advantage which the new state of things may offer in China,—we cannot be idle or indifferent spectators. It is time our public vessels were on the ground, under judicious instructers, that our knowledge may keep pace with the events as they transpire. Commerce has constantly increased with the knowledge of man, yet it has been undergoing perpetual revolutions? These changes and revolutions have often mocked the vigilance of the wary and the calculations of the sagacious; but there is now a fundamental principle in commerce, which will enable the intelligent merchant and wise government to foresee and provide for most of these changes, and that is, a thorough and extended knowledge of the dispositions, habits, and necessities of the people, and of the natural capacities and resources of the country where we have commercial intercourse. At no period of our history has this knowledge of China been so essential to our interests as at the present mo

ment.

Thus speaks an English writer:-"Let us evidence in the strongest manner, along the whole coast and in every port of China, our naval power, and manifest the ease with which that power, when duly exerted, could cut off the internal and external supplies of the empire. Let us add to science by a complete survey of the coasts of China, Japan, and Corea, and of the Loo-choo islands. The prosecution of these surveys would necessarily detain H. M. ships frequently in the waters of China, where they should insist on paying and receiving such courtesies as are becoming and customary between civilized nations at peace with each other; demanding supplies of provisions and water as a matter of course, and in the usual way these affairs are managed in other countries; at the same time the merchants of Great Britain would be pushing their enterprises in all quarters, under the constant protection and frequent presence of H. M. ships."

Here, indeed, is " a new world of matter for a world of mind." We, too, must be on the alert, to show the Chinese that we have naval power to any extent we please; but, at the same time, that we are content with our own extent of territory, and would not accept of any portion of another country if it were freely offered us. The Island of Pulo Condore, in 8° north latitude, and almost within sight of the coast of Cambodia, should be examined by Bb

our public vessels; and let them look to, and report on, the islands in the neighbourhood of Amoy, in 24° north. Is there not one near Wampoa, to which prohibited goods and other articles are now brought, and freely exchanged with foreigners, without the slightest impediments from the mandarins? Let this matter be looked into; away with all secrecy, all monopoly-give us open and fair competition, however the odds may be against us!

The teas consumed in Cochin China are brought from Tchotchen and Fokien, and with equal facility might soon be transferred to a neighbouring island, and shipped from thence to any part of the world. To these free depositories of trade, the Chinese would flock and settle in great numbers, as they have done at Batavia, Sincapore, Penang, &c., and through them the trade would be carried on. No one well acquainted with the Chinese character can doubt that such would be the case, particularly when informed that trading vessels have recently touched at many of the nominally sealed ports north of Canton, and disposed of large cargoes, for specie, to the Chinese merchants residing in Amoy, Tato, Namo, and at the port of the great city of Tyho; while other articles, such as tea, cassia, tortoise-shell, nankeens, &c. were freely offered.

They have abundant craft for this trade; no less than eighty junks have been seen at a time at Siam; some as large as eight hundred tons, and bearing large quantities of tea. Indeed, they carry on a coasting trade from Canton to Souchon, in the district of Kiannan, and as far as 37° north, within the Yellow Sea.

Who then can doubt that they would come with these junks to a commercial station, bringing with them the products of their own labour and skill, to be exchanged for foreign merchandise? The emperor, his viceroy, and mandarins, have no power to prevent the people and outside merchants from carrying on contraband trade in the river and very vicinity of Canton; much less, therefore, can they interfere with, or prevent a trade conducted at a short distance from the main.

Sincapore, though twenty degrees too far south, must by a free trade become a place of increased importance. Its insular position in the great thoroughfare of eastern traffic, in the midst of seas navigable at all seasons, and studded with islands presenting every variety of production; the salubrity of its climate, and its

great capability for naval and mercantile purposes, will make it a point interesting to the commercial world.

Again, then, we repeat, let our government look to the east; let our flag be seen at the different ports of China, Corea, Formosa, Loo-Choo, &c. &c. These ports and islands afford an ample field for us at the present time, nor should a day be lost. The expense must be incurred: suitable agents and linguists employed to co-operate with our commanders of public vessels; not in coaxing, and flattery, and prayers, and humiliating petitions; but in the spirit of that steady, firm, judicious policy, which a wise council should know how to give, and the intelligent merchant be able to turn to good account.

For three centuries has the commerce of the east been shackled by ill-advised companies and monopolies, while an impenetrable veil has been spread out, to hide from the rest of the world the true condition of those countries. These abuses are slowly, but surely drawing to a close. Great Britain is our great competitor in the new and glorious competition for free trade in that quarter of the world; and great and decidedly as are the advantages in her favour, we must, in the spirit of generous rivalry, nail to the mast-head our motto, "free trade and sailors' rights," and leave the result to time.

The ports of India will become free-Calcutta, Goa, Manilla, and Macao must follow, should Bombay lead; and then, with the spirit of free commercial zeal animating the English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and we continuing our own system, which knows not the word restriction, who shall say, that the ports of the Chinese shall continue closed against the persevering enterprise of the Old and the New world!

Bb 2

CHAPTER XXI.

The Potomac sails from Canton-The Bashee Straits-The northeast tradewindCause and description of the tradewinds-Periodical winds-Monsoons-The sirocco, the simoon, land and seabreezes-Perennial and variable winds-An East India voyage; its natural facilities-Period for commencing one- -Reflections arising from the subject-Arrival at the Sandwich Islands.

A FEW days after the return of our officers from Canton, the frigate having, in the meantime, been completely supplied with water, provisions, &c., got under way at Lintin Bay, and proeeeded to her former anchorage off Macao, from whence she proceeded to sea on the following day, with a light breeze and pleasant weather. The breeze freshened as she cleared the land, and long before nightfall, the sky had become overcast with thick black clouds. The Potomac was now dashing along at the rate of eleven knots, with her yards nearly square, when a light was discovered almost directly ahead, and in the next moment the frigate was alongside of a large vessel, moving with almost equal rapidity towards the bay we had just left. The thickness of the atmosphere had concealed the two vessels from each other until their proximity had become somewhat perilous to both, for a few feet more would have brought them in contact; and such was the velocity with which they passed each other, that the hurried inquiry of “What vessel is that?" was lost to the ear of all but the interrogator.

Onward flew the stranger, and with equal speed forward dashed the Potomac, as if ambitious of redeeming the time she had spent in the waters of the "Celestial Empire." Her course was laid for what is called the Bashee Passage, a well-known outlet from the Chinese Sea into the mighty Pacific, formed by a chain or cluster of numerous islands lying to the south of Formosa, about ninety miles east of Canton. The island which gives its name to the whole cluster, of which it is the most eastern, is of a circular form, six miles in diameter, and has a town on it of the same name. Its productions are plantains, bananas, pine

apples, sugarcane, potatoes, yams, and cotton, with numerous goats and hogs. Most of the islands in the cluster are considerably elevated, and vessels can run between them with safety if the weather be clear; as it is supposed that there are no hidden dangers around them, though breakers are visible at a considerable distance.

The morning when these islands were expected to be seen from the deck of the Potomac, was too thick for that purpose, though the wind was blowing fresh. The frigate entered the passage at the rate of ten knots; when the wind suddenly came out ahead, and took the ship aback. She was got off with difficulty, and filled away, when the wind had increased to almost a gale. On she dashed, without making either of the islands, though but a short distance from them, and entered the great Pacific with increasing velocity.

The threatening appearances which had disfigured the atmosphere, softened in their aspect, and passed away, as the Potomac left the Chinese Sea behind her; and her sails in due time were filled with the welcome northeast tradewind, favoured by whose friendly influence the frigate now shaped her course across the broad Pacific, towards the well-known Sandwich Islands. As nothing of interest occurred to relieve the tedious monotony of this passage of fifty days, we cannot, perhaps, better beguile the time than by recording the result of our observations on the prevailing winds of this interesting region of the globe; especially as we have just attached some importance to the northeast tradewind, which was expected to accompany the Potomac on her long and lonely route of ten thousand miles!

Those aerial currents which are called winds, are naturally distinguished into two kinds, constant and variable. The former, which are better known by the name of tradewinds, prevail, with little exception, between the tropics; and, like the great equatorial current of the ocean, circulate round the globe from east to west. They extend to about thirty degrees on each side of the equator, and blow with a steady breeze, almost the whole year, from an eastern to a western quarter of the heavens, where their course is not interrupted by land. Their direction, however, declines several degrees from due east and west, corresponding to the declination of the sun, either north or south.