In 1829, while on a visit to India, Matheson' chartered the steam tug Forbes to tow the brig Jamesina to China, wagering $1,000 on the voyage taking less than one month, Owing to exceptionally bad weather, he lost the bet by two days, The Forbes was the frst steamboat to be seen in Chinese waters. When the Chinese pilot came aboard at Macao, he showed no surprise at what he saw. The captain, piqued at his indite ference, asked him whether he did not think the "fre-cating" boat remarkable. The pilot replied, "We had them in the Sung dynasty, but discarded them as unprofitable." The experiment was not repeated, since was found impossible to buy good steam coal in Canton. The Forbes, burning. wood instead of coal, returned to Calcutta with a cargo of bills which paid freight at the rate of one-
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Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.