Part 34 (2/2)
”Starboard!” was the answer, with a long cadence.
”Port!”
”Port it is!” sounded from aft.
”Steady!”
”Steady!” the seeming echo answered.
Now the s.h.i.+p was tacked; now she cut into the wind's eye; now she was kept away; now coral rocks rose up close to her; now the channel was so narrow that it seemed as if there was not room for her to pa.s.s through it. Everybody breathed more freely when she was at last in clear water again. What had become of the junks it was impossible to say. Not a sail was to be seen from the mast-head. Altogether the affair in which they had been engaged had been disastrous, and an unusual gloom was cast over the s.h.i.+p's company. The frigate stood round the group of islands; a complete archipelago, with numerous intricate pa.s.sages between them.
Sometimes she brought up, and the boats were sent away, and strict search was made for the piratical fleet; indeed no trouble or exertion was spared, but all was without result. No tidings could be gained either of the brig or the fleet of piratical junks. At length the frigate entered the Chinese waters, and anch.o.r.ed off Canton.
One Chinese city is very much like another. They are surrounded by castellated walls, some thirty feet in height, and coated with blue brick, which gives them a very toyshop appearance. The wall is about twenty feet at the base, diminis.h.i.+ng by the inclination of the inner surface to about twelve feet. The thin parapet is deeply embattled with intermediate loopholes, but there are no regular embrasures for artillery. The Chinese till lately have seldom used cannon, but have usually stuck to the bow and arrow. At each gate there is a semicircular enclosure, forming a double wall. Over the two gateways are towers of several stories, in which the soldiers who guard them are lodged. Also, at about sixty yards apart along the whole length of the wall, are flanking towers projecting about thirty feet from the curtain.
Some of the cities have ditches before the walls. The interiors of most Chinese cities are also very similar. The houses are very low, and the streets, which are narrow, are paved with flag-stones, suited however only for the pa.s.sage of people on foot, or for sedan-chairs.
The road is often crossed by ornamental gateways, with square openings in the centre, one on each side, not an arch. These have been erected to the memory of distinguished individuals. Another feature in the streets are the slabs of stone covered with inscriptions, about eight feet high, and placed on the back of a tortoise carved out of the same slab. The plan of the houses is very similar in all respects to that of those discovered in Pompeii, with open courts and rooms opening out of them. They have more lattice-work and paint, and the ornaments and designs are of course very different. The shops are generally open to the street, those of one description being placed together, as is very much the custom in Russia, Portugal, and other European countries.
Suspended high above, like a banner over each shop, is a huge varnished and gilded signboard, with a description of the style of merchandise to be sold within. As these boards hang at right angles from the walls, they contribute much to the gay appearance of the street.
The Chinese delight in placing quaint inscriptions over their shops.
Many of the streets are dirty in the extreme, while the shops are dark and dismal, and the shopkeepers far from urbane and accommodating: people these narrow streets, with their signboards and gateways, with an ever-moving crowd of yellow-faced, turn-up nosed, pig-eyed beings in blue and brown and yellow cotton dresses, wide trousers, loose jackets, and thatch-shaped hats, carrying long bamboos with boxes or baskets hanging at each end, or hung over with paper lanterns or birdcages, and all sorts of other articles, and here and there a sedan-chair with some mandarin or lady of rank inside, borne by two stout porters; and we have a fair idea of a Chinese city. Then, of course, there are public buildings of larger dimensions, and temples and towers of porcelain, pictures of which everybody has seen; and then outside the walls are ca.n.a.ls and lakes, and curious high-arched bridges, and summer-houses and paG.o.das.
In the suburbs of Canton, where the foreign factories are situated, the shops are open, and the streets are not so much ornamented as in the city itself, but the plan of the houses and the general arrangements are similar.
No other s.h.i.+p of war was at Canton when the _Dugong_ arrived. Captain Grant had fully expected to find the _Blenny_ there, and was much disappointed at her non-appearance. He waited anxiously for several days, but she did not appear. At length he determined to sail in search of her.
”To lose our consort, and those two fine young fellows, Rogers and Murray, is very trying,” he observed to Lieutenant Cherry, as they walked the deck together, while the s.h.i.+p was standing away from Canton.
”As to the _Blenny_, sir, she'll turn up before long, depend upon it, unless she is hard and fast somewhere on a rock,” answered the lieutenant. ”Hemming has been routing out some of those piratical scoundrels, and they probably have given him a longer chase than he expected.”
Still Captain Grant was not satisfied. As the frigate cruised along she brought to all the vessels of every sort she fell in with, and made inquiries at every island and place where anything like a truthful answer could possibly be procured. They had an interpreter, a Chinese, who spoke English, though rather of a funny sort, and as it required a good deal of cleverness to comprehend it, it may be supposed what he professed to wish to communicate was not always very clear. The man who might most have a.s.sisted them, Hoddidoddi, had been missing ever since Rogers' and Adair's battle on the island, and it was supposed that he must have concealed himself for the purpose of returning home. The _Dugong_ had been three days at sea, when a clipper schooner, with dark hull, square yards, and a most rakish look, hove in sight early in the morning, and approached the frigate.
”On the coast of Africa, I should say that the fellow was not honest,”
observed Mr Cherry, who had the morning watch, to Adair; ”I wonder what he wants.”
”A very pirate or slaver,” replied Adair, ”but she is only, I suspect, an honest opium-smuggler.”
”Honest, do you call her?” exclaimed the lieutenant. ”If because a vile system is carried on openly it is to be considered honest, then slaving is honest, and piracy, and highway robbery, for that matter. See, however, her gallant skipper is not afraid of us. Look, with what a self-satisfied air he walks the deck with his gold-lace cap, and gla.s.s under his arm. They are preparing to lower a boat, and he'll come to pay his respects as one captain does to another.”
In a short time the master of the schooner made his appearance on the deck of the frigate. Captain Grant got up to receive him. He was an intelligent, das.h.i.+ng-looking young man.
”I am glad that I have fallen in with you, sir,” he began. ”Last night, just before sunset, I heard some firing, and standing in the direction from which the sound came, I observed a brig-of-war apparently almost surrounded by junks not far from the land, to the southward of this--out there. I made sail, hoping to render her a.s.sistance; but so large a force of sailing and row junks sallied out from behind a point of land and made towards me, that, as I have lost half my crew with sickness and a former battle with a squadron of the villains, I was compelled to up stick and run for it. I shall be glad, however, to return with you, and a.s.sist in piloting you to the spot.”
”Thank you, captain--thank you,” answered Captain Grant, extending his hand. He wisely never denied nominal rank to masters of vessels, however employed. ”I most gladly accept your offer.”
”Hudson is my name--my craft is the _Flying Fish_; and when you see her in a good breeze, you'll acknowledge that she does fly along,” answered the master, looking with pride at his trim and beautiful craft.
She and the frigate instantly made sail to the southward. In a few hours the sound of an occasional shot saluted their ears and gave them hopes that the _Blenny_ was still afloat and able to defend herself. As they got nearer, they could make her out from the mast-head, amid a wide circle of junks which were keeping up a distant fire at her. It at this critical juncture fell perfectly calm. Captain Hudson, who had come on board the frigate and gone aloft, now returned on deck.
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