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 her prosperity. The early trade of the district was confined to Hanyang, a place described as a flourishing port at the remote period treated of in the ''History of the Three States. " Hanyang is now chiefly taken up with official residences, though its suburbs are still the resort of a considerable native trade.

Hankow flourished under the rule of the Mings, and does not seem to have sufl*ered greatly during the disasters which attended their fall. It was then known as the great mart, in fact the commercial centre of the Empire, and was the resort of traders from the furthest north, and from the southernmost provinces Kiang-su and Yunan. Most of the provinces indeed were represented there by guilds, whose halls are still famous for their size and decoration. During Kien-loong's time the pros- perity of Hankow continued to advance until the disastrous epoch of the Taiping rebellion. Then the decay was as rapid as the ruin was complete; and finally, in 1855, the whole city was burned to the ground.

After the Taipings had been expelled from Hupeh, Hankow rose once more out of its ashes, and in 1861 the final arrange- ments for a concession of land to the British Crown were carried into effect. The hoisting of the English colours was follow- ed at once by a splendid settlement, erected on a very unfor- tunate site. The land was bought up in small lots at 2,500 taels each, and enormous sums were squandered before it was discovered that the spot chosen for a foreign settlement was exposed to constant inundations of the most destructive kind. Thus, in the year before my arrival, the flood, which is always looked forward to as the event of the season, bestowed its fertilising favours with no grudging hand; and indeed there was no foretelling to what height the waters, which had already swept away entire suburbs from the cities higher up stream,