A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Ix Part 38

Timothy Johnson, a.s.sistant at the same place.

John Wetheral, a.s.sistant at Cambello.

John Clark, a.s.sistant at Hitto.

William Griggs, factor at Larika.

John Fardo, steward of the factory at Amboina.

Abel Price, surgeon to that factory.

Robert Brown, tailor.

The only Portuguese was Augustine Perez, born in Bengal, who was superintendant of the slaves in the employment of the English at Amboina.

_j.a.panese_.

Hit.i.tso, Tsiosa, and Sinsa, natives of Firando.

Sidney Migial, Pedro Congie, Thomas Corea, from Nangasaki.

Quinandaya, a native of Coaets.

Tsabinda, a native of Tsoncketgo.

Zanchae, a native of Fisien.

Besides these, there were two other j.a.panese tortured, who both confessed a partic.i.p.ation in the pretended plot, but were not executed, or even condemned, for reasons which the surviving English did not learn. The executions were all by cutting off the heads of the condemned with a scymitar; and the Dutch prepared a black velvet pall for Captain Towerson's body to fall upon, which they afterwards had the effrontery to charge in account against the English East India Company.

SECTION XV.

OBSERVATIONS DURING A RESIDENCE IN TISLAND OF CHUSAN, IN 1701, BY DOCTOR JAMES CUNNINGHAM; WITH SOME EARLY NOTICES RESPECTING CHINA.[318]

Among the early voyages of the English to the East Indies, none have been preserved that were made to China, nor have we been able to discover any satisfactory account of the commencement of the trade of our East India Company with that distant country, now said to be by far the most profitable branch of the exclusive commerce. In the _Annals of the Company_,[319] several references are made to the China trade, but more in the nature of notices or memoranda for the purpose of after investigation, than as conveying any actual information on the subject.

In this singular paucity of materials, we are reduced to the following short "Observations and Remarks, by Doctor James Cunningham, made during his Residence as Physician to the English Factory at the Island of Chusan, on the Coast of China." Doctor Cunningham is stated by Harris to have been a fellow of the Royal Society, distinguished by his natural talents and acquired accomplishments, well versed in ancient and modern learning, and to have diligently used these advantages in making judicious remarks on the places where he resided in the service of the Company. Yet all that has been recorded by Harris of these remarks, give only a very imperfect account of Chusan and of China. This short article consists of extracts from two letters written by Cunningham from Chusan, and a brief supplement by Harris respecting two unfortunate factories at Pulo Condore and Pulo Laut.--E.

[Footnote 318: Harris. I. 852.]

[Footnote 319: Annals of the E.I. Co. vol. II. and III. _pa.s.sim_.]

--1. _Voyage to Chusan, and short Notices of that Island_.[320]

In my last letter, from the island of Borneo, I gave you an account of our arrival at that island on the 17th July. We only remained there two days, as the season of the year was already far advanced, and made the best of our way from thence through the Straits of Banda,[321] with favourable winds and weather. We got upon the coast of China on the 13th August, when we had variable winds, which carried us abreast of _Emoy_[322] by the 19th following. The wind then set in fresh at N.E. so that we were in great fear of losing our pa.s.sage, and were now obliged to beat up all the way against both wind and current; yet the weather remained so favourable that we were never obliged to hand our top-sails, otherwise we must have lost more way in a single day than we could have recovered in eight. On the 31st August we came to anchor under the _Crocodile islands_,[323] both for shelter from the bad weather, usual on this coast at new and full-moon, which has been fatal to many s.h.i.+ps, and also to procure fresh water, now scarce with us, as we had not recruited our store since leaving the Cape of Good Hope. These are three small islands in lat. 26 N. about six leagues from the river of _Hokien_, [Fo-kien] on two of which we found very good water, with a convenient landing-place on the S.W. side of the innermost island. By the a.s.sistance of some Chinese fishers, we procured also some fresh provisions from the main land, not thinking it safe to venture there ourselves, lest we may have been brought into trouble by the governor of that part of the country. While here, on the 5th September, we had a sudden short s.h.i.+ft of the monsoon from the S.W. blowing with great fury; which was also experienced by other vessels then coming on the coast of China. We again put to sea on the 18th September, turning to windward night and day on the outside of all the islands, which are very numerous all along this coast, but with which we were unacquainted after pa.s.sing beyond _Emoy_. Besides, the hydrography of this coast is. .h.i.therto so very imperfect, that we could not trust in any degree to our draughts, owing to which our navigation was both difficult and dangerous.

[Footnote 320: From a letter to a member of the Royal Society, dated in September, 1701.--Harris.]

[Footnote 321: This must have been the straits of Maca.s.ser, as Banda is far out of the way between Borneo and China.--E.]

[Footnote 322: Emoy or Amoy, was on the coast of China, opposite to the island of Formosa, and appears, from the Annals, to have been the first port frequented by the s.h.i.+ps of the India Company for the Chinese trade.--E.]

[Footnote 323: The islands of Pe-la-yang are, in the indicated lat.i.tude, off the estuary of the princ.i.p.al river of the province of Fo-kien.--E.]

On the 1st October, we got into the lat.i.tude of 30 N. where we came to anchor near the land, and found our way by boat to _Chusan_,[324] about twelve leagues within the islands, whence we got a pilot, who brought our s.h.i.+p safely to that place on the 11th of the month. The Chinese government have granted us a settlement on that island, with the liberty of trade; but do not allow us to go up to Ning-po,[325] which is six or eight hours sail to the westwards, all the way among islands, of which this of Chusan is the largest, being eight or nine leagues from E. to W.

and four or five from N. to S.

[Footnote 324: Tcheou-chan, an island about twenty English miles in length from E. to W. in lat. 30 23' N. long. 121 43' E. off the estuary of Ning-po river, in the province of Che-kiang, is obviously the Chusan of the text--E.]

[Footnote 325: The city of Ning-po stands at the head of a bay, stretching from the S. side of the estuary of the river of the same name, in lat. 30 10' N. long. 121 E. It appears, from the Annals, that the English had been excluded from trading at Canton, by the influence of the Portuguese in Macao.--E.]

About three leagues from the point of land named _Liampo_ by the Portuguese, and _Khi-tu_ by the Chinese, there is a very safe and convenient harbour at the west end of this island, where the s.h.i.+ps ride within call of the factory, which stands close to the sh.o.r.e in a low flat valley, having near two hundred houses built around for the benefit of trade. The town of Chusan, of which the houses are very mean, is about three quarters of a mile farther from the sh.o.r.e, and is surrounded by a fine stone wall, flanked at irregular distances by twenty-two square bastions or towers; and has four great gates, on which a few old iron guns are planted, seldom or never used. The _chumpeen_, or governor of the island, resides here, and the town contains about three or four thousand beggarly inhabitants, mostly soldiers and fishers; for, as the trade of this island has only been granted of late, it has not hitherto attracted any considerable merchants.

This island abounds in all sorts of provisions, as cows, buffaloes, deer, hogs, both wild and tame, geese, ducks, poultry, rice, wheat, calavanccs, cole-worts, turnips, carrots, potatoes, beets, spinach, and so forth. It has, however, no merchandise, except what comes from Ning-po, Stan-chew,[326] Nankin, and other inland towns and cities. Some of these I hope to see, when I have acquired a little of the Chinese language. Tea grows here in great plenty on the tops of the hills, but is not so much esteemed as that which grows on more mountainous islands.

Although tolerably populous, this island is far from being what it was in the time of Father Martini, who describes it under the name of _Cheu-xan_. The superst.i.tious pilgrimages mentioned by him, must refer to the island of Pou-to,[327] which is nine leagues from this place, and to another island three miles to the eastwards, to which the emperor proposes coming to wors.h.i.+p at a paG.o.da greatly renowned for its sanct.i.ty, in the ensuing month of May, being his birth-day, and the fortieth year of his age. One of his bonzes is already come there, to get all things in order.

[Footnote 326: Probably Hang-tcheon, a city about forty miles W. from Ning-po.--E.]

[Footnote 327: Pou-teou, is directly E. from the eastern end of Tcheou-chan.--E.]

--2. _Ancient and modern State of the Country, and of the coming of the English to reside there.[328]_

In my former letter, I informed you that the emperor designed to have come to wors.h.i.+p at Pou-to in May last, being the fortieth year of his age, but I ought to have said of his reign. After every thing was prepared for his reception, he was dissuaded from his purpose by some of his mandarins, who made him believe that the thunder at that place was very dangerous. This Pou-to is a small island, only about five leagues round, and at the east end of Chusan. It has been famous for the s.p.a.ce of eleven hundred years, for the superst.i.tious pilgrimages made to it, and is only inhabited by bonzes to the number of three thousand, all of the sect of _Heshang,_ or unmarried bonzes, who live a Pythagorean life.

They have built four hundred paG.o.das, two of which are considerable for their size and splendour, and were lately covered with green and yellow tiles, brought from the emperor's palace at Nankin. They are adorned within by stately idols, finely carved and gilded, the chief of these being an idol named _Quonem._ To-these two paG.o.das there are two chief priests, who govern all the rest. They have many walks and avenues cut in different directions through the island, some of which are paved with flag-stones, and overshaded by trees planted on both sides. The dwellings of the bonzes are the best I have seen in these parts, all of which are maintained by charitable donations. All the Chinese junks which sail from Ning-po and Chusan touch at Pou-to, both outwards and homewards-bound, making offerings for the safety of their voyages. There is another island named _Kim-Tong,_[329] five leagues from hence, on the way towards Ning-po, where a great many mandarins are said to live in retirement, after having given up their employments. On that island there are said to be silver mines, but prohibited from being opened. The rest of the circ.u.mjacent islands are either desert, or very meanly inhabited, but all of them abound in deer.

[Footnote 328: The sequel of these observations is said by Harris to have been taken from another letter to the same correspondent with the former, and dated in November, 1701; but, from circ.u.mstances in the text, it would appear to have been written in 1702.--E.]

[Footnote 329: Probably that named Silver-island in modern maps.--E.]

It is not long since this island of Chusan began to be inhabited. Yet in the days of Father Martini, about fifty years ago, it was very populous for three or four years; at which time, in the fury of the Tartar conquest, it was laid entirely desolate, not even sparing the mulberry trees, which were then numerous, as they made a great deal of raw silk here. It continued in this desolate condition till about eighteen years ago, when the walls of the present town were built by the governor of _Ting-hai_, as a strong-hold for a garrison, in order to expel some pirates who had taken shelter on the island. As the island began to grow populous, a _chumpeen_ was sent to govern it for three years, to whom the late chumpeen succeeded, who continued till last April, and procured licence to open this port to strangers. On the last chumpeen being promoted to the government of _Tien-ching-wei_[330] near Pekin, he was succeeded by the present governor, who is son to the old chumpeen of Emoy. They have no arts or manufactures in this island, except lacquered ware; the particulars of which I cannot as yet send you. They have begun to plant mulberry-trees, in order to breed up silk-worms for the production of raw silk; and they gather and cure some tea, but chiefly for their own use.

[Footnote 330: Probably that called Tien-sing in modern maps, on the river Pay, between Pekin and the sea.--E.]

--3. _Of the Manner of cultivating Tea in Chusan_.

The three sorts of tea usually carried to England are all from the same plant, their difference being occasioned by the soils in which they grow, and the season of the year at which they are gathered. The _bohea_, or _vo-u-i_, so called from certain mountains in the province of _Token_,[331] where it is chiefly made, is the very bud, gathered in the beginning of March, and dried in the shade. The tea named _bing_ is the second growth, gathered in April, and _siriglo_ is the last growth, gathered in May and June; both of these being gently dried over the fire in _taches_ or pans. The tea shrub is an evergreen, being in flower from October to January, and the seed ripens in the September or October following, so that both flower and seed may be gathered at the same time; but for one fully ripened seed, an hundred are abortive. There are the two sorts of seeds mentioned by Father Le Compte, in his description of tea; and what be describes as a third sort, under the name of _slymie_ pease, consists merely of the young flower-buds, not yet open.

The seed vessels of the tea tree are three-capsular, each capsule containing one nut or seed; and though often two or one of these only come to perfection, yet the vestiges of the rest may easily be discerned. It grows naturally in a dry gravelly soil on the sides of hills, without any cultivation, in several places of this island.

[Footnote 331: Fo-kien is almost certainly here meant--E.]

Le Compte is mistaken in saying that the Chinese are ignorant of the art of grafting; for I nave seen many of his paradoxical tallow-trees ingrafted here, besides trees of other sorts. When they ingraft, they do not slit the stock as we do, but slice off the outside of the stock, to which they apply the graft, which is cut sloping on one side, to correspond with the slice on the stock, bringing the bark of the slice up on the outside of the graft, after which the whole is covered up with mud and straw, exactly as we do. The commentator on Magalhen seems doubtful as to the length of the Chinese _che_ or cubit. At this island they have two sorts, one measuring thirteen inches and seven-tenths English, which, is commonly used by merchants; the other is only eleven inches, being used by carpenters, and also in geographical measures.

Though Father Martini is censured by Magalhen for spelling a great many Chinese words with _ng_, which the Portuguese and others express with _in_, yet his way is more agreeable to our English p.r.o.nunciation and orthography; only the g may be left out in Pekin, Nankin, and some others.

Having made enquiry about what is mentioned by Father Martini of sowing their _fields_ at _Van-cheu_ with oyster-sh.e.l.ls, to make new ones grow, I was told, that after they have taken out the oysters, they sprinkle the empty sh.e.l.ls with urine, and throw them into the water, by which means there grow new oysters on the old sh.e.l.ls.[332] Martini says he could never find a Latin name for the _Tula Mogorin_ of the Portuguese; but I am sure it is the same with the _Syringa arabica, flore pleno albo_, of Parkinson. Martini also says that the _kieu-yeu_, or tallow-tree, bears a white flower, like that of the cherry-tree: But all that I have seen here bear spikes of small yellow flowers, like the _julus_ of the _Salix_. The bean-broth, or mandarin-broth, so frequently mentioned in the Dutch emba.s.sy, and by other authors, is only an emulsion made of the seeds of _sesamum_ with hot water.

[Footnote 332: This strange story may possibly be thus explained. At certain seasons, numerous minute oysters may be seen sticking to the sh.e.l.ls of the old ones; and the Chinese may have thrown the emptied sh.e.l.ls into the sea, in the highly probable expectation of these minute oysters continuing to live and grow. The circ.u.mstances in the text are absurd additions, either from ignorance or imposition.--E.]

The chief employments of the people here are fis.h.i.+ng and agriculture. In fis.h.i.+ng, they use several sorts of nets and lines as we do; but, as there are great banks of mud in some places, the fishermen have contrived a small frame, three or four feet long, not much larger than a hen-trough, and a little elevated at each end, to enable them to go more easily on these mud banks. Resting with one knee on the middle of one of these frames, and leaning his arms on a cross stick raised breast high, he uses the other foot on the mud to push the frame and himself forwards.

In their agricultural operations, all their fields on which any thing is to be cultivated, whether high or low, are formed into such plots or beds as may admit of retaining water over them when the cultivator thinks proper. The lands are tilled by ploughs drawn by one cow or buffalo; and when it is intended to sow rice, the soil is remarkably well prepared and cleared from all weeds, after which it is moistened into the state of a pulp, and smoothed by a frame drawn across, when the rice is sown very thick, and covered over with water, only to the height of two or three inches. When the seedling plants are six or eight inches long, they are all pulled up, and transplanted in straight lines into other fields, which are overflowed with water; and, when weeds grow up, they destroy them by covering them up in the interstices between the rows of rice, turning the mud over them with their hands. When they are to sow wheat, barley, pulse, or other grain, they grub up the surface of the ground superficially, earth, gra.s.s, and rook, and mixing this with some straw, burn all together. This earth, being sifted fine, they mix with the seed, which they sow in holes made in straight lines, so that it grows in tufts or rows like the rice. The field is divided into regular beds, well harrowed both before and after the seed is sown, which makes them resemble gardens. The rice grounds are meliorated merely by letting water into them; but for the other grains, where the soil requires it, they use dung, night-soil, ashes, and the like. For watering their fields, they use the machine mentioned by Martini in the preface to his Atlas, being entirely constructed of wood, and the same in principle with the chain-pump.

In order to procure salt, as all the sh.o.r.es are of mud instead of sand, they pare off in summer the superficial part of this mud, which has been overflowed by the sea-water, and lay it up in heaps, to be used in the following manner: Having first dried it in the sun, and rubbed it into a fine powder, they dig a pit, the bottom of which is covered with straw, and from the bottom a hollow cane leads through the side of the pit to a jar standing below the level of the bottom. They then fill the pit almost full of the dried salt mud, and pour on sea-water till it stands two or three inches above the top of the mud. This sea-water drains through the mud, carrying the salt along with it from the mud as well as its own, and runs out into the jar much-saturated with salt; which is afterwards procured by boiling.

--4. _Of the famous Medicinal Root, called Hu-tchu-u_.

Having last year seen, in a newspaper, some account of a singular root, brought from China by Father Fontaney, I shall inform you that I have seen this root since my arrival at Chuaan. It is called _Hu-tchu-n_[333]

by the Chinese, and they ascribe to it most wonderful virtues, such as prolonging life, and changing grey hair to black, by using its infusion by way of tea. It is held in such high estimation as to be sold at a great price, as I have been told, from ten tael up to a thousand, or even two thousand tael-for a single root; for the larger it is, so much the greater is its fancied value and efficacy: But the price is too high to allow me to try the experiment. You will find it mentioned in the _Medecina Sinica_ of Cleyer, No. 84; under the name of _He-xeu-ti_, according to the Portuguese orthography. It is also figured in the 27th table of the plants which Mr _Pettier_ had from me. The following is the story of its discovery, which I will not warrant for gospel.

[Footnote 333: This is probably the ginseng, so famed for its fancied virtues.--E.]