DEATH OF AN OPIUM SMOKER. 195 



men, were encamped under a tent near it to make regular observations. The rise and fall of 

 the tide during the stay of the vessels had averaged about six feet. 



All arrangements having been finally made for a temporary absence, on the morning of the 

 9th of June the Susquehanna got under way for the Bonin Islands, having the Saratoga in tow. 



The Mississippi and Supply were left at Napha, and the Commodore enjoined on Commander 

 Lee, the senior officer, to cultivate the most friendly relations with the islanders, exer- 

 cising all possible forbearance and kindness in his intercourse with the authorities and people, 

 and to be careful to permit none but the most orderly persons to go on shore, lest some untoward 

 event should mar the harmony then happily subsisting. 



Passing through the southern channel the Susquehanna rounded Abbey Point, and took a 

 Bouthern course around the extremity of the island. This end of the island, though hilly and 

 picturesque, did not appear to be either so fertile or so well cultivated as the eastern and 

 western shores. In the course of the afternoon Lew Chew sank beneath the horizon, and the 

 ship held on her course, east by north, at the rate of eight knots an hour. At first she had a 

 light wind from the southwest, which soon died away ; but presently she came within the influ- 

 ence of the monsoon, which filled her sails; the drawing sails of both ships were set, and though 

 the steamer had the Saratoga in tow, and used but three of her boilers, she made nine and a 

 half knots. 



The southwest monsoon still continuing, good progress was made, notwithstanding a strong 

 current from the eastward ; and nothing occurred to interrupt the uniformity of sea life on 

 board, save an event which interrupts the current of life itself alike on ship and shore. There 

 was a death on board the Susquehanna. When Mr. Williams came from China to join the 

 squadron, at Lew Chew, as interpreter, he brought with him an old Chinaman who had been 

 his teacher, and who, it was supposed, might be useful in future operations ; but it was very 

 soon apparent that the old man's race was nearly run. He was a victim to the habit of opium 

 smoking, which he was attempting to abandon. The consequences of this effort, and the eifects 

 of sea sickness on board the Saratoga, jirostrated him so completely that no medicines had any 

 effect, and he sank into a state of nervelessness and emaciation painful to look upon. For a 

 week before his death his condition had been most pitiable : every joint in his skeleton frame 

 seemed to be in perpetual motion ; his face was a ghastly yellow ; his cheeks sunken on the 

 bones; the eyes wild and glassy; and his mind in a state of semi-madness. Death, when it 

 came, was a relief to the poor old man, as well as to those who saw him die. On the day after 

 his decease the ship presented that striking picture, a funeral at sea. The Commodore and 

 other officers stood around, with a large part of the crew, while the chaplain committed his 

 body to the deep until the day come when "the earth and the sea shall give up their dead." 



A more frightful example of the terrible effects of the use of opium it would be difficult to 

 find. It exceeded in horror all the loathsome and repulsive results of the use of intoxicatino- 

 drinks. Delirium tremens is horrible enough, but the last scene of this old opium smoker was 

 more horrible still. There was something revolting also in the conduct of the Chinese on board 

 the ship. They manifested not the least sympathy with their dying countryman. For a day 

 or two before he died, not one of them, with the exception of one of the Commodore's servants 

 would go near him; and on the last night of his life, when two of the deck coolies had been 

 ordered by the captain to remain in the room, and were obliged to obey, they squatted down in 

 the corner most remote from him, and never once approached him. Some of the quartermasters 

 gave him what he needed, and were with him when he died. 



