tidings of the capture of some vessel engaged
in the same trade, with full details of the horrible
butchery of their crews, success had made me
blindly confident. I laughed to scorn the
proclamation of Yeh offering a reward of
five dollars for every white man's head,
twenty-five for every prisoner, and a
proportionately higher amount for the capture of any
'barbarian' officer.

"The Canton river, from the sea to the city of
that name, is a vast labyrinth of different channels;
some wide and majestic as the main
branch, others narrow, nameless, and tortuous.
I doubt whether any European ever possessed
so good a knowledge of these waters as myself.
I trusted to my acquaintance with the intricate
channels to escape observation; I trusted to the
swiftness of my lorcha to avoid pursuit if
discovered, and I trusted to our heavy armament
and strong crew in case of attack.

"I had just safely reached Hong-Kong with a
full cargo of choice teas, and the place was in a
tremendous uproar about the attempt the
Chinese had made to poison the whole colony
by mixing arsenic with the bread, when I
received the offer of another and still higher
freight, to be taken up at Whampoa, the small
town below Canton, where vessels lie to take
in and discharge their cargoes. The service
had now really become extremely dangerous,
the river and coast being scoured by Chinese
row-boats and war-junks, the crews of which
were eagerly looking out for every available
chance to pocket the liberal blood money offered
for the head of any and every 'foreign devil.'

"My friends tried hard to dissuade me from
the venture; my wife, too, did her best—we
had only been married about thirteen months
—and a mother's tender solicitude for her first-born
made her timid. Against the prudent
counsel of wife and friends my wayward nature
rebelled. The native merchant who made the
agreement hinted at the best route by which to
reach Whampoa, declaring that all others were
now watched by the Imperialist gunboats and
their bloodthirsty crews. A shade of suspicion
crossed my mind at this statement, for I did
not entirely believe it, feeling pretty sure that
the mandarins had not a sufficient number of
vessels to accomplish so much. Still, it was
too late to retract; the agreement had been
signed; I had publicly announced my determination
to make the voyage, and was, moreover,
getting the lorcha under weigh when the Chinaman
came on board with the information.

"My crew now consisted of myself and mate,
Jack Ikey, a young English sailor who had
been some time with me; also of a European just
engaged as supernumerary or second mate, Joe
—the only name by which he was known—a
tall and powerful Frenchman, who had a
well-earned reputation for prowess, and who was
the hero of many a perilous adventure in
Chinese territory; also six Manillamen, and,
lastly, a complement of twenty-five Chinese
sailors, officered by my father-in-law and his
one assistant.

"The lorcha was well found in everything—
sails, spars, stores, ammunition, nothing was
wanting; and she was heavily armed with two
pivot guns, a long eighteen amidships, a
carronade of the same calibre forward, as well as
three nine-pounders on each broadside.
Besides this, we carried a supply of the dreaded
'stinkpots,' those suffocating, burning hand-
grenades common to Chinese warfare. Not a
vessel on the coast could overhaul her; as for
the Imperialist ti-mungs (sea-going war-junks),
she could sail three feet to their one.

"Thinking of all this, as I puffed away at my
cheroot, and bent over the weather rail, watching
the deep blue water glide rapidly astern,
I laughed to scorn my former suspicion and
presentiment; my spirits became elate as my
beautiful lorcha dashed away from the safe
Hong-Kong anchorage, a fine fresh breeze
filling her canvas, a clear blue sky, and a bright
golden sunshine smiling propitiously at the
commencement of her voyage.

"A-choong, my father-in-law, in whose sagacity
I had every confidence, had been so certain of
our charterer's good faith, that I determined to
follow the route indicated by the latter; not
only to avoid the enemy supposed to be on the
alert elsewhere, but also because it formed one
of the most direct channels I knew.

"About four o'clock in the afternoonwe passed
the celebrated Bocca Tigris, that rocky throat,
between the sides of which the great estuary of
the Canton river becomes narrowed to a breadth
considerably less than two miles. We passed it in
the far distance, and could only just distinguish
the outlines of the British men-of-war forming
the blockading squadron, behind which appeared
the blackness of the pass, thrown into deep
shadow by the tall impending cliffs on either
hand. Sailing along the coast, about half way
to Macao, amongst a numerous cluster of small
islands, we came to the channel I had been
advised to take; but, as it was getting dark, we
were obliged to anchor till daylight. Scarcely
had the anchor reached the bottom, when a
small quick-pulling boat put off from the
shore, and a yellow-skinned, bony, squinting,
and altogether villanous-looking Chinaman
scrambled on board; he made his way aft,
'chin-chinning,' grinning, and wishing to know
whether we required a pilot.

"' Chi loh! (be off), you ugly sinner,' cried
my mate.

"But the intruder would not budge, and as he
excused the delay by asking whether we required
any fruit or vegetables, or a gang of coolies to
work the cargo upon reaching our destination,
I could not exactly tell whether, with his
horribly squinting and oblique eyes, he was
looking at me, or taking a survey of my vessel,
her crew and armament; I rather fancied the
latter.

"' Pass him over the side, Jack,' said I, feeling
assured, from his general appearance, that
the fellow was no pilot.

"The mate responded by seizing the Chinaman's
tail close up with one hand, and the