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

by Baron George Anson Anson

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.