f Shinto deities, passed in endless procession before the
mind's eye. The oddities and the local color in Shanghai, Hongkong,
and Canton; the soothing motion of palanquins; the sloping-eyed,
yellow complexioned and pig-tailed people of China; a devastating
cyclone encountered in the Yellow Sea, and the wondrous sunset which
followed it; the gyrating waterspout which was seen off the Gulf of
Siam, a not infrequent experience where so many active currents of
wind and water meet; the many living pictures well-remembered of the
islands of the Malay Archipelago engraven upon the brain at Singapore,
Borneo, Sumatra, Penang, and Java, the latter containing more active
and extinct volcanoes than any other known region,--all these seemed
very real, though only silently rehearsed in dreamland.

Soon after leaving the straits and gaining the broad ocean, a brief
but heavy gale of wind was encountered, which created for some hours a
most boisterous sea. On the morning after the storm, a foremast hand
was sent over the starboard bow to make fast some gearing which had
become loosened by the gale. Almost immediately afterward, the cry of
"Man overboard!" rang fore and aft the ship. A wide-awake passenger
who happened to be standing near the taffrail instantly took a knife
from his pocket, and cutting loose a life-buoy which was fastened to
the starboard quarter ratline, promptly threw it towards the man in
the water as he floated away from the ship. The sailor saw it, and
being a good swimmer struck out for and reached it. A moment later, it
was seen that he had succeeded in thrusting his head and arms through
the opening of the sustaining buoy. In the mean time, the captain at
the sound of the ominous cry sprang up the ladder leading to the
bridge, and took personal charge of the ship, sending the first
officer, whose watch it happened to be, to superintend the lowering of
a quarter-boat to rescue the unfortunate seaman if possible. There was
no flurry, no confusion among the crew. Not a word was spoken except
by the officers. The silence of discipline was supreme. A sailor was
promptly ordered into the shrouds to keep run of the man, who was soon
out of sight from the deck, so rough was the intervening water. The
quarter-boat was lowered from the davits, and was afloat in less than
three minutes after the order was issued, with six stout seamen at the
oars and the first officer in the stern. What a mere cockle-shell it
appeared in