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Mackintosh, of the Company's ship Hindostan, who attended his Majestys ship Lion to the Yellow sea, had free licence to trade at Chusan if he pleased (on that particular occasion), and the ship was freed from all duties and port-charges, as pertaining to the embassy. He accordingly went there*, and " found the mandarins and people perfectly well disposed to comply with the Emperor's orders in respect to the privileges to be granted to the Captain and his officers in the purchase of a cargo there; and tea and silk were much cheaper than elsewhere: but the Chusan traders were not prepared for so extensive a concern as a cargo of goods fitted for the European market to fill a ship of the size of the Hindostan, full 1,200 tons, nor for the purchase of the European goods on board her, better calculated for a larger city. They would therefore expect specie for most of the articles they could furnish for the Hindostan, and which had not been provided by her commander. He found it therefore expedient to proceed to Canton."

As it was hoped that the embassy had not been without its effect in conciliating the good-will of the Chinese Government to the British trade, it was resolved, shortly afterwards, to follow it up by a letter from his Majesty to the Emperor, accompanied by presents. These accordingly reached Canton in January, 1795, with letters and presents from the Ministers, and the chairman of the East India Company, to the Viceroy; and the whole were conveyed into the city by the chief of the British factory. The Viceroy received the address to the Emperor with much satisfaction, and forwarded it together with the presents to Peking, from whence a reply, with corresponding presents, was afterwards returned. Objections, however, were made to accepting the letters

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and gifts intended for the heads of the Canton Government, on the ground of its not being allowable for Chinese ministers to entertain a correspondence with the officers of a foreign Government. It was recorded on this occasion, as well as on a subsequent one in 1805, that tribute had been sent by the King of England to the "Son of Heaven," and the record was quoted, not long since, by the Canton Government in an official paper addressed to the writer of this, as President of the select committee in China, who stated, of course, in reply, that presents had been sent, but no tribute.

No untoward events occurred, for several years subsequent to the embassy, to interrupt the quiet progress of commercial affairs at Canton. The mandarins had improved in their conduct towards the merchants, and the highly objectionable measure of stopping the trade on the most trifling occasions had not been lately resorted to by the Chinese. At the same time, some or the heaviest burthens on the European trade still continued, being too profitable to both the local government and the Hong merchants, to be readily abandoned by them. The most objectionable of these were, the Consoo fund, arising from a rate which the Hongs were permitted to levy upon the foreign commerce, in order to meet the heavy demands of the Government on themselves · and the inordinate amount of the port-charges and fees.

An unfortunate occurrence, however, in 1800 threatened for some time to place British affairs at Canton in some jeopardy, although proceeding, as very usual on such occasions, from the fault of the natives. While his Majesty's schooner Providence was lying at Whampoa, a party of Chinese in a small boat appeared one night to be attempting to cut the schooner's cable. As they returned no answer on being hailed, a shot was fired into the boat, by which

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one Chinese was wounded, and another, who jumped overboard in his fright, was drowned. The Government as usual demanded that the person who fired the musket should be delivered up; but Captain Dilkes, who was then in China, commanding his Majesty's ship Madras, required, on the other hand, that the Chinese in the boat should be punished for their delinquency; and refused to deliver up the seaman, or even to allow him to be tried, except in his own presence. The wounded Chinese at length recovered, and so the correspondence closed; but, some time afterwards, an abstract of the Chinese law relating to homicide was handed to the select committee by the local government; although the shameful injustice and perfidy with which, on several occasions, the mandarins had treated foreigners accused of such offences, gave them no right to expect that their laws should be much attended to.

It was in the year 1802 that the American flag was first hoisted at Canton. The consular agent for the United States, who was, in all cases, appointed from among the American merchants resident in China, was simply a commercial officer, and called a Tae-pan, or factory chief, by the Chinese. He received no salary whatever from his Government, but was permitted to levy fees in the transaction of business with his countrymen, besides trading on his own account. The American flag continued to fly at Canton until very lately, notwithstanding the interruption which the trade of the United States, for some time previous to 1815, experienced by the war with England; but in the year 1832 a dispute occurred between the Consul for the time being, and the Captain of an American frigate, then on a visit to China. Captain having failed to call upon the Consul, the latter took offence on the occasion, and the two republicans were too tenacious of their respective ranks and

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dignities to come to an accommodation. The flag was struck, and the Consul proceeded home.

An occurrence of some importance, in 1802, tended to establish, beyond all doubt, a point which had sometimes been questioned; and this was the nature of the tenure on which the Portuguese held Macao of the Chinese. It was in that year that Lord Wellesley, Goveror-general of India, being apprehensive that the French republic had some designs against the Portuguese establishments in the East, considered it necessary to garrison the principal settlements of our "ancient ally" with British troops; and accordingly an expedition was sent from Bengal to take Macao under our protection. The Portuguese would have admitted the offered aid—indeed they had not the power to refuse it--but the leave of the real masters had never been asked. The Viceroy of Canton indignantly repelled the idea of any portion of the Chinese empire needing aid from foreigners, and required the troops immediately to depart. In the mean while it fortunately happened that the brig Telegraph, despatched by the Court of Directors with news of the peace in Europe, arrived off Macao, and the whole of the troops accordingly returned at once to Bengal on the 3d of July. The Portuguese did not fail on this occasion to carry on their customary intrigues with the Chinese Government, with whom they did their best to ingratiate themselves by misrepresenting the views and designs of the English. An unfortunate priest, named Rodrigues, from whose knowledge of the Chinese language considerable assistance had been derived during the stay of the expedition, was in consequence so persecuted by his countrymen that he was compelled to quit the place. The Portuguese, however, have since had ample leisure to repent their short-sighted and narrow policy towards our countrymen, which had the effect of

driving the whole of the Indian opium trade from Macao to Lintin, and thereby depriving the former place of its most fertile, and indeed only source of wealth.

The advantages of establishing, if possible, some commercial relations with the King of Cochin-china, on the part of the British, had been a subject of attention for some time, when the present Lord Strathallan, at that period Mr. Drummond, President of the select committee at Canton, appointed Mr. Roberts, a member of the factory, to proceed on that service in November, 1803. That gentleman was directed to attend to the instructions of the Governorgeneral of India, from whom he was the bearer of a letter to the Cochin-chinese King. Mr. Roberts was civilly received, and met with much liberal and friendly assistance from the French missionaries at Hue-foo, the capital. He had two audiences of the King, with an interchange of presents; but the Council, with the usual cautious and exclusive spirit of the ultragangetic nations, would not consent to any written treaty of commerce; and the envoy returned to Canton after some months' residence, without having been able to establish the ends contemplated: nor was the more recent expedition of Mr. John Crawfurd, to the same country, attended with any better success. It appeared, subsequently to Mr. Roberts's mission, that reports prejudicial to the English were raised by a Portuguese of Macao, named D'Abrio, stating that they meditated an attack on the country. Much alarm was excited, and when the Discovery surveying vessel appeared on the coast, refreshments were denied to her.

The considerable naval force, which had been maintained by France in the eastern seas for the annoyance of our India and China trade, had directed the particular attention of the Company to the due arming of their ships, and an occasion occurred, in

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