478 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP. 
XVII. 
and when the day arrived they testified their regret in a warm but 
manly manner, shook us heartily by the hand, and each gave some little 
token of regard which they begged us to keep in remembrance of 
them. As we moved from the anchorage, the inhabitants assembled on 
the house-tops, as before, upon the tombs, in the forts, and on every 
place that would afibrd them a view of our operations, some waving 
umbrellas and others fans. 
Having brought to a conclusion the sketch of our visit to Loo 
Choo, I intend in the few pages that follow to imbody what other 
information was collected from time to time, and to offer a few remarks 
on the state of the country as we found it, as compared with that which 
has been given by Captain Hall and the late Mr. M'Cleod, surgeon 
of the Alceste. In the foregoing narrative I have avoided entering 
minutely into a description of the manners and persons of the in- 
habitants ; and I have omitted several incidents and anecdotes of the 
people, as being similar to those which have already been given in the 
delightful publications above mentioned. 
Loo Choo has always been said to be very populous, particularly 
the southern districts, and we saw nothing in that part of the island 
which could induce us to doubt the assertion. On the contrary, the 
number of villages scattered over the country, and the crowds of persons 
whom we met whenever we landed, amply testified the justness of the 
observation. We were, certainly, in the vicinity of the capital, and at 
the principal seaport town of the island ; but in forming our estimate of 
the population, it must be borne in mind that we were very likely to 
underrate its amount in consequence of the greater number of persons 
who crowd into Chinese towns than reside in villages of the same size 
in countries from which we have taken our standard. 
The people are of very diminutive stature, and according to our 
estimation their average height does not exceed five feet five inches. 
As might be expected, from the Loo Chooans being descendants of the 
Japanese, and numerous families from China having settled in the 
island, there is a union of the disposition and of the manners, as well as 
of the features, of both countries. The better classes seemed by their fea- 
tures to be alhed to the Chinese, and the lower orders to the Japanese > 
