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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 by Robert Kerr

R >> Robert Kerr >> A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11




Though the ships, in consequence of the viceroy's permit, found no
difficulty in purchasing provisions for their daily consumption, yet
it was impossible for the commodore to proceed to England; without
laying in a large quantity both of provisions and stores for his use,
during the voyage: The procuring this supply was attended with much
embarrassment; for there were people at Canton who had undertaken
to furnish him with biscuit, and whatever else he wanted; and his
linguist, towards the middle of September, had assured him, from
day to day, that all was ready, and would be sent on board him
immediately. But a fortnight being elapsed, and nothing being brought,
the commodore sent to Canton to enquire more particularly into the
reasons of this disappointment: And he had soon the vexation to be
informed, that the whole was an illusion: that no order had been
procured from the viceroy to furnish him with sea-stores, as had
been pretended; that there was no biscuit baked, nor any one of the
articles in readiness which had been promised him; nor did it appear,
that the contractors had taken the least step to comply with their
agreement. This was most disagreeable news, and made it suspected,
that the furnishing the Centurion for her return to Great Britain
might prove a more troublesome matter than had been hitherto imagined;
especially too, as the month of September was nearly elapsed, without
Mr Anson's having received any message from the viceroy of Canton.

And here perhaps it might be expected that some satisfactory account
should be given of the motives of the Chinese for this faithless
procedure. But as I have already, in a former chapter, made some kind
of conjectures about a similar event, I shall not repeat them again
in this place, but shall observe, that after all, it may perhaps be
impossible for an European, ignorant of the customs and manners of
that nation, to be fully apprised of the real incitements to this
behaviour. Indeed, thus much may undoubtedly be asserted, that in
artifice, falsehood, and an attachment to all kinds of lucre, many of
the Chinese are difficult to be paralleled by any other people; but
then the combination of these talents, and the manner in which they
are applied in particular emergencies, are often beyond the reach of
a foreigner's penetration: So that though it may be safely concluded,
that the Chinese had some interest in thus amusing the commodore, yet
it may not be easy to assign the individual views by which they were
influenced. And that I may not be thought too severe in ascribing to
this nation a fraudulent and selfish turn of temper, so contradictory
to the character given of them in the legendary accounts of the Roman
missionaries, I shall here mention an extraordinary transaction or
two, which I hope will be some kind of confirmation of what I have
advanced.

When the commodore lay first at Macao, one of his officers, who had
been extremely ill, desired leave of him to go on shore every day on
a neighbouring island, imagining that a walk upon the land would
contribute greatly to the restoring of his health: The commodore would
have dissuaded him, suspecting the tricks of the Chinese, but the
officer continuing importunate, in the end the boat was ordered to
carry him. The first day he was put on shore he took his exercise, and
returned without receiving any molestation, or even seeing any of
the inhabitants; but the second day, he was assaulted, soon after his
arrival, by a great number of Chinese who had been hoeing rice in the
neighbourhood, and who beat him so violently with the handles of their
hoes, that they soon laid him on the ground incapable of resistance;
after which they robbed him, taking from him his sword, the hilt of
which was silver, his money, his watch, gold-headed cane, snuff box,
sleeve-buttons, and hat, with several other trinkets: In the mean time
the boat's crew, who were at some little distance, and had no arms of
any kind with them, were incapable of giving him any assistance;
till at last one of them flew on the fellow who had the sword in his
possession, and wresting it out of his hands, drew it, and with it
was preparing to fall on the Chinese, some of whom he could not have
failed of killing; but the officer, perceiving what he was about,
immediately ordered him to desist, thinking it more prudent to
submit to the present violence, than to embroil his commodore in an
inextricable squabble with the Chinese government by the death
of their subjects; which calmness in this gentleman was the more
meritorious, as he was known to be a person of an uncommon spirit, and
of a somewhat hasty temper: By this means the Chinese recovered the
possession of the sword, which they soon perceived was prohibited
to be made use of against them, and carried off their whole booty
unmolested. No sooner were they gone, than a Chinese on horseback,
very well dressed, and who had the air and appearance of a gentleman,
came down to the shore, and, as far as could be understood by his
signs, seemed to censure the conduct of his countrymen, and to
commiserate the officer, being wonderfully officious to assist in
getting him on board the boat: But notwithstanding this behaviour,
it was shrewdly suspected that he was an accomplice in the theft, and
time fully evinced the justice of those suspicions.

When the boat returned on board, and reported what had passed to
the commodore, he immediately complained of it to the mandarine, who
attended to see his ship supplied; but the mandarine coolly replied,
that the boat ought not to have gone on shore, promising, however,
that if the thieves could be found out, they should be punished;
though it appeared plain enough, by his manner of answering, that he
would never give himself any trouble in searching them out. However,
a considerable time afterwards, when some Chinese boats were selling
provisions to the Centurion, the person who had wrested the sword from
the Chinese came with great eagerness to the commodore, to assure
him that one of the principal thieves was then in a provision-boat
alongside the ship; and the officer, who had been robbed, viewing
the fellow on this report, and well remembering his face, orders were
immediately given to seize him; and he was accordingly secured on
board the ship, where strange discoveries were now made.

This thief, on his being apprehended, expressed so much fright in his
countenance, that it was feared he would have died upon the spot; the
mandarine too, who attended the ship, had visibly no small share of
concern on the occasion. Indeed he had reason enough to be alarmed,
since it was soon evinced that he had been privy to the whole robbery,
for the commodore, declaring that he would not deliver up the thief,
but would himself order him to be shot, the mandarine immediately put
off the magisterial air with which be had at first pretended to
demand him, and begged his release in the most abject manner; and the
commodore appearing inflexible, there came on board, in less than two
hours time, five or six of the neighbouring mandarines, who all joined
in the same entreaty, and, with a view of facilitating their suit,
offered a large sum of money for the fellow's liberty. Whilst they
were thus soliciting, it was discovered that the mandarine, who was
the most active amongst them, and who seemed to be most interested in
the event, was the very gentleman who came to the officer just after
the robbery, and who pretended to be so much displeased with the
villainy of his countrymen. And, on further enquiry, it was found that
he was the mandarine of the island; and that he had, by the authority
of his office, ordered the peasants to commit that infamous action:
And it seemed, as far as could be collected from the broken hints
which were casually thrown out, that he and his brethren, who were all
privy to the transaction, were terrified with the fear of being
called before the tribunal at Canton, where the first article of their
punishment would be the stripping them of all they were worth; though
their judges (however fond of inflicting a chastisement so lucrative
to themselves) were perhaps of as tainted a complexion as the
delinquents. Mr Anson was not displeased to have caught the Chinese
in this dilemma; and he entertained himself for some time with their
perplexity, rejecting their money with scorn, appearing inexorable to
their prayers, and giving out that the thief should certainly be shot;
but as he then foresaw that he should be forced to take shelter in
their ports a second time, when the influence he might hereby acquire
over the magistrates would be of great service to him, he at length
permitted himself to be persuaded, and, as a favour, released his
prisoner, but not till the mandarine had collected and returned all
that had been stolen from the officer, even to the minutest trifle.

But, notwithstanding this instance of the good intelligence between
the magistrates and criminals, the strong inclination of the Chinese
to lucre often prompts them to break through this awful confederacy,
and puts them on defrauding the authority that protects them, of its
proper quota of the pillage. For not long after the above-mentioned
transaction, (the former mandarine attendant on the ship, being, in
the mean time, relieved by another,) the commodore lost a top-mast
from his stern, which, after the most diligent enquiry, could not be
traced: As it was not his own, but had been borrowed at Macao to heave
down by, and was not to be replaced in that part of the world, he was
extremely desirous to recover it, and published a considerable reward
to any who would bring it him again. There were suspicions from the
first of its being stolen, which made him conclude a reward was the
likeliest method of getting it back: Accordingly, soon after, the
mandarine told him that some of his, the mandarine's people, had found
the top-mast, desiring the commodore to send his boats to fetch it,
which being done, the mandarine's people received the promised reward;
but the commodore told the mandarine that he would make him a present
besides for the care he had taken in directing it to be searched for,
and, accordingly, Mr Anson gave a sum of money to his linguist, to be
delivered to the mandarine; but the linguist knowing that the people
had been paid, and ignorant that a further present had been promised,
kept the money himself: However, the mandarine fully confiding in Mr
Anson's word, and suspecting the linguist, took occasion one morning
to admire the size of the Centurion's masts, and thence, on a
pretended sudden recollection, he made a digression to the top-mast
which had been lost, and asked Mr Anson if he had not got it again. Mr
Anson presently perceived the bent of this conversation, and enquired
of him if he had not received the money from the linguist, and finding
he had not, he offered to pay it him upon the spot. But this the
mandarine refused, having now somewhat more in view than the sum which
had been detained; for the next day the linguist was seized, and was
doubtless mulcted of all he had gotten in the commodore's service,
which was supposed to be little less than two thousand dollars; he
was, besides, so severely bastinadoed with the bamboo, that it was
with difficulty he escaped with life; and when he was upbraided by
the commodore (to whom he afterwards came begging) with his folly in
risking all he had suffered for fifty dollars (the present intended
for the mandarine.) he had no other excuse to make than the strong
bias of his nation to dishonesty, replying, in his broken jargon,
"Chinese man very great rogue truly, but have fashion, no can help."

It were endless to recount all the artifices, extortions, and
frauds which were practised on the commodore and his people, by this
interested race. The method of buying all things in China being by
weight, the tricks made use of by the Chinese to increase the weight
of the provision they sold to the Centurion, were almost incredible.
One time a large quantity of fowls and ducks being bought for the
ship's use, the greatest part of them presently died. This alarmed the
people on board with the apprehensions that they had been killed by
poison, but, on examination, it appeared that it was only owing to
their being crammed with stones and gravel to increase their weight,
the quantity thus forced into most of the ducks being found to amount
to ten ounces in each. The hogs, too, which were bought ready killed
of the Chinese butchers, had water injected into them for the same
purpose; so that a carcass, hung up all night for the water to drain
from it, hath lost above a stone of its weight; and when, to avoid
this cheat, the hogs were bought alive, it was found that the Chinese
gave them salt to increase their thirst, and having by this means
excited them to drink great quantities of water, they then took
measures to prevent them from discharging it again by urine, and sold
the tortured animal in this inflated state. When the commodore first
put to sea from Macao, they practised an artifice of another kind;
for as the Chinese never object to the eating of any food that dies of
itself, they took care; by some secret practices, that great part
of his live sea-store should die in a short time after it was put on
board, hoping to make a second profit of the dead carcasses, which
they expected would be thrown overboard; and two-thirds of the hogs
dying before the Centurion was out of sight of land, many of the
Chinese boats followed her, only to pick up the carrion. These
instances may serve as a specimen of the manners of this celebrated
nation, which is often recommended to the rest of the world as a
pattern of all kinds of laudable qualities.

The commodore, towards the end of September, having found out (as
has been said) that those who had contracted, to supply him with
sea-provisions and stores had deceived him, and that the viceroy had
not sent to him according to his promise, saw it would be impossible
for him to surmount the embarrassment he was under, without going
himself to Canton and visiting the viceroy; and, therefore, on the
27th. of September, he sent a message to the mandarine who attended
the Centurion, to inform him that he, the commodore, intended, on the
1st of October, to proceed in his boat to Canton, adding, that the day
after he got there he should notify his arrival to the viceroy,
and should desire him to fix a time for his audience; to which the
mandarine returned no other answer, than that he would acquaint the
viceroy with the commodore's intentions. In the mean time all things
were prepared for this expedition; and the boat's crew in particular,
which Mr Anson proposed to take with him, were cloathed in an uniform
dress, resembling that of the watermen on the Thames; they were in
number eighteen and a coxswain; they had scarlet jackets and blue
silk; waistcoats, the whole trimmed with silver buttons, and with
silver badges on their jackets and caps. As it was apprehended,
and even asserted, that the payment of the customary duties for the
Centurion and her prize would be demanded by the regency of Canton,
and would be insisted on previous to the granting a permission for
victualling the ship for her future voyage, the commodore, who was
resolved never to establish so dishonourable a precedent, took all
possible precaution to prevent the Chinese from facilitating the
success of their unreasonable pretensions, by having him in their
power at Canton; and, therefore, for the security of his ship, and
the great treasure on board her, he appointed his first lieutenant,
Mr Brett, to be captain of the Centurion under him, giving him proper
instructions for his conduct; directing him, particularly, if he, the
commodore, should be detained at Canton on account of the duties
in dispute, to take out the men from the Centurion's prize, and to
destroy her; and then to proceed down the river through the Bocca
Tigris with the Centurion alone, and to remain without that entrance
till he received further orders from Mr Anson.

These necessary steps being taken, which were not unknown to the
Chinese, it should seem as if their deliberations were in some sort
embarrassed thereby. It is reasonable to imagine, that they were
in general very desirous of getting the duties to be paid them, not
perhaps solely in consideration of the amount of those dues, but to
keep up their reputation for address and subtlety, and to avoid
the imputation of receding from claims on which they had already so
frequently insisted: However, as they now foresaw that they had no
other method of succeeding than by violence, and that even against
this the commodore was prepared, they were at last disposed, I
conceive, to let the affair drop, rather than entangle themselves in
an hostile measure, which they found would only expose them to the
risk of having the whole navigation of their port destroyed, without
any certain prospect of gaining their favourite point.

However, though there is reason to imagine that these were their
thoughts at that time, yet they could not depart at once from the
evasive conduct to which they had hither to adhered. For when the
commodore, on the morning of the 1st of October, was preparing to
set out for Canton, his linguist came to him from the mandarine, who
attended his ship, to tell him that a letter had been received from
the viceroy of Canton, desiring the commodore to put off his going
thither for two or three days: But in the afternoon of the same day
another linguist came on board, who, with much seeming fright, told Mr
Anson that the viceroy had expected him up that day, that the counsel
was assembled, and the troops had been under arms to receive him; and
that the viceroy was highly offended at the disappointment, and had
sent the commodore's linguist to prison chained, supposing that the
whole had been owing to the linguist's negligence. This plausible tale
gave the commodore great concern, and made him apprehend that there
was some treachery designed him, which he could not yet fathom; and
though it afterwards appeared that the whole was a fiction, not one
article of it having the least foundation, yet (for reasons best known
to themselves) this falsehood was so well supported by the artifices
of the Chinese merchants at Canton, that, three days afterwards, the
commodore received a letter, signed by all the supercargoes of the
English ships then at that place, expressing their great uneasiness at
what had happened, and intimating their fears that some insult would
be offered to his boat, if he came thither before the viceroy was
fully satisfied about the mistake. To this letter Mr Anson replied,
that he did not believe there had been any mistake, but was persuaded
it was a forgery of the Chinese, to prevent his visiting the viceroy;
that, therefore, he would certainly come up to Canton on the 13th of
October, confident that the Chinese would not dare to offer him an
insult, as well knowing it would be properly returned.

On the 13th of October, the commodore continuing firm, to his
resolution, all the supercargoes of the English, Danish, and Swedish
ships, came on board the Centurion, to accompany him to Canton, for
which place he set out in his barge the same day, attended by his own
boats, and by those of the trading ships, which, on this occasion,
came to form his retinue; and, as he passed by Whampoa, where the
European vessels lay, he was saluted by all of them but the French,
and in the evening arrived safely at Canton.



SECTION XXXII.

_Proceedings at the City of Canton, and the Return of the Centurion to
England._

When the commodore arrived at Canton, he was visited by the principal
Chinese merchants, who affected to appear very much pleased that
he had met with no obstruction in getting thither, and who thence
pretended to conclude that the viceroy was satisfied about the former
mistake, the reality of which they still insisted on; they added, that
as soon as the viceroy should be informed that Mr Anson was at Canton
(which they promised should be done the next morning,) they were
persuaded a day would be immediately appointed for the visit, which
was the principal business that had brought the commodore thither.

The next day the merchants returned to Mr Anson, and told him that
the viceroy was then so fully employed in preparing his dispatches for
Pekin, that there was no getting admittance to him for some days, but
that they had engaged one of the officers of his court to give them
information as soon as he should be at leisure, when they proposed
to notify Mr Anson's arrival, and to endeavour to fix the day of
audience. The commodore was by this time too well acquainted with
their artifices not to perceive that this was a falsehood; and had he
consulted only his own judgment, he would have applied directly to
the viceroy by other hands: But the Chinese merchants had so far
prepossessed the supercargoes of our ships with chimerical fears,
that they were extremely apprehensive of being embroiled with the
government, and of suffering in their interest, if those measures
were taken, which appeared to Mr Anson at that time to be the most
prudential; and, therefore, lest the malice and double-dealing of the
Chinese might have given rise to some sinister incident, which would
be afterwards charged on him, he resolved to continue passive as long
as it should appear that he lost no time by thus suspending his own
opinion. With this view, he promised not to take any immediate step
for getting admittance to the viceroy, provided the Chinese with whom
he contracted for provisions would let him see that his bread was
baked, his meat salted, and his stores prepared with the utmost
dispatch; but if by the time when all was in readiness to be shipped
off (which it was supposed would be in about forty days,) the
merchants should not have procured the viceroy's permission, then, the
commodore proposed to apply for himself. These were the terms Mr Anson
thought proper to offer, to quiet the uneasiness of the supercargoes,
and, notwithstanding the apparent equity of the conditions, many
difficulties and objections were urged; nor would the Chinese agree
to them till the commodore had consented to pay for every article
he bespoke before it was put in hand. However, at last, the contract
being past, it was some satisfaction to the commodore to be certain
that his preparations were now going on, and being himself on the
spot, he took care to hasten them as much as possible.

During this interval, in which the stores and provisions were getting
ready, the merchants continually entertained Mr Anson with accounts of
their various endeavours to get a license from the viceroy, and their
frequent disappointments, which to him was now a matter of amusement,
as he was fully satisfied there was not one word of truth in any thing
they said. But when all was completed, and wanted only to be shipped,
which was about the 24th of November, at which time too the N.E.
monsoon was set in, he then resolved to apply himself to the viceroy
to demand an audience, as he was persuaded that, without this
ceremony, the procuring a permission to send his stores on board would
meet with great difficulty. On the 24th of November, therefore, Mr
Anson sent one of his officers to the Mandarine, who commanded the
guard of the principal gate of the city of Canton, with a letter
directed to the viceroy. When this letter was delivered to the
mandarine, he received the officer who brought it very civilly, and
took down the contents of it in Chinese, and promised that the viceroy
should be immediately acquainted with it; but told the officer it was
not necessary for him to wait for an answer, because a message would
be sent to the commodore himself.

On this occasion Mr Anson had been under great difficulties about a
proper interpreter to send with his officer, as he was well aware that
none of the Chinese, usually employed as linguists, could be relied
on: But he at last prevailed with Mr Flint, an English gentleman
belonging to the factory, who spoke Chinese perfectly well, to
accompany his officer. This person, who upon this occasion and many
others was of singular service to the commodore, had been left at
Canton when a youth, by the late Captain Rigby. The leaving him there
to learn the Chinese language was a step taken by that captain, merely
from his own persuasion of the great advantages which the East-India
company might one day receive from an English interpreter; and though
the utility of this measure has greatly exceeded all that was expected
from it, yet I have not heard that it has been to this day imitated:
But we imprudently choose (except in this single instance) to carry on
the vast transactions of the port of Canton, either by the ridiculous
jargon of broken English, which some few of the Chinese have
learnt, or by the suspected interpretation of the linguists of other
nations.[1]

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