China; Chinese -- United States -- Education; Education -- China; Yung, Wing, 1828-1912
We landed at Jamestown, which is a small
village in the valley of the Island. In this valley there was rich and
beautiful vegetation. We found among the sparse inhabitants a few
Chinese who were brought there by the East India Company’s ships. They
were middle-aged people, and had their families there. While there, we
went over to Longwood where was Napoleon’s empty tomb. A large weeping
willow hung and swept over it. We cut a few twigs, and kept them alive
till we reached this country and they were brought to Auburn, N. Y., by
Mr. Brown, who planted them near his residence when he was teaching in
the Auburn Academy for several years before his departure for Japan.
These willows proved to be fine, handsome trees when I visited Auburn in
1854.
From St. Helena we took a northwesterly course and struck the Gulf
Stream, which, with the wind still fair and favorable, carried us to New
York in a short time. We landed in New York on the 12th of April, 1847,
after a passage of ninety-eight days of unprecedented fair weather. The
New York of 1847 was altogether a different city from the New York of
1909. It was a city of only 250,000 or 300,000 inhabitants; now it is a
metropolis rivaling London in population, wealth and commerce. The whole
of Manhattan Island is turned into a city of skyscrapers, churches and
palatial residences.
Little did I realize when in 1845 I wrote, while in the Morrison School,
a composition on “An Imaginary Voyage to New York and up the Hudson,”
that I was to see New York in reality. This incident leads me to the
reflection that sometimes our imagination foreshadows what lies
uppermost in our minds and brings possibilities within the sphere of
realities. The Chinese Education Scheme is another example of the
realities that came out of my day dreams a year before I graduated. So
was my marrying an American wife. Still there are other day dreams yet
to be realized; whether or no they will ever come to pass the future
will determine.
Our stay in New York was brief. The first friends we had the good
fortune to make in the new world, were Prof. David E. Bartlett and his
wife. He was a professor in the New York Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb,
and was afterwards connected with a like institution in Hartford. The
Professor died in 1879. His wife, Mrs. Fanny P. Bartlett, survived him
for nearly thirty years and passed away in the spring of 1907. She was a
woman highly respected and beloved for her high Christian character and
unceasing activities for good in the community in which she lived. Her
influence was even extended to China by the few students who happened to
enjoy her care and instruction. I count her as one of my most valued
friends in America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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