CHAPTER IX

Great commercial value of opium--Cultivation of the poppy--Exports of opium from India--What opium is--Preparation of the drug--Opinions on the English monopoly of the trade in it--Ingenious mode of smuggling opium--Efforts of Chinese Government to check its importation--Proclamation of the Viceroy Wang--Opinion of Li-Shi-Shen on the properties of opium--The worst form of opium smoking--Its introduction to Formosa by the Dutch--Depopulation of the island--Punishments inflicted on opium-smokers--Opinions of doctors on the effects of opium-eating or smoking--Chinese prisoners deprived of their usual pipe--The real danger to the poor of indulgence in opium--Evidence of Archibald Little--The Chinese and European pipe contrasted 166