Cuar. VITI.J A PERSONAL’ ADVENTURE. 125 
pull the boat towards us, and allow us to get across 
to the other side. They seemed much frightened, 
and after making the man who was tracking the 
boat come on board, they pulled her into the 
middle of the canal, and then sculled away with all 
their might. They would soon have passed far 
beyond our reach, and left us to feel our way in 
the dark, or plunge through the deep muddy canal. 
Necessity, they say, has no law. “Call out to 
them,” said I to my servant, “that if they do not 
immediately stop I will fire into the boat and kill 
the whole of them,” and at the same moment I 
fired one of my barrels a little way ahead. This was 
quite sufficient. They immediately came towards 
us, and put us quickly over to the other side. I 
paid them for their trouble, and desired them to be 
more civil to the next traveller they might meet in 
the same circumstances. They went off in high 
spirits, and we heard them laughing and joking 
about the adventure long after they had passed out 
of our sight. 
As an agricultural country, the plain of Shanghae 
is by far the richest which I have seen in China, and 
is perhaps unequalled by any district of like extent 
in the world. It is one vast beautiful garden. The 
hills nearest to Shanghae are distant about thirty 
miles. These have an isolated appearance in the 
extensive plain, and are not more than two or three 
hundred feet high. From their summit, on a clear 
day, I looked round in all directions, and was only 
able to see some few hills, apparently having the 
