Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/184

 180 Ling-Nam.

The population of the city is perhaps 50,000, composed of natives of the district, people from the southern parts of the province (who number about one-third of the whole), several hundred Hunanese, and a few Hakkas. The natives have an entirely distinct dialect of their own, which is quite unlike the Cantonese, and is, in fact, utterly unintelligible to strangers. Cantonese, however, is spoken by nearly all the people, and is the language of trade and general intercourse. All the chief branches of the busi- ness in the place are in the hands of the Cantonese—that is, the people from the districts near the provincial city, and they oppress the natives im many ways, The salt trade, a Government monopoly, is the chief business done, this being the distributing point for a large section of country still further inland, The boats from Canton discharge their cargoes into large warehonses, from which they are sent. by shallow boats up the two small rivers, or by coolies directly overland into Hunan.

The natives of Lien-chow seem more gentle and docile than those of the lower districts. They have less energy and business capacity, perhaps, bnt certainly impress one as more civil and appreciative than the self-eonceited myriads of the south, I have seen much of them in the city, in the market towns, and in scores of their villages, and certainly have met with more friendliness and econ- sideration from them than it has been my fortune to receive in any other part of the province. A special interest attaches to the city just now, as the American Presbyterians are seeking to found a mission there, with missionaries resident. Negotiations for the purchase of land and the renting of houses fall short of completion