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 was considered a pest-house and Java a plantation of Upas trees. I have conversed with many intelligent Europeans who lived many years on the island, and they have invariably spoken of its climate in the most favourable terms.

7. MACAO.—The best season to visit China is the month of August or September, going up with the S. West Moonsoon; admitting of ample time to see all that is to be seen in Canton and its outer waters, and of returning in December or January by the N. East moonsoon. A month may be spent pleasantly at Macao and Hong-Kong.

Macao stands on a fine sheltered bay upon a small rocky Peninsula, cut off from all communication with the main land,by a wall thrown across its Isthmus, thus converting it, as it were,into an island. This barrier is carefully guarded by Chinese soldiers, and no European is allowed to pass it. Macao is a Portuguese settlement and is very strongly fortified; the town is most irregularly built,the streets extremely narrow,crooked, up and down hill, paved with large masses of stone of the rudest description, or a series of stairs, quite impassable for carriages or horses, and only fit for foot passengers;but the Strand is a delightful residence and the abode of all Europeans. Macao is nominally governed by the Portuguese, but the Chinese who form the chief mass of the