After ten days or so of hard work and exposure on this desert island, I was sent to the _Nankin_, a 50-gun frigate, and took passage in her to Hong-Kong, to await events. Commodore Elliot was hard at the Chinese junks up the Canton River, when Keppel took his place. As luck would have it, my dear Chief took me with him; also Prince Victor of Hohenlohe, Goodenough, Charlie Scott, and Harry Stephenson. Goodenough had command of the improvised gun-boat, the _Hong-Kong_. Having little or no kit left, I managed to get a small fit-out at Hong-Kong before joining. Very little sufficed for that rough work up the river. I had lost nearly all my clothes. What became of my sea chest I don’t know (nor my poor fiddle I was so fond of). I expect it was left on the desert island, with what little there was in it. Sea chest! What a ghastly thing it was! You were supposed to wash in it. Fancy your stock of white shirts being slopped over, as well as your uniform, every time you went to your chest to wash your hands. A certain part of a cockpit could easily have been arranged with drawers for middies’ clothes, and there might have been a decent place to bathe in. We started up the Canton River for the front on the 20th of May, and joined the Fleet of brigs, gun-boats, and small corvettes at the rendezvous off the Bogue forts, fortified islands some distance up the river--I should imagine half-way to Canton. Some of these brigs were lovely little ships. A 16-gun brig under all sail was one of the prettiest sights imaginable. I particularly remember a little beauty called the _Acorn_. The old _Alligator_ was towed up and turned into a depot flagship. She was an old 26-gun frigate, as broad as she was long; and, short as I was, I had to stoop in going along the main deck, lest I should strike against the overhead beams. When we were not fighting, or on some expedition, this old frigate served as our flagship; and, though cramped, we were certainly much cooler and better provided for. Towards the end of May the plan for the attack on the Chinese war-junks was completed. Gun-boats were told off to lead divisions of boats and take them in tow. Our larger boats, launches, and barges carried brass guns in the bows; cutters were armed with rockets, besides rifles and cutlasses. The rockets John Chinaman particularly dreaded: they upset his nervous system. I wrote home at this time, saying:-- We hate these Chinese; it takes twenty of them to equal one Englishman, and they are awful cowards. They carry what they call stink-pots at the mast-heads of their junks, so that when our boats get alongside to board them, these pots are lowered into our boats, explode or break as the case may be, causing such a frightful stench that you are suffocated by the disgusting smell, but if they will only hold on and not bolt when we get among them we shall pay them off properly. But they say these chaps cannot stand close quarters.