There were more or less frequent steamers, of a kind, from Nanning down the Si-kiang to Wuchow on the eastern edge of the province, and several flew the American flag; not that they were really American bottoms, but merely that a man or two had found it lucrative to save them from the dangers of confiscation by registering at the American consulate in Canton, for a small fee or a kind of royalty on their earnings, boats that were mainly if not entirely Chinese-owned.