466 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, and as leading to our destination. The mirth of the crowd pretty well 
satisfied us there was no great danger in advancing, and we went on 
May, further than we should otherwise have done ; but in a little time they 
began to drop off, and we were at last left alone with the guide, who 
really became alarmed. We had reached the foot of the hill on which 
the capital is situated, and were ascending to have a near view of the 
houses, when he threw himself on his knees in evident alarm, bowed 
his head to the dust, and embracing our knees implored us to desist, 
assuring us that the mandarin would take his head off if we did not. 
Some of the officers who went in another direction were told by their 
guide that he would get bambooed if they did not turn back, which is 
more probable than that the heavy penalty apprehended by our com- 
panion should be attached to so light a crime. 
To quiet the irritation of the poor old man, who trembled violently, 
we ascended a hill some distance to the left, which commanded an ex- 
tensive view of the country, and from whence we could survey the 
capital with our telescopes. The country was highly cultivated, and 
the grounds irrigated with Chinese ingenuity and perseverance by 
small streams of w^ater passing through them, keeping such as were 
planted with rice thoroughly wet. We noticed in our walk sweet 
potatoes, millet, wheat, Indian corn, potatoes, cabbages, barley, sugar- 
cane, pease, tea shrubs, rice, taro, tobacco, capsicums, cucumbers, cocoa- 
nuts, carrots, lettuces, onions, plantains, pomegranates, and oranges ; 
but amidst this display of agricultural industry there were several 
eminences topped with fine trees on which the hand of the farmer 
might have been advantageously employed, but which were allowed 
to lie waste, and were covered with a rank grass. Such places, how- 
ever, being usually the repositories of the dead, it may have been 
thought indecorous by the considerate Loo Chooans to disturb the 
ground near it with a hoe. These eminences, like the basis of the 
island, being formed of a very porous calcareous rock, are peculiarly 
adapted to the excavation of tombs, and the natives have taken advan- 
tage of them to dispose of their dead in them. The accompanying 
view from Mr. Smyth’s sketch will convey the best idea of what they 
are like. 
