themselves from trading to their own ports^ J 

 where the duties are very high. There is come- ! 

 quently not a single porLion of the whole British 

 territory so thoroughly obnoxious to the Nether- j 

 lands government as this flourishing island. j 

 The same short-sighted policy, which induced ] 

 the Dutch to impose a tax% amounting to a virtu- 

 al prohibition, upon the principal produce of 

 Khio, led them to strangle their infant China ^ 

 trade by levying excessive duties on the Chinese ' 

 junks, on the 23d May, 1B26 ; a measure, which 

 had the natural and inevitable consequence of 

 throwing the cargoes of these vessels into the ri- 

 val settlement of Singapore. 



In order to place the decline of the trade of 

 Rhio in a striking light, I subjoin an account of 

 the exports and imports of that settlement for 

 the years 1825, and 1826, which will be found 

 in the following pages. 



