Chapter XXXVII: Section XV

OBSERVATIONS DURING A RESIDENCE IN TISLAND OF CHUSAN, IN 1701, BY DOCTOR JAMES CUNNINGHAM; WITH SOME EARLY NOTICES RESPECTING CHINA.[318]

Among the early voyages of the English to the East Indies, none have been preserved that were made to China, nor have we been able to discover any satisfactory account of the commencement of the trade of our East India Company with that distant country, now said to be by far the most profitable branch of the exclusive commerce. In the _Annals of the Company_,[319] several references are made to the China trade, but more in the nature of notices or memoranda for the purpose of after investigation, than as conveying any actual information on the subject. In this singular paucity of materials, we are reduced to the following short "Observations and Remarks, by Doctor James Cunningham, made during his Residence as Physician to the English Factory at the Island of Chusan, on the Coast of China." Doctor Cunningham is stated by Harris to have been a fellow of the Royal Society, distinguished by his natural talents and acquired accomplishments, well versed in ancient and modern learning, and to have diligently used these advantages in making judicious remarks on the places where he resided in the service of the Company. Yet all that has been recorded by Harris of these remarks, give only a very imperfect account of Chusan and of China. This short article consists of extracts from two letters written by Cunningham from Chusan, and a brief supplement by Harris respecting two unfortunate factories at Pulo Condore and Pulo Laut.--E.

[Footnote 318: Harris. I. 852.]

[Footnote 319: Annals of the E.I. Co. vol. II. and III. _passim_.]

§1. _Voyage to Chusan, and short Notices of that Island_.[320]

In my last letter, from the island of Borneo, I gave you an account of our arrival at that island on the 17th July. We only remained there two days, as the season of the year was already far advanced, and made the best of our way from thence through the Straits of Banda,[321] with favourable winds and weather. We got upon the coast of China on the 13th August, when we had variable winds, which carried us abreast of _Emoy_[322] by the 19th following. The wind then set in fresh at N.E. so that we were in great fear of losing our passage, and were now obliged to beat up all the way against both wind and current; yet the weather remained so favourable that we were never obliged to hand our top-sails, otherwise we must have lost more way in a single day than we could have recovered in eight. On the 31st August we came to anchor under the _Crocodile islands_,[323] both for shelter from the bad weather, usual on this coast at new and full-moon, which has been fatal to many ships, and also to procure fresh water, now scarce with us, as we had not recruited our store since leaving the Cape of Good Hope. These are three small islands in lat. 26° N. about six leagues from the river of _Hokien_, [Fo-kien] on two of which we found very good water, with a convenient landing-place on the S.W. side of the innermost island. By the assistance of some Chinese fishers, we procured also some fresh provisions from the main land, not thinking it safe to venture there ourselves, lest we may have been brought into trouble by the governor of that part of the country. While here, on the 5th September, we had a sudden short shift of the monsoon from the S.W. blowing with great fury; which was also experienced by other vessels then coming on the coast of China. We again put to sea on the 18th September, turning to windward night and day on the outside of all the islands, which are very numerous all along this coast, but with which we were unacquainted after passing beyond _Emoy_. Besides, the hydrography of this coast is hitherto so very imperfect, that we could not trust in any degree to our draughts, owing to which our navigation was both difficult and dangerous.

[Footnote 320: From a letter to a member of the Royal Society, dated in September, 1701.--Harris.]

[Footnote 321: This must have been the straits of Macasser, as Banda is far out of the way between Borneo and China.--E.]

[Footnote 322: Emoy or Amoy, was on the coast of China, opposite to the island of Formosa, and appears, from the Annals, to have been the first port frequented by the ships of the India Company for the Chinese trade.--E.]

[Footnote 323: The islands of Pe-la-yang are, in the indicated latitude, off the estuary of the principal river of the province of Fo-kien.--E.]

On the 1st October, we got into the latitude of 30° N. where we came to anchor near the land, and found our way by boat to _Chusan_,[324] about twelve leagues within the islands, whence we got a pilot, who brought our ship safely to that place on the 11th of the month. The Chinese government have granted us a settlement on that island, with the liberty of trade; but do not allow us to go up to Ning-po,[325] which is six or eight hours sail to the westwards, all the way among islands, of which this of Chusan is the largest, being eight or nine leagues from E. to W. and four or five from N. to S.

[Footnote 324: Tcheou-chan, an island about twenty English miles in length from E. to W. in lat. 30° 23' N. long. 121° 43' E. off the estuary of Ning-po river, in the province of Che-kiang, is obviously the Chusan of the text--E.]

[Footnote 325: The city of Ning-po stands at the head of a bay, stretching from the S. side of the estuary of the river of the same name, in lat. 30° 10' N. long. 121° E. It appears, from the Annals, that the English had been excluded from trading at Canton, by the influence of the Portuguese in Macao.--E.]

About three leagues from the point of land named _Liampo_ by the Portuguese, and _Khi-tu_ by the Chinese, there is a very safe and convenient harbour at the west end of this island, where the ships ride within call of the factory, which stands close to the shore in a low flat valley, having near two hundred houses built around for the benefit of trade. The town of Chusan, of which the houses are very mean, is about three quarters of a mile farther from the shore, and is surrounded by a fine stone wall, flanked at irregular distances by twenty-two square bastions or towers; and has four great gates, on which a few old iron guns are planted, seldom or never used. The _chumpeen_, or governor of the island, resides here, and the town contains about three or four thousand beggarly inhabitants, mostly soldiers and fishers; for, as the trade of this island has only been granted of late, it has not hitherto attracted any considerable merchants.

This island abounds in all sorts of provisions, as cows, buffaloes, deer, hogs, both wild and tame, geese, ducks, poultry, rice, wheat, calavanccs, cole-worts, turnips, carrots, potatoes, beets, spinach, and so forth. It has, however, no merchandise, except what comes from Ning-po, Stan-chew,[326] Nankin, and other inland towns and cities. Some of these I hope to see, when I have acquired a little of the Chinese language. Tea grows here in great plenty on the tops of the hills, but is not so much esteemed as that which grows on more mountainous islands. Although tolerably populous, this island is far from being what it was in the time of Father Martini, who describes it under the name of _Cheu-xan_. The superstitious pilgrimages mentioned by him, must refer to the island of Pou-to,[327] which is nine leagues from this place, and to another island three miles to the eastwards, to which the emperor proposes coming to worship at a pagoda greatly renowned for its sanctity, in the ensuing month of May, being his birth-day, and the fortieth year of his age. One of his bonzes is already come there, to get all things in order.

[Footnote 326: Probably Hang-tcheon, a city about forty miles W. from Ning-po.--E.]

[Footnote 327: Pou-teou, is directly E. from the eastern end of Tcheou-chan.--E.]

§2. _Ancient and modern State of the Country, and of the coming of the English to reside there.[328]_

In my former letter, I informed you that the emperor designed to have come to worship at Pou-to in May last, being the fortieth year of his age, but I ought to have said of his reign. After every thing was prepared for his reception, he was dissuaded from his purpose by some of his mandarins, who made him believe that the thunder at that place was very dangerous. This Pou-to is a small island, only about five leagues round, and at the east end of Chusan. It has been famous for the space of eleven hundred years, for the superstitious pilgrimages made to it, and is only inhabited by bonzes to the number of three thousand, all of the sect of _Heshang,_ or unmarried bonzes, who live a Pythagorean life. They have built four hundred pagodas, two of which are considerable for their size and splendour, and were lately covered with green and yellow tiles, brought from the emperor's palace at Nankin. They are adorned within by stately idols, finely carved and gilded, the chief of these being an idol named _Quonem._ To-these two pagodas there are two chief priests, who govern all the rest. They have many walks and avenues cut in different directions through the island, some of which are paved with flag-stones, and overshaded by trees planted on both sides. The dwellings of the bonzes are the best I have seen in these parts, all of which are maintained by charitable donations. All the Chinese junks which sail from Ning-po and Chusan touch at Pou-to, both outwards and homewards-bound, making offerings for the safety of their voyages. There is another island named _Kim-Tong,_[329] five leagues from hence, on the way towards Ning-po, where a great many mandarins are said to live in retirement, after having given up their employments. On that island there are said to be silver mines, but prohibited from being opened. The rest of the circumjacent islands are either desert, or very meanly inhabited, but all of them abound in deer.

[Footnote 328: The sequel of these observations is said by Harris to have been taken from another letter to the same correspondent with the former, and dated in November, 1701; but, from circumstances in the text, it would appear to have been written in 1702.--E.]

[Footnote 329: Probably that named Silver-island in modern maps.--E.]

It is not long since this island of Chusan began to be inhabited. Yet in the days of Father Martini, about fifty years ago, it was very populous for three or four years; at which time, in the fury of the Tartar conquest, it was laid entirely desolate, not even sparing the mulberry trees, which were then numerous, as they made a great deal of raw silk here. It continued in this desolate condition till about eighteen years ago, when the walls of the present town were built by the governor of _Ting-hai_, as a strong-hold for a garrison, in order to expel some pirates who had taken shelter on the island. As the island began to grow populous, a _chumpeen_ was sent to govern it for three years, to whom the late chumpeen succeeded, who continued till last April, and procured licence to open this port to strangers. On the last chumpeen being promoted to the government of _Tien-ching-wei_[330] near Pekin, he was succeeded by the present governor, who is son to the old chumpeen of Emoy. They have no arts or manufactures in this island, except lacquered ware; the particulars of which I cannot as yet send you. They have begun to plant mulberry-trees, in order to breed up silk-worms for the production of raw silk; and they gather and cure some tea, but chiefly for their own use.

[Footnote 330: Probably that called Tien-sing in modern maps, on the river Pay, between Pekin and the sea.--E.]

§3. _Of the Manner of cultivating Tea in Chusan_.

The three sorts of tea usually carried to England are all from the same plant, their difference being occasioned by the soils in which they grow, and the season of the year at which they are gathered. The _bohea_, or _vo-u-i_, so called from certain mountains in the province of _Token_,[331] where it is chiefly made, is the very bud, gathered in the beginning of March, and dried in the shade. The tea named _bing_ is the second growth, gathered in April, and _siriglo_ is the last growth, gathered in May and June; both of these being gently dried over the fire in _taches_ or pans. The tea shrub is an evergreen, being in flower from October to January, and the seed ripens in the September or October following, so that both flower and seed may be gathered at the same time; but for one fully ripened seed, an hundred are abortive. There are the two sorts of seeds mentioned by Father Le Compte, in his description of tea; and what be describes as a third sort, under the name of _slymie_ pease, consists merely of the young flower-buds, not yet open. The seed vessels of the tea tree are three-capsular, each capsule containing one nut or seed; and though often two or one of these only come to perfection, yet the vestiges of the rest may easily be discerned. It grows naturally in a dry gravelly soil on the sides of hills, without any cultivation, in several places of this island.

[Footnote 331: Fo-kien is almost certainly here meant--E.]

Le Compte is mistaken in saying that the Chinese are ignorant of the art of grafting; for I nave seen many of his paradoxical tallow-trees ingrafted here, besides trees of other sorts. When they ingraft, they do not slit the stock as we do, but slice off the outside of the stock, to which they apply the graft, which is cut sloping on one side, to correspond with the slice on the stock, bringing the bark of the slice up on the outside of the graft, after which the whole is covered up with mud and straw, exactly as we do. The commentator on Magalhen seems doubtful as to the length of the Chinese _che_ or cubit. At this island they have two sorts, one measuring thirteen inches and seven-tenths English, which, is commonly used by merchants; the other is only eleven inches, being used by carpenters, and also in geographical measures. Though Father Martini is censured by Magalhen for spelling a great many Chinese words with _ng_, which the Portuguese and others express with _in_, yet his way is more agreeable to our English pronunciation and orthography; only the g may be left out in Pekin, Nankin, and some others.

Having made enquiry about what is mentioned by Father Martini of sowing their _fields_ at _Van-cheu_ with oyster-shells, to make new ones grow, I was told, that after they have taken out the oysters, they sprinkle the empty shells with urine, and throw them into the water, by which means there grow new oysters on the old shells.[332] Martini says he could never find a Latin name for the _Tula Mogorin_ of the Portuguese; but I am sure it is the same with the _Syringa arabica, flore pleno albo_, of Parkinson. Martini also says that the _kieu-yeu_, or tallow-tree, bears a white flower, like that of the cherry-tree: But all that I have seen here bear spikes of small yellow flowers, like the _julus_ of the _Salix_. The bean-broth, or mandarin-broth, so frequently mentioned in the Dutch embassy, and by other authors, is only an emulsion made of the seeds of _sesamum_ with hot water.

[Footnote 332: This strange story may possibly be thus explained. At certain seasons, numerous minute oysters may be seen sticking to the shells of the old ones; and the Chinese may have thrown the emptied shells into the sea, in the highly probable expectation of these minute oysters continuing to live and grow. The circumstances in the text are absurd additions, either from ignorance or imposition.--E.]

The chief employments of the people here are fishing and agriculture. In fishing, they use several sorts of nets and lines as we do; but, as there are great banks of mud in some places, the fishermen have contrived a small frame, three or four feet long, not much larger than a hen-trough, and a little elevated at each end, to enable them to go more easily on these mud banks. Resting with one knee on the middle of one of these frames, and leaning his arms on a cross stick raised breast high, he uses the other foot on the mud to push the frame and himself forwards.

In their agricultural operations, all their fields on which any thing is to be cultivated, whether high or low, are formed into such plots or beds as may admit of retaining water over them when the cultivator thinks proper. The lands are tilled by ploughs drawn by one cow or buffalo; and when it is intended to sow rice, the soil is remarkably well prepared and cleared from all weeds, after which it is moistened into the state of a pulp, and smoothed by a frame drawn across, when the rice is sown very thick, and covered over with water, only to the height of two or three inches. When the seedling plants are six or eight inches long, they are all pulled up, and transplanted in straight lines into other fields, which are overflowed with water; and, when weeds grow up, they destroy them by covering them up in the interstices between the rows of rice, turning the mud over them with their hands. When they are to sow wheat, barley, pulse, or other grain, they grub up the surface of the ground superficially, earth, grass, and rook, and mixing this with some straw, burn all together. This earth, being sifted fine, they mix with the seed, which they sow in holes made in straight lines, so that it grows in tufts or rows like the rice. The field is divided into regular beds, well harrowed both before and after the seed is sown, which makes them resemble gardens. The rice grounds are meliorated merely by letting water into them; but for the other grains, where the soil requires it, they use dung, night-soil, ashes, and the like. For watering their fields, they use the machine mentioned by Martini in the preface to his Atlas, being entirely constructed of wood, and the same in principle with the chain-pump.

In order to procure salt, as all the shores are of mud instead of sand, they pare off in summer the superficial part of this mud, which has been overflowed by the sea-water, and lay it up in heaps, to be used in the following manner: Having first dried it in the sun, and rubbed it into a fine powder, they dig a pit, the bottom of which is covered with straw, and from the bottom a hollow cane leads through the side of the pit to a jar standing below the level of the bottom. They then fill the pit almost full of the dried salt mud, and pour on sea-water till it stands two or three inches above the top of the mud. This sea-water drains through the mud, carrying the salt along with it from the mud as well as its own, and runs out into the jar much-saturated with salt; which is afterwards procured by boiling.

§4. _Of the famous Medicinal Root, called Hu-tchu-u_.

Having last year seen, in a newspaper, some account of a singular root, brought from China by Father Fontaney, I shall inform you that I have seen this root since my arrival at Chuaan. It is called _Hu-tchu-n_[333] by the Chinese, and they ascribe to it most wonderful virtues, such as prolonging life, and changing grey hair to black, by using its infusion by way of tea. It is held in such high estimation as to be sold at a great price, as I have been told, from ten tael up to a thousand, or even two thousand tael-for a single root; for the larger it is, so much the greater is its fancied value and efficacy: But the price is too high to allow me to try the experiment. You will find it mentioned in the _Medecina Sinica_ of Cleyer, No. 84; under the name of _He-xeu-ti_, according to the Portuguese orthography. It is also figured in the 27th table of the plants which Mr _Pettier_ had from me. The following is the story of its discovery, which I will not warrant for gospel.

[Footnote 333: This is probably the ginseng, so famed for its fancied virtues.--E.]

Once upon a time, a certain person went to gather simples among the mountains, and fell by some accident into a vale of which the sides were so steep that he was unable to get out again. In this situation, he had to look about for some means to support life, and discovered this root, of which he made trial, and found that it served him both as food and cloathing; for it preserved his body in such a temperature, that the injuries of the weather had no evil influence upon him during a residence of several hundred years. At length, by means of an earthquake, the mountains were rent, and he found a passage from the vale to his house, whence he had been so long absent. But so many alterations had taken place during his long absence, that nobody would believe his story; till, on consulting the annals of his family, they found that one of them had been lost at the time he mentioned, which confirmed the truth of his relation.--This is a fable, not even credited among the Chinese, invented merely to blazon forth the virtues of this wonderful root.

§5. _Removal of Dr Cunningham to Pulo Condore, with an Account of the Rise, Progress, and Ruin of that Factory_.[334]

The English factory at Chusan was broken up in the year 1702, so that Dr Cunningham had very little time allowed him for making his proposed observations respecting China. From this place he removed to another new settlement at _Pulo Condore,_ in a small cluster of four or five islands, about fifteen leagues south of the west channel of the river of Camboja, usually called the Japanese river.[335] I am unable to say what were the advantages proposed from this factory; but, from the memoirs I have seen on the subject, this place seems to have been very ill chosen, and much worse managed. The person who had at this time the management and direction of the affairs belonging to the East India Company in this distant part of the world, was one Mr Katchpole, who, according to the usual custom of the Europeans in eastern India at this period, took into the service a certain number of Macassers or native soldiers, by whose assistance he soon constructed a small fort for the protection of the factory. So far as I can learn, the most indispensable necessaries of life, water, wood, and fish, were all that these islands ever afforded.

[Footnote 334: This and the subsequent subdivision of the section are related historically by Harris.--E.]

[Footnote 335: Pulo Condore is in lat. 8° 45' N. long. 106° 5' E. and the object of a factory at this place was evidently to endeavour to secure a portion of the trade of China, from which the English at this time were excluded by the arts of the Portuguese at Macao, as we learn from the Annals; as also to combine some trade with Siam, Camboja, Tsiompa, Cochin-China, and Tonquin.--E.]

The Macassers are a brave, industrious, and faithful people, to such as deal fairly with them; and on this account are highly esteemed in the Eastern Indies, more especially by the Dutch. They are, however, daring, cruel, and revengeful, if once provoked. Mr Katchpole had contracted with these men to serve for three years, at the end of which period, if they pleased, they were to receive their wages and to depart: But he, though they strictly performed their part of the agreement, broke faith with them, keeping them beyond their time against their will. In addition to this great breach in morality, he added as notorious an error in politics; for, after provoking these men so egregiously by refusing to fulfil his engagement, he still confided to them the guard of his own person and the custody of the factory. This gave them ample opportunity of revenging the ill usage they had met with, and with that ferocity which is so natural to untutored barbarians. They rose in mutiny one night, and murdered Mr Katchpole, and all who were at the time along with him in the factory. A few, who happened to lodge on the outside of the fort, hearing the cries of their friends within during the massacre, fled from their beds to the sea-shore; where, by a singular interposition of Providence, they found a bark completely ready for sea, in which they embarked half naked, and put immediately to sea, just in time to escape the rage of the Macassers, who came in search of them to the shore, precisely when they had weighed anchor and pushed off to sea.

Dr Cunningham was one of the number who escaped on this occasion. Their navigation was attended with excessive difficulty, being exposed at the same time to incredible fatigue, and to the utmost extremity of hunger and thirst: But at length, after a tedious and difficult course of an hundred leagues, in the most wretched condition, they reached a small creek in the dominions of the king of Johor, where they were received with kindness.

§6. _Some Account of the Factory at Pulo Laut, with the Overthrow of that Factory, and of the English Trade to Borneo_.

A year or two after this ruin of the factory at Pulo Condore, the Company thought fit to order the establishment of a new factory on the coast of the great island of Borneo. On the south of that vast island, there is a small isle called Pulo Laut, having an excellent harbour. The country here is but thinly peopled, and yields nothing except rice; but, as it lies near the mouth of the great rivers which come from the pepper countries in the interior; it is extremely well situated for trade. Between this island and the great island of Borneo, there is a channel about two miles wide in most places, narrower in some and broader in others, and having from seven to five fathoms water the whole way through. On the coast of this channel there are several rising grounds fit for building on, and which were therefore extremely proper for the situation of a factory, which, it may be presumed, induced those who had the direction of the Company's affairs, to make choice of this place.

One Captain Barry, who is said to have been a very ingenious gentleman, had the charge of establishing this new factory, in which he is reported to have acted with much skill and prudence. But he died before the works were completed; and the direction of the factory devolved upon Doctor Cunningham, who came to this place after the ruin of the factory at Pulo Condore. He is said to have given himself so entirely up to his studies, that he left the care of the Company's concerns too much to the people who were under him, who were unequal to the trust, and proved the ruin of the factory. Before the fort was half finished, these people began to insult the natives of the country; and, among other wanton acts of folly, they very imprudently chose to search one of the boats belonging to the king, which was carrying a female of rank down the river. This so provoked the Bornean sovereign that he determined upon the utter destruction of the English; for which purpose he collected his forces together, amounting to about three thousand resolute men, which he embarked in above an hundred proas, and sent them down to attack the factory and unfinished fort.

There happened at this time to be two ships belonging to the Company in the river, besides two merchant vessels of inconsiderable force; and as Cunningham and his people had received advice of the preparations making against them, they left their factory, taking refuge aboard the ships, thinking themselves in greater security there than ashore. When all things were in readiness for the intended assault, the native armament came down the river in the night; and, while some landed and destroyed the factory and fortifications, others attacked the ships, which were fortunately prepared for their reception, the English having made fast nettings along both sides of their ships, about two fathoms high above the gunnels, to prevent the enemy from boarding, and were in readiness to use their blunderbusses and pikes, to prevent them from forcing their way to the decks.

On seeing the approach of the proas towards the ships, the English plied their great guns, loaded with double, round, and partridge shot, and made great carnage among the Borneans, yet this did not deter them from pushing forwards and using their utmost endeavours to board. But, having got up to the gunnels, they were unable to get over the netting, and so were slaughtered with great ease by the English from the decks. Some of the assailants got in at the _head doors_ of one of the ships and killed a few of the English on the forecastle, but were soon overpowered and slain. Thus, after a long and sanguinary contest, the two large ships beat off the enemy with small loss; but the two little vessels were both burnt with most of their men, among whom was one Mynheer Hoogh Camber, a Dutch gentleman who had been ambassador of the king of Persia, and had fled from Batavia in one of these small vessels. Some say that the English killed above fifteen hundred of the assailants in two hours, for the heat of the assault continued during that space, besides many others wounded and maimed. But the English were under the necessity of abandoning the settlement at Pulo Laut.

The Bornean king or rajah thought his revenge had gone far enough in driving the English from their factory: And, finding his revenue considerably diminished by the loss of trade with the English, he sent notice to such of them as traded to Johor, and other places in the neighbourhood of Borneo, that he would still admit them to trade in his dominions on the old footing, but would never allow them or any other nation to erect forts in his territories. Several English vessels have been there since to load pepper, and were civilly treated. The Dutch also sent a ship there from Batavia in the year 1712; but the natives refused to have any dealings with them.

END OF THE NINTH VOLUME.