The history of this island,
ceded to us in 1842 by the Treaty of Nanking, is known to everyone in
Europe, or should be.
Four and a half days more, and we anchored at Woo-sung; and a few hours
later, after a terribly cold run up the river in the teeth of a terrific
wind, we arrived at Shanghai.
The average man in Europe and America does not know that this great
metropolis of the Far East is far removed from salt water, and that it
is the first point on entering the Yangtze-kiang at which a port could
be established. It is twelve miles up the Whang-poo. Junks whirled past
with curious tattered brown sails, resembling dilapidated verandah
blinds, merchantmen were there flying the flags of the nations of the
world, all churning up the yellow stream as they hurried to catch the
flood-tide at the bar. Then came the din of disembarkation. Enthusiastic
hotel-runners, hard-worked coolies, rickshaw men, professional Chinese
beggars, and the inevitable hangers-on of a large eastern city crowded
around me to turn an honest or dishonest penny. Some rude, rough-hewn
lout, covered with grease and coal-dust, pushed bang against me and
hurled me without ceremony from his path. My baggage, meantime, was
thrown onto a two-wheeled van, drawn by four of those poor human beasts
of burden--how horrible to have been born a Chinese coolie!--and I was
whirled away to my hotel for tucker.
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