J52 VOYAGE TO THE 



and having satisfied himself on this knotty point shook 

 us by the hand and said, " well, I speakee mandarin, 

 to-morrow come water ; Doo Chooman no want pay : 

 fife day you go away." " That," I returned, " will 

 depend upon the health of the sick, who must be al- 

 lowed to land and walk about." I then desired him 

 to tell the mandarin, that to-morrow I should go on 

 shore and wait on him in his own house. An-yah, 

 alarmed lest the threat might be carried into execu- 

 tion, hastily exclaimed, " No, no, I speakee mandarin, 

 mans go shore, walk about, no go house — no go 

 house." Thus by threatening to do more than was 

 intended, we obtained a tacit consent to that which we 

 wanted without much chance of giving offence. Un- 

 willing to give him any further uneasiness, I permitted 

 him to go, requesting he would deliver to the manda- 

 rin an invitation to visit the ship, which he promised 

 to do ; and seating himself and his companions on the 

 mat in the boat, he sculled on shore to the musical 

 chorus of " ya-ha-me-shawdy." 



Our decks were by this time crowded with spectators, 

 who had been coming off in boat loads. The place did 

 not appear to afford many of these conveyances, and 

 they had to go backwards and forwards between the 

 ship and the shore a great many times, always singing 

 their boat songs as they sculled themselves along. 

 Our visiters had paid us the compliment of putting 

 on their best attire, all of which was made of the grass- 

 cloth in the manner before described ; the colours 

 were various, but mostly blue. 



The utmost good breeding was manifested by every 

 one of them, not only in scrupulously making their 

 bow when they entered and quitted the ship, but in 

 not allowing their curiosity to carry them beyond 



