Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/408

316 was very amusing and fond of relating wonderful experiences. He described to me his first fight with the Chinese. He and the other officers had been fond of theorising as to how they would proceed, and were agreed that in a hand-to-hand fight they would strike off the heads of the Chinese with their swords. But when the time came, and Lieutenant K. was scaling a ladder at the head of his men, revolver in one hand and sword in the other, with a Chinese lance coming at him over the top, there was no time to put theories into practice, and he could only lunge at his enemy with his sword and he described it as a most beautiful sensation as the sword went right through, and “it was just like putting your knife into butter”! So he managed to kill about twenty-five that way. I went out sometimes to the German hospital at Honemaku. The ground was granted by a Japanese gentleman for two years, he receiving a decoration from the German Emperor. The hospital was built in Japanese style—very cool, clean, simple, and pleasant—and would revert to the owner of the land, who would find it a nice country house. It was beautifully situated on top of a high perpendicular cliff, with a fine outlook over the sea, and, what the Japanese had overlooked, with a good view of the Japanese naval harbour. There were about twenty-five patients in the hospital, wounded or fever-stricken, from Pekin. Dr. Priesuhn, in charge, always had cool beer for his visitors.

I also inspected the British Naval Hospital, which occupies extensive gounds and an important position on the Bluff. The doctor in charge was very cordial and showed me everything. There were only three patients, one of whom was a midshipman who had been wounded several times and had had various operations, but