398 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
commercial city of Canton, which, though it has long been open 
to Europeans, is still purely Chinese, with its peatstack-like 
architecture, its countless population, its temples, prisons, 
flower-junks, mandarins, pig-tailed street-boys, &c. Most of the 
members of the expedition made an excursion thither, and were 
rewarded with innumerable indescribable impressions from 
Chinese city life. We were everywhere received by the 
natives in a friendly way,^ and short as our visit was, it was 
yet sufficient to dissipate the erroneous impressions which a 
number of European authors have been pleased to give of the 
most populous nation. One soon saw that he has to do with 
an earnest and industrious people, who, indeed, apprehend much 
—virtue and vice, joy and sorrow—in quite a different way 
from us, but towards whom we, on that account, by no means 
have the right to assume the position of superiority which the 
European is so ready to claim towards coloured races. 
The greater portion of my short stay in Canton I employed 
in wandering about, carried in a sedan-chair—horses cannot be 
used in the city itself—through the streets, which are partly 
covered and are lined with open shops, forming, undoubtedly, the 
most remarkable of the many remarkable things that are to be 
seen here. The recollection I have of these hours forms, as 
often happens when one sees much that is new at once, a 
variegated confusion in which I can now only with difficulty 
distinguish a connected picture or two. But even if the im¬ 
pressions were clearer and sharper it would be out of the 
^ Yet with one very laughable exception, I wished for zoological pur¬ 
poses to get one of the common Chinese rats, and with this object in view 
made inquiries through my interpreter at* a shed in the street, where rats 
were said to be cooked for Chinese epicures. But scarcely had the question 
been put, when the old, grave host broke out in a furious storm of abuse, 
especially against the interpreter, who was overwhelmed with bitter 
reproaches for helping a “ foreign devil ” to make a fool of his own 
countrymen. All my protestations were in vain, and I had to go away 
with my object unaccomplished. 
