CHINA AND ITS OPEN PORTS.
manifested that before the ground could be cleared some of the native houses had to be forcibly demolished.
The idea which led to the opening of Kiukiang was, no doubt, its situation as regards communication by water with the districts where the Green Tea is produced. But the hopes entertained respecting Kiukiang have never been realised. The total quantity of Tea exported in 1875 was 249,094 piculs, of which 65,322 piculs were Green. Opium was imported to the extent of 2,246 piculs in 1875, and 2,905 piculs in 1874. The total revenue of the port for 1875 was Tls. 663,982, and for 1874, Tls. 673,597.
HANKOW.
Hankow is situated on the river Han at the point where it enters the Yangtsze, and is in lat. 80 deg. 32 min. 51 sec. N., and long. 114 deg. 19 min. 55 sec. E. The natives look upon Hankow as only a suburb of Hanyang, which it immediately adjoins, and which is a district city of the province of Hupeh. These two towns lie immediately facing the city of Wuchang-fu, the capital of the province, which is built upon the south bank of the Yangtsze. Hankow is distant from Shanghai about 600 miles.
Lord Elgin visited Hankow in 1858, and must have been one of the first foreigners who ever entered this inland city. Attention was first drawn to it as a place of trade by Huo, a French missionary, whose writings on China are less popular now than they used to be, but it is generally believed that this reverend father had never been within many miles of the place, and had drawn largely on his fertile imagination for his details. Sir James Hope and Sir Harry Parkes were in Hankow in 1861 when the port was opened.
Captain Blakiston in his work "The Yangtsze," gives the following description of the place and its surroundings:-"Hankow is situated just where an irregular range of semi-detached low hills crosses a particularly level country on both sides of the main river in an east and west direction. Stationed on Pagoda hill, a spectator looks down on almost as much water as land even when the rivers are low. At his feet sweeps the magnificent Yangtze, nearly a mile in width; from the west and skirting the northern edge of the range of hills already mentioned, comes the river Han, narrow and canal like, to add its quota, and serving as one of the highways of the country; and to the northwest and north is an extensive treeless flat, so little elevated above the river that the scattered hamlets which dot its surface are without exception raised on mounds, probably artificial works of a now distant age. A stream or two traverse its farther part and flow into the main river. Carrying his eye to the right bank of the Yangtsze one sees enormous lakes and lagoons both to the northwest and southeast sides of the hills beyond the provincial city."
When the port was opened the natives, as at several other new ports, put many difficulties in the way of fixing a site for the British Settlement. They demanded excessive prices for the lots marked off for occupation, and it was not till the port had been open for some time, and many residents had temporarily taken up an abode on the Hanyang shore, that a satisfactory arrangement was arrived at. A French Bettlement was subsequently fixed upon, but it has never been occupied.
Great expectations as regards trade were entertained respecting the opening of Hankow. Foreign commerce would be brought into immediate contact with the large internal populations of China, and a port established in the locality of the great tea producing districts. These expectations, however, have been but partially realised. Tea is, of course, the staple export, and it is at Hankow that the first steamers for home take in their cargoes. Of late, the business of commission merchants both at Hankow and Shanghai has begun to be superseded by men coming direct from home. The London merchants send out agents at the beginning of the season. They go right through to Hankow, purchase the new season's Teas, see them shipped on board the steamer, and leave again for home, thus doing their business without any assistance from the local merchant. This is but another instance of the facility of international communication in these progressive days. The total export of Tea from