It was in the year 1745 that Yung Ching, the third Emperor of the present dynasty, ordered all foreign trade to be confined to the port of Canton, universally known as Whampoa. Separated by a branch of the river from French Island stands Dane's Island. These were so named from the privilege that those nationalities originally enjoyed of occupying bankshalls or storehouses upon them, wherein to shelter the crews while smoking ship and overhauling after the desperately long passages they must have made from Europe. All vestiges of those buildings have long since disappeared, but numerous decaying tombstones, half buried beneath earth and weeds, still tell the tale. The regular tea season being over, we found few vessels at Whampoa, and these, as with the 'Citizen,' were designated, 'out of season ships.' The northern side of the anchorage is formed by the important island of Wang-Po; the river is named the Wang-Po, and the same is applied to the anchorage. The words mean the 'Yellow Anchorage.' On the island is a large town of many thousand inhabitants, almost all of whom are directly or indirectly connected with the foreign shipping, as compradores, stevedores, blacksmiths, &c. The Choo, or Pearl River, commonly called the Canton River, presented a vastly different appearance on the 21st February, 1825, from what it did twenty years later. It was then crowded with native vessels, including those immense coasting junks which have now almost entirely disappeared. They then made voyages to the northern and southern ports of China, to the Celebes, Borneo and Java, and to Singapore, as well as to Manila. Long tiers of salt junks lined the shore of the island of Honam; these brought cargoes from Teenpak and places on the coast south-westward of Macao. They were owned by a corporation of salt merchants, who enjoyed a monopoly of the trade, and, to prevent smuggling, a special fleet of cruisers was organised by the local government. The penalties against a clandestine introduction of salt were as severe and more rigorously carried out than even against opium. The merchants were an influential body, as much considered as the Hong merchants, whom they rivalled in wealth. The number of cargo boats from the interior, of passenger boats, floating residences and up-country craft, with Government cruisers and flower boats, was prodigious. To these must be added sampans,[6] ferry boats plying to and from Honam, and quantities of barbers' boats, vendors of every description of food, of clothes, of toys, and what would be called household requirements if in shops on shore; besides boats of fortune-tellers and of theatrical performers--in short, imagine a city afloat, and it conveys a very correct idea of the incessant movement, the subdued noises, the life and gaiety of the river.