It was scarcely to be expected that, under these circumstances, hostilities could be altogether avoided; and, as the principal scene of them, if they occurred, would be in rivers and along the coasts, attention was directed to the fitting out of armed vessels, which should be peculiarly adapted for that particular service. Iron, as a material for ship-building, had been already tried, and found to answer; and this was considered an extremely favourable opportunity for testing the advantages or otherwise of iron steam-vessels; and the numerous rivers along the coast of China, hitherto very imperfectly known, and almost totally unsurveyed, presented an admirable field for these experiments. If successful there, it might be readily inferred that their utility in the fine rivers and along the shores of Hindostan, and other portions of the Company's territories, would be demonstrated, and by degrees a very powerful steam fleet would become an invaluable addition to the already vast resources of the Indian government. Orders were therefore given for the immediate building of several stout iron steamers, to be constructed with peculiar reference to their employment in river navigation. They were all to be adequately armed and manned, and no reasonable expense was to be spared in fitting them out in a manner best adapted to the particular object sought to be attained by them. No iron steamer had ever yet doubled the Cape of Good Hope; their qualities, therefore, remained yet to be tested in the stormy seas about Southern Africa; and various questions respecting the errors of the compasses, the effects of lightning, &c., upon vessels of this description, remained still imperfectly solved, particularly in reference to those tropical regions, where the great phenomena of nature are exhibited in a more intense and dangerous degree. In fact, no experience had yet been gained of their capabilities for the performance of long and perilous voyages; and it was a bold conception which suggested that they should be sent round the Cape, to the eastward, in the very worst season of the year, when even the stoutest and largest _wooden ships_ trust themselves as little as possible in that stormy region. The equipment and destination of the Nemesis, however, was kept a profound secret, except to those who were personally concerned in it, and even they (with the exception of the authorities) had little notion of the precise service upon which she was to be employed.