h. Even rickshaws are not allowed to enter, there being no room
for them. Progress can only be made on a donkey, and then with much
shouting and discomfort. What a busy people the Chinese are! Some day
they may people the earth. They seem to be even more intelligent than
the Japanese, more honest and more industrious; and have an almost
lovable disposition. And what giants they are compared to their
neighbours!--the men from the north being especially so. I also went by
narrow and vile-smelling streets to visit a celebrated leaning pagoda
near Soochow, and on returning took the opportunity offered of
inspecting with much interest a mandarin's rock-garden, purely Chinese
and entirely different from Japanese similar retreats. In Shanghai I
visited the original tea-house depicted on the well-known willow-pattern
china ware.

January 1st.--Arrived at Hong-Kong and admired its splendid harbour and
surroundings. This is one of the greatest seaports in the world, with an
enormous trade. The whole island belongs to Great Britain; unlike
Shanghai, where different nationalities merely have concessions. In the
famous Happy Valley I had several days' golfing with a naval friend, and
we played very badly. A trip up the river to Canton, the southern
capital of China, an immense city with 2,000,000 population, was full of
interest. Half the population seemingly live in boats.

What indefatigable workers the Chinese are. They seem to work all night
and they seem to work all day. They are busy as ants. If one cannot find
employment otherwise he will make it! Barring the beggars, there are no
unemployed and no unemployables. What a mighty force they must become in
the world's economy. We estimate China's population by millions, but
forget to properly scale their energy and industry. What is the future
of such a people to be! Yet they seem to be incapable of any general
national movement: each is absorbed in his immediate work and contented
to be so; so unlike the Japanese, with equal energy and industry, plus
boundless ambition and patriotism.[4]

[Footnote 4: Appendix, Note I.]

The Chinaman's pigtail calls for explanation. The Manchus, on conquering
China in 1644, decreed that all Chinese should shave the rest of the
head but wear the pigtail. The Chinese would not submit to this; so the
politic Manchu emperor further decreed that only loyal subjects might
adopt the custom, criminals to be debarred. This ruse was so successful
that