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On the 21st, An-yah came off to say, that the mandarin had
accepted my invitation to visit the ship, and would come on board that
day: we consequently made preparation to receive him. As it appeared
to me that Napa-keang possessed no boat sufficiently good for so great
an occasion, I offered to send one of ours to the town for his accommodation,
which, in addition to obliging the mandarin, would afford an
opportunity of seeing the place ; but An-yah would not permit it, and
fearful that we might really pursue this piece of politeness further, got
out of the ship as fast as he could, saying the mandarin was at Potsoong,
and not in the town. About two o’clock lie pushed off from that
place with his party in two clumsy punts, sculled by several men
singing a chorus, which differed, both in words and air, from that used
by the boatmen in general. The mandarin was seated in the largest
of these boats, under a wide Chinese umbrella, with two or three mandarins
of inferior rank by him ; the other boat contained An-yah,
Shtaflicoo, Sandoo, and others, with whom we were well.acquainted, and
who rowed on before the mandarin, and announced his approach by
presenting a crimson scroll of paper, exactly a yard in length, on which
was elegantly written in Chinese characters, “ Ching-oong-choo, the
magistrate of Napa, in the Loo Choo country, bows his head to the
ground, and pays a visit.” By this time the other boat with the
great man was alongside the ship, and four domestics with scarlet
hatchee-matchees ascended the side, one of them bearing a large square
hatchee-matchee box, in which there was an old comb. They pulled
up the side ropes, and carefully inspected them, to see whether they
were strong enough to hold their master, and let them dowm again for
the mandarin, wdio, very little accustomed to such feats, ascended the
side with difficulty.
He was received with a guard under arms, and a mandarin’s salute
was fired as he put his foot upon the deck, with which he w’as much
gratified, and he shook every officer by the hand with unaffected pleasure.
The yards had been manned as he was coming off, and when the
pipe was given for the seamen to come down, the evolution produced a
little surprise, and must have impressed the Loo Chooans with the
decided advantage of our dress over theirs, where activity is required.
Ojee, one of the party, who also styled himself Jeeraa, and is mentioned
by Captain Hall, followed, and tben the rest of the mandarins .__ ___
in yellow hatchee-matchees and gowns.
To persons who had visited a line English frigate, disciplined by
one of tbe ablest officers in the British service, the Blossom could have
presented nothing extraordinary; and as the greater part of our visiters
were familiar with the Alceste, they were very little interested in what
they saw; but Ching-oong-choo had not been long from Pekin, and
never, probably, having put his foot on the deck of a ship before, a
Chinese junk excepted, examined every thing very attentively, and
made many inquiries about tbe guns, powder, and shot.
None of tbe natives offered to seat themselves in the cabin in the
presence of tbe mandarin until dinner was brought in, but they then
dispensed with formalities, and those who were familiar with European
customs chincbinned each other with wine, and reversed their glasses
each time, to tbe gi-eat amusement of their superior. During dinner
the fate of Mádera was inquired into, but we got no satisfactory
answer, and a mystery seemed to hang over his fate, which made us
suspect he had in some way or other been disgraced. .Jeema took
tbe opportunity of showing he recollected his visits to the Alceste
and Lyra, but be did not make any inquiry after his friends in either
vessel.A
s we had lately been at Canton, we were provided with many
things which were happily to the taste of our guests, wlio w'ould other-
wise"bav-e fiired badly, as they did not appear to relisli our joints of
meat; nor did some bottled porter accord better with tbeir taste, for
after occasioning many wry faces, it was put aside as being bitter;
a flavour w'bich I have observed is seldom relished for the first time.
Not so some iioyeau, w hich w'as well adapted to the sweet palate of the
Loo Chooans ; ñor some effervescing draughts, w'hich were quite new
to them, and created considerable surprise. They, however, seemed to
enjoy tliemselves a great deal; were jovial without being noisy, and
w ith tbe exception of a disagreeable practice of eructation, and even
worse, they were polite people; tliougb I cannot say I approved of
their refinement upon our pocket handkerchief Aii-yab often iiiti