_December 31st.--Five P.M._--I hardly expected to have to record another grounding, but so it is. We have been going on gallantly all day, leaving the other ships some ten miles behind us. We had passed the Lunshan Hills, off which we spent two days, and from which I sent you my last letter. We were abreast of Plover Point, when suddenly the water shoaled so much that we had to drop anchor. Alas! the ebbing tide was too strong for us, and drove us on a bank, where we are now sticking. If we get off before morning it will not matter much; but if the 'Retribution' comes down and finds us here, we shall look horribly small. [Sidenote: Reach Shanghae.] _January 1st, 1859._--Many, many returns of the New Year! It is a beautiful day, and we are just anchoring at Shanghae, at 3 P.M. As soon as the tide rose (about midnight) it lifted us off our shoal. We had to go cautiously sometimes to-day; but we have closed this eventful expedition successfully. The general results and chief incidents of the interesting expedition thus happily completed, were reported to the Government in England in a despatch, dated January 5th, 1859, from which are taken the following extracts:-- [Sidenote: Difficulty of getting at facts.] The knowledge of the Chinese language possessed by Messrs. Wade and Lay enabled me to enter, without difficulty, into communication with the inhabitants of the towns and rural districts which we visited. At various points in our progress we wandered, unarmed and unattended, in parties of three or four, to a distance of several miles from the banks of the river, and we never experienced at the hands of the natives anything but courtesy, mingled with a certain amount of not very obtrusive curiosity. Notwithstanding, however, these favourable opportunities, the budget of statistical facts which I was able to collect was hardly as considerable as I could have desired. Chinamen of the humbler class are not much addicted to reflection, and when subjected to cross-examination by persons greedy of information, they are apt to consider the proceeding a strange one, and to suspect that it must be prompted by some exceedingly bad motive. Moreover, having been civilised for many generations, they carry politeness so far, that in answering a question it is always their chief endeavour to say what they suppose their questioner will be best pleased to hear. If, therefore, the knowledge of a fact is to be arrived at, it is, above all things, necessary that the inquiry bear a tint so neutral that the person to whom it is addressed shall find it impossible to reflect its colour in his reply. He will then sometimes, in his confusion, blunder into a truthful answer, but he does so generally with a bashful air, indicative of the painful consciousness that he has been reluctantly