174 NOTES OF TRAVEL IN CHINA. 



warehouse arp '"Lzens of active Chinamen busily engaged in putting 

 matting 01, Lie boxes which are intended for exportation. At the ex- 

 treme end is the Hong of the merchant, the rooms on the 

 ground floor being used for offices and reception rooms, while those on 

 the upper story are the private apartments of the household. 

 Throughout the private hall up stairs are distributed tables and 

 chairs of a very costly description, the wood work being of a dark 

 colour similar to ebony, very massive and richly carved. On the top of 

 each is inserted a marble slab suitable to the purpose for which it is 

 designed. 



On either side of the hall is a row of chairs and small tables alter- 

 nately arranged, so that each guest when seated has a separate table 

 to himself. A cup of tea is invariably handed to a visitor with the 

 leaves lying in the bottom of it. The cups are very small, and the 

 Chinese drink the infusion without using either sugar or milk. In 

 the rear of the houses, and in some cases in front of them is a flower 

 garden shaded by fruit-bearing trees, beneath which the wife or wives, 

 and children of the Chinaman are permitted to walk. The female 

 portion of the community are never visible. Canton is the capital 

 of the province within which it lies, and being the oldest place in the 

 empire open to foreign trade, people from all quarters of the globe 

 are pushing their fortunes within its precincts. 



The natives are treacherous towards foreigners and troublesome 

 to the Government, and the seditious can be seen undergoing punish- 

 ment in the public streets. For petty offences a man is thrashed 

 through the streets. Men sentenced to wear the cangue, or moving 

 pillory, often fill up the way, and their sorrowful countenances are 

 indices of their suffering. The cangue weighs about fifty pounds, 

 and is composed of heavy planks about four feet square, in the 

 centre of which is a hole large enough to allow the neck to work 

 with ease when this collar is placed on it. The prisoner is allowed 

 to go at large, and is fed solely by the hand of charity. His name and 

 the nature of his offence, are written on the front of the cangue. It 

 is just wide enough to prevent him from lifting his hand to his mouth, 

 to walk is distressing, to lie down impossible, so these poor wretches 

 are worn out by fatigue and end their life by the way side. But the 

 reckless indifference of the Chinese to the value of human life is well 

 known. During the year 1855, upwards of eighty thousand heads 

 were cut off in Canton alone. 



Situated at the distance of about sixty miles from Canton in a 

 westerly direction, is the Island of Macao, which is under the res- 



