voyage, the captain, after a few hours' sail, would order the men to cast anchor, as the weather was very cold, although they had not passed the twenty-second degree of latitude. Similar reasons detained them for two months and a half on their voyage. The wind, the rain, the tide, the fear of pirates—all interrupted their course. Every night they sought shelter in some creek under the cannon of a fort, if such a name could be given to a ruinous building defended only by an old mandarin and his domestics. Under most of these forts an armed barque was stationed, to protect the junks from the assaults of the pirates who infested these seas in the eleventh and twelfth moons.
One day several pirate barques, well armed, attacked them. The pirates commenced by seizing two small junks which were a little in advance of the squadron. As the sailors made no resistance, the buccaneers only stripped them stark naked, offering no violence to their persons. The turn of the vessel in which the bishop was sailing came next; their captain hung out a signal of distress, and hailed the neighbouring barques. Six of them united and formed a line; the crews only supplied a contingent of one hundred and forty men without arms; the pirates were more than three hundred in number, well armed; for in China it is forbidden to have weapons on board merchant ships, under severe penalties; and pirates alone dispense with this law. But "God," says the poor bishop, "had pity on us, the pirates retired without venturing an attack."
Escaped from all the dangers and harassments of this tedious journey, Bruguières at length reached Fougan, a country covered with hills and mountains of
