A mid-day siesta, for at night we must be watchful of straggling piratical Manchoo gunboats, followed by another gunning excursion in the cool of the evening, or possibly a few minutes passed in some secluded village; then dinner at dusk, almost the same as breakfast, excepting the addition of curry (real curry, not as is often the case, a yellow-looking mess of that name only), some of the many descriptions of Chinese vegetables, and pastry made by that clever As-sam; followed by a game of chess, a duet with my concertina and friend's flute, and a fragrant Manila to accompany the constitutional after-dinner quarter-deck promenade, terminate the pleasures of the day.
While daylight lasted we were generally safe; but whenever night spread her sable mantle over river, shore, and man alike, the utmost vigilance was required. By generally keeping underweigh all night, and choosing the centre of the stream, with one or two exceptions I avoided any serious danger from the Imperialist braves and gunboats, as one well-directed shot would mostly satisfy them; some of my friends, however, were not so fortunate, and on this occasion of my river life I came upon a scene of horror I never shall forget.
After successfully running past the fortifications and flotillas situated at the commencement of the Imperialist jurisdiction, early one morning, when within a few miles of Chin-kiang, we came in sight of a lorcha close in to the river's bank. As the wind was too scant to be useful for vessels bound up the river, at first I paid but little attention to the otherwise singular position of the strange craft, but when nearly abreast, to my astonishment I discovered her to be the Fox, my friend Mellen's lorcha. The daylight was now pretty well developed, and almost at the same time I was enabled to discern some one on deck waving a large white signal. Upon this I steered directly for the lorcha, and when sufficiently near, saw the figure was that of a woman, apparently alone; that the vessel was evidently derelict, from the confusion and dismantled state of her rigging, and that she was run ashore high and dry, her bow actually projecting a considerable way over the land.
Running as close alongside as we could without grounding, we anchored in the stream right abeam of her, and arming ourselves and a couple of good men, my friend and I proceeded to board the lorcha. Upon doing so we were met at the gangway by the old nurse of Mellen's children, who was wringing her hands and loudly vociferating the peculiar lament in vogue among the Chinese women when in grief.
A deserted ship has at all times a disheartening, melancholy sort of effect, upon a sailor at all events; but although I had seen such a thing before, even far away upon the vast ocean hundreds of miles from the nearest land, I never experienced so sudden and so fearful a chill as the moment my feet touched that lorcha's deck. It was not the grievous aspect of old As-su, neither was it the deserted appearance of the vessel itself, but the atmosphere seemed heavy with some undefinable horror, that unearthly smell, or rather perception, of human blood which those who have discovered deeds of slaughter will easily appreciate, but which I cannot further explain.
Of course my first endeavour was to gather something from the old nurse, meanwhile my friend proceeded aft towards the lorcha's cabin. Before I could distinguish anything tangible from the sobbing "hi-yo hi-yo's" of As-su, I was startled by his horrified exclamation.
"Great God! come here, A——," called he in the sharp accents of powerful excitement. In a moment I was by his side and gazing down through the torn-off cabin skylight.
I have passed among the bodies of thousands killed in the sanguinary Chinese battles; I have moved slowly along creeks, ay, even the broad Yang-tze itself, literally choked with poor remnants of humanity; quite lately I have wandered through once happy Ti-ping villages, at this time tenanted alone with the starved, dead, and the miserable living cannibals, yet existing upon their former companions. I have passed through all these fearful scenes, yet never did I feel the overpowering horror I experienced while gazing into that lonely cabin; lonely, indeed, for only the bodies of the ruthlessly murdered composed its ghastly tenancy.
Blood stained the sides, the ceiling, and the furniture, while the deck of that gory cabin seemed one coagulated mass. Doubled up at the foot of his berth my poor friend Mellen, one of the bravest among the brave, lay mangled and hideous; above him, in the very attitude of protecting her husband, stood the corpse of his noble-hearted wife, frightfully disfigured and covered with wounds; while the innocent little child lay gashed and lifeless by its father's side. I will not further horrify my readers with a description of the fearful nature of the wounds inflicted upon these unfortunates; suffice it to say that although Mellen himself was cut up with many, his brave wife was literally hacked to pieces.
I afterwards ascertained, through inquiries made in the vicinity by my interpreter A-ling, and from the testimony of the nurse As-su, who escaped the fate of her mistress by secreting herself, that my friends had been thus brutally murdered by a number of Imperialist soldiery in combination with some of the crew.