[VOL I] WHAMPOA, FROM DANE’S ISLAND

WHAMPOA, FROM DANE’S ISLAND

Cover Image: Whampoa, from Dane”s Island / GuangZhou GuangDong China / Drawn by T.Allom Engraved by W.A.Le Petit – ALAMY Image ID:2X3H90Y

*Shenjing is one of the ancient villages in Guangzhou, and it is situated along the Pearl River – Zhu Jiang River.

“Your argosies with portly sail,
Like signiors and rich burghers of the flood,
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea, –
Do overpeer the petty traffickers,
That curtsy to them, do them reverence.”

SHAKSPERE

BEFORE the complete establishment of British naval and military superiority over the Chinese, the channel of Whampoa was known only as the roadstead where foreign vessels, trading to Canton, were obliged to drop their anchors. In the passage up from Bocca Tigris, two bars are crossed; the second, near to the entrance—the first, immediately eastward of a group of islands, the principal of which are named by Europeans, French, Dane’s, and Whampoa. Some little freedom of intercourse was formerly permitted, and the crews were suffered to land, and enjoy the pleasures of society, provided they scrupulously respected the prejudices of the natives. Besides, of this cluster of islets, there was one generously conceded to foreigners as a burial-ground, upon payment, however, of exorbitant fees. The gratification of a natural curiosity, which induced merchants and mariners to land here, was frequently dearly bought; the insolence of the younger members of the native community to strangers being insupportable; while the elder branches only awaited opportunity to plunder and ill-treat them. It has been pleaded that the English, American, as well as the sailors of other western countries, when allowed to go ashore on these islands, indulged too copiously in draughts of seaou-tchoo, an ardent spirit distilled from a mixture of rice and other grain; and, losing all self-control, were guilty of acts of violence—that they entered the temples, ridiculed the popular faith, and broke the hideous monsters to which the Chinese bend the knee. This charge may be based on fact, and parallel instances may be adduced from the accounts of voyagers, but the invincible prejudices of the Chinese to strangers, from immemorial time, can hardly have originated in events of comparatively recent occurrence.

French Island, westward of Dane’s Island, forms the side scene of the illustration; it is one vast cemetery, divided impartially between the foreigner and the native, and occupied with the humble, low-lying tablet that records the early fall of the one, far from the place of his birth, as well as with the pompous, semicircular mausoleum which distinguishes, by its sweep and architecture, the rank and wealth of the other, whose pride lies humbled beneath it. To the left of the view is seen the entrance to the Tay-wang-kow passage, Junk river, which bounds Whampoa island, and separates it from Junk island.

The picturesque prospect which Whampoa and its encircling islets presents, has been the theatre of many military events. Placed in the very centre of the highway to Canton, from which it is but ten miles distant, it should be fortified with all the science of the age, and at any cost that such security might be attended with; but the authorities, relying too confidently upon the fortresses at Chuenpee, Tycocktow, Bocca Tigris, and Tiger island, have injudiciously neglected the more available position. When the Modeste, a British frigate, was directed, during the late Chinese war, to pass Whampoa towards Canton, and subsequently the Sulphur was placed under similar orders, the opposition given by the battery at Howqua’s Folly at the north-west extremity of Whampoa island, and by Fort Napier, which is directly opposite, was so contemptible that it is merely mentioned but not dwelt upon in the despatches. Howqua’s Folly, built after Admiral Drury’s expedition, is a quadrangular structure, entirely of hewn granite, and mounting eight-and-twenty guns. It is called from its founder, who is supposed to have been converted into a patriot either by “a squeeze,” or by a desire to escape the imperial wrath. The derivation of “Napier’s Fort,” will probably present itself more immediately, from the recollection that it was to this precise anchorage his lordship ordered up two sail-of-the-line, when the Canton authorities doubted his credentials. Between these two forts, stakes were driven into the river-bed; and old junks were sunk, to obstruct the passage of the British; but the employment of war-steamers in the British navy since the previous visit of our ships to Whampoa, had escaped the knowledge of the Chinese, and gave to all their childish contrivances an appearance of extravagant folly.

The feeling of security that has hitherto accompanied the possession of Whampoa, induced the government to erect here several substantial stores for the reception of rice. This necessary of life is laid up at the expense of the emperor in the event of scarcity, when it is sold at little or no profit to the poor. Should an abundant harvest reduce the price of grain, then the custodees of the public granaries are empowered to purchase largely; if a less plentiful season occur, to sell at a moderate loss; and if an absolute famine happen, then the granaries are thrown open to the poor.

On a mound adjacent to the town, and near the western end of the island, the Whampoa pagoda rises to a height of one hundred and seventy feet; beyond the Junk river on the right, and on the point of Junk island, is another, inferior in gracefulness and height; and on the further bank of the Tay-wang-kow passage, a beautiful, light, and tapering temple stands conspicuously prominent. Canton-reach extends from Whampoa and French islands in a western direction, and is enclosed on the north by a range of lofty and rugged hills that form a delightful drooping distance.