e streets are narrow, dirty, and ill-paved, but the houses of the
merchants are large and commodious. Besides the Portuguese and Chinese,
there are a large number of English and also American residents. Of
course I had but little time or inclination for visiting the objects
which usually interest strangers. I managed, however, to take a glance
at the Cave of Camoens, the poet of Portugal, where it is said he
composed his immortal _Lusiad_. It is rather a pile of granite rocks
than a cave; and the garden in which it is situated is full of shrubs
and magnificent trees--a romantic spot, fit for a poet's meditations.

After many inquiries, I found that the vessel in which my friends left
Macao had been consigned to a Mr Reuben Noakes, an American merchant;
and to him I accordingly went, in the hopes of gaining some information
to guide me. His counting-house had not an attractive appearance; nor
did I like the expression of countenance of two clerks who were busily
writing in an outer room. When I asked for Mr Noakes, one of them
pointed with the feather of his pen to a door before me, but did not get
up. I accordingly knocked at the door, and was told to come in.

"Well, stranger, what's your business?" was the question asked me by the
occupant of the room, a tall lank man, with a cadaverous countenance.
He was lolling back in an easy chair, with a cigar in his mouth, a jug
and tumbler, containing some potent mixture, by his side, and account
books and papers before him.

Wishing to be as concise as he was in his questions, I asked, without
attempting to look for a chair, (he did not offer me one):--

"Were you the consignee of the _Emu_ brig, which sailed from here last
year, and has not since been heard of?"

"Well, if I was, and what then?" said he.

"I wish to know full particulars about her," I replied.

"By what authority do you ask me?" he said, looking suspiciously from
under his eyebrows.

"I had friends on board her, and wish to know what has become of them,"
I answered.

"Oh, you do, do you? Well, I wish, stranger, I could tell you; good
morning."

I soon saw the sort of man with whom I had to deal.

"Now, to be frank with you, Mr Noakes, I have not come all the way from
Calcutta to Macao to be put off with such an answer as you have given
me," I said, looking him full in the face. "I have determined to learn
what has become of my friends; and if I find them I shall find the brig,
or learn