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withstanding that the approach and entry of the river present no less difficulty. The city has a rampart or wall with a circuit of five or six miles. It has many embrasures where cannon might be pointed, but it is so narrow, in some places, that it would be impossible to inanage artillery on carriages. The wall is without bastions, exterior defences and ditches. The houses of the suburbs, moreover, which form whole wards on some sides, are built close to it. It has five entrances, each consisting of two gates, but without drawbridge or other defense. The streets are narrow and filthy to a degree difficult to be imagined. Shops of all kinds are numerous, or to speak more correctly, every door is a shop. The city contains at least 300,000 souls. Along the river the houses are washed by the water.
"Shanghai is truly the port of the city of Sachau, which is about 150 miles distant by the river. Súchau is considered by the Chinese as the paradise of their country. Those who have succeeded to an inheritance, those who have obtained sudden riches, in a word, those who wish to spend some thousand dollars merrily, betake themselves to Súchau. Here are found the best hotels, the pleasure boats are the most sumptuous, the most pleasant gardens, the fairest ladies. The fashions for the dresses and coiffure of the fair sex change in China every three years, and these fashions proceed from Súchau and give the laws even to the ladies of the court. The circum stance of being so near this city and the mouth of the Yángtsz' kiáng have made Shanghái a mercantile emporium. The Yángtsz' kiáng is a river that washes the walls of Nanking and of several other provincial capitals, without reckoning an immense number of inferior cities, as it is navigable for large vessels for more than a thousand leagues into the interior. Indeed the navigation of this vast river is of the greatest amount. In it there are several ports of great resort. In that of Hánkau, in the province of Húkwáng and situated 600 leagues from the sea, are found continually assembled from six to eight thou- sand vessels. The river besides receives a vast number of tributaries, all more or less navigable, and its mouth, as already mentioned, is contiguous to Shanghái.
"The vessels which arrive at this port are known, at the custom- house, as those of the north, of Fuhkien, and Canton, The vessels of the north come principally from Kwántung, Liáutung, Teintsin, (at the mouth of the Peiho, the river which passes,Peking,) and from the province of Shantung. The vessels of Kwantung and Liántung are the same as those of Teintsin. Those of Shintung proceed from
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