Chapter I: Preface

To write something which shall please one's own friends is one thing; to undertake the task of pleasing anybody else is another; and, I take it, a far more difficult one. The writer of the following pages never sought to sail beyond the peaceful and well-marked area of the first, until induced--at the suggestions of his shipmates, though against his better judgment--to venture on the dark and tempest-swept ocean of the second.

The only originality claimed for the narrative is that of introducing such a manifestly inferior production to your notice.

Shipmates, my little bark is frail; deal gently with her, and--let me ask it as a special favor--do not blow too fiercely on her untried sails.

Much depends on the title of a book. Does it convey an adequate idea of the subject-matter? I would claim for mine at least that merit; for is not every sea over which we have voyaged to the eastward of England?

CONTENTS.

Page
CHAPTER I.

We Commission our Ship--Visit Portsmouth--Prepare to Sail 1

CHAPTER II.

Good-by to Albion--Southward Ho!--Gibraltar 12

CHAPTER III.

Up the Mediterranean--Malta 26

CHAPTER IV.

Port Said--The Suez Canal--Voyage down the Red Sea--Aden 39

CHAPTER V.

Across the Indian Ocean--Ceylon--Singapore--A Cruise in
the Straits of Malacca 47

CHAPTER VI.

Sarawak--Labuan--Manilla--Heavy weather 62

CHAPTER VII.

Hong Kong--Some Chinese manners and customs 71

CHAPTER VIII.

Preparations for the North--Amoy--Wosung, and what befell
us there 83

CHAPTER IX.

Arrival at Nagasaki--Something about Japan--A run through
the Town--Visit to a Sintoo Temple 94

CHAPTER X.

The Inland Sea--Kobé--Fusi-Yama--Yokohama--Visit to
Tokio 113

CHAPTER XI.

Northward--Hakodadi--Dui--Castries Bay--Barracouta--
Vladivostock 131

CHAPTER XII.

Chefoo--Nagasaki _en route_--Japan revisited--Kobé--
Yokohama 146

CHAPTER XIII.

We attempt an overland route, with the result of the trial 159

CHAPTER XIV.

The new regime--Something about Saigon--The First Cruise
of the China Squadron--An Alarm of Fire!--Arrival of
Flying Squadron 181

CHAPTER XV.

Second Cruise of the China Squadron--Principally concerning
a Visit to the Loo-Choo Isles and Corea--Welcome news
from home--Conclusion 210

APPENDIX A.--Deaths during the Commission i.

APPENDIX B.--Table of places visited and distances run
during the Commission iii.