Cuar. V.] TOWN OF TINGHAE. 63 
the last war. It is but small, compared with any 
of the other five ports where foreigners are now - 
trading: the walls are not more than three miles 
in circumference, and the suburbs not very exten- 
sive. When I was there, the island was in the 
hands of the English, being retained by them until 
1846, under the treaty of Nanking, and Tinghae 
was of course the head quarters of the troops: we 
had also military stations at Sing-kong and Sing- 
kie-mun, the western and eastern parts of the 
island. Major-General Sir James Schoedde, the 
officer in command, to whom I had letters from 
Lord Stanley, very kindly procured me quarters 
in a house within the walls, and I immediately com- 
menced operations. I was fortunate in becoming 
acquainted with Dr. Maxwell,:of the 2d Madras 
native infantry, who was stationed there. This 
gentleman, an ardent lover of botanical pursuits, had 
been most indefatigable in his researches, and was 
consequently able. to give me much valuable infor- 
mation. He had also made drawings of all the 
more striking plants which he had met with on the 
island, and I was thus at once put in possession of 
information which it would have taken me some 
months to acquire in any other way. 
During two years from this date (Nov. 1843), 
I had frequent opportunities of visitng Chusan, at 
all seasons of the year, and was consequently enabled 
to gain a perfect knowledge of the soil, productions, 
and flora of the island. The soil of the hills is a 
rich gravelly loam; in the valleys it is more stiff, 
