an 
 intensely welcome break in the monotony. At half-past eleven 
 Mitt made signs to me to go to sleep for a while and he would 
 watch. At half-past twelve he woke me and immediately fell 
 back in his turn, fast asleep. It had been moonlight, but the 
 moon was now hidden behind clouds. On the horizon broad 
 flashes of summer lightning were playing. There was a chorus 
 of frogs in the distance, night-birds were calling. to one another, 
 the great lizards were making extraordinary and grotesque 
 noises, and it was so dark that I could no longer discern the 
 black patch of the pig's body on the ground twenty yards away. 
 This is not a book of sporting adventures, though there are 
 many such memories upon which I should like to dwell, so 
 
A Group of Natives, Tonokino. 
 
 How I Earned a Hundred Francs. 
 
IN FEENCH INDO-CHINA. 83 
 
 I will only say that at two o'clock, suddenly, in perfect silence 
 and without the slightest warning, a big black object flashed by 
 the far side of the little pool. It was like the swoop past of an 
 owl in the starlight, like the shadow of a passing bird, utterly 
 noiseless and iustantaneous. I fired, and a minute afterwards 
 a loud cough showed that the bullet had found its place. At 
 daylight we descended and sought everywhere on the hard 
 ground for footprints. The search brought us for a minute to 
 the edge of a stretch of tall grass. That moment came very 
 near being the last for one of us. While we were peering about, 
 the tiger suddenly sat up in the grass not ten feet away, and, 
 with a tremendous roar, sprang clean out into the open. He 
 was so near that it was out of the question to shoot. If I had 
 flung my rifle forward it would have fallen on him. I could see 
 his white teeth distinctly and the red gap of his throat. I 
 remember even at that moment wondering how he could possibly 
 open his mouth so wide. Mitt and I were perhaps eight yards 
 apart and the tiger leaped out midway between us. Instinctively 
 the Annamite made a wild rush away on his side and I on mine. 
 The tiger had evidently walked just far enough into the grass to 
 be hidden and had then lain down. His presence there took us 
 so completely by surprise that we were helpless. If he had been 
 slightly less wounded than he was, it is perfectly certain that 
 in another instant he would have sprung upon one or the other of 
 us, as we had not the remotest chance of escaping by running 
 away. But the first spring was evidently all it could manage, 
 for it turned immediately and sneaked back into cover. It was 
 evident that the beast was no longer in fighting trim, so after 
 a few minutes we followed it into the grass and I despatched 
 it with a couple of shots. Every sportsman knows that at such 
 a moment one is ridiculously happy. It turned out to be a 
 tigress, a little under eight feet long, and very beautifully 
 marked. Six coolies carried her on crossed poles ; the natives 
 came out and " chin-chinned " her to Cape St. James, for the 
 tiger is "joss" to them; her skin went to Rowland Ward's; her 
 
84 FEANCE. 
 
 claws were mounted as a necklace by a Chinese goldsmith ; her 
 body was eaten by the Annamites, and I had a reward of a 
 hundred francs from the French Government for killing an 
 animal nuisiUe. With that reward and a little addition Mitt 
 was able to settle down for life as a landed proprietor. Since 
 then I have found out a place where a dozen tigers may 
 certainly be shot in a week or two, but this is for another 
 time. 
 
 The French war with China— or the "reprisals," as it was 
 called by France— has left many a memory in the Far East. 
 Some of these are instructive for the future, some of them should 
 be put on record for the historian, while some are too dreadful 
 to tell at all. Among the first-named are the advantages 
 attaching to the state of "reprisals." During the war the 
 bullocks for victualling the French forces used to stand in the 
 streets of Hongkong. The Hongkong coolies at first refused to 
 work for the French, and the French mail steamers were loaded 
 by "destitutes" from the Sailors' Home. Hongkong was on 
 the eve of a general strike of the Chinese. The coolies refused 
 under threats from China, but when they saw that the French 
 could get on without them, and that the coolies who replaced 
 them were getting a dollar a day, they returned to work. The 
 French fleet established coaling-stations in the Pescadores, and 
 at the anchorage of Matsu, a few miles north of the mouth of 
 the river Min, and at these points they were regularly supplied 
 with coal from a non-British firm in Hongkong. The same 
 firm were dealing at the same time with the Chinese govern- 
 ment. One curious incident of the war was narrated to me by 
 the chief actor in it. There was an American-built craft of five 
 hundred tons, named the Pihg-on, sailing under the British flag. 
 She was sold by her owners to the Chinese government to be 
 delivered in Foochow, and sailed for that port with nine hundred 
 Chinese soldiers on board. They mutinied and refused to be 
 taken to Foochow, and forced the captain to take them to 
 Taiwan, in Formosa, which he did, receiving there the first 
 
IN FRENCH INDO-OHINA. 85 
 
 payment of seventeen thousand dollars. There the Chinese put 
 another captain on board, and in some unexplained way, 
 succeeded in getting her to sea still under the British flag. For 
 some time she ran between Amoy and Formosa, until one day, 
 with a full load of Chinese soldiers, she ran into the midst of 
 the French fleet in Rover's Channel, in the Pescadores. This 
 was a very curious " accident " for an experienced navigator to 
 make. As soon as the Chinese saw their position a number 
 of them jumped overboard, and the Ping-on was captured 
 and taken to Saigon. That there was something very wrong 
 about her right to fly the red ensign is proved by the fact 
 that the British Government took no steps whatever on her 
 behalf, as they did, for instance, in the case of the Waverley, 
 which was captured by the French and given up again. The 
 blockade of Formosa gave rise to many strange and painful 
 incidents. Before Keelung was taken, one of my informants 
 had seen thirty-two heads of French soldiers in the market-place, 
 all having either deserted or been captured at the unsuccessful 
 attack on Tamsui, where French troops in heavy marching 
 order were landed with three miles of paddy-fields between 
 them and the enemy, whereas a mile above the fort they might 
 have found an excellent landing-place. Being over their knees 
 in mud they were of course simply mown down by the Chinese 
 riflemen. For every one of these heads a reward of a hundred 
 taels had been paid. The foreigners in Formosa protested so 
 strenuously against this barbarity of the Chinese that the reward 
 was altered to a hundred taels for a live Frenchman, and I have 
 talked to the man who had thirty under his charge at one time. 
 They were then treated very well, most of them being ultimately 
 given a free passage to Amoy, and a few entering the Chinese 
 service, where some remain to this day. These thirty had all 
 deserted from the French ships, and all but two or three were 
 men from Elsass-Lothringen and spoke little but German. 
 "You may guess," added my informant, who was a foreigner 
 occupying a high official position, " how miserable they must 
 
86 FRANCE. 
 
 have been on board, for them to desert to a place like Formosa ! " 
 As an example of the way the Chinese were swindled by certain 
 foreign purveyors, I may mention that they were supplied from 
 Europe with five hundred thousand rounds for Winchester rifles, 
 and that the whole of this ammunition was found to be worthless, 
 when a foreign officer examined it, and was destroyed. Another 
 dreadful incident of which I find all the details in my notebooks, 
 arose from the necessity the French found or believed themselves 
 to be in to shoot a number of women in Keelung. An alarming 
 number of French soldiers were being reported as missing, and 
 it was alleged that these women had decoyed them into houses 
 and there made away with them in horrible ways. Twenty 
 women were identified and found guilty, and they were all shot. 
 In judging of any acts of punishment or retaliation by Europeans 
 against Chinese, it must never be forgotten that acts of appalling 
 and almost incredible barbarity are the common accompaniment 
 of all Chinese warfare. If it were not that the details are inde- 
 scribable I could give a blood-curdling list of horrors that have 
 been described to me. And as I have more than once had a 
 narrow escape myself at the hands of Chinese ruffians, I speak 
 not altogether without personal experience. 
 
 There is one other event of the Franco-Chinese " reprisals " 
 upon which public opinion, particularly in France, is ill-informed, 
 and which, in the interests of history, should be recognised in its 
 true light. I mean the engagement between the French and 
 Chinese fleets at the Pagoda Anchorage in the Min river, off 
 Fooehow, on August 23, 1884 This is generally regarded as a 
 battle, and as Admiral Courbet's greatest achievement : in fact, 
 it was a massacre. M. Pierre Loti calls it "la grande gloire de 
 Fou-tcheou," and all French writers follow in the same strain. 
 For weeks the Chinese fleet had lain at anchor, covered by the 
 shotted guns of the French fleet, and considering the utter and 
 instant cowardice shown by the Chinese when the critical 
 moment at last came, it can only be supposed that they were 
 under the impression that the French would not really attack 
 
IN FEENCH INDO- CHINA. 87 
 
 after all. The Chinese ships numbered eleven, all of wood, 
 mounting forty-five guns, only a few of which were of large 
 calibre, and carrying 1,190 men. The French ships were nine 
 armoured vessels and two torpedo boats, with seventy-seven 
 guns and 1,830 men. The signal for the engagement was given 
 immediately on the arrival of the Triomphante, by the hoisting 
 of the red flag on the Volta at fifty-six minutes past one o'clock. 
 At three minutes past two all was over. Two Chinese vessels 
 sank in a few seconds. Two others ran ashore in attempting to 
 escape. Two more were so moored that their big guns could 
 not be fired, and they were immediately adrift in a sinking 
 condition. Three more were disabled at the first discharge. 
 One, the Yangwu, fired her stern chaser once, killing several men 
 on the bridge of the Volta and almost killing Admiral Courbet 
 himself. Before she could reload, a torpedo-boat from the Volta 
 reached her and she was blown to pieces within twenty-seven 
 seconds of the beginning of the fight. One Chinese vessel alone 
 may be said to have been fought. This was the little Chenwei. 
 " Exposed to the broadsides of the Villars and the d'Estaing, 
 and riddled by a terrific discharge from the heavy guns of the 
 Triomphante as she passed, she fought to the last. In flames 
 fore and aft, drifting helplessly down the stream and sinking, 
 she plied her guns again and again, till one of the French 
 torpedo boats, dashing in through the smoke, completed the 
 work of destruction."* " The captain reserved one loaded gun 
 till the last moment, and then as the battered and shot-rent 
 ship gave the last mournful roll, he pulled the lock-string and 
 sent hissing on its errand of hate the last farewell of the unfortu- 
 nate Ghing Wai."i " Though in seven minutes from the firing 
 of the first shot every Chinese vessel was practically disabled, 
 the French continued to pour in shot, shell and Hotchkiss fire. 
 
 • Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs, Beport of Mr. Deputy Commissioner 
 Carrall, which may be regarded as an oflGloial account of the engagement. 
 
 f " The French at Poochow," by James F. Eoche and L. L. Cowen, U.S. Navy, 
 which confirms the above in all essential details. 
 
88 FEANCB. 
 
 regardless of the wounded and helpless men in the crippled ships. 
 . . . The casualties on the French side were 5 killed and 15 
 wounded, and on the Chinese side 419 killed and 128 wounded, 
 and 51 missing, besides 102 killed and 22 wounded on board 
 war junks." Such is the true story of the Foochow fight. Of 
 course war is war, and the French Marshal was right when he 
 said, " Quand je fais la guerre je laisse ma philanthropie dans 
 les armoires de ma femme." And it is the business of a fleet to 
 disable the fleet of the enemy in the shortest possible time. 
 But with the exception of the Chenwei on one side and the 
 ten men on the torpedo-boat of the Volta on the other, the less 
 said about " gloire " on this occasion the better. French 
 soldiers did cover themselves with glory when their commander 
 made his fatal blunder before Tamsui, and many a time in 
 Tongking, but Foochow belongs to another category. 
 
 I have in my notebooks the following striking story of the 
 death of Eiviere, which I took down in these words from the 
 lips of the narrator, who sufficiently describes himself. It will 
 be remembered that Commandant Eiviere, an extremely gallant 
 but very nervous man, ambitious of literary honours, who had 
 said, " Je m'en vais par le Tonkin a I'Academie," had been 
 compelled to spend nearly a year in possession of the citadel of 
 Hanoi, while the Chinese Black Flags came in thousands into 
 the town and gathered in impudent strength in the neighbour- 
 hood. At last the reinforcements he had prayed for came, and 
 slight hostilities began at once. Then the Black Flag leader, 
 the famous Liu Jung-fu, issued his challenge to the French 
 commander. "You send out teachers of religion," it said, " to 
 undermine and ruin the people. You say you wish for interr 
 national commerce, but you merely wish to swallow up the 
 country. There are no bounds to your cruelty, and there is no 
 name for your wickedness. You trust in your strength and you 
 debauch our women and our youth. . . . He who issues this 
 proclamation has received behest to avenge these wrongs. . . . 
 But Hanoi is an ancient and honourable town. It is filled with 
 
IN FBENOH INDO-CHINA. 89 
 
 honest and loyal citizens. Therefore could he not endure that 
 the city should be reduced to ruins, and young and old put to 
 the sword. Therefore do I, Liu Jung-fu, issue proclamation. 
 Know, ye French robbers, that I come to meet you. Eely on 
 your strength and rapine, and lead forth your herd of sheep and 
 curs to meet my army of heroes, and see who will be master. 
 Wai-tak-fu, an open space, I have fixed on as the field where I 
 shall establish my fame." * This was stuck up one night upon 
 the gates of the citadel and all over the stockades, and was 
 followed by an attack next day. So much by way of introduc- 
 tion : now for the story which was told to me. My informant 
 said: " Eiviere was at Hanoi doing nothing, in spite of the fact 
 that the Chinese were known to be gathering round the place. 
 People talked a good deal about it, and one day the challenge 
 came from Liu Jung-fu. So Eiviere said, ' That's nothing but 
 humbug — I'll show you.' And next morning he went out with 
 four hundred men, himself in a carriage and pair, for he had 
 been suffering from fever. It was to be just a morning's walk — 
 nothing else. Bertha de Tillers was with him, and when they 
 reached the Pont de Papier he came up and said, ' Vous feriez 
 bien. Commandant, de faire fouiller ces bois.' 'Vous avez 
 peur ? ' asked Eiviere. ' Je n'ai jamais peur,' replied Villers, 
 and turned to walk off, when a volley was fired from the wood. 
 Villers was hit in the stomach, and a quarter-master, standing 
 close by, in the chest. Eiviere sprang out, placed Villers and 
 the man in the carriage and ordered it back to Hanoi at 
 once. The horses were turned, bolted, and carried the two men 
 at full gallop back to Hanoi, where they arrived locked in each 
 other's arms in the death-grasp. In the meantime the volleys 
 had continued and men had fallen by dozens and lay in heaps 
 along the road. Eiviere rushed ahead to get a gun on the bridge 
 turned round so that it could be brought back, when he was 
 struck mortally in the side and fell. A lieutenant named 
 
 * For the TBrhole proclamation see J. G. Scott, " Prance and Tongking," 1885, 
 p. 32, and C. B. Norman, " Tonkin," 1884, p. 210. 
 
90 FEAMCB. 
 
 Jacquis ran up, and Riviere, seeing that he had made a horrible 
 and fatal mistake, and that he was mortally wounded, ordered 
 Jacquis to kill him. ' Jacquis, brule-moi la gueule ! ' ' Je ne 
 veux pas. Commandant.' ' Je vous le commando ! ' ' Je ne 
 peux pas, Commandant.' Then Riviere drew his revolver and 
 blew his brains out, and Jacquis, seeing it, did the same. 
 Riviere's head was carried away after the sauve qui pent, and was 
 only recovered a long time afterwards after much negociation. 
 It had been put in spirits of wine in a kerosine oil tin, and was 
 perfectly recognisable, whiskers and all. I slept on that tin for 
 several nights. Then I was a member of the committee who 
 drew up the proces verbal uniting the head to the body. He had 
 shot himself in the mouth and the bullet had come out behind 
 the left ear." With regard to this story I can only say that I 
 repeat it exactly as it was told to me in Tongking by a thoroughly 
 respectable informant. Of course Riviere's sortie, the rout of 
 the French, the return of the defeated troops into Hanoi, the 
 distribution of wine, the consequent drunkenness of the over- 
 strained men, the officers themselves doing sentry-go on that 
 " black night " of May 19, 1883, the seizure of Riviere's head 
 and the subsequent surrender of it, are matters of history. 
 With this strange story I close my notebooks so far as souvenirs 
 of the war are concerned. 
 
 One of the most remarkable romances of modern Eastern his- 
 tory is connected with these French colonies. In the spring of 
 1889 there appeared at Hongkong a tall, well-built Frenchman, 
 with a bushy brown beard and very long legs, who called himself 
 Marie David de Mayrena, and distributed visiting-cards with the 
 words " S.M. le Roi des Sedangs " printed upon them. He had 
 had an adventurous career in the Far East, in the course of 
 which he had more than once displayed great personal courage 
 in guerilla warfare. At last his wanderings brought him to the 
 region of the Sedangs, a tribe inhabiting part of the Hinterland 
 of Annam, a region not so well known then as it has since 
 become. By these people he had been elected king, and of the 
 
IN FRENCH INDO-CHINA. 91 
 
 genuineness of his election there can be no doubt whatever. 
 He was at first recognised by the French missionaries and 
 by the French authorities, and I have myself seen corre- 
 spondence and treaties which establish his claim beyond 
 question. Of these treaties there were a score signed between 
 Mayr^na and the chiefs of the different tribes ; with the 
 Hallongs and Braos, signed by Khen on June 3, 1888 ; with 
 the confederation Banhar-Eeungao, signed by Krui, President ; 
 with the Jiarais, signed by Ham on August 19, 1888, pro- 
 mising tribute of " un elephant domestique dresse " ; with the 
 village of Dak-Drey and half-a-dozen others, signed by Blak, 
 chief, translated and witnessed by P. Trigoyen and J. B. 
 Guerlach, " missionnaires apostoliques " ; and finally, a treaty 
 of alliance between "les E. P, Missionnaires et les Sedangs," 
 concluded " entre Marie, roi des Sedangs, et le E. P. Vialleton, 
 superieur de la Mission des Sauvages Banhar-Eeungao." This 
 treaty provided that " a partir d'aujourd'hui, toutes les tribus ou 
 villages qui ont reconnu ou qui reconnaitront a I'avenir I'auto- 
 rite du Eoi des Sedangs seront les amis et allies des villages 
 des Peres Missionnaires. En cas d'attaqae des Missions, ils 
 preteront aide et secours." I should add that I give these 
 details not only for their romantic interest, but also because 
 when Mayr6na was thrown over by the French authorities 
 and the missionaries, he was poohpoohed as a common liar, 
 and now that he is dead and the whole strange adventure at 
 an end, I take a pleasure in showing that he was not wholly an 
 impostor, in spite of his vanity and his follies. It should be 
 added in explanation of certain phrases that his French was 
 by no means always above reproach. To continue, the rela- 
 tions which had subsisted between Mayr6na and the priests 
 are clearly shown by the following passage in the treaty, 
 which, like most of this strange history, is now published for 
 the first time so far as my knowledge goes : " Considerant que 
 si nous detenons la couronne du Eoyaume Sedang, nous la 
 devons aux EE. Peres Missionnaires de la Societe des Missions 
 
92 FEANCB. 
 
 Etratigeres de Paris ; que c'est grace a leurs eoncours que nous 
 avons pu expliquer notre volonte et parcourir le Eoyaume 
 avant d'etre elu ; que ce sont eux qui ont servi d'intermediaires 
 entre nous et les chefs pour traduire nos pensees " — complete 
 liberty to preach is granted, all religions are promised toleration, 
 but that of the Eoman Catholic Church is declared the official 
 one; the right of refuge is given, too, in chapels, and finally 
 lands for a new town to be chef-lieu of the province of Kon 
 Trang, and to bear that name, are conceded to the E. Pere 
 Trigoyen. This treaty is dated Kon Jeri, August 25, 1888. 
 The " Constitution " is dated July 1, 1888, and its Article III. 
 reads, " M. de Mayrena, deja elu Eoi des Sedangs, portera le 
 titre Eoi Chef Supreme," and Article V., " Le drapeau national 
 sera bleu uni avec une croix blanche a I'etoile rouge au centre." 
 It was signed by thirty-seven chiefs, of whose names I copied 
 only the first and the last — Kon Tao Jop and Pelei Tebau. 
 When Mayrena first turned up in Hongkong, he was vouched 
 for by the French Consul and introduced by him to everybody, 
 including the Governor, in consequence of which his social posi- 
 tion was sealed by an invitation to dinner at Government House. 
 At this time he was an astounding figure, when in his royal 
 attire. He wore a short scarlet jacket with enormous galons on 
 the cuffs, a broad blue ribbon, a magenta sash in which was 
 stuck a long curved sword worn across the front of the body, 
 white trousers with a broad gold stripe, and a white helmet with 
 a gold crown and three stars. He distributed broadcast the 
 "Order of Marie I.," beginning with the captain of the little 
 Danish steamer Freyr, in return for the hoisting of his royal 
 standard in Haiphong harbour, and continuing with the 
 Governor of Hongkong, who was caused no slight embarrass- 
 ment in getting rid of the impossible ribbon and cross. He 
 used notepaper with a huge gold crown and coat-of-arms upon 
 it, gave large orders for jewellery, and conducted himself 
 generally like a crowned head, I have seen a private letter he 
 wrote at this time, from which the following passage is perhaps 
 
IN FEENCH INDO-CHINA. 93 
 
 worth putting on record : " II est uii ait bien certain, c'est que 
 entre I'Annam et le Siam il existe uu vaste pays qui a nom 
 Laos. ... Or, les Sedangs et les Hamongs sont (illegible), je 
 parle des chefs marques au bras et dans le dos par le roi du 
 Laos. La France a-t-elle quelque droit sur le Laos ? Non ! 
 . . . Le Laos . . . n'a aucune relation avec les nations Euro- 
 peenbes." Mayrena succeeded in getting a few Hongkong 
 merchants to enter into an arrangement with him, by which he 
 conceded to them the right of developing the country of the 
 Sedangs, in return for certain duties upon trade and exports. 
 But the collapse came, of course, when the French authorities 
 changed their policy and took a line of direct opposition to him. 
 Even the missionaries who had enabled him to secure the 
 treaties of which they themselves were the official witnesses, 
 denounced him as an impostor. He then offered himself and 
 his country to the British, who would naturally have nothing to 
 do with him, so he next tried the Germans, and was actually 
 indiscreet enough as to send a telegram to Berlin in open German, 
 offering his allegiance, forgetting that this must pass through a 
 French office in Saigon. Of course it was read and reported 
 from there and orders were issued for his arrest. He believed 
 that he was condemned to be shot for high treason, so he went 
 to Europe by the German mail steamer, a few of his acquaint- 
 ances in Hongkong passing the hat round to pay his passage. 
 After he had left, the police succeeded in recovering most of the 
 jewellery he had presented and failed to pay for. A man of this 
 stamp, however, is never very long without money, and after 
 spending some time in prison in Ostend for debt he next 
 turned up in Paris and lived there in luxury for awhile, the 
 French press not being quite sure what to make of him. 
 Finally, he returned to the Far East, settled down with one 
 male companion and two or three female ones on an uninhabited 
 island off the coast of the Malay Peninsula, where a cobra 
 brought his strange career to a sudden end by biting him in the 
 foot. All that remains of " Marie I., King of the Sedangs," is 
 
94 FRANCE. 
 
 the set of postage stamps he issued, ■which are among the most 
 prized curiosities of the philatelists. Such is the true story of 
 a " man who would be king," and it is perhaps worth telling as 
 an illustration of the fact that even in these late days there 
 may be as much romance in reality as in fiction, at least in the 
 wonderland of the Far East. 
 
GHAPTEB V. 
 
 ON THE FBANGO-CHINESE FBONTIEB. 
 
 T WAS particularly fortunate in having the opportunity of 
 -^ making a flying trip to the frontier between China and 
 the French possessions. This is far off the beaten track; no 
 vessels go there except to carry military supplies, and no private 
 boat-owners could be induced to go for fear of the pirates. I 
 had been to see the coal mines of the "Compagnie fran9aise 
 des Charbonnages du Tonkin," and the Managing Director, M. 
 Bavier-Chauffour, was good enough to place his steam yacht, the 
 Fanny, at my disposal. The trip was one of great interest, and 
 at the time of my visit no Englishman had been there, except 
 Mr. James Hart, who represented China on the Commission to 
 delimit the frontier. 
 
 From Hatou, where the coal mines are, we steamed due north 
 along the coast, entering almost at once the unique scenery of 
 Along Bay. For hours here we threaded our way among rocks 
 as thick as trees in an orchard — enormous towering hills a 
 thousand feet high, great boulders hanging over sea- worn caves, 
 tall trembling steeples, tiny wooded rock-islets, shimmering 
 grottos, and an infinite number of grotesque water-carved forms 
 — ^the monk, the inkstand, the cap of liberty. All the afternoon 
 there was one of these within gun-shot on each side. This is 
 the pirates' haunt, and it is indeed a glorious thing to be a 
 pirate king when you can run from your pursuer into Along 
 Bay and disappear instantly at any point. On our way down 
 we came across a fleet of sampans, carrying a thousand wood- 
 
 95 
 
96 PKANCE. 
 
 cutters to their work, convoyed by a gunboat. The commander 
 hailed us, and we went on board. "I engage you to be 
 cautious," he said ; " there is a well-armed band of pirates 
 reported on the coast. I would come a little way with you, bpt 
 I have just received telegraphic orders to stand by these boats. 
 However, keep a good look-out." 
 
 By the evening of the second day we were close to our 
 destination — the mouth of the river separating Tongking and 
 China. It was very foggy intermittently, and the pilot was 
 about at the end of his knowledge. He believed us, however, 
 to be just off the mouth of the river. So we held a council of 
 war on the bridge, and decided to anchor. The word was hardly 
 out of our host's mouth when — scrunch, scrunch, under the keel 
 told us it was too late. Pull speed astern, anchors laid out, 
 everybody on board run backwards and forwards across the 
 vessel — none of these things moved us. We were high and dry, 
 on a falling tide. Then the fog lifted for a moment, and we saw 
 where we were — far beyond the mouth of the river, within a 
 quarter of a mile of the mainland of China, and in probably the 
 very worst spot for the very worst pirates in the whole world. 
 And in these seas there is only one tide in the twenty-four hours. 
 For twenty hours we should be on the sandbank, in two or three 
 hours we should walk round the launch ; never in their lives 
 would the pirates have had a chance at such a prize as the 
 Fanny; and they could come in any number from the mainland. 
 We tried to laugh at our bad luck, but the situation was 
 decidedly unpleasant. One of our party knew the country very 
 well, and the natives, as he speaks Annamese, but we all knew 
 enough to know one thing — namely, that it would never do to 
 be taken alive. To blow one's brains out if necessary is one 
 thing; to be skinned alive is another. So we made prepara- 
 tions for our defence. No craft travels in these waters without 
 being armed ; and we were particularly well off. We had each 
 his gun, rifle, and revolver ; three Sikh guards from the mines 
 had their rifles, and there were six Winchesters in the rack in 
 
3 
 
 Q 
 Q 
 
ON THE FRANCO-CHINESE FRONTIER. 97 
 
 the saloon. The Chinese captain and crew could all be depended 
 upon ; so we posted a sentry forward, one aft, and one on the 
 bridge, to be relieved every two hours, with orders first to 
 hail and then to fire at anybody or any boat that might approach. 
 Then, after dinner, we laid our revolvers on the table and 
 commenced an all-night game — the second time in my life that 
 I have assisted at the unholy union of poker and pistols. Once 
 only were we disturbed. About two o'clock the Sikh in the 
 bows shouted " Sampan ! " In an instant we were on deck, 
 and there, sure enough, was a big black boat approaching from 
 the sea. We waited till it was within a couple of hundred 
 yards — long enough to see that it was full of men, and was 
 being rowed in unusual silence ; then our Annamite-speaking 
 member shouted, " If you don't show a light instantly we shall 
 shoot." There was no answer, and still the boat came on. 
 He shouted again, and the rifles were at our shoulders, when 
 the boat showed a lantern. Then slowly it disappeared back 
 into the darkness. 
 
 So ended our desperate affair with the pirates. Their exis- 
 tence is no joke, however. Numbers of native junks fall into 
 their hands, and a few months before I was there several 
 Europeans had been murdered by them, and two or three others- 
 with sums of money in their possession, had completely dis 
 appeared. A fortnight previous two redoubtable pirate chiefs 
 were captured, two hundred men with 120 breechloaders, after 
 an expedition costing seven thousand dollars and a hundred 
 killed and wounded. At a place called Caobang they are still 
 formidable in the field, kept by their leaders under strict 
 discipline and training, and, when hard pressed, make their 
 escape across the frontier into China, where the mandarins help 
 them. And, of course, every junk that leaves the Canton river 
 is heavily armed with brass cannon, and every European 
 steamer that plies on it has an open stack of loaded rifles in 
 the saloon for the passengers' use. 
 
 It is a long row up the river to the little frontier town of 
 
 8 
 
98 FEANOE. 
 
 Monkay. This is— or rather was— a very peculiar place. It 
 was built half on each side of the little stream that forms the 
 actual frontier. Two halves had different names, the Tong- 
 king one only being called Monkay, and the Chinese town 
 Trong-King. (The reason for using the past tense will be 
 plain presently.) The town had no poor quarter; its streets 
 were mathematically laid out ; its houses were all of brick and 
 stone, with richly carved and ornamented lintels and eaves; 
 its inhabitants were all rich. In some way or other, this was 
 the outcome of the alliance of piracy and smuggling. When 
 the French came they did not interfere with the town on their 
 side of the stream, but on the top of a sugar-loaf hill, three- 
 quarters of a mile back, they began to build a little fort, and 
 under its guns they laid out a " citadel," inside which to locate 
 the barracks, officers' quarters, magazines, &c. Among the 
 first to be sent there was a civilian officer named Haitce. One 
 day they were attacked by a band of Chinese soldiers. They 
 resisted as long as possible and then fled ; some were shot, some 
 escaped, Haitce only was captured. He was taken back to a 
 house in the principal street of the model little town of Monkay, 
 tied down upon a table, and skinned alive. 
 
 Now, at this time, the famous Colonel Dugenne was in com- 
 mand of the Foreign Legion in Tongking. Everybody knows 
 what the Foreign Legion is — almost the only force in the world 
 where a sound man is enlisted instantly without a question 
 being asked. No matter what your nationality, what your 
 colour, what your past, you are welcome in the Foreign Legion. 
 A man may even desert from the regular French army and 
 re-enlist, unquestioned, in this heterogeneous force. In return 
 for this preliminary indulgence, however, you must put up with 
 many inconveniences — the worst climates, the hardest work, the 
 front line of the attack, the forlorn hope, and the most iron 
 discipline. Once out of civilised parts, and there is practically 
 only one punishment in the Foreign Legion — the punishment 
 that can only be awarded once. To keep such a body of men 
 
ON THE FEANCO-CHINESE FEONTIHE. 99 
 
 in order, this is perhaps necessary, and the officers to enforce 
 it must be hard men — men with bodies of steel and hearts of 
 stone. And the hardest of them all was Colonel Dugenne. 
 Some day I must tell the stories I heard of his methods of 
 pacification in Tongking. When the authorities learned of the 
 outrage I have described, they understood that it was no use to 
 wipe it out with rose-water. So they sent Colonel Dugenne and 
 his " children." He came and looked at the place. "Burn it," 
 said he. But it wouldn't burn, being all brick and stone. " Blow 
 it up," said Colonel Dugenne. And they did — they blew the 
 whole town literally to bits. Compared with Monkay, Pompeii 
 is in good preservation. You need an alpenstock to get through 
 the streets. And the house where Haitce was tortured is now 
 a hole in the ground twenty feet deep. 
 
 Tou are not long in discovering that Monkay is not like other 
 places. As we were rowing up, a big red pheasant was sitting 
 in a tree not twenty yards away. I picked up my rifle to try 
 and shoot its head off, as I have done with partridges in the 
 Maine woods. " Don't fire here," I was told ; " the people at 
 the fort would think there was trouble, and probably turn out a 
 lot of men." The Eesident, M. Eustant, walked down to meet 
 us and take us to the Eesidency. This proved to be an old 
 temple, or pagode, as the French call all native buildings, divided 
 into rooms by board partitions, and very meagrely provided with 
 modern furniture. Outside a six-foot moat was dug, and lined 
 with spikes of bamboo so thickly that a hen could hardly walk 
 about in it. On each side of the moat was a stockade built of 
 heavy bamboo, eight feet high, and sharpened to a spike at the 
 top. At each corner a look-out was built of sods and bamboo, 
 in which a sentry stood always with a loaded rifle. The front of 
 the Eesidency faced the river, where a little gun-boat lay at 
 anchor. The back of it looked towards the frontier, and there- 
 fore the back entrance, with the kitchen and offices, was further 
 protected with thick walls of sods en echelon, to guard against 
 the bullets fired across at it from long range. The Eesident's 
 
100 FRANCE. 
 
 guard consists of a hundred and twenty native militia, under two 
 European officers. But at night as we sat at dinner in the 
 cold, bare, cob-webbed, bat-tenanted central hall of the former 
 temple, the door was pushed noisily open, and a night-guard of 
 thirteen men and a sergeant of the Foreign Legion tramped 
 past our chairs to an ante-room, and grounded their arms with 
 a crash on the stone floor. At midnight we were awakened by 
 the same tramp and crash as the guard was changed. And 
 there is no " show pidgin " about this : all these men and their 
 ball-cartridges may be needed at any minute. 
 
 Next morning we went to pay our respects to the commanding 
 officer, and look round. First we climbed up to the fortin on 
 the top of the sugar-loaf hill, where there were half-a-dozen 
 light guns and a small force of French artillerymen, and into 
 which no native is ever permitted to set foot. The frontier river 
 winds along like a silver thread three-quarters of a mile off ■ the 
 citadel is just below, and the half-dozen houses of the foreign 
 population ; and through a glass you can see the Chinese guns 
 and soldiers in their own fort, on a similar hill, a couple of 
 miles off, or less. All these guns, of course, are trained straight 
 at one another. And over the hills you can see the telegraph 
 wire connecting the furthest extremities of the Chinese Empire, 
 stretching down into the town, a solid and prosperous-looking 
 little place, like Monkay on this side before Colonel Dugenne 
 blew it up. The French have no telegraph, but a line of helio- 
 graph to within a few miles of Haiphong, only allowed to be 
 used for official messages. Indeed, there is nobody else to use 
 it, although the Eesident was kind enough to allow me to 
 receive a private message from home by its aid. 
 
 Then we walked, always with an escort, through the ruins 
 of the town down to the river. As we entered the street the 
 quick eye of the Commandant caught sight of new marks on a 
 blank brick wall. Climbing into the inside we discovered that 
 somebody from across the frontier had come, probably during 
 the preceding night, and actually loop-holed the wall for rifles, 
 
ON THB FRANCO-CHINESE FBONTIEE. 101 
 
 SO that they could steal across the next moonlight night and 
 pick off the sentries at the fort ! From the arrangements made 
 then and there, I fancy those gentry would get a reception to 
 surprise them. The river which constitutes the actual frontier 
 is only about forty yards wide, and can be forded at low tide. 
 On the French side the bank is high, while the Chinese town is 
 built almost down to the water's edge. As soon as we were seen 
 on the opposite bank the Chinese soldiery came down to the river 
 in crowds, in their bright yellow and red jackets, to stare at 
 us, and when I set up my camera they evidently became rather 
 nei-vous, thinking it a new engine of war. Indeed, the Com- 
 mandant said, " Don't stay there any longer than is necessary ; 
 it's just possible they might take a pot-shot at us." Across this 
 river, of course, not a soul ventures. If a Frenchman should 
 try, his head would be off his shoulders, or worse, in five 
 minutes. With .a good deal of difiQculty, I bribed a Chinaman 
 to take a telegram across, addressed to Sir Eobert Hart, in 
 Peking, but they refused to despatch it, and sent it back. In 
 fact, the relations between the French and Chinese are 
 about as strained as they can possibly be. The Commandant 
 pointed out to me a small cleared and levelled spot on the top 
 of a hillock, and told me its gruesome story. Two months 
 before my visit a block-house had stood there, garrisoned by a 
 sergeant and six French soldiers and eight native regulars. One 
 night the people at the fort suddenly heard rapid firing, and 
 shortly afterwards the block-house burst into flames. The night 
 was pitch dark, and it was no good for them to move out to the 
 rescue, as they did not know that there were not a thousand 
 Chinese, and, as the block-house was burning, their comrades 
 had either escaped or been killed. At daj'light they marched 
 down and found the eight natives and five Europeans dead, the 
 sergeant headless and horribly and indescribably mutilated, and 
 one European missing — evidently carried off into China, as he 
 was never heard of again. No wonder that a Chinaman from 
 across the river who falls into French hands here gets a very 
 
102 FBANCE. 
 
 short shrift — generally about as long as it takes to pall a 
 trigger. In fact, I believe any Chinaman at Monkay at night 
 is shot on sight. The Chinese who come across on these 
 murdering expeditions are not pirates at all, or " black flags," 
 or dacoits, or anything of that kind ; they are Chinese regulars, 
 ■who leave their jackets behind and resume them on their 
 return. And, of course, if the practice were not encouraged or 
 at least winked at by the Chinese officials, it could not go on. 
 
 The native troops are not very smart soldiers, but they take 
 kindly to the loose Fjrench discipline, and on several occasions 
 they have fought very well indeed. Their dress consists of 
 dark blue cotton knickerbockers and jacket, a little pointed 
 bamboo hat, and a sash. They wear no shoes ; and the only 
 difference between the militia or civil guards and the regulars is 
 that the sash and hat of the former are blue and of the latter 
 red. At Monkay the total strength at the time of my visit was 
 about seven hundred and fifty men — three hundred and fifty 
 Europeans and four hundred natives — not nearly enough, the 
 Commandant complained bitterly. Once as I stood with him 
 in the fort he showed me a valley miles off, and said, " There are 
 five hundred pirates over there. The day after to-morrow I am 
 going out to say ' Bonjour ' to them." And two days after I 
 got back to Hongkong, I read in the newspaper that he had 
 made his expedition, the Chinese had attacked his camp during 
 the night, and that he had been the first man shot. "Don't 
 forget to send me some of your photographs," he had said to me 
 at the same time, when I was taking those which now illus- 
 trate this chapter; "they will be very dramatic." A Customs 
 officer named Carriere was captured and carried off by pirates 
 last year. Three Frenchmen, MM. Eoty, Bouyer, and Droz- 
 Pritz were captured at different times in 1892, and kept prisoners 
 for many months before their surrender was effected. And in 
 August of the present year the Chinese made a raid at Monkay, 
 killed a M. Chaillet in his own house, and carried off his wife 
 and child. So the Franco-Chinese frontier is still a place 
 that " repays careful avoidance." 
 
GHAPTEB VI. 
 
 A STUDY OF FBENGH COLONIAL ADMINISTBATION. 
 
 Q1 OCIETY in French Indo-China is sharply divided into three 
 ^^ classes, and each of the three is at daggers drawn with the 
 other two. They are the official, the military, and the civilian 
 — ^the Governor-General, the Colonel, and the Colonist. To the 
 official eye the military class is constantly endeavouring to usurp 
 functions to which it has no right, and the civilians are an un- 
 reasonable body of incapable people, impossible to satisfy. The 
 military class are furious against the Government, represented 
 by the officials, for their reduced numbers, and cling all the 
 more tenaciously to privileges which only belonged to them 
 as an army of occupation ; and they desire to be allowed a free 
 hand to "pacify" the country by the only means known to them 
 — the sword. The civilian colonist, finally, detests the military, 
 in the conviction that if he- could only once get rid of nearly 
 all of them the country would "pacify" itself fast enough by 
 commerce and agriculture, which it will never do so long as 
 it is a happy hunting-ground for crosses and promotions. And 
 how can he feel either respect or sympathy for the Governors 
 who come and go like the leaves on the trees, and who must 
 needs hold the helm in Hanoi with their eyes fixed on the 
 Quai d'Orsay ? Society in the French colonies of the Far East 
 is a perpetual triangular duel. 
 
 Let me give a few of the experiences upon which this analysis 
 is based. The first person with whom I had any conversation 
 after setting foot of Tongking was a well-informed, intelligent 
 
 103 
 
104 FRANCE. 
 
 bourgeois who had passed six years there. I began by saying 
 I was sorry to hear of the heavy casualties of a column then 
 operating in the interior, a hundred men having been lost in 
 one action. " He'll arrive, all the same," replied my acquain- 
 tance, speaking of the officer in command. " He wants his 
 third star, and what does he care if it costs him five hundred 
 men ? He'll get it, too, allez! " There is the civilian's view of 
 the military. Now for the functionary's view, and I should not 
 tell this story if M. Bichaud's terrible death— let me throw a 
 word of recollection and respect over his " vast and wandering 
 grave " — had not untied my tongue. When I was at Hanoi 
 I asked him, on the strength of my French official letter, for 
 an escort of a few men to accompany me to a place one day's 
 march into the interior. " Certainly," he replied, " with 
 pleasure. They shall be ready the day after to-morrow." The 
 same evening I was dining with him, and when I entered the 
 drawing-room he took me on one side and said, " By the way, 
 about that escort, I am exceedingly annoyed, but it is impos- 
 sible." And answering my look of surprise, for my official letter 
 had been given for the very purpose of making such facilities 
 certain, he continued : " The General replies that he has not 
 five men of whom he can dispose at this moment. Frankly, you 
 know, you should properly have asked him in the first place, 
 and not me." The Governor-General's annoyance and em- 
 barrassment at having to acknowledge to a stranger this 
 humiliating snub were so visible that of course I dropped 
 the subject, and his secretary's whispered request afterwards 
 not to reopen it was unnecessary. But I could not help asking 
 him next day as we were driving whether in French colonies, as 
 in English, the chief civil authority was not ex officio commander- 
 in-chief. He saw the point instantly and replied, " Yes, that is 
 my title too," and after a pause — " seulement, je delegue mes 
 pouvoirs." After thus being refused an escort, I was refused 
 permission to go alone at my own risk, so my proposed journey 
 was doubly impossible. At the time the General had not five 
 
FEENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTEATION. 105 
 
 men " disponibles " there were, of course, twenty times that 
 number kicking their heels in barracks. The Governor had 
 promised the escort, therefore the General refused it. That 
 was the only and the universal explanation offered me. And 
 it was the true one. 
 
 To pass on again to the civilian colonist. Half way up the 
 river between Haiphong and Hanoi I noticed heaps of fresh mud 
 lying along the bank. " Then you have been dredging, after 
 all ? " I asked. " Hush," was the reply ; " we have been doing a 
 little of it at night, because the Administration would not allow 
 us to do it openly, and we stuck here every day." Why not ? 
 Heaven only knows. It is simply incredible, and therefore I will 
 not waste time in attempting to enumerate what " 1' Administra- 
 tion" denies. It is, as Mephistopheles described himself to 
 Faust, der Geist der stets vemeint. Whatever you want, though 
 it cost the Government not a penny, though it be a boon to 
 the community, though it be the opening-up of the country so 
 enthusiastically toasted, the authorities are absolutely certain 
 to refuse your request. Said a French civihan, " Les consuls 
 fran9ais ne sont bons que pour vous donner tort quand vous 
 avez raison." This is no joke — if you think so, stop the first 
 man, not a " functionary," you meet in the street in Haiphong 
 and ask him. It is almost as easy to get into Parliament in 
 London as to get a concession of land for any purpose what- 
 ever in Tongking, although the whole vast country is on public 
 offer, although the land almost throws its crops and its minerals 
 in your face, and although the inhabitants are " pirates " by 
 thousands simply and solely for the employment and sustenance 
 which welcomed capital and encouraged enterprise alone can 
 furnish. This point has been urged frankly and strongly by a 
 French critic who is intimately acquainted with Tongking: — 
 " Soyez certain que si la pacification du Tonkin est si longue, 
 cela tient surtout a ce que nous n'avons pas su empecher la 
 misere qui pousse les indigenes au brigandage. Si Ton avait 
 laisse le champ libre a I'esprit d'entreprise, si Ton avait appele 
 
106 FEANCB. 
 
 I'element indigene, a tons les degres de rechelle sociale, a par- 
 ticiper au developpement de notre nouvelle colonie, la pacifica- 
 tion serait bien avancee, sinon achevee. Au lieu de nos 15,000 
 hommes pourchassant des pirates, nous verrions, a I'heure qu'il 
 est, ces memes pirates employes paisiblement a des travaux 
 publics, car, il rie faut pas nous le dissimuler, nos ouvriers de 
 demain sont les pirates d'aujourd'hui, les cultivateurs d'hier, 
 chasses de chez eux par nos precedes belliqueux de ces dernieres 
 annees." 
 
 It is the fact, though it seems almost incredible, that after all 
 these years of French administration, the scores of military 
 expeditions, the spending of countless millions of francs, the 
 loss of tens of thousands of lives, Tongking is only " pacified " 
 so far as the delta is concerned. The rest of the country is not 
 safe from one day to another, and almost every transport of 
 valuables has to have a military convoy. Within the last year 
 a number of Europeans have been carried off and only a few 
 weeks ago a train was actually stopped and pillaged while but a 
 short distance from the capital. Mr. Consul Tremlett, whose 
 Eeport from Saigon is dated February 25, 1894, writes of Tong- 
 king as follows : — " The delta may be considered as being fairly 
 under control, but, apart from that, the province is continually 
 raided by so-called pirates. There are now at least three 
 Frenchmen in captivity of whose fate the public knows nothing; 
 they are no doubt being held for ransom." • One of these, an 
 official, was captured at Sin-gam, not 40 miles from Hanoi, 
 upon a line which is running several trains a day, and not a 
 hundred yards from a military post. And at the close of 1893 
 the Courrier d'Haiphong said : " Since two years, not a month, 
 not a week has passed without reports of shots exchanged, 
 gangs of ' pirates ' broken up, engagements more or less bloody. 
 The number of ' pirates ' has certainly not diminished, and their 
 audacity has increased." For my own part, I should not be 
 surprised to hear at any time of a new outburst of " piracy " 
 on a large scale, supported by the Chinese across the frontier. 
 
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 107 
 
 If the government of Tongking were administering a hostile 
 province which it desired to crush out of existence, it could 
 not do much better than follow the tactics pursued almost 
 without interruption since the colony was created. I have 
 told how it refuses privileges; and when it does give 
 them, what are they, too often ? Shortly before my arrival, 
 a concession had been given for the "Magasins Generaux" 
 at Haiphong, a monopoly of Custom-house examination in the 
 warehouses and on the wharves of one firm, to whom and 
 whose terms everybody was obliged to come. In vain the 
 whole community protested and protested. The monopoly was 
 granted, and Chambers of Commerce of both Haiphong and 
 Hanoi immediately and unanimously resigned, and the Chinese 
 merchants sent in a declaration that unless this additional 
 restriction were removed they would leave in a body. And a 
 single example will show the practical evil of this monopoly. 
 The storage of coal per ton per month cost at that time (for 
 comparison I employ French currency) at Hongkong (Kowloon 
 Godowns) 20 centimes ; at Shanghai (Jardine, Matheson & Co.) 
 28 centimes ; at Haiphong (Magasins Generaux) 4 francs ! One 
 resolution of the Chambers of Commerce was truly pathetic. 
 The Government consulted us, they said, and then took no notice 
 whatever of all our representations. It is therefore useless to 
 maintain an institution whose powers are purely illusory. 
 Please let us go. 
 
 Again, take the matter of railways. Everybody you meet in 
 the Far East will assure you that the jobbery in connection 
 with the extension of railways in Tongking passes description. 
 I cannot, of course, speak from personal or certain knowledge 
 upon this point, but the reader may be invited to consider for 
 a moment the scale of railway concessions now pending there. 
 M. de Lanessan has sanctioned the following : To MM. Vezin 
 and Eaveau, a line of 700 kilometres from Hanoi to Hue and 
 Tourane ; to MM. Soupe and Eaveau, a line of 800 kilometres 
 from Saigon to Tourane and Hue ; to the same, a line of steam 
 
108 FRANCE. 
 
 tramway from Hanoi to Phu-lang-thuong ; to M. Portal, who 
 represents the Kebao mines and a syndicate of Paris capitalists, 
 first, a line of 450 kilometres from Kebao, on the coast, to 
 Laokay, on the Chinese frontier ; second, a line from Kebao to 
 Langson; third, a line from Haiphong to Sontay (one would 
 have supposed this to be almost a physical impossibility) ; 
 fourth, a line from Hanoi to Thai Nguyen ; fifth, a line from 
 Kebao to Monkay, on the frontier. A condition of this last set of 
 concessions is that all the materials for the railways shall be 
 supplied from France, and that the locomotives shall consume 
 only fuel mined in Tongking. Thus a premium is put upon 
 failure to begin with. The railway from Saigon to Khone, 
 again, is to cost about 16,500,000 francs for 410 kilometres, the 
 Colony having agreed to pay 500,000 francs per annum for it, if 
 the home Government will pay the remaining seven-eighths of 
 tlie cost. And another concession is promised for a line from 
 Tien- Yen, on the coast, vid Seven Pagodas and Hanoi, to 
 Laokay (obviously including one of the concessions mentioned 
 above), to cost 40,000,000 dollars. Now I say nothing, for I 
 know nothing, about jobbery in these concessions, but I am at 
 liberty to ask what prospect there is of any capital being 
 honestly put into such enterprises, and what prospect there is 
 of their paying their way, in view of a few facts known to every- 
 body. Take the case of the " Compagnie Fran9aise des Char- 
 bonnages du Tonkin." After the most tenacious and romantic 
 efforts, a concession was obtained in 1887 by M. Bavier- 
 Chauffour to develop the coal mines of Hongay. The course of 
 the negociations reads like a chapter from an Oriental "Arabian 
 Nights." To make an indisputable legal tender a ship was 
 chartered to carry 100,000 silver dollars to Tongking, where the 
 whole foreign population turned out armed to escort the bullock- 
 carts carrying the twenty-five wooden cases through the streets. 
 Eefused there, the dollars were taken on board again and carried 
 to the court of Annam, the ship narrowly escaping destruction 
 in a typhoon. Then they were brought back to Haiphong, 
 
FKENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 109 
 
 where the authorities finally accepted them. Now this conces- 
 sion appears to be — I speak, of course, without the least claim 
 to expert knowledge — of the greatest value. At a place called 
 Campha, I have seen a " boulder-stream " of remai-kably pure 
 antimony, 3,000 yards long with an average thickness of 20 
 feet, and I have stood on a solid block of pure oxide of anti- 
 mony weighing 16 tons. In the same concession I saw a vein of 
 oxide of cobalt measuring 100 yards by 500 by one yard. And 
 from a little further north I have seen remarkable specimens of 
 copper ore. Infinitely more important, however, than all these, 
 are the coal-fields. For years the existence of these was well 
 known, and many times the commanders of French gunboats, 
 who had been struck by the multitude of outcrops, sent home 
 reports calling attention to them and to the' enormous advan- 
 tages which would accrue to France if they could be successfully 
 worked. The Societe has spent millions of francs upon these, 
 it has built lines of railway, it has created a town and a 
 harbour, it has employed thousands of miners, it has erected 
 machinery, sunk shafts and driven galleries under the direction 
 of the most experienced engineers it could secure. I have been 
 over the whole of the workings twice and into every one of the 
 galleries, arid even taken photographs of the miners at work. 
 So I can speak with some confidence. As regards the quantity 
 of coal, it is practically inexhaustible. There are millions of 
 tons in sight and nobody can guess how much lies below. I 
 have been in a score galleries, each of them in a solid seam 
 from 10 to 20 feet thick. At Hatou there are seven seams side 
 by side, aggregating 54 feet of coal. And yet these were merely 
 the preliminary works of prospecting. The " Marguerite Mine " 
 at Hongay is simply a great mountain of coal. 
 
 A few years ago the French Ministries of Marine and the 
 Colonies sent out a distinguished mining engineer, M. B. Sarran, 
 on a special mission to report upon the mines of Tongking. 
 After tests in the laboratory, at sea, and upon briquettes, he 
 wrote of the Hongay coals as follows: "Our opinion is that 
 
110 FBANCE. 
 
 Tongking possesses an immense wealth of excellent combustible 
 that the navy may employ with marked advantage over all other 
 coals of the China seas and Australia, rivalling Anzin and 
 Cardiff by its extreme purity, by the absence of iron pyrites, 
 and by a development of heat at the very least equal to that 
 furnished by these coals." These coals are selling at a first-rate 
 price in Hongkong to-day, they have been supplied by contract 
 to a number of British lines and to the French navy, they have 
 been reported favourably upon by British men-of-war, and there 
 is no longer any possible doubt as to their value. The Societe 
 has recently set up machinery for making briquettes, or patent 
 fuel, out of the coal-dust, and a preliminary order was given for 
 10,000 tons by the French Government for the navy. The first 
 two lots offered were refused as not up to the required standard, 
 but were accepted at a lower price, and on April 19fch of this 
 year new trials were made in the presence of M. Jaouin, 
 Engineer of the Navy and Director of the Workshops. The 
 following were the results obtained : Weight of water vaporised 
 by a kilo of briquettes, 7-57 (the contract demanded 6-50, and 
 the first trial had given 5-698) ; ash and clinkers, 811 per cent, 
 (the contract allowed 27 per cent., and the first trial had given 
 56-30 per cent.). The Superior Commission of Examination 
 unanimously recommended the acceptance of the consignment. 
 I am not in possession of the latest returns, but the output from 
 the Hongay mines from January 1 to April 22, 1894, was 85,716 
 tons. The actual shipments during this time were 36,721 tons, 
 and 9,000 tons were left in stock. Of the deliveries to customers, 
 40 per cent, was first-class screened coal, and the rest smaller 
 grades. Now my reason for going thus into the details of a 
 single enterprise is simple. Here is a commercial undertaking 
 of the very best character, the results of which are proved 
 beyond doubt, in the French colony of Tongking, where are also 
 the railways I am discussing. Yet from beginning to end the 
 local authorities have done nothing but obstruct the Societe in 
 every way. The whole of the capital, with trifling exceptions. 
 
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTEATION. Ill 
 
 has been found by two British subjects in Hongkong, Messrs. 
 Chater and Mody, to whom and whose money the development 
 of this Tongking wealth is wholly due. Again and again have 
 they tried to induce French capitalists to take a share of the 
 burden. I believe this is now about to be accomplished, but I 
 am speaking of the past. Moreover, the most childish restric- 
 tions have been enforced, of which one may be given as a 
 specimen. No man not a French subject may be employed by 
 the Societe in any capacity. That is, if the directors desired to 
 obtain a report upon the value of their property or upon the 
 best means of developing it, from a distinguished British or 
 American expert, they could not charge his fee to the accounts 
 of the Societe, but would have to pay him out of their own 
 pockets as a purely private matter. Such are some of the con- 
 ditions and history of investment in Tongking, while the country 
 is starving for want of capital, and "pirates " hold possession of 
 the greater part of it for want of opportunity to work for wages. 
 I ask, therefore, what are the prospects of these tremendous 
 railway concessions I have enumerated, or what reason is there 
 to think that they are bond fide commercial investments ? The 
 reply is obvious. 
 
 These huge concf.'ssions have been granted right and left, 
 apparently by the fiat of M. de Lanessan, while the really 
 essential line from Hanoi to Langson, for which trade is 
 actually waiting, was begun in 1889, and although the route is 
 an easy one and the total distance from Phu-lang-thuong to 
 Langson is but 72 miles, it has only reached the station of 
 Song-boa, a distance of 31J miles. In addition to this, there is 
 the stretch between Hanoi and Phu-lang-thuong, and that 
 between Langson and Bi-ni or Lang-nac on the frontier, to be 
 built before the trade of the district of Lungchow, estimated at 
 3,000,000 dollars annually, can be tapped. Yet M. Etienne 
 ofiieially promised to the Chamber of Deputies that the line 
 should be completed by the end of 1891. If the French, both 
 official and private, were really in earnest about their railways. 
 
112 FRANCE. 
 
 it is evident that they would have devoted every franc and 
 every effort in their power to complete their one promising 
 line before launching out upon a score of other questionable 
 lines. Finally, in support of my whole argument, I may 
 quote the following passage from Mr. Consul Tremlett's latest 
 Eeport : " The Saigon-Mytho railway is always in evidence ; it 
 cost, although constructed along a great highway, over 200,000 
 francs per kilometre (crossing two rivers), or about 15,000,000 
 francs altogether; it has now been in existence some seven 
 years, but has rendered no real service to trade." 
 
 Lest it be thought that there is exaggeration or prejudice 
 in these suggestions of impropriety in the administration of 
 French Indo-China, I will reproduce a passage from the verbatim 
 official report of the discussion of the national Budget of 1891 
 in the Chamber of Deputies. M. Etienne, Under-secretary of 
 State for the Colonies, was making a long and important speech 
 in explanation and defence of the portion of the Budget relating 
 to the Colonies. He was interrupted at one moment by M. 
 Clemenceau, and the following conversation occurred : — 
 
 M. Clemenoeac. While you are still upon the question of Tongkiug will yon 
 be good enough to say a word to us about the exemptions from the customs duties 1 
 That is one of the important points of the Eeport of M. le Myre de Vilers. Yon 
 have forgotten to speak of it. 
 
 M. Etienne. M. Clemenceau points out to me that the Governor-General has 
 taten it upon himself to exempt from import duties certain classes of goods 
 intended for young industries in Tongking and Annam. He declares that the 
 Governor-General had not the right to deprive the Budget of the Protectorate of 
 these receipts. I reply that the Governor-General acted by virtue of the powers 
 which he holds from the State ; he has done what is done— I am obliged to say it 
 —in the other colonies. The Councils-General, when a customs tarifi has been 
 voted and has received the sanction of the Council of State, have the right to 
 reduce duties without incurring remarks from any one. 
 
 M. Lei'det. In favour of private persons? 
 
 M. i^TiENNE. Precisely. 
 
 M. Clemenceau. Then there is no law any more. 
 
 M. iiTiENNE. It is the Constitution. 
 
 A MEMBEE OP THE LEFT. It is the absence of a Constitution 1 
 
 M. Etienne. It is thus. 
 
 M. Lb Oomte de Monijobt. 3?hen everything is explained 1 • 
 
 • Journal Officiel, November 28, 1890, p. 2295. 
 
FBBNCH COLONIAL ADMINISTEATION. 113 
 
 The reporter says that " mouvements divers " took place in the 
 Chamber at M. Etienne's admission. It would have been 
 surprising had this not been so, for it is of course obvious that 
 when the Council-General — that is to say, the Governor-General 
 — may exact customs duties from one person and exempt another 
 from them, the door is opened wide to every kind of political 
 scandal 
 
 I might fill pages with other examples of French adminis- 
 tration and colonial methods. For example, a few months ago 
 the price of the dollar was fixed at 3 francs by order of the 
 Governor-General, at a time when the commercial price of it 
 was from 2-70 to 2-75 francs. Some speculators purchased 
 200,000 dollars at the latter price and sent them to Hanoi. 
 They were accepted by the Treasury there, and remitted at the 
 official price of 3 francs. Thus the speculators made some 
 55,000 francs, while the Government lost the same sum. Again, 
 a Paris paper tells of a contract which was given to a local 
 firm to demolish a part of the old citadel of Hanoi. This is 
 described as a very simple operation, the cost of which would 
 have been met by the value of the materials accruing to the 
 contractor. But the contractor received 40,000 dollars for his 
 work, and a concession of nearly 100 hectares of land in the 
 town of Hanoi to boot, the value of land there being often as 
 much as 5 dollars the metre. Thus, adds the paper in question, 
 the contractors received a present of about 400,000 dollars. 
 Again, the Chinese capitation tax is the subject of much natural 
 criticism. In one year this was farmed out for Cambodia to a 
 Chinaman for 72,000 dollars, though his predecessor had only 
 paid 32,000 dollars, and as the number of Chinese had not 
 increased to any great extent it is obvious that he would make 
 up the difference — indeed, that he was expected to make it up — 
 by additional " squeezes " from his unfortunate compatriots. 
 
 There are in France a few publicists and politicians who have 
 made a special study of French colonisation, and the opinions 
 of these men are expressed with the greatest sense and modera- 
 
 9 
 
114 FEANCE. 
 
 tion. But to the ordinary French writer the colonies are a 
 sealed book. His equipment for discussing them consists of a 
 vague sentimental idea that colonies mean strength and com- 
 merce and glory, and since he is generally actuated, as Lord 
 Eosebery has just said, by a profound jealousy of Great Britain, 
 and knows of her fame as a colonising nation, he insists that 
 France must be a colonising nation too. He does not stop to 
 reflect that everything depends upon where the colonies are and 
 how they are administered. In despair at the difficulty of 
 obtaining French official facts and figures in any instructive 
 shape I recently wrote to a friend at the head of one of the 
 most important departments of the French Foreign Office, 
 begging him to send me any volumes he could find on the 
 subject. After some searching he was good enough to forward 
 to me an official work bearing this description : " Ministere des 
 Colonies. Protectorat de I'Annam et du Tonkin. Administration 
 des Douanes et Eegies. Eapport Sommaire sur les Statistiques 
 des Douanes et le Mouvement Commercial de I'Annam et du 
 Tonkin en 1893." Here at last, I thought, is what I want, and 
 indeed the volume contains many instructive figures to which 
 I shall refer later. But it is evidently intended for popular 
 circulation, and this is a specimen of its advice to the French 
 emigrant : — 
 
 " We may af&rm that in the very near future this country [Tongldng] will offer a 
 vast field to the emigration of our compatriots who till now have sought laud and 
 work in South America, but always under the conditions of economy mentioned 
 above and of determined work. In the hiU country and at sUght altitudes the 
 European can work in the fields all day long for five months of the year. For 
 four other months he can work three hours in the morning and as much in the 
 evening ; while during the three months of great heat he must take precautions at 
 all hours of the day, on account of the sun. Under these conditions the colonist 
 can take his perbi.nal share {contrihuer personelUment) in the labours of clearing 
 the land, planting, and teaching the natives he employs the use of French tools, 
 which are greatly superior to the rudimentary tools used in the country." 
 
 It is difficult to comment upon this in fitting terms. To any- 
 body who knows the East no comment will be necessary, and to 
 those who do not hardly any words would bring home the truth. 
 
FEENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 115 
 
 SO wildly preposterous is the suggestion that a European agricul- 
 tural labourer should go out to work in the tropics with his 
 spade and hoe. If the author of this book had suggested to the 
 native' of Tongking that he should come to Paris and seek 
 employment as a clerk, he would not have gone much further 
 astray. Yet this is the kind of thing that is offered officially to 
 i'reneh readers on the subject of French colonies. 
 
 In the preceding chapter I spoke in general terms of the 
 proportion of " fonctionnaires," civil servants, to the French 
 population of Indo-China. The details of this are so astonish- 
 ing that they would hardly be credited from the mouth of a 
 foreigner. I will therefore give a French official statement of 
 them. M. Etienne, while Under-secretary of State for the Colo- 
 nies and speaking in defence of the Administration, made the 
 following remarks about the state of things in Cochin-China : — 
 
 " What is the population of that country ? It is 1,800,000 
 eouls. There is a French population of 1,600 inhabitants, of 
 whom 1,200 are 'fonctionnaires.' How is it administered? It 
 has a Colonial Council: elected by whom? By the 1,200 
 ' fonctionnaires,' who have also a deputy. And you expect that 
 confusion and disorder will not reign in that country ! How, 
 indeed, can you expect an administration to work smoothly, 
 when thanks to this system of organisation, all this world of 
 ' fonctionnaires ' throws itself into the electoral arena, and 
 divides itself into two, three, or four camps, one supporting the 
 actual President of the Colonial Council, another the Mayor of 
 Saigon, another the deputy, another the candidates for deputy ? 
 ... In 1887 I tried to reduce the number of the 'fonction- 
 naires.' I did reduce the cost of them to the extent of 3,500,000 
 francs out of 9,000,000. I took that step in October, and in the 
 following December the Ministry of which I was a member 
 disappeared. Six months later, the ' fonctionnaires ' whom I 
 had dismissed had all reappeared in Cochin-China."* When 
 this is admitted by the defenders of a system there is nothing 
 
 * Chambre des D^putfe, Seance du 27 Novembre, 1890. 
 
116 FRANCE. 
 
 left for its critics to say. In the very same year that the salaries 
 of the "fonctionn aires" of Cochin-China amounted to £360,000, 
 the sum spent upon public works in the Colony— the one expen- 
 diture upon which the entire productive future of such a- place 
 must depend— was £16,000 ! But even this pitiful figure is far 
 from telling the whole astounding truth. When the " mouve- 
 ment prolonge " which followed his words had died away, M. 
 Etienne continued : " And while public works in the present 
 year are only represented by £16,000, what do you think is the 
 sum allotted to the personnel of the public works department ? 
 It is £16,000— £16,000 worth of personnel out of £16,000 worth 
 of public works ! " That is, not a centime of work was 
 done. Moreover, during the years when millions of francs 
 were spent on public works in Cochin-China, what was 
 there actually done to show for it ? " Only a few roads 
 round Saigon " — " routes luxueuses," according to M. de 
 Lanessan elsewhere, " pour les fonctionnaires qui vont se 
 promener le soir autour de Saigon," It is fortunate in the 
 interests of truth that we have these facts from the lips of 
 responsible Ministers and ex-Ministers ; as I said, nobody would 
 have believed them from the mouth of a foreign critic. We owe 
 the revelations to a curious and amusing circumstance. There 
 is a cynical proverb to the effect that when mothers-in-law fall 
 out, we get at the family facts. And all this information arose 
 from a falling-out between M. Etienne and M. le Myre de Vilers. 
 As " rapporteur," the latter had bitterly attacked the financial 
 regime of the former. M. Etienne retorted that however bad 
 tilings might be at that moment, they were much worse when 
 M. le Myre de Vilers was Governor of Cochin-China. M. le 
 Myre de Vilers protested against the expenditure for eleven 
 carriages for the service of the Governor. M. Etienne replied 
 that his critic had himself had eleven carriages and had 
 spent more money upon them. M. le Myre de Vilers criticised 
 the sum of 12,000 francs which M. Piquet was spending as 
 Governor in secret services. M. lEtienne retorted that M. le 
 
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION, 117 
 
 Myre de Vilers himself had spent 15,000 francs. Finally, when 
 the duel had at the same time delighted and shocked the 
 Chamber for an hour the combatants exchanged a couple of 
 terrific blows, and sank exhausted. M. Etienne produced a set 
 of dreadful figures showing that expenditure had risen by leaps 
 and bounds in all directions during M. le Myre de Vilers' 
 tenure of office in Cochin-Ohina. This blow his adversary made 
 no attempt to parry, but riposted with the proof that whereas 
 M. Etienne was posing as the reformer of administrative 
 methods, he was himself directly and personally responsible for 
 the extreme centralisation which had produced the very evils he 
 was deploring. In support of this he read two despatches from 
 M. Etienne to himself, ordering that every change in personnel 
 in the Colony should in future be submitted by him to M. 
 fitienne in Paris, before it was made. " Thus," he concluded, 
 " M. the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies reserves to 
 himself every nomination, and M. the Governor-General has not 
 the right to appoint a school-master ! " Such an effect did this 
 instructive duel produce upon the Chamber that the Budget was 
 adopted by the small majority of 85 in a total vote of 483, and 
 this only after the Ministry had made a series of impassioned 
 appeals to the memory of the thousands of Frenchmen who had 
 laid down their lives for their country in Indo-China. 
 
 One recent French writer and traveller, I may add, has 
 spoken out bluntly about Tongking. This is Prince Henri 
 d'Orleans, who has certainly had abundant opportunities of 
 seeing French colonial methods for himself. " Almost every- 
 where," he says, "there exists a latent antagonism, if indeed it is 
 not overt, between the colonist and the Government." And this 
 is his pronouncement about French colonial administration : 
 "It is too numerous; it is partially composed of incapables and 
 of men with bad antecedents; it is too ignorant and meddle- 
 some ; it endeavours to raise difficulties and to check all means 
 of action ; for the most part born of favouritism, it endeavours 
 to indulge in the same practice and displeases those who 
 
118 FEANCE. 
 
 obtain what they apply for as well as those who are passed 
 over." * 
 
 So much for the colonist and the Government impersonal. 
 What is his attitude towards the personal Governor-General ? 
 He sees him come, he watches him while he is learning the 
 A B c of Tongking affairs, he reads a few ofiBcial decrees, he 
 hears a few official after-dinner speeches, eulogizing Prance, 
 Tongking and the colonist himself, and then some day a tele- 
 gram comes and the colonist sees him go. The heads of the 
 colonial Government succeed each other in Saigon and Hanoi 
 like the figures of a shadow pantomime. M. Eichaud boasted 
 to me with a laugh that he was tolerated longer than any of his 
 predecessors. His term of office had been thirteen months ! t 
 Before the Governor-General comes, he is unknown ; while in 
 the East even his public speeches are addressed to Paris ; he 
 returns and is forgotten. It is the merest farce of supervision, 
 and what wonder that the colonist sinks deeper year by year in 
 disgust and despair ? He has described himself in a bitter 
 epigram : " le colon est un pretexte a banquets." Instability is 
 the dominant characteristic of French administration in the 
 Far East. Does anybody seriously believe that the solid 
 foundations of future prosperity can ever be laid in this shifting 
 quicksand? For an Englishman who cares for Prance it is 
 positively distressing to hear Frenchmen talk in Tongking. 
 Fifty times during my two visits was it said to me, " Ah, if only 
 you English had Tongking ! " Matters have somewhat improved 
 for them lately, and a new hostility to England has sprung up, 
 but I seriously believe that if a secret ballot had been taken 
 then, a majority of the French in Tongking would have voted, 
 
 * "Around Tonkin," 1894, pp. 88 and 423. 
 
 t This is the list of Governors-General since the creation of the " Union Indo- 
 chinoise " by the decree of October 17, 1887 :— M. Constaus, Nov., '87-April, '88 ; 
 M. Eichaud, April, 'SB-May, '89 ; M. Piquet, May, '89-April, '91 ; M. Bideau, April, 
 '91-Jnne, '91 ; M. de Lanessan, April, '91, en conge; M. Chavaasieux, March, '94, 
 acting ; M. de Lanessan. Between December, 1884, and November, 1887, there 
 were ten Residents-General of Tongking— an average service of about three months. 
 
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTEATION. 119 
 
 in spite of their undying love of country, to baud over Indo- 
 China to England. Then at least they would have been able 
 to buy and sell, manufacture and import, create and develop, 
 with no man to hamper them and no " Administration " to 
 forbid. As it is, the French colonist's attitude to his govern- 
 ment is summed up in the exclamation that I heard fall from 
 the Hps of one of them when he saw an official approaching him 
 on duty — " Norn de Dieu ! — ^voila encore 1' Administration qui 
 arrive ! " 
 
 But the shadows on the picture are not yet complete. Pirst» 
 as to the Chinese. Nobody can advocate more strongly than I 
 the absolute necessity of keeping them out of a civilised settled 
 Western country. But it is as plain as the nose on one's face 
 that no colony in the Far East can dispense with them. Their 
 labour, their easy and willing adaptability to any job by which 
 money can be earned, from nursing the baby to driving the steam 
 engine ; their commercial insight and comparative trustworthi- 
 ness, — these make them an ideal substratum for a new commu- 
 nity, as Shanghai and Hongkong and Singapore and the Protected 
 Malay States prove to demonstration. Yet Indo-China taxes 
 them till they are giving up their established businesses, and 
 puts a price on the head of each as he comes and again as he 
 goes. The impot personnel upon every Asiatic is from 7 dels, to 
 80 dols. ; the impot des patentes ranges from 2 dols. to 400 dols.; 
 and the price of the passport without which no Asiatic can 
 leave French territory is 2.50 dols. 
 
 Second, the port charges. Take the little steamer I returned 
 in, the Freyr, 676 tons, from Banders, in Jutland. At the port 
 of Newcastle she had paid M ; at Nagasaki 70 dols. ; at Yoko- 
 hama 50 dols. ; at Hongkong 4 dols. ; while to get in and out of 
 the port of Haiphong costs her every trip 302.40 dols. And this, 
 too, is only for the ship's charges, pure and simple. The char- 
 terer must pay a dollar and a half wharfage for every ton of 
 cargo landed — say 750 dols. for an average cargo. Thus at a 
 port where common sense teaches that trade should be tempted 
 
120 FBANCB. 
 
 and nursed in every possible way, the authorities begin by 
 making trade all but impossible. There can hardly be a more 
 needy port in the world than Haiphong, yet it is doubtful if 
 there is a more expensive one. The consequences are inevit- 
 able and obvious. 
 
 Third, the enormous Customs duties of the " Tarif general." 
 These need no specifying. Saigon prospered exceedingly under 
 a free-trade regime, and she has been forced to give protection a 
 good trial. What is the position of Saigon now ? A critical, if 
 not a hopeless one. Yet she long ago discovered that only 
 one thing could save her. A unanimous report of the Chamber 
 of Commerce concluded with these words in big type: "We 
 demand the absolute abolition of the Customs regime in Cochin- 
 China from January 1, 1889." Yet is there the faintest shadow 
 of a coming change ? On the contrary. In one of the last 
 public speeches he made, at a banquet in Hanoi, M. Eichaud 
 exclaimed, "Eenounce the chimerical hope of the return of 
 absolute commercial liberty ! " The subsidised newspaper 
 added that this was followed by a " triple salve d'applaudisse- 
 ments." The only possible comment is, that the colonists of 
 Hanoi who applauded that sentiment should be refused Christian 
 burial, for they are suicides. 
 
 Again and again have the Colonies protested against these 
 duties by every means at their command, and their protests have 
 been supported by several of the most influential writers and 
 administrators in France, such as M. Leroy-Beaulieu and M. le 
 Myre de Vilers, but almost wholly in vain. Some slight amelior- 
 ations have been granted under the pressure of absolute necessity. 
 A series of modifications in the "Tarif General" have been 
 applied to Indo-China, reducing the duties on a number of 
 articles and abolishing them on others. And after it had 
 become perfectly clear that transit trade to southern China 
 through Tongking would not arise so long as customs duties 
 were levied upon goods in transit, the authorities conceded a 
 detaxe of 80 per cent, upon such goods. And when this was 
 
FRENCH COLONIAL ADMINISTRA.TION. 121 
 
 proved to be prohibitive they took off the tax altogether. Thus 
 •what should have been dictated at the outset by an elementary 
 knowledge of practical economics was only conceded after a long 
 struggle and when it was enforced by necessity. I need hardly 
 say, I presume, that the tariff is constructed primarily to keep 
 out the manufactures of all nations except France, but in spite 
 of this, as I shall show later, the trade between France and 
 her colonies in Indo-China is a mere bagatelle, not to be com- 
 pared for an instant with the subventions necessary to keep the 
 colonies going. The foreigner is regarded as an enemy, and the 
 most petty restrictions and partialities are adopted to handicap 
 him. Here is an example which I take from the London and 
 China Express : " On a firm whose total earnings in 1892 were 
 182 dollars, and in 1893 749 dollars, the resident of Annam 
 imposed the patente to the modest sum of 316 dollars yearly." 
 At the port of Haiphong French ships pay fifty centimes per 
 ton, foreign ships one franc. At the "ports ouverts au com- 
 merce " French ships pay one cent, per ton, foreign ships ten 
 cents. Will it be believed by those who only know France in 
 Europe, and love her gallantry, her freedom from intellectual 
 prejudice, and her constant striving after an ideal of equality, 
 that France in the Far East positively bars her paying hospital 
 at her chief port against foreign sufferers by a differential tariff ? 
 Yet this is the case. In the General Hospital at Saigon foreign 
 seamen must pay 9J francs a day and foreign officers 18 francs 
 — charges just double what French patients of corresponding 
 ranks have to pay. "I addressed the Governor upon the 
 subject," says the British Consul, from whose last Eeport I take 
 the fact, " pointing out that in the hospitals of Hongkong and 
 Singapore no distinction was made as regards nationality, but 
 no reply has as yet been received." Is it too much to say that 
 a nation which deliberately does this has still to learn one of the 
 first principles of civilisation ? 
 
 The result of any caref al study of French colonial administra- 
 tion in the Far Bast, as I have now perhaps shown alike from 
 
122 FRANCE. 
 
 my own investigations and the testimony of the best French 
 critics both in France and on the spot, is therefore that Indo- 
 China is grievously misgoverned. Instead of finding a helping 
 hatid, the French colonist encounters a closed fist. The 
 " functionary," dressed in his little brief authority, has utterly 
 forgotten that he is the servant of the colonist, that he has 
 no other reason for existence except to aid and protect and 
 encourage his self-exiled countryman. As it is, while the 
 colonist is the blood of the new country, the " functionary " is 
 the leech. Day by day the cry of the French colonial civilian 
 goes up to heaven, " Pas tant d'Administration ! " Everywhere 
 else in the world, capital is welcomed, no matter whose pocket 
 it comes out of. In French colonies alone gold must be stamped 
 with " liberty, equality, and fraternity" before it is received, and 
 a man must be a Frenchman before he is allowed to labour with 
 the rest. The Eevolution seems a joke when one learns in 
 Tongking that one of the conditions attached to a concession is 
 that nobody but Frenchmen shall be employed on it, and that a 
 sick Englishman or German must pay twice as much for his bed 
 in the hospital as a sick Frenchman. I do not believe there is 
 another country in the world which would make such a pitiful 
 stipulation. Does France not know what is done in her name ? 
 or is she not ashamed, remembering '89, to adopt such an 
 attitude to-day before the world ? 
 
 In conclusion I will say simply this. I believe, as every one 
 who has looked into the matter believes, that Tongking might 
 have a prosperous future under the control of a colonising 
 nation. But I know, as everybody who has looked into the 
 matter knows, that she will never reach it along the present 
 road. A certain permanency of appointment for the Governor- 
 General ; a relaxing of restrictions upon the colonists all round; 
 a hundred times more respect paid by officials to colonial wishes 
 and requests ; far greater consideration for native rights and 
 sentiments ; the encouragement of the Chinese ; a glad welcome 
 to capital and enterprise from any source ; an immediate and 
 
FRENCH COLONIAL ABMINISTBATrON. 123 
 
 equable reduction of the tariff; the decentralisation of autho- 
 rity ; — these are some of the primal conditions of progress. If 
 they do not come, then France may prepare for the humiliation 
 which the very name of " Indo-China " will ultimately carry 
 with it. In the words of the editor of the Oourrier d'Haiphong, 
 " To continue as at present means the loss of Indo-China — it 
 means the ruin of French influence in the Far East." 
 
CHAFTEB VIL 
 
 THE GOST OF A FBENGH COLONY. 
 
 TN preceding chapters I have endeavoured by a brief descrip- 
 -■- tion of the external aspects of the French colonies in the 
 Far East to place before the reader a picture of the results in 
 life and administration which have been attained in about 
 thirty-six years. And by my own criticisms, supported by the 
 testimony of distinguished French writers and speakers, I have 
 tried to show how completely France has misunderstood the 
 problem she set herself to solve, and how persistently and 
 wilfully her administrators have taken the wrong road. These 
 criticisms, however, have been for the most part in general 
 terms, whereas to produce an adequate effect they should be 
 proved to demonstration by actual facts. What one man 
 af&rms, another may deny. Without figures a criticism may 
 be dismissed as largely a matter of opinion. I decided, there- 
 fore, to collect from French ofi&cial sources the figures relating 
 to a typical French colony ; first, concerning its cost, and 
 second, concerning its returns : that is, to draw up a national 
 balance-sheet for this one national enterprise, in the form of a 
 debit and credit account. 
 
 If I had foreseen what this decision involved, I should not 
 have attempted the task at this time. I had, however, no sus- 
 picion of the extraordinary complexities of French official 
 finance and the difficulties, amounting almost to impossibility, 
 which beset any one, not a professed statistician, who attempts 
 
 124 
 
THE COST OF A FRENCH COLONY. 125 
 
 to disentangle the plain fact from the mountains of figures. 
 The French as a nation are addicted to the exact sciences, and 
 this national proclivity comes to its finest flower in the French 
 Budget. It is issued every year in a number of volumes ; it is 
 subdivided in the most elaborate manner; it contains the 
 minutest details upon every possible point ; it is arranged on a 
 theoretical system so arbitrary that a lifetime would hardly be 
 too long to enable one to grasp its principles. If you desire to 
 learn the details of the movements in the potato-market, or the 
 duty upon areca-nut collected in Cambodia, the French Budget 
 with its local additions will satisfy your curiosity at once. If, 
 however, you desire to calculate the cost of a French colony 
 through a series of years, you must unite the path-finding 
 instincts of a Red Indian with the patience of the patriarch and 
 a willingness to believe that no contradiction is involved when 
 1,000 francs in one book appears as 1,200 in another. More- 
 over, the French are never satisfied with their own official 
 statistics : they are constantly varying the form and polishing 
 the principle. And after prolonged investigation one is forced 
 to the conclusion that the body of statisticians desires to 
 remain a close corporation, and to construct out of its own 
 figures an impenetrable barrier to exclude the impertinent 
 independent inquirer. No sooner, for example, have you 
 discovered in what way a certain fact of finance is presented 
 during a series of years than you are brought up short at a 
 foot-note explaining that by a " mouvement d'ordre " this fact 
 has been transferred to another portion of the Budget and 
 incorporated in a wholly different series of tables. One of the 
 most accomplished French statisticians, M. de Foville, whose 
 handbook is or should be upon the desk of every writer about 
 France, frankly admits all this. " Nothing is more dangerous," 
 he says, "than amateur statistics, where errors swarm, and 
 which prove everything that one desires to prove. The only way 
 effectually to combat this false statistic is to put true statistics 
 within the reach of all — to make the truth in relation to econo- 
 
126 FEANCE. 
 
 mical and social questions very accessible in the first place, and 
 very intelligible in the second. But this point has not yet been 
 reached, especially in France. A hundred times we have heard 
 men, who were certainly not the first comers, express their 
 regret that it is so difficult to obtain exact information upon 
 even the most common facts of the national life." * And even 
 while I was gathering the figures which follow, M. Leroy- 
 Beaulieu, certainly the most capable of living Frenchmen in 
 such matters, has lifted up his voice in a complaint which 
 echoed my own growing despair. He says : " Quite at the end 
 of the last session, at the sitting of July 24, 1894, M. Poincare 
 laid upon the table the ' rectified project ' of the Budget for 1895. 
 This ' rectified project,' very far from being final, is the subject 
 of new manipulations and rectifications. Our unhappy Budgets 
 are retouched and altered to such an extent that it is impossible 
 to recognise them or to find one's way about in them." f As an 
 example of this lack of finality, I may add that a French Budget, 
 whether national or colonial, is not closed until years after the 
 date of its appearance. Thus the Tongking Budget of 1891, 
 for example, may appear in one shape in 1890, in another in 
 1891, in still another in 1892, and possibly even in a fom-th in 
 1893. 
 
 After the above it will easily be understood that I put in 
 no claim for the completeness of my own figures. They are 
 the result of many weary days of research both in London and 
 in the official libraries in Paris ; and I doubt if there is a 
 contemporary French book of reference which I have not 
 examined. More than once I have been on the point of 
 giving up the task, but I have reflected that this would be to 
 leave the lesson untaught, since it is very improbable that 
 any Frenchman will desire in the present state of colonising 
 enthusiasm to become the mouthpiece of facts so unpleasant 
 to the majority of his fellow-countrymen. I claim only, how- 
 
 • Alf. de Foville, " La France Eeonomique," 1887, p. i 
 f Jour I. a 'Us Debats, November 3, 
 
THE COST OF A FEENCH COLONY. 127 
 
 ever, that the following figures have been conscientiously 
 sought, and I present them as an attempt to answer a 
 question of the greatest interest, until some more skilful 
 investigator shall correct them. Complete and final accuracy, 
 I may add, will never be attained by anybody, since in not a 
 few instances the official figures are hopelessly self-contra- 
 dictory.* 
 
 I have chosen Tongking as the typical French colony because 
 of the amount of discussion that has already raged around it, 
 and because the whole of its history is included within a 
 modern and comparatively brief period. It will be remembered 
 that Tongking was under the suzerainty of Annam when the 
 French became possessed of the latter country in 1862, the 
 Annamese having driven out the Chinese long before, although 
 China still claimed suzerainty, as she has done over every 
 country adjoining her vast empire. The explorations of Senez, 
 Harmand, Dupuis, and, above all, of Francis Gamier, the most 
 gallant and devoted explorer France has ever had, filled up the 
 interval until 1873, the year of what has been called the first 
 Tongking expedition. Garnier seized the delta of Tongking in 
 the winter of 1873, declared the Eed Eiver open to commerce, 
 and was killed in an ambush on December 21st. The fol- 
 lowing years were remarkable chiefly for the explorations of 
 M. de Kergaradec — a naval lieutenant and French Consul at 
 Hanoi — and those of a rapidly increasing number of French 
 officers and travellers. Up to 1882 nothing further had been 
 accomplished, except theoretical work. In March, 1882, Eiviere 
 was despatched to Tongking with two ships and four hundred 
 men to bring the anomalous situation to an end. He fought 
 several actions against the Black Flags, but his force was too 
 small to enable him to do anything of importance, and he 
 
 * " Comme nous I'avons fait remarquer dans notre preo^dente edition de cet 
 ouvrage, nos documents statistiques coloniaux officiels se eontredisent sans oesse." 
 — Leroy-Beaulieu, " De la Colonisation chez les peuples modernes," Paris, 1891 
 p. 557, note. 
 
128 FBANCB. 
 
 remained for nearly a year virtually a prisoner in the citadel 
 of Hanoi. At last the French Government, under the famous 
 ministry of Jules Ferry, voted credits and reinforcements, and 
 as soon as these arrived Eiviere attacked and was killed in the 
 sortie of May 19, 1883, under circumstances which I have pre- 
 viously described. When this news reached France, a wave of 
 colonial and military enthusiasm broke over the country, and 
 the Chamber and the Senate unanimously voted a credit o 
 5,300,000 francs, and a powerful expedition was despatched 
 under General Bouet and Admiral Courbet. 
 
 At this moment, therefore, the history of Tongking may be 
 said to begin, and the calculation of its cost accordingly 
 commences here, although of course not a little money had 
 been previously spent in the country. For the next four years 
 French treasure and French lives were spent with so lavish a 
 hand that at last France became thoroughly alarmed at the 
 outlook ; and after General Negrier had attacked and captured 
 Langson in defiance of orders, had been driven out by the Chinese 
 and mortally wounded, and Colonel Herbinger had lost control 
 of himself and retreated precipitately in the most discreditable 
 manner, public opinion turned against Tongking, and the Ferry 
 Ministry succumbed to an onslaught by M. Clemenceau on 
 March 30, 1885. This first chapter of the financial history of 
 Tongking presents the following figures : — 
 
 
 Francs.* 
 
 1883 
 
 14,868,900 
 
 1884 
 
 73,250,368 
 
 1885 
 
 115,694,416t 
 
 1886 
 
 65,998,696 
 
 
 269,802,379 
 
 In four years, therefore, France had spent, at the most 
 moderate computation that could be made, nearly two hundred 
 
 • These figures are taken from M. Jules Ferry, "Le Tonkin et la M^re-Patrie," 
 1890, p. 386, a source in wliicli they are not likely to be found exaggerated. 
 
 t In 1885 and 1886 the credits voted were 164,385,5i2 and 75,203,901 francs 
 respectively, but I have taken the sums described as actually spent. 
 
THE COST OP A FRENCH COLONY. 
 
 129 
 
 and seventy millions of francs. The preliminaries of peace 
 with China were signed at Paris on April 4, 1885. 
 
 For the second chapter, from 1887 to the estimated Budget 
 of 1894, I have collected the figures from the national Budget 
 of each year. They present the following results : — 
 
 
 From France.* 
 
 From Cochiu-China. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 
 Francs. 
 
 Francs. 
 
 Francs. 
 
 1887 
 
 30,000,000t 
 
 11,000,000 
 
 41,000,000 
 
 1888 
 
 19,800,000 
 
 11,000,000{ 
 
 30,800,000 
 
 1889 
 
 15,615,000 
 
 11,000,000 
 
 26,615,000 
 
 1890 
 
 12,450,000 
 
 11,000,000 
 
 23,450,000 
 
 1891 
 
 10,450,000 
 
 11,000,000 
 
 21,450,000 
 
 1892 
 
 10,450,000 
 
 8,000,000 
 
 18,450,000 
 
 1893 
 
 24,450,000 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 29,450,000 
 
 1894 
 
 24,450,000 
 
 4,700,000 
 
 29,150,000 
 
 
 147,665,000 
 
 72,700,000 
 
 220,365,000 
 
 Thus, during the eight years which have followed the estab- 
 lishment of peace and the final passing of Tongking under 
 French dominion, France has spent over two hundred and 
 twenty millions of francs. We therefore arrive at the following 
 first estimate of the cost of Tongking : — 
 
 1883-1886 
 1887-1894 
 
 Total 
 
 Francs. 
 269,802,379 
 220,365,000 
 
 490,167,879 
 
 I am prepared to show, however, that even this enormous 
 figure is a long way short of the fact. The French ofScial 
 
 * Inclusive of the subvention for the Tongking submarine cable. 
 t In round numbers— from Jules Ferry. 
 
 + In the Budget, " Service Colonial," for 1888, this figure appears as only 
 1,727,000 franis, but as M. Btienue said in the Chamber of Deputies when pre- 
 senting the Budget of 1891, "Nous avons demand^, en effet, 11 millions k la 
 Cochin-Chine en 1887, et nous avons du, en 1888, en 1889, et en 1890, lui r^clamer 
 la m^me somme," I have made 1888 no exception to this regular credit. The 
 difference probably appears in some other part of the Budget, where it has escaped 
 my search. 
 
 10 
 
130 
 
 FEANCE. 
 
 figures for the Budget of the Protectorate of Annam and Tong- 
 king, from 1887 to 1891, are the following : — 
 
 "SITUATION DES EECETTES ET DES DEFENSES DU BUDGET DU 
 PEOTECTOEAT DE L' ANNAM ET DU TONKIN."* 
 
 BUDQET DE 
 
 Eeoettes. 
 
 DSpenses. 
 
 1887 
 
 iVancs. 
 OrcTinaires. Extraordinaires. 
 ll,377,104t 58,266,566 
 
 EranoB. 
 Ordinaires. Estraordiiiaires. 
 11,392,485 68,251,185 
 
 
 69,643,670 
 
 69,643,670 
 
 1888 
 
 13,572,132 37,207,210 
 
 10,292,093 40,577,249 
 
 
 50,869,342 
 
 50,869,342 
 
 1889 
 
 15,445,626 37,007,534 
 
 12,905,562 39,547,598 
 
 
 52,453,160 
 
 52,453,160 
 
 1890 
 
 15,297,415 32,269,398 
 
 17,775,176 29,791,637 
 
 
 47,566,813 
 
 47,566,813 
 
 1891 
 
 18,814,721 24,765,079 
 
 16,594,789 26,985,012 
 
 
 43,579,801 
 
 43,679,801 
 
 These budgets, it will be noticed, balance in a manner to 
 provoke the most sceptical examination. A little investigation 
 shows that the system of subdivision into "Eecettes ordinaires," 
 "Eecettes extraordinaires," " Depenses ordinaires," and"De- 
 penses extraordinaires," is misleading in the extreme. The 
 "ordinary receipts" mean simply and properly enough the 
 revenue raised locally. The " ordinary expenditure " similarly 
 
 • Every figure in this table and in that wMeh immediately follows it was very 
 courteously furnished to me by the Minist^re des Colonies, for which I beg here to 
 retarn my best thanks.- I have altered the arrangement of the figures, to display 
 them more instructively, but all the sums and the theoretical form of the budgets 
 are absolutely ofScial. I have ventured to omit the centimes. 
 
 t These budgets appear originally in dollars. Up to and including 1892 the 
 doUar is reckoned at 4 francs, in 1893 at 3.33 francs, and in 1894 at 3 francs. All 
 these gold-prices of the dollar, it is perhaps needless to say, were in excess of the 
 facts of exchange. 
 
THE COST OF A FRENCH COLONY. 
 
 131 
 
 means the cost of the civil administration of the country. The 
 " extraordinary receipts " mean neither more nor less than the 
 exact sum necessary to make up the deficit in the " ordinary 
 receipts," j^Ztts the cost to the mother country of the military 
 and naval operations.* I do not say that this system was 
 adopted for the purpose of throwing dust in the eyes of the 
 casual inquirer, but it could not fail to have this effect. At any 
 rate in 1891 the French statisticians no longer felt equal to 
 presenting the annual results in this preposterous form. At 
 this point, therefore, a change was introduced into the form 
 of the budget of the Protectorate of Annam and Tongking. 
 Beginning with the year 1892, the budget was reduced to the 
 resources derived from local revenues alone, the French govern- 
 ment having decided to include the military expenditure in the 
 general budget of the "metropolis." Those are the words of 
 the o£Qcial explanation. For the next two years, therefore, the 
 budgets of Annam and Tongking assume this pleasing shape : — 
 
 Budget de 
 
 Eeceties. 
 
 Dispenses. 
 
 BxragDAOT DBS Eeoettbs sub les 
 
 DfiPENSES. 
 
 1892 
 1893 
 
 Francs. 
 20,820,680 
 18,531,450 
 
 Francs. 
 19,385,035 
 18,040,098 
 
 Francs. 
 1,435,645 
 491,352 
 
 The results thus became more attractive than ever : the 
 revenues of the colony showing an actual excess over its 
 expenditure. I need hardly point out that in these two years 
 no account whatever is taken in the local budget of the vastly 
 preponderating part of the expenses. To get at the facts, there- 
 fore, we must place these budgets from 1887 to 1893 in a 
 different form. The expenditure is obviously both " ordinary " 
 
 * " Les ressourees extraordinaires proviennent de subventions de la mStropoIe et 
 de la Cochin-Chine, et de remboursements effectu6s par le Minis'-ve de la Guerre 
 pour les d6peuses normales de ses troupes." — " Organisation des Colonies fran(;aises 
 et des Pays de Proteotorat," par E. Petit, Paris, 1894, p. 607. 
 
132 
 
 FEANCE. 
 
 and " extraordinary " added together, while the real and only 
 actual revenue is the " ordinary " one. We thus get the 
 following results : — 
 
 Budget of 
 
 EXPENDITUEE. 
 
 Eevenue. 
 
 Deficit. 
 
 1887 
 1888 
 1889 
 1890 
 1891 
 1892 
 1893 
 
 69,643,670 
 
 50,869,342 
 
 52,453,160 
 
 47.566,813 
 
 43,579,801 
 
 37,835,035* 
 
 47,490,098* 
 
 11,377,104 
 
 13,572,132 
 
 15,445,626 
 
 15,297,415 
 
 18,814,721 
 
 20,820,680t 
 
 18,531,450t 
 
 58,266,566 
 37,297,210 
 37,007,534 
 32,269,398 
 24,765,080 
 17,014,355 
 28,958,648 
 
 Total deficit 235,578,791frcB. 
 
 Instead of the cost of Tongking from 1887 to 1894 being 
 220,365,000 francs, we find, therefore, that from 1887 to 1893 
 it reached 235,578,791 francs. The conclusion arrived at above 
 therefore takes the following corrected shape : — 
 
 1883-1886 
 1887-1893 
 
 Total 
 
 Franca. 
 269,802,379 
 235,578,791 
 
 505,381,170 
 
 * These totals are arrived at, in the absence of the complete budget for these 
 years, which has been suppressed, by adding together the "dSpenses ordinaires," 
 the " subventions " from France and from Coohin-China, and the subsidy for the 
 cable. Theoretically they should be quite accurate, but I am convinced they are 
 under the mark, though I cannot trace any other figures. 
 
 t These official figures are obviously based upon the revenues as they were 
 reckoned in 1893 to have been. But in the official Annuaire de I'Indo-Chine for 
 1894 the revenues are revised to be for 1892, 4,792,502 dols., and for 1893, 5,509,543 
 dols. These sums, multiplied respectively by 4 and by 3-33, the official (though 
 incorrect) rates of exchange into francs, give 19,170,008 and 18,346,778 francs. 
 These are therefore the latest figures. I have, however, adhered to those 
 furnished me ofBcially. As in the case of Singapore (see p. 46), the revenue of 
 Tongking for these years, when given in dollars, shows an increase, and when 
 given in francs a decrease. But it is important to bear in mind that tije same 
 injustice does not arise in the French as in the British colony, for all the customs 
 duties of Tongking are collected in francs, and have therefore to be translated 
 into dollars for the purposes of the budget, whereas in Singapore they are alike 
 collected and expressed in doUars. In Tongking, accordingly, every fall in the 
 price of the doUar tends pro tanto to inflate the revenue as expressed in terms of 
 silver dollars ; in Singapore it makes no difference. 
 
THE COST OF A FRENCH OOIiONY. 133 
 
 To this must be added the subsidies to Tongking from France 
 and Cochin-China for 1894, namely, 29,150,000 francs — as 
 shown above. The conclusion, therefore, at which I have 
 finally arrived is that from 1883, when the history of Tongking 
 began, down to the latest accessible official statistics, the cost of 
 Tongking to Prance has reached the colossal figure of 534,531,170 
 francs, or £21,381,247, a yearly average of 44,544,264 francs, 
 or £1,781,770.* Or, to put the fact in a popular form, the 
 satisfaction of including " le Tonkin " among the possessions 
 of his country has cost the French taxpayer 122,039 francs — 
 £4,881 — a day, Sundays included, for every day that he has had 
 it. It may safely be foretold that when at length he comes to 
 realise this fact he will be surprised, and his surprise will 
 manifest itself in a striking manner. 
 
 So much for the debit side of the account. Let us now 
 compare it as briefly as possible with what Tongking has to 
 show on the other side of the ledger. This is, after all, the 
 point of real importance. It does not matter what Prance has 
 spent upon Tongking, if she has thereby secured an adequate 
 return in trade. At the present moment, too, the balance-sheet 
 of Tongking is of more interest than ever as an example of 
 Prench colonisation, since France has just voted 65,000,000 
 francs to repeat the experiment in Madagascar, under similar 
 conditions of native opposition and problematical results. The 
 following table exhibits the foreign trade of Tongking from 
 1883 to 1892, inclusive, the figures for 1893 not having yet 
 been published. 
 
 * I am aware, for reasons unnecessary to give at length, that a number of items 
 have escaped me. Though I cannot trace them with sufficient uniformity to 
 include them, the following extracts wUl show I am not wrong in asserting that 
 the above falls short of the actual total : — 
 
 " Le budget du service colonial est done une portion du budget mfitropolitain, ou 
 budget g6n6ral de I'Etat, appliqu6e aux colonies, mais il ne correspond pas k la 
 totality des d^penses des services oompris dans le budget de I'Etat et executes aux 
 colonies ; les d^penses du ' service marine ' rel&vent, en effet, du budget des dSpenses 
 de la marine." " Le budget de la guerre [1893] partioipe pour 1 million aux 
 d^penses militaires du Tonkin." — "Organisation des Colonies fran^aises et des 
 Pays de Protectorat," par E. Petit, Paris, 1894, pp. 490 and 531. 
 
134 
 
 FBANCE. 
 FOREIGN TEADE OF TONGKING, 1883-1892.* 
 
 Impoets. 
 
 EXPOETS. 
 
 
 From France and 
 
 From Foreign 
 
 To France and 
 
 To Foreign 
 
 
 French Colonies. 
 
 Countries. 
 
 French Colonies. 
 
 Countries, 
 
 
 Francs. 
 
 Francs. 
 
 Francs. 
 
 Francs. 
 
 1883 
 
 405,606 
 
 2,922,601 
 
 649,987 
 
 3,440,359 
 
 18.S4 
 
 2,01.1,763 
 
 7,126,304 
 
 79,483 
 
 541,147 
 
 1885 
 
 3,421,610 
 
 14,667,087 
 
 49,713 
 
 593,287 
 
 1886 
 
 4,654,829 
 
 18,220,173 
 
 65,206 
 
 605,879 
 
 1887 
 
 7,328,127 
 
 20,824,664 
 
 82,175 
 
 335,476 
 
 1888 
 
 6,621,408 
 
 17,479,220 
 
 164,228 
 
 6,586,848 
 
 1889 
 
 6,574,572 
 
 17,170,312 
 
 477,444 
 
 10,161,664 
 
 1890 
 
 8,907,688 
 
 11,880,984 
 
 1,700,052 
 
 5,321,664 
 
 1891 
 
 9,604,491 
 
 15,.554,409 
 
 583,518 
 
 11,146,254 
 
 1892 
 
 9,504,926 
 
 18,927,846 
 
 420,221 
 
 10,315,629 
 
 The figures of the above table present the following sum- 
 marised totals : — 
 
 TOTAL FOREIGN TRADE OP TONGKING, 1883-1892. 
 
 
 France and French 
 Colonies. 
 
 Foreign Countries. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Impop.ts from ... 
 EXPOBTS to 
 
 Francs. 
 58,939,020 
 
 4,272,027 
 
 Francs. 
 144,789,600 
 
 49,048,007 
 
 Francs. 
 203,728,620 
 
 53,320,034 
 
 Totals 
 
 63,211,047 
 
 193,837,607 
 
 257,048,654 
 
 • The figures for 1883 are taken from " Le Regime Commercial de I'Indo-Chine 
 francjaise," Paris, 1894. Those for the following years from the " Rapport g^n&al 
 sur les statistiques des douanes pour 1892," Hanoi, 1893. There is good reason to 
 beUeve the latter to be inaccurate in the direction of exaggeration, and indeed in 
 one or two cases I have proved them to be so. But after many vain attempts to 
 secure a set of accurate and uniform figares I have been obliged to fall back upon 
 these as they stand. The variations of figures in different French official and semi- 
 ofacial pubhcations would be incredible to any one who has not attempted to 
 reconcile them. In the above table the figures of coasting trade, and the trade 
 between the different members of the Union of French Indo-China, are, of course, 
 not included. 
 
THE COST OF A FEBNOH COLONY. 135 
 
 Prom this it may be seen at a glance what effect the "tarif 
 general" has had upon the development of trade between 
 France and French Colonies on the one hand, and Tongking 
 on the other. This tariff was forced upon Indo- China in spite, 
 as I have already said, of her vehement and unceasing 
 protests, and in defiance of the prophecies of every enlightened 
 French economist. Its intention was, of course, to exclude 
 foreign products from Tongking, and to make of the colony a 
 great market for French domestic and colonial products. Its 
 result has been that French imports were comparatively little 
 more in 1892 than they were in 1887 ; while foreign imports 
 are more than in 1886 and comparatively little below 1887. 
 And that the total trade between France and her other colonies, 
 and Tongking, has amounted in ten years to the pitiful sum of 
 63 millions of francs, or £2,520,000; while the total foreign 
 trade during the same time has been nearly 194 millions of 
 francs, or £7,760,000. That is to say, the high protective 
 system has been the most disastrous failure, or, as M. Leroy- 
 Beaulieu says, " the application to Indo-China of a general 
 Customs tariff is a colossal error." 
 
 In the debate in the Chamber of Deputies, to which I have 
 already frequently referred, M. Armand Porteu said : " The 
 French Colonies together contain a population of 20 to 24 
 millions of inhabitants. Now let us see what they cost and 
 what they bring in. Our French Colonies cost us yearly 70 
 millions of francs : 53 millions inscribed in the colonial budget, 
 12 millions in the budget of the navy, and 5 millions in the 
 budget of post and telegraphs. . . . Their total commerce is 
 410 millions per annum. Of that sum the share of France 
 by sale and purchase is 170 millions, and our importations 
 into the Colonies reach only 70 millions. You thus spend 
 70 millions in order to dispose of 70 millions' worth of goods. 
 That is the result of your Colonial system. I ask you if it 
 is not grievous." From the figures I have here given with 
 reference to one colony, I can leave the statement of M. 
 
136 FEANCE. 
 
 Porteu far behind. Excluding the deficit of 1893, namely, 
 28,958,648 francs, the total cost of this colony to the mother 
 country to 1892 inclusive has been 476,422,522 francs, and 
 the total French trade with it during the same period has 
 only amounted to 63,211,047 francs. Or, to afford a com- 
 plete parallel to the figures given by M. Porteu, France has 
 spent 476 millions of francs upon Tongking in order to dispose 
 of 59 million francs' worth of French products.* 
 
 One final lesson remains to be drawn. Eegarded from the 
 ordinary point of view of the political economist, the above 
 figures present the following result : — 
 
 Francs. 
 Total Impoets „ 203,728,620 
 
 ToTAi, BxpoKTS „ „ 53,320,034 
 
 Balance of Trade agaiust Tongking ... 150,408,586 
 
 A blacker result than this from the conventional point of view 
 could hardly be imagined ; but these last figures point another 
 moral even more unmistakable. To quote M. Leroy-Beaulieu 
 again : " We are practising a systematic exploitation of the 
 public funds for the profit of a thousand or so persons. . . . 
 What is needed is the suppression of a Colonial Council which 
 on]y represents a handful of furnishers and functionaries." 
 That remark hits the last nail upon the head. 
 
 As a matter of sober fact, in conclusion, the French 
 colonisation of Tongking — and Tongking is only one ex- 
 ample of a truth which every other French colony would 
 illustrate to a greater or less degree — has amounted to this : 
 France has taken possession of a country ; she has des- 
 patched to it an army of soldiers and a second army of 
 
 * This general statement, as I wish to make quite clear, is not an absolutely 
 accurate one, since the details of expenditure given in the above tables refer for 
 the most part to Annam and Tongking, while the figures of trade refer almost 
 exclusively to Tongking alone. But the share of Annam in both cost and returns 
 is of course a very minor factor in comparison with that of Tongking. 
 
THE COST OF A FEENCH COLONY. 137 
 
 functionaries ; a handful of dealers has followed to supply 
 these with the necessaries and luxuries of life ; the dealers 
 have purchased these necessaries and luxuries from France 
 (the foreign imports being chiefly for native consumption), 
 as the Customs tariff prevents them from buying cheaper 
 elsewhere ; these purchases have practically constituted the 
 trade of France with the Colony. Castra facmnt; coloniam 
 appellant. 
 
RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST. 
 
GHAPTEB VIII. 
 
 VLADIVOSTOK: "THE POSSESSION OF THE EAST." 
 
 rriHE Eussian Govermnent and the geographical situation of 
 - Russian Tartary have succeeded between them in keeping 
 their Pacific stronghold well out of the world, and ten thousand 
 miles nearer to it in body bring you little or no nearer to it in 
 knowledge. " Going to Vladivostok ? Dear me ! " people said 
 just as naturally at Nagasaki, a hundred yards from the vessel 
 which was getting up steam to go there, as they did in London 
 on the other side of the world. But the journey is easy enough 
 to make. From Yokohama the magnificent steamers of the 
 great Japanese steamship line, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, take 
 you southward along the coast to Kobe, the pleasantest foreign 
 settlement in Japan ; then to Shimonoseki, famous for its foreign 
 bombardment in 1865, and now strongly and skilfully fortified 
 with coast batteries of the latest design, armed with heavy 
 howitzers of Japanese manufacture — most efficient weapons ; 
 then through the Inland Sea, ranking high among the " show 
 scenery " of the East, and drop you at Nagasaki. From Yoko- 
 hama to Nagasaki is 692 miles ; from Nagasaki to Vladivostok 
 is 659 more. At noon next da,y the Takachiho steams out into 
 the Korean Straits ; during the night she passes Port Hamilton 
 a long way off, those bare islands of which the world talked 
 for a year, and about which, too, opinions are as divided in the 
 East as at home, the truth probably being that England did 
 very well to give them up, since they would have been quite 
 untenable in the event of a bombardment ; and on the foUow- 
 
 141 
 
142 RUSSIA. 
 
 ing afternoon she drops anchor at Fusan, the treaty port and 
 Japanese settlement on the south coast of Korea. Then came 
 a revelation of head-gear among the white-rohed Koreans, a 
 chat with the Commissioner of Customs, and an afternoon 
 with a hammerless companion, resulting in three brace of 
 pheasants, a snipe, and a small deer ; and off again. For 
 twenty-four hours we steamed along a rocky, desolate, and 
 forbidding coast, and next morning the anchor dropped again 
 in the splendid harbour of Wonsan (Gensan), the western 
 Treaty Port, alongside the big white French ironclad, the 
 flagship Turenne. Soon a smart petty officer came up the 
 gangway bearing a courteous invitation to Captain Walker 
 and myself to dine with "M. le Contre-Amiral Layrle, com- 
 mandant en chef la division navale de I'extreme Orient," and 
 that night on board the Turenne a dozen merry guests, all very 
 far from home, the flashing of many wax candles over silver 
 plate and glittering glass, the skill of a decorated French cook, 
 the witchery of old Burgundy, and the strains of Offenbach 
 and Suppe, all combined to dispel the thought that we were 
 lying off the uninhabited Port Lazareff, in the wild and lonely 
 seas of the Hermit Kingdom. But at midnight our anchor 
 was heaved again, and at daylight next day but one the helm 
 was suddenly put over to starboard opposite a break in the 
 high wall of cliffs, the man in the chains took up his 
 monotonous cry, and we swept round into the harbour of 
 Vladivostok — the proudly-named " Possession of the East." 
 
 An old-fashioned theologian would say that Providence had 
 intended this place to be made impregnable. The harbour is 
 shaped, speaking roughly, like the Greek capital T. It has two 
 entrances, one at the south-east corner, the other in the middle 
 of the west side, both narrow deep-water channels, the latter, 
 indeed, being only a few hundred feet wide. The Eastern 
 entrance is the one used for traffic, the other being dangerous 
 on account of currents and sandbanks. As you steam straight 
 north up the long leg of the T, you notice first an ex- 
 
Vi'.ADIVOSTOK. 143 
 
 tensive beach on the right, then several large bays open out in 
 succession, and you pass through a narrow opening between 
 Capes Novosilsky and Nazimoff, and leave the western entrance 
 on the left. The hills around are densely wooded, and all 
 the defences visible so far have been extensive earthworks 
 building on your right, and loads of bricks for them lying on the 
 shores below. Now, however, as the ship passes Cape Goldobin 
 you discover a large two-storied battery from which six black 
 muzzles look down. What maybe behind the earthworks of the 
 upper storey you cannot tell, but the guns below are visibly 
 6-inch breech-loaders. They constitute only an inner line of 
 defence for the interior of the harbour, but they would, of 
 course, make it very hot for a ship in the harbour with their 
 plunging fire at short range, but Vladivostok is defended by 
 altogether different weapons, however dreadful these may look 
 to the captain of peaceful merchant vessels. Soon after pass- 
 ing Fort Goldobin, a sharp turn to the right, almost at a 
 right angle, brings you into the harbour, which then stretches 
 out due east in a straight line, upwards of two miles long 
 and half a mile wide. This is the Eastern Bosphorus, and the 
 " Golden Horn " of the Pacific. 
 
 The town of Vladivostok extends nearly the entire length of 
 the north side of the harbour, and in configuration it ratlier 
 resembles St. John's, Newfoundland, the bouses beginning at 
 the water's edge and gradually thinning out as the hills behind 
 get steeper. They are of all sorts, from the log-cabin and 
 Chinese shanty to the neat wooden cottage in its little garden 
 and the handsome brick business house of several storeys. Over 
 all rises the cathedral — the one thing in Vladivostok that 
 remains unfinished for want of money. The anchorage is 
 so admirable that the Takachiho (now, alas ! at the bottom of 
 the sea, off Tsushima), a vessel 327 feet long, Kes within 
 a stone's throw of the wharves, and the same anchorage exists 
 all round. Directly in front are three little parallel streets 
 constituting the Chinese bazaar. On the west is the Chinese 
 
144 EUSSIA. 
 
 and Korean town of wooden shanties ; behind are five or six 
 blocks of fine brick buildings forming the winter barracks, while 
 straight away ahead is a broad street soon disappearing over the 
 dusty hill, to become two miles away the great Siberian post- 
 road. The main street runs parallel with the harbour, and on 
 this are the chief stores and many of the private houses. A 
 quarter of a mile along it to the east is the Governor's residence, 
 buried in a square mass of foliage — the gardens where a first-rate 
 band plays regularly and the society of Vladivostok comes to 
 walk and to gossip. Further on, always between the water and 
 the street, is the " Staff," the Governor's official head-quarters, 
 a large handsome building, and further still, a mile or more 
 from where we lie, a tall chimney marks the situation of the 
 " Port," as the Eussians call it, a score or more of storehouses 
 and machine shops forming the Navy Yard or Arsenal. This 
 extends along the shore for a quarter of a mile, and the torpedo 
 boats and small ships of the Siberian Squadron lie alongside, 
 with a confiscated American fishing-sloop, while the ironclads 
 and gunboats are anchored a little further off. On the opposite 
 shore of the harbour there are no buildings of any kind, except 
 an iron storehouse deep in the woods here and there, isolated 
 presumably on account of inflammable or explosive contents. 
 On the summits of the two high hills behind the town are two 
 stations for the fire-watch. 
 
 The streets of Vladivostok are gay enough. Civilian costume 
 is the exception, almost every figure being either a soldier or 
 a Chinaman. The rank and file have none of the smartness 
 of European troops. Their uniforms are rough and simple 
 — white blouse and cap, long black boots and belt— they are 
 evidently expected to last a long time, and their wearers 
 do a lot of hard manual work. If not exactly dirty, therefore, 
 the soldiers look very unkempt. The officers also, and their 
 clothes, have the hardened appearance of active service, but 
 their flowing cloaks make them picturesque. Blue and white 
 Chinamen, sombre-suited Japanese, and shrouded Koreans, 
 
VLADrsrosTOK. 145 
 
 ■with marvellous hats of cardboard and bamboo fibre, variegate 
 the scene. An element of picturesqueness and noise is added 
 by the droschky-drivers in their long scarlet blouses and black 
 " zouave " waistcoats^ their long unpolished boots, and their 
 flowing hair. They congregate at the corners, and dash up and 
 down the main street at a gallop, their whips cracking like 
 pistol-shots. 
 
 The chief hotel of Vladivostok is at a pastrycook's shop, 
 so I remained in my comfortable quarters on board, and after 
 breakfast I went on shore to present my semi-official introduc- 
 tion — an imposing-looking document, a foot square, with the 
 Eussian Eagle on the back — to the Military Governor, Eear- 
 Admiral Ermolaiew- His Excellency received me with the 
 utmost courtesy, but his efforts to conceal his vast surprise at 
 my visit were in vain. He read the letter — a long one — then 
 he looked at me ; then he read it again and looked again. 
 "Yes," he said, finally, "anything I can do for you, of course, 
 but what on earth do you want to see at Vladivostok?" I 
 modestly replied that, with His Excellency's permission, I 
 wanted to see everything. " But what ? " As I had only been 
 an hour in the place, however, I was not in a position to specify 
 my desires in detail. " But what shall I do ? " To dictate to 
 a Eussian Military Governor was naturally repugnant to me, 
 and as Admiral Ermolaiew's French— the only language in 
 which we could communicate — was of a rudimentary character, 
 the conversation was rapidly approaching an embarrassing 
 dead-lock. Suddenly, with an explosive " Ah ! " the Governor 
 sprang from his chair and disappeared, retarning in a minute 
 with his wife, a most attractive and energetic lady, charming 
 even at that early hour of the morning. Madame Ermolaiew 
 spoke French perfectly : with the native tact of a Eussian she 
 straightened matters in a moment, and five minutes later I was 
 bowed out between the salutes of a bluejacket and a sentry, 
 with the Governor's card in my pocket bearing a written 
 permission to go almost anywhere and see almost anything, 
 
 11 
 
146 BUSSIA. 
 
 and with an appointment to meet an officer the next morning 
 at eleven, who would act as cicerone. I was slightly out of 
 hreath, it is true, at the speed of the interview, but naturally 
 very grateful for the distinguished courtesy. 
 
 Vladivostok is a purely military town — technically, a 
 "fortress." That is, not only does it owe its existence to 
 strategic and mihtary considerations, but even after it has 
 been thus created no other interests or enterprises have grown 
 up around it. In this case trade has not followed the flag: 
 the place is just Eussia's one stronghold and naval base on 
 the Pacific, and nothing else. Its imports consist of the 
 supplies for the military and naval population and those who 
 minister to them ; its only export at present is a little sea- 
 weed. Two other industries might be developed here, how- 
 ever, and these are well worth the attention of energetic 
 men with some capital. Siberia contains vast forests of the 
 finest and largest timber, and a very important export trade 
 in this could easily be cultivated. And the authorities find 
 great difficulty in supplying themselves with fresh meat. 
 Cattle are imported regularly from Korea, but the supply is 
 poor and uncertain, while Siberia is probably as well suited in 
 many parts for cattle-raising as Western Canada. I believe, 
 moreover, that the Eussian authorities would materially help 
 the right man to introduce this. At present, however, all its 
 commerce is a tribute to the God of Battles. A Eussian store 
 has just closed, and the two great stores, magnificent stone 
 and brick buildings, employing scores of clerks and sales- 
 men, where you can buy absolutely everything, from a pound 
 of butter to a piano — are owned by Germans, the one by 
 Messrs. Kunst and Albers, the other by Mr. Langeliitje. 
 There is also the smaller general store of Mr. Hagemann, 
 almost the only English resident. The population of the place 
 when I was there was about 15,000, of whom 5,000 were 
 Chinese, 2,000 Eussian civilians, and 6,000 troops and blue- 
 jackets ashore. But the strength of the troops has no doubt 
 been considerably raised lately. 
 
VLADIVOSTOK. 147 
 
 The Chinese and Koreans are under very strict regulations, 
 being only allowed to reside in their own quarter, and any 
 found in the street after nine o'clock at night are arrested and 
 locked up. This was found necessary to prevent disturbance. 
 The Koreans, I should add, have an intense hatred for the 
 Eassians, due largely, no doubt, to the harshness with which 
 they are treated. There are large numbers of them in the 
 immediate neighbourhood, and they are always in a state of 
 discontent bordering upon revolt. Whenever they can get 
 hold of a Russian by himself, they are very apt to murder 
 him out of hand. Of course, their power is but that of the 
 mosquito on the elephant, but if Russia were engaged in 
 hostilities they might well prove an annoying thorn in her side. 
 Probably 2,000 Chinese labourers are employed in the arsenal 
 alone, and they fill the streets when they come streaming 
 out from work, and all the harbour-front population, boatmen, 
 cargo-handlers, &c., are Chinese or Koreans. The stores 
 employ many Chinese ; they are patrolled all night by Chinese 
 watchmen, and the only domestic servants are Chinamen or 
 Japanese women. Many of the Chinese come in the spring, 
 when the harbour opens, and leave again, mostly for Chefoo, 
 in the late autumn when it closes. There has been some talk 
 about putting a prohibitory tax upon poor John Chinaman here 
 too, but it will come to nothing ; he is indispensable. 
 
 Life in this corner of Russian Tartary is lively enough, 
 especially in winter. Communication with the outside world 
 is easy by mail and telegraph. Letters come by sea (very few 
 go overland) from San Francisco in four weeks, and telegrams 
 to ^European Russia are ridiculously cheap. During the 
 summer there are the constant festivities attending the arrival 
 of foreign men-of-war. All the Russian officers, too, are fond 
 of society, and there is a first-rate band. In winter it is of 
 course dreadfully cold, and a frozen stick of milk is left at 
 the door in the morning, and the beef is kept frozen in a tub, 
 and chopped out as wanted. But from Christmas onwards for 
 
148 RUSSIA. 
 
 a couple of months there is a ceaseless round of social gaiety. 
 Excellent pheasant and duck-shooting is to be had over the 
 surrounding bays and hills, and large deer abound in an 
 island a day's sail to the south. This, however, is strictly 
 preserved as an Imperial reserve, and Eussian game-keepers 
 are stationed there, and periodically murdered by Korean 
 marauders. The famous thick-coated Northern tigers are 
 sometimes to be found by seeking. One of the traditions of 
 Vladivostok, and a true one, too, tells how a young fellow 
 named Chudjakow was out shooting one day, when a tiger 
 met him. He fired and killed it. Scarcely had it fallen, 
 however, when a second walked out of the woods. He fired 
 again, hitting this one, which turned tail and disappeared. A 
 moment later a tiger appeared again from the same place. 
 He fired for the third time, supposing this to be the same 
 animal, and wounded it slightly. Before he could reload, 
 however, it was upon him, and he was fighting it for his life. 
 His rifle was useless, and he had only a long hunting-knife. 
 As he did not return at night his father and friends organised 
 a search-party, and at last found him unconscious between the 
 paws of the dead tiger. A little way off lay the body of the 
 first, and just inside the wood they found the second, which 
 had died of its wounds. The days are gone by when the 
 houses at Vladivostok were barricaded against the great cats, 
 which used to come into the back yards at night to revel in the 
 family slops put for them, and when men did not venture out 
 after dark except five or six together, all armed ; but I have 
 seen one of the tigers thus shot by Chudjakow, and a photograph 
 of the young man himself and the three skins. 
 
 Everything in Vladivostok is made subservient to mOitary 
 interests, and there is no pretence to the contrary. As is 
 the case in all "fortresses" no civil rights exist, and the 
 merchants can be required to leave at twenty-four hours' 
 notice, without any explanation being given. The Mayor is 
 merely the vehicle of the Governor's will. The neighbourhood 
 
VLADIVOSTOK. 149 
 
 of every fortified point is strictly guarded by sentries, whom no 
 civilian ever passes. The local weekly newspaper, the Vladivostok, 
 with a circulation of 450 copies, is edited (excellently so far as 
 geographical, ethnological, and other non- contentious informa- 
 tion is concerned) by a member of the Staff, and the Governor 
 himself is the Censor. In return for this, however, it receives 
 an ofBcial subsidy of 2,000 roubles a year. The police, who 
 are supposed to know everything that passes and the move- 
 ments of every one, resident or stranger, are of course the 
 Governor's pawns, under the command of a military officer. 
 No foreign consuls are allowed to reside at Vladivostok, the 
 only foreign representative being a Japanese called Commis- 
 sioner of Trade, or some such non-political title. Most 
 foreign newspapers and books are forbidden, as in European 
 Eussia, and at the only bookseller's in town I could not 
 buy a single volume in any foreign language, except a few 
 French works of world-famous innocence, used everywhere 
 as school reading-books ; and inquisitiveness or gossip on the 
 part of the foreign population about local naval or military 
 affairs is sternly discouraged, and trespassers against this 
 unwritten law soon learn very distinctly that they will be more 
 comfortable if they obey it. I ran up against this before I had 
 been in Vladivostok four hours. My first day there I was lunch- 
 ing at a foreign house, and happened, naturally and quite inno- 
 cently, to put some question or other about the batteries. "That 
 is a matter," I was immediately told by my host, "that we make 
 a point of knowing nothing about. We find that ignorance on 
 such subjects is the only way to get along pleasantly with our 
 Eussian friends. Besides, it is none of our business, any way. 
 We are here as traders, not as possible combatants." So I 
 put no more questions of that kind. The regulations against 
 publicity have recently been made much more severe. It is 
 now forbidden to ascend the neighbouring hills, and patrol 
 parties are frequently sent to scour the surrounding country, 
 their orders being to deal promptly with any investigator, 
 
150 EUSSIA. 
 
 The many Eussian officers that I met and talked with, told 
 me of course just as little as they liked, and the sources 
 of informatiou were therefore distressingly conspicuous by 
 their absence. I must add, however, that the authorities put 
 no ridiculous restrictions or professions of violent secrecy in 
 my way. I was immediately told that I could not inspect 
 the batteries or fortifications from within — a permission I 
 should never have dreamed of asking ; but several places 
 where no Englishman had ever been before — the whole of the 
 Navy Yard and Arsenal, for instance — were thrown open to me ; 
 the Governor's card took me almost everywhere ; I had a written 
 permission to take photographs, with certain specified exceptions 
 — a permission unfortunately nullified to a great extent by 
 rain ; I was immediately introduced at the Naval Club ; and 
 finally the Governor's Adjutant lent me his own boat. As 
 I thus sped across the harbour of this Eussian stronghold, in 
 a Eussian official's barge, pulled by six lusty Eussian blue- 
 jackets, with a Eussian rear-admiral's flag trailing behind 
 me, it struck me as a decidedly unique position for an English 
 journalist, and as an interesting commentary upon the suspicion 
 and unfriendliness that are so freely attributed to the Eussians 
 in some quarters. 
 
GHAPTEB IX. 
 
 THE POSITION OF BUSSIA ON THE PACIFIC. 
 
 T7LADIV0ST0K is of great interest to the rest of the civilised 
 world, and chiefly, of course, to England, the United 
 States, and Japan, as the Powers with most at stake in the 
 Pacific, for exactly the same reasons that it is of importance to 
 Eussia, namely, as the one great naval stronghold and base 
 from which Eussian ironclads could issue in time of war to 
 fall upon their enemies in the Pacific, and to which they could 
 return for supplies, for repairs, or for refuge. Is it a great 
 stronghold ? Could it defy a hostile fleet ? Is it provided 
 with the necessaries of an efficient naval base ? Does it, as 
 its name declares, confer upon those who hold it " the posses- 
 sion of the East"? 
 
 The last so-called " scare " showed exactly what would be 
 done at Vladivostok in case of war. The lights on Skrypleff 
 Island in the east entrance and near Pospaloff Point to guide 
 ships through the west entrance were extinguished ; the west 
 entrance was completely blocked from Larioneff Point to Cape 
 Tokareffski with contact mines (one of these got adrift and 
 blew up a Eussian fishing-vessel some time afterwards); the 
 narrow passage from Cape Novosilsky to Cape Nazimoff was 
 blocked with contact and electric mines, except a channel 
 fifty feet wide under the former, and a gunboat lay near by 
 to stop merchant vessels and send an officer on board to 
 pilot them through ; while preparations were made to remove 
 all the civilian inhabitants to a sheltered valley some distance 
 
 151 
 
152 RUSSIA. 
 
 inland. Supposing now that these precautions were all 
 carried out to-day, could a fairly powerful fleet reduce the 
 place? "We will say for the sake of argument, to begin 
 with, that the Eussian fleet is out of the way. Until a few 
 years ago, what were the defences of Vladivostok ? The inner 
 ends of both channels were commanded and their minejfields 
 protected by Port Goldobin, and this was armed with a 
 number of 6-inch breechloading guns of Eussian manufacture. 
 Its upper part was only, I believe, a battery of mortars. In the 
 centre of the long narrow strip of land forming the western side 
 of the harbour were two powerful batteries, each containing, I 
 believe, two breechloading Krupp guns, probably about 27- ton 
 guns, throwing a shell of 516 lb., and these were the heaviest 
 guns with which Vladivostok was armed. Further to the north 
 was another battery, formed, I believe, of two 8-inch breech- 
 loading cannon, two more of the same Krupps, and four rifled 
 mortars. These two batteries are designed to protect the weak 
 point of Vladivostok — the shelling of the town and arsenal over 
 the land. That was all. The answer was therefore easy. 
 Vladivostok, in the absence of men-of-war to protect it, could 
 undoubtedly have been taken, and if the last " scare " had 
 become a struggle, there can be little doubt that the British 
 fleet would have first shelled the town and then forced an 
 entrance to the harbour. For the town could have been shelled 
 easily at 8,000 yards, while the bombarding ships constantly 
 moving would present a poor target for the Krupp guns at 
 nearly 4,000 yards ; the men fighting the inner forts would have 
 been terribly exposed ; while removing or exploding mines which 
 are not well protected by batteries is a comparatively easy matter 
 nowadays. If defending ships had been present they would 
 have added to the difficulty by exactly their own strength. 
 But after an attack made a few years ago, Vladivostok would 
 certainly not be the " possession of the East " — it would be 
 the possession of the enemy. 
 The truth of the foregoing assertion can be almost proved, as 
 
RUSSIA ON THE PACIFIC. 
 
 153 
 
 you prove a sum in division by another in multiplication, by the 
 fact, hardly yet appreciated, that the Eussian Government has 
 been adding to the defences of Yladivostok in every respect and 
 on the most lavish scale. An estimate was passed by the 
 
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 ^^^^^^^^ 
 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^P 
 
 THE HAEEOUK OF VLADIVOSTOK.* 
 
 Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, and submitted to St. 
 Petersburg for approval, for strengthening Vladivostok by 
 engineering work alone at an expense of no less than 6,000,000 
 roubles. The Arsenal is being greatly enlarged by both new 
 
 * It should hardly be necessary to explain that I do not present this sketch-map 
 as anything even remotely resembling a map for naval or military purposes. It is 
 merely a reduction from the Admiralty chart, with such additions as are of general 
 interest and my eyes and information enabled me to add. Nor is my account of 
 the place intended to serve naval or military ends in the slightest degree. The 
 British authorities, at any rate, as is well known by experts, stand in no need of 
 information about Vladivostok. They have plenty of it from a very different 
 source. 
 
154 RUSSIA. 
 
 buildings and new machinery ; an addition to the great floating 
 Stanfield dock is just finishing ; all along the harbour side 
 of the west arm are rows of fine new barracks ; and several 
 new forts were already half finished when I was there, of a 
 size and arrangement far in advance of anything existing 
 previously. One of these forts, just to the north of Cape 
 Tokareffski, will command both entrances to the harbour and 
 ships in position to shell the town; another of great size will 
 command the mine-field with which Novik Bay, from which 
 Fort Goldobin and part of the town could be bombarded, is 
 to be protected; and two or three others, including one on 
 Skrypleff Island, will command the harbour and its approaches 
 from the east. It is only reasonable to suppose that these, 
 which should all be complete by this time, are armed with guns 
 of the latest pattern and great power. If the Government 
 sanctions the engineers' estimate recently submitted, batteries 
 will also be placed on some of the large islands south of the 
 harbour, an extremely important situation. By this time, 
 therefore, it is not too much to say that Vladivostok is im- 
 pregnable from the sea. The Eussians admit that the Chinese, 
 town can always be destroyed from the sea, but I believe 
 they estimate that they can burn this and rebuild it for 
 24,000 roubles. They deny, however, that the town proper and 
 the Arsenal are open to shell fire from beyond the west 
 batteries, but I cannot agree to this, as with my field-glass I 
 have distinctly seen the church over the southernmost of the 
 two west land batteries, within bombarding distance. This, 
 however, is of comparatively small moment, for all war stores 
 would of course be removed to a place of perfect security, 
 and Vladivostok would be little weaker as a naval stronghold 
 after the town had been destroyed than before. Moreover, it 
 is an accepted military and naval maxim that under modern 
 conditions ships stand practically no chance whatever against 
 well-equipped and well-handled coast batteries, and that it is 
 little short of suicidal for a fleet to attempt to reduce a fortress 
 
EtJSSIA ON THE PACIFIC. 155 
 
 by bombardment alone. In case of war an enemy would 
 probably try to find the Eussian Fleet and blockade it some- 
 where, for if the ships were once destroyed or captured, 
 Vladivostok would cease to be worth attacking. It should be 
 clear, however, from the foregoing, that the Eussian authorities 
 are determined on no half measures. They have got Vladivo- 
 stok and they mean to keep it, and it is doubtful if there is 
 at present any army and fleet in the whole East strong enough 
 even to try to take it away from them. 
 
 The new restrictive regulations so much discussed and so 
 severely criticised in naval circles, by which only two ships of 
 any foreign fleet are allowed to anchor in Vladivostok Harbour 
 at one time, were officially stated to have been made in accord- 
 ance with similar regulations by other Powers. But they were 
 really the result of one particular incident. On August 21, 
 1886, the British squadron on its summer cruise north reached 
 Vladivostok while all the Eussian vessels happened to be away, 
 and our eight ships entered in a thick fog, and were not 
 discovered by the Eussians on shore until they were dropping 
 anchor in faultless order in the inner harbour. It was a most 
 brilliant piece of seamanship — the Eussians themselves would 
 never have attempted it — but it was surely most indiscreet, as 
 the consequences soon showed. For naturally enough the 
 Eussian authorities were thrown into a panic, and said to 
 themselves that an enemy might do this very thing a short 
 time before war was suddenly declared, when Eussia on the 
 Pacific would be at his mercy. Therefore, rather than risk 
 multiplying unpleasantness by prohibiting the entry of foreign 
 vessels from time to time as circumstances might seem to re- 
 quire, they decided to cut off the danger once for all. It was 
 natural and explicable enough on the part of the Eussians, but 
 it is an innovation far from welcome to the greater part of any 
 foreign fleet, which must remain knocking about outside at gun 
 practice or steam tactics, while the flagship and one other vessel 
 are comfortably anchored and politely entertained within. The 
 
156 RUSSIA. 
 
 Eussians, by the way, do not seem to navigate their own waters 
 very well, for a gunboat had gone aground near Vladivostok 
 just before my visit ; a foreign merchant- captain told me that 
 he had once steamed after two other gunboats on the coast to 
 warn them they were running into shallow water ; and the Vitiaz 
 was totally lost a short time ago and actually in Port Lazareff 
 — the very harbour which Eussia is supposed to have selected 
 for her base on the Korean coast. 
 
 The impression made by the rank and file of the land forces 
 at Vladivostok is that of soldiers who have been on active service 
 for six months, long enough to have grown careless about the 
 polishing of leather and steel and the details of personal care 
 which go to make up the much admired " smartness " of crack 
 regiments. Their clothes are solid and coarse, their boots are 
 unblacked, and their weapons look as if they had seen several 
 campaigns. The men themselves are hardy enough, but they 
 appear to be extremely poor and far from happy. It is 
 certainly very astonishing to see soldiers in uniform hawking 
 wild flowers at street-corners, as I did in Vladivostok itself. 
 They are mostly much younger than troops with us, and tbey 
 are evidently drawn from the lower classes of a farming popula- 
 tion. Their winter barracks are spacious and handsome build- 
 ings, but their summer barracks, several miles inland by the 
 shore of a beautiful part of the Amur Bay, are rather ram- 
 shackle, and if the truth is to be told, much dirtier than 
 Tommy Atkins would be satisfied to live in. But I spent a 
 jolly evening with them when I rode out with my military 
 guide, and shared their palatable if frugal supper of black 
 bread, potato soup, and kvass — a kind of thin bitter beer. 
 The detachment I visited was under the command of a 
 lieutenant who looked fifteen, and was certainly not twenty. 
 Tbey would make good rough fighting material— Jfareonew- 
 futter as the Germans cynically call it — all the better for 
 war work in this far-off hard country because they do not 
 know what it is to be petted or pampered in time of peace. In 
 
BtlSSIA ON THE PACIFIC. 157 
 
 fact, peace means perhaps more hard work for them than war, 
 for they are employed on building fortifications, making bricks, 
 and several other occupations that are not included in the 
 military curriculum elsewhere, very much like common 
 labourers. The following estimate of their numbers at Vladi- 
 vostok is not far from the mark : two battalions of infantry, 
 2,000 ; artillery, 350 ; sappers, 250 ; total, on peace footing, 
 2,600 men. This is doubtless much smaller than is generally 
 supposed, but the tendency is to distribute the forces all over 
 this part of Eastern Siberia, and only to collect a large number 
 at Vladivostok in times of danger. Probably 30,000 men could 
 be concentrated here in a short time. 
 
 The officers, on the whole, struck me as a fine body of men, 
 dignified, devoted, and intelligent. But they must suffer 
 intellectually from being cut off by the strict Eussian censor- 
 ship laws from the information which circulates so freely else- 
 where. The growing importance, by the way, of this stronghold 
 in Eussian Tartary, is shown by the fact that officers are no 
 longer liberally pensioned for short service here and elsewhere 
 on the Siberian coast. Officers used to elect to serve in Siberia, 
 and after ten years' service were entitled to retire upon half-pay, 
 and after twenty years' service upon full-pay. For service in 
 European Eussia, on the other hand, retirement upon full-pay 
 comes only after thirty-five years' service. Full-pay in Eussia, 
 however, does not mean the same as elsewhere. A Eussian 
 officer's total military income is made up of three parts, pay 
 proper, lodging allowance, and table-money, in the proportion 
 that a total income of say over 3,000 roubles a year, a lieu- 
 tenant's pay, would mean only 1,400 roubles of pay proper. 
 Half-pay for him, therefore, after ten years in Siberia would be 
 700 roubles, and full pay 1,400 roubles. These liberal terms 
 of pension naturally made service in Siberia popular, but the 
 whole system of naval pension was altered a year ago, and the 
 above only applies now to officers who entered the navy before 
 1887. An occasional officer there speaks a little English, 
 
158 EUSSIA. 
 
 several speak French, and almost all speak more or less German. 
 To Lieutenant Vladimir Maximoff, " flag-officer to the Com- 
 mander of the port," in whose charge I was placed, and who 
 combined the maximum of courtesy and hospitality with an 
 irreducible minimum of information, I owe very hearty thanks. 
 As for the naval and military hospitality of Vladivostok, it was 
 generous and constant, and as everybody was familiar with the 
 Biercomment of German student-life, it was also both formal and 
 hilarious. 
 
 I made one peculiarly interesting discovery. It is universally 
 believed that Vladivostok is a closed port for four months out 
 of the twelve — isolated by impassable ice from about December 
 17th to April 17th. And this is regarded as the sole ex- 
 planation of Eussia's Drang nach Siiden, her necessity to 
 press gradually southward for an open port in Korea or 
 below it. Such is not the case. A man-of-war — and there- 
 fore a dozen — can be got in or out of Vladivostok Harbour 
 in case of urgent need at any time of year. There is an 
 American ice-breaking machine, which on a trial trip broke 
 a channel through the thickest part of the ice, one hundred feet 
 long and six fathoms wide, at a pace which would take it out 
 beyond Goldobin Point, where the ice is naturally more or less 
 broken, in three or four days. Moreover Patroclus Bay, and 
 especially the bay further to the south-east, are practicable bays 
 all the year round. At any rate two American ships came up 
 there unaided a few winters ago. Indeed the authorities are 
 considering whether they will not make this the mercantile 
 terminus of the railway. 
 
 In conclusion, I may add that the Amur peninsula is fine 
 wooded country for at least thirty miles, with small rivers 
 running east and west, and one or two good roads. The west 
 side presents to the eye a succession of sandy beaches, whilst 
 the east side ends abruptly for the most part in precipitous 
 cliffs. 
 
GHAFTEB X. 
 
 THE TBANS-SIBEBIAN RAILWAY AND ITS RESULTS. 
 
 IN the relations of Eussia and the Far East, one matter far 
 outweighs in importance all others put together — the 
 Trans-Siberian Eailway. It is my conviction that this 
 colossal enterprise is destined to alter the map of that part 
 of the world at no very distant date. To Englishmen it is 
 therefore of the first interest, for if I am right they will 
 shortly be called upon to decide one point of the utmost 
 moment in connection with it. 
 
 The absorption of " Siberia " — that is, the whole of Eussia's 
 Asiatic possessions with the exception of Transcaucasia, the 
 Transcaspian territory, and Turkestan — occupying an area of 
 not far from 6,000,000 square miles, has proceeded, now 
 quickly, now slowly, but without interruption, ever since the 
 traders of Novgorod began to raid the Finnish Yugra tribe 
 in the twelfth century, for the valuable furs they secured. 
 For centuries the conquest proceeded, through the efforts of 
 hunters and fishermen, the ransackers of mounds, and the 
 mere raiders, their advances being gradually recognised from 
 time to time by the Government. After a while, expedition 
 after expedition added huge territories in a more formal 
 manner. An important date is 1581, when Yermak, a Don 
 Cossack, entering the service of the immensely wealthy Stro- 
 ganov family, who ruled and practically owned the Ural district, 
 defeated the Tartar Khan, Kuchum, and sent his lieutenant, 
 loaded with furs, back to Moscow to "humbly salute the 
 
 159 
 
160 RUSSIA. 
 
 Lord Ivan Vaselivich the Terrible, with the acquisition of a 
 new Siberian Kingdom." Slowly but surely Eussian settlers 
 and soldiers pressed eastwards, and the eighteenth century was 
 distinguished by a number of remarkable exploring expeditions. 
 One by one, every territory was absorbed, the final great achieve- 
 ment, the annexation of the whole Amur district, coming in 
 1854. All the territory on the American Continent was ceded 
 to the United States in 1867, and the Kurile Islands were 
 exchanged with Japan for Sakhalin in 1875. At that date 
 Siberia practically took its present shape. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that the first person to lay before the 
 Eussian Government a proposal for the Trans-Siberian railway 
 was an Englishman. He was an engineer named Dull, and his 
 plan was to construct a tramway, on which horses should supply 
 the motive power, from Nishni-Novgorod, through Kazan and 
 Perm to one of the Siberian ports.* It is not surprising that the 
 Eussian Government passed over in silence so fantastic a scheme, 
 unsupported by any estimates. Simultaneously with this pro- 
 posal. Count Mouraviev, afterwards Governor-General of Siberia, 
 proposed to unite De Castries Bay in the Tartar Straits with 
 Sofiisk on the Amur by a carriage road which could be after- 
 wards converted into a railway.* The surveys for this road 
 were actually made in 1857, but nothing came of the proposal. 
 In the same year an American named Collins petitioned the 
 Government for a concession to found a company to unite 
 Irkutsk and Chita. Next, three more Englishmen, Messrs. 
 Morrison, Horn, and Sleigh offered to build a railway from 
 Moscow to the Pacific shore of Siberia, but asked for such privi- 
 leges in connection with it, as in the opinion of the Eussian 
 Government would have led to the concentration of the whole 
 trade of Siberia in the hands of foreigners for a long period. In 
 the same year, 1858, a Eussian named Sofronov proposed a line 
 
 • Most ol the facts here given are taken fi-om a volume published last year by 
 the Eussian Department of Trade and Manufactures. I have also drawn sUghtly 
 from an interesting article by Mr. Frederic Hobart, in the Engineering Magazine 
 for June, 1893. 
 
THE TBANS-SIBEEIAN RAILWAY. 161 
 
 throngh the Kirghiz steppes to Peking, and four years later 
 another Eussian named Kokorev conceived the idea (based 
 upon the schemes of a Government mining official named 
 Eashet) of uniting the basins of the Volga and the Obi. His 
 scheme, however, although favourably received, was soon after- 
 wards abandoned for that of Colonel Bogdanovich, who was 
 despatched in 1866 to inquire into the famine of two years 
 before. He sent the following telegram to the Minister of the 
 Interior : " After removing all difficulties in the provisioning of 
 the governments of Perm and Viatka, and investigating the 
 local conditions, I am of opinion that the only sure means of 
 preventing famine in the Ural country in the future, is the 
 building of a railway from the governments of the interior to 
 Ekaterinburg and thence to Tiumen. Such a line, being subse- 
 queiitly continued through Siberia to the Chinese frontier, would 
 acquire a great importance both strategical and for international 
 trade." Two years later many surveys were carried out in con- 
 nection with this plan. A third scheme starting, like the two 
 previous ones, from Perm, but ending near Kurgan on the river 
 Tobol, was planned by a trader named Liubimov in 1869. 
 These three schemes were carefully investigated, and it was 
 decided to build a line 463 miles long to join Kama and the 
 Tobol. A Special Commission decided that it was impossible to 
 make the line serve as a link in the chain of the great Siberian 
 railway of the future without sacrificing the mining interests of 
 the Ural district. The idea of the through route was therefore 
 relegated to the future. Surveys, however, continued, and in 
 1875 it was at length decided to build the first section of a line 
 to approach the Pacific from Nishni-Novgorod, but via Kazan 
 and Ekaterinburg to Tiumen. In 1878, the Ural railway was 
 opened, and two years later the Imperial order was given to 
 continue it to Tiumen. 
 
 For some time afterwards preference was given to the plan of 
 crossing Siberia by a route which should utilise the vast stretches 
 of water-communication, joining these by means of railways. 
 
 12 
 
162 RUSSIA. 
 
 The obvious advantage of this scheme was the enormous saving 
 of cost. In detail it was to proceed from Tiumen, by the Tura, 
 Tobol, Irtish and Obi rivers, to Tomsk ; then by rail to Irkutsk ; 
 thence by the Angara river, and across Lake Baikal ; thence by 
 rail to the head of the Amur and down it for 1,600 miles ; thence 
 by rail to Vladivostok. One fatal objection caused the abandon- 
 ment of this scheme — namely, that in winter the eleven hundred 
 miles of railway from Tomsk to Irkutsk would be isolated, for it 
 would begin at one frozen river and end at another. Therefore, 
 after much discussion, and in spite of the greatly increased cost, 
 an all-rail line was decided upon in 1891 at the instigation of 
 the Tsar himself. The railway from Samara to Cheliabinsk had 
 been completed in the meantime, and the Siberian railway was 
 to begin at the latter place. On May 17, 1891, the Tsarevich, 
 being at Vladivostok at the conclusion of his tour in the Far 
 East, formally announced by the will of the Tsar that the Grand 
 Siberian Eailway should be built, and inaugurated the Usuri 
 section. To take charge of the enterprise the " Siberian Eailway 
 Committee " was formed at St. Petersburg, and the Tsarevich 
 appointed president. 
 
 The entire railway is divided into seven sections. First, the 
 Western Siberian Section, from Cheliabinsk to the river Obi, an 
 easy section, through an agricultural country, ending at Pochi- 
 tanka, whence a branch line of 82 miles will connect it with 
 Tomsk i 1,328 versts, at an estimated cost of 47,361,479 roubles. 
 Second, the Central Siberian Section, from Obi to Irkutsk, a 
 difficult and tortuous section, through a mountainous and 
 mineral country and across many rivers ; 1,754 versts, at a cost 
 of 73,272,898 roubles. Third, the Baikal Circuit, round the 
 southern end of the "Lake of Death," from Irkutsk to Mysovsk 
 pier, the shortest and most difficult section, with the heaviest 
 grades and the sharpest curves, and a tunnel 12,500 feet long 
 at the height of 770 feet above the lake ; 292 versts, at a cost of 
 22,310,820 roubles, which is likely to be much exceeded. Fourth 
 the Trans-Baikal Section, from Mysovsk to Stretensk, the most 
 
THE TBANS-SIBERIAN EAILWAY. 
 
 163 
 
 rich in minerals and containing the highest point of the whole 
 line, the Shoidak Pass, 3,700 feet; 1,009 versts, at a cost of 
 53,309,817 roubles. Fifth, the Amur Section, from Stretensk to 
 Khabarovka, the longest, easiest, and most promising section, 
 through the " Garden of Siberia," the valleys being fertile and 
 well-watered, and abounding in timber, and the climate milder 
 than elsewhere ; 2,000 versts, at a cost of 117,555,835 roubles. 
 Sixth, the North Usuri Section, from Khabarovka to Grafsk, 
 347 versts, cost 18,738,682 roubles. Seventh, the South Usuri 
 Section, from Grafsk to Vladivostok, along the valley of the 
 Usuri, through coal-bearing and mineral country ; 382 versts, 
 cost 17,661,051 roubles. Total length, 7,112 versts; total 
 estimated cost, 350,210,482 roubles. The Grand Siberian 
 Eailway may therefore be thus summarised : — 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 3 
 4 
 5 
 6 
 7 
 
 Section. 
 
 EODTE. 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Cost. 
 
 Western Siberian 
 Central Siberian 
 Baikal Circuit 
 Trans-Baikal 
 Amur 
 
 North Usuri 
 South Usuri 
 
 Cheliabinsk— Obi 
 Obi— Irkutsk 
 Irkutsk — Mysovsk 
 Mysovsk — Stretensk 
 Stretensk — Khabarovka 
 Kha barovka — Grafsk 
 Grafsk— Vladivostok 
 
 880 
 1,162 
 193 
 668 
 1,325 
 229 
 253 
 
 £ 
 5,120,1-59 
 7,921,394 
 2,411,980 
 5,763,223 
 12,708,738 
 2.025,803 
 1,909,302 
 
 Total.. .4,713 £37,860,592* 
 
 According to the latest news, progress is being made on all 
 the sections. Prom Vladivostok to Spasskoye 150 miles of 
 railway have been open to traffic since last June, and 41 miles 
 from Grafsk station are ready. The second telegraph line is 
 ready for a distance of 30 miles, and 36 station-houses and 
 other buildings have been erected. Between Cheliabinsk and 
 Omsk 6^ miles of line are ready, and 116 station-houses and 
 buildings completed. Nearly 9,650 tons of rails have been 
 supplied, 270,000 sleepers, 587 tons of fastenings, 190 tons 
 of water-pipes, and two reservoirs. The survey has been 
 
 * The discrepancies in the additions are due to the fact that the decimals are 
 omitted from the separate items. Exchange : £10=92i roubles. 
 
164 KUSSIA. 
 
 completed between Omsk and the Obi for 94 miles, and over 
 21,000 cubic fathoms of earthworks have been made. On the 
 Central Section between the Obi and Krassnoyarsk much 
 forest has been cut down, 25,000 cubic fathoms of earthworks 
 made, and five stations built. The manufacturers have 
 supplied 260 tons of iron for the bridge across the Tom, 
 2,200 tons of rails and 700 tons of fastenings, 200,000 sleepers 
 have been laid, and 6,000 telegraph poles erected. Thirteen 
 miles of the line and 25 of the telegraph are ready.* All 
 this amounts, of course, to but a small fraction of the whole, 
 but it shows that the work is actively proceeding. The great 
 trial of strength will not come until the line is finished and 
 the Kussian government is face to face with the financial 
 problem of maintaining it and the army of men it will require. 
 It is likely enough that the Siberian Eailway may not be 
 finished either for the money or by the date calculated upon, 
 which is 1904. Nothing, however, unless the Eussian Empire 
 should be plunged into war, will prevent its completion early in 
 the next century. When Moscow and the Pacific are in railway 
 connection, and to some extent even before that, the effect upon 
 Kussia's domestic and foreign relations must be enormous. The 
 vast extent of Siberia thus opened up, its agricultural possibili- 
 ties, its mineral certainties, the great variety of its other natural 
 products, and the opportunities it will offer to colonisation, will 
 inaugurate a new epoch in the history of Eussia. But the rest 
 of the world is more concerned with the alteration it will bring 
 into the relations of Eussia with other countries. This will be 
 startling. The railway will not be built as a commercial, but 
 as a political enterprise. It will not pay its expenses for a long 
 time to come, and the through traffic will be insignificant for a 
 century. Portions of it will soon be paying for themselves, but 
 as a whole the Siberian Eailway is to be regarded as a long step 
 forward politically. The interesting question therefore is, in 
 what direction? The Transcaspian Eailway is at Samarcand, 
 
 • The Times, October 19, 1894, Vienna correspondence. 
 
THE TRANS- SIBEEIAN EAILWAT. 165 
 
 and will soon be at Tashkend and Ehokand, approaching the 
 western frontier of China. The Siberian Eailway skirts the 
 northern and eastern frontiers of China practically from Irkutsk 
 all the way to Vladivostok. A branch line will at once be built 
 along the Selenga river, 75 miles, from Verkhne-Udinsk to 
 Kiakhta, thus securing the whole Eusso-Chinese trade at once. 
 Before long, therefore, speaking in general terms, the entire 
 northern half of China will be completely surrounded by Eussian 
 railways. Given the supineness of China and the energy of 
 Eussia, and it is not difficult to forecast . the results. In the 
 second place, the ability of Eussia to convey any number of 
 European troops to a port on the Pacific, will give her an 
 enormous advantage over any of her European rivals there. 
 With a powerful Pacific fleet and a sufficient number of trans- 
 ports she will be able to descend almost irresistibly upon any 
 part of the Far East except Japan, which has little to fear 
 from any invader. Unless England pecures a further and 
 firmer foothold, at least a thousand miles north of Hongkong, 
 she will not be in a position to dispute with Eussia any step 
 that the latter may choose to take. China is threatened 
 territorially, Great Britain is menaced commercially, but — 
 always excepting Japan — the Siberian Eailway will place the 
 whole of the Far East almost at the mercy of Eussia, unless 
 England casts off her confidence and indifference. 
 
 Finally, there is the question of the Eussian port on the Pacific. 
 Can anybody believe for a moment that Eussia will build the 
 longest railway in the world, stretching five thousand miles 
 from the furthest edge of her European possessions, and will 
 spend upwards of forty millions sterling upon it, for it to 
 end in a harbour that is frozen solid during five months of 
 the year ? Nothing could be more unlikely. Except for some 
 European cataclysm which will set back all Eussian schemes 
 for a century, it is certain (except in the case of one possible 
 eventuality which I describe later) that the terminus of the 
 Siberian Eailway will be in Korea. And in Korea it will be at 
 
166 EUSSIA. 
 
 Won-san, or Port Lazareff, as she prefers to call it. This is a 
 splendid harbour, easily fortifiable, open all the year, surrounded 
 by a country offering many facilities for development. Such 
 a port is absolutely essential to Eussia, and who shall blame 
 her for trying to secure it ? At any rate, as soon as the South 
 Usuri Section is joined to the rest of the finished Siberian 
 Railway, Eussia's moment will have come. First the piece 
 of Manchuria which projects like a wedge into her territory 
 will become hers by one means or another, enabling her greatly 
 to shorten and straighten the railway, and then she will simply 
 take such part of Korea as may suit her. If this be only the 
 district of Won-san, to begin with, the subsequent absorption 
 of the whole of the Korean peninsula may follow. She 
 will then be in possession of a good land route, across the 
 Yalu river, straight to the heart of China at all seasons of the 
 year, and her position in the Far East will be unassailable. 
 Whatever else may be thought of the prospects of the Far 
 East, however, let the fact that Eussia intends to go to 
 Korea be regarded as certain. My own views of the inter- 
 national question springing out of the Siberian Eailway and 
 this fact, particularly in so far as it concerns the future of 
 Great Britain, will be found in subsequent chapters upon the 
 question of Korea and the future of Japan. 
 
SPAIN IN THE FAR EAST. 
 
GHAPTEB XL 
 
 MANILA : THE CITY OF GIGABS, HEMP, EABTRQUAEES 
 AND INTOLEBANGE. 
 
 rriHE passage from Hongkong to the two thousand islands 
 -*- which constitute the Philippine group is usually accounted 
 the worst in the China seas. It is a sort of sailing sideways, 
 through cross-currents of very deep seas, and into the favourite 
 hatching-place and haunt of the dreadful typhoon. Moreover, 
 Manila is not the easiest place in the world to find. Its position 
 is wrong on the charts, so my skipper assured me, and he would 
 not find it unless he knew better himself. It is, too, one of the 
 most earthquaky places in the world. When a British scientific 
 and surveying expedition came some years ago to the Philippines, 
 and wished among other things to determine the precise latitude 
 and longitude once for all, although it waited for a couple of 
 weeks the islands were never steady enough to afford a satis- 
 factory base for the instruments. The earthquake season was 
 on, and they were wobbling about the whole time ! This may 
 be a "yarn," but it is a fact that the seismographs of the 
 Observatory are in a state of perpetual motion. For myself, 
 however, Manila will always be remembered as the place where 
 for the first time I had my pockets publicly and officially 
 searched. As soon as we anchored, a guard of soldiers came 
 on board and assisted the custom-house officials in minutely 
 examining everything in our baggage. When this was over I 
 was stopped at the head of the gangway by the lieutenant in 
 command and courteously informed that before I could land he 
 
 169 
 
170 SPAIN. 
 
 must be permitted to see what I had in my pockets. When it 
 came to my pocket-book he turned it over, separating every 
 piece of paper in it. A bystander informed me that all this was 
 to prevent the introduction of Mexican dollars, on which there is 
 a premium, and which are prohibited of a date later than 1877, 
 and a pamphlet attacking the priests, recently published in 
 Hongkong. I tried to square accounts with this officer by 
 hinting that I had copies of the forbidden pamphlet in my 
 boots, but like the Prig, he only " answered with a silent 
 smile." 
 
 In the most conspicuous spot in Manila stands a statue to 
 Magellan, who discovered the Philippine Islands in his famous 
 first circumnavigation of the globe in 1521, and whose lieutenant, 
 Legaspi, founded the city fifty years later. Then came Manila's 
 golden days. It was the goal of the galleon — imagination-stirring 
 name — that made its romantic voyages from Spain, deep loaded 
 with treasure; that named the coast California — fit godfather 
 for the golden harvest of '49 — before even a foot was set on it ; 
 whose captain earned forty thousand dollars by his trip, and 
 pilot twenty thousand ; whose treasure-chests yielded up a total 
 of a million dollars to Drake alone ; out of whose overflowing 
 stores one victorious British cruiser sailed into the port of 
 London with damask sails and silken rigging. The galleons are 
 gone, the wars of which they were the constant prey are as 
 forgotten as the men who fought them, and " the most for- 
 tunately situated city in the world," as La Perouse called it, is 
 far off in its lonely ocean, days distant from any of the great 
 routes of commerce, almost unheeded by the world in which it 
 was once so renowned, unvisited even by the ubiquitous globe- 
 trotter. Yet there is something in the aspect of Manila sugges- 
 tive of romance — something more picturesque than other places 
 show. The first thing I saw was a native drifting down the 
 river fast asleep on a heap of coconuts. Then the streets are 
 dazzling with then: "fiowers of fire"— -large trees ablaze with 
 scarlet blossoms. The olive-skinned mestizas, half-caste descen- 
 
THE CITY OF MANILA. 171 
 
 dants of emigrated Spaniard and native Indian, step daintily 
 along on bare feet encased in chinelas, embroidered heel-less 
 slippers, with gay fluttering garments of jusi, a woven mixture 
 of silk and pine-fibre, their loose jet-black hair reaching some- 
 times almost to the ground — one woman was pointed out to me 
 whose hair was said to be eighty inches long — and their deep 
 dark eyes passing over you in languid surprise. The native 
 men are a community which has forgotten to tuck its shirt into 
 its trousers. Their costume consists of a pair of white trousers 
 and an elaborately pleated and starched shirt, with the tails left 
 flying about. Every one is smoking a cheroot, and every other 
 one has a game-cock under his arm, a constant companion and 
 chief treasure, and sometimes chief source of income too, until 
 the deadly spur on the heel of the stronger or pluckier rival 
 turns all its pride and brilliance into a shapeless heap of blood 
 and feathers in the dust, while a thousand voices execrate its 
 memory. 
 
 The City of Manila consists of two parts : the Spanish walled 
 city, called the parish of Intra Muros, and the general settlement 
 outside. The former is crowded with Spanish houses, the 
 streets being so narrow that in many of them two carriages can- 
 not pass each other ; their overhanging upper storeys make a 
 perpetual twilight ; the inhabitants go out but little, and the 
 whole place leaves upon you an impression of darkness, of 
 silence, of semi-stagnation. Outside the walls are the wharves, 
 all the warehouses and business offices, the hotels, many large 
 residences of the wealthy half-caste population, and as the city 
 gradually merges in the country, the charming river-side 
 bungalows of the foreign residents, the Club, the racecourse, 
 and so on, till you reach the squalid but picturesque outlying 
 native villages. Inside the city you cannot take a hundred steps 
 without coming upon striking evidence of the earthquakes. 
 Here is a church half broken down by the convulsion of such a 
 year ; there are the grass-grown ruins of the Government Palace 
 destroyed by another historic outburst ; in the great Cathedral 
 
172 SPAIN. 
 
 itself the lofty roof of the transept is split and cracked in an 
 alarming fashion. On the shore of the hay there is an extensive 
 and well laid-out boulevard or embankment, called the Luneta, 
 where all fashionable Manila walks or drives in the evening to 
 the music of the military band. Behind this are the forts, 
 moss-covered antiquities of masonry, armed with rusty and 
 harmless pieces which might have come from the gun-deck of 
 some old galleon. The military authorities, however, make up 
 in strictness of regulation what they lack in effectiveness of 
 armament, for the foreign tennis-club was refused permission to 
 play upon a piece of land within hypothetical range of these 
 guns on the ground that it was " within the military zone," and 
 I myself was told, though with great courtesy, by H. E. the 
 Captain-General, that he must refuse me permission to take any 
 photographs in which a part of the fortifications appeared. It 
 was, of course, only for their ancient picturesqueness that I 
 wished to photograph them — a mop vigorously twirled would be 
 as effective for defence. In one fort at another place there are 
 two decent modern guns, nearly surrounded by brittle masonry, 
 and of these I purchased a large and excellent photograph taken 
 from inside and showing every detail ! Manila, however, if the 
 information is of interest to anybody, could be reduced with ease 
 by a couple of gunboats. 
 
 The history of Manila has been well divided * into four epochs : 
 1. The Chinese period ; 2. The Spanish and Mexican period of 
 monopoly before the introduction of steam traffic ; 3. The 
 period of open commerce with British predominance, which 
 commences simultaneously with the age of steam ; 4. The 
 period from the opening of the Suez Canal until the pre- 
 sent time. The Chinese were the original traders with the 
 Philippine Islands, doing business always from their junks 
 to the shore. They were persecuted and massacred, but 
 returned in ever increasing numbers. Legaspi encouraged 
 them, and their numbers at the beginning of the seventeenth 
 • By Mr. Consul Stigand, in a very interesting Beport, F. O., No. 1391. 
 
The Boys' Band, Manila. 
 
 Fren'CII Prisoners at Hanoi. 
 
THE CITY OF MANILA. 173 
 
 century have been estimated at thirty thousand. When the 
 British occupied Manila in the course of one of the wars with 
 Spain, the Chinese revenged themselves by joining the invaders, 
 in return for which, as soon as our ships had left, a general 
 massacre of Chinese was ordered and carried out, and so late as 
 1820, says Mr. Stigand, another massacre of Chinese and 
 foreigners took place. At the present day there are one hundred 
 thousand Chinese in the Archipelago, of whom forty thousand 
 are settled in Manila, where they occupy the chief shops and 
 do almost all the artisans' work. The second period was that 
 of purely Spanish commerce, from 1571 to the beginning of this 
 century. The Philippines were a dependence of Mexico, com- 
 munication was forbidden except through Aeapuleo, from which 
 port the State galleons, termed Naos de Aeapuleo, made their 
 annual voyages, laden with the treasure which has rendered 
 their narhe one of the most picturesque words in history. They 
 were four-deckers, of about 1,500 tons, and strongly armed. In 
 times of war they were, as everybody knows, the easy and 
 greatly-sought prey of the enemy's ships. One of them, the 
 Pilar, captured by Anson, was a prize worth a million and half 
 dollars. At last foreign enemies pressed them so hard that 
 after the Philippines had been without a State galleon for six 
 years, they were discarded, and a commercial company, largely 
 financed by the King of Spain himself, was formed in 1765, 
 and to it was conceded the exclusive privilege of trading 
 between Spain and the Archipelago, except for the direct 
 traffic between Manila and Aeapuleo. This monopoly in its 
 turn came to an end in 1834, and from that time the Philip- 
 pines have been, according to Spanish ideas, open to com- 
 merce. The opening of the Suez Canal brought Manila within 
 thirty- two days' steam of Barcelona, and, as Mr. Stigand avers, 
 doubled the importance of the commerce of the Philippine 
 Islands, which now reaches the yearly sum of fifty million 
 dollars. The two principal banks, and the principal firms 
 in Manila, are all British, and of the ships that entered and 
 
174 SPAIN. 
 
 cleared from the port during 1893, amounting to 240 in all, 139 
 were British and 53 Spanish. But for the excessive port dues and 
 the bad harbour accommodation which compels cargoes to be 
 carried in Hghters to ships lying off the Bay, foreign trade with 
 Manila would undoubtedly be greater than it is. The one 
 railway in the islands, from Manila to Dagupan, which has just 
 been completed by the building of a bridge over the Eio Grande 
 river, has also been constructed chiefly with British capital, on 
 which it promises ultimately to pay a good return. The fall of 
 silver has hit it very hard, however, since the Government 
 subsidy which, at par of exchange, would be ^85,000, is only 
 £53,000 at the present rate. Japanese enterprise is likely to 
 make itself felt before long here as elsewhere, since Mr. 
 Nakamura, formerly Japanese Consul, is announced to be on 
 the point of establishing a trading company in Manila, with 
 a capital of half a million dollars. 
 
 Considered as a contemporary community, Manila is an 
 interesting example of the social product of the Eoman Catholic 
 Church when unrestrained by any outside influence. Here the 
 Church has free sway, uninterrupted by alien faith, undeterred 
 by secular criticism. All is in the hands of the priests. The 
 great monasteries, with their high barred windows, shelter the 
 power, the wealth, the knowledge of the community. The 
 Dominicans, with their Archbishop, the Augustinians, the 
 Recoletanos, and the Franciscans, divide the people among them, 
 their influence being in the order I have named them. Wise in 
 the knowledge of that which they have created, their own wealth 
 is invested in foreign banks, chiefly in Hongkong, though that of 
 the Dominicans, richest of all, is entrusted to the Agra Bank. 
 The people are plunged in superstition, and their principal 
 professed interest in life (after cock-fighting) is the elaborate 
 religious procession for which every feast-day offers a pretext. 
 The two newspapers are parodies of the modern press, ignorant 
 of news, devoid of opinion save the priests', devoted in equal 
 parts to homily and twaddle. The port, for its exasperating 
 
THE CITY OF MANILA. 175 
 
 restrictions and obstructions, is said by agents and captains to 
 be the most disagreeable in the world to enter or leave. The 
 civil authority itself is in many respects subject to the religious : 
 during the chief religious festivals nobody but the Arch- 
 bishop is permitted to ride in a carriage. A large part of the 
 real estate of the city is in the possession of the religious 
 orders. If you would prosper, it is absolutely indispensable 
 that you should be on good terms with the priests. Their 
 suspicion and disfavour mean ruin. The personal liberty of 
 the common man may almost be said to be in their keeping. 
 It is hardly necessary to add that the people as a whole are idle 
 and dissipated, and that most of the trade is in the hands of 
 the foreign houses. Altogether, Manila, distant as it is from 
 other communities, with little intercourse to enlighten it, and 
 few visitors to criticise or report, is a remarkable and instruc- 
 tive example of the free natural development of " age-reared 
 priestcraft and its shapes of woe." 
 
 Of the six characteristics of Manila — tobacco, hemp, earth- 
 quakes, cock-fighting, priestcraft and orchids — the first two are 
 known to all the world. Manila cigars and Manila hemp are 
 household words, the yearly product of the former reaching the 
 colossal total of nearly 140,000,000, besides tobacco, and of the 
 latter 80,000 tons, of which Great Britain takes considerably 
 more than half. Orchid-hunters come here year after year, 
 travel far into the virgin forests of the interior, and emerge 
 again after months of absence, if fever and the native Tagalos 
 spare them, with a few baskets full of strange flowers which 
 they carry home with infinite precaution and sell for a king's 
 ransom. I was told of one collector who sold a plant for i!500. 
 Tobacco is of course the staple industry, and a morning spent 
 in a tobacco factory is extremely interesting. Through the 
 kindness of Messrs. Smith, Bell & Co., the leading business- 
 house in Manila, I visited the most important of these, " La 
 Flor de la Isabella," and followed the tobacco from its arrival 
 in the bale, through the seasoning-room, to the wetting and 
 
176 SPAIN. 
 
 sorting-tubs, on tlhe benches where it is rolled into cigars, past 
 the selecting-table where its colour and quality are decided by 
 a lightning expert, through the drying-room, and at last into 
 the gaily-labelled cedar box. Manila tobacco is considered here 
 to be superior to any in the world, except the famous " Vuelta 
 Abajo" of Cuba, and millions of Manila cigars are sold as 
 Havanas. In fact, the two styles, Manila and Cuban, the 
 former with the end cut blunt off and parallel sides, are 
 turned out in almost equal quantities. Five colours are dis- 
 tinguished for sale, Maduro, Colorado Maduro, Colorado, 
 Colorado claro, and Claro, althoiigh the expert at the selecting- 
 table divides his heap into thirty different colours. The filling 
 of a cigar is called tripa, or tripe, the wrapper capa, or overcoat. 
 London takes assorted colours, while the dark brands are sent 
 to Spain, the light ones to New York, and the straight cheroots 
 to India. From this factory a million and a half cigars are 
 shipped every month to one London firm alone. The figures of 
 tobacco-making are astounding. At " La Flor de la Isabella," 
 and this is only one of a score of factories in Manila, 4,000 
 people are employed, their hours of labour being eight, from 
 7 to 12 and from 2 to 5 o'clock. And from the huge "Im- 
 periales" to the tiny "Coquetas" and the twisted " Culebras," 
 4,000,000 in Manila style and 1,500,000 in Cuban style are 
 made monthly. But cigarette-making caps the climax. The 
 tobacco leaves are cut into hebra or thread, which we call 
 "long-cut," and the whole process of making is done by a 
 single machine. I saw nine of these hard at work, and each 
 turns out twelve thousand in a day. It is a simple sum: 
 9 X 12,000 X 30 X 12, say 38,000,000 cigarettes a year from 
 one factory. And yet — 
 
 "There is poison, they say, in thy kisses, 
 pale cigarette 1 " 
 
 Or, from the other point of view, what an altar for Mr. Lowell's 
 worship of — 
 
THE CITY OF MANILA. 177 
 
 "the kind nymph to Bacchus bom 
 By Morpheus' daughter, she that seems 
 Gifted upon her natal mom 
 By him with fire, by her with dreams." 
 
 The great cockpit of Manila at the " Fiesta del Paeblo " is 
 one of the most remarkable spectacles in the world. Imagine a 
 huge circus with an arena raised to the height of the faces of 
 those standing ; behind them tier upon tier gradually rising ; 
 above the arena, which is enclosed with fine wire netting, tbe 
 red draped box of the farmer — the leading Chinaman of 
 Manila, named Senor Palanca ; and a packed audience of four 
 thousand people. Squatting on the earthen floor of the ring, 
 inside the wire netting, are the habitues, half Chinese and half 
 Mestizos, while the officials walk about — the juez de justicia or 
 referee, the sentenciador or umpire, the casador, " go-between " 
 or betting-master, and several others. Then two men enter 
 the ring, each carrying a bird whose spur is shielded for the 
 moment in a leather scabbard. One wears his hat — he is the 
 owner of the challenging bird — called llamado ; the other, 
 hatless, is the outsider or dejado, who takes up the challenge. 
 An official calls out the sum for which the challenger's owner 
 backs it, and how much is still lacking to make up the sum. 
 Then comes the most extraordinary scene of all. The moment 
 the words are out of his mouth, it rains dollars in the ring, 
 From those inside, from those who are within throwing distance, 
 apparently from everywhere, dollars pour in, without method, 
 without ownership, without a bargain, so far as one can judge 
 amid the deafening clamour. When the sums on the birds are 
 equal the betting master shouts Casada ! " matched," literally 
 " married," the farmer from his box on high yells Larga ! — 
 " loose them," and the fight begins. Sometimes it lasts ten 
 minutes, sometimes only a second, the first shock leaving one 
 bird a mangled corpse. No need to describe it — every one knows 
 how a cock fights, and that it is the very gamest and pluckiest 
 thing that lives. The fight over, the betting-master goes round 
 
 13 
 
178 SPAIN. 
 
 handing money back recklessly, so it seems, to anybody who 
 holds out a hand. I asked Senor Palanca how betting could 
 possibly be carried on like this. He replied that each one asks 
 for or takes the sum that belongs to him. But if anybody 
 should put out his hand for another's money ? He gave me to 
 understand that it was never done, and that if anybody were 
 detected doing so he would probably have a dozen knives in his 
 body on the spot. In a short time I had witnessed 105 cock- 
 fights, and I shall never willingly see another. The entry of 
 the two brilliant birds ; the final adjustment of the long razor- 
 edged spurs ; the frantic betting ; the rain of silver ; the irrita- 
 tion of the birds, held up to pull a few feathers out of each 
 other in turn ; their stealthy approach ; the dead silence ; the 
 sudden double spring and mad beating of wings ; the fall of 
 one or perhaps both, the gay plumage drenched in blood, and 
 perhaps a wing half-severed and hanging down ; the mad yells ; 
 the winning bird carried carefully away, the loser picked up 
 like carrion and flung away with a curse; the distribution of 
 money ; the instant appearance of another pair — the ceaseless 
 spectacle was an obsession of horror. The authorities make 
 a large revenue from the cockpit. For this and one other, 
 Senor Palanca pays 68,600 dollars a year, and there are five 
 other farmers. 
 
 Two other reminiscences may conclude my sketch of Manila. 
 One is that a hundred people were dying every day of cholera 
 while I was there, and several times my guide pushed me 
 hastily back against the wall as we threaded our way along the 
 narrow streets, and stuffed his camphorated handkerchief in 
 his mouth, muttering "Colerico!" as a couple of men passed 
 bearing on their shoulders a long object wrapped in a sheet 
 and slung between two poles— the latest case going to the 
 hospital One of the Chinese firemen died of cholera on board 
 the steamer three hours before we sailed. The other reminis- 
 cence is that the thermometer stood at 105° in the shade, as I 
 saw, and at 160° in the sun, as I was told. 
 
THE CITY OF MANILA. 179 
 
 The Philippine Islands are the only Spanish possession in 
 the Far East. Indeed, only a part of them can properly be 
 said to be in Spanish possession at all, as the natives of many 
 of the islands have never been brought under Spanish rule. 
 At this moment hostilities are proceeding in the almost un- 
 known island of Mindanao, with uncertain results as yet. 
 Although mining has always been a failure, there is undoubt- 
 edly vast wealth in the tropical forests of the Philippines, but 
 it will hardly be developed under the present rigime. In spite 
 of her growing fleet of first-class cruisers at home, Spain is 
 without influence in the Far East outside her own immediate 
 territories, and she will play little or no part in shaping its 
 destinies. 
 
PORTUGAL IN THE FAR EAST. 
 
GHAPTEB XII. 
 
 MACAO : TEE LUSITANIAN THULE. 
 
 TTTHEEE the carcase is, there also will the eagles be gathered 
 ' ' together." China is the great carcase of Asia, and round 
 her the eagles of Europe and America press and jostle one 
 another. England is entrenched at Hongkong, and many a fat 
 slice has she carried away. And now she is stretching out 
 another claw thi;ough Thibet. America has half of Shanghai, 
 and to and from San Francisco the bird of prey passes regularly 
 in his flight. France is trying hard to carry off her share of the 
 carcase through Tongking, and Port Arthur in the north brought 
 huge sums to a French syndicate. Herr Krupp has secured 
 Germany's chief plunder, and the Yamen of Li Hung-chang 
 at Tientsin is a nest of commercial intrigue on behalf of the 
 Fatherland. And Eussia is laying a heavy paw upon China 
 from the north. All this is natural enough, and so far as 
 England and America are concerned it is the incTitable flow 
 of trade in the channels of least resistance. But among the 
 birds around this Asiatic carcase there is a beetle ; among the 
 birds of prey there is a parasite. The extreme south-east corner 
 of China is the scene of the dying struggles of a mongrel 
 fragment of a once intrepid and famous race — a fragment 
 drawing its meagre sustenance with more difficulty every day. 
 The hand of Vasco da Gama would have wavered upon the helm 
 as he rounded the Cape of Good Hope, of all the men in Europe 
 " the first that ever burst into the silent seas " of the East, if he 
 could have foreseen to what a wretched pass and laughing-stock 
 
 183 
 
184 PORTUGAL, 
 
 his countrymen there would come after less than four hundred 
 years. The daughter of a King of Portugal was at Hongkong a 
 few years ago. She went, of course, to visit her own people 
 and stand under her own flag at Macao. But a glimpse was 
 too much for her, and she left within twelve hours. 
 
 Yet Macao (what is the relation of its name, one wonders, to 
 the Piccadilly game over which Beau Brummel used to preside, 
 doubtless with much profit to himself, at Watier's ?) is not such 
 a bad place, at first sight. Its bay is a perfect crescent. Around 
 this runs a broad boulevard, called the Praya Grande, shadowed 
 with fine old arching banyan trees. At each horn the Portuguese 
 flag waves over a little fort. Behind the town, green wooded 
 hills rise like an amphitheatre, and among the houses a 
 picturesque old building sticks up here and there — the 
 cathedral, the barracks, the military hospital, the older Fort 
 Monte. The whitewashed houses with their green blinds and 
 wide shady porticoes and verandas, from which dark eyes look 
 idly down upon you as you pass, recall many a little Italian and 
 Spanish town. A couple of yacht-like Portuguese gunboats lie 
 at anchor in the river beyond the bay. On Sundays and 
 Thursdays the band plays in the public gardens, and surely 
 nowhere in the world do the buglers linger so long over the 
 reveille and the retreat as they do here every day. To the busy 
 broker or merchant of Hongkong, who runs over here in the 
 summer from Saturday to Monday, after a week of hard work 
 and perspiration, coining dollars in a Turkish bath, Macao is a 
 tiny haven of rest, where the street is free from the detestable 
 ceaseless chatter of Chinamen, where the air is fresh and the 
 hills green, and where a little " flutter " at fan-tan is a miniature 
 and amusing substitute for the daily struggle with exchanges 
 and settlements and short sales. 
 
 And Macao has its glorious past, too. After they had 
 rounded the Cape the Portuguese occupied a great part of the 
 coast of India, sent an Embassy to the Emperor of China, and 
 occupied Ningpo. There one night 1,200 of them were 
 
THE COLONY OF MACAO. 185 
 
 murdered. So they resettled a place called Chinchew, where 
 the same fate overtook them. Nothing daunted, they came 
 further south, and after helping the Chinese to destroy hordes 
 of pirates were permitted to settle in peace on a small peninsula 
 near the mouth of one of the two river approaches to Canton. 
 Here Macao was founded in 1557, and up to 1848 the Portuguese 
 paid a yearly rental of 500 dollars in presents or money. In 
 1582 when the Crown of Portugal passed to Spain, Macao 
 followed suit. When it went hack again in 1640 in the person 
 of John IV. of Portugal, Macao again changed its flag and made 
 "a great donation" to the new king. At this time it was 
 described as " a melhor e mas prospero columna que os Portu- 
 gueyes tern em todo o Oriente " — the best and most prosperous 
 colony that the Portuguese possess in all the East. Then its 
 population was 19,600. By 1830 it had dwindled to 4,628, of 
 so mixed a blood that only 90 persons were registered as of pure 
 Portuguese descent. To-day it holds 63,500 Chinese, 4,476 so- 
 called Portuguese, and 78 others — in all 68,086. What is the 
 explanation of this sudden enormous multiplication of its 
 population ? Like Satan, Macao was " by merit raised to 
 that bad eminence." It won back its ancient prosperity by 
 offering its houses and its traders as the last refuge in the East 
 to that hell upon earth, the legalised coolie traffic. When 
 Hongkong stopped this for ever under the British flag by the 
 Chinese Passengers Act of 1854, Macao opened eager and 
 unscrupulous arms to the " labour agents," and for nearly 
 twenty years, when public opinion became too strong for 
 even this mongrel and far-away community, the little city 
 flourished, its inhabitants made fortunes, the Praya Grande 
 was crowded every evening by a gay and gaudy throng, the 
 streets were beautified, the cathedral was rebuilt, and the 
 Portuguese colony became famous throughout the East for 
 its elaborate religious processions and its eloquent priests. 
 And during these twenty years uncounted thousands of coolies 
 were decoyed, entrapped, stolen, and pirated to Macao, kept 
 
186 PORTUGAL. 
 
 prisoners in the gloomy " barracoons," whose grated windows 
 are still everywhere visible, theoretically certified as voluntary 
 contract labourers by an infamous profit-sharing procurador, and 
 then shipped to toil, and starve, and rot, and die in mines and 
 fields and plantations everywhere, literally " from China to 
 Peru." As a single specimen of the traffic it is commonly 
 affirmed that of 4,000 coolies sent to the foul guano-pits of 
 the Chincha Islands, not a single soul returned. Altogether 
 500,000 Chinese were exported via Macao, before the traffic 
 was finally extinguished in 1875. There has been lately a 
 semi-surreptitious attempt to revive the trade. A company 
 was formed to supply a million Chinese to South America, 
 and a ship called the Tetartos actually carried 300 " free 
 labourers " to Brazil in October of last year, concerning 
 whose destination and fate there is still great uncertainty. 
 And it has been rumoured that a new and influential coolie 
 emigration " ring " is being planned, but fortunately public 
 opinion and Chinese official opposition may be counted upon 
 to thwart its efforts. 
 
 A retribution has fallen upon Macao — it seems as though the 
 curses of the murdered coolies have come back to it. Not a soul 
 walks the beautiful Praya; the harbour is silting up so fast, from 
 the detritus brought down by the Pearl and West rivers, between 
 which Macao is situated, that in a few years there will not be as 
 many feet of water in it ; even the Chinese are leaving it — the 
 last of rats to quit a sinking ship; its miserable inhabitants, 
 interbred from Chinese, Portuguese, Malay, Indian, and unknown 
 human jetsam to such an extent that the few Portuguese troops 
 here regard the Chinaman as socially superior to the " Mesti90S," 
 have fallen into utter apathy ; they hardly show themselves out 
 of doors, they subsist on monies furnished to them by their 
 liluckier relatives in foreign employ in Hongkong and elsewhere, 
 and the military band in the public gardens plays to a score of 
 loafers. There is no manufacture, no social life, and almost no 
 trade smce the smuggling of opium has been stopped by Sir 
 
THE COLONY OF MACAO. 187 
 
 Robert Hart's recent treaty, giving Macao in perpetuity to 
 the Portuguese on the condition that its Customs should be 
 virtually controlled by his staff. 
 
 Another illegitimate source of income was lost to Macao in 
 1885. The most intense interest is taken in China — an interest 
 comparable only to that of the great sporting events of the year 
 with us — in the official literary and military examinations in 
 Peking, and upon the results of these every other man in China 
 desires to have a wager. A lottery to this end, called the 
 Wei-sing Lottery, has existed for a long time. The Chinese 
 Government have made more or less sincere efforts to put it 
 down ; indeed, in 1874 the Emperor went so far as to cashier 
 the Governor-General Ying Han for sanctioning its establish- 
 ment in Canton. The authorities of Macao, of course, saw the 
 possibilities of an enormous profit herein. They therefore 
 farmed out the lottery to a Chinaman, who smuggled the 
 tickets from Portuguese into Chinese territory, and who paid 
 them 353,000 dollars a year for the privilege. Against this the 
 Chinese were powerless, so in 1885, in self-defence, they con- 
 sented to the Wei-sing in China, with the result that the sum 
 the monopolist was able to pay the government of Macao fell 
 instantly to 36,000 dollars. Trade is going the way of the coolie 
 traffic, the opium-smuggling and the lottery revenue, but the 
 peculiar genius of Macao is not yet at an end. According to the 
 British Vice-Consul, a new source of income has been invented 
 in what is called " lie " tea, the legitimate tea trade having 
 almost completely fallen off. Mr. Joly writes : " This term 
 sufficiently explains its quality, for there is no doubt that the 
 mixture could only be called tea in its correct acceptation 
 through a considerable sacrifice of truth. These teas are 
 manufactured from exhausted tea-leaves, which are dried, 
 re-fired, and mixed with a certain proportion of genuine tea 
 and of seeds and dust. Most of this preparation proceeds to 
 Hamburg, where no ' Adulteration Act ' is in force ; but a 
 good deal of mystery enshrouds its ultimate fate, for there are 
 
188 POETUGAL. 
 
 various versions as to its disposal, some parties averring that 
 it is consumed by the lower classes, others that it is sold to 
 ships, and others that a quantity of it probably leaks into 
 England as well. Prom what I can gather, some of this ' lie ' 
 tea is often packed in chests labelled 'best Congou,' and 
 shipped to India for the lower classes. But tastes differ, just 
 as the tea sent to France and the Continent generally is a 
 mere conglomeration of stalks and twigs, and to all appearances 
 no tea at all." Macao, however, is practically being wiped out 
 of existence by Hongkong, with its enormously greater capital, 
 enterprise and freedom of trade. So far from attempting to 
 meet this competition, the Macanese authorities go blindly 
 along the old road of commercial restriction, the port dues at 
 Macao being exactly three times what they are at Hongkong. 
 In 1854 the Abbe Hue wrote as follows: "Aujourd'hui Macao 
 n'est guere plus qu'un souvenir ; I'etablissement anglais de 
 Hongkong lui a donne le coup mortel ; il ne lui reste de son 
 antique prosperite que de belles maisons sans locataires, et dans 
 quelques annees, peut-etre, les navires europeens, en passant 
 devant la presqu'ile ou fut cette fiere et riche colonie portugaise, 
 ne verront plus qu'un rocher nu, desole, tristement battu par 
 les vagues, et ou le pecheur chinois viendra faire secher ses 
 noirs filets." Although this prophecy is not yet wholly fulfilled, 
 each year brings its realisation nearer. One peculiar source of 
 revenue, however, remains — the sale of postage-stamps. When- 
 ever Macao desires a lift for its treasury it is able to secure it 
 by abandoning one set of stamps and issuing another, when 
 philatelists from all over the world eagerly add it to their 
 inflated collections. Our consul declares that he has " endless 
 applications from different countries for stamps of this colony." 
 
 Portugal doles out to Macao a yearly pittance, and its other 
 chief source of revenue is the 150,000 dollars it draws annually 
 from its gaming-tables. For, as I have said, whenever one 
 wickedness was stopped in Macao it was quick to find another, 
 and to-day it is the only place in the Far East where you can 
 
THE COLONY OF MACAO. 189 
 
 play fan-tan under a foreign flag. But its history is almost 
 closed, the days of its disappearing trade and its decomposing 
 population are numbered, and unless a Cement Company which 
 has been started on a small island leased from the bishop, or 
 the establishment of bonded warehouses, as suggested by the 
 Chinese Customs, should bring back a semblance of prosperity, 
 this "gem of the orient earth and open sea" will have dis- 
 appeared like other places and peoples which were, sinned too 
 much, and are not. 
 
 One classic memory, however, may save Macao from oblivion. 
 It was here that the exiled Camoens composed the greater part 
 of his Lusiads. On one of the hillsides overlooking the bay is an 
 extensive old shrubbery, where narrow paths twist in and out 
 among gnarled and ancient trees, and where half-a-dozen 
 enormous boulders heaped together form a natural archway or 
 grotto — the Oruta de Camoes. Camoens was appointed Provedor 
 dos defuntos e ausentes — Commissary for the Defunct and the 
 Absent — in Macao, and is supposed to have come here every day 
 to work at his great task. The place, which is now known as 
 " Camoens' Garden," belongs to a family named Marques, and 
 by them a remarkably fine bronze bust of the half-blind poet, 
 inscribed " Luiz de Camoes, Nasceo 1524, Morreo 1580," was 
 placed in the arch in 1840, upon a pedestal bearing six cantos 
 of the Lusiads, while tributes to him in half-a-dozen languages 
 are engraved upon stone tablets placed around. There is 
 a fine sonnet of Tasso's and various verpes in Portuguese and 
 Spanish, while Sir John Bowring's exaggeration is unfortunately 
 
 conspicuous : — 
 
 • 
 
 " Gem of the orient earth and open sea, 
 Macao, that in thy lap and on thy breast 
 Has gathered beauties all the loveliest 
 On which the sun smiles in his majesty ; " 
 
 and so on. One degree worse in style, though a thousand times 
 truer are some wonderful Latin verses perpetrated by a Mr. 
 David, who laments — 
 
190 POETUGAL. 
 
 " Sed jam vetustas aut manus impia 
 Prostravit, eheu 1 Triste silentium 
 Eegnare nunc solum videtur 
 Per seopulos, virides et umbras 1 " 
 
 Among all, however, the sincerest seems to me to be some 
 quaint lines in French, said to have been written by the com- 
 mander of a French man-of-war which visited Macao in 1827, 
 and ingeniously dedicated as follows : — 
 
 " Au Grand Luis de Camoens, Portugais d'origine Castillane, 
 Soldat religieus, voyageur et po^te exil6, 
 L'humble Louis de Eienzi, Fran(;ais d'origine Bomaine, 
 Voyageur religieux, soldat et po^te expatri6." 
 
 This poet too was doleful, for apostrophising Camoens he 
 says : — 
 
 " Agitfi plus que toi, je fuyai dana les champs, 
 Et le monde, et mon cosur, I'envie et les tyrans." 
 
 What the Macanese of to-day think of Camoens may be 
 judged from the fact that I tried in vain to borrow or buy in 
 Macao a copy of the Lusiads, to see what are the stanzas 
 engraved on the pedestal, the chiselling having become illegible. 
 Camoens himself was shipwrecked off Malacca on his way home 
 when pardoned, and swam ashore with the manuscript of the 
 Lusiads, losing everything else. Curiously enough, by the way, 
 on leaving the grotto and turning into the old half-deserted 
 cemetery I came across an old-fashioned granite monument, 
 with this inscription : " Sacred to the Memory of the Eight 
 Hon. Lord Henry John Spencer Churchill, 4th son of George 
 5th Duke of Marlborough, Captain of H.B.M.S. Druid, and 
 Senior Officer in the China Seas. Departed this life in Macao 
 roads, 2nd June, 1840. This monument is erected by His 
 OlBcers and Petty Officers in testimony of their Esteem and 
 Affection." 
 Finally, Macao, as I have said, is the Monaco of the East, I \ ^ 
 
THE COLONY OF MACAO. 191 
 
 and from its gaming-tables its impecunious government reaps 
 150,000 dollars a year, the price said to be paid by the syndi- 
 cate of Chinese proprietors for the monopoly. The game is a 
 peculiarly Chinese one, well fitted to afford full scope to the 
 multitude of refinements and hypothetical elaborations with 
 which the Chinaman, the greatest gambler on earth, loves to 
 surround his favourite vice. It is played on a mat-covered 
 table, with a small square of sheet lead and a heap of artificial 
 gilded " cash." On one side stands the croupier, on the adjoin- 
 ing side sits the dealer, and between them, a little to the rear, is 
 the desk and treasury of the cashier. The sides of the leaden 
 square are called one, two, three, and four. The dealer takes 
 up from the heap as many " cash " as he can grasp with both 
 hands and places them apart upon the table. Then the 
 players, who sit and stand round the other two sides of the 
 table, make their bets, that is, they place at either side of the 
 square any sum from 50 cents to 500 dollars, or at either 
 corner any sum up to 1,500 dollars. When all have done, 
 the dealer slowly counts the heap out in fours, and the last 
 remaining four or three or two or one, as the case may be, is 
 the winning number. Those who have placed their money at 
 the corresponding side of the square, which is called playing /aw, 
 are paid three to one ; those who have staked at the corner, 
 covering two numbers or playing tan, are paid even money if 
 either number wins. From all winnings the bank deducts eight 
 per cent. Besides the above ways, there are many other of 
 infinite complication, scored with buttons and cards and ivory 
 counters, which nobody except a Celestial can possibly under- 
 stand. But they play with the greatest eagerness, the coolie 
 who works a week to save "his dollar, the shopkeeper who 
 calmly stakes his watch and chain if he is short of ready money 
 and the well-to-do merchant, who watches the game for half an 
 hour to judge of the chances and then lays down his hundred 
 dollar bill and walks imperturbably away whatever the result may 
 be. Of course everybody asks, cannot the dealer after years of 
 
192 PORTUGAL. 
 
 practice take up a fixed number of " cash " according to the 
 sums staked upon the table ? It seems probable, but I have 
 watched him for a long time and I am convinced that if he could 
 it would in nearly all cases be impracticable, for many suf&cient 
 reasons. A few years ago it was common enough to see a 
 thousand dollars on the table for a single deal, when the 
 Hongkong brokers were rich, and came over on Saturday nights. 
 Conspicuous in Macao are the following lines by S. de Passos, 
 chiselled in marble over an arch : — 
 
 " Nacao que dormes, do sepulehro a borda, 
 ErguS-te, surge, como outr' ora, ovante I 
 Teu genio autigo, teu valor reeorda, 
 E aprende n'elle a caminhar avante 1 " 
 
 But the appeal comes too late. Portugal had her Eastern 
 glory, as she had also what Eichard Burton called her " mani- 
 fold villainies." Her share in the politics of the Far East is gone 
 for ever, and Macao is not even an inspiring monument to its 
 memory. 
 
CHINA. 
 
 14 
 
GSAPTEB XIII. 
 
 PEKINa AND ITS INHABITANTS. 
 
 A S soon as you are safely on Chinese soil at Tientsin you 
 begin to ask how far it is to Peking and how you can get 
 there. You are told eighty miles by road, and a hundred and 
 twenty by river, and that there are three methods of travel open 
 to you — cart, horseback, and boat. I chose the second, hired 
 a couple of ponies and a mafoo (groom), and thankfully left the 
 noisy, narrow, and nasty streets of the native city of Tientsin 
 behind me at seven o'clock one bright Sunday morning. Then 
 forty miles of jog-trot and canter along a narrow path across a 
 landscape of dry mud, and a night at a Chinese inn — a series of 
 small cold, bare guest-rooms surrounded by a hollow square of 
 stalls. To bed at eight, up again at three in order that the cart 
 which carries the baggage and bedding and food might start 
 and reach Peking before the gates are closed at five o'clock. 
 A trip to Peking is good for two moments of interest and 
 satisfaction — two real sensations of traveller's delight. The 
 first is at first sight of the walls of the great city, after the 
 second dull ride of forty miles. You enter through a gate of 
 no proportions or pretensions, you ride for a quarter of an hour 
 among hovels and pigs, and then suddenly on climbing a bank 
 a striking sight bursts upon you. A great tower of many storeys 
 forms the corner of a mighty wall ; from each of its storeys 
 a score cannon-mouths yawn ; for a mile or more the wall 
 stretches in a perfectly straight line, pierced with a thousand 
 embrasures, supported by a hundred buttresses. Then you halt 
 
 195 
 
196 CHINA. 
 
 your pony and sit. and try to realise that another of the desires 
 of your life is gratified ; that you are at last really and truly 
 before the walls of the city that was old centuries before the 
 wolf and the woodpecker found Eomulus and Eemus ; in the 
 wonderland of Marco Polo, father of travellers ; on the eve 
 of exploring the very capital and heart of the Celestial Empire. 
 This is the first of your two precious moments. When you ride 
 on you discover that the cannon-mouths are just black and 
 white rings painted on boards, and the swindle— fortunately you 
 do not know it then — is your whole visit to Peking in a nutshell. 
 The place is a gigantic disappointment. 
 
 Although the temptation is great to write marvels about a 
 place one has come so far to see — to play Polo, so to speak, 
 on one's own account — the truth is that Peking is not worth the 
 trip. It is worth coming to study, but not to see. The nose 
 is the only sense appealed to by the capital of China. It is not 
 half as picturesque a place as Seoul, nor a quarter as interest- 
 ing as San Francisco. Moreover, you cannot see nearly as 
 much of it to-day as you could a few years ago. One by one 
 the show-places have been closed to foreigners, and the Marble 
 Bridge, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven — to mention 
 only the first that come to mind — are now hermetically closed 
 against the barbarian, and neither rank nor money nor impu- 
 dence can force an entrance. Even the ascents to the top of 
 the wall — the only place where a foreigner can walk in comfort 
 and decency — are noW barred, and you must find a bribable 
 sentry. And if by reason of strength or luck you do get into 
 one of the forbidden spots you are very likely to have a narrow 
 escape — as I had at the Great Llama Temple — of never getting 
 out again. 
 
 The history of Peking is to be read in the walls which 
 surround it in ruin or in preservation, and if you trace them 
 within and without the city (I did not) they will show you 
 where lay the " Nanking " of the Khitan Tartars in 986 ; how 
 the famous "Golden Horde" of Kin Tartars laid out their 
 
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS. 197 
 
 capital of Chung-tu in 1161 ; what Genghiz Khan and his 
 Mongols thought a great city should be in 1215; how the 
 immortal Khublai Khan constructed Khanbalik, "the city of 
 the Khan," a century later — Polo calls it Cambaluc ; and much 
 more interesting history down to the advent of the present 
 Manchus in 1644. And it is the walls, in excellent preserva- 
 tion, that mark the divisions of the Peking of to-day — first, 
 the so-called "Chinese" or Outer City, more properly the 
 Southern City ; adjoinmg it the Inner or " Tartar City," 
 properly called Northern ; inside this the " Imperial City," 
 and inside this again, like the inmost pill-box in a nest, the 
 "Forbidden City," the actual Imperial residence itself. The 
 ethnological distinctions of Chinese and Tartar are practically 
 effaced ; the only distinction for the flying visitor is that the 
 shops are in the Chinese City, while most of the temples, public 
 buildings, and "sights," together with all the foreign residences, 
 are in the Tartar City, and that the wall of the latter is much 
 the larger and more massive structure. The ground-plan of 
 Peking is supposed to represent a human body, the palace being 
 the heart, but it is better described as being laid out on the 
 chess-board plan of American cities west of Chicago. There 
 are two great streets which intersect at a central point, and from 
 all parts of these other streets, lanes and alleys run in straight 
 lines. Every corner in Peking seems to be a right angle ; there 
 are no winding thoroughfares. The houses are all very low with 
 flat roofs, and I did not see a single first-class Chinese dwelling- 
 house in the whole city. But it is the streets of Peking that 
 ^-Istrike the observer first, and fade last from his recollection. 
 Whether wide or narrow, dark alley or main artery, they are 
 entirely unpaved — the native alluvial soil and the native sewage 
 form every Pekingese pathway. Erom this state of things spring 
 several curious consequencea The roads are so uneven, the 
 holes in them so numerous and deep, the ridges so high and 
 steep, that no vehicle with springs can navigate half a mile. 
 
 The only conveyance, therefore, is the famous Peking cart, an 
 
 S-0 C 
 
198 CHINA. 
 
 enormously strong and heavy square two-wheeled, covered 
 vehicle, drawn by a mule, the passenger squatting tailor-fashion 
 inside and the driver sitting on the shaft. If you go out to 
 dinner or your wife goes to church, this is practically your 
 only vehicle, as there are very few chairs in Peking. But to 
 be rolled about and jolted in one of these is simple torture, 
 and if you do not hold on closely to the hand-rails inside you 
 run no little risk of having your brains dashed out. After a 
 good shower of rain in Peking you cannot set foot out of doors ; 
 the mud is often three feet deep, and the centre of the street 
 sometimes a couple of feet higher than the sides. But on the 
 other hand, if no rain comes there is the dust, and a Peking 
 dust-storm, once experienced, is a dreadful memory for ever. 
 After a drought the dust is ankle-deep, every night at sunset it 
 is watered with the liquid sewage of the city, and so it has come 
 to be composed of dried pulverised earth and dried pulverised 
 filth in about equal proportions. And when the storm comes 
 you are blinded and choked by it ; it penetrates your clothing 
 to the skin ; windows and doors and curtains and covers do not 
 stop it for an instant ; people say it even finds its way into 
 air-tight boxes. So whether the barometer indicates " rain " 
 or " fair," you are equally badly off. The Secretary of the 
 British Legation says in his latest Eeport : " The foreign com- 
 munity started a roads' committee with the praiseworthy desire 
 of cleansing and levelling the foul streets immediately around 
 the legations and Customs residences. A water-cart was pur- 
 chased and created no small sensation among the populace on 
 its first appearance ; but only a torrent of rain suffices to lay 
 the deep dust of Peking, and the efforts to remove the filth of 
 the roads have proved inadequate and almost abortive." Few 
 European travellers, he adds, have visited Peking during the 
 past three years. 
 
 To learn what the Chinaman really thinks about the foreigner, 2 
 you must go to Peking : no other city in China will serve so 
 well. And the discovery will be far from flattering to your 
 
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS. 199 
 
 national pride. Peking is the only place I have ever visited 
 where the mere fact of being a foreigner, a stranger in speech, 
 dress, and manners, did not of itself secure one a certain amount 
 of consideration, or at any rate make one the object of useful in- 
 terest. Here the precise opposite is the case. The " foreign devil" 
 - is despised at sight — ^not merely hated, but regarded with sincere 
 and profound contempt. "If the TsungliYamen were abolished," 
 said a Peking diplomat to me, " our lives would not be safe here 
 for twenty-four hours. The people just refrain from actually 
 molesting us because they have learned that they will be very 
 severely punished if they do." At home we cherish the belief 
 that we are welcome in China, that the Chinese are pleased to 
 learn of our Western civilisation, that they are gradually and 
 gladly assimilating our habits and views, and that the wall of 
 prejudice is slowly breaking down. It would hardly be pos- 
 sible to be more grossly and painfully mistaken. The people to 
 a man detest and despise us (I am speaking, of course, of the 
 real Chinese, not of the anglicised Chinese of Hongkong and 
 elsewhere, who are but a drop in the ocean of Celestial 
 humanity) ; and as for the rulers, it will not be far from the 
 truth to say that the better they know us, the less they like us. 
 
 Let us say that you start out in the morning for a prowl in 
 Peking. What are your relations with the people you meet ? 
 First of all, of course, they crowd round you whenever you 
 stop, and in a minute you are the centre of a mass of solid 
 humanity, which is eating horrible stuff, which is covered with 
 vermin, which smells worse than words can tell, and which is 
 quite likely to have small-pox about it. As for taking a photo- 
 graph in the streets, it is out of the question. The only way I 
 could manage this was to place my camera on the edge of a 
 bridge, where they could not get in front of the lens, and then I 
 was in imminent danger of being pushed into the canal, as the 
 bridges have no rail or parapet. The crowd jostles you, feels 
 your clothes with its dirty hands, pokes its nose in your face, 
 keeping up all the time (I was generally with a friend who 
 
200 CHINA. 
 
 understood Chinese) a string of insulting and obscene remarks, 
 ■with accompanying roars of laughter. By and by the novelty 
 and fun of this wear off, and you get first impatient and then 
 infuriated. But beware, above all things, of striking or even 
 laying a finger on one of these dirty wretches. That would be 
 probably a fatal mistake. They will do nothing but talk and 
 push ; but if you should hit one of them, you would be more 
 than likely not to get away alive, or at least without bad injuries. 
 But suppose that you walk steadily and imperturbably on? 
 The pedestrian you meet treats you with much less considera- 
 tion than one of his own countrymen ; the children run to the 
 door to cry " Kueidzu ! " — "devil!" — at you. They have other 
 indescribable and worse ways of insulting you. When a member 
 of a foreign legation was riding underneath the wall, a brick was 
 dropped upon him from the top. It just missed his head and 
 struck the horse behind the saddle. The Chinese children, 
 again, have an original way of amusing themselves at the 
 expense of the foreign devils. A child will provide itself with 
 a big fire-cracker, and then sit patiently at the door till he sees 
 you in the distance coming along on your pony. Then he will 
 run out, drop the cracker in the road, light the slow-match with 
 a fire-stick, and retire to a safe place to watch events. With 
 devilish precocity he generally manages to cause it to explode 
 just under your pony's nose ; and if you are lucky enough to 
 keep your seat and pull up a mile or so in the direction you do 
 not wish to go, he doubtless considers that his experiment has only 
 been a moderate success. If you should break your neck and 
 be left there dead in the road, that would confer imperishable 
 lustre upon his family and neighbourhood. When this has 
 happened to you once or twice, you learn to jog about the 
 Celestial City with short reins and your knees stuck well into 
 your saddle, ready for developments at any moment. I was 
 told that Lady Walsham's chair was actually stopped in the 
 open street and she herself grossly insulted, that a member of 
 our Consular service was nearly killed outside the Llama temple, 
 
!,Y^ -<»«?" S"!15! 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 
 a 
 
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS. 201 
 
 and that there are few foreigners who have not had some un- 
 pleasant experience or other. No doubt it is sometimes the 
 foreigner's own fault, but a life-member of the Aborigines 
 Protection Society would fail to get on smoothly at all times. 
 
 The foreign legations in Peking are in a street near the chief 
 gate of the Tartar City, known among the foreigners as 
 " Legation Street." It is half a mile long, either mud or dust, 
 as level as a chopping sea, with here and there its monotony of 
 blank walls or dirty native houses broken by a strong gateway 
 with a couple of stone lions in front. These are the legations ; 
 and inside the gate you find pleasant gardens and generally 
 spacious and comfortable foreign houses, sometimes built ad hoc 
 and sometimes converted to their present use from Chinese 
 temples. So long as you are the stranger within the gates, you 
 are extremely well off; but as soon as the porter shuts them 
 behind you — well, the residents in Peking say it is a charming 
 place, but for my part I can only believe in their veracity at the 
 expense of their taste. I would rather live in Seven Dials or 
 Five Points. When your guide says, "This is Legation Street," 
 you laugh, it is so dirty, so miserable, with its horrible crowd of 
 dogs and pigs and filthy children. But when you have lived in 
 it for a few days you laugh no more : you count the hours till 
 you can get away. 
 
 What, however, about the " sights " of Peking ? To 
 be truthful is to declare frankly that there are almost 
 none. Much the finest building that I saw — indeed, the only 
 one not in positive dirt and decay — is the entrance pavilion 
 in the grounds of the British Legation, shown in my illus- 
 tration. That is a massive wooden roof, richly carved and 
 gorgeously coloured, supported upon many columns corre- 
 spondingly decorated. One day I was riding with a member 
 of the Eussian Legation, and he said, " By the way, wouldn't 
 you like to see the Imperial Chinese War OfiBce ? " " Very 
 much indeed," I replied enthusiastically, supposing it to be 
 something splendid. So we turned into a wretched by-street, 
 
202 CHINA. 
 
 and steered our ponies round the mud-holes and the heaps of gar- 
 bage till we reached it — a broken-down, weather-stained, rotting 
 structure, with a waving field of weeds on the roof, and a guard 
 lounging at the door one degree more dirty and dilapidated than 
 the place itself. And all the other offices of State — the Board 
 of Eites, the Board of Punishments, the Astronomical Board, 
 and the rest — are facsimiles of the Board of War. Professor 
 Douglas says, in the Encycloptedia Britannica, that the halls of 
 the palace, " for the magnificence of their proportions and bar- 
 baric splendour, are probably not to be surpassed anywhere." 
 Whatever may be his authority for this statement — ^I thought no 
 foreigner had ever h ad an opportunity of examining them— nothing 
 else in Peking suggests any magnificence and splendour. The 
 yellow-roofed buildings of the palace are closely walled in, and 
 no foreign foot passes the threshold of the " Forbidden 
 City" ; but I have looked at them through my glass from the 
 top of the highest building in the neighbourhood, and they 
 appear commonplace enough. And when the Emperor recently 
 quitted the palace in great pomp, and after him came the 
 solemn procession of the Eecords, an experienced eye-witness 
 said of the latter, " Like everything Chinese, it was disappoint- 
 ing, tawdry, and sordid," and added, " It is safe to conjecture 
 that the Emperor's own retinue, could it be seen, would reveal a 
 similar state of affairs." The Temple of Heaven, with its semi- / 
 circular marble altar and bright blue dome, as you look down ^ 
 upon it from the wall, seems to be in good preservation, and a 
 really impressive and beautiful structure ; but not a single other 
 place or thing did I see that suggested the " gorgeous East " in 
 the remotest degree. 
 
 Of interesting places, however, there are certainly a few , 
 in Peking. First among these comes the wall itself. It is built ^ 
 of large bricks, filled in with sand, and is fifty feet high, sixty 
 feet wide at the base, and forty feet at the top. Peking, seen 
 from the wall, is a stretch of flat roofs, more than half hidden in 
 foliage, from which here and there a tower or a pagoda or high- 
 
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS. 203 
 
 roofed temple projects. Not a trace of the actual dirt and dis- 
 comfort and squalor is visible ; the air is fresh, the smells are 
 absent, and the Celestial capital is at its best. A walk of a 
 mile along the top brings you to the famous Observatory, and 
 the marvellous bronzes of the Jesuit Father Verbiest, who 
 made and erected them in 1668. Below the wall, in a shady 
 garden, are the much older ones which Marco Polo saw, less 
 accurate astronomically, but even more beautiful for their grace 
 and delicacy, and linking one's imagination closely with the 
 romantic past ; for this great globe and sextant and armillary 
 zodiacal sphere were constructed in 1279 by the astronomer of 
 Khublai Khan. Either the climate or their own intrinsic excel- 
 lence has preserved them so well that every line and bit of 
 tracery is as perfect to our eyes as it was to those of the great 
 Khan himself. 
 
 Then there is the Examination Hall. The Government of 
 China is a vast system of competitive examination tempered by 
 bribery, and this Kao Ch'ang is its focus. It is a miniature city, 
 with one wide artery down the middle, hundreds of parallel 
 streets running from this on both sides, each street mathematic- 
 ally subdivided into houses, a big semblance of a palace at one 
 end of the main street, and little elevated watch-towers here and 
 there. But the palace is merely the examiners' hall, the streets 
 are three feet wide, and one side of them is a blank wall, the 
 towers are for the " proctors " to spy upon cribbing, and the 
 houses are perfectly plain brick cells measuring 38 inches by 50. 
 In the enclosure there are no fewer than fourteen thousand of 
 these. After emerging successfully from a competitive examina- 
 tion in the capital of his own province, the Chinese aspirant 
 comes to Peking to compete for the second degree. He is put 
 into one of these cells, two boards are given him for a seat and 
 a table, and there he remains day and night for fourteen days. 
 Every cell is full, an army of cooks and coolies waits upon the 
 scholars, and any one caught cribbing or communicating with 
 his neighbour is visited with the severest punishment. The 
 
204 CHINA. 
 
 condition of the place when all these would-be literati are thus 
 cooped up for a fortnight, with Chinese ideas of sanitation, may 
 be imagined, and it is not surprising to learn that many die. 
 But what joy for the successful ones ! They are received in 
 procession at the gates of their native town, and everybody 
 hastens to congratulate their parents upon having given such a 
 son to the world. By and by there is another examination in 
 which the already twice successful compete against each other, 
 thousands again flock to Peking, and the winners are honoured 
 by the Son of Heaven himself, and their names inscribed for ever 
 upon marble tablets. Better still, they are provided with Govern- 
 ment posts, and this is the reward of their efforts. But the 
 subject-matter of their examination is simply and solely the 
 letter-perfect knowledge of the works of Confucius, the history 
 of China, and the art of composition and character-forming as 
 practised by the great masters of old. In the works of the 
 masters, argue the Chinese, is all wisdom ; he who knows these 
 works best is therefore the wisest man ; whatever needs doing, 
 the wisest man can do it best. So the successful literati are sent 
 all over the country to be magistrates and generals and com- 
 manders of ships and engineers and everything else haphazard, 
 without the slightest acquaintance of any kind with their subject, 
 densely and marvellously ignorant and impenetrably conceited. 
 An idea of the part this Examination Hall plays in the con- 
 temporary life of China may be gained from the fact that in 
 June, 1894, no fewer than 6,896 candidates presented themselves 
 in Peking, of whom 320 were successful, including the son of a 
 well-known Formosa millionaire, who was promptly made 
 Assistant Imperial High Commissioner of Agriculture in 
 Formosa. The Marquis Tseng was one of the great Chinamen 
 of the present day who did not enter public life by this triple 
 portal to invincible incompetence. 
 
 The shrine of the Master himself is really an impressive spot. 
 The great hall and its columns are of bare wood, the floor is of 
 plain stone, and no adornment mars the supreme solemnity of 
 
The Examination Cells, Peking. 
 
 The Observatory on the Wall, Peking. 
 
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS. 205 
 
 the place. In the middle, upon a square altar, stands a small 
 tablet of red lacquer, upon which, is written in Chinese and 
 Manchu, " The tablet of the soul of the most holy ancestral 
 teacher Confucius." Up the marble terrace to this hall the 
 Emperor comes to worship twice a year, and the Chinese do 
 really hold this place in some veneration, for when I offered its 
 miserable guardian five dollars to let me photograph it, he re- 
 pulsed the offer with much scorn. Yet five dollars would have 
 been a small fortune for him. 
 
 One experience of Celestial sight-seeing I am not likely to 
 forget, and should be very unwilling to repeat. Among the 
 places of interest in Peking the Ywng Ho Kwng, the Great 
 i^Jlamaserai or Llama Temple, ranks very high. It is a monas- 
 tery of Mongol Buddhism or Shamanism, and contains over a 
 thousand Mongol and Thibetan monks ruled over by a " Living 
 Buddha." No foreigner, however, had been in it for several 
 years, as the inmates are a rough and lawless lot, practically 
 beyond the control of the Chinese authorities, and the last party 
 that entered it was rudely handled. It is regarded as all the 
 more sacred, too, because an Emperor was born in one of its 
 temples before they were given to the Llamas. When I spoke 
 of going there both my mafoo and " boy " told me that 
 strangers could no longer get in, the former adding that he had 
 accompanied different employers there six times without success. 
 A friend in Peking, however, told me that one of the priests, 
 called the Pai Llama, whatever that may mean, had come to 
 him a few weeks before to borrow five dollars, and had said as 
 an inducement that if he or any of his friends wanted to see the 
 Llamaserai he would take them over it himself without a fee. 
 So my friend gave me his big red Chinese card with the Pai 
 Llama's name on it as an introduction, and a member of the 
 Legation, who spoke Chinese, was good enough to go with me, 
 as he was equally anxious to see the place. It is on the out 
 skirts of Peking, nearly an hour's ride from Legation Street, and 
 we passed in through two or three gates from the street without 
 
206 CHINA. 
 
 any difficulty. Then some boy-neophytes or acolytes — we knew 
 them from their shaven heads — ran ahead of us and warned the 
 priests, who shut the doors. After a quarter of an hour's 
 colloquy we bribed the doorkeeper to tell the Pai Llama, and 
 by and by the latter appeared, a small dirty individual, who 
 succeeded with much difficulty in persuading the others to open 
 the gates and let us step just inside. Then he immediately 
 disappeared and we saw him no more. After another half-hour 
 of bargaining we agreed to pay them a certain moderate sum to 
 show us the four chief sights of the Temple. The first of these 
 was the great Buddha, a wooden image 70 feet high, richly 
 ornamented and clothed, holding an enormous lotus in each 
 hand, and with the traditional jewel on his breast. In each 
 section of his huge gold crown sat a small Buddha, as perfect 
 and as much ornamented as the great one. His toe measured 
 21 inches. On each side of him hung a huge scroll 75 feet 
 long, bearing Chinese characters, and a series of galleries, 
 reached by several flights of stairs, surrounded him. The 
 expression of his great bronze face was singularly lofty, and I 
 was seized with a great desire to photograph him. The crowd 
 of monks was outside the locked door, one only entering with 
 us, so I hinted to him that if he permitted me to take a photo- 
 graph a dollar might be forthcoming. The dollar interested 
 him, but he had no idea what a photograph was. After a while 
 my companion succeeded in explaining what the Chinese call 
 the " shadow-picture," and then he would not hear of it, declar- 
 ing that the whole temple would instantly fall down if such a 
 thing were attempted. I offered two dollars, three, four, five, 
 ten, and then, my eagerness increasing with the difficulty, 
 twenty. At last he said that for twenty dollars he would agree 
 to smuggle me in next morning to do it, as if any of the other 
 priests knew, there would be trouble. So we passed on to the 
 other sights — two magnificent bronze lions, and a wonderful 
 bronze urn; many temples filled with strange idols, hung with 
 thousands of silk hangings, and laid with Thibetan carpets ; all 
 
PEKING AND ITS INHABITANTS. 207 
 
 sorts of bronze and enamel altar utensils, presented by different 
 emperors, among them two elephants in cloisonne, said to be 
 the best specimens of such work in China ; and the great hall, 
 with its prayer-benches for all the mooks, where they worship 
 every afternoon at five. In a couple of hours we had seen 
 everything, and came out again into the central courtyard. 
 Here were already a hundred or more monks waiting for us, all 
 with their heads shaven like billiard-balls, and on the whole a 
 set of as thorough-paced blackguards as could be imagined ; 
 filthy, vermin-covered, bloated, scrofulous, and with the marks 
 of nameless vices stamped clearly on many of their faces. " I 
 shall be glad when we are out of this," I remarked, and my 
 companion heartily assented. But easier said than done. They 
 crowded round us with brutal inquisitiveness, pulled us about, 
 shouted to us, and laughed grossly as half-rational gorillas 
 might do. My companion said to them that we were very 
 much pleased with our visit, and we slowly edged toward the 
 door. But there seemed to be a sort of tacit conspiracy 
 to crowd us in any other direction. They did not actually 
 oppose us, but somehow we could not get there. It was as 
 though they did not like to let us get away, yet were conscious 
 that they had no excuse for detaining us. After a quarter 
 of an hour of this we began to get annoyed. Just then we all 
 came to a sort of tunnel gate in a wall, leading from one court 
 to another, my companion and one crowd first, I and another 
 crowd afterwards, and my "boy" and a third crowd last. As 
 I was passing, a man whom I took from his dress to be a sort 
 of doorkeeper sprang out and addressed me volubly. Not 
 understanding him I took no notice, when he grasped my arm 
 to detain me. I shook him off and was passing on when 
 suddenly he seized me by the collar with both hands and flung 
 me violently back against the wall. At such a moment one 
 does not reflect upon consequences, and I did what anybody else 
 would have done. The moment his grasp quitted my collar I 
 struck him. He recovered himself, and the misunderstanding 
 
208 CHINA. 
 
 ■was about to be prolonged vigorously on both sides when a very 
 old priest in a fine yellow robe emerged from a doorway and 
 began to play the peacemaker with many smiles, holding us 
 each by the hand. A second's reflection showed me the 
 extreme folly of getting into a quarrel in such a place, so I 
 responded effusively to the venerable Llama's overtures, and, 
 calling my " boy," bade him explain tbat if the priest had 
 anything to say to us we should be very glad to hear it, but that 
 if he laid a finger on us he would get into trouble. As we were 
 two, and they were upwards of two hundred by this time, I have 
 wondered since that the ludicrous side of this did not strike 
 them. However, as I followed up the remark with a few small 
 coins, nobody cared to impugn the logic. 
 
 As soon as I overtook my companion I saw from the move- 
 ment of the crowd that something was wrong, and when I forced 
 my way into the middle it was evidently a much more serious 
 affair than mine. A young brute of a monk had approached 
 him from behind and suddenly and violently kicked him. 
 In return he had received a good cut across the face from a 
 riding-whip. The monk was foaming with rage, and rapidly 
 stripping off all his upper clothing with a most unmistakable 
 intention. Already he was nearly half-naked, and although 
 perhaps a trifle fat, still an ugly customer to handle. "He 
 struck me with his whip ! " he exclaimed, pointing to the mark 
 on his face, and then followed a string of remarks levelled at us. 
 " What does he say ? " I asked. " He says we sha'n't get out 
 alive." Just then a monk shouted something which the others 
 eagerly echoed, and a dozen of them instantly ran and shut the 
 great gates of the courtyard. 
 
 There was no doubt whatever that we were in a very tight 
 place. We were in the centre of probably the most dangerous 
 place in Peking, on the outskirts of the city, a quarter of a mile 
 from the street, with half a dozen closed gates between us and 
 it, and completely at the mercy of two hundred savage Mongols 
 and Thibetans, who had vowed to have our lives. There were a 
 
PEKING AKD ITS INHABITANTS. 209 
 
 thousand of them within call, they acknowledge no Chinese 
 authority whatever, the Chinese Government would he ex- 
 tremely loath to interfere with them for fear of provoking 
 trouble in Thibet, and if they had just knocked us on the head 
 and hid our bodies in one of their temple dens, we should very 
 probably never have been heard of again. Clearly the only thing 
 to do was to get out of the place at any cost. Then I called my 
 " boy," who was yelling and struggling to keep possession of my 
 two cameras, and told him to ask quietly the best-looking of the 
 monks for how much they would consent to let us go out. All 
 this took but half a minute to do, and as soon as the crowd 
 heard the question the pugilistic gentleman was squelched by 
 common consent. " Fifty dollars " was the conclusion arrived 
 at after several minutes' discussion. " Tell them we have not so 
 much money with us, but they can come and get it from my 
 house to-morrow morning." But they were much too wary to 
 fall into such a palpable trap. To bring the story to an end, 
 however, at last my " boy " made a bargain with them, and we 
 were fleeced of several dollars at each gate that they could 
 manage to lead us through before we reached the street and 
 our horses. I got through the gate all right, and my 
 " boy " was following when several of the monks precipitated 
 themselves on him and sent him flying head first into 
 , the middle of the street, while the broken camera, tripod, 
 and bag of double-backs landed each in a separate mud- 
 hole. 
 
 That afternoon as I was mending my camera the "boy" 
 came in with the tea. "Master?" "Well?" "I no go 
 Llama Temple any more — belong velly bad man ! " And I did 
 not keep my appointment next morning to photograph the big 
 Buddha furtively. 
 
 Above all other characteristics of Peking one thing stands out 
 
 in horrible prominence. Not to mention it would be wilfully to 
 
 omit the most striking feature of the place. I mean its filth. 
 
 e cJt is the most horribly and indescribably filthy place that can be 
 
210 CHINA, 
 
 imagined. Indeed imagination must fall far short of the fact. 
 Some of the daily sights of the pedestrian in Peking could 
 hardly be more than hinted at by one man to another in the 
 disinfecting atmosphere of a smoking-room. There is no sewer 
 or cesspool, public or private, but the street ; the dog, the pig, 
 and the fowl — in a sickening succession — are the scavengers ; 
 every now and then you pass a man who goes along tossing the 
 most loathsome of the refuse into an open-work basket on his 
 back ; the smells are simply awful ; the city is one colossal and 
 uncleansed cloaca. As I have said above, the first of the 
 two moments of delight vouchsafed to every visitor to the 
 Celestial capital is at his first sight of it. The second is when 
 he turns his back, hoping it may be for ever, upon " the 
 body and soul-stinking town" (the words are Coleridge's) of 
 Peking. 
 
GHAPTEB XIV. 
 
 TO TEE GBEAT WALL OF CHINA. 
 
 rilHE first time I met a camel-train near Peking I reined up 
 my pony and feasted my eyes upon it. And although I 
 saw hundreds afterwards, I found them just as amusing as 
 ever. The two-humped or Baetrian camels of Northern China 
 are much bigger than those we know at home, and I have seen 
 few sights so picturesque as a string of them approaching 
 over these brown plains. A score are fastened together by a 
 cord attaching the nose of one to the tail of the other ; a bell, a 
 couple of feet long, is hung round the neck of the last, to warn 
 the driver in front by its ceasing if the line breaks anywhere ; a 
 medley of bales and boxes and clothing is slung on their backs ; 
 ruddy-faced Mongols, dressed in scarlet and yellow, with orna- 
 ments of gold and silver in profusion, sit up aloft and smile at 
 you as you pass ; the great shaggy beasts step softly along, 
 ingeniously out of step, lifting their sponge-like feet and dropping 
 them again with perfect and unvarying deliberation, the whole 
 train moving with the silence of a dream, broken only by the 
 jang-jang of the solitary bell. Their big brown eyes look you 
 straight in the face, and there is something pathetic and reproach- 
 ful in their glance. All day long, one street of Peking is filled 
 with these picturesque processions, gaunt, wretched creatures 
 with worn-out coats and covered with coal-dust, carrying sacks 
 of coal from the Western Hills into Peking; and far finer 
 and better-kept animals bearing tea away up into the North. 
 During all my stay in Peking I longed for the moment when I 
 
 211 
 
212 CHINA. 
 
 too should ride away at dawn toward Mongolia, in the worn 
 tracks of these strange beasts and their merry masters. 
 
 My pony was a little creature not much bigger than a dog, 
 with a white coat as long and thick as a Polar bear's. The 
 mafoo had bought him a few days before from a Mongol for 
 twenty taels, and he had never had a foreign saddle and bridle 
 on till I mounted him. Therefore the all-day ride was not so 
 monotonous as usual", and for the first five miles it was even 
 exciting. We started at daybreak and the sun was well above 
 us before we got outside the two gates of Peking. Then the 
 viafoo took the lead. Once in the open country we were on a 
 great alluvial plain, dotted with mud houses, broken up by 
 irregular patches of verdure and cultivation, laced in all direc- 
 tions by dozens of bridle-paths, and ending on our left in the 
 dim outline of the Western Hills, the summer sanitarium of 
 Peking. We plunged into the labyrinth of roads, and the mafoo 
 threaded his way among them without a moment's hesitation. 
 Afterwards I found that he had been over them forty-six times 
 before, but for my own part I could see hardly any signs by 
 which to distinguish one from another. Till eleven o'clock we 
 trotted steadily on, reaching then a small town called Sha-ho, 
 where we stopped an hour for rest and tiffin. Here already 
 foreigners are scarce and I was the centre of much curiosity, 
 keen and inquisitive, but quite good-natured. Crossing a river 
 over two very old broad flat bridges of white marble, built 
 curiously at an obtuse angle to each other, we emerged again 
 into the plain. This grew more and more uneven as we 
 advanced, till at last we were riding along a narrow path on the 
 sloping stony bank of a dry water-course. The stones grew 
 bigger and more numerous, till they could no longer be safely 
 negociated, and then my guide struck up to the right, and an 
 hour's detour across country, with half a mile of such bad going 
 at the end that I got off and led my pony, brought us at three 
 o'clock to the fortified city of Nan-k'ou, thirty miles from 
 Peking, our resting-place for the night. 
 
TO THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 213 
 
 Nan-k'ou is a very interesting little place. Its wall is in 
 ruins, but that only makes it the more picturesque. On the 
 hills right and left of the entrance to the pass which the city 
 is supposed to guard, are two sprightly little towers ; a dozen 
 others are just visible dotted about the chain of hills around it. 
 Its one broad street, paved once with great blocks of stone, now 
 worn away and upset till a pony can hardly make his way at all 
 over their slippery rolling surface, is crowded with traffic of men 
 and beasts, and every fifty yards a wide arched doorway leads 
 into a spacious inn-yard. This street is part of the great com- 
 mercial highway between China and all her neighbours of the 
 North. Through it a constant stream of camels and ponies and 
 donkeys and even laden coolies passes, bringing Mongol produce 
 to Peking, and taking brick-tea back from Tientsin to Kiakhta 
 on the Eussian frontier. And through this street this stream 
 has passed for who knows how many years — thousands, at any 
 rate. 
 
 I strolled along it and turned into one of the gateways. But 
 I had only just time to step aside when a drove of at least a 
 hundred ponies suddenly stampeded through it and galloped 
 headlong through the street, whinnying and kicking up their 
 heels in delight at being free. Just outside the city they drank 
 greedily at a little stream, and then rolled over and over each 
 other in the dirt. But such a spectacle of cruelty to animals as 
 was afforded by the state of their backs I have never seen. Not 
 one of them was without a large raw wound on each side, and 
 half of them had horrible, deep, bleeding, festering sores bigger 
 than two hands. The sight was sickening, and nothing what- 
 ever was done for them except that afterwards I saw a coolie 
 beating the insides of the rough pack-saddles with a stick to 
 keep the blood- soaked places from getting quite hard. Each 
 pony had carried two bales of tea, as hard as blocks of granite. 
 I tried the weight of one and found I could just raise it off the 
 ground. Therefore the ponies were shockingly overloaded. 
 
 The camels require so much space for themselves and their 
 
214 CHINA. 
 
 burdens that they have special caravanserais. Their saddles, 
 with the loads deposited on each side, are arranged in regular 
 rows, like game after a battue, and the animals betake them- 
 selves to a trough which runs all round the yard, squeezing close 
 together. The yard of a caravanserai at feeding-time therefore 
 exhibits a complete circular horizon of camels' tails. When 
 they have eaten they sink down and very deliberately chew the 
 cud. It is just as well to keep on good terms with a camel, for 
 when he is standing up he can swing his hind leg like a pendulum 
 in an arc of about twenty feet and therefore deliver a kick which 
 would break in the door of a San Francisco gambling-den; 
 while when he is lying down he can always spare a couple of 
 gallons of cud to spit at an enemy. I saw a Mongol driver to 
 whom this had happened, and the sight was unpleasant and 
 instructive. Several hundred camels shared the hospitality of 
 Nan-k'ou with me that night. 
 
 Next morning we embarked upon little white donkeys, the pass 
 being impracticable for ponies. This road in its glory is said to 
 have been paved with great smooth granite blocks ; now in the 
 valley it is a broken mass of rough stones in a river bed, through 
 which a shallow stream runs ; while during the ascent and at 
 the height of the pass it is a bad moun|ain road obstructed by 
 great masses of rock. A couple of hours' riding and walking 
 brought us to another walled town called Chu-yung-kuan, famous 
 for a heavy arched stone gateway, the whole inside of which is 
 covered with sculptures in low relief and a Buddhist inscription 
 in six languages — Chinese, Thibetan, Mongol, Sanscrit, and two 
 others that I could not get any one to identify. From the other 
 side of this gateway the pass of Nan-k'ou is spread out before 
 you, a brown, barren, rock-strewn, gloomy valley, rising and 
 narrowing till it disappears in the hills, through which an endless 
 file of brown camels is slowly passing, filling the air with the 
 dust of their feet and the clangour of their bells. For an hour or 
 more we jogged on. Then when the pass had become wearisome 
 and I was thousands of miles away in thought, my mafoo rode 
 
The Geeat Wall of China. 
 
 A Watch-Tower on the Great Wall. 
 
TO THE GREAT "WALL OF CHINA. 215 
 
 up beside me and silently pointed to the hill-top on the right. I 
 strained my eyes, and there, sure enough, the sky-line far away 
 ■was broken by the crenellated outline of the Great Wall itself. 
 " This," said Marco Polo when he saw it, " is the country of 
 Gog and Magog." 
 
 The Great Wall of China is, after all, only a wall. And it 
 was built with the same object as every other wall^to keep 
 people from coming where they were not wanted. Mr. Toole's 
 famous account of it is as historically accurate as any. " The 
 most important building in China," he is accustomed to say, 
 " is the Chinese Wall, built to keep the Tartars out. It was 
 built at such an enormous expense that the Chinese never got 
 over it. But the Tartars did. And the way they accomplished 
 this feat was as follows : one went first and t'other went arter." 
 It differs from other walls in only two respects, its age and its 
 size. It was built by the great Emperor Chi Hwang-ti, who 
 came to the throne in b.c. 221, to keep back the Mongolian 
 hordes, and was called by him the " Eed Port." The origina 
 wall is 1,400 miles long and stretches from far Kansu to Shan- 
 hai-kwan on the gulf of Pe-chih-li, the present terminus of 
 China's solitary railway — from Tientsin. This wall, however, 
 is neither so well built nor so large as that which I am de- 
 scribing, the latter being a five-hundred mile erection, dating 
 from several hundred years later. It is, however, an integral 
 part — and the most impressive — of the " Great Wall." Besides 
 its age it enjoys the reputation of being tjie only work of human 
 hands on the globe visible from the moon. The Chinese name 
 for it is Wan-li-ch'ang-ch'eng, " the rampart ten thousand li 
 long." And the gate on this highway is called Pa-ta-Ung and is 
 about fifty miles north-west of Peking and 2,000 feet above the 
 sea. Beyond it lies Mongolia. 
 
 Half an hour after this first glimpse I stood upon the wall 
 itself. The gateway is a large double one, with a square tower 
 upon it, pierced with oblong openings for cannon, of which a 
 dozen old ones lie in a heap, showing that at one time the road 
 
216 CHINA. 
 
 ■was seriously defended at this point. A rough stairway leads to 
 the top, which is about twenty feet wide, with a crenellated 
 parapet on each side, and you can walk along it as far as you 
 can see, with here and there a scramble where it has fallen in a 
 little. On the whole it is in excellent repair, having of course 
 been mended and rebuilt many times. Every half-mile or so is 
 a little square tower of two storeys. The wall itself varies a 
 good deal in height according to the nature of the ground, 
 averaging probably about forty feet. On one side Mongolia, as 
 you see it, is a vast undulating brown plain ; on the other side 
 China is a perfect sea of brown hills in all directions, and across 
 these stretches the Great Wall. On the hill-top, through the 
 valleys, up and down the sides it twists in an unbroken line, 
 exactly like a huge earth-worm suddenly turned to stone. For 
 many miles it is visible in both directions, and when you can no 
 longer trace its entire length you can still discover it topping 
 the hills one after another into the remote distance. And as 
 you reflect that it is built of bricks, in almost inaccessible 
 places, through uninhabited countries ; that each brick must 
 have been transported on a man's shoulders enormous distances ; 
 and that it extends for 2,000 miles, or one-twelfth of the circum- 
 ference of the globe, you begin to realise that you are looking 
 upon the most colossal achievement of human hands. The 
 bricks are so big and heavy that I had to hire a little donkey to 
 carry off two of them. This is the only piece of vandalism 
 to which I plead gujlty during years of tempting Eastern 
 travel, but the temptation was irresistible and " they never will 
 be missed " Nowadays, of course, the wall serves no defensive 
 purpose whatever, and is not guarded in any way. Not a soul 
 lives within miles of it at most points, and it is but a landmark 
 for the Mongols' camel-trains, a stupendous monument to the 
 past of China, and an evidence of Celestial greatness and 
 enterprise gone never to return. 
 
 After taking a dozen photographs, several of which are 
 here reproduced, and reflecting how comical now were the 
 
TO THE GEEAT WALL OF CHINA. 217 
 
 learned arguments produced in England a few years ago to 
 prove that there was no such thing as a Great Wall of 
 China, I turned back to Nan-k'ou, reaching there at night- 
 fall. Next morning before daylight we started for the tombs 
 of the great Ming dynasty, thirteen miles away, and as 
 famous in China as the wall itself. These lie in a pleasant 
 green valley surrounded with an almost complete circle of high 
 wooded hills — an ideal spot for an emperor's grave. There are 
 thirteen of them, called the Shih-san-ling, disposed in the shape 
 of a crescent, but the crescent is so extensive that only four or 
 five of them can be seen at once. I visited the largest, the tomb 
 of Yung-le, who brought his court hither in 1411. A square of 
 perhaps two hundred yards across the face is surrounded with a 
 high wall of plain red brick. The side of the hill forms the 
 fourth side, and the entrance is through a pair of ordinary wooden 
 doors. When you enter, the spectacle is not at all striking. 
 There are a few little pavilions on either side of you, each 
 covering a carved stone tortoise or an inscribed tablet, and in 
 front a long low temple-shaped building with an approach of 
 steps and balustrades in carved white marble. Inside is gloom , 
 through which you faintly discern the magnificent outlines of 
 thirty-two enormous wooden columns, each a solid log of hewn 
 and polished teak twelve feet round and thirty-two feet high. 
 Where they came from — unless it was from Burmah — or how 
 they were conveyed hither, nobody knows, but their grandeur is 
 indisputable. In the centre, upon a sort of stone table, stands 
 a plain tablet of red lacquer, a couple of feet high and 
 a foot wide, bearing the posthumous title of Yung-le, "The 
 perfect ancestor and literary Emperor." But the ancestor him- 
 self is not here. Passing out behind the great columns and 
 again crossing the garden, at the edge of the hillside there is a 
 solid square tower of brick and granite, supporting a kind ot 
 obelisk. The sarcophagus itself is deep in the hill, and upon 
 the obelisk a long inscription narrates the deeds and extols the 
 virtues of the long-departed Ming. On the whole, however, 
 
218 CHINA. 
 
 China disappoints you here once more, as everywhere and 
 always. The situation is finely chosen for the last resting-place 
 of immortal emperors, but man's handiwork rather weakens 
 than enhances the effects of nature. There is no suggestion, for 
 instance, of the solemnity of that cathedral aisle — 
 
 " Where the warriors in the gloom 
 Watch o'er Maximilian's tomb ; " 
 
 and there is nothing to arrest the hasty footstep lest even " the 
 hushed tread " — 
 
 " Should bm-st the bands of the dreamless sleep 
 That holds the mighty dead." 
 
 As you ride away you pass through an avenue of stone carvings, 
 where pairs of knights and courtiers, with camels and elephants 
 — beasts fit to follow their master into the shadow- world — 
 glare at you from each side. They are enormous, being some 
 fifteen feet high and carved out of a solid block of stone ; and 
 wonderful, for you cannot imagine how they were transported. 
 But they are utterly dwarfed by the hills around them, and 
 soon your only recollection of them is that your pony positively 
 refused to pass between them and ended by bolting with you. 
 And I may as well give my little Polar bear of a pony credit for 
 the way in which he trotted back to Peking so as to get there 
 before the gates closed, in all forty miles in four hours, with 
 three-quarters of an hour for rest and food. I have known 
 costlier horseflesh make poorer progress. And when we got 
 back again at last to Tientsin my mafoo sold him to the inn- 
 keeper for twice what he had paid for him. 
 
2/? 
 
 GHAPTEB XV. 
 
 CHINESE H0BB0B8. 
 
 rpO understand contemporary China it is absolutely necessary 
 -^ to undergo, either personally or by proxy, some very un- 
 pleasant experiences. This must be my excuse for the following 
 chapter. China is claiming her place among the nations of the 
 world. The question, What shall that place be? can only be 
 answered by those who know what China is. I have looked 
 upon men being cruelly tortured ; I have stood in the shambles 
 where human beings are slaughtered like pigs ; my boots have 
 dripped with the blood of my fellow-creatures ;— repulsive as all 
 this is, it is one of the most significant and instructive aspects 
 of the real China, as opposed to the China of native professions 
 and foreign imagination, and therefore it must be frankly 
 described. 
 
 It was in Canton, a colossal human ant-hill, an endless 
 labyrinth of streets a dozen feet wide and a score high, crowded 
 from daylight to dark with a double stream of men and women, 
 exactly like the double stream between an ant-hill and a carcase. 
 All this mass of humanity was presided over for years by H.E. 
 Chang Chi-tung, now Viceroy of the Hu Kuang provinces, the 
 most independent and foreigner-hating Viceroy in China, and 
 therefore it may be imagined what is the temper of the 
 populace, especially as the Cantonese are the most turbulent 
 people of the Flowery Kingdom. 
 
 During the day the streets of Canton are in semi-obscurity, 
 as they are closed in at the top by broad strips of cloth and long 
 
 219 
 
220 CHINA. 
 
 advertising streamers ; but at night they are as black as Tar- 
 tarus. Public safety and order are supposed to be preserved by 
 occasional posts of soldiers, with a collection of weapons and 
 instruments of torture hung up outside to strike terror into the 
 evilly-disposed. But, as may be imagined, crime of every kind 
 is rife in Canton, and so bad is the reputation of the place that 
 very often a servant from another part of China, travelling with 
 his master, will rather forfeit his situation than accompany him 
 there. And where the crime is, there is the punishment too. 
 It by no means follows in China that the person punished is the 
 criminal, but there is enough legal cruelty in Canton to glut an 
 Alva. Eespect for the presence of an occasional foreigner causes 
 a good deal of it to be hid, and the spectacle of a man hung up 
 in a cage to starve to death in public is therefore not seen there 
 as it is in other parts. 
 
 The magistrate sat in his Yamen dispensing justice. He was 
 a benevolent-looking man of perhaps forty, with an intellectual 
 forehead and the conventional enormous pair of spectacles. He 
 glanced up at us as we entered, visibly annoyed at the intrusion 
 and hardly returning our salutation. But as we were under the 
 wing of a consul for whom Chinese officialism has no terrors 
 whatever, a fact of which the Cantonese authorities have had 
 repeated experience, we made ourselves quite at home. There 
 was little of the pomp of Western law in the scene before us. 
 The magistrate's own chair, draped with red cloth covered with 
 inscriptions in large characters, was almost the only piece of 
 official apparatus, and behind it were grouped half-a-dozen of 
 the big red presentation umbrellas of which every Chinese 
 official is so proud. Before him was a large open space and a 
 motley crowd, in which the most conspicuous figures were the 
 filthy ruffians in red hats, known as " Yamen-runners," whose 
 business is to clear a way before their master in the streets 
 and do anything else that he wishes, down to the administration 
 of torture. The magistrate himself sat perfectly silent, writing 
 busily, while several persons before him gabbled all at the same 
 
CHINESE HOBEOES. 221 
 
 time. These were presumably the plaintiff, the defendant, and 
 the policemen. After a while the magistrate interrupted one of 
 the speakers with a monosyllable spoken in a low tone without 
 even raising his head, but its effect was magical. The crowd 
 fell back, and one of the little group in front of the chair 
 wrung his hands and heaved a theatrical sigh. Before we could 
 realise what had happened, several pairs of very willing hands 
 were helping him to let down his trousers, and when this was 
 accomplished to the satisfaction of everybody he laid himself 
 face downwards on the floor. Then one of the "runners" 
 stepped forward with the bamboo, a strip of this toughest of 
 plants three feet long, two inches wide, and half an inch thick. 
 Squatting by the side of the victim and holding the bamboo 
 perfectly horizontal close to the flesh, he began to rain light 
 blows on the man's buttocks. At first the performance looked 
 like a farce, the blows were so light and the receiver of them so 
 indifferent. But as the shower of taps continued with monoto- 
 nous persistence I bethought me of the old torture of driving a 
 man mad by letting a drop of water fall every minute on his 
 shaved head. After a few more minutes of the dactylic rap- 
 tap-tap, rap-tap-tap, a deep groan broke from the prisoner's 
 lips. I walked over to look at him and saw that his flesh was 
 blue under the flogging. Then it became congested with blood, 
 and whereas at first he had lain quiet of his own accord, now a 
 dozen men were holding him tight. The crowd gazed at him 
 with broad grins on their faces, breaking out from time to time 
 into a suppressed " Hi-yah," as he writhed in special pain or 
 cried out in agony. And all this time the ceaseless shower of 
 blows continued, the man who wielded the bamboo putting not 
 a particle more or less force into the last stroke than into the 
 first. At length the magistrate dropped another word and the 
 torture stopped as suddenly as it had begun, the prisoner was 
 lifted to his feet and led across the court to lean against the 
 wall. For obvious reasons he could not be " accommodated 
 with a chair." 
 
222 CHINA. 
 
 The next person to be called up was a policeman. The 
 magistrate put a question or two to him and listened patiently 
 for a while to his rambling and effusive replies. Then as before 
 the fatal monosyllable dropped from his lips. With the greatest 
 promptitude the policeman prepared himself, assumed the 
 regulation attitude, and the flagellation began again. But I 
 noticed that the blows sounded altogether different from before, 
 much sharper and shriller, like wood falling upon wood, rather 
 than wood falling upon flesh. So I drew near to examine. 
 Sure enough, there was a vital difference. The policeman had 
 attached a small piece of wood to his leg by means of wax, and 
 on this the blows fell, taking no more effect upon his person 
 than if they had been delivered on the sole of his boot. The 
 fraud was perfectly transparent — everybody in the room, 
 including the magistrate himself, must have known what was 
 happening. Thus another peculiarity of Chinese justice is 
 evidently that the punishment of an ordinary offender is one 
 thing, while that of an erring official is quite another. I 
 learned that the policeman was ordered to be bambooed for 
 not bringing in a prisoner whom the magistrate had ordered 
 him to produce. "When the sham punishment was over he 
 jumped brislily to his feet, adjusted his clothing, and resumed 
 his duties about the court. 
 
 While we had been watching the process of "eating bamboo," 
 far different punishments were going on in another part of the 
 court-room unnoticed by us. The bamboo is not so very far 
 removed from still existent civihsed deterrent methods, but 
 what was now before us recalled the most brutal ages. In one 
 corner a man had been tied hand and foot on a small bench the 
 length of his back, in such a manner that his body was bent as 
 far back as it could possibly be stretched in the form of a circle, 
 his back resting on the flat seat of the bench, and his arms and 
 legs fastened to the four legs. Then the whole affair, man and 
 bench, had been tilted forward till it rested upon two feet and 
 upon the man's two knees, almost falling over— almost, but not 
 
CHINESE HORKORS. 223 
 
 quite. This, as well as the bambooing and other tortures, 
 fia illustrated in the native drawings here produced. The 
 position of the miserable wretch was as grotesque as it was 
 exquisitely painful ; his hands and feet were blue, his eyes 
 protruded, his mouth gasped convulsively like that of a dying 
 fish, and he had evidently been in that position so long 
 that he was on the eve of losing consciousness. And he was 
 apparently forgotten. A few boys stood gazing at him open- 
 mouthed, but nobody else paid any more attention to him than 
 if he had been a piece of furniture. This was enough for my 
 companions, and they left the room. But how is the Western 
 world to know what the Celestial Empire really is unless people 
 are willing to see and hear of its innumerable horrors ? The 
 utterly mistaken notion of China which is so wide-spread at 
 home is due in great part to this very unwillingness to look 
 straight in the face what a French writer has so well called the 
 "rotten East." 
 
 In another corner an unfortunate creature was undergoing 
 the punishment called " kneeling on chains." A thin strong 
 cord had been fastened to his thumbs and great toes and passed 
 over a hook in an upright post. Then by pulling it sufficiently 
 he was of course lifted off the ground, his knees being the 
 lowest part of his body. Under them a small chain, with 
 sharp-edged links, had next been coiled in a circle as a natty 
 sailor coils a rope on the deck. The cord had then been 
 slackened till the whole weight of the man rested upon his 
 knees, and his knees rested upon the chain. The process seems 
 simple, but the result is awful. And this man had been under- 
 going a prolonged course of torture. Amongst other things, 
 his ankle-bones had been battered with a piece of wood shaped 
 like a child's cricket bat. His tortures ended for the momeot, 
 while we were looking at him. Two attendants loosened the 
 cord, and he fell in a heap. They rolled him off the chain 
 and set him on his feet. The moment they let go he sank 
 like a half-filled sack. So they stretched him out on the floor 
 
224 CHINA. 
 
 and each one of them ruhbed one of his knees vigorously for a 
 couple of minutes. But it was no use, he was utterly incapable 
 of even standing, and had to be dragged away. As we passed 
 out, a woman was before the magistrate, giving evidence. Her 
 testimony, however, was either not true enough or not prompt 
 enough, in the official's opinion, for he had recourse to the 
 " truth-compeller." This is a little instrument reserved exclu- 
 sively for the fair sex, shaped exactly like the thick sole of a 
 slipper, split at the sole part and fastened at the heel. With 
 this the witness received a slap across the mouth which rang 
 out like a pistol-shot. A glance at the frontispiece of this 
 volume, which is a facsimile of a native drawing professing to 
 be a perfectly truthful representation of a common method 
 of torturing women, will show that this woman was more 
 fortunate than many of her sex in China. 
 
 It is only fair to add that the Chinese have a sort of rational 
 theory of tortuie, although they are far from adhering to it. 
 By Chinese law no prisoner can be punished until he has con- 
 fessed his guilt. Therefore they first prove him guilty and then 
 torture him until he confesses the accuracy of their verdict. 
 The more you reflect on this logic the more surprising it 
 becomes. To assist in its comprehension I procured, by the 
 aid of the Consul and a fcw dollars, a complete set of 
 instruments of torture — light bamboo, heavy bamboo, ankle- 
 smasher, mouth-slapper, thumb-squeezer, and sundry others. 
 " Mandarins," says Professor Douglas, " whose minds have 
 grown callous to the sufferings of their fellow-creatures, are 
 always ready to believe that the instruments of torture at their 
 disposal are insufficient for their purposes. Unhappily, it is 
 always easy to inflict pain; and in almost every yamun through- 
 out the Empire an infinite variety of instruments of torture is 
 in constant use." 
 
 One Chinese punishment, of which I am fortunately able to 
 give a striking picture, deserves particular attention. This is 
 ling-chi, or death by the " thousand cuts." It is otherwise 
 
o 
 
 a 
 
 -4 
 
 M 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 H 
 
 
CHINESE HOEROES. 225 
 
 known as death by the " slow process " or by the " slicing 
 process." It is supposed to be reserved for culprits who com- 
 mit triple murder and for parricides, but the penal code is no 
 doubt as elastic in this as in other respects. Here is a specimen 
 announcement of ling-chi, from the official Pekin Gazette : — 
 
 " Ma Pei-yao, Governor of Kuangai, reports a triple poisoning case in his pro- 
 vinoe. A woman having been beaten by her husband on account of her slovenly 
 habits, took counsel with an old herb woman, and by her direction picked some 
 poisonous herb on the mountain, with which she successively poisoned her husband, 
 father-in-law, and brother-in-law. She has been executed by the slow process. — 
 Rescript : Let the Board of Punishments take note." 
 
 The criminal is fastened to a rough cross, and the executioner, 
 armed with a sharp knife, begins by grasping handfuls from the 
 fleshy parts of the body, such as the thighs and the breasts, and 
 slicing them off. After this he removes the joints and the 
 excrescences of the body one by one — the nose and ears, fingers 
 and toes. Then the limbs are cut off piecemeal at the wrists 
 and the ankles, the elbows and knees, the shoulders and hips. 
 Finally, the victim is stabbed to the heart and his head cut off. 
 Of course, unless the process is very rapidly carried out, the 
 man is dead before it is completed, but if he has any friends 
 who are able to bribe the executioner he is either drugged 
 beforehand with opium, or else the stab to the heart is surrep- 
 titiously given after the first few strokes. It would be easy to 
 quote from the Pekin Gazette dozens of instances of the infliction 
 of this penalty, and these would probably be but a fraction of 
 the occasions on which it is practised. I believe it' has only 
 been witnessed once by a foreigner, as the Chinese have a 
 great and not unnatural objection to the presence of foreigners 
 on such occasions. The photograph here produced is no doubt 
 the only one ever taken. A few words of explanation concerning 
 it are therefore desirable. The British captain of a river steamer 
 plying between Hongkong and Canton strolled one day into 
 the native city with a small hand-camera which he had just 
 purchased. Observing a crowd in the street, he made his way 
 through it and discovered the remains of a man who had been 
 
 16 
 
226 CHINA. 
 
 executed by the ling-chi. As his camera was a very small one, 
 he was able to point it at the spectacle and snap the shutter 
 without attracting attention, as the bystanders would never 
 have allowed a formal photograph to be taken. On his return 
 to Hongkong he placed his camera in the hands of an 
 experienced photographer, who developed the negative and 
 made from it an enlargement of which this illustration is a 
 copy. It is thus a unique and absolutely genuine illustration 
 of contemporary Chinese life. The susceptible reader will 
 doubtless be grateful to me for having caused the edge of 
 this picture to be perforated. 
 
 It is, however, the last act of the drama of Chinese justice 
 that is the great revelation. I am inclined to think that nobody 
 can claim to have an adequate and accurate appreciation of 
 Chinese character who has not witnessed a Chinese execution. 
 This is not difficult to do at Canton, or even at Kowloon, on the 
 other side of Hongkong harbour, for the Canton river swarms 
 with pirates, and when these gentry are caught they generally 
 get short shrift. A few bambooings to begin with, then several 
 months in prison — and it is not necessary to explain what a 
 Chinese prison is — with little to eat and a stiff course of torture, 
 and then one fine morning a " short sharp shock " at the execu- 
 tion-ground. If the reader cares to accompany me further I 
 will try to place the scene before him. 
 
 The execution is fixed for half-past four, so at four the guide 
 comes for us at Shameen, the foreign quarter of Canton, and 
 our chairs carry us rapidly through the noisy alleys of the native 
 city. Until we get close to the spot there is no sign of anything 
 unusual. There suddenly we run into a jammed crowd at the 
 end of a long and particularly narrow street. The chair coolies, 
 however, plunge straight into it and it gives way before us till 
 we are brought up by a huge pair of wooden gates guarded by a 
 little group of soldiers. To hear these men talk you would 
 suppose that they would die then and there rather than let you 
 pass, but the production of a couple of ten-cent pieces works a 
 
CHINESE HORRORS. 227 
 
 miracle and they open the gates for us, vainly trying to stop the 
 rush of natives that follows and carries us before it right into 
 the middle of the open space. It is a bare piece of ground, fifty 
 yards long by a dozen wide, between two houses, whose blank 
 walls hem it in on three sides. To-day it is the execution 
 ground ; yesterday and to-morrow the drying-ground of a potter 
 who lives there. There is no platform, no roped-off space, 
 nothing but this bare bit of dirty ground so crowded with 
 Chinese that we are forced into the middle, not more than four 
 feet from whatever is to take place. It is useless to try to get 
 further off — here we are and here we must stop. 
 
 Suddenly the gates are thrown open again, and welcomed by 
 a howl of delight from the crowd, a strange and ghastly pro- 
 cession comes tumbling in. First a few ragamuf&n soldiers, 
 making a fine pretence of clearing the way. Then a file of 
 coolies carrying the victims in small shallow baskets slung to 
 bamboo poles. As soon as each pair reaches the middle of the 
 space they stoop and pitch their living burden out and run off. 
 The prisoners are chained hand and foot and are perfectly help- 
 less. The executioner stands by and points out where each load is 
 to be dumped. He is dressed exactly like any other coolie 
 present, without any badge of office whatever. The condemned 
 men have each a long folded piece of paper in a slit bamboo 
 stuck into his pigtail; upon this is written his crime and 
 the warrant of execution. One after another they arrive and 
 are slung out. Will the procession never end ? how many can 
 there be ? this is perhaps more than we bargained for. At last 
 over the heads of the crowd we see the hats of two petty man- 
 darins, and behind them the gates are shut. The tale of men is 
 fifteen, and the executioner has arranged them in two rows, 
 about two yards apart and. all facing one way. All except one 
 seem perfectly callous, and he had probably been drugged with 
 opium, a last privilege which a prisoner's friends can always 
 obtain by bribery. They exchange remarks, some of them 
 evidently chaff, with the spectators, and one man was carried in 
 
228 CHINA. 
 
 singing and kept up his strain almost to the last. The execu- 
 tioners—there are now two of them — step forward. The 
 younger tucks up his trousers and sleeves and deliberately 
 selects a sword from several lying close by, while the other, an 
 older man, collects the strips of paper into a sheaf and lays them 
 on one side. Then he places himself behind the front man of 
 the nearest row and takes him by the shoulders. The younger 
 man walks forward and stands at the left of the kneeling man. 
 The fatal moment has come. There is an instant's hush and 
 every man in the two rows of condemned men behind twists 
 his head up and cranes his neck to see* I will not attempt to 
 describe the emotions of such a moment — the horror, the awful 
 repulsion, the wish that you had never come, the sickening fear 
 that you will be splashed with the blood, and yet the helpless 
 fascination that keeps your eyes glued to every detail. The knife 
 is raised. It is a short broad-bladed, two-handed sword, widest 
 at the point, weighted at the back and evidently as sharp as a 
 razor. 
 
 For a second it is poised in the air, as the executioner takes 
 aim. Then it falls. There is no great apparent effort. It 
 simply falls, and moreover seems to fall slowly. But when it 
 comes to the man's neck it does not stop, it keeps falling. With 
 ghastly slowness it passes right through the flesh and you are 
 only recalled from your momentary stupor when the head 
 springs forward and rolls over and over, while for a fraction of a 
 second two dazzling jets of scarlet blood burst out and fall in a 
 graceful curve to the ground. Then the great rush of blood 
 comes and floods the spot. As soon as the blow has fallen the 
 second executioner pitches the body forward with a " Hough ! " 
 It tumbles in a shapeless heap, and from every throat goes up a 
 loud " Ho ! " expressive of pleasure and approval of the stroke. 
 
 But there is no pause, the executioner steps over the corpse to 
 the front man in the second rank, the knife rises again, it falls, 
 another head rolls away, another double burst of blood follows, 
 the headless body is shoved forward, the assistant shouts 
 
-,U 
 
 ^X/^^ 
 
 JUDICIAT, TOBTURKS. (^'■""' X'^'-': Urnwi.f,..) 
 
CHINESE HOEKOaS. 229 
 
 " Hough ! " and the crowd shouts " Ho ! " Two men are dead. 
 Then the headsman steps back to the second man of the front 
 row and the operation is repeated. 
 
 Two things strike you: the brutal matter-of-factness of the 
 whole performance, and the extraordinary ease with which a 
 human head can be chopped off. As a whole it is precisely like 
 a drove of pigs driven into the shambles and stuck ; and in 
 detail it is — or seems — no more difficult than splitting a turnip 
 with a hoe or lopping off a thistle with a cane. Chop, chop, 
 chop — the heads roll off one after the other in as many seconds. 
 When the seventh man is reached, either because the knife is 
 blunted or the executioner misses his blow, the neck is only cut 
 half through. But still he does not stop. He comes quickly 
 back, takes another knife, passes on to the next man, and only 
 comes back to finish the wretched seventh when all the other 
 heads are lying in bloody pools in front of the shoulders which 
 carried them a few moments before. And every man has 
 watched the death of all those in front of him with a horrid 
 animal-like curiosity, and then bent his own neck to the knife. 
 The place is ankle-deep in blood, the spectators are yelling with 
 delight and frenzy, the heads are like bowls on a green, the 
 horrible headless bodies are lying all about in ghastly grotesque 
 attitudes, the executioner is scarlet to the knees and his hands 
 are dripping. Take my word for it that by this time you are 
 feeling very sick. 
 
 Fortunately you are not detained long. The moment the last 
 head is off, the crowd is gone with a rush, except a score of 
 urchins who begin skylarking with the bodies and pushing each 
 other into the blood. The bodies are thrown into a pond and 
 the heads are plastered up in big earthenware jars and stacked 
 up with those already round the wall of this potter's field. I 
 had a few minutes' conversation with the executioner afterwards. 
 Decapitation, he told me, was not the occupation of his family ; 
 it was only a perquisite. But the business is not what it was. 
 Formerly he used to get two dollars a head for all he cut off; 
 
230 CHINA. 
 
 now he only gets fifty cents. It is hardly worth while chopping 
 men's heads off at that rate. But then it doesn't take very long. 
 Would I buy his sword ? Certainly. Nine dollars. It hangs 
 on my wall to-day, a valuable antidote to much that I read about 
 the advancing civilisation of Chiaa. 
 
GSAPTEB XVI. 
 
 THE IMPERIAL MABITIME CUSTOMS: SIB BOBERT 
 HABT AND HIS WOBK. 
 
 rriHE "I. Gr." These letters, meaningless at home, call up 
 instantly in the mind of every foreigner in China a very 
 distinct and striking image — they are as familiar in the Far 
 East as " H.E.H." is at home. For the image is that of the 
 benevolent despot whose outstretched hand unites or severs the 
 Celestial Kingdom and the outside barbarian world ; through 
 whose fingers five hundred millions of dollars have run into the 
 coffers of the Son of Heaven, and never one of them stuck ; to 
 whom the proudest Chinamen turn for advice in difficulty or 
 danger when other helpers fail ; who has staved off a war by 
 writing a telegram ; who has declined with thanks the proffered 
 dignity of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of 
 Her Britannic Majesty ; who has ringed China round with an 
 administrative commercial organisation the whole world cannot 
 surpass ; who, finally, born to struggle for the poet's bays, has 
 laboured late and early all his life over dollars and duties, with 
 a diplomatic nut, which other people have failed to crack, thrown 
 to him now and then for relaxation. The "I. G." signifies a 
 person and a post: the former is Sir Eobert Hart, Bart., 
 G.C.M.G., the latter is Inspector-General of the Imperial 
 Chinese Maritime Customs. And the transcendence of the 
 Customs Service in China may possibly be judged from 
 the story that a Commissioner once took personal affront 
 and quitted the sacred edifice when a missionary implored 
 
 231 
 
232 CHINA. 
 
 the Almighty to " deliver this people from their wicked 
 customs." 
 
 After the above, it is hardly necessary to say that Sir Eobert 
 Hart is by far the most interesting and influential foreigner in 
 China. To begin with, his power is enormous. The Chinese 
 language, so far as his own field is concerned, is much the 
 same as English to him, and with the Tsungli Yamen he has 
 the influence which thirty years of close dealing with Chinese 
 officials gives him, backed by the proud boast that they have 
 never had reason to regret taking his advice. Then he handles 
 the service he has created from nothing, to one which employs 
 over 3,500 people, presides over an annual foreign trade of 
 £44,000,000, collects ^63,600,000 a year, clears 30,000,000 tons 
 of shipping annually, and lights 1,800 miles of coast, exactly 
 as an engineer handles a machine he has constructed — just 
 as tenderly and just as firmly. And yet very few of the men 
 whose livelihood and prospects are absolutely and at every 
 moment in his hands, without the possibility of appeal, would 
 willingly see anybody else in his place. The mere irresponsi- 
 bility of the "I. G." would ruin most men. Yet Sir Eobert 
 owes all his success to his free band. Does he learn of an old 
 friend or schoolmate fallen upon evil times ? " Send your boy 
 to me," he telegraphs, and the youngster's future depends then 
 only upon his own ability and industry. When there was a 
 particularly bad piece of work to be done by one of his sub- 
 ordinates in delimiting the new Tongking-Chinese frontier — 
 months of lonely labour, in savagery and solitude, with never 
 a breath to draw that might not bring fever with it — whom did 
 he send? His brother. Yet his avowal of nepotism is 
 refreshingly frank. "I have never," he says, "advanced a 
 worse man over a better, yet if promotion is due to one of two 
 men of equal deserts, and one of them is of my own flesh and 
 blood, it would be simply unnatural to pass him over." More 
 than once already he has brought out the son of some companion 
 of his boyhood, seen him grow up in the service from student to 
 
THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS. 233 
 
 Commissioner, save his competency and retire, leaving his 
 benefactor and chief stUl working the same number of hours 
 every day at his desk. But he rules with a despotism that a 
 Tsar might envy. Any subordinate proved to have dis- 
 credited the service in any way, is instantly dismissed. 
 His secretary and representative in England, Mr. James 
 Duncan Campbell, C.M.G., who has already distinguished 
 himself in diplomacy on behalf of China and his chief at 
 Paris and Lisbon, is absolutely impersonal in putting all 
 applicants through their preUminary examination ; but recog- 
 nising how often even a limited competition of the broad and 
 practical kind established for the Customs fails to " place " the 
 man who will really be fittest for the work, it is part of Sir 
 Eobert's plan to allow Mr. Campbell occasionally to select from 
 the unplaced competitors an individual who seems to him a 
 desirable recruit, as promising and possessing qualities that 
 indicate all-round fitness. So the benevolent despotism works. 
 
 Sir Eobert Hart left the Consular Service for the Customs — 
 it was barely in existence then — in 1859, and in 1863 he became 
 Inspector-General. And during the thirty-five years that have 
 intervened he has been home twice, once for twelve months and 
 once for six — that is, he has had in his whole lifetime less 
 holiday than one of his subordinates gets every five years. He 
 has never been to the Western Hills, a few miles away, to which 
 all the foreigners in Peking retreat in summer, and he has never 
 even seen the Great Wall, two days' journey distant. But 
 " next spring," he says, he is certainly going home. " Pooh," say 
 people in the Customs Service, when you tell them this; "he 
 has been 'going home in the spring' for the last fifteen years." 
 As for the services he has rendered to China, to England, and to 
 the world, the statesmen of Europe know them very well, and it 
 would take a volume to tell tbem to others. Besides the creation 
 of the Customs Service itself, which will be his immortality, to 
 take the latest example, it was he alone who concluded the 
 treaty of 1885 between Prance and China. All negotiations 
 
234 CHINA. 
 
 had failed and matters looked very black and threatening. 
 Then, as usual, the Ministers of the Tsungli Yamen came 
 to Sir Eobert. He agreed to take up the task on his two 
 invariable conditions — that he should have a free hand, and 
 that his connection with the affair should be kept a profound 
 secret till he either succeeded or failed. Then negociations 
 began by telegraph in cipher between his "den" ia Peking 
 and his representative in Paris, and very awkward ones they 
 were. Month after month they proceeded, and at last, when 
 80,000 taels had been spent in telegrams, Mr. Campbell, 
 who conducted the negociations at the Paris end of the line, 
 was able to report to his chief that a settlement had been 
 reached, and that the Protocol was ready for signature. The 
 " I. G.'s " reply (March 31st) was characteristic : " Signez 
 sans delai, mais ne signez pas premier Avril " ! The treaty 
 was signed on April 4th. Then Sir Eobert got into his 
 cart and went to the Tsungli Yamen. The Ministers were 
 there and he sat down to a cup of tea with them. By 
 and by he remarked, with the apparent indifference of the 
 Oriental diplomat, "It is exactly nine months to-day since 
 you placed the negociations with France in my hands." 
 " And the child is born ! " instantly cried one of the 
 Ministers, seeing the point and delighted at the truly Chinese 
 way of conveying the information. And the curious part of the 
 business was that all this time a special French envoy had been 
 residing at Tientsin, chafing at the slow progress he was making, 
 and not having the least idea that other negociations had been 
 on foot until he received word from home that he might return, 
 as all was arranged. He was so angry that he would not speak 
 to Sir Eobert. After sending the last telegram settling the 
 French business. Sir Eobert went to the funeral service of Sir 
 Harry Parkes, the British Minister, who had just died. As he 
 entered the chapel of the Legation, Mr. O'Connor, the British 
 charge d'affaires, handed him the translation of a telegram 
 which had just arrived. It was a despatch from Lord 
 
THE CHINESE MAEITIME CUSTOMS. 235 
 
 Granville offering him the post of British Minister to China. 
 He accepted, after much hesitation, and his appointment 
 received the Queen's signature on May 3, 1885. At his own 
 request the matter was kept secret at home while arrange- 
 ments were making for the succession to his position as head of 
 the Customs Service. Meanwhile a Conservative Government 
 succeeded to office in England and telegrams from the Foreign 
 Office kept asking, " May we not publish the appointment ? " 
 Sir Eobert had seen, however, by this time that the Customs 
 Service would suffer severely if he left it at that time, and this 
 was more to him than any other honour in the world. He 
 therefore telegraphed, " Must I keep it ? " and Lord Salisbury 
 replying in very complimentary terms that he was free to do 
 exactly as he thought best, he finally declined — the Empress of 
 China, who was at that time exercising the Imperial function, 
 as his official reply truly but perhaps inadequately explained, 
 preferring that he should remain. 
 
 I have said that the statesmen of Europe are well aware 
 of Sir Eobert Hart's services, and the proof of this is that 
 there are few civilians so decorated as he. In England a 
 Conservative Government made him a C.M.G., and a Liberal 
 one added the K.C.M.G., and later the G.C.M.G. and 
 Baronetcy. Sweden made him a Chevalier of the Order of 
 Gustavus Vasa ; Belgium, a Commander of the Order of Leo- 
 pold ; France, a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour ; Italy, 
 a Grand Officer of the Crown of Italy ; Austria sent him the 
 Grand Cross of the Order of Francis Joseph ; America has 
 presented him with several medals of Eepublican appreciation ; 
 Portugal has decorated him with the Military Order of Christ ; 
 the Emperor of China has conferred upon him the coveted 
 peacock's feather and the Order of the Double Dragon, and has 
 ennobled his ancestors ; and his friends at Belfast — his native 
 p2ace — will no doubt be much interested to learn that he is, by 
 direct gift from the Pope — nothing less than sub annulo pisca- 
 toris — a Commander of the Papal Order of Pius IX. As for 
 
236 CHINA. 
 
 knowledge of China and the Chinese, there is no one living who 
 can compare with him, and I learned more of the inner working 
 of Celestial affairs during the fortnight that I had the honour of 
 being his guest, than a lifetime of simple residence could have 
 afforded. 
 
 The " I. G." and Sir Eobert Hart, however, are two very 
 different people. " I was calling upon Lady Hart one day," 
 said a lady to me, " and as I wished to speak with Sir Eobert I 
 was shown into his office. I found the ' I. G.' there. Oh, it 
 was terrible — I covered my face and fled ! " The distinction 
 is indeed admitted by himself. He is not Jekyll and Hyde, 
 but he is certainly post and person. The secret by which he 
 has accomplished so much is an extraordinary devotion to 
 method — most extraordinary of all for an Irishman. This is a 
 subject on which he is far from averse to giving good advice to 
 men younger than himself, and on which, too, he establishes an 
 immediate entente cordiale with his guests. " Tour early tea," 
 he says, " will be brought to you when you ring your bell — 
 please ring it once only, holding the button pressed while you 
 can count three. Then will it be convenient to you to tiffin at 
 twelve sharp ? Because if not, I will tiffin myself at twelve 
 sharp and order your tiffin to be served at any hour you like. 
 I ride from three to five — there is always a mount for you if you 
 wish it. Dinner at half-past seven sharp, and I must ask you 
 always to excuse me at eleven." The consequence is that every- 
 thing runs like clockwork in Sir Eobert's household, and a guest 
 is perfectly at home from the start. But the above methodity 
 is nothing, in comparison. In the dining-room there is a big 
 wicker chair, always covered with a rug, so that you cannot sit 
 down in it. In that chair the master of the house has had his 
 tea every afternoon for thirty years. Upon a shelf stands a large 
 blue and white cup. Out of that he has drunk his tea for thirty 
 years. And by employing the odd moments that his " boy "— 
 who is punctuality itself— has kept him waiting each day in that 
 chair for that cup, he has managed during the last year or two 
 
1,-1 
 
 7 
 
 -.^.ww»v^ ;.«J»*K>;v ;tf«*iS-^ (-V* .»*W»i*:*v ■''Mi"**^; 
 
 -■%■?■ 
 
 
 A pRivATi--: Cart, PEKiNa. 
 
 Thk Tor of the "Wali., Pekino 
 
THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS. 237 
 
 to read the whole of Lucan's Pharsalia ! Of course he has kept 
 a diary since he could hold a pen. To test his preciseness I 
 made a point of standing each day behind my door, watch in 
 hand, till the clock struck twelve or half-past seven. Then I 
 walked into the central hall from my own side of the house. 
 Sure enough the door opened opposite me and my host walked 
 in from the other. It was like watching for a transit of Venus, 
 or waiting for the apostles to come out of the clock at Strasburg 
 at noon. And as I find I have not said a word of his outer man 
 I may conclude these personalities by saying that he is of 
 medium height and slight build, rather bald, with a kind, 
 thoughtful, and humorous face, a low voice, a shy and punc- 
 tilious manner; that he is a most entertaining companion, a 
 teller of countless good stories, fond of fun and merry company, 
 devoted to children, a player of the violin and 'cello, and a 
 host whose care and thoughtfulness for his guests are feminine 
 in their insight and famous in their execution. Sir Eobert 
 Hart's remarkable personality has played, and may yet play, so 
 great a part in the politics of the Far East that I need hardly 
 apologise for giving these details in illustration of it. 
 
 And what, in a word, is this Customs Service? It is first 
 and foremost the collection of all their Maritime Customs at 
 the twenty-four trading ports, reaching nearly 22,000,000 taels 
 last year, their chief source of national income, which the 
 Chinese have confided to the hands of one foreigner, leaving 
 him absolutely free in his action and unhampered by any 
 colleague. 
 
 In passing round the coasts of China you frequently see a 
 smart little cruiser flying the yellow flag, with perhaps a minia- 
 ture steel turret and a couple of quick-firing guns on board ; or 
 in a swift launch passing you will notice the Chinese crew and 
 foreign skipper in dapper uniforms, and a ten-barrelled Norden- 
 feldt projecting over the bow. These are the Customs fleet, 
 watching the coast for smugglers, and ready at a moment's 
 notice to fetch back some outgoing junk that disobeys the 
 
238 CHINA. 
 
 waving of the red flag signal to heave-to and he examined. The 
 duty on opium is so high that smuggling is extremely profitable, 
 and therefore the Customs officers are proportionally keen in 
 discovering and preventing it. Along the coast, too, in the 
 neighbourhood of Hongkong and the Treaty Ports you will see 
 little stations, consisting of a house or two, a few boats, and a 
 look-out. These are also the Customs, and all the lighthouses 
 are in the same hands. Indeed, Sir Eobert Hart has already 
 established the " Customs Post " between the Treaty Ports, and 
 he very nearly gave China an Imperial Post Office and an 
 Imperial silver coinage as well. The relations between Sir 
 Eobert Hart and the Chinese Government exhibit the most 
 extraordinary example of confidence in individual integrity that 
 I have ever heard of. The " I. G.'" fixes the total cost of the 
 service, the Tsungli Tamen hands it over to him without a 
 word, and all money collected is paid directly by the merchants 
 into the Chinese bank. A little while ago the grant was 
 1,300,000 taels annually (a "Haikwan " or Customs tael is the 
 official monetary standard in China, a Mexican dollar and half, 
 in 1898 about 3s. ll^d.), but an envious Chinaman, whom 
 I will not name, approached the Ministers at the Tamen with 
 a secret offer to do it for 500,000 taels less. The Yamen quietly 
 informed Sir Eobert of the attempt to cut him out. His action 
 was characteristic, He replied that the annual sum had been 
 inadequate for some years, and that he, on the other hand, 
 must ask them to raise it by 400,000 taels, which they accord- 
 ingly did ! With this 1,700,000 taels a year Sir Eobert does 
 exactly what he likes, his own remuneration being fixed, paying 
 to others the salaries he considers just, according to the con- 
 ditions he has established. The pay of a student when he enters 
 the service to learn Chinese is 900 taels a year, and this rises to 
 8,000 taels, more or less, the pay of a full Commissioner. Instead 
 of a promise of pension, which Sir Eobert felt that he could 
 not be certain the Chinese would keep when he should be gone, 
 he pays a bonus of one year's pay for seven years' service to the 
 
THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS. 239 
 
 Indoor Staff, for ten years' service to the Outdoor Staff, and 
 for twelve years' service to the Chinese Staff. But this bonus 
 may be withheld at his pleasure (he has never yet withheld it), 
 and it therefore does not form part of a dead man's estate — 
 a thoughtful provision for widows and children. The Indoor 
 Staff get two years' leave after every seven years' service, and the 
 Outdoor one year after every ten, both on half-pay. As may be 
 expected, the personnel of so attractive a service is of a very high 
 class, comprising all nationalities, and to be " in the Customs " 
 confers social standing throughout the Par East. He is a 
 fortunate father, in these days, who can see his son safely 
 started on so pleasant, so well-paid, so assured a road of 
 livelihood, though in exile. 
 
 The establishment of the Chinese Customs takes us back to 
 one of the most interesting chapters in the story of the opening 
 of China. The theoretic basis upon which the collection of 
 duties had previously stood, left, like so many other Chinese 
 theories. Little to desire, but actual practice corresponded only 
 remotely with it. The native tariffs were " minute and precise," 
 the duties leviable amounting to about 10 per cent, ad valorem, 
 but the rule was for each district to be assessed, so to speak, at 
 a certain figure, which it was obliged to remit, anything over 
 that sum remaining the personal profit of the collecting officer. 
 This naturally resulted in a "dicker" between the merchant 
 and the Customs, the latter demanding as much, and the former 
 paying as little, as possible. In an official memorandum upon 
 the subject Sir Eobert Hart wrote as follows : " The paltriness 
 of the amount to be answered for, the absence of the supervision 
 of superiors, and the generally subordinate nature of the work 
 to be performed, have all tended to produce such utter laxity 
 and irregularity that the Tariff rates have become dead letters 
 except in that they represent the maximum collectable on any 
 one article ; the additional exemption from all question as to 
 extra and unreported collection has encouraged, if not originated, 
 a species of dishonesty, in which each subordinate lies to his 
 
240 CHINA. 
 
 superior, who, again, winks at such knavery, involved, as he is 
 himself, in turn, in precisely similar transactions." 
 
 The introduction of foreign supervision resulted through the 
 confusion that sprang up when Shanghai was held by the rebels 
 in 1854, the Government officials expelled and their Yamens 
 closed, the collection of duties by the Chinese at an end, and 
 the foreign Consuls in self-defence against future demands 
 taking duties from merchants in the shape of promissory notes 
 whose validity was questionable. But as Lord Clarendon wrote 
 to Lord Elgin, it was " no part of the duty of Her Majesty's 
 Consular authorities to take greater care of the Chinese revenue 
 than the Chinese authorities are disposed to take." To bring 
 the confusion to an end, it was at length agreed that the Chinese 
 custom-house at Shanghai should be reopened under the proper 
 authority, and that it should be placed under the supervision of 
 foreigners to be nominated by the Consuls of the three Treaty 
 Powers — England, France, and the United States. This, of 
 course, was a purely foreign measure, and it met with opposition 
 alike from the Chinese, who found their illegitimate profits 
 threatened, and from the European merchants, who were more 
 strictly treated and unable any longer to drive bargains for 
 the clearing of their cargoes. Nevertheless, said Sir Robert 
 Hart, it tended, " with unpremeditated gravitation," to become 
 Chinese, and no serious objection was made from any quarter 
 when the proposal was made to extend it to the whole 
 foreign trade of China. Accordingly, by Art. 46, and Eule 
 X. of the rules appended to the tariff, of Lord Elgin's 
 Treaty of Tientsin, 1858, it was agreed that "one uniform 
 system shall be enforced at every port." This was the 
 birth of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. For a 
 time, like its immediate predecessor, it met with opposition from 
 both natives and foreigners, since both suffered in pocket from 
 its honesty and exactitude. But first of all, it secured for the 
 Chinese Government funds "from a hitherto unappreciated 
 source, and that, too, to an extent never dreamt of before." In 
 
THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS. 241 
 
 fact, one may say without exaggeration that it has been the 
 backbone of all Chinese finance ever since. To-day, when 
 China hints that she desires a loan, and is prepared to offer part 
 of the Customs revenue as a guarantee, the agents of all the 
 great banks and financial houses of Europe tumble over one 
 another in their anxiety to be first in the field with their offers. 
 Yet they would look askance indeed at a loan based solely upon 
 native administration. The service has been extended to each 
 fresh port of China ; its numbers and responsibilities have con- 
 tinually increased; and all sorts of duties, outside its original 
 charter, have been laid upon the willing shoulders of its staff. 
 To-day, as I have said, a position in the Customs gives a 
 high social standing of its own. The Customs publications 
 are among the most elaborate volumes of public information 
 and statistics issued in the world, its huge volume of " Decennial 
 Eeports " just circulated being possibly the most instructive 
 single work ever printed about China. Finally, to the Customs 
 Service and the labours of Sir Eobert Hart, the world owes the 
 lighting and buoying of the whole coast of China. In 1863 
 there were only two small lights in the Canton district and a 
 lightship at Shanghai, whereas now there are 108 lighthouses, 
 4 lightships, 89 buoys, and 67 beacons, employing a staff of 66 
 foreigners and 186 natives, all under the control of the Inspector- 
 General of Customs, and paid for out of the tonnage dues. 
 Although the Customs Service was established under the 
 Treaty of Tientsin between Great Britain and China, all 
 nations have shared equally in its advantages, and they are 
 equitably represented upon its staff. Britishers (it would be 
 inaccurate to say "Englishmen," where many are Scotch and 
 Irish), Americans, Germans, French, Swedes, Danes, and now 
 Portuguese, form the personnel, subjects of every nation having 
 a treaty with China being equally eligible under the most 
 favoured nation clause. There are doubtless more subjects 
 of Great Britain than of any other Power, but not nearly so 
 many as there would be if appointments were bestowed in 
 
 17 
 
242 CHINA. 
 
 proportion to the share of each country's trade with China. 
 The staff is at present as follows : — 
 
 foBEiQNXBS. Chinese. 
 
 Eevenue Department 682 3,185 
 
 Marine „ 81 388 
 
 Educational „ 6 1 
 
 769 3,574 Totai, 4,343. 
 
 The valne of the Foreign Trade of China, controlled by the 
 Customs, for 1893 was 267,995,130 taels— £44,665,855 * ; the 
 duties collected amounted to 21,989,300 taels— £3,664,883 ; the 
 number of ships entered and cleared was 37,902, and their 
 aggregate tonnage 29,318,811, The direct trade of Great 
 Britain with China amounted to 39,823,987 taels— £6,637,361, 
 but the total trade with the British Empire, namely, Hong- 
 kong, Singapore and the Straits Settlements, India, Australasia, 
 South Africa, and Canada, reached the enormous figure of 
 195,710,240 taels— £32,618,373, or over 78 'per cent, of the 
 entire Foreign Trade of China. 
 
 The Chinese Customs Service forms, in short, an imperivm in 
 imperio without parallel, so far as I know, in history, and it 
 should be a matter of great pride to us that it is built upon the 
 genius, the devotion, and the integrity of an Englishman. 
 
 The one dark spot on the horizon of this great organisation is 
 the question of Sir Eobert Hart's successor. It is practically 
 certain to be an Englishman — at least, the appointment of a 
 man of any other nationality, however qualified in other 
 respects, would be as unwelcome to the service as it would 
 be impolitic and unfair. It has been suggested, however, 
 that the Chinese Ministers might be tempted, when Sir Eobert 
 resigns, to replace him by a Chinaman, in the behef that the 
 
 * The tael is nominally an ounce of silver, but its value varies in China in 
 different parts according to the quality of the metal. All the official calculations as 
 above are in Hailcwan—ot Customs — taels. The average exchange value of this for 
 1893 was 3s. lljd., but at present its average exchange value has fallen to 3s. 4d., 
 at which rate I have calculated it. It must be borne in mind, of course, that the 
 purchasing power of silver in China has not fallen with European exchange. 
 
THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS. 243 
 
 service would run of itself, and that they might therefore just 
 as well follow the usual custom of selling the post to the highest 
 bidder. Such an event would be a calamity for the commerce 
 of the world, and therefore the Treaty Powers would never 
 permit it. For whatever may be thought of the statement at 
 home, not a single voice will be raised in the East to contradict 
 me, when I say that among her 350,000,000 people China has 
 not one official who could be trusted to handle so much money 
 without regarding it first of all as a means of personal 
 enrichment. In 1864 Sir Eobert wrote to the Secretary of 
 State at home that the Inspectorate " will have finished its 
 work when it shall have produced a native administration, as 
 honest and as efficient, to replace it." Does the experience 
 of thirty-five years lead him to cherish this hope of ultimate 
 Chinese honesty and efficiency ? I cannot say, of course, but I 
 should be extremely surprised to learn it. 
 
T 
 
 GHAPTEB XVII. 
 
 THE GBAND SBGBJETABY LI. 
 
 HE Emperor of China has hitherto been practically invisible 
 to any barbarian eye, and if he were not, he probably 
 knows less about his country than the least of his officials. The 
 real Emperor is the Empress — ^his aunt, and her proud and 
 determined personality is known to the outside world chiefly 
 through Li Hung-ohang. Between the Empress and the Great 
 Viceroy there has always been a close political partnership and 
 an offensive and defensive alliance. Therefore the presence of 
 the Viceroy, till his recent fall from power, at any rate, has been 
 the nearest possible approach for a foreigner to the throne 
 of China. Viceroy of the province of Chihli, hence ex officio 
 guardian of the gate of China, Senior of the four Grand Secre- 
 taries of State, formerly Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent, 
 President of the Board of War, Superintendent of the North 
 Sea Trade, Count Shinu-ki of the first rank, special plenipoten- 
 tiary times without number ; practical owner of .an army and a 
 fleet ; immensely wealthy, preternaturally astute, utterly unscru- 
 pulous, having been able to laugh calmly at the dreaded 
 Censors themselves, Li Hung-chang may be fairly looked upon 
 as the ruler for many years of these 350,000,000 of shaven 
 heads and plaited tails, at least so far as the outside world is 
 concerned. If I had a chief object in my travels in the Par 
 East, it was to have an interview with Li Hung-chang. And 
 I talked with him at last for two hours. 
 
 Li Hung-chang was born in Anhui in 1825, and is a Metro- 
 
 24i 
 
THE GRAND SECEETAET LI. 245 
 
 politan Graduate of the year 1847. In the following year we 
 come across the first mention of him in public affairs. He was 
 Financial Commissioner at Soochow, and there issued a pro- 
 clamation of a highly dictatorial character against coiners and 
 " smashers." He fought against the Taipings for the first time 
 in 1853, when they were defying the Imperialists in the province 
 of Chihli, and he was one of the principal Imperialist leaders 
 when the Wangs again took up their arms in the valley of the 
 Yangtze in 1858. In 1859 he was made Futai, or Governor, of 
 Fuhkien, and in 1862 Governor of Kiangsu. This was the 
 moment when Ward, the founder of the " Ever- Victorious 
 Army," who had carried on the war against the Taipings with 
 a handful of queer foreigners and a few thousand native troops 
 whom he had been allowed to enlist and train, had been killed 
 in retaking Tseki, and when his lieutenant, the traitor Burgevine, 
 was trying to succeed him in the command. Li refused to 
 recognise Burgevine's rights, and in spite of the fact that the 
 latter won several battles, succeeded in getting him dismissed 
 by the Emperor, and thus clearing the way for the military 
 reputation of himself and his lieutenant, General Ching. In 
 February, 1863, the British Government consented to the com- 
 mand of the " Ever- Victorious Army," which up to that time 
 had experienced at least its fair share of defeats, being given to 
 Captain Charles. Gordon, RE. Li showed signs at first of being as 
 jealous of him as of his predecessors and the force he commanded ; 
 but he probably soon discovered that so long as Gordon was 
 allowed to win the battles he did not care a straw who took the 
 credit, and their relations were amicable until Li committed his 
 great act of treachery. When it became evident to the Taiping 
 leaders that Soochow must fall, and with it their rebellion come 
 to an end, they decided to surrender to the Imperialists. Mow 
 Wang alone was for fighting to the bitter end, and he was 
 accordingly murdered by his fellow Wangs. Chung Wang, the 
 great Taiping general, and eight others surrendered. General 
 Ching had sworn brotherhood with Lar Wang, and Li had pro- 
 
246 CHINA. 
 
 mised Gordon that the lives of them all should be spared. Gordon 
 himself had quarrelled with Li because the pay of his men had 
 not been paid, and had withdrawn the " Ever- Victorious Army " 
 to its headquarters at Quinsan. The first thing Li did as soon as 
 he was left in undisturbed possession of the place was to invite Lar 
 Wang and eight other Wangs to a banquet on board his own 
 boat, and shortly afterwards their nine headless bodies were 
 found on the shore. Gordon's anger was so great that he is 
 said to have returned and sought Li for a whole day, revolver 
 in hand, to shoot him, but the astute Futai was not to be found, 
 Gordon, however, retired in disgust, refused to have anything 
 more to do with Li and his cause, and indignantly refused the 
 decoration and the large sum of money that the Emperor sent 
 him. He came to realise, however, that he would be doing great 
 harm by allowing the war to drift on, instead of bringing it to a 
 speedy close, as he felt able to do ; so he returned to his com- 
 mand. Tears afterwards he appears to have forgiven Li, and 
 at any rate the incident did not destroy his opinion of Li's 
 character as a whole, for I have seen a letter from him in which 
 he says, " Li, in spite of his cutting the Wangs' heads off, is 
 a man worthy the sacrifice of a life I have ceased to value." 
 Nevertheless, Gordon's estimate of Li's character may be judged 
 from his view of the future relations of China and Russia, which 
 was that Eussia would advance, driving the Chinese forces 
 gradually back upon Peking, and that Li, while pretending, in 
 response to reiterated and imploring appeals from the Emperor 
 and Empress, to be making his best efforts, would do absolutely 
 nothing; that then, when the Eussians had taken Peking, Li 
 would open negoeiations with them, grant them any terms they 
 desired in return for their support of him ; that they would 
 retire and that Li would pose successfully as the saviour of 
 Chma, and possess himself of the throne. This opinion of 
 Gordon's was once published in Shanghai, and Li was so angry 
 that he succeeded in bringing enough pressure to bear to get 
 the paper suppressed. "It is impossible," says the chief 
 
THE GRAND SECEETART LI. 247 
 
 historian of China, with regard to the murder of the Wangs, 
 " to apportion the blame for this treacherous act between Li 
 Hung-chang and General Ching. The latter was morally the 
 more guilty, but it seems as if Li Hung-chang were the real 
 instigator of the crime." * The facts that the fatal banquet took 
 place on Li's boat, that Ching was directly subordinate to Li 
 and would hardly have dared to take so irrevocable a step on his 
 own authority, and that Gordon himself was sure who was 
 the perpetrator of the crime, leave little doubt on the subject. All 
 that can be urged in Li's defence is that to break one's promise 
 and murder one's enemies in cold blood is no serious infraction 
 of Chinese military ethics. The Wangs were fortunate that 
 they were not tortured as well as murdered. 
 
 In 1867 Li took the field against the Shantung rebels, and in 
 the same year he was made Governor-General of Hu Kwang. In 
 1870 he was elevated to his present post of Viceroy of Chihli, 
 the most important viceroyalty in China, since that Province lies 
 between the capital and the outside world, and this post he has 
 held ever since, except for a period when he went into mourning. 
 In 1876 he took the leading part in coping with the great famine, 
 and in 1884 he was made Grand Secretary of State. 
 
 For many years the Yamen of Li Hung-chang at Tientsin has 
 
 been the centre of Chinese foreign affairs — indeed the question 
 
 has been raised whether it would not be better for the foreign 
 
 Ministers to reside there, instead of ruining their tempers and 
 
 wasting their time by fruitless visits and endless discussions at 
 
 the Tsungh Yamen, the theoretical Board of Foreign Affairs at 
 
 Peking. Whenever China has had to deal diplomatically with 
 
 foreign nations, Li has been her mouthpiece. Thus at Chefoo, 
 
 where Sir Thomas Wade very rightly compelled Li to meet him, 
 
 he signed the Chefoo Convention (never ratified) in 1876 ; at 
 
 Tientsin, the Li-Fournier Convention of 1884, in connection 
 
 with which charges of falsification of the document were made 
 
 * D. C. Bonlger, " A History of China," iii. p. 616, from which work I have 
 also taken the allusion to the first mention of Li in public life. 
 
248 CHINA. 
 
 by each signatory against the other, leading to Captain 
 Pournier's subsequent duel in Paris ; the Treaty with M. 
 Patenotre, representing France, at Tientsin in June 1885 ; and 
 the Li-Ito Convention of Tientsin regarding Korea, in 1885. 
 His career, however, has by no means been an uninterrupted 
 success. Many times he has been reprimanded from the throne 
 for faults small and great, and his enemies have unceasingly 
 plotted against him. His great influence has never been 
 sufficient to procure the restoration to office of that very able 
 literate but unscrupulous man, Chang Pei-lun, who was dis- 
 graced and banished to the Eussian frontier for having deserted 
 his post as governor of Foochow Arsenal, and to whom Li 
 married his daughter — in spite of her weeks of weeping and 
 desperate opposition, according to gossip — in 1889. Much of 
 his power — or rather, much of the failure of his enemies — must 
 be attributed to the army with which he has surrounded him- 
 self. This has been supposed to number fifteen thousand men, 
 but all Chinese figures on such matters are pure guess-work. 
 These have undoubtedly been the best-armed and best-drilled 
 troops in China, and from them have been drawn the contingents 
 for the defence of the Taku Forts at the mouth of the Peiho 
 Eiver, and the fortress of Port Arthur. One of the most 
 astonishing features of the Japanese war is the fact that this 
 army has given no account of itself ; indeed, it is not certain 
 that it has not been kept in the neighbourhood of Tientsin all 
 the time, in view of eventualities in which its master might have 
 dire personal need of its services. I made many attempts while 
 I was staying at Tientsin to see some of these much-praised 
 battalions and their camps, but although I had the formal 
 permission of Li himself to do so, every opportunity that I 
 suggested was found to be quite impossible, and I never caught 
 sight of them, except the few that were occasionally to be seen 
 in the streets. With regard to the great Viceroy himself, how-, 
 ever, I was more favoured. 
 
 It will easily be believed that he is not the most accessible 
 
THE GKAND SECEKTAEY LI. 2i9 
 
 of men, and after waiting a week at Tientsin for an answer to 
 my request for an interview, my methods of influence being all 
 exhausted for the moment, I had temporarily relinquished the 
 project and ordered my ponies to be ready to start for Peking 
 the next morning. It happened to be the Eace Day at Tientsin 
 and business was suspended, the banks closed and everybody 
 gone to the course. At half-past two, as I had my foot in the 
 stirrup to go too, a European-looking note was put into my 
 hand. It was beautifully written, and read : " Dear Mr. Nor- 
 man, I have the pleasure to inform you that His Excellency the 
 Viceroy Li will be pleased to receive you this afternoon at 4.30. 
 I hope therefore to find you in the waiting-room of His Excel- 
 lency's Yamen at the hour appointed. Yours sincerely, Lo Feng 
 Luh." There was no time to be lost, as the Viceroy's residence 
 is two or three miles from the hotel, and it was necessary to pro- 
 cure a chair, with bearers in official red hats, and a man to carry 
 one's card, for I was informed that it would not be dignified to 
 pay such a visit of ceremony on horseback or in a jinriksha. A 
 friendly Chinese merchant soon procured these for me, and the 
 four bearers carried me off in the closed chair, like a cat in a 
 basket, at the rate of five miles an hour, while the card-man 
 trotted alongside and objurgated anybody who got in the way. 
 Mr. Lo Peng Luh, I should add, is the English Secretary to the 
 Viceroy, and an official holding several important appointments. 
 The Yamen (literally " official gate ") of a Chinese official is 
 his combined private and official residence, though in general 
 use the word " Yamen " is equivalent to " office " or " bureau." 
 It consists always of a number of buildings surrounded by a 
 strong wall, with a wide gateway and painted doors. In the 
 ■centre are the official's private living-rooms and the apartments 
 of his wife, and of his concubines if he has any ; then come his 
 secretaries' offices, his waiting-rooms and his large official court 
 or reception room. Around the yard into which you enter are 
 the buildings where his servants and " runners " live, the latter 
 being the harpy-like dependents, who shout when his dis- 
 
250 CHINA. 
 
 tinguished visitors enter, form his train when he goes out, do 
 all his dirty work, " squeeze " his petitioners and sell his 
 secrets — a set of ruffians of the worst type. If he is a magis- 
 trate his Yamen contains also a prison, and his " runners " 
 stand by to deal with culprits condemned to " eat bamboo." 
 An official Yamen is also a house of refuge for anybody fleeing 
 from popular vengeance. Half an hour's shaking through the 
 narrow streets of the native streets of the city of Tientsin 
 brought me to a bridge over the river, across which two dense 
 crowds were passing both ways — coolies, beggars, mandarins in 
 chairs, on ponies and on donkeys, and all kinds of common 
 citizens. By the time we had jostled half-way across, the 
 famous Yamen was in full view — a mass of roofs enclosed in 
 a high wall of grey brick, with a big gateway projecting at one 
 side, over which a score flags and banners were waving, while in 
 front a crowd of petitioners and beggars raised a ceaseless 
 hubbub. My bearers broke into a trot as soon as they came in 
 sight of the gate, and entering it swung rapidly round a blank wall 
 built directly in front of it, and deposited me in the courtyard 
 behind. This wall is set up in every Yamen with the geoman-2- 
 tie object of stopping evil influences, which can only proceed in 
 a straight line. Two enormous and gaudy figures of officials or 
 emperors or deities — I do not know which — were pasted to the 
 doors, and opposite these, so placed as to catch the eye of the 
 Viceroy every time he goes forth, is a similar flaming monster, 
 the t'an or beast Avarice — a warning against the besetting sin 
 of Chinese officialdom. While I was noticing these, and the 
 runners loitering about were commenting in chorus upon my 
 personal appearance in a manner evidently very entertaining to 
 themselves, my card-man had rushed forward and two petty 
 officials came to conduct me to the waiting-room. 
 
 This was the first surprise. The great man's anteroom 
 resembled the out-patients' waiting-room in a charity hospital 
 at home — a bare, dirty, whitewashed room, no bigger than an 
 ordinary parlour, with a seat like that of a third-class railway 
 
THE GEAND SEOEETAEY LI. 251 
 
 carriage running round it, broken at intervals of a couple of feet 
 by small tables placed upon it. Mr. Lo Feng Luh, by contrast 
 more resplendent in his official winter dress of silk and satin 
 and sable and ermine, wearing of course a red-roofed hat 
 crowned by a big button, was already there, and tea was served 
 to us at once. Before we had time to touch it, however, the 
 Viceroy's chamberlain came to say that the Chung Tang awaited 
 us. I should explain that to say " Li Huag-chang," as we do, 
 is to Chinese ears both ignorant and rude ; he should be spoken 
 of as "Li Chung Tang," i.e., "Grand Secretary Li," or more 
 simply, when in his own province, "the Chung Tang." The 
 foreign community at Tientsin, at least all of them who are 
 familiar with Chinese etiquette, invariably employ the last 
 expression. 
 
 We followed the chamberlain, or whatever he was, for a 
 couple of minutes, across a yard, through several doorways, 
 around the veranda of an open court, and turned abruptly into 
 a room and round a large screen. " The Viceroy," said Mr. Lo, 
 with perfect European manners, as he stepped back and left me 
 face to face with a tall and strongly-built Chinaman who put out 
 his hand and smiled pleasantly and grunted a solitary syllable. 
 " The Viceroy says he is very glad to see you," explained Mr. 
 Lo, very much as a proud mother elaborately interprets the 
 inarticulate cackle of her first-born. The great man acknow- 
 ledged my bow -in the Chinese manner — by bowing with his 
 clasped hands at the height of his chin, and motioned us to be 
 seated, myself opposite him, Mr. Lo on a foreign circular lounge 
 between us. 
 
 Li Chung Tang is a pure Chinaman, not Manchu like the 
 dynasty he serves. He is very tall for a Chinese, five feet 
 eleven, I should guess, and must have been a powerful man in 
 his youth. His face is the most strongly moulded I saw in 
 China — not flat, as they usually are, but with all the features 
 distinctly marked and the lines broad and deep, a face that 
 would hold its own in comparison with any foreign face. A thin 
 
252 CHINA. 
 
 grey moustache and " chin-beard " did not conceal his mouth 
 and chin at all, but what the general expression of his face may 
 be I have no idea, as he wore an enormous pair of round 
 tortoise-shell goggles. This may be his custom, as it certainly 
 gives him a great advantage in diplomatic conversation, or it 
 may have been by a temporary order of the doctor, as he was 
 just recovering from a rather alarming attack of facial paralysis 
 which rendered him unable to speak for several days, and of 
 which I could see traces in the twitching and drawn lines of one 
 side of his face. But at any rate he looked me straight in the 
 eye during nearly the whole of our interview, while I have so 
 slight a notion of what he really looks like, that if I were not 
 familiar with his photograph I doubt if I should recognise him 
 in the street without his glasses. 
 
 The Viceroy was dressed simply, not to say shabbily, in the 
 ordinary Chinese stiff round hat, a thickly-padded upper 
 garment of some kind of yellow silk and an undergarment of 
 grey silk. His hands were tucked into his wide sleeves and only 
 came out twice during our conversation, once when he wished to 
 blow his nose, which he did in the familiar but indescribable 
 manner of the tramp in the street, and once when he was 
 startled by a little piece of news. Yet he smoked a pipe five 
 feet long. An attendant stood with pipe, smoking materials 
 and fire, at the back of the reception-room, and every five 
 minutes he walked solemnly forward, filled the pipe, blew the 
 fire-stick into a flame, the Viceroy opened one corner of his 
 mouth, tbe attendant inserted the stem and applied the light to 
 the bowl, the great man absorbed the smoke and opened his 
 mouth again, when the pipe-bearer withdrew as he had come. 
 This occurred a score times at least, and never a muscle did the 
 Viceroy move, except just to open the corner of his mouth wide 
 enough to admit the pipe-stem. The reception-room is a small 
 parlour, well-furnished with modern European furniture, except 
 on one side where an alcove, hung with scarlet silk, contains a 
 cushion and table adopted for sitting and writing in the Chinese 
 
THE GKAND SECEBTABY LI. 253 
 
 fashion. The Chung Tang probably sits in this elevated post 
 on state occasions ; on the present he reclined very comfortably 
 upon a sofa. Three or four attendants did nothing and did it well, 
 simply listening to the conversation, while I saw in the back- 
 ground that another had opened a window an inch and was 
 listening from outside. These attendants are always present at 
 official interviews, extraordinary as such a habit may seem to us, 
 and the natural result is that most of the foreign representatives 
 have one at each Yamen in their pay, and that there are few 
 secrets which money will not buy. After I left the Chung Tang 
 I met a facetious acquaintance who inquired where I had been. 
 " Talking with the Viceroy," I replied. " Oh," he said, " I'll 
 get all you said to him for a couple of dollars to-morrow." 
 Naturally I offered it to him then and there at half-price. 
 There are two interesting pictures in this reception-room. One 
 represents the fable of the monkey, the cat and the chestnuts, 
 and I believe the Viceroy pointed to this on a recent occasion 
 when he was approached on behalf of British interests in Thibet. 
 The other puzzled me a good deal. It hung immediately over 
 the Viceroy's own seat and was a very large full-length portrait 
 in oil, representing a tall man with a long grey beard, in a frock 
 coat, and covered with decorations. Later I learned that it was 
 a portrait of Herr Krupp, presented by himself. Its position 
 suggests the reflection — an undoubtedly true one — that the 
 Chinese have always loved that foreigner best who has best 
 helped them to keep all foreigners away. 
 
 As soon as we were seated, an attendant brought tea and 
 champagne and placed them on a little table beside each of us, 
 and the interview began, Mr. Lo translating so perfectly and so 
 promptly that it was as though we were both speaking the same 
 language. My own idea, of course, was that I was about to 
 interview the Viceroy. Nothing was further from his intention, 
 which was clearly to interview me. Question after question fell 
 from his lips for a whole hour, and as Mr. Lo apparently did 
 not translate the feeble attempts I made from time to time to 
 
254 CHINA. 
 
 stem the interrogatory torrent, I was as helpless as a man in a 
 dentist's chair. I think the best thing I can do is to repeat the 
 first part of the conversation verbatim, not that the subject- 
 matter is of the slightest importance, but because it throws a 
 flood of light on the working of the Viceroy's mind, and exhibits 
 a curious mixture of childishness, astuteness and Chinese 
 manners. After nearly an hour of it I began to feel that I must 
 be with Alice in Wonderland. Here it is, then, as nearly word 
 for word as I can recall it. 
 
 " The Viceroy hopes you are in good health and that you have 
 had a pleasant journey." Eeply taken for granted. " Where 
 have you been?" and "Where are you going?" Easily 
 answered. " How old are you ? " This, I afterward learned, 
 is an inquiry essential to politeness in China — I ought to have 
 returned the compliment. "What is your yearly income from 
 writing for newspapers ? " I remembered that sophists hold it 
 to be not always imperative to speak the exact truth under 
 pressure, and I replied accordingly, with the natural result 
 that the next remark was, "His Excellency says you must 
 be a very skilful writer to earn so much money." I could not 
 observe whether he also winked under his goggles. " You 
 have made a long journey — have you no companion ? " " None 
 whatever." "Are you not afraid of being stabbed?" "In 
 dangerous countries — not, of course, in China — I carry means of 
 defending myself." " The Viceroy says you must have been in 
 very great danger." " Not to my knowledge." " The world is 
 full of wicked people." "His Excellency is evidently well 
 acquainted with it." "Are you going to Thibet?" I took 
 this inquiry for a joke, as nobody knows better than the Chung 
 Tang that it is almost as easy to go to the moon, so I replied in 
 the same spirit, " Tes, and I have specially to beg from His 
 Excellency the favour of a safe-conduct and letter of recom- 
 mendation to the Grand Llama himself." But it was no joke at 
 all. " Impossible ! " exclaimed the Viceroy, sitting bolt upright 
 so suddenly that the pipe-bearer narrowly escaped prodding him 
 
THE GEAND SECRET ABT LI. 255 
 
 in the eye with the mouth-piece, " Impossible ! Certainly not! 
 I cannot do anything of the kind. It would be most unwise of 
 him to think of going." I did not dare to admit that I had 
 ventured to joke with the great man, so I said, " Then if it is 
 impossible for me to go, perhaps His Excellency will tell me 
 what is the truth about the recent troubles." " The people of 
 Thibet are very foolish," was the reply, " but J have sent a 
 Commissioner to them, who is at this moment conferring with 
 the English, and there will be no more fighting." I tried to 
 look like a person who believes what he is told As a matter of 
 fact, Li Hung-chang has as much power over the Thibetans as the 
 Sultan has over the Mahdi, but Thibet is a very sensitive spot 
 with the Chinese authorities, and they would probably do any- 
 thing, even to declaring war, to keep it out of the hands of the 
 barbarians. 
 
 Then followed an hour during which the Viceroy questioned 
 and cross-questioned me upon everything I had seen in the Par 
 East, and my opinions upon every conceivable question at issue 
 between the Powers. At last my patience gave way. I had 
 seen Li Hung-chang, I had talked with him, I had examined his 
 surroundings, and if he was not going to tell me anything, it 
 was not worth while for me to sit there any longer. So to the 
 twentieth inquiry about possible Eussian action in Korea, I 
 replied, " My opinions upon such a matter can have no value 
 whatever for His Excellency, whereas if he would favour me with 
 an authoritative statement concerning the relations of China, 
 Korea and Eussia, it would have the greatest possible value for 
 the rest of the world." And I emphasized the request by taking 
 up my hat and drinking the glass of wine; for I had been 
 instructed previously that when either host or guest in China 
 wishes to give the signal for departure, he empties his cup or 
 glass. When Mr. Lo had translated my remark there was a 
 moment's silence. Then, speaking very deliberately, the Viceroy 
 said, " The relations referred to in your question are as follows : 
 there is a distinct understanding between China and Eussia that 
 
256 CHINA. 
 
 any action by the latter in Korea will be regarded by the former 
 as a casus belli." In reply to a second question the Viceroy 
 added, " At present the relations between China and Eussia are 
 simple. Upon the long Eussian-Chinese frontier China is 
 strong, Eussia is weak. Vladivostok is very far from real 
 Eussia. It is alone. Eussia and China had better be good 
 friends." " But when the trans-Siberian railway is finished. 
 
 Excellency ? " " Yes, then the relations of China and 
 
 Eussia will be revised. As regards Korea, it is a country unable 
 to stand by itself, any talk of its ' independence ' is waste of 
 words, the relation of China to it is the same as it has always 
 been, and you may be prepared shortly to see events which will 
 make this relation quite clear to all the world." 
 
 I knew enough of China at the time not to attach much 
 importance to all this; but recent events have shown how 
 peculiarly fatuous it was. Did the Viceroy know, when he said 
 these things to me and similar ones to many other persons, that 
 China was rotten through and through, and as incapable of 
 either attack or defence as she was of internal reform ? I think 
 he did. When our conversation was over, he took his glass at 
 last and we all drank, Mr. Lo translating, " His Excellency 
 wishes you a pleasant journey, and says you will please give a 
 good account of your interview with him." Then the Viceroy 
 was so kind as to accompany me across his private courtyard 
 and Mr. Lo politely saw me into my chair. 
 
 He would be a presumptuous critic who should attempt an 
 analysis of so complex and subtle a character as that of the 
 Grand Secretary Li. Something, however, must be said, if 
 only in correction of a popular misapprehension. It is com- 
 monly supposed that Li's intimate acquaintance with foreigners 
 and his long experience of their diplomatic and commercial 
 methods have led him to conceive a certain sympathy with them 
 and a certain desire to see foreign influence stronger in China. 
 This is far from the fact. The more Li has seen of foreigners 
 the less he has liked them. We must not be wholly surprised 
 
THE GRAND SECEETAEY LI. 257 
 
 at this, since in some respects foreigners have shown him an 
 unattractive side of their character. His Yamen has been the 
 focus of every commercial intrigue undertaken on behalf of 
 Western nations, and most European commerce with of&cial 
 China has been conducted by means of intrigue. So far as 
 merchants are concerned, British and German and French and 
 American have occupied virtually the same position, though I 
 like to think that our own countrymen have not descended to 
 the methods of some of their competitors. But the difference 
 between British and other civilised commercial dealings with 
 the Viceroy has been this, that whereas other nations have 
 been supported through thick and thin by their Ministers, 
 our diplomatic agents have left our merchants to fight their 
 battles alone. This policy has sometimes been carried to the 
 point of indifference, and China merchants have some very 
 well-founded grievances against at least one British Minister 
 for his Bupineness, but on the whole the attitude of our 
 representatives has been one of dignity. As regards Prance 
 and Germany, every diplomatic concession Li has desired has 
 had to be bought by a corresponding commercial concession on 
 his part. Hence many a fat contract lost to British trade. 
 And on countless occasions when a commercial offer has been 
 refused by the Chinese on its merits, an irate Minister has 
 hastened off to the Viceroy's Yamen and by means of very 
 direct hints, if not by thinly-veiled threats, has secured a 
 favourable consideration for it. Moreover, the great European 
 firms have been well aware of the part that bribery plays in 
 Chinese affairs. Whether Li has taken bribes or not, I do not 
 know, though dozens of amusing stories on the subject are in 
 circulation in Tientsin ; but it is safe to say that if he has 
 not, he occupies a solitary position of honour among Chinese 
 officials. These are the circumstances, therefore, under which 
 Li has not always seen the best side of European civilisation. 
 Apart from individual acts, however, he is like all his countrymen 
 in thoroughly disliking us and all the principles of our ways. 
 
 18 
 
258 CHINA. 
 
 Between the European and the Chinaman there is this quite 
 instinctive, as well as quite reasoned, aversion. He has sought 
 to avail himself of our abilities, especially where these might 
 enable him to hold us and all other foreigners at arm's length 
 in the future, but to him the millennium would be the final 
 disappearance of every "foreign devil" from China. Upon 
 this point there can be no doubt whatever, however much it 
 may suit the policy of China from time to time to let the/ 
 contrary be assumed. A recent British Minister to China said 
 to me himself that he believed the vast majority of Chinamen 
 of all classes would willingly mortgage the whole revenue of 
 China for the next thirty years, to see the back of the last 
 foreigner, and to have the certainty that he would never return ; 
 and that Li Hung-chang would be the leader in this step. 
 There can be no better example of Li's employment of Western 
 relations to suit the purposes of China than a remarkable letter 
 he wrote in 1881 to a Korean official : — " Of late years Japan has 
 adopted Western customs. . . . Her national liabilities having 
 largely increased, she is casting her eyes about in search of 
 some convenient acquisition which may recoup her. . . . The 
 fate of Loochoo is at once a warning and a regret to both China 
 and Korea. . . . Her aggressive designs upon Korea will be 
 best frustrated by the latter's aUiance with Western nations." * 
 While this was his advice, however, the Viceroy has endeavoured 
 in every possible way, through his nominee and creature, Yuen, 
 the Chinese Eesident in Seoul, to thwart foreign influence upon 
 Korea. 
 
 In a previous chapter I have spoken of Li Hung-chang's 
 commercial enterprise, the China Merchants' Steam Navigation 
 Company and the cotton-mills at Shanghai. These are other 
 examples of his attempts to beat foreigners at their own game. 
 He has also established a medical college at Tientsin, where 
 twenty youths are trained for the medical staff of the army and 
 
 • Quoted in " The Life of Sir Harry Parkes," by F. V. Diokiua and S. Lane- 
 Poole, ii. p. 205. 
 
THE GEAND SEOEETAET LI. 259 
 
 navy. In view of his treatment of several young Chinese 
 graduates in medicine, however, whom in public he compli- 
 mented, and in private refused to employ, one hesitates to 
 accord him the credit which should belong to this innovation. 
 The news now is that Li Hung-chang has been degraded, 
 and that his unique position is gone for ever. We should not 
 be too ready to believe this. It may be, of course, that his 
 enemies have thrown him at last, but the Emperor and 
 Empress-Dowager will hardly realise how dependent upon 
 him they have been, until the barrier of his unique personality 
 and experience has been removed from between themselves 
 and the barbarian world. The decree depriving him of his 
 Yellow Jacket and peacock's feathers must not be taken au 
 grand serieux. " Degradation " of this character is merely 
 a Chinese method of incentive. In fact, the decree itself 
 virtually promises restitution, and as I have not seen a trans- 
 lation in the English Press it is worth reproducing in full : — 
 
 The Wo-jSn having broken faith with Korea and forcibly occupied that country, 
 the Throne sympathised with its tributary kingdom in her distress and so raised 
 an army to attack the eonmion enemy. Upon Li Hung-chang, Imperial High 
 Commissioner of the Pei-yang, having chief control of the forces there, rested tte 
 entire onus of being prepared for emergencies. But, instead, he has been unable to 
 act with speed and promptness in his military preparations, so that much time has 
 elapsed without any important results. He has indeed failed in the trust reposed 
 in him by us. We therefore command that his decoration of the three-eyed 
 peacock feather be plucked oil from (his hat), and that he be stripped of his Yellow 
 Elding Jacket as a slight punishment. It is necessary then, that the said Imperial 
 High Commissioner exert himself to the utmost and decide upon what should be 
 done ; that he direct and hasten the various armies from the various provinces to 
 the front, in order that aU may put forth their best strength to chase and root out 
 the enemy. In this way Li Hung-chang may hope to redeem his former errors. 
 
 This is instructive not only for the light it throws upon such 
 
 Chinese " degradation," but also as a contemporary example of 
 
 the paternalism of the Imperial sway. It might be a great 
 
 mistake, however, to conclude from this that the aged Viceroy 
 
 has at length reached that third day on which there — 
 
 " comes a frost, a killing frost ; 
 And — when he thinks, good easy man, fuU surely 
 His greatness is a-ripening — ^nips his root, 
 And then he falls." 
 
CHAPTEB XVIII. 
 
 CHINA AMONG THE QBEAT POWEBS. 
 
 TN the original plan of this volume, the chapter with the 
 -^ above title was intended to be one of the longest and most 
 argumentative. At that time, though it was less than a year 
 ago, China was regarded by almost all foreign writers as one 
 of the Great Powers. Her enormous resources in population, 
 and her excellent credit — thanks to Sir Eobert Hart's work, 
 which made every financial house in Europe eager to lend her 
 money — were regarded with the greatest respect by military 
 writers. It was understood that she had taken to heart the 
 lesson of her defeat by France, and was labouring earnestly to 
 guard against similar misfortunes in the future. It was known 
 that she had purchased enormous quantities of military, and 
 naval equipment in Europe, that she had built arsenals, docks, 
 and forts up and down the country, and that a considerable 
 number of the most capable and energetic foreign military and 
 naval experts had been engaged for years in arranging her 
 armaments and drilling her men. She had gained one or two 
 distinct successes in diplomacy against European Powers, and 
 Li Hung-chang had frequently declared that he would regard 
 certain actions as a casus belli ; her naval base and dockyard 
 at Port Arthur had been built for her at enormous expense by a 
 French syndicate ; Gordon's advice to fortify Wei-hai-wei had 
 been followed ; the powerful Taku forts at the mouth of the 
 Peiho commanding the approach to Tientsin, and the Bogue 
 
 260 
 
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS. 261 
 
 forts on the Canton Eiver had frowned impressively upon every 
 foreign visitor ; while the famous Northern Squadron of German- 
 built ironclads had visited the ports of the Par East and 
 exchanged elaborate salutes. From all this, foreign writers 
 came to the conclusion that China had shaken off her Oriental 
 lethargy, had drawn boldly upon her vast reserve of strength, 
 had armed herseK strongly according to modern scientific 
 fashions, and had therefore at last taken her place among the 
 great military and naval Powers of the world. To such an 
 extent was this believed, that probably a majority of publicists 
 came to look upon China as the great bulwark in Asia against 
 the Eussian advance, and suggestions of an Anglo- Chinese 
 alliance were the commonplaces of diplomatic conversation. 
 Such was the opinion a few months ago regarding China, and 
 it was against this view that the present chapter was to be 
 directed. I had come to the conclusion, and had frequently 
 expressed it in print, that so far from China being a Great 
 Power, her land forces would not stop any foreign army for a 
 week, and that her navy would be the prey of the first foreign 
 fleet that attacked it ; that so far from an Anglo-Chinese 
 alliance being a reasonable ideal, in the first place China 
 would not make an alliance with any foreign country, second, 
 if she made one she would not adhere to it, and third, if she 
 made it and adhered to it, it would not be worth having. 
 
 The unlooked-for outbreak of war between Japan and China, 
 and its inevitable results, have rendered unnecessary any 
 further exposure of the hoUowness of Chinese claims. The 
 sword of the Japanese has proved mightier in demonstration 
 than the pen of any critic could have hoped to be. Against the 
 French soldiers in Tongking, as brave as possible, but mere ' 
 handfuls in number, exhausted by the climate, badly led, and 
 feebly supported from home — the Chinese troops won a good 
 many victories and were several times within a hair's breadth of 
 winning greater ones; but against the regiments of Japan, 
 fighting in a climate which was their own, admirably officered. 
 
262 CHINA. 
 
 perfectly armed, and enthusiastically supported, the Chinese 
 braves have fallen back like sheep. And since in the first 
 naval battle the European strengthening of the fleet was killed 
 off, the Northern Squadron has done nothing but lie under the 
 guns of the forts, or search those parts of the sea where it was 
 certain that no Japanese ships would be found. A-san, Phyong- 
 yang, the Yalu Eiver, Kinchow, and Port Arthur, have given us 
 at last that most difficult thing to secure — the truth about China. 
 It would be waste of time, therefore, to dwell upon matters now 
 so familiar to the whole world, or to argue in support of truths 
 so irresistibly taught by events. It may still be interesting, 
 however, to describe briefly some of the ways in which China 
 prepared herself for the defeat which has now overtaken her, 
 especially since these are hardly less amusing than instructive. 
 
 Five years ago the Englishman who knows more of that 
 inscrutable entity, the Chinese mind, than any man living, told 
 me that of all her "vassals," there were only two for which 
 China would fight — Thibet and Korea. Personally, I do not 
 believe that anything which could happen, short of an advance 
 upon Peking itself, would cause China to declare war against 
 any European Power. The role of sleeping leviathan suited her 
 perfectly, but she has well known that the first step she might 
 take would destroy the illusion upon which her security has 
 been based. What she has liked is to remain perfectly 
 quiescent, while the world trembled to think what she might do 
 if aroused — to lie still in her Confucian savagery, while such 
 utterances as that mass of rubbish called " China : the Sleep 
 and the Awakening," which the Marquis Tseng signed (but did 
 not write) in the Asiatic Quarterly for January, 1887, have 
 represented her as advancing with a cautious but irresistible 
 march. The strangest thing is that the civilised world has 
 been deceived by these tactics, and even such keen analysts of 
 national characteristics as the late Mr. Charles Pearson have 
 painted a future in which China, having prepared herself by 
 long training, should put forth her gigantic strength and over- 
 
CHINA AMONG THE GEEAT POWEES. 263 
 
 run the world. This ethnical fable of "Jack and the Bean- 
 stalk " has been amusing enough to anybody who really knows 
 the first facts about China, but it is safe to conjecture that 
 nobody has been moved by it to such hearty laughter as the 
 Viceroy of Chihli himself. Japan has had no illusions about 
 China, and she was quite ready to prick the bubble. But the 
 Beanstalk is hard to cut down. At the beginning of the war a 
 news agency solemnly announced that each province of China 
 was called upon to furnish 20,000 men ; nineteen multiplied by 
 20,000 is 380,000, and the astounded reader was invited to 
 believe that this enormous force was gathering and marching 
 to Peking like Lars Porsena's men to Eome. The newspaper 
 reader might perhaps not be expected to know that the Emperor 
 of China could as easily raise 20,000 men in Mars as in some 
 of his provinces ; that it would not be difficult to enlist a con- 
 siderable force in one part of China to attack another part ; 
 that absolutely no organisation exists in China for the handling 
 of such masses ; that the men would find themselves without 
 uniforms, without arms, without food, without the most rudi- 
 mentary knowledge of war, without leaders of any description 
 whatever ; or that a huge army of the kind in the neighbour- 
 hood of the capital would be almost certain to seize the 
 opportunity to upset the present alien Government. But it is 
 hardly making too high a demand upon any reader that he 
 should have glanced at the map of China, made a rough 
 multiplication of the degrees of longitude he saw before him, 
 and asked himself how 20,000 men were to march a thousand 
 miles through a country which is always on the verge of famine. 
 However, when one of our leading statesmen was of opinion 
 that China must inevitably win in the end, " because of her 
 enormous armed strength," other people might be excused for 
 going astray. One expression of opinion, however, puzzled me 
 extremely. Captain Lang, E.N., to whose great administrative 
 skill and absolute devotion to her interests China owes most 
 of whatever naval strength she has acquired — and whom, it 
 
264 CHINA. 
 
 may be added, she characteristically rewarded by dismissing 
 him with insult — has been reported as saying to an 
 interviewer, among many other rather startling tributes to 
 Chinese naval prowess, that " with an officer like Admiral Ting, 
 whom I would not hesitate to follow anywhere, the Chinese 
 navy would prove a splendid force." But this worthy 
 " Admiral " has had no education whatever as a seaman, owing 
 his appointment to the ordinary routine of competitive examina- 
 tion in the Chinese classics, and being merely the nominal equal 
 of Admiral — as he then was — Lang, to " save the face " of the 
 Chinese. In fact, he was previously a cavalry General, a 
 branch of the service in which he would be equally unpreju- 
 diced by any information. Moreover, Admiral Ting Ju-ch'ang 
 was the hero of the famous story of the Chinese Admiral who 
 was found one day playing pitch and toss, or what corre- 
 sponds to it in China, with the sentry at his door, both of 
 them seated on the floor of the Admiral's cabin. I had an 
 opportunity once of talking with a foreign instructor on board 
 a certain Chinese ironclad. In reply to my inquiry when the 
 ship would sail, he said, " The only way we really know when 
 we are to sail is by the Admiral coming aboard. He leaves the 
 ship as soon as we come into port, and we never see him again 
 until we sail. He knows nothing at all about naval matters — 
 he is just the mandarin put on board by Li. Why, when some- 
 body comes aboard to visit him, he'll perhaps call a sampan and 
 see him off over the port side ! Then I have seen him gambling 
 here on the quarter-deck with a common seaman, and when he 
 has won all his money he'll tell the paymaster to advance the 
 seaman some more, so that he can go on playing. Yes, sir, 
 that is a literal fact. The only men on board that could really 
 do anything are these young fellows, the captain and lieutenants, 
 and they have no power at all. They fought against the French 
 and got nothing at all for it— just a few dollars, and were told 
 to take themselves off. The rings on the big Krupps are begin- 
 ning to open out already, and if there is the least dirt or sand 
 
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS. 265 
 
 you can't shut them." « Then I suppose," I said, " that no 
 European squadron need be afraid of the Pei-yang Squadron 
 yet ? " " No fear, sir, it is only a question who will get them 
 as prizes," was the reply. 
 
 " The truth is, that if the Japanese do not sweep the Chinese 
 from the sea, then study, skill, devotion, and experience go for 
 nothing, and there is no need for us to train our naval officers 
 at all. One thing only could save the Chinese on the sea— the 
 enlistment by large promises of money of European naval 
 officers, in whose hands complete and unfettered control should 
 be placed. The Chinese seamen are not wanting in courage, but 
 naturally enough they have no confidence whatever in their 
 leaders, and they would probably fight well enough to give their 
 undoubtedly fine ships a chance if they were well commanded." * 
 
 The actual condition of the Chinese army and navy, while so 
 much was believed of it abroad, cannot be understood from any 
 descriptions in general terms. Let me therefore give a few 
 scattered facts which came to my knowledge. I was once being 
 shown by a Chinese naval officer over one of their two biggest 
 ironclads, which was on a cruise at the time, and therefore 
 presumably in first-rate condition. I noticed a gun carefully 
 protected in a canvas cover. As we passed it, I asked casually 
 what it was. The officer explained with pride that it was a new 
 quick-firing gun, and called a quartermaster to remove the 
 covering. The order was obeyed with evident reluctance, and 
 when the gun was at length exposed it proved to be used by one 
 of the watches as a receptacle for their " chow," and was filled 
 with chop-sticks and littered with rice and pickles. Of course I 
 promptly looked the other way, but it required no knowledge of 
 Chinese to interpret the remarks of the officer to the quarter- 
 master. No doubt the whole watch went through the process of 
 
 * To avoid the appearance of prophesying after the event I may be permitted to 
 say that I wrote these words on August 18, 1894, and that they appeared In the 
 Contemporary Review for September. The battle of the Yalu was fought on 
 September 17. 
 
266 CHINA. 
 
 " eating bamboo " the moment I was off the ship ; but the 
 Chinese are incorrigible. It would be discouraging to i, 
 European engineer who should be appointed to a Chinese ship 
 to find that if there were any subordinate boiler small enough 
 for the purpose, it had been used for stewing dog. There is 
 nothing inherently improbable in the story repeated by the corre- 
 spondent of the Pall Mall Gazette that a Chinese warship went 
 to the Yalu without one of its guns, the commander having 
 pawned it and not been able to redeem it in time. 
 
 Another example of Chinese administration which came to 
 my knowledge may be interesting at this moment. Some years 
 ago the Chinese Government ordered a magnificent set of 
 Hotchkiss cartridge-making machinery. In due time this 
 arrived, but two mandarins claimed it for their respective 
 districts, and, failing to agree, each seized such portions of the 
 machinery as he could secure and carried them off to his own 
 place. When I was there, half the machinery was in one 
 arsenal and half in another several hundred miles away. 
 Unfortunately, Europeans are not always above taking advan- 
 tage of Chinese supineness. A cargo of cocoa powder was 
 ordered from well-known manufacturers and landed at Port 
 Arthur for use in the big guns there. By-and-by it was tried 
 and found not to ignite, and finally the whole of it was thrown 
 into the sea. But both Europeans and Chinese had pocketed a 
 good " squeeze " out of the transaction. The superintendent of 
 one of the largest arsenals in China receives an allowance to buy 
 steel : he buys iron, and pockets the difference. It is, therefore, 
 fair to presume that the rifle barrels he is turning out are made 
 of iron. With my own eyes I saw at an important arsenal the 
 machinery for making rifle barrels standing idle, while hundreds 
 of men in the same workshop were making them by hand. 
 
 Here is another story which I know to be true. An American 
 agent showed a Chinese Viceroy the performance of a Hotchkiss 
 gun. The Viceroy promised an order, but said he should like 
 first to show it to some of his officers, to find out if they could 
 
OHINA AMONG THE GHEAT POWERS. 267 
 
 use it. So the gun was lent. The Chinese took it to pieces, 
 worked day and night in making full-sized working drawings, 
 put it together again, and sent it back, and the Viceroy wrote 
 to say that he had decided not to purchase it. Again — in all 
 these instances I have names and places and dates in my note- 
 books, but for obvious reasons I omit them — a Chinese Viceroy 
 ordered estimates for a complete set of rifle-making machinery 
 from the United States. The total cost was (say) 500,000 dols. 
 The Viceroy, supposing it was like a Chinese estimate, drew 
 that sum from the Treasury, cut the estimate down to 400,000, 
 and gave the money and the estimate to an official with orders 
 to procure the machinery. He, in his turn, " squeezed " it a 
 little more, and then made the estimate agree with the money 
 that remained by striking his pencil through several important 
 items. The machinery in due course arrived as ordered, and of 
 course could not be set up. 
 
 I had a very interesting conversation with a foreigner acting 
 as torpedo-instructor in the Chinese navy. He told me that 
 Chinese officers receive pay for a certain number of men, and 
 that they are in the habit of making up the total by putting all 
 their relations and servants in uniform on inspection days, and 
 drawing their pay all the rest of the time. When an admiral is 
 appointed to a ship, he makes his brother-in-law the boatswain, 
 and his cousin the cook. I asked this torpedo-instructor whether 
 his pupils really acquired any comprehension of the art of 
 torpedo warfare. He assured me that a considerable pro- 
 portion of them really did. I asked him whether they would 
 actually fight. He hesitated, and I added : " Would they not 
 probably discharge all their torpedoes at once and then run 
 away?" "I think they would," he answered. A propos of 
 " squeezing," he told me that all his pupils had to give money, 
 not being able to afford it, to the Viceroy before they could get 
 the rewards that had been promised them by him when he 
 inspected them. My informant himself, when he went to the 
 Yamen to get his decoration, was stopped with a demand for 
 
268 CHINA. 
 
 sixty taels by the Viceroy's head " boy," and finally beat him 
 down to forty dollars, without which it would have been impos- 
 sible for him to get an audience. This system, he added, extends 
 through everything. All the " boys " at the Yamen actually 
 buy their posts, and only keep them by a regular subsidy to the 
 Viceroy himself. A Chinese official who " squeezes " up to 20 
 per cent, is regarded as honest; more than that the Chinese 
 consider grasping. 
 
 As an example of Chinese naval procedure, I may repeat a 
 story told me by the agent of one of the great European naval 
 contractors. The Chinese sent an Armstrong cruiser to carry 
 troops along the coast of Formosa, a very costly and complicated 
 vessel, instead of chartering a common merchant steamer. Her 
 captain ran her promptly upon a rock and stove in her lower 
 bottom ; then he steamed down to Hongkong and had her 
 examined, the double bottom being full of water. To escape the 
 consequences of their mishap, the admiral and commander 
 determined to pay for the repairs themselves ; so they told the 
 dock company that if the vessel could be put right for 15,000 
 dols. she might go into dock. But the company replied that so 
 far as they could judge from their divers' reports, the cost would 
 be at least 40,000 dols. So the vessel steamed away to Tientsin 
 just as she was, and was docked at Port Arthur. "But the 
 dock," continued my informant, " was so built that when the 
 water was let in, the pumping-house was submerged, and they 
 could not get the water out again, so there the ship lay and 
 rusted for I don't know how long." 
 
 While the French fleet was off Tamsui, the 27-centimetre 
 Krupp guns in one of the shore batteries had been trained upon 
 the Gallissonniere at 1,000 yards range for several days. At the 
 first French shot all the Chinese artillerymen fled, except one, 
 who succeeded in discharging three guns before a shot struck 
 him and blew his head off. One of the shells he fired pierced 
 the ship, and remained imbedded in the wood-work, failing to 
 explode. The vessel went to Hongkong, where with infinite 
 
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS. 269 
 
 precautions the shell was removed and opened. It had been 
 manufactured at the Foochow Arsenal, and contained — char- 
 coal ! The maker had, of course, been paid for gunpowder and 
 had pocketed the difference. 
 
 The Japanese were blamed in many quarters for threaten- 
 ing to withdraw their promise to treat Shanghai as a neutral 
 port, if the Kiangnan Arsenal did not cease its operations. The 
 Chinese replied that the arsenal was only a very small affair, 
 and its output unimportant. This is not the case. It consists 
 of an engine department, capable of turning out marine engines 
 up to 3,000 h.p. ; an iron ship and boiler yard, containing a slip 
 upon which has been built an iron cruiser of 2,000 tons, with 
 a speed of 14 knots ; a small-arms factory, manufacturing 
 Eemington rifles, the production of which is given by the 
 Chinese at 200 per week, though under efficient superintendence 
 this figure could be raised to 1,000 ; an iron and brass foundry, 
 which has turned out castings up to 30 tons each ; a projectile 
 department, under a superintendent from Elswick, with capa- 
 bilities of 5 tons a day, ranging from the 6-pounder shell for 
 field guns up to the 800-pound shell for the Krupps; an ordnance 
 department, capable of turning out guns up to 40 tons, with 
 boring and turning lathes by a dozen different European makers; 
 a steam hammer which strikes a blow of 135 foot-tons ; and a 
 furnace which will admit work lOO feet long. When I visited 
 this arsenal there was an 8-inch gun of 12^ tons and 35 
 calibres, mounted on a hydro-pneumatic disappearing carriage, 
 which had been entirely constructed at Kiangnan, and eight 
 similar ones were in course of manufacture. The superin- 
 tendent of this department, an Englishman of great skill and 
 administrative talent — Mr. N. E. Cornish, from Elswick — had 
 turned out in two years twenty-two 8-inch guns, eight 6-inch guns, 
 and one 9-inch gun. Not far away are powder-works and cart- 
 ridge factories, under native superintendence, with capacities 
 respectively of one ton and 10,000 cartridges per day ; but the 
 quality of the output had fallen off so seriously since the foreign 
 
270 CHINA. 
 
 employees had been dismissed, that grave doubts were expressed 
 as to whether it would be of any use at all. I give these details 
 not only as an example of the falsehoods that the Chinese put 
 forward and which find acceptance among foreigners, but also as 
 a striking proof of the fact that the ability to produce aU the 
 implements of warfare has not prevented the Chinese from 
 experiencing a humiliating defeat, on the first occasion that they 
 have been seriously attacked during the last twenty-five years. 
 Unless the character of the Chinese Government can be vitally 
 changed, all the guns and ships in the world will not save them. 
 
 The Canton Eiver can now be blocked against the most power- 
 ful fleet at a few hours' notice, and the story of how this came 
 to be done is a curious one. The British Consul went one day 
 to a former Viceroy of the province to protest against the partial 
 barrier which then existed, as a great obstacle to trade. " More- 
 over," he said, " it is not of the least real use to keep out an 
 enemy, as a foreign fleet could destroy it without the least diffi- 
 culty." The Viceroy listened with interest, promised to give the 
 matter his best consideration, and the moment the Consul had 
 left his Tamen he issued instructions to his foreign naval 
 instructor to replace the old barrier by one which could not be 
 destroyed. Accordingly a number of huge iron piles were 
 driven in, and these when filled with stones in war-time would 
 constitute an impenetrable obstacle. The river, too, is very 
 strongly defended by forts of the latest pattern, heavily armed. 
 As a matter of fact, however, all these precautions are useless, 
 because no enemy would think of attempting to force the 
 entrance to the river in face of them. A strong force would be 
 landed, would advance overland, occupy Canton, re-establish 
 peace there, collect the duties of the richest city in China, and 
 with this revenue to pay all military and naval expenses, war 
 with China could be carried on for ever at a profit. 
 
 To Captain Lang, E.N., as I have said, is due almost all that 
 there is of good in the Chinese navy of to-day, and if the 
 Japanese war had taken place immediately after his retirement, 
 
CHINA AMONG- THE GREAT POWERS. 271 
 
 the Chinese ships would undouhtedly have given a much better 
 account of themselves. The universal testimony of people in 
 China is that since Captain Lang left, the Chinese fleet has 
 gone to the dogs as fast as possible. He was, as every con- 
 Bcientious British officer under the same circumstances would 
 have been, too much of a detailliste for the Chinese. He pro- 
 bably made a mistake in accepting an executive position — no 
 foreign officer should do that with the Chinese. He should have 
 been merely adviser, with more or less power to get his advice 
 insisted upon. " Captain Lang," said a Chinese commander, 
 " is quite right to tell me about my ships and my guns, but he 
 need not come and look at my water-closets." An arrangement 
 under which an experienced officer of the British navy, and Ting 
 Ju-ch'ang, who, on passing a Chinese literary examination, was 
 made a cavalry officer and thence promoted to command the 
 Northern Squadron, were placed nominally upon an equal foot- 
 ing as " Admirals," was destined to break down sooner or later. 
 The strain which finally destroyed it came when the fleet was in 
 harbour somewhere in Northern China. Admiral Ting went 
 away as usual, whereupon the senior Chinese commodore hoisted 
 his flag. Captain Lang immediately sent him orders to haul it 
 down. He refused to do so, and Captain Lang thereupon tele- 
 graphed to the Viceroy, who replied ambiguously through the 
 commodore. Captain Lang then went ashore with all his 
 belongings, and sent in his resignation, which was instantly 
 accepted. It is understood that the Admiralty refused permis- 
 sion for any British officer to replace him. Indeed they could 
 not do otherwise ; and the fate of Captain Lang should make it 
 clear that no foreigner who is not prepared to pocket the 
 indignities along with the salary should accept a post in the 
 Chinese navy. 
 
 It may be supposed that the utter collapse of the Chinese 
 navy in the war with Japan came as a surprise to the Chinese, 
 and particularly to the Chinaman who has had the chief influence 
 in creating it. On the contrary, I have had in my hand a 
 
272 CHINA. 
 
 detailed and most crushing indictment of the Chinese navy, 
 written less than five years ago, which was handed personally 
 to Li Hung-chang by one of his highest foreign advisers. In 
 order to strike his imagination, this was drawn up in the form of 
 an imaginary account of what had happened to the Chinese in 
 a naval war — a species of Chinese "Battle of Dorking," in fact. 
 The Chinese ships, it said, were entirely unprovided with stores, 
 such as oil and patent packing, and these could not be obtained 
 nearer than Shanghai. When a merchant ship arrives bringing 
 them, it has to go to Port Arthur, at that time the only defended 
 Chinese port where any of the Pei-yang Squadron, except gun- 
 boats, could go. But Port Arthur is not large enough to accom- 
 modate the whole squadron, so that while the cruisers are taking 
 on board coal and stores, the ironclads must remain outside. 
 Then the enemy blockades Niuchwang and Taku, because there 
 are no torpedo boats there. The Chinese officers are so nervous 
 under fire, from having had no torpedo practice at night, that 
 they fire torpedoes at eight hundred yards. But the squadron 
 has no reserve of either good men, coal, stores, or provisions, 
 and on the outbreak of war it is too late to procure them. The 
 Chinese engineers are afraid of using forced draught, and when 
 they try to do so the boiler-tubes leak. The Cliao Yang is 
 rammed, because her turning circle is so great and her manoeu- 
 vring power so small. (This prophecy was strikingly fulfilled, 
 as the Chao Yang ran on shore while manoeuvring in the battle 
 of the Yalu.) The enemy land a large force to the eastward of 
 Talien-wan Bay, entrench themselves strongly, and cut off all 
 supplies from Port Arthur, which ought to be provisioned for a 
 year but is not, and starve it out in two months. Finally, said 
 this report, an enemy with a smaller or even an equal naval 
 force, would thrash China, and take Port Arthur and keep it. 
 This report was written primarily to procure for the navy the 
 money to buy stores and supplies. It had, however, no appreci- 
 able effect, and a disastrous war has been needed to demonstrate 
 how well-founded were the criticisms it embodied. 
 
CHINA AMONG THE GEEAT POWERS. 273 
 
 The war has confirmed more than the severest critic has ever 
 said of the personnel of the Chinese army. An eye-witness has 
 described how the " picked troops " embarked at Tientsin on 
 board the Kowshing were dressed in blouses, wore " thigh-pads," 
 carried old rifles, and were provided with an executioner to each 
 regiment ! The discipline of these troops was such that they 
 promptly mutinied as soon as they thought themselves in 
 danger, and the first time they used their rifles was upon their 
 own comrades who were saving themselves by swimming. Of 
 desertions and consequent beheadings we have already heard 
 more than enough. Both before and after being defeated, the 
 Chinese troops outraged and plundered the peasantry of the 
 districts to which they were despatched, until the Japanese were 
 welcomed as deliverers in Manchuria, while in China the refugees 
 asked the nearest way to a foreign settlement, knowing that there 
 alone would they be safe. The Eev. John Boss, a well-known 
 missionary and author, has stated that on the way to Mukden 
 " every part traversed by the Chinese army has been stripped 
 of its vegetation, and resembles fields over which locusts have 
 passed, so complete is its devastation." When the last mail 
 arrived from the Far East the first batches of Chinese prisoners 
 were reaching Japan. The Kobe Herald says of four hundred 
 of them : " If these are samples of the Chinese regular troops 
 we must admit that they are a poor, miserable crowd, being 
 without exception as ragged, dirty, and puny a collection of 
 human beings as it has ever been our lot to inspect." And the 
 Tokyo correspondent of the Times writes of seven hundred that 
 arrived there : " It would be difficult to conceive a dirtier, less 
 formidable-looking lot of men. They appear to have been 
 collected from the highways and byways without any regard to 
 age— some are in their teens, others in their fifties— or any 
 thought of physical capacity." The Chinese have taken very few 
 prisoners, but those they have treated according to their usual 
 habit. At the beginning of the war I warned foreign corres- 
 pondents that they must on no account be taken alive by the 
 
 19 
 
274 CHINA. 
 
 Chinese, and Marshal Tamagata afterwards gave the same advice 
 to his troops. After impressing upon them that only those 
 Chinese who bore arms were the enemies of Japan, and that 
 mercy to the conquered and kindness to prisoners must be abso- 
 lutely shown under all circumstances, he proceeds : ^' The 
 Chinese have, from ancient times, ever been endowed with the 
 cruellest and most merciless dispositions ; therefore, if during a 
 battle a warrior by any chance falls into their hands, he is sure 
 to suffer the most pitiless treatment by them, to which death is 
 far more preferable ; in the end even he will be put to death 
 with savage ferocity. It follows that in whatsoever circum- 
 stances a soldier should avoid being taken alive, and should 
 rather in such a case die gallantly, manifesting by such a death 
 the warrior spirit of Japan and perfecting the fame of our 
 heroic ancestry." His warning has been justified by events. 
 The first thing that the Japanese found inside Port Arthur was 
 a number of headless and mutilated bodies of their comrades, 
 and the correspondent of the Times whom I have already 
 quoted, writes : " The Chinese take no prisoners. From dead, 
 wounded, and vanquished alike they shear off the heads, 
 mutilate them in various ways, and string them together by 
 a rope passed through the mouth and gullet. The Japanese 
 troops have seen these ghastly remnants of their comrades. A 
 barrel fuU of them was found after the fight at Ping-Yang, and 
 among the horrible trophies was the head of a young of&cer 
 who had fallen wounded in a fort evacuated by General 
 Oshima's men." 
 
 Havmg been thoroughly beaten, the Chinese have decided to 
 " reform " the organisation of their army, and how have they 
 set about it ? At the head of the organisation of reform they 
 have placed Chang Chih-tung, the notorious foreigner-hater, the 
 instigator of the murders of missionaries, the Viceroy who was 
 recently disgraced for defying Imperial orders from Peking. 
 Better than this, however, they have associated with Captain 
 von Hanneken, who is to be the chief foreign adviser, with the 
 
CHINA AMONG THE GREAT POWERS. 275 
 
 rank of General, a certain Hanlin scholar named Hu Ching-kuei. 
 That is, a man who represents above all things the old Chinese 
 literary culture — an official of the Hanlin Yuan, or " Imperial 
 Academy," which is the most conservative institution in China, 
 and attaches more importance to the propriety of an ideograph 
 than to all the Western knowledge in the world. The farce of 
 Chinese " reform "could not be better illustrated. 
 
 To conclude, the truth is that like almost everything else in 
 China, her offensive and defensive power is a sham. The off- 
 spring of corruption and bombast is inefficiency. The Viceroy 
 Li said to me that along the thousands of miles of the frontier 
 between China and Eussia, the former was strong and the 
 latter was weak. Yet a considerable proportion of the troops in 
 Northern China is armed with flint-locks, gingals, and bows and 
 arrows, and skill with the bow is still considered a most 
 desirable military art. Gordon, with his habitual frankness, 
 told Li that for China to think of fighting Eussia was " sheer 
 madness." And even Captain Lang, in the interview from 
 which I have already quoted, declared that " when under arms, 
 one-half of the Chinese army is made up of savages." A force 
 made up half of coolies, torn from their homes, afraid of their 
 weapons, clamouring for their pay, driven forward by the lash, 
 punished by the headsman's knife ; and half of uncontrollable 
 savages, defiers of their own officers, insulters of foreigners, 
 plunderers of peasantry, torturers of prisoners, murderers of 
 missionaries, outragers of women, mutilators of the dead, 
 is not the kind of army with which Englishmen should desire 
 to stand shoulder to shoulder, and the sooner we learn to look 
 for our Eastern alliance elsewhere than in China, the better. 
 
GHAPTEB XIX. 
 
 OONGEBNING TSE PEOPLE OF CHINA. 
 
 rilHE more one learnB about China, the less confident become 
 -*- one's opinions about it. The first result of experience and 
 study of this extraordinary people and this vast land is to teach 
 that any sweeping generalisation is almost necessarily untrue. 
 Every individual Chinaman is a mass of contradictions ; the"-' ( ^ 
 gulf between the theory of Chinese government and its practical 
 administration is not to be bridged ; the geographical differ- 
 ences of the country are greater even than those of the United 
 States ; the variations of race are almost equal to those of 
 India ; to the Chinaman of the south the Chinaman of the north 
 is a foreigner, a person speaking a different language, and usually 
 an enemy ; to the Chinaman of the far west the central authority 
 of the east is an alien and an incomprehensible dominion ; at 
 any moment an army could be raised in one part of China to 
 operate against another part ; public feeling or community of 
 sentiment is unknown. In fact, there is no such thing as 
 "China." 
 
 The wisest remark ever made by a foreigner setting out to 
 write about things Chinese, was, in my opinion, that which 
 Mr. George Wingrove Cooke, the special correspondent of the 
 Times with Lord Elgin's mission, prefixed to the reprint of 
 his letters. He said : — 
 
 I have, in these letters, introduced no elaborate essay upon Chinese character. 
 It is a great omission. . . . The truth is, that I have written several very fine 
 characters for the whole Chinese race, but having the misfortune to have the 
 
 276 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA. 277 
 
 people under my eye at the same time with my essay, they were always saying some- 
 thing or doing something which rubbed so rudely against my hypothesis, that in the 
 interest of truth I burnt several successive letters. I may add that I have often 
 talked over this matter with the most eminent and candid sinologues, and have 
 always found them ready to agree with me as to the impossibility of a Western 
 mind forming a conception of Chinese character as a whole. These difficulties, 
 however, occur only to those who know the Chinese practically: a smart writer, 
 entirely ignorant of his subject, might readily strike off a brilliant and antithetical 
 analysis, which should leave nothing to be desired but Truth. * 
 
 This book is old, long out of print, and forgotten, but between 
 the soiled and antique covers of my copy I find more common 
 sense about China, and more appreciation of what should be the 
 attitude of Europeans towards it, than in almost all the works — 
 with the exception of Professor Douglas's volume just published — 
 that have been written since. And if I may say so without 
 being misunderstood, I would add that to learn what China is 
 not, and what should not be our relations with it, one has but 
 to look at contemporary European opinion, and to examine the 
 actions of the British Foreign Office for the last ten years. In 
 writing of the people of China I shall certainly not attempt the 
 foolish task of including them all within the limits of any 
 definition, or laying down any rule about Chinese character 
 without exceptions. But there are so many mistakes prevalent 
 concerning China, and so many errors in dealing with her have 
 been made, that it is both easy and imperative for any one who 
 has seen under the least corner of the veil which conceals her, 
 to point out some of these as vigorously as he may. 
 
 By way of breaking ground for what is to follow, I may pause 
 for a moment to give an illustration or two of the difference 
 between Chinese and Western views upon a single point, and the 
 consequent extreme difficulty in the way of our comprehension 
 of this people. Take, for instance, the subject of human life. 
 A foreign resident of Peking who speaks Chinese well was riding 
 along one day and came to an excited crowd. Drawing near, he 
 discovered a circle of people quietly watching a man desperately 
 
 * George Wingrove Cooke, " China : being The Times Special Correspondence 
 from China in the years 1857-58," London, 1858, p. vii. 
 
278 CHINA. 
 
 attempting to commit suicide by dashing his head against a 
 wall. He dismounted, restrained the man, harangued the 
 bystanders, and learned that this was a coolie who claimed that 
 his payment for a certain porter's job was short by ten cash — 
 less than a penny — and as the employer refused to pay more he 
 was proceeding to take revenge by killing himself on the spot, 
 knowing that by so doing he would get the other into consider- 
 able trouble. On another occasion a man threw himself into the 
 canal, but was dragged out. So he simply sat down on the edge 
 and starved himself to death, to be revenged against somebody 
 who had cheated him. Again, one day a man was found 
 murdered on a bridge near the British Legation. The law 
 of China prescribes that a murdered body must not be removed 
 till the murderer is caught. Therefore it was covered with a 
 mat and left. Days passed and a month and still the rotting 
 body lay there, till at last the Minister, who had to pass it every 
 day, vigorously protested, and it was taken off the bridge and 
 placed a little further away. And a Chinese newspaper is 
 responsible for this story, which indeed has nothing whatever 
 incredible about it. One day a sow belonging to a Mrs. Peng 
 happening to knock down and slightly injure the front door of a 
 Mrs. Wang, the latter at once proceeded to claim damages, which 
 were refused. Whereupon a fierce altercation ensued, which 
 terminated in Mrs. Wang's threatening to take her own life. 
 Mrs. Feng, upon hearing of this direful threat, resolved at once 
 to take time by the forelock, and steal a march upon her enemy 
 by taking her own life, and thus turn the tables upon her. 
 She accordingly threw herself into the canal. 
 
 This merely by way of illustration. First of all, as I said of 
 the Grand Secretary Li, most foreigners are wofully wrong in 
 regard to the feelings of all Chinese towards peoples of other 
 nations. So far from the Chinese growing more sympathetic 
 in consequence of greater commercial intimacy, they are/ 
 undoubtedly growing more hostile. " The ruling and influential 2 
 classes still only tolerate our presence in the country; and I 2 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA. 279 
 
 firmly believe they would hail the day when they could see 
 (were such a thing possible) the last foreign factory razed to 
 the ground and the last ship dismissed the coast, in spite of 
 the loss to the national revenue and the ruin of the districts 
 dependent on our trade that would certainly ensue." * This 
 was written twelve years ago, but it is absolutely true to-day. 
 I have said that the sights of Peking are not nearly so accessible 
 to foreigners to-day as they were a few years ago. And it is the 
 testimony of most of the foreign residents that their treatment 
 by the Chinese grows worse each year, and that they are less 
 safe in the streets. The closing of the top of the wall to pedes- 
 trians is the last act of petty unpleasantness. There was no 
 reason whatever for this except to deprive the foreigners of their 
 only decent walk. Another example is that the Marchioness 
 Tseng, when first she returned from Europe, used to have an 
 afternoon " at home '' once a week, like European ladies. This 
 gave, however, such deep offence in all Chinese quarters that 
 she was compelled to cease. A Chinese lady, again, who had 
 been in Europe, called upon two European ladies who were 
 visiting Peking. Next day, desiring to be polite, they returned 
 her call. Immediately afterwards they received a message from 
 her begging them never to come to her house again. So, too, if 
 you begin to study Chinese with a teacher in Peking and you 
 happen to meet him in the street, do not expect the least sign 
 of recognition. He will cut you dead, and then come next 
 morning to apologise and explain that it would be very un- 
 pleasant for his family if he were seen bowing to a foreigner. 
 He will teach you and take your dollars : he will not greet you. 
 And the Abbe Favier, the finest specimen of a priesf I have ever 
 met, a heau sabreur of the church, who wears Chinese dress and 
 his hair in a queue, who speaks Chinese perfectly, who has even 
 been decorated with a sapphire button by the Emperor, told me 
 that he had just received the most remarkable honour and 
 recognition of his whole life in China. He met the Governor 
 * Medhurst, " The Foreigner in Far Cathay," 1872, p. 177. 
 
280 CHINA. 
 
 of the city in his official chair, and the great man positively 
 bowed to him, to the stupefaction of the lookers-on. "II 
 m' a salue, Monsieur — eomme 9a ! " And while I was in Peking, 
 H.E.H. Prince Henry of Bourbon (Comte de Bardi) desired very 
 much to see the Temple of Heaven, which had been closed to , 
 foreigners for several years. Accordingly the German Minister 
 (he was travelling, of course, with an Austrian passport) applied 
 to the Tsungli Yamen for special permission for his distinguished 
 guest. After some delay it was granted, as some say only after 
 the Marquis Tseng had carried the request to the Empress 
 herself, and an appointment was made. The Prince and his 
 party, accompanied by the Secretary of the German Legation, 
 rode out to the gates of the Temple and only succeeded in 
 passing the outer one after long discussion and altercation. 
 The next gate was still more difficult, and after an hour's parley 
 the keepers agreed to let the men of the party in, if the Princess 
 would go back into the street and wait for them. This was too 
 much, and the whole party naturally left in indignation. The 
 German Minister sent a formal and vigorous complaint to the 
 Tsungli Yamen, and after a while he received a sort of apology 
 and expression of regret at the misunderstanding. But the 
 exclusion was undoubtedly deliberate and according to orders 
 received. The Ministers could not well meet the request with 
 a flat refusal, but they took care that the permission should 
 have no value. 
 
 " As for any moral influence that foreigners may exercise by 
 their presence in the country, it may be regarded as simply 
 nil." I believe this to be absolutely true. The reader may 
 naturally be inclined to reply that in the face of many years 
 of devoted missionary work and the large sums of money that 
 are yearly subscribed in England to support this, such a state- 
 ment is incredible. My answer is, that from the missionaries 
 themselves come some of the strongest testimonies in support 
 of the assertion of declining foreign influence. I once asked a 
 Eoman Catholic priest whom I met in China, and of whose 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA. 281 
 
 knowledge and character I formed the highest opinion, if he 
 believed that the result of missionary enterprise would result, 
 even in the fulness of time, in anything that could be remotely 
 described as the Christianising of China. " Jamais ! " he 
 replied, emphatically. " Then," said I, " why are you here ? " 
 " I am here," he replied, " simply in obedience to the command 
 to preach the Gospel to all peoples. Like the soldiers in the 
 ranks I obey the orders of my commander, without understand- 
 ing in the least what good is to come of them." Yet no 
 missionary who has been in China for centuries has achieved 
 8uch extraordinary victories or has a position of so much power 
 as this man. To pass from Eoman Catholic to Protestant 
 testimony, in September, 1888, the Eev. A. Williamson, D.D., 
 read a paper at Chefoo on " Missionary Organisation in China." 
 He said : " The startling, though it is not the most serious, 
 aspect of the question is that not only is heathenism extending, 
 but immorality is increasing in all directions. . . . Those of us who 
 have lived long in China see the evil spreading before our eyes, 
 especially in and around our great emporiums, with an ever- 
 widening area every year. The Chinese are learning evil faster 
 than they are learning good. They are adding foreign vices to 
 their own, aping foreign free-living and habits, often in the 
 most powerful manner ; and the fact is, that in and around our 
 centres of commerce they are less honest, less moral, and less 
 susceptible to the preaching of Divine Truth than formerly by a 
 long way." And again : " Further, we are not rising in the 
 respect or esteem of the Chinese as we expected. A few years 
 ago there was a general sense of satisfaction among us at the 
 attitude shown towards us by many, both officials, wealthy 
 civilians, and literary men. Now a change is perceptible in all 
 directions. They respect us less than they used to do, receive 
 our visits less readily. We find it more difficult to rent or buy 
 houses, and so on." Another Protestant missionary — the Eev. 
 William Ashmore, D.D., of the American Baptist Mission — in 
 an article in the New York Examiner, wrote as follows: "Already 
 
282 CHINA. 
 
 the revulsion from the old, kindly feeling towards America has 
 begun. Now they are learning to hate us. It is passing from 
 mouth to mouth, from village to village, from province to 
 province, from ruler to ruler, from prince to prince, from 
 beggar to beggar, until we can contemplate the possibility of 
 an epidemic of ill-will extending over a fourth part of the whole 
 human race." After these witnesses I shall hardly be accused 
 of prejudice in making the same assertions. I will add, how- 
 ever, one weighty piece of of&eial testimony recently given on 
 this characteristic of contemporary China. In his review of 
 the volume of Customs Eeports for last year the British 
 Minister to China forwards, and therefore approves, a report 
 written by one of his subordinates which concludes with these 
 striking words : "I hardly venture to make any comments of my 
 own upon the pages which I have reviewed ; but in one word I 
 consider that the conclusion of the whole matter inevitably is 
 that the trade conducted by foreigners in China has made but 
 little progress during the ten years 1882-91 ; that it does not 
 promise any immediate or considerable advance; and that 
 foreign interests and influence therein have decreased and 
 deteriorated to an appreciable extent." * 
 
 The character of Chinese officialdom is probably more familiar 
 to European readers than the diverse characteristics of the 
 Chinese people, and therefore less need be said about it. 
 Every Chinese of&cial, with the possible exception of one in 
 a thousand, is a liar, a thief, and a tyrant. This may be 
 doubted in Europe, but it is recognised as an almost inevitable 
 fact by every Chinaman, and volumes could easily be filled 
 with examples of it. It is well known, for instance, that the 
 larger part of the sums subscribed in England on one occasion 
 for the relief of the famine districts in China found its way into- 
 
 * Mr. Beaucleik's report upon the volume of "Decennial Eeports," 1882-91, 
 publislied by the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, forwarded to the Foreign 
 Office by Mr. O'Conor, H.B.M. Minister to China. P. 0., 1894, Misc. Series, 
 No. 330, p. 38. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA. 283 
 
 the pockets of the army of Chinese officials. I learned of one 
 instance of this which would be vastly amusing if it were 
 concerned with a less painful subject. Some time ago the 
 turbulent Chinese of Canton attacked the foreign settlement 
 of Shameen and plundered and destroyed the houses of the 
 resident foreigners. For this the Chinese Government was, of 
 course, compelled to pay an indemnity. At the time, however, 
 the London Mansion House Famine Belief Fund had oppor- 
 tunely been collected and forwarded to China, and this sum 
 was in large part devoted to paying the Shameen indemnity ! 
 One of my illustrations, by-the-way, shows instructively the 
 conditions upon which foreigners reside in safety in certain 
 parts of China. Shameen is separated by a species of moat 
 from the native city of Canton, and access to it can only be had 
 across a bridge which is barred by iron gates and held by a 
 posse of Chinese soldiers. My two friends who were good 
 enough to stand before my camera on this bridge, with the 
 Chinese soldiers by their side and the Cantonese mob held back, 
 like wild beasts, behind the bars, furnish a typical example of 
 the relations of Chinese and foreigners at the present day. But 
 to return to the subject of Chinese officialdom. One relief fund 
 was so carefully safeguarded by Europeans that the officials 
 were thwarted in their efforts to obtain it, and the Administrator 
 (Mr. Bruce) wrote : " In a country where corruption and bribery 
 are indispensable in all business — where in the case of dis- 
 tributing charity it is a large proportion for one-third of the 
 original contributions to reach those for whom they are designed 
 — the practically complete absence of ' squeezing ' in this relief, 
 would seem to the natives to be a marvel." By order of the 
 Emperor certain districts stricken by famine were to be 
 exempted from taxation, and proclamations announcing this 
 were to be posted up. An Imperial decree, however, published 
 some time afterwards, declares the Emperor's abhorrence of 
 what he had learned of the way his orders had been carried out, 
 since " the lists of the districts for which exemption from the 
 
284 CHINA. 
 
 tax is claimed are too often falsified, and what is worse, the 
 officials take care not to post the Imperial proclamation until 
 they have collected the tax in full. The revenue is lost to the 
 state and goes- into the pockets of the hangers-on about the 
 yamens." To the common people, adds the Hongkong Daily 
 Press, from which I take the above, " lekin stations are 
 ' squeeze stations ' pure and simple, and yamens are places to 
 be avoided by every possible means. That the mandarins 
 should practise extortion is looked upon as quite a natural 
 circumstance, quite as natural, in fact, as that the people 
 should evade payment of legal dues when opportunity offers. 
 On both sides common honesty is held in more or less con- 
 tempt, and a man who does not take advantage of his oppor- 
 tunities is regarded as a fool." As a matter of fact, in spite 
 of the Emperor's pious indignation, it was a common occurrence 
 for the tax-gatherer to follow the distributor of relief and seize 
 upon the money as soon as it had been given. The subscriptions 
 to relieve the starving Chinese were, unfortunately, but another 
 example of mistaken foreign benevolence. From three of the 
 distressed provinces grain was actually being exported while 
 foreign relief was being given, and the foreigners' money merely 
 caused the return of thousands of natives to a district wholly 
 incapable of supporting them. The Eev. Mr. Candlin wrote that 
 there was room for the refugees in other districts, where they 
 could always get food and generally work, while they were 
 worse than useless when they returned and hung about the 
 famine region, subsisting on the missionaries' doles. Mr. 
 Consul Allen, in a report written a few years ago, gave some 
 striking instances of the failure of promising Chinese com- 
 mercial undertakings, simply because of their connection with 
 officials. Eeferring to the China Merchants' Steam Navigation 
 Company, he says : " This is a powerful organisation enough, 
 with a large fleet of river and sea-going steamers, and it might 
 be supposed that the China Merchants' Company was a most 
 flourishing concern. No doubt it is, but its connection with 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA. 285 
 
 the Government is felt by the trading class to be an effectual 
 bar to its ever becoming the lucrative association that an un- 
 hampered and free trading company could be, and its scrip 
 shows this." A Chinese company was started to develop the 
 mines of Yiinnan, and the prospectus declared that the enter- 
 prise promised fabulous riches. An official of high rank was 
 to be placed in charge of the operations, and shareholders were 
 promised a minimum dividend of 6 per cent., with various 
 bonuses. But, says Mr. Allen, " the shares in the company 
 are not eagerly taken up. The Chinese distrust all official 
 connection with mercantile enterprise, alleging that all the 
 profits earned go into the pockets of the mandarins, while the 
 man who has no claims to official rank is left out in the cold. 
 Europeans, of course, will not touch such a speculation. The 
 risk is altogether too great." 
 
 The Hupao, a vernacular Chinese newspaper in which there 
 is often much frank information about China, mingled with 
 superstition and ignorance, reproduced once a proclamation 
 from the Provincial Treasurer of Kwangtung, in which he said 
 that the priest in charge of the Temple at Canton pays as much 
 as from 7,000 taels to 10,000 taels for the post, recouping him- 
 self afterwards for his original outlay by all manner of extortions 
 from the worshippers. Thus they are not allowed to bring in 
 their incense-sticks or candles, but must buy these from the 
 priest inside at ten times their value. They must also pay an 
 exorbitant hire for space on the mats on which they perform their 
 prostrations ; and women are persuaded by the priest that a 
 night's sleep on the mats in the temple, for which they pay a 
 heavy hotel bill to the priest, will ensure them male progeny. 
 An amusing light is thrown upon Chinese ideas by a story told 
 me of Sir Harry Parkes. He once arrested several mandarins, 
 and kept them for a fortnight. All their friends were allowed 
 access to them, but they were not permitted to leave the house. 
 After a few days he sent to inquire how they were getting on. 
 " We cannot sleep at night," they said, " for the dreadful heavy 
 
286 CHINA. 
 
 tread of the sentry round the Yamen. Our own watchmen come 
 and clap, and then they go to sleep ; and we have waited night 
 after night for yours to do the same, that we might get away. 
 But he never stops ! " So the sentry was told to stand still. A 
 foreign mining engineer in charge of important Chinese mines, 
 told me that he had eighty soldiers under him armed at first 
 with percussion-cap guns, and afterwards with sniders. On one 
 occasion he placed an armed sentry by the boiler to prevent 
 the miners drying dynamite upon it, which they were constantly 
 trying to do. The sentry went to sleep on the boiler ; a boy 
 brought a box of dynamite and placed it there ; it exploded and 
 blew up the whole place, including the sentry. Occasionally his 
 soldiers were all allowed to drill, when the ofiScers sat in their 
 quarters half a mile away, with their red flags in front of them, 
 and looked on. This expert foreigner — he was not an English- 
 man — added : " If you could take away from the English 
 artisan his present character, and substitute for it the Chinese 
 character, in six months English industries would be at a stand- 
 still, and in ten years the accumulated wealth of England would 
 have disappeared." A correspondent of the Times recently told 
 a capital and thoroughly characteristic story of Chinese official- 
 dom, to the effect that about ten years ago some of our politicals 
 had a meeting on the Sikkim frontier with some of the oiScials 
 from Thibet. In the course of conversation some reference was 
 made to our last war with China, ending in the occupation of 
 Peking and the destruction of the Summer Palace. " Yes," said 
 the Thibetan officials, laughing, " we know you said you went 
 there, and we read with much amusement your gazettes giving 
 your account of it all. They were very cleverly written, and we 
 daresay deceived your own subjects into a belief that you actually 
 went to Peking. We often do the same thing." 
 
 The most illuminating of my examples, however, of the natural 
 mind of the official Chinaman came from my own personal 
 experience. When in Peking I visited the Tungwen College, an 
 institution where Chinese students are instructed in foreign 
 
:j:hh people of china. 287 
 
 languages, literature, and science, by foreign masters, a small 
 monthly allowance being given them by the Chinese Government 
 for regular attendance. I was shown a class of young Chinese 
 engaged in writing essays in French upon the subject of " Pro- 
 tection and Free Trade." As a specimen of their work, the 
 composition of one named Tok-kun was taken from his desk and 
 handed to me. It was wholly an original production, and I venture 
 to think that the following passage, which I copied exactly, throws a 
 vivid light upon the point of view of the would-be Chinese official 
 after a number of years of foreign teaching : "Ce qu'il y a de 
 mauvais et de terrible a I'Etranger, c'est que le peuple forme des 
 partis qui se melent de politique, je suis enchante de I'ignorance 
 des affaires d'Etat des Chinois, qui, s'ils s'y entendaient seraient 
 certainement libre echangistes, ear nous achetons beaucoup plus 
 que nous ne vendons. Notre Gouvernement, profitant de eette 
 ignorance du peuple, peut augmenter les droits de douane a sa 
 fantaisie, cela ne fait aucun tort aux commer9ants, mais beau- 
 coup aux acheteurs, qui ne comprennent pourquoi. Les mar- 
 chandises venant de I'Etranger, augmentent de prix tous les 
 jours, et ne cherchent pas du tout a comprendre pourquoi. lis 
 paient sans se plaindre du Gouvernement, c'est heureux pour la 
 Chine." 
 
 Dirt, falsehood, corruption, and cruelty are some of the least 
 objectionable of Chinese vices. Of the last-named I have drawn 
 a moderate picture in a previous chapter, but the following 
 description of what the Abbe Hue saw when travelling once in 
 the Interior may be added : — " Le chariot avan9a, et nous vimes, 
 en frissonnant d'horreur, une cinquantaine de cages, grossiere- 
 ment fabriquees avec des barreaux de bambou et renfermant des 
 tetes humaines. Presque toutes etaient en putrefaction et 
 faisaient des grimaces affreuses. Plusieurs cages s'etant dis- 
 loquees et disjointes, quelques tetes pendaient accrochees aux 
 barreaux par la barbe ou les cheveux, d'autres etaient tombees a 
 terre, et on les voyait encore au pied des arbres. Nos yeux ne 
 purent soutenir longtemps ce hideux et degofiltant spectacle." 
 
288 CHINA. 
 
 The Taotai of Ningpo recently issued a proclamation to agri- 
 culturists which contained the following admirable sentiments ; — 
 " Frogs are produced in the middle of your fields ; although they 
 are little things they are little human beings in form. They 
 cherish a life-long attachment to their native soil, and at night 
 they melodiously sing in concert with clear voices. Moreover 
 they protect your crops by eating locusts, thus deserving the 
 gratitude of the people. Why go after dark with lanterns, 
 scheming to capture the harmless and useful things ? Although 
 they may be nice flavouring for your rice, it is heartless to flay 
 them. Henceforward it is forbidden to buy or sell them, and 
 those who do so will be severely punished." The cruelty of the 
 Chinese to animals is indescribably great ; hence the necessity 
 for the inculcation of such sentiments. A friend with whom I 
 rode a good deal in Peking told me that one day, hearing screams 
 of laughter from his stable, he went to investigate. There he 
 discovered that his groom and " boy ' had caught a big rat, 
 nailed its front paws to a board, soaked it in kerosine, set fire to 
 it, and were enjoying the spectacle. But this is not so bad as 
 one of the tricks of the professional kidnapper, who will catch a 
 child in the street, carry it off to another town, blind it, and then 
 sell it for a professional beggar. Their cruelty, moreover, is 
 by no means confined to foreigners and dumb animals : theyare^ 
 cruel under almost all circumstances. A steam launch, built at' 
 Hongkong, blew up on her trial trip, and amongst others the 
 wife of the editor of a Hongkong paper was thrown into the 
 ^\ater. Some Chinese in a sampan paddled up, and positively 
 refused to take her on board until she had promised them 
 fifty dollars. Another member of the same party had to pro- 
 mise five hundred dollars before a boatman would undertake to 
 convey several of the survivors to Hongkong. An eye-witness 
 related to me how a junk upset o& Macao, and the seven men of 
 its crew were all drowned, though there were a dozen Chinese 
 boats round them. While I was in Hongkong a Chinaman 
 was terribly injured in an accident at Kowloon. His fellow- 
 
A Chinese Lahy's Foot. 
 
 TriK Protectidx of F(HiEifiSEKs, Caxton. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA. 2&9 
 
 ■workmen simply laid him in. the gutter, and afterwards even 
 refused to carry him to a steam launch sent to take him to the 
 hospital. At one of the " dragon races " in the Canton Eiver, 
 150 men were upset out of two of the long canoes, amidst a 
 thousand other people afloat, and every one of them was 
 drowned. One of the latest papers from China tells how a boat, 
 paddled by two men, carrying rice from Shanghai to Pootiing, 
 capsized in the midst of a number of fishing-boats. The fisher- 
 men immediately seized upon the rice and property belonging 
 to the capsized boat, but took not the slightest notice of the 
 drowning men, whose bodies had so far not been found. 
 
 Foot-binding, which is practised in most of the provinces of 
 China, and of which one of my illustrations shows the results, is 
 a suf&cient example of widespread cruelty ; but the practice of 
 infanticide is infinitely worse. Attempts have been made to 
 deny the existence of this practice to any large extent, but proofs 
 could be adduced by the thousand. One of the most thoughtful and 
 instructive newspapers ever issued in China was the Chinese Times 
 of Tientsin, conducted by Mr. Alexander Michie, who possessed 
 a remarkable knowledge of Chinese life and a profound acquaint- 
 ance with the Chinese mind. This paper, unfortunately, came 
 to an end for want of foreign support a few years ago. In its 
 columns I found the following account of infanticide in the 
 promnce of Shansi. One man, who had been in the employ of a 
 foreigner for two years and had received good wages, put his 
 little girl to death because, as he said, he could not afford to feed 
 her. A woman, without solicitation, told one of the foreign 
 ladies that she had killed five children in order to go out as a 
 nurse, and that her husband compelled her to do it. " Yes, it 
 was a great sin," she said, " but I could not help it." A man, 
 who passes for a gentleman, volunteered the information that 
 he had allowed two of his girls to die for want of care. " Only 
 a small matter. We just wrapped them up in bed-clothes and 
 very soon they were gone. I am a poor man ; girls are a great 
 expense and earn no money, and as we already had two we con- 
 
 20 
 
290 CHINA. 
 
 eluded we could not keep any more." The testimony of a 
 Chinese teacher is as follows : — " Infanticide is very common 
 among the poor, and even people in pretty easy circumstances. 
 There is hardly a family where at least one child has not been 
 destroyed, and in some families four or five are disposed of. 
 Nothing can be done. As soon as the little ones are born they 
 are laid aside and left to perish. Girls are more often destroyed, 
 but boys also are very often killed. The officials know it, but say 
 it is something they cannot control." Another man, who 
 is now a member of the Christian Church, says that in his 
 vUlage there is hardly a family that has not destroyed two or 
 three children. And once more, " a woman said that ' it was 
 very common for poor people to go into rich families as wet- 
 nurses because they received good wages, and in fact they often 
 destroyed their babies that they might do so.' Such a state of 
 things is terrible in the extreme, and the worst feature about it 
 is that there seems to be no public or individual conscience 
 against it : even well-informed and otherwise respectable people 
 look upon it as a matter of course." A lady contributor to the 
 North China Daily News furnished the following statistics : — " I 
 find that 160 Chinese women, all over fifty years of age, had 
 borne 631 sons, and 538 daughters. Of the sons, 366, or nearly 
 60 per cent., had lived more than ten years ; while of the 
 daughters only 205, or 38 per cent., had lived ten years. The 
 160 women, according to their own statements, had destroyed 
 158 of their daughters ; but none had ever destroyed a boy. As 
 only four women had reared more than three girls, the proba- 
 bility is that the number of infanticides confessed to is con- 
 siderably below the truth. I have occasionally been told by a 
 woman that she had forgotten just how many girls she had had, 
 more than she wanted. The greatest number of infanticides 
 owned to by any one woman is eleven." Wife-selling and 
 child-selling are also common, and during the last famine a 
 party of beggars were actually observed in the streets of Tientsin 
 with baskets, loudly crying, Mai nil — " Girls for sale ! " in one 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA. 291 
 
 of the baskets being four baby girls with pinched faces and 
 wizened limbs. 
 
 The subject of Chinese medicine reflects the Chinese mind in 
 a very instructive manner, but it is too large to be dealt with 
 here. I will only say that when Sir Eobert Hart recently 
 instructed the Customs officials to prepare lists of the substances 
 used in Chinese medicine, amongst the 1,575 entries appeared 
 dried toads, toadspittle cake, dried snakes, liquid manure pre- 
 served for years, and various other preparations of human excre- 
 ment, the genitals of different animals, deer foetus, the human 
 placenta, centipedes, and the dung of different animals. Dr. 
 Mackay of Tamsui, in Formosa, recently prepared a catalogue 
 of Chinese prescriptions which had come under his notice, and 
 he points out that the most repulsive and disgusting "medi- 
 cines " are given to the unfortunate children. Among the 
 remedies prescribed for diseases of children are the following : — 
 For cough, bat's dung — name given in drug-shop, " night clear 
 thread." For worms and yellowish face, grubs from filth 
 washed and dried — name in drug-shop " grain sprouts." Also 
 rabbit's dung, called "the worm-killer." For thrush, cock- 
 roach's dung — name in drug-shop "worm pearls." For bad 
 stomach, earth-worms swallowed alive after being rolled in 
 honey. Fever, dog's dung-prepared — the dog being first fed 
 on rice. Eruptions, boil on upper lip, fowl's dung. If a child 
 is frightened from any cause, prepared centipedes are given. Dr. 
 Mackay adds that "for different diseases there are a number 
 of worthless and filthy preparations, some of them scarcely 
 mentionable." Some of the medicines prescribed for adults are 
 not much better. Thus a man suffering from enlarged spleen 
 would be ordered to take " grass of deer's stomach dried and 
 cut in slices, skins of silkworms, lining of hen's gizzard, salted 
 scorpions " ; while another seized with colic might be asked to 
 swallow a preparation made from horse-manure or, as an alter- 
 native, sow's excrement. I once procured from a Chinese drug- 
 shop a typical prescription, consisting of about thirty different 
 
29'2 CHINA. 
 
 drugs mixed together to be taken as a dose, and the Protector 
 of Chinese in Hongkong asked a Chinese physician, who had 
 been educated in Europe, to translate it for me. He returned it, 
 however, with most of the ingredients marked, " Substance 
 unknown." 
 
 The greatest obstacle of all to any improvement of the 
 masses of China is their profoundly ingrained superstition ; this 
 is common alike to officials and people, to the educated and the 
 ignorant. The Viceroy of Nankin, Liu Kun-yi, recently declared 
 that he had suddenly recovered his health in consequence of a 
 vow to pay for ten days' theatricals to be performed on a stage 
 before the shrine of Prince Siang-ting, a deified prince of the 
 seventh century. When the Viceroy Chang's new iron-works 
 were opened at Wuchang, the Chief Commissioner went through 
 a ceremony of sacrificial worship before the various workshops, 
 to ward off any evil influences. There is a wind- and water- 
 compelling dragon known as Ta Wang, and he has a temple 
 behind the Viceroy's yamen at Tientsin called the Ta Wang- 
 miao. When a boat conveying a prefect and his family was 
 nearly overwhelmed by a sudden storm, it was evident that the 
 boatman with his long pole had inadvertently disturbed Ta Wang. 
 On search being made a small snake was discovered near the 
 railway bridge, and prostrations and apologies were at once 
 made before it, and it was conveyed with great solemnity to the 
 temple aforesaid. This occurred on August 11, 1890. It might 
 be thought that intimacy with foreigners would destroy such 
 beliefs; this, however, is far from being the case. The 
 Chinaman born and bred in Hongkong or Singapore is every 
 bit as superstitious as the Chinaman of the mainland. As an 
 example of this I may tell the following story. One of the 
 oldest inhabitants and most intelligent Chinamen in Hongkong 
 had set his heart upon having two houses in a certain terrace to 
 live in. At last his chance came and he bought them. Then 
 he went to his lawyer and exclaimed in delight : " I would have 
 given three times the sum for them ! " " But why, there are 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA. 293 
 
 plenty of Ijetter houses?" "Don't you know that house 
 has the best feng-shui of all Hongkong ! " Feng-shui means 
 literally " wind and water," and refers to the geomantic 
 or occult topographical influences. Even birth and half a 
 lifetime under the British flag is not enough to eradicate the 
 gross beliefs of the Chinaman. For instance, when an extensive 
 reclamation of land at Singapore was begun by the Government, 
 a colonial official had occasion one night to send his head- 
 servant — a British subject and an old resident in the colony — 
 on an errand into the town. He refused point-blank, and when 
 asked his reason explained that no Chinaman would go down 
 town at night for the next three nights because, as the Govern- 
 ment were beginning their reclamation, they wanted a hundred 
 Chinese heads to put at the bottom, and were on the look-out to 
 catch Chinamen down-town and take their heads. During the 
 recent plague at Hongkong placards were posted all over the 
 city of Canton warning the people not to go to Hongkong, since 
 their wives and children would run the risk of being chopped up 
 by foreign doctors to make medicine out of their bones and 
 eyes. This plague has had the effect of exhibiting the views of 
 the Chinese mind with regard to foreigners and their ways 
 perhaps more clearly than has ever occurred before. Mr. 
 Sydney B. J. Skertchly, late of H. M. Geological Survey, has 
 borne very remarkable testimony to this, and his words deserve 
 the widest circulation and the closest attention. He says : — 
 
 " The sad fact has to be faced that some 200,000 Chinese are living voluntarily 
 among us for the sake of the facilities the colony offers, and that they hate us, 
 despise us, and fear us at the same time. Fifty years of British rule has taught 
 them that we protect their lives and property belter than their own countrymen, 
 that wages and profits are better among us than in China proper, that we do not 
 squeeze them, that our officials are not corrupt. In fine, that Hongkong is a 
 temporary paradise where they are allowed to live as they like, to follow all their 
 own customs, and where dollars are almost as easily earned as cash at home. They 
 know, too, that we will educate them gratis, so that they can earn the high wages 
 of the European clerk, and above all that when the loved dollar is netted no hungry 
 mandarin will clamour for bis share. 
 
 " In spite of all this they hate us and fear us. They acknowledge our skill as 
 mechanics, they see our medical men and women daily minister to their wants 
 
294 CHINA. 
 
 unselfishly ; but they dread the doctor more than the plague. They are firmly 
 convinced that we destroy pregnant women, and cut out children's eyes to make our 
 medicines, and they are taught this by their so-called educated classes. The 
 Chinese mind is steeped in the most soul-destroying superstition. The dread /em^ 
 shui, the spirits of their ancestors, the myriads of demons that throng the air, are 
 to them active principles, and as virulent as they are active. They know every 
 European can cast spells over them, can, with an outward show of benefit, destroy 
 their health, and they are sure we have deliberately caused this plague, for they see 
 it passes the European by and slays the Chinaman. No African savage is more 
 ground down by fetish than is the Chinaman by his superstitions. The way we 
 designed this plague is to the Chinaman proof of our diabolic powers; we made a 
 tramway up to the Peak ! This interfered with ihefSng shui by stopping the flow 
 of benign influences from the south and causing the evil influences to stagnate in 
 the island. Is not this proof positive ? Were not the Chinese warned of the coming 
 evil ? Was not the sun eclipsed ? Did not the bamboo flower this year ? Is it not 
 an established fact that all Englishmen can see the hidden treasures in the earth ? 
 Not one in a thousand has any doubts on these subjects. . . . Then we woke up 
 and cleared out the filth, disclosing scenes of horror that no pen can describe. We 
 pulled down the partitions in the rooms, we removed the people from the stricken 
 haunts, we started hospitals, we nursed the sick, we buried the dead. 
 
 " And how did the Chinamen take it all ? The answer is visible as I write, in the 
 gunboat anchored off the China town, for they threatened to fire the city. They 
 posted placards ascribing untellable atrocities to the doctors ; they hid their sick 
 from us ; they refused to go to our hospitals, they threatened to poison the water 
 supply. The viceroy of the province allowed Canton to be placarded with atrocious 
 libels and threats against the European settlement, and he has stated to the 
 governor of Hongkong that he will not guarantee the safety of the foreigners living 
 in the country, though they have a right, under treaty, to be there. They nearly 
 killed a lady doctor last week, who was attending to a sick coolie." * 
 
 Finally, the most important because the most fundamental 
 fact to remember about the Chinese mind, is that theory and 
 practice bear no relation whatever to each other. Chinese- 
 literature inculcates all the virtues : Chinese life exhibits all the 
 vices. Chinese professions — and this is the point where foreign 
 diplomatists have so often gone astray — are everything that is 
 desirable : Chinese practices are everything that is most con- 
 venient. " The life and state papers of a Chinese statesman," 
 wrote Mr. George Wingrove Cooke, "like the Confessions of 
 Eousseau, abound in the finest sentiments and the foulest deeds. 
 He cuts off ten thousand heads, and cites a passage from Mencius 
 about the sanctity of human life. He pockets the money given 
 him to repair an embankment, and thus inundates a province ; 
 
 • The Times. Letter to the Editor. August 26, 1894. 
 
THE PEOPLE OP CHINA. 295 
 
 and he deplores the land lost to the cultivator of the soil. He 
 makes a treaty which he secretly declares to be only a deception 
 for the moment, and he exclaims against the crime of perjury." 
 One of the chief living authorities upon China has just declared 
 the same truth, in these words : — " There is no country in the 
 world where practice and profession are more widely separated 
 than in China. The empire is pre-eminently one of make- 
 believe. From the emperor to the meanest of his subjects 
 a system of high-sounding pretension to lofty principles of 
 morality holds sway ; while the life of the nation is in direct 
 contradiction to these assumptions. No imperial edict is com- 
 plete, and no official proclamation finds currency, without pro- 
 testations in favour of all the virtues. And yet few courts are 
 more devoid of truth and uprightness, and no magistracy is 
 more corrupt, than those of the celestial empire." * This con- 
 trast was never more picturesquely shown than when the 
 Emperor of China made his periodical procession with the 
 sacred records. Here were documents of so sacred a character 
 that hundreds of miles of roads were repaired for their passage ; 
 carried in shrines of Imperial yellow silk; escorted by high 
 officials; preceded by the music of the Imperial band; and 
 despatched on their journey by the Emperor in person — and yet 
 the coolies who carried them actually jerked open the hangings 
 of the shrines and threw in their indescribably filthy and 
 vermin-haunted overcoats to be borne in state side by side with 
 the boxes containing the precious records. t 
 
 My object in this chapter has been a simple one. I have at- 
 tempted no complete analysis of any aspect of the Chinese 
 character. Upon the virtues of the Chinese I have not even 
 touched. But by describing a few of their views and vices I 
 
 * Professor Robert K. Douglas, " Society in China," London, 1894, p. iii. 
 Professor Douglas's book tells the truth about China in so indisputable and enter- 
 taining a manner, and he speaks with so much authority, that there is very little 
 left for any one else, especially a much more superficial inquirer like myself, to say. 
 I have omitted from this volume much of my material about China and my experi- 
 ences there, simply because Professor Douglas's work appeared a few months ago 
 and has covered the ground finally. t Chinese Times, October 27, 1888. 
 
296 CHINA. 
 
 have sought, first, to show how little likelihood there is of the 
 reform of China coming, as Gordon believed it would ultimately 
 come, from the inside ; and second, to make it clear that what- 
 ever change comes upon China from the outside, in consequence 
 of recent events and the relations of foreign nations to one 
 another, cannot be otherwise than a blessing to the Chinese 
 people themselves. 
 
CHAPTEB XX. 
 
 TEE FUTUBE OF CHINA. 
 
 rpHEEE is one building in Peking which every foreign visitor 
 should be careful to see, not because it is in any sense a 
 " sight," but because when its history and significance are under- 
 stood it affords a great object-lesson on the relations of Chinese 
 and foreigners. It is also necessarily the focus of any discussion 
 of the future of China. This is the Tsungli Yamen, the " Board 
 of Foreign Affairs" for the Chinese Empire. My illustration 
 shows its external appearance, and thereby hangs an instructive 
 little tale. I desired permission to visit it and photograph it, 
 and the Marquis Tseng courteously endeavoured to procure this 
 for me. This distinguished official, however, who was regarded 
 by all Europe as one of the chief influences in modern China, 
 who had negociated with half the Governments of Europe, who 
 had set the world agog by a magazine article, and whose return 
 to China was confidently expected to inaugurate a new era of 
 sympathy with foreigners, was so destitute of authority in the 
 capital of bis own country and lay under so profound a suspicion 
 of being permeated with the views of the " foreign devils," that 
 he was actually unable to procure this small favour for me, and 
 admitted the fact to me with his apologies. A friend thereupon 
 applied on my behalf directly to Prince Ching, the En^peror's 
 uncle and President of the Tsungli Yamen, who instantly granted 
 the permission and ordered several of the secretaries to make an 
 appointment with me there. The buildings of the Tsungli 
 Yamen are not of a very imposing character, but they are supe- 
 
 297 
 
298 CHINA. 
 
 rior to most Chinese public buildings in this respect, that they 
 are in good repair. They consist of an external hall and a series 
 of reception-rooms, leading finally to a small and trim Chinese 
 garden. What they lack in appearance, however, is more than 
 made up by the magnificence of the moral sentiments placarded 
 upon them. The room in which I was received, and which 
 serves, I was informed, as a reception-room for the Ministers of 
 the foreign Powers, was a comparatively small one, containing 
 a round table with a polished top, and a number of heavy black 
 Chinese chairs. On one side of it were hung three scrolls, con- 
 taining each a number of Chinese ideographs. The first of 
 these reads, " When the tea is half [made] the fragrance 
 arises." This I do not profess to interpret. Perhaps it is 
 intended as an encouragement to persevere in the tortuous 
 and interminable paths of Chinese diplomacy. The second 
 declares, " To study is indeed excellent." The third, appearing 
 where it does, can only be regarded in a humorous light. The 
 most treacherous, untrustworthy, and unscrupulous set of 
 diplomatists of modern times, of whom the united Ministers of 
 foreign countries accredited to China have solemnly declared 
 that no faith can be placed upon their assurances, meet their 
 European colleagues beneath an inscription which reads, Wei 
 shan tsui loh — " To do good is the highest pleasure ! " In the 
 large reception-room is the inscription, " May Heaven and Earth 
 enjoy great peace " ; while the inscription over the principal 
 doorway, which is shown in my photograph and reproduced on 
 the cover of this volume, is formed of the characters, Chwng 
 wai ti fu — literally " Centre, outside, peace, happiness " — China 
 being the centre and the rest of the world the outside. The 
 inscription thus means, " May China and foreign countries alike 
 enjoy peace and happiness," an admirable sentiment, and one 
 which the Tsungli Tamen has persistently done its best to 
 falsify. 
 
 The future of China depends upon the relations of China and 
 foreign countries — that is all that can be said of it with certainty. 
 
^ 
 
 3 
 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 299 
 
 A discussion of its future therefore amounts to a discussion of 
 the history and prospects of its foreign relations. The Tsungli 
 Yamen, as I have said, is at the focus of these. It was founded 
 by a remarkable man. Prince Kung, in 1861, after the war with 
 China had come to a close and the Treaty of Tientsin was signed 
 at the Board of Eites on October 25th, 1860, by Lord Elgin. By 
 this treaty, foreign representatives were received at Peking, 
 large indemnities were paid, the Eoman Catholics were com- 
 pensated for the destruction of their buildings, Chinese emigra- 
 tion was sanctioned, and Kowloon was added to Hongkong. A 
 new era in the relations of the " centre " and the " outside " 
 was thus inaugurated, and some new point of contact became 
 essential. To meet this demand Prince Kung founded the 
 Tsungli Yamen, and remained at its head until 1884, when, 
 after rendering very great services to China, and showing him- 
 self to be a man of great sense and power, he was suddenly 
 disgraced for the second time, and deprived of all his offices. 
 He was succeeded by Prince Ching, who died during the present 
 year, when to the surprise of every one. Prince Kung, after ten 
 years of degradation and inactivity, was again appointed by the 
 same decree President of the Tsungli Yamen, President of the 
 Admiralty, and co-director with Li Hung-chang of the operations 
 of war. The Tsungli Yamen consists of the President, eight 
 Ministers, six Chief Secretaries, two Assistant Secretaries, and 
 thirty clerks of Department apportioned as follows: — English 
 Department six, French Department seven, Eussian Department 
 six, United States Department seven, Maritime Defence Depart- 
 ment four ; and six superintendents of current business and the 
 Manchu Eegistry Department. To " Their Excellencies His 
 Imperial Highness the Prince of Kung and the Ministers of the 
 Tsungli Yamen" are addressed all communications from the 
 foreign Ministers at the Court of China, and from it all Chinese 
 representatives abroad receive their appointments and instruc- 
 tions. Theoretically the arrangement is an admirable one ; 
 practically, it has been an almost uninterrupted failure. If the 
 
300 CHINA. 
 
 Chinese Ministers desired to promote foreign relations, the 
 organisation of the Tsungli Yamen would be perfectly suited to 
 their wish ; as a matter of fact, they desire to obstruct foreign 
 relations and have moulded their institution accordingly. In the 
 first place, the Tsungli Yamen, while theoretically possessing 
 supreme political authority, has not possessed it practically. 
 The Emperor, and still more the Empress, have demanded a 
 considerable share of personal influence upon current politics, 
 and Li Hung-chang has always been the avowed rival of the 
 Tsungli Yamen, and with him most foreign arrangements have 
 been ultimately concluded. In the second place, the Tsungli 
 Yamen has never insisted upon its own authority for the defence 
 of foreign rights. Margary was treacherously murdered while 
 travelling with a special safe-conduct issued by this Board, and 
 beyond the money indemnity to his relatives, no punishment 
 was ever dealt out to his murderers. Missionaries have been 
 murdered on many occasions, in spite of the assurance of the 
 Tsungli Yamen that the strictest orders for their protection had 
 been issued. Chow Han, the well-known author of the vile 
 anti-foreign placards, is still unpunished. Eights assigned by 
 treaty have been deliberately suffocated under years of diplomatic 
 correspondence. In fact, so obstructive have the Ministers of 
 the Tsungli Yamen become of late that the foreign representa- 
 tives regard it as a mere waste of time to enter upon the 
 discussion of any point with regard to which they are not pre- 
 pared to insist upon an immediate settlement, by force of arms 
 if need be. Any Minister or Secretary of Legation who goes to 
 the Yamen is deliberately wearied out by needless talking, 
 ceaselessly recurring trivialities, an incredible fertility of puerile 
 argument — one of the reasons solemnly given for delaying the 
 treaty right of navigation of the Upper Yangtze was that the 
 monkeys on the banks were so mischievous that they would 
 throw stones on the deck of the steamers, and thus kill the 
 foreigners ; and finally, by grudying promises made only to be 
 broken. Sir Hany Parkes declared that to get any definite 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 301 
 
 answer from the Tsungli Yamen was " like trying to draw water 
 from a well, with a bottomless bucket." Whatever the Tsungli 
 Yamen may have been created to do, it has served only to head 
 off foreigners and postpone the satisfaction of their legitimate 
 demands. It is to-day the great stronghold of Chinese pro- 
 crastination. 
 
 Little or nothing, then, has been accomplished by this in- 
 stitution towards bringing China and Europe nearer together. 
 In further support of this opinion, which will no doubt meet with 
 much criticism, I will only refer back to the opinion of the 
 present British Minister to China, as quoted in the preceding 
 chapter, to the effect that foreign influence is not so great to-day 
 as it was a few years ago. To see how small it is, take the 
 recent example of the unprovoked murder of the two Swedish 
 missionaries, Messrs. Wikholm and Johansson, at Sung-pu. 
 In response to much pressure the Chinese promised to punish 
 not only the murderers, but the officials and the Viceroy himself, 
 all of whom were clearly among the instigators of the crime. 
 The Swedi^ Consul foolishly accepted a small money indemnity, 
 against which all his colleagues protested, and appealed to the 
 Ministers of the Powers to make a united demand upon the 
 Imperial Government for the execution of its promise. The 
 Viceroy in question was Chang Chih-tung, whose offences against 
 foreigners are legion. So far from being punished or disgraced 
 in accordance with the undertaking given, Chang Chih-tung has 
 received a series of distinguished honours, culminating with his 
 appointment to the head of the scheme of Army reform. Except 
 under direct pressure, or in an extremity of fear, the Chinese 
 Government has never done anything to punish outrages upon 
 foreigners. The Eev. Mr. Wylie was brutally murdered at 
 Niuchwang by Chinese soldiers at the outbreak of the present 
 war, and as the Chinese authorities naturally feared that any 
 procrastination at that moment might bring the British as well 
 as the Japanese down upon them, they promptly beheaded half- 
 a-dozen privates and disgraced their officers. The same fear of 
 
302 CHINA. 
 
 immediate foreign interference has just caused them to issue the 
 following edict in Peking : — 
 
 China is under obligation to exercise extra precaution for the protection of 
 
 (Christian) churches, missionaries, and other foreigners in the capital. We, as in 
 duty bound, give stringent orders to soldiers and people that they must, as hereto- 
 fore, behave amicably (towards foreigners). Let every one attend to his own 
 business and thus he will not wantonly listen to evil rumours or join in circulating 
 them. Should any dare to disobey orders let them iostantly be seized and sent in 
 chains to this Yamgn, where they will be severely punished, no leniency being 
 shown them. The American Missionary Headland and his wife were insulted and 
 reviled by local roughs outside the Chi-Hua Gate. We have already severely repri- 
 manded the local officials, and the ruffian offender, Wang Tao-erh, has been taken, 
 and, as is right, wiU be severely punished by this YamSn. We further issue this 
 proclamation in the hope that there may be everlasting mutual amity (between 
 natives and foreigners). The local officials and police must honestly search out 
 offenders. 
 
 If our officials had properly insisted, this would have been done, 
 of course, years ago. So, too, the latest rumour is that the 
 Chinese Government is prepared to make foreign nations the 
 concession of opening two more ports to trade. They offer 
 two, of course, under the fear that twenty may be otherwise 
 demanded. 
 
 Now whose fault is this ? The answer is easy. It is entirely 
 due to the supine attitude of foreign Governments with regard 
 to China, which, again, has sprung, so far as this country is 
 concerned, chiefly from the fantastic belief that China might be 
 a valuable ally in Asia and therefore must not be offended. The 
 one representative we have had in Peking who really understood 
 the Chinese and had his way with them, was Sir Harry Parkes. 
 Sir John Walsham introduced for the first time the manners of 
 the great world to the Court of China. With much personal 
 charm and dignity he conducted his diplomatic relations with 
 the Tsungli Yamen as he would have conducted them with the 
 Foreign Offices of Paris, Berlin, or Eome. The result was total 
 failure, unmitigated by the faintest redeeming success. 
 
 The history of the famous so-called "audience question" 
 points the same moral. The first Ambassadors to China were 
 required to perform the Kotow— knocking their heads nine times 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 303 
 
 against the ground in the Imperial presence. Lord Macartney, 
 in 1798, refused to do this, and had an audience of the Emperor 
 Kienlung, at which he merely bent the knee. Lord Amhurst 
 refused to do it in 1816 to the Emperor Kia King, and had no 
 audience. In 1873 the corps of Foreign Ministers refused either 
 to perform the Kotow or to go down on one knee as Lord 
 Macartney had done, and the Chinese Ministers accordingly 
 arranged an interview at a place set apart for the reception of 
 the Ambassadors of " tribute nations " like Korea. The foreign 
 Ministers — to their disgrace be it said — fell into this trap and 
 thus lowered the prestige of all Europeans for a generation. In 
 1891 " all the nations " were again received in the same place. 
 In 1893 the British Minister was received with the same empty 
 form, but in an Imperial temple ; and during the present war 
 he is said to have been received by the Emperor in person, within 
 the enclosure of the Palace itself. It has thus taken a century 
 and the dire extremity of a foreign war to enable a repre- 
 sentative of Great Britain to be received by the Emperor of 
 China as he would be received by any European Sovereign. As 
 Professor Douglas says, " we have humbly implored, to use the 
 Emperor's own words, to be admitted into the Imperial presence, 
 and we have reaped our reward." Chinese representatives of all 
 sorts have been accredited to the Court of St. James. They 
 have often been men of no personal standing in. their own 
 country, but thought good enough to be foisted upon the outer 
 barbarians. We have received them with the most elaborate 
 honours, have accorded them the most formal and distinguished 
 reception, and have even permitted them access, as a matter of 
 right, into the personal presence of the Sovereign. All this 
 time our own representatives have been snubbed, insulted, and 
 deliberately humiliated in China, and have only been admitted 
 into the Emperor's presence by an act of supreme condescension, 
 accorded to them as an opportunity of laying the homage of the 
 barbarians at the feet of the Son of Heaven. It is high time this 
 ignoble farce came to an end. 
 
304 CHINA. 
 
 In any consideration of the relation of Chinese and foreigners, 
 the much-vexed Missionary Question cannot be passed over. I 
 hold very strong opinions about this, but I will express them 
 as briefly and as moderately as I can. I believe it to be strictly 
 within the limits of truth to say that foreign missionary effort 
 in China has been productive of far more harm than good. 
 Instead of serving as a link between Chinese and foreigners, 
 the missionaries have formed a growing obstacle. As travellers 
 in the East well know, Oriental peoples are especially sus- 
 ceptible upon two points, of which their religion is the chief. We 
 have forced the inculcation of an alien and a detested creed 
 upon the Chinese, literally at the point of the bayonet. That 
 very competent observer, Mr. Alexander Michie, whom I have 
 previously quoted, sums up the results of missionary enterprise 
 as having produced for the Chinese Government perpetual 
 foreign coercion ; for the Chinese nation, an incessant ferment 
 of angry passions and a continuous education in ferocity against 
 Christianity ; for the foreign missionaries, pillage and massacre 
 at intervals, followed by pecuniary indemnification — an indefinite 
 struggle with the hatred of a whole nation, compensated by a 
 certain number of genuine converts to their faith.* Of the 
 truth of this, so far as concerns the attitude of the natives 
 toward the missionary, a member of the China Inland Mission 
 has just given striking evidence : — 
 
 The Chi-nan-fu fop, dressed in silks and satins, flipping his sleeves in the face of 
 a respectable foreign visitor met in the street ; the middle-aged scholar, dressed as 
 a gentleman, not thinlsing it beneath him to hiss out " foreign devil " or simply 
 " devil " ; young and old spitting on the ground in bitterness close to the visitor's 
 feet, laughing right in his face, or on passing, turning sharply round and making a 
 most hateful noise at his ear — these are some of the petty annoyances that the 
 literati and gentry practise ; underlings easily carry on the treatment to something 
 more spiteful and serious than this.f 
 
 A careful distinction must be made, however, between Eoman 
 Catholic and Protestant missionaries. The former enjoy, on 
 
 • " Missionaries in China^" by Alexander Michie, 1891, p. 71. 
 f China's Millions, September, 1894. 
 
THE FUTDBE OP CHINA. 305 
 
 the whole, far more consideration from the natives, as well as 
 from foreigners, and the result of their work is beyond question 
 much greater. The Eoman Catholic missionary goes to China 
 once for all ; he adopts native dress, lives on native food, 
 inhabits a native house, supports himself upon the most meagre 
 allowance from home, and is an example of the characteristics 
 which are as essential to the eastern idea of priesthood as to 
 the western — poverty, chastity, and obedience. To borrow the 
 words of Sir W. Hunter, he has " cut himself off from the world 
 by a solemn act." More than that, he meets native super- 
 stitions half-way by amalgamating the worship of ancestors, 
 which is a vital part of every Chinaman's belief, to the 
 worship of the Saints ; and by teaching his native converts a 
 prayer for the Emperor of China, which concludes with the 
 petition, "de Le conserver jusqu'a une heureuse vieillesse, 
 en prolongeant la prosperite de Son Empire, afin que nous 
 puissions plutard. jouir avec Lui de la paix eternelle." He is 
 also subject to one authority, and preaches and practises one 
 doctrine. The two chief grounds of reproach against him are 
 first, that in China as elsewhere he is nearly always a political 
 agent ; and second, that many a dangerous suspicion has been 
 aroused by his habit of paying small sums for dying children, 
 for the purpose of baptising them in articulo mortis. 
 
 To any one who has read my chapter on Manila, I need not 
 explain that I am not prejudiced in favour of the Eoman 
 Catholic propaganda ; yet I should not be honest if I did not add 
 that for the personal character and the work of many a Eoman 
 Catholic missionary whom I have met in China, I have con- 
 ceived a profound respect. The Protestant missionary, on the 
 other hand, in a majority of cases, looks upon his work as a 
 career like another ; he proposes to devote a certain amount 
 of his life to it, and then to return home with the halo of the 
 Christian pioneer ; he has, in most cases, his comfortable house, 
 his wife, his children, his servants and his foreign food, and it is 
 even stated that his stipend increases with each addition to his 
 
 21 
 
306 CHINA. 
 
 family. For his doctrine he is virtually responsihle to nobody but 
 himself. Whatever his own views upon the mysteries of Christi- 
 anity happen to be, those he impresses upon his native hearers as 
 the one and only truth. He is jealous of his Protestant rivals, 
 between whom and himself there is a perpetual warfare of pious 
 intrigue to secure converts. So far as education goes, both men 
 and women among Protestant missionaries are often quite un- 
 fitted even to teach at home, where there would be little danger 
 of serious misunderstanding ; in their present sphere of work 
 they are often not too hardly described by the phrase which has 
 been applied to them — " ignorant declaimers in bad Chinese." 
 " The Protestant missionaries who enjoy the respect of their 
 compatriots," says one writer, " are the exception, not 
 the rule, and owe their reputation more to sinological ac- 
 complishments than to ecclesiastical prestige."* Protestant 
 missionary tracts are distributed bearing coarse illustrations 
 of such Biblical incidents as the swallowing of Jonah by 
 the whale, and the killing of Sisera by JaeL Moreover, up 
 to the present, the Protestant missionaries have circulated the 
 whole Bible in Chinese. They have recently seen their error, 
 and are now considering the advisability of following in the 
 steps of the more circumspect Eoman Catholics, and withholding 
 certain parts obviously unfit for Oriental comprehension. Their 
 failure to do this hitherto has resulted in parodies of the most 
 vital doctrines of orthodox Protestantism being spread all over 
 China, of a brutality so revolting and ferocious as to be beyond 
 all possibility of mention. Again, they reproduce in China all 
 the petty sectarian divisions of their own country. I quote 
 a list of these from a missionary address. There are three 
 branches of the Episcopal Church, nine sects of Presbyterians, 
 six sects of Methodists, two sects of Congregationalists, two sects 
 of Baptists, besides several minor bodies. In Shanghai alone 
 there are seven missions — the London Mission, American 
 Presbyterian, the American Episcopal, the American Episcopal 
 
 • Balfour, " Waife and Strays from the Far East," p. 113. 
 
THE FDTTJEE OF CHINA. 307 
 
 Methodists, the Church Missionary Society, the American 
 Baptists, and the Seventh-Day Baptists. " Here, then," says 
 the Eev. Dr. Williamson, " we have seven sets of foreign 
 missionaries working seven different churches ; seven sermons 
 «very Sunday, seven sets of prayer meetings, seven sets of com- 
 muning services, seven sets of schools, two training agencies, 
 seven sets of buildings, seven sets of expenses, four or five 
 versions of the Bible, and seven different hymn-books at least." 
 In the face of these facts, one is surely justified in saying 
 that we have not yet reached a point of Christian unity which 
 affords us any moral justification for thrusting cur theological 
 views by force of arms upon heathen nations. 
 
 I am well aware, of course, that to some missionaries the 
 world is deeply indebted for its knowledge of the Chinese 
 language and literature ; and that among the Protestant 
 missionaries of the present day there are some men of the 
 highest character and devotion, upon whose careers no criticism 
 can be passed. These, however, are a small minority. The 
 Chinese themselves bracket missionaries and opium together 
 as the twin curses of the country, and although it is true that 
 among Christian converts have been men who have shown under 
 persecution all the characteristics of the early Christian martyrs, 
 it is equally true that the ordinary foreigner carefully avoids 
 the employment of the native Christian in any subordinate 
 capacity, having found by experience that in many cases he has 
 only lost his native virtues to acquire foreign vices in their 
 place. Conversion to Christianity is looked upon by many 
 natives merely as a means of an easier livelihood. A friend 
 of mine asked a Chinese servant whom he had previously 
 known, what he was engaged in doing. He replied : " My 
 have got that Jesus pidgin." He was no more intentionally 
 irreverent in saying this than I am in quoting it ; he merely 
 meant that the profession of Christianity, with its comfortable 
 concomitants, was his new occupation. Mr. Michie declares 
 that were the alliance of the Christian nations with the military 
 
308 CHINA. 
 
 Powers of the West to be brought to an end, a chief root of 
 bitterness would be extracted from the Chinese mind. For my 
 own part, I am convinced that if the subscribers to Chinese 
 missions could only see for themselves the minute results 
 of good and the considerable results of harm that their money 
 produces, they would find in the vast opportunities for refor- 
 matory work at home a more attractive field for their charity. 
 At any rate, in considering the future of China the missionary 
 influence cannot be counted upon for any good. 
 
 The prospects of future reform in China may be estimated 
 from the fate of her railway schemes. In 1876 the first raUway 
 in China was laid by a foreign firm from Shanghai to Wusung, 
 where the notorious bar on the Shanghai Eiver interrupts the 
 traf&c. It was well patronised, paid a dividend at once, and 
 after running sixteen months was purchased by the Chinese 
 authorities, who no sooner came into possession of it than they 
 tore it up and shipped the materials over to Formosa. Under 
 its energetic Governor, Liu Ming-chuan, now Commander-in- 
 chief of the Chinese army, a railway was built in Formosa, and 
 prospered for a time under foreign management ; but the 
 foreigners have almost all been dismissed — from 1886 to 1889 
 there were no fewer than six consulting " chief engineers " in 
 succession in the Governor's service — and the working of the 
 railway is now a farce. Six or seven years ago an Imperial 
 edict was issued, declaring that " to make a country powerful, 
 railways are essential," but the reactionaries at Court succeeded 
 the progressives in their influence upon the Emperor, and a 
 subsequent edict declared that " they must only be built with 
 Chinese money." That is, they must be postponed indefinitely, 
 for the Imperial Government in China is always poverty- 
 stricken, and the wealthy Chinese would not dream of putting 
 their money into a Chinese official scheme. But at this time 
 foreigners were so confident that the era of railway construction 
 in China had at last dawned, and that the consequent opening 
 up of the vast Celestial Empire was about to begin in earnest. 
 
THE FUTUBE OF CHINA. 309 
 
 that long descriptions of the route of the first " Great Western 
 Eailway of China " were published ; the Emperor called for 
 reports from the leading provincial Viceroys ; and the talk was of 
 nothing but railways. The Imperial family, and Liu Ming-chuan, 
 and a few others were strongly in favour of the introduction 
 of railways, and against this powerful combination the conserva- 
 tive officials could not prevail directly. So they cunningly adopted 
 the round-about method of declaring that not only must the 
 railways be built with Chinese money, but that the ore must be 
 mined and smelted, and the rails made, in China, since other- 
 wise foreigners would acquire an influence so great as to be 
 dangerous to the stability of the Throne, and would profit by 
 enormous sums which ought to be spent in China. The result 
 was that nothing whatever was done, and the subject has not 
 been heard of for five years. The original proposals were to 
 build one line from Liu-ko-chiao, near Peking, to either Hankow, 
 the great port on the Yangtze, in Hupeh, or to Chinkiang, near 
 the junction of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze, in Kiangsu- 
 Another short line was to connect Tungchow, the village at 
 which one leaves the Peiho Eiver for Peking, with Tientsin, and 
 thereby place the capital in communication with the coast ; while 
 a third, which would certainly prove an extremely prosperous 
 undertaking and which British capitalists have long been eager 
 to build, would connect Canton with British Kowloon, and thus 
 bring the commercial metropolis of China into close relations 
 with the great port of Hongkong. An American mining expert 
 who had charge for a time of the largest silver mines in China, 
 gave me this interesting explanation of the failure of the Chinese 
 to take any steps with regard to railways. They desire, he said, 
 to do the biggest thing at once. They reason thus : Great 
 Britain, with 38,000,000 population, has 20,000 miles of rail- 
 way; therefore China, with 350,000,000, ought to have x 
 miles. They will not buy rails abroad : they insist upon making 
 them ; and they will not make iron rails, which they could 
 easily do, and which would serve just as well for their light 
 
310 CHINA. 
 
 traffic. They must have steel ones. But steel rails cannot be 
 made cheaply except on a very large scale, say the smelting of 
 250 tons of ore a day, and without long experience ; and with 
 the Chinese habits such an output is utterly impossible, no 
 matter what the mines may be. They have already discovered 
 excellent iron mines, but as the phosphorus Hmit is exceeded, 
 steel cannot be made there, and they will not make iron. More- 
 over, they sent two Englishmen and two Germans to seek 
 for steel-making iron and coal throughout the provinces of 
 Southern China. This, again, was wrong — English and German 
 methods of work are entirely different, and the task should have 
 been assigned exclusively to one or the other. 
 
 One railway only have the Chinese — or, rather, has Li Hung- 
 chang — pushed towards completion. It was first laid from 
 Tientsin to the coal mines at Kaiping — 80 miles. It is now 
 completed as far as Shan-hai-kwan, where the Great Wall 
 reaches the coast, a total distance of 180 miles, which a fast 
 train is supposed to cover in eight hours. It was next to be 
 extended to the Taling Eiver, an addition of 128 miles — and 
 40 miles of earthworks at one end and 38 at the other have 
 been practically completed — whence one branch would run 
 south through Kinchow to Port Arthur, and another north to 
 Mukden and ultimately to the very important strategic city of 
 Kirin. The war has, of course, put a complete stop to this for 
 the present, but before the war broke out the birthday of the 
 Empress-Dowager came in sight, and the railway subsidy of 
 2,000,000 taels was promptly diverted to swell the funds for 
 celebrating the occasion. Foreigners have pointed out to the 
 Chinese authorities again and again, that without this railway 
 they could hold neither Port Arthur nor the sacred and rich 
 province of Manchuria, but no attention was paid to the 
 warnings, and now the inevitable result has come. Except as 
 the result of foreign pressure, China is as little likely to build 
 railways — except possibly for purely strategic and defensive 
 purposes — as she is to introduce any other feature of reform or 
 progress. 
 
THE FUTDBB OF CHINA. 311 
 
 Finally, the time has come when the interests of British trade 
 must be more closely regarded. We have done up to the present 
 three-quarters of the foreign trade of China, but the returns show 
 a distinct falling off, and with the establishment of manufactures 
 in China, and above all, in the face of Japanese competition, this 
 will certainly tend to become more marked every year. In spite of 
 the admirable Chinese Customs service foreign trade is hampered 
 in many ways, and successful efforts are made to keep it from 
 extending into the interior. The liMn, or inland tax, stations 
 are merely opportunities for " squeezing " on the part of the 
 mandarins, in spite of some recent reforms in this direction, and 
 the vast interior of China is almost as closed to us to-day as it 
 was before the first treaty port was opened. China may not 
 prove the bonanza to foreign manufacturers that is sometimes 
 supposed. The population presses so hard on the means of 
 subsistence, and there are so many parts always on the verge of 
 famine, that- the purchasing power of the inhabitants may fall 
 short of all expectations based only upon their numbers. But at 
 any rate the time has now come for us to insist upon a radical 
 reform of the government, and a consequent lifting from the 
 shoulders of the people the load of corruption and extortion they 
 bear. One of the first effects, too, of greater foreign influ- 
 ence would be the revival of the tea and silk trades, which would 
 mean at once enormously increased exports, and ability to 
 purchase foreign imports. This, again, would furnish a natural 
 and most welcome palliation, even though only a temporary one, 
 of the silver question, because of the demand for silver that 
 would arise among the 350,000,000 inhabitants of the Chinese 
 Empire. As an example of the silver-absorbing power of China, 
 it is only necessary to consider the statistics given by the British 
 Consul at Canton, according to which from May, 1890, to 
 December, 1891, no fewer than 23,000,000 silver coins were 
 made at the Canton mint, and put into circulation, their value 
 ranging from a dollar to five cents. 
 
 There is one factor in Chinese life which prevents the outlook 
 
312 CHINA. 
 
 from being utterly hopeless, and curiously enough this factor 
 is one of the most ancient of original Chinese institutions. I 
 mean the system of competitive examination for office. If this 
 system could be detached from its Confucian ineptitudes, and 
 filled with a living content of western knowledge, the future of 
 China might be vitally changed. It is irnportant, therefore, to 
 understand what this system is. Chinese historians declare 
 that the Emperor Shun examined his officials competitively in 
 the year 2200 e.g., and that the Emperor Chow, in 1115 b.c, 
 instituted examinations into the " six arts " of music, archery, 
 horsemanship, writing, arithmetic, and social rites. This is 
 no doubt mythical, but to-day the entire Chinese Empire is 
 covered with a network of machinery for examining ambitious 
 men in the " six arts," and the " five studies," and conferring 
 the " three degrees." The latter are, first, hsui-tsai, or 
 «' Budding Genius " — a sort of B.A. ; second, chii-jen, or " Pro- 
 moted Scholar " — or M.A. ; third, tsiin-sz, or " Eeady for Office " 
 — which may be compared with LL.D. The first of these exami- 
 nations is held every year in each provincial district, of which 
 there may be sixty or seventy in a province. The subject of 
 examination consists of an essay and poem upon assigned 
 topics, and the examination lasts a night and a day. Out of 
 about 2,000, twenty " budding geniuses " are selected ; they 
 wear a gilt button ; they are no longer liable to corporal punish- 
 ment ; and they become marked men of the literary class. 
 The second examination takes place triennially at every pro- 
 vincial capital. On the last occasion Wuchang had 15,000 
 competitors and Nankin 18,000. Of these, less than 1 per 
 cent, can be successful. The examiners in this case come from 
 Peking ; the examination is divided into three sessions of three 
 days each ; and again the subjects consist almost solely of com- 
 mentaries upon some passage of ancient literature. The 
 examination is conducted with extraordinary ceremony and the 
 utmost stringency. The Examination Hall is like that which I 
 have described in Peking ; everybody — examiners, magistrates. 
 
THE FUTTJKB OF CHINA. 
 
 313 
 
 police, competitors, doctors, cooks, tailors, and executioner, for 
 any offence within the sacred enclosure is punished by death — is 
 shut up irrevocably during the nine days that the examination 
 lasts. The strain is, of course, intense, and competitors fre- 
 quently die from the close confinement and extremely insanitary 
 surroundings. As a specimen of the subjects of examinations, 
 the following passage from the Analects of Confucius was one of 
 the themes in the last competition at Nankin : — " Confucius 
 said, ' How majestic was the manner in which Shun and Yu 
 held possession of the empire, as if it were nothing to them.' 
 Confucius said, ' Great indeed was Taou as a sovereign ! How 
 majestic was he ! It is . only Heaven that is grand and only 
 Yaou corresponded to it ! How vast was his virtue ! The 
 people could find no name for it ! ' " The competitors, that is, 
 were simply invited to write an essay in the most extravagant 
 style of eulogy upon the wisdom of the sage as exhibited in this 
 passage. Three weeks after the examination, the names of the 
 hundred successful are published, and the happy ones are more 
 than repaid for what has often been a lifetime of study, by the 
 honours that await them. No actual reward of any kind is 
 conferred upon the " Promoted Scholar," but his position has 
 been compared with that of a victor in the Olympian Games, 
 and his fortunate family shares in his fame. He ' mounts a 
 larger gilt button upon his hat, places a tablet over his door, 
 erects a couple of flagstaffs before his house, and plunges into 
 study again for the third and final examination of the following 
 spring. " Though ordinarily not very devout, he now shows 
 himself peculiarly solicitous to secure the favour of the gods. 
 He burns incense and gives alms. If he sees a fish floundering 
 on the hooks, he pays its price and restores it to its native 
 element. He picks struggling ants out of the rivulet made by a 
 recent shower, distributes moral tracts, or better still, rescues 
 chance bits of printed paper from being trodden in the mire of 
 the streets." The final struggle takes place in Peking, and is, 
 of course, more difiicult and even stricter than the preceding. 
 
314 CHINA. 
 
 for success in it means public office — the offices being dis- 
 tributed among the successful by lot. Beyond this triumph, 
 however, there is still a possible pinnacle of literary glory, 
 namely, to be selected by the Emperor himself as the best of all 
 the successful competitors in Peking, and to receive the title of 
 Chang-yuan — say, " Poet Laureate " — the finest flower of the 
 literary culture of the Celestial Empire. To have produced 
 such a man is the highest honour to which any province can 
 aspire ; the town of his birth is immortalised, and his happy 
 parents are regarded as the greatest benefactors of the 
 State. 
 
 As at present organised, this system of competitive examina- 
 tion has its excellent side. The Eev. Dr. Martin, who has 
 written a luminous analysis of the system,* gives three great 
 merits. First, the system serves the State as a safety-valve, 
 providing a career for ambitious spirits who might otherwise 
 foment disturbances. Second, it operates as a counterpoise to 
 the power of an absolute monarch, since without it the great 
 offices would be filled by hereditary nobles, and the minor ones 
 by Imperial favourites. Every schoolboy is taught to repeat a 
 line which declares that " the General and the Prime Minister 
 are not born in office." It constitutes, in fact, the democratic 
 element in the Chinese Constitution. Third, it gives the 
 Government a hold on the educated gentry, and binds these to 
 the support of existing institutions. " In districts where the 
 people have distingiiished themselves by zeal in the Imperial 
 cause, the only recompense they crave is a slight addition to the 
 numbers on the competitive prize list." On the other hand, the 
 evils of the system are sufficiently obvious. Its sole effect, so 
 far as education and the government of China are concerned, i& 
 to limit knowledge to the moral and intellectual level of the far 
 past. As an example of the pitilessly mechanical character of 
 the Chinese culture which this system promotes, the following 
 
 • " Hanlin Papers," by W. A. P. Martin, D.D., LL.D., Peking, 1880, p. 51. 
 
THE FUTUEB OF CHINA. 315 
 
 sketch of the rise and fall of a Chinese literate is illuminat- 
 ing:— 
 
 " The provincial records have not been revised for many years, and thus are not 
 available to determine what success Kwaugsi has had in the examinations at 
 Peking ; but there are those who say that not for a century had a Kwangsi man 
 taken first, second, third, or fourth place until 1889. In that year Chang Chien- 
 hsiin secured the highest honours. He was born in 1856 of a very poor family, of 
 Hunan origin, living in Lin-kuei-hsien, Kuei-lin-f u. He became a hsiu-tsai at the 
 age of 15, a chii-jSn at 23, and chuang-yiian 10 years later. The story goes 
 that in aE the exam i nations before taking the chu-jen degree he was easily first, 
 and his talents attracted the attention of Tang Chung-ya, appointed Governor of 
 Ewangsi in 1876, who promised him his grand-daughter in marriage. We may 
 suppose that from that time his poverty was not allowed to interfere with the 
 prosecution of his studies. After Mr. Chang's success at Peking, he became, 
 as is usual, a compiler in the Hanlin College. Unfortunately, the career which 
 opened so well has received a sudden check. The report reached Kwangsi this 
 summer that the chuang-yiian of 1889, in the course of tests upon the result of 
 which depended appointment to the provincial literary offices, wrote another 
 character . of the same sound in the place of one he intended, as if, for example 
 (the illustration is intended for readers unfamiliar with China), in writing of the 
 position of the subject in the State, he had spoken of his rites and duties. The 
 reader aociuaiuted with Chinese feeling will understand how much worse than any 
 moral delinquency was this error." * 
 
 The competitive system is the door beyond which lies the way 
 to the civilisation of China. Upon that door is written the word 
 Confucius ; and unless this is erased and the word Truth sub- 
 stituted, China must remain the victim of more enlightened 
 races, even until she be finally dismembered and disappear. If, 
 however, any pressure could be found strong enough to provide 
 for modern teaching in her provincial centres, and for the 
 westernisation of her topics of competitive examination, with 
 offices as rewards for those who distinguish themselves in the 
 different branches of modern science, China might emerge from 
 her slough of Confucian ignorance, prejudice, cruelty, and cor- 
 ruption. As Dr. Martin says, " If the examiners were scientific 
 men, and if scientific subjects were made sufficiently prominent 
 in these higher examinations, millions of aspiring students 
 would soon become as earnest in the pursuit of modern science 
 
 * Chinese Imp. Maritime Customs, Decennial Eeports, 1882-1891, Mr. 0. 0. 
 Clarke's Beport on Lungchow, p. 656. 
 
316 CHINA. 
 
 as they now are in the study of their ancient classics." Nothing 
 could have so great an effect in moulding the future of China 
 as the modernisation of her best-preserved and most ancient 
 institution. 
 
 War has once more given us our opportunity. Japan has 
 pricked the bubble of the " awakening " of China, and has 
 exhibited the Chinese Government as the imposture it really is. 
 Without in the least exercising our power to dictate to Japan the 
 terms she may make so far as regards herself — which we have 
 not the faintest right to do — we must not fail to control the results 
 of the peace so far as other nations are concerned. First of all, 
 we must insist upon the opening of treaty ports wherever these 
 may be required for foreign trade. It would, perhaps, be in- 
 advisable to insist upon the opening of the whole of China at 
 present, until the people of the remoter districts have had time 
 to learn that we are only peaceful traders, and not barbarians, 
 though if this should be possible, no scruples regarding extra- 
 territoriality should be allowed to stand in the way for a moment. 
 Second, we must insist upon foreign representatives being 
 received by the Emperor himself at regular intervals, and under 
 such circumstances as to make it clear that the honours of the 
 audiences are divided ; and the Ministers of the State must 
 realise once for all that diplomacy and procrastination are not 
 synonymous terms. Third, for the protection of our future 
 interests in the Far East, we must secure by purchase, exchange, 
 or otherwise, a naval base a thousand miles north of Hongkong. 
 This is an absolute necessity, and there will not again be such 
 an opportunity for acquiring it. Chusan at once suggests 
 itself, if we do not want the responsibility of taking Formosa, 
 which has no harbour. Chusan has been occupied by us before ; 
 it has an excellent harbour, which can be easily fortified and 
 made impregnable ; and it is at the mouth of the great trade 
 route of China. But this is a point that our naval authorities 
 must decide. Fourth, the literal fulfilment of our previous 
 convention with China regarding Indian trade with Thibet must 
 
THE FUTURE OF CHINA. 317 
 
 now be demanded. The Chinese will say that they cannot 
 guarantee that the Thibetans will not oppose us by force. This 
 is quite true — it is wholly out of the power of the Emperor of 
 China to give any such guarantee. Our answer must be that in 
 that case we will look after ourselves. The present moment is 
 the turning-point in our relations with China, and it must not 
 be allowed to pass. China, we must never forget-, yields only to 
 pressure. She has never been opened except by war, and will 
 never admit reform except at the point of the bayonet or at the 
 sight of the ironclad. 
 
 It may be said that I am calmly assigning the predominant 
 role in the present situation to Great Britain, to the exclusion of 
 other Powers. To this I unhesitatingly reply that the pre- 
 dominant role belongs to us, and that it is not our policy to 
 exclude anybody, for, unlike other nations, whatever we get is 
 thrown open to the whole world. Beside the commercial 
 interests of England in China, those of all other nations are 
 almost insignificant. This is an assertion which can be proved 
 in a moment. Take the question of foreigners in China first. 
 On December 31, 1891, a census was taken in all the treaty 
 ports of China, including the two Customs stations of Lappa and 
 Kowloon, by the Chinese Customs service. These were the 
 results : — 
 
 Britisli. American. French. German. Portuguese. Spanish. Italian. 
 Eesidents ... 3,746 1,209 681 667 659 316 133 
 
 Firms ... 345 27 24 82 7 5 4 
 
 That is, in the Treaty Ports alone, there were 3,746 Britishers 
 and 345 British firms, against 3,811 subjects and 161 firms of 
 all the other European Powers and the United States put 
 together. But to this must be added the British population and 
 firms in Hongkong and Singapore trading with China, by far 
 our most important representatives in the Far East. When this 
 addition is made, it is clearly not too much to say that the 
 interests of other nations are insignificant in comparison. 
 
318 CHINA. 
 
 Second, tate the question of trade. The figures furnish the 
 
 following astonishing results : — 
 
 FOREIGN TEADB OF CHINA WITH EACH COUNTET, 1893. 
 
 Haikwau Taels. 
 Continent of Europe, except Eussia ._ _ .- 21,070,988 
 United States ... .„.„„.-._-. .- 17,169,213 
 Eussia _.__-.___ 10,267,743 48,507,944 
 
 Great Britain and British Possessions „ _ 195,710,240 
 
 That is — taking the Haikwan tael roughly at four shiUings (it 
 averaged 3s. ll^d. in 1893) — the total trade of Great Britain and 
 British possessions for 1893 amounted to £39,000,000, against 
 i;9,700,000 for the whole continent of Europe (except Turkey) 
 and the United States. These are the figures given by the 
 Customs, but a considerable reduction must be made from 
 British trade in view of the fact that a good deal of the trade 
 passing through Hongkong and Singapore is not British. It is 
 impossible to calculate how much this is, but to show the over- 
 whelming superiority of British trade, let us suppose that Hong- 
 kong and Singapore, our greatest trading centres with China, 
 were wiped off the map, with all their trade. Even in that case 
 British trade would still stand at 62,288,436 taels, or £12,400,000 
 against £9,700,000 for all our civilised competitors put together ! 
 If under these circumstances we do not recognise that we are 
 the predominant Power in all foreign relations with China, 
 and act accordingly, then we are indeed unworthy of the heritage 
 of good fortune that sturdier Englishmen have made and be- 
 queathed to us. 
 
 In all the foregoing I have written upon the supposition that 
 at the conclusion of the present war we may still have a united 
 China to deal with. This, however, may well not be the case. 
 The Abbe Hue, Cooke, and Gordon, all thought that the Chinese 
 Empire would possibly one day collapse, and indeed the ties 
 which hold it together are much weaker than is realised by most 
 people. The victory of the Japanese, if carried beyond a certain 
 
THE FTJTTJEE OF CHINA. 319 
 
 point, wonlcl qrate surely bring about the downfall of the present 
 dynasty, seated as it is upon an insecure throne. If China, 
 however, is torn asunder or falls to pieces, then a much vaster 
 problem will face us. For in that case we shall find ourselves 
 face to face with the momentous suggestion of Asia for the 
 Asiatics. Upon this I shall have something to say in a later 
 chapter. 
 
KOREA. 
 
 22 
 
CHAPTEB XXI. 
 
 ON SOBSEBAGK ACBOSS KOBEA. 
 
 T TOOK an unusual way to reach the capital of the Hermit 
 -^ Kingdom. The ordinary route is to go by steamer from 
 Nagasaki or Chefoo to Chemulpo, and then walk or be carried 
 in a chair twenty-six miles to Seoul. The steamer which 
 took me from Nagasaki to Vladivostok touched at Won-san 
 on her way north, so I made arrangements, by the kind 
 help of the Commissioner of Customs, for ponies and men 
 to be ready for me on my return, to make the journey 
 across the peninsula to Seoul, instead of going round by 
 the beaten track. There is a road from the coast to the 
 capital, and a number of Japanese and an occasional Con- 
 sular officer had travelled it ; but at the time of my journey 
 very few other Europeans had crossed the country. The road 
 is of interest at this moment because it was for a long way the 
 route of the third column of the Japanese army to the battle 
 of Phyong-yang, and Won-san itself was worth seeing for 
 the sake of its possible future. The Korean authorities dis- 
 courage travellers, and the Korean Minister at Tokyo per- 
 sistently declined to give me a passport or to apply to Seoul 
 for one for me, although pressed by the British chargi to do so. 
 And the condition of the country may be judged from the fact 
 that four months before my journey marines were landed from 
 the American, Eussian, and Japanese men-of-war at Chemulpo, 
 and marched all night up to the capital to protect the foreigners 
 there J while H.M.S. Leander got up steam in a hurry and left 
 
 323 
 
324 
 
 KOREA. 
 
 Yokohama at a few hours' notice for the same purpose. Some 
 Chinese, it was stated, had entrapped Korean children and sent 
 them to Tientsin for immoral purposes, and the Koreans pro- 
 fessed to believe that the missionaries had stolen them to use 
 their eyes for medicine and for taking photographs. Hence 
 murders of Koreans and a threatened attack upon foreigners. 
 
 The town and harbour of Won-san — which is known as Gensan 0^ 
 to the Japanese, and Yuensan to the Chinese— are of great 
 
 THE SETTLEMENTS AND HABEOUK OP WON-SAN. 
 
 interest because of the part they are likely to play in the future 
 of the Far East. Broughton Bay, named after Captain William 
 Eobert Broughton, the companion of Vancouver, who dis- 
 covered it in 1797, afterwards losing his ship, the Provi- 
 dence, near Formosa, is situated in the middle of the east 
 coast of Korea. The northern arm has been named Port 
 Lazareff by the Eussians, whose ships come regularly for 
 manoeuvres. It was here that their cruiser, the Vitiaz, ran on 
 
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA. 325 
 
 a rock in broad daylight and calm weather, on May 10, 1893, 
 and became a total wreck. This bay is the only useful harbour 
 on the whole six hundred miles of coast ; but to make up for 
 the deficiency, it is one of the finest harbours in the world. Its 
 area is not far short of forty square miles ; it is perfectly 
 sheltered ; it is open all the year round ; there is excellent 
 anchorage in from six to twelve fathoms ; and several streams 
 empty into it, from which excellent water may be obtained. 
 The provinces of which it is the sea outlet are the most moun- 
 tainous in Korea, and they undoubtedly contain the two most 
 precious of minerals — gold and coal. The former, to the value 
 of half a million dollars annually, has been passed through 
 the Custom House, and probably an equal amount has been 
 smuggled; while deep seams of coal have been observed in several 
 places, and anthracite from the district is burned by foreigners 
 at Won-san. For game of all kinds the surrounding provinces 
 are a sportsman's paradise. Tigers and sables abound, and 
 wild-fowl of all sorts exist in myriads. And the sea, says the 
 Commissioner of Customs, " literally teems with legions of 
 fish," which the Koreans are too lazy to catch. " The whales, 
 black-fish, sharks, and seals, which abound on the coast, are left 
 to fatten on the multitudes of salmon, cod, tai, haddock, whiting, 
 ribbon-fish, herrings, sardines, and innumerable other tribes 
 that crowd the waters at various seasons." With all these 
 natural advantages, Won-san, in the hands of energetic and 
 intelligent people, would soon become a place of great com- 
 mercial prosperity and strategic importance. 
 
 The port of Won-san was thrown open to the Japanese in 
 June, 1880, and to the trade of all nations in November, 1883. 
 The settlements there, as shown in the accompanying sketch- 
 map, are the native town, dirty, crowded together, and traversed 
 by filthy alleys in the place of streets ; the Japanese settlement, 
 neat and clean and prosperous ; and the Chinese quarter, some- 
 thing between the two. The total population is about 15,000. 
 Steam communication is kept up with Vladivostok and Naga- 
 
326 KOREA. 
 
 saki by the excellent Japanese line, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha ; a 
 Eussian steamer, which calls at regular intervals ; and one 
 small but very profitable coasting steamer flying the Korean 
 flag. The total tonnage of the port for 1893 was 69,835 ; the 
 total import and export trade, 1,481,260 dollars; the export of 
 gold, 632,960 dollars, besides 140,000 dollars' worth remitted as 
 taxes on Government account to Seoul ; and the net total col- 
 lection of revenue, 53,089 dollars, say £6,500. A telegraph-line 
 now connects Won-san with the capital. I give all these 
 details because of my belief, the reasons for which will be 
 found in other chapters, that Won-san — or, at any rate, 
 some point in Broughton Bay — will ultimately be the Pacific 
 terminus of the Trans-Siberian Eailway. 
 
 As soon as the Takachiho reached Won-san, I said good-bye to 
 my very pleasant quarters, and went on shore, where through 
 the glass I could see the ponies already waiting. A Korean 3 
 pony is a small, shaggy, scraggy creature ; but you never like 
 him less than when you first set eyes on him ; and before I had 
 gone far with these I learned that many virtues were concealed 
 in their little brown bodies. Pour ponies and six men were at 
 the landing, the latter being three grooms, two soldiers, and an 
 interpreter. One pony was for me to ride ; upon the second 
 were strapped my bag, canvas hold-all, containing rug and 
 sleeping arrangement, camera, and gun ; the third was burdened 
 with two boxes of provisions, for it is necessary to carry with you 
 almost everything you need to eat ; while the fourth pony had all 
 he could do to transport the money for current expenses — about 
 twenty Mexican dollars, £2 10s. The only Korean currency 
 consists of miserably-made copper, iron, and bronze coins, 
 called " cash " in English, and sapek or sek in Korean, about 
 the size and weight of an English penny, with a square hole in 
 the middle by which they are strung on plaited straw in lots of 
 five hundred, subdivided by knots into hundreds. Hence the 
 expression "a string of cash." The pony carried about fifteen 
 thousand of them. 
 
ON HOESEBAOK ACROSS KOREA. 327 
 
 The personnel of my little caravan was decidedly curious, but 
 not very impressive. The grooms, called mapou, were good- 
 natured, grinning creatures, low down in the social scale, dressed 
 in extremely dirty white cotton robes and trousers, with straw 
 sandals, and battered old bamboo hats, or none. The soldiers, 
 called kisiou, were tall, well-built fellows, distinguished from 
 civilians by a broad-brimmed hat of heavy black felt, with a 
 scarlet tuft trailing behind, and a coat of rough blue cotton, 
 shaped exactly like the exaggerated dress-coat, reaching to the 
 heels, that one sees in a burlesque on the Gaiety stage. They 
 carried no weapons but a long staff, and they appeared amused 
 when I asked where, since they were soldiers, were their guns ? 
 My interpreter was a tall, really handsome man, with a striking 
 resemblance to the Speaker of the House of Commons, dressed 
 in spotless white, topped by a monumental black pot-hat made 
 of woven horsehair, and with nothing undignified about him but 
 his name, which was I Cha Sam. It was impossible to get a 
 Korean who knew any English, even a little " pidgin," so I had 
 to be content with one who spoke Japanese. Prom his preter- 
 natural silence and solemnity I soon discovered that his know- 
 ledge of Japanese was on a par with my own. The bill of 
 expenses furnished me by Mr. Creagh was as follows : — 
 
 4 Horses, at 5,000 cash 20,000 
 
 1 Interpreter (falsely so-called) 4,000 
 
 2 Soldiers, at 100 cash a day, 11 days there and back . . . . 2,200 
 
 3 " Kumshaws " (tips) to soldiers and interpreter, at ^1 . . 2,000 
 
 Total, 28,200 cash, say forty-three Mexican dollars, ^Zms travelling 
 expenses and food. The price of the horses included grooms. 
 The cash, by the way — miserable, battered, verdigris-covered 
 coins, apparently compounded of an alloy of tin and dirt — have 
 actually been debased by the Korean Government for illicit 
 profit, while they bear on them such gracious inscriptions as 
 "Used for Public Benefit," and "Enrich the People." 
 
 The journey overland from the east coast to the capital 
 generally occupies five days, at the rate of something over thirty 
 
328 KOEEA. 
 
 miles a day. Thirty-five miles from Won-san, however, north 
 of the overland road, is the great Korean monastery of An-byon, 
 which I was assured was the only interesting place in all Korea. 
 So I determined to lose a day and visit this. I said good-bye 
 to Mr. Creagh about midday, and pushed on fast through the 
 filthy lanes and among the squalling pigs of the native town 
 of Won-san. 
 
 The red shades of evening appeared while we were still jogging 
 along at our best speed. When it was quite dark we reached a 
 little Korean inn, where the grooms had already aroused every- 
 body. Out of a house of apparently two rooms, twenty white- 
 robed travellers turned out and squatted in a row, like tired 
 ghosts, to stare at us. The men were all for stopping — the road 
 ahead was very steep, the woods through which it passed were 
 infested with tigers, the ponies were tired, the monastery would 
 be closed for the night, &c., &c. But I looked at those two 
 rooms and those twenty travellers, and hardened my heart. 
 Then the soldiers, seeing that I was determined, rose to the 
 occasion. One of them shouted to the innkeeper to turn out 
 and bring torches to light us, and his manner, I remarked with 
 interest, was peremptory. The innkeeper demurred in a high 
 tone of voice, when, without another word, this excellent kisiou 
 took one step toward him, and whack ! with a tremendous slap 
 in the face sent him staggering across the road. The sudden- 
 ness of the blow took me aback, but nobody seemed in the 
 least surprised or annoyed, and the innkeeper appeared a 
 minute later with a blazing pine-knot and led the way. We 
 left the road at right angles, and fifty yards from the inn we 
 plunged into the woods and began a steep ascent along a narrow 
 stone path. Then a curious thing happened. As soon as our 
 last pony was out of sight, a simultaneous and blood-curdling 
 howl arose from the twenty travellers behind us, and was pro- 
 longed with a series of yah.' yah! yah! till the hills echoed 
 again, and when it ceased our six men similarly exploded, 
 each one putting his back into the yell, till it rivalled the notes 
 
ON HORSEBACK AOBOSS KOREA. 329 
 
 of a Chicago mocking-bird. The travellers howled again, and 
 our men answered, and so on till we could no longer hear the 
 former. " What on earth is the matter ? " I asked I Cha Sam. 
 " To keep the tigers away ! " he replied. I strapped my revolver 
 outside my thick riding- coat, but if the noise was half as dis- 
 agreeable to a prowling tiger as it was to me, no wonder he 
 avoided our company, for anything so ingeniously ear-splitting 
 as the sounds our men kept up at intervals of three or four 
 minutes for an hour and a half I never heard. 
 
 Meanwhile the road ascended rapidly and the stony path grew 
 narrower, till at last we were climbing a mountain-side. At one 
 moment we were in thick woods, at another a precipice of con- 
 siderable depth yawned a yard or two to our left, then we were 
 struggling up a stone-heap on to a plateau where half a dozen 
 miserable houses formed a village. No European horse could 
 have made a hundred yards of the road, yet the ponies stepped 
 doggedly over everything, rarely stumbling, and catching them- 
 selves again instantly if they fell. I soon learned that the less 
 attempt I made to guide them the safer it was. Before leaving 
 Won-san Mr. Greagh had said, " If you don't need the soldiers as 
 an escort, you'll find them very useful in other respects." And 
 I soon learned how. The theory of Korean government is that 
 the people exist for the officials. And as I had this escort I was 
 travelling as an official, and therefore entitled to demand any 
 services from the people to speed me on my way. The night 
 was pitch dark, and without torches we could not have gone a 
 yard. Therefore the soldiers levied lights from the people. As 
 soon as they spied a hovel ahead they shouted a couple of words, 
 the man carrying the torch helping lustily. I found later the 
 words were simply Poul k'ira {" Bring out fire ! "), and no matter 
 how late the hour, how bad the weather, how far to the next 
 house — no matter even though the sole inhabitant was an old 
 woman or a child, the torch of pine-wood or dried millet-stalks 
 bound together must be produced instantly, the guide must hold 
 it flaming in his hand when we reach his door, and woe betide 
 
330 KOEEA. 
 
 the unlucky being that keeps Korean officialdom waiting, if it be 
 only for half a minute. Sometimes the stage to the next house 
 was two or three miles, sometimes it was only a couple of hundred 
 yards, but there were no exemptions to this fire-conscription. The 
 general effect as I saw it from the rear was extremely picturesque 
 and striking — the line of ponies with their sideways-swaying 
 loads, the ghostly-white figures of the men on foot, the cries to 
 each other and the animals, the recurring shout for fire, the 
 yell to keep off the tigers, the dense wood, the precipice, the 
 flaming and flashing torch waved ahead or beaten on the 
 ground, dividing everything into blood-red lights and jet-black 
 shadows, and finally the thought that it really was just possible 
 the gleaming eyes of one of the great striped cats might be 
 choosing their victim a few feet away. 
 
 Our goal announced itself long beforehand by gate after gate, 
 and the instinctive feeling that we had got to the top, whatever 
 it was. Then the edge of the ravine became paved with stone 
 slabs, and a hundred yards along it brought us to a pair of 
 great wooden doors. They were opened after a little parley, 
 and we found ourselves in a small courtyard, and surrounded 
 by a score of young priests, apparently delighted to see us. 
 The rugs were hastily unpacked, and a brazier was brought. I 
 boiled the kettle, plucked and cooked one of the birds I had 
 shot, and then, while the monks sat round in a laughing, 
 chattering circle, I supped magnificently off broiled duck, hard- 
 tack, and marmalade, washed down by many basins of tea. 
 (Nobody but a traveller knows the real value of tea.) At 
 midnight I was shown to a clean, paper- windowed room about 
 six feet square, and turned in on the floor. And when the 
 morning came it showed how strange and romantic a place I 
 had reached — one of the most striking and picturesque of the 
 unknown corners of the world. 
 
 The great monastery in the mountains is one of those chosen 
 and built by a militant Korean sect to serve, according to need, 
 either as a retreat for the spirit or a refuge for the body. The 
 
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA. 331 
 
 monks themselves do not look very warlike, but the situation of 
 the monastery is an almost impregnable one. It can be reached 
 by only one road, a long steep stony path, in which " a thousand 
 might well be stopped by three " ; behind it on two sides are 
 mountains of rock, and on the fourth it is secluded by a very 
 deep and precipitous ravine through which dashes a noisy 
 torrent. The central buildings, on the edge of the ravine, shown 
 in my photograph, are the sacred apartments of the king, 
 entered by only one attendant, and they are kept in perfect 
 preservation and hourly readiness for his coming. When I 
 woke in the morning I found myself in the midst of great 
 heavy-eaved temples through the open doors of which could 
 be seen the solemn faces of squatting gilded gods, while al- 
 ready half a dozen priests were bending before the altars with 
 incense and drum. 
 
 All the buildings of An-byon are in the style to whicl^ the 
 traveller so soon gets used in the East — rectangular wooden 
 structures with high-peaked roofs and richly-carved curving 
 eaves, generally with three doors at one side and the chief idol 
 facing the largest central entrance. Before him are sets of 
 altar utensils and little brass tallow lamps, and joss-sticks which 
 the pious visitor purchases for a few cash and lights at his 
 prayers. The walls are covered with silk and brocade, mostly 
 very old and time-stained ; the ceiling is marvellously carved 
 and gilded, perhaps a huge dragon appearing at one end and 
 worming himself in and out of the masses of ornament to the 
 other ; and innumerable gongs and drums invite the hand of 
 the too willing pilgrim. The interior of these temples is tawdry, 
 but the massiveness of the wooden architecture, its bright 
 colours, its picturesquely contrived vistas of gate and gable and 
 column and pavilion, taken together with the wonderful natural 
 situation of the place, form an impressive and romantic spectacle. 
 The most curious sight in the monastery, however, is four huge 
 idols of brilliantly painted wood, carved with a good deal of 
 appreciation of the heroic human face and form, which stare at 
 
332 KOBTIA. 
 
 one another across a narrow passage from behind the bars of 
 two great cages, a pair of war-gods being on one side, and a 
 king and queen (the latter playing a colossal mandolin) on the 
 other. My Japanese vocabulary unfortunately did not permit 
 me to make through my interpreter any inquiries as to their 
 abstract theologic significance. The headgear of the monks 
 beggars description, and I held my sides again and again as a 
 new specimen emerged from the dormitories. Hats of paper, of 
 wood, of bamboo, of horsehair, and of wire ; hats round, square, 
 triangular, cylindrical, conical, and spherical; hats like a 
 clothes-basket, like a sieve, like a pumpkin, like a flying 
 crow, like a paper boat, like three three-cornered gridirons 
 fastened together at the edges ; half of them affording not 
 the slightest pretence of protection against cold or rain or sun, 
 but being either symbols of sacerdotal rank, or else simply the 
 offspring of a disordered creative imagination. Every priest, 
 too, carried or wore a rosary of red wooden beads, polished like 
 crystal by ceaseless fingering. I told my interpreter to ask one 
 of them by and by privately whether a string of these could be 
 purchased as a souvenir. He, however, blurted out the question 
 to the chief Abbot in the presence of fifty priests, and the 
 hospitable old gentleman instantly took off his own rosary- 
 bracelet of specially big beads and handed it to me, saying, 
 "They cannot be purchased, this is a present." Naturally 
 before leaving I wished to make him some present in return, 
 but ransacking my bag produced nothing whatever suitable. My 
 revolver or knife I could not spare, the old gentleman had 
 already refused to taste whisky, and there appeared to be literally 
 nothing to give him. I recollected, however, that I had had 
 some new silk pocket-handkerchiefs made and embroidered in 
 Japan, and one of these presented -with many airs and the 
 explanation from the interpreter that the monogram on the 
 corner was "good joss," satisfied him completely. For our 
 entertainment I left a few dollars in iSie treasury, the amount, 
 attested by my autograph, being solemnly and elaborately 
 
H 
 
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA. 333 
 
 entered in the great ledger of the monastery, and when at noon 
 I mounted my pony, a hundred of the white-robed, much-hatted 
 priests, led by the venerable Abbot himself, came a little way 
 down the hill to give me good-bye. 
 
 It would be absurd to deny that I experienced a new sensa- 
 tion — a " traveller's thrill " — at this moment. I had never at 
 this time been out of reach of white men before, and now I was 
 at the beginning of a week's ride across a country which a very 
 few years ago was an utterly unknown and " hermit " land, 
 alone with six men of whom I knew nothing whatever, and with 
 whom I could have communication only through a very difficult 
 language which my " interpreter " knew little better than I did, 
 and with not a white face between me and the Yellow Sea. The 
 new sensation comes, I fancy, from the first consciousness of 
 the fact that all the protective and co-operative machinery of 
 civilisation has temporarily disappeared — that whatever happens 
 one has nothing to count upon but one's own health, one's own 
 wits, and if the worst comes, upon one's own hand. My reflec- 
 tions of this kind, however, were soon interrupted for a con- 
 sultation. There were two roads, I Cha Sam came up to say, 
 the longer and better one to the left, the much shorter but 
 mountainous one to the right. Which would I take ? At this 
 moment my chief desire was to get the trip over as soon as 
 possible, so I promptly chose the latter, and an hour later we 
 were in the first pass. 
 
 For three hours we climbed steadily up the narrow pass, 
 and then through it. The road was merely a bridle-path or 
 the dry bed of a mountain stream strewn with stones of all 
 sizes. But the ponies never slipped or even hesitated, and our 
 little train wound along in single file without a moment's rest 
 till dusk. The mwpous sang and jodelled, hundreds of magpies 
 flew chattering about us all the time, big mangy old crows 
 hopped alongside, and the rare passers either stopped and 
 stared till I was out of sight, or else looked on the other side 
 and passed pretending not to have seen me. From eleven 
 
334 KOREA. 
 
 o'clock till half-'jdast three it was blazing hot, and my helmet 
 ■with its two inches of solid pith was none too thick. Then it 
 began rapidly to grow chilly, and long before dusk I had a frieze 
 riding-coat buttoned up to my chin. How these Korean mapous 
 and kisiom — grooms and soldiers — manage to escape pleurisy 
 and consumption I cannot imagine. Positively their only 
 garments are a short loose jacket without any fastening down 
 the front, and a short loose pair of trousers, both of thin white 
 cotton cloth. As the man walked at my pony's head in the 
 evening he shivered till I could hear his teeth chatter, yet less 
 than two hours before he was wet through with perspiration. By 
 six o'clock we had descended somewhat to an extensive plateau, 
 and in the distance we could hear the dogs of a village. As 
 we entered it they ranged themselves in a snapping, yelping band 
 at our heels, and from every low doorway an inhabitant crawled 
 out to look at us. Any one who likes to be conspicuous should 
 go to Korea, for the look of overwhelming, speechless surprise 
 that passed over each face as I came in sight was wonderfully 
 flattering. As a rule, however, the face withdrew immediately, 
 and the door was hastily and silently closed — I suppose lest my 
 official attendants should demand the hospitality which every 
 Korean householder is bound to give. 
 
 In the middle of the village — the twenty or thirty miserable 
 thatched dwellings hardly deserve the name — ^we came to a halt, 
 and I Cha Sam approached. "What is it?" I asked him, and 
 he replied with a single Japanese word, "We will sleep." I 
 looked at the house before us and my heart sank. True, I^ 
 knew that Korea did not boast a Palace Hotel, but this was 
 rather too much. A big, tumble-down, badly-thatched hovel 
 surrounding a yard ; all round this, stalls for ponies and 
 bullocks ; in the middle a huge cesspool surmounted by a 
 dunghill, in which horrible black sows were rooting ; opposite 
 to the entrance the two rooms in which the dozen members 
 of the family lived and had their domestic being, and a large 
 guest-chamber on one side for my men, and on the other, 
 
ON HORSEBACK ACEOSS KOEEA. 335 
 
 exactly fronting the most fragrant corner of the dunghill, a 
 smaller one for myself. I Cha Sam flung open the door — 
 about two feet by three — and bowed me in. The floor was 
 of hammered earth ; the walls were mud, covered in spots with 
 very dirty paper ; the material of the ceiling was concealed by 
 the dirt and smoke of generations, and tapestried with spiders' 
 webs. At first, of course, I was highly indignant with Sam 
 for bringing me to such a hole, but from the look of 
 genuine surprise on his handsome placid countenance I soon 
 gathered that this was the regular Korean hotel, and that I 
 had nothing else to expect. Therefore I accepted the in- 
 evitable with what joy I could, and with difficulty crowded 
 myself, my bag, rug, and provision-box into the room. 
 
 My Korean trip taught me at least two things. First, that 
 our supposed instinctive dislike to being personally dirty is 
 merely a matter of local convention. At home I am as un- 
 happy as another if I cannot get my tub at a moment's notice 
 morning or evening, yet after twenty-four hours of Korea 
 I regarded washing, except just a swish of face and hands, as 
 an artificial virtue, and when I found that there was no clean 
 place anywhere on which to lay my coat if I took it off, I just 
 kept it on. In fact I kept it on for five days. And whether 
 it was the new sensation or the old Adam, I do not know, 
 but by and by I grew rather proud of being distinctly and 
 indisputably dirty. The dunghill, of course, did not come 
 to recommend itself to me as a bedroom balcony, but that, 
 unhappily, was only a speck compared with later experiences 
 which I will not describe. The second thing is that repugnance 
 to certain animals is a foolish weakness which sensible people 
 should immediately abandon. When I left Won-san I loathed 
 cockroaches. To-day I care no more for a cockroach than for 
 a rabbit. Every room I occupied in Korea was full of them 
 — literally full, hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands. 
 The first night was horrible with them, and sleep was theoretical 
 only ; but after that I used to pick them out of my hair and 
 
336 KOKBA. 
 
 beard, or flick thera off ray coat like flies. They came to my 
 candle till the floor shone all over from their pretty polished 
 backs, and if I put a sheet of paper on the ground twenty of 
 them would start surveying it before I could begin to sharpen 
 a pencil. My third night in Korea was the only other one 
 wasted. My quarters were even worse, and besides the cock- 
 roaches there was an army of rats. They ran over my feet 
 the moment my candle was out, they ran over my body, they 
 crunched at my sugar, they scampered over my bag, till at last 
 I gave in, lighted the candle again, and read all night. As my 
 only book was The Newcomes it was a night well spent. Every 
 Korean choumak or inn was as I have described, sometimes a 
 little better, once or twice very much worse. In this respect 
 I should probably have fared better if I had chosen the longer 
 and more travelled road. 
 
 The people of the country varied very much. Two villages out 
 of three were very friendly, highly inquisitive, and easily moved 
 to laughter. The third was generally sullen, and its inhabitants 
 would not come near me, would not reply to the greeting of the 
 country — " Oual kemounni eutesio ? " (" How is your health to- 
 day ? ") — and would not even return a friendly nod. More than 
 half the time I walked, and my chief amusement was to get a 
 mile or two ahead of my caravan and enter a village by myself, 
 walk into the middle of it, and seat myself calmly on somebody's 
 doorstep as if I were perfectly at home. The stupefaction of the 
 natives was delicious. Probably they had never seen a white 
 man before, for very few had ever crossed Korea, and these 
 generally by the longer and better route. First they would 
 stare from a long distance, then they would drive off the dogs, 
 then some patriarch would approach cautiously and hazard a 
 question. I would reply with a few lines from " Hamlet " or 
 " Paradise Lost," whereupon they would all laugh. Then one 
 would remove his long pipe from his mouth and offer it to me, 
 and though the courtesy was neither accepted nor returned, it 
 sufficed to break the ice. Invariably they would begin by feeling 
 
ON HORSEBACK ACROSS KOREA. 337 
 
 my clothes, and the different textures of these filled them — 
 knowing nothing but the calico which is their sole wear — with 
 infinite amazement. Especially the corduroy of my riding- 
 breeches pleased them, and they would send to the other end 
 of the village for an old man to come and feel it. Then if 
 they were amiable I would give them a little entertainment, 
 consisting of opening my watch-case by blowing on it, turning 
 out my pockets for their inspection, doing a few tricks with 
 coins, making cat's cradles with string, striking matches, and 
 other such infantile performances, firing my revolver as a grand 
 finale. Childish and ignorant in the extreme they were, knowing 
 less of the outside world than a Digger Indian. Poor, too, 
 P 3 f beyond telling. I believe that ten dollars would have bought 
 everything (except the crops) that I saw exposed for sale in 
 hundreds of shops from the time I left Won-san till I struck 
 Seoul. The men were well-built, as a rule, and fairly well- 
 featured ; but I did not see a single woman or girl during my 
 trip who could have been called even moderately good-looking. 
 The daily labour in the fields or at the millet-mill is too hard for 
 that, and the women are even more beasts of burden than the 
 men. One or two men I saw most horribly diseased with some 
 kind of scabby elephantiasis, and one of these bothered me not 
 a little by coming and poking his head over my shoulder while 
 I was taking photographs. Only twice was there the least sign 
 of hostility. Once in the middle of the night some sneak-thieves 
 came to my room, but I happened to be lying awake smoking in 
 the dark, and heard them coming. So when with great stealth 
 they had got the door half-open, I struck a match, when they 
 shut it with a bang and scuttled like rats. On the other 
 occasion I started out to investigate a big village in the dark, 
 and finally got surrounded by a rather unpleasant and unfriendly 
 crowd, who were gradually edging me along the street in the 
 direction I did not want to go. But luckily I Cha Sam had 
 discovered my absence and set out to look for me, and his 
 commanding tongue soon put matters straight. During the 
 
 23 
 
338 KOREA. 
 
 first two days I was greatly annoyed by my ma/pous, whom I 
 could not get along at all. At the midday halt they would lie 
 about for a couple of hours, and in the morning it was two or 
 three hours after I was up before I could get them to start. 
 On the third morning I lost my temper, and going into their 
 room I kicked them one after the other into the yard. This was 
 evidently what they expected, for they set to work immediately. 
 Unless they were kicked they could not believe the hurry was 
 real. Afterwards, by a similar procedure, I started whenever I 
 wished. At first, in the evenings I tried to learn something by 
 inviting the innkeeper and an old inhabitant or two, with the 
 interpreter, into my room, and regaling them with weak whisky 
 and water and dry biscuits. But they expressed their apprecia- 
 tion in the native manner by such horrible eructations, and 
 would " spit refreshingly around," as Pendennis says, to such 
 an extent that I was compelled to decline to receive callers. My 
 of&cial kisious were of little use, and as lazy as lobsters. My 
 camera was injured by being jolted on pony-back, so I told one 
 of these that I would give him a dollar — a fortnight's wages — if 
 he would bring it safe to Seoul for me. He jumped at the offer, 
 carried it for about a mile, then stopped at a house and shouted 
 the magic words " Cha'm chim neira!" ("Carry a parcel a 
 stage ! "). The householder hastened to obey, for, as I have 
 explained, any official (as I was because of my escort) has a 
 right to demand any such service of the people. This process 
 was repeated every few miles, and so my camera was borne by 
 hand across the Hermit Kingdom from sea to sea, with the tall 
 soldier convoying it in the rear. 
 
 As regards the country itself it was far more fertile in-i 
 appearance, and also much more cultivated, than I had been 
 led to expect. After leaving the monastery we climbed till 
 evening, then slept in a flat valley, then climbed again through 
 a succession of narrow, rocky, and difficult passes till we reached 
 an extensive plateau or table-land, 2,500 feet above the sea, 
 stretching between two fine mountain-ranges, and perhaps forty 
 
Jji-; 
 
 A Korean Hotel. 
 
 
 Men and Women of Korea. 
 
ON HOBSEBACK ACEOSS KOBEA. 339 
 
 miles in length. The mountains were splendid in their autumn 
 tints, the air was superb, the weather perfect, and I had not 
 a lonely moment. In fact, I seldom passed pleasanter days 
 than four of those spent riding or walking in utter solitude in 
 Central Korea. The nights were all bad, and at that time I 
 used to wonder what real travellers think about during the 
 lonely hour between dinner and sleep, when instead of being a 
 hundred miles from a white face they are a thousand, when 
 instead of a day or two dividing them from civilisation they 
 must be alone for months and years, and when the revolver 
 under their hand day and night is there from necessity and not 
 from nerves. I am inclined to think we do not quite appreciate 
 them as we ought. For my own part, I used to reflect how good 
 it would be to sit again in the midst of the old faces in the club, 
 or to drop into a stall at the Lyceum, or to listen once more 
 to " Qu'allez vous faire si loin de nous ? " But I wander. To 
 hark back, therefore, the chief crops grown in the interior of 
 Korea are rice, millet, beans, and red peppers, the second of 
 these much predominating and furnishing the staple food for 
 the people. So far as appearances tell anything to an inexpert 
 eye, Korea ought to be rich in minerals, and there is certainly 
 plenty of land which would give fair if not great returns for 
 cultivating. The village industries were few and far between — ■ 
 a little spinning and a little primitive weaving of cotton cloth. The 
 country is miserably poor at present, for nobody cultivates much 
 more than will support him, as the only outlet for the surplus, 
 and that an unavoidable one, is into the pocket of the nearest 
 official. 
 
 My last day's journey of sixteen hours brought me to the 
 great gate of Seoul at eight o'clock. This was my first glimpse 
 of the East of my imagination — the rocky ascent, the towering 
 battlemented walls, the huge black gates inexorably closed. 
 Neither persuasion nor money could open them, as the keys of 
 the colossal padlocks were with the King's guard at the pala.ce. 
 So rather than return five miles to a choumak, I rolled myself 
 
340 EOEBA. 
 
 up under my rug, and slept there on a big stone all night ; and 
 when morning broke, and the countrymen coming to market 
 lifted the corner of the rug and saw what was underneath, they 
 were not a little astonished. Then at daylight we rode into the 
 city, and Mr. Colin Ford, Her Majesty's most hospitable Consul, 
 met me at his gate in gorgeous pyjamas, and extended the bath 
 and the breakfast and the welcome of civilisation to a particu- 
 larly dirty traveller. 
 
GHAPTEB XXII. 
 
 THE CITY OF SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS. 
 
 . «t_ TT is the City of Ichabod. A few years ago — a few, that is, in 
 the life of a city — Korea was educating the Japanese people 
 in the arts : Satsuma ware was born in Seoul. To-day there 
 is not a piece of porcelain to be bought in the city worth 
 carrying away. A few years ago it took an army of 130,000 
 men under the greatest general Japan has eyer had, to con- 
 quer the country. Yesterday the advent of thirty American 
 marines threw 250,000 Koreans into a panic. To-day two 
 alien nations are fighting for Korea on her own soil, and she 
 is unable to lift a finger to help or oppose either of them. I 
 visited one of the old palaces. Pushing the door open to 
 enter, I almost pushed it off its hinges ; the spacious entrance- 
 terrace is a mulberry orchard ; grass grows in the stables ; the 
 throne on which the King sat to receive his ministers is black 
 with mildew ; the splendid carvings are rotting from the lofty 
 roofs ; not a soul sets foot in these deserted halls. Oddest of 
 all, as I stood in silence by the great pillars of the throne-room, 
 a dove cooed from her nest in one of the carven capitals. It 
 was the vision of Omar Khayyam : — 
 
 " The palace that to heaven its col'.imng threw, 
 And kings the forehead on its threshold drew, 
 I saw the solitary ring-dove there, 
 And ' Coo, coo, coo,' she cried, and ' Coo, coo, coo.' " 
 
 The word Seoul (pronounced variously Sool, Soiol, and Say-ool, 
 and erroneously marked on many maps as Kinkitan, the name 
 
 341 
 
942 KOEEA. 
 
 of the province) merely means " Capital," the proper name of 
 the city being Han-yang, "the fortress on the Han." It is 
 a city of about 250,000 people. It is surrounded by a more 
 or less dilapidated wall, pierced by several imposing gateways, 
 all of which are closed at sunset at the sound of a great 
 bell, and the keys placed for the night in charge of the King's 
 guard at the palace. On one side of the city a second wall 
 encloses the palace and the royal domain, and from the farthest 
 point of this a stony mountain rises abruptly and symmetri- 
 cally to a sharp peak. The city is surrounded by mountains, 
 and lies like the palm of one's hand when the fingers are turned 
 upwards ; but this one, Nam-san, is the highest, and every night 
 about eight o'clock a beacon blazes for a few minutes from its 
 summit. On some hill-top of the west coast, if order reigns, 
 a signal-fire is lighted after sunset every day. Another hill-top 
 further north repeats it if all is quiet there too, and so from 
 mountain to mountain the bonfires travel round the Hermit 
 Land — along the shore of the Yellow Sea, across the frontier 
 of Manchuria, by Eussian Tartary, down the Sea of Japan, 
 coasting the Korean Strait, up the Yellow Sea again, and 
 inland to the capital, till at last the sudden blaze upon Nam-san, 
 almost in the royal gardens, tells his anxious Majesty that one 
 more day throughout his kingdom has passed in peace. The 
 telegraph, however, is fast putting an end to this picturesque 
 custom. 
 
 8eoul is twenty-six miles by road from the port of Chemulpo, 
 but fifty-five by the winding river Han. The latter could 
 undoubtedly be rendered serviceable for regular water-traffic 
 to and from the capital, which it approaches within about 
 three miles, at a place called Mapu, but at present it is 
 navigated only by native junks, to whose owners time is of 
 no importance, and an occasional steam-launch which is often 
 aground during half the time of its trips. Chemulpo — known 
 to the Japanese as Jinsan, and to us officially as Jenchuan — is a 
 flourishing place, with a good many excellent modern buildings 
 
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS. 343 
 
 and an energetic commercial population, among whom the 
 Japanese are pre-eminent both in numbers and in enterprise. 
 In 1882, when the port was opened to foreign trade, Chemulpo 
 was a handful of mud huts. Now its four settlements — foreign, 
 Chinese, Japanese, and Korean — are well built, well lighted, and 
 have good roads. And they are so crowded that land is rising to a 
 high price. Its population, formerly a few fishermen, has risen 
 to about 7,000, of whom Europeans and Americans number 
 about 30, Japanese 2,500, Chinese 670, and Koreans 4,000. 
 The general foreign settlement is under the control of a 
 Municipal Council, composed of the Consuls, a Korean official, 
 and three representatives of the landholders. The outer har- 
 bour affords abundant and safe anchorage, but the inner 
 harbour is small and silting up, and as the tides rise and fall 
 about thirty feet there is a vast mud flat at low water. Chemulpo 
 is connected with the capital by telegraph, and there is a daily 
 courier service, under the control of the Customs Service. The 
 latter is a branch of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, 
 and is conducted in an ideal manner. In 1893 a Chinese 
 " Mutual Transport Company " was formed, for the improve- 
 ment and communication with the capital and the development 
 of trade on the Han. The trade of Chemulpo for 1893 was not 
 up to the average, owing to droughts and political disturbances, 
 but its figures, considering what Chemulpo was fourteen years 
 ago, are a striking proof of the possibilities of Korea with 
 energetic merchants and honest administration. The exports 
 are gold, rice, beans, and hides. The first-named was exported 
 to the amount of 201,846 dollars. The total exports reached 
 866,495 dollars, as against an average of nearly a million and 
 a half for the three preceding years ; and the total imports 
 2,421,133 dollars. The balance against Korea is supposed to be 
 made up by the export of smuggled gold. The shipping entered 
 and cleared at the port during 1893 was 490,981 tons, of which 
 159,626 tons was Japanese, 50,434 Korean, and 28,809 Chinese. 
 The British flag did not put in an appearance, but it is estimated 
 
344 KOREA. 
 
 by the Customs that 54 per cent, of the foreign import trade is 
 British in origin, 24 per cent. Japanese, 13 per cent. Chinese, 
 and 9 per cent. German, American, French, and Eussian put 
 together. As I have said, the development of Chemulpo is an 
 interesting and important index to the potential development of 
 Korea generally under a reformed administration. 
 
 Seoul has two wide streets, and two only. For a quarter of a 
 mile in front of the palace and then at a right angle for a mile 
 or so, there is a fine well-kept road fifty yards wide, while 
 everywhere else in the city the average width is probably about 
 twelve feet. Almost all are traversed by an unsavoury gutter, 
 sometimes down the middle, sometimes at the sides, while 
 every now and then you cross a kind of canal-sewer, a lingering 
 shallow stream of water, refuse, and filth. Needless to add, 
 therefore, that the atmosphere of Seoul is very offensive to the 
 nostrils. The houses are built of wood and paper, and all 
 thatched, for it is forbidden for anybody except an ofScial to 
 cover himself with a tiled roof. The shops are segregated in 
 streets according to their wares. Thus, the grain-market is in 
 the wide street, and for half a mile this is covered with broad 
 shallow basket^ full of rice, millet, beans, and many other seeds, 
 among which the merchants and their customers walk and talk. 
 The cabinet-makers occupy a whole street, the secondhand 
 dealers another, the dealers in piece-goods have a row of ware- 
 houses, the gold- and silver-smiths live along the canal, and so 
 on. But there is nothing whatever for a stranger to buy. I 
 went to a score of cabinet-makers' shops to purchase one of the 
 curious little cabinets, but the most expensive one I could find 
 cost only two dollars, and that was not worth carrying home. 
 Nothing of gold or silver is made except to order ; the embroidery 
 is shoddy ; the paintings are ghastly ; the carving is beneath 
 contempt. The glory has departed. 
 
 A street full of Koreans suggests the orthodox notion of the i 
 resurrection. Everybody is in wiite robes, and even though a 
 man has only one suit in the world, it is clean. When he goes 
 

SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS. 345 
 
 home at night, if he belongs to this poor class, he retires to bed 
 and his wife washes and pommels his clothes. I say " pom- 
 mels," for ironing is an unknown art in Korea. After being 
 washed the calico is stretched on a wooden block, and then with 
 a flat block of wood in each hand the woman pounds it for 
 hours. After sunset all Seoul rings with the dactylic tap-tap- 
 tap, tap-tap-tap of these domestic voices of the night, as with 
 the incessant cry of a million strident insects. The dress of the 
 women is extraordinary, and certainly, to adapt Dr. Johnson, 
 they must have been at infinite pains to invent it, for by nature 
 no one could be such a fool. The upper garment consists of 
 sleeves and an apology for the body of a jacket about six inches 
 deep and reaching therefore about three inches below the arm- 
 pits. The skirt is a great baggy petticoat attached to a broad 
 waistband which begins about six inches below where the 
 jacket ends. Between the two there is nothing — nothing, that 
 is to say, except six inches of dirty brown skin, just those parts 
 of the body being exposed which all other women in the world 
 prefer to conceal. The effect is disgusting. Moreover, as if to 
 emphasise this ludicrous exhibition, these very women are most 
 particular to hide their faces from any man. The theory is 
 that a male Korean always looks the other way, but the moment 
 a foreigner comes in sight they hastily draw over their faces 
 the folds of the light cloak worn hanging from the head. It is 
 a' pity they have not fairy godmothers to supply them all with 
 invisible caps. Seoul would be the more attractive. The 
 Korean men, on the other hand, are fine fellows, tall, well-built, 
 graceful, dignified, generally possessing regular features. They 
 all have, too, a well-fed look, although the standard of physical 
 living is about as low as is possible. Poverty reigns in Seoul — 
 extreme, universal, and hopeless. And the explanation is to be 
 found in one elegant word — nyangpan, of whom more hereafter. 
 The nyangpan is the official, from the Prime Minister to the 
 lowest hanger-on of the palace. All Korean society consists of 
 two classes, those who are nyangpans and those who are not. 
 
346 KOREA. 
 
 All work is done by the latter, and the problem of the former 
 is how to get most of the product of it with least trouble. By- 
 taxes, by enforced bribes, threats, by "squeezes," in short by every 
 known or discoverable form of extortion, the nyangpan makes 
 the other support him. Consequently the other takes good care 
 uot to earn a cash more than will keep the life in his own body 
 and enable him just to hold the nyangpan at arm's length. 
 Hence, by an obvious chain of causation, the utter rottenness 
 and inertness and stagnation of Korean society. Any proposed 
 change for the better has against it the whole nyangpan tribe, 
 that is, everybody in Korea above the hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water. And the people themselves have fallen below 
 the stage at which they could initiate the sole step that would 
 save them — " swift revolution, changing depth with height." Is 
 there, then, any hope for Korea ? Only from outside — that is, 
 under present circumstances, from Japan. 
 
 In considering the present and the prospects of Korea, one is 
 confronted with the striking discrepancy between the excellent 
 possibilities of the people themselves, and the almost un- 
 imaginable sloth and degradation in which they are content to 
 exist. All observers lay emphasis upon the natural capacities 
 of the inhabitants. " The Koreans are undoubtedly a fine race. 
 The men are stalwart and straight, proud and independent ; 
 they possess intelligent and expressive faces, small feet and 
 hands, and are even-tempered, except when excited by drink-^ 
 not an uncommon condition." * Yet under the native regime 
 their character is as degenerate as that of a Bushman. They 
 are totally devoid of ambition or even the elements of personal 
 or commercial success. " The average Korean takes life as 
 easily as he possibly can. Does he till the soil, a mere tick- 
 ling of the surface at seed-time, an occasional weeding at 
 remote intervals, and a happy-go-lucky mode of garnering, 
 constitute all the assistance he feels called upon to render a 
 bountiful nature ; he lets an ample water supply run to waste, 
 • Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, Mr. Hunt's Eeport for Fusan, 1891. 
 
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS. 347 
 
 regardless of periodical droughts; and he recks but little of 
 ditching or drainage, but allows the heavy summer rains to 
 gather foot-high on the standing crops. Is he a trader, he 
 places his business in the hands of a professional middleman, 
 who, in turn, passes it on to his satellites ; days, or weeks, 
 perhaps, are wasted, with sublime unconcern, ia bickering for 
 a trumpery object or a trivial advantage, while his profits 
 are absorbed in the social entertainment he receives and in 
 exorbitant brokerage. Is he a fisherman, he is generally 
 heedless of the magnificent hauls that could be made by 
 venturing upon the sea, and remains content with such fish 
 as will run into crudely and easily constructed traps set out 
 along the shore, which only require attention for an hour or 
 so each day. Does he labour for daily wage, and extra pay 
 is given in busy times, a sense of burdensome wealth will 
 speedily overcome him, and make him decline remunerative 
 work, except at his own fanciful terms, until the ' bonanza ' 
 of extra earnings is exhausted and the pinch of necessity drives 
 him ; then, however, it must be admitted, he falls to again 
 cheerfully enough." * 
 
 In further elucidation of this point I may add an explanation 
 of the foregoing from the same dispassionate source, which will 
 carry more weight than could attach to my own much briefer 
 and more restricted observation of the same facts. "The 
 buildings and walls of the different cities in the province present 
 a poverty-stricken aspect, and the Yamens in all the towns are 
 in a state of extreme dilapidation. The poverty does not reach 
 the stage of actual distress, but has rather the appearance of 
 a curtailment or suppression of every want beyond the bare 
 necessity of keeping body and soul together. The rapacity and 
 cruelty of the officials are not conducive to the accumulation of 
 wealth. All stimulus or inducement to increase his possessions 
 and give himself comforts is denied the middle-class Korean ; for 
 he is not allowed to enjoy the results of his labour and industry, 
 
 * Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, Mr. Oiesen's Eeport for Yuensan, 1891. 
 
348 KOEEA. 
 
 never feeling sure that the little property he may have (or even 
 his life) is safe from official despotism, and consequently the 
 people have become dispirited and indifferent. Safety and 
 security are found in obscurity only." * Hence the saying, 
 "Given a good meal and a hot floor, and a Korean holds 
 Paradise cheap." This is Korea after centuries of vassalage 
 to China. As for the cruelty and barbarism with which the 
 law — or the absence of it — is enforced, the vassal has even 
 surpassed the sovereign. Secret official assassination is the 
 accepted way of settling a political difficulty or removing a 
 troublesome Minister. When the body of the murdered Kim- 
 Ok-kyun (whose story will be found in the following chapter) 
 was brought back to Seoul, this was the treatment meted out 
 to it : " The corpse was laid flat on the ground face down- 
 wards, the head and the four limbs being supported on blocks 
 of wood to facilitate the process of cutting them off. The head 
 was first severed from the trunk by the tedious process of saw- 
 ing. The right hand was then cut off at the wrist, while the 
 left arm was severed midway between the wrist and the elbow. 
 The feet were chopped off at the ankles. Last of all, the back 
 of the trunk was hacked at regular intervals with three lateral 
 cuts, seven inches long and one inch deep. The head was 
 suspended from a tripod made of old bamboo sticks tied 
 together with rough straw ropes, and the hands and feet, 
 joined in a bundle, were hung by the side of the head, the 
 trunk with the three lateral cuts being left on the ground just 
 as it had been placed for mutilation. The process was carried 
 out in a barley-field by the riverside at Tokkaichi. Originally 
 it was understood that the mutilated corpse would be exposed 
 for a space of about a fortnight, but the disgusting business 
 came to an end sooner. The trunk was then thrown into 
 the river, while the head was salted and sent to Chiku-san in 
 Keiki-do, to be subsequently exposed throughout the length and 
 breadth of the peninsula, and finally brought back to Chiku-san 
 
 • Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, Mr. Hunt's Report for Pusan, 1891. 
 
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS. 349 
 
 and there cast away to become the prey of vultures. As to the 
 hands and feet, it is stated that one hand and foot of either side 
 were salted and sent to Kankyo and Keisho-do." Kim's widow 
 and daughter, who had been living in poverty as washerwomen, 
 were brought to Seoul at the same time, and with his father, 
 an old blind man, were beheaded. The following royal decree 
 placarded on the walls of Seoul also throws light on the 
 condition of the country and the character of the throne : 
 " Considering that the choice of candidates for the harem of 
 the Korean Prince Eoyal will take place on 19th inst, the 
 Government interdicts throughout the kingdom up to that date 
 marriages between Koreans." 
 
 As a further concrete illustration of the social condition of 
 Korea, take an event which occurred a week before my visit. 
 There is a guild or secret society of the colporteurs of Korea, 
 having wealthy merchants in the. capital for its apex, and the 
 army of itinerant peddlers traversing the country in all 
 directions for its base. It was discovered or suspected at the 
 palace that a conspiracy threatening the throne was hatching 
 among the members of this guild. Therefore one afternoon six 
 of the most prominent members, rich merchants, were seized, 
 thrown into prison — the barracks either contain or constitute 
 the prison — and the same evening, when the general in com- 
 mand found leisure or energy to attend to the matter, the 
 unlucky six were quietly strangled. There is "no infernal 
 nonsense " about trial or conviction or sentence in the " Land 
 of the Morning Calm." So much for law. Polities is on the 
 same level. I had three letters of introduction to Korean states- 
 men. One was dead, the second was in banishment at Hong- 
 kong, the third sent me his card with a polite message that 
 he had just been appointed Prime Minister, and therefore could 
 no longer talk about politics ! And another little illuminating 
 fact is that when a Korean statesman is banished or executed 
 for political trespasses, his wife and daughters and all his 
 womankind are taken and attached as a sort of permanent 
 
350 KOREA. 
 
 staff of prostitutes to one of the departments of State for the 
 use of the Minister and his assistants. 
 
 The country has been believed by every traveller to possess . 
 great mineral resources, besides its undoubted gold-mines, 
 but every attempt to develop these has come to utter failure, 
 through native corruption and indifference. Mint, post-office, 
 match-factory, sericulture, mining — all of these have been 
 introduced with a flourish of trumpets, to collapse miserably 
 within a short time. If it had not been for the Japanese, 
 Korea would still be the Hermit Kingdom, without a trace of 
 trade or the possibility of improvement. One thing only has 
 saved it from being annexed by anybody who chose — the fact 
 that it stands at the focus of the geography of the Par Eastern 
 question, too important to Great Britain, Eussia, Japan, and 
 China for one of these to encroach upon it without arousing 
 the opposition of the other three. Most Korean affairs 
 are conducted with a pomposity and a grandiloquence only 
 equalled by their insignificance. Since the country was opened 
 to foreign intercourse, for example, a Foreign Office, among 
 other administrative institutions, has been created. It consists 
 of a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Councillor, and twenty- 
 two clerks. For futility it can only be compared with the 
 scenes and personages of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera, yet 
 it enforces respect by the appalling name of Tong-ni-kio-syep- 
 t'ong-sang-sa-mu-a-mun. The Korean navy consists of half a 
 dozen " Admirals," who know no more about a ship than a 
 Hindu knows about skates — indeed, how should they, since 
 there is no Korean ship for them to know ? And the Korean 
 army is almost equally non-existent. There are a few thousand 
 soldiers, under the professed supervision of two American 
 instructors, called respectively Vice-President and Councillor 
 of the Board of War, but no account need be taken of them. 
 Two regiments were drilled for my inspection, and a very 
 amusing sight it was — a sort of cross between Swedish gym- 
 nastics and the soldiers of Drury Lane pantomime. An eye- 
 
Thk Old Palace an]) Xaji-san, Seoul. 
 
 The Consul Goisa to an Audience, Seoul. 
 
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS. 351 
 
 ■witness has just written that a number of newly -raised " naval 
 soldiers " were armed with muskets without locks ! As has 
 been seen, Korea has played no part whatever in the struggle 
 that is being waged on her own soil, with her own future for 
 the stake. Lower than this no people could sink. 
 
 Before I left Seoul I had the honour of an audience with his 
 Majesty the King, the British Consul-General presenting me. 
 We were received at the palace at three o'clock by half a dozen 
 Vice-presidents of the Foreign Office, in a small detached wooden 
 building where we sat for a quarter of an hour drinking cham- 
 pagne over a green baize table, seated on ordinary foreign chairs, 
 and with gimcrack brass electric-light fittings over our heads. 
 Then an officer came for us, and in solemn single file we pro- 
 ceeded through the grounds and yards to the central open 
 pavilion where alone the King holds audience, first the official 
 court interpreter, Mr. Kim, a Korean nobleman, as no one of 
 lower rank is admitted to the presence of the sovereign, then 
 the Consul, then myself, and more officials in broad-winged hats 
 and gorgeous purple robes bringing up the rear. As soon as we 
 came in sight of the King an official left his Majesty's side and 
 instructed us in a loud voice in the method of our approach — 
 left turn, ten steps, right turn, ten steps, bow, up two steps, 
 bow, up two more steps, right turn, five steps, and bow — all of 
 which brought us face to face with the King across a small 
 square table. Mr. Kim assumed a crouching position from the 
 first moment, like a sportsman stalking a covey from behind a 
 hedge, and never quitted it till we were out of the royal sight 
 again. The first thing that caught my eye was a three-and- 
 sixpenny English hearthrug of glaring red and green, which 
 formed the cover of his Majesty's reception table. The second 
 thing was that our noble interpreter was so overcome by finding 
 himself in the presence that his English took wings and he 
 could scarcely articulate. The King is a little man, dressed in 
 handsome dark red silk, richly embroidered with gold, and wear- 
 ing a pot-hat of similar material. His hands he kept hidden in his 
 
352 EOEEA. 
 
 voluminous sleeves. His face is pale but very pleasipg, brim- 
 ming over with good nature, and each of his questions he 
 chattered out with a rippling nervous laugh like a girl's. And 
 every time he laughed we could see a large yellow bead of some- 
 thing he was chewing. On each side of him stood a big solemn- 
 faced minister suggesting from time to time a word or a proper 
 inquiry. Poor Mr. Kim, however, was a broken reed. The 
 King asked something with a merry laugh. After a short pause 
 a faint and shuddering gurgle emerged from beneath Mr. Kim's 
 low bent head. " What does he say ? " asked the Consul of me 
 (I was standing between them) behind his hand. " I give it up," 
 I returned. " I thank his Majesty," said the Consul, taking the 
 bull by the horns, " for the honour of this audience." The King 
 laughed again, as if it were an excellent joke, and asked some- 
 thing else. This time I nudged Mr. Kim and listened intently. 
 Slowly in an awe-stricken tone the words came, " His Majesty 
 hopes your King is quite well." The Consul looked at me 
 beseechingly, and I whispered, "Hopes your King's quite well," 
 trying to keep a straight face. " I thank his Majesty," replied 
 the Consul boldly, thinking he was now on safe ground, and not 
 having caught my words : " I am quite well." This time when 
 his Majesty laughed, we both laughed with him. And so on, 
 over the usual routine questions for a quarter of an hour, when 
 the King graciously expressed his good wishes for my journey 
 and we retired, carrying away the impression of a capital little 
 fellow, rather in awe of his own big ministers. Afterwards, with 
 similar formalities, I was presented to the Crown Prince, a 
 flabby-faced youth of about nineteen, bloated with dissipation, 
 turning helplessly to two horrible eunuchs who stood beside 
 him for what he should say to us, bobbing up and down in his 
 pitiable physical nervousness — altogether a dreadful spectacle, 
 suggestive of the society of Gomorrah. 
 
 The foreign community at Seoul consists of about a score 
 people, excluding Japanese, of whom there is a long street of 
 merchants and artisans. A good many missionaries still stay 
 
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS. 353 
 
 in Seoul, although, I believe, they are still forbidden to preach ; 
 and one only, an excellent doctor, is perroitted to practise, in 
 charge of a free hospital and any number of daily out-patients. 
 The little community manages with difficulty to amuse itself, 
 and from time to time a threatened attack forms a welcome 
 break in the monotony of its life. For example, a few weeks 
 before my visit, there was a passing scare. All the Chinese 
 servants left, simply saying that the foreigners were to be killed, 
 and they dare not stay ; arms were brought out and cleaned and 
 loaded; the Eussian Legation was prepared for a siege, and 
 everybody was ready to rendezvous there at a signal of three 
 rifle-shots, and a rocket, if at night. Thirty American marines, 
 however, marched up one night ; a number of Eussians followed, 
 and although upwards of twenty Koreans were butchered in the 
 streets by their compatriots, no foreigner was disturbed. But 
 the beacon did not blaze from Nam-san that night. 
 
 It would be easy to fill pages with descriptions of the queer 
 scenes and circumstances of Korean life. I will mention only a 
 few, as specimens. A remarkable figure frequently met in the 
 street is the mourner. He is dressed in rough material — almost "* 
 sackcloth ; on his head is a hat of colossal dimensions — perhaps 
 four feet in diameter, within which his head almost disappears ; 
 what is left of his face is hidden by a fan made of a piece of 
 sacking stretched between two sticks, over the top of which he 
 peeps to find his way. Another interesting fact is that the ox- 
 slaughterer is the lowest man in the social scale — an obvious 
 relic of Buddhism — while next above him come the pork- 
 butcher and the prostitute.* Korea, which is modelled in most 
 respects upon China, has a theoretical system of competitive 
 examination for office. In fact, however, the system is as 
 corrupt as everything else Korean. A picturesque and curious 
 ceremony is this. A successful candidate is introduced by his 
 friends to one of the examiners, who, amid much laughter, 
 buffets him about, tears his clothes, breaks his hat, daubs his 
 
 24 
 
854 EOBEA. 
 
 face with ink, and sprinkles powdered white soap over his 
 moist countenance. He is then led away home, washed and 
 dressed in holiday attire, and receives congratulations for the 
 rest of the day. 
 
 As I happen to be much interested in the art of dancing I 
 took occasion to see and photograph the votaries of Terpsichore 
 in every country of the Far East. And for charm of sentiment 
 I must give the palm to Korea, over China, Siam, Malaya, and 
 even over Japan. The danseuses of the last-named country are, 
 of course, far more attractive objects, but I was unable, perhaps 
 from ignorance of the entire significance of the elaborate Japanese 
 dances, to discover in the rhythmic movements of the geisha or 
 the elaborate evolutions of the No-dance, a simplicity of senti- 
 ment and a suggestion of romance — the latter the rarest thing 
 in the Far East — equal to those of the Korean dancing-girl. I 
 engaged a troop of them to dance one afternoon in the grounds 
 of the British Consulate, which the Consul was good enough to 
 lend me for the occasion. They arrived in chairs, with a band, 
 and the considerable retinue which invariably appears in a 
 mysterious manner at every eastern function. Each dancer 
 produced her pipe and tobacco-pouch, and the performance was 
 preceded by a long and animated conversation. Then mats 
 were spread upon the grass, the band sat down in a long row, 
 and under the trees, amidst the quaint many-eaved architecture, 
 to a discordant and yet curiously effective accompaniment, was 
 displayed before us the Korean version of the universal poem of 
 "Love's Young Dream." One of the danseuses assumed the 
 toga virilis and the pot-hat, the other remaining the embodiment 
 of womankind. The former was of course the suitor, the 
 pursuer, the love-beseecher ; the latter was the besought, the 
 elusive, the hesitating, the Ewigweibliche. A more prosaic 
 metaphor would be that of the candle and the moth. To a 
 hand-thundering of the drums the lover advanced, displaying 
 himself like a purple pigeon in the sun. The drums faded to a 
 mournful piping of the flutes, and the loved one retreated in 
 

 
 M 
 
SEOUL AND ITS INHABITANTS. 355 
 
 shyness and refusal. With a less confident quick-step the 
 former advanced and renewed his persuasive suit. The latter 
 repelled him, hut less cruelly. The music grew tenderer and 
 more insinuating, and the hopeful one returned to his charming. 
 The shyness grew less, the warmth grew greater, the lento 
 changed to adagio, and the adagio to presto, the confidence of 
 the one increased with the increasing hesitancy of the other, 
 the pursuer revolved in a large hut decreasing circle, the pursued 
 fluttered in her little round, the space diminished, the thrill 
 became more intense, the doomed pair were within a few feet of 
 each other, till on a sudden space was annihilated for them and 
 time at an end, and to a final triumphant outburst of wood and 
 brass they were merged in each other's arms in an ecstasy of 
 passion, and the spectators relieved their pent-up feehngs in an 
 explosive sigh. The victor was vanquished at the moment of 
 his conquest ; the captured triumphant in the moment of her 
 defeat — an exquisite personification of the sex which— 
 
 " draws 
 Men upward as a moon of spring, 
 High wheeling, vast and bosom-full. 
 Half olad in clouds and white as wool, 
 Draws all the strong seas following." 
 
GHAPTEB XXIII. 
 
 THE QUESTION OF KOBE A. 
 
 rpHE Chino-Japanese war is the last link in a perfectly 
 -*- straight chain of circumstances. Korea remained sealed 
 against foreigners of all nations until 1876. In 1866 an Ameri- 
 can trading schooner called the General Sherman had heen 
 destroyed hy the Koreans, and her crew and passengers 
 murdered. A man-of-war, the Wachusett, was sent to obtain 
 satisfaction, but failed to do so. In 1870 a small American 
 expedition again appeared, and while negociations were in pro- 
 gress the Koreans fired upon a surveying party. Thereupon the 
 American commander landed his troops upon the island of Kiang 
 Hwa, destroyed five Korean forts, routed the army, killing three 
 hundred men, and then retired, with the result that Korea was 
 more firmly closed against foreigners than ever. The young King 
 came of age in 1873, and succeeded his cruel and conservative 
 father. In 1875 some sailors from a Japanese man-of-war were 
 fired upon while drawing water at Kiang Hwa. The Japanese 
 captain also destroyed a fort and killed a number of Koreans, 
 but his Government followed up the incident hy sending a fleet 
 under General Kuroda to demand satisfaction, and offer the 
 Koreans the alternative of a treaty of commerce or a war. The 
 former was chosen, China, on being appealed to by the Koreans, 
 refusing — as she has done on several similar occasions — to have 
 anything to do with the action of her nominal vassal. A treaty 
 was therefore signed on February 26, 1876, between Korea and 
 
 356 
 
THE QUESTION OF KOBBA. 357 
 
 Japan, and from this moment dates the opening of Korea to 
 foreign intercourse. On this occasion, too, the suzerainty of 
 China was formally set aside, without any protests on her part 
 — indeed, with her express recognition, since she refused to 
 interfere. Article I. of this treaty reads as follows : " Chosen 
 being an independent State enjoys the same Sovereign rights as 
 Japan." Chemulpo, Fusan, and Won-san were opened by this 
 treaty to Japanese trade. 
 
 The King himself was in favour of extending the same privi- 
 leges to other nations at their request, but the conservative 
 party prevented him. In 1882 fresh overtures were made by 
 foreign nations, and the reactionaries took alarm. Led by a 
 " scholar " named Pe Lo-kuan, an insurrection broke out in 
 Seoul, directed chiefly against the Japanese, as the promoters of 
 foreign intercourse. Several members of the Japanese Legation 
 were murdered in the streets, the Legation itself was attacked, 
 and Consul Hanabusa and his staff were at last compelled to 
 cut their way through the mob and make for the palace, where 
 they hoped to find refuge. Here, however, the gates were shut 
 against them, so they fought their way out of the city with the 
 greatest pluck, and walked all night to Chemulpo, where, to 
 escape violence, they put to sea in a native boat. Fortunately the 
 British surveying vessel, the Flying Fish, saw them, and conveyed 
 them to Nagasaki. This happened in July, 1882. Of course the 
 Japanese Government took instant action, but with great mode- 
 ration began by merely sending Mr. Hanabusa back to Seoul 
 with a strong escort to demand reparation. This was abjectly 
 offered, and a Chinese force which arrived with unusual prompti- 
 tude suppressed the rebellion, executed a number of the leaders, 
 and caused their mangled bodies to be publicly exposed. A sum of 
 500,000 dols. was accepted by the Japanese as indemnity, but was 
 subsequently forgiven to Korea in consequence of her inability 
 to pay it. Next year, other nations once more following in the 
 steps of Japan, treaties with Korea were concluded by the 
 United States, France, England, and Germany. 
 
358 KOEEA. 
 
 In 1885 the whole incident was repeated, with this difference^ 
 that the instigators of the outbreak were a few students who had 
 imbibed progressive notions in Japan, and who imagined that if 
 they began by vigorous assassination foreign nations would 
 support them. During a dinner-party to celebrate the opening 
 of the new post-office, an attempt was made to murder Ming 
 Yong-ik, an influential nobleman, who, though he had visited the 
 United States, was most bitterly opposed to the party of progress, 
 and was known to have expostulated with the King for having 
 conferred office on the students who had been educated in Japan. 
 The revolutionary leaders proceeded to the palace, secured the 
 person and to some extent the sympathy of the King, and in his 
 name, and no doubt with his assent, despatched messengers, and 
 finally an autograph letter from himself, to Mr. Takezoye, the 
 Japanese Minister, begging him to come instantly and safe- 
 guard the royal person. Mr. Takezoye, accompanied by the 
 Legation guard of 130 Japanese soldiers, complied, and guarded 
 the palace for two days. In the meantime, the revolutionists 
 executed five of the conservative Ministers. By this time the 
 Chinese troops in Seoul had decided to assert themselves : two 
 thousand proceeded to the palace, and without allowing any 
 opportunity for negociation or explanation, fired upon the 
 Japanese guard. Although outnumbered by almost ten to 
 one, the latter had no difficulty in holding their own, but at 
 length the King decided, to prevent further bloodshed, to place 
 himself in the hands of the Chinese, and therefore he proceeded 
 alone, with the consent of Mr. Takezoye, to the Chinese com- 
 mander. Having no further reason for remaining, the Japanese 
 left the palace, fought their way to the Legation, but finding it 
 surrounded by an armed mob of Chinese and Koreans, and 
 without any provisions for a siege, they quitted it again, and it 
 was immediately burned behind them. Then for the second time 
 the Japanese representative and a small band of his countrymen 
 fought their way through the streets of Seoul, and walked 
 twenty-six miles to Chemulpo, where they chartered a steamer 
 
THE QUESTION OF KOREA. 359 
 
 and returned to Japan. Again the Japanese Government de- 
 manded satisfaction, but this time from China, on account of 
 the action of the Chinese soldiers. The negociations between 
 Count Ito and Li Hung-chang, at Tientsin, in 1885, followed, 
 and after long delays, and finally a distinct hint from the former 
 that if a result satisfactory to Japan was not arrived at, war would 
 be declared, the Convention of Tientsin was concluded at the 
 eleventh hour. China agreed to withdraw her troops from 
 Korea, to punish her officers who had commanded the troops in 
 Seoul on the occasion of the attack upon the Japanese there on 
 December 6th of the preceding year, and to investigate the out- 
 rages committed by her troops on the following day. The 
 clauses of the Convention, which has unfortunately never been 
 published officially, were two. The first declared that the King 
 of Korea should be invited to form a force sufficient to preserve 
 order in future, to be trained by officers of some nation other 
 than China or Japan, and that certain internal reforms should 
 be instituted by him ; and the second, that either China or 
 Japan should have the right to dispatch troops to Korea, if 
 necessary to preserve order and protect their nationals, on giving 
 notice each to the other, and that when order was restored both 
 forces should be withdrawn simultaneously. Thus China at last 
 formally recognised the equality of Japan with herself so far as 
 Korea was concerned. This Convention shows one other im- 
 portant thing — ^that Japan put forward only the most moderate 
 claims, that she sought no advantages for herself in Korea, but 
 accepted in full satisfaction of her demands conditions which 
 merely guaranteed the future peace and prosperity of Korea. 
 These facts should have been borne in mind when charges of 
 intemperance were made against Japan for declaring war. 
 
 For the third time history has sought to repeat itself. Another 
 rebellion broke out, which the King of Korea was wholly unable 
 to suppress. This time Japan did not wait for the burning of 
 her Legation and the expulsion of her representative by the 
 forces of Korean reaction. But let it be remembered that while 
 
360 KOREA. 
 
 landing troops in perfect accordance with her treaty rights, she 
 again contented herself with proposing to China the joint occu- 
 pation of the country until reforms should have heen definitely 
 carried out to render future disturbances impossible. Not one 
 sign has she ever given of the slightest intention to secure 
 territorial advantages for herself in Korea. On the contrary 
 she has taken every occasion to declare specifically that she was 
 determined upon the independence of Korea. Upon China must 
 rest the responsibility of refusing these terms Her attitude 
 toward Korea has been marked by all her characteristic unscru- 
 pulousness. When her suzerainty over Korea has brought 
 prestige, she has asserted it ; when it has involved responsi- 
 bility, she has repudiated it. She has at last fallen between the 
 two stools. So far as my knowledge of the situation goes, I 
 am unable to see how Japan could have acted with greater 
 moderation, or could have been satisfied to propose any other 
 conditions. 
 
 In the anti-Japanese feeling prevalent in England at the 
 outbreak of the war, Japan was currently charged with having 
 deliberately provoked hostilities for the gratification of her own 
 ends. This charge is baseless in the form in which it was 
 commonly made. It is true enough that Japan had long con- 
 templated the possibility and even probability of war with 
 China about Korea, and she had made the most careful prepa- 
 rations for this. But to fear and foresee a series of events is 
 quite different from provoking them Otherwise half the nations 
 of Europe might be charged with provoking the hostility of 
 their neighbours at this moment. Japan, understanding China 
 so incomparably better than any European nation understands 
 that strange country, knew well enough that Korean troubles 
 would occur and recur until drastic measures were taken for 
 their permanent suppression, and that China would always 
 oppose these measures, even by force if diplomacy and pro- 
 crastination should faU. At last the old trouble came, in a 
 rising of the Togaku-to, as it is called in Japanese, or the 
 
THE QUESTION OF KOKEA. 361 
 
 Tonghak rebellion — the two characters of this name signifying 
 " Eastern Learning." This was nothing more than one of the 
 periodical revolts against official exactions, but it grew rather 
 faster than usual, and the rotten Korean government was 
 beaten in several engagements. China thereupon despatched 
 a considerable force to crush the Tonghaks, and in the despatch 
 announcing the fact to Japan she employed an expression 
 which deliberately set the Li-Ito Convention at defiance. Japan 
 had already been intensely irritated by an incident which had 
 just occurred, and this significant neglect of a diplomatic re- 
 quirement added fresh fuel to the flames of her anger. 
 
 Japanese public opinion at the time cannot be understood 
 without a knowledge of this incident. I will therefore narrate 
 it in the fewest possible words. The leader of the Korean 
 revolutionists who had attacked Ming Yong-ik, that arch- 
 conservative and denouncer of the young Koreans who had been 
 educated in Japan, was a certain Kim Ok-kyun. When the 
 revolt was crushed and the hopes of the young Korean Japano- 
 philes at an end, Kim Ok-kyun naturally sought refuge in 
 Japan. There he lived in security and obscurity for some 
 time, but the Korean Government had neither forgotten nor 
 forgiven him. Two or three Koreans were accordingly de- 
 spatched secretly to Japan to assassinate him — in itself a 
 sufficient outrage to Japanese soil. They nearly succeeded, 
 but Kim's suspicions being aroused at the last moment he 
 failed to keep the appointment at which he was to have been 
 killed. By and by, however, one of the conspirators succeeded 
 in luring him to Shanghai upon some pretext or other, and 
 he was shot to death in a native hotel there on the very night 
 of his arrival. So far from arresting the murderer, the Chinese 
 authorities sent him in all comfort, with the corpse of his 
 victim, upon a Chinese gunboat to Korea, where he was 
 received with rejoicings, loaded with honours and given official 
 rank, while the body of Kim was publicly hacked in pieces, 
 his head salted and promenaded through the principal cities. 
 
362 EOKBA. 
 
 and his relatives murdered. Thus the man who had raised 
 the standard of revolt in Korea for Japanese ideas, and who 
 had been received by Japan as an exile to be protected (just 
 as we have received revolutionary exiles in England), was 
 decoyed away to Chinese soil, murdered there with the almost 
 certain connivance of China, his murderer treated with every 
 consideration, and a Chinese Government vessel employed to 
 take both assassin and victim to the honour and the degradation 
 which respectively awaited them in Korea. This was enough 
 to have provoked an outburst of popular anger in a much 
 more sedate country than Japan, and it was while the 
 Japanese were thus deeply indignant at this combination of 
 Korean treachery and Chinese insult that Chinese troops were 
 sent to Korea, and the irritating despatch sent, as I have 
 described. The Japanese instantly despatched a still larger 
 force, and the diplomatic negociations began. 
 
 It will be remembered that China raised no protest when 
 Korea described herself as an independent State, and concluded 
 foreign treaties upon that basis, and that she had further 
 admitted Japan to equal rights with herself for the preservation 
 of order in Korea. Yet the despatch announcing to Japan 
 the departure of Chinese troops to Korea was couched in these 
 words : — 
 
 " The application upon examination is found to be urgent toth in words and in 
 fact, and that it is in harmony with our constant practice to protect our tributary 
 states by sending our troops to assist them. These circumstances were accordingly 
 submitted to His Imperial Majesty, and in obedience to his will. General Yeh, 
 Commander of troops in Chihli has been ordered to proceed at once to Zenra and 
 Chinsei in Korea with selected troops, and to speedfly suppress the disturbance in 
 such manner as he may deem' most convenient in order to restore the peace of our 
 tributary state and to dispel the anxiety of the subjects of every nation residing in 
 Korea for commercial purposes, and at the same time the General is commanded to 
 return with the troops as soon as the desired object is attained." 
 
 By thus asserting at the outset the fact that China regarded 
 Korea as a tributary State, the Chinese Government deliberately 
 repudiated the past and challenged Japan to make good the 
 
THE QUESTION OF KOKEA. 363 
 
 position which she had always maintained, and which had been 
 formally recognised nine years before. A less conciliatory 
 despatch — especially considering that Japan was smarting under 
 the murder of Kim Ok-kyun — could not have been penned. 
 The reply of the Japanese Government could easily have been 
 foreseen. It was (June 7), "In reply, I beg to declare that, 
 although the words ' tributary State ' appear in your Note, the 
 Imperial government has never recognised Korea as a tributary 
 State of China." At the same time the Japanese Minister in 
 Peking informed the Tsungli Yamen that, " owing to the exist- 
 ence of a disturbance of a grave nature in Korea necessitating 
 the presence of Japanese troops there, it is the intention of the 
 Imperial government to send a body of Japanese troops to that 
 country." Two days later (June 9) the Tsungli Yamen, with 
 extraordinary promptitude, replied as follows, and the despatch 
 is worth giving at length, as it is so deliciously characteristic 
 of Chinese diplomatic methods : — • 
 
 " The sole object of your country in sending troops is evidently to protect the 
 Legation, Consulates, and commercial people in Korea, and, consequently, it may 
 not be necessary on the pirt of your country to despatch a great number of troops, 
 and, besides, as no application therefore has been made by Korea, it is requested 
 that no troops shall proceed to the interior of Korea so that they may not cause 
 alarm to her people. And, moreover, since it is feared that in the event the soldiers 
 of the two nations should meet on the way, oases of unexpected accident might 
 occur, owing to the difference of language and military etiquette, we beg to request 
 in addition that you wUl be good enough to telegraph the purport of this com- 
 munication to the Government of Japan." 
 
 In the despatch China totally and calmly ignored the fact that 
 by treaty Japan had identically the same rights as China to 
 send troops to Korea ! Of course the Japanese reply (June 12) 
 pointed this out : — 
 
 " The Imperial Japanese Government has never recognised Korea as a tributary 
 state of China. Japan despatched her troops in virtue of the Chemulpo Convention, 
 and in so doing she has followed the procedure laid down in the Treaty of Tientsin. 
 As to the number of troops, the Japanese Government is compelled to exercise its own 
 judgment. Although no restriction is placed upon the movement of the Japanese 
 troops, in Korea, they will not be sent where their presence is not deemed necessary. 
 
364 EOEEA. 
 
 The Japanese troops are under strict diseipliue, and the Japanese Government is 
 confident that they will not precipitate a collision with the Chinese forces. It is 
 hoped that China has adopted similar precautions." 
 
 This unanswerable despatch brought down the curtain upon 
 the first act. Both Chinese and Japanese troops were in Korea, 
 precisely as the Li-Ito Convention of 1885 had agreed that 
 under such circumstances they should be. The Chinese Ministers 
 had vainly endeavoured to wriggle out of their previous 
 promises, and being unable to do so, this aspect of the matter 
 disappeared. 
 
 The next step came from Japan, and took the form of the 
 following proposals for the future administration of Korea 
 (June 17):— 
 
 " As to the present events, Japan and China to unite their efforts for the speedy 
 suppression of the disturbance of her insurgent people. After the suppression of 
 the disturbance, Japan and China, with a view to the improvement of the internal 
 administration of Korea, to respectively send a number of Commissioners charged 
 with the duty of investigating measures of improvement, in the first place on the 
 following general points : — (a) Examination of the financial administration. (6) 
 Selection of the Central and Local Officials, (c) Establishment of an army necessary 
 for national defence in order to preserve the peace of the land." 
 
 To this the Chinese Minister in Tokyo replied that the 
 disturbance was already put down, and that reforms must be 
 left to Korea herself. This suggestion was amusing enough, 
 but the argument by which it was supported was farcical. 
 H. E. Wang wrote: "Even China herself would not interfere 
 with the internal administration of Korea, and Japan having 
 from the very first recognised the independence of Korea, 
 cannot have the right to interfere with the same." This is 
 Chinese diplomacy at its happiest : first, Korea is not in- 
 dependent, but dependent upon China, and therefore Japan 
 has no right to interfere; second, Korea is independent, even 
 of China, and therefore again Japan has no right to interfere ! 
 Is it to be wondered at that Japan should brush aside diplomacy 
 conducted with such puerile craft ? The point to be borne in 
 mind, however, is that Japan requested China to unite with her 
 
THE QUESTION OF KOREA. 365 
 
 in joint action for the reform and strengthening of an in- 
 dependent Korea, and that China refused to do so. The 
 parallel of Great Britain, France and Egypt will occur to every 
 reader. Japan had determined that this should be the last 
 •wrangle over Korea, and pursuing the parallel, she informed 
 China in the following admirable despatch (June 22), that she 
 should undertake the task single-handed if China persisted in 
 her refusal : — 
 
 " The Imperial Government, much to its regret, finds it impossible to share the 
 hopeful views entertained by your Excellency's Government regarding the actual 
 situation in Korea at the present time. Sad experience teaches us that the 
 Peninsular Kingdom is the theatre of political intrigues and civil revolts and dis- 
 turbances of such frequent recurrence as to justify the conclusion that the Govern- 
 ment of that country is laclsing in some of the elements which are essential to 
 responsible independence. The interests of Japan in Korea, arising from pro- 
 pinquity as well as commerce, are too important and far-reaching to allow her to 
 view with indifference the deplorable condition of affairs in that kingdom. In the 
 estimation of the Imperial Government the withdrawal of forces should be con- 
 sequent upon the establishment of some understanding that will serve to guarantee 
 the future peace, order, and good government of the country. That course of 
 action is, moreover, it seems to his Imperial Majesty's Government, not only in 
 perfect harmony with the spirit of the Tientsin Convention, but it accords with the 
 dictates of reasonable precaution. Should the Government of China continue to 
 hold views antagonistic to those which I have frankly and in good faith presented 
 to your Excellency, it cannot be expected that the Imperial Government will, under 
 the circumstances, feel at liberty to sanction the present retirement of their troops 
 from Korea." 
 
 This was followed by a formal declaration to the Tsungli 
 Yamen that "in this juncture the Imperial Japanese Govern- 
 ment find themselves relieved of all responsibility for any 
 eventuality that may, in future, arise out of the situation." 
 China still did not realise the danger that lay before her, and 
 tried one more piece of bluff by demanding that the withdrawal 
 of the Japanese troops should precede any negociations. The 
 Japanese, not being fools, dismissed that suggestion for what 
 it was worth, and took an early occasion to inform China that 
 any further despatch of troops to Korea would be regarded by 
 Japan as a hostile act. Both countries had up to that point 
 availed themselves of their rights under the Tientsin Convention, 
 
366 KOREA. 
 
 and it could not be pretended that the Chinese and Japanese 
 forces together were not abundantly capable of keeping order in 
 Korea. For Japan to have allowed China to send reinforce- 
 ments at this moment would have been an act of suicide. 
 She knew Chinese methods far too well to permit anything of 
 the kind. China's reply was to send the Kowshing, full of 
 troops, relying upon the British flag to protect them on the sea. 
 The Chen Yuen met the Naniwa at sea, fired upon her and 
 steamed away (there seems no reason to doubt the statements 
 to this effect), and shortly afterwards the Naniwa met the 
 Kowshing, and on the latter failing to surrender, sunk her. I 
 express no opinion upon the technical point of international 
 law involved, though to a non-expert it seems clear enough, 
 but it is probable that if the Japanese had committed an outrage 
 upon the British flag on this occasion, they would have been 
 brought to book for it before the lapse of five months. It 
 is therefore fair to presume that they were within their rights. 
 The Japanese declaration of war came on August 3, and that 
 of China, affording a painful comparison by its tone and 
 language, followed immediately. Subsequent events are too 
 well known to need recapitulation ; they may be summarised 
 for the present in the four names, Asan, Phyong-yang, Yalu, and 
 Port Arthur. 
 
 In Korea itself, in the meantime, little has happened. The 
 anti-Japanese party has of course been thrust out of of&ce, and 
 replaced by politicians having presumably Japanese sympathies. 
 The Government has vacillated, so far as was possible to it 
 under the circumstances, between China and Japan, promising 
 and intriguing first for one party and then for another. Naturally 
 the of&cial class has made every effort in its power to save its 
 historic right to plunder the people. The Japanese have con- 
 cluded a treaty with the King, to last till the conclusion of the 
 war, by which his independence is guaranteed. This has, of 
 course, no significance as indicating the sympathy of the King, 
 as he had no choice but to accept it ; but it is of importance as 
 
THE QUESTION OF KOREA. 367 
 
 putting the Japanese attitude formally on record. A number 
 of reforms of a sweeping character have been imposed upon the 
 government, and the only criticism that can be passed upon 
 them is that they exhibit perhaps an undue confidence in the 
 possible political development of the Korean character. As 
 Japan, however, will be charged with carrying them out, she 
 may well be left with the responsibility of having proposed 
 them. As for the intrigues, the shilly-shallying, the professions 
 of grateful friendship followed by hostile treachery, and these 
 again succeeded by promises of faithfulness and pitiful revolts, 
 they are but the natural consequences of stirring up an admini- 
 stration which has been well called a cesspool of corruption. 
 The main fact is that Korea has come under the influence of 
 Japan, and that under its influence she will remain. 
 
 Japan has one indisputable claim to her new sphere of 
 interest : she has won it by the sword. That is the kind of 
 right which the world most easily recognises. Moreover, she 
 may put in an additional moral claim on the ground that her 
 control will confer vast benefits upon the unfortunate Korean 
 people. But beside these she has other very cogent justifica- 
 tions for her action. In the first place, it was she who opened 
 Korea to foreign intercourse. And second, the greater part of 
 Korea's modern trade has been created by Japan, and is in the 
 hands of her merchants. Except with China and Japan, Korea 
 has little trade worth mentioning, and the interest of the latter 
 is exactly twice that of the former. The net value of Korean 
 direct foreign trade for 1892 and 1893 together was 4,240,498 
 dollars with China, and 8,306,571 dollars with Japan. In tonnage 
 of shipping the proportion was vastly greater in favour of Japan. 
 Her tonnage in 1893 was over twenty times that of China, and 
 the number of vessels entered and cleared was over twenty-five 
 times. The exact figures are : tonnage — China, 14,376 ; Japan, 
 304,224 : number of vessels— China, 37 ; Japan, 956. In fact, 
 the tonnage of Japan's shipping trade with Korea last year was 
 more than seven times that of all other nations put together, 
 
368 EOBEA. 
 
 including China. Many a western war has been fought to 
 preserve a smaller actual and prospective commercial pre- 
 ponderance. 
 
 As regards the future, unless a great change has recently come 
 over the diplomacy of Japan, it is Eussia that she fears. The 
 status of all the other European Powers in the Far East is ap- 
 proximately fixed. Spain and Portugal count for nothing. Japan 
 could wipe out either of them. France will hardly claim to 
 extend north and east of Tongking. Germany is making great 
 progress with her trade, but she has no opportunity to seek terri- 
 torial advantages. Great Britain has reached her limit, with 
 the exception of the Malay Peninsula, which will certainly be hers 
 sooner or later ; of a naval base north of Hongkong ; and of Siam, 
 in which developments are possible ; and Japan is not interested 
 in two of these directions. But for Eussia the Far East lies in 
 the direct line of immediate expansion. The late Tsar made 
 the path of international politics an easy and a pleasant one to 
 tread, and his successor may be counted upon to preserve a 
 similar attitude. But Japan has learned that nations have to 
 reckon with the inevitable Drang of other nations, and that they 
 cannot count for security upon the good-will of any individual. 
 Japan has suffered once in a little transaction with Eussia, when 
 she exchanged Saghalin for the Kurile Islands. She has seen 
 illegitimate European-directed sealing expeditions which sailed 
 secretly from her shores fired upon murderously by armed parties 
 in Eussian waters, and no redress or even information has been 
 obtainable. She has watched the Eussian fleet come for its 
 manoeuvres year after year to the Korean bay in which lies Port 
 Lazareff : only the other day a Eussian cruiser, the Vitiaz, was 
 lost there. She knows that the Eussian Minister at Seoul has 
 tried — as one of his own colleagues expressed it to me — to jauer 
 un grand role dans wn petit trou. She has applied to the Eussian 
 Minister and the Chinese Eesident there the proverb that " two 
 foxes cannot live in the same sack." She remembers when a 
 Eussian man-of-war — I think it was the Vladimir Monomach — 
 
THE QUESTION OP KOREA. 369 
 
 beat to quarters in Yokohama harbour and trained its guns upon 
 an approaching British ship, and when she telegraphed down 
 the coast for a little gunboat of her own which carried a 35-ton 
 gun, and anchored it alongside the Eussian, before sending on 
 board to exact an apology for the breach of neutrality. The 
 time for Eussian action in the Far East may not be ripe yet, 
 for it will be some time before the Trans- Siberian railway will 
 be of any service. But sooner or later Eussia will need a winter 
 harbour in the Far East, and Japan knows that in Eussian plans 
 Port Lazareff has long been fixed upon as one of the two 
 possible places. This would be a serious matter for Japan, 
 and in her present state of mind I feel sure she would rather 
 fight than yield it. Yet for my own part, as I have already 
 said, I am convinced that the Eussian terminus of the Trans- 
 Siberian Eailway will be (unless much bigger events take place) 
 in Korean waters. The discussion of this eventuality, however, 
 is connected with the momentous suggestion to which I have 
 already alluded and which is treated in a later chapter, namely, 
 that of Asia for the Asiatics. Of this, Europe is destined some 
 day to hear not a little. But in connection with the immediate 
 future of Korea it is of more interest to see exactly what is the 
 present attitude of Eussia as defined in the one international 
 document upon the subject which has been published. Port 
 Hamilton, it will be remembered, was occupied by British 
 vessels under Vice-Admiral Sir W. Dowell in April, 1885, under 
 instructions from Mr. Gladstone's Government. The naval 
 authorities reported that it was worse than useless ; protests 
 were received from China, Japan, and Korea, and it was under- 
 stood that if the occupation were persisted in, both Eussia and 
 Japan would seek some similar territorial strategic advantage. 
 Lord Iddesleigh (a change of Ministries having meanwhile 
 occurred) therefore confidentially advised the British Minister in 
 Peking that the British Government would be prepared to 
 evacuate Port Hamilton " if any suitable arrangement could 
 be made which would ensure that neither it nor Port Lazareff 
 
 25 
 
370 KOREA. 
 
 shall pass into hostile [that is, Eussian] hands." An assurance 
 to this effect was obtained by China from Eussia, and com- 
 municated in the following terms, which now become once more 
 of great importance : — 
 
 " Eumours have recently been disseminated from Corea that Eussia was inter- 
 fering with China's feudatory. The Chinese Government accordingly demanded 
 an explanation from Eussia as to the existence or otherwise of this fact, and in due 
 course the Eussian Foreign Office gave the Chinese Minister Liu the most frank 
 assurances that the Eussian Government had absolutely no such intentions. M. 
 Ladygensky, the Eussian Chargg d'Affaires at Peking, further went to Tient-sin at 
 the orders of the Eussian Foreign Office, and had several personal conversations 
 with the Grand Secretary Li, Minister Superintendent of Northern Trade, to whom 
 he repeated and enlarged upon the answer earlier given to the Minister Liu. He 
 also stated that the Eussian Government gave a sincere promise that if the British 
 would evacuate Port Hamilton, the Eussian Government would not occupy Gorean 
 territory under any circumstances whatsoever. 
 
 " The Grand Secretary Li, Minister Superintendent of Northern Trade, then told 
 M. Ladygensky that what was feared was that after the British vessels of war had 
 retired from these islands they would be again taken possession by some other 
 Power. Eussia, therefore, must guarantee that she would not hereafter seize these 
 islands, and on the faith of this guarantee China could officially address the British 
 Government, and urge their speedy evacuation. 
 
 " In the course of time M. Ladygensky, in obedience to instructions from the 
 EuBsiau Government, gave a most explicit guarantee, distinctly declaring that in 
 the future Eussia would not take Gorean territory. 
 
 " The Chinese Government is therefore naturally in a position, on the faith of 
 he guarantee of the Eussian Government, to give a guarantee to the British 
 Government." • 
 
 Port Hamilton was accordingly evacuated on February 27, 
 1887. 
 
 It will be observed that the Eussian assurance came wholly 
 through the Tsungli Yamen. We — the public, at least — -have 
 no other source of information concerning this assurance. We 
 do not know what conditions may have been attached to it, or 
 what was the exact form taken by M. Ladygensky's " explicit 
 guarantee." At the time this was given, China's pledge was 
 sufficient, because it was then believed that China would have 
 been a valuable ally in case war had resulted from the breaking of 
 the promise. But China is now known to be virtually worthless 
 
 • The Tsungli YamSn to Sir J. Walsham, Peking, October 31, 1886. China, 
 No. 1 (1887), p. 33. 
 
THE QUESTION OP KOREA. 371 
 
 as a fighting force, yet we have only her word that Eussia pro- 
 mised, years before the Trans-Siberian Eailway was sanctioned, 
 that she " would not occupy Korean territory under any circum- 
 stances whatsoever." And the word of China, on such a matter at 
 such a moment, is not worth to-day the paper on which it was 
 written. Such, then, is the position of Eussia in this question ; 
 China has been brushed aside; Korea will doubtless be left 
 independent under a more or less defined Japanese protection ; 
 and Japan is left face to face with a problematical future. 
 
JAPAN. 
 
CHAPTEB XXIV- 
 
 THE JAPAN OF TO-DAY, 
 
 TAP AN has at length come into her inheritance. Kossuth is 
 ^ reported to have said that the two most wonderful men in 
 the world were Prince Bismarck and the Emperor of Japan. 
 Prom one of these the wonder has somewhat abated of late, but 
 the country of the other has finally imposed itself upon the some- 
 what unwilling recognition of the West. The "child of the world's 
 old age " has proved to be its most remarkable offspring. Until 
 to-day, however, the world has not taken Japan quite seriously, 
 in spite of the thousands of travellers who have visited her and 
 the hundreds of volumes that have been written about her. 
 But now that she has been seen sword in hand, sweeping 
 the Chinese hordes out of Korea and Manchuria, driving the 
 Chinese ships off the sea, and capturing their principal fortress 
 in the course of a morning, and at the same time concluding 
 a treaty with Great Britain on equal terms, Japan stands no 
 longer in need of the encomiums and the prophecies of her 
 friends. Her leap from feudalism to modernity is without 
 parallel, but everybody appreciates it now. In a quarter of 
 a century she has sprung from an Oriental despotism, hating 
 foreigners above all else, and differing only from other Oriental 
 despotisms by the fact that the ruling influence among her 
 people was one of the strictest, loftiest, and most punctilious 
 codes of honour that man has ever devised, to a nation whose 
 army and navy may meet those of contemporary Europe on 
 equal terms ; whose laws will bear comparison with any in 
 
 375 
 
376 JAPAN. 
 
 existence; whose manufactures are driving western producers 
 from the field ; whose art-work has created a new standard of 
 taste abroad ; whose education has produced a band of experts 
 second to none — it was a Japanese physician who first dis- 
 covered the bacillus of the bubonic plague in Hongkong ; whose 
 colonising strength suggests more than one alteration of the 
 map of Asia; whose official statistics, for truthfulness and 
 elaboration, leave those of many western countries far behind — 
 her last Budget covers 1,438 printed pages ; whose people are 
 simply thirsting for fresh fields to conquer, and scorn the mere 
 idea of failure. All this, however, has become a commonplace 
 of information, and so far as I am concerned, I have written 
 about it in so much detail elsewhere,* that here I propose 
 only to touch upon two or three aspects of Japanese life which 
 characterise her more intimately to-day than ever before. 
 
 The first aspect under which the world must now regard 
 Japan with respectful interest is that of a first-class Power. 
 Four years ago I wrote that the Japanese army was virtually a 
 European force, and that it might be counted upon to make a 
 desperate fight against any enemy in the world. To-day there 
 is no longer any need to dwell upon the armed strength of Japan, 
 since war — the supreme test of paper and parade-ground dis- 
 positions — has tried it. The Japanese army and navy have proved 
 themselves more than equal to the physical estimate that their 
 admirers had formed of them. As rapidly as Germany when 
 Von Moltke telegraphed " Krieg mobil," the army was ready. 
 Force after force was despatched with a secrecy, a simplicity, 
 a celerity and a completeness that few European nations 
 could equal ; the reserves came to the colours with a 
 mechanical precision ; and this time literally not a gaiter- 
 button, in Marshal Leboeuf's famous phrase, was lacking 
 from their equipment. Every European expert has been enthu- 
 siastic in his praise of the perfection of Japanese methods, the 
 
 * In my book entitled ' ' The Eeal Japan : Studies in Japanese Manners, Morals, 
 Administration and Politics," London . T. Fisher Unwin, fourth edition, 1894. 
 
THE JAPAN OF TO-DAY. 377 
 
 discipline of Japanese men, and the scientific tactics of Japanese 
 officers ; while the succession of brilliant victories tells its own 
 tale of the primal virtue of courage. Of this the vernacular 
 papers have been full of stories, one of which I will quote as 
 typical of the Japanese people. At the battle of Song-hwan a 
 bugler named Genjiro stood beside Captain Matsuzaki, when a 
 bullet struck him in the chest. Though knowing he was 
 seriously wounded, he continued to blow until breath failed him 
 and he fell dead where he had stood. The so-called " Christian 
 Patriotic Belief Corps" of his native village of Funaomura 
 collected a few presents to send to his family — who were people 
 in the humblest circumstances — with a letter of consolation; 
 the headman collected the people of the village, the gifts were 
 presented by the local member of Parliament, and in reply 
 Genjiro's father spoke as follows : — " It is the lot of all men to 
 die. My son had to die some time. Instead of falling asleep 
 in a corner of this miserable hovel, unmourned save by a few 
 relatives, he has fallen on the field of honour and received the 
 praise of a multitude of his superiors. Hence his mother and 
 I cannot look upon this as a mournful occasion. We rejoice 
 that our son has been loyal to Japan, even to the point of 
 shedding his blood in defence of her honour." 
 
 The Japanese army consists to-day of the Imperial Guard, and 
 six Divisions with headquarters in the principal districts of the 
 country. These average about 10,000 men each, and to each is 
 allotted a First and Second Reserve. According to the latest 
 statistics, the total strength is as follows : — 
 
 With the First Second 
 
 Colours. Beserve. Eeserve. 
 
 Imperial Guard 6,530 8,610 5,507 
 
 First Division (Tokyo) 10,068 15,549 19,870 
 
 Second Division (Sendai) .... 8,892 16,428 20,002 
 
 Third Division (Nagoya) 9,011 13,912 15,897 
 
 Fourth Division (Osaka) 9,157 14,876 15,595 
 
 Fifth Division (Hiroshima) .. 8,882 13,462 17,077 
 
 Sixth Division (Kumamoto) .. 9,885 14,870 16,039 
 
 Total 62,425 97,707 109,987—270,119 
 
378 JAPAN. 
 
 The actual fighting force of Japan, therefore, without taking 
 into account the large numbers of less-trained levies she could 
 raise in dire extremity, amounts to at least 250,000 men. It is 
 sufficient to add that a force of this strength, armed, drilled, 
 equipped, and led as the Japanese army is, renders Japan the 
 leading Power of Asia so far as operations on land are concerned. 
 Japan might well have raised and perfected this force without 
 having developed the moral qualities which are as essential as 
 mere strength to the proper conception of a Great Power. 
 That she realises the imperative need of these — apart from 
 the tributes that have been paid to her troops for their 
 admirable behaviour, and the consideration with which they 
 have treated the people among whom they have been quartered, 
 — a single example may suffice to show. Soon after the de- 
 claration of war the following proclamation was made to the 
 Japanese army by Count Oyama, the Minister for War, who 
 subsequently took command of the Second Army, and so success- 
 fully attacked Port Arthur : — 
 
 Belligerent operations being properly confined to the military and naval forces 
 actually engaged, and there being no reason whatever for enmity between indi- 
 viduals because their countries are at war, the common principles of humanity 
 dictate that succour and rescue should be extended even to those of the enemy's 
 forces who are disabled either by wounds or disease. In obedience to these 
 principles, civilised nations in time of peace enter into conventions to mutually 
 assist disabled persons in time of war without distinction of friend or foe. This 
 humane union is called the Geneva Convention, or more commonly the Eed Cross 
 Association. Japan became a party to it in June, 1886, and her soldiers have 
 already been instructed that they are bound to treat with kindness and helpfulness 
 such of their enemies as may be disabled by wounds or disease. China not having 
 joined any such Convention, it is possible that her soldiers, ignorant of these 
 enligbtened principles, may subject diseased or wounded Japanese to merciless 
 treatment. Against such contingencies the Japanese troops must be on their 
 guard. But at the same time they must never forget that however cruel and 
 vindictive the foe may show himself, he must nevertheless be treated in accordance 
 with the acknowledged rules of civilisation ; his disabled must be succoured and 
 his captured kindly and considerately protected. 
 
 It is not alone to those disabled by wounds or sickness that merciful and gentle 
 treatment should be extended. Similar treatment is also due to those who offer 
 no resistance to our ^ms. Even the body of a dead enemy should be treated with 
 respect. "We cannot too much admire the course pursued by a certain Western 
 country which in handing over an enemy's general compUed with all the rites and 
 
THE JAPAN OF TO-DAY. 379 
 
 ceremonies suitable to the rank of the captive. Japanese soldiers should always 
 bear in mind the gracious benevolence of their august Sovereign and should not be 
 more anxious to display courage than charity. They have now an opportunity to 
 afford practical proof of the value they attach to these principles. 
 
 (Signed) Otama Iwao, Count, 
 
 Minister of State for War. 
 September 22nd, 27th year of Meiji. 
 
 It is perhaps not too much to say that in the history of warfare 
 no army has ever been sent to the front with a more admirable 
 exhortation. For the sake of contrast, it may be recalled that 
 at this time Chinese Viceroys were offering and paying rewards 
 for the heads and hands of Japanese soldiers, and that Chinese 
 officers, as an eyewitness has testified, were claiming and 
 receiving them. It was rumoured that one of the conditions of 
 peace to be insisted upon by Japan was that the Chinese 
 officials who had been guilty of this barbarity should be handed 
 over to them for execution. The rumour was denied, but, for 
 my own part, I am sorry it was not true, since one lesson 
 of this kind would have taught China more civilisation than she 
 has learned during the last thousand years. 
 
 The Japanese people have exhibited the greatest patriotism 
 and enthusiasm for this war, and if their own newspapers may 
 be trusted, chiefly because its result was to be the carrying of 
 Japanese enlightenment into the darkest country of Asia. An 
 enormous sum was subscribed in a few weeks and voluntarily 
 presented to the Government. When a loan of 50,000,000 dols. 
 was asked for, 77,000,000 were promptly offered. Not for one 
 moment has the slightest doubt of the result of the war been 
 felt. Certain foreigners, says the Japan Mail, were expressing 
 surprise at the quiet manner in which the announcement of the 
 victory of the Yalu was received in Tokyo. " The reply was 
 eminently characteristic of the Japanese. ' But this is only 
 what we knew would happen ; it was a matter of course ; why 
 should there be any unusual display or demonstration if the 
 victory of our arms was positively assured from the outset ? ' " 
 Yet the one point upon which the Japanese might well have felt 
 
380 JAPAN. 
 
 considerable anxiety was the question of their equality with the 
 Chinese at sea, especially as the great fight, when it came, was 
 bound to be to a large extent one of cruisers against ironclads. 
 
 One other point only calls for comment in this connection. 
 European writers, knowing in most cases little of the extreme 
 strictness of Japanese military organisation, have frequently 
 said that both the Japanese and Chinese accounts of what had 
 happened must be received with equal scepticism until supported 
 by independent testimony. The correspondents at Shanghai — 
 who have been responsible for an almost unbroken succession of 
 misstatements concerning the war — have constantly made this 
 assertion. It is so baseless as to be ridiculous. Not in one 
 single instance has the official report by the responsible Japa- 
 nese commander been shown to deviate by a hair's breadth 
 from the exact truth so far as he could possibly know it. 
 All Japanese statistics, as I have said, are compiled with 
 more than German detail and scrupulousness ; every Japanese 
 soldier wears a metal disc slung round his neck for purposes 
 of identification ; and the most precise detail of every action 
 either has been published or will be when the history of the war 
 comes to be written. A friend at the centre of affairs in Japan 
 wrote to me upon this point as follows : — " It has always to be 
 remembered, in judging between Chinese and Japanese accounts, 
 that the former emanate from private and irresponsible sources, 
 the latter from official ones. The salient features of every fight 
 are reported by the Japanese Admiral or General in command, 
 and the report is published by the Government. Any wilful 
 perversions of facts would involve a court-martial for the officer, 
 and would bring the political house about the Government's ears." 
 The second aspect under which the progress of Japan is of 
 great interest to western nations, is that of a rival in manu- 
 factures. This is a far more serious question, especially to 
 Great Britain, than is yet generally understood. The truth is 
 that our manufacturers are actually being driven out of many 
 markets of the East by the Japanese, and that the most com- 
 
THE JAPAN OP TO-DAY. 331 
 
 petent observers prophesy the rapid development of this process. 
 The circumstances under which the vrar almost produced a 
 commercial crisis in Japan, hear striking testimony to the 
 growth of Japanese manufacturing interests. In 1893, there 
 were about a quarter of a million cotton spindles in Japan ; this 
 year there are over half a million. On July 6th, the Osaka 
 branch of the Bank of Japan had 6,000,000 dols. advanced for 
 the purchase of raw cotton ; when the war came, however, the 
 banks withdrew a good deal of their credit, and the cotton- 
 spinning companies found themselves threatened with ruin at a 
 moment when their trade afforded the most legitimate justifica- 
 tion for extension. Under these circumstances a panic was only 
 averted by the promise of the Government to give assistance. 
 In 1875, there was no cotton-spinning in Japan, as in that year 
 the first European machines, of small capacity, were introduced. 
 The following table, compiled by a Japanese economist, shows 
 the rate of progress since then, with the inevitable corresponding 
 decline of imports from Great Britain and India : — 
 
 
 National Production 
 
 
 Foreign Imports 
 
 
 in Japanese lbs. 
 
 
 in English lbs. 
 
 1888 ... 
 
 956,804 
 
 .« 
 
 47,439,639 
 
 1889 ... 
 
 20,952,687 
 
 ., 
 
 42,810,912 
 
 1890 ... 
 
 ... 32,217,456 
 
 *• 
 
 31,908,302 
 
 1891 ... 
 
 45,306,444 
 
 .• 
 
 17,337,600 
 
 1892 ... 
 
 64,046,925 
 
 .. 
 
 24,308,491 
 
 And new companies are being formed in Japan even at this 
 moment, with a total capital of over 2,500,000 dols. 
 
 The skill and intelligence of the Japanese at all handicrafts is 
 a matter of common knowledge ; and considering at the same 
 time the low rate of its remuneration, Japanese labour is beyond 
 all comparison the cheapest in the world. In Miiki wages 
 averaged last year, according to the British Consul's report, 
 17'37 sen (about 5d.) a day per man, and 7'85 sen per woman ; 
 at Kurume, 15"05 sen per man, and 9'95 sen per woman; at 
 Kagoshima 15'35 sen per man, and 5*57 sen per woman. At 
 the last-mentioned place the day averaged lOg- hours, while at 
 
382 JAPAN. 
 
 Miiki and Kurume the spindles were working 23 hours and 24 
 hours a day throughout the year, excepting holidays. At 
 Osaka, the chief Japanese manufacturing centre, men earned 
 from 6d. to 2s. 4d. a day, and women from Ijd. to 5d. ; girls, 
 eight or nine years old, worked 12 hours a day for 3d. Many of 
 the mills run for 24 hours a day, in two shifts of 12 hours each, 
 with a total allowance of forty minutes for meals. Moreover, 
 the Diet is about to press the Government to remove or greatly 
 modify the import and export duties upon cotton, which will 
 probably be done, and the manufacture thus receive a very 
 stimulating bonus. It is not only in cotton, however, that the 
 Japanese are competing favourably with western nations. A 
 " Japan Watch Company," of Yokohama, is about to commence 
 the manufacture of watches on a large scale ; it has procured 
 the finest watch-making machinery from America, and has 
 erected engines of one hundred horse power to run it. This is 
 an enterprise for which Japanese labour is peculiarly adapted, 
 and with the inexhaustible market of the East to supply, the 
 promoters are probably not too sanguine in anticipating a great 
 success. In match-making, again, the Japanese manufacturers 
 have driven all competitors out of the East. " There is no 
 doubt," says Mr. J. H. Gubbins, Secretary of the British 
 Legation in Tokyo, " that so far as the Eastern market is con- 
 cerned, no country can any longer compete with Japan in this 
 particular industry." Five million gross went last year to 
 Hongkong alone. Already Japan is manufacturing the rolling- 
 stock for the Korean railway to be built. In every Consular 
 and Customs Eeport the same story of Japanese competition is 
 told. Japanese cotton goods have got as far as the Straits, and 
 her clocks have already beaten even the countrymen of Sam 
 Slick in that market. Fifteen hundred dozen undershirts came 
 to Singapore in one recent consignment. From Macao Mr. 
 Brennan writes : — " The articles from Japan at present con- 
 sist of curios, cotton cloths, blankets, flannels, hosiery, soaps, 
 lamps, tea-kettles, matches, hats, umbrellas, Gladstone bags, 
 
THE JAPAN OF TO-DAY. 383 
 
 silks, and such like. To give an idea of the cheapness, I may 
 say that umbrellas of European pattern cost 30 cents to 1 dol. 
 (lid. to 2s. 2d.), and cotton crapes 1 dol. to 1 dol. 20 cents a 
 piece of 20 yards, that is 2s. 2d. to 2s. 7d. These are of fine 
 texture and nice appearance, so that they are much appreciated 
 by Chinese and Europeans, and worn as dresses and shirts. 
 Indeed, the competition of Japanese goods is sure to become 
 keener in course of time." At Tamsui, Japanese towelling 
 has taken the place of former importations, and the import of 
 Japanese cottons in 1893 was 20 per cent, greater than in 1892. 
 The export, of matting from Japan in 1898 was double that of 
 1892. At Niuchuang, Japanese flannel, blankets, brass buttons, 
 lamps, umbrellas, pictures and mirrors, are becoming important 
 items. At Ningpo, hundreds of hand-gins of Japanese make 
 have been imported. The following report concerning the 
 Korean market is worth quoting at length : — 
 
 " It may not be out of place to remark here that while the bulk of the Piece 
 Goods and Metals sold in Fusan are of European origin, principally British, the 
 fact should not be overlooked that Japan, by carefully studying arising needs, and 
 supplying articles suitable to the tastes and means of Koreans and her Fusan 
 colonists, is able to compete, more successfully each year, with almost all the goods 
 of European manufacture. In no place, perhaps, is this rapidly growing competi- 
 tion more patent than in Pusau, where can be seen in the shops of the Settlement 
 imitations of nearly all the Western goods and wares named in our Eeturns, from 
 Piece Goods downwards. Besides these, there are Foreign-style suits, underclothing 
 and hose, felt and straw hats, household furniture and culinary utensils, carpets, 
 glassware, ohinaware, lamps and fittings, soaps, scents, tinned provisions (tish, 
 meat, and vegetables), wines and beer, farming implements, &o., mostly made in 
 Osaka and seUing at prices very much cheaper than those of Western manufacture. 
 Whether Europe's persistent adherence to the gold standard is solely responsible or 
 not for this state of affairs is a question well worthy of consideration ; but (iertainly 
 the rate of exchange seems to have a great deal tq do with it. Another question 
 presents itself : Is it not highly probable that, at no distant date, Japan — with better 
 machinery, added to the advantages she already possesses in cheap labour, and the 
 (to her) favourable exchange now ruling — will run European manufactures entirely 
 ofl the Eastern markets ? " * 
 
 Finally, I may take from the last report of Mr. Troup, the 
 British Consul at Yokohama, the striking statement that, " to 
 say the least, the trade in imports seems likely to suffer great 
 
 » Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. Mr. Hunt's Beport for Fusan, 1893. 
 
384 JAPAN. 
 
 restrictions, and, in the case of articles which come into competi- 
 tion with home Japanese manufactures, probable extinction." 
 Between 1873 and 1892, the imports of Japan only rose from 
 26,000,000 dols. to 74,000,000 dols., while her exports increased 
 from 20,000,000 dols. to 91,000,000 dols. In view of all these 
 facts, and the improbability of any legislation in the direction of 
 bi-metallism coming to the rescue of the British manufacturer, we 
 cannot find much comfort in the fact that the percentage of the 
 total foreign trade of Japan for 1892 was 35 per cent, for the 
 British Empire, against 27 per cent, for the United States, 14 
 per cent, for France, 12 per cent, for China, and 4 per cent, for 
 Germany. It is only too clear that in the future Japan is certain 
 to be as keen a competitor in the peaceful arts of commerce as 
 she might possibly be a dangerous enemy in the "trampled 
 lanes of war." 
 
 The greatest ambition of Japan has been realised. She has 
 always wanted to whip China, but far more, of late years, has 
 she desired to be recognised by European Powers as on a level 
 with themselves. Till this happened, she has felt that all she 
 did was admired as one admires the precocity of a child ; that 
 her achievements were regarded as clever imitations ; that the 
 praise lavished upon her was a species of charity. And she was 
 quite right. It had never occurred to the statesmen of Europe 
 that Japan possessed, behind all her cleverness and her genius, 
 a spirit of true originality, a creative power, in the great things 
 of life — politics, administration, morals, science,- and art ; nor 
 that the failure on their part to see this was the great thorn in 
 the side of Japan. It mast be borne in mind, in order to esti- 
 mate this feeling, that while on the one hand Japan had an army 
 which was not much inferior to any army in the world of its 
 size, a navy small but first-rate in quality, a growing system of 
 manufactures which threatened the predominance of western 
 competitors, a development of scientific knowledge that was the 
 surprise of all who understood it, and a political system of which 
 the least that could be said was that it was based on the best 
 
THE JAPAN OF TO-DAT. 385 
 
 models, she was at the same time unable to exercise the least 
 jurisdiction over the criminal foreigner in her midst, that her 
 Customs system was dictated to her by foreign treaties, and 
 that before she could make any change in these treaties she 
 must procure the consent, not only of the really great Powers, 
 but also of Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, 
 Holland, Sweden, Hawaii, and Peru. Many of Japan's friends 
 — quorum pa/rs minima fui — had urged her to " denounce " the 
 treaties — to give formal notice that after a certain date she would 
 no longer recognise their validity. This would have been strictly 
 within her rights, for the American diplomatist who had dictated 
 the words of the first modern treaty of a foreign Power with 
 Japan had expressed his regret that words he had inserted as 
 giving to Japan the concession of revising her own treaties, had 
 been distorted by other Powers into the claim of a right on their 
 part to interfere in this. And it would have been well within her 
 ability, too, for it was known that several of the great Treaty 
 Powers would not have dreamed of fighting for their treaties, 
 and that in their absence the others would not have found it con- 
 venient to do so. But Japan adhered to the slower though less 
 risky processes of negociation. The result was that the condi- 
 tions of 1866 remained those of 1894. The Japan of feudalism 
 was to Europe the Japan of modern times. Some two thousand 
 five hundred strangers dwelt within her borders, and in order 
 that the personal and commercial privileges of these might be 
 safeguarded, Japan had no power over her own tariff and was 
 compelled to tax her agricultural class excessively to provide a 
 revenue ; she had no jurisdiction over a single foreigner ; she was 
 unable to tax the foreigners who prospered by her trade ; and 
 while she had spent five million dollars in lighting and buoying 
 her coasts she could not make foreign ships pay either light, ton- 
 nage, or harbour dues. Yet by treaty she was entitled to shake 
 off these trammels. Is it surprising that when the Japanese 
 people gradually awoke to a realisation of this fact, and the 
 further one that foreigners were deliberately delaying any reform 
 
 26 
 
886 JAPAN. 
 
 in her interests, an anti-foreign spirit grew up and manifested 
 itself in offensive ways ? 
 
 In 1882 Count Inouye proposed that Japan should be opened 
 to foreign trade, in return for the abolition of Consular jurisdic- 
 tion, and that foreign judges should sit in a majority with 
 Japanese judges when foreigners were tried by her new codes. 
 This was rejected by the Powers, Great Britain leading the oppo- 
 sition. In 1884 it was proposed to Japan that she should have 
 a limited jurisdiction over foreigners in return for the opening of 
 a few more " accessible ports " to trade. Her reply was of course 
 that she desired to have complete jurisdiction and was prepared 
 to open her whole country. In 1886 a Conference of the sixteen 
 Treaty Powers was held with Japan, and after a year's discussion, 
 it was solemnly proposed to Japan that she should set up an array 
 of highly-paid foreign judges, with a staff of foreign interpreters 
 to render the evidence and their judgments from half a dozen 
 foreign languages into Japanese and back, and that for fifteen 
 years to come every change of every Japanese code should be 
 " communicated " to every one of the sixteen Powers — to Bel- 
 gium, to Denmark, to Portugal, to Hawaii, to Peru ! — for its 
 approval. So anxious was Count Inouye to get the great ques- 
 tion settled that he even accepted these terms, but the moment 
 they were understood in Japan a storm of public indignation 
 sprang up and drove him from ofBce. He was succeeded by 
 Count Okuma, who approached the sixteen Powers separately 
 and proposed that the revised Codes should be promulgated in 
 English for two years before the abolition of Consular jurisdic- 
 tion, and that foreign judges should sit in a majority in all cases 
 affecting foreigners. In return he would throw open Japan to 
 foreign residence and trade. To these proposals the United 
 States, Germany, Eussia and Prance agreed. Great Britain, 
 unfortunately, still hung back. Again Japanese public opinion 
 manifested the greatest hostility, and the natural demand was 
 made that the question should be left for the decision of the 
 Diet, which was just about to assemble for the first time. The 
 
THE JAPAN OF TO-DAY. 387 
 
 Cabinet resigned in a body, and a fanatic lay in wait for Count 
 Okuma at the gate of the Foreign Office, threw a dynamite bomb 
 at him, shattering one of his legs, and then and there cut his 
 own throat and fell dead. It has been told me by a foreigner 
 who was engaged at the Foreign Office on that day that public 
 opinion was so charged with anger that everybody was expecting 
 something dreadful to happen, and when the explosion was 
 heard all present knew in a moment what it must be. Viscount 
 Aoki succeeded Count Okuma as Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
 and made new tentatives towards settling the Treaty Eevision 
 Question, but in vain. An anti-foreign feeling had now taken 
 deep root, and the watchward of all parties was, " A treaty on 
 terms of absolute equality." And that is what has taken place. 
 Viscount Aoki has been more fortunate as Ambassador than as 
 Foreign Minister, and he has concluded with Great Britain a 
 treaty which gives to Japan everything that she desires. 
 Treaties with the United States, Germany, France, and Kussia 
 will of course follow immediately. Japan acquires her com- 
 plete judicial autonomy after a period of at least five years, 
 when the treaty takes effect, and it remains in force for a period 
 of twelve years. A revised tariff would go into operation a 
 month after the exchange of ratifications, except for the " most 
 favoured nation" clause in the Japanese treaties with other 
 Powers ,• she will not, therefore, be able to avail herself of this 
 until she has concluded similar treaties with them. 
 
 On the expiration of the treaty — that is to say, seventeen 
 years from the present time — Japan comes into possession of 
 her complete tariff autonomy also. During the next five years 
 Japan agrees to issue passports, available for twelve months, to 
 all accredited British subjects ; and by the treaty the whole of 
 Japan is thrown open to British trade, travel, and residence, 
 and British subjects are placed in every respect on a par with 
 Japanese, with certain exceptions. On the one hand, they are 
 exempted from compulsory military service, and from any 
 pecuniary burden in connection with it; and on the other. 
 
388 JAPAN. 
 
 they are not allowed to own land or to engage in the coast- 
 ing trade, except between certain specified ports. Every- 
 thing except land they may own in the interior, but- that 
 they can only acquire by lease, and according to the Japanese 
 laws and customs these leases will probably be for thirty and 
 fifty years. The prohibition of land-owning by foreigners 
 will be seen when looked at from the point of view of the 
 Japanese to be a reasonable measure of self-protection. If 
 wealthy foreigners were allowed to acquire by purchase vast 
 tracts of land in Japan it is easy to see how serious political 
 and other difficulties might arise. Japanese capitalists could 
 not enter into competition with the capitalists of Europe. 
 By this treaty for the first time Japanese subjects are 
 accorded in Great Britain the same rights and privileges as 
 British subjects; this has hitherto been a matter of courtesy, and 
 not of right. The Japanese Codes, as is well known, have been 
 drawn up by European experts and are equal, theoretically, to 
 any criminal and civil codes in the world ; and during the five 
 years which must elapse before foreigners come under their 
 operation the Japanese judges will have a further considerable 
 experience in the administration of them. Considering, more- 
 over, that it is the very legitimate ambition of the Japanese so 
 to act in all public matters as to be above the criticism of 
 western natiorte, there is no reason to fear that any miscarriage 
 of justice towards foreigners will ensue. Should the arrange- 
 ment, however, prove unsatisfactory in any way, it must be 
 remembered that the British Government were repeatedly 
 offered by Japan terms of treaty revision which included 
 foreign judges upon the Japanese Bench when the interests of 
 foreigners were concerned, and that having refused these terms 
 they have now accepted the present much less advantageous 
 ones. So far as Great Britain is concerned it is the story of the 
 Sibylline books ; we have paid more in the end for less than we 
 were offered at the beginning. But there can be no doubt what- 
 ever of the absolute justice of this treaty, and it should be a 
 
THE JAPAN OP TO-DAT. 389 
 
 matter of pride to us, no less than of satisfaction at the ex- 
 pediency of the act, that we have been the first nation to recog- 
 nise the just claims of Japan to be regarded as a civilised 
 country. Our hesitation to do so for many years produced 
 much hard feeling against us, but this is now replaced by a 
 feeling of grateful appreciation that we have at last led the way 
 where other nations must inevitably follow. Thus Japan enters 
 — first of all eastern countries — into the charmed circle of the 
 civilised Powers, and the dearest wish of her heart is at length 
 gratified. 
 
 The Japan of to-morrow has nothing to fear except from 
 herself. There are certain signs of threatening dangers, how- 
 ever, which students of her history and critics of her institutions 
 cannot overlook. The first of these springs from her very success 
 in rivalling western nations in their manufacturing industries. 
 While we have succeeded, after many struggles, in mitigating 
 the horrors of the old factory system, and are still occupied in 
 devising fresh safeguards for the future, Japan is complacently 
 allowing identical evils to grow up in her midst. It is time 
 for her to realise that even though her army and navy 
 become the most powerful in the world, the title of " civilised " 
 cannot properly apply to her so long as young children work 
 twelve hours a day in her factories. The character of her 
 people, to which is due in the last analysis every success that 
 she has achieved, has sprung from the free development of 
 individual character, and it is seriously threatened by the rapid 
 growth of great manufacturing industries, which tend, when 
 unrestricted, to reduce the individual man to a mere cog in the 
 mechanism, and which eat up the lives of women and children. 
 Upon this point I may be permitted to repeat what I have said 
 before. When Japan rings with the rattle of machinery ; when 
 the railway has become a feature of her scenery; when the boiler- 
 chimney has defaced her choicest spots as the paper-makers have 
 already obliterated the delights of Oji ; when the traditions of 
 yashiki and shizoku alike are all finally engulfed in the barrack- 
 
390 JAPAN. 
 
 room ; when her art reckons its output by the thousand dozen ; 
 when the power in the land is shared between the professional 
 politician and the plutocrat ; when the peasant has been exchanged 
 for the "factory hand," the kimono for the slop-suit, the tea-house 
 for the music-hall, the geisha for the lion comique, and the daiviio 
 for the beer-peer — Japan will have good cause to doubt whether 
 she has made a wise bargain. Her greatest triumph will come, 
 if ever, when she has shown that while adapting and even 
 improving the western methods of influence and power, she 
 is able to guard herself from falling into the slough of social 
 and economical difficulties in which European and American 
 societies are wallowing, and from which one may almost doubt 
 whether they will succeed in emerging without leaving civilisa- 
 tion behind them for good. 
 
 The second datiger lying ahead of Japan may spring from her 
 own excessive zeal. She has been so marvellously successful 
 that she may be apt to believe she cannot fail. " Let him 
 that thinketh he standeth beware lest he fall." If the Japanese 
 politician becomes enamoured of Utopias and panaceas ; if he 
 believes that, in the future as in the past, his own country can 
 do in a decade what it has taken other nations a century to 
 accomplish ; if he does not realise that the difficulties ahead are 
 infinitely greater and more trying than those which have been 
 overcome, he may plunge Japan into a bottomless pit of 
 troubles. There are still in modern Japan all the elements 
 for civil explosion, and serious economic and political difficulties 
 would undoubtedly bring these into action. 
 
 Excess of zeal has already brought about a virtual deadlock in 
 the most vital institution of modern Japan — its Parliamentary 
 system. This has hardly been in existence four years, yet 
 during that time it has developed more than one sharp conflict 
 between the Emperor and the deputies ; the Diet has been 
 several times prorogued and twice dissolved ; it has expelled its 
 President ; it is split up into innumerable and almost incom- 
 prehensible factions ; it has been the scene of many unseemly 
 
THE JAPAN OF TO-DAT. 391 
 
 demonstrations; and it has formally declared itself in direct 
 conflict with the provisions of the Constitution of 1889. A 
 majority of the Diet is bent upon securing the system of party 
 Cabinets, which rise and fall in accordance with party votes. 
 This the Constitution expressly avoids. The Japanese Cabinet 
 is the Government of the Emperor ; nominally he is its head, 
 but actually he is only its figure-head ; a majority, therefore, 
 in appealing to him over the heads of the Cabinet, is striking a 
 blow at the heart of the Constitution. The situation is a very 
 difficult and even dangerous one, for representative government 
 almost necessarily involves government by party, yet in the 
 present fluid state of Japanese political thought, under a party 
 system there would be no guarantee whatever of stability or 
 continuity. Nor does Japan as yet seem to have produced any 
 great party-leaders. Moreover, her politics shows an unfortunate 
 tendency to violence. There is a class of unemployed rowdies, 
 called soski, descendants by practice of the old ronins and corre- 
 sponding roughly to the " heelers " of Tammany, who hire 
 themselves out regularly, especially at election times, to the 
 highest bidder, for any disreputable purposes, from breaking 
 up meetings to bludgeoning candidates, or even assassinating 
 political opponents. When to all this is added the further fact 
 that the great clan jealousies of ante-Restoration times are still 
 smouldering, aud that Satsuma and Choshiu live in harmony 
 chiefly because they divide political power between them, it will 
 be seen that in her new-found politics, too, Japan may find 
 many a danger to her national welfare. For myself I believe 
 that when these dangers loom a little nearer and in their true 
 proportions, the Japanese people will have wisdom and sobriety 
 enough to avoid them, but no foreign friend of Japan should 
 fail to sound a note of grave alarm. 
 
 Of all excessive zeal, however, the most dangerous will 
 be excess of military zeal. There has always been a war 
 party in Japan, and it has looked for years with eager- 
 ness to a struggle with China. This has now taken place, 
 
392 JAPAN. 
 
 and its results are not likely to be pacific ; on the con- 
 trary, the party of a so-called " strong foreign policy " will 
 be justified in the eyes of all men. And as there is no 
 longer any eastern Power to fight, the " strong " party of the 
 future can only turn its eyes towards some nation of the West. 
 Lest it be thought that I am exaggerating Japanese confidence 
 and ambition, I will quote the following extraordinary passage 
 from a recent speech of no less distinguished a person than 
 Count Okuma himself, ex-Minister for Foreign Affairs : — 
 
 " The European Powers are already showing symptoms oi decay, and the next 
 century will see their constitutions shattered and their empires in ruins. Even if 
 this should not quite happen, their resources will have become exhausted in unsuc- 
 cessful attempts at colonisation. Therefore who is fit to be their proper successors 
 it not ourselves ? What nation except Germany, France, Eussia, Austria, and Italy 
 can put 200,000 men into the field inside of a month ? As to their finance, there 
 is no country where the disposal of surplus revenue gives rise to so much political 
 discussion. As to intellectual power, the Japanese mind is in every way equal to 
 the European mind. More than this, have not the Japanese opened a way to the 
 perfection of a discovery in which foreigners have not succeeded even after years of 
 labour ? Our people astonish even the French, who are the most skilful among 
 artisans, by the cleverness of their work. It is true the Japanese are small of 
 stature, but the superiority of the body depends more on its constitution than on 
 its size. If treaty revision were completed, and Japan completely victorious over 
 China, we should become one of the chief Powers of the world, and no Power could 
 engage in any movement without first consulting us. Japan could then enter into 
 competition with Europe as the representative of the Oriental races." 
 
 One of the best friends Japan has ever had, the man who 
 knows her better than any other foreigner, has recently written 
 that Japan stands in great need of a peace party at this moment. 
 " Experience has taught us to dread one thing in Japan above 
 all others — fashion. ... It may seem premature to speak of 
 this, but in truth we dread lest war beeoine the fashion in 
 Japan, so that success, instead of bringing contentment, may 
 merely fire ambition. A peace party is wanted ; that is to say, 
 a party prepared to hold the nation back when the time for 
 halting shall have fairly arrived." * Captain Brinkley further 
 points out that the spectacle of the present war is not offered 
 
 * The Japan Weekly Mail, August 25, 1894. 
 
THE JAPAN OB' TO-DAY. 393 
 
 gratis to western Powers, but that each pays for witnessing it 
 the price of interrupted or crippled trade, and that they " will not 
 sit idle if they see Japan fighting merely for lust of fighting or 
 of conquest;" Japan, if she is wise, will find in solving the great 
 problems of peace, chief among which will be the education 
 of the masses of her people up to the standard of profession and 
 practice reached by her ruling and educated classes, a sufficient 
 occupation for all her genius. 
 
GHAPTEB XXV. 
 
 ASIA FOB THE ASIATICS! 
 
 TT7HEN peace is concluded between Japan and China, the 
 ' ' difficulties of the war — to speak in paradox — will begin. 
 Up to the present time it has been plain sailing for everybody 
 concerned in the struggle, directly and indirectly, except China, 
 and her humiliation is a matter which no one except a partisan 
 of savagery can regret for a moment. The time is rapidly 
 approaching, however, when Japan must show her hand, and 
 then she will find herself face to face, across the carcase of her 
 defeated foe, with all the combined rivalry and mutual jealousies 
 of the European Powers. That moment will be a momentous 
 one for all parties, especially for Japan and for ourselves. It is, 
 of course, a risky matter to prophesy concerning the next six 
 months, since it is an open secret that no Foreign Office in 
 Europe has any accurate knowledge of the conditions Japan 
 will demand. Moreover, there are some aspects of the situation 
 which cannot yet be even discreetly discussed. But so far as 
 may be possible, the situation is one which Englishmen, of all 
 people, should consider carefully beforehand, for upon its develop- 
 ment hang very great issues for themselves. 
 
 There exists in Japan, in the minds of the intelligent among 
 her citizens no less than among her publicists, her soldiers, and 
 her diplomatists, a sentiment which is seldom mentioned there, 
 and which, so far as I know, has hardly been hinted at in 
 Europe. That sentiment is summed up in four words : Asia for 
 the Asiatics. Herein, I am convinced, lie the germs of the most 
 
 394 
 
ASIA FOB THE ASIATICS? 395 
 
 momentous events in the relationships of nations since Napoleon 
 Bonaparte was exiled to St. Helena. To appreciate this, let us 
 first glance at the situation as a reasonable forecast pictures it. 
 
 It is assumed that Japan crushes China and is requested to 
 table the terms on which she will make peace. These may be, 
 first, the complete autonomy of Korea under Japanese protec- 
 tion, and with a Japanese force stationed at Wiju ; second, an 
 indemnity of £50,000,000; third, the occupation of Port 
 Arthur as a strategical guarantee, and possibly the control of 
 the Chinese Customs Office at Shanghai as a pecuniary guaran- 
 tee, until the above sum is paid ; fourth, the formal recognition 
 of Japanese rights over the Liuchiu Islands, and the cession of 
 Formosa. These would constitute a splendid set of conditions 
 for the victor, and all things considered, they could hardly be 
 described as extravagant, since with regard to Formosa, the 
 most contentious point, China informed Japan in 1873 that she 
 could not be responsible for an attack upon Japanese subjects by 
 the Formosan people. But would even these conditions wholly 
 satisfy the people of Japan ? I do not hesitate to say they 
 would not. 
 
 Japan has already fixed her eyes upon the future, and what she 
 sees there alarms her, as well it may. Japan is a little country, 
 with 40,000,000 of people. China is a huge country, with 
 350,000,000. China could easily bring 500,000 men of splendid 
 physique to the colours ; she could engage European or American 
 officers and teachers to bring them gradually under military 
 discipline and instruction; well paid and fairly treated the soldiers 
 would be as good a mass of Kanonenfutter as need be ; she could 
 arm them with repeating rifles and quick-firing field-pieces ; 
 she could buy herself a new fleet and place it under the absolute 
 control of foreign officers. It is inconceivable that even China, 
 if she ever escapes from the consequences of this war, should not 
 have learned her lesson at last. Then in ten or fifteen years' 
 time she would be a really great Power. During this period 
 Japan would have been compelled to increase her army and her 
 
396 JAPAN. 
 
 navy, and to support a constantly growing burden of military 
 expenditure ; and at its close the whole struggle would be to 
 wage over again under conditions infinitely less favourable to 
 herself. The leading vernacular journals have already declared 
 frankly that this must not be permitted at any cost. Taking 
 once more the Japanese point of view, it cannot be asserted that 
 this is unreasonable. The question then recurs, what does Japan 
 want ? 
 
 This brings us back to the aforesaid undercurrent of national 
 sentiment in Japan which would express itself, if it spoke at all, 
 in the declaration, " Asia for the Asiatics." In other words, 
 I am able to say from positive knowledge that the Government 
 of Japan has conceived a parallel to the Monroe Doctrine for 
 the Far East, with herself at its centre. The words of Presi- 
 dent Monroe, in his famous Message of 1823, in which this 
 doctrine was first promulgated, express exactly, with the change 
 of the one word I have italicised, the views of the chief Japanese 
 statesmen of to-day : " With the existing colonies or depen- 
 dencies of any European power we have not interfered, and shall 
 not interfere; but with the governments which have declared 
 their independence and maintained it, and whose independence 
 we have, on great consideration and just principles, acknow- 
 ledged, we could not view an interposition for oppressing them, 
 or controlling in any other manner their destiny by any 
 European power, in any other light than as a manifestation of 
 an unfriendly disposition toward Jaipan." After all, Japan 
 says — and the assertion is true — Asia is Asia, and between the 
 Asiatic and the European, however keen may be the commercial 
 instincts of the latter, or however progressive the temperament 
 of the former, there is an everlasting gulf. We have found out 
 —or we shall do so — in India, that in Mr. Kipling's words, 
 " East is East, and West is West." We may like Japan and 
 admire her and trade with her — and for my part I do not think 
 it popsiljle to know Japan without both liking and admiring her 
 greatly ; and Japan may like us and appropriate our knowledge, 
 
ASIA FOB THE ASIATICS? 397 
 
 and trade with us. But Englishman, American, Frenchman, or 
 German is one kind of human being, and Japanese is another. 
 Between them stands, and will stand for ever, the sacred and 
 ineradicable distinction of race. China has, of course, been dimly 
 inspired by this knowledge when she has denounced Japan as a 
 traitor to Asia, and the Chinese community in Hongkong betrays 
 the same feeling when it speaks of the " treachery " of the most 
 enlightened Chinaman there because he possesses a double 
 European education in law and medicine, wears European 
 clothes, and married a European wife. But the retort of Japan 
 is that the real traitor is China, because she has been content to 
 remain the victim of the Occident instead of rousing herself to push 
 back its advancing waves, if an opportunity should offer. And 
 Japan is prepared to bring China back to Asiatic allegiance. It 
 is not yet understood that if Japan's first object during tbe war 
 has been to vanquish China, her second has been to avoid any step 
 which might upset the Chinese dynasty. Had she wished to do 
 this, nothing could have been easier. She could with almost 
 a certainty of success have left Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei 
 to stew in their own juice, and have marched an expedition 
 straight to Peking. But putting this supposition aside in defer- 
 ence to the views of some military experts, she could have 
 despatched emissaries to China — and her soshi class would have 
 provided numbers of them — to distribute throughout the 
 more disaffected provinces placards calling upon the Chinese 
 people to rise against their alien rulers, and assuring them 
 that the war was only against the throne and not against 
 the country; then, by providing with money and arms tbe 
 rebels she would thus have created, she could, almost with- 
 out striking a blow, have brought down the political organisa- 
 tion of China like a house of cards. In that event, however, 
 China would have been a mere inert mass of members, 
 without a head. Japan has no doubt whatever of her ability 
 to re-organise China. The Hochi Shimbun, one of the leading 
 Tokyo journals, recently said : — " The Chinese are the worst 
 
398 JAPAN. 
 
 governed people in the world, and consequently the easiest 
 to bring under a foreign yoke. Besides, they have no strong 
 national pride, like that entertained by the French, the German, 
 the English, or the Japanese. Talleyrand's saying that 
 ' Italy is a mere geographical name ' may be applied to 
 China with much greater force. The Chinese, under the mild 
 and civilised rule of Japan, would soon learn that they fare 
 better thus than under their old masters. That would assuredly 
 be the case in respect of material prosperity, and an improve- 
 ment in such an important matter would in itself satisfy them." 
 And in a later issue the same journal, which is not in the 
 habit of treating serious matters thoughtlessly, has carried this 
 consideration to the point of advocating it as a measure of 
 practical politics. It declares that China is doomed to destruc- 
 tion, if not by Japan, then by Europe. It is, therefore, a ques- 
 tion demanding deep thought whether Japan should not take 
 possession of the big empire in the sequel of the present war. 
 Should China fall a prey to one or more European countries, 
 Japan's position would be greatly endangered. The Hochi 
 Shimhun therefore entertains little doubt that it lies in the path 
 of Japan's mission, as the peace-maintainer of the Orient, to 
 bring China under the flag of the Eising Sun at the earliest 
 possible opportunity. And the same confidence on behalf of 
 Japan has been strikingly expressed in England : — 
 
 "Consider what a Japan-governed China would be. Think what the Chinese 2 
 are ; think of their powers o£ silent endurance under suffering and cruelty , think 
 of their frugality ; think of their patient perseverance, their slow, dogged persis- 
 tence, their recklessness of life. Fancy this people ruled by a nation of born 
 organisers, who, half-allied to them, would understand their temperament and their 
 habits. The Oriental, with his power of retaining health under conditions under 
 which no European could Kve, with his savage daring when roused, with his inborn 
 cunning, lacks only the superior knowledge of civilisation to be the equal of the 
 European in warfare as well as in industry. In England we do not realise that in a 
 Japanese dynasty such a civilisation would exist : we have not yet learned to look 
 upon the Mikado as a civilised monarch, as we look upon the Czar. Yet such he is 
 undoubtedly. And under him the dreams of the supremacy of the Yellow Eace in 
 Europe, Asia, and even Africa, to which Dr. Pearson and others have given expres- 
 sion, would be no longer mere nightmares. Instead of speculating as to whether 
 
ASIA FOE THE ASIATICS? 399 
 
 England or Germany or Eassia is to be the next world's ruler, we migM have to 
 learn that Japan was on its way to that position," * 
 
 Upon this Japanese ambition, however, there can be but one 
 comment : Great Britain and Eussia would never permit it. Yet 
 if the Chinese Humpty-Dumpty fell from his wall nobody but 
 Japan could put him together again ; no western nation could 
 attempt the task, even if her rivals would allow her to try. If 
 the Emperor Kwang-hsii were hurled from his throne either from 
 within or from without, foreign intervention would take place 
 on the instant, and that is what Japan desires to avoid above all 
 things. Hence her unwillingness to strike at Peking, hence 
 British anxiety, hence the well-meant attempt at mediation, and 
 hence, too, the powerful British fleet at the present moment in 
 Chinese waters. 
 
 Japanese statesmen are keenly alive to the foregoing con- 
 siderations. What is the alternative in their eyes ? Obviously 
 and certainly an alliance with a European Power. But with 
 - whom ? Japan has already chosen in her own mind. She fears 
 Eussia ; she distrusts Prance ; Germany is not powerful enough 
 at sea to count in this connection, even if her interests were 
 large enough to justify a strong policy in the Par East. The 
 ideal in foreign politics of the most enlightened Japanese is 
 an alliance with Great Britain. In fact, without exaggera- 
 tion and without the slightest discourtesy to Japan it may be 
 said that her alliance with us is on offer. The commercial interests 
 of the two countries are identical; we both desire the widest 
 markets for our manufactures ; cordial friendship reigns between 
 us because we have shown our trust in Japan by making a 
 treaty with her upon equal terms. And what Japan needs in 
 an alliance is power at sea. Upon land in Asia no Asiatic nation 
 can dream of opposing her ; nor for the matter of that could 
 any European nation fight her at the present time. But at 
 sea she is weak, and upon the command of the sea, as we are 
 
 • The St. James's Gazette, Oct. 6, 1894. 
 
400 JAPAN. 
 
 slowly learning, national safety depends. Great Britain and 
 Japan allied in the Far East would be irresistible. The one 
 would command the sea, the other would dominate the land : 
 the British Fleet would keep communications open, and nothing 
 could resist the troops of the Emperor. With such a union the 
 Korean Channel would become a second Dardanelles, and the 
 Sea of Japan would become the Eussian Black Sea of the East. 
 In return for our alliance Japan would willingly see Great 
 Britain occupy either Wei-hai-wei or Chusan as her northern 
 naval base, and Canton as her opportunity of commercial 
 expansion ; Japan taking Formosa and holding Port Arthur. 
 As an ally Japan would be faithful, brave, and powerful ; and 
 the Anglo-Japanese alliance would impose peace and offer 
 freedom of trade. It would not, like Prance, devise every 
 pitiful fiscal expedient to exclude all manufactures except its 
 own protected ones, nor handicap sick and suffering foreigners 
 by a differential hospital tariff. 
 
 What are the alternatives to this union of interests ? 
 They are two. First, Japan will ally herself with France ; 
 or if not with France then with Eussia, France regard- 
 ing the operation with a friendly eye. A Franco-Japanese 
 alliance would doubtless be received in France with accla- 
 mation, for it would be aimed directly at Great Britain, 
 and France would get as her share of the bargain the 
 occupation of the Chinese province of Yunnan, and thus the 
 dream of Garnier of opening the markets of Southern China 
 through Tongking would at length be realised. Against France 
 and Japan combined we should be helpless in the Far East, 
 except at the cost of a great war upon which no British states- 
 man would embark. And it would not be long before a Franco- 
 Japanese-Chinese Zollverein would close the markets of China 
 to our goods. That would be an end of our influence and our 
 trade in a part of the world where, given a modicum of wisdom 
 and courage, it is our destiny to play a predominant part in the 
 future. 
 
ASIA FOE THE ASIATICS ? 401 
 
 In the second place, if the alliance were between Japan and 
 Eussia, France would get almost as much for her share, while 
 the advantages to Eussia would be colossal. As I have 
 explained in another chapter, it is Eussia that Japan has feared 
 in the past ; indeed, I may go further and at the risk of being 
 charged with indiscretion add that the plans of Japan for hos- 
 tilities with Eussia are as complete as they were for her 
 occupation of Korea. For years it has been in the mind of 
 certain Japanese statesmen to propose to China at the fitting 
 opportunity an alliance whose ultimate object should be to 
 drive Eussia back from the Far East. The Japanese Staff have 
 in their possession the most detailed plans for the taking of 
 Vladivostok and the cutting off of the wedge of Eussian territory 
 which intervenes between Manchuria and the sea. This done, 
 the Japanese would propose to China that Kirin-ula should be 
 made into a great fortress, at the termination of a line of rail- 
 way, as a base from which to hold Eussia for ever in check. 
 This, however, would be a pis aller of Japanese politics, and 
 would be dictated alike by anger at England and by fear for the 
 future. Eussia has long desired to absorb Manchuria, with its 
 vast potential riches, and to establish herself at Port Arthur. 
 This is well known to those whose business it is to know such 
 things, and it explains the willingness of Eussia to promise to 
 take no step in Korea. This is what Eussia would gain by an 
 alliance with Japan ; France would get something to " keep her 
 sweet," as Orientals say ; crippled China would be a mere corpus 
 for Japanese trade ; Wei-hai-wei, the native city of Shanghai, 
 and Formosa would be Japanese ; and with Port Arthur 
 Eussian, and Yunnan French, where would England be? 
 
 These are not dreams. If they seem so, it is because there 
 has been no rearrangement of the map of Europe on a large 
 scale for so long that we have lost the habit of considering such 
 eventualities. The collapse of China, however, lays the Far 
 East as open to the gambits of international rivalry as a chess- 
 
 27 
 
402 JAPAN. 
 
 board when the four files face one another for the game. If 
 they are dreams to-day, any one of them — so far as Japan is 
 concerned — may be a reality to-morrow ; and since I regard the 
 situation as one of the utmost gravity for Great Britain, I may 
 perhaps venture to take one step more, and present as a basis 
 for the consideration of those who are better informed or upon 
 whose shoulders the responsibility will rest, my own view of 
 what the action of England should be. 
 
 The Anglo-Eussian entente, by which Lord Eosebery has 
 achieved an undoubted triumph of diplomacy (supposing it to 
 last), is somewhat of a disappointment to Japan, but it leaves the 
 way open for a solution of the Far Eastern question in her inte- 
 rests no less than in those of Eussia and ourselves. In all the 
 country north of the southern frontier of China there are virtually 
 only three great interests : those of Great Britain, Eussia, and 
 Japan. The object, therefore, of any arrangement should be 
 the combination of these three. In this there should be no 
 serious difficulty, since, in the first place, the interests of the 
 three are fortunately not conflicting ; and, second, since the 
 ends aimed at are to the injury of no other party, a moral 
 justification is not lacking, and therefore there need be no 
 hesitation in defying opposition. Let us consider first the 
 case of Japan. By the terms of an Anglo-Eussian-Japanese 
 understanding she would receive in the first place the virtual 
 suzerainty of Korea ; second, whatever reasonable indemnity 
 she chooses to impose upon China ; third, the cession of 
 Formosa ; fourth, the Chinese navy, which she may capture. 
 Fifth, there need be no hesitation in allowing her to collect 
 the Customs at the port of Shanghai until the indemnity is paid. 
 And finally, she would have the inestimable advantage of being 
 free from fear of China in the future. Next consider the case 
 of Eussia. Her share would be the triangle of territory around 
 which her Siberian Eailway is at present planned to run ; this 
 would then proceed in a straight line from Verkhne Udinsk 
 or Eiakhta to its terminus on the coast, across a district 
 
ASIA FOB THE ASIATICS? 403 
 
 probably more capable of development and possessing greater 
 natural wealth than any other part of the Far East. Second, 
 she would of course have to be provided with a winter port 
 at the terminus of her railway, and to this it would be 
 necessary for Japan to consent. No great concession, however, 
 would be here involved, since, as I have said elsewhere, it 
 is utterly out of the question to suppose that when her 
 railway is finished Eussia will stop short at a port frozen for 
 five months in the year, whatever may be the cost of pro- 
 curing a better. Third, Eussia would be freed for ever from the 
 fear of China along the three thousand miles of her weak and 
 hardly defensible frontier. Finally, what would be the position 
 of Great Britain under this arrangement ? First, she would 
 secure her indispensable northern naval base at Chusan, 
 Wei-hai-wei, or elsewhere. Second, the vast markets of the 
 whole of China would be thrown open to the whole world, and 
 she would have her customary predominance in them. Third, 
 she would be allowed to construct a railway from British 
 Kowloon to Hongkong, and the development of the province of 
 Kwangtimg and the city of Canton would be placed under her 
 charge. Fourth, the Government of India would be given a 
 free hand in Thibet. Fifth, all anxieties — and they are many 
 and heavy — with regard to her future in the Far East would be 
 happUy removed. To an arrangement of this kind the powerful 
 sympathy of the United States would hardly be wanting. 
 
 This is a moment for courageous and far-seeing statesman- 
 ship, a moment to admit frankly the existence of our bitter 
 enemies, and a moment, therefore, to seek for ourselves inte- 
 rested friends. France in the Far East will always be our 
 opponent. Whatever we propose at the present time — this is 
 neither a supposition nor a secret — Germany will oppose. It 
 is therefore the imperative duty of our statesmen to seek an 
 alliance elsewhere on fair terms. Moreover, this is our last 
 opportunity in that part of the world. If not we, then with 
 absolute certainty it will be others and our enemies who will 
 
404 JAPAN. 
 
 profit. Once more, at the risk of wearying the reader, let me 
 beg him not to forget that we already have the right which 
 comes to us from possessing beyond all comparison the pre- 
 dominance of trade and foreign population in the Far East, 
 and that whatever territory comes under our influence we throw 
 open freely to all the world. The ball of a great opportunity 
 is at our feet. Aegre offertur, facile amittitur. I am well aware 
 that at the present moment the ideal of our Foreign Office in 
 the Far East as elsewhere is the old-fashioned one that has 
 often served us so well before — the maintenance of the statiis 
 quo. But a status quo maintained by England and Eussia, 
 with a victorious and foiled Japan outside it, presents to my 
 mind the aspect of a slumbering volcano. 
 
SIAM. 
 
CEAPTEB XXVL 
 
 BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 
 
 TT7HEN the present Tsar of Eussia visited Siam in 1891, lie 
 was met outside the har of the Bangkok Eiver by a large 
 European-built Siamese man-of-war with heavy guns, and was 
 conveyed to the Eoyal Palace in a Siamese State Barge of 
 Oriental magnificence, a hundred feet long, with eighty gilded 
 paddles and gorgeous decorations. His amazement, for he 
 had expected to find a land of jungle and peasant, fitly re- 
 presents not only the ignorance of the world about Siam and 
 her resources, but also the ease with which the realities of her 
 condition have always been concealed by the speciousness of 
 her outward display. 
 
 The ordinary traveller will also obtain at the very mouth of 
 the river his first insight (as he will imagine it to be) into the 
 reality of Siamese progress from her ancient characteristics of 
 a tropical jungle and a down-trodden people. For whether you 
 approach from Singapore or from Hongkong, your first vision 
 of this land of the paradoxical and the bizarre is a wide river- 
 mouth edged apparently with endless swamp and fringed with 
 miles of waving and impenetrable attap palms, sending forth 
 swarms of vigorous mosquitoes to repel the intrusive foreigner. 
 But at the true entrance of the river you discover two large 
 forts, containing the latest developments of harbour defence — 
 big guns, disappearing carriages, and masked batteries. And 
 this strange contrast, this shock of false relationships, this 
 mingling of west and east— the one real, interesting, and 
 
 407 
 
408 SIAM. 
 
 living, the other sham, pretentious, and dead — constantly faces 
 you in Siam. 
 
 The bar of the Bangkok Eiver is an exceedingly dif&cult 
 obstacle ; the channel itself is so constantly shifting, the 
 workings of the tide in this narrowing end of the great funnel 
 of the Gulf of Siam are so perplexingly intricate, and the effects 
 of the variations of wind upon the tides are so great, that a 
 very intimate and constant familiarity with the river will alone 
 enable any vessel to enter. The sagacious Foreign Minister of 
 the Siamese Government, Prince Devawongse Varoprakar, once 
 replied to an Englishman who asked why the removal of the bar 
 was never included among his projects of reform, " Perhaps for 
 the same reason that you do not welcome the proposal for a 
 Channel Tunnel." The French gunboats, when forcing their 
 entrance to the Menam in July, 1893, were fully alive to 
 this difficulty, and though the Siamese Government had cut off 
 the supply of pilots from foreign men-of-war by proclamation, 
 they cleverly secured the services of the best of the Bangkok 
 pilots by making their entrance close upon the heels of a vessel 
 trading under the French flag. Even at high tide, it is only 
 possible for ships drawing twelve or thirteen feet to get over the 
 bar ; the cargoes of the large trading vessels being brought 
 outside to them in sailing lighters and Chinese junks. 
 
 As you pass into the actual river, there gradually comes into 
 view one of the most striking pictures of this eastern wonder- 
 land — a little island lying midway in the broad expanse of 
 stream, bearing upon its scanty head a pinnacle of glistening 
 white, a lofty Buddhist pagoda with attendant cloisters, shrines, 
 and chapels, with roofs of many-tinted tiles. It is an idyllic 
 picture, a fitting adytum to the shrine of truest Buddhism — 
 Siam, the land of monasteries, the loyal guardian of the Faith 
 at its purest, the scene of its return to the more rationalistic, 
 and, iQ fact, originally simple elements. On your right, upon 
 the low-lying eastern bank appears the village of Paknam, " the 
 mouth of the waters," whose portly governor, Phya Samudh, 
 
BAHGKOE AND ITS PEOPLE. 409 
 
 was certainly one of the most remarkable of my many eastern 
 acquaintances; the holder of one of the highest ranks of 
 
 • Siamese nobility and officialdom ; a man of mixed but chiefly 
 Chinese origin; at the age of ten boot-black to a British 
 mariner ; at fifty, confidant, factptum, and counsellor to the 
 Eoyal Prince-Ministers of Siam; owner of four wealthy rice- 
 mills ; the official cicerone and entertainer of most foreign 
 visitors to Siam ; speaking with equal ease and native force, 
 English, Siamese, Malay, and various dialects of Chinese. 
 
 A single railway runs now from Paknam to the capital, 
 sixteen miles by land. This line saves some three hours of 
 time, as against the tortuous windings " of the Menam, and 
 affords a striking panorama of the wide plantations, the rich 
 gardens, the muddy paddy-fields, and the humble peasant-life 
 which make up the real Siam that the hasty traveller so seldom 
 sees behind the shifting scenes of politics and progress in the 
 capital. But the water-way is the true highway in this land 
 of canals ; and as the ship breasts the current of the river in 
 the early morning, you may look upon the awakening of Siamese 
 daily life in all its primitive simplicity. The yellow-robed priest, 
 just risen from his early orisons, passes in his slight canoe from 
 door to door upon the riverside, to gather the daily offerings of 
 rice and food in the iron alms-bowl of the Buddhist mendicant. 
 
 3 The chattering women, with their large wicker sun-hats, standing 
 to their oars in gondola fashion, with stalwart strokes urge along 
 their laden boats of fruit and betel to the floating markets. The 
 ubiquitous Chinaman paddles his tiny dug-out, filled with much- 
 loved greasy pork. The children play in the water, or swim reck- 
 lessly in the wash of the big "fire-boat." The father munches 
 his early rice and fish on the floor of one of the quaint floating 
 houses, with pointed roofs of thatch, built upon shaky rafts of 
 bamboo, that line the banks of the river in endless rows, and 
 form perhaps the most distinctly characteristic feature of this 
 novel scene. And the heavy junk-rigged lighters sail down, 
 with their gesticulating Celestial crews, carrying the cargoes 
 
410 SIAM. 
 
 of rice or teak to the traders in the Eoads at Ko-si-ehang, the 
 island anchorage and health resort some sixty miles away. 
 
 On dropping anchor in mid-stream at this strange town of 
 Bangkok, one realises at once that it is to trade, and trade i' 
 alone, that Siam has owed, and must ever owe, her chance of 
 figuring among the people of the East. To the silent palm- 
 groves and virgin jungles of 1850, have succeeded to-day the 
 forest of masts, the towering chimneys, and the humming 
 " godowns " of the pressing British trader. Eice-mills and 
 saw-mills, docks and ship-yards, stores and banks, houses and 
 schools, alike display the energy of the Anglo-Saxon, hand in 
 hand with the industry of the Mongol, forcing new life into 
 native indolence. 
 
 On arriving at the Merchants' Wharf or the Hotel Quay, or 
 when looking up one's acquaintances in the busy town, one's 
 first question is. Where is Siam ? where are the Siamese ? 
 Everywhere are Chinamen, or Malays, or Indians. Do the 
 Siamese have no part in all this scene of activity and com- 
 merce? A very small share. In one's wanderings one sees 
 at first but little of Siam and the Siamese. Indeed the " down- 
 town " farang — the Siamese word for every foreigner — though 
 full of rumours, gossip, stories, and his own ideas about the 
 Siamese and their ways, the Palace and its intrigues, the princes 
 and their policy, knows practically nothing about the real Siam, 
 almost completely shut off, as he is, from observation of its 
 primary elements, and misled as to the intricacies of its internal 
 condition and prospects. That this is indeed the case is never 
 for a moment lost sight of by the wily Siamese themselves ; 
 and it is with many a smile that they watch the futile efforts 
 of the foreign element to follow the workings of the native mind. 
 But they receive blandly the advice and suggestions of foreign 
 Consuls, as the latter endeavour to apprehend the apparent 
 directions of eastern methods in general and of Siamese plans 
 in particular, from the impossible standpoint of western criti- 
 cism and European aims. And when it is remembered that the 
 
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 411 
 
 Foreign Legations, the Ministers and Consuls of foreign nations, 
 are all situated in the midst of this atmosphere of ignorance 
 and misconception, commonly called " down town," and that 
 with the exception of the French Consular officials (who use 
 special means for getting information from behind the scenes) 
 they see nothing whatever of the inside life of Siam, nor ever 
 gain the confidence of her Princes, it will be easily understood 
 how difficult it has been for the Foreign Offices of Europe to be 
 alive to the realities of the situation from time to time, or to 
 foresee and to forestall the sudden developments, whether of 
 diplomacy or mere intrigue, that work such effective changes 
 under an Oriental government. 
 
 In the solar system of Siam, the Palace is the sun. " Up 
 town," when the Palace awakes, everything awakes ; when the 
 Palace sleeps, everything sleeps — officialdom, politics, work, 
 duties, pleasures. Whereas, whatever happens in the Palace, 
 whatever intrigues take place, whether French threatenings 
 are being resisted in the Cabinet, British Consuls hoodwinked 
 in the Foreign Office, or German Concessionaries browbeaten 
 in the bureau ; though cruelties are being perpetrated in the 
 gaols, or exactions plotted in the Ministries ; though unspeak- 
 able blunders are committed in the Departments, and the whole 
 administrative machine seems going to pieces, — " down town " 
 life and its commerce go on the same. The foreign element 
 is, in fact, completely outside the real life of Siam, and this 
 although it is solely due to foreign pressure that Siam has 
 become what she is, and that the Palace has any policy to 
 devise or resources to expropriate. To the Palace, therefore, 
 one must speedily find one's way, to see things as they are, or 
 in any sense to know Siam. I shifted my quarters to the city 
 proper within twenty-four hours of my arrival, and for nearly 
 three months I lived in the very centre of it, within a stone's 
 throw of the Palace wall. To the opportunity of doing this I 
 owe whatever intimate knowledge of Siam I possess. 
 
 As you drive through the one main street to the city wall you 
 
412 SIAM. 
 
 see many of the worst aspects of Siamese town life — the pawn- ^i 
 shops and brothels, the spirit-dens and gambling-houses, the 
 reeking alleys and the heaps of refuse, the leprous beggars and 
 the lounging peons. The old wall of a hundred years ago 
 still surrounds the older city. You pass through it half- 
 way between the foreign quarter and the Palace. Its lofty 
 gateways, however, are never shut or guarded, and indeed 
 the gates are almost too rusty to be closed. The Siamese 
 have little reverence for the antique, and invariably prefer 
 convenience to sentiment ; so openings are freely cut, battle- 
 ments removed, and towers destroyed, whether for admitting 
 a road into some prince's property or for erecting electric 
 installations for the Palace. As soon as you have passed the 
 gateway and entered the city proper, you begin to realise the 
 effective presence of the Siamese Government and to feel the 
 pervading influence of royalty. The broad and well-kept road, 
 the rows of new-built houses and rapidly-spreading shops, with 
 the stuccoed walls of palaces and prisons, of barracks and 
 offices, display the Hausmann-like changes that King Chulalong- 
 korn I. has effected in the outward appearance of his capital, 
 during the twenty-five years that have elapsed since first he 
 wore the crown as a lad of fifteen. 
 
 Most of the princes, the two dozen brothers and half-brothers 
 of the King, who practically control all the executive and ad- 
 ministrative departments of State, inhabit large houses, built 
 for them, usually at the King's expense, in foreign style. But 
 the Eoyal Palace itself has been cleverly contrived by an English 
 architect in collaboration with Siamese artificers to combine 
 Oriental picturesqueness and pinnacles with European comfort 
 and solidity. The lofty and graceful pointed spires of the 
 Grand Halls of Audience are conspicuous from a long way off ; 
 and the gleaming tiles of the golden Pagoda and the many 
 coloured roofs of the Eoyal Temple within the Palace walls give 
 a richer effect than anything to be found east of Calcutta. 
 
 The arrangement of the Palace and its buildings is an em- 
 
The Halls of Audience, Bangkok. 
 
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 413 
 
 bodiment in brick of the policy of King Chulalongkorn's reign — 
 which has been to draw the power, and consequently the wealth, 
 from the hands of the once great nobles and old family digni- 
 taries, and to concentrate it in himself alone ; to delegate it to 
 members of his own intimate family circle, and to them only, 
 and this not permanently but provisionally, at his own sovereign 
 will and changing pleasure. By this means he has attained the 
 very quintessence of centralisation, and realised in the com- 
 pletest sense a State in which the King is de facto as well as de 
 jv/re the sole source and repository of power. 
 
 Bound the Palace buildings proper, enclosed by lofty walls 
 . and solid gateways guarded by day and closed at night, are 
 grouped almost all the offices of the various Government 
 departments. And right in the heart and centre of this 
 charmed circle of officialdom is the Boyal Grand Palace, of 
 which the audience halls and State apartments form the outer 
 and only visible portion. The inner portion of the Palace — the 
 real dwelling-place of his Majesty — is entirely concealed behind 
 these. It is invisible from any point on the north, south and east, 
 and entirely shielded on the river side by cleverly arranged walls 
 and courts which effect their purpose without suggesting their 
 object. The King is the only man within this seething city of 
 humanity ; alone — if ever a man were alone — amidst a crowded 
 population of none but women and children ; a complete female 
 town with its houses, markets, streets, prisons, and courts. 
 This city of women is known among the Siamese as Kang Nai, 
 "The Inside," and etiquette even forbids any allusion to it. 
 Here the King lives his life, and has deliberately elected (for it is 
 by no means a necessary custom) to spend the greater part 
 of his time; his excursions "outside" amidst life and male 
 humanity, once frequent and enjoyed, have gradually decreased, 
 till in the last five years he has seldom exceeded an hour of 
 formal audience daily, and during the past twelve months he 
 has not averaged an hour in a fortnight. This seclusion of the 
 King, even in its milder form of five or six years ago, must 
 
414 SUM. 
 
 always be borne in mind as helping to explain many of the 
 strange inconsistencies of Siamese policy, both foreign and 
 domestic, especially when it is taken in conjunction with the 
 influence which naturally falls into the hands of the women by 
 whom his Majesty is perpetually surrounded. But that, in the 
 now classic phrase, is another story, upon which it is best not 
 to dwell, though there are volumes to be written about it. 
 
 To find picturesque Bangkok, one must look elsewhere than 
 in the Palace, for there one sees merely the effect of money 
 spent in the tasteless purchase of European extravagances, so 
 that the result, though somewhat grand in general effect, only 
 serves to heighten the squalor and disorder that prevail in every 
 corner. On ordinary days, when the King is not expected to come 
 out, and no foreign representatives are to have audience, the 
 sentries of the Palace Guard usually sit about on rickety chairs 
 at the grand gateways ; the officials of the Household lie about in 
 all descriptions of undress in the stone courtyards ; and gigantic 
 chandeliers of countless German-made duplex lamps burn all 
 day until they go out from want of oil, in the lack of any regular 
 hands to perform the simplest household routine — that word so 
 entirely hateful to the average Siamese. 
 
 Every visit that I paid to the Eoyal Siamese Ministry of 
 Foreign Affairs was an Oriental object-lesson. A lazy sentry 
 lolling on an old oil-tin at the outer gate would insolently ask 
 my errand, and lazily give a reluctant guttural assent to my 
 doubting ingress. Another sentry, if my visit was late — 
 as it generally was, for the Foreign Minister usually began 
 his work at eleven o'clock at night — lying asleep within the 
 entry, would sulkily respond to my shouts of inquiry with a 
 hardly intelligible reply in colloquial Siamese that the Prince 
 was in or was out, — yu or maiyu — as might suit his own particular 
 humour, without any needless reference to the truth of the 
 matter. As I thus necessarily carried on my own hesitating 
 researches unheralded into the inner regions, my ears were met 
 with the snores of attendants lying about the passages, or the 
 
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 415 
 
 yawns of sleepy clerks kept there the whole night in idleness ; 
 till at length one might come suddenly upon the Eoyal Prince 
 Minister himself, at supper with some favoured gossip, or intent 
 upon a vigorous and exciting game of chess, an occupation at 
 which he is facile pnnceps, as in most of the other games of 
 skill that his Eoyal Highness affects, and on which he spends a 
 very considerable portion of his " office hours." In the mean- 
 time suitors might wail, and Consuls rave at the needless delays, 
 the perpetual procrastinations, which bften continued from 
 week to week and even from month to month ; and usually 
 wearied out, as they were intended to do, the unfortunate 
 foreigners. Go where one would, and when one would, in this 
 strange medley of departments, bureaus, and government offices, 
 every passage and every room was all unswept and littered with 
 the daily mess, the cast-off cigarettes, the decaying betel-nut, 
 and all the indescribable debris of the countless hangers-on and 
 ragged retainers who attend the footsteps of every official. In 
 not a single office but that of Prince Damrong — a brilliant 
 exception to the general slovenliness of Siamese ministers in this, 
 as in many respects — did I observe the slightest desire for neat- 
 ness and order, or even an idea of common cleanliness. One 
 naturally expects great things, for instance, of the far-famed 
 White Elephants that live at the gates of the royal palace, to 
 whom fable and a credulous European public have attributed an 
 absurd sanctity. But they are in reality in a plight that would 
 shame the bear-cage of a wandering circus ; tended by slouching 
 ruffians who lie about in rags and tatters, eking out a scanty 
 livelihood by weaving baskets, and begging a copper from every 
 visitor in return for throwing a bunch of seedy grass or rotting 
 bananas to the swaying beasts which raise their trunks in 
 anticipation of the much-needed addition to their scanty diet. 
 Such is the Palace of the wealthy and progressive King of Siam. 
 When one thinks of the swarms of women and children that 
 spend their whole lives " inside," and the innumerable officials 
 and hangers-on that throng the " outside " of this wondrous 
 
416 SIAM. 
 
 palace, when one realises that it boasts of no drains except a 
 simple trench that was dug for surplus rain floods, but which 
 has unfortunately been made to slope the wrong way and so 
 collects the flood-water into three-feet pools at the very gateway 
 itself, while every domestic or sanitary arrangement is con- 
 spicuous by its entire absence, and is supplied, as one's senses 
 inform one, by nature's means alone, — one begins to wonder 
 indeed at the prolonged exemption from epidemics that seems 
 to have favoured the happy-go-lucky Siamese. But on gala 
 days, and above all when any farang visitor is to be dazzled, 
 they set to work strenuously, and soon with hasty brooms, 
 scurrying officials, weary prisoners, half-paid coolies, and many 
 lashes, a general effect is produced, striking in its mass of 
 colour, effective in its architectural pose, and brilliant in its 
 Oriental profusion of " humanity in procession." 
 
 Back from the busy parts of the city, Bangkok is intersected 
 by pleasant bye-paths and the winding canals all overhung 
 with tropical verdure ; so much so that the whole city, when 
 surveyed from the height of the " Great Golden Mountain " 
 — an artificial brick pagoda some two hundred feet high — 
 appears, as my photograph shows, to be one mass of trees 
 dotted with occasional protruding spires. To turn off into 
 the first side-path and enter the compound of some petty 
 official, is to penetrate at a step into the patriarchal state. 
 Around you stand the wooden houses, erect on piles to raise 
 them above the mud, or even water, which is always present 
 during the rainy season; reached by simple ladders, sufficient for 
 man but impossible for beast. The women are pounding in the 
 mortars with heavy wooden hammers beneath the floors of the 
 houses, or winnowing the brown- skinned paddy in great wicker 
 pans, in the middle of the courtyard. Pariah dogs are prowling 
 round, snarling and howling over the refuse of many weeks of 
 primitive Siamese housekeeping. In the centre dwelling sits the 
 master, full in the open doorway, and whether he is making his 
 toilet, or eating his dinner, or performing his duties, he is 
 
m 
 
 s 
 
 w 
 o 
 
BANGKOK AND ITS PfiOPLB. 417 
 
 always surrounded with servants and visitors, wives and 
 mothers, in unconcerned proximity ; for Siam is a land where 
 privacy is unknown and a desire for it unfelt. In the adjoining 
 dwellings, upon the same platforms, are the households of his 
 various sons and their wives, or more often of his daughters 
 and their husbands ; for in Siam a young man goes to live 
 in his mother-in-law's compound without any misgiving. 
 
 But it is in the " Wats " — the temples, or monasteries, as 
 they should rather be called — that we discover the really finer 
 parts of Bangkok. These buildings occupy the best sites, and 
 afford the most beautiful views of the town. Built for the most 
 part in the days when roads and carriages were unknown, they 
 nestle among the trees upon the banks of the innumerable 
 canals. Amidst shady cloisters, frescoed in brilliant colours 
 with the fabled incidents of Brahmin polytheism, and glaring 
 with the hell-pictures of later Buddhist mythology, stands the 
 Temple itself, lofty, cool, and dim, with threefold or fourfold 
 roofs and soaring rafters and marble floors, where dreamy 
 monks recite in impressive sing-song the lengthy formulae of 
 their world-old faith, while placid Buddhas tower above them 
 in endless calm, or stretch their length in huge figures of sixty 
 or seventy feet of gilded brickwork, through the gloomy 
 columns. 
 
 Around and outside these more sacred precincts stand rows on 
 rows of little dwellings for the priests, where day by day they 
 practise their orisons or instruct their pupils, or pursue their 
 meditations. But it is on festival days, and on the weekly 
 Sacred Day, the seventh and fifteenth of each moon, that these 
 Wats become the scene of activity and resound with the 
 hum of many voices. In Siam, as elsewhere, the active 
 ministrations of religion seem chiefly sought by the softer sex, 
 perhaps with more reason than in Europe, since here the men 
 will work off each his own necessary portion of religion in the 
 few weeks or months, or occasionally years, that almost every 
 Siamese man spends in the monastic order, at some period of 
 
 28 
 
418 SIAM 
 
 his life. Thus on "Wan Pra " may be seen a crowd of women 
 with laughing children coming in all simplicity, like mediaeval 
 Christians to the weekly Mass, to gain their humble share of 
 hard-won "merit" by devotion, and if possible to escape the 
 eternal handicap which Buddhism lays upon their sex. 
 
 The only official call that a Siamese makes upon the rites 
 of the church is at his cremation, the greatest event in his 
 career. It is a genuinely impressive experience to see the 
 humble ceremonies of a peasant cremation, to hear the yellow- 
 robed priests intoning with Gregorian sonorousness the office of 
 the dead over the leaping flames, and to watch them as they 
 repeat the orisons from hour to hour throughout the night over 
 the smouldering ashes, with weird cadence, in the strange 
 rolling accents of the old Pali, till at dawn they make their 
 mournful search upon the pyre for the charred remnants of frail 
 humanity. 
 
 The cremation of the rich and great is a different affair 
 altogether. At the death of a noble, and still more of some 
 member of the Eoyal Family, a cremation, which is then held 
 some months afterwards, becomes a public holiday, a brilliant 
 gala week with dances and shows and theatres and every form 
 of national amusement and delight ; and so adds one more to 
 the wonderful list of high-days and holidays which the ease- 
 loving Siamese contrives to fit into his year. Festivals are 
 indeed the chief business of Siamese life. I was a spectator 
 of one specially gorgeous festival in the king's summer palace 
 up the river at Bang-pa-in. It was a right royal pageant in 
 honour of the yearly fete of Loi Katong, a sort of Feast of 
 Lanterns, when every stream and waterway sparkled with the 
 little lamps and tapers set afloat by the simple worshipper, to 
 " make merit," in happy ignorance that he thus perpetuated the 
 primeval invocation of his Aryan forefathers to the bounty of 
 the waters which alone can give the rich harvest. In tiny 
 cockle-shells and stately barges, in fragile emblems and in 
 towering monsters, the glinting line of lights was borne along. 
 
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 419 
 
 amidst the blare of trumpets and the shouts of the throng, till 
 it disappeared into the darkness, and left the light-hearted 
 Siamese to count up the days to the next of those recurring 
 holidays. 
 
 It is only during the vast preparations for some Palace 
 function — a gorgeous cremation, the brilliant ceremony of the 
 " top-knot cutting " when the Crown Prince comes of age, or 
 the annual visits to the Wats — that one first perceives that 
 [ the indolent Siamese can work, and work with a will, too, to 
 build up towering erections of bamboo and thatch and tinsel 
 and gaudy colouring of waving festoons, with an activity and 
 ingenuity that pass one's comprehension, till one happens upon 
 the explanation. It is that the great officials and even the 
 royal princes are themselves directing and urging on with voice 
 and hand the work of raising these ephemeral shows, which 
 appeal at once to their keenest sense of pleasure and their 
 fondest hopes for royal favour. It has been well said that the 
 Siamese habit is to work at play, and to play at work ; I shall 
 have something to say upon the latter head later on, but the 
 subject of cremations offers one of the finest examples of the 
 former. There is a fine square of open and level greensward just 
 in front of the Grand Palace, covering some four or five acres. 
 On the death of any child or near relative of the reigning or 
 previous monarch, this ground is covered with an immense 
 erection of buildings, which occupy often five or six months 
 and tens of thousands of hands in building, and are on view 
 during perhaps five or six days of the ceremony, and in actual 
 use only during the five or six hours of the burning. They are 
 then entirely demolished within a few days, and the whole 
 process is begun over again with entirely new material at the 
 next royal death. The expense involved each time is almost 
 incredible. If we include the accompanying lavish distribution 
 of presents, both of Siamese money and of goods ordered 
 from Europe by hundreds of eases, it sometimes amounts 
 to as much as fifteen thousand catties — say, iG75,000. And 
 
420 SUM, 
 
 this in a country where the peasant is taxed nearly fifty 
 per cent, on every article of necessity; where ofi&cial salaries 
 are generally in arrear ; while defence, education, puhlic works, 
 and other reforms, are always starved on the plea of lack of 
 revenue. 
 
 But to see a Eoyal Siamese Ceremony at its best, one must 
 witness the pageants connected with the varied innumerable 
 sacrosanct events in the life of the Heir Apparent himself, or 
 indeed of any other of the full Celestial princes — Chow Fah, as 
 they are called — i.e., those sons of the King whose mothers are 
 of royal blood. There is first the giving of presents to the 
 royal parents at his birth — a list of the money value of each, 
 with the donor's name, being carefully registered as a guide for 
 future royal favours. Then there is the top-knot cutting at the 
 age of twelve, followed by his entrance into the noviciate of the 
 Buddhist monastic order at thirteen, and into the full priesthood 
 at twenty-one; besides the minor fetes at marriages or the 
 bestowals of higher ranks and titles ; and above all, the final 
 festival of his cremation. Every one of these events is the 
 occasion for immense processions and gorgeous pageants, entailing 
 a complete cessation of all Government business for a week or 
 ten days at least, and its confusion and delay for a much longer 
 period before and after. To crown all, there is the expense 
 involved in the dresses, the lavish largesses, and the almsgiving, 
 besides the heavy penalty of the forced and unpaid labour of 
 most of the unfortunate workmen employed. So that each one 
 of the little " sons of heaven " — whose number is now rising 
 seven, as the present King began his family rather early in life 
 (at thirteen he was the father of two children)— has been 
 estimated to cost his faithful and long-suffering country from 
 ninety to a hundred thousand pounds in festivals alone. Nobles 
 and princes, by the way, pay nothing towards taxes. I should 
 add that any lack of the necessary total sum is made up 
 through "loyal contributions," consisting of "voluntary" 
 abatements of the monthly salaries of the officials, since it is 
 

BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 421 
 
 an absolute necessity that the full requirements be forthcoming 
 for these royal and national amusements. 
 
 In a people so averse to work of any kind, one would expect 
 to find but few popular amusements, and those not of the 
 nature of violent exercise. And this is the case. There are 
 practically but two forms of amusement throughout the whole 
 of Siam — gambling and the theatre. The former is the great 
 national passion; every large town has its nightly lottery of 
 incredible proportions. The possession of the Bangkok Lottery 
 license brings a great fortune in about five years, and the 
 Government draws one of its largest revenues from this source. 
 Gambling-houses, and their natural concomitants and next-door 
 neighbours the pawn-shops, are as numerous in Bangkok as 
 public-houses in London, and fifty times as pernicious in their 
 effect on the people; and this deadly national trait can but 
 increase so long as a native government prefers to use it as a 
 source of profit rather than to check it as a national curse. 
 
 Of theatres and theatre-going a volume might be written. To 
 an ordinary Siamese it is the height of happiness to sit jammed 
 in a dense crowd on the floor, from seven p.m. to two a.m., 
 watching the same play — or rather portion of a play, for it is a 
 matter of several such nights in succession before the drama is 
 completed. The plays are usually adaptations from old Hindu 
 mythology ; the plot and every incident of it are familiar to all 
 in the audience — the more so, the better. The attraction con- 
 sists in the manner of its presentment, the long-drawn tension 
 of the "love" episodes, the realism of the denouments, the 
 gorgeousness of the dresses, and the minute skill of the nume- 
 rous dances. The actors, with the exception of a few clowns, 
 are all young girls. They are subjected to stringent training 
 from the age of four years, and in their prime at seventeen and 
 eighteen years of age are a possession of immense money value 
 to their "owners," in spite of the much-vaunted but unenforced 
 slavery reforms of the present reign. The dances are entirely 
 posture-dances, great pleasure being taken in the abnormal 
 
422 siAM. 
 
 bending-back of elbows, wrists, ankles, and finger-joints, which 
 is carried to an extent that would be impossible to even a 
 " double-jointed " European. The dances are accompanied by 
 loud music from the orchestra, assisted sometimes by the hard 
 voices of a chorus of some twenty old women, and heightened in 
 the impassioned moments by the voices of the danseuses them- 
 selves. I was permitted to take the accompanying photograph 
 of two of the leading prime donne of Bangkok, in a company 
 belonging to a most distinguished nobleman, a personal friend 
 of the King, whose theatrical performances are always the 
 most popular feature of all the great national and other 
 holidays, the spectators numbering many hundreds at a time. 
 There is nothing to pay at a Siamese theatre, for the owner is 
 recouped by special donations from wealthy patrons, propor- 
 tionate to the popularity and success of the performances, while 
 the " company," like most other native employees in this 
 strange land, alike in palace and cottage, are not wage-earners 
 but house-chattels, that is, domestic slaves. 
 
 The fascinating subject of Siamese ceremonies, which, as I 
 have said, comprise three-fourths of the whole interest of life 
 to a Bangkok Siamese, has led me away from my description of ^ ' 
 Bangkok itself. Its plan as a town, however, is so simple that 
 a few words will suffice. It is situated at about twelve miles 
 distance from the sea in a direct line, sixteen by rail, and some 
 thirty by water, and lies right on the banks of the really fine 
 river which has called it into being, to wit, the Menam Chow 
 Phya. Menam, "the mother of waters," is the generic name 
 for all rivers, and " Chow Phya " is the highest title of nobility, 
 the Lord Duke, as it were. The city itself possesses a lengthy 
 official name, couched as are all Siamese titles in the ancient 
 Pali language of the Buddhist Scriptures, the first portion of it 
 meaning " the City of the Great White Angels." Grandiloquent 
 titles, by the way, are a strong point in Siam both for places 
 and for officials, an arrangement which one might almost 
 regard as a striking instance of compensation, since the 
 
BANGKOK AND ITS PKOPLE. 423 
 
 importance of the places is usually particularly small, and the 
 duties of the nobles are chiefly conspicuous by their absence. I 
 make this explanation in passing, because otherwise the 
 seventeen-syllabled name of the Palace cook, and the even 
 longer one of the King's barber, might possibly mislead an 
 innocent foreigner into ascribing a wholly fictitious excellence to 
 the cuisine of the one or the dexterity of the other. 
 
 The city is practically confined to the left bank of the river; 
 the portion on the right bank which fifty years ago was the 
 centre of power and activity as the abode of the great Eegent 
 and his immense and once influential family, has now fallen 
 into complete decay, and is purposely left in neglect, as it might 
 otherwise recall a strong regime that is gone, and suggest some 
 unwelcome and uneasy memories of things that the present 
 reigning House may well wish buried in the past. 
 
 There is one main road some five or six miles long in excellent 
 condition in its upper portion (that is, where it may have to 
 face the criticism of Majesty itself), which runs parallel with 
 the river and leads from " down town " right up to and through 
 the city proper. The streets of Bangkok will agreeably astonish 
 the visitor from Canton or Peking by their width, their condition, 
 and comparative cleanliness; while the excellent state of the 
 many cross-roads also in the city, such at least as are near the 
 Palace, speak well for the efforts made by the Government 
 during the past ten years in this direction. These owe their 
 existence to the energy of the various European employees of 
 the Siamese Public Works Department. There is, of course, the 
 typical Eastern conglomeration of filth and humanity in hovels 
 and alleys and fetid bazaars ; but to see it one must deliberately 
 seek it and leave the ordinary roads of traffic, for it is practically 
 confined to the one long gruesome stretch of Chinese bazaars 
 and native dens of various sorts, of evil odours and still worse 
 repute, known as Sampeng. But even this plague-centre has 
 now been cut into and ventilated by several wide transverse 
 roads, in consequence of the fortunate recurrence recently of 
 
424 siAM. 
 
 some fires which destroyed hundreds of the close-packed 
 shanties. 
 
 Along the whole length of the main road runs a well-kept 
 electric tramway, invariably filled to overflowing with chattering 
 passengers of every description, and paying to its lucky share- 
 holders the respectable dividend of thirty-four per cent, per 
 annum. It was started some five years ago, and was in a sense 
 the precursor of a great wave of native speculation. The fortu- 
 nate Concessionary was a Dane named M. de Eichelieu, who 
 has been for many years in the more or less confidential service 
 of the King of Siam. The tramway was so great a success 
 pecuniarily that it served as an admirable object-lesson in 
 the elementary principles of the investment of money to this 
 simple people, who had previously hoarded their moneys in bags, 
 or invested it in nothing better than slaves for the household or 
 buffaloes for the farm. This gave the first start to an eagerness 
 amongst all the natives to put their money to reproductive uses, 
 which fact explains, amongst other things, the uprising of the 
 rows upon rows of fairly good and neat-looking brick houses 
 that line the main roads of Bangkok, almost from end to end. 
 
 The Legations and all the principal residences of Bangkok 
 nave their landings on the river front, while the more fortunate 
 ones possess in addition a good entrance on the main road. 
 This is also true of the Grand Palace, of which the Eoyal 
 Landing is one of the most conspicuous and peculiar features 
 on the river, fronted as it is with meagre battlements and 
 mangy guard-houses and enormous refuse-heaps, but backed by 
 the beautiful spires and glittering pinnacles I have already de- 
 scribed. Directly opposite the Palace landing, on the west side 
 of the river, is the Naval Arsenal, the one decently- kept and 
 good-looking government department of Siam — the outcome 
 also of the efforts of the Danish Commodore de Eichelieu. Here 
 are the headquarters of a large department of marines, which 
 may be said to monopolise all that can be credited to the account 
 of discipline and order in the government departments of Siam. 
 

 
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 42£i 
 
 As an arsenal, its equipment can hardly be called excessive; to 
 us it might even seem a trifle inadequate, since its chief " pro- 
 perties " (no other word is so suitable) are a few turning-lathes, 
 a blacksmith's shop, some Chinese boiler-makers and fitters, 
 some native carpenters, with a few half-paid coolies and ragged 
 prisoners in chains. I must not omit to mention the cartridge- 
 making machinery without materials, the gun-fittings without 
 guns, and the cannons without projectiles. The arsenal does 
 indeed possess one large European-bailt dry-dock, made two or 
 three years ago, which, after remaining for years unfinished, so 
 long as it had been required only for ordinary government pur- 
 poses, was at last completed hurriedly so soon as it became 
 " necessary " (in the Palace sense) for the special purpose of 
 accommodating the King's own new yacht. This latter is a vessel 
 of two thousand five hundred tons, with velvet couches, cushioned 
 anterooms, and innumerable ladies' bedrooms, combined with 
 a steel deck, a ram, and an armament of quick-firing guns. The 
 latter might have produced some telling effects upon the French 
 gunboats last year if only there had been one single Siamese 
 engineer who knew how to work the engines to bring the vessel 
 into action, or a single gunner who understood how to fire her 
 guns when she got there. These, however, were details which 
 had unfortunately been overlooked when the Siamese Govern- 
 ment with farcical dignity sent their curt intimation to the French 
 Legation that "all necessary instructions" "have been given 
 to our naval and military authorities " to prevent the French 
 entrance. 
 
 I must make it clear, however, that Bangkok is not Siam. 
 To see Bangkok superficially in tourist fashion without ever 
 penetrating beneath the thin veneer of recently-acquired western 
 tricks and manners is, of course, misleading to an indescribable 
 degree, while even a close and intimate acquaintance with 
 Bangkok and its life and people, will give but a deceptive and 
 inaccurate conception of what Siam really is, either actually or 
 potentially. 
 
426 siAM. 
 
 Bangkok is a town with about the population of Newcastle, y , q 
 and the size of Oxford, but Siam is a country with the popula- 
 tion of Switzerland and the size of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 Holland, Belgium, and Italy, all rolled into one. Neither a 
 traveller nor a politician can hope to take the measure of a 
 country like this by observing, however carefully, a hybrid 
 development that has arisen in one small corner of it under the 
 special circumstances of European contact and proximity to the 
 sea ; more especially when it is remembered that the distant 
 portions of the kingdom are very slightly under the control of 
 the central Government, so far as direct action is concerned, in 
 spite of the recent strenuous efforts towards centralisation. 
 
 The solution of the most pressing problems of Siam's future 
 is, of course, means of communication. So long as this one 
 and only remedy is untouched by any efforts except the present 
 perfunctory and fictitious designs of the Royal Eailway Depart- 
 ment, so long the vast possibilities of Siamese development must 
 remain unrealised. Take about half an hour's walk from the 
 Grand Palace in Bangkok in any direction you please, and you 
 find you can go no further. Not, however, because the roads 
 are atrocious, as in Korea, or impassable, as in China. They 
 simply do not exist — there are none. Even the great waterway, 
 the one hope and stay of the struggling timber-dealers and 
 despairing rice-traders, is allowed to remain in a more or 
 less unnavigable condition for half of every year. The trade 
 of Siam, the development of Siam, the resources of Siam, have 
 become what they are in the teeth of almost insuperable ob- 
 stacles. In this complete absence of roads, one can of course 
 only get out of Bangkok and see anything of the country by 
 boat- travelling either on the canals or the main river; and 
 afterwards start from certain recognised centres, on ponies 
 or more often on foot, with bullocks or coolies for baggage, 
 along the rough trails and jungle paths, created simply by the 
 persistent tramping of feet, vyithout artificial construction of 
 any sort, which still do duty for "Internal Communications." 
 
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 427 
 
 The chief places that repay a journey towards the west are 
 Khanburi and Eatburi, which have both been important districts 
 in the past, and with better communications would again become 
 centres for cattle-breeding, sugar cultivation, paddy-growing, 
 and tin-making. To reach them one must take a long journey 
 by a once magnificent canal which now runs dry at low tide, to 
 the Tachin Eiver, and through another to the Meklong Eiver, 
 both of these rivers running parallel with the Menam into the 
 Gulf of Siam. 
 
 The great town in the north is Chiengmai (Zimme), where 
 there is a large population of British subjects, mostly Burmans, 
 and consequently a British Consul, whose time is well occupied 
 with the intricate cases that constantly arise out of the confusion 
 of Siamese forest regulations. To reach Chiengmai means a 
 tedious journey in native boats of some sixteen to fifty days, 
 according to the season of the year, part of it over dangerous 
 rapids, where one may often spend a day in making fifty yards. 
 
 To the east is the important trade centre and once royal city 
 of Khorat, the objective of the one hundred and sixty miles of 
 railway which is still supposed to be in active process of construc- 
 tion by the Eoyal Department of Siamese State Eailways. The 
 present method of getting there is by the " Great Trail," a worn 
 track, trampled into huge ridges by the feet of pack-bullocks, 
 through virgin jungle and the fever-haunted forest of the " Lord 
 of Fire " — Phya fai — and over a steep pass like the sides of a 
 ruined pyramid, some three thousand feet above sea level. The 
 journey involves toiling on foot through waist-deep seas of mud 
 and over various unbridged streams, except during about three 
 months in the height of the dry season, when travelling becomes 
 still more difficult through lack of water. Yet Khorat is the 
 centre of a vast plain of magnificent soil, reaching right away to 
 the Mekong, and capable, if properly developed, of nearly doubling 
 the present revenues of Siam. 
 
 Chantabun, the place that is doubtless now best known to 
 fame, is a long distance to the south-east, and is approached by 
 
428 siAM. 
 
 a journey of about twelve hours across the corner of the Gulf of 
 Siam to the entrance of the Ohantabun Eiver (at present under 
 French occupation and guarded by French guns), where the 
 native boats will take you in about six hours up to the town 
 itself. Here is the great emporium for the gem mines of the 
 rich provinces of the Hinterland, as also of the pepper and coffee 
 ■which count amongst the finest productions of Siam, though still 
 undeveloped. Ohantabun is the outlet also of the three rich 
 provinces, between the Menam and the Great Cambodian Lake, 
 on which France has long been casting covetous eyes, and over 
 which her influence is daily increasing. 
 
 Every one who has been in Singapore or Hongkong, has seen 
 or heard of the quaint bullet-shaped ticals that once formed the 
 silver currency of Siam. These coins were originally about two 
 shillings in value, but they are now sharing the fate of the rupee 
 and the dollar. They are round lumps of silver hammered into 
 a flattened and irregular shape, cleft with a deep groove on one 
 side, and stamped with a tiny " chop " to show the reign or 
 period of issue. As it is impossible to " ring " these coins, and 
 most difficult to distinguish good from bad, a flat coinage of the 
 same value has been issued, with milled edge and royal 
 medallion and heraldic device. The tical is divided into four 
 salungs, and each salung into two fiiangs, flat silver coins being 
 issued for each of these values. The copper coinage, of which 
 a large issue was made in Birmingham some years ago, is also 
 a very presentable currency. A lot (about a farthing) is half an 
 att ; two atts make one pai, the equivalent of a penny ; and 
 eight atts go to the filang, the smallest silver coin. 
 
 As the tical is the largest coin in circulation, the interchange 
 of money is of course a very cumbrous operation. The unfor- 
 tunate European employee who goes to draw his monthly 
 salary is compelled to take a coolie with him, or if his salary 
 be several months in arrear, he will require several coolies and 
 an immense stock of patience, to count and " shroff" and carry 
 away the heavy bags of depreciated silver. Large sums are 
 
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 429 
 
 measured in " catties," the " catty " being eighty ticals, a 
 •weight not represented by any current coin. During the last five 
 years, however, all business matters have been immensely 
 facilitated by the permission granted to the local branch of the 
 Hongkong and Shanghai Bank to issue bank-notes for sums 
 varying from five to a thousand ticals. These notes are printed 
 in English, Siamese, and Chinese ; and though it took some time 
 for the suspicious Siamese to reverse his whole experience and 
 to be persuaded that a " promise to pay " was worth anything 
 at all, yet now the circulation of notes is rapidly increasing. 
 The presence of the bank has had a very beneficial influence, 
 too, in numerous other ways, as a convincing object-lesson of 
 business principles and commercial integrity to a people and a 
 government whose keenest delight is to shirk payments, who 
 are absolutely destitute of shame in money matters, and whose 
 promises are literally made to be broken. 
 
 It was indeed a fortunate day for business men and for the 
 whole people of Siam when it was finally decided to put away 
 on the shelf, unused and unissued, the hundreds of thousands 
 of new legal tender " Treasury Notes of the Eoyal Siamese 
 Treasury," which an ambitious Finance Minister had commis- 
 sioned a German firm to print for him, under the familiar 
 temptation of thus creating out of nothing an unlimited supply 
 of ready money. The dismay that had spread amongst the 
 officials, both native and European, throughout the country at 
 the idea of being paid in Siamese paper promises, was an 
 eloquent proof of the character of the national good faith. 
 
 It is a common saying in Siam that you cannot throw a stone 
 in the street without hitting a prince or a nobleman ; and the 
 supply certainly seems prodigious and inexhaustible. The 
 ordinary European conception of the real value of these ranks 
 is very mistaken, chiefly owing to the preposterous English 
 equivalents that have been invented (by an Englishman, I fear) 
 for the native titles. It is at once apparent that in a poly- 
 gamous country the family of each king must become almost 
 
430 SIAM. 
 
 innumerable in two generations ; and while the blundering 
 farang will give to each and all the same title of " Prince " and 
 " Highness," native custom has worked out a sensible arrange- 
 ment which misleads nobody, and marks off with the nicest 
 gradations the actual percentage of purple blood. The king's 
 sons are called Pra Chow Luk Yah Toh. If their mother be 
 royal or specially favoured. Chow Fah — " Celestial Prince " — ^is 
 added. The sons of the first of these are called Mom Chow, and 
 of the second, Pra Ong Chow. The sons of a Mom Chow 
 have the title Mom Raja-wong, and the sons of these, that is 
 the fourth generation from the king, only Mom Luang; while the 
 fifth generation have no title at all, and are simply plain Nai, or 
 "Mr.," like everybody else. An absurdly misleading idea is 
 therefore given when European Secretaries of Legation impose 
 the title of " Prince " or " Royal Highness " upon every one 
 of these four generations. The Siamese themselves ha.ve the 
 sense to attach little importance or dignity to any title below 
 Mom Chow — the grandson of a king. 
 
 European recognition of Siamese birth-titles should properly 
 follow a very simple rule. All the Siamese who are entitled, by 
 European law and custom, to be known as " Eoyal Highness," 
 may be recognised by the distinctively royal prefix of Somdetch, 
 the use of which is as inflexibly restricted by the Siamese them- 
 selves as the corresponding one among European nations. I 
 believe the Siamese who are styled Somdetch now number less 
 than twelve. 
 
 The above are all birth-titles. In addition to these, princes 
 of the first rank sometimes receive special titles of honour from 
 the King, either by favour or in recognition of services. They 
 are Krom Mun, the lowest, Krom Kun, Krom Luang, and Krom 
 Pra, the highest, and originally represented the headships of 
 various departments of State. 
 
 The same mistakes in European nomenclature are even 
 more glaring in the case of the so-called nobles. There is 
 absolutely no hereditary nobility in Siam, and to speak of 
 
. ''J 
 
 Sl-K. 
 
 A Typical Siamese '.Vomax. 
 
BANGKOK AN ITS PEOPLE. 431 
 
 Marquises, Counts, and Barons is a hideous absurdity, which 
 causes the liveliest ridicule in Siam itself, and makes foreign 
 snobbery a by-word amongst the people. Not a single family 
 title of nobility, in the English sense, exists in Siam. Every 
 post in government pay has a particular name or title, from 
 the clerk on his stool in the cash department of the spirit 
 licenses, or the half-naked inspector who sleepily watches the 
 road-sweepers in the streets, to the Director-General of Public 
 Works, or the Minister of Finance and the Treasury. Who- 
 ever holds a post is known by its appellation; when a man 
 is transferred to another post, he changes his appellation 
 (or name, as the European mistakenly calls it). But these 
 so-called titles transmit nothing to the next generation; it 
 is an unbroken rule that titles do not descend from father 
 to son. The son of the highest Phya in the land — whether 
 the latter be a general of the army with a seat in the Cabinet, 
 or a Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James — 
 remains a plain Nai, like his father's retainers, until he obtains 
 his first post in the Government service, when he takes the 
 title Khun so-and-so, by which the previous holder of the post 
 had been known till then. When by successive promotions 
 he reaches a particular grade in the service, his " title " will 
 change to Pra so-and-so, according to the special nature of his 
 duties. His next step, after long waiting, is that of Phya, 
 which is sometimes for special services, or as a particular mark 
 of royal favour, elevated to Chow Phya. Beyond this he cannot 
 go, except that he may be entered on the limited list of specially- 
 exalted Phyas, who are allowed a gold spittoon, a gold teapot, a 
 gold betel-box, and other insignia, presented to them by the 
 King, and returnable on their decease. 
 
 The mistaken ideas that have arisen in European minds out 
 of the above simple and practical arrangement are probably due 
 to the fact that all these " titles," or rather " names of offices," 
 are not expressed in the ordinary Siamese language, which 
 would have dispelled the illusion by showing the intrinsic 
 
432 siAM. 
 
 meaning of the names, but are invariably in Pali, the sacred 
 or classical language of the Buddhist Scriptures, in which all 
 official names and royal attributes are expressed. This custom 
 gives occasion for many curious and interesting observations, 
 for one has to learn a complete vocabulary of Pali nomenclature 
 in order to speak about royalties at all : the very eyelashes and 
 toe-nails of a prince or king, as well as his coat or his boots, 
 his dinner or his bath-room, having wholly different names 
 from those of ordinary mortals. Not that these terms are used 
 by royalties of themselves, but by every one speaking to them 
 or of them. A volume would not suffice, I am assured, to 
 explain the wondrous intricacies of varying pronouns and in- 
 volved circumlocutions that are minutely attached to every dis- 
 tinct relation of rank and dignity between two speakers. For 
 example, there are at least seven different ways in which to say 
 "I," or "me," and four or five for "you" and "thou," each 
 and all of which may occur in turn in a single conversation, if 
 one is talking to or concerning several persons of different ranks. 
 
 With so carefully graduated and minutely understood a 
 system of official ceremonial, it is at once apparent how colossal 
 a blunder is made by speaking of Siamese visitors to our 
 shores as "Marquis" this, "Count" that, or "Baron" the 
 other. The height of this farce, however, is only seen when one 
 recognises in a crouching figure, trembling on all-fours upon the 
 floor of a Siamese office, a half-naked Luang, who had blossomed 
 under snobbery in London into " The Baron " ; or perceives 
 under the battered police helmet of a seedy Phya the features 
 of a man to whom one has been gravely introduced in Europe 
 as "His Excellency the Marquis." 
 
 The scheme of transmutation under which Siamese rank 
 masquerades in English, is that Phya represents " Marquis," 
 Pra "Count," andZ/itawgf "Baron." One cannot possibly discuss 
 this seriously; indeed, among the Siamese themselves, their 
 English rank affords a subject of ceaseless chaff and jest. The 
 Siamese Legation in Paris could tell a very good story to the 
 
BANGKOK AND ITS PEOPLE. 433 
 
 effect that they once received a telegram advising them of 
 the arrival of the " Marquis de . . . ." * The united Siamese 
 staff, failing to recognise the particular member of their own 
 aristocracy thus announced, came to the conclusion that it 
 must be a French nobleman in charge of a Siamese Com- 
 mission, and applied to the French Foreign Office for detailed 
 information. The officials there informed them that no such 
 title existed in France, and suggested that it must be 
 a Siamese nobleman whose visit to Paris had already been 
 announced. To the infinite confusion of the Siamese Legation 
 this hint enabled them to recognise the native face under the 
 foreign mask. In all the above I have spoken only of one sex. 
 With regard to the rank of Siamese ladies, it must suffice to say 
 that " Princess " and " Countess " in Kensington, have often 
 been their husbands' house-servants, raised to the responsi- 
 bility of concubines, in Bangkok. 
 
 It is therefore nothing short of offensive to see British 
 officials and personages of rank making themselves ludicrous in 
 Siamese eyes by taking all these farcical titles seriously. Our 
 Foreign Office and military authorities might at least find 
 out who an Oriental visitor really is, before appointing aides-de- 
 camp, ordering reviews and guards of honour, and commanding 
 the hospitality of Governors and Viceroys, One wonders how 
 soon all this unreality and humbug concerning a fictitious 
 "progress '' will give way to an accurate understanding of the 
 real condition of Siam, and thus clear the way for the true de- 
 velopments of which, as a country, she is undoubtedly capable. 
 
 • I omit the name because the bearer of it, who is well tnown to me, is a 
 ehaiming and enlightened man, hating the folly of which he is the victim. 
 
 29 
 
GHAFTEB XXVIL 
 
 THE PBINCIPLJES AND PEBSONALITIES OF SIAMESE 
 GOVEBNMENT. 
 
 TT is difficult to convey to foreign readers any adequate notion 
 
 of the degree in which the King of Siam is the head of the ' i 
 State. " L'etat, c'est moi," is absolutely and literally true in •' ' - ■' 
 his case. His personal will is at once the measure of the 
 possible and the inevitable. When he has said Dai ("Be it 
 so ! "), finality is reached. To every Siamese the King is not 
 alone the ruler of the land, but the actual possessor of it — of 
 its soil, of its people, of its revenues. When the foreign 
 missionary desires to convey to the Siamese mind the idea of 
 God, he is compelled to employ the words Pra Chow, which 
 are already used for "king." Omniscience, omnipotence, and 
 absolute Tightness are the inherent attributes of the King. 
 To illustrate this, here is a perfectly true story. A Siamese 
 prince received from London a packet of Christmas cards, 
 one of which bore the text, " Glory to God in the Highest ! " 
 Without in the least understanding the meaning and sacredness 
 of these words to Christian ears, and without the remotest 
 intention of irreverence, he erased the word "God," and 
 substituted the word " King," and sent it to the Palace. 
 He had simply been struck with the peculiar appositeness 
 of the expression, and the card gave the liveliest satisfaction 
 in royal circles. No distinction, again, exists in the Siamese 
 language between the personal possessions of the King and what 
 
 434 
 
SIAMESE PEINCIPLBS AND PBESONALITIBS. 435 
 
 we should consider the property of the State. His Majesty's 
 walking-stick and the policeman's haton are alike Kong Luang 
 — " royal property." Where money is concerned, the peculiar 
 convenience of this absence of distinction will be sufficiently 
 obvious. It is only within a very short time that an attempt 
 has been made to ear-mark any of the public revenues for 
 national purposes. I dwell upon this point because it is 
 necessary to understand the spirit which thus underlies the 
 whole of Siamese administration in order to realise the 
 precarious tenure and fictitious nature of the newly-adver- 
 tised machinery of reform. 
 
 Personally, Prabat Somdetch Pra Paramindr Maha Chulalong- 
 korn Patindr Tepa Maha Mongkut Pra Chula Chom Klao Chow 
 Yu Hua is a monarch for whom, up to a short time ago, it was 
 possible to entertain a considerable measure of respect. To 
 begin with, he is the best-looking man I saw in Siam. He bears 
 himself with genuine kingly dignity, and combines with great 
 charm of manner the peculiarly royal gift of calling forth the 
 personal devotion of every man, Siamese or foreign, whom he 
 chooses to admit to his intimacy. He remembers who everybody 
 is, what their interests at the moment may happen to be, and 
 the right phrase of personal inquiry rises instinctively to his lips. 
 Two or three days after I had had the honour of being received 
 by him he noticed me among a crowd of officials, and mentioning 
 by name the house and street where I was living, asked if I was 
 finding the surroundings agreeable. More than all this, however, 
 the King is a student, not only of the affairs of his own country, 
 but also of the politics and literature of Great Britain, and to a 
 smaller extent, of Europe as well. He reads English with ease, 
 and spoke it at least as well as the Tsarevich during all their 
 conversations, which were carried on in that language. Most 
 visitors take away a false idea upon this point, as it is not 
 etiquette for him to speak anything but Siamese, except as a 
 special mark of intimacy. All the more prominent of the princes 
 also speak and write English with a fair amount of fluency. 
 
436 siAM. 
 
 During the acuter stages, for example, of the recent trouble, 
 when it was desired to keep the discussions in the Cabinet secret 
 from some of its members, the conversation was carried on in 
 English by the others without any difficulty. To Dr. Gowan, 
 his late body -physician and peculiarly intimate friend, the King 
 owes much of his English education and insight into the foreign 
 point of view. He has read and can show his appreciation of 
 the chief works of the English novelists, and every day for a 
 long time he used to translate a piece of the " Arabian Nights " 
 to his children, before the latter were able to read it for them- 
 selves. Unfortunately, to be quite frank, his Majesty unites with 
 the Stuart charm the Stuart moral weakness, and he has more 
 than once sacrificed, or permitted to be sacrificed, to the wearying 
 intrigues of his immediate household and relatives, those to 
 whose personal devotion he well knew himself to be under the 
 deepest obligations. The first sign of this, which has never been 
 forgotten in Siam, was given when he consented to the beheadal 
 of Pra Pichah, his closest friend and most loyal supporter, 
 under pressure from the Eegent, on a charge which was well 
 known to have been invented only for the purpose of gratifying 
 personal animosity. Dr. Gowan's dismissal was due to like 
 causes, and has been attended by disastrous results. A third 
 victim was Prince Narah, to whose efforts are due the few re- 
 strictions now put upon the different Ministers in their disposal 
 of the public funds, but who succumbed to their united defence 
 of the old profitable system of misappropriation. The latest 
 example of this trait was afforded when the King tamely assented 
 to the dismissal of Mr. Morant, the governor of the Crown Prince 
 and tutor to the royal children, who had lived for years in a 
 position of greater confidence and responsibihty with the royal 
 family than any foreigner has ever done. 
 
 The King's interest in foreign matters was first aroused, and 
 his eyes first opened, by his visit to Lord Mayo in India in 
 1872. From the Viceroy he learned a lesson in the principles 
 of enlightened government which he has never forgotten, and 
 
Q 
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 w 
 
 ►^ 
 
 H 
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SIAMESE PBINCIPLBS AND PERSONALITIES. 437 
 
 the assassination of Lord Mayo, whilst the King was still in 
 India, left an indelible impression upon him. Subsequently on 
 several occasions he has visited the Straits Settlements, the 
 protected Malay States, and the semi-independent States — 
 which became humbly Siamese for the duration of his stay — 
 studying the differences between Siamese and British administra- 
 tion and making open comparisons, greatly to the disadvantage 
 of the former. Unfortunately, however, as I shall have to 
 explain later, the King is no longer what he was. 
 
 The office known among foreigners as " Second King " — a title 
 in no way suggested by the real Siamese title of Wang Nar — 
 was abolished on the death of the last holder, Prince George 
 Washington, the palace was turned into barracks and the 
 position of the family obliterated. Consequently, the second 
 person in rank in the country — above the Queen herself — is 
 the Crown Prince, Somdetch Pra Borom Orosa Tiraj Chow 
 Fah Maha Vajirunhis, whose position and title were created 
 by a special royal proclamation in January, 1887, when the boy 
 was already nine years old. He is not the first-born son of the 
 King, for there are four older sons and several older daughters 
 by concubines. Two of the latter were born to the King before 
 he had reached the age of fifteen, the mother of the first being his 
 ex-nurse- The Crown Prince holds his position as the eldest 
 son of the First Queen. Both this lady and her sister, the 
 Second Queen, are the half-sisters of his Majesty. It is only 
 fair to the Siamese to say that this arrangement is not a royal or 
 immemorial custom, and it by no means finds favour in their eyes. 
 Up to the age of thirteen — he is now sixteen — the Crown Prince 
 lived the usual spoilt life of an Oriental child in the women's 
 quarters of the Palace. After spending the customary period 
 of a few months in the Buddhist noviciate, and becoming, in 
 Siamese parlance, of "adult age," he was compelled to live 
 "outside." Here he would certainly have fallen a prey to the 
 usual emasculating influences of an eastern court, which it was 
 at once the interest and the design of his numerous uncles to place 
 
438 siAM. 
 
 in his way, but fortunately his. royal father determined to save 
 the boy from a repetition of the baneful experiences of his own 
 early youth, and therefore acceded to the earnest pleading of 
 his tutor, Mr. Morant, in favour of a strict and independent 
 intellectual and moral education. Having once agreed to this 
 course, the King was wise enough to see that it could only be 
 carried out by giving absolute authority to Mr. Morant, and this 
 he did at a special public audience. Placing in Mr. Moraut's 
 hands a small gold salver as a pledge of his confidence and 
 support, he charged him to " control my son's actions, influence 
 his character, and mould his will ; guard and guide him and act 
 towards him at all times as towards your own son ; " while to the 
 Crown Prince he added that he thus publicly, in the presence of 
 his family and his Ministers, entrusted him to Mr. Morant's care. 
 An arrangement like this will no longer sound strange when it 
 is remembered that, owing to the King's life as described in the 
 preceding chapter, father and son lived entirely separate lives 
 and often did not see each other for weeks together. The regular 
 student life which followed, safeguarded from deleterious influ- 
 ences that surrounded it like malaria, had lasted less than a year 
 and a half when it was suddenly broken off by the series of events 
 which was — and is — to work so much harm in other ways to Siam. 
 In 1892, the King's health, which had for years required careful 
 watching, became rapidly worse when the restraining hand of 
 a confidential European physician was removed. Twenty-five 
 years of harem life, combined with the excessive indulgence in 
 drugs to which all Orientals are prone, had sown the seeds of 
 physical and mental decay. His lassitude led him to absent 
 himself from affairs for a long period, and to plunge into the 
 pursuit of pleasure in the luxurious sea-side Palace which he 
 built for himself at enormous expense. Thus the recently-formed 
 " Cabinet " was left to administer the affairs of the country, with- 
 out either the presence or the control of their natural head. 
 Suddenly, like the explosion of a mine, came the crisis with 
 France and the terrified presentiment that the ancient prophecy 
 
SIAMESE PRINCIPLES AND PEBSONALITIES. 439 
 
 was about to be fulfilled, which declared that "the kingdom of 
 Slam will be lost when the King goes to live at the sea." He 
 returned from his palace of indolence at Koh-si-chang literally 
 at a monient's notice, determined to retrieve his position and 
 the future of his country. But it was too late. His vigour was 
 lost, his opportunity was gone. The French net was around 
 him, the French gunboats came up the Menam, the ultimatum 
 was presented, and after hopeless procrastination accepted. This 
 shattering of his ambitions^and in his Jubilee year, too — 
 reduced him to a state of mental helplessness, and he retired 
 " inside " to his apartments, almost literally to his bed. For 
 weeks together he never left his room, and the fact that he was 
 still alive was not certainly known except to the five or six ladies 
 who alone saw his face. In the collapse which thus ensued, the 
 education of the Crown Prince was among the first things to fall, 
 and his English guardian, left a helpless victim to the relentless 
 and now dominant jealousies of court circles, was promptly dis- 
 missed. 
 
 The young prince, thus in a moment deprived of all control, 
 has for the past year been allowed to fall back into a life of 
 lethargy and self-indulgence. But for this, the country had good 
 reason to hope well of its future ruler. He is an exceptionally 
 clever boy, and had made astonishing progress in his English 
 education. He spent his whole time reading English books. 
 His favourite lesson was a study of the weekly edition of 
 the Times, and it is not too much to say that his acquaint- 
 ance with the figures and broad outlines of European politics 
 ' is far greater than that of any boy of his age in this country. 
 An Oriental at sixteen, however, is virtually of the same age 
 as a European at six-and-twenty, so that this is not so sur- 
 prising as it sounds. India was a pet subject with him, as it 
 has been with his father, and no conversation was too long for 
 him if it dealt with the development of the Independent States 
 or the springs of Indian nationalities. While lacking the special 
 charm of his father's manner, Prince Maha Vajirunhis luckily 
 
440 SIAM. 
 
 possesses a character of singular determination, and this is the 
 one thing that will enable him to withstand the intrigues of his 
 twenty-four uncles and innumerable brothers, in the unlikely 
 event of another monarch being required for an independent 
 Siam. The moral weakness of the father, however, takes the 
 form of physical lethargy in the son. This was yielding to Mr. 
 Morant's energetic treatment in the shape of drilling, riding and 
 driving; but since " breed is stronger than pasture." his present 
 Burroundings, if continued, will soon destroy any further hope 
 in this direction. 
 
 While absolute power in Siam is thus vested in the King, 
 faintly reflected again in the Crown Prince, the administrative 
 and executive functions are delegated to the various brothers 
 and half-brothers of the King, and other officials. Until quite 
 recently, each department or section of government was in the 
 hands of some one prince or noble, who was individually 
 responsible to his Majesty alone for his actions and the state of 
 his department. He obtained what money he could from the 
 King from year to year, and did what he chose with it, except 
 for the King's occasional criticisms and rebukes, without the 
 embarrassing details of anything in the nature of accounts. 
 But in 1891 a great reorganisation took place, and a general 
 combination and centralisation, both of responsibility and con- 
 trol, was attempted. A Cabinet was formed, consisting of twelve 
 portfolios, of which the holders are nominated by the King and 
 removable at his pleasure. Each Minister has to submit his 
 estimate for the coming year to the united Cabinet, who cut it 
 about as they please by a majority vote, subject only to his 
 Majesty's final approval. And each must further furnish to the 
 Treasury month by month an account of all actual expenditure 
 in minutest detail, before he receives the funds to meet it. This 
 sounds absurd, but it is the Siamese system. The money must 
 be spent before it is paid over, and thus every department is 
 always a month in arrear in theory, and a good deal more in 
 practice. A dozen match-boxes, for example, will figure on 
 
The First (^teex, Siam. 
 
SIAMESE PKINOIPLBS AND PBBSONALITIES. 441 
 
 the War Office accounts at so much per box, and if this detail 
 should be omitted the whole account would be sent back by the 
 Treasury to be amended, with the result — not altogether un- 
 desired — of delaying a settlement for a week. The evil consists 
 obviously in the fact that in Siam the Treasury is at the same 
 time the Exchequer and Audit Department. 
 
 The twelve portfolios which constitute the Cabinet, and the 
 present holders o them, are as follow : — 
 
 I. Minister of Foreign Affairs. Erom Luang Devawongse 
 
 Varoprakar. 
 II. Minister of Finance. Chow Fah Erom Kun Naris. 
 Under this are also included the Customs and the 
 " farms " — the imposts on spirits, gambling, birds' 
 nests, &c. 
 in. Minister of War. Somdetch Chow Fah Erom Pra 
 Bhanupandhwongse Varadej, the Eing's younger 
 full-brother, who controls both Army and Navy. 
 IV. Minister of Justice. Pra Ong Chow Svasti Sobhon. 
 V. Minister of the North. Erom Mun Damrong Eajanu- 
 parb. Under this are all the provincial administra- 
 tions north of Bangkok, except a few which still 
 remain under the old regime. 
 VI. Minister of the South and West (Eralahome). Phya 
 Montri Suriawongse. Under this office is the rest 
 of the Interior and the military and civil corvie. 
 VII. Minister of the Eoyal Household. Erom Mun 
 
 Prachaks. 
 Vin. Minister of Public Works. Erom Mun Sanprasidt. 
 Under this are the railways, the Post and Telegraph 
 Departments, and all public buildings. 
 IX. Minister of Local Government. Erom Mun Nares 
 Varariddhi. Under this are the control of prisons, 
 police, and police-courts in Bangkok, and some of 
 the duties of a Home Secretary. 
 X. Minister of Agriculture. Phya Surisak. Under this 
 
442 siAM. 
 
 are land revenues, mining and other concessions, 
 
 forests, and surveys. 
 XI. Minister of Public Instruction. Phya Bhaskarawongse. 
 
 Under this are educational institutions, hospitals, and 
 
 ecclesiastical affairs. 
 XII. Privy Seal. Krom Mun Bidhyalabh. 
 The deliberations of this Cabinet are supposed to be secret. 
 Their control, in combination, over the affairs of the country is 
 stringent and complete, excepting always for the unrestricted 
 will of the King. 
 
 Until the recent collapse they me^ usually at eight o'clock in 
 the evening, for all-night sittings, his Majesty often attending, 
 and occasionally the Crown Prince. Each member of the 
 Cabinet is absolute in authority over all the officials of his 
 department, and as these are usually chosen from his own 
 personal retainers who have grown up with him from his boy- 
 hood, and also from the members of his own and his wife's 
 families, a change of the head of a department generally 
 involves the change of nearly all the staff, irrespective- of the 
 fitness of the new-comers and based only on their personal 
 adherence. The incredible folly of this system may be realised 
 when I say that the draughtsman in the Public Works Depart- 
 ment may thus be suddenly called upon to dispense medicine at 
 a hospital, the clerk in the Treasury to act as adjutant to a 
 cavalry regiment, or the tide-waiter in the Customs to become 
 a departmental inspector of schools. To this inherent absurdity 
 must also be added a functional one. Since the Cabinet 
 Ministers, when they were fulfilling their normal duties, sat up 
 all night for five nights a week, of course they slept all day, and 
 strolled into their offices any time about sunset. The effect of 
 this upon the ordinary work of the government may be imagined 
 when it is added that without the Minister's special and personal 
 sanction on each occasion nothing whatever can be done, not 
 even a highway be repaired to make it passable, an urgent 
 question answered, or an att of money spent. 
 
SIAMESE PRINCIPLES AND PERSONALITIES. 443 
 
 Besides this central authority, there are also a number of 
 Eoyal CommisBioners for the Provinces, a new creation, 
 nominated by the King for a certain period, with absolute 
 powers. Their salary was supposed to be fixed at a sufficiently 
 high figure to place them beyond the temptation of obtaining 
 money by the usual methods of Oriental officials. They were 
 appointed to draw the reins of the central government tighter 
 over some of the larger provinces and the many semi- 
 independent peoples that nominally recognise Siamese 
 suzerainty. There is one at Chieagmai, whose jurisdiction 
 extends over all the northern part of Siam, even the so- 
 called "King of Chiengmai " and the other great hereditary 
 princes of the Laos provinces being forcibly subordinated to 
 him. There were others at Luang Prabang and Nong Kai, 
 administering enormous districts which included the territory 
 recently annexed by Prance. Others are at Khorat, and Oobon ; 
 the jurisdiction of the latter being likely to clash with that 
 of the French along the new river frontier and especially on 
 the islands in the river which were the scenes of the first 
 hostilities. The next important Commissioner is over the 
 Pachin province, a particularly able man; and through its 
 proximity to the great Patriew river, his district is one of the 
 wealthiest rice and cattle-producing centres in Siam. More- 
 over, in the ancient fort — which, by the way, Pra Pichah 
 built, and where he was beheaded — he is forming the nucleus 
 of the only disciplined and promising force that Siam has any 
 prospect of possessing. 
 
 One of the results of the King's tour round the Malay 
 Peninsula was his endeavour to strengthen his hold over the 
 northern States there, which were very meagrely represented by 
 their contributions to the royal treasury, in spite of their 
 great potential wealth. Over these, therefore, the King 
 appointed a Eoyal Commissioner with plenary powers, to the 
 infinite disgust and thinly-veiled opposition of the native 
 Sultans. All these Eoyal Commissioners are supposed to over- 
 
444 siAM, 
 
 ride the local governors and other provincial of&cials. One of 
 the special reasons for their creation was the better financial 
 control of the more distant provinces of the kingdom, and to this 
 end, while they possess powers to appropriate certain portions 
 of local taxes for local requirements, they are responsible for 
 forwarding all the rest of the provincial exactions to Bangkok. 
 An important feature of the new arrangement is that the 
 Eoyal Commissioners exercise a military control in the provinces. 
 There had previously been no military power whatever in the 
 hands of the local authorities, any requirements of this kind 
 being met by temporary expeditions sent up from time to time 
 from Bangkok, as circumstances demanded. As things are now, 
 a Commissioner has at his command on the spot a considerable 
 armed force, which he is always liable to employ on his own 
 initiative. This fact explains how it was in the power of fire- 
 eating Commissioners to enter upon hostilities with the French 
 on the frontier, and on the other hand, how the central authorities 
 in Bangkok could so plausibly disown any such act when it 
 suited their purpose to do so. This scheme of centralisation is 
 much the most important — I might almost say the only effective 
 — political development of modern Siam. So far as I know, it 
 has not been described before, and its importance and signifi- 
 cance are not yet appreciated in Siam ; indeed, the new functions 
 underlying the old title of Kar Luang are much more keenly 
 felt than clearly understood. 
 
 These Eoyal Commissioners are almost invariably half-brothers 
 of the King. This leads me to speak of the personalities of 
 Siamese politics, first, in the case of those who are responsible 
 for the present state of things, and second, of those from whom 
 may be hoped, under improved conditions, any good work in the 
 future. First of all, and chief in the former category, comes 
 Prince Devawongse Varoprakar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
 without doubt the cleverest and most far-sighted man in Siam. 
 For many years he possessed unrivalled influence and power, 
 alike through the King's confidence, his own brains, and the fact 
 
The Late Ckowx Peinoe of Siam and Some of Ttis Brothei;^ 
 
 A KoYAL Court-yard, Bangkok. 
 
SIAMESE PEINCIPLES AND PERSONALITIES. 445 
 
 of his being full-brother to both the First and Second Queens. 
 The Krom Luang, as his Siamese title runs, is a short man with 
 a bright round face, of scrupulously polite manners, who con- 
 ceals a mass of information and a very sharp mind under an 
 exterior of simple good-humour and apparent frankness. His 
 friends and enemies concur in describing him as an extremely 
 clever man. He speaks and writes English with ease, although 
 he has only spent six months in Europe, of which three weeks 
 were passed in London. I do not think he is troubled with more 
 faith than other diplomatists in people's motives, and ah hoste 
 doceri is his motto in treating with the representatives of Europe. 
 In his office he sits surrounded with a rampart of books on inter- 
 national law and modern diplomatic history, and the grafting of 
 European punctilio and traditional precision upon Oriental flair 
 and patience, make a combination difficult to beat. The Siamese 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs has had a difficult part to play, but 
 until recently the Krom Luang may easily claim to have held 
 his own, single-handed, against many more powerful and more 
 experienced comers. For some twenty years he enjoyed the 
 perfect confidence and intimacy of " the King, my master,-" as he 
 expressed it, but his position has now lost its former brilliancy. 
 Through certain domestic events which have remained more or 
 less a mystery to the outside world, Prince Devawongse ex- 
 perienced a fall. In Siam the loss of royal favour and the with- 
 drawal of royal confidence is like leprosy : the victim is shunned, 
 his power vanishes, and his former friends combine to keep him 
 at a distance. Since there is nobody to take his place — there is 
 literally nobody, except perhaps Prince Damrong, who could 
 attempt to conduct a Foreign Office correspondence — Prince 
 Devawongse still formally directs the affairs of his department, 
 and preserves the necessary outward appearances in intercourse 
 with the foreign representatives. But to initiate a policy, to 
 direct a negociation, or restrain his brother Ministers, Prince 
 Devawongse no longer has the power. The very serious evil 
 of the situation is that any foreign representative who may 
 
446 siAM. 
 
 desire to make a communication, present a demand, or suggest 
 a policy to the Siamese Government, is still officially com- 
 pelled to go to Prince Devawongse, though the latter is now 
 entirely destitute of the power to carry anything into effect. 
 Under these circumstances — and this is a point upon which I wish 
 to lay great emphasis — a clear understanding between Siam and 
 any foreign government is impossible. Few men who have had 
 personal relations with Prince Devawongse, and whose affairs 
 have been at the mercy of his good faith, will pity him in his 
 fall. The British Foreign Office, at any rate, which has had one 
 direct example and countless indirect examples of his diplomatic 
 methods, will shed no tears over the grave of his reputation. 
 
 The next most potent personality in Siamese politics is Prince 
 Svasti Sobhon, brother of Prince Devawongse, nominally 
 Minister of Justice, but at this moment Plenipotentiary in 
 Europe to negociate with Great Britain and France. He spent 
 some years with a tutor in Oxford, and was for a short time a 
 member of Balliol College, where he was one of the many pets 
 of the late Master, and he will be remembered by Oxford 
 society of about nine years ago, as a very pleasant and intelli- 
 gent young Siamese, professing advanced Eadical and democratic 
 notions. These he carried to such an extent as to deprecate 
 any employment of his title, preferring to be styled plain " Mr." 
 He gained several distinctions in lawn-tennis competitions, but 
 his studies were not carried far enough to afford any standard 
 of comparison. English, however, he acquired fluently. In 
 due course he returned to Siam, and vital changes were expected 
 to follow from his reforming influence. But the sweets of power 
 and the enervating atmosphere of Siamese officialdom soon 
 eradicated any high aims he might once have possessed. A 
 Siamese in Europe and a Siamese in Siam are two different 
 personalities, and an unpleasant incident which occurred soon 
 after Prince Svasti's return, showed the change of his feeling 
 towards Europeans. He has now become one of the most bitter 
 opponents of European influence in Siam. After an unsuccessful 
 
SIAMESE PBINCIPLES AND PERSONALITIES. 447 
 
 tenure of several posts on the Local Government Board, he retired 
 for some time, as required by custom, into the priesthood. On 
 emerging from this he was placed at the head of the new 
 Department of -Justice, of which I shall have something to say 
 in the next chapter. As the troubles with France along the 
 eastern frontier gradually developed. Prince Svasti was one of 
 the strongest advocates of resistance, and it is probably true 
 that he was more responsible than any other Siamese for the 
 policy which found expression in the ridiculous and unjustifiable 
 attack upon the French gunboats, and the consequent presenta- 
 tion of the French ultimatum. His recent conduct of affairs, 
 however, while he has been in Europe as special Envoy, has 
 been marked by much more discretion and seriousness. 
 
 It is a pleasure to turn to the personality of Prince Damrong. 
 One of the first surprises of my original visit to Siam was in 
 finding a prince who had then never been outside his own 
 country, and who yet spoke English with ease and accuracy, was 
 a regular reader of the English newspapers, conversant with 
 European politics and literature, and anxious to enter instantly 
 into a discussion with me upon the details of the complicated 
 situation in home politics at that time. At the age of twenty-one 
 he was a mere subaltern in the King's bodyguard. The Educa- 
 tion Department, which he afterwards founded, grew out of the 
 Bang's approval of a small class he had formed for the instruc- 
 tion of his own men. He is one of the very few Siamese who 
 have any sense of either punctuality or neatness. When Minister 
 of Public Instruction he made a daily inspection in person of 
 all the hospitals under him, visited one of his schools every after- 
 noon, and was always to be found in his ofSce from eleven to 
 four. I can hardly attempt to explain how remarkable this is 
 in Siam. I first learned to respect Prince Damrong from a 
 trifling personal incident. In Siam every request of an accredited 
 foreigner is instantly granted — in words. The promise bears no 
 relation whatever to the performance, but nothing is ever frankly 
 refused. When I was exploring the ruins of Ayuthia, the 
 
448 R TAM . 
 
 ancient capital of Siam, which was destroyed by the victorious 
 Burmese in 1767, I discovered the broken-off and battered head 
 of a Buddha lying buried among the almost impassable growth 
 of tropical weeds. It had been there for half a century, and 
 would, of course, remain untouched for ever. I marked the 
 place, and inquired on my return under whose control this 
 would be. On learning that Prince Damrong had charge of all 
 matters of this kind, I asked his permission to send back for the 
 head and take it away with me. He replied that he would con- 
 sider the matter, and afterwards wrote me a very courteous 
 letter, saying that although the head was broken and neglected, 
 and nobody would ever pay any attention to it, nevertheless it 
 was the head of Buddha, and therefore he did not think it would 
 be decorous for a foreigner to take it away as a curiosity. The 
 more I learned about Siam, the more I liked Prince Damrong 
 for this refusal. His insight into the needs of his country is 
 shown by his latest scheme for internal reform, namely, the 
 proposal to bring under one responsible head in Bangkok the 
 many clashing provincial authorities. That this is being bitterly 
 opposed by all his rival Ministers is perhaps the best proof of 
 its desirability ; and though the King's weakness prevents him 
 from settling this crucial question by saying " Dai" or " Mai 
 dai" sooner or later its adoption must come. 
 
 Two conspicuous and yet curiously ineffective figures in 
 Siamese affairs are the only two own brothers of the King, 
 known respectively to foreigners as " the Ong Yai " and " the 
 Ong Noi." By the ancient custom of Siam the elder of these 
 would be the next King, as exemplified in the previous reign. 
 The elevation of the Crown Prince to the position of heir 
 apparent having naturally attached much suspicion to the 
 alternative heir, the Ong Yai has chosen the wiser part of with- 
 drawing himself entirely from affairs. There are two absurd 
 rumours in connection with this prince : first, that he is mentally 
 affected, and second, that he is cherishing hopes of securing the 
 succession to the throne. A few minutes of his pleasant and 
 

 o 
 'A 
 
 ft 
 
 "A 
 
 < 
 
SIAMESE PRINCIPLES AND PEESONALITIES. 449 
 
 intelligent conversation is sufficient to dispose of the first, and 
 the second is based upon a complete misunderstanding of the 
 present trend of Siamese affairs. The younger brother, Prince 
 Bhanurangse, Commander-in-Chief and Minister of War, " the 
 Ong Noi," or " Young Prince," called " the Krom Pra " by 
 Siamese, possesses the personal charm of his brother the King, 
 ■with much greater gaiety of manner. He is a past master ia 
 the art of organising pageants and processions, a gift greatly 
 appreciated by the pleasure-loving Siamese. Of his geniality 
 and hospitality I can speak from personal experience. His 
 palace is a fine building, as an Italian architect was given carte 
 blanche in its construction, and when it is necessary to entertain 
 any foreign visitor of high rank, " the Ong Noi" always gladly 
 undertakes the task. His influence upon Siamese politics, 
 however, has not been great, though his sympathies have 
 consistently been on the side of the best foreign influences. 
 
 Another personality of the same type is Prince Naris, the 
 present Minister of Finance. He is a musician, a poet, and an 
 artist, and by his work in each of these fields he has recalled the 
 time when Siam possessed a genuine art-inspiration of her 
 own, before this became hopelessly unfashionable in the face 
 of discordant European trumpets and gaudy chromo-litho- 
 graphs. There are two other men specially worthy of men- 
 tion in the small group from whom intelligent and patriotic 
 efforts might be expected in a reinvigorated Siam. The one 
 is Prince Nares, for some years Minister in London, and 
 now practically governor of Bangkok. Any one who has 
 had an opportunity of seeing the prisons as they were and 
 as they are, will need no other assurance of Prince Nares' 
 qualities. In his instincts and point of view he resembles the 
 type of mind of the English gentleman more closely than does 
 any other Siamese. He is one of the few princes who really 
 understand and sympathise with the common people. Although 
 he has had more than the usual opportunities of enriching him- 
 self he remains a poor man. Except the King he was the first 
 
 30 
 
■^^0 BIAM. 
 
 Siamese to secure a European tutor for his sons, one of whom 
 is about to take his degree at Trinity College, Cambridge, while 
 another is high up at Harrow. The second is Prince Bichidt, 
 the eldest of the King's half-brothers. After acquiring a unique 
 knowledge of law, both Siamese and European, and a large 
 experience in the higher courts of Bangkok, he was — in Siamese 
 fashion — deliberately shut out from the Ministry of Justice, a 
 post for which he was ideally fitted, and made Eoyal Com- 
 missioner of one of the far Eastern provinces. He took advantage 
 of his exile to add a working knowledge of French to his know- 
 ledge of English, and created the first decent provincial organisa- 
 tion that had ever been seen in Siam. His special talents made 
 him the only possible man to occupy the very difficult post of 
 Presiding Judge at the recent State Trial of Pra Yot. Through- 
 out the prolonged proceedings his conduct was such as to win 
 him th« highest praise from all the Europeans who were present. 
 Like most Siamese, Prince Bichidt has a hobby, in his case 
 medicine, his knowledge of this being remarkable, even judged 
 by European standards.* 
 
 I have dwelt on these personal matters at such length because 
 I have wished to show that while there are some of the Siamese 
 princes — and these, as a rule, the most conspicuous — from 
 whom no disinterested or stimulating efforts can ever be 
 expected, there are still a number of others, several of whom I 
 have not had space to mention, who under foreign stimulus and 
 direction could be relied upon to take their places and do their 
 duty in that reformed and prosperous Siam which I, for one, so 
 earnestly desire to see, and whose " integrity and independence " 
 Great Britain, in the words of Lord Eosebery.t is "resolved to 
 respect and maintain." 
 
 * It is said that at last, after having been kept nine months in Bangkok doing 
 nothing, Prince Bichidt has been appointed Minister of Justice ; probably to avoid 
 setidiDg him back to Oobon, where he might have refused to lend himself to Prince 
 Devanwongse's present tortuous policy on French frontier questions. 
 
 t "Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Siam," No. 1, 1894, p. 151. 
 
CHAPTEB XXVIII. 
 
 FICTIONS AND FACTS OF SIAMESE AFFAIBS. 
 
 T HAVE shown what, in theory, is the government of the 
 -*- Kingdom of Siam. It remains to winnow the fact from 
 the fiction. In the first place, to put it hluntly, the Cabinet 
 itself now exists only on paper. For over twelve months, I 
 believe, it has not once met, and has ceased to be a factor 
 of government. How this has come about I will now try to 
 explain. When the King was suddenly roused from his dream 
 of ease in March, 1893, as already described, by the imminence 
 of a national crisis, and returned to Bangkok to take up the 
 reins, he found the Cabinet had made such good use of its novel 
 freedom from control that he was unable, in his enfeebled state, 
 to re-establish his personal supremacy. Prom 1892 to 1893 the 
 Cabinet had held a nine months' carnival of intrigues and 
 jealousies, followed by a three months' nightmare of cabals and 
 recriminations. Thus when the country most needed a cool 
 firm hand at the helm, it was at the mercy of a group of hot- 
 headed and ignorant youug despots, characterised alternately 
 by bravado and terror, by resolution and vacillation. That the 
 settlement of the Convention with France, such as it is, was 
 ever reached at all, is due to the fact that the matter was at 
 last taken out of the hands of the Cabinet and left for Prince 
 Devawongse to conclude alone, thanks to the departure from 
 Siam of Prince Svasti, who had been the chief obstructionist 
 throughout. From that date, August 20, 1893, until November, 
 
 451 
 
452 siAM. 
 
 1894, there has not been, I believe, a single meeting of the 
 Cabinet for governmental and administrative purposes. The 
 entire machinery of government has come to a standstill. 
 The estimates for 1894 have not been made up, much less 
 sanctioned ; no budget decided upon, no funds decreed. Only 
 the most urgent expenses are being met somehow or other, 
 casually, and by borrowed money. 
 
 This complete breakdown of government by Cabinet is due 
 to the fact that the Cabinet was composed of an arbitrary 
 selection of the King's half-brothers, together with a few 
 nobles of no influence and importance. This band of 
 brothers reflected perfectly the virulent jealousies of the 
 various mothers that bore them : " to hate like a brother," 
 is a Siamese saying. The meetings of the Cabinet furnished 
 an ideal field for the exercise of these jealousies ; a suc- 
 cession of changing personal combinations for the purpose 
 of smashing each fresh influence as it threatened to pre- 
 ponderate, forms the history of their deliberations. The co- 
 operation of all for the common good is unknown, and indeed 
 inconceivable to any one who understands the temperament of 
 this polygamous brotherhood. When the French gunboats were 
 actually in the river, a bombardment threatening, and Siam 
 tottering to her fall, the meetings of the Cabinet were like the 
 wrangles in a pot-house, so much so that the more dignified 
 members on several occasions declined to be a party to any 
 further discussion. As was well known in Bangkok, not a little 
 of this was the direct result of Prince Svasti's overbearing 
 insistence upon strong measures against the French ; his great 
 influence, so deplorable in the interests of peace, being traceable 
 to the fact that both the First and Second Queens are his own 
 sisters. It is almost impossible to hope that the King's strong 
 hand can ever be laid upon the Cabinet again, and now that 
 twelvemonths of universal apathy have matured last year's seeds 
 of saspicion and intrigue, the power of the Cabinet as a com- 
 bined body with initiative and a polic,y is non-existent, and its 
 
FICTIONS AND FACTS OF SIAMESE AFFAIRS. 453 
 
 resuscitation is in the highest degree unlikely. Certainly nothing 
 could accomplish this except either the King's complete recovery 
 of health and prestige, or the emergence of some strong will 
 from the general chaos. And as the only strong will in this 
 jarring family is that of Prince Svasti himself, the remedy 
 might not be much better than the disease. 
 
 It may be interesting, however, to glance for a moment at the 
 results accomplished by the Cabinet before its breakdown. Take 
 the administration of justice, for example. At the grand cente- 
 nary of the founding of Bangkok in 1882, the foundation-stone 
 was laid with great iclat of the New Eoyal Courts of Justice, 
 which were announced as the inauguration of a new era of 
 justice and judicial reform for Siam. When the buildings were 
 finished, a grand opening ceremony to inaugurate this reform was 
 announced to take place in 1886, but it never came to pass, and 
 the buildings, erected at an enormous cost, with lofty towers and 
 vast halls, were allowed to decay and moulder in emptiness for 
 nearly six years, till the tower actually fell to pieces and had 
 to be taken down, and the roof became so rotten that it had 
 to be replaced with thatch, as it actually now appears, within a 
 stone's throw of the Eoyal Palace gates. At last, in 1892, the 
 various straggling courts of Bangkok — the Slave-cases Court in 
 one corner of the city, the Land Court in another, the Criminal 
 Courts in another, and the Appeal Court inside the Palace, — 
 were collected into this one building and placed under the 
 newly created Minister of Justice, who was to control the 
 whole staff of judges, eradicate corruption, work off the 
 thousands of pending cases, and codify the whole of the laws 
 of Siam ! As I have said, Prince Svasti was the first Minister. 
 His strength of character soon led to various floggings of venal 
 judges, and to a general uneasiness in all the courts ; but so far 
 as improvements in procedure or organisation of laws were con- 
 cerned, it was merely King Stork instead of King Log. New 
 stamp duties and fee exactions were imposed, proving lucrative 
 for the department, but not a blessing to suitors; and the 
 
454 SUM. 
 
 administration of justice remains as complete a farce as it was 
 when I wrote some time ago that "justice is not an unknown 
 quantity in Siam : it does not exist. You might as well look for 
 saccharin in salt or for silver in a pewter pot." 
 
 The so-called International Court, which is also under this 
 Ministry, deserves a special mention. It was founded to deal 
 with cases brought by foreigners against Siamese. Cases brought 
 by Siamese against foreigners are heard, of course, in the 
 Foreign Consular Courts " down town," where the native has 
 every facility for getting justice. But when a foreigner has 
 any claim against a Siamese, he first wastes several weeks in 
 efforts to get his Consul to settle it through the Siamese 
 Foreign Office; this in the case of the British Consul has 
 nearly always been futile of late, owing to the extraordinary 
 subservience of British officials to Siamese desires. But the 
 real farce begins when the case at last comes before the 
 International Court, which is the tool and servant of the same 
 Foreign Minister who has just rejected the suit of the Consul. 
 Here every possible device for procrastinating the trial, burking 
 the evidence, suborning witnesses, and generally " besting " the 
 farang, is resorted to with complete success, till after weeks of 
 fruitless efiFort the case simply dies a natural death, and the 
 European gives it up as a bad job. This condition of things 
 has become, after years of license, such a great scandal that 
 strenuous efforts are at last being made by the foreign com- 
 munity to improve matters, but the precedent of easy-going 
 acquiescence so long followed at the British Legation has made 
 it a hard task to get the evil remedied. The French officials, on 
 the other hand, have long since refused to have cases submitted 
 to the International Court at all, and wisely insist on the decision 
 of disputed matters at the Foreign Office only. A volume might 
 be written on the manners and customs of this International 
 Court without giving any adequate idea of its unspeakable rotten- 
 ness and shameless parody of justice in foreign cases. So much 
 for fiction and fact in one branch of government. 
 
Ix THE Palace Tejiple, Bangkok. 
 
FICTIONS AND FACTS OF SIAMESE AFFAIRS. 455 
 
 I pass now to the Department of Public Works. This, though 
 nominally active throughout Siam, is in reality — except for 
 the Eailway and Postal Departments — confined to the city of 
 Bangkok, and is there occupied almost solely with matters con- 
 ducing to the royal convenience or profit. It received instructions, 
 for instance, to erect a palace for the Crown Prince within a 
 period of nine months. This was three years ago. The founda- 
 tions were dug, and they are now full of water, while the 
 marbles, iron-work, and glass-work, ordered at great expense 
 from Italy, lie in inextricable confusion at the wharves some 
 miles away. Another of its undertakings was to build a new 
 wharf for the Customs. To effect this, a dam had to be built 
 during the season of low water in the river. The work was 
 done so badly, that when three-quarters finished it was found 
 to be useless and had to be recommenced. The rainy season, 
 however, came on before it could be completed, and therefore 
 the Customs, which previously had a bad wharf, now has none 
 at all. Again, one of the principal roads of Bangkok is inter- 
 rupted by the great canal to the north. Seventeen years ago 
 an iron bridge for this was ordered from England, and duly 
 delivered. It still lies in sections near where it should have 
 been thrown across, and in the absence of bridge or ferry the 
 remaining three miles of the road are useless. In the mean- 
 time the staff of the department is occupied in building rows 
 of houses in which members of the royal family, chiefly the 
 ladies, are investing their private economies, and in putting 
 into splendid order the smaller canals in the city itself, upon 
 which the royal eye is likely to fall, while the great main canals 
 outside, the true arteries of Siamese trade, monuments to the 
 energy of former rulers and officials, have been allowed to silt 
 up until they are only navigable for a few hours a day at high 
 tide. 
 
 The most conspicuous Siamese enterprise of recent times is, 
 of course, the scheme of railway extension. At first the professed 
 intention was to connect Bangkok with Chiengmai, and a con- 
 
456 siAM. 
 
 cession to make the necessary surveys was granted to Sir Andrew 
 
 Clarke, and ultimately carried out, though not without many 
 
 disputes. The line itself was never seriously contemplated, and 
 
 the concession for the surveys was probably only given to avoid 
 
 refusing the request of a man who had once rendered great 
 
 services to Siam. At any rate, nothing whatever, except the 
 
 useless expenditure of a huge sum of money by Siam, ever 
 
 came of the scheme. The railway, sixteen miles long, between 
 
 Bangkok and Paknam, the Piraeus of Siam, was built under a 
 
 concession granted to Commodore de Eichelieu, and is paying 
 
 its way. This result was due solely to European enterprise and 
 
 eagerness to make money ; by the Siamese Eailway Department 
 
 the line was met with hindrances from the very first. The 
 
 only Government railway scheme which had any prospect of 
 
 being successfully carried out was the line, 160 miles long, to 
 
 Khorat, whence two theoretical branches were to tap the eastern 
 
 part of the kingdom at Bassac and the northern at Nong 
 
 Kai. The idea was an excellent one, though it is certain that 
 
 the trafiQc under Siamese direction would not have paid for a 
 
 very long time, and that the upkeep of the line would have 
 
 proved a task too tiresome for any Oriental and too costly for 
 
 any private purse. There was no difficulty about raising the 
 
 money, since by Eoyal Decree the interest on the capital was 
 
 guaranteed and therefore the wealthier members of the royal 
 
 family hastened to invest their money. It was commenced under 
 
 the directions of the Eoyal Siamese State Eailways Department, 
 
 at the head of which was Herr Bethge, a German, formerly the 
 
 agent of Herr Krupp in China, who engaged a very large staff 
 
 naturally composed for the most part of Germans, at high 
 
 salaries. The contract was secured by an English firm which has 
 
 done much good work in the Malay Peninsula and Ceylon, Messrs. 
 
 Murray Campbell and Co., who were understood to be financed 
 
 by Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Co. In the granting of this 
 
 contract there was a great deal of unpleasantness, into which it 
 
 is not necessary to enter here, as the story can be found recorded 
 
FICTIONS AND FACTS OF SIAMESE AFFAIRS. 457 
 
 in the columns of the English newspaper published in Bangkok. 
 Up to the present only a few kilometres of the line have been laid, 
 and of these a great part is merely for the purpose of transporting 
 material, and will not form part of the permanent way, wbile 
 the heavy portion of the work in the hill sections is practically 
 untouched. The contractors have brought actions against the 
 Siamese Government for departmental obstruction and delays, 
 which have been decided in their favour by arbitration in 
 London, and they have received large sums in compensation. 
 There does not appear to be the slightest probability of this line 
 ever being completed under the present regime, except perhaps 
 as far as the King's palace at Bang-pa-in. 
 
 Under the Public Works Department are also the Postal and 
 _ Telegraph services. The former has been under the care of 
 Germans, who have had a free hand and have therefore estab- 
 lished an excellent organisation, with ramifications all over Siam. 
 The Telegraphs, from which all European employees have been 
 gradually eliminated, are a byword for their inefficiency. For 
 seven years the cable destined to connect the capital with Koh- 
 si-chang, where all ships wait for their cargoes and whence they 
 should be signalled, has lain on its reel in shallow water at Koh- 
 si-chang. And as for the land-lines, the British Consul-general 
 in his Eeport for 1892 says : " The telegraph lines have not been 
 maintained in an efficient state during the year, and much in- 
 convenience and loss has been caused by frequent interruptions 
 of the international lines via Saigon and Tavoy. The line to 
 Chiengmai, too, has been subject to so many interruptions that 
 it would be almost better to have no line at all. ... It may be 
 said in favour of the telegraph department that Siam is a 
 peculiarly difficult country in which to keep telegraph com- 
 munication open. . . . These difficulties have, however, always 
 remained the same, whereas the efficiency of the line has been 
 constantly deteriorating, and this deterioration has been espe- 
 cially rapid of late." 
 
 I must say a word about the Customs, as it is a peculiarly 
 
458 siAM. 
 
 gross case of Siamese maladministration, and an excellent 
 example of the defiance of treaty engagements with foreign 
 Powers. It is, too, a serious matter in its effect upon foreign 
 trade, particularly that of Great Britain, which is eighty-seven 
 per cent, of the whole. Under the late Minister of Finance, a 
 British Inland Eevenue official of great experience and ability, 
 Mr. David Williams, was lent by the British Government to 
 place the Customs service of Siam on a proper basis. As a 
 result of the free hand which was at first granted to him 
 astonishing results were achieved, both in the presentation of 
 the accounts and in the increase of revenue obtained. One 
 would have thought that the latter fact would have been 
 sufficient to assure Mr. Williams any powers that he desired. 
 But under a new Minister jealousy of the farang has been too 
 strong; by means of successive vexatious interferences, the 
 gradual curtailment of his powers, and the intrusion of in- 
 capable native subordinates, he has been reduced to the 
 position of an adviser whose advice is not taken ; the service 
 is worse than it ever was ; the revenue has fallen ; the accounts 
 produced are untrustworthy; and difficulties with the various 
 Consuls arising out of defiance of treaty rights are of constant 
 occurrence.* 
 
 * Some readers unfamiliar with the East may wonder how it comes about that 
 capable Europeans do not achieve better results in spite of native opposition and 
 lethargy. I oanitot give a better ans*er than in the words of Mr. G. H. Grindrod, 
 whose experiences in Siam are mentioned later in the present ohayter. I published 
 Mr. Grindrod's letter in an article in the Contemporary Review for November, 1893i 
 describing it as from a writer " personally unknown to me but whose name and 
 position command respect." The Siamese seldom speak the truth themselves, 
 and therefore they seldom credit others with doing so, and the letter in question 
 was by them universally attributed to a friend of mine whose relations with the 
 King at the time would have made it improper for him to write it. I am glad to 
 have an oppoitunity of saying this. Mr. Grindrod wrote : — 
 
 " Not unnaturally, you will ask why the superior servants of such indifferent 
 masters do not compel results by sheer force of character and ability. I confess 
 myself completely unable to answer this question to the satisfaction of those who 
 know the East only from books, nor can I picture to myself any illustration from 
 western politics, which would adequately parallel the conditions here. Some 
 vague conceptions of the truth njay perhaps be gained from such facts as these : 
 
 " Nearly every department of the Government service is under the immediate 
 
FICTIONS AND FACTS OF SIAMESE AFFAIBS. 459 
 
 But it is the Education Department that has probably been 
 most talked about and has brought most credit to Siam, owing 
 to Prince Damrong's recent visit to England and his tour 
 through Europe and India. I have already spoken in the pre- 
 ceding chapter about this enterprising and comparatively able 
 prince. It was under his auspices that the Education Depart- 
 ment achieved perhaps the only real and effective reforms in the 
 country. Assisted by the advice, and still more by the energetic 
 personal efforts of Mr. Morant, a scheme of national education 
 was planned out, its foundations were well laid, and its various 
 parts were developed in their proper order. The scheme was 
 based on a system of vernacular education, for which the 
 
 control of a native head, whose education is inferior to that of a child in the lower 
 standards of your elementary schools, and whose experience is that of a semi- 
 barbarian bewildered by a superficial acquaintance with the delicate political and 
 social machinery of advanced western civilisation. This curious ' Cabinet 
 Minister ' is almost inaccessible to his official subordinates, native or foreign, for he 
 ignores all correspondence, and comes to his office generally at midnight — that 
 being the time when his Majesty the King prefers to be awake. 
 
 " Towards the European members of his department the native head entertains 
 a curious combination of feelings : jealousy of the alien, envy of the latter's 
 superior will and ability, suspicious dread of appearing inferior in any respect, and 
 an ever-present consciousness that the ' farang ' is a dependent. Since the initia- 
 tion and development of all schemes, as well as the money and men for them, are 
 absolutely subject to the veto of the Minister, it requires a very extraordinary com- 
 bination of cunning and audacity to elude all these obstacles to the permanence and 
 progress of work nominally entrusted to the European." 
 
 This point is a very important one, and Mr. Alfred Milner's admirable work on 
 " England in Egypt " repeatedly emphasises an identical difficulty in that country. 
 He writes : " The Government of Ismail was not wanting in European experts, 
 whether in finance or in other branches of administration, at the very time when 
 it came so hopelessly to grief. But its wisest and most capable employes were 
 without influence. Their counsels were disregarded and their capacity rendered 
 useless. It is not enough to have well-qualified Europeans in the Egyptian service 
 in order to keep things straight. It is necessary that there should be some power 
 behind them to give effectiveness to {heir advice." And again : " European skill is 
 useless without European authority. Wherever you turn, that cardinal fact stares 
 you in the face " (" England in Egypt," new edition, pp. 224, 286). 
 
 The Siamese Government is at the present moment arranging for more European 
 advisers — for the army, the navy, and the Department of Education. Under these 
 circumstances it cannot-be too strongly stated that any European going out under 
 the present Siamese regime is absolutely foredoomed to disappointment and failure. 
 During the last ten years nearly a score have left Siam in disgust, and not one han 
 ever succeeded in his aims. 
 
460 SIAM. 
 
 Minister himself compiled a complete series of new school-books 
 on rational lines to replace the hitherto universal rote-system 
 which is the bane of most Oriental schools. Schools were 
 opened under the Department, a schedule or code was drawn up 
 to show the standards to be aimed at, and to serve for grading 
 and comparing the various schools. Government examinations 
 and certificates were arranged, which were gradually to include 
 in their scope the irregular monastery schools — the only means 
 of education for the common people ; the intention being to 
 raise the standard of teaching all over the country by a system 
 similar to that recently introduced into Burmah. Upon this 
 vernacular foundation, which was limited to the three E's (and 
 even of these, reading and writing were practically new in 
 Siamese education), was built up a sound knowledge of English. 
 For this purpose Mr. Morant wrote a series of school-books in 
 Siamese, for the acquisition of English through the medium of 
 the native language — books which undoubtedly laid the founda- 
 tion of any future development of Siamese education. The 
 characteristic feature of the scheme is the maintenance of the 
 native language as the vehicle of instruction, thus avoiding the 
 evils resulting when the students are trained in England and 
 reach their own country unable to turn their newly-acquired 
 knowledge to any practical account. 
 
 So conspicuously successful was this scheme that his Majesty 
 placed the education of all his numerous sons entirely in Mr. 
 Morant's hands, giving him permission to found a special school 
 for the royal princes within the Grand Palace, to be called the 
 Kajakumara College, which it was hoped would in time develop 
 along the lines of Lord Mayo's admirable college of the same 
 name at Ajmere, and by educating the young princes in their 
 own country remove the many dangers which attend their 
 prolonged stay in Europe. It was in furtherance of all these 
 schemes that Prince Damrong came to Europe in 1891 to study 
 methods of national education, and that Mr. Morant engaged 
 and took out to Siam a large staff of teachers, both women 
 
The Great Beokze Buddha, Ayuthia. 
 
FICTIONS AND FACTS OP SIAMESE AFFAIES. 461 
 
 and men, to assist in the further development of their united 
 plans. 
 
 Unfortunately, as explained before, when any individual 
 shows signs of conspicuously good work or rising influence in 
 Siam, his brother Ministers feel it necessary to crush him. 
 Thus, immediately on Prince Damrong's return to Siam in 
 1892, at the most critical moment for grafting the new branches 
 upon the now growing tree of his educational schemes, all its 
 roots were ruthlessly torn up. The prince was transferred to 
 the Ministry of the North, and his work given over to his worst 
 enemy, an old and lethargic nobleman named Phya Bhaskara- 
 wongse, whose conspicuous incompetence, to use no harsher 
 word, had necessitated his removal from the directorship of the 
 Customs. He speedily reduced the whole scheme to chaos by 
 closing most of the schools and by ousting the men trained 
 under Prince Damrong and Mr. Morant in favour of his own 
 retainers and job-mongers, ignorant of the very meaning of the 
 word education. Thus Mr. G. H. Grindrod, the Head of the 
 Training College for Teachers, an Oxford man and trained 
 pedagogist, now one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, 
 was in the position of having his teaching criticised and 
 corrected by departmental " inspectors " whose preliminary 
 training had probably been confined to inspecting spirit-jars 
 and the like on the Custom House wharf. 
 
 I turn to the United Services. The Siamese Army List as 
 it figures in the OfScial Directory must make the Minister of 
 War feel proud indeed at the excellence of all his arrangements 
 and the completeness of his organisation. Not a title is 
 wanting, not a rank left out, not a branch of equipment missing 
 — on paper. To describe what actually exists, however, would 
 be useless, since no one in Europe would believe the plain 
 simple truth. Three batches of Australian horses have been 
 landed during ten years, for the Cavalry, averaging some 
 hundreds each time, of which about fifty altogether have 
 managed to survive the neglect and filth in which they are kept, 
 
462 siAM. 
 
 and still drag on a mangy existence in large and lofty but utterly 
 neglected stables, whence they issue on state occasions in ragged 
 files, with unkempt riders in tattered uniforms clinging nervously 
 to reins and pommels. The Artillery is no better, with its 
 recently-imported field guns, of which the brass sights were 
 stolen and pawned within a fortnight of their arrival and 
 have never been recovered ; while the powder is in one place 
 and the shells in another, and nobody knows where or how to 
 bring them together. As for the Infantry, they come to drill 
 when it suits them, desert by dozens weekly, and carry com- 
 plaints and start agitations against any ofiicer who attempts 
 discipline. Many of them have never fired the rifles they carry ; 
 in fact the spirit of soldiery is as totally lacking in them as 
 in a street mob. The officers — but here words fail. Imagine 
 a Cadets' School, of imposing proportions and appointments, 
 with four or five hampered European instructors, where young 
 Siam is comfortably housed and fed and paid some thirty 
 shillings a month to wear a uniform and play at studies which 
 are never carried out ; where the very simplest control and 
 training are resented ; and where military tactics from English 
 text-books, fortifications on the black-board, and military 
 engineering in the field, figure on the curriculum of youths who 
 can read their own language but poorly, cannot spell c-a-t 
 in English, and only know enough arithmetic to check a good 
 money bargain over a ring or a necktie in a Chinese pawnshop. 
 To such a pass has come a nation who once fought and conquered 
 the Burmese, wiped out the Peguans, repulsed the Annamites, 
 subjugated the Malays, and developed Siam from a small hill- 
 tribe to the possessors of the greater part of the peninsula of 
 Indo-China ! These ancient qualities, it is only fair to say, still 
 show themselves in the common people when they are sent 
 soldiering, in their own fashion, in the jungle or on the frontier. 
 The explanation is that Siam has aped the farang method 
 without the farang spirit. There is actually no word for 
 " discipline " in the Siamese language. 
 
FICTIONS AND FACTS OF SIAMESE AFFAIRS. 463 
 
 Of the few youths who have had some sort of military training 
 in Europe not one has been allowed even to enter the service in 
 Siam on his return, much less to have any authority to put 
 things straight; while the indefatigable Dane, Major Schau, 
 who has vainly given them his best endeavours for over ten 
 years, has had each regiment taken from him in turn so soon as 
 he has begun to bring it in the least degree into shape. Yet a 
 more easily-led race than the Siamese has never existed ; under 
 European management and full control, with regular pay and 
 steady discipline, self-respect would soon be developed, and 
 troops might be turned out at least as serviceable as those of 
 Burmah. 
 
 As for the other branch of his Siamese Majesty's service, the 
 Navy, while the pretensions are less, the realities in some respects 
 are better. The Danish officer M. de Eichelieu, of whom I have 
 already spoken, has given many years of labour to this, and in 
 alliance with him, Pra Ong Chorn, unique among Siamese officials 
 for energy and integrity, has created a large body of marines who 
 possess at any rate the elements of discipline, however much 
 they may lack technical efficiency. They are supposed to man 
 the forts, supply the fighting crews for the gunboats, and act as 
 an armed force on land whenever one is required, though their 
 whole training for these duties consists of a little elementary 
 drill and the bare knowledge of how to discharge a rifle. The 
 discipline which does characterise them, and which yet dis- 
 tinguishes them brilliantly from other Siamese organisations, 
 is directed to wholly different ends. They are neither more nor 
 less than the body-servants of the royal household — another 
 striking instance of the subordination of national interests to 
 royal luxury. Underpaid, harshly treated, and ground by the 
 corvee, they wear the uniform of sailors and perform the duties 
 of coolies. When the King goes to Koh-si-chang or Bang-pa-in, 
 the whole navy turns out to effect his household removal, to 
 carry the pots and pans of the Palace retinue of innumerable 
 ladies and women-servants (packing is an unknown art in Siam), 
 
464 siAM. 
 
 to build tlicir "palaces" and sliauties, to water their gardens, 
 to erect and superintend their sanitary conveniences, to drag 
 their jinrikisbas, to carry their sedans, to dress up in their pro- 
 cessions, and even to catch flies by bucketfuls to facilitate the 
 royal repose. 
 
 According to the books of reference the Siamese navy consists 
 of two screw corvettes of one thousand tons and eight guns each, 
 several gunboats, and several sea-going steam yachts ; a small 
 cruiser, Makut Rajakumar ; and the cruiser -yacht Malia Chakri, 
 a " ram-ship " of 2,400 tons, 298 feet long, having a speed of 
 15 knots, and armed with four 4.7-in. Armstrongs and eight 
 6-pounder quick-firers. 
 
 I fear I shall find it difficult to make anybody believe what 
 this paper fiction amounts to in fact. A bigger sham than the 
 Siamese navy has never existed in the history of mankind. A 
 number of vessels of greatly varying sizes are moored in the 
 river opposite the Palace. Of these the larger ones are for the 
 most part hulks, upon which the " marines " live ; in some 
 eases even the engines and propellers have been removed. The 
 smaller ones serve as royal despatch-boats for river work, carry- 
 ing the servants and supplies between the Palace and the two 
 summer resorts. One or two are kept in decent condition for 
 passenger work, but they possess no means of offence or defence. 
 The King's old yacht, the Oobon, has succeeded in taking him 
 round the Malay Peninsula, but if it has any guns on board they 
 are of an obsolete and useless character. The Makut Rajakumar 
 wass built in Hongkong for the Governor of the Philippine Islands, 
 but as he was unable to pay for it, it was sold to the Siamese in 
 1891. Upon this were put a number of muzzle-loading guns of the 
 most ancient type, which had been lying about in the compound 
 of the arsenal in Bangkok for many years. The Makut Rajaku- 
 mar, however, won immortal fame in the battle of Paknam by 
 sinking the small French trading-vessel the J. B. Say. The 
 story of this battle has never been told, and as it is both enter- 
 taining and instructive I may linger over it for a moment. 
 
< 
 
 
 A 
 
FICTIONS AND FACTS OF SIAMESE AFFAIRS. 465 
 
 First, with regard to the famous forts. The principal one had, 
 I think, six 6-inch guns on disappearing carriages. Only two 
 men in Siam had even elementary notions of the working of 
 these weapons — Commodore de Eichelieu, and Major Von Hoick, 
 another Danish officer. The former was in command of the fort 
 of which I have spoken. When the critical moment came he ran 
 as quickly as possible from gun to gun and fired them one after 
 the other. Needless to say nothing was hit. He then crossed 
 the river in a launch and returned to Bangkok by special train. 
 When one of these guns had been fired before the King a few 
 days previous, out of six detonators five failed to ignite. This 
 incident, however, had not shaken the confidence of the Siamese 
 in the efficacy of their defences. The only technically-trained 
 foreigner in Siamese employ at the time was a Danish naval 
 officer. Captain Christmas. He had been placed in charge of 
 the Coronation, the worst of the Siamese vessels, if one were 
 worse than the others, and his share in the engagement was 
 therefore necessarily small, consisting chiefly in escaping the 
 ram of the Incohsttmt. The gunners of the Makut Rajakumar, 
 into whose heads Captain Goldberg, of the Danish merchant 
 service, had succeeded in hammering some knowledge of how to 
 load and fire the guns above mentioned, had been taken off a 
 short time before and placed in the royal yacht. The Makut 
 was therefore chiefly manned by seamen of the coolie class. 
 They had been specially charged not to ram the powder hard 
 into the touch-holes of the ancient weapons, but to pour it in 
 loosely. At the first onset they unanimously took refuge below. 
 Leaving the wheel for a moment, Captain Guldberg chased them 
 on deck again. When he desired to fire he discovered of course 
 that the powder in the touch-holes was rammed as hard as a 
 stone. He had to pick it out with his open knife from one gun 
 after another, which he then fired in turn with his own hand. 
 As he was not only his own gunnery lieutenant but navigation 
 officer as well, he was then compelled to return to the bridge. 
 After a trick at the wheel he again descended to the deck and 
 
 31 
 
466 siAM. 
 
 discharged his pieces once more. It reflects the greatest credit 
 upon him that he was able to hit the J. B. Say under these 
 circumstances. Her captain — who afterwards explained that 
 he had " comme artillerie que mon fusil de chasse avec des 
 cartouches a plomb No. 10 " — and crew were formally arrested 
 next day, blindfolded, and conveyed to the arsenal under guard. 
 Amongst other incidents there, on asking for water they were 
 given filth in a basin to drink. On the arrival of Commodore 
 de Eichelieu a few hours later they were informed that they 
 might go anywhere they liked. One other Siamese vessel of 
 war took part in this fearsome struggle. This was what was 
 called the floating battery, a species of steam-barge upon which 
 a single heavy gun had been mounted. Owing to the lack of 
 tackle, I believe, this could only be loaded when the barge was 
 alongside the arsenal wharf. At the first fear of hostilities, 
 therefore, this alarming weapon was gingerly charged and the 
 " battery " proceeded down the river and came to a standstill 
 in a promising situation. In due course it got rid of its pro- 
 jectile. It is only fair to add that Captain Christmas, of the 
 Coronation, Captain Guldberg, of the Makut Rajakwmar, and 
 Captain Schmiegelow, of the " floating battery," each claimed 
 the honour of having sunk the only non-combatant present on 
 the occasion. 
 
 It will naturally be asked, what was happening all this time 
 to the one really serviceable vessel of war the Siamese possessed 
 — to the Maha Chakri, the new Armstrong cruiser-yacht, with 
 its 2,400 tons, its speed of 15 knots, its 4.7 guns, its two fighting 
 masts and its ram ? The answer is painfully simple, and is 
 but one more example of the fact that in Siam, king comes a 
 long way before country. The Maha Chakri was lying moored 
 in front of the Palace, under strict orders not to move except it 
 might be necessary to convey the King up-river. When there 
 was actually a wild intention to collect all available vessels and 
 descend upon the little French gunboats in the middle of the 
 night as they lay at anchor before the French Legation, the 
 
FICTIONS AND FACTS OF SIAMESE AFFAIRS. 467 
 
 Maha Chakri was not to be included in the attack, although her 
 tonnage exceeded that of all three French boats together by 
 600 tons. But even had there been any intention of using 
 her, it could hardly have been carried out. Not once, I believe, 
 since her arrival in Siam had her guns been fired, and nobody 
 in the kingdom, except two or possibly three of the Danish 
 officers, had any idea of the process. Her ammunition was put 
 on board for the first time a few hours before the affair of 
 Paknam. Moreover, her engines, which were large and com- 
 plicated, could not have been worked without the English 
 engineers, no Siamese having the remotest notion of their 
 management, and these men as British subjects could of course 
 take no part in the hostilities. 
 
 Such was the force against which the French gunboats had to 
 contend. To complete the farce, it only remains to add that 
 M. Pavie, the French Minister-Eesident, accompanied by M. 
 Hardouin, Consul-General, and Commander Bory of the In- 
 constant, proceeded to the Foreign Office next morning, and 
 Prince Devawongse, Minister of Foreign Affairs, " congratulated 
 Commander Bory upon his skill and daring in forcing the 
 entrance." The same day, it being July 14th, all the Siamese 
 vessels in the river were dressed with flags, the tricolour at the 
 peak, in honour of the French national /lie. 
 
GHAPTEB XXIX. 
 THE TRUE STOBY OF FBANGE AND SIAM. 
 
 r\S September 1, 1858, the French fleet entered Tourane Bay, 
 ^-^ to bring pressure upon the King of Annam on behalf of the 
 French missionaries, and captured the town. On February 17, 
 1859, Saigon, the principal city of Cochin-China, was captured 
 by a combined French and Spanish force, and the province in 
 which it was situated was annexed two years later, the delay 
 being caused by the Anglo-French war with China. This process 
 occupied, including delays, less than three years. 
 
 .On June 5, 1862, France made a treaty with the King of 
 Annam, by which were ceded to her the provinces of Mytho, 
 Bien-hoa, Saigon, and the island of Poulo Condor, In June, 
 1867, the rest of Cochin-China, namely, the provinces of Vinh- 
 long, Chan-doc, and Hatien, was annexed by France. The 
 Viceroy, Phan-than-Giang, poisoned himself, "noble victime 
 d'une politique cauteleuse qu'il avait inutilement combattue " ! 
 This process occupied five years. 
 
 So much for Cochin-China. Meanwhile, on the plea of 
 dynastic troubles in Cambodia, a treaty was made on August 11, 
 1863, inaugurating a form of French protection over the 
 ancient kingdom of the Kmers. On January 15, 1877, very 
 extensive additions were made to French privileges and rights 
 of interference, and as the " difficulties " in the way of good 
 government seemed insuperable, a proclamation was made on 
 June 18, 1884, in the name of the French Eepublic, and signed 
 
 468 
 
THE TETJE STORY OF FRANCE AND SIAM. 469 
 
 by the French Governor-General, declaring a new constitution, 
 the abolition of Crown property, and the commencement of a 
 French administration throughout the whole kingdom of Cam- 
 bodia, keeping up only the form of the native government. 
 This process was completed in eleven years. 
 
 To pass to Tongking. In October, 1873, French ships under 
 Garnier first entered the Eed River to obtain the opening of its 
 channel to French trade. Soon " difficulties " arose, and on 
 November 20, 1873, the citadel of Hanoi was captured, heavy 
 indemnities were paid by Annam, and France placed the pro- 
 vince under a partial protectorate. This was extended over the 
 whole of Tongking in 1883. This had taken ten years to effect. 
 
 Finally Annam itself, once the central suzerain over all the 
 above-named vanquished countries, was finally reduced to sub- ' 
 mission by the bombardment of Hue, and brought under a 
 complete protectorate by the same treaty of August 25, 1888. 
 
 In face of such a record of rapid extension developing itself 
 through various stages of political protection, and culminating 
 in wholesale annexations, France's neighbours in Indo-China 
 may well have felt uneasy at any fresh manifestations of her 
 interest in these regions. And any one who knew the boundaries 
 of Siam as existing in 1870, may imagine with what misgivings 
 the Siamese Government must have read the following state- 
 ments in M. Lanessan's book " L'Expansion Coloniale de la 
 France," published in 1886 :— 
 
 " On the south-east of Laokay the frontiers between Yunnan and the States 
 tributary to Burmah and Siam are very vague ; we have every interest in leaving 
 them in this shape, in order to be able to push them back some day to the Mekong. 
 ... On the west, from the frontier of Yunnan to the mouth of the Se-Moun, the 
 Mekong ought to be the frontier of our Empire. . . . Prom the Se-Moun our 
 Empire should cross the Mekong, include the secondary basin of the Se-Moun, 
 join the northern end of the Great Lake, and include the provinces of Battambong 
 and Angkor, which has always formed part of the kingdom of Cambodia (pp. 
 500-501). . . . The basia of the Se-Moun, which belongs to the basin of the Mekong, 
 is separated from the basin of the Menam, which represents Siam properly so- 
 called, by a mountainous and desert region, which constitutes a natural and 
 scientific frontier between the basin of the Mekong and that of the Menam. . . . 
 That mountainous frontier ought to be considered by France as the natural limit of 
 
470 SIAM. 
 
 her Indo-Chinese Empire on the side of Siam. Having retaken the Great Lake 
 provinces, which formerly were dependent on Cambodia, and the basins of the 
 Mekong and the Se-Moun, we ought to adhere to the policy of respecting, and, if 
 necessary, protecting the independence of Siam (p. 470)." 
 
 Great indeed was the Siamese dismay on hearing in May, 
 1891, that the writer of these words was being sent out by 
 France as Governor-General of Indo-China with a large credit 
 for purposes of colonial development, and that in his hands 
 would lie the choice of the particular methods to be adopted by 
 France for this "respecting, and, if necessary, protecting the 
 independence of Siam." 
 
 These misgivings were soon to be confirmed. In November, 
 1891, M. Eibot began the process, by declaring in the Chamber 
 of Deputies that " all the countries lying eastward of the Mekong, 
 ■ from the point where it leaves China, must be considered as 
 belonging to France." At the same time historical researches 
 were published in France, showing that Annam had in past 
 times been in possession of all the country on the east of the 
 Mekong, and even of large portions of territory on the west 
 bank. We hear next of authoritative announcements that 
 though Siam might have gained ascendancy over these districts 
 from time to time in the past, and might indeed be in active 
 occupation of them at the present time, yet Annam's territorial 
 rights could not thus be allowed to lapse, and that the time was 
 now come to insist upon them. 
 
 It must be noted that both M. Gamier, the great French 
 explorer, and other authorities fully admitted, and all the French 
 maps clearly showed, that Siam had undoubtedly been in posses- 
 sion of these territories as far back as 1866 at least, probably 
 even 1836, but this was not held by France to give a valid title 
 to any territories that had once been under Annamite rule. 
 
 Some French claims* in this direction had already made 
 
 * There were questions of boundary in dispute at this same period between 
 England and Siam regarding the Mekong States, but only in its northern portions, 
 above Latitude 20. As I shall deal with these questions in the next chapter, I 
 shall now eliminate them as far as possible during our consideration of the purely 
 Franco-Siamese questions. 
 
THE TRUE STOEY OF FRANCE AND SIAM. 471 
 
 themselves heard in 1889, as shown by the following letter from 
 Lord Salisbury to the Earl of Lytton, on April 3, 1889 :— 
 
 The Preueli Ambassador called upon me to-day, by appointment, to make a 
 proposal for the neutralisation of Siam. He stated that the French Government 
 had a twofold object in view. They wished to establish a strong independent 
 Kingdom of Siam, with well-defined frontiers on both sides; and they desired 
 to come to an arrangement by which a permanent barrier might be established 
 between the possessions of Great Britain and France in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. 
 Such an arrangement would be advantageous to both countries and would prevent 
 the complications which otherwise might arise between them. 
 
 It would be necessary in the first instance, that the frontier between Cochin- 
 China and Siam should be fixed, and Her Majesty's Government would no doubt 
 desire a settlement of the boundaries of Burmah. 
 
 As regarded the frontier of Cochin-China, the French Government did not wish 
 to extend it to Luang Prabang, but they would propose to draw a line from a point 
 nearly due east of that place southwards to the Mekong, and below that point to make 
 the river the dividing line between the two countries until it entered the territory of 
 Cambodia. They considered that, both on the French and English side, the 
 boundaries of Siam should be defined up to the Chinese frontier.* 
 
 The last few lines give a clear statement of the French terri- 
 torial claims as they then stood. After various negociations 
 between Prance and Siam, it was at last proposed that a joint 
 Commission should be appointed to decide upon the frontier 
 between the two countries, and that in the meantime each side 
 should observe the status quo. The precise conditions of this 
 interim arrangement are given in Captain Jones's despatch from 
 Bangkok to Lord SaHsbury, on January 6, 1890 : — 
 
 As the existing situation of the contested districts will be maintained until modi- 
 fied by the decisions of the Joint Commission, Siam wiU continue to hold the Basin 
 of the Mekong from (about) the 13th to the 22nd parallel of north latitude, with 
 the exception of three small districts on this side of the Khao-Luang range,. settled 
 by the Annamites, where the routes from the east debouch from the mountains into 
 the plains. These are : — 
 
 Ai-Lao-Dign, in latitude 17° north. 
 
 Eia-Heup, „ 17J°. 
 
 Eam-Muan (about) „ 18J°. 
 Beyond these to the north, the Siamese hold the districts called Pan-Ha-Thang- 
 Hok (" the nation of five or six Chiefs "), and the French will continue to occupy 
 Sipsong-Chu-Thai ("the twelve small Siamese States"), from which they have 
 succeeded in driving the Chin Haws and other marauders. 
 
 * Siam, No. 1 (1894), No. 3. All the diplomatic correspondence which follows 
 in smaller type is taken from the same much-edited Blue Book, and may be found 
 under the dates quoted. 
 
472 siAM. 
 
 The terms of this arrangement are of considerable importance ; 
 for the subsequent hostilities arose out of allegations brought by 
 France against Siam (as also by Siam against France), that the 
 conditions of this status quo had been violated. The actual 
 truth on either side was exceedingly hard to prove, as the 
 country in dispute had been but poorly surveyed, and reliable 
 maps were almost unobtainable* It was definitely advanced, 
 however, by France that Siam had pushed her posts forward so 
 far eastward as to be within forty miles of Hue. 
 
 Meantime, from 1889-1893, the French Colonial authorities 
 had been sending expeditions throughout the whole of the 
 Mekong valley, and France soon reiterated her accusations of 
 Siamese encroachment and made definite claims to all territory 
 east of the left bank of the Mekong. The points at issue are 
 clearly given in a despatch from the Marquis of Dufferin to 
 Lord Eosebery on February 7, 1893 : — 
 
 In my despatch of the 25th ultimo I forwarded to your Lordship a report of 
 the discussion upon the Foreign Oifice Estimates with regard to the alleged encroach- 
 ments of the Siamese on districts stated to be under the protection of France on the 
 left bank of the Mekong. The charges brought against the Siamese Government 
 are summed up in a speech of M. Francjois Delonole, contained in the full report of 
 the debate. M. Deloncle asserted that the Siamese persistently ignore the rights 
 of the kingdoms of Annam and Cambodia over the whole of Laos and the terri- 
 tories situated on the two banks of the Mekong, . . . that the Government were 
 still of the opinion expressed by their predecessors two years ago, to the effect 
 that the left bank of the Mekong was the western limit of the sphere of French 
 influence, and that this opinion was based on the incontestable rights of Annam 
 which had been exercised for several centuries. He added that these rights were 
 too important to be abandoned, and too well established for the Siamese to persist 
 in contesting them in the presence of the determination of France to put a stop to 
 their violation. 
 
 These statements show a distinct advance in the French 
 Colonial Policy, from the attitude of maintaining the status quo 
 till a Commission could settle the question, into that of ignoring 
 
 * M. Pavie's magnificent map was not published till 1893. The Siamese 
 Government Survey Map published under Mr. Macarthy's auspices cannot pretend 
 to accuracy of boundaries, is largely made up of guesswork, and is useless for 
 poUtical purposes. 
 
THE TRUE STOEY OP FEANCE AND SIAM. 473 
 
 all discugsion and peremptorily insisting on the immediate 
 recognition of French claims. 
 
 These public annoiancements were the signal for the commence- 
 ment of still further active developments in French policy ; and 
 that this was clearly realised by the British Government is 
 shown by the following letter from Lord Eosebery to, Lord 
 Dufferin, on March 8, 1893 :— 
 
 M. Waddington spoke to me to-day on the subject of the Mekong Eiver and the 
 houndaries of Siam. I pointed out to His Exoellenoy that there seemed to be one 
 initial difficulty. It was that the Mekong appeared to run through Siam, and that 
 ■we could hardly say that one part of Siam was under British influence and another 
 part under French. M. Waddington rejoined that his Government did not admit 
 that any part of Siam lay on the left bank of the Mekong, but regarded the country 
 lying on that side as belonging to Annam. I could not conceal my surprise at this 
 communication. 
 
 When we remember the numerous explicit announcements of 
 the French intentions and claims to the left bank which I have 
 already quoted, we must regard this surprise as being diplomatic 
 in character. Plans soon developed into action, as evidenced by 
 the following telegram from Captain Jones, V.C, the British 
 Minister in Bangkok to the Earl of Eosebery, under date of 
 March 10, 1893 :— 
 
 Charge of invading Annam has been brought against Siamese Government. 
 They protest, and are prepared to refer matter to arbitration, but French Govern- 
 ment seem to be unwilling to accept this. 
 
 How did the Siamese meet this new development ? The next 
 telegram from Captain Jones (March 16th) clearly shows : — 
 
 Instructions have been received by the French Minister to put forward a claim 
 bringing the boundary of Annam up to the eastern bank of the Eiver Mekong. The 
 Siamese Government protests against this pretension on the part of Annam, which 
 implies an increase of territory. They insist that any delimitation must be based 
 upon actual possession, and that such a basis can only be modified by any rights 
 which can be justified by the French. Siam is willing to refer any doubtful points 
 to arbitration. 
 
 In thus speaking of "insistence" it is plain that Siam was 
 determined to put her foot down, and refuse passive acquies- 
 
474 siAM. 
 
 cence. She is willing to submit to arbitration as a possible 
 solution ; but in any case she definitely refuses the French 
 demands as at present made, and prefers to face the worst. I 
 may remark that this was probably the decision of the Cabinet, 
 the King being away in Koh-si-chang at the time. 
 
 A very plain intimation followed from France that resistance 
 would be met by insistence, and that Siam must take the con- 
 sequences. The situation at this moment is clearly given in the 
 following abstract of a telegram, dated April 12th, sent by the 
 Siamese Minister for Foreign Affairs to his Legation in London, 
 and by it communicated to Lord Eosebery. 
 
 The modus vivendi proposed by Siam has been refused by France, who insists 
 npon the withdrawal of the Siamese military and official posts east of the Mekong. 
 In their place Annamite posts will be set up, and the French claims will be pushed 
 forward as far as possible. 
 
 The Siamese Glovernment are unable to grant the terms asked, but will be ready 
 to submit the matter to international arbitration. 
 
 The French gunboat now at Bangkok evidently intends to remain there, and 
 another gun-boat now on the way is expected to arrive on the 8th instant. 
 
 Although friendly intentions towards Siam are professed, there is every appear- 
 ance of forcing unacceptable terms upon the Siamese Government by menaces. 
 Negooiations between the two parties are still pending, but the Siamese Government 
 are determined to resist to the utmost. 
 
 It was in fact necessary for Siam to choose definitely which 
 of two policies she would adopt, namely, either to submit to the 
 French claims under protest, as being too weak to hope for a 
 successful resistance, adding perhaps an appeal for a subsequent 
 reference of the whole matter to arbitration ; or to make up her 
 mind once for all to resist at all costs. The above telegram 
 clearly shows her to have determined upon the latter policy. 
 This being so, it was manifestly her first duty to take every 
 possible means to carry it through successfully. How far this 
 was done I shall presently show. 
 
 France having thus definitely stated her determination, 
 naturally proceeded on her way, and those who were carefully 
 watching events in Bangkok felt no surprise when news came of 
 two important events. On April 3rd M. Delcasse received the 
 following telegram from M. de Lanessan at Saigon : — 
 
THE TEUE STOEY OP PRANCE AND SIAM. 475 
 
 In aceordanoe with your instructions and in consequence of the measures I have 
 taken, Stung-Treng was occupied on Saturday by our troops without striking a 
 blow. The Siamese Commissioner and soldiers retired at the summons of the 
 French Besideut, who was conducting the operation. 
 
 And the next step was taken on April 8th : — 
 
 Our troops have occupied the island of Khone on the 4th April without firing a 
 shot. The Siamese Commissioner and soldiers retired at the request of the French 
 Eesident. We have already taken up our positions at Stung-Treng and Khone. 
 
 Both these places were strategically of the first importance. 
 A traveller who was recently there says that Stung-Treng is a 
 town as large as Bassac, and that it completely commands the 
 route from Annam, and offers an excellent base of operations 
 for the French, should they desire to despatch an expedition 
 westwards, while the island of Khone is one of the largest on 
 the Mekong Eiver, practically commanding the approach to the 
 rapids, and could be held by a handful of men against the most 
 determined assaults. 
 
 One of the first steps that the Siamese ought to have taken, 
 if they had been in earnest in their professed determination to 
 "resist to the utmost," was the reinforcement of their small 
 military stations, and the inauguration of a careful plan of 
 defence, at both of these points. But the whole campaign seems 
 to have been conducted, like everything else in Siam, with a 
 great deal of talk and vapouring about the excellence of their 
 intentions, and their firm determination to act up to their 
 position as an independent nation, while the solid work was 
 hopelessly neglected, and the only steps taken were complete 
 shams. The very fact that the garrisons in these places retired 
 on each occasion seems to the European critic an unintelligible 
 outcome of the loud pronouncements of "resistance to the 
 utmost." 
 
 What in the meantime was England doing ? It is now pretty 
 well known that up till the last moment (even up to July 14th) 
 Siam had counted upon the effective intervention of Great 
 Britain, and had fondly imagined that the whole affair would 
 
476 SUM. 
 
 prove to be French bluster, which would be baffled by English 
 firmness ; but to her great disgust she found that so long as the 
 questions in dispute were confined to the " lower Mekong," the 
 British Foreign Office confined itself to giving advice. Siam 
 had not realised that England could hardly afford to go to war 
 with one of the leading Powers of Europe to help Siam out of 
 the results of her own folly. To all entreaties far assistance 
 answers were returned that the quarrel was clearly one between 
 Siam and France, in which England could have no locus standi. 
 Lord Eosebery practically said, "As you say you are weak and 
 helpless, we counsel you to avoid by all means any policy which 
 may provoke Prance to strong measures," and it is difficult to 
 see, remembering the composition of the British Cabinet, what 
 other reply he could have made. England's attitude was 
 very pointedly announced to the Siamese Government both in 
 Bangkok and in London, as the following telegram from Lord 
 Eosebery to Captain Jones (April 24th) clearly shows : — 
 
 Mr. Verney, the English Secretary of the Siamese Legation in London, called 
 today at the Foreign Office, and spoke with Sir Philip Currie in regard to the 
 present state of the political relations between Prance and Siam. He was told 
 that instructions had been sent to you by telegraph to recommend the Siamese 
 Government that they should take no action which would precipitate a rupture 
 with France, and that they should exercise great caution. Mr. Verney inquired 
 whether, in Sir P. Currie's opinion, it would be wise of the Siamese to endeavour 
 to obtain the mediation of European Powers. Sir P. Currie replied that he 
 thought they had much better endeavour to get the best terms they could from 
 the French Government. Mr. Verney said that the French have not yet laid claim 
 to Luang Prabang. 
 
 The Siamese, however, preferred to go their own gait, and a 
 Bangkok newspaper of April 11th remarked : — 
 
 " Since the arrival of the Lutin the Siamese appear to have been pretty busy 
 with war-like preparations. Vfe learn that the Paknam forts are being strongly 
 manned, and that a large force has been moved down to PaJmam in readiness for 
 eventualities." 
 
 Again, on the 14th : — 
 
 " The Siamese authorities are well posted on passing events in the Mekong 
 region, and are hurrying arms and ammunition via Pachim, and along the 
 
THE TEUE STOKT OF FEANOE AND SIAM. 477 
 
 Bang-pa-kong river to their forces in the Mekong valley. A Siamese steamer 
 has left Paehim with a large supply of guns and ammunition for the Siamese 
 posts along the river Mekong." 
 
 Again, on the 18th : — 
 
 " The construction of a new fort has been ordered at Paknam with all the 
 despatch possible. The contract has been given to a Chinaman, who is hurrying 
 down materials. Notice has been given to the Governors and population along the 
 east coast from Chantabun southwards to supply no warships with provisions, or 
 in any way assist in victualling them. The Siamese Foreign Minister is said to 
 treat the present crisis very lightly. He counts on Siam being able to place from 
 9,000 to 12,000 men in the field, and asserts that the Siam of to-day is not the Siam 
 of twenty years ago. The naval department is counted upon to supply 2,000 able- 
 bodied seamen and marines. Phya Surisak might reasonably raise 8,000 or 10,000 
 men. "With this number the Foreign Minister thinks that Siam would make so 
 serious a fight that France would hesitate before beginning hostilities." 
 
 Again, on the 28th : — 
 
 " The Siamese are impressing every available man for service, and the fields are 
 said to be entirely denuded of male workers. Guns and ammunition are being 
 eagerly bought up, and the raw levies pushed on towards the eastern frontier. 
 The King is said * to have voted 10,000 catties (about £50,000) from his private 
 purse to be devoted to the buying of war material. Chains and other obstacles 
 are being hurried down to the mouth of the river with the intention of blocking 
 the entrance. Every available pound of gunpowder in the Singapore market has 
 been bought up for Siam." 
 
 The vernacular newspaper {Dhammasaht Vvnichai) put it still 
 more frankly in a long inflammatory article, which ended, " We 
 will form our ranks and give our blood for our country, our King, 
 our religion, our race." 
 
 Meanwhile, apparently blind to the hopelessly defective state 
 of her forces, Siam actually undertook hostilities up-country. 
 When the King's half-brother, the Eoyal Commissioner at 
 Bassae, heard that the small force at Stung-Treng had retired 
 (as before stated) before the French force on April 1st, he at 
 once sent 800 men to drive the French out. These men, while 
 reconnoitring on the river, surprised a party of coolies under a 
 
 * This is a fact, and the money was handed over to the Naval Department, but it 
 is impossible to say how it was all expended. 
 
478 siAM. 
 
 French officer, Captain Thoreux, conveying stores to the garrison 
 at Khone, at once attacked them, and owing to superior numbers 
 easily overpowered them. The coolies abandoned their loads, 
 which fell into the hands of the Siamese, together with the 
 person of the officer, who was made prisoner and kept in custody 
 at Bassac. 
 
 I will here note one of the most conspicuous of the many 
 inaccurate versions of their actions which were made from time 
 to time by the Siamese and their representatives with a view to 
 mislead the British Government and conceal the real trend of 
 Siamese policy when its effects seemed imfortunate. Seeing that 
 Bassac is in telegraphic communication with Bangkok, and that 
 the Cabinet had been daUy sending orders to that district, and 
 had just despatched additional troops to carry them out, it is 
 quite impossible that the Siamese Government were honest in 
 instructing their Secretary, Mr. Verney, to say to Lord Eosebery 
 that " the Siamese Government were not the instigators of this 
 attack, but that there were in the Mekong district a number of 
 half-savage tribes who were ready to take any opportunity to 
 create disturbance." And Mr. Verney could not possibly have 
 made this statement of his own knowledge. 
 
 This trick of altering facts was constantly played, and in the 
 total ignorance of Siamese matters which then prevailed at the 
 British Legation in Bangkok it often gained the point at which 
 it was aimed, viz., the rousing of British sympathy for Siam 
 and antipathy toward France. Thus the Siamese policy was 
 that of facing-both-ways ; they were defiant in Bangkok, and 
 pacific in Europe. On May 13th Lord Eosebery is assured by 
 the Siamese Government that " the Siamese Government were 
 not the instigators of the attack ; " and again on June 4th, that 
 " the encounter was in opposition to their wishes." While, on 
 the other hand, M. Pavie is informed by Prince Devawongse in 
 Bangkok on May 20th, that "The Siamese Government consider 
 that the capture of the French officer referred to was justified 
 by the circumstances. He committed an act of war, being in 
 
THE TRUE STOEY OP PEANCE AND SIAM. 479 
 
 command of a hostile and aggressive expedition upon Siamese 
 territory. They are willing to set him at liberty as an act of 
 courtesy towards the French Government, with whom they do 
 not wish to quarrel, but it is not true that they have ever 
 expressed regret at his being taken prisoner. The alleged 
 regrets and apologies on the part of the Siamese Government 
 appear to be inventions made for the purposes of the newspapers 
 in Paris." And this is repeated still more strongly in Prince 
 Devawongse's note verbale of June 2nd : " The Siamese Govern- 
 ment cannot admit, even indirectly, that in capturing Captain 
 Thoreux when in command of an aggressive and hostile expedi- 
 tion they acted wrongly." 
 
 Another glaring example of this same misrepresentation is 
 the statement made by Mr. Verney, of course under instructions, 
 to Lord Eosebery, " that no demands whatever were addressed 
 to the Siamese Government by France before the French troops 
 seized the territory on the east of the Mekong, . . that no 
 information as to the intentions of the French Government had 
 reached the Government of Siam except that obtained from the 
 newspapers." Whereas, for months previous the French Legation 
 had been urging their claims at the Siamese Foreign Office, and 
 the French Consul had had frequent interviews at the Siamese 
 Treasury about the amount of the pecuniary claims in the 
 flagrant case of M. Baroton ; and a fortnight earlier Prince 
 Devawongse had actually received a clear statement of all 
 demands from M. Pavie, as given in Captain Jones's telegram 
 to Lord Eosebery on April 13th. It was this constant prevari- 
 cation and short-sighted deception, so invariably characteristic 
 of Siamese pohtics, that finally roused the French Government 
 to desperate measures, and discounted all Siamese protesta- 
 tions at a later date, when perhaps they had a really good case 
 to argue. 
 
 The open jubilation in Babgkok when the news was spread of 
 the triumphant capture of a live farang officer sufficiently showed 
 that the Siamese were still in their fool's paradise, and the 
 
-180 SIAM. 
 
 general determination to resistance was greatly strengthened. 
 The King made personal visits to the Paknam forts, and troops 
 were massed in Bangkok itself. Under these circumstances, it 
 should not have been matter for surprise to the authorities in 
 London — it certainly was not so to any one in Bangkok — to hear 
 the news contained in the following telegram from the British 
 Commander-in-Chief, China, to the Admiralty : — 
 
 Shanghai, May 26, 1893. 
 " French Admiral in Triomphante, Hongkong, Inconstant, Comete, Lion, sailed 
 from Hongkong to the southward, probably for Bangkok." 
 
 Before long, news arrived in Bangkok and London that the 
 French had been steadily carrying out the same forward policy 
 in the northern regions also, and had compelled the Siamese to 
 evacuate the chief posts near the Annamite mountain range, 
 commencing at Kammuon on May 26th. This, however, was at 
 once replied to by the Siamese in the same manner as at Stung- 
 Treng. A strong attack was planned and ordered by another 
 half-brother of the King, who was the Eoyal Siamese Com- 
 missioner at Nong Kai. He sent a body of troops with strict 
 orders to expel the French from the whole of the territory to 
 the east of the Mekong in the Kammuon district, and to "com- 
 pel their retirement, by fighting, if necessary, to the utmost of their 
 strength."* In consequence of this, on June 13th, a French 
 sergeant and some seventeen Annamite soldiers were killed and 
 all their property destroyed, this being the incident which after- 
 wards gave rise to the State trial of Pra Yot, the Commissioner 
 of the Kammuon district. 
 
 Will it be believed that in this matter also the Siamese 
 Government repeated their former manoeuvre of throwing the 
 entire blame on the local authorities, so soon as they were 
 threatened with the consequences of their actions? So far, 
 indeed, was this repudiation carried that it was not until ten 
 
 * The original written text of these orders was produced by the officer of the 
 Expedition in open court at Bangkok in February, 1894, and every one was struck 
 by the unmistakable directness of their tone as given in the vernacular. 
 
THE IBUE STOKY OP FRANCE AND SIAM, 481 
 
 months afterwards that the Cabinet at length definitely acknow- 
 ledged their responsibility for the action, in an official statement 
 made with Prince Devawongse's sanction in open Court on March 
 12, 1894 ; and then only because it had by that time come to be 
 represented in a more favourable light by the European lawyers 
 engaged to defend Pra Yot, as being a distinguished example 
 of military courage.* And even after this, when the French 
 Mixed Court re-tried the case in 1894, and condemned to 
 twenty years' penal servitude the man put forward by the 
 Siamese Government as the author of the so-called attentat, 
 Prince Devawongse kept a discreet silence concerning the 
 Cabinet's responsibility, and allowed the sentence to be carried 
 into effect. Yet it was manifest to every one that if the King 
 placed any value on the loyal obedience of his servants or on his 
 own reputation for consistency and straight dealing, his only 
 right course was to reassert the Cabinet's initiative in the 
 action, and inform the French Government that the responsi- 
 bility and consequently the penalty for the whole affair lay 
 entirely with his Government. But the King's moral cowardice 
 permitted the penalty for the Cabinet's folly to be visited upon 
 the innocent scapegoat who had merely carried out the orders 
 he had received (when to have done otherwise would by Siamese 
 law have cost him his head). This man now languishes in 
 chains in a Siamese prison for having loyally obeyed his officer's 
 orders, and the French Consul makes periodical visits to the 
 gaol to see that the sentence of penal servitude is fully carried 
 out ! 
 
 Throughout May and June the general war-spirit in Bangkok 
 increased, literally from hour to hour ; and offensive and defen- 
 
 * The Frenoh official account of this incident was (Blue Book, No. 78) that Pra 
 Yot " himself with a shot from a revolver assassinated the Inspector [Grosgurin] in 
 his bed, to which he was confined by his illness." This was derived from the evi- 
 dence of the one witness. Bun Chan, who afterwards disproved it at the State trial 
 under cross-examination. The actual facts were that Grosgurin was firing from 
 the window of his house, and was struck by a chance shot from outside, fired in 
 the mS16e, Pra Yot himself not having a gun. All this was proved at the trial. 
 
 32 
 
482 siAM. 
 
 sive operations were continuously carried on. His Majesty went 
 to Paknam on May 10th, and spent a long time there inspecting 
 the forts commanding the bar of the river, and himself fired one 
 of the guns. The more honest of those in the Eoyal retinue 
 could clearly see that the forts were incomplete and the ammuni- 
 tion of little use, while the utter want of training of the officers 
 and men was ludicrously conspicuous. But the mere roar of 
 the great gun and the sight of the projectiles as they dropped 
 into the sea far away seemed sufficient to assure His Majesty 
 and his suite of flatterers of the certainty of victory, and many 
 childish expressions of glee and anticipated triumph were 
 uttered. 
 
 On May 20th, 400 Siamese troops left for Bassac, and all 
 manner of talk was indulged in at the Cabinet about collecting 
 three divisions of thirty thousand men each and simply sweep- 
 ing the French into the sea. The fact that these men (even if 
 it had been possible to collect them) would of course have been 
 taken straight from the paddy-fields without knowing a rifle from 
 a right-about-face seemed of no consequence. Moreover, there 
 was not in all Siam a single officer * either properly trained 
 himself or capable of drilling these raw levies ; still less one 
 with any knowledge of conducting military operations. 
 
 Another of the signs of the Siamese war-fever— perhaps the 
 greatest of great Siamese shams — was the foundation at this 
 date of a Eed Cross Society amongst the ladies of the Palace 
 for the treatment of such soldiers as might be wounded in the 
 battles so confidently expected. After much collecting of money 
 and farcical ceremonials, and the sending of hogsheads of Epsom 
 Salts and thousands of smelling bottles and blankets and dozens 
 of cases of surgical instruments of which nobody knew the use, 
 to lie neglected in the jungle, t this strange parody of a noble 
 
 * Except the Dane, Major Sohan, who was nominally head of the school for 
 Non- Commissioned Officers, and he was kept almost without work until the French 
 had actually arrived off Bangkok. 
 
 t These are facts. 
 
THE TRUE STOET aF FEANCE AND SIAM. 483 
 
 effort ultimately showed itself in its true colours, after the 
 famous " battle " of Paknam. So incredible is the tale if told 
 by a traveller that I had better quote the words of a Bangkok 
 newspaper at the time, the truth of which has been fully 
 confirmed to me by eye-witnesses : — 
 
 " We referred some weeks back to that muoh-boomed society known as the Eed 
 Cross Society and suggested that the people were being a little humbugged on the 
 matter. We were not wrong. The battle took place on Thursday evening, and the 
 wounded only found their way to the hospital at dawn on Friday " and this, I may 
 add, through the kind exertions of a European who himself took them uninvited 
 to the European hospital, the Bed Cross one being shut. The Society did not put 
 in an appearance at the hospital until Sunday, and even then were of no use.* " On 
 Friday and Saturday, when the wounded men needed the greatest attention, the 
 Society was simply not to be found, and a few European ladies very kindly came 
 forward as nurses. . . . The patriotic Siamese Eed Cross Society did not even take 
 the trouble to inquire where the wounded men were. . . . No orders appear to have 
 been issued from the Siamese Medical Department, which seems to have been 
 perfectly paralysed. Europeans fought the forts, gunboats, and mines, and Euro- 
 peans nursed, cured, carved, and attended the Siamese wounded. We beg the 
 Siamese to remember this when next they dream of dispensing with the services of 
 Europeans." 
 
 As the war-fever still continued, 200 men were sent to 
 Battambong, for further hostilities on the Mekong ; and when 
 the King's brother, the Commissioner at Bassac, telegraphed to 
 Bangkok for reinforcements, Prince Pracbak, the Commissioner 
 at Nong Kai, was at once ordered to send on what men he could 
 spare. In vain did England endeavour to bring a pacificatory 
 tone into Siamese counsels. On June 5th Lord Eosebery tele- 
 graphed to Captain Jones, " You should use your influence to 
 restrain the Siamese Government from taking any measures 
 likely to bring the dispute with France to a crisis. We are 
 doing what is in our power here to urge upon them the necessity 
 of moderation." But "it is ill work advising a fool," and Lord 
 Eosebery must have smiled grimly on receiving the next day 
 Captain Jones's telegram I have before quoted, beginning as 
 
 * As a matter of fact when the two Siamese ladies did come, they merely criti- 
 cised the treatment adopted by the Surgeon of H.M.S. Smfl, who had very kindly 
 given his assistance, and spoke in a very high-handed manner of the insolence of 
 the farangs in having thus interfered with the prerogatives of the Siamese Bed 
 Cross Society ; but they left without doing anything whatever themselves. 
 
484 siAM. 
 
 follows: — "Your Lordship's telegram of yesterday. Siamese 
 Government consider that the capture of the French officer 
 referred to was justified by the circumstances. He committed 
 an act of war, being in command of a hostile and aggressive 
 expedition upon Siamese territory." 
 
 At the end of June the King went down in his new yacht to 
 stay for several days at Paknam, so that he could make constant 
 inspections of the work at the forts, and hasten it by his 
 presence. It is true that the work was merely the piling up of 
 earth and bricks, and the inspection both of His Majesty and of 
 the Cabinet was of course entirely without technical knowledge 
 or value. But so feverish ^vas the activity that the whole supply 
 of bricks in Siam was exhausted. On June 19th, His Majesty 
 gave a banquet at Paknam to the principal Princes and officials, 
 and several " patriotic " sjjeeches were made. His Majesty's 
 words were particularly strong, and he ended by saying, " I now 
 desire to inform you all that if anything happens I shall not 
 have the least fear, nor will I tamely submit to circumstances. 
 I aak you one and all to be confident and to feel assured that 
 we shall support each other and defend our country to the utmost 
 of our power and ability." And Commodore de Eichelieu and 
 several Princes made speeches in the same tone. No wonder 
 that the more sensible of the Bangkok newspapers pubhshed 
 the following comment next day : — 
 
 " It is manifest that the King of Siam labours under the conviction that every- 
 thing is in readinesa ; that his troops and defences are in excellent order and 
 condition ; and that the men in command are thoroughly capable and competent. 
 . . . Hovr far this is nn empty dream we all know well. . . . But the King of Siam 
 is surrounded by a charmed circle of his own creation. ... "We can and do expect 
 every single European iu Siamese employ, civil or so-called military, when asked 
 for advice to point out to the Siamese most emphatically and unequivocally the 
 madness of this resistance. " 
 
 Meanwhile the Siamese Minister of Public Works sent a 
 special written order to every pilot forbidding them "to pilot 
 any French man-of-war over the bar into the river," without 
 special orders from Bangkok. When this fact was accidentally 
 
THE TEtJE STOBY OF FEANCE AND SIAM. 485 
 
 published, the usual policy of duplicity brought forth an imme- 
 diate denial of it in the Siamese Government organ, the Bangkok 
 Times. But the immediate publication of the original docu- 
 ment in the other Bangkok newspaper, the Siam Free Press, 
 showed the falsity of the Government position in attempting to 
 gloss over their unwise and — in the light of the Treaties — 
 illegal act. At the same time hurried steps were taken for 
 effectually closing the river mouth. Piles and stakes were 
 driven in, near the bar, to narrow the passage. But they were 
 so badly placed that they waved about with the wind and tide, 
 and would hardly have delayed a fishing boat. Two large 
 steamers were simk so as almost to close the main channel, but 
 so badly ballasted and unskilfully moored, that they soon 
 swung with the tide and lay in the wrong direction. A third 
 hulk was prepared for sinking in the one remaining channel, 
 and lay close by (but without any ballast ready for her) in 
 nominal readiness for completely closing up the entrance at the 
 last moment. 
 
 These new steps were taken in response to the receipt of a 
 warning from the French Government on June 23rd, to the 
 effect that " the French fleet had been ordered to proceed to 
 Saigon, and, should the situation demand, it would be sent to 
 Bangkok." This grave announcement should have made even 
 the maddest adviser pause to consider the probable results of 
 Siamese infatuation. Whatever the facts or the rights of the 
 case might be, France was determined to have her way ; she 
 had taken her stand on a few main issues, and would brook no 
 abatement. This is clearly stated in Mr. Phipp's despatch to 
 Lord Eosebery of June 30th : — 
 
 " M. Develle this aTeiamg . . . said that he could give me a solemn assurance 
 that the French Government had no idea of interfering with the integrity of the 
 Siamese Empire. But France had three grievances which must be redressed. 
 Abont six months ago the property, valued at about 80,000 francs, of a French 
 merchant had been seized and sold. A French factory had also been destroyed, 
 and finally Captain Thoreux had been captured by the Siamese, and had not been 
 given up, in spite of repeated promises made during the last five weeks. There wa^ 
 
486 siAM. 
 
 ilso the murder of M. Grosgnrin, committed by a Siamese Mandarin, for whieh his 
 jovermnent must be held responsible. Only a few days ago His Excellency had 
 jold the Siamese Eepi esentative that if the fresh promises were broken and these 
 grievances were not redressed, the French Minister would be withdrawn from 
 Bangkok, when Prince Vadhana would receive his passports. ... If Captain 
 Thoreux were not given up, and any further attempts made to temporise, France 
 would have to get redress by arms." 
 
 What could Siam he thinking about, one may well ask, and 
 what were her European advisers about, to let her adopt such a 
 suicidal attitude and prate of resistance without either possess- 
 ing or taking measures to acquire the decent beginnings of an 
 armed force ? This is an interesting point which has been but 
 little understood in England, and deserves, I think, a few words 
 of explanation. 
 
 There were at this time only three Europeans who possessed 
 in any sense the confidence of the Cabinet or of the King. 
 These were, first, an Englishman, Mr. Morant, who, taking the 
 common-sense view about counting the cost, naturally advised 
 coming to terms ; but he was helpless to stem the torrent of 
 anti-French feeling ; his pacificatory advice was too unpalatable 
 to be followed, since it clashed with the ingrained national con- 
 ceit. Second, a Dane, Commodore de Eichelieu, whose whole 
 interest and excitement naturally lay in the chance of the 
 prestige to be obtained by bringing his naval "properties" on 
 the stage and possibly effecting a great coup. Third, a Belgian, 
 M Rolin Jacquemyns, whose advice and attitude on Siamese 
 policy were, in my opinion, so unfortunate from beginning to 
 end, that it will be worth while to stay a moment to describe 
 his position in the Siamese service, as it had a material effect 
 on the situation both then and afterwards. M. Jacquemyns has 
 a distinguished European reputation for his knowledge of 
 international law. When Prince Damrong during his tour in 
 Egypt met this gentleman and sent word to Bangkok that he 
 was open to an appointment, the possession of a man of such 
 European repute struck the Siamese as a possible basis for a 
 magnificent advertisement. To be able to speak of him as 
 
THE TEUE STOEY OF FEANCE AND SIAM. 487 
 
 their "Legal Adviser" would be a means of dazzling the 
 European governnaents and throwing dust in the eyes of too 
 closely critical farang observers. He was therefore engaged at 
 a very high salary, and with a great amount of palaver installed 
 in a villa some four miles away from the Palace, where he 
 would be sufficiently conspicuous as a figure-head, but so far 
 from Court circles that he could not become too pressing with 
 his bodily presence or advice. For about eight months he went 
 through the usual experience of every European employed in 
 Siamese service; his advice, frequently proffered and at first 
 blandly received, was soon deftly avoided, and never at any time 
 followed, while he was treated with every consideration and 
 courtesy, and his natural but futile eagerness for some work 
 to do was kept soothed by an occasional decoration. At last by 
 special decree he was given the wonderful " style " of " General 
 Adviser and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Government of His 
 Supreme Majesty the King of Siam," a title which he alwaj'S 
 inscribed on his cards, and of which a special Royal proclama- 
 tion was made in the newspapers. After throwing him this 
 gigantic sop, no further scruples were felt about ignoring his 
 advice and keeping him on the shelf, and so little considera- 
 tion was shown him that he could not even obtain a clerk, a 
 secretary, or a proper office. From his appointment to the 
 present time he has known scarcely two words of the language 
 and seen nothing of the real life of the King, the Princes, the 
 Ministers, or the officials ; and has been kept as ignorant of the 
 real state of the Siamese army and navy as of her finances and 
 judiciary. But to every man comes his chance, and — though 
 Siam's International Court which M. Jacquemyns might have 
 put straight (if he had only been given the opportunity) is as 
 rotten as ever, and her financial system which he might have 
 improved (if he had been consulted about it) is as corrupt 
 as ever — in her foreign politics he has undoubtedly had a 
 striking influence. 
 
 To the national feeling so strongly aroused amongst the 
 
488 siAM. 
 
 Siamese by tlie advance of the French upon territory then 
 under Siamese occupation, M. Jacquemyns' welcome theories of 
 "National Eights" — expressed in high-sounding phrases and 
 supported by volumes published in all the languages of Europe 
 — were received with avidity ; Siam was charmed to hear her 
 own employee speak so bravely of her inherent rights as an 
 independent nation to the continuance of her integrity and the 
 full exercise of autonomy. M. Jacquemyns as a theorist was 
 not concerned with mere practical details of undisciplined 
 armies and sham navies. If international law declared the 
 rights of a people to their own territory, it was clear to him 
 that Siam must remember and insist upon these rights ; and 
 Siam heard him with delight, and responded with eagerness. 
 In his defence it is but fair to repeat that he had undoubtedly 
 been kept in perfect ignorance of the real state of the Siamese 
 forces and other means of defence; so that the subsequent 
 results of his advice came as an immense surprise to him, as 
 was comically visible on July 14th, when he found that the 
 two small French wooden gunboats had easily come up to 
 Bangkok, in spite of the Siamese men-of-war which he had 
 been assured would certainly blow them to atoms. 
 
 In this way foreign theories supported native conceit, Belgian 
 advice jumped with Siamese inclinations, and Danish promptings 
 appealed to Eoyal ambition. With ridiculous defences, useless 
 weapons, and incompetent leaders, Siam rushed to her ruin. 
 
 The next stage in this tragi-comedy was the announcement 
 made by M. Pavie to Prince Devawongse on July 10th that the 
 French cruiser Inconstant and the gunboat Comete were about to 
 arrive; and that, in accordance with the Treaty, Admiral Humann 
 had ordered them to cross the bar on the evening of Thurs- 
 day the 13th, for which purpose he requested the usual service 
 of pilots. To this definite announcement Prince Devawongse, 
 under M. Jacquemyns' advice, gave the following two-fold reply, 
 which was the prime cause of all the subsequent disasters : — (1) 
 That the reasons advanced by France for sending these boats 
 
THE TRUE STORY OF FRANCE AND SIAM. 489 
 
 were neither valid, nor founded on facts ; (2) that the Siamese 
 Government objected " to an interpretation of the Treaty which 
 VFould give to any Power an absolute right to send into the terri- 
 torial waters of Siam, and to the Capital of the kingdom, as many 
 vyar-vessels as they should like. The spirit of the Treaty cannot 
 be that Siam should be deprived of the natural right of any 
 nation to protect itself, and the French Government will easily 
 understand that, under present circumstances, we cannot, 
 without abdicating our right to exist as an independent State, 
 adopt such interpretation." To this M. Pavie replied next day, 
 " I have not failed to inform my Government and the Admiral of 
 the objections made by the Government of His Majesty to their 
 entry into the river. ... I have equally made known that I 
 have insisted with your Highness that the Inconstant whilst 
 waiting a reply, anchors at Paknam conformably to the Treaty." 
 
 Prince Devawongse in turn replied, " To avoid any misunder- 
 standing ... I feel obliged to state without any delay . . . 
 that my objections against the Inconstant passing the bar are of 
 a general nature, and apply to its anchoring at Paknam as well 
 as its going up to Bangkok. . . . Indeed the reasonable inter- 
 pretation which, I think, ought to be given to the Treaty, as not 
 depriving Siam of the essential right of any State to watch over 
 its own safety and independence, is applicable to any part of our 
 territorial waters." 
 
 The point here at issue is a vital one in any consideration 
 of the Franco- Siamese difficulty. It illustrates perfectly the 
 sophisms with which Siam on this as on other occasions sought 
 to evade her treaty obligations ; and it shows how inevitable 
 and indeed justifiable were the steps to which France resorted 
 to maintain her bare Treaty rights ; and how easily she gained 
 additional excuses for insisting on her later and more question- 
 able territorial claims. Article XV. of the Treaty of 1856 
 between France and Siam reads as follows : — " French vessels of 
 war can enter the river and anchor at Paknam ; but they must 
 inform the Siamese authorities before proceeding to Bangkok, 
 
490 SIAM. 
 
 and come to an understanding with them as to the anchorage." 
 It thus seems almost incredible that Prince Devawongse 
 with M. Jacquemyns' advice should have ventured to reply to a 
 naval power like France in the words I have above quoted, to 
 maintain the same position again in a long interview, and to 
 repeat it once more in the following uncompromising terms on 
 July 12th : " Notwithstanding your insistence, in our interview 
 of to-day, on having the Inconstant and the Comete admitted to 
 anchor at Paknam, it is my duty to maintain my peremptory 
 objections, which I made in my preceding letter, against their 
 entering the waters of the Menam, and to declare that, under 
 present circumstances, the Government of His Majesty is unable 
 to consent to the presence in this river of more than one war- 
 vessel of any State. All necessary instructions to that effect 
 have been given to our naval and military authorities." 
 
 This was no hasty and unconsidered decision reached in a 
 moment of excitement ; nor was it merely due to some " mis- 
 understanding," as the Siamese Government tried to make out 
 in the Eoyal Proclamation of July 15th. Still less was it true 
 that " the cause of the encounter at Paknam might have been 
 the difficulties of communication with the (Siamese) officers," as 
 was speciously suggested to Lord Eosebery, after the event, by 
 the Siamese Legation in London. It was the deliberate decision 
 of the Siamese Cabinet to disregard their plain obligations under 
 the treaty, on discovering that it did not quite suit their con- 
 venience to fulfil them. But what had caused this particular 
 inconvetiience ? Their own folly in having built their forts out- 
 side Paknam to command only the approach to the bar, while 
 they had omitted any means of attacking ships lying at anchor 
 inside the bar at Paknam, to which spot foreign vessels were 
 free to come under the terms of the treaty. The ancient fort at 
 this spot had been allowed to fall into ruins and is filled with 
 jungle growth. Thus if the Siamese Government kept their 
 Treaty promises, the French gunboats would be able to come 
 unhurt inside the riva- and lie at Paknam out of reach of the 
 
THE TEUE STOKX OF FEANCE AND SIAM. 491 
 
 only big guns that Siam possessed. What then could be more 
 simple than to say that in making those promises in 1856, they 
 had never really intended to sanction the entrance of foreign 
 gunboats ? If a promise becomes inconvenient, explain it 
 away ; if this be impossible, then break it. So, when these 
 unaccommodating Frenchmen declined to have their treaty 
 rights explained away in this convenient fashion, Siam with a 
 light heart decided to "insist." It is confidently believed now 
 that the French ships only intended to make a demonstration 
 by lying at anchor at Paknam, thirty miles away from the 
 capital, as they were entitled by treaty to do, and their 
 subsequent advance up to Bangkok was occasioned by the 
 deliberate attack made upon them by the Siamese forts, while 
 they were still within the limits assigned to them by the existing 
 treaty. 
 
 It is true that the French Government in Paris consented at 
 the last moment to waive their rights to anchor gunboats inside 
 the bar at Paknam ; and M. Develle informed Mr. Phipps on the 
 afternoon of July 13th (Blue Book, No. 139), that " it had been 
 decided that such French ships as would be sent would remain 
 outside the bar . . . although . . . the 15th Article of the 
 Franco- Siamese Treaty of 1856 was explicit and allowed French 
 ships to penetrate into the river as far as Paknam, and after 
 previous warning to the Siamese Government to proceed to 
 Bangkok." * But these new orders had only been sent to the 
 French Admiral at Saigon on July 11th, from whence they had 
 to be transmitted to the ships which were then in the Gulf of 
 Siam ; and this could not have been done by 5 p.m. on July 
 13th. The note -which M. Pavie sent out to the Commander of 
 the Inconstant at 4.45 p.m. (just before the entrance of the gun- 
 boats) no doubt informed him of the Siamese objections to his 
 
 * As a matter of fact, owing to the difference in longitude, the French ships 
 had actually crossed the bar, engaged the forts, and entered the river, before M. 
 Develle made this statement to Mr. Phipps ; and by 5.30 on the same afternoon 
 the news of this could well have reached Paris. 
 
492 siAM. 
 
 passage and of their determination to resist it, and possibly also 
 of the statement made to him (M. Pavie) by Prince Devawongse 
 that the Siamese Minister in Paris had been assured by M. 
 Develle that the gunboats would not enter. Be that as it 
 may, however, and though the action of the French officers, as 
 Lord Eosebery said, appeared to be " uncontrollable and irre- 
 sponsible," the fact that definite orders had been given in 
 writing by the King, on the 13th, that his forts should fire 
 upon the French gunboats directly they showed definite 
 signs of attempting to cross the bar, proves that the King 
 did not really expect that the French would waive their treaty 
 rights, and also that Siam was absolutely determined in any 
 case to use force to prevent an entrance. 
 
 Thus, on the evening of July 13th, towards dusk, occurred the 
 battle of Paknam, which I have already described. Directly the 
 French ships reached a certain point on the bar. Commodore de 
 Eichelieu fired a shot across their bows from his fort to warn 
 them, and on their continued advance he opened fire with all 
 his guns as fast as he could, and the Siamese boats inside the 
 river joined in the attack. The French boats were not materially 
 damaged, but several French soldiers were killed and wounded. 
 Under these circumstances the French Commander, ignorant of 
 how many more forts or attacks might be in readiness for him at 
 Paknam, naturally did not stop there after his entrance, but 
 went straight up to the French Legation, situated on the river 
 about three miles below the Palace, while the Siamese ships 
 followed some distance after him as best they could.* 
 
 So skilfully, however, had the Siamese previously contrived 
 
 * The obvious comment upon the discrepancy between the assurances of the 
 French Government and the action of the French gunboats cannot be more 
 suggestively made than in Lord Eosebery's words to Lord Dufferin on Sept. 
 5th : " However ill-advised and useless the resistance of the Siamese may have 
 been, the responsibility for what followed rests primarily with the French officers, 
 who so acted in flagrant opposition to the engagement made by the Representa- 
 tive of their Government, and who, I observe, have been publicly Twted for pro- 
 motion in recognition of their conduct." This promotion is now an accomplished 
 fact. 
 
THE TBUE STOEY OF FEANCB AND SIAM. 493 
 
 to represent the justice of their case, as regards the men-of-war 
 not entering Paknam, that the sound of firing on the evening of 
 the 13th, followed by the apparition of two French gunboats 
 lying unhurt before the Legation, came as an immense shock of 
 surprise to many Bangkok residents. At last the direful news 
 reached the Court (Captain Jones himself, the British Minister, 
 strange to say, going to the Palace about 9 p.m. to confirm 
 it), and instantly the Palace was seething with excitement and 
 crowded with anxious ofiScials, frightened servants, and hurry- 
 ing troops. In a moment the King and Cabinet had been 
 brought to a fearful realisation of the results which their 
 foolhardy policy might now bring upon them. Prom 8 p.m. 
 onwards there were few in the Palace who hoped to escape alive 
 that night ; every one expected an immediate bombardment by 
 the French Commander, who was enraged, it was said, at having 
 been fired upon in the peaceful exercise of his treaty rights. 
 For several hours the greatest alarm prevailed at the possibility 
 of an immediate landing of French troops, or the looting and 
 destruction of the Palace. Troops hurriedly massed together all 
 unprepared, cavalry hurried out of their stables mingling with 
 them in a dense crowd round the Palace walls, ancient field- 
 pieces, each with its supply of old cannon-balls, jammed 
 together along the Palace road, excited attendants in the 
 Palace, frantically endeavouring to load rifles which they had 
 never seen before — all offered a strange spectacle of helpless 
 confusion, and a striking contrast to the recent boasts that 
 Siam would easily sweep the " French brigands " into the sea. 
 All this for two small wooden gunboats and some 220 men. 
 
 At first the Cabinet were fascinated by a plucky but wild idea 
 (suggested by the Danish officers) of sending every available boat 
 and gun and marine down the river in the dark, pell-mell, to 
 smash up the three little gunboats as they lay off the French 
 Legation ; but either fear or common sense prevailed. After 
 five hours of fearful tension, the excitement and alarm in the 
 Palace was at last dispelled by the arrival of a letter from M. 
 
194 SIAM. 
 
 Pavie to Prince Devawongse, which said that no attack on the 
 town or the Palace had ever been contemplated or was even 
 now intended ; and that the French Minister would visit the 
 Siamese Foreign Office the next morning to discuss the events 
 of that night — an unspeakable relief for the moment, but an 
 unpleasant experience to look forward to. The next morning, 
 however, after various quaint remarks had been made by 
 Prince Devawongse and M. Jacquemyns to the French com- 
 mander, congratulating him on his gallant entrance, M. Pavie 
 merely stated that instructions from Paris must be awaited. 
 These instructions arrived on July 20th, and are quoted by 
 Captain Jones as follows : — 
 
 The following ultimatum, -which has to be accepted in forty-eight hours, has 
 been presented by the French to the Siamese Government : — 
 
 1. Eeeognition of the rights of Cambodia and Arinam to left bank of Eiver 
 Mekong and the islands. 
 
 2. The Siamese shall evacuate, within one month's time, any posts which are 
 there held by them. 
 
 3. Satisfaction for the various acts of aggression against French ships and 
 sailors in the River Menam and against French subjects in Slam. 
 
 4. Pecuniary indemnities to the families of the victims and punishment of the 
 culprits. 
 
 5. For various damages inflicted on French subjects indemnities of 2,000,000 fr. 
 
 6. As a guarantee for the claims under clauses 4 and 5 the sum of 3,000,000 fr. 
 in dollars shall be at once deposited, or, in default, the farming of the taxes of 
 Siemrap and Battambong shall be assigned to the French. 
 
 In the event of the non-acceptance of these terms the French Minister will leave 
 Bangkok and the blockade of the coast will at once take place. 
 
 Thus Siam's penalty for her few days of madness was prompt 
 and pitiless. Great was the excitement during the two days 
 of grace. It is difficult to understand that Siam had not 
 even then learnt the lesson of submission ; indeed the British 
 Minister went about the town on the final day definitely 
 stating that everything was satisfactorily settled, that no 
 further penalties would be exacted, and no blockade need be 
 feared. But he little knew the Siamese character; the 
 national conceit had not even yet fully realised the helpless- 
 ness of the situation. " On the Saturday afternoon, it became 
 
THE TRUE STOEY OF FRANCE AND SIAM. 495 
 
 evident that a hitch had occurred somewhere, and that 
 matters were taking an unfavourable turn. The Naval 
 Department had ordered every vessel capable of bearing a 
 gun to be under steam, and the troops were ready for any 
 sudden emergency."* And just before the time of grace 
 expired, an answer was sent by Prince Devawongse to M. 
 Pavie of which the following is an abstract : — 
 
 1. The KiBg of Siam declares that no explicit definition has as yet ever been 
 made to the Siame.-e Government as to what constitutes the rights of Cambodia 
 and Annam on the Mekong. But as His Majesty is anxious at once to secure peace 
 and security for his people he agrees to cede to Prance the country lying to the 
 south of the 18th parallel of latitude and to the east of the Mekong. 
 
 2. The withdrawal of all Siamese posts within the above mentioned territory to 
 take place forthwith. 
 
 3. The loss of life which has occurred in the recent actions between the French 
 and the Siamese forces is regretted by the King, and the satisfaction required by 
 Prance will be given in accordance with ordinary justice and the independence of 
 Siam which the Prench Government affect to respect. 
 
 4. Those found guilty of illegal aggression will receive condign punishment, and 
 the sufferers will receive due reparation. 
 
 5. The King agrees to pay the indemnity demanded on account of the claims 
 advanced by French subjects, although the justice of many of them has been 
 denied by the Siamese. His Majesty, however, suggests that a Joint Commission 
 should first investigate these claims. 
 
 6. The sum of 3,000,000 fr. required as guarantee will be deposited concurrently 
 with the exchange of notes between the Eepresentatives of Prance and Siam. 
 After the equitable adjustment of all reasonable claims, the King trusts that 
 Prench justice will restore to Siam any sum which may remain over. 
 
 This compliance with the demands of Prance will, the King trusts, be looked 
 upon as a proof of his sincere desire to live with the French BepubUc on terms of 
 friendship. 
 
 But this "compliance" produced next day the following 
 reply from M. Pavie to Prince Devawongse: — 
 
 I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the reply your Excellency, on 
 behalf of the Government of His Majesty the King of Siam, has made to the 
 communication which I left with you on behalf of the Government of the French 
 Eepablic. I have taken act of this reply, and without entering upon a discussion 
 of any of the points I note that it involves a refusal of a considerable portion of 
 the left bank of the Mekong. ... I have the honour to inform your Highness 
 that, in conformity vrith the instructions of my Government, I am transferring the 
 protection of French nationals and protected persons to the Netherlands Oonsul- 
 General, and I embark on the Inconstant, leaving 26th July. 
 
 Siam Free Press. 
 
496 siAM. 
 
 To this startling announcement Prince Devawongse sent 
 next day a formal reply to express his regret and surprise at 
 this unexpected decision, and to say that no alteration in his 
 previous note could yet be made, as he must first " insist for 
 a definition of the nature and extent of what you call the 
 rights of Annam and Cambodia on the left bank of the 
 Mekong." Siam thus still continued to " insist," with three 
 French gunboats in the river, several more outside the bar, 
 her forces ludicrously defeated, and not the slightest hope of 
 foreign aid ! 
 
 On Monday the 24th the French Minister did not hoist his 
 flag at the Legation, and in the afternoon of the 25th (the 
 tide did not serve before) he left Bangkok, with all the 
 French warships, and settled at the island of Koh-si-chang, 
 pending further instructions from France. The penalties of 
 Siamese folly were soon to be enforced. On the 28th, notice 
 was given by Admiral Humann, who had just arrived from 
 Saigon, that a strict blockade would commence on July 29th, 
 and now British merchants began to realise that it was they 
 who were to suffer for Siamese folly. Yet still war counsels 
 prevailed. At one moment it was actually decided to com- 
 pletely close the passage of the river by permanently blocking 
 up the channel with hulks ; and every possible preparation 
 for war was debated. 
 
 Fortunately Prince Devawongse was at last persuaded by 
 the plain revelation of some startling facts about the con- 
 ditions of 'the forts and the ships, to realise the hopelessness 
 of further resistance; and he determined to surrender uncon- 
 ditionally before worse things should happen. He contrived 
 to evade any discussion of his decision in the quarrelling 
 Cabinet, to escape any more theories of " natural rights," 
 and to frighten the King into submission. His decision was 
 no doubt vastly assisted by the final crushicg of all hopes 
 of British interference and aid, as conveyed to him by Captain 
 Jones in Lord Eosebery's words : — 
 
THE TRUE STOEY OP FRANCE AND SIAM. 497 
 
 " The nature of the advice which I have given to the Siamese Government has 
 been constant and consistent in the sense that they should come to terms with the 
 French quickly. It is impossible for Her Majesty's Government now to change this 
 view, or indeed to intervene with advice at this juncture. 
 
 " The result of the inquiries that I have been able to make at Paris shows that the 
 tendency of the demands of the French is to increase, and rapidly so, if the Siamese 
 continue to resist the conditions laid down in their ultimatum. 
 
 " I am unable to see, under these circumstances, what Siam can hope to gain from 
 maintaining her refusal to accept these conditions, nor what better course remains 
 for her than to accept the French terms at once and unconditionally. 
 
 " The engagements entered into by the Siamese Government with Her Majesty's 
 Government in regard to Kyang Chiang need not deter the Siamese Government 
 from this course. The question as to the future status of that province must be 
 discussed directly between Her Majesty's Government and that of France." 
 
 The pregnant sentence in the closing paragraph showed 
 them that the last card they had tried to play, in endeavour- 
 ing to entangle England in the quarrel and so enforce British 
 interference, had completely failed. A note was therefore sent 
 to M. Pavie at Koh-si-chang by Prince Devawongse on the 
 29th of July, to say that, "His Majesty the King of Siam, 
 being actuated by the most friendly feeling towards Prance, 
 accepts the demands of the Government of the Eepublie 
 unconditionally." But the French had now learned wisdom, 
 and discovered the value of Siamese promises to keep any 
 conditions or to fulfil the terms of a treaty; and they there- 
 fore very naturally required guarantees, viz. : — 
 
 1. The occupation by French troops of the river and fort of Chantaboon pending 
 the evacuation by Siam of the left bank of Mekong. 
 
 2. No Siamese troops to be permitted within twenty-five kilometres of the Mekong 
 River. 
 
 3. No Siamese armed vessels to be stationed on Toulesap Lake. 
 
 i. The right to establish Consulates at Nan and Korat reserved by France. 
 
 The occupation of Chantabun by French troops was a bitter 
 pill ; for it would be a patent and enduring proof that the King 
 of Siam was no longer absolute in his own kingdom, but lay at 
 the mercy of France. However there was no help for it. Eng- 
 land still declined to help. Lord Eosebery telegraphed again 
 to Captain Jones on July 31st, "In order that the French 
 
 33 
 
498 siAM. 
 
 should have no further opportunity for action or territorial 
 requisition, it is obvious that the Siamese should not hesitate to 
 yield." And so the ultimatum with all its additions was finally 
 accepted. On August 3rd, the blockade was raised, and on 
 August 7th, the French Minister returned to Bangkok and again 
 raised his flag, to the salutes of the Siamese Navy. 
 
 It only remained to arrange the details of future relationship, 
 and this task was entrusted to a special Minister Plenipotentiary, 
 sent from France for the purpose, M. Le Myre de Vilers, who was 
 formerly Governor of Cochin-China and is now dictating French 
 terms in Madagascar. He arrived in Bangkok on August 16th, 
 and soon showed that he possessed considerable firmness, and a 
 clear knowledge of the situation. 
 
 The King had retired to his Summer Palace some sixty miles up 
 the river, in a state of mental collapse, almost directly after the 
 final surrender had been made and the acute crisis had passed. 
 But M. de Vilers knew that the native mind would try hard to 
 gloss over the dictatory position of the French Envoy and repre- 
 sent it as an Embassy for petitioning the King. He therefore 
 refused to have audience at the summer residence, and insisted 
 that, as the Envoy of France, he must be received with full 
 honours in the Eoyal Palace at Bangkok. This meant that the 
 King must come down to the capital for the purpose — another 
 bitter pill for the monarch of an independent kingdom. The 
 Siamese saw that they must assent ; but, cunning to the last, 
 they cleverly contrived to cover the humiliation by contriving 
 that there should be a Court function in Bangkok requiring the 
 King's presence on the morning of August 20th. The King was 
 obliged to come down for this function, and was thus also at the 
 same time " pleased to be able to grant M. de Vilers an audience 
 in the Grand Palace at Bangkok in the afternoon of August 
 20th." 
 
 The second point in which M. de Vilers showed his keen 
 knowledge of the situation was in refusing to recognise M, 
 Jacquemyns officially, or to allow him to be present at the 
 
THE TEUE STOEY OF FEANCE AND SIAM. 499 
 
 negociations. This action was somewhat objected to at the time 
 by the British Government as apparently an infringement of 
 Siamese independence. But it was probably the only way in 
 which any finality could be hoped for from the Conferences. 
 One definite stage of progress was soon reached — the easiest so 
 far as Siam was concerned, since it involved merely a pecuniary 
 loss, which the immense stores of money lying idle in the Palace 
 enabled her to meet without any difficulty. On August 22hd, 
 "two and a half million francs (in silver dollars) were handed to 
 the French Legation in Bangkok, and another half million were 
 paid by cheque on Saigon. 
 
 But still the difficulties and procrastinations in the negoci- 
 ations were extraordinary. M. Develle had informed Lord 
 Eosebery on September 14th, that the " negociations ought not 
 to take more than a week or at most a fortnight," whereas the 
 Siamese contrived to prolong them for six weeks. After a 
 few visits had been exchanged, which had only resulted in use- 
 less discussions on the draft Treaty, Prince Devawongse went up 
 to see the King at the summer residence during the first week 
 in September, and finding the state of things there to be hope- 
 less, he retired to his own house immediately on his return to 
 Bangkok for nearly three weeks on the plea of dysentery ; and 
 things were once more at a deadlock. The whole Court was up 
 at Bang-pa-in, engaged in processions, pageants, illuminations, 
 and theatres, in honour of a new white elephant, and of the 
 King's fortieth birthday. Some seven thousand persons were 
 packed into the Palace grounds, the King taking close interest 
 in the long processions, paper lanterns, and gaudy shows, while 
 the Envoy of Prance was waiting to settle the fate of the country. 
 M. de Vilers was thus left with nothing to do, and ominous 
 rumours of increased French demands soon raised a general 
 scare for Siam's independence. Prince Devawongse did not 
 resume negociations till September 26th, and even then the most 
 preposterous arguments were advanced, and the situation was 
 rapidly becoming desperate again. At length M. de Vilers 
 
500 SIAM. 
 
 naturally lost patience, and the Frencli Government in Paris 
 began to grow peremptory. When he next went to the Siamese 
 Foreign Office on September 27th, he listened quietly to a long 
 rigmarole of objections, arguments and prevarications, and then 
 simply placed in Prince Devawongse's hands a Convention, 
 drawn up by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Paris, embodying 
 "a final statement of all the alterations and conditions that 
 France was prepared to accord," observing, "I leave Siam 
 within four days, whether these conditions be accepted or not ; 
 and I shall come here again on Sunday, October 1st, to hear 
 your decision. The Treaty can afford to wait, but there must be 
 no delay as regards the Convention." Thus for the third time a 
 crisis was imminent ; the Siamese still declined to give way, and 
 things looked as if the last great disaster must come. The gun- 
 boat Aspic had her steam up early on Sunday morning, and a 
 pilot on board, ready to leave at a moment's notice. However, 
 at the last moment, the terms were agreed to unconditionally, 
 and the Siamese Foreign Minister and the French Minister 
 Plenipotentiary, on October 3rd, duly signed the Treaty and Con- 
 vention, a proces verbal being added to explain matters of doubt. 
 The terms agreed upon, it should be added, contain several 
 points which — taken in connection with the ultimatum, the 
 occupation of Chantabun, and the various possibilities that lie 
 in the next Treaty still to be drawn up between France and 
 Siam — suggest many serious considerations regarding the 
 future of Siam and the crucial question of English interests and 
 trade generally in Indo-China. 
 
 I have now given the true story of French action in Siam 
 in 1893. What is the net result ? In five months France has 
 obtained from Siam three million francs. She has deprived 
 Siam for ever of the means of defending her eastern frontier, of 
 resisting any further encroachments there, and of keeping in 
 order those parts of her territory which horde on French 
 possessions. She has obtained specific commercial and other 
 
THE TRUE STOEY OF FRANCE AND SIAM. 501 
 
 advantages for French subjects in Siam. She has annexed 
 some fifty thousand square miles of territory which had been 
 recognised as Siamese, and occupied by Siamese posts, during 
 the past eighty years at least. And finally, she still retains a 
 military occupation of Chantabun, the second great port of 
 Siam, commanding the Gulf of Siam and also the entrance to 
 the three richest provinces, the time-limit of this occupation 
 being worded in the vaguest possible terms. What the future 
 will bring it is impossible to say, but I fear it must be 
 regarded as certain that the question of Siam will again be the 
 subject of grave discussion between the Governments of Great 
 Britain and France. It is for this reason alone that I have 
 felt compelled to give so long and unsparing an account of 
 last year's events. In all European quarters the actions and 
 position of the Siamese in the matter have hitherto been 
 misunderstood and misrepresented, and I am convinced that 
 nothing but an accurate insight into the realities of the past 
 can supply the means of preventing vastly greater and more 
 far-reaching evils in the future. 
 
CHAPTEB XXX. 
 
 ENGLAND AND THE FUTURE OF SIAM. 
 
 TN the previous chapter I confined myself to a simple and 
 -^ impartial narrative of the events which took place during 
 the Franco- Siamese difficulty between March and October, 1893. 
 Out of these events have grown several grave questions, three 
 of which are matters of special importance to England. These 
 are — (1) the frontier defence of our Indian Empire on its 
 eastern boundary over some 300 miles; (2) the commercial 
 interests of England in Indo-China ; and (3) the probable 
 extinction of Siamese independence. 
 
 In order to understand the more pressing questions of frontier 
 delimitation and territorial acquisition in Indo-China, and espe- 
 cially on the Upper Mekong, some of the geographical features 
 of the country must be clearly grasped. The Eiver Mekong, or 
 Lan Tsang Kiang as the Chinese call it, rises in the mountains 
 of Thibet, and in its earlier course flows due south, parallel with 
 the Salween on the west and the Yangtze on the east. On 
 entering the province of Yunnan, the Yangtze goes off to the 
 eastwards through some of the richest provinces of China ; while 
 the Salween and the Mekong pursue parallel courses, at a com- 
 paratively small distance apart, for some hundreds of miles 
 towards the south. The Salween ultimately flows out through 
 Burmah into the Indian Ocean, while the Mekong does not enter 
 Burmah proper, but passes through the Shan States, and on 
 reaching latitude 20°, takes a sharp bend to the east for some 
 120 miles, and after again turning due south at Luang Prabang 
 
 502 
 
ENGLAND AND THE FDTUEE OF SIAM. 503 
 
 for about 160 miles, makes precisely a pimilar turn to tlie east 
 at latitude 18°, After keeping this easterly course for some 150 
 miles, it resumes its southerly course, and skirting the whole 
 length of Siam, finds its way into the China Sea through the 
 French protected kingdom of Cambodia. 
 
 It must always be remembered that the chief factor in the 
 commercial politics of the Far East is the trade of China. To 
 tap the markets and develop the resources of the interior of that 
 great country has long been the keenest ambition alike of Eng- 
 land and France. Yunnan, Szechuan, and Kweichau, the great 
 provinces of south-western China, are the special objects in vie^v 
 at present. The political rivalries of England and France in 
 Indo-China during the last two decades may practically be 
 summed up in one phrase as a race for Yunnan. When France 
 seized Tongking she hoped to win her way to this great poten- 
 tial wealth by means of the Eed Eiver, which it was hoped would 
 bring Yunnan into direct communication with the newly-createJ 
 French Colonial Empire ; and the founding of her colony at 
 Saigon was no doubt also intended to achieve the same end, 
 by obtaining possession of the mouths of the great Mekong 
 Eiver. England on her part had by the annexation of Upper 
 Burmah made herself actually conterminous with these provinces 
 of China ; she had gained control over the whole of the Salween 
 Eiver, and over a certain portion of the Mekong Eiver also, and 
 she held the numerous passes adjacent to these great waterways, 
 both of which actually penetrate into Yunnan itself. 
 
 This in 1892 was the position of the two rival competitors in 
 the race for YunnarL A few further geographical details are 
 necessary to explain the origin of those acute difficulties between 
 England and France in 1893, which so nearly led to a complete 
 rupture. The annexation of Upper Burmah had given to Eng- 
 land definite territorial rights over certain Shan States lying 
 between Siam and China, and astride of the Mekong. With 
 a view of contriving a scientific frontier on the north-east 
 boundary of her Indian Empire, and of avoiding any possibility 
 
504 SUM. 
 
 of being " limitrophe " with France, the British Government 
 had contemplated the cession of these rights to either China 
 or Siam. The northernmost of these particular Shan States— 
 that is, the one next to China— is commonly called Chieng 
 Hung (Kyaing Hung— Che-li in Chinese) ; that on the south- 
 next "to Siam— being known as Chieng Kheng (Kyaing Chaing). 
 The question at issue in 1893 was no new one. The Anglo- 
 Siamese Boundary Commission had been working for some 
 years past to fix the frontier between Burmah and Siam, and 
 by 1893 it had completed the dehmitation practically as far as 
 the Mekong, as will be seen on reference to my map. The State 
 of Chieng Kheng was then handed over to Siam by England, 
 with the express stipulation that English rights to it, as regards 
 both sides of the Mekong, would revive, should Siam at any time 
 abandon it.* Chieng Hung, on the other hand, wbich is just 
 north of Chieng Kheng, has now been ceded by England to 
 China, in connection with the Anglo-Chinese Boundary Com- 
 mission which has also been working for some time past,t with 
 the same stipulation of England's reversionary rights. Under 
 these circumstances it was but natural that England should 
 begin to feel some anxiety last year when it became apparent 
 that the French advance towards Siam westwards from Tong- 
 king and Annam was not to be limited to the region of the 
 Lower Mekong — where it did not touch our possessions or 
 interests in any way — but was directed equally to the upper 
 reaches of the river, and was in fact, however much this might 
 be concealed by diplomacy, primarily directed at the possession 
 of the whole of this great waterway from Saigon to Yunnan. 
 
 By July, 1893, the matter admitted of no further doubt, and 
 demanded immediate attention. The French ultimatum to 
 Siam (the history of which is given in the preceding chapter) 
 was peremptory, and demanded the surrender of territory nearly 
 
 • Siam, No. 1 (1894), No. 30. 
 
 t The Prench Government are believed to have raised objections to this arrange- 
 ment ; and the questions involved are likely to be very difiSoult of solution, for 
 reasons which I shall presently endeavour to explain. 
 
ENGLAND AND THE FUTURE OF SIAM. 505 
 
 100,000 square miles in extent. It was impossible to mistake 
 the trend of events, for M. Develle openly showed his indigna- 
 tion at Siam's refusal to recognise any French rights above 
 latitude 18° on the left bank of the Mekong. At the same time 
 the French Chamber began to speak confidently of French rights 
 on the Mekong as extending continuously up to 23°. At this 
 point England saw it was time to enter her protest, unless 
 the case were to be allowed to go entirely by default. Indeed, 
 even China awoke from her lethargy, and suggested to the 
 French Government that some mistake must have been made, 
 since Chinese territorial rights existed on the east bank of the 
 Mekong for a considerable distance south of 23°. England in 
 her turn sent a plain reminder of the actual extent of British 
 rights in the same regions, and a warning that she could not 
 permit any infringement thereof. Lord Eosebery explained 
 to Lord Dufferin the views of the British Government as 
 follows : — 
 
 " We cannot doubt that the term ' left bank ' is far too comprehensive in its 
 scope. It cannot of coarse apply to any districts east of the Mekong Biver whioh 
 the Siamese Government have no power to cede, whether from rights of sovereignty, 
 suzerainty, or reversion possessed by other Powers. And secondly, we are confident 
 that the expression ' left bank of the Mekong ' is used subject to the assurances 
 repeatedly given by the French Government that they would respect the indepen- 
 dence and integrity of the Kingdom of Siam. It is clear that any provinces which 
 indisputably form part of that Monarchy could not properly be made the subject 
 of any such demands by the French Government. " 
 
 On July 23rd, Lord Dufferin put the matter quite tersely and 
 clearly to M. Develle. He supposed that "in using the term 
 • the left bank of the Mekong ' his Excellency could not have 
 intended to claim for France the immense tracts of Siamese 
 territory extending not to the east and abutting upon Annam, 
 but to the northwards of the Upper Mekong, and conterminous 
 with China, not to mention the districts lying beyond, which 
 had been incorporated with Her Majesty's Empire of India after 
 the conquest of Burmah." But M. Develle in his reply would 
 not definitely state what the limits of the French claim were, 
 and Lord Dufferin was therefore compelled to press his unwel- 
 
506 SIAM. 
 
 come inquiries a little further, and ask whether " the extensive 
 territories (near the two elbows of the Mekong at 18° and 20° 
 respectively) between the Mekong and the actual French boun- 
 dary depicted upon the existing French maps, comprising the 
 principality of Luang Prabang and other districts, were also 
 claimed by France ? " This compelled M. Develle to declare 
 himself, and the truth about French aims was at last partially 
 disclosed by the ahtonishing statement that " France claimed 
 a right to Luang Prabang and the adjacent countries as being 
 ancient and historic dependencies of Annam ; and that further- 
 more she had always insisted that her territorial sovereignty 
 extended all along the left bank of the Mekong." 
 
 The French Government thus admitted at last that its claims 
 about historic suzerainty and the like had undergone a remark- 
 able extension during four years. In 1889 she disavowed any 
 claim to Luang Prabang : in 1893 she " had always insisted on 
 it " ! This is proved by Lord Salisbury's despatch of April 3, 
 1889, where he quotes M. Waddington as having made the 
 following statement : — 
 
 " The French Government did not wish to extend the frontier of Cochin China to 
 Luang Prabang, but they would propose to draw a line from a point nearly due east 
 of that place southwards to the Mekong, and below that point to make the river the 
 dividing line between the two countries until it entered the territory of Cambodia." 
 
 And, to anticipate for a moment. Lord Eosebery met M. 
 Develle's new claim for France by the following conclusive 
 argument addressed to Lord Dufferin on Sept. 2, 1893 : — 
 
 " It was at least certain that the State of Luang Prabang had for a period of over 
 seventy years acknowledged Siamese suzerainty, and that it had for some years 
 been practically under the control of a Siampse Commissioner. The French 
 Government had, moreover, themselves acknowledged the sovereignty of Siam at 
 Luang Prabang by the signature of the Convention of the 7th of May, 1886, which 
 provides for the appointment of a French Vice-Consul there, and by the request 
 which they subsequently addressed to the Siamese Government to grant an 
 exequatur to the offiosr so appointed. It is further an undoubted fact that the 
 country to the west of the Nam U up to latitude 22° has for some time been in 
 Siamese possession, that the Siamese military posts extend along the course of that 
 river up to that latitude, and that the Siamese Province of Maung Nan reaches some 
 
ENGLAND AND THE FUTURE OF SIAM. 507 
 
 60 miles to the north of the Mekong, where that ri-yer runs westerly from the town 
 of Luang Prabang. 
 
 " There was therefore to the east of the British possessions, where they approach 
 or touch the Upper Mekong, a broad tract of territory generally admitted by French 
 as well as by other explorers and travellers to belong to Siam. Moreover, on the 
 French official map of Indo-China, published by the Ministry of War in 1886, there is 
 a distinct frontier line drawn considerably to the east of the Nam TJ, and described 
 as ' the frontier of Annam according to the Annamite maps ' ; while the country to 
 the west of this line is stated to belong to States under the suzerainty of Burmah 
 and Siam." 
 
 France, however, had taken up her position, and was deter- 
 mined not to be stopped by either argument or interference 
 from England. Finding, therefore, that M. Develle still insisted 
 on his policy. Lord Dufferin proceeded in his turn to — 
 
 " insist on the incompatibility of this confiscation by Prance of so considerable a 
 proportion of the Kingdom of Siam with M. Develle's and the French Government's 
 previous assurances that they had no intention to allow their disputes with Siam on 
 the Lower Mekong to entail any measures which would jeopardise her integrity or 
 her independence. How could these professions, I asked, which I knew had been 
 made in perfect sincerity, be reconciled with this slicing ofi of what amounted to 
 nearly a third of the kingdom ? " 
 
 M. Develle, however, refused to budge. In vain Lord Dufferin 
 pointed out that this step " would bring France into direct con- 
 tiguity with Burmah, . . . and that the approach of a great 
 militai:y Power like France to a frontier at present lying naked 
 to attack could not be regarded by us with indifference." 
 Moreover, he impressed upon M. Develle " the extreme gravity 
 which the situation might assume were the French demands to 
 be pressed upon Siam beyond what was just and reasonable, and 
 in conformity with the legitimate interests of other Powers." 
 And that " such a transformation of the French pretensions was 
 undoubtedly calculated to excite alarm in England, and the most 
 serious apprehensions in the mind of Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment." 
 
 M. Develle's only reply was that "the terms of the first 
 Article of his ultimatum having been published to the world, and 
 all France being acquainted with them, he could not now alter 
 them, especially under manifest pressure from us " ! But he 
 
508 SIAM. 
 
 seems to have realised that a less uncompromising attitude 
 
 would perhaps be advisable, so he consented to consider whether 
 
 any arrangements could be made for " leaving a ' buffer ' between 
 
 the Asiatic possessions of France and England, and thus leave 
 
 the door open for future negociations." With this very small 
 
 concession the Foreign Office was content. Thus the crisis 
 
 passed, and the hatchet was buried for a time. A striking light, 
 
 however, is thrown upon the real nature of the relative positions 
 
 of France and England on this question, by a remark made by 
 
 M. Develle during this same conversation, that the injury which 
 
 the French action was inflicting upon some 2|- millions sterling 
 
 of English trade, was " merely an accident of the situation," 
 
 and therefore could not be allowed to influence the solution of 
 
 the question at all. 
 
 The British Foreign Office seems, however, to have taken heart 
 
 of grace again after a few days of uncomfortable thought, and to 
 
 have realised at last the importance of all that England was 
 
 surrendering so tamely to France ; for Lord Diifferin returned 
 
 to the charge on July 26th, by these remarks to M. Develle : — 
 
 " It was true that within the last twelve months a mysterious revolution had 
 occurred in the minds of French geographical authorities, but an honest man must 
 be as convinced as I was that the district in question was, and had been for nearly a 
 century, bona fide Siamese territory, and that it could not be confiscated by France 
 without a flagrant infringement of the formal assurances he had given us not to 
 impair the integrity of Siam. As for the pretension advanced by France db antiquo 
 to the left bank of the Mekong, such a supposition was not only contradicted by M. 
 Waddington's express declarations on the subject, but by the further fact, that 
 under the Franco-Siamese Convention of 1886 the French had claimed the right o£ 
 sending a Vice-Cousul to Luang Prabang, which in itself was an absolute proof 
 that the locality belonged to Siam." 
 
 But it was a bark without any intention of a bite. And M. 
 Develle clearly saw this, and promptly "put up the shutters on 
 this compartment" — as Lord Dufferin himself phrases it — by 
 cartly stating that it was impossible — "in the excited state of 
 public opinion " — to withdraw or modify the terms of the ulti- 
 matum. Plainly, then, England must quietly acquiesce ; if she 
 would not bite she must not bark ; and the matter was again 
 allowed to pass. 
 
ENGLAND AND THE FUTCEE OF SIAM. 509 
 
 Nothing was now left but to try and save that portion of the 
 territory which more directly affected the policy and threatened 
 the interests of India, since, as Lord Dufferin said, " it was 
 quite out of the question that we should accept an arrangement 
 which made France conterminous with our Indian Empire." 
 So we find Lord Dufferin expressing to M. Develle the hope that 
 France would consent to the formation of some buffer territory 
 which would prevent the actual contact of England and France 
 on the Indian frontier. Even to this, however, M. Develle's 
 " cordial " assent was only given on condition that the boundary 
 proposed by Lord Dufferin for this buffer State should be 
 drawn much further westwards — in fact, on the watershed of 
 the Nam U instead of the river itself — so as to leave much more 
 territory to France; and that at the same time England should 
 give up some of the territory on the Mekong which she had long 
 been occupying, in return for this "sacrifice" by France of those 
 new territories on the Mekong which she was just then annex- 
 ing. This very one-sided bargain was finally embodied in a 
 Protocol signed on July Slst by Lord Dufferin and M. Develle, 
 arranging for the formation of a buffer State which should 
 separate our respective frontiers; its boundaries were to be 
 settled later, after a Survey Commission had provided the 
 necessary geographical data. Still the discussion dragged on 
 until December, when it was pointed out to the French Govern- 
 ment that unless the Joint Commission started immediately it 
 could not do so until December, 1894. All possible haste was 
 promised, but the latter date proved after all to be that on 
 which the Commissioners started for the remote scene of their 
 labours. 
 
 The principle of a buffer State having been thus conceded, 
 there still remained the exceedingly difficult question of fixing 
 its limits, and determining what territory should be ceded 
 respectively by France and England so as to give it the mini- 
 mum width of 50 miles. The following rough diagram may 
 serve to fix in the reader's mind the relative positions of 
 
510 SIAM. 
 
 the different countries to be separated by this buffer State or 
 neutral zone : — 
 
 >w CHINA X 
 
 BtJBMAH 
 
 BUFFER 
 STATE 
 
 TONGKING 
 
 SIAM 
 
 A reference to the accompanying map will show that our 
 surrender of Chieng Hung to China necessitates that the 
 northern frontier of the buffer State should be the boundary 
 between Chieng Hung and Chieng Kheng. Its eastern frontier 
 may cause greater difficulty. England has already, on Lord 
 Dufferin's confession, "voluntarily retired nearly 300 miles further 
 west than she need have done, with a view of avoiding umbrage 
 to France by too close an approach to her Indo-Chinese posses- 
 sions." So that it seems hardly credible that we shall again 
 consent to surrender our rights and retire still further west- 
 wards. Presumably, therefore, the eastern boundary of the 
 buffer State will not be further westwards than the eastern 
 frontier of Chieng Kheng, that is to say, the watershed of the 
 Nam U. The western boundary also presents many difficult 
 points for discussion. If the British Government gravely recog- 
 nise the so-called French " sacrifice " of territorial rights west- 
 wards of the Nam U,* no doubt England will be expected to 
 make " sacrifices " in return, and perhaps even to surrender her 
 actual rights of occupation over territory to the west of the 
 Mekong. It is to be hoped, however, that a solution more 
 favourable to British interests may yet be obtained, as suggested 
 in Lord Dufferin's letter of July 31st, which proposed that Eng- 
 
 * That these rights were quite fictitious has been already made clear from M. 
 Waddington's statemeut, which I have quoted above. 
 
ENGLAND AND THE FUTURE OF SIAM. 511 
 
 land's " sacrifices " should be limited to the trans-Mekong {i.e., 
 eastern) portion of Chieng Kheng only ; in which case the 
 Mekong itself would be the western frontier of the buffer Stafe. 
 Its southern frontier would then be some line to be agreed upon 
 by England and Prance which should delimit the territory of 
 Siam ; probably the already existing southern frontier of the 
 Chieng Kheng State would answer the purpose. 
 
 In some such fashion as this, then, England and France are 
 to avoid becoming actually " limitrophe " on the Indian frontier. 
 What solid grounds exist for the realisation of this hope, or for 
 the expectation of any permanence in such an arrangement, it is 
 hard to see. Already the experts on this question — both Eng- 
 lish and French — speak of this whole buffer State affair with a 
 smile. The proposed arrangement is in fact an entirely artificial 
 and unnatural one, and I do not myself believe for a moment 
 that anything will come of it. The crucial question of the 
 government of the neutral zone has never been solved. No one 
 has decided what available authority will be sufficient to prevent 
 it from becoming a place of refuge for all the dacoits, escaped 
 criminals, and insurrectionary elements, alike of China, of 
 Burmah, and of Indo-China. A similar No Man's Land between 
 China and Korea was thus populated, until Li Hung-chang 
 annexed it. It has been gravely suggested that the government 
 of the proposed zone should be handed over to China. One 
 would certainly imagine that Prance's experience of China as a 
 neighbour in Tongking would lead her to object very decidedly 
 to such an arrangement, as being the most direct means of 
 creating anarchy and disturbance. Moreover, the disorder in the 
 Chinese Empire caused by the present war will assuredly lessen, 
 if that were possible, the already slight hold which the central 
 authorities in Peking with difficulty maintain over these distant 
 Shan tribes ; and the existence of a State in a condition of 
 anarchy just between the frontiers of England and France would 
 defeat the precise ends which a buffer State is supposed to 
 subserve. 
 
512 SIAM. 
 
 Even apart from these considerations, it is plain that the 
 English and French Governments are by no means agreed as 
 yet regarding the extent of their respective rights on the Mekong ; 
 and when the question comes up for actual settlement, after the 
 Boandary Commissioners have produced the requisite geo- 
 graphical data, it is difficult to see what compromise can be 
 arranged without very considerable concessions, and these made 
 all on one side. The whole question, in fact, is only in its 
 earliest stage ; and other difficulties in Indo-China will un- 
 doubtedly again become acute before it approaches settlement. 
 The points at issue will be directly between England and Prance ; 
 and as they will finally decide the handicaps in the international 
 race for Yunnan, the question will be one of the gravest impor- 
 tance to our commercial and political interests. 
 
 To prove that I have not exaggerated the possibility of these 
 difficulties, it is only necessary to read in the Blue Book the 
 discussions that have already taken place between the English 
 and French Governments on the subject. On October 25th, M. 
 Develle had already begun to " despond about the buffer State 
 negociations." He very cleverly complained that " by retaining 
 the cis-Mekong part of Kyaing Ohaing and assigning the other 
 part to the buffer State we should be remaining on the Mekong 
 ourselves while keeping France away." To this Lord Eosebery 
 very pointedly replied that " as Kyaing Chaing was a State 
 under our suzerainty, we were, in giving up the trans-Mekong 
 part, making a considerable concession, and in retaining the cis- 
 Mekong portion, only retaining what we already possessed." 
 Indeed, matters had almost reached a deadlock so long ago as 
 October 27, 1893, when it became necessary for Lord Eosebery 
 to say very plainly that " should these negociations unfortunately 
 fail, and should the French Government be unable to accept the 
 above proposal (which is offered in the most conciliatory spirit), 
 the British Government would have to take such measures as 
 they might consider necessary for their own protection. These 
 it is not necessary more particularly to define. . . . They 
 
ENGLAND AND THE FUTURE OF SUM. 513 
 
 would also take into immediate consideration the measures 
 necessary to preserve an independent State between the main 
 body of the British dominions and those of France." This 
 determined attitude, however, failed to settle the matter, and it 
 again became necessary to use the same veiled threats, since on 
 November 21st we find Lord Dufferin definitely stating that if 
 the negociations could not be put through on the lines sug- 
 gested, " we should be compelled to assert our domination over 
 Kyaing Chaing and on ioth sides of the Mekong in a more active 
 and effective manner than had hitherto been found necessary, 
 for our position in India was such that anything approaching to 
 disputed jurisdiction along our frontier could not be tolerated." 
 In spite, however, of this peremptory tone, M. Develle replied 
 with equal curtness that " the integrity of Luang Prabang was 
 as valid and reasonable a cause of solicitude to Prance as the 
 integrity of Kyaing Ton was to us : nor would the French 
 Chamber nor French public opinion tolerate its disintegration." 
 The acrimonious discussion was only terminated by a mutual 
 decision to leave for a future date the crucial points of territorial 
 concession on either side — ^that is, to throw the entire arrange- 
 ment into the melting-pot. In fact, the whole discussion and 
 the length of time before the buffer State Commissioners could 
 get to work clearly shows that the question will raise innumer- 
 able difficulties when the time comes for its final settlement. 
 
 There is, moreover, another and a totally distinct frontier 
 question in connection with France and Siam which is likely to 
 develop considerable proportions in the future, and may possibly 
 lead to a radical redistribution of the whole territory of Indo- 
 China — I mean the designs which the French are well known to 
 cherish upon the rich provinces near the great Lake of Cambodia, 
 generally known as Battambong, Angkor, and Siemrap. M. de 
 Lanessan, in his book that I have already quoted, stated these 
 ambitions very distinctly : " From the Se-Moun our empire 
 should cross the Mekong . . . and include the provinces of 
 Battambong and Angkor (pp. 600, 501). . . . Having retaken 
 
 34 
 
514 SIAM. 
 
 the Great Lake Provinces, which formerly were dependent on 
 Cambodia, and the basins of the Mekong and the Se-Moun, 
 we ought to make a point of respecting [!] and, if necessary, 
 protecting, the independence of Siam (p. 470)." It is true that 
 on July 23, 1893, M. Develle gave to Lord Dufferin a definite 
 " assurance that there was no truth in the report that his 
 Government had any intention of taking possession of the 
 Siamese Provinces of Battambong and Angkor." But on 
 April 3, 1889, M. Waddington had said exactly the same thing 
 to Lord Salisbury with regard to Luang Prabang, and this had 
 not prevented M. Develle, in July, 1893, from claiming Luang 
 Prabang, and even declaring that Prance had always insisted on 
 this right ! In fact, so valueless was M. Waddington's under- 
 taking in the eyes of the present French Government that they 
 went so far as to annex Luang Prabang outright, and it is now 
 French territory ; and this, too, in the teeth of Lord Dufferin's 
 remonstrances that this proceeding was " incompatible with the 
 previous assurances of the French Foreign Office," and in spite 
 of Lord Eosebery's insistence upon "the limits imposed by 
 previous declarations of the French Government." It is only 
 reasonable to suppose, therefore, since what has been done once 
 may be done again, that the rich Lake Provinces of south-eastern 
 Siam will go the way of Luang Prabang, if France can only 
 again contrive to outwit the British Foreign Office in time, by 
 once more producing an " excited state of public opinion " to 
 support her. Confirmation of this gloomy view is found in the 
 Blue Book (No. 211), where Lord Dufferin speaks of his 
 suspicions that " M. DeveUe seemed anxious to found a right to 
 a free hand in Battambong and Angkor ; " these suspicions 
 having been very naturally aroused in his Lordship's mind by 
 a sinister suggestion contained in the ultimatum of July 20th, 
 that France should farm the revenues of Battambong and 
 Angkor in place of receiving the 3,000,000 frs. of indemnity 
 So strong were Lord Dufferin's suspicions that he endeavoured 
 to obtain an assurance from M. Develle that the annexation 
 
ENGLAND AND THE FUTORE OF SIAM. 515 
 
 of these provinces was not intended. His endeavour was a 
 conspicuous failure, for the French Foreign Minister quietly 
 ignored his own statement of July 23rd on this point (above 
 quoted), and maintained that recent Siamese actions had been 
 sufficient to " fully justify France in now taking whatever mili- 
 tary or other measures she might deem expedient." However, 
 when Siam finally accepted the ultimatum without reserve, the 
 French colonial party lost their hopes of an immediate pretext 
 for further annexation. But they were too keen to give up their 
 aims lightly; and on July 29th M. Develle had a special inter- 
 view with Lord Dufferin in order to suggest " some arrangement 
 by which these provinces might be handed over to France in 
 exchange for a portion of the Siamese territory in the north, 
 recently surrendered under the terms of the ultimatum " ! This 
 time, however, Lord Dufferin was peremptory, and though M. 
 Develle " deprecated what he evidently considered an unduly 
 harsh remonstrance," said plainly that he "must decline to 
 continue any discussion in the direction indicated, as any 
 transaction of the kind would not only be a serious invasion of 
 Siam, but would equally destroy her independence in view of 
 the proximity of those provinces to Bangkok," and that " the 
 absolute refusal which he then expressed to listen to any such 
 ideas as those which M. Develle had mooted, represented the 
 views of the British Government." Thus England for once had 
 her way and these provinces were saved, for a time at all events, 
 from French annexation. The question, however, came up yet 
 again a few months later, when it became clear that M. le Myre 
 de Vilers' negociations in Bangkok were aimed at acquiring some 
 special control over these same provinces, so that Lord Eosebery 
 was again obliged to remark very decidedly, on September 7th, 
 that Siam's " rights to the provinces which remain to the west 
 of the Mekong are indisputable, and could not be infringed 
 without serious, perhaps fatal, injury to her integrity and inde- 
 pendence ; " and he even characterised M. le Myre de Vilers' 
 proposal as " a grave blow at that integrity and independence 
 
516 SIAM. 
 
 of the Siamese Kingdom which the French Government have so 
 often and so specifically promised to respect," the maintenance 
 of which is a " British interest of high importance," as had been 
 " publicly announced in Parliament." 
 
 These peremptory objections of the British Government to 
 further French encroachments on Siam (it seems a pity that 
 Lord Eosebery had not possessed the necessary information to 
 take the same highly desirable attitude four months previously, 
 and so saved many thousands of square miles to Siam) greatly 
 disgusted M. Develle, who " showed a strong desire to postpone 
 entering upon the discussion of the buffer State." But, on 
 September 9th, Lord Dufferin remorselessly reiterated his 
 statement that " Clause No. 5 of the ultimatum seemed to 
 have the appearance of incorporating the provinces of Battam- 
 bong and Angkor with Cambodia in a kind of Zollverein, which 
 would be an arrangement quite incompatible with the main- 
 tenance of the independence and integrity of Siam, in respect 
 to which his Excellency had given Her Majesty's Government 
 so many assurances," and on the same day Lord Eosebery 
 made his final pronouncement that " the treatment of the two 
 provinces of Battambong and Angkor as separate and distinct 
 from the other portions of the Siamese Kingdom, seems to us 
 inadmissible." It was not, however, until a week afterwards 
 that M. Develle at last consented to withdraw the obnoxious 
 phrase "reserved zones." But he does not seem to have 
 promised any permanent restriction upon the extent of 
 French control there; and so far as the Blue Book informs 
 us, the matter has been left undecided ; while, by the treaty 
 of October 3, 1893, Siam is forbidden to exercise any 
 military control whatever over these provinces, and new and 
 special commercial provisions are to be made throughout them. 
 The condition of things there can thus hardly be considered 
 one of particularly stable equilibrium, since the slightest 
 disturbance might at any moment give the French colonial 
 authorities the coveted chance of stepping in to control these 
 
ENGLAND AND THE FUTUEE OF SIAM. 517 
 
 provinces — a control from which, one may safely prophesy, 
 they would never again emerge. 
 
 It must further he remembered that the nearest seaport of 
 these rich provinces is Chantabun, and that France demanded, 
 obtained, and still holds, the military occupation of this port, 
 "pending the complete fulfilment by Siam of her new treaty 
 obligations." It is true that M. Develle has said that this is 
 merely a temporary measure " with no ariere-pensee " ; while 
 M. de Vilers stated in Bangkok, on October 2nd, that "the 
 French Government had no intention of retaining possession of 
 that place ; that it was their interest to hasten the evacuation 
 on account of the heavy expenditure which it involves." And 
 M. Develle, on October 3rd, was " good enough " to assure Lord 
 Dufferin that "the French Government earnestly desired to with- 
 draw their troops from that place ; " that " they desired no 
 better than to evacuate the place ; " and that " within a month 
 Chantaboon would be evacuated." The fact remains, however, 
 that at the present moment — nearly fifteen months later ! — 
 Chantabun is still in full military occupation by the French, 
 who have recently landed more troops and heavy guns there, 
 and are keeping hundreds of coolies at work raising the 
 ramparts ; and this though it is admitted that the Siamese ful- 
 filled the conditions of the Convention more than a year ago,* 
 
 I have thus shown, by a bare narrative of indisputable facts, 
 what has happened with regard to Luang Prabang, what is 
 still happening at Chantabun, and what is approaching day by 
 day within the coveted Lake Provinces. Three more plain 
 facts may perhaps serve to confirm the impression regarding 
 the growing nature of French designs on Siam which the fore- 
 going narrative should not fail to produce. (1) It is not only 
 the irresponsible hot-heads of the French colonial party who 
 
 * It was M. Develle himself who stated to Lord Dufferin, on October 3rd, that 
 the only preliminary necessary for this evacuation was that the Siamese troops 
 should be removed twenty-five kilometres west of the Mekong. There is no question 
 as to the complete fulfilment of this clause long ago. 
 
518 SIAM. 
 
 frankly demand the annexation or "protection" of the whole 
 of Siam, but also many of the most serious and learned French 
 writers on colonial policy. Among the latter M. Leroy-Beaulieu 
 is pre-eminent. This is what he says in his latest volume : 
 " Our action ought to embrace the Laos country, and even the 
 whole of the Kingdom of Siam." "We ought to extend our 
 protectorate over the Laos country, and over Siam, and become 
 frankly the allies of China." * (2) The French Legation in 
 Bangkok is registering day by day as French subjects crowds 
 of Siamese inhabitants — Laos, Cambodian, and pure Siamese — 
 in fact, all who can be induced to apply, and each of these 
 native French subjects will serve as a peg on which to hang 
 pretexts of French interference as occasion may serve, all 
 along the Mekong valley and the Lake Provinces, under 
 Article VII. of the new treaty. (3) A new Convention has just 
 been extracted from the Siamese, appointing French Commis- 
 sioners (nominally with Siamese colleagues) to investigate and 
 settle on the spot all disputes arising throughout the territories 
 adjacent to the new frontier ; thus creating a veritable imperium 
 in imperio of French officials throughout these coveted districts, 
 and affording every possible opportunity for further action. 
 
 To complete the materials for forming an adequate opinion of 
 our rights and duties with regard to Siam, in comparison with 
 those of France, the following few but very striking statistics are 
 necessary. The total shipping entered and cleared at the port 
 of Bangkok during 1892 was 410,890 tons. Of this, the British 
 flag covered no less than 356,909 tons, or 87 per cent. How 
 much was French ? Eather less than Dutch, or 4,925 tons — a 
 trifle over '01 per cent. ! As regards the value of the cargoes 
 carried, the British share of imports was 93 per cent., and of 
 exports 85 per cent. Against this, again, the value of French 
 cargoes was -03 per cent. ! It is not surprising, with these 
 figures in view, that France entered with a light heart upon a 
 blockade of the Siamese coast. And the actual amount of 
 
 • " De la Colonisation ohez leg Peuples Modernes," pp. 563, 566. 
 
ENGLAND AND THE FUTURE OP SIAM. 519 
 
 purely British commerce with Siam is far from inconsiderable. 
 In 1892, the last normal year, the trade of the Straits Settlements 
 alone with Siam amounted to £2,465,822. Territorially, French 
 interests in Siam are no greater than our own, her frontier 
 forming the eastern boundary of the country, and ours the 
 western, while her commercial interests are but a minute 
 fraction of ours. Therefore, whatever rights France has for 
 interference in Siam, British rights are vastly greater. This 
 is — or should be — the key to the whole situation. 
 
 The French have twice before tried to found an empire over- 
 sea to rival that of Great Britain — once in India, and once in 
 Canada. Indo-China represents their third attempt. My pre- 
 ceding chapters have been written to small effect if they have 
 not made it clear that there is practically no ground whatever to 
 hope that an independent and prosperous Siam will continue to 
 exist under the present regime. And if not, then Siam will 
 coma under either British or French protection, and the only 
 question is, which shall it be ? A short time ago Siam made 
 overtures in the direction of inquiring whether Great Britain 
 would accept her allegiance. The reply was a prompt and 
 blunt negative. It is only fair to add a belief, however, that the 
 Foreign Office has at last grasped the situation and taken a 
 definite resolution with regard to its future policy. 
 
MALAYA. 
 
CHAPTEB XXXI. 
 
 THE POLITICAL POSITION OF THE NATIVE STATES. 
 
 /CONTINENTAL Malaya is divided, like Gaul of old, into 
 ^ three parts : the Straits Settlements, the Protected Malay 
 States, and the semi-independent Malay States further north. 
 With the first two of these I have already dealt at length in 
 preceding chapters. I come now, as the final division of this 
 book, to the remains of Malayan nationality in Asia — the States 
 of Kelantan, Tringanu, Eaman, Patani, and less important ones, 
 all of which lie to the north of the British Protected States and 
 to the south of the Siamese Malay States which occupy the 
 northern portion of the Peninsula. So comparatively unknown 
 is this part of the world that I am unaware of the existence of 
 any map in a European language which shows the division into 
 States of the whole of the Malay Peninsula. In fact, if the 
 student desires to find out the boundaries of the different 
 Siamese States, and their correct names, he will have the 
 greatest difficulty in doing so. The accompanying map, there- 
 fore, which I have prepared from many sources, including my 
 own journeys and the official Siamese map drawn to illustrate 
 the King's travels, should be found of service, though as regards 
 the north I cannot claim undoubted accuracy for it. The Malay 
 States have comparatively little interest for the student of Far 
 Eastern politics, as their future is a matter of certainty, and 
 their present condition, so far as administration is concerned, 
 might be described within the limits of a paragraph. I shall there- 
 fore confine myself almost entirely to an account of my own 
 
 623 
 
524 MALAYA. 
 
 principal journey through the Peninsula, for this part of Malaya 
 makes up in general interest what it lacks in political uncer- 
 tainty, and few districts of the world's surface offer at the same 
 time so picturesque and so n )vel a field to the explorer. It is a 
 paradise alike to the sportsman, the naturalist, the collector of 
 weapons and silver, the student of men and manners, and the 
 mere seeker after adventure. Of all my travels and experiences 
 in the Far East my journey across the Malay Peninsula was 
 much the most entertaining. In fact, so far as mere surround- 
 ings make happiness, I have never enjoyed so many moments 
 which, like Faust, I would have prolonged indefinitely, as during 
 those months of lonely and far-off wandering in the heart of the 
 unknown tropics. 
 
 Before inviting the reader, however, to accompany me into 
 the land of coconut and kris, I must devote a brief chapter 
 to the political position of the native States. This is a matter 
 seldom or never mentioned outside official correspondence, and 
 there but rarely and not always accurately. Tet before long a 
 clear understanding of its main issues will be essential to all 
 Englishmen who study Imperial policy. First, let me stop for 
 a moment to summarise the scanty information that is available 
 about the Siamese States in the extreme north, the unfamiliar 
 names of which are, on the west coast — Eenong, Takuapa, Takua- 
 tung, Puket (or Junk Ceylon, a corruption of the Malay name of 
 Ujong Salang), Palian, Satul, and Perlis; on the east coast — 
 Patavi, Chumpaun, Chaiya, the island of Samui, Nakonsita- 
 maraj, Patalung, Sengora, Ghana, Tepa, Nongchik, Tani, Jaring, 
 Jala, Sai, and Eanga; with Eaman, Patani, and Lege. Con- 
 cerning most of these, as little is known by Europeans as of the 
 remotest parts of Central Africa or Patagonia; and I am 
 unfortunately not able to throw any original light upon them. 
 They represent the long-past conquests of the more militant 
 Siamese of old over the Malay Peninsula. Their population 
 consists of Siamese and of Siamese-speaking Chinamen and 
 Malays. The last named may be described as the backwoodsmen, 
 
THE POSITION OF THE NATIVE STATES. 525 
 
 since their share of the common work consists of hunting and 
 fishing, and supplying the products of the jungle. The Chinese, 
 as elsewhere in the Peninsula, are the traders, the miners, and 
 the wealthier portion of the community. The head of each 
 State is appointed from Bangkok, and is often a Chinaman. 
 From Penang, with which port all the commerce with the out- 
 side world is conducted, a sort of loose connection is kept up 
 between the British authority and the States of the west coast, 
 the Eesident Councillor making a yearly visit in a government 
 steamboat for the purpose of exchanging courtesies with the 
 headmen and registering such British subjects as may present 
 themselves. Mr. A. M. Skinner, in his last Eeport, dated April 
 30, 1894, is able to give for the first time figures of the aggregate 
 trade between Penang and a number of Siamese and Malay 
 States.* His table, which is therefore of much interest, is as 
 follows : — 
 
 
 Tin. 
 
 Live Stock. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Kedah 
 
 „ 4,060 
 
 89,298 
 
 326,075 
 
 Perlis 
 
 — 
 
 4,096 
 
 4,411 
 
 Setul 
 
 •V. — 
 
 33,308 
 
 33,320 
 
 Trang 
 
 51,905 
 
 81,419 
 
 133,362 
 
 Tongkah 
 
 ._ 1,674,303 
 
 27,208 
 
 . 1,701,798 
 
 Ghirbi 
 
 — 
 
 54,128 
 
 54,141 
 
 Pungali 
 
 27,319 
 
 — 
 
 27,334 
 
 Takuatong 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Kopah 
 
 ... 417,507 
 
 — 
 
 419,082 
 
 Beuong 
 
 ... 375,119 
 
 — 
 
 375,159 
 
 Totals ... 2,550,203 dols. 289,457 head. 3,074,682 dels. 
 
 The export is thus almost entirely tin, against which the 
 chief import is opium, both exclusively with Penang. A con- 
 siderable revenue flows into the Siamese Eoyal Treasury from 
 these States, but it is obtained only by extorting everything 
 
 * I do not attempt to explain the discrepancies between Mr. Skinner's list and 
 his spelling, and my own. My Ust is taken from the official Siamese map, and my 
 spelling is a reproduction of the Siamese pronunciation. Not enough information 
 exists for either accuracy or consistency. 
 
526 MALAYA. 
 
 possible from the people, and leaving virtually nothing for the 
 development of the province itself. The Siamese expression for 
 provincial authority is significant enough : they call it kin 
 muong, literally, "to eat a province." The inhabitants of most 
 of these States, therefore, are in a state of extreme poverty, and 
 they are the helpless victims of misrule. The few of them that 
 are fairly prosperous in spite of Siamese exactions, owe their 
 good fortune to their tin-mines, some of which are beyond 
 all comparison the richest in the world. Concerning the ad- 
 ministration of these countries, Mr. Skinner says : — " Every- 
 thing that we are accustomed to see done by the State 
 in Perak is here rigidly left alone — road-making, sluices, 
 prospecting, mining, and waterway administration." For 
 instance, the road across the Isthmus of Era to Chumpaun, 
 which was begun for the King to cross the Peninsula, remains 
 half-finished, as His Majesty changed his mind or was pre- 
 vented by the trouble with Prance, and it will therefore in a 
 short time revert to jungle. Mr. Skinner says that he obtained 
 reliable figures at the Government offices in Puket, showing 
 that some 480,000 dols. out of 560,000 received as revenue in 
 1893, was remitted to Bangkok; only about 50,000 being 
 expended on the place itself, and not more than 10,000 or 
 12,000 apart from the cost of the Sikh Police and the revenue- 
 cutter. It is an enormous revenue, he truly adds, to raise in a 
 small island with not more than about 10,000 inhabitants, and if 
 it were all spent on the place itself would soon make it like one 
 of the Protected States. An administrative experiment which, 
 Mr. Skinner says, was looked upon as a measure of reform, has 
 recently been made in all the Siamese States, according to 
 which 10 per cent, only of the revenue is to be taken by the 
 Chief, one-third of the remainder being spent for the benefit of 
 the State itself and two-thirds remitted to Bangkok. But 
 the provincial third cannot be expended without orders from 
 Bangkok, and now remains, and has for many months 
 remained, locked up in the State chest. The purely Malay 
 
THK POSITION OF THE NATIVB STATES. 527 
 
 States among those I have described as Siamese, are Kedah, 
 Satul, and Perlis, and the river of each of the two latter is 
 silting up, and the places themselves declining. The export 
 of live stock will also show a large decrease when the next 
 figures are made up, since Kedah has recently lost three- 
 quarters of its cattle and buffaloes by rinderpest. 
 
 A curious bit of political history is contained in the story of 
 how Kedah came under Siamese control. The story was first 
 told by Mr. John Anderson, Secretary and Malay Translator to 
 the Government of Penang, in 1824. No sooner, however, was 
 his paper issued than it was recalled and suppressed, and the 
 suppression was so stringent that he was compelled to give his 
 word of honour that he had not retained a single copy. The 
 book, therefore, is now of very great rarity. I had the good 
 fortune to come suddenly upon a copy of it in a London second- 
 hand bookseller's, and to procure it for a few shillings.* One 
 copy escaped and was printed in the Singapore Chronicle in 
 1835 ; by 1854, however, this had become as rare as the 
 original volume, and the paper was therefore reprinted in Vol. 
 viii. of the Jov/rnal of the Eastern Archipelago, and this, in its 
 turn, is now believed to be so rare that only three or four com- 
 plete copies could be found. In 1882 it was reprinted, with 
 additions and commentary, by the Straits Government as a 
 confidential document. The reason for, the suppression is not 
 far to seek, for Mr. Anderson proved beyond doubt that the 
 East India Company had grossly broken faith with the Eaja of 
 Kedah, and he made a strong plea for the protection not only of 
 Kedah but of other States threatened or seized by the Siamese. 
 Moreover, he denounced Siamese action in unmeasured terms, 
 and at that time, as at the present day, the British authorities 
 had for some wholly incomprehensible reason had the greatest 
 objection to hurting Siamese feelings. More than one wrong to 
 
 • "Political and Commercial Considerations Belative to The Malayan Peninsula, 
 and the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca. By John Anderson, Of the 
 Honourable East India Company's Civil Service, Pinang. Prince of Wales Island, 
 Printed under the Authority of Government, By William Cox, 1824." 
 
528 MALAYA. 
 
 a British subject has gone unrighted in Bangkok simply because 
 
 the mot d'ordre of the India Office has been not to offend Siam. 
 
 Mr. Anderson begins by telling how a Siamese fleet of boats 
 
 appeared in the Kedah Eiver on November 12, 1821, and how, in 
 
 spite of the gallant defence of a handful of unprepared Malays, 
 
 their leaders were killed and the people butchered. " The mode 
 
 of execution," he says, "was horrible in the extreme ; the men 
 
 being tied up for the most trifling offence, and frequently upon 
 
 mere suspicion, their arms extended with bamboos ; when the 
 
 executioner, with a ponderous instrument, split them right down 
 
 from the crown of the head, and their mangled carcases were 
 
 thrown into the river for the Alligators to devour." The 
 
 Siamese afterwards attacked Perak and Selangor in the same 
 
 way, but were beaten off by natives aided by the Company's 
 
 forces. Kedah, however, was left to its fate. Yet when, in 
 
 1785, the Honourable Company had desired the island of 
 
 Penang, they had concluded with the Eaja a treaty in which the 
 
 following passages occur : — 
 
 "Whereas Captain Light, Dewa Bajah, came here and informed me that the 
 Rajah of Bengal ordered him to request Pule Pinang from me, to make an English 
 Settlement, where the Agents of the Company might reside, for the purpose of 
 trading and building Ships of War, to protect the Island and to cruize at Sea, so 
 that it any enemies of ours from the East or the West should come to attack us, 
 the Company would regard them as enemies also and fight them, and aU the 
 expenoes of such Wars shaJl be borne by the Company. . . . Should any one in 
 this Country become my enemy, even my own Children, all such shall be con- 
 sidered as enemies also of the Company ; the Company shall not alter their 
 engagements of aUiance, so long as the heavenly bodies continue to perform their 
 revolutions ; and when any enemies attack us from the interior, they also shaU be 
 considered as enemies of the Company." 
 
 And in the following year the Home Government again 
 approved of Captain Light's promise, and replied that they 
 "were resolved to accept the King of Quedah's offer." In 1791, 
 however, a treaty was concluded without mention of any offensive 
 and defensive alliance ; though there can be no doubt whatever 
 that the Eaja of Kedah considered that as the Government 
 were in the enjoyment of their share of the original bargain, 
 he was also in the enjoyment of his. The occurrences of 1821 
 
THE POSITION OF THE NATIVE STATES. 529 
 
 undeceived him. The Honourable East India Company failed to 
 keep its promise, and Kedah passed under the dominion of Siam. 
 I spent a very few pleasant days in Kedah, as the guest of 
 the present Sultan ; but there is little to say of the country 
 of our former ally. The town of Alostar is a fairly flourishing 
 and well-kept place, patrolled by the Sultan's force of Sikh 
 police under an English officer. The Sultan's private launch 
 came down the river to meet us, his carriage, with tv/o big 
 Australian horses, was at the wharf, and our quarters were 
 charming. His officials were courteous in showing us the 
 sights of the neighbourhood, including the famous limestone 
 caves, and some snipe-shooting which probably could not be 
 equalled in the world. Several times in the course of one 
 morning I had to stand still until the barrels of my gun became 
 cool enough to hold, as a single step would have put up more 
 birds. As we were coming home down the river I shot a 
 crocodile and an iguana. From Kedah a road runs across 
 the peninsula to Sengora, and a concession for a railway has 
 been granted to an Englishman, but up to the present time 
 I believe the necessary capital has not been raised. If the 
 heavy hand of Siam were raised from its administration, Kedah 
 could undoubtedly be made one of the most flourishing States 
 in the Peninsula. Kedah and this district figure thus quaintly 
 in Burton's translation of Camoens : — 
 
 "Behold Tavai City, whence begin 
 Siam dominion, Reign and vast extent ; 
 Tenasserim, Qued4 of towns the Queen 
 That bear the burden of the hot piment." 
 
 Siamese influence in Kedah was thus established by force of 
 arms and in consequence of the failure of the British to keep 
 their engagements. From Perak, as I have said, they were 
 quickly driven back. Over the States of Eaman and Patani 
 they also exercise influence, through the Chowkun of Sengora, a 
 Siamese official. The name Patani, by the way, is frequently 
 used for a very large tract of country in the centre of the Penin- 
 
 35 
 
530 MALAYA. 
 
 Bula ; as a matter of fact, Patani proper is one of the smallest 
 and least important of the States, and a good deal of confusion 
 arises from this misuse of the name. With regard to Kelantan 
 and Tringanu, however, the two principal States north of Pahang 
 on the east coast, the ease is different. The Siamese are en- 
 deavouring to exercise here an authority to which they have no 
 right whatever, and it is high time the British Government 
 presented them with an ultimatum on this subject. The position 
 of Tringanu and Kelantan is fixed by two Articles of the Treaty 
 of Bangkok, made in 1826. These are as follows : — 
 
 Aiticle X. The English and Siamese mutually agree, that there shall be an 
 unrestricted trade between them in the English countries of Prince of Wales' 
 Island, Malacca and Singapore, and the Siamese countries of Ligor, Medilong, 
 Singora, Patani, Junk-Ceylon, Quedah and other Siamese provinces. 
 
 Article 511. Siam shall not go and obstruct or interrupt commerce in the 
 States of Tringano and Calantan. English merchants and subjects shall have 
 trade and intercourse in future with the same facility and freedom as they have 
 heretofore had, and the English shaU not go and molest, attack, or disturb those 
 States upon any pretence whatever. 
 
 Thus Tringanu and Kelantan are specially omitted from the list 
 of Siamese States, and further, Siam binds herself not to " go 
 and obstruct or interrupt commerce " in them. By the treaty 
 of 1856 these Articles were confirmed. It is therefore clear that 
 Siam has no treaty rights which Great Britain need recognise 
 over these States, They have, however, been in the habit of 
 presenting to Siam every three years the hunga mas, or " Gold 
 Flower " — a small tree made of gold-leaf and worth from two to 
 three thousand dollars. It has been the habit of eastern States 
 from time immemorial to present offerings of this kind as a 
 token of friendship with more powerful States, without thereby 
 abdicating their independence in the slightest degree. The 
 Sultans of Tringanu and Kelantan both assured me, as they 
 have often officially assured Governors of the Straits Settle- 
 ments, that the bunga mas was not in any way to be interpreted 
 as an admission of suzerainty, and that their States are abso- 
 lutely independent of Siam. 
 
 This position has been recognised and insisted upon for many 
 
THE POSITION OF THE NATIVE STATES. 531 
 
 years by the British authorities, one example of which may 
 suffice. Sir Orfeur Cavenagh, Governor of the Straits Settle- 
 ments, sent an ultimatum to the Sultan of Tringanu in 1862, 
 ordering him to send back to Bangkok the ex-Sultan of Lingga, 
 whose presence was destructive of peace in the Peninsula. As 
 this ultimatum was neglected and the Court of Bangkok exhibited 
 great dupHcity, Tringanu was bombarded in 1863. In a letter 
 to the British Consul at Bangkok, dated Singapore, October 8th, 
 1862, Governor Cavenagh points out that Tringanu is "a Malay 
 State in the Peninsula forming no integral portion of the 
 Siamese dominions." And in another letter, dated December 
 4th, he writes as follows : — " The States of Trengganu and 
 Kelantan form no part of the territories of the Kingdom of 
 Siam ; aU correspondence between the British Government and 
 their Eulers has invariably been conducted direct through the 
 Governor of the Straits Settlements." Shortly after this, an 
 unfortunate and inexplicable blunder on the part of the British 
 Foreign Minister and the subsequent Governor of the Straits 
 Settlements threw this question into temporary confusion, to 
 the great advantage of the Siamese. In 1869 the Sultan of 
 Tringanu despatched an Envoy to England with letters and 
 presents to the Queen and to the Prince of Wales. In due 
 course Lord Granville sent to the Governor, Sir Harry Ord, the 
 answers for transmission to the Sultan. To this communication 
 Sir Harry Ord wrote a long reply, in which the following 
 astounding passage occurs : — " With regard to the position of 
 the Sultan of Trengganu, I have never heard it questioned but 
 that he was, like the Eaja of Kedah and other rulers of Provinces 
 on the Malayan Peninsula, a tributary of the King of Siam, and 
 that, as such, it was not competent for him to enter into any 
 direct negotiation with a foreign Government." What Sir 
 Harry Ord had " never heard questioned " was, as I have 
 shown, the direct contradiction of the Articles of two treaties 
 and the formally-expressed opinion of his immediate prede- 
 cessor ! He forwarded the replies to Siam, and it is needless to 
 
532 MALAYA. 
 
 add that they never reached Tringanu, which thus regarded 
 itself as cast off by the British Government. This ignorant and 
 insensate action on the part of Sir Harry Ord exercised the very 
 worst influence in the Peninsula. It is constantly referred to in 
 conversation among the natives, and the Prime Minister of 
 Kedah quoted it to me as an example of the hopelessness of 
 any attempt to deal with England. It passes comprehension 
 that there was at the Foreign Office nobody with elementary 
 knowledge of the treaties with Siam and the official corre- 
 spondence between Singapore and Bangkok, to save Lord 
 Granville from this one of his many diplomatic mistakes. 
 
 As I have explained in a previous chapter about Siam, the 
 King has recently attempted to strengthen his hold over 
 Kelantan and Tringanu by appointing Commissioners for that 
 part of the Peninsula. This is bitterly resented by both 
 Sultans, and in Tringanu has been successfully resisted. The 
 Sultan of Kelantan has been less fortunate, and whenever the 
 King of Siam was expected he hoisted a Siamese flag, about a 
 foot square. But he persists to this day in declaring his inde- 
 pendence, a position to which he is entitled by treaty, and in 
 which he has had the support of at least one recent Governor of 
 Singapore. 
 
 I have shaken up these dry bones of history because it is 
 certain, in view of the rapidity with which events are moving 
 in Indo-China, and of the imminent collapse of Siam, that 
 the question of the future of the entire Peninsula will soon 
 come up for settlement. There cannot be, of course, the least 
 uncertainty about the result. No European Power but our- 
 selves has the slightest interest there of any kind whatever. 
 On a recent occasion when the project of digging a canal 
 through the Isthmus of Kra was mentioned by the French to 
 the King of Siam, the British Government promptly declared 
 that such an enterprise was within its sphere of influence, and 
 must not be considered without its consent. The rule of Siam 
 over the inhabitants consists of extortion and nothing else, 
 
THE POSITION OP THE NATIVE STATES. 533 
 
 and native rule is of a cruel and destructive character. On 
 the other hand, the Peninsula is capable of enormous mineral 
 and agricultural development ; and the marvellous progress of 
 the British Protected States, as I have shown in my chapter 
 upon them, furnishes a conclusive proof of what can be accom- 
 plished under civilised authority. When the question comes 
 up for decision — and we may hope in the interests of the 
 Malays themselves that this moment will not be long deferred 
 — the entire Peninsula will inevitably become British. Our 
 dominion on land will then extend in an unbroken line from 
 Singapore to Bombay. 
 
GEAPTEB XXXII. 
 
 A JUNGLE JOUBNEY IN UNKNOWN MALAYA. 
 
 TN order to learn Malay, which is a very easy language, and 
 to gain experience of the natives, I made a number of short 
 journeys, chiefly for sport, from Singapore as headquarters. 
 Then, when I was fairly independent of an interpreter and had 
 gathered some knowledge of jungle law and lore, armed with 
 letters of introduction in amber silk envelopes, addressed to 
 two Malay Sultans, and a Siamese thongkra, or official authority, 
 I left the hospitable little town of Taiping, the capital of Perak, 
 one day in March, for Kuala Kangsar, the old capital. My plans 
 were attractively vague, but my determination was definite. It 
 was to reach the sea on the other side of the Peninsula through 
 Eaman and the forbidden State of Kelantan. Only one white 
 man had— or has — accomplished this, Mr. Bozzolo, of whom 
 more shortly, and nobody had ever reached the headwaters of 
 the Kelantan Eiver through the country I proposed to cross. 
 Nor has any one yet repeated my journey. 
 
 Kelantan is by no means an easy country to penetrate. Many 
 travellers from Singapore have vainly attempted to enter it from 
 the sea and the east coast, and only last summer two Europeans 
 were killed while trying to get in from a neighbouring State, while 
 a well-known mining engineer, Mr. H. M. Becher, lost his life a 
 short time ago while trying to explore some of the unknown parts 
 of the neighbouring State. The Eaja of Kelantan was a blood- 
 thirsty and rapacious man, determined at any cost to keep the 
 orang puteh out of his dominions, and as will be seen hereafter, 
 
 534 
 
A JUNGLE JOURNEY. 535 
 
 the means he adopted were as savage as they were simple. My 
 own plan was to have recourse to that most efficacious of 
 stimulants, the burning of one's boats. I prop6sed to travel 
 on elephants until I reached any navigable tributary of the 
 Kelantan Eiver in the district I had determined to visit, and 
 then to send all my elephants back. After this, to go forward 
 would be a necessity, and in order to descend to the sea I took 
 with me during the whole journey across country a dozen boat- 
 men, whose duties would only begin when we reached a river, 
 as I well knew that no boats or boatmen or any other help 
 would he procurable on the borders of the forbidden State. 
 But the traveller is like the child in this respect, that no place 
 woos him so irresistibly as that which he may not enter. 
 
 At Kuala Kangsar my elephant-boxes had been made, my 
 stores, weapons and photographic outfit collected, and my 
 native companions were ready. The best of these was my old 
 servant Walab, a "Bombay boy," who had already accompanied 
 me through many of my Far Eastern experiences. Until I 
 brought him to England he was a servant without faults. 
 Strikingly handsome, with an equable temper that nothing 
 could upset, and a sense of humour that anything tickled, 
 honest beyond suspicion, and clever with his hands as a 
 monkey, he was indeed a man-of- all-work. He was a perfect 
 valet, sewed and washed like a Scotswoman, cleaned my guns, 
 loaded my cartridges, skinned my specimens, kept my cameras 
 in order, and broke the heart of every woman of his own rank — 
 white, black, or brown — that he met. His devotion to me on 
 this journey when provisions ran short and dangers threatened 
 was unshaken. Unfortunately, I did him the disservice of 
 bringing him to England, where his stay was short and un- 
 fortunate. Among the men engaged specially for this Malay 
 journey were Taik Choon, my Chinese interpreter, a dyspeptic 
 and hypochondriacal but very intelligent young Chinaman whom 
 I had found at Penang; a Malay writer named, of course, 
 Mahmat, who possessed enough of the characteristics of most 
 
536 MALAYA. 
 
 English-speaking natives to make me wish afterwards a thou- 
 sand times that I had left him behind ; and two privates of the 
 Perak Sikhs, most kindly lent me by Colonel Walker, their 
 Commandant (I of course finding their pay and clothes, as they 
 (lid not wear uniform whilst with me), a pair of strapping 
 Pathans named Buta and Menir Khan, both of whom had 
 " passed in Malay." Their names will recur in this narrative, 
 and I may anticipate its close by saying here that two more 
 intelligent, brave and faithful companions no man ever had for 
 a rough journey. Their presence was due to two considera- 
 tions : first, it was necessary for me to have among my party, 
 which reached nearly fifty natives before it finally got into the 
 jungle, at least two who could be absolutely depended upon to 
 stand by me in case of a mutiny or a fight, since otherwise I 
 should have run the risk of being left to my own resources, if 
 the journey became too laborious or armed opposition were 
 offered. Second, my two boxes of dollars were the special 
 charge of Buta and Menir Khan, one of whom was always to 
 keep them in sight. These were not ordinary "Mexicans," but 
 the once famous Maria Theresa dollar, with the two pillars on 
 the reverse. This, for some unexplained reason, is the only 
 civilised coin that the Malays of the interior will accept, and 
 I had to pay a premium of 9 per cent, for them at Penang. It 
 is not generally known that when we engaged in the Abyssinian 
 War the British Government found itself in similar straits for its 
 money, and finally purchased from the Austrian Government a 
 set of dies for these coins, and struck its own supply. 
 
 At Kuala Kangsar the Perak River is a broad and placid 
 stream, and at noon, on March 11th, our boatmen pushed off 
 with their punt-poles and settled down to their long oars. The 
 moment when he really gets afloat, either on sea or river, is 
 always most welcome to the traveller. After the anxiety of 
 preparation, the endless chatter which accompanies the hiring 
 of his men, the lies, the excuses, the things broken or missing, 
 the tongue-wagging of the ubiquitous prophets of evil, the 
 
'C3faatuua>«^t.f»i^ ^ 
 
 S'' 
 
 Pekan, the Capital uf Paiiang. 
 
 
 _AJEej.le of the Jungle. 
 
A JUNGLE JOURNEY. 537 
 
 reiterations that never can the stores one has collected be 
 stowed on board, the scramble of the last moment, and the final 
 multitudinous yell of farewell — the sudden change to the peaceful 
 motion of the boat, the pleasant contemplation of everything 
 neatly disposed and the necessaries at hand, the silence broken 
 only by the bubbling at the bow and the dripping from the oar- 
 blade, and above all, the first Lorelei-notes of the unknown and 
 the far-off, luring irresistibly onwards — all this brings comfort 
 and sedate reflection. I considered myself lucky in having for- 
 gotten nothing but a spare mosquito-curtain and the zinc buckets, 
 and waited next day while a man went back for them. 
 
 As we poled and paddled up the river the cultivation on the 
 banks grew rarer, and the jungle began to come down till it 
 reached the snake-like roots of the mangroves at the water's 
 edge. At night we made fast to the bank, the " boy" cooked 
 a meal, the mosquito-curtain was hung up under the curved 
 roof of the boat, and sleep came quickly at the thought that 
 we were still in British-protected territory, and as safe as if 
 we were moored on the Thames. I spent the second night at 
 Chiga Galla, the third at Kota Tampan, and on the fourth 
 day I reached Tumulung, where two or three of my elephants 
 were waiting for me, and exchanged the river for the road, 
 as I was anxious to get on to Merah, the last outpost of 
 British authority in the Peninsula. So, leaving the boats to 
 pursue their toilsome way against the current and through the 
 rapids to Janning, I packed myself upon an elephant and 
 struck across the jungle path to Kenering, a village at the 
 junction of the Perak Eiver and the Sungei Kenering.* 
 There I slung a hammock in a bamboo house that had been 
 prepared for me, and starting again early next morning, two 
 more elephants having kept an appointment with me there, I 
 found a striking figure waiting for me in the path at midday. 
 
 * To understand proper names in Malay geography the following meanings of 
 words should be borne in mind : Sungei, river ; Kuala, the mouth of a river ; 
 VU, the headwaters of a river ; BuUt, hill ; Gurwng, mountain ; Kampong, 
 village ; Palau, island ; Jeram, rapids. 
 
538 MALAYA. 
 
 Mr. 0. p. Bozzolo is a unique character. He was born in 
 Italy, and began his adult life as an engineer on one of M. de 
 Lesseps's dredgers at the digging of the Suez Canal. Then he 
 came to the Far East as an engineer, and I believe it was he 
 who, when instructed to report to an official whether a certain 
 steam-launch would burn wood, replied : " Sir, I have the 
 honour to report that this steam-launch is no more fitted to 
 burn wood than a field-mouse is to wear a paper collar." Sir 
 Hugh Low, discerning his great practical talents, placed him in 
 charge of a government plantation in Perak, where he tried 
 many truly extraordinary agricultural experiments. After he 
 had made many journeys in the interior and acquired a mass 
 of valuable information for the Perak Government, he was pro- 
 moted to the post of Collector and Magistrate on the boundary 
 of Perak and Eaman, where he still exercises a beneficent and 
 powerful sway over the natives. My photograph shows the 
 admirable house he has built for himself there, to which he 
 led me with no little pride, and where I was his guest for 
 several days until the remainder of the elephants I had engaged 
 arrived, and the boats reached Janning, the nearest navigable 
 point on the Perak Eiver. Mr. Bozzolo accompanied me during 
 the first half of my journey, and I was under great obligations 
 to him for his invaluable help. A man, too, who thinks in 
 Italian, writes in an English of his own invention, speaks 
 chiefly in Malay, can transact business in Siamese, and swears 
 in a language with which one is fortunately unfamiliar; who 
 knows every move on the native board, who can cook monkey 
 and peacock to perfection and even produce a tasty ragout of 
 rat ; and whose favourite costume is a rosary and a bath-towel, 
 is no dull companion. The character of his administration 
 may be judged from an anecdote or two out of the hundreds 
 that might be told of him. He is a famous collector of Malay 
 weapons, and on one occasion had become possessed of a 
 valuable old kris blade which lacked its ivory handle. Bozzolo 
 discovered a native who could carve him a perkaka—ox king- 
 
A JUNGLE JOURNEY. 539 
 
 fisher-head — handle, but unfortunately he had no ivory. While 
 reflecting on this misfortune he espied a Perak Government 
 elephant — he has charge of them all — passing through his 
 Compound on its way south. It had a pair of splendid tusks. 
 Instantly, Bozzolo ordered the elephant to be brought back to 
 him. " Is not this a very dangerous elephant ? " he inquired 
 of the driver. "No, Tuan," replied the driver, "very kind." 
 "What!" exclaimed Bozzolo, "do you mean to tell me that 
 you have never known this elephant to be jehat ? " " Yes," 
 admitted the man, " sometimes, of course, like all elephants, 
 he is banyak jehat — very wicked." " I knew it," said Bozzolo ; 
 " I cannot permit such a powerful jehat elephant to go about 
 with long tusks like this. Bring him down to the river." The 
 elephant was brought to a sandy bank, made to lie down in 
 shallow water, and in a short time, with the aid of a waxed 
 thread and handfuls of sand, his dangerous tusks were cut 
 off, and Bozzolo's kris was not long without a handle. One 
 day this energetic officer was standing by his own front gate 
 when two of the natives of his jurisdiction came up, looked 
 at him, and passed without any salutation. Bozzolo called 
 them back ; then he sent for one of his police. " These are 
 not men," he explained to him, " they are dogs ; men have 
 always the politeness to recognise me when they pass. Take 
 them to the police station and make them each take out a 
 dog-license." This was carried out to the letter, and there 
 was no more discourtesy in the neighbourhood of Merah. 
 
 After three or four days spent with Bozzolo at Merah, we 
 started for the interior on March 22nd. My little expedition 
 had by this time increased to nearly fifty men and twelve 
 elephants, and a very useful member had been added in the 
 person of a Malay named Ali, who had much experience of 
 such journeys. Every elephant had his own driver and often 
 two, the hire of the men being included in that of the beast ; 
 there were over a dozen boatmen, with no duties for the 
 present; a score of camp-men, to build the camp at night 
 
540 MALAYA. 
 
 and generally act as the interpreters to us of the strange 
 human, animal, and plant life about us; Walab, Talk Choon, 
 Mahmat, Ali, a Chinese cook— who fell ill a few days out 
 and had to be escorted back — Bozzolo's Malay Krani or 
 clerk, and the two Perak Sikhs. As the paths through the 
 jungle, when they exist at all, are barely the width of an 
 elephant's body, and we therefore always proceeded in single 
 file, it will be understood that we made a fairly imposing 
 appearance on our leisurely arrival at any place. Moreover, 
 rumour, which flourishes exceedingly in the interior, repre- 
 senting as it does the newspaper, post-office and telegraph, 
 magnified our strength in the most flattering manner. The 
 first Malay Eaja we met asked me, " Where are your soldiers ? " 
 " Here they are," I replied, pointing to Buta and Menir 
 Khan. " Oh no," he retorted ; " my men told me that they 
 had counted three hundred ! " 
 
 The building of our camp each night was a very interest- 
 ing performance. Elephant -travelling is a slow process, 
 fifteen miles a day being good marching, and therefore when 
 the track was passable on foot I was generally ahead of the 
 party in the afternoon. About four o'clock I began to look 
 out for a good campicg-ground, in an open space and as 
 far from the actual jungle as possible, that a current of air 
 might drive away the malaria ; with water in the neighbour- 
 hood, by the banks of a stream for choice ; with bamboo- 
 clumps and attap palms at hand, to supply the material of 
 our camp shelters ; and not far from a sufficiently thick growth 
 of plants to provide the elephants with fodder during the 
 night. Having found a suitable place I stopped, and as soon 
 as the head of the expedition came in sight the elephants 
 were urged into their best shuffle, the boxes were quickly lifted 
 from their backs and piled in a hollow square, the bags of 
 rice — of which there were a great number, as often none was 
 to be had for many days — were placed upon them ; the weapons 
 ammunition, money and the box of dynamite arranged care- 
 
A JUNGLE JOUaNE"r. 541 
 
 fully in the centre, and waterproof sheets stretched over all. 
 Then Talk Choon presided over the distribution of the day's 
 rations of rice, dried fish and tobacco ; the two Sikhs set up 
 our tent, Walab arranged the beds in its interior, and the 
 Chinese cook set to work. This done, I used to take my gun 
 and stroll off to see if anything fresh could be added to the 
 larder, and all the camp-men disappeared in the jungle. I 
 should add, for the benefit of future travellers in Malaya, that 
 the tent was only used two or three times. It was a huge 
 unwieldy thing, often wet through and therefore a heavy and 
 tiresome addition to an elephant's load, and it was neither so 
 good a protection from animals or malaria, nor so warm and dry, 
 as the little places our men built for us. After about half an 
 hour they returned from different directions, bearing each a 
 huge armful of green-stuff or bamboo poles of various sizes 
 which each man had cut down with his parang. They met 
 almost to a minute, and then as if by magic a charming little 
 house sprang up from the ground. First they stuck four poles 
 in the earth and upon these laid a flooring of bamboo about 
 three feet from the ground. Over these appeared a perfectly 
 thatched roof of the long leaves of the attap palm, watertight 
 in anything but a tropical deluge, and soon four similar walls 
 completed the structure. Often in mere exuberance of 
 architectural ambition, these Aladdins of the jungle would 
 build a capital four-legged table into the middle of the floor. 
 My own sleeping-place being thus provided in a sufficiently 
 luxurious fashion, they would erect a similar but less pre- 
 tentious place for the cook and servants, and another for the 
 elephant-drivers and themselves. It will hardly be believed 
 that this whole process was completed in an hour and a half. 
 The little thatched houses, of which some idea may be obtained 
 from my illustrations, though these mostly show only the rough 
 shelters built for the natives, were beautifully built, the bamboos 
 lashed together in a way the smartest sailor would be puzzled 
 to equal, and the attap thatching woven in a regular and 
 
542 MALATA. 
 
 artistic fashion. The structures are mere " fit-ups," in 
 theatrical language, used for one night only, and then left 
 standing for the next native comer, by whom they are doubtless 
 much appreciated; but anybody following the same road a 
 couple of years afterwards would find them practically as 
 good as new. The only tool used by a Malay for such work 
 is the parang, a curved blade like a sickle, set in a straight 
 handle of hard black wood, ornamented, if the possessor is 
 a man of means, with one or more bands of silver. The blade 
 is home-made, of soft iron, with a very sharp thin edge. This 
 naturally is soon blunted, but a bit of sandstone and a bowl 
 of water suffices to put a razor edge on it again in a few 
 minutes. The parang is never out of the hand of a Malay, 
 and every traveller soon finds out its uses and makes it his 
 inseparable companion. For many months my own, given 
 me by a Sultan, and decorated with bands and ornaments 
 of virgin gold and hafted in carved ivory, was always in my 
 belt — to lop off branches in front of my elephant, to clear a 
 space from undergrowth, to split and pare a coconut, to 
 sharpen a pencil, to cut up tobacco, to open a tin of meat, 
 to divide the carcase of a goat or a deer, and if necessary to 
 serve as a weapon of offence or defence. It has now come to 
 the " base use " of a wall-decoration. In camp, when the 
 elephants had been turned loose, the meal cooked and eaten, 
 the entries made in the diary, the rice-pots filled and emptied, 
 the needful precautions taken for the night, a plaintive song or 
 two droned out by the Malays, the mosquito-curtain — most 
 important duty for a white man in these latitudes — hung and 
 scrupulously searched, a last tour of inspection made, and a 
 flickering thought flung towards home and those that might 
 possibly be remembering me there, I turned in, and it was 
 not often later than eight o'clock when I wound up my watches, 
 and boiled the thermometer if the camp was at an altitude. 
 
 Without elephants these Malayan jungles would be virtually 
 impassable. The great beasts are a mixture of strength and 
 
My Kitchen in the Jungle. 
 
 A Group in Camp. 
 
A JUNGLE JOURNEY. 543 
 
 weakness, of craft and simplicity. Their strength must be 
 seen to be believed. The paths through the jungle from village 
 to village are for the most part merely tracks from which the 
 overhanging and interlacing foliage has been cut and thrust 
 aside, and the virgin soil trodden into a black mud. After a 
 rain this mud is feet deep, and no living creature except an 
 elephant, a buffalo or a rhinoceros could labour through it. 
 For a whole day I have sat on my elephant while he made his 
 way along by lifting one foot at a time, inserting it deep into 
 the slough in front, withdrawing another with a sound like the 
 popping of a huge champagne-cork, all the time his belly being 
 sunk in the mud. To this must be added the obstacles in the 
 shape of great tree-trunks lying across . the path. These he 
 would negociate by rolling over them on his belly, to the 
 imminent danger of dislodging the howdah and its occupant 
 on his back. The worst enemies of the enormous pachyderm 
 are the horse-fly and the mosquito. These insects insert their 
 proboscis through the ducts in the elephant's skin and raise 
 irritating sores. His chief terrors are the smell of wild 
 elephants and fire. One of my narrowest escapes was when 
 I was run away with in consequence of trying to force my 
 mount round a jungle fire, in order not to be hemmed in by 
 it. Nothing but a ride on an earthquake could be compared 
 to the sensation of being run away with by an elephant. 
 Nothing stops his wild rush, and he does not swerve for an 
 obstacle but goes straight at it. A few shakes fling off every- 
 thing on his back, and the rider has but a second or two in which 
 to make up his mind which overhanging branch he will cling to, 
 or if he will risk throwing himself off. A broken neck would 
 be the certain consequence of remaining. As for stopping him, 
 somebody has well said that you might as well try to stop a 
 runaway locomotive by pulling with your walking-stick on the 
 funnel, as seek to check an elephant at such a moment with the 
 goad. The sounds an elephant makes are ludicrously dispro- 
 portionate to its size. By stroking an elephant's lip in a 
 
544 MALATA. 
 
 certain manner you can make it purr like a huge grimalkin, 
 till the earth shakes beneath your feet. When it is afraid or 
 angry it squeaks like an unoiled hinge. But when it suddenly 
 jumps aside like a flea, you imagine for a moment that the 
 ultimate terrestrial cataclysm has gone off. The Malays never 
 wholly trust their elephants, and were nervous at my fami- 
 liarities with mine, a sweet-tempered old female on whom I rode 
 hundreds of miles. During the midday halt I used to call her 
 up and she would come and stand with one foot on each side of 
 my chest as I lay on my back and fed her with bananas. I was 
 never angry with her but once — when she tried to kill the cook. 
 On one occasion a little elephant of our party, running behind 
 its mother, teased her, beyond endurance, and she turned and 
 gave him a shove which landed him feet uppermost at the 
 bottom of a deep brook. For two hours he screamed like a 
 steam whistle while we were all engaged in getting him out. 
 Malay elephants have a language of their own which their 
 drivers talk to them, and which is very easy to pick up- For 
 instance, Hee means " Quick;" Haw, "Stop;'' Moo, "Go to 
 the right ; " Klung, " Go to the left ; " Tehoh, " Go backwards; " 
 Terhum, " Kneel down ; " Peha, " Don't rub against the tree ; " 
 Peha moo, " Don't rub against the tree on your right ; " Peha 
 klung, " Don't rub against the tree on your left;" and so on. 
 An elephant obeys this language just as a human being would 
 do. Every night when we reached camp and the loads were 
 taken off, each driver would hobble his beast by tying its front 
 legs together with rattan, so that it could only hop with both 
 together. Then a huge wooden bell was hung round its neck 
 and it was turned loose to wander in the jungle. All night long 
 the faint dong, dong of these bells made a mournful noise round 
 the camp. At daybreak each driver tracked his elephant by 
 the sound, often going many miles for him. The elephant is in 
 some respects a stupid beast, and many of the tales of its sagacity 
 are apocryphal, yet it sometimes does very strangely intelligent 
 things. Once a tiny elephant got jammed in between the 
 
A JUNGLE JOUENET. 545 
 
 portions of a heavy tree-trunk which had been out in two to 
 leave a passage on the road. Its screams brought back its 
 mother from ahead. She inspected it carefully for a moment, 
 then walked a dozen steps backwards and lowering her head 
 charged straight at it, shooting it out as if it had been fired 
 from a gun. Now, she must have seen that although the little 
 one could not move either way, there was really room for it to 
 get through. If there had not been, her charge would have 
 squashed it as flat as a pancake. The elephant's amusement 
 is to filch a bunch of succulent stuff from a garden as he 
 passes, mud is his cosmetic, the rapid is his footbath, and 
 little he recks of the attraction of gravitation. I parted from 
 mine almost in tears. 
 
 It is commonly said in the East that the Malays are a wilful 
 and treacherous race, with whom one is never quite safe, and 
 whose devotion and loyalty can never be wholly relied upon. 
 At the door of a restaurant in Singapore stands or squats all 
 that remains of a man who has been horribly mutilated, bear- 
 ing on his breast a label which says, " The Victim of Malay 
 Piracy," and the feelings he invokes in the passer are those 
 which prompt the usual verdict upon the Malay race. On the 
 principle of speaking well of the bridge which has borne you, 
 my own report must be different. The Malay, when unspoiled 
 by intercourse with foreigners or his own countrymen who 
 have lived at a foreign settlement, is one of nature's gentle- 
 men. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a backwoodsman, by choice. 
 Prolonged, monotonous hard work is so repugnant to him that 
 he would rather starve than undergo it. No inducement, for 
 instance, will make a miner of him. Hence in such matters 
 he is easily pushed to the wall by the ready and unscrupulous 
 Chinaman. Sometimes this pride or laziness is very irritating. 
 You want to get something done, and you find a Malay who 
 could do it reclining at ease beneath his coconut-palm, with 
 his wife or wives seated respectfully behind him. You say to 
 him, " WiU you do so-and-so for me ? " He replies, " No, 
 
 36 
 
546 MALAYA. 
 
 Tuan, it is too hot." You say, "But I •will give you five 
 dollars." " It is much," he says, " but I am tired, and it is 
 pleasant in the cool shade, and it would be very difficult to do 
 what you wish." And no argument moves him, though the 
 money you promise would be a small fortune. Offer him the 
 loan of a rifle, however, to go and shoot something for you, 
 and he will gladly do it for nothing. And once secure his 
 friendship, and treat him as a friend, and, so far as my experi- 
 ence enables me to judge, he will stand by you to the death. 
 The secret is that he comes of a very proud race, which has 
 not lost its pride though circumstances have reduced it to a low 
 rank among peoples. Eespect his pride, and he is your friend ; 
 offend it, and he is your enemy. My man Ali and the Peng- 
 hulu Bujoh — of whom more hereafter — were as plucky and 
 faithful when the pinch came as men could be. All good be 
 with them ! — except for their loyalty my bones would probably 
 be shining at night in some Kelantan jungle, and my fate a 
 myth among my fellow-countrymen. The Malays, like all 
 eastern races, are extremely particular about the treatment 
 of their women by strangers. I gave stringent orders that 
 interference with the women of the places through which we 
 passed would be severely punished by me. When it occurred, 
 I fell upon the offender with the utmost severity. On one 
 occasion I publicly thrashed an elephant-driver with the handle 
 of his own goad to an extent that threw a gloom over my party 
 for several days. This sort of thing was mightily resented by 
 the victim at the time, but public opinion turned afterwards in 
 my favour, and to this attitude I attribute much of my freedom 
 from opposition and enmity. In this matter every white traveller 
 lies under a heavy responsibility toward those who may follow 
 him. In a native village I was once met by a number of hostile 
 inhabitants who barred the way and would not even allow me to 
 buy provisions there. I learned afterwards that this was owing 
 to the misconduct of a white man who had visited the place 
 before. If he were to show himself there again he would be 
 krissed at sight. 
 
A JUNGLE JOUENET. 547 
 
 The jungle is a world of itself. Twenty feet back from the 
 track and — 
 
 " Lo ! the half -finished world ! Ton footfall retreating, — 
 It might be the Maker disturbed at His task." 
 
 No human foot has ever pressed it : no interference of man has 
 modified the conditions of primal life. All the strange green 
 things that the rich warm earth produces and the tropical 
 sun and rain nurse into exuberance are engaged in a despe- 
 rate struggle for existence. So tight are they gripped together 
 that it would take you an hour, pa/rang in hand, to hew your 
 way through them for a few yards. As Stevenson's last poem 
 Bays — 
 
 " I saw the wood for what it was — 
 The lost and the victorious cause ; 
 The deadly battle pitched in line, 
 Saw silent weapons cross and shine; 
 Silent defeat, silent assault — 
 A battle and a burial vault. " 
 
 Above all towers and waves the bamboo — most graceful thing 
 that grows ; the unbreakable rattan, often hundreds of yards 
 long, knots all the rest tight in its coils ; and every now and 
 then you are dazzled by a blaze of marvellous orchids, smother- 
 ing some doomed tree — a fortune, if only you could take them 
 home. There is little animal life in the jungle except an 
 occasional snake and infinite myriads of insects. One morning 
 as I rose from my bed a boa-constrictor rose with me and 
 crawled away, no doubt well satisfied with his night's lodging. 
 His skin, fifteen feet long, came home with me. Words fail 
 me, not being an entomologist, to describe the insects. Con- 
 ceive the most extraordinary shape you can, imagine it glaring 
 with all the primary colours, and posing like the contortionist 
 of a circus, and you would not have to go far in the jungle to 
 see it realised in petto. Upon a pool in the path will be a 
 thousand butterflies, blue and yellow and scarlet and purple 
 and orange — every colour in nature's wanton palette. And 
 
548 MALAYA. 
 
 the moment you show a light at night, in comes the mantis, 
 that creature whose hands are apparently clasped in prayer, 
 but whose heart is filled with bloodthirstiness. This is the 
 insect that St. Francis Xavier, misled by its devout attitude, 
 requested to sing the praises of God, " which it immediately 
 did in a very beautiful canticle." In all countries its raised 
 thorax and extended raptorial legs have given it an undeserved 
 reputation for sanctity, and hence people even in Southern 
 Europe believe that its motions foretell coming events. The 
 Malay has many quaint and Eabelaisian games with it, and 
 believes, half in earnest, that by questioning it and then 
 giving it a shake, he can learn whether his absent wife is 
 faithful to him. Such are some of the aspects and inhabitants 
 of the jungle. But the chief impression left on the mind of 
 any one who penetrates it must be that of its marvellous near- 
 ness to the days of creation. 
 
 " It is man in his garden, scarce awakened as yet 
 
 From the sleep that fell on him when woman was made. 
 The new-finished garden is plastic and wet 
 From the hand that has fashioned its unpeopled shade." 
 
 It is unnecessary in this place, and would be wearisome to the 
 reader, to narrate in detail my journey across the Peninsula. I 
 will only describe a few of the incidents which distinguished one 
 day from another, and sketch my route in outline.* The rest 
 would be more appropriately told in a technical journal. The 
 second night out from Merah, we camped at Ayer Naksa, at a 
 small clearing deep in the jungle. An hour after leaving this 
 
 * My exact route— which, though it is roughly indicated upon the map in this 
 volume, cannot be traced in detail upon any map except that which I prepared as 
 I advanced— was as follows : Taiping, Kuala Kangsar, Chiga Galla, Eotah Tampan, 
 Tumulung, Kuala Kinering, Janniug (Merah), Kampong Laving, Bukit Naksa, 
 KampoDg Grik, Kampong Kronei, Bunga Eendang, Merchang, Jarom, Ayer Bah, 
 Den Propoh, Batu Kapor, Kampong Joh, Goakapor, Tana Puteh, Kala, Beluka, 
 Laloh, Blentang, Tanjong Mas, Kampong Bukit, Kampong Plung, Kampong Segah, 
 Kampong Chumei, Batu Mernang, Kuala Leh, Temoh, Paoho, and Kampong Stah, 
 where I built my rafts for the river journey, as described in the next chapter. 
 Each of the above places was where I camped, and I remained at some of them, of 
 course, for several days. 
 
A JUNGLE JOUENET. 549 
 
 place next morning, we crossed the boundary into what is known 
 as the " disputed territory." This is marked by a line cut 
 through the jungle, and the trees blazed on the side of the water- 
 shed. Historically and geographically, a considerable stretch 
 of territory north of this belongs to Perak, but the Siamese 
 claim it as part of the State of Eaman. It was the subject of 
 prolonged negociations between the British and Siamese 
 Governments a few years ago, and the dispute was at last 
 finally settled, and Prince Devawongse, who had come to 
 England for the purpose, went to the Foreign Office to sign 
 the Convention. At the very last moment, when the documents 
 were spread upon the table and the pen dipped in the ink, he 
 refused to sign, and the settlement fell through. This is the 
 incident to which I have alluded in my previous account of the 
 Siamese Foreign Minister. The matter is one of considerable 
 importance, since some of the most valuable mineral territory 
 in the Peninsula is situated just beyond the present improper 
 boundary, and nothing would be simpler than for the Straits 
 Government to settle the question by a determined attitude at 
 the present time. At Kampong Grik, a curious little nocturnal 
 adventure befel me. I had gone to bed in my tent, but was 
 lying awake smoking, when I heard faint footsteps outside, and 
 through the canvas, within a couple of feet of my head, came 
 the purring and snuffling of a prowling tiger. I could distinctly 
 hear his breathing and the scratch of his claws as he felt the 
 strange obstacle in front of him. A loaded rifle lay by my side, 
 and directly in front of my feet was the small half-open tent 
 door. I raised the rifle and kept it pointed at the opening, and 
 a few moments later the dark mass of his body closed it. I 
 determined not to fire unless he should try to come in, as the 
 chance of my killing him was slight and the chance of his kill- 
 ing me was excellent. So I lay motionless, in a state of mind 
 which may be colloquially described as funk, until to my 
 immense relief he took himself off. At Kronei came the first 
 example of the effect of native rule. A miserable and dirty old 
 
550 MALAYA. 
 
 woman came to the camp to exchange a sarong — the woven silk 
 garment which Malays of both sexes wear as a sort of petticoat 
 — for food. I found that she was no less a personage than a 
 sister of the Eaja of Eaman, and had formerly been wealthy 
 from the taxes upon agriculture and tin-mining in the district 
 over which she presided. Now, however, nearly all her people 
 had migrated into Perak and the whole place was virtually 
 abandoned; yet the tin-mines at Klian Intan are probably 
 among the richest in the Peninsula. The next night was spent 
 in the thick of the jungle, and on the following morning we 
 crossed the watershed at Eaman, at a spot where there are the 
 remains of an old Perak fort. This is the boundary between 
 Perak and Eaman, as properly claimed by the Perak Govern- 
 ment. Before reaching Merchang, I chanced upon a strange thing 
 for the East, namely, a real game-preserve — a large stretch of 
 forest, surrounded by a rough boundary, kept up by the Eajah 
 of Eaman for his own sport, severe penalties being visited upon 
 any Malay who hunts in it. For the greater part of a morning 
 I walked by a charming winding path through this, and on all 
 sides there was evidence of the possibilities of excellent shooting. 
 A few hours beyond Merchang is a place called Bitung, one of 
 the seats of the Eaja and a once prosperous village, now also 
 deserted, all its inhabitants having moved over to Kedah to 
 escape his exactions. At Jarom we camped inside a stockaded 
 village, and I remember well shooting three wild peacock there. 
 The wild bird is far more gorgeous than the tame one familiar 
 to us, and when one of these, flying overhead, is stopped by a 
 charge of heavy shot, and comes tumbling down with the sun 
 shining on his outstretched wings and tail, it seems for a 
 moment as though one had accidentally blown the end off a 
 rainbow. The breast of a peacock, carefully cooked, is very good 
 eating, but the Malays will not touch it, as, for peculiar reasons, 
 they consider it an unclean bird. At Den Propoh, one of the 
 oldest settlements, after which is named a pass we crossed at 
 an altitude of 1,200 feet, there is an interesting tradition to the 
 
A JUNGLE JOURNEY. 551 
 
 effect that the place is haunted by the spirit of Toh Propoh, a 
 former emigrant chief, supposed to have sprung from Gunong 
 Angors, an extinct volcano. The Eaja of Eaman has a fine house 
 here, in one of the rooms of which I was amused to see an old- 
 fashioned foreign bedstead. Just before reaching Kampong Joh, 
 we came to a village so recently deserted that the pigeons belong- 
 ing to the inhabitants were still flying about it. I walked through 
 all the empty houses to satisfy myself that nobody was left, and 
 then I shot enough of the pigeons to provide us with a welcome 
 meal all round. At Goakapor the headman gave us a very 
 friendly welcome, and presented me with a fine young bull from 
 his herd of buffaloes on the condition that I shot it with my 
 elephant-rifle, which had aroused his keen curiosity. The herd 
 was driven up, the bull picked out, and just before putting the 
 rifle to my shoulder I looked round for the raja, as he called 
 himself. His courage had failed at the last moment and he had 
 fled. As soon as the bull fell, Buta ran up and slit its throat in 
 Mohammedan fashion ; and the feast which followed necessitated 
 a halt of a couple of days, since almost every native member 
 of the expedition was ill from over-eating, and the amount of 
 pills and salts I had to disburse made a severe drain upon the 
 medicine-chest. 
 
 The most welcome occasions to my men were when I promised 
 to " shoot fish." Many of the rivers we passed were full of fish, 
 and of course there is nobody to catch them. Eod and line, or 
 nets, would be far too slow, and it was for this purpose that I 
 had brought with me a box of dynamite. A likely spot having 
 been chosen, I would take a couple of cakes of the explosive, 
 imbed a detonator in them, attach a piece of fuse, and tie them 
 to a heavy stone. Then, keeping all the natives at a distance, I 
 would light the fuse and toss the stone into the deepest part of 
 the river. Half a minute later there was a dull reverberation, 
 the water heaved, and a cloud of smoke escaped. The men, 
 stripped almost to the skin, would run up and stand in a row 
 on the bank. In a short time a fish would be seen, belly 
 
552 MALAYA. 
 
 upwards, followed immediately by a score or a couple of hundred 
 if the shot were a lucky one. With a shout of delight everybody 
 would plunge in, and for five minutes there would be a scene of 
 wild excitement and delight. The rice-pots would be full that 
 night, and every man would have enough dried fish to last him 
 for a day or two. In the native States it is of course forbidden 
 to kill fish in this wholesale manner, but there was no harm in 
 doing so in a district where the fish would otherwise have gone 
 uncaught; and indeed without this expedient I should often 
 have been at a loss to feed the expedition. As it was, provisions 
 once or twice ran unpleasantly short. I was surprised, by the 
 way, to find that in these far-inland rivers there were still 
 crocodiles. The natives denied the fact, and would plunge in 
 and wade about without the slightest fear; but I had on one 
 occasion striking proof of the existence of the reptiles. One day 
 we had crossed no fewer than nine rivers, sometimes wading up 
 to our arm-pits, and in several cases the current was so swift 
 that ropes had to be attached to the elephants for the men to 
 cling to while crossing. Toward nightfall we came to a river 
 too deep to ford, and a detour of several miles was necessary to 
 reach a good camping-ground just on the other side. I called 
 up a native of the locality and asked him, " Adah hoya disini ? " 
 "Tidahf" was his instant reply, so I plunged in and swam 
 across. Just as I was scrambling up the bank, I heard a shout 
 from the men watching me, and a large crocodile came sliding 
 down and splashed into the water within a few feet of me.. After 
 that I gave up swimming Malay rivers. 
 
 When we reached a place called Tana Puteh — literally, 
 " White Earth " — Bozzolo and I left the camp for a couple of 
 days, and ou our swiftest elephant made a tour of a delightful 
 agricultural district in that neighbourhood lying round a village 
 called Kampong Topaya. Nowhere in the East have I seen a 
 more attractive district for growing paddy. Crossing a mountain 
 range coming back, we lost our way, and finding a well-kept 
 path leading upwards, we followed it to the top of a high hill 
 
Mv (.'AJir AT Kuala Leh. 
 
 The Last Buitish (Jutihwt, Pekak. 
 
A JUNGLE JOTJENET. 553 
 
 called Bukit Jerei. This turned out to be a thrilling spot. At 
 its summit we found ourselves on the edge of a sheer precipice, 
 five or six hundred feet below which we could see the tops of the 
 trees of a thick jungle. This place, we learned, is literally the 
 Hill of Death. Prom the place where we were standing, con- 
 demned criminals and lunatics are hurled off into the forest below. 
 The day before our visit, one unfortunate idiot who had become 
 a nuisance in one of the Eaja's villages, had been led up and 
 thrown over. The hill has been used for this purpose from time 
 immemorial, and one's imagination falters at the thought of the 
 spectacle that would be presented below. For a few minutes we 
 conceived the idea of exploring that ghastly jungle, where no 
 Malay would dream of setting foot ; but time was short, and we 
 came to the conclusion that it would be rather too horrible. At 
 Beluka a native vendetta had been raging, and a man came to 
 me in camp to have his arm dressed. He had been shot at 
 close quarters in a night attack ten days before, and a rough 
 spherical bullet had passed clean through his right fore-arm, 
 shattering the bone and leaving a dreadful hole which had 
 already begun to mortify. The natives believe, of course, that 
 a white man's medicine wUl cure anything ; but this was beyond 
 my surgery. He was a plucky patient, and I removed all the 
 gangrened flesh and filled the hole with a plug of lint soaked in 
 the strongest carbolic oil he could bear. But I fear that such 
 rough treatment did not save him. 
 
 Tanjong Mas is the capital of the State of Lege. It is on the 
 Eiver Benara, up which boats of several tons burden come with 
 difficulty from the coast, which is not far away. The surround- 
 ing district is a beautiful meadow country, fit for any cultivation. 
 In front of the Sultan's residence, which is defended by a great 
 fence of four-inch planks, set endwise in the ground, is a large 
 racecourse. The Malays of this State have a bad character, 
 but we were hospitably received and assigned quarters in the 
 house of one of the officials. In the shops I bought some 
 beautiful sarongs, and the best Itris I saw in the Peninsula, with 
 
554 MALAYA. 
 
 a handle made of suassa, an alloy of gold and some other metal. 
 The Sultan himself we could not see, as he was very ill, it was 
 believed from the effects of poison, and great excitement was 
 prevailing concerning his successor. Two candidates had 
 already started for Sengora, with elephants loaded with dollars 
 and presents to propitiate the Siamese Chowkun there. Soon 
 after we left Tanjong Mas, a tropical rainstorm burst upon us, 
 and all day long we journeyed under a terrific downpour. I 
 was the first to reach a miserable village called Kampong Bukit, 
 and took the nearest accommodation offered to me — one room in 
 a crowded Malay house — as it was far too wet and dark to think 
 of putting up a tent or building the customary shelter. For two 
 hours I sat and shivered, until at nine o'clock the rest of the 
 elephants began to arrive. The whole expedition was in a state 
 of complete demoralisation, so, stripping to the skin and wrap- 
 ping a towel round my waist, I went out into the pitch darkness, 
 and under the hot deluge tried to bring some kind of order into 
 the camp. At midnight, completely worn out, I returned to the 
 room and flung myself down on the floor. At daybreak I woke, 
 and saw in a moment the mistake I had made. It would have 
 been better for me had I spent the whole night wandering in the 
 jungle, for through the cracks in the bamboo floor I perceived 
 below me a mass of horrible and reeking filth, in which several 
 buffaloes were wallowing, and which was clearly the cloaca 
 maxima of the whole family of men and beasts. I took as much 
 quinine as I dared, but the consequences soon developed them- 
 selves. Nest day I began to feel ill, and had recourse to 
 chlorodyne. The day afterwards I was suffering from an 
 unmistakable attack of dysentery. Now, in the Far East people 
 commonly die of dysentery, even in hospitals and with skilful 
 medical attendance. In my case, hundreds of miles from such 
 assistance, and with nothing but a bottle of ipecacuanha — the 
 most difficult drug in the world to administer persistently to 
 one's self — and with no shelter but a palm-leaf hut in a steaming 
 jungle, I could hardly expect to fare better. After a quarter of 
 
A JUNGLE JOUENBT. 555 
 
 an hour's mental revolt, I frankly resigned myself to the worst, 
 and prepared to spend what I regarded as my last day or two 
 in living over again in memory the happiest days, and com- 
 muning with the dearest friends, of the past. 
 
 " Oh I little did my mother think, 
 The day she oradled me, 
 The lands that I should travel in, 
 The death that I should dee." 
 
 My camp-men surpassed themselves in building me a little 
 house in an open space a mile or two further on, by the side 
 of a pleasant stream ; and for several days I flickered between 
 life and death, while Buta and Menir Khan and Ali scoured the 
 country for milk, each carrying an empty bottle into which he 
 milked indiscriminately every goat, buifalo, or other female 
 animal he could find. At last, however, I seemed to be turning 
 the corner, and then a strange thing happened. One morning, 
 word was brought to me that a species of medicine-man, half- 
 Siamese, half-Malay, wished to know if he might see me. I 
 thought his visit would at any rate be entertaining, and ordered 
 him to be brought. He explained to me — speaking a Malay of 
 which I could not understand half — that he was able to cure 
 such sickness without medicine, by means of his own. I con- 
 sented to an attempt, and after various kinds of incantation he 
 proceeded to rub my back with a curious stone he carried, 
 and with a ring on which was chiselled the figure of a snake. 
 My recovery he naturally attributed to his own powers, we 
 became good friends, and many strange things he told me. 
 When I was leaving, I pressed upon him a few presents, and 
 as I was sitting on my elephant he put up his hand to bid me 
 farewell, and when I stretched mine down towards him he 
 slipped upon my finger his serpent ring. I may be charged 
 with superstition, but I still set great store by that ring. 
 
 For days after this I travelled propped up on my elephant, 
 passing the time with a book of chess problems and a little 
 travelling chess-board. I cannot too strongly recommend this 
 
556 MALAYA. 
 
 method to other travellers on monotonous journeys, for often 
 the simplest problem will render one oblivious to the ennui of 
 a whole day. For some time at this point, my diary contains 
 nothing but the word, " sick." Three days later we reached 
 Kuala Leh, just beyond which rise the " gold-hills of Temoh," 
 the centre of the chief gold-mines of the native States. Here 
 the land part of my journey virtually ended. 
 
 The district of Temoh belongs to none of the States which it 
 adjoins, but is a small tract of independent territory held direct 
 from the King of Siam. Its headman is a half-bred Chinaman, 
 who pays a small yearly tribute for the authority which he 
 exercises in a despotic manner over the little mining community. 
 This numbers about three hundred Chinese and a hundred Malay 
 inhabitants. The district is a triangular-shaped valley, about 
 five miles long and four miles at its widest end. The hills which 
 shut it in rise to a height of 3,000 feet, Temoh village, half-way 
 along the triangle, being about 680 feet above the sea. It 
 has been worked for its gold for certainly half-a-century, and 
 many Chinamen have made their small fortunes there and re- 
 turned to China. The gold- mining consisted at first of alluvial 
 washing in the crudest manner, and this gradually led the miners 
 further up the valley until they came to the reefs. There are 
 still a number of huge pits where washing goes on, and the 
 spoil-heaps left probably cover hundreds of acres. At the time 
 of my visit there were no fewer than twenty-eight shafts driven 
 upon the various reefs. Most of these I entered, and in several 
 — although I have not the qualifications to offer any technical 
 opinion upon their value — with my own hands I removed pieces 
 of quartz showing visible gold. A Malay told me one day that 
 at the bottom of the little river, which was about five feet deep, 
 the soil was auriferous, and to prove it he took one of my cooking- 
 pans, waded into the middle of the river, drew a deep breath, 
 plunged below the surface, and reappeared with the pan full of 
 earth. Sure enough, when this was washed, four or five grains 
 of bright gold remained at the bottom of the pan. The Chinese 
 

 
 
A JUNGLE JOURNEY. 557 
 
 miners work in societies, or kongsis, which divide the proceeds 
 amongst their members, down to the mere coolies, each man 
 taking a share proportioned to the amount of his expenditure in 
 the venture. All of them pay a heavy tax to the Chinese head- 
 man, who thus recoups himself for the bribe he no doubt paid to 
 Siamese officials for his appointment. As the Chinese miners 
 have hardly any iron tools, no explosives and no modern 
 machinery of any kind, their treatment of the quartz is 
 naturally very primitive and extravagant. They break it up 
 originally by driving in wooden wedges and wetting them ; the 
 boulders are then carried in baskets on men's backs to the mills 
 to be crushed, and the product undergoes a rough process of 
 washing in troughs. These mills, of which my illustration shows 
 the principal one, are constructed exactly on the lines of the 
 ordinary Chinese rice-mill, the stamps being a series of trip- 
 hammers, operated by an overshot water-wheel. A large amount 
 of gold must have been taken from Temoh, and a good deal was 
 offered me for sale, both in the shape of dust and nuggets ; while 
 the strange jewellery made by one family in Temoh village, and 
 stained a deep red by being boiled in saffron and some alkali, is 
 unique in its curious semi-savage beauty. I may add that a 
 concession for part of this district was granted by the King of 
 Siam a few years ago, and an attempt made by a London 
 syndicate to work it, but unsuccessfully. 
 
GHAPTEB XXXIII. 
 
 ON A BAFT THBOUGH A FOBBIDDEN STATE. 
 
 TilROM Kuala Leh to a considerable distance down the 
 -^ Kelantan Eiver I was in the unknown country. Mr. 
 Bozzolo is the only European who has been in this district 
 before, and he proceeded by a different route and entered the 
 Kelantan Eiver at a higher point than I intended to strike, 
 leaving all this intermediate country unvisited. It is very easy 
 to tell when you are the first white man in any place. From 
 ill round, beginning with daybreak and ending with nightfall, 
 % steady stream of natives, men, women, and children, poured 
 by. Most of them brought at first small presents — a dish of 
 rice, a couple of fowls, a bit of metal-work, a bunch of bananas, 
 svhich they offered me very humbly, with many protestations 
 of friendship. These accepted, they would solemnly sit for 
 bours, intently watching everything we did, and only uttering 
 from time to time ejaculations of surprise as each new foreign 
 marvel caught their eye. By and by they discovered that 
 I was civilised enough to recognise the Malay custom which 
 dictates that a present from an inferior to a superior must be 
 met with a present of greater value, and then their " gifts " 
 came pouring in with embarrassing lavishness. When I had 
 returned a dollar a dozen times for a small supply of provisions I 
 did not need, and smaller sums for smaller presents, the process 
 naturally began to pall, and to their great disappointment I 
 declined to receive further tokens of their good-will. To the 
 children, however, I continued to distribute the tiny silver coins 
 
 S58 
 
ON A EAFT THaODGH KELANTAN. 559 
 
 I had brought for the purpose, with the result that my appear- 
 ance must have been that of a Pied Piper of Hamelin, for 
 whenever I took a dozen steps in any direction I was followed 
 by a horde of nearly naked little people, their natural fears 
 of the orang puteh struggling with their excitement and their 
 hopes. I was anxious to keep on conspicuously good terms 
 with the people hereabout, for the effect it would produce upon 
 my own men, whose courage had been ebbing visibly ever 
 since we had at last turned our faces finally in the direction 
 of the dreaded Kelantan. The nearer this came, and the more 
 clear it was that I was actually going on, the less energetic they 
 were, and the greater their tendency to find a lion in the 
 simplest path. Their desertion at this moment would have 
 'put a stop to my progress and compelled me to return ignomi- 
 niously by the route I had already taken, Therefore I resorted 
 to every possible expedient to keep up their spirits and promote 
 harmonious relations with the inhabitants. 
 
 Before leaving Kuala Leh there were elaborate good-byes to 
 be said, and many wishes for another meeting, which seemed 
 to be sincere on the part of my new-made acquaintances. With 
 old Captain Labet, the headman of the Chinese there, these 
 were of a cordial and almost affecting character. I gave 
 him the remaining dynamite and stock of detonators, a 
 pistol, a number of small European objects, and in return 
 he presented me with his most precious possession. This was 
 a long sword, with a scabbard of bright red wood, a silver- 
 mounted hilt, and a very thin blade, so sharp that it was 
 difficult to feel the edge of it vdthout cutting oneself. Its 
 sharpness was not mere " edge " like a razor, but thinness of 
 metal, with the same kind of edge as the blade of hard grass 
 which cuts you almost without your knowledge. This sword was 
 of such value in his eyes because it was betua — fortunate, of 
 good omen — the most valuable attribute that a weapon can 
 possess in the eyes of a Malay. The blade of this antique 
 object is so thin that a vigorous thrust would inevitably snap 
 
560 MALAYA. 
 
 it off short. The workmanship of it is a complete puzzle to me. 
 It is in some respects too well made to be of native workman- 
 ship, yet it does not look like a foreign weapon. Probably 
 it is originally a combination of the two, a Malay workman 
 having employed parts of a foreign weapon of some sort in manu- 
 facturing it. Whatever the real worth of its occult properties 
 may be, it is certain that Captain Labet placed the most 
 implicit confidence in them. Many a time he left my camp at 
 night to walk alone for a mile or more through the jungle 
 without even a light, simply drawing his sword and grasping 
 it firmly in his old and half-palsied hand. Yet the jungle was 
 full of dangers, both man and animal. On one occasion a tiger 
 was positively known to be prowling about in the immediate 
 neighbourhood, and it had actually killed a deer only the morn- 
 ing before within half a mile. Yet when I strongly urged upon 
 the old man to take a lantern and allow me to send two or 
 three men with him as an escort home, he laughed at the 
 notion, and drawing his betua blade tapped it affectionately, 
 assuring me with the utmost seriousness that anybody armed 
 with that was much more than a match for any tiger. And 
 when he gave it to me — I did my best to avoid robbing him 
 of an object to which he attached so much value, and which 
 had been in his family for more generations than he could 
 remember — he conceived and explained that he was render- 
 ing me a very real service by thus enabling me to protect 
 myself against many dangers. I trust that my pistol will serve 
 him at least as well in case of need. The Chinese miners 
 appeared at their doors or the mouths of their adits as I passed 
 and presented me with bottles of samshu, the Chinese rice- 
 wine, which grows very heady with keeping, and the poorer 
 settlers passed water-melons up to me on the elephant. All 
 day long we plodded toward the stream where I expected to 
 find my boatmen and the results of their week's work. There 
 were no gradients, but the ground was so soft that for choice 
 we forsook the path and marched in the bed of the little river. 
 
ON A EAPT THROUGH KELANTAN. 561 
 
 After thereby losing our way, and having to cut a new road 
 through the jungle, we came at length to Kampong Stah, a 
 village on the Sungei Tado, just below its junction with the 
 Blimbing and the Sakaw. Here the boatmen had constructed 
 a capital camp ; they were on the best of terms with the people, 
 who were eagerly expecting us, as they had never seen white 
 man before ; and what was of far more interest, two splendid 
 house-rafts and one flat raft were moored in the stream. These 
 were masterpieces of bamboo wood-craft. Pour or five layers of 
 large bamboo, cut off above a joint at each end, so as to be water- 
 tight, formed the raft part, and upon these was built a capital 
 little house, closed at the back and sides except for little 
 windows covered with a curtain of attap-thatch, and with a pent- 
 roof. Forward and aft were short uprights as rowlocks for the 
 long paddles, and these again were all ready, made of course 
 of the inevitable bamboo. Punt-poles had also been provided, 
 and so thoughtful were the builders that they had actually 
 added little fastenings on each wall in which my guns and rifle 
 could be placed. The " contractors," however, had played their 
 part less creditably. I had no sooner arrived than I was 
 asked for money to pay for all that had been done and spent. 
 I had advanced seven dollars to an individual called the 
 Penghulu Puteh, or "white magistrate," to pay these men. I 
 asked where he was, and was told in his house miles away. 
 I sent telling him to come at once. He returned an answer 
 that he was ill and could not. Not one cent had he ever 
 given, and as I did not choose to waste a day in doing justice 
 to him, he was able to keep the results of his swindling. 
 
 It was a busy day at Kampong Stah. All the followers 
 had to be paid off, the elephant-hire paid, and the beasts 
 sent back. The stores had to be reduced to the capacity of the 
 rafts, and a careful selection made among the geological speci- 
 mens. Most difficult of all, however, men had to be found if 
 possible to accompany me down the river to the coast. This 
 task proved insuperable. One man only could I hire, but he 
 
 37 
 
562 MALAYA. 
 
 was a good one. His name was the Penghulu Bujoh ; he was 
 a person of some official position and authority ; his fame was 
 great as a hunter ; and his happy face and frank cheery 
 manner at once impressed me in his favour. But in spite of 
 his assistance, and lavish promises of both pay and protection, 
 not another man could be persuaded. At last Ali took me aside 
 and explained the cause of this unwillingness. Quite recently, 
 it appeared, the Sultan of Kelantan, whose mere name sent 
 a shudder through the natives even here in another State, had 
 sent word that if any man gave help of any kind whatever to 
 a white man to assist him to enter Kelantan, he, the Sultan, 
 would cut off the offender's hands and feet, confiscate his 
 property, and make slaves of the male members of his family 
 and coacubines of the female ones. This threat had the 
 desired effect. So I fell back upon the arrangement I had 
 previously planned as a pis aller, and took with me seven of the 
 boatmen I had brought with me, first making them a solemn 
 and public promise that if I lived I would see them safely out 
 of the dominions of the Sultan of Kelantan before I parted 
 from them. Thus at last everything was arranged, and when 
 I had taken leave of Bozzolo we were ready to start. The 
 men were collected, and the order given to push off. Seeing 
 what lay before me, the moment would probably have given rise 
 to some sentimental reflections if an incident had not occurred 
 to turn everybody's thoughts into another channel. The Tado 
 is a small but fairly swift stream at this point, and just below 
 Kampong Stab are some difficult rapids. We had been afloat 
 two minutes when, owing to some delay in the punters getting to 
 work, my raft began to turn across stream. A warning cry 
 from behind called sharp attention to the danger. Every man 
 sprang to the oars and poles, but the raft had been caught 
 by the cmrrent. In another minute we should have been drifting 
 down the rapids, stern first, and the least that could have 
 happened was the destruction of the raft and the loss of every- 
 thing on board. Ali and the Penghulu were the first to grasp 
 

 « 
 
ON A KAFT THROUGH KELANTAN. 563 
 
 the situation, and both sprang into the river and tried to hold 
 the raft. " Overboard ! " I shouted to the Sikhs, and they 
 instantly obeyed. A moment later I followed them, and Walab 
 followed me. It was only up to my armpits in depth, so 
 nothing followed beyond the wetting, though Walab, whose 
 courage was greater than his strength, was nearly drowned. 
 All this time Bozzolo had watched the scene from his elephant 
 on the top of a neighbouring hillock, and he waved his hat 
 sympathetically. That was the last I saw of him. 
 
 By the time we had successfully uegociated the first rapids a 
 change had come over the scene. Babel had given place to a 
 dead silence, the village and every sign of human life had 
 disappeared, the stream had broadened out and was as quiet as 
 an autumn pool, magnificent trees overhung the river and came 
 down to meet their shadows in the water, the men were stand- 
 ing idly by their dripping poles, wondering at the impressive 
 spectacle, and not a sound broke the stillness. From a com- 
 plete green arch behiDd, the second raft emerged in silence. So 
 began my trip through Kelantan. It was one of the rare times 
 of the poetry and perfect pleasure of travel. But to enjoy 
 such moments one must be alone. The voice of even a friend 
 would have jarred like the breaking of glass. A day like this 
 is worth a year of life at home. But interruptions soon came. 
 First a touch on the shoulder from the Penghulu showed me a 
 fine peacock pluming himself on the bank about a hundred and 
 fifty yards ahead, and I managed to bag him with a rook-rifle 
 when we had drifted a little nearer. Then an exciting chase 
 after a wounded iguana occupied us for some time. Every now 
 and then the rowers would lay down their oars by a common 
 impulse, and when I looked inquiringly at them would remark 
 with a smile, " Makan pinang, Tuan," literally, " Eat betel. Sir." 
 The little pot of chunam, or lime, would be produced, a sireh leaf 
 selected and coated with it, a bit of betel-nut chipped off and 
 rolled in the leaf, and the package chewed with every sign 
 of gratification and refreshment. The pinang is to the Malay 
 
564 MALAYA. 
 
 what the cigarette and the brandy-and-soda are to the English- 
 man at home. The gift of a little of my own tobacco to roll 
 into a cigarette, since the tobacco with which I supplied them 
 as part of their rations did not lend itself kindly to cigarette- 
 making, would put fresh vigour into their efforts. About four 
 o'clock on the first day we espied a nice stretch of sandy bank 
 and stopped there. Then the rice-pots were brought out, the 
 evening meal prepared, a few stories told, to which I was usually 
 a listener, and the arrangement made whereby Buta, Menir 
 Khan, Ali, the Penghulu and I divided up the night into sentry- 
 watches. On this night, just as the pots were boiling, the river 
 suddenly and inexplicably began to rise, and extinguished all our 
 fires. 
 
 Except for the adventures it might bring and the new light it 
 threw upon this unknown country and its inhabitants, one day 
 was exactly like another. Each ended as I have just described. 
 It began by my waking under the mosquito-curtain, warm and 
 snug, " safe from the bites of noxious insects, free from the 
 infection of malarious diseases," as the "Hints to Travellers" 
 impressively says. There are no sounds of movement in camp. 
 I ought to get up — an early start is everything. I look out. A 
 thick white mist is over all, and the mosquito-curtain is soaked. 
 I remember all my acquaintances who have been struck down with 
 fever from Malay travelling. " Early rising is fatal in malarious 
 localities," says the " Hints " again. I open my watch ; it is five 
 o'clock. There is nothing for it, however, so I plunge out and 
 into the river, and my shout sets everybody stirring. In a 
 minute or two a couple of fires are blazing ; the pots and the 
 kettle are boiled, the men and Walab jump on board with them, 
 and we are off by half-past five. 
 
 The principal events of the first day or two were the 
 rapids, of which there were many, and bad ones. There is 
 suddenly a roaring ahead, and big black rocks are dis- 
 covered, with a narrow opening between them, diagonally 
 athwart the stream, through which the water is pouring like a 
 
ON A BAFT THEOUGH KELANTAN. 565 
 
 mill-race. Everybody pulls and pushes, and lifts and poles ; 
 often the boatmen are in the water up to their necks. Slowly 
 the raft scrapes to the opening, then " feels a thrill of life along 
 its keel," or would if it had one ; the waders leap on board ; the 
 oarsmen struggle and shout. For a minute or two it is touch- 
 and-go whether or not the raft spins and is wrecked. Below 
 the rapid there is always a stretch of quiet water, and the 
 moment we are in it comes the inevitable remark, " Makan 
 pinang, Tuan." During the first day there was not a single 
 kampong, but by the afternoon of the second we reached the 
 clearing of a Chinaman who collects Customs for the Eaja of 
 Lege upon everything that comes up the river. He was a 
 very friendly person, and was glad to sell me fowls, ducks, and 
 coconuts ; though the fowls were so wild and athletic from the 
 amount of exercise they have to take to pick up a living, that 
 after we bought a dozen my men had to organise a regular hunt 
 before they could catch them. This man told me that with a 
 quick canoe he gets from his house to Kota Bharu, the residence 
 of the Sultan of Kelantan, in three days, so that with my rafts I 
 might hope to make the journey in five. I hired an additional 
 boatman here for part of the journey. Next day we came to 
 a place where the river banks were all broken down by the 
 trampling of a herd of wild elephants; and while we were 
 looking at this we suddenly heard a tremendous outcry behind 
 us, and the Chinese Towkay of the day before, and his termagant 
 of a Chinese-Malay wife, came shooting down in a long, narrow 
 dug-out. The woman had a huge old navy revolver, eighteen 
 inches long, slung in a holster round her neck, and was evidently 
 thirsting for somebody's blood. It appeared that their long-boat 
 was stolen during the night, and she wished to take back the 
 man I had hired, that he might join in the pursuit. It took 
 her ten minutes of excited talking at the top of her voice to 
 convey this fact to me. I said, " All right. I advanced this 
 man two dollars ; give me them back, and he can go with you." 
 She subsided as suddenly as if she were shot with her own 
 
566 MALAYA. 
 
 pistol. As Ali ^aid, " At first she was as big as this " — stretch- 
 ing out both his arms — " then when Tuan said ' two dollars,' 
 she was as big as this " — showing the nail of his little finger; 
 " if Tuan had said ' four dollars,' we should not have been able 
 to see her at all ! " At nine o'clock on this day, we went 
 through the last rapid, Jeram Penara, which forms the 
 boundary between the States of Leg§ and Kelantan. Here 
 then, at last, we were in the forbidden State. 
 
 While the boats were being piloted through the rapid we got 
 some cooking done, and I went off with my gun as usual, a ball 
 in one barrel and shot in the other, to see if I could pick up 
 anything. After about a quarter of an hour's walking, I heard 
 a rustling in some thick growth in front of me. I proceeded 
 very cautiously, thinking it was some small animal, and at last 
 I located it in a particular bush. Then I gently pushed aside 
 the branches with the barrels of my gun, and looked through. 
 At the same moment the branches were parted from the opposite 
 side, and a wild face, only half-human, looked straight into my 
 own at the distance of a few feet. We were both taken aback ; 
 but the native recovered himself first, and with a sharp cry of 
 terror disappeared in the jungle. It was no doubt one of the 
 Sakeis, or semi-wild men, who are to be found in several parts 
 of the Malay Peninsula. They are in a very low state of civili- 
 sation, stand greatly in fear of the Malays, and live entirely on 
 the roots they dig up with a split bamboo, and the small birds 
 and animals they can shoot with a small bow and arrow or a 
 blow-pipe. They are very expert with the latter, and are said 
 to employ powerful poison for their darts and arrows. So I 
 thought myself fortunate not to have one of these in me 
 unawares ; but I felt rather elated that my approach had been 
 so silent that this consummate woodsman had not discovered 
 me before I discovered him. I might tell a score of other 
 sporting anecdotes connected with this particular trip, but, as I 
 have said before, this book is not the place for them. Soon 
 after this the river, which is here called the Pergau, increased 
 
Shops jn a Malay Towi 
 
 A Malay Drama before the Sultan. 
 
ON A KAPT THROUGH KBLANTAN. 567 
 
 in width till it was eighty yards wide, and apparently ran 
 straight to the foot of the highest hill I had yet seen, called 
 Bukit Pagah. On each side of the river was a village — the one 
 on the right called Kampong Eeka Bharu, or " New Echo," and 
 on the left Kampong Eeka Tua, or " Old Echo." In Lege the 
 villages had seemed fairly prosperous, but these were the first 
 specimens of what I afterwards found so often in Kelantan : 
 places where at one time there had evidently been a small ani 
 flourishing community, of which the number of coconut trees 
 furnished a good index, but now virtually deserted, the houses 
 empty and falling to pieces, the cultivated land lapsing into 
 jungle again, and the inhabitants dead of smallpox, murdered, 
 or fled. Next day we reached Kuala Pergau, where this river 
 runs into the Kelantan Eiver, and as we approached the junction 
 we found a broad navigable stream flowing into it obliquely and 
 following the same course. The Kelantan Eiver, according to 
 the native view, does not begin till its junction with the Pergau, 
 but this is contrary to proper geographical definition, as from 
 its source in the hills of the district known as Ulu Kelantan — 
 but never yet visited by any white man — to its mouth on the 
 east coast, the Kelantan Eiver is one and the same, and the 
 Pergau is only one of its many affluents. Mr. Bozzolo states that 
 the name of the Kelantan Eiver above the Pergau is " Sungei 
 Engere," but this is inaccurate, as no such name is known to 
 the natives, who, without exception, call it Sungei Negiri. The 
 Kelantan Eiver at this point is from a hundred to a hundred 
 and fifty yards wide, and probably six feet deep at its shallowest 
 part, with fine ranges of wooded hills visible in the distance. 
 Looking back, there was as beautiful a river view as I have 
 ever seen, recalling the woods of Cliefden on the Thames. 
 The speed of the current in many places may be judged from 
 the fact that though I saw a number of wild pigeons, splendid 
 kingfishers, and hornbills in the trees, the river was too swift 
 for us to attempt to beach the rafts. When this country is at 
 length explored by a naturalist, it will be famous for its king- 
 
568 MALAYA, 
 
 fishers, which are among the most beautiful birds I have ever 
 seen. The Malays call them perkaka, a word made up of the 
 prefix per and an imitation of the Aristophanic sound kak-kak- 
 kak that the kingfisher makes when alarmed. Other beautiful 
 birds that I saw here, and afterwards succeeded in shooting, were 
 the hurong tiong, a large black red-billed bird with golden ear- 
 flaps and scarlet feet, and the hurong beruka, a large pale-green 
 and yellow pigeon. An amusing incident occurred when I went 
 shooting one morning with the Penghulu Bujoh. I had shot 
 several of these in rapid succession, and he ran to pick them up 
 while I went in another direction. When he rejoined me I found 
 that he had carefully cut the throat of each bird, nearly severing 
 its head from its body and of course completely destroying the 
 plumage. He had never imagined that they could be wanted 
 except for food, and therefore like a good Mahommedan he had 
 performed the semblek upon them ! There was an old man 
 living here, at a place called Eampong Dusun Eenda (the village 
 of the Low Orchard), who had formerly acted as a guide to 
 Government surveying-parties in Selangor, but was now making 
 his living at a gold-mine he alone knew of, near Kuala Jinam. 
 He went to this every morning, spent the day washing for gold, 
 and returned at night with his little stock. I bought from him 
 some extremely good gold, so rough as to be almost nuggets. 
 There are also gold-mines at Kuala Tosi in this neighbourhood. 
 Further down the river, at Kuala Tuko, I heard that there were 
 gold-diggings which had been successfully worked by a party of 
 Chinamen, who, however, had deserted them three months 
 before because of the impossibility of procuring rice or any 
 supplies, and because the Eaja had forbidden the opening of 
 new mines. At Kampong Lalat, still further down, I came 
 upon one of the few places in Kelantan where anything of the 
 least value is produced. Here was an earthenware industry, 
 where pots and vessels of singularly graceful shape were made. 
 For a small sum I bought a basketful of these, and succeeded in 
 bringing several of them uninjured to London, although they 
 
ON A EAFT THEOUGH KELANTAN. 569 
 
 are extremely brittle. At Kampong Lalat, too, I saw a big 
 boat being built to go to the Galas gold-mines in Ulu Kelantan, 
 a fact which throws light both on the value of these famous 
 mines and on the navigability of the Kelantan Eiver. It was 
 36 feet long, 4 feet 7 inches beam, and would carry 400 gantangs 
 of rice — say, according to the gantang used at Temoh, 3,400 lb.; 
 at any rate, not far from a ton and a half. The men who were 
 building it said that its price when finished would be ten dollars 
 — certainly the cheapest craft I ever heard of. Below this place 
 the river passes a big outcrop of rocks called Batu Makbang, 
 and then widens almost into a lake, with an exquisite view in 
 both directions. Here I passed a large boat going up to Temoh 
 with Chinese things to sell, and a crew of four Chinamen on 
 board. 
 
 After leaving Batu Makbang, we stopped at five o'clock on an 
 extensive sandbank, as my men had promised to start again at 
 the rising of the moon, and here occurred the most ticklish 
 incident of my river journey. When the Chinese boat passed us 
 during the afternoon, I had noticed that one of the men on my 
 last raft was acquainted with a Chinaman on board, and that 
 they had rapidly exchanged a dozen sentences, though I was too 
 far ahead to catch anything that was said. It now appeared 
 that my extra raft-man was in the service of the Chinaman who 
 owned the boat, and the latter had shouted to him that the 
 Sultan of Kelantan was very angry with me, that he had sworn 
 no white man should pass out of the river to sea, and that he 
 was sending a boat filled with armed men to stop me and turn 
 my expedition out of the country. This boat, the Chinaman 
 had added, was just behind him, and as the raft had drifted out 
 of earshot his last shouted words had been, " Take care of your- 
 self, because the Eaja is very angry with you." The raft-man 
 had told Mahmat, he had told Talk Choon, and the latter told 
 me. So I called up AH and the Penghulu Bujoh and consulted 
 with them. The situation was certainly unpleasant., Ali and 
 the Penghulu regarded the matter in a very serious light. I 
 
570 MALAYA. 
 
 explained to them that I was not in the least afraid of the Eaja 
 or his armed men, because, in the first place, I felt sure he 
 would not have given them orders to attack us, and, second, 
 even if they did show fight, I was confident that we were 
 numerous enough and well-armed enough, if only we stood by 
 one another, to defeat not only one but many boat-loads of men. 
 They advised me to call all my people together and explain the 
 matter to them. So they were all collected, and sat in a semi- 
 circle on the sand. Then I made Mahmat read the letter I had 
 written to the Eaja telling him that I was a peaceful traveller 
 crossing his country with a royal passport from Siam, and that 
 I personally stood security for my people. I showed them the 
 thongkra with the big seal, the Malay letters in their yellow silk 
 envelopes ; and then I addressed them as follows : " The Eaja 
 does not know that I am travelling here by the permission of 
 greater men than himself, or he would not be angry. But I do 
 not believe this Chinaman's tale. It is only a Chinese lie. 
 There is no boat coming to stop me, and if there were, what of 
 it ? The Eaja dare not harm a white man. Eemember Perak. 
 The Tuan Besar was killed. What is Perak now ? Eemember 
 Pahang. Only a Chinaman, but a British subject, was killed 
 by the Eaja. What is Pahang now? The Eaja of Kelantan 
 will not dare to touch one hair of my moustache. I have come 
 here to go to Kota Bharu and Singapore, and I am going to 
 Kota Bharu and Singapore. I have promised to take care of 
 you all and to see you safe out of this wicked country, and I will 
 do so. If a boat comes, or many boats, no matter. If they 
 are good, I am good : if they are jehat, I am jehat also." Then 
 I told them to go and cook their rice and think the matter over, 
 and return and tell me their decision. This said, I went and 
 sat down at a distance and smoked a cheroot. 
 
 In spite of this brave speech, however, I had one very real 
 fear, and that was lest my people should run away. This would 
 leave me absolutely stranded, and was quite likely to happen in 
 consequence of the Sultan's threats. There was nothing to 
 
ON A EAFT THKOUGH KELANTAN. 571 
 
 prevent them deserting me, and the very name of Kelantan was 
 almost enough to strike terror into them. In ten minutes they 
 would have disappeared into the jungle. Then in the morning 
 they would have only to cut down a score bamboos with their 
 parangs, make a raft, cut a pole or two, and go straight back up- 
 stream and make their way home across country., I, on the 
 other hand, should be left perfectly helpless in the middle of the 
 most dangerous State in the Malay Peninsula, totally unable to 
 go either backwards or forwards, as I could not navigate a raft 
 by myself and no native would either help me or supply me with 
 food. Everything I possessed and had collected would be stolen 
 and destroyed, and probably not for many years to come, if ever, 
 would even the place or the circumstances of my death become 
 known, since my men would of course deny all knowledge of me, 
 to cover their own desertion, and the Eaja of Kelantan would 
 deny it equally from fear of reprisals by other white men. 
 Curiously enough, I learned later, on my return to Singapore, 
 that the Governor of the Straits Settlements and the Eesident 
 of Perak were exchanging telegrams at this time concerning the 
 desirability of sending out a search-party to look for me, as my 
 journey had already lasted much longer than I had originally 
 expected. 
 
 In the meantime, the men sat in circles round their respective 
 rice-pots, discussing the situation in low tones. I had a good 
 deal of sympathy with them, for it must be remembered that 
 for a Eaja to fine them, or make slaves of them, or kill them, 
 depends upon nothing whatever except his wish to do so, and 
 they are as helpless in his hands as a chip in a surf. It was by 
 this time quite dark, and Ali came across to me and whispered 
 that two big boats, each filled with men, had just slipped down 
 the river under the shadow of the trees opposite. One of the 
 Sikhs also told me that he had seen them— probably fifty men 
 in each boat. This looked rather like a gathering of the clans, 
 and disposed me to put faith in the Chinaman's story. 
 
 When the men had eaten their rice, I called to Ali to tell them 
 
572 MALATA. 
 
 to come back. They assembled again, and he, speaking for them 
 all, replied that they were willing to go on ; and speaking for 
 himself, he declared that he would stick to me, Eaja or no Eaja. 
 The Penghulu Bujoh rose, untied about twenty knots in his 
 handkerchief, produced from the last one a new percussion-cap, 
 placed it solemnly upon the nipple of his huge old muzzle- 
 loader, and then stated that he too was my friend, and that if 
 any of the Eaja's men wished to fight, he was now ready for 
 them. So we started, in the dark, down the river, and I was 
 amused to notice that whereas before the alarm the rafts had 
 been scattered and the last one usually a mile behind the first, 
 now they could have been covered, like a pack of hounds, with a 
 table-cloth. 
 
 Two hours later a terrific tropical storm suddenly broke upon 
 us, with deafening thunder and blinding lightning. The river 
 here was at least three hundred yards wide, and the wind raised 
 such waves that only with the greatest difficulty could we prevent 
 our rafts from being swamped before we could get them safely 
 under shelter. I took several of the men, among whom I had 
 previously distributed the arms, under the roof of my own raft, 
 and the rest made a shelter out of a tarpaulin ; and all night 
 long we sat there in the downpour, each man nursing his gun 
 and devoured by ferocious mosquitoes. When day at length 
 dawned we presented a pitiful spectacle. 
 
 By noon of the fifth day we reached Tana Merah — literally, 
 " Eed Earth " — one of the most important villages in Kelantan. 
 For the first time we saw signs of life and commerce, many 
 trading boats being tied up at the foot of a high bank. With Ali 
 and Taik Choon I scrambled up, and found at the top a dozen 
 stalls offering cotton sarongs, matches, cakes, blachang — a favourite 
 Malay condiment made of rotten prawns — and the hundred odds 
 and ends of a Chinese shop. As we were walking through this 
 primitive bazaar a tall Malay, the conspicuous kris in his belt 
 politely covered by a cloth — the sign of friendly intentions — 
 suddenly barred our way, and, in a voice trembling with excite- 
 
ON A EAFT THROUGH KELANTAN. 573 
 
 ment, said, "Tahulikmasoh, Twan "^■" You cannot enter, Sir." 
 I asked why, and he said that the Chinese Towkay had sent out 
 to forbid us. So I turned back, and conspicuously asked one 
 of the Malays standing by, what was the Towkay's name ? He 
 answered, Liu Wat. So I told Talk Ohoon to go and tell 
 him that I should inform the Sultan I had been refused entrance 
 to the bazaar. As I expected, Taik Choon soon returned, saying 
 the Towkay explained that he did not know who I was, and 
 therefore had forbidden my entrance ; now that he knew, he 
 would be glad to see us, but he could not come out to meet us, 
 as he was sick and unable to walk. We went up into his big 
 court-yard, where many kajangs, a sort of roof-mat, were drying, 
 into a Chinese reception hall, where the same tall Malay who 
 had previously stopped me, now politely invited us to enter. 
 The Towkay was sitting on his bed, suffering from a kind of 
 paralysis in the right leg. Stools were brought, and I had a 
 long conversation with him. First of all, of course, he wanted 
 medicine for his leg. I inquired into the symptoms and found 
 I could do mthing, so I urged him strongly to go to Singapore 
 to be treated. He was born here, but had once before been to 
 Singapore, and said that he should take my advice. On leaving, 
 I told him I was glad he had invited me into his house, as I 
 should not now have to report his refusal, and I hoped that in 
 future he would see that the orang puteh was politely received 
 by his people. He was a merchant and planter, growing pepper 
 and gambler, and dealing in cottons. There are about a 
 hundred people in the place, and only one white man had been 
 there before. After many " good words " at parting, he said 
 we could now buy anything we liked. I went back to one shop, 
 and was looking at some silk sarongs, when Taik Choon asked 
 me privately to tell him which I wanted, and to go away. I 
 did so, and he brought them, telling me that two truculent- 
 looking Malays who were seated by the Towkay were penghulus 
 sent by the Eaja to forbid the people to allow us to land, or sell 
 us anything, under heavy penalties. Therefore the Chinese 
 
574 MAIATA. 
 
 traders had asked Taik Choon to let them sell to him and not 
 to us. The Towkay also sent a message to me, requesting that 
 if I were asked whether I had bought anything in Tana Merah 
 I should say no.' It must not be forgotten that this is, with 
 one single exception — Mr. Bozzolo's previous rapid journey 
 down the river — a country absolutely unvisited by the white 
 man. From Temoh to Kuala Pergau no white man at all had 
 ever been ; and even between Tana Merah and the capital, 
 whenever we approached any land, the children shrieked and 
 the adults ran away. When we camped that night, Ali came to 
 me and said, " Are the Tuan's guns all ready ? " " Why ? " 
 " Adah orang-orang jehat hanyah disini " — " There are many 
 bad men about here." And as Ali had no kris, he borrowed 
 my hunting-knife. It was very cold and damp that night, and 
 doing sentry-go was dreary work. My Malays coughed all night 
 long, and I could hear them shivering. Their only clothing 
 was a couple of thin cotton cloths, and yet several of them had 
 big gold buttons knotted on their handkerchiefs, and could 
 perfectly well afford a blanket or cloak. Buta took pity on one 
 of them, and lent him his thick woollen military cape. We 
 stopped later at Kampong Panah, exactly opposite the big hill of 
 the same name, and a score of Chinamen came down to see us — 
 Ho-kiens, engaged in raising peas. There were eighty of them 
 living there, and about a hundred Malays. They were born at 
 Panah, and had never seen a white man before ; so I said I 
 should charge them ten cents each for looking at me, and they 
 thought it a capital joke. 
 
 Next morning the river had become broad and still, with long 
 stretches between low-wooded banks, fringed almost all the way 
 on the left bank with coconut and areca-nut palms. The 
 karnpongs now began to look fairly prosperous, enclosed in neat 
 solid fences, with prettily-built jambans of mat-work on the 
 beach. Taik Choon told me here that he had learned the Sultan 
 had sent strict orders to prevent us going ashore anywhere, and 
 that the storekeepers at Tana Merah were to be fined ten dollars 
 
ON A RAPT THROUGH KELANTAN. 575 
 
 for aeUing things to us. At Kampong Paser Mas we found a big 
 village, fronting on the river for several hundred yards. Many 
 boats were anchored or sailing about, and the women and men 
 were dressed in the brightest colours, barbarously combined but 
 occasionally hitting off a fine effect. I heard of a remarkable 
 mine of galena some distance ahead, at a place called Penei ; so 
 I despatched Ali on foot to get information about it, and meet 
 us lower down. Two hours later he hailed us from the shore, 
 waded out, and swam to the raft, holding his clothes above his 
 head. His report was simply, " Svdah pergi Pahang." All the 
 miners had fled into Pahang ten months ago. By midday 
 the river had widened to a quarter of a mile, and as a fresh 
 breeze was blowing, numbers of sailing-boats were coming up. 
 Ahead, on a high bank, we could see a big town of many 
 houses, stretchjng out of sight ; on the left a long sandspit came 
 into view, and through my glass I discovered opposite to it a 
 shore crowded with houses and boats, many of them sea-going 
 craft. It was Kota Bharu, the capital of Kelantan, at last. 
 
 On our right as we drifted down was a row of palisades, half a 
 mile long. Good-looking houses nestled each in its little clump 
 of fruit-trees, with coconut palms waving overhead. Crowds 
 of people were walking up and down a kind of natural boule- 
 vard — Hadjis with their white headgear ; gaily-dressed women ; 
 men, each with at least two krises stuck in his waist -cloth; and 
 scores of naked urchins skylarking in the water. Long wooden 
 ladders gave access from the bank to the river. The peaked 
 roof of a mosque, or Chinese temple, stood up among the trees, 
 and the buzz of a big town soon became audible. As I was 
 uncertain what reception we should meet with, and as the 
 surroundings of a native community are always of the most 
 insanitary character, I beached the rafts and set up my tent on 
 the clean sandspit, exactly opposite the main street. 
 
 By way of opening communications with the Sultan I imme- 
 diately despatched Taik Choon, in his best clothes, to the head- 
 man of the Chinese to learn if he would undertake to deliver a 
 
576 MALAYA. 
 
 letter. Soon after my boat had gone, a canoe came swiftly 
 across the river and stopped alongside, two men paddling it, and 
 a third, evidently a person of consequence, his kris covered 
 with a gay silk sarong, seated in the middle. " Tabi, Tuan," said 
 he, and we exchanged a few commonplace greetings. Then he 
 inquired casually, "Where have you come from?" "Prom 
 Lege." "How long has it taken you?" "Seven days." 
 ' How long do you intend to stay ?" " I don't know. A few 
 days." " Where will you go next ? " " To Tringanu." " And 
 then?" But it was my turn now. " Sudah-lah — enough of 
 this. Now, who sent you here ? " " Nobody." " What do 
 you want ? " " Nothing at all." " Are you one of the Sultan's 
 men?" "No." " Or one of the Ministers ? " "No. Tabi, 
 Tuan." " Tabi." And he paddled away, of course to go 
 straight back to the Sultan with his information. Such is a 
 fair specimen of a Malay conversation. At dusk Talk Choon 
 returned, saying the Kapitan China was rather afraid of the 
 Sultan, who was very angry, and that he dare not deliver my 
 letter. So I sent him back to give it to the Nisso — a Minister 
 I had heard of. He returned very late, saying that the Minister 
 had promised to give the letter to the Sultan early in the 
 morning. 
 
 Next day I rose early, dressed myself in my one civilised 
 suit, and went across to the town. On landing, I discovered the 
 Sultan examining a huge shed-like erection which was being 
 built to receive the King of Siam, who was expected on a visit ; 
 so I promptly turned in another direction, as I did not wish to 
 meet the Sultan except by appointment. Kota Bharu is very 
 much like other Malay towns except for its big mosque. The 
 main street runs at right angles to the river, the upper side of it 
 being the Malay town and the lower side the Chinese town. A 
 long jetty and covered promenade was being put up for the King's 
 landing, and a very small Siamese flag was fluttering at the 
 river end of it. The Nisso was not at home, so with Talk 
 Choon I went on to a Chinese shop and asked to see some of the 
 
ON A EAFT THROUGH KELINTAN. 577 
 
 famous Kelantan silks. The shopkeeper produced a few, and 
 while I was looking at them a woman turned up with two or 
 three more, then a boy with others, till at last the shop and 
 street were crowded with people wishing to sell. After spending 
 all my available dollars in buying the really beautiful sarongs 
 and kain Upas that are only to be procured here, I went back 
 to the Minister's and found him at home. Mats were politely 
 offered us to sit upon, and after a few minutes he came in, 
 nervously chewing betel — a big heavy man with a cruel shaven 
 face and cropped hair, wearing a sarong and striped jacket of 
 black and red silk, and fingering the black-handled gold- 
 decorated kris in his belt. He shook hands affably, and 
 after the usual conversation, in the course of which I learned 
 that his name was Sri Paduka Wan Yusuf, he said that the 
 Sultan would receive me at two o'clock. When we were half- 
 way back to the raft, however, I learned by accident that the 
 Sultan proposed to receive me in the unfinished shed, where he 
 was going again to inspect the decorations. This, of course, 
 would have been the most undignified reception possible, and 
 would have lowered the prestige of any Europeans who might 
 come after me. I therefore decided to take a high line and 
 refuse the invitation. So I sent Talk Choon back to Wan Yusuf 
 with a message, carefully worded, saying that I was accustomed 
 to be received with courtesy and in a friendly manner by the 
 rulers of all the countries I travelled through, and that the 
 Sultan must either grant me a formal audience or I should go 
 away without seeing him at all. Then I went back to the raft. 
 When Talk Choon returned, I found that he had so much 
 improved upon my message as to say that I had important 
 business with the Sultan, and that I insisted upon seeing him 
 alone immediately. This was, of course, utterly out of the 
 question : I might as well have asked for one of his ears. I 
 rated Taik Choon soundly and sent him back again to put 
 matters right. An hour afterwards he returned in a great 
 hurry, white to the lips, and gasped out the news that the 
 
 38 
 
578 MALAYA. 
 
 Sultan had sent to seize one of the men I had brought from 
 Perak, had had the man dragged before him by three of his 
 armed followers, had questioned him closely about where he 
 came from, whether I had much batu mas — ^literally, gold-stone 
 — with me, whether I had much money, &c., to all of which the 
 man had replied that he' did not know. He declared that he 
 had come from Klang, but the Sultan said he knew he came 
 from Perak, and that if he told lies he would put him in prison 
 and keep him there. The man was still, Talk Choon said, 
 detained in the street just behind the big shed. Of course there 
 was no time to lose, so taking the two Sikhs with me, and with- 
 out visible arms, though we each had a revolver strapped where 
 it could not be seen, I rowed straight across to the town. I 
 found the man in a state of dreadful fright, as he had expected 
 every minute to be krissed or have his hands cut off, in the 
 middle of a band of the Sultan's men. The three of us 
 walked through the group without a word ; I took the Perak 
 man by the arin, saying, " There is a mistake ; this man is 
 mine," and marched him straight back to the river, the crowd 
 falling apart and nobody offering any resistance. This incident, 
 however, frightened the men so much that they begged me not 
 to send them across the river again, as they feared the Sultan 
 would carry them off. 
 
 My prompt action in this case, and my refusal to accept the 
 invitation the Sultan had sent me, produced a good effect, and 
 later in the day Wan Yusuf sent a message to say that the 
 Sultan would receive me the next day in a hall, also built to 
 receive the King of Siam, but finished and decorated, and 
 therefore a suitable place. Before I saw him, however, one 
 of my strangest Eastern experiences happened. During that 
 night I received two visitors who made to me the most remark- 
 able proposal it has ever been my lot to receive. 
 
 Just before dusk, Ali brought me word that two messengers 
 from the town wished to speak to me, but they would not come 
 to my tent, and asked me to go down to them just where the 
 

 
 fA 
 
 w 
 
ON A EAFT THEOUGH KELANTAN. 579 
 
 sandspit ended and the trees began. I naturally suspected 
 some plot, but Ali said he was sure there were only two of them, 
 so I went with him. One I immediately recognised as a man I 
 had seen in the Sultan's retinue the same morning. They 
 asked me to speak with them alone for a minute, and I walked 
 twenty steps or so away with them. Then they told me, 
 with every appearance of alarm and secrecy, that the four 
 younger brothers of the Sultan wished to know if I would 
 receive them in the middle of the night, as they had some 
 important news to tell me. I asked, of course, why they did 
 not come across openly in daylight. The messengers explained 
 that they were afraid of their brother the Sultan, who kept 
 them shut up in the house, and never allowed them to go out 
 without being watched, and that if he caught them visiting me 
 he would be furious, and the consequences unpleasant for 
 everybody concerned. I still had my suspicions about this 
 proposal, and asked them a number of questions, but finally 
 came to the conclusion that the affair was as they said, and 
 therefore, as it seemed to promise an adventure out of the 
 common, I said I would be alone in my tent waiting for them at 
 midnight. Accordingly, after all my men had turned in, I put 
 out my light and sat inside the tent door, waiting. By and by 
 I saw two figures in the darkness, some distance away, making 
 signs to me. To go to them alone under such circumstances 
 seemed rather like tempting Providence, so I quietly called 
 Buta, who was on duty at the raft, and together we walked over 
 to where I had seen the figures. These proved to be the two 
 men who had brought the message to me. "Where are the 
 princes ? " I asked. " They say they are sorry, but they cannot 
 come." "Why not?" " Orang-orang jaga" — "Men are on 
 the watch." The Sultan was keeping so close a guard over his 
 brothers that they were unable to slip away ; so the appointment 
 was renewed for the following night. I adopted the same pre- 
 cautions, and at one o'clock they came : four young princes, 
 with the same two men. The latter stayed outside with one of 
 
580 MALAYA. 
 
 the Sikhs whom I posted at a distance with orders to allow no 
 person whatever to come near the tent. Then for four hours 
 I listened to a strange tale. As the persons chiefly concerned 
 in it are still living, and Kota Bharu is not far enough from 
 Singapore to preclude the transmission of news, I must neces- 
 sarily suppress many of the details. The point of the interview 
 was, that they considered their brother the Sultan had usurped 
 the royal authority, and had used the money of all his brothers 
 to bribe Siamese recognition of his position. He was, they told 
 me, very cruel to everybody, themselves included ; he was 
 determined not to allow white men to enter the State, and had 
 given savage orders to exclude them ; he was greatly hated even 
 by most of his own people ; and they had determined to attempt 
 a revolution. The stories they told me about their brother won 
 my sympathy, and the one of themselves whom they proposed 
 to set upon the throne impressed me as a young man of great 
 intelligence and kindliness of character. They assured me that 
 at a signal from them, three out of every four Malays in the 
 district would revolt. What they lacked was, first, arms, and 
 second, money ; the Sultan having plenty of both. They asked 
 me if I thought the Tuan Yang Terutama Oehenor at Singapore 
 would sympathise with their cause and help them. I smiled 
 as I thought of the reception I should have from Sir Cecil 
 Smith if I made myself their messenger, and I told them that 
 though it was practically certain, in my opinion, that the 
 Governor would take no steps to replace their brother in 
 authority if they once succeeded in overthrowing him, I was 
 far more certain that no British official help would under any 
 circumstances be given them in the process. Then they pressed 
 their plan home. Would I undertake to secure for them a 
 certain sum in dollars, and to bring it, with arms and ammuni- 
 tion, to a point on the coast where trusted followers of their 
 own would meet me ? If I would do this, they promised, first, 
 that no unnecessary cruelty should be perpetrated ; second, that 
 the State of Kelantan should be thrown open to white men. 
 
ON A EAFT THEOUGH KBLANTAN. 581 
 
 and concessions for mining and planting be given upon reason- 
 able terms ; third, that they would confer upon me certain 
 privileges, upon which I need not dwell. I will not deny that 
 for the moment the proposition distinctly tempted me. 
 
 The result, if successful, would have been in every way an ad- 
 vantage to the miserable people of Kelantan and to my own 
 countrymen. Moreover, it would only be anticipating by a few 
 years an inevitable political development. The character of the 
 Sultan and his rule were such that nobody need feel a moment's 
 scruple in trying to overthrow him. In the Far East I knew a 
 dozen men who would have provided a share of the necessary 
 funds. The fight itself would have been neither long nor 
 severe ; the results in my own case would have been very satis- 
 factory ; and no great relish for adventure was needed to render 
 the enterprise tempting from that point of view. I told them 
 I would consider their proposal, and just before dawn they left 
 me, stole along the bank to where their canoe was hidden a 
 mile above, and slipped back across the river. Daylight, how- 
 ever, and sober reflection painted the scheme in its true colours, 
 and the power of the conventionality from which not even a 
 lonely traveller can escape, asserted itself. So when they 
 returned the next night, I told them that such an affair was 
 not to be thought of. They charged me, however, to remember, 
 after I had left, many things which they impressed upon me, 
 and departed with the expression of a hope that I might some 
 day return to Kelantan more disposed to aid in rescuing her 
 from her sad fate. I believe the Sultan has since died or been 
 made away with, and that one of my midnight visitors has 
 succeeded him ; so now, at any rate, there would be but three 
 plotters against authority. The would-be Sultan gave me a 
 little gold-mounted badik, or stabbing knife, for a parting gift, 
 and when I look at it I cannot help comparing myself, 
 longo intervallo, with a famous European conspirator of modern 
 times, who was presented with a jewelled dagger for his great 
 deed, but who sold the hilt and did not use the blade. 
 
582 MALAYA. 
 
 My interview with the notorious Sultan was " more for the 
 honour of the thing," than for any practical result. He was 
 a man on this side of middle age, rather pale, fartive-looking, 
 and with deep marks of cruelty and dissipation on his face. 
 When I was led into the reception hall he was already seated 
 upon a deer-skin on a raised platform, surrounded by his 
 Ministers and a dozen heavily-armed men. Behind him stood 
 of&cials bearing his golden kris and other insignia of royalty. 
 The floor of the hall was nearly filled with seated Malays, all 
 dressed in brightly-coloured sarong and haju, every man armed 
 to the teeth. A less prepossessing set of people I have seldom 
 seen, and I must confess that I felt a certain thrill as I looked 
 round at their obviously angry faces and reflected that a single 
 word of irritation from the potentate of evil reputation before 
 me would bring this and all other journeys to an abrupt end 
 for me. He had intended that I should take a seat upon the 
 bare floor in front of him, by which arrangement my head 
 would have been just at the height of his feet, to say nothing 
 of the awkward figure inevitably cut by a man in European 
 clothes squatting upon the floor. I had foreseen this situation, 
 however, and provided against it, and when he motioned me to 
 sit down, I made a sign to Walab, who stepped forward, looking 
 very fine in his white tunic, scarlet turban and gold sash, and 
 unfolded for me a small stool, upon which I proceeded to make 
 myself at home. This took the Sultan by surprise, and he had 
 a second's hesitation while he evidently reflected whether this 
 presumption should not be resented. Our conversation was at 
 first of the customary formal character. Then I asked him if 
 it were true that he had sent orders up the river to turn me 
 back, to forbid me to land, and to prevent me buying anything 
 from the people. He said that he had not done so, but that 
 the people were foolish and did not like white men, and that if 
 I would teU him what I wished to buy he would see that it was 
 supplied to me. He added that one white man who had visited 
 Kota Bharu before had behaved very badly indeed, and had 
 
ON A BAFT THROUGH KELANTAN. 583 
 
 even carried off the wife of one of his own men. I replied 
 that if this fact had been properly reported to the Governor at 
 Singapore, who, as I knew, looked upon the Sultan of Kelantan 
 as a friend, he would have taken steps to punish the abductor. 
 I may say here that I afterwards learned from a native that 
 after the white man in question, whose name I will not mention, 
 had left Kota Bharu and had got safe off with the woman, the 
 Sultan made inquiries into his conduct and seized seven other 
 women who had been too friendly with him, caused their heads 
 to be shaved, and nailed them all by the ear to trees, in which 
 position they remained for several days. The sandbank, too, 
 where I was camped, was the place on which he used to cut off 
 men's hands, plunge the bleeding stumps into hot oil or lime, 
 and leave them to get away as best they could when they 
 recovered. On one occasion he had both the hands and feet 
 of a man thus chopped off. When our conversation was ended, 
 1 asked the Sultan to give orders that a boat should be hired to 
 me to take me to Tringanu, and another to convey my men 
 north into Lege. He made various excuses on this latter point, 
 saying that the men would be quite safe with him, but when I 
 insisted he finally promised and issued orders there and then to 
 Wan Yusuf. I thought that my difficulties were thus at an 
 end, but I had yet to learn that this ruffianly Eaja was at that 
 very moment planning one more little surprise for me. 
 
 The story of my Malay travel may now soon be brought to a 
 close, although I find I have not had space to tell the half of 
 it. The boat promised me by. the Sultan of Kelantan sailed 
 over to my camp a few days later, and before we embarked I 
 packed upon another the men whom I had promised to see out 
 of the country, and started them down the river in advance. 
 My own vessel was an unwieldy sort of lugger, of the kind 
 called tongkang by the Chinese, and her crew consisted of a 
 nakhoda, or skipper, two men and a boy. With a fair wind we 
 swept down to the Kuala, I had the satisfaction of seeing the 
 other boat turn her bows north towards the coast of Lege, and 
 
584 MALAYA. 
 
 I thought my adventures were all over for the time. Suddenly, 
 however, as I was writing up my diary, I saw from the corner of 
 my eye the nakhoda put the long tiller hard over to port. I did 
 not look up, as I presumed we were just turning down the coast. 
 A few seconds later we ran straight upon a sandbank, bows on. 
 We were going so fast that we struck with a jerk which sent 
 everybody sprawling along the deck. I sprang to my feet and 
 looked around. We were on a bank in the very middle of the 
 river, a mile above its mouth. It was out of the question that 
 the nakhoda had not known of such an obstacle to navigation, 
 and I had not a moment's doubt that he had run us aground 
 purposely. If so, the conclusion was obvious. We could not 
 get away till high tide next day, and therefore the situation had 
 to be faced. I thought it better not to put him on his guard by 
 letting him see that I had understood his plan, so I merely 
 remarked that it was unlucky, and took the first opportunity 
 of telling Buta and Menir Khan that we should probably be 
 attacked during the night and that therefore I would share the 
 watch with them. I took the first, while they slept, and turned 
 in at ten o'clock. I had been asleep about a couple of hours 
 and was sleeping very soundly when I became dimly aware of 
 voices talking near the boat. I awoke but slowly, as I had been 
 very tired, but when I heard the grinding of another boat 
 against our own I was up in a minute and peeping through the 
 bamboo lattice that covered the sides of the place where I was 
 lying— a sort of deck-house, sunk a few feet below the level 
 of the deck. What I saw was sufficient to dispel the last trace 
 of sleep. A long canoe lay alongside, and just behind it another 
 was floating in the semi- darkness. Both were crowded with 
 Malays. Now, no respectable Malay is ever out at night, especi- 
 ally in such a locality as this. At dark they fasten themselves 
 securely in their own houses, to be safe from marauders of all 
 kinds. It is always a safe presumption, therefore, that any 
 Malay found abroad at night is a bad character. The men in 
 these boats could not possibly be other than dangerous visitors 
 
ON A RAFT THROUGH KELANTAN. 585 
 
 of some kind. I saw at a glance that one man was standing 
 at the prow of the first canoe, talking earnestly to Buta, whose 
 watch it was, and who was answering him rapidly in excited 
 tones, holding his rifle at the "ready." And even while I 
 looked, I saw a man near the stern pick up a spear from the 
 bottom of the canoe and pass it forward under the hand of the 
 one who was standing up. In an instant I was struggling out 
 of my rug, dragging my revolver from its holster, and yelling 
 to Buta, " Shoot ! Shoot ! " He failed to do so, and as I 
 reached the deck the first Malay was just clambering up the 
 side, while the man behind him was swinging back his arm to 
 hurl a spear. It was a question of seconds, but I was too near 
 to the front man to fire. It may sound strange, but one has a 
 great repugnance to firing a heavy revolver into a man's face 
 when the muzzle will be touching him, even at such a moment 
 of peril as I was then in. So I dashed my revolver sideways 
 into his face, and I can still hear and feel the smash as it 
 struck him. It was a very heavy weapon, made specially for 
 me in America to take rifle cartridges, and the blow knocked 
 the man head over heels into the water. At the same moment 
 the Malay behind flung his spear. It passed by my head and 
 sank deep into the deck-house. But our elevated position gave 
 us such an advantage that the danger was virtually over, for 
 the other men in the canoes were helpless as they sat covered 
 by my revolver and Buta's rifle. A moment later Menir Khan 
 had joined us, and he, of a more excitable temperament than 
 his comrade, was for shooting the men as they crouched before 
 us. But I shouted to them that if they did not leave instantly 
 we should fire, the wounded man was dragged in, groaning 
 nastily, and the canoes disappeared into the darkness. I have 
 always felt certain that to Sri Paduka Wan Yusuf and his 
 master I owed this unexpected visit, and I was lucky that it 
 proved nothing worse than what the Par West knows as a 
 "close call." Travel makes the fatalist, however, and the few 
 seconds that saved me take on in memory an occult significance. 
 
586 MALAYA. 
 
 After this the voyage was uneventful except for a tropical 
 storm which broke on us next morning and nearly sent us to 
 the bottom. The boat turned out to be rotten, the sails ripped 
 like paper, the ropes parted half-a-dozen times, and the nakhoda 
 proved a mere landlubber. Buta had to stand by the jib-sheet, 
 Menir Khan by the main-sheet, and I took the tiller for twelve 
 consecutive hours, momentarily expecting to be pooped. On 
 the third day we reached Tringanu, where I found the Sultan 
 a pleasant and enlightened young man, and ten days later a 
 little steamer landed us safe and sound at Singapore, three 
 months and eleven days after I had left it for the opposite 
 coast of the Peninsula. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 AN EASTEBN HOBOSGOPE. 
 
 T HAVE done with the Far Bast as it is. It would be a dull 
 imagination, however, that could regard the present without 
 attempting to pierce the future. No Englishman, surely, can 
 learn what his nation has accomplished there, without wondering 
 what it is destined yet to do. My last thought at each place that, 
 I visited was, what will this be ten, twenty, a hundred years hence ? 
 The Par East, as I have tried to show, constitutes one distinct 
 division of the globe — Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Australia, 
 and the Far East, would be a fair partition of geographical 
 interests. The sleepy Colossus of China forms one side of it ; 
 on the other, in extreme contrast, stands the passionate nation 
 of Japan, half-intoxicated with the consciousness of its own 
 power ; the north is closed by the extremity of the vast Empire 
 of Eussia, mute and tranquil yet awhile because it has no nerve 
 of connection with the throbbing West ; at the south-west corner 
 the energies of France are for the third time pushing her to 
 sterile colonisation ; beyond France, the Kingdom of Siam, its 
 corruption and futility at length exposed, lies prone on the anvil 
 of conflicting interests; beyond this, again, the remains of the 
 mysterious Malay race dwindle on in jungles and shrinking 
 villages ; Portugal, the discoverer and once queen of the whole, 
 now reigns over but the minutest and the most abject part ; 
 Spain possesses a fertile archipelago, only a small portion of 
 which she has been able to conquer, and of that she has made 
 but an object-lesson of intolerance ; while the share of Germany 
 
 589 
 
590 CONCLUSION. 
 
 lies in the fact that, under the flags of other nations, her subjects 
 work for starvation wages, and her manufacturers supply any 
 object at any price. Finally, England is seated upon the edge 
 of China, upon the point of a peninsula, and upon a rocky little 
 island, while her ships plough every sea in an unending pro- 
 cession, her merchants do nine-tenths of the trade, her consuls 
 hold the sway of kings, and her word is the primary condition 
 of every change. An upheaval is now transmuting the con- 
 ditions that have hitherto controlled the Par East. What is to 
 come of it ? 
 
 The answer is easy in part. Macao will disappear : it is 
 worthless to Portugal, and no other country would take it as 
 a gift. It will be absorbed by what remains of China, just 
 as land once cultivated and then abandoned lapses back to the 
 swarming jungle. I do not think that the Philippine Islands 
 wUl remain Spanish. The present fever of colonisation among 
 nations that cannot colonise will die away with the spread of 
 democracy in Europe, and Manila will slip from the feeble grasp 
 of a people for whom the march of time has proved exhausting. 
 Only the excuse of a quarrel is needed to make Japan the heir. 
 Spain, the land of armada and galleon, once the champion of 
 Christendom and the synonym of courage, would be powerless 
 to resist the onslaught of these Vikings of Asia. The Malays 
 are destined to a British dominion. The future of Korea, 
 for so long a kingdom pauvre, perdu, et impuissant, presents 
 few more problems. 
 
 The influence of Eussia in the Par East is about to begin. 
 At this moment Eussia and England are prepared to lay down 
 conditions which China and Japan must obey, and which other 
 countries would not lightly disregard. This is a new role for 
 Eussia, but when the Trans-Siberian Eailway is completed, she 
 will play it often. Vladivostok is one of the most powerfully- 
 defended sea-ports in the world, and I regard it as certain 
 beyond all question that Eussia will have a winter port in the 
 Far East by the time her railway connection with it is ready. 
 
AN EASTERN HOROSCOPE. 591 
 
 More than this, however, if the Anglo-Eussian entente proves 
 a durable arrangement, I have given my reasons ahready for 
 thinking that Eussia may well be a party to a division of 
 interests which would bring her as her own share a much 
 greater extent of territory and influence than she might other- 
 wise venture to expect. Ten millions of people in Manchuria 
 may be added to her empire, and one of the richest parts of the 
 Far East may be opened to her for development. One thing 
 may be taken for granted with regard to Eussia — that she will 
 not stand alone here, and consequently that if we ourselves are 
 not in friendly alliance with her, we shall sooner or later have 
 to face her as a member of a combination hostile to our 
 interests. Whatever may be the relations and the possibilities 
 of England and Eussia in Europe, I can see no reason why 
 they should not pursue a common aim in the Far East. Now 
 that the long-prevalent superstition that China might serve 
 us as a bulwark against a Eussian advance has at length been 
 exploded, our statesmen will no doubt be more prepared for this 
 alternative of friendship. 
 
 The position and prospects of France cannot be contem- 
 plated without much sympathy. This nation — "immortal 
 and indomitable Prance" — is apparently entering upon a 
 period of disturbance iff Europe which will necessarily be 
 reflected upon all her colonial enterprises. And anxiety in 
 Paris means two things in Indo-China : first, a loosening of 
 control over the local authorities, with the inevitable result 
 that the more daring and unscrupulous of these get their way, 
 and raise troublesome questions with their neighbours; and 
 second, that there will be less ability and willingness at home 
 to meet these troubles when they come. It is not yet generally 
 recognised that Prance has never been less able to colonise with 
 success than to-day. Not only has her population begun to 
 decrease, after a long period of stagnation, but her finances, 
 for so long the wonder and envy of the world, have now taken 
 the same turn. When any anxiety is expressed upon this latter 
 
592 CONCLUSION. 
 
 point the reply is always to point to the marvellous resilience of 
 France in 1871— the ease with which she paid i;200,000,000 
 sterling to Germany. But the state of her revenues which per- 
 mitted this exists no longer. Although the payment upon her 
 public debt has been largely decreased in many directions by 
 operations of conversion, her total expenditure has risen since 
 1888 by the enormous sum of two hundred millions of francs 
 a year. Upon this point M. Leroy-Beaulieu has recently 
 expressed himself as follows : " This situation is most grave, 
 because it removes all immediate prospect of an amelioration 
 of the public finances. We must not lose sight of the fact that 
 France, unlike England, Germany, Russia, and even many 
 other States, has now only a stationary, if not a decreasing 
 population ; that her wealth, on the other hand, and the total 
 of her private revenues, increase much more slowly than in the 
 past. The elasticity of private revenues, as well as of public 
 ones, is sensibly less to-day than it was fifteen years ago, or 
 twenty-five years, or forty years, or fifty years. . . . The political 
 and administrative bodies of France are hugging themselves in 
 a fatal illusion, namely, that private revenues in France continue 
 to have the same elasticity, the same ascending force, as during 
 the decade which followed the war of 1870-71. and during the 
 eighteen years of economical transformation and renovation 
 under the Second Empire. There is nothing of the kind {II 
 n'en est rien)." * 
 
 The enthusiasm of colonisation is to-day at its height in 
 France. Apart from the fact that much of this is unquestion- 
 ably due to jealousy of England, we may remember that such 
 a fever has had its rise and its fall before, and believe that, 
 for the above grave reasons, the present one will fade also. It is 
 not so long since the Chamber was within a very few votes 
 of formally abandoning Tongking. A serious complication in 
 Europe, the triumph of a Socialist party, or a financial crisis — 
 which is only too probable — would renew this desire to shake 
 
 * Journal des Debats, November 3, 1894. 
 
AN EASTERN HOROSCOPE. 593 
 
 off a burden which brings no corresponding advantage to the 
 French people. Sooner or later the French masses -will 
 remember — mutatis mutandis — the inquiry which Victor Hugo 
 expressed in these cutting words: — 
 
 Et battez-vous pour des Altesaes 
 Qui se feront des politesses 
 Pendant que vous, vous pourrirez 1 
 
 For " Altesses " read " deputes," and for " politesses " read 
 "insultes," and you have the question the French people will 
 ask themselves when they discover that for them colonies mean 
 nothing whatever but taxes. To this result my chapter on 
 " The Cost of a French Colony " may perhaps contribute its 
 mite. The sudden recall of M. de Lanessan, too, whether or not 
 it be in connection with the railway concessions of which I have 
 spoken, is likely to shake public confidence in colonial adminis- 
 tration. The bearing of all this upon the horoscope of the Far 
 East is obvious. It is difficult to believe that the French 
 Empire of Indo-China is a permanent one, because it has 
 behind it an unstable national policy, a decreasing population, 
 and a shrinking revenue, while it lacks wholly the primal 
 justification of commercial success. 
 
 What is to be the future of China ? Here the chief factor of 
 the problem — the character of the Chinese people — is so obscure 
 that nobody who knows China at all will venture on a confident 
 forecast. China will not- over-run the world. China will not 
 raise herself to the rank of a compact, homogeneous, powerful 
 nation, observant of the laws which govern civilised intercourse. 
 Japan will desire to reorganise China, and will not be permitted. 
 These things are sure enough. But they bring us no nearer 
 to a conclusion. My own view — which I present with due 
 
 diffidence is that the fate of China — I use the name for 
 
 convenience, although, as I have said before, there is really no 
 such thing as " China " at all— this country of rag-tag and pig- tail, 
 will be partition among other nations. China has hitherto 
 
 39 
 
594 CONCLUSION. 
 
 " salted all the seas that run into her," and obstruction, " the 
 only force in China upon which it is safe to rely," has served 
 her well. But she has never had to face a prospect like that 
 which lies before her to-day. I think she will ultimately go to 
 pieces under the pressure of the conflicting interests that focus 
 upon her. As Wingrove Cooke well said, " the whole present 
 system of China is a hollow thing, with a hard brittle 
 surface : we try in vain to scratch it ; but some day a happy 
 blow will shiver it. It will all go together. A Chinaman has 
 no idea of surrendering a part to save the rest. The only 
 question with him is, how long can it be resisted ? how long 
 can it be evaded ? " The West has now come too close for any 
 nation of the East to remain much longer — 
 
 Aloof from ourmutations and unrest, 
 Alien to our aoMevements and desires. 
 
 And Japan ? " With the first wind has come the blossoming 
 of the chrysanthemum," as the hokku-wiit&r said. One thing 
 only may prove a pitfall for this wonderful nation — her own 
 ambition. If she makes such demands or adopts such an 
 attitude as will bring her into acute conflict with the European 
 Powers, her foreign affairs will_be marked by bitter disappoint- 
 ments, and these will bring dissensions and possibly disasters 
 into her domestic politics. No nation, least of all England, 
 wishes to hinder the gratification of every legitimate Japanese 
 ambition, but signs are unfortunately hot wanting to show that 
 her victories and achievements, both in peace and war, may 
 turn her head and lure her into aspirations that can never be 
 realised. The speech of Count Okuma, which I have quoted 
 elsewhere, is of itself enough to give rise to these fears. Already 
 in imagination the Japanese Press sees several provinces of 
 northern China annexed, and even the Emperor of Japan seated 
 upon the Dragon Throne. In sober earnest a Provisional 
 Government for China is already prepared in Japan, and many 
 of its officials have left for the front. " The Land of the Eising 
 
AN BASTEEN HOKOSCOPB. 595 
 
 Sun," says the Yomiuri Shimbun, " should not be content -with 
 anything short of the glory and grandeur of that symbol itself " ! 
 But if Japan avoids tbis pitfall, her future may be bright indeed. 
 Victorious over her great enemy, rich with the spoils of peace, 
 free from external anxieties, her population eager and able to 
 found colonies, her revenue increasing, and her commerce 
 rapidly developing, the first Asiatic nation in the world, and 
 the predominant Power of the Far East, there is no reason why 
 she should not retain all the admiration, the respect and the 
 affection she has won. 
 
 Since my chapters on Japan passed out of the printers' 
 hands however, her friends have learned with grief, on 
 evidence which it is impossible to disregard, that -the capture 
 of Port Arthur was stained by the wholesale slaughter of \ 
 unarmed Chinese. So far as is at present known there were 
 several European eye-witnesses of the facts. Old men and 
 boys were cut down ; non-combatants were killed inside houses ; 
 prisoners tied together in bands were butchered and muti- 
 lated ; boat-loads of fugitives were shot down or torpedoed. 
 It may well be that further news will reduce these charges 
 somewhat, but there seems no ground for hope that the 
 charges may be altogether disproved. Worst of all, these 
 atrocities are said to have been committed for several days in 
 succession, by the troops under Count Oyama, whose proclama- 
 tion commanding mercy and consideration for prisoners and 
 non-combatants I have already reproduced. It is most earnestly 
 to be hoped that a stringent inquiry into this matter will be set 
 on foot at the earliest moment, in order to show the world that such 
 barbarities are as repulsive to the best sentiments of Japan as 
 to our own. At the same time a word of protest must be uttered 
 against the tendency to condemn the entire Japanese people for 
 the acts of some of their soldiers. To begin with, the soldiers 
 are drawn from the class which has had least opportunity of 
 imbibing the spirit of civilisation of which the Japanese Govern- 
 ment has given so many striking examples. Moreover, the 
 
596 CONCLUSION. 
 
 horrors inflicted by the Chinese in Port Arthur upon their 
 Japanese prisoners might be held to excuse a fury of revenge, if 
 this had not been permitted to last. And such wholesale killing 
 is no new thing in Eastern warfare. There were scenes in the 
 suppression of the Indian mutiny for which the British people 
 would be sorry to be held responsible. Sbobeleff slaughtered 
 thousands of Turkomans at Geok Tepe on January 24, 1881.* 
 The " incident " of Penjdeh was not much better. And after the 
 fall of Son-tay in the French war in Tongking there was a night 
 of equal horror.t Moreover, the same journal which has been 
 foremost in exposing the atrocities of Port Arthur once had 
 occasion to denounce the French in similar terms for the shoot- 
 ing of defenceless Chinese after the naval massacre of Foochow. 
 And to say nothing of the awful times of the Commune, it is 
 commonly believed that the Franco-German war produced 
 scenes that both armies would gladly forget. Therefore, how- 
 ever bad the story of the fall of Port Arthur may prove to be, 
 let us not pass a verdict of guilty upon the whole Japanese 
 nation. The extraordinary fury of the Japanese armed coolies 
 and soldiers was due in great part to the indiscretion of an 
 officer. It was known that three Japanese spies caught in 
 Chin-Chow had first been subjected to the torture of bone- 
 
 * " At 4 in the afternoon SkobelefE led his oavahry through the breach, and 
 ordered both horse and foot to pursue the retreating enemy and to give no quarter. 
 This command was obeyed by both with savage precision till darkness fell — by the 
 infantry (six companies) for a distance of seven miles, by the cavalry (a division of 
 dragoons and four sotnias of Cossacks) for eleven miles, supported by a battery of 
 horse artillery with long range guns. Eight thousand persons of both sexes and all 
 ages were mercilessly cut down and slain. ' On the morning after the battle they 
 lay in rows like freshly-mown hay, as they had been swept down by the mitrail- 
 leuses and cannon.'" The Hon. George N. Curzon, "Eussia in Central Asia," 
 p. 82. 
 
 f " That was a terrible night in Son-tay. The Turcos had entered, with com- 
 paratively little opposition, by the eastern gate, and they admittedly killed men, 
 women, and children — every hving thing they came across. The French troops 
 were not so bad, but the butchery of Chinamen and crop-headed Annamese (the 
 Prince's men) was sickening." J. G. Scott (Special Correspondent in Tongking at 
 the time, and recently British Minister in Bangkok), " France and Tongking," 
 p. 85. See also C. B. Norman, " Tonkin, or France in the Far East," p. 245. 
 
AN EASTERN HOROSCOPE. 597 
 
 crushing and then burned alive. Shortly afterwards three 
 Japanese soldiers were either captured or killed during the 
 march on Port Arthur, and the advance guard found their 
 bodies. They were decapitated, their hands cut off, their 
 bodies ripped open and their livers torn out. Instead of burying 
 the bodies, the of&cer in command caused them to be laid out 
 upon a platform by the roadside, and the whole army thus saw 
 them as it marched past. The consequent blood-thirst became 
 so uncontrollable that the Japanese officers could only protect 
 the people after the fall of Port Arthur by posting notices upon 
 houses containing fugitives, saying, " The people of this resi- 
 dence must not be killed," and even finally by pinning labels upon 
 the breasts of Chinese, bearing the saving words, " This person 
 must not be killed." For my own part, the news is beyond 
 comprehension. That Count Oyama and his officers should 
 have allowed days to be spent in butchering prisoners and 
 captives — as is asserted — is almost unimaginable. Until this 
 news came, every correspondent with the Japanese forces had 
 paid a high tribute to their discipline and humanity, while 
 the Japanese Eed Cross Society was positively held up as 
 an example to our own. And in the latest papers from Japan 
 I find this item among the notes from the front : " Some 
 Japanese coolies who murdered a Chinese in the Liau-tung 
 Peninsula were summarily executed by order of General 
 Oyama." 
 
 The kingdom of Siam is another uncertain factor in the 
 future of the Far East. I have given many reasons for believing 
 that there is no hope whatever of the duration of an independent 
 monarchy there. Sooner or later some stronger hand will have 
 to take the helm. The ambition of France has decided that the 
 hand shall be hers. England, on the contrary, is definitely 
 pledged to the maintenance of Siamese autonomy and integrity. 
 Thus the ground is prepared for grave events. Every day that 
 passes, however, and many incidents that have occurred even 
 since my chapters on Siam were written, deepen my conviction 
 
598 CONCLUSION. 
 
 that our responsible statesmen have not realised either the diffi- 
 culties or the dangers of the situation, and that they are still 
 cherishing hopes of Siamese action which are inevitably destined 
 to a rude disappointment. The sad death of the Crown Prince, 
 too, has intensified every element of uncertainty. His life and 
 future formed the one remaining object of the King's devotion : 
 now that he is dead the enfeebled monarch will withdraw him- 
 self more than ever from the task of attempting to direct and 
 control the crooked aims and forcible-feeble characters that are 
 contending around him. The appointment of the new Crown 
 Prince represents the triumph of the Second Queen, a lady of 
 far greater ambition and determination than her senior rival, 
 and a life-long devotee of intrigue. Her eldest son was born 
 on New Year's Day, 1880, and his name and title are Somdetch 
 Chow Fah Maha Vachiravudh. The name " Thoon Kramom 
 Tho," which has been telegraphed from Bangkok by corre- 
 spondents obriously unfamiliar with the Siamese Court, is 
 merely a familiar abbreviation of a birth-title, and not the 
 Prince's name at all. Prince Maha Vachiravudh has been study- 
 ing in England for several years in the home of a private 
 family of much educational distinction^ and he is described by 
 those who know him best as a youth of much amiability and 
 intelligence, though the circumstances of his life and the com- 
 parative obscurity to which he has been purposely relegated 
 have not been such as to develop in him any marked strength 
 of character. He is, of course, like his late brother, the nephew 
 of Prince Devawongse and Prince Svasti. The chief danger that 
 awaits him is the deterioration which must almost inevitably 
 follow upon his abrupt withdrawal from the excellent influences 
 which have surrounded him in England, and his exposure, at 
 an age when these cannot have produced a permanent effect, to 
 the ruinous and debilitating life of the E03 al Palace of Bangkok. 
 As for the "great reform" just announced, "a Legislative Council 
 consisting of the Ministers and at least twelve nobles, who are 
 to hold deliberations and pass new laws, with theEoyal sanction. 
 
AN EASTERN HOEOSCOPB. 599 
 
 or, in the event of the Sovereign's illness, or absence from any 
 other cause, by a two-thirds majority without such sanction," I 
 fear it can only be regarded as fresh dust thrown in the eyes of 
 Europe. As I have explained, there are no such persons as 
 " nobles " in Siam, and the Legislative Council will to all 
 intents be the same band of royal half-brothers who form the 
 Cabinet, grouped under another name. The news is more 
 important as showing the King's public admission of his own 
 physical exhaustion, and his determination to relinquish even 
 the pretence of holding the reins of government. He was not 
 strong enough to announce his successor with his own lips. 
 
 . There remains only the last house of the horoscope of the Far 
 East. -England — what is to be her future there ? The aim of 
 this book has been to show that we have the right and the 
 opportunity, and therefore the duty, greatly to extend our 
 influence and our trade — in a word, our Empire — in this great 
 division of the globe. The figures of our predominant interest, 
 which I have given in every case where they could be obtained, 
 speak for themselves. No other Power can present statistics 
 which even approach them. And the future, if we grasp it now, 
 will utterly dwarf the past. The rest of the world is parcelled 
 out like an allotment-ground. In the Far East alone an un- 
 worked mine awaits us. A distinguished French traveller has 
 well described the consideration which should weigh with the 
 statesmen of the hour. "It is in Asia once more that will be 
 decided the destinies of the world. In Asia will be founded and 
 wiU increase great empires, and whoever succeeds in making his 
 voice heeded in the Far East will be able also to speak in 
 dominating accents to Europe. . . . Be Asiatic, there lAes the 
 future ! " * 
 
 I am profoundly convinced that this is true. The years that 
 I have given to the Far East have taught it as their supreme 
 lesson, and the highest ambition of my life would be gratified 
 
 • Prince Henri d'Orieans, " Around Tonkin," 1894, p. 426. 
 
600 CONCLUSION. 
 
 if I could believe at the close that I had helped to teach it to my 
 countrymen. 
 
 It is no cant to say that the British public is a mass of people 
 with a conscience. It is capable of supporting a Government 
 that should resign an advantage we might secure from a rival 
 by force of arms, for no other reason than that to seize it would 
 be an act of injustice. And its enthusiasm cannot be secured for 
 any new Imperial movement ■ unless, besides the expediency, the 
 right can be shown and the benefits to be conferred upon the 
 nations we bring under an extended dominion. Therefore any 
 appeal to the British public, in whose hands for good or evil the 
 destinies of the Empire now rest, must address itself in no small 
 part to their conscience. Herein lies the strongest hope of 
 British extension in the Far East. As Mr. H. H. Johnston has 
 recently said, " the British Empire is not merely the heritage of 
 thirty-eight millions of pink-and-white Englishmen, but it is a 
 league of peace and commerce in which black and yellow men 
 are concerned." And the extension of our authority over these 
 alien races is for them an unmitigated blessing. A sharp-eyed 
 foreign critic who has lately returned from a journey round the 
 Empire has declared this in impressive words. "All these new 
 countries, which are so many outlets for the commerce of the 
 world, are not monopolised by the English for their own use only. 
 People from other nations may go there and settle, without having 
 any formality to go through or any foreign taxes to pay. They may 
 go on speaking their own language, practising their own religion, 
 and may enjoy every right of citizenship. And if they are not 
 too stubborn or too old to learn, they may lay to heart many good 
 lessons in those nurseries of liberty. If I have not succeeded in 
 proving that in spite of their hundred and one foibles the Anglo- 
 Saxons are the only people on this earth who enjoy perfect 
 liberty, I have lost my time."* When a native race comes 
 under British control it receives immediately a birth-gift — 
 Freedom, " heaven-sent, red-tape-bound, straight from Downing 
 
 • Max O'EeU, "John BuU and Co.," p. 318. 
 
AN BASTEEN HOROSCOPE. 601 
 
 Street." It has been my fortune to see at close quarters almost 
 all the civilised nations of the world, and most of the great 
 colonies, and the result is that I believe in Englishmen above 
 all other men, and in British rule above all other rule. There- 
 fore the British Empire is to me the most important impersonal 
 consideration on earth, and the transmission to our heirs of the 
 legacy of our fathers the greatest responsibility. 
 
 There are many joyful signs that a new era has dawned. No 
 leading statesman would venture to say to-day what Cobden said 
 in 1836: " The colonies, the army, the navy . . . are only appen- 
 dages of our aristocratical government. John Bull has for the 
 next fifty years the task set him of cleansing his house from this 
 stuff." The recognition of the British Drang which no man either 
 created or can hinder, the imperative need of new markets, 
 the sight of the marvellous progress of native races under our 
 flag, the just alarm at the advance of our rivals, the awakening 
 at last to an appreciation of the fact that powerful and jealous 
 nations are plotting for our inheritance — these are bringing 
 about a change, before it is too late, in the minds of the in- 
 habitants of Great Britain. But the best sign of all, and there- 
 fore the most hopeful portent in the heavens of this Ear Eastern 
 horoscope, is that a Liberal Prime Minister has declared to aP 
 the world that the "party of a small England, of a shrunk 
 England, of a degraded England, of a neutral England, of a 
 submissive England, has died." 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Ai'V <;< ' 
 
 lAiiiSST^onsnl, on Chinese officials, 
 
 284 
 AVstar, Eedah, 529 
 American Settlement in Shanghai, 7 
 Amherst, Lord, at Court of China, 
 
 303 
 An-byon Monastery, 380 
 Anderson, John, and Kedah, 527 
 Angkor, France and, 518 
 Ashmore, Bev. Dr., and Chinese mis- 
 sions, 281 
 Asia, The civilisation of, 25 
 Atrocities at Port Arthur, 595 
 Audience question. Court of China, 
 302 
 
 Balfotjk, F. H. , quoted on China, 306 
 Bangkok, 407, 422 {see also Siam) 
 Bangkok society, 416 
 Battatnbong, France and, 513 
 Bhaskarawongse, Phya, and Siam, 461 
 Bichidt, Prince, of Siam, 450 
 Book-piracy in Hongkong, 29 
 Boulger, D. C, quoted on China, 246 
 Bourbon, Prince Henry of, at Peking, 
 
 280 
 Bowring, Sir John, and Macao, 189 
 Bozzolo, C. F., 534, 538, 558, 563, 
 
 567 
 Brennan , Mr. , and Japanese competi- 
 tion, 382 
 Bribery and corruption in China, 
 
 266-7-8, 282-4-5, 295 
 Brinkley, Captain, quoted on Japan, 
 
 392 
 Britain, see Great Britain 
 British middleman and Chinese mer- 
 chant, 25 
 British predominance in China, 317, 
 
 318 
 British rule, Chinese and the, 26, 27, 
 
 41,42 
 British trade: -with China, 242, 282, 
 311, 317, 318 ; with Shanghai, 15 ; 
 with Siam, 518 
 
 Bruce, Mr., on Chinese bribery, 283 
 
 Camoens : on Eedah, 529 ; on Macao, 
 189, 190 ■ 
 
 Campbell, J. D., C.M.G., and China, 
 233 
 
 Candlin, Rev. Mr., and China, 284 
 
 Canton, Justice at, 219 
 
 Canton Eiver, Blocking the, 270 
 
 Cape St. James, Life at, 79 
 
 Cavenagh, Sir Orfeur, and Siam, 531 
 
 Chantabun, 427 
 
 Cbemulpo, population, trade, &c., 842 
 
 Chiengmai, 427 
 
 China : among the Great Powers, 260 ; 
 and Europe, 301 ; foreign influence 
 in, 282, 301, 311 ; foreign trade of, 
 242, 282, 317, 818 ; future of, 298, 
 593 ; government, the, 208 ; pub- 
 licity of official interviews in, 253 ; 
 rehabilita,tion of, possibilities of, 
 395 ; reorganisation of, by Japan, 
 884, 593 
 
 China's trade, The race for, 503 
 
 Chinese : adaptability, 119 ; admiral's 
 lack of dignity, 264 ; army, condi- 
 tion of, 265, 275 ; army, lack of 
 discipline, 273 ; army, ' ' reform," 
 274 ; barbarity, 213, 219, 226, 287- 
 8-9 ; capital in foreign companies, 
 15 ; cruelty to prisoners in war, 273; 
 disposition under offence, 277 ; filth, 
 209, 291 ; Foreign Office, 300 ; hos- 
 tility to foreigners, 25, 198, 258, 278, 
 288, 293; Imperial Maritime Cus- 
 toms, 231, 237, 239, 242; incon- 
 sistency, 294 ; in the Straits, 41, 
 42; justice dispensed, 220; love for 
 British nationality, 41, 42 ; manu- 
 factures, 14 ; naval procedure, ex- 
 ample of, 268 ; navy, 265, 271, 275 ; 
 official view, teaching the, 286; 
 officialdom corrupt, 266-7-8, 282- 
 4^5, 295 : overtaxed in Indo-China, 
 119 ; people, 276 ; predominance in 
 603 
 
604 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hongkong, 26; predominance in 
 Shanghai, 12 ; secret societies in 
 Singapore, 39 ; silk trade, 10, 11, 
 311 ; tea trade, 10, 311 ; under 
 British rule, 26, 27 ; usefulness in 
 Vladivostok, 147 
 Chino-Prenoh Frontier, On the, 95 
 Chino-Prench relations at Monkay, 
 
 101 
 Chiuo-Prench War, Memories of, 84 
 Clarke, C. C, quoted on Chiria, 315 
 CI6menoeau, M., and Piench colonisa- 
 tion, 112, 128 
 Clifford, Hugh, on Pahang, 60 
 Cochin-China : 77 ; Customs duties, 
 
 120; " fonotionnaires," 115 
 Cookfighting in Manila, 177 
 Confucian teaching in China, 313 
 Confucius, Shrine of, 204 
 Contemporary Eeview quoted on the 
 
 War, 265 
 Cooke, Geo. W., quoted on China, 276, 
 
 294 
 Cornish, N. E., at Kiangnau, 269 
 Courbet, Admiral, and Franco-Chinese 
 
 War, 86 
 Cremation in Siam, 418 
 Customs service of China, 231-7-9, 
 242 
 
 Dameong, Prince, of Siam, 415, 447 ; 
 
 and education schemes, 459, 460, 
 
 461 
 David, Mr., and Macao, 189 
 Devawongse, Prince, of Siam, 444, 
 
 451 ; and the French question, 478, 
 
 488-9, 490-4-5-6-7 ; and the Perak 
 
 disputed territory, 549 
 Develle, M. : and the Franoo-English- 
 
 Siamese question, 505-6-7-8-9, 512- 
 
 3-4-5-6-7 ; and the Franco-Siamese 
 
 question, 491 
 Douglas, Professor R. K., quoted on 
 
 China, 224, 295 
 Dufferin, Lord : and the Pranco-Eng- 
 
 lish-Siamese question, 505-7-8-9, 
 
 513-5-6 ; and the Franco-Siamese 
 
 negociations, 472 
 Dugenne, Colonel, and Tongking, 98 
 
 East India Company and Eedah, 528 
 
 England, see Great Britain 
 
 England's charity to China misap- 
 plied, 282, 284 
 
 Ermolaiew, Bear -Admiral, 145 
 
 Etienue, M., and French colonisation, 
 111-2-5-6 
 
 Examination for office in China, 203, 
 31-2 
 
 ' Famine in China, Where England's 
 I subscription went, 282, 284 
 '■ Favier, Abb6, and China, 279 
 i Ferry, Jules, and Tongking, 128 
 Foreign Legion, The French, 98 
 Poville, M. de, and French statistics, 
 
 125 
 Fiance and colonisation to-day, 592 
 Prance and Great Britain in Siam, 
 
 503, 597 {see Great Britain) 
 Prance and Siam, True story of, 468 : 
 various French annexations in Indo- 
 China, 468 ; M. Lanessan's proposal 
 for new limit on Siamese side, 469 ; 
 French explanation to Britain, 471 ; 
 Joint Commission and interim ar- 
 rangement, 471; Prance definitely 
 claims Mekong left bank to be its 
 western boundary, 472 ; M. Wad- 
 dington's statement, 473 ; Siam 
 desires arbitration, 473 ; French 
 military movements, 474 ; Britain's 
 position and advice to Siam, 475-6 ; 
 Siam prepares her defences, 476 ; 
 Captain Thoreux captured, and 
 Siamese disclaimer, 477-8 ; Siamese 
 misrepresentation to Britain, 478; 
 engagement involving the case of 
 Pra Yot, 480 ; closing the river 
 against the French, 484 ; France's 
 grievances, 485; Siamese Court ad- 
 visers, 486 ; French rights in Siamese 
 waters, 488 ; Battle of Paknam, 492 ; 
 the French ultimatum , 494 ; eventual 
 surrender of Siam, 497 ; future rela- 
 tions finally settled, 500 ; the net 
 result, 500 " 
 France's future in the Far East, 591 
 Franco-Chinese : Frontier, On the, 95 ; 
 relations at Monkay, 101 ; War, 
 Memories of, 84 
 French : Colonial administration, 103, 
 112 ; colony, the cost of a, 124 ; 
 revenue decreasing, 591 ; Settlement 
 in Shanghai, 6, 7 ; statistical com- 
 plexities, 124 ; view of colonisation, 
 114 
 French Indo-Cbina: 71; Chinese 
 overtaxed in, 119 ; misgoverned, 
 122 ; restrictions on foreigners in, 
 121 ; society in, 103 
 
 Gambling in Macao, 191 ) t^ S' 
 
 Gambling in Siam, 421 
 
 Gamier, Francis, and Tongking, 127 
 
 Gold Flower, 530 
 
 Gordon, General : and Li Hung-ohang, 
 
 245-6 ; and Russia v. China, 275 ; 
 
 and Shanghai, 6 
 
 5. 
 
 £>vj^K^i2- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 605 
 
 Gowan, Dr., and the King of Siam, 
 436 
 
 Granville, Lord, and Siamese do- 
 minions, 532 
 
 Great Britain, Alliance between Japan 
 and, 399 
 
 Great Britain and France in Siam : 
 the race for China's trade, 503; 
 England's reversionary rights over 
 Shan States, 503; alarm at the 
 French advance, 504 ; Luang Pra- 
 bang and adjacent countries claimed 
 by France, 506 ; inconsistency of 
 the French position, 606 ; English 
 remonstrance and French obduracy, 
 507 ; French agree to consider a 
 bufler, 608 ; a one-sided bargain, 
 509 ; boundaries of the buffer State, 
 510 ; an artificial arrangement, 511 ; 
 the question only opening, 612 ; 
 another frontier question : French 
 designs on the Lake Provinces, 618 ; 
 England repels proposal of territorial 
 exchange, 516 ; British Government 
 and Siam's independence, 615 ; 
 French occupation of Chantabun, 
 617 ; Siamese natives registered as 
 French subjects, 518; French Com- 
 missioners as an influence, 518; 
 French commerce a minute fraction 
 of British, 618 ; British or French 
 protection for Siam ? 519, 597 
 
 Great Britain and Eussia in the Far 
 East, 590 
 
 Great Britain and the Franco-Siamese 
 negooiations : the proposal for barrier 
 ' between British and French posses- 
 sions, 471 ; re French claim of 
 asserted Annamese territory, iTl-S ; 
 Siam counting on British interven- 
 tion, 475 ; Britain's attitude and 
 advice to Siam, 476, 483, 496-7; 
 Siamese misrepresentation to 
 Britain, 478 ; re France's griev- 
 ances, 485 ; re French officers' 
 action at Paknam, 492 
 
 Great Britain and the future of Malaya, 
 632, 590 
 
 Great Britain and the future of Siam, 
 502, 518, 519, 697 
 
 Great Britain and the Siamese-Perak 
 disputed territory, 649 
 
 Great Britain and the Siamese intru- 
 sion in Eelantan and Tringanu, 
 530 
 
 Great Britain's chance to open China, 
 316 
 
 Great Britain's future in the Far East, 
 598 
 
 Great Wall of China, 215 
 
 ; Grindrod, G. H., and service in Siam, 
 j 468, 461 
 
 Gubbins, J. H., and Japanese competi- 
 ! tion, 382 
 
 I 
 
 i Haiphong, 71 ; port charges, 119 
 
 ! Hanoi, 74 
 
 Hart, Sir Eobert, and his work, 
 231-8-9, 240 
 
 Heathenism in China, 281 
 
 Herbinger, Colonel, and French coloni- 
 sation, 128 
 
 Hongay coal, 110 
 
 Hongkong : 16 ; a great outpost, 35 ; an ' 
 Arcadia for criminals, 27 ; behind 
 civilisation, 29 ; British petition to ^f 
 Parliament, 31 ; Chinese predomi- . 
 nance in, 26 ; danger from Chinese, <y 
 25 ; docks and defences, 24, 26 ; v 
 frequency of " acting " officers, ' 
 34; history, 22; laws, 29; legis- 
 lative system defective, 30 ; Peak, 
 the, 19 ; piracy, 26 ; plague, 26, 34 ; 
 population, 28 ; Praya Reclamation 
 scheme, 18 ; progress, 23 ; Retrench- 
 ment Commission, 35 ; revenue and 
 expenditure, 28 ; shipping, 29 ; 
 terrorism in, 27 
 
 Hue, Abb6, and Macao, 188 
 
 Hunt, Mr., on Japanese competition,, 
 383 ; on Korean society, 346-7 
 
 India and Thibet, 316 
 Infanticide in China, 289 
 
 Jaoqubmyns, M. Bolin, and Siam, 486, 
 494, 498 
 
 Japan : and the future of Korea, 368 ; 
 and the future of Manila, 690 ; and 
 the re-organisation of China, 384, 
 593 ; as a commercial rival, 15, 
 380 ; as a first-class Power, 376 ; as 
 the equal of European Powers, 384 ; 
 future of, 594 ; in the Korean 
 market, 383 ; present pohtical 
 dangers, 389 ; and Russia, 368, 
 401 
 
 Japanese : army statistics, 377 ; 
 p itriotism for the war, 379 ; pre- 
 yonderanee in Korea, 367 
 
 Japan's ally. Question of, 399 ; Great 
 Britain the choice, 399 ; Alterna- 
 tives — France, 400, Russia, 401 ; 
 Interests concerned — Japanese, 402, 
 Russian, 402, British, 403 
 
 Jelebu, 58 
 
 Johnston, Mr. H. H. , quoted on British 
 Empire, 699 
 
 Johor, 63 
 
606 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Johor, Sultan of, 63 
 
 Joly, Mr., on Macao " tea," 187 
 
 Jones, Captain, V.C., and the Franco- 
 Siamese negociations, 471, 473, 
 494 
 
 Jungle journey in Malaya, 534 ; a 
 game preserve, 550 ; animal life, 
 547 ; camp-building, 540 ; elephants 
 indispensable, 542 ; Hill of Death, 
 553 ; in the disputed territory, 649 ; 
 " shooting " fish, 551 
 
 Justice in China, 219 
 
 Kedah : and the Siamese control. 
 Story of, 527 ; fettered by Siam, 
 529 
 
 Eelantan : a contemplated revolution, 
 578 ; an industrial village, 568 ; and 
 the intrusion of Siam, 530 ; danger 
 from the Eaja, 569 ; deserted 
 villages, 567 ; gold-mines, 568 ; 
 Kota Bharu, 575 ; penetrating the 
 State, 584 ; Eaja, the, and white 
 men, 534, 5!)2, 582 ; Eaja, the, 
 interview with, 582 ; rapiils, the, 
 562, 564 ; run aground and attacked, 
 584 ; Sakeis, the, 566 ; Tana 
 Mersh, 572 
 
 Khanburi, 427 
 
 Khorat, 427 
 
 Kiangnan arsenal, 269 
 
 Kim, Mr., in Korean Court, 851 
 
 Korea : 323 ; absorption of, by Eussia, 
 166 ; China and a dependent, 862 ; 
 events in, during the war, 366 ; 
 events leading to the war, 356 ; 
 fertility of, 325, 338 ; foreign com- 
 munity, 352 ; future of, 368, 590 ; 
 Japan and China re, 356; Japan the 
 principal seller to, 383 ; Japanese 
 preponderance in, 367; King, the, 
 351 ; official assassination in, 348 ; 
 omnipotence of the official, 329, 345 ; 
 uncivilised under China, 347 (see 
 also Seoul) 
 
 Korean : army, navy, and Foreign 
 Office, 360 ; hatred of Russians, 
 147 ; people, 336, 844, 353 ; uncon- 
 cern, 346 {see also Seoul) 
 
 Kowloon : 22 ; Customs authorities 
 and, 23 
 
 Kung, Prince, of China, 299 
 
 Labet, Captain, of Kuala Leh, 559, 
 560 
 
 Lanessan, M. de : and French coloni- 
 sation, 111 ; and French empire in 
 Siam, 469, 474, 513; recall of, 593 
 
 Lang, Captain, R.N., and the Chinese 
 forces, 263, 270, 275 
 
 Leroy-Beaulieu, M, : and France in 
 Siam, 518 ; and French colonisa- 
 tion, 120, 126, 136; on French 
 finances, 592 
 
 Li Hung-chang : and General Gordon, 
 245, 246 ; and medical schools, 258 ; 
 and Western relations; 258 ; as capi- 
 talist, 14, 15 ; career, 244 ; dis- 
 regard for foreigners, 256 ; his 
 army and the war, 248 ; interview 
 with, 253 ; on China, Korea, and 
 Eussia, 255 ; personally, 251 ; re- 
 ported degradation of, 259 
 
 Llama Temple, 205 
 
 Low, Sir Hugh, and Perak, 56 
 
 Macao : a mongrel community, 183 ; 
 coolie traffic, 185; future of, 690; 
 history, 184; "lie" tea, 187 
 
 Macartney, Lord, at Court of China, 
 303 
 
 Malacca, 44 
 
 Malay character, the, 545 
 
 Malay Native States : 693 ; future of, 
 532, 690 ; native rule, effect of, 
 525, 549 ; revenue and its disposal, 
 526 
 
 Malay Protected States : 52 ; fertility 
 of, 67; future of, 67; history, 54; 
 population, trade, finance, 56 ; pros- 
 perity insecure, 66 ; residential 
 system, 64 
 
 Malaya, Britain and the future of, 
 632, 590 
 
 Manchuria, Eussia and the future of, 
 691 
 
 Manila: 169; a Eoman Catholic pro- 
 duct, 174 ; future of, 590 ; history, 
 172 ; tobacco-making, 176 
 
 Martin, Eev. Dr., on China, 314, 315 
 
 Matchmaking in Japan, 382 
 
 Maxwell, W. B., and SelAngor, 57 
 
 Mayo, Lord, and the King of Siam, 
 436 
 
 Mayr^na in French Indo-China, 90 
 
 Medhuist, quoted on China, 278 
 
 Medicine in China, 291 
 
 Miohie, Mr. Alex, quoted on China, 
 289, 304, 307 
 
 Milner, Mr. Alfred, quoted on English- 
 men in foreign service, 459 
 
 Ming tombs, 217 
 
 Missionary question in China, 280, 304 
 
 Monkay : 98 ; French and Chinese 
 relations at, 101 
 
 Morant, Mr. E. L. : and education in 
 Siam, 459, 460; at the Court of 
 Siam, 436, 438, 486 
 
 Namoa, piracy of the British ship, 26 
 
INDEX. 
 
 607 
 
 Narah, Prinoe, of Siam, 436 
 Nar^B, Prince, of Siam, 449 
 Naris, Prince, of Siam, 449 
 Negri Sembilan, 58 
 N6grier, Colonel, and French coloni- 
 sation, 128 
 
 OiESEN, Mr., on Korean character, 
 
 346 
 Ord, Sir Harry, and Tringanu, 531 
 O'Eell, Max, on English liberty, 600 
 Orleans, Prince Henry d' : on Asia, 
 
 599; on Tongking, 117 
 
 Pagoda Anchorage engagement, 86 
 Pahang, 58 ; the " sick man," 60 
 Paknam, Battle of, 464, 492 
 Parkes, Sir Harry, and China, 285, 
 
 302 
 Patani, 530 
 Pa vie, M., and the Siamese negocia- 
 
 tions, 488, 489, 491-4-5 
 Pearson, Charles, and China, 262 
 Peking : 195 ; history, 196 ; filth, 209 
 Penang : discontent and finance, 44 ; 
 
 trade with Malay States, 525, 526 
 Perak : progress, 56 ; Sultan of, 61 ; 
 
 the disputed territory, 549 
 Philippine Islands, 178, 590 
 Phipp, Mr., and the Franco-Siamese 
 
 negociations, 485 
 Piracy : at Hongkong, 26 ; at Tong- 
 king, 106 
 Port Arthur and Eussia, 401 ; Japan- 
 ■ ese atrocities at, 595 
 Porteu, M., and I'rench colonisation, 
 
 185 
 Portugal's decadence in the Par Bast, 
 
 192, 590 
 Prostitute class in the Far Bast, 43 
 Protection in Tongking, result of, 135 
 Protestant missions in China, 305 
 
 Eailwats in Tongking, 107 
 
 EaUway schemes : in China, 308 ; in 
 
 Siam, 455 
 Eatburi, 427 
 
 Eesidential system in Malay States, 64 
 Bibot, M., and the Siamese question, 
 
 470 
 Eichaud, M., and French colonisation, 
 
 104, 120 
 Eichelieu, M. de, and Siam, 424, 456, 
 
 463, 486 
 Eivifere, Commandant ; and Tongking^ 
 
 127 ; death of, 88 
 Eodger, Mr., and Pahang, 58 
 Eoman Catholic : missions in China, 
 
 305 ; sway in Manila, 174 
 Boss, Eev. John, <»n Chinese havoc, 273 
 
 Eosebery, Lord: and Siam's indepen- 
 dence, 450 ; and the Anglo-Eussian 
 entente, 402 ; and the Franoo- 
 English-Siamese question, 505, 506, 
 512-5-6; and the Franco-Siamese 
 negociations, 473, 476, 492-6-7 ; on 
 a " small" England, 601 
 
 Eussia : and Britain in the Far Bast, 
 590 ; and the future of Korea, 166, 
 369 ; and the future of Manchuria, 
 591 ; on the Pacific, 151, 165 ; and 
 Japan, 368, 401 ; Anglo-Eussian- 
 Japanese understanding, 402, 591 
 
 Saigon, 77 ; customs duties at, 120 
 
 St James, Cape, Life at, 79 
 
 St. James's Gazette on Japan and 
 China, 398 
 
 Salisbury, Lord : and the Franco- 
 Bnglish-Siamese question, 506; and 
 the Jj'ranco-Siamese negociations, 
 471 
 
 Samudh, Phya, of Paknam, 408 
 
 Sohau, Major, and the Siamese army, 
 463 
 
 Secret societies in Singapore, 39 
 
 SeUngor, 57 
 
 Seoul: 341, 344 ; foreign community, 
 the, 352 (see also Korea) 
 
 Shameen indemnity, source of the, 
 283 
 
 Shanghai : 3 ; American Settlement, 
 7 ; Chinese manufactures, 14 ; 
 Chinese predominance, 12 ; French 
 Settlement, 6, 7 ; history, 6 ; Japan 
 and the neutrality of the port, 269 ; 
 land regulations, 12 ; municipal 
 government, 7 ; outpost of British 
 trade, IS ; population, 8 ; Republic 
 Army, 9 ; rise of the commission 
 agent, 13 ; social life, 9 ; trade, 10 
 
 Siam : and France, the true story of, 
 468 {see France) ; and the control 
 of Kedah, story of, 527 ; and the 
 Perak disputed territory, 649 ; Crown 
 Prince, the late, 437 ; Crown Prince, 
 the present, 597 ; foreigners kept 
 distant, 410 ; future of, 597 ; Great 
 Britain and the future of, 502, 518, 
 519 ; King's brothers, the, 448 ; 
 King's character and power, the, 
 434 ; King's coUapse, the, 432, 452, 
 598 ; lavishness of royal ceremonies, 
 419 ; means of communioatisn neg- 
 lected, 426, 455 ; Palace, 412 ; Pro- 
 vincial Commissioners, 443 
 Siamese : amusements, 421 ; army, 
 461 ; cabinet and administration, 
 440, 451 ; customs service, 457 ; 
 Education Department, 469; Foreign 
 
608 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Office, 414 ; government breakdown, 
 452 ; intrnsion in Kelautan and 
 Tringauu, 530 ; justice, 454 ; mis- 
 representation to Britain, 478 ; 
 money, 428 ; navy, 463 ; Postal 
 and Telegraph, 457 ; Public Works 
 Department, 455 ; Eed Cross Society, 
 482 ; titles, 429 (see also Bangkok) 
 
 Siemrap, France and, 513 
 
 Sikhs as policpmen, 21 
 
 Silver : and China, 311 ; depreciation 
 of, 28 note, 46, 48, 49, 132 note, 242 
 note 
 
 Singapore : 37 ; secret societies in, 
 39; trade and finances, 46 ; varied 
 inhabitants of city, 39 (see also 
 Straits Settlements) 
 
 Skertchly, S. B. J., quoted on China, 
 293 
 
 Skinner, Mr. A. M., on the Malay 
 Native States, 525-6-7 
 
 Smith, Sir Cecil, and the Straits 
 finances, 47, 51 
 
 Spain's influence and future in the 
 Far East, 179, 590 
 
 Stigand, Consul, on Manila, 172, 173 
 
 Straits Settlements : 37, 44 ; and 
 military contribution, 46 ; Chinese 
 in the, 41, 42 ; financial position, 
 48 ; trade with Siam, 519 (see also 
 Singapore) 
 
 Sungei Ujong, 58 
 
 Superstition among Chinese, 292 
 
 Svasti, Prince of Siam, 446, 451-2-3 
 
 Swedish missionaries murdered, 301 
 
 Swettenham, Mr. F. A., and Perak, 
 66 
 
 Temoh and its gold-mines, 556 
 
 Theatres in Siam, 421 
 
 Thibet : and England, 316, 403 ; Li 
 Hung-ehang and, 254 
 
 Times correspondfiits quoted, 164, 
 273-4-6, 286, 293 
 
 Ting, Admiral, 264 
 
 Tobacco-making in Manila, 175 
 
 Tongking : change of Governors- 
 general, 118; coal, 110; cost of, 
 127 ; future of, 122, 593 ; history, 
 127 ; people, 6 ; piracy, 106 ; raU- 
 way jobbery, 107 ; result of protec- 
 tion, 135 
 
 Trans - Siberian railway : and its 
 results, 159, 256 ; terminus in 
 Korea, 165, 369 
 
 Tremlett, Consul, on Tongking, 106, 
 
 Tringanu : and the intrusion of Siam, 
 
 630 ; Sultan, the, 586 
 Troup, Mr., on Japanese competition, 
 
 383 
 Tsgng, Marquis, 297 
 Tsungli Yamgn, 297, 300 
 
 ViLEES, M. le Myre de : and Tong- 
 king, 116, 120 ; and Siam, 498, 515, 
 517 
 
 Vladivostok : 141 ; a military town, 
 146, 148 ; ice at the port, 158 ; 
 impressions of the forces, 156 ; 
 life at, 147 ; restrictions on foreign 
 vessels, 155 ; value in case of war, 
 151, 590 
 
 Waddinston, M., and the French 
 claim in Siam, 506 
 
 Wallace, A. Eussel, quoted on Malaya, 
 52 
 
 Walsham, Sir John, at Court of China, 
 302 
 
 War, Chino-Japanese, the : effect on 
 China's status, 261 ; events leading 
 up to, 356 ; Japan justified, 367 ; 
 Japanese atrocities at Port Arthur, 
 595 ; Japan's conditions of peace, . 
 395 ; Japan's moderation, 360 ; 
 Li's army, 248 ; murder of Kim 
 Ok-kyun, 361 ; untrue accounts, 
 380 
 
 Watchmaking in Japan, 382 
 
 Wellesley, Province, 44 
 
 Whitehead, Hon. T. H., and Hong- 
 kong, 30, 31 
 
 Williams, Mr. David, and Siamese 
 Customs, 458 
 
 Williamson, Eev. Dr., on missions, 
 281, 307 
 
 Wonsan, town and port, 324 
 
 Tamagata, Marshal, on Chinese 
 
 cruelty, 274 
 7unnan, the race for, 503