SWATOW.
THE Chinese town which foreigners know as Swatow was first made an open port in the year
1858. It is built at the mouth of the Han river, on its eastern bank. The Han flows through
a very populous and fertile section of the Kwangtung province, and affords at its entrance a
spacious harbour where the largest vessels may anchor. Hence the great commercial importance
of this place, which in 1842, for the first time, attracted the notice of foreign traders, and
has, since that date, risen to be of considerable importance. But the progress of trade, as well as the
development generally of this part of the province, has always been retarded by the lawlessness of the resident
population. Of late years, as I have already noticed, the district has been reduced to comparative order by
the vigorous administration of Juilin. The natives of Swatow speak a dialect which differs from that in use
among the Cantonese, and, like the Hakkas, they appear to have sprung out of some stock originally distinct
from the Puntis of Kwangtung, with whom they are continually at variance. Taken altogether, the people
of this province, which is about as large as Great Britain, have probably been more difficult to govern than
any other community throughout the vast empire of China. Moreover, this part of the country has ever been
the favourite resort of robbers and rebel bands; constantly torn by internal strife and commotion, or overcome
by foreign invaders. At one period a kind of republic was set up, at another it has constituted an independent
kingdom, the nucleus of a southern empire which did not tender its full submission to the empire of the north
till about the middle of the 10th century. [1]
It is to the Munchus, the present rulers of China, and to the close contact of Western civilization, that the province owes its greatest prosperity. Between the years 1842 and 185 1 an unrecognized foreign community had established itself on Double Island, four miles, or thereabouts, below the present settlement of Swatow. The latter place was commenced in 1862 by the consent of the Chinese government, on a site opposite the native town and underneath the Kah-chio hills. No. 17 gives a view of the present state of the settlement just referred to, and was taken from the heights above the residence of Messrs. Richardson and Co. The hills of the locality are nothing more by nature than barren granite rocks. This granite is sometimes in a state of decomposition, but much of it also consists of solid boulders, bare and exposed, and resting like monuments on the tops and sides of the hills. In spite of these disadvantages, the rich soil of the plain has been imported, and round the foreign houses the sterile slopes and valleys have been transformed into flower gardens and close cropped lawns. As might have been anticipated, a thriving village has sprung up in the neighbourhood to supply the wants of the foreigners.
The European houses are chiefly built of a native concrete made of the felspar clay which abounds in that vicinity, mixed with shell lime. This concrete hardens in process of time into a stony substance. Within, these houses are adorned with a profusion of finely moulded cornices and panel-work in the ceilings. These are made by native modellers, who have carried their own branch of art to a high pitch of perfection, and have made it a speciality in Swatow. Birds and animals, flowers and fruit, are formed by these craftsmen with artistic skill, and in free and graceful designs. The artizans are paid but poorly for their labour,— so poorly that their condition is little above that of the ordinary coolie. I was much interested in watching these needy men at their work;
- ↑ "History of the Kwangtung Province," " Fall of Canton Empire," p. 27.
