Commodore Elliot was hard at the Chinese junks up the Canton River, when Keppel took his place. As luck would have it, my dear Chief took me with him; also Prince Victor of Hohenlohe, Goodenough, Charlie Scott, and Harry Stephenson. Goodenough had command of the improvised gun-boat, the Hong-Kong. Having little or no kit left, I managed to get a small fit-out at Hong-Kong before joining. Very little sufficed for that rough work up the river. I had lost nearly all my clothes. What became of my sea chest I don’t know (nor my poor fiddle I was so fond of). I expect it was left on the desert island, with what little there was in it. Sea chest! What a ghastly thing it was! You were supposed to wash in it. Fancy your stock of white shirts being slopped over, as well as your uniform, every time you went to your chest to wash your hands. A certain part of a cockpit could easily have been arranged with drawers for middies’ clothes, and there might have been a decent place to bathe in.
We started up the Canton River for the front on the 20th of May, and joined the Fleet of brigs, gun-boats, and small corvettes at the rendezvous off the Bogue forts, fortified islands some distance up the river—I should imagine half-way to Canton. Some of these brigs were lovely little ships. A 16-gun brig under all sail was one of the prettiest sights imaginable. I particularly remember a little beauty called the Acorn.
The old Alligator was towed up and turned into a depot flagship. She was an old 26-gun frigate, as broad as she was long; and, short as I was, I had to stoop in going along the main deck, lest I should strike against the overhead beams.
When we were not fighting, or on some expedition, this old frigate served as our flagship; and, though cramped, we were certainly much cooler and better provided for. Towards the end of May the plan for the attack on the Chinese war-junks was completed. Gun-boats were told off to lead divisions of boats and take them in tow. Our larger boats, launches, and barges carried brass guns in the bows; cutters were armed with rockets, besides rifles and cutlasses.
The rockets John Chinaman particularly dreaded: they upset his nervous system. I wrote home at this time, saying:—
We hate these Chinese; it takes twenty of them to equal one Englishman, and they are awful cowards. They carry what they call stink-pots at the mast-heads of their junks, so that when our boats get alongside to board them, these pots are lowered into our boats, explode or break as the case may be, causing such a frightful stench that you are suffocated by the disgusting smell, but if they will only hold on and not bolt when we get among them we shall pay them off properly. But they say these chaps cannot stand close quarters.
What a novelty to me was China—people, customs, costumes, and eccentricity of the women! I am afraid we treated China very badly. I remember landing at low water on one occasion at Hong-Kong in company with several other officers. We had to be carried ashore through the soft mud on the boatmen’s backs. We were all in nice clean white clothes. To our horror, on landing we found ourselves besmeared with cocoa-nut oil. The boatmen had rubbed oil all over their naked hides, to keep the flies and other insects off. We were a dirty sight; and retaliated by thrashing the poor wretches with our sticks and umbrellas. They bore our abuse without a murmur.
On the 30th of May, the attacking force was pushed up the river to a point where various creeks debouched from the main stream. Up one of these creeks we were to fight our battle of Fatshan on the 1st of June. The boats were all towed up by the gun-boats, presenting a very long string: they were an imposing sight. The Hong-Kong, on which vessel I was serving, flew Commodore Keppel’s broad pennant. We had a good reconnoitre of the Chinese war-junks on the 31st, while the finishing touches were being made among our gun-boats and attacking forces.
At sunset we returned to the flotilla, and the last orders for the morrow’s fight were given out. We anticipated a hard tussle. We were right. The Chinese had placed stakes in the river at certain ranges, which we must pass, and all their guns were beautifully laid for those marks.
There was a fort also on a commanding hill on our left front, which must be taken before the boats could advance to capture the junks; and this was to be the first operation.