In early life I once lived for four months on a vessel lying at anchor near the mouth of the Great South river of China. The Opium War had just ended and British frigates which had brought desolation and more bitter poverty to many a poor household on its banks were moored near us. It was naturally to be supposed that the traditional antipathy of the people to foreigners had been greatly exasperated, and when we first began to go on shore we were cautioned that we could not be too careful to avoid offending the prejudices of those we might meet, not to go far from our boats and to keep together for common defence in case of necessity. It was said that some English merchant seamen had been roughly handled and that one who had strayed away and not reappeared was supposed to have been murdered.

From the first, however, such warnings were little regarded by most of my shipmates, some of whom were rough and reckless men such as sober quiet people anywhere in the world are shy of. Some too would at times be a little the worse for liquor, heedless, boisterous and quarrelsome.

Once a man in this condition lurched against a woman who was carrying a child in one arm and an earthen jar in the other, striking her with his elbow in that to save herself from falling she had to drop the jar. As I saw the jar fall I thought that he had knocked it out of her hand and it looked as if he might have struck her. There was a little outcry and something like a mob at once gathered about us, looking at us menacingly, but the woman apparently explained that she thought there had been no wrong intention, the rest of us expressed our regret, and in a few moments there was a general bowing and smiling and a way was opened for us to go on.

As a rule at all the villages and even at lone farm houses where the people had been accustomed to see foreigners we were allowed to wander freely and were treated with a degree of civility that in view of all the circumstances seems to me now quite wonderful.

If I had been a full blown admiral in a “brass coat” greater respect could hardly have been paid to me. I was in fact a very insignificant working man in my shirt sleeves. I am not sure that I was not barefooted and I much doubt if my hands were free from the slush and tar of the rigging in the repair of which I had just before been engaged.

On another occasion I boarded an armed Chinese vessel, said to be the floating quarters of a Mandarin or high officer, and met with even warmer hospitality, dishes of stewed meat, rice, fruit and a little cup of spirits being set before me as well as tea and tobacco.

Once, when on shore, hearing a hum like that of an infant school, I looked in at the window of the house from which it came and saw an elderly man with great spectacles teaching about twenty little boys. As soon as he observed me, he laid down his book, came forward and throwing open a door [188] invited me to enter and then proceeded with great cleverness by gesture and example to show me how he taught the boys to read.

Once when we were fatigued and dry while one of these little mobs was hanging upon and jeering us we saw a boy who was carrying a pot of water. By motions we made him understand that we would pay for a drink from it. After a little while a bolder boy took the pot and bringing it near to us, set it upon the ground and with a laugh ran away. After we had satisfied ourselves we laid some “cash” by the side of it and drew back, whereupon the same boy, a ragged, half starved Chinese hoodlum, took the jar and kicked the money toward us, laughing again and shaking his head.

We had a man known as Sam attached to our ship while she lay in the river who ran errands with a small shore boat for the Captain, acted as an interpreter, and made himself useful in any way he could either in the cabin or on deck. He was a willing and skilful servant and the Captain tried to engage him to go to America with us. At last our steward falling ill, the Captain offered him very high wages, double as much as he had proposed to pay at first. Sam persistently declined and told me if the Captain doubled his offer again he would not go. I remonstrated with him for we would all have liked him as a shipmate, when he explained that he was the only son of an aged man and that it would therefore be infamous for him to go away from home. If his father did not need his care he would have jumped at the Captain’s offer.

I had made a friendly acquaintance with a merchant’s clerk by giving him some lessons in the English alphabet. Shortly before we went to sea he came on board and remarked to me that when Chinamen ventured upon the ocean they set up Joss in their cabin before which from time to time they set cups of tea and burned joss sticks and paper prayers. He did not see any Joss in our cabin and he asked me if I would not be more comfortable when a great storm arose if such a recognition of our dependence upon the good will of a Superior Being has been observed? It was a simple friendly inquiry made in a perfectly well-bred way.

Following some other sailors at a little distance lance entered a building which, though no idols were to be seen, I took to be a place of worship of some sort. It was dark and overhead and in recesses on the right and left rafters, wainscot and tile were to be dimly made out through a thin veil of smoke. A table or altar stood opposite the door upon which joss sticks were burning. There were numerous inscriptions on the walls and on paper and silk lanthorns, banners and tags hung from them and from the ceiling. There were also several quaint bells and gongs. The sailors had made their way through a little crowd of Chinese who stood before the altar and some of them had gone behind it and were lifting the banners and shaking the lanthorns. Others were striking the bells and gongs with their fists and knives. As I stood peering in at the door and gradually making out what I have described, [189] a sailor called out to me with an oath: “What are you keeping your hat off for in a heathen temple?”

Presently, as my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, I saw an old gentleman observing me from a side door. As our eyes met he bowed and directly came forward and beckoning me to follow him, led the way into a little room where there were piles of books and manuscripts. He laid open one of them which appeared very ancient, and showed me that it contained plans of the building and tried in a gentle, patient way to make me understand something of its origin and purposes. He could use a very few words of Pigion English, and, rightly or wrongly, I made out that the object of the structure was to keep the memory green & preserve the sayings of some good men who lived many generations ago. Afterwards the old gentleman took me through the main room calling my attention to the decorations of the bells and other things which he thought admirable and when I left he gave me several printed papers which I presumed to be religious tracts.

It was only when we pulled up some of the creeks or bayous to a distance from the fleet, where the people had had no direct dealing with foreigners and knew them only as rapacious enemies, that we met with anything but kindness and hospitality. These were holiday excursions. Leaving our boat in charge of a hand or two, we would be making our way along the dykes of the rice fields toward a pagoda, burial ground or village when we would hear a shrill cry, soon repeated by other voices, and presently see boys running together and shouting in concert a phrase which it was understood among us was equivalent to “Here come the heathen!” It seemed to be a make-believe rather than a real alarm. People nearby would look up as they heard the cry and regard us curiously. Idlers perhaps would smile, women would pick up their children and draw back out of our way, but nobody stopped work or looked at all threateningly except the vagabondish boys and they seemed more disposed to make fun of us than to injure or repel us. Sometimes as these gained boldness with numbers they would get behind us and menace us with brick-bats and pelt us a little with balls of mud. But though we heard that some other sailors had been driven into a miry place out of which they escaped with difficulty, I doubt if it had not been after some aggravated provocation.

We roved wherever inclination led us, hardly ever saying by your leave but taking that for granted, much as I have since seen a band of saucy Comanches do in a Mexican border village. Thus we made our way, often interrupting men and women at their work, into shops and factories, boat builders’ yards and potteries, gardens, cemeteries and houses of worship; even into private houses; seldom receiving the rebuffs or rebukes which I am sure that we deserved, often invited and assisted to gratify our curiosity.

This good natured disposition was, as far as I can remember, universal. [190] We met, to be sure, few but the poor and lowly. Yet we occasionally encountered some of the more fortunate classes. Once, for example, we had alongside of our ship an elegant yacht in which a wealthy merchant had come to deal for some part of our cargo. After quitting work in the afternoon I went to the gangway of this singular craft (which was very like those described by Marco Polo in the [Thirteenth] Century) and, by lifting my eyebrows to one of the crew, asked if I could come on board. The man stepped into the cabin and returned with a well dressed young fellow—perhaps the owner’s son—who at once offered his hand to assist me in coming on board and then extended it as an invitation toward the cabin into which he followed me. The cabin was rich with carvings and contained some pretty furniture of black work inlaid with ivory and mother of pearl, and a number of musical instruments. All these were shown to me in a pleasant way. In a corner there were two gentlemen over a table, playing chess I think. When we came near them they bowed and smiled and, the servant at this moment bringing in the tea things which were placed upon another table, they rose and one of them handed me a cup of tea. Delicious tea it was. They each took a cup of it with me, then offered me cigarettes and finally waited upon me to the gangway and bowed me over the side with perfectly grave suavity.

I suppose that civilization is to be tested as much by civility as anything else. And I have recalled these incidents as illustrations of a personal experience which made a strong impression upon me, tending to a higher estimate of the social condition of the masses of the Chinese people than I think generally prevails.