Mr. Maciff divides the time as follows by the Puget Sound route:—
| Southampton to Halifax, | 9 | days. |
| Halifax to Puget Sound, | 6 | " |
| Puget Sound to Hong-Kong, | 21 | " |
| — | ||
| 36 |
The voyage by Suez is made in the Peninsular and Oriental line of steamers. The passage is proverbially comfortless,—through the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, across the Bay of Bengal, through the Straits of Malacca, and up the Chinese coast, under a tropical sun. Bayard Taylor thus describes the trip down the Red Sea:—
"We had a violent head-wind, or rather gale. Yet, in spite of this current of air, the thermometer stood at 85° on deck, and 90° in the cabin. For two or three days we had a temperature of 90° to 95°. This part of the Red Sea is considered to be the hottest portion of the earth's surface. In the summer the air is like that of a furnace, and the bare red mountains glow like heaps of live coals. The steamers at that time almost invariably lose some of their firemen and stewards. Cooking is quite given up."[U]
Bankok, Singapore, and Java can be reached more quickly from England by Puget Sound than by Suez.
Notwithstanding the discomforts of the passage down the Red Sea, the steamers are always overcrowded with passengers, and loaded to their utmost capacity with freight. The French line, the Messageries Imperials de France, has been established, and is fully employed. Both lines pay large dividends.
The growth of the English trade with China during the last sixteen years has been very rapid. Tea has increased 1300 per cent, and silk 950.[V]
The trade between the single port of Shanghai and England and America in the two great staples of export is seen from the following statement of the export of tea and silk from that port from July 1, 1859, to July 1, 1860:—
| Tea, lbs. | Silk, bales. | |
| Great Britain, | 31,621,000 | 19,084 |
| United States, | 18,299,000 | 1,554 |
| Canada, | 1,172,000 | |
| France, | 47,000 |
The total value of exports from England to China in 1860 was $26,590,000. Says Colonel Sykes:—