386 
VOYAGE 
OF THE POTOMAC. 
[May, 
our public vessels; and let them look to, and report on, the 
islands in the neighbourhood of Amoy, in 24° north. Is there not 
one near Wampoa, to which prohibited goods and other articles are 
now brought, and freely exchanged with foreigners, without the 
slightest impediments from the mandarins ? Let this matter be 
looked into , away, with all secrecy, all monopoly — give us open 
and fair competition, however the odds may be against us ! 
The teas consumed in Cochin China are brought from Tchot- 
chen and Fokien, and with equal facility might soon be transferred 
to a neighbouring island, and shipped from thence to any part of 
the world. To these free depositories of trade, the Chinese 
would flock and settle in great numbers, as they have done at 
Batavia, Sincapore, Penang, &c., and through them the trade would 
be carried on. No one well acquainted with the Chinese char- 
acter can doubt that such would be the case, particularly when 
informed that trading vessels have recently touched at many of 
the nominally sealed ports north of Canton, and disposed of large 
cargoes, for specie, to the Chinese merchants residing in Amoy, 
Tato, Namo, and at the port of the great city of Tyho ; while 
other articles, such as tea, cassia, tortoise-shell, nankeens, &c, 
were freely offered. 
They have abundant craft for this trade ; no less than eighty 
junks have been seen at a time at Siam ; some as large as eight 
hundred tons, and bearing large quantities of tea. Indeed, they 
carry on a coasting trade from Canton to Souchon, in the district 
of Kiannan, and as far as 37° north, within the Yellow Sea. 
Who then can doubt that they would come with these junks 
to a commercial station, bringing with them the products of their 
own labour and skill, to be exchanged for foreign merchandise? 
The emperor, his viceroy, and mandarins, have no power to pre- 
vent the people and outside merchants from carrying on contra- 
band trade in the river and very vicinity of Canton; much less, 
therefore, can they interfere with, or prevent a trade conducted 
at a short distance from the main. 
Sincapore, though twenty degrees too far south, must by a free 
trade become a place of increased importance. Its insular po- 
sition in the great thoroughfare of eastern traffic, in the midst of 
seas navigable at all seasons, and studded with islands presenting 
every variety of production ; the salubrity of its climate, and its 
