_November 16th.--Noon_.--A bad business. We were running through a narrow channel which separates Silver Island from the mainland, in very deep water, when all of a sudden we were brought up short, and the ship rolled two or three times right and left, in a way which reminded me of a roll which we had in the 'Ava' immediately after starting from Calcutta. On that occasion we saw beside us the tops of the masts of a ship, and were told it had struck on the same sand- bank, and gone down about an hour before. Our obstacle on this occasion is a rock; a very small one, for we have deep water all around us. However, here we are. I hope our ship will not suffer from the strain. It is curious that in this narrow pass, where fifty ships went through and returned in 1842, this rock should exist and never have been discovered. _Six P.M._--The sun has just set among a crowd of mountains which bound the horizon ahead of us, and in such a blaze of fiery light that earth and sky in his neighbourhood have been all too glorious to look upon. Standing out in advance on the edge of this sea of molten gold, is a solitary rock, about a quarter of the size of the Bass, which goes by the name of Golden Island, and serves as the pedestal of a tall pagoda. I never saw a more beautiful scene, or a more magnificent sunset; but alas! we see it under rather melancholy circumstances, for after six hours of trying in all sorts of ways to get off, we are as fast aground as ever. We are now lightening the ship. Silver Island is a kind of sacred island like Potou, but very much smaller.[2] I went ashore, and walked over it with a bonze, who conversed with Lay. He told us that the people in the neighbourhood are very poor, and will be glad that foreigners should come and trade with them. The bonzes here are much like their brethren of Potou, the most wretched-looking of human beings. Our friend told us that they have no books or occupation of any kind. Four times a day they go through their prayers. He had twelve bald spots on his head, which, were the record of so many vows he had taken to abstain from so many vices, which he enumerated. I gave them five dollars when I left the island, which seemed to astonish them greatly. I asked him what would happen if he broke his vows. He said that he would be beaten and sent away. If he kept them he hoped to become in time a Buddha.