Sir,—In August 1867 you requested mo to undertake the instruction of a certain number of Chinese youths, in order to on-able them to serve as officers in H. I. Navy. I accepted the task, and began with thirty pupils at the end of November 1867, since when seven of the thirty have been discharged for various reasons, and now I am happy to inform you the remaining twenty three have through a course, (particulars of whi be found below,) which I consider more than sufficient to enable them to enter as cadets in the Navy, that is as far as the usual education of such youths on shore is concerned.
twenty three youths has not been the same Of course the progress of each of these in all the branches of study, some of them being far in advance of the others. Thi is not only attributable to the difference of intellect and ability, which are always to be found among pupils, but in a great measure also to the frequent absences which have occurred to many of them to attend some ceremony connected with family affairs, such absences lasting. six weeks and two months at a time, which was so much time lost. However, all have passed the course, and have gained my sincere wishes success by their exceedingly good behaviour and attendance to the instruction given them while with me.
The course of study has comprised the following subjects The English Language.—Geography, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonomerry, (Plane and Spherical), Navigation and Nautical Astronomy.
As it was necessary to teach these subjects in English, the first and most important step was to get these youths to.under-lish, a task by no. means..easy
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.