science during a few days' stay in a region which
had been examined by naturalists innumerable times before, but I at
all events touched at this harbour that I might meet the expressed
wish of one of the members of the expedition not to leave eastern
Asia without having, during the voyage of the _Vega_, seen something
of the so much talked of "heavenly kingdom" so different from all
other lands.

For this purpose, however, Hong Kong is an unsuitable place. This
rich and flourishing commercial town, which has been created by
England's Chinese politics and opium trade, is a British colony with
a European stamp, which has little to show of the original Chinese
folk-life, although the principal part of its population consists of
Chinese. But at the distance of a few hours by steamer from Hong
Kong lies the large old commercial city of Canton, which, though it
has long been open to Europeans, is still purely Chinese, with its
peatstack-like architecture, its countless population, its temples,
prisons, flower-junks, mandarins, pig-tailed street-boys, &c. Most
of the members of the expedition made an excursion thither, and were
rewarded with innumerable indescribable impressions from Chinese
city life. We were everywhere received by the natives in a friendly
way,[385] and short as our visit was, it was yet sufficient to
dissipate the erroneous impressions which a number of European
authors have been pleased to give of the most populous nation. One
soon saw that he has to do with an earnest and industrious people,
who, indeed, apprehend much--virtue and vice, joy and sorrow--in
quite a different way from us, but towards whom we, on that account,
by no means have the right to assume the position of superiority
which the European is so ready to claim towards coloured races.

The greater portion of my short stay in Canton I employed in
wandering about, carried in a sedan-chair--horses cannot be used in
the city itself--through the streets, which are partly covered and
are lined with open shops, forming, undoubtedly, the most remarkable
of the many remarkable things that are to be seen here. The
recollection I have of these hours forms, as often happens when one
sees much that is new at once, a variegated confusion in which I can
now only with difficulty distinguish a connected picture or two. But
even if the impressions were clearer and sharper it would be out of
the question to occupy space with a statement of my own superficia