APTER II.

Good-by to Albion--Southward Ho!--Gibraltar 12

CHAPTER III.

Up the Mediterranean--Malta 26

CHAPTER IV.

Port Said--The Suez Canal--Voyage down the Red Sea--Aden 39

CHAPTER V.

Across the Indian Ocean--Ceylon--Singapore--A Cruise in
the Straits of Malacca 47

CHAPTER VI.

Sarawak--Labuan--Manilla--Heavy weather 62

CHAPTER VII.

Hong Kong--Some Chinese manners and customs 71

CHAPTER VIII.

Preparations for the North--Amoy--Wosung, and what befell
us there 83

CHAPTER IX.

Arrival at Nagasaki--Something about Japan--A run through
the Town--Visit to a Sintoo Temple 94

CHAPTER X.

The Inland Sea--Kobe--Fusi-Yama--Yokohama--Visit to
Tokio 113

CHAPTER XI.

Northward--Hakodadi--Dui--Castries Bay--Barracouta--
Vladivostock 131

CHAPTER XII.

Chefoo--Nagasaki _en route_--Japan revisited--Kobe--
Yokohama 146

CHAPTER XIII.

We attempt an overland route, with the result of the trial 159

CHAPTER XIV.

The new regime--Something about Saigon--The First Cruise
of the China Squadron--An Alarm of Fire!--Arrival of
Flying Squadron 181

CHAPTER XV.

Second Cruise of the China Squadron--Principally concerning
a Visit to the Loo-Choo Isles and Corea--Welcome news
from home--Conclusion 210

APPENDIX A.--Deaths during the Commission i.

APPENDIX B.--Table of places visited and distances run
during the Commission iii.

CHAPTER I.

"We sail the ocean blue, And our saucy ship's a beauty."

WE COMMISSION OUR SHIP. VISIT PORTSMOUTH.
PREPARE TO SAIL.

On one of those delicious semi-tropical afternoons, which geologists
tell us once bathed the whole of our island, and which even now, as
though loath to part from its one-time home, still dwells lovingly in
Devonia's summer, I wended my way to Devonport Park to feast my eyes
onc