than circumstances necessitated,
was perhaps about to put his threat into execution, when Godfrey
intervened.

"Captain," he said, "one more Chinee on board the _Dream_ is one Chinee
less in California, where there are too many."

"A great deal too many!" answered Captain Turcott.

"Yes, too many. Well, if this poor beggar wishes to relieve San
Francisco of his presence, he ought to be pitied! Bah! we can throw him
on shore at Shanghai, and there needn't be any fuss about it!"

In saying that there were too many Chinese in California Godfrey held
the same language as every true Californian. The emigration of the sons
of the Celestial Empire--there are 300,000,000 in China as against
30,000,000 of Americans in the United States--has become dangerous to
the provinces of the Far West; and the legislators of these States of
California, Lower California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and even Congress
itself, are much concerned at this new epidemic of invasion, to which
the Yankees have given the name of the "yellow-plague."

At this period there were more than 50,000 Chinese, in the State of
California alone. These people, very industrious at gold-washing, very
patient, living on a pinch of rice, a mouthful of tea, and a whiff of
opium, did an immense deal to bring down the price of manual labour, to
the detriment of the native workmen. They had to submit to special laws,
contrary to the American constitution--laws which regulated their
immigration, and withheld from them the right of naturalization, owing
to the fear that they would end by obtaining a majority in the Congress.
Generally ill-treated, much as Indians or negroes, so as to justify the
title of "pests" which was applied to them, they herded together in a
sort of ghetto, where they carefully kept up the manners and customs of
the Celestial Empire.

In the Californian capital, it is in the Sacramento Street district,
decked with their banners and lanterns, that this foreign race has taken
up its abode. There they can be met in thousands, trotting along in
their wide-sleeved blouses, conical hats, and turned-up shoes. Here, for
the most part, they live as grocers, gardeners, or laundresses--unless
they are working as cooks or belong to one of those dramatic troupes
which perform Chinese pieces in the French theatre at San Francisco.

And--there is no reason why we should conceal the fact--Seng Vou
happened to form part of one of these troupes, in which he filled th