ling hair, and a complexion which would have been fair had it
not been thoroughly tanned by the sun. He had polished manners, great
primness, and was a thorough seaman. He had once been in the Royal
Navy; but had left the service for some reason, which he did not explain
to me, and was now engaged in the opium trade, or, in other words, he
smuggled opium into China. At first I was much pleased with him; but
when I came to be more thoroughly acquainted with him, I found that I
could not approve of the principles which guided him, or many of the
acts he committed without compunction. I have, however, seldom met any
one who, at first sight, was more likely to win confidence and regard.
I have frequently met people like him; and I consider them much more
dangerous companions than men with inferior manners and education. His
first officer was a dark, large-whiskered, tall man, with an expression
of countenance not in any way prepossessing--he was called Mr Laffan.
He was a bold seaman, and not without education. The second mate was a
young man of very active and enterprising disposition, and who, I think,
was formed for better things than to serve in an opium smuggler. There
was an important officer on board who was called the gunner, though his
duties were similar to those of a boatswain; he was of Portuguese
descent, a native of Macao, though as dark as an Indian. He was
especially placed over the Lascars, of whom we had twelve on board. The
rest of the crew were Europeans, or of European parentage--mostly
English--all picked men, and of tried courage: such qualities were
necessary, for, in the prosecution of their lawless trade, they often
had to fight their way through the Chinese junks sent to capture them.
We were some time getting down the river, for the wind was too light to
enable us to stem the tide, and we therefore had to anchor during each
flood. It consequently took us five days before we got down to Diamond
Harbour. Weighing at daylight the next morning, we got a little below
the Silvertree, where we anchored. The next day we passed Kedgeree, and
anchored in Saugur Roads; furled sails, and veered to forty fathoms. On
the following day we passed the Torch, the floating light vessel, which
is moored in the eastern channel of the tail of the Saugur sand, for the
purpose of guiding vessels up the river during both monsoons. When we
once more got into blue water, I felt that I had really commenced my
un