292 SHOOTING IN CHINA 



who must have brought the gunboat's 

 captain's claims to recognition by the local 

 officials, for when a year later I was in the 

 Kashing district, the man called upon me 

 in my boat and told me that he had good 

 promotion in consequence of the assistance 

 he had rendered me, at which news I was 

 glad indeed. 



It is not often that one gets deserted by 

 one's coolies when up country. Only twice 

 have I been in this predicament. In 1897 

 I was away with a friend in his houseboat. 

 His laodah was a bad one and the crew, on 

 this occasion, a superlatively miserable lot. 

 Our trip never extended beyond the fifty 

 mile radius and yet we got left in the lurch. 

 We were in the Nakong creek. The laodah 

 came into the cabin to inform us that we 

 proceed no further as there was not sufficient 

 water. To prove to him that there was 

 water and to spare my companion and I, 

 with the assistance of the boy and the cook, 

 poled the boat some 10 /z, when we landed 

 for a short shoot. On our return at dusk 

 we were told that the crew had " levanted," 

 and as we could get no assistance until we 

 reached Nakong village, we tracked the 

 boat ourselves in a blinding sleet storm. If 



