1897.1
50 cents etc. eto.
on:
and
orho
whe
pon
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE BEPORTE
inute
intended to work myself, placed
in
trained them in readine
“The sun was slowly, sinking and it bega
Nearer and nearer came to grow a little dusk. the two pirate junks, the large, hawser from bow to bow being gradually drawn in, and the stern sweeps plied more vigorously to give the necessary speed for their diabolical scheme. Now a great beating of loud-sounding gongs and the firing of crackers commenced, and wild, blood-curdling yells of fierce hatred and defiance made every man grasp his weapon more firmly and prepare to sell his life dearly.
admit of can a sweeping such charges as the old coat makee new, 40 you do think which really is ever irrepressible and placidly explain the why his usual smile of mild be it said, pitying indig vain to be indignant. Struggle these accounts as you will, they tot up serenely cemper idem. And on this point it is a well-known fact that you do not fall in r. boy's estimation one little bit by these thly ebullitions; he knows full well you can d it, for on entering your service he took mediate steps to ascertain your income, so hat he could base his charges accordingly."
In his chapter on Hongkong Mr. Halcombe not in his happiest mood and numerous small deviations from accuracy are to be noticed. The hong men do not go home at four o'clock, not many of them live at Kowloon, nor was the Peak Tramway built by Mr. Bowdler. The following para graph is characterised neither by sense nor dig-spars!' nity
-
“All was oppressively silent aboard my little schooner, and the hands, standing in readiness Fat their respective ports, one and all looked
towards me, awaiting my orders.
"Calmness was everything. So I chewed away at my lighted cigar and calculated the distance.
"Six hundred yards-five hundred-about three hundred. Now they were about two hun- dred yards; the din was fearful; the time had come. I gave the first order: 'Raise the ports, men!'
"The large square side-ports were triced up- I stood with the fuse-strings of my two guns in Land. I pulled and shouted, 'Shove out the
'The shot from the nine-pounders simply raked their decks, and, with the last command, out went my dummy guns.
"Another minute and the pirates would have swept alongside; but the great hawser was slackened away and hauled aboard, and they sheered off as they saw our formidable array of guns and the white-bloused marines, as they thought, ready to work them.
The place seems overrun with Portuguese! They almost crowd one off the pavement. It about time a stop was put to this olosale emigration from Macao. But, I suppose, it is no use bringing new laws into force-Macao must be empty-left with its one half-forgotten redeeming point-the statue Camoens who wrote his Lusciad' there. They have left that city, vulgarly speaking, Bing soun bing sèun!' (man-of-war! 'bottom up,' and have taken a ‘hand, or chipped man-of-war!) I heard them shout as they in, as I heard some one remark, to gamble manœuvred out of the way, expecting a broad this city away to reduce it to its primeval stateside from us every moment. Getting my men of granite stones, empty bottles, and cigar- aft, I fired volley after volley into them; and while doing this a breeze of wind came rustling along the cloud-bank had reached us the sails filled out, and away we went soudding before it.
Enough however, of fault finding. Mr. Halcombe has given us an interesting volume, notwithstanding its defects, and we shall be glad to welcome more from his pen.
The illustrations are numerous and good and include several reproductions of rice paper pictures, in which the original colours are well copied. In the chapter on match-label collecting, also, coloured reproductions of some dozen of the more striking designs are given.
We will bring our notice to a close by quot- ing an adventure with pirates in_the old days. It is a tale told to Mr. Halcombe by Captain C-g, of the steamer Fung Shun. Years ago Captain Cg was in charge of a small schooner, which, on the occasión referred to, as making a trip from Hongkong to Shanghai, great portion of the cargo consisting of opium. The
wind fell light and two suspicious looking junks drew up. As a precautionary measure the captain had one of the spare booms out into five foot lengths and painted black, a proceed ing which made the crew think him mad. The remainder of the narrative we give in the caplain's own words as recorded by Mr. Hal- **"Suddenly. I saw a sampan lowered from one of the junks and cross over to the other one
combe
ne And, as from bow to bow a large was drawn, I at once knew their plan
an old Tangteze pirate dodge, and a meant to sail along at but parallel with each approached our craft draw fil it caught across our vere stern on to them when both onld swing ound alongside, with us
nd bos simultaneously.
I had every confidence in my orew, d of Manila and Ningpo men, it nxious time, and no doubt some of ras temporarily bereft of my when I brought out a dozen irts and all the straw hats we I made them dress up in them. Bloss to account for when these were all in ted against the closed aman, armed with rved out nds of ammunition, pounders, which I
|
"It was a mighty narrow shave! And you may be sure I took good care to be properly armed next voyage. But my dummy guns did their work-they saved a good little ship and her
crow.
وت
Chinese Phonology. An attempt to discover the sounds of the Ancient Language and to re- cover the Lost Rhymes of China. By L. VOLPICELLI, late Bursar, Royal Asiatic Col- lege of Naples, Hon. Librarian, China Branch, Royal Asiatic Society. Shanghai: China Gazette Office. 1896;
BC-
Mr. VOLPICELLI says that if philology is one of the natural sciences it cannot be excepted from the general treatment corded to the class: the collection of numerous specimens and their comparison, with the application of mathematics (at least in the elementary form of statistics), become in dispensable for the discovery of general laws underlying phenomena. Following out this theory, he has taken as the basis of his work the second set of rhyme tables in Kang-hsi. All the characters were written out, according to initials, in single column on large sheets of paper; then Mr. Volpicelli searched for each character in Giles's Dictionary and wrote out in twelve columns by the side of it the different sounds assigned by Parker to the nine dialrots and three languages. He thus collected a vast material of over 40,000 sounds on which to base his inquiry.It was," he says, "a most labo- rious work, which I do not think I could under- take again, and whịch I was sorely tempted
the Pall
Fadmirers wil
essays in
his first ess
of man," which serves duction," he says he judice in favour of an old schoolmaster
him for using the word
Ain't How often am Sto a word ?". Also there was a his pupils You must not use end a sentence with." "F says Mr. Zangwill, wise mer Rules or no rules, Mr. Zangwill in style.
British India. By R. W. FRAZER, LIB. I.C.S. (retired). London: T Fisher Unwin 1896.
THIS volume belongs to The Story of the Nations" series, to which it is a welcome add It gives a very lucid, exact, and readable epitome of the growth and establishment rule in India, and a statement of the present condition of the country. Englishmen proud of the Indian empire, but there is tively little general knowledge of its history what there is is confined chiefly to t prominent of the many feats of arms of
Mr. Frazer tra India has been the scene. the early history of commerce between and the West, the long struggle bet Dutch, French, and English for pred the gradual decay of the Mughal Em extension of British influence from the Ganges to Bombay in the west and to Madras in the south, and the fur quests and acquisitions down to the and
tale is told of Upper Burmah. The and fascinating style, and we would cordially commend Mr. Frazer's book tɔ all who wish to improve their acquaintance with the great de- pendency of the British crown..
aphic
THE LEKIN QUESTION IN - KWANGSI.
PROCLAMATION BY THE CENTRAL LIKIN
OFFICE AND THE BOARD OF FORLIGN AFFAIRS OF THE KUANG-SIPROVINOF. The following translation, received from H.M. Consul at Canton, of a proclamation which has been issued by the Kwangsi Lekin Authorities, has been forwarded to us from the Colonial Secretary's Office
The following proclamation is issued for the public information:
His Excellency the Governor-General T'an has, through His Excellency Shih, Governor of this province, communicated to this offlce; an order with regard to half duty certificates appears therefrom that on November
&
- despatch, was received from the Yamen, stating that on 29th of October the British Minister, Sir Claude MacD had addressed that body on this
at
The Minister referred to communication, wherein he sion to the opinion that the proclamation's issued not sufficiently. er prehension existing traders: On this gro
of a fresh notification, in hearsal of the Treaty provision
embodied
of the following pointe
foreign produce com
| several times to give up; but the work already question, should I
accomplished, which would have been wasted if left incomplete, deterred me from such a pusillanimous course." The results of this laborious work are embodied in the thirty-eight pages of the small book before us. Only advanced sinalogues will be able to understand
=
it and from them the author is more likely to receive criticism than appreciation.
no matter on our
have
then
Without Prejudice By I ZANGWILL. Lon-
don T. Fisher Unwin. 1896. – TS US, This is a selection, alightly revised, of Mr. Zang- will's miscellaneous work during the last four im or five years, and the title in that under which
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