CiiAF. VII. BLACK-TEA MANUFACTUREER. 



117 



moreover are men who have either been brought 

 up in seaport towns, or only a short distance 

 inland. Had such men suited my purpose, I could 

 easily have procured them in any number. But 

 unfortunately the best black-tea districts of China 

 are far inland ; the natives of such districts are 

 simple countrymen who have never seen the sea in 

 the course of their lives, and who have a very 

 indistinct idea of countries which lie beyond it. 

 And besides, such men as I wanted were able 

 to earn good wages at home, and consequently less 

 inclined to push their fortunes abroad. Although 

 it would, therefore, have been the simplest thing 

 possible to procure Chinamen^ it was a very different 

 matter to get hold of good tea-manufacturers. 



There were two ways of accomplishing the 

 object in view, either by going to the homes of 

 such men myself, or by getting them through 

 respectable Chinese at one of the northern ports. 

 The first of these methods was not very likely to 

 succeed ; it is not probable that a stranger and a 

 foreigner could induce such men to leave their 

 homes, however liberal the offers he miglit make 

 them might be. They could, or at least they 

 would, have had no confidence in the fulfilment of 

 such promises. I had, therefore, adopted the 

 second mode of gaining the desired end, and ]iow 

 determined to return to Shanghae for a few days 

 in order to see what progress had been made in 

 the matter by the Chinese wlio had promised me 

 their assistance, 



K 2 



