out by the roots; at the moment not "Celestials,"
unless after the pattern of Virgil's Juno.

The habit of whole families living together in a boat, though
sufficiently known to me, was on one occasion realized in a manner at
once mortifying and ludicrous. The eagerness for trade among the
bumboatmen, actual and expectant, sometimes becomes a nuisance; in
their efforts to be first they form a mob quite beyond the control of
the ship, the gangways and channels of which they none the less
surround and grab, deaf to all remonstrance by words, however
forcible. This is particularly the case the first day of arrival,
before the privilege has been determined. In one such instance my
patience gave way; the din alongside was indescribable, the confusion
worse confounded, and they could not be moved. There was working at
the moment one of those small movable hand-pumps significantly named
"Handy Billy," and I told the nozzle-man to turn the stream on the
crowd. Of course, nothing could please a seaman more; it was done with
a will, and the full force of impact struck between the shoulders of a
portly individual standing up, back towards the ship. A prompt upset
revealed that it was a middle-aged woman, a fact which the pump-man
had not taken in, owing to the misleading similarity of dress between
the two sexes. I was disconcerted and ashamed, but the remedy was for
the moment complete; the boats scattered as if dynamite had burst
among them. The mere showing of the nozzle was thereafter enough.

The _Iroquois_ was about a week in the monsoon, a day or so having
been expended in running into Fuchau for coal. She certainly seemed to
have lost the speed credited to her in former cruises; the cause for
which was plausibly thought to be the decreased rigidity of her hull,
owing to the wear and tear of service. In the days of sailing-ships
there was a common professional belief that lessened stiffness of
frame tended to speed; and a chased vessel sometimes resorted to
sawing her beams and loosening her fastenings to increase the desired
play. But, however this may have been, the thrust of the screw tells
best when none of its effect is lost in a structural yielding of the
ship's body; when this responds as a solid whole to the forward
impulse. In this respect the _Iroquois_ was already out of date,
though otherwise serviceable.

On the eleventh day, December 7th, we reached Nagasaki, whence we
sailed again about the middle of the m