THE CANADIAN JOURNAL. 



NEW SERIES. 



No. IX. -MAY, 185 7 



NOTES OF TRAVEL IN CHINA. 



BY JAMES H. MORRIS, M.A. 



Read before the Canadian Institute, March \&th, 1857. 



A residence of little more than three months in China would not 

 justify me in giving expression to opinions on the polity, govern- 

 ment, resources, or commercial interests of a country, whose limits 

 extend over an area of 5,300,000 square mile3, and whose popula- 

 tion is^ equal to one-third of the human family. Nevertheless the 

 observations of a recent visitor may not be devoid of interest, now 

 when the peculiar circumstances of our relations with China, 

 naturally direct an unusual amount of attention to that country. 

 I shall accordingly confine my paper to that part of the country 

 which has recently been the scene of the warlike operations of the 

 British fleet, and will endeavour to give some idea of the singular 

 people with whom it has had to contend. 



During the existence of the south west monsoon, vessels bound to 

 China by way of the " Cape of Good Hope," generally shape their 

 course for the China Sea through the straits of Sunda ; and after one 

 has for many weeks felt the ennui consequent on a long sea voyage, 

 the imagination is apt to paint in supernatural beauty the long 

 anticipated scene. But there are favorite spots where nature ex- 

 hibits herself decked in such charms as to defy the overcolouring of 

 fancy, and among such are the straits of Sunda. 



At the entrance to the straits between the Islands of Java and Suma- 



VOL. II. — L 



