WHAMPOA. 83 



part, under rice cultivation, which, still retaining 

 its green tinge, imparted a luxuriant and ani- 

 mating beauty to the view. Small huts were 

 scattered about, over which the graceful bamboo 

 waved its towering stem ; the high and wooded 

 hills arose in the distance of the back ground of 

 the landscape ; and this, with boats passing about 

 the intersecting canals of the paddy-fields, formed 

 the principal feature of the country about the 

 Canton river to Whampoa, where we arrived in 

 the evening,* and left in a boat for Canton 

 (a distance of twelve miles) on the following 

 day. 



The scene at Whampoa, with so large a num- 

 ber of shipping collected together, was remark- 

 ably animating ; and at this season, there was a 

 noble addition of most of the ships of the Honour- 

 able East India Company, the finest class of mer- 

 chant-ships in the world. On proceeding from 

 Whampoa to Canton, the banks of the river were 

 flat, and cultivated with wooded hills in the dis- 



* We passed close to Tiger Island, with its lofty and 

 rounded summits of hills. There is a heavily -mounted stone 

 fort upon this island, but not in a commanding situation. 

 There is no appearance of cultivation upon the island ; but it 

 is verdant from a quantity of fern-brake and numerous 

 stunted shrubs, &c. scatered about, which serve to give some 

 animation to it. 



G 2 



