After our visiters had satisfied their curiosity concerning our object
in putting into Loo Choo, they sat down to dinner, which was ready,
and with much address and good-humour showed us they had learned
to chin-chin, or drink healths in the English manner.
I was very anxious to find out who my guest with the vocabulary
was, as it at first occurred to me that it might be Miidera, of whom
Captain Hall so frequently speaks in his delightful publication on Loo
Choo; but then he did not seem to be so well acquainted with the
English language as Madera appears to have been, and, besides, he must
have been much younger. His objection to answering our inquiries
on this head, and disclaiming all knowledge of any vessel having ever
been at Loo Choo before, put it out of my power at first to inform
myself on the point, and had not his own curiosity overcame his prudence,
it would perhaps have long remained a secret.
The manner in which the discovery was made is curious: after the
sackee* had gone round a few times, An-yah inquired if “ ship got womans?”
and being answered in the negative, he replied, somewhat surprised,
“ other ships got womans, handsome womans!” alluding to Mrs.
Loy, with whom the Loo Chooans were so much captivated that, it is
thought, she had an offer from a person of high authority in the island.
I then taxed him with having a knowledge of other ships, and when
he found he had betrayed himself, he laughed heartily, and acknowledged
that he recollected the visit of the Alceste and Lyra, which he
correctly said was 144 moons ago, and that he was the linguist An-yah
whom Captain Hall calls An-yah Toonslioonfa, but he disclaimed all right
to this appendage to his name. Having got thus far, I inquired after
almost all the characters which so much interested me in reading the
publication alluded to above, but they either prevai’icated, or disclaimed
all recollection of the persons alluded to, and I .found it extremely difficult
to get a word in answer.
At last one of them said Ookoma was at the other end of the
island, and another immediately added that he had gone to Pekin. A
* The Loo Choo name for wine or spirits.
third stated that Madera was very ill at the capital, while it was asserted
by others that he was dead, or that he was banished to Patanjan . 1 hey
all maintained they had never any knowledge of such persons as Shang-
fwee and Shang-Pungfwee, the names given to the king and prince ot
Loo Choo in Captain Hall’s publication. From this conversation it
was very evident that they knew perfectly well who Ookoma and
Miidera were, but did not intend to give us any correct information
about them. , o i
I was a little vexed to find that neither An-yah nor Isaacha-Sandoo,
who was also of our party, and is mentioned by Captain Hall, made
the slightest inquiry after any of the officers of the Alceste or Lyra, by
whom they had been treated in the most friendly manner, and for whom
it might have been inferred, from the tears that were shed by the Loo
Chooans on the departure of those ships, that the greatest reprd had
been entertained. The only time they alluded to them was when Jlrs.
Lov recurred to their imagination.
M"hen they had drank enough sackee, they rose to take their leave,
and, emptying the contents of the fruit dishes into their pockets retired
in great good humour; but An-yah, not quite satisfied about the
number of men on board the ship, probably imagining, from the nuniber
he saw aloft, that there were many more, again asked the question, “ how
many mans?” and on being answered as before, replied “ not got hundred
one?” which he wrote down a second time; and having satisfied
himself 0,1 this knotty point shook us by the hand and said, “ weU 1
speakee mandarin, to-morrow come water; Doo Chooman no want pay;
fife day you go away.” “ That,” I returned, “ will depend upon the
health of the sick, who must be allowed to land and walk about,
then desired him to tell the mandarin, that to-morrow I should go on
shore and wait on him in his own house. An-yah alarmed lest the
threat might be carried into execution, hastily exclaimed, ‘ No, no, i
speakee mandarin, mans go shore, walk about, no go liou se -n o go
house.” Thus by threatening to do more than was intended, we obtained
a tacit consent to that which we wanted without much chance of
. An islanAsitunted near Ty-ping-chan, upon wUcli Captain Broughton was l a c k e d .
.V I