EUROPEAN NATIONS. 281 make no sacrifices. The Portuguese went the length of building ships of I6OO tons, the enor- mous caracks of which so many suffered ship- wreck. The Dutch went nearly as far, and the result was the same. It is probably to the same principle we are to ascribe the enormous, awkward, and barbarous junks of the Chinese Hongs or se- curity merchants, and w^hich are of a kind un- known to the private merchants even of that coun- try. * It has been stated that the trade to China is conducted with peculiar advantage in ships of 1200 tons burden, from the smailness of the du- ties which such ships pay, compared to vessels of less size ; but this argument will be found, on ex- amination, as unsubstantial as many others which have been vaguely advanced in favour of the same principles. The duties paid in China on ships of any description are extremely trifling, and cannot weigh for a moment against more material consi- derations. The duties on a vessel of 1200 tons, under the designation of port-charges, (Mjushaxcy or present, &;c. amount to about 27s. a ton, and on • Captain Sari's picturi^ of a royal junk at Japan conveys a very just notion of this class of shipping. " There lay in a docke a juncke of eiglit hundred or a thousand tunnes of burthen, sheathed all. with yron, with a guard appointed to keep her from firing and treachery. She was built in a very homely fashion, much like that which describcth Noali's Arkc into us." — Purckas, Dook III, Vol. I.
