of levying a dollar per package on a
passenger's luggage, a similar sum on his wife, and on every female
child, while the boys passed free. This does not tell to the credit of
Chinese gallantry. Things are altered now, however; and ladies with
their daughters are permitted to land without let or hinderance.

When a foreign vessel anchors in Macao Roads, (a very exposed anchorage
by the way,) she is speedily visited by three or four _compradores'_
boats, which come out in search of employment, and with offers to supply
the ship with fresh provisions, &c., during her stay. The _compradore_
is a very useful fellow, but, in nine cases out of ten, a great rogue,
who scruples not to swell out his bill against the ship by various means
the reverse of fair. They all speak broken English. In moderate weather,
they go twenty or thirty miles out to sea in quest of inward-bound
vessels. The first time I went to China, we were boarded by a
_compradore's_ boat previously to making the land. A fresh breeze was
blowing at the time, before which the ship was going eight knots an
hour: this, however, did not prevent the Chinese boatmen from dashing
alongside in very smart style, hooking on by the fore-chains with their
own rope, and disdaining the aid of a line thrown from the vessel to
hang on by. Mr. _Compradore_ appeared on the poop, "_chin-chinning_,"
while we strangers were looking with admiration at the activity of his
men in the boat. The captain engaged him to attend the ship, on which he
immediately started for Macao, and was alongside again by daylight next
morning, with a most welcome supply of fresh beef, vegetables, &c. In
the _compradore's_ boat, passengers can generally get a passage on
shore, or, rather, to within a few hundred yards of the beach. The
boatmen are afraid to approach nearer, on account of the Mandarins, who
are apt to _squeeze_ them, if they are seen landing foreigners. The
remaining distance is usually got over in small _tancea_, or
ferry-boats, numbers of which ply about Macao in all directions,
invariably guided by women, called, from their mode of life,
"_Tancea-girls_." Poor things! They work hard for their daily bread,
being constantly exposed to the sun in summer, and to cold in winter.
They live in their boats, which, at night, are snugly covered up with a
roof made of a bamboo frame, the interstices filled up with thick
matting, and, in the whole course of their lives, never pass a night on
shore.