1807 Journal oh Voyag 
ders their representatives despicable in 
the eyes of the C hinese, who look upon 
the English as the most respectable and 
responsible nation with which they have 
any communication, As a proof of this, 
it is a well-known fact, that the Baglish 
boxes of dollars, having the company’s 
stainp on them, will pass through China, 
as a bauk=note does through ingland; 
the Chinese never attempting to count 
them, but trusting implicity to the oum- 
ber marked thereon: whereas in their 
dealings with other nations, theytake € spe- 
ae care to count over every dollar they 
eceive from them. 
Before the British factory, and extend- 
ing nearly down to the water’s edge, there 
is a very elegant verend@ah, raised on 
handsome pillars, flagged with square 
marble slabs, and cominanding an exten- 
sive view of the river, east and west, the 
Dutch and French Boles: the suburbs, 
the southern bank of the Tigris, and a 
considerable scope of the country in that 
direction. 
Adjoining this verendah, is the long 
room, where the company’s ue 18 
kept for the super-cargoes; and a very 
princely one itis: a dinner being every 
day spread here, at which kings might sit 
down, and consider themselves as “ faring 
sumptuously !” 
Indeed it must be allowed, that the East 
India directors are extremely liberal im 
the establishments of their servants; and 
even this circumstance procures them a 
degree of respect in the eyes of the Chi- 
nese, which the agents of other nations 
may long look for invain. The captains 
of the company’s sips have always free 
access to this table I believe, but no 
others unless by invitation: the oflicers 
of men-of-war are always invited here, 
and treated in the most handsome man- 
ner by the super-cargoes. 
The weather was now so cold that we 
were obliged to have fires in our rooms; 
for though Canton lies nearly ia the gone 
parallel ‘of latitude as Calc: atta, yet there 
is a difference of perhaps fifteen or tw enty 
degrees of the thermometer between the 
two rlaces ; caused by the mountains of 
China and Tartary, from which the 
north-east monsoon blows extremely cool. 
A stranger arriving in any foreign coun- 
try, must of course be very much amused 
with the novel scenes that surround him ; 
though many of them may not, per haps, 
be essentially different from those 3 in his 
Own country; but here he cannot fail to 
have ample scope for his curiosity, where 
the inhabitants, language, manners, cus- 
Montuty Mac., No. 158, 
ein the Indian Seas. 529 
toms, even the houses, manufactures, 
. where e, in short, the tout-en-semble isso spe~ 
cificall ly differeht froran what he had been 
accustomed to see, that he could almost 
ae himself transported into anew worlds, 
Canton, if we may judge by the Chi- 
nese maps, or by the suburbs, must be a 
city of great extent. A person may ram- 
ble for miles through the suburbs, with- 
out meeting with any thing like a termina- 
tion: he frequently indeed comes to gates 
leading into the Tartarian, city, when 
he is “obliged to alter his course, as 
no Europeans are permitted to enter that 
part of the town. There seems to be 
ttle difference, however, ‘between this 
and the suburbs, in respect to the build- 
ings, as we often had long perspective 
views through these gates, mto the streets 
of the Tartarian city, and observed the 
sante bustle, the same kind of shops, and 
the same general appearance indeed as 
outside of the gates, The streets in Can- 
ton are very narrow, paved with httle 
round stones, ike those of North Yar- 
mouth, and flagged close to the sides 
of the houses. They are about the 
width of the rows and lanes of English 
towns; Market row in North-Yarmouth, 
earing a striking similitude to the gene= 
ce of the streets in this city, with re- 
spect to dimensions, the height of the 
houses excepted. 
bere is no dwelling-house to be seen 
‘mm the streets here; all are shops: they 
are seldorn more than two stories high, 
the lower or ground floor is more properly 
the shop, the rest of the house ser ving as 
a store: the door is generally in the mid= 
dle of the shop, with a window on each 
side, near one of which there is a counter 
and writing materials, as books, paper, &c. 
Lhe rest is crammed on every side with 
mustas, or specimens of whatever they 
have got to sell, 
There is almost always one of the party 
sitting at the counter writing, or-calculat- 
ing with his abacus, on which instrument 
a Chinese will perform any operation in 
numbers with as much, or more celerity, 
than the most expert European arithuie- 
tician. 
It is amusing enough, to see a Chinese 
chucking about the little balls on the aba- 
eus with one hand, humming the calcula- 
tions in his discordant jargon, and noting 
down the result with the other hand, 
They are not very neat in their writing 
materials, being obliged ta, keep cone 
stantly rabbing down ‘the Indian ink on 
a slab with some water, which they keep 
by them in a cup; they hevey make use 
3X of 
