Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/251

fortune-tellers, vendors of dogs and cats, quack medicines and trinkets," as well as inquisitive idlers who came to observe the alien and his abode. "Adjoining the Factory were two rows of native houses, called new and old China-street, where foreigners might ramble and purchase trinkets; and if they could endure crowds and confusion with the chance of being pushed down, they might stroll through the narrow streets of the suburbs. Another mode of recreation was the pleasure of rowing European boats up and down a crowded river, where the stranger was in continual danger of being upset by large Chinese barges bearing down upon him without warning; while no one made the smallest effort to save those who might be precipitated into the water. Should he land at any given spot, up or down the river, he was always liable to be stoned or bambooed by the natives, when they were strong or mischievous enough to attempt it. The Government did, indeed, allow foreigners to take a trip in parties of eight or ten about once a month to the flower gardens which lay three miles up the river; but this indulgence was so pompously given and of such little worth that few availed themselves of it. Insult was another evil which foreigners were obliged to endure whilst resident in Canton. ... On passing through the suburbs of Canton, or up and down the river, the cry of 'foreign devil' saluted the ear on every side; even mothers might be seen teaching their infants to