ClIAP. I. 
FEAR OF THIEVES. 
13 
up my mind to stay there all that night, and a more 
disagreeable one I never spent. After dark my servants 
and the boatmen told stories of celebrated pirates and 
robbers, until they frightened themselves, and almost 
made me believe myself to be in dangerous company. 
The mnd was very high, and, as it whistled amongst the 
ruinous ramparts, the sound was dismal enough ; and 
what added still more to our discomfort, the rain beat 
through the roof of our boat, and kept dripping upon 
our beds. 
Before retiring to sleep it had been arranged that my 
coolie and one of the boatmen were to sit and keep 
watch during the night for our protection from thieves. 
The coolie's station was inside the boat, where I was, 
and the other man was to keep watch in the after-part 
of the boat, where the cooking department was carried 
on. How long these sentries kept watch I cannot tell, 
but when I awoke, some time before the morning 
dawned, the dangers of the place seemed to be com- 
pletely forgotten, except perhaps in their dreams, for I 
found them sound asleep. The other men were also 
sleeping heavily, and no one seemed to have harmed us 
during our slumbers. I now roused the whole of them, 
and, the morning being fine, we proceeded on our journey 
towards the city of Hang-chow-foo. 
During this three days' journey we had been passing 
through a perfectly level country, having seen only 
three or four small hills near the city of Sung-kiang-foo. 
Now, however, the scene began to change, and the hills 
which gird this extensive plain on the west and south- 
west sides came into view. We passed a town named 
