MORE CRUISING AFTER PIRATES. 337 



what amount of damage would be done to the gun-boat, 

 and how I should manage to get back to Hong-Kong, a 

 hundred and fifty miles off, when suddenly I saw the 

 little vessel was moving up to her anchors. I imme- 

 diately stopped the engines, and in less than ten 

 minutes from that time it was perfectly calm. Both 

 anchors were at once weighed, and steaming out to the 

 centre of the bay, I let them both go to the westward, 

 veering nearly all my cable out, and keeping steam up 

 ready to move the engines at any moment. The wind 

 had left off at east north-east. In an hour or so a 

 sound like steam being blown out of a boiler was heard 

 to the westward, and immediately afterwards the gun- 

 boat was struck by a furious gust from that direction, 

 from which quarter it blew for some hours as hard as 

 ever, the barometer all the time going up. The centre 

 was, however, past, and towards noon I was able to get 

 under weigh and proceed on my journey. 



The word " Typhoon '' is of Chinese derivation, and 

 means " mother of winds,"— a very good and signifi- 

 cant designation. Typhoon, cyclone, and humcane are 

 all synonymous for circular storms or gales of wind, 

 which, in my opinion, have all the same origin, and 

 all the same purpose to fulfil, — the restoration of the 

 atmospheric equilibrium, which has become disturbed. 



