On the 24th March, (fourteenth day since the wreck,) they were destined to make their wretched entrance into the capital. At the distance of six or seven miles from it, they were met by an officer and a few soldiers, by whom their names and their numbers were called over, according to a list which the officer held in his hand, and they were then separated into smaller parties, and led by different routes into the city. As they approached the gate, they, for the first time, caught a glimpse of the sea, with a few junks at anchor at a distance, towards which they hopelessly strained their longing eyes. The walls of the city appeared to be in a state of dilapidation, except near the gateway, where they had been recently repaired and whitewashed. The prisoners were now fairly within the capital of Formosa, and were conducted to an open space, planted thickly with trees, but broken up by rough watercourses, over which there were several bridges of stone. Thence they were led through back lanes, avoiding the principal streets, to the house of a high mandarin, in front of which they halted for a short time; and such was the pressure of the crowd and the curiosity of the people, that the chairs in which they had been brought were nearly pulled to pieces before they were ordered to get out and enter the outer gateway of the mandarin's house. Here they were drawn up in line, to have the tickets round their necks copied; but before the process could be half finished, the pressure of the crowd became so great that the mandarins were obliged to discontinue the task. A ludicrous scene followed, which, for the moment, afforded amusement even to the prisoners themselves. The enraged mandarins charged the mob in great fury, and whipped them with their _long tails_, which, having silk woven on to the ends, gave some tolerable cuts to the people's faces. For a few minutes our hapless prisoners were put for refuge into a small temple which was close at hand; but even here the mob pressed so hard upon them that the door was nearly smashed in; and, as a last resource, they were marched off, with heavy irons on their legs, which bruised them at every step, to a prison in the courtyard of a superior mandarin's house, about one hundred yards distant. Here their treatment was very bad; for several successive days they were brought up before the mandarin to answer an infinity of questions, many of them very puerile, about the names, ages, and duties of every one on board the Ann; also about geography and the possessions of Great Britain, and where the poppy was grown; how money was raised, &c. &c. The Chinese carpenter of the vessel acted as interpreter; and, on one occasion, both he and the other Chinaman were severely flogged with bamboos.