[VOL I] BRITISH ENCAMPMENT ON IRGAO-SHAN

BRITISH ENCAMPMENT ON IRGAO-SHAN, CHUSAN

Cover Image: British Encampment on Irgao-Shan, Chusan / DingHai ZhouShan ZheJiang / China Drawn by T.Allom Engraved by J.C.Bentley – ALAMY Image ID:2X3H91G

Image ID:2X3H91H

*In the First Opium War, shortly after the first Battle of Dinghai on July 5-6, 1840, British forces first occupied Dinghai County (now Zhoushan Island). It wasn’t until seven months later, on February 24, 1841, that the British forces completely withdrew from Dinghai County. / From a sketch on the spot by Lieut: White, Royal Marines.

How nature slept o’er yon sequester’d scene,
In knoll, and glassy wave, and woodland green!
Man’s self, in kinder than his wonted guise,
There bade the patriarchal village rise.
Now, marshal’d forms of war the hill-top crest,
And soldier’s tramp and clarion start its sylvan rest.

C. J. C.

THE Chusan Islands, several hundred in number, lie almost due east of Take-tow promontory, in the province of Che-keang, and appear to have once formed a part of the neighbouring continent. The direction of the prevalent wind, and the strength with which the tides set in upon this part of the coast, have, in the course of ages, washed away all alluvial matter, and left only the rocky pillars, now so many pyramidal islands, standing in the waters. The currents between the islands are at this day so violent, that navigation is highly dangerous; and the Chusanese alone, who are familiarly acquainted with them, are able to take advantage of these straits as highways for commerce. Chusan isles are all of primitive structure, being composed of red and grey granite; they present a very unequal surface, the summits often attaining a height of fifteen hundred feet above sea-level; yet there is not a square mile on any island of the group unsubdued by cultivation.

Chow-shan (Boat-mountain) the largest of the archipelago, and whose name is shared by the multitude of minor isles that surround it, is fifty miles in circumference, twenty in length, having a maximum breadth of ten, and minimum of six; it forms a heen, or district, the seat of government of which is at Ting-hai, and is subject to the foo, or prefecture, of Ning-po. Approaching from the sea, the prospect is remarkably beautiful: the hills rise steeply and in conical shapes, all decked in a variety of colours, while deep ravines are observed running far inland, but closed at the sea-entrance by high embankments, in which tide-gates are inserted.The interior prospect of the island is not less pleasing; lofty hills separate, overlook, and shelter deep fertile vales, where rice, cotton, barley, Indian-corn, sugar-cane, tobacco-plant, peach and plum-trees, lend their varieties, and the tea-plant, dwarf-oak, arbutus, their colours, to adorn the lower grounds, the summits everywhere being clothed with the brightest green. Clumps of luxuriant trees, and picturesque temples, embellish the conspicuous heights, whose interest is much increased by tombs, with plantations of fragrant shrubs around them. The introspect of these dark ravines observed on approaching the island from the sea, discloses alluvial plains of various extent, occupied by paddy-fields, interspersed with patches of brinjal, maize, and beans. Navigable canals, intersecting these reclaimed flats, are supplied by the waters that descend from the mountains, as well as by an influx from the ocean, the latter, however, regulated by sluices. There are no rivers of any magnitude in the island, but mountain-streams are numerous, and their waters are gathered with care into reservoirs, which are cautiously preserved from impurity. At Irgao-shan, where the Twenty-sixth regiment of infantry were encamped for some time, after the capture of Ting-hai by the British in the late war, is one of those much-valued pools, surrounded by the various buildings of a farmhouse, which, in China, resemble petty villages; for, as the married sons never withdraw from parental government, the buildings that are added, age after age, for their accommodation, together with the requisite granaries, fruit-houses, and halls of ancestors, present a formidable assemblage. There is yet another object to which the labours of Chinese farms are devoted. Although the population of this circumscribed area amounts to 200,000 souls, such is the fertility of the soil, that more rice, considerably, is grown than consumed: from this overplus, sham-shoo is distilled very generally by the farmers, both for domestic use and exportation; and many of the minor buildings, that give importance to the view of the homestead, are nothing more than these rural distilleries.

The detachment of the Twenty-sixth, which Lieutenant White has introduced into his sketch, as marching in amongst the farm-buildings, is supposed to be returning to their encampment on the summit of Irgao-shan; and, on the slippery bank above them, a zigzag pathway amongst beds of sweet potatoes may be observed. This footway, broad enough to admit three persons to walk abreast, like all others that traverse the island, is paved with large squared blocks of stone, sometimes cut into regular steps; and along such narrow causeways even the heaviest burdens are transported from place to place by men exclusively, wheel-carriages not being in use amongst the Chinese.

Although the habits of the islanders are similar to those of the empire generally, a peculiarity in performing the sad rites of sepulture, which Lord Jocelyn observed, most probably does not exist elsewhere. “The natives of this island,” writes his lordship, “do not inter their dead as in the southern provinces, but the corpse is placed on the ground in a wooden coffin, covered with a lid, easily removed, highly polished, round which the wild flowers and creepers blossom. In most of the houses we entered on the island, these large boxes were the first objects that met the eye in the entrance-chamber. In the tenanted graves which curiosity induced us to open, the body appeared dressed as in life, the pipe and tobacco lay on the breast, and loaves and rice at the unconscious head.” Irgao-shan, and the scene represented in the accompanying illustration, although no architectural remains are visible in the vicinity, are supposed to be identical with Ung-shan, at the foot of which stood Ung-chow, a city of the third rank, founded about the year 720 of our era, in the reign of Heuen-Tsung, of the Tang dynasty.