Produced by a Project Gutenberg volunteer working with digital material generously made available by the Internet Archive [Illustration: O'Kosiri, 1880. Iron Duke. Themis. Raiden. Kerguelen. Champlain. Modeste. Naezdnik. H.M.S. IRON DUKE AGROUND AT O'KOSIRI.] IN EASTERN SEAS; OR, THE COMMISSION OF H.M.S. "IRON DUKE," _Flag-ship in China_, 1878-83. BY J. J. SMITH, N. S. DEVONPORT: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY A. H. SWISS, 111 AND 112 FORE STREET. 1883. To my late Shipmates IN H.M.S. "IRON DUKE," _The following pages are respectfully inscribed._ Those who voyage beyond sea change their climate often, but their affections never. 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--Kobe--Fusi-Yama--Yokohama--Visit to Tokio 113 CHAPTER XI. Northward--Hakodadi--Dui--Castries Bay--Barracouta-- Vladivostock 131 CHAPTER XII.