Chapter VIII: First Mission to China. Canton (1)

IMPROVED PROSPECTS--ADVANCE ON CANTON--BOMBARDMENT AND CAPTURE--JOINT TRIBUNAL--MAINTENANCE OF ORDER--CANTON PRISONS--MOVE NORTHWARD--SWATOW--MR. BURNS--FOOCHOW--NINGPO--CHU-SAN--POTOU--SHANGHAE--MISSIONARIES.

[Sidenote: Improved prospects.]

On the same day on which the ultimatum of the Envoys was delivered to Yeh, i.e. on the 12th of December, 1857, the glad news reached Lord Elgin that Lucknow had been relieved: the more welcome to him as carrying with it the promise of speedy reinforcement to himself, and deliverance from a situation of extreme difficulty and embarrassment. 'Few people,' he might well say, 'had ever been in a position which required greater tact--four Ambassadors, two Admirals, 'a General, and a Consul-general; and, notwithstanding 'this luxuriance of colleagues, no sufficient force.' And what he felt most in the insufficiency of the force was not the irksomeness of delay, still less any anxiety as to the success of his arms. 'My greatest difficulty.' he wrote, 'arises from my fear that we shall be led to 'attack Canton before we have all our force, and led 'therefore to destroy, if there is any resistance, both life 'and property to a greater extent than would otherwise 'be necessary.' The prospects of immediate reinforcements from India diminished his fears on this score, and sent him forward with a better hope of bringing the painful situation to a speedy and easy close.

[Sidenote: Changed quarters.]

_H.M.S. 'Furious,' Canton River.--December 17th.--_You see from my
date that I am again in a new lodging. It promises to be, I think,
more agreeable than any of our previous marine residences. We have
paddles instead of a screw. Then the captain has not only given up to
me all the stern accommodation, but he has also done everything in his
power to make the place comfortable.... He is the Sherard Osborn of
Arctic regions notoriety. I am on my way to join Gros, in order to
decide on our future course of action. I mentioned yesterday that
Honan was occupied, and that I had received a letter from Yeh, which
must, I suppose, be considered a refusal. This was the fair side of
the medal. The reverse was an ugly quarrel up the river, which ended
in the loss of the lives of some sailors and the destruction of a
village,--a quarrel for which our people were, I suspect, to some
extent responsible. I fear that, under cover of the blockade
instituted by the Admiral, great abuses have taken place.... It makes
one very indignant, but unfortunately it is very difficult to bring
the matter home to the culprits. All this, however, makes it most
important to bring the situation to a close as soon as possible. It is
clear that there will be no peace till the two parties fight it out.
The Chinese do not want to fight, but they will not accept the
position relatively to the strangers under which alone strangers will
consent to live with them, till the strength of the two parties has
been tested by fighting. The English do want to fight.

[Sidenote: Yeh's reply.]

_December 18th._--This does not promise to be a lively sojourn. We are
anchored at present at a point where the river forks into the Whampoa
and Blenheim reaches. We have the Blenheim reach, and my suite wish me
to go up it to the Macao Fort, from which they think they would have a
good view of what goes on when the city is attacked. I wish, however,
to be with Gros, and he will go up the Whampoa reach as far as his
great lumbering ship will go. Meanwhile we are here confined to our
ships, as it would not of course do for me to go on shore to be
caught. Poor Yeh would think me worth having at present. What will he
do? His answer is very weak, and reads as if the writer was at his
wits' end; but with that sort of stupid Chinese policy which consists
in never yielding anything, he exposes himself to the worst
consequences without making any preparations (so far as we can see)
for resistance. Among other things in his letter he quotes a long
extract from a Hong-kong paper describing Sir G. Bonham's investiture
as K.C.B., and advises me to imitate him for my own interest, rather
than Sir J. Davis, who was recalled. Davis, says Yeh, insisted on
getting into the city, and Bonham gave up this demand. Hence his
advice to me. All through the letter is sheer twaddle.

[Sidenote: Advance on Canton.]

_December 22nd._--On the afternoon of the 20th, I got into a gunboat
with Commodore Elliot, and went a short way up towards the barrier
forts, which were last winter destroyed by the Americans. When we
reached this point, all was so quiet that we determined to go on, and
we actually steamed past the city of Canton, along the whole front,
within pistol-shot of the town. A line of English men-of-war are now
anchored there in front of the town. I never felt so ashamed of myself
in my life, and Elliot remarked that the trip seemed to have made me
sad. There we were, accumulating the means of destruction under the
very eyes, and within the reach, of a population of about 1,000,000
people, against whom these means of destruction were to be employed!
'Yes,' I said to Elliot, 'I am sad, because when I look at that town,
I feel that I am earning for myself a place in the Litany, immediately
after "plague, pestilence, and famine."' I believe however that, as
far as I am concerned, it was impossible for me to do otherwise than
as I have done. I could not have abandoned the demand to enter the
city after what happened last winter, without compromising our
position in China altogether, and opening the way to calamities even
greater than those now before us. I made my demands on Yeh as moderate
as I could, so as to give him a chance of accepting; although, if he
had accepted, I knew that I should have brought on my head the
imprecations both of the navy and army and of the civilians, the time
being given by the missionaries and the women. And now Yeh having
refused, I shall do whatever I can possibly do to secure the adoption
of plans of attack, &c., which will lead to the least destruction of
life and property.... The weather is charming; the thermometer about
60° in the shade in the morning; the sun powerful, and the atmosphere
beautifully clear. When we steamed up to Canton, and saw the rich
alluvial banks covered with the luxuriant evidences of unrivalled
industry and natural fertility combined; beyond them, barren uplands,
sprinkled with a soil of a reddish tint, which gave them the
appearance of heather slopes in the Highlands; and beyond these again,
the white cloud mountain range, standing out bold and blue in the
clear sunshine,--I thought bitterly of those who, for the most selfish
objects, are trampling under foot this ancient civilisation.

[Sidenote: Summons to Yeh.]

_December 24th_.--My letter telling Yeh that I had handed the affair
over to the naval and military commanders, and Gros's to the same
effect, were sent to him to-day; also a joint letter from the
commanders, giving him forty-eight hours to deliver over the city, at
the expiry of which time, if he does not do so, it will be attacked. I
postponed the delivery of these letters till to-day, that the expiry
of the forty-eight hours might not fall on Christmas Day. Now I hear
that the commanders will not be ready till Monday, which the Calendar
tells me is 'the Massacre of the Innocents!' If we can take the city
without much massacre, I shall think the job a good one, because no
doubt the relations of the Cantonese with the foreign population were
very unsatisfactory, and a settlement was sooner or later inevitable.
But nothing could be more contemptible than the origin of our existing
quarrel. We moved this evening to the Barrier Forts, within about two
miles of Canton, and very near the place where the troops are to land
for the attack on the city. I have been taking walks on shore the last
two or three days on a little island called Dane's Island, formed of
barren hills, with little patches of soil between them and on their
flanks, cultivated in terraces by the industrious Chinese. The people
seemed very poor and miserable, suffering, I fear, from this horrid
war. The French Admiral sent on shore to Whampoa some casks of damaged
biscuit the other day, and there was such a rush for it, that some
people were, I believe, drowned. The head man came afterwards to the
officer, expressed much gratitude for the gift, but said that if it
was repeated, he begged notice might be given to him, that he might
make arrangements to prevent such disorder. The ships are surrounded
by boats filled chiefly by women, who pick up orange-peel and offal,
and everything that is thrown overboard. One of the gunboats got
ashore yesterday, within a stone's-throw of the town of Canton, and
the officer had the coolness to call on a crowd of Chinese, who were
on the quays, to pull her off, which they at once did! Fancy having to
fight such people!

_Christmas Day_.--Who would have thought, when we were spending that
cold snowy Christmas Day last year at Howick, that _this_ day would
find us separated by almost as great a distance as is possible on the
surface of our globe! and that I should be anchored, as I now am,
within two miles of a great city, doomed, I fear, to destruction, from
the folly of its own rulers and the vanity and levity of ours. We have
moved a little farther up the river this morning, and as we are, like
St. Paul, dropping an anchor from the stern, I have had over my head
for several hours the incessant dancing about and clanking of a
ponderous chain-cable, till my brains are nearly all shaken out of
their place.

_December 26th._--I have a second letter from Yeh, which is even more
twaddling than the first. They say that he is all day engaged in
sacrificing to an idol, which represents the God of Physic, and which
is so constructed that a stick in its hand traces figures on sand. In
the figures so traced he is supposed to read his fate.

Early on Monday the 28th the attack began; and Lord Elgin was reluctantly compelled to witness what he had been reluctantly compelled to order--the bombardment of an unresisting town. Happily the damage both to life and property proved to be very much less serious than at the time he supposed it to be.

[Sidenote: Bombardment.]

_December 28th, Noon._--We have been throwing shells, etc., into
Canton since 6 A.M., without almost any reply from the town. I hate
the whole thing so much, that I cannot trust myself to write about it.

_December 29th._--The mail was put off, and I add a line to say that I
hope the Canton affair is over, and well over.... When I say this
affair is over, perhaps I say too much. But the horrid bombardment has
ceased, and we are in occupation of Magazine Hill, at the upper part
of the city, within the walls.

[Sidenote: Capture of the city.] [Sidenote: Looting.]

_H.M.S. 'Furious,' Canton River.--January 2nd, 1858._--The last week
has been a very eventful one: not one of unmixed satisfaction to me,
because of course there is a great deal that is painful about this
war, but on the whole the results have been successful. On Monday last
(the 28th) I was awakened at 6 A.M. by a cannon-shot, which was the
commencement of a bombardment of the city, which lasted for 27 hours.
As the fire of the shipping was either not returned at all, or
returned only by a very few shots, I confess that this proceeding gave
me great pain at the time. But I find that much less damage has been
done to the town than I expected, as the fire was confined to certain
spots. I am on the whole, therefore, disposed to think that the
measure proved to be a good one, as the terror which it has excited in
the minds of the Cantonese is more than in proportion to the injury
inflicted, and therefore it will have the effect, I trust, of
preventing any attempts on their part to dislodge or attack us, which
would entail very great calamities on themselves. At 10 A.M. on Monday
the troops landed at a point about two miles east of the city, and
marched up with very trifling resistance to Lin Fort, which they took,
the French entering first, to the great disgust of our people. Next
morning at 9 A.M., they advanced to the escalade of the city walls, and
proceeded, with again very slight opposition, to the Magazine Hill, on
which they hoisted the British and French flags. They then took Gough
fort with little trouble, and there they were by 3 P.M. established in
Canton. The poor stupid Chinese had placed some guns in position to
resist an attack from the opposite quarter--the quarter, viz. from
which Gough attacked the city; and some people suppose that if we had
advanced from that side we should have met with some resistance. My
own opinion is, that the resistance would have been no great matter in
any case, although, no doubt, if we had made the attempt in summer,
and with sailors only, as some proposed when I came here in July, we
should probably have met with disaster. As it is, my difficulty has
been to enforce the adoption of measures to keep our own people in
order, and to prevent the wretched Cantonese from being plundered and
bullied. This task is the more difficult from the very motley force
with which we have to work, composed, firstly, of French and English;
secondly, of sailors to a great extent--they being very imperfectly
manageable on shore; all, moreover, having, I fear, a very low
standard of morality in regard to stealing from the Chinese. There is
a word called 'loot,' which gives, unfortunately, a venial character
to what would, in common English, be styled robbery.... Add to this,
that there is no flogging in the French army, so that it is impossible
to punish men committing this class of offences.... On the other hand,
these incomprehensible Chinese, although they make no defence, do not
come forward to capitulate; and I am in mortal terror lest the French
Admiral, who is in the way of looking at these matters in a purely
professional light, should succeed in inducing our chiefs to engage
again in offensive operations, which would lead to an unnecessary
destruction of life and property. I proposed to Gros that we should
land on the first day of the year, and march up to Magazine Hill. He
consented, and the chiefs agreed, so we landed about 1 P.M. at a point
on the river bank immediately below the south-east angle of the city
wall, which is now our line of communication between the river and
Magazine Hill. As we landed, all the vessels in the river hoisted
English and French flags, and fired salutes. We walked up to the hill
along the top of the wall, which is a good wide road, and which was
all lined with troops and sailors, who presented arms and cheered as
we passed. We reached the summit at about three. The British quarter,
which is a sort of temple, stands on the highest point, the hill
falling pretty precipitously from it on all sides. The view is one of
the most extensive I ever saw. Towards the east and north barren hills
of considerable height, and much of the character of those we see from
Hong-kong. On the west, level lands cultivated in rice and otherwise.
Towards the south, the town lying still as a city of the dead. The
silence was quite painful, especially when we returned about
nightfall: but it is partly owing to the narrowness of the streets,
which prevents one from seeing the circulation of population which may
be going on within. We remained at the top of the hill till about
half-past five, during which time we blew up the Blue Jacket Fort and
Gough Fort, and got back to our ships about 8 P.M., having spent a
very memorable first of January, and made a very interesting
expedition; although I could not help feeling melancholy when I
thought that we were so ruthlessly destroying the prestige of a place
which had been, for so many centuries, intact and undefiled by the
stranger, and exercising our valour against so contemptible a foe.

_January 4th._--I have not given you as full a description as I ought
to have done of the views and ceremony of Friday, because I saw 'Our
own Correspondent' there, and I think I can count on that being well
done in the _Times_.... This day is a pour of rain, rather unusual for
the season.... Some of the Chinese authorities are beginning to show a
desire to treat, and some of the inhabitants are presenting petitions
to us to protect them against robbers, native and foreign.

[Sidenote: Capture of Yeh.]

_January 6th_.--Yesterday was a great day. The chiefs made a move
which was very judicious, I think, and which answered remarkably well.
They sent bodies of men at an early hour into the city from different
points, and succeeded in capturing Yeh, the Lieutenant-Governor of the
city, and the Tartar General, &c. This was done without a shot being
fired, and I believe the troops behaved very well, abstaining from
_loot_, &c. Altogether the thing was a complete success, and I give
them great credit for it. Yeh has been carried on board the
'Inflexible' steamer as a prisoner of war. He is an enormous man. I
can hardly speak to his appearance, as I only saw him for a moment as
he passed me in a chair on his way to his vessel. Morrison, who has
taken a sketch of him, speaks favourably of him; but it is the fashion
to abuse even his looks. The Lieutenant-General has been allowed to
depart, but the Lieutenant-Governor and Tartar General are still in
custody at head-quarters. At my suggestion a proposal was made to the
Lieutenant-Governor to-day to continue to govern the city under us;
but the stolidity of the Chinese is so great that there is no saying
what he may do. We have given him till to-morrow to determine whether
he will accept. My whole efforts have been directed to preserve the
Cantonese from the evils of a military occupation; but their stupid
apathetic arrogance makes it almost impossible to effect this object.
Yeh's tone when he was taken was to be rather bumptious. The Admiral
asked him about an old man of the name of Cooper, who was kidnapped.
At first he pretended that he knew nothing about him. When pressed he
said, 'Oh! he was a prisoner of war. I took him when I drove you away
from the city last winter. I took a great deal of trouble with him and
the other European prisoners, but I could not keep them alive. They
all died, and if you like I'll show you where I had them buried.'
Morrison says that when he saw him on board the 'Inflexible,' he was
very civil and _piano_. He takes it easy, eats and drinks well, &c. He
said to his captain, that if it was not an indiscreet question, he
would be glad to know whether it was likely that we should kill him.
The captain had no difficulty in re-assuring him on that point.

_January 8th_.--We had rather an important day's work yesterday. The
Lieutenant-Governor showed some symptoms of a willingness to govern on
our conditions. This gives some chance of our getting out of the
difficulties of our situation. You may imagine what it is to undertake
to govern some millions of people (the province contains upwards of
20,000,000), when we have _in all_ two or three people who understand
the language! I never had so difficult a matter to arrange.... Each
man has his own way of seeing things, and the real difficulties of the
question being enormous, and the mysteries of the Chinese character
almost unfathomable,... the problem is well nigh insoluble. However
yesterday we seemed to make some progress towards an understanding. We
walked up to the front along the wall as usual, and very hot it was;
but we returned through the town itself with the General and Admiral
and a large escort. I rode on a pony. It was a strange and sad sight.
The wretched-looking single-storied houses on either side of the
narrow streets almost all shut up, only a few people making their
appearance, and these for the most part wan and haggard, and here and
there places which the fire from our ships had destroyed, all
presented a very melancholy spectacle; and one could hardly help
asking one's self, with some disgust, whether it was worth while to
make all the row which we have been making, for the sake of getting
into this miserable place. However, I presume that the better part of
the population have either fled or hid themselves. I daresay if they
had returned, and the shops had been opened, the aspect of the town
would have been different.

[Sidenote: Establishment of a joint tribunal.]

_January 9th._--Yesterday I went up again to the front without Gros,
and pressed matters forward towards a solution. The result was, that
my plan of getting the Governor of the province to consent to return
to his Yamun and resume his functions, a board of our officers,
supported by a large body of troops, being appointed to inhabit his
Yamun with him, and to aid him in the maintenance of order,
prevailed.... To-day we went, Gros and I, in great procession to the
Governor's Yamun, to reinstate him in his office on the above
conditions. We were carried in chairs through the town, attended by a
large escort. The city seemed fuller of people than on the occasion of
my former visit, and they looked more cheerful.

_January 10th._--By a ludicrous mistake, no orders had been given to
release the Governor and Tartar General, so that, after waiting for
them for an hour, we heard that the sentry would not let them leave
the room in which they were confined. The consequence was that it was
getting late, and as I wished to get my escort out of the streets
before it was dark, we were obliged to hurry through the ceremony a
little. We began with a kind of squabble about seats; but after that
was over, I addressed the Governor in a pretty arrogant tone. I did so
out of kindness, as I now know what fools they are, and what
calamities they bring upon themselves, or rather on the wretched
people, by their pride and trickery. Gros followed, in a few words
endorsing what I had said. The Governor answered very satisfactorily.
I then rose, saying that we must depart, and that we wished him and
the Tartar General all sorts of felicity. They were good-natured-
looking men, the General being of great size. They conducted us to the
front door, where we ought to have found our chairs; but they had
disappeared, to the infinite wrath of Mr. Parkes.... I say the front
door; but in fact the house consisted of a series of one-storied
pavilions, placed one behind the other, and connected by a covered way
with trellis-work panels running through a sort of garden. We got at
last into the chairs, and hastened off to the city wall, which we
reached just as it was getting dark, having thus terminated about the
strangest day which has yet occurred in Chinese history,--the Governor
of this arrogant city of Canton accepting office at the hand of two
barbarian chiefs!

_Wednesday, January 13th._--You get the least agreeable picture of the
concerns in which I am engaged; because, as I write this record from
day to day, all my anxieties and their causes are narrated. On the
whole I think the last fortnight has been a very successful one. I
walked through the city to-day with the Admiral and an escort, and saw
evident signs of improvement in the streets. The people seemed to be
resuming their avocations, and the shops to be re-opening. My
'Tribunal' is working well. In short, I hope that the evils incident
to the capture of a city, and especially of a Chinese city, have been
in this instance very much mitigated. The season is very changing.
Three nights ago the thermometer did not fall below 72°, and last
night it fell to 40°. There is a cold wind; and it was necessary to
walk briskly to-day to keep one's-self warm.

[Sidenote: Exodus.]

_January 16th._--Though I was able to send off the last despatches
with something of a satisfactory report, we are by no means, I fear,
yet out of the wood. I took a long walk in the city of Canton
yesterday. I visited the West Gate, where I found a stream of people
moving outwards, and was told by the officer that this goes on from
morning to night. They say, when asked, that they are going out of
town to celebrate the New Year, but my belief is that they are flying
from us. The streets were full, and the people civil. Quantities of
eating stalls, but a large proportion of the shops still shut. As we
got near the wall in our own occupation, some people ran up to us
complaining that they had been robbed. We went into the houses and saw
clearly enough the signs of devastation. I have no doubt, from the
description, that the culprits were French sailors. If this goes on
one fortnight after we have captured the town, when is it to stop?...
It is very difficult to remedy.... Nothing could, I believe, be worse
than our own sailors, but they are now nearly all on board ship, and
we have the resource of the _Cat_.... All this is very sad, but I am
not yet quite at the end of my tether. If things do not mend within a
few days I shall startle my colleagues by proposing to abandon the
town altogether, giving reasons for it which will enable me to state
on paper all these points. No human power shall induce me to accept
the office of oppressor of the feeble.

[Sidenote: A sober population.] [Sidenote: Maintenance of order.]

_January 20th._--I hinted at my ideas as to the evacuation of the
city, and it has had an excellent effect.... There is a notable
progress towards quiet in the city. Still, I fear the tide of
emigration is going on. Parkes is exerting himself with considerable
effect, and he is really very clever. There were a great many more
shops open in the streets yesterday than I had seen before.... What a
thing it is to have to deal with a sober population! I have wandered
about the streets of Canton for some seven or eight days since the
capture, and I have not seen one drunken man. In any Christian town we
should have had numbers of rows by this time arising out of
drunkenness, however cowed the population might have been. The
Tribunal convicted a Chinaman the other day for selling 'samshoo' to
the soldiers. I requested Parkes to hand him over to the Governor
Pehkwei for punishment. This was done, and the arrangement answered
admirably. The Governor was pleased, he presented himself before the
Chinese as the executor of our judgments, and at the same time we, to
a certain extent, seemed to be conceding to the Chinese the principle
of exterritoriality which we assert as against them.... I have no
'responsible ministers' here, though the presence of a colleague, and,
since military operations began, the position of the naval and
military Commanders-in-Chief, have required me to act with some
caution, in order to make the wheels of the machine work smoothly and
keep on the rails. For this reason it was that I suggested a few days
ago the plan of evacuation. The maintenance of order in a city under
martial law was, I felt, an affair rather for the Commander-in-Chief
than for me, therefore I was in a false position when I meddled with
it directly. But the question of remaining in the city or not was a
political one. By letting it be known that I had there my lines of
Torres Vedras, upon which I should fall back if necessary, I obtained
the influence I required for insuring, as far as possible, the
adoption of satisfactory arrangements within the city. I must add that
this evacuation plan was not intended by me to be a mere threat. I
have it clearly matured in my mind as a thing feasible, and which
would be under certain circumstances an advisable plan to adopt. In
taking Canton we had, as I understand it, two objects in view: the one
to prove that we could take it; the other to have in our hands
something to give up when we come to terms with the Emperor,--'a
material guarantee.' I believe that the capture of the city, followed
by the capture of Yeh, has settled the former point. Indeed, from all
that I hear, I infer that the capture of Yeh has had more effect on
the Chinese mind than the capture of the city. I believe, therefore,
that we might abandon the city without losing much if anything on this
head. No doubt we should lose on the second head; we should not have
Canton to give up when a treaty was concluded, if we had given it up
already. Even then however we might, by retaining the island of Honan,
the forts, &c., do a good deal towards providing a substitute; so that
you see my threat was made _bonâ fide_. I certainly should have
preferred the loss to which I have referred, to the continuance of a
state of things in which the Allied troops were plundering the
inhabitants.

_January 24th._--Baron Gros and I were conversing together yesterday
on affairs in this quarter, and among other things he told me that we
were both much reproached for our laxity, and that I was more blamed
on that account than he. I said to him: 'I can praise you on many
accounts, my dear Baron, but I cannot compliment you on being a
greater brute than I am.'

Whatever was the feeling of the British residents, and whatever excuses may be made for it, the consistent humanity shown both in the taking and in the occupation of the city did not fail to strike Mr. Reed, the Plenipotentiary of the United States, who wrote to Lord Elgin: 'I cannot omit this opportunity of most sincerely congratulating you on the success at Canton, the great success of a bloodless victory, the merit of which, I am sure, is mainly due to your Lordship's gentle and discreet counsels. My countrymen will, I am sure, appreciate it.' 'This,' observes Lord Elgin, from the representative of the United States, is gratifying both personally and politically.'

_January 28th._--I am glad to say that this mail conveys, on the
whole, a satisfactory report of the progress of affairs, though this
letter puts you in possession of all the ebbs and flows which have
taken place during the fortnight. I send a leaf of geranium, which I
culled in the garden of the Tartar general.

[Sidenote: Canton prisons.]

_January 31st._--I visited yesterday two of the Canton prisons, and
witnessed there some sights of horror beyond what I could have
pictured to myself. Many of the inmates were so reduced by disease and
starvation, that their limbs were not as thick as my wrist. One man
who was in this condition was in the receptacle for untried prisoners,
and said he had been there seven years. In one of the courts which we
entered, there was a cell closed in by a double row of upright posts,
which is the common style of gate at Canton, and I was attracted to it
by the groans of its inmates. I desired it to be opened, and such a
spectacle as it presented! The prisoners were covered with sores,
produced by severe beatings; one was already dead, and the rats,--but
I cannot go further in description. The others could hardly crawl,
they were so emaciated, and my conviction is that they were shut in
there to die. The prison authorities stated that they had escaped at
the time of the bombardment for which they had been punished as we
saw. If the statement was true, they must have been systematically
starved since their recapture. Our pretext for visiting the prisons
was to discover whether any Europeans, or persons who had been in the
service of, or had had relations with Europeans, were confined in
them. We took out some who professed to belong to the latter classes.
I went a step further, by taking out a poor boy of fifteen, whom we
found in chains, but so weak that when we took them off he was unable
to stand. I told Mr. Parkes to take him to Pehkwei from me, as a
sample of the manner in which his prisons are managed.

_February 2nd._--Pehkwei was very indignant at our visit to his
prisons, and hinted that he would make away with himself, in a letter
which he wrote to me on the subject. However, he was obliged to admit
that some of the things we found were very bad, and quite against the
Chinese law. On reviewing the whole I must admit, that, except in the
case of the one cell that I have described, it was rather neglect,
want of food, medical care, cleanliness, &c., than positive cruelty,
of which one found evidence in the prisons.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Move northwards.]

Canton the impregnable had been taken, and was in the military occupation of the allied forces; Yeh, the Terror of Barbarians, was a captive beyond the seas; so completely was all resistance crushed, that it was found possible to raise the blockade of the Canton River, and to let trade return to its usual channels. Still nothing was achieved so long as the Emperor remained aloof, and could represent the affair as a local disturbance not affecting the imperial power. To any permanent settlement it was essential that he should be a party; the next step, therefore, was to move northwards to Shanghae, and there open direct negotiations with the Court of Pekin; and, for the success of these negotiations, it was obviously of great importance that the envoys of England and France should have the co- operation of the representatives of Russia and the United States.

_February 4th._--Still no letters. To-morrow, Frederick is to go to
Macao, to take to Messrs. Reed and Putiatine copies of all my
diplomatic correspondence with Yeh, &c., and an invitation to each
that he will join us in an attempt to settle matters by negotiation at
Shanghae. It is the commencement of the third act in this Chinese
affair.

_February 6th._--I have a letter from Mr. Reed, saying that he is
going to the North this day, so that perhaps Frederick will not find
him. This would be a great disappointment.

_Sunday, February 7th._--A month without news is very long to wait.
Perhaps time passes a little more quickly than when one was dawdling
and doing nothing at Hong-Kong; but still this life is tiresome
enough. I do not suppose that there ever was a town of the same
extent, or a population of the same number, more utterly uninteresting
than the town and population of Canton--low houses, narrow streets,
temples containing some hideous idols, which are not apparently in the
least venerated by their own worshippers. The only other resource is
the curiosity shops, and, as you know, I have not the genius for
making collections.

_February 9th._--Things have taken a better turn. F. by steaming at
night from Macao to Hong-Kong caught Reed about an hour before that
fixed for his departure for the North. He was delighted with my
communication, and has written undertaking to co-operate cordially
with us. This is, I think, a very great diplomatic triumph, because it
not only smooths the way for future proceedings, but it greatly
relieves our anxiety about Canton, as the Americans are the only
people who would be likely to give us trouble during the military
occupation.

_February 10th._--We have got Putiatine's letter for Pekin. It is very
good; perhaps better than any of the lot.... However, the _entente_ is
now established. My mind, too, is a good deal relieved to-day by
seeing the wretched junks, which have been shut up so long by the
blockade, with their sails set, gliding down the river. I sent Mr.
Wade to visit Yeh yesterday, to see how he took the notion of being
sent out of the country to Calcutta or elsewhere. He adhered to his
policy of indifference, real or affected, I cannot tell which. I
suppose it is a point of pride with him never to complain.

[Sidenote: Adieu to Canton.]

_H.M.S. 'Furious.'--February 20th._--I am now off from Canton, never I
hope to see it again. Two months I have been there--engaged in this
painful service--checking, as I have best been able to do, the
disposition to maltreat this unfortunate people.... On the whole I
think I have been successful. There never was a Chinese town which
suffered so little by the occupation of a hostile force; and
considering the difficulties which our alliance with the French
(though I have had all support from Gros, in so far as he can give it)
has occasioned, it is a very signal success. The good people at Hong-
Kong, &c., do not know whether to be incredulous or disgusted at this
policy.... I am told a parcel of ridiculous stories about arming of
Braves, &c. I heard that in the western suburb the people 'looked ill-
natured,' so I have been the greater part of my two last days in that
suburb, looking in vain into faces to discover these menacing
indications. Yesterday I walked through very out-of-the-way streets
and crowded thoroughfares with Wade and two sailors, through thousands
and thousands, without a symptom of disrespect.... I know that our
people for a long time used to insist on every Chinaman they met
taking his hat off. Of course it rather astonished a respectable
Chinese shopkeeper to be poked in the ribs by a sturdy sailor or
soldier, and told, in bad Chinese or in pantomime, to take off his
hat, which is a thing they never do, and which is not with them even a
mark of respect. I only mention this as an instance of the follies
which people commit when they know nothing of the manners of those
with whom they have to deal.... We are steaming down to Hong-Kong on a
beautiful fresh morning. I feel as if I was a step on my way home.

At Hong-Kong he remained nearly a fortnight, that his ship might be fitted to go to the North: his letter for Pekin being sent on, in the meantime, to Shanghae, by the hands of his secretary, Mr. Oliphant.[1]

_February 26th._--To-morrow this letter goes, and still no mail from
England. I think of starting in a few days, and calling at the other
ports--Foochow, Amoy, and Ningpo. I have a line from Oliphant, who
took up my letter to Shanghae, and made a quick though rough passage.
We shall be a good deal longer on the way, and my captain advises me
to be off, to anticipate the equinox. I have just written a despatch
to Lord Clarendon, to tell him that perhaps I may go direct from
Shanghae to Japan, and so home. It is almost too good a prospect to be
realised.

[Sidenote: Home news.]

_February 27th_.--I had Reed to dine with me yesterday. He is off this
morning to Manila, _en route_ for Shanghae. The Russian returns on
Monday, and we are going to Shanghae by the same route most
fraternally.... Your accounts of the boys make me feel as if I had
been an age away from home. God grant that I may get through this
business soon, and return to find you all flourishing!

_March 1st_.--I received your letters yesterday.... How I wish that I
had joined that merry dance on Christmas Day at Dunmore, and seen B.
and R. performing their reel steps, and F.[2] snapping his fingers!
You knew now how differently my New Year was passed--traversing that
vast city of the dead--meditating over that 28th December which Herod
had already hallowed.... These letters are my conscience and memory,
the only record I keep of passing emotions and events.... Depend upon
it the true doctrine is one I have before propounded to you: Do
nothing with which your own conscience can reproach you; _nothing_ in
its largest sense; _nothing_, including _omission_ as well as
_commission_; not nothing only in the meaning of having done no ill,
but nothing also in the meaning of having omitted no opportunity of
doing good. You are then _well with yourself_. If it is worth while to
be well _with others_--SUCCEED.

[Sidenote: Swatow.]

_H.M.S. 'Furious,' Swatow.--March 5th_.--I am again on the wide
ocean, though for the moment at anchor.... The settlement here is
against treaty. It consists mainly of agents of the two great opium-
houses, Dent and Jardine, with their hangers-on. This, with a
considerable business in the coolie trade--which consists in
kidnapping wretched coolies, putting them on board ships where all the
horrors of the slave-trade are reproduced, and sending them on
specious promises to such places as Cuba--is the chief business of the
'foreign' merchants at Swatow. Swatow itself is a small town some
miles up the river. I can only distinguish it by the great fleet of
junks lying off it. The place where the foreigners live is a little
island, barren, but nicely situated at the mouth of the river. A
number of Chinese are resorting to it, and putting up rather good
houses for Chinese. The population has a better appearance than the
Cantonese. The men powerful and frank-looking, and some of the women
not quite hideous. Our people get on very well with the natives here.
They have no consuls or special protection; so they act, I presume,
with moderation, and matters go on quite smoothly. I went into the
house of one of the 'Shroffs' (bankers or money-dealers) connected
with Jardine's house, and I found the gentleman indulging in his
opium-pipe. He gave us some delicious tea.... The Shroffs here are
three brothers. They came from Canton, their father remained behind.
The mandarins wanting money to carry on the war with us, called upon
him to pay 12,000 taels about 4,000_l_. They used him as the screw to
get this sum from his sons who were in foreign employ. Though the old
man had resolved to leave his home and his patch of ground rather than
pay, his sons provided the money and sent him back. Such cases are
constantly occurring here, and they show bow strong the family
affections are in China.

[Sidenote: Rough justice.]

Another case was mentioned to me yesterday, which illustrates the very
roundabout way in which justice is arrived at among us all here. The
coolies in a French coolie ship rose. The master and mate jumped
overboard, and the coolies ran the ship on shore, where the crew had
their clothes, &c., taken from them, but were otherwise well treated.
On this a French man-of-war comes, proceeds to Swatow, which is fifty
miles from the scene of the occurrence, and informs the people that
they will bombard the place immediately unless 6,000 dollars are paid.
They got the money, but the mandarins at once squeezed it out of these
same Shroffs, saying, that as they brought the barbarians to the spot,
they must pay for the damages they inflicted. Meanwhile, the
'foreigners' have it, I apprehend, much their own way. They are
masters of the situation, pay no duties except tonnage dues, which are
paid by them at about one-third of the amount paid by native vessels
of the same burthen!

[Sidenote: Mr. Burns.]

Hearing that Mr. Burns, a missionary, whose case is narrated in the
series of 'insults by the Chinese authorities' submitted to Parliament
(he having been in fact very kindly treated, as he himself
acknowledges), was at the island, I invited him to breakfast. I found
him a very interesting person, really an enthusiastic missionary, and
kindly in his feelings towards the Chinese. He wears the Chinese
attire, not as a disguise, but to prevent crowds being attracted by
his appearance. He does not boast of much success in converting, but
the Chinese are very willing to listen to him and to take books. They
approve of all books that inculcate virtue, morality, &c., but they
have no taste for the distinctive doctrines of Christianity. As Yeh
said, when a Bible was presented to him from the Bishop:--'I know that
book quite well, a very good book. It teaches men to be virtuous, like
the Buddhistic books;' and then turning very politely to his captain,
'Will you be good enough to take care of this book till I want it.'

The country in this neighbourhood is very lawless. Burns, a few days
before he was arrested, slept with his two companions, two native
Christians, in a large village. During the night the house he was in
was broken into, and all they had stolen. Nothing remained but a few
of their books, which they carried tied to sticks over their
shoulders. A peasant came up to him and said, 'I see you are not
accustomed to carry loads,' and took his burden and carried it for him
six miles, asking for nothing in return. Other natives bought the
books (they had previously given them gratuitously), and thus they got
money enough to go on with. When they got into this principal town,
and were arrested by the police, the authorities seemed rather to
regret it. They underwent some interrogatories which Burns seems to
have turned into a sort of sermon, for he went at length into
Christian teaching, and the judges listened most complacently. They
confined them in prison, but did everything they could to make Burns
himself comfortable. His companions were not so well treated. He
joined them at one time at his own request, under circumstances
curiously illustrative of Chinese manners. A subordinate of the gaoler
with whom he was lodged died from swallowing opium. The gaoler was at
once held responsible, and his house was mobbed. On which Mr. Burns,
not knowing the cause of the disturbance, asked to rejoin his
companions. He found them shut up in a very loathsome cell, with
several other prisoners; a place something like my Canton prisons; but
he said they did very well while there, for they were able to preach
to the other prisoners. At one of the interrogatories, one of his
companions, the more zealous of the two, on being asked why he had
brought a foreigner to the place, answered that it was because he was
a Christian, and that their books said, 'It is better to die with the
wise than to live with fools.' This sentiment was not considered
complimentary by the mandarins, who immediately ordered him to be
beaten, upon which he got ten blows on each side of his face with an
instrument like the sole of a shoe. Mr. B. told this story, but added
that he believed the beating had been determined on before, for his
other companion, who was the more worldly of the two, and who had
probably found his way to the heart of the gaoler, was told that he
too would be beaten that day, but that the blows would be laid on by a
friendly hand, and that if he kept his cheek loose, he would not feel
them much.

[Sidenote: Amoy.]

_March 8th._--We are entering Foochow; a most beautiful day; the sea
smooth as glass. We left Amoy last night. I went to church in the
forenoon at the Consulate. An American missionary preached. There are
several missionaries at Amoy. They have, as they say, about 300
converts. The foreigners and natives get on very well there. The town
is a poor enough place, and the island seems rocky and barren. How it
can sustain the great population which inhabits the villages that
cover it is a mystery.

_March 14th._--A vessel from Shanghae brought me this morning a letter
from Oliphant, which shows that he has got well through the business
which I entrusted to him.[3] He went with my letter for the Prime
Minister of the Emperor to a city named Soochow, which is not open to
foreigners, and which is moreover the seat of beauty and fashion in
the empire, and he seems to have been well received. This is a good
sign. An edict has moreover been issued by the Emperor degrading Yeh,
and moderate in its tone as regards foreigners. All this looks as if
there would be at Pekin a disposition to settle matters. God grant
that it may be so, that I may get home, and not be required to do
farther violence to these poor people.

[Sidenote: Foochow.]

The scenery of Foochow and its neighbourhood struck him as singularly beautiful. Even in an official despatch we find him writing of it as follows:--

With the exception perhaps of Chusan, I have as yet seen no place in
China which, in point of beauty of scenery, rivals Foochow. The Min
river passes to the sea between two mountain ranges, which, wherever
the torrents have not washed away every particle of earth from the
surface, are cultivated by the industrious Chinese in terraces to
their very summits. These mountain ranges close in upon its banks
during the last part of its course: at one time confining it to a
comparatively narrow channel, and at another suffering it to expand
into a lake; but in the vicinity of the Pagoda Island they separate,
leaving between them the plain on which Foochow stands. This plain is
diversified by hill and dale, and comprises the Island of Nantai,
which is the site of the foreign settlement. At the season of my
visit, both hills and plain were chiefly covered with wheat; but I was
informed that the soil is induced, by irrigation and manure applied
liberally, to yield in many cases, besides the wheat crop, two rice
crops during the year. We walked with perfect freedom, both about the
town and into the surrounding country. Nothing could be more courteous
than the people of the villages, or more quaint than the landscape,
consisting mainly of hillocks dotted with horseshoe graves, and
monuments to the honour of virtuous maidens and faithful widows,
surrounded by patches of wheat and vegetables. Kensal Green or Père la
Chaise, cultivated as kitchen gardens, would not inaptly represent the
general character of the rural districts of China which I have
visited.

In some respects, however, the impression was not so satisfactory. In his journal he says:--

The people whom we met in our peregrinations were perfectly civil. The
Consul, too, and Europeans were civil likewise. They were willing to
give me information. I do not know that I carried much away with me,
except the general impression, that our trade is carried on on
principles which are dishonest as regards the Chinese, and
demoralising to our own people.

[Sidenote: American missionaries.]

At Foochow, I saw one of the American missionaries, a very worthy man
I should think, but not of the stamp of Mr. Burns. He had been about
eight years at Foochow, and he computed the converts made by himself
and his brother missionaries at fifteen. He said that they were
particular as to the conduct of their converts; but I cannot affirm
that he satisfied me that they accepted in any very earnest way the
peculiar doctrines of Christianity. However, I daresay that these
missionaries do good, for the Chinese are not fanatics, and it must do
them a benefit to see among them some foreigners who are not engaged
exclusively in money-making.

[Sidenote: Chinhae.]