Besides the Tanka boats, there are others at Hong-Kong manned by Chinamen; but until quite lately, and until the establishment of a water-police, they formed a very dangerous mode of travelling at night, the crews having frequently robbed and murdered their passengers.
A friend of mine was once very nearly killed by a boat's crew when being taken to his vessel by them; and although, as it will appear, upon that occasion he managed to escape, he was afterwards brutally murdered by the Chinese. But that terrible affair I will relate at its proper place; for I found his mangled corpse, together with those of his wife and child, some years afterwards, in another part of China.
My friend Mellen was captain of a vessel belonging to himself, and, just after the last Canton war, was at anchor in Hong-Kong harbour. Returning on board late one night, the boatmen--seven in number, six pulling and one in the stern-sheets steering--soon after leaving the shore, instead of steering directly towards his ship, seemed to be keeping away from her. He, of course, endeavoured to make them steer in the right direction; but with that half-complying, half-defying shuffling of your true Chinaman, they managed to persist on the wrong course until reaching some little distance outside all the shipping. At this moment, and while still a considerable way from his own vessel, which happened to be lying outside all the others in port, he was suddenly struck with some heavy weapon by the man behind him, who was steering. Through a forward movement which he made, the blow luckily missed his head and struck him on the shoulder. Mellen very fortunately had a small revolver with him, and at the moment when the rest of the boatmen started from their seats and rushed to attack him, he turned and shot his first assailant, had just time to face them, firing again and wounding the foremost, when they were upon him, armed with formidable knives and the heavy thole pins used to fasten the oars. In an instant he received several wounds, though providentially his assailants were too much in each other's way to use their murderous weapons effectively; but his revolver being self-acting, without a pause, he was enabled to shoot dead another, and severely wound a fourth. At this, seeing four of their number _hors de combat_ almost within five seconds, two of the remaining robbers lost heart, and jumped overboard to swim for it; the last, a large powerful fellow, closed with Mellen in a fierce and deadly struggle. My friend's revolver was empty; so, abandoning the weapon that had already rendered such good service, he grappled with his adversary, endeavouring to wrest away the knife with which he was armed.