Chap. VIII. MISSION FOR TEA-PLANTS. 



149 



usual way for travellers. As the journey was a long 

 one, I was afraid I had not brought money enough 

 to defray the expenses of travelling in that way, and 

 was obliged, from prudential motives, to defer this 

 interesting journey for a time. 



I now considered that the best plan I could adopt, 

 under the circumstances, was to send my servants 

 onwards by themselves to the fine black-tea country 

 of Woo-e-shan. Were I to take them with me by 

 sea to Ning-po, and then send them back across the 

 Bohea mountains, what guarantee had I that they 

 would go there at all ? They would be much more 

 likely to provide themselves with plants in a country 

 nearer home, and return, pretending they had been 

 in Woo-e. But by sending them up the Min they 

 were necessarily obliged to pass through the black-tea 

 country in question on their route, and could have 

 no inducement to deceive me. If they brought me 

 any tea-plants at all I should be able to judge, from 

 various circumstances, whether they were from the 

 black-tea country. 



Having arranged this matter in my own mind, I 

 gave them a sufficient number of dollars to pay the 

 expenses of their journey, and to make the purchases 

 I had directed, besides which I promised them a 

 liberal reward if they performed their mission to my 

 satisfaction. I then left them to prosecute their jour- 

 ney, and returned alone to the mouth of the Min. 

 Here I found a Portuguese lorcha ready to sail for 

 Ning-po, in which I took a passage, and reached that 

 city in twelve days. 



