Chap. VIII. 
MOSCHETOES. 
143 
heavy rains. Although this city ranks in the second 
class, it is not a very important one, at least in a mer- 
cantile point of view. It is not large, its walls are 
scarcely more than two miles in circumference, and 
there are many large spaces inside on which there are 
no buildings. Politically it ranks higher than Nan-che, 
but it is far from being such an important place. We 
remained here for a few hours to procure some neces- 
saries, and then proceeded onwards. 
About a mile above the city two rivers unite their 
waters : one comes from the south-west, and has its 
source on the northern side of the Fokien mountains ; 
the other flows from the west, and rises a few miles 
above Chang-shan, the town to which I was now bound. 
We went up the left branch, which was very narrow, 
shallow, and oftentimes rapid. 
In the evening we stopped with some other boats like 
our own near a small village, where we proposed to pass 
the night. The day had been very warm, and the 
moschetoes were now becoming very troublesome. The 
night before this neither my servant nor myself had 
been able to close our eyes, and I now saw with dread 
these pests actually swarming around us, and anticipated 
another sleepless night. Our boatmen, who heard us 
talking about them, asked Sing-Hoo why he did not go 
and buy some moscheto tobacco, which they said might 
be had in the village, and which would drive all the 
moschetoes out of the boat. I immediately despatched 
him to procure some of this invaluable substance. In a 
few minutes he returned with four long sticks in his 
hand, not unlike those commonly used for burning 
