Cruelty of Foreign Residents in Heathen Lands.
MR. RAPHAEL POMPELLY, in a recent work entitled, “Narrative of a Tour across America and Asia,” speaks as follows of the cruelty of foreigners to the natives of the East:— “I will give here one of the many instances which I saw, illustrative of this line of conduct. A steamboat, which had been undergoing repairs, made a trial trip, crowded with most of the leading foreigners of Shanghai, all, like myself, invited for a pleasure excursion up the Wusung River. As we were steaming at full speed, we saw, some distance ahead of us, a large scow loaded so heavily with bricks as to be almost unmanageable by the oars of four Chinamen who were propelling it. They saw the steamer coming, and knowing well how narrow was the channel, worked with all their force to get out of it, and let the boat pass. As we stood watching the slow motion of the scow, which we were rapidly approaching, I listened every instant for the order to stop the engine. The unwieldy craft still occupied half the channel, the coolies straining every muscle to increase her slow motion, and uttering cries which evidently begged for a few instants’ grace. There was yet time to avoid collision, when the pilot called out, ‘Shall I stop her, sir?’ ‘No,’ cried the captain; ‘go ahead.’ There was no help for it. Horrified at hearing this cold-blooded order, I waited breathlessly for the crash, which soon came. The scow, striking under the port bow, veered around lengthwise, and was instantly under the paddles. A shriek, a shock, and a staggering motion of our boat, and we were again steaming up the channel. Going to the stern, I could see but one of the four Chinamen, and he was motionless in the water.” The Professor remarks that no one seemed to be at all moved by the circumstance, and that, on an average, one Chinese vessel a day is recklessly sunk by foreigners! When facts like the above are borne in mind, and when it is remembered that nearly all these same foreigners are engaged in the opium traffic, need we wonder that many of the leading Chinese are anxious to shut foreigners entirely out of the country? or that the success of missions is not more rapid than it is? Or, need we be surprised that when missionaries leave these seaports to begin interior stations, and before the character of their lives and work is known, they should be molested by the natives, to whom the evil reports of the doings of foreigners have come?