PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
475 
acquaintance in disguise, is not very clear ; but as they both possessed a CHAP, 
great deal of influence, and were much respected by the lower orders of 
the inhabitants, it was probably their proper dress. May, 
As soon as Ching'oong-choo permitted us, we took our leave, and 
w^ere accompanied to the boat by a great crowd of persons, who opened 
a passage as we proceeded, and were officiously anxious to be useful 
in some way or other ; and we then parted with Jeema and the rest 
amidst the greetings and salutations of hundreds of voices. 
On the 21st, one of the officers made an excursion to the south- 
ward of Abbey Point, and was attended as usual by a concourse of boys 
and young men, who were extremely polite and respectful. They used 
every artifice and persuasion to deter him from proceeding, said they were 
tired, tempted him with tsha, and declared that they were hungry, but 
he ingeniously silenced the latter complaint by offering his guide a piece 
of bread wdiich he had in his basket. It was thankfully accepted, but 
with a smile at the artifice having failed. At a village called Aseemee 
he surprised two females standing at a well filling their pitchers ; they 
scrutinized him for some time, and then ran off to their homes. • 
The village contained about fifty houses ; and was almost hid 
from view by a screen of trees, among which were recognised the acacia, 
the porou of the South Seas, and the hibiscus rosa sinensis, but the 
greater part of the others appeared to be new ; they formed a lively 
green wood, and gave the village an agreeable aspect. In one of the 
cottages a boy of about six years of age was seated at a machine 
made of bamboo resembling a small Scotch muckle wheel, spinning some 
very fine cotton into a small thread. Though so young, he appeared 
to be quite an adept at his business, and was not the least embarrassed 
at the approach of the strangers. A quantity of thread ready spun 
lay in the house ; there was a loom close by, and some newly manu- 
factured cloth, which appeared to have been recently dyed, was ex- 
tended to dry outside the house. N ear this cottage there were broken 
parts of a mill, which indicated the use of those machines, and circular 
marks on the earth, showing that this one had been worked by cattle. 
About a mile and a half to the southward of Abbey Point, near a steep 
wooded eminence, which we christened Wood Point, there was another 
3p2 
