to afternoon
tea on board the yacht. There was just time to dress before the first
visitors arrived, and by half-past six at least two hundred had come.
At one time quite a flotilla of boats lay around us, looking very
pretty with all their flags flying. I think the people enjoyed it very
much as something new, and we only wanted a band to enliven the
proceedings.

_Tuesday, March 6th_.--The little girls and I went ashore at 7.30, to
collect all our purchases with the help of a friend. We glanced at the
museum too, which contains some curious specimens of Chinese and
Japanese arms and armour, and the various productions of the two
countries, besides many strange things from the Philippine and other
islands. I was specially interested in the corals and shells. There
were splendid conch shells from Manilla, and a magnificent group of
Venus flower-baskets, dredged from some enormous depth near Manilla.
There were also good specimens of reptiles of all sorts, and of the
carved birds' heads for which Canton is famous. They look very like
amber, and are quite as transparent, being carved to a great depth. I
believe the bird is a kind of toucan or hornbill, but the people here
call it a crane.

It was now time to say good-bye to Hongkong and to our kind friends,
for we had to go on board the 'Flying Cloud,' which starts for Macao
at two o'clock precisely, and our passages had been taken in her. Tom
could not go with us, as he had fixed to-night for the dinner at which
the Chinese gentlemen proposed to entertain him; but he came to see us
off. We went out of the harbour by a different way, and passed along a
different side of the island of Hongkong, but the scenery was not
particularly interesting. Off Choolong a heavy ground-swell, called
'Pon choughai,' made us roll about most unpleasantly. In bad weather,
or with a top-heavy ship, this passage could not be attempted.
Sometimes there are very heavy fogs, and always strong currents, so
that the short voyage of forty-two miles is not absolutely free from
danger.

The town of Macao is situated on a peninsula at the end of the island
of the same name. It was the first foreign settlement in China
belonging to the Portuguese, and was once a fine, handsome town, with
splendid buildings. Unfortunately Macao lies in the track of the
typhoons, which at times sweep over it with a resistless force,
shattering and smashing everything in their career. These constantly
recurring storm