We found in the harbor the ships of the surveying squadron under Commodore Ringgold, among which was the since ill-fated Porpoise.
There had been no improvement in the intestine troubles. An American captain had been murdered by the Chinese; and the dearly-beloved occupants of the hongs of Canton, feeling insecure in the possession of their “filthy lucre”—for if the “chop dollar” of China is not filthy lucre, I know not what it is—the Mississippi proceeded to her old anchorage at Whampoa, and sent men and howitzers, as before, up to the city. The captain of the American ship Amity, having been murdered by two of his foreign crew, the next morning after our arrival through the intervention of “Judge Lynch,” their bodies were seen suspended from either yard-arm of their vessel.
The state of affairs in Canton being deemed imminent, the little jolly-boat English steamer, called the Queen, which the commodore had hired and left off the hongs, previous to our leaving for Japan in January, ran down and took up another force to the city. A body of rebels had captured the wealthy and populous city Fuhshan, about twenty miles from Canton, and the mandarins were doing nothing to arrest their progress. One morning, for this purpose, a detachment of a thousand men under a brigadier, were quietly taking up their ground, when they were surprised by a party of rebels, and before they could seize their arms, some hundreds of them and their camp-followers were killed, and the rest escaped pell-mell into the city. The tents, matchlocks, and ammunition, were all carried off, and the brigadier was among the missing.
I had an opportunity during this visit of seeing the largest fleet of the emperor, which had an immense number of streamers flying: and also at an early hour of making a visit to the tea-packing establishments at Honan, whose inmates appeared ready to decamp at short notice.
Vessels going down the Pekiang were crowded with Chinese flying from the place, and the river steamers were chartered at enormous rates; so that the total emigration to Macao and Hong Kong was not much under five thousand, including several men of distinction, such as the brothers of Heu Chang-kwang, the provincial treasurer, and their families, and of Puntingqua and his family, to Macao; and Howqua and Eesing with their families to Hong Kong.
On the 29th of July we were at Hong Kong, and the 11th of August saw us again at Whampoa, together with that noble steam-frigate the Susquehanna, that had not long been back from a very interesting trip to Nanking.
On the 15th of August, when taking our final departure from Whampoa, we saw a Dutch ship fired upon from a rebel battery; also one of the mandarin boats, running up powder, but the fleetness of their sailing, and the bad gunnery of the Chinese, enabled them to go by unharmed.
Having to wait the return of the Macedonian with Captain Abbott, to whom the command of the three remaining ships was to be transferred, the commodore fixed September 11th for the day of his departure by the oriental steamer. In the meantime the Susquehanna, which with the Mississippi, was to make the long stretch across the Pacific, departed for Simoda, Japan—on her first and only visit to that place—towing the Southampton, laden with coal, intended for the use of the two steamers in their run from Japan of over three thousand miles to Honolulu. The storeships Supply and Lexington were also despatched homeward by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. It is scarcely necessary to give the state of affairs in China at the time of the departure of these ships. The fighting of the Chinese—if fighting it might be called—continued, and we had reports one day how the city of Sling-Gin had been captured by the insurgents, and another day, that the imperialists still held the city of Gin-Sling.
The Chinese government insists upon its officers, saying, when required to perform anything for it, what the Frenchman told the lady: “Madam, if possible, it is done already; if impossible, it shall be done”—though placing no means at their disposal for accomplishing the desired result.
The following being so very Chinese, I insert it. T’sing-ling nor Tae-yung could not prevent the capture of Woo-chang. On reading the report of its downfall, the emperor said: “It is impossible to repress my grief and indignation. That Tae-yung, though charged with two provinces, seems not to have had a single plan for their defence. Formerly we deprived him of official rank, with the hope that he would exert himself and make amends for previous errors; but lo! he follows his old habits, and has thus brought disaster on a large portion of the empire; this is most detestable and abominable. Let Tae-yung be instantly deprived of office, and handed over to the direction of Yang-pae. We also order Yang-pae to hasten to his new appointment, and place himself at the head of all the troops in those provinces, in order immediately to exterminate these rebels, and recover the provincial capital out of their hands; afterward let him sweep away this pestilence, in order to fulfil the object for which we have intrusted him with this great command. Let him also endeavor to ascertain what has become of all the officers both civil and military who were formerly stationed at Woo-chang, and report. Respect this.”