but happily floated at high water, and returned leisurely down the coast, stopping at Shanghai, Chapu, Pihkwan, Tsiuenchau Namoh, and lastly, Lintin, after an absence of six months, every. where finding a sale for her cargo. The increasing demand at Namoh and Chinchew, led to the frequent dispatch of small vessels, one taking the place of another, and finally to stationing receiving-ships there, to afford a constant supply. The local authori ties, finding their paper edicts quite powerless to drive them away, followed the practice of their fellow-officers at Canton, and winked at the trade for a consideration. The opium was brought ashore in chests and seethed before sending it into the country, their income being too great to make them very earnest in carrying out the imperial orders to put down the traffic by seizing the natives engaged in it. It is not, however, right to say, as some do, that the venality and weakness of these officers invalidated the authenticity of the commands they received from court; however flagitious their conduct, in rendering the orders of none effect, it did not prove the insincerity of the emperor and his ministers in issuing them. By the year 1834, the efforts of the local authorities to suppress the trade, resulted in a periodical issue of vain prohibitions and empty threats of punishment, which did not more plainly exhibit their own weakness in the eyes of the people, than the strength of the appetite in the smokers.

Deferring the examination of the results of the opium trade. and its connexion with the war, a general survey of the native and foreign commerce with China will exhibit the extent and variety of the resources of the empire. The Chinese trade with foreign ports in native vessels is at present less extensive than formerly, chiefly in consequence of the increase of foreign shipping and facilities of insurance, enabling the native trader to send and receive commodities with less risk and more speed than by junks. The facilities and security of commerce in a country are among the best indices of its government being administered, on the whole, in a tolerably just manner, and on those principles which give the mechanic, farmer, and merchant a good prospect of reaping the fruits of their industry. This security is afforded in China to a considerable degree, and is one of the most satisfactory proofs, amidst all the corruptions, extortions, injustice, and depravity seen in their courts and in society at large, that the people on the whole receive and enjoy the rewards of industry.

NATIVE TRADE IN JUNKS.

397

Tranquillity may often be owing to the strong arm of power, but trade, manufactures, voyages, and large commercial enterprises must remunerate those who undertake them, or they cease. The Chinese are eminently a trading people; their merchants are acute, methodical, sagacious, and enterprising, not over-scrupulous as to their mercantile honesty in small transactions, but in large dealings exhibiting that regard for character in the fulfilment of their obligations, which extensive commercial engagements usually produce. The roguery and injustice which an officer of government may commit without disgrace would blast a merchant's reputation, and he enters into the largest transactions with confidence, being guarantied in his engagements by a system of mercantile security and responsibility, which is more effectual than legal sanctions.

The coasting trade is disproportionately small compared with the inland commerce, owing chiefly to the pirates and the dangers of the navigation. The large junks cross the seas, but those which navigate along the coast, averaging less than 150 tons, measurement, proceed cautiously from one headland to another, and sail chiefly by day. Their cargoes consist of provisions, as rice, stockfish, and vegetables; also lumber, coal, stones, and other bulky articles. Between Kinchau and Kai chau in Liautung, and Tangchau fu, Tientsin, Kíshan so, and other ports on the coast, all the trade is conducted in coasting vessels.

The foreign ports now visited by Chinese junks, are Singapore, Bruni, Pontianak, Sambas and other places in Borneo, Bangkok, Manila, some of the islands in the Sulu sea, Banca, Lewchew, Corea, and Nagasaki in Japan. The prohibition of the Dutch against the Chinese settling in Batavia has thrown most of their trade to that island into foreign bottoms. The articles carried to these places comprise most of the manufactures of China-coarse crockery, cottons, cheap silks, and metallic articles of great variety, constituting most of the cargo; the junks are however usually so crowded with emigrants that there is little room for cargo. During the war, large amounts of tea, silk, camphor, and other valuable commodities were imported from China into Singapore for foreign markets. Foreign articles are not introduced into the empire to any great amount by junks, but the variety of articles of food or domestic use, and raw materials for manufactures, known under the general denomination of Straits Produce is large.

Rice is the chief import from Bangkok and Manila; rattans, pepper and betel nut from Singapore and Borneo; biche-de-mer from the Sulu sea; and copper and lacquered-ware from Japan. Of the amount of capital embarked in this commerce, the number of vessels, the mode in which it is carried on, and the degree of risk attending it, little is known. It is likely to gradually decrease until it is quite transferred to foreign bottoms; for the junks do not sail upon the wind, and are liable to be wrecked where ships are not jeoparded, so that the time is unnecessarily protracted before returns can be received, and the lives and cargo exposed to great risks-both of which are strong inducements to employ ships.

The natural facilities for inland navigation in China are unusually great, and have been moreover improved by art for travel and transportation. The assertion, that there is a greater amount of tonnage belonging to the Chinese than to all other nations combined, does not appear overcharged to those who have seen the swarms of boats on their rivers, though it might not be found strictly true. The foreign commerce, supposed to be worth about a hundred millions of dollars annually, bears but a small proportion to the inland trade. The sugar, oil, and rice of the southern provinces, the tea, silk, cotton, and crockery of the eastern, the furs, grain and medicines of the northern, and the metals and minerals of the western, are constantly going to and fro and demand myriads of boats; add thereto the immense number of governmental boats required for the transportation of salt and the taxes paid in kind, the passage-boats plying in great numbers between contiguous towns, the pleasure and official barges and revenue-cutters, and lastly, the far greater number used for family residences; and the total of the inland shipping, it will be seen, must be enormous. It is, however, impossible to state the amount in any satisfactory manner, or give an idea of the proportion between the different kinds of boats. The transit duties levied on the produce carried in these vessels partake of the nature of an excise duty, and afford a very considerable revenue to the government, the greatest so, probably, next to the land tax. It has been estimated that the additional charges for transit duty and transportation on only those teas brought to Canton for exportation, amounted to about a million of dollars; much of this will now be lost to the country by the opening of other ports. When

ever a boat loaded with produce passes the custom-house, the supercargo presents his manifest, stating his name and residence, the name of the boat and its crew, and the description of the cargo, and when the charges are paid, proceeds on his voyage. The tariff on goods at these places is light, but their number in a journey of any length, and the liability to unforeseen detention and exaction by the tidewaiters, greatly increase the expense and delay which a system of permits would obviate.

The mode of conducting the foreign trade with China now presents few of those peculiarities which formerly distinguished it, for the monopoly of the hong-merchants and of the East India Company both being abolished, native and foreign traders are free to choose with whom they will deal. The articles of trade are likely to increase in variety and amount, and a brief account of the principal ones, taken from the Chinese Commercial Guide, may be interesting to those unacquainted with the character of this trade.

The foreign export and import trade divides itself into two branches, that between India and the Archipelago and China, and that beyond the Cape of Good Hope, the former of which comprises the greatest variety, but its total value is much less. Alum of an inferior quality is sent to India to use in dyeing and purifying water. Aniseed stars, seeds of the Amomum verum, cubebs, musk seed, or the fruit of the Hibiscus abelmoschus, and turmeric, are all sought after for their aromatic properties. The first is the small five-rayed pod of the Illicium anisatum; the pods and seeds are both prized for their aromatic qualities, and a volatile oil, used in perfumery and medicine in Europe, is obtained from them; the Asiatics employ them in cooking. The fruit of the Amomum is shaped like a grape, divided into three cells, and containing a number of blackish seeds; it is a trifling article of commerce, as are also the musk seeds, used by the Arabians to flavor coffee. Cubebs are the produce of a pepper vine (Piper cubeba), and are externally distinguished from black pepper chiefly by their lighter color, and a short process where the seed is attached to the stalk; the pericarp is also more wrinkled. The taste is warm or pungent, and slightly bitter, with a pleasant aromatic smell; the Chinese article goes to India, the consumption of Europe being supplied from Java. Turmeric is the root of the Curcuma longa, and is used over all the Archipelago and India

for its coloring and aromatic properties, and for food. The roots are uneven and knotty, of a yellowish-saffron color; the smell resembles ginger, with a bitterish taste; and the two are usually combined in the composition of curry-powders. Its color is too fugacious for a dye, no mordant having yet been found to set it.

Besides these aromatic articles, cassia and cassia oil are sent abroad in amounts far exceeding the whole of them, and the cassia buds, or the fleshy receptacles of the seeds of the tree, also form an article of commerce, 500 peculs being annually shipped to Europe and India for the same uses as cassia. Cassia oil is used for confectionary and perfumery, and the demand is usually much greater than the supply. Arsenic is exported to India for medicinal purposes, and the native sulphuret or orpiment, is also shipped under the name of hartall, for use as a yellow coloring drug. The wrist and ankle rings, or bangles worn by the Hindus, are also sent in large quantities; the Chinese imitate jade and chalcedony in their manufacture, in which the Hindus do not succeed so well. The universal use and brittle nature of these ornaments render their consumption enormous in Eastern Asia. Brass leaf is extensively used in China, and exported to India for making ornamental offerings in worship, and tin-foil to a small amount. Bones and horns are manufactured into buttons, opium-boxes, hair-pins, &c., some of which go abroad. Bamboos, fishing-rods, and canes, form an article of commerce under the designation of whangees; the former are procured for umbrella handles, the latter sell according to taste or fashion. The same may be said of the great assortment of articles comprised under the head of curiosities, more or less of which are purchased by every trader visiting the country. Vases, pots, jars, cups, images, boxes, plates, screens, statuettes, &c., made of copper, iron, bronze, porcelain, stone, wood, clay, or lacquered ware, of almost every shape, size, and degree of workmanship, constitute the articles sent abroad under this designation.

Capoor cutchery is the root of a plant sent to India and Persia for medicinal purposes and for perfumery, and to preserve clothes from insects. It is about half an inch in diameter, and cut up when brought to market; it has a pungent, bitterish taste, and slightly aromatic smell. Galangal is another root sent to India; there are two sorts, the greater and the smaller, obtained from different plants, the best of which is the smaller, pro