A voyage round the world in the years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV

by Baron George Anson Anson

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.