hitectural display.

The side-wheel steamer Han Kow was taken for a passage up the Pearl
River to Canton, the commercial capital of China, situated a little less
than one hundred miles from Hong Kong. The steamer had some two or three
hundred Chinese passengers, who were partitioned off in a part of the
vessel by themselves, and securely locked, away from the European
passengers. In the cabin, ranged about the foremast, were a dozen loaded
repeating arms, rifles, and pistols for the use of the whites, in case
the Chinese should rise and attempt an act of piracy by taking the ship.
This has more than once been done upon the Pearl River, and the
steamboat company now goes prepared to visit condign punishment upon
such offenders.

In passing up the river, on board the Han Kow, a fine view was afforded
of the farming and vegetation of the country. Banana, orange,
sugar-cane, and tea culture, in their various stages, were in distinct
view, the steamer at times nearly grazing the right or left bank, and
being obliged to move slowly on account of shallow water in the winding
channel. Strange birds, brilliant flowers, and remarkable trees trained
to grow in the shape of men and animals, were seen bordering the
plantations. Great fertility of soil, however it might be induced, was
manifested on all hands, and the vegetation exhibited tropical
luxuriance. The number of small fishing-boats upon the river was quite
marked, showing from whence came a large percentage of the daily food of
the humbler classes. These boats seemed to be almost entirely rowed and
managed by women, always with the inevitable baby at their backs,
sometimes sleeping, sometimes gazing vacantly about, but always quiet
and contented.

The river is nearly two miles broad on an average, sometimes opening
into bays of considerable size, six or eight miles across, and thus
forming a water-way of immense importance in a country where railroads
are unknown. The canals and rivers of China are her great dependence,
her inland highways or roads being unworthy of the name,--exhibiting one
of the most prominent features of the lack of national enterprise. China
looks to the past, not to the future. Some advance has been forced upon
her in the art of war. She no longer fights with fans, gongs, and
fire-crackers, but "shoots bullets every time," as the French found to
their most serious cost very lately. The remoteness of the country from
the centres of civilization, th