CHAPTER vni. 
HOW WE TALKED OF ‘‘VISITING PEKIN BY WATER,” AND HOW THE “OLD 
JOHN” AND COOPER WERE PRESSED INTO THE CORPS DIPLOMATIQUE 
HOW AN OLD TUB AMUSED HERSELF BY ROLLING HER MASTS OUT, 
AND HOW A NEW-YORK PILOT-BOAT WEATHERED A GALE IIOW WB 
VISITED THE GREAT CITY OF FOU-CIIOW-FOO, AND HOW WE SAW 
CORMORANTS CATCHING PISH. 
There was a great talk in IIong-Kong about this time 
as to the possibility of a commissioner going to Pekin in 
person and obtaining an interview with the brother of 
the sun and moon, — the celestial Ileinfung, — the Emperor 
of all the Chinas. The object of this desired interview 
was to put into the Imperial ear certain proposals, &c. 
which could never reach it in writing, or which, reaching, 
would never be acted upon, from the fact that the man- 
darins or rebels would stop the despatches, or that the 
former would influence the Celestial mind against the 
proposals of the encroaching ‘‘Fanqui,” or barbarians, as 
all foreigners are contemptuously called in China. 
Many were the schemes projected and abandoned to 
attain this important interview, until it was finally deter- 
mined to try and reach Pekin by water. Pekin was situated 
near the Pi-ho River, and the Pi-ho River emptied into 
the Gulf of Pichili, and the Gulf of Pichili in turn 
emptied into the Yellow Sea: why might not vessels-of- 
war go to the mouth of the Pi-ho, and from there de- 
spatch boats, or even smaller vessels, upon a visit to the 
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