After nine days of great enjoyment at Macao, our passage having been secured in the American steamer _Spark_, that plied between the latter place and Canton, we once more embarked, and were soon on our way to Whampoa.[15] The captain and first officer of the vessel were Americans, and our ensign, floating at the stern, reminded us pleasantly of home and Fatherland. It was on the 11th of February, a beautifully clear, tropical winter morning, and, passing rapidly the fertile and lovely islands of the great Delta, we were soon at the mouth of the Bocca Tigris, or Bogue River. The islands of this delta were formerly greatly infested with pirates, and as we threaded the intricacies of the little Archipelago our attention was frequently directed to certain points noted as having been their rendezvous. Since the establishment of steam navigation, however, between Canton and Macao, and also between the former place and Hong Kong, travellers have rarely fallen into the hands of the pirates whose junks and fishing-boats were at one time common in those waters,--although in a few instances parties of these buccaneers have gone boldly as passengers on board the steamers with the intention of trying to take them. Their designs, however, have usually been discovered and frustrated; but after the disclosure of one of these plots it is customary to search all Chinese passengers on their coming on board, in order to see if they have any weapons concealed about their persons, and an armed guard is then placed over them until it is ascertained to be perfectly safe again to allow them unrestrained freedom. The steamers are armed, and the officers, as well as most of the foreigners, when travelling, carry pistols about them, so that there is now comparatively little to apprehend, for English authority is feared as well as respected in China. Before reaching the mouth of the Bocca Tigris we sailed over a large expanse of water called the Linten Bay,--a name which it derives from an island situated in the southern part of the bay, and near which the opium ships used to anchor. Here we fell in with numerous trading and fishing-junks, and also with market and passenger-boats, which, in spite of their clumsy rigging, and heavy matting sails, moved with much rapidity through the water. The forms of many of these sails were singularly grotesque, and some of them reminded us very strongly of the wings of an enormous butterfly. Many of the vessels were painted in brilliant colors, and all had eyes traced on their prows. Indeed, it is a very uncommon thing to find a Chinese boat, or even a larger vessel, unprovided with these eyes; and if you ask a Chinaman the reason for so extraordinary a fashion, he usually replies,--“No got eye, no can see;--how fashion can makee walkee?”