Diary

27 All day it was full of life to watch the strange little fishing boats with their yellow sails and bars of bamboo across them. Now and again a Chinese junk with a large eye painted on the front part of the ship to point out how the ship may go. For Chinese sailors say a ship must see its way. We had rather a nice concert. Dr. and Mrs. Chill made themselves popular by getting up this sort of thing and took a great deal of trouble. Mr. Sharpe the clergyman sang "John Peel'. He had a good voice but looks ill, poor man. His wife is a frisky little lady. Not a bit like a clergyman's helpmate. Mr. Sharpe is professor of English Literature at the Kyoto Museum, gave a reading from Dickens. He was very good and the rest of the program was made up by the new passengers who came on at Nagasaki. I did not hear their names.

This captain does not like his men to talk to the passengers and says the officers have their duty to perform. When they are not at work the ought to be in bed. The poor fellows dare not enjoy them selves in fear he will dismiss them. We are told that when a captain does not like any of his officers he just gets them sent to the Empress of Japan and Captain Lea sees that they do their work or go. I never saw more stewards on any ship so different to the Empress of India where everything was done for the passengers and to make them like the company. Captain Lea says he is a personal friend of Van Loring and his business is to manage the ship. The passengers are not on his mind. We expect to get off early in the morning to go up to Shanghai as we did not get the pilot last night. at 4 p.m. we are not sure if we will get another today for are behind some a day. A heavy bar prevents ships going within 90 miles of Shanghai so we may not have more than an

hour there but we will see the approach up the [?] And this is better than waiting until 12 o'clock on board - 28 -Very cold & a stiff wind. In spite of an early start we did not get off until 8 o'clock. The baggage was shifted from side to side and it seemed impossible to get it on board the Ling [?]. Everyone was vexed. Before we reached the city we were almost chilled to death it was so very cold and on reaching the dock we were told to be back in an hour. We got jinrickishas and took a drive of 50 minutes seeing the race course. And the town the English part. A wheelbarrow seems to be a fashionable ride for the poorer class. 2 big men sit on each side and a large wheel in the middle. Or else a man on one side and a bag of stones to make the load balance. The Chinese are a larger and stronger race than the Japanese. But much rougher. ? very heavy -- we had a Kinhura with rubber tires so that it ran so

easily. While we saw the town the Roses and Bisseys went to a large silk shop and laid in a store of silks & crepes dress is dear to these people it seemed too bad to be in a new place for one hour and spend their precious time shopping. 30 A beautiful clear day with all kinds of shipping of every flag. The islands and little fishing crafts of every description and size. The harbour is said to be the largest in the world. And could hold all the navy of Europe -as well as Asia. the high peaks of the Islands astonish you as they seem to go straight out of the sea and are all manners of shapes. It was a beautiful day which everyone enjoyed. Here we parted with many of our fellow passengers some we may meet again. We came up slowly to Victoria & it did one good to see the happy faces of the passengers. All were glad to leave the Japan as her captain says he does not like his officers to speak to the passengers. Certainly the landing was very much after the fashion of

all the other arrangements. No one seemed to understand what was to be done. Never the less we got ashore after a time. The Hong Kong Hotel was full so we had to take the next best the the Windsor which has good rooms but no other feature in its favour. We found we could get tickets to the St. Andrew[s] Ball so sent a coolie with a written order for our trunks. Dr Chill & George went to find the secretary. On their return, as he could not be found we were asked to go to the Ball & it would be all right. At 9:15 our trunks came up to our rooms so we hastened off. The sec could not be found but the steward said it was all right, and we quite enjoyed the visit. Mrs Chill looked so nice the 3 Bissey's & 4 Roses. Mr Rankin and ourselves. So that with the naval uniforms and soldiers in their different dresses it was quite a gay sight.