Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. IV.pdf/16

 foreigner in charge of the steamer-signal-staff informed me that the native artillery practice was extremely defective. Since then, however, a battery of Krupp guns has replaced the old smooth-bores, the forts have been properly garrisoned, and undergone thorough repair. This information I have received on the best authority, otherwise I should feel inclined to discredit it, for at the time of my visit, forts, batteries, and garrisons presented a miserable makeshift appearance. Doubtless at that conjuncture there was a very sufficient reason for the disorganized condition of these important defences of the river by which we approach the capital. The fact is a great flood had laid waste the lower portions of the province between Taku and Tien-tsin, and the starved-out inhabitants, clamorous for food and shelter, had flocked in overwhelming numbers to Tien-tsin. Hence the presence of an efficient military force at that city was essential to secure public safety. The scene which presented itself as we steamed up the river can never be effaced from my recollection. The country was under water, and the native trading craft were sailing in direct lines for Tien-tsin, over fields and gardens and the ruins of homesteads. The villages and farm-houses, built mainly out of mud and millet stalks, had settled down into damp, dank mounds, and their_ occupants, with their furniture and cattle lashed to stakes, were to be seen perched on the fallen roofs of their houses, fishing with assiduity and success. Fish indeed were caught in such abundance as to sustain thousands, who would otherwise have perished from starvation. As we n eared Tien-tsin we passed a vast burial ground, where men were engaged mooring the coffins to trees and posts, while many corpses were drifting away towards the sea.

The central government exerted itself to mitigate the sufferings of the people by a supply of food, clothing, and shelter, and, much to the credit of the Chinese, private contributions for the same humane object flowed in from the coast and from different parts of the Empire. This is one of the benefits conferred by rapid steam communication along the coast. It is a matter of regret that, while we note with satisfaction the unmistakable signs of progress in China, more especially in those parts which have been brought face to face with the civilizing influences of Western intercourse, we at the same time cannot avoid remarking the equally manifest symptoms of decay which too frequently present themselves in the interior of the country. There we find bad roads, bridges and embankments broken and abandoned, and a poverty-stricken population. Much of this state of affairs is attributable to the niggardliness and rapacity of the officials. It would probably be a sounder policy on the part of the centra! and local governments of the Empire if attention were earnestly directed to improving the old trade routes of the country, by repairing and strengthening the river embankments, so as to secure the people from the misery of constantly recurring inundations. If, in short, by honesty and fair dealing, the people could be inspired with a conviction that their government and social condition were matters worth defending. As it is, the authorities are assiduously studying the modern tactics of warfare, and arming a poorly-paid soldiery with the deadliest weapons. During last year the Hood in Peichihli was repeated, notwithstanding the fact that a large sum of money had been granted by the central government for the survey and repair of the river embankments. The task was inefficiently performed, and, as might have been foreseen, the horrors of the inundation occurred once more. It almost seems that the embankments of the streams in North China have fallen into such a bad state as to defy the skill of native engineers.

TIEN-TSIN is the capital of the prefecture of that name, which extends along the coast in a south-east direction, as far as the Shun-tung promontory, and comprises one inferior department and six districts. The city lies at the junction of the Grand Canal with the Peiho river, and next to Peking is the most considerable in the province of Peichihli. Previous to 1782 it was nothing more than a military station for the protection of the river traffic, but at that time it was raised to the status of a prefectural city. Its present estimated population is about 400,000, of whom perhaps one-half reside within the walls.

No. 7 represents a group of Tien-tsin labourers, as I found them engaged in removing the ddbris from the Chapel of the Sisters of Mercy, who had been massacred on this spot in the preceding year. Of the chapel itself nothing had been left standing except the bare walls (see No. 8); but I need hardly offer further remarks 011 this subject, as doubtless the harrowing details of the bloody event are still fresh in my readers' recollection. As we look from this point up the reach of the Peiho we see the ruins of the Roman Catholic Cathedral, by far the most striking object in Tien-tsin, and I could not help thinking at the time that, from what I know of the Chinese character, this noble structure must have been a dreadful eyesore to the natives, towering as it did high above any of their most sacred buildings, and drawing down evil influences from the sky. Just above the chapel we encountered an interesting specimen of a floating bridge, a section of which had to be drawn up to allow my boat to pass through.

There is at Tien-tsin a small foreign settlement of well-built houses, but many of these residences had suffered from the floods. Thus the gardens which surrounded them were under water. The English Club, and the Joss-house in which the treaty of Tien-tsin was signed, could only be reached by boat. The solitary hotel in the settlement, called the Aster House, well-nigh conceals its modest proportions beneath a huge signboard inscribed with its name. This hotel had been built of mud, and now a window on one side had fallen out, and a wall on the other had fallen in. 1 had a look at the accommodation of this unpromising interior, and also held some conversation with its proprietor, an Englishman. I found him lamenting the wreck of his property, of which only two apartments remained. In one there was a good billiard table, and in the other a bar. Two of the bedrooms had dissolved, and could be seen in solution through the broken wall, with sundry limbs of furniture sticking up to mark its resting-place. The stables at the rear had taken a header into the water, and the place which had known them in dry weather was dimly seen through a cloud of mosquitoes, which were the pests of the settlement. There is at Tien-tsin a manufactory of gunpowder on the foreign model, where a number of loreigners are constantly employed.