[4] One of the most famous Chinese dynasties, 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D., from which the name 'children of Han.'
[5]Bogue is a corruption of the Portuguese word bocca (mouth). When the Portuguese first approached it, about 1525, the strong resemblance of the red sandstone eminence to the left of the narrow mouth of the Pearl River to a tiger's mouth, caused the exclamation, still perpetuated in its name, 'Bocca Tigre!' The Chinese name for it is 'the Lion's Gate.'
[27] One of our partners whom we had sent to London. Lord Byron once wrote of him to Murray as full of 'Entusymusy;' so we called him 'Tusymusy.'
[28] Their Chinese names were Tan and Tung, but these words not being readily distinctive to the foreign ear, they both became Tom, while 'Old' and 'Young' were added to suit their respective ages.
[30] The chief of a foreign house was known as 'Tai-pan.' The word signifies 'head manager.' The assistants or clerks were called 'pursers.' This word was undoubtedly taken from the office of 'purser,' whom the Chinese had only known as transacting business for the commanders of the East India Company's ships. The latter enjoyed the privilege of forty tons of space (English measurement) in each vessel homeward, which involved the presence at Canton of the 'pursers' to act for them in selling their outward and buying their homeward investments. The 'pursers' frequently hired a portion of a Factory (when to be had), and resided in it more or less while their ships were at Whampoa.
[31] Since the Conquest the reverse bears the name of the Emperor in Manchoo Tartar letters.
[32] Known as 'Sycee,' which means literally 'fine silk.'
[41] The Chinese character which represents 'day' is literally 'sun.'
[42] When a Chinese takes leave, he says, 'Kaou-tsze' ('I inform you of taking leave').
[43] The 'Colonel Young' belonged to Jardine, Matheson, & Co., as well as the 'Fairy.'
[44] The 'Harriet' belonged to Jardine, Matheson, & Co.
[45] Literally 'great wind,' not those destructive storms which occur but once in three or four years, unroof houses and tear ships to pieces; they are called Teet-kuy, 'iron whirlwinds.'
[46] Country ships and coasters carried Manila men—Portuguese of Bombay or Macao—as helmsmen; they hove the lead, &c., and were called 'Sea-cunnies.'
[47] Strangling is by means of a wooden cross driven into the ground to which the prisoner's neck and outstretched arms are secured. A more ghastly and ignominious death than beheading.
[48] Called the Praya Grande, temporarily destroyed by the taiphoon of 1875.
[59] The late Sir James Matheson was the reputed founder of the foreign press in China (The Canton Register); but it was an open question whether it was he or Mr. Wood. I contributed to that paper (translations from Chinese) when started; but in the consequent daily intercourse with Wood, he never hinted that he was not its sole founder. If my memory serves me Sir James was at the time on a trip up the coast. Nevertheless there is but one 'old Canton' who can decide the point, the present Sir Alexander Matheson.
[71] The resident physician of the foreign community, apart from the Honourable East India Co. He was from Philadelphia.
[72] An old Chinese fort so called, east of the Factories.
[73] The capital of Canton province is Show-King-Foo, and was the residence of the Governor-General of Canton and Kwang-Se. Consequent upon the former becoming the seat of foreign trade, the Governor-General removed there, and second to him is the Lieutenant-Governor. He is now styled Viceroy.
[75] These and similar expressions in Chinese official documents, over which Western people make such an absurd fuss, are no more to be taken literally than the vulgarised form of 'your obedient servant.' In the present case 'reverential obedience' is to be taken as 'serious co-operation,' so the Blue Button pointed out to me.
[77] The Canton agents talked over the question of half-commissions on consignments thus withdrawn. It was argued that their Indian principals would recover from the British Government, a charge sanctioned by commercial usage. The half-commissions were assumed to be about 300,000 dollars. No unanimous decision was arrived at, but on the quantity delivered up by Russell & Co.—nearly 15,000 dollars—the charge was foregone.
[80] Yang-Yin, one of the chief features of which, in some mysterious way, gives notice of impending change of fortune deduced from the Pa-Kwa, a complicated system, of very remote antiquity, of divination.
[82] The 'eyes' on the bows of Chinese junks gave rise to the expression, 'No got eye, no can see,' under the erroneous foreign belief that the Chinese attributed to them the power of seeing and avoiding danger. This is very far from the fact. The bows of sea-going junks represent the head of a dragon, with expanded jaws and full round eyes, and being the symbol of the Chinese Empire, it is used as a carved eagle may be on an American vessel, without occult power attaching thereto.
[83] A 'Scuttle-Butt' is a cask with a square hole in its bilge, kept on deck to hold water for daily use, which is drawn by means of a hand-pump.
