106 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



up with rocks, giving the very weighty reason that 

 he had sailed all his life between Macao and Canton ; 

 and he had to be dispossessed of the helm by force. 

 The pressure of the crowd was so great that, if I had 

 given way to it, or yielded to their entreaties, AVG 

 should have run a very fair chance of being squeezed 

 or suffocated to death ; and I was only enabled to retain 

 my position by the fortunate accident that there was 

 a very strong coolie next me, whom I convinced, by 

 sundry pricks with my bowie-knife, that it was more 

 his interest to press outward than to press inward. 

 As the morning was wet, we did not leave till the 

 other passengers had gone, and noticed that they each 

 paid two hundred cash (about tenpence) as their fare, 

 and that each individual cash was handled and ex- 

 amined by the boatmen, so that twenty thousand 

 coins were scrutinised that morning. 



