172 WANDERINGS IN CHINA. Chap. X. 
of the bays or harbours along the coast of China. 
These receiving ships are regularly supplied by the fast- 
sailing vessels which bring their cargoes from India or 
Hong-kong. The Chinese smugglers come out from the 
adjoining bays and towns, in small boats, well manned 
and armed, in order to protect their property, which 
is generally of great value. Silver, in the form of South 
American dollars or Sycee, is bartered for the opium 
at all those stations on the coast where no other trade is 
carried on ; at other places the foreign merchants often 
find it advantageous to barter the opium in exchange for 
raw silks and teas, which are the two chief exports of the 
country. 
The statements which have been frequently made in 
England, both as regards the smuggling and the 
smoking of opium, are very much exaggerated. When 
I first went to China I expected to find those merchants 
who were engaged in this trade little else than armed 
buccaneers ; indeed, if I do not mistake, they have been 
represented as characters of this kind on the English 
stage. Instead of this, the trade is conducted by men of 
the highest respectability, possessed of immense capital, 
and who are known and esteemed as merchants of the 
first class in every part of the civilised world. The 
trade in opium, although contraband, is so unlike what 
is generally called smuggling, that people at a distance 
are deceived by the term. It may be quite true that its 
introduction and use are prohibited by the Chinese 
government, but that prohibition is merely an empty 
sound, which, in fact, means nothing. The whole, or at 
least the greater part, of the mandarins use it, and it is 
