Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/306

 '''9. CANTON'''.—This is the last place in the world to resort to in search of health. The confinement imposed upon the residents is excessive, and one might as well live in a prison. Gentlemen in the receipt of some thousands a year are glad to be allowed to rent a pig-stye of a house at the furthest end of a dark and dirty lane, shut out from all ventilation, sometimes without being able to command a ray of sunshine unless at the tops of the houses. Out of doors they have nothing but an acre of ground for exercise in front of the factories; this is during the day used as a marketplace, and at night it is polluted with every sort of nuisance.

Strangers dare not, unless at the risk of their lives,venture within the walls of Canton,nor take a walk into the country without getting pelted with stones, they are equally debarred from sailing on the river, unless within certain boundaries, and have the same chance of rough usage afloat as on shore; they are not even permitted to have their wives, or families in Canton.

There is here a large society of Europeans of many nations, and I have no where met with more genuine hospitality. There is little or no intercourse between the principal Chinese functionaries and the foreign merchants;the former shut themselves up in the city and leave all transactions with the Fanquis or foreign devils as they are