they are lower, indeed, than those of a common
Lascar; and the Chinaman is more easily fed and
satisfied than the dark-skinned Hindoo, while in
robust make and muscular power he is far
superior. Indeed, he is not at all worse than
the Krooman of Western Africa, who is justly
valued. I could often have fancied, while
watching a gang of sturdy Chinese hauling at a
rope, that I was observing Dutch or Danish
sailors at their work. There is the same
muscular power, the same solidity of build, and
the same apparent relish of exertion—a rare
thing in Asiatics. European seamen desert to
get work in smugglers, in the schooners and
tug-boats belonging to native merchants, and
so forth, and are preferred by the native
employers because they can fight. The Chinese
sailor will not fight for his countrymen, yet he
will work for his countrymen, and for his
countrymen only! This is a very curious
fact. I have repeatedly inquired of English
and American mates and masters, why the
robust and money-loving Chinese could not be
made at least as useful as the effeminate
Lascars, who compose a great part of every Indiaman's
crew, and who are managed through
native serangs. The answer always has been,
"The Chinamen won't work for us." And
yet how heartily the Coolies work for English
cash, on shore! If Chinamen work for the
money of the foreign devils when ashore, why
not afloat: Fear of mutiny may make our
merchant captains less eager to have a
Celestial ship's company, and certainly such fear
has grounds. The Chinaman, whose pay is
but a string of copper sapecks, and whose
rations are a mess of rice and oil, would
be invaluable, if he could be trusted to keep
out of conspiracies and do his fair share of
the work. Severity fails to compel
obedience. A Yankee skipper, who was going
to return to Boston short-handed, gave me
a hint on this score, when I asked him why
he did not hire Chinese. After suggestion of
the certainty of throat-cutting on the high
seas, unless he and his mates had an eye
always on the Mongolian part of the crew, the
worthy skipper came to the wilful idling, and
closed with the provoking hopelessness of the
case, "For," he said, "if you lambast the
critters, it is a fact, they'll drown theirselves
jist to spite you." The phrase is hardly an
exaggeration, such is the recklessness of life in
this strange prayerless race, and such the
frequency of suicide among the lower class on
what we should call light provocation. There
always are Chinese on board the opium vessels,
but there, too, they carry out the strange
doctrine of working only for Chinamen, and
fighting only for Europeans. They ship as
cooks, pilots, canoe-men, and so forth, but
do not help in the regular duty of working
the vessel. Yet, when a brush occurs between
an imperial junk and one of these fleet
smugglers, the sleek-skinned subjects of the emperor
assist with hearty good will to run out and
point the guns which are to fling grape and
round shot among the crews of the mandarin
boat.

The fishermen are busy and numerous in
Chinese harbours, They paddle briskly off to
sheltered creeks and smooth bays, where there
is a chance of circumventing sturgeon, highly
valued by the Chinese of rank, who love caviare
as the Russians love it. Also, they are very
adroit in spearing the many kinds of great
flatfish which glide along the shallows, and at other
times you see them for hours patiently baiting
and lowering their long lines, and unhooking
the many strange and gaudy fishes of all colours
and shapes, from the circular parrot-fish to the
opal ray, which Eastern seas contain. In China,
there is an excellent market for fish always;
indeed, so there is for pork, and all cereals, fruits,
and vegetables, besides seaworms and slugs,
and plump rats: for nothing comes amiss where
there are so many million mouths to feed.
Besides the fishermen, there are sampans,
tub-boats, and bamboo rafts of yet humbler
pretensions, eternally plying around the European
vessels and the flotilla of junks, to offer for
sale oranges, water-melons, calabash-bowls and
bottles, jars of wine from Tse-tchouen, and fiery
rice-distilled samshu from the lower provinces,
with ducks and geese that scream and flutter
as their proprietors hold them up by the feet
for scrutiny. Others have come out to tempt
the Fanquis with more attractive curiosities:
porcelains, brocades, fairy carvings in ivory, fans
of paper, bamboo, mother-of-pearl, or silk and
tinsel, bells, bronze idols, parroquets, pigeons
of rare breeds, and fishing cormorants
warranted to supply the larder. Some of these
boats are full of half-naked creatures who
look scarcely human, as they leer under their
tattered straw hats; others, contain Chinamen
of imposing presence, fat men in flowing
robes, silky tails, musk-scented, and flowery of
speech; but all have the same long narrow eyes,
those unutterably cunning Mongolian eyes, in
which no emotion can be traced, and which
express nothing except astuteness. These floating
stall-keepers hang chiefly about the European
ships, although they are often roughly ordered
to sheer off by some vigilant mate, who doubts
the security of unconsidered trifles such as
coils of rope, metal bolts, chains, paint-pots,
and spare sails. The fishermen, too, are not
exactly encouraged to lie under the bends, or
close to the rudder-pins, in their buoyant canoes,
with the long lines trailing out.

The science of thieving flourishes here well.
After dusk, not only do light sampans, bound on
no honest errand, steal like water-snakes in and
about the fleet of merchantmen, but powerful
swimmers, sometimes with a couple of bladders
tied to their necks as aids to them in carrying
off heavy goods, will hover round the ships,
scarcely distinguishable from floating logs or
gourds. The supple agility with which these
gentry know how to slip through an open port
or cabin window, is only equalled by the stealthy
way in which they rifle lockers and trunks, glide
from berth to berth, and draw a watch or purse