Personal Reminiscences Author:Robert Bennet Forbes Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. The " Canton Packet" Aground ? Tempted to Stay in China ? To Falmouth and Hamburg ? Mercantile Experiences ? In London ? A Mutiny ? A Small Rebel... more »lion ? Appointed Third Mate. On arrival at Canton, I was invited as before to take up my quarters with Mr. Cushing, and do the work of a junior clerk. Here I found a valuable friend in Mr. John Hart, who was Mr. Cushing's chief clerk; also in Mr. Philip Amidon, whose nose took precedence of that belonging to our captain. During my stay, I partook of a dinner given by one of the Hong merchants, and was told of birds'-nest soup, sharks' fins, rat pie, and cat curry ; but I was not so verdant as to believe in all I heard. The ship remained several months in China, and when fully laden was carried by a typhoon into the paddy fields, and left almost high and dry. The captain and a boat's crew were in Canton, and I had not yet donned my sea- rig. When the gale abated, I embarked with Captain King and his friend Captain Mather for Whampoa; and when approaching that locality, not seeing the fa miliar mastheads of the ship over the fields, the captain spoke a China boat and inquired where his ship was. The answer was, " Me no sav6 ; me thinkee have go Pekin." The " Nautilus," Captain Pearson, was at her anchorage all right, and from him we soon learnedthat pur ship had parted her rattan cables, and gone up the other branch of the river. I had not long been on board the "Nautilus," when the jolly-boat of our ship came to her with Mr. Rowson, and I was allowed the privilege of taking the bow oar and returning to my duties. On reaching the ship, I found her on the flats, with a rank heel, many boats around her taking out stores. Among other things, the long boat had been put over and laden with barrels of provisions, wood, and trap...« less