Kushan, a mountain on the bank of the river, is famed for its scenery; and, as with mountains everywhere else in China, it has been made the seat of a [Page 16] Buddhist monastery, with some scores of monks passing their time not in contemplation, but in idleness.

The city of Foochow is imposing with its fine wall of stone, and a long stone bridge called Wansuik’iao “the bridge of ten thousand years.”  It has a population of about 650,000.  To add to its importance it has a garrison or colony of Manchus who from the date of the conquest in 1644 have lived apart from the Chinese and have not diminished in numbers.

The American Board and the Methodist Episcopal Board have large and prosperous missions at this great centre, and from this base they have ramified through the surrounding mountains, mostly following the tributaries of the Min up to their sources.  In 1850 I was entertained at Foochow by the Rev. Dr. C. C. Baldwin, who, I am glad to say, still lives after the lapse of fifty-five years; but he is no longer in the mission field.

[Page 17] CHAPTER IV

PROVINCE OF CHEHKIANG

Chusan Archipelago—­Putu and Pirates—­Queer Fishers and Queer Boats—­Ningpo—­A Literary Triumph—­Search for a Soul—­Chinese Psychology—­Hangchow—­The Great Bore

Chehkiang, the next province to the north, and the smallest of the eighteen, is a portion of the highlands mentioned in the last chapter.  It is about as large as Indiana, while some of the provinces have four or five times that area.  There is no apparent reason why it should have a distinct provincial government save that its waters flow to the north, or perhaps because the principality of Yuih (1100 B.C.) had such a boundary, or, again, perhaps because the language of the people is akin to that of the Great Plain in which its chief river finds an outlet.  How often does a conqueror sever regions which form a natural unit, merely to provide a principality for some favourite!

Lying off its coast is the Chusan archipelago, in which two islands are worthy of notice.  The largest, which gives the archipelago its name, is about half the length of Long Island, N. Y., and is so called from a fancied resemblance to a junk, it having a high promontory at either end.  It contains eighteen valleys—­a division not connected with the eighteen provinces, but [Page 18] perpetuated in a popular rhyme which reflects severely on the morals of its inhabitants.  Shielded by the sea, and near enough to the land to strike with ease at any point of the neighbouring coast, the British forces found here a secure camping-ground in their first war.

To the eastward lies the sacred Isle of Putu, the Iona of the China coast.  With a noble landscape, and so little land as to offer no temptation to the worldly, it was inevitable that the Buddhists should fix on it as a natural cloister.  For many centuries it has been famous for its monasteries, some of which are built of timbers taken from imperial palaces.  Formerly the missionaries from neighbouring seaports found at Putu refuge from the summer heat, but it is now abandoned, since it afforded no shelter from the petty piracy at all times so rife in these waters.