CHINESE BOATS. 
189 
Common to many, not mentioned in Du Halde, but described by 
Mr. Barow, are the screens thrown across the streets from house to 
house, affording to the passengers shelter from the sun and rain. 
In passing through Nan-hiung-foo, we met with many indications 
of our arrival in a province where we were known as Hung-mous, 
or Englishmen, a people looked upon as very little removed from 
barbarism by the Chinese of Canton. Some of the gentlemen, in 
riding through the city, were saluted by the mob with the appel- 
lation of Fan-qui, or foreign devils, and were much pressed by the 
crowd. It was in vain to attempt to escape them by hard riding, as 
every part of the street was filled with people, and those who ran 
behind cheered and kept up with their game. One or two gen- 
tlemen could not quietly endure their insults, but turning their 
horses, charged into the mob. They at once fled in all directions, 
and although they did not cease their abuse, kept at a more tolerable 
distance. 
The boats in readiness to receive us at this place, with the ex- 
ception of those for the commissioners, were, in the state in which 
we found them, too comfortless to be taken possession of. They had 
no covering but mats, were open from stem to stern, and were so 
low that it was impossible to move in them but with the body bent 
at right angles. Their holds, full of water, were only separated from 
the cabin by an open bamboo railing. I must confess, that being 
threatened with a return of my illness in consequence of the fatigue of 
the journey across the mountain, I shuddered at such accommodation, 
but was saved from its probable consequences by the kindness of Mr. 
Ellis, who gave me a share of his boat. The other gentlemen with 
great difficulty, and reiterated representations to the local authorities, 
obtained partitions to separate them from the boatmen. These 
trivial embarrassments encountered by travellers as a necessary 
consequence of the habits of the country, would have been quietly 
endured ; but in China, where we saw the means of better accom- 
modation at hand, where it was withheld from us by the local authori- 
ties from their contempt of our national character, such barefaced 
