after having awaited the return of the "Inconstant"
from docking at Nagasaki.

The arrival of the yacht "Wanderer" must also be noted; for Mr. Lambert,
her princely owner, gave a magnificent cup worth 200 dollars as a prize
to be sailed for by the boats of the men-of-war in harbour. It was borne
off by the French admiral's barge.

In stripping our yards serious defects were discovered in the fore and
main, necessitating the replacing of the latter by a new one, and the
splicing of the former. Whilst awaiting these repairs the admiral
hurried us off, stripped as we were, up the Canton river to a bleak open
spot above the Bogue forts. The scenery of the river is flat and
uninviting, but eminently characteristic. Almost every hill has its
pagoda at the top, every bank that peculiar fishing apparatus--a lever
net, and the river is swarming with great lumbering junks, not a few of
which, if rumour speak correctly, engaged in piracy.

On the way up we obtained a fine view of the Bogue forts. The old ruins
still remain, mute witnesses of the completeness of our cannonade during
the Chinese war. At a short distance from the old, a much stronger and
more formidable structure is reared, which in the hands of Europeans
would form an almost impassable barrier. In addition to the large fort,
two small islands off in the river are also strongly fortified with
eighteen-ton guns.

Ten days--such was the term of our banishment. Economically considered,
I suppose it was all right; no doubt the fresh water of the river
succeeded in removing the saline incrustations from our bottom. One of
the home papers, more sensationally than truthfully, remarked that our
ship's company were all such a disreputable, boosing set, and proved
themselves so reckless and recalcitrant when on shore, that the admiral
took this means of punishing us. Now I call this a gross libel on the
ship's company at large. To speak honestly, I don't believe the admiral
did send us here for such a purpose, nor do I believe we are one whit
worse than those who stigmatize our characters in so wholesale and
careless a manner.

Next in order of events comes the admiral's inspection--searching, of
course, as all his inspections are known to be. He has a curious knack
of catching people on what, in lower-deck phrase, is styled the
"ground-hop," and generally succeeds, by his rapid and pertinent
questions, in putting people into such utter confusion of ideas that
negatives