We wonder that the writer, who prepared this account of Canton, did not allow the Americans the accommodations of a factory, since he would make them "trade here to a greater extent than any other nation." And we are surprised that the learned and able editor should have allowed such an article to escape his notice. By a reference to any gentleman, who had ever visited the place, or who had any knowledge of the "China trade," the principal errors could have been easily corrected.
The "inhabitants of distinction" make use of sedans—not "litters;" and Chinese, as well as Tartar women, are sometimes seen in the streets. The boat-town, "nearly a league from Canton," is quite out of place. The river runs parallel to the wall on the south side of the city, and distant from it not more than thirty or forty rods; it is on the waters of this river, and directly opposite to "the town and suburbs," that the "floating city" is situated; so that, instead of being three miles, it is scarcely a stone's-throw from that which occupies terra firma. The inhabitants of these 40,000 "barks" are not, and but a few of them ever were, "prohibited by law from settling on shore." A great majority of the "barks," we may remark in passing, are nothing more than little tanka ("egg-house") boats, containing only four or five poor women and children. The "American paper," issued twice a month, called the Canton Register, "which has lately been established" here, was commenced in the autumn of 1827; and except the editorial department, for a few weeks, the work has never been in the hands of Americans.
We might extend this critique, and point out other errors; but we deem it unnecessary, inasmuch as we expect soon to traverse the same ground, and will then lay before our readers such accounts concerning the 'provincial city,' as the interest of the subject, and the circumstances of the case seem to require.
