ClIAP. II. 
TRADE OF AMOY. 
21 
of import, if we except the straits produce, which is 
chiefly brought in their own junks. Since the arrival of 
the British Consul the opium-ships have been removed 
from the harbour, and now lie just outside its limits, 
where the Chinese smugglers are allowed to visit them 
with impunity. 
Unfortunately for the trade at Amoy, the exports of 
which we are most in need — I mean teas and silk — are 
not so easily brought to it as to the northern port of 
Shanghae. This, of course, will be much against Amoy ; 
but nevertheless it may do a considerable portion of 
business in other ways. All sorts of coins are current 
here : dollars, rupees, English shillings and sixpences, 
Dutch coins, &c. &c., are all met with, and pass current 
by weight. Native gold, in bars, is sometimes brought in 
considerable quantities, to pay for the cotton and opium, 
and is, I believe, considered of a very pure quality. 
During my stay here I was continually travelling in 
the interior, going sometimes a considerable distance 
up the rivers, and then landing, and prosecuting my 
botanical researches in the adjacent country. Frequently 
in these excursions I came unexpectedly upon small 
towns and villages, and generally walked into them 
without the least obstruction on the part of the natives ; 
indeed, they seemed in most cases highly delighted 
to see me. When the day was hot, I would sit down 
under the shade of a large banyan-tree, generally found 
growing near the houses, and then the whole village — 
men, women, and children — would gather around, gazing 
at me with curiosity not unmixed with fear, as if I were 
a being from another world. Then one would begin 
