Narrative of the Voyages and Services of the Nemesis from 1840 to 1843
TekstCHAPTER XI
It is worthy of notice that, just previous to the arrival of Commissioner Lin at Canton, the opium-trade had received such a check, that it might be said to have been for the time almost entirely suspended. We have seen the strong measures taken by Captain Elliot against it, which proved that he looked upon it with no favouring eye; and, in short, at that time the opium vessels had left the river altogether. But Lin was not a man to do things by halves. He had formerly, when governor of a province, earned the character of the people's friend; and he seemed now more determined still to win the appellation of the foreigner's enemy. He had belonged to the party opposed to the empress's influence, and, had she survived and continued in power, he would never have been sent on so dangerous a mission. But, when once the liberal party, and the advocates for the legalization of the opium trade, upon the grounds of the impossibility of excluding it by prohibition, had been defeated, it became almost a point of honour, certainly of pride with Lin, to shew how successfully he could carry out the views of the high Chinese, or exclusive party.
From the very moment of Lin's arrival, clothed with unlimited power, his restless energy, and his quick penetrating eye, made every officer of his government cower down before him. Indeed, there was hardly an officer of the province, from the governor downwards, who did not feel conscious of guilt, corruption, and peculation. From high to low, from rich to poor, Lin determined that a reign of terror should commence. He had lists prepared, containing observations upon the characters of all the public officers, of the Hong merchants, and even of the foreigners. He seemed determined to wage war with everybody. And, as a proof that his intentions against the foreign community were anything but conciliatory, within a few days after his arrival he sent round the Hong merchants to the different factories, to ascertain, by intrigue and persuasion, what weapons the foreigners were in possession of, and what means they had at hand for their own immediate defence.
Having privately arranged all his plans, and, believing that the foreigners were sleeping, Lin now ordered that all the opium in the inner waters, and also in the store ships in the "outer waters," should be given up to the officers of his government; and that a bond should be drawn up in "Chinese and foreign character, stating clearly that the ships afterwards to arrive there shall never, to all eternity, dare to bring any opium; or, if they did so, that their whole cargo should be confiscated, and all their people put to death, [by Chinese officers,] and, moreover, that they would willingly undergo it as the penalty of their crime."
This proclamation certainly caused a little panic in Canton, and it was precisely what the commissioner desired; and, the more the foreign merchants seemed disposed to meet his excellency's views, as far as lay in their power, so much the more did the demands of the commissioner rise. Every concession on the part of Captain Elliot, or the merchants, was to him a victory gained, and the forerunner of greater ones. Threats thundered forth against the heads of the Hong merchants rebounded in threats of all sorts, and alarming statements from them to the foreigners.
There seems to be some reason for supposing that, in the commencement of the business, it was intended by Lin that a certain compensation should be granted to foreigners for the value of the opium surrendered. Gradually, however, as he thought himself getting stronger, this intention was quite lost sight of; and almost at the same time an edict came out, forbidding all foreigners to apply for permission to go down to Macao – in fact, preventing them from leaving Canton or Whampoa.
At this period, not ten days had elapsed since Lin's arrival at Canton, and there had not been sufficient time even to reply to his proclamation, only issued the preceding day, respecting the opium and the bond. Lin's impatience hurried on one event upon another, in his headlong career; he issued orders, without waiting to see whether his previous ones had been attended to. Whatever unfortunate results may have ultimately sprung from his policy, it can never be questioned that for the time his darling object was, not only to "humble the foreigners," but to carry out, to the letter, the express directions of his Emperor, which were delivered to him in these words: – "to scrub and wash away the filth, and to cut up the opium-evil by the roots, and to remove calamities from the people."
Within a few days after his arrival, we have seen that Lin was embroiled with the whole foreign community; and, in the short space of twenty-four hours, edicts appeared, as has been stated, commanding the surrender of all the opium, whether strictly in the Chinese waters or not; and placing under arrest every foreigner, both at Canton and Whampoa, without alleging any grounds for the proceeding.
The drama was now fast spreading out into its different acts and scenes. An agreement that one thousand chests should be delivered up, only led to the demand for more, and four thousand chests were then required.
Next, Mr. Dent, one of the principal merchants, was to be brought before the commissioner within the city; and, in order to save, as he believed, the heads of some of the Hong merchants, he agreed that he would go, provided that he should receive beforehand a safe-conduct from the imperial commissioner himself, guaranteeing his safe return; but upon any other condition he refused to put himself voluntarily in his power. The reply to this was, "that, if he did not come of his own free will, he should be dragged out of his house by force;" and the threat was added, that, in that case, the high commissioner would assuredly kill him.
A circular from Captain Elliot now required that "all ships belonging to her Majesty's subjects at the outer anchorages should proceed at once to Hong-Kong, since her Majesty's subjects were then detained at Canton against their will." It will scarcely be credited, that at this time the only British man-of-war in the Chinese waters was the small sloop, the Larne. This was perfectly well known to the Chinese, who, consequently, conceived themselves strong enough to proceed to the highest degree of violence and indignity. And, when the Larne afterwards went up to the Bogue, and demanded certain explanations of the Admiral Kwan, (who, we have before seen, was on friendly terms with Sir Frederick Maitland, on a previous occasion, when he visited the Bogue in a line-of-battle ship,) the only answer that Kwan condescended to give to the little Larne was, "that she (or rather her captain) ought to know her own weakness, and be reverentially obedient, as Maitland had been before."
At the critical juncture I have above described, Captain Elliot resolved to come up to the British factory in person, in a small open boat, and, for a moment, our flag was again hoisted, when all were virtually prisoners, whom the flag could not protect. He now declared his intention of demanding passports for all her Majesty's subjects within ten days– (should he not have demanded them at once?) but, having no armed force that he could call to his aid, all he could do was to say, "that, if they were refused for the period of three days after his application, he should be forced into the conclusion that British subjects were all to be violently detained as hostages, in order that they might be intimidated into unworthy concessions."
Lin now had Elliot completely in his power, and was doubtless much surprised himself at the success of all his schemes. At that moment, neither the flag nor the guns of England could protect her people: they were prisoners in their own halls; and it is a positive fact that, for some time, the only chance of relief or protection which they had to look to, was the expected arrival of two American ships of war, which were known to be on their way out, having been applied for by the consul of that country, upon the first appearance of the difficulties.
This was a grand opportunity for pushing their fortunes in that quarter, which the Americans knew well how to profit by. In reality, the whole foreign trade was for a time in jeopardy; but the Americans profited precisely in proportion to the increase of our difficulties, and their trade increased exactly as ours declined. The moment was an advantageous one for proving to the Chinese that Americans were not Englishmen; although they cleverly made them understand that they had been so once, but at last had conquered for themselves a name, a flag, and a nation.
It has been said that, at a later period, an American merchant had more than one interview with Lin, in which various suggestions were made as to the measures to be adopted; but, whether they were of a favourable or unfavourable nature to English interests, it is impossible to say with confidence. The results of the conference were kept very secret.
Having secured all the foreigners within his grasp, Lin's next step was to withdraw all the native servants from the factories, and to forbid the sale of provisions to foreigners in any shape. Armed men were posted on every side, to prevent any one from attempting to escape, while the river was blockaded, and all the foreign boats which could be found were drawn up high and dry on shore, or else destroyed. In the meantime, however, no provisions were supplied by Lin himself; consequently, the foreign prisoners were in a worse plight, in that respect, than the actual malefactors in the cells of the public prisons of the town; and his object was evidently to starve them into compliance with his wishes, if, indeed, he knew himself what the full extent of his wishes really was.
Captain Elliot was now called upon to deliver up all the opium, wherever it might be found. And yet it was clear enough that Captain Elliot could not possibly know where all the opium was, or how much it might be; and, having already agreed to the demand for, first, one thousand, and then four thousand chests, it would clearly be necessary to stipulate some quantity as a satisfactory equivalent for all.
Even in their present dilemma a more decided show of firmness, and a threat of the retribution which would fall upon him hereafter for his violent proceedings, might, possibly, have restored to the commissioner some little portion of his reasonableness, if not his reason. Nevertheless, as the whole community of foreigners (not the English only) were now under a course of starvation and imprisonment, and were in a degraded position in the eyes of all Chinamen, it is difficult to say if any other course could have been adopted than the one chosen by Captain Elliot. A bond was signed, under the influence and by the compulsion of existing circumstances, by all the parties, that they would not deal any more in opium; but they did not accede to the penalty of death, &c. &c., which Lin had originally attempted to impose. And, at the requisition of Captain Elliot, they agreed to deliver up all the opium then in their possession, "for the service of her Majesty's government."
The quantity of opium to be delivered was not stipulated at the time. But, after returns had been very honourably and equitably sent to Captain Elliot, it appeared that he could command the enormous quantity of 20,283 chests; and he accordingly agreed that that immense number should be delivered up to officers deputed by Lin to receive it. It was also stipulated that, as soon as one-fourth should be given up, the servants should be restored; that, after one-half had been delivered, the passage-boats should run as usual down to Macao; that trade should be opened as soon as three-fourths had been given up; and that, when the whole of it had been surrendered, "things should go on as usual."
As yet scarcely three weeks had elapsed since Commissioner Lin had come down, with this enormous power upon his shoulders; and yet it had sufficed to enable him to effect this vast change in the relations which existed between the Chinese and the foreign community, and to astonish even his own countrymen by the energy and rashness of his measures.
The commissioner was perfectly surprised at his own success, and equally so at the enormous quantity of opium which Elliot declared himself able to procure. But, in point of fact, there were not so many as 20,000 chests of opium in the "Chinese waters" at that time, although that amount was at last procured, for vessels were sent to a distance even to seek for it, and to purchase it for Captain Elliot. Some of it was lying at Manilla, whence it was brought over for the purpose.
The next step in Lin's political delinquency was, that he broke the very agreement he had just made; and, instead of allowing the passage-boats to pass down to Macao, as usual, as soon as one-half of the stipulated number of chests had been surrendered, as agreed, he selected the names of sixteen gentlemen out of the whole community, and issued the strictest orders against their departure; and directed that every one of the passage-boats should be examined, to see if any of these gentlemen were on board, and to prevent their escape.
Nevertheless, at this time the commissioner would seem to have had some misgivings about the posture of affairs, and became at one time inclined to recommend the "obedient" foreigners to the notice of the Emperor, for the purpose of having some mark of favour conferred upon them. This was thought to point at some kind of compensation for the value of the opium surrendered, but nothing further was heard of it.
On the 21st of May, 1839, the last portion of the stipulated quantity of 20,283 chests of opium was delivered up at the Bogue, where the rest of it was stored, awaiting the Imperial pleasure. Many questions arose as to how it was to be disposed of, but at last Lin himself hit upon the clever expedient of destroying it by lime and oil, in pits dug for the purpose, and then pouring the fluid compound into the sea. Double guards were placed to prevent any of the drug from being stolen, and death was to be the punishment of every delinquent. There were checks and spies in all directions, and the process of destruction was carried on with great parade. Nevertheless, it is believed that some of it was purloined, both on shore and on its way from the ships to the landing-place, where mandarin-boats and war-junks were collected in great number.
As soon as possible after he had regained his liberty, Captain Elliot sent intelligence of all these occurrences to Bombay, (for the overland mail,) by a fast sailing vessel, hired expressly for the purpose, called the Ariel; and, at the same time, H.M. sloop Larne was despatched to Calcutta, to report them to the governor-general of India. Consequently, there was then not a single British ship of war of any description in the Chinese waters, for the protection of British life and property. Luckily, the arrival soon afterwards of the American ships of war, the Columbia and the John Adams, served to reassure the drooping spirits of the whole foreign community.
Other acts of atrocity and bad faith had also been committed by the Chinese authorities; but it is remarkable that Captain Elliot, whose personal courage and natural ability have never been questioned, seems to have entered no public protest, nor addressed any strong remonstrance to the commissioner, either upon this subject, or upon that of his own imprisonment, or rather confinement, at Canton. The probability is, that he thought it useless to do so, unless he were prepared to back his remonstrance by a demonstration of force. Nevertheless, after the foreigners were released, he issued a notice that all trade on the part of his countrymen with the Chinese should be stopped. And this notice was repeated in still stronger terms after the departure of the Larne; for he declared that "he saw no prospect of such an arrangement of existing difficulties as to admit of British ships proceeding within the Bocca Tigris, under the sanction of his authority, until the opinion of her Majesty's government could be made known to him." And at a later period, he thought it necessary to warn all the merchants, (dated the 29th of July,) "that he had moved her Majesty's and the Indian governments to forbid the admission of tea and other produce from China into Great Britain and India, during the existence of the preceding prohibition in Canton, unless their manifests were signed in his presence."
The stoppage of the trade by Captain Elliot irritated Lin excessively. It was turning the tables against himself, defeating him with his own weapons; it savoured of presumption in his sight; and, moreover, it materially diminished his revenue. It proved that, however bombastic and ridiculous their professions of indifference to the trade of foreigners might be, they really stood very much in need of it themselves, and, in fact, they felt the stoppage of it on our part quite as much as we ever did on theirs. It made Lin actually spiteful; he tried every art to induce the English to act contrary to Elliot's orders; and, subsequently, when he went down to Macao to see with his own eyes what the Portuguese were about, he went so far as to make it a matter of accusation against Elliot, that "he had prevented the merchant ships of his country from entering the port of Canton."
Such gross inconsistency, probably, was never before presented to view in so short a period of time by any public man. Lin was, in fact, completely at bay, and he, moreover, had probably heard by this time that more than one British man-of war was expected. Nevertheless, he by no means relaxed in his feelings of bitter hostility; he listened to everything that was said or written against the English and against opium; he so alarmed the Portuguese, as to make them expel all the English, out of the town, (or, what is the same thing, he threatened to attack the town if the English remained in it;) and he made them prohibit the importation of opium, which had formerly been permitted upon payment of duty; though, to this day, the traffic is continued by them in full vigour at the outer anchorages, and in the Typa near Macao, although it is prohibited to be landed at the town, under the eye of the authorities. Nevertheless, a sufficient quantity of it is brought into the town for local consumption.
Lin now appeared to have reached the pinnacle of his power. He flattered himself that his schemes had been all successful; his power appeared irresistible, because no effectual opposition to it had yet been offered. The more concessions were made to him, the more exacting he became; and having got the English out of Macao, and made the Portuguese submissive to his will, he then assumed a very bland and condescending tone.
In the interim, it was very evident that a storm of a new kind was brewing, which was likely soon to burst upon his head. Moreover, all the attempts he had made to control his own people failed; his executions, his denunciations, and his moral lectures, were alike unavailing. He gave the people a year, within which they were to break off the habit by degrees, and to reform their manners; and, at the end of that time, he vowed he would execute every man amongst them that persisted in it. In the meantime, he hit upon the last and darling expedient of every Chinese statesman and philosopher, that of making men mutually responsible for each other. Thus the whole people were to be divided into tens, as they were elsewhere in the days of Alfred the Great, and each one of the party was to be made personally responsible for the good behaviour of all the rest with whom he was associated.
Notwithstanding all these strong measures, urged with all the sincerity of an enthusiast, they both failed at the time, and have failed ever since to eradicate the evil. The demand for the drug increased with the difficulty of procuring it; the indulgence became dearer owing to the danger which attended it; and, after all that was said and done, opium continued to be sought and enormously paid for. It was more generally used than ever; and even attention became directed to the cultivation of the poppy on Chinese soil, when the difficulty of procuring it from abroad became more urgent.
Lin rose into high favour, for a time, with the Imperial court, as might naturally be expected, and he was appointed governor of the second province in the empire. But long before the time came for him to remove to his new post, his star began to wane, his difficulties increased, and ultimately his fall was as great as his rise had been rapid.
For several months, as I have before stated, no British ship of war was present in the Chinese waters. It was in this interval – namely, in the month of July, 1839 – that the great difficulty arose which excited so much attention at the time, and has done so since, arising out of the death of a Chinaman, by name Lin Wiehe, at Hong-Kong, during an affray with some British merchant seamen. This event was eagerly taken advantage of by the commissioner to attempt to enforce certain claims against the foreigners. Without entering into tedious details, many of which are already well known, it will suffice to mention that the man's death was really occasioned by a drunken row at a village near Hong-Kong; that the commissioner, in accordance with what had formerly been done on a similar occasion at Canton, demanded the surrender of the murderer to be tried by Chinese judges, and that Captain Elliot denied the jurisdiction altogether; but, at the same time, he himself preferred an indictment for murder against a seaman before a British grand-jury at Hong-Kong, who ignored the bill. But several men were ultimately found guilty of an assault only, and it appeared that one party was just as much to blame as the other.
The commissioner then grew more angry than ever: he caused the few English who still remained at Macao to be still further persecuted, and it was only through the friendly assistance of individual Portuguese families that they were enabled to obtain their daily food. The result was, that the whole British community left the place, together with Captain Elliot, and went to live on board the different merchant ships in harbour.
Things could not remain long in such a state of embarrassment; and, fortunately, on the 11th of September – that is, about three months and a half after the Larne had left those seas – the Volage, under Captain Smith, arrived. That gallant officer immediately perceived that active steps of some kind must be taken, and he accordingly issued a notice of blockade of the port of Canton, upon the ground "that the regular supplies of food had been prohibited to her Majesty's subjects; that the Chinese people had been ordered to fire upon and seize them wherever they went; and that certain of her Majesty's subjects had been actually cut off."
The immediate effect of this notice was to bring the Chinese, in some measure, to their senses; their proclamations against Englishmen were withdrawn – provisions were no longer prohibited; and, consequently, Captain Smith very properly withdrew his notice of blockade. Negotiations were entered into, and it was at length agreed that trade should be resumed outside the port of Canton.
Yet, all on a sudden, even this arrangement was violated by the Chinese; and, on the 26th October, notice was issued that they now required that ships should enter within the port of Canton – that is, within the Bocca Tigris. They repeated the demand for the murderer of Lin Wiehe to be given up, and that a bond should be signed by all, agreeing to be tried by Chinese officers for offences declared by them, before trial, to be capital. If this mandate were not obeyed, the whole of the foreign ships were to depart within three days, under a threat of immediate destruction.
The whole fleet, therefore, was now recommended to anchor in Tongkoo Bay, or Urmston's Harbour, which afterwards became the rendezvous of all the ships of war.
It is not necessary here to enter into minute details; it will be sufficient for the full understanding of the future operations to state that difficulties continued to increase on both sides, without much prospect of any solution. The Hyacinth having now arrived and joined the Volage on the 29th October, these two vessels proceeded with Captain Elliot to Chuenpee, some distance below the Bogue, to endeavour to obtain from the commissioner some explicit declaration of his intentions. On the 3rd of November they were attacked by the Chinese admiral with twenty-nine sail of war-junks, which, of course, they soon beat off: and thus occurred the first direct hostile encounter between the armed forces of the two nations. War now became more than ever inevitable. Yet, at the end of the following month, these two ships of war were again compelled to proceed to the Bogue, in consequence of the seizure of a British subject by the Chinese (not engaged in selling opium) at the anchorage of Tongkoo Bay.
The blockade of the river and port of Canton was therefore renewed by Captain Smith on the 15th January, 1840; but the gentleman who had been seized, Mr. Gribble, was at once restored, and the blockade was consequently raised.
Scarcely had this taken place, when down came to Macao a new Chinese governor of that district, and issued a positive edict for the immediate expulsion of all the English. Captain Smith, with becoming spirit, instantly ordered the Hyacinth, Captain Warren, to proceed into the inner harbour for the protection of his countrymen, which measure seemed to give great umbrage to the Portuguese governor, Da Silveira Pinto; and, in consequence of his representations, she was withdrawn on the following morning.
Occasion was taken to make as much as possible out of this occurrence, as if the Portuguese really possessed some authority in the place beyond that over their own countrymen, and very futile appeals were made to treaties with the Chinese government. After all, the utmost that could be said of it was, that if it was a little deficient in courtesy towards the Portuguese governor, the latter should have rather volunteered his consent to it. Nevertheless, the energetic spirit which it evinced undoubtedly tended to check the presumption of the Chinese authorities, and thus far to give some little security to British subjects. Captain Smith very properly put it upon the ground of its strengthening the Portuguese governor's hands, which in reality it did, and which that functionary stood greatly in need of. At the same time, Captain Smith very laudably expressed a hope that the language in which his Excellency would "demand the immediate removal of the Chinese forces, declaredly sent here to seize or destroy my countrymen, (to the deep insult of the Portuguese crown,) will be not less stringent, and as successful in its operation, as that in which your Excellency has been pleased to order the withdrawal of the Hyacinth."
During the whole of this time, preparations were being made by the Chinese for future operations in the Canton River; fireships were prepared, guns collected, and troops exercised.
On the 24th March, 1840, the fine frigate the Druid, commanded by Lord John Churchill, arrived off Macao, and thence proceeded to Tongkoo Roads, a most welcome reinforcement. About this time, also, the Chinese purchased the English merchant ship the Cambridge, intending to turn her into a man-of-war, and built some strange-looking little schooners upon a European model, with the view of employing them in some novel way or other against the British ships.
It is said that, at one time, Commissioner Lin got up a sort of sham fight at the Bogue, and dressed some of the assailants in red clothes, in order to habituate the defenders to the sight of the colour of the enemy's costume. Of course the red gentlemen were thoroughly beaten. Matters had now proceeded so far, that it was impossible that any solution of the enigma could be arrived at without speedy employment of force. The success of their first measures, and the helpless condition in which foreigners then found themselves, had emboldened the Chinese beyond reason, and had fed their presumption even till it burst with its own self-applause.
Lord John Churchill, who was now, of course, senior officer, unhappily died, after a few weeks' illness, on the 3rd of June. Few days had elapsed before the Chinese sent a number of fireships to endeavour to destroy the English merchant-ships collected at the anchorage of Capsingmoon, but they proved a complete failure.
The British naval force now rapidly gained accession to its strength. The tidings of the events at Canton had spread to all parts of the world. Preparations had been immediately commenced in England and elsewhere for the coming contest. The Alligator, from New South Wales, under Sir Gordon Bremer, arrived about this time, as also did the Honourable Company's steamer, Madagascar, and likewise the Wellesley, 74, in which Sir Gordon Bremer hoisted his broad pendant; and, on the 28th of June, 1840, Commodore Sir Gordon Bremer established a blockade of the port and river of Canton and all its entrances, by command of her Majesty's government. Ships of war now continued to arrive as fast as possible; the force in the Chinese waters was considerable; and, within two or three days after the commencement of the blockade, the chief command was assumed by Rear-Admiral the Honourable George Elliot, who had just arrived in the Melville, 74.