VII. When ready to discharge cargo, the consignee must send to the Customs an application in Chinese (and English) giving full particulars of the goods to be discharged, on which he will be furnished with a permit to remove his consignment from the ship by which imported, and place the same on board a cargo-boat. The cargo-boat must then repair to the Customs' jetty in order that goods may be examined and assessed for duty; a Customs' memo. will thereupon be issued, which the consignee must take to the Bank, when on payment of the duty as noted in the Customs' memo. he will be supplied with a receipt, this receipt he must then take to the office of Customs, in return for which he will be handed a "duty paid order," upon which he may remove his consignment from the Customs' jetty and place it in his godown.

VIII. In the case of goods to be shipped, the shipper must send them to the Customs jetty for examination, with an application in Chinese (and English) for a permit to ship, containing all necessary particulars. The goods will then be examined, and a Customs' memo. issued, and on production at the office of the bank receipt, a “duty paid order" will be issued, upon which the shipment may take place.

All cargo boats proceeding to or from the ship at the Pagoda island, must call at the Pagoda station for examintion.

IX. Goods "shut out" must be taken to the Customs' jetty for examination before being re-landed.

X. All cargo-boats must be registered at the custom-house, and must have their respective numbers conspicuously painted on them in English and Chinese characters. Without special permission no cargo can be landed or shipped except in a cargo-boat duly registered and numbered.

XI. Before application being made for the Customs' clearance, the export manifest must be handed into the Customs.

XII. No transhipment can take place without special written permission.

XIII. Drawback and exemption certificates will be issued simultaneously with the permits for the shipment of the goods covered by them, and exemption certificates for goods, duty paid at other ports, must be presented simultaneously with the application for permit to land.

The officer nominally in charge of the customs is the Manchu commandant or tsiáng-kiun, often styled the Tartar general. He receives the revenue and transacts business through his deputy, usually known by his title of hái-kwán who has an office on Chun-chau. The foreign inspector's office is on the opposite shore.

Among the local weights at Fuhchau, it is well to know that the catty weighs the same as the English pound, and a picul is therefore only 100lbs. av. The custom-house standard is gradually coming into use among the people, but disputes may be avoided by inquiring what weights. are to be used before settling contracts. In the early days of the trade at Fuhchau, payments for small articles and incidental expenses were usually made in paper notes of 300, 400, 500, or 1000 cash or more, issued by the local city banks. The influx of silver has somewhat supplanted these notes, and the bad management of the establishments caused others to be worthless, so that they are not so current as ten years ago; the notes themselves are beautifully and elaborately engraved and stamped, and ornamented with Chinese mottoes and explanations in different styles of character, designed to prevent counterfeiting. The bills are all numbered, and stamped with the private seals of the bankers. in such a way that when they are cut out of the book to be issued, one half of the seal and number remains in the possession of the banker. The number of counterfeit notes is very small, partly in consequence of this mode of proving the genuine bills inducing holders to take them to the bank, and to the difficulty of imitating the dies.

At the anchorage near Pagoda island are two or three foreign shipchandlers; intercourse is kept up with the town in native boats. The

rates of pilotage from the White Dogs to Sharp Peak island is $3.00 per foot, and $1.50 per foot thence to Pagoda island. Tow boats are employed to assist ships in going up or down the river, each of which get fifty cents for the job; as many as sixty boats are often needed for a large loaded vessel. Schooners, lorchas, and other small craft easily ascend to the city.

The only important export from Fuhchau is black tea, and opium still continues to be the largest import. Native merchants send large amounts of dried and fresh fruit, paper of various qualities, coir ropes, trunks and mats, medicines, and poles for joists, piles, and ship-building, to the northern ports, and receive therefrom silk, fruit and medicines. A few foreign articles besides opium only reach the interior in exchange for tea, as lead, iron, longcloths, and watches, but their total value is not twenty per cent. of the export trade. The value of the imports in foreign vessels during the last half of 1861 was $4,719,358.42, of which 3,212 chests of opium constituted $2,309,740, or almost onehalf. The exports during the same period amounted to $5,195,898.87, of which only $405,143.87 were sundries; the remainder was tea, 24,459,205 lbs., worth $4,790,755. Of the smaller sum, the largest item was for 88,813 poles and spars, worth $261,998.35.

Duties are paid to the Customs in dollars at a discount of six per cent; sycee is procured in the market at a premium of 8 or 9 per cent. The iron cash which were forcibly put in circulation about 1854 by the authorities of Fulkien have mostly gone out of use, as must have sooner or later followed, even if the trade had not brought in specie. Treasure is sent into the interior for the purchase of tea, or orders are obtained from the native banks upon their correspondents in the tea districts.

Section 6.

PORTS OF TANSHUI AND TAIWAN IN FORMOSA.

THE island of Formosa, or Taiwan, has belonged to the Chinese empire only since the year 1683, previous to which it was under the sway of a Chinese chief named Koxinga, who drove out the Dutch garrison at Fort Zealandia in 1661. His son was conquered by the troops of Kanghi, whose successors have gradually extended their sway easterly over the country as far as the ridge of mountains. The length of the island is 245 miles, its widest part nearly 100, and the area is estimated at 14,000 square miles, of which about 10,000 are under Chinese jurisdiction. It is divided into four hien or districts :-Taiwan, comprising the

which includes the capital; Fungshan,

southern end of the island; Kái-í, lying north of the capital, and formerly called Chu-lo; and Chang-hwa, which is the largest and comprises the northern part. Each of these districts contains several towns, wherein the aborigines are more or less intermingled with Chinese.

Taiwan (i. e. Terrace Beach) is both the name of the prefecture and of the capital city, lying about two miles from the coast; it is estimated to contain about 100,000 inhabitants, and is comparatively a well built

city. Foreign vessels began to resort to Ta-kon or Ta-kiáng

at the mouth of the river leading to Taiwan city in 1854, and at Ta-kow or Ape's Hill about thirty miles south of it. Receiving ships laid at the anchorage, and the authorities permitted trade on payment of the customary duties, and a fee of $150 on each ship loading at the port. Rice, beans, sulphur, sugar, fruit, camphor oil, gum, and timber, hemp, and green tea are procurable. This is the most accessible point for ships, and will attract whatever trade is likely to be developed. A British consul was stationed at Taiwan for a while, but he has since removed to Tanshui.

Tanshui tingor Tamsui, (i. e. Fresh-water town) is a small district lying within the limits of Chang-hwa hien, whose magistrate holds his office independent of the other, and resides at the chief town near the seashore. Its trade is rather larger than any other port in the island in consequence of its secure harbor and easier access. The limits of the harbor are defined by the bar at the mouth of the river to seaward, and the gorge runs four miles up the river to landward. The British consulate is hitherto the only one opened; regulations have been issued for the guidance of British seamen resorting to Tanshui, one of which forbids mud or other ballast to be thrown overboard in the harbor. Native pilots are employed in bringing vessels into port.

The articles of trade are much the same as at Taiwan; and their total value far greater. The capitalists of Amoy and Changchau have been the principal supporters of the trade with Formosa, and its rice, sugar and fruit are chiefly sent to those cities. The resources of this fertile island have been inadequately developed since it came under Chinese control, in consequence of their harsh treatment of the aborigines, and much of it lies untilled and useless. Mangkiah is one of the largest interior towns in the north of the island. Ki-lung 雞龍 Killon, at the northern end, was a Spanish colony for many years, whose settlers were driven away by the Dutch in 1628. The coal to be obtained near Kilung attracts ships thither, and in the course of time its prepa ation may develop the native industry.

Section 7.

PORT OF NINGPO.

or

THE city of Ningpo, i. e. Peaceful Ripples, is the capital of the prefecture of the same name, a fertile plain lying in the southeastern part of the province of Chehkiang. The city is well situated at the junction of two streams, which together form the Ta-hiah or Ta-tsieh River. The northern branch leads to Tsz'kí and Yuyau, the southern to Funghwa; all of them receive several names during their course from their sources out to sea. This city has been the resort of traders from the earliest times; it was the principal port of China north of Chinchew during the Ming dynasty, and carried on much commerce with Japan. Its trading mart was called Liampoo in the early travels, and such were its advantages that the Portuguese and others

settled there in considerable numbers under their own officers, intending to make it the foundation of a colony, and enlarge its jurisdiction at the expense of Chinese territory and power. There were 3000 men in it, of whom 1,200 were Portuguese, and the rest Christians of other nations; when in consequence of their arrogance and the evil conduct of one Lancerote Pereyra, which exasperated the Chinese, their authorities and people hastily gathered a force, and attacked it with 80,000 men, and a fleet of 300 junks in 1542. F.M. Pinto, who gives an account of the trade of the place, tells of the evils that "fell on this misfortunate colony." He adds, "the matter passed in so strange a matter for them, as I must confess I have not capacity enough to recount it sufficiently, neither understanding enough to imagine it; only it shall suffice me to say, as one who saw it, that in less than the space of five hours (which this dreadful chastisement of the hand of God endured) these cruel enemies left not any thing at all in Liampoo to which one could give a name, for they demolished and burnt all that they could find; they put to death withal twelve hundred Christians, amongst the which were eight hundred Portugals, who were all burned alive in five and twenty ships and two and forty junks. It is said, that in this common ruin, there was lost to the value of two millions of gold, as well in lingots [of silver], pepper, sandal, cloves, mace and nutmegs, and other commodities: and all these disasters arrived by the ill conscience and little judgement of an avaricious Portugal."

The port begins at the river's mouth, and "includes all the portion of the Yung kiang or Ningpo river, comprised within a line from the northern extremity of the Chinhai promontory, called by the Chinese Chau-pau-shan, to the islet known variously as the Inner Triangle, the Pasyen I., and the Hu-tsun-shan; and a second line running from the said islet to the northern base of the hill on the eastern side of the mouth of the Yung river, known as Lookout Hill." The rates of pilotage are $3 from and to Square Island, and $10 from and to Chusan I. In entering the mouth of the river, there is liability to calms and strong gusts from the hills, and unless there is a leading or easterly breeze, the ship had better be dropped up with the tide to above the fishing-stakes; for between them and the rock at the entrance on the port bow, there are many sunken junks and much stone ballast, which render it unadvisable to anchor. Ships drawing not over fourteen feet water enter with little difficulty; they should take the channel south of the Triangle Is., at about a cable's length off. The spit of sand on the northwest point of the Middle Triangle has increased in elevation since Collinson's survey, and a wide berth must be given it, when a ship comes through the Middle Channel; heed must be taken, too, of the spit off the east side of the Inner Triangle.

Shipmasters at Ningpo should be careful to have their water brought down from six or eight miles up the river, as the stream is brackish off the city, and the boatmen will declare that their tubs are filled high up, when to save labor they have loaded them just beyond the walls. Residents use rain water, which cannot be had in quantities for ship's tanks; many crews have been attacked by diarrhoea from drinking bad river water. The humid springs and hot summers of this flat region bring disease to foreigners, who should be cautious about their food, and how

C.G. 26

they expose themselves to the sun or dew; chronic bowel complaints are very common. In winter, Malays and Lascars are liable to suffer from frozen hands and feet, and often injure themselves by putting these members in hot water to relieve the pain. On the other hand, European sailors need to be very careful about exposing themselves to the sun in summer, the heat being more hurtful than even in the tropics; cases have been known where a man has been struck to the ground as if by a shot, and death ensue in a few minutes.

Ships are supplied with provisions alongside, and what is worse too, with spirits. About 25 lbs. of beef, 12 lbs. of mutton, 28 lbs. of bread, 18 lbs. of biscuit, or 12 lbs. of poultry, could formerly be procured for a dollar, but prices are now nearly doubled. Laborers on board ship receive three mace per day each, and a boat to wait on a ship can be had for $5 a month.

In conducting business, it must be borne in mind that weights and measures differ somewhat in every part of China. Mistakes often take place in consequence, and merchants having commercial dealings at the ports open to foreigners, should if practicable reduce everything to custom-house standard. Care should be taken when goods have been sold to deliver them as per muster, and if necessary, before witnesses, lest the market falling, the purchaser should damage them and say that he received them in that state, as a pretext to throw up his bargain. In buying goods, every package should be examined before being removed from the seller's premises in order to guard against false packing and other frauds. Merchants should get a purchase note, without which document, in the event of fraud or failure, the sufferer would find difficulty to establish his claim in a Chinese court of law.

The trade of Ningpo in recent times has gone to Shanghai; and lately it has not equaled those of the other four consular ports, owing chiefly to its nearness to Shanghai, to which place the silk and tea are more readily carried. The opium trade has always formed a large portion of the commerce, and that in salt has employed some vessels; and besides these causes, the legitimate trade has been interfered with during the past ten years, and reduced by the pirates, which infest Nimrod Sound and the Chusan archipelago, and by the collisions between the Portuguese and Cantonese respecting the right of convoy. The civil war in the adjoining regions has further compromised the trade of Ningpo, so that it has not attained even to the importance it might have done under better circumstances.

The custom-house regulations in relation to loading and discharging ships are like those at Fuhchau. The trade is now chiefly coastwise, and most of that with Shanghai is carried on in small native boats and in foreign steamers. Sugar, rice, alum, tea, and silk, are articles of native trade; but the city and province have received such a shock by the ravages of the insurgents, that years of peace will be required before they can recover. On the whole it can hardly be denied that Ningpo, since it was opened in 1844, has suffered more than it has been benefited by foreign intercourse, though it is difficult to draw the line, and say how much of its misfortunes have arisen from its intercourse with foreigners, who have too often aided or countenanced unscrupulous natives in violat