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 boarded by a boat from the flagship, to the officer
of which Lin Wong gave an account of his stewardship, and we received
directions to draw up to the landing-stage in turn and receive our
human freight. The troops were still arriving from the roads to Talien
and Kinchou. They seemed for the most part an undisciplined lot, and
came streaming on board in no particular order; here and there a
mounted officer directing with shouts, gestures, and blows too, the
movements of the surging masses that crowded along the water-side. The
number embarked I reckoned at about 18,000. There was also a large
quantity of military stores to be shipped, and busy enough we were. In
the evening I had a glimpse of Admiral Ting, who had been ashore and
was returning to his ship. His barge passed close alongside the
_Columbia_. I saw a young-looking man, very pleasant in expression
and manner; altogether what we should call highly gentlemanly in
appearance. It is well known that he expiated his failures by suicide
after the final ruin of Wei-hai-wei.