cific, timid, hospitable Loo-Chooans, he had to deal with the arbitrary and unsociable military authorities of China, at no time very friendly, and at the present moment professedly hostile to his nation. the same deliberate good sense, however, carried him successfully through these diametrically opposite services, and what in one instance took the character of patient forbearance, became in the other the most prompt and vigorous action. Both lines of conduct were so admirably suited to the occasions respectively, that had their order been reversed, as they might readily enough have been by a less judicious officer, the consequences roust have been mischievous in the highest degree. It should not be forgotten, that as neither our visit to Loo-Choo, nor the discussions with the Chinese, could have been anticipated, no specific instructions beforehand could by any possibility have been given for the performance of these services. The most perplexing dilemmas, indeed, must often occur in a profession, the extent of whose range is only limited by that of the globe itself. But it is on such occasions that the distinction between one officer and another comes into play: that the man who dreads and shuns responsibility, or whose shoulders are not broad enough to bear it when it happens to fall on them, is crushed beneath the weight; while the professional genius of another will sport with the difficulty, and, like Nelson, turn what to ordinary eyes seems irreparable disorder into the means of enhancing his country’s honor. * * * * * *
“While Captain Maxwell was thus busily employed, I had proceeded by his orders on the 7th November, to a harbour called the Typa, within a mile or two of Macao. Early next morning a large Chinese war vessel, mounting seven guns, and crowded with people, anchored about a quarter of a mile to the eastward of us. All eyes were turned to this new and strange sight, for we had not before seen any junk nearly so large; but whilst we were engaged in examining her more minutely, another still larger dropped anchor under our stern; presently another took her station on the bow, and one on the quarter, till in the course of half an hour we found ourselves fairly encaged by these immense vessels. One very zealous officer amongst them took a birth rather too close as I thought, as he brought up actually within the Lyra’s buoy. So great a departure from professional etiquette I imagined must be intended as a prelude to something hostile, and I prepared my little ship for the contest. We had only ten guns, indeed, but these were thirty-two pound carronades, and we might, I dare say, have done very well on the occasion of coming to blows, unless, indeed, it had occured to the Chinese to have sailed their immense castles one on each side of us, in which case the poor Lyra must have been crushed like an egg-shell. For the smallest of these junks could not have been less than four or five times our tonnage, and at least three times as high out of the water. As soon as the guns were shotted, I sent my boat to the junk which had anchored so close as almost to be touching us, to beg he would move a little further off. The officer of my boat found a