We reached the shore about three in the morning, and the Chinese made signs to us, that if we would follow them, they would give us something to eat; we accordingly walked after them until we arrived at a small village, which consisted of a few miserable mud huts, with but one respectable brick house; but from these few huts a swarm of men, women, and children, poured out on our approach. We were taken into an outhouse, one half of which was occupied by an immense buffalo, and in the other half was a cane bed with musquito curtains; in one corner was a ladder, leading to a loft containing another couch. They now brought us some hot rice, and a kind of preserved vegetable: we contented ourselves with the rice and a basin of tea, the preserve being so exceedingly nasty we could none of us eat it. Whilst in this place, a Chinese, who seemed the superior of the village, and doubtless was the owner of the one brick house, brought a piece of paper written upon in Chinese characters, and made signs for one of us to write upon it; intimating at the same time that he had written some account of us on this paper, and that he wanted an account in our writing, which I accordingly gave him, stating the time and cause of our shipwreck, and also our present situation; hoping that he would take it to the mandarin of the district, and that from him it might be forwarded to the authorities at Chusan, who might thus learn where we were, and take some steps for our return to the fleet.

The next morning one of the Melville's boys was taken ill of the dysentery; the doctor came to see him, and prescribed some medicine, which came in the shape of a bitter brown mixture; it did him no good, for in a few days he grew so much worse, that he was removed down to the jail again, where, by-the-bye, the two marines who were ill had been left, as they were unable to bear the moving. Poor fellows! they felt very much being separated from their comrades, and left behind; but it was of no use complaining; they were obliged to submit. As for the boy that was taken from us, (the same that I dragged out of the water, when we were wrecked,) he left us, I might almost say, with a determination to die, so entirely did he despair; his forebodings were too true, as he died shortly after in the jail.

The window was besieged all day by well dressed persons, who came to see “the lions;” at first we only looked again, but getting bolder by degrees, we turned beggars, and from every fresh batch that came to the window, we requested something—either money, tobacco, or cakes, not being very particular: if they refused to give anything, we immediately slid the panels to, which most effectually prevented their seeing us, and the soldiers, our guard, very soon turned them out.

One evening, about the latter end of November, we were surprised by the appearance of the moving board, and expected that we were to be taken away again, when, to our great amazement, one of the marines that we had left in the prison walked in, looking stout and well; but after him came, or rather was carried, the other, a most horrid spectacle, a moving skeleton, with the skin stretched tightly over his bones; his eyes were sunk deep in his head, and his voice was awfully hollow; he was the most melancholy sight I ever saw. When on board the ship he was a stout, well-made man, and now how dreadfully changed! he had come up merely to die with his old companions. The other had been very ill indeed, but (owing to a good constitution, and the kindness and attentions of Mrs. Noble, who did all that possibly lay in her power to alleviate their sufferings) he had got over his sickness, and was now in a fair way for recovery. They brought notes from Lieut. Douglas and Mrs. Noble, promising us some money. The marines had received their pice, and ours were to come the next day, which they accordingly did; four hundred pice for each of the white men, and three hundred for each of the Lascars.

A night or two after our visit to the mandarin, we heard the priests chaunting two or three silvery toned bells were struck at the same time, and now and then a drum. We could see nothing of their proceedings, but from the glare of light the temple must have been brilliantly illuminated. The priests were not exactly sober all the next day; so they must have taken strong stimulants during the night.

A few days after was the Chinese New Year's Day; when an immense number of worshippers visited the joshouse with offerings of various kinds; mostly ornaments of filigree paper. All the visitors were extremely well dressed; silks, satins, and furs of all descriptions, and very handsome dresses they were.

One of them, a man, arrayed in a splendid silk garment, had some words with our jailer, and I believe struck him, at least I saw his hand up: he was seized by the soldiers, and dragged by his tail to an inner court, from whence he was shortly led by a soldier with a long heavy chain round his neck, and handcuffed. What became of him afterwards I did not learn; but it seemed to me summary justice, and very hard usage, for apparently so slight an offence. The old officer, who lived behind our prison, wore a magnificent dress, something similar to a tartan, but the colours more varied, and brilliant.