CO129-018 - Others - 1846 — Page 493

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ment, cattle might be cured and fattened in great numbers. The milk and butter of the cow and of the buffalo is very rich, and sells at mode- rate price. The flavour of the Chusan mutton is excellent; goats are numerous; hams are well cured, and nearly equal in flavour to those of England. Deer and hares are in season during the winter months. Beef and pork might be cured to any extent in winter, for the supply of the navy, and kept in ice-houses till required. Bullocks are about forty shillings each. Salt is made in great abundance on the coast of Chusan, and on the neighbouring islands. Poultry are plentiful, mode- rate in price, and of fine flavour. The Chusan fowls are larger than any that are to be seen in England; geese are excellent. Ducks are hatched by steam, and reared by thousands; one boy has charge of many hundreds; they feed in the rice-fields and canals. Eggs are very abundant, usual price 150 for a dollar. Of game, there are pheasants, snipe, quail, woodcock, teal, duck, wild geese (large and good), wild swans (very beautiful), &c.

Bread and confectionery, prepared in the English style, are well made by the Chinese. Sixteen-pound loaves of excellent white bread may be bought for a dollar. Wheat is grown on the hills, and rice and millet in the valleys; cauliflowers, peas and beans, cabbages, spinach, cucumbers, onions, turnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, bringalls, gourds of different descriptions, French beans, radishes, celery, &c., are brought to market in season. European potatoes are now being introduced, and every English vegetable and fruit, when cultivated, thrive in perfection. The tea-plant grows on the hills, and is sent to Ningpo and Chapoo to be manufactured for the beverage of the higher classes. The wild rasp- berry and strawberry are in abundance; melons and oranges are excel- lent; the peach, grape, apple, pear, apricot, cherry, and plum, only require careful cultivation for their improvement (at Shanghai the peaches are large and excellent). Walnuts and Spanish chesnuts come to perfection at Chusan. The tallow-tree and varnish-tree are among the most valuable productions of the island; from the tallow-tree a great abundance of candles of a waxy consistence are prepared; the varnish-tree yields a wood-oil of great use in furniture. The bamboo and dwarf oak abound. Cotton of excellent quality is largely culti- vated; silk, as yet, is of limited production. The tobacco of Chusan is much prized. The hop (humulus) grows on every hill.

The shores around Chusan abound with fish, some of excellent quality, such as the pomphlat, sole, seer, salt-water trout, herring, rock-cod, sturgeon, mackerel, and eel; oysters and cray-fish are in per- fection. It is stated that 40,000 fishing-vessels arrive annually from different parts of the coast of China, and remain three months fishing off Chusan. The " Yellow Mandarin" fishery is analogous to the her- ring fishery of Great Britain or of Holland. About 300,000 dollars capital is invested in this lucrative trade. Ice-boats attend the fishing- boats off Chusan, and as soon as the fish are caught they are packed in ice, and sent to the most distant parts of the empire*.

* The following extracts from Dr. Gutzlaff's "Retrospect of two years' Peace," written at Hong Kong, November, 1844, entirely confirm my previous report:

"Chusan will hold a very prominent place in the history of our commerce

CHUSAN.

Commercial Advantages of Chusan.--The external commerce of Chusan, on our occupation of the island, consisted chiefly of salted and

and intercourse with this country, whatever the political events may be in future. As a mere territorial possession, its advantages will be considerable. The tea that grows on the island is fit for exportation, though not carefully prepared for a foreign market; it is merely sold at Loo-choo, and other places in Keangsoo. There is space enough, unoccupied by any other cultivation, which could be care- fully planted with tea shrubs; and the proper tea men invited for this branch of trade from the Sungho hills, about seven days' distance from Ningpo.

With a small expense of capital, Chusan and the neighbouring islands might produce, instead of ten or twenty boat-loads as at present, the same number of ship-loads of green tea.

"The silk worm thrives in the island; but is now merely kept by a few females, who take an interest in weaving home-spun dresses. People brought up from their childhood in this branch of industry, could be brought from Loo-choo (one day's sailing distance from Chusan).

"The island is fertile, and contains a dense, industrious, agricultural popula tion, who, though more than ten times the number of the Chinese inhabitants of Hong Kong, require not one-fifth part of the police establishment for keeping them

in order.

"As a fishing station, Chusan possesses great advantages.

"The catching of the Mandarin fish' during the spring months, is a very extensive and lucrative business to the inhabitants, and employs a large capital and many boats.

"For the whale fishery Chusan presents great facilities; for, during summer, the fish go to the Japanese seas, and along the coast of Korea, whither they have never yet been pursued. Vessels, therefore, fitting out in the island, would be just in the track.

"As a commercial emporium, few places in Asia can vie, in point of situation, with Chusan, On the opposite main are the most flourishing cities, as respects manufactures as well as commerce. In its neighbourhood the largest rivers in China disembogue, and these will always be the highroads of commerce. It is only two days' sail from Japan--the same from Korea; and though the former country still remains hermetically sealed, and the other has always kept aloof from contact with the whole world, they cannot always maintain this exclusion of national intercourse. Chusan is a half-way station between the northern and southern provinces; and was, as such, visited by large numbers of juuks before the con- quest.

"Inasmuch as it ought now to be an object of our constant endeavour to open new outlets for British manufactures, no spot on earth presents such facilities as Chusan at the present moment.

"As a station for European troops the climate is most favourable; it is con- genial to the European constitution, and the soil would produce all the fruits and vegetables to which we are accustomed at home, if properly planted and cultivated. The imperfect attempts made for that purpose have well succeeded; and the mountains might be clad with the vine, instead of with the dwarf fir which now cover their sides.

"On account of the great rise and fall of tide, docks might be constructed on Tea Island,' or on the north coast of Chusan, for the repair of vessels; and it is worthy of remark, that the neighbouring Korean islands produce firs and oaks of the best quality, excellently adapted for the use of carpenters and shipwrights.

"In a political point of view, Chusan appears in the most favourable light. The great political maxim, always as much as possible to keep the peace with the Celestial Empire, can never be so well attained as by retaining possession of this island.

"The neighbourhood of a British force so near the great canal, and only about five days' sail from Pekin, will always make the great emperor very careful to adopt any measures that may wound the feelings of the neighbouring foreigners ; and in case of such an event, the appearance of a few steamers at Kwachoo or Chinkeangfoo, would soon change the views of the great monarch.