European face had ever been seen before, we found, however, the same pilfering predilection. One pickpocket was seized in the act by Lieutenant Dwarris, whose purse he had taken, and, being dragged before a mandarin, received a very severe bambooing. This act of justice it is right to record, as well as an instance of honesty in a Chinese of Kin-san-seu, in returning a watch to the proper owner, who, from inattention, had left it at his house the day before. China has been represented, and in Europe is generally believed to be, a country so overstocked with inhabitants as to require a cultivation of the soil to the utmost extent of which it is capable, in order to supply them with the necessaries of life; and that even this extraordinary degree of culture has been often found insufficient for the purpose. From actual observation, whilst thus coasting along in the ships, we can affirm this not to be the fact. We saw large tracts of good land lying waste, not only on the Tartar side of the Great Wall, but in the province of Shan-tung itself, which could never have been the case had an exuberant population occasioned a demand for subsistence. This erroneous opinion has most probably arisen from the route of strangers generally lying through the more thickly-peopled parts of the country, as well as their listening with too much credulity to the exaggerated statements of the Chinese themselves, who never fail to magnify every circumstance tending to increase in the minds of foreigners their national power and importance. We lost no time at this place, where nothing substantial was to be found *, but proceeded to sea on the 29th, standing to the eastward along the Shan-tung shore. On the 31st we saw the land bearing east; but, the wind being light, anchored in fortythree fathoms. Towards morning we weighed, and the next day anchored again among a cluster of islands, lat. 37° 45′ N., long. 124° 40′ 30' E., on the coast of Corea. * Here parted for Macao the Discovery and Investigator. They were towed up, and sailed down again. The natives here exhibited, by signs and gestures, the greatest aversion to the landing of a party from the ships, making cutthroat motions by drawing their hands across their necks, and pushing the boats away from the beach; but they offered no serious violence. These islands were named Sir James Hall's Group. The main land, of considerable height, was in view, and not far distant. We weighed again, and, the wind being easterly, stood to the southward. On the 2d we were out of sight of any land; but, the wind changing, made sail easterly, and, on the 3d, passed a number of islands, with which the sea was studded as far as as the eye could reach from the mast-head, and, on the 4th, stood into a fine bay, formed by the main land to the northward and eastward, and sheltered in a great degree in other points by Helen's and other islands to the westward. Here we anchored in six fathoms water, in front of a village, a larger town being observed at some distance. In the evening six or seven large boats came off to the Lyra (being nearest the shore), one of them having on |