For the first few days after entering the Chinese sea, we sailed pretty well in the same fashion we had done in the Pacific-- proceeding slowly and quietly on our way.

Today we beheld the coast of China for the first time, and towards evening we were not more than thirty-three miles from Macao.

I was rather impatient for the following morning.

I longed to find my darling hope realized, of putting my foot upon Chinese ground.

I pictured the mandarins with their high caps, and the ladies with their tiny feet, when in the middle of the night the wind shifted, and on the 7th of July we had been carried back 115 miles.