168 COLLECTOR'S RAMBLES 



passengers on board, besides a hundred or more 

 Chinese on their way home. 



I was much interested in the curious kinds of food 

 the Chinese cooked for themselves. Rice seemed to 

 be the principal article ; but soups made of dried 

 hens' eggs, dried celery, dried oysters, dried fish, 

 and dried shrimps, sometimes all together, were eaten 

 with the rice, which made it very palatable. I liked 

 some of the dishes very much, and often had a bowlful 

 of their rice and soup for my dinner. 



Some of the passengers contrived a very ingenious 

 way of stealing a good dinner from the cook-room, 

 now and then. The only cannon on board had a rod 

 with a large steel worm attached to one end, for the 

 purpose of cleaning out the gun ; by passing this rod 

 down the skylight, just above the cook's table, and 

 twisting it into a fowl or a pudding, the whole 

 could be lifted out, and no one be the wiser. 

 What the cook thought became of the fine things 

 he left on his table when he went out, I have no 

 way of knowing. How we used to enjoy those 

 stolen tid-bits ! If any one wants to know how 

 good anything can taste, let him be hungry enough 

 to steal it. 



For entertainment, evenings, we had reading, speak- 

 ing, singing, and story-telling. I happened to have 

 several of Mr. Robert Ingersoll's lectures with me, 

 which the passengers greatly enjoyed, his wit and 



