The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-15 00:00:00

BRITISII EXPEDITION TO CHINA.

(FROM THE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE "TIMES.")
ON BOARD THE ADEN, MAY 21.
To-morrow, we are told, we shalt see the coast of
China. By "we " I mean th it portion of the
Chinese expedition which pursues its straightfor-
ward course to Hong Kong, for General Ashburn-
ham and his suite left us at Suez, and go round by
Bombay. The little sharp-nosed Aden has made a
passage like the flight of a bird. She is rather
lively and sportive, and even now is playfully re-
senting the affront of a passing squall in a manner
which makes writing a difficulty ; but every one on
bo ird agrees that for speed and beauty she leaves
nothing to be desired. When the north-east mon-
soon blows hard in our teeth, and passing squalls
deluge us with rain and stifle us with spray, and
drive us below, and when the ports are screwed
tight, and we suffocate in the sultry night, and are
rattled about in our cabins like pills in a pill-box, we
groan heavily, and even "captains and colonels and
knights-at-arms" are sad and miserable. But let us
still, although longing to escape from her, speak well
of the ship that bears us swiftly to the land, and
let us speak well also of the careful and courteous
sailor who commands her, and watches her as a
father watches the gambols of IN favourite child.
And now the events of what is facetiously called the
" overland journey" are nearly over. It is such a
pleasant thing to have climbed the great pyramid
under a noonday sun, and looked upon the Libyan
desert with expectation of an impending sun stroke.
It is wall to have lain gasping on the deck as the
ship glided through that breezeless Red Sea, and
to have looked languidly on the range of Mount
Sinai and the port of Mecca. It is a comfort to
know that Men looks like a mighty mass of coke,
with huts and fortifications scatte'ed about among
its crevices ; and it is wonderful to have heard
military men quartered there say they rather like
D. The track, however, is so beaten and the
journey so common, that even your companions
don't talk of the slimy wonders of the Nile. Their
talk is of the relative accommodation of t'te
ent ship; and the mercy of Providence which pre-
serves six stout men from suffocation through the
journey in a fiery desert, close packed in a van
whose utmost capacity appeared at first sight equal
to holding four good-sized children. But there is
no really pleasurable sensation until after that
dreadful passage of the Red Sea between the cal-
cined shores of " Araby the Blest" and Africa ;
and after the hot pilgrimage across the Indian
Ocean Ceylon appears clad iu full tropical green,
with her domes of broad plantain leaves, her far-
sweeping forests of cocoas and mangoes, and her
inland highlands, which promise streams and sha-
dow. I should like to dwell in lengthened descrip-
tion upon Ceylon. All that we see of forest beauty
at Windsor, or Richmond, or Blenheim, or Beau-
desert, or Cannock-chase—all that we have of hill
and valley; winding rivers, forest glades, and
bight green turf rides is here. Added to all this,
Ceylon has the mighty vegetation of the east ; and
the savages stalking along in the sun, clad only
in a scant girdle of some striking colour, are so
swart, so lusty, and so picturesque. But Ceylon
has nothing to do with the Chinese expedition, ex-
cept to give its leaders a few hours' respite. So,
off to shipboard in a canoe 16 inches broad, which
despite its outrigger of bamboo, seems but a man-
trap invented in the interest of the sbarks..

Our course is across the broad unquiet Bay o
g Ben al. Again we lose sight of land, journeying
day
after day without apparent progress in that
eternal blue circle which seems to realise the mathe-
matician's
is
everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere,
e without an event throughout the day, except that
thever and anon a shoal of flying fish spring up from
smooth sea, and go off in radii, dotting and
skimming their transparent wings glittering in the
sun,distance
and then splashing into the sea again at a safe
t from the dolphin which is prowling after
hem below. One of these poetical creatures flew
throughmy port, and came flop upon me in my
sleep a few nights since : the cold, wriggling,
prickly, gasping thing gave me a more horrible
frighth than I ever felt in my life.
Straits of Malacca are not so narrow that we
can often see the land, but on the morning of the
13th oteli May we enter a British possession, which I
must say something about.
After long steaming in smooth water in the neigh-
bourhood of well-wooded islands, enjoying reputa-
tioni for piracy, cannibalism, flying monkeys,
gigantic serpents, and other amenities we at length
enter a narrow strait. On the left we have the
lofty mainland of Siam rising from the wooly low-
lands and stretching away peak over peak till their
outlines grow dimmer and more dim, and the eye
can no wore reflect them. On the right, about two
Dales distant, lies an island covered with palms and
thick undtrwood of spice trees, the huge cocoanut
trees rising like domes on the tops of bills, and
bending also over the margin of the sea. 'there ara
miniature bays with a beach of shining sand, and
white bungalows glittering through the foliage
_______
which shelters them from the fierce sun. Crowning
an upland, rising to an altitude of 2,500 feet, is a artrtruu
2,DTISNEMEMT. j— SPORTSMEN AND GENTLEMEN OF _
IThelIE
marle-street,aPiLA—dgillyan(Wlpp 'te the York
flagstaff ; arid our telescopes, aided by private infer-
pßoawceecrofuulr
matron from the captain, tell us that it is the BritisheKs.t S 001 OillOr
vllO, opticians, 39, A
liotPortaby, combined with great)ower in Field,
flag which lags lazily waiting for a breeze. As we
swe.aistOctealt.a,
s•eam rapidly along between the island and the ostnrlayeftoursofunv, each
lcontainililngBhlo2w andd
mainland we enter a roadstead crowded with small pocketana gpeneenrpalectoiuvte-dooi•
Glasses,day and Bight
personc n;
vessels, anti a town of low building, with a rude countenance two aanndgauhsa,lfwand three miles. They serve
wooden pier, is on our right. Six hours on shore, every purpose on the race-course, Old at the opera houses,
miles.
country scenery, and ships are clearly seen at 8 to 10
for this is Penang, heretofore celebrated for itstinjeBtl
they are also invaluable for shooting,deer-stalkin.e, and
ylenses, a
" lawyers" but destined perchance to be hereafter .
yaclitint,. Single ones, the size of walnut, possessing the.
better known as the sanitary station of the Chinese a
same great power. Her Majesty'sCoast-Guards are making
edition. use of them as day and night glasses, in genera use by gen.
exp
tlemen, of the Army and Navy, and by sportsmen, gentlemen,
Six hours on shore. Four sturdy Malays ply
their paddle', and impel their cranky canoe gamekeepers, and tourists.e The most powerful and brilliant
telescopes,i possesisuiengessu hextraordinarya power that some,
rapidly to the pier. We arc deposited among ab with an extra
ssttronomical eye-piece
population of Chinamen. At the entrance to three t
showl:,ne halflstincly Jupiter's moon' and the
will
stars ; with the same tests .Saturn's
caanurbne's ring,
the pier is a large supply of little carriages,
countenance three-and-a-half miles distant saenedli aano
personl.ee' st
called palanquins, ba resembling tiny double-
from
.14a to
wl6ithmiliense. All. the above can be had of larger and
:cited broughams, with sides and backs formed
of Venetian blinds, each drawn by a pony, 11110:1zo
Majesty's RoyalreLasetitnegrs powers, and are secured by
small and so stout that the eyes of tacle Lenses of the greatest atent. Newly-invented
transparentSpec-
so power. The vain-
commissaries and purveyors were at once able advautage derived from this
.inventionve is, that vision
arrested, and such diligent inquiries are made as to beuomes preserved and strengthene
the number and value of such useful-looking quad- enabled to to employ their sight at the most 7 aged persona
rupeds that I make haste to hire one for the nonce,
--and
theyrithd these lenses of a much less magnifying power
effects
octrt require the frequent changes to the
lest they should all have the broad arrow put upon dangerous
,Ixer powerful assistance. Persons
their shoulders and be spirited away before we had can be suited at theofmfoa ,remote part of the world by send-
had our jaunt. Tol dive into one of these pa- in: one of the glasses their out at spectacles in a letter, and
lanquins was indeed a first necessity, for pith hats stating the distance from tho eye they can read s 11 print
and turban cloths are no match for these sun rays. with it, and those who have not made use of spectacles by
Penang is not quite a metropolis. Its streets
are not very many, and its buildings are not among
the loftiest. Square white pillars, eight feet high,
support a roof of tiles or a thatch of dried plantain
leaves. Under these the Chinamah works at his
assem-
trade, or Bells his mangoes, or pineapples, or plan- sftwing their age. Deafness.—A newly-invented instrument
organic
extreme cases of deafness, called the Sound Magnifier,
into the e •
Vibrator, and invisible Voice Conductor. It fits so
ear as not' to be in the least perceptible ;the unplea-
sant sensation of singing noises in the head is entirely ie-
mired It affords instant relief to the deafest persons, and
, enables them to hear distinctly at church and at public
_opposite the York
ilMies.te 1 34, Albemarle-street .Pimaclilly.
tains, or, greatest of all, his mango3teins, Even the W.

Diseases of Uncertain Seat
Tubercular Diseases
Diseases of the Brain, Nerves and Senses
Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 46
Diseases of the Lungs and other Organs of
Respiration _ 94
Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, and other Organs
of Digestion
Diseases of the Kidneys, &c.
Childbirth, Diseases of the Uterus, &c.
Diseases of the Joints, Bones, and Muscles .. 6
Diseases of the Skin, &c.
Malformations 3
Premature Birth and Debility 32
Atrophy
Old Age
udden .. 4
Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 3O
Causes not specified

FROM ALL CAUSES

Population Deaths in corre- Deaths
Enumerated. •ponding week in the
1851. of 1856. Week..
West Districts
North Districts 490,396
Central Districts 393,256
East Districts 485,522
South Districts

Totals
Males
F3males