The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-05

VlSlIOTSi one was d large Dat Who
 sought refuge aloft and was called by
 the knowing ones a vampire bat. An
 other one was very large fish of some
 kind, which came close to the ship and
 lashed the water for a diameter of
 twenty feet or more into a foam. Upon
 an alarm of It's presence a jolly boat
 was lowered and men with harpoon
 at hand proceeded to investigate, but
 no fish was seen afterwards. Those
 who claimed to have seen it said 1t
 was O devil fish. I came to the conclu-
 sion that if it was not a devil fish 1t
 was 8 devilish powerful fish. Some
 fish resembling In shape our flat fish
 would sometimes come near the sur
 face, but their backs were white. One
 day two Malays came alongside of us
 in style of vessel probably dating
 back many centuries. We took them
 to be Sumatrans, and as they did not
 understand us, or we them, a Dutch
 man from the forecastle was sent for
 to interpret their communications
 They desired to sell us fish, and upon
 the cover shielding the fish being re-
 moved the sight that met our gaze was
 sickening indeed; in brief there was
 more maggots than fish, for it was 8 living mass. The Malays. might fancy
 that kind of food, but we did not
 Upon their departure which occurred
 forthwith, the mate sung out to me,
 You boy, grab a hold of that drum and don't spare it!" At the same time he took another one, and we both
 sounded them to the best of our abili-
 ty. The fact of it was that the mate thought their wanting to sell fish was only blind, whereas their real object was to reconnoitre, and finding We were in helpless condition, precon- ce1ved an attack from them, and his aim was by sounding the drums to make them think we were a man-of-
 war, for outside of our bulwarks were painted alternate squares in black and white, resembling a man-of-war. Ex- citement on an anticipated attack some subsequent night was all aglow, and all the muskets, boarding bikes and ammunition were got up from below in readiness for action. During our in-
 prisonment on the mud we kept an ex- tra lookout at night, but happily there was no attack. We were right in the section of country where numerous vessels had been overpowered by na- tives and their crews massacred
 Proceeding northward through the China Sea, one day a water spout was discovered in the dis
 tance, and after one hundred and ten days sail from New York we reached Hong Kong. Hong Kong is situated on a sugar loaf island off the mouth of the Hoang- Kiang river and about sixty miles from Canton. The harbor is land-locked by other sur rounding islands so that no entrance can be seen from the vessels anchor age, and novice would be at a loss which way to turn to make his exit. The town was policed at that time by Sepoys of India, as it is owned by the English government. A noticeable sight in the harbor are the hospitable ships, the remains of some of the old old-fashioned English men-of-war.
 The streets ir the town are terraced one above the other, so that pfetty much all of the town can be seen from the ship lying off the shore. There are no docks and all cargoes are dis charged on lighters propelled by one large oar, sculled by about eight or ten Chinamen. It is quite an interest ing and novel sight to see them work ing the oar. The oar with socket rests on a pivot on the stern of the lighter and is manned on either side, so that those on the port side are pulling while those on the starboard side are push ing, and vice-versa. The one nearest the pivot while pulling is almost fla ofI I,te ha yIyIa 10 Immediately scrambles on his feet and begins to push again. The oar is turned while being occillated as above mentioned by one or two men by means of slack rope fastened to near the end of the oar and to the deck im- mediately below, and pulled back and forth at the center, according to which way the oar is moving, so that it gives the oar it's rotary motion. The innu- merable sanpans plying back and forth in the Chinese harbors are sculled on the same principle by one man, the oar on a pivot and one hand hold of the oar and the other pushing and pulling on a string. Whole fami- lies live in boats altogether, and 1t is a very common occurrence to see women pulling an oar with young one strapped to their back; and young ones of the lower class under twelve wear no clothing at all, not even fg-leaf. It reminds one of Biblical times to see how things were done there; for in- stance, I saw good sized stone being carried by about twenty coolies and with yokes, and in another case l saw Chinaman drumming on a taught string with bunch of cotton under meath to separate the cotton by vibra- tion; but in that respect we need not have to go any farther than Mexico to see as crude methods of performing tasks without any improvements. During our stay at Hong Kong. which was six weeks, I had only one day liberty ashore Our cargo was mis- cellaneous one and only part of 1t was discharged there. A steamer from Canton loaded with cinnamon and fire crackers was the only invoice for our l voyage home at that place. We were visited by typhoon one night while there and it was only a miracle l that prevented us from being driven ashore. During the typhoon was suf- fering great misery and had not been | able to lie down for about a week, and which eventually came near snuffing u x@y,n 1lrr 1y1I