As for us,
we had a large room comfortably furnished in English fashion, with a
bath-room attached. All the houses are very much alike, and are fitted
up in an equally comfortable style.
About three o'clock we started in five chairs, with Man-look-Chin for
our guide. Tom vigorously protested against not being allowed to use
his own legs, but everybody assured him that it was impossible in the
crowded streets of the city, so he had to submit to being carried. No
Chinaman, except those employed by foreigners, is allowed to cross any
of the bridges over the stream, which completely surrounds the foreign
settlement, and makes the suburb of Shameen a perfect island. There
are iron gates on each bridge, guarded by sentries. The contrast in
the state of things presented by the two sides of the bridge is most
marvellous. From the quiet country park, full of large villas and
pretty gardens, you emerge into a filthy city, full of a seething,
dirty population, and where smells and sights of the most disgusting
description meet you at every turn. People who have seen many Chinese
cities say that Canton is the cleanest of them all. What the dirtiest
must be like is therefore beyond my imagination. The suburbs of the
city, where all sorts of cheap eating-shops abound--where the butchers
and fishmongers expose the most untempting-looking morsels for sale,
and where there are hampers of all sorts of nasty-looking compounds,
done up ready for the buyer of the smallest portion to take home--are
especially revolting.
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