alarm.

_June 24th._--I reached the Dido at 8 o'clock, and immediately got
under weigh. After remaining twenty-four hours to water at Singapore,
I sailed for Hong Kong. My time, during the year that I was absent
from Borneo, if not quite so usefully, was not unpleasantly passed. We
lay a few months in the Canton river. In addition to having good
opportunities of seeing the natives of China in their domestic state,
I witnessed one of those most curious and extraordinary sights that
occasionally occur during the winter months in the city of Canton,
namely, a fire. The one I saw was about the most extensive that had
ever been experienced; and the Dido's crew had the gratification of
being of some assistance in the protection of British property. From
China the Dido accompanied the commander-in-chief, in the Cornwallis,
to the Spanish colony at Manilla, which is a place that few forget;
and a short description of our visit there has been given in an
interesting little work, written by Captain Cunynghame. On my return
to Hong Kong, I had the gratification of receiving on board the Dido,
Major-General Lord Saltoun and his staff, consisting of two old and
esteemed friends of mine, Captain, now Major Arthur Cunynghame,
his lordship's aid-de-camp, and Major Grant, of the 9th Lancers,
who had been adjutant-general to the forces. A more agreeable cruise
at sea I never experienced. We called at the island of Pinang, in the
Malacca straits, on our way, where we again fell in with the admiral;
and I was most agreeably surprised at meeting my friend Mr. Brooke,
who had come on to Singapore to meet Sir William Parker, and had
followed him up in the Wanderer, commanded by my friend Captain
Henry Seymour,--that vessel, in company with the Harlequin, Captain
the Hon. George Hastings, and the H. C. steamer Diana, having just
returned from an expedition to Acheen, whither they had been dispatched
by the commander-in-chief, to inquire into and demand redress for an
act of piracy, committed on an English merchant-vessel. An account
of the expedition has already been published. The pirates had made a
desperate resistance, and several lives were lost, and many severely
wounded on our side; among the latter was my friend Mr. Brooke (in the
head and arm), for which I took the liberty of giving him a lecture
on his rashness, he having quite sufficient ground for fighting over
in his newly-adopted country. He was much pleased at the admiral's
ha