Nov. 22, 1858.] AND THE PEIHO RIVER. 71 



and the plunder carried off by the Allies from Taku, which looked 

 about as wretched as Worthing does in the month of January, could 

 not have been found by the most experienced leader of a " Kazzia" 

 in anything smaller than one of our large cities. In front of each of 

 these villages fleets of junks were anchored or hauled into mud 

 docks cut in the banks ; the majority were grain-vessels or vessels 

 pressed into that service by our active friend the Taoutae of Shanghai, 

 who remorselessly applies to his master's service the shipping of 

 Amoy, Fu-chow-fu, Shanghai, or Shangtung, paying them only a 

 small nominal freight — an act of oppression against which, instead 

 of murmuring, the Chinese shipmaster quietty indemnifies himself 

 by carrying a small venture of European produce, opium, cottons, 

 and lucifer matches, &c., which he charges an enormous price upon, 

 and cheats the government of all taxes and dues. 



Beyond the first 1 5 miles the Peiho improves rapidly : the soil 

 overlieing the clay stratum increases in depth and fertility, signs of 

 agriculture increase on either hand, fields of Indian corn, millet, 

 bearded wheat, lettuces, and radishes, follow in rapid succession* 

 The villages are embosomed in fruit orchards, or hide their ugliness 

 in groves of handsome trees. Some of the reaches of the river 

 become exceedingly picturesque, although there is a lack of the 

 grotesque temple and quaint pagoda which give so marked a cha- 

 racter to Chinese scenery in the south. From the masthead of the 

 gunboat I was in, the villages, population, and cultivation appeared 

 confined to the immediate vicinity of the Peiho, in two belts, varying 

 from 2 to 4 miles in width. This I could only account for by the 

 want of water elsewhere, and it was remarkable that in a distance of 

 60 miles we only counted two small streams or creeks flowing into 

 the Peiho. Beyond this belt of cultivation and its teeming popula- 

 tion a dreary steppe was seen extending, on which trees were scarce 

 and the houses few and isolated. It put me much in mind of the 

 interminable plains of Eussia : however, I do not mean to assert 

 that the plain of Chili is uninhabited, but that it is so by com- 

 parison with the borders of the fresh-water streams, of which there 

 are several flowing into the sea besides the Peiho, if the Chinese 

 are to be believed. I counted at one time no less than 25 villages 

 in sight from the masthead, and often 10 or 15 were visible : they 

 were none of them ruined in condition, and all appeared full of 

 inhabitants — stalwart naked labourers and hosts of noisy healthy 

 children ; women were not seen until afterwards, and of them there 

 was no lack. Our first arrival as the " avant-garde " of the squadron 

 was a startling event to these poor villagers ; but a stranger sight 

 was the whole male population of a village ranged along the bank, 



VOL. III. <^ 



