FREDERICK WELLS WILLIAMS.

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" Martello Tower " in China
and The Pacific

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II. M.S. "TklHIINK" UNIiKR l-.ASY SAll.

Frontispiece

"Martello Tower" in China
and The Pacific
IN H.M.S. "TRIBUNE"
1856-60

BY
FRANCIS MARTIN NORMAN
COMMANDER, R.N.
AUTHOR OF
"AT SCHOOL AND AT SEA"

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
GEORGE ALLEN, 156, CHARING CROSS ROAD
x 1902
[All rights reserved]

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &• Co.
At the Ballantyne Press

To
THE REVEREND FREDERICK GLANVILL
THIS BOOK
is
'DEDICATED
AS A MARK OF MUCH AFFECTION
AND ESTEEM

PREFACE

Encouraged by the highly favourable reception
accorded to his first volume, both by the Press and
by his friends, the Author of " At School and at Sea "
invites the reader to accompany him in his further
experiences in other parts of the world.
This volume is a record, though, of course, only
partially so, of the long, interesting, and eventful
commission on the China and Pacific Stations, from
1856 to i860, of H.M.S. Tribune, of 31 guns, 1570
tons, and 300 h.-p., a typical wooden screw steam-
frigate of the transitional period of our navy, in
which both the outgoing reign of sail and the in
coming reign of steam were represented. That period,
though short, not lasting much longer than ten years,
from 1853 or thereabouts, was an important one, as
besides constituting an epoch in naval history, it was
productive of some of the most beautiful specimens
of naval architecture that ever " walked the waters
like things of life," from the famous Agamemnon, of
Sebastopol fame, onwards.
The Tribune was fitted out by Captain Harry
Edmund Edgell (afterwards Commodore and C.B.)
for the Pacific, of which, however, she was not des
tined to see much, as not long after her arrival,
owing to the outbreak of the Chinese war, she was
ordered to make the long, and, in those days, rarely

viii PREFACE
performed voyage from the west coast of South
America to China.
The passage through Magellan's Straits; the ob
servations there of the early Chilian settlement; of
the Patagonians, Fuegians, and missionary dealings
with the latter ; of the curious steamer-duck (of which
an engraving is given); of revolutionary outbreaks on
the Peruvian coast ; and, more than all, of experiences
at the Chincha Islands, with their now extinct, but
then extremely valuable and important guano industry,
will, it is hoped, repay perusal.
The chapters on China cover a period of about
nineteen months, during the war of 1856-58 (including
the occupation of Canton), which immediately resulted
from the "Lorcha Arrow Incident," and was finally
concluded by the treaty ratified at Pekin in i860,
when a new era in the history of the Celestial Empire
was initiated ; they are, therefore, comparatively
" ancient history," yet may claim attention as dealing
with a specially important and critical epoch in
Anglo-Chinese relations, and furnishing information
and a retrospect, which, as will be seen, are not
altogether pleasant reading for British subjects.
Life in the Canton River has so often been
described that it may be thought that there is nothing
new to be said about it, yet in so original and won
derful a country as China, features of interest are always
to be found within the range of an observant eye,
especially under the circumstances in which the Author
was placed ; while as regards more warlike events, he
believes that the wound which he received during one
of the boat-actions which he describes to be one of the
most curious on record.

PREFACE

IX

During the latter half of her commission Captain
Geoffrey Phipps Hornby reigned in the Tribune;
indeed she may almost be said to have " discovered "
that celebrated officer, for when he joined he was
very young and unknown to fame, never having held
independent command before. The Author's early
impressions and experiences of the famous Sir Geoffrey,
who so quickly and decidedly gave promise of that
professional pre-eminence which so distinguished him
in later years, cannot fail to interest a large circle of
naval readers, as well as many beyond it.
The present volume is of rather different character
to that of its predecessor ; but it must be remembered
that it is the record of a later age, when the midship
man's berth had been left behind, and professional life,
with its duties and responsibilities, had assumed a more
serious aspect. It differs, at all events, in this respect
— that, with scarcely an exception, the dramatis personce
appear under their real names.
A visit to Manila and its famous cigar factories, and
one to Japan before it was " opened to the public," are
described, as well as, during the voyage homeward, a
remarkable rescue of the crew of a sinking guano-ship.
The last part of the book consists of a year's
reminiscences of Vancouver's Island in 1859-60, during
its early history, when its importance, especially as a
naval station, was yet jn embryo, when Victoria was
still called " The Fort," and its American flavour was
predominant, when railways were unknown, and when
ships' masts, being still of wood, could, if defective, be
replaced on the spot, as the Tribune's mainmast was.
The joint occupation of the island of San Juan by
Great Britain and the United States, in which the

x PREFACE
Tribune took a leading part, occurred during the above-
named period, when, as the narrative shows, but for a
most fortunate and timely occurrence, a rupture with
the United States would almost certainly have resulted.
These details have not appeared before.
In conclusion, the Author expresses his warmest
thanks to Miss Edgell of Chichester, for so kindly
allowing him free access to her late talented father's
portfolio, the larger number of the illustrations being
taken from his original paintings done on the spot.
He has also to thank Mr. Goodchild, F.G.S., of the
Geological Survey, for an excellent copy of the steamer
duck from Oustalet's "Voyage to Cape Horn"; and
Dr. W. Bertie Mackay of Berwick-on -Tweed, for kind
assistance from his facile pencil.
Berwick-upon-Tweed, April 1902.

CONTENTS

PART I
TOWARDS CHINA BY VALPARAISO, PERU, AND
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS
CHAPTER I
H.M.S. TRIBUNE
PAGE
Join H.M.S. Tribune — Hulks — Adventure with a Commander-
in-Chief — A Royal Send-off — St. Vincent — Knowledge of
Natural History useful to Naval Men — Reefing Topsails —
The Language of Pipes — Troubles of Naval Instructors —
— Sharks and Pilot-fish, and their Analogues — Skip
jacks  3-18
CHAPTER II
MAGELLAN'S STRAITS, VALPARAISO, AND PERU
Magellan's Straits — An embarrassing Death Vacancy in posse —
Size and Strength of Patagonians — The Drink Traffic —
Steamer Ducks — Tierra-del-Fuego — Charles Darwin on
Missionary Work there — The Peruvian Coast— Peru and
its Revolutions — " Triumfo con Sangre " — Adventures at
Arica and Izlay — Callao — Lima  19-36
CHAPTER III
THE CHINCHA ISLANDS
Peru — Guano — The Chinchas and their Guano Industry —
Adventures there — The Chinchas as a Sanatorium —
Theatricals and American Banquet — Ordered to China 37-59

PAGE

xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER IV
ACROSS THE PACIFIC WESTWARD
Voyage across the Pacific via the Sandwich Islands— Ocean
Birds — Ship's Biscuit— Moon and Weather — Nelson's
Coat— Winds, Currents, and their Origin— Oceanic and
Cosmic Dust — Sea Songs— Honolulu— About the Cat —
Chronometers— Arrival at Hong Kong . . . 60-78

PART II
CHINA
CHAPTER I
HONG KONG
The Chinese Empire — What led to the War of 1856 — Home
Opinions — Hong Kong — Floating Population — A Marine's
Desert — The Chinese Language — Pidgin English —
" Hansum Facee no hab got" — "Chitty Kochs" — Conjur
ing Birds and other Hong Kong Sights — Currency —
Missionaries  81-98
CHAPTER II
THREE BOAT ACTIONS
Three Boat Actions: (1) Escape Creek; (2) Sawshi Creek,
Capture and Destruction of War-junks ; I am Wounded ;
(3) Fatshan— Boyle's Narrative— Barker's Death . 99-126
CHAPTER III
FORT CHUENPEE
Pirates— "One too many" for Lieut. X.— We Garrison Fort
Chuenpee— Life, Adventures, and Observations there-
Tragic Event— " Red" Marines-About Rice . . 1-7-148

CONTENTS xiii
CHAPTER IV
MANILA
PAGE
To Manila — The Pratas-Shoals : Expedition to Explore —
Manila and its Cigar Factory — I unexpectedly Get a
Coveted Book — Treasure Island — Change of First
Lieutenant .  149-161
CHAPTER V
HONG KONG
Hong Kong Again — Official Etiquette — Auctions — " Sing
song-Pidgin" — U.S. Ship Minnesota — We are pronounced
a Moral People — When the Doctor Smokes — Soda-water-
bottle Guns — Dahlgren, Armstrong, and Improvement in
Guns — A Dutchman " thinks he's Captain " — Second Bom
bardment, Capture, and Occupation of Canton — " Burying
the Wrong Man" — Idolatry, Ancestral Worship, and Mis
sionary Prospects — Naval Forces in Chinese Waters —
" Puffers " — Lieut. Jones's Prescriptions — Loss of the
Camilla  162-183
CHAPTER VI
CANTON
Captain Edgell made Naval Commandant and Commissioner
at Canton — Peculiar Scenery of Canton Delta — Yeh — We
proceed to Whampoa — Scotchmen — Mr. Cowper's Anec
dotes — Was' Gals, Miss Teapot, Sarvee Starchy ! —
Restcme of the Opium Question and Policy of British
Government — Opium the Real Diplomatic Crux — Visit
to Canton — A Marine "looks different" — Sights in the
Straight Street — Pigtails — Disposal of Sewerage — A
Hornet Stung!  184-204
CHAPTER VII
WHAMPOA
Whampoa— Sepoys and Caste— An Old Salt— I Become a Bill-
sticker— The Religions of China — Example of Professing
Christians a Great Hindrance to Missionary Work — Chop-

xiv CONTENTS
PAGE
sticks— We Surprise a Company of Small-footed Women
—About Foot Binding— My Boat's Crew evince a Piratical
Tendency — Duck-boats — Mason-bee — Solvetur Con-
firmendo ...  205-221
CHAPTER VIII
A SHORT BUT EVENTFUL CHAPTER— CHANGE OF CAPTAINS
—FAREWELL TO CHINA
Commodore Edgell Departs — Captain Hornby Joins — A
Remarkable Man — His Professional Antecedents — We are
Docked — Tea Clippers — Embark Marines and Proceed to
Sea bound for Vancouver — Subsequent Published Stric
tures of this Period not all well Considered — Long and
Stormy Voyage and Dangerous Condition of Mainmast
Obliging us to make for Nagasaki, Japan, to Refit . 222-229

PART III
HOMEWARD BY JAPAN AND VANCOUVER ISLAND
CHAPTER I
NAGASAKI— " ADVANCE JAPAN A NATION THOROUGHLY
IN EARNEST"
Nagasaki — Entertained by Governor — Japanese Etiquette  A
Surprise — Interpreters — Buddhist Priests assist our
Chaplain at a Funeral — Buddhist Temple and Devotees 
Shooting Excursion — A Wild-goose Chase — Bag of Fowls
Espionage— Repair Mast, and Sail for Vancouver Island 233-245
CHAPTER II
VANCOUVER ISLAND
Vancouver— Antecedents of— Esquimalt— Victoria— Miners— I
am Photographed— The Douglas Fir— New Mainmast
-"Officer of the Day"— Geese, Wild and Tame— Native
Mode of Fishing— Kicking Horse Pass . . . 246-264

CONTENTS xv
CHAPTER III
SAN JUAN
PAGE
A great Shock — Where is the Tribune ? — San Juan and its
" Difficulty " — Ambiguous Clauses — Value of a Comma — A
Proprietor in posse takes Time by the Forelock — Doings
of the Americans — Excitement — A Critical Moment for
Boyle — Governor Douglas — Mr. Macfarlane's Potatoes —
Deserters — A Fatal Accident — I earn a Paragraph in the
Victoria Gazette  265-276
CHAPTER IV
NANAIMO AND THE EAST COAST
Hyder Indians — Missionary Work — We Escort the Hyders
Northwards — Nanaimo and its Coal — Wolves — Beavers —
Evolution — " Captain George" — Hornby Island and Tribune
Harbour — A Notable Pistol Shot — A Significant Nod —
Hornby's Impartiality — Expedition to look for Hyders —
Tommy Gooch's Advice — Sheriff Heaton meets his
Match  277-290
CHAPTER V
THE LAST VOYAGE
Homeward Bound ! — Hornby's Principles of Government —
Conception — An Alarm — Flags of the Navy — Save Crew of
a Sinking Guano Ship — Incidents and Coincidences — The
Freemason at Rio — Reach England — Extraordinary
Instance of Rapid Promotion — Farewell, Old Ship . 291-299

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

H.M.S. "Tribune" Under Easy Sail
Outline of H.M.S. "Tribune's" Stations
Steamer Duck, (from Oustalet's " Voyage
to Cape Horn") 
View in Magellan's Straits . .' .
The Chincha Islands {colour) . . . .
Loading Guano Ships 
Hammer-headed Shark 
Midshipman's Patch 
H.M.S. "Tribune" Under Steam
Outline of Delta of Canton River
Fatshan 
Boyle's Boat's Ensign Staff after Fatshan
Snake or Fast Boat of Canton River
{colour) 
A Surprise Visit ....
Section of Opium Pipe
Ancient Chinese Rice Mortar
Commissioner Yeh
Eight-Storied Pagoda at Canton
Chinese Female Feet (from life)
Duck Boat of Canton River {colour)
Cell of Mason Bee .
Chinese Rudder .
Outline of Vancouver Island
Cone of Douglas Fir .
Parhelia, or Mock Suns .
Result of Tommy Gooch's Advice
H.M.S. "Tribune's" Monument

Frontispiece PACK
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. 122
to face 127
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OFFICERS OF H.M.S. TRIBUNE

1856

1S60

Captain . .

. Harry E. Edgell

Geoffrey Phipps Hornby

Lieutenant

. Wm. L. Staniforth

David Boylk

n • •

. David Boyle

E. D. Pantbr Downes

j) • •

. Robert J. Stotherd

Francis M. Norman

»»

. Francis M. Norman

Hamilton Dunlop

Master . . .

. John H. T. Norris

First Lieut, Mar. A. H. Ozzard

F. E. M. St. John-

Chaplain and
Naval Instructor

| Rev. J. J. Balleine

Surgeon . .

. James Harvey

George B. Hill

Paymaster . .

. William Dewar

Chief Engineer
. Charles King
Robert Moore
Mate . . .
— Childers (act)
Assist. -Surgeon
W. R. Bennett
Second Master
. — Gray
?
Assist.-Paymaster W. N. Rowe
Midshipmen— Barker, Byles, Clanchy, Davies (Master's AssL),
Elwyn, Hawkins, Hunt, Charles Compton Rising,1
Phillips (Master's Asst.), T. Vincent, Walter, Williams
(now in Holy Orders).
1 Cadet, 1856; Lieut., 1863; Com., 1865; Gapt., 1875.
This List of Midshipmen, <5w., may he incomplete.
PART I
TOWARDS CHINA BY VALPARAISO, PERU*
AND THE SANDWICH ISLANDS

CHAPTER I
H.M.S. TRIBUNE
The reader who did me the honour of accompanying
me through the first volume of my experiences at
school and at sea, will remember how, having success
fully overcome all obstacles in the way of examinations
which guarded the portals of the coveted distinction, I
bid him farewell as a " full-blown " lieutenant of her
Majesty's fleet.
Although those examinations compared with the
corresponding ones of the present day were ridiculously,
almost incredibly, easy, yet even so not absolutely
every one succeeded in passing them ; but whatever an
examination may be, easy or the reverse, the sensation
of looking back at instead of forward to it is a really
pleasurable one — only to be realised by those who
have experienced it.
After a few weeks' enjoyment of shore, which
seemed all too short, my occupations and amusements
received a sudden, yet I cannot say an unwelcome,
check — for I was full of zeal for the noble service with
which my life had become interwoven — by the advent
of a letter.
It may seem curious that naval men became
attached to a life which in those times included so
much discomfort, roughing it, and often real hardship ;
but the explanation is, we were " caught young."

4 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Had it been otherwise : had we been sent to sea at
a later age, or first to a training-ship or college, with
every device and appliance to make things pleasant
and comfortable, we never could have taken to sea-
life as it was in the old navy. Among its experiences
a boy might grow up, identifying himself with them ;
but the twig had to be bent in the required direction
at a very early stage, or it could rarely have assumed
shape. The letter was as follows : —
" Portsmouth, yd June 1856.
" Dear Tower, — I am just about to commission
H.M.S. Tribune for the Pacific. Will you sail with me ?
if so, I shall be very glad to get you appointed, but
please let me know as soon as possible. The Tribune
is a screw steam frigate and so like your old Anemone
that you would scarcely know them apart, so you will
feel quite at home if you join. — Yours sincerely,
" Harry Edgell."
A fine frigate on a new station ! — of course I will
sail with him, especially as he is an old acquaintance,
a good fellow, and a thorough English gentleman of
the genuine type.
I could not help being impressed by my good
fortune. I might have been appointed to a Channel-groper,
or to a paddler, or to an over-populated liner " in the
Straits " as junior lieutenant, where I should have had
a small stuffy den in a stuffy cockpit, through the bars
of which, while performing my morning toilet in an
atmosphere deficient in oxygen, I might watch just out
side it several dozens of "young gentlemen" and of

H.M.S. TRIBUNE 5
gentlemen not so young, in every stage of deshabille
struggling through theirs by help of more badinage
than water. Or I might have been sent in a small
brig to the coast, or in a trooper ; instead, however,
after a " roving commission '' in the old Cuba, and the
never-to-be-forgotten experiences of the Mediterranean,
Black Sea, and Crimea, here was I, bound for the
Pacific, in a crack frigate — for crack she was then,
though her sort had but a short reign. Could I have
foreseen at the time that China was to be included, I
should have thought myself even more fortunate than
I did. On reaching Portsmouth my first care was to
"repair" to the admiral's office for my commission,
and then to report myself as " come to join " on
board the old Victorious hulk, where the Tribunes were
housed pending the readiness of their own ship.
Though now old, battered, yellow, and out of date,
the Victorious had in her day not only dared the
elements but the enemy to strife, and successfully,
for in single combat she had captured a French liner.
Portsmouth Harbour was formerly studded with
hulks and ships " laid up in ordinary," mastless, dis
mantled, until another call to plough the main should
arouse them from their dignified repose. Yet it
always pained me to notice celebrated craft, some of
which I had known in their days of power and splen
dour "walking the waters like a thing of life," and
others identified with many a name and event famous
in naval annals, lying ingloriously in a sort of asylum
aquatic, and, as our old friend Heely the quarter
master used to remark of the Maltese Fencibles,
" perfectly harmless."

22 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
would be evil enough, but what they do sell is vile,
maddening stuff.
From the view point of our imperial responsibilities
before God and man, which deepen year by year as our
empire extends, and so our opportunities and facilities
for intercourse with the heathen world, it is imperatively
necessary that this question of liquor traffic with native
races be far more seriously and effectively grappled with
than heretofore, though a good deal has been done.
If ever a nation was entrusted with a commission from
on high, surely ours is at this period of the zenith of
her power. " To all mankind let there be light " — to
which we have too much tolerated the addition, " and
gin." The Bible in the one hand, the gin-bottle in the
other, is an inconsistency and a reproach which cries
aloud for repudiation, though to deal with it drastically
will require the active co-operation of other Christian
nations.1 Among the birds which we saw, but rarely shot,
in the Straits, Steamer ducks (Anas brachyptera), also
called Loggerheads and Race-horses, were the most
remarkable and amusing, and I was never tired of
watching their performances.
The chief peculiarity of the Steamer duck, which
weighs; from ten to fifteen pounds, and is said by Cook
sometimes to attain a weight of twenty-nine pounds
(though that is probably a mistake), is the small size
and weakness of its wings, which not having sufficient
1 This question is a far too important and extensive one to be treated here
en passant. I advise any of my readers who may be interested in the subject
(and we all are, whether we know it or not) to communicate with the Native
Races and the Liquor Traffic United Committee, 139 Palace Chambers,
Bridge Street, Westminster, S.W., of which the secretary is the well-known
able medical missionary, Dr. C. F. Harford-Battersby, who will furnish
information of a striking character.

8 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
advocates of revival of training squadrons (1900) have
not failed to call attention.
At Spithead the commander-in-chief came off to
inspect the ship before we went to sea. Now a
commander-in-chief is a very great man indeed, at
all events afloat, so great indeed that even to this day
I almost tremble at the recollection of an adventure
which, while still quite a young officer, I had with
one, but at the time it made my blood turn cold.
This is the story. Captain Wells of the Britannia
training-ship at Dartmouth, invited me, then vegetating
on half-pay, to spend Sunday on board, just to see
how things were worked. " If you come by the
morning train," he wrote, " and get out at Britannia
station (that was a jetty), you'll find my galley in
waiting." I followed directions, and on alighting observed
that I was not to be the only passenger. A quiet,
elderly gentleman in dark attire, of clerical appearance,
but without the white tie, followed me into the boat,
in whose stern-sheets, in the seat of command, I at
once took my place, and, grasping the yoke lines, gave
the order " shove off." In such a splendid boat, as
she swiftly shot through the water in response to the
" gig-stroke " of her smart and muscular crew, as she
sensitively acknowledged the lightest touch of my
hand on the steering-apparatus, I felt proudly at home,
and with a somewhat conceited conviction that these
people would not be long in finding out that they were
under guidance of an expert, with an eye over the
sharp stem slightly dipping or rising as the men bent
forward or uprighted themselves in unison, I picked
out my course.

H.M.S. TRIBUNE 9
There is a current, and some huge buoys lie be
tween us and the ship. Up to this time nothing more
than a rather distant bow had passed between myself
and my companion, whom I supposed to be a country
gentleman, perhaps rector in semi-mufti, on his way
off to see his son, but as we near the buoys the gentle
man becomes restless, glancing uneasily by turns at
them, myself, and the ship, remarking, " I think you'd
better be careful."
" Oh, we're going all right," I answer, not over
pleased with the interference.
Again, " I'm afraid we shall have an accident if you
don't keep clear of those buoys."
Nettled at what I consider to be an interference by
a "shore-going fellow" who couldn't possibly under
stand much about the management of a boat, at any
rate not half as much as I, I answer somewhat testily,
perhaps even a little rudely —
" It's all right, sir. Pray, don't alarm yourself. I
know perfectly well what I'm about. I've been accus
tomed to boat-steering from my boyhood."
The elderly gentleman looks grave, but says no
more, and gathering his plaid around him, subsides.
Successfully clearing all obstacles, and without
swerving from my original course, we glide up along
side the Britannia's accommodation-ladder.
But why all this fuss, this crowd at the entry-port,
this commotion, amounting almost I think to an official
reception, as the captain comes forward and, saluting
the elderly gentleman, leads him away, while no one
takes the slightest notice of me ? which seems rather
odd and slightly annoying, for wasn't the captain's
galley sent for me ? No, I quickly learn, it wasn't; it

10 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
was sent for the elderly gentleman, who is no less a
personage than the commander-in-chief at Ports
mouth 1 and I, a lieutenant on half-pay, was just
allowed a passage off as an after-thought.
Oh, Dick Wells, how cruel of you not to tell me !
Subsequently I was introduced to the great man,
who had come incog, to see a cadet, and the captain,
and I made my apologies, which were graciously ac
cepted, and we all had a good laugh.
An analogous case would be if a curate told a
stranger, offering advice on ecclesiastical matters, to
" shut up," who should turn out to be the Archbishop
of Canterbury. A Royal Send-Off.
When on the afternoon of July 26, 1856, having
previously displayed blue-peter and hoisted the fore-
topsail as premonitory symptoms of departure (hence
the expression of paying one's creditors " with the
foretopsail sheet," an equivalent to not paying them at
all), we weighed and steamed westward towards the
Needles, we observed the royal standard flying at the
masthead of the Victoria and Albert off Osborne, and
sure enough there was the Queen on her way on
board. The signal was quickly displayed, "Where are
you bound ? " to which we answered, " Madeira and
Valparaiso." As the royal yacht steamed out towards us, we
manned yards and fired a royal salute, and her Majesty
then did us the honour of ranging up close abreast
of us on the starboard side, our captain and officers
standing bareheaded as she slowly passed ahead. The

H.M.S. TRIBUNE u
Prince Consort took off his white hat in acknowledg
ment, and we observed some of the royal children, and
one of the officers in full dress (as they all were),
cocked hat in hand, talking to the Queen, who was
dressed in pink. In a short time the yacht altered
course for Portsmouth, and we continued our voyage.
That is an interesting reminiscence and gratified us
much at the time, especially the captain, who liked to
imagine that so propitious a send-off was a mark of
royal favour specially directed towards himself and his
ship, an amiable hallucination which we were not
disinclined to encourage.
On reaching Madeira we found cholera raging, and
were unable to communicate, so having supplied the
British Consul with as many drugs as could be spared,
we shaped course for St. Vincent, " taking the trade "
in lat. 280 N.
The trade wind zones, concerning which the
reader, if inclined, may refer to " At School and At
Sea," p. 86, follow the sun, so that when the sun, as in
July, has a high north declination, a vessel bound
south may expect to take the trades early, and lose
them early. The "buffer-state," separating the N.E.
from the S.E. trade regions, known as the Doldrums, in
July and August are found between 7° and 120 N.
lat., and in March and April between 2° N. and 50 S.
We had a Prussian officer on board, with the rank
of mate, Baron Victor Von Dobeneck, who was given
charge of a watch and invited to mess with the lieu
tenants. He was a good fellow, and well up to his
work. Although during the whole commission we per
formed our voyages chiefly under sail, we used steam

12 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
occasionally, and that is why we found ourselves at
anchor in Porto Grande, St. Vincent, Cape de Verde
Islands — to replenish the coal-bunkers.
St. Vincent, I think, might pass for an excellent
sample of the moon. Its raison detre are its facilities
for a coaling station ; otherwise no one would ever call
or even live there, for it presents as barren and desolate
a scene as can well be imagined. The eye, weary of
gazing at bare mountains, wanders in vain for some
oasis to relieve the monotony, but finds nothing except
a small group of whitewashed houses and a patch or
two of scrubby bushes, all the rest being dark-brown
rock. There had been no rain for four years, no supplies
were to be had, and the English Consul's name was
Miller, and that, apparently, is all that can be said.
Not quite. Just as it was formerly believed afloat that
if you turned a sailor ashore on a desert island, he'd
find a bottle of rum before long, so I have often
observed that if you land a naturalist or any person
with a taste even for natural history, who enjoys ex
ploring and observing the wonders that have been scat
tered all over the world with so lavish a hand, he will
be sure to find something to occupy and interest him,
even under apparently impossible conditions ; and ten
years later on, Mr. Cunningham, naturalist of H.M.S.
Nassau, landed at St. Vincent and succeeded in filling
his vasculum with botanical specimens, and observing
many birds, insects, shells, and other noticeable features
on an island, which he was warned presented the ap
pearance of a " gigantic cinder."
Some elementary knowledge of natural history
would be of immense service to naval men, and I

H.M.S. TRIBUNE 13
always regretted my inability to turn to better account,
for want of it, the exceptional opportunities for intelli
gent observation which I enjoyed during my active
career afloat, my regret having been but strengthened
since I began subsequently to give my attention to
botany, geology, and ornithology. It is true we had
the "Admiralty Manual of Scientific Inquiry," but I
doubt if I ever saw any one look into it except my first
captain, Cardross of the Cuba.
During our sojourn a party was sent to haul the
seine on little beach near the town, with the result of a
few bushels of pilchards (or fish resembling) and one
large skipjack which much interested me, as I had never
had an opportunity of handling one before, though
they, with flying fish, are among the " common objects ''
of tropical seas.
The common skipjack (Temnodon Saltator), [a gre
garious fish of the horse-mackerel and pilot-fish alliance,
principally frequents coasts, but it is met , with nearly
all over tropical and sub-tropical seas. Its average
length is about two and a quarter feet, but sometimes
much more, and it is a most rapacious fish, destroying
an immense number of other fishes and killing many
more than it can devour.
Skipjacks are continually leaping or skipping out
of water to the height of eight or ten, and passing
over an arch of thirty or forty, feet before they alight,
shortly to skip again, which shows tremendous mus
cular power, as there is no wing with which either
to fly or to help sustain them in the air, as in the case
of flying-fish, for which they are often mistaken by
neophytes. They have an amusing habit, too, of scuttling along

14 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
the surface, tumbling about and interlacing with each
other in the most diverting fashion.
We left harbour ; the breeze freshened ; we took
the first reefs in the topsails.
Non-nautical readers may like to know how this
time-honoured method of reducing canvas, so indis-
solubly connected with traditions of sea-life, was accom
plished before the reign of the engineer ; but I cannot
avoid the reflection that the day is fast coming, if it
has not already come, when the information may
supply a blank in the experience of most naval readers
as well. The evolution itself and the almost incredible
celerity with which (in smart ships) it was performed
were perpetuated in an old fok'sle ditty : —
" Trice up and lay out, and take two reefs in one,
And all in one moment this work must be done."
" Boatswain's mate, hands reef topsails."
Now it must not be supposed that pipes or whistles
were used indiscriminately, or without peculiar reference
to the nature of the summons. There was a language
of pipes, and the nature of the sound by which "all
hands'' were summoned, would have been ineffective
as a signal to call away a boat, belay a rope, pipe a
great man up the side, and so on ; so our bo'sun's
mate, bending his head towards the hatchway, pipe
between lips, emits a peculiar premonitory whistle
which immediately produces a response of a similar
nature from the boatswain and all his other mates
wherever they may be — a sort of conspirator's signal
in fact. A more prolonged note follows, with the cry
echoed along every deck, " hands reef topsails," upon

H.M.S. TRIBUNE 15
which, in an instant, the ship is alive, like ants dis
turbed in their nests, with swarms of men hurrying
to their stations for the well-known and oft-rehearsed
manoeuvre. Meantime the officer of the watch, relinquishing
charge of the deck, retires to his station for " hands " ;
the midshipman diving down to the wardroom, throws
open the door and sings out " hands reef topsails," on
which the lieutenants off duty and the master make a
rush for their caps and another for the deck ; the
sentry throws open the captain's fore-cabin door, and
exclaims, "hands reef topsails," upon which the whole
of the young gentlemen therein assembled at school,
thus suddenly interrupted in their not too-vigorous
pursuit of the wily x, drop their pens and rush violently
away, leaving " the Boa " or naval instructor alone,
muttering sadly to himself that progress is impossible
as long as such continuous rude invasions upon the
hours of study are allowed.
The topmen (kicking off their shoes should it be
Sunday), cluster at the feet of the shrouds, and on
the Jacob's ladders which lead to them, in eager ex
pectancy for the word which will send them racing
aloft ; meantime they are being preceded by the captains
and midshipmen of tops, who thus get a start before the
rush, or they will be overtaken and engulfed.
I once heard a withering rebuke administered by
Admiral Deans Dundas to rather a swell and not par
ticularly active midshipman, who was picking his way
up the flagship's main rigging in a very leisurely fashion.
The admiral, I must note, had been a martinet, and
heard to boast (we were told to our terror) that he
had once turned a dozen useless midshipmen out of

16 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
the service in one day, sending them ashore in "Old
Harvey " (the launch) each sitting on his chest.
" Call that fellow down ! " screamed the admiral
before the whole ship's company of the Britannia 120.
" I tell you what it is, sir," he continued, shaking
his fist at the terrified young officer, "you'd better
write home to your father and tell him to get you
a commission in the army, for we shan't make anything
of you here."
But now everything is ready, and the evolution in
which hundreds of men, ponderous spars, thousands
of square yards of canvas, and thousands of yards of
ropes are concerned will be expeditiously got through
without disorder or confusion, because every one has
and knows his station, and because practice makes
perfect, although to a landsman the tangle of ropes,
swarms of men, and rapidity of movements would
appear hopelessly complicated.
Let me here stereotype, ere they pass completely
into oblivion, the words of command for reefing
topsails : — Hands reef topsails.
Away aloft.
Weather topsail braces.
Let go the top-bowlines, lee braces, round in.
Topgallant sheets (reminder).
Lower the topsails.
One reef, trice up lay out.
Topsail halliards.
'Tend the braces, hoist the topsails.
Topgallant sheets and halliards.
Haul the bowlines.
Coil down ropes.
Call the watch.

H.M.S. TRIBUNE 17
Being becalmed as we approached the Brazilian
coast, I was quite excited when the youngster of my
watch exclaimed, "There's a big fish close alongside,
sir, and I think he's a shark," because I had never
forgotten my experiences as related in chapter viii. of
my former volume. There, sure enough, was a large
shark with several attendant pilots, leisurely swimming
about it, and displaying prettily their striped and perch
like sides.
We should like to know more about the life-history
and habits of these little aide-de-camps. There is good
reason to believe that they feed, in part at all events,
on the excreta of the shark, and that they find a refuge
inside his mouth, for a nautical friend on whom I can
implicitly rely (though, for that matter, I can of course
rely upon all nautical friends !) assures me that the
vibration of the tail of a captured shark on the deck of
his ship shook three pilot fish out of the monster's
mouth, which were immediately put into a bucket of
water, where they swam about in the liveliest way.
There is an analogous case in Pluvianus AUgyptius,
or Crocodile Bird, a little bird which lives in amicable
partnership with the crocodile — a creature still more
merciless and hateful to mankind than the shark — into
whose ravenous jaws it enters to feed (A. H. Evans's
"Birds," p. 295), and who, according to Herodotus,
warns the crocodile by its cry when danger threatens,
and picks out from its body small intrusive insects.
Flying-fish and skipjacks as usual abounded, and at
convenient times I was never tired of watching their
curious and diverting performances, but do not think
it necessary to suppose, as writers generally do, that
these creatures always spring out of water and fly and
B

1 8 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
leap simply to escape enemies. They often do so, no
doubt, but I am inclined to believe that, as often, their
movements are to be attributed to a natural inclination
to take exercise and gambol in the exuberance of
animal spirits, just as we see kids and lambs skip,
horses gallop about a field, or rooks tumble in the air
at daily exercise time.

CHAPTER II
MAGELLAN'S STRAITS, VALPARAISO, AND PERU
AGAIN I was to "double" Cape Horn (from the Dutch
" Hoorn," 1616), that renowned tempest-haunted
headland discovered by our own Drake (1578), which
I never saw and never shall see, our passage through
Magellan's (or more correctly Magalhaens') Straits
being easily accomplished by means of steam ; but
readers of my first volume will remember that I had
before made the passage from the West in a sailing
ship, an experience which few naval men now living
can recall. Owing to prevailing westerly winds the
passage from the East was very difficult indeed ; so
much so, that there was a Spanish proverb, " as shut
as the Straits of Magellan."
Since leaving Rio we had flown a blue ensign, the
colour of the admiral of that station ; but on crossing
the longitude of Cape Horn, and passing within the
limits of the Pacific command, we hoisted the red as
an acknowledgment of our new commander-in-chief,
though little did any of us suspect how short a time
we were destined to remain under his flag.
A good deal might have depended upon the deter
mination of the exact time when we passed the line of
demarcation between the stations ; for instance, had
Captain Edgell fallen overboard and been drowned a
minute or so before crossing, three death vacancies
«9

20 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
would have belonged to the commander-in-chief in
the Atlantic, but if after, to the admiral of the
Pacific. Had such an unfortunate event occurred while we
were in the act of crossing, it is clear that a very
awkward situation would have been created, in face of
which the best way might have been for the two
admirals to toss up for the patronage.
At Punta Arenas, Sandy Point of our charts, on the
Patagonian side of these splendid Straits, we anchored
and made friends with the commandant of the small
Chilian settlement, consisting then of about sixteen
wooden houses and a church, who was an officer of
the Chilian navy, the little garrison or colony com
posed of soldiers and artificers being apparently of no
use except as a pied-a-terre of his government.
The settlement was rather hard up for provisions
and stock of all kinds, spirits selling at five dollars a
bottle, the ship from Valparaiso, which supplied it
with military rations twice a year, being overdue.
We got some shooting and riding on stout rough
nags, the padre in a sombrero and lion-skin poncho volun
teering to be our guide, the latter garment being ob
tained from the Patagonians who came down occasion
ally to trade, bringing for barter skins of guanacho,
lions, wild cats, ostriches, &c, plenty of which were to
be had in the village for bottles of rum.
When the Patagonians appeared (the commandant
told us) they were generally about 2000 strong, and
fortunately had no arms more formidable than bows
and arrows or the settlement would have stood but a
poor chance. Not long before we arrived a party of
them stole the commandant's cows, and emboldened by

MAGELLAN'S STRAITS 21
their success were proceeding to more extensive depre
dations when a bag of bullets fired from a 4-pounder
killed ten, since which they had not appeared.
They are very tall, six to seven feet, with an "extra
ordinary muscular development " according to Musters
(187 1), though "very weak" according to our com
mandant, who declared that he had tried many experi
ments but always found them so, at which he wondered,
as they subsist to a great degree on animal food and
eat a deal of raw flesh.
So did I wonder, but I do so no longer when I
remember that the men who do perhaps the hardest
work and carry the heaviest burdens in the world are
Turkish porters, whom I had seen, and Chinese coolies,
whom I was yet to see, all of whom are vegetarians
almost entirely. The bulk of Chinese live mainly on
rice and bananas with a little fish, and the working
Turks, whose great powers of strength and endurance I
had often remarked during my Eastern experiences, and
whose wonderful vitality in resisting the effects of
wounds impressed our Crimean doctors, live on bread,
vegetables, and water-melons, with fish sometimes.
It is sad to learn on the authority of Chambers's
"Encyclopaedia" (1891), that these Patagonians are
steadily decreasing through disease and bad liquor sup
plied by traders, and before long will be entirely extinct.
Sad too, indeed, it is, in voyaging round the world,
to observe that the introduction of Christianity among
heathen races cannot, apparently, be separated from the
introduction of fire-water. If these traders in Magellan's
Straits, if white merchants in Africa, Polynesia, and
elsewhere were to sell good liquor to the natives with
whom we are brought into contact, the case even then

22 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
would be evil enough, but what they do sell is vile,
maddening stuff.
From the view point of our imperial responsibilities
before God and man, which deepen year by year as our
empire extends, and so our opportunities and facilities
for intercourse with the heathen world, it is imperatively
necessary that this question of liquor traffic with native
races be far more seriously and effectively grappled with
than heretofore, though a good deal has been done.
If ever a nation was entrusted with a commission from
on high, surely ours is at this period of the zenith of
her power. "To all mankind let there be light" — to
which we have too much tolerated the addition, " and
gin." The Bible in the one hand, the gin-bottle in the
other, is an inconsistency and a reproach which cries
aloud for repudiation, though to deal with it drastically
will require the active co-operation of other Christian
nations.1 Among the birds which we saw, but rarely shot,
in the Straits, Steamer ducks (Anas brachyptera), also
called Loggerheads and Race-horses, were the most
remarkable and amusing, and I was never tired of
watching their performances.
The chief peculiarity of the Steamer duck, which
weighs; from ten to fifteen pounds, and is said by Cook
sometimes to attain a weight of twenty-nine pounds
(though that is probably a mistake), is the small size
and weakness of its wings, which not having sufficient
1 This question is a far too important and extensive one to be treated here
en passant. I advise any of my readers who may be interested in the subject
(and we all are, whether we know it or not) to communicate with the Native
Races and the Liquor Traffic United Committee, 139 Palace Chambers,
Bridge Street, Westminster, S.W., of which the secretary is the well-known
able medical missionary, Dr. C. F. Harford-Battersby, who will furnish
information of a striking character.

MAGELLAN'S STRAITS 23
power to raise or support its body in the air, serve
only like a steamer's paddles, aided by the powerfully-
webbed feet, to propel the bird along the water with
astonishing velocity and furious splashing, twelve to
fifteen miles an hour according to Cunningham (" Natu
ral History of Magellan's Straits "), who notes that " the
motion of the little wings is so excessively rapid that
it is difficult to convince oneself that they are not
revolving, leaving behind them a long wake of foam
like that produced by a miniature steamer, and not
ceasing this mode of progression till a safe distance
intervenes between them and the object of their dread "
— all of which I can confirm. They often assist their
escape by diving ; and I have no doubt that, like the
Dipper of our North British streams, they use their wings
for propulsion under water, Mr. Cunningham being of
opinion too that the young birds fly in the air, but that
the power or disposition to do so disappears with age.
On account of their movements and thickness of
plumage these birds are very difficult to shoot. Darwin,
who observed them at the Falklands, thought that in
paddling the wings were moved alternately, and found
their heads so thick and strong that he was scarcely
able to fracture them with his geological hammer.
As regards their edible properties — well, they don't
make a bad sea-pie, if you leave out the duck!
During our short stay at Port Gallant, which is
situated in a narrow part of the central strait, two
canoes from the Tierra-del-Fuegian shore, about eight
miles opposite, visited us, containing representatives of
both sexes, small, miserable, nearly naked beings, almost
the lowest, I should think, in the scale of humanity — the
women being huddled round fires while the men paddled.

24 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
The climate of Tierra-del-Fuego is the most tem
pestuous in the world, and Fuegians about the most
miserable and degraded of all heathen people, so much
so that Charles Darwin wrote of them as being in the
lowest state of any people in any part of the globe,
and considered them incapable of receiving Christianity
or civilisation. Since then, however, the South American Mission
got to work — a mission with whose annals the honoured
name of the hero Captain Alan Gardiner, R.N., will
ever be inseparably united — and with such success
that in 1870 Mr. Darwin was able to write: "The
success of the Tierra-del-Fuego Mission is most won
derful and charms me, as I always prophesied an
utter failure. It is a grand success, and I shall feel
proud if your committee think fit to elect me an
honorary member of your society."
Again, in 1874 : " I am very glad to hear so good
an account of the Fuegians — it is wonderful." In
1879: "The progress of the Fuegians is wonderful,
and had it not occurred would have been to me quite
incredible." In 1880: "I have often said that the
progress of Japan was the greatest wonder in the
world, but I declare that the progress of the Fuegians
is almost equally wonderful. I certainly should have
predicted that not all the missionaries in the world
could have done what has been done " ; and lastly,
in 1 88 1, on sending his annual subscription: "The
mission seems going on quite wonderfully well." l
1 I learn from the South American Missionary Society, I Clifford's Inn,
Fleet Street, London, Hon. Sec. Captain Toulden, R.N., that few Fuegians
are left, they being evidently like the Tasmanians, * people doomed to dis
appear beneath the rising tide of civilisation. During their brief day of light
and peace many were made Christians, and the Society have solemnly deter
mined not to forsake the remnant.

3W

%i
«
;M Br i
" ^H '
Tm
jwi
\^s|^
w
^k ^
Ps^-^i if
Sv>!i *
MAGELLAN'S STRAITS 25
It is alleged that the land of Tierra-del-Fuego is
rapidly rising, the coast line having advanced one mile
and 1520 yards between 1836 and 1896.
Except in the wider eastern parts which are
bordered by undulating grassy plains, the scenery of
Magellan's Straits is magnificently striking and deeply
impressive ; steep snow-capped mountains there are,
gorges and glaciers, with much wood and numerous
fine harbours.
Passing Cape Pillar under sail and entering the
great Pacific, our first experience was the capture of a
young albatross which screamed like a lusty child
at its novel experiences, so we labelled it and set it
free. Chili — written Chile by its own inhabitants — is a
narrow strip about 2500 miles long and from 40 to
200 broad, which lies between the Pacific and the
Andes, that magnificent range, which with remarkable
uniformity of distance from the sea, and containing
some of the highest mountains in the world, runs like
two huge ribs along nearly the whole length of
Western South America, for 4500 miles in fact. It
is a flourishing republic, whose inhabitants are a
mixture of Spanish with the aboriginal Araucanian
Indians — in the upper classes Spanish blood predomi
nating. The first European to land in Chili was the
famous Portuguese discoverer of the Straits, from
which we had just come.
Valparaiso — open bay, brown bare hills ; but the
setting sun lights up with roseate hue a distant peak
which is 23,000 feet above us, and on taking a glass
to examine what at first seems to be a cloud, the
summit of lofty Aconcagua can be distinctly traced.

26 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Once, while sailing along the coast, a clear sight from
apex to base of this majestic monarch of the Andes
was fortunately obtained by us — an opportunity which
is not often vouchsafed to anybody, but we could not
all realise the mountain's great altitude from its appear
ance, distance lending deception to the view, yet the
sight was extremely impressive.
...... ¦
Leaving Valparaiso our destination is Arica, a
Peruvian town in lat. i8° S., which in old Spanish
days was one of importance.
Land is in sight thirty-five miles away, lying
stretched along the horizon in clear but delicate out
line, and well defined in its prominent features.
Clouds float here and there and throw their
shadows upon the hills, while far away in the back
ground tower in dim and distant grandeur the gigan
tic peaks of the Andes — some of them 15,000 feet
high. As we approach we find, as is often the case,
that distance has lent enchantment to the view, for
before us, except for a few banana and other trees
around the town — before us is the abomination of
desolation ; but the scenery is striking, and the fleecy
clouds caress the brown hills and soften the barren
aspect by their shadows.
Arica Head is a bold bluff on the north side of the
town, not far from our anchorage, and off it a low
island spotted with strutting forms of sea-birds and
dingy white with their droppings arrested our atten
tion, and in particular that of chaplain and naval
instructor J. J. Balleine, who, moved with a desire
to investigate their identity, got leave to take a boat
for the purpose, from which, however, he was nearly

MAGELLAN'S STRAITS 27
deterred by the sudden appearance of a whale near
the ship, blowing like a steam-engine, and displaying
its back and tail plentifully encrusted with white bar
nacles as it moved majestically along.
Near the base of the afore-mentioned bluff was
an ancient aboriginal Indian burying-place where (we
learned) bodies were frequently exhumed in a mummy
like state of preservation owing to the antiseptic
qualities of the dry sandy soil ; for there is no rain on
the Peruvian coast.
Similar instances of the preservative action of peat
and other soils, as well as of ice, are recorded from
Ireland and other parts of the world ; but the most strik
ing are afforded by the carcases of mammoths which
from time to time have been found embodied in the
frozen soil of Siberia, where, although many thousands
of years must have elapsed since they were entombed,
the flesh has sometimes been so well preserved that
the natives have used it to feed their dogs.
Of course there was a revolution going on — in fact
during our short Peruvian experiences we found it
difficult to find any place where a revolution was not
going on, some man being always engaged in plotting
to eject the president in favour of himself, Castilla
being president in esse, Vivanco in posse, at the time of
our appearance on the scene.
The South (with the exception of Tecna and its
seaport Arica) had declared for Vivanco, the North,
including Lima the capital, remaining staunch to
Castilla, whose steam frigate Aporimac had been cleverly
seized by the revolutionary party in the following way,
which was described to us by Mr. Nugent, British
Consul at Arica.

28 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
While the Peruvian commodore (Castilla's be it
remembered, the man in power) with most of his
officers was on shore at Arica at a grand luncheon
given in his honour, his broad pendant was observed
to descend from the Aporimac's masthead, the revolu
tionary banner streaming out symptomatically in its
place under a salute of nineteen guns. Mr. Nugent,
suspecting what had taken place, determined to pay
an official visit to the frigate to make inquiries, where
he was courteously received with " God save the
Queen," and the customary salute by a young lieu
tenant named Montero, who being in league with
Vivanco, and after much secret bribery among the
crew, had carefully planned the whole entirely
unsuspected business, which placed the gallant com
modore in an extremely awkward position.
Montero lost no time. Having handed over his
late chief's clothes and valuables into the custody of
our Consul, he immediately weighed, and easily inter
cepting the packet outside, took possession of the
commodore's despatches, and steamed away to some
rendezvous where instructions would await him.
We awaited, therefore, the reappearance of the
Aporimac and future developments with considerable
interest. Under the circumstances, however, our captain, in
consultation with Mr. Nugent, decided that we ought
to follow the Aporimac northwards at once, to Izlay,
" to protect British interests," so after a stay of forty-
eight hours only we again went to sea.
It was my middle watch that night, and shortly
after " relieving the deck," I observed a small steamer
passing, which quickly altered course and came close

MAGELLAN'S STRAITS 29
up to us, mistaking us by moonlight, as we learned,
for her consort the Aporimac, and little wonder, for
curiously enough that frigate much resembled our
own Tribune, having been built, rigged, and armed in
England on the same plan. Having learned from
this " rebel steamer " Loa, whose captain was con
siderably astonished when he found that we were
not his friend, that the latter had yesterday left Izlay
to return to Arica, we immediately steamed away back
again at full speed, letting go our anchor in Arica
Bay at 2-30 p.m. on November 26, 1856, not far from
the redoubtable Montero who, sure enough, had re
appeared. Lively doings had already set in, musketry was
heard in the direction of the town, the Aporimac's
boats were close in shore covering troops which had
evidently landed and were seen rushing about, while
the Loa, which had been distanced by ourselves, soon
arrived, landed more troops, and opened fire with
grape upon the town.
In the midst of all this peppering I was sent on
shore in the cutter to try to communicate with our
consul and possess myself of " the situation."
Pulling past the main pier near the custom-house
where fighting was going on, I landed at a more distant
and safer one, for it struck me forcibly that after
having escaped unscathed from four months' work in
the trenches before Sebastopol it would indeed be an
inglorious end to be struck down by a stray bullet in
such a petty broil as this ! with which we really had
nothing to do.
I quickly found Mr. Nugent who communicated a
few particulars as to events in our absence.

30 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
When the rebel frigate anchored on her return
from Izlay, Lieutenant-Commodore Montero (rapid
promotion that !) with his pendant (" which really is
mine, confound the rascal," as the late commodore
feelingly remarked) floating defiantly in the breeze —
when, I say, he arrived, he at once sent a summons
to the governor to surrender, coupling it with a
significant assurance that unless he did he would
shoot him when he got hold of him ; and on the
governor's returning a direct negative, at once got
his landing-party to work — their operations being still
in progress during my interview with the consul.
By-and-by I saw the said party, a shabby-looking
rabble, disappear into one end of the long narrow
street of which modern Arica was chiefly composed,
heard a deal of popping, and in a short time all the
red-breeched regulars who formed the garrison were
seen scuttling into the brown desert out of the other
end, in most undignified, even ludicrous, fashion, like
the bolting of rabbits when a ferret is turned in.
The colonel in command, who was badly wounded,
was a brave man, and did his best with his little garri
son, but was quite overpowered, the train which had
been despatched to Tecna for reinforcements not
having returned in time, though they did appear next
day, when we watched them marching about near a
white house in the arid waste, a long way off, their
bayonets glistening in the sun.
Before landing to interview Nugent, Captain Edgell
sent me to inform Montero that we were about to
communicate with our representative, and to warn
him against injuring English or French property. I
found him twenty-three or so, tall, thin, sallow, and

MAGELLAN'S STRAITS 31
dirty-looking, established in his predecessor's cabin,
which was dirty too.
The frigate's surgeon, an Englishman, acted as
interpreter, my own knowledge of Spanish being nil,
and the lieutenant-commodore's of English being ap
parently limited to " How do, sar ? "
Finally, this farce on rather a large scale (for
so it really appeared) concluded for the day by the
receipt by us of a paper from the Aporimac with the
password for the night, " Montero," and the countersign,
" Triumfo con sangre," which caused no little merriment.
The consul's wife and other ladies, who during the
firing had been stowed away in a store behind a barri
cade of bags with the figure of a saint stuck up for
protection, were offered and gladly accepted the hospi
tality of Captain Edgell's cabin.
Next day we expected a resumption of hostilities.
Not so, however ; for after long conferences between
Edgell, 'Nugent, and Montero, to our surprise those
government troops from Tecna, waiting in the wilder
ness, marched in and took possession of the town
without opposition, so that when I again landed I
found the revolution at an end, the inhabitants engaged
in opening their houses and shops, and appearing to
take their revolution very much as a matter of course,
as they would have a gale or a thunderstorm, the
attacking forces nowhere being visible, and the dread
Aporimac steaming away out to sea.
What was the meaning of all this ? how was such a
sudden collapse of yesterday's hero of "Triumfo con
sangre " to be accounted for ? because so long as he
commanded Arica with his frigate's guns he was un
doubtedly master of the situation.

32 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
The fact was that in spite of all that had happened
Arica and Tecna refused to declare for him ; so, not
believing it good policy to destroy, he was glad to open
negotiations, and offered to go away, at all events for
the present, provided provisions and coals were sup
plied to him, which was agreed to, and we saw him no
more — till next time ! for as a matter of fact we subse
quently saw a good deal of him.
A more amusing instance of a " climb-down " I
never remember, unless, indeed, many years afterwards,
in the case of a Scottish local journal, in whose columns,
in place of the accustomed fulmination, this entirely
unexpected and peaceful announcement met my amazed
eye, " In future we shall confine ourselves to job and
general printing."
As Arica to Tecna, that is the seaport, so was Izlay
to Arequipa, a much more important city 150 miles
nearer the Equator, and on our way northwards we
touched at Izlay.
Montero had preceded us, having in the meantime
picked up a greater man even than himself, no less
a personage, in fact, than Vivanco, for whom both
Arequipa and Izlay had " declared."
During our stay we enjoyed an amusing reminder
of the important and recognised part played by dollars
in revolutionary movements ; for when the government
packet Bogota, sailing under British colours, made her
appearance, it was discovered that she had a colonel,
two lieutenants, and one hundred soldiers of Castilla's
army on board as passengers, on which, in the coolest
and most business-like manner, one of the Aporimac's
officers, with a few bags of dollars, boarded her, bought
over the lieutenants and troops on the spot, and filed

MAGELLAN'S STRAITS 33
them down into the frigate's boats for passage on shore,
which really appeared to be a much more sensible
and satisfactory sort of triumfo than con sangre — under
the circumstances. The colonel, however, stoutly de
clining to be bribed, or to be made prisoner, carried
off against his will, and imprisoned on the bread of
affliction and the water of affliction till he declared for
the revolutionists, claimed the protection of the British
flag, under which, as I said, he was then sailing, which
protection Captain Edgell acceded ; so, much to the
disappointment of Vivanco, thus baulked of his prey,
this staunch adherent was taken on to Arica, there to
join the faithful few.
Of course there really was nothing British about
the Bogota except a Scotch engineer and a few dozens
of whisky, but under prevailing conditions her tem
porary transfer to English ownership, as a precau
tionary measure, was the safest course to pursue.
Callao.
Lima, latitude 120 S., is the capital of Peru, and
Callao, pronounced Callaow, is its seaport seven miles
distant. The entrance to the bay is marked by S.
Lorenzo, a lofty island, four and a half miles long by
one broad, the home of the sea-lion — a huge species of
seal — the weird and monotonous roaring of the males
being a prevailing feature. It was affecting to learn
that " these ponderous creatures frequent particular
islets for the purpose of breathing their last, the
wounded or aged being helped there by companions."
On that district of Peru, situated between the
Andes and the sea, rain is as little known as drought
C

34 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
in Glasgow, but it is represented by dews which are
very heavy, and by fogs and mist, which from June
to November are almost continuous, the sun being
constantly invisible, and the atmosphere thick and
heavy. Sick lists swell, walls and surfaces drip, the
hand slips in trying to turn clammy door-handles,
long-feathered fungi of a luxuriant growth sprout in
a single night on your boots, and latent rheumatic
pains come to life with those who are that way con
stitutionally inclined. Why is there no rain in the
coast region of Peru ? — a flat, sandy desert, crossed
by the river Rimac and other small rivers, along whose
banks are valleys where alone is fertility possible. A
glance at the map will supply the explanation, for it
will be at once seen that Peru is situated in the region
of S.E. trade winds, which, heavily saturated with
moisture from the Atlantic, impinge upon the long and
lofty chain of the Andes, and are squeezed dry before
they can reach the West coast, the water with which
they have parted hurrying back to its parent ocean by
the countless tributaries of the mighty Amazon.
The absence of rain, however, is partly com
pensated for by those heavy dews. The fogs are in
great measure produced by a cold Antarctic current,
formerly known as Humboldt's current, that sweeps up
along the coast from Cape Horn to the Equator,
considerably modifying the tropical climate, and con
densing by night the moisture with which the
atmosphere becomes charged by the sun's action
during day.
Modern Callao dates only from 1745, when the
original town was destroyed by a terrible earthquake
and invasion of the sea. It was probably owing to

MAGELLAN'S STRAITS 35
gaseous exhalations from subterranean disturbances
that we found the air often tainted by a noxious,
nauseating effluvium like sulphuretted hydrogen, which
turned whitewash and white paint perfectly brown, the
sea, too, being often much discoloured. We called it
"The Painter."
We found a railway to Lima, seven miles (made in
1849), the sole property and monopoly of a Chilian,
who derived so paying a revenue from passenger, that
he would have nothing to do with goods traffic, the
greater part of which, consequently, was still being
carried to-and-fro on mule back. Taking seats in a
first-class carriage, we amused ourselves, as we moved
along the single line of rails, by writing our names
on each other's clothes, for the dust of Peru is an
impalpable, all-pervading, whitey-brown powder, which
coats every surface and half-chokes every aperture.
We were disappointed with the appearance of the
city, which is completely encircled by a low brick wall,
and which, in spite of noble backing by the Andes,
some picturesque and beautiful features, and the note
worthy cathedral, conveyed a general impression of
shabbiness and dirt.
Towards the end of the month (January 1857),
to the consternation of the inhabitants, our old
acquaintance the Aporimac suddenly appeared, with
Vivanco himself on board, accompanied by another
steamer, we at the time being at anchor off S. Lorenzo,
where we had gone to exercise firing at a target. The
beach there was perforated with the holes of land-
crabs, the sand being seen, on a quiet approach, to be
quite red with the creatures, and amusing it was to
watch them scuttle to their retreats as soon as they

36 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
took alarm. We found a pier, a frail structure, which
suddenly collapsed while I was standing on it with
twenty men, and engulfed us all in the sea, whence we
emerged amid "cheers and laughter." Shortly after
wards another queer and amusing incident happened.
While the dingy was landing on the surfy beach
without proper precaution, the boat turned broadside
on and was instantly caught by the surf and capsized,
so that when the sea receded she was left high and
dry, keel up, with both dingy boys imprisoned under
neath. The Aporimac engaged the fort at Callao and
a frigate of Castilla's. We saw ten men killed by a
misdirected charge of canister, they having got up into
a merchant brig's rigging to watch " the fun " !

CHAPTER III
THE CHINCHAS
It is stated that Peru — formerly the country of the
aboriginal Incas, and still so to a great extent, as in
1876 they numbered 57 per cent, of the whole popu
lation — derives its appellation from Biru, the native
name of one of its rivers, and its wealth from various
products, animal, vegetable, and mineral, among which,
completely eclipsing all others in value and impor
tance as long as it lasted, was guano ; so much
so that the years 1846-72, during which the main
exports of the famous substance lasted, have been
termed by Mr. Duffield in his book ("Peru," 1876)
its Guano Age.
As iron to Middlesboro, herrings to Great Yar
mouth, " tied houses " to the British brewer and
distiller, was guano to Peru at the time of H.M.S.
Tribune's visit ; more so, even, as we learn from the
said author, that " Guano ceased to be the servant
and helper of the native soil ; it became the master of
the people who occupy it." Also, " Its native name
was Huano, signifying dung, it being certain that its
properties were well understood by the original natives,
for under the empire of the Incas it was regarded as an
important branch of State economy, being controlled
by strict regulations. Extensive tracts of land were
exclusively manured with huano, but when the country
37

38 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
fell into the hands of the Spaniards it was neglected
and forgotten, and not until the first quarter of the
nineteenth century had passed did Peruvians begin to
discover the errors of their former masters, and to
realise what a gigantic mine of wealth lay at their
very door."
Most people, I suppose, know what guano is, but
there may be many that do not. Well — its nature
does not exactly correspond to the definition given to a
correspondent by Mark Twain when he was temporary
editor of an agricultural newspaper : —
"The guano is a fine bird, but great care is
necessary in rearing it. It should not be imported
earlier than June or later than September. Till winter
it should be put into a warm place, where it can hatch
out its young."
Guano is the dried excrement of droppings of sea
birds, more or less altered by age, fermentation and decay,
and often mixed with feathers, broken egg-shells, minute
fragments of sea-shells, remains of seals, and large solid
lumps of a salt (carbonate) of ammonia. It is mode
rately dry powder of a peculiar fawn colour, and still
more peculiar odour, which may be styled pleasant or
unpleasant according to taste.
The conditions necessary for the production of
guano are : i. Birds ; 2. Fish for them to feed upon ;
3. Absence of rain to any appreciable extent ; such
conditions being represented in the most complete
manner on the Peruvian coast, especially at the
Chincha Islands.
Guano, it is true, is found in other parts of Peru,
and in other parts of the world where conditions are
favourable to its production, but nowhere in such

THE CHINCHAS 39
astonishing plenty or of such splendid quality as at the
Chinchas. If there were no rain, we should have guano
deposits on the British coasts, for they can at any time
be observed in the initial stage, beyond which they
cannot advance, in such places as the Bass Rock, the
Fame Islands, and Ailsa Craig.
Still, Peru being rainless, Peruvians could not have
turned their fabulous stores of manure to account had
it not been for irrigation in the vicinity of rivers, for
unless dissolved in water it is useless to plants. They
use it chiefly for maize crops and for orange trees, to
the former it being thus applied : with a hoe a little
circular channel or ditch is scooped out round each
growing stem, but not too near or the plant would be
killed, which is filled with guano covered over with
earth, and then the water is laid on all over the planta
tion till the guano is dissolved. We were shown a row
of orange trees, on one side of which only guano had
been applied, and the crop of oranges on the guano
side was astonishingly larger and finer than the
other. Here let us notice an illustration of the compensa
tions of Nature — the want of rain which renders the
great part of Peru so barren has been of the greatest
importance in converting sterile, useless islands and
rocky places into perfect El Doradoes, by allowing
guano to accumulate through countless centuries. It
would be out of place here to follow up this invalu
able substance into its agricultural uses, further than
just to point out that it has been found that about
half of the fertilising properties of guano are quickly
soluble in water and therefore adapted for the immediate

40 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
nourishment of plants, the other half lingering in the
soil and gradually yielding its beneficial effects.
In many Roman Catholic countries, as I have
observed during my voyages, there exists a very pious
excellent custom of asking the Divine blessing upon
growing crops in spring, which once existed in our own
country ; but, as far as I know, the only trace of its
observance which still lingers among us, is the three
Rogation Days in the May Calendar of the Prayer-
Book of the Church of England. The priest of the
parish, attended by the farmers and leading members of
his church, walked through the fields reciting appro
priate prayers and psalms, about which, when I was
collecting wild plants in the Island of Madeira, I heard
a good story. In a certain parish, during the per
formance of the ceremony, the procession arrived at a
field which belonged to a man who was notorious for
stingy farming — a man who got all he possibly could
out of the land, but seldom put anything into it, the
appearance of the growing crop on this occasion, being
meagre in the extreme, and fully bearing out its owner's
reputation. " Stop," said the priest, holding up his hand
with just a twinkle in his eye, "stop, prayers are no
good here, it wants some manure."
I was even more impressed and pleased while at St.
Jean de Luz by seeing the parish priest, robed, with his
choir and chief people and a procession of fishing-boats,
go afloat in the same way to ask a blessing on the pro
duce of the sea.
The value of guano as a fertiliser has been so much
appreciated, and the run upon it so tremendous, that the
supplies, at all events from Peru, are practically ex
hausted, so it may be interesting to notice in brief the

THE CHINCHAS 41
circumstances of the first introduction into our own
country of a product that played so important a part in
agriculture during the last half of the nineteenth century.
Although it is true that as long ago as 1804 Hum
boldt brought specimens to Europe and submitted them
to the leading analytical chemists of the day, nothing
more seems to have been heard of the matter till July
23, 1836, when a little brig, the Hermione from Peru,
arrived at Liverpool, bringing, besides her general cargo,
a sample of a reddish-brown powder, smelling curi
ously, which the sailors called gu-an-ner, and said that
it was wonderful stuff to make things grow. The
owners of the vessel, Messrs. Myers & Co., gave this
stuff away to any farmers or gardeners who liked to
have it to make experiments with, and stories soon got
abroad about the extraordinary powers of the powder,
and there were so many applications for it, that Messrs.
Myers thought it might be worth while to send out their
brig on purpose for a load, which they did. Its virtues
rapidly became known ; a demand sprung up ; regular
exportations from Peru began; in 1840 it came into
the market, and in 1866 there were, instead of a single
brig load, 352,000 tons of guano exported from Peru,
75,000 tons of which was in British vessels. Previous
to 1840, with the exception of local manufacturing re
fuse, the only special manures of commerce were bones,
salt, and gypsum, but the important researches of Liebig
and others, who experimented in the little understood
field of agricultural chemistry, coupled with the sudden
appearance on the scene of Peruvian guano, brought very
important differences in the practice of agriculture.
The value of guano from the view point of agricul
tural chemistry depends upon its richness in nitrogenous

42 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
compounds (ammonia salts) and phosphates ; and on
this basis one ton of Chincha guano has been deter
mined to be equal to 33 J tons of farmyard manure.
Altogether from first to last until they were "played
out " upwards of eight million tons were exported from
the Chinchas.
The Chinchas are a group of islets of granitic for
mation on the Peruvian coast one hundred miles south
of Callao, and three miles west of the little town of
Pisco, the largest of which is a little less than a mile in
circumference with a height of 113 feet plus 90 feet of
guano at the highest part, to the immense deposits of
which their importance was entirely due.
We had heard so much about the Chinchas, so
celebrated were they at that time, and so identified
with the current fortunes and history of Peru, that we
looked forward to our projected visit to them with no
ordinary interest, and I was really quite excited when
the captain said to me, " I hope to get away to the
islands on the 2nd" (January 1857).
On that day accordingly, leaving H.M.Ships Presi
dent and Pearl to watch the vagaries of the hero of
Arica, who was still hovering about seeking whom to
devour, and receiving from the President, being home
ward bound (a splendid specimen of a smart British
frigate, Captain Charles Frederick, Senior Lieu
tenant George William Hepburn Morgan) a parting
present of a tent, cricket balls, and much theatrical
scenery and properties, shortly to become extremely
useful, we weighed " under all plain sail " — which
means, all sail except studding-sails, and stood to the
southward.

THE CHINCHAS 43
Long before we sighted our destination, beating up
against the S.E. trade, our rigging — indeed the whole
ship — became coated with a film of yellowish, impal
pable powder whose origin could not be obscure to us ;
and as we neared our anchorage, a maze of masts
among the low outline of the islets became apparent,
indicating, as we soon found, the presence of a hundred
and sixty ships of all sizes and sorts, from the magni
ficent clipper to humblest brig, all upon guano intent.
Only one individual in the Tribune had been there
before, the first lieutenant, a good fellow on the whole,
whom I shall ever remember as having been gifted with
a remarkable faculty of making other people believe
that it was their duty to do his own ; his ideas, indeed,
of performing a first lieutenant's work being in quite
antipodean contrast to those of our old friend Hatt of
H.M.S. Cuba.
The reality, however, of these interesting islands,
their aspect, surroundings, and the magnitude of the
industry carried out exceeded the expectations that
I had formed from description. It was difficult
in the first place to realise the fact that that hill,
nearly one hundred feet high above its rocky floor,
that steep section, those quarries in which swarms of
men were working with ceaseless energy, that imposing
fleet, daily parting with loaded ships and daily being
reinforced by others to be loaded — all meant the
dried deposits of sea birds, that and nothing more.
Scarcely had we anchored when two merchant
captains came on board to get Balleine, our chaplain,
to marry them, and others to lodge complaints, submit
disputes, and so forth. In truth, the advent of a post-
captain and a chaplain in a British frigate seemed to

44 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
be very welcome and their presence very necessary
among this large fleet, the majority of which were
English and Americans kept here waiting for cargoes
for eighty days or more, after which demurrage was
allowed. Several couples were " spliced " by the
chaplain under licence from Captain Harry Edgell,
Royal Navy, and many difficulties adjusted, and
mutinous disturbances investigated and dealt with ;
for where a number of merchant vessels are con
gregated in a remote port there are always cases
requiring more extended powers than those possessed
by their own captains ; so the arrival on the spot of
a court ,. •ummary jurisdiction, in the shape of a
quarter-deck under the pennant, was gladly taken
advantage of — even though (as by our time) its
powers had been curtailed, and flogging of merchant
seamen by naval captains abolished, the extreme
sentence being irons, deprivation of pay, ejection from
ship, and a maximum of twelve weeks' imprisonment.
There being no representative of his own nation
available, the American minister at Lima had furnished
Captain Edgell with plenary powers to deal with
American ships as if they were our own, and
fortunately so, as it turned out, for we were thus
enabled to render substantial services.
The guano, of which about two thousand tons
daily were excavated and " shot " into ships, had
been farmed by Government to a Peruvian Don who
lived on the island and was known as the Governor —
the annual revenue produced by the sale amounting,
we were informed, to five million dollars yearly. The
population of these islands, five thousand while the
guano lasted, subsequently about five, consisted of

THE CHINCHAS 45
Peruvians, Peruvian convicts, and Chinese coolies,
the latter, who did most of the digging, being in the
ascendant, and about whose treatment Mr. Duffield
has some very severe strictures.
I landed as soon as possible to make myself
acquainted with the operations, impressed with the
conviction that to produce such astonishing results,
an enormous length of time and countless multitudes
of birds must have been necessary.
The fish-eating birds that still haunt the coasts
are principally pelicans, gannets, gulls, terns, and a
species of booby (Sula variegata), known locally as
the guano bird, though from the islands themselves
and their immediate vicinity the birds were long ago
driven away by guano diggers. Here and there,
however, along the coast the water seemed covered
with pelicans busily engaged in fishing, until disturbed
by the passage of a ship or boat, when they rose up in
flights that locally darkened the air, and with a noise
like the prolonged rumbling of distant thunder.
Pelicans dive after their prey with a great clumsy
splash, and when they come up again, expel the
water from their pouches by pressing them downward
against their breasts — the while a pretty, graceful little
gull, who hovers about watching his opportunity, peck
ing at the fish which project from the edges of the
bill, to watch which through one's glass is diverting and
curious. However surprising such immense deposits
of guano seem at first sight, any one who has observed
the flight of even a single flock of pelicans (not to
mention other birds), is told that one, at the lowest
average, deposits two pounds of guano a week, and
reflects that the accumulation from many sorts of

46 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
birds went on for a thousand years or more, will
wonder less.
We found the workmen busily digging away from
the hill of solid guano and loading trucks, which
travelled on rails to the edge of a low precipice at
whose foot was moored the ship to be loaded, or
lighters to take it off to other ships, the contents of the
trucks being discharged into a broad-mouthed recep
tacle, terminating in a long canvas shoot leading into
the vessel's hold. Five or six men with spades broke
the stuff up and shovelled it down into the shoots,
for at first it was in large, damp, soft but crumbly
lumps, which emitted, when banged about, such a
stifling yellow dust that the diggers were obliged to
tie handkerchiefs round their mouths to prevent them
selves from being choked, breathing, in fact, being
altogether distinctly unpleasant, and when I went to
call upon the " governor '' I wondered how he could
exist in such an overpowering and all-pervading atmo
sphere of guano-dust.
New-comers were especially inconvenienced by it,
yet it was by no means unhealthy ; on the contrary,
it was especially beneficial in some chest affections.
I do not, of course, allude to the sort from which a
celebrated wit, Colonial Treasurer in one of our West
Indian Islands, suffered, when, considerable deficiencies,
due to his careless habits, being discovered in the
treasury chest, he was superseded. On his return
home a lady asked him why he left the West Indies ?
" Something wrong with my chest, ma'am." No, I
mean asthma or bronchitis.
When we cast anchor, the first thing which
attracted our attention was a small white tent, of a

LOADING GUANO SHIPS

P. 46

THE CHINCHAS 47
different and superior appearance to the others. We
found that it belonged to a Mr. Seymour, a rich
merchant and shipowner of London, who, having long
laboured under a chest complaint of a particularly
determined and painful character, and having "suf
fered many things of many physicians," but with no
relief, was advised to inhale the dust of guano. He
tried the experiment, at first on a small scale, but
with such success that he came out to the Chinchas
with his wife, and had been living there among the
dust on the bare rock to his immense relief and
benefit. A striking proof of the value to health.
Although the ammoniacal exhalations of guano
might have been harmless enough in a mitigated
form, or even beneficial in certain cases, their con
centrated effects upon the men engaged in storing it
in ships' holds was anything but pleasant or benefi
cial, causing bleeding from the nose and ears, so that
few could stay below for more than forty-five minutes
at a time, Mr. Seymour excepted, who was in the
habit of passing three hours daily in a ship's hold
during the reception of cargo.
B • • ¦ • •
For some days after our arrival Lieutenant Boyle
and I were employed in visiting various ships to in
vestigate complaints.
Among those who had early availed themselves
of the privilege of being married by British law on
British territory, as represented by H.M.S. Tribune,
was Captain T. of the English barque Lord S., in
celebration of which event his crew got so drunk and
uproarious, and led by an American-Irishman, were
guilty of such riotous and outrageous behaviour and

48 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
such disgraceful language to the newly married couple,
that signal for help was made, and I was immediately
despatched in a cutter with Corporal Nash and four
private representatives of that invaluable amphibious
corps, aptly bearing for their motto Per mare, per
terrum, who combine the steadiness, discipline, and
reliable qualities of the soldier, with the activity, readi
ness, and handiness of the sailor. The admirable
qualities of our Royal Marines have never been appre
ciated or, at any rate, acknowledged as they deserve.
On my arrival I found the aforesaid Americo-
Hibernian, the leading mutineer, unpleasantly prominent,
for he had just tried to stab the mate. Grasping the
situation, I ordered half-a-dozen of the cutter's crew
to seize him at once and pass him into our boat,
which was done with considerable difficulty, and not
without an attempt at rescue on the part of the man's
shipmates, whom I had to keep at a distance at the
point of the bayonet. Having got him into the boat
with two others, he was lashed hand and foot, and a
gag displayed in readiness to be applied if he opened
his mouth any more, for of all the torrents of blas
phemy and insult that ever I heard poured out during
my somewhat extensive experience, that man's was the
most atrocious. "Tremble, you — s, as you did at
Sevastopol," is a very mild sample indeed of his utter
ances while we were securing him, and much we all
regretted the repeal of those " good old laws " which
would have allowed our captain to give the ruffian
the four dozen which he so richly deserved.
On the very next day some of the crew of the
Kertch (British) having announced their determination
to extract their first mate's liver ! I was sent to see

HAMMKK-HEAD SHARK

THE CHINCHAS 49
into the matter, which turned out so serious that
Captain Edgell thought it necessary himself to hold a
court of inquiry on board the vessel.
Our church service on Sundays was always attended
by a large contingent from the guano fleet, and on
one occasion during the sermon a flying-fish, sixteen
inches long, flew into one of their boats alongside and
was captured. Shoals of these interesting creatures
might be seen on calm days swimming about close to
the ship, as well as many Hammerheaded sharks
(Zygona malleus), in readiness for scraps, the singular
form of the head (the eyes being situated at the end of
lateral extensions), from which this creature takes its
name, at once distinguishing it from all other fishes.
Hammerheads date from the Cretaceous Era.
One of the most agreeable features of our sojourn at
the Chinchas was the friendly intercourse with Ameri
cans. As I have said, we were able to render them
many little services, which they acknowledged in suit
able ways, such as hoisting the British flag and firing
a gun on getting under weigh, and I am confident
that we all gladly availed ourselves of the opportunity
to cement that good feeling which ought always to
exist between the two nations — a good feeling which,
as far as their maritime representatives were concerned,
always did exist, in my experience at all events.

To remain idle for so long was very tiresome and
monotonous for all the ships, so, as a relief, and to
celebrate and accentuate the occasion, we determined,
towards the close of our sojourn, to give a grand
Theatrical Entertainment. D

50 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Preparations were set going without loss of time,
and the following was our card of invitation : —

Ubeatre IRogal
H.M.S. "TRIBUNE"
Will open at 6 p.m. on
Thursday, February 19th, 1857,
and the
Performance
will begin at 7 p.m. precisely.

With the Captain and Officers' compliments.

I was stage manager, a post in which I had pre
vious experience, and I at once put two suitable pieces
in rehearsal, and got all our " properties " into order,
augmented as they had fortunately been, it will be
remembered, by the kindness of the Presidents.
Captain Edgell, a talented painter, prepared the
drop-scene, while I went the rounds of the fleet to
enlist the sympathy of some of the captains' wives and
daughters in the direction of articles of female attire,
Mrs. Smith of the Algeria (British) and Miss Gilchrist
of Rochemba (American) being particularly good-natured
and useful, especially in the starching department.
On the 20th day we were ready for the always
welcome pipe, "Carpenters rig stage." The upper
deck was converted into a ball-room and theatre com
bined, covered in and decorated, tiers of sloping seats
were provided for the crew, and rows of level ones
for the officers and the one hundred and fifty guests,
including twenty-eight ladies, who honoured us with
their patronage. All being in readiness, in presence of
a " bumper house," and after a stirring overture from

THE CHINCHAS 51
the band, "wind-jammers," as Jack preferred to call
them, "Our Reciter," Ryan, appeared before Edgell's
pretty drop-scene, and delivered Edgell's Prologue,
composed by that officer for the occasion, with a noble
disregard of metre, which was received with tremendous
applause. "PROLOGUE
" Delivered at the Opening of the Theatre Royal H.M.S. ' Tribune'
at the Chincha Isles, February 19th, 1857.
" Well, I declare ! what a throng.
I'm in a maze — and Ladies too ! !
Not fat, fair and forty,
But fair, kind and hearty,
Ready to listen and, we hope, applaud
The sailor's effort of a Play on board.
We'll play, 'tis true, but only to amuse,
Therefore our shortcomings you'll excuse,
Fair critics, Syrens of these lonely Isles,
Where nought around save Woman smiles ;
Where wealth abounds, yet dearly bought,
For that great virtue Patience here is taught.
Bear then with us who, fresh from lands afar,
Give you the welcome of the British Tar,
Proud to see our decks so ably manned
With fair and brave from Brothers' Land.
' Unity is Strength,' the proverb says,
May its truth be proved in our days ;
For when Stars and Stripes with Union Jack unite,
I guess that few would like to come and fight.
One word more :
Although on Decks where warlike acts are taught,
Where gun and musket, shot and shell — in short,
And dread material for the deadly fight
Are ranged in order round, both left and right.
Excuse my Muse, 'tis difficult to rhyme,
To tell the truth, I've got but little time,
For, after washing decks and squaring yards,
We've morning drills, then gunnery cards,
The ' muzzle right ' and ' left,' with ' seven ' o'er the head,
The jolly dance, the merry song, and then to bed.
But fancy not that such our feelings harden.
You must excuse me, but, I beg your pardon.

52 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
We have one who is ready to unite
Those who in Hymen's bonds will seek delight,
And should you, fair ladies, during Tribune's stay
Decide on such a thing — pray don't delay,
For Tribune's motto aye is ' Toujours pret,'
Which in English means ' Always ready.'
I see the Manager beckon (aside).
' Aye ! aye ! sir,' {aloud).
" Manager whispers, yet so as to be heard: 'Tell them to excuse
our ladies' dresses ; they are rather short — put it into verse.'
" Ha ! ha ! he means to say
The wardrobe is rather weak,
And though we really blush to seek
A crinoline, or bombazine, or that style of thing,
Still, if Ladies think that they could bring
Some old garments which would deck
Our young maidens' figures or their neck,
We are not proud, and shall always smile
At the Ladies' Gift from Chincha Isle."
Then the curtain drew up for the first piece, a
melodrama, which went through without a hitch.
Attention, of course, was particularly directed towards
the female members of our corps, of whom there were
two, Wade, a young clerk, and Elwyn, a young middy,
both of whom looked very pretty, were capitally dressed,
and sustained their parts quite admirably, so much so
that when " Fanny " came out at the conclusion of the
piece in his or her female attire and sat among the
audience to see the second piece, many who were not
in the secret were completely deceived — even ladies —
as to Fanny's sex.
Ever-green Box and Cox was the after-piece, at the
conclusion of which, after hearty rounds of applause,
there were refreshments on a liberal scale and dancing.
......
The Americans were so much gratified at our little
" Jollification " as they called it, and at the spirit which

THE CHINCHAS 53
prompted it, that they invited us to a return banquet on
board their (courtesy) Commodore Captain Ponsland's
ship the John E. Thayer, a magnificent sailing clipper, 230
feet over all, 45 feet beam, which had sailed 16 knots
when drawing 24 feet water, and had once made a
voyage with 4000 tons cargo.
There were a number of beautifully-fitted first-class
clippers at the Chinchas, to turn which into guano ships
seemed like a desecration, but at that time it paid to do
so. The ship's upper deck was housed in for the
occasion, and we sat down, 150 at table, naval and
merchant people alternately. Then did I make acquain
tance with " soft corn," long familiar to me in the negro
melody, " soft corn, hard corn, hey diddle diddle O
diddle diddle, soft corn, hard corn, hey diddle diddle
O ! " ; then did respond to the kind invitation " Officer,
have some squash ? "
There were toasts afterwards, of course (in fact a
long toast-list had been previously, and with much
consideration sent to us), to one of which I had been
" told off " to reply.
Being totally unaccustomed to public speaking, I
looked forward with trepidation to the delivery of a
short and suitable speech which I had laboriously
prepared for the occasion ; an occupation, I may say,
in which several officers were engaged with the same
dread anticipation.
Our relief after dinner, therefore, was as great as
our surprise, when the chairman rose and read out the
following characteristic toast-list, without a pause from
beginning to end, to which Captain Edgell replied in
happy and comprehensive style, for he was strong on
the social and ceremonial side of naval life.

54 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Naval men, as a rule, are not ready speakers, but
the shortest reply that I ever heard from the lips of a
naval or any other man was very many years after that
banquet, at a club dinner, when, on a naval captain's
health being proposed as the guest of the evening, his
response was : " Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am
very much obliged to you for so kindly drinking my
health. You are very glad to have me here, and / am
very glad to be here, so we are all very glad, and what
more need I say ? "
He then sat down smiling, and the company smiled
too ! — at a speechlet which certainly was undeniably
animated by the " soul of wit," though more I fancy at
the cool " cheek " of the speaker.
Toast List.
At the American Dinner, given to the Captain and
Officers of H.M.S. "Tribune" at the Chinchas, 22nd
February 1857, on board the " John E. Thayer."
(0
The American Fleet sends greeting to the Com
mander and Officers of her Britannic Majesty's ship
Tribune. May the genuine spirit of national cordiality
animate the hearts of Englishmen and Americans in
every part and in every clime. (»)
Queen Victoria. May her reign be distinguished
by the same unsullied integrity and beneficent policy
which has maintained its popularity and preserved the
goodwill of her own subjects and the esteem of the
American people.

THE CHINCHAS

55

(3)
England and the United States ! Bound by ties
of consanguinity, fraternal fellowship, and commercial
intercourse, may their naval protection extend to each
other whenever a common foe invades the just rights
of either. (4)
The Tribune. Long may she float, an honour to
the British Flag. (5)
(In silence)
To the memory of the de-parted statesman, Sir
Robert Peel, the Po-litical E-conomist and Phi
losopher of England. (6)
The Entertainments on board the Tribune, Thursday
evening. Our gratification that evening is only
equalled by seeing you, our guests, this evening, that
we may welcome you on board the John E. Thayer,
and sit with you beneath the flag of American Union.
(7)
The Anglo-Saxon Race. Destined to achieve more
for the elevation of mankind and the overthrow of
tyranny than any predecessor. (8)
Thirty-five millions of people welcome the foreigner
to their country to participate with them in the
bounties of Providence.

56 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
(9)
John Bull and Brother Jonathan. A stout, portly
old gentleman, fond of beer and bacon, and a raw-
boned but athletic young man in striped pantaloons
and an enormous shirt collar. (10)
(In solemn silence)
The im-mortal Shakespeare. England gave him
birth, but such a plant is no ex-otic, as Nature planted
it, and it is naturalised everywhere. (")
Faith, Hope, Charity — these three, the greatest
of which is Charity. Let us look charitably on the
faults of nations and emulate their virtues.
(12)
Our Pilgrim Fathers who came from England in
the Mayflower. The chariot of Fame freighted with
one of the most precious cargoes that England ever
sent to our native land. (13)
A life on the Ocean Wave. God speed the mariner.
A quick passage and a safe return.
Our visit to the headquarters of the guano industry
came to a close, for which we were sorry, for on the
whole it was a pleasant one fraught with several notable
and enjoyable experiences. On 23rd February 1857,
after having fired a salute of thirteen guns in honour

THE CHINCHAS 57
of George Washington's birthday, while the ship was
"dressed" so as to make ourselves agreeable as pos
sible all round, with American ensign at main, French,
Chilian, and Peruvian in prominent positions, &c, we
weighed under sail, and ran leisurely down through
the merchant fleet.
Probably few men-of-war ever departed with such
an ovation. The Americans hoisted our flag, while the English
and others hoisted signals of adieux, dipped colours as
we passed, fired salutes of sorts with guns and weapons
of sorts, or waved and cheered, but every one did some
thing to join in the send-off.
Meantime we kept the signal " Farewell " flying
from the main-royal truck, and band playing ; finishing
off with a salute of seven guns, after which we
" up helm " and bore up for Callao.
The opportunity of exchanging so much good
will with our Transatlantic cousins, and of showing
our own merchant friends that men-of-war people
were not so proud and " stand-off " as is often sup
posed, and of making ourselves useful and acceptable
in many ways — the opportunity I say, was beneficially
utilised to full advantage by us in the interests of our
country, and we were fortunate in having a captain
who was so gifted with qualities necessary for the occa
sion as Captain Edgell.
As we again neared S. Lorenzo we were hailed by
a brig, the Guise, sole remaining representative of
Castilla's fleet ; and shortly afterwards — the roar of
sea-lions falling impressively on the ear through the
deepening mist which almost concealed her — we heard
a shotted gun not far off, to which we fired a blank

58 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
cartridge in reply, suspecting that Montero, the ubiqui
tous, must be somewhere at hand, and with good
reason, for by-and-by, when the fog lifted, we saw
that he had snapped the little thing up. It was in
convenient, too, to find out that his troublesome
frigate was carrying out so rigorous a blockade that
no sea-borne supplies could reach the Callao markets.
Fog prevailed again so densely that we were
obliged to anchor off the island, where we remained
forty-eight hours, when, hearing a salute of thirteen
guns in the direction of Callao, we deduced the fact
of our expected new admiral's arrival by the mail ; so
Boyle, entirely dependent on his compass, was sent
away in the fog for letters, and returned with the news
that the flag of Rear-Admiral Bruce was flying at the
President's mizzen, the same being transferred to the
Tribune when the President sailed for home shortly
afterwards. We cheered her on her departure, when
she manned her rigging from top to bottom with a
snow-white cluster and heartily responded.
So far we had made but little acquaintance with
our extensive station, and were not destined to make
much more, an unexpected and pleasant surprise being
close at hand.
Little did I think, when in the usual mist I went
to board the next mail on March 10, 1857, what the
letter-bag contained that I returned with — nothing less
than Admiralty orders for the Tribune's immediate
departure to reinforce the British fleet in Chinese
waters where war had broken out. Telle est la vie
navale. The news ran round the ship like wild-fire, and
everybody was delighted, for the Chinese station, with

THE CHINCHAS 59
prospects of active service and promotion, was much
more attractive than our present one, though to be
sure our captain lost his chance of freight — one of the
little pickings of the Pacific.
We had previously provisioned, coaled to the merry
tune of .£5 per ton, and paid up our washing bills at
the cheerful figure of ten shillings per dozen, so we
were all ready for a move ; and on the very next day
after receiving our orders, Admiral Bruce having trans
ferred his flag to the Naiad store hulk, we weighed
under sail by moonlight, and stood out towards the
wide expanse of the Pacific, Peru and its associations
fading away into our past.

CHAPTER IV
ACROSS THE PACIFIC WESTWARD
This long voyage which we had commenced, ten
thousand miles westward across the Pacific, that
superb ocean which constitutes one-half of the surface
of the globe, the voyage from South America to
China, was one which had rarely been performed by
any of her Majesty's ships, our projected route being
to reach the Equator by means of the S.E. trade,
to cross it in 1200 W., and then, availing ourselves
of the welcome service of the N.E. trade, to reach
Halfway House, that is the Sandwich Islands, which,
by using steam in the Doldrums, we hoped to do in
thirty days, the average passage of a sailing ship being
forty-two days.
"The first (European) that ever burst into this
silent sea" was Magellan, who, after threading his
way through the straits which are called after him,
entered it in 1520, and gave it the name by which
it has been known ever since, and the first English
man, our own renowned Sir Francis Drake, that gallant
Elizabethan sailor who towers up in boldest relief along
the lines of the naval history of Great Britain, who
accomplished the voyage from Callao to England west
wards, via Java and the Cape of Good Hope in 1579,
in the little ship Elizabeth, of eighty tons, a remarkable
exploit, which, considering the sort of ship, and the
60

ACROSS THE PACIFIC WESTWARD 61
circumstances under which it was performed, an un
known ocean, no charts, poor equipment, scurvy, and
so forth, must impress with admiration. There were
maritime giants in those days. When the Elizabeth
reached Deptford, the Queen paid her little namesake
a visit, and knighted the heroic captain on his own
quarter-deck, a thoroughly well-deserved honour, even
though knighthoods bore a significance and importance
about them in 1581 which they can scarcely be said
to possess in the present day.
First lieutenants who want undisturbed oppor
tunities to get their ships into order are not at all averse
to a long spell of blue water and fine trade weather,
of which full advantage was taken by us in many ways
— by officers to spread out their uniforms " on the
booms " in the sun to dry ; by the ship's company
to " air bedding '' in the rigging, and so forth ; and
by the chaplain and our musical lieutenant, Boyle,
in the unromantic seclusion of the stoke-hole, to train
up the church choir in the way that they should go,
but had not yet gone.
So for days we sped on, touching neither tack nor
brace, the operations on deck being evidently interesting
to four frigate-birds, huge representatives of the cor
morant tribe, which floated around the mastheads, dis
playing their long-pointed, bifurcated tails, and anon, as
is their wont, soaring upwards to a great height.1
1 The five large birds which are seen by sailors and often mentioned in
"Voyages" are : —
1. The Frigate or Man-o'-war Bird (Fregata aquila). Allied to cor
morants. Blackish brown with a very long, slender, deeply-forked tail.
2. The Tropic or Boatswain Bird (Phaethon aetherius). White plumage,
with black over eye. Tail long, slender, not forked.
3. The Gannet or Solan Goose (Sula bassana). (Britain, &c.)
4. The Booby (Sula Fusca), closely allied to (3).
5. The Noddy (Sterna solida), allied to Terns.

62 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
One valuable commodity, however, had been to
such an extent ruined by the phenomenal damp of
the Peruvian coast that it was past recovery, viz. 6000
pounds of excellent Chilian ship's biscuit, consequently,
to the joy of birds and fishes, it was all condemned by
survey and thrown overboard, but, fortunately, we had
a reserve supply in disused water-tanks, which was per
fectly sound. Very wisely all " bread " in the navy is
now stored in metallic receptacles.
At Sydney, in my old Cuba days, Brierly, famed
among marine painters, painted a huge picture on the
wall over a dining-room sideboard of H.M.S. Rattlesnake
under sail, the sea being so realistically represented
that our hostess declared, as the best compliment at
her disposal, that she could keep no biscuit, nor any
other article of consumption, in that sideboard on
account of the extreme damp !
Though the aforesaid ship's biscuit was of the best,
and not too white, Messrs. Hooquey & Walker's (of
Valparaiso) " officers' biscuit " found no favour with us,
as its inviting whiteness, on analysis by the surgeon
of H.M.S. Esk, was found to be due to a large pro
portion of bone dust — useful perhaps, as phosphatic
food in the case of growing children, but scarcely ac
ceptable to adults.
The biscuit supplied to the Royal Navy is composed
of the best " seconds flour," to which is very usefully
added a certain proportion of whole meal.
It is needless to add that for obvious reasons in the
manufacture of ship's biscuit not a particle of butter
or of any other oleaginous material must be used ;
moreover, to produce ship's biscuit that is not flinty
it would seem that manufacture on a large scale is

ACROSS THE PACIFIC WESTWARD 63
necessary, for retail bakers apparently are able to avoid
flintiness only by the addition of grease, when the
article ceases to be true ship's or captain's biscuit.
During the early part of our voyage we observed
that the S.E. trade, which was wafting us so pleasantly
over the waters, deep blue by day, gloriously phos
phorescent by night, freshened as the moon rose, and
fell lighter as it set, in which we traditionally recog
nised the operation of cause and effect, but the fact,
whether or not a mere coincidence, touches the fringe
of a wider question, the influence of the moon upon
the weather generally, a creed so deeply engraven upon
the seafaring mind that to discredit it would have been
heresy indeed.
Now, however ungracious the task may be to
uproot or even to throw doubt upon deeply-rooted
and favourite popular creeds, the truth must be told ;
and it is that, after many years' patient investigation,
the verdict of scientific observers is entirely adverse
to the belief that changes of the moon influence
weather, so emphatically adverse indeed, that the old
and widespread idea is calmly ranked among " popular
superstitions " — the only known weather influence
being "a slight but appreciable tendency to dispersion
of clouds shortly after full moon." 1
1 "Careful comparison between the state of the weather and phases of the
moon has quite discredited the notion that any connection of the kind really
exists."— Sir Robert Ball, "Story of the Heavens."
" The control of the weather by the moon has long been a favourite idea,
but it has not been found to bear the test of accurate comparisons of weather
and lunar phases except in a very faint and imperfect manner." — Prof. W.
Morris Davis, 1895.
"Lunar periods in weather have all failed to get a foothold in scientific
respect, but they appear theoretically probable." — Head of the United States
Weather Service, 1895.

64 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
When Boyle and I one clear evening were watching
the " star dogged moon," I asked him whether he was
aware that scientific men were throwing cold water on
the idea that she had any influence over the weather.
" Well, my dear fellow," he replied, " some favourite
belief which we've been brought up on is always being
knocked on the head, seems to me, but after Nelson's
coat I can stand anything."
" What do you mean ? "
" Have you seen Nelson's blood on Nelson's coat
at Greenwich ? "
" Certainly I have."
" Well, it isn't Nelson's blood at all."
" You don't mean that. How do you know ? "
demanded I, astonished.
" Listen. On the very day after I went the rounds
at Greenwich, I met old Admiral Westphal, who was
well known to my family, and told him what I had
seen. He immediately said, < It isn't Nelson's blood on
that coat ; it's my blood.'
" < How's that, Admiral ? '
" ' Well (he explained), I was a midshipman on
board the Victory at Trafalgar, and while on the poop
was wounded on the head by a splinter. I was taken
to the cockpit, laid on the deck, and something was
put under my head which happened to be Nelson's
coat, which had been taken off him when he was
carried below a short while before I was wounded. I
bled profusely, and it was my blood which stained the
coat in the manner that you saw.' "
Soon after passing out of the influences of Hum
boldt's current we had begun to benefit by those of
the great Equatorial westerly current, generally to

ACROSS THE PACIFIC WESTWARD 65
the extent of twenty or twenty-five miles a day, but it
is recorded that between the Society and Sandwich
Islands a set of even ninety-six miles in twenty-
•four hours has been experienced. A westerly wind
means, I may observe for landsmen, one that blows
from, but a westerly current one that sets towards, the
west. As of air, so there is a constant circulation of
water all over the world. Just as we find land and
sea breezes, trades and monsoons, straight-line and
revolving gales, so there are analogous, never-ceasing
movements of the ocean in the shape of tides — local,
temporary, surface and under currents, or mighty
permanent currents as the Gulf Stream, or the
Equatorial current of the Pacific ; but all winds and
currents arise from precisely the same cause, namely,
an alteration in the density of volumes of air or water,
as the effect of which those volumes alter their position
by upward, downward, or lateral movement, the fluid
that flows to take up their place being called wind or
current. This alteration in density or specific gravity, which
is productive of such grand, important, and far-reaching
results, is effected in great measure by the sun's heat,
but by other agencies as well, especially in the ocean,
such as abstraction from or addition to the solid matter
held in solution by its water.
To consider the matter in one particular only : a
bucketful of water which is dashed over the deck
during that matutinal process so dear to the heart of
first lieutenants, is to the eye simply a few gallons of
transparent brine ; but,- as in the case of the young
man who could not see Elisha's celestial companions E

66 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
till his eyes were opened (2 Kings vi.), so if our eyes
are opened, not by any miraculous interposition but
simply by the aid of a good microscope, we find every
drop to be peopled with wonderful forms of organic
life, to say nothing about the salts that chemistry
proves it to have in solution.
Now all these microscopic inhabitants, together
with those which are non-microscopic, " abstract (says
Maury in his " Physical Geography of the Sea ") enough
solid matter from the sea to build continents," so
that thereby alterations in the density of the ocean,
with corresponding derangements of equilibrium, enough
independently of other agencies to account in great
degree for oceanic currents, are continually going on.
To illustrate and emphasize the theory of oceanic
circulation, Maury, the pioneer of a charming route on
which he was the first to embark with a fascination all
his own, points out that supposing the waters of the
great deep to be in a state of perfect equilibrium, the
abstraction by a single mollusc or coral insect of
enough solid matter from a volume of sea water to
build its cell will destroy the equilibrium of the whole
ocean, and produce a current — a deduction which,
however logically true, is one which appertains to the
domain of poetical rather than practical hydrostatics.
That " there is more in everything than meets the eye "
may be an aphorism, but one applicable to every
object in this wonderful world, particularly to the
ocean, of which it may be asserted with literal truth
that the changes going on in it are so continuous that
the surface "which meets the eye" is never the same
for five consecutive minutes.
Maury's book ought to be in the hands of every

ACROSS THE PACIFIC WESTWARD 67
officer of the naval as well as of the merchant service,
for, as an American captain, writing from Callao points
out, " not only does it specify the most speedy routes
for ships to follow, but teaches sailors to look about
them and see by what wonderful manifestations of
Divine wisdom and goodness we are surrounded . . .
now I feel that until I took up your work I had been
traversing the ocean blindfolded . . . you have taught
me to look above, around, and beneath, and to re
cognise God's hand in every element." That was in
1855. Now in 1901, under the reign of Evolution, it
seems to be quite old-fashioned to recognise God's
hand in anything — quite " out of form " in fact.

Long voyages are tiring and monotonous affairs
for those who have nothing particular to do, or who
have no particular tastes or internal resources.
In the Tribune we executive officers had continuous
employment, but some of the others wearied. Our
young marine, however, devised an occupation which
he pursued with credit to himself and benefit to others
— that of blanchisseur. He took in and " got up "
collars, and there was no lack of custom, for paper
collars had not yet been invented, and the Peruvian
tariff had been almost prohibitive, ten shillings in fact
per " mixed dozen " ; so when the enterprising Ozzard,
who, cunning fellow, must have secretly provided him
self with a large store of starch, displayed over his
cabin door the announcement, " Collars got up at
moderate rates," we welcomed it and showered those
articles of apparel in upon him.
If our chaplain had been otherwise constituted, he,

68 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
too, might have had to struggle with the ennui, but, as
it was, he had abundant and absorbing occupation,
though not exactly in pastoral duties. No, the instruc
tion of the midshipmen and cadets coming to an end
at noon, the reverend gentleman was free for the rest of
the day to follow his favourite role of joiner (in another
sense : not matrimonial) and cabinetmaker, at which he
was highly skilled, his little cabin, 6£ by 8£ feet, being
almost entirely filled up, to the exclusion of nearly
everything else, by a carpenter's bench, which served
as a couch by night. In that little den were pro
duced many curious and elaborate specimens of the
cabinetmaker's art, large and small, cleverly inlaid
with designs in ornamental woods and red sealing-
wax ! one of which I have now before me as a link to
those old times in the shape of a small chess-board
showing a problem in five moves, which I have never
solved. Some of us were keen on chess, and the figure of
the Rev. J. J. B. is still vividly before me, as he sat
opposite me with his long beard slowly propelling the
pieces to their squares with his filbert-shaped, Nebuchad
nezzar - like nails, an inch and a half long, for this
curious character never cut his nails.
" Service dinners " went on with regularity. At
2.30 twice a week the captain entertained five guests,
and on Sundays he dined with the officers, who asked a
couple from the Berth to meet him — de rigueur costume
mercifully giving way to white jackets.
Bottles of beer and wine were beautifully cooled by
being enclosed in woollen socks, under the mouth of a
windsail, but such is the cooling power of evaporation
that nearly the same effect was produced, even in

ACROSS THE PACIFIC WESTWARD 69
calms, by hanging a bottle in a damp covering close to
an open scuttle or small port-hole. A real boon it was
after a long forenoon watch in the tropics, with plenty
of work, to find a bottle of cool Bass awaiting you on
your being relieved, refrigerators and ice-machines not
having been invented, at least not having come into use,
for as long ago as 181 8 Napoleon possessed an ice-
making machine at St. Helena.
Our gunroom mess was managed by a " caterer,"
one of ourselves, a most unthankful office, so that no
wonder it was difficult to get any one to undertake it.
Complaints were numerous.
" The jellies are too ' slim ' are they ? Very well,
we'll try and stiffen 'em a bit for you."
So next time Jones ordered a liberal supply of glue
to be put into the jellies, converting them into literal
stick- jaw.
Among the things about ships which I have found
people " surprised to hear " is the prevalence of dust
on oceanic highways. In steamers that is easily
accounted for, but sailing-navy people will remember
that however carefully the decks of their ships might
have been washed in the morning, a great amount of
dust accumulated during the day, necessitating at
regular fixed intervals, as a matter of routine, the call
for "sweepers." No doubt the continuous movements of so large a
number of men and amount of material were chiefly
sufficient to produce that, but the action of the sails as
dust collectors from the atmosphere must also be taken
into account, for the atmosphere, in addition to the
ordinary dust of wear and tear, local combustion, fine
sand, and so forth, is pronounced by investigators to

70 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
be more or less charged with cosmic dust, viz. that
proceeding from volcanoes and meteors.1
It is a curious and remarkable fact that all over
the surface of the globe an invisible shower of the
impalpable dust of dissipated meteorites is continuously
in progress ; also that fine dust particles are essential
as nuclei for the formation of fog and cloud, and even
probably for that of the blue of the sky.
A delightful fine weather passage this, and during
the early part of First Watches (8 P.M.-12), when the
white towers of canvas under my charge confided
themselves contentedly to the loving caresses of the
steady trade wind ; when planets illuminated the dark
surface of the mighty mysterious ocean with broad
bright tracks ; when a glance over the gangway, past
which seething lines of phosphorescent foam were
merrily speeding, revealed the star-spangled track of
the merry innocent porpoise as he ranged up alongside
to inspect the glistening copper, wondering what it
could be ; when no rope had to be touched during all
the hours — then was the time to listen to sea songs
from the forecastle, the most characteristic and favourite
of which were known as " forebitters," because the
singers and their audience generally clustered round the
Fore Bitts, viz. cleats where the ropes appertaining to
the foremast were belayed.
In taking a retrospect of British naval history one
1 Sir E. Ball, lecturing in 1900, said : " Between Sumatra and Java lies a
little volcanic island called Krakatoa, which, on August 23, 1883, was the
scene of the most stupendous explosion ever known. A large part of it was
literally blown away, 35,000 people were killed, volcanic dust traversed the
atmosphere over the greater part of the globe, great sea waves travelled 5000
miles, the sound was heard in Australia, 4000 miles away, and air waves went
round the world seven times before they ceased to affect barometers."

MIDSHIPMAN S TATCH
Only survrcal of 'Britain' '.* old W

ACROSS THE PACIFIC WESTWARD 71
cannot help remarking how its brave and loyal spirit
was in no small degree kept alive and stimulated by a
series of sea songs and airs wonderfully adapted to the
modes of thought, habits, customs, and peculiarities of
sea life and character.
Most of these songs have died out, but there are
some that will never die out. Dibdin, born in 1745,
whom Neptune inspired, was eminently successful in
getting at Jack's heart through his songs, especially
through two or three which have become stereotyped
wherever the English language is spoken, and it is
acknowledged that he rendered great services in attract
ing men to the navy during highly critical periods of
her history. Among more recent composers the name
of Henry Russell stands pre-eminent with his " Cheer,
Boys, Cheer," " A Life on the Ocean Wave," &c.
All these songs that survive are indisputably " sur
vivals of the fittest." They are connecting links to the
old glorious historic navy. An age of steam, machinery,
and mastless, funnelled, iron-clad monsters could not
have given them birth any more ,than it could have
produced or inspired a Marryat. Were some naval
Rip Van Winkle to make his appearance on board one
of our twentieth-century ships of war, he would see
nothing, absolutely nothing, except midshipmen's
" patches," to remind him of the service of his day, and
would hear little but the National Anthem, Rule
Britannia, and a few old forebitters.
On the thirteenth day of our voyage, a distant snow
capped ridge among the clouds on the port beam was
descried, and soon Cook's Island, Owhyhee (correctly
Hawaii), with its two majestic volcanoes nearly 14,000
feet high, and 70 miles distant, was revealed, presenting

72 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
as we neared them, an imposing appearance as they
stood up lofty and clear above the heavy masses of
cumuli that hung about the horizon.
From our position we could not sight Karakakooa
Bay, the site of the great navigator's death in i779»
who named the whole group the Sandwich Islands (in
honour of the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the
Admiralty), their inhabitants, who are akin to the New
Zealand Maories in race and language, presenting many
interesting features, especially in their modern history
and developments ; but they and their islands have been
so well and so often described that I will not attempt
any further account.
Honolulu, the modern capital, situated on the
southern coast of the small but central island Oahu,
owes its importance to the fact that its harbour is the
only really well-protected port in the Archipelago. It
is, however, a very small one, and being the head
quarters of the South Pacific Whaling Fleet, had at
times as many as 300 vessels inside it at one time,
moored and lashed head and stern like herrings in a
barrel, for there was no room to swing.
There was an outer anchorage, but of course we
wanted to go inside, so we availed ourselves of the
services of Captain Luce, harbour master or pilot, who
took us safely over the bar twenty to twenty-three feet,
through the narrow opening in the coral-reef to our
berth about a cable's length from shore, where we
dropped two anchors and secured two hawsers to a
neighbouring ship to prevent swinging — in fact, there
was no room to do so.
Had I not been so abundantly forestalled by abler
pens I would attempt to describe what I saw in

ACROSS THE PACIFIC WESTWARD 73
beautiful Honolulu, but it must suffice to note that among
my pleasantest recollections is that of natural baths
formed up the valley by a rocky basin of the mountain
stream, which pours in at one end and out at the other
in a never-failing crystal cascade. An enterprising
individual had constructed steps and dressing-rooms
and supplied towels. At one end the hollow was seven
feet deep ; at the other shallow enough to stand under
the cascade.
The pleasure of our short stay of three days was
marred by an unpleasant incident, three men of a
working party, employed by us on board a provision
hulk, having got hold of and broken open two cases of
champagne, whose contents, to the extent of thirteen
bottles, they imbibed, probably with the assistance from
some of their comrades. Being sent to see into the
matter, I found the trio so hopelessly drunk that I had
to have them lowered over the side like logs, so, on
getting away clear of harbour where it was always
impolitic to allow the pipe " Hands to punishment " to
be heard, about the first business was to visit J. B.
(A.B.), T. M. N. (Stoker), and L. L. (O.S.) with
retribution for their little jollification in the shape of
48, 36, and 24 lashes respectively.
On such unpleasant occasions the defaulter was
" spread-eagled " to a grating fixed in an upright
position close abaft the starboard gangway (hence the
expression of punishment at, bring you to, the gangway)
barebacked, his neck being protected by a canvas collar.
Grouped around on the quarter-deck were the whole of
the officers, the ship's company further forward, the
surgeon close to the grating.
Everything being in readiness, up came the captain,

74 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
warrant in hand, which he read, and then gave the
fell command " Boatswain's mate," on which that func
tionary, drawing a cat-of-nine tails out of a little red
or green baize bag in which it had hitherto reposed,
administered the first swinging dozen, then on a second
order, " Another boatswain's mate," another functionary
with another cat, and so on. In many ships the custom
was for the boatswain to inflict the first dozen, when the
captain would simply say " Mr. Brown," as a signal to
begin. After four dozen lashes a man's back looked
very like a raw steak with little drops of blood oozing
out all over — so what must it have looked like after four
hundred ? (See " At School and At Sea," chap, xxvi.)
Newly - rated boatswain's mates were required to
" get their hand in " by practising on a canvas repre
sentation of the size of a man's back put up in the boat
swain's store-room.
I think it quite probable that the popular phrase
about " letting the cat out of the bag " may thus have
had a naval origin, though I am aware that it is gene
rally supposed to date from a variety of sport (!) in
Shakesperian times, when a cat was tied up in a soot-
bag hung on a line, the players having to beat out the
bottom of the bag, he who first succeeded in liberating
the wretched, maimed, soot-blinded animal claiming the
privilege (!) of hunting it afterwards. It occurs forcibly
that Byron must have been a witness to some sport (!)
of the sort when he wrote, " All save the spirit of man
is Divine." Anyhow, whichever of the twain be the origin of
the " saw," the leading idea is the same — that of a
discloser of hidden or secret things.

ACROSS THE PACIFIC WESTWARD 75
For three long weeks we had been sailing over the
blue water on this second half of our voyage without
seeing either land or ship, when little Johnny Norris,
our excellent master, announced that we should sight
land that evening about five o'clock, and sure enough
at 4.30 the island of Pagou, and shortly afterwards of
Grigon, two of the Ladrones between which we passed,
became visible. I was greatly impressed with the
beauty and accuracy of the science of navigation which
enabled our navigator, by help of his trusty sextant and
faithful chronometer, to make so accurate a forecast.
Chronometers are used by mariners to show at any
part of the globe where they may happen to be what
the Greenwich mean time is, which by comparison with
the ship's mean time at the same instant, deduced from
an observation of the sun's altitude, shows the longi
tude in time, and thus the longitude ; and the import
ance of accurate chronometers may be inferred from
the fact that in 1764 a reward of .£20,000 was paid by
the British Government to Harrison " for the best time
keeper for ascertaining the longitude at sea."
In the Tribune's day one chronometer only was sup
plied by the Admiralty to each ship, but as greater
accuracy can be expected from the mean of three
time-pieces than from one alone, the Admiralty under
took to supply a third conditionally on the captain's
providing the second out of his own pocket, which was
nearly always done.
Of course the utmost care of these instruments was
taken, and a strict rule, to ensure regularity in winding
them up, was commonly adopted throughout the ser
vice, the sentry at the cabin door not being allowed to
be relieved unless he could report "the chronometers

76 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
are wound up," a fact which he learned from the
master or one of his staff.
The excellence of chronometers depends in great
degree upon that of their compensation balances, and
before sending them afloat a thorough testing between
extremes of temperature is carried out at Greenwich
Observatory. Our long voyage was drawing to an end, and as
we approached the Asiatic continent we all looked
forward with great interest, even excitement, to our
introduction to that mysteriously ancient and inte
resting portion of it for which we were specially
directing the good ship's head, for none of us, I think,
except Captain Edgell, who took part in the operations
of 1 841, had visited China before, and we anxiously
speculated on the developments which might await
us there. Should we find fighting in progress, in
which we should take part, or operations for which
we might be too late, and if the former, would any
of us be killed or wounded, or manage to knock our
promotions out of the affair ? Little did I think as
I discussed probabilities with Barker, the much valued
midshipman of my watch, to whom I was much
attached, that within a few days after our arrival I
should be hors de combat, with a bullet hole in my
throat, and he, poor young fellow, lying dead, with a
grape shot through his lungs ; but I will not forestall.
We prepared for eventualities by special prepara
tion of boats, their crews and guns, and landing par
ties and their outfit, expecting, not without reason, a
demand in those directions.
During one morning watch, when a hundred miles
S.S.W. of Formosa, a splendid island half as large as

ACROSS THE PACIFIC WESTWARD 77
Ireland, situated near the coast of China, a solitary
woodcock flew close past my head as I stood on the
bridge by the mizzen-mast, his long bill and beautiful
plumage being quite distinct. Having circled in a
puzzled way round and round the ship for twenty
minutes he decided that he had made a mistake in
his reckoning, and disappeared in the direction of
Luzon of the Philippines.
A couple of days afterwards premonitory symptoms
in the shape of several Chinese junks were seen,
curious old world craft, with huge red eyes painted
on their lofty square bows. These eyes are very
ancient institutions, carrying us back at least to St.
Paul's time, whose ship no doubt had them, the
correct rendering in Acts xxvii. 15 being, "could not
look at the wind." Hence, too, our own nautical
mode of mentioning the extreme forepart of a ship's
deck as " the eyes of her."
At last, on the sixtieth day of a prosperous voyage,
performed almost exclusively under sail, the high
granite ridges of Hong Kong greeted the longing eye,
and the wind failed, so, with the conviction that
steam was not such a bad sort of thing after all,
except for the nuisance of coaling, we got it up, and
lowered the propeller from its station of elevated
repose, by whose assistance the welcome sight of tall
masts quickly appeared, on one of which, the Calcutta's,
we expected to see the Commander-in-Chief Admiral
Sir Michael Seymour's flag flying, but he was up the
river. After being so long solitary, the busy harbour
of beautiful Hong Kong, with its mixed surroundings
of East and West, and intercourse with people of
our own cloth, from whom we soon learned all the

78 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
news, was most welcome, and the flagship's master
came on board and piloted us to our anchorage.
Captain Edgell behaved nobly, for had he slowed
the engines only just a little during the last mile or
two, as he might easily have done, he would have been
the winner of our valuable anchor sweepstakes, which,
as it turned out, fell to a less popular recipient by just
ten minutes.

PART II
CHINA

ii.m.s. "tribune" uniik.k stkam

CHAPTER I
HONG KONG
I experienced sensations of deep interest and ex
pectancy on descrying the coast of China, that extra
ordinary empire which is supposed now (1901) to
have a population of more than four hundred millions,
an empire whose origin is lost in the mists of antiquity,
and whose national characteristics may be succinctly
described in one word — stereotyped. It has existed
for at least four thousand years, and its laws, manners
and customs, language, mode and fashion of its dress,
go on century after century without undergoing any
material alteration. A description therefore of what
I saw in China forty years ago would answer fairly
well for what might have been seen four hundred,
or what might be seen now ; yet this is no longer
so true, as there are signs that recent stirring events
and increasing intercourse with civilised nations are
at last penetrating the crust of exclusiveness which
has so long enveloped the Celestial Empire.
Although there can be little doubt that the Chinese
were a nation fully as far back as 2000 B.C., yet their
authentic history scarcely begins before the time of Con
fucius, the great sage and reformer, who flourished five
centuries B.C., and not till about 250 B.C. does that
history become at all developed. Twenty-two dynasties
are enumerated, and it is a curious though well-known
81 F

82 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
fact that the present rulers are not Chinese at all, but
Tartars from Manchuria.
In 1643 the Chinese, being hardly pressed by a
rebellion, invited the assistance of the Manchoos, who
responded with alacrity to a call so much to their taste,
both present and prospective ; for when, after a suc
cessful issue of their undertaking, it was hinted that
the time had come to retire into their own country,
they declined, and instead seized the throne of Pekin,
which they have held ever since under the title of the
Ts'ing, or Pure Dynasty — the pigtail, soon to become
to ourselves so familiar a sight, having been imposed at
the same time, and remaining as a badge of conquest.
So in China we find two distinct strata of people —
the Manchoo, imperial or governing, and the Chinese,
native or governed race, although there is some inter
locking, a proportion of the mandarins and officials
being Chinese, but the Imperial government is entirely
Manchoo. Yet the Chinese have become so accustomed to the
yoke of the usurper that on the whole they accept the
situation as a matter of course — with occasional spas
modic efforts to shake it off, on the part, not of the
nation at large, who trouble themselves very little and
know very little about the matter, but of political
agitators. In our own country, except in its briefer duration,
we had an exact parallel in the Norman conquest.
Existing troubles which led to the Tribune having
changed her station so suddenly and unexpectedly had
arisen from an unredressed outrage at Canton in 1856
on the British flag, under which a lorcha called the
Arrow sailed. The flag was hauled down and twelve

HONG KONG 83
of the crew seized — perhaps with the contention that
the vessel was virtually a pirate. Lorchas are curiously
composite three-masted craft, which originated among
the Portuguese of Macao, of European build, but very
much of Chinese rig.
What soon became widely known as the " Lorcha
Arrow Incident " was, however, but the culminating
event of a series of troubles and disturbances at Canton
which had prevailed during the previous fifteen years,
not altogether creditable to Great Britain, though latterly
in a measure due to the obstinacy of the Viceroy, Yeh
Mingchin, popularly known as Yeh, in persistently
refusing to meet Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong
Kong, and formerly Superintendent of Trade at Canton.
Sir John, consequently, on his own responsibility, ordered
that city to be bombarded — " a proceeding which
excited grave displeasure at home and nearly upset the
Palmerston Ministry."1 That bombardment took place
1 Even at this distance of time, and although the incident has been eclipsed
by subsequent events, it will be interesting to historical students of Anglo-
Chinese relations to read the following opinions of some of the leading lawyers
and statesmen on this affair, which I extracted from the newspapers of the
day : —
" In a time of profound peace, without a declaration of war, we have cap
tured the forts and destroyed the residences— we have bombarded and shelled
an unoffending and commercial city. " — Lord Derby.
" Our late proceedings in China were in no way to be justified by the law
of nations. " — Lord Lyndhurst.
"A war of injustice, not founded on right, a war prosecuted by a Govern
ment with one pretext on their lips and another in their hearts." — Lord Car
narvon. " A war which is folly and crime." — Lord Ellenborough.
" I feel shame for my country." — Lord Malmesbury.
" Unable to find any justification for what we had recently done in China.
Sorrow, shame, and indignation at the bad faith and cruelty of Great Britain."
— Sir F. Thesiger.
" The proceedings of our representatives in China — atrocious and unjusti
fiable — of course the Government will immediately repudiate the acts of their
officials and recall the persons who had brought this disgrace on England — the

84 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
on October 27 and 28, 1856, and again for several
days in November, but the city was evacuated by the
British in January 1857, there being not sufficient force
to maintain it, though it was reoccupied in January,
1858, by the allies, as will be noticed in a later chapter.
Be all that as it might, we understood very little and
troubled ourselves less about the political causes of the
war which we found in progress, being eager only to
take any part in it that might be assigned to us, for
which, as will be seen, we had not long to wait.
Meantime let us take a look at Hong Kong. I
frankly confess that often as I had heard of Hong
Kong, my notions as to exactly what, where, and why
it existed were of the vaguest description.
It is a granite island, eleven miles long, from two
to five wide, situated off the embouchure of the great
Canton river, and ninety miles S. by E. from that
famous city, was ceded to Britain in 1842 as part of
an indemnity, and is of the utmost importance to her
national interests in those parts as a pied-a-terre, as a
naval station, and as a great commercial entrepot.
It is a Crown colony, with a governor, has a
spacious and splendid harbour, and a population
mainly composed of Chinese. Behind the city, Victoria,
in noble proximity, Victoria Peak, 1800 feet high,
towers. With so large a Chinese population attracted by
the commercial and other advantages offered by British
name and character of England have been tarnished and impaired." — Sir J.
Pakington. (So far from the persons being recalled, their policy was adopted by Lord
Palmerston's Government, and their hands strengthened for future operations
on the same lines.)
" The affair in China was unjustifiable from beginning to end." — Mr.
Whiteside.

HONG KONG 85
rule, it may readily be supposed that native life, features,
and habits, at all events among the working classes,
are represented almost as strongly as they are on the
mainland — among which the first to force itself into
notice was the floating population.
As soon as the anchor was dropped the ship was
surrounded by a surging, clamorous crowd of sampans,
as the small " shore-boats " of China are called.
An immense number of people in all Chinese
waters, but especially at Canton, live entirely in junks
and sampans, even in very small ones ; as in a space
which would appear impracticable to ourselves, whole
families of three generations sometimes, even mothers-
in-law, finding sufficient accommodation for every
purpose in life. They are born, marry, and die afloat.
Their boats are propelled by a long oar (or two in
very large boats), called by sailors a " scull," which is
worked over the stern. It is not so easy to scull a
little boat of any sort at first, until one learns how to
make the blade " bite." It must be understood that
" to scull " on salt water has not the same meaning
as "to scull" on fresh.
On hiring a sampan to go ashore I found the scull
being worked by the mother, helped by a big boy, the
father's post being to see to the business of shoving off,
&c, and to pull a very short oar in the bow, a couple
of merry youngsters besides, and the baby, hung in a
bag on the mother's back, completing the party. These
children learn to swim, help at an oar, and so on,
almost as soon as they can walk, and it was amusing
to find the smaller ones " buoyed," by being attached
to a wooden block by a few fathoms of line, so that if
they fell overboard they might be readily rescued.

86 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
They all seemed healthy, happy, and contented,
though extremely poor ; industrious they must have
been to earn even enough to buy the coarse grass
cloth or cheap Manchester cotton which covered them
(or didn't much), or the rice, tea, bananas, with occa
sionally a little fish or pork, on which they subsisted.
The steady motion of the long scull as it is skilfully
worked across the stern from side to side, producing
propulsion on the same principle exactly as a ship's
screw propeller, communicates an undulating or wrig
gling appearance to the arched tilt mat-roof which
covers the centre of the boat, and has a most • singular
effect when viewed collectively, that is when you look
down from the deck of a ship upon hundreds of such
roofs in a compact mass vibrating at the same
time. In most seaports in all parts of the world the first
thing that a sailor looks or used to look for were
" bum-boats," though really to appreciate their contents
one must have made a long sea voyage in the old
times ; but whether I may add " the good old times "
is another matter, because I find that when one comes
to analyse that phrase it has a habit of receding ignis-
fatuus-like into the distance. It seems to me at all
events that salt-pork and salt-beef, and hard-tack and
milkless tea and coffee are now such rarities as almost
to have become prized and popular, for one of the
chief " perils of the sea " at present is the hygienic one,
especially in an ocean liner, of too luxurious a table.
Now at Hong Kong we found particularly good
bum-boats and numerous, from the large well-appointed
decked junk, with efficient staff and kitchen prolific in
ready-made curries and piles of snowy rice, and other

HONG KONG 87
attractions, to the tiniest sampan holding one man and
a bunch of bananas.
At the stroke of the dinner hour, noon, they were
allowed alongside, stringent precautions against illicit
traffic in liquor being observed. I am happy to be
under an impression that our men-of-war's-men, have
greatly changed with the times, and while substantially
retaining the good and noble qualities which dis
tinguished Jack Tar of old, are no longer identified in
the public mind as inseparable with outbreaks of
drunkenness and debauchery whenever there is an
opportunity. But in the days that I am describing
many were the artifices resorted to in the way of
smuggling liquor on board ; and at Hong Kong it was
notorious that, in spite of vigilance, all the eggs that
came on board didn't contain yolks, and that some, at
least, of the chickens and ducks were ready stuffed, but
not with solid stuffing. In the culinary department of
these boats everything was cheap and good. Omelettes
were always being fried — eggs in any form being in
great demand, so much so, in fact, that one of our
marines ate twenty hard-boiled eggs as a dessert after
his own regulation dinner on board, and was said to be
all the better for it !
On landing to make my first acquaintance with
the Chinaman at home (for so he might almost be
considered at Hong Kong), I was at once impressed by
the all-pervading activity which prevailed, for the
Chinese are an extremely busy, active, hard-working,
intelligent people, and in many ways was brought
home to me how, in a country of that sort where
the population is so dense, and the working classes so

88 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
hard working, it would be ruinous to supersede by
steam or machinery or even horses the manual labour
of the inhabitants. They are also declared to be " a
sober, quiet, industrious, persistent, ingenious, and
pre-eminently frugal people, who can live and save
while others would starve " (Morris's " Winter in
North China;').
I may add by way of contrast that they are cruel,
mendacious, deceitful, and treacherous.
Scarcely any vehicles or beasts of burden were in
evidence, sedans taking their place, and innumerable
porters nearly naked, with huge straw hats serving
at once for awning and umbrella, were at hand to
carry your lightest parcel, or were seen staggering
along under the heaviest burdens slung to bamboo
poles. The streets presented a busy picture of life, and
noisy or obstructive knots of the aforesaid porters were
summarily dispersed by the application of a cane or
whip by the police, who were at that time unrevolted
Sepoys from India.
I could not understand how those Sepoys could
escape sunstroke when they actually seemed to court
it by their low, jet-black uniform hats worn under so
tremendous a sun ; but later on in life, when I watched
the noble British pot-hat unflinchingly endured by
thousands through long flaming July days on Lord's
cricket ground, I dismissed the Hong Kong policeman
from the area of criticism.
If, in these days of sources of universal information,
of cheap encyclopaedias, free libraries, and Tit-Bits,
there exist such a phenomenon as an uninformed
reader, he may ask the simple question : How do

HONG KONG 89
Europeans and Chinese communicate with each other ;
do they learn our language, or do we theirs ?
Neither the one nor the other. Chinese is the
most difficult, complicated, laborious, and, to a
foreigner, utterly inexplicable and incomprehensible
language in the world — more so, even, than Russian.
Some idea of its difficulty may be conjectured by the
fact (according to Professor Douglas) that there are
50,000 characters ; that though a number of objects
and ideas are expressed by the same sound, they are
each, when written, expressed by a distinct and appro
priate character ; that the same word is often capable
of being a noun, adjective, verb, or adverb ; that there
is nothing to mark the grammatical identity of a word
except its position in the sentence ; and most confusing
of all, most hopeless for the average European to
attempt to acquire, the transition from one part of
speech to another is constantly marked only by a
change of tone in pronunciation, the meaning of
monosyllables varying according to the tone in which
they are uttered.
It is not surprising, therefore, to find that with the
exception of professional interpreters, missionaries, and
some officials, scarcely any Englishman ever attempts
to learn Chinese, while of real English, Chinese are
about as ignorant ; but the number of proficients on
both sides has of late years doubtless increased.
Under such circumstances a medium of intercourse
became distinctly necessary, one, in fact, having long
ago come into existence under the title " Pidgin
English " — a strange jargon, evidently an evolutionary
product of the necessities of the case ; but to discover
its origin, or the principles or particulars of its

90 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
structure, would be impossible. The word " pidgin,"
it must be pointed out, has nothing to do with a bird,
but is a Chinese corruption of our word business;
and before proceeding to produce some examples of
its nature, I will mention a curious fact.
In China the dialects are numerous. The Mandarin
dialect (the word, from mandar, to command, has a
Portuguese origin) is the court and official one
throughout the empire, but those of the provinces
differ so greatly from each other (albeit the written
language is everywhere the same) that an interpreter
attached to the British Embassy told me that he had
often heard two Chinamen from different parts con
versing with each other in Pidgin English. Douglas
declares, too, that a Cantonese is nearly as unintel
ligible to a fellow-countryman from Shanghai or
Ningpo as a foreigner would be, and quotes the
example of two Chinese nurses meeting on the sands
at Eastbourne who were unable to talk to each
other except by the aforesaid mongrel means of
communication. To a Chinaman the pronunciation of r is about as
impossible as that of an A to a Cockney (in its right
place), becoming with him /, besides which he converts
e terminations into ee or y, and ve into b, rice being
licee ; walk, walkee; yes, yesy ; have, hab. The personal
pronoun / is always my, and the mysterious adjunct
piecy is found necessary to complete expression in the
case of adjectives of number, two men becoming two
piecy men. Number one is an adjective of quality in
continual requisition, having substantially the same
signification as it has with us, but much more
frequently and comprehensively applied.

HONG KONG

91

Bearing all this in mind, and with a glance or two
at the following specimens, we shall be in a condition
to venture upon a little conversation.

Specimens of Pidgin English.

Pidgin

Farmer pidgin
Chin-chin .
One piecy man
foss . . .
Joss man
3 piecy jossman
Maskee .
Cumskaw .
So fashion .
Bobbery . .
Number-one bobbery
Whilo, or .
Makee whilo
Ally ploper .
Can do? . .
Can secure 1
Chop . . .
Chop-chop .
Chop . .
Pilong .
How muctiee plicee
can catchee one all
same same? . .
No topside pidgin . .

Any sort of business ; an affair, occupa
tion.
Agriculture.
How-do-you-do ? Good-day.
A man.
Idol. Priest, clergyman.
Three ditto.
That's enough ; that will do.
Present, fee, tip.
Like that.
Tumult, disturbance.
An extensive ditto.
> Go away.
Correctly, properly, just as you desire.
Can you perform this ?
An emphatic " can do ? "
A hulk, barge, or house-boat.
Quickly ; as quick as you can.
Used when a surface is pitted.
Pirate.
}What price should I have to pay for one
like that ?
No religion, or very little.

Ahoy is a grinning, good-natured tailor fellow, with
a pigtail (formerly an adornment of the British tar)
reaching nearly to his ankles. Being in want of two
pairs of good new white trousers, I enter his shop,
bearing parcel containing pattern pair.

92 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
I. " I wanchee two piecy number one teelowsy —
can do ?
A. (rapidly, glibly, smilingly) " Yesy, yesy, can do
can do ; my son maky ally ploper."
I. "Can do number one?" (That is, can I rely
upon the best material.)
A. " Can do — can do ally ploper."
I. " Number one can secure ? " (Meaning — May
I rely upon your supplying everything of the best.)
A. " Can secure, can secure."
I. (to make assurance doubly sure) "Can secure all
same thisy ? " tapping pattern.
A. " Can secure, can secure."
The latter inquiry, however, was rather superfluous,
as Chinese are noted for the (sometimes embarrassing)
fidelity and exactness with which they reproduce
patterns, it being well known that an officer at Hong
Kong, having incautiously sent as a pattern a pair of
inexpressibles which had been patched, found to his
consternation that patches had been correspondingly
inserted in the new pair. This faculty of being
exact — too exact — copyists was not confined to tailors,
however. A naval surgeon wishing to send an oil-painting,
enlarged from a photograph, of himself to his wife,
photography being then in its infancy, applied to
Pun-lun, one of the numerous tribe of portrait-painters
which flourished at Hong Kong, rude, hard, uncom-
prising fidelity being the noticeable characteristic of
their productions. When the portrait was finished
the good doctor went to inspect, but being anything but
satisfied with the result, exclaimed indignantly, " Thisy
no number one, thisy no handsome facey," to which old

HONG KONG 93
Pun-lun — dignified and in huge round spectacles —
quietly retorted —
" Sposy hansum facey no hab got, hansum facey
how can do ? "
Your artless heathen Chinee is not only a good
close imitator but a clever deceiver, as the following
story — formerly well known to naval people — shows.
Sir Thomas Cochrane, Commander-in-Chief in
China, a " strict service man " sought, irrespective of
climate, to regulate the attire of his officers strictly
according to the Queen's regulations and Admiralty
instructions, specially as regards that formerly indis
pensable, but now happily obsolete detail of attire,
Wellington boots, which may have been tolerable in
some latitudes, but in the tropics simply cruelty; indeed,
I have a vivid recollection when dressing for " divisions "
of the agonies of perspiring efforts to draw on a pair of
tight Wellingtons, every tug producing an irritating
outbreak of prickly heat all over the body.
So, for the relief of naval officers, the invention of
a comfortable, cool, low shoe which to all appearance
should be a regulation boot was the important problem
of the hour, solved eventually by Wha-Chong, wily
shoemaker of, Hong Kong, whose productions, entirely
satisfying requirements, were universally adopted, being
known as " Chitty-Kochs " i.e. Cheat-Cochranes ; and
the fun was that the great Sir Thomas himself, entering
a shoemaker's to buy a pair of boots, was asked if he
wanted Chitty-Kochs !
When conversing with Chinese, Polynesians, and
other ancient or semi-civilised people, I have observed
an idiom or peculiarity of language, which I do not re
member ever having seen noticed by any author, that

94 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
is the affirmation of the negative. For instance, want
ing to buy a carved ivory glove-box (a speciality for
presents) I enter Wha-Chong's shop.
I. " Wanchee number one ively geelub bok — have
got?" W. " No hab got."
I. (interrogatively, wishing to make sure) "No have
got?" W. " Yessy," meaning " no," which a European of
course would have said.
This curious word pidgin, from which Canton-Eng
lish takes its title, is used in many generic ways. For
example, pirates infested, as they still infest Chinese
waters, and any expedition which we organised against
them was a " pilong pidgin " ; a theatrical performance,
a " sing-song pidgin " ; a lecture, speech, or sermon, a
" talkee talkee pidgin " ; a church service, a " joss pid
gin"; agriculture, "farmer pidgin " ; a naval or military
operation on a large scale as " number one makee fighty
pidgin." In 1857 the Chinese population of Hong Kong was
only 60,000 compared with the 235,000 of the present
day, yet, as I have said, with such a preponderance of
the native element a fair representative insight into the
character, habits, and customs of the Chinese mercantile
and' working classes was to be obtained by an observer
in his peregrinations.
Porters perspiring under heavy loads on long bam
boos are everywhere in evidence, but leisurely avoca
tions are well represented. Here and there, sitting at
little tables under trees, are roadside scribes, or pro
fessional letter-writers, to one of whom a woman is

HONG KONG 95
dictating, while one of her boys points in the direction
of Canton and observes for my enlightenment, " Bang-
bang " — the letter being for the husband or son, pro
bably a military-train coolie with our forces there.
Here is a sedate looking old gentleman sitting at a
street corner beside cages containing little birds of the
finch tribe — Java sparrows in fact. They are the famed
Chinese conjuring birds.
(I must now parenthetically express my obligation
to the gentleman who invented the Historical Present,
as in pages of the present nature it is occasionally so
convenient.) As soon as I come up to him, I receive a grin of
welcome from their grave but expectant owner, whose
huge circular spectacles, like the compass and other in-
dispensables, were probably in use among his nation
centuries before their adoption by Western civilisation.
Now your Chinaman has no false delicacy, but a keen
practical eye to business ; so, touching one of the cages
in which is a little sliding door, and just outside of
which rests a pack of little card-cases each containing a
picture, and a small pot holding a few dozen grains of
rice, he at once introduces the subject by remarking —
"Cumshaw can do, no cumshaw no can do," at
the same time shuffling the cards and pointing to the
inmate of the cage, who knowingly eyes these pro
ceedings, which are sufficiently explicit, but produce
no immediate response from me.
The old gentleman is calm and dignified, and in
no sort of hurry, awaiting the next move, which is
clearly mine ; meantime the oi polloi, scenting a pros
pect of amusement at my expense, gather round.
English currency prevailed in Hong Kong, as well

96 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
as Chinese,1 so I tentatively produce a halfpenny,
which he eyes askance, quietly observing, " No can
do. One piecy penny good pidgin."
I hand over the necessary coin, which he receives
without emotion, and places, as well as the aforesaid
little pack of cards, close beside the cage door, whose
fastening at the same time he withdraws.
The little bird, eyeing the penny, then the cards,
then the penny again, as if he thought that his per
formances were valued at too cheap a rate, descends
from his perch, opens the door with his beak, hops
outside, draws out a card from the pack, hands it
(rather beaks it) to his master, and hops back again
to his perch in the most business-like way imaginable,
receiving for his reward at this stage one grain of rice.
1 The Chinese coin of the present day is well known as cash; small
stamped pieces of metal (copper and zinc) with a hole in the centre of each,
by means of which, as the value of a single cash is so small as to be scarcely
appreciable, a number are strung together, by fifties, hundreds, or more, one
thousand cash being about the equivalent of a dollar. Strings of cash are
called mace. Besides cash we found Mexican dollars everywhere current,
though that might only have been the case in and around the Treaty Ports.
These dollars, after being some time in circulation, presented a ridiculous
appearance from continued " sweating," in the shape of clippings taken, off
the rim, or by being pecked or minutely chopped on the surface. Thus a
man pitted with the smallpox was said to have a "chop-dollar face." The
clippings, no doubt, as well as other foreign silver coins taken by weight, were
used to make solid sycee silver, which was sold and exchanged by weight.
During a certain boat expedition, some of my men, to their intense mortifica
tion afterwards, threw overboard two or three large boxes of sycee silver,
under the impression that it was shavings of lead for making bullets. It is
alleged that the present cash currency of Western China possesses the remark
able feature of its being worth as metal double its standard value as money.
It is alleged, too, that the first known coin is a Chinese copper one, still in
existence, and dating back to 2000 years B.C. The tael is not a coin at all,
but the standard of value throughout the empire. It is a Chinese ounce of
sycee or solid silver. Sycee and cash are the only currency of the interior,
and a friend of mine saw a donkey laden with cash going to market, probably
the price of a buffalo. British dollars, first coined in 1895, are current in
Hong Kong and Singapore.

HONG KONG 97
Next, the man takes the little picture out of the
case which he had received from the bird, and hands
it to me to inspect, which I carefully do. He then
returns it to its case, accompanied by the tiniest flat
slip of bamboo marked with six dots, and shuffles the
case up with the rest of the pack, which he deposits
in its former position, when the bird again descends,
and without the slightest hesitation selects a case,
which, being opened by me, proves to contain the
identical picture that I had just before inspected.
" But how," the sceptic may inquire, " do you
know that all the pictures were not the same ? "
Because, on a subsequent occasion, I satisfied
myself that they were all different, and that mine did
not protrude. No, I think the secret evidently lies
in the slip of bamboo, which must be scented in
some way.
Anyhow the performance is a very interesting one,
and I was amused to observe that the bird would
take no notice of the cards or of anything else until
a penny was deposited within sight. Knowing birds
those — probably the unconscious originators of the
penny-in-the-slot machines.
There are numbers of blind about, who hold a
little circular piece of copper, which they strike with
a hammer as they walk along.
There are quack doctors who sit behind tables, on
which are displayed with disgusting prominence, in
gaudy colours, representations of skin and various
other too common diseases, and medicines to cure
them are there too ; but one need not go to China
to find quacks.
Professional mendicants who display their sores and
G

98 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
deformities are certainly not absent from the scene, as
well as itinerant vendors, and so on.
But who are these Englishmen in black coats and
white hats ? They are missionaries, connected with
some British Society, and they are going from shop to
shop, with the probable object of distributing tracts or
versions of a gospel. Being anxious to find out what
the people thought of it, I follow into two or three
shops, in the first of which I find " the man behind the
counter " turning over the leaves of a yellow pamphlet
in his own language, which I point to, venturing the
interrogatory " Thisy, what ? "
" Ah ! very good ledy (read) thisy," he grinningly
responds ; " number one pidgin thisy."
Not being able to get anything more out of this
individual, I try next door, where I find the occupant
similarly engaged.
" Hullo," I say, " chin-chin, Englishman givee
book ? "
" Oh ah ! Jossman pidgin you savy."
" Yesy, I savy — you maky ledy."
" Oh, I no sar-vy — no can talkee In-glees."
" Maky ledy, maky ledy."
Slowly and with much hesitation — " E-A-SU."

OUTLINE o. CANTON
AND
DELTA

<?

>3 

r. 99

CHAPTER II
THREE BOAT ACTIONS
i. — Escape Creek
It will be remembered that the first bombardment of
Canton by Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, directly re
sulting from the Arrow incident, took place in October
and November, 1856, after which, for want of troops
to occupy and retain the city, we retired, pending the
arrival of reinforcements and the result of diplomatic
negotiations which were carried on for several months
with the ultimate result of a second bombardment, and
the capture and occupation by the British and French
in December 1857, and January 1858.
Meantime operations of a somewhat desultory char
acter, as opportunity offered, were carried on by us
against the mandarin forces in and around the extensive
area of the Canton River, though, as a rule, except they
here or there aided or abetted the enemy, the native
country population were not interfered with ; the fact
being, indeed, that, unwelcome as the presence of
foreigners might have been to the latter, that of mandarin
people was much more so, their presence being too inti
mately connected with " squeezing " and oppression.
The Tribune's sojourn at Hong Kong on this first
occasion was a very short one, nevertheless, into so new
a world had it introduced me, and so much that was

ioo "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
interesting had it given me an opportunity of observing,
that at the end of ten days, when we proceeded up
river to place ourselves under Commodore Elliot, it
seemed to me as if I were separated from our former
life by as many weeks.
On the third day after our arrival, the temperature
on deck under the awning being 920, and that of my
little cabin 840, twenty-two men went on the sick list
from the combined effects of sun and surfeiting ; so
perhaps it was as well to withdraw for a time out of the
reach of such seductive attractions as bumboats, where
Jack could get his fill for 2d. and a feast for 3d.,
especially as our services were speedily required in the
direction of Canton, where numbers of ships, steamers,
and gunboats had preceded us — in the language of our
Chinese comprador, " plenty sippy maky walky."
At its entrance the Canton River is broad, and for a
considerable distance is simply an arm of the sea with
invisible or scarcely visible sides ; but after thirty miles
it narrows rapidly to places where it is only a mile in
breadth and sometimes much less. On its north or left
side, ninety miles to the north-west of Hong Kong, is
situated Kwan-tung, the capital of the province from
which the city takes its name, of which Canton is
merely an English corruption. The waters of this river
are never clear, being charged with rich yellow alluvial
soil in fine suspension, like the Nile.
Having shipped a native pilot we steamed up to a
station well known as the Second Bar, where we found
H.M.S. Sybille and other ships and gunboats, a general
signal being soon made for " a midshipman," which
meant that from every ship an officer of that rank, or
from small vessels, which did not " rate " midshipmen,

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 101
some one corresponding, was immediately to "repair" to
the Sybille, at whose masthead the blue broad swallow-
tailed pendant of a commodore-of-the-second-class was
flying. Commodores-of-the-first-class, who flew red pen
dants, were much more important functionaries, being
little less than local rear-admirals ; but it was a curious
fact, though probably a necessary precaution to prevent
misunderstandings, that no commodore of any sort was
allowed to fly his broad pendant in presence of a senior
captain. Did such an unwelcome intruder come within
the horizon, down, ignominiously down, must come the
swallow-tail. Of course, commodores with permanent appointment
to a station were senior to all other captains upon it,
yet now and then, in making a voyage, or by fresh
arrivals, the lines of some senior man were crossed.
On the return of our midshipman we learned that
a little expedition was to be made next day against a
squadron of about forty war-junks that were known to
be at anchor in a creek subsequently known as Escape
Creek. All was instantly bustle in the way of pre
paration. Accordingly, at 3 a.m. on the 25th May, the boats
of the squadron, "manned and armed," were taken in
tow by a couple of gunboats and the hired armed
paddler Hong Kong, I being in command of our pinnace
with Barker my midshipman. To me the situation was
extremely interesting, not only because of its novelty in
a country and under conditions so new to me, but
because re-entry into active armed service seemed to
connect me with my recent Crimean campaign, from
which, I could not help being sensible, I had brought

102 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
with me valuable experience which would stand me in
good stead in this new sphere.
As we advanced up the narrowing creek, whose low
sides were clothed with " paddy " or rice, a well and
closely cultivated country, prettily diversified with wood
and picturesque dwellings, opened out, till by-and-by
we caught sight of the numerous masts of war-junks,
and soon their hulls became visible, anchored in
line across the river, and presenting a formidable
appearance. They opened a very noisy and, except for the Hong
Kong, which was " hulled " five times, harmless fire
upon us at very long range, which we returned, as we
approached, with shot and rockets, their shot, mean
time, whistling over our heads in long ricochets, but
doing no damage.
Before we could get to anything like close quarters
the whole fleet whiloed as fast as they could, and very
singular they appeared as they receded with their great
sterns and the splash raised by the hurried chop chop of
their long oars looming large in the distance.
As we gained upon them many were run ashore,
and their crews were seen scampering up the low
hills ; but others, profiting by intimate topographical
knowledge, got away up the numerous channels where
the gunboats could not follow, and among which the
row-boats chased them for hours unavailingly.
The river was so full of creeks, bends, and tortuous
intricacies that it was hard indeed to find or keep a
course, and often we saw a junk lower her sail and
then her mast, slip mysteriously away inland among
the rice growth, and disappear ; or sometimes the tall
brown sail of one would appear separated from us

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 103
only by a few mud flats, and apparently, like a train
on zig-zag railway, passing us in the opposite direction.
Still on we pulled, past continuous rice fields, where
fresh green growth was laved by the cool water of the
tide, and where nearly nude undisturbed Chinamen
were hoeing, hoeing, hoeing with the heavy rice hoe ;
past banana plantations, past many a little waterside
village, where numerous inhabitants crowded out in
wonder to watch us, but not in alarm ; but still the
heavy, odd-shaped, dark mat sails of the junks were
gliding along over the lowland and between clumps
of trees, and we could not get sight of their hulls ; and
when at last a breeze favouring them, they became
invisible, we thankfully gave up the laborious chase
under a fearful sun, in blue caps and without awnings.
Thus did the inlet come to be known as Escape Creek.
On the return voyage we stopped to dine and to
burn a lorcha, the village people looking on with the
greatest indifference, not even taking the trouble to
stop a " sing-song pidgin " that was going on. Mean
time heavy jets of smoke in the distance evidenced to
us that the gunboats were blowing up the twenty-seven
junks which had run ashore at the outset.
With a strong ebb in our favour we reached our
own gunboats and stretched ourselves out on the
thwarts till daylight ("plank-beds," in fact), when we
were again taken in tow and regained our ship, which,
during our absence, had shifted her anchorage to the
entrance of Sawshi Creek, one which, as the following
pages will show, I was destined to remember.
The total casualties of this expedition were but
small — three men injured by a round shot in the
Hong Kong, and three while blowing up a junk ; but

io4 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
unhappily a carpenter, while sitting on the gunwale of
one of our cutters, lost his balance, fell backwards into
the yellow tide, and was never more seen.
As soon as we got back on board I breakfasted and
went to bed, and probably to sleep ; because, like
Napoleon, who could command it at any time, and
like miners whose mode of life necessitates continual
inversion of normal habits, sailors are always ready
for a " caulk " at the shortest notice.
2. Sawshi Creek.
Daylight on May 27th revealed the boats as before
in tow of the Starling gunboat (Lieut. Wildman) and
the useful Hong Kong, in two columns, the port column
consisting of three Tribunes, two Raleiglis, one Fury ;
the starboard of three Sybilles, one Fury, one Inflexible.
We took each others' painters or tow-ropes, and as
soon as the water became too shallow for the steamers,
we pulled in the same order, led by the commodore
and Captain Edgell in their galleys.
Profiting by my continual experience of boat-work
in midshipman's days, I felt quite in my element during
such expeditions — not quite the case with all the
others — and on the present occasion commanded our
pinnace, second boat of port column, with seventeen
men under their midshipman Barker, Lieut. Ozzard,
R.M.L.I., six marines, and a twelve-pound brass howitzer
in the bow. Mindful of my own touchiness in similar
situations, I was careful to respect the personality of
the officer of the boat and not " carry on " as if I were
unaware of the presence of such an official, as I had
seen some lieutenants do. Barker, whom I have

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 105
already mentioned as midshipman of my watch, was
an able, trusted, and capital fellow with whom I always
" pulled well," as we understood each other.
Barker possessed studs, which I particularly
admired ; I, a gold chain, which he particularly
admired. Discussing possible eventualities during one
of those night-watch chats which we often enjoyed
during our late long fine-weather voyage, we had
agreed to leave those articles of jewellery to each other,
in the case of " anything happening " to either, by
means of a memo, to be deposited in our respective
rosewood desks of the period.
Much beloved Barker, " brightest and best of the
sons of the berth," — my chain, as I write, the identical
one, sorrowfully reminds me, after forty-five years, of
your frank, intelligent young face and your cheery com
panionship, for to my intensest sorrow, I soon became
owner of those studs.
Following our leaders away we pull along our
creek through the same sort of country as before, flat,
with a few low hills in the background, past many a
little village neatly built of red, black, and blue bricks
where many of the houses bear inscriptions in large
black characters on red paper, where villagers are sit
ting outside drinking tea and shovelling heaps of rice
into their mouths with the universal indispensable
chop-sticks. Past little groups of farmer-pidgin men pumping up
or lifting water from the river, for irrigation, by means
of the ancient, primitive, yet effective, machine of an
" endless chain " of scoops working in a long trough
fixed upon a sloping bank, its lower end being in the
river, its upper over a receptacle, or head of a main

ro6 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
irrigating channel. Three or four men stand on the
bank and work the machine on the treadmill principle,
holding on to a high bamboo cross-piece, and ludicrous
it seems to see little knots of these irrigators with their
naked backs and broad hats treading vigorously away.
Past, too, water buffaloes ploughing, and labourers
transplanting young rice plants, for unlike other grain
crops, rice is sprouted en masse in a corner and trans
planted by hand to the spot where it is to grow.
Past trading and fishing junks and sampans which
we do not molest, except in the case of one suspicious-
looking vessel, on whose deck, concealed by mats, lies a
gun, which we take the liberty of throwing overboard,
but still no sight of our quest. By-and-by the Rev.
S. Beal, chaplain of the Sybille, who is with the com
modore in his galley, and possesses the very rare ac
complishment of a little real Chinese, lands to try and
pick up information about the enemy's location, which
is gladly given, as all these peaceful, hard-working vil
lagers hate the mandarin connection, their appearance
being too closely connected with the " maky squeezy "
business, and are by no means adverse to opportunities
of reprisal. Mr. Beal finds out that an important mandarin
station exists near a high nine-storied pagoda which we
see towering about three miles ahead of us, and there
we may expect to find a fleet of war-junks.
After such definite information we " give way," and
as we near the pagoda, which is eighteen miles from
the entrance to this creek, form line abreast as well as
the narrow channel will permit, and on a bend suddenly
disclosing a large number of vessels ahead at anchor in
line in a narrow " dub " or channel along whose sides

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 107
are buildings, we make a dash with cheers, our fore
most boats opening fire with their bow guns.
It having been previously arranged that each boat
was to select her junk, board, loot, and blow her up, I
directed Barker the Bold to lay ours alongside a long,
wicked-looking decked junk, from which (as indeed
from all others) as soon as we neared the crew dashed
overboard and swam for shore, and they hadn't far to
swim. Having previously, in anticipation of such a contin
gency, given the strictest injunctions that the stroke
and the bowman on the side next the vessel were on no
account whatever to quit their posts, I gave the order
" Board " as soon as we were in position, on which,
cutlasses in hand, up all rushed, the men tremendously
excited at the prospect of loot, no doubt ; and before I
was aware of what was happening, some had darted
below, captured a shivering Chinaman who had been
left on board to fire the magazine, and pitched him
overboard. As soon as I had taken hasty stock of what was
going on, I cast an anxious glance over the side to
make sure that the boatkeepers were in their places,
and great was my consternation at finding no bowman,
but I encountered the figure of that functionary leap
ing over the junk's gunwale with flashing eyes and ex
cited countenance, evidently determined, in spite of the
orders that he had received, not to be baulked of his
share in the looting operations.
Not a moment was to be lost, for I was too well
aware that if our heavy boat swung off to the rapid
current she would get beyond control of the man in
the stern, and probably drift away out of reach in a

108 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
minute, as, most culpably, in the excitement, no bow
rope had been made fast.
" Down to your boat instantly," I shouted.
The man, an able but lawless sort of character,
whose training had been in the merchant service, hesi
tated and glared defiance at me ; on which, presenting
the muzzle of my Colt (the identical one which I had at
Sebastopol) close to his forehead, I cried, " Down, or
I fire," when to my intensest relief, he dropped down
into his boat, and seizing his boat-hook held on till I
could send assistance, so we were saved from catas
trophe, and I from disgrace.
Since that eventful moment it is inevitable that I
should often have asked myself whether, in the event of
the man's refusal to obey, I really should have pulled
that trigger, but have always been glad to find refuge
in the old proverb, " All's well that ends well " ; though
had I shot him, even if acquitted by court-martial for
what might have been adjudged a justifiable act under
the circumstances, I must assuredly have carried a load
upon my mind to my dying day, and I never recall
that incident of my professional career without a feel
ing of profound thankfulness at the ultimate course of
events. Meantime, during which the foregoing little episode
had passed unnoticed, my crew had penetrated every
hole and corner, ripping up and breaking open with
a dexterity and avidity perfectly Zouavian, but with
scarcely any result ; so ordering " all off," we set fire
to her, laid a five-minutes-fuse into that magazine
which was to have annihilated us all, but fortunately
didn't, and lay upon our oars at a respectable distance
till she blew up.

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 109
In this, as in most junks that I boarded at different
times, I noticed numerous images of cocks, of which I
could not at the time understand the significance.
They are in some way a sacred bird with Chinese,
probably being considered to have an influence over
departed spirits.
Archdeacon Moule notes that he has seen live
white cocks in cages, or their imitations in white paper
on the lids of coffins, on the deck of a steamer con
taining the bodies of Chinese who were being conveyed
for burial in their ancestral tombs.
I next turned my attention to a deserted junk
which was moored alongside the bank, out of which
I got a 35 cwt. brass gun, a large number of bags
of copper coin, and a number of boxes of tea, the
effect of which was to depress the load line of our
boat to an extent that would sorely have distressed
the late excellent Mr. Plimsoll. To transport the
gun we had a difficult job, but by means of hand
spikes, ropes, and a purchase extemporised on the
mast by our boat's gear we managed.
All this time, indeed from the minute that we
boarded our first junk, the Chinese crews, who had
sought cover among the houses and barracks which
lined both sides of the river, were peppering away
at us with their matchlocks, our marines replying as
well as they could ; but although bullets were con
tinually whizzing amongst us, we had surprisingly few
casualties, at this stage at any rate, though there can be
no doubt that had we had Boers instead of Chinese to
deal with, we should all have been potted.
In an hour or so the destruction of the flotilla was
complete, though we had been anxious to save and

no "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
carry off the Canton admiral's junk, a particularly fine
one of her sort, but were frustrated in our attempts by
a succession of fired sampans which the Chinese sent
down with the stream, causing her to take fire and
blow up magnificently, during which doings the
Sybille's barge was nearly lost, but was saved by the
gallantry of Mr. T. K. Hudson, mate (retired captain,
1873). A red-hot bolt grazed Captain Edgell's neck and
fell at his feet.
Our object having been successfully accomplished,
the signal to retire was made from the commodore's
boat, and in no particular order we all made for the
entrance to the canal, well marked by the tall pagoda.
Now, however, an unwelcome surprise awaited us,
for we found that narrow entrance commanded by
a small masked battery hitherto overlooked, but now,
together with matchlock-men on both sides, from
houses and even from the pagoda itself, unpleasantly
active in disputing the passage of our boats, which were
thus thrown into confusion and temporarily ceased to
advance. Decisive action was evidently necessary, but no
one for the minute seemed to know what to do, when
Barker observed to me, half jocularly, " I believe you're
the only Crimean hero present, sir, and something will
be expected of you."
" Of course," replied I, with gratified vanity, " you're
quite right, rem acu tetigisti ; now look here, I'll go
for'ard and lay the gun myself for that embrasure,
and you keep the oars going till I hold up my hand.
Leave the rest to me."
" All right, sir."
So forward over the thwarts I ran, ordered the

THREE BOAT ACTIONS in
gun to be double shotted with grape and canister,
put my eye along the sight, and regardless of the
irritating ping of little bullets, and of a flash and the
rush of a round shot that flew over our heads, waited
till we were about twenty yards from the battery, when
I held out my hand, and with a clear good aim right
into the centre of an embrasure was just about to pull
the trigger line when I became aware of a sound as of
a flight of small birds passing close, and almost at the
same instant I felt a sharp stab in my right cheek
as if the point of a lancet had been rammed into it,
and a shock as if my teeth had been knocked down
my throat, while a spout of blood gushed out of my
mouth spattering my own as well as the white trousers
of those near me.
Dropping the trigger line, and leaving in temporary
repose the dose which was to have paralyzed the
battery, I clapped my hand to my mouth, and found
my way aft again in a state of considerable alarm,
because from the loss of blood I fancied that I must
be badly hit, and momentarily expected to lose my
senses. Bob Bennett, our excitable young Irish assistant-
surgeon, hopping over from' the barge, was quickly
examining my wound, an operation conducted under
considerable and even ludicrous difficulties, for no
sooner had Bob got my mouth open, and his vision
and eke his finger inside it, when ping! a bullet would
whiz past in close proximity to Bob's head, rudely
disturbing the process and Bob's equanimity, who
could do nothing more till he had turned round and
cursed the Chinese with all the volubility of an Irish
vocabulary. However, at last he was able to say,

ii2 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
" There's a hole in the top of your throat, and I don't
think it's serious ; but keep quiet and don't speak."
It is a matter of notoriety that even in the most dan
gerous situations the mind is often occupied with some
laughable or trivial topics, and so it was with me ;
for as I reclined, under the impression that my cheek
must have a hole through it, as there had I felt the
stab, my thoughts dwelt more upon Midshipman
Easy's famous triangular duel than anything else,
and the wounded boatswain's fears lest when ordered
to pipe the dinner "all the wind would 'scape thro'
his cheeks," and I experienced similar misgivings in the
event of my attempting to give an order.
Meantime the boats were moved to the shore, the
marines jumped out, quickly took this troublesome
little fort in rear, drove out the garrison, and spiked
the guns, but not without a few wounds and escapes,
as they were fired upon from above while running
through the street, my lieutenant, Ozzard, showing two
holes in the crown of his hat.
The main obstacle being neutralised we all got
away, but we had a large number of casualties, one in
ten of the whole force being hit, though, owing to the
small size of the bullets, few severe, and no fatal ones.
Leaving the pagoda astern, and decorated with flags
and streamers from the junks which we had captured, a
picturesque and by no means unwelcome spectacle to
the villagers on the river banks as we passed down, we
picked up our gunboats which had followed up with
the rising tide, as far as soundings permitted, and
regained our ships at 2 a.m.
Meantime I had become able to speak a little and
learn more in detail about recent events from Barker,

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 113
who told me that while I was in the act of pointing the
boat's gun a gingal was fired from the outside and end
of the battery directly at our boat. A gingal is a
clumsy sort of big musket or long iron tube charged
with hundreds of very small bullets or slugs, and often,
as in the present case, mounted on a tripod, which
being light and portable is specially adapted for quick
movements. It was the flight of those bullets, simulating that of
birds, of which I had been cognisant, and they must
have passed over and amidst us as thick as hail, for
besides myself two of the men were wounded, one
severely, several through the clothes only, the ensign
was holed, and the oars and boat itself were freely
scored. A careful examination of my wound by the medical
men revealed a very curious story. A bullet had
struck the right corner of my mouth between the
edges of the lips, had traversed the right cheek, making
a tunnel an inch and a half long in its course through
the flesh, had then entered the mouth striking a lower
back tooth, whence it penetrated the back of the throat
above the uvula, forming the hole into which Bob
Bennett had inserted his finger at the time without
feeling anything. The bullet was not discovered at any
time, because, no doubt, being a small one, and entering
with low velocity, it did not penetrate far, and must
have been instantaneously ejected by muscular contrac
tion in that gush of blood which so alarmed us all ;
but that there had been a bullet was clearly proved by
the discovery of a minute curly shaving of lead which
the doctor extracted with his tweezers from the recesses
of the tooth, and held up to the light for inspection. I
H

ii4 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
took possession of the relic, which, to keep as a souvenir
of so narrow an escape, I hid away in a curious little
box with such extreme care that I have never been able
to lay hands on it from that day to this !
A reminiscence belonged to that box, which I must
notice episodically. When at Hobartown, Tasmania, in
H.M.S. Cuba in 1849, my duties as boat midshipman
took me frequently to the dockyard, in which at that
time convict labour was utilised, where, notwithstanding
strict orders against intercourse, I soon made friends
with a gentleman in regulation attire, employed at a
carpenter's bench, a man of education apparently, who
may probably have been expiating the offence of an
unauthorised use of somebody's name. At all events he
soon contrived to make me understand that if I could
manage to appease the painful cravings of his daily life
with a little sugar and tobacco he would be deeply
grateful, and I did manage on several convenient
occasions. On my informing him one day that my
ship was about to sail, and that I should see him no
more, he observed that the only way in which he could
express his thankfulness was to beg my acceptance of a
pretty little box which he had made for me out of a
large knot of a Norfolk pine, and I prized his gift, and
kept it in my desk, but what became of it and its
interesting contents I have no idea at all.
Up to the third day after being wounded I suffered
scarcely any pain or inconvenience, but then inflamma
tion and sloughing set in, and my jaws stiffened, so that
I could not open my mouth, but was fed with strong
soup through a hole fortunately left by an extracted
tooth. Gradually the pain subsided, my mouth resumed
its functions, and after three weeks I was discharged

.:...'..'.:. Ll...;:-^i.i 

.

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l-'ATMIAN

I. IIYAI INI II ISI.ANIl
2. FORT SEYMHIIK

3. KIRST 1,1 N 1- OK JUNKS
4. SM'oNIl LINE OK JUNKS
5. IAI'sIIAN

E. EI.I.IOT S DIVISION
K. Kl'.PI'El.'s DI\'1SIUN

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 115
from the sick list as "fit for duty" — what duty will
presently appear ; meantime important events took
place in which I could have no part, however much I
might fume and fret at being obliged to lie inactive
while " Number one maky fighty Pidgin " was in
progress. It only remains to explain that the Tribune's boats
" lumped " all their loot, the tea to be " consumed on
the premises," the metal to be realised at Hong Kong,
my contribution to the pool being a 35 cwt. brass gun,
twenty-one sacks of mace (that is, strings of cash), and
six chests of tea. The gun, no doubt, was one of a
large number in ordinary circulation ; that is, it had
been sold by English merchants at Hong Kong, or
Portuguese at Macao to Chinese mandarin agents ;
when, after doing duty for a time on junk or snake-boat,
it was captured by the English, to be sold again at
Hong Kong, recaptured and resold as before, perhaps
through several cycles. 3. Fatshan.
Boyle's Narrative.
The boat action of Fatshan on June 1, 1857, was
a very brilliant and important one, but as I was laid
up in Captain Edgell's fore cabin at the time, I was
dependent upon my valued friend and messmate
Lieutenant David Boyle (now the Earl of Glasgow)
for an account of the expedition which was directed
against a fort and a large fleet of war-junks in Fatshan
Creek — " one hundred heavily armed junks, the pride
of the imperial navy," according to Sir William
Kennedy.

116 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
The city of Fatshan lies about seven miles westward
of Canton, on a long narrow branch of its river, called
Fatshan Creek, whose entrance is near Barrier Island,
situated on that river about the same distance south of
the great city.
At Barrier Island, by May 31st, a concentration of
steam gunboats and " manned and armed " row-boats
had been effected.
The gunboats were : Bustard (Collinson), Coromandel
(Dent), Hong Kong (Goodenough), Haughty (Hamilton),
Plover (Keith Stewart), Sir Charles Forbes (Lord Gilford),
Staunch (Wildman), Starling (Villiers), and all the
available boats of the squadron, the Tribune's (four)
under her own captain, among the number.
Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, who had
planned and ordered the operations, commanded in
person in the Coromandel, Commodore the Hon. H.
Keppel the First Division, Commodore the Hon.
Charles Gilbert John Brydone Elliot the Second
Division. I have been particular in designating the
latter officer by his names at length, because they had
latterly been a good deal before the public. Whether
he deserved the severe criticism that had been passed
upon him, especially by his own profession, for what
he did, or rather for what he didn't do, at the outbreak
of the Russian War in 1854, I cannot say, but he
was certainly not deficient in personal bravery, as the
leading part that he took at Fatshan showed. My chief
concern, however, at present, is to make sure that I
spell his name properly, for, as a reference to the Navy
List shows, there are four different ways, the owner of
each being equally particular and sensitive, so that it
is really important to be careful that neither more

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 117
nor fewer than the right number of l's and t's are
employed. " Well, Tower, my boy," said Boyle, sitting by my
cot, a day or two after his return with a whole skin,
" since you insist upon knowing all about the Fatshan
Pidgin, I will begin at the beginning.
" All the ships lying in the river sent their available
boats manned and armed, and all their marines, besides
rocket and scaling-ladder parties, and one spare gun's
crew on board each gunboat, to attack the. fleet of
junks which were known to be lying up Fatshan
Creek." " Whatever did you want with scaling-ladders ? " I
asked, thinking of the Redan.
" My dear fellow, please don't interrupt ; you'll hear
all about it in time."
" I beg pardon, sir ; pro — -ceed."
"We left this ship about 9 a.m. on May 31st, and..
with other ships' boats were towed up the river till
5 P.M., when we joined the Cruiser, Acorn, and Hornet,
at anchor by Barrier Island, off the entrance to Fatshan
Creek, by which time we could plainly see junks in
great force beyond a small rounded isolated hill about
150 feet high on the right bank of the creek, that is, on
our port hand as we looked up."
" Of course I understand that. When we talk
of the right bank of a river we mean that on our
right hand as we move down stream towards its
mouth." " Of course, but you needn't air your knowledge in
this pedantic way."
" Well, on the top of the hill was a fort, and rather
an imposing one too, for it seemed to command the

n8 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
creek, and we quickly took in the fact that we had our
morrow's work cut out for us."
" Ah," interrupted I, " now I see what your
sea  "
" Silence, please, Lieutenant Tower, or you'll damage
that wound in your mouth."
" Aye, aye, sir."
" At four o'clock next morning," continued my
narrator, "the Admiral proceeded up creek in the
Coromandel, towing the Sybille's boats with a storming
party, immediately followed by the Haughty, with
Commodore Elliot and the Tribune's four boats under
Edgell. Their course was on the left of Hyacinth
Island. Keppel, with his Division, who kept on
the other side of Hyacinth Island, wasn't long after
him. Keppel's senior to Elliot, as you're aware,
which seems strange, for, as we know, all Greys and
Elliots are promoted so fast that my only wonder is
how they can ever be junior to anybody ! I'll follow
the fortunes of Elliot's Division first, as I was in it,
and it got first into action, though I am bound to
say that Keppel came in for the hottest share." J
" Before I go on, however," Boyle remarked, with
somewhat of a grave countenance, " I must inter
polate an occurrence which greatly upset me, nearly
led to most disastrous consequences, and about which,
experienced as you are in boat affairs, I am sure that
you will be nearly as much shocked as I was."
" Dear me," said I, anxiously raising myself up,
" whatever can  ? "
¦In Sir Wm. Kennedy's spirited account of Fatshan, Elliot's Division
seems to be ignored, in the text as well as the plan. The Coromandel is
mentioned, but no boats. Keppel's Division certainly didn't do all the work.

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 119
" Well, it was this. On the previous night we in
the pinnace were made fast under the stern of the
Haughty gunboat, commanded, as you know, by Lieut.
Hamilton (now, 1901, Admiral Sir Richard Vesey
Hamilton, K.C.B.), and after a smoke and a yarn with
him I returned to sleep in my own boat. When we
were roused up at three next morning, during the
activity of preparation, Ryan, gunner's mate, captain
of our bow gun, sung out, ' Shall I let off a tube,
sir, to make sure the vent is clear ? ' ' Yes, do so,'
I answered, and he inserted a tube and was on the
point of firing it, the muzzle of the gun being close
under the Haughty's quarter, and laid so as to rake
her, when, seized with a sudden and fortunate in
spiration, I cried, ' Hold on, wait, shove her bow clear
of the gunboat before you fire that tube.'
" The bowman at once did so, and Ryan jerked
the trigger line, when, to my own and everybody's
astonishment and consternation, flash ! bang ! and
away through the darkness and silent night rushed a
12-lb. shot plunging into the river bank, the first shot
of the day, no doubt, but slightly premature, and I
tremble to think what might have happened to the gun
boat, and what certainly would have, if I had not been
providentially inspired to give that order when I did."
" My goodness, Boyle, what an eyelifter ; you do
astonish me ; but however do you account for your
gun being loaded ? "
" Well, my good fellow, I must tell you the truth —
the boat was yours and the gun was yours at the
Sawshi Creek Pidgin, but by some astonishing, un
accountable neglect the charge had never been drawn
after that was over."

120 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
" Well," I explained, thoroughly concerned at being
supposed to be implicated, even remotely, with such
a serious omission of duty, " / didn't return in the
pinnace that day, or it wouldn't have happened. I
was transferred to the Starling as soon as we got to
her. Besides, the boats were cleared as soon as they
got back to the ship, and their guns hoisted inboard."
" Yes," continued Boyle, " I know, but that makes
it still worse to think about, for your gun must have
been for more than three days loaded on board the
ship, without any one being aware of the fact ! "
My narrator continued : " Just after we started,
grey dawn stole over the scene. The shot from the
fort soon began to fall thick and fast around us, but
so far with no damage, as the guns being situated
on the top of a hill 150 feet high, the shots rather
plumped and ricochetted away at a high angle, so
that there was not so much danger as from more
horizontal firing.
" The Admiral led in the Coromandel which soon
ran aground, and when we got within five or six
hundred yards from the fort we of the row-boats all
cast off, gave a cheer, and gave way with all our
might to land our marines and small-arm men under
it at a place where its guns could not be depressed
sufficiently to do any injury. In a very short time
the fort was in our hands, Commodore Elliot leading,
while the garrison were plunging down cold shot, and
anything else they could lay hands on. The capture
was a pretty sight. It was a stiffish pull to the top,
but the Admiral himself was well up to the front, and
witnessed the subsequent operations. The first to
enter were Elliot, a midshipman, and nine or ten

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 121
blue-jackets, and as soon as they scaled the parapet
a mandarin made a dig at the midshipman with a
spear, but the commodore shot him with his revolver.
"The necessity and importance of this capture
became quickly apparent, not only from the fort's com
manding position, but by the nature of its armament,
consisting of enormous stores of powder and twenty-
seven guns, two or three of which our people brought
to play upon the junks higher up, but without success.
"The fort being thus rendered harmless, we lost
no time in hastening up by the port-hand passage
to assist Keppel's division, which had passed Hyacinth
Island by the starboard, in his attack on the formid
able array of war-junks, which, as I have explained,
were moored across the river at the head of that
island. In so narrow a channel our boats were per
force a good deal crowded, immediately astern of me
being our first cutter with her rocket tube in charge
of Verey, the gunner — you know what a nervous and
excitable man he is ? "
" Rather ! "
"Well, he would insist upon firing rockets in
that position, and several passed so close over my
head that I declare that I could almost have touched
them." " Just like Verey."
" On we dashed, firing as we could ; but I was sen
sible of little except the indistinct barrier of junks ahead
of us, half concealed by smoke, and illuminated by the
flashing of guns, and could hear nothing except banging
and continuous screaming of shot as they rushed through
the air, but none touched my boat till we got within a
hundred yards of the enemy, when a shower of grape

122

"MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
tore in among us, mortally wounding poor Barker and
two men, severely a fourth, and slightly a fifth, besides
cutting the boat's bow about, piercing and tearing the
clothes and accoutrements of several of the crew, and
leaving the ensign staff in this condition, the shot that
struck it evidently having passed between the coxswain
and myself, not a foot from either of us.

•II I

L.

W.6.M".

"Just after this, Verey, thoroughly in his element,
and now abreast of me, fired one of his favourite
rockets with such precision that it blew up the largest
junk, and when we got within fifty yards or so the
Chinamen suddenly ceased firing and jumped over
board, although we could not see them for the smoke.
"Their fire up to that moment had been tremen
dous, the water being ploughed up by and the air rent
with the storm of missiles of various sorts, through
which both of our Divisions dashed on to the capture.

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 123
We found the junks not much injured but entirely de
serted, except a man and a boy chained to a gun in
one, and a woman and a child in another. Smoke
was still issuing from the vents and muzzles of the guns,
flags and streamers flying, and so forth.
" As soon as possible I transferred all my wounded
to the Hong Kong, and then hastened to obey orders
that were passed along to hurry on to the front,
from which, especially as I had heard more firing
ahead, I concluded that there was more fighting to
be done — the fact being that farther onwards a
second large flotilla had been discovered near Fatshan
city. " As we advanced the shot came ricochetting down
past us uncommonly thick, and by-and-by there was a
general rest under cover of the gunboats, for Keppel
ahead of us with his boats, when within four hundred
yards or so of the junks, grounded, and was exposed to
such a concentrated fire1 that a temporary retreat
was ordered till the tide rose. You must understand
that the Admiral had specially designed the expedition
to come off at low-water spring tides, so that the fire of
the junks in the lateral creeks, formidable at other states
of tide, could not be directed across the intervening
mud-banks and was comparatively harmless. After a
time many more boats having arrived, and the water
having risen sufficiently for an advance, the gunboats
shelled the junks, and Keppel again led and made a rush
and captured them, and the day was gained ; after
which he and others pushed up to the very city itself,
1 Admiral Kennedy says of this time : " The uproar was awful, and loud
above the din could be heard the beating of gongs and the yells of Chinamen."
— " Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor."

124 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
the Chinese crews having whiloed across the paddy
fields.1 " I must not forget to tell you what a narrow
squeak old Keppel had. As he was leading in his
galley a round shot raked her, killed a man, and
wounded more, and I believe sank her. Just a moment
before he had got up and sat on the backboard with his
feet on the stern-sheets, so as to have a clearer view
ahead, the shot passing the very spot where his legs
would have been had he not moved. Prince Victor
was in the boat."
" That was z narrow squeak," I put in ; " but I had
a narrower one myself in the trenches when  "
" Yes, my dear fellow, I know all about that ; we've
heard it a few times before, I think : now let me get to
the end of this long yarn.
" The junks having all been burned and blown up,
the boats returned to their respective ships as fast as
they could, and here I am you see, though on our
downward route we were in considerable danger from
the heated guns of burning junks going off right and
left as the fire reached them, and from the explosion of
the junks themselves. I had seen two splendid brass
guns on a smouldering junk and very nearly went to
get them, as you did at Sawshi, but fortunately re
frained, as she blew up shortly."
" Many thanks, and I heartily congratulate you on
being none the worse ; but tell me more about your
losses and about Barker."
1 Fatshan is an important and populous city, a huge trading mart of
half-a-million people, where the incident of Keppel and his men driving the
crews of the war-junks right up into the streets is still remembered with a re
sentment which alights on the missionary even at the end of the century. —
Selby's "Chinamen at Home," 1900.

THREE BOAT ACTIONS 125
" Yes ; when poor young Barker was hit he was
attending to the gun in the bow, while I remained aft
to direct the course. He suddenly fell down into the
bottom of the boat, but as quickly jumped up again
and ran aft, stepping from thwart to thwart, till he got
into the stern-sheets, when he fell down again and lay
there till we got up to the first lot of junks, when I
sheered alongside our barge and found that young
Harper, that smart lad, a favourite with everybody as
you know, had been killed in her. Bob Bennett at
tended to Barker, and got him put on board the Hong
Kong with the other wounded, and after the action was
over I went to see him, and found him dozing but quite
sensible, and though a grape shot had passed com
pletely through his lungs and out behind he lived for
nearly forty-eight hours.
"When the doctor had gently broken to Barker
that he had not long to live, he gave me a ring and
asked me to keep it and send it to his father. I'm sure
you will sympathise with my distress when I tell you
that I lost that ring overboard in the excitement and
work I had to do ; but I've one comfort, as Barker
told me that it was the same ring which was on his
brother's finger when he was killed at Inkermann, so I
hope that ill-omened ring is out of the way of the
family, at all events ! "
" Indeed, I hope so," said I ; " but I shall feel the
poor boy's loss severely, and it seems to come very
close home to me. Have you anything more to
tell ? "
" You may like to hear that after leaving Barker, I
walked round the decks of the Hong Kong to see if
there was any one else I knew besides our own

126 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
wounded. Among the latter was Morgan, a forecastle-
man, whose brains had been exposed by one of that
fatal flight of grape. He was cursing and swearing
as if he were drunk, and was very riotous and trouble
some, but he didn't live long, poor fellow.
"Then I met one of Keppel's galley's crew whom
I knew. ' Hullo,' I said, ' you here ; is the com
modore on board ? ' ' No, sir,' he replied, holding out
a stump. Though the man's hand must have been
amputated within the last half-hour, yet there he was,
walking up and down and smoking his pipe as if
nothing particular had happened.
" I believe that the total number of our casualties
at Fatshan was eighty-four, among them being Major
Kearney, D.A.Q.G., a volunteer, whose head was taken
clean off by a round shot."
End of Boyle's Narrative.
Promotions for Fatshan and the preceding affairs,
as well as a clasp for the former, were made by the
Admiralty on a liberal scale, as follows : —
To be Captains, 4 ; Commanders, 5 ; Lieutenants,
4 ; Master, 1.

h;iai>i no.invd .•to i.voti jsv.i >to ji'mvns

CHAPTER III
FORT CHUENPEE
ACCORDING to prevailing custom, the Tribune's Hong
Kong Chinese bumboats, or commissariat boats, two
or three privileged ones, had accompanied her during
her sojourn in the Canton River at this period, and at
the well-known rendezvous, or station, " Second Bar,"
they foraged among the villagers in the creeks for
our mutual benefit, but they did so at considerable
risk, as capture by a mandarin snake-boat meant de
capitation, and by pirates or river thieves, denudation.
(The nature of a snake-boat or fast-boat, of which
we destroyed several in Sawshi Creek, is explained by
the illustration.)For the latter prevailing pests we were always on
the look-out, with glad assistance not only of the
country, but even, on occasions, of mandarin people
as well, for pirates were and still are considered a
common scourge ; nevertheless to this day (1901) they
flourish exceedingly on Chinese coasts and rivers.
There were pirates of every grade, from the commonest
river thieves, who glide stealthily about the endless
ramifications of the Canton Delta, up to the large
well-equipped sea-going junk, with stronghold and
secret retreat, such as that described in " Hurrah For
the Life of a Sailor," chap. viii. — the orthodox sort of
pirate, in fact, such as a boy expects to find in a
book of maritime adventure. 127

128 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Having one day otherwise successfully carried out
a "pilong pidgin," our first lieutenant returned on
board, leaving a captured junk of some size stuck in
the mud at the entrance to Second Bar Creek, one
and a half miles from the ship. By-and-by, as the
tide rose, several men were observed to make their
appearance from their hiding-place among the rice
flats, and to begin hurriedly preparing the craft for a
start. Another of our lieutenants was therefore sent away
with instructions to re-take her and bring her to the
ship, but as he approached he saw some men slip over
the junk's side into a sampan, and scull away as hard
as they could up a small secondary creek close at hand.
Quoth Lieutenant X. : " We'll chase the crew in
the sampan, and pick up the junk on our return ; " but
it quickly became evident that the despatch of that
sampan was merely a ruse, for no sooner had our
pinnace passed the junk and disappeared up the
creeklet, than the rest of the junk's crew, hitherto
concealed below, suddenly appeared on her deck, and
hoisting her tall mat sail to a favouring breeze, sailed
rapidly away up Second Bar Creek.
Presently our own boat re-appeared at the mouth
of the little creek, no doubt considerably astonished
at the sudden and mysterious disappearance of the
prize, so we hoisted her recall, chase being out of the
question, as she happened to be without masts at the
time. That little manoeuvre so cleverly contrived and
executed by the wily Chinaman caused considerable
amusement, and led to no small amount of chaff and
" leg-pulling," the captain having recorded, " I never
laughed more heartily."

FORT CHUENPEE 129
About sixty miles from Hong Kong the broad
estuary of the Canton River suddenly contracts into
a narrow pass, less than a mile wide, where are rocky
islets, the waters south of them being the "Outer
Waters," those to the northward, the Boca Tigre, or
Bocca Tigris, "Tiger's Mouth." On these islets are
situated the historic Bogue Forts which have been
more than once in British hands. Captain Edgell
had been a lieutenant in H.M.S. Imogene (Captain Price
Blackwood), when that frigate and her consort the
Andromache forced the passage in September 1834.
Southward of the Bogue Forts, that is, between
them and Hong Kong, on the east side of the river,
was and perhaps still is Chuenpee, a small fort snugly
ensconced at the foot of a few low fir-clad hills on
the shores of a pretty bay, upon which our captain
looked as somewhat of an old friend, as the Imogene
had exchanged shots with it on the aforesaid occasion.
It being considered advisable to occupy Chuenpee>
preparations were made and an adequate force moved
accordingly, the Bocca Tigris batteries, as we passed
them, being represented by nothing more formidable
than a vast number of blocks of granite lying pro
miscuously about, to which condition they had been
reduced in November 1856, when captured by Ad
miral Sir M. Seymour in the Calcutta with five consorts.
The Bogue Forts was a comprehensive term, and
signified a number of batteries mounting altogether
not far short of five hundred guns.
Just at this time one of those painful occurrences
happened, which, for a time, cast a deeper gloom over
a ship than more serious losses in illness or action.
James P., a good, quiet, staid man, and an elderly
r

130 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
one, according to the view point of most of us at the
time, missed his footing on the main-yard in broad
daylight, and, almost colliding with me, fell upon the
deck by my side. If certain scientific gentlemen, who
have from time to time devoted themselves to attempts
to prove that there is no such thing as matter, could
have heard the horrible, sickening thud with which
that living body came into contact with the deck,
within a yard of where I was standing, and was carried
off lifeless on the spot, they might be inclined to recon
sider their ideas on the matter.
Our preparations, however, were found to be need
less, as simultaneously with the landing of our storming
party, who were to attack from the side and rear, the
small garrison of Chuenpee prudently whiloed, without
the exchange of a single shot.
We found very few guns mounted, the larger part
of the armament having been buried ; in fact, we sub
sequently disinterred seventeen huge guns of eight to
ten inch calibre, besides many small ones.
The process of occupation was quiet and unexciting,
but we evidently had not been expected, many personal
effects having been left behind in the panic of sudden
retreat, caldrons of rice even, for the day's dinner,
being found still boiling, which, as well as everything
else edible, were at once carefully destroyed for fear
of poison, against which the necessity of taking pre
cautions had been vividly impressed upon us by a
recent diabolical, though happily self-frustrated attempt,
to poison the whole British community at Hong Kong.
Just as the novelist sometimes falls into the error of
painting his villain too black, so did the " chief baker "
in that city, bribed by mandarin agency to put arsenic

FORT CHUENPEE 131
in the day's bread, put in too much, with the fortunate
result of making everybody sick before the poison
could get into circulation, or at least enough of it to
produce fatal results. Meantime the baker, having
superintended the morning's issue in a confident spirit,
prudently withdrew to Portuguese territory at Macao,
and was heard of no more.
On the day after our occupation, Captain Edgell
having been appointed governor, all other ships left,
and we landed a garrison of one hundred seamen and
marines, under Lieutenants Boyle and Tower, Lieut.
Ozzard, R.M.L.I., Messrs. Childers and Hawkins, mid
shipmen, Assistant-Surgeon Bennett, and Gunner Verey.
My wound having now completely healed, I entered
with zest, as indeed we all did, on this welcome varia
tion from the daily routine of ship life, and we lost
no time in clearing out, cleaning and whitewashing
throughout, and adapting the barracks for occupation.
We explored our new domain, got things into
working order, planted sentries at outlying points,
established passwords and countersigns, and got some
fine fun out of it all, especially as for the first few
nights there were occasional poppings at the outposts,
the sentries seeing, or fancying that they saw, forms of
a lurking enemy.
Our fort consisted of a few partly cultivated acres,
among which rose the afore-mentioned wooded hills,
the whole being completely surrounded by a loop-holed
wall, four feet thick and seven high. On the river-side
were the battery, and the mandarin's, now our officers'
quarters, of blue brick paved with red tiles, consisting
of a central mess-room, opening, without doors, on to
a verandah, which was gratefully shaded by two large

132 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
umbrageous sycamore figs (Ficus sycomorus), and farther
in rear, on one of the hillsides, were the barracks for
the men, who all messed together in a fine open airy
place. On either side of the officers' mess place were
bedrooms and offices, and between the verandah and
the battery a very convenient open space or parade.
The battery itself was very substantially built of
granite, and I at once noticed that its embrasures were
splayed inwards, not, as with Europeans, outwards.
Shortly after we settled down, Fat-shai, a headman,
who spoke pidgin English, came in from the outlying
district with a cumshaw of fowls, mangoes, tea, and
sugar-candy to make his peace, and express a hope
that the surrounding villagers would be allowed to
pursue their avocations unmolested, on which point
we set him at ease, though afterwards, as will be seen,
our calculations in this respect were once tragically dis
turbed. I added that we might pay him a visit, if his
people would receive us well, to which he answered —
" No fear, no fear, can secure no fear."
In our officers' location closer opportunities were
afforded for the study of some phases of natural his
tory than we had hitherto enjoyed. First, we inherited
from our predecessors a fine lot of fowls, left behind
in the scurry, no doubt. Our commandant's bed, until
bedsteads could be extemporised, was spread upon a
mat laid out on the brick floor, and on the first morning
his peaceful slumbers were disturbed by a fine matronly
hen, who boldly entered and began pecking at the bed
clothes, and eke so smartly at what they concealed,
that the future Earl of Glasgow, deciding to exercise
the better part of valour, got up and went out to have
a matutinal bath in the adjacent stream. On his return,

FORT CHUENPEE 133
to his surprise he found a new-laid egg in the very centre
of his bed, and the hen in the act of proclaiming the
achievement to the neighbourhood by a vigorous cack
ling, which was being loudly responded to by the lord
of the harem. She repeated her visit every morning
for a long time with the same result, and showed no
disposition to divide her favours.
Then in an inside corner of our mess place was a
swallow's nest with young, the old birds not appearing
in the least disconcerted at the change of ownership,
but darting to and fro as usual from dawn till dusk with
food for their brood, sometimes even grazing my cheek
with the tip of their wings as I sat at breakfast. Mean
time four little heads with cavernous jaws were con
tinually being poked up in readiness for the fly, or, as
we fervently hoped, mosquito.
There was, too, a pronounced odour of musk in our
rooms which puzzled us at first, till we found it to pro
ceed from musk rats, pretty little fellows with long sharp
noses. There were, also, huge spiders, with enormous
egg-bags attached to their extremities by glutinous
moisture, which we used to amuse ourselves by forcibly
detaching, when the insects, converted into ridiculously
dwindled looking objects, would scurry away into con
cealment, stealing out again as soon as the coast seemed
clear to secure their treasure, and hurry off with it in
their jaws. We called these comical creatures " cheese-
plates " because of the enormous aspect of the cocoon
carried about by the female with the exhibition of much
maternal solicitude. The eggs were hatched inside the
cocoon, as on opening a very ripe-looking one for curio
sity, at least a thousand active young spiders were
liberated.

134 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
We had a variety of visitors : some not very wel
come ones. Glancing under the table one morning
just as we were sitting down to breakfast, I was horrified
at noticing a large snake coiled up upon the very spot
which my feet were to occupy. We rushed for sticks,
and despatched the unwelcome intruder, who was five
feet four inches in length, white bellied, black headed,
and fangless.
There were climbing frogs, beautiful little creatures,
armed with long suckers at the extremities of their toes,
who would make their appearance on the table during
dinner, and fearlessly walk up the sides of the bottles
and glasses.
The Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa), so called from
its habit when stationary of holding up its two long fore
legs slightly bent in an apparently suppliant attitude, is
a slender, long-legged insect of the locust alliance, nearly
three inches long, of a beautiful green colour, which
often made its appearance in our quarters. It impressed
me as an insect ungainly in appearance yet graceful in
movement, and displaying an intelligent cunning in all
that it did. After exhibiting a wonderful degree of
patience in remaining motionless, it would steal almost
imperceptibly in the direction of its prey, and when
sufficiently near, one of the long forelegs, hitherto
hypocritically posed in an attitude of prayer, would be
suddenly extended and the capture effected.
In the evening large and curious beetles flew about,
and fire-flies gemming the dark foliage of our trees, and,
on board the frigate at anchor in the bay, sparkling
in the rigging and among the folds of the sails and
awnings. About the nature of our other domestic insect

FORT CHUENPEE 135
companions it is unnecessary to enlarge. There were
cockroaches and Pulex irritans, whose presence, little
heeded by our predecessors, was dispensed with by the
aid of detergent processes.
The marine-officer, gunner, and myself took turns
in passing the night as officer of the guard in the
guard-house on Right Hill, setting out at 8 P.M.
with police-lantern, revolver, rug, and biscuits and
flask to go the rounds of the whole enceinte from time
to time, being challenged by sentries, giving the
countersign " Keppel," " Fatshan," &c, and endeavour
ing to snatch a little sleep at intervals on a trestle in the
guard-room, which mosquitoes made seldom possible.
Having no mosquito curtains, at least up there,
I used to lie battling with those sleep-destroying
merciless pests until exhausted, when I would pile a
huge loose heap of leafy branches over my head, and
fondly believing that I had eluded the enemy, allow the
symptoms of Nature's sorely needed sweet restorer to
creep over me. Just, however, as I am on the brink
of happy oblivion, a fell hum strikes my ear, the
insatiable insects have found out a way to their victim,
the hum grows louder as they thread their way
remorselessly through the mazes of my unavailing
screen, and in another minute I feel the too well-
known irritating prick.
The futility of endeavouring to procure release by
slaying the victim with a sudden and sharp stroke of
the palm is by this time but too sadly well known to
me, the result generally being an undignified and pain
ful smart on my own cheek, unaccompanied by any
injury whatever to the fell destroyer of rest, who simply
retires, and bides his time for another onslaught.

136 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
We had, of course, gauze curtains on board and
at the fort ; without them sleep would have been
impossible, at all events for myself, and I can only
suppose that blue-jackets and marines slept because
they were more pachydermatous ; yet ulcerated mos
quito bites were fearfully common, my journal at one
time on board higher up the river recording seventy-
five men on the sick list with them.
Fatshai, before mentioned, who for the time was
sole representative of the Chinese world, acted as
comprador, supplying us with beef and vegetables, soles
at eightpence a pair, bananas at four a penny, pine
apples threepence each, eggs sixpence a dozen, fowls,
&C, and enjoyed our complete confidence ; no doubt,
too, our occupation of Fort Chuenpee was far more
pleasant and profitable to him than that of the man
darins had been.
Jealousy, however, must have stirred up a rival
from a neighbouring village to make his appearance in
our hall of audience — that is our mess place — where,
having propitiated the divinity, in the shape of Boyle, by
a small cumshaw of fruit, he proceeded to denounce our
old friend as a scoundrel in league with the mandarins,
but as he concluded with a request for a " piecey
salt beefy " for himself, we decided that the informa
tion was entirely unreliable, and only coined for
selfish purposes, and continued to repose confidence
in Fatshai. Our daily life in the fort was pleasantly diversified
by the occasional appearance of visitors from our
own and passing ships and gunboats, whom we did our
best to entertain, but as we were obliged to content

*

\

A SURPRISE VISIT

FORT CHUENPEE 137
ourselves with a scratch cook, Ozzard and I determined
to practise the culinary art, and, to judge from the ver
dict of our guests and the quantity that they ate, with
conspicuous success.
I particularly prided myself on the excellence of my
stews, but could never understand why Ozzard's were
always pronounced better, till at last I discovered that
the mean man had brought a bottle of Worcester sauce
from the ship, a little of which he used furtively to stir
into his otherwise inferior compound !
Ducks were roasted or rather baked in an earthen
jar by suspending them to a toggle or iron bolt placed
transversely across its mouth, and piling up red-hot
embers all around.
On a certain memorable Sunday Captain Edgell
arrived, bringing with him Captain Hamilton of the
Esk and our chaplain, and the bell, or rather the gong,
was tolled for church.
Meantime we had prepared a feast, the pidce de
resistance of which was to be a small pig baked in our
invaluable jar, but the location of the latter was incau
tiously fixed too near to the reverend gentleman. He
may have noticed the jar but could scarcely have
suspected the nature of its contents, till, just after the
text had been given out, a loud crack was heard, the
faithless receptacle split from top to bottom, and to
every one's amazement out of the rent peeped our half-
roasted pig in a highly ludicrous pose !
We had pies almost daily, and should any teacher
of cookery in a County Council class mislay her rolling-
pin I am able to inform her (if she does me the honour
of reading these lines), what probably she is unaware of,
that a common wine bottle filled with water makes the

138 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
best possible substitute. For my pie-crust I expected
praise and got it too ; though once by a lapsus linguce
raised a shout of good-natured laughter against myself :
" You think you can cook, do you ? " remarked a
sceptical visitor, " well, tell us what you can make ? "
" Beef tart ! " I answered hastily. My " tart " crust
was made of flour, a little ship's salt-suet, eggs, and
Bass's ale.
We had no difficulty in selling most of the smaller
guns to customers introduced by our extra-mural facto
tum, and as to the larger ones, we remounted many of
them and fired a royal salute on Coronation Day, the
only occasion, in all probability, that Chinese cannon
had_ contributed towards the honour of that anniversary.
Two untoward occurrences disturbed the regular
and peaceful routine of garrison life, one being as
follows : —
A couple of Chinamen were seen tracking their
little junk laden with pottery along the shores of Right
Hill Bay, contrary to regulations, and were unfortuna
tely, and I think prematurely, fired upon by one of our
sentries, severing the tow-line, so that she drifted out
towards the wide river with two children in her, who
rent the air with their cries, the men being left on the
beach. A cutter was immediately sent from the Tribune
to rescue the junk, the children, as our boat approached,
being evidently in the greatest terror, the larger one
jumping overboard and diving, while one of the cutter's
crew jumped in after him.
When the boy rose to the surface, finding our man
close to him, he clasped his hands above his head, went
down, and was never seen again.
By-and-by, when the father and grandfather were

FORT CHUENPEE 139
brought off (for such were the two), they showed the
most frantic grief, the former clapping his hands,
shrieking, tearing his hair, beating his breast, and
trying to leap into the river.
This is the other story.
As weeks went on, finding that so large a garrison
was unnecessary, Boyle, with most of the blue-jackets,
was ordered back to the ship, leaving me with three
officers and sixty-five men, my assumption of command
being signalised by an unpleasant event, which much
disturbed us, and interfered for a time with our friendly
relations with the country people.
One morning Fatshai arrived, agitated and breath
less, with the intelligence that some of our men had
committed robbery and murder : " Three piecey sojer-
man," he explained, " one piecey man makee shooty."
I immediately visited all the guards at their various
posts, and had them drawn up in line for Fatshai's
inspection, from one of which he identified a red
marine,1 Sherwood, as he who " makee shooty." On
giving the order, " examine arms," the only ramrod
which left a black mark on my finger was Sherwood's,
whom I at once ordered to close arrest, till I could
communicate with the captain, who lost no time in
1 "Red Marine." The expression probably requires explanation for the
non-naval reader. The Royal Marine forces, first raised in 1664, are com
posed of two branches, the Royal Marine Artillery and the Royal Marine
Light Infantry, respectively, though not officially styled, with reference to the
colour of their uniforms, " Blue Marines" and "Red Marines."
For physique, soldierly training, efficiency, and handiness no regiment excels,
or even approaches, the Marine Corps, the Marine Artillery being even a more
picked corps than their brothers, a creme de la creme, in fact, the superiority
being fully recognised afloat, of which fact I was once amusingly reminded by
a domestic brawl in the domicile of a marine pensioner, of which I was an
accidental auditor.
"And who are you, I should like to know?" loudly demanded the
"better half." "You're just a. Red Marine! that's all you are"; but I am

140 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
coming on shore, and accompanied by myself, the
doctor, and a guard, in proceeding to the scene of the
alleged outrage, where we were taken to a mean house,
on the floor of which, surrounded by a wailing throng,
lay a dead man.
An examination revealed a frightful wound, from
which were extracted three pieces of lead, evidently
parts of a Minie bullet.
Next day the process of identification being care
fully carried out, and our man's guilt being fully estab
lished, the head people of the village and the victim's
relations were taken to the Tribune to see Sherwood
receive forty-eight lashes, a slight punishment for such
an offence it seems to me now.
Shortly afterwards the mother and sister of the
murdered man came in to ask for help to help " makee
good funeral pidgin ! " so we subscribed twenty-eight
dollars ; and a few days afterwards walked out to pay
them a visit, but found that the relations had ceased to
inhabit the house, because they explained " devil lived
there," but we entered and found the room neatly
arranged, and on a stick stuck on a table was de
ceased's name surrounded by samshoo (rice spirit),
cups, and other ornaments.
unable to convey an adequate idea of the scornful, withering tones in which
the irate lady mouthed out her denunciations. In that little household, as
might be expected, where the motto of the master (?) was Per mare, per terram,
a becoming amphibious flavour prevailed, which was pleasantly illustrated by
the mistress's reply to my inquiry, when I called another day, as to the cause
of her lameness —
" I ran stem on to the kitchen table, sir," she explained.
With the characteristic handiness of his corps, this invaluable marine was
an excellent waiter, and sometimes I availed myself of his services at my table
on shore. Much amusement was caused to my guests when once, to assist me
in my fumbling attempts to get at the stuffing through the side of a roast
bird, he reminded me in an audible, and I confess embarrassing, whisper,
"FURTHER AFT, SIR!"

FORT CHUENPEE 141
During our occupation the thermometer in our
open mess room stood with almost unfailing regularity
at 840 F. at 2 P.M., and the health of the men was
good until towards the close.
Shortly after I became commandant I began to
experience somewhat of a farmer's cares, for I became
conscious of the existence of plantations of golden rice,
the cereal property of our predecessors, waving in
the breeze, glistening in the sunshine, and clamour
ing to be reaped.
Agricultural implements we had not, but the
" handy man " is seldom at a loss, and is never with
out his knife attached to a white knife-lanyard round
the neck. (For an instance of saving life by this, see
"At School and at Sea," p. 227.)
So one morning at 4.30 A.M. I piped "reapers to
muster," and off we sallied in the cool fresh air to work
away with a will till the sun's strength made it prudent
to retire, in lively humour with the first instalment of
our unaccustomed harvest, which we spread out to
dry, and so on every morning till " all was safely
gathered in," when the propriety of an immediate
Kirn was suggested by a patriotic Scotsman, but his
suggestion was not entertained.
The next step was thrashing, and I suppose scarcely
a greater contrast could exist than that between the
steam machine of the present day and the primitive
method learnt by us from the Chinese, who must
have employed it from remotest times, which we
successfully adopted. A stout wooden frame, with
bars like a gridiron, having been placed across a
wide open tub, was belaboured with bunches of rice-
ears, causing the grain to fall down into the tub,

Missing Page

Missing Page

144 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
of the rice. Then, " taking time from the right," and
holding the flail on the right side of the body, down
came all the beaters of one line simultaneously on
the grain, and while they were being rotated in pre
paration for another stroke, down came those of the
opposite line, and so on, rank succeeding rank with
rapid, heavy, and isochronal whacks, the company
gradually edging along the threshing-floor till the end
was reached, and back again. To understand the way
in which such flails are managed it is necessary to
remember that the handle, in the grasp of both hands,
is worked by an oscillating movement within the same
arc, the rotation and force of the beater being effected
by management of the impetus at the right time.
They urged me to try my hand, so taking my place
in a rank I produced shouts of laughter from men,
women, and children by my awkward attempts, but I
improved. All the agricultural implements which we saw
there, everywhere in fact, were of the most elementary
description, and almost certainly of exactly the same
sort as those used by the people's ancestors two thou
sand years or more ago. Winnowing was done as in
Joseph's day. One primitive mortar for pounding rice
particularly attracted my attention — though, of course,
they have other methods. It was formed of a hollow
block of granite, the pestle being a stone placed in the
end of a long wooden lever worked by the feet of two
women. At-chow was a man of substance and entertained
us with tea, which is drunk by Chinese at all hours,
brewing it in a teapot for three or four minutes before
pouring it into the little porcelain cups in which it was

SECTION OF CHINESE RICE-MORTAR OK VERY ANCIENT TYPE P. 44

FORT CHUENPEE 145
served without spoons, milk, or sugar, explaining to me
that " Chinaman no likee sugar tea." I was so firmly
convinced that he was right, that from that day to this
I have never put sugar into my tea, although I admit
that it may be useful enough to make bad, coarse tea
palatable. Five minutes is the time allowed for infusion by
British professional tea-tasters, after that too much
tannin comes out. It is a mistake to suppose that
Chinamen always brew in cups, as they constantly use
teapots. Our host presented me with a three-pound tin of
choice Pekoe containing the velvety sprigs which are
the downy sprouts or leaf-buds of three-year-old plants,
Pekoe or Pak-ho signifying white down.
Before our departure, being unwilling to dismiss
our juvenile guard of honour, about thirty in all, with
out some mark of thanks and approval, I bought up the
whole stock-in-trade of a little cake and fruit shop for
half-a-dollar, which I distributed in an orderly way,
amid shouts of merriment, by making each boy file
past a table in the open, where he received his gift and
was taught to say " Thank you " in English. Then we
embarked amid a perfect storm of chin-chins from the
people, who seemed to be delighted with my plan of
treating their children ; and pleasant it was to be able
to gratify the little fellows, who would doubtless
remember the unique experience for years to come,
for long after the Tribune had ceased to plough the
main. These pleasant episodes in naval life afloat drew to
a close more suddenly than we expected, for on the
3rd of August the end of a flying jib-boom was seen
K

146 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
poking round beyond the adjacent point which cut off
our view southwards ; bowsprit and hull followed, and
in two minutes there was H.M.S. Sanspareil 80 (Captain
Astley Cooper Key), the identical ship (an old two-
decker captured in the Napoleonic wars, with a screw
put into her) which had landed me with the naval
brigade on Crimean soil in 1854 — a very long time
ago already, it seemed, so much had been crowded
into the interval.
Next day Captain Foote, R. M.L.I. , brought his
marines on shore to relieve me, and I turned my back
on Chuenpee with many regrets and a pleasant retro
spect, learning, as soon as I got on board, that
Manila was our immediate destination, not at all an
unwelcome surprise — new experiences and cheroots,
chez elles!
In the Canton River, rice is all-pervading.
Rice is a marsh plant.
There are two crops a year on land which is within
reach of a regular and constant supply of water (even
a third, of vegetables, sometimes), the second being
planted as soon as possible after the first is reaped.
I say " planted " advisedly, because (as I have
previously mentioned) unlike other grain, every rice
plant is planted by hand. Men walk along the furrows
carrying huge bundles under the left arm which have
been sprouted in a corner, three or four of which
they stick into the soft mud with the right hand
at proper intervals, and with remarkable celerity and
dexterity. Under favourable conditions the crop will be ready
for reaping in one hundred days. At harvest time the

FORT CHUENPEE 147
vast expanse of golden grain which meets the eye from
the top of any of those curious low hills on the Can
ton River delta is very striking and impressive.
It is worth notice that the water supply during the
earlier stages must be continuous: an intermittent one
being hostile to the growth of the grain to such an
extent that the first crop of the extensive tracts which
exist on the natural flats on each side of the river, and
which are therefore, of course, left dry or nearly so
twice a day, are not fit for the sickle till the second
crop on the enclosed fields under regulated irrigation
on the other side of the bank close to them is about
three-quarters grown.
Hoeing is carefully attended to, and I often watched
the men whose business it was to look after rice flats
near the ship, and to hoe them at low water. At
high water they anchored their miserable little sam
pans close to the place where they wished to hoe,
which grounded at low, when they got out and worked
up to their knees in mud till warned by the rising tide
to take to their floating homes again.
The constantly decaying stubble (in conjunction
with other vegetable matter) over such a wide area as
the Canton delta has been supposed to be the cause of
the malarial fevers and agues which are so prevalent
there ; but recent very careful and interesting experi
ments in the notoriously infected districts of the
Campagna seem to have established the important fact
that man may live in a malarial atmosphere unharmed
and uninfected provided there are no mosquitoes. \ The
discovery, however, I fear, can have no practical effect
on the situation, for how are you going to abolish
mosquitoes ?

148 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
The quality of the Canton River rice is of the finest,
and it stands so high in the market — Australian and
Californian chiefly — that the Chinese labourer cannot
afford to eat much rice of his own production. He eats
cheap, commoner, Siamese rice, which is imported by
thousands of tons in huge unwieldy junks.

CHAPTER IV
MANILA
Manila, generally spelt by English with a double 1,
capital of the Philippines, 650 miles south-east of Hong
Kong, had not become so noticeable a place as since
the Spanish-American War, but was chiefly identified in
the naval mind with cheroots and rope, our visit there
being partly to show the flag, partly to give our captain
a chance of freight, and partly to afford our sickly crew
a little change, as we had sixty on the sick list out of
three hundred and twenty, with " shakes," viz. fever
and ague, boils, and ulcerated mosquito bites.
We took as passengers Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon.
St. George Foley, C.B., Military Secretary, two com
missariat officers, and some specie. Just before leaving,
a man, called Mr. Charles Albers, of whom I had no
knowledge beyond a casual good-morning acquaintance,
came on board and asked me as a favour whether I
would be so kind as to take a small bag of doubloons
for delivery to a friend of his at Manila, which I con
sented to do. I have a reason for mentioning this
trivial incident, which will appear in a subsequent page.
The Northfleet sailing transport, homeward bound
with 350 naval and military invalids, gratefully accepted
our proffered good offices to give her a tow seawards
through the West Llama Passage, and just before we
weighed under steam a letter was sent to acquaint us

150 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
that an American ship had been stranded on the Pratas,
with one hundred thousand dollars on board — if we
would be kind enough to look after her.
Had it not been for such a request we should have
given those notorious shoals, which lie 180 miles east-
south-east of Hong Kong, a wide berth, for they
bore an evil reputation as a veritable death-trap for
mariners. We soon cast off the transport, and next day
sighted and approached Pratas Island, a low, wild,
horse-shoe shaped flat, a mile and three-quarters by
three-quarters of a mile, formed of coral and sand, and
almost completely encircled by dangerous reefs and
breakers, among whose meshes a ship borne out of
her way by currents, or battling with gales, might too
easily be entangled, as many a one had been, notably
H.M.S. Reynard (Commander Peter Cracroft), in 1851.
That ill-fated screw sloop, having been despatched to
look after a merchant vessel, unfortunately found herself
not only powerless to extend, but in urgent need of the
succour which she came on purpose to offer.
No lives were lost, but the Reynard was, entirely ;
and curiously enough, some time afterwards, Captain
Cracroft, at Hong Kong, was offered books for sale,
which turned out to be his own, which had been got
hold of by Chinese wreckers.
Cautiously feeling our way with the lead, we
anchored in twenty-five fathoms off the west end of
the island, reefs protruding for miles on either side
and sent two cutters under the first lieutenant and
myself to explore. At that end we found a deep-
shaped indentation or lagoon cleaving the island for
an eighth of its length, the only landing-place, its

MANILA 151
entrance being guarded by a bar, which we crossed with
care, and threading our way through coral intricacies,
among which I noticed what seemed to be large turbot
and other fish moving about in the clear water, landed
on a white sandy strand.
Our track to the opposite end, was through low
scrub and marine plants, among which huge yellow
convolvuli, stretching their freely flowering stems straight
away for I hesitate to say how many feet beyond fifty,
specially, attracted my notice. Doves, plovers, and
sanderlings of sorts were abundant ; but in some parts
the route was seriously obstructed by crowds of gannets
and other allied sea-birds, in every stage of growth
from egg to old bird, for it happened to be nesting
time, though how that could have been in August I
do not now understand, unless they were second
broods. The birds were very tame, and showed fight with
their long bills when we approached their nests, or
rather laying places, as nests proper they had none,
and I had to push the sitting bird away with my stick
in order to get a glimpse of the egg or young one
underneath. Visitors were evidently rare ; but as there was no
County Council it is unpleasant (judging from expe
riences in after life on the Northumbrian coast) to
think of what might have been the fate of that large
colony of interesting birds, had a steamer or two laden
with gunners from some of our great towns found
access to the Pratas.
Throughout our walk, disturbed by no sound save
the sullen roar of distant breakers and the wild screaming
of birds, our objective was a tall erection at the opposite

152 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
end of the island, which, on approach, we found to be
a square look-out tower, constructed of six foot lengths
of stout bamboo, laid horizontally upon each other,
tied at the angles, and narrowing towards the summit ;
a look-out tower, of course, put up in the seafaring
interest perhaps long ago, to enable shipwrecked mari
ners to scan the distant, nearly surf-obscured horizon,
for a welcome sail ; or perhaps by " professional
pirates," for one quite as welcome ; or to take a more
prosaic view, simply by Chinese fishermen as a watch-
tower, though, for the matter of that, those honest folk
did not disdain to do a little stroke of work in the
amateur pirating and wrecking line, if opportunity
offered. The ascent of the tower, to one accustomed from
boyhood to run up rigging, was no formidable task,
and having gained the summit of the strange frail
structure, I took out my glass and narrowly scanned
every part of the surroundings for signs of wreckage or
a stranded ship, but without success, for neither upon,
inside or outside that formidable environment of ever-
rolling breakers, was there the least sign of anything ;
moreover, there was no approach to the islet except
through the shallow narrow opening of which our boats
had just availed themselves.
I did not, however, immediately descend. Fasci
nated by my peculiar position, by the poetic beauty of
the scene, and by the strange, weird music of the wind,
as, like a gigantic ^Eolian harp, it rose and fell through
the cracks and crevices of the bamboos in wild and
wailing cadence, I lingered and lingered, till my brother-
officer's patience being exhausted, I was rudely roused
from my reverie by his loud but strictly professional

MANILA 153
reminder, " Down from aloft ! " on which I quickly
regained the deck, or rather the ground.
The following beautiful stanzas by J. Russell Lowell
always vividly recall the experience : —
REMEMBERED MUSIC
1
Thick rushing, like an ocean vast
Of bisons the far prairie shaking,
The notes crowd heavily and fast
As surfs, one plunging, while the last
Draws seaward from its foamy breaking.

Or in low murmurs they began,
Rising and rising momently,
As o'er a harp ^Eolian
A fitful breeze, until they ran
Up to a sudden ecstasy.

And then, like minute drops of rain
Ringing in water silvery,
They lingering dropped and dropped again,
Till it was almost like a pain
To listen when the next should be.

At the foot of the tower were a small shallow well,
containing brackish water, a few pieces of old rope,
a jar, and some flotsam and jetsam.
The object of our mission having been accomplished,
we rejoined our boats and made the best of our way
back to the ship, but in the interval the tide had receded
and there were scarcely eighteen inches of water in
some parts of the lagoon, and even less on the barrier
reef. Under such circumstances my experience in

154 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Polynesian waters stood me in good stead, so I set the
foresail, ordered all hands to jump over the side, and
catch hold of the gunwale, thus enabling us to track
her successfully over the reef in less water than she
drew, and quickly rejoin the frigate.
We at once weighed, and shaped course under sail,
glad enough to liberate sickly stokers from their ener
vating work in a stoke-hole in which the thermometer
stood at 1 34°.
Our guests seemed to enjoy the novelty of life on
board a man-of-war ; we certainly enjoyed their society.
Colonel Foley was a raconteur, and told us some
amusing after-dinner stories. Here is one.
Two friends of his were staying at a hotel in the
south of France, in which, at the same time, happened
to be Lord and Lady Canning, the friends having
arranged to have coffee at five o'clock on a certain
morning and then to go on a shooting excursion.
The hour arrived and the coffee, but only one man,
who therefore decided to go and beat up the absentee.
Finding his way into what he believed to be his com
panion's room, and seeing a protuberance on the bed,
he inflicted upon it a vigorous slap, lustily exclaiming,
"Rouse up, old chap." Horribile dictu, the protuberance
was Lady Canning !
His lordship, aroused, started up, crying out in
very natural alarm, "Who's there, what d'ye want
here ? " on which the sportsman, not waiting to answer,
precipitately retired, took refuge in a neighbouring
village, and was seen no more at all at that hotel.
" The drawbacks to Manila as a residential place," I

MANILA 155
read, "are hurricanes, earthquakes, and thunderstorms,"
which seem a formidable indictment ; yet must be added
rain, for it rained almost continually during our week's
visit, and we were informed that not long before our
arrival it had rained without ceasing for fourteen conse
cutive days and nights, so that the people had to go
about the streets in canoes. Heat under such circum
stances is especially trying, except I suppose to the
natives ; at all events we found 820 in the shade a little
more than we cared for, and yet it was not then the
hot season.
We were, of course, all eager to see the famous
cigar factory, which, we were informed, covered six acres,
and employed ten thousand women daily, and exported
upwards of ninety millions of cigars annually ; there
being no city in the world, in fact, which gives employ
ment to its female population on the same scale. At
that time the tobacco industry was a Government
monopoly : hence the term, formerly so well known in
tobacconists' shops all over the world, "Government
Manilas." Duly provided with a Government permit and under
guidance, I entered the factory premises and became
immediately sensible of an all-pervading and continuous
hammering, which I fancied must proceed from car
penters' shops, but on going into one of the many long
rooms quickly learned the real cause. Along the whole
length of the room, with a passage in the middle, were
rows of low tables, about six inches high, around each
of which, cross-legged on mats on the floor, sat from
ten to fifteen women and girls busily engaged in
hammering out tobacco leaves.
I watched the process of cheroot manufacture.

156 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
In front of each person was a small bowl of grease,
a pile of the best leaves of the tobacco plant for
outsides cut to the required size, a second heap
of coarser leaves and broken pieces, and a smooth
stone with a polished face. Our manufacturess, having
beaten one of the outside leaves with the stone till it
was smooth, flat, and pliable, dipped her finger into the
grease, and smeared it along the board to about the
length of a cheroot, and then placed the leaf so that
the whole of its length and about half-an-inch of its
breadth adhered to the grease.
Next she extracted from the second pile enough
of its contents to form the inside, which she cleverly
adjusted, both as regards shape and quantity, by a
few pokes of her nimble little fingers, and finally rolled
up the whole with a certainty and perfection, attained
only by long practice, throwing the thus almost finished
cheroot in among a heap in her lap.
The next process was to cut off the ends to the
exact shape and length, which was done by other
women with a wooden pattern and a pair of scissors,
after which the cheroots (or cigars if with sharp
ends) were passed through final stages of being bound
into bundles, stacked in huge stacks, and packed by
staid and elderly duennas in boxes, which, after being
labelled and marked by the Government inspector,
were ready for export.
Whether opium is used or not in the manufacture
of Manila cheroots is an oft-mooted question, many
persons believing that it is ; but owing to the high price
of that drug, if for no other reason, 1 should think it
highly improbable. The " funny man " of our party
availed himself of the opportunity of pointing out to

MANILA 157
me, however, that it was much better to smoke opium
than tobacco — " because opium, don't you see, only
makes a man ill, but tobacco makes a man-iller ! "
The ends and debris were all carried away in bags
to the cigarette manufactory, which, oddly enough,
was in another part of the town, and children were
to be seen puffing cigarettes in all the streets, as,
unfortunately, are little boys in England in 1901.
The din of hammering in the manufactories was
rendered more euphonious than it would otherwise
have been by the custom which prevailed of beating
time, not simultaneously, but each hammerer to her
own time and tune.
We dined at a table d'hote, and then drove out to
see something of the country, but as it rained all the
time, saw very little, though we noticed the tropical
vegetation to be extremely luxuriant, bananas being
enormous, and bamboos as high as poplars.
The ubiquitous Chinaman was much in evidence as
shopkeeper, but apparently did not stand high in the
estimation of our Manilese guide, who frequently ob
served, " Chinaman one dam rogue," and helped con
amore, to beat down prices whenever we essayed
purchase. Having entered to buy a Chinese umbrella — no
wonder the umbrella trade flourishes in Manila ! — I
began as usual —
I. " Wantchee umbelly, how muchee can do ? "
Ch. (producing one) "Three da'" (dollar).
M. G. (aside) "He dam thief, you say one dollar."
I. " Three da' no can do — how muchee can do ? "
Ch. " Two da' can do."
I. "No can do, one dollar good pidgin."

158 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Ch. " No can do, one da' ha' (i£ dollar) can do."
I. (firmly) "No can do" — and walk to door.
Ch. (waiting till I go outside) " All lightee Johnnie,
Maskee, one da'."
I re-enter, pay my dollar, and get my umbrella
amid repeated comments from the guide, " He one dam
rogue." That process, more or less, has to be submitted to
in all dealings with Chinese, nevertheless I think that
my guide's stigmas were a little harsh and undeserved,
because, with a Chinaman, a bargain is not only the
spice, but the essence of trade, every one being pre
pared for it as a matter of course ; indeed without
bargaining he would find shopkeeping a very slow sort
of pidgin indeed, I suspect.
We went, too, to see the operation of hydraulically
compressing the celebrated Manila hemp for exporta
tion, which, after tobacco, is its most important pro
duction, and I was surprised to learn, what I did not
know before, that it was not real hemp, Cannabis, but
fibre of the leaf-stalks of Musa textilis, a species of plan
tain or banana — there being no real botanical distinc
tion between plantains and bananas.
The finer qualities of the hemp are worked into
delicate fabrics, but the extremely fine and small
handkerchiefs which we were offered at our hotel at
the modest figure of one hundred dollars a dozen — as
if we were millionaires ! — were made of untwisted fibres
(it was specially pointed out) of the pine-apple plant,
the " pine-apple cloth " of the Philippines, in fact ; our
chief engineer, one of the party, at the same time,
being offered the above-named sum monthly and a
good house if he would remain behind and superintend

MANILA 159
some hemp-pressing machinery, but, " in spite of all
temptations to belong to other nations, he remained
an Englishman." We coaled at the marine port and arsenal of
Manila, Cavite — destined to be much heard about in
future years — with Cardiff coal at £2 a ton and sailed
for Hong Kong, having on board a Spanish pas
senger with a story, a retired merchant captain, who,
ten years before, when mate of his brother's ship, had
participated in the discovery of a mysterious hidden
treasure of half-a-million dollars on one of the Ladrone
Islands, a veritable "Treasure Island," in fact. They
transported their find to Hong Kong, and wisely con
signed it to the safe keeping of Messrs. Jardine & Co.,
who advertised it "for a year and a day," after
which, no claimant appearing, a division of spoil was
effected with clear consciences. Our passenger got
^50,000 for his share, on which he had since managed
to " rub along," Messrs. Jardine being awarded a large
sum for theirs, which they generously put into the dis
coverers' " pool."
During our brief sojourn at Manila I became the
owner of a coveted book under curious circumstances.
Being in the region of typhoons, I was anxious to
obtain all the information that I could about revolving
storms, a science then in its infancy, but was at a
standstill for want of Reid's " Law of Storms," and
Piddock's " Sailor's Horn Book," two pioneer works on
the subject which so far I had not been able to get hold
of, when a disturbance having occurred on board a
British merchant ship, I was sent to see into the matter.
After investigation I accompanied the captain to his
cabin, where I was glad to notice two barometers.

160 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
I. " I'm glad to see those barometers, for we want
them in these parts. Have you ever been in a typhoon,
and have you studied the subject of revolving storms ? "
Cap. " I don't understand anything about revolving
storms, but I always keep my weather eye on my
barometers. I believe in them. If they fall, I say ' it's
going to blow,' and I reef according ; when they're on
the rise, I make sail with a light heart."
He continued —
" I've got a book about these cy-clones, or whatever
you call 'em, which you're quite welcome to if you'll
accept of it, for it ain't any good to me."
To my surprise and delight this good-natured but not
much " up-to-date " skipper then handed me a copy
of Colonel Reid's book, the very one which I par
ticularly wanted ! — and of which I took possession
without scruple, as I observed its leaves to be still uncut.
We duly delivered the freight that we brought at
a charge of i per cent., of which the captain got a
half, the other half being divided between the naval
commander-in-chief and Greenwich Hospital.
We returned to Hong Kong, of which we were
destined to see a good deal before our turn came
for river service. Meantime preparations for further
action against Canton were in progress.
The ist October 1857 was an important date in the
history of the little world of our ship, for on that day
there was change of first lieutenants ; but only those
who understand from experience what an important
factor in a naval community that official is, and how
much depends on him, will be able to appreciate the
significance of the occurrence.
Our old First, then, whose name was included in

MANILA 161
the recent promotions, put on a second stripe and
departed, regretted as a messmate, and as an officer
whose dealings were always gentlemanlike and im
partial. To the important vacancy thus created Second
Lieutenant David Boyle succeeded, who, although un-
precedentedly young for the responsible post of First
of a large frigate (two and a half years' seniority
only), was active, zealous, and devoted, and had the
advantages of varied if not long experience, plenty of
hard work, and some previous valuable training under
a prime officer — Tarleton. Though Boyle could not
be classed among crack Firsts of repute, he was con
siderably above the average of excellence, and per
formed his duties to the end of our long commission
in a creditable and painstaking manner, albeit during
most of the time his position was very difficult and his
path strewn with more thorns than he deserved.
Within a few days after his assumption of the reins
of office many long-standing nuisances disappeared ;
and there were evident signs that in future things were
to be done in a more " man-of-war fashion " than
heretofore. It is a curious fact that between the senior and
junior lieutenants of the Tribune at this time there was
only nine months' difference in seniority, and that
the junior had actually served as a lieutenant longer
than any of the others, having been an acting lieu
tenant during most of his mate's time, but was not
" dated back " on gaining substantive rank.

CHAPTER V
HONG KONG
IN 1857 two well-known great British mercantile
firms had their headquarters at Hong Kong — Jardine,
Matheson & Co. and Dent — which were kept up in
princely style with guards, sentries in uniform, &c. ;
but though both bore high reputation for hospitality,
we of the Tribune experienced little or none of it, owing
to a difference of opinion between Captain Edgell and
them as to the etiquette of first visits, the merchant-
princes expecting, Anglo-Indian fashion, that new
comers would call upon them first ; whereas our captain
maintained that he was clearly entitled to the compliment
of a first call from all English people except officials
who ranked above him, as the governor. The con
sequence was that no interchange of visits took place,
which may appear absurd, but in official intercourse
etiquette is very necessary : yet it is sometimes in
danger of being strangled by red tape, of which I once
was witness in an absurd instance between an American
officer of rank and the English senior naval officer at
Vancouver, the former having come expressly to con
sult the latter, but departing without any meeting
whatever because the etiquette of first call could not
be arranged to mutual satisfaction.
Scotsmen are very clannish, and, as is well known,
very hospitable, and it was no secret that our patriotic
16a

HONG KONG 163
young First was chafing considerably at the aforesaid
little diplomatic difficulty, because it stood in the way
of his being invited to his countryman, the merchant-
prince's house.
Some of his messmates, therefore, still imbued with
their old midshipman's propensity for "chaff," good-
naturedly conspired to smooth it over for him, though
had he not so recently been one of themselves as a
junior, would scarcely have ventured upon the liberty.
An invitation in a feigned hand to Boyle was con
cocted and sent off from the Hong Kong Club, of which
we were all honorary members, purporting to be from
Jardine to dine with him at that comfortable resort ;
which our senior messmate, wondering (as personally
he was unacquainted with Jardine), but withal evidently
much gratified, felt himself reluctantly constrained to
decline lest he should compromise his captain's attitude.
Then he unsuspectingly entrusted his answer for
delivery at the club to Ozzard, who spent most of his
time there, a commission which that guileless young
marine willingly undertook, as he happened to be one
of the chief conspirators.
Next day, during luncheon, a sampan came off with
another note presenting Mr. Jardine's compliments to
Mr. Boyle, and fearing that there must be some mistake,
as he had not the honour of his acquaintance.
While the recipient of the note was reading it for
the second time, his mouth began to drop, and his
cheeks to redden as the unpleasant conviction dawned
upon him that he was the victim of a sell !
To an observer of men and things life at Hong
Kong presented many attractions, among which I found
the proceedings of auction marts both interesting and

164 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
amusing. The glib-tongued auctioneer, how insinua
tingly he lures on incautious bidders to destruction,
and seals their fate by a tap of his inexorable
hammer !
Sydney used to be prolific in auctions, and when I
was there a young officer, straying in more out of
curiosity than from desire of buying, suddenly found
himself the owner of twelve dozen bottles of mixed
pickles, for which he declared, though confessing to
having "caught the auctioneer's eye," he had never
bidden at all. He protested. "Too late, sir." So,
rising cleverly to the situation, he gave his name as the
purchaser, and directed his unwittingly acquired and
embarrassing property to be put up in small lots of
a dozen each, by which clever device he pocketed
considerably. In the great Paris lottery some years ago, one of
the prizes, taken I believe by an Englishman, was twelve
dozen false noses ! — what did he do with them ?
Well, at our Hong Kong auction of Chinese and
Japanese ware, I notice, much in evidence, the merchant-
captain, anxious to take home a few lots on spec, who
makes his bids by a slight nod, the tacit advance being
immediately recognised. These captains who have been
here before note in little books the prices at which each
lot sells, as a guide.
Then there are funny young men in the background,
present more for a lark than serious intent, who ask
facetious questions of the auctioneer, start bids in a loud
voice at about a tenth of the value, but rarely buy.
There are, too, modest men who bid in a low,
undecided tone, and blush at finding the hammer fall
in response, just as they are beginning to repent their

HONG KONG 165
rashness in advancing one more " quart," which is the
local auctionese for quarter-dollar.
"No advance on three quarts? going at three
quarts, go-ing, go-ing, gone ! " — rap.
" Name, if you please, sir."
" Knipe."
"Mr. Snipe, Lot 51."
" Knipe, I said."
"Oh, I beg pardon, sir. Mr. Wipe, Lot 51, Bill"
— to clerk.
Young Mr. Knipe tries to hide his confusion by
making notes ; and I may add that the above occurrence,
including names, took place in my presence.
As for myself, I spent two hours there, and lured
on by the excitement of bidding, found myself embar
rassed by the possession of about four times more
Chinese and Japanese ware than I knew what to do
with. Here I may remark that persons who want really
good things to take home with them should be content
to wait till they have learned by experience where good
things are to be had and how to get them, to the
end probably of their stay in the country — not at the
beginning. I was most anxious to take away with me a really
first-class specimen of Chinese carving in sandal-wood,
and having, after more than a year, found out a shop in
Hong Kong where such were kept, I entered on the
campaign. I. "Wantchee number one carv-sandal wood gee-
lub bok ; hab got ? "
CHINAMAN. " Hab got, hab got, you bery good man,
hab got " (produces extremely inferior specimen).

166 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
I (glancing). "Thisy number ten. I wantchee
number one. No hab got ? "
Ch. " Hab got, hab got." Produces a better article.
I. "Thisy number five. I wantchee number one.
No can do ? "
Ch. Can do — can do," and so on by gradations till
a really splendid glove-box is at last extracted.
Then comes the beating down from fifty dollars
asked to the twenty which I pay after long and trouble
some bargaining.
Learning that a " Number one Sing-Song Pidgin "
was in progress, I determined to go to it, in other
words, to visit the Chinese theatre, which I found to be a
huge roofless fabric of bamboo, tied with thongs of split
bamboo, apparently a hundred feet high, and open to
the street, from which access was gained directly into
the pit, the sides being fitted with tiers of seats, repre
senting our boxes and galleries, into one of which I
entered on payment of half a dollar, the stage being a
raised plank platform.
The peculiar feature was certainly the pit, which
was seatless, and filled with a huge crowd of the lowest
classes, who were admitted free. The gratuitous admis
sion of the poor to places of public entertainment is
a Chinese institution which I admire, as being appar
ently founded on genuinely philanthropic principles.
From my elevated position I looked down upon a
seething mass of bare polls, each with a black spot of
hair on the crown (the root of the universal pigtail) and
when, during periods of excitement or unrest caused by
some one from above throwing down handfuls of small
money, the troubled sea of heads surged to and fro,

HONG KONG 167
and rose and fell like billows in shoal water after a
storm, the effect was very curious. At such times the
noise which I have no doubt prevailed must have been
completely masked by the continuous clanging of gongs
on the stage — but I cannot say that the disgusting
odour of unwashed, perspiring humanity was, in any
degree. No function in China appears to be complete
without gongs and crackers ; and the din at sunset in
Hong Kong harbour when hundreds of people got up
on the elevated sterns of their junks and mercilessly
belaboured gongs and let off crackers for about twenty
minutes to drive evil spirits away, was really dreadful.
The performances chiefly consisted of tableaux, and
masquerading in magnificent dresses to the squeaking
of a fife and the ceaseless din of several pairs of huge
cymbals ; but the evolutions, of which I understood
nothing, being almost all in dumb show, must have
been very amusing, to judge from the frequent roars
of laughter. Series of tableaux of the same sort went on without
interval from 10 A.M. till 2 P.M., at the end of each
scene a gilt board being displayed to announce what
was to come next. As I have said, there was not much
dialogue, but from the character of what there was, it
was evident that declamation, and that of the most
ranting and bombastic sort, is the kind that is accept
able on the Chinese stage.
There was no curtain, only two stage-doors, one
for ingress and the other for egress, and no scenery.
I was much impressed at the freedom that was
allowed to the people who chose to avail themselves of
free admission into the huge pit. They passed in and
out at will, without let or hindrance, some remaining

168 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
for hours, others, who could not afford the time, but a
few minutes.
While I was standing near the pit entrance (door
there was none) to observe manners and customs, a
coolie of the poorest class reminded me by his action
how extremely economical a people the Chinese are ;
indeed, in such a densely populated country nothing
must be wasted, a precaution which is specially notice
able in their arrangements for carrying off by manual
labour, even from large cities like Canton, and of
utilising for agricultural purposes, every particle of
refuse and of sewerage both liquid and solid. Object
lessons on " There is nothing of us that doth fade, but
doth suffer a sea change into something rich and
strange " are impressed upon the observer very vividly
in China. The coolie, noticing one of our blue-jackets
throw into the street the peel of a mandarin orange
which he had been eating (called Tangerine in the
Mediterranean) picked it up and pocketed it with a
"Heigho" of surprise at such wastefulness, all such peel
being kept, dried, and sold to doctors for tonic mix
tures, for which it justly ranks high. In the Tribune's
gunroom a bottle of mess bitters stood on the side
board, made by steeping that peel in sherry, a fine
appetiser when the appetite is jaded by tropical heat or
exhaustion — its virtues being extremely well understood
by some of the occupants.
• •••••
Early in November 1857, Captain Edgell became
senior officer at Hong Kong, the admiral and com
modores being elsewhere required. On the 12th we
were stirred by the news of the fall of Delhi, for the
Indian Mutiny was in progress, and kept us in anxious

HONG KONG 169
expectation. Then the splendid United States frigate Min
nesota arrived, whose armament considerably attracted
our attention and excited our interest, her guns being
constructed upon the novel but entirely sound principle,
originating with J. A. Dahlgren, an officer in the United
States Navy, of carefully graduating the thickness of
metal with reference to the force of the explosion, the
result being what were then known as "soda-water-
bottle guns," in which, it will be observed, the metal is
accumulated where it is most, and minimised where
it is least, necessary.
Dahlgren's principle, together with the application
of rifling to cannon, inaugurated a revolution in
the science of gunnery which has culminated in our
present gigantic monsters, whose capabilities far exceed
the wildest and most visionary dreams of even Punch's
seer of the mid-century.
We were much impressed by the Minnesota's battery,
her heavy guns appearing like mere boats' guns on
her magnificent deck, though their weight was con
siderably less than five tons each, whereas now we
have guns of one hundred tons and upwards.
But if to Dahlgren the American we owe the first
advance in the manufacture of guns, it was Armstrong
the Englishman who revolutionised the whole science
and system of gunnery by his two great inventions, (1)
rifling of cannon, and (2) of constructing them by
successive coils of wrought iron, by which the weight
of a 3 2 -pounder was reduced from 56 to 26 cwt.,
the range being proportionately increased. Readers
of my former volume may remember the following
sentence in the Inkerman chapter : " The discomfited
Russians were in rapid and disorderly flight, and

170 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
tremendously cut up by two 1 8-pound guns under
Colonel Dickson, R.A." It was explained, too, by
reports at the time, that the guns were got into
position with great difficulty owing to their size and
weight, on reading which, the inspiration flashed into
Armstrong's brain, that if those guns had been
grooved like rifles they could have been much lighter
with the same or even longer range — with what result
all the world was soon made aware.
We fraternised with the Minnesotas and found them
good fellows, as all American naval officers are. We
dined with each other. After dinner in our gunroom,
I asked my neighbour whether he smoked. "Well,
sir," he answered, with that slow, deliberate intonation
which is a feature, and to me an agreeable one, of
the American character, " that depends upon two
things. First, do I feel like it, and secondly, can I
get good cigars. Now, as I always feel like it, the
question resolves itself into — can I get good cigars ? "
So we adjourned to the officers' smoking place
between two guns on the main deck, for smoking else
where had not yet been invented ; and scarcely had we
lit up when he observed, " You're a very moral people
on board here, sir, it seems to me : I didn't hear one
solitary damn from soup to nuts ! "
To which I laughingly replied, " I'm afraid you
don't carry a chaplain."
" No, sir, and we don't want one."
" Don't you have a church service on Sundays ? "
"Well, sir, our first lieutenant is a very re-ligious
man, and he's quite at liberty to read prayers when
ever he wishes."
" You've no flogging in the American Navy ?" I asked.

HONG KONG 171
" No, sir."
" What punishment have you instead ? "
" Well, sir, we've strait- jackets, and we give 'em
hell." " Indeed, what's that ? "
" We tie 'em to the beams by the thumbs, so that
only their toes touch the ground."
The use of the cat being repugnant to Republican
notions, other punishments had to be invented, some
of which were original, and even humorous, except
perhaps for the subject. Afterwards, on paying a visit
to the captain of an American ship up river, I noticed
and was puzzled by the appearance of a large chest
with holes in it, as if it were a cage for some animal.
" Guess you're wondering what's inside my box,"
remarked the captain.
"Well, I am."
" Ah, well now, what'd you think it was."
" I can't form any idea, I'm sure."
"Well, it's a Dutchman."
" A Dutchman ! ! "
"Yes, that's what it is. It's a Dutchman who
think's he's captain of this ship, and / believe I am. So
now we're just having it out, you see. He can't move,
though he can breathe through those holes, and when
he's tired of being in the horizontal po-sition, he taps
on the side of his house, and the sentry comes in and
upends him."
The discipline on board the Minnesota (not " on "
her, good reader, if you value my peace of mind),
although she was on the whole in good order, was not
exactly in accordance with our ideas, seeming curi
ously free and easy ; for instance, when the watch

172 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
were hoisting in casks I saw some of the men during
intervals coolly sit down on the quarter-deck gun-
tackles, pull out newspapers and begin to read, whilst
others lounged with folded arms against the paint
work, a proceeding which would have made our good
Boyle's hair stand on end !
On 28th December 1857, our comprador, pointing
riverwards, announced " Number one bobbery up top
side, too much makee fightee Canton," for the second
bombardment of that city, followed by its occupation
by the allied forces on 8th January 1858 was in fact
going on ; the first, it will be remembered, by which
no permanent result was secured for want of troops,
having taken place in October 1856.
In these latter operations the Tribune took no active
part, hers being the quieter but necessary duties of for
warding stores, transferring the sick and wounded from
the gunboats which brought them to the hospital, fur
nishing funeral parties, &c. We soon heard that the
captain of the Actaon and Midshipman Thompson had
been killed, and Lord Gifford's arm broken by a
bullet, shortly after which an hospital " chop " from
Canton arrived with killed and wounded, on board
which, the midshipman being my first cousin, I lost
no time in going. Following the surgeon as he led
the way between rows of beds tenanted by pale un
kempt sufferers, we came to a canvas screen which
divided the living from the dead, and there, cold,
pallid, and silent, lay all that remained of my hand
some, promising young relation.
On the same afternoon an imposing full - dress
funeral cortege, attended by the principal naval and

HONG KONG 173
military officials in the island, in boats, preceded by
a band playing the " Dead March," conveyed the
remains of Captain Bate, R.N., and my cousin to
land, where a procession was formed, headed by a
firing party. On our arrival at the cemetery in Happy
Valley, the Bishop of Hong Kong and the Tribune's
chaplain led the way to the chapel, where the first
part of the service was celebrated ; it being then
arranged, as the two graves were at some distance
apart, that the bishop with the bulk of the procession
and firing party should file off to that prepared for
the post - captain, while Balleine, myself as chief
mourner, and a few junior officers should follow
Thompson's to his resting-place.
For a time all went on well and decorously, but
I shall never forget the half-serious and, in spite of
the solemnity of the occasion, half-comic situation
which was created, when, just after the coffin was slung
in the ropes, the drawing away of the Union Jack,
which had hitherto concealed it, revealed to our dis
mayed gaze the inscription in brass nails, "Captain
William T. Bate, R.N., H.M.S. Actceon, 1857" !
Consternation prevailed at such an unprecedented
dilemma. There was an awkward and embarrassing
pause, but not of long duration, for the chaplain
stooped toward the nearest midshipman and charged
him in an audible sotto voce to "run off and tell
the bishop he's burying the wrong man." Scarcely,
however, had the messenger disappeared, when the
sound of volleys from the distant grave announced
that his errand must be fruitless, for its occupant
had been buried, it was certain, whoever he was, and
of course could not be zmburied, so Balleine concluded

174 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
the service as if nothing had happened, but with rather
a disturbed air, and little wonder.
Under the full impression that my lamented young
cousin, the humble middy, had been the unwitting
recipient of all the honours intended for the man of
rank, whom apparently we had just so quietly and un
ostentatiously consigned to earth, but quite unable to
conjecture how the coffins could have been changed,
I dreaded to meet the other party, so was considerably
relieved when Mr. Smithers, the sexton, came up to
me and explained —
"This coffin, you see, sir, has Captain Bate's name
upon it, but the captain's remains isn't in it. The mid
shipman's in it all right enough. You see, sir, time
was short, and in the hurry the inscriptions were put
on the wrong coffins, and the mistake wasn't found
out till it was too late. You see, sir, the inscriptions
they're in brass nails, and it would have took a long
time to draw them all out and drive them all in again,
you see, sir."
I did see, but whether the error was ever rectified
I did not, nor ever shall know. Little indeed can it
matter to any one. " Earth to earth." There we
left him. Requiescat in pace.
" Tho' Boreas' blasts and Neptune's waves
Have tossed him to and fro',
Quiet by order of God's decree
He harbours here below;
Where now he lies at anchor sure
With many of the fleet,
Expecting one day to set sail
His Admiral, Christ, to meet.''
[From a headstone in Dunfermline Abbey, and, as I think, a
unique specimen.]
It would be absurd to suppose that a misplaced

HONG KONG 175
inscription can by any possibility affect the accom
plishment of whatever is implied in or is to follow that
last solemn charge of the Church ; unless, indeed, we
share in the crude and ludicrous notions of an honest
simple gunner R.N., who, hearing that I had superin
tended the burial of twenty-one soldiers in one long
narrow grave on Crimean soil, protested against our
having crowded them so closely together because of
the difficulty that the spirits of those brave men would
find in picking out their own bodies at the resur
rection. What a ridiculous idea ! you will say ; yet
to the numerous people (to say nothing of the scientific
aspect of the case) who, in spite of St. Paul's express
declaration that we shall not rise with our present
bodies, persist in believing that we shall, I cannot
really see that it ought to be so very ridiculous.
As versions of the foregoing occurrence, more or
less correct, have, from time to time, appeared in print,
I am glad of this opportunity of recording my testi
mony as an eye-witness of what actually took place
on the occasion.
On my way out of the cemetery I noticed a new
tombstone, and on glancing at it read " Charles Albers,
died September 2, 1857," within a month, therefore,
of his committal to my care of that bag of doubloons as
previously related.
I was a frequent rambler in Happy Valley, to its
cemetery, race-course, and the quiet romantic seclusion
of the path among the wild flowers of the gorge at its
head, whence a pure crystal stream winds downward.
Varying my walk along shore for a couple of
miles, I strayed one day into a huge, gaudily-decorated

176 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
and lantern-illuminated Joss House, which was full
of idols, of sorts and shapes, though one in particular
seemed to hold a central position ; in fact, in most
temples there are a number of the idols inferior to the
chief one.
A mouldy old Jossman in black and white was
lazily smoking away near a table on which were hun
dreds of yellow papers, addresses, prayers, or incanta
tions, I suppose : at all events they were generically and
with amusing conciseness explained to be " chin-chin
for Joss." The building was redolent with the incense of
burning Joss-sticks, made of sandal-wood dust and
gum, for the manufacture of which all over China, as
well as for that of carved ware, the Polynesian industry,
of which I had formerly seen so much, principally
existed. Worshippers entered, prostrating themselves
before the central figure, mumbling and performing
ceremonies at which the priest looked on in silent
approval. To any reflective Christian such scenes must
appeal forcibly. The consideration will be pressed
home — what is Chinese idolatry ; is there more in it
than meets the eye ; is there anything in these appar
ently ignorant, degrading, and humiliating functions
which the Christian missionary can avail himself of to
work upon, or are they entirely outside his horizon ?
Certainly they are not, if we take them as evidences
of the instincts of humanity, however degraded, to
worship some Being or beings outside themselves,
whom they instinctively recognise as superior to and
more powerful than themselves : especially not if we
can accept the authority of the author of that inte
resting little book, " When I was a Boy in China,"

HONG KONG 177
who assures us that idolatry in his country does not
consist of the worship of inanimate objects but of great
spirits who (are believed to) take up their abode there.
As a matter of fact and practice, however, I fear
that the worship is for the most part image worship
and nothing beyond, because that author admits, on
the other hand, that owing to the entire neglect of the
religious training of the young, when they are taken to
or told to worship this or that idol they just do so
in a spirit of blind obedience, without understand
ing why, and many of the idols are so hideous and
repulsive in appearance that they terrify the children
dreadfully, even in dreams.
The hillsides in the neighbourhood of the temple
were dotted with horse-shoe shaped ancestral tombs,
many of which were enriched with offerings, and I
noticed an old man lying dead before one of them,
up to which, a last offering in hand, he had had just
enough strength left to crawl.
In considering the influence of missionaries, and
humanly speaking, the prospects of Christianity in
China, this whole subject of ancestral worship is a
very crucial and vital one. It appears from Moule's
"New China and Old" (Seeley, 1891) that though the
mysteries or tenets of Christianity do not offend
Chinese thinkers, the whole nation regard as most
unreasonable the demand of its professors to abandon
their most sacred religious observance ; indeed the
Chinese Times insists that China can never be converted
to Christianity as long as violence is done to the best
feelings of the nation ; and as ancestral worship is
a religion which sits deep in their heart of hearts,
some means of accommodation will have to be
M

178 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
discovered before Christians can make any impres
sion worth mentioning on these people. On the other
hand, Chinese Christians are almost unanimous in their
persuasion that ancestral worship is wrong ; the question
being rendered still more difficult by the opinion of
experienced missionaries like Dr. Edkins that there is
something noble and beautiful about ancestral worship :
filial piety being the essence of it : it not being, there
fore, superstition pure and simple. That the Chinese
will as a nation accept Christianity on the condition of
the abandonment of so universal, cherished, and deep-
rooted an institution, I do not for a moment believe ; but
it seems to me that a compromise should be aimed at
and might be effected by endeavouring to eliminate
the elements of actual worship, or sacrifice to ancestors
with the view of propitiation, while retaining a certain
amount of pious reverential observance.
The following list of naval forces in Chinese
waters at the end of 1857 may be of interest: it cer
tainly will be to those who were associated : —
BRITISH SQUADRON IN CHINESE WATERS IN 1857.
Sailing Ships.
Acorn . . Brig  Hood.
Actcton .... Frigate .... Bate.
Alligator . . . Hulk 
Bittern . Brig  Goodenough.
Calcutta Liner (Flag) . . Admiral Seymour,
Capt Hall.
Camilla. . . . Brig  Colville.
Comus . . Corvette . . Jenkins.
Eli . ¦ Brig  Hamilton.
Hercules Hospital Ship . . Burn.
Minden. . ¦ . Hulk  Ellis.
Nankin . . . Frigate .... Stewart.

HONG KONG

179

Pique . . .

Frigate . . .

Nicholson.

Racehorse . .

Corvette . . .

Wilmshurst.

Sybille . . .

. Frigate . . .
Steamers.

Commodore Elliot.

Assistance

. Transport . .

Heath.

Cruixer . . .

Corvette . . .

Fellowes.

Esk . . . .

M'Clure.

Furious. . .

. Paddle . . .

Osborne.

Hesper .

Transport . .

Hill.

Highflyer .

Corvette . . .

Shadwell.

Hornet . .

. Corvette . . .

Dowell.

Inflexible .

. Paddle . . .

Brooker.

Niger .

. Corvette . . .

Cochrane.

Sampson .

. Paddle . . .

Hand.

Sanspareil .

. Liner ....

Key.

Tribune . .

. Frigate . . .

Edgell.

Despatch Vessels and Gunboats.
(Each of the latter having a distinctive number.)
Algerine (85)  Forbes.
Banterer (79)  Pym.
Bustard (92)  Hallowes.
Clown (72) .... . . Lee.
Cormorant (59)  Saumarez.
Coromandel .... . . Douglas.
Dove (96)  Bullock.
Drake (97)  Arthur.
Emperor  Ward.
Firm (84)  Nicholas.
Forester (87)  Innes.
Haughty (89) . . . . Hamilton.
Janus (76)  Jones.
Kestrel (69)  Hanson.
Lee (82)  Graham.
Leven (84)  Hudson.
Nimrod (61)  Dhu.
Opossum (94)  Campbell.
Plover (86)  Wyniatt.
Slaney (83) . ¦  Hoskins.
Starling (93)  Villiers.
Staunch (91)  Wildman.
Surprise (62)  Creswell.
Watchful (75)  Whitshed.
Woodcock (73)  Pollard.

180 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
In addition to which were three American ships,
twelve French, two Portuguese, one Dutch, and one
Russian. It will be observed that we had 23 gunboats.
The steam gunboat was then almost a new institution,
having first come into notice at the outbreak of the
Russian War (1854), when a large number were hastily
constructed for the British Navy for the first time,
being found in the Crimean almost as indispensable as
in these later Chinese operations.
There were three sorts, 80, 60, and 40 horse
power, each carrying one or two long heavy guns, and
some quite small ones. The 8o's were of a smart,
superior type, almost despatch boats ; the 6o's, the
most numerous and most generally useful, being 120
feet long, 22 feet broad over all, 233 tons, and 37
complement, with a draught of 7 feet 6 inches ; and
the 40's, known as " Puffers," much in request for
shallow waters, as they drew only 5 feet 2 inches.
Being independent commands, and always in re
quisition when active operations were in progress, they
were much sought after by lieutenants, as being likely
rungs on the ladder of promotion.
They had all been recently sent from England,
some together under convoy, others unaccompanied,
but how those funny little puffers managed to accom
plish the long voyage by themselves was a wonder.
There was one in particular, the Janus, commanded
by a lieutenant who was generally styled " Gallows
Jones," a well-known and eccentric character, full of
impudence and self-assurance, who used to entertain
us with laughable stories of his adventures during the
voyage outwards — he being the only officer on board.

HONG KONG 181
One was of his consternation at finding that he was
expected to physic the crew when they fell ill.
" One day," said he, " a man came aft to me and
complained, ' I've got very bad pains in my inside,
sir, I wish you'd please give me some medicine.'
" ' Medicine,' says I, and then it dawned on me for
the first time that I was supposed to be doctor as well
as captain ; so I unlocked the Admiralty medicine-
chest and overhauled the contents — observing purges,
emetics, quinine, and so on. Suddenly a bright idea
struck me. ' Pains in your inside, I think you said;
where are they — above your middle or below it ? '
" ' Oh, below my middle, sir,' and he dolefully
rubbed his lower parts.
" ' Then here's a dose that'll put you all right,' said
I cheerfully, handing him an Admiralty purge. Next
day he was well enough. After that I always followed
the same rule — pains below the middle, purge ; pains
above the middle, emetic, and it seemed to give com
plete satisfaction."
" That was a very easy way of diagnosing," I
remarked. " Di — how much ? But what d'ye think ? A few
days after that the same man came to me again and
wanted another dose. 'Get along with you, greedy
fellow !' says I, 'you've had your whack, haven't you;
don't you want to leave any for other people ? ' "
" Is that all the doctoring you had to do ? " I
inquired. " Not quite, but mulligrubs was the chief. We
had a stoker off his chump for a bit, but I put him
right with a bottle or two of Jones's mixture."
" Indeed, let's hear about it."

1 82 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
" You see, when a blue-jacket gets physic he expects
to have it nasty. If it ain't very nasty he don't believe
in it. So I just made up a bottle of right stuff. ' One
wine-glassful three times a day, my man,' says I, 'and
shake it well before you take it.' He got round all
right, at least / saw no more of him as a patient."
" Probably not," remarked I.
" Gallows " was full of cool impudence. Up River
Captain "Jacko" Hall (not " Hall-of-all," so called
because of the number of posts that he held — sailing
men will understand) although flag-captain was under
stood to have become possessor of a valuable bell,
sub rosd, looting being strictly forbidden by an order
of the commander-in-chief, one, I fear, much more
recognised by its breach than its observance, especially
in gunboats. Says Hall to Jones, after an expedition, " Mr. Jones,
I regret to hear that your people have been looting, in
defiance of the admiral's orders."
" Indeed, sir," retorted " Gallows," " I think you
must have been misinformed, for I don't believe they
looted anything at all, not even a bell!"
The catalogue shows, too, that we had with us
four brigs, last representatives of a long-standing and
famous class with which had been connected important
improvements in shipbuilding. To get command of
a crack brig was the aspiration of many a rising young
commander. H.M.S. Camilla was one of the most beautiful of her
race. Black with red ports, guns polished by hand
with compo (beeswax and turpentine), whitest of white
decks, slightly raking masts, taut ropes, an enormous
boom mainsail, and a smart crew of the pick of the

HONG KONG 183
service, she had all the appearance of an armed
yacht. Colville, who had been gunnery lieutenant of the
Rodney in the trenches at Sebastopol, commanded her,
and I went to dine with him and have a " crack "
over those old times.
Next day, the admiration of all, she stood out to
sea, bound northward, but was never heard of again —
not even a stray oar or floating fragment ever having
been picked up to lend a clue to her mysterious dis
appearance — the general impression being that she
capsized, or being taken back, went down stern fore
most in a squall or typhoon.

CHAPTER VI
CANTON
On January 5, 1858, after several days' bombardment,
Canton was captured and occupied by the British and
French, and Commissioner Yeh the notorious was
taken prisoner by Captain A. C. Key, R.N., with his
own hand, was sent to Calcutta, and died soon after
wards to meet the spirits of the 100,000 men and
women and children whom it was believed that he
had put to death during his term of office.
Many stories were current about this cruel and
bloodthirsty tyrant, one of which was, that shortly
before the bombardment, in order to counteract any
erroneous impression among the populace that he had
ceased to exercise authority, and as a slight reminder
of his vitality, he opened the jails and cut off four
hundred heads, including of course tails, as the China
man is the only known being whose head and tail can
be cut off by one stroke of the executioner's axe.
To judge from Yeh's physiognomy, which I am
able to reproduce from an original sketch from life
by Major Hope Crealock, he was capable of any
enormity. The situation at Canton was as follows : —
From January 1858 till October 1861 the city
remained in the military occupation of the allies, and
was governed by a Chinese governor (Pih Qui at first)
184

CANTON 185
acting under an Anglo-French Commission of two
English and one French officer. Sir William Kennedy
is mistaken in supposing that our troops remained only
till the middle of January 1858 ("Hurrah for the Life
of a Sailor," p. 93). Canton, however, is no longer a
mare clausum, for since the withdrawal of the garrison
in 1 86 1 all nations have free access to it, and the
English consul occupies the Yamun formerly tenanted
by our Commissioners.
The famous extra-mural Hongs or factories (so
called on the lucus a non principle, because nothing,
except bargains, was ever made there), for so long the
only recognised European pied-a-terre at Canton, had
been destroyed by the mob immediately after Admiral
Seymour's bombardment of 1856, and were never
rebuilt at the same place ; but by subsequent treaty
much finer ones now exist on the Shamien, or Sandy
Flats, an islet in close proximity to the old site.
As regards the navy : it having become unnecessary
to retain so large a force at the front, a large reduction
took place. Captain Edgell was appointed Naval
Commandant and Commissioner in H.M. brig Bittern at
Canton, the Tribune being ordered to lie at Whampoa,
twelve miles below — an arrangement destined to con
tinue for nearly a twelvemonth. The Military Com
mandant was General Van-Straubenzee. The French
Naval Capitaine, d'Abouville.
To Whampoa, then, we proceeded on the 6th
January 1858. In crossing "First Bar" the ship took
the ground rather heavily aft, but the leadsmen in the
fore-chains reporting at the same time " Four fathoms "
(well above our draught), Captain Edgell, with com
mendable presence of mind, gave the order to go

186 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
ahead full speed and pipe all hands run forward, by
which timely device she quickly scraped over it.
We did not forget in passing to look out for our
old quarters at Chuenpee. There were the well-re
membered hills and trees, but the fort was a tenantless
heap of ruins.
The landscape scenery of the Canton delta is like
no other that I have seen, the trees appearing too large
for the little hills, which are dotted about here and
there among the rice flats, as if they were artificial
adjuncts supplied to order for the purpose of variety.
Geologically, the occurrence of these hillocks in such
a position is curious and requires investigation.
Whampoa is a small island twelve miles below
Canton, well known as a convenient naval station and
as a rendezvous for merchant ships whose cargoes were
both taken in and discharged there for conveyance
from and to Canton. It had a Chinese Town and
another hybrid collection of dwellings known as Bam
boo Town, but above all for us it was the location of
Mr. Cowper and Mr. Cowper's docks.
Dr. Johnson, we are informed, divided Scotchmen
into two classes, " Scotchmen, and d  Scotchmen,"
wherein as he obviously meant " delightful Scotchmen,"
what is the object of curtailing the adjective as we
always see done ? At all events Mr. Cowper was a
delightful Scotchman, and so identified had he become
with the place that to naval people he and Whampoa
were synonymous terms, and the docks, which by
his ability and energy he had built and of which he
was proprietor, inseparable from either.
Abreast of Cowper's Docks then, in a very narrow,
and although eighty miles from sea, tide-traversed

COMMISSIONER YEH
Canton, 1858. From /.,/,¦, ty Ma, or Hope Croaloot

CANTON 187
reach, we moored with swivel, a device which prevents
entanglement or twisting of cables when a ship lies
equidistant between two anchors.
Times had lately been troublous for good Mr.
Cowper. When, at the outbreak of the war, he was
obliged to leave Whampoa, where he had resided for
thirteen years, he left a ship of 600 tons in course of
construction, but on his return could not find even a
trace of her, besides which his house had been pulled
down and his docks half demolished.
He told us, too, that sometimes during Yeh's reign,
when executions were more than usually numerous at
Canton, the number of bodies that floated down the
river and lodged upon the banks was so great that he
was obliged to send his family away to Macao. Haif
a-dollar a head was the customary executioner's fee,
but upon the douceur being withdrawn, that functionary
would not take the trouble to decapitate, but tied the
victims together in bundles of half-a-dozen and pitched
them into the river. Chinese, however, regard with
much comparative equanimity the passage from this
life to another, suicide being often performed as a
preference, or even as a duty. A writer in the Hong
Kong Daily Press of January 1861 related: "I met a
procession at Fuhchow escorting a young woman in
scarlet and gold in a richly decorated chair, the object
of which I found out was to invite the public to come
and see her hang herself, a step which she had re
solved to take because she had been left a childless
widow." One day a boat of ours picked up in the river a
Chinaman of the poorest class floating with his hands
tied behind his back. After resuscitation we got at

188 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
his story, which was that being very poor and having
a bodily ailment which prevented him from working,
his master, who could not afford to keep him, had
thrown him into the river by mutual agreement, and
very angry was he with us for having rescued him.
There was, too, a certain rock near Whampoa which
was the appointed place for the murder of all female
infants whose parents could not afford to keep them.
Infanticide is to a great extent a recognised institution
in China, though by law a crime, Professor Douglas
telling us that periodically the mandarins inveigh
against the inhumanity of the offence, and appeal
to the better instincts of the people to put a stop
to it. Upon the arrival of ships at Chinese — or, indeed,
any — ports, among the earliest visitors are washer
women, who, in the Canton River, enjoyed self-
bestowed fantastic names, and who came provided
with testimonials from former employers, chiefly ship-
captains and officers, some of which were genuine
enough, but others ludicrously calculated to produce
the very opposite effect to that desired by the owners,
who did not understand a word of them. I have seen
certificates of the following sort smilingly handed in, in
entire good faith, for the Chinese are a good-humoured
people, not at all inclined to take life sadly : —
(i)
" I hereby certify that the bearer, Mrs. Chunam,
washed for me during my stay in Hong Kong in 1857,
and mangled all my linen.
"Wm. Sturdy,
Master of the Barque ' Queen.' "

CANTON 189
(2)
" Miss Samshu washed my clothes when I was at
Whampoa in 1856. I guess she will never have an
opportunity of doing so again — if / know it.
" Ebenezer E. Slagg,
Mate, American Ship 'Washington.'"
(3) "H.M.S. 'Gitana,'
Canton River.
" When no other was'-gal could possibly be found
I have entrusted a few pieces to the care of the giggling
bearer, who goes by the name of Ah-Sing. I never
heard her do it.
" L. Arkey,
Midshipman."
On the other hand, many certificates were quite
serious and excellent, and I am bound to say that as a
rule the work was well done.
Ridiculous testimonials, however, are not peculiar
to Chinese waters, for, in 1892, a native called at a
store in a British district of South Africa in search of
employment, and presented the following written one
for himself and two companions, which he thought
would pull him through anywhere : —
"The bearers, three Basutos, are in search of
work. I can recommend them to any one anxious to
acquire the services of three of the laziest devils on
earth, but good eaters."
Scarcely had we piped for dinner, after the
troublesome operation of mooring ship, when a pretty,
rather saucy-looking, quite self-possessed Chinese girl
appears in the gunroom (wardroom).

190 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
"Welly," ask I, " what you wantchee ? "
Girl. " I was'-gal, sar ; how you ? "
I. "Quite welly, thank you ; how you ?"
G. "Fus' rate, tank you — you missa docta?"
I. " I no docta."
G. (flatteringly) " You missa Numba One."
I. " No, I missa Number Four."
G. " Oh ! Ah ! you missa Numba Four." (Coax-
ingly, with an arch smile) " Missa Numba Four
Kce-lo-sy hab got ? "
I. " Have got."
G. " My was' — can do ? "
I. " How muchee you chargee ?"
G. " Four da' hun' " (four dollars a hundred).
I. " Maskee, sposy you make good pidgin, got
starchee, you savy starchee ? "
G. (scornfully indignant) "Oh, sar-vee starchee.
You tinkee me number one FOOLO ! — my was' kilosy
plenty maysun sip " (merchant ships).
I. " Maskee — what name you ? "
G. " My Missy Teapot, mother my Missesy Coffee
pot." I. (producing bag) " Very well, Miss Teapot, chin-
chin." G. " Chin-chin, sar, you good man, my was' kilosy
alia plopa."
Meantime Mrs. Coffeepot was similarly engaged in
touting for custom among our messmates, and great
was our amusement when, a few days after, these
industrious, good-humoured worthies, presenting them
selves in the wardroom, proceeded to call out merrily,
after their own fashion, the names of the owners of
their bundles of clean linen.

CANTON 191
Thus to the future Governor of New Zealand,
" Missa Number One " ; to second lieutenant, " Missa
Number Two " ; to the marine officer, " Missa Sojer-
man " ; to the surgeon, " Missa Doctor man " ; and
amid loud laughter, but to the slight discomfiture
of the reverend gentleman, "Missa Joss-man " !
Having established ourselves at Whampoa, Captain
Edgell left for his quarters on board the Bittern at
Canton, taking with him Lieut. Hale, Assist-Surgeon
Bennett, Mid. Holbrook, Cadet Aide-de-Camp Elwyn,
Clerk Wade, and forty-three of the ship's company.
I availed myself of the earliest opportunity of
visiting the ancient city.
The first Englishman, at all events of distinction,
who is known to have done so, was Admiral Lord
Keppel in 1743 ; and, again, immediately after its being
constituted one of the five treaty ports in 1842, his
descendant, now Admiral Sir Henry Keppel, was
there. Our relations with Canton, indeed with China
altogether, are intimately connected with the history of
the opium trade, which is anything but pleasant read
ing to a reflective British subject. On our way up
there a brief summary may not be out of place. It is
a fact that in 1729 an Imperial Decree was issued
against opium smoking, and that in 1780 "the impor
tation of opium was forbidden on very severe penalties.
The opium on seizure was to be burnt, the vessel carry
ing it confiscated, and the Chinese salesmen punishable
with death " (Report of English House of Commons). " In
1781," says Archdeacon Moule in "New China and
Old," " the East India Company took the monopoly of
opium into their own hands, and determined to make

192 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
it pay, and in spite of well-known prohibition, the 'first
venture of the opium smuggling trade, which was
destined to expand to such vast and deadly propor
tions, was made by (British) ships armed to the teeth
as if for some warlike or piratical enterprise" ; and
there is no doubt whatever that the British Govern
ment " in the interests of British commerce," in the
face of all Imperial Edicts, including an additional one
of 1800 expressly forbidding the importation of opium,
not only forbore to put a stop to, but virtually con
nived at the prosecution of the illicit trade, the bulk of
Indian opium finding its way into China.
A climax was reached in 1839, when the famous
Commissioner Lin, with a desperate effort towards the
annihilation of the evil, succeeded in concluding an
agreement with Captain Elliot, British superintendent
of trade, in virtue of which 20,283 chests of opium,
the whole stock in the hands of British merchants at
Canton, were handed over to the Chinese authorities
and burned. Moreover, Lin exacted a pledge from his
countrymen that they would no longer deal in the
deleterious drug.
Nevertheless, Lin's procedure, though agreed to by
their own official, was considered so high-handed and
unreasonable by the English Whig Government of the
day, under Lord Melbourne, that reparation was de
manded and war ensued, iniquitously in the eyes of a
vast section of our countrymen.
At this time Hong Kong came into our hands as
part of an indemnity ; and the Treaty of Nankin of
1842 followed, with the establishment of five treaty
ports — Amoy, Canton, Foochow, Ningpo, Shanghai ;
but although opium was the real diplomatic crux, it

CANTON 193
was significant that nothing at all was said in the treaty
about it, and the illicit traffic of Indian opium, chiefly
in British vessels, went on gaily as before. I well
remember the periodical arrival of Jardine's or Dent's
opium clippers at Hong Kong — how they used to
heave-to at sea off the island till they got private
instructions from the owners where to go.
The final and most important treaty was that ratified
at Pekin on October 24, i860, in which opium was
entered as a legitimate article of import, that is to say,
the opium trade was legalised by China because she could
not help herself — virtually at the point of the bayonet !
As regards the " common sense of the opium ques
tion," the Report of the Royal Commission of 1894
was supposed to ease the conscience of the British
public by demonstrating in the main that all human
nature craves for some sort of nerve stimulant or com
poser, and that the Chinaman's opium whiff was in
reality but an equivalent to the Englishman's glass of
beer or the Scotchman's of whisky.
In this connection I strongly recommend a perusal
of Mr. Selby's able, interesting, and up-to-date book,
"Chinamen at Home" (1900), where he makes light of
the Report as unsatisfying and inconclusive, and de
clares that it has not changed the patriotic Chinaman's
view, or the unanimous one entertained by mission
aries, who, to a greater extent than any others, have an
intimate and first-hand acquaintance with Chinese life.
Mr. Selby, himself an active and experienced
missionary, urges that no barrier to the spread of
Christian ideas is so grave as that raised by the
criminal and fatuous policy of the past, for which the
best sections of Chinese society dislike us ; the patriot
n

194 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
and the moralist rebelling at the results of a traffic
forced upon a weaker but unwilling nation by a Chris
tian government for the benefit of its Indian revenue ; 1
" and," continues our author with weighty words, " the
noxious and discreditable trade is the cloud that never
lifts from missionary enterprise in the Far East, or
from the fortunes of commerce or diplomacy."
There is something quite pathetic, however im
practicable, in Prince Kung's remark to Sir Robert
Hart (quoted in The Fortnightly of February 1901),
which must elicit sympathy : " Take away your mis
sionaries and your opium and you will be welcome."
Nevertheless as a fact it cannot be doubted that
opium has come to stay in China, as, in addition to its
legalisation as an article of import, China herself has
taken to produce it largely, its culture, though still
professedly illegal, being free to all throughout the
empire ; the price of the native in the market, too,
being much less than that of the Indian drug. Facts
are stubborn things, and to eliminate opium either
from the tariff or from the fields of China can no
longer be considered to be within the range of practical
politics. But here we are on board the Plover gunboat
en route, a thrice-a-week communication between the
captain at Canton and his frigate at Whampoa.
Between banana-fringed paddy or padi flats in con
tinuous succession, past large sunken war and idle tea
and salt junks, for the salt trade is a huge one, ramifying
by rivers and canals all over the empire, and all tea is
1 Mr. Donald Matheson, of the Island of Lewis, died in February
1901, aged eighty-two. He was a member of the afore-named celebrated
firm, but withdrew from conscientious scruples about the morality of the
opium trade.

CANTON 195
conveyed to Whampoa for shipment. Traffic, however,
is suspended, for the spell of war has paralysed it.
Past the Barrier Forts which the Americans knocked
to pieces last year, with " Remember Mullins " displayed
upon their flags, that gentleman having been a citizen
of the United States whose head was selected to adorn
the walls of Canton.
The river is half a mile broad at Dutch Folly, a
little island on which our mortar batteries were planted,
and mounting a tall look-out, I have an extensive view
Of the city, now in our possession.
Close to me, almost, is the wall, of great antiquity,
six miles in circumference, twenty-five to forty feet high,
broad enough for two coaches to drive abreast upon,
and completely surrounding the city, which is divided
into three parts, viz. the suburbs nearest the river ;
then the new city (in a comparative sense only), which
contains Yeh's Yamun or palace ; then, farthest from
the river, the old city, which is very much indeed the
largest of the three.
In time of peace the traffic and floating population
{said to number 200,000) fills up the whole of the
adjacent river and its frontage, but now, a few sulky
people sculling about in vegetable sampans are their
only representatives. The population altogether is said
to be a million and a half.
The general appearance of Canton, when deprived
of the distance which lends enchantment, is if possible
meaner and more squalid even than of Constantinople,
the eye wandering over a vast monotonous sea of
brown tiles, relieved here and there by tall poles and
groups of trees, a few roofs of some pretension marking
official residences.

196 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
The line of sight, carried straight across, impinged
upon Gough's Fort, 4500 yards away, outside the walls
altogether, into which thirteen-inch mortar shells had
been pitched from where I stood. There were two
principal pagodas, the word being a Portuguese corrup
tion of a Persian one signifying idol-temple.
Prominent objects in Chinese scenery, and always
connected with Buddhism (one in particular being
well known to us as " Second Bar Pagoda " visible for
forty or fifty miles), they are from five to nine or more
stories high, are generally built on mounds or low hills,
are surrounded with trees and shrubs, and surmounted
by a tall pole.
By the capture of their walls, which they believed to
be impregnable, and occupation of their city, the pride of
the Cantonese was completely humbled ; consequently
their tone had become very different to what it was not
long before, when Captain Fellowes, R.N., walking up
to the gates was warned off with a " Get along, you Eng
lish dog " : when the English, who had been rigidly con
fined to the few acres of ground on which the factories
stood, were now located in all parts of the old city,
which never before had they been allowed to enter.
On the morning of the escalade and capture of
the North-east Gate — the key of the position — the braves
had concentrated on Gough's Fort, outside the walls (as
I have said), under an impression that we should not
attempt the walls till we had captured the fort, so that
when we got possession of the former, they were shut
out, and had to retreat to the ninety-six surrounding
villages. It was characteristic of the tenacity with
which these braves stuck to ancient methods, that when
they subsequently advanced in a night attack with the

CANTON — EIGHT-STORIED PAGODA

P. 196

CANTON 197
idea of recapturing their walls, they carried lanterns,
thus making themselves into living targets.
Matters soon quieted down. The Cantonese being
sore troubled at the suspension of traffic, wished to make
the best of it, but being forbidden to print anything
without permission, quietly chin-chin'd us by pasting up
blank sheets of paper outside their houses, a curious,
but under the circumstances significant compliment.
The Royal Marine Light Infantry Battalion played
a conspicuous part in all the operations, and Ozzard,
our own officer, being quartered for months at Five-
storied Pagoda, was most hospitable in putting us up
on all occasions, during one of which he told us an
anecdote highly illustrative of the courage, excellence,
and fidelity of the marine-servant genus.
Shortly after the occupation, a captain R.M.L.I.,
being desirous of entertaining some friends in the
evening, sent off his servant to look for wood, to whom,
on his return, as he was a long time absent, he spoke
rather sharply. The man made no reply, but set at
once about lighting the fire.
Soon, one of the captain's friends whispered, " I say,
what's the matter with your servant ? — he certainly looks
very different to what he did when he went out."
His master thought so too, questioned him, and
made inquiries, by which it was elicited that this
faithful and devoted man, being unable to find fuel
near at hand, had strayed into a forbidden part of the
city, had been detected thus trespassing by the provost-
marshal, had been forthwith seized up, received three
dozen lashes on his bare back, and had returned and
set about his work without saying a word. No wonder
he looked " different " !

198 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Many of the Marine officers engaged Chinese boys
to wait upon them, on condition, however, that at the
outset drastic detergent measures were to be submitted
to — vigorous scrubbing all over with soap and water in
fact. I encountered one of these urchins wandering
about one day, whom I recognised. " Ah," asked I,
" why you no with master ; where master ? "
" Oh, my no likee too muchee washee pidgin."
The view of the surrounding country from the
walls was remarkable, if monotonous, consisting of
extensive flats watered by canals, which were covered
with rice, and a vegetable called gnaou much in vogue
with Chinese, a species of water-lily, though not one
with floating leaves, the fleshy or tuberous rootstock
being the edible part.
Two or three, even, of these plants, with their pink
flowers and splendid large flat glossy leaves on stems
three or four feet high, are very handsome ; but the
aspect of hundreds of acres of them waving in the
breeze, which, dallying with them, continuously dis
played varying shades of colour, was truly noble.
Now, let us descend from these broad lofty walls
and take a ramble of observation through the narrow
crowded streets. With deep interest do I find my
self inside the ancient city, hitherto a terra incognita,
especially when I consider that owing to the stereo
typed character of the nation, the Canton as it appears
before me, is virtually the identical Canton as it would
have appeared one hundred, five hundred, or even one
thousand years before.
First, being anxious to know what a Yamun, or
high mandarin official residence, is like, we visit the
acting governor's, which we find to consist of a series

CANTON 199
of five courts, connected with each other by imposing
gateways, leading at the end to halls and apartments
surrounded by gardens. There is Pih Qui himself sit
ting at a table. The windows, we observe, are chiefly
glazed with white paper, very little glass being seen.
Our walk now leads us along The Straight Street of
Benevolence and Love, the principal street of the city,
connecting the East and West gates, which is quite
straight, of course narrow, eight or ten feet, paved with
stone, darkened by innumerable gilt or gaudily coloured
sign-boards, and flanked by low two-storied shops.
There is a dense crowd, but so well do they observe
the rule of the road, that were it not for the numerous
porters or coolies, we should be little inconvenienced.
These men stagger along with a steady perpetual trot,
under terrific loads slung at each end of a strong flat
bamboo shoulder carrier, shouting and howling in a
diabolical fashion, with perspiring faces which often
wear an expression of agony painful to behold, exactly
like their professional counterparts in the streets of
Constantinople. We are closely followed by a crowd
of the " great unwashed," who cluster round shop
doors when we go in to buy anything, and follow our
every motion with eager eyes ; for this, be it re
membered, is not Hong Kong, and foreign barbarians
are a novelty.
Here is a poultry shop, and what are those long-
billed birds in cages ? We draw near, but hardly can
believe our eyes, for they are certainly snipes. We
were already aware, having had ocular demonstration
of the fact, that Chinese catch snipes in the rice dis
tricts by large nets, stretched along between stakes, but
we were not prepared to find them alive in cages.

200 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Poor things ! they look as disconsolate and as much
out of their element as Polar bears in a menagerie.
There are also cages full of quails, which is not so
extraordinary. In this hot country people prefer to buy fish alive.
Fishing-boats have tanks, and here, in this fishmonger's
shop, there is one full of water in which we see fish
swimming about.
Look, here is a customer, he peers into the tank,
indicates the fish which he fancies, and it is im
mediately caught for him by means of a little landing
net. But what is that long line of suspicious-looking
black things hanging up in that butcher's shop op
posite ? Let us cross and see. Three steps and over.
Rats, black rats, not in cages, but fortunately dead
and suspended by their tails. Rats, both fresh and
dried, have a ready sale, not only as food, but among
those who have a tendency to baldness, their flesh hav
ing high repute as a hair-restorer. That being so, who
knows whether the active principle of our own widely
advertised hair-restorers and moustache producers may
not owe their efficacy to the active principle of rat ! —
rattine, I suppose, it would be called. Awkward,
though, if it were to produce a crop of rats' tails
instead of that luxuriant hirsute growth as depicted in
familiar illustrations.
Here come men with poles across their shoulders,
on which are slung dozens of brown compressed
objects — ducks they are, split open lengthways and
dried. Ducks and their eggs are consumed to any
extent, duckeries and duck-boats being leading features
in Canton river life.

CANTON 201
Chinese are very economical and allow nothing to
be wasted. Here is a cook stall for the sale of huge
stacks of cockles, and another for boiled offal and rice,
but they do not draw the line at rats, or even offal,
but really surpass even Maltese in their avidity to pick
up the crumbs which fall from the rich man's table.
The " head shoots " of the Tribune at Whampoa, down
which all refuse was discharged, was daily besieged by
a dozen dirty little sampans, each containing a family
who greedily clutched with nets at every morsel shot
overboard from the men's mess kettles after meals,
fragments of biscuits, ducks' heads, and leavings of all
sorts being eagerly secured.
The barber, of course, is much in evidence where-
ever there is a Chinaman, and plies his trade both in
shops or in the streets, in the latter case bearing on
the ends of a bamboo all the implements of his calling,
together with a stool for customers to sit upon during
the operation.
The male analogue of women's compressed feet,
about which I shall have more to say subsequently,
that is the corresponding fashionable absurdity on the
part of the male sex, is the pigtail or queue, with this
difference, however, that the latter is of universal
obligation, whereas none of the feet of the working
classes are compressed.
Every Chinaman, of whatever station in life, shaves
his head entirely, with the exception of a small tuft on
the crown which is allowed to grow as long as possible,
and carefully plaited, falls down behind, lengthened
artificially where nature may be a little niggardly in
the supply of natural growth. Among all classes great
value is attached to this pigtail, but it is a badge of

202 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
conquest, having been imposed in the seventeenth cen
tury by the first emperor of the reigning Tartar
dynasty, and it is observable that the adherents of
rebellions, such as the great Taiping, allow their hair
to grow. To be tailless is a disgrace to a Chinaman ; and
when, during our occupation of the Canton River
Districts, we found it necessary to punish offenders
severely, we did so by simply cutting off their tails.
Mendicity is a recognised institution in China, and
curious accounts are given about the fraternity, who
appear to have a complete organisation. Mr. Selby
says that a fixed number of beggars are allowed by
their headman, or king of beggars, to ply their calling
daily in different parts of the city ; so that beggar whom
I see patiently tinkling his little gong before a shop-
counter, is doubtless member of a guild, and the
shopkeeper dare not send him away empty-handed.
Troops of blind, too, leading the blind are a painful
sight here in Canton, where extremest destitution in
every phase is represented before our eyes.
There is a line of wretched, wizened, wasted, blind
old women, each clutching a small bag of rice, of
which (and long afterwards) there is a daily gratuitous
issue by the Rev. Mr. Huleatt, British army chaplain.
Each woman holds on to the skirt of the one in front
of her, the leader groping her way by tapping the
pavement with a stick.
Besides all the foregoing, there are an immense
number of characteristic sights that I have not space to
describe ; yet business is comparatively stagnant, and
the people wear a sullen, resentful look, which cannot
be wondered at under the circumstances.

CANTON 203
Pawnshops abound. On our way up the river
my attention was often called to certain tall, square
two-storied blue brick erections, which next to pagodas
and yamuns, are the most prominent objects in towns
of any size. They are pawn houses.
There is no drainage system in Canton — in our
sense of the term that is — yet they have a very careful
and complete method of disposing of the sewerage, by
which, with characteristic economy, none of it is
wasted. Throughout the large city a house to house
visitation is nightly effected by an army of scavengers
— labour being cheap in China — who carry away all
refuse in pails to the water side, where it is deposited
in barges, and thence down the river to be distributed
all over the rice-growing districts, in which tanks for
its reception abound.
These barges were but too well-known objects to
us at Whampoa. When they flit silently by a ship
at night it were better to have your port closed than
open, as they display their proximity in a manner
which is too forcibly unmistakable to the nasal organs,
even during sleep !
In connection with these sewage boats a ludicrous
incident occurred at Whampoa. The mandarin people
were in the habit of attempting to blow up our ships
by sending two fire-barges linked together down with
the tide across their bows.
On one of these occasions H.M.S. Hornet was thus
attacked, and the barges blew up under her bows before
she had time to slip and swing clear of them, the con
tents of the junks, which were in this instance, well,
not all powder ! being scattered all over her in a most
unpleasant way.

204 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
For months afterwards the unfortunate Hornets
were driven half-frantic by a tantalising habit that
passing boats' crews used to practise of holding their
noses and averting their faces with a well-simulated
expression of disgust.

CHAPTER VII
WHAMPOA
Life at Whampoa was diversified and full of interest
for me, as there was much to do, much to observe,
and no lack of exciting occurrences.
Bamboo-town, close to Cowper's Docks, was an
ephemeral erection, depending upon them and upon
merchant shipping for its support.
Old, or Chinese, Whampoa, a mile away, was a
small, but clean and well-built town, the residence of
many tea and silk merchants, though not of mandarins,
who showed themselves only when any " squeezing "
was to be done.
In connection with the European trade carried on
at Old Whampoa we found large and richly furnished
banqueting-halls, called Company Houses, which were
only used three or four times a year. We found
there, too, Mr. Bird, Vice-Consul, Mr. Winchester,
Acting-Consul, and hospitable Cum Qua, who showed
us his stores of preserved ginger and cumquats, de
licious miniature oranges not much larger than a
cherry. By way of compliment he dipped into a huge
jar and held up a cumquat streaming with syrup in
his fat fingers so close to my mouth that I could not
well avoid opening it, when in he popped the tit-bit !
The vice-consul was Scotch. To which of Dr.
Johnson's divisions he belonged it is unnecessary to
205

206 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
record, yet if he had any sense of humour it must have
been tickled by what he heard at our table on the first
occasion of his dining with us.
It might have been undue eagerness to welcome a
Scotchman with his native beverage, or — which is more
likely — greediness to get hot toddy for himself ; but it
is a fact that as soon as the cloth was removed, our
reverend president in his unseemly haste thus " lumped "
grace and instructions to the expectant stewards at
his elbow, " For what we have received may the
Lord make us truly thankful hot water sugar and
spoons " (!)
Toddy bore an anti-malarial repute, else we could
hardly have tolerated it in the tropics.
Chinese villages and towns have night-watchmen,
who sound the tum-tum, or native gong, every few
minutes. The plaintive speech of these rude instru
ments, breaking the silence of the still moonlit night, is
poetical and far from displeasing. On one night, how
ever, their peaceful tinkle was rudely interrupted by
musketry, the blaze of fires, and hum of many voices,
and other evidences of a " number-one-bobbery " at Old
Whampoa, which in fact was being attacked by pirates,
but they were beaten off without assistance from us.
Before long the peaceful, well-disposed inhabitants
of that town, anxious only for a revival of trade, were
seriously perplexed and disconcerted by receiving an
order from Wang (the truculent new viceroy appointed
by the emperor vice Yeh) that they were to discontinue
all trade under pain of death and having their town
burnt down ; the result being a general evacuation,
apparently in the direction of Hong Kong, till less
troublous times should dawn, but we were put to

WHAMPOA 207
considerable inconvenience, as Bamboo-town was al
most deserted and its market closed.
I do not suppose that Wang got a footing in
Canton, at all events during the allied occupation,
but he reigned over the whole of Kwantung, the
province of which it was the capital, and he issued
a proclamation, in the true style of Chinese bombast,
and almost tantamount to a new declaration of war, that
he had been ordered to raise Braves, so, if the Bar
barians chose to go away, he would pardon ; but if
not, would exterminate them.
Meantime we governed the Whampoa district our
selves with martial law, that is to say, we summarily
punished all thieves and offenders detected about the
ship, docks, and neighbourhood. For instance, some
disaffected prowlers cut the rigging of the consular
flagstaff at the docks, and as the Heads of the sur
rounding villages failed to produce the culprits, Boyle
and I landed with forty men each, collected the Heads,
brought them to the staff, and made them kneel down
and chin-chin it while our men " presented arms."
In the case of government property of any kind
being found in shops, the shopkeepers were at once
tied together by their tails (if more than one) and
marched straight off to the ship, where, without further
trial of any sort, they received two-dozen lashes with
hammock-clews, instead of a cat, as a thin covering
was allowed on the back.
In February 1858 the Adventure troopship arrived
with the 70th Bengal Native Infantry, who, we learned,
had themselves undergone, and had put others to con
siderable inconveniences during the voyage. It was all
owing to the rigorous exactions of caste. First of all, they

208 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
insisted on having Hoogly water only, pumped in by
themselves through their own hoses into tanks of which
they alone possessed the keys.
They subsisted principally on grain, oil, and raw
rice, owing, it seemed, to the difficulty of getting the
latter boiled without defilement ; for so particular were
they, that one day at sea an officer of the ship being
observed to light his cigar at the fire on which a pot
of rice was boiling, the Sepoys, who saw him do it,
immediately brought a shovel and threw all the defiled
fire overboard.
While visiting the Adventure, I was highly amused
at overhearing some characteristically sarcastic remarks
from the mouth of a boatswain's mate of the old sailing
school, evidently much out of his element in a steam-
trooper, to some young Adventurers.
" Now, then, bo'sun's mate, how are we getting on
with the ballast ? " asked the busy first lieutenant,
poking his head over from the upper deck.
" Pretty well, sir, considerin'," replied the old salt,
looking upwards and touching his hat, meaning clearly,
to those who had ears to hear, that much progress with
such material as his working party could not reason
ably be expected ; " but (aside) they mustn't be 'urried,
not by no manner o' means, oh no ; and them pigses
of ballis is nasty 'eavy things to 'andle, and you'll want
to wash your 'ands afore you gets to your noos-
paper." " I say, Jack Pipes, old sonny " — a voice came up
from below, coaxingly, — "send us down a few more
hands, can't you ? "
" I ain't got no more 'ands to send, young sonny,"
smartly rejoined Mr. Pipes in a decided tone, " you'd

WHAMPOA 209
better harsk the chief hen-gi-neer to make you a few ;
he can do anything, I believe."
There was, too, a ship's corporal evidently addicted
to punning, for when the side of a case of canister
shot fell out on its being hoisted from below, and the
contents all rattled about over the decks, I heard him
quietly remark, " A afe-sided case."
Piracy in 1858, as now,1 was a prevalent pest,
and a joint Anglo-Chinese anti -piratical expedition
having been determined upon, Pih Qui, at the request
of the allied commissioners, issued a proclamation in
the native language, explaining its object and nature
to the inhabitants of the Canton River districts.
At first sight it may seem surprising that we were
thus acting in concert with the enemy whose capital
we were forcibly occupying ; but China is full of
anomalies, and nothing need astonish in a country
where they dress in white for funerals, launch ships
sideways, mount horses from the off-side, begin dinner
with dessert, supply girls with smaller and smaller
shoes as they grow up, instead of larger, where old
men fly kites, south is the chief cardinal point of the
compass, ships' names are displayed on the side,
&c, &c.
The proclamations were ordered to be posted in
the towns and villages on both sides of the river
between Canton and Hong Kong, and a bundle was
1 Revival of Piracy in Chinese Waters (1900). — "The Hong Kong and
Canton papers report a serious revival of piracy. The pirate chiefs retainers
are said to number 2000. They have fifteen steam launches and a number
of snake-boats. Trading junks, and other small craft paying a monthly
'squeeze' to the pirates are protected. The latter take refuge in creeks,
where it is difficult to reach them." O

210 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
entrusted to myself to dispose of, a commission which
entirely suited my taste, though I must confess that
— multifarious as are the trades included in the naval
profession — I had never been a bill-sticker before !
Leaving the ship early with a dozen armed blue
jackets, the bills, and a large pot of paste, I began my
peregrinations, and was well received in the villages,
the inhabitants crowding round to read as soon as a
poster was put up. In one village we found ponds
whose waters were green and filthy, and no wonder, as
the public latrines stood over them. Nevertheless these
ponds were fish preserves, for an old man was paddling
about with a casting net, his punt being of the most
elementary design, consisting simply of a small wooden
raft, whose floating capacity was increased by the simple
but entirely effective device of the insertion of a few
inverted common earthenware jars. In China, " stews "
or ponds for the artificial rearing of fish, " usually
communal property," are common, for Chinese consume
fish to an enormous extent. Professor Douglas says
that during high tides spawn is deposited among grass
and rushes by the river -side, and as soon as the young
fish are hatched they are caught in nets, and put into
tanks in boats, where they are fed and tended till
sufficiently grown to be transferred to the ponds.
Coming to a pagoda, the people motioned to us to
ascend, which we did, finding nothing but a large gilt
idol on each floor, but there was a family on the
ground floor " chin-chining joss," before which, neatly
arranged on an altar in saucers, were many little votive
offerings, cups of tea, fish, cakes, and vegetables, and
the like. A woman on a mat was performing much bowing,

WHAMPOA 211
ground kissing, and muttering, her children following
her example, when suddenly there was a startling dis
charge of powchong, or crackers, the inevitable, which
concluded the ceremony.
There are three religions in China, or rather
sects — that of Confucius, Tau, and Buddha, which
appear to blend into one another, but the religious
beliefs of Chinamen are mysterious and difficult to
comprehend. As far as I have observed and can
understand, the great distinction between the worship
of idolaters and that of Christians is, that in practice,
at all events among the masses, notwithstanding the
high doctrinal ideas of any system, the former has
almost exclusive reference to the present life, and
consists in propitiation for the benign influences of
some Being or beings who have power to and otherwise
might bring evil.
Mr. Selby, before quoted, whose opinions are de
serving of the highest consideration from his ability
and recent intimate experience, points hopefully to a
diminishing faith in the efficacy of idols, to the fact
that reversions to idolatry are rare, and declares that
the hope of China, as of every other Empire where
missionaries are labouring, is in the splendid native
workers. To my mind, one of the great obstacles to
the spread of Christianity in China (or anywhere) is the
inconsistent conduct of the representative race, as
regards which, were it politic or judicious, " I could
many a tale unfold," which would kindle surprise,
shame, and indignation in the minds of my readers.
I yearned to instil some elementary notions of the
object of true worship in the mind of the woman in
the pagoda, but being unprovided with S.P.G., C.M.S.,

212 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
or Bible Society publications, indeed at that time
knowing nothing of those great societies which have
such a claim for our support, I distributed a few coins
to the children, and left, probably, in benediction among
them all.
From the top we got an excellent view of the rice
flats and surrounding villages, which, as elsewhere in
the delta, we observed to be all connected with each
other by narrow, slightly-raised granite causeways,
a solid pathway being absolutely necessary when the
fields are flooded at high tides.
The people were friendly enough, and entering the
house of a comparatively well-to-do family I had an
opportunity of observing them at dinner. They were
sitting on stools round a low table upon which was a
mountain of dry steaming rice and two dishes, one
containing pork or fish cut up into little squares, and
the other some sort of pickle, probably cucumber.
Each person had in his left hand a bowl, and in
his right a pair of chop-sticks, which were held between
the first and second, and the second and third fingers.
The bowl, having been filled with rice from the heap,
was held with the left hand close up to the mouth (into
which a piece of meat and pickle had been already
put), and then with astonishing dexterity and rapidity,
working both chop-sticks together, the man shovelled
into his mouth as much rice as it could possibly, at any
rate more than it could conveniently hold, for the
cheeks bulged out like fat dumplings, which gradually
diminished in size as mastication proceeded. Tea
materials were there, as well as a stack of very minute
cups for samshu or rice spirit, but I understand that
Chinamen never drink cold water. What struck me

WHAMPOA 213
most in the matter of Chinese rice at table was the
remarkable softness of the individual grain and dryness
of the collective heap, characteristics which, however
much desired, are not generally present in the case of
rice boiled in England.
After boiling they allow a long time for the moisture
to evaporate, shovelling and lifting the mass about from
time to time during the process.
One drawback to rice as a chief article of diet is
that so much of it has to be eaten in order to secure
the necessary amount of gluten, and that is why
children of rice-consuming countries are pot-bellied.
My awkward attempts to use chop-sticks were
greeted with merry laughter — indeed, I believe that
no European can, except, possibly, some missionaries ;
so at the better sort of tables, when Europeans are ex
pected, spoons and forks are provided.
I had an opportunity during the day of observing
the manufacture of those strange looking yellow cakes,
like cakes of honey-soap, which seemed to be in uni
versal request at all shops and stalls, and which hitherto
I had supposed to be of rice, but now discovered to be
of haricot-bean flour, the sort known in the navy as
" calavances." Through the hole in the upper stone
of a handmill or quern, of the ancient ordinary type,
beans and water are dropped, the result being a milky
pasty stream, which runs into a tub, and is then
boiled, strained, sweetened, and moulded, and painted
with turmeric.
Interesting as were our peregrinations among all
these villages, where, may be, few if any of our
countrymen had ever preceded us, by far the most
interesting feature of the day's excursion was the

214 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
sudden and altogether unexpected opportunity that we
enjoyed of seeing a number of small-footed women,
which never occurred a second time, and which (I am
under an impression) seldom occurs to any naval man.
Turning the street corner of a village, we suddenly
found ourselves close to a number of gaily-attired
ladies, sunning themselves in their narrow little strips
of garden, whom we thus caught, if not exactly nap
ping, certainly on the hop ; for as soon as they realised
the situation, with engaging little screams, either of
real or "with all the prettiness of feigned alarm," and
with the assistance of their indispensable sticks, they
hobbled off to their respective doors, inside which they
hastily retreated, slamming them in our faces, and then,
no doubt, eagerly scrutinising us through peep-holes.
We saw no more of them, but that brief glimpse
was sufficient to impress my memory with an interest
ing picture which is still as vivid as ever.
Chinese females are divided into two sections —
the working classes who do not deform their feet, and
the upper classes who do. Various explanations are
current as to the extraordinary custom of foot-binding,
though it is a very ancient one, vastly more so than
head-shaving and the pigtail, having probably prevailed
since 600 B.C. ; but however it originated, it is due, no
doubt, to the cruel exactions of the ogress Fashion,
which are not altogether unknown elsewhere ; yet the
tightest lacing, the highest heel, the amplest crino
line, the most exaggerated " flower-garden " on a
female head, or the blackest " pot hat " in the hottest
sun on the male, are but insignificant trifles compared
with the odious practice which causes torture for long,
and half cripples a large proportion, that is, many

CHINESE FEMALE FEET
From Life

THE SAME, IN SHOE
From Life

WHAMPOA 215
millions, of the female population of China during the
whole of their lives.
When between six and eight years of age all well
born Chinese girls have their feet bound, for if they
should not, they would not be recognised as ladies
when they grow up, would be unable to get hus
bands, and would be a disgrace to their families ; yet
at home (says Mr. Gowans) after the cruel foot-binding
begins, there can be no gladness in the life of a girl.
Who can wonder at that when one reads the dis
mal and affecting accounts of the tortures that are
undergone during the years that elapse before the
process is complete, a process which distorts and pre
vents the natural growth of the feet.
Nevertheless, remarks Professor Douglas, no mother,
however keen may be her recollection of her sufferings
as a child, however conscious of the ills and incon
veniences arising from her own deformed feet, would
ever dream of interfering to save her child. Fashion
thus, as too often, has obtained a complete ascendency
over common sense, and there is less excuse, because
Chinese women by nature possess small and pretty
feet. By the way, according to Darwinism, surely by
this time Chinese infants should have been coming
into the world with reduced feet ? This seems to
call for explanation.
On the authority of "When I was a Boy in China,"
one lamentable, though not perhaps wonderful result
of foot-compression, is that the feet become so much
smaller and more deformed under the process, that a
girl's shoes have to be made smaller as she grows up,
instead of larger as nature intended.

216 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
When at Canton I availed myself of the oppor
tunity, on the spot, of buying a pair of full-sized
female shoes, because at Hong Kong they were not
then to be had, the soles of which are three and a half
inches. The longer flat-heeled female ones, which
one sees occasionally, are overshoes.
It is encouraging to learn that a Natural Foot
Society exists for the suppression of this hideous cus
tom, which meets with much support, and is spreading,
or was before the present troubles set in ; but as an
amusing illustration that those who live in glass houses
should not throw stones, I lately read an account of a
debate in a missionary school at Hankow upon " Is
tight-lacing worse than foot-binding ? " the verdict
being an unanimous affirmative !
Not long after our return from our successful bill
sticking pidgin, I took part in another of a different
nature, which had a less happy termination.
A cargo boat with five hundred chests of China
cinnamon (Cassia ligned), was passing the mouth of a
creek only four miles from Whampoa, which led to a
large town called Shap-pee, when she was suddenly
pounced upon by river-thieves and hurried away out of
sight up the creek.
Such a proceeding under our very eyes being a
particularly impudent one, we lost no time in despatch
ing a boat expedition, which included seventy Marines,
to recover the property and, if possible, capture the
thieves. Having reached Shap-pee, the Marines were landed
and soon found the cinnamon, which we put into junks
and sent back to Whampoa, at the same time making

WHAMPOA 217
prisoners of and despatching to Canton sixteen elders
of the town, for there seemed to be little doubt about
their connivance at the outrage, which was more likely
to have been perpetrated by amateur than by profes
sional pirates.
Then ensued an unpleasant incident of a sort which
I had very rarely experienced, but it is notorious that
where loot comes in men sometimes lose their heads
and kick over the traces of discipline.
The fragrant bark was being brought down the
creek in small boats, each guarded by a Royal Marine,
one of whom, as he passed the Tribune's pinnace, under
my command anchored as a guard boat, threw us two
or three little bundles, which were quickly eaten up.
That taste of blood must have whet the appetite of
my pinnacemen, for when another boat with a similar
cargo glided by almost touching us they made a rush,
laid hold of her, seized and tore open a chest and
grabbed its contents.
Indignant at so sudden an outbreak of outrageous
conduct, I told my men that they had turned pirates
themselves, and must instantly restore the stolen goods,
but none being forthcoming, I weighed anchor, moved
the boat to the side, and ordered the crew to toe-a-line
on the bank, while the midshipman and coxswain
searched. While the search was in progress some of the men
became obstreperous, mimicking and mocking my
orders. I ordered complete silence, but without avail, so,
aware that vigour and decision were necessary, I at
once made prisoners of all the men who were standing
in the quarter whence the disturbance proceeded, and

218 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
kept them under guard till two gave themselves up.
We then collected the cinnamon from various places
where it was secreted in the boat and men's frocks,
and resumed our position afloat. When we got back
to the ship I was very tired and harassed by the long
day's work, 6 A.M. to 7 P.M., and by the conduct of the
misguided men.
A thorough investigation by the captain, who came
from Canton on purpose, ensued, the result being the
punishment of the two men with 36 lashes each, and of
two more with 28 days' imprisonment.
• • • • • *
Among the features of life at Whampoa, duck-boats
were to me one of the most interesting, and I took an
early opportunity of visiting one of these curious
institutions, which came to an anchor, or rather made
fast to a pole stuck in the mud in the neighbourhood.
It was forty-five feet long by ten or twelve broad. On
each side were low galleries uncovered but protected
by netting,1 and amidships a high roofed house com
municating with the galleries and divided longitudinally,
so that the port birds were kept separate from the
starboard. There they went to lay, for the 500 ducks
in this boat were kept almost entirely for eggs.
In duck-boats the afterpart is fitted for the keepers,
who leisurely pole their boat along the creeks and
river-sides, until the tide has sufficiently subsided, when
they come to, and slide a broad sloping ladder or
gangboard over the bow, down which the birds waddle
and grub about in the shallows and mud, or feed on
unhusked rice which is placed on the banks in tubs.
To get them back the duck-herd calls out repeatedly
1 These are often thatched, as in the picture.

DUCK BOAT OF CANTON RIVER

WHAMPOA 219
with a peculiar plaintive cry, or sometimes whistles ;
and when, in about a quarter of an hour, his charges
are all collected in a dense crowd, the ladder is let
down again, and they waddle up in most orderly fashion.
If the birds are dilatory in responding to the summons,
the last duck to come up the ladder gets a smart whack
with a stick, which inculcates habits of celerity.
In 1862, Archdeacon Gray tells us, a typhoon
upset so many duck-boats, that for upwards of a mile
the surface of the river between Canton and Whampoa
was crowded with birds thus released from captivity.
Sometimes planks are placed between the boat and
bank along which they soon learn to pass.
Water snakes were numerous. I watched one
upwards of fifteen feet long, with a head like a sea-
serpent's, swimming past the ship ; and one Sunday
during church service on the Volcano's upper deck (she
was a Factory ship, with a Nasmyth hammer) a snake
crawled unperceived up the ladder, and bit a man's
foot, but fortunately Sunday being " shoe day " no harm
ensued. Ships' accommodation ladders were always on the
starboard side : ordinary traffic steps on the port ; and I
remember being much amused at the answer of a young
Irish midshipman whom Boyle sent to find out whether
the tide was coming in —
" No, sir, the tide is not flowing."
" How do you know ? "
" Please, sir, I looked over the side and I couldn't
see it coming up the accommodation ladder."
At one time I took considerable interest in watching
the operations of a mason bee which selected an old
nail in a chock of wood in a port of the captain's cabin

220 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
to build its curious three-celled nest in. The little fellow's
visits, each time carrying a pellet of wet earth, lasted
only for a minute, and then he flew to shore, 400 yards
away, returning in ten or twelve minutes. What a
number of journeys he must have made before the
chambers were complete, a grub deposited in each,
and the outside one hermetically sealed with what
appeared when finished to be smooth hard red putty !
Though there were thirteen similar ports on the
same side, he never missed the right one ; and it was
a remarkable fact, as show
ing powers of reasoning be
yond mere instinct, that he
was not baulked by the
swinging of the ship at
change of tide, because that
process, as I need scarcely
Cfl.M. explain, completely reversed
the position of the port as
regards the river-side from which he was bringing
his material. It is quite clear that in the animal world there is
no well-defined line of demarcation between reason
and instinct, the two domains overlapping and grading
into each other.
Whether we take High views or Low views, or
regard it with those of an ecclesiastical Gallio, it is
certain that confirmation is an ordinance of the Church
of England on which she lays great stress ; indeed
enjoins upon and requires from her members.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Bishop of
Victoria, Hong Kong, in fulfilment of his episcopal

WHAMPOA 221
duties, came up to Canton in the autumn of 1858 to
confirm young people of both services. His name,
scarcely unfamiliar to Englishmen, was Smith. Not
having had a previous opportunity, I "gave in my
name," and with a number of other candidates from
the ships at Whampoa was conveyed to Canton in a
gunboat, whose name, the Clown, struck me as being
singularly infelicitous for the occasion.
The service was held in a large and well-arranged
building, which had been transformed from a disused
Joss House into a temporary church by "chucking out"
the idols and appurtenances, fitting it up decorously
and dedicating it in proper form.
The policy of doing all that under the very eyes of
a population whom we wished to conciliate was cer
tainly questionable, yet we had recognition of it, at
least in principle, in the direction of Pope Gregory to
St. Augustine : " If the temples of the idols are well
built, it is requisite that they be converted from the
worship of devils to the service of the true God."
On the other hand Dr. R. N. Cust, a really great
authority on missionary work, assures us that to con
vert a heathen into a Christian place of worship, is one
of those acts which may be resented for centuries.
Solvetur confirmendo !
Before the confirmation service began there was an
adult baptism impressively conducted by the Rev. Mr.
Huleatt, chaplain to the forces, who wore a Crimean
medal on his stole, and then the bishop gave his
address and laid hands on two hundred of us, officers,
men, and boys.

CHAPTER VIII
A SHORT BUT EVENTFUL CHAPTER  CHANGE OF
CAPTAINS  FAREWELL TO CHINA
October 1858 brought important changes for the
Tribune, as she, being no longer required in Chinese
waters, was ordered to return to the Pacific, and Cap
tain Edgell, whose services had been recognised by the
bestowal of a second-class commodore's broad pen
dant, left for the East Indies to join his new command,
the Chesapeake. He had been an admirable naval com
mandant and commissioner at Canton for nearly a year,
a special post of the sort for which he was well fitted.
We moved once more down to Hong Kong, and
the officers rowed him to the mail steamer amid part
ing cheers from the crew and the regrets of us all, his
last official act being to read the commission of his
successor, Captain Geoffrey Phipps Hornby, who had
just arrived from England. There was a third Chris
tian name which its owner sensibly ignored as being
redundant ; besides, he was not quite the sort of man
who cared about being known as a Thomas.
As schoolboys quickly take stock of a new master,
and quickly gauge his capabilities, so do a ship's com
pany a new captain ; and in this case the verdict was
not long in forthcoming, that this tallish, slightly-built
young man of thirty-three, with chestnut hair, know
ing hazel eye, and quiet, firm, composed high-toned

FAREWELL TO CHINA 223
manner, knew his work. He did exceptionally well,
but how, has always puzzled me and excited my wonder,
for, apart from his midshipman's, he had had next to
no experience. Entering the navy in 1837, he got
his acting-lieutenant's commission in 1844 just after
" passing," by a death vacancy, and had a couple of
years' service in a frigate, which must have been about
the sum total of his lieutenant's experience as a " watch-
keeper ; " for the rest of his time at sea in that rank,
two years and three months, was passed in the capacity
of flag-lieutenant to his father in the Asia two-decker,
of which ship, again by death vacancy, he became
commander on February 18, 1850. For the next
sixteen months, until the ship was paid off, he held the
appointment, but served no more as a commander, as
he was " posted " from half-pay by interest in December
1852. So, prior to his appearance on the Tribune's
quarter-deck, he had never held independent command
of any sort, and, moreover, had passed the previous
seven and a half consecutive years on half-pay. Bitterly
did he feel and complain of such a long period of
forced inaction, he told me. Yet he had every detail,
low and aloft, at his finger-ends, and not only revealed
himself as an organiser, a disciplinarian, a leader of
men, but curiously enough as a "sailor-man." The
truth is, he was a sailor by intuition, it having been
born in him ; moreover he had profited by whatever
experience he might have passed through fivefold
more than the average man would have done. He
was certainly one of the many prizes amid many
blanks which the lottery of promotion by interest
secured for the navy.

224 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
We had not quite seen the last of Whampoa, for
before setting out on our long and stormy voyage
across the North Pacific, it was thought prudent to
avail ourselves of Cowper's Dock at Whampoa for the
execution of various repairs. We had great difficulty
in getting into it, and were obliged to land all the guns
and shot, cables and provisions, to get out the mizzen-
mast, to fill up the screw-well with bamboos, and to
sling tanks under each quarter and pump them out,
but, even so, her heel would only just scrape over
the sill.
Trade, suspended for so long, had begun to revive,
and we found four tea-ships, Cairngorm, Morning Star,
Chieftain, and Lammermuir, laden with the first Congou
of the season, and ready to start for the race home
ward. Of course one might look in vain now for the
old familiar sight of tea-ships " backing and filling " up
and down the Canton River.
The competition between rival firms, and rival
ships of the same firm, to land the first cargo of tea of
the season in London or Liverpool was tremendous,
but no ship was allowed to leave Whampoa till she
had received "the grand chop," or Chinese Customs
Clearance, which had to come through the hands of
Consul Allcock at Canton. On the present occasion
Jardine's people (I suppose by a cumshaw, a species of
palm-oil to which Chinese officials were particularly
amenable) had managed to get the Cairngorms chop
without troubling the consul at all, to the envy and
consternation of the other ships, over which she would
thus gain an important advantage.
To give an idea of the magnitude of Jardine and
Co.'s operations, I may say that they sent in a claim of

FAREWELL TO CHINA 225
two million dollars to our Government for destruction
of their property at Canton during the bombardment
and disturbances of 1856.
Allcock, however, was one too many for these
adroit gentlemen, for as soon as he got wind of the
little manoeuvre, he sent an express to Hornby to beg
him to detain the Cairngorm.
I was accordingly despatched to the Cairngorm — a
magnificent clipper of 936 tons — and found her
" sheeting home " preparatory to weighing ; but when
I informed her " old man " of the nature of my mission
he was much disconcerted, and declared that the delay
would make a difference of thousands of pounds to the
owners. However, he made the best of the situation,
clewed up, and hospitably entertained myself and my
boat's crew, after which I went aloft and examined his
"Cunningham's self-reefing topsail apparatus," a new
invention which was much in use at that time.
Next day all the ships got away.
I took a corresponding opportunity of inspecting a
splendid new American clipper, 217 feet over all, one
of a sort called " pickpocket ships," that is, so fine
both forward and aft that they would hardly carry
their register, whereas the old style of tea-ship some
times carried 300 tons in excess of it.
While we were in dock there was a naval execution,
a Marine being hung at the fore-yard arm of the Hesper
for the murder of her engineer. She went to sea for
the purpose with detachments of several ships' com
panies, Captain M'Cleverty of the Cambrian being in
special command.
The Canton River is a river of currents, cross
currents, and eddies, which are very puzzling. On
P

226 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
many occasions I observed that ships swung to the
flood while the surface current was plainly still ebbing,
for the first of the flood being denser, would be lower.
Our decked bumboats, when waiting for their time to
come alongside, had a simple but ingenious device for
keeping their position without anchoring by towing
a basket astern while under easy sail. If the boat forged
ahead, they checked its way by allowing the basket to
fill ; if it lagged astern, they neutralised the action by
means of a jerk-line.
From the first I was impressed with the celerity with
which Chinese vessels of all sorts answer their helms.
That is accounted for by the fact that their rudders are
proportionately much longer than those of European
construction. A long rudder, however, though it pro
vides rudder power or leverage at a distance from the
boat, which is what is aimed at, has its disadvantages.
It is more difficult to work, and tends to check the
boat's way — objections which are in great degree
obviated by holes as shown in the illustration.
We again returned to Hong Kong, completed our
refit, shipped 164 Marines, including seven officers, for
British Columbia, and bade farewell to China, where
my last undertaking was to arrange for the erection in
the Happy Valley Cemetery of a granite monument in
memory of the many lamented shipmates whom we
left under its soil, a picture of which appears at the
end of this volume.
I am not surprised to find from Captain Hornby's
"Biography," pp. 54-56 (Blackwood, 1896), that he
was disappointed with his new ship when he had got
her to sea and began that thirty-three days' battling

CHINESE RUDDER, RAISED

P. 226

FAREWELL TO CHINA 227
with adverse gales and currents which terminated at
Nagasaki. He says she is a " queer craft " with " help
less men," who are " singularly adrift " ; that the first
lieutenant is " very young," and " has merely thought
of keeping the ship nice," and that he "despairs of
ever getting things done man-o'-war fashion."
That the first lieutenant was very young cannot be
denied, but that he had merely thought of keeping the
ship nice was a hasty and misleading reflection on an
able and hardworking officer.
The truth is that the state of the Tribune at that
time was neither the fault of the first lieutenant nor that
of the men, but was the inevitable result of the special
and peculiar circumstances under which the previous
eighteen months had been passed ; during which time
the crew had been broken up into detachments, and
had no opportunity for the ordinary routine and exer
cises of a man-of-war. They were, moreover, enfeebled
by heat, malaria, and mosquitoes, the sick-list for a
long time having ranged between forty and sixty.
Throughout the long spell at Whampoa, Captain
Edgell was absent, and had left injunctions that there
was to be no drill or evolutions of any sort aloft, and
that the men were to be kept out of the sun as much as
possible, with the view of keeping them as fit as possible
for boat service and landing parties. In short, the
ship was disorganised, and very naturally so, but our
new, zealous young captain in his anxiety to have a
smart ship, did not realise or make sufficient allowance
for the conditions under which he assumed command.
He expected too much at first, and although his high
character and exceptional professional ability were
fully apparent and freely admitted all along, there was

228 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
undoubtedly a strong feeling of discontent and resentment
among the ship's company at the " rosining up" that they
got after he joined, especially during the voyage across
the Northern Pacific, which found expression shortly
after we reached Vancouver by a very large number
(about forty) of desertions. Meantime Boyle's position
was not a very enviable, nor his lot a very happy one,
for on his head was continually visited the brunt of
many shortcomings, of which, however well aware, he
was powerless under the circumstances to remedy as
quickly as was expected of him. However, he did all
that he possibly could by unremitting hard work in
loyally and zealously seconding his captain. His duty
was ever uppermost in his thoughts, and for months he
scarcely ever left the ship for relaxation.
The captain, on his part, never spared himself, and
as proof of his indomitable energy I may say that in
the middle of the night he himself during my watch
went up on the mizzen-topsail yard during a gale to help
the " lambies " to get their reef in, for the sail had
" taken charge " — the first and only time I ever saw a
captain go " above a dead-eye."
As we neared the coast of Luzon, at about six miles
distance, a dove, a wasp, and some butterflies settled on
the rigging and remained for several hours.
I never made so disastrous a passage. After seven
teen days' struggle with adverse gales and currents we
actually found ourselves nearer to our point of departure
than we had been on the tenth day. The ship laboured
heavily and leaked in every seam, and we were con
tinually employed in repairing damages to sails, ropes,
and rigging ; and the mainmast was so defective that
we had to fish it by cutting up and hollowing the

FAREWELL TO CHINA 229
spare maintopmast into " fishes." Then we always had
between sixty and seventy men on the sick-list, and
seven died.
One morning, in a heavy sea, a man fell overboard
from the lee fore chains in Hamilton Dunlop, the fourth
lieutenant's watch, a good sailor and a capital fellow,
who instantly ordered "helm hard-a-lee, let go life
buoy, up mainsail, down lifeboat." The cutter reached
the buoy in seven minutes, just in the nick of time to
save the man from falling off it from exhaustion.
For the eye of old sailing men I must here say a
word about Hornby's great feat of setting up the lower
"gging twice during this part of our stormy passage,
when it stretched so dangerously that we were obliged
to try first swifting in and then setting up.
In time we managed to get out into the Pacific,
passing just south of the Bashee Isles, beating up
northwards by the Loochos, and at last, to our great
joy, sighted the southern coast of Japan. Thankful
indeed we were on December 30, 1858, the thirty-third
day of a difficult and stormy voyage under sail with a
sprung mainmast, leaky ship, lumbered decks, and sickly
crew, to cast anchor in the quiet, safe, and beautiful
harbour of Nagasaki.

PART III
HOMEWARDS BY JAPAN AND VANCOUVER
ISLAND

CHAPTER I
NAGASAKI — "ADVANCE JAPAN A NATION THOROUGHLY
IN EARNEST"
" All men do not the looking in here '' — such was the
verbatim and amusing notice which on the occasion of the
send-off of a new Japanese battleship from Newcastle-on-
Tyne I saw posted over the door of her galley. There
were hundreds of visitors, prying into every corner, but
the official in charge of the culinary department had
evidently determined that he would not be incommoded.
Such, too, was the national policy of isolation which
before we touched on its shores had been rigorously
carried out in the country of the Rising Sun, " no
looking in here " having been allowed for more than
two centuries.
As a rule all Orientals hate progress, but Japan
furnishes the proverbial exception ; for surely, in the
whole history of nations there is no more remarkable
phenomenon than Japan's sudden bound from the
nadir of exclusiveness to the zenith of adaptiveness.1 I
always consider myself fortunate in having enjoyed an
1 In happy illustration of the adaptiveness of the Japanese, and as a fact
for those who " do not believe in missionaries," it may be usefully noted that
thirty years ago, the Japanese determined that there should be no Christianity
in the land, and the penal laws making it death to be a Christian were all
renewed. Now, all religions are registered and protected, and all Japanese
are free by law to follow their consciences. Up to a few years ago, when
Christian meetings were held, stones would be thrown and interruptions were
common. Now (1902) the more full and direct the Gospel message, the
better the attention paid to the preacher. 333

234 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
opportunity, brief and transient though it was, of
visiting Japan before it was "opened to the public,"
and like all the world brought within range of the ticket
office — that " common denominator " to the level of
which everything has been reduced.
I mean that now if a man wants to go anywhere,
distance, locality, antiquity, antecedents, sacredness need
not deter him. He simply has to consider whether he
can afford so many days', weeks', or months' luxury,
and buy a ticket or not accordingly. " First return "
Bexhill, Jerusalem, Nagasaki, Canton, Sydney, or South
Pole (will be open shortly).
On that account, though it has since been so fully
described by so many able pens, I think my few simple
reminiscences of those earlier times may not be devoid
of interest : for though it is true that the Elgin Treaty
had been concluded shortly before our arrival, scarcely
a symptom, so far, existed of that marvellous trans
formation scene which was to astonish the world.
Exclusiveness had been most carefully enforced ;
safeguards against intercourse posted like sentinels
around the shores ; improvements in shipbuilding
forbidden ; no foreign vessels allowed in the ports with
the exception of a limited number of Chinese junks and
one Dutch ship from Batavia yearly ; foreigners could
not land anywhere, and even native castaways on
foreign shores were not permitted to return. The
object of the annual Dutch visitor was to communicate
with and bring merchandise to a little Dutch colony of
traders on Deshima, a very small island in the harbour
of Nagasaki, where, curiously enough, they had been
allowed to establish themselves, but were never allowed
to set foot on the mainland (except a deputation once a

NAGASAKI 235
year with presents), being obliged to content themselves,
as the only variety in the monotony of their lives, and
as the only means of external communication, with the
arrival of their yearly ship.
Deshima was only half a mile from the Tribune's
anchorage ; and by our time the Dutch prisoners were
free, and English trade had set in, though so far it was
chiefly monopolised by Dent, the great Hong Kong house,
whose agent I saw selling tons of cloves from Borneo.
The thermometer at 40 F., with occasional snow
and sleet, after so long a spell in the heat of the Canton
River, was quite a phenomenal experience.
On landing with the captain and four others to pay
our respects to the governor, I was at once impressed
by the cleanliness, order, and neatness of the town,
with its wide streets and airy, one-storied houses, lined
inside by thick soft mats.
On nearing the governor's residence, while I was
calling the captain's attention to the strange sort of
shoes worn by the natives, I noticed, to my amusement,
a group calling each other's attention to the strange
sort of hats worn by us, cocked hats in fact, wonder
being depicted on their countenances !
Indoors Japanese wear no shoes, and I at once
observed the wide gap existing between the great and
next toe, which arises from the thong which fastens
the sandal to the foot.
A host of officials received us, and bowingly ushered
us through long matted passages leading to a small room
into the presence of a little, intelligent-looking, plainly
dressed man.
" This governor," said the interpreter ; on which
we bowed low, and everybody else bowed low, and in

236 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
the middle of all the bowing the governor led the way
into a large room furnished with two long tables
covered with white cloths, the windows being made of
white oiled paper which shed a dim, if not religious
light on the scene. The ceremony, which proved to
be a reception followed by a banquet, was opened by
the interpreter's kneeling down and kissing the floor
in front of our host ; after which all sat down, we at
•one table by ourselves, and he, with his principal
officials at the other table by themselves, the interpreter
remaining on his knees and bowing low whenever he
spoke to his dread superior.
The Japanese excel in formalities. Complete prostra
tion before all officials entitled to it was the rule, rigidly
carried out indoors as I often saw, but in the street the
preparatory movement indicating a plunge into the sea
of etiquette was gracefully checked by a gesture on the
part of him to whom the mark of respect was due.
The conversation was very interesting to me, be
cause the questions asked by the Japanese were so in
telligent, and showed not only so much information,
but a desire for so much more than I had expected
from a people whom we had been accustomed to look
upon as semi-barbaric and rigidly " self-contained."
I began to suspect from what I had seen and heard,
even in such a short time, that these people were in
reality highly civilised, the experience inducing the re
flection that civilisation does not necessarily consist in
conformation to European manners and customs —
indeed I now quite grieve to learn that European
is the Japanese official costume, and to see pictures of
young Japan in pot-hats, trousers, and elastic-side boots.
To resume : while the conversation was in progress

NAGASAKI 237
an array of servants appeared, each bearing tea and
pipes on a handsome tray, which turned out to be the
prelude to a sumptuous entertainment, though to our
tastes one which began at the wrong end.
After pipes, more trays with sponge cakes and sweet
meats, then more with puddings, cakes, &c, and then
a succession of trays with soups, stews, ragouts, and
made-dishes of various sorts, all nicely served in china
and japan ware, each bowl being covered, and holding
just enough for one person. A petit-verre of sakee, a
rice liqueur, completed the feast, when we took our
leave amid more bowings and backings.
I spent the rest of the day in walking and looking about
me, much that I saw being most interesting and curious.
The weather was cold, and the general appearance
of the people distinctly baggy, with a prevailing habit
of withdrawing their arms from the short sleeves of the
outer robe, and doubling them close into the side
underneath it, which left the sleeves sticking out at a
pronounced angle in a ridiculous fashion. The sleeve,
too, formed a convenient receptacle for a store of little
squares of soft paper, the equivalent of our pocket-
handkerchiefs, each square being used but once and
then thrown away.
Two men who were walking about with their heads
completely concealed by inverted baskets attracted my
attention, for they stopped in front of houses, and played
soft plaintive airs on flutes which were passed up under
neath the baskets, receiving a trifle in return. These
men were lepers and not allowed to show their faces.
Sponge cakes appeared to be in great request, and
were sold everywhere, even alongside our ship, but for
our purchases anywhere we could not get Japanese

238 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
money, being obliged to provide ourselves with paper
currency, issued expressly for European use, as the
people would not allow their coin to be polluted by
passing through foreign hands. We took our dollars to
the Russian bazaar, where we exchanged them at the
Government money changers for their equivalent
in notes, but dollars alone were received, and by
weight, by those money changers.
Some of the Chinese tendency to contrarieties evi
dently existed, as women of the higher classes shaved
off their eyebrows and stained their teeth black, and I
noticed that carpenters drew their planes towards them,
and tailors stitched from them.
Rice seemed to be the staple food, and chop-sticks
were universal.
When we got back to our frigate, we found awaiting
us the oddest and most unexpected sequel of the
governor's feast in the form of its remains, which
had been sent off in little covered laquered bowls. It
appeared that it was customary in Japan for guests to
pocket what they could not eat, of which we were igno
rant, though even had we been aware of what was ex
pected, I do not see how, with the limited pocket
accommodation of naval uniforms, we could possibly
have achieved compliance.
On a subsequent occasion I was sent to Govern
ment House to obtain permission for the burial of
a deceased Marine. First of all I went to the School
of Interpreters, which the Japanese had lately estab
lished (a symptomatic step, a shadow of important com
ing events), and applied for one of its alumni, who,
when he learned where we were going, took a long
time to prepare himself, trimming his hair, donning

NAGASAKI 239
his smartest, and finally arming himself with a huge
Anglo-Dutch dictionary.
I did not at first see how such a dictionary was to
help us, but soon found out that most of the officials
and merchants in Nagasaki, in consequence of the old
Batavian trade, spoke more or less Dutch, and when
they could not understand what we said, we pointed
out the English word in the book, and they read off
the corresponding Dutch.
Then we sallied forth on our mission, through the
clean, wide, police-unfrequented ways, little boys and
girls, from street, shop, and private house, from door
and window, continually crying out after us, " Bouton
Kysi," " button catchee," for there existed among the
youth of Nagasaki a universal desire to possess uniform
buttons, of which until the whole available stock in the
ship was exhausted I used to take a few in my pocket
to gratify the rosy-cheeked, black-eyed, merry, young
rascals. Strange to say the rage for buttons was not
confined to the town, but had spread far and wide, for
on entering any village miles away among the hills,
or quiet shepherd's hut in a retired valley, where
perhaps no foreigner had ever preceded me, my first
greeting was " Bouton Kysi," even little children in
arms lisping it out almost instinctively.
My interpreter and guide walks in front of me —
I say walks, but shuffles would be more descriptive, as
the particularly inconvenient arrangement of his shoes
admit only of that style of locomotion. He is clothed
in a grey outer garment not unlike a short dressing-
gown, loose, baggy trousers, which might most aptly
be termed " inexpressibles " as they terminate mysteri
ously in stockings, being, in fact, loose trousers above

240 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
and tight stockings below. The poorer classes are not
allowed to wear trousers, only loin-cloths. In his
girdle are two short swords (probably dummies), the
envy of all " one-swordy " men, and still more of those
who are not entitled to any swords at all. Though
bare-headed, his " horn is exalted " by a liberal appli
cation of an unctuous compound which moulds the
hair into a compact upright mass. My friend is
evidently a swell, but his shuffling gait makes him
as ridiculous in my eyes as my cocked hat probably
does me in his. Now and then when we meet another
official I have to stop while bows, astounding to be
hold, are exchanged between the two, and prescribed
words of salutation, both looking dreadfully in earnest.
Arrived at the governor's, I am shown into the
waiting room, where I walk up and down, while sub
ordinates and hangers-on come up, feel the quality of
my coat, and pull gently at my buttons, wishing no
doubt to possess one, but this cluster of satellites is
soon dispersed by the appearance of a high officer,
sent by the governor to find out what I want. Before
this great man my interpreter instantly prostrates
himself as flat as a pancake, but soon recovers himself
as far as his knees, which is his posture during the
whole of the forthcoming audience.
I had already had opportunities, during interviews
between our captain and their officials, of being struck
with the tact and well - bred consideration of the
Japanese, for on such occasions they never plunge at
once in medias res, but engage in a little preliminary
conversation on other topics, so I am careful that,
from myself at any rate, they shall not form an un
favourable estimate of foreign manners.

NAGASAKI 241
All Japanese, high and low, at all events at Nagasaki,
when talking to strangers or among themselves, have a
remarkable habit of drawing in their breath through
the teeth while they speak, the sound marking a sort
of break between the sentences, and they also keep
up a rapid affirmative grunt while they are listening,
to show that they understand what is being said.
During my audience very small cups of delicately
flavoured Pekoe are brought in, and at its conclusion
the high official shuffles to the door to see me off,
where we exchange the lowest possible bows.
Having thus obtained permission for the interment
in the Russian cemetery, which was situated in the
middle of a Japanese one, in a romantic little valley,
on the west shore opposite the town, we landed the
funeral party, when to our surprise we were received
by three Buddhist priests in robes who preceded the
Rev. J. J. Balleine on the way to the grave, intoning
all the time a service of their own which they con
tinued while ours was in progress, finally retiring with
much tinkling of little bells and leaving us to finish
in peace. The experience was most novel, and in
spite of the occasion, ludicrous, there being something
which touched one's sense of humour considerably in
finding ourselves the helpless subjects of a sort of
opposition burial service, conducted with such strange
gestures and accompaniments.
Desirous later on of seeing something more of Bud
dhist worship as it is found in Japan, I shaped course
for a solitary temple which I spied from the ship, a dis
tant glistening speck in a green setting of coniferous ver
dure. My way after clearing the town led along a
small winding path through woods and along hill-sides
Q

242 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
where quiet people were digging their patches of ter
raced ground, some of the hills being terraced to the
very top. Following the well-beaten path through the
trees, I had no difficulty in finding the temple on a
steep hill-side, whence I caught a fine view of the
Tribune in the distance beyond the city, and fell into
a reverie at all the events in my life with which she was
connected, which was, not unpleasantly, disturbed by
the sound of intonations from within. Entering the
temple, I found a man and wife kneeling before
the huge idol at their devotions, which consisted
in " vain repetitions " (St. Matt. vi. 7) of its name
Namona Horigneeko (or what I supposed to be its
name), sometimes in unison, at others, the woman's
moaning suppliant wail alone being audible, which,
ceasing suddenly, gave place to the man's deep bass, but
still to the same wearisome refrain, "Namona Horig
neeko," " Namona Horigneeko " — that and nothing
more. Thus they chanted their barren lay until I lost
sense of the lapse of time ; but so monotonous was
the performance, that I was not at all surprised that
the canon in residence thought it necessary to have
recourse to an occasional violent beating of a gong,
with the double object probably of rousing up the god
and keeping his devotees awake.
This priest was good enough to write the name of
the god for me, and as I returned I met people from
time to time wending their way to the temple, and re
peating in a monotonous chant their everlasting Namona
Horigneeko. Allured by the prospect of shooting pheasants in
their aboriginal state, four of us landed, St. John the
marine (who insisted upon being called Sinjun) and I,

NAGASAKI 243
under guidance of an intelligent youth, going in one
direction, Lieut. Downes, R.N., and B. in another.
Downes, it is true, succeeded in bagging a brace of
pheasants, but having strayed outside the zone to which
Europeans were restricted, he and his companion were
taken prisoners and ignominiously confined in " choky "
till next day.
The gallant marine "and I shot no game, and saw
none, but followed our guide with confidence engen
dered by the encouraging intelligence with which he
responded to the repeated signs, gestures, and sounds
intended to represent the nature of our quest ; until,
after many miles up hill and down dale, he came to a
halt and smilingly pointed to a few crows in a tree !
Sinjun, giving vent to expressions which fall oftener
on the ear than on the eye, was for instant execution,
but I advised a brief respite as the more prudent course,
and lunch in the meantime ; so we sat down under the
tree and punctured the tin of potted meat with which
we had provided ourselves, when off it went with a
pistol-like report and offensive whiff, reducing us to
biscuit alone, by which I felt that our guide's prospects
were not being improved.
But where is that intelligent youth ? He is neither
visible nor audible. With a prophetic forecast of his
impending fate, or possibly scared by the mysterious
pop of the meat tin, he has thought prudent to decamp,
and as he knows the bolt-holes, and we don't, we decide
not to attempt a fruitless chase, but to retrace our route,
which we do without much difficulty.
On arrival on board we find yet a third party of
sportsmen, who had failed to shoot any ducks but had
lodged a considerable number of shot in the arm of one

244 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
of their boat's crew, bearing, oddly enough, the signi
ficant name of Fowls ! We are thankful to this party,
because they divert from our heads some portion of
the current of our messmates' chaff.
On 1 2th January Nagasaki was en fete for some
reason, shops shut, every one in their best, two-swordy
men much in evidence, and amusements in full swing,
including peripatetic theatricals, which we had an
opportunity of seeing to advantage, as the governor
reserved open-air seats for us.
First there was a procession of trade representatives,
each man carrying a huge umbrella-shaped banner, on
which was depicted the sort of goods sold by the class
which he represented. Then appeared people with a
small, portable stage, which was prepared, scenery and
all, in five minutes.
The actors were three in number, never more and
never fewer, two boys and one girl, each splendidly
attired. In all performances of the sort that we saw
the plot and style of acting were the same, being a
variety of manoeuvres to the twanging of a guitar illus
trative of love-making and flirting, the finale being a
grand and complicated flourish of fans. Then the
shows moved on to the next street, the trio being
carried on men's backs. There was, too, a large model
of a Chinese junk, on wheels, and a number of very
small boys cleverly dressed as Chinese mandarins in
large spectacles.
Of all Japanese institutions surely the most curious
was that of espionage, which was a recognised and highly
complicated system of universal application, the office
of spy being a government appointment. Our friend
the governor was perfectly well aware that spies existed

BRITISH

COLUMBI

I. Cape Fl att ery. 7. Nanaim o .
2-Sooke. Inlet. 8. HoRnby.I-
3. Race Rocks. 9. Tribune Bay
4-. Esquimalt 10. Cape Mud ce. .
S.Victoria . II. Valoes.I.
6. ST Juan. I 12. Cowitchin Harbour.

VANCOUVER ISLAND

A 244

NAGASAKI 245
whose special business it was to dog his official steps
and make reports upon his sayings and doings and the
daily events of his life. Then, the whole city was
divided into districts, sub-districts, and sub-sub-districts,
throughout the whole of which the spy system ramified
with such minuteness that half the city population may
be said to have been engaged in watching the other
half ; and still further to complicate matters, there were
spies upon spies.
On the whole it appeared to me that the governor's
lot was not a very happy one, especially when one re
members that he was held personally responsible for
everything that happened, and would have been obliged
to terminate his official as well as his mundane tenure
of life by the " Happy Despatch " (in the art of
which he had been instructed as part of his education),
in the event of any catastrophe within his jurisdiction
which he failed to deal with satisfactorily. For in
stance, during our stay a bad fire occurred, supposed
to be the result of a disorderly outbreak on the part
of foreign sailors, which might lead, we were informed,
in the event of the governor's failure to bring the
offenders to justice, to his being obliged to " rip him
self up," for, of course, the affair could not be kept
secret as the spies were bound to report it all.
After a stay of seventeen days, all too short for
me, during which we had gammoned the bowsprit, set
up the rigging, and fished the dangerously defective
mainmast, we set sail for a long and stormy voyage
north-eastward across the North Pacific for Vancouver
Island.

CHAPTER II
VANCOUVER ISLAND
The transition navy (1854-64) had great advan
tages and attractions, and retrospectively is of consider
able interest, inasmuch as upon the decks of its ships,
of which the Tribune was a typical representative, the
Old and the New were united for a time in friendly
embrace, before bidding each other farewell for ever.
As a sailing-frigate we had crossed the Northern
Pacific, and now transformed into a steam-frigate, with
funnel up, propeller down, and engines at work, in
good spirits at the termination of our stormy voyage
and at the prospect of new experiences in lands where
in not one of us had ever set foot, we were stemming
the bright waters of Juan de Fuca Straits. On our
starboard hand the lofty snow-capped mountains of
Washington territory tower in massive grandeur ; on
our port, the boldly picturesque outlines of Vancouver
Island, whose shores appear densely wooded with
coniferous growth almost to the beach. Antipodes,
this, to the ancient, densely populated civilisations
whence we had come ; for here, unfettered and un
restrained, wild Nature has had her own way, and
except to a few dusky, half-naked, and decidedly dirty
bipeds of unknown origin, who prowl about the shores
and silent forest recesses, has kept her solemn secrets
for ages to herself. But now she must give them up,
946

VANCOUVER ISLAND 247
for sights are to be seen and sounds heard of ominous
import. The white man is coming, has come indeed,
with all the evil and all the good that he brings with
him wherever he goes, and soon, with his axe, low will
he lay many a native giant of the forest, and with his
rum and his diseases, even lower than it already is,
many a native soul.
But he will bring, too, a great Antidote for the
healing of the nations, and after a time the last state
of that soul shall be better than the first.
Senhor Juan de Fuca, whose real name was
Valerianos, a Greek pilot, who held office in the
Spanish- American colonies, was sent in 1592 by the
Viceroy of Mexico to the west coast of North America
to search for water communication with the Atlantic,
when he discovered the straits which bear his name,
as well as the magnificent island, 278 miles long by
40 to 50 miles broad, and 9000 feet high at the loftiest
peaks, now called after Captain John Vancouver, R.N.,
who visited it in 1792 and explored the straits.
Captain Cook, however, certainly coasted along the
west coast of Vancouver Island and touched at Nootka
Sound in 1778, when voyaging northward from the
Sandwich Islands, and actually sighted the cape mark
ing the entrance to the straits, which he called Cape
Flattery, a name which has never been altered, but
he failed to detect the real character of the opening
itself. "It is," he says in his "Voyages," vol. ii. p. 260,
"in this very latitude that geographers have placed the
pretended strait of Juan de Fuca, but we saw nothing
of it, nor is there the least probability that ever such a
thing existed."

248 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
The great navigator's confident tone on that occa
sion, as being an example of the exception which
proves the rule of his general accuracy, is noteworthy.
In 1789 Captain Kendrick, an American, sailed
into Juan de Fuca Straits and up through what we
now call the Gulf of Georgia and Queen Charlotte's
Sound into the Pacific, thus being the first to make
known the real character of those waters, and to
establish the entity of the superb island which they
separate from the continent. The first settlement on
Vancouver Island was by the Hudson's Bay Company
in 1843, but with very few exceptions, from that date
till up to within three or four years before our arrival, the
only intercourse with a land of such potential resources
seems to have been through a small number of skin
and fur trading vessels.
We had no charts, or at any rate none that were of
much use, those that we had having probably been
made by Captain Kellet, R.N., in 1847 ; but in 1858
a complete and thorough survey had been started by
Captain G. H. Richards, R.N., of the Plumper (the
future Hydrographer), which lasted for six years, and
shadows of the future importance of Vancouver Island
and its value to the Empire were being already pro
jected across its splendid mountains, forests, harbours,
lakes, fisheries, and coal riches.
Rounding the Race Rocks in smooth water, after a
month's solitary buffeting, during which we were once
for seven consecutive days without sights, and found
the ship at last no less than 120 miles ahead of her
dead reckoning, our sense of the pleasant prospect of a
little companionship was gratified by the sight of two
of her Majesty's ships at anchor in fisquimalt, the

VANCOUVER ISLAND 249
snug little harbour used even then exclusively for the
navy, though yet displaying none of the accessories,
buildings, institutions, fortifications, and docks which
now make it so valuable a rendezvous and base for our
Pacific Squadron.
The ships were the Satellite (Captain Prevost), a
lovely large screw-corvette, and the Plumper aforesaid.
Esquimalt, which has no connection whatever with
Esquimaux (as some erroneously suppose), requires
accent on the second syllable, and the last one to be
pronounced in the same way as the product which —
not always — forms the principal ingredient in British
beer. When ships from different parts of the world meet
each other there is always an interesting time in
looking up old shipmates, and re-uniting ties and
friendships long suspended, ages and ranks having
meantime greatly changed. Beardless and distinctly
larky middies of ten years ago now come across each
other as staid first lieutenants ; the young officer of
your watch in your first ship is now captain of that
fine frigate ; the small second-class boy, who acted as
your servant years ago, makes himself known to you
as the bearded bo'sun's mate or stalwart coxswain
of the barge ; and with all, you have a crack about old
times and that " last ship," which was always the
smartest that ever floated. Among old men-o'-war's
men the last ship was the ship, where if you had only
been you could have seen things done in the smartest
possible way in the shortest possible time ; much in the
same way as, in the angling districts of Scotland, on
arrival at a fishing inn, " last Tuesday " was always the
day when the " gentleman from Edinburgh " made that

250 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
famous creel which you fail ignominiously to approach.
I never succeeded in overtaking that phantom angler,
by-the-bye, who on the west coast became "the
gentleman from Glasgow."
To resume : landing at Esquimalt I found a small
jetty, twelve little houses, or shanties, four being liquor
shops , where all drinks were retailed at one price —
a bit, sixpence each ; and a humble place of enter
tainment kept by " Rough and Ready " (his real name
being unknown), where you could get shelter, hot
cocoa, and a " shoreboat." A road (unmetalled) led
through the forest to the town two miles distant.
The scant history of Vancouver Island during the
first half of the nineteenth century was intimately
connected with the Hudson's Bay Company, those
famous monopolists who " were first organised in
1670 by Prince Rupert and seventeen noblemen and
gentlemen for importing into Great Britain furs and
skins obtained by barter from the Indians of North
America," whose reign (with a variation) lasted till
1869, when they ceded their territorial possessions to
the British Government for .£300,000 and permission
to retain their forts and other privileges.
Those forts were — more or less — fortified posts,
and since 1843 one had marked the site of the
present (1901) flourishing city of Victoria, with its
24,000 inhabitants, cathedral, public and private build
ings, factories, opera-house, and railway stations ;
which at the time of our visit was only an embryo
town of less than 2000 : so much, indeed, was the fort
identified with the town that we were accustomed to
hear the latter called "the Fort" by all except new
comers.

VANCOUVER ISLAND 251
In 1849 Vancouver Island was made a Crown
Colony and was leased to the Company, its old masters,
for ten years, then remained isolated till 1866, when it
was united with British Columbia, Victoria being fixed as
the capital of that province, which joined the Canadian
Confederation in 1871. In 1859, therefore, when we
appeared on the scene, the mighty status of the Com
pany as lords of the land, though their interest was
still paramount throughout the trading regions of
British North America, had sunk to the level of that of
a mere private firm. The first Governor of Vancouver
was Douglas, who had been a chief factor of the
Company, and although he had ceased connection with
it, some of the stigma and unpopularity inseparable
from the Company in the eyes of the colonists still
clung to its former official. Undeserved or not, the
Hudson's Bay Company certainly had a bad reputa
tion. Douglas was a brave, honest old gentleman,
who had married a native woman, and lived at
Government House. Five-sixths of the white population
of the island were American ; the currency entirely so ;
indeed, except for officials, laws, and a few settlers,
Victoria and district had all the aspect of an Ameri
can colony, and I remember how " riled " the in
habitants were at the governor's refusal to allow them
to fire a salute with public celebration " at meridian "
on Washington's birthday.
The farms were chiefly British, and such names as
Langford, Skinner, M'Kenzie, John Coles, and Judge
Cameron will recall those early days to some of my
readers, maybe.
Victoria is beautifully situated on a bay near the
south-east extremity of the island. Passing the old

252 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
white Fort, where much commerce still goes on, I find
myself in the main street chiefly formed by wooden
houses. The American flavour of the place is at once
apparent 1 by titles of staring restaurants ; by shop
announcements, such as "Gents' Furnishing Goods,"
" Shoe Findings " &c. ; by posters whereon I read
" Startling from Europe, Stocks Tumbling, War Immi
nent ; " by a pervading " twang " ; and by dollars, bits,
and cents everywhere. Up and down the plank side
walks stalk uncouth, unkempt figures in slouch hats
and strange attire whom I instinctively know to be gold-
miners, all looking much bored and out of their ele
ment. Hands in pockets, they lounge and vacantly
stare about, a slight diversion being afforded by our
appearance in uniform, for they successively stop short
as we pass, and deliberately scrutinise us from cap to
boots, and from boots to cap.
They seldom speak, these gold seekers on holiday,
and when they do, in short and jerky remark. They
appear to be waiting for something. They are.
Suddenly I observe men of fierce exterior, all beard
and moustache, helps or waiters, rush out of the doors
of the restaurants — chiefly branch houses from 'Frisco
— and wildly clang huge bells, on which a sudden
change of mien comes over those expectant miners who
rush away with long hurried strides, and crowding to
their places snap up huge quantities of food — the scene
forcibly reminding me of Martin Chuzzlewit's experi
ences in a New York boarding-house.
The gold diggings of 1859 were situated some dis
tance up the Fraser River in British Columbia, in rather
1 Nous avons change" tout cela ; for I read in the Canadian Pacific Railway
Guide for 1896 : " Victoria is peculiarly English in all its characteristics."

VANCOUVER ISLAND 253
an inaccessible region, and like all other diggings, fur
nished their tales of varying fortunes and of no fortunes
at all. The marines whom we brought across with us from
China were ostensibly for the purpose of keeping order
there, but later developments in San Juan Island made
us think it likely that the Government may have had an
inkling of what was about to happen, and determined to
be ready. Among these miners I find a chatty intelligent man
or two, one of whom assured me that after many
weeks' fearful toil and hardship, living on horse-flesh
at a dollar a pound, he amassed a great deal of gold,
all of which as well as everything else he possessed, was
stolen by natives on his way to the coast, and when at
last he reached Victoria, barefoot and bleeding, had no
clothes on or off, except a pair of trousers and an old
blanket. There is one Yankee photographer in the place,
Leonidas M. Snott, who, after four trials, failing to
produce a presentable likeness of me, angrily dashes
the plates to fragments on the hearth.
" You see, sir," explains the assistant in apologetic
undertone, " he feels for the subject." Perhaps I may
be partly responsible for one of the failures, for in the
middle of the last long pose, during which I am propped
erect in an unnatural position against a severely rigid
head-rest, Snott remarks considerately, " You may
wink, sir, if you feel like it" — which is really too
much to bear unmoved in risible feature.
In Victoria I met American children for the first
time, and was anything but favourably impressed.
They wore an expression beyond their years and

254 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
seemed to me unnaturally self-possessed and precocious.
Thirty years afterwards I met others in Edinburgh
where the same characteristics were apparent. It was
at a table d'hote breakfast at which the company were
all American except myself, and I sat next to a little
girl of ten or so and her mother. When the waiter
handed a dish of cut-up chickens the child turned up
her nose and declined, on which the mother said,
" Will you not have some chicken ? "
" There's nothing but brown meat."
" Well, somebody must eat the brown meat."
"Well, somebody may, I guess I won't," remarked
the child in a clear, decided tone and with the utmost
self possession, and to nobody's astonishment except my
own !
Almost the whole of Vancouver Island is densely
wooded, chiefly with conifers, but there are many open
grassy park-like reaches more or less studded with oak.
The forests are principally composed of the Douglas
Fir, whose botanical generic name, I am happy to learn
from the second (1900) edition of that valuable standard
work, " Veitch's Manual of Coniferae," after many
years' variation between Pinus, Abies, and Pseudo-tsuga,
has at length been sensibly fixed as Abietia. In the
realm of scientific nomenclature there has always been
a special disposition to indulge in novelty and variation,
some trees and plants, to the mystification of students,
having been " run under " at least half-a-dozen names ;
but surely the man who attached to one of the noblest
and best known trees in the world such an awful
tongue-entangler as Pseudo-tsuga deserves a special
niche in the temple of botanical reprobation !

VANCOUVER ISLAND

255

The Douglas Fir was discovered in 1795 by
Menzies, but named after David Douglas, a Perthshire
man and North American explorer, who introduced the
seed into Britain in 1827. The tree stands somewhat
by itself in the scheme of classification. As regards its
relation to other conifers : " the preponderance of agree-

W.B.Nl,

ment is with Abies, the silver-fir section, but with such
a marked difference in the cones that it has been
generically separated from it by most authors." There
is one infallible mark by which it may be distinguished,
that is the bicuspidate bracts of the scales of the cones
(represented in the figure), prominent and unmistakable,
consisting of a long, rigid, pointed awn springing from a

256 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
broad base which shows two short pointed angles.
Though specimens — nearly always planted much too
close together — are now met with all over our country,
the best of them are scarcely more than infant re
presentatives and give but a faint idea of the Douglas
" at home " — " the grandest of the group of giants
which combine to form the forests of the West," the
most widely distributed, not only of the American firs,
but of all American trees ; and one of the most remark
able and valuable trees in existence.
The largest specimens in Britain scarcely exceed
100 feet, but there is in the Royal Gardens at Kew a
flagstaff from a Vancouver Island tree consisting of a
single piece 159 feet in length, 22 inches diameter at
base, and 8 at apex, weighing 3 tons.
Deeply interesting and impressive was it to wander
leisurely about the old fir-forests in the neighbourhood
of Esquimalt where veterans of centuries, varying from
150 to 250 feet or more, rose tall, straight, and without
branches for the first 50, 80, or 100 feet. The trees,
too, were, for their enormous size, so close together and
so numerous that one failed to realise that enormous
size, the general perspective effect being more of a
plantation of Brobdignagian canes or bamboos ; but
gazing upwards, the blue sky could only be distinguished
in patches between lofty, distant, and tuft-like foliage
which waved slowly and majestically in response to the
breeze that affected the summits only, and did not
reach the silent columnar depths where I stood. The
deep silence and seclusion were broken only by the
occasional loud resonant hammering of a splendid
black, crimson-headed woodpecker (perhaps Picus
martius, but I am not sure), the sound, which might

VANCOUVER ISLAND 257
sometimes be heard for nearly a mile, being the more
striking, and producing greater effect, because no other
living creature was either visible or audible.

The New Mainmast.
Visits to the forest were before long directed to a
more practical end than mere admiration of scenery,
our special interest being to find out whether it would
serve our needs in a forthcoming imminent and
imperative great event ; in short, could it supply us
with a new mainmast ? for the old one, temporarily
repaired at Nagasaki, it will be remembered, was so
defective that it could not be safely trusted for the long
homeward voyage to which we were looking forward.
By agreement with the proprietor, we had a free
hand, and proceeded to fell four noble firs, one of
which was 185 feet high, 4 feet 3 inches in diameter at
the base, 80 feet from the ground to the first branch,
straight as an arrow, and judging from the rings which I
counted, at least 200 years old ; but to our mortification,
useless for the purpose, as examination revealed many
unsound places which marked the junction point of old
branches. Our labour was not in vain, however, for
though we could not make a mast out of any of these
trees, we did shape two splendid balks of timber 80 feet
long each which served as sheers.
Abandoning, therefore, the attempt to cut one for
ourselves on British, we contracted for an American
mast from Washington Territory, which was towed
across the Strait from Port Gamble in Puget Sound by
a " plunger," or half-decked boat with a centre-board,
and delivered alongside at the rate of ten shillings a
R

258 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
running foot, including towage, rolled upon the beach,
and made into a mainmast by our own carpenters in
three weeks. This magnificent spar of 106 feet length
(the finished mast 10 1) and 32 inches diameter, fault
less, and virtually knotless, was the longest mast of a
single spar ever seen in the British Navy ; so excep
tionally beautiful indeed was it, that on our arrival
at Portsmouth even the dockyard people acknowledged
its merits, although it was not of their workmanship,
and kept it as a " show mast " in the sheds, where it
lay for years, visited and admired by thousands. It
was not a " made mast," be it understood, but a round
single spar like a topmast, kept bright, and rubbed with
Chinese oil. Eventually, with the passing away of the old
navy, it lost its value and interest, and was ruthlessly
cut to pieces, a fact which I eventually with sorrow
ascertained during one of my visits in after years, when
I was in the habit of lingering affectionately over the
lovely mast — a link to many memories. At each suc
ceeding visit to the Yard I found less of the sailor,
more of the mechanic ; and finally met nobody but
a few men carrying tubes and wire-rope or wheeling
about metal plates. At my last visit, accosting a man
in the shed who looked like a foreman, I asked : " What
has become of the Tribune's old mast that lay here for
so many years, do you know ?"
" Yes, I know very well ; she's made away with."
" What a shame ! are you sure, how do you
know ? "
" How do I know ? — well, I think I orter, as I had
a hand in chopping of her up ! "
Sic transit gloria malt.
I learned that planks 100 feet long and 6 feet wide,

VANCOUVER ISLAND 259
without a knot in them, were frequently cut from the
gigantic Douglases of the Puget Sound forests.
" To shift mainmast with one's own resources,"
even in the primest of old seafaring days, was a very
rare and very heavy " order," though on the present
occasion we could scarcely claim to have done so,
inasmuch as we had sheers from the forest, as before
mentioned, though even thus, away from a dockyard or
sheer-hulk, ours was a ponderous and difficult opera-
sion, but quite successfully carried out under the im
mediate supervision of Captain Hornby, who planned
and directed everything from first to last with the
ability which characterised all that he did. He was ably
seconded by the first lieutenant and boatswain, and we
all experienced a feeling of intense satisfaction when
the new mast was at last safely landed in its step and
the purchases untoggled.
While all those long spars were lying flat, I ascer
tained a curious fact, hitherto unknown to me, that a
slight tap, or even a loud-ticking watch, applied to
one end was audible to an ear held against the other.
Locally they used to test newly felled timber in that
way, as, if its sound-conducting powers were perfect,
the wood was known to be in good condition through
out. Captain Hornby was a man of moral courage and
initiative, not afraid of personal responsibility, not
afraid for the good of the service and benefit of
those under his command to sheer out of beaten tracks,
and ignore time-honoured customs and traditions. Yet
it was sometimes risky for a captain to take too much
upon himself, as Captain Edgell discovered to his cost

260 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
when he served out an extra allowance of grog to the
crew without consulting the surgeon as to the necessity,
and found later on the whole price " charged to his
wages " by an unsympathetic Admiralty.
No greater boon to lieutenants was ever introduced
than Hornby's institution of " officer of the day," thus
liberating watch-keepers in harbour for two days out
of three, a boon for which we were truly grateful
and much envied by our less fortunate brethren in
adjacent ships, whose captains continued to insist on
"strict service" and no innovation.
After morning quarters the First was left to " carry
on," the watches being taken charge of by their senior
midshipman, the officer of the day being generally
responsible that all went well, and being always avail
able when a lieutenant was required.
Thus I was able thoroughly to enjoy life at Esqui
malt, spending my " off " time in exploration, playing
cricket at Colwood, and rambling about with my gun
both for sport and specimens, as I had learned how
to skin and preserve birds — in fact, no part of my naval
career is so pleasant in the retrospect than the year at
Vancouver. We had uninterrupted range over a splendid,
varied, and interesting country, and might shoot what
we liked or could, which I cannot say was very much,
in part for want of dogs and in part — well, we had not
a Sir William Kennedy among us, or the result would
doubtless have been different.
Fresh from the experience of such uninterrupted
freedom, the difference between an old and a new
country was vividly brought home to me, when, after
our return home, I innocently supposed that I could

VANCOUVER ISLAND 261
carry my gun about over certain wild links on the
Scottish coast without special permission ; but even the
sight of me with only an innocent vasculum on the
same links drew two lynx-eyed watchers from their lair
to find out what I was about.
During autumn wood-pigeons abounded, which
frequented the oaks to feed on acorns. At first, I used
fruitlessly to stalk the birds from tree to tree, but soon
found that the right plan was to stand quietly upright
against a stem, and pot them as they settled on the
branches above.
Once, St. John and I, in expectation of getting a
shot next morning at wild geese, passed the night in
a shepherd's wooded shanty near the edge of a pool
frequented by these birds. The ground was covered
with snow and " the wind cut like swords through the
cracks in the boards," much sleep, though we huddled
around a blazing log, being out of the question.
At earliest dawn we stole down to the water-side,
and peering over the scrub, there, sure enough in the
middle of the pool, just out of shot, we spied a flock
of geese dimly looming, and moving gradually in our
direction, so we counted upon one to each barrel at
least. Now they are well within shot, why do we hesi
tate ? Because it becomes evident, with the increasing
light, that these are not wild geese at all, but tame
ones from Langford's farm. What a sell !
Feeling very small, we retraced our steps to the
shanty for our rugs, where we found by footsteps in the
snow that a puma (Felis concohr, a large species of
panther) had sniffed us out during night and had been
perambulating the shanty. Yet pumas do not attack
man unless provoked. Their favourite prey is sheep.

262 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
One puma has been known to kill fifty sheep in a night,
sucking a little blood from each.
On the way back I dropped a couple of mallard
" right and left " in the middle of another pool, out of
which, having no dog, they could only be retrieved by
myself ; so I stripped, dashed in and got them, but the
water was literally ice-cold, and I should not have cared
to repeat the experiment.
At certain seasons the harbour literally swarmed
with herrings, and the natives' mode of fishing for them
was wonderfully simple and attractive.
A man wielding a pole armed at its end with a
number of sharp nails sat in the bow of a canoe. While
the canoe was being slowly propelled he used the pole
as if it were a paddle, on alternate sides, the fish being
impaled, and quietly shaken off into the boat after each
dip. Or sometimes in smaller canoes the solitary paddler
effected the same result by merely using paddles with
points at the extremity of its axis, thus killing, if not
two birds with one stone, often two fish at one stroke.
Salmon was abundant during part of the year,
speared in the harbour or caught by hook and line,
and sold to us at 3d. a pound. I saw a 22-lb. fish
speared. It is well known that on the approach of
the spawning season salmon crowd up the rivers of
British Columbia in such astonishing numbers, that,
without figure of speech, the water in places is literally
" thick wid 'em."
During my rambles in May I was surprised to see
so many humming-birds, which I had supposed to in
habit only tropical regions ; but the Vancouver species,
Trochilus colubris, the ruby-throated humming-bird, is

p. 263

VANCOUVER ISLAND 263
found over the whole of North America up to 570
north. They are beautiful little creatures, like large
moths, poising themselves in the air while they hum
loudly, and pouncing like hawks.
In May, too, I had an opportunity of witnessing for
the first and only time in my life the rare and remark
able phenomenon known as Parhelia or Mock Suns.
There had been an unusually large halo round the sun
during the whole of the day, and about an hour and a
half before sunset, when the lower limb of the circle
had disappeared behind the hills, a mock sun appeared
on the circle on either side of the real one. Halos and
parhelia are caused by ice-crystals in the air, and
do not necessarily, as some suppose, foretell bad
weather. We were surprised one morning by the arrival of a
canoe from the continent containing John Palliser, " the
solitary hunter," and Dr. Hector, M.D., who had just
returned from an expedition to the Rocky Mountains,
to find a Lower Pass, which they did find, it being
called Kicking Horse Pass to this day from the follow
ing adventure, which we heard from the latter.
The Doctor and a detachment of three Indian
scouts off-saddled for dinner near a likely locality.
Leaving his companions, he went off by himself to
explore, and on his return, coming suddenly to his
horse, the animal was frightened and kicked him so
violently in the stomach that he lost his senses.
On recovery he found himself wrapped up in his
buffalo robe on the edge of a grave, into which, under
the impression that he was dead, the Indians were pre
paring to lower him, but he struggled up, saddled his
horse, and rode off.

264 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Though ill for several days he completely recovered,
and is now Sir James Hector, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., Director
of the Geological Survey of New Zealand.
The Pacific Railway runs through Kicking Horse
Pass.

CHAPTER III
SAN JUAN
Had I foreseen, towards evening on July 29, 1859,
what a startling surprise was in store, I should probably
not have lingered so long to examine some of the
erratic boulders with which the country is strewed,
and other evidences of glacial action which abounded,
on my way down to the jetty at " Rough and Ready's,"
after a pleasant day's ramble with my gun.
"Moored with all boats out and swivel on" — an
expression which at once conveys to the naval mind
the idea of fixture — was the condition of my ship at
10.30 A.M., Boyle, the indefatigable, "carrying on," the
" officer of the day " at his post, drills, &c, in progress,
captain off to Victoria, and no suspicion of any dis
turbance in the serene and settled character of harbour
routine. Imagine, therefore, the shock which I sustained
when, on reaching the water-side in expectation of
finding the usual officers' dinner-boat, I became aware
of something so strange and inexplicable that I literally
gasped with astonishment.
Not only was there no officers' boat, but there was
no frigate ! I gazed round and round, far and near,
even pinching myself to make sure that I was in the
flesh and awake ; but the fact could neither be eluded
nor explained — her Majesty's ship Tribune was invisible,
265

266 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
nor was there any clue so far to the sudden and
mysterious disappearance of my floating home, which
I had left so firmly established a few hours previously.
What could have happened ?
The Satellite, however, was visible, and in my lone
and outcast condition I gratefully accepted a passage
in her boat, and hospitality from her officers, from
whom I learned that my ship had been hurriedly
despatched with all the marines that could be got
together in consequence of a sudden accentuation of
the San Juan difficulty — that thorn in the Victorian
flesh which arose from an ambiguous clause in the
Oregon Treaty of 1 846.
Ambiguous clauses are profitable investments for
lawyers, the complications arising out of that one
having been prolonged for upwards of a quarter of a
century ; but the omission of even a comma, or a
misplaced one, may fructify into gratifying results.
Thus, in the United States Tariff Bill, which took
effect in 1872 (as I learn from the Brooklyn Argus), in
the enumeration of articles to be placed on the free
list, viz., "fruit plants tropical and semi-tropical," a
comma was inserted after fruit, thereby freeing all fruit
from duty. The customs officers, not noticing this,
continued to collect duties on fruit till the error was
discovered, when a Bill was passed for the express
purpose of removing the comma ! — the amount of duty
illegally collected in the meantime being estimated at
two million dollars. In the San Juan instance it had
been enacted that " the boundary-line dividing the
territories of Great Britain and the United States runs
along the 49th parallel of latitude to the middle of the
channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's

SAN JUAN 267
Island, and thence southerly through the middle of
the said channel and of Juan de Fuca Straits to the
Pacific Ocean." Clearly, therefore, the straits and its
islands on the west or island side of the line were
British ; on the east or continent side American. The
difficulty, however, arose from the mystifying fact that
the word " channel " in the text of the treaty was
contended not to be sufficiently specific, inasmuch as
to the south of the 49th parallel are two or three
channels, the Americans contending that the line must
be drawn along the middle of the main and generally
used one between Vancouver and the Aroo or Haro
Group, of which San Juan is the chief island, which
would make that island their property ; while we, I
think naturally, maintained that " channel " signified
the whole breadth of the Strait of Georgia, which
would make it ours.
As a matter of fact, in San Juan a peaceable sort of
neutral joint occupation on the live-and-let-live principle
had been going on for a long time previous to 1859 ;
the Hudson's Bay Company, on the one hand, claiming
the island, and farming part of it through Mr. Griffen,
their agent ; while, on the other, the Americans had
magistrates, and settlers on whom taxes were levied ;
collisions between rival occupiers, which would other
wise have arisen, being happily averted by an undis
puted treaty clause which secured entire freedom to
Hudson's Bay property wherever situated.
In July 1859, however, one Hearney, a hot-headed
general of fillibuster type, undoubtedly with the view
of precipitating a conflict for political ends, landed
Captain Pickett and a detachment of troops at Bellevue
Harbour, San Juan, " to protect American interests."

268 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
On receipt of the news at Victoria, Governor
Douglas despatched the Tribune in hot haste " to pre
vent any more troops being landed " ; and sent, too,
a magistrate to take legal steps to eject "intruders,"
Captain Hornby being instructed to support the civil
authority. Of course I was considerably excited at all that, and
eagerly looked forward to developments, especially as
on my arrival at San Juan next morning, after a noc
turnal voyage of thirty miles in the Satellite's pinnace,
I found Captain Pickett established in his camp on an
eminence surmounted by the Stars and Stripes, whence,
with characteristic braggadocio, his guns were kept
menacingly pointed towards us ; whence, too, as soon
as the ship arrived, he had the cool effrontery to send
a letter directed " Captain Hornby, H.M.S. Tribune, San
Juan, Washington Territory."
Negotiations passed, and I had no doubt whatever
at the time that it was mainly owing to the tactful
conduct of our able captain throughout those very
difficult first days that a collision was averted without
loss of honour on our part. I am therefore gratified at
finding the following extract of a letter from Colonel
Moody, R.E., Head of the Boundary Commission
and Lieut.-Governor of British Columbia, quoted in
Admiral Hornby's Biography, p. 66 — " It is fortunate
for Great Britain that Hornby of the Tribune is at San
Juan. His sound sense may avert evil. He will avert
war to the last moment without in any degree perilling
the proper dignity of England."
On landing at San Juan, I found that Paul K. Hubbs,
American Consular Agent and Col-lector of Customs,
had erected a tall flagstaff, at the foot of which was

SAN JUAN 269
displayed a notice that "this island being American
Territory two constables are appointed," &c.
I also encountered two long unkempt men who
were employed in coolly measuring off with compass,
map, and tape, on the very land in actual possession
of the Hudson's Bay Company's tenant (such was
their impudence) a " pre-emption claim," one of whom,
" member of the legislative body of Washington Terri
tory," explained that every citizen of the U-nited States
could claim 150 to 200 acres at 10s. per acre on new
lands, adding, "The Court of Saint James will sign,
sir, I guess, so I con-elude to fix my lo-cation right
away." Under such circumstances will the reader be sur
prised to learn that our relations with all the Americans
were of the most genial and amicable nature ; that I
paid a visit to the fell Pickett, and had a long and
pleasant "crack" with him over Oregon whisky and
cigars, and that Captain Hornby and his officers were
invited to a grand picnic on the opposite side, which
they attended ? At the same time, had they been
cognisant of what was impending they certainly would
not have done so ; for, notwithstanding my experience
of the good feeling and hospitality of Americans, and
especially their naval officials, in all parts of the world,
I have but little doubt that this picnic was just a 'cutely
preconcerted device for denuding the British frigate of
her captain and most of her officers in anticipation of
what had been planned to come off.
On going over the side on his way to the picnic,
Captain Hornby's parting reminder to his First Lieu
tenant was that no more American troops were to be allowed
to land, one that might have seemed superfluous at the

270 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
time, as there were none visible, nor signs of any. The
captain, however, had scarcely been absent more than an
hour, when, to Boyle's consternation, the Massachusetts
United States troopship, with about two hundred and
fifty soldiers, suddenly steamed into harbour, and cast
anchor near the Tribune.
Our dismayed commanding officer immediately sent
Lieutenant Downes with his compliments to explain
that his orders were to permit no more American troops
to land. "Well, sir," replied the captain, nothing dis
concerted, " I guess I'll have to land these troops."
The Lieutenant returned, but was sent back to say
that they would not be allowed to land, to which the
skipper merely remarked that he guessed he'd have to
do his duty — meantime boats were being lowered and
other preparations made for doing it.
I doubt whether any officer of any age or rank was
ever so suddenly and unexpectedly brought face to
face with such a difficult and critical situation as David
Boyle on this occasion, who, it must be remembered
was only six-and-twenty ; for, on the one hand, if he
permitted troops to land, he would be acting in the teeth
of his captain's instructions ; while on the other, the
employment of force to prevent them would probably
have led to war between two great nations, and the
event would have " earmarked " him for the rest of his
professional life, for good or otherwise, according to
the view taken by the Admiralty and the Government.
Boyle was not the man to hesitate long in such an
emergency. " Whatever betide," his course clearly was
to carry out his captain's orders ; so, after a turn or
two up and down the deck, was on the point of making
immediate preparations to do so, when providentially,

SAN JUAN 271
with the timeliness of the appearance of a reprieve
in a melodrama, H.M.S. Plumper was seen steaming
towards the port and signalling vigorously. What
signal ? Painful suspense, but nothing to be done till it
is made out. Five minutes more — ten. " Well, signal
man, make it out yet ? " " Yes, sir. Annul Governor's
orders about landing American troops." Hurrah !
The troops were landed. Those of my readers who
have undergone the strain of responsibility will realise
the intensity of the relief which that signal brought
to our commanding officer's mind, indeed to all
of us. The fact was that old Douglas's nerve failed when
he heard that that troopship was actually en voyage,
and more prudent counsel, to which he had refused
to listen at first, prevailed at last. So there was no
conflict. Governor Douglas undoubtedly possessed an enor
mous influence over the Indians everywhere, to such
an extent that if he had " passed the word " they would
have massacred every American on the coasts, but
having lived most of his life in the wilds, much diplo
matic 'cuteness or administrative capacity was not to
be expected from him.
Diplomacy took the matter in hand, and kept it
cheerfully in hand for the next thirteen years, as a
" good ganging law-plea," than which, according to the
Scotch, nothing is more remunerative.
Meanwhile a joint occupation was agreed upon, and
carried out till 1872, when the Court of Saint James
did "sign," in obedience to the German Emperor's
arbitration, by which the line of demarcation was
carried through the west or main channel, and San

272 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Juan given up to the Americans. My pre-emption
friend must have become rather tired of waiting for
his claim during all those years.

Our return to Esquimalt was saddened by a dread
ful accident, the more painful inasmuch as it need not
have happened. While "in stays" under sail and
steam, the mizen topmast-stay snapped under the
strain of undue headway, and the mizen-topmast,
sails, and rigging fell down abaft in a confused heap,
out of which were extricated two mizen - topmen,
Robert Bryson and L. Hackworthy, the former being
dead, the latter badly injured.
It is a strange but well - established fact that
accidents and epidemics always carry off the best
men. Poor Bryson was a particularly smart and
promising lad, and a great favourite with both officers
and men, many of whom shed tears at his funeral,
and especially with his topmates, who subscribed to
cover his coffin with blue cloth. Gibson, a second
class boy, not being a topman, was not asked to
subscribe, but wishing to show his respect for the
deceased, with whom he had been on terms of close
friendship and affection, begged to be allowed to line
the cloth with flannel at his own expense. Though
there was something ridiculous in the idea, yet the
honest good feeling of the boy was touching.
Bryson left a young brother behind him, to whom
life must for some time have appeared a hideous
blank, as the two were united in the closest ties of
affection, and were always together.

SAN JUAN 273
Captain Hornby governed his crew on the sound
principle of privileges being dependent upon conduct,
especially in the matter of " leef ." On every available
occasion leave for a run on shore was given, and it
was a man's own fault if he found himself debarred
from being able to respond to the ever-welcome pipe —
" Liberty men to muster ! " In such a case he was
either in the black list, had before " broken his leave,"
or come off the worse for liquor from his last leave ;
yet there were continuous desertions — no fewer than
forty — shortly after our arrival at Esquimalt. The
reasons were twofold. First, the attractions, or sup
posed attractions, offered "by the diggings and local
demand for labour. Secondly, for reasons connected
with the captain which I have already explained
(p. 228). Among the first batch of deserters was Macfarlane,
a " blue marine," a most respectable, well-educated
man of exemplary character, who had latterly been
singled out for special employment as " writer." Never
theless he determined "to stash it" (give up, cut
connection with), and got safely over to the American
side, where he hired a small farm and was joined by
two of our first-class boys, who stole a boat from the
beach at Victoria wherein to cross the straits. That
was in February 1859.
Early in the same month of the following year,
just before we sailed homeward, Boyle noticed along
side a boat full of potatoes which were being offered
for sale to the ship's company, and being struck by
the excellence of their appearance, called out to the
man in charge — "Those are very fine potatoes you
have got there ; where are they from ? "

274 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
" From the American side," he replied, continuing
after a pause, with a twinkle in his eye, during which
something seemed to occur to him — " They were
grown by Mr. Macfarlane, who formerly belonged to
your ship, I believe."
The marine had evidently prospered ; but really it
was a piece of cool cheek to send off his produce to
be sold alongside his old ship, where he was " wanted,"
though no doubt he had motives, partly to take ad
vantage of a convenient market, partly perhaps pour
encourager les autres, and partly to indulge — and very
naturally so — in an exhibition of his success, independ
ence, and security.
It was not necessary for a deserter always to take
refuge on American soil, that is, if he were only a
deserter malgre lui and not " wanted," as in the case of
Boy Jones, who being incurably lazy, dirty, and useless,
was sent on shore "to wash his clothes," a tacitly
understood naval synonym for permission, even invita
tion, " to run," of which he discreetly availed himself,
and was afterwards constantly visible in the capacity
of potboy at a public-house in Victoria.
In addition to the large batch at the outset, we had
numerous subsequent desertions.
During our stay at San Juan, I got into conversa
tion with a " loafer," who asked, " Will you tell me
your name, sir ? "
" Tower. Why do you ask ? "
" Oh, then you are the man I was telling Colonel
Moody about the other day."
I was astonished, and then he proceeded to remind
me of an incident, which, it appeared, not only secured
me the good-will of a mob of about eighty loafers

SAN JUAN 275
(including my friend), whom I had seen, but also a
complimentary paragraph in the Victoria Gazette, which
I had not seen. It was thus : —
A sergeant with eight marines had been sent from
the Tribune to " The Fort " to bring back a number
of runaway blue-jackets who had been captured, but
upon reaching a public-house on the outskirts of the
town the prisoners refused to go any further unless
they were allowed "to liquor up."
Now the sergeant's position became very difficult,
because he dared not allow the prisoners to have drink
on his own responsibility, yet all his efforts to get
them to proceed without it were fruitless ; meantime
a lawless mob was fast gathering, who would have
enjoyed nothing so much as a rescue.
At this critical moment, I, en route to post my
monthly budget of meteorological notes for Lieutenant
Maury at the Bureau, Washington City, fortunately
walked by, and was immediately appealed to by the
perplexed sergeant for advice.
Grasping the situation and the necessity for im
mediate action, I sung out cheerily, " Now, men, you
can each have a drink if you'll promise to move on at
once," to which they responded by a hearty, " All right,
sir," in a tone which I interpreted as being their
acceptance of a contract.
In five minutes after " drinks round " the whole
party were in rapid march, and had hardly disap
peared when six policemen (for whom the sergeant
had at the outset despatched one of his men) rushed
breathlessly on the vacant scene, the effect being
distinctly amusing.
As the men had already managed to get grog

276 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
before leaving the town, the experiment of allowing
them more was a little risky, but it succeeded, and as
" nothing succeeds like success," I established a re
putation by this little incident, not only among our
own people, but even all over Victoria, it appeared, of
ability in managing Jack.

CHAPTER IV
NANAIMO AND THE EAST COAST
Five years or so before our arrival, part of an Indian
tribe, "the Hyders," came to Victoria on a visit, and
finding their services to be in requisition in a variety
of ways, more or less reputable, encamped and settled
down near the town. Latterly, however, they had
become so completely demoralised by the effects of
drink and profligacy as to be a serious nuisance to the
community ; so the governor wisely determined to send
them all away, Captain Hornby being entrusted with
the duty of convoying them to a distant part of the
island. These people aped European fashions in a ridiculous
way : indeed, the first time that I ever saw a crinoline
was on the dirty person of a Hyder woman, and very
little else had she on besides.
The causes that led to their forcible expulsion
furnish a painful study of the effects of first contact of
savage and heathen with civilised and Christian races.
The facts cannot be denied or ignored : they are
terribly significant.
Here we have a tribe of aborigines who settle
down among British and Americans, and for a time
behave decently enough. After a few years they
return to their own country with a host of half-caste
children, with a taste and craving for strong drink

278 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
which nothing but strong drink will satisfy, full of
disease, socially unhinged, and unfitted for the more
honest employments of their native life.
The old story, drink and the bad example of higher
civilisation, the combined effects of which paralyse mis
sionary effort to such an extent in all parts of the world.
What then ? Ought missionary effort to be aban
doned ?
By no means. Great Britain, at any rate, dare not
abandon a duty which has obviously been entrusted to
her from on High, lest she should be hurled from her
lofty pedestal of wealth, power, and opportunity ; but if
she is to wait till she can present good alone unmixed
with evil, she may as well relinquish all idea of Chris
tianising the world. The great desideratum at present
is a strong and resolute grappling with the drink traffic
among native races question, not only by her, but by all
other Christian nations ; and as we believe, too, that
moral tone is on the rise, bad example will become less,
though to look for its total disappearance would be but
a Utopian dream. Civilisation must be based on Chris
tianity if it is to succeed.
I feel strongly the importance of having the way of
civilisation paved by missionaries, as has been done in
Polynesia and Central Africa, whereby an institution is
planted which acts as a standard in the cause of decency
and morality and revolts at outrages on incumbent
obligations ; but where the missionary has to step in
rear of the rum bottle and the libertine, he is at a
great disadvantage.
On steaming out of harbour with twenty large single
log canoes (some 40 feet long) in tow, full of noisy,
dirty, unruly Hyders, we encountered a fresh north-

NANAIMO AND THE EAST COAST 279
west breeze, which, loth as they were under any cir
cumstances to depart, so frightened them that they cut
their tow-ropes and paddled on shore, where they
formed a temporary encampment, presenting a curious
and ludicrous appearance, being dressed in every form
of native, gaudy hybrid, and even de rigueur European
costume, the chief figuring in the costume of an
American naval lieutenant with cap, gold lace, and
umbrella. Two days afterwards, the wind having moderated,
we induced them to re-embark, but took the precaution
of shipping all the women and baggage, partly as host
ages, partly to lighten the canoes, though to no purpose ;
for no sooner had we got outside than they all cast off
and returned to land.
This time, however, we let them alone, and continued
our course up Haro Sound, past Cowichian, and towards
Nanaimo, where the coal workings had been recently
established which have since been developed into the
well-known great coal-producing centre which is con
nected with Victoria by rail — 70 miles. The discovery
of coal was made by some of the Hudson's Bay people,
who often noticed pieces in the hands of Indians.
Up to our time there was no reliable chart of
Nanaimo harbour, and we grounded on the edge of a
shoal, though luckily with a rising tide, so we soon
floated off and got safe anchorage.
Landing on Protection Island to take an observation,
I saw two black wolves, which did not molest us.
Wolves were formerly numerous on the coasts of Van
couver, and John Coles, a settler, formerly a mate R.N.,
told us some stirring stories about his adventures with
them.

280 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
He was walking one day with the Miss Langfords
on their father's lands at Esquimalt, when they were sur
rounded by a pack, an old leader taking a firm position
on the trail, while the heads of many others were seen
peeping over logs, and their forms flitting from tree to
tree as they greedily eyed their intended prey.
Fortunately it was daylight, and Coles determined
to keep on his course ; so with much presence of mind
he boldly advanced with an open umbrella, which
seemed to puzzle the wolf, then, suddenly closing it,
belaboured him so hard over the head with it that the
animal slunk off and nothing more was seen of him or
his companions. At that time Mr. Langford was in the habit of
sounding a bugle to assemble his pigs at feeding-time.
Mr. N. also carried a bugle for his dogs, which, one day
being in the neighbourhood, he blew, when about fifty
pigs instantly came rushing around the astonished man.
The Nanaimo coal seams cropped out at an angle
on the surface. There were no shafts, but the coal was
worked by " levels " and tunnelling. We found a little
colony of Scotch, Staffordshire, and Cornish miners, a
resident Wesleyan minister, and a school. I made
friends with a young Cornishman called Sam, who on
this and a subsequent visit often accompanied me as
guide and companion in my rambles for exploration,
game, and specimens. There was a stream, and
a very ancient one, to judge from the deep
channel which it had cut for itself through the hard
conglomerate, along the course of which the process
of rock disintegration by the growing roots of trees
acting as wedges was illustrated in many striking
instances.

NANAIMO AND THE EAST COAST 281
The silence of the forest was pleasantly broken by
the merry gurgle of this stream, by the shrill rattling
cry of the belted kingfisher (Alcedo alcyon), and the ham
mering of the common golden-winged woodpecker
(Colaptes auratus), while the eye, wandering aloft, caught
occasional glimpses of a splendid eagle, poised mid-air,
high above the tallest tree. But the most interesting
object that I encountered was a beaver dam, a marvel
lous structure for the purpose of widening the area
and increasing the depth of the water round about
those creatures' homes, which, in this case, were the
simplest form of domicile, just burrows in the banks
opening outwards under water.
When any projecting branch is in their way, they
bite it through, and I was shown one i\ inches in
diameter, which had been as cleanly and smoothly
cut as if by a chisel, the marks of the teeth being
distinctly visible.
The life-history and habits of beavers are so
curious and wonderful, and the sagacity they display in
the construction of their dams and dwellings so astound
ing, that I find it impossible, as in many other instances,
to believe that such can be the result of mere un
designed mechanical evolution, as the evolutionist invites
us to believe.
The evolutionist, it is true, declares that he " must
have a Creator to start with," which is really very kind
of him ; but unless he will also admit One to go on
with, his system or hypothesis, especially in the face
of the Unity of Nature, is quite insufficient to account
for the wonders and secrets of organic life, and seems to
leave no standing ground for "looking up through
Nature's works to Nature's GOD " — an apparently

282 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
almost extinct aspiration. The old idea of "special
creations " presents, of course, great difficulties, but
to my judgment the doctrine of evolution far greater;
the conviction appearing to force itself upon one's
intelligence that both methods must have been em
ployed, evolution having been a secondary one, and
confined within limits.
There is something really painful, ludicrous, and
unsatisfying to the reflective and observant mind in
the notion that is being "run" in the scientific world,
that the Creator, long ages ago, deposited a little daub
of protoplasm on this globe of ours and then retired
from the scene !
Our ship could not be placed alongside the wharf
for the purpose of replenishing the bunkers, but lay
a hundred yards off, a detachment of Indians being
employed to coal us, a flat or " scow " being moored
alongside, which was kept supplied by about fifty little
canoes, each of which brought off a few lumps at a
time, the natives being paid by tin tallies or tokens,
which they exchanged for goods, but not spirits, at the
Hudson's Bay store.
On leaving for more northerly explorations, we
espied a fleet of large canoes, which proved to be, not our
Hyders, as we hoped, but another tribe on their way to
Victoria to seek their fortunes, disreputable or otherwise.
" Captain George," a grotesque figure in blanket-frock,
somebody's red nightcap, and nobody's trousers, came
on board, made himself quite at home, and clamor
ously demanded rum and nether garments.
" Captain," began he, to our amusement, familiarly
tapping the great "Geoff" on the shoulder, and slap
ping his own naked legs, " me very good man, me

NANAIMO AND THE EAST COAST 283
want trouser," and, with an open mouth, "me like
grog." At first we took this worthy for the chief, but he
turned out to be only the " comic man " of the party, a
well-known character, and he was speedily " shut up "
by Macauly, our interpreter, twenty-seven years from
his native Scotland, whose knowledge of the natives and
their language was more extensive than that of any
other white man.
The real chief was soon produced, and informed
that he could not be allowed to proceed (in the waters
of his own country !), so he and his people stuck by
and encamped near us when we anchored, bringing off
bear, deer, seal, ermine, and marten skins to barter.
I don't remember what we gave in exchange for the
latter, but I know that the current price at the Hudson's
Bay store was half-a-pound of tobacco a skin, say six
pence, the corresponding cost in London being sixteen
shillings. They brought fish, too, including a halibut of
57 lbs. They were stout warlike fellows, painted black
and red like stage-demons, and thirsting for rum, which
they didn't get. Like the Esquimaux, their women
wore the labret, or mussel-shell, inserted into the lower
lip, causing that feature to project, and imparting a
hideous appearance.
We steamed up-channel towards the Narrows,
endeavouring to find good anchorage, I and others
being away in boats for hours sounding and exploring,
during which time I passed a river's mouth where
geese, ducks, and other wildfowl were feeding by
thousands with great clattering. At this time we dis
covered and anchored in the bay subsequently known
as Tribune Harbour, on what we believed to be the

284 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
mainland, but afterwards found that it was an island,
and it now figures on Admiralty charts as Hornby
Island. Ultimately we found a very snug berth in a
cove in the Narrows formed by Valdez Island and
smaller ones, whose shores were densely wooded to
the water line. Snowy mountain ridges rose in the
background, and dead silence reigned, it being broken
only by the occasional hollow, resonant clangour of the
wings of scoters and other ducks, as they were disturbed
by our boats.
The luxuriance of the moss which covered all the
rocky places in these islands, forming a soft, dry carpet,
was a feature. Rambling with the captain, I noticed
a large blue grouse perched statue-like on a rocky
moss-covered promontory about twenty yards distant,
around whose base wild arbutus clustered. Happening
to have my Colt with me, I nudged Geoff, jocularly
whispering — "To-morrow's dinner, sir," to which he
replied — " No, you can't."
This accommodating Tetrao, heedless of approaching
doom, made no movement, giving me time for delibe
rate aim. I fired, and no bird flew away, but we found
a dead one with a hole through his head lying on
the rock.Thus I established a reputation as a crack pistol-
shot, though a very short-lived one, as on being invited
next day to take part in a competition with Colts at
marks (when I would fain have rested on my laurels),
I ignominiously failed to hit anything, and was unani
mously pronounced to be a rank impostor.
After bagging the bird, which scaled three pounds,
we reclined on the moss, while the future Admiral of
the Fleet told me a laughable reminiscence of his

NANAIMO AND THE EAST COAST 285
midshipman's days. Geoff loved good stories, and
though ever the " strict service captain " on board, was
the pleasantest companion on shore, chatting, laughing,
joking, and even carrying your parcel for you if you
were overladen, and always without the least sacrifice
of position or self-respect.
The time was 1841, the scene his father Captain
Superintendent Hornby's pew in Woolwich Dockyard
Church, which was situated immediately under the
clerk's desk — that was the lowest tier of the " three-
decker" of the period. That functionary fell asleep in
the course of the tedious sermon, but awoke during
a long pause in its course, in fact, like Mr. Justice
Stareleigh in the Pickwick Trial, he was awoke by the
silence. The situation did not escape the eye of a
young naval officer, Windham Hornby, Geoff's cousin,
who took prompt advantage of it by nodding signifi
cantly at the clerk, as much as to say — "We are all
waiting for you."
The unfortunate official at once fell into the trap,
and, to the astonishment of the clergyman and congrega
tion, and to his own swift discomfiture, ejaculated a
loud Amen ! while the author of the joke was obliged
to sink down on the floor in a paroxysm of suppressed
laughter. In illustration of Captain Hornby's impartiality,
I may mention that before leaving China I bought
a model of a "fast boat," as there were scientific
features in the lines of those vessels which struck me
as being worthy of study, and, with more care than
foresight — as the event proved — had it packed in a box
for which, by no possible artifice, could I manage to
find room in my already crammed little cabin, 6 feet

286 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
6 inches by 9 feet. Under such circumstances I grate
fully accepted the offer of the carpenter's mate, an
old shipmate, and therefore much more inclined to
go out of his way to show me a kindness than if he
had been merely a " shipmate," to stow it in the
carpenter's storeroom, where it was put up neatly
overhead between the beams, and cunningly white
washed to resemble them in colour (on the same
principle as a fish's adapting its tints to those of the
bed of the stream), and then I flattered myself that
all was well. Not so, however, for not long after
wards, when the captain was going his weekly rounds
something in the aforesaid storeroom caught his eagle
eye. " What box is that ? "
"If you please, sir, it b'longs to Lef-tenant Tower."
" Out with it ! and tell Mr. Tower it is my direc
tion that he has no private goods in the ship's store
rooms." So my persecuted model came back on my hands
like a bad shilling, and I was obliged to dispose of it
to the chaplain at his own terms.
But I had yet another box, a parting cumshaw
from our comprador at Whampoa, about which I felt at
ease, because the gunner had obligingly secreted it
for me in the nethermost recesses of the after-magazine,
where surely, I thought, it must escape detection. It
did, but not self-conviction ; because on arrival at
Portsmouth it was found that the box had been placed
upside down, so that every drop of what I called
" syrup," but the gunner " gravy," had drained away a
year ago out of the six cases of choice preserved
ginger and cumquats which it contained. If I had

NANAIMO AND THE EAST COAST 287
met Geoff on shore that evening I should have told
him the story, much, I'm sure, to his amusement.
Our Hyder Indians not yet having made their
appearance, we became anxious (we had left their
women to be picked up at Nanaimo), because we had
been specially entrusted with the duty of seeing them
safely to the north of Cape Mudge, at the entrance
to the Narrows, and I was sent away in the pinnace
with two days' provisions to look after them.
We encamped for the night on the beach at the
entrance to the Narrows, about ten miles from the
ship. Between the beach and the forest lay a rising
grassy belt, and along high-water mark for miles was
stretched a line of bleached driftwood. The first
thing was to build a jetty of logs and stones, and then,
having lit a stupendous fire, to gather round it and
sup, after which we yarned and smoked and enjoyed
the heat of such a blaze as I never saw before or
since, the sparks flying upwards in a million cor-
ruscations, affording a beautiful display of natural
fireworks. The falling tide left the boat rather unexpectedly
high and dry, so I walked into her with four men,
leaving the others to sleep by the fire, but by 2 a.m.
the water rose so rapidly that our jetty was washed
away before we realised the situation, and the men
had to wade in over the roughest stones through the
coldest water.
The currents are very rapid, and the rise and fall
very deep, sudden, and treacherous on the Vancouver
coast, as Lieutenants David Boyle, Hamilton Dunlop,
and Tommy Gooch of the Satellite found to their cost
when they took our pinnace for a pleasure trip from

288 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Esquimalt to Stoke Inlet. Not being able to reach
their destination on the same evening, they took
Tommy Gooch's advice, who professed to know the
coast, made the boat fast between two big rocks in
a snug little creek, and stretched themselves out on
the thwarts for a good sleep. The awakening was
rude, inasmuch as it arose from every one's being rolled
off the thwarts into the bottom of the boat, which the
tide had left high and dry in the queer position
depicted in the illustration.
When they got to Stoke, they found a family called
Muir, who, to Boyle's surprise and delight had recently
come from the village of Dreghorn in Ayrshire, within
two miles of his own home.
To return to my own boat. We weighed at daylight
and cruised about under sail, and soon the expected
canoes began to glide by. During the day local natives
appeared, with whom we trafficked, tobacco being the
favourite currency, a pipeful being enough to buy
a large fish, but an old coat was taken in exchange for
a deer of 150 lbs. These natives were all armed with
antiquated flint muskets. When we reached the ship
in the evening, we found all our Hyders present, but
on their way having had a fight with Captain George's
party, which must have been sharp, as there was loss of
life on both sides.
Next day we left them to their own devices, and
returned to Esquimalt. Shortly after that, complaints
came that other Indians had been destroying John
Cole's property at Saanich, and it being considered
necessary to capture the leader, we were ordered to
take the Sheriff for the purpose, though it seemed
slightly ridiculous to send a frigate for so small

TOMMY GOOCH CHOOSES SNUG BERTH FOR NIGHT

RESULT, NEXT MORNING

NANAIMO AND THE EAST COAST 289
an affair, but the "moral effect" was what was
aimed at.
Now Sheriff Heaton, a smooth-faced young man,
recently appointed from England, was a very im
portant official in his own estimation, if not in that
of Mr. Butt, Town-Crier of Victoria and citizen of
the United States, who on more than one occasion
had openly indulged in laughter at the Sheriff's self-
important air in court.
The Sheriff noticed this, and determined to bring
that subordinate to account for ridiculing the official in
charge of Her Majesty's peace.
" Mr. Butt," he began, pompously accosting him,
" I believe you laughed at me in court yesterday."
"Guess I did," coolly replied Mr. Butt, "'nuff to
make any feller laugh to see you making such a darned
fool of yourself lashed to that big sword."
During our short absence on the present mission,
I had an opportunity of observing the native mode of
sepulture, which somewhat reminded me of the Chinese
mode, except that the latter do eventually inter the
body, though the coffin may have lain for weeks,
months, or even a year under a tree ; whereas in Van
couver the rude coffin is placed above ground on a
low scaffolding and left there entirely.
As an illustration of the extraordinary recklessness
of sailors, I may mention that about this time the
Forwood mail-steamer arrived from San Francisco. As
she neared there was an explosion, caused, as we learned,
by the third officer and steward having entered the
magazine with a lighted candle, which fell into and
blew up twenty pounds of powder, killing the steward
and dangerously wounding the officer.

290 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
There was about the same time an accident in
H.M.S. Ganges, which supplies a characteristic story
of the British tar.
During an evolution a bight of a rope caught round
the foot of one Dobbs, captain of the maintop, and took
it clean off, but he went on giving orders as if nothing
had happened.
" Why, Jack, your foot's off," said one of the men.
" I know it is, you  ; pull up."
However, on being carried to the sick bay, sensa
tion returned, when the pain became so intense that
he besought the doctor, with oaths, to cut off his leg,
which was accordingly done above the ankle.
After the operation, an officer, with the doctor's
consent, gave him a glass of brandy. " Thank you,
Mr. Lamb ; it's almost worth while to have another leg
off for that. My respex, sir."

CHAPTER V
THE LAST VOYAGE
Yesterday we left Esquimalt amid general cheering
from the Ganges flag and other ships, for much interest
always attaches to a homeward-bounder from a foreign
station, and I may say, notwithstanding our destination,
with regret, for we had greatly enjoyed our time at
Vancouver, for which, not without good reason, we
all predicted a great future.
And now, on the ist February i860, we are once
more at sea, and the duties of sea routine, connecting
themselves, as it were, with those that ceased a year
ago, seem like the edges of a divided wave over a
sinking ship, to engulf the year which has been passed,
with all its adventures, associations, and interests, all
such fading away like a dissolving view ; a little image
of our life on earth. By help of the new mainmast,
at which every one many times a day glances with
pride and admiration, we now seek to drive the willing
prow through the water as fast as possible, till our
own native land once more shall greet the eye.
We have a number of " supernumeraries " for
passage home, among them being a marine prisoner
under a sentence of court-martial, who was formerly
in the 97th Foot, and helped to carry Captain Hedley
Vicars out of the trenches at Sebastopol.
At one time Evangelical religious biographies were
much in vogue, and good Miss Marsh's memoir of
Vicars attained to a very large circulation.

292 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
Captain Hornby's head, according to Jack's verdict,
was distinctly " screwed on the right way." He under
stood what he was about, and in his government of the
peopled deck acted upon fixed principles, one of which
was the primary importance of impressing subordinates
with confidence in the abilities of their superiors. No
thing, he thought, could shake confidence more than for
the men to see their officer hesitating and undecided,
and he even went so far as to say that it was better to
persevere in than acknowledge a mistaken order after
it had once been given. For instance, I had laid the
maintopsail yard for reefing, but badly, as it turned out,
for when the men came to lie out, it was found that
the yard was not sufficiently clear of the lee topmast
rigging, and the captain of the top hailed to ask me
to ease it, which I was about to do when stopped by
Geoff, who pertinently inquired —
" Did you lay that yard for reefing ? "
" Yes, sir, but  "
" Quite enough ; don't touch it ; tell the captain of
the top to bear a hand and get his reef in."
Excellent in principle, inconvenient, often dange
rous, as uniform practice.
Suppose the officer to be such an ignorant duffer
as a certain Lieutenant who gave the order, " Cut the
foretopsail tie," when it was reported " jammed aloft,"
while the sail was being hoisted.
I wonder whether Geoff would have sanctioned the
recall of that order.
We were ordered to break our voyage under sail
by touching at Valparaiso ; but having been obliged
to make a long stretch to the westward, found, on
nearing land on the starboard tack, that we could easily
"fetch" Concepcion, at that time a city of 15,000

THE LAST VOYAGE 293
inhabitants, situated nine miles from the anchorage in
its bay, and 300 miles south of Valparaiso.
We soon learned that our unexpected arrival had
spread quite an alarm, even Vice-Consul Cunningham,
who had held office for twenty years, being puzzled by
our red ensign, previous British naval visitors having
flown white or blue.
For more than two hundred years previous to 1864
the British fleet, as personified in its flag-officers, con
sisted of three divisions, Red, White, and Blue, a classi
fication which was necessary, especially during the
great French wars, for ensuring system and order
among fleets and squadrons consisting of very nume
rous vessels, which sailed in two or three lines or
divisions. Each of the three grades of flag-officer was sub
divided into the three colours, so a captain who, on
reaching flag-rank, became rear-admiral of the blue, if
fortunate enough to get command at once or very soon,
would hoist a square blue flag at the mizzen, all the ships
under his immediate command, whether on his station
or in his division, flying blue colours.
Before rising to the rank of vice-admiral of the
blue, with his flag at the fore, he would therefore
receive two minor or intermediate promotions, namely,
rear of the white and rear of the red.
At Trafalgar Lord Nelson was Vice-Admiral of the
white. As our fleets grew numerically smaller this rather
complicated system became unnecessary, greater sim
plicity being aimed at and attained by its abolition in
the afore-named year, since which the white ensign has
been used exclusively for the royal navy, coastguard,
and royal yacht squadron, the blue for the colonies,

294 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
naval reserve, and certain yacht clubs, and the red for
merchant and all other vessels.
Full admirals, therefore, bore their flag at the main,
vice- at the fore, and rear- at the mizzen.
I may add that ships' flags are composed of a light
woollen material called bunting, and a practised eye can
at once tell whether a piece of bunting is naval or not,
as naval threads are closely grouped at long intervals,
whereas the threads of other buntings are equidistant
throughout. So also with ropes ; those belonging to the royal
navy, and those only, showing a coloured thread inter
woven in the rope, and it was not lawful for marine
dealers or private individuals to buy, sell, or even
possess a piece of such rope ; neither is it now.
It appeared that not very long before our arrival
(the case appeared in the English press) three Chilian
gentlemen had been exiled, but the captain of the ship
which was conveying them to the place of punishment
was bribed or prevailed upon to land them in England
instead — the happy hunting-ground of political fugitives.
When the inhabitants saw a large armed ship sailing
into their harbour under colours which they did not
associate with ships of war, a report was spread that
the three gentlemen had fitted her out in England and
were come to avenge themselves.
• ••¦•¦,
Shortly before we reached the western entrance of
Magellan's Straits — once again — while running before
the tail end of a westerly gale, we observed a ship
under reduced canvas flying a British ensign " Union
down," which wore round, stood towards us, and, on
passing within hail, revealed herself as a large black
clipper- looking craft, very deep, and labouring with the

THE LAST VOYAGE 295
lazy roll which betokens water in the hold ; the appear
ance and occupation of whose crew, as with exhausted-
looking, anxious, up-turned faces they worked hard at
the pumps, being in themselves a sufficient answer to
our question, " What's the matter ? " without the cap
tain's stentorian shout, which he emphasised by pointing
to that signal of distress aloft which never appeals in
vain to the mariner, " We are sinking ! "
We hove-to. There was a high sea, and under
the circumstances it was rather dangerous to lower
and difficult to manage a boat ; but I was sent away at
once with certain definite conditions of assistance.
It was a magnificent sight and impressive ex
perience. My ten-oared cutter (how insignificant did she
appear amid such surroundings !) sank into deep
abysses, isolating us completely, all being lost to sight
save blue slopes of huge waves whose milk-white topples,
as we rose, refracted by the morning sun into glorious
iridescence, curled, sparkled, and hissed around us
without hurting us. The ships, too, one so smart,
powerful, handy, and capable - looking, the other
so water-logged, distressed, and helpless, were now lifted
high above us and then concealed from view.
Then the birds, the train of feathered companions
which had followed us during the gale, but now, sud
denly arrested and discomposed, concentrated them
selves inquiringly around my boat, as if in search of
some explanation of such unusual proceedings.
Magnificent albatrosses were there, with plumage
smooth and shining like polished ivory, statuesquely
poised for half a minute at a time quite close above
my head, no movements being visible save that of
the eyes as they rolled them about to survey us closely,

296 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
or the head which would slightly incline from side to
side to extend the field of vision, after which the
smallest and most beautifully managed alteration in
the plane of one of those long wings would waft them
a quarter of a mile away without another effort, to
return by a similar process.
Shearwaters, petrels, and scores of indefatigable
little Cape pigeons in their black and white dress bustled
about, as if to fill up the tableau.
As I neared the ship, a stream of yellowish fluid
issuing from the side, together with a well-remembered
ammoniacal odour, relieved me from the necessity of
asking questions when I got on board, for she was
evidently a guano-laden ship from the Chinchas home
ward-bound, leaky, with pumps half choked by guano-
paste. I said to the captain at once, "Tell me in a few
words what you want us to do for you."
He began a long story about his disasters, but I
was obliged to cut him short and beg him to state
whether he wished to abandon the ship or to keep
near us till we got inside the straits, when we would
try and patch up his leak. Still he hesitated. " Per
haps you would like to ask the crew, sir ? "
" No," said I, " you are the responsible man, and
you alone must decide, and immediately."
" Abandon her ! — certainly."
" Very well, then," said I, " give me your chronome
ter, papers, and valuables, and set the crew about
hoisting out your boats, and when they are out come
on board all of you with your clothes ; but there is no
time to save anything else."
All that being safely accomplished, we " up helm,"
made sail, and with twenty-seven additional mouths

THE LAST VOYAGE 297
to victual, left the derelict Sarah and Emma of Liver
pool to her fate in that waste of waters, with the howl
of the wind through her rigging and the wild wonder
ing wail of sea-birds for her funeral dirge.
There were three remarkable and romantic circum
stances connected with the event.
First, the captain, Walker, had been saved from a
watery grave three times before in the same way.
Moreover, on this last occasion, on the day before our
ship so fortunately came to the rescue, when the posi
tion seemed almost hopeless (for the guano in bulk
being saturated on each side, but dry in the middle,
caused her to roll fearfully, so that " green seas swept
over her decks sometimes breast high "), the chief
mate, who had not closed an eye from Saturday morn
ing till Tuesday night, suddenly said, " Cheer up, cap
tain ; to-morrow we shall see a man-of-war."
Secondly, one of the seamen had belonged to the
Europa when that ship was lost, and was picked up by
the Tribune's jollyboat in her former commission — the
identical boat which was now hanging at our davits.
Thirdly, another seaman recognised a long-lost
brother in the person of a marine, Fisher, whom he
had not heard of for thirteen years.
Captain Walker had little money and few clothes,
but fortunately he was a Freemason, and on our arrival
at Rio went ashore, attended Lodge, and came off with
.£10 in his pocket and a fit-out — a proof, among many,
of the substantial benefit that may result in any part of
the world from being a " Free and Accepted Mason."
• • • • • • *
These pages must not be prolonged, yet my pen
lingers over the last lines as if unwilling again to bid
my readers farewell.

298 "MARTELLO TOWER" IN CHINA
The Tribune arrived at Portsmouth in August i860,
was inspected and paid off, and, thanks to the continu
ous tonic influence of Captain Hornby and the inde
fatigable exertions of his First Lieutenant, in excellent
order, a really efficient man-of-war ; and to show how
highly her crew was thought of, I may mention that
within a short time no less than fifteen of her petty
officers received warrants.
As an almost unique illustration of the " fortune of
war," whose full significance can only be appreciated by
naval men, I may record that one of our junior midship
men, Rising, who joined us as a naval cadet, actually
became a commander before his First Lieutenant became
one, having been specially promoted when only two
years and eight months' standing for gallantry in
boarding an armed slaver.
We had an interesting and eventful commission of
four years and three months, and I parted with my old
ship with feelings of pain — never more to see her.
In after years Captain Hornby's long and dis
tinguished career, and the high estimation in which he
was held throughout the navy and by the country never
surprised me. I always predicted it. He was a man
who stamped his individuality at once upon every one
with whom he came into contact, and who impressed me
from the very first by his capacity, and by his posses
sion in an eminent degree of the qualities which make
a great naval commander.
His First Lieutenant's subsequent professional ex
periences were not of long duration, much, I have
always averred, to the loss of the navy ; as by David
Boyle's comparatively early retirement it was deprived
of a genial presence, and of an able, zealous, and
experienced officer.

THE LAST VOYAGE

299

Since his retirement, his career, which his old
associates have watched with pride and interest, has
been amid surroundings of a different nature, and is
well known ; but his heart, like mine, is with the
associations of the noble Service of our younger days ;
and I am happy to say that we are still able occasion
ally to renew them in a chat over old times.

Memento
Photographed in the Cemetery, Happy Valley, Hong Kong, 1901

Primed by Ballantyne, Hanson &• Co.
Edinburgh &• London

BY THE SAME AUTHOR
AT SCHOOL AND AT SEA
Life and Character at Harrow, in the Royal Navy, and
in the Trenches before Sebastopol
By "MARTELLO TOWER," R.N.
Published by John Murray, London. 1899. 420 pp.
A handsome Volume. Illustrated. Specially interesting to all
Naval Men. A splendid Prize or Gift for a Boy. A Book
for Readers of all ages.

EXTRACTS FROM PRESS NOTICES
" The genial writer's experiences are narrated with a breezy light-
heartedness which puts him on excellent terms with his readers."
—Times. " Of naval reminiscences, nothing in recent years has issued from
the press like this admirable book. If the gallant author had not suc
ceeded as a seaman, he might undoubtedly have gained high repute
as a writer. This wholly charming book has a force in the manner
which would not discredit Thackeray. ' Martello Tower's ' fun is
irresistible, and the volume gives an admirable insight into the interior
economy of ships of war of the time. This deeply interesting and
wholly attractive book is an autobiography of the best." — Navy and
Army Illustrated.
" The pages are full of most excellent description, and of very
racy and characteristic humour. It is a perfect gallery of characters
which would do no discredit to Marryat. Delightful reading, ex
tremely interesting." — Army and Navy Gazette.
"A thoroughly interesting, enjoyable, and instructive book." —
Glasgow Herald.

Press Notices — continued

" Has all the breezy eloquence of a sailor's yarn, and is brimful of
good stories. The picture of the tragedies and humours of the siege
of Sebastopol are as brilliant as any that have been written." —
Scotsman. "A book — delightful in its transparent genuineness. Of life in
the trenches there is an excellent account, and the whole story,
which is of engrossing interest, is told with the frank simplicity
which has the great charm of endearing an unknown author to his
reader." — Morning Post.
" Nothing in this racy, well-written narrative that can offend any
one — the pages enlighten us in the pleasantest and most diverting
fashion as to the manners and customs and phenomena of the sea
. . . author gives a fresh interest to the ever-stirring story (of the
Crimean War). . . . We heartily commend the volume to the attention
of our readers." — Daily Chronicle.
"The Harrow part of the work is valuable . . . the most im
portant part the Crimean experiences. The author seems to have
been very observant, and tells his story in a clear and concise fashion,
which enables him to indulge in a faculty for description, so that
when dealing with the events of 1853-55 the volume possesses a
historical value. Glimpses of notable personages form a pleasant
prelude to this eminently readable book. Before Sebastopol with
the Naval Brigade the author describes his experiences so drama
tically that the scenes rise up fresh before the eyes of those old
campaigners in the Crimea in whose hands the reminiscences have
been placed. It is impossible to give an adequate idea of the varied
and instructive information contained in this composite work within
the scope of a review." — Pall Mall Gazette.
" This volume may truthfully be said to be suitable to readers of
all ages. To boys it will prove of much greater interest, and fuller of
incidents and amusing anecdotes than the majority of boys' books ;
besides which it has the advantage of being a true record of a
youngster's life ' At School and at Sea.' " — Graphic.
" A really amusing book." — Academy.
" Delightful sketches of life in the Navy."— World.
" Altogether a charming book." — Sketch.
" A brightly- written volume.''— Field.
2

Press Notices — continued

"A charming book, which we advise every one to read." —
Engineering. " The book will be found thoroughly enjoyable by real British boys
of all ages from fourteen to eighty-four, or thereabouts."— Liverpool
Post. " A lively volume. One of the most diverting chapters relates to
' fagging ' at Harrow." — Standard.
" Full of pleasant reading. The stories help us to realise what a
fine fellow ashore Jack is, and what splendid service he renders." —
Guardian. " A sequel will be welcome." — Literature.
" The author of this extremely attractive book of 420 pages — and
we would not wish it a page less — hints at a later volume, and we
hope that it will be as fresh and engaging, and as racily anecdotal as
' At School and at Sea.' " — Literary World.
" We have seldom read a more vivid description of the dark ages
in the Crimea." — Standard.
" A charming book of naval recollections." — Western Morning
News. " The naturalness, good feeling, and simplicity of this naval auto
biography are qualities beyond praise, because they are so rare in
books nowadays. With them goes a distinctive humour, and the
narrative is minute in a degree that sometimes resembles ' Robinson
Crusoe.' The story is of the kind that makes boys take to the sea.
We shall await a further instalment of these memoirs with great
interest." — Yorkshire Post.
" The writer pictures life aboard the fleet with a vividness that
would have delighted Marryat." — Leeds Mercury.
" The book gives a first-rate account of life at sea in the middle of
the century. It is full of capital stories excellently told." — Manchester
Courier. " Not a dull page in the book, which is one that can be heartily
commended to both old and young." — Newcastle Daily Journal.
"In many ways this is a remarkable biography . . . brimful of
anecdotes, so busy with constantly shifting scenes and a continual
stream of dramatis persona, that it is capable of withstanding criticism
3

Press Notices — continued

on its merits even as a story. From first to last the book is dis
tinctly worth reading. It provides ' amusement with instruction '
in a happier combination than we have met with for some time."
— Liverpool Mercury.
"This breezy, pleasant, and interesting volume . . . the remini
scences are of special and peculiar interest and value . . . the cadets
and middies of H.M.S. Cuba were a lively lot, and are described with
the liveliness and humour of a Marryat. ... A more vivid impression
of the great battle of Inkerman is made on the mind by ' Martello
Tower's ' two pages of description than by all the painfully elaborate
detail of Kinglake." — Manchester City News.
" Capital reading, as is all the book, the last chapters are of ab
sorbing interest." — Navy League Journal.
" The author half hints at a continuation, and we hope he will
some day carry out his intentions." — Naval and Military Record.
" Most entertaining. There is much of interest in the glimpses of
life at Sydney fifty years ago." — Sydney Morning Herald.
". . . Is enlivened with many stories, and here and there the
author finds the opportunity of unpretentiously conveying instruction
on many points upon which other books fail to give enlightenment
when most we feel the need of it." — Daily Malta Chronicle.