194 TRAVEL, ADVENTUEE, AND SPORT. 



had the good fortune to be one of the eighty sail 

 of British ships, forming the fleet under Admiral Sir 

 William Parker when he advanced upon Nankin, and 

 drove the first wedge into the rickety civilisation of 

 China. Amongst the many glorious feats of our navy, 

 there is not one superior to that navigation by our 

 large fleet of a great, swift, and unknown stream its 

 ascent for nigh two hundred miles without the loss 

 of a single vessel, although they oftentimes grounded 

 amongst its numerous shoals the carrying out of 

 extensive military operations from no other base than 

 that adventurous fleet. The skill and foresight which 

 had brought together all the elements to ensure perfect 

 success, without being dependent for anything upon 

 the country or people we threw ourselves amongst, 

 marked that admiral as no ordinary leader ; and as 

 we thus, sixteen years subsequently, advanced over the 

 same ground, we could not help feeling proud of 

 having witnessed such an achievement, and that 

 small justice had, after all, been done in our national 

 records to such a triumph of naval skill and audacity. 

 Before that ascent to Nankin by huge sailing line-of- 

 battle ships and clumsy transports, our navigation to 

 the same point in steam-frigates becomes a mere holi- 

 day task ; and we shall not be sufficiently vain to 

 attempt to describe it, beyond stating that we found 

 all the channels and the shoals of the delta to have 

 changed with curious perversity, so that where, in 

 1842, there was deep water, we often found banks, 



