spectacle. Probably we were the first European ladies who had ever
walked through the gambling-house, but the gamblers were too intent
even to turn their heads. There also they are always drinking tea. Some
idea of the profits made by the men who "farm" the gambling licenses
may be gained from the fact that the revenue derived by the Government
from the gambling "farms" is over 900 pounds a year.

Spirits are sold in three or four places; and the license to sell them
brings in nearly 700 pounds a year, but a drunken Chinaman is never
seen. There are a few opium inebriates, lean like skeletons, and very
vacant in expression; and every coolie smokes his three whiffs of opium
every night. Only a few of the richer Chinamen have wives, and there
are very few women, as is usual in a mining population. A good many
roads have been made in the State, and the Chinese are building
buggies, gharries, and wagons, and many of the richer ones own them and
import Sumatra ponies to draw them. To say that the Chinese make as
good emigrants as the British is barely to give them their due. They
have equal stamina and are more industrious and thrifty, and besides
that they are always sober, can bear with impunity the fiercest
tropical heat, and can thrive and save where Englishmen would starve.
The immense immigration of Chinese, all affiliated to clubs or secret
societies, might be a great risk to the peace of the State were it not
that they recognize certain leaders known as "Capitans China," who
contrive to preserve order, so far as is known by a wholesome influence
merely; and who in all cases, in return for the security which property
enjoys under our flag, work cordially with the Resident in all that
concerns the good of the State. How these "Capitans" are elected, and
how they exercise their authority, is as inscrutable as most else
belonging to the Chinese. The Chinese seem not so much broadly
patriotic as provincial or clannish, and the "Hoeys," or secret