Page:Ports of the world - Canton (1920).djvu/33

CANTON "Stop," they shout. "Stop! Don't do that." And they rush to the rescue of a passenger engaged in an international argument with two giant natives. The rescue is effected, and the ship's officers turn to the passengers. "These natives are not cutthroats, nor bandits, nor river pirates," they say, "but just porters and sedan-chair coolies. They're looking for customers, not blood."

The travelers, some angry and some apprehensive before, now cast sheepish grins at one another. The grim, red-faced man (resembling a traveling salesman) gives a dollar to the native whom he had thrown into the river and the first casualty among the natives is given a similar amount. The peace is no longer disturbed.

The renewal of shouts, cries, and yells among the porters and sedan-chair coolies, a crash of cymbals from the funeral boat on the river, and the wail of a fisher woman who has just lost a catch of fish by reason of a broken net, signals the end of the battle for life on the Chukiang River at the port of Canton shortly after break o’ day.

 

T SEEMS that the porters and sedan-chair coolies, who so valiantly stormed the steamboat at the landing, are to be disappointed after all, for arrangements have been made with the Victoria Hotel to send chairs and coolies for the passengers, and the early arrivals among the natives obtain only one or two patrons from the entire company of travelers on the ship.

The sedan chairs from the hotel are quickly occupied, the porters take up their burdens of luggage, and the travelers are carried along the Bund, across a bridge, and find themselves on the island of Shameen, which serves as a place of residence for a majority of the foreigners living and visiting in Canton.

The island of Shameen—"built on sand"—was constructed between the years 1859 and 1862 by joint action of the British and French. Slightly less than one-third of the island is under the control