As, however, they have not much cattle, and consequently but little manure, they endeavour to supply the want of it by other means, and hence their great care of anything that can serve as a substitute.
All their small streets are built against the city walls, so that we had been going round them for some time before we were aware of the fact.

Mean-looking gates or wickets, which all foreigners are strictly prohibited from passing, and which are shut in the evening, lead into the interior of the town.
I was told that it has often happened for sailors, or other strangers, during their walks, to penetrate through one of these entrances into the interior of the town, and not discover their mistake until the stones began flying about their ears.
After threading our way for at least two miles through a succession of narrow streets, we at length emerged into the open space, where we obtained a full view of the city walls, and from the summit of a small hill which was situated near them, a tolerably extensive one over the town itself.

The city walls are about sixty feet high, and, for the most part, so overgrown with grass, creeping plants, and underwood, that they resemble a magnificent mass of living vegetation.

The town resembles a chaos of small houses, with now and then a solitary tree, but we saw neither fine streets nor squares, nor any remarkable buildings, temples, or pagodas.

A single pagoda, five stories high, reminded us of the peculiar character of Chinese architecture.
Our road now lay over fertile eminences, varied with fields and meadows in a high state of cultivation.