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The Steamer Saved.

9

other alternative than death by fire or water, while we in the boat were at least only exposed to gradual starvation on the open sea.

Any impulse to try and save the lives of those on board was stifled by the knowledge that if our boat approached the side of the vessel a hundred desperate creatures would throw themselves into it and swamp her. Thus for nearly two hours did we lie off the burning ship, watching the maddened antics of those despairing ones on her decks.

In the meanwhile we were joined by another boat, one of those swamped in launching, which had been baled. out by the Chinese women, a number of whom, clinging to the davit ropes, gallantly helped themselves, while a crowd of men ran about the decks utterly helpless. I was greatly pleased to see the women comparatively safe under the care of the third officer. Their bravery in rescuing this boat was grand; they had run great risk in the successful attempt, and one only out of the twenty on board was drowned.

At last the volume of smoke from the vessel began to clear away, and we could see the Europeans calmly at work about the decks; shortly the smoke died away altogether. Then a cheer rang out from the plucky men who had saved our ship from the flames, and the captain hailed us from the paddle-box. On going alongside he told us that the steamer had a great deal of water in her, and to prevent the boiler fires being drowned, it was necessary that her engines should be set in motion, to pump the water out.

Having told this welcome news, he desired me to pull round and pick up as many of the people who were floating about on oars and spars, &c., as we could take into the lifeboat. This was a pleasant task, and we soon had our boat so full that for safety we were obliged to make for the steamer, which steamed round us in a circle, to get rid of our living freight. This done, we picked the rest, and then were taken on board again.

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The vessel looked a wreck, but she was soon cleaned up, and by noon we were steaming away on our voyage.

From subsequent inquiries it was ascertained that the fire originated in the fore-hold, which was filled with crates of Chinese crockeryware packed with straw, and among these a Celestial had stowed himself away for the purpose of enjoying his opium smoke, and the little lamp used for lighting the opium having been overturned after he fell asleep, set fire to the straw.

Considering the length of time that the fire burned, and the combustible material which fed it, the ship suffered little damage; the woodwork of her fore compartment was nearly all burnt, some of the beams nearly through, while the deck in some places was warped, from the heat below, and the cargo in this part of the vessel was entirely destroyed.

Our casualties, considering the frightful panic of the Chinese and crew of Calassees, were very few; if I remember rightly, nine persons were reported to have been drowned, among whom was only one woman.

But for the calm prevailing, the loss of life would have been dreadful; and but for this fact, and the great

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bravery of the European officers on board, as fine a vessel as ever floated would have been lost, and, in all human probability, I should not have lived to tell the tale, for we were three hundred miles from the nearest land.

Considering the number of souls constantly afloat on the ocean, hundreds of miles away from land, and the accidents so frequently occurring which render the safety of the passengers dependent on boats, a brief digression on the subject of ships' boats may be excused.

Having made perhaps as many as thirty voyages in as many different ships, I have never felt in any one case that, had it been necessary to take to the boats, we should have been saved by them.

Twice I have been in a position in which it was necessary to lower boats. Once on a voyage up the China Sea, when, our vessel having struck on a coral reef off the Paracel group of islands, two of the three boats on board were lowered, but one had the plug out, and filled before she got away from the ship's side, and the other was so leaky that two men were kept baling the whole time that she was employed in laying out an anchor.

In the case of the 'Clan Alpine,' although her boats were fitted with oars, masts, water kegs, and lockers, there was neither bread nor water on board of them, and if the fire had spread rapidly we should scarcely have had time or opportunity to get provisions on board. In many other cases I have known that not a

single boat in the ship has been in readiness for lowering, and many times on board our great ocean steamers I have trembled at the knowledge that much precious time would be lost in provisioning boats, were any emergency to require their use.

I often thought that the pleasure of the voyage would have been greater had I known that every boat had bread and water in her. There is no reason why every ship's boat should not be fitted up with oars, masts, and air-tight provision lockers, kept constantly full; nor why a weekly inspection of boats should not take place on board of every ship, especially on our mail steamers, and the result of such inspection be entered in the logbook, on the responsibility of the captain. It would add to the efficiency of the boats in case of need, which is greatly to be desired.

In less than ten days after the occurrence of the fire we arrived at Calcutta, where I was soon hospitably entertained by one of the merchant princes of India.

CHAPTER II.

A SPORTING EPISODE.

Indian Oriental Character-Introduction to Lord Mayo-The Viceroy on Trade-routes-A Shooting Expedition-The Camp-PigstickingChase of a Leopard-A Brave old Boar-My first Tiger-A desperate Charge-The Wounded Mahout-Return.

IT was just ten years since I had quitted India, as a very young man, carrying away loose and hastilyformed impressions of the country and people. Amongst the most distinct remembrances of that first visit were those which probably most young men take with them after a year or two spent in the country, namely, that it is very hot, and that mosquitoes and niggers were created solely for the annoyance of Europeans. Even now, my opinion as to the final cause of the insect is unchanged; but with regard to the nigger he exists no more in my mind; in his stead there is the man, representative of the millions who collectively compose a great, industrious, and peaceable people.

This change in opinion as to the native of India was not the result of impressions hastily formed on again landing in the country, but rather the conclusion derived from a long intercourse with the peoples of other great

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