68 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



accident, were not permitted to show us the light of 

 their countenances, but a few elderly female servants 

 and some small girls moved freely about. There 

 were a couple of cooks in the establishment, several 

 male hewers of wood and drawers of water, a school- 

 master, an apothecary who retailed drugs for the family 

 and neighbourhood, a few poor relative's who assumed 

 the dignity of retainers, a carpenter, and a herd or 

 two employed in looking after buffaloes and bullocks. 

 About two hundred yards from our residence there 

 was a still larger wai, containing about two hundred 

 people, belonging to Wong Kum Sau, a brother, by 

 adoption, of our excellent host. I have called this 

 gentleman a ruffian, because we discovered that it was 

 he who had instigated the attack upon my companion 

 at Tam-shui, and there was in his possession some of 

 the plunder that was then taken. He actually had 

 the audacity to show us a bottle of rare Dutch bitters 

 that must have been stolen on that occasion, and to 

 ask us if it was good to drink ; for it must not be 

 supposed that we betrayed any knowledge of his 

 previous deeds. Wong Kum Sau was a man of the 

 world. When he found that we were under the 

 protection of the Governor-General at Canton, and 

 benefiting A Shui by our stay at Kum-tow-lek, his 

 entire system of tactics was changed. Instead of 

 inciting assaults, he overwhelmed us with kindness. 

 He was constantly asking us to dinner ; almost every 

 day brought from him a present of wine or fruit ; and 



