are-legged
Cingalese. About these swarmed the natives in their rainbow attire, the
whole scene being one of the kaleidoscope kind.

At the grounds 4,500 people had assembled, the officers and crew of the
"Essex" being on hand as well as a crowd of English residents and native
Cingalese. We played but five innings, the result being a tie, three
runs for each team, a good game under the best of circumstances, and one
that apparently pleased everybody, the natives going wild over the
batting and making desperate efforts to get out of the way whenever a
ball happened to do in their direction. The journey back to the hotel
was another circus parade, and one that Barnum, with all his efforts,
never was able to equal. From the hotel we went directly to the wharf,
where the steam-launch was in waiting, and with a cheer from the crew of
the "Essex" in our ears we started for the steamer. As the "Salier"
started again on her voyage we climbed into the rigging and lined up
along the rail, cheering the crew of the "Essex" until the white forms
of the men that lined her rigging were lost to sight.

The voyage from Ceylon to Egypt over the Arabian sea and the Gulf of
Aden was a most enjoyable one, both sea and sky being deeply, darkly and
beautifully blue, with not so much as a cloud or a ripple to mar the
beauty of either, and so beautiful were the nights that it was a rare
thing for any member of the party to retire until long after the ship's
bells had proclaimed the hour of midnight.

The second morning after we had left the Island of Ceylon behind us we
were all made the victims of a cruel practical joke, of which Lynch and
Fogarty were the authors, and for which lynching would hardly have been
a sufficient punishment. It was in the early hours of the morning and
while we were still "dreaming the happy hours away," that the loud
report of a cannon shook the steamer from stem to stern, this being
followed by cries of:

"Pirates, pirates; my God, boys, the Chinese pirates are upon us!"

The report of another gun followed, and then a scene of confusion such
as had never before been witnessed outside of a lunatic asylum. Tener,
who was the treasurer of the party, grabbed his money-bags and locked
himself in his stateroom. Ed Hanlon rushed into the cabin with his
trousers in one hand and his valise in the other, and they say that I
filled my mouth with Mrs. Anson's diamonds, grabbed a base-ball bat and
stood guard at the doorway