form of door-way into our European residences and country-seats, and it is assuredly not the only improvement in the decorative art which we could borrow with advantage from the Chinese. Whampoa's own favourite habitation is about four miles outside the town, and presents a curious admixture of European comfort and taste with Chinese notions of ornament. In the saloons, adorned with a quantity of neat fancy ornaments, are suspended from the walls verses and proverbs of the most renowned Chinese poets, all written on long elegantly illustrated rolls of paper. Our host also showed us a variety of objects which had been presented to him by foreign ship captains, officers of the navy, and even singers, as the late Mrs. Catherine Hayes Bushnell, whom he had shown much attention to. A banquet, to which we were invited by this hospitable Chinese to meet a number of the most prominent commercial magnates of the colony, was served entirely in the European style. The viands were cooked by a Chinese cook, in the English and French styles, only the dessert came part from Japan, part from China, and consisted of a variety of fruits, which were utterly unknown to the eye and the palate of the European guests. Our Chinese host seemed quite at home in doing the honours. Although outwardly a Chinese of the most orthodox stamp, with shaven head, (except the long tail reaching almost to the earth,) and his body robed in a black silken stuff, he drank to each of his guests in good old English style, and seemed as
little afraid of Sherry as of Champagne. Indeed, we even had toasts, in the course of which this Chinese friend to foreigners remarked in English, that any amelioration of the present critical condition of his native land, can only be effected by the progressive influence of the British government. Whampoa is in all probability the first Chinese who has sent his son to Europe.
On the very last day of our stay in Singapore, a melancholy accident occurred on board. One of our sailors named Rossi, while unbending a sail for the purpose of repair, fell from the fore-yard on the forecastle, where he lay insensible, and died a few hours afterwards. Latterly repeated instances had occurred at short intervals, of the sailors, while working at various elevations, losing hold and falling on deck, but none of these had had such a tragical result as the present, and a few slight injuries was all the penalty the sufferers received for their carelessness. Singularly enough, such accidents mostly occur to the able seamen, because that class usually feel themselves as secure while resting on the foot-ropes, and working among the masts and sails, as on the ground itself, and from their carelessness come much more frequently to grief, than their comrades less experienced in manœuvring among the cordage. Rossi was reverently committed to the earth in the Catholic burying-ground of Singapore, and arrangements were at the same time made for the erection of a small grave-stone over his distant resting-place,
informing the visitors to this "Court of Peace," that below reposes a member of the Novara Expedition, who had lost his life in the discharge of his duties.
As we were now at the season of the change of monsoon, at which period the always difficult navigation of the narrow seas between Singapore and Batavia demands an unusual degree of carefulness, in consequence of frequent squalls, we engaged a pilot, who for a stipulated sum of 175 dollars was to convoy us to the next station on our voyage. Captain Burrows, as our pilot was named, had the reputation of being a specially competent, thoroughly trustworthy person, who for a long period had navigated these waters in his own ship, and, as we were informed, had, owing to some unfortunate speculations, been compelled to become a pilot of other vessels, after having for years sailed in command of his own ship. He had already come on board with his traps, but, as wind and tide were both unfavourable, he obtained permission to return to shore till sunset. This however the pilot did not do, and on the following morning, finding he did not come off despite our signals, we set sail without him about 9 A.M. with favourable wind and tide. No one could account for the default of a pilot so strongly recommended on all hands, particularly as all his baggage had remained on board, and must now of course make the voyage to Batavia. For a moment we conjectured that he had immediately on landing been seized by the dread distemper, only it seemed improbable we should not have been informed of such a catastrophe.
And in fact it afterwards appeared that his having missed us was entirely due to his own inattention.
We at first had intended to pass through the narrow strait of Rhio,[33] by which the route is materially shortened, but as the squally weather had fairly set in, while the breeze had crept round to the S.E., and the tide set strong to the northwards, we abandoned this plan, and decided on sailing through the channel between Horsburgh light-house and Bintang, so as to pass to the eastward of this island as far as Graspar Straits, which however we only reached the following day, owing to light fitful breezes from the northwards. So soon as we entered Gaspar Straits we found the sea, which is here of no great depth, never exceeding 25 fathoms, partly covered with trunks of trees and sea-weed, while the water had lost its transparency and was of a dirty green colour.
At 10 A.M. of the 25th April, we crossed the equator for the third time, and the same day about 11 P.M. were in sight of the rocky island of Tothy, a rain-squall from the N.E. blowing at the time. We passed between this island and the dangerous because invisible Vega Rock, just below the surface of the sea, and found ourselves in an archipelago of islands and shoals requiring the utmost vigilance in navigating ships of large size. But the moon, "the seaman's friend," shone brightly at night, and the well-known transparency of the air in tropical countries enabled us
even during the hours of darkness to make out with perfect distinctness islands lying 25 to 30 miles distant, so that we were by these means, coupled with occasional casts of the lead, enabled on every occasion to make out with sufficient exactness at what point we had arrived. We were so lucky as to have never once throughout this intricate navigation been compelled to cast anchor (as is so frequently the case here), and thus succeeded in overhauling in Gaspar Straits more than one merchantman, that was a far better sailer than the Novara.
On 30th April in 2° 48′ S., and 107° 16′ E., we celebrated the anniversary of our departure from Trieste, with hearts filled with gratitude to the illustrious projector of an expedition devoted to such lofty aims.