In Shanghai it was against the law to pack cotton at night but it was
done, one night, in a big go-down, a lot of Chinese on a platform
ten feet above the floor were running round a capstan as if getting
up anchor, only their thing works downwards, around, around to their
eternal chant of ha ho, ha, hao o ha. Two fell over the edge. Now
there were pigs of lead piled up below and their skulls cracked like
eggs. The other fellows did not seem to care much and in the morning
carried the bodies off in their ropes and probably threw them in the
weeds a little way outside town. On the Bubbling Well road (so called
because there is a well that always has a bubble coming up from the
bottom), it used to be horrible sometimes in one's early morning ride.
They are rather an awful people, and there are razor-backed hogs that
roam around.
[Illustration: "Roll Dat Cotton."]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Acapulco is a queer little place, mostly heat, blacks, shell work,
sharks, etc. There are immense sharks (about sixteen feet). They won't
look at pork with or without a hook in it. What do they eat. Must be
mostly the stuff thrown from ships. Some say that they run up into the
surf and catch the little darkies by the legs. Anyway they are big and
fat and there are lots of them.
A war with the French is about to begin and the ships are expected but
have not come; so we can't land some French officers who are here to
join their ships--not good for them ashore just now.
We were round, look, see business, and there was a fuss, and a fellow
shot and missed; but the bullet got my leg. Curious it did not sting
but was more like a blow; did not break anything though. The native
imitations of flowers (shell work) are very pretty and there is lots
of coral, etc. Only a small place and not much clothing. An old fort
at the entrance with mouldy cannon, harbor to get into which one goes
up a passage that is parallel to the coast. You can't see anyway in
when you are out, or out when you are in, is like a big pond with
a grove of cocoanuts on the far side from the village but no other
trees except a palm or two, the colors of the mountains are fine, and
the young fry dive any distance after money thrown to them, as they
do at all these places, carry it in their mouths, their only pocket.
Principal industries, when there is no ship to coal, lying in (and
out of) the sun and drinking; as some one said: "Customs beastly
manners none."