He cut a
small piece of wood to a fine point, and then selecting a second piece,
grooved it with a narrow and not very deep furrow. In this he rubbed the
pointed stick until the fragments detached during the process began to
smoke. These he flung into a heap of dry leaves and grass previously
collected, and swung the whole several times round in the air, until it
broke out into flames. The entire process did not occupy above two
minutes. Gathering a few plantains, these were roasted for supper; after
which Madame Pfeiffer withdrew to her solitary couch of dry leaves, to
sleep as best she might. It is impossible not to wonder at the
marvellous physical capability of this adventurous woman, no less than at
her courage, her resolution, and her perseverance. How many of her sex
could bear for a week the fatigue and exposure to which she subjected
herself year after year?

The next morning she accomplished the return journey in safety.

* * * * *

[Hong-Kong: page65.jpg]

On the 17th of May she left Tahiti, the Dutch vessel in which she had
embarked being bound via the Philippines. They passed this rich and
radiant group of islands on the 1st of July, and the next day entered the
dangerous China Sea. A few days afterwards they reached Hong-Kong, which
has been an English settlement since 1842. Here Madame Pfeiffer made no
long stay, for she desired to see China and the Chinese with as little
intermixture of the European element as possible. So she ascended the
Pearl river, the banks of which are covered with immense plantations of
rice, and studded with quaint little country-houses, of the genuine
Chinese pattern, with sloping, pointed roofs, and mosaics of variously
coloured tiles, to Canton, one of the great commercial centres of the
Flowery Land. As she approached she surveyed with wonder the animated
scene before her. The river was crowded with ships and inhabited boats.
Junks there were, almost as large as the old Spanish galleons, with poops
impending far over the water, and covered in with a roof, like a house.
Men-of-war there were, flat, broad, and long, mounted with twenty or
thirty guns, and adorned in the usual Chinese fashion, with two large
painted eyes at the prow, that they may be the better able to find their
way. Mandarins' boats she saw, with doors, and sides, and windows gaily
painted, with carved galleries, and tiny silken flags fluttering from
every point. And flower-boats she also s