Page 71 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

57.

strangest vessels, indigenous to southern China, were the junks.
Employed primarily in transporting cargo, junks were also used as

warships in China. Some were large enough to hold five hundred

men. The junk had one principal mast, on which flew a sail of

bamboo matting. Two smaller masts displayed brightly colored

flags. Most noticeable to foreigners were eyes painted on

either side of the bow. Similar to the figurehead on Western

ships, the eyes were for good fortune. Many junks also boasted

ornate carvings and paintings of dragons, serpents and other

.
anima l s. 19
Thus the Canton or Pearl River was a marvelous wonder

to foreigners. There was nothing like it in the experience

of Westerners arriving at Canton for the first time. Most of

them could not fathom the sheer multitudes of Chinese. Every­

where as far as a person could see in any direction on the

river were dense crowds of people, "a city afloat," with its

"incessant movement, subdued noises, . life and

gaiety." For most the river at Canton provided a constant

source of interest and·amusement in an otherwise tedious
"
existence. One American noted: . it is long after
arriving in China, that a foreign eye learns to observe unmol­

11 20
ested the gay and active scene perpetually raising in the river.

1
9 Erasmus Doolittle, "Recollections of China," in
iSilas Holbrooy, Sketches, by a Traveller (Boston, 1830 ),
p. 46.

20
Hunter, 'Fan Kwae 1 at Canton, p. 14. W.W. Wood,
Sketches of China: with Illustrations from Original Drawings
(Philadelphia, 1830 ), pp. 54-56.