1835.] Memorandum of an Excursion to the Tea Hills. 101 



yesterday and to-day looking out for a glimpse of tea plantations on 

 some of the rugged and black looking hills close in view, though at 

 almost every place where we halted we were assured that such were to 

 he found hard by. At three p. m. we reached a town near the foot of 

 the pass bv which we were to reach Taou-ee, the place of our destina- 

 tion. There we proposed selling our gold, which for the sake of light 

 ness I had brought with me in preference to silver, not doubting that I 

 should find little difficulty in exchanging it at its proper relative value 

 whenever required. In this, however, we had been disappointed at our 

 last ahode, and we were therefore much vexed at learning from our 

 conductors that the inhabitants of Aou-ee w r ere of such a character 

 that the less we had to do with them and the shorter our stay amongst 

 them the better. Some proof of this we had as we were stepping on 

 shore, being for the first time rudely questioned as to our destination 

 and object, and why we had come armed; our reply to the latter query 

 being, that we had armed ourselves with the resolution of resisting vio- 

 lence should it be offered by robbers or others, we were allowed to pass 

 quietly on. The hill we had now to ascend was more rugged, and in 

 some places more abrupt, than that over which we were first carried ; 

 and though we hadsetoutat three o'clock, thesunhad set long before we 

 came to the end of our journey. The moon was unfortunately obscur- 

 ed by clouds, so that nothing could be more unpleasant than the un- 

 fortunate hits our toes were constantly making against stones, and the 

 equally unfortunate misses where an unexpected step downwards made 

 us with a sudden jerk throw our weight on one leg. At length we 

 reached a village at the further end of the pass, the inhabitants 

 of which were so kind as to light us on the remainder of our way, by 

 burning bundles of grass, to the eminent danger of setting fire to their 

 lice fields now ripe for the sickle. Arrived as Taou-ee we were hos- 

 pitably received by the family of our guide, and soon surrounded by 

 wondering visitors. 



Mr. Gutzlafp speedily selected one or two of the most intel- 

 ligent of them, and obtained from them ready answers to a variety of 

 questions regarding the cultivation of the plant. They informed him 

 that the seed now used for propagating the plant was all produced on 

 the spot, though the original stock of this part of the country was 

 brought from Wae-eshan, that itripenedin the 10th or 11th month, and 

 was immediately put into the ground where it was intended to grow, 

 several being put together into one hole, as the greater part was always 

 abortive. That the sprouts appeared in the 3rd month after the seeds 

 were put into the ground, that the hole into which the seeds were thrown 

 are from three to four inches deep, and that as the plants grow the earth 



