Chap. I. ENGLISH TOWN AND SHIPPING. ~ 13 



with the shipping. I had heard that many English 

 and American houses had been built, indeed one or 

 two were being built before I left China ; but a new 

 town, of very considerable size, now occupied the 

 place of wretched Chinese hovels, cotton-fields, and 

 tombs. The Chinese were moving gradually back- 

 wards into the country, with their families, effects, 

 and all that appertained unto them, reminding one of 

 the aborigines of the West, with this important dif- 

 ference, that the Chinese generally left of their free 

 will and were liberally remunerated for their property 

 by the foreigners. Their chief care was to remove, 

 with their other effects, the bodies of their deceased 

 friends, which are commonly interred on private pro- 

 perty near their houses. Hence it was no uncommon 

 thing to meet several coffins being borne by coolies 

 or friends to the westward. In many instances when 

 the coffins were uncovered they were found totally 

 decayed, and it was impossible to remove them. 

 When this was the case, a Chinese might be seen 

 holding a book in his hand, which contained a list of 

 the bones, and directing others in their search after 

 these the last remnants of mortality. 



It is most amusing to see the groups of Chinese 

 merchants who come from some distance inland on a 

 visit to Shanghae. They wander about along the 

 river side with wonder depicted in their countenances. 

 The square-rigged vessels which crowd the river, the 

 houses of the foreigners, their horses and their dogs, 

 are all objects of wonder, even more so than the 

 foreigners themselves. Mr. Beale, who has one of 



