[44] The officiating priest.
[45] It is hardly to be understood how dishonourable men are "worthy a more honourable death."
[46] Table of Ti-ping loss of life.
[47] Vide pp. 126 and 108, Blue Book on China, No. 3, 1864, for Dr. Murtagh's letter, and the attestation by Bishop Boone and the Bishop of Victoria of the statements of two other eye-witnesses.
[48] Vide Blue Book on China, No. 3, 1864 p. 111.
CHAPTER XXII.
On the Wong-poo River.—Ningpo Sam.—The China.—Her passengers.—The Ta-hoo Lake.—Its Scenery.—The Canals of Central China.—General Burgevine.—Soo-chow.—Deserters.—Burgevine suspected.—The Americo-Ti-ping Legions.—Burgevine's policy.—Colonel Morton.—The Mo-wang.—Arrival of the Chung-wang.—The Loyal and Faithful Auxiliary Legion.—How regulated.—Affair at Wo-kong.—Recruiting.—Plan of Operations.—A coup de main.—Arrangement.—Interruptions.—Postponed.
Towards the close of a fine October day in 1863, an ordinary Shanghae san-pan, or passage-boat, might have been seen slowly sculling up-stream against the ebbing tide of the Wong-poo river, and carefully hugging the bank opposite to the foreign settlements. Besides the hardy Chinese owner (working away with a big oar over the stern, and rejoicing in the euphonical cognomen "Ningpo Sam"), the boat was occupied by two foreigners, seated under the arched mat cover. One seemed to be of Anglo-Saxon race; the other, by his dusky skin, long moustache, and jet-black hair, a native of the East Indies.