passenger-boat that was about to leave Shui-kow. So after dinner I accompanied him on board, not without a last vain effort, as he was but in feeble health, to persuade him to complete the voyage in the yacht or house-boat in which we had come. A Chinese passenger-boat makes a pretty swift trip, and may be very suitable for natives, but it does not quite come up to our European notions of comfort. Thus the steerage accommodation consists of a long low cabin, in which one can scarcely kneel upright; and within this narrow space we found about fifty persons stowed away. Many were pedlars, carrying their wares along with them for sale ; and the air of this packing-box was strongly tainted with garUc, tobacco, sam-shu, opium and a variety of other Chinese perfumes, which issued from the mass of humanity that writhed and tumbled about in fruitless efforts to discover places for repose. When they were a little settled, we had literally to grope our way over a reeking platform of half-naked limbs and bodies, and amid a torrent of cursing and abuse, in order to reach the state cabin, where my stout friend, after sundry efforts, succeeded in depositing himself at last. This cabin measured about four feet by three. The door was shut, and there he was in a sort of locker with one or two openings to admit the air, or rather the stench and din of the unwashed, noisy crowd in the steerage. So we parted to meet again and recount our adventures in Foochow.
