Kathay: A Cruise in the China Seas Part 11

Leave Amoy--Arrive in Macao Roads--Live ash.o.r.e--Well guarded --Night calls--Ventriloquist at Typa Fort--Ordered on board --Up to Whampoa--Clipper Ships--Over to Hong-Kong--Coronation day--Independence day--Hurried on board--The mail--Ty-foongs.

Came to anchor in Macao Roads on the 4th of June, having made the pa.s.sage to Shanghae and back in just forty days, including stoppage there, at Amoy, and delay from getting aground on Formosa.

Left Amoy on the 31st of May, and ran down the coast with favoring breezes, nothing worth noting having occurred since our departure from the latter port.

Went ash.o.r.e on the first opportunity, and found there awaiting our arrival several letters and packages of newspapers, which had reached by overland mail during our absence. This was indeed a treat, and repaid us for all the inconveniences of our voyage. A good piece of news also was received, to wit, that there was a probability of our leaving the station for home in the fall.

Suffering still from sickness, I was allowed to take up my lodgings on sh.o.r.e, and duly installed myself in apartments No. 7, Senate Square, where I witnessed the Governor's daily visit to the Senate house, and the relieving of the guard; but as all situations have their drawbacks, was greatly annoyed by the unearthly noises made by the sentries during the night. Not a person could pa.s.s, but he was hailed, and every half hour I was awakened by the guard yelling out some unintelligible words, which were caught up in every direction, in the most discordant tones, until echo herself grew hoa.r.s.e and disgusted with the repet.i.tion. I was well guarded to be sure, but could have dispensed with the attention, and would have bargained for less honor, with an equal diminution of noise!

The Portuguese lay great stress upon these night calls; and at the Typa fort, where we lay, which but two or three soldiers garrison, it was said they had a ventriloquist, who sent the word _Alerto_, with various changes, throughout the works.

After one week's residence _en grand seigneur_, was obliged to give up my _casa_, and repair on board. Orders being to go up to Whampoa, about the confounded insurrection.

On the seventeenth of June, came to anchor in the "Reach" again, and found every thing as usual there, the standing joke of the Chinese having taken Canton not being realized.

Saw there some of the first of those Yankee clippers that have since almost monopolized the China carrying trade. The "Sea Serpent," bound for the United States, pa.s.sed close to us, and a magnificent specimen of naval architecture she was. She excited a strong yearning for home, and gladly would I have exchanged on board of her.

These clippers, I then noted, were to effect a change in East Indiamen, such as would have been hooted at ten years ago. Then, speed was a secondary consideration, and capacity for carrying deemed the _sine qua non_. Now, speed is the object; and it has been proved, that in making quick trips, with a lesser cargo, in suitable seasons, the advantage is greater than in freighting larger vessels, that in consequence of their greater capacity sail slower.

The anniversary of our arrival in China came round whilst we lay at Whampoa, and I celebrated it by a trip to Canton, to make an official call upon our Charge d'Affaires, and returned the same day.

Our only amus.e.m.e.nts here were strolling over the hills, and sauntering through Bamboo and Newtown--the novelty of which places having some time worn off--and pa.s.sing away the evening at the bowling alleys, and billiard room, where prices were high and refreshments execrable.

However, here we got exercise even at a high rate; and this exercise is considered so desirable, that persons from Canton--a distance of ten miles--resort to this place.

From Whampoa departed for Hong-Kong, where found a number of old friends. We arrived there upon Coronation day, which was being celebrated with all honor. The Queen--G.o.d bless her!--was toasted, and the healths of the King consort, and all the royal family drunk. In the evening, the devotion of her loyal subjects was expended in a brilliant display of fireworks, which was untimely quenched by a sudden shower.

Celebrated our own "Independence day" for the second time in China, whilst we lay in the harbor of Hong-Kong; and H. B. M. frigate Cleopatra, and brig Lily, were dressed, and fired national salutes with us;--a pretty compliment, and as it should be. An editor in Hong-Kong made it the subject of unseemly remark, but am confident he had not the countenance of one of his subscribers. A dinner was given in honor of the occasion at our Consul's. It was a splendid affair, several lady residents of Hong-Kong gracing the board with their presence. The gentlemen kept it up long after they had retired, and the union of the States was cemented,--representatives from nearly all being present,--amongst the hours

"Ayont the twal."

We lay at anchor off Hong-Kong until the eleventh of July, when received orders to proceed over to Macao, and join our consort there. I was out of the ship when the orders came, and of course knew nothing about them; had spent the evening on board H. M. S. S. Minden, where I occupied the state-room of an absent officer, an acquaintance. The next morning, whilst breakfasting, my attention was directed, through the port, to some unusual movement on board our ship; such as a boat being dispatched to the Cleopatra, sending aloft topgallant yards, and unshipping the companion ladder. This last movement was decisive. Sailing orders must be on: and bringing my meal to a hasty conclusion, got on board to find the messenger shipped, and all hands heaving away at the capstan. Soon we had sail on, and I did not get on board a minute too soon to secure a pa.s.sage to Macao.

After reaching that port, and concluding the business for which we had been summoned, received permission to exchange our rolling and pitching in the outer roads, for the snug and quiet anchorage in the Typa; and our old pleasant trips to the sh.o.r.e were again resumed: rambles along the Governor's Road, and over the hills, filling up the afternoons of "liberty days," and suppers at "Frank's"--Hotel--at night adding considerably to the amount of monthly mess bills.

The arrival of the mail was always an event with us; and this month--August--it reached Macao unusually early, having been received on the eighth day: just fifty-eight days from New-York. I do not know what we would have done without this mail, the antic.i.p.ation of its arrival keeping our minds occupied, and the business of answering letters and mailing them filling up the monthly intervals. We closed our correspondence in the last week of the month, expecting dates from home during the first week of the next.

Whilst we lay in the Typa had strong indications of a Ty-foong, but it pa.s.sed over with some bad weather, high winds, and squalls. Felt perfectly secure at our anchorage, but used the precaution of bending the sheet-cables, sending down yards, and housing topgallant-masts. As it was, had considerable of a blow, and the Ty-foong ravaged the coasts in our vicinity.

The Ty-foong of the East is synonymous with the hurricane or tornado of the West Indies, as the monsoon may be said to a.s.similate with the trade-winds of the opposite hemisphere; but this "strong wind" blows with even more violence, and has a circular motion. Ships have had their masts bodily twisted out of them, and many, more unfortunate, have been ingulfed in the maelstrom created by its fury. From its veering so suddenly to every point of the compa.s.s, the usual precautions against ordinary gales afford but little protection. A heavy, boding swell precedes, to give notice of the dreaded Ty-foong. The aquatic birds, with natural instinct, take wing and fly before its approach; whilst on sh.o.r.e the air is filled with insects in constant motion. So indicative, indeed, is this flight of insects, that the Chinese call them Ty-foong Bugs.

The inhabitants predicate the recursion of these storms by numerous other signs, and are prompt to take every precaution to avoid their effects. At Macao, upon this occasion, the proprietors of the "Tanka"

and "pull away" boats drew them on sh.o.r.e, some distance from the landing, and close to the houses. In these, the boat folk, men, women, and children, stowed themselves away, prepared to weather the Ty-foong.

The walls of the dwellings on the Praya forming a good lee, they lashed their boats as well as they were able, and secured the bamboo coverings.

Not a boatman could be prevailed upon to launch his craft for love or money. Some of them, indeed, from the habit of their profession, would say, "Suppose have give ten, twelve dollar, so;" but if you appeared for an instant to incline to their extortionate demand, they would at once change their tune, and shaking both head and tail,--please to remember that Chinese boatmen _have_ tails to their heads,--cry out, with deprecatory gestures, "Ei-yah! how can make walkee? my tinkee can catchee too muchee Ti-fung!" and then slide back beneath their bamboo shelter, with a decisive "No can!"

The season when Ty-foongs generally prevail in these lat.i.tudes,--and it is only within a few degrees upon these coasts that they rage,--is between July and October, inclusive of those months. They form a serious impediment to the navigation of the China Sea, almost amounting to its obstruction at this period; for the inducement must be great to encounter such a risk. H. B. M. ship Hastings experienced a severe one late in October, and the new American clipper ship "Witchcraft," came into Victoria harbor on the third of December, 1851, having encountered a strong Tyfoong in 142 east, which carried away all her topmasts, and jib-boom, narrowly escaping going down. Both these vessels were caught unexpectedly, neither expecting to find Ty-foongs in the lat.i.tudes in which they were at that season of the year.

CHAPTER XX.

Ty-foong pa.s.sed--Pleasant Season--Theatrical Exhibition--The Macaense--Philharmonic Society--Italian Opera--Awaiting Orders for Home--Thoughts of Home and Friends--Idea suggested by the Setting Sun--Poetry--Maladie de Pays--Its effects upon the Swiss--A Remedy--My own Experience--And manner of Cure.

The symptoms of the Ty-foong having pa.s.sed over, and all fears of its recurrence at an end, time went pleasantly by at Macao. The temperature was most delightful, this season being certainly the most agreeable in this part of China, a number of foreign residents from Canton and Hong-Kong adding to its gayety.

The Portuguese officers, aided by the citizens, got up for our amus.e.m.e.nt a theatrical exhibition, at the old rooms formerly occupied by the Philharmonic Society. The representations were very good, and the accommodations for the audience excellent. Saw the _elite_ of Macao at these performances, and must say the Macaense are not without a goodly share of female beauty, although it is not apparent upon all occasions, for the decline of the place has affected the finances of the families, and their pride will not allow them to exhibit their poverty upon common occasions, not that there was any evidence of it here, for the ladies were all richly as well as tastily dressed.

It is perhaps not generally known that opera once flourished in Macao.

An Italian company, who had carried their "sweet voices" around the world, once made these walls vocal with the music of Donnizetti, Bellini, and others of their great maestros, and "Lucia di Lammermoor"

lamented her lost love, and the amiable Amina sobbed forth her somnambulic sorrows for her false lover, upon these very boards.

The performance given upon this occasion was not in opera, but dramatic, something about the troubles of a Jew--not _le Juif Errant_--although this member of his tribe was off and on sufficiently to have given him a claim to this t.i.tle.

An interval, filled up by promenading to some pretty good music, was succeeded by a funny farce, which sent the audience laughing to their beds.

We awaited here the arrival of the Commodore, whom we had heard was to bring us our release, and send us home immediately upon his reaching the station. Had not a full view of the part of the horizon from which the flagship might be expected to emerge, but many were the gla.s.ses directed to the mouth of the Typa, from which a glimpse of the ocean could be gained, and the quarter-masters of each watch were repeatedly ordered to keep a good look-out. The fact was, we were getting tired of China, and despite all the kind favors showered upon us, longed for home:

"Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself has said: This is my own--my native land!"

And thoughts of home and dear ones there, would intrude, and strong desires once more to tread the soil of that loved native land, and to press the hands of early and long-tried friends, could not be entirely repressed, although not altogether just to "those we had here."

But we had been now nearly two years absent. Two years on shipboard is a long, a very long time--try it if you doubt--and had seen nearly all that was worthy of observation within our reach. Seas of immense extent rolled between us and our homes, and the circ.u.mference of the globe had to be traversed ere we could expect to meet our friends. No wonder then that we so ardently desired to be allowed to point our prow towards the West, or watching the retiring beams of the setting sun, envied that orb the privilege that action gave, of kissing eyelids and gazing into eyes, on which we were wont to gaze "lang syne," nor under the influence of such thoughts that we should give them vent in this manner:

"Farewell, my love, the evening gun Has boomed in echo o'er the sea; My soul goes with that sinking sun, Which sheds its rising beams on thee.

"May it bring to thee peace and joy, Tho' here, it care and darkness leaves; For gloomy thoughts my soul employ, Which now no light from thine receives.

"Oh, for one old accustomed smile!

That dark eye's glance of l.u.s.trous light; But these are distant many a mile, And I can only sigh--Good Night!

"Good night, my love, whilst darkness lowers Around our lone and silent bark, Morning smiles sweetly on thy bowers, And greeting, upwards flies the lark.

"Thou art the sun that glads my way, Thine _eye_ the beam of life to me, Thy _smile_ can turn my night to day, As upwards speeds _my soul_ to thee."

I have before explained the causes which operated upon me to produce such effects as above, and hope the reader, if ever he or she should have been afflicted in either of the ways I have mentioned, will at least tolerate the method of alleviation.

This "_maladie-de-pays_" is a horrible sensation, worse than sea-sickness, I ween, and I can fully sympathize with the poor Swiss, who are said to have fallen victims to it in the armies of Napoleon. He should have allowed pens, ink, and any quant.i.ty of writing paper; they might have relieved their minds by _scribbling_. Music is also said to be a capital cure, although the "_Ranz des Vaches_" did not succeed; but I judge from the cheerful countenances of those of their countrymen who are in the habit of parading our streets with a hand organ and monkey, and enlivening us with the air of

"Arouse thee, arouse thee, my merry Swiss boy."

For myself I have only experienced the malady twice. The first attack occurred, when with a heart rather more tender than at the present writing, I was left amongst a parcel of strange inquisitive boys, at a boarding-school in the country, at what then appeared to my unsophisticated mind away "'tother side of yonder;"--I shall never forget, although I may laugh at it now, the feeling of utter desolateness that came over me, or how low sank my little heart, even to the very soles of my stockings, when the Dominie, whose face was fast forgetting the smiles it had worn in my good parents'

presence, inquired in a tone half hypocritical, half ironical: "What does the young gentleman want now?" and I blubberingly answered, "I--want--to--go--go--home." I recovered from that attack with the aid of counter irritation by the application of birch, and emollients in the shape of scribbling verses to the metre of "dulce--dulce domum." The effects of the second are now before the reader, from which I opine he is the greatest sufferer, and this is dispersed by music, for the "retreat" has just been beaten, and I shall turn in.