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 CHRISTINE

BUCI--GLUCKSMANN
bc lcs an
the MADNESS
of VISION
ON BAROQUE AESTHETICS
TRANSLATED BY DOROTHY Z. BAKER

series in c ontinental thoug ht

The Madness
of Vision
 Series in Continental Thought

Editorial Board
Ted Toadvine, Chairman, University of Oregon
Elizabeth A. Behnke, Study Project in Phenomenology of the Body
David Carr, Emory University
James Dodd, New School University
Lester Embree, Florida Atlantic University
José Huertas-Jourda, Wilfrid Laurier University†
Joseph J. Kockelmans, Pennsylvania State University
William R. McKenna, Miami University
Algis Mickunas, Ohio University
J. N. Mohanty, Temple University
Dermot Moran, University College Dublin
Thomas Nenon, University of Memphis
Rosemary Rizo-Patron de Lerner, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima
Thomas M. Seebohm, Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz
Gail Soffer, Rome, Italy
Elizabeth Ströker, Universität Köln†
Nicolas de Warren, Wellesley College
Richard M. Zaner, Vanderbilt University

International Advisory Board

Suzanne Bachelard, Université de Paris†
Rudolf Boehm, Rijksuniversiteit Gent
Albert Borgmann, University of Montana
Amedeo Giorgi, Saybrook Institute
Richard Grathoff, Universität Bielefeld
Samuel Ijsseling, Husserl-Archief te Leuven
Alphonso Lingis, Pennsylvania State University
Werner Marx, Albert-Ludwigs Universität, Freiburg†
David Rasmussen, Boston College
John Sallis, Boston College
John Scanlon, Duquesne University
Hugh J. Silverman, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Carlo Sini, Università di Milano
Jacques Taminiaux, Louvain-la-Neuve
D. Lawrence Wieder†
Dallas Willard, University of Southern California
 The Madness
Of Vision
..................................

On Baroque Aesthetics

chri st i ne buci - gl ucksma n n

t ra nsl at e d by dorot hy z . ba k er

Ohio University Press /  A t h e n s

 Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Buci-Glucksmann, Christine, author.

[Folie du voir. English]
The madness of vision : on baroque aesthetics / Christine Buci-Glucksmann ; translated
by Dorothy Z. Baker.
pages cm. — (Series in continental thought ; no. 44)

Summary: “Christine Buci-Glucksmann’s The Madness of Vision is one of the most influential
studies in phenomenological aesthetics of the baroque. Integrating the work of Merleau-
Ponty with Lacanian psychoanalysis, Renaissance studies in optics, and twentieth-century
mathematics, the author asserts the materiality of the body and world in her aesthetic theory.
All vision is embodied vision, with the body and the emotions continually at play on the visual
field. Thus vision, once considered a clear, uniform, and totalizing way of understanding the
material world, actually dazzles and distorts the perception of reality. In each of the nine
essays that form The Madness of Vision Buci-Glucksmann develops her theoretical argument
via a study of a major painting, sculpture, or influential visual image—Arabic script, Bettini’s
“The Eye of Cardinal Colonna,” Bernini’s Saint Teresa and his 1661 fireworks display to
celebrate the birth of the French dauphin, Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes, the
Paris arcades, and Arnulf Rainer’s self-portrait, among others—and deftly crosses historical,
national, and artistic boundaries to address Gracin’s El Criticn; Monteverdi’s opera Orfeo;
the poetry of Hafiz, John Donne, and Baudelaire; as well as baroque architecture and Anselm
Kiefer’s Holocaust paintings. In doing so, Buci-Glucksmann makes the case for the pervasive
influence of the baroque throughout history and the continuing importance of the baroque in
contemporary arts”— Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8214-2019-5 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-8214-4437-5 (electronic)
1. Aesthetics, Modern—17th century. I. Baker, Dorothy Zayatz, translator. II. Title.
BH172.B8313 2013
709.03'201—dc23 2012032541
 For Michel de Certeau,
a friend of all “madnesses” of thought,
without whom this book would be otherwise.
And if seeing was fire, I required the plenitude of fire, and if see-
ing would infect with me madness, I madly wanted that madness.

—Maurice Blanchot
 C o n t e n t s

List of Illustrations xi

Translator’s Preface xiii

Author’s Preface xv

Prelude: A “Je ne Sais Quoi . . .” xvii

1. The Stage of Vision 1

2. The Work of the Gaze 22

3. Seeingness; or, The Eye of the Phantasm 36

4. The Rhetorical Telescope I: Il Mirabile; il Furore 56

5. The Rhetorical Telescope II: Figures of Nothingness 79

6. Palimpsests of the Ungazeable 94

Finale: The Burning of Vision 114

Notes 123

Bibliography 145

Index 155
 I l l u s t r atio n s

Figure 1. Fate of the doubled and divided gaze;

anamorphosis of a cylindrical mirror
(Mario Bettini, Eye of Cardinal Colonna [1642]) 12

Figure 2. A state of rapture; the martyr dazzled by the gaze

(Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto, The Vision of the
Cross of Saint Peter [1555]) 23

Figure 3. This angelic and divine dart that “penetrated to

my entrails” (Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The Ecstasy
of Saint Teresa [1652]) 38

Figure 4. The acme of dying (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,

Judith and Holofernes [1599]) 44

Figure 5. This floating, secret phallus (Michelangelo Merisi da

Caravaggio, Narcissus [1597]) 48

Figure 6. Truth, her draped eroticism and satisfied expression

(Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Truth Unveiled by Time
[1645/52]) 59

Figure 7. The ungazeable, a face flagellated with marks

(Arnulf Rainer, Untitled [1979/1980]) 107

Figure 8. A flamboyant aesthetic, a heightened fury

(Gian Lorenzo Bernini and G. P. Schor,
Celebration for the Birth of the Dauphin [1661]) 120
 T r a n s l ato r ’ s P r e f ac e

One of the challenges of the translator’s work is to attempt to inhabit the mind
of another. This is simultaneously one of the richest aspects of translation. In
the case of Christine Buci-Glucksmann, approaching her work means reckoning
with extraordinary erudition and keeping pace with a rapid and far-reaching
intellectual exploration. In La folie du voir, the reader and the translator en-
counter countless brilliant artists, theoreticians, and critics from a full range
of disciplines—literature, music, painting, sculpture, architecture, philosophy,
mathematics, psychoanalysis, science, religion, and anthropology. The author
crosses and connects traditional disciplines with an ease that embodies the ba-
roque itself. Likewise, the argument of La folie du voir is historically unbounded.
Buci-Glucksmann begins with the visual sensation of forming Arabic letters,
reprises and reanimates the debates on Cartesian perspectivism that anticipated
the baroque, then speaks to the baroque impulse in the arts from the Renais-
sance through the modernist and then the postmodernist periods to exhibit the
enduring importance of the baroque in contemporary art and aesthetics.
This translation of La folie du voir is intended to introduce this work to
the English-language reader, to guide the reader through the expansive con-
texts of its argument, and also to serve as a resource for further scholarship
in phenomenology, baroque aesthetics, and baroque art. Because the author
brings the reader to a dizzying range of studies, texts, and works of art, I
annotate terms and document citations in the endnotes. When I refer the
reader to a concept or a phrasing by another thinker and do so in an endnote,
this does not suggest that Buci-Glucksmann has directed the reader to that
work. This implies only that I, as translator, find this reference to be helpful
for my understanding and interpretation of her work and believe that the
reader might find the reference equally useful. Buci-Glucksmann’s notes in
the original work also appear as endnotes, but are shown in brackets and are
flagged with “—B-G.” They are translated as in the original, and where the
author identifies source material, additional documentation is silently added.
xiv translator’s preface

Where the author inserts a quotation into her work, I use the received
English translation of the work when one exists and insert it silently into the
endnote. In the absence of an authoritative English translation, all transla-
tions are mine. I am grateful for conversations with David Mikics on trans-
lation from the Latin, Marco Rasi for assistance with a translation from
Italian, and Lois Parkinson Zamora for consultation on translating Gracián.
However, any error or infelicity is mine alone.
Another fascinating aspect of La folie du voir, which once again presents
a challenge to the translator, is the author’s lyrical and sometimes enraptured
prose. Christine Buci-Glucksmann’s mode of expression is not convention-
ally academic, although her argument and the rigor of her thought are de-
cidedly scholarly. The author’s wonderfully extravagant prose embodies her
claims about the excesses and voids, the shadows and blinding holes of ba-
roque vision. At times her prose is the twisting column and trompe-l’oeil of
baroque architecture. It shimmers and fascinates as the vision of Narcissus.
At times it is as sharp-edged as Judith’s knife in her moment with Holofernes.
The Madness of Vision begins and concludes with the author’s personal ac-
count of her experience of baroque vision, and one understands that the en-
tire study is both personal and academic. To retain this important aspect of
the book, I have not attempted to alter the quality of the author’s prose. In-
complete sentences remain incomplete. Paratactic and hypotactic sentences
and paragraphs remain as they are in the original. Where the author uses a
neologism, I offer an English neologism.
I am happy to acknowledge the University of Houston’s College of Lib-
eral Arts and Social Science for a faculty development leave to support the
translation of La folie du voir, and would like to recognize the generosity of
the Martha Gano Houstoun Foundation for a Research Grant in Literary
Criticism for this project. My translation of chapter 2 of La folie du voir
appeared in Baroque New Worlds: Representation, Transculturation, Coun-
terconquest, edited by Lois Parkinson Zamora and Monika Kaup, which was
published by Duke University Press. I thank Duke University Press for per-
mission to republish a version of the chapter in this book. The editors and
readers of the Ohio University Press offered invaluable support and thought-
ful comments on this book, and I appreciate both. Finally, I am so very grate-
ful to Christine Buci-Glucksmann for introducing me to her exquisite vision
of madness in baroque vision.
 A u t h o r ’ s P r e f ac e

The Madness of Vision was first published in 1986 and reissued in June 2002
in an expanded context based on new research on virtual reality (La folie du
voir: Une esthétique du virtuel). An entire aesthetic and philosophical voy-
age connects the baroque to the virtual via three historical moments: the
seventeenth-century baroque aesthetic; Baudelaire’s modern baroque, rein-
terpreted through Walter Benjamin’s work; the contemporary, technological
neo-baroque of a global madness of vision.
Seen from this perspective, The Madness of Vision, which followed the
1984 publication of Baroque Reason, marks a shift in the research of more
than twenty years. The historical baroque centered on the themes of Narcis-
sus and Proteus; employing new categories borrowed from the rhetoric of
the sublime, and from Lacan and Benjamin; and constituting an aesthetic
of thought characteristic of the arts: allegory, form-formlessness, nothing-
ness, the marvelous, and furor. The virtual pushes the baroque to its extreme,
based this time on the myth of Icarus, and develops a culture of flux, of arti-
facts and a new kind of image, the flux-image.
In this sense, the baroque of artifice, metamorphosis, and anamorphosis
continues its lineage into the present day. Because from the Vanities to the
paintings of Caravaggio or the architectural structures of Bernini and Borro-
mini, a culture of time—of ephemeral time, which is often melancholic—cre-
ates being, affects and effects.
The baroque dreamed of an eye that would view itself to infinity; the vir-
tual accomplished just that.

Christine Buci-Glucksmann
2012
 Prelude:

A “Je ne Sais Quoi . . .”

Who heard,
Who heard,
Who saw what I saw?
—Góngora

This book, Madness of Vision,1 is the story of a gaze that followed me, car-
ried me away, and transported me to the depths of myself, in the labyrinth
of a memory devoid of all others, in quest of the extremes of the impossible
where presence and absence, fullness and emptiness, annihilation and ecstasy
would coincide in Love’s “eternal abyss of harmonious discord.”
A little girl’s fascinated gaze, her captivated gaze. The very first site
of the eyes’ rapture. The bedroom was empty, desolate, abandoned; the
only sensation an insistent, monotone, repeated moan. I lay there, on fire.
The scream came forth like a welt, the aftermath of a lightning bolt, the
thundering of a call with no response. And then nothing, nothingness, this
nothingness.
Appearing suddenly, in the extreme violence of childish dispossession, this
nothingness inhabited me. Named me. The nothingness of bewitched meta-
morphoses, of forsaken chasms, the nothingness of the very first “dying of
love,” like a Voice from before speech in its archaic radiance. I was stricken.
Immured in this first silence, this stasis of anguish and death that the mystics
call the noche oscura, fâna, annihilation.
This nothingness created me. Without my knowing it. For a long, infa-
mous time. Because for a very long time, the initial, childish distress, the
desperate search for “everything” was buried deep within my alien self, in
its naked, restless wandering. In its search for you. As if it required every
impulse, in foreign languages, every path to knowledge and its limits, every
accumulated death and starlit burning, in order to return to the very site of
the first blind and blinding gaze: a baroque rapture, a private myth.
xviii prelude

This captive gaze. Utterly enchanted, I brought this gaze to the sign-im-
ages, sign-miracles, sign-dreams that a father, specialist in “Eastern” lan-
guages, traced in the evening’s muffled silence. Traces awaiting my delighted
eye, in suspense, clusters of writing-drawing, black-white shapes, empty-full
shapes. My first encounter with languages set the stage for “the uncanny” at
the heart of vision in its game of concealment and unveiled secrets.2 Without
a doubt, this initial euphoria, which I buried, evaded, martyred for so long,
came back to me suddenly in the astonishing, pleasuring polysemy that I later
brought to certain Arabic words: the addâd.3 Lamaqa means both “to write”
and “to erase.” Assara, “to divulge” and “to conceal” a secret. Tala’a, “to
appear” and “to disappear.” Fitna, “seduction” and “betrayal.” My father’s
writing lay there—overlooked, a lure for the gaze and for love, an enormous
accumulation of traces where life’s intimacy and eternity are intertwined. A
palimpsest to decipher.
In the aura of memory, in this type of enrapturing image where my gaze
was consumed, the love per figura—and for figures—superimposed itself
gradually on the Scream, the memory of the scream that haunts Tosca, Tu-
randot, and the “furious” dissonance of Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso.4 I would
slip into this second room—the room of writing and the visible—where I
was always silent, always satisfied. Silence is the crystalline point of language
where form severs Being and fixes its secret securely within. This silence sur-
rendered me to the madness of vision. To the frantic quest for an “all-seeing
world” that permits the shift from the visible to Seeingness.5 Not to see every-
thing, but rather to see vision as in Gracián’s infinite torsion: “One requires
eyes on the very eyes, eyes to see how they see.”6
I had resembled a prisoner of a “Voice of gazes,”7 where, by a strange,
spiritual alchemy, deprivation and absence became rediscovered pleasure. It
was a long enchantment, a lifting of the veils of sadness, a room filled with
light, scattering the dust of time: a figure of Apparition. Such as the grand
Angels in a painting by Caravaggio, dazzling with a radiant and pleasuring
Beauty, appearing in the light from the black background. At that moment,
“there, before us, a great being of light and love, the flickering universe, the
hesitation of things,” as Cézanne said, expressing the same madness of vi-
sion that takes hold of a painting: let light shine on you, let a painting look at
you until “all that remains is color, and in color, brightness, clarity.”8
Scream/gaze/writing: this chant ran through me and opened me to the
power of doubles, of ambidextrous knowledge. Through the most intense of
childhood’s mute passions, through the most intimate of the eye’s obsessions,
prelude xix

anguish could become delight, absence could become a profusion of bod-

ies and dazzling materiality. From this point forward, nothingness would be
a “tricked-out nothing,” an erotic in suspense, breathing that oscillates be-
tween stasis and ecstasy: an amorous subject of opposites.9 The very subject
I dreamed of in Vienna in Musil’s The Man Without Qualities: “My heart is
at once full of love and emptied of love.”10
This gaze. I spent a long time trying to tolerate this gaze, to tame it, to
name it. And even to transform it into an enchanted epistemology where
love would appear and rhetoric would speak. This gaze. Maintaining what
it evades, altering itself in a game of appearances, this oblique gaze, shot
through with fissures of death and forgetting, this gaze was baroque. Even
anamorphic. Seen from the front, the visible remains confused, disorganized,
or prosaically innocent. But seen from an angle—from a correct perspec-
tive—a book, an extinguished candle, a cuttlefish bone are suddenly revealed
to be a skull, allegories of death, as in the Great Vanities of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.
Is not “correct perspective” a double gaze, blurred by tears, and blinded,
such as the Shakespearean gaze that relies on anamorphosis as metaphor:

For sorrow’s eye, glazed with blinding tears,

Divides one thing entire to many objects;
Like perspectives, which rightly gaz’d upon,
Show nothing but confusion, ey’d awry,
Distinguish form.11

The site of this perspective, where form shifts toward formlessness, toward
a luminous chaos of material excess, where form undoes itself to become
another, where the real merges with its phantasm, isn’t this a “site of love,”
a pulsating baroque site where bodies and their rhetorics are born? First, the
initial body is paradoxical, alogical, the body of oxymoronic love: its wound
is as sweet (“exquisite”) as a burn is icy. Chasm-body, cannibal-body, amazed-
body, such as Catharina Regina Von Greiffenberg evokes in her mystical lan-
guage: “I kiss you, and I eat you whole, for love, in the depths of my body
. . . I am enlightened, amazed. You see me with so much clarity.”12
Between abyss and clarity, between blinding tears and blinding love, in the
grammar of baroque impulses in which form aims for its dissolution and the
dead object aims for its continuance within jouissance, I was reborn. And, if
the library and ruins are truly the great metaphors of the baroque, I was born
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button), an inferior officer, Houqua's grandson, Mouqua and
Kingqua, and two Linguists. The document was a most extraordinary
one. Prominent is the bombastic style, the outcome of ages of
dominion, ignorance of Western official forms through an absence of
diplomatic intercourse. It said: 'In dealing in opium, regardless of
the injury it inflicts upon the Chinese people, an inordinate thirst for
gain controls the actions of these foreign merchants.' With an idea
that the use of it was prohibited in England: 'We have heard that
England forbids the smoking of opium (within its dominions) with the
utmost rigour; hence it is clear that it is deleterious. Since, then, the
injury it causes has been averted from England, is it not wrong to
send it to another nation, and especially to China?' Then there is an
appeal to personal feeling: 'How can these opium-sellers bear to
bring to our people an article which does them so much harm, for an
ever-grasping gain? Suppose those of another nation should go to
England and induce its people to buy and smoke the drug—it would
be right that You, Honoured Sovereign, should hate and abhor them.
Hitherto we have heard that You, Honoured Sovereign, whose heart
is full of benevolence, would not do to others that which you would
not others should do to yourself.' The grandiloquent then appears:
'Our great Emperor maintains Celestial lands and foreign nations in
equal favour; he rewards merit and punishes vice; and, as is the
heart of heaven and earth pure and incorruptible, so is his own. The
Celestial Dynasty rules over ten thousand[74] nations, and in the
highest degree sheds forth its benign influence with equal majesty.'
This is in the sense of grandeur or stateliness. It ended thus: 'By
manifesting sincere and reverential obedience[75] mutually will be
enjoyed the blessings of great peace! Heaven will protect your
Majesty; the Gods bless you, lengthen your years, and grant you a
happy and an honourable posterity.' I never heard if this document
reached its destination.
On March 23, every Chinaman in the Factories, from the Compradore
to the cook, left by order of the 'Kin-Chae,' and were threatened
with decapitation if they dared to return. The day before, Mr.
Lancelot Dent, chief of Messrs. Dent & Co., had been invited to enter
the city and meet his Excellency, which he declined to do. Other but
ineffectual attempts by the authorities to induce him to go were also
made, when, on the 24th, Captain Charles Elliot, Her Majesty's
Superintendent of Trade, arrived from Macao, and immediately
assumed charge, on behalf of the English residents, of the
perplexing question of the 'total surrender of the opium.' The street
in rear of the Factories was now filled with soldiers, a strong guard
was also placed in the 'Square,' and a triple cordon of boats drawn
up from the Creek to the Danish Factory. The whole community were
thus prisoners in the hands of the Chinese. Provisions were not
allowed to be brought in, no one was permitted to go beyond the
'Square,' and matters assumed a decidedly serious aspect. We
overcame the difficulty of provisions in this way. The Chinese soldiers
being entirely unaccustomed to foreigners, there was a danger that
'trouble would arise;' the Hong merchants therefore represented this
to the City authorities, and offered to send their own coolies to keep
watch at the different gates of the Factories.[76] This was agreed to,
and the double object was gained in supplies of firewood and
provisions, which were at night stealthily brought to us by them.
On March 27, on the 'Kin-Chae's' demand to Her Majesty's
Superintendent 'that all the opium under the control of the English
merchants should be given up,' 20,283 chests were tendered and
accepted, and 'Chunpee' fixed upon as the place of delivery. To
control the delivery, Mr. Alexander Johnston, Deputy Superintendent,
was furnished with a conveyance, and left Canton on April 3. The
'receiving ships' moved up to the Bogue, where the entire quantity
was handed over to officers (appointed by the 'Kin-Chae'), who
caused it to be destroyed in deep trenches on Chunpee heights.
Thus 'reverent obedience' was shown. Captain Elliot remarked, in his
despatch to her Majesty's Government, dated March 30, 1839: 'This
is the first time, in our intercourse with this Empire, that its
Government has taken the unprovoked (?) initiative in aggressive
measures against British life, liberty, and property, and against the
dignity of the British Crown.' No words could more strongly confirm
everything herein said in relation to the safety of property and life
which we had enjoyed at Canton. But the despatch contained not a
word of the provocation given by foreigners in continuing the
condemned traffic under constantly repeated injunctions against
doing so, and persistent warnings to discontinue it. I, of course, do
not blame my brother merchants at Canton, no matter to what
nation they belonged, as we were all equally implicated. We
disregarded local orders, as well as those from Pekin, and really
became confident that we should enjoy perpetual impunity so far as
the 'opium trade' was concerned.
The night of March 24 was one of unusual brilliancy in its cloudless
sky and full moon. The Factories, forcibly abandoned by several
hundred Chinese (estimated at eight hundred) at a moment's notice,
resembled somewhat places of the dead! Their foreign occupants
were thus left literally in a complete state of destitution as regards
service of any kind, not even a scullion being allowed to remain. The
consequence was that they were compelled, in order to live, to try
their own skill in cooking, to make up their own rooms, sweep the
floors, lay the table, wash plates and dishes! It may be supposed
that it produced discontent, complaints, and impatience. Not at all;
we in the Suy-Hong—and it was the same with our fellow-prisoners
in the other Factories, with few exceptions—made light of it, and
laughed rather than groaned over the efforts to roast a capon, to
boil an egg or a potato. We could all clean knives, sweep the floors,
and even manage to fill the lamps. But there were mysteries which
we could not divine; our chief, Mr. Green, after a vain attempt to boil
rice—which, when prepared, resembled a tough mass of glue—
proved a most wretched cook, and took to polishing the silver, but
abandoned that and finally swept the floor! Mr. Low conscientiously
did all he could, but after toasting the bread to death, and boiling
the eggs till they acquired the consistency of grape-shot, he
abandoned that department, and took to one not exacting so much
exercise of mind, and 'laid the cloth' dexterously and well. The rest
of us, from modesty or a feeling of sheer incapacity, did no more
than was absolutely necessary. It would have been unfair to rob the
others of their laurels! Some one had to fill the pitchers; anyone
could draw a cork, or even boil water. Thus, by hook or by crook, we
managed to sustain life—of which the 'bread' was nightly supplied to
us by Houqua's coolies. They also brought (made up in bags, as if
'personal effects' or 'blankets to keep off the dew,' thus passing the
guards) edibles of all sorts.
During the day we met in the Square, which became 'High 'Change'
of experiences in desperate efforts to roast, boil, or stew. Some
went the length of considering it great fun; others heaped unheard-
of blessings upon the heads of His Celestial Majesty, Taou-Kwang,
and his envoy 'Lin.'
No two men were so unctuously abused; as if the vilifiers themselves
had always followed strictly the 'Eight Regulations' under which they
lived! What amusement all this created.
By May 2, 15,501 chests had been given up, when the servants were
allowed gradually to return, and the whole quantity, 20,283 chests,
[77] completed on the 21st. On the 27th Captain Elliot returned to
Macao, and on the 30th the opium clipper 'Ariel' left for Suez direct
with despatches for the British Government. She returned on April 2,
1840.
Between May 6 and 21 many foreigners were permitted to leave the
city, and went to Macao or Whampoa. Captain Elliot, before going
himself, on the 22nd issued a notice to British subjects that they also
were to leave, and by the end of the month they had left; and there
remained no foreigners but Americans, about twenty-five in number.
On the 29th I left with all books, papers, &c., not actually required at
Canton, in company with six other boats for Macao, containing
Parsees and several English, including Doctors Cox and Dickson. On
the way down we were joined by four large chop-boats with Messrs.
Lindsay & Co.'s establishment, and John Shillaber and others from
Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, & Co.'s. The trip was most enjoyable; we
dined or passed the day with one another, and arrived nearly at the
same time at Macao on the night of June 1. The Mandarins who
came on board at Che-Nae and at Heang-Shan were civil as usual,
and seemed perfectly indifferent to what had passed at Canton.
The surrender of the 'British-owned opium' was followed by events
to which the foreign trade had from its foundation at Canton been a
stranger. Now were initiated political relations between the vast and
unknown Empire of China and European nations—the first that had
existed. No treaty had yet been entered into, except with Russia for
regulating its trade and arranging boundaries. Russian and Chinese
commercial relations had existed between two frontier towns
(separated but by the boundary line) well known as Kiachta and
'Mae-Mae-Ching.'[78]
No Western officer was yet officially recognised, even of the rank of
Consul or Vice-Consul, and all communications between one or the
other and the Canton Government were through the intermediary of
the Co-Hong. The consequences, therefore, that might grow out of
the delivery of the opium filled the foreign community with anxiety.
The Americans had not delivered any American-owned opium, of
which we held at the time of surrender about fifty cases of Turkey,
but they determined to remain in the Factories and continue their
business. The English on leaving placed theirs in charge of the
American houses. A large share of it fell under the control of Russell
& Co., and, to facilitate negotiations with its new constituents
outside, one of the partners opened an office on board the English
ship 'Heroine,' at 'Kow-Lung,' and subsequently, when all foreign
vessels were driven away from that anchorage, at Toon-Koo. Several
ships of the firm, including the 'Lintin,' were kept running between
these places and Whampoa with British goods at thirty to forty
dollars per ton, and Indian cotton at seven dollars per bale, and
receiving on board no freight unless consigned to the house. A very
active business was carried on under the American flag, greatly to
the convenience of English friends, as well as to their profit. Teas
were the returns for these inward cargoes, which were brought
down to the anchorage and shipped from Toon-Koo for England.
While the shipments were going on an English vessel of about 900
tons arrived from Singapore, named the 'Cambridge' under the
command of Captain Douglas. Being offered for sale, she was
purchased by Russell & Co., and her name changed to 'Chesapeake'
of eventful memory. Loaded with British goods, valued at 150,000l.,
with her deck full to the top of the rail, she was despatched for
Whampoa, in charge of Captain Gilman. She had of course been put
under the American flag. There was very little time to spare, as a
blockade was to commence in a few days. On June 22, 1840, H.M.S.
'Volage,' and subsequently the 'Hyacinth,' took up their positions off
Chunpee[79] at the moment the 'Chesapeake' sailed by. She was the
last vessel that entered the port. She arrived at her destination and
delivered her cargo, which was landed at Canton in regular course.
The Chinese had thrown a great raft across the river just above the
second bar, in anticipation of hostilities with the English. They then
thought the best thing to do was to purchase a large foreign ship,
arm and man her, and anchor her above the raft, as an additional
protection against the barbarian war ships. Application being made
to Mr. Delano, the then chief of Russell & Co., who had never left
Canton, a bargain was concluded for the 'Chesapeake.' The
American flag and papers were removed, and she was made over to
the Mandarins. Her 'Cumsha and Measurement' charges, amounting
to about $8,000, were abandoned. The Mandarins took charge and
began to fit her out as an 'auxiliary defence' to the raft, and thus
stop 'English men-of-war' which 'from vainglory or conceit might
dare to attempt the inner waters.' Two great eyes were painted on
her bows. Great streamers hung from every mast to the deck, a
multitude of flags of all colours and shapes—bearing such words
painted thereon as 'Courage,' the 'Yang-Yin,' and the 'Pā-Kwa,'[80]
together with the rank of the officer in command—were arranged
around the taffrail. In short, she became the Chinese emblem of
everything 'mighty and victorious!' She would strike would-be
assailants with consternation and despair!
Meanwhile her armament was sent on board. Cannon of every
available size were ranged on her two decks; round shot, stones,
and other missiles were accumulated in quantities; nor were bows
and arrows forgotten, nor quantities of muskets, flint-lock and
percussion, and the more familiar matchlock. Her crew consisted of
Whampoa Chinese (amongst many others)—these were accustomed
to foreign vessels, and no better sailors than they—Manila men,
Seedies,[81] and Lascars, runaways from country ships. There were
probably four or five hundred men on board.
Thus equipped she was towed down to her appointed station amidst
an inconceivable beating of gongs, the explosion of fire crackers,
flying serpents, and fiery dragons—thanks to which and her two bow
'eyes' she arrived in safety and anchored.
This was a few days before February 26, 1841, when the Bogue
Forts were captured by Sir Gordon Bremer. The 'Unconquerable' was
then taking powder on board in large quantities, packed in jars,
which were promiscuously stowed on deck and between decks, as
usual. She was so engaged also on the 27th, having a great number
of chop-boats and other small craft alongside. Suddenly appeared
the smoke of a steamer approaching from the Bogue! It turned out
to be H.M.'s ship 'Nemesis,' Captain Hall. She had the 'singular
audacity to approach the barrier,' and when within an easy distance,
the 'unheard-of temerity' to try the effect of a Congreve rocket on
the emblem of 'victory and might.' The aim was true, and like a flash
—or in a 'flash'—ship, crew, and contents, boats, all disappeared
from the face of the waters! The explosion was terrific, and was
distinctly heard at Canton, a distance of thirty miles. Not a human
creature was reported to have survived! For years after there was to
be seen on the left bank of the river the bottom of the ship. It had
been separated from the hull as if sawn off in all its length; and it
gradually disappeared through the combined efforts of Chinese
boatmen, who broke up and carried it piecemeal away.
The English forces having moved up to Canton, a suspension of
hostilities was agreed upon on March 20, 1841, and the port was
again free. Local disturbances, however, broke out, and, on May 22
following, a mob of Chinese plundered and burnt down the East
India Company's new Factory, the Dutch, and the Creek. On the
25th, Sir Hugh Gough landed near Pwantingqua's country house and
took possession of the heights overlooking the city. The authorities
then ransomed it for six millions of dollars, of which five millions
were paid on the 31st, when the forces left Canton and foreign
vessels again entered the port.
The carrying trade on the river now ceased. Lying in the outer
waters we had the 'Lintin,' the 'Lantao' the 'Lema,' and the 'Ladrone.'
The former commenced her career in China as Russell & Co.'s
'receiving ship' in 1830. She was well constructed to carry a large
cargo, and her sailing qualities were fair. Her career and ultimate
fate were singular. With the exception of shifting stations during the
taiphoon seasons, her anchors were never raised for nine years,
when in 1839, as related, she resumed her original vocation of a
sailing ship up and down the 'Pearl' River.
During this state of idleness for our ships, I received information
from Mr. Delano that Houqua was disposed to send orders to India
for cotton. Prices had naturally fallen there during the blockade and
troubles at Canton, while the non-importation for several months
had caused a great rise. Three of the ships were despatched and
100,000l. remitted to Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. The funds were
in East India Company's bills on Calcutta. The 'Lintin' sailed for
Madras, the 'Lantao' for Calcutta, and the 'Lema' for Bombay, thus
securing so much tonnage for the cotton, while other vessels were
to be chartered at those ports. The first vessel, however, that arrived
with a portion of the purchases was the Swedish ship 'Calcutta,' and
she had anchored in the Taypa only a few days when she was driven
on shore in a taiphoon. In due time our own ships arrived. The
'Lintin' was then despatched a second time, but got no further than
Singapore, when her captain, Townsend, in direct breach of orders,
and under various pretexts, took in a cargo of rattans and returned
to Macao! His 'accounts' being refused, he brought an action against
us in the Macao court.
It was still going on when I left Macao in 1844. The legal papers had
so accumulated that they seemed sufficient to 'dunnage' the ship.
Asking the clerk of the court one day if he thought it would ever be
settled, he made the same reply that he had repeated for years: 'Se
senhor, mā, hum poco tiempŏ!' ('Certainly, sir, but it requires a little
time').
The 'Lintin,' however, was sent to Whampoa. The first English treaty
with the Chinese having been broken, further preparations were
made for defence, and the authorities, not discouraged, sought for
another foreign ship—this time for service nearer the city. They took
a fancy to the 'Lintin;' she was sold to them, and towed up the river
by a great fleet of small boats. An eye[82] was painted on each bow;
she was completely unrigged to her lower masts, and, amidst a
confused noise of gongs and fireworks, she was anchored just below
the Dutch Folly, opposite the city.
On the day appointed for 'making her over' various high Mandarins
with many followers came on board. Captain Endicott, who was in
charge, had caused certain refreshments to be laid out on the cabin
table with which to regale these officers. They consisted of several
junk bottles of gin and brandy, a jug or two of water, hard biscuits
and cheroots! Before accompanying them over the ship, he invited
them to the cabin.
As he said when relating the circumstance to us, 'after drinks all
round and a weed' we returned on deck to look about the vessel;
next we visited the between-decks, and the Mandarins pronounced
everything highly satisfactory. Seeing a Scuttle-Butt[83] pump, it
attracted the attention of one of them, who took it to be an 'engine
of war,' and asked to be informed as to the manner of its use! They
soon after took leave and returned to the city. 'Thank heaven,' said
Captain Endicott to a gentleman whom he had asked on board to
see the Chinese officials, 'that's over; now that they are off, let us go
down and take a drink and a smoke.' On getting to the cabin they
found that everything—the gin and brandy, cigars, biscuits, even the
water-jug, pitcher, and tumblers—had all been walked off with by
the followers of the high dignitaries! A Chinese crew and naval
Mandarin took possession, as Captain Endicott pulled away from his
'old home' for so many years. She was then duly turned into a
Chinese man-of-war. There were the usual insignia of invincibility,
triangular flags, on which were figures of dragons swallowing the
moon, the 'Yin and Yang,' circles and zigzag lines, emblematical of
thunder and lightning.
The commanding officer of all this destructive paraphernalia, with
the peacock's feather in his cap, a large silk umbrella held over his
head, seated himself comfortably in a bamboo chair, smoking his
pipe.
Other formidable preparations for war were duly made in a provision
of worm-eaten guns, matchlocks, spears, and shields. She would
soon have been ready for an encounter with any of the English
sloops, whether the 'Modeste' or the 'Algerine,' perhaps even the
'Herald;' but one night a great freshet took place. The violence of
the tide was such that she swerved at her anchor from right to left,
struck on the rocks close to the 'Folly,' slid off, and went down in
deep water! The Chinese then set to work and unshipped her masts,
leaving a stump of the foremast about seven feet above the deck,
and placed upon it a diminutive lantern. This served thenceforth as a
'lighthouse' to guide boats up and down the river! It was the first
lighthouse in Canton waters 'on record.' When I last saw the stump
of the mast, twenty-eight years after, a great bank of mud had
formed around the hull, and a faint glimmer from a penny dip in a
small paper lantern marked the last resting-place of the 'Lintin.'

The seizure of the opium in its consequences was the feature in the
breaking up of the exclusive conditions of foreign trade at Canton, as
it had existed since 1720. The peculiar conditions also of social life
were doomed, as was that perfect and wonderful organisation, the
Co-Hong.
On August 10, 1841, Sir Henry Pottinger arrived at Macao as Her
Majesty's sole plenipotentiary and Minister Extraordinary.
Negotiations with the Mandarins were carried on simultaneously with
the capture of cities on the coast. The material losses and
destruction of life to the Chinese were incalculable, particularly
through suicide by those helpless people. An English officer who was
present at the taking of Chā-Po in May 1842 wrote to a friend at
Macao that on landing, about 3,500 strong, under cover of the men-
of-war, the most terrible enormities were committed. He then goes
on to say: 'After the city had been captured, I entered more than a
hundred houses, and in each there were not less than two, and in
many eight, persons found dead. They were the bodies of mothers
and daughters who had committed suicide from a dread of becoming
prisoners; 1,600 dead were buried after the battle, of which more
than one-half were Tartar soldiers, who in despair of repelling the
enemy, and preferring death to defeat, had nearly all destroyed
themselves. Is not this a splendid exhibition of patriotism?'
The losses of the English on this occasion by the official accounts
were one colonel, one sergeant, and seven men killed, seven officers
and forty-seven men wounded; and so on to the end, the pigmy
against the giant!
At length the treaty of Nanking, in which the Chinese consented to
pay an indemnity of $21,000,000, was signed off that city, on board
of H.M.S. 'Cornwallis,' on August 29, 1842, by his Excellency Sir
Henry Pottinger, the Imperial Commissioners Ke-Ying and E-Leepoo,
and New-Keen, the Viceroy of Keang-Nan and Keang-Se. And thus
concluded the first European war with China, one of the most unjust
ever waged by one nation against another.
The next treaty was that of the United States, which was signed at
the village of Mong-Hā (Macao) on July 3, 1844, by Mr. Caleb
Cushing and Ke-Ying. Together they were the 'knell, the shroud, the
mattock, and the grave' of Old Canton.
The Chinese had not looked with satisfaction upon the concessions
they had been obliged to make to an overwhelming military and
naval force, which had caused them the loss of myriads of lives,
often under circumstances of great atrocity, of unheard-of suffering,
as well as of many millions of dollars independently of the war
indemnity. The ordeal was a terrible one; but they gained by it the,
to them, unenvied privilege of falling in with Western ideas.
Encouraged by the confidence inspired by so great a privilege, they
now contract for loans of money, they build vessels of war on
European models, and drill their soldiers in foreign tactics; they
provide themselves with Western arms of precision—in short, they
are putting on their armour. They are in full career of a diplomacy in
which Ambassadors or Ministers—that is to say, 'spies upon one
another'—watch over the interests of their respective countries. With
the sword at their throat they have become members of what is
facetiously called the 'Brotherhood' of Nations!
 MESSRS. RUSSELL & CO., CANTON.
1823 TO 1844.
The house of Russell & Co. was constituted on January 1, 1824, in
succession to that of Samuel Russell & Co., which had existed from
December 26, 1818, to December 26, 1823. It is known amongst the
Chinese as 'Kee-Chang-Hong.' It confined itself strictly to agency
business. From January 1, 1824, until the middle of 1830 the sole
partners were Mr. Russell and Philip Ammidon. In September 1829
Mr. Wm. H. Low arrived from Salem in the ship 'Sumatra' (Captain
Roundy); and in November 1830 Mr. Augustine Heard, Senior,
arrived from Boston in the bark 'Lintin' (Captain R. B. Forbes). These
two gentlemen (Mr. Low and Mr. Heard) became partners in the
house, the first until the end of the year 1833, when, having been
obliged to leave Canton from ill health, he was landed and died at
the Cape of Good Hope.
During the term of 1834-5-6, consequent upon the death of Mr. Low,
were admitted Mr. John C. Green (special agent at Canton of Messrs.
N. L. and G. Griswold, of New York), Mr. John M. Forbes, who had
arrived in the 'Lintin' to join the office in 1830, and Mr. Joseph
Coolidge, who arrived in 1832; and Mr. Heard retired.
The term of 1837-8-9 saw the withdrawal of Messrs. Forbes and
Coolidge, the first on December 31, 1838, and the latter on
December 31, 1839. Were admitted on January 1, 1837, Mr. A. A.
Low (nephew of Mr. W. H. Low), who had come out to join the office
in 1833), and Mr. W. C. Hunter. Mr. Edward King (who came out in
the 'Silas Richards,' Captain Rosseter, 1834), was taken in the office
on arrival, and became a partner on July 1, 1837; Mr. Robert B.
Forbes (who arrived in the 'Bashaw' in October 1838) was admitted
January 1, 1839, and became the chief of the house.
The term of 1840-41-42, Mr. A. A. Low having retired, began with
the admission of Mr. Warren Delano (formerly of the house of
Russell, Sturgis, & Co., of Canton and Manila). He succeeded Mr.
Forbes as chief of the house when the latter left for New York in the
'Niantic' on July 7, 1840. Mr. Russell Sturgis, also a former partner of
Russell, Sturgis, & Co., became a partner on January 1, 1842. Mr.
King and Mr. Hunter retired on December 31, 1842, left Macao in
February 1844 for New York, viâ the Cape (in the ship 'Akbar,'
Captain Hallet), and the retirement of Mr. Sturgis took place on
December 31, 1843.
This is but a rapid résumé of an interval of twenty years. A history of
the house from its foundation to the present time—a period of sixty
years—has been compiled by a former partner. The work, which
would prove of interest to its many friends, its old associates, and
their successors, may be published.
 EPILOGUE.
Just a Cycle ago, a gentleman came on board the ship 'Citizen,' as
she anchored at Lintin, China, from New York, to hear the latest
news she may have brought—125 days old!—the interval was a
short one at that time.
Such as Canton then was in its commercial, social, and domestic life
it has been for two generations a sealed book; nor will the world
ever see its like again! May those who now seek China Opened be as
well received, as little molested, as much protected, as were those
over whom the ægis of treaties never existed, and as bountifully
rewarded as those whose enterprise led them to what was then a
'mysterious land.'
It is now, through the untiring encouragement and assistance of the
gentleman above referred to (and who will, I trust, excuse my
naming him)—Robert B. Forbes, Esq., of Boston, U.S.A.—that I have
reproduced in the foregoing pages the days of Old Canton, with
which we became familiar; regretting that to restore those scenes—
all of which we saw, and part of which we were—it fell not to a more
able pen.
W. C. H.

LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
 FOOTNOTES
[1] Viz., 'The Huntress,' 'Beaver,' 'Europa,' 'America,' 'Maria,' and
'Mary Lord.'
[2] A fast pulling and sailing boat.
[3] A poetical term for small-footed women.
[4] One of the most famous Chinese dynasties, 2nd and 3rd
centuries A.D., from which the name 'children of Han.'
[5] Bogue is a corruption of the Portuguese word bocca (mouth).
When the Portuguese first approached it, about 1525, the strong
resemblance of the red sandstone eminence to the left of the
narrow mouth of the Pearl River to a tiger's mouth, caused the
exclamation, still perpetuated in its name, 'Bocca Tigre!' The
Chinese name for it is 'the Lion's Gate.'
[6] Sampan, a small skiff or boat.
[7] 'Chow-Chow,' mixed.
[8] Siamese teak.
[9] Any Mandarin or official station was locally known as 'Chop-
house.'
[10] The Chinese name for Sweden is Suy-Kwŏ.
[11] An assistant-magistrate. Up to 1848 Macao was under the
joint government of the Portuguese and Chinese.
[12] At this time the ships' Compradores were engaged at Macao,
and not at Whampoa.
[13] Buddhist Temple.
[14] The Dutch East India Company.
[15] 'Man-ta-le'—Pigeon-English for 'Mandarin'
[16] A lac is 100,000.
[17] Pigeon-English for 'cold.'
[18] The best quality of birds' nests was brought from Java. This
'whimsical luxury' was worth 4,000 Spanish dollars per picul of
133-1/3 pounds.
[19] Pigeon-English for 'old friend.'
[20] Pigeon-English for 'quicksilver.'
[21] 'Unfortunate.'
[22] A complimentary term.
[23] Captain Elliot.
[24] Baring Brothers & Co.
[25] Pigeon-English for 'gentlemen.'
[26] A complimentary term.
[27] One of our partners whom we had sent to London. Lord
Byron once wrote of him to Murray as full of 'Entusymusy;' so we
called him 'Tusymusy.'
[28] Their Chinese names were Tan and Tung, but these words
not being readily distinctive to the foreign ear, they both became
Tom, while 'Old' and 'Young' were added to suit their respective
ages.
[29] 'My compliments to you.'
[30] The chief of a foreign house was known as 'Tai-pan.' The
word signifies 'head manager.' The assistants or clerks were called
'pursers.' This word was undoubtedly taken from the office of
'purser,' whom the Chinese had only known as transacting
business for the commanders of the East India Company's ships.
The latter enjoyed the privilege of forty tons of space (English
measurement) in each vessel homeward, which involved the
presence at Canton of the 'pursers' to act for them in selling their
outward and buying their homeward investments. The 'pursers'
frequently hired a portion of a Factory (when to be had), and
resided in it more or less while their ships were at Whampoa.
[31] Since the Conquest the reverse bears the name of the
Emperor in Manchoo Tartar letters.
[32] Known as 'Sycee,' which means literally 'fine silk.'
[33] 10 cash = 1 candareen, 10 candareen = 1 mace, 10 mace =
1 tael.
[34] Bar gold, Sycee silver, chopped dollars.
[35] The Chinese called these boats 'scrambling dragons' and 'fast
crabs.'
[36] A chest contained 1 picul = 133-1/3 pounds.
[37] Often so called in official language.
[38] The 'Omega' belonged to Dent & Co.
[39] The 'Governor Findlay' to Jardine, Matheson, & Co.
[40] All opium vessels carried Shroffs.
[41] The Chinese character which represents 'day' is literally 'sun.'
[42] When a Chinese takes leave, he says, 'Kaou-tsze' ('I inform
you of taking leave').
[43] The 'Colonel Young' belonged to Jardine, Matheson, & Co., as
well as the 'Fairy.'
[44] The 'Harriet' belonged to Jardine, Matheson, & Co.
[45] Literally 'great wind,' not those destructive storms which
occur but once in three or four years, unroof houses and tear
ships to pieces; they are called Teĕt-kuy, 'iron whirlwinds.'
[46] Country ships and coasters carried Manila men—Portuguese
of Bombay or Macao—as helmsmen; they hove the lead, &c., and
were called 'Sea-cunnies.'
[47] Strangling is by means of a wooden cross driven into the
ground to which the prisoner's neck and outstretched arms are
secured. A more ghastly and ignominious death than beheading.
[48] Called the Praya Grande, temporarily destroyed by the
taiphoon of 1875.
[49] The Fragrant Hill.
[50] 'Cumsha' means 'a present.'
[51] A catty is 1-1/3 pounds English.
[52] The Imperial Commissioner.
[53] A subordinate officer of the chief magistrate's department.
[54] The currency being taels, mace, candareens, and cash.
[55] 'Flowery flag,' the United States.
[56] Presents to the captains and officers.
[57] Buddha.
[58] A very common exclamation on any occasion.
[59] The late Sir James Matheson was the reputed founder of the
foreign press in China (The Canton Register); but it was an open
question whether it was he or Mr. Wood. I contributed to that
paper (translations from Chinese) when started; but in the
consequent daily intercourse with Wood, he never hinted that he
was not its sole founder. If my memory serves me Sir James was
at the time on a trip up the coast. Nevertheless there is but one
'old Canton' who can decide the point, the present Sir Alexander
Matheson.
[60] Confucius.
[61] Kung-Ming, a celebrated warrior of the third century A.D.
[62] Celebrated gardens, near Canton, visited by foreigners.
[63] 'Fan-Kwae,' foreign devils.
[64] The offspring of European Spaniards and natives.
[65] The privilege was 140 piculs weight.
[66] Public office.
[67] Equivalent to Excellency.
[68] At Macao, 1841.
[69] Whole dollars were so called put up in red paper—a neat way
of paying small sums.
[70] 'Eaten them.'
[71] The resident physician of the foreign community, apart from
the Honourable East India Co. He was from Philadelphia.
[72] An old Chinese fort so called, east of the Factories.
[73] The capital of Canton province is Show-King-Foo, and was
the residence of the Governor-General of Canton and Kwang-Se.
Consequent upon the former becoming the seat of foreign trade,
the Governor-General removed there, and second to him is the
Lieutenant-Governor. He is now styled Viceroy.
[74] Figurative for 'a great many.'
[75] These and similar expressions in Chinese official documents,
over which Western people make such an absurd fuss, are no
more to be taken literally than the vulgarised form of 'your
obedient servant.' In the present case 'reverential obedience' is to
be taken as 'serious co-operation,' so the Blue Button pointed out
to me.
[76] That no one might escape.
[77] The Canton agents talked over the question of half-
commissions on consignments thus withdrawn. It was argued that
their Indian principals would recover from the British Government,
a charge sanctioned by commercial usage. The half-commissions
were assumed to be about 300,000 dollars. No unanimous
decision was arrived at, but on the quantity delivered up by
Russell & Co.—nearly 15,000 dollars—the charge was foregone.
[78] Buying and selling town.
[79] At the mouth of the Bogue.
[80] Yang-Yin, one of the chief features of which, in some
mysterious way, gives notice of impending change of fortune
deduced from the Pā-Kwa, a complicated system, of very remote
antiquity, of divination.
[81] Natives of Africa, sweepers, &c.
[82] The 'eyes' on the bows of Chinese junks gave rise to the
expression, 'No got eye, no can see,' under the erroneous foreign
belief that the Chinese attributed to them the power of seeing
and avoiding danger. This is very far from the fact. The bows of
sea-going junks represent the head of a dragon, with expanded
jaws and full round eyes, and being the symbol of the Chinese
Empire, it is used as a carved eagle may be on an American
vessel, without occult power attaching thereto.
[83] A 'Scuttle-Butt' is a cask with a square hole in its bilge, kept
on deck to hold water for daily use, which is drawn by means of a
hand-pump.
 Transcriber's Notes
The author's name is William C. Hunter.
Map facing p. 24: click to see a high-resolution image.
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Hyphen added: hard-working (p. 87).
Hyphen removed: mastheads (p. 1).
P. 3: added "a" (my fellow-passenger took a fast boat).
P. 3: "Sandal Wood Island" changed to "Sandalwood Island".
P. 32: "Mr. Holingworth" changed to "Mr. Hollingworth".
P. 94: "the first ships tome co in" changed to " the first ships to come in".
P. 130: "We styled oursveles" changed to "We styled ourselves".
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE 'FAN KWAE' AT
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