1832.] 
CHINESE MERCHANTS. 
353 
and summary punishment on their own people. The foreigners 
can generally, though it is attended with much trouble, gain redress 
for any injury; and petitions presented for the removal of any 
grievance, or asking for any privilege of trade, if customary, are 
granted. But their walks are limited to certain bounds ; nor are 
they allowed the privilege of riding at all on horseback, or of in- 
troducing their wives or ladies into the province. Those who 
have wives are obliged to keep them at Macao^ and visit them as 
their business will permit. The curiosity of one lady (or was it 
her attachment to her husband ?) some time since, tempted her, 
and her influence over her husband (or was it his amiable and 
submissive disposition?) induced him, in a moment of folly, to 
forget himself, and allow her to accompany him in the costume 
of an attendant, male, of course, to Canton. Before landing, her 
disguise was discovered, and she was obhged to fly to Macao in 
a boat. She was pursued, and barely escaped with her hfe, and 
her husband, foolish man, was mulcted in a heavy fine ! 
While our ofiicers were at dinner with Mr. Lattimer, Mr. L. 
left the table for a moment, and returned so soon that he was 
scarcely missed. He informed his guests that he had made a 
sale while absent, of opium, to the amount of two thousand 
dollars, and assured them that the Chinese are remarkably expert 
in business. Shopkeepers, from whom you may buy the most 
trifling article, supply ships with cargoes, worth two hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and will contract to do so with all the necessary 
security, in the length of time he had been absent from the table. 
They will manage all the smuggling, if any be necessary ; get 
all the chops for duties ; and deliver the articles on board the ship 
at Lintin, Whampoa, or Macao ! 
In buying any article, however small or trifling, at Canton, the 
seller will furnish you with a small paper containing some Chi- 
nese characters, and these are called chops. If called on by the 
custom-house officers, or mandarin, to pay duty on these articles, 
you simply present them with chops, and it is their business to 
find the merchant who sold the article, and collect the revenue 
from him. 
Their fancy articles, in imitation of Japan ware, carved boxes, 
and other articles of ivory, with a thousand fancy gewgaws, are 
sold here for a mere song. They are most faithful copyists of 
