rsome mass as our iron hull. As we broached to, it became
a matter of holding on to everything, and by everything--eyebrows and
all--especially between decks. Delightful times these for ditty boxes,
crockery, bread barges, and slush tubs; 'tis their only chance for
enjoyment and they make the most of it. Such revelry generally winds up
with a grand crash somewhere in the vicinity of the iron combings to the
hatchways. Any plates left, any basins? Nay, that would be to ask too
much of the potter's art. At length we are put round, and running back
to Manilla under all the canvas we dare shew.

December 31st.--Completed with coal and left on a fresh attempt to
reach Hong Kong, the black and lowering sky suggesting either the
continuation of, or the sequel to, the late stormy weather. Being New
Year's Eve the usual attempt at a tin-pot band was made to make the
night hideous. Setting aside the annoyance of this species of rowdyism
to the less exuberant spirits amongst us, the noise would be most
unseemly with the commander-in-chief on board, and it says much for the
would-be musicians that they saw it in this light.

We reached the northern point of Luzon without mishap, and stood away
with a heavy cross-sea for Hong Kong, arriving on January 4th, 1879.

CHAPTER VII.

"Then Kublai Khan gave the word of command
And they all poured into the Central Land."

HONG KONG.--SOME CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

I suppose there are few amongst us, sailors though we are, who, as boys
at school when reading of China, have never expressed a wish to see that
land for themselves, to say nothing of making the acquaintance of its
quaint old-world people in their very own homes. In my imagination I had
covered its goodly soil with wondrous palaces, all sparkling with
splendour and embellished with all that art could furnish or riches
command. I had peopled its broad plains with bright beautiful forms in
silken attire, amongst whom a love of the elegant and the beautiful
pervaded all classes of the community, and who in long ages ago had
attained to arts and learning which it has taken us centuries of careful
study and elaborate research to acquire. Yea, it was always a wonderland
to me, even down to the present year; such is the power which the
associations formed by the child exercise over the mind of the man. Yet
were we prepared to meet a people who should, in almost all things,
differ from almost all other peoples.