1827. 



170 VOYAGE TO THE 



come down, the evolution produced a little surprise, 

 and must have impressed the Loo Chooans with the 

 May, decided advantag-e of our dress over theirs, where ac- 

 tivity is required, Ojee, one of the party, who also 

 styled himself Jeema, and is mentioned by Captain 

 Hall, followed, and then the rest of the mandarins in 

 yellow hatchee-matchecs and gowns. 



To persons who had visited a fine English frigate, 

 disciplined by one of the ablest officers in the British 

 Navy, the Blossom could have presented nothing 

 extraordinary ; and as the greater part of our visiters 

 were familiar with the Alceste, they were very little 

 interested in what they saw ; but Ching-oong-choo 

 had not been long from Pekin, and never, probably, 

 having put his foot on the deck of a ship before, a 

 Chinese junk excepted, examined every thing very at- 

 tentively, and made many inquiries about the guns, 

 powder, and shot. 



None of the natives offered to seat themselves in the 

 cabin in the presence of the mandarin until dinner 

 was brought in, but they then dispensed with forma- 

 lities, and those who were familiar with European 

 customs chinchinned each other with wine, and re- 

 versed their glasses each time, to the great amuse- 

 ment of their superior. During dinner the fate of 

 Madera was inquired into, but we got no satisfactory 

 answer, and a mystery seemed to hang over his fate, 

 which made us suspect he had in some way or other 

 been disgraced. Jeema took the opportunity of show- 

 ing he recollected his visits to the Alceste and Lyra, 

 but he did not make any inquiry after his friends in 

 either vessel. 



As we had lately been at Canton, we were provided 

 with many things which were happily to the taste of 



