e up with me to
Canton, to look at the several factory sites. In their usual way they
have been dictating the choice of a site to me, abusing me for not
fixing upon it; and I found out that very few of them had even taken
the trouble of looking at the ground. In short I found that, in my
short visits, I had seen a great deal more of the sites than they had
done, who live constantly on the spot, and are personally interested
in the matter. I started from Hong-Kong yesterday morning, and to-day
I went over the ground with them. The rain poured, and I got a good
wetting.... As I was starting from the town in a gunboat to rejoin my
ship, I met the military and naval expedition, which has been absent
for more than two weeks, returning. I had not time to communicate with
the officers, but they seemed in good spirits. It is a curious wind-up
of this most eventful mission, that as I am starting from China, I
should meet an Anglo-French force returning from a pacific invasion
into the very heart of the province of Kwan-tung!--the _pepiniere_ of
the Canton Braves, of whom we have heard so much.

_March 4th.--Eleven A.M._--I have been calculating that if Frederick
does not leave England till the mail of the 25th of February, I may,
by pushing on, catch him at Galle. This would be a great point. I must
push on and take my chance.

[Sidenote: Pulo Sapata.]

_March 8th._--We are passing Pulo Sapata, a bald, solitary rock,
standing in the midst of the China Sea, the resort of seafowl, as is
indicated by its guano-like appearance. There it stands day after day,
and year after year, affronting the scorching beams of this tropical
sun. All ships pass by it between Singapore and China. So I am looking
at it for the fourth time--the last time, we may hope. We have made
fully 200 miles a day--a great deal for this ship.

_March 10th._--We are now very near the Line, and the breeze has
nearly failed us; so you may imagine we are not very cool, but we hope
to reach Singapore to-morrow. These Tropics are very charming when
they do not broil one; and I passed a pleasant hour last night on the
top of the paddle-box, with a balmy air floating over my face from the
one side, a crescent moon playing hide-and-seek behind a cloud on the
other, and right above me a legion of bright stars, shining through
the at