342 ANECDOTE. 



It has been said that formerly it was dangerous 

 in England to inform a fellow-traveller of having 

 just arrived from Botany Bay, as he will soon 

 shun your acquaintance ; but visitors from that 

 country must, after the following anecdote, stand 

 a worse chance in the celestial empire. A ship 

 arriving at China from Australia, the com- 

 mander, when asked by the Chinese where 

 the ship came from, jocosely answered, "From 

 New South Wales, where all the English thieves 

 are sent." The inhabitants of the empire, 

 taking the joke seriously, reported this and every 

 other ship which arrived from that country 

 to the mandarin as " ship from thiefo country : 

 one thiefo captain, three thiefo officers, twenty- 

 five thiefo crew." And when the Hooghly ar- 

 rived with the late governor of New South 

 Wales, it was — " One thiefo viceroy of thiefo 

 country, with several thiefo attendants." The 

 thiefo viceroy's lady landing at Macao, was not 

 reported to the mandarin. 



One afternoon, a party was formed for a fish- 

 ing excursion in Port Jackson : we took a seine 

 with us, and pulled out to a fine bay or cove, 

 called " Chowder Bay," a picturesque little spot, 

 ind not far distant in the harbour from the north 

 head at the entrance of Port Jackson. On the 

 seine being hauled, immense numbers of the 



