March 25th.—­We reached Chapoo at about 5 P.M.  I did not land, but some of the party did, and mounted a hill from whence they looked down upon a walled town of no great size, and a plain, perfectly flat, stretching for any number of miles beyond it.  The people, as usual, were civil, and made no difficulties, although we have no right to land there.  The bay in which we anchored is open, and not in any particular way interesting.  At about three this morning we started, and have been favoured with as good a day as yesterday.  We have had nothing of the bold coasts of previous days, and passed occasionally islands flatter than those seen before.  We are now in the mouth of the Yang-tze-kiang, with a perfectly flat and low shore on one side, and an equally flat one just discoverable with the aid of the telescope on the other.  A good many junks are sailing about us, their dark sails filled with a lively breeze.  Before us is a large man-of-war, which I am just told is the American ‘Minnesota.’  So our cruise is coming to an end, which I regret, as it has been a very pleasant break, and at least for the time has kept me out of reach of the bothers of my mission.  We have reason too to be most thankful for the weather with which we have been favoured, and if Mr. Reed is before me he cannot complain, as I am here on the very day on which I said I should reach Shanghae.  This is a very strange coast.  The sea seems to be filling up with the deposits of the rivers.  We have an island (inhabited) beside us, which did not exist a few years ago.  We have not during all yesterday and to-day had ever more than eight fathoms of water.

[Sidenote:  Shanghae.]

Shanghae had been named as the rendezvous for the Allied Powers.  There, as he had written to the Emperor’s Prime Minister, ’the Plenipotentiaries of England and France would be prepared to enter into negotiations for the settlement of all differences existing between their respective Governments and that of China with any Plenipotentiary, duly accredited by the Emperor, who might present himself at that port before the end of the month of March.’  There he still fondly hoped to find his Hercules’ Pillar.  ’If I can only conclude a treaty at Shanghae,’ so he wrote when starting from Canton, ‘and hasten home afterwards!’

The place was well chosen for the purpose; not only as the most northerly of the Treaty ports, and therefore nearest to the capital, but also as the most flourishing stronghold of European influence and civilisation then existing in China.  ‘I was struck,’ wrote Lord Elgin in one of his despatches, ’by the thoroughly European appearance of the place; the foreign settlement, with its goodly array of foreign vessels, occupying the foreground of the picture; the junks and native town lying up the river, and dimly perceptible among the shadows of the background; spacious houses, always well, and often sumptuously, furnished; Europeans, ladies and gentlemen, strolling along the quays; English policemen habited as the London police; and a climate very much resembling that which I had experienced in London exactly twelve months before, created illusions which were of course very promptly dissipated.’