Jos ceremonies—Chinese New Year's day—New Testament—Epsom salts—Grief of our jailer—Kites—Procession—Leave Ningpo—Chinhae—Huge idols—Chinese camp—Mandarin's message.

A night or two after our visit to the mandarin, we heard the priests chaunting, two or three silvery toned bells were struck at the same time, and now and then a drum. We could see nothing of their proceedings, but from the glare of light the temple must have been brilliantly illuminated. The priests were not exactly sober all the next day; so they must have taken strong stimulants during the night.

A few days after was the Chinese New Year's Day; when an immense number of worshippers visited the joshouse with offerings of various kinds; mostly ornaments of filigree paper. All the visitors were extremely well dressed; silks, satins, and furs of all descriptions, and very handsome dresses they were.

One of them, a man, arrayed in a splendid silk garment, had some words with our jailer, and I believe struck him, at least I saw his hand up: he was seized by the soldiers, and dragged by his tail to an inner court, from whence he was shortly led by a soldier with a long heavy chain round his neck, and handcuffed. What became of him afterwards I did not learn; but it seemed to me summary justice, and very hard usage, for apparently so slight an offence. The old officer, who lived behind our prison, wore a magnificent dress, something similar to a tartan, but the colours more varied, and brilliant. On his breast was a piece of beautiful embroidery; representing some extraordinary animal, only existing, I should suppose, in the imaginations of the Chinese. At his appearance, all the soldiers, and our old jailer, went to him, and made their obeisance; salaaming down to the ground; he returned it most graciously, and they then retired. In the evening rockets and other fireworks were going off in every direction. This festival was a great nuisance to us, as the generality of the shops were shut up for a fortnight, and we could only procure plain cakes.

It was about this time that Mrs. Noble sent us a New Testament, and Flavel on Providence, which were very acceptable indeed; and they enabled us to pass our time in somewhat more respectable a manner than heretofore.

We were sometimes very much amused by seeing our jailer's head shaved, and him in a manner shampooed, the operations altogether occupying a considerable space of time. The shampooing consisted merely of having the back well drubbed (for I can call it by no other name) by the barber, using one hand open and the other clenched; this was a finishing touch, after shaving him, and washing his head and face; the razors were excessively clumsy in appearance, but were very keen, and did their duty well.

Soon after the New Year's Festival, Wombwell and I were again sent for by the mandarins, and found letters to the same purport as before; but in one of the letters was a Latin quotation, which led me to suppose that peace was not quite so close at hand as the English part of the letter gave us to understand; however, this I did not translate, nor did I say anything about it to the other prisoners, thinking it was intended for the officers' private information. With the letters came some packets of medicine; and amongst them several doses of Epsom salts, which the Chinese mistook for saltpetre, and were quite astonished that it did not take fire when they applied a candle to it. Seeing them so inquisitive, I tried very hard to persuade them to take some blue pills which had been sent, telling them that they were sweatmeats of some sort, and very good for the stomach; but to no purpose, they were not to be taken in. This was a thoughtless action, I must own, as the consequences of the experiment, had I succeeded in persuading them to take some, might have made them imagine that we wished to poison them. We then returned to our sedans, and were taken home.

Just outside the gates of the mandarin's house, I observed a number of people collected, and amongst them, several children fancifully dressed, and crowned with artificial flowers; I could not imagine why they were arrayed in this style, unless they formed part of some procession in honour of the New Year.

During our absence, the jailer had been to the window, making signs that we were all going away; he appeared very much grieved, and putting his hand to his breast, with tears in his eyes, seemed to express his great regret at having to part with us. At last, his feelings completely got the better of him, and he was obliged to run into his room; where he shut himself up for the remainder of the day; sending us, however, some substantial marks of his regard, in the shape of stewed beef, bird's-nest soup, and samshu.

During the winter months, the Chinese amused themselves with kite-flying; their kites had a hole in the centre, across which were placed several strings; and when they were up in the air, the wind passing through the hole produced a loud humming noise. I suppose this was on the same principle as the Æolian harp. Some of them were very pretty and ingenious, being in the shape of birds and butterflies, the wings of which were made of loose thin paper, which fluttered about as they rose into the air.

Time passed, and we two paid several more visits to the mandarins, when we always heard the same reports of liberty. I rather liked these visits, as they gave me opportunities, which I should not otherwise have had, of seeing a little of the Chinese; besides the great advantage of getting fresh air, and being able to stretch my limbs.

On my last visit to the mandarin's, I saw another coming in state to see him; and as his attendants made rather a curious group, I shall give a description of them. In front walked two men, with high felt caps, to which were appended two goose-quills, having very much the appearance of a large ink-bottle, with two pens in it; they dragged chains after them; then came two more, with the same curious head-dresses, beating gongs; then a soldier, with a red silk chatty, which he carried as if about to charge; after him were two more soldiers, and then the mandarin's sedan made its appearance, carried by four men, and surrounded by soldiers and other attendants; the whole party were shouting, and making a great noise. When they had passed through the great gate, the train filed off to the right and left, and the mandarin walked out of his sedan, and went in; attended only by his pipe-bearer, and one or two more officers. All, with the exception of his immediate attendants, were very raggedly clothed, and the sedan-bearers were almost naked, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather; indeed, the quantity, and not the quality, of the attendants, seemed the order of the day.

I was rather struck with the manner of visiting amongst the Chinese, as showing a greater degree of refinement existing amongst them than I had any idea of. The person calling sent in his card, (a piece of red paper, with a few characters upon it,) and if the master of the house were in, or chose to see him, he went to the door, and took the visitor into the sitting-room, where tea was immediately served up. On the visitor's departure, the master generally accompanies him a certain distance, according to his rank; if a superior, to the gate; if an equal, or inferior, not so far: at the same time there being always a lengthened combat de politesse about taking precedence, although regular rules are laid down for their guidance on the subject, and they well know that after a certain number of bows, the superior must always go first.

During the month of February the soldiers were constantly making signs, intimating that we were on the point of departure; and some of them went away, carrying all their few worldly goods with them, so that we began to think our liberation was really close at hand.

One morning very early, before we had risen, a little boy, one of our attendants, came to the window, and shoving back the shutters, desired us to get up, for we were all going away; but as we did not believe him, the only answer he received was a volley of shoes from all parts of the room, which quickly drove him away; but soon after our old jailer came, and made signs to the same effect, and that our rice was coming in directly; we therefore arose, still hardly daring to believe him. When breakfast was finished, the old man came in and told us to pack up our rugs; that we were going away, and were to take them with us. We then imagined Lieut. Douglas's remonstrances had had some effect, and that, instead of being released, we were only going to a more commodious prison; however, even this was good news, and we proceeded very joyfully to pack up our little all. Outside, the place was all in confusion; a number of fresh soldiers made their appearance, whilst our own guards were taking their departure, with their beds and other traps. The jailer was distributing his goods amongst the servants, giving a pipe to one, a gown to another, and so on. A number of coolies now came in, and carried away our rugs. Our New Testament we gave to the old jailer, who, though cross at times, had on the whole treated us very kindly, and with great consideration. Flavel we gave to an officer who had often done us various good offices.

In a short time we ourselves walked out, and found in the passage a number of sedans, in which we took our seats, one in each, and they started with us. Thus, on the 21st of February, 1841, we left the place where we had been confined about five months.