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DEPARTURE FROM TUNG-CHOW. 
CHAPTER V. 
On the morning of the 2d of September, the boats of the Embassy 
having quitted their anchorage before Tung- Chow, we commenced a 
four months’ journey through the Empire of China to Canton. On 
retracing our way to Tien-sing, we had few motives and little inclin- 
ation to keep within the bounds prescribed to our rambles by the 
Chinese, and soon found, in exceeding them, that they quietly ac- 
quiesced in what they could not, without some trouble, prevent. But 
we met with little novelty by extending the range of our investigation. 
The same description of inhabitants, dwellings, and produce that I had 
occasion to describe on our route to Tung-Chow, was found equally on 
the banks of the river and beyond them, when all was not marsh. 
I added but very few plants to my former meagre collection, and of 
these I am only able to mention the Ulmus purnila , growing in dry 
barren places ; a species of Orobanche* ; and the Viola tricolor. 
The apprehension of the junior part of the crowds, who as usual 
assembled about me from the huts or villages in the vicinity of my 
walks, was in a great degree worn off ; but their anxiety to assist me 
in my pursuits was undiminished. Their elders, especially when 
they were peasants, afforded a pleasing contrast in their simple man- 
ners and civil treatment of strangers, to the cunning designs of the 
salesmen of Tung-Chow, and the brutal importunity of the courtiers 
of Yuen-Ming-Yuen. When they have accompanied me along the 
banks of the river, far in advance of my boat, and have beheld me 
overcome by fatigue and heat, they have always appeared anxious to 
relieve my distress. One has hastened to the nearest house for a seat, 
* i had no doubt at the time of gathering this plant that it was the Orobanche ccerulea, 
but I have since had no opportunity of verifying the specific name. 
