Mandarin-Gold (11 page)

'What is the earliest date I can sail for Canton?', he asked the manager.

'When we hear from Dr Jardine that arrangements have been made for you to land there. I will send a letter by fast cutter tonight, your lordship, which will be in Dr Jardine's hands tomorrow.'

'What arrangements do you mean? All I require is a house and an office.'

'It is not as simple as that, your lordship. You also require what is called a Red Pass, issued by the Chinese authorities. They regard us all as Barbarians, and we are expected to carry these passes.'

'Can you obtain one here?'

'Regrettably that is impossible, your lordship. The Chinese control this island, in collaboration with the Portuguese, but no-one has authority to issue such a pass.'

'Who has. authority, then?'

'Only the Emperor.'

'The Emperor? But he's in Peking, fifteen hundred miles away. How long will it take for a message to reach him and for him to reply?'

'Possibly three months. Maybe longer if there are floods.'

"Three
months?
Are there no quicker means of communication between Canton and Peking?'

'The Chinese do have an express service, with relays of horsemen who, between them, can cover a hundred and fifty miles a day. But we would still have to wait weeks, perhaps months, before the Emperor replies.'

'But why? I am not some merchant who seeks permission to do some petty thing. I am His Majesty's plenipotentiary — his ambassador, all but in name.'

'Your lordship, the Chinese authorities do not wish to receive a British ambassador.'

'Well damn it, I have not come all this way against my own inclinations, spending months at sea, just to wait here indefinitely. We will have to sail to Canton without this pass. There must be someone in authority there who will appreciate the situation. The Chinese Viceroy or Governor, for example. He must have
some
authority, surely?'

‘Not to allow you to land, your lordship.'

'Well, maybe I do not need permission as I am a diplomat, and not a trader. Pray be so good as to inform Dr Jardine of my intentions.'

The manager bowed. Things were going to be difficult; he could see that. First, Lord Napier with his raw red skin and sandy hair was the epitome of everything the Chinese, with their sallow complexions and black oily hair, hated and despised. He might have been a living caricature of a Red-Bristled Barbarian.

If he foolishly persisted in going to Canton without a proper pass, the manager could also foresee certain inevitable consequences. First, the Viceroy would have to report his uninvited arrival to the Emperor. Then knowing he would incur His Majesty's severe displeasure for allowing the Barbarian to land, yet being unable to prevent him physically because of the Barbarian's gunboat, the Viceroy would demand an immediate levy from the Hong merchants against any financial demands from Peking.

The merchants, in turn, would show their disapproval of the situation by withdrawing all local labour from the quay, and possibly even impounding cargoes and ships. The British merchants would have to pay them further enormous bribes, with tens of thousands of pounds of profit lost — and all because the Government in London had sent out this emissary who seemed intent on going the wrong way about things.

Well, he was only the local manager; he owned no shares in the company. But now he pitied those who did.

Lord Napier's arrival in a British man-of-war had, of course, been signalled from fort to fort along the banks of the Pearl River, and even as Napier was declaring what he would do, the Chinese Viceroy of Canton was examining these reports.

Viceroy Lu Ku'un was a plump man in middle life, who had only recently succeeded the unfortunate official who had failed to subdue the revolt of the self-styled Golden Dragon King. Lu had no intention of also making the journey back to Peking in chains, but unless he handled this new Barbarian carefully, that could conceivably happen, The Emperor never deigned to travel to Canton; he therefore had no idea of local conditions, and relied for information on all kinds of correspondents, who coloured their reports according to their own relations with the Viceroy.

Lu's spies in Macao sped to Canton in swift boats, called centipedes because of the number of their oars, with the grievous news that Lord Napier intended to land in Canton without official permission.

Lu had taken years to climb up the ladder of preferment. A word of fulsome praise for a superior here; a judicious bribe there; a calculated betrayal elsewhere had all contributed to his promotion. If he maintained the Emperor's confidence and survived as Viceroy, he would soon be very rich. For this wealth, of course, Lu would have to rely on the Coast Trade, because he was in supreme charge of the area; and as such he received the largest share of the bribes that the Barbarians paid.

He must therefore deal swiftly with the matter, but delicately, for he did not wish a direct confrontation with the British frigate. The ancient defensive forts along the river possessed crumbling guns that could neither be traversed nor raised nor lowered, but could only hurl their iron balls at set points in the river. They were thus useless against any enemy who could manoeuvre.

Under the command of a Chinese admiral who preferred to stay in port painting delicate faces on fans, Lu could call on a fleet of sampans and war junks. But if he antagonized Napier, then the
Andromache
might rampage up and down the river, and do as much harm to his reputation as to the war junks and sampans it encountered.

He would tread a middle course warily, like a walker on a tightrope. Accordingly, he called for tea, then for hot damp towels, which servants held expertly to his brow. Thus refreshed, he sent for his principal secretary, who arrived, writing brush in hand. Lu began to dictate a message to the Hong merchants. If they took their share of the good things in trading with the Barbarians, then they must also bear their quota of the bad.

First, he told them of the arrival of a Western official who was not a merchant. The ideograph for this perplexed the secretary, until he decided that the official was obviously a Barbarian and come to see what he could. So he referred to Napier as the Barbarian Eye.

'When this Order is received by the said Hong merchants,' Lu intoned in his official and impressive voice, 'let them immediately go into Macao and ascertain clearly from the Barbarian Eye why he has come to Canton province.

'And let them authoritatively enjoin upon him the laws of the Celestial Empire, to wit that, with the exception of the merchants and the
taipans,
their heads,
no
other Barbarian can be permitted to enter Canton, save after a report has been made and an Imperial Mandate received.

‘The said Barbarian Eye, if he wishes to come to Canton, must inform the said Hong merchants, so that they may petition me, the Viceroy, and I will by express messenger send a memorial, and all must respectfully wait until His Majesty deigns to send a_ Mandate. Then orders will be issued requiring obedience. Oppose not! A special order!

'Now,' Lu told the secretary in his usual speaking voice, 'post up copies where they may be seen — and speedily.'

The secretary fled away, impressed by the obvious urgency of his orders. The Hong merchants, crowding round the copies as they were nailed up on public notice boards, acted even more swiftly. Half a dozen of the most senior immediately dropped all other work and set off for Macao in the fastest boat they could command. This sailed through inner creeks and swampy passages which no Westerner knew, for it was imperative, that they should reach Macao before this Barbarian Eye, acting perhaps in ignorance or folly or maybe (might heaven and their ancestors forbid) in malevolence, set sail for Canton.

Should he land there without the necessary permission, then great would be their distress. The Viceroy would use the Barbarian's disobedience to his command as another lever to squeeze out more money from them in case he was to be punished himself.-

As their boat, with its naked sweating rowers, under its clouds of billowing canvas, approached Macao, they saw with alarm that the quay was empty of large craft. A few sampans bobbed against the slime-encrusted steps, but there were no vessels of consequence, and no sign of any British man-of-war. The Barbarian Eye had gone, and with him an enormous part of their fortune.

As the prow of their vessel scraped uselessly against the steps, and one of the crew made fast, the bells of the twelve churches in Macao began to strike three o'clock, the Hour of the Horse. Some bells boomed, others were flat and cracked. But so far as the worried merchants were concerned, all sounded a dirge; a knell for a lost chance, a lost fortune.

The Parsee stood, as he always stood in the morning, looking out to sea, watching, his ships carrying his cargoes. His treasure sailed in. their deep holds, and his heart travelled with it.

A merchantman was coming up the Roads, tacking from side to side against the summer wind. She sped gracefully over the water like a huge sea bird, white wings extended.

The Parsee sipped tea thoughtfully from an oval cup without a handle. Behind him, a little to one side, as was fitting for an inferior, waited a man of much darker skin. Although his
dhoti
was well cut and his sandals correctly curled at the toes, a-glitter with semi-precious jewels sewn into the leather, he had the obsequiousness of a hireling.

:'So you have examined my daughter,' said the Parsee at last. 'And what do you find?'

'I find sir,' replied the' other man in the curious sing-song voice of an educated Indian, 'that, without any doubt, she is now with child.'

'As a doctor, you are certain?'

'As God will judge me, sir, I am certain.'

'I have heard of women who miss their monthly flow and swell up as though with child, but it is imagination, a trick of their mind. They imagine the child they desire is within them. Could this have happened to my daughter?'

'I have treated cases such as you mention, sir, but never one so healthy and young and vigorous as your daughter. I have made my tests. Your daughter is with child.'

'It is good,' said the Parsee, satisfied. 'See my secretaries on your way out. They will pay your fee. Truly, when he returns, my son-in-law will be pleased to know that his union has been blessed.'

The Indian doctor bowed his agreement, then folded his hands, dry and scaly as the claws of a predatory bird, and backed away towards the door. The Parsee gave him five minutes to be out of the way and pulled the bell tassel. The servant who had conducted Gunn to his room appeared in the doorway. 'Send the English doctor to me,' the Parsee commanded.

'He is asleep,' said the servant.

'I do not doubt he sleeps well, after his exertions,' said the Parsee dryly. 'Were I younger, I might envy him. I am sure they have both done their best to earn him his money. Awaken him and send him here.'

'As you say, my master.'

He was back within ten minutes with Gunn, wearing his uniform, which had been laundered and pressed, his shoes polished. Gunn felt oddly relaxed with the Parsee now, not ill at ease. He also felt infinitely more mature than when he, had first met the man. Maybe this was because he had learned much that he had never imagined before about women, not only physically but mentally; and perhaps he had taught the girl something, too.

He had grown so accustomed to being a prisoner of desire, sleeping naked with this warm, delightful, passionate woman whose body enfolded his, who was always eager for the act of love, that the world outside their four walls had grown farther away and correspondingly less important. What could her father possibly want with him now that meant he had to be awakened and brought here?

'I mean, she is with child by you. I have also just received intelligence that her husband is due here very soon. He left Calcutta fourteen days ago. If the winds had been in his favour, he should have been here now. I have just been watching a ship coming up the Roads. If he is not aboard that, they will at least have news of him. You will have to go, Dr Gunn.'

'Go?' Gunn repeated the word. It held a sudden horror, a sudden emptiness, echoing like a well.
'Go?'

'There is no reason for you to stay here any longer, doctor.' said the Parsee gently. 'It is time for you to leave.'

'But I've grown
used
to life here,' said Gunn, amazed he was uttering such words; and that they were completely true.

'You pay my humble hospitality great honour, but you have done that for which you were hired. You
must
go.'

'But where? And what will I do?'

'There is a schooner returning to Canton. You will travel in her. I understand that the
Trelawney
is expected soon at Whampoa. Boats ply regularly between Canton and that island. I leave what explanation you give your captain to your own ingenuity.'

'But what will your daughter think?'

It seemed astonishing that, after weeks of total intimacy, Gunn still did not know her name, had never even asked it; and she had never told him. Truly, the East was strange and wonderful.

'Sentimental farewells are things of the English mind, doctor. They belong to a cold country. In the East we believe that our days, our nights, our loves and our losses are all part of the great celestial equation that forms our whole life. And life is a continuing journey. We meet people, we part from them. We carry their memories in our minds. And, in your case, my daughter carries something stronger than .any memory in her body. Go now, Englishman.'

'But
I must
say goodbye.'

'I do not repeat myself, doctor. My servant will escort you to the schooner.'

'Wait,' said Gunn. 'I
can't
go.'