During the night I heard a great noise on board, but was too feverish and weak to make any inquiries as to the cause. In the morning my servant informed me that it was occasioned by the arrival of three junks during the night, which had been chased to the entrance of the harbour by the pirates; there had, he said, originally been four in company, but one of them had been taken.
The sailors on board these junks had not been so fortunate as we had been, for several of them were severely wounded, and I was now asked to extract the balls. The wounds were large and ragged, owing to the iron shot which the Chinese use in their guns. I advised the wounded men to hurry on to Chusan, where they would get good medical advice.
Up to nine o'clock in the morning, although the wind and tide were both favourable, there were no signs of the junks getting under weigh; I therefore sent for the captain, and inquired if it was not his intention to proceed. He told me that he had had a meeting with the captains of the other vessels, and that they had determined to get a convoy of war junks from the mandarin before they went on. Being now within eighty or ninety miles of Chusan, I could easily hire a small boat for that distance, and therefore said to the captain, "Very well, then I shall leave you here, as I am very unwell, and anxious to get to Chusan as soon as possible." "Go," said I, turning to my servant, "and engage a boat to take me on to Chusan, and bring it here as soon as you can." When he was about to leave the vessel, several of the crew gathered round him and attempted to persuade him not to go. Anxious to serve his countrymen, although at my expense, he loitered about for a little while, and then came back and informed me that it was no use going on shore, as I should not be able to engage a boat to take me so far. As I had been informed, by one of the shore people who had come on board, that plenty of boats were to be had on hire, I felt annoyed at his deceit, and threatened to punish him if he did not start immediately and bring a boat off. When he saw that I was determined, he turned sulkily away, jumped into a sand-pan, and procured a boat without the slightest difficulty. The captain and crew now crowded round me, begging me not to leave them, and offering to get up their anchor and proceed at once. Although my destination was Chusan, I had taken my passage for Ningpo, as all the wood junks were bound either for that port or Chapoo. On their now begging me to stay, I told them that unless they would sail into Chusan harbour and leave me there as they passed, I would proceed in the small boat, as I was anxious to get there as soon as possible, in order to obtain medicine and advice. "Oh," said they, "if you will only go with us, we will run into Chusan harbour and leave you there before we cross over to Ningpo." Upon this assurance I agreed to accompany them.
The captains of the other junks now came to me and asked me if I would undertake to protect them all from the attacks of the pirates; as, if so, they would get under weigh and go with us also. Upon my telling them that I could not undertake to do this, they told me that they must wait until some arrangement could be made with the mandarins, as they were afraid to proceed alone. We therefore left them at anchor, and proceeded on our voyage. During the day we frequently saw suspicious-looking craft, which were pronounced by the crew to be Jan-dous; but none of them were near enough to attack us. Late in the afternoon, as we approached Keto-point—a promontory of the main-land near Chusan—we met a large fleet of merchant junks sailing together for mutual protection on their way down. Some of them came alongside us, and made anxious inquiries regarding the Jan-dous, and how many of them they might expect to meet with. Our people did not fail to give them an exaggerated account of the number we had seen and fought with, and the news did not appear greatly to delight them. During the night the tide turned against us; and as the wind, although fair, was light, we were obliged to anchor until morning.
When I went on deck at daylight the following morning, I found we were just under Keto-point, and only a few miles from Chusan harbour. The land was well known to me, having been frequently there before. It was the most welcome sight which had met my eyes for many a long day; and I was thankful indeed to the Almighty for my escape from the pirates.
Whilst the men were heaving up the anchor, my old friends the captain and pilot came below, bolder and in much better spirits than heretofore, and informed me, with the greatest coolness, that they had changed their minds about going into the harbour of Chusan; and that I must go over with them to Ningpo, from whence I could easily return in a small boat for Chusan. I felt very much nettled at this conduct, which, considering that I had saved their junk from being taken by the pirates on two different occasions, was most ungrateful. I reproached them with this ingratitude, telling them that, as they were now safe from the Jan-dous, they imagined that they could do with me just as they pleased. "But you never deceived yourselves more," added I: "you may show as much ingratitude as you please; but I shall take care that you fulfil the promise you made to me yesterday, and take me into the harbour of Chusan before you go over to Ningpo. Look here: you see this gun and these pistols; they are all loaded: you know what effects they produced upon the Jan-dous; take care they are not turned against yourselves. Englishmen never allow promises which have been made to them to be broken with impunity. I know the way into Chusan harbour as well as you do, and when the anchor is up I shall stand at the helm; and if the pilot attempts to steer for Ningpo, he must take the consequence." This threat had the desired effect; and the trembling varlets landed me safely at Chusan in the course of the forenoon.
What with the fever and the excitement of the last few days, I was in a most deplorable condition when I reached Chusan; but as the greater part of my collections were in the country near Shanghae, I was most anxious to ascertain in what state they were; and, finding an English vessel about to sail for the Yang-tse-Kiang, I immediately crawled on board, and, having a fair wind, we soon reached our destination. I was kindly received by my friend Mr. Mackenzie, and under the skilful treatment of Dr. Kirk, the fever gradually left me.
Amongst the more important of the acquisitions which I made in the vicinity of Shanghae, I must not forget to mention a fine and large variety of peach, which comes into the markets there about the middle of August, and remains in perfection for about ten days. It is grown in the peach orchards, a few miles to the south of the city; and it is quite a usual thing to see peaches of this variety eleven inches in circumference and twelve ounces in weight. This is, probably, what some writers call the Peking peach, about which such exaggerated stories have been told. Trees of the Shanghae variety are now in the garden of the Horticultural Society of London.
The whole of my plants from the districts of Foo-chow-foo, Chusan, and Ningpo, being brought together at Shanghae, I got them packed, and, on the 10th of October, left the north of China for Hong-kong and England. As I went down the river, I could not but look around me with pride and satisfaction; for in this part of the country I had found the finest plants in my collections. It is only the patient botanical collector, the object of whose unintermitted labour is the introduction of the more valuable trees and shrubs of other countries into his own, who can appreciate what I then felt.
When we arrived at Hong-kong, I divided my collections, and despatched eight glazed cases of living plants for England: the duplicates of these and many others I reserved to take home under my own care. I then went up to Canton, and took my passage for London in the ship "John Cooper." Eighteen glazed cases, filled with the most beautiful plants of northern China, were placed upon the poop of the ship, and we sailed on the 22d of December. After a long but favourable voyage, we anchored in the Thames, on the 6th of May, 1846. The plants arrived in excellent order, and were immediately conveyed to the garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick. Already, many of those which I first imported have found their way to the principal gardens in Europe; and at the present time (October 20, 1846), the Anemone japonica is in full bloom in the garden of the Society at Chiswick, as luxuriant and beautiful as it ever grew on the graves of the Chinese, near the ramparts of Shanghae.