Chap. I. 
SHANGHAE. 
3 
spectable Chinese who were anxious to see the inside of 
an English dwelling. These applications were always 
complied with in the kindest manner, and the visitors 
departed highly delighted with the view. It is to be 
hoped that these peeps at our comforts and refinements 
may have a tendency to raise the " barbarian race " a step 
or two higher in the eyes of the " enlightened " Chinese. 
A pretty English church formed one of the ornamen ts 
of the new town, and a small cemetery had been 
purchased from the Chinese ; it is walled round, and 
has a little chapel in the centre. In the course of time 
we may perhaps take a lesson from the Chinese, and 
render this place a more pleasing object than it is at 
present. Were it properly laid out with good walks, 
and planted with weeping willows, cypresses, pines, and 
other trees of an ornamental and appropriate kind, it 
would tend to raise us in the eyes of a people who of all 
nations are most particular in their attention to the 
graves of the dead. 
My object in coming thus far north was to obtain seeds 
and plants of the tea-shrub for the Hon. East India 
Company's plantations in the north-west provinces of 
India. It was a matter of great importance to procure 
them from those districts in China where the best teas 
were produced, and I now set about accomplishing this 
object. There were various tea districts near Ning-po 
where very fair green teas were prepared for Chinese 
use ; but these teas were not very well suited to the 
foreign market. It might be that the plant was pre- 
cisely the same variety from which the finer sorts were 
made, and that the difference consisted only in climate, 
B 2 
