French mail arrived, bringing news up to May 6. A wonderful change is here! No news of importance. Rumours of warlike preparations. Nations hesitate nowadays before striking a first blow, but those armed to the teeth are not so easily kept in check. The only really sad news from England is the continued suffering of that most amiable of all Princesses. Broad gave me a pair of walrus teeth, put on board him by a suspicious-looking junk, manned and armed for war, but there was no proof of aggression. [Sidenote: June 3.] Inspected _Cormorant_ at 10 A.M. In excellent order. Received with manned yards. No room for ball practice, but clear for action, and guns loaded within three minutes. Noon.--Weighed in _Pearl_ and steamed out, two boilers. An old _St. Jean d’Acre_, Shearman, chief engineer. [Sidenote: June 4.] In the morning we were off the Dogs’ Islands, and a pilot shortly on board. Although we made sail, we were too late to save the high water over the bar; brought up until the morning. While at anchor observed numbers of curious-looking snakes floating past; they did not appear lively, and the pilot pronounced them to have been washed out of the paddyfields. Had one caught in a bucket. It appeared more dead than alive, and it was with difficulty that we discovered its mouth and something like eyes; it was a brownish colour, about a foot long, and as transparent as a jelly-fish: some of us thought it was a piece of seaweed, even after handling. The tail end appeared more lively than the head; at different parts of the body it had the appearance of having been ripped in two by a piece of thread tied round the body. Some one on board had read in some book that if you broke these snakes at their apparent joints, each piece became a separate snake. The head was considerably thicker than the other part of the body; it tapered gradually to the tail. While moving in the water it looked like a lively and dangerous animal, but in a basin of water it was almost inanimate. [Sidenote: June 5.] Soon after 9 A.M. weighed and steamed into the entrance of the river Min. Carrying the tide with us, we made rapid progress through a tortuous channel until we came to the contracted entrance of the Kiu Pai Pass, when nothing can be prettier than the scenery, which again opens into a wide expanse for three or four miles, and then the channel enters between high rocky hills, not unlike the best parts of the scenery on the Rhine. Three miles of this brought us to Pagoda Island, where we anchored. The city of Foo-chow is some ten miles higher up, but to be approached only by small craft. From this port three clipper tea-ships started last year, performing the most extraordinary sea race on record, the three ships arriving in London within a few hours of each other. Several are now loading and two or three are already off--beautiful ships, reminding one of fine old sailing days of _Dido_, which class of ship they greatly resemble. [Sidenote: June 7.]