442
(Report of cruise in vicinity of Mirs Bay omitted as unimportant).
On the 15th the two Gunboats ("Chên-to" and His Majesty's Gunboat "Bouncer") anchored together at Ta Sing bay near P'ing Hoi, and it was thereupon agreed on the proposition of Lieutenant Lloyd that we should proceed on the following day to the Pratas Shoal, lying about 150 miles seaward from Cupchi, and overhaul the neighbourhood in search of pirates. Leaving our anchorage on the following day, accordingly, we proceeded in that direction, and by keeping under way through the night, arrived at the Pratas Shoal at 10 a.m. on the 17th instant.
I have to remark that although the Pratas Shoal is described as lying four or five hundred li from the coast of Cupche it is in reality an isolated shoal lying in the midst of the China Sea, semi-circular in shape, the hollow of its curve facing the northwest, and some hundred miles or more in total circumference. (The rocks of which it consists) are alternately covered and left dry by the tide. Near the edge of the shoal is a small sandy island, barely three miles in circumference.