Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/236

 He means to say that he has two squads, one well trained and the other raw recruits. It wants still fifteen minutes to drill time, so, at the captain's request, we will take a peep into his cabin.

In most respects this resembles that of some English gunboats; but on a small table, supported by graceful brackets, we note a strange assortment of foreign nautical instruments spread around a small idol. This idol was the only visible token of native superstition, and was used in conjunction with the baro- meter and thermometer to avoid coming storms, or to find out lucky days for sailing. Having partaken of wine with our hospitable entertainer, we next return to the upper deck to see the marines at drill. The bugleman sounds to quarters, and the men, with Enfield rifles in their hands, fall, or rather tumble into position, six or eight at a time. Then one more dilatory than his fellows, pops his head out of a hatchway, in order to satisfy himself that his company could not be dispensed with, scrambles on deck as he drags himself into his blouse and pan- taloons, and fixes his belt as he falls in. Some, too, have mis- placed their rifles, but all have now fairly got into line, and all appear orderly enough, until one unlucky fellow, feeling perhaps a sudden twinge of itch, drops his weapon to have a scratch. A comrade politely leaves the ranks to clear his throat over the side; and so the drill proceeds, its forms seemingly well understood by most of the men, but its object, so far as we could judge, almost entirely ignored. Thus there is a marked absence of the discipline we always associate with naval or military training.

The opticians make ships' compasses, portions of sextants and the brass work of other nautical instruments. How they acquired these arts it is difficult to make out, as their foreign