was not the first time I had known the words to be misapplied.
I remember reading in the _Sydney Bulletin_, that a Chinese cook in
Sydney when applying for a situation detailed to the mistress his
undeniable qualifications, concluding with the memorable announcement,
"My Clistian man mum; my eat beef; my say goddam."

There was a small village behind us. The villagers strolled down to see
the foreigner whom children well in the background called "_Yang
kweitze_" (foreign devil). Below on the sand, were the remains of a
junk, confiscated for smuggling salt; it had been sawn bodily in two.
Salt is a Government monopoly and a junk found smuggling it is
confiscated on the spot.

Kueichow, on the left bank, is the first walled town we came to. Here
we had infinite difficulty in passing the rapids, and crossed and
recrossed the river several times. I sat in the boat stripped and
shivering, for shipwreck seemed certain, and I did not wish to be
drowned like a rat. For cool daring I never saw the equal of my boys,
and their nicety of judgment was remarkable. Creeping along close to the
bank, every moment in danger of having its bottom knocked out, the boat
would be worked to the exact point from which the crossing of the river
was feasible, balanced for a moment in the stream, then with sail set
and a clipping breeze, and my men working like demons with the oars,
taking short strokes, and stamping time with their feet, the boat shot
into the current. We made for a rock in the centre of the river; we
missed it, and my heart was in my mouth as I saw the rapid below us into
which we were being drawn, when the boat mysteriously swung half round
and glided under the lee of the rock. One of the boys leapt out with the
bow-rope, and the others with scull and boat-hook worked the boat round
to the upper edge of the rock, and then, steadying her for the dash
across, pushed off again into the swirling current and made like fiends
for the bank. Standing on the stern, managing the sheet and tiller, and
with his bamboo pole ready, the laoban yelled and stamped in his
excitement; there was the roar of the cataract below us, towards which
we were fast edging stern on, destruction again threatened us and all
seemed over, when in that moment we entered the back-wash and were again
in good shelter. And so it went on, my men with splendid skill doing
always the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, with
unerring certainty.

At Yeh