The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TaURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER

DESCRIPTION OF A VOI AGE VP THE
BITER YANG-ISE-KIANG, AUGUST 1861.

The voyage was from Shanghae to Hankow
(which is the extreme point on this river to which
Europeans are allowed to proceed at present) and
back. I landed both among Imperialists and rebels,
and will now endeavour to give you an account of
some of the scenes witnessed by me on this wonder-
ful expanse of waters, for river it cannot be called
during this season of the'year, it being more like an
immense lake. The other day I saw the sun set on
the water in the distance.

The Fernandez sailed from Shanghae on the Ist
of August at 5 p.m., and as no ship had yet been up
the Yang-tee-Kiang without grounding, added to
which news had just been received of the total loss
of the steamship Manilla on her first voyage, and
also that the steamship Rajah was on shore in a
paddy field, it was with no slight feelings of anxiety
that I saw Shanghae gradually disappear in the
distance, as we swiftly proceeded on our voyage to
cope with the dangers and difficulties of the mighty
waters of the Yang-tse-Kiang. Anchored for the
night off Woosung.
" August 2—At about 8 o'clock in the morning
had the first intimation that we were not to visit
this portion of the territory of his Imperial High-
ness, brother to the Sun, Moon, &c., without hav-
ing to experience the same difficulties as our prede-
cessors, for at that time we touched on the Dove's
Nest Shoal. We were only detained by this mishap
about a quarter of an hour; but this check at our
starting and the imperfect state of the survey, or
more properly speaking, from the great changes
constantly taking place in the river, was a fair pre-
cursor of what we had to expect. Atnoon got rather
too close to the Flamer bank to be pleasant, and as
the river was so swollen that Plover Point could not
be made out with any degree of certainty, the only
means by which we could proceed was to go very
easy, and feel our way along the edge of the shoals
(which are here abundant) by the lead. When we
anchored in the evening a distance of 66 miles had
been passed over.
" August 3d—Proceeded at daylight, and at 3
o'clock passed within a mile of the wreck of the
steamship Manilla, her mainmast being now all
that is left above water, The Chinese had been up
and stripped all the gear, &c., from the mastheads,
with the exception of the wire rigging, which I
expect our Celestial friends found too tough to yield
to their endeavours to remove.

"August 4th—Touched the ground twice to-day,
once on a new shoal, not laid down in the chart,
and once on a shoal that has extended in each in-
stance. We only lost 15 minutes.
" August s—To-day we arrived at that part of
the river where for miles through the rising of the
waters, the country was all inundated. However I
may try I am confident my pen is quite inade-
quate to give your readers even a faint idea of the
appearance that was presented to my view. If they
can imagine themselves on the deck of the ship,
with a chart open before them and the river laid
down some two or three miles from bank to bank,
and then cast their eye from side to side to look at
the expanse of water, where no banks are visible,
but junks and boats of all sizes and description
sailing over what in the chart is dry land, they may
conceive my astonishmeat. The river between this
and Hankow in many places exceeds 20 miles in
breadth, and sometimes the land cannot be seen
on either sod from the deck excepting the hills
fag inland. The houses up to the very roofs
water, which adds very much to the
strangeness
of
th
e scene. For many miles nothing
but tops of houses and trees are visible. As for
the banks of the river, they are just as imagi-
nary to us as your readers being here. The most
unaccountable thirg is that many villages might
be built (above the level to which the river rises) at
the foot of hills, that in some places are situated close
to the banks ; but no ! even their own Celestial
brethren prefer to build on the low ground, al-
though the hills are so near, and they must at the
same time be perfectly aware that their houses will
all disappear, or, if not washed away, he quite un-
tenable for many months in the year. So soon as the
water begins to rise the villagers put all their chat-
tels into a boat (one is to be found at nearly every
hut for some miles inland) and pull for the nearest
hill, where they remain encamped in small mat
hovels; when the water subsides they return and
rebuild or repair their former habitation, which-
ever is necessary, and commence tilling the land,
which is all along the river most fertile, yielding
abundant crops, We now entered the rebel terri-
tory. _ _

" Having this day, August 8, just read the
London and (Una Express of June 26, I quite agree
with the editor when he states, That the rebellion
is an intolerable obstruction to legitimate trade.' It
is not only so among our merchants, but also among
the Chinese themselves. lam now writing only at
a distance of some 35 miles from the rebel capital of
Nankin, having seen, close too, other large cities in
their possession—Wuhu, Nganking, &c.—having
also landed at some of their villages. However, we
may sympathise with them as the ancient and legi-
timate owners of the soil, that must not prevent
travellers from speaking of them as they find them.
The difference between all cities in the hands of the
Imperialists is most striking—magnificent pagodas,
fine houses, beautiful gardens, everything thriving
—showing evident signs of an industrious and
prosperous people ; in fact it requires the pen of a
Russell, or some other illustrious writer of modern
times, to describe an Imperial city for it to receive
justice; but the pen of an humble individual like
your present correspondent can describe not only
the rebel cities seen by him, but also the villages
held by them on the banks of this river by four
words—mud, bricks, ruin, and desolation. Nan-
king, their capital, is one mass of ruins. One night,
when anchored near it, it appeared like a city of
the dead;' no light, not even a sound proceeded
front it. What a contrast to one of the Imperial
cities, where the thousands of lights vie with the
very stars themselves in brilliancy ! And the Chin-
Chin joss of the inhabitants during their festivals,
just now on, however edifying to them, and although
not disagreeable to us, could be dispensed with, so
far as we are personally concerned, with some com-
fort to ourselves; but our Imperial friends are as
indefatigable in this as in the more serious avoca-
tions of life.

"August 10—Boarded this morning by a Chinese
priest about four miles above Pwanpienshan ; he is
said to be the head of a ruined monastery close by
here ; he boards every steamer that passes, both
going up and coining down, and as he generally gets
100 cash from each (about 4d), the opening of the
river has proved of infinite advantage to him, as for-
merly he had only the charity of the peasants to exist
by. He is an aged man, of an intellectual cast of
countenance and of a stalwart form. He well de-
serves the small pittance he receives, for he boards
the ship while she is going full speed, a
most frightful current running at the place where
he comes off. A steamer coming down will pass at
the rate of 13 to 14 knots an hour, This makes no
difference to this enthusiastic alms-seeker ; he is
always on the lookout, and immediately you heave
in sight he pulls into the middle of the stream,
when, as you near his sanpan, one dexterous sweep
of his oars lays him alongside; the next instant ho
is on board, book in hand, for your donations.
"Arrived at Hankow Sunday, Aug. 11, having
stopped one day at Kewkiang. We accomplished
the distance (about 730 geographical miles) in nine
d ,ys, having a tide at times of 7 to 8 knots against
us. Hankow is in lat. 30.33 N., and lon. 114.20
E. The trade here is growing up fast; ten steamers
running hard cannot take the teas and other pro-
duce down; many junks, some of 600 to 700 tons,
are employed also, being towed or convoyed by the
steamers. There can be no doubt from the depth
and volume of water in the river at Hankow that
it is navigable some hundreds of miles more inland,
which I expect European enterprise will not be long
in opening out. The water has risen this year at
Hankow 38ft. ; it fell a few days since 2ft. 3in., but
on Aug. 15, when we left, it had again risen a foot.
I had this information from an officer of H.M.S.
Snake, stationed here, and on board which a regis-
ter is kept. Steamers for this river must be power-
ful, and we must not be too proud to take a lesson
from our Celestial friends. To insure a small draught
of water steamers should be perfectly flat-bottomed,