Our traps started by early carts for Tung-Chow. The Joss went off on Saturday. Sir Rutherford directed that it should be carefully covered with matting for fear any _dévote_ Chinaman should take umbrage at a god being removed from the Celestial Empire. The mandarin who accompanied us was anxious to know if I should burn incense before it when I got home. I have no doubt he thought I was a convert to Buddhism. The fur merchants had many pretty things, but I selected a small piece of the sea-otter skin, sufficient to make a muff, and was told it was valued above sable. I had also some commissions with the silk-seller, and chose some pieces of maize and other silk, which, as Mr. Pepys would have said in his diary, “did me much pleasure.” After _déjeuner_ we took leave of our friends, and mounted our horses to ride quietly back, much tried by hot wind and clouds of dust. Ice, however, was plentiful and cheap. Late in the evening our small fleet was again under way, increased now by two more boats containing the Joss and sundry carved stones. We had likewise to distribute through the fleet 8 good-sized cages, containing 16 pheasants from Mongolia for my friend Tom de Grey. “Crossoptelon Manchuricum” worth “some” should they reach England alive. Drank Her Majesty’s health _en route_ with honours. [Sidenote: Peiho River to Tientsin, May 25.] This has been a scorching sun with a burning wind, while hot sand found its way into the interior of our boats, as well as into our eyes and everything we ate or drank. We managed a walk of two or three miles, which can always be accomplished without detaining the boats by watching on the chart (the Admiralty one is very good) where the river takes an unusual sweep round, when you walk across to the nearest point. No rain having fallen for three weeks, the ground was hard and hot; and the natives anticipated a bad harvest. Among the odds and ends one sees in the shops in Peking, nothing is more curious, as well as absurd, than the children’s toys. Conolly’s Chinese servant was put in requisition to make a double collection--one for our children and the other for them to send by the _Rodney_ to numerous cousins. [Sidenote: May 26.] It was near midnight before we got alongside the _Salamis_. CHAPTER XCIX CHEFOO TO JAPAN [Sidenote: 1869. Flag in _Salamis_, May 27.] Before starting for Peking, I informed the Consul at Tientsin of my intention to pay, on my return, my respects to Tchung-How, the same Governor that was here when I was in the _Dido_, and, with the exception of the Viceroy at Canton, the most finished Chinese gentleman I had met. In reply to the Consul’s message, Tchung-How hoped we would not be late as he had to pray for rain.