or the payment of customs duties, and it was criminal
for any other merchant to engage in the trade with foreigners.

Although it is in the same parallel of latitude as Calcutta, the climate
of Canton is much cooler, and is considered superior to that of most
places situated between the tropics. The extreme range of the
thermometer is from 38 deg. to 100 deg. F., though these extremes are
rarely reached. In ordinary years the winter minimum is about 42 deg.
and the maximum in summer 96 deg.. The hot season is considered to last
from May to October; during the rest of the year the weather is cool.
In shallow vessels ice sometimes forms at Canton; but so rarely is snow
seen that when in February 1835 a fall to the depth of 2 in. occurred,
the citizens hardly knew its proper name. Most of the rain falls during
May and June, but the amount is nothing in comparison with that which
falls during a rainy season in Calcutta. July, August and September are
the regular monsoon months, the wind coming from the south-west with
frequent showers, which allay the heat. In the succeeding months the
northerly winds begin, with some interruptions at first, but from
October to January the temperature is agreeable, the sky clear and the
air invigorating. Few large cities are more generally healthy than
Canton, and epidemics rarely prevail there.

Provisions and refreshments of all sorts are abundant, and in general
are excellent in quality and moderate in price. It is a singular fact
that the Chinese make no use of milk, either in its natural state or in
the form of butter or cheese. Among the delicacies of a Chinese market
are to be seen horse-flesh, dogs, cats, hawks, owls and edible
birds'-nests. The business between foreigners and natives at Canton is
generally transacted in a jargon known as "pidgin English," the Chinese
being extremely ready in acquiring a sufficient smattering of English
words to render themselves intelligible.

The intercourse between China and Europe by the way of the Cape of Good
Hope began in 1517, when Emanuel, king of Portugal, sent an ambassador,
accompanied by a fleet of eight ships, to Peking, on which occasion the
sanction of the emperor to establish a trade at Canton was obtained. It
was in 1596, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that the English first
attempted to open an intercourse with China, but ineffectually, for the
two ships which were despatched on this mission were lost on the outward
voyage, an