Chap. II. 
AN OPIUM-SMOKER. 
33 
teapot and lay down to sleep ; but his slumbers were 
not of long duration, and were evidently disturbed by 
strange and frightful dreams. He awoke at last, but it 
was only to renew the dose as before ; and so on from 
day to day. Even in the silent night, when all around 
was sunk in repose, his craving for the stimulant was 
beyond his feeble powers of resistance. Often and often 
during this passage, when I happened to awake during 
the night, I could see his little lamp burning, and could 
smell the sickening fumes as they curled about the roof 
of the boat. 
The effects which the immoderate use of opium had 
produced upon this man were ^f the most melancholy 
kind. His figure was thin and emaciated, his cheeks 
had a pale and haggard hue, and his skin had that 
peculiar glassy polish by which an opium-smoker is 
invariably known. His days were evidently numbered, 
and yet, strange to tell, this man tried to convince 
others, and himself also, that he was smoking medicin- 
ally, and that the use of opium was indispensable to 
his health. As I looked upon him in these moments 
of excitement I could not help feeling what a piteous 
object is man, the lord of Creation, and noblest work 
of God, when sensual pleasures and enjoyments take 
such a hold upon him as they had upon this poor 
opium-smoker. 
During the first day all the passengers looked upon 
me as one of themselves, and I fancied I had become a 
very fair Chinaman ; but my coolie, who was a silly, 
talkative fellow, imagined he was in possession of a 
secret, and doubtless felt the weight of it rather uncom- 
