What struck me most was the quantity of poultry, both in and out of the huts, and we had to take the greatest care to avoid treading on some of the young brood.  The chickens are hatched, as they are in Egypt, by artificial heat.

On our return from the village to the pagoda, we saw two schampans run in shore, and a number of swarthy, half-naked, and mostly armed men jump out, and hasten through the fields of rice directly to where we were.  We set them down as pirates, and awaited the upshot with a considerable degree of uneasiness.  We knew that, if we were right in our supposition, we were lost without hope; for, at the distance we were from Canton, and entirely surrounded by Chinese, who would have been but too ready to lend them assistance, it would have been doubly easy for pirates to dispatch us.  All idea of escape or rescue was out of the question.

While these thoughts were flashing across our minds, the men kept approaching us, and at length their leader introduced himself as the captain of a Siamese man-of-war.  He informed us, in broken English, that he had not long arrived with the Governor of Bangkok, who was proceeding for the rest of the way to Pekin by land.  Our fears were gradually dispelled, and we even accepted the friendly invitation of the captain to run alongside his ship and view it, on our return.  He came in the boat with us, and took us on board, where he showed us everything himself:  the sight, however, was not a particularly attractive one.  The crew looked very rough and wild; they were all dressed in a most slovenly and dirty manner, so that it was utterly impossible to distinguish the officers from the common men.  The vessel mounted twelve guns and sixty-eight hands.

The captain set before us Portuguese wine and English beer, and the evening was far advanced before we reached home.

The longest trip that can be made from Canton is one twenty miles up the Pearl stream, and Mr. Agassiz was kind enough to procure me this pleasure.  He hired a good boat, which he furnished abundantly with eatables and drinkables, and invited a missionary, who had made the trip several times, Herr von Carlowitz, and myself.  The company of a missionary is as yet by far the safest escort in China.  These gentlemen speak the language; they become gradually acquainted with the people, and travel about, with hardly any obstacle to speak of, all round the vicinity of Canton.

About a week before we had decided on going, a few young gentlemen had endeavoured to make the same excursion, but had been fired upon from one of the fortresses that lie on the banks of the river, and compelled to turn back half-way.  When we approached the fortress in question, the crew of our boat refused to proceed any further, until we had almost employed violence to make them do so.  We also were fired into, but fortunately not until we were more than half past the fortress.  Having escaped the danger,