268 WHALING AND FISHING. 



keep the groceries and groggeries of the town and 

 have a keen eye to all kinds of trade. Frugal, 

 not too honest, and exceedingly clannish, they are 

 to a man in comfortable circumstances. It is 

 common remark in the Mauritius, that a Chinese 

 beggar was never seen there. If a poor China 

 man comes to the colony, his countrymen give 

 him employment, and place him above want. 

 They do not intermarry with the other races, but 

 procure for themselves wives from China. 



A singular story is told of their once entering 

 lie vault beneath the bank building in Port Louis, 

 by undermining the street leading to it. A large 

 amount of bullion was abstracted ere the plot was 

 discovered; and for some time no trace could be 

 found of the robbers. The Chinese burying 

 ground is below the barracks, in the lower part 

 of the harbor. Thither, one morning, just at the 

 break of day, a company of Celestials were seen 

 conveying a coffin. A Chinese funeral was noth- 

 ing strange ; but the sentry noticed that the body 

 seemed to be remarkably heavy, causing a fre- 

 quent stoppage and change of bearers. 



As the guard was relieved, the man on duly 

 remarked, jokingly, that a fat Chinaman was being 

 taken to his long home. To the~ serges it the 

 movement seemed suspicious, and he at once pro- 

 ceeded to the funeral cortege, who at his coming 

 precipitately fled, leaving the suppositions corpse 

 to its fate. Upon breaking open the coffin, instead 

 of a dead Chinaman, it was found to contain the 



