102 



TEA DISTKICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. VI. 



chop over to me and explain it, more particularly 

 that part which specified the sum I was to pay. 

 The chop stated where we were to he taken to ; the 

 number of men we were to have in the boat ; the 

 charges for good rice, which they were to supply 

 three times a day, and the hire of the boat. With 

 regard to the last item, Wang informed me that it 

 stated I was to pay the surm of twenty-four dollars, 

 part before we started, and the remainder at the end 

 of the journey. 



The sum which I had 5 brought with me was 

 reduced to about thirty dollars. I had been obliged 

 to pay very high prices for everything during the 

 journey, and felt convinced* that the Chinese system 

 of squeezing had been in full operation. Up to the 

 present time I had submitted* to it with a good grace, 

 knowing that this was the only way by which I was 

 likely to attain the object I had in view. But now 

 it was absolutely necessary for me to rebel. The 

 place to which we were to be taken by this boat was 

 at least one hundred miles from any of the ports 

 where the English resided, and where money could 

 be procured, and I had every reason to expect that a 

 sum equal to this would be demanded for taking me 

 on from Nechow to Ning-po — and this latter demand 

 I should not have been able to pay. Besides, I knew 

 very well, or at least I had every reason to suspect, 

 that the sum stated to me by Wang was much more 

 than his father had agreed for with the boatmen. 

 I therefore said to him that I was quite sure the 

 chop was not correct, and that, whether it was or not, 



