340 TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. Chap. XX. 



CHAPTER XX. 



Safe arrival of tea-plants in India — Means taken in China to engage 

 tea manufacturers — I visit Chusan — My lodgings — A mandarin 

 who smoked opium — His appearance at daylight — A summer 

 morning in Chusan — An emperor's edict — The Yang-mae — 

 Beauty of its fruit — City of Ting-hae — Poo-too, or Worshipping 

 Island — Ancient inscriptions in an unknown language — A Chinese 

 caught fishing in the sacred lake — He is chased by the priests — 

 The bamboo again — The sacred Nelunibium — My holidays expire 



— Collections of tea-seeds and plants made — Return to Shanghae 



— Tea manufacturers engaged — We bid adieu to the north of 

 China. 



During the summer of 1850 I had the satisfaction 

 of hearing that my collections of tea-plants had ar- 

 rived safely at Calcutta. Owing to the excellent 

 arrangements made there by Dr. Falconer, and at 

 Allahabad by Dr. Jameson, they reached their 

 destination in the Himalayas in good order. One of 

 the objects of my mission to China had been, to a 

 certain extent, accomplished. The Himalayan tea 

 plantations could now boast of having a number of 

 plants from the best tea-districts of China, namely, 

 from the green-tea country of Hwuy-chow, and from 

 the black-tea country of the Woo-e hills. 



I had now, however, what I believed to be a much 

 more difficult and uncertain task before me. This 

 was to procure tea manufacturers from some of the 

 best districts. Had I wanted men from any of the 



