68 FRUIT. [1845- 



cakes in others, concluding with diminutive white-metal 

 pots, containing Sake. The tea equipage constituted a sepa- 

 rate canteen, and this preparation was of the lowest scale 

 of Chinese produce. It is true that they cultivate the 

 tea plant in Loo-Choo, but they explained with a contor- 

 tion of countenance, that it was unfit for the consumption 

 of the upper classes. 



The market, according to our French friend, affords 

 the customary vegetables to be met with at Macao, ex- 

 cepting those resulting from European seeds. Pumpkins, 

 Melons, Cucumbers, Peaches, Pears, Figs, Brinjoles, 

 Vegetable Marrow, Indian Corn, Beans, Sweet Potatoes, 

 Eggs, Fowls, Hogs and Bullocks, were amongst the sup- 

 plies sent off to the ship; and although they express 

 themselves as a very poor people, I saw enough of their 

 ground under cultivation, as well as of the quantity of 

 green looking substance in the evening market, to feel 

 that the poverty must depend on the circulating medium. 



Upon the eve of departure, the following document 

 was presented, but it was fully understood that it was a 

 formality that they were compelled to observe, and that 

 if we should return, that it had better be to Loo-Choo 

 than to the Meia-co-shimas, " as they had more Mandarins 

 to help us at Loo-Choo." 



OFFICIAL DOCUMENT. 



The duly prepared petition of Ching-yuen-kin, the acting local Officer 

 of the Napa Keang Territory, earnestly beseeching that a stop may be 

 put to Surveying, in order to set at rest the minds of the people. 



According to the reports from the local authorities at the two Islands 

 of Tai-ping and Pa-tchung, of the past year, Kwei-maou (1844) to the 

 eflfect that a vessel belonging to the Great English Nation had arrived, 

 from which many men had landed, and during several tens of davs 



