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810
EAST ASIA.
is seldom granted. Except the higher officials, the natives moving from place to
place are rarely accompanied by their families, preferring to set up
new and
temporary establishments in the remote districts, where they make periodical or
protracted visits.
Male emigration, especially among the Hakka of Fokien and Kwang-tung, has
acquired considerable proportions, and is now regulated by treaty arrangement
between the Imperial Government and foreign powers. The immigrants already
form an important element of the population in some places, where their extremely
frugal and industrious habits, their perseverance, versatility, and spirit of solidarity,
enable them to found flourishing communities where others fail. In the struggle
for existence they have the advantage of easily acquiring the language of the
country, and whatever be the nationality of the mother, whether Siamese, Tagal,
or Javanese, the new family always becomes Chinese, even in physical type.
The regions where the race has been most solidly established are the basins of the
Fig.
149. RANGE OF CHINESE MIGRATION.
Scale 1 : 325,000,000.
o O
Emigrants '10,000 to 100,000. 100,000 to 1,000,01,0. Over 1,000,000.
under 10,000.
6,000 Miles.
rivers flowing from Yunnan and Sechuen to Further India. Here, as in Manchuria
and Inner Mongolia, at the other extremity of the empire, they have gradually
appropriated the land by trade, agriculture, and the civilisation of the aboriginal
tribes. By following the course of the rivers, the colonists advancing from the
interior must sooner or later join hands with their fellow-countrymen who have
reached Siam by the sea route.
In the neighbouring Eastern Archipelago, where they have been long established,
tho Chinese settlers enjoy a high reputation for thrift, industry, and intelligence.
John Chinaman's motto is "small profits and quick returns," and goods of
every sort can be bought cheaper in the Chinese than in the European or native
establishments. "But in
money-lending transactions John Chinaman never
charges less than twenty-four per cent, interest, and always insists on good security.
He is polite to a degree. If a chance customer, or any one merely looking about,
enters the shop, John asks him to sit down, and offers him a cup of tea, or if a