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Article A VISIT TO CANTON. ← Page 10 of 14 →
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A Visit To Canton.
ing had undertaken . Every concession he made , with a view to prevent a fresh collision , only irritated the passions of tho populace against himself . The day at length arrived when we were to be admitted to an audience of the Governor-General of Canton , the most eminent statesman in the Celestial Empireand the honcstcst
, Tartar that has ever worn the peacock-plume and the rod button . Ki-ing could not have received the envoy of a foreign power in his palace , which is situated in the centre of the Tartar city . The mandarin Potin-qua , therefore , son of a rich merchant , placed at the Governor ' s disposal , for this interviewhis country-house on the banks of the river ; and
, it was in the direction of this Chinese villa that , on the morning of the 19 th of January , the rising tide was carrying the French Legation and the officers of " La Bayonnaise . " The mandarin-boat , on board which we embarked near the quay of the factories , would have conveyed us without fatigue up to the sources of the Chou-Kiang . This pleasure-boat
bore on its wide deck a vast edifice , with curiously carved partitions ; and the interior , divided into two apartments , ornamented with delicate work in bamboo and ivory . Upon
the deck the crew , armed with long poles , kept moving to and fro , keeping in the middle of the river , or guiding from one bank to the other the heavy boat , as it was carried , out of its course by the current . At the end of an hour , our barge entered a canal cut through the recent alluvium of the left bank , ancl landed us at the entrance of Potin-qua ' s park .
Landing on the muddy shore of the canal , we penetrated into one of those gardens of which the Chinese are so fond , with their ponds of green water , over which wind , in broken lines , bridges uniting by a double row of arcades small artificial islands and miniature hills . The sky was grey and dull ; the trees in the park were for the most part stripped of their
foliage ; exposure to rough weather during several winters had long effaced the brilliant colours , a trace of which was still visible on the wormeaten galleries of the bridges , and on the faded facade of the pavilion in which the Viceroy Ki-ing awaited us . This kiosk , or summerhouse , with its fantastic cornices and mouldingsstoodsupported upon eight granite
, , pillars , in the midst of a stagnant pond , covered with the large leaves of the water-lily . An indescribable air of decay and age pervaded the whole scene around , which was sufficient to destroy all charm , and invest it with a tone of sluggish melancholy .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Visit To Canton.
ing had undertaken . Every concession he made , with a view to prevent a fresh collision , only irritated the passions of tho populace against himself . The day at length arrived when we were to be admitted to an audience of the Governor-General of Canton , the most eminent statesman in the Celestial Empireand the honcstcst
, Tartar that has ever worn the peacock-plume and the rod button . Ki-ing could not have received the envoy of a foreign power in his palace , which is situated in the centre of the Tartar city . The mandarin Potin-qua , therefore , son of a rich merchant , placed at the Governor ' s disposal , for this interviewhis country-house on the banks of the river ; and
, it was in the direction of this Chinese villa that , on the morning of the 19 th of January , the rising tide was carrying the French Legation and the officers of " La Bayonnaise . " The mandarin-boat , on board which we embarked near the quay of the factories , would have conveyed us without fatigue up to the sources of the Chou-Kiang . This pleasure-boat
bore on its wide deck a vast edifice , with curiously carved partitions ; and the interior , divided into two apartments , ornamented with delicate work in bamboo and ivory . Upon
the deck the crew , armed with long poles , kept moving to and fro , keeping in the middle of the river , or guiding from one bank to the other the heavy boat , as it was carried , out of its course by the current . At the end of an hour , our barge entered a canal cut through the recent alluvium of the left bank , ancl landed us at the entrance of Potin-qua ' s park .
Landing on the muddy shore of the canal , we penetrated into one of those gardens of which the Chinese are so fond , with their ponds of green water , over which wind , in broken lines , bridges uniting by a double row of arcades small artificial islands and miniature hills . The sky was grey and dull ; the trees in the park were for the most part stripped of their
foliage ; exposure to rough weather during several winters had long effaced the brilliant colours , a trace of which was still visible on the wormeaten galleries of the bridges , and on the faded facade of the pavilion in which the Viceroy Ki-ing awaited us . This kiosk , or summerhouse , with its fantastic cornices and mouldingsstoodsupported upon eight granite
, , pillars , in the midst of a stagnant pond , covered with the large leaves of the water-lily . An indescribable air of decay and age pervaded the whole scene around , which was sufficient to destroy all charm , and invest it with a tone of sluggish melancholy .