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Isabella L. Bird - The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither
The Governor and I were received in the boardroom after our two hours' inspection, where we were
joined by Mrs. Hennessey, and entertained by the directors at what might be called "afternoon tea." But
when is the Chinaman not drinking tea? A monstrous plateau of the preserved and candied fruits, in the
making of which the Chinese ladies excel, had been placed upon the ebony table, and when we were
seated in the stately ebony chairs on the chairman's right, with the yellow, shining-faced, wadded or
corpulent directors opposite to us, excellent tea with an unusual flavor was brought in, and served in cups
of antique green dragon china. The Governor made kindly remarks on the hospital, which fluent Mr. Ng
Choy doubtless rendered into the most fulsome flattery; the chairman complimented the Governor, and
unlimited "soft sawder," in Oriental fashion, passed all round.
It is proper in China on such an occasion to raise the tea-cup with both the hands to a good height and
bow to each person, naming at the same time the character so continually seen on tea-cups and sake
bottles - Happiness, - which is understood to be a wish for happiness in this formula, "May your
happiness be as the Eastern Sea;" but the wish may also mean "May you have many sons." It is strange
that these Chinamen, who showed all fitting courtesy to Mrs. Hennessey and me, would only have
spoken of their wives apologetically as "the mean ones within the gates!" It was a charming Oriental
sight, the grand, open- fronted room with its stone floor and many pillars, the superbly dressed directors
and their blue-robed attendants, and the immense costumed crowd outside the gate in the sunshine, kept
back by crimson-turbaned Sikh orderlies.
If civilization were to my taste, I should linger in Victoria for the sake of its beauty, its stirring life, its
costume and color, its perfect winter climate, its hospitalities, its many charming residents, and for
various other reasons, and know nothing of its feuds in state, church, and society. But I am a savage at
heart, and weary for the wilds first, and then for the beloved little home on the wooded edge of the
moorland above the Northern Sea, which gleams like a guiding star, even through the maze of sunshine
and color of this fascinating Eastern world. to-day I lunched at (acting) Chief Justice Snowden's, and he
urges me to go to Malacca on my way home. I had never dreamed of the "Golden Chersonese;" but I am
much inspired by his descriptions of the neighborhood of the Equator, and as he has lent me Newbold's
Malacca for the voyage, and has given me letters to the Governor and Colonial Secretary of the Straits
Settlements, you will next hear from me from Singapore!
I. L. B.
LETTER VI
A Cochin China River - The Ambition of Saigon - A French Colonial Metropolis - European Life in
Saigon-A Cochin-Chinese Village - "Afternoon Tea" in Choquan - Anamese Children - Anamite
Costume - Anamite River-Dwellings - An Amphibious Population - An Unsuccessful Colony - "With the
Big Toe" - Three Persecuting Kings - Saigon
S.S. "SINDH," CHINA SEA, January.
This steamer, one of the finest of the Messageries Maritimes line, is perfect in all respects, and has a deck
like that of an old-fashioned frigate. The weather has been perfect also, and the sea smooth enough for a
skiff. The heat increases hourly though, or rather has increased hourly, for hotter it cannot be! Punkahs
are going continually at meal times, and if one sits down to write in the saloon, the "punkah-wallah"
spies one out and begins his refreshing labors at once. But we took on board a host of mosquitoes at
Saigon, and the nights are consequently so intolerable that I weary for the day.
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