The House Compradores were always glad to avail themselves of such an opportunity to send to Macao a lot of 'Chow-chow' cargo on their own account, a privilege we never refused. This accounts for the sentence in No. 4—'proceeding to Macao with fine tea for sale.' Whence came the 200 catties (266 pounds) of lead was a mystery to me, but the 270 catties of 'iron ware' were iron chests, and 270 catties of foreign white paper certain office books of accounts and stationery, removed from the Canton offices in consequence of the unsettled state of affairs, with a quantity of house stores, &c. The details of everything is peculiarly a Chinese idea, and as similar documents are now no longer issued, and the inside passage to Macao never taken under former circumstances, they are curious in their way. The outside passage, by the way of the Bogue and in splendid steamers, is now the order of the day.
The word tea is of Chinese origin, being a corruption of tay in the Fuh-Keen dialect, the province from whence it was first exported to Europe. The leaf has always retained its name of tea in the West, notwithstanding that in Canton, from which port it has been shipped for nearly 250 years, it is called chā. This word means the infusion, while chā-yip, analogous to 'leaves for infusion,' is the tea of commerce. The varieties are very numerous, and are classed under the heads of black and green. It is only within fifty-five years that Oolongs and Ankoys have been shipped, and chiefly to the United States. These are of a light brown colour. Blacks consisted of Bohea, Congo, Souchong, and Powchong. The first derives its name from the celebrated Woo-E Hills of Fuh-Keen; the second signifies Workmen's tea; the third 'small seeds;' and the fourth 'seeds in bundles,' it having been always done up in paper packages. Greens were, 1, 'Young Hyson,' 2, 'Hyson,' 3, 'Hyson Skin,' 4, 'Gunpowder,' and 5, 'Imperial.' The first means in Chinese 'before the rains' (when it was gathered), the second the 'opening of spring,' and the third the 'refuse or end of the crop.' The Chinese name of the fourth signifies 'small pearls' and of the fifth 'large pearls.'
In addition to these were formerly shipped Campoi, Hung-Muy, Sung-Lo, Caper, and Woping; but they have now lost their distinctive names, and if shipped at the present day are merged into other kinds more popularly known.
The choicest of all teas, and which we saw only on special occasions, when it came with the annual New Year presents from the Hong merchants, was 'Padre Souchong,' so called from its having been grown by the priests of a famous monastery. The whole quantity was small; it was put up in canisters of two or three ounces, and was currently supposed to be sent to the Emperor. His Celestial Majesty deigned as a rare favour to present some of it to the most favoured of the high officers of Government at Pekin, and they in their turn, as a great compliment, forwarded a portion to the Hong merchants. This was in return for valuable watches set with pearls, for clocks, musical snuff-boxes, or 'smellum water' (as the Chinese call lavender-water and eau de cologne), which foreign objects it was customary to send to influential mandarins for favours in the past and those in prospective.
The following tradition exists as to this peculiar tea. In spite of the assertion that the entire annual crop is 'offered up to the reigning Emperor,' it is brought to Canton, but in a very limited quantity.
In a deep recess of the Woo-E (Bohea) Hills, surrounded by shrubbery and trees, almost impenetrable to the human eye, stands the Temple of the 'Silver Moon.' Its antiquity is so great that all traces of its origin are lost. The temple has been inhabited from time immemorial by a family of the 'Tea Sect,' which, at the period of the year coinciding with the maturity of the leaves, makes offerings to its patron saint of fine tea. Close by the temple stand three small tea trees, which are tended by the family. They produce but one catty each. These trees were originally planted thousands of years ago by divine hands, and they have never been known to yield more nor less than three catties (4-1/3 pounds).
The original paper of which this is a translation was given to me by Pwan-Suy-Lan, with a small canister of this famous tea; but on asking him if he considered it to have been originally planted by 'Joss,' he answered, he thought not, but that 'he own come'—that is to say, 'it sprang from the ground spontaneously.' It was known that the senior Hong merchant received the greatest quantity of it. As with Pwan-Suy-Lan and Pwankeiqua, Houqua's family had long been tea planters in the Bohea Hills, and were so when they first came to Canton, soon after foreign trade was confined to that port (as he frequently observed to me), about the year 1750.
Well-to-do Chinese drink black tea, but not usually new tea. They keep it in closely-shut earthen jars for a couple of years before using it. This moderates the acrid or pungent quality which new tea possesses more or less, and renders it softer and more acceptable to the taste.