On returning to Hong-Kong he found that his letter to the Chinese
Government had had the effect which he desired and anticipated.
[Sidenote: Mission completed.]
Hong-Kong.—February 23rd.—I have good news from the North. As I was walking on the deck this morning at 8 A.M., Mr. Lay suddenly made his appearance. He had come by the mail-packet from Shanghae, with a letter from the Imperial Commissioners, announcing that the seal of Imperial Commission had been taken from Hwang, the Governor-General of this province, and given to Ho, the Governor-General of the provinces in which Shanghae is situated. Lay further states that his friend the Tautai informed him that they are prepared to receive the new Ambassador peacefully at Pekin, when he goes to exchange ratifications. If so, I think that I shall be able to return with the conviction that the objects of my mission have been accomplished.
The details of his Treaty having been now definitively arranged, Canton pacified, and its neighbourhood overawed by the peaceful progress through it of a military expedition, there remained nothing to detain him in the East.[6]
[Sidenote: Homeward bound.]
[Sidenote: Hong-Kong factory.]
Canton River.—March 3rd.—I am really and truly off on my way to England, though I can hardly believe that it is so. The last mail brought me not a word either from Frederick or about his plans; only, what was very satisfactory, the approval of the Government of my arrangement respecting the residence of the British Minister in China. I have, however, determined to start, and to take my chance of meeting him somewhere en route. Unless I were to go back to Shanghae, I could not do much more here now; and if I put off, I shall have the monsoon against me, and great heat in the Red Sea. Having resolved on this course, I invited the Hong-Kong merchants to come up with me to Canton, to look at the several factory sites. In their usual way they have been dictating the choice of a site to me, abusing me for not fixing upon it; and I found out that very few of them had even taken the trouble of looking at the ground. In short I found that, in my short visits, I had seen a great deal more of the sites than they had done, who live constantly on the spot, and are personally interested in the matter. I started from Hong-Kong yesterday morning, and to-day I went over the ground with them. The rain poured, and I got a good wetting…. As I was starting from the town in a gunboat to rejoin my ship, I met the military and naval expedition, which has been absent for more than two weeks, returning. I had not time to communicate with the officers, but they seemed in good spirits. It is a curious wind-up of this most eventful mission, that as I am starting from China, I should meet an Anglo-French force returning from a pacific invasion into the very heart of the province of Kwan-tung!—the pépinière of the Canton Braves, of whom we have heard so much.
March 4th.—Eleven A.M.—I have been calculating that if Frederick does not leave England till the mail of the 25th of February, I may, by pushing on, catch him at Galle. This would be a great point. I must push on and take my chance.
[Sidenote: Pulo Sapata.]
March 8th.—We are passing Pulo Sapata, a bald, solitary rock, standing in the midst of the China Sea, the resort of seafowl, as is indicated by its guano-like appearance. There it stands day after day, and year after year, affronting the scorching beams of this tropical sun. All ships pass by it between Singapore and China. So I am looking at it for the fourth time—the last time, we may hope. We have made fully 200 miles a day—a great deal for this ship.
March 10th.—We are now very near the Line, and the breeze has nearly failed us; so you may imagine we are not very cool, but we hope to reach Singapore to-morrow. These Tropics are very charming when they do not broil one; and I passed a pleasant hour last night on the top of the paddle-box, with a balmy air floating over my face from the one side, a crescent moon playing hide-and-seek behind a cloud on the other, and right above me a legion of bright stars, shining through the atmosphere as if they could pierce one with their glance.