TAYLOR'S VISIT TO INDIA, CHINA, AND *JA.PAN: 4 THE two years
and four months travel of which this volume forms the closing part, exhibit the same resolute energy as the author's " Views Afoot," when, through many hardships and privations, he performed the grand tour of Europe as a pedestrian, from lack of means to employ a more expensive mode of locomotion. Central Africa and the White Nile formed the first field of exploration in his present travels of fifty thousand miles. The more familiar re- gions of Palestine, Sicily, and Spain, occupied his second volume. The third and last embraces the overland voyage to Bombay, ex- tensive journeying in India, a visit to China, and a voyage to loo Choo and Tapan. The 'resolute go-ahead character of the man 'is the most pro- minent characteristic of the volume. Mr. Taylor had made up his mind to see the Himalayas and visit the principal cities of In- dia. 'When he-began to count the cost at Bombay, he found he had not the means to' travel in the usual manner. Nothing daunted, he resolved to proceed without a servant, trusting to about twenty words of Hindoatanee he had picked up, and making his first journey to Indore in a banghy oart—a sort of " parcel express." It was a springless vehicle, with very indifferent sit- ting accommodation ; pursued its journey day and night with a few occasional halts, some of them caused by a break-down; and thus, over mountain, through jungle, or along table-land, our au- thor performed his first stage of 375 miles. From Indore to Agra he travelled in the mail-cart, a quicker but not more comfortable -vehicle. After viewing the wonders of the city of Akbar, he de- parted for Delhi and the Himalayas ; though he had only a month to do-the mountains, Lucknow in the kingdom of Oude, Allahabad, ilenares, and Calcutta, before starting in the steamer for -Hongkong. And Mr. Taylor did them all; abandoning on the great trunk-road his previous mode of travel for dawk—that is, a palaniluin with relays. A. rapid journey under'such circumstances must of necessity be superficial in its observation. Mr. Taylor could see. little that had not been seen before, and under more advantageous conditions of leisure. He, however, saw things with an American eye ; which is a source both of novelty and interest. He has also the'skill or knack of a practised litterateur, and knows what to selectfrom the objects that pass before him, as well as how to present them in a forcible and lively manner. It is scarcely possible to separate the descriptions of travel from the character of the traveller; and not the least continuously interesting portion of Mr. Taylor's narrative is that where he had the least opportunity of seeing much,— namely, his jemmies day and night in the parcel and mail carts, when the rapidity of movement, the frequent small adventures, and the endurance of the' traveller, sustain the reader's attention. There Are many other passages of mark. The first glimpse of the /1-1mmioyaS is a piece of description, real, distinct, and graphic ; so are some of the nearer views. The sketches on the roads and in the larger towns bring-the dense and -busy population of India well before the mind. The numerous Ifincloo antiquities are vividly described—perhaps more favourably than they deserve. Of the Hindoos Mr. Taylor seems to have formed a worse opinion than has been formed by many with better means of judging. Familiar- ity, however, affects the judgment both ways. If it brings out virtues which are at first overlooked, it blunts the perception to customary vices. There are some remarks on the pros and cons of British rule in India, moderate in themselves, .and prefaced by an apology for the short time and scanty opportunities possessed by the writer. This is the first broad' conclusion.
"My previous notions of English rule in India were obtained chiefly from the articles on the subject in the progressive newspapers of England, and were, I need hardly say, unfavourable. The American press is still more un- sparing in its denunciations, though very few of the writers have any definite idea of the nature of the wrongs over which they grow so indignant. That there are wrongs and abuses which call for severe reprehension, is uncle-
* A Visit to India, China, and Japan, in the Year 1853. By Bayard Taylor, Author of " Life and Landscapes from Egypt," Am Ac. Published by Low and Co. viable ; but I have seen enough to aatiSfy me that, in spite of oppression, in some instances of the moat.grinding character, in spite of that spirit of self- ish aggrandizement which first set on foot and is still prosecuting the sub- jugation of India, the country has prospered under English government. So far from regretting the progress of annexation, which has been so rapid of late years, (and who are we, that we should cast a stone against this sin I shall consider it a fortunate thing for India when the title of every Native sovereign is extinguished, and the-power of England stretches, in unbroken integrity, from Cashmere to Cape Comorin. Having made this admission, I shall briefly refer to some of Gael:nod prominent evils and benefits of the system." The censures of Mr. Taylor are chiefly directed against the land- tax, (a thing that admits of improvement, but not of very easy re- medy,) and the commercial and corporate character of the Com- pany, the consequent drain upon the wealth of India •on the ab- sentee principle, and the complex and lumbering method of go- vernment. A. minor evil is one 'that has been noted by several English writers of late years. "There is one feature of English society in India, however, which I can- not notice without feeling disgusted and indignant—I allude to tie contemptu- ous manner in which the natives,svan those of the best and most intelligent classes, are almost invariably spoken of and treated. Socialsquality, except in somesare instances, is utterly out of the question. The tone adopted to- wards the lower classes is one of lordly arrogance ; towards the rich and en- lightened, one of condescension and patronage. I have heard the term niggers' applied to the whole race by those high in office ; with the lower orders of the English it is the designation in general use. And this, too, to- wards those of our own Caucasian blood, where there lame instinct of race to excuse their unjust prejudice. Why is it that the virtue ofExeter Hall and Stafford House can tolerate this fact without a blush, yet condemn, with Pharisaic zeal, the social inequality of the Negro and.the -White races in America ? "
There is 'nothing very remarkable in the voyage to China. From Macao Mr. Taylor got a passage to Shanghai in the United States steam-frigate Susquehanna as an improvised-attaché to the Chinese Embassy, and spent sonic lime at that commercial emporium. The city was -then—March and. April 1853—continually disturbed by rumours•ofintended attacks by the rebels. Notwithstanding these reports, Mr. Taylor went about a good deal, foreigners being much less restricted than at Canton : his description of Shanghai is about the best part of the volume, but bearing hard upon the Celestials, The hygiene is awful, and the grand means for personal cleanliness as bad as dirt. Here is an account of a bath, with an incidental remark on art.
"On our-way to the city wall we pass one of the lublie baths, and cu- riosity induces us to step in. The building is low, damp, and dirty, and filled with a rank, steamy, unclean atmosphere. It consists of three apartments ; in one of which the bathers undress, bathe in the next, and lounge, smoking, on the benches in an unembarrassed state of nudity, in the lhird. As it is .towards evening, they belong mostly to the lower classes, and look quite .as filthy after the bath as before. The water is not changed throughout the day,-and its appearance and condition may perhaps, be imagined. The small tank is filled in the morning, and kept heated by a furnace under it. The price of a bath diminishes in proportion as the water gets dirty, until, in the evening, it falls to a single cash (the fifteenth part of a cent). -By holding my breath, I remain in the dark reeking den long enough to see two yellow forms immersed in the turbid pool, and then rush out stifled and nauseated. Among the bathers in the outer room there are several strong, muscular figures, but a total want of that elegant symmetry which distinguishes the Caucasian and Shemitic races. They are broad-shouldered and deep-chested, -but the hips and loins are clumsily moulded, and the legs have a coarse, clubby character. We should never expect to see such figures assume the fine free attitudes of ancient sculpture. But here, as everywhere, the body is the expression of the spiritual nature. There is no sense of what we un- derstand by art—grace, harmony, proportion—in the Chinese nature, and therefore we look in vain for any physical expression of it. De Quincey, who probably never saw a Chinaman, saw this fact with the clairvoyant eye of genius, when he said, 'If I were condemned to live among the Chinese, I should go mad.' This is a strong expression, but I do not hesitate to adopt it."
The particular descriptions exhibit the Chinese ingenuity, though the general comments scarcely do it justice. There is a good ac- count of a pawnbroker's shop on a gigantic scale. The inscription on a grog-shop rises beyond a common puff into metaphysical- phi- losophy—" The joys of Paradise are nothing but a state of perpe- tual intoxication." The excellence of the Chinese in many handi- crafts and some arts are cursorily passed over, but here is a street artist.
"A man seated on the pavement holds in his hand a white porcelain tile, 'about a foot square. This he overspreads with a deep blue colour, from a sponge dipped ma thin paste of indigo, and asks us to name a flower. I suggest the lotus. He extends his forefinger—a most remarkable forefinger, crooked, flexible as an elephant's trunk, and as sharp as if the end had been whittled off—gives three or four quick dashes across the tile, and in ten se- conds or less, lo ! there is the flower, exquisitely drawn and shaded, its snowy cup hanging in the midst of its long swaying leaves. Three more strokes, and a white bird with spread wings, hovers over it ; two more, and a dog stands beside it. The rapidity and precision of that forefinger seem almost miraculous. He covers the the with new layers of colour, and flower after flower is dashed out of the blue ground."
Before finally leaving the Flowery Land, our traveller took one bout at opium-smoking : and he speaks highly of' its immediate sensations, as well as the after effects. He was deterred from a second attempt, not only on moral grounds, but from a terrible spectacle he had witnessed on shipboard. " We were favoured by the South-wed monsoon, and had a delightful run of five days' with nothing to interrupt the uniformity of sea life, excerpt fre- quent calls to ' general quarters,' and the death of Mr. Williams's Chinese secretary. The latter fell a victim to the practice of smoking opium. He attempted to give it up, and this, with a spell of sea-sickness on board the Saratoga, so enfeebled him that no medicines produced any effect, and he sank into a state of nervelessness and emaciation shocking to witness. His body was reduced to a skeleton, and all his nervous energy so completely de- stroyed, that for a week before his death every fibre in his frame was in a state of constaut agitation. His face ware ghastly yellow, the cheeks sunken upon the bones, and the eyes wild and glassy, with a semi-madness which fell upon him. His whole aspect reminded me of one of those frightful heads in wax, in the museum of Florence, representing the effects of the plague. He was a complete wreck both in mind and body, and nothing that I ever saw of the results of intoxication from spirituous liquors has im- pressed me with half the horror."
To conclude, his estimate of the Celestials is the harshest we have seen, as regards intellect, manners, taste, and morals.
" Notwithstanding the efforts of many zealous and devoted missionaries who have been sent to China, the number of genuine converts is very limit- ed. The Chinese nature appears to be ao thoroughly passive that it is not even receptive. A sort of listless curiosity leads them to fill the chapels of the missionaries, and to gather in crowds around those who preach in the public places ; but when the exhortation is finished, away they go, without the least ripple of new thought in the stagnant waters of their minds. The mental inertia of these people seems to be almost hopeless of improvement. Even while the present rebellion is going on—a struggle which, one would suppose, would enlist their sympathies, if a single spark of patriotism or ambition remained—the great mass of the people maintain the most pro- found apathy. Some advocate of universal peace has cited China as the ex- ample of a nation which has successfully pursued a pacific policy ; but I say, welcome be the thunder-storm which shall scatter and break up, though by the means of fire and blood, this terrible stagnation ! Who would not ex- claim with Tennyson- " ' Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay r !' •• " The only taste which the Chinese exhibit to any degree is a love of the monstrous. That sentiment of harmony, which throbbed like a musical rhythm through the life of the Greeks, never looked out of their oblique eyes. Their music is a dreadful discord ; their language is composed of na- sals and consonants ; they admire whatever is distorted or unnatural, and the wider its divergence from its original beauty or symmetry the greater is their delight. " This mental idiosyncrasy includes a moral one, of similar character. It is my deliberate opinion that the Chinese are, morally, the most debased people on the face of the earth. Forms of vice which in other countries are barely named, are in China so common that they excite no comment among the natives. They constitute the surface-level, and below them there are deeps on deeps of depravity so shocking and horrible, that their character cannot even be hinted. There are some dark shadows in human nature, which we naturally shrink from penetrating, and I made no attempt to col- lect information of this kind ; but there was enough in the things which I could not avoid seeing and hearing—which are brought almost daily to the notice of every foreign resident—to inspire one with a powerful aversion to the Chinese race. Their touch is pollution, and, harsh as the opinion may seem, justice to our own race demands that they should not be allowed to settle on our soil. Science may have lost something, but mankind has gained, by the exclusive policy which has governed China during the past centuries."
Mr. Taylor was enabled to visit Loo Choo and Japan by joining Commodore Perry's expedition as a master's mate pro tempore ; the Government having issued stringent orders against the ad- mission of any person "not attached to the service and subject to its regulations." The consequence was, that the author had to give up his journals, sketches, 8.-.c.; and he has not yet been able to get them back again. Whether this part of his narrative is from memory, or whether he occasionally communicated with the jour- nal to which he seems to have been attached as foreign corre- spondent, is not quite clear to us. At all events, this portion of the volume has the least interest of any. The voyage is not very striking in itself; the visits to Loo Choo, Japan, and the Bonin Islands, are chiefly remarkable for a display of the pertinacious, resolute, and it may be added unscrupulous character of American diplomacy ; at the same time for its freedom, and its success. Mr. Taylor gives a much worse account of the Loo Chooans than Basil Hall. " Their wonderful innocence and simplicity prove to be the disguises assumed by a marvellous cunning ": their " regu- lations," like those of their superior Japan to keep out strangers, seem to have a strong resemblance to those of Russia.
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