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Pagodas in and near Canton.
Ост.
time we had reached the foot of the pagoda, we were fully repaid for the toilsome ascent, and the discomfort of getting wet and missing our path. The pagoda stood alone; not a building, nor anything was near to show that habitations had ever clustered around it; while the old citadel wall a few rods off indicated that this place had not always been thus lonely. The larger portion of the hill was covered with plats of v❜getables and a few fields of rice, raised for the most part on numerous terraces, which gave the impression of former agricultural labors far greater than the present.
"We mounted by the stairs in the walls to the eighth story, meeting here a disjointed human skeleton, the remains of some poor wretch who had probably gone up in this lonely tower to die. The prospect around us was magnificent and picturesque in a high degree. From our lofty point of view, Lintin I. and the city of Canton were both visi- ble, and the pagodas at Whampoa and Canton stood like guardians of the Inner Land. On the east, lay the wide expanse of the Pearl river, here called the Sea of Lions, and more than a mile wide; its further shore was once the scene of mortal strife during the late with England ; and its now peaceful waters were once illuminated by the lurid flames and explosion of the ship Chesapeake, on which and the raft before it, the Cantonese had fondly trusted for defense against the invaders. South, the barren hills about the Bogue shut out most of the prospect; but on the west and southwest, a plain stretched farther than the eye could reach, rendered picturesque by a succession of rice-grounds and other fields, villages embosomed in groves, and canals and rivulets run- ning in every direction, whose course was apparent in many cases only by the masts and sails of boats peeping out of the rice fields; the whole showing the industry and thrift of the people. Hills bounded the horizon on the north, affording a pleasing transition from the plains in the other direction. Probably more than a hundred villages were in sight, and it was a melancholy reflection that all their industrious inhabitants were ignorant of the God who had spread out this fair expanse of fertility and beauty for their use.
"The stillness around us was the more pleasant in contrast to the noise of the Factories at Canton, and the feeling of repose which this quiet induced was deepened by the sight of the deserted citadel just below us, suggesting the toils and cares of its former human inmates- now all gone. Curiosity was excited to learn something of this ruin, and on since looking into a local topography, I have found a few notes respecting it and the pagoda, (usually called the Lien-hwá táh, or Wa- ter Lily pagoda,) which may interest other visitors, as they have me.