Chap. XIII. 



ADVENTURE WITH PIRATES. 



291 



at anchor there are numerous Chinese " men-of-^ 

 war " ( ! ) manned and armed for the service of 

 their country. 



Many of the boats which had weighed anchor 

 as we passed Chinghae put about and went back 

 to their anchorage. The little " Erin," however, 

 with several others, stood boldly onwards in the 

 direction of the piratical fleet, and were soon in 

 the midst of it. At this time some of them were 

 engaged in capturing a Shantung junk which had 

 fallen into the trap they had laid for her. We 

 were so near some of the others that I could dis- 

 tinctly see the features of the men, and what they 

 were doing on the decks of their vessels. They 

 seemed to be watching us very narrowly, and in 

 one vessel the crew were getting their guns to 

 bear upon our boat. They were perfectly quiet, 

 however ; no hooting or yelling was heard, and as 

 these are the usual preludes to an attack it was 

 just possible they were prepared to act on the 

 defensive only. 



The whole scene was in the highest degree 

 exciting ; their guns were manned, the torch was 

 ready to be applied to the touchhole, and any 

 moment we might be saluted with a cannon-ball 

 or a shower of grape. Our gallant little boat, 

 however, kept on her way, nor deviated in the 

 slightest degree from her proper course. The 

 steersman stood fast to the helm, the master — 

 Andrew, a brave Swede — walked on the top of 

 the house which was built over three-parts of the 



X 



