ClIAP. X. 
OUR SCHOONER AGROUND. 
169 
three fathoms, when, all at once, we felt the bottom of 
the vessel touch the ground, and in two seconds she was 
hard and fast in the mud. The tide was ebbing rapidly 
at the time, and, as one side of the schooner was in 
deeper water, we were obliged to get out all the spare 
planking we had to prop the vessel and prevent her 
from falling over. The next question was, how we were 
to get off when the tide rose. In the course of the after- 
noon we had observed a number of junks astern of us? 
coming up the river and bound for Shanghae. Some of 
these were now within a quarter of a mile, and had dropped 
their anchors until the commencement of the flood tide. 
After some consultation, the captain came to the deter- 
mination of boarding one of them, and getting the 
people to shift their anchoring ground and come a little 
nearer the schooner, so that a rope might be passed from 
the one to the other, and our vessel hauled off when the 
tide was sufficiently high to float her. As I was able to 
speak a little Chinese, I was asked to go in the boat and 
explain what our object was, and likewise to tell them 
that they should be well paid for their trouble. The 
boat's crew armed themselves with cutlasses, and, in 
order to render the business more imposing, the captain 
put on an old uniform which had formerly belonged to a 
naval officer, and with a cocked hat on his head and a 
sword dangling at his side took his seat in the boat. 
The night was dark but fine, and we could just discern 
the masts of the nearest junk. In a few minutes we 
were alongside, and were challenged by the man who 
had the watch upon deck, and who at the same moment, 
seeing we were foreigners, ran to give the alarm, ex- 
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