Sailing under Spanish colours with his cousin William McKay at the helm, Matheson left the safe haven of Canton and headed north to Chinchew (Quanzhou), in Fujian. There, Matheson managed to offload $80,000- (over £17,000)- worth of the drug — enough to persuade him to return in the autumn - when storms forced his ship to take shelter 30 miles short of Chinchew in what turned out to be the region’s principal opium port.

Some had lain in the scoop of the rock.

All situations do not suit this tree alike; a dry bank, for example, not so well as a moistured earth […]

The earliest pistols were made with wheels (à rouet), and the barrel did not measure more than a foot in length.