AMOY  , a

city and treaty-port in the province of Fuh-kien, China, situated on the slope of a hill, on the south coast of a small and barren island named Hiamen, in 240 28' N. and 118° io' E . It is a large and exceedingly dirty place, about 9 M. in circumference, and is divided into two portions, an inner and an outer town, which are separated from each other by a ridge of hills, on which a citadel of considerable strength has been built . Each of these divisions of the city possesses a large and commodious harbour, that of the inner town, or city proper, being protected by strong fortifications . There are dry-docks and an excellent anchorage . Amoy may be regarded as the port of the inland city of Chang-chow, with which it has river communication, and its trade, both foreign and coastwise, is extensive and valuable . The chief articles imported are sugar, rice, raw cotton and opium, as well as cotton cloths, iron goods and other European manufactures . The chief exports are tea, porcelain and paper . The trade carried on by means of Chinese junks is said to be large, and the native merchants are considered to be among the wealthiest and most enterprising in China . By other vessels the trade in 187o was: imports, £1,915,427; exports, £I,44o,000 . In 1904 the figures were:—imports, £2,081,494; exports, £384,494 . The falling off of exports is due to the decreased demand for China tea, for which Amoy was one of the chief centres . The native population is now estimated at 300,000, and the foreign residents number about 280 .

A large

part of the trade is that carried on with the neighbouring Japanese island of Formosa . The province of Fuh-kien is claimed by the Japanese as their particular sphere of influence . Amoy was captured by the British in 1841, after a determined resistance, and is one of the five ports that were opened to British commerce by the treaty of 1842; it is now open to the ships of all nations .