A CYCLONE. 39 



to them a proof that their captains have followed a straight course, and that the San 

 Francisco boat has crossed, without any accident, a third of the Pacific. The passengers 

 gladly avail themselves of this precious opportunity to write to their friends. For the 

 captains themselves it is a question of honour. They like to show their skill in this way, 

 and their cleverness in being able, despite the variable and imperfectly-understood currents 

 of the Pacific, to make a straight course across this enormous sheet of water. 



" July 8. At five o'clock in the morning the second officer rushed into my cabin 

 'The America* is in sight!' I throw on my clothes and tumble on deck. The morning 

 is beautiful, and this colossal steamer, the largest after the Great Eastern, draws near 

 majestically. The usual salutes are exchanged, and the America's gig brings us an extract 

 from their log, the list of the passengers, the newspapers from Hong-Kong, Shanghai, and 

 Yokohama, and, which is essential, takes charge of our letters for America and Europe. 

 A few moments after she resumes her course. What a grand and imposing sight ! At six 

 o'clock she has already disappeared behind the horizon. At the moment of meeting we had 

 run exactly 1,500 miles that is, half the distance between England and New York." 



The China encountered a cyclone, or rather the outer edge of one, which is graphically 

 described by Hiibner. He says : " At this moment the ocean was really magnificent. In 

 the boiling sea the foam was driven horizontally towards the east. The water was 

 positively inky, with here and there whitish gleams of light. The sky was iron-grey; 

 to the west a curtain of the same colour, but darker. The thermometer was still falling 

 rapidly. In the air above the waves I suddenly saw a cloud of white flakes ; they were 

 little bits of Joss paper which the Chinese were throwing into the sea to appease their 

 gods. I passed before the open door of the engineer ; he was watering his plants. The 

 passengers were all gathered together in the saloon. Some of them were moved almost 

 to tears. At twelve o'clock the sky cleared a little, and the faces brightened considerably. 

 I have often remarked that people when in danger, whether real or imaginary, are 

 like children; the slightest thing wilt make them laugh or cry. The Bombay master- 

 baker, the Chinese merchant, and the two Japanese, struck me by their imperturbability 

 The first whispered in my ear, 'The company is very unwise to have a Chinese crew; 

 the Malays are much better. Chinese sailors are scared at the least danger, and would 

 be the first to make off in the lifeboats.' Fung-Tang has an equally bad opinion of 

 his fellow-countrymen. He says to me, ( Chinese good men, very good ; bad sailors, very 

 bad!' I reply, 'If we go to the bottom, what will become of Fung-Tang?' He replies, 

 ' If good, place above ; if bad, below stairs, punished.' 



"July 20. In the middle of the night the ocean suddenly calme'l The China has got 

 out of the region of the cyclone. The weather is delicious ; the sea like glass. But at 



* This fine vessel while lying at anchor in the roadstead of Yokohama, on the 24th of August, 1872, 

 was destroyed by fire. In seven minutes after the first flames were discovered the ship from stem to 

 stern was one sheet of flame. At the last moment the captain, terribly burnt, threw himself in the water 

 and was rescued. Three Europeans and sixty Chinamen were either burnt to death or drowned. The 

 Chinese, determined not to lose their savings, dawdled a little, and then threw themselves all together on a 

 ladder, which broke with their weight. The gold found on their corpses proved that not one had returned 

 poor from California. It is needless to say that Hiibner's description of the size of the America is incorrect. 



