“As the civil code is in many instances suited to the peculiar customs and usages of the different nations composing the population, who are in general fond of litigation, the office of Chief Judge is a very arduous and fatiguing one.”
The St. Albans was sent on to China with the convoy of East Indiamen, and anchored in the river of Canton. Various matters kept them here for more than five months, from September 18, 1809, till March 2, 1810.
The river of Canton had for many years been infested with pirates, called Ladrones, who robbed and murdered, devastated the country, attacked villages, and were even a danger to the town of Canton itself. In order to hold them in some measure in check, the Chinese Government had engaged an English vessel called the Mercury to act against them; and immediately on the arrival of the St. Albans, Francis Austen was asked if he would consider it consistent with his duty to give any further help. He replied that, considering the friendly relations between Britain and China, he should feel himself quite at liberty to give what help he could. He stipulated however that he should receive a written application from the Viceroy of Canton, and also that the restrictions which the Chinese Government had imposed on the British ships of war to prohibit them from passing the Bocca Tigris should be removed, and every part of the river made free to them. He pointed out that the Chinese Mandarin (or war) boats would be suitable for the purpose of attacking the Ladrones if overhauled, fitted with European artillery and manned by Europeans, and also that the British ships were of no manner of use in the river, as they were all much too large, and moreover all but the St. Albans would soon be on their passage home. He also expressed a readiness to wait on the Viceroy in order to talk the matter over.
The appointment was made to meet at the Hoppo’s house at two o’clock on November 2; and here Captain Austen presented himself, but “after waiting nearly half an hour in a close dirty kind of lobby, exposed to the stare of every blackguard who could squeeze himself into the passage leading to it, and having our noses assailed by a combination of villanous smells, I was informed that the Viceroy had gone away, but that the Hoppo would come and speak to me.” This Captain Austen absolutely declined, and retired, leaving word that if the Viceroy wished hereafter to see him, “he would at any time have it in his power to do so by coming to the British factory.” He adds: “It is not easy to account for the Viceroy’s behaviour, but I am inclined to set it down to the score of imbecility, and a struggle between pride and the conviction of his own inability to arrest the progress of the pirates, in which the former has obtained the victory.” His dealings with the Viceroy were, however, by no means at an end. About a month afterwards it was necessary to make a serious complaint to the Chinese Government. Some officers of the St. Albans had gone ashore for shooting. One of them was attacked by a buffalo, and was only rescued from being gored to death by his friends, who shot the animal. Numerous Chinamen immediately gathered round full of indignation at the slaughter of the brute, and, in spite of the protestations of the Englishmen, and their assertions that they would make full restitution, they were attacked in a most violent manner, and only got away by buying their liberty. Evidently the “very friendly feelings” supposed to be existing between the two governments were not so cordially shared by individuals.
After these two minor troubles, a very difficult matter came before Francis Austen, and his skill and courtesy in dealing with it earned him the unqualified thanks of the East India Company, besides some more substantial recognition. Just when the St. Albans and her convoy were prepared to put to sea again, they were informed that the “Chops” would not be granted to them, or the ships allowed to depart. The reason given was that a Chinaman had been killed in the town, and, it was stated, by an Englishman. This was a serious matter to deal with, as the evidence was most difficult to collect—the Chinese were thorough-paced liars—and every day of delay now made it more and more likely that the convoy would encounter bad weather on the way home. The Viceroy insisted that the English officers should themselves discover the offender, while Captain Austen pointed out that they had no means of knowing anything about the matter, even if the culprit were one of their own men, and that the police of Canton were more likely to be successful in discovering the offender. In a letter to Admiral Drury, Commander-in-Chief in India, Francis Austen feelingly remarks: “I need not detail to you, Sir, who are so well aware of them, the difficulties that oppose and retard the discussion of any question with the Chinese from various causes, but especially from the want of efficient means of getting our sentiments properly and faithfully rendered into Chinese, nor the pertinacity with which they adhere to any opinion they have once assumed, or assertion once made, in defiance of justice, equity and common sense. You know them all. But when I reflect upon these obstacles, and the general character of the people, I cannot help feeling in how very arduous a situation I am placed, and what important consequences may result from my conduct.” The evidence of the two witnesses was certainly not of a sort to make matters easy for the Committee appointed to examine the question. “One states there was neither noise nor fighting, the other that there was noise and he saw fighting for ten minutes, although not being present at the commencement of it he knew not how much longer it might have been going on. Again one of them stated that he knew nothing of the business and was not with the deceased when he was stabbed, and immediately afterwards stated that he saw him stabbed, and was only four cubits from him at the time. One of them states it to be quite dark, and the other that it was moonlight.”
In spite of all this, when the insufficiency of the evidence was pointed out to the Mandarins, they, “like true Chinese Mandarins (which designation, perhaps, comprises every bad quality which has disgraced human nature), insisted that, as we must now be clearly convinced that the offender was an Englishman, we could no longer have any pretence for withholding him from justice, and therefore would, of course, give him up to be tried according to the laws of China. A Mandarin is not a reasoning animal, nor ought to be treated as a rational one.”
The matter was finally settled by allowing the British ships to depart on condition that there was an inquiry held during the voyage home, the result of which was to be communicated from England to China on the arrival of the St. Albans and convoy. This seems a truly Chinese mode of arrangement, but not wholly unsatisfactory, as it was discovered that three of the men on the Cumberland (one of the Indiamen) had been engaged in the riot, and carrying arms at the time, so that there was some presumptive evidence for their being the actual perpetrators of the deed. The St. Albans was back in England by July, with the convoy, calling at St. Helena on the way.
His long service as midshipman must have made the navigation in the China Seas tolerably familiar to Captain Austen. The points mentioned in this part of the log have a peculiar interest at the moment of writing this chapter (May 1905), when we have all been watching the great drama of the Russian fleet’s approach to Japanese waters, followed by their destruction, more complete than that of the vanquished at Trafalgar. Cape Varella, Natuna and Saputa Islands, and the Paracels, are all amongst the log records. Passing the latter group seems to have been always an anxious time, as shoals are frequent northward of Singapore, which town, by the way, had no apparent existence in 1809.
There is a curious correspondence, partly by signal, on the passage down the China Seas:
“March 16, 1810.—At 1 P.M. telegraph signal to Perseverance (one of the tea-ships of the convoy): ‘Do you know anything of the shoal called the Dogger Bank, and which side would you recommend passing it?’