He had been shipwrecked on the coast of China. The ship had gone to
pieces not far from shore, and he and three other men had escaped safely
to land. As soon as they stepped on shore, a crowd of Chinese gathered
round them with anything but friendly faces. They were taken prisoners,
and carried before some man who seemed to be the governor of that part
of the country. He asked them a great many questions, but they did not
understand a word of what he said, and, of course, could not answer him.
For some days my father and the other men were very uncertain what their
fate would be; for the Chinese at that time were exceedingly jealous of
any foreigner landing on their shore. However, one day they were brought
out of the wooden house in which they had been imprisoned, and taken a
long journey of some two hundred miles into the interior of the country.
And here it was that my poor father had been all those years, when we
thought him dead. He was not unkindly treated, and he taught the
half-civilized people there many things which they did not know, and
which they were very glad to learn. But both by day and night he was
carefully watched, lest he should make his escape, and he never found a
single opportunity of getting away from them. Of course, there were no
posts and no railways in that remote place, and he was quite shut out
from the world.
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