He reached China in April, and from Nagasaki on his way to
Shanghai the steamer that carried him was chased by two French
gunboats. But, apparently much to his disappointment, she soon
ran out of range of their guns. Though he did not know it then,
with the enemy he had travelled so far to fight this was his first
and last hostile meeting; for already peace was in the air.
Of that and of how, in spite of peace, he obtained the "job" he
wanted, he must tell you himself in a letter home:
TIEN-TSIN, CHINA, April 13, 1885.
"MY DEAR MOTHER--I have not felt much in the humor for
writing, for I did not know what was going to happen. I spent a
good deal of money coming out, and when I got here, I knew,
unless something turned up, I was a gone coon. We got off Taku
forts Sunday evening and the next morning we went inside; the
channel is very narrow and sown with torpedoes. We struck
one--an electric one--in coming up, but it didn't go off. We were
until 10.30 P.M. in coming up to Tien-Tsin--thirty miles in a
straight line, but nearly seventy by the river, which is only about
one hundred feet wide--and we grounded ten times.
"Well--at last we moored and went ashore. Brace Girdle, an
engineer, and I went to the hotel, and the first thing we heard
was--that _peace was declared!_ I went back on board ship, and I
didn't sleep much--I never was so blue in my life.
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