rming appearance to the
whole. Thanking the Chinaman for his civility, we went away, much
pleased with the mandarin's country retreat.

During our stay at Chusan we had made a party to go to the island of
Poo-too, but we were hurried away sooner than we expected, and our
design was frustrated. I will, however, give a description of the island
of Poo-too, as described to me. This island is about forty miles from
Chusan, and is inhabited solely by priests. These being condemned to a
life of celibacy, no woman resides on the island, which is covered with
temples of all descriptions, many of them very handsome, but one in
particular, which was built by the emperor. The island is not large, and
is laid out like a vast garden, with squares and walks, bridges, &c.

We left Chusan, and soon afterwards anchored off the mouth of the Ningpo
River, which is only thirty miles to northward and westward of the
Chusan isles. The first object of interest before us was the famous
joss-house fort, which gave us so much trouble at the capture. General
D'Aguilar and Captain Mundy being about to visit the city of Ningpo, a
party of us obtained a week's leave of absence for the same purpose. We
landed in a ship's boat at Chinghae, a small but tolerably fortified
town, which, however, needs no description. There we obtained a covered
Chinese boat, in which we put our beds and blankets, intending to live
on board her during our stay at Ningpo. Starting with a fair wind and
tide, by noon we were within five miles of the city, which is built
about forty miles up the river. The banks of the river appeared to be
highly cultivated, and the river was crowded with boats of all
descriptions, some going up with the tide, others at anchor, waiting for
the tide to change, to go in an opposite direction. The first that we
saw of Ningpo was a low wall, from the middle of which rose a tall
pagoda. This, with innumerable masts of the vessels lying off the town,
was all that was visible: nor could we discern much more on a nearer
approach. Threading the crowd of vessels which filled the river, on our
left we could only see the wall and battlements of the town, the
before-mentioned pagoda soaring above every thing. To the right, on the
side of the river opposite to the town, were several detached houses,
surrounded with low shrubberies; behind these was the Chinese country,
and then the eye wandered over countless paddy fields, until it at last
rested upon som