On the north and northeast of the city, the country is hilly and mountainous. In every other direction a wide prospect opens to the view of the beholder. The rivers and canals, which are very numerous, abound with fish, and are covered with a great variety of boats, which are continually passing to and from the neighbouring towns and villages. Southward from the city, as far as the eye can see, the waters cover a considerable portion, perhaps a third of the whole surface. Rice-fields, and gardens, occupy the lowlands, which are diversified with a few hills, rising here and there, to relieve the otherwise unbroken aspect. The extent of the city, including all within and without the walls, is not very great; though very populous, it derives its chief importance from its extensive domestic and foreign trade. Canton is one of the oldest cities in this part of the empire; since the foundations were first laid, it has undergone numerous changes. It is not easy, perhaps impossible, to determine its original site and name, or to ascertain the time in which it was first built. Although either of the questions is unimportant to the reader, a brief account of what the Chinese themselves narrate, respecting one of their largest and most populous cities, may interest him. Their classics speak of Canton being in existence four thousand years since; that it was then called Nan-keaon, and Ming-too, “the splendid capital.” It first began to pay tribute to the emperors of China in the year B. C. 1123. The historians of the empire are only able to trace the origin of Canton to the last emperors of the Chow dynasty, two thousand years since; it was then surrounded by a stockade, composed of bamboo and mud. We find it was but little visited by foreign vessels till the year one thousand before Christ, when they held intercourse with eight “barbarous” nations, from Teeu-chuh (India.)