We noticed an abundance of running water and ponds, but we did not observe any fountains.
As everything had passed off so well, Herr von Carlowitz proposed that we should go and see the garden of the Mandarin Puntiqua, which I was very anxious to do, as the mandarin had ordered a steam-boat to be built there by a Chinese, who had resided thirteen years in North America, where he had studied.
The vessel was so far advanced that it was to be launched in a few weeks.

The artist showed us his work with great satisfaction, and was evidently very much pleased at the praise we bestowed upon him for it.

He attached great importance to his knowledge of the English language, for when Herr von Carlowitz addressed him in Chinese, he answered in English, and requested us to continue the conversation in that idiom.

The machinery struck us as not being constructed with the usual degree of neatness for which the Chinese are famous, and also appeared far too large for the small vessel for which it was intended.

Neither I nor my companion would have had the courage to have gone in her on her experimental trip.
The mandarin who had the vessel built, had gone to Pekin to obtain a "button" as his reward for being the first person to launch a steamer in the Chinese empire.