Dep. “We too have been sent to bring the business of your mission to a determinate point; but your obstinacy leaves us at a loss what to do. We will return in a day or two to the capital, and make a report of the circumstances.”
This was said by the two who had arrived on the twenty-sixth.
In reply, they were told that the envoy could have nothing to do with their movements; that when quite ready he would leave; but that, when he did so, he would write a protest against the manner in which he had been treated, and would send a copy of such protest to the emperor, and copies to other princes also. At first, not seeming to understand what was meant, they desired that it should be sent to the minister instead of the emperor; but this, they were told, was out of the question.
January twenty-ninth. Some gentlemen who had been on shore in the course of yesterday, having been asked when the ship would sail, Mr. Morrison visited the deputies this morning, with the following written communication:—
“I hear that you inquired last evening when our ship would sail. I am directed by the envoy to tell you, that if, within six days, the imperial permission be not received for the mission to go to Hué, the vessel will then sail.
“The envoy does not act inconsiderately, as deeming this an affair of a trivial nature: but he is necessitated to leave, because the business confided to him, in other places, will not admit of a long delay.
“Nor does he consider it a thing of small import, that the minister of commerce, &c., refuses to report his arrival to the emperor, or to afford him the means of presenting the letter.”
In reply, the two deputies who had first arrived, (for the other two, though not yet on their way for Hué, did not appear,) returned to their former position, that they were desirous of bringing the business to an amicable and satisfactory conclusion, but were prevented by the obstinacy of the envoy. If a translation of the President’s letter, and a complete statement of the objects of the mission, were delivered to them, then some conclusion might be come to.
They were told it was useless talking thus, as the determination of the envoy had already been communicated to them. Should the envoy go to Hué, on his arrival there, the minister might receive a copy of the President’s letter, and what explanations he might desire as to the objects of the mission. Similar conversation was kept up for a few minutes, during which the deputies received a written paper from the other two, who were within. They then wrote, that “the President, being elected and promoted by the people, and not possessing the actual title of king, it behooved him to write in a manner properly decorous and respectful; on which account it was requisite for the translation to be examined, in order to expunge improper words.”
In reply to this insulting language, they were told that the President was inferior to no king or emperor, and were then left.