6th July.  For the first few days after entering the Chinese sea, we sailed pretty well in the same fashion we had done in the Pacific—­ proceeding slowly and quietly on our way.  Today we beheld the coast of China for the first time, and towards evening we were not more than thirty-three miles from Macao.  I was rather impatient for the following morning.  I longed to find my darling hope realized, of putting my foot upon Chinese ground.  I pictured the mandarins with their high caps, and the ladies with their tiny feet, when in the middle of the night the wind shifted, and on the 7th of July we had been carried back 115 miles.  In addition to this, the glass fell so low, that we dreaded a Tai-foon, which is a very dangerous kind of storm, or rather hurricane, that is very frequent in the Chinese sea during the months of July, August, and September.  It is generally first announced by a black cloud on the horizon, with one edge dark red, and the other half-white; and this is accompanied by the most awful torrents of rain, by thunder, lightning, and the violent winds, which arise simultaneously on all sides, and lash the waters up mountains high.  We took every precaution in anticipation of our dangerous enemy, but for once they were not needed:  either the hurricane did not break out at all, or else it broke out at a great distance from us; for we were only visited by a trifling storm of no long duration.

On the 8th of July we again reached the vicinity of Macao, and entered the Straits of Lema.  Our course now lay between bays and reefs, diversified by groups of the most beautiful islands, offering a series of most magnificent and varied views.

On the 9th of July we anchored in Macao Roads.  The town, which belongs to the Portuguese, and has a population of 20,000 inhabitants, is beautifully situated on the sea-side, and surrounded by pleasing hills and mountains.  The most remarkable objects are the palace of the Portuguese governor, the Catholic monastery of Guia, the fortifications, and a few fine houses which lie scattered about the hills in picturesque disorder.

Besides a few European ships, there were anchored in the roads several large Chinese junks, while a great number of small boats, manned by Chinese, were rocking to and fro around us.

CHAPTER VIII.  CHINA.

MACAO—­HONG-KONG—­VICTORIA—­VOYAGE ON BOARD A CHINESE JUNK—­THE SI-
KIANG, CALLED ALSO THE TIGRIS—­WHAMPOA—­CANTON, OR KUANGTSCHEU-FU—­
MODE OF LIFE PURSUED BY EUROPEANS—­THE CHINESE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS—­
CRIMINALS AND PIRATES—­MURDER OF VAUCHEE—­PROMENADES AND EXCURSIONS.

A year before my arrival in China, it would have seemed hardly credible to me that I should ever succeed in taking my place among the small number of Europeans who are acquainted with that remarkable country, not from books alone, but from actual observation; I never believed that I should really behold the Chinese, with their shaven heads, long tails, and small, ugly, narrow eyes, the exact counterparts of the representations of them which we have in Europe.