164 VOYAGE TO THE 



capital with our telescopes. The country was highly 

 cultivated, and the grounds irrigated with Chinese in- 

 genuity and perseverance by small streams of water pass- 

 ing through them, keeping such as were planted with 

 rice thoroughly wet. We noticed in our walk sweet 

 potatoes, millet, wheat, Indian corn, potatoes, cabbages, 

 barley, sugar-cane, pease, tea shrubs, rice, taro, tobacco, 

 capsicums, cucumbers, cocoa nuts, carrots, lettuces, 

 onions, plantains, pomegranates, and oranges ; but 

 amidst this display of agricultural industry there were 

 several eminences topped with pine trees, on which the 

 hand of the farmer might have been advantageously 

 employed, but which were allowed to lie waste, and 

 to be overrun with a rank grass. Such places, how- 

 ever, being usually the repositories of the dead, it may 

 have been thought indecorous by the considerate Loo 

 Chooans to disturb the ground near it with a hoe. 

 These eminences, like the basis of the island, being 

 formed of a very porous calcareous rock, are peculiarly 

 adapted to the excavation of tombs, and the natives 

 have taken advantage of them to dispose of their dead 

 in them. The accompanying view from Mr. Smyth's 

 sketch will convey the best idea of what they are like. 

 The capital, for such I am disposed to call the 

 town on the hill, notwithstanding the denial of several 

 of the natives, was surrounded by a white wall, within 

 which there were a great many houses, and two strong 

 buildings like forts ; with, as already mentioned, seve- 

 ral small masts with gaffs, bearing flags of different 

 colours. This space was thickly interspersed with 

 trees, whence we conjectured the houses were fur- 

 nished with gardens. There seemed to be very few 

 people moving about the island, even between the 

 upper and lower towns, with which it would be sup- 



