ClIAP. II. 
THE ENGLISH AT NAMOA. 
17 
and the place entirely deserted. Nor was this statement 
at all exaggerated, for, on my return a few months after- 
wards, the change of station had taken place, and not a 
vestige of the Uttle village remained : men, women, and 
children, with their huts, boats, and all that belonged to 
them, had followed the ships, and had again squatted 
opposite to them on the beach. 
The different modes which these people have of ob 
taining a livelihood are really astonishing : with one of 
these I was particularly struck. There are boats of all 
kinds engaged in bringing off stock, such as ducks, 
fowls, and other things, to the ships, but one kind con- 
sisted only of five or six thick pieces of bamboo fastened 
together in the form of a raft, and with this the poor 
fellows paddled along with two oars, the water washing 
all over the raft, and frequently also over its contents. 
The fowls which some of these people brought off were 
in a most pitiable plight, and certainly could not exist 
long in such a state. 
A few months after this time a complaint was made 
to Sir Henry Pottinger, then governor of Hong-kong, by 
the Chinese authorities regarding this state of affairs at 
Namoa. It set forth that the subjects of her Britannic 
Majesty had built houses, made roads, and in fact were 
making another Hong-kong at the island of Namoa, 
which, according to the treaty, they had no right to do. 
The old Chinese admiral, who had shut his eyes to all 
these irregular proceedings, had been removed, and 
another, remarkable for his prowess and bravery in the 
suppression of piracy on that coast ! had been appointed 
to this station, and it was the latter with whom the 
