FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



At Laokay we left the steamer. From here we were to 

 proceed in a junk retained for us by M. Dupont. But the 

 boatmen declared, not without reason, that two junks with sixteen 

 men were necessary for such heavy cargoes over some of the 

 rapids. So we had to wait another day and a second junk, and 

 twenty-four hours were cut to waste in this our first encounter 

 with the Chinese. I warned my companions that they would 

 have to lay in a stock of patience before dealing with the 

 Celestial. They soon learned the justice of my remarks. 



The mandarin of Song - Phong sent us his card, with a 

 demand that we should pass the custom - house and submit our 

 passports to his scrutiny ; adding that he would then furnish us 

 with a guard of soldiers. Our answer was the same to both 

 demand and offer : we were in French waters just as much as 

 Chinese, and wanted nothing. 



The morning of the 7th February saw us under way on two 

 junks, each about 80 feet long ; the crews were ranged fore and 

 aft, the rudder was formed of large spliced spars, and the waist of 

 the vessel was covered in with hatches. Poling was our chief mode 

 of progression ; and this the men performed adroitly and in time. 

 Whenever it served we took advantage of the wind. A husje rect- 

 angular sail was hoisted upon a couple of masts, stepped in the 

 shape of an inverted V, to catch the least breeze, for which the 

 men continually whistled. We were told that, dependent on its 

 being favourable or the reverse, the voyage would occupy three 

 days or a fortnight. 



yEolus was happily propitious, and we sailed along at a fair 



pace. The crew was composed for the most part of hybrid Chinese 



or Mann mountaineers, neighbours of the Thos, and wearing the 



Chinese pigtail and blouse. I used to chat with them of an evening 



10 



