[118] "The Hong merchants (Chinese) were twelve in number, licensed by government as intermediate agents in trade, between foreign merchants and the Chinese people, becoming responsible for the good conduct of the former, and, at the same time, securing to the Emperor the payment of all maritime duties." (Allen, Opium Trade, p. 45.)--Eds. [119] Dr. Nathan Allen, in a pamphlet entitled The Opium Trade (Lowell, Mass., 1853), presents a history of this traffic, describes its results in both China and India, and protests against its continuance. He states that opium, originally a native of Persia, spread thence into Turkey and India, being cultivated more extensively in the latter country than anywhere else in the world. In 1767 the British East India Company formed the plan of sending opium from Bengal to China, where but little of this drug had previously been sold; but they had little success in this until 1794, when they began a traffic which lasted some twenty-five years at the ports of Whampoa and Macao. In 1821, the opium merchants abandoned these places, on account of difficulties encountered in their trade, and centered it at Lintin Island, in the bay at the entrance to Canton River, where it rapidly increased. "Here might be seen large armed vessels reposing, throughout the year, at anchor, constituting a floating depot of storehouses, for receiving the opium in large quantities from the ships bringing it from India, and dealing it out in chests and cases to the Chinese junks, to be retailed at various points on shore. The Merope, Capt. Parkyns, in 1821, was the first ship that commenced the system of delivering opium at different cities along the coast of China, and from that time, the trade increased with wonderful rapidity. Eligible places also on the east and north-east coast of China were selected to station receiving vessels, to which the Chinese might easily have access, and become participators in the trade." Allen cites many contemporary and high authorities. Among these, James Holman says, in 1830 (Travels in China, p. 162), that the opium boats "are but seldom interfered with, nor are they likely to be, so long as the Free Traders can afford to pay the mandarins so much better for not fighting, than the government will for doing their duty. The use of opium has become so universal among the people of China, that the laws which render it penal, and the proclamations which send forth their daily fulminations against its continuance, have not the slightest effect in checking the prevalence of so general a habit. Smoking houses abound in Canton; and the inhabitants of every class who can furnish themselves with the means to obtain the pipe, are seldom without this article of general luxury. It is a propensity that has seized upon all ranks and classes, and is generally on the increase." From the year 1800, the Chinese government tried to stop this traffic, strictly prohibiting