CRUISING AFTER PIRATES. 279 



uukaowii and unvisited except by myself, or an occa- 

 sional other gunboat. There was no commerce, neither 

 port nor town existing of sufficient size to excite trade, 

 excepting perhaps Hoihou, the chief town of Hainan. 

 The anchorage there, however, is very bad, being merely 

 a roadstead, and to get to it numerous dangerous 

 shoals have to be passed. Islands and shoal water 

 stretch a long way out from the main coast line, 

 forming at all times innumerable safe retreats. Eough 

 sketches of the coast have been taken at different times, 

 but to this day it remains unsurveyed. 



The island of Hainan is 300 miles round, and the 

 length of the other coasts which I have mentioned 

 would amount to, roundly, 400 miles. The whole of 

 this considerable extent of coast was, in the days I am 

 speaking of, entirely at the disposal of these lawless 

 Chinamen. 



I was lying at my anchorage in Hong-Kong har- 

 bour one day ; a fine large opium junk, armed to the 

 teeth with a dozen 1 2 to 18 pounder guns on board, and 

 a crew of about forty-five men lay close to me. 



In the afternoon a number of passengers went on 

 board her. These people intended taking advantage 

 of the security afforded by such a vessel — supposed 

 security would perhaps be more applicable. At any 

 rate, when an opium junk was about to proceed up the 



