A Dinner at Whampoa's. — Fatal Accident. 1 73 



little afraid of Sherry as of Champagne. Indeed, we even 

 had toasts, in the course of which this Chinese friend to 

 foreigners remarked in English, that any amelioration of the 

 present critical condition of his native land, can only be 

 effected by the progressive influence of the British govern- 

 ment. Whampoa is in all probability the first Chinese who 

 has sent his son to Europe. 



On the very last day of our stay in Singapore, a melancholy 

 accident occurred on board. One of our sailors named Rossi, 

 while unbending a sail for the purpose of repair, fell from 

 the fore-yard on the forecastle, where he lay insensible, and 

 died a few hours afterwards. Latterly repeated instances 

 had occurred at short intervals, of the sailors, while work- 

 ing at various elevations, losing hold and falling on deck, 

 but none of these had had such a tragical result as the pre- 

 sent, and a few slight injuries was all the penalty the sufferers 

 received for their carelessness. Singularly enough, such ac- 

 cidents mostly occur to the able seamen, because that class 

 usually feel themselves as secure while resting on the foot- 

 ropes, and working among the masts and sails, as on the 

 ground itself, and from their carelessness come much more 

 frequently to grief, than their comrades less experienced in 

 manoeuvring among the cordage. Rossi was reverently com- 

 mitted to the earth in the Catholic burying-ground of Singa- 

 pore, and arrangements were at the same time made for the 

 erection of a small grave-stone over his distant resting-place, 



