tc., was performed on a
stage outside the galley so that it might be kept perfectly clean. The
proper allowance for each mess was delivered in front. Close to the
cook-house was a water-tank of wood, painted in imitation of bricks,
and capable of holding three thousand gallons.

Such was the _King-Shing_ junk, and such are most of the craft of the
Celestials. They would appear to be gradually coming round to Western
ideas in the matter of ships, and in fact have done so entirely for
war purposes, but the fashions of their ancestors are still good
enough for most of them, and the junk is to be seen everywhere. Not a
mere thing of yesterday is the junk. Vessels essentially similar to
the one I have described were navigating the Chinese seas and rivers
when the fleets of Rome and Carthage were contesting the supremacy of
the Mediterranean, and long before. Rome and Carthage, and many
another mighty maritime power, have risen and passed away utterly,
like bubbles, or dreams, but the Chinaman and his everlasting junk are
still here.

The vessel belonged to some mandarins at Shanghai, who used it for
trading to Cochin-China. It had recently, however, been despatched
with a cargo to Cheefoo, had been blown away north by a gale, and
forced to run into the harbour at Port Arthur to escape the Japanese.
There it had lain until the place fell. The crew numbered fifty-four,
all told.

After floating off the sand-bank, and getting an offing, we were
within the Gulf of Pechili, and determined to make for one or other of
its ports, but on the first day we encountered a very heavy
nor'-wester, which blew us far out of the Gulf. When, after lasting a
day and a night, the gale abated, we were well down the Yellow Sea,
and the skipper, or Ty Kong, whose name was Sam-Sing, determined to
hold on for the port where the junk's owners dwelt. I had no objection
to make to this, nor had the mandarin, who possessed friends and
relatives in the south. The soldiers on board, however, were very
discontented and mutinous, and as they considerably outnumbered the
crew I began to fear trouble. They were all from northern provinces
and had no desire to go south. Their language was scarcely
intelligible even to their nominal countrymen. The immense diversity
of dialects in China is, in fact, a great hindrance to progress by
preventing the unification of the people. After some excited
discussion they were prevailed upon to acquiesce by the solemn prom