Page 108 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

94 .
75
excepting eating which becomes. . the great object of life.11

Although they often varied their walks by taking different

routes around the Square or by walking at different paces, the

1
Square was not all that large. In the 1830 s, against govern­
ment regulations, the foreign residents took up rowing on the

river in front of the Factories. Some of the Americans con­

structed schooners in which they raced one another. They even

·
·t· h
d t
ue · t th e Br1 is res1 en s. 76 This provided some
� ld races aga1ns
exercise and amusement during the dull periods, although it too
became tedious.

All facets of life at Canton narrowed down to an over­

whelming emphasis on business. Outside the comfort of having

servants carry out their wishes there was little else to entice
one's residence at Canton. Life in the Factories remained

very different from the rosy characterization later given that

in the treaty ports. Except for a very few who liked Canton,

the American residents there before 1844 wrote of their boredom

and even more of their isolation. After he returned from Can-

ton, one merchant wrote that "it is difficult to conceive of

the state of isolation in which we lived in the Hongs. 11 All

their family and friends were oceans away and they longed for

letters from home. But even these required up to six months

75
Letter, T.H. Cabot to E. Cabot, Oct. 13, 1834, Samuel
Cabot MSS.

76
Tiffany, The Canton Chinese, p. 243. Hughes, J.M.
Forbes Reminiscences, I, 154- 55.