Page:Inside Canton.djvu/14

Rh This is how we started:—Four Chinamen, armed with long poles, thrust them to the bottom of the water, and leaning on them with all their weight, caused the rounded belly of the vessel to glide through the liquid mud. When it was afloat, a sailor hung, fastened to the end of a stick, a long chaplet of grenades, the explosive materials of which were enclosed in cylinders of red paper, and then set light to the cartridge which terminated this inflammable chain, so that, as the fire spread from one end to the other, sudden detonations were heard, which sounded like platoon firing, executed by badly-drilled soldiers. During this time, a man at the foot of the mizenmast struck repeatedly on a gong; the dry sharp explosions and the vibrations of the metal harmonised very well; the saltpetre went off with a rumbling noise, like the roll of a drum, while the sonorous vibrations of the gong filled the entire atmosphere, like the waves which extend over the immensity of the ocean. This cabalistic ceremony terminated, we hoisted our sails. The faï-tings have no keel, and draw very little water; everything had been calculated to ensure these vessels the greatest possible speed; hence their name, which signifies "fast boat." A high wave, an unexpected gust, cause the rounded hulls to capsize, but they right with extreme facility. A faï-ting resembles those joyous birds of the sea who disport themselves in the midst of the waves, like