Seeing a gentleman at one of the windows, I called and inquired of him what was the matter.  He told me hurriedly that intelligence had just arrived that two of his friends who were proceeding to Hong-Kong (Whampoa lay on the road) had been attacked by pirates, and that one was killed and the other wounded.  He then immediately retired, so that I was unable to learn the name of the unfortunate victim, and was left all night a prey to the greatest anxiety lest it should be Mr. Agassiz.

Fortunately, this at least was not the case, as Mr. Agassiz returned at 5 o’clock in the morning.  I then learned that this misfortune had happened to Monsieur Vauchee, a Swiss gentleman, who had passed many an evening in our house.  On the very day of his departure, I met him at a neighbour’s, where we had all been in the highest spirits, singing songs and quartettes.  At 9 o’clock he went on board the boat, set off at 10, and a quarter of an hour afterwards, in the midst of thousands of schampans and other craft, met his tragical end.

Monsieur Vauchee had intended to proceed to Hong-Kong, and there embark on board a larger vessel for Shanghai; {103} he took with him Swiss watches to the value of 40,000 francs (1,600 pounds), and, in speaking to a friend, congratulated himself on the cautious manner he had packed them up, without letting his servants know anything about it.  This, however, could not have been the case:  and, as the pirates have spies among the servants in every house, they were unfortunately but too well acquainted with the circumstance.

During my stay in Canton, the house of a European was pulled down by the populace, because it stood upon a piece of ground which, though Europeans were allowed to occupy, they had not hitherto built upon.

In this manner there was hardly a day that we did not hear of acts of violence and mischief, so that we were in a continual state of apprehension, more especially as the report of the near approach of a revolution, in which all the Europeans were to perish, was everywhere bruited about.  Many of the merchants had made every preparation for instant flight, and muskets, pistols, and swords were neatly arranged ready for use in most of the counting-houses.  Luckily, the time fixed for the revolution passed over, without the populace fulfilling its threats.

The Chinese are cowardly in the highest degree; they talk very large when they are certain they have nothing to fear.  For instance, they are always ready to stone, or even kill, a few defenceless individuals, but if they have to fear any opposition, they are sure not to commence the attack.  I believe that a dozen good European soldiers would put to flight more than a hundred Chinese.  I myself never met with a more dastardly, false, and, at the same time, cruel race, in my life; one proof of this is, that their greatest pleasure consists in torturing animals.