At the time, continued Mr. Scott, there was a tremendous tide running and some of the Chinese were not willing to make an attempt to reach the ship. After discussions the party decided to wait a little while. In the meantime the lifeboat which had tried to reach the tender and had been blown back, was in great difficulties, buf, luckily, a tremendous gust of wind blew them out to sea right in the path of the tender and they were picked up without any casualties, On the bar, however, the situation was becoming more and more fraught with danger, and realizing this, another lifeboat was lowered from the tender with the object of rescuing the marooned men. Some indication of the tremendous power of the waves was then given by Mr. Scott, who related how the lifeboat was smashed before it had barely touched the waters. All attempts at rescue then were abandoned and the tender put off with all speed for Taku Bar for another lifeboat.
Meanwhile on the bar the marooned party were knee-deep in water and suffering terribly from exposure, the howling wind and fierce waves making their position extremely dangerous. A realization of their peril came when one of the men—a Chinese—collapsed, while several of the others were on the point of exhaustion. It was then decided to reach Smallpox appeared in a small area of the Northern district and the matter is being investigated. The outbreak is somewhat remarkable, as it is not usual for this disease to persist throughout the summer and in addition, the cases were almost entirely confined to a portion of the Northern area which gives rise to a suspicion that the cases are imported, though this matter has not yet been elucidated. the small beacon and to shelter inside there until the storm blew over or until rescue came.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.