294 COFFEE. 



" Soy " has always been a mystery to me, as I fancy it has been 

 to most other people who have dealt in or used it. I was there- 

 fore anxious to see a soy factory, and, taking a boat one day, we 

 proceeded two or three miles up the river to where one was in 

 operation. I found that the principal ingredient, or base, is a 

 white bean known as " pak-toh," which, so far as I could judge, 

 is very like any other small white bean. These are boiled, heavily 

 salted, and put into big earthen jars, holding, perhaps, half a bar- 

 rel each, where they are allowed to remain for about ten days, dur- 

 ing which period fermentation takes place. They are then mashed 

 up with a species of olive, which is picked and boiled, and this 

 mixture is placed in neat cloth bags, into which water is poured 

 and allowed to filter through. The liquid is then taken out, and 

 placed in clean jars, and thickened with a heavy -bodied Chinese 

 molasses ; and this is soy. Thinned down with water, the Chinese 

 use it as a sauce, and although when thick it is rather disagreeable 

 than otherwise, when thin it has certainly a toothsome flavor and 

 gives a zest and relish to meats, fish, etc. Most of the soy manu- 

 factured here is shipped to England, where it is used in large 

 quantities as a base for the manufacture of sauces. 



Tea, silk, and matting are the largest items of manufacture in 

 Canton, and of these by far the largest proportion goes to Eng- 

 land and the Continent. America, however, takes large quan- 

 tities of matting and considerable silk, but the teas which we im- 

 port from China are principally from Shanghai, Foochow, and 

 Amoy. Canton is also celebrated for her silk embroideries and 

 ivory carvings, and in both of these her workmen are particularly 

 skilful. Embroidered crape and silk shawls, which the ladies 

 would pronounce "just lovely," and which even the unappreciative 

 men admit to be handsome, can be had here at prices which cer- 

 tainly show that there is a large profit absorbed somewhere be- 

 tween the purchaser in Canton and the fashionable shops on 

 Broadway. Ask an American shopkeeper how it is, and he will 

 tell you that it is owing to " high duties and the freight, insur- 

 ance, and other charges " to which they are subject ; but the duty 

 is only sixty per cent., and freight, insurance, and other charges 

 will all be. covered by ten per cent, more, and there is still a very 

 large margin to be accounted for, which can only be done upon 



