90 
CHINESE ENCAMPMENT. 
which, I was glad to find that no alarm had been excited, as we had 
been seen to enter the Chinese boat. 
On the following day, we arrived within fifteen miles of Tung- 
Chow. The face of the country varied much during the last few 
miles of our progress, the banks of the river becoming higher, more 
sandy, and less fertile. The millet disappeared, and no cultivation 
was to be seen but in the distance. In the back ground, on both sides, 
small houses, surrounded by trees, were frequently distinguished, 
and were more numerous in proportion to our advance. No village 
was near the place of anchorage for the night, but a great number 
of Chinese formed a kind of encampment about us, having a variety 
of provisions for sale. These consisted chiefly of small round flat 
cakes, hard-boiled eggs, walnuts, areca-nuts, and tobacco. The 
venders of these articles carried them about on small wooden stands, 
suspended from the ends of bamboo, which they bore across their 
shoulders. Our boatmen, who bought nothing that was not repeat- 
edly weighed, gave us no very high opinion of the honesty of their 
countrymen. Different kinds of refreshment were also to be obtained 
in a large booth erected within a few yards of our boats. This was 
formed of matting, and divided into two unequal partitions : the 
larger served as a room of general accommodation, and was fitted up 
with tables and benches ; the smaller was used as a kitchen. Our 
trackers occupied this building, partaking largely of their favourite 
Sam-tchoo and hot millet cakes. The tout ensemble had so much the 
appearance of a resort of gypsies, that I did not look for much clean- 
liness in its culinary arrangements ; but on visiting the interior of 
the kitchen, found the different utensils for cooking arranged with 
great neatness and order. The cook, a plump and sleek old man, 
naked to the waist, seemed from his complexion to have passed all his 
life within the influence of a furnace. He had supplied himself with 
an ample store of charcoal, with which he kept up fires in small stoves 
of baked brick placed on a table before him. Over these were set 
large iron bowls, in which he baked, and preserved hot, cakes formed 
of flour, sugar, and the oil of Sesamum : these materials were kept 
