THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 431 



them to recommend me to fome Chinefe merchant of credit _ 1 779- 



December. 



and reputation, who would at once offer me a fair and rea- 

 fonable price. I was accordingly directed to a member of 

 the Hong, a fociety of the principal merchants of the place, 

 who being fully informed of the nature of the bufinefs, ap- 

 peared fenfible of the delicacy of my fituation ; afTured me, 

 I might depend on his integrity ; and that, in a cafe of this 

 fort, he mould confider himfelf merely as an agent, without 

 looking for any profit to himfelf. Having laid my goods 

 before him, he examined them with great care, over and 

 over again, and at laft told me, that he could not venture to 

 offer more than three hundred dollars for them. As I knew 

 from the price our fkins had fold for in Kamtfchatka, that 

 he had not offered me one half their value, I found myfelf 

 under the neceffity of driving a bargain. In my turn, I 

 therefore demanded one thoufand ; my Chinefe then ad- 

 vanced to five hundred ; then offered me a private prcfent 

 of tea and porcelain, amounting to one hundred more ; 

 then the fame fum in money ; and, laftly, rofe to feven hun- 

 dred dollars, on which I fell to nine hundred. Here, each 

 fide declaring he would not recede, we parted ; but the Chi- 

 nefe foon returned with a lift of India goods, which he now 

 propofed I mould take in exchange, and which, I was after- 

 ward told, would have amounted in value, if honeflly de- 

 livered, to double the fum he had before offered. Finding I 

 did not choofe to deal in this mode, he propofed as his ultima- 

 tum, that we mould divide the difference, which, being tired 

 of the conteft, I confented to, and received che eight hundred 

 dollars. 



The ill health, which at this time I laboured under, left 

 me little reafon to lament the very narrow limits, within 

 which the policy of the Chinefe obliges every European at 



Canton, 



