6 STORY OF A CHINAMAN. [Cuar. I. 
the military officers, that, when the whole fleet of 
sailing vessels and steamers went up the Yang-tse- 
Kiang in 1842, many of the agricultural labourers 
on the banks of the river used to hold up their 
heads for a few seconds, and look with a kind of 
stupid gaze upon our noble fleet; and then quietly 
resume their labours, as if the thing was only an 
every day occurrence, and they had seen it a 
thousand times before. When the ‘ Medusa” 
steamer went up the Shanghae river for several 
miles above the city, the river became so narrow 
that they had some difficulty in finding a place 
wide enough to allow the steamer to come round. 
A peasant was standing on the bank smoking his 
pipe, and looking on with the most perfect un- 
concern when, the helm being put down, the little 
vessel in coming round shot right across the stream, 
and came in contact with the bank, just under the 
- very feet of the Chinaman. The shock was of course 
considerable, and the man who all at once seemed 
to awake from a trance, set off in the utmost 
terror, like an arrow, across the fields, without once 
looking behind him; and, as Captain Hewitt who 
related the story, remarked, for any thing he knew, 
the man was running until this day! Many of the 
Chinese are of course very different characters from 
those I have just described; and are as active men 
as you find in any part of the world: but the 
above are striking features in the character of the 
inhabitants of the northern parts of the country 
which I have had an opportunity of visiting. 
