ing necessaries are piled up in immense quantities; crowds of junks lie at a short distance from the shore; while thousands of sampans and floating houses cover the waters and line the beach, giving shelter to many desperate characters, for a great proportion of these boats being devoted to gambling, opium smoking, and other illegal practices, and at the same time affording a ready means of escape to those lurking-places on the neighbouring islands, which may be considered as beyond the reach of justice; they are a rendezvous for all the thieves, smugglers, &c., that infest this part of China.

LETTER IV.

I SEVERAL times wandered among those very respectable haunts of the inner harbour, to which I introduced the reader in the last letter, and visited many of the boats, which were always crowded with Chinamen, some of whom seemed to be tolerably respectable men. I never met with any insult, though I occasionally read on their countenances that my presence did not in any way add to their comfort; and it is possible that if I could have understood their remarks to one another, I should not have felt flattered by their opinion of the inquisitive "barbarian."

It was here and with much interest that I first saw that vice which has caused so many evils to China, and a war between two great nations that vice which, if it once get hold of its victim, is more tenacious and destructive than the folds of the boa-constrictor; that vice which, by gradual and sure steps, destroys the energies both of body and mind, rendering the infatuated being a burden to himself and useless to society; that vice which has met with its panderers and excusers, amongst those who consider themselves as the most enlightened of mankind.

The boats used for the purpose of opium-smoking, may be more properly considered as floating houses, which in the principle of their make, a good deal resemble the floating baths on the Seine. The house rests on a broad, flat-bottomed boat or scow, somewhat larger than the house itself, and forming a platform all round it, which platform is large in front at the entrance door, but narrow at the sides, in fact, a mere ledge about eighteen inches broad. A canopy, or rather porch, projects from the front of the house, having a seat inside it on each side of the doorway. The interior is well lighted by several windows, and divided into different rooms, which are all very small with the exception of one, which is the public apartment, and is immediately entered from the door. These houses are often of considerable size, richly carved and painted, and well furnished; but those in the inner harbour are mean and inferior, compared with others I have seen at Canton. Some rude couches, with bamboo pillows, line the walls of the large apartment, and sundry little tables sustain the pipes, opium, lamps, and other essentials. The pipes are very like round rulers, and into one side of them is fixed an earthenware or metal bowl of peculiar shape, with a small opening in the top, closely resembling the touchhole of a gun. The instruments for cleaning the pipe are made of iron, steel, silver, &c., according to the wealth of the owner.

The

lamps are small, with glass covers, open at the top, and many of them are so made, that they take to pieces, and may be carried about in the pocket as small boxes. The opium has been prepared, and cleared from impurities, and resembles tar, both in colour and consistence.

The smoker, whose haggard countenance always betrays him to those at all accustomed to see the effects of opium-smoking, rushes in with greedy anticipation, throws off some of his upper-clothing (if he have any, for many are in the lowest depths of poverty), reclines on a couch, takes up some opium on the end of a long steel-needle, turns it once or twice round over the flame, then applying it to the touch-hole of his pipe, and that to the flame of the lamp, inhales the smoke, and always discharges it through his nostrils. Some old hands, I am told, even draw the smoke into the lungs. He soon becomes very talkative, and laughs most heartily at any thing or any body; but after some little time, a vacancy and paleness come over his countenance, and lastly he falls into a deep sleep, that continues for two or three hours, when he awakes and goes away, to again return and repeat the same process over and over again.

An over dose of opium-smoking does not endanger life, but causes headach, giddiness, and other unpleasant feelings, that are only removed by vomiting. I had the curiosity one day to try a few whiffs, but after a very short period of elevation, such a severe headach came on, that I have never since felt the slightest inclination to repeat the experiment.

The attempts to calculate the number of Chinamen (none but the most abandoned women being addicted to the vice) who smoke opium, vary so much, that no confidence can be placed in them; yet when we consider the immense quantity of opium every year introduced into the country, together with the small quantity consumed by each person, besides that the drug once smoked is again prepared for the use of those poorer people who cannot afford the genuine, we must feel persuaded that a great proportion of the male inhabitants of China must be more or less opium-smokers.

Opium is also occasionally used in its crude state, for the purpose of self-destruction; but is rarely or never consumed by eating, as it is in Turkey, and (as I have heard with much regret) lately in England, to some extent, by many members of the teetotal societies. If this be so, these societies will have to answer for the introduction of a far greater evil than the one they sought to remove.

The gambling boats in the inner harbour are also much frequented by the Chinese, who are from their very infancy devoted to gambling. Among the higher classes it is conducted with propriety, for amusement, and among friends, as with us in England; but the lower classes openly and undisguisedly seize every opportunity, by night and day, to gratify this passion by various games of chance, with cards, dice, dominoes, &c. The little child, besides the usual games of marbles, pitch and toss, and others common with the schoolboys at home, cannot even buy an orange without trying his fortune, which he does in rather a droll way. Taking one up, he guesses whether the pips contained in it amount to an even or an odd number; the orange is then cut open, the pips counted; if he win, his small eyes twinkle, and he devours his orange gratis; if he lose, he walks off minus the price of the orange. Feb.-VOL. LXX. NO. CCLXXVIII.

N

His fondness for gambling follows the Chinaman into foreign lands; and while I was at Penang, I was told, but now forget, the large amount annually transmitted to China from that small island alone, by the Chinamen resident there, as their winnings from the Malay and other inhabitants.

While mentioning Chinamen away from their home, I may here remark an error into which I had fallen, in common with many others, regarding the tens of thousands of them, scattered over the whole east, where in every country they are to be met, working the mines, cultivating the lands, and manufacturing the clothing of its more uncivilized and less skilful inhabitants, steadily pursuing wealth, the great aim and summum bonum of all Chinamen, through dangers, difficulties, and hardships that might well appal the stoutest heart, and in many cases can be compared only to the sufferings of the Jews during the middle ages. The error I refer to was, the supposing that the Chinese were not allowed to leave their native country, or that if they did so clandestinely, they dared not return, and were for ever exiled. Now this is not the case. There is indeed an old law prohibiting emigration; yet though still most strictly observed towards women, it has altogether fallen into disuse with respect to men,-many of whom when they have gained a competency in distant climes, return to visit the tombs of their fathers, and end their days in their own "flowery land." Many, on the contrary, intermarry with the natives of the country in which they are sojourning, and their descendants are there seen wearing the Chinese costume, and following the Chinese manners, yet perhaps not able to speak one word of the language of their forefathers.

I attribute this error, which is by no means uncommon in England, to the great confusion, which is generally made between the customs and manners of China and of Japan, between which empires there is, indeed, much in common, yet still more is peculiar to each. In Japan, the law against the return of emigrants is so very severely acted up to, that those navigators even who are unhappily driven off their coasts by tempests into the Pacific Ocean, and there picked up by foreign vessels, are no longer regarded as Japanese, nor permitted to re-enter their native land a fact of which there have been several examples during the last few years; and there are now in Macao some Japanese who were found in junks many thousands of miles from their own shore,* by vessels coming from America. Two attempts have been made to return them to their homes, but without success. The Japanese actually fired on the ship that made the last attempt.

I will now give some account of a subject which excites great interest in China, both among Europeans and natives;-I mean the piracy practised in the Chinese waters. When we consider the many and great temptations held out by the vast concourse of vessels of all kinds and sizes, to a city enjoying such an extensive trade as Canton does, and also the innumerable and safe retreats afforded by the rocky and barren islands that crowd the estuary of its river, we cannot wonder that piracy has long flourished in these waters with greater or less vigour, according to the energy of the measures adopted against it by the

This fact may perhaps give some further confirmation to the idea, that Mexico and other countries of America, of which we know so little, were peopled from China and Japan.

Chinese government. But during the last three or four years, when the mandarin boats and other Chinese cruisers that kept the pirates in some check, had either been destroyed or compelled to hide themselves from the English ships of war, their audacity has increased to an almost incredible degree. Although they have lately very rarely attacked large European vessels, yet they have several times made murderous and successful attempts on the lorchas, or native-built boats, which, belonging to Englishmen, are used by them between Canton, Macao, and Hong Kong. To enumerate all the cases that occurred even during my short residence in China, would be both tedious and unnecessary; I shall therefore merely relate two or three of those that caused the greatest sensation.

crew.

The lorcha Enterprise with a valuable cargo, worth about 25,000 dollars, was boarded on the night of the fifth of January, between Macao and Hong Kong, by a set of pirates who would seem to have been in concert with some Chinamen that formed part of the lorcha's They immediately murdered the captain (an Englishman), his mate, and four Manilla men, and during the greater part of the ensuing day were busily engaged in plundering their prize, while Mr. Wilson, a passenger, the steward, and a Chinawoman, were secreted in the pantry; they were, however, at last discovered, severely maltreated, and left for dead, Mr. Wilson having had sufficient presence of mind to lie quiet under some heavy blows. The pirates, when they left the lorcha, set her on fire, but had providentially either neglected, or not observed, her small boat towing astern. Into this the three survivors managed to get with some difficulty, and after floating about for some hours at the mercy of the winds and waves, were on the next day drifted to Potoy, a small island about twelve miles from Macao, to which latter place Mr. Wilson was brought, for a reward of sixty dollars, by some fishermen, who had treated them very hospitably, and bound up their wounds. The steward died on the island from the injuries he had received, and the woman returned to Whampoa, of which place she was a native.

Not long after this the Hong Kong government lorcha, when anchored off the Praya Grande, at Macao, and but a short distance from the beach, was attacked during the night by a large pirate boat filled with armed men, and beat her off; yet the same pirate boat returned twice that night to repeat the attack, and also made an attempt on a small Portuguese lorcha anchored near, but without success. A cannonball fired during one of the engagements, took an excursion up one of the lanes opening on the Praya, and after a friendly rub or two against the walls of the houses in it, finally took unfurnished lodgings in a house then building, that projects across the upper part of the lane.

Another night a pirate boat boarded a brig also at anchor off the Praya, on board of which there were but two Englishmen and five Chinamen, a fact probably well known to the pirates, as although they have occasionally fired a shot into cutters and schooners of European model, yet they have never displayed much desire to attack them. They have also pounced upon unfortunate people going off to the ships in the roads after nightfall. Some of these they have stripped, and then allowed to proceed on their way without further injury.

But all their gleanings from foreigners are as nothing in comparison with the rich harvest that has been gathered by the "water thieves" (for thus the Chinese name them) from native vessels. The ill-fated junks were plundered in every direction; they were even seized at the very entrance of Hong Kong harbour, so that for some time the harbour, although declared free, was absurdly enough in a state of complete blockade. Those junks even that paid a kind of black mail, in the shape of purchasing pirate passes, were by no means safe; for in February two junks bought passes from a man in Hong Kong, for which they paid seventeen dollars each, and trusting to this protection, went over to Macao, sold their cargoes for upwards of two thousand dollars, and on their return were robbed of all; and the man from whom they had bought the passes refused to return the money, saying that they had been robbed by another clan of pirates, over whom he had no control. Such was the state of affairs at the beginning of the year 1843, when, the Chinese and English having settled their differences, determined to exterminate those worthies. With this intention Sir Henry Pottinger, in a memorial which he addressed to the imperial commissioner, proposed to them a very efficient arrangement, into which the Chinese authorities, influenced probably by some feelings of pique against the English, would not enter, and civilly declining all co-operation with Sir Henry, chose rather to follow a plan of their own.

They however showed very little energy in their measures for some weeks, and the fishermen of Macao, who had some months before assembled and armed more than three hundred boats (with the sanction of the government), in order to defend themselves against the attacks of the pirates, from whom the government could not protect them; again collected a fleet of one hundred boats, and succeeded in capturing a few pirates, whom they handed over to the proper authorities. But an exceedingly desultory warfare was carried on, until the Chinese officers were, shortly before I left China, roused by an argument um hominem that the pirates had rashly used towards them, in seizing two mandarins of some rank, to a degree of vigour which will doubtless have the effect of curbing, if not of putting a stop to the excesses of these outlaws. The magistrates of Hong Kong also received a visit from a mandarin, who went there for the purpose of concerting measures against the common enemy; and some pirates, who had been pursued into the harbour by a Chinese cruiser, and jumped overboard in hopes to escape, were seized by the police, and handed over to the Chinese authorities at Cowloon, as Sir Henry Pottinger had arranged, just three days before my departure.*

R.

*The Chinese authorities would seem to have caught Tartars instead of the pirates; for I see by the late papers from India, that a brig-of-war which the Celestial government purchased from the Spaniards, and despatched in all confidence against the pirates (for the admiral was on board of her), has allowed herself to be inveigled into a small bay, of which the entrance is very narrow, and there she has been for some months blockaded by the pirates, who have actually supplied their exterminators with provisions. A large armed force has been sent down from Canton to extricate the brig; but it is supposed that negotiation, and not force, will be the means used in accomplishing her release.

(The continuation in our next.)