Jan.] 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PLACE. 



471 



island is of an elliptical form, much indented by bays and harbours, and 

 presenting many projecting powts, promontories, capes, &c. Its great- 

 est length is about twenty-seven miles, and its greatest breadth about 

 fifteen, the whole comprising an area of about two hundred-and seventy 

 square miles. The town is built on a river, at the south side of the 

 island. 



This town was first founded in the year 1818; and seven years 



cabin accommodation for passengers, reckoned on the voyage between Canton and Singapore worth 

 150 Spanish dollars. He is also the agent of the owners, and receives a commission, commonly 

 of 10 per cent, on the profits of such share of the adventure, generally a considerable one, in which 

 they are concerned. The pilot receives for the voyage 200 dollars of wages, and 50 piculs of freight 

 out and home. The helmsman has 15 piculs of freight, and no wages. The captains of the anchor 

 and the hold have 9 piculs of freight each ; and the seamen 7 piculs each. None of i hese have any 

 wages. The officers and seamen of the colonial junks are differently rewarded. In a Siamese junk, 

 for example, trading between the Siamese capital and Singapore, of 6,000 piculs burden, the com- 

 mander and pilot had each 100 dollars for the voyage, with 12 piculs of freight, apiece. The ac- 

 countant and helmsman had half of this allowance, and each seaman had 13 dollars, with 5 piculs 

 of freight. 



"In construction and outfit, Chinese juntos are clumsy and awkward in the extreme. The 

 Chinese are quite unacquainted with navigation, saving the knowledge of the compass: notwith- 

 Btanding this, as their pilots are expert, their voyages short, and as they hardly ever sail except at 

 the height of the monsoons, when a fair and steady seven or eight knots' breeze carries them 

 directly from port to port, the sea risk is very small. During thirteen years' acquaintance with this 

 branch of trade, I can recollect hearing of but four shipwrecks; and in all these instances the crews 

 were saved. 



"The construction and rigging of a Chinese junk may be looked upon as her proper registry, and 

 they are a very effectual one; for the least deviation from them would subject her at once to foreign 

 charges and foreign duties, and to all kinds of suspicion. The colonial junks, which are of a more 

 commodious form and outfit, if visiting China, are subjected to the same duties as foreign vessels. 

 Junks built in Siam, or any other adjacent country, if constructed and fitted out after the customary 

 model, are admitted to trade to China upon the same terms as those built and owned in the country. 

 If any part of the crew consist of Siamese, Cochin Chinese, or other foreigners, the latter are ad- 

 mitted only at the port of Canton ; and if found in any other part of China, would be seized and taken 

 up by the police exactly in the same manner as if they were Europeans. The native trade of China 

 conducted with foreign countries is not a clandestine commerce, unacknowledged by the Chinese 

 laws, but has in every case at least the express sanction of the viceroy or governor of the province, 

 who, on petition, decides the number of junks that shall be allowed to engage in it ; and even enu- 

 merates the articles which it shall be legal to export and import. At every port, also, where such a 

 foreign trade is sanctioned, there is a hong or body of security merchants as at Canton ; a fact which 

 shows clearly enough that this institution is parcel of the laws or customs of China, and not a peculiar 

 restraint imposed upon the intercourse with Europeans. 



" The Chinese junks, properly constructed, pay no measurement duty, and no kumsha or present ; 

 duties, however, are paid upon goods exported and imported, which seem to differ at the different 

 provinces. They are highest at Amoy, and lowest in the island of Hainan. The Chinese traders 

 of Siam informed me that they carried on the fairest and easiest trade, subject to the fewest restric- 

 tions, in the ports of Ningpo and Siang-hai, in Chekiang, and Soutcheon in Kiannan. Great dex- 

 terity seems everywhere to be exercised by the Chinese in evading the duties. One practice which 

 is very often followed will afford a good example of this. The coasting trade of China is nearly free 

 from all duties and other imposts. The merchant takes advantage of this ; and intending in reality 

 to proceed to Siam or Cochin China, for example, clears a junk out for the island of Hainan, and thus 

 avoids the payment of duties. When she returns she will lie four or five days off and on at the 

 mouth of the port, until a regular bargain be made with the custom-house officers for the reduction 

 of duties. The threat held out in such cases is to proceed to another port, and thus deprive the 

 public officers of their customary perquisites. I was assured of the frequency of this practice by 

 Chinese merchants of Cochin China, as well as by several commanders of junks at Singapore. From 

 the last-named persons I had another fact of some consequence, as connected with the Chinese trade-, 

 viz. that a good many of the junks, carrying on trade with foreign ports to the westward of China, 

 often proceeded on voyages to the northward in the same season. In this manner they stated that 

 about 20 considerable junks, besides a great many small ones, proceeded annually from Canton to 

 Souchong, one of the capitals of Kiannan, and in wealth and commerce the rival of Canton, where 

 they sold about 200 chests of opium at an advance of 50 percent, beyond the Canton prices. Another 

 plaoe where the Canton junks, to the number of five or six, repair annually, is Chinchew, in the 

 province of Shanton, within the Gulf of Pechely, or Yellow Sea, and as far north as the 37th degree 

 of latitude." 



A Chinese ship or junk is seldom the property of one individual. Sometimes 40. 50, or even 100 

 different merchants purchase a vessel, and divide her into as many different compartments as there 

 are partners ; so that each knows his own particular part in the ship, which he is at liberty to fit up 

 and secure as he pleases. The bulkheads by which these divisions are formed consist of stout 

 planks, so well calked as to be oompletely water-tight. A ship thus formed may strike on a rock, 

 and yet sustain no serious in.jury : a leak springing in one division of the hold will not be attended 

 with any damage to articles placed in another; and from her firmness, she is qualified to resist a 

 more than ordinary shock. A considerable loss of stowage is, of course, sustained ; but the Chinese 

 exports generally contain a considerable value in small bulk. It is only the very largest class of 

 junks that have so many owners ; but even in the smallest class the number is very considerable. 



