240 



SAIL FOR SHANGHAE. 



Chap. XI. 



battles with the rebel power, and stood out to 

 sea. 



Having steamed rapidly all night, we found 

 ourselves next morning at daybreak not a great 

 distance from the entrance to the Min. It had 

 been a stipulation with the Chinese authorities, 

 when they chartered the vessel, that a messenger, 

 who had been sent over in charge of the money, 

 should be brought back, at least as far as the 

 mouth of the river, in order to report that the 

 sycee had been safely delivered and the conditions 

 of the charter fulfilled. This man, whom I hap- 

 pened to meet afterwards, told me when he made 

 his appearance at Foo-chow the authorities were 

 perfectly astonished, and it was a most difficult 

 matter to convince them that he had been further 

 than the mouth of the river. They had calculated 

 on his being absent a week at the least. 



As we had now completed the contract under- 

 taken with the mandarins in Foo-chow, and there 

 being nothing else to detain the vessel, we steamed 

 rapidly northward for the port of Shanghae. We 

 were favoured with delightful weather for steam- 

 ing ; there was scarcely a ripple on the water all 

 the way, and as our captain knew every nook and 

 corner of the coast, we had a rapid and delightful 

 voyage, which will long be remembered by that 

 brave band of passengers who mounted guard that 

 night at the mouth of the Min. 



It was now spring in the north of China. At 

 this season the weather in the provinces of Kiang- 



