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 of Portuguese and Manilla men at this very same town. They were then in some way impUcated in the piracies of daily occurrence in the China Sea at that time, and the general feeling was that the retribution was not altogether undeserved. Another disaster befel Ningpo in 1861, when it fell into the the hands of the Taipings ; remaining in their possession for about six months, when it was retaken for the Imperialists by the English and French war vessels, and since that time, like many other Chinese cities, has been labouring on peacefully in an effort to regain what it lost at the hands of the rebels and the Imperial troops.

It was daylight when we steamed up the Yang river ; and the harsh outlines of the islands and of Chin-hai promontory close by, were mellowed in the morning light. A great fleet of fishing-boats bound seaward contributed to enliven the scene ; and there were Fukien timber-junks, too, laden till they looked like floating wood-yards, and labouring their way up stream. One feature full of novelty was the endless array of ice-houses lining the banks of the river for miles and presenting the appearance of an encampment of troops. These ice-houses, or ice-pits, are thatched over with straw, and the ice is used to preserve fresh fish during the summer months.

There is a small foreign community on the banks of the Yang of difl*erent nationalities, including the missionary body. The native city is a walled enclosure, somewhat larger than that at Shanghai, and with nearly double its population ; but as for the foreign trade of the place, it has never been very important, in spite of the proximity of Hang-chow-fu, the capital of the province, which the great Venetian, when he passed through it, described as an Eastern Paradise.

Among the chief attractions of Ningpo are the Fukien guild-