. Recollections of a sea wanderer's life; an autobiography of an old-time seaman who has sailed in almost every capacity before and abaft the mast, in nearly every quarter of the globe, and under the flags of four of the principal maritime nations. opium at Ningpo, Chusan, Amoy, Woosung,and various small ports, and finally arrived at Shanghai. The opium, instead of being put ashore, was deliveredinto receiving ships moored in the roads off the ports, androde there dismantled, and roofed over. At the change ofthe monsoon, and the inevitable typhoons setting in, thesereceiving ships were removed
. Recollections of a sea wanderer's life; an autobiography of an old-time seaman who has sailed in almost every capacity before and abaft the mast, in nearly every quarter of the globe, and under the flags of four of the principal maritime nations. opium at Ningpo, Chusan, Amoy, Woosung,and various small ports, and finally arrived at Shanghai. The opium, instead of being put ashore, was deliveredinto receiving ships moored in the roads off the ports, androde there dismantled, and roofed over. At the change ofthe monsoon, and the inevitable typhoons setting in, thesereceiving ships were removed to a harbor of safety. The Chinese opium smugglers, when they required asupply of opium would run up alongside, and, quickly put-ting a bag of Spanish pillar dollars in one scale, it would bebalanced by opium in the other, the price being weight forweight, and when they had obtained as much as they re-quired would be off to dispose of their cargo. Sometimesthey would be pursued by Chinese government revenueboats, and, if overtaken, a bloody and determined resistancewas inevitable, for, if captured, the smugglers were certainof death by strangulation, or being pressed to death betweentwo planks or bamboos, and of course they preferred death. 246 AMOY. in fight. Thus, figuratively speaking, fighting with a halterround their necks. Shanghai is advantageously situated on the River Woo-sung, near the Yang-tse-Kiang. The tide flows rapidly atabout the rate of eight or ten miles an hour. The greatadvantage of Shanghai as a port is its easy communicationby water with the interior provinces, and the populous citieson the Yang-tse-Kiang, and the Imperial Canal. At this port we discharged the remainder of the opiumwe had on board, and received an immense amount of treas-ure in bars of (lycee) silver and specie for Hong Kong, towhich port we returned after an absence of three weeks,and discharged the treasure into a British man-of-war aboutsailing for England. In a few days the ship Old E
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectseafari, bookyear1887
