300 CRUISING AFTER PIKATES. 



One girl, as she handed me a cup of tea, begged to 

 be allowed to touch my whiskers, — such articles being 

 scarce, if not wholly wanting, amongst her own 

 countrymen. 



I jokingly asked them, " Who would like to live on 

 board the gun-boat ? " and next morning, rather to my 

 consternation, half-a-dozen of these fair ones came off, 

 got up in all their best robes and cosmetics. The 

 rough but honest old Mandarin accompanied his 

 harem. It was amusing to see these girls, who, I fear, 

 really thought half of them might be chosen to remain 

 on board, trying to make themselves useful at once, by 

 dusting and arranging the different articles in my 

 cabin. 



But adieu we bade them, and started for Hainan, — 

 Mandarin, two war-junks, and gun-boat. 



A hundred miles west of Tienpak, I found a narrow 

 entrance leading through some low sandhills into a 

 spacious basin, which, on steaming across it, proved to 

 be ten miles in width. No signs of junks were to 

 be seen •, but finding the mouth of a large river emptying 

 itself into the north-west corner of the basin, I followed 

 its course seven or eight miles up, passing several 

 earth-batteries on either bank in that distance. Here 

 we came across a large junk loading with oil, and from 



