322 VOYAGE TO THE 



which our visits were made to those islands, was the 

 cause of the sickness of both vessels. The master 

 ml.' °f ^ ne Tuscan informed me that the preceding year 

 his ship's company had been so severely afflicted 

 with disease that he found it necessary to put into 

 Loo Choo, where he was well received, and his peo- 

 ple were treated with the greatest kindness. He 

 was supplied with fresh meat and vegetables daily, 

 without being allowed to make any other payment 

 than that of a chart of the world, which was the only 

 thing the natives would accept. It was, however, 

 not without the usual observance of narrow-minded 

 Chinese policy, that himself and his invalid crew 

 were allowed to set their feet on shore, and even then 

 they were always attended by a party of the natives, 

 and had a piece of ground bordering on the beach 

 fenced off for them. The salute which the Alceste 

 and Lyra had fired on the 25th of October was well 

 remembered by these people, and they had an idea 

 that it was an annual ceremony performed in com- 

 memoration of something connected with the king 

 of England. On the return of this day, during the 

 Tuscan's visit, they concluded that the ship would 

 observe the same ceremony, and looked forward with 

 such anxiety and delight to the event, that the mas- 

 ter of the whaler was obliged to rub up his four pa- 

 tereros, and go through the salute without any inter- 

 mission, as the Loochooans counted the guns as they 

 were fired. 



A few hours after we parted with the Tuscan, we 

 fell in with two other whale ships, neither of which 

 could spare us any provisions. These ships were no 

 doubt fishing down a parallel of latitude, which is a 

 common custom, unless they find a continued scar- 



