floating on the river with the fiihing corvorant, and we obferved
that he feldom dived without fuccefs. For the whole diftance
o f three days’ journey, the hilly country bordering on the
river produced very little but the Camellia Sefanqua, which appeared
to be every where o f fpontaneous growth.
• W e halted on the 6th o f December, late in the evening, before
the city o f Kan-tcboo-foo, which is remarkable for nothing
that I could learn except for the great quantity o f varnilh trees
the Rhus vem ix I fuppofe, that are cultivated in the neighbourhood.
In the courfe o f the journey we had picked up two
varieties o f the tea plant, taken out o f the ground and potted
b y our own gardener; and which, being in good growing order,
were intended to be fent to Bengal as foon as occafion
might ferve after our arrival at Canton. Knowing we ihould
be hurried away, as ufual, in the morning and wiihing to procure
a few young plants o f the varniih tree, I prevailed on our
good friend Van-ta-gin to difpatch fome perfon for that pur-
pofe, to add to thofe o f the tea plant and the Camellia Senfart-
qua. Van made application to the men in Office at this place,
with the beft intention o f ferving us,_ but thefe gentry, either
conceiving that their compliance might be treafon to the ftate,
or elfe, in the true fpirit o f the nation, determined to play a
trick upon the ftrangers, certainly procured the plants and
fent them on board in pots, juft as we were departing the next
morning. In a ihort time they all began to droop, the leaves
withered and, on examination, it was found that not a Angle
plant among them had the leaft portion o f a root, being nothing
more than fmall branches o f trees which, from the nature
o f the wood, were not likely nor indeed ever intended tt>
ftrike root.
From Kan-tcboo-foo the face o f the country became more uniform
and fuitable for the labours o f agriculture ; and, accordingly,
we found a very fmall portion o f it unoccupied. Wheat
about fix inches above ground and extenfive plantations o f the fu-
gar cane fit for cutting, were the chief articles under cultivation :
and the farther we advanced to the fouthward, the more abundant
and extended were thofe o f the latter. The canes were remarkably
juicy and their joints from fix to nine inches in length. T o
exprefs the juice from them and convert it into a confident
mafs, temporary mills were ere&ed in different places among
the plantations. The procefs was very fimple. A pair o f cylinders,
fometimes o f ftone but more generally o f hard wood,
placed vertically, were put . in motion by oxen or buffalos and
from the foot o f thefe the exprcffed juice was conveyed, by a
tube carried under the floor, into a boiler that was funk in the
ground at the end o f the apartment; where it was boiled to a
proper degree o f confidence the expreffed canes ferying as
fuel. Though unacquainted with the procefs o f refining fugar,
the natural tendency that the fyrnp poffefles o f forming itfelf
into cryftals in cooling bad fuggefte'd to them, the means o f
obtaining very fine and pure fugar-candy which, in the market
o f Canton, is fold in a pulverized ftate as white as the beft refined
fugar. The coarfe fyrup, ufoally called treacle or
molaffes, and the dregs, are not employed, as in the Weft’
India «Hands, in the diftiliaiion. o f rum, but are: fometimes-
thrownfiiito the ftfff-With fermented1 rice,- in‘ order1 m procure' a
J, z 2 better