A PRUSSIAN EXPEDITION TO CHINA, JAPAN, AND SIAM.*
Tile Prussian Government has lately done, or, at least, attempted to do, a good deal towards extending German trade and com- merce through Europe and beyond the seas. Some years ago they sent an .embassy to Persia ; shortly after, a commercial mission to Brazil was despatched, and, more recently, an expedi- tion was sent out -to China, Japan, and Siam. The latter con- sisted of four vessels, the steam corvette Arcona, of 27 guns, with a crew of 355 sailors and marines ; the sailing frigate Thetis, 38 guns and 376 men ; the schooner Frauenlob, with one heavy piece of ordnance and 41 men ; and the transport Elbe, with six guns and a crew of fifty. On board the .Arconit were the members of the embassy, headed by Count Eulenburg, with a staff of nineteen attaches and =vans, including apologist, bota- nist, painter, and photographer, and five "special =nulls- sioners"—four for commerce, and one for agrioulture. The expe- dition left Europe in the spring of 1860, and, after .a prosperous voyage, arrived at Singapore at the beginning of August. Having entered into communications with the Maharadacba Abubakar, who promised to give important assistance to the embassy, the expedition sailed along the shores of Cochin China towards Hong Kong. The Chinese authorities were not unwilling to conclude a commercial treaty with Prussia; but, at the same time, they dragged the negotiations into great length, so that Count Eulenburg resolved to visit Japan in the meanwhile. On the road from Hong Kong to Jeddo, elose to the Japanese island of Simoda, a terrible hurricane buried the schooner Frauenlob, not a trace of which was ever after discovered. What was singular. was that a steamer which the Japanese -Government sent in search of the Frauenlob was never heard of either, giving rise to the wildest tales about pirates and demons of the sea. In Japan, Count Eulenburg was very fortunate. A treaty of commerce, exceed- ingly favourable to Prussian and German interests, was concluded at Nangasaki on the 25th of January, 1861, at -a moment when the murder of several Europeans threatened open rupture with England and France. Sailing back to China, and throwing anchor in the bay of Shanghai, the ambassador likewise signed a treaty with the Celestial-Government, on the 15th August, 1861, and then proceeded to Siam with the same object in view. There were no difficulties here in the way of Count Eulenburg's mis- sion. The two Kings of Siam, astonished to see three Prussian men-of-war in the harbour of Bangkok, promised everything that was asked of them, and in less than six weeks the whole matter was signed and sealed to general satisfitetion. Anxious to get home again to dear Berlin and its waves of sand, the members of the embassy then hurried away by the _overland route, while the little fleet returned via the Cape of Good Hope, arriving in the Prussian harbour of Swinemiinde on the 29th of May, 1862. The gain of this somewhat romantic expedition consisted in three pieces of parchment, while the expense and loss -proved fright- fully heavy. Of 800 men who left the shores of the Baltic, more than a hundred never returned ; forty-two having disappeared with the Fraueulob, and the rest lost by, disease and various aceidents.
The description of this Prussian Odyssey is a highly interesting one. Herr Reinhold Werner, the author, commanded the trans- port ship Elbe, which accompanied the two larger men-of-war, and as such had favourable opportunity for intereouree with the most distinguished persons, as well as for a thorough exploration of the various countries where the expedition touched. Most of the sketches are lively and even racy, and there is a quaint sea- man's humour in all the portrait-pictures of Chinese, Japanese, and Siamese. What adds to the amusing part of the book is that Captain Werner is intensely Prussian, and actually dreams of a naval superiority of the German fleet of the future in the Indian Ocean. Throughout he describes England and the English Government as fearfully jealous of Prussian influence in Asia, and, therefore, diplomatically counteracting every step in the mission of Count Eulenburg. Leaving aside this harmless idiosyncracy of the gallant commander of the Elbe, which is rather respect- able, as proving him a true patriot, his work is evidently a
• Die Preussisehe Expedition oath China, Japan, und Siam, in den Jahren 1860, 1861, end 1682. (The Prussian Expedition to China, Japan, and Siam, during the years 1860-62.) By Itetnn-dd Werner. Tsvo'vols. Leipzig : Broad:wiz; London : Nutt.
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record of events and adventures. The first volume is e up of descriptions of China and Japan, which are minute life-like, though, as may be expected, they contain not much that is new to English readers, whom recent publications have pretty well initiated into the mysteries of these regions. Herr Werner thinks that China is an old worn-out country, near decay and hastening to rapid dissolution ; but he has high hopes of Japan and the Japanese, to whom he pre- dicts a great and glorious future. He seems to think that the land of the Mikado and Daitnios is a kind of Europe of the Middle Ages, out of the feudal life of which order and civilization will rise before many generations are over. His sketches of Siam are quite as favourable, and this country being somewhat less known to us than Japan, the reports give much that is both new and highly interesting. The account of the system of govern ment of Siam, as described by Captain Werner, is not a little curious.
Like Japan, the kingdom of Siam has two crowned heads, of which, however, the first, Phra Somdet Mongkut, is the real sovereign. The seoond, Vangna, has an immense court, a royal retinue, and a harem of Amazons ; but he is almost powerless in political matters, although in time of war the ex officio commander-in-chief of the army. It is probably the fact of war not being much to the taste of the Siamese which makes Vang- na's position comparatively unimportant. The country is under the most complete paternal despotism in the world. One-third of the inhabitants are absolute slaves, and the rest are under a species of serfdom to the king, or to private owners, but a degree removed from complete slavery. A large number of feudal nobles, called Radshas, own the greater part of the soil of the country ; but they, in their turn, must pay heavy tribute to the two kings, and are otherwise kept in check in a far more effective manner than the Daimios of Japan. King Mougkut is said to possess a revenue of twenty-five million thalers, or more than three and a half million sterling ; and in proof of this enormous wealth it is stated that he erected recently a monument to his late brother, consisting of a temple made of pure gold, thirty-one feet high, and with a golden vase of nine feet, containing the ashes of the deceased, on the top. The private chapel of King Mongkut is, moreover, filled with some thirty statues of
Buddha, each six feet high, and of solid gold. "Siam would be a good country to pay war expenses," naively remarks Captain Werner, "should any of the European powers get up a little quarrel with it." The author more than hints that His Majesty Napoleon III. is sharply on the look-out for such a "golden opportunity," facilitated to a high degree by the convenient neighbourhood of Cochin China. Already a commencement for carrying out the Napoleonic idea has been made in the arrangement which places all the Cochin Chinese settled in Siam under the protection of France. It is the thin side of the wedge, Herr Werner thinks.
A portrait of Phra Somdet Mongkut, drawn on steel after a photograph, gives no very high idea of the mental faculties of His Majesty. He is sitting in knickerbockers, with a Scotch cap on his head, and looks the very picture of an old Chelsea pensioner, minus the whiskers. It is said he knows English ; but, to his misfortune, he also has studied geology, astrology, and even theology, and his poor old head appears to have gone crazy in attempt to take in the whole circle of arts with the addition of the "sciences called pure." To make matters worse, he has got into correspondence with famous Madame Clicquot, of Epernay, and is stated to have always close to his writing-desk a well selected assortment of the best growths of champagne aud other royal "drinks." Nothing the king likes so much, says Captain Werner, as presents of good wines and liquors. "I myself saw an autograph letter of His Majesty to an American merchant, in which he expresses his warmest thanks for the present of a few bottles of champagne." This fondness for fermented liquors His Majesty shares with his subjects, bipeds and quadrupeds, the latter including a sncall army of elephants. Herr Werner asserts that these animals are regarded by the Siamese as " verniinftige Wesen," or creatures endowed with reason, and that it is on this account that the celebrated white elephant enjoys a sort of religious worship as king and leader of his race. There is a continual search for these rare quadrupeds. The man who is lucky enough to catch a white elephant has a claim to a territory, extending as far in all directions as the loud voice of the creature can be heard, and obtains besides the grautof a large life-annuity. After capture an express road is cut for the animal through the forest to the nearest river, on which a raft, covered
with flowers, is held in readiness to convey him to Bangkok. The first king himself is bound to receive the tall strangerat the gates of the city, and to assign him a residence in his own palace. Imme- diately after arrival, the elephant is nominated a mandarin of the first class, and has his court, his gold stick and silver stick, and a whole host of lackeys assigned to his special service. Some of the gentlemen in plush have to fan him continually, some to make music, some to adorn his couch with flowers, and others to keep off the flies from his illustrious ears. Daily, when he is going to his bath, a superior officer of the court holds a red parasol over his head, and the people in the streets are warned by trumpet signals to make room for his highness. On the death of the white elephant—an event which occurs rather frequently, seeing that the stately creature is fed for honour's sake chiefly upon cakes and champagne—the whole people go into mourning, and the state funeral which takes place is of amazing splendour. How King Mongkut's philosophy, geology, theology, and the "sciences called pure," allow him to mentally digest all these matters, Captain Werner does not tell.
Although the author thinks the Siamese a progressive people, his picture of the present state of the country is a very sorry one. The reports of the Siamese embassy which lately visited the chief nations of the West, appear to have had but a galvanic effect for bringing about improvements. The hundred gunboats built in Europe, at an immense expense, and for each of which e. separate harbour was made, are lying rotting in their berths, some of them already sunk to the water's edge, and all totally useless. The European uniforms into which the Siamese soldiers were stuck have likewise been productive of little good, and the ten thousand armed men, under the command of the second king, are still little else but a body of vagrants, civilized only in so far as they have taken to whisky-and.- water. "If Napoleon III, liked the job, he might conquer all Siam in a couple of days, the four great rivers with their many contributaries allowing hint to send a fleet of gunboats from one corner of the land to the other." So says Captain Reinhold Werner, and the remark seems well worthy to be taken into serious consideration.
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