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CHAPTER II.

My object in coming north Difficulty in procuring tea-plants- No dependence can be placed upon the Chinese

the country Start for the interior

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"ling

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Adopt the dress of Mode of getting my head

City of Kea-hing-foo and its old cemetery
Mode of gathering the "ling"

Increase in exports

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City of Seh-mun-yuen

Lakes and

Great silk country

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Hang-chow-foo-The " Garden of China" — Description of the city and its suburbs - Gaiety of the people Adventure in the city -Kan-du- A "chop" - A Chinese inn

and lose my dinner

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I get no breakfast Boat engaged for Hwuy-chow - Importance

of Hang-chow both for trading and “squeezing.”

My object in coming thus far north was to obtain seeds and plants of the tea shrub for the Hon. East India Company's plantations in the north-west provinces of India. It was a matter of great importance to procure them from those districts in China where the best teas were produced, and I now set about accomplishing this object. There were various tea districts near Ning-po where very fair green teas were prepared for Chinese use; but these teas were not very well suited to the foreign market. It might be that the plant was precisely the same variety from which the finer sorts were made, and that the difference consisted only in climate, in soil, or, more likely still, in a different mode of manipulation. This might or might not be the case; no one, so far as I knew, had ever visited the Hwuy-chow district and brought away plants from the tea hills there. In these circum

stances I considered that it would be a most unsatisfactory proceeding to procure plants and seeds from the Ning-po district only, or to take it for granted that they were the same as those in the great greentea country of Hwuy-chow.

It was a very easy matter to get plants and seeds from the tea countries near Ning-po. Foreigners are allowed to visit the islands in the Chusan archipelago, such as Chusan and Kin-tang, in both of which the tea shrub is most abundant. They can also go to the celebrated temple of Tein-tung, about twenty miles inland, in the neighbourhood of which tea is cultivated upon an extensive scale.

But the Hwuy-chow district is upwards of 200 miles inland from either of the northern ports of Shanghae or Ning-po. It is a sealed country to Europeans. If we except the Jesuit missionaries, no one has ever entered within the sacred precincts of Hwuy-chow.*

Having determined, if possible, to procure plants and seeds from this celebrated country, there were but two ways of proceeding in the business. Either Chinese agents must be employed to go into the country to procure them and bring them down, or I must go there myself. At first sight the former way seemed the only one possible-certainly it was the easiest. But there were some very formidable objections to this course. Suppose I had engaged Chinese agents for this purpose-and plenty would have

Since this was written I have been informed that the Rev. Mr. Medhurst passed through some part of this district.

undertaken the mission-how could I be at all certain that the plants or seeds which they would have brought me had been obtained in the districts in question? No dependence can be placed upon the veracity of the Chinese. I may seem uncharitable, but such is really the case; and if it suited the purpose of the agents employed in this matter they would have gone a few miles inland to the nearest tea district—one which I could have visited myself with ease and safety and have made up their collection there. After staying away for a month or two they would have returned to me with the collection, and, if requisite, have sworn that they had obtained it in the country to which I had desired them to proceed. It is just possible that they might have done otherwise; but even if they had I could not have been certain that such was the case, and I therefore abandoned all idea of managing the business in that way, and determined to make an effort to penetrate into the Hwuy-chow country myself, where I could not only procure the true plants which produce the finest green teas of commerce, but also gain some information with regard to the nature of the soil of the district and the best modes of cultivation.

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I had two Hwuy-chow men in my service at this time. I sent for them, and inquired whether it was possible to penetrate so far into the country. They replied that we could easily do so, and that they were quite willing to accompany me, only stipulating that I should discard my English costume and adopt the

dress of the country. I knew that this was indispensable if I wished to accomplish the object in view, and readily acceded to the terms.

My servants now procured me a Chinese dress, and had the tail which I had worn in former years nicely dressed by the barber. Everything was soon in readiness except the boat which had to be engaged for the first stage of our journey. This was, just then, a difficult matter, owing to some boatmen having been severely punished by the Chinese authorities for taking three or four foreigners some distance inland to see the silk districts. These gentlemen went in the English dress, and complaints were consequently made by the officers in the districts through which they passed to the mandarins in Shanghae. On this account it was impossible to engage a boat as a foreigner, and I desired my servant to hire it in his own name, and merely state that two other persons were to accompany him. He agreed to this plan, and soon returned with a "chop," or agreement, which he had entered into with a man who engaged to take us as far as the city of Hangchow-foo.

Thus far all was right; but now my two men began to be jealous of each other, each wanting to manage the concern, with the view, as it proved ultimately, of getting as many dollars out of me as possible. One of them had been engaged as a servant and linguist, and the other was little better than a common coolie. I therefore intrusted the management of our affairs to the former, much to

In

the disgust of the other, who was an older man. an ordinary case I would have sent one of them away, but, as I had but little confidence in either, I thought that in their present jealous state the one would prove a check upon the other. The projected journey was a long one, the way was unknown to me, and I should have been placed in an awkward position had they agreed to rob me, and then run off and leave me when far inland. The jealous feeling that existed between them was therefore, I considered, rather a safeguard than otherwise.

As I was anxious to keep the matter as secret as possible, I intended to have left the English part of the town at night in a chair, and gone on board the boat near to the east gate of the city, where she lay moored in the river. Greatly to my surprise, however, I observed a boat, such as I knew mine to be, alongside of one of the English jetties, and apparently ready for my reception. "Is that the boat that you have engaged?" said I to my servant Wang. "Yes," said he, "that coolie has gone and told the boatman all about the matter, and that an Englishman is going in his boat." "But will the boatman consent to go now?" "Oh! yes," he replied, "if you will only add a trifle more to the fare." To this I consented, and, after a great many delays, everything was at last pronounced to be ready for our starting. As the boatman knew who I was, I went on board in my English dress, and kept it on during the first day.

When I rose on the morning of the second day,

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