W iW T
inl'IBS m[I‘v
"IB 11; I
7S T R A V E L S IN CHINA.
O n approaching the town o f Tien-Ji?ig we obferved a prodigious
number o f large ftacks o f fait, piled up in facks o f matting. The
quantity thus ftpred was found, on rough calculation, to be fuf-
ficient for the cotifumption o f thirty millions o f people, for a
whole year. Such a furprifing aggregate o f one o f the ufeful and
almoit neceffary, articles o f life, was a preparative, in fome mea-
fure, for the vaft multitudes o f people which appeared on our
palling this northern emporium o f China. The gabelle, or
duty on fait, which the government here, as well as elfewhere,
had found convenient to impofe on one o f the indifpenfable
articles o f life, partly accounted for fuch an extraordinary accumulation.
The collector o f the fait duties o f Ticn-fmg
held one o f the molt lucrative appointments in the gift o f the
crown.
T he crowds o f large veffels lying clofe together along the
lides o f the r iv e r ; the various kinds o f craft palling and repairing
; the town and manufactories and warehoufes. extending on
each bankas far as the eye could reach, indicated a fpirit o f commerce
far beyond any thing we had hitherto met with. The
large veffels, the fmall craft, the boats, the Ihores, the walls
furrounding the houfes, the roofs were all covered with fpec-
tators. Our barges, being retarded in the narrow paffages among
the flopping, were at leaft two hours in reaching the head o f the
town. During the whole time the populace flood in the water,
the front rank up to the middle, to get a peep at the ftrangers.
Hitherto among the fpeCtators there had generally appeared full
as many o f the fair fex as o f the other; and the elderly dames, in
parparticular,
had been fo curious as to dip their little flumps into
the water in order to have a peep into the barges as they glided
flowly a lon g; but here, among the whole crowd, not a fingle
female was vifible. Although ? the day was extremely fultry,
the thermometer o f Fahrenheit being 88° in the (hade, as a mutual
accomodation their heads were all uncovered, and their
bald pate's expofed to the fcorching rays o f the fun. It was an
uncommon fpeCtacle to fee fo many bronze-like heads ftuck as
clofe together, tier above tier, as Hogarth’ s groupe, intended to
difplay the difference between character and caricature, but it
lacked the variety o f countenance which this artift has, in an
inimitable manner, difplayed in his picture.
The deep founding gong, a fort o f brazen kettle ftruck with
a mallet, and ufed in the barges to direCt the motions o f the
trackers on ihore, the kettle-drums and the trumpets in the military
band, the ihrill mufic'and fqualling recitative in the
theatre, which was entirely open in front, and facing the river in
full view o f the crowd ; the number o f temporary booths and
buildings ereCted for the ufe o f the viceroy, governor, judges,
and other officers o f government, and gaily decorated with
ribbands and filken ftreamers ; the buzz and merriment o f the
crowd had, altogether, fo ftriking an affinity to the ufual entertainments
o f Bartholomew fair, that no extraordinary ftretch o f
the imagination was required to fuppofe ourfelves for the moment
to have been tranfported into Smitbfield. We inftantly acquitted
the Chine'fe o f any want o f curiofity. The arrival o f Elfi B ey in
London drew not half the crowd j and yet the Chinefe account
us