John Lee Scott

“ I walked on for a short time, meditating on the past events, and wondering what my fate would be, when, raising my eyes from the ground, to my astonishment I perceived a man walking before me, heavily ironed, and whom I had never seen before. ”

“ By the time we could begin our work again, it was very dark, but we knew we should soon have a bright moon; so we set to work cheerfully, and had succeeded in collecting and lashing together a good many spars as a raft, when, to our great surprise, we found ourselves surrounded by Chinese boats, two of them large ones, and full of soldiers. ”

“ When we arrived at the water's edge, we found a sampan, or small boat, waiting; the Lascars and most of the Europeans having preceded us, Lieut. Douglas, Captain Anstruther, myself, and the others, got into the sampan, and were soon sculled alongside a junk, which the interpreter, who was with us, told us was only waiting for high water (which would be about three o'clock A. M.) to get under weigh. Mrs. Noble, and Mr. Witts, our chief mate, who had preceded us, were in one junk; the Lascars, who had also reached the water before us, were in another ”

“ Some few of the cages had a hole cut in the lid, large enough to allow the top of the head to pass out: into one of these I was fortunate enough to get; but those who were not so lucky, had the misery of sitting with their heads on one side, to add to their other discomforts. Afterwards I was put into one without a hole, and miserable was my position.
When we were all stowed in our separate cages, we were carried down to the side of the canal, and placed in boats, two cages in each boat, attended by a mandarin officer and several soldiers. ”

“ We continued our journey, sometimes walking, sometimes in the sedan, the officers scarcely ever allowing the bearers to rest, and indeed beating them severely with sticks, and their heavy sheathed swords, if they stopped for even a moment without leave. The old jailer was with us, in a sedan, and seeing us walking, he spoke to the officer commanding the party, who came and made signs for us to get into the sedans ”

“ The Chinese wished us [Pg 15] very much to get out again, but this we would not think of doing, as stopping by the vessel for another tide was quite impossible.
Finding that we were determined not to remain by the wreck, the Chinese gave in, and shoved off. To our great surprise, we had not gone a few yards when our junk was aground. The other boat made sail, and stood away. The men in our junk made signs for us to get out, when we again refused, fearing, if we did, they would leave us there; and not liking the idea of remaining on a sand, which we knew the flood tide would cover. ”

“ The streets had generally a door at each end, in an archway; and this being shut at night, relieves the shopkeepers from the fear of thieves, to whom their open houses would otherwise be very easy of access. The butchers' shops were well fitted up with huge wooden slabs and blocks, and quarters of immensely fat pork hung up for sale; geese, ducks, vegetables, and fish, were all exposed in the broad open streets, as if in a market. ”

“ The domestic having placed three tables in different parts of the yard, (one being exactly before our window,) ranged round the edge of each nine basins, with chopsticks to all; they then filled the cups with hot rice, and covered the tables with plates of pork, fish, and vegetables, and by the side of every table placed a pile of thin paper. Before each of these tables the old gentleman knelt three times, bowing his head to the ground thrice each time; after this he filled a small cup with samshu, and setting fire to the heap of paper, sprinkled the samshu over the blaze. ”

“ Physician—Visitors—Day's employment—Taken before the mandarin—Letters and clothing from Chusan—Chinese clothes—Irons taken off—Return home—Salamanders—Amusements.
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! ”

“ The people [Pg 39] crowded to see us as usual, but one of the soldiers, throwing part of the sail over the tops of our cages, kept watch over us, and would allow no one to molest us.
On the sail being removed, that we might be taken out of the boat, the first thing that met my eye was one of our guns, with the carriage belonging to it; soon after I saw another gun and its carriage. To enable the Chinese to get these guns, the tide must have fallen considerably after we left the wreck. ”

“ The following morning the jailer unlocked the lids of our cages, and took the irons off our hands; so that we were at liberty to stand upright, and stretch our limbs; which, [Pg 49] from our cramped position, much needed this relaxation. The large place we were in, was, as I have said before, divided into four smaller apartments, three of which were occupied by us in our cages; whilst in the fourth were some Chinese prisoners, who lived in it by day, but slept in another part of the jail. ”

“ I could see, however, that other canals branched from ours in every direction, and on the banks were an immense number of wheels and machines of various descriptions, for raising the water from the canals, and irrigating the rice-fields; some worked by men as at a tread-mill, and others by buffaloes, which walked round and round in a circle, as we occasionally see horses in our [Pg 29] mills. By dusk, we arrived at a large town, where we had to change our boat ”

“ Breakfast was brought in early, consisting of sweet cakes and tea. When we had finished, two wooden cages were brought; the Chinese lifted one of our men into each, and carried them outside the gate, to be looked at by the common people; whilst the gentlemen, and better class, with their families, were admitted about two dozen at a time, to look at us who remained inside: sometimes we were visited by a party consisting entirely of women ”

“ We all saw that resistance, if they attacked us, would be perfectly useless, and thought it would be better to trust to them than to the waves, so as they all seemed more intent upon plunder than upon us, Twizell and I, two or three of the marines, two of the first-class boys, and the greater part of the Lascars, jumped into one boat, and the rest, with Webb and Wombwell, got into another. ”

“ In lifting the rice to their mouths they generally spilt a little, and there was always some left on the floor after meals; this seemed to shock the Chinese excessively, and the jailer told us "that lightning would fall from heaven, and destroy those who wasted God's bounties." ”

“ Captain Anstruther and Mrs. Noble were kept in separate rooms in another yard; they also were allowed their liberty by day, but when night came, all were locked down in their cages. Through Captain Anstruther's entreaties (who had many opportunities of seeing the mandarins, besides having the advantage of the captured interpreter's company) a doctor came to see some of the prisoners, two of whom had the dysentery very badly, besides several who had spear wounds, and others whose flesh the irons had galled and worked into sores ”

“ In this room lived an old officer, of some rank, I suppose, as all the soldiers, and our jailer, paid him great respect. Two young men came to him every day; whom we used to see, standing up before him, with their hands behind their backs, like schoolboys, [Pg 64] saying their lessons to him. It looked, as ours did, into a small court, in which, also, were some of the same kind of large pans for catching rain water, as those before mentioned. Two sides of the apartment in which I was placed, were of wood, and the other two of white bricks ”

“ Many [Pg 38] junks were moored alongside the bank, some very large, one in particular, whose long streamers flew gaily out in the breeze.
We stopped at a town on the left bank, where the soldiers got some firewood, and immediately set to work to prepare breakfast; rice, and some compounds of I know not what, for themselves, and sweet cakes and tea for me and my companion; but he was too ill to eat, and was constantly craving for water, which was never denied him. On our arrival at this town, the people crowded into our boat, nearly capsizing her ”

“ The proper exchange, I believe, is rather more than a thousand pice to the dollar, but we could only get nine hundred and thirty-two, or at most nine hundred and fifty.
Christmas was now close at hand, and we accordingly bought some meat and other things, that we might not eat such an un-Englishlike dinner as rice, turnips, and very small fish, our usual food; and with a little coaxing on our part, we prevailed on the old jailer to allow us to have some samshu, a liquor very like gin, and obtained from rice. ”

“ About noon we had our dinner; one basin full of rice and vegetables, and cakes and tea, as before; our jailers would never give us plain water, but whenever we asked for anything to drink, brought us weak tea. For supper we had cakes and tea again, and, after this last meal, lay down on our straw for the night.
The next day was passed in a similar manner; towards evening there was a great mustering of cages in the hall ”

“ 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.
I now began to learn a little of the language, and found out the name of several things in the eating way; such as pork, beef, and all sorts of cakes, and the celebrated bird's-nest soup, which, by-the-bye, was uncommonly good; these things we were [Pg 84] enabled to buy with the money we had received. ”

“ After another consultation amongst the mandarins, we were all called up again, and the irons taken off our legs, beginning with Mrs. Noble. This was a great relief, as our legs were quite stiff with their long confinement, and in most cases the iron had worked [Pg 75] into our flesh. Whilst they were being taken off, the compradore desired us to tell the Lascars, who had been left behind in the prison, that if they made no "bobberee," their irons would be taken off also. ”

“ In this case we found the want of a perfect understanding amongst ourselves, for the Lascars were so frightened at their situation, that they fell on their knees before the Chinamen, which of course encouraged the latter, and before we could look around us, men rose up as it were from the ground, separated us, and made us all prisoners at once, with the exception of four, who ran off, though without any idea whither they should run, or what they should do. ”

“ We learned from him, that though the mandarins [Pg 87] pressed the officers to write to their friends at Chusan, and promised that the letters should be safely conveyed, they had never kept to their word, but had detained the letters when they had obtained possession of them; perhaps as curiosities. The officers at Chusan, finding that the prisoners at Ningpo did not write, suspected the cause to be something of this kind, and therefore bribed a Chinese to carry letters from them to Lieut. Douglas and the others; and they answered them by the same person. ”

“ The floor was covered with mats, and the change from our cages was most agreeable. In a short time some more of the prisoners arrived, and the room was filled with eleven Europeans and four Lascars, making fifteen in all, just as many as the room would hold; nine being on one side, and six on the other, the rest of this side being occupied by a water-bucket, and two small washing-tubs. It being now dark, we began to think of sleep, so we lay down, which there was just room enough to do, each man lying on his back, and the feet of both rows meeting in the centre ”

“ Douglas came over, and told us we were all going to be removed to a more comfortable place; he and Mr. Witts very soon after were taken away. We had an early supper, and as soon as we had finished, some mandarin officers arrived, one carrying a small board, with some Chinese characters upon it. Their arrival caused a great bustle, and the jailer came in, unlocked the long chain that went through all the cages, and took five of the prisoners away with him. They walked out of the yard, and soon after he returned and took five more, and so on till it came to my turn ”

“ A short time after this, a new interpreter, who had just arrived, as he said, from Canton, came up to us; he brought us two letters to read, one from Mrs. Noble, and the other from Captain Anstruther, to their friends at Chusan, requesting to have some clothes and other things sent to them. [Pg 86] This man told us that it would most likely be peace, and that we should be released in a short time. We complained of the smallness of our room, and of our having nothing but rice to eat, and said we wished to have meat sometimes ”

“ The vessel was covered over with tilts, made of split bamboo, leaving only the forecastle and poop exposed; under the forecastle-deck was the tank, and on deck was a sampan, which could be launched at will. The poop was a very small place, there being only room enough to work the tiller; and when the wind was adverse, the long tiller was unshipped, and a short one used instead, and the vessel propelled by means of a large sweep, which five or six men handled, sculling in the same manner as we do. ”

“ The passage led down to another large yard, one side of which was walled up, and on the other was a large open room, containing chairs, tables, and sleeping couches, with cane bottoms: this seemed the guard-room, as soldiers were always there, playing with dice and dominoes; and their arms (match-locks, and bows and arrows,) were scattered about. Beyond this room was another passage, which led to the room where the sixteen Lascars were confined; a smaller and far less comfortable place than ours. ”

“ Sampan—Description of junk—Preserved eggs—Reception from the English—H. M. S. Blonde—Mrs. Noble—Leave Chusan—Narrow escape—H. M. S. Samarang—Leave Macao—Arrive at Spithead.
On getting outside the gate, we found an immense crowd assembled; they did not molest us in the least, but we passed on very quietly. We were taken through a different quarter of the town to any I had been in before, but the streets were built and ornamented in the same manner; they were lined, on both sides, with such a number of people, that where they could all have come from I could not imagine. ”