24 OPIUM TRADE. 



done by bribery in this country, and these boats 

 are often employed for smuggling cassia, trea- 

 sure, &c. on board European ships at Lintin, &c. ; 

 indeed every smuggling boat that takes opium 

 from an opium ship, leaves a payment of one dol- 

 lar on each chest for the mandarins, and on the 

 opium returns being made up, the sum is regu- 

 larly paid to them ; each boat leaves also akum, 

 shaw, or present for the ship, of five dollars. 



The chests of the drug are opened on board ; 

 the balls or cakes are taken out, and immediately 

 deposited in small mat bags, brought by them 

 for the purpose, and sown up; being in that way 

 more convenient to smuggle than in large heavy 

 chests. There are three kinds of opium usually 

 sold in the English ships — the Malwa, Benares, 

 and Patna ; a fourth, the Turkey opium, is con- 

 fined to American and other foreign vessels. The 

 Patna opium is in balls, packed in partitioned 

 cases, each chest containing forty balls. Old 

 opium fetches a higher price than new ; the 

 former being solid, the latter soft and more 

 liable to run. The old chests, so termed, are 

 usually two years old when they come under 

 that denomination. The Malwa opium is in 

 rather flattened cakes. The prices of this drug 

 of course fluctuate very much : the consumption 

 in the Chinese Empire must lie enormous, and 



