IMrORTATION IN CHINA. 427 



produce of the first month, or month-and-a-half, 

 amounting usually to forty thousand peculs, the 

 natives informed us is exported ; and the second 

 gathering, amounting to about the same quan 

 tity, is consumed in the country. The nuts 

 were brought on board the ship in large boats, 

 (originally built and employed as fishing vessels, 

 except when required for this employment, they 

 are from three to four tons burthen each, and 

 are to be purchased for twenty or twenty-five 

 dollars,) in bulk, and Manilla mat-bags, and are 

 taken on board the ships in bulk. The quan- 

 tity of Areka-nut imported by the Chinese, 

 amounts to forty-five or forty-eight thousand 

 peculs annually, exclusive of that brought from 

 Cochin China, the amount of which is not 

 known ; in 1832, from a failure of the usual 

 supply of nuts from Cochin China, forty-eight 

 thousand peculs, imported from other places, 

 sold so high as four dollars and three-quarters 

 the pecul ; the price it usually fetches in the China 

 market is from two to three and three-quarter 

 dollars the pecul. The principal consumption 

 of the nut as a masticatory (in conjunction 

 with the leaf called betel, produced from a vine, 

 the Piper betel) is in the provinces of Quang, ton, 

 (Canton, of Europeans,) Quang, si, and Che, 

 keang, and may be seen, exposed for sale, on 



