A herd of female jackos after one nut, in their
native jungle, could not have made such
screeching clatter, and their Chinese swearing
must have been something awful. The first bold
man who disembarked had a terrible time of it.
He carried letters and despatches. Now I have
always considered the conveyance of the mails
in Russia on an insecure and unsatisfactory
footing, as illustrated by the Courier of St.
Petersburg on his four horses at Astley's; but I
saw this man, with my own eyes, in four boats
at once. I never heard whether he reached the
shore, or was pulled to pieces. A-miu now
returned and knocked A-tye over into the water
with her oar; but the girl swam like a fish, and
climbed up the boat in an instant— her clothes,
only a silk blouse and trousers, soon drying in
the Macao sun. And at last, amongst screaming,
fighting, and struggling— crying, laughing,
and swearing— I got to shore, but how, I have
no more notion than how I once fell with a
burst balloon, from the height of a mile,
surrounded by fireworks, into a street in the Vauxhall-
road, which, for the life of me, I never could
find out afterwards.

A very agreeable dinner, with plenty of cool
beer, and "cups" of various descriptions, and a
ride round the city, with a visit to the Cave of
Camoëns, caused the evening to pass pleasantly
enough. The kindness and hospitality of the
great English houses in China is unbounded.
Travellers bring in their luggage, and become
"squatters" in the establishment for as long as
it suits them, coming and going as they please.
It is no intrusion on privacy to mention the
names of the Dents and Jardines in connexion
with these real accommodations in a country
where hotels are not. Their courtesy to
travellers is world-famous.

It was my good fortune that evening to meet
Mr. Osmond Cleverley, as Captain Castella had
presaged. He alone escaped from the terrible
massacre on board the Queen, the year before
last; and as we sat on the balcony overlooking the
bay, whilst our younger friends shot clay pellets
at the dogs and tanka girls along shore, he gave
me the following particulars:

He left Hong Kong one fine morning in
February, 1857, in the Queen— as I had left in the
Fei-maa— with a mixed crew and passengers,
English, Portuguese, and Chinese— the latter
predominating.

The European passengers had, as usual, sat
down to dinner in the saloon, off Lantao, when
the Chinese left on deck and about the boat, by
a preconcerted movement, suddenly knocked the
mate and the man at the wheel on the head,
threw them overboard, seized the arm-chest,
which was on the bridge, with its
cutlasses and ready-loaded muskets, and began
firing down on the passengers. The
captain (Wynn) and Mr. Cleverley seized their
revolvers, and rushed up the ladder. The
former was cut down as he reached the deck,
and, falling on the latter, they were both thrown
back into the cabin, and the hatches were
immediately closed by those above, one of whom
fell dead into the cabin by a shot from Mr.
Cleverley's revolver.

Thus closed in a trap, they had nothing to
look forward to but to be killed like beasts.
The captain was almost senseless from a sword-
cut on his skull; the engineer was undressing
rapidly to leap overboard; and the passengers
and crew were too panic-stricken to do anything.
Knowing that when the guns of the Chinese were
fired they had no means of loading them again,
Mr. Cleverley went alone up the ladder with a
fresh revolver, and, forcing the cabin-door
open, met his assailants. He was received with
their fire, but shot three of them dead. They
fell back, and, emboldened by this, he was
advancing, when a musket-ball passed through his
thigh, smashing the bone. He again fell down
back into the cabin, and the captain, seeing
this, said, " Then all is over, sir. Here, take
my revolver, and God bless you! we shall never
meet again." He then stumbled to the stern-
post, and threw himself into the sea, followed
by the engineer. The Chinese fired after them,
and they were never seen again.

Mr. Cleverley now bound up his broken leg,
and was limping to the aft cabin, when another
volley from deck was sent after him, followed
by a Chinese yell of victory, as they rushed
towards the saloon. Certain there was no chance
left, he seized one of the rattan chairs common
in China, and dragging it and himself towards
the port sponsons, threw it into the water, and
dropped in after it. Fortunately he was not
perceived; the steamer, with nobody at her
engines, kept on her way, and he was soon
astern, floating, but alone in the sea!

In great agony, as the swell moved his broken
bone, he floated for nearly an hour, with the
assistance of his chair. Once it escaped from
his hand, and in turning to recover it, as he rose
on a wave higher than ordinary, he discovered a
lorcha working to windward: and, from his
nautical knowledge, he knew that, not being
weatherly, his true course would bring her
within hail. And he was right: she came
nearer and nearer, until she got within hail, and
just within an hour from his leaving the steamer
he was taken on board as the hapless Queen
was seen slowly standing to the northward, and
was now half-funnel down.

The lorcha took him on to Macao, not,
however, before the crew had asked him how much
money he would give them to do so; and even
then they would not land him amongst the
Chinese boats. But he wrote on a card in
pencil, " Mr. William Dent, or any other
European;" and in half an hour Mr. Dent arrived,
and took him to his house, placing him on a
bed, which he did not leave for many months.
He is now a cripple, and, although formerly
distinguished for athletic exercises, limps about
in great suffering.

All the Europeans on board the Queen were
murdered, and the ship was burnt. The whole
plan was conceived and carried out by that
fiendish miscreant Yeh— another link in the
chain of his hideous cruelties. Mr. Cleverley