Under the Dragon Flag | Page 7

again, and the old careless buoyancy

swelled up once more.
Prayer-books had been omitted in our outfit, and we were at a loss for
the burial service. However, we laid our heads, or rather our memories
together, and most of us being able to recollect a scrap of it here and
there, we contrived to patch it up sufficiently to give our unfortunate
shipmates Christian burial. I should mention that another of the
wounded men died after our arrival at Tientsin, and was interred in the
English cemetery. He was the man who was first hit; his name was
Massinger, and he claimed to be a descendant of the dramatist. He was
known on board chiefly as "Hair-oil," from his addiction to plastering
his bushy black hair with some shiny and odorous compound of that
nature. Both his legs were broken by the shot that struck him.
As to my friend Webster, adorned with a black eye, he never ceased,
during the remainder of the voyage, to declaim against Chubb's
foolhardiness and uphold his own proceedings on the eventful night.
For his own discomfiture he sought consolation in rum, protesting that
it was a miracle that any of us had survived to taste another drop of that
liquid comforter.
"But I'm a houtcast," he would wind up invariably, as his potations
overcame him; "that's where it is--who cares what a ---- houtcast
thinks?"
Chubb took no further notice of him than to laughingly threaten to put
him under arrest for mutiny. It must not be supposed that the
"houtcast's" behaviour on the occasion in question was due to any want
of courage. Escape seemed impossible; the risk of the attempt was
tremendous, and I am convinced that if the matter had been left to my
own judgment, I should not have dared it. But Chubb was one of those
men whom nothing can daunt, and who are never more completely in
their element than when running some desperate hazard.
CHAPTER II
We reached Tientsin without further mishap, and turned over our cargo
to Mr. H----'s agent, who disposed of it at a handsome profit, though

hardly sufficient, I thought, to warrant the risking of so valuable a ship
as the Columbia. We lay in the port about a week, to effect the repairs
rendered necessary by the Japanese gun practice.
At Tientsin a war council was sitting, and one morning Mr. Mac----,
the agent, came on board and informed us that he had received a
proposal for the Columbia to be chartered as a transport to convey
troops to the Corea. It was only, he said, for an immediate special
service, and the terms being exceedingly advantageous he had resolved
on his own responsibility to accept the offer, as the work would not
occupy us more than a few days. We were to be one of a convoy of
transports which, sailing at different times from different ports, were to
rendezvous in Talienwan Bay on the east coast of the Liaotung
Peninsula, where the troops were to be embarked under protection of an
armed squadron. There was no time to be lost, and we were to weigh
anchor and make for the bay as soon as possible.
On the afternoon of the same day two Chinese emissaries came to make
a visit of inspection, and in the evening we steamed out of the port,
flying the American colours, with nothing of course to fear at the
moment. On arriving at Talienwan we found the bay full of shipping.
Four large transports were already engaged in the work of embarkation,
and another arrived after we did. The warships presented a gallant array,
twelve in all, belonging, with two or three exceptions, to the North
Coast Squadron. There were four torpedo-boats in addition. The most
powerful vessels were the Chen-Yuen and the Ting-Yuen, barbette ships,
English-built, I think, of 7280 tons. The King-Yuen and Lai-Yuen were
two barbette ships of smaller tonnage--2850. Then came the Ping-Yuen,
of 2850 tons, a coast-defence armour-clad; a turret-ship, the Tsi-Yuen,
of 2320 tons; the Chih-Yuen, Ching-Yuen, Kwang-Kai and Kwang-Ting,
all of 2300 tons, deck-protected cruisers; and the Chao-Yung and
Yang-Wei, each of 1400 tons, unprotected cruisers.
I have forgotten to say that we took a Chinese agent on board at
Tientsin for the trip. He was alleged to be able to speak English, but
rarely indeed was his jargon intelligible. I asked him to translate the
names of the Chinese warships, but this was a task far beyond the

linguistic capacity of my friend Lin Wong. I understood him to say that
it would require "too muchee words" to render in our prosaic tongue
the amount of poetic imagery concentrated in the expressions
"Chih-Yuen," or "Kwang-Kai." Of what the names mean I am in
ignorance still.
We were speedily