As he said when relating the circumstance to us, 'after drinks all round and a weed' we returned on deck to look about the vessel; next we visited the between-decks, and the Mandarins pronounced everything highly satisfactory. Seeing a Scuttle-Butt[83] pump, it attracted the attention of one of them, who took it to be an 'engine of war,' and asked to be informed as to the manner of its use! They soon after took leave and returned to the city. 'Thank heaven,' said Captain Endicott to a gentleman whom he had asked on board to see the Chinese officials, 'that's over; now that they are off, let us go down and take a drink and a smoke.' On getting to the cabin they found that _everything_--the gin and brandy, cigars, biscuits, even the water-jug, pitcher, and tumblers--had all been walked off with by the followers of the high dignitaries! A Chinese crew and naval Mandarin took possession, as Captain Endicott pulled away from his 'old home' for so many years. She was then duly turned into a Chinese man-of-war. There were the usual insignia of invincibility, triangular flags, on which were figures of dragons swallowing the moon, the 'Yin and Yang,' circles and zigzag lines, emblematical of thunder and lightning. The commanding officer of all this destructive paraphernalia, with the peacock's feather in his cap, a large silk umbrella held over his head, seated himself comfortably in a bamboo chair, smoking his pipe. Other formidable preparations for war were duly made in a provision of worm-eaten guns, matchlocks, spears, and shields. She would soon have been ready for an encounter with any of the English sloops, whether the 'Modeste' or the 'Algerine,' perhaps even the 'Herald;' but one night a great freshet took place. The violence of the tide was such that she swerved at her anchor from right to left, struck on the rocks close to the 'Folly,' slid off, and went down in deep water! The Chinese then set to work and unshipped her masts, leaving a stump of the foremast about seven feet above the deck, and placed upon it a diminutive lantern. This served thenceforth as a 'lighthouse' to guide boats up and down the river! It was the _first_ lighthouse in Canton waters 'on record.' When I last saw the stump of the mast, twenty-eight years after, a great bank of mud had formed around the hull, and a faint glimmer from a penny dip in a small paper lantern marked the last resting-place of the 'Lintin.' * * * * * The seizure of the opium in its consequences was _the_ feature in the breaking up of the exclusive conditions of foreign trade at Canton, as it had existed since 1720. The peculiar conditions also of social life were doomed, as was that perfect and wonderful organisation, the Co-Hong.