A Voyage Round the World

"June 13. The wind having blown fresh easterly for the forty-eight hours past, gives us great expectations of seeing the galeons soon."

"June 15. Cruising on and off, and looking out strictly."

"June 19. This being the last day of June, N.S., the galeons, if they arrive at all, must appear soon."

From these samples it is sufficiently evident how compleatly the treasure of the galeons had engrossed their imagination, and how anxiously they passed the latter part of their cruise, when the certainty of the arrival of those vessels was dwindled down to probability only, and that probability became each hour more and more doubtful. However, on the 20th of June, O.S., being just a month after their gaining their station, they were relieved out of this state of uncertainty, for at sunrise they discovered a sail from the mast-head, in the S.E. quarter. On this, a general joy spread through the whole ship, for they had no doubt but this was one of the galeons, and they expected soon to descry the other. The commodore instantly stood towards her, and at half an hour after seven they were near enough to see her from the Centurion's deck, at which time the galeon fired a gun, and took in her top-gallant sails. This was supposed to be a signal to her consort to hasten her up, and therefore the Centurion fired a gun to leeward to amuse her. The commodore was surprized to find that during all this interval the galeon did not change her course, but continued to bear down upon him; for he hardly believed, what afterwards appeared to be the case, that she knew his ship to be the Centurion, and resolved to fight him.

About noon the commodore was little more than a league distant from the galeon, and could fetch her wake, so that she could not now escape; and, no second ship appearing, it was concluded that she had been separated from her consort. Soon after, the galeon haled up her fore-sail and brought to under top-sails, with her head to the northward, hoisting Spanish colours, and having the standard of Spain flying at the top-gallant mast-head. Mr. Anson in the meantime had prepared all things for an engagement on board the Centurion, and had taken every possible measure, both for the most effectual exertion of his small strength, and for the avoiding the confusion and tumult too frequent in actions of this kind. He picked out about thirty of his choicest hands and best marksmen, whom he distributed into his tops, and who fully answered his expectation by the signal services they performed. As he had not hands enough remaining to quarter a sufficient number to each great gun in the customary manner, he therefore, on his lower tire, fixed only two men to each gun, who were to be solely employed in loading it, whilst the rest of his people were divided into different gangs of ten or twelve men each, who were continually moving about the decks to run out and fire such guns as were loaded. By this management he was enabled to make use of all his guns, and instead of whole broadsides, with intervals between them, he kept up a constant fire without intermission, whence he doubted not to procure very signal advantages. For it is common with the Spaniards to fall down upon the decks when they see a broadside preparing, and to continue in that posture till it is given, after which they rise again, and, presuming the danger to be for some time over, work their guns, and fire with great briskness, till another broadside is ready. But the firing gun by gun, in the manner directed by the commodore, rendered this practice of theirs impossible.

The Centurion being thus prepared, and nearing the galeon apace, there happened, a little after noon, several squalls of wind and rain, which often obscured the galeon from their sight; but whenever it cleared up they observed her resolutely lying to. Towards one o'clock, the Centurion hoisted her broad pendant and colours, she being then within gun-shot of the enemy, and the commodore perceiving the Spaniards to have neglected clearing their ship till that time, as he saw them throwing overboard cattle and lumber, he gave orders to fire upon them with the chace guns, to disturb them in their work, and prevent them from compleating it, though his general directions had been not to engage before they were within pistol-shot. The galeon returned the fire with two of her stern chace; and the Centurion getting her sprit-sail yard fore and aft, that, if necessary, she might be ready for boarding, the Spaniards, in a bravado, rigged their sprit-sail yard fore and aft likewise. Soon after, the Centurion came abreast of the enemy within pistol-shot, keeping to the leeward of them, with a view of preventing their putting before the wind and gaining the port of Jalapay, from which they were about seven leagues distant. And now the engagement began in earnest, and for the first half-hour Mr. Anson over-reached the galeon and lay on her bow, where, by the great wideness of his ports, he could traverse almost all his guns upon the enemy, whilst the galeon could only bring a part of hers to bear. Immediately on the commencement of the action, the mats with which the galeon had stuffed her netting took fire and burnt violently, blazing up half as high as the mizen-top. This accident, supposed to be caused by the Centurion's wads, threw the enemy into the utmost terror, and also alarmed the commodore, for he feared lest the galeon should be burnt, and lest he himself too might suffer by her driving on board him. However, the Spaniards at last freed themselves from the fire, by cutting away the netting and tumbling the whole mass, which was in flames, into the sea. All this interval the Centurion kept her first advantageous position, firing her cannon with great regularity and briskness, whilst at the same time the galeon's decks lay open to her top-men, who having at their first volley driven the Spaniards from their tops, made prodigious havock with their small arms, killing or wounding every officer but one that appeared on the quarter-deck, and wounding in particular the general of the galeon himself. Thus the action proceeded for at least half an hour; but then the Centurion lost the superiority arising from her original situation, and was close alongside the galeon, and the enemy continued to fire briskly for near an hour longer; yet even in this posture the commodore's grape-shot swept their decks so effectually, and the number of their slain and wounded became so considerable, that they began to fall into great disorder, especially as the general, who was the life of the action, was no longer capable of exerting himself. Their confusion was visible from on board the commodore, for the ships were so near that some of the Spanish officers were seen running about with much assiduity, to prevent the desertion of their men from their quarters. But all their endeavours were in vain, for after having, as a last effort, fired five or six guns with more judgment than usual, they yielded up the contest, and, the galeon's colours being singed off the ensign staff in the beginning of the engagement, she struck the standard at her main top-gallant mast-head; the person who was employed to perform this office having been in imminent peril of being killed, had not the commodore, who perceived what he was about, given express orders to his people to desist from firing.

Thus was the Centurion possessed of this rich prize, amounting in value to near a million and a half of dollars. She was called the Nostra Signora de Cabadonga, and was commanded by General Don Jeronimo de Mentero, a Portuguese, who was the most approved officer for skill and courage of any employed in that service. The galeon was much larger than the Centurion, and had five hundred and fifty men, and thirty-six guns mounted for action, besides twenty-eight pedreroes in her gunwale, quarters, and tops, each of which carried a four-pound ball. She was very well furnished with small arms, and was particularly provided against boarding, both by her close quarters, and by a strong network of two-inch rope which was laced over her waist, and was defended by half-pikes. She had sixty-seven killed in the action, and eighty-four wounded, whilst the Centurion had only two killed, and a lieutenant and sixteen wounded, all of whom but one recovered: of so little consequence are the most destructive arms in untutored and unpractised hands.

The treasure thus taken by the Centurion having been, for at least eighteen months, the great object of their hopes, it is impossible to describe the transport on board when, after all their reiterated disappointments, they at last saw their wishes accomplished. But their joy was near being suddenly damped by a most tremendous incident, for no sooner had the galeon struck, than one of the lieutenants coming to Mr. Anson to congratulate him on his prize, whispered him at the same time that the Centurion was dangerously on fire near the powder-room. The commodore received this dreadful news without any apparent emotion, and taking care not to alarm his people, gave the necessary orders for extinguishing the fire, which was happily done in a short time, though its appearance at first was extremely terrible. It seems some cartridges had been blown up by accident between decks, and the blast had communicated its flame to a quantity of oakum in the after hatchway, near the after powder-room, where the great smother and smoke of the oakum occasioned the apprehension of a more extended and mischievous conflagration. All hopes too of avoiding its fury by escaping on board the prize had instantly vanished, for at the same moment the galeon fell on board the Centurion on the starboard quarter, though she was fortunately cleared without doing or receiving any considerable damage.

The commodore appointed the Manila vessel to be a post ship in his Majesty's service, and gave the command of her to Mr. Saumarez, his first lieutenant, who before night sent on board the Centurion all the Spanish prisoners, except such as were thought the most proper to be retained to assist in navigating the galeon. And now the commodore learnt from some of these prisoners that the other ship, which he had kept in the port of Acapulco the preceding year, instead of returning in company with the present prize, as was expected, had set sail from Acapulco alone much sooner than usual, and had, in all probability, got into the port of Manila long before the Centurion arrived off Cape Espiritu Santo, so that Mr. Anson, notwithstanding his present success, had great reason to regret his loss of time at Macao, which prevented him from taking two rich prizes instead of one.

The commodore, when the action was ended, resolved to make the best of his way with his prize for the river of Canton, being the meantime fully employed in securing his prisoners, and in removing the treasure from on board the galeon into the Centurion. The last of these operations was too important to be postponed, for as the navigation to Canton was thro' seas but little known, and where, from the season of the year, very tempestuous weather might be expected, it was of great consequence that the treasure should be sent on board the Centurion, which ship, by the presence of the commander-in-chief, the larger number of her hands, and her other advantages, was doubtless better provided against all the casualties of winds and seas than the galeon. And the securing the prisoners was a matter of still more consequence, as not only the possession of the treasure but the lives of the captors depended thereon. This was indeed an article which gave the commodore much trouble and disquietude, for they were above double the number of his own people, and some of them, when they were brought on board the Centurion, and had observed how slenderly she was manned, and the large proportion which the striplings bore to the rest, could not help expressing themselves with great indignation to be thus beaten by a handful of boys. The method which was taken to hinder them from rising was by placing all but the officers and the wounded in the hold, where, to give them as much air as possible, two hatchways were left open; but then (to avoid any danger that might happen whilst the Centurion's people should be employed upon deck) there was a square partition of thick planks, made in the shape of a funnel, which enclosed each hatchway on the lower deck, and reached to that directly over it on the upper deck. These funnels served to communicate the air to the hold better than could have been done without them, and, at the same time, added greatly to the security of the ship, for they being seven or eight feet high, it would have been extremely difficult for the Spaniards to have clambered up; and still to augment that difficulty, four swivel guns, loaded with musquet-bullets, were planted at the mouth of each funnel, and a centinel with a lighted match was posted there ready to fire into the hold amongst them, in case of any disturbance. Their officers, who amounted to seventeen or eighteen, were all lodged in the first lieutenant's cabin, under a guard of six men; and the general, as he was wounded, lay in the commodore's cabin with a centinel always with him; every prisoner, too, was sufficiently apprised that any violence or disturbance would be punished with instant death. And, that the Centurion's people might be at all times prepared, if, notwithstanding these regulations, any tumult should arise, the small arms were constantly kept loaded in a proper place, whilst all the men went armed with cutlasses and pistols; and no officer ever pulled off his cloaths when he slept, or, when he lay down, omitted to have his arms always ready by him.

These measures were obviously necessary, considering the hazards to which the commodore and his people would have been exposed had they been less careful. Indeed, the sufferings of the poor prisoners, though impossible to be alleviated, were much to be commiserated; for the weather was extremely hot, the stench of the hold loathsome beyond all conception, and their allowance of water but just sufficient to keep them alive, it not being practicable to spare them more than at the rate of a pint a day for each, the crew themselves having only an allowance of a pint and a half. All this considered, it was wonderful that not a man of them died during their long confinement, except three of the wounded, who expired the same night they were taken, though it must be confessed that the greatest part of them were strangely metamorphosed by the heat of the hold; for when they were first brought on board, they were sightly robust fellows, but when, after above a month's imprisonment, they were discharged in the river Canton, they were reduced to mere skeletons, and their air and looks corresponded much more to the conception formed of ghosts and spectres than to the figure and appearance of real men.

Thus employed in securing the treasure and the prisoners, the commodore, as hath been said, stood for the river of Canton, and on the 30th of June, at six in the evening, got sight of Cape Delangano, which then bore west ten leagues distant. The next day he made the Bashee Islands, and the wind being so far to the northward that it was difficult to weather them, it was resolved to stand through between Grafton and Monmouth Islands, where the passage seemed to be clear, though in getting thro' the sea had a very dangerous aspect, for it ripled and foamed with all the appearances of being full of breakers, which was still more terrible as it was then night. But the ships got thro' very safe, the prize keeping ahead; and it was found that the agitation of the sea which had alarmed them, had been occasioned only by a strong tide. I must here observe that tho' the Bashee Islands are usually reckoned to be no more than five, yet there are many more lying about them to the westward, which, seeing the channels amongst them are not at all known, makes it adviseable for ships rather to pass to the northward or southward than thro' them; as indeed the commodore proposed to have gone to the northward between them and Formosa, had it been possible for him to have weathered them. From hence the Centurion steering the proper course for the river of Canton, she, on the 8th of July, discovered the island of Supata, the wester-most of the Lema Islands, being the double-peaked rock in the islands of Lema, formerly referred to. This island of Supata they made to be a hundred and thirty-nine leagues distant from Grafton's Island, and to bear from it north 82° 37' west. And on the 11th, having taken on board two Chinese pilots, one for the Centurion, and the other for the prize, they came to an anchor off the city of Macao.

By this time the particulars of the cargoe of the galeon were well ascertained, and it was found that she had on board 1,313,843 pieces of eight, and 35,682 oz. of virgin silver, besides some cochineal and a few other commodities, which, however, were but of small account in comparison of the specie. And this being the commodore's last prize, it hence appears that all the treasure taken by the Centurion was not much short of £400,000 independent of the ships and merchandize, which she either burnt or destroyed, and which, by the most reasonable estimation, could not amount to so little as £600,000 more: so that the whole damage done the enemy by our squadron did doubtless exceed a million sterling. To which, if there be added the great expence of the court of Spain, in fitting out Pizarro, and in paying the additional charges in America, incurred on our account, together with the loss of their men-of-war, the total of all these articles will be a most exorbitant sum, and is the strongest conviction of the utility of this expedition, which, with all its numerous disadvantages, did yet prove so extremely prejudicial to the enemy. I shall only add that there was taken on board the galeon several draughts and journals, from some of which many of the particulars recited in the tenth chapter of the second book are collected. Among the rest there was found a chart of all the ocean between the Philippines and the coast of Mexico, which was what was made use of by the galeon in her own navigation. With this digression I shall end this chapter, and leave the Centurion and her prize at anchor off Macao, preparing to enter the river of Canton.

CHAPTER IX

TRANSACTIONS IN THE RIVER OF CANTON

The commodore having taken pilots on board, proceeded with his prize for the river of Canton, and on the 14th of July cast anchor short of the Bocca Tigris, which is a narrow passage forming the mouth of that river. This entrance he proposed to stand through the next day, and to run up as far as Tiger Island, which is a very safe road, secured from all winds. But whilst the Centurion and her prize were thus at anchor, a boat with an officer was sent off from the mandarine commanding the forts at Bocca Tigris to examine what the ships were and whence they came. Mr. Anson informed the officer that his own ship was a man-of-war belonging to the King of Great Britain, and that the other in company with him was a prize he had taken, that he was going into Canton river to shelter himself against the hurricanes which were then approaching, and that as soon as the monsoon shifted he should set sail for England. The officer then desired an account of what men, guns, and ammunition were on board, a list of all which he said was to be sent to the government of Canton. But when these articles were repeated to him, particularly upon his being told that there were in the Centurion four hundred firelocks, and between three and four hundred barrels of powder, he shrugged up his shoulders and seemed to be terrified with the bare recital, saying that no ships ever came into Canton river armed in that manner; adding that he durst not set down the whole of this force, lest it should too much alarm the regency. After he had finished his enquiries, and was preparing to depart, he desired to leave two custom-house officers behind him, on which the commodore told him that though as a man-of-war he was prohibited from trading, and had nothing to do with customs or duties of any kind, yet for the satisfaction of the Chinese, he would permit two of their people to be left on board, who might themselves be witnesses how punctually he should comply with his instructions. The officer seemed amazed when Mr. Anson mentioned being exempted from all duties, and answered that the emperor's duty must be paid by every ship that came into his ports: and it is supposed that on this occasion private directions were given by him to the Chinese pilot not to carry the commodore through the Bocca Tigris, which makes it necessary more particularly to describe that entrance.

The Bocca Tigris is a narrow passage, little more than musquet-shot over, formed by two points of land, on each of which there is a fort, that on the starboard side being a battery on the water's edge, with eighteen embrasures, but where there were no more than twelve iron cannon mounted, seeming to be four or six-pounders; the fort on the larboard side is a large castle, resembling those old buildings which here in England we often find distinguished by that name; it is situated on a high rock, and did not appear to be furnished with more than eight or ten cannon, none of which were supposed to exceed six-pounders. These are the defences which secure the river of Canton, and which the Chinese (extremely defective in all military skill) have imagined were sufficient to prevent an enemy from forcing his way through.

But it is obvious from the description of these forts that they could have given no obstruction to Mr. Anson's passage, even if they had been well supplied with gunners and stores; and therefore, though the pilot, after the Chinese officer had been on board, refused at first to take charge of the ship till he had leave from the forts, yet as it was necessary to get through without any delay, for fear of the bad weather which was hourly expected, the commodore weighed on the 15th, and ordered the pilot to carry him by the forts, threatening him that if the ship ran aground he would instantly hang him up at the yard-arm. The pilot, awed by these threats, carried the ship through safely, the forts not attempting to dispute the passage. Indeed the poor pilot did not escape the resentment of his countrymen, for when he came on shore he was seized and sent to prison, and was rigorously disciplined with the bamboo. However, he found means to get at Mr. Anson afterwards, to desire of him some recompence for the chastisement he had undergone, and of which he then carried very significant marks about him; Mr. Anson, therefore, in commiseration of his sufferings, gave him such a sum of money as would at any time have enticed a Chinese to have undergone a dozen bastinadings.

Nor was the pilot the only person that suffered on this occasion; for the commodore soon after seeing some royal junks pass by him from Bocca Tigris towards Canton, he learnt, on enquiry, that the mandarine commanding the forts was a prisoner on board them; that he was already turned out, and was now carrying to Canton, where it was expected he would be severely punished for having permitted the ships to pass. Upon the commodore's urging the unreasonableness of this procedure, from the inability of the forts to have done otherwise, and explaining to the Chinese the great superiority his ships would have had over the forts, by the number and size of their guns, the Chinese seemed to acquiesce in his reasoning, and allowed that their forts could not have stopped him; but they still asserted that the mandarine would infallibly suffer for not having done what all his judges were convinced was impossible. To such indefensible absurdities are those obliged to submit who think themselves concerned to support their authority when the necessary force is wanting. But to return.

On the 16th of July the commodore sent his second lieutenant to Canton with a letter for the viceroy, informing him of the reason of the Centurion's putting into that port, and that the commodore himself soon proposed to repair to Canton to pay a visit to his excellency. The lieutenant was very civilly received, and was promised that an answer should be sent to the commodore the next day. In the meantime Mr. Anson gave leave to several of the officers of the galeon to go to Canton, they engaging their parole to return in two days. When these prisoners got to Canton, the regency sent for them and examined them, enquiring particularly by what means they came into Mr. Anson's power. It luckily happened that on this occasion the prisoners were honest enough to declare that as the kings of Great Britain and of Spain were at war they had proposed to themselves the taking of the Centurion, and had bore down upon her with that view, but that the event had been contrary to their hopes. And being questioned as to their usage on board, they frankly acknowledged that they had been treated by the commodore much better than they believed they should have treated him, had he fallen into their hands. This confession from an enemy had great weight with the Chinese, who till then, tho' they had revered the commodore's military force, had yet suspected his morals, and had considered him rather as a lawless free-booter than as one commissioned by the state for the revenge of public injuries. But they now changed their opinions, and regarded him as a more important person; to which perhaps the vast treasure of his prize might not a little contribute; the acquisition of wealth being a matter greatly adapted to the esteem and reverence of the Chinese nation.

In this examination of the Spanish prisoners, though the Chinese had no reason in the main to doubt of the account which was given them, yet there were two circumstances which appeared to them so singular as to deserve a more ample explanation; one of them was the great disproportion of men between the Centurion and the galeon, the other was the humanity with which the people of the galeon were treated after they were taken. The mandarines therefore asked the Spaniards how they came to be overpowered by so inferior a force? and how it happened, since the two nations were at war, that they were not put to death when they fell into the hands of the English? To the first of these enquiries the Spaniards answered that though they had more men than the Centurion, yet she being intended solely for war, had a great superiority in the size of her guns, and in many other articles, over the galeon, which was a vessel fitted out principally for traffic: and as to the second question, they told the Chinese that amongst the nations of Europe it was not customary to put to death those who submitted, though they readily owned that the commodore, from the natural bias of his temper, had treated both them and their countrymen, who had formerly been in his power, with very unusual courtesy, much beyond what they could have expected or than was required by the customs established between nations at war with each other. These replies fully satisfied the Chinese, and at the same time wrought very powerfully in the commodore's favour.

On the 20th of July, in the morning, three mandarines, with a great number of boats and a vast retinue, came on board the Centurion and delivered to the commodore the Viceroy of Canton's order for a daily supply of provisions, and for pilots to carry the ships up the river as far as the second bar; and at the same time they delivered him a message from the viceroy in answer to the letter sent to Canton. The substance of the message was that the viceroy desired to be excused from receiving the commodore's visit during the then excessive hot weather, because the assembling the mandarines and soldiers necessary to that ceremony would prove extremely inconvenient and fatiguing; but that in September when the weather would be more temperate he should be glad to see both the commodore himself and the English captain of the other ship that was with him. As Mr. Anson knew that an express had been dispatched to the court at Pekin with an account of the Centurion and her prize being arrived in the river of Canton, he had no doubt but the principal motive for putting off this visit was that the regency at Canton might gain time to receive the emperor's instructions about their behaviour on this unusual affair.

When the mandarines had delivered their message they began to talk to the commodore about the duties to be paid by his ships, but he immediately told them that he would never submit to any demand of that kind; that as he neither brought any merchandize thither, nor intended to carry any away, he could not be reasonably deemed within the meaning of the emperor's orders, which were doubtless calculated for trading vessels only, adding that no duties were ever demanded of men-of-war by nations accustomed to their reception, and that his master's orders expressly forbade him from paying any acknowledgment for his ships anchoring in any port whatever.

The mandarines being thus cut short on the subject of the duty, they said they had another matter to mention, which was the only remaining one they had in charge; this was a request to the commodore that he would release the prisoners he had taken on board the galeon; for that the Viceroy of Canton apprehended the emperor, his master, might be displeased if he should be informed that persons, who were his allies and carried on a great commerce with his subjects, were under confinement in his dominions. Mr. Anson himself was extremely desirous to get rid of the Spaniards, having on his first arrival sent about an hundred of them to Macao, and those who remained, which were near four hundred more, were, on many accounts, a great incumbrance to him. However, to inhance the favour, he at first raised some difficulties; but permitting himself to be prevailed on, he at last told the mandarines that to show his readiness to oblige the viceroy he would release the prisoners, whenever they, the Chinese, would order boats to fetch them off. This matter being thus adjusted, the mandarines departed; and on the 28th of July, two Chinese junks were sent from Canton to take on board the prisoners and to carry them to Macao. And the commodore, agreeable to his promise, dismissed them all, and directed his purser to allow them eight days' provision for their subsistence during their sailing down the river: since, before they were dispatched, the Centurion was arrived at her moorings, above the second bar, where she and her prize proposed to continue till the monsoon shifted.

Though the ships, in consequence of the viceroy's permit, found no difficulty in purchasing provisions for their daily consumption, yet it was impossible that the commodore could proceed to England without laying in a large quantity both of provisions and naval stores for his use during the voyage. The procuring this supply was attended with much perplexity; for there were people at Canton who had undertaken to furnish him with biscuit and whatever else he wanted; and his linguist, towards the middle of September, had assured him from day to day that all was ready and would be sent on board him immediately. But a fortnight being elapsed, and nothing brought, the commodore sent to Canton to enquire more particularly into the reasons of this disappointment: and he had soon the vexation to be informed that the whole was an illusion; that no order had been procured from the viceroy to furnish him with his sea stores, as had been pretended; that there was no biscuit baked, nor any one of the articles in readiness, which had been promised him; nor did it appear that the contractors had taken the least step to comply with their agreement. This was most disagreeable news, and made it suspected that the furnishing the Centurion for her return to Great Britain might prove a more troublesome matter than had been hitherto imagined; especially too as the month of September was nearly ended without Mr. Anson's having received any message from the Viceroy of Canton.

And here perhaps it might be expected that a satisfactory account should be given of the motives of the Chinese for this faithless procedure. However, as I have already, in a former chapter, made some kind of conjectures about a similar event, I shall not repeat them again in this place; but shall content myself with observing that after all it may perhaps be impossible for an European, ignorant of the customs and manners of that nation, to be fully apprized of the real incitements to this behaviour. Indeed, thus much may undoubtedly be asserted, that in artifice, falsehood, and an attachment to all kinds of lucre many of the Chinese are difficult to be paralleled by any other people. But then the particular application of these talents, and the manner in which they operate on every emergency, are often beyond the reach of a foreigner's penetration: so that though it may be surely concluded that the Chinese had some interest in thus amusing the commodore, yet it may not be easy to assign the individual views by which they were influenced. And that I may not be thought too severe in ascribing to this nation a fraudulent and selfish turn of temper, so contradictory to the character given of them in the legendary accounts of the Romish missionaries, I shall here mention an extraordinary transaction or two which I conceive will be some kind of confirmation of what I have advanced.

When the commodore lay first at Macao, one of his officers, who had been extremely ill, desired leave of him to go on shore every day on a neighbouring island, imagining that a walk upon the land would contribute greatly to the restoring of his health. The commodore would have dissuaded him from it, suspecting the tricks of the Chinese, but the officer continued importunate, in the end the boat was ordered to carry him thither. The first day he was put on shore he took his exercise and returned without receiving any molestation or even seeing any of the inhabitants; but the second day he was assaulted just after his arrival by a great number of Chinese who had been hoeing rice in the neighbourhood, and who beat him so violently with the handles of their hoes that they soon laid him on the ground incapable of resistance; after which they robbed him, taking from him his sword, the hilt of which was silver, his money, his watch, gold-headed cane, snuff-box, sleeve buttons, and hat, with several other trinkets. In the meantime, the boat's crew, who were at a little distance and had no arms of any kind with them, were incapable of giving him any relief; till at last one of them flew on the fellow who had the sword in his possession, and wresting it out of his hands, drew it, and with it was preparing to fall on the Chinese, some of whom he could not have failed of killing. But the officer, perceiving what he was about, immediately ordered him to desist, thinking it more prudent to submit to the present violence than to embroil his commander in an inextricable squabble with the Chinese Government by the death of their subjects: which calmness in this gentleman was the more meritorious as he was known to be a person of an uncommon spirit and of a somewhat hasty temper. By this means the Chinese speedily recovered the possession of the sword, when they perceived it was prohibited to be made use of against them, and carried off their whole booty unmolested. No sooner were they gone than a Chinese on horseback, very well dressed, and who had the air and appearance of a gentleman, came down to the seaside and, as far as could be understood by his signs, seemed to censure the conduct of his countrymen and to commiserate the officer, being wonderfully officious to assist in getting him on board the boat: but notwithstanding this behaviour, it was shrewdly suspected that he was an accomplice in the theft, and time fully made out the justice of those suspicions.

When the boat returned on board, and the officer reported what had passed to the commodore, he immediately complained of it to the mandarine who attended to see his ship supplied; but the mandarine coolly observed that the boat ought not to have gone on shore, promising, however, that if the thieves could be found they should be punished: though it appeared plain enough by his manner of answering that he would never give himself any trouble in searching them out. However, a considerable time afterwards, when some Chinese boats were selling provisions to the Centurion, the person who had wrested the sword from the Chinese came with eagerness to the commodore to assure him that one of the principal thieves was then in a provision boat alongside the ship; and the officer who had been robbed, viewing the fellow on this report, and well remembering his face, orders were immediately given to seize him; and he was accordingly secured on board the ship where strange discoveries were now made.

This thief on his being first apprehended expressed so much fright in his countenance that it was feared he would have died on the spot; the mandarine too who attended the ship had visibly no small share of concern on the occasion. Indeed he had reason enough to be alarmed, since it was soon apparent that he had been privy to the whole robbery; for the commodore declaring that he would not deliver up the thief, but would himself order him to be shot, the mandarine immediately put off the magisterial air, with which he had at first pretended to demand him, and begged his release in the most abject manner. But the commodore seeming to be inflexible, there came on board, in less than two hours' time, five or six of the neighbouring mandarines, who all joined in the same entreaty, and with a view of facilitating their suit, offered a large sum of money for the fellow's liberty. Whilst they were thus soliciting it was discovered that the mandarine, the most active amongst them, and who was thence presumed to be most interested in the event, was the very gentleman who rode up to the officer just after the robbery and who pretended to be so much displeased with the villainy of his countrymen. On further inquiry it was also found that he was the mandarine of the island, and that he had by the authority of his office ordered the peasants to commit that infamous action. This easily accounted for his extraordinary vigilance in the present conjuncture; since, as far as could be collected from the broken hints which were casually thrown out, it seemed that he and his brethren, who were every one privy to the transaction, were terrified with the fear of being called before the tribunal at Canton, where the first article of their punishment would be the stripping them of all they were worth; though their judges (however fond of inflicting a chastisement so lucrative to themselves) were perhaps of as tainted a complexion as the delinquents. Mr. Anson was not displeased to have caught the Chinese in this dilemma; he entertained himself for some time with their perplexity, rejecting their money with scorn, appearing inexorable to their prayers, and giving out that the thief should certainly be shot; but as he then foresaw that he should be forced to take shelter in their ports a second time, when the influence he might hereby acquire over the magistrates would be of great service to him, he at length permitted himself to be persuaded, and as a favour released his prisoner; though not till the mandarine had collected and returned all that had been stolen from the officer, even to the minutest trifle.

But notwithstanding this instance of the good intelligence between the magistrates and criminals, the strong addiction of the Chinese to lucre often prompts them to break through this awful confederacy, and puts them on defrauding the authority that protects them of its proper quota of the pillage. For not long after the above-mentioned transaction (the former mandarine, attendant on the ship, being in the meantime relieved by another) the commodore lost a top-mast from his stern, which, on the most diligent enquiry, could not be traced out. As it was not his own, but had been borrowed at Macao to heave down by, and was not to be replaced in that part of the world, he was extremely desirous to recover it, and published a considerable reward to any who would bring it him again. There were suspicions from the first of its being stolen, which made him conclude a reward was the likeliest method of getting it back. Hereupon, soon after, the mandarine informed him that some of his, the mandarine's, attendants had found the top-mast, desiring the commodore to send his boats to fetch it, which, being done, the mandarine's people received the promised reward. It seems the commodore had told the mandarine that he would make him a present besides on account of the care he had taken in directing it to be searched for; and accordingly Mr. Anson gave a sum of money to his linguist to be delivered to the mandarine; but the linguist knowing that the Chinese had been paid, and ignorant that a further present had been promised, kept the money himself. However, the mandarine fully confiding in Mr. Anson's word, and suspecting the linguist, he took occasion, one morning, to admire the size of the Centurion's masts, and thence on a pretended sudden recollection he made a digression to the top-mast which had been lost, and asked Mr. Anson if he had not got it again. Mr. Anson presently perceived the bent of this conversation, and enquired of him if he had not received the money from the linguist, and finding he had not, he offered to pay him upon the spot. But this the mandarine refused, having now somewhat more in view than the sum which had been detained. For the next day the linguist was seized, and was doubtless mulcted of whatever he had gotten in the commodore's service, which was supposed to be little less than two thousand dollars; being besides so severely bastinadoed that it was wonderful he escaped with his life. And when he was upbraided by the commodore (to whom he afterwards came a-begging) with his folly in risquing this severe chastisement, and the loss of all he was worth, for the lucre of fifty dollars, the present of which he defrauded the mandarine, he had no other excuse to make than the strong bias of his nation to dishonesty, replying in his broken jargon, "Chinese man very great rogue truly, but have fashion, no can help."

It were endless to recount all the artifices, extortions, and frauds which were practised on the commodore and his people by this interested race. The method of buying provisions in China being by weight, the tricks the Chinese made use of to augment the weight of what they sold to the Centurion were almost incredible. One time a large quantity of fouls and ducks being bought for the ship's store, the greatest part of them presently died. This spread a general alarm on board, it being apprehended that they had been killed by poison; but on examination it appeared that it was only owing to their being crammed with stones and gravel to increase their weight, the quantity thus forced into most of the ducks being found to amount to ten ounces in each. The hogs too, which were bought ready killed of the Chinese butchers, had water injected into them for the same purpose; so that a carcass hung up all night that the water might drain from it, had lost above a stone of its weight. And when, to avoid this cheat, the hogs were bought alive, it was discovered that the Chinese gave them salt to increase their thirst, and having thus excited them to drink great quantities of water, they then took measures to prevent them from discharging it again by urine, and sold the tortured animal in this inflated state. When the commodore first put to sea from Macao, they practised an artifice of another kind; for as the Chinese never scruple eating any food that dies of itself, they contrived by some secret practices that great part of his live sea-store should die in a short time after it was put on board, hoping to make a second profit of the dead carcasses which they expected would be thrown overboard; and two-thirds of the hogs dying before the Centurion was out of sight of land, many of the Chinese boats followed her only to pick up the carrion. These instances may serve as a specimen of the manners of this celebrated nation, which is often recommended to the rest of the world as a pattern of all kinds of laudable qualities. But to return.

The commodore, towards the end of September, having found out (as has been said) that those who had contracted to supply him with sea provisions and stores had deceived him, and that the viceroy had not invited him to an interview according to his promise, he saw it would be impossible for him to surmount the difficulties he was under without going to Canton and visiting the viceroy. And therefore, on the 27th of September, he sent a message to the mandarine who attended the Centurion, to inform him that he, the commodore, intended, on the 1st of October, to proceed in his boat to Canton: adding that the day after he got there he should notify his arrival to the viceroy, and should desire him to fix a time for his audience. This message being delivered to the mandarine, he returned no other answer than that he would acquaint the viceroy with the commodore's intentions. In the meantime all things were prepared for this expedition: and the boat's crew which Mr. Anson proposed to take with him were cloathed in an uniform dress, resembling that of the watermen on the Thames; they were in number eighteen and a coxswain; they had scarlet jackets and blue silk waistcoats, the whole trimmed with silver buttons, besides silver badges on their jackets and caps. As it was apprehended, and even asserted, that the payment of the customary duties for the Centurion and her prize would be demanded by the regency of Canton, and would be insisted on previous to their granting a permission to victual the ship for her future voyage, the commodore, who was resolved never to establish so dishonourable a precedent, took all possible precaution to prevent the Chinese from facilitating the success of their unseasonable pretensions by having him in their power at Canton. And therefore the better to secure his ship and the great treasure on board her against their projects, he appointed his first lieutenant, Mr. Brett, to be captain of the Centurion under him, giving him proper instructions for his conduct; directing him particularly, if he, the commodore, should be detained at Canton on account of the duties in dispute, to take out the men from the Centurion's prize and to destroy her, and then to proceed down the river through the Bocca Tigris with the Centurion alone, and to remain without that entrance till he received further orders from Mr. Anson.

These necessary steps being taken, which were not unknown to the Chinese, it should seem as if their deliberations were in some sort perplexed thereby. It is reasonable to imagine that they were in general very desirous of getting the duties to be paid them; not perhaps solely in consideration of the amount of those dues, but to keep up their reputation for address and subtlety, and to avoid the imputation of receding from claims on which they had already so frequently insisted. However, as they now foresaw that they had no other method of succeeding than by violence, and that even against this the commodore was prepared, they were at last disposed, I conceive, to let the affair drop rather than entangle themselves in an hostile measure which they found would only expose them to the risque of having the whole navigation of their port destroyed without any certain prospect of gaining their favourite point.

But though there is reason to conclude that these were their thoughts at that time, yet they could not depart at once from the evasive conduct to which they had hitherto adhered. Since when the commodore, on the morning of the 1st of October, was preparing to set out for Canton, his linguist came to him from the mandarine who attended the ship, to tell him that a letter had been received from the Viceroy of Canton, desiring the commodore to put off his going thither for two or three days. The reality of this message was not then questioned; but in the afternoon of the same day, another linguist came on board, who with much seeming fright told Mr. Anson that the viceroy had expected him up that day; that the council was assembled, and the troops had been under arms to receive him; and that the viceroy was highly offended at the disappointment, and had sent the commodore's linguist to prison, chained, supposing that the whole had been owing to the linguist's negligence. This plausible tale gave the commodore great concern, and made him apprehend that there was some treachery designed him which he could not yet fathom. And though it afterwards appeared that the whole was a fiction, not one article of it having the least foundation, yet for reasons best known to themselves this falshood was so well supported by the artifices of the Chinese merchants at Canton, that three days afterwards the commodore received a letter signed by all the supercargoes of the English ships then at that place, expressing their great uneasiness about what had happened, and intimating their fears that some insult would be offered to his boat if he came thither before the viceroy was fully satisfied of the mistake. To this letter Mr. Anson replied that he did not believe there had been a mistake; but was persuaded it was a forgery of the Chinese to prevent his visiting the viceroy; that therefore he would certainly come up to Canton on the 13th of October, confident that the Chinese would not dare to offer him any insult, as well knowing he should want neither power nor inclination to make them a proper return.

On the 13th of October, the commodore continuing firm to his resolution, all the supercargoes of the English, Danish, and Swedish ships came on board the Centurion, to accompany him to Canton, for which place he set out in his barge the same day, attended by his own boats, and by those of the trading ships, which on this occasion sent their boats to augment his retinue. As he passed by Wampo, where the European vessels lay, he was saluted by all of them but the French, and in the evening he arrived safely at Canton. His reception in that city, and the most material transactions from henceforward, till the expedition was brought to a period by the return of the Centurion to Great Britain, shall be the subject of the ensuing chapter.

CHAPTER X

PROCEEDINGS AT THE CITY OF CANTON, AND THE RETURN OF

THE "CENTURION" TO ENGLAND

When the commodore arrived at Canton, he was visited by the principal Chinese merchants, who affected to appear very much pleased that he had met with no obstruction in getting thither, and who thence pretended to conclude that the viceroy was satisfied about the former mistake, the reality of which they still insisted on. In the conversation which passed upon this occasion, they took care to insinuate that as soon as the viceroy should be informed that Mr. Anson was at Canton, which they promised should be done the next morning, they were persuaded a time would be immediately appointed for the visit, which was the principal business that had brought the commodore to that city.

The next day the merchants returned to Mr. Anson and told him that the viceroy was then so fully employed in preparing his dispatches for Pekin that there was no getting admittance to him at present, but that they had engaged one of the officers of his court to give them information as soon as he should be at leisure, when they proposed to notify Mr. Anson's arrival and to endeavour to fix the audience. The commodore was already too well acquainted with their artifices not to perceive that this was a falshood, and had he consulted only his own judgment, he would have applied directly to the viceroy by other hands. But the Chinese merchants had so far prepossessed the supercargoes of our ships with chimerical fears that they, the supercargoes, were extremely apprehensive of being embroiled with the government, and of suffering in their interest, if those measures were taken which appeared to Mr. Anson at that time to be the most prudential: and therefore, lest the malice and double dealing of the Chinese might have given rise to some sinister incident, which would be afterwards laid at his door, he resolved to continue passive as long as it should appear that he lost no time by thus suspending his own opinion. In pursuance of this resolution, he proposed to the English that he would engage not to take any immediate step himself for getting admittance to the viceroy, provided the Chinese, who contracted to furnish his provisions, would let him see that his bread was baked, his meat salted, and his storee prepared with the utmost dispatch. But if by the time when all was in readiness to be shipped off, which it was supposed would be in about forty days, the merchants should not have procured the government's permission to send it on board, then the commodore was determined to apply to the viceroy himself. These were the terms Mr. Anson thought proper to offer to quiet the uneasiness of the supercargoes; and, notwithstanding the apparent equity of the conditions, many difficulties and objections were urged; nor would the Chinese agree to the proposal till the commodore had consented to pay for every article he bespoke before it was put in hand. However, at last, the contract being past, it was some satisfaction to the commodore to be certain that his preparations were now going on; and being himself on the spot, he took care to hasten them as much as possible.

During this interval, in which the stores and provisions were getting ready, the merchants continually entertained Mr. Anson with accounts of their various endeavours to procure a licence from the viceroy and their frequent disappointments. This was now a matter of amusement to the commodore, as he was fully satisfied there was not one word of truth in anything they said. But when all was compleated, and wanted only to be shipped, which was about the 24th of November, at which time, too, the N.E. monsoon was set in, he then resolved to demand an audience of the viceroy, as he was persuaded that, without this ceremony, the grant of a permission to take his stores on board would meet with great difficulty. On the 24th of November, therefore, Mr. Anson sent one of his officers to the mandarine who commanded the guard of the principal gate of the city of Canton with a letter directed to the viceroy. When this letter was delivered to the mandarine, he received the officer who brought it very civilly, and took down the contents of it in Chinese, and promised that the viceroy should be immediately acquainted with it; but told the officer it was not necessary he should wait for an answer, because a message would be sent to the commodore himself.

When Mr. Anson first determined to write this letter, he had been under great difficulties about a proper interpreter, as he was well aware that none of the Chinese usually employed as linguists could be relied on, but he at last prevailed with Mr. Flint, an English gentleman belonging to the factory, who spoke Chinese perfectly well, to accompany his officer. This person, who upon that occasion and many others was of singular service to the commodore, had been left at Canton, when a youth, by the late Captain Rigby. The leaving him there to learn the Chinese language was a step taken by that captain merely from his own persuasion of the considerable advantages which the East India Company might one day receive from an English interpreter, and tho' the utility of this measure has greatly exceeded all that was expected from it, yet I have not heard that it has been to this hour imitated: but we imprudently choose, except in this single instance, to carry on the vast transactions of the port of Canton either by the ridiculous jargon of broken English, which some few of the Chinese have learnt, or by the suspected interpretation of the linguists of other nations.

Two days after the sending the above-mentioned letter, a fire broke out in the suburbs of Canton. On the first alarm Mr. Anson went thither with his officers and his boat's crew to aid the Chinese. When he came there, he found that it had begun in a sailor's shed, and that by the slightness of the buildings, and the aukwardness of the Chinese, it was getting head apace. However, he perceived that by pulling down some of the adjacent sheds it might easily be extinguished; and particularly observing that it was then running along a wooden cornice, which blazed fiercely, and would immediately communicate the flame to a great distance, he ordered his people to begin with tearing away the cornice. This was presently attempted, and would have been soon executed, but in the meantime he was told that as there was no mandarine there, who alone has a power to direct on these occasions, the Chinese would make him, the commodore, answerable for whatever should be pulled down by his command. Hereupon Mr. Anson and his attendants desisted, and he sent them to the English factory, to assist in securing the company's treasure and effects, as it was easy to foresee that no distance was a protection against the rage of such a fire, where so little was done to put a stop to it; since all the while the Chinese contented themselves with viewing it, and now and then holding one of their idols near it, which they seemed to expect should check its progress. Indeed, at last, a mandarine came out of the city, attended by four or five hundred firemen. These made some feeble efforts to pull down the neighbouring houses, but by that time the fire had greatly extended itself and was got amongst the merchants' warehouses, and the Chinese firemen, wanting both skill and spirit, were incapable of checking its violence, so that its fury increased upon them, and it was feared the whole city would be destroyed. In this general confusion the viceroy himself came thither, and the commodore was sent to, and was intreated to afford his assistance, being told that he might take any measures he should think most prudent in the present emergency. Upon this message he went thither a second time, carrying with him about forty of his people, who, in the sight of the whole city, exerted themselves after so extraordinary a manner as in that country was altogether without example. For, behaving with the agility and boldness peculiar to sailors, they were rather animated than deterred by the flames and falling buildings amongst which they wrought; whence it was not uncommon to see the most forward of them tumble to the ground on the roofs and amidst the ruins of houses which their own efforts brought down under them. By their resolution and activity the fire was soon extinguished, to the amazement of the Chinese: and it fortunately happened too, that the buildings being all on one floor, and the materials slight, the seamen, notwithstanding their daring behaviour, escaped with no other injuries than some considerable bruises.

The fire, though at last thus luckily extinguished, did great mischief during the time it continued, for it consumed a hundred shops and eleven streets full of warehouses, so that the damage amounted to an immense sum; and one of the Chinese merchants, well known to the English, whose name was Succoy, was supposed, for his own share, to have lost near two hundred thousand pounds sterling. It raged indeed with unusual violence, for in many of the warehouses there were large quantities of camphire, which greatly added to its fury, and produced a column of exceeding white flame, which blazed up into the air to such a prodigious height that it was distinctly seen on board the Centurion, though she was at least thirty miles distant.

Whilst the commodore and his people were labouring at the fire, and the terror of its becoming general still possessed the whole city, several of the most considerable Chinese merchants came to Mr. Anson to desire that he would let each of them have one of his soldiers (for such they stiled his boat's crew, from the uniformity of their dress) to guard their warehouses and dwelling-houses, which, from the known dishonesty of the populace, they feared would be pillaged in the tumult. Mr. Anson granted them this request, and all the men that he thus furnished behaved much to the satisfaction of the merchants, who afterwards highly applauded their great diligence and fidelity.

By this means, the resolution of the English in mastering the fire, and their trusty and prudent conduct where they were employed as safeguards, was the general subject of conversation amongst the Chinese. And the next morning many of the principal inhabitants waited on the commodore to thank him for his assistance, frankly owning to him that he had preserved their city from being totally consumed, as they could never have extinguished the fire of themselves. Soon after, too, a message came to the commodore from the viceroy, appointing the 30th of November for his audience, which sudden resolution of the viceroy, in a matter that had been so long agitated in vain, was also owing to the signal services performed by Mr. Anson and his people at the fire; of which the viceroy himself had been in some measure an eye-witness.

The fixing this business of the audience was on every account a circumstance with which Mr. Anson was much pleased, since he was satisfied the Chinese Government would not have determined this point without having agreed among themselves to give up their pretensions to the duties they claimed, and to grant him all he could reasonably ask. For, as they well knew the commodore's sentiments, it would have been a piece of imprudence, not consistent with their refined cunning, to have admitted him to an audience only to have contested with him. Being therefore himself perfectly easy about the result of this visit, he made the necessary preparations against the day, and engaged Mr. Flint, whom I have mentioned before, to act as interpreter in the conference: and Mr. Flint, in this affair as in all others, acquitted himself much to the commodore's satisfaction, repeating with great boldness, and doubtless with exactness, whatever was given him in charge, a part which no Chinese linguist would have performed with any tolerable fidelity.

At ten o'clock in the morning, on the day appointed, a mandarine came to the commodore to let him know that the viceroy was prepared, and expected him, on which the commodore and his retinue immediately set out. As soon as he entered the outer gate of the city, he found a guard of two hundred soldiers ready to receive him; these attended him to the great parade before the emperor's palace, where the viceroy then resided. In this parade, a body of troops, to the number of ten thousand, were drawn up under arms, who made a very fine appearance, they being all of them new cloathed for this ceremony. Mr. Anson, with his retinue, having passed through the middle of them, he was then conducted to the great hall of audience, where he found the viceroy seated under a rich canopy in the emperor's chair of state, with all his council of mandarines attending. Here there was a vacant seat prepared for the commodore, in which he was placed on his arrival. He was ranked the third in order from the viceroy, there being above him only the two chiefs of the law and of the treasury, who in the Chinese Government have precedence of all military officers. When the commodore was seated, he addressed himself to the viceroy by his interpreter, and began with reciting the various methods he had formerly taken to get an audience; adding that he imputed the delays he had met with to the insincerity of those he had employed, and that he had therefore no other means left than to send, as he had done, his own officer with a letter to the gate. On the mention of this the viceroy interrupted the interpreter, and bid him assure Mr. Anson that the first knowledge they had of his being at Canton was from that letter. Mr. Anson then proceeded, and told him that the subjects of the King of Great Britain trading to China had complained to him, the commodore, of the vexatious impositions both of the merchants and inferior custom-house officers, to which they were frequently necessitated to submit, by reason of the difficulty of getting access to the mandarines, who alone could grant them redress. That it was his, Mr. Anson's, duty, as an officer of the King of Great Britain, to lay before the viceroy these grievances of the British subjects, which he hoped the viceroy would take into consideration, and would give orders that hereafter there should be no just reason for complaint. Here Mr. Anson paused, and waited some time in expectation of an answer, but nothing being said, he asked his interpreter if he was certain the viceroy understood what he had urged; the interpreter told him he was certain it was understood, but he believed no reply would be made to it. Mr. Anson then represented to the viceroy the case of the ship Haslingfield, which, having been dismasted on the coast of China, had arrived in the river of Canton but a few days before. The people on board this vessel had been great sufferers by the fire; the captain in particular had all his goods burnt, and had lost besides, in the confusion, a chest of treasure of four thousand five hundred tahel, which was supposed to be stolen by the Chinese boatmen. Mr. Anson therefore desired that the captain might have the assistance of the government, as it was apprehended the money could never be recovered without the interposition of the mandarines. And to this request the viceroy made answer that, in settling the emperor's customs for that ship, some abatement should be made in consideration of her losses.

And now the commodore having dispatched the business with which the officers of the East India Company had entrusted him, he entered on his own affairs, acquainting the viceroy that the proper season was already set in for returning to Europe, and that he wanted only a licence to ship off his provisions and stores, which were all ready; and that as soon as this should be granted him, and he should have gotten his necessaries on board, he intended to leave the river of Canton and to make the best of his way for England. The viceroy replied to this that the licence should be immediately issued, and that everything should be ordered on board the following day. And finding that Mr. Anson had nothing farther to insist on, the viceroy continued the conversation for some time, acknowledging in very civil terms how much the Chinese were obliged to him for his signal services at the fire, and owning that he had saved the city from being destroyed: then observing that the Centurion had been a good while on their coast, he closed his discourse by wishing the commodore a prosperous voyage to Europe, after which the commodore, thanking him for his civility and assistance, took his leave.

As soon as the commodore was out of the hall of audience, he was much pressed to go into a neighbouring apartment, where there was an entertainment provided; but finding, on enquiry, that the viceroy himself was not to be present, he declined the invitation and departed, attended in the same manner as at his arrival, only on his leaving the city he was saluted with three guns, which are as many as in that country are ever fired on any ceremony. Thus the commodore, to his great joy, at last finished this troublesome affair, which, for the preceding four months, had given him much disquietude. Indeed he was highly pleased with procuring a licence for the shipping off his stores and provisions, as thereby he was enabled to return to Great Britain with the first of the monsoons, and to prevent all intelligence of his being expected: but this, though a very important point, was not the circumstance which gave him the greatest satisfaction, for he was more particularly attentive to the authentic precedent established on this occasion, by which his Majesty's ships of war are for the future exempted from all demands of duty in any of the ports of China.