A list of the names and rank of those officers who were to be present at the interview on the following morning, was sent in to Keshen, in English and Chinese, so that he might be quite prepared, when each gentleman should be presented to him by Captain Elliot, to receive him courteously.
Early in the morning the guard of marines were landed, together with the bands of the Wellesley and Calliope. A finer body of men is rarely seen. Soon after nine o'clock, the whole of the officers were ready to go on shore, which was accomplished partly in the boats of the two steamers, partly in very clean and convenient Chinese boats provided by Keshen. They had to pull some little distance up one of the numerous creeks which open into all the Chinese rivers, and the scene as they approached was very novel and interesting. On either side were several very gaudily ornamented boats belonging to Keshen, very similar to the boats of the Hong merchants at Canton, who had also arrived under the guidance of old Howqua.[24] They could scarcely hope to enjoy the honour of a place at the conference, and were, therefore, probably ordered by Keshen to attend upon him. They were not admitted even into the same tents with Captain Elliot and his suite.
The guard of marines drawn up on either side highly astonished the Chinese, but the people were kept from pressing too close by a long line of railing put up for the occasion. The road from the immediate landing-place to the grand tent was spread over with various coloured cotton coverings, and decorated with branches of trees.
At nine A.M., Captain Elliot, accompanied by Captain Herbert, and the Honourable Captain Dundas, landed, and went up in state, preceded by the bands, to the principal tent, which was very like a large long booth, ornamented inside with yellow hangings, in token of its belonging to the representative of the emperor. At the further extremity of it was another tent or apartment, reserved more especially for Keshen's private use, and into this only Captain Elliot and one or two officers in personal attendance on him were admitted.
The whole party were presented to Keshen in the outer tent including Captain Rosamel of the Danaide; the list sent in the previous evening being referred to, as each gentleman of the party made his bow to the Imperial Commissioner.
The first private audience in the inner tent between Captain Elliot and Keshen was merely one of ceremony, and lasted only a few minutes; the medium of communication being through Mr. Morrison, the interpreter, the gifted son of the late Dr. Morrison, so celebrated as a Chinese scholar and philologist.
After the first introduction was over, it was announced that a grand déjeûner à la fourchette was prepared in the outer tent for the whole of the party, upwards of twenty in number. Interminable was the succession of dishes of the rarest and most expensive kind, according to the best Chinese principles of gastronomy. The luxury of the shark's-fin and the bird's-nest soup was here tasted for the first time, and, without going deeply into the mysteries of the Chinese "cuisine," it will be sufficient to say that a Chinese feast is a very sumptuous and tedious, but, withal not unpalatable affair. It necessarily occupied considerable time, and it was not until two o'clock that those officers not in personal attendance upon Captain Elliot were able to return on board the steamers.
In the interim, Keshen could not resist the wish to gratify his curiosity concerning our fine-looking fellows the marines, and three of the tallest and finest men were selected for his personal examination. He did not conceal his surprise, and even requested that they might be made to go through some of their evolutions. Keshen also examined their arms and accoutrements minutely.