Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 551

1850.

Journal of Occurrences.

511

have pitched their tents, and we remarked with much interest, the character and habite of these people. From early morn until late in the evening, these industrious men are engaged in their occupation of house builders, a great number of houses having been exported from China, and the quietness and order, cheerfulness and temperance, which are observable in their habits, is noticed by every one. Search the city through, and you will not find an idle Chinaman, and their cleanliness exceeds any other people we ever saw. The buildings brought from China are generally twenty-eight feet square, one story in height, and twelve feet from the floor to the ceiling. The timbers are round, and many of them very crooked. We have noticed, in several instances, the erection of China buildings of double the size described above-but we suppose that in such cases two separate frames are erected together, thus framing a single building. The first movement after raising the frame is to attach the window, which consists of a frame and blinds without sash. The blind is so constructed as to close itself by its own weight- the slat being of double width outside. The timber is very uniform in size, and about six or eight inches in diameter. The boards are well seasoned, and resemble American cedar. The price of a Chinese building, such as we have described, including the erec- tion is $1500. The building, however, consists simply of the frame and covering. They are brought from Hongkong."-Am. paper.

The cultivation of tea in the United States is noticed in the Report of the Patent Office for 1849, as having been commenced by Mr. Junius Sinith in Greenville, in the northern part of the state of South Carolina, and the hope expressed that in the course of years enough tea will be raised to supply the honie consump- tion. Mr. Smith purchased some five hundred shrubs at one of the Gardens in London, and succeeded in transporting them to South Carolina in perfect health, where they were transplanted into ground prepared for the purpose in Dec. 1848. He has also recently ordered plants and nuts from China in good condition, and purchased and put in order a farin of about 300 acres for their cultivation; and expresses the sanguine hope that he will erelong be able to furnish plants in any quantity to whoever is disposed to attempt the growing of tea. From the novel· ty of the experiment, and the éclat which will attach to the first production of tea in the United States, there can be little doubt but Mr. Sinith will find his la- bors well remunerated; but after the entire failure of the experiments in Brazil and Java, and the partial success in Assam, to manufacture tea, we do not ap- prehend that the exportation to America will materially diminish through these efforts to introduce the tea plant into America. The plant will doubtless grow in the Southern States, but the preparation of the leaf to suit it to the palates of tea-drinkers is quite another thing, and in Rio Janeiro, Java, and Assam has baffled even Chinese manipulators taken from China. The cheapness of labor in China is another point which it will be difficult to compete with, in bringing tea to market against the Chinese.

Amidst

The movements of the insurgents spoken of in the last number have afforded topics for the newsmongers during the past few weeks; if all the rumors respect- ing them which have circulated during this city for the last six weeks could be collected, the recital would present a curious melange of contraries them all we have room for only a few particulars.-The following document from the China Mail gives many details of the proceedings of the insurgents in Kwangsí, in fact, pretty much all that is known :-

Lui Wei-hán upon his knees presents a memorial, praying Your Majesty to give orders for the extermination of the banditti who have been long multiplying in Kwangsi, the dis- order caused by them being excessive.

He would humbly state that whereas banditti have always multiplied (lit. ripened) in Kwang-si, the police service whose duty it is to apprehend them has of late much dete- riorated; the ulcer has been fed, and calamity is the consequence; the robbers have unit- ed themselves in bands to a yet greater extent than formerly, and have gone on without check, gradually spreading until there are some in every district of the province.

In the summer of last year they burned and sacked some tens of shops in the market town of Li-kau in the district of Ma-ping. In the 10th moon, in the district of Tsien- kiang, they burned and pillaged the houses of Moh King-yun, a kü-jin, and several hun. dred persons, whom they treated with the greatest barbarity; and it does not appear that these circumstances have been reported by the Governor. All that is on record is his denunciation of the authorities of the districts of Kwei, Yung-fuh, and Yung-án, where a large body of banditti had burned and sacked a number of shops, and killed the inhabi- tants of certain villages in the last moon of last year.

It has lately come to the knowledge of your servant (the memorialist), that the ban- ditti, already numerous, have greatly gained head in the different departments [of