THE CHINA STATION. 121 



Government to select it for a British settlement; it has one of the noblest roadsteads iu 

 the world. Before the cession to England in 1841, the native population on the island 

 did not exceed 2,000; now there are 70,000 or 80,000. 



Macao (pronounced Macow) is forty miles to the westward of Hong Kong, and an 

 agreeable place as regards its scenery and surroundings, but deficient as regards its harbour 

 accommodation. Dr. Milne, himself a missionary resident for fourteen years in China, 

 says, writing in 1859 : "To some of the present generation of English residents in China, 

 there can be anything but associations of a comfortable kind connected with Macao, 

 recollecting as they must the unfriendly policy which the Portuguese on the spot pursued 

 some sixteen or seventeen years since, and the bitterly hostile bearing which the Chinese 

 of the settlement were encouraged to assume towards the ' red-haired English/ " 



Macao is a peninsula, eight miles in circuit, stretching out from a large island. 

 The connecting piece of land is a narrow isthmus, which in native topography is called 

 "the stalk of a water-lily." In 1840 a low wall stretched across this isthmus, the 

 foundation stones of which had been laid about three hundred years ago, with the acknow- 

 ledged object of limiting the movements of foreigners. This was the notorious "barrier," 

 which, during the Chinese war of 1840-1, was used to annoy the English. As large 

 numbers of the peasantry had to pass the " barrier gates " with provisions for the mixed 

 population at Macao, it was a frequent manoeuvre with the Chinese authorities to stop the 

 market supplies by closing the gate, and setting over it a guard of half-starved and 

 ravenous soldiery. 



Leaving Macao for Canton, the ship passes the celebrated "Bogue Forts/ 7 threads 

 her course through a network of islets and mud-banks, and at last drops anchor twelve 

 miles from the city off the island of Whampoa, where the numerous and grotesque junks, 

 "egg boats," "sampans/ 7 &c., indicate a near approach to an important place. The name 

 Canton is a European corruption of Kwang-tung, the " Broad East. 7 ' Among the Chinese 

 it is sometimes described poetically as "the city of the genii/ 7 "the city of grain/ 7 and 

 the " city of rams. 77 The origin of these terms is thus shown in a native legend. After 

 the foundation of the city, which dates back 2,000 years, five genii, clothed in garments 

 of five different colours, and riding on five rams of different colours, met on the site of 

 Canton. Each of the rams bore in its mouth a stalk of grain having five ears, and 

 presented them to the tenants of the soil, to whom they spake in these words : 



" May famine and death never visit you ! " 



Upon this the rams were immediately petrified into stone images. There is a 

 ''' Temple of the Five Rams 77 close to one of the gates of Canton. 



The river scene at Canton is most interesting. It is a floating town of huts built 

 on rafts and on piles, with boats of every conceivable size, shape and use, lashed together, 

 " It is/ 7 says Dr. Milne, " an aquarium of human occupants. 77 Canton has probably a 

 population of over a million. The entire circuit of city and suburbs cannot be far 

 from ten miles. 



Canton was bombarded in 1857-8 by an allied English and French force. Ten days 

 were given to the stubborn Chinese minister, Yeh, to accede to the terms dictated by the Allies, 

 16 



