y; and the forts, if of no other advantage, form a picturesque
feature, viewed while sailing past them.

Not having visited Amoy, Foo Chow, Ning-po, Chusan, or Shang-Hae, I am
unable to give any description of those places. I can, however, state
what I have heard about them, and give the mercantile reader some idea
of their importance as places of trade.

Short as is the time that these ports have been open to the commerce of
Britain and other foreign nations, many cargoes of Indian cotton,
different sorts of produce from Singapore and the islands of the Malayan
Archipelago, manufactured goods, consisting of woollens, gray and white
shirtings, chintz, &c., from Manchester and Glasgow, have been
advantageously disposed of at one or another of them. Amoy has taken off
several cargoes of Bengal and Bombay cotton, at prices considerably
higher than those ruling at Canton. This branch of trade is likely to
increase, and is one that will interfere with Canton to a considerable
extent. As a residence, however, this place has a bad character in point
of healthiness: at least, the troops, both European and Indian, suffered
severely there from fever. They were stationed on the island of Koo
Loong Soo, which is said to be more healthy than Amoy itself.

None of our merchants had visited Foo Chow, up to the time of my
departure from China; nor had a Consul been sent there; but this has, I
presume, since taken place. The city has been described to me as large
and populous, and the seat of a very extensive trade. It escaped the
ravages of the late war; and its inhabitants may probably entertain a
similar idea to that which possesses the people of Canton; namely, that
we were afraid to attack them. Whether this notion will lead them to
give Europeans an indifferent reception, or not, remains to be seen. Let
us hope that they will act wisely in the matter, and not bring down
vengeance on their own heads. Sir William Parker, by visiting their
harbour in Her Majesty's ship Cornwallis, proved to them that they are
not beyond the reach of European shipping, as they at one time thought.
Some difficulty is experienced, I believe, in approaching Foo Chow,
owing to the strength of the currents in the neighbourhood; but, as a
seventy-four-gun ship has got over that difficulty, it is proved to be
not an insurmountable one.

Ning-po is also a large and wealthy city, admirably situated for trade,
and surrounded with a beautiful country. It stan