12 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. I. 



of inland transit by means of rivers and canals ; the 

 fact that teas can be brought here more readily than 

 to Canton ; and, lastly, viewing this place as an im- 

 mense mart for our cotton manufactures, — there can be 

 no doubt that in a few years it will not only rival Can- 

 ton, but become a place of far greater importance."* 



When these remarks were written the war had just 

 been brought to a satisfactory termination, and the 

 treaty of Nanking had been wrung from the Chi- 

 nese. The first merchant-ship had entered the river, 

 one or two English merchants had arrived, and we 

 were living in wretched Chinese houses, eating with 

 chop-sticks, half starved with cold, and sometimes 

 drenched in bed with rain. When the weather hap- 

 pened to be frosty we not unfrequently found the 

 floors of our rooms in the morning covered with snow. 

 A great change has taken place since those days. I 

 now found myself (September, 1848), after having 

 been in England for nearly three years, once more in 

 a China boat sailing up the Shanghae river towards 

 the city. The first object which met my view as I 

 approached the town was a forest of masts, not of 

 junks only, which had been so striking on former 

 occasions, but of goodly foreign ships, chiefly from 

 England and the United States of America. There 

 were now twenty-six large vessels at anchor here, 

 many of which had come loaded with the produce of 

 our manufacturing districts, and were returning filled 

 with silks and teas. But I was much more surprised 

 with the appearance which the shore presented than 



* Three Years' Wanderings in China. 



