342 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. XX. 



English lived when the island was in possession of the 

 Queen's troops. 



The large hospital built by the English was still 

 standing, and, being now converted into a kind of 

 customhouse and used for public purposes, I went 

 there to look for quarters during my stay. Here I 

 found an old mandarin, who received me politely, and 

 offered me a room upstairs next to his own. 



This old man was an inveterate opium-smoker. 

 In the evening, when my servant was spreading out 

 my bed, he happened to lay it by the wall next to 

 the old man's room. "You had better not put your 

 master's bed there," said one of the people connected 

 with the office ; "the Loi-ya smokes opium, and makes 

 a disagreeable noise in his sleep." I found this was 

 too true. 



About nine o'clock in the evening the old man 

 lay down in his bed, lighted his little lamp, and began 

 to inhale the fumes of the intoxicating drug. He 

 was smoking, at intervals, until I went to bed, and 

 for some time afterwards. Between one and two 

 o'clock in the morning I was awakened out of a 

 sound sleep by a strange and unusual noise. It was 

 some seconds before I could call to mind where I 

 was or who was my neighbour. At last I remem- 

 bered the warning which my servant had received. 

 The drug had done its work ; the old opium-smoker 

 was evidently asleep and in the land of dreams. His 

 nasal organs were producing most discordant sounds, 

 and it was these and a harsh moaning noise which 

 awoke me. 



