A very extensive branch of trade is carried on by a direct communication between Java and China, entirely upon Chinese capital, in a description of vessels called junks. From eight to ten of these vessels arrive annually from Canton and Amoi, with cargoes of teas, raw silk, silk piece goods, varnished umbrellas, iron pots, coarse china-ware, sweetmeats, nankeen, paper, and innumerable minor articles, particularly calculated for the Chinese settlers. They are from three to eight hundred tons burthen, and sail at stated periods, generally reaching Batavia with the north-east monsoon, about the month of January. Of all the imports from China, that which produces the most extensive effects on the commercial and political interests of the country is the native himself: besides their cargoes, these junks bring a valuable import of from two to five hundred industrious natives in each vessel. These emigrants are usually employed as coolies or labourers on their first arrival; but, by frugal habits and persevering industry, they soon become possessed of a little property, which they employ in trade, and increase by their prudence and enterprize. Many of them, in course of time, attain sufficient wealth to render themselves independent, and to enable them to remit considerable accumulations yearly to their relations in China. As these remittances are generally made in the valuable articles, such as birds'-nests, Malayan camphor, _bich de mar_, tin, opium, pepper, timber, leather hides, indigo, gold and silver, the return cargoes of these vessels amount to an almost incredible value.