SHANGHAI SETTLEMENTS 83 



"barbarian." Our settlements therefore were collectively 

 known from the start, as they are still known colloquially 

 to natives, as the "I-chang, " the foreign or barbarian en- 

 closure. Dr. Giles assures us that there was no original 

 contempt in even the barbarian "I," and we can well believe 

 it. But we have only to remember how insulting a term 

 "foreigner" has been amongst ourselves, to see how in all 

 countries the corresponding terms are viewed. We had a 

 drill sergeant here once who was mightily put out at being 

 classed as a "foreigner." When the treaty of 1858 was 

 negotiated, it was stipulated that the use of the offensive 

 "I" (^$) should not again be employed either for the British 

 Government or for British subjects. 



When in November, 1843, Capt. Balfour came as our 

 first British Consul, he # was probably quite unaware of the 

 term already prepared amongst the local authorities for the 

 site he was to rule. He was fortunate enough, however, to 

 have to deal with a most excellent official in the then Taotai, 

 Kung Moo-kew, or Kung Moo-yun, with whom he proceeded 

 to select the first portion of what has become so important 

 and valuable a position. The Treaty of Nanking, Art. II, 

 had ordained that British people were to be "allowed to 

 reside, for the purpose of carrying on their mercantile pur- 

 suits, without molestation or restraint," at each of the Five 

 Ports. But it seems that Capt. Balfour was not prepared 

 to give any definite name to the site selected by himself and 

 the Taotai. We find him calling it, in his evidence some 

 years later before a Commission sitting at home, the "British 

 Location." 



At first the area so> selected had but three boundaries — 

 the Yangkingpang on the south, the river on the east, and 

 the Li Chia Chang on the north. The west was left open. 

 The Li Chia Chang deserves a little notice. It included all 

 the land between the present Peking Road and the Soochow 

 Creek about as far back from the river as the present 

 Museum Eoad. The whole of the present British Consular 

 compound, therefore, together with some Government dock- 

 yards and other land, was not included in the first settlement 

 area. That site extended only from the Yangkingpang to 

 the Peking Road as it now is. How the first settlement 

 extension took place so as to include all the land as far north 

 as the Soochow Creek is an extremely interesting story, but 

 is outside our present scope. Suffice it to< say that it was 

 purchased in part, and got in part by exchange, the purchase 

 price being 17,708,420 cash, and the area 126.9.6.7 mow, 

 part of which was awash at high water, for there was then 

 no Public Garden. 



