The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

SHORT HISTORY OF CANTON". 409
hour each clay for writing up j-onr story of Canton, and you will then
liave plenty of time for sight-seeing. You will have euded your writing
before wo leave, and then can devote your time at sea to other things
wliicli the voyage will suggest."
His suggestion was adopted, and they at once set about their work,
determined to write two hours daily till they had described Canton so
fully that their friends would know exactly what was to be seen there.
They divided the work, as they had done on previous occasions, one of
them making a description of a certain part of their route, and the other
taking another portion of it. "When they were tiirough with it, they put
the two stories together, and found that they fitted to perfection. Here is
what they wi'oto
"Canton is tlie capital of the province of Kwang-tnng, and its name
in English is a corruption of the Chinese one. The peujilo who live there
call it ' Kwang-tung-sang-shing,' and the Portuguese call it Kam-tom, and
they write it that way. It is called the City of Kanis, just as Florence is
called the Beautiful City, and Genoa the Haughty; and the Chinese who
live there are very proud of it. The climate is warm, tlie thermometer
rising to 85° or 90° in the summer, and rarely going below 50° in winter.
Occasionally ice forms to the thickness of heavy paper, and once in five
or ten years there will be a slight fall of snow, which astonishes all the
children, and many of the oldei- people.
"The jiopulation is said to be about a million, on land and water.
Those who live in boats are about sixt}^ thousand. Tlie city was founded
more than two thousand years ago, according to the Chinese historians,
but it was not surrounded with a wall until the eleventh century. Tlie
wall to-day is the same that was first built, but it has been repaired and
changed a good deal in the time it has stood, and some new parts have
been added. The circuit of the walls is about seven miles, but there are
suburbs that now form a part of the citj-, so that it is a journey of not less
than ten miles to go around Canton.
" There are sixteen gates to the city, and each has a name that desig-
nates its position. There are two pagodas near the West Gate, and there
are a hundred and twenty -four teuiples, pavilions, and halls inside tlie Avails
of Canton. Then there are four prisons, and there is an execution ground,
where many a poor fellow has lost his head. The prisons are like all such
establishments in Cliina, and a great many men would prefer death to in-
carceration in one of these horrible places.
"We don't know positively whether there are a million people in Can-
ton or not. We took the figures from the guide-book, just as everybody