the hospitable practice of the foreign merchants to invite strangers to their
princely establishments, where a generous profusion and a warm welcome are
extended to the visitor. In addition to Old and New China streets, there
is, hard by, a narrow, filthy alley, not inappropriately called Hog lane, and
filled with the most abandoned portion of the people, who minister to the
vicious appetites of the foreign sailors, supplying them with wretched grog
and other dangerous stimulants.
There are no drives or walks leading directly into the country from the
foreign quarter; the residents are, therefore, limited to the river, where, in
the evening, they exercise themselves in rowing their swift little boats. On
the opposite side of the river, however, on the island of Honan, there is a
walk, extending a mile or more, to a Buddhist temple; but there is little
that is attractive in the surrounding country, and nothing peculiar about
the temple, which is similar to the other joss houses. On a visit which was
made to this spot by one of the officers of the expedition, a drove of sacred
pigs were seen in their sacred styes, and they seemed to flourish exceedingly,
for they were so fat that they could not stand. I t was something of a curiosity,
(though somewhat saddening in the reflections it occasioned,) to
behold this sanctified pork, and the reverence with which it was worshipped.
Canton is the capital of the province of Kuan-tong, from which the name
given to the city by Europeans bas been corrupted. I t is falsely applied, for
it is the name of the province only, as we have just said; that of the city
is Kuang-chow-foo. The city is built on two rivers, the Choo-Keang, or
Pearl, and the Pi-Keang, which is a branch of the former. The mouth of
the Choo-Keang, Pearl, or Canton river, is called the Bocca Tigris. I t derives
this name from the supposed resemblance of the hill-tops, on Great
Tiger Island, to the outline of a tiger’s head. Although the resemblance is
not at first very striking, it becomes quite obvious after examination. The
river is guarded at its mouth, and at several points on its banks, by Chinese
forts, which, with their white-washed walls and general pacific aspect, do not
appear very formidable. The view, however, is pleasing, particularly at the
Bocca Tigris, where the forts could be seen stretching their long white walls
from the base to the summits of the hills. On one side is seen the “ Dragon’s
Cave,” and on the other the “ Girl’s Shoe,” and various other fortifications
with fanciful names; and though some of them are admirably situated, they
are all of a structure which prove them to be more remarkable for show
than for solid utility.
The river swarms with pirates, the fishermen occasionally becoming their
allies, and they carry on their depredations unchecked in the very teeth of
the forts. When the pirates fail of falling in with strangers whom they dare
venture to rob, they fall out with each other, and murder and plunder their
friends with as little compunction as if they were strangers. In the passage
of the Mississippi from Macao to Whampoa, the anchorage on the Canton
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