e exclusiveness of the government, the
almost incomprehensible character of the spoken language,--entirely
different from the written tongue,--has always excited curiosity, and
thrown a halo of romance over everything Chinese. This false glamour,
however, disappears, like dew before the sun, by personal observation,
and is superseded by something like a sense of contempt. The
missionaries of science, commerce, and of religion have done much within
the last twenty years to dispel the extravagant ideas entertained of the
Celestial Empire, and have shown us that the race is by no means
celestial, but a people very much like the rest of the Eastern nations,
certainly no more civilized.

Canton is the strangest of all strange cities, and perhaps the most
representative one in China. With a population of a million and a half,
it has not a street within its walls over eight feet wide. Horses and
vehicles are unknown. Even the useful and comfortable jinrikisha could
not be used here, where everything to be moved must be transported on
human shoulders. The city extends to about a distance of four miles on
the banks of the Pearl River, and fully a hundred thousand people live
in boats along the river front. The families occupying these sampans
will average at least four individuals; a man and wife with two
children,--frequently there are half a dozen of the latter. These boats
are about twenty feet long and five wide. But a small portion of the
after part has any covering, and the cooking is done in the bow. Here
the family live,--cook, eat, and sleep, knowing no other home. The
youngest children are often seen tied to the thwarts, and if they tumble
overboard they are easily pulled back again.

There are hundreds of temples distributed over the city, many of which
were visited and found to be crowded with idols and idlers, though we
never saw a Chinaman praying in them. The corner of nearly every street,
as well as numerous stores and dwelling-houses, have each an idol and
small shrine on which incense is kept burning all the time, and every
day of the year. The whole city is permeated with the smell of this
highly scented incense, and though used in such small individual
quantities the consumption in the aggregate must be very large. Of the
numerous temples and pagodas in Canton probably the most famous is that
of the Temple of the Five Hundred Gods, containing that number of gilded
statues of Buddhist sages, apostles, and dei