The Anglo-Chinese College was in every way adapted for instruction, and I continued in it as a student of Chinese until the end of December 1826. I then left in the ship 'Bengal Merchant' for Canton. She was loaded with cotton and opium, and not a fast sailer. Captain Brown was a most pleasant and agreeable gentleman, full of jokes and amusing stories with which to while away the time. We anchored at Singapore, which gave me an opportunity to see my old friends the Reads, Mr. A. L. Johnston, and to run up to Government House to make my salaam to Governor and Mrs. Crawford and their nieces, being received everywhere with a kindly welcome and the exclamation, 'How you have grown!' Continuing on our voyage, we passed through the Caramatta Passage, the Java Sea, Straits of Salayer, and into the Pacific by Dampier's Straits again. Between the Pelews and the Bashees we fell in with a typhoon _au grand complet_. At night the sea was as white as snow and of portentous height, coming upon us with the full uninterrupted sweep of the Pacific. We anchored at Lintin after a passage of sixty days.
Mr. D. W. C. Olyphant had arrived in 1826 as the successor of Mr. Covert; Mr. Gordon had entered the office of Messrs. Russell and Co., No. 2 Suy-Hong. The American Factory had been entirely built anew since 1825, and to it I betook myself. In addition to Mr. Olyphant were Charles N. Talbot and Charles W. King. Mr. Talbot was filling the office of U.S. Consul, and the flag was daily hoisted in the Square in front of the house. No. 1 Suy-Hong was occupied by James P. Sturgis, No. 3 by John R. Latimer, and No. 4 by John P. Cushing, T. T. Forbes, and John Hart. With Mr. Olyphant I called on, and made the acquaintance of, the Rev. Dr. Morrison, who had recently returned from England. Soon after I underwent a searching examination by him of the progress I had made in my Chinese studies at the Malacca College, and he pronounced it to be 'good.' There was no intention, however, that they should be discontinued, and in a few days I was placed under the tutorship of Le Seen-Sang. The tea season was over; all but one or two 'out of season' ships had sailed, but of those remaining was my old home and 'first cradle of the deep,' the 'Citizen,' and it was not long before Captain Keen and I again on board at Whampoa 'fought over the battles' of our voyage out together.